Wall of Prayer (song)

The Wrath To Come book review

 I really like history. I enjoy learning how people lived in the past. I like knowing how we got to where we are. In James L. Melton's book, The Wrath To Come, you will not only get some history, but also some prophesy.

Have you ever wondered about the universal monetary system that is talked about in Scriptures? How about the one world government that is mentioned in Revelation? Did you ever wonder if there was anything around today that could easily slip us into those global positions?

If you're curious, I highly recommend you check out this book. It shows how very subtly throughout different countries people have working for hundreds of years to slowly build the foundation that would be required to enable the one world system to rise to power.

The entire text of  THE WRATH TO COME is on his web site as a pdf available to download for free. This is the 65 page condensed version of his 2004 book, SATAN'S NEW WORLD ORDER. 

Hard copies can be ordered by following this link.

Chocolate Chip Chocolate Muffins recipe

 2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup cocoa powder

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 1/2 cup sour cream

1 TBS vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Combine dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.

Add in the warmed coconut oil; you want it to be a liquid, but not too hot.

Add in the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract.

Mix thoroughly.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop batter into a lined muffin tin.

Bake at 375* for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.

NOTE: These are also good with peanut butter chips.

The Great White Throne Judgment (video sermon)

Remember Lot's Wife

 Christ is speaking to his disciples warning about the time when the Antichrist will show up, and he says "remember Lot's wife".

Luke 17:31-32- In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife. 

This retelling in Matthew doesn't mention fleeing. In Matthew's version it's talking about the coming of the Son of Man. Matthew gives his memoirs through the lens of the King of the Jews and focuses on Christ's being the king.

Matthew 24:30- And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Luke, however, focuses on Christ being the Son of man, or human. And in his version he is focusing on Christ's mortality.

Luke 17:25- But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.

Christ is warning that He didn't come to set up His earthly kingdom at that time, He came to die for the sins of the world. But the disciples just couldn't grasp that concept.

The memoir that Luke gives of this story is that the Jews are told to flee away from the coming destruction that will rain down on the world during the time of the Tribulation.

If we look at the story of Lot, we will see what Christ is warning about.

God had visited Abram and explained that He was going down to Sodom to see if the wickedness that He was hearing in heaven was as great as it seemed. Abram had gotten God to agree to sparing the entire wicked city if there were just ten righteous people in it.

Now, we know that Lot and his wife and two of his daughters were in the city, along with at least two other married daughters. So Abraham supposed there were at least 6 righteous in Lot's family, possibly 8 if the two married daughters were with righteous men. That would leave only 2 people that would need to be righteous for the city to be spared.

Unfortunately, it is far more likely that corruption happens. The two daughters didn't marry good men, and because of that they were corrupted and not considered to be righteous.

Genesis 19:14- And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.

Lot was physically removed from the city by the angels.

Genesis 19:15-17- And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

Lot had moved in with these sinners and now he was finding it hard to leave. Who wouldn't? His daughters were there. His possessions were there. His business was there.

We won't go into details about how low he sank while he was there. Suffice it to say that he lost at least two daughters when the judgment fell, and ended up a single dad with two daughters who didn't exactly make very wise choices (all because of the influence of the wicked city on his family).

II Peter 2:7-8- And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

But, that wasn't where he should stay if he wanted to flee from the wrath to come. In Lot's day, the Lord was merciful and removed him before the judgment fell.

Genesis 19:24-26- Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

They were outside the destruction zone, and yet when his wife looked back to all that she lost she was struck by the judgment.

In the future, the people are warned to flee from the wrath to come, but if they don't fun they will end up suffering when it falls! 

Revelation 18:4- And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

God tells the people to flee and hide when the Antichrist goes into the rebuilt temple and sits on the ark of the covenant and proclaims himself to be god.

Matthew 24:15-21- When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

It's going to be an awful time. Many will die. Many will suffer bereavement. And many more will accept the mark of the beast and lose their soul.

Heed the warning that was given. Don't try to gather things up or save your possessions. He isn't just talking about the salvation of your physical life, He's warning about the possible damnation of your eternal soul. Run and don't look back!

Don't think for a minute that God will withhold his righteous judgment because you don't want to obey.

The Testament of Archaeology

 Some may think that the geological evidence given isn't enough to prove the factuality of the flood. Others may wonder if global tribal accounts of a catastrophe are reliable. And still more may not believe that just because there is no testable proof of evolution doesn't mean that the theory is incorrect.

So, I will now turn my attention to archaeology. 

The Bible is more of a history book than it is a religious book. It mentions cities, kingdoms, rulers, and wars. There are many archaeological sites that are mentioned in the Bible that have been found.

The Famine Stela is an Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription on Sehel Island in the Nile, near Aswan, Egypt, that tells of a seven-year famine and drought that occurred during the reign of Pharaoh Djoser of the Third Dynasty.  It says that the Nile failed to flood annually for seven years during Djoser's reign, causing the drought and famine.  The inscription's unique reference to the famine, along with the tax and land claims, fit with the biblical account of Joseph, who told Pharaoh that seven years of abundance would be followed by seven years of famine.

Genesis 41:29-31- Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.

Genesis 47:13-20- And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth. And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail. And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year. When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands: Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's.

Ron Wyatt began investigating underwater off the coast of Neweiba Beach in 1978. One of the first things he found was a beautiful gold plated chariot wheel, very fragile but clearly visible in the clear waters of the Red Sea! Four, six and eight-spoked wheels were found in the Red Sea. These wheels were typical of the wheels used in the 18th Dynasty at the time of Moses and the Red Sea Exodus. Later, Wyatt and his sons found numerous other man-made artifacts and chariot wheels. The shapes of the battle debris were still intact because coral had attached themselves to the wood, preserving evidence of the historical accuracy of the Biblical account of the Exodus and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army, estimated to be as many as 250,000 soldiers and horse drawn chariots.

Exodus 14:5-7- And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him: And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. 

Exodus 14:21-28- And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

The walls of Jericho were built purely for military purposes. These 13-foot tall walls were intended to protect the town and the citizens inside. Ancient Jerico/Tell es-Sultan is located northwest of present-day Jericho in the Jordan Valley in Palestine, the property is an oval-shaped Tell, or mound, that contains the deposits of human activity, and includes the adjacent perennial spring. The meticulous work of Kathllen Kenyon in the 1950's showed that Jericho was indeed heavily fortified and that it had been burned by fire. Kenyon's work was the most detailed. She found a heap of bricks from the fallen city walls! The renewed Italian-Palestinian excavations found exactly the same thing at the southern end of the mound in 1997. Nothing remains of the mud brick city wall at other points investigated, showing that it had collapsed everywhere else. Remnants of the collapsed city wall were actually found still in place in three places at Jericho.

Joshua 6:1-5- Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

Joshua 6:20,21,24- So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.

Tel Megiddo was a Canaanite city, and later a royal city in the Kingdom of Israel. Megiddo, also known as Armageddon, is prophesied to be the site of the end-times battle in the Book of Revelation. Archaeologists have found 26 layers of human occupation at the site.

Judges 1:27- Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

Revelation 16:16-21- And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Archaeologists working at the northern site of Tel Shimron (between the Sea of Galilee and Haifa) discovered a massive, 3,800-year-old monumental structure. Shimron is a second millennium BC Canaanite city mentioned twice in the book of Joshua. The City covers about 48 acres. An extraordinarily well-preserved mud brick arch has been carefully uncovered at the acropolis of a Canaanite city overlooking the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. The arch leads from a vaulted corridor deep into the tel, a layered archaeological mound. Its end has not yet been uncovered.

Joshua 11:1-5- And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west, And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.

The pool of Siloam is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man and tells him to wash in the pool. Visitors to Jerusalem have been shown the steps that lined one side of the pool for almost two decades. The steps were accidentally uncovered during a 2004 sewer repair. But the excavation was limited to preserve an orchard. Archaeologists and local authorities were tantalized by the possibility of finding more, though, and decided to raze the orchard for a fuller dig. Nothing was found. The steps were apparently preserved when a road was built over them, but the rest of the stones of the pool are not there. They were likely taken in ancient times for other building projects.

Nehemiah 3:15- But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.

John 9:6-7- When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

In 1868, a missionary in Jerusalem found a stone tablet for sale that appeared to be from ancient times. The sellers broke the tablet into a number of pieces to sell them one at a time to make more money. Fortunately, a copy of the tablet was made prior to the break (this copy is in the Louvre today). On the tablet is a text written in Moabite dating to the ninth century BC. The text begins, “I am Mesha son of Chemosh, king of Moab.” Prominent in the text is the king’s version of a war fought with Israel in 850 BC, in which Moab revolted against King Jehoram of the northern kingdom of Israel soon after the death of Ahab. 

II Kings 3:4-5- And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

In 1993, archaeological site surveyor Gila Cook discovered an inscribed stone within a newly excavated wall in Israel. The writing on the stone contains historical evidence of King David. Written in Aramaic, it translates as follows: “…my father went up… and my father died, he went to – there is a little bit in brackets [his fate.. Is is not in the text but it continues on …rael formerly in my father’s land…I fought against Israel and Hadad went in front of me. Hadad went in front of me .. my king. And I slew them [X number of footmen, Y number of chariots] and two thousand horsemen…The King of Israel. And I slew” . . . then a little section that is not clear” . . . and then we have got, we have to supply the word [.. the kin-]g of the house of David.”

II Samuel 5:3- So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel.

I Kings 11:21- And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to mine own country.

Recently, an article published in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology by renowned Hebrew University archeologist Yosef Garfinkel, whose team has been digging four major sites in the Judean foothills since 2007. Among the finds are rectangular beams in groups of three which match descriptions of Solomon’s palace and temple and indicate that the pattern was used at the time of King Solomon’s reign. Tenth-century fortifications in the city of Lachish correspond to the biblical account of King Rehoboam. The Judean city of Khirbet Qeiyafa sits across the Elah Valley from the major Philistine city of Gath—matching descriptions of conflict between the House of David and these neighbors.   

There are many more, but just these few are proof enough that events in the Bible actually happened. They aren't just stories. They aren't myths. So, why would the first few chapters be filled with mythological tales? 

The truth is evident to anyone who is willing to review it with an open mind and an honest heart. And since these bear witness to the Bible's accuracy, then a wise man would come to the same conclusion as King Solomon.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14- Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Seeing as we will be judged. It would behoove us to ensure that the verdict is in our favor.

Job 34:4- Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good.Romans 5:18- Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 10:13- For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The Memoirs Of The Flood

If there was a global catastrophe where only eight people survived, wouldn't there be stories told about it? Yes, there would.

There are actually hundreds of stories and legends about a worldwide flood, in nearly every ancient culture. They can be found in historic records all around the world. According to Dr. Duane Gish in his popular book Dinosaurs by Design, there are more than 270 such stories, most of which share a common theme and similar characters.

Remember, they didn't have the internet, or telephones, or even the postal service to be able to send messages to each other about this epic story. The only way they could all have a legend about a similar experience was that it actually happened and was passed down as a tale from their ancestors.

In the Bible, we learn that Noah’s descendants stayed together for approximately 100 years, until God confused their languages at Babel. As these people broke up into smaller groups and move away from each other, they all took the history and lesson of the flood with them to pass on to their future generations.

Genesis 11:5-9- And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The devil wants to convince people that the flood never happened so he can make people believe the Bible is untrue. If the flood never happened, why are there stories about it in ancient cultures all over the world?

People in ancient cultures, such as Sumer, Babylon, and Egypt, have written stories of the destruction of sinful mankind in a disaster, which usually involved a great flood from which only a small group of people survived. Some even include references to the rainbow.

Hawaiians have a flood story that tells of a time when, long after the death of the first man, the world became a wicked, terrible place. Only one good man was left, and his name was Nu-u. He made a great canoe with a house on it and filled it with animals. In this story, the waters came up over all the earth and killed all the people; only Nu-u and his family were saved.

Another flood story is from China. It records that Fuhi, his wife, three sons, and three daughters escaped a great flood and were the only people alive on earth. After the great flood, they repopulated the world. In fact, the ancient Chinese character for boat was made up of the root symbols for vessel, eight, and people.

As the story was passed from one generation to the next, the details would get distorted or exaggerated, but they all contain the same idea- the entire world was destroyed by a flood!

The Babylonians have a few different flood stories, but the most notable is in the epic of Gilgamesh. In this story, the Babylonian god Ea sends a flood to destroy humanity, except for Utnapishtim and his family. Utnapishtim builds a boat and saves animals and the seeds of all living things. Finally, he lands on a mountain in what is now Kurdistan. Ut-napištim releases birds to check if there is land in sight, and there was. He sacrifices once he leaves the boat.

In Greek legend, When Zeus, the king of the gods, resolved to destroy all humanity by a flood, Deucalion constructed an ark in which, according to one version, he and his wife rode out the flood and landed on Mount Parnassus. Afterwards, they offered a sacrifice and asked how to renew the human race.

In the Mayan culture, the people of a certain stage of creation became unruly and gave up proper worshiping of the gods. This angered the gods, and the rain god Tlaloc decided to flood the earth to destroy its human inhabitants. Only a good couple, Tata and his wife, Nena, were to be spared.

The Cree people, natives of Canada, say that God sent the flood because people became completely disobedient. But a good man named Wesaketchan “built a large raft on which he boarded all his family, as well as a pair of all the birds and all the animals.” The man sent out a raven and a dove, the latter of which “returned with a piece of clay in its legs. The man concluded that the earth was quite dry, and he landed."

In western Canada, we find a multitude of peoples with traditions that testify to the truth of the Genesis record. Among these, the Lillooet people, in 1905, told anthropologist James Teit their sacred tradition. A man named Ntci’nemkin “had a very large canoe, in which he took refuge with his family.” The floodwaters rose “until all the land was submerged except the peak of the high mountain called Split. The canoe drifted about until the waters receded, and it grounded on Smimelc Mountain.” When the waters went down, the survivors came out and repopulated the earth.

The Michoacáns told the first Spanish colonizers their account of the flood in which their Noah, whom they called Tezpi, “embarked in a spacious ‘acalli’ with his wife, his children, several animals, and grain, the preservation of which was of importance to mankind. When the great spirit, Tezcatlipoca, ordered the waters to withdraw, Tezpi sent out from his bark a vulture.” This bird did not return to him, finding many carcasses to eat from. Then, “Tezpi sent out other birds, one of which, the hummingbird alone, returned, holding in its beak a branch covered with leaves.” The man, seeing that fresh vegetation was growing on the earth again, left his vessel “near the mountain of Colhuacan.”

The Cabécar seemingly have combined the memory of the garden of Eden and the flood. They spoke of a magical tree, a woman who was bitten by a serpent, a test by a god named Sibu to see whether the people obeyed him. Sibu “saw that all the earth’s inhabitants behaved very badly, that they forgot and denied that he was the one who had created them. So he sent the flood. The majority of the people had died, having drowned in the punishment. But others who “kept the commands” of Sibu were helped, and were enabled to build an enormous raft, by which they survived the flood and waited until the waters subsided.

There are many more, but from just these few we can see that ancient civilizations knew about both creation and the flood, and that the flood was a punishment for the wickedness of mankind. How could so many cultures have a story about the exact same thing if it is all just a myth that never happened?

Job 22:15-16- Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood: 

Jesus talked about the flood while He was on the earth. It was not a story told to appease curious children, but a warning that judgment came in the past and would come again in the future.

Luke 17:26-27- And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

People want to say that the flood was a myth because they don't want to think of themselves as sinners which will one day be judged. But the Bible says that God will judge everyone- even the angels.

II Peter 2:4-5- For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

One day you will meet the Lord God Almighty. You can choose to meet Him now as through Jesus Christ as your Savior, or you can choose to meet Him at the Judgment.

Joshua 24:14-15- Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

The choice is yours.

The Folly Of The Geologic Column

While Lyell hoped that his theory could give an explanation for the formation of the world outside that of Creation, he had some pretty big problems that weren't easily rationed away.

The Geologic Column is a series of rock layers that cover the earth; each layer representing many eras over “millions of years.” Colorful scientific charts depict these stacks of rock layers full of dinosaur fossils, along with other creatures that supposedly lived millions of years ago.

If you've ever been to the Grand Canyon, you will see what some of these are. They are real layers of sediment that have been stacked on top of each other. The question is, how long did that actually take?

Uniformitarianism believes that these layers took a very long time to form. Why? Because they look at how things are today and apply it to the past. Today, we see that rock layers form very slowly through natural processes like erosion sweeping sediment from one place and depositing it in a layer somewhere else. They don't like to view these as a result of something catastrophic- like a tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, volcanic eruption, or flood.

The fact is that catastrophic events can cause these same layers at a rapid pace. Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, and formed a rock unit 25 feet thick, composed of thousands of thin sedimentary layers, in mere hours. The eruption of Mount St. Helens was a local event, but it shows how quickly rock layers and geological structures could form in a global catastrophe.

The Bible describes such a catastrophe in Genesis.

Genesis 7:11-12- In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

I live in Louisiana, and we have some pretty long days of rain. However, we get about a foot of rain and it's local. The rain that happened in Noah's day was significant, and it occurred globally.

Genesis 7:17-22- And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

Using the genealogies and dates given in the Bible, we know the flood happened about 1,500 years after creation and about 4,500 years ago.

Ken Ham explains, "A worldwide flood would mean millions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. And that’s exactly what we find. The flood accounts for most of the fossil-bearing rock layers. Scientists have recently discovered that mud particles in rapidly moving water can clump together (as floccules) and be quickly laid down in multiple layers."

Whether looking in the Grand Canyon one mile above sea level or on the highest mountain range on earth today, the Himalayas, you can find marine fossils. How did sea creatures get on top of mountains if there wasn't a flood?

Speaking of fossils, how did they happen? When something dies, it quickly decays. Yet they've found fossilized animals eating each other (that's a very slow eater if it took millions of years!). They've found fossils with undigested foods in their stomachs. That could only happen if the animals died quickly and then were buried under sediment and subjected to a great deal of pressure.

Dr Andrew Snelling explains, "The violent plate tectonics released water from the earth, likely accompanied by lava. And beginning in the ocean basins (the great deep), the flood first overcame sea creatures like trilobites, clams and fish, which we find early in the fossil record. Then the floodwaters rose over the land, burying coastal creatures, like amphibians and reptiles, and later mammals.  Animals were overcome and buried so rapidly that many details are preserved in fossils: for example, the compound lenses of the trilobites’ eyes, a fish swallowing another fish midbite, and even a reptile giving birth."

The Grand Canyon shows us that there is little to no erosion between these layers. If it took millions of years, wouldn't plants have grown? Wouldn't rivers have carved out ravines through the landscape? Did nothing happen for millions of years?

Of course not! The boundaries between rock layers are typically knife-edge flat, containing no erosion evidence, indicating those layers were rapidly laid down, one after another, during the months of the flood.

SURTSEY Is a brand new island that formed off the coast of Iceland in 1963. It was reported in "New Scientist" in 2007 that the island featured canyons, gullies, and other land features that allegedly take millions of years to form. Similar to the regrowth of Mt. St. Helens, which saw remarkable growth in only ten plus years,  Surtsey goes even further in demonstrating rocky crags, cliffs, hollows, glens, sandy beaches, lagoons, channels, and soft land fractures. The rapid formation of the island undermines old-earth assumptions that features like these take millions of years to form.

Another anomaly is the precambrian rock layer, which contains microorganisms and microfossils (so small and very hard to see). Then suddenly we have the cambrian rock layer which contains tons of fossils; all fully formed, by the way, there are no "missing links" to prove evolution in these fossils. What happened to make such an explosion of large fossils when there weren't hardly any before? A cataclysmic event!

Ken Ham explains the precambrian fossils, or lack thereof, like this, "The Bible says that God made the land appear out of the water on day three of creation, and he created animals on days five and six of creation. So there were only two or three days of separation between land and animals, rather than billions of years. Knowing that, how do creationists interpret the lowest rock layers? They were likely formed by the uplift of the land rising out of the water on day three of creation."

In three days, the only thing that would grow would be algae-like microorganisms, which is exactly what they find in the precambrian rock layer. Then an explosion of fossils occurs in what they call the cambrian rock layer. Why? Because there was a catastrophe that killed a lot of animals very quickly- a global flood.

Conclusion- there is no evidence of evolutionary process in the fossils of the geologic column! 

The Rise Of Atheism

 Atheism didn't occur overnight. It was a long process that began because of the Roman Catholic Church. For almost a thousand years, anyone who disagreed with the teachings of the church was persecuted, tortured, or killed. This led to people associating a religious system's totalitarianism with God. When people had enough of being told what they could or could not believe by threat of death, they revolted.

Matthew 23:13-15- But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

The turmoil from both the church and the ruling classes' actions in France fueled a revolution. Protest mobs started attacking nobility and clergy, and executions of anyone from the ruling class or a religious sect swept the country. If clergy, aristocrats, wealthy nobles, commoners, and soldiers are included, the estimated number of deaths was up to 1,000,000. 

This civil war ushered in a time of reforms in France, which spread to Europe and across the world. The Age of Enlightenment was the intellectual and philosophical movement that occurred in Europe in the 17th and the 18th centuries. 

The "Enlightenment" featured a range of social ideas centered on the value of knowledge learned by way of rationalism and of empiricism and political ideals such as natural law, liberty, and progress, toleration, constitutional government, and the formal separation of church and state.

Inevitably, this method of empiricism was applied to religion itself. This thought process was the beginning of the rise of "reason" and the theory of evolution, which is the backbone of atheism.

James Hutton believed that the physical world's remote history can be inferred from evidence in present-day rocks. He developed the theory that geological features could not be static but underwent continuing transformation over indefinitely long periods of time. From this he argued, in agreement with many other early geologists, that the Earth could not be young. 

Ecclesiastes 1:5-9- The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Building on this idea, Charles Lyell wrote Principles of Geology which described how he believed the Earth's surface was changing over time. This thought process became known as uniformitarianism, the idea that Earth’s geologic processes acted in the same manner and with essentially the same intensity in the past as they do in the present and that such uniformity is sufficient to account for all geologic change. His book convinced many scientists that evolution had occurred.

Charles Darwin read Lyell's book and applied this theory to biology. He proposed that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor, just not Adam and Eve. Darwin took a five-year voyage, and during that time, devised his theory of natural selection as an explanation for why organisms are adapted to their physical and biological environments which he published in a book titled The Origin Of The Species. 

Many scientists argued about the theory of natural selection over the next hundred years. It wasn't until the early 1900's that the theory of evolution became known as it is today. Julian Huxley, actually came up with the name "evolution" when describing modern synthesis, a combination of the ideas of  natural selection, Mendelian genetics, and population genetics. Evolution is the idea that the genetic material of a population changes over time, resulting in adaptations to environmental changes. These changes can lead to new species, traits, and altered genes.

Romans 1:21-23, 25- Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

The conclusion of this theory was that All life on Earth shares a universal common ancestor which lived over 3 billion years ago. Fossils and living creatures today are a result of repeated formations of new species, changes within species, and the loss, or extinction, of species throughout the evolutionary history of life on Earth. Evolution can occur if there is genetic variation over time within a population which influences specific behavioural and physical adaptations.  

If life was billions of years old, then the earth must be older. Evolutionists believe the earth is roughly 5 billion years old (or older). A self-replicating molecule was thought to have occurred around 4 billion years ago, and then half a billion years later the common ancestor of all life existed. The current scientific consensus is that the complex biochemistry that makes up life came from simpler chemical reactions.

According to evolutionists, the history of life was that of the evolution of multicellularity (more than one cell) about 610 million years ago when multicellular organisms began to appear in the oceans. Soon after the emergence of these first multicellular organisms, a remarkable amount of biodiversity appeared over approximately 10 million years, known as the Cambrian explosion. Then, roughly 500 million years ago, plants and fungi colonised the land and were soon followed by arthropods and other animals.  Amphibians first appeared around 364 million years ago, followed by early amniotes and birds around 155 million years ago (both from "reptile"-like lineages), mammals around 129 million years ago, Homininae around 10 million years ago and modern humans around 250,000 years ago.

In their minds, this explains everything. There's no need for a Creator when a chemical cocktail could potentially cause a complex living organism. Hence, the atheist was born, and their motto 'God is dead' began the ideology behind all current social mores. Ethics and morals are not defined by God and therefore one only needs to do what feels right to them. There is no fear of judgment by an all powerful, all knowing entity, therefore forbidden curiosities and rational impossibilities are no longer inhibited, and live and let live has been the anthem of the last few decades.

Romans 1:28-31- And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

What is the end of this mindset? Solomon found out, and laid it all out for us in the book of Ecclesiastes. His summary was utter hopelessness.

Ecclesiastes 2:18-20- Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity. Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun. 

What Does the Rapture Mean? (video sermon)

Believer's Heritage- Thomas Lamb

 ​Thomas Lamb was a pastor and evangelist during the seventeenth century.

His birth date and parentage are unknown. He lived with his wife, Dorcas Prentice, and eight children in St Giles in Colchester, England. They were excommunicated from the Church of England in 1636, for failing to attend worship services, and for refusing to have one of their children baptized.

Thomas Lamb was a Baptist pastor during turbulent times. King Charles I had a Catholic wife who sought to use her position to bring Catholicism back into the Church of England. 

King Charles I used the archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, to purge England of dissenting groups. Laud dragged Thomas Lamb in chains from his home town to London. The Archbishop asked him, "If he had dared to administer the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper?" Lamb pleaded the right of an Englishman not to bear witness against himself, and refused to answer. He was kept in prison for four months. When he was released with the injunction "not to preach, baptize or frequent any conventicle.", he instead went right back to preaching. He was said to have stated, "the man was not fit to preach who would not preach for God's sake, though he were sure to die for it as soon as he had done."

Lamb moved to London around 1640 and began to pastor the Coleman Street Church in Bell Alley. He was joined there by other leaders, Samuel Oates and Henry Denne. Thomas Lamb was a close associate of Richard Overton, a "Leveller," who ran an underground printing operation from Bell Alley.

The Levellers were a movement which some have stated was England's first political party. They were led by artisans and working class people. They wanted parliamentary terms, voting rights for all men (during this time only property owners were allowed to vote), absolute freedom of religion,  abolishment of capital punishment for theft, and abolishment of imprisonment for debt. This belief of "general redemption" caused Lamb and his followers to be called General Baptists.

Lamb traveled across England preaching, baptizing, and planting churches. It was said that he had been jailed in nearly every prison in London, but when he was released, he returned to preaching, writing, and pastoring in the church.

Even though he was persecuted by the government, he condemned any violence against them. 

To escape the persecution of his enemies, he joined the military. Mr. Lamb was made chaplain to Colonel Hunke's regiment. This allowed him to preach among the soldiers and officers. He baptized six of the soldiers in the sea on various occasions. The ship in which he sailed was believed to be part of the fleet that picked up King Charles II in the year 1660. Afterwards, he was implicated in a mutiny, he was sentenced to be shot. He was granted a pardon but was stripped of his duty as ship’s chaplain.  

During the civil war, he can be traced going through Gloucestershire, Norfolk, Essex, Surrey, Hampshire, Kent, and Wiltshire​ preaching and annoying the local clergy.

Lamb was most noted for his writings. He wrote The Fountain Of Free Grace Opened, a Treatise of Particular Predestination, The Unlawfulness of Infant Baptism,  and Absolution from Sin by Christ's Death for the World.

He believed Jesus died on the cross for everyone, that we can do nothing to earn salvation, that we are incapable of being saved by works, and that anyone, anywhere, could come to Christ through hearing and responding to the gospel. He also believed in eternal security.

There are some who say the early Baptists poured water on those they would baptize instead of immersing them under the water; they are contradicted by historical documents that recorded Lamb as baptizing converts in the Severn River and the Colne River by immersion. Lamb was clear that baptism was an ordinance that be administered only to those who have already experienced salvation. He believed it was blasphemy to attribute to water baptism what only the blood of Christ could do- redeem a soul.

Lamb's occupation was noted as a soap boiler. After the collapse of the Leveller movement, Lamb became a Philanthropist donating to many charities and advocating for the improvement of prisons. He died an old man with hundreds said to have attended his funeral.

What a Friend (song)

He Is Still Coming (poem)

Sabre’s are rattling, storms array. 
Earthquakes over and over, Look not away. 
Men are filled with lust, poverty and need, 
Open your eyes wide, Look and see! 

While these things happen year after year, 
His​ coming is soon, it is very near. 
Don’t be distracted away from God, 
Soon many will see his chastening rod. 

See the warnings, take heed today, 
Have faith in God’s Word, no matter what men may say! 
Stay faithful to God my dear friend, 
Refrain from following this world in sin. 

Encourage one another with His promises so true, 
When you encourage others, God will encourage you!
Keep your eyes upon our Lord,
 While this world kills, steals and hordes. 

Trust in the strength of God’s Holy Lamb, 
Run and tell others who without Him are damned. 
Satan wants to distract you from reaching those who are in his grip, 
He will do all he can to cause you to stumble and trip. 

Never forget the power of the great “I AM”, 
Can reach that lost soul by the blood of the Lamb! 
So hasten quickly, do not delay, 
We know not the moment, the hour or the day! 

-Karen M Patterson 

The Sign Of The Prophet Jonah

When Christ said that the only sign He would give would be the sign of the prophet Jonah, it was a very telling statement.

Luke 11:29-30- And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.

Jonah was the only Old Testament prophet from the region of Galilee. He was from Gathhepher, a border town in the Northern Kingdom of Israel just West of the Sea of Galilee.

II Kings 14:25- He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.

There was a reason that Christ was asking them if they had ever read certain things out of the Scriptures. But they showed their arrogance quite well in John 7 when they were arguing with Nicodemus on the subject.

John 7:52-53- They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house.

No one even searched. No one looked. No one bothered to even question.

So what exactly is it about the story of Jonah that Christ wanted the Jews to understand?

First, Jonah was a prophet to the Kingdom of Israel. This is the kingdom that split from Rehoboam after the death of Solomon. They set up their new idols in Bethel and claimed Samaria as their capital city. This kingdom fell under God's judgment for their idolatry around 700 BC and was carried away captive to the nation of Assyria.

He was called by God to go to the Gentile city of Nineveh. While Jonah was a Jewish prophet, he was given a command to go preach against the very capital city of the Assyrian Empire. The message was very simple, "Repent or perish".

Jonah, however, didn't want to go. He explains why he ran in the very last chapter of the book. He knew that God could be merciful if people humbled themselves.

Jonah 4:2- And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

The sign that Jesus was referencing was the most notable story that is commonly told to children in Sunday school- the story of Jonah and the whale.

Matthew 12:40- For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

We all know the story. Jonah disobeyed God and ran to get on a ship going in the opposite direction. While on the vessel out at sea, a storm arose and the sailors feared for their lives. When they found out it was Jonah's fault, they tried everything they could to save themselves and the ship, but eventually had to relent and follow Jonah's directions.

Jonah 1:15- So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

But God wasn't done with Jonah. He had a great fish- a whale according to Jesus- who came along at that very moment and swallowed Jonah whole.

Jonah 1:17- Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah prayed to the Lord while he was inside the whale's belly. He poured out his heart to God. Notice the words that Jonah uses. It sounds an awful lot like he died inside the whale and the Lord brought him back.

Jonah 2:2,5,6- And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.

The fish obeyed God and swam to the surface and spit Jonah out of his stomach onto the dry land. 

This time, Jonah obeyed God and went and preached to Nineveh. This was the last message that Jonah gave. The story ends with him out in the Assyrian desert telling God that he wished to die.

The book itself ends with a question from God.

Jonah 4:11- And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

Jonah feared that the Lord would show mercy to these wicked Gentiles. But, perhaps his fear had another variable. Because if the Lord showed mercy, then Jonah's time as a prophet was over.

Deuteronomy 18:22- When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Jonah spent three days and three nights inside a whale, came out and preached his last message, many Gentiles repented, and then his ministry was over.

This is what happened with Christ. He died and was buried for three days and three nights, came out and preached his last message and then ascended into heaven. That was the end of His earthly ministry. And since that time, many Gentiles have repented.

Why are there people who want to refute the account of Jonah and the whale? Some, perhaps, innocently believe that it is a myth or an impossible story, but others because they know if the story is true, then that means that Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is also true.

Much of the argument goes that a whale cannot swallow a human because their throats are so small. But, we have recent history that shows this idea to be false.In 2021, a lobster diver by the name of Michael Packard was swallowed by a humpback whale. He was in scuba gear and started thrashing around inside the whale's mouth. The whale didn't like it and swam to the surface and shook him out. He lived, and he and his crewmates who saw the ordeal had an epic story to tell.

This isn't the only time this has happened.

In 1891, it was reported that during a whaling expedition off the Falkland Islands, James Bartley's boat was attacked by a sperm whale, and he fell off the boat and landed inside the whale's mouth. His crew harpooned the creature, and began skinning the whale because of the hot weather which would have rotted the whale meat. He was carved out of the stomach by his peers during the process. It was said that he was in the whale for 36 hours and it was also said that his skin had been bleached by the gastric juices, and that he was blind the rest of his life. He died 18 years later and his tombstone in Gloucester says "James Bartley- a modern day Jonah".

Our modern news media keeps the world apprised of the most recent tales, however, before the advent of newspapers, stories such as these would have been told by mouth to those who came in contact with the witnesses.

The argument that it is impossible for a man to be swallowed by a whale and live has been proven false! The Bible is true. The account of Jonah is true. Jesus being God's Son and dying for our sins, being buried for three days and three nights, and then rising again is true. And it is also true that His sacrifice on Calvary is the only acceptable payment for the sin debt.

Christ's earthly ministry as a prophet occurred during His first coming. He was the prophet foretold by Moses. He came to take away the sins of the world.

Deuteronomy 18:15- The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

Once He ascended, that part of His ministry was over. He is now in heaven at the right hand of God making intercession for those who have accepted His payment for their sin debt.

Hebrews 7:22,25- By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

He didn't stay dead; He won't stay gone. When Christ comes again, His second advent, it won't be a prophet. It will be as the King of Kings. He's coming to rule and reign.

Revelation 11:15- And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

It's your decision as to how you will meet Him. You can meet Him as your Savior while you are still alive on this earth, or you can meet Him as your judge after you've died. But you will meet Him one day, just as surely as Jonah was swallowed by the whale.

Daniel's Seventy Weeks

Some religious scholars call the Tribulation Period the "Time of Jacob's Trouble" or "Daniel's Seventieth Week". Why do they use these two phrases to describe this coming time?

The first, the Time of Jacob's Trouble, comes from a single verse in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 30:7- Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

Many of the Old Testament prophets spoke about a coming troublesome time period where almost the entire world would turn against the Jewish people. Many thought that they had arrived at that point during World War II with Hitler's concentration camps.

The frightening reality is that the Tribulation Period will be so much worse than the horrors of World War II!

Daniel was told that there were seventy weeks where trouble would come upon the city of Jerusalem. There is even a sort-of timetable given.

Daniel 9:24-27-Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Trying to break this down has been quite a challenge for even the most learned theologian. Some things are quite easy to understand, while others are very difficult. 

With God, you cannot take just one verse and use it to come to a conclusion. The Bible is written in a way that you will get more understanding by looking at many verses that all deal with the same topic.

Numbers 14:34- After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Ezekiel 4:6- And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

God has told the Jews before that when He passes judgment that He exacts more than was committed (reaping more than they sowed). In these two verses, He gives a year of punishment for each day of rebellion. This is why we reference these weeks as 7-year periods of time.

The first part of the verse above speaks about the restoration and rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity and ends with the Messiah. Most Jewish people had no idea that the Messiah would have two comings- one where He died, and a second one much later where He reigned.

Daniel 9:25- Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

Seven weeks plus threescore and two weeks (or sets of seven). The Bible never does anything without reason, and there is a reason why this is divided up in this manner. 7 weeks, and 62 weeks- however, this only adds up to 69 Weeks (missing the 70th week). 

This means there will be at least three different dates associated with these total Seventy Weeks. 

Daniel 9:2- In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

God tells Daniel that Jeremiah the prophet was correct when he prophesied that the land of Israel would be desolate for 70 years as a punishment to them for not keeping the Law of Moses.

Jeremiah 25:11- And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

But after the seventy years, the Jewish people would return to the land of Israel and rebuild it.

Jeremiah 29:10- For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

Both Cyrus and Artaxerxes sent out calls for Jerusalem to be rebuilt; Cyrus around 537 BC, and Artaxerxes I Longimanus issued the decree around 457 BC. That's an 80-year time gap.

Cyrus was prophesied to issue this decree by Isaiah. He is the one who started the whole recolonizing effort.

Isaiah 44:28- That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

Ezra is a unique historical book because it gives you the original story of Cyrus' decree, and just a few chapters later gives you the same proclamation from Artaxerxes. The difference of about 80 years between chapter 1 and chapter 7!

Ezra 1:1-4- Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

The second temple is estimated to have been completed around 516 BC, during the sixth year of the reign of Darius.

Ezra 6:15-17- And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy, And offered at the dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

However, the city of Jerusalem wasn't completed until later.

The entire proclamation of Artaxerxes is in Ezra 7:11-26. 

Ezra 7:12-13- Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.

Anyone who was willing was granted permission to return to Jerusalem. The King also said that they would supply any requirements needed to accomplish this work.

But it wasn't such an easy task. Throughout Ezra and Nehemiah, you see where the local population tried their hardest to hinder the rebuilding. The walls of the city are estimated to have been completed under Nehemiah around 425 BC.

I believe that these first seven weeks had to do with how long it would take to accomplish the building. The religious leaders tell Jesus that it took 46 years to build the temple.

John 2:20- Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

The walls took 52 days for Nehemiah and the workers with him to build.

Nehemiah 6:15- So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.

But, that didn't include the homes inside the walls for the people to dwell in. The Bible doesn't tell us how long it took them to build the homes, and complete the rebuilding of the city.

Nehemiah 7:4- Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded.

 Should I hazard a guess, I would say about 3 years to rebuild the homes.

This is where we get the first seven weeks, or 49 years.

If this is indeed the case, then that tells us why there was a separation of the first two weekly sets. One set would be the completion of the rebuilding of the city, while the other set would start the timetable until the Messiah.

Christ was born at the turn of the millennium. We place His birth at AD 0 BC. He began His ministry when He was about 30 years old.

Luke 3:21-23- Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,

He walked this earth for about three and a half years, and then was rejected by the Jews and crucified by the Romans around 34 AD. This was also foretold in Daniel, but the Jewish religious leaders just couldn't understand it.

Daniel 9:26a- And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:

The Messiah was always destined to die for the sins of mankind. It was always the plan. Way back in Genesis, it was pictured by the lamb that was slain to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve after they sinned. It was represented by the lamb that was killed at the first Passover where the blood on the door protected the firstborn. It was told in the Law of Moses that the blood of a lamb was the only thing that would be accepted as an offering for sin. Christ came to be the Lamb of God which would die to take away the sins of the world.

Those first seven weeks are a different timetable than the last sixty-two weeks. From the rebuilding to the death of the Messiah is 62 weeks. If Christ was crucified in 34 AD, this means that the beginning of those 62 weeks was 400 BC- the time around the prophet Malachi when God fell silent and there were no prophecies to the Jewish people.

Malachi's last words were for the Jewish people to look for Elijah.

Malachi 3:1- Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 4:5- Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

John the Baptist was the fulfillment of this prophesy. He was the one sent to open the eyes of the Jewish people and prepare their hearts to accept the Messiah.

John 1:6-9, 15, 23, 29- There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

An interesting phenomenon in the Bible is where a simple punctuation mark can actually be a difference of thousands of years. In Daniel 9:26, that is exactly what is happening. From the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah to the time when the Man of Sin begins his administration has been a gap of almost 2,000 years.

Daniel 9:26b-27- and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

This is where we get the timeframe for the Tribulation. The covenant is for one week; the Tribulation is for seven years. In the middle of the Tribulation, the Man of Sin gets assassinated and is raised as the Son of Perdition, Satan incarnate. The Antichrist breaks the covenant with Israel and begins slaughtering anyone who refuses to take his mark and worship him.

A few things need to happen before this portion of Scripture can come to pass. First, the Temple needs to be rebuilt. A covenant will need to be established. And a smooth talking politician needs to begin his rise to power.

Daniel 11:20-21- Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle. And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

The politician is the Man of Sin. He will be assassinated, and when he resurrects it will be the devil incarnate, the Son of Perdition, the Antichrist, who takes the reins.

Revelation 13:1-4- And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

It's a question that most humans alive will ask. How do you defeat someone who can come back from the dead? It's the reason why so many will willingly bow to his demands, even though they know it means eternal damnation.

Revelation 13:16-18- And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

People will line up to take that mark, because they won't be able to buy food without it. The Covid pandemic was a dry run to see how well people would comply.

II Thessalonians 2:3-4- Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

This is what Daniel meant by the abomination of desolation. When the devil sits on the throne and declares himself to be god, it's just the beginning of his war on humanity. He will destroy the world.

Daniel 12:11- And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

1,290 days is about three and a half years. There are 3.5 years where the Man of sin rules, and then 3.5 years where the Antichrist rules.

If you are alive when this happens, you should obey Christ's instructions in Matthew- run and hide.

Matthew 24:15-22- When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Get you a King James Bible and learn to live off what's left of the land. Because you will be hunted and killed for not accepting the mark. This is not a time anyone wants to live through. None of the apocalyptic movies can show just how awful this period will be.

If you are wise, you'll take steps now to get saved and avoid that Tribulation.