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| Are There Blood Moons Rising? with Mark Hitchcock (part 1) |
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Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call featuring T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. Thanks for joining us. In today’s program, Tom begins a two-part series with guest Mark Hitchcock. Here’s TBC Executive Director, Tom McMahon.
Tom: Thanks, Gary. The subject for today and next week is what some are teaching about what the Scripture refers to as a blood moon. Now, it’s generated quite a bit of excitement as well as controversy, and, as most of our listeners know, the mission of this program and The Berean Call is to compare whatever is being taught in Christendom today with what is presented in God’s Word. And on board to discuss prophecy and in particularly the current teachings regarding blood moons is Mark Hitchcock. He is the pastor/teacher of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, OK, and the author of a number of books dealing with biblical prophecy. His perspective from his book Blood Moons Rising, which we, by the way, offer here at The Berean Call, will be central to our discussion.
Mark, welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7.
Mark: Yeah, thanks for having me. It’s great to be with you.
Tom: You know, Mark, most of your…well, I didn’t realize this…most of your two dozen-or-so books deal with biblical prophecy. Now, I have to ask you, what sparked your interest in Bible prophecy, and what value do you see in prophecy for believers-and even those who don’t know the Lord?
Mark: Well, I got interested in Bible prophecy a little bit when I was around 11-12-13 years old. That’s back when The Late Great Planet Earth came out. I’m sure many of the listeners will remember that. In May of 1970 – is when the Late Great Planet Earth. A lot of people [were] interested in that, and the youth group I was in – a lot of talk about it. At that time, it just kind of at that time…my interest was piqued, but when I really became interested in prophecy was in my early twenties. That’s when I really began to study the Bible seriously for myself, and really, it rose out of the issue that when I read the Bible, there were so many parts of the Bible I couldn’t understand, and I finally realized that if I would understand Bible prophecy, since 28 percent of the Bible was prophetic at the time it was written – that if I understood prophecy, I could understand the Bible.
So, really, my love for prophecy is my love for the Bible. And I just felt like – and I still feel that way today – if you don’t understand at least some of the basics of prophecy, there are just large portions of the Bible that remain an enigma. So that’s really a lot of my interest in it, and I do think as well that it’s very relevant today for believers. Obviously, it’s a cleansing hope that we have – a purifying hope – that we believe Jesus could come any time. It’ll change the way that we live. It helps us understand this world around us. We live in a world that’s chaotic and uncertain, and we know how the story ends when we understand the Bible. So it’s a great comfort and hope that we have.
And to me, the message for unbelievers is that Jesus could come back at any time. They need to be ready. And I think even a lot of unbelievers, a lot of secular people, have the idea that this world’s getting near closing time. And I think that Bible prophecy has a unique message, because people are innately interested in the future. They’re curious about it. And we can come in with Bible prophecy and what the Scriptures say, and we can use that to set the table, if you will, as a platform, then, to reach people with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Tom: You know, Mark, you mentioned The Late Great Planet Earth. At that time – I was a Roman Catholic for almost 30 years – and it was at that time that I came to the Lord. And, just as you mentioned, you were 11 and 12 – well, I was in my thirties, and, Mark, I got really excited about prophecy and this thing called the Rapture because, as a Roman Catholic, forget that! You know, we were never given any kind of teaching about prophecy, although some of the so-called Saints promoted their ideas about the way things were going to happen. We had the “Secret of Fatima,” and all of those kinds of things, but nothing like biblical prophecy. And I really got excited about it, and, as I said, especially the Rapture! I mean that’s so foreign to Roman Catholicism, and especially, then, getting to know Dave Hunt and starting to work with him – you can imagine, that love for prophecy and love for God’s Word never…it just continued to grow and grow and grow.
Mark: No, that’s right. And it does. It’s such a framework for really understanding what the Bible says, and people are interested in it, and, again, we don’t just talk about things because people are interested in it, but on the other hand, if there is something that people are innately curious about that the Bible deals with and talks about a lot, and certainly we should talk about it at least some. And we don’t want to make Bible prophecy a hobby horse, or that’s all we talk about. I’m the pastor of a church, and so most of the time when I preach, it’s not on prophecy. I’ve written a lot of books on it, but I speak most of the time on things not prophecy related.
But God’s people need a well-balanced diet. Bible prophecy and eschatology and study of the end times, it’s certainly a part of that.
Tom: Now, Mark, before we get to blood moons, which we really want to get to because it’s an issue today, but I think back about prophecy and the value of prophecy – I mentioned working with Dave Hunt, and we have written about this and promoted prophecy as an incredible apologetic. Now, as you know, God declares Himself as the God of prophecy and that He alone knows the future, and that’s a criterion for being the only true God.
I was stunned going through (not recently, but over the years) going through Isaiah, and in chapters 41-48, over and over and over again, God claims that He alone knows the future, and He challenges the “gods” – that is, the demons, actually, behind the idols – to foretell what’s ahead. We also know, as you mentioned, 28 percent of the Bible foretells future events.
Now, as an apologetic, don’t you think that’s just a wonderful, incredible, tremendous proof that the Bible is indeed God’s Word? What other book can do that?
Mark: Not a thing! I mean, to me, it is the proof of the authenticity of the Bible, because, you know, people will say, “Well, the Bible changes people’s lives.” Well, other people can say, “Well, I have a book here, and it changed my life.” So that’s a subjective reference. To me, it IS Bible prophecy. That’s what God says, as you mentioned in Isaiah. He’s saying, “This is the…I’ll lay down the gauntlet here. Let someone else come and tell the future with 100 percent accuracy.
Dr. John Walvoord, who was one of my mentors at Dallas Seminary, he has a book Every Prophecy in the Bible, and he has about a thousand prophecies, and his research found that 500 have been fulfilled, and there are 500 yet to be fulfilled. Now, that’s quite a track record! A 100 percent accuracy 100 percent of the time. And only someone who is omniscient and omnipotent can tell the future. And so, to me, Bible prophecy, the fulfillment of prophecies, with great exactness – 100 percent of the time – is the ultimate apologetic for the truth of the Word of God.
Tom: Amen. Amen. Of course, on the other side of the coin, there is a down side regarding biblical prophecy, but I’m talking about its abuse. We’re going to talk a little bit about that. But I want you to give me some of your thoughts about the following – you know, just briefly or however long you want to take.
False prophecy and false prophets, Old Testament and New, and the Bible issuing really serious warnings about such things; the abuse of prophecy: what are your comments on that?
Mark: Well, prophecy is so valuable. Again, it’s this great apologetic for Scripture, and God claims He’s the only one that can do it, and prophecy – really, it’s a precious thing – that God would come and reveal to us the future – what’s going to take place. And when people come in and claim to be speaking for God and they’re not, and they abuse this prophetic gift – and, of course, they can’t really foretell the future, but they claim to be able to – then, as we’ve seen in modern times, first of all, it gives prophecy, it gives the Bible, a black eye; it gives God a black eye, because many people then think, “Oh, well, then, the Bible’s wrong!” or “Well, God is wrong!” Where actually, it’s not God who’s wrong; it’s this person, because they just went out on their own and God doesn’t speak through them at all.
So it’s very…it’s so dangerous because, again…and, of course, Satan comes in and takes what God uses, and what God has for good, and he comes in and he twists it and he counterfeits it, and he comes in to get people to where their confidence in the Bible is eroded, their confidence in God is eroded. And so Satan has used that throughout history: false prophets, false teachers, that come in to lead people astray from the truth. And we’ve seen that throughout church history.
But the Bible tells us that in the end times that’s going to proliferate even more. False prophets, false teachers. I think it’s interesting – the last book in the Bible before the book of Revelation is that tiny little book of Jude, which is about apostasy in the church. I’ve heard many people describe Jude as the foyer, or the entrance, to the book of Revelation. So it’s interesting, the placement of these books in the Scriptures as well as their inspiration – the words being inspired.
Tom: And you know, you mentioned that when you preach and teach you want to present the full counsel of God, but I think about Jude, you know, it seems that he…when he started, he said, “You know, I’d really kind of like to deal with the deeper things of God. However, I must tell you this: you must earnestly contend for the faith.” So, you’re right. It’s very important. The other thing that you mentioned about God kind of throwing down the gauntlet for the idols, the demo ns behind the idols, was to prove that they are God, too. Well, we go back to Genesis 3:1: “Yea, hath God said…” you know, and then basically, the serpent, Satan, in calling God a liar: “You will not surely die.” Well, here we have the same thing with all the proliferation of psychics and fortunetellers, channelers, mediums, astrologers, and so on – that seem to me that’s an attempt at “hey, look, God’s not the only one that can do this.”
Mark: That’s right, and there’s a lot of these things out there happening today, more and more. Because, again, I think as times become more uncertain, there’s more chaos, there’s more confusion in the world, people want even more so to know “What’s going to happen?” And, of course, the Good News is God has told us, at least a lot of what’s going to happen in the Bible. He hasn’t told us everything, but He’s told us what’s going to happen, and we can know our own destiny, and that’s the Good News. But people want more than that. They’ll reject…It’s always fascinating to me. It’s tragic. People will reject the truth of the living God, who’s given 500 prophecies that have come true – they reject that, and they’ll go after some flimsy prophecies and things out here that have no basis whatsoever. It really shows the hardness of the human heart apart from God – God’s Spirit.
Tom: Yeah. My concern is a zealousness. Some run ahead of God in applying what they think is prophecy being fulfilled. Now we know the prophecy related to the establishment of the nation of Israel – 1948. I mean, that’s clear cut. You have the scriptures to back that up. But, Mark, my concern is those who see prophecy being fulfilled in every current event, you know, even to the point – we’ll take something major, like the attack on New York City, 9/11 – doesn’t that create some problems and some issues?
Mark: Sure it does, and basically that’s historicism, where people are just saying all these prophecies are being fulfilled today, and they try to go back and find scriptures for these things. But we don’t live in the end times yet, I don’t believe. The Rapture’s not occurred yet. We’re not in the end times. We see the regathering of the nation of Israel; we see apostasy in the church – these are some broad prophecies we see fulfilled. But I think we live in a time today – I call it “stage setting.” We’re not seeing prophecies being fulfilled so much as we’re seeing the stage being set, the players moving into place for the future fulfillment of prophecy in the end times. So when we try to come in and say every earthquake is a sign of the times, every tsunami that happens, things not even mentioned in the Bible – that’s when we run into trouble. And, again, that’s when I think that if people continue to try to do that, and they continue to cry wolf like that, then we can almost get to where, you know, the people in the world no longer listen to what we have to say, although we do have a true message that we want to bring.
So I think that we have to be careful about that. You can go to either extreme with Bible prophecy. There is what I call skepticism – people don’t think that it matters at all. There’s sensationalism – where everything’s a fulfillment of prophecy. And the problem is if everything’s a fulfillment, then really nothing’s a fulfillment – or a sign. And there’s the view that I hold in between, which is what I call “stage setting.” Well, we do see the stage being set, and we’re aware of these things, but we want to be careful not to point to every event as some kind of fulfillment of a prophecy.
Tom: Right. I agree with you, Mark, to the extent that we certainly see things in development. You know, I’ve had the privilege – the great privilege – of working with Dave Hunt for about almost 4 decades – 3 ½ decades – and just from that standpoint of 30-35 years or so, just observing the trends coming into the church, you can see the development of the apostasy from the time (I think it was 25 years ago) when I helped Dave with The Seduction of Christianity – well, from that time until today, things are moving exponentially. But, as you said, specifics? No. But in general terms with regard to what the Bible says, we can see it growing and growing and growing. And there has to be a religion in place for the religion of the Antichrist. And we know ecumenism – lots of things that contribute to that, we should be aware of.
Mark: No, that’s right. There’s a lot of things happening in our world today, and I do think that we see events unfolding in our world today exactly the way we should expect to see them unfolding if the coming of our Lord is near.
But again, we don’t know how soon. We don’t know how much longer this stage setting can last. And that’s why I believe we’re called upon to always be ready.
Tom: Right. I absolutely agree. Now, let’s get to your book Blood Moons Rising. Mark, what motivated you to write that?
Mark: Well, I’ve studied prophecy for a lot of years, and I love to write books about things that are happening in our world today. Again, as we talked about the stage setting, and point to some of these things that call people to be ready. But I’ve also tried to answer things that are out there that I think maybe they’re taking it too far. For instance, I wrote a book on 2012, the Bible, the end of the world, the whole Mayan prophecy – the Mayan calendar prophecy – because a lot of people were kind of wondering about that, so I wrote a book to kind of critique or debunk that – whatever word you want to use.
And then some time later, I was reading about…or rather, listening to a pastor, a preacher on television, talk about blood moons, and these four blood moons that were going to fall on Jewish feast days, and relating all of this to some great event that was going to happen, and almost saying that the Lord was going to come back that year, but then kind of hedging his bets and backing off a bit. So I began to study that, and I came to the conclusion that really it was much ado about nothing. And I heard the different pastors and preachers talking about how there’s a book came out that’s selling a lot, and I thought, Someone needs to answer this, because a lot of people are going to be pulled into this unwittingly, and buy into this and thinks that what’s being said here is true, it’s factual, it’s biblical. So I wrote the book, basically, again, just to try to give an antidote or kind of an answer to some of this hysteria that’s going on out there about these things.
Tom: For some of our listeners who may be out of the loop on this, tell us about blood moon – the blood moon phenomena. Talk about it from, first of all, physics – the astronomical side, and then how that might relate to the blood moon as it’s presented in Scripture, or NOT related to the blood moon given in Scripture.
Mark: Well, what’s stated is that a blood moon is when the moon turns kind of an orange-ish or a reddish hue when there’s a lunar eclipse. And they happen a lot. Lunar eclipses happen fairly often. But what we have in 2014 and ’15 is four consecutive lunar eclipses on four Jewish feast days. And the first one was on April 15, 2014 – fell on Passover. Then on Feast of Tabernacles that Fall, October 8, 2014, there was another one of these. Then this last spring in 2015 on April 4, there was another one that fell on Passover, and then the final one is September 28, 2015, again on Feast of Tabernacles. So this is called…many call this a lunar tetrad. In other words, it’s these four blood moons falling consecutively on these Jewish feast days. And since the first century, there’s only been eight of these that have happened, and those who believe this is an important sign, they point to the Bible, like in Joel 2 it mentions the “moon turning to blood.” They point to Matthew 24, where the sun won’t give its light there; they point to Acts 2, which quotes Joel 2. Revelation 6, which talks again about the moon turning into blood, and they say these blood moons are mentioned here in scripture, and they’re falling on these Jewish feast days, and then they go back and show the last three of these, back in 1493 and ’94, one of those happened in conjunction with the Jews being put out of Spain: the edict of the expulsion of the Jews.
One happened in 1949 and 1950. Israel became a nation in 1948.
And then they point to another one of these tetrads happened in 1967 and ’68, which is when the six-day war happened in Israel. So they’re trying to point out how there’s this historical pattern that when these blood moon tetrads happened that that’s related to significant events in Israel, and then they relate it to these biblical passages in Scripture, and then they come up with this idea that this is significant of some great change that’s going to take place. They say something huge is going to change – going to change the world forever. Again, they don’t say specifically what it is, but many of them say it’s going to be some type of war in Israel. Many of them even kind of allude to the fact possibly it could be the Lord’s coming. And so they see this as a huge issue, 2015, this watershed, or this key year because of these blood moons.
Tom: Mark, I’ve listened to you in a…not exactly a debate, but a discussion with Mark Biltz, the author of Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs, and you pointed out, and I’d like you to add to that, or give us your perspective, the tetrad – these lunar eclipses. They are natural events. The verses that you gave with regard to Revelation and Matthew 24, and so on, those are supernatural events, aren’t they?
Mark: That’s right. That’s the way I take it. In Joel 2, Matthew 24, Revelation and Acts 2, Revelation 6 – the moon turning to blood there seems to be…and I think it’s clear in the context…this is something that God is doing. This isn’t a naturally occurring event. God is doing this.
The other thing that’s fascinating, it’s a supernatural event, and if you read Revelation 6, it’s not just the moon turning to blood there. Same thing in Acts 2, there’s a whole litany of other signs there as well that will take place when the moon turns to blood. It says in Revelation 6 that the sun became black as sackcloth, the moon became like blo od, the stars of the sky fell to the earth. It said, “As the fig tree casts its unripe figs, shaken by wind; the sky was split apart like a scroll when it’s rolled up; Every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” No one – I don’t hear anyone saying that that’s going to happen this year.
The other problem is the context of these passages are at the end of the Tribulation period…
Tom: Exactly.
Mark: …or the late – well, the one in Revelation 6, I would place at about the mid-point of the seven-year Tribulation; the one in Joel and in Acts and in Matthew 24 I’d place near the end of the Tribulation. Well, the Rapture hasn’t happened yet, as far as I know. We’re not even in the Tribulation yet. So 2015 can’t be the middle or the end of the Tribulation. So there’s also this whole timing problem that’s difficult as well.
Tom: Yeah, and later…we’re going to do this in two parts, maybe in our next…well, not maybe, but hopefully, in our next session we’re going to deal with “signs” and pointing to signs and dates, and so on, and those equivocating on all that. So I want to talk about that, but let’s go back to…we’re recording this. It’s the end of April – April 4. It’s unique that these so-called blood moons are taking place during Passover week, but Mark, what of significance took place April 4 of Passover week?
Mark: Well, nothing that I know of… You know, it is interesting. It was the
day between Good Friday, of course, and Easter this year, it fell there, but nothing happened. So that’s been part of the problem – with these first three, nothing happened. But they’ll say, “Well, there’s the fourth one, you see, and this fourth one is going to be super moon. It’s going to be the only one of the four that’s actually visible in Israel, and so… Again, that’s kind of the way a lot of these things work is, you know, when something doesn’t happen and you keep kind of pointing ahead, but what will be interesting is after September 28 comes and goes, if nothing happens then, will they all recant then? Will they write a book and say, “I was wrong,” and not do that again.
That usually doesn’t follow in these things, and that’s part of the problem with this. There’s a lot of buildup.
But, you know, the other thing is if you look at our world today, if I were to make a prediction at the beginning of 2015 and say, “Something really dramatic’s going to happen in Israel this year, that probably would be right, because we live in a very dangerous, very chaotic, very uncertain world. Something – I mean, the fuse has been lit, and the lid could blow off over in the Middle East at any time. So, they do, in some ways – they make these statements, and in some ways, they do have these things on their side – at some point in time, something dramatic is going to happen over there. But it won’t be because of the Blood Moon prophecy. It’s just simply be because God, on His timetable, decided for it to happen.
Tom: See, Mark…we’ve got about two minutes left, but I want to just encourage you, because you’re presenting this stuff; you’re getting it out there to help…or to address the confusion that goes on in the body of Christ because they’re not checking things out. They’re not really doing their homework, which they should so that they’re not vulnerable to these kinds of ideas.
You know, back in 1999, Dave came out…Dave Hunt came out with a book called Y2K: A Reasoned Response to Mass Hysteria, because, as you remember back then, many in the church got on board with that. I mean, big names, especially those whose eschatology was either post-trib, they were kind of excited about it.
Mark: (chuckling) That’s right, yeah.
Tom: But you know what happened: the world…2000, the world celebrated! I mean there were fireworks all around – Paris, London, and everywhere, and the church was just getting off – not the whole church, but many leaders were hunkering down for something. So, this is important. It’s important to exhort, encourage, our b rothers and sisters in Christ to be Bereans, to search the Scriptures and do their homework when somebody comes along with an idea that’s somewhat unique or not really laid out clearly in the Scriptures.
Our guest has been Mark Hitchcock. We’ve been talking about prophecy and about blood moons in particular. So, Mark, I want to pick up on this next week, the Lord willing, so, thanks for being with me.
Mark: Yes, thank you so much. Looking forward to our next time together.
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From MSN August 23rd, 2011
Earthquakes in unlikely places
Tuesday’s 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia (see how far away it was felt) showcases the fact that earthquakes can strike in unlikely locations (how long has it been since the state had a 5.8 magnitude quake?). Recently earthquakes have hit in some other seemingly unlikely places, like Colorado (find out where fault lines are in the United States).
Earthquakes hit in these unlikely areas in July:
Africa – 5.2 magnitude
Canada – 3.5 magnitude
Texas – 3.0 magnitude
Utah – 3.4 magnitude
Wyoming – 3.1 magnitude
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| Mat 24:7 | Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. |
Not too long ago, I was thinking about earthquakes and the areas they occur. It seemed as though the majority of the shaking occured where there was false religion. I noticed that Haiti was filled with Voodoo and that an area in Mexico, Oaxaca, known for tremors, specializes in occult crafts and beliefs in “nahuals” or spiritual companion animals.
I found this chart from Barry Brumfield that I thought was very interesting.
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Religion considerations regarding locations of major earthquakes:
Year Date Mag. Region Primary Religion
2011 03/11 8.9 Honshu, Japan Shinto, Buddhism
2010 01/12 7 Haiti Catholicism, Vodou, Islam
2009 09/30 7.5 Sumatra, Indonesia Islam
2008 05/12 7.9 Sichuan, China Buddhism
2007 08/07 8.0 Peru Roman Catholicism
2007 03/06 6.4 Indonesia Islam
2006 07/17 7.7 Indonesia Islam
2006 05/27 6.3 Indonesia Islam
2005 10/08 7.6 Pakistan Islam
2005 03/28 8.7 Indonesia Islam
2004 12/26 9.0 Indonesia Islam
2003 12/26 6.6 SE Iran Islam
2003 05/21 6.8 N. Algeria Islam
2002 03/25 6.1 Afghanistan Islam
2001 01/26 7.7 India Hinduism, Buddhism
2000 06/04 7.9 Indonesia Islam
1999 09/21 7.6 Taiwan Buddhism, Taoism
1999 08/17 7.6 Turkey Islam
1999 01/25 6.0 W. Colombia Roman Catholicism
1998 05/30 6.6 Tajikistan Islam
1997 05/10 7.3 N. Iran Islam
1996 02/03 6.6 Yunnan, China Buddhism, Islam
1995 01/16 6.9 Kobe, Japan Shinto, Buddhism
1994 06/20 6.8 Colombia Roman Catholicism
1993 09/29 6.2 India Hinduism, Buddhism
1992 12/12 7.8 Indonesia Islam
1991 10/19 6.8 India Hinduism, Buddhism
1990 06/20 7.4 Iran Islam
1985 09/19 8.1 Mexico City Roman Catholicism
1978 09/16 7.7 N.E. Iran Islam
1976 07/28 8.2 Tangshan China Buddhism, Islam
1960 02/29 5.7 Morocco Islam
18 nations
7 religions – Biblical?
Question: “Why does God allow natural disasters, i.e. earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis?”
Answer: Why does God allow earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, typhoons, cyclones, mudslides, and other natural disasters? Tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2008 cyclone in Myanmar, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the 2011 earthquake/tsunami near Japan cause many people to question God’s goodness. It is distressing that natural disasters are often termed “acts of God” while no “credit” is given to God for years, decades, or even centuries of peaceful weather. God created the whole universe and the laws of nature (Genesis 1:1). Most natural disasters are a result of these laws at work. Hurricanes, typhoons, and tornados are the results of divergent weather patterns colliding. Earthquakes are the result of the earth’s plate structure shifting. A tsunami is caused by an underwater earthquake.
Full article HERE
These charts record the number of earthquakes each year.
This chart is for Quake Magnitude 4+
Quake Magnitude 5+
Quake Magnitude 6+
Quake Magnitude 7+
Quake Magnitude 8+
As we can see from these graphs, there are increases in the more powerful earthquakes. And we are only in April of 2010.
source
dlindquist.com
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING?
March 31, 2010 (David Cloud)
Many wonder why God allows suffering and catastrophes.
To answer this we would say, first, that the trouble in this world is man’s fault, not God’s. When God made man in the beginning, there was no suffering. God made a perfect world for man to live in and provided for man’s every need. God placed the first man and woman in a paradise called the Garden of Eden and gave them only one commandment. But they were not satisfied with God’s provision and they disobeyed God’s commandment and fell into sin. As a result, the world became a place of evil and suffering. This is man’s fault. It is men that lie and cheat and steal and rape and kidnap and bully and kill.
Second, God is holy and judges sin. He is not only a Saviour, He is also a Judge. God warned the first man and woman, that if they disobeyed His law they would be punished, and that is what happened. Because of sin, the world came under God’s curse. This is described in Genesis chapter 3. It is God’s curse that is the cause of sickness and death and many other troubles that men suffer. Men are not innocent before God. All men have sinned and broken His laws; and all men, therefore, deserve to be punished.
Third, God has given light to men and they have rejected it. John 1:9 says that God gives light to every man. There is the light of creation (Romans 1:19-20). Men can know that there is a God from the things that He has made. There is also the light of conscience (Romans 2:14-16). God has put a conscience inside of man that tells us there is a God and that convicts us when we do wrong. There is also the light of the Bible (Romans 3:1-2). This is the greatest light that God has given to men.
From the very beginning, when men first sinned, God began to show them the way of salvation. But for the most part, God’s Word has been rejected and men have lived according to their own thinking and have traded the true and living God for false gods. Adam and Eve knew God and knew about His salvation (Genesis 3:15, 21). Adam lived 930 years (Genesis 5:5), so for the first millennium of man’s history the first man was still alive and still talking about the true God who had created him. Adam’s second son, Abel, was a prophet and knew about salvation through the coming Saviour (Luke 11:50-51; Hebrews 11:4). Before the worldwide Flood, there were prophets. Enoch was a prophet who preached about the second coming of Christ (Jude 14-15), and Noah also preached for 120 years before the Flood (2 Peter 2:5). Job lived after the Flood and knew many things about God, including salvation through the coming Saviour and the bodily resurrection (Job 19:25-27). Solomon proclaimed the true God to many nations in his day (1 Kings 4:34). This was 1,000 years before Christ. King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian empire preached to the nations of his day (Daniel 4:1-3, 37). This was about 550 years before Christ. Darius of the Medo-Persian empire also preached to the nations (Daniel 6:25-28). The apostles preached the gospel in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe (Romans 1:8). From then until now Christian missionaries have been preaching to the ends of the earth. Men have no excuse for sitting in darkness and not knowing the true and living God.
Men are responsible to seek God (Acts 17:27). In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus taught that men are responsible to respond to God’s Word (Matthew 13:18-19, 23). Those who respond to the light are given more light. Cornelius is an example of this (Acts 10). He was seeking God and trying to follow the Old Testament, and God sent a Christian to him to explain the gospel of Jesus Christ. The same thing happened to the eunuch from Ethiopia. We read about this in Acts 8:26-40. He had visited Israel and obtained one of the books of the Old Testament and was trying to understand it. God sent Philip to him to explain the gospel.
God has been trying to speak to men and to call them for 6,000 years, but for the most part He has been ignored. God cannot be blamed for man’s spiritual ignorance.
Fourth, God has provided salvation and offers it to all men. God’s great love and goodness are evident by the fact that He came into this world and suffered many things at the hands of His own creatures and allowed Himself to be crucified on a cross in order to save men from their sins. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God wants to save men. That is His desire. If men are not saved, it is not God’s fault. The fact that God has gone to such great trouble and expense to provide salvation for those who believe is evidence that He can be trusted to do that which is right.
Fifth, we cannot expect to understand everything about God. To understand every mystery about God, you would have to be God! Though God has revealed many things to us in the Scriptures, He has not revealed everything and He has not answered every question we can ask. Deuteronomy 29:29 is a very important verse. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Sixth, God does not have to answer to man. “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20). As God’s creature, man is required to trust and obey him regardless of whether he can understand him. God must be God.
Kim Clement, Haiti, and the ElijahList
Prophecies after the fact are not true prophecies
by Bud Press, Director
Christian Research Service
http://www.christianresearchservice.com
February 14, 2010
How many times have we heard of a disaster, then listened to a modern-day “prophet” inform the public about his prophetic warnings months or even years before the disaster occurred?
“God gave me a vision a long time ago about that terrible disaster,” the prophet announces, “and I feel led to share it with you now.”
Not only do the prophet’s followers believe it, they do back-flips praising his name.
Then, someone pops up and asks, Why didn’t the prophet shout the warning publicly months or even days before the disaster? Good question, and one that needs to be asked more often.
Making a prophecy public after a situation occurs is prophecy after the fact. The more wrong a false prophet is the more it occurs. While Christians are commanded by Scripture to test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21), prophecy after the fact is a claim that is almost impossible to test or validate. False prophets know this, and rely on their audience of followers to nod their heads in approval and take their word for it.
Prophecy after the fact is also prophecy of convenience. How convenient it is for the modern-day wannabe prophets, especially those whose popularity is suffering in the ratings department.
‘Spirit of unity’ or devastation?
Out of curiosity, I went to Kim Clement’s website, did a search on the word “Haiti,” and found the following, dated July 17, 2009: “In Haiti a spirit of unity is being released” ( http://tinyurl.com/yggadgy ).
But unfortunate for the Haitians, that “spirit of unity” turned into a devastating earthquake, where the death toll is reportedly 230,000 (“Haiti death toll same as Asian tsunami,” http://tinyurl.com/ylm3rtz ).
The earthquake in Haiti took place on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, but where was Kim Clement before the earthquake occurred? Powerless to prophesy. And where was Clement’s “god” beforehand? Without the authority and ability to predict the future.
While there are numerous references to earthquakes on Clement’s website, the above quote is the only reference to Haiti (as of this writing, that is).
My next stop was the ElijahList, where exists a den of more modern-day false prophets than I care to count. While there, I typed-in the word “Haiti” into the search window and came up with seven articles, the most recent dated February 9, 2010.
Out of the seven articles, there are only three general references to Haiti: one by Kim Clement (cited above), one from Francis Frangipane’s September 27, 2004 article, “From Little Children to Sons,” and one from Luke Holter’s February 9, 2010 article, “Opportunity for Great Awakening with the Lord of the Harvest.” Yet, there are more references to “earthquake(s)” on the ElijahList than I care to count.
Haiti is east of Cuba and north of South America, and shares the same island with the Dominican Republic. I also searched for references to the “Dominican Republic” on Kim Clement’s website and the ElijahList. There is nothing on Clement’s website, but there is a general reference on the ElijahList, dated March 2005.
It is true that time is an enemy to a false prophet. False prophecies return to haunt false prophets–they always do. Kim Clement’s prophecy for a “spirit of unity” in Haiti turned into a tremendous devastation, and returned to haunt him.
Kim Clement would do well to heed God’s Scriptural warnings, and leave prophecy to those who were called to be prophets of God in the first place
( http://christianresearchservice.com/God&FalseProphets.htm ).
Dropping the prophetic ball
Give false prophets an inch of opportunity and they will take a mile of advantage. Such is the case with Steve Shultz, Publisher of the ElijahList (the internet’s laundry list for heretics, false prophets, and false healers). Note Shultz’s after the fact comments on the earthquake in Haiti:
“Contrary to many who ask us to do so, we don’t normally post how we ‘got a prophetic word right’ after the event comes to pass. To do so COULD sound like we are more interested in being right than in being righteous and compassionate. Please know that we are wanting to be Righteous and Compassionate before we care about being right. Having said that, these words were all given BEFORE the earthquake in Haiti. It lets you know that we serve a God who is in control and a compassionate Savior who has a plan for the people of the earth—all of whom HE LOVES far more than we do. On July 17, 2009, while prophesying about Chicago, Kim Clement suddenly mentioned this line about Haiti: “In Haiti, a spirit of unity is being released.” –Kim Clement” ( http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word/8407 , emp. theirs).
Goodness gracious! Kim Clement mentioned a “line about Haiti.” So? What does that validate? Nothing!
Since the ElijahList contains zero prophetic warnings specific to the earthquake in Haiti, Shultz played the catch-up damage control card to protect the prophets and let his readers know the ElijahList is on the ball–even when they all drop the prophetic ball.
Further, while Shultz wants his readers to “Please know that we are wanting to be Righteous and Compassionate before we care about being right,” the fact is that righteousness, compassion, and being right work together in harmony for those who serve Jesus Christ and trust in God’s written word.
Nonetheless, it appears that as far as Steve Shultz is concerned, all a prophet has to do is mention a word or a name in a prophecy, and when that word or name makes headlines, BOING! it’s a fulfilled prophecy. As such, the prophet is elevated and vindicated, and the ElijahList survives another day to seize an inch of opportunity and take a mile of advantage.
Prophecy after the fact is a desperate grabbing at straws. But, since the competition between modern-day prophets is fierce, they do what they must to stay on top and in the game. And, pathetic as it is, jockeying for a top position in the prophetic is the name of the game.
False prophets do what they do best: they serve a false “god,” fabricate and deliver false prophecies, drop the prophetic ball, and spend an incredible amount of time in the Department of Excuses and Damage Control. False prophets are opportunistic, and grab at anything that appears to validate their claims.
And while the gullible and unwary stumble over each other to get to the false prophets, God’s warnings are as valid today as they were thousands of years ago:
The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it? (Jeremiah 5:31).
Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles encountered their share of false prophets, and dealt with them according to God’s instructions. Right now, God is allowing this foolishness to continue to test those who claim to love Him (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Deuteronomy 18:19-22).
Don’t kid yourself, God is against false prophets (Jeremiah 23:31-32; Ezekiel 13:9; Matthew 7:21-23; 2 Peter 2:1), and He will deal with them severely at His appointed time.
After the fact…how convenient!
In her article, “Kim Clement Says Haiti Quake Was Actually Meant for America,” Chrystal, Director of Slaughter of the Sheep blog, reveals that self-proclaimed prophet Kim Clement “claims that God told him that the Haiti earthquake was actually intended to hit America…” ( http://tinyurl.com/yf69ral ).
In fact, beginning at 2:07 into the YouTube video included in Chrystal’s article, Clement, backed by emotion-stirring music, states that,
When even as the earth shook-ka, in Haiti, and some have cursed and they’ve said, “This is the judgment of God.” God said, “Be careful what you say! For you see, I diverted.” Now listen carefully. “I diverted the earthquake, for it was due to happen in this nation.”
See what I mean? Prophecy after the fact is a prophecy of convenience. Both work hand-in-had, and false prophets capitalize on it to stay in the game.
Prophecies after the fact are not true prophecies. They are, however, a pathetic attempt to elevate the prophet, exploit a situation or disaster, and gain favor with the gullible and unwary.
How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? (Jeremiah 23:26-27)
Zero tolerance
I have seen the damage false prophets cause to the spiritual, physical, and mental welfare of their followers. Some recover to serve the real Jesus of the Bible. Others go into seclusion–shipwrecked and feeling betrayed–nursing their pain and sadness, taking months or years to recover.
Then, there are those whose hearts are filled with anger and hatred over anything that resembles “Christianity” They not only blame Christians and God for being conned and deceived by heretics and false prophets, they actively campaign against God and the Bible, and cause others to stumble and mock God in the process. It is a vicious cycle, and a whirlpool that leads to destruction.
God is not asleep. He is moving within the darkened alleys of the “prophetic movement” and revealing the true nature of its so-called prophets, teachers, apostles, and healers.
God has zero tolerance for false prophets and false teachers, and so should we.
Related reading and viewing:
“By His Grace” (YouTube video by VinnieActs2030)
Kim Clement’s ongoing prophetic Promises
http://www.letusreason.org/Latrain58.htm
Is Kim Clement a New Age Prophet?
http://letusreason.org/Popteac14.htm
Kim Clement Prophesies Assassination Attempt on Obama in 2010
What God Has To Say About False Prophets
http://christianresearchservice.com/God&FalseProphets.htm
Word of Faith Movement: Birthed in the Bowels of Hell
http://www.christianresearchservice.com/Word_of_Faith_Movement.htm
FALSE PROPHETS & FALSE TEACHERS: Pictorial of Modern-Day Wolves in
Sheep’s Clothing
http://www.christianresearchservice.com/Wolves_Pictorial.htm
— You are encouraged to reprint and distribute this article. Please review the CRS Article Reprint Guidelines at
Revelation 6:12
“I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,”
source:
http://earth.webecs.co.uk/index.htm
Below is a graph showing how the number of all magnitude earthquakes has grown over recent years. Although we are primarily concerned with long term trends for larger magnitude earthquakes in this report, it is worth noting the trend as it applies to all earthquakes – whether large or small, over a 30 years period or so from the mid-1970s.
However, this trend needs to be understood in relation to the increase in seismographs. Certainly, in the last 25 years, more lower intensity earthquakes have been noticed because of a general increase in the number of seismograph stations across the world and improved global communications. This increase has helped seismological centres to locate many small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier decades. Therefore, an upward trend is not unexpected in the graph, although the rise in the number of large earthquakes will be of more significance to our assessment of the trend. By limiting the range of earthquakes being counted in this report to magnitude 7 or above, it means these earthquakes can easily be identified by a limited number of seismographs, and we have ensured that any increase in frequency for these larger earthquakes cannot be down to the increase in overall detection rates in this 25-year period, as all these larger earthquakes are able to be easily detected with fewer seismograph stations.
About the “End Times”
Speaking of the signs that will happen, leading to his return to judge the peoples of earth (at the end of the age), Jesus is quoted as saying ‘in various places there will be famines and earthquakes – these things are the beginning of birth pangs’ (ref: Matthew 24). Now, because birth pains begin small and then increase in intensity and frequency, this passage can be interpreted to mean that earthquakes (and famines – caused primarily through lack of rainfall in certain areas) will increase both in frequency and impact/strength prior to Jesus’ second coming. Although Jesus is clear that no one will know the day or the hour, and his return will indeed happen “when you do not expect”, he does give us broad pointers, one of these being natural events – like earthquakes.
End of article..
*********
I created an updated chart which I inserted in the above article by using two criteria from Historical Activity – All Quakes and Number of Quakes. It is truly graphic showing the frequency of earthquakes which verifies Jesus words of “birth pangs.”
Try it for yourself or create other charts here:
http://research.dlindquist.com/quake/historical/?mag=0&type=num&freq=year&style=raw
There is an amazing prophetic study that the first five seals in Revelation have already been opened. The next seal is the sixth seal, the great world-wide earthquake.
For more information click HERE about “Earthquake Resurrection”
Red Moon Rising is also a site to be visited. Click HERE This prophetic model also concludes that the first seals have already been opened.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The Fundamental Message of Christianity
by David W. Lowe
Because Jesus Christ is equal with God (Phi 2:6) and created all persons (Joh 1:1-9), he has inherent sovereign authority over all humanity and the universe. This means you and I must surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ. It is one thing to call him Master and Lord with your mouth, and quite another to make him the Master and Lord of your words, thoughts, and actions by obeying his commands in complete humility. He cannot be your Savior unless he is first your Master and Lord. If you have a problem with the idea of a Sovereign God ruling over your thoughts and actions, then you must question whether you are truly a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is King of Kings, seated at the right hand of the throne of God, and has all authority and power. As the righteous judge of mankind, his kingdom stands eternally opposed to sin and rebellion. Just as an inventor has the inherent rights to an invention or an author holds the copyright for a book he has written, so the Lord has the inherent rights to the earth he created and everyone in it. Because he holds the patent to the creation, he has the right to demand how it is used and how we interact and conduct ourselves within it. If that omnipotence and omniscience were the only reason to worship and obey him, it would be enough. But he not only created the world and everyone in it, he became one of us, and willingly offered himself to be butchered and crucified by his own creation in order to provide for its salvation.
How could I not bow in reverence and amazement to a King such as this? Earthly kings desire power, wealth, and fame, but this King desires mercy, servanthood, and sacrifice. This King humbled himself below all of his subjects in order to save them from their sins. Instead of giving me justice and crushing me back into dust, he vowed to save me in his boundless mercy. In the ultimate of paradoxes, God used my murder of his Son to be the medium by which I am saved! On the cross, the sinless Lamb became a curse so that a sinful human being like yourself could have his righteousness credited to your account by trusting in his blood atonement for forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of your sins, and you remain a magnet of the wrath of God. But the perfect, sinless blood of Jesus Christ can remit the sin of every person who repents and trusts in his sacrifice.
Every knee will bow and acknowledge his authority, because he has earned the right to rule and receive all glory and honor through his perfect sacrifice and resurrection from the dead. Come to him in humility, understanding the quantum lengths to which he descended in order to become a human being and experience a gruesome, excruciating death at your bloody hands. Put your trust in his sacrificial atonement for your acts of rebellion against him, realizing his perfect existence was crediting to your sinful account. Believe the eyewitnesses of his resurrection from the dead and ascension to heaven. Then, pick up a cross daily in gratitude, obey his commandments in the Word of God with joy, and follow him without wavering, no matter the price.
http://earthquakeresurrection.com
Read David’s Blog Here
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