One of my favorite Mid Acts preachers that I like to listen to on Youtube is Pastor Ron Knight of Northern California Grace Fellowship (http://www.norcalgrace.com/)
Unfortunately like all other Mid Acts teachers he is not Charismatic (i.e. he does not believe supernatural gifts of the spirit such as healing or prophesy are available to us today). If you overlook that flaw he still gives a lot of good teaching.
Here is a link to his talk on the 7 Required Works for the Little Flock (Messianic Jewish Church).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfVKE4p-ZWo
The 7 works he claims will be necessary for salvation for believers during the tribulation (once the time of the Gentiles / age of grace is over) are:
Required works for Israel in the Kingdom Gospel
1) Confess the name of Jesus as the Messiah before men. Luke 12:8-9, Mat 10:32-33
2) Water baptism. Mat 3:11, Jhn 3:5, Mat 28:19
3) Baptised in the Spirit. Mat 3:11, Jhn 3:5, Mat 28:19 (<- this is not a work you do)
4) Baptised by fire (great tribulation). Mat 3:11 (<- this one is open to debate albeit I believe it)
5) Cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Mark 3:29, Mat 12:31
6) Cannot take the mark of the beast. Rev 14:9-10
7) Love your neighbor. James 2:10-18, Mar 12:31 + Mat 7:21**
Personally I would remove number 3 from Pastor Ron Knight's list above as receiving the Holy Spirit is not a work that you do rather the infilling of the Holy Spirit is a gift to you. The Holy Spirit fills believers during the gospel of grace dispensation too. I would replace this point number 3 (in order to keep the number of items at 7) with another work required in the Kingdom Gospel which he did not mention which is forgive your neighbor Mat 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” And similarly Mar 11:26.
To avoid any confusion let me also point out that today all believers are baptized in the Holy Spirit as a sign of their salvation (the baptism in the Spirit is a gift to you not a work you do) 1Co 12:13, Eph 4:5***
** Here I have added Mar 12:31 (love your neighbor is God's law i.e. will) to Mat 7:21 (do God's will to be saved) to conclude "love your neighbor to be saved" is part of Kingdom gospel. However as long as I am mentioning Mat 7:21 I would be remiss if I did not also mention John 6:40 (God's will is that you believe in Jesus).
***The one Baptism is not water baptism unless you wish to claim that you are not baptised in the Holy Spirit. But all believers are baptised in the Holy Spirit as assurance of salvation.
Note: that the standard Mid Acts Dispensational belief is that not only was the Kingdom Gospel (which Jesus and the disciples preached) active up until Jesus died on the cross but it was still active after Jesus resurrection until at least Pentecost and in fact up until Paul's conversion (recorded in Mid Acts) after which it was replaced by Paul’s “my” gospel (communicated to him by the risen Lord Jesus – and also hinted at by Christ before his death John 3:13-18 and at the Last Supper). The Jews final (predestined) rejection of Jesus as the Messiah at the stoning of Stephen was likely the switching point from the Kingdom Gospel to the new gospel of grace that Paul introduced (the same Paul who consented to Stephen’s stoning).
And in fact the Kingdom Gospel will again be active after the rapture of the body of Christ during the 7 year great tribulation. The time of the Gentiles ends at the rapture of the body of Christ whereupon God picks up dealing with Israel again where He left off (at Paul’s conversion and the dispensation of grace) dealing with Israel according to the Kingdom gospel. Jesus will then reign physically from Jerusalem (with the devil locked up) with Israel a nation of priests for 1000 years – after which there will be the great white thrown judgement and then He will create a new heavens and earth.
Note that the purpose of the rapture is not to stop Western Christian’s from suffering – there is still plenty of Christian martyrdom today – just ask Christians in the middle east - rather the purpose of the rapture is to restart the Gospel of the Kingdom in order to fulfill prophecy and make Israel fulfill God’s plans for them (they will get it right – accept Jesus as their Messiah and become a nation of priests ministering to the rest of the world – in the end).
I'll also point out that while I am grateful to be saved by grace and that I don't need to do any works to be saved I have confessed the name of Jesus as my Lord and Saviour before men and will continue to do so, I was water baptised and while I agree that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the only baptism in this dispensation period I personally don't have a problem with people being water baptised as a sign, I am baptised in the Holy Spirit as a confirmation of my salvation, I trust God to give me strength to overcome any trials I face, I certainly won't be blaspheming the Holy Spirit or taking any marks of any beasts (though I don't expect to be here then) and it is certainly my aim to love my neighbour as myself (again grateful to be saved through faith) and certainly my aim to forgive those who trespass against me (how much more does this apply to us today saved by grace albeit I am grateful that my salvation does not depend on it).
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Am I the world’s first Charismatic Mid Acts Dispensationalist?
I have just typed the phrases "Charismatic Mid Acts Dispensationalist", "Charismatic Mid Acts Dispensationalism" and "Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalism" into Google and I get zero hits for any of them. This makes me ask “could I be the world’s first Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist”?
When one considers that obviously the apostle Paul was also a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist the answer to that question would have to be no I am not the world’s first "Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist" rather the apostle Paul was the world’s first “Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist”. Indeed it’s precisely because Paul was a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist that I am one too.
You’ll note that I didn’t call myself a “Pentecostal Mid Acts Dispensationalist” as this would be a contradiction in terms, it would be like calling yourself a “Start of Acts Mid Acts Dispensationalist” which would be contradictory. So to avoid potential confusion I call myself a "charismatic" rather than a pentecostal" but I believe that we have the same gifts of the Spirit made available at Pentecost because believers are still in dwelt by the same Holy Spirit that the apostles recieved at Pentecost.The Holy Spirits power is not limited in any dispensation.
I have not always been a Mid Acts Dispensationalist. In fact despite being nearly 50 years old and having been raised in the church and spent all my life in the church I have only been a Mid Acts Dispensationalist for a year or two.
How can one spend so long listening to Christian sermons yet only after nearly half a century come to an accurate understanding of the basics of the Christian faith? The answer is “because so few pastors/ministers understand it themselves”. If Google internet hits are anything to go by churches that teach Mid Acts Dispensationalism are rare and churches that teach Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalism totally non-existent.
You may say to me “Rodney I know that you are no one special with no particular teaching or leading gift but if you (apparently*) currently have the world’s most accurate theology then should you not be teaching it to everyone else?” If you ask me that I will reply that I am currently writing this post to discuss CMAPD so the job is done. If you didn’t find this post then perhaps you didn’t get the grace to find it (you’ll still be OK though as long as you did get the grace of coming to believe that Jesus who is God shed his blood and died on the cross in your place to pay the penalty for all your sins and in exchange gives you his righteousness so that you stand sinless before God. Jesus the only begotten Son of God rose bodily from the grave and ascended to heaven in his resurrected body and will come back bodily from heaven to reign on the earth. Fortunately you can get the timing on the last bit wrong and still be saved, you can even not be a CMAPD and be saved, a childlike faith in Jesus and his death and resurrection is all you need).
(*I really hate sounding arrogant or boastful but in order to have more accurate theology than me you need to be a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist too. I don’t see any other CMAPDs round about so what else am I to conclude than that I currently have the world’s most accurate theology? I so hope I am wrong about that. I just have to convert one other person to the CMAPD theology and I may no longer have the world’s most accurate theology – assuming I even do now – maybe there are other CMAPDs in hiding?)
I became a CMAPD after trying to resolve my difficulty with the fact that James appears to contradict Paul. I read various explanations on the internet trying to claim that James doesn’t really contradict Paul but none of them were convincing to me. I have a penchant for logic (I need accurate logic to make my living as a computer programmer and I needed it to get the math’s right for my physics PhD thesis – among other things. My world just doesn’t work without logic). Some people can believe things which don’t make logical sense as long as it agrees with their core principals, we might call these people “Feelers”, other people can’t believe something to be true if it isn’t rational (or at least rational that you can’t understand it – like the concept of the Trinity) we might call these people “Rationals”. I am the latter. As a result I just could not live with James and Paul contradicting each other.
Despite my “rational” personality type as a young man I thought I was being virtuous by believing the contradictory theology that we were saved purely by faith alone without works as per Paul but also simultaneously saved by faith plus works as per James. Now I just see that as contradictory and not virtuous to be illogical like that (though I make no apologies for believing that God the Son and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are distinct persons who are all God and that there is only one God i.e. I am a monotheist not a polytheist).
Actually all of us have principles that we’ll stick by no matter how contrary the evidence or illogical sounding (including atheists and evolutionists etc who think of themselves as “science” types). We will all take a position and defend it come what may. The “Rationals” I like to think have a higher standard of ….. (or maybe we are just better at coming up with rational sounding arguments for what we want to believe). Anyway now I have got thoroughly off track. Sorry I’ll return to the theological topic at hand.
Basically I was trying to say that I had a real problem with the fact that James 2:24 (NKJV) says You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Whereas in Romans 3:28 Paul says “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” The rest of Paul’s letters also make it clear that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone without works e.g. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV) “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” So Paul would appear to contradict James teaching.
It’s not just the book of James that appears to teach works for salvation either there are numerous other places in the New Testament where it is implied that works are part of salvation. There are statements by Jesus and the disciples that imply works are part of salvation. For example in Mathew 6:14-15 (NKJV) Jesus says “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Now I would classify forgiving someone as an act you do and hence a “work” which would seem to contradict Paul (or rather it would seem Paul contradicts Jesus). “How do we resolve this?” I wondered.
Another example of people being judged by their works is Mathew 25. For example Jesus himself says in Mathew 25:41-43 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ‘for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ‘I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’”
In this Mathew 25 example people are shown being sent to hell not just for sins that they have committed but rather for good works that they have not done (sins of omission rather than sins of commission). This was said by Jesus himself and Jesus cannot have been in error in his theology because Jesus is God himself in the flesh. I wondered how to line this up with Paul’s claim that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone without works having anything to do with it.
Another example that implies that good works are necessary for salvation is Luke 18:18-20 “Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
In these verses we see that Jesus responds to the question “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” by basically saying keep the commandments (He lists 5 of the 10 commandments). I wondered how to resolve this with Paul’s claim in Romans 3:28 that “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
These examples are by no means exhaustive; I could give other versus too that imply that works are necessary for salvation (from hell). Yet the apostle Paul wrote 13 letters which made their way into our New Testament which all consistently drum home the theme that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ and not by how well we obey the law. “Does Paul contradict Jesus, what is going on?” I wondered.
It sounded like there were 2 different gospels in the New Testament books, namely the gospel of salvation (from hell) by grace through faith alone presented in Paul’s 13 letters and faith plus works presented in the rest of the New Testament. Eventually I had to admit to myself that there ARE two different gospels presented in the New Testament.
I found the solution to this apparent contradiction in the theology of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalism (also known as just Mid Acts Dispensationalism – I don’t know any Mid Acts Dispensationalism that isn’t also Pauling Mid Acts Dispensationalism but MAPD is a better acronym than MAD so I’ll use the former acronym).
There is some excellent teaching (much better than I could give) on Mid Acts Dispensationalism around the internet including on Youtube. Unfortunately these MAPD internet sites are also universally not Charismatic which is to say that they teach that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues are not given to Christians today but were only for the previous dispensation. That is very sad that they fall down like that but otherwise they have some excellent teaching.
My favourite Mid Acts Dispensationalist site is this guy http://doctrine.org/. It is such a shame he is not Charismatic (if he were I would give him the title of the guy with the world’s most accurate theology – though he is also in error in thinking that Paul wrote Hebrews which he didn’t).
I can remember at one of my old churches (Anglican) asking someone the question “how could the gospel that Jesus and the disciples preached before his death and resurrection be that - Jesus had died on the cross to save you from your sins - if Jesus had not yet died on the cross?” At the time I thought I was being facetious by asking the question but it was also a genuine question.
For example in Mathew 4:23 it says “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” Initially I assumed that the term “gospel of the kingdom” was short for the gospel that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins but I wondered how this could be since Jesus had not yet died on the cross. The person I asked the question to at my Anglican church was horrified and thought I was being heretical - of course He was preaching that he had died on the cross to save people from their sins (before he died on the cross). To believe otherwise was heresy. In hindsight I see that I was asking exactly the right question – good on you me (it was like when I asked my high school physics teacher why if protons being positively charged they repel each other they stick together in the nucleus – I was told it was an invalid question but it wasn’t invalid it was a question with an important answer – for a physicist. So often the question you are not supposed to ask is actually exactly the question you should be asking).
It turns out that the “gospel of the kingdom” that Jesus and the disciples and John the Baptist were preaching is in in fact a different gospel to Paul’s gospel. People tend to think of Paul’s gospel as “the gospel” when we read the term “gospel” in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John but in fact the gospel that Jesus and the 12 disciples preached was the gospel of the kingdom and it was not identical to Paul’s gospel.
The term “gospel” simply means “good news”. The “gospel of the kingdom” was the gospel preached by Jesus and the disciples specifically to the Jews. Yes that’s right it was a gospel that Jesus was sent to preach to Jews only (Mathew 15:24 “But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” – the gentile woman only got help when she lowered herself to the status of a dog).
To paraphrase - the gospel of the kingdom was the message to the Jews that their messiah as promised by the Old Testament prophets was finally here. Salvation meant believing in Jesus as the promised messiah. In theory had the Jews collectively believed that Jesus was the promised messiah Jesus would have set up his earthly kingdom at that time and the Jews would have at that time become a nation of priests sent to go out to the world and bring the gentiles to faith in Jesus the Messiah and King. Jesus and the 12 apostles and the authors of the non-Pauline books such as James explain how salvation worked (and will again in the future work) with Jesus physically present on the earth as Israel’s Messiah and King.
Now I say “in theory” because it didn’t (yet) work out that way because it was God’s intention that the dispensation of grace would occur during which time Paul’s gospel of grace is the one in effect.
Our current dispensation during which we are saved purely by grace through faith in Jesus and his atoning death on the cross is called the “time of the Gentiles”. Paul’s 13 epistles describe how this dispensation works. This is the time of the gentiles which Jesus refers to in Luke 21:24 “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
There are far better presentations on Mid Acts Dispensation theology (with supporting versus) than I am paraphrasing here. I am just talking of the top of my head here. Here are links to some examples – but be warned that they are not charismatic (unfortunately there are not yet any Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist sites about).
http://www.twonewcovenants.com/twogospels/twogospels1.html http://www.understandingyourbible.com/whyconfuse.htm http://doctrine.org/paul-chief-of-sinners/ http://doctrine.org/the-great-prophecies-concerning-the-gentiles-the-jews-and-the-church-of-god/ http://doctrine.org/the-christian-myth/ http://graceambassadors.com/salvation/when-can-works-justify http://graceambassadors.com/midacts/list-twelve-preach-the-cross http://graceambassadors.com/midacts/one-lord-one-faith-three-baptisms http://www.friendshipbiblechurch.com/the-essentials-of-mid-acts-dispensational-theology/ https://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/part-1-the-dispensation-of-grace-mystery-or-prophecy/ http://graceambassadors.com/prophecy/mmlj/reasons-we-ought-not-to-follow-the-%e2%80%9cgreat%e2%80%9d-commission
The dispensation of grace began with Paul’s conversion recorded in mid Acts (i.e. Acts 9).
Most Protestants would agree that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone (or at least give lip service to the idea – many still manage to sneak works in somewhere). Where the Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology differs from the rest of Christendom is that MAPD claims that the 12 apostles did not know or teach that Jesus death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins until Paul revealed that fact to them (a fact that the risen Lord Jesus had revealed to Paul directly – not the disciples).
Most of Christendom thinks that the gospel that the disciples where preaching at Pentecost was Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone without works available because of Jesus sacrificial death that pays the penalty for all our sins. We know what gospel was preached at Pentecost because it is recorded in Acts 2:14-40. The gospel was “..Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” This gospel of repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins is the same gospel John the Baptist, Jesus and the disciples preached before Jesus death too. The gospel of the kingdom as preached by the disciples did not however refer to Jesus death on the cross as payment for our sins (at least not until Paul revealed it to them).
Mathew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
Mathew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Mark 1:14-15 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
The kingdom of God was at hand because Jesus the king was present. The word used for “repent” is actually the Greek word metanoia which technically means to change your mind (not change your works). Yet read in context we see it also implies changing your actions. For example in Luke 13:2-5 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” In these versus the word Metanoia clearly implies repenting in the English sense of the word.
The gospel that Jesus and the disciples preached before his death on the cross and that was preached after his death at Pentecost clearly saved people (from hell). It was the gospel that taught that people would be forgiven from their sins by repenting and being baptised and believing in Jesus.
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
John 3:18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Mark 16:6 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
John 8:24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.
It is apparent to me that the belief that saved people after Jesus birth and up to and including Pentecost is the belief that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the Only Begotten Son of God. I believe that this is what it means to “believe in Jesus name”. People could see that Jesus existed physically but to be saved they had to believe in who he was which is the Only Begotten Son of God Israel’s Messiah. Baptism which was a Jewish ritual apparently existing before Jesus birth was also apparently important. (It was not until later when Paul revealed it that people not only understood who Jesus was but also what He had done by His death on the cross).
There are no verses in the bible that indicate that the gospel that the disciples taught up to and including at Pentecost (basically up until Paul’s conversion) included the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins. Yes they believed in forgiveness of sins by believing in Jesus but until Paul revealed it to them (after the risen Lord Jesus revealed it to Paul) they did not understand that the mechanism of forgiveness was by Jesus death on the cross. Note by the way that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins before his death (Mark 2:10-11 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”)
The disciples were upset about Jesus death on the cross and Jesus going to Jerusalem to die because they did not know what Jesus death on the cross would achieve (even though Jesus had alluded to it in John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (The last supper alluded to it too).
Even after Jesus death on the cross the disciples (until Paul explained it to them) were upset about Jesus death on the cross and saw it as something that the Jews needed to repent off albeit they also saw his resurrection and defeat of death as proof He is God. Acts 2:36-38 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The Mid Acts Dispensational theology claim is that even at Pentecost the disciples where unaware that Jesus death and resurrection had paid the penalty for our sins thus enabling salvation by grace alone without works. I agree with this claim based on my reading of the scriptures. The even more controversial bit is that Mid Acts Dispensational theology claims that’s the disciple’s gospel of the kingdom (that clearly saved prior to Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone even as late as Pentecost) could in theory have continued to save if the Jews had accepted Jesus as their Messiah even after his death and resurrection - without God instituting Paul’s gospel of grace.
The further claim is that the gospel of the kingdom will - after the “time of the Gentiles” ends with the rapture – again be the active gospel or dispensation. In the 1000 year reign (of Jesus physically present on earth in Jerusalem) after the 7 year tribulation the Jews will go on to be a nation of priests bringing the rest of the world into relationship with God and finally fulfilling the kingdom gospel great commission given in Matthew 28:16-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Understanding that we went from a kingdom gospel to Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone is perhaps not that hard to accept. What is perhaps harder to accept is that with the Devil and his angels bound (and unable to tempt anyone) during the millennium and with Jesus physically reigning on earth we will go back again to a kingdom gospel dispensation where James book will be the one you will need to be taking your marching orders from i.e. James 2:24 (NKJV) You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
In fact from numerous verses it would appear that even during the 7 year tribulation of Revelation (which is after the time of the Gentiles ends at the rapture and when the gospel of the kingdom becomes active again) one needs to show ones faith through ones perseverance. Mathew 24:13-14 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Also Revelation Chapter 2 numerous verses.
Now we can understand Jesus talking about salvation by works (obeying the commandments) in Luke 18:18-20 by saying that at the time that Jesus said that he had not yet died on the cross (so the Old Testament was still in effect). However that explanation doesn't hold for explaining why Jesus describes people being judged according to their works in Mathew 25:41-43 (what's more being punished for sins of omission not just sins of commission) because this takes place long after Jesus has died on the cross at the end of the age. How do we reconcile this with Paul’s gospel of salvation without works? In the Mid Acts Dispensationalist view we resolve this apparent contradiction because we see that the Kingdom gospel is back in effect, back to being the reigning dispensation after the members of the body of Christ who were saved by grace alone without works are raptured at the start of the tribulation. With the return to the Kingdom gospel Israel then returns to centre stage and fulfills her prophesied role.
In other words the people being judged in Mathew 25 are the survivors of the 7 year great tribulation – these are the people present when Jesus returns to earth - and they are being judged on how well they treated Jesus’ brethren – the Jews – during the great tribulation (under the Kingdom gospel). Mathew 25:41 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Mathew 25:45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
The bottom line is that if you miss the rapture because you did not believe in Jesus at the time then as well as avoiding taking the mark of the beast and likely dying a painful death you will also want to find a Jew to serve. Sorry but God is a Zionist. (Many Christians die painful deaths today and in the past before the tribulation too of course and will be richly rewarded for it but they are saved by grace only).
If you do find a Jew to serve and you both survive the tribulation (and you are both believers) perhaps he will take you with him to Jerusalem (where Jesus is reigning). Zechariah 8:23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’
Note however that in the current dispensation Jews and Greeks are equal. Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Sorry to jump about a bit and change topic but as long as I am discussing Mid Acts Dispensational theology let me also point out some other things that are part of discussing Mid Acts Dispensational theology.
Mid Acts Dispensational theology teaches that Paul was the first sinner saved by grace alone. This is shown in 1 Timothy 1:15 which is often mistranslated as Paul being the worst of sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15 (NKJV) This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
1 Timothy 1:15 (NIV) Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
While Paul’s mass murdering of Christians was pretty bad he is not likely to be the worst sinner who ever lived (he was a well meaning mass murderer of Christians). The level of badness of Paul’s sin is not actually the point at issue in this verse. The word that has been miss-translated as “worst” in the NIV is actually the Greek word πρῶτος which is pronounced prōtos (it’s where the word “prototype” comes from). The meaning of the word is actually “first in time or place or first in rank”. In this verse Paul actually means that he is the “first in time” not “first in rank”. In particular Paul is referring to the fact that he is the first sinner saved by grace alone (not the worst sinner ever).
Another doctrine of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology is that while all scripture is written for us not all scripture is written to us. For example the 10 commandments in the Old Testament are valuable and tell me what holy living looks like but I also understand them in the light that I am saved from my inability to live up to the law by God’s grace thanks to Jesus death on the cross. Most Christians would agree on the point. What is more controversial in the MAPD position is that the scriptures that we take our marching orders from today (that are instructive not just informative) are all of Paul’s 13 epistles from Romans to Philemon. Hebrews to Revelation are written to Jews living in the Kingdom dispensation that will become the active dispensation yet again when Jesus returns to earth after the rapture of the body of Christ. The kingdom dispensation was also the dispensation that applied during Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. That is Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are Old Testament books.
As long as we are on the topic of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology I should also give some verses that point out that Paul claimed the gospel of grace was his gospel not a gospel that he learned from someone else such as the disciples (rather he learned it directly from the risen Lord Jesus Christ).
Rom 2:16 This will take place on the day when God judges people's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
Rom 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
2 Timothy 2:8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,
1 Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
Also check out http://graceambassadors.com/mystery/paul/pauls-my-gospel
Paul tells us that he did not learn his gospel from the disciples when he says Galation 2:6-7 But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
Anyway there are a lot of resources on the web to teach the tenants of Mid Acts Dispensationalism. The actual purpose of this post which I haven’t touched on yet is to point out where all the other Mid Acts Dispensationalist websites go wrong and that is that I have yet to see one which teaches that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing, words of knowledge, prophecy and speaking in tongues are available to believers today in this current dispensation of grace.
I think this is because the Mid Acts Dispensationalist theology is a very rational theology and so attracts very rational people. Rational people tend to have a problem believing in miracles (not all but many). I won’t write a treatise on why I think that is so here. The result is that Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalists tend not to believe that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing and prophecy and speaking in tongues are available to believers today (I assume they still believe in the fruit of the Spirit such as love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness and faithfulness).
It’s such a shame that people who get so much right theologically have to fall down at this point.
The scriptural case for the doctrine that the “sign” gifts of the Spirit are no longer available today in this dispensation is very week at best and is in any case down right wrong. The belief that the sign gifts of the Spirit are no longer available today is wide spread in Christendom not just among the MAPD community.
The best scriptures that those opposing belief in the sign gifts can come up with to make their case that I have seen (and it is very week) is 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
That verse is all they have and it doesn’t even mean what they claim it does. What 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells us is that one day the “sign” gifts (or supernatural gifts) of the Holy Spirit of prophecy, speaking in tongues and words of knowledge will cease. It does not say anything about when they will cease. There is absolutely nothing about 1 Corinthians 13:8 to indicate that the sign gifts will end as soon as Paul is converted and starts preaching his gospel of salvation by grace. The “unbiased” common sense reading of this scripture is that one day in the far future probably when these gifts are no longer required they will cease. When are these particular gifts no longer required? Answer: when Jesus has returned to earth and fulfilled all prophecy (locked the Devil and his angels up for 1,000 years) and Jesus is physically reigning on the earth. The purpose of this verse is to indicate how important love is not to give a timetable for when the sign gifts will end. The verse does not say when the gifts will end only that one day they will end. Common sense tells us they won’t be needed when Jesus returns but the bible doesn’t say when they are due to be removed. It would be odd if Jesus filled us all with the Holy Spirit but chose to limit the Spirit’s work by not letting Him heal people or give words of knowledge or prophecy. Of course He hasn’t done that and all the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are still available to us today.
Also note that Paul did not write any Epistles until after he presented his gospel to the apostles in Acts 15 and Peter confirmed that Paul’s gospel was the gospel that now saved. Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.
Note that Peter had been given the authority to make such a pronouncement by Jesus. Mathew 16:18-19 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
The point is that Paul wrote all his letters after the dispensation of grace had begun (that is standard MAPD belief). Now as Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tells us that the gifts will cease one day in the future it implies that at the time that Paul wrote Corinthians the sign gifts of the spirit had not yet ceased. Paul says that they will cease not that they have already ceased. Yet when Paul wrote Corinthians we were already fully in the dispensation of grace as declared by Peter in Acts 15:11. This fact refutes the claim that the sign gifts ceased as soon as the grace dispensation began. Again in Corinthians chapter 14 we see that the gifts of tongues and prophecy are still very much alive and well in the dispensation of grace. Paul says in Corinthians 14:5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.
Again note that Paul wrote Corinthians after the dispensation of grace had begun so that you can not say that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit don’t apply to the current dispensation of grace and only applied in the kingdom dispensation.
Standard MAPD doctrine states that in the current dispensation of grace the body of believers is known as the “Body of Christ” (not the bride of Christ – the Bride of Christ is Israel). That is if you see Paul talking about the “Body of Christ” you know he is talking about believers in the current dispensation of grace. So keeping that in mind lets read 1 Corinthians 12:7-13 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
Do these verses not sound like Paul is talking about the “Body of Christ” where Jews and Greeks, slaves and free are the same, where there is just one baptism as per the current dispensation? Do these verses not explicitly state that said body of Christ has the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit? How willfully blind do you have to be to declare that the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues are not available to the body of Christ today?
Paul’s gospel that we are saved by grace made available to us by Jesus death on the cross for us is the gospel that is preached in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians it is not the gospel of the kingdom. You cannot seriously claim that at the time Paul wrote Corinthians he was not yet saved by grace or not yet preaching the gospel of grace, you cannot claim that at the time Paul wrote Corinthians we were not yet living in the dispensation of grace. Yet Paul clearly tells us that the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues are available to believers at the time that he is writing Corinthians.
That is why I am a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist not just a Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist.
(PS: In Pharaoh’s court magicians could fake some of Moses’ gifts but that did not mean that Moses gifts were not the real thing. Just like the discovery of a fake Noah’s ark does not mean that there was never a real Noah’s ark. Today some people are false prophets but that does not mean all prophecy is false. Some words of knowledge can be faked but that does not mean there are no genuine words of knowledge. Some people are fake and fraudulent healers but that does not mean there is no real gift of healing today).
When one considers that obviously the apostle Paul was also a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist the answer to that question would have to be no I am not the world’s first "Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist" rather the apostle Paul was the world’s first “Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist”. Indeed it’s precisely because Paul was a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist that I am one too.
You’ll note that I didn’t call myself a “Pentecostal Mid Acts Dispensationalist” as this would be a contradiction in terms, it would be like calling yourself a “Start of Acts Mid Acts Dispensationalist” which would be contradictory. So to avoid potential confusion I call myself a "charismatic" rather than a pentecostal" but I believe that we have the same gifts of the Spirit made available at Pentecost because believers are still in dwelt by the same Holy Spirit that the apostles recieved at Pentecost.The Holy Spirits power is not limited in any dispensation.
I have not always been a Mid Acts Dispensationalist. In fact despite being nearly 50 years old and having been raised in the church and spent all my life in the church I have only been a Mid Acts Dispensationalist for a year or two.
How can one spend so long listening to Christian sermons yet only after nearly half a century come to an accurate understanding of the basics of the Christian faith? The answer is “because so few pastors/ministers understand it themselves”. If Google internet hits are anything to go by churches that teach Mid Acts Dispensationalism are rare and churches that teach Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalism totally non-existent.
You may say to me “Rodney I know that you are no one special with no particular teaching or leading gift but if you (apparently*) currently have the world’s most accurate theology then should you not be teaching it to everyone else?” If you ask me that I will reply that I am currently writing this post to discuss CMAPD so the job is done. If you didn’t find this post then perhaps you didn’t get the grace to find it (you’ll still be OK though as long as you did get the grace of coming to believe that Jesus who is God shed his blood and died on the cross in your place to pay the penalty for all your sins and in exchange gives you his righteousness so that you stand sinless before God. Jesus the only begotten Son of God rose bodily from the grave and ascended to heaven in his resurrected body and will come back bodily from heaven to reign on the earth. Fortunately you can get the timing on the last bit wrong and still be saved, you can even not be a CMAPD and be saved, a childlike faith in Jesus and his death and resurrection is all you need).
(*I really hate sounding arrogant or boastful but in order to have more accurate theology than me you need to be a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist too. I don’t see any other CMAPDs round about so what else am I to conclude than that I currently have the world’s most accurate theology? I so hope I am wrong about that. I just have to convert one other person to the CMAPD theology and I may no longer have the world’s most accurate theology – assuming I even do now – maybe there are other CMAPDs in hiding?)
I became a CMAPD after trying to resolve my difficulty with the fact that James appears to contradict Paul. I read various explanations on the internet trying to claim that James doesn’t really contradict Paul but none of them were convincing to me. I have a penchant for logic (I need accurate logic to make my living as a computer programmer and I needed it to get the math’s right for my physics PhD thesis – among other things. My world just doesn’t work without logic). Some people can believe things which don’t make logical sense as long as it agrees with their core principals, we might call these people “Feelers”, other people can’t believe something to be true if it isn’t rational (or at least rational that you can’t understand it – like the concept of the Trinity) we might call these people “Rationals”. I am the latter. As a result I just could not live with James and Paul contradicting each other.
Despite my “rational” personality type as a young man I thought I was being virtuous by believing the contradictory theology that we were saved purely by faith alone without works as per Paul but also simultaneously saved by faith plus works as per James. Now I just see that as contradictory and not virtuous to be illogical like that (though I make no apologies for believing that God the Son and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are distinct persons who are all God and that there is only one God i.e. I am a monotheist not a polytheist).
Actually all of us have principles that we’ll stick by no matter how contrary the evidence or illogical sounding (including atheists and evolutionists etc who think of themselves as “science” types). We will all take a position and defend it come what may. The “Rationals” I like to think have a higher standard of ….. (or maybe we are just better at coming up with rational sounding arguments for what we want to believe). Anyway now I have got thoroughly off track. Sorry I’ll return to the theological topic at hand.
Basically I was trying to say that I had a real problem with the fact that James 2:24 (NKJV) says You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Whereas in Romans 3:28 Paul says “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” The rest of Paul’s letters also make it clear that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone without works e.g. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV) “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” So Paul would appear to contradict James teaching.
It’s not just the book of James that appears to teach works for salvation either there are numerous other places in the New Testament where it is implied that works are part of salvation. There are statements by Jesus and the disciples that imply works are part of salvation. For example in Mathew 6:14-15 (NKJV) Jesus says “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Now I would classify forgiving someone as an act you do and hence a “work” which would seem to contradict Paul (or rather it would seem Paul contradicts Jesus). “How do we resolve this?” I wondered.
Another example of people being judged by their works is Mathew 25. For example Jesus himself says in Mathew 25:41-43 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ‘for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ‘I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’”
In this Mathew 25 example people are shown being sent to hell not just for sins that they have committed but rather for good works that they have not done (sins of omission rather than sins of commission). This was said by Jesus himself and Jesus cannot have been in error in his theology because Jesus is God himself in the flesh. I wondered how to line this up with Paul’s claim that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone without works having anything to do with it.
Another example that implies that good works are necessary for salvation is Luke 18:18-20 “Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
In these verses we see that Jesus responds to the question “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” by basically saying keep the commandments (He lists 5 of the 10 commandments). I wondered how to resolve this with Paul’s claim in Romans 3:28 that “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
These examples are by no means exhaustive; I could give other versus too that imply that works are necessary for salvation (from hell). Yet the apostle Paul wrote 13 letters which made their way into our New Testament which all consistently drum home the theme that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ and not by how well we obey the law. “Does Paul contradict Jesus, what is going on?” I wondered.
It sounded like there were 2 different gospels in the New Testament books, namely the gospel of salvation (from hell) by grace through faith alone presented in Paul’s 13 letters and faith plus works presented in the rest of the New Testament. Eventually I had to admit to myself that there ARE two different gospels presented in the New Testament.
I found the solution to this apparent contradiction in the theology of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalism (also known as just Mid Acts Dispensationalism – I don’t know any Mid Acts Dispensationalism that isn’t also Pauling Mid Acts Dispensationalism but MAPD is a better acronym than MAD so I’ll use the former acronym).
There is some excellent teaching (much better than I could give) on Mid Acts Dispensationalism around the internet including on Youtube. Unfortunately these MAPD internet sites are also universally not Charismatic which is to say that they teach that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues are not given to Christians today but were only for the previous dispensation. That is very sad that they fall down like that but otherwise they have some excellent teaching.
My favourite Mid Acts Dispensationalist site is this guy http://doctrine.org/. It is such a shame he is not Charismatic (if he were I would give him the title of the guy with the world’s most accurate theology – though he is also in error in thinking that Paul wrote Hebrews which he didn’t).
I can remember at one of my old churches (Anglican) asking someone the question “how could the gospel that Jesus and the disciples preached before his death and resurrection be that - Jesus had died on the cross to save you from your sins - if Jesus had not yet died on the cross?” At the time I thought I was being facetious by asking the question but it was also a genuine question.
For example in Mathew 4:23 it says “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” Initially I assumed that the term “gospel of the kingdom” was short for the gospel that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins but I wondered how this could be since Jesus had not yet died on the cross. The person I asked the question to at my Anglican church was horrified and thought I was being heretical - of course He was preaching that he had died on the cross to save people from their sins (before he died on the cross). To believe otherwise was heresy. In hindsight I see that I was asking exactly the right question – good on you me (it was like when I asked my high school physics teacher why if protons being positively charged they repel each other they stick together in the nucleus – I was told it was an invalid question but it wasn’t invalid it was a question with an important answer – for a physicist. So often the question you are not supposed to ask is actually exactly the question you should be asking).
It turns out that the “gospel of the kingdom” that Jesus and the disciples and John the Baptist were preaching is in in fact a different gospel to Paul’s gospel. People tend to think of Paul’s gospel as “the gospel” when we read the term “gospel” in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John but in fact the gospel that Jesus and the 12 disciples preached was the gospel of the kingdom and it was not identical to Paul’s gospel.
The term “gospel” simply means “good news”. The “gospel of the kingdom” was the gospel preached by Jesus and the disciples specifically to the Jews. Yes that’s right it was a gospel that Jesus was sent to preach to Jews only (Mathew 15:24 “But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” – the gentile woman only got help when she lowered herself to the status of a dog).
To paraphrase - the gospel of the kingdom was the message to the Jews that their messiah as promised by the Old Testament prophets was finally here. Salvation meant believing in Jesus as the promised messiah. In theory had the Jews collectively believed that Jesus was the promised messiah Jesus would have set up his earthly kingdom at that time and the Jews would have at that time become a nation of priests sent to go out to the world and bring the gentiles to faith in Jesus the Messiah and King. Jesus and the 12 apostles and the authors of the non-Pauline books such as James explain how salvation worked (and will again in the future work) with Jesus physically present on the earth as Israel’s Messiah and King.
Now I say “in theory” because it didn’t (yet) work out that way because it was God’s intention that the dispensation of grace would occur during which time Paul’s gospel of grace is the one in effect.
Our current dispensation during which we are saved purely by grace through faith in Jesus and his atoning death on the cross is called the “time of the Gentiles”. Paul’s 13 epistles describe how this dispensation works. This is the time of the gentiles which Jesus refers to in Luke 21:24 “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
There are far better presentations on Mid Acts Dispensation theology (with supporting versus) than I am paraphrasing here. I am just talking of the top of my head here. Here are links to some examples – but be warned that they are not charismatic (unfortunately there are not yet any Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist sites about).
http://www.twonewcovenants.com/twogospels/twogospels1.html http://www.understandingyourbible.com/whyconfuse.htm http://doctrine.org/paul-chief-of-sinners/ http://doctrine.org/the-great-prophecies-concerning-the-gentiles-the-jews-and-the-church-of-god/ http://doctrine.org/the-christian-myth/ http://graceambassadors.com/salvation/when-can-works-justify http://graceambassadors.com/midacts/list-twelve-preach-the-cross http://graceambassadors.com/midacts/one-lord-one-faith-three-baptisms http://www.friendshipbiblechurch.com/the-essentials-of-mid-acts-dispensational-theology/ https://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/part-1-the-dispensation-of-grace-mystery-or-prophecy/ http://graceambassadors.com/prophecy/mmlj/reasons-we-ought-not-to-follow-the-%e2%80%9cgreat%e2%80%9d-commission
The dispensation of grace began with Paul’s conversion recorded in mid Acts (i.e. Acts 9).
Most Protestants would agree that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone (or at least give lip service to the idea – many still manage to sneak works in somewhere). Where the Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology differs from the rest of Christendom is that MAPD claims that the 12 apostles did not know or teach that Jesus death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins until Paul revealed that fact to them (a fact that the risen Lord Jesus had revealed to Paul directly – not the disciples).
Most of Christendom thinks that the gospel that the disciples where preaching at Pentecost was Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone without works available because of Jesus sacrificial death that pays the penalty for all our sins. We know what gospel was preached at Pentecost because it is recorded in Acts 2:14-40. The gospel was “..Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” This gospel of repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins is the same gospel John the Baptist, Jesus and the disciples preached before Jesus death too. The gospel of the kingdom as preached by the disciples did not however refer to Jesus death on the cross as payment for our sins (at least not until Paul revealed it to them).
Mathew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
Mathew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Mark 1:14-15 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
The kingdom of God was at hand because Jesus the king was present. The word used for “repent” is actually the Greek word metanoia which technically means to change your mind (not change your works). Yet read in context we see it also implies changing your actions. For example in Luke 13:2-5 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” In these versus the word Metanoia clearly implies repenting in the English sense of the word.
The gospel that Jesus and the disciples preached before his death on the cross and that was preached after his death at Pentecost clearly saved people (from hell). It was the gospel that taught that people would be forgiven from their sins by repenting and being baptised and believing in Jesus.
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
John 3:18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Mark 16:6 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
John 8:24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.
It is apparent to me that the belief that saved people after Jesus birth and up to and including Pentecost is the belief that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the Only Begotten Son of God. I believe that this is what it means to “believe in Jesus name”. People could see that Jesus existed physically but to be saved they had to believe in who he was which is the Only Begotten Son of God Israel’s Messiah. Baptism which was a Jewish ritual apparently existing before Jesus birth was also apparently important. (It was not until later when Paul revealed it that people not only understood who Jesus was but also what He had done by His death on the cross).
There are no verses in the bible that indicate that the gospel that the disciples taught up to and including at Pentecost (basically up until Paul’s conversion) included the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins. Yes they believed in forgiveness of sins by believing in Jesus but until Paul revealed it to them (after the risen Lord Jesus revealed it to Paul) they did not understand that the mechanism of forgiveness was by Jesus death on the cross. Note by the way that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins before his death (Mark 2:10-11 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”)
The disciples were upset about Jesus death on the cross and Jesus going to Jerusalem to die because they did not know what Jesus death on the cross would achieve (even though Jesus had alluded to it in John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (The last supper alluded to it too).
Even after Jesus death on the cross the disciples (until Paul explained it to them) were upset about Jesus death on the cross and saw it as something that the Jews needed to repent off albeit they also saw his resurrection and defeat of death as proof He is God. Acts 2:36-38 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The Mid Acts Dispensational theology claim is that even at Pentecost the disciples where unaware that Jesus death and resurrection had paid the penalty for our sins thus enabling salvation by grace alone without works. I agree with this claim based on my reading of the scriptures. The even more controversial bit is that Mid Acts Dispensational theology claims that’s the disciple’s gospel of the kingdom (that clearly saved prior to Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone even as late as Pentecost) could in theory have continued to save if the Jews had accepted Jesus as their Messiah even after his death and resurrection - without God instituting Paul’s gospel of grace.
The further claim is that the gospel of the kingdom will - after the “time of the Gentiles” ends with the rapture – again be the active gospel or dispensation. In the 1000 year reign (of Jesus physically present on earth in Jerusalem) after the 7 year tribulation the Jews will go on to be a nation of priests bringing the rest of the world into relationship with God and finally fulfilling the kingdom gospel great commission given in Matthew 28:16-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Understanding that we went from a kingdom gospel to Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone is perhaps not that hard to accept. What is perhaps harder to accept is that with the Devil and his angels bound (and unable to tempt anyone) during the millennium and with Jesus physically reigning on earth we will go back again to a kingdom gospel dispensation where James book will be the one you will need to be taking your marching orders from i.e. James 2:24 (NKJV) You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
In fact from numerous verses it would appear that even during the 7 year tribulation of Revelation (which is after the time of the Gentiles ends at the rapture and when the gospel of the kingdom becomes active again) one needs to show ones faith through ones perseverance. Mathew 24:13-14 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Also Revelation Chapter 2 numerous verses.
Now we can understand Jesus talking about salvation by works (obeying the commandments) in Luke 18:18-20 by saying that at the time that Jesus said that he had not yet died on the cross (so the Old Testament was still in effect). However that explanation doesn't hold for explaining why Jesus describes people being judged according to their works in Mathew 25:41-43 (what's more being punished for sins of omission not just sins of commission) because this takes place long after Jesus has died on the cross at the end of the age. How do we reconcile this with Paul’s gospel of salvation without works? In the Mid Acts Dispensationalist view we resolve this apparent contradiction because we see that the Kingdom gospel is back in effect, back to being the reigning dispensation after the members of the body of Christ who were saved by grace alone without works are raptured at the start of the tribulation. With the return to the Kingdom gospel Israel then returns to centre stage and fulfills her prophesied role.
In other words the people being judged in Mathew 25 are the survivors of the 7 year great tribulation – these are the people present when Jesus returns to earth - and they are being judged on how well they treated Jesus’ brethren – the Jews – during the great tribulation (under the Kingdom gospel). Mathew 25:41 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Mathew 25:45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
The bottom line is that if you miss the rapture because you did not believe in Jesus at the time then as well as avoiding taking the mark of the beast and likely dying a painful death you will also want to find a Jew to serve. Sorry but God is a Zionist. (Many Christians die painful deaths today and in the past before the tribulation too of course and will be richly rewarded for it but they are saved by grace only).
If you do find a Jew to serve and you both survive the tribulation (and you are both believers) perhaps he will take you with him to Jerusalem (where Jesus is reigning). Zechariah 8:23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’
Note however that in the current dispensation Jews and Greeks are equal. Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Sorry to jump about a bit and change topic but as long as I am discussing Mid Acts Dispensational theology let me also point out some other things that are part of discussing Mid Acts Dispensational theology.
Mid Acts Dispensational theology teaches that Paul was the first sinner saved by grace alone. This is shown in 1 Timothy 1:15 which is often mistranslated as Paul being the worst of sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15 (NKJV) This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
1 Timothy 1:15 (NIV) Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
While Paul’s mass murdering of Christians was pretty bad he is not likely to be the worst sinner who ever lived (he was a well meaning mass murderer of Christians). The level of badness of Paul’s sin is not actually the point at issue in this verse. The word that has been miss-translated as “worst” in the NIV is actually the Greek word πρῶτος which is pronounced prōtos (it’s where the word “prototype” comes from). The meaning of the word is actually “first in time or place or first in rank”. In this verse Paul actually means that he is the “first in time” not “first in rank”. In particular Paul is referring to the fact that he is the first sinner saved by grace alone (not the worst sinner ever).
Another doctrine of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology is that while all scripture is written for us not all scripture is written to us. For example the 10 commandments in the Old Testament are valuable and tell me what holy living looks like but I also understand them in the light that I am saved from my inability to live up to the law by God’s grace thanks to Jesus death on the cross. Most Christians would agree on the point. What is more controversial in the MAPD position is that the scriptures that we take our marching orders from today (that are instructive not just informative) are all of Paul’s 13 epistles from Romans to Philemon. Hebrews to Revelation are written to Jews living in the Kingdom dispensation that will become the active dispensation yet again when Jesus returns to earth after the rapture of the body of Christ. The kingdom dispensation was also the dispensation that applied during Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. That is Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are Old Testament books.
As long as we are on the topic of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology I should also give some verses that point out that Paul claimed the gospel of grace was his gospel not a gospel that he learned from someone else such as the disciples (rather he learned it directly from the risen Lord Jesus Christ).
Rom 2:16 This will take place on the day when God judges people's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
Rom 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
2 Timothy 2:8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,
1 Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
Also check out http://graceambassadors.com/mystery/paul/pauls-my-gospel
Paul tells us that he did not learn his gospel from the disciples when he says Galation 2:6-7 But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
Anyway there are a lot of resources on the web to teach the tenants of Mid Acts Dispensationalism. The actual purpose of this post which I haven’t touched on yet is to point out where all the other Mid Acts Dispensationalist websites go wrong and that is that I have yet to see one which teaches that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing, words of knowledge, prophecy and speaking in tongues are available to believers today in this current dispensation of grace.
I think this is because the Mid Acts Dispensationalist theology is a very rational theology and so attracts very rational people. Rational people tend to have a problem believing in miracles (not all but many). I won’t write a treatise on why I think that is so here. The result is that Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalists tend not to believe that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing and prophecy and speaking in tongues are available to believers today (I assume they still believe in the fruit of the Spirit such as love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness and faithfulness).
It’s such a shame that people who get so much right theologically have to fall down at this point.
The scriptural case for the doctrine that the “sign” gifts of the Spirit are no longer available today in this dispensation is very week at best and is in any case down right wrong. The belief that the sign gifts of the Spirit are no longer available today is wide spread in Christendom not just among the MAPD community.
The best scriptures that those opposing belief in the sign gifts can come up with to make their case that I have seen (and it is very week) is 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
That verse is all they have and it doesn’t even mean what they claim it does. What 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells us is that one day the “sign” gifts (or supernatural gifts) of the Holy Spirit of prophecy, speaking in tongues and words of knowledge will cease. It does not say anything about when they will cease. There is absolutely nothing about 1 Corinthians 13:8 to indicate that the sign gifts will end as soon as Paul is converted and starts preaching his gospel of salvation by grace. The “unbiased” common sense reading of this scripture is that one day in the far future probably when these gifts are no longer required they will cease. When are these particular gifts no longer required? Answer: when Jesus has returned to earth and fulfilled all prophecy (locked the Devil and his angels up for 1,000 years) and Jesus is physically reigning on the earth. The purpose of this verse is to indicate how important love is not to give a timetable for when the sign gifts will end. The verse does not say when the gifts will end only that one day they will end. Common sense tells us they won’t be needed when Jesus returns but the bible doesn’t say when they are due to be removed. It would be odd if Jesus filled us all with the Holy Spirit but chose to limit the Spirit’s work by not letting Him heal people or give words of knowledge or prophecy. Of course He hasn’t done that and all the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are still available to us today.
Also note that Paul did not write any Epistles until after he presented his gospel to the apostles in Acts 15 and Peter confirmed that Paul’s gospel was the gospel that now saved. Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.
Note that Peter had been given the authority to make such a pronouncement by Jesus. Mathew 16:18-19 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
The point is that Paul wrote all his letters after the dispensation of grace had begun (that is standard MAPD belief). Now as Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tells us that the gifts will cease one day in the future it implies that at the time that Paul wrote Corinthians the sign gifts of the spirit had not yet ceased. Paul says that they will cease not that they have already ceased. Yet when Paul wrote Corinthians we were already fully in the dispensation of grace as declared by Peter in Acts 15:11. This fact refutes the claim that the sign gifts ceased as soon as the grace dispensation began. Again in Corinthians chapter 14 we see that the gifts of tongues and prophecy are still very much alive and well in the dispensation of grace. Paul says in Corinthians 14:5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.
Again note that Paul wrote Corinthians after the dispensation of grace had begun so that you can not say that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit don’t apply to the current dispensation of grace and only applied in the kingdom dispensation.
Standard MAPD doctrine states that in the current dispensation of grace the body of believers is known as the “Body of Christ” (not the bride of Christ – the Bride of Christ is Israel). That is if you see Paul talking about the “Body of Christ” you know he is talking about believers in the current dispensation of grace. So keeping that in mind lets read 1 Corinthians 12:7-13 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
Do these verses not sound like Paul is talking about the “Body of Christ” where Jews and Greeks, slaves and free are the same, where there is just one baptism as per the current dispensation? Do these verses not explicitly state that said body of Christ has the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit? How willfully blind do you have to be to declare that the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues are not available to the body of Christ today?
Paul’s gospel that we are saved by grace made available to us by Jesus death on the cross for us is the gospel that is preached in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians it is not the gospel of the kingdom. You cannot seriously claim that at the time Paul wrote Corinthians he was not yet saved by grace or not yet preaching the gospel of grace, you cannot claim that at the time Paul wrote Corinthians we were not yet living in the dispensation of grace. Yet Paul clearly tells us that the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues are available to believers at the time that he is writing Corinthians.
That is why I am a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist not just a Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist.
(PS: In Pharaoh’s court magicians could fake some of Moses’ gifts but that did not mean that Moses gifts were not the real thing. Just like the discovery of a fake Noah’s ark does not mean that there was never a real Noah’s ark. Today some people are false prophets but that does not mean all prophecy is false. Some words of knowledge can be faked but that does not mean there are no genuine words of knowledge. Some people are fake and fraudulent healers but that does not mean there is no real gift of healing today).
Sunday, November 17, 2013
End times prophecy - my understanding of Revelation and Daniel
Key words: Prophecy, Revelation, Daniel, End times, Democracy is evil, Secular humanism is the beast, Antifeminist, Armagedon, Antichrist
Verse: Rev 17:7 Then the angel said to me: "Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.
Hypothesis:
Beasts (and beast heads): Beasts (and beast heads) in the Bible represent evil spiritual beings. They are very high ranking demons/fallen angles probably second only to the devil in rank within the devil's organisation. Beasts typically possess kings and governments and rule over entire kingdoms and empires. While a beast will generally be synonymous with a king or a kingdom at their core they are an evil spiritual being not a king or a kingdom. (Beasts and their kings are often confused-melded together e.g. King of Tyre with the devil- Ezekiel 28:1-19 ).
Just as a beast (or beast head) is not a kingdom or a nation, though it will usually rule one, a beast is not a geographical location either. A beast is a spiritual being not a people or a place. This means that the same beast can rule different kingdoms and different peoples and in different geographical locations and at different times in history yet be the same beast. What will be the same about a beast who rules different nations in different geographic locations at different times in history is that he will have the same personality, the same modus operandi, the same strategy for taking control and ruling.
For example the beast that rules the Muslims serves the devil by having people be monotheists who favour dictatorship. The beast that rules Western secular humanists serves the devil by having people be atheists who favour democracy. Both serve the devil but from what appear to be contrary strategies. The different strategies of doing evil and leading people away from God reflect the different beast's different personalities and different modus operandi.
Mountains: Mountains represent kingdoms.
Heads: A beast's head represents a kingdom and a particular personality of the beast.
Horns: Horns represent kings. A beast's horn is a human king possessed by the beast. The beast rules via the king/s he possesses.
A beast may have multiple horns simultaneously and thus rule through multiple kings. For example when Greece split into 4 kingdoms/empires after Alexander the great, while on the surface it looked like there were 4 separate rulers in reality all 4 rulers where possessed and ruled by the same beast.
Similarly at the end of the age it is likely that a single beast will rule the world but through 10 separate kings, which are the beast's ten horns (and also the ten toes of Daniel's statue). The Anti-Christ will likely be one of these 10 kings and will likely not have world domination over the whole world but the beast he serves will.
(The 10 horns are also past kings and the heads past empires but latter we will find that 10 kings rule under the beast also during the last days tribulation).
That the Anti-Christ doesn’t rule the whole world is seen in the fact that the Anti-Christ has to fight other kings (even after the beast has conquered the whole world) and at the end of the seven year tribulation the Anti-Christ doesn't have the power to simply command other kings to join him in battle against God but rather must persuade them through "lying spirits".
It is commonly thought that the Anti-Christ and the beast are the same entity but they are not. The Anti-Christ is a man while the beast is an arch-demon. The Anti-Christ is likely just one of several kings the beast possesses and while the beast does rule the whole world during the 7 year tribulation (and probably before) the Anti-Christ does not rule the whole world.
It’s a bit like the way that during the middle ages various kings would all claim to be good Catholics and pay homage to the same Pope but they would still meet each other in battle for political control of lands.
PS: I will also latter go on to claim that the Anti-Christ is the false prophet himself (as opposed to the false prophet being the ACs side kick).
Rev 17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
Hypothesis: Note the phrase "is not" in the verse. At the time that this verse was written Rome was still very much ruling the world (the known world from the point of view of a Jew). This tells us that the Roman beast, the beast that ruled the Roman Empire, and was currently ruling when this verse was written, is not the beast that the verse is talking about. It’s amazing how many people fail to see or are willing to ignore that point and claim that the beast is a resurrected Roman empire. The Roman beast was the 6th beast. This verse tells us that the beast that "is to come" is not the Roman beast ruling at Paul's time but one of the previous 5 beasts that ruled prior to Rome. Thanks to this verse the Roman beast is the one beast that we can be absolutely certain will NOT be ruling during the tribulation.
It is my contention that the beast that this verse is talking about is the 5th Beast, namely the beast that ruled ancient Greece. I am not saying that Greece will be the geographic location of the Anti-Christ's headquarters or that the Greek nation will rise up and conquer the world. I am saying that the same evil spirit being that ruled ancient Greece and the nations it conquered will again conquer and rule the world - albeit through different nations. Greece will be/is a part of his kingdom (so will Rome be) but only a small part. Rome will be part of the Beast's empire but it will be a Greek beast that is ruling (the beast that ruled ancient Greece) not a Roman beast (the beast that ruled ancient Rome).
Ancient Greece was a Democracy; it was a collection of democratic states with constitutions that latter became a federation. It was later taken over by a dictator that conquered the known world or close to it. Ancient Greece is the model on which our current Western political system is built. The ancient Greeks where also very much into logic and rationality (Paul noted this). In a sense they were the father of modern science. The Western world, its system of government, its science even its Olympic games owes more to Ancient Greek than any other empire. The Western world is a resurrection of the Greek empire in spirit albeit not geographic location. It is my contention that the beast that ruled Ancient Greece rules again today under the guise of Secular Humanism. The modus operandi of this beast is to convince man that man is god. This beast teaches man to worship man instead of God.
This Greek beast has been working on taking over the world for some time now and is stronger now than ever. The catch cry of the French revolution (or so I can remember learning in history class at school) was "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality". That is we are all to be free, all brothers and all equal. This catch cry is still very much behind today's "political correctness" (cultural Marxism) in the West and was also behind communism in Russia and China. Today's "political correctness" in the West as some have noted is just communism/socialism applied to social interactions instead of economic ones. "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality" is the catch cry of the Greek beast and reflects his distinct personality, his modus operandi (although the claim that "you can be equal to God" was started by the Devil in the garden of Eden).
Western democracy and Eastern socialism are different sides of the same coin. Indeed during the cold war (and still today) the capitalist and democratic US appeared quite different to communist/ dictatorial Russia and they were in a cold war with each other - yet at the time (as well as today) they were both actually ruled by the same beast of Greece because they were both secular humanist nations merely differing in how to implement "Equality and freedom for all".
As Christians we are also in favour of everyone being free, treating everyone as brothers/sisters and treating everyone equally. The problem is the extreme's to which "liberty, fraternity equality" is taken by the demonic Greek beast. For example in the US children are not allowed to pray inside Public schools. The theory being that if Christian children meet together or even just pray by themselves in a public school they may influence someone else to become a Christian too and if they did that they would be taking away that person's right to "freedom" of religion. Weird logic I know but that's what US courts have decided. So in the name of "freedom" people are not free to pray or meet together formally as Christians in any US public schools.
Similarly in the name of "equality" we gave women the vote (yes that was a big mistake, sorry I'm an anti-feminist), which inevitably lead to feminism, which lead to the breakdown of marriage and general strife and ill will in male/female relations and numerous absurd laws and government social engineering projects. In the name of equality we have in various Western states legalised or will sooner or later legalise gay marriage and adoption etc. In the name of "we're all brothers" we have massive Islamic immigration into Europe that will see much violence and strife down the road and already today.
Growing up in the West you are lead to believe that Capitalism and Democracy go together and are the opposite to Dictatorship and Socialism. In fact democracy which is public ownership of government goes together with socialism which is public ownership of property, and both are antithetical to monarchy which is private ownership of government and capitalism which is private ownership of wealth. Democracy is not the best form of government, monarchy with a God fearing king is the best form failing God actually ruling on earth himself (which he will one day). Nowhere does the bible condone democratic rule. Even in the new earth/heaven perfect world there will be a hierarchy of people (12 Apostles at the top). While there is no Jew or Greek in Christ ( we are all of equal worth to God spiritually) the bible does not actually outlaw slavery master-servant relations rather it moderates them nor does it eliminate the hierarchy of a man ruling over his wife and family. Hierarchies are part of God's order and will still be after Jesus has returned to rule and delivered the world form evil (I am talking about hierarchical relations here not slavery).
What does the US and China have in common politically? Both are technically democracies or rather both claim to be democracies (please don’t give me that nonsense about the US being a constitutional Republic not a democracy. The US is a democracy just like Australia a constitutional Monarchy is also a democracy. Technical jargon doesn’t make it any less a democracy). Even in China while you can only (technically) vote yes or no to the one candidate - it claims to and pays lip service to being a democracy. That is the Chinese government claims to be elected by the people and to be doing the peoples will (even though in practice the people can’t change much). That is actually common under the Greek beast's rule, plenty of dictatorship in practice but always the profession of democracy. Its amazing the vast numbers of people that end up being killed/tortured when dictatorship is done in the name of the people instead of the name of God (e.g. Soviet Russia, China under Mao, North Korea today).
What did the Soviet Union under Stalin and Russia still today, China under Mao and today, Nazi Germany under Hitler, Iraq under Saddam, Germany today, South and North Korea, the European nations and the US, Canada and Australia, most (probably all) South American nations, and most if not all African nations and nearly all the Asian nations have in common? The answer is that they all "profess/ed" to be democracies ruled by democratically elected leaders (even if in many cases the practice is different). Even those under martial law claim that it is/was a temporary state and acknowledge that in the future a democracy will/should return. North Korea may be in practice a monarchy but it still professes to be a democracy ruled by a democratically elected leader doing the peoples will for the good of the people. (In fact the only nations that don’t at least profess to believe that a democracy is the ultimate good form of government would be Muslim ones).
Saying this may seem odd to a person born in recent times, they may think how could it be otherwise, how could any ruler claim legitimate rulership except in the name of the people. But for most of human history (except the Greeks) it was otherwise and democracies were rare or non-existent. Monarchs for most of history have ruled in the name of God not in the name of man. Prior to WWI most of the world was still ruled by monarchies who claimed rule in the name of God (or the god/s they believed in) believing it to be the king's God given right to rule. The king didn't rule in the name of the people but in his own right, a right given to him by God. (For example here in NSW less than 20 years ago a policeman swore to serve the Queen not the people of NSW).
It was only with the US (a nation born in rebellion under the Greek beast's guidance) winning WWI that democracy was forced on the losers and winners alike. Without the US joining WWI Russia's Czar would not have abdicated and communism would not have been able to take over Russia and Stalin and 16 million deaths etc would not have occurred. Without the US winning world WAR I and forcing democracy on people Germany would not have been taken over by the Nazi "Socialist" party (yes Nazi's were/still are socialists - that Greek beast again).
The Greek beast and his mantra of "all shall be equal and all shall be free" very much rules the world today (even if sometimes like Mao you need to kill 70,000,000 people and re-educate millions of others in concentration camps in order to achieve that freedom and equality).
The death toll is a bit lower in the West (if you don’t count the millions of unborn murdered) but we still have very much got an occupying beast army. Here in Australia if you go for an interview as a Hospital scientist, Defence scientist or University academic as I can attest from first hand experience (and most other government jobs) you will have one member on your job panel (a woman from Human resources - are they ever male?) whose job it is to ensure that if you're a privileged white male you don’t get the job if any qualified (doesn’t have to be as qualified as you) non white or female person has applied for the job. The dearth of women wanting to do serious science/engineering despite much social engineering means said white male will still finds jobs anyway (or find a small private sector company but I digress).
This is similar to Soviet Russia. In soviet Russia each army unit had a political person in the unit to make sure you were all up to speed on Communist theory and professing loyalty to the party and its tenants. In the West we similarly have an occupying army of Equal Employment Opportunity officers. When you go for a government job interview in Australia (and no doubt the rest of the Western world) the afore mentioned human resources person will similarly quiz you on topics quite unrelated to your employment to see if you are up to speed on Equal Employment Opportunity requirements. Typically one fifth or quarter of your interview points (at least technically) will come form your EEO knowledge/compliance.
Are you a Physics PhD going for an interview as a Research Scientist with the Navy? Well be ready with some anecdotes from your private life about how you have been working to conquer the world for feminism. Did it slip out you're a Christian, well be ready to spend an hour convincing people that you're not going to oppress the gays. Incredible! We have an army of occupying EEO officers in this country and the rest of the Western world. Just like communist Russian political commissars in army units they are occupying foot soldiers of the resurrected Greek Beast.
Just yesterday I was listening to some femi-nazi "expert" on the radio going hysterical because Lego had dared to bring out pink lego blocks instead of sticking to gender neutral colours, thus corrupting the youth and continuing to propagate oppressive patriarchy and white male privilege. (Ironically Lego would have done that in an attempt to make the number of girls playing Lego equal to the number of boys – you can’t win). Men must be equal to women in every possible way and an individual must be free to chose to be male or female they can’t have that choice fostered upon them. All must be equal and all must be free. The Greek "equality" beast rules our lands (till Christ returns).
The point is that the beast that ruled ancient Greece very much rules the Western world plus China, Russia and India and well basically the whole world actually today (except the Muslim nations). Will he also rule during the prophesied seven year tribulation? I think he will but that is my speculation and interpretation of the bible. That the Greek beast currently rules the world today, through secular humanism and its branches (Western and Eastern) is a fact. Maybe one day the Muslims will take over (and hence the Muslim beast will rule) but I am inclined to think not.
So all conquering has the Greek beast been that most people reading this including many claiming to be Christian would say that I am evil for having suggested that women should not have the right to vote and for saying that democracy is evil and that Monarchy under a God fearing (and Christian church fearing) king is much better. Such is the beast's power and completeness of its take over. (PS: I don't think men should have been given the vote either – I think all democracy is evil - but for what its worth I think giving women the vote was worse -it gave us feminism).
Verses:
Rev 17:9 "This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.
Rev 17:10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while.
Hypothesis: The 5 kings are likely to be Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece (i.e. empires that have ruled Israel) the empire that "is" is obviously the Roman Empire. Another empire is to come after the Roman empire. Which empires ruled Israel after Rome? Answer: the Ottoman Muslim empire but also the British empire. Which one is the seventh empire then? I'll hypothesis that the seventh empire is the Ottoman empire and that the British empire is actually part of the eighth empire (i.e. the resurrected Greek empire i.e. resurrected 5th empire).
Verse: Rev 17:11 The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.
Hypothesis: As stated previously I believe that the 8th beast/king is a resurrection of the Greek beast (the 5th beast out of the seven). He is not a new beast head (so there are only 7 beast heads total) he is just a re-appearing of the fifth beast.
Britain had long ago begun its decent into submission to the "secular humanist" Greek beast by the time the British empire took control of Israel. I would thus class the British empire along with the US and Soviet Russia and the whole modern world (post WWI) Western and Eastern as part of the 8th Beast empire (which belongs to the seven, i.e. is the fifth empire, i.e. the Greek humanist beast).
While Beasts are fundamentally arch demon spirit beings they also are talked about as if they merge into kingdom and kings. e.g. the Old Testment where it starts talking about the king of Tyre who latter merges into being the devil. Here we see the Greek beast is also a king in the end times.
Verse: Rev 17:12 "The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast.
Hypothesis: These 10 kings are also the ten toes of Daniel's statue and the 10 rulers of the last days.
At first reading it sounds like the ten kings rule for one hour then after 60 minutes is up they give their authority over to the beast who rules in their place for the rest of the tribulation/last days while they go off to a perhaps not so relaxing retirement.
That's got to be a very busy 60 minutes. Let's say Obama wanted to give rulership of the US over to the Chinese politburo. Even assuming everyone is happy with the idea there must be a lot of red tape involved with that, could it really all be sorted in an hour? Plus the 10 kings in that hour have to make war with the lamb and be conquered by him in Rev 17:14 and they have to conduct a war in which they destroy the Whore/Babylon in that hour as well in Rev 17:16. Thinking that sounded like an unrealistic workload to complete in 60 minutes I decided to consult the Blue Letter bible concordance to see if the word hour could be translated differently.
It turns out that the word translated as "hour" in the NIV Revelation 17:12 is the Greek word hōra (ὥρα) with Strong's number G5610. Its meaning is
1) a certain definite time or season fixed by natural law and returning with the revolving year
a) of the seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn, winter
2) the daytime (bounded by the rising and setting of the sun), a day
3) a twelfth part of the day-time, an hour, (the twelve hours of the day are reckoned from the rising to the setting of the sun)
4) any definite time, point of time, moment
Also the word translated as "one" in the phrase "one hour" is the Greek word "heis" which usually means "one" but can also be translated as "a", "other" or "some" among other things.
I am not a Greek expert but I would suggest based on the above definition that the verse could also legitimately be translated as "The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for a season will receive authority as kings along with the beast".
or perhaps "The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for a fixed precisely determined period of calendar time will receive authority as kings along with the beast".
In that case the 10 kings may be ruling during the entire 7 year tribulation (baring those terminated early via conflicts with the AC).
Some would say (have said) that the Beast that the 10 kings receive authority with is the antichrist (AC). My hypothesis is that “the beast” is a demonic being (a spirit) and that the Anti-Christ is then probably one of the 10 kings. The beast inhabits all ten kings but especially empowers one in particular the AC.
The beast will have absolute rulership over the world (for a time) but the Anti-Christ will not.
I used to wonder if the beast and the Anti-Christ are both the same being then why do some verses indicate that the beast will have absolute control over the whole world while others imply that the Anti-Christ does not have absolute control over the whole world. For example no man may buy or sell without the beasts mark (implies absolute world control) yet the Anti-Christ has to fight both the King of the South and the King of the North (probably Russia). Also the Anti-Christ cannot simply command all the kings of the earth to join him in battle at Armageddon but must instead talk them in to coming by enlisting lying spirits.
This makes sense when you understand that the beast is a spiritual being not a man whereas the Anti-Christ is a man. If we see the distinction between the beast spirit being and the king he inhabits (albeit the bible likes to blur the distinction) the apparent contradiction is solved, as the beast does rule the entire world through the 10 kings but the Anti-Christ does not. Is the Anti-Christ one of the 10 kings or an addition to them, is he just a spiritual leader over them (like a Demonic Pope) I don't know (I said "like a Pope" not he is the Pope, I don’t think he is).
Note that the ten horns are not yet ruling in John's day. You can come up with 10 horns/kings who ruled in the past. They would be five heads prior to Rome plus Rome plus 1 horn for the end time empire (i.e. the AC) i.e. the Greek beast had 4 horns (see Daniel) so that 6 horns plus 4 horns for Greece gives 10 horns total. But these horns are for 10 future kings ruling at the time of the end.
Verse: Rev 17:13 They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.
Hypothesis: As discussed about the proceeding verse the "Beast" that they give their power to is the arch demon spirit being beast (likely the Greek "Equality" man as god beast) rather than an actual man such as the one known as the Anti-Christ.
That is all 10 kings are in service to the beast (a demonic spirit being not a man). They are all part of the same beast worshiping religion (or irreligion). That religion being the religion of secular humanism. The 10 kings may or may not also be in official submission to the man known as the Anti-Christ (who may or may not be one of them).
Verse: Rev 17:14 They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings - and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers."
Fact: God is in control. God will win in the end. Good news.
Verses: Rev 17:15 Then the angel said to me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.
Rev 17:16 The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17 For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule, until God's words are fulfilled.
Rev 17:18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."
Verse: Rev 17:6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.
Verses: Rev 18:9 "When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her.
Rev 18:10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: "'Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!'
Rev 18:11 "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more--
Verse: Rev 18:20 Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.'"
Verse: Rev 18:24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."
Hypothesis: The identity of the whore of Babylon is not straight forward but there are various candidates. To some it will be obvious that she is the United States of America, to others it will be obvious that she is Islam. Could she even be China? I really don't know myself. Some will say she is the Catholic church or just a one world ecumenical church.
I used to think that the US was a good candidate for the whore. The economic power
The thing that really troubles me with the US being the whore is that the whore is a big time persecutor of the saints, note for example Rev 18:24. Sure the US has problems, e.g. banning prayer in school, banning crosses and tablets of the ten commandments on government property, trying to force Christian medical organisations to provide condoms so people can fornicate, but compared to say North Korea, the Islamic world, Soviet Russia or China how many people has she murdered or tortured for being Christian? In that respect I just don't think she fits the description of Babylon (maybe she gets busy in the end times).
I have heard the argument that the unborn go to heaven thus they are to be counted as Saints thus due to America's abortion rate she is a major killer of Saints. But it is a weak argument to my mind.
I have wondered if the Islamic world is the Whore of Babylon. Other symbolic women in the bible represent groups of people in relation to God. For example Israel is portrayed in the bible as God's wife. The Church is the bride of Christ. Thus perhaps the whore is also a group of people but ones who are going after a false God. Certainly Islam has the past and present persecution of Christians rate high enough to be the whore of Babylon.
I wonder if the Islamic world were destroyed would people really weep and mourn though. there is some opulent wealth on display in Dubai etc but the middle eastern nations GDP does not appear to be that high, would the world really miss selling them stuff. On the other hand if all the oil fields were a blaze so we had no middle eastern oil that may well have economic effects enough for the worlds merchants to weep and gnash.
There is evidence though that Islam will be taken out before the final tribulation period thus not being around to be the whore.
If you were simply looking around to see what nation has the economic clout to be the whore I would go with China. China's GDP will soon over take the US. China already builds more cars per year than the US and most other manufacturing has left the US for China. The only reason China's GDP is currently measured as less than that of the US is due to the exchange rate and hence lower rates of pay in China but that is an artificial construct. Based on how much stuff is actually produced China would be ahead by now, in any case even based on faulty exchange rates China will soon overtake the US GDP wise.
Does China have the persecution history today and in the past to be the whore? I would say it could qualify.
I am not certain who the whore is though.
Verses: Rev 16:13 Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14 They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
Hypothesis: The dragon is the Devil. The beast is another arch demon (under the Devil's command) and not a person. The false prophet (who I believe is also the Anti-Christ) is a man inhabited by a third demon being (the Devil and the second beast don't inhabit a physical body but it is a third demon being who is not either the Devil or the 2nd beast which inhabits the man known as the false prophet - who in my opinion is also the Anti-Christ).
That is the devil, the beast and the false prophet are all high ranking demonic beings (the highest ranking). One of them and only one of them also possesses an actual man, a human being also known as the false prophet. I believe that the man who is the false prophet is also the one we know as the Anti-Christ.
Tradition says that there are 2 men, one is the beast (also known as the Anti-Christ) and the other is the false prophet who is the beast’s religious side kick. I believe that the Beast is purely a spirit being and that the false prophet is a different entity to the beast. The false prophet is a man who is also the one known as the Anti-Christ.
This combination of Dragon, Beast and False Prophet is the Devil's attempt to copy the Trinity. The Dragon (the Devil himself) is the Devil's attempt at replacing God the father. The Beast is the Devil's attempt at replacing God the Holy Spirit. The False Prophet is the Devil's attempt at replacing God the Son.
What is interesting here is that these verses are referring to Armageddon which happens at the end of the seven year tribulation period. So even at the end of the tribulation the human person who is the false prophet (i.e. the Anti-Christ) has evidently still not acquired political control over the whole world, as indicated by the fact that he cannot simply give the order and the kings of the world must follow him into battle whether they like it or not. Rather the kings of the earth have to be persuaded, not commanded but persuaded to join him in battle (via miracle working evil spirits). This is what I was talking about before, that while we are told that the beast rules the whole world, it is a spiritual being “beast” that rules the whole world rather than one particular man. The Anti-Christ does not rule the whole world. The beast as we saw earlier actually rules via ten kings.
Verse: Rev 19:20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Hypothesis/fact: Two of the three members of the devil's counterfeit trinity are thrown into the lake of fire but the third member, the devil is not thrown in yet. He still has a role to play after the millennium is over.
Verse: Rev 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Fact: Finally the third member of the counterfeit trinity is thrown into the lake of fire, the devil himself to join the other 2 members who are already there.
Note that the devil is not the boss of hell rather he is being tormented in it he is its chief victim. The devil won't be having any fun in hell, it is as much a place of torment for him as it is for anyone else there.
Verse: Rev 13:1 And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.
Hypothesis: Each beast head is a particular personality of the beast and corresponds to a particular empire governed by that beast head personality. The seven heads correspond to seven empires all past empires as of 2013. The seven empires (all empires that ruled Israel) were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and the Ottoman empire. If you give Greece horns (empire split in 4 after Alexander the Great) and add to 6 horns for the rest you get 10 horns. These are 10 past kings. Perhaps also the 10 future kings of the tribulation.
Verse: Rev 13:2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.
Hypothesis: Not sure what the leopard/bear/lion symbology represents.The beast represents historical empires as well as one future one so probably not just something like US (strikes swiftly like a cat), Russia and England.
Verse: Rev 13:3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast.
Hypothesis: I used to believe like many that the wounded beast meant that the Anti-Christ was killed and came back to life again. I don’t believe this is the case any more. I believe that the beast head that had a fatal wound that healed was the beast personality behind the Greek empire (the fifth head). The Greek beast head has come back to life as the movement known as secular humanism which today rules the world. This wounded but restored to life beast head is also the eighth beast head mentioned in Rev 17:11.This beast head has ruled the Western world plus Russia and China and India for around one hundred years now and is only growing more powerful it pretty much dominates Europe the US, Russia, China, India, Canada, Australia, South America, the whole world basically.
The Greek beast head is so dominating world wide it is more a question of which nations are not currently part of the Greek beast head empire. Answer: at least Saudi Arabia, but most of the Muslim world could be considered not part of the Greek fifth beast head (secular humanist) empire. Rather they are part of the seventh beast head, the Islamic head.
The man who is the false prophet (and also known as the Anti-Christ) is not here – publically - yet but the 3 spiritual (non-human) members of the devils counterfeit trinity are (i.e. the devil, the beast and the false prophets beast/non human side).
Verse: Rev 13:4 Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?"
Hypothesis: Who today can make war against the US (a nation thoroughly dominated by the secular humanist Greek beast head)? Who today can make war against all the secular humanist nations combined (The US, Europe, Russia etc).
Verse: Rev 13:5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.
Hypothesis: The mouth of the beast is the human individual known as the false prophet (and also known as the Anti-Christ). The 42 months referred to is the last 3.5 years of the tribulation (3.5 x 12 months = 42 months).
Verse: Rev 13:6 He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
Hypothesis: The false prophet (AntiChrist) blasphemes God.
Verse: Rev 13:7 He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.
Verse: Rev 13:8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.
Hypothesis: It is the beast (and his fifth Greek beast head in particular) that is being worshipped and which has universal authority (i.e. secular humanism is being worshipped). The beast’s mouth which is the false prophet may not have universal power or worship (for reasons discussed earlier which I won’t keep repeating).
Verse: Rev 13:11 Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.
Hypothesis: This second beast is the third member of the devil's counterfeit trinity. This beast goes on to posses the man known as the false prophet (and also known as the Anti-Christ).
Before going on to possess the human being known as the false prophet during the seven year tribulation it is likely that this false prophet beast is already active in the world.
Just recapping: The devils false trinity consists of himself and the beast out of the sea (who I have been calling the Greek beast because it is the beast behind secular humanism which rules the world today) and thirdly the beast out of the earth who goes on to possess the man known as the false prophet (who I believe is also the AC).
Verse: Rev 13:12 He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.
Hypothesis: This beast acts to make people follow secular humanism the fifth Greek beast head.
Verse: Rev 13:13 And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men.
Hypothesis: When the false prophet beast possesses the human known as the false prophet during the tribulation he will no doubt do miraculous sign and wonders through the false prophet.
I'll go out on a limb and say that the false prophet beast currently motivates other false prophets (not just the final false prophet to come) to point people to worship secular humanism. Perhaps this false prophet beast is energizing many scientists (the modern version of a priest and prophet in the religion of secular humanism) to support secular humanism. For example this beast would be responsible for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and its domination of the scientific establishment today. "Science" today is a branch of secular humanism and it provides the signs and wonders that convince people that secular humanism is where it is at. The same collective entity that gives us TV and radio and computers and aeroplanes and satellites etc (i.e. signs and wonders) tells us that there is no God and that we are an accident of evolution and that man is the most advanced being in existence and that man can rule himself and decide his own morals.
Far be it from me to suggest that all scientists are demon possessed or working for the devil or that scientific knowledge is not a legitimate pursuit. I have a PhD in physics myself and so I won’t say that. Isaac Newton was the greatest scientist as the founder of physics and hence science but he was also a Committed Christian (who also wrote on the end times). I am talking about the corruption of science to put its weight behind supporting secular humanism.
Verse: Rev 13:14 Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
Hypothesis: I'll go out on another limb and say that the image of the beast today is all those nations in thrall to secular humanism (the West and the East). For example the US a constitutional republic and a federation of democratic states is very much a modern day copy of and hence image of ancient Greece.
Verse: Rev 13:15 He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
Hypothesis: The breath of the beast are human rulers (the ten kings or just the false prophet) who command the world to do the beasts bidding including killing saints. This is similar to how even before Nazi Germany there was a wide spread hatred of Jews but this did not crystalize into organised killing of them until Hitler came along and gave leadership and instructions to kill Jews. Similarly there is much secular humanist based hatred of Christians today in the West but this will probably not crystalize into organised state sanctioned killing and persecution of Christians in the West until the leadership and instructions of the false prophet and ten kings.
Verses: Rev 13:16 He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead,
Rev 13:17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.
Hypothesis: I don’t know what this means yet. I don’t think that people are doomed to hell for using credit cards. We probably won’t know until the tribulation starts.
The number 6 is man's number. In the bible 6 always represents man. For example man was created on the 6th day. 7 on the other hand represents completeness. I suggest that the three 6s represent the counterfeit trinity of the devil leading the world in a man worshipping religion i.e. secular humanism. God's trinity would be represented as 777.
Verses: Dan 11:36 "The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place.
Dan 11:37 He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all.
Dan 11:38 Instead of them, he will honour a god of fortresses; a god unknown to his fathers he will honour with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts.
Hypothesis: This king is widely regarded as being the Anti-Christ by many scholars. I believe he is the Anti-Christ but (contrary to tradition) I believe he is also the False Prophet. I believe the False Prophet and the Anti-Christ are one and the same person. This king is an Atheist (and a secular humanist) - he doesn't "regard any god". He worships himself as a god. Secular humanism is the worship of man as god.
So the Anti-Christ is an Atheist but he "honours a god of forces". Where else have we seen people honour a god who isn't a god? I'll go out on a limb and say that the god of fortresses that the Anti-Christ worships is science and hence secular humanism. The word translated as "fortresses" in Dan 11:38 is the Hebrew word ma`owz with Strong's number H4581. I note that it is translated in the Authorized Version (KJV) as strength 24, strong 4, fortress 3, hold 2, forces 1, fort 1, rock 1, strengthen 1. Indeed in both the KJV and the WEB bibles this word in this verse is translated as "forces" so that the phrase is "honour the God of forces". You could argue that physics is the study of forces. There are 12 fundamental particles in the standard model of physics. What these particles do is determined by the forces that act between them. There are 4 fundamental forces in Physics, gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Hence Physics boils down to a study of forces. Chemistry is just applied physics and biology is just applied chemistry. So all of science boils down to physics which boils down to the study of forces. So the Anti-Christ (and false prophet) though an atheist (he does not regard ANY god) still worships a god it is the god of science (the god of forces) which is also the god of secular humanism.
To be continued...
Friday, December 21, 2007
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