PropheZine #99 July 15, 2000 Bob Lally Publisher Lori Eldridge Senior. Editor Bob Ippolito Asst. Editor To Subscribe, Unsubscribe or Change email addresses see notice at the bottom of this newsletter. ====================================================== IN THIS ISSUE ----GREETING FROM LORI ELDRIDGE ----MINISTRY NEWS ----ARTICLES Berit Kjos..... Harry Potter Book shares pre-sale frenzy with D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) Bob Wilkin..... Putting the Gospel Debate in Sharper Focus Warren Doud..... Heresy and Apostasy James BeauSeigneur..... The Fifth Trumpet Judgment ---An Explanation through Dramatization Dr. Dale Johnsen..... You Can Understand Prophecy Dr. David R. Reagan..... Excerpt: Living for Christ in the End Times ----DEVOTIONALS Spurgeon..... Salvation must be of grace ----POETRY D. Sadler..... The Coming Storm ----SUBMISSION GUIDELINES ----SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE ----PRIVACY NOTICE ====================================================== GREETING FROM LORI ELDRIDGE ====================================================== Greetings Everyone, Several people have asked me what Lordship Salvation is all about since our last issue so I have provided a brief explanation in "Putting the Gospel Debate in Sharper Focus" by Bob Wilkin in this issue. We'll have more in-depth articles in future issues. In these trying times, when even the elect can be deceived, we need to be even more aware of false doctrines infiltrating the Church and thus we will be including more articles along this vein in the future. We have in this issue an article describing heresy and apostasy as well as another article giving us an overview of endtimes prophecy and also another exciting installment of James BeauSeigneur's Trumpet judgments. Be blessed, Lori Eldridge lorel@ior.com Senior Editor ====================================================== MINISTRY NEWS by Bob Lally ====================================================== Shalom! PropheZine News Bites: Because of the popularity of the News Bites many web site owners have asked to reproduce them, placing them on their web site. We have agreed to let this happen and are writing special software to allow this to work. If you own a web site and would like to feature the PropheZine News Bites please send an email to Bob (bob@prophezine.com). We should have this feature ready in about 2 weeks. ************** ARTICLES ************** ====================================================== Harry Potter Book shares pre-sale frenzy with D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) by Berit Kjos ====================================================== (For background information, see Bewitched by Harry Potter http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/Harry9-99.html ) The world of imagination and fantasy can help pass on to the child cultural and social messages [and] function as a way to experience vicariously things an individual could not do first-hand. (Amanda, C. "Fantasies and imagination in mildly and moderately retarded young people." International Journal of Adolescent Medicine & Health. 1995 Apr-Jun. 8: p.103-106 ) Wand making, broom decorating, tattoos, owls, costumes and pajama parties.... These book store gimmicks are just a few of the feasts and marketing tactics scheduled for July 8 in anticipation of the mysterious Book 4. Though its title, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was a close-guarded secret until June 28, a spellbound world had already sent book sales soaring into the heights like a magical broomstick. While Harry's fans prepare to celebrate this global event, Amazon.com claims its own share in the feast: its record-setting sales of the world's most popular fantasy. While cloaked in secrecy and marketed without a review, J.K Cowling's latest book tops the Amazon.com's "not-yet-published" bestsellers list. That's no surprise. Nor do we wonder why the list includes the corresponding Harry Potter audio cassettes and the release of the Book II paperback version. But why does Amazon also list Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Player's Handbook as best-seller #6? What common threads have raised Harry Potter and D&D, "the bestselling adventure game of all time,"[1] to the peaks of popularity? Consider these points: 1. Both immerse their fans in a plausible, well-developed fantasy world, replete with an evolving history, a carefully mapped geography, and wizards that model the thrill-packed and power-filled way of the mythical shaman. 2. In this fantasy world, adults and children alike are led into imagined experiences that create memories, build new values, guide their thinking and mold their understanding of reality. (See D&D role-playing game http://www.wizards.com/dnd/LearnAboutDnD.asp) 3. This process is reinforced by a myriad of other occult images and suggestions created by an entertainment industry eager to please a global market -- a worldwide base of potential customers that favor "inclusive" and "tolerant" pagan entertainment and turn their backs to Biblical values. 4. In the toys and games industry, two trans-national giants have been swallowing up most smaller companies: Mattel and Hasbro. The latter bought Wizards of the Coast, which makes and distributes role-playing games http://www.wizards.com/rpga/Welcome.asp and cards for Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, and D&D fans around the world. What's more, Warner Brothers -- producer of the Harry Potter movie scheduled for release next year -- granted Hasbro licensing rights to produce a variety of Harry Potter toys and games. Pagan fun has become big business! The World of Witches and Wizard. To compare the mystical realm of D&D with the Wizard-filled world of Hogwarts, I visited a local fantasy store. The young storekeeper seemed eager to help. "Which is your favorite game?" I asked him. "Dungeons and Dragons," he answered. "Easily!" "What's your character in the game?" "A priest." He seemed pleased that I would ask. "Ah. Then you can choose almost any one of the world's religions. Which is your god? He hesitated a moment, then answered, "A sun god." "Like the one in the Aztec and Mayan religion?" "No, those are too violent. It's more like a Celtic god." "The Celts were pretty violent too." "My god wants to make the world better for humanity and the environment." That's certainly a politically correct form of paganism, I thought to myself as I scanned the shelves in the store. I finally left with a packet of information titled Forgotten Realms, [Advanced Dungeons & Dragons] Campaign Setting. It would provide the information for the chart below. This chart contains a sampling of similar words and practices, but don't assume that J. K. Rowling borrowed her ideas from D&D. Its eclectic blend of pagan beliefs and practices has already seduced young and old around the world. We have become a global society on the fast track to a "common ground" that excludes such "separatist" beliefs as Biblical Christianity. The myth-making messages in these two books will surely speed the process. [see Berit's web page for a better version of the chart] Harry Potter (Books 1 & 3) is listed first and Dungeons and Dragons comparison listed second GOD-LIKE VOLDEMORT "not being truly alive, he cannot be killed." Needs human devotees to do his work: ---"The greater powers are the most powerful deities that interact with and are dependent on the worship of mere mortals." (p 45) SCHOOL FOR WIZARDS: ----Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. (page 66) ==="The magic universities... house many wizards and sages with various specialties." (p 15-Forgotten Realms) SPELLS & CURSES: ----Hogwarts teaches Spells and Potions, Curses and Counter-curses, Divination, Transfiguration, etc. ==="All manner of spellcasters... relearn their spells daily form spell books..." (15-FR) SHAPE-SHIFTING WIZARDS: ----"It's a shape-shifter... It takes the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most." (133) "Transfiguration... turning something into something else." (125) ==="Shapeshifter" is defined and mentioned at least twice in Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Player's Handbook. "Transmuters, the masters of the alteration school of magic...." (16-FR) EVIL WIZARDS: ----"But when a wizard goes over to the Dark Side..." (Book 2- 207) ==="The Red Wizards of Thay... are evil and paranoid to the extreme...."(120-FR) GIANTS: ----"I would trust Hagrid with my life." ....He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide... and so wild...." (14) ===Giants are "battlewise, lore-filled, and capable with both weapons and craft." (13-FR) MAGIC ALPHABET (Rune): ----"Hermione's rune translation...." (251) ===Wizards develop a signature rune.... used in all spells that require writing..." (15-FR) DRAGONS: ----"They say there's a dragon guarding the high security vaults." (Book 2-64) ==="The Keepers of the Secret Hoard... [possess] "a ring of dragons. .... to protect themselves against assailants." ( 25) UNICORNS: ----"The cloaked figure reached the unicorn... and began to drink its blood." (Book 2-256) ==="her appearance marks a rise in power and importance of the Unicorn." (24) DIVINATION: ----"Crystal gazing... relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes so as to clear the Inner Eye and the Subconscious." (297) ==="Diviners... specialize in the divination school, particularly in spells of higher than 3rd level." (16-FR) CONJURING: ----"He was conjuring stretchers and lifting the limp forms of Harry, Hermione and Black onto them. A fourth stretcher... was already floating at his side." (Book 2-412) ==="Conjurers are specialists in conjuration/summoning magics." (16-FR) SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: ----"The Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animal they become." (351) ==="The Heralds are recognized as being the official arbitrators of precedence and correct armature." [2] The Transforming Power of the Imagination Immersion into this fantasy world builds imagined experiences that create memories and often establish new values more effectively than real-world experiences. Hard to believe? Just look at contemporary television ads. Captivating stories that prompt people to identify with another person's experiences have proven to be far more powerful tools for manipulating behavior than mere facts and data. That's why most ads tend to offer funny or feel-good glimpses of human behavior rather than boring facts about a product's worth. Stirring the imagination instead of the mind, the producer can implant all kinds of false memories and unwanted desires into receptive minds. Today's onslaught of entertaining suggestions change the minds of adults as well as children. The two studies below show the power of the imagination to distort reality and create false memories in people of all ages: When adults vividly imagine the occurrence of events that took place in their childhood, they become increasingly confident that these incidents actually happened to them. This phenomenon has been called imagination inflation. This study assessed the imagination-inflation effect in 94 college students (mean age 21 yrs).²[3] (Journal of Psychology. 1999) "This study seeks not only to replicate what has been called the imagination inflation effect (IIE) in 2 samples (98 undergraduates [mean age 19 yrs] and 106 middle-aged [mean age 46.9 yrs] factory workers) but also to identify individual difference variables that could predict susceptibility to suggestibility. The 2 experiments tested the extent to which locus of control for reinforcement, dissociability, and a hostile/self-controlling introject (self-concept) could predict the IIE. Results indicate that: IIE is a robust and replicable phenomenon with young adults.[4] ( Applied Cognitive Psychology. 1998) Confirming the persuasive "role of imagination in effecting spiritual transformation," a third study concluded that: Spiritual transformation... is mediated through a person's religious imagination. This study was designed to explore, describe and illustrate the central role of the imagination in effecting and sustaining spiritual transformations. The author espouses a holistic approach to spiritual direction so Jungian active imagination and various types of body work were employed as ancillary methods of accessing the imagination and eliciting spiritually transformative images. [5] (Humanities & Social Sciences. 1998) Ponder the words, "accessing the imagination and eliciting spiritually transformative images." They describe the effective power of the Harry Potter experience and the D&D role-playing games. Those "transformative images", in turn, can change beliefs and behavior. Meanwhile parents wonder why their children have turned their backs to the Bible, church and God. For most children tutored in paganism by popular authors and computer programmers, there will be no turning back. Aldous Huxley summarized it well in The Doors of Perception: "The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out." Aldous Huxley and his brother Julian, the first head of UNESCO, helped lay the foundation for the UN education system which is now established in America. http://www.crossroad.to/Books/BraveNewSchools/Contents.html They spread the message that that civilization could not long survive without social solidarity and spiritual consensus. But God warns us that such earth-based unity will bring an end to the peace and freedom we have long enjoyed: "When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you. Be careful that you do not forget... Otherwise... your heart will become proud.... You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.'... If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods...you will surely be destroyed." (Deuteronomy 8:10-20) Does that "good land" sound like America today? This warning was given to ancient Israel, but God tells us in Corinthians 10 that these principles hold true for us today. While God always can and sometimes does override the sobering odds, we would be foolish to ignore the restless cravings stirred by imagined experiences in forbidden realms. A little dabbling in the occult usually fuels urges to explore other practices. It doesn't matter whether seekers pursue Eastern pantheism, Western witchcraft, or create their own personal blend. They all fit together. Packaged for our youth as D&D or as Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they desensitize their captive fans to the dangers of occult forces. They can become irresistible. Powerful partnerships in the global toy trade While Hasbro Inc. has gathered coveted brands such as Monopoly, Scrabble, and Furby under its wide and powerful wings, it is hardly a household name. Though it has won the licensing rights to Star Wars cards and role-playing games, its subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast, seems to have gained more fame by producing Pokemon, Magic the Gathering and D&D products. But Hasbro continues to grow. A Corporate Press Release dated February 11, 2000 announces a more recent success: "Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products today announced that it has awarded Hasbro Inc. the licensing rights to a wide range of key entertainment categories for the global literary phenomenon Harry Potter. "Hasbro category leaders -- Wizards of the Coast, Tiger Electronics and OddzOn -- have been selected to create products that will capture magical moments central to the Harry Potter story line... [including] trading card games, role playing games, trading cards, candy and youth electronics. "The millions of Harry Potter fans around the world are going to love seeing literary references to things like cards and candy come alive through our exciting range of offerings, said Alan G. Hassenfeld, Hasbro's chairman and CEO. 'We are thrilled....'" Those millions are multiplying fast -- for D&D as well as for Harry Potter. D&D has captivated an older group around the world, but that may change with its televised cartoons and upcoming movie. Judging from the letters we receive from both Harry Potter and D&D fans, those who love spells and wizards have little tolerance for children who, for the love of God, reject their favorite fantasies. Resisting the pressure to conform Biblical Christianity doesn't fit today's quest for spiritual unity and mix-and-match religions. Paganism does. That's why schools, communities, business... even churches are trading genuine Bible study for consensus groups and earth-centered celebrations. (See Earth Day Joins Easter http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/Easter-Earth.htm) This blended spirituality welcomes a compromised distortion of Christianity. When "Christian" leaders remove the "offense of the cross" -- when they set aside Biblical truths that hinder their quest for the world's acceptance and favor -- their church is no longer a threat to the world. (See Conforming the Church to the New Millennium http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/ConformingChurch1-00.html) But God's Word can't be compromised, and the world can't accept its wisdom. That's why Paul wrote, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18) In fact, those who follow their Lord don't fit into the world. That's not a criticism; it's reality. The world wants us to approve its cravings, but God tells us, "do not be conformed to this world." (Romans 12:2) The world wants our participation in its forbidden delights, but God asks, "What part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.... Therefore come out from among them and be separate." (2 Corinthians 6:15-17) This politically incorrect attitude has been equated with intolerance, separateness, mental dysfunction and hate by UNESCO and the World Health Organization. (See Clinton's War on Hate Bans Christian Values http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/cwhbcv3-98.html and The UN Plan for Your Mental Health http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/MentalHealth2-99.html) Long ago, a beloved Christian pastor and author, Oswald Chambers, explained why: "....there is an essential difference between you and the world which rouses the contempt of the word and the disgust and hatred of the spirit that is in the world." (Oswald Chambers) His insight came from Jesus, who warned His disciples, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.... If they persecuted Me they will persecute you... because they do not know Him who sent Me." (John 15:19-21) To follow Jesus through today's rising flood of spiritual suggestions deceptions, consider these guidelines: 1. Immerse your mind in His Word so that God, not the world, will mold your thinking: "... be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2) 2. Remember God's warnings: "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." (Colossians 2:8) 3. Stand immovable on His promises: "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." (Ephesians 6:10-13) 4. Maintain the a heavenly perspective: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) When we see reality from God's high vantage point, everything looks different. Obstacles no longer block our vision. Thrills and treasures can't confuse our faith. Neither friends nor foes can deceive our minds. Problems seem smaller, we see light ahead. We have hope when things look hopeless and a purpose in the midst of pain. Jesus showed us the way. When facing torture and death for His uncompromising commitment to an eternal purpose, He turned to His Father and prayed. We would do well to remember His words: "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour¹? No, for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." (John 12:27-28) Every time we say "no" to the temptation to accept the world's counterfeit gods, idols, thoughts and ways, we honor Him and build perseverance. When we set our minds to know, love, and follow Him, He gives us power and perseverance to triumph over the world's counterfeit promises, tempting deceptions, and painful persecution. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ...." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 Footnotes: [1]Amazon.com's Editorial Review: "The Player's Handbook is the definitive rulebook for the Dungeons & Dragons(r) game--the bestselling adventure game of all time, redesigned for a new millennium. "The Player's Handbook contains complete rules for the Third Edition D&D(r) game. It is an essential purchase for anyone who wants to play the newest version of the quintessential roleplaying game. "Third Edition D&D is the clearest, most innovative manifestation of the game that launched an industry. Featuring a new, more versatile rules system playtested by over 600 players worldwide. "New characters and more flexible character classes are easier than ever to create using the new CD-ROM character generator included free with every handbook. Dungeons & Dragons is the name in fantasy roleplaying." For a relatively mild introduction to D& D through its promotion of a children's TV series, click on website, then on the dragon's head. For Wizard of the Coast's D&D role-playing-games, click on http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Welcomex.asp and http://www.wizards.com/rpga/Welcome.asp. Remember, Wizards is owned by Hasbro, which owns the rights to make Harry Potter RPG games. They will turn out to be both global and super-popular -- just like D&D. [2]Note: We will update this chart with new quotes when we have bought and read Book 4 in the Harry Potter series. [3] Paddock, John R.; Noel, Mark; Terranova, Sophia; Eber, Herbert W.; Manning, Charles; Loftus, Elizabeth F. "Imagination inflation and the perils of guided visualization," Journal of Psychology. 1999 Nov. 133 (6): p.581-595 [4] Paddock, John R.; Joseph, Abigayl L.; Chan, Fung Ming; Terranova, Sophia; Manning, Charles; Loftus, Elizabeth F. "When guided visualization procedures may backfire: Imagination inflation and predicting individual differences in suggestibility." Applied Cognitive Psychology. 1998 Dec. 12 (Spec Issue): p.S63-S75. [5] Lancaster Theological Seminary, USA, UMI Order number: AAM9822985 Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities & Social Sciences. 1998 Jul. 59 (1-A): p.0201 by Berit Kjos This article can be found in html format at the following URL: http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/D&D&Harry.htm To prepare your children to resist paganism read Under the Spell of Mother Earth (Victor Books 800 323-9409) and Brave New Schools (800-829-5646). Available through Christian Bookstores or order by phone. As a special offer to thereaders of PropheZine, Berit will personally autograph your copy of "Brave New Schools." But to get a autographed copy, you must write and send $15.00 (Shipping and Handling included) to.... Berit Kjos, PO Box 60524, Palo Alto, CA 94306 ====================================================== Putting the Gospel Debate in Sharper Focus by Bob Wilkin ====================================================== I have found that many on both sides of the Free Grace/Lordship Salvation debate are unable to delineate clearly the major differences between the views. In addition, I have discovered that most are unable to clearly articulate differences within each view. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE VIEWS The Free Grace View. All holding the Free Grace view have four beliefs in common. FIRST, the sole condition of eternal life is trusting in Christ as one's Savior. None of the following are conditions of eternal life: turning from sins, being willing to turn from sins, committing one's life to Christ, baptism, doing good works, or persevering in the faith. SECOND, the promises of God's Word are sufficient for assurance. While one's works can have a confirmatory value, they are not essential for assurance. Any believer can have 100% certainty of his salvation if he but looks to the promises in God's Word to the believer. One can have firm assurance of salvation and yet walk in sin. Sin, while a grievous thing, does not necessarily weaken assurance. Only if sin results in a person taking his eyes off of God's promises can sin weaken assurance. THIRD, the Gospel of John is given great weight in formulating one's view of the Gospel. FOURTH, eternal salvation once gained can never be lost. The Lordship Salvation View. All those who believe in Lordship Salvation disagree with the first three Free Grace positions stated above. The following three points are held by all in the Lordship Salvation camp. FIRST, the condition of eternal life is more than trusting in Christ as one's Savior. One or more of the following are also conditions of eternal life: turning from sins, being willing to turn from sins, committing one's life to Christ, baptism, obedience, and persevering in the faith. SECOND, the promises of God's Word, while necessary for assurance, are not sufficient. One must also look to his works. No believer can have 100% assurance of salvation merely by looking to the promises in God's Word to the believer. (Indeed, most, but not all, in the Lordship Salvation camp say that 100% assurance is impossible since no one's works are perfect.) It is impossible to have firm assurance of salvation and yet walk in sin. Sin necessarily weakens assurance. THIRD, care is taken not to give undue weight to the Gospel of John when formulating one's view of the Gospel. The Synoptic Gospels and the NT Epistles are felt to be at least equally as important as the Gospel of John in gaining a proper perspective on the Gospel. Lordship Salvation advocates are divided on the eternal security issue. Reformed Lordship Salvationists, in agreement, with Free Grace Salvationists, believe in eternal security. However, Arminian Lordship Salvationists do not. DIFFERENCES WITHIN THE VIEWS Three Free Grace Views Free Grace #1: Antinomianism Holds to the four essential Free Grace views. Believes that perseverance is not guaranteed; apostasy is possible for the true believer; and that the believer is not under any set of rules or laws today. Free Grace #2: Basic Free Grace Holds to the four essential Free Grace views. Believes that perseverance is not guaranteed (however, many if not most in this view hold that all believers will produce at least some good works sometime somewhere, even though those works may not be evident to others or even themselves); and that apostasy is possible for the true believer. Unlike the above group, the basic Free Grace position holds that believers are under rules and laws today. This group tends to have a strong view of accountability and the believer's future judgment. Free Grace #3: More Reformed Free Grace Holds to the four essential Free Grace views. Believes that perseverance is guaranteed (with a strong view of perseverance which excludes the possibility of carnality lasting for a very long time and which asserts that all believers will produce good works which are clearly observable to themselves and others), and that apostasy is not possible for the true believer. Three Lordship Salvation Views Lordship Salvation #1: Mild Lordship Salvation, Reformed Holds to the three essential Lordship Salvation views. Says that only a willingness to turn from sins and a willingness to commit all to the Lord is needed for eternal salvation. Has the same view of perseverance and apostasy as the previous group. Holds to eternal security. Lordship Salvation #2: Strong Lordship Salvation, Reformed Holds to the three essential Lordship Salvation views. Says that more than a willingness to turn from sins and a willingness to commit all to the Lord is needed. Major sins must be forsaken and all must be committed to the Lord before salvation can occur. Has the same view of perseverance and apostasy as the previous two groups, with the exception that this group sees failure on the part of the true believer as very rare and very short lived. Holds to eternal security. Does not emphasize the doctrine of rewards and the believer's future judgment. Lordship Salvation #3: Strong Lordship Salvation, Arminian Holds to the three essential Lordship Salvation views. Says that more than a willingness to turn from sins and a willingness to commit all to Lord is needed. Major sins must be forsaken and all must be committed to the Lord before salvation can occur. In addition, other conditions of salvation like baptism, confession of sins, and good works are added by various representatives of this group. Those holding this view believe that perseverance is not guaranteed and that salvation is lost if and when one fails to persevere. Apostasy is also viewed as possible for the true believer and again loss of salvation is considered to be the result. CONCLUSION While there is a spectrum of beliefs within each camp, the lines between Lordship Salvation and Free Grace Salvation are clearly drawn. I am grieved by the efforts of some today to blur the distinctions. Unity is a fine thing; but not at the expense of our lifeblood, the Gospel! Bob Wilkin is the Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society. ges@faithalone.org Grace in Focus Newsletter http://www.faithalone.org ====================================================== The Fifth Trumpet Judgment ---An Explanation through Dramatization by James BeauSeigneur ====================================================== "The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die but death will elude them. "The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon." (Revelation 9:1-11 NIV) Anyone who has followed these articles in PropheZine might quickly notice the similar feature of a "star" which appears in this judgment. In the first article (PropheZine #96), I showed how the events of the first trumpet judgment (Rev. 8:7) could result from an asteroid passing through the earth's atmosphere. The second article (PropheZine #97) dealt with the effects of what the Apostle John described as "a huge mountain, all ablaze ... thrown into the sea" (Rev. 8:8-9). In that article, we saw how each of the effects John described could result from a second asteroid striking the earth in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. Describing the third trumpet (Rev. 8:10-11), John specifically tells us of "a great star" falling from the sky. In the third article (PropheZine #98), we considered how the effects which follow the "great star" could be attributable to a third asteroid, as well as how the darkness of the fourth trumpet would follow in the combined aftermath of the earth's encounter with asteroids. It might surprise the reader, then, that I do not to see in the fifth trumpet's "star" a fourth asteroid. Despite the temptation to continue the pattern, the hypothesis of a fourth asteroid simply does not fit with the description of the fifth trumpet. Additionally, the "star" of Revelation 9:1 differs from John's earlier descriptions in that it is not a star which John sees falling, but rather John says, "I saw a star that HAD fallen from the sky to the earth," (emphasis mine). That is, at the time of John's vision, the star had already fallen. John's further description makes it clear that this "star" it is an angelic being. He later identifies the angel as Abaddon or Apollyon. A great deal has been written by others about this being, so I will only note here the similarity of John's "star that had fallen" to the reference in Isaiah 14:12. There Isaiah says, writing of Lucifer, "How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!" (NIV) John gives us a detailed description of the locusts and their power to afflict mankind. The most unusual feature of the locusts' attack is that while their sting is so painful as to cause their victims to want to die rather than endure the pain, "death will elude them." Is this solely a feature of the stings of the locusts or are there additional features which come into play? To understand this, consider the cultural times in which we live and the logical extension of that cultural path, especially if the Church has been taken out of the world in the Rapture. Based on what we see today, can anyone doubt that in the times of the Tribulation euthanasia clinics will be at least as common as abortion clinics are today? And if such death clinics (which might euphemistically be called "life completion clinics") are common, would it not be in keeping with what we know of government to assume that only certain methods of inducing death would be approved? A small but extremely significant feature of the locusts' attack will mark a key change in how the world views the events of the Tribulation period. Until this point, the events of all of the judgments of Revelation (wars, plagues, famines, asteroids) could be explained away by stubborn, sinful man as being man-made or natural, though certainly unusual. The locusts, however, are given free reign to attack everyone except "those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads." Some have argued that this refers to all believers during the Tribulation, but I am inclined to believe the reference is to the 144,000 of Rev. 7 and 14 who have the seal of God on their foreheads (Rev. 7:2-3), which is the name of the Lamb and his Father's name. Whichever you believe, it is at this point in the Tribulation that even the most skeptical non-Christian will have to recognize that these events have a spiritual component. For how else could they explain why only those with the mark of God are not attacked by the locusts? And with this recognition, persecution of those who follow Jesus will begin in earnest. The following dramatization of the fifth trumpet judgment addresses each of these issues. It is adapted for PropheZine from chapters 9 and 10 of BIRTH OF AN AGE, Book 2 of THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY (available through the PropheZine Bookstore at http://www.prophezine.com/bookstore/james.html). In the three previous articles, it was possible to avoid any discussion of the main characters of the Trilogy and to focus exclusively on the events. In this article you will be introduced to a few of the main characters. What role they play throughout will be left to your imagination. Also briefly mentioned are the Koum Damah Patar (KDP), that is, the 144,000. [An interesting note about the number 144,000, which was first identified in my novels THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY, is that when written in Hebrew characters, the number 144,000 spells out the Hebrew words Koum Damah Patar. The meaning of these words and their significance to the 144,000 can be found in ACTS OF GOD, Book 3 of THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY.] SWARM July 11, 2022 -- New York Decker Hawthorne tipped the driver and got out of the cab in front of the U.N. Secretariat Building. It was a hazy, dreary day as were most days, but it was getting better. Much of the volcanic ash had settled and the temperature was now only eight degrees below the normal average, but only infrequently was the sun seen clearly. Grass was growing again: there was that much to be thankful for. And while the diminished sunlight had stunted the growth of grain grasses, there would be at least a modest harvest. As Decker approached the revolving doors into the Secretariat's lobby he heard what sounded like a helicopter approaching and looked up. But instead of a helicopter it seemed as if the volcanic ash cover had suddenly become a thick gray liquid, slowly pouring out upon the earth. He squinted, hoping to get a clearer focus, but to no avail. As the darkness descended, the sound intensified. Decker ran and ducked for protection under the overhang of the building in front of the door and then looked up again. The sound was now a roar that seemed to fill the sky over the entire city. The bulk of the dark mass was a hundred feet above the ground, but parts of it had already reached the tree tops. Around him Decker heard sudden shrill screams and then he saw what it was: an immense swarm of insects of a type he had never seen before. They were as large as small birds and there were millions of them. Decker ran for the door but a dozen of the insects had already landed on him. He made it inside, but in doing so he allowed a hundred more to fly past him into the building. Most of the insects on him clung to his clothes but one climbed up his collar to his neck. Decker reached up to knock it away but it was too late. Searing pain nearly knocked him off his feet as the creature simultaneously stung him with a stinger in its tail and bit into the soft flesh of his neck to feast on his blood. In the lobby people screamed and swatted desperately as the insects bit and stung their exposed flesh. The pain seemed unbearable but Decker tried again to grab at the one on his neck, hoping to crush it in his hand. It was larger than he expected, nearly filling his palm. Unable to crush it, Decker ripped it from his neck and flung it to the floor and stepped on it. He put his full weight on the creature before its exoskeleton finally gave way, spitting guts and blood -- some of it Decker's -- onto the floor. Outside, people ran through the streets, vainly hoping to escape or to get to an open door. Those inside the building, fearing the insects would enter along with the fleeing people, locked or blocked the doors, leaving the unfortunates to fend for themselves. True to the prophecy, only those who had ‘the seal of God on their foreheads' -- the members of the Koum Damah Patar with their bloody sign of membership written above their brow -- were spared. A pair of KDP members who had been across the street from the U.N. when Decker arrived stood watching the attack, completely untouched by the insects. All around Decker the screams and swatting increased as more people from the plaza area in front of the Secretariat came in the revolving doors, each time letting in more of the insects. In his agony, Decker was totally unaware of the additional insects which still clung to his clothing. Then suddenly he felt another fiery sting on his left ankle just above his shoe, and then immediately another on his left thigh, and then another on his right calf near the back of his knee. They were all over him, chewing and thrashing at the fabric of his suit with their teeth and spiny legs, digging their heads and stingers down into his flesh. As each one stung he grabbed at it and threw it to the floor, but the pain had become too excruciating for him to step on them. As they hit the hard tile floor the insects lay stunned for a few seconds and then reoriented themselves and either flew to another victim or reattached themselves to Decker. Finally Decker fell to the floor, writhing in pain as two more insects crawled inside the back of his suit coat and began tearing at his shirt. He was in too much pain to continue to fight, but with all the strength he had left he managed to roll over on his back, hoping to smash them. It only drove the stingers deeper. There was a stampede to get away from the lobby: people were pushing and shoving and climbing over each other. Those who could find an open door ducked into offices, locking the door behind them to keep others out. Lying on his back unable to move, another insect landed on Decker's face. As it was about to sting him, Decker passed out. When he did, the insect strangely seemed to lose interest and flew away. The others on him did the same. The two on his back beneath him released their hold and scratched and squirmed along his back trying to get out from under him. As entomologists would discover later, the insects would not attack a victim that had already been driven into unconsciousness by their stings. Outside, thousands of the insects flew into the plate glass, trying to reach the people inside. The collision only seemed to stun them and the sidewalk below the window became alive with the wobbly insects attempting to regain their bearings and fly away. Perhaps the insects' greatest weakness was their persistence; once they had landed on a victim they would not cease their attack until they had drunk their fill of blood or until the person fell unconscious. This persistence added to the fierceness of their attack but it also made them ‘sitting ducks.' By the time additional security personnel from all over the building began to reach the lobby, most of the insects had already attached themselves to their selected victims, and except for those withdrawing from unconscious victims, few were left to interfere with the security personnel's efforts. As one group of the security force ensured that no more insects would get in the doors, others attempted to help the victims and quickly found, as Decker had, that the best way to kill the creatures was to pull them from their host, throw them to the hard floor, and then to step on them with their full weight. Soon afterward teams from the U.N.'s medical facility arrived and began helping the victims. Scores lay unconscious on the floor while others screamed in pain from the welts that rose where they had been stung. A security guard who had captured two of the insects alive held one in each hand by the backs of their strange trunks as they squirmed and struggled in his hands, trying in vain to reach some part of his flesh with their stingers. He had pulled the insects from the face and leg of an elderly woman as they sucked the blood from their nearly unconscious victim. Someone would no doubt want to have a look at the peculiar creatures. Standing there, he began to wonder where he would find a glass jar large enough to put them in. Outside, the rumbling of the insects' wings suddenly grew louder as millions of them began to fly away. Within thirty seconds they were all gone: headed for another part of the city and fresh victims. The sidewalk and street were littered with unconscious people lying in crumpled heaps. * * * There was no consensus and not even very many guesses among entomologists as to the particular species or even genus of the insect. Whatever it was, it was something no one had ever before reported -- a strange mutation without explanation. The insects ranged from two and a half to three inches in length and were approximately three-quarters of an inch across the back, and slightly less than that thick. Their wings were sturdy but transparent with a wingspan of a little more than six inches. They were covered with a thick dark gray exoskeleton over most of the body, giving the appearance of heavy armor. It was this aegis that made crushing the insects so difficult. Over the head of the insect the exoskeleton was spiny and luminous gold with perhaps a hundred inch-long soft fibers extruding from beneath that looked remarkably like human hair. The insect's face bore an eerie resemblance to a human face but was somewhat flatter. Its mouth, which, relative to a human face was easily twice as wide, exhibited fearsome-looking fangs which it used to rapidly chew through clothing and then bite its victim. The tail of the insect carried a large stinger, used to inject its victim with an unidentified poison. The insects traveled in immense swarms up to fifteen miles across, and stayed in one place just long enough to feed off conscious victims before moving on. The swarm that had descended on the United Nations Plaza was now moving northeast, but it was just one of hundreds of swarms that had appeared suddenly throughout the world. In areas of the world where shelters were constructed of materials less substantial than concrete, steel, and glass, far more people were bitten and stung by the creatures than had been in New York. Laboratory dissection revealed an additional feature that added to the entomologists' confusion about the origin of the insects: they had absolutely no identifiable reproductive organs. * * * Five hours later Decker regained consciousness. In his arm a needle fed his vein with saline solution to prevent dehydration. He was in the U.N. medical facility surrounded by other victims, some conscious, others not. Like Decker, those who were conscious wished they were not. The shrill cries of agony had yielded to sorrowful moans, not because the victims had obtained relief from the anguish but because they were too exhausted to cry out. The U.N. medical facility was not designed to handle anywhere near this many patients, but the New York hospitals were all filled beyond capacity with other victims. There was simply nowhere else to put them. All around him there was moaning and weeping, but Decker didn't care. A few were pleading for termination. But Decker was in too much pain to be distracted by someone else's problems. Huge welts, six to eight inches in diameter, covered his body in sixteen places from his neck to his ankle. His temperature had risen to 103 degrees as his body fought the poison. Never had he experienced such pain. Decker was whimpering and tears rolled down his cheeks but he didn't even know it. The doctors had tried the maximum dosages of a dozen different pain killers but nothing provided any relief. Every second was like an eternity. Torment was all he knew. Beside his bed, amidst the forest of IV stands with their clear plastic vines, a familiar face looked down upon him, but Decker could not see it. Christopher Goodman looked around to be sure there were no doctors or nurses nearby and then reached down and touched Decker on his forehead. As he did, a wave of sweet relief immediately swept over Decker's body. He was exhausted but in that instant the pain and fever were entirely gone. "How are you, old friend?" Christopher asked with a smile. Now Decker wept with relief. "Thank you," he cried as he reached out to touch Christopher's arm. "I came as soon as I found out," Christopher answered. Decker looked around at the others who still lay there, and then looked up at Christopher. Christopher nodded and left Decker. Quickly he moved among the other patients but, unlike he had done with Decker, as he touched each person, Christopher softly whispered "sleep," and they slipped into a quiet peaceful rest, unaware of the gift they had been given. Decker struggled to keep his eyes open and watched as Christopher left the room to go to other patients. Then he fell asleep. July 13, 2022 -- New York Decker awoke to find a team of U.N. doctors examining the places on his body where he had been stung. His welts had disappeared, as had the welts on the other patients. The doctors could not understand it. Everywhere else in the world, the victims from the first day of the insects' attack were still suffering. The research on the insects' poison indicated that it could take five days to a week for the pain to subside. But here was a single isolated group of patients for whom the norm mysteriously did not hold true. Not only were they no longer suffering; they were entirely recovered, some reporting that they felt better than they had in years. Decker sat up. Some of the other patients had already left. "How long have I been here?" he asked the doctor in charge. "Two days," she answered. "And the, uh . . ." Decker struggled, not sure exactly what to call the insects that had attacked him. "Locusts?" the doctor said, completing Decker's question. Decker nodded, a little surprised at her choice of terms. "They've moved on for now but they're still with us." Decker found his clothes and shoes in a cabinet and started to dress. It was a new suit and he was distracted by the holes made by the insects. He dressed and looked in the mirror. Between the two-day growth of beard and the ruined suit he looked pretty unkempt. He could clean up and change clothes later, though: right now he wanted to see Christopher. * * * "I'm so glad you're all right!" Jackie Hansen said as she ran to hug Decker when he arrived at Christopher's office at the Italian Mission. "I visited you in the medical facility, but you were in so much pain, I don't think you knew I was there." "I don't remember much of anything except pain," Decker said, returning the hug. "Is Christopher in?" "He just stepped out. I expect him back any minute. You can wait in his office if you like," Jackie offered. "Thanks," Decker said, and started toward Christopher's door. "Secretary Milner is waiting for him as well." "Oh," Decker responded. It seemed anymore that Milner could almost always be found near Christopher. "By the way, nice suit," Jackie added with a smile, as she put her little finger in one of the holes left by the locusts. Decker rolled his eyes. When Decker entered, Milner was at Christopher's desk on the telephone. Milner looked up at him and seemed to be inspecting him unapprovingly; it wasn't just the holes in his suit or the two-day growth on his face. There was something more. Decker nodded in greeting, not quite sure what caused the strange reaction from Milner, and then walked over to look out Christopher's window. The street below was nearly deserted. There were fewer than a dozen cars and only a couple of quickly-moving pedestrians. A moment later Christopher walked in. "Decker, how are you?" Christopher asked with some excitement in his voice. "I feel wonderful," Decker answered. "Thank you for what you did. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I didn't know you could do that." "I didn't either," Christopher answered. "It just seemed like the natural thing to do at the time." Robert Milner got off the phone and was about to join the conversation, but Christopher spoke first. "Welcome back," he said, looking in Milner's direction. "I thought you were in Spain." "I was," Milner answered, "until I heard about what happened at the U.N. medical facility." "You mean people know what happened!?" Decker interrupted. "No," Christopher answered calmly. "Not exactly. They just know that for some unexplained reason the people in the facility had an unusually quick recovery." "Christopher, you cannot be taking this kind of chance," Milner said. "What if someone had seen you?" Milner's voice was raised but it was clearly out of concern, not anger. "When I heard that Decker had been stung I couldn't just leave him there," Christopher insisted. "No," Milner said, frowning and shaking his head as he looked over at Decker. "I guess you couldn't. But did you have to heal everyone else while you were there? It would be a lot easier for doctors to overlook one person who had a miraculous recovery, but a whole facility?" "They were in so much pain. I had to do something." "Christopher, people are in pain all over the world. Over 400 million died in the China-India-Pakistan War; hundreds of millions more died because of the asteroids. China is starving because millions of acres of farmland along the coast are ruined by the salt left behind by the tsunami. The west coasts of North and South America are wastelands. What's left of Japan, the Philippines, and all the other countries that used to depend on the Pacific for fishing, are having to ration food and are deep in economic depression. The crop harvest all over the world is a fraction of what is needed . . ." Milner discontinued the list, though he could have gone on. "But you know as well as I do," he concluded, "this is part of the process. It's like labor pains. It's a necessary part of the birth of the coming age. If you subvert that mechanism of change, you may remove the pain but you also risk undermining the birth process." "Bob, it was only a few people," Christopher reasoned. "From what I hear, it was over a hundred." "But that can't possibly make any difference in the overall scheme of things." "It might, if anyone saw you." "I was very careful." Milner sighed; he had made his point and didn't care to argue specifics. "Well," he said, and then sighed again, "I guess there's nothing we can do about it now anyway." "It'll be okay," Christopher said. "But you can't let this happen again. I know it's hard when you see the suffering up close, but you cannot let your heart rule your head." "I know, Bob, I know," Christopher answered. "Thank you for being here to remind me." "And you're sure no one saw you?" "I was very careful." There was a pause and Decker took the opportunity to try to get answers to some questions he had. "The doctor at the medical facility called the insects ‘locusts.' Was that just a coincidence or do people realize that John and Cohen are behind all of this? I mean, I assume that those things are the ‘locusts' that John and Cohen prophesied." Robert Milner pulled a copy of The New York Times from his briefcase. Nearly the entire front section was filled with articles about the ‘locusts' -- where they had attacked, estimates of how many people had been stung, protective measures to seal homes and other buildings to keep the locusts out -- and an international poll showing that 66 percent of those polled said they thought John and Cohen were responsible for the locusts. Milner pointed at an article titled "Search for ‘Prophets' Continues in Israel." "They won't find them, of course," Milner said. Decker sat down and quickly scanned one of the articles. The swarms of locusts had struck throughout the northern hemisphere and the tropics. The only areas of the world that were spared were in the southern hemisphere where it was late winter. Apparently the locusts were sensitive to cold climate. The swarms were so large that they were easily tracked by satellite and radar, enabling the World Meteorological Organization to provide some advance warning to inhabitants when a swarm was approaching a city. However, it was never really safe to be outside because smaller swarms of stragglers became separated from the larger swarms and their movements were impossible to track and predict. So far the use of U.N.-approved pesticides had been unsuccessful on the insects. In addition to the agonizing pain it caused, the locusts' poison also caused the victim's kidneys and liver to go into overdrive, and though this did little to eliminate the poison, it rendered painkillers of no benefit. Ironically, it had the same effect on the U.N.-approved thanatotopic (death inducing) drugs, and for an as-yet-unknown reason, even sodium potassium ATPase inhibitors were ineffective. So it was that, though many victims would have gladly chosen "life completion" rather than enduring the pain, none of the drugs approved by the World Health Organization for completion assistance at the life completion clinics was of any use to them. "I have a meeting in Barcelona in four and a half hours," Milner said, as he closed up his briefcase. "I need to be on the next supersonic out of Kennedy." Decker looked up from the paper. "Be careful getting to your car." "My driver is picking me up out front. It's relatively safe as long as you're not out for more than a few minutes. Besides, they tell me you can hear the locusts coming." "Well, yes," Decker said from experience, "if they're in a large swarm." "It will only take me a few seconds to reach the car. I'm sure I'll be fine." "Okay," Decker said. "But believe me, you do not want to get stung by one of those things!" "I'll keep that in mind," Milner said. Decker went back to the article he was reading while Christopher walked out with Milner. When Christopher returned, Decker offered, "Well, I understand what you did. And I appreciate it." "He just wants what's best," Christopher responded. "He's looking at the big picture." "Sure, but I don't know how he can expect you to just stand by and do nothing if you can stop someone's suffering." Christopher shrugged. There was nothing more to say on the matter. "What are your plans?" he asked. "Well, I'd like to go home and get cleaned up and change clothes but I'm not too excited about going back outside. It was bad enough running over here from across the street," he said, referring to his route from the U.N. to the Italian Mission. "I'm not real comfortable about running three blocks and up a long flight of stairs to the Hermitage." Decker's apartment in the Hermitage was conveniently close to the U.N., but it meant he had no need for a car, and there were few cab drivers willing to risk going out with the locusts. If Decker wanted to get home, it would have to be on foot. Christopher's phone beeped, indicating an intercom call from Jackie Hansen. "Mr. Ambassador, Ambassador Tanaka is here to see you," she said, referring to the ambassador from Japan who served as the Primary member of the Security Council from the Pacific Basin countries. "I wasn't expecting anyone," he said, but it would have been a serious breach of etiquette to keep the Ambassador waiting. "Send him in," he said after a moment. Ambassador Tanaka was a slender man in his mid-seventies. He had been a Primary member of the Security Council for the past seven years and an Alternate member for two years before that. "Mr. Ambassador," Tanaka began when he came in. "I apologize for the intrusion, but I . . ." "It's no intrusion, Mr. Ambassador," Christopher assured him politely. "What can I do for you?" The Japanese Ambassador looked uncomfortable, as though either he didn't know how to begin or that what he had planned to say now seemed inappropriate and more difficult than he had anticipated. Christopher waited. "Mr. Ambassador, as you know, I have long been a supporter of the fine work of Secretary Robert Milner and the Lucius Trust. For many years Secretary Milner has talked of the coming of a ‘Krishnamurti,' the Ruler of the New Age." Ambassador Tanaka was obviously uncomfortable talking about this, but even more he was intent upon completing the mission he had begun. Decker tried not to show his own discomfort at where it appeared Tanaka might be going with this. "It was said among those at the Trust," Tanaka continued, "that both Secretary Milner and Alice Bernley would see the Krishnamurti before their deaths." Tanaka paused again and then continued. "Director Bernley is dead." Ambassador Tanaka stopped and looked down at the floor. Decker looked at the ceiling and bit the inside of his lower lip, now certain he knew where Ambassador Tanaka's soliloquy was leading. "Please," Tanaka pled, "my granddaughter has been stung by the locusts. She is near death. She was here visiting from Japan and . . ." "Mr. Ambassador, no one has actually died from the locusts' stings," Christopher said, but the interruption did not deter Tanaka. "Ambassador Goodman, are you the Krishnamurti, the Ruler of the New Age?" Decker dropped his head into his hand. He was glad that Ambassador Tanaka was not looking at him. He was sure the look on his face would have given away the truth. Peeking through his fingers he was relieved to see that Christopher was handling the question more calmly. "Ambassador Tanaka," Christopher responded, "Secretary Milner has told me of this prophesied ruler as well, but I'm afraid that . . ." "I know that you healed the people in the U.N. medical facility," Tanaka interrupted. Christopher fell silent. Tanaka continued. "Ms. Love told me that you were seen leaving immediately after the healings occurred," he said, referring to Gaia Love, who had taken over as director of the Lucius Trust after Alice Bernley's death. "Please, if you are the Krishnamurti, you must heal my granddaughter. She is very young, only eight years old. She was stung eleven times." At that moment the door opened and Decker and Christopher saw Jackie Hansen attempting to block the path of a Japanese man in his early thirties. In his arms he carried the limp body of a young girl -- the ambassador's granddaughter -- tightly wrapped in a thick blue cotton blanket because of her fever. "Sir," Jackie Hansen was saying, "you cannot go in unannounced." "It's all right," Christopher said after a moment. "Let him in." Jackie let the man enter and closed the door behind him. "This is my son Yasushi and," Tanaka lovingly pulled the blanket from his granddaughter's face, "this is my granddaughter Keiko." Christopher looked at the girl for a moment and then pulled his gaze away, turning sharply to look out his window. "I'm sorry," he said finally, "there's nothing I can do. She should be in a hospital." "The doctors say there is nothing they can do," Tanaka countered. "But you can heal her." "I'm sorry," Christopher said again. A look of defeat slowly replaced the look of hope that had been on the ambassador's face. For a moment Tanaka just stood there as Christopher continued looking out the window. Finally, Tanaka looked at his son and then down at the floor. "I'm sorry to have bothered you, Mr. Ambassador," Tanaka said, and motioned toward the door for his son to exit. Christopher continued to look away as Ambassador Tanaka, his son, and granddaughter left, shutting the door behind them. Christopher turned and looked at the door and then at Decker. Then suddenly, he went to the door and opened it. "Mr. Ambassador," he called after them. "Ambassador Tanaka," he called. "Please come back." Tanaka was back in the office immediately, followed quickly by his son and granddaughter. Christopher stood by the door and closed it as they came in. "Mr. Ambassador, you have put me in a very awkward position," Christopher said. "Then you will heal her?" Tanaka asked, hoping to secure a positive response before Christopher could change his mind. "I will heal her," Christopher answered. "But I must have your word, and that of your son, that you will not reveal any of this to anyone. Especially not to Secretary Milner or Ms. Love," he added almost under his breath. "Yes, of course. Anything," Tanaka said, and then turned to his son, who also agreed. Christopher walked over to the little girl. Carefully, he pulled the blanket back from her face to look at her. One of the welts was on her right forehead, causing the whole side of her face to swell and horribly distorting her tender features. Touching her where the locust had stung, he whispered in Japanese, "Naorimashita," meaning ‘you are healed,' and immediately the swelling was gone. Decker looked at Christopher and was struck by what appeared to be a momentary look of foreboding that swept over Christopher's face. He had seen that look before. Ambassador Tanaka pulled the blanket back to see his granddaughter. All of the welts were gone, as was her fever. The look of astonishment was obvious on Ambassador Tanaka's face. It was clear that even though he had come to Christopher asking for a miracle, he did not entirely expect to see one. Dropping to his knees and bowing at Christopher's feet, he began repeating something in Japanese which Decker took to be as much worship as it was gratitude. Christopher bent over to raise him up. "Please, Mr. Ambassador," Christopher said, "this is not necessary. Just do as you have promised. Take her somewhere for a few weeks where no one will ask any questions." "Yes. Yes. Of course. Just as you say. She will return to Japan today with my son." "Decker," Christopher said, "would you please have Jackie -- as nonchalantly as possible -- clear the office of any of the staff, then escort the ambassador, his son, and granddaughter out. Make sure that no one who might have seen them come in sees them leave." Decker nodded and left the office to do as Christopher had asked. A moment later he returned and led them out with the ambassador's granddaughter covered as she had been when they came in. As they reached the door, Christopher stopped Ambassador Tanaka. "Mr. Ambassador," Christopher said, "one question:" "Anything," Tanaka responded. "Do you have any idea who it was that saw me leaving the U.N. medical facility after the patients there were healed?" "I believe it was Ms. Hansen," Tanaka answered. "Hmm. Okay. Thank you," Christopher said. "I assume I'll be seeing you at the Security Council meeting next Thursday?" "Yes," Tanaka said and then bowed to Christopher. It was a very low bow, especially respectful considering that Ambassador Tanaka seldom kept with the Japanese tradition of bowing when he was out of his country. When Decker returned, Christopher had already called Jackie into his office. Decker assured Christopher that the departure had gone well, and then Jackie continued her explanation. "I was at the facility trying to comfort Decker," she said. "I had been there for about a half an hour and I left for a moment to go to the rest room. When I returned, I saw you leaving and assumed you had been to see Decker. But when I got to his bed, he was well -- they all were. The welts and fever were gone. I didn't know what to think. And then I found out the poison was supposed to take a week to wear off. I was going to ask you about it, but I wasn't sure exactly what to say, so I just kept putting it off. Then yesterday, I went to the Lucius Trust, as I often do to meditate during lunch. While I was there -- I guess I looked like I had something on my mind -- Gaia Love asked me what was troubling me, and I talked to her. I tried to be vague but I guess she figured it out. I hope I haven't caused too much trouble," she concluded, with a great look of concern on her face. Christopher shook his head. "No, it's all right," he said reassuringly. "Just don't say anything to anyone else. And, please, if you have any more questions, ask me first." Jackie nodded agreement and then started to leave but turned before she opened the door. "I do have something I'd like to ask," she said hesitantly. "Yes?" "Did you heal the people in the U.N. medical facility?" "Yes," Christopher answered directly. "And Ambassador Tanaka's granddaughter" "Yes." "Then . . . are you the Krishnamurti, the Messiah of the New Age?" "Yes." Jackie threw her arms up then covered her mouth with her hands. "I knew it. I knew it," she said. "Jackie," Christopher said firmly. "You must not repeat this to anyone." "No, sir, I won't," she promised. It occurred to Decker that having known him since he was only 15 years old, Jackie had never called Christopher ‘sir' before, except in public. "Thank you, Jackie. Now see if you can get things back to normal with the rest of the office." "Yes, sir." Decker waited until Jackie left. "I hope that was the right thing to do," Decker said once the door was shut. "I don't think I had any choice," Christopher answered. "I was going to have to tell her sooner or later. If I had told her sooner, this would not have come up in the first place. Besides, I'm certain I can trust her." Decker thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Oh, well," he said after a moment, "there's another matter we need to work on as well: What about Gaia Love?" "I guess I'll have to call Secretary Milner on that," he said as he reached for the phone. "She'll do whatever he says. I can probably catch him before he gets to the airport, and he can call her from the plane." "Are you going to tell him about Ambassador Tanaka's granddaughter?" "No. There's no reason to worry him about that now. Besides," Christopher said as he began dialing the phone, "Tanaka may not be our only worry. I ‘neglected' to mention that two of the people that I healed at the U.N. medical facility were wives of Security Council members." James BeauSeigneur The three books of THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY (In His Image, Birth of an Age, and Acts of God) are available through PropheZine at http://www.prophezine.com/bookstore/james.html with a percentage of each sale going to support the on-going ministry of PropheZine. Mr. BeauSeigneur's other published works include technical manuals on military avionics and strategic defense technology. Reviewer Jay Carper says of The Christ Clone Trilogy: **Apocalypse fans, here is your Hobbit. Every turn was unexpected. The characters were real. The plot was real. And never have I seen the Seven Seals broken with such clarity and imagination. . .** http://www.prophezine.com/bookstore/james.html Reviewer Bob Lally (PropheZine): **The most exciting end-time story I have ever read. I have read the trilogy two times in the past 18 months and will most definitely read it again this summer.** http://www.prophezine.com/bookstore/james.html ====================================================== You CAN Understand Prophecy! Dr. Dale Johnsen ====================================================== A group of young men met together in a school gym one night a week to play basketball. Each week, the school janitor would sit and read his Bible while he waited patiently for them to finish their game. One evening, one of the men stopped to ask him what he was studying. The old man answered, "the book of Revelation." Surprised, the young man asked the elderly janitor if he understood such a complicated book. "Oh yes!," the man replied, "I understand it. It says that Jesus is gonna win!" That is what prophecy is all about. The prophecies in the Bible tells us about a coming world leader who will at last bring peace and order to our troubled globe to replace all the chaos and confusion that now plague this planet. The name of that leader is not antichrist; it is Jesus Christ. Antichrist will rule the earth for seven years, but Jesus Christ will defeat him and then rule the earth for a thousand years. It’s true. "Jesus is gonna win!" You can bet your life on it. Professional prognosticators and futurologists correctly "predict" the future about thirty to forty percent of the time. In stark contrast, God’s "batting average" is a perfect 1.000. Not one of His prophecies has ever been a "dud." You can have total, unwavering confidence that every other prophecy that is still yet to come will likewise be a sure-fire "home run." Why? Because as 2 Peter 1:20-21 teaches this: "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." All Bible prophecies originate directly from God. They unfold in history in a literal, precise and accurate way, with perfect precision, right on schedule. Not one of them can ever fail. Here are some important definitions for prophetic terms: RAPTURE. The word "rapture," while not found in our English Bibles, comes from the Latin word rapio, which means "to snatch; to seize; to catch away." Jesus Christ will suddenly and unexpectedly enter our upper atmosphere, hovering over the earth in the clouds, and call for His Bride, the church, to meet Him in the air. All true Christians living on earth will be instantaneously "airlifted" to heaven by Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:52 says this will happen "in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye . . . the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." Christians who are alive at the time of the rapture will be transported to heaven without ever experiencing death. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says they "will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." I expect Christ to remove His church from the earth shortly before the cataclysmic forces of the seven-year tribulation begin (Revelation 3:10). ANTICHRIST. The Bible clearly predicts in Revelation 13 that an incredibly popular and powerful world leader will arise to lead the world after the rapture. This "beast" will be acclaimed as a savior or messiah who will rescue the nations from chaos. He will provide such wise and firm direction that earth’s population will enthusiastically embrace him as their one world ruler. TRIBULATION. Sometime after the rapture, the antichrist will make a seven-year peace treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27). The first half of these seven years will be peaceful and prosperous. The revived Roman Empire will come to power in Europe and create a powerful alliance between the world government and world religion. 144,000 Jewish believers will be busy preaching the gospel throughout the world. Unsaved people will assume that "peace and safety" is here to stay. Three and a half years later, in the middle of these seven years, things will change drastically. The antichrist will demand that the entire world worship him. To force it, he will impose an economic "mark of the beast" universally that will establish people’s allegiance to the beast. In response to this idolatrous evil, God will unleash His holy wrath through three waves of judgment, the seals, the trumpets and the bowls during the final three and a half years (called "the day of the Lord"). The antichrist will attack and destroy the apostate world church and will exterminate two-thirds of all the Jews. In response, God will bombard the earth-dwellers with intense waves of punishment for their rebellion against Him, decisively defeating all foes. ARMAGEDDON. At the end of the tribulation, the nations of the world will gather for World War III at a place known as Armageddon. Christ will descend slowly from heaven to earth with His saints. All of mankind’s nuclear arsenal and cruise missiles will be aimed at each other, ready for the final battle, but once they see Christ coming through the atmosphere, they will turn their missiles to the sky and attack Him and His white-robed army, just like they would attack an incoming asteroid. All their weapons will be utterly useless against Christ’s sovereign power. MILLENNIUM. God will install His chosen King, Jesus Christ, on the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem, to rule as the omnipotent dictator over the earth for one thousand years of peace (Revelation 20:1-6). All of God’s promises to Israel will at last have their full and literal fulfillment. Christ will literally reign on earth as its supreme political and spiritual leader. Disease will be totally eliminated. The curse of sin will be removed from the physical earth. People’s lifespans will be extended for hundreds of years (Isaiah 65:20). Jerusalem will be the capital of a perfect universal government in which war will not exist (Isaiah 2:3,4). This is the utopian "Kingdom" we pray will come so that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. JUDGMENT. After the one thousand years is completed, there will be one final rebellion led by Satan. This will be followed by Gods’ Great White Throne Judgment when all the unsaved are cast into the lake of fire, which is hell. Then God will create a new earth and bring the city of heaven down to rest upon the new earth forever. Believers will enjoy eternity in the presence of the Lord. When Will the Rapture Occur? One of the most hotly contested theological debates of our generation is, when will the rapture of the church take place? Here are ten reasons why I expect a pretribulational rapture. One: IMMINENT RAPTURE. The Bible indicates that there will be no specific signs or warnings to enable a person to accurately predict a date for the rapture (John 14:1-3; 21:21-23; 1 Thessalonians 4:18; Philippians 3:20-21; Titus 2:13). It can occur at any time, without warning. Two: A BLESSED HOPE. Our expectancy of reunion with Christ (Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Colossians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Timothy 6:14; James 5:7-9; 1 Peter 3:3-4) encourages us to look forward to seeing Christ at any moment, rather than seeing the antichrist. Three: ELDERS IN HEAVEN. In Revelation 4:4; 5:8; and 19:7-11 24, crowned human elders sitting on thrones represent the rewarded church in heaven before the tribulation begins. Four: CONTRASTS WITH SECOND COMING. Many differences can be discerned between the rapture and the second coming of Christ. Christ comes for His Bride, to bring her to heaven to marry her in His Father’s house. In contrast, at His second coming, Christ comes with His Bride, to bring her back to earth and to judge the unsaved world and rule over His kingdom from Jerusalem. After the rapture, only unbelievers will be left on earth. After the second coming of Christ to the earth, only believers will be left on earth. Paul’s vivid description of the departure of the church from earth in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 indicates not that we go up and then immediately back down to earth, as though we are on an elevator, but stay with the Lord, in the air, forever. Five: NO CHURCH IN REVELATION 6-18. Throughout Revelation 6-18, which describes the tribulation, there are no references to the church or to the Bride of Christ at all. This is a loud silence, a very conspicuous absence. Revelation 13:9, spoken during the reign of antichrist, warns us, "He who has an ear, let him hear." A very similar exhortation is found seven times in Revelation 2 and 3, only there it says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." The omission of the phrase "to the churches" in 13:9 is significant because it implies that the church, the body of Christ has already been raptured away. Six: BABIES IN THE MILLENNIUM. A logical reason for believing in a pre-tribulation rapture is the issue of "Who is going to be left behind to populate the millennial kingdom?" If all believers are raptured just before God’s final judgments when all His enemies are destroyed, there would be no one left on earth to have babies to populate the millennial kingdom. All of the saved will be in their resurrected glorified bodies, and they can’t have babies anymore, because glorified bodies no longer reproduce (Mark 12:25). All of the unsaved who are judged to be unworthy to remain alive on earth will be punished with death (as described in Matthew 25). However, during the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, Isaiah 65:20 states that many babies will be born. That is only possible if there are saved people still on earth in their natural bodies when Christ returns to the earth. Those who have babies during the millennium are saved after the rapture and remain alive after Christ’s return to earth. Seven: FOCUS ON ISRAEL. The tribulation is called "the time of Jacob’s trouble" (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 9:24). God resumes focusing His attention on Israel instead of the Church. Eight: JEWISH WEDDING STAGES. The seven stages of a Jewish wedding directly parallel a pretribulational rapture. Once a betrothal covenant was made (=Lord’s Supper), the bridegroom returned to his father’s house to prepare living accommodations for his bride by building her a home. This is what Jesus said He would do for us in John 14:2-3. Christ did not say He would come back and join His Bride so that they could be together where she is (on earth), but that He would bring her to where He was, which is at His Father’s house in heaven. Nine: KEPT FROM THE HOUR OF TRIAL. Before a nation will declare war on another nation, the first thing it does is evacuate its ambassadors. Because Christians are ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), it makes sense that God will airlift us off the earth and bring us safely to heaven before He declares war on the earth. In Revelation 3:10, Jesus promises that He will keep His church "from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world." Jesus points ahead to an unspecified future time of unprecedented universal, worldwide trouble, the final Day of the Lord, when God will judge all the unbelieving inhabitants of the earth. Revelation 3:10 doesn’t say that Christians will be protected from God’s wrath "during" the tribulation, nor guarded "through" the tribulation, but delivered "from" or "out of" the "hour of trial." Thus, the church will be removed from the earth before the time of this trial begins. Ten: NO WRATH ON THE CHURCH. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 clearly states, "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:9 echoes, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!" Since the tribulational woes are universal in scope (Revelation 6:17), no one on earth will escape them. However, those who are part of the Bride of Christ, whose sins have been paid for fully by the blood of Christ, are exempt from ever suffering God’s wrath (Romans 3:24-26; Colossians 2:13-14; Hebrews 10:14). God rescued Noah from the Flood (Genesis 6-9), and rescued Lot before destroying Sodom (Genesis 18-19), showing that God does not pour out His wrath on believers. Therefore, logic dictates that the church will not be present on earth during the universal outpouring of God’s wrath. But What About....? One crucial passage used to argue against the pretribulation rapture is 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4: "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him [the rapture], we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God." The Thessalonians were "scared out of their wits" with sweaty palms and white knuckles, fearing they had somehow missed the rapture and that the day of the Lord had arrived. Paul wrote this section in order to correct their misconceptions. Apostasy and Antichrist According to this passage, two events must precede the "day of the Lord" when God pours out His wrath during the Great Tribulation. First, the "rebellion" must occur. Second, the "man of lawlessness" must be revealed. The "rebellion" in Greek is apostosia, which means "apostasy," "departure," "falling away" or "total abandonment." Following the rapture of all true believers, all those who remain behind in the organized "Christian church" will be unbelievers only. Without any "conservatives" with biblical convictions to hold them back through the preaching of the gospel, unsaved churchgoers will quickly dive into deep doctrinal apostasy and completely abandon the true faith. The "man of lawlessness" refers to the future world ruler. The antichrist will be revealed when he establishes a seven-year covenant of peace with Israel. Three and a half years later, when he demands to be worshiped as god, his identity will be unmistakable. So, the two events that precede the wrath of God in the day of the Lord are apostasy and antichrist. Many people assume Paul states that the rapture will not happen until after these two events have taken place, but he does not. All he states is that the "day of the Lord," the judgment portion of the tribulation, will not begin until after these two events occur. What this implies is that there will be a gap of time between the rapture and the day of the Lord (which starts in the middle of the Daniel’s seventieth week). This gap will extend for at least three and a half years. During this gap of time, after the church is gone, the apostasy will occur and the antichrist will arise. The seven-year tribulation will not begin on the day of the rapture. The seventieth week of Daniel 9:27 begins only after the antichrist has gained sufficient power to enact and enforce a peace treaty with Israel. Since the antichrist won’t be revealed while the church is present on earth, additional time is needed to allow for his rise to power. Therefore, the rapture will occur more than seven years prior to the second coming of Christ to the earth. Who Holds Back Antichrist? In 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7, Paul tells us that the antichrist is now being held in check by a powerful Person: "And now you know who is holding him back [the restrainer], so that he [the antichrist] may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way." Who is holding back antichrist? In the Greek text, He is mentioned once with a neuter particle and once with a masculine pronoun. This fits only one Person, the Holy Spirit. This change from neuter to masculine gender is an important, hidden clue to His identity. Galatians 5:17 and Romans 8:5-9 teach that the Holy Spirit’s job is to counteract the effects of evil. Genesis 6:3 identifies the Holy Spirit as the One who restrains sin. Clearly, it is the Holy Spirit who holds back the antichrist at the present time. Only omnipotent God is powerful enough to restrain satanic evil. Question: What actually happens when the Holy Spirit is "taken out of the way"? Answer: Where does the Holy Spirit live on earth? He lives within the bodies of Christians. Believers’ bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The universal church collectively functions as one temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells on earth. Therefore, when the church, the Holy Spirit’s temple, is raptured from the earth, the Holy Spirit is also "taken out of the way." As omnipresent God, the Holy Spirit will still be present everywhere on earth. He will actively bring people to salvation throughout the tribulation. His other ministries will continue just as they did in Old Testament times before the day of Pentecost. With the church removed, the Holy Spirit will be removed only in His role of holding back antichrist through His indwelling of Christians. His role of preserving society from decay and destruction through the salt and light of Christians in the culture will be over because the Church, which He indwells and fills, will be gone. After the Holy Spirit is "taken out of the way," 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 adds: "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." Once the rapture occurs, God’s restraint of evil on the earth will be lifted. The church, through which the indwelling Holy Spirit now preserves the world through its influence of moral principles and gospel preaching, will be gone. Without the Church here to stop him, the antichrist will ascend to prominence within a short time. The false prophet, promoting a one-world religion that wows the world with Satanic miracles, will champion his rise to power. People who have heard and rejected the gospel in these final days before the rapture will be deluded to swallow this deception hook, line and sinker. They will embrace the new "United Religions" that likely will combine apostate Christianity with Islam under a false Pope. In their spiritual blindness, they will worship the antichrist instead of the true God. This will lead to their condemnation under the holy judgment of God. The final seven years of history before Christ’s return to earth will not officially begin until the antichrist has gained sufficient power to enact and enforce a seven year peace treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27). Once he signs a seven year covenant with Israel, guaranteeing her security from Islamic attack and permitting Israel to rebuild her temple in Jerusalem, the final seven year countdown will begin. Many people discount the idea of a pretribulational rapture by arguing that no one taught this view until 1830. That’s not true. In 373 A.D., Ephraem the Syrian, a major theologian in the early Byzantine Eastern Church, taught this: "For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins." This conclusively proves that at least some Christians believed in a pretribulational rapture even in the early days of church history. It is reasonable to expect a pretribulational rapture. We must be fully ready each day for Christ to whisk us away in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52) to meet Him in the air. Cosmic Cleansing? How will it be explained when millions of Christians suddenly disappear and leave their clothing in a heap? *As a mass abduction by aliens in UFOs? *As a "cosmic cleansing" of mankind, surgically removing from earth "the cancer" who would interfere with mankind’s next evolutionary quantum leap? *As spontaneous chemical combustion of bodies sparked by nuclear stockpiles and toxic air pollution? *As Mother Earth eliminating from Gaia’s soul all who have a negative and narrow state of consciousness? *As a deliberate purging of the population to save planet earth from ecological destruction? We can’t know for sure what the official explanation for these mass vanishings will be. But we do know that many who are left behind will surrender their freedom to a humanitarian savior in order to embrace his false offer of peace, prosperity and security. Revelation, the 66th book of the Bible, is neither an impossible puzzle nor a playground for fanatics. You don’t have to be scared to death to read its 404 verses. With the Holy Spirit as your Teacher and Guide, God can use this final prophecy to radically change your life. Revelation teaches that beyond all the scenes of judgment, and beyond all the terrible descriptions of blood and slaughter and darkness and heartache and sorrow and misery, there is coming a new day, a wonderful day of victory and joy - a day when Jesus will win. The utopia that men have dreamed of for centuries will become a reality when Christ personally returns to the earth. When Jesus Christ came to earth the first time, He was just a vulnerable baby. When He comes the second time, He will be an invincible warrior. The first time, only a few shepherds saw Him. The second time, every eye will see Him. The first time He came, a single star marked His arrival. The second time He comes, all the stars will fall from the sky, and He Himself will light the world. Two thousand years ago, men made bold predictions about the future. These detailed, specific predictions are being fulfilled at an astonishing rate, with dazzling accuracy, right before our eyes. Skeptics used to scoff at the Scripture’s nightmarish predictions of a globe exploding with catastrophes and tottering on the brink of extinction, but no one’s laughing anymore. The idea of a fiery incineration engulfing the globe is, for the first time in history, a very serious threat. God is now arranging the world stage for the final act of human history. When a benevolent messiah figure arrives to mesmerize the world, it will begin the most dramatic, deadly drama of all time. The world stage is still empty of specific actors, but the props are all in place, and the house lights are beginning to dim. The world is focused on a bulls-eye called Jerusalem. It is unmistakable. It is real. It is happening now. The rapture of the church is about to occur very, very soon. What are you supposed to do about it? Should you go on wasting 30 hours a week in front of a TV set, complacently assuming it will never happen in your lifetime? Are you to pretend that these things are not really happening around you? Not on your life. The Lord Jesus Christ expects you to watch, witness, worship, walk and work until He comes. When you see the downtown merchants decorating for Christmas, you know that Thanksgiving is near. In the very same way, when you see the world stage being set for the tribulation, you know that the rapture must be near. It won’t be long until "we're outa here!" ------ To help with your further examination of prophecy, here is a helpful outline of the book of Revelation. Notice how the entire book centers on one Person -- Jesus Christ! 1:1-8 Christ Is Coming Back Soon 1:9-20 Christ Is In Charge Right Now 2:1-7 Christ Counsels His Church on Love 2:8-11 Christ Counsels His Church on Suffering 2:12-17 Christ Counsels His Church on Compromise 2:18-29 Christ Counsels His Church on Tolerance 3:1-6 Christ Counsels His Church on Apathy 3:7-13 Christ Counsels His Church on Embarrassment 3:14-22 Christ Counsels His Church on Complacency 4:1-11 Christ's Father Is Wholly Holy 5:1-14 Christ Is Our Worthy Lion and Lamb 6:1-17 Christ Opens Six Seals of Judgment 7:1-17 Christ Calls 144K To Save Millions 8:1-9:21 Christ Sends Six Trumpets of Doom 10:1-11:19 Christ's Two Witnesses of Warning 12:1-16 Christ's War with Satan the Serpent 13:1-18 Christ Permits Antichrist To Emerge 14:1-20 Christ Harvests Souls from the Earth 15:1-16:21 Christ's Final Wrath In Seven Bowls 17:1-18 Christ Kills the Scarlet Harlot 18:1-24 Christ Destroys Proud Babylon 19:1-10 Christ Reigns - Sing Hallelujah! 19:11-21 Christ Returns In Complete Victory 20:1-6 Christ Rules For 1000 Years of Peace 20:7-15 Christ Sends Satan to a Lake of Fire 21:1-22:6 Christ Creates a New Heaven and Earth 22:7-21 Christ Invites You to Come to Him ============ This article is adapted from the Dale Johnsen's new book, "What To Do Until Christ Comes: Five Ways to Get Ready for His Soon Return!" For free sample chapters of this new book, and for information on how how may purchase a discount copy, see the web site at http://UntilChristComes.com/ This book has been enthusiastically endorsed by J. Dwight Pentecost, Tim Timmons and Ramesh Richard (Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary). Comments may be emailed to the author at johnsen@untilchristcomes.com ============ Dr. Dale Mark Johnsen 11502 Sara Loop Road Yakima, WA 98908 FAX: 509-965-8096 Home: 509-966-1889 Office: 509-965-0445 http://UntilChristComes.com email: johnsen@untilchristcomes.com ====================================================== Heresy and Apostasy by Warren Doud ====================================================== The words "heresy" and "apostasy" are two of the most often used words to refer to doctrinal error and practice in the Church Age. Any Christian is subject to error in his thinking about spiritual matters. The presence of the sin nature in the soul guarantees that we will have a constant battle to distinguish between human and divine viewpoints. Error may be the result of ignorance, of a lack of doctrine, or of deliberately adopting some point of view or activity. The open-minded Christian who is positive to the teaching of the Bible and who is willing for the Lord to deal with him in doctrinal matters will find that his erroneous ideas will be replaced with the truth of the Word of God. As he grows in Christ, he will avoid heresy and any deliberate apostasy. Heresy itself, which is the result of making a wrong choice among competing ideas, may have been entered into as a result of being deceived (EPH. 4:11-18) or of falling into a snare of Satan. Heresy becomes apostasy, however, whenever a person deliberately decides to reject Bible truth and maintain and promote false ideas. This paper is written to help believers avoid error, heresy, or apostasy. HERESY The word "heresy" comes from the Greek (hairesis) meaning, "a choice; a taking for oneself; a sect or school of philosophy". Hence, in the Bible, it means, (1) a chosen course of thought or action; (2) dissensions arising from diversity of opinions and aims; or (3) doctrinal departures from revealed truth, or erroneous doctrinal views. The apostles warned the church continuously against such non-Biblical views. Note particularly the stern directions to Titus regarding the correction of problems caused in Crete by Judaistic heresies. In the Apostolic Age we find three fundamental forms of heresy. These have appeared in one form or another in every generation since. Judaistic Judaistic Christianity is the false counterpart of Jewish Christianity which insists on combining Jewish practice with Christianity. This tends to cause Christianity to sink to the level of Judaism in that it makes the Gospel merely the perfection which they suppose can be obtained by keeping the Law. Judaism regards Christ as a mere prophet, a second Moses; it denies His divine nature, His priestly function, and His kingly offices. Judaism holds that circumcision, sacrifice, etc. are to be binding on Christians and necessary for salvation. There is no conception of Christianity as a new, free, and universal religion. Judaism appears in the 2nd Century A.D. in a more fully developed version under the name of Ebionism. Gnosticism Gnosticism spread through the whole church during the first two or three centuries after Christ. This heresy was an opposite reaction to Judaism. It separated Christianity completely from Jewish influence with the result that it tried to eliminate any connection to the true historical foundations of Christianity. Gnosticism denies the humanity of Christ, and it adulterates Christianity with pagan ideas and practices. Syncretism Syncretism combines Judaism, and then Christianity, with heathen philosophies, especially those of Pythagoras and Plato, so that, under the Christian name, there appeared confused combinations of these opposing systems, forming either a paganized Judaism or a Christianized paganism, depending on which element prevailed. Whatever the differences in the heresies, all amount to a distinct denial of the Gospel, the incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of the world. They make Christ either a mere man or a mere superhuman phantom; they allow no real and lasting union of the Divine and human natures in the person of the Redeemer. Heresy disturbed the unity of doctrine and of fellowship in the early church, which was therefore forced to exclude those holding false doctrine from it communion (TITUS 3:10). Once excluded, however, heretics formed societies of their own. Heresy becomes apostasy when there is a deliberate holding to error in spite of knowing the truth of the Word of God. A heretic becomes apostate at the point when he hears the truth and decides against it. APOSTASY Apostasy is the deliberate act of a professing Christian who knowingly and deliberately rejects revealed truth regarding the deity of Jesus Christ, redemption through His atoning sacrifice, or any part of the doctrines related to Salvation. The apostate is in revolt against God. He maintains an outward profession of faith and a facade of true spirituality; but he departs from the faith. Apostasy, then, is insidious, subtle, and quite devastating. Some of the characteristics, or synonyms, of apostasy are mentioned in the Bible, including: seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, hypocritical lying, a seared conscience, forbidding of marriage and meats, and a form of godliness without the power thereof. The rest of this paper contains a number of points about apostasy along with an extensive listing of Bible references for further study of the subject. 1.Satan is the author of apostasy, JOHN 8:44, "Ye are of your father, the devil..." and 2 COR. 4:4, "In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them." 2.Demons help to carry out apostasy in the world, 1 TIM. 4:1. 3.Examples of apostasy in the human race mentioned in Jude are: Cain - who rejected the Word of God and went religious. Balaam - who accepted a bribe to curse Israel and fell victim to slavery to the details of life. Korah - who led a revolt against authority, was anti-establishment. 4.Religious apostasy has many facets: False gospels: GAL. 1:6-12; 2 COR. 11:3,4 False doctrines: 1 TIM. 4:1,2; 2 PET. 2:1; 1 JOHN 4:3 False messiahs: JOHN 5:43; MATT. 24:5 False prophets, teachers, and evangelists: 2 PET. 2:1; 1 JOHN 4:1; 2 COR. 11:13-15 False ritual: 1 COR. 10:20,21; ROM. 11:9; ISA. 1:10-14 False Gods: 1 COR. 8:5; 10:19-21 False righteousness: Phil. 3:9; Matt. 5:20 5.Characteristics of apostate doctrines: They repudiate the Person and work of Christ, 2 PET. 2:1; 1 JOHN 2:22,23; 2 JOHN 9,10 They repudiate the veracity of the Word of God, 2 PET. 3:3,4 They ignore the judgments of God, 2 PET. 3:5,6 6.Apostasy appeals to the trends of the sin nature; the trend toward asceticism, 1 TIM. 4:1-3, and the trend toward licentiousness, 2 PET. 2 7.Apostasy is judged by God: Angels were judged for their apostasy, 2 PET. 2:4; JUDE 6. Civilizations are judged for apostasy, 2 PET. 2:5. Cities and national entities are judged for apostasy, 2 PET. 2:6; JUDE 7; JER. 23. 8.Apostates are described in the Bible as: Animals of instinct, minus doctrine and minus morality, operating on emotional impulses and licentious desires, 2 PET. 2:12. Fruitless trees that are twice dead; they are spiritually dead, and they will go to the Lake of Fire, JUDE 12. Waterless clouds, unstable, driven by the wind, 2 PET. 2:17; JUDE 12. Vicious waves of the sea, dangerous and to be avoided, JUDE 13. Wandering stars, living in delusion and error, JUDE 13. 9.Apostasy is prevalent in the last days of each dispensation: Age of the Gentiles, GEN. 11:1-9. Age of Israel, REV. 13; 2 THESS. 2 Church Age, 2 PET. 3:3; 2 TIM. 3:1. 10.Apostasy is prevalent in the last days of a national entity, JER. 23:9-40. 11.There will be no apostasy during the Millennial Kingdom, REV. 20:1-3; COL. 2:15; ZECH. 13:2,3; ISA. 2:1-4; ISA. 11:9. 12.A brief period of apostasy will follow the Millennial reign of Christ, REV. 20:7-11. There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. The ministry is supported by Christians who pray for the work and share in the expenses. http://kaleidoscope.bga.com/~wdoud/library/heresy.html Grace Notes Warren Doud 1705 Aggie Lane Austin, Texas 78757 wdoud@bga.com ====================================================== Excerpt: Living for Christ in the End Times by Dr. David R. Reagan ====================================================== Dr. David R. Reagan, founder and senior evangelist of Lamb & Lion Ministries in McKinney, Texas, has written a new book entitled, Living for Christ in the End Times. The book is scheduled to be released by New Leaf Press on July 1st in time for promotion at the Christian Bookseller's Convention which will be held in New Orleans in mid-July. The first section of the book is entitled "The Descent into Paganism," and its two chapters spell out in detail the unique nature of the challenge that confronts Christians at the beginning of the 21st Century. One of the chapters deals with the decay of society; the other, with the growing apostasy in the Church. Both chapters are very specific and are likely to stir considerable controversy. Here is an excerpt from the chapter about the decay of society: ********** A nation that once honored God has plunged into a moral abyss. And the decay has reached the point where, in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, the nation "does not even know how to blush" (Jeremiah 6:15). The descent has been swift. When I was born in 1938 —    Abortionists were considered the scum of the earth and were sent to prison.    Homosexuals were still in the closet and were thought of as queer.    Pregnancy out of wedlock was thought of as scandalous, and "living together" was unthinkable.    Drugs were something you bought at a pharmacy (or "drug store").    Alcoholism was considered a sin, not a disease.    Popular music was free of demonic beats and words.    Movies were devoid of nudity, passionate love scenes, mindless violence, and filthy language.    Eastern religion was still in the East.    The corrupting influence of television was non-existent.    Pornography was something that circulated underground.    Public school students prayed in their classes and read the Bible, and creation could still be taught as an alternative to evolution.    High school graduates could read their diplomas.    The Ten Commandments were still legal.    AIDS was a gift of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:28 refers to the gift of aids or helps, depending on the translation).    Our governments — local, state and national — still promoted Judeo-Christian values rather than lotteries, horse racing, and casino gambling.    Christian teaching focused on sacrificing for Christ rather than confessing materialistic success.    Governmental authority was respected. Police were held in high esteem.    Houses and cars were never locked.    Social security was a job. Living on welfare was considered a disgrace.    Language was civil. Manners still prevailed. Women were treated with dignity and respect. Looking back over the last 60 years, the old Virginia Slims cigarette ad seems to sum it up best: "We've come a long way, baby!" Yes, we have, and it has been in the wrong direction.     Today, we are murdering 4,000 babies a day in the name of "freedom of choice" for women.    We spend more on gambling each year than we do on food.    We are assaulted by a glut of pornography in books and movies and on the Internet.    We are consuming 55% of all the illegal drugs in the world, even though we constitute only 5% of the world's population.    Our families are being destroyed by an epidemic of spousal violence, child abuse, and divorce.    Our prisons are overflowing because of a breakdown of law and order.    Our cities are jungles of violence where people dare not venture out at night.    Our homes are fortresses with bars on the windows, guns in the cabinets, and electronic security systems monitoring the doors and windows.    Our schools are filled with drugs, rebellion and violence.    Our governing bodies are shot full of corruption.    Our churches are apathetic and compromised by worldliness.    Our entertainment industry has become a purveyor of violence and immorality, and as we export its products ********** Even more controversial and hard-hitting is the chapter on apostasy in the church. Dr. Reagan prepares the reader with these words in his preface:     "This book deals with secular and spiritual paganism and how Christians should respond to both. In dealing with spiritual paganism, I have some harsh things to say regarding both Christian leaders and churches. I do not relish making such statements. I have felt compelled to make them because the stakes are so high. Souls are in peril because of widespread heresy and apostasy in the Church today. I don't think we can any longer afford the luxury of 'tip-toeing through the tulips.'     "The Bible says that the end times will be a period of great deception (Acts 20:28-30, 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Timothy 4:3-4). I feel that those whom God has called to be watchmen on the walls (Isaiah 62:6) must put a face on heresy and apostasy by naming names." He then proceeds to present a panoramic survey of apostasy among Christian leaders and denominations and points out how this apostasy is leading to the formation of a one world religion. In the process, he presents a detailed analysis of the apostasy of Robert Schuller. The second part of the book is entitled, "The Christian Response to a Pagan World. It consists of ten chapters which outline in detail what Christians must do to live victoriously in these end times. The topics covered included the following: Standing on the Word of God, Believing in the Power of God, Relying on the Holy Spirit, Practicing Tough Faith, Ordering Priorities, Keeping an Eternal Perspective, Standing for Righteousness, Persisting in Prayer, Surrendering in Worship, and Clinging to Hope. The chapter on hope spells out the glorious promises that God has given the redeemed for the future. It explains what happens after death -- both for believers and unbelievers. The third and final section of the book is entitled "The Victory over Paganism." Dr. Reagan points out that paganism is destined to triumph briefly under the Antichrist. But then, in two chapters dealing with Bible prophecy, he shows how the victory over paganism will be obtained when Jesus returns triumphantly. One of the chapters, "Living on Borrowed Time," surveys the signs of the times that point to the Lord's soon return. In this chapter, Dr. Reagan focuses particularly on modern day signs that have never existed before. The final chapter is entitled, "Looking for Jesus." It presents the evidence for an imminent rapture of the Church. The book should be in bookstores by the end of July. It will retail for $10.99. Dr. Reagan's ministry is providing the book during the month of July for a cost of $10, including shipping. To order a copy, call 1-800-705-8316. Further information regarding the book can be found at http://www.newleafpress.net/ ******************* DEVOTIONALS ****************** Spurgeon's evening devotions, Evening, June 12 "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling." - 2 Timothy 1:9 The apostle uses the perfect tense and says, "Who hath saved us." Believers in Christ Jesus are saved. They are not looked upon as persons who are in a hopeful state, and may ultimately be saved, but they are already saved. Salvation is not a blessing to be enjoyed upon the dying bed, and to be sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained, received, promised, and enjoyed now. The Christian is perfectly saved in God's purpose; God has ordained him unto salvation, and that purpose is complete. He is saved also as to the price which has been paid for him: "It is finished" was the cry of the Saviour ere he died. The believer is also perfectly saved in his covenant head, for as he fell in Adam, so he lives in Christ. This complete salvation is accompanied by a holy calling. Those whom the Saviour saved upon the cross are in due time effectually called by the power of God the Holy Spirit unto holiness: they leave their sins; they endeavour to be like Christ; they choose holiness, not out of any compulsion, but from the stress of a new nature, which leads them to rejoice in holiness just as naturally as aforetime they delighted in sin. God neither chose them nor called them because they were holy, but he called them that they might be holy, and holiness is the beauty produced by his workmanship in them. The excellencies which we see in a believer are as much the work of God as the atonement itself. Thus is brought out very sweetly the fulness of the grace of God. Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord is the author of it: and what motive but grace could move him to save the guilty? Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord works in such a manner that our righteousness is for ever excluded. Such is the believer's privilege-a present salvation; such is the evidence that he is called to it-a holy life. ******************* POETRY ******************* The Coming Storm He comes in the dance, in a whirlwind of fury He kicks with His Feet creating the storm Calling the west wind to do His bidding As He circles, He flashes and the hurricane's born. He thunders His Voice and it resonates terror While the sea rages with waves very high. Stomping His Feet, He lowers the pressure Intensifying as His Coming draws neigh. Awake from your sleep, awake from your slumber ! At the sound of the shofar, He will gather His own. Rise up from your graves a mighty army For the set time is coming when He takes His Throne. Come light your lamp with the Oil of The Spirit Make sure you have your wedding clothes on For in a flash resurrection is changing And in a twinkling, in a moment were gone. D. Sadler The Messianic Poetry Lady MailTo:sadler@digisys.net Copyright 1995 ======================================== SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: ======================================== PZ is always looking for new articles, poetry and devotional submissions to PropheZine so if you're interested please observe the way we format the articles and send them in--the more closely the format fits PZ the less work is involved and the more likely we will utilize your article as long as it is scripturally sound. Please take special note that the PZ newsletter comes in an email medium so there is no ability to italicize, bold, indent quotes, or other fancy formatting so all of those words/phrases/sentences will need to be changed in some other manner (either quote them or put them in caps or enclose with asterisks, etc.). PZ also sponsors the Endtime Poetry page and utilizes those poems in this newsletter occasionally so we are constantly looking for more poetry also. 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