Part IV of the Apocalupsis of John, the Book called Revelation
In the preceding 3 posts I have established beyond any doubt that the miscalled “churches” in The Apocalupsis of John are in reality assemblies or congregations of Jews, members of the Nation of Israel. To give you an example of how unsound some believers can be, a woman, whose blog I used to follow, said to me, “If Jesus called them churches, then that’s what they are!” Unfortunately Jesus has had nothing to do with how translators have chosen to translate most of the words in the Bible. Out of 17 Bible versions or translations in my PC Bible program only these 3 translate ecclesia properly:
Rev 1:4
John to the seven assemblies that [are] in Asia:
YLT- Young’s Literal Translation
Rev 1:4
4 John to the seven assemblies
Darby
Rev 1:4
4 John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia:
WEB- World English Bible
If you are a serious workman of the Word or want to be you must invest in some PC Bible program or buy a lot of Bibles! On my way home from NY last Sunday by way of Chicago I had the opportunity to sit next to a young Jewish girl who had recently become a Christian. She was very well versed in the “mainstream” doctrines of Christianity. She was surprised to hear many things I had to say about beliefs she held and took a copious amount of notes on her phone. I was able to show her from the Scriptures (on her phone) passages which substantiated what I had to say, but she could not find one Scripture to substantiate anything she believed! Everything she believed hear-say and much of that was heresy!
She was even astonished to see from 1 Corinthians 10:32 that the apostle Paul established that there are only 3 types of people in the world; Jews, Gentiles and the Church of God. She was equally surprised to see these verses:
Gal 3:28-29
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
KJV
She was insisting that she was a Jew for Jesus. What an absurd belief. I tried to explain to her that once a Jew or a Gentile became born again of the spirit of God by confessing Jesus as their Lord and believing God raised him from the dead, they became members of the Church of God. She could not let go of her ancestry and she could not understand how I could be of the seed of Abraham. She really imploded when I told her that Abraham was a Gentile and not a Jew!
Abram is first mentioned in Ge. 11:26; his name was changed to Abraham in Ge. 17:5. Jacob isn’t mentioned until Ge. 25:26 and his name was not changed to Israel until Ge. 32:28. The word Jew is not mentioned until the book of Esther and then it applied to a descendant of Judah. Abraham is called a Hebrew in Ge. 14:13 which means a descendant of Eber. Eber is first mentioned in Ge. 10:21. Eber lived 464 years; see Ge. 11:16.
I could go on and on, but the point you need to see is that the word Hebrew had nothing to do with Jews or Israel originally; that Israel did not exist in Ge. 11. Therefore Abraham could not have been a Jew, but rather a Gentile.
The most astonishing thing that this young Jew for Jesus had to say to me was that no one could be a Christian or a member of the Church of God without confessing and believing that Jesus was God incarnate. I asked where she got this from in the Scriptures and she did not know precisely. I showed her Romans 10:9 where it says to confess Jesus as Lord which she said means God, because God is the “Lord” God. I proceeded to show here in Acts 2:36 that God had bestowed His title as Lord upon Jesus. Jesus is my Lord, my master. Nowhere in the Pauline Epistles does it talk about the Lord God or the Lord our God. They show God as our Father and Jesus Christ as our Lord! Lord is used 241 times in the Epistles which are written directly to the Church of God and never is the title attached to God!
To the Jew God will always be the Lord; but to the Christian, Jesus is our Lord, not our God. Here is what Lord means, in case it is not clear yet:
NT:2962 kurios, kuriou, ho
he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has the power of deciding; master, lord
a. used universally, of the possessor and disposer of a thing, the owner Matt 20:8
b. kurios
is a title of honor, expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants salute their master, Matt 13:27; 25:20,22; Luke 13:8; 14:22, etc.;
c. this title is given:
to God, the ruler of the universe Matt 1:22 (OT, Gospels and Revelation)
to the Messiah; and that:
to the Messiah regarded universally: Luke 1:43
to Jesus as the Messiah, Acts 10:36
d. of Christ (In the Epistles)
(from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Don’t be afraid to comment; I will not delete any comments but will publish all.
(More on Revelation in the next post).
The Birth (genesis) of Jesus Christ, Part II
Matt 1:20
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
KJV
“For that which is conceived (gennao, a verb, 1080) in her is of [the] holy ghost.” First of all, there is no definite article “the” in the texts. When there is no article, there should be no capital letters. It should read: “for that which is to be born in her is of holy spirit.” “That which is conceived” is the single word gennao* (1080, from ginomai, 1096), meaning to procreate, regenerate, or engender. In the Bible, it is variously translated as “begat,” “should be born,”“were born,” “been born,” “shall bear,” “bear,” “brought forth,” “be born(again),” “was born (Moses),” “is delivered,” “which gendereth,” “is born (us who believe),” “free born (Paul),” “is begotten (us),” etc. In Matthew 1:20, it should have been translated as “that which is to be born,” instead of “conceived.” This distinction will become more succinct in the following verses.
Unfortunately there is not a Bible in print, that I know of, that makes the necessary distinction between The Giver (The Holy Spirit, who is God) and The Gift of (holy spirit). The presence or absence of the definite article “the” determines which one The Bible is talking about.
And, behold, thou shalt conceive (sullambano, 4815)8 in thy womb, and bring forth (tikto) a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called [the] son of the Highest: and [the] Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not (never had intercourse with) a man? And the angel answered, saying unto her, holy spirit shall come upon thee, and power (dunamis, 1411) of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also [that] holy thing which shall be born [of thee] shall be called [the] son of God. ( Lk 1:31–35, AT)
First, notice that this passage is in the future tense (some of which is still in the future), while the previous one from Matthew was in the past tense. Second, notice that the word translated as “conceive” is totally different than the word used in Matthew. Sullambano (to seize, take, conceive) is made up of two words: sun (4862) and lambano (2983). Lambano means to take or receive objectively. Sun denotes union; with or together by companionship or process. The same word is used in Luke 1:46:
“And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her,who was called barren.”
In Luke 1:35, the angel said, “holy spirit shall come upon thee.” “Come (1904)” and “upon (1909)” are the same words used in Acts 1:8a:
“But ye shall receive (lambano) power (dunamis, 1411), [after that] the holy spirit is come upon you.”
“Come (eperchomai)” means to supervene and to arrive, and “upon (epi)” is a superimposition, as a relation of distribution, rest, or direction. In this verse from Acts, Jesus is instructing his disciples as to what they should expect on the day of Pentecost. The gift from the Holy Spirit came upon them just as it came upon Mary, accompanied by the power needed to be “witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth.” In these two passages, the word “power (dunamis)” denotes the inherent, miraculous, power of God, which shall “overshadow (episkiazo, 1982)” or cast shade upon. Every usage of the word dunamis in the Bible is in relation to the power of God, whether in a cloud casting a shadow or the shadow of Peter cast over people who desired healing.
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, [which] said (saying), This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. ( Mt 17:5)
Jesus was born, came into existence, just like you and I were, with the exception of how he was conceived! God’s spirit, of or from God, took care of the conception with the accompaniment of His inherent, miraculous power! The same power that raised Christ and Lazarus from the dead. Jesus did not pre-exist his birth. God did not take on the form of a man and come down from His throne and decide to become a baby and leave Mike & Gabe in charge of the heavenly hosts for 31 years! He did not die for 72 hours then somehow wake Himself up and raise Himself up from the dead. Too many people in the Christian world are far too entrenched in Greek Mythology and Mysticism. There are no Scriptures as absolutely clear as these that show the coming into existence of my Lord, Jesus Christ.
* gennao (1080), is used 97 times in the NT and this is the only time it is translated as conceive.
8 NT:4815 sullambano (sool-lam-ban’-o); from NT:4862 and NT:2983; to clasp, i.e. seize (arrest, capture); specifically, to conceive (literally or figuratively); by implication, to aid: KJV – catch, conceive, help, take. Strong’s
Part V of Identifying the False Prophet; the Predecessor of the Antichrist
As you have seen from the previous four segments the end is not yet. It could be said and has been said by many that “we are definitely in the end times.” As I have said before, there will be things leading up to the apokalupto of the False Prophet, but what they will be no one knows for sure. And I don’t believe anyone can tell you with absolute certainty that we are in the end times. I have shown you what will happen after being Caught Up, harpazoo, of 1Thess. 4:17, but no one knows what will be going on prior to that.
There are no prophecies concerning this Age because none of the prophets before Paul knew anything about this age. This age was kept a secret by God:
Rom 16:25-27 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel (Paul’s) and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret which has been kept silent since the world began but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the (Christian) prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
Eph 3:5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy (Christian) apostles and prophets by spirit; (How many Old Testament apostles can you name?)
Since none of them, no one, had any knowledge of this Secret Age, they could not have prophesied anything about it, particularly what to expect before the Gathering Together of the saints! In other words no one has any idea when this will occur. There are no worldly events which will indicate when it will happen.
Now, if I am wrong about the Rapture and there is none as many believe, at least you know what to look for concerning the False Prophet.
So, when will “the end” come? Let’s see what 1 Cor 15:20-26 says:
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep (dead). 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the standing up from the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, (Remember the 5 parts of the Parousia, coming, in Part IV?) This is addressing the dead, those who are asleep.
24 then comes the end, when He, Jesus, hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death (death is not destroyed until Rev. 20:14, after the Millennial Kingdom.) NASU
When all of the “whens” have occurred, then comes the end!
Illustrations by Rev. Clarence Larkin who died 90 years ago, which represent Oikonemia in Scripture
This picture represents what the prophets (including Jesus Christ) could see and know from the Scriptures. As you can see here the Prophets could not know or understand anything about the Church Age because God kept it a Secret from everyone until it was revealed to Paul and the other Apostles by the ascended Christ.
Rom 16:25-27
And to Him who is able to establish you, according to my good news, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret, in the times of the ages having been kept silent,
26 and now having been made manifest, also, through prophetic (Christian) writings, according to a command of the age-during God, having been made known to all the nations for obedience of faith —
27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to him [be] glory to the ages. Amen.
YLT
Eph 3:3-5
3 that by revelation He made known to me the secret, according as I wrote before in few [words] —
4 in regard to which ye are able, reading [it], to understand my knowledge in the secret of the Christ,
5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the spirit —
YLT
1 Cor 2:7-8
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a musterion, secret, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
KJV
This one represents the Church of the Body of Christ versus the Kingdom of God and Christ. The resulting affect of this hidden wisdom is that the coming Kingdom which Jesus and the apostles expected soon after his ascension, would be put on hold or held in abeyance. As you can see, the Kingdom most Christians speak about as if it existed today, will not exist until after the Great Tribulation. As for now, Jesus is our Lord, not our king.
2 Peter 3:14-18
Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
NASU
This revelation is NOT to be ignored; you do so at your own destruction.
Will you be found blameless?
Are you among the untaught (unteachable) and unstable?
Are you being lead astray by the error of unprincipled men?
Are you growing in knowledge as well as grace?
Who is My Brother?
It has been on my heart recently to talk a little about love. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays can be particularly challenging for a lot of people. 1John 4:20 tells us “If someone says ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar: for the one who does not love, agapao, his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Agapao love is demonstrated by being full of good will towards, to have preference for, to wish well to, and regard the welfare of. Everyone who born again of God’s spirit is a brother or a sister.
Jesus said in Mt.12:50, “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister and mother.” Jesus is my brother and hopefully yours too. A father can be a brother as well as a mother and a sister!
One may not think they actually hate someone else but the absence of love as described above is hate. Love is something that must be proved day in and day out, not something to be assumed. We must reach out to those we love and we must, in particular, love our brothers in Christ. To fail to do so makes us liars, when we say we love God.
Galatians 6:10 tells us, “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” The words I want to emphasize here are “while we have opportunity.” The day will come when that opportunity will no longer be available: they will be dead or we will be. I was fishing the other day with a 38 year old man who lost his father when he was 51…….He expressed to me how he wished he had taken more advantage of him when he was alive.
Let’s not take for granted the lives of our earthly and spiritual families this holiday season or any other and reach out to them, demonstrating the love we have for them and the love we have for God. Tomorrow may be too late.
Whom Do Men Say That I Am?
This is one of the more important questions Jesus asked his disciples. Here is the text:
Mark 8:27-31
And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am?
28 And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.
29 And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.
30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
KJV
We can see here that the Christ, Christos and the Son of man are synonymous.
The devil knew Jesus was the Son of God, Mt. 4. Devil spirits knew he was the Son of God as well, Mt. 8:29, Mk. 3:11. Martha believed it as well, Jn. 11:26.
Yet, today most of Christianity believes something entirely different. The reason it is so critical to know and believe who Jesus Christ was and is, is because it is foundational. The apostle Paul laid the foundation for the Christian Church:
1 Cor 3:10-15
As an expert builder using the grace that God gave me, I laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. 11 After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that is Jesus the Messiah. 12 Whether a person builds on this foundation with gold, silver, expensive stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s action. 14 If what a person has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If his work is burned up, he will suffer loss. However, he himself will be saved, but it will be like going through fire.
ISV
If you believe that Jesus Christ is someone other than who he is your work that you are building is not “in Christ,” and consequently you will suffer the loss of rewards because of it. You will still be saved but you may be a little singed!
Some men have told me, “I would rather have 1700 years of church history on my side to support what I believe.” Really? There will be no pointing fingers at the Judgment seat of Christ, sorry. You will be all alone and solely accountable. All that matters is believing what the Word of God says, not history.
Num 23:19
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
NASU
Who do you believe Jesus is?
JESUS CHRIST, OUR PASSOVER
Why is Passover relevant to the Christian? Glad you asked. We all know JC was considered the Lamb of God, but why? If you have studied the Word of God at all, you will know that Jesus and his disciples “prepared” for the Passover, a Jewish time of commemoration. The beginning of Passover always started on the 14th on Nisan, with the slaying of the Passover Lamb sometime before sunset. Even though Jesus “prepared” to eat the Passover with the disciples, he did not eat it with them. Instead he, figuratively, became the Passover Lamb, which was sacrificed for us.
1 Co 5:7……..For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:KJV
(The Last Supper was the last time the disciples had a meal together with Christ before him being crucified on a tree and raised from the dead. IT WAS NOT THE PASSOVER MEAL. Besides the timeline, the type of bread eaten at the Last Supper was forbidden during the Passover and the the ensuing 7 day period of the Feast of Unleavened bread.)
Furthermore, Jesus was dead in the grave with no consciousness for 3 full days and 3 full nights = 72 hours. There is no way in Hell to fit 3 full days and 3 full nights between Sunset Friday and Sunrise Sunday. Therefore, there is no such thing as Good Friday! Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb,was sacrificed for us and was buried on a Wednesday around sunset beginning the 1st night (Thursday). At dawn Thursday began the first day. At sunset Thurs. began the 2nd night of Friday, then Friday day; thenFri at sunset began the 3rd night, Saturday; then Saturday at sunset completed the 3 days and 3 nights. Sunset Sat. began Sunday night:
Jn 20:1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.KJV
Jesus was already gone. Mary was 10-11 hours late, (depending on Daylight Savings Time). By the time she got there he had already been with the 2 fellows on the road to Emmaus. Who knows everything he had done by then?
The point is, the Bible has Integrity, it cannot contradict itself. If you believe half the stuff Tradition teaches about, this time of the year, you are deluded.
2 Th 2:11
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: KJV
If you believe Christ was crucified and buried on Friday evening and rose from the dead by Sunday at sunrise, you have been misled and it is no one’s fault but your own. If you believe that 3 days and 3 nights can fit in between these days, you will believe anything anyone tells you; and that is dangerous.
God bless,
Misconceptions About the Coming of Christ
The reason there is so much misunderstanding about the Return of Christ, is that he does not just return once. The actual aspects of his Return are rolled up in the word Parousia, Coming. Jesus’ ministry was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Jews.
The 2nd Coming of Christ will be for the sake of Jews as well. But, there is another aspect of the Parousia that is not recorded in the Gospels of Mt, Mk, Lk, or Jn. The reason it is not recorded there is because no one knew anything about it, including Jesus.
No one knew anything about this aspect of the Parousia until it was revealed to Paul the apostle, by the ascended Christ. Jesus and the apostles expected him to come back 7 years after his ascension. The time that has lapsed between then and now is that of the Sacred Secret, which was hidden in God from the foundation of the world.
The event that serves as the end of this time period is Christ’s Coming for his Saints, those of us who have believed without first seeing. This aspect of the Coming of Christ is commonly known as The Rapture of the Church. There is nothing written about it in the gospels or the Book of Revelation.
1 Th 4:16-17
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. NASU
At the Rapture, Jesus does not set a foot on the earth; he is not on a white horse; he is not prepared for battle; and no one else sees him at all; he comes part way from Heaven to meet us and we return with him. No fanfare, no earthquakes, no fire from Heaven, etc. Additionally there will be no sign to prepare you if you are not all ready now.
What you read about in the gospels, Revelation and a few places in the epistles is when he returns 7 years later “with” us.
1 Th 3:13
so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. NASU
See in my book at http://www.fredswolfe.com
God bless,
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