Death By Chocolate Cake recipe

 Cake:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together well.

Pour into a greased 9 X 13 baking dish.

Bake at 350* for 35 - 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Set aside and allow to cool.

Icing:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a bowl, combine butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar.

Slowly add the milk as you beat the ingredients until fluffy.

Add milk and/or powdered sugar (more or less as required to thicken or thin) until you achieve a good spreadable consistency.

Spread on cooled cake.

How To Avoid Bad Advice (video sermon)

God Said No (prose)

I asked God to take away my pride,
And God said, “No.”
He said it was not for Him to take it away,
But for me to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole,
And God said, “No.”
He said her spirit already is,
While her body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience,
And God said, “No.”
He said patience is a by-product of tribulation;
It isn’t granted, it is earned.

I asked God to give me happiness,
And God said, “No.”
He said “I give blessings;
Happiness is up to you.”

I asked God to spare me pain,
And God said, “No.”
He said, “Suffering draws you apart from
Worldly cares and brings you closer to Me.”

I asked God to make my spirit grow,
And God said, “No.”
He said I must grow on my own,
But He will prune me to make me fruitful.

I asked God if He loved me,
And God said, “Yes.”
He gave me His only Son, who died for me.
And I will be in heaven someday.

I asked God to help me love others
As much as He loves me,
And God said,
“Ah, finally, you have the idea.”

-Claudia Minden Weisz

The Women of Revelation

When people think of Bible prophecy, they almost always go to the book of Revelation. Unless you are an industrious student of the Bible, the movies regarding the apocalypse are pretty much the narrative that you follow regarding prophecy of end times.

But the Bible has so much more prophecy throughout it. And, Revelation contains more than just future predictions.

There are four women mentioned in the book of Revelation. These women can tell us something about how God views mankind.

The first is Jezebel.

Revelation 2:20- Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

God is speaking to the churches located throughout Asia Minor. And with these churches, he is warning Christians through the Church Age what they need to pay attention to and watch out for.

The church in Thyatira is the fourth church mentioned by John. He starts out with some good compliments regarding their charity, service, and faith. But then he throws in the verse about them bearing with the woman Jezebel.

In the few verses that follow, God gives prophecy about what will happen to this woman.

Revelation 2:21-23- And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

This woman makes God so angry that not only does He bring judgment upon her, but upon her children, and upon the churches that allow her deeds.

Who is Jezebel? Jezebel was the princess daughter of the Zidonians, who were known for worshipping Baal and Ashtoreth. They were Phoenecians who lived in Sidon. She married the King of Israel, Ahab, and caused him to commit wickedness. She's known for being conniving and murderous.

I Kings 16:31- And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

I Kings 21:25- But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.

Jezebel turned the nation of Israel away from worshiping the Lord God Almighty and instead brought them the idol Baal, the sun god, to worship. 

When the Roman Catholic Church came to power, they mixed paganism with Judaism and Christianity- a leavened mess of idolatry and tradition. The church in Thyatira didn't stand up and preach against the idolatry that was coming in claiming to be true Christianity. Instead of worshiping a risen Savior who died for mankind, the people began to worship His mother and other humans they deemed "saints". This not only damned their souls to hell with a sense of false salvation, it set up their religion as a substitute for those who wanted to appear righteous.

Matthew 23:28- Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

The second woman mentioned doesn't have a name, only a description.

Revelation 12:1-6- And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

The description of this woman matches a woman in a dream Joseph had back in the Old Testament. Jacob actually gives us the interpretation of who is being talked about.

Genesis 37:9-10- And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

The stars were his brothers, and the sun and moon were his parents. This woman who has the moon under her feet, clothed with the sun, and is holding the stars in her crown is a typology of the nation of Israel. She is giving birth to a man child that many people think is Christ, but it isn't.

The timing of this event is during the Tribulation. The dragon mentioned here is the same one mentioned with our next woman. And this dragon wants to destroy this man child, but God steps in and raptures it before it can be harmed.

This child is a picture of the Jewish male virgins that get chosen by God during the first part of the Tribulation.

Revelation 7:1-4- And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Later, you read how they were saved from Great Tribulation, just as the man child is taken to heaven before the woman flees to the wilderness for three and a half years.

For those who don't know, the Tribulation time period has two distinct parts. Part one is the tribulation where the man of sin, a smooth talking politician, is building his kingdom. Part two is the great tribulation where the AntiChrist takes over and is literally killing any who oppose and don't submit to him.

The third woman is connected with both Jezebel and the dragon.

Revelation 17:3-6- So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

This scarlet clad woman is the instrument through which humanity will be urged to worship the dragon, or the AntiChrist. This woman is the Roman Catholic Church.

How do I know?

Revelation 17:9- And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

What city sits on seven mountains? Rome, Italy is the city that sits on seven hills: Palatine, Capitoline, Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, Quirinal, and Viminal. There is no other city that is spread out over seven mountains!

Revelation 17:18- And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Now, what city has ever had rule over kings? Vatican city.

Did you notice the description of the Beast that she rides? It has seven heads and ten horns, just like the dragon mentioned above. But those who follow Satan will never get a fair deal.

Notice that he turns on her and those who rule with him help to destroy her.

Revelation 17:12-13- And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

Revelation 17:16- And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

The end of those who choose to follow the AntiChrist in the tribulation is eternal damnation.

Revelation 20:12, 15- And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

What is the Lamb's Book of Life? It is the book that God writes down the names of those who have accepted Christ as their Savior. The Lamb, is the Lord Jesus Christ, that died on Calvary to pay the debt for the sins of the world. But only those who believe the gospel and accept His sacrifice as payment for their sin will have their names written down in that book.

The last woman is the Lamb's wife, the Bride of Christ.

Revelation 21:9-10- And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Just like the woman in scarlet represented a city, so, too, does the Lamb's wife. This woman is New Jerusalem, the city where Christ will dwell for all eternity.

Revelation 21:22,24- And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

Those who get their names into the Book of Life will have access to this city.

Revelation 21:27- And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

If you think back to Jesus talking with His disciples, you will remember that He promised to make them a place to live for their service to Him.

John 14:2-3- In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

And with that also came the promise to return and take us with Him to dwell with Him. We call that the rapture.

These are some interesting women. One a nation, some a city of false religion, and one an eternal city of rest. You can possibly identify with one of these women. Are you walking with the seal of God, waiting for His return? Or are you blinded by a religious system that doesn't care about your eternal soul?

Revelation 22:6-7- And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

You have a choice in the matter. What decision do you make?

Summary of Church History (part 5)

 HOW THE SOUTH BECAME THE "BIBLE BELT" 

The term “Bible belt” was first used in reference to the Southeast United States by H. L. Mencken in the 1920’s. Some today use the term in a derogative sense, attempting to paint southern people as ignorant, right wing, religious fanatics. National politicians, especially liberal ones, have lost elections at times largely because they failed to win the southern vote. In the 2000 Presidential race, for instance, Senator Al Gore failed to carry his own home state of Tennessee, simply because he was just too liberal for his fellow Tennesseans. The south is unlike the rest of America, and one reason is its Biblical heritage. In spite of our many faults and sins today, the southeast United States does have a history worth knowing.

No doubt, there are many factors that contributed to the South’s coming to be known as “the Bible belt.” The Holy Spirit’s work during the first and second great awakenings (1720-1835) is likely the largest factor. It was during this period that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, were converted to the Lord Jesus Christ under the preaching of men like Gilbert Tennent, John Wesley, George Whitfield, Peter Cartwright, James McGready, and others. Such good traditions as the camp meeting and the mourner’s bench became as much ingrained in southern culture then as fried chicken and grits are now. But there was one preacher in the above list that stood head and shoulders above the rest, at least when it came to God’s plan for America. That man was George Whitfield, God’s “Elijah” for our country.

In the mid 1700’s, sometimes over 20,000 people would gather in open air meetings to hear the Spirit–filled preaching of Whitfield. Although he was an Anglican, he was not a conventional one. His preaching was very lively and dramatic, and extremely loud. Benjamin Franklin claimed that he could hear Whitfield’s preaching a mile away, and that was without microphones and PA systems. He was just too much for most “official” churches, so he resorted to open-air preaching in public. Thousands were converted to Christ as he preached this way in the New England colonies, in Georgia, and in South Carolina. When many of his converts began to study the Scriptures, they realized that infant baptism was found nowhere in God’s word, and they soon learned that immersion, not sprinkling, was the proper mode of baptism. Consequently, many of Whitfield’s converts became Baptists. Whitfield saw what was happening and commented, “All my chickens have turned into ducks!”

However, when the great evangelist preached in the back country of North Carolina, he did not see the favorable results to which he had grown accustomed, so he prayed that God would send a preacher “like John the Baptist” of old to preach in the wilderness and convert the thousands of lost souls. Little did he know that God would call one of his own converts to do the job.

That man was Shubal Stearns. If Whitfield was America’s Elijah, then Shubal Stearns was his southern “Elisha.” Stearns and his brother-in-law, Daniel Marshall, were converted to Christ in 1745 when Whitfield preached in Connecticut. Stearns was baptized in 1751 by Wait Palmer. Feeling the call of God on his life, he moved to Virginia and began laboring to reach the lost.

At this time, “Christianity” in the South was monopolized by the Church of England. It was normally illegal to practice any other faith, and being a Baptist was even worse since the Baptists refused to acknowledge infant baptism and would re-baptize any converts who had formally been sprinkled. The Baptists were firm believers in baptism by immersion only for true adult believers only. This was unpardonable in the eyes of the established state religion.

Shubal Stearns, known as a Separate Baptist, received a letter from some friends in North Carolina in 1755 which stated the desperate need of the gospel there and the spiritual hunger of the people. He was informed that people would travel forty miles (by horse and buggy, or even by foot) to hear a single sermon. This burdened his heart until the summer of 1755, when a group of 16 Christians left Opekton, Virginia, for western North Carolina with Stearns and his assistant Daniel Marshall leading the way.

They chose the crossroads at Sandy Creek for their settlement, a national crossroads between the North and the South. The Sandy Creek Baptist Church would be the first Separate Baptist church in the South, and this church would become God’s headquarters for His southern strategy. No one knew it at the time, but Whitfield’s prayer was about to be answered.

The Sandy Creek Baptist Church grew from 16 members in 1755 to over 600 members in only eighteen months. By 1759, three independent Baptist churches were in existence from the Sandy Creek Baptist Church, and their membership exceeded 900. God was clearly using the church at Sandy Creek as a “headquarters” or “training base” much like He used the church at Antioch in the New Testament. In the years ahead, the Lord would call 125 men and their families out of the church at Sandy Creek to preach the gospel. These men and their converts would literally invade the South for the Lord Jesus. The following is a brief breakdown of some of the first churches that were started, when and where they were started, and also the name of the preacher:

• Sandy Creek: 1755, NC, Shubal Stearns
• Abbot’s Creek: 1756, NC, Daniel Marshall
• Grassy Creek: 1756, NC, James Read
• Deep River: 1757, NC, Joseph Murphey, Phillip Mulkey
• New River: 1758, NC, Ezekiel Hunter
• Dan River: 1759, VA, Dutton Lane
• Black River: 1760, NC, John Newton
• Fairforrest: 1760, SC, Phillip Mulkey
• Trent: 1761, NC, James McDaniel
• Southwest: 1762, NC, Charles Markland
• Haw River: 1764, NC, Elnathan Davis
• Congaree: 1766, SC, Joseph Rees
• Stephens Creek: 1766, SC, Daniel Marshall
• Upper Spotsylvania: 1767, VA, Lewis Craig
• Staughton River (Blackwater): 1768, VA, William Murphy
• Fall Creek: 1769, VA, Samuel Harriss
• Goochland: 1771, VA, William Webber

From these churches and others, the Holy Spirit would direct the gospel of Jesus Christ into Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and eventually states further west such as Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. By 1812, largely due to the Baptist revivals and church plantings, there were over 2,100 Baptist churches in America with over 172,000 members. Most of these were and still are to be found in the south.

Then came the War Between the States and the revivals that broke out in the Confederate camps where well over 100,000 men received Christ in the early 1860's. Many of these men went on to become preachers, and their fruit remains until this day.

Throughout the 1800’s and the early 1900’s, the south would also be flooded with such false teachers as the Campbellites (Church of Christ), Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Charismatic groups (Assemblies of God, Pentecostals, etc.), but it was the old-time Baptists who endured many hardships, fought for and won religious liberty, and then flooded the south land with the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ. May God help us to learn more of them and teach others, and may we wear the Baptist name with honor until Jesus calls us home.

-James L Melton

Recommended Reading: Interested readers should purchase America in Crimson Red: The Baptist History of America by pastor James Beller.

Summary of Church History (part 4)

 After the reformation began, the world slowly changed. The Bible believers kept sending out missionaries. And the gospel spread throughout the world. There were now two distinct types of Christians- Old Reformers and Bible Believers.

Old reformers wanted to reform the Catholic Church - both Roman and Greek Orthodox- with the Scriptures. This includes John Knox, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and Cyril Lucas I. These men were saved Christians in the Catholic Church.

Their beliefs were amillennial- meaning they believed they were bringing in Christ’s kingdom, usually through force. Religious wars happened all over Europe and the Middle East.

There was another line who wanted a church apart from the Catholic Church. While the Old Reformers faced persecution from the Catholic Church, the Bible believers got it from both sides, being persecuted by both the Catholic Church and the Old Reformers, following in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul:

Philippians 1:29- For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

The discovery of the "new world" opened doors for both Christian missionaries and Catholic crusaders. Inhabitants of the Americas faced many troubling scenarios from new diseases to blood thirsty armies laying siege and claim for power hungry monarchies.

The Moravians of the 15th century Bohemia, modern day Czech Republic, were influenced by the Waldensians who migrated to Bohemia and Moravia in the 13th century. They believe in the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation of Jesus, and the Resurrection. They also believe in the importance of personal prayer, family devotion, and having a personal relationship with their Savior.

The Moravians were the first Protestant missionaries to operate on a large scale and are credited with starting the modern missionary movement. They were also the first to send everyday Christians to serve as missionaries, and the first to minister to enslaved people.

Two early Moravian missionaries, Johann Dober and David Nitschmann, sold themselves into slavery in order to take the gospel to the islanders of the West Indies. Working in bondage in the harsh conditions of a tropical climate, they reached many of them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

II Timothy 1:8- Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

The Huguenots were 16th century Christians in France. Even though they believed that salvation was achieved through individual faith in Christ and knowledge of scripture, they were Calvanistic in their view of salvation claiming that God had already chosen who would be saved and who would be damned, and that this choice was unconditional (predestination).

The Huguenots were led by John Calvin. He had people burned at the stake, including Michael Servetus, who was executed after being tried by Calvin and found guilty of heresy and burned at the stake. Calvin was especially upset that Servetus rejected his doctrine of predestination.

The Huguenots were persecuted by the Catholic majority in France and fled the country in the 17th century. They settled in many places, including England, the United States, and Africa.

Anabaptists were 16th Century Christians in Europe. Anabaptists believed that baptism should only be performed on adults who freely confess their faith in Christ. They also believed that the church should be a voluntary gathering of believers, and that the government should not have authority over church affiliation or theology. Modern day Baptists descend from these Christians.

Anabaptists were persecuted by both Protestants and Roman Catholics, often being drowned or burned at the stake. The persecution of Anabaptists in Europe led to mass emigration to North America by Amish, Quakers, and Mennonites.

 English Baptists, who originated in the 17th century, were a separatist congregation. They had an Arminian view of theology, believing that the Scriptures taught believers’ baptism as an ordinance, not a part of the salvation process. They believed in the free will of people to choose to be saved. They also believed that salvation was based on faith, not works.

The Baptists, also, had a number of practices, which included foot washing, anointing the sick with oil, the laying on of hands, lifelong pastorates, and refusing to eat blood.

It was during the early 1600's that a Scottish Monarch took the crown, joining Scotland and England under one ruler. King James I was a religious man who had studied Greek, French, and Latin under George Buchanan. He was aware that the current Bible translations were filled with errors. In an endeavor to unite the different religious factions of his day, he commissioned the translating of the King James Bible.

After King James, Charles II renewed persecution of Baptists along with other non-conformists in England. Those who were not willing to take an oath of allegiance to the king were assumed to be seditious.

Confusion of the Calvinist movement in England squashed the power of the Bible believers. The prevailing belief was  “if Christ died not for all but only for the elect, it is useless to invite all to repent and believe in Him”. 

The state of the Protestant churches at the time of the Great Awakening was a cold, dead service. When the evangelical movement began within the Church of England in the 18th century, the tenets of the Baptists were renewed- the authority of the Bible, personal conversion, and a relationship with Jesus Christ..

John Wesley and Charles Wesley are among the most notable evangelists. They were called Methodists because of the methodological approach to spreading the gospel. The Wesleyans and the Methodists are their descendants.

George Whitfield was a contemporary of the Wesley brothers, he helped spread the revival throughout Britain and in the British American colonies. At Oxford he became close friends of the Wesleys, and at their invitation, joined them in their missionary work in the colony of Georgia.

Jonathan Edwards was a friend and colleague of George Whitfield. His most famous sermon  titled Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God  emphasized the wrath of God and the dangers of awaiting hell. He argued that it was each person's responsibility to acknowledge their sinful condition and accept Christ's invitation of salvation.

 

The preaching of these men, and others, led to the Great Awakening, a religious revival in the American colonies and England during the 1700s. The focus of the preaching was:

• All people are born sinners
• Sin without salvation will send a person to hell
• All people can be saved if they confess their sins to God, seek forgiveness and accept God’s grace
• All people can have a direct and emotional connection with God
• Religion shouldn’t be formal and institutionalized, but rather personal

Acts 17:6b-  These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

The effects of this movement have long been felt in our country and around the world. They are best described by Tom Holland in the book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind. 

"Simply, the ancients were cruel, and their values utterly foreign to him. The Spartans routinely murdered “imperfect” children. The bodies of slaves were treated like outlets for the physical pleasure of those with power. Infanticide was common. The poor and the weak had no rights.

It was Christianity, Holland writes. Christianity revolutionized sex and marriage, demanding that men control themselves and prohibiting all forms of rape. Christianity confined sexuality within monogamy. (It is ironic, Holland notes, that these are now the very standards for which Christianity is derided.) Christianity elevated women. In short, Christianity utterly transformed the world."

Tom Holland, who is not a Christian, claims the morals of the western world would not exist without Christianity. And I would add that America, as we know her, would not exist without Bible believers. 

It's time that we modern day Christians take a stand. We have an amazing heritage, and we should want to heed Paul's warning to not let their strides and sacrifices be in vain.

Philippians 2:16- Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

For more information on Church History, you can purchase The History Of The New Testament Church by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman.

Christians today have dropped the ball. They are so afraid of being accused of "judging" that they no longer speak about sin and hell. They try to keep to the nice feeling parts of the Bible and ignore the weightier, less savory matters.

People are far too positive in their thinking. They focus on what someone is saying and fail to look for what they are not saying. They never consider what is missing.

While waiting for the antichrist to appear, many fail to see that the spirit of antichrist is already working.

I John 4:3- And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

For Satan to come to power in this world, all he needs is to remove Christ's world from people's minds. He doesn't need to encourage people to become Satanists; he only needs to encourage them not to worship, or even consider, Christ. By stripping away truth, he has stripped away conviction.

He has accomplished this not only through schools and government legislations that remove God's Word from their systems, but also by corrupting God's Word through multiple new, corrupted, versions. More and more preachers are failing to emphasize the principles in God's Word that deal with His deity, His blood atonement, His resurrection, or His literal second coming mainly because they are using versions of the Bible that have altered or removed these truths.

Satan is slowly stripping the infallible, inerrant Scriptures from Christians, and they are too ignorant to see it because their pastors are too worried about being "judge-y" to point it out! Some have even gone so far as to argue the "virtues" of the new Bibles on behalf of Satan himself! 

People today don't know what God's Word says, and they don't care that they've been lied to. Do you know? Do you care? Have you searched the Scriptures for yourself?

II Corinthians 13:5- Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

The troubles, persecutions, and labors of past believers is quickly becoming forgotten history. We have an amazing foundation in Christ, and the start of a building that has been worked on for the last two millennia! How could we grow complacent in these final moments?

II Timothy 1:13- Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2:16- Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

It's time to take up the mantle that our forefathers bore. Let's not let their sacrifices and achievements be for nothing.

Summary of Church History (part 3)

Rampant corruption and immorality among the clergy of the Roman Catholic church had left a bitter taste in the mouths of most of their congregation. The inquisition of brutality made matters much worse.

In the West, the Ottoman Empire was making life very difficult for the Greek Orthodox church. The Greek Orthodox church had its headquarters in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul). Constantinople was a center of learning and had been using the Koine-Greek Bible for over a thousand years. Many people in the city were proficient in Koine-Greek. Refugees fleeing Constantinople after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 brought with them copies of the Bible in the Koine Greek language. This was the copy of the Scripture that these men preached, read, and translated from.

Acts 11:25-26- Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

This is the Bible the King James version was translated from. You want a Bible that is associated with where missionaries were first sent out. 

Acts 13:1-3- Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

You want a Bible associated with the churches mentioned in Revelations. The Byzantine text is the only set of Scriptures that has this phenomenon. It's translation into English, the KJV, was instrumental in the Great Awakening and the missionary movement.

Desiderius Erasmus was raised in a monastic school and became quite competent in both Latin and Greek. He had embarked on his quest to write a parallel Greek and new Latin text to reform the corrupted text of the Catholic church, but it was the Erasmus Greek text which went on to become the foundation of the Textus Receptus, from which we get our King James Bible. The 1527 edition of Erasmus's New Testament allowed readers to compare the two translations side by side, showing the people how inaccurate Jerome's Latin Vulgate was.

Erasmus wasn't the first person to translate the Scriptures. Almost 200 years before, John Wycliffe made the effort to translate the Latin Vulgate into the language of the people of England- Middle English at the time. The idea was to provide a bible in the English language for his preachers and their hearers.

John Wycliffe never left the Catholic Church; His aim was to bring about the reformation of the church. He is known as the "morning star of the reformation". He preached in the people’s language. He questioned many Catholic doctrines, including the veneration of saints, transubstantiation and the sacraments, as well as the legitimacy of the pope as the supreme ruler of the church.

His followers became known as Lollards.  Active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century, they traveled often dressed in russet tunics and barefoot. Lollard beliefs spread through public preaching, distribution of Bibles and tracts, and invitations to friends to join ‘reading circles’, where the Bible was studied.

Romans 10:15- And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards was a summary of what they believed was needed reform for the church of England. It was presented to the Parliament of England and nailed to the doors of Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral. They began by stating that the church in England had become subservient to her “stepmother the great church of Rome.”

Their numbers are unknown, but it has been stated that  "Every second man that you meet is a Lollard." 

In the beginning of the 15th Century, the persecution of the Lollards began. England passed a statute for the burning of heretics. Despite the intense persecution, the Lollards continued to preach Christians throughout Britain, and even spread throughout all of Europe.

Their ideas influenced the thought of John Huss, who in turn influenced Martin Luther.

John Huss​ was a pastor at the center of the Bohemian reform movement. He was accused of Waldesenism and Wycliffism.​ He advocated the authority of Scripture over the Catholic church. He preached that the Church is the entire body of those who from eternity have been predestined for salvation, and that Christ, not the pope, is its head. Huss, like Wycliffe, never left the Catholic church; his efforts were designed to rid the Church of its ethical abuses. by reforming it from the inside.

In 1403 a German university master, Johann Hübner, drew up a list of 45 articles, presumably selected from Wycliffe’s writings, and had them condemned as heretical. Their main argument was that Wycliffe viewed the wine and bread of the sacraments as "material substance". 

​John Huss was very vocal over his dispute regarding the sale of indulgences, which led to his conviction of heresy. He was burned at the stake in 1417.

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Both Wycliffe and Huss were accused of being corrupted by the “old evangelical party”.

Martin Luther was a sixteenth century monk credited with starting the Protestant Reformation. While visiting Rome, he became appalled by the corruption he saw among the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. And, he became increasingly angry about the clergy selling 'indulgences' - promised remission from punishments for sin. Luther had come to believe that Christians are saved through faith and not through their own efforts.

​Martin Luther’s perception of Hus was marked by growing appreciation and deep respect. His original rejection of Hus was transformed when in his monastery library he discovered—and was astonished by—some sermons by Hus.

​In 1517, he published his '95 Theses', attacking papal abuses and the sale of indulgences, which he nailed to the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg. 

​Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther. To which Luther stated, "His Holiness abuses Scripture. I deny that he is above Scripture". At the Diet of Worms, an assembly of the Roman Catholic Church, he refused to recant his position which he portrayed in his 95 Theses:

"Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen."

Because of this he was branded an outlaw and a heretic, his writings were banned, and a command for his arrest was issued. Luther went into hiding at Wartburg Castle to escape being killed. During his time there, He worked on translating the New Testament from an old Waldensen Bible along with Erasmus' Greek translation into German.

It was his excommunication that removed Martin Luther from the Catholic Church. In this way, he is looked upon as the father of  the Protestant Reformation- leaving the Catholic Church just like Protestants say the Bible calls all Christians to do.

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.

In 1522, he returned to Wittenberg. He stated,  "During my absence, Satan has entered my sheepfold, and committed ravages which I cannot repair by writing, but only by my personal presence and living word." 

A few years later, he married Katharina von Bora, one of 12 nuns he had helped escape from the Nimbschen Cistercian convent, with whom he had six children.  He had long condemned vows of celibacy on biblical grounds, but his decision to marry was viewed as a seal of approval on clerical marriage.

​Luther published a complete translation of the bible into German, underlining his belief that people should be able to read it in their own language. The Lutheran Church was established from his descendants.

In 1534, King Henry VIII separated from the Roman Catholic Church, and created a new church where the monarchy was the head instead of the pope. This is when the Church of England, or the Anglican Church, was formed. Those who moved to America from this religious designation have began the Episcopal Church.

William Tyndale was ordained into the priesthood of the Church of England. While at Cambridge University, he was among upcoming reformers who were discussing the ideas of the Reformation and the work of Martin Luther.

In 1521, he crossed swords with a local friar who, following a heated debate, exclaimed, "we’d be better off without God’s law than the law of the Pope’" To which Tyndale replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you!”

This began his journey of translating the Bible into English. At this time,  it was forbidden for a person to read the Bible in English without a priest’s permission and people were burned at the stake for teaching others the Lord’s Prayer in English.

Tyndale translated much of the Bible into English. His translations were the first English Scriptures to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, and the and the first English translation to use Jehovah as God's name. It was also the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press.

King Henry declared that Tyndale’s books should be burned and punishment doled out to owners. Tyndale was betrayed by his friend Henry Phillips who invited him to lunch and then ambushed him. He was imprisoned outside Brussels for a year, accused of heresy. He was chained to a stake, partially strangled, and then burned.

These men began the movement to create a translation of the Scriptures that could be read in the tongue of the everyday human. Latin and Greek had become dead languages, known only to those few who had the means to pay for higher education. 

Because of their work, we now have a complete translation of the Scriptures, available in almost every language around the world, giving all the opportunity to see what God has to say for Himself.

Isaiah 34:6a- Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: