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Thursday, March 31, 2005

How provable is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Gordon’s Garden Tomb
Gordon's Garden Tomb - Jerusalem, Israel

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Question: How provable is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?

ATP: Very. The writings from the Bible about Jesus and his Resurrection are not just religious material, they are the written accounts of eyewitnesses. They were written early, that is at a time relatively close to the event and were well known and widely circulated through out the ancient world.

Flavius Josephus, the great Jewish historian, alludes to the Resurrection in his work of history which was written at approximately the same time as the Gospels.

These facts are important as is a third one:

There is no written record of the day, contradicting the facts of the Resurrection.

That is to say, no one of that era, having read or heard about what the Gospel writers and/or Josephus had written, sat down and wrote a rebuttal explaining why claims of the Resurrection were false, or that they knew where the body of Jesus was and so on.

If some one today were to write that John F. Kennedy was still alive and had not been killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963, eye witness accounts, historical news accounts and the known location of Kennedy's remains would refute their claim immediately.

Yet no historical record exists from the time of Christ that would refute the facts of the Resurrection as stated in the New Testament.

Gordon's Garden Tomb

Further, from the first and second century there is evidence on the positive side, literally chiseled in stone, of people having made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to visit the site of the Resurrection. Clearly people from very early on believed in the Resurrection of Christ--the very people who would have had the best access to any historical information refuting the Resurrection if such evidence existed.

On two trips to Israel my wife and I stood at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem where the Resurrection most likely took place. The Garden Tomb has a name that it easy for me to remember. It is called "Gordon's Garden Tomb," named after the British officer whose last name was Gordon who discovered the tomb.

Just as the Scripture says the Garden Tomb is located at a place that would have been outside the ancient city gates, and at the intersection of two busy ancient roads.

There is a stone bluff there that clearly has a rock formation in the appearance of a skull, which is what Golgotha means. Some of the details of that stone have no doubt been altered by weather over the past 2000 years, but the general shape of the stone would not have changed.

Adjacent to the tomb was an ancient garden, just as recorded in the gospels; a garden with a 250,000 gallon cistern chiseled out of the stone dating back to the first century.

On the stone wall over the entrance of the tomb, there is evidence of a chiseled archway that supported what was the roof of likely an ancient church building dating back to the first or second century.

Under the arch, chiseled in the stone rock face, are Christian symbols also dating back to the first or second century, and there is a drainage trough chiseled in the "floor" just outside the tomb, that drains to an area where it is thought that Christian baptisms were done by ancient worshipers.

Is the Resurrection provable? Easily. The historical and archaeological evidence for the Resurrection of Christ is overwhelming, and there is no evidence to contradict it.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

If we don't forgive others, are we not forgiven by God and thus lose our salvation?

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Question: Matthew 6:14-15 says, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Does that mean that those who do not forgive others have lost their salvation?

Submitted by a Bible Study group

ATP: The New Testament teaches that as believers our relationship with God is permanent. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

“Condemnation” is a technical term that describes the permanent severing of the relationship between God and man. The result of this kind of condemnation is having sentence pronounced on us because of our sin. So what Paul is telling us is that those who become believers in Christ, no longer have the possibility of being condemned in this way.

This truth helps us understand Matthew 6.

What Jesus appears to be referring to is the issue of fellowship with God. If we don’t forgive others, God withholds his fellowship from us, and in that sense we are “unforgiven.” When we repent, fellowship is restored.

David experienced precisely this in Psalm 32. Speaking of his own sin (of which unforgiveness on his part could be an example) he said,

“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”

Life was tough on David when he hid his sin from the Lord. And the Lord withheld fellowship from David. But when David confessed his sin, he says as Psalm 32 continues,

“you forgave the guilt of my sin,” and, “Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart.”

Fellowship had been restored, as had been David.

Friday, March 25, 2005

He walked through the Valley of the Shadow

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Just a brief thought today on this Good Friday.

Have you ever considered that the 23rd Psalm, the most famous Psalm in the Bible, may well have been David’s prophetic description of the words of Christ as he was crucified?

David was a prophet we are told (Acts 2:30-31, Acts 1:16, Acts 2:25, Acts 4:25) not just the writer of meaningful verse. He foresaw things.

In Psalm 22:1 David writes,

“My God, my God, why hast though forsaken me?”

These are the exact words that Jesus would speak on the Cross as Matthew records them in Matthew 27:46.

In Psalm 22:7-8 David records the words of the mockers of Christ when he says,

“All who see me mock at me, they make mouths at me, they wag their head; “he committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

This too is a precise match for what would be said to Jesus in Matthew 27 (verse 43) some 1000 years later.

Continuing on in Psalm 22 David sees another portion of the Crucifixion scene that Matthew records in Matthew 27:55, as David writes in verses 16-18:

Yea, the dogs are around me; a company of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots.

David saw and recorded for us 1000 years in advance, a remarkable and accurate description of what was coming. Thus it makes sense when we read Psalm 23 following directly on the heels of Psalm 22 with its prophecy about the Crucifixion, to at least consider the possibility that David is continuing his thoughts about Christ’s crucifixion scene and even recording the words of Christ as he did for us in Psalm 22.

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil…

Psalm 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies…


Each of these now takes on possible new meaning, new in that we may have insights into the prayer life of Jesus as he faced death.

Walking through the valley of the shadow of death, that is actually going through the dying process, he looked to his Heavenly Father, his Lord, trusting in God’s faithfulness, trusting in God’s comfort; trusting in the integrity of God’s promises that Jesus would one day again dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

As Jesus walked through the “valley of the shadow” for us, he kept complete confidence in God the Father and even at the point of dying was convinced that “goodness and mercy would follow him.”

The Hebrew word for “follow” there does not describe a passive following like a gentle puppy on a leash. Rather it describes the pursuit of a hunter after his pray.

God’s goodness and God’s mercy is not just passively following along behind us, it is actively pursuing us. God’s goodness and mercy is aggressively coming our way! He intends to and does shower it upon us!

Friend, whatever you are facing today, know that Jesus walked through the Valley of the Shadow for you, the intended result of which would be that God’s goodness and mercy would come to you and your home.

Whatever you are facing, reach out to him. He understands. He gets it. He knows. He’s been there himself.

He knows what it means to have been mocked and unfairly treated. He knows it all.

Even though you may be walking through the valley of the shadow of death yourself, God has not abandoned you. Put your trust in him. Reach out for him. He is reaching out to you today.

And if you have not yet come to the Lord for what the Bible calls “salvation” and you aren’t sure that you are headed for heaven on the other side of the valley you are facing, then pray this prayer or one like it:

God, today I acknowledge my sin to you. I am a sinner and I need to be forgiven of my sin and saved from the eternal consequences of my actions. Today I ask you to forgive my sins and grant me the eternal life that you have promised all those who would come to you.”

I offer you nothing in payment for my sin but the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I put my hope and trust in him and him alone for my forgiveness.

I recognize that nothing I do, no good work, no amount of prayer in itself, no act of contrition and no offering I could bring will wash away my sin. Only the blood of Jesus that was shed for me in my place, will you accept as an offering to cleanse me from sin.

Please come into my life and make me your eternal child. I repent of my sin and surrender my life to you today. Do with it as you will. I will serve you, even now as I go through the valley of the shadow of death.

In Jesus’ name I pray these things. Amen


Friend if you prayed that prayer and meant it from the bottom of your heart, you are headed for heaven. No matter what you may have done in your past, God has forgiven you. All the junk has been erased from the ledger books in heaven.

God promises that he will “remember our sins no more” when we come to him through Christ for forgiveness.

Count on that. Trust him. Even when things look dark. He’s preparing a table for you my friend, and as a child of God you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

That is what the Crucifixion and “Good” Friday is all about. The price has been paid. Give God access to your account and let him pay the bill through Christ.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Christ was crucified on Thursday and rose from the dead on Sunday, just as planned

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Christ was crucified on Thursday and rose from the dead on Sunday just as planned.

One of the confusing aspects about the traditional understanding of the Crucifixion of Christ and his Resurrection on Sunday morning, has been how he could have been crucified on Friday, raised on Sunday and have the prophetic words regarding “3 days and 3 nights” in the grave still be true.

Many have attempted very creative machinations to make this scenario work out, including suggesting that the crucifixion actually happened on Wednesday rather than Friday.

Others have taken a different approach to this problem and eliminated Wednesday from the calculations, not the calculations of the crucifixion-to-resurrection time frame, but rather they have removed Wednesday from the week, in terms of knowing any events that may have taken place that day.

They have done so because we know what was happening in Jesus’ life the day before the crucifixion, and if the crucifixion was on Friday then those events had to happen on Thursday. The problem for those who understand Friday to be the day of the crucifixion, is to connect known details and days together in a meaningful way.

The only way to do that is to eliminate Wednesday from the week as a “silent” day. In fact if you look at any “harmony of the Gospels” (a chart that lines up information from each of the four Gospels with the events of the last week of Christ’s life, as to which day these events occurred) you will see that nearly always Wednesday isn’t on the chart.

I want to suggest that there is a simple answer to the dilemma and it has been laying there in the Scriptures the entire time. I also want to say that there is a sense in which this is not a big issue. I don’t want to be misunderstood to be making a mountain out of a mole hill.

The fact that Christ died and was raised again is the issue! It happened! Of that we are sure and that is what counts. The fact that our feeble brains can’t put together a simple time table or agree on precisely when things happened, doesn’t lessen one iota what Christ did for us.

That having been said, there is another sense in which it is critically important to understand when Christ died, because his death on a very particular day was a complete fulfillment, not just of the fact that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 and 54 would die for us, but that the Passover Lamb of Leviticus 23 would die for us on the very day of Passover.

Because this is a blog and not a book I will be explaining this in short hand form, but I hope this abbreviated explanation will do the job for you.

The short cut to the truth is found in all 4 Gospels, not just one or two or even three, but all four where the story of the Resurrection is told.

In each Gospel (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1 and John 20:1) in the description of when the empty tomb of Christ was found, the Scriptures do not directly say that it was Sunday. It was Sunday of course and that is precisely what the Scriptures mean by what they do say, but what they each say in so many words is that the day the Tomb was found empty was the “morrow after the Sabbaths.”

The day after the “Sabbaths” was Sunday all right, so translating the text into English as it being the first day of the week is the correct understanding, but note the plural on Sabbaths!

That’s right, each Gospel speaks of “Sabbath’s” in the plural. But why?

There were two Sabbath’s that week.

“Pardon me, Gordon, what did you say? Two Sabbaths? How can there be two Saturdays in one week?”

Good question. There weren’t. But there were two Sabbaths. You see Sabbath doesn’t mean “7th day” nor does it mean Saturday. Sabbath means “rest” or “cease.” It was the day that God “ceased” from his labor in creation.

There were other “Sabbaths,” rest days, days of ceasing one’s labor. The Day of Unleavened Bread was one of those days. Take some time to read of the Feast days in Leviticus 23 in the Old Testament.

Passover was on the 14th day of the first month and the Day of Unleavened Bread was the next day, the 15th day of the month, the Day of Unleavened Bread being a God ordained day of Sabbath rest.

Christ was crucified on….drum roll please…Passover Day! Thursday. He is our Passover Lamb, completely fulfilling the prophecies of the lamb that died that the death angel might pass over us, and that we might live.

He was and is the perfect Passover Lamb. No fault was found in him, not a bone was broken, just as was the case with the lambs of Exodus 12.

Taken on the 10th day of the month (Sunday, the day of his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem) and examined to see if he had any faults, just as the Passover Lamb was examined, Jesus was found guiltless—“I find no fault in him." He was slain in the afternoon on Thursday at the very time that Passover Lambs were being slain all over Jerusalem.

A perfect fulfillment of His God ordained destiny.

When Joseph of Arimathea was taking Jesus off the cross to bury him because the Sabbath was coming, it wasn’t a Saturday Sabbath being referred to. It was the Sabbath of the Day of Unleavened Bread, the first rest day of that Feast, which was Friday of that week.

So Joseph was taking Jesus off the Cross on Thursday, Passover Day, just before the Day of Unleavened Bread, the Sabbath Feast day was to begin.

“But Gordon, Jesus and the disciples ate their Passover meal the day before Christ was crucified. How do you explain that?”

A better question in response to that question, is how does one explain John 18:28?

John 18:28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled but might eat the Passover.

Did you notice that? The Jews who had brought Jesus to Caiaphas had not yet eaten the Passover. Why is that? Because it was Passover Day when this happened!

Jesus and the disciples had eaten their Passover meal a day early. Why? Because they had to if Jesus was going to be the Passover Lamb Sacrifice on Passover Day.

Let’s add some more verses to cement this issue.

Take a look at John 19:14. Pilate is trying to release Jesus, but the enemies of Christ would have none of it. When did this confrontation happen? The day of Christ’s crucifixion about which we read in John 19:14:

Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover, it was about the sixth hour.

You see, Passover was just being prepared the day Jesus died, being prepared for the evening Passover meal. It was Thursday, the 14th day of the month. The day that lambs were to be sacrificed having been examined since the 10th day, Sunday, being found spotless and without blemish.

The next day, Friday, was the Day of Unleavened Bread, a high and holy day when a designated Sabbath rest was to be observed.

And what do we read of that day, Friday? John 19:31:

Since it was the day of Preparation (Thursday), in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (Friday) (for that Sabbath was a high day)(the Day of Unleavened Bread) the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

When Jesus was dying on Passover Thursday, the Jews were concerned about the body being left on the cross the next day, Friday, the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread. So they requested that his legs be broken so he would die more quickly and be removed before the sun went down, sundown being the mark of the beginning of a new day in Jewish reckoning.

Friends, Christ died on Passover Day just as was predicted. He died and was buried and was three days and three nights in the tomb, just as predicted.

And he was resurrected on a very specific day too, also in keeping with the Scriptures of Leviticus 23: The day of the Feast of First Fruits. God was keeping his appointments. The New Testament in fact calls Jesus our “First Fruits.”

Dying on Passover, Jesus carryied our sins away to the tomb on the Day of Unleavened Bread, a day when all “sin”/leaven is to be removed from one’s house. Raised on the Day of First Fruits, Jesus sent the Spirit of God to indwell his people on the very Day of Pentecost.

We now await a trumpet sound don’t we?

A trumpet sound for what? The Rapture of the Church when we shall all be gloriously translated into to heaven.

When would such a thing happen?

Four major events in God’s time table have happened on the precise day of his appointed Feasts: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost.

Do you know what Feast is next in Leviticus 23? Could it be a feast having anything to do with the trumpet blast we all hope for? You guessed it: The Feast of Trumpets is number 5 and is the next in order.

Interesting isn’t it, that the Feast of Trumpets isn’t a spring Feast as are the first four. The Feast of Trumpets comes in the fall after a summer of harvest. Friends we are in that harvest season now, as souls are coming to Christ, the fields white for the harvest as Jesus said.

Keep your eyes peeled in the years ahead. There is another Feast Day coming for us.

The Trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ will be raised first and then we who are alive and who are left shall go to meet the Lord in the air. Therefore comfort one another with these words……

The Trumpet shall sound. It’s on the calendar. And God keeps his appointments…to the very day.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Prophecy Series Part 4: How and when the End will come: Can we know? Details regarding the Temple say yes.

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How and When the End will come: Can we know?

Will the End come suddenly and without warning, or will we have an idea that we are nearing the Lord’s return and his judgment?

Will the world just keep getting better and better until one day we all live in a utopia, and that will then be the End, or will the world continue to get worse and worse until the Lord must intervene? Something in between these two extremes? What? What will it be like? What lies in front of us?

Does anyone know? Can anyone know?

Yes we can know and we do know. Jesus told us some very specific things about the End and what the world will be like as the End approaches. Let me touch on just one of those things in this article: The existence of the Temple.

In three different places the Gospel writers recorded for us what has become known as the Olivet Discourse. That is, it is the discourse or discussion or teaching that Jesus gave while on the Mount of Olives. Matthew 24-25, Mark 13 and Luke 21 each contain details of what Jesus spoke to his disciples in answer to an important question they had posed:

Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Matt. 24:3

“When these will things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age,” could be interpreted to be two time periods but are really speaking of one and the same time period.

In Luke’s version of the story he is clear that one time period is being spoken of, not two. He records the disciples question as:

Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? Luke 21:7

The disciples had been pointing out the Temple to Jesus, commenting about its beauty. In no uncertain terms Jesus told them that the Temple would one day be destroyed to such an extent that not one stone would be left upon another.

So shocked were the disciples to hear this, they could only imagine such a thing happening at the end of the age, hence their question.

Well such a thing did happen. The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Roman ruler Titus and his forces. And for some that destruction of the Temple is viewed as the fulfillment of the words of Jesus regarding “one stone not being left upon another.” But not so.

The question the disciples asked, and clearly so in Luke 21:7, was “when these things were going to take place and what would be the signs that they were going to take place.” They saw them as one time event/time-frame, not two. Thus the answer Jesus gave had to do with the end of the age, not 70 A.D.

In other places which I will explain in another article, there are references to the existence of the Temple at the end of the age, a Temple that from the words of Jesus in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, will again be torn down.

Let me give you just one of the references for now in order to make my next point. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 is Paul telling the Thessalonians about the coming of Christ. Listen for the time frame (the coming of Christ) and the detail (the existence of the Temple)

Now we request you brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

3 Let no one deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.


So here in these few thoughts and a few verses from the Gospels and 2 Thessalonians, we have a clue already to details about the end of the age.

There will be a Temple. The Temple of God. A temple that can only be built where God assigned that it be built: in Jerusalem.

Will such a temple be built one day? According to Bible prophecy, yes. But with so many years having passed, surely the Bible is mistaken, isn't it? For nearly 2,000 years the Jews weren't even in their homeland. They were dispersed throughout the world. There was no chance for them to rebuild the Temple.

And yet Israel is back in the land, being re-birthed as a nation in 1948. And you may be surprised to know that plans for rebuilding the Temple aren’t just an idea from an ancient book we call the Bible. Those plans are underway right now.

I remember hearing this as a young believer some 30 years ago and wondered if such talk was only a wild Christian rumor, invented by those who were prophecy fanatics. But I have been to Jerusalem to the headquarters of the Temple Institute, which is located in the Old City section of town. I’ve seen with my own eyes the work they are doing. If you are interested you can learn more yourself by going to: The Temple Institute

There you’ll find details of the preparation that are being made. Will building such a building take time? Yes. Are there hurdles to overcome? Yes. Monumental ones both political and religious.

Israel does not have control of the Temple Mount, and if a Temple were built there, with the information now at hand, it would have to be build where the golden Dome of the Rock is, next to the Mosque of Omar.

Any such thing would cause an immediate Holy War in the Middle East. So there are major hurdles to overcome.

But what if a new archaeological discovery was made that placed the ancient location of the Temple not on what is called the Temple Mount, but just on the southern edge of it, by the “southern steps,” where some suggest the Temple may have been? The Temple could be rebuilt nearly immediately.

What if, what if, what if?

You see slowly, step by step, the details are being prepared for a new Temple in Jerusalem.

So what do we know about the End and when it will come? We know one thing for sure: that the Temple will be in existence, in Jerusalem.
Even if the plans to build a new Temple in Jerusalem take decades of political interaction and/or new archaeological discoveries, what does it tells us about the time frame of human history that we are in, that there is a group actively working on preparations to rebuild the Temple?

It is obvious isn’t it? The clock is ticking along moving us closer and closer to the complete fulfillment of everything Jesus said would take place.

How and when will the End come? Can we know?

Yes we can know to a certain extent. Prophetic details regarding the Temple are irrefutable evidence that certain things will be known before the final End is upon us. Given that the actual details—not just the prophetic details from the pages of Scripture—are in evidence around us as the Temple Institute and others prepare for the Temple to be rebuilt, what does that tell us about where we are in terms of the End?

Knocking on the door my friends, knocking on the door. Are you ready?

Monday, March 21, 2005

Prophecy Series Part 3: Marching Toward the End

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Marching Toward the End

If there is a universal desire and thought in the hearts and minds of people it is that this world is not the “end” but is only a passageway to a new and different life. It doesn’t matter what faith one is from: Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity—whatever—the human heart is focused on what comes next, with a great hope and belief that what comes after death will be different and better and final.

Our beliefs take different forms and we have differing ideas of what this new life will be like, but down in the core of our being we all believe—even the atheists—that after death everything changes.

For the atheist the change is from something to nothing; for the Buddhist the change is from being a fleshly soul to being one with the universe; for the person of Islamic faith there is paradise; for the Jew and the Christian there is heaven where we will spend eternity with the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

As you read this I know that there is a part of you that believes in and even longs for a new life after this one, where there will be no sin, no struggles, no danger, no sickness, and no evil. We wish and hope for a life where there are no more good-byes, no more death and no injustices.

We dream of a time when no little children will ever be faced with birth defects or cancer or mistreatment from those who should love them most, their parents.

We dream of a time when there will be no divorce, no lying, no unfairness, no unkindness.

Our hearts long for the day when there will be nothing but honest and pure joy, untainted by fear of it all ending, untainted by fear of violence from an intruder, a spouse or a nation against nation. Our hearts long for just pure joy where, to paraphrase Rodney King, “everybody gets along.”

The day is coming.

We are marching toward it. It is coming at a time that has already been set by God. Acts 17:30-31 says:

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man He has whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.

There is a judgment coming that is part of the transition to the kind of eternity that we all dream of and long for. There is a day coming, a fixed day, when the Lord Jesus Christ, the one whom God raised from the dead, will judge the world in righteousness.

For the first, only and final time, all things will be judged correctly, judged in righteousness. There will be no escape from proper consequences and no improper consequences handed down.

And after this judgment what we call “eternity” will begin. Of course eternity has already begun, better, has already been and continues. But what we mean by “eternity” is that new time, that time that isn’t even marked by time as we understand time with its life-spans and eras and so on.

Eternity is that time frame, for lack of a better term, when all of the crud of this life is over and only the good things remain. That day, that season is coming, and it is marked out by the pivot point of the judgment that the verses in Acts 17 speak about.

If you would like to be part of the good side of that pivot point, notice in verse 31 above what God says must happen: you must repent.

Repentance means to “change,” as Billy Graham has so often said, “to change your mind about your way of living,” to change your mind about Christ and about God. When the Bible in the New Testament talks about repenting it means to turn away from sin and to turn to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Romans 10:9 says, “For if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead we will be saved.”

This “confession” that Jesus is Lord is not us simply paying lip service to that fact, which happens to be true whether we confess it or not. This confession is the honest confession of a person’s heart that they have repented from self-will and sin, and have by a decision of their heart surrendered their lives to the Lordship of Christ

The part about “believing in our hearts that God raised him from the dead” encompasses the reason that Jesus died: He died for our sins, to pay the penalty for our sins. This belief is us saying in our hearts and with our mouths, that Jesus died for in our place, paying our debt of sin, so that God in his righteous judgment, can authentically and honestly cancel the debt that we owe.

This belief is us saying, “Lord I have nothing to offer you to gain heaven, except the death and resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ.”

Friends, the very thing you long for—a perfect eternity—is the very thing we are marching toward IF we are believers in Jesus Christ. The day has been fixed. It is already set. It is coming as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Do we know when that day is? No. But we know that the day has been set. The time is drawing nearer every day.

Are you ready? Have you asked Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior? Have you put your trust in him and him alone for salvation from your sin? If you haven’t done that, you aren’t ready.

Get ready my friend, get ready. We are marching toward the End. Whether it will be years or decades or centuries, the time of judgment has been fixed. Don’t come to that day unprepared. If you do, it will be too late.

Friday, March 18, 2005

What do you think about reincarnation?

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Question: What do you think about reincarnation? I have a friend who believes in it, but it doesn’t square with my views from the Bible.

C.H.

ATP: The concept of reincarnation is inconsistent with biblical teaching. Both Jewish teaching (Old Testament) and Christian teaching (New Testament) uphold a belief in resurrection.

In Judeo-Christian belief those who have availed themselves of God’s provision for forgiveness will be resurrected to spend eternity with God in peace and joy. Those who have not followed God’s guidelines to obtain forgiveness will be resurrected to face judgment. (See Daniel 12:1-4, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, Revelation 20:11-15)

The Judeo-Christian concept of resurrection should not be confused with reincarnation. In reincarnation the idea is that after death, people re-enter the world as another person or in another form, say an animal. In reincarnation this cycle may repeat itself many times over, even millions of times over.

While we may jokingly say things like, “I must have been a fish in a past life, because I really love the water,” it is just an expression. There is no such thing as a past life. The Bible says,

“And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment…” (Hebrews 9:27)

We will only die once physically.

The idea of reincarnation has gained some minor popularity as a belief, but interestingly, primarily in cultures that have Judeo-Christian roots and values, and which therefore do not live in light of the actual tenets of reincarnation. For those who believe in reincarnation and who live in a culture where reincarnation and its attending principles dominate, reincarnation is not seen as a blessing, but as a curse.

In reincarnation life after life must be lived in order to attain “perfection” or higher levels of existence. If a life is not lived well, it must be lived over. Suffering is viewed as the just result for the sins one has committed in a previous life.

Therefore, those who truly believe in and follow reincarnation in these cultures consider it unwise to help a person who is suffering. Helping them will only cause them to have to suffer again. To be merciful, the suffering person must be left to suffer.

You can see immediately of course, the weakness of such a system of thought when carried to its logical conclusions.

It is easy to believe in reincarnation when one lives in a culture that is dominated by Judeo-Christian thought with its commands to help the poor and needy and the suffering. But when one fully practices what the dominant forms of reincarnation preach, reincarnation is not such an attractive or trendy thing to believe in.


More importantly, reincarnation is simply a false belief. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, proving that he is who he says he is, the Son of God. And as the Son of God his Word is trustworthy. It is appointed unto man once to die, and then comes the judgment. So says his Word.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Prophecy Series Part 2: Glossary of Terms

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Prophecy Series Part 2: Glossary of Terms

I believe the Eschatological events predicted in Daniel’s 70 Week Prophecy will unfold just as the Bible says they will, and that during their unfolding the Rapture of the Church will happen, followed by 31/2 years of Great Tribulation. Coming on the heels of the Great Tribulation will be the Second Coming of Christ which will usher in the Millennium during which Christ will rule from Jerusalem.

At the end of the Millennium, the Great White Throne Judgment will bring forward those in Hades who will receive their final sentence and be sent to the Lake of Fire, along with the Devil and the Anti-Christ. Then eternity will begin where the dwelling place of God will be with men in a New Heaven and New Earth.

Did I lose you with those paragraphs?!

If so, good. Now you know why we need a glossary!

In order to economize space and ease the writing and reading of future articles in this series, I want to provide a glossary of terms for easy reader reference. That will help me avoid having to explain terms each time I use them, and as I use new terms I will add them to the glossary. I’ll provide a link back to this page in every article in the Prophecy series.

Here we go with a few basics.


Daniel’s 70 Weeks


A period of 490 years prophesied by Daniel about the Messiah and the end of the age. Each “week” of Daniel’s “70 weeks” represents 7 years, so 70 times 7 equals 490 years. (Daniel 9:24-27) (As a century is 100 years and a decade is 10 years, a “week” of years = 7 years)

The use of the term “week” to designate a 7 year period is found elsewhere in the Bible. When Laban tricked Jacob into serving him for 7 additional years in order to be given Rachael’s hand in marriage, Laban said,

Gen. 25:27 Complete the week of this one (Rachael) and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.

This usage is also found in Leviticus 25:8 where regarding the counting of years to reach God’s ordained Year of Jubilee we read:

And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall be to you forty-nine years.

70 weeks of years then in Daniel is a 490 year period. 483 years, or 69 weeks of those 70 Weeks have already taken place, culminating with the coming of Christ and his Crucifixion.

The 70th week and final week of Daniel’s prophecy involves predictions of events that will take place in a 7 year period at the end of the age. That 7 year period is often called The Tribulation or The Great Tribulation, although to be more precise the Great Tribulation is only the last 3 ½ years of the 7.

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Eschatology


Eschatology, pronounced with the "ch" sounding like a "k" is the doctrine or study of the “last things;” the “last things” being the times at the end of the age close to and leading to the Lord’s return to earth when judgment will be rendered on humanity, rewards will be given to the followers of Christ and eternity will begin.


Great White Throne Judgment


The judgment of Revelation 20:11-15 where Christ pronounces sentence and that sentence is carried out on those who refuse his offer of forgiveness for their sins. It is called the Great White Throne Judgment because of the wording in Rev. 20:11 which says,

Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

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Lake of Fire


The final dwelling place of those who refuse Christ’s offer of forgiveness. At the Great White Throne Judgment "books" are opened, one of which is the Lamb’s Book of Life. In that book is written the names of all who have said yes to Christ’s offer of forgiveness. At the Great White Throne Judgment if anyone’s name is not found in the Book of Life, they are sentenced for eternity to the Lake of Fire, the same place that the Devil will reside for eternity.

The Lake of Fire is not the same thing as Hell. Hell is a place of suffering, but is only a waiting place for those who refuse Christ’s offer of forgiveness. You might think of Hell as the jail cell where convicted criminals are kept as they wait for sentencing. At sentencing they are sent to another place. The Lake of Fire is that other place.

Rev 20:11-15 begins with Then I saw a great white throne…. and it ends with:

and if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

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Millennium


The 1000 year period of peace that follows the 7 year Tribulation. During this time Jesus will be physically present on earth, ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. Both Old Testament believers and New Testament believers will have our new resurrected and eternal bodies, and will serve Christ during this remarkable period.

The earth will enjoy a time of prolific abundance, and sin will be nearly unknown, although not completely so. The Millennium closes with the Great White Throne Judgment, after which eternity begins.

Revelation 20:4-6

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.


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Rapture of the Church


The event described in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians, where both Old Testament believers and New Testament believers are raised from the dead in an instant being in that instant fully transformed and given new eternal bodies, and go to meet the Lord in the air.

At that same instant, living believers in Christ, that is those who are alive on earth, are transformed in the same way, receiving new eternal bodies and are also raised up to meet the Lord in the air.

Prior to this resurrection, since the time of Christ’s death and resurrection, believers who die go to be with the Lord, and so are not “in the grave.” It is just that neither Old Testament believer nor New Testament believer receives their eternal bodies until this moment at the Rapture.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 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 shall rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.


1 Corinthians 15:51-53

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.


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Tribulation or Great Tribulation


The 7 year period of terrible trouble and death on earth just prior to the Millennium. Also known as "the day of Jacob’s trouble," "Daniel’s 70th week," or just "the end."

The term "Tribulation" or "Great Tribulation" is taken from a passage in Matthew 24 in which Jesus says,

21 for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. 22 And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.