PropheZine #100 August 1, 2000 Bob Lally Publisher Lori Eldridge Senior. Editor Bob Ippolito Asst. Editor Zenith Merrill 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 James BeauSeigneur..... The Sixth Trumpet Judgment ---An Explanation through Dramatization Ken Onweller..... Bearing Great Fruit Dr. David R. Reagan..... The Nature of the Lord's Return: Is the Lord Returning in Love or Wrath? ----DEVOTIONALS Spurgeon..... Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God (1 Thess 1:4) ----POETRY Lori Eldridge..... It's That Simple ----SUBMISSION GUIDELINES ----SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE ----PRIVACY NOTICE ====================================================== GREETING FROM LORI ELDRIDGE ====================================================== Hi All, I would like to welcome Zenith Merrill to the staff of PZ, who has offered be an assistant editor of the newsletter. She and I have been on the same mailing lists for about a year now and I have really come to appreciate her knowledge of Jewish studies and also other matters related to defending the Gospel. She has her own web page called The Lighthouse-Cult Awareness Center which has an Apologetic focus so please check it out and welcome her to PZ. http://www.bloomington.in.us/~lgthscac/ We have a new article by Ken Onweller relying a guideline for those of us who would like to increase our fruit production as Christians and another article on the Rapture by Dr. David Reagan. Be blessed, Lori Eldridge lorield@uswest.net Senior Editor ====================================================== MINISTRY NEWS by Bob Lally ====================================================== Hi Everyone: Issue #100. I remember reading issue #12 and praying for Ray Gano who sent the issue. Who was this Ray Gano? That was June of 1996 - 4 years ago. Issue #13 I felt led to pray for Ray again.....then issue #14 and #15. I then sent an email asking if I could help in any way. In October of 1996 we went live with 5 features and we really started growing. From 50 to 100, then 150 visitors daily to 3,000 now. 500 readers of the newsletter to 60,000. Seems almost comical but I remember when we went from 150 daily visitors to 275 in 1 big jump. I called Ray on the phone and we were practically screaming because of the number of visits! 3 years later and we have 10 times that amount visiting daily. Not one moment goes by that I do not realize that although it is our efforts that make the site look nice and have lots of features it is the Lord who must bring in the people. I truly thank the Lord for this. Ray is now living in Texas with his new Bride and his extremely happy. Well, we have added a few additional countries to the list and we now have visitors from 182 countries. Praise God for this as it is the Lord who brings them to PropheZine. I certainly am unable (yet not unwilling!) to travel around the world inviting people to the site. The PropheZine News (which is presented on the home page) may now be added to any website! We have received numerous inquiries of late asking us to make the PZ News available to other sites. Simon, famous in the UK, has been extremely busy making this feature available. Please visit the home page (http://www.prophezine.com) and look in the news section for information. Also, because of the coding changes Simon inserted we will now be adding news almost daily to the home page. The majority of the news that we post will be related to prophecy: weather, wars, rumors of wars, corruption, morality issues..... We have around 80,000 monthly visitors from 182 countries. Please consider advertising with PropheZine (http://www.prophezine.com/text/adrates.html). Your continued donations are very, very helpful (bob@prophezine.com) Thank you and may the Lord Bless you and yours today! Bob Lally Owner/CEO bob@prophezine.com ************** ARTICLES ************** ====================================================== The Sixth Trumpet Judgment --An Explanation through Dramatization by James BeauSeigneur ====================================================== "The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, 'release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.' And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number. "The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury." (Revelation 9:13-19 NIV) The sixth trumpet judgment is by far the most brutal and devastating (in terms of human life) of all of the end times judgments. With the sounding of the sixth trumpet, a full one third of humanity is murdered -- not killed by plague, famine, storm, or even asteroids, but murdered at the hands of a demonic army. (1) But how can a demon -- a spirit being with no body -- kill? A demon cannot hold a gun or bayonet. A demon's only power to do physical harm lies in its ability to control a person's mind.(2) So then, how will this vast demon army carry out its mission? The only way it can is by possessing and using human hosts. And we can be relatively sure these vile demons will select the most brutal methods at their disposal in the gleeful execution of their task. According to the prophecy, this murderous demon possession will begin at the Euphrates River, which runs through Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The sixth trumpet signals the release of "four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year." It is probably only coincidental, but certainly interesting, that along the banks of the Euphrates in Iraq there are four ancient river guard posts near Baia Malcha, Auzura, Jibb Jibba, and Olabu, the purpose of which no one has ever been able to explain. How will this reign of death occur? Will the murders be scattered throughout the world? Or will they localized over a single land mass? Describing this event, the prophet Joel wrote: "Like the dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste -- nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle. At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale. They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks. They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows." (Joel 2:2-9 NIV) Clearly, the tactic is a straight on, frontal attack. Joel says, "They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks." So then, expanding outward from the Euphrates River the demon army marches, killing every human in their path until one third of the world's population is exterminated. It would be a mistake to try to exactly determine how far geographically the demonic army will reach before they have fully spread their circle of death. The size and geographic dispersal of the world's population will have undergone significant changes by that time. As a point of reference, however, the boundaries of the circle may reach as far south as Uganda, north beyond Moscow, east to New Delhi, India, and as far west as Austria. Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, and others will all be devoid of human life. The following offers a dramatic presentation of the first two days of the sixth trumpet judgment. It is adapted for PropheZine from chapter 14 of BIRTH OF AN AGE, Book 2 of THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY. Some of the more violent scenes from the book have been edited. In THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY, I have attempted to present the events of the end times in a manner that will make the reader aware of the full measure of the terror that awaits any who have not accepted Jesus as savior. The books are written for a secular audience, and hence are more frank in their depiction of the world than one will find in books written primarily for sale to the Christian market. The books are available through the PropheZine Bookstore at http://www.prophezine.com/bookstore/james.html). This is the last of these articles on the Trumpet Judgments of Revelation. (Earlier articles appear in PropheZine 96-99 available at http://www.prophezine.com/search/database/archives.shtml.) There are, of course, a total of seven trumpet judgments, but the seventh trumpet judgment is made up of the seven bowl judgments, just as the seven trumpets comprise Revelation's seventh seal. Dark Legion March 9, 2023 — Northwest Iraq (6:16 a.m. local time, 3:16 a.m. GMT) From deep below the bed of the Euphrates river, between the Iraqi cities of Ana and Hit, and bordered by the four ancient river guard posts of Baia Malcha, Auzura, Jibb Jibba, and Olabu, a dark assembly crept eagerly toward the surface, its members fighting and clawing in the agitated hive to be among the first ranks to emerge. Their time was near. They knew it. This was the hour and the day and the month and the year for which they had waited since before the dawn of human history. Their manumission would not last long though, and each hoped to make the most of it while they could. Then, unheard by physical ears, a trumpet sounded and thunder rolled and chains were loosed and fell to the ground. John and Cohen's most recent prophecy was about to be fulfilled upon the people of the earth. At last the time had arrived. The earth retched and the waters of the Euphrates churned and boiled and then violently erupted, releasing an ooze of savage, shadowy, repulsive brutes into the world of men. Like lava from a volcano or pus from an inflamed abscess, the vile horde, imperceptible to human sight, spread out in all directions across the face of the earth, seeking out human life wherever it could be found. The foul stench of burning sulfur rose to the heavens and filled the air for a thousand miles as row upon hideous row of the ghoulish spectral mass emerged upon the earth. Arrayed in ghostly armor, their otherwise gray hides covered with breastplates of fiery red, dark blue, and yellow, each of the sinister throng rode upon an aberrational mount which resembled nothing so much as it did a horse but which had a head and mane more like that of a lion and nostrils filled with putrid breath of yellow smoke and flame. The tail of each beast seemed to rise and move independent of the movement of the beast itself and on close examination appeared less like a tail and far more like a venomous serpent grafted to the beast's hindquarters. Scores of the malevolent legion rose above the earth on leathery wings and filled the sky with foul shrieks of glee as they eagerly scouted ahead of the dark army of 200 million, each bent on participating in the destruction of man. Northeast of the city of Ar-Ramadi, a small village of Iraqi "Marsh Arabs" from the marshy areas around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers lay sleeping in the cool pre-dawn March air. Unaware of the approaching danger, an old man rose from his sleep and threw on his cloak in preparation for morning prayer toward Mecca. Outside his home the invisible legions advanced with incredible speed, bearing down upon his small village, eager to draw first blood. Unheard and unseen, one of the phantom riders passed effortlessly through the wall of the man's house, saliva dripping from the corners of his grotesque mouth as he spotted his first victim. Sensing only the faint odious fetor of burning sulfur, the old man's body shuddered as though he had tasted a bitter fruit as the invisible demon entered him and took control of his mind and body. Quietly, so as not to awaken anyone else in the house, he walked to the kitchen area and picked up a large knife... Throughout the small town the invisible army found other victims and murder reigned triumphant over every living thing. Both screams and laughter filled the air as the old man ran from his house, howling in crazed revelry as he brandished the knife, looking for others to feed his blood lust. In a house nearby, a young woman worked in her kitchen preparing breakfast for her still-sleeping husband. Abruptly she stood up straight and dropped her cooking utensils to the floor. Looking around, she picked up a large heavy skillet, left her meal preparations, and went to the bedroom. Laughing out loud as she returned to the kitchen a few minutes later, she lifted the hem of her blood-splattered dress and held it up to the flame of the stove until it caught. With her clothes in flames, she giggled as she swayed gently from side to side and the fire engulfed her. With increasing swiftness the murderous mounted madness swept across farm, village, town, and city. The slaughter was unimaginable as people turned on one another, driven on by forces they could not see or understand. Seven and a half hours after it started, the insanity reached Umm Qasr and Faw and the other cities on the Persian Gulf, and people ran by the thousands like lemmings into the sea to drown. As the madness swallowed the capital of Baghdad, all communications with the outside world were lost. There was no one to report the story to the rest of the world because no one survived. Everyone was killed. For death's agents, the more violent the slaughters, the better. And when no one was left to kill, the last person standing would take his own life. March 10, 2023 - London (6:03 a.m.) Stan McKay spit out a pistachio shell and washed down the half-chewed meat with a quick swallow of his soft drink. The young journalist was still new on the job and so was quick to respond to the blinking light before him. Picking up the receiver of the phone, he answered simply, "McKay." No more answer than that was necessary since anyone intentionally calling that number would know they had reached the headquarters of World News Network in London. "Let me talk to Jack Washington," the voice demanded urgently. "I'm sorry, sir," McKay responded. "Mr. Washington is out of the office right now." "Then let me talk to Oliver Peyton." "I'm sorry," McKay said again. "He's with Mr. Washington. Can I help you?" "Yeah, yeah," the voice said after a second's hesitation. "Look, this is James Paulson. I'm about to send you a live feed from the Riyadh office. I want you to make absolutely certain you're set to record and then I want you to be sure that the report gets to Jack Washington. Can you do that?" "Yes, sir," McKay answered confidently. "Okay, I'll start the feed in twenty seconds. Is that enough time for you?" "Uh . . . yes, sir. I think so," he answered with less certainty. "Okay, just do your best." It took about thirty seconds for McKay to check his equipment. "All set, sir," he said when he returned to the phone, and switched on his own monitor so he could see what was coming across. "This is James Paulson reporting from the WNN offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia," he said in the same hurried tone he had had on the phone. Stan McKay had no actual experience in front of the camera but he had studied it in school — which really didn't qualify him to have an opinion — but it seemed to him that this James Paulson character was talking much too quickly for television. "Outside the window of our offices," Paulson continued, "a scene of utter chaos is unfolding." The hand-held camera moved from Paulson to the WNN office window, revealing the grisly spectacle on the street, superimposed over the reflection of the camera and its operator in the glass of the closed window. "It looks like a war zone out there," he said. And, indeed, it did. There were people throwing bricks and stones and other heavy objects at one another; there were a few people with knives and other sharp objects; and scattered around there were the bodies of those who had already fallen. "The violence seems to be totally indiscriminate," Paulson continued. "Shop owners killing customers and vice versa; men and women killing each other in the most brutal ways imaginable; and perhaps the strangest aspect to it all: no one appears to be doing anything to protect themselves. No one runs, no one hides. They just stand in plain view, without seeking cover, as they continue to assault and kill each other." As Paulson spoke, the camera pulled back just as a man jumped head first to his death from the eighth floor of an adjacent building. Paulson paused in stunned silence and then struggled to continue. "The melee appears to have begun about ten to twelve minutes ago when sirens were heard throughout the city as police, fire, and emergency medical teams responded to reports of random violence. Immediately following that, the sound of gunfire began and still continues sporadically. As you can see out our window, the sky is beginning to fill with smoke from hundreds of fires that have sprung up all over the city as savagery rules the streets "Here at the WNN offices we have sealed ourselves in, locking security doors and terminating all elevator access to the two floors . . ." James Paulson abruptly stopped speaking and looked somewhere off-camera, behind the camera operator. His right eyebrow raised in apprehension. His eyes shifted about the room. Something was obviously happening in the office, though Paulson didn't seem to know exactly what. Stan McKay, watching the monitor in London, twisted and turned in his seat, instinctively looking at the screen from different angles hoping to get a better view, though logic told him it really wouldn't change his perspective of the office. The look on Paulson's face went from apprehension to sheer terror. The picture tumbled as the camera dropped and then the screen went blank. Saudi Arabia (2:57 p.m. local time, 5:57 p.m. GMT) The sound of air passing through regulators was entirely drowned out by the swirling blades of the United Nations helicopter as it hovered a few hundred yards from a camp of 80 to 100 Bedouin tribesmen camped a few miles south of the helicopter's destination of As-Mubarraz, Saudi Arabia. Inside the helicopter, a team of four men and two women plus the helicopter's pilot and copilot studied the actions of the tribesmen, while cameras recorded the event and transmitted the pictures via satellite to an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean. According to satellite photography, a rapidly-growing circle of death, inside of which no human life remained, extended from Yazd, Iran in the east, 1,050 miles to Mahattat Al-Qatranah, Jordan in the west; from Nachicevan, Azerbajdzanskaja in the north, 920 miles to Al-Hulwah, Saudi Arabia in the south. As-Mubarraz, 82 miles below the southernmost edge of the circle, thus far appeared to be unaffected and the Bedouin camp was the first sign of human life the team had spotted this close to the periphery of the circle. The preponderance of evidence about the circle of death indicated the presence of some incredibly fast-acting, 100 percent virulent, rapidly-dispersing biological or chemical agent. There were two pieces of data that conflicted with that thesis. The first was that whatever the killing agent was, it traveled in all directions at about the same speed and was therefore unaffected by air currents, as would have been the case with any known nuclear, biological, or chemical agent. The second chink in the thesis was the macabre video report that had come from World News Network in Riyadh. For protection, each member of the helicopter's crew and research team wore an entirely self-contained nuclear/biological/chemical suit which provided protection against any infiltrant larger than .005 microns. Gas masks were used until the helicopter came to within twenty kilometers of the city, after which point respiration was provided by individual tanks of compressed air carried by each member of the team and the crew members. Because of this protective encasement, communications among the team were carried out by means of short-range radio transmitters and receivers that were built into their masks and hoods. Anything said by a member of the team would be heard by all other members and transmitted back by the helicopter's communications equipment to the carrier in the Indian Ocean. There was no indication of anything unusual when the helicopter reached the southern edge of the city. The residents were going about their daily lives. Hovering about 150 feet above the ground, the six cameras mounted below the helicopter recorded everything they encountered, providing a complete panoramic view from the chopper's belly. Inside, the team members scanned the vicinity for anything that seemed at all unusual, but found nothing. The team leader, Col. Terry Crystal, leaned through the doorway from the cargo bay to the helicopter's cockpit and signaled the pilot to proceed northward, stopping at each of the predetermined coordinates for subsequent inspection. The helicopter was a flying laboratory with equipment on board to provide immediate analysis of all environmental data and the retrieval and collection of samples for further analysis on their return to their base in Qal'at Bishna. At each of the several stops made over the city, air samples were taken for immediate analysis but so far nothing unusual had been found. Arriving at the northern edge of the city the helicopter slowed again, hovering while the team repeated its routine. If nothing was found, the itinerary would take them next to Al-Hulwah, a location within the known radius of the circle of death, where satellite photographs indicated no human life remained. The air sample from the city's northern border indicated the presence of no contaminants and there appeared to be no visual indication of anything out of the ordinary on the ground. Col. Crystal checked with each member of his team and then, leaning back into the cockpit again, motioned to the pilot to continue. The pilot was about to carry out Col. Crystal's order when the copilot thought he noticed something. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to something on the ground. Col. Crystal and the pilot looked where the copilot was pointing. "It's just a woman doing her laundry in a washtub," Col. Crystal said. "No, look closer," the copilot insisted. Col. Crystal picked up his binoculars and stepped into the cockpit for a better view. "What the . . .?!" he gasped, still holding the binoculars. His response drew the attention of the rest of the team in the helicopter's bay. "There's something else!" someone said, pointing about a hundred yards from the woman. Shifting their attention, they watched as a man picked up a pitchfork and ran toward another man. "Quick! The woman!" someone else yelled cryptically, and pointed back to the previous scene, where a man with a rifle was approaching the woman at the wash tub. "Get us out of range of that rifle!" Col. Crystal ordered quickly. "Everybody hang on!" the pilot yelled as he pulled the chopper sharply up and to the left to take cover behind one of the city's taller buildings. He did so just in time, as the man turned and started shooting at them. "Look! Over there!" one of the female team members called. "And over there!" someone else said. It quickly became apparent that there were more than enough atrocities to keep them all busy; no one needed to point them out. Even from a distance of hundreds of feet in the air, the slaughter was sickening to watch. The madness spread below them at incredible speed. "Are we getting all this on camera?" Col. Crystal asked. "Yes, sir," came the answer from the team member monitoring the cameras. "Let's get our air samples and get out of here," the colonel directed. Crystal stepped back into the cockpit. The cockpit's large windows provided a much wider angle of view than the observation windows in the helicopter's bay. Despite the horror on the ground, the attention of all three men in the cockpit was fixed on it, unable to conceive of such mindless slaughter. For a while no one spoke; they all watched in disbelief, struggling to comprehend what could be causing this. "Sir," the pilot said, addressing Col. Crystal, "I don't know what's going on down there, but if your people have their samples I think we ought to get the h*** out of here and come back for the other tests when things have calmed down. Right now we're a sitting duck for anyone with a gun. They've pretty much ignored us so far, but . . ." The pilot's sentence was cut short by a flashing light on the instrument panel, followed by a sudden shift in the helicopter's weight distribution. "Someone's opened the bay door!!" he yelled. Col. Crystal turned on his heel and went back into the helicopter's bay. What he saw there defied logical explanation. The bay door was indeed open as the pilot's instruments had indicated, but the research team was gone. After waiting a moment but hearing no word from Col. Crystal, the pilot decided to have a look for himself. "Take over," he told his copilot. "I'm going back to see what's going on." The same scene greeted him as had met Col. Crystal. The door was open and no one was there — not even Col. Crystal. "No one's back here!" he reported in stunned disbelief to his copilot by way of the internal radio in their protective suits. "It looks like they've all jumped!" "Oh, d***!" the copilot answered. It didn't take much to realize that whatever was affecting the people on the ground had taken its toll on the research team. "Let's get out of here, skipper." "Roger that. Just let me get this door shut and we'll be gone!" The pilot moved quickly to the rear of the bay and reached to pull the door shut. Behind him there was a flash of movement and someone lunged from behind some equipment. Hit by the man's full weight, the pilot flew through the open doorway of the helicopter along with his attacker. Tumbling through mid-air towards his certain death, he saw who had tackled him. It was Col. Crystal. "Get back to base!" he yelled as loud as he could, hoping that he was still within range for radio contact with his copilot — it was imperative that the data gathered by the team be delivered. Two seconds later the pilot and Col. Crystal were dead. Inside the helicopter, the copilot had heard the pilot's last order and was already making good its completion. Moving south as quickly as the chopper would take him, he retreated back the way they had come. Everywhere below him the killing progressed with amazing speed. The cameras were still rolling, capturing the details of the bloodshed and sending them back to a stunned analysis team in the Indian Ocean. Then unexpectedly, the copilot caught the smell of something like rotten eggs or burning sulfur. The dark legions of the Euphrates River had not yet reached the Bedouin camp south of the city. Looking up from feeding his father's camels, a teenage Bedouin boy watched with great interest the return of the helicopter that had passed overhead about half an hour earlier. Curiously, it flew straight toward them and upon reaching their camp, hovered there, frightening the animals in camp and bringing everyone out of their tents. For a moment nothing happened, and then it seemed as though rain was falling but the rain burned their eyes. The ‘rain' was fuel from the helicopter's tanks being dumped on the camp and blown about by the helicopter's blades. Many people took shelter in their tents, which soaked up the gas. With about a quarter of its fuel remaining, the helicopter shot straight up into the sky. At about a thousand feet up the copilot changed course and took the helicopter into a power dive, coming down directly into the heart of the Bedouin camp and turning the entire camp into a spectacular blazing inferno. By the end of the second day there was not a person left alive within 1,200 miles of the Euphrates River and the murderous madness was continuing to spread, reaching as far west as Libya, as far east as Afghanistan, as far north as Volgograd, Russia, and as far south as the Gulf of Aden. Five hundred million men, women, and children had been killed and there was no sign of abatement. The following night the circle of death had reached Timessa, Libya, and the heel of the boot of Italy in the west; western India in the east; Moscow in the north; and Burji, Ethiopia in the south. Eight hundred million people lay brutally slaughtered; the populations of Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, South Yemen, Oman, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, as well as most of Romania, Turkistan, Libya, Ethiopia, and the Sudan were dead. There was one exception: not one person within the borders of Israel had been killed. 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 ====================================================== Bearing Great Fruit By: Ken Onweller ====================================================== Have you ever wanted to bear great fruit for the cause of Jesus Christ but found yourself bearing thorns, instead? In 2 Peter 1:5- 8 we find what may be the actual reason people fail to bear great fruit. OVERVIEW 2 Peter 1:5 5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. In this passage we see the progression of steps towards great fruit-bearing. Each step draws from the previous and leads into the next. To miss a step is like building a house and forgetting to put up the walls before the ceiling. It just doesn't work. Step 1: ADD TO YOUR FAITH VIRTUE What is interesting about this step is that you are adding virtue to your faith. This means that you must already have the faith you are adding to. So, where did this faith come from? Ga 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by THE FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST... [emphasis mine] Since the faith is from Jesus it isn't something that you actually need to work on. No, not like the other things in the list. So instead of pursuing something which you already have (faith), you need to go after those things which you do not have. And you must go after them with ALL DILIGENCE. Why? BECAUSE YOU DON'T AUTOMATICALLY HAVE THEM LIKE YOU DO WITH FAITH!!! So what is virtue? It is purity. The kind of purity that represents the absence of sin. Imagine a fresh snowfall. So smooth and untouched. This represents virtue. If the snow is left alone it will remain perfect. Allow anything into that snow and it is marred. Likewise, a virtuous person is easily marred by sin. Heb 12:1 ...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us]... Step 2: TO VIRTUE KNOWLEDGE In Step 1, we saw the need to keep our lives as sin-free as possible. In Step 2, we see there is another element: adding knowledge. This should be almost a no-brainer. How do you think you increase your knowledge of Jesus Christ? Through devotional bible study. It isn't just reading the bible which draws you closer to God. No, you need to make it a daily conversation between you and he. Are you spending time in the word each day getting to know Jesus better and seeking his will for your life? If so, you are promised a strength great enough to withstand whatever life throws your way. Matthew 7:24 24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. Step 3: TO KNOWLEDGE TEMPERANCE With increased knowledge of Jesus Christ will also come the power to control yourself. When a temptation to sin comes along, you should be able to withstand it completely. 1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]. The only question is this: are you seeing the escape? If not, are you growing in knowledge as you should be? I believe that what the Holy Spirit is teaching us here is a progression of baby steps leading to a very powerful life. Step 4: TO TEMPERANCE PATIENCE Patience, here, isn't patience in the sense we commonly think of it. No, it means endurance. So, after you've become successful at resisting sin you need to grow in endurance. Don't allow yourself to slack off, but go at it with all of the gusto which Jesus supplies you through his Spirit. Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Ro 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life... Step 5: TO PATIENCE GODLINESS This part amazes me the most for it serves as a sort of a hinge. We know that the next two characteristics of a rich Christian walk are brotherly kindness and charity (vs. 7). But as we've been following a progression, we cannot have brotherly kindness and charity except we have godliness. And, we cannot have godliness except we have been diligently putting sin out of our lives, having regular devotional bible studies, resisting temptation, and enduring patiently without giving up. So it is, with these preliminaries established we can now have godliness. And what, exactly, does godliness mean? According to the Greek, the word for godliness means having a proper attitude towards God. If you feel like God just isn't there or that you just don't seem close to him, maybe you've slacked off a bit. Are you really following all of the proper steps? Step 6: TO GODLINESS BROTHERLY KINDNESS Once we have the proper attitude towards God we can begin to fulfill the commandment of Jesus Christ. 1Jo 3:23 And this is his commandment ... love one another, as he gave us commandment. Brotherly love is far more than just helping out other people occasionally. No, it is learning to look out for and to put every one of their needs before your own. It requires incredible self- sacrifice. And, it isn't easy. But as you have begun to experience TRUE godliness, you'll find that your ability and desire to express brotherly love should also increase. Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure. Step 7: TO BROTHERLY KINDNESS CHARITY Charity, or agape, is the very epitome of who and what God is. It goes above and beyond loving your brother. It is the expression of how God feels about all of creation. Everything which God has done in the past, in the present, and in the future is motivated by love. These seven baby steps towards Christian maturity may seem like a lot but look at the end result. Ro 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. God's purpose for us is that we be extensions of Jesus Christ on this earth. As you follow these steps you should find yourself conforming more and more to the image of Jesus Christ with each day! SOURCE OF DOUBT 2 Peter 1:8 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. By way of reminder, as you follow the seven steps of putting sin out of your life, having regular bible time, resisting sin, enduring patiently, reverencing God, loving your brother, and loving as God does, you will be a very productive child of God. You will in no possible way be barren nor unfruitful. However, if you do not follow these steps in your life, you are lacking and short-sighted. When you are short-sighted you will be swallowed up by your life and what is going on around you. You will lose sight of the Rapture and all of the glory to be given you when Jesus returns. You will forget about New Jerusalem and the invigorating energy afforded you when you are given the new spirit body that can never run down. Now, whatever Paul meant by the last part, "...and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins," I'll let you draw your own conclusions. SOURCE OF CONFIDENCE 2 Peter 1:10 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In contrast to the depressing downslide you face in not growing in Jesus Christ, this passage offers incredible hope for your diligence. As you follow the seven steps you'll realize the great encouragement that, "...ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ". Of course, you could still make it to heaven without following these steps at all. It's really between you and Jesus. But what a difference your life will make if you do. ====================================================== The Nature of the Lord's Return: Is the Lord Returning in Love or Wrath? by Dr. David R. Reagan ====================================================== When you think of the coming of the Lord, what do you think of? What is your image? Is it positive or negative? Is it a return in love or in wrath? And what do you feel? Fear or joy? Comfort or anxiety? How would you characterize your overall attitude about the Lord's return? Desire or apathy? Do you pray for it? Or, do you try not to think about it? Are you enthusiastic or passive? Finally, how would you describe the Lord's coming? How would you explain it to someone who knows nothing about it? The Scriptural Images There are two detailed descriptions of the Lord's return in the New Testament, one written by the Apostle Paul and the other by the Apostle John. These descriptions are reproduced on page 2, side by side. Stop for a moment and read them carefully. Now, let me ask you some more questions. How can these two descriptions be reconciled? I ask that because they are as different as night and day. Did you notice that? Look again and make a careful comparison. Notice that they have absolutely nothing in common. In fact, they are totally incompatible. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 "(13) But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. (14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. (15) For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. (16) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. (17) Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. (18) Therefore comfort one another with these words." Revelation 19:11-18 "(11) And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. (12) and His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except himself. (13) And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. (14) And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. (15) And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He many smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. (16) And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, 'KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.'" Comparison and Contrast The passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 presents a scene of love, mercy, and grace. The picture that is painted by Revelation 19 is one of vengeance and wrath. In the Thessalonian passage, the Lord appears in the sky, but does not descend to the earth. In the Revelation account, he come to the earth. Zechariah 14 says He will return to the Mount of Olives from which He ascended into Heaven. One of the most significant differences between the two passages relates to the Church. In the Thessalonian account, the Lord comes for the purpose of taking His Church, both the dead and living members, out of this world. In Revelation, by stark contrast, He returns with His Church. This is indicated in Revelation 19:14 where it says that "the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean were following Him on white horses." We know these people constitute the Church, because the same group is described a few verses before (verses 7 and 8) as being the "bride" of Christ. Thus, in Paul's description of the Lord's return, He is portrayed as coming for His Church, to deliver believers from the "wrath that is to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10). But in John's description, Jesus is portrayed as returning with His Church in great wrath. In Thessalonians Jesus returns as a Deliverer. In Revelation He comes back as a Warrior. In one scene He is coming to claim the righteous; in the other, He returns to condemn the unrighteous. A Problem in Reconciliation What is going on here? How could these two passages be talking about the same event? How can they be reconciled? I believe there is only one way to reconcile them and that is to conclude that they are describing two separate events. That, in turn, implies rather clearly that there are going to be two future comings of the Lord. One of those ‹ the one described in 1 Thessalonians 4 ‹ will be more of an appearing than a coming, for the Lord will not actually return to the earth. He will, instead, appear in the heavens and supernaturally draw the Church, living and dead, to Him. The second future appearance of the Lord ‹ the one described in Revelation 19 ‹ will be the true "Second Coming," for the Lord will actually descend to the earth to pour out the wrath of God and establish His reign over all the world. This means the "Second Coming" of the Lord is going to be in two stages. The first stage will be what has come to be known as the Rapture ‹ the snatching of the Church out of the world. The second stage, which will occur later, will be the return of the Lord to the earth. The Issue of Imminence This method of reconciling these passages solves a serious problem that emerges when you think of only one future coming of the Lord. That problem relates to the emphasis that the Scriptures give to imminence. What I am referring to, of course, is the constant warning of the Scriptures that the Lord may appear any moment and, therefore, we are to always be ready for the Lord's return (Matthew 24:36, 42, 44, 50 and 25:13). If there is only one future coming of the Lord, then these warnings are a waste of time and there is no imminence because there are many prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled before the Lord can return. For example: 1. A peace treaty must be signed that will guarantee Israel's peace with all of its Arab neighbors (Daniel 9:27). 2. The Jewish Temple must be rebuilt in Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, and Revelation 11:1-2). 3. The Great Tribulation must begin and run its seven year course, resulting in the death of over half the world's population (Revelation 6-18). 4. The Antichrist must reveal himself and begin an unprecedented persecution of the Jews ‹ one that will result in the death of two-thirds of all the Jews (Revelation 12:13-17 & Zechariah 13:7-9). 5. The Gospel must be preached to every person on the earth (Matthew 24:14 and Revelation 14:6-7). 6. An unprecedented system of economic control must be established that will prevent persons from buying or selling anything unless they can display on their right hands or foreheads the mark or name of the Antichrist. 7. The worldwide kingdom of the Antichrist must be destroyed in "one hour of one day" (Revelation 17 & 18). These are all events that are clearly prophesied in Scripture as occurring before Jesus returns to earth. None of them has yet been fulfilled in history. If there is only one future coming of the Lord, and it must take place after these events, then why should we be looking for Jesus Christ? We should be looking instead for the Antichrist! Living with Expectancy The only way that the imminence taught by the Scriptures can be maintained is to believe that Jesus can return any moment. The only way to maintain that belief is to conclude that the Lord's appearing for His Church (the Rapture) is an event that is separate and apart from the Second Coming and is an event that can occur any moment. That is what I have concluded from my study of prophecy, and I therefore live looking for the Rapture to occur any moment. This is exactly what Paul commands us to do when he writes that we are to live "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus" (Titus 2:13). I therefore do not believe there is one prophecy in the Bible that must be fulfilled before the Lord appears for His Church. He can appear any moment. And the imminence of His appearing increases daily as the signs of the time point to the events that will culminate with His Second Coming. Those signs include, among others, the re-establishment of the state of Israel, the Jewish reoccupation of the city of Jerusalem, the reunification of Europe, and the rise of Arab militancy in the Middle East. Keep in mind that the Rapture is not the event that will kick-off the Tribulation. That event is the signing of a peace treaty that will guarantee the peace of Israel with all its Arab neighbors and will also authorize the Jews to rebuild their Temple (Daniel 9:27). The Rapture could occur years before the Tribulation begins, although it is most likely to occur near the beginning because the Tribulation is the time for the pouring out of God's wrath, and 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says that Jesus will "deliver" His Church "from the wrath to come." Hope or Terror? To summarize, we should be looking for two future comings of the Lord ‹ one at the beginning of the Tribulation, the other at the end. The first, the Rapture, will be the appearing of the Lord for His Church. The second, the Second Coming, will be the return of the Lord to the earth to "judge and wage war" against the enemies of God (Revelation 19:11). The signs of the times point to the fact that Jesus is at the very gates of Heaven, waiting for His Father's command to appear for His Church. The Rapture is imminent. Are you ready? Will Jesus appear (the Rapture) as your Blessed Hope? Or, will He return (the Second Coming) as your Holy Terror? The choice is yours. Copyright © 1996 Lamb and Lion. All rights reserved worldwide. Dr. David R. Reagan is founder and senior evangelist of Lamb & Lion Ministries in McKinney, Texas http://www.lamblion.com/ ******************* DEVOTIONALS ****************** Spurgeon's Devotion: "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." - 1 Thessalonians 1:4 Many persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but they cannot learn it thus, it is only to be discovered by "looking unto Jesus." If you desire to ascertain your own election;-after the following manner, shall you assure your heart before God. Do you feel yourself to be a lost, guilty sinner? go straightway to the cross of Christ, and tell Jesus so, and tell him that you have read in the Bible, "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." Tell him that he has said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Look to Jesus and believe on him, and you shall make proof of your election directly, for so surely as thou believest, thou art elect. If you will give yourself wholly up to Christ and trust him, then you are one of God's chosen ones; but if you stop and say, "I want to know first whether I am elect," you ask you know not what. Go to Jesus, be you never so guilty, just as you are. Leave all curious inquiry about election alone. Go straight to Christ and hide in his wounds, and you shall know your election. The assurance of the Holy Spirit shall be given to you, so that you shall be able to say, "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him." Christ was at the everlasting council: he can tell you whether you were chosen or not; but you cannot find it out in any other way. Go and put your trust in him, and his answer will be-"I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. " There will be no doubt about his having chosen you, when you have chosen him. "Sons we are through God's election, Who in Jesus Christ believe." ******************* POETRY ******************* It's That Simple by Lori Eldridge We're being strangled by apostasy. Faith plus works equals nothing. God's grace rejected; A precious gift forsaken by man's foolish pride. Submit, repent, accept, obey, commit, receive, confess, and baptize your way into deception. Work your way to heaven if you can. Waste your time. Waste your life. Waste other's lives. Follow Satan's twisted plan or just believe: He came, He died for me and you, He was buried, He rose again. (1 Cor. 15:1-5) Lori Eldridge (c) 7-18--00 ======================================== 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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