Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | March 30, 2023

Palm Sunday, 2023 and its Enormous Significance!

April 2nd, 2023 is Palm Sunday

This Sunday we observe and remember the entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem where He had come to die. This week was to be a terrible time of testing for the Jewish nation although they had no idea of the great significance of what was to happen from that point on.

The exact date for this momentous event had been prophesied by the Prophet Daniel and that prophecy, among many others, was being perfectly fulfilled by our Lord as He rode into the city. I would say it was certain that among the tens of thousands present that day, only the Lord understood the staggeringly wondrous truths that were being put into place as that amazing prophecy was fulfilled.

Four hundred and eighty-three years had passed since the beginning of the third and final group of three 490-year periods that had been given to Israel by God. The second group had ended with the Babylonian captivity and now the third group of 490 years had been put on hold at year 483 as also foretold by Daniel; I have written on this in some detail in a three-part series, The Seventy Weeks of Daniel.

Israel was being set aside for an unspecified number of years while a mystery was revealed, the mystery of the church and the age of grace, the age in which we now live. The remaining 7 years promised to Israel would resume at a point yet future when Israel would sign a covenant with the Antichrist.

The Entry into Jerusalem

Contrary to what we customarily celebrate, the entry was on a Monday, not a Sunday and it was not triumphal for our Lord; it was a time of great sadness as evidenced by Luke 19:41-42 where it is written,

“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”

The particular Greek word used for wept (ἔκλαυσεν) means a loud wracking sob; our Lord’s body was shaken by His sobs as He entered Jerusalem. He is likely the only one who understood the enormity of what was happening; the Jewish nation was being temporarily set aside, their rejection of their Messiah was going to yield great suffering for centuries to come. Their judgment would be severe and is still in force today.

It is likely, in His omniscience, that Jesus saw the Jerusalem of 70 AD as destroyed by Titus and could also see the bodies of some of those welcoming Him as they lay silent in death. This was a momentous, tragic moment that was being recognized only by the Lord and the thought of what was going to befall Jerusalem and His people reduced Him to wracking sobs. I suspect His disciples were totally confused by His reaction to the sight of Jerusalem and the excited crowds.

From the Shephard’s Notes.com

There is another extremely touching aspect of our Lord’s entering Jerusalem on Nisan 10. If we examine Exodus 12:3 we read,

“Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month (Nisan) each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.”

This was part of the instructions given to Israel on the occasion of the first Passover in Egypt. Traditionally, the family would select a perfect lamb and place it on display in front of their dwelling so all could see they were offering the Lord their very best.

God’s Passover Lamb put on display

On March 30, AD 33, the 10th of Nisan, the Father put His Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world on display for all Jerusalem to see that the Father was offering them His very best. (In 2023 we are in year 5783 according to the Jewish calendar and the 10th of Nisan will be Saturday, April 1st.)

After the passing of that day, Israel had been set aside for an undetermined number of years. Today we are at year 1,990 and still counting as Israel continues to suffer judgments until the return of the Lord they rejected.

The countdown clock on the remaining seven years of Israel’s last 490 years will recommence when Israel signs a covenant agreement with the Antichrist; this event and not the rapture of the church will be the trigger that starts their final countdown and the beginning of the Tribulation.

While this was an amazing week, filled with suffering and anguish for our Lord and judgment for Israel, it was the reason our Lord took on human form; that was necessary that He might die for our sins. The moment of triumph was coming soon, the following week our Lord would rise from the dead having perfectly paid the price of our redemption.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-4

(First published March 28, 2015, updated and revised)

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | March 6, 2023

We, as Christians, Live Under God’s Shield of Protection!

First of All, Who and What we Really Are!

A Satanic priority is to conceal who and what we really are; if the truth were widely understood and believed, then the world would be greatly changed! The basic truth of the matter is; we are eternal, spiritual beings created in the image of God! There will never be a time when we do not exist in some form somewhere.

It has pleased God to place us initially in a temporary container made of this earth; this container, our human bodies, are short-term affairs, referred to in the Bible as tents which have been cursed by God for Adam’s disobedience, and will not accompany us on our future travels.

The Bible provides a brief historic summary of how we got here, where we’ve been and where we’re going. It also reveals the plans God has for us are unalterable and inevitable. We discover, from the Bible, there is one race of humankind that now exists in two forms; those spiritually alive and those spiritually dead.

Those spiritually alive have received life by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior; those spiritually dead remain under the death curse that resulted from Adam’s disobedience to God’s command. Ethnic distinctions are meaningless Satanic deceptions; we are all one race descended from Adam through Noah!

God’s First Intervention, the Great Flood

History shows that God deals dramatically and decisively when he chooses to intervene in the affairs of mankind. The Bible is filled with instances in the past and in the future when God steps in with great power and drama!

In Matthew 24:36-39 it is written:

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

The Lord Jesus Christ tells of a time when life was proceeding in a normal fashion and suddenly there was a massive change introduced by God; something that had never happened before started happening, water, pouring from the sky and monstrous torrents of water shooting miles up from the ground and flooding the earth.

For one thousand, six hundred and fifty-six years the ground had been watered by a mist that went up for the earth: “6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.” Genesis 2:6 Now, something was happening that defied the imagination.

Suddenly, the world as it had been known, was changing in a very dangerous way; earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were everywhere as the water started rising and wouldn’t stop. This would continue until every living creature on the face of the earth had drowned.

God’s Shield of Protection!

Although the world’s judgment would be severe; God, in his grace, had chosen some to protect from that judgment. In Genesis 6:5-14, the situation is explained:

“5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.”

It is easy to imagine the ridicule and laughter that must have been generated by a man building a massive boat on dry land and likely telling of something that had never, in the history of mankind, happened before. There must have been some moments of doubt when animals of all sorts started making their way into this massive boat with no visible guidance or motivation; Noah was putting on quite a show!

The Bible does not reveal how many were watching the show nor how they reacted when the unimaginable started to happen; water started falling from the sky for the first time! Genesis 7 summarizes what happens next as a cataclysm of truly Biblical proportions begins to unfold for the terrified left outside the Ark.

God’s Second Intervention, the First Advent

As a further manifestation of God’s grace, God determined to send His Son to earth to take on human form and be born of a virgin so he might die as the payment for the sins of the world. In addition, after the successful completion of his task, the Son would return to heaven and God, the Holy Spirit would come to earth to indwell all those who received salvation by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.

God had hidden from the Old Testament prophets a new, secret development, the formation of a new entity called the church. All receiving Jesus Christ as Savior, would be given new spiritual life and joined, by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, into one spiritual body called the church.

This is where we find ourselves today, the church is almost 1,990 years old; having begun at Pentecost in 33 AD. At the First Advent, God had set Israel aside for an unrevealed number of years but had promised them an additional 7 years in the last days. I have written more on that in a three-part series that starts with; “The Seventy Weeks of Daniel”

Once Israel’s last seven years begins, the church will be gone, God does not mix the church and Israel. Israel had been set aside on March 30, AD 33 while the church didn’t come into existence until May 25, AD 33.

Next time, God’s Third Intervention, the New Creation.

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | February 27, 2023

Ninety Years Old (and Counting)!

While not as sonorous as 100 years old, 90 years old has a certain ring of its own.

A Chocolate Birthday Cake for my Ninetieth!

At the insistence of our daughter, Karen, our family celebrated my 90th birthday with a party at our house. It was a truly wonderful occasion with our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in attendance! The great-grandchildren, running and playing made it a noisy, active, thoroughly joyous event!

Our house, which is usually rather quiet, was filled with the excited laughter and screams of little children playing; bringing back memories of past years when our children and grandchildren provided the excitement. Since we have lived in that same house for almost 48 years, our grandchildren can remember when they were the little ones playing on the floor; now their children are playing in the same rooms!

As a young man, I never had thoughts of being 90 years old; my life was too full of people, places and past-times to let such thoughts even momentarily drift through my mind.

There had been two older men in my youth that influenced my perceptions of being old; my mother’s father, Dave, and my father’s father, Bob. My name, Robert David Bower came from them; since Bob and Dave were already taken, I got Robert David. I was impressed by their age and appearance and thought of them as being really old.

In retrospect, I do not think of them as all that old; Bob died when he was 73 and Dave died when he was 74; for me, that is almost ancient history!

My parents divorced when I was 2, so I have very few memories of my father being an influencer in my life. He died in a car wreck when he was 69.

No Plan for the Future

I decided to retire when I was 71 years old; there were changes in the wind that suggested a change in my situation was timely. By God’s grace, I was in a financial situation that permitted me to consider retirement as an option so I retired in September of 2004.

I had no idea what I would do after I retired; I had always had some sort of job since I was in junior high and was living on my own and fully supporting myself by the time I was 18. It was going to take some adjusting to not think of going to work and doing something.

It really didn’t matter as the Lord, in his grace, had already planned my retirement and would reveal his plans to me at the appointed time. I can say, with great enthusiasm, that the years of my retirement have been gloriously rewarding and filled with unexpected opportunities and challenges!

Building on a Solid Foundation

My wife and I got married while we were still children, at least legally we were children; she was 17 and I was 19 and we decided we would finish growing up together. I had been living in a furnished room and she spent too much time worrying about me so we figured it would be easier on both of us if we lived closer together.

Now, over 70 years later, that arrangement is still working for both of us. I have written more on that in a 2-part series that starts with: “A Husband’s Perspective on Building a Successful Christian Marriage.”

Our marriage has served as the foundation for my life and I continually thank and praise the Lord for his grace in giving me his servant, Adele, to be my wife! Our love for each other has continued to grow each day and has provided the necessary component to make our marriage the happy adventure it has become.

I continue to welcome the future, knowing my times are in the Lord’s hands!

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | February 20, 2023

Is a Great Awakening Possible in 2023?

Revival at Asbury University Continues!

Are we witnessing the beginning of another “Great Awakening” in 2023? All over the world we are seeing evidence of a moving of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individuals. This appears to be a manifestation of God’s grace to a world desperately in need of repentance!

The very thought of a wide-spread revival brings tears to my eyes; I love the thought of the Holy Spirit turning people to the Lord Jesus Christ on a massive scale! It is surely possible if the Lord has decided to provide an opportunity to let the Holy Spirit call lost souls to repentance.

A Prayer for Revival

Holy Father, as your children, we rejoice in you and your faithfulness to all who love you and call you Father. We acknowledge your unfailing faithfulness to us in spite of our failures and sinful behavior.

As individuals and as a nation, we have sinned against you and your holy righteousness; nationally we have turned our backs on you, denied you, and deliberately violated your holy commands.

We are worthy of your judgment by our sinful actions but humbly seek your forgiveness and restoration. We are truly thankful for the work of the Holy Spirit that we see around the world, and ask for more grace that many may turn from wickedness and seek restoration by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior!

We know you loved the world and sent the Lord Jesus Christ to pay for the sins of the world by dying on the cross and rising from the grave. Please further extend your love by sending your Holy Spirit to awaken the dead spirits of those turning from their sinful ways and seeking the deliverance to be found in Jesus Christ.

We ask this in Jesus name, amen!

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | February 13, 2023

What If?

The Chinese Spy Balloon Had Carried one or More Hydrogen Bombs?

A balloon flies in the sky over Billings, Montana, US, February 1, 2023 in this picture obtained from social media. (Chase Doak/via Reuters) The Indian Express, February 6, 2023

There has been a lot of angry dialog between China and the United States about the purpose of the balloon that recently drifted over the United States. Those charged with the safety of the people of the United States had absolutely no idea what the payload that balloon was carrying might actually be!

Numerous articles have appeared expressing concern this may have been a trial run for a future EMP attack on the USA, I have listed two below;

Dry run: Balloons called top ‘delivery platform’ for nuclear EMP attack

Washington Examiner

Expert: Chinese Balloon Could Be Dry Run to Deliver Nuclear EMP Device

Newsmax

I have found it rather fascinating to note this possibility has not been referenced by our government representatives; it would appear this should be considered a significant possibility and worthy of a proper response from our government!

If this thought occurred to me and others, it certainly should have occurred to those charged with our national defense!

At 60,000 feet, the balloon was much lower than the typical altitude referenced in most articles on the dangers of an EMP. The balloon had an altitude of around 11 miles while the optimal altitude for an EMP would be between 20 and 200 miles (1,056,000 feet) above the surface of the earth.

I’m confident the Chinese have the necessary technology to use the payload as a launch pad for one or more small rockets capable of lifting hydrogen bombs to the 200 mile altitude.

“Starfish Prime”

NPR published an article on July 1, 2010 on the detonation in space of a hydrogen bomb.

“The Americans launched their first atomic nuclear tests above the Earth’s atmosphere in 1958. Atom bombs had little effect on the magnetosphere, but the hydrogen bomb of July 9, 1962, did. Code-named “Starfish Prime” by the military, it literally created an artificial extension of the Van Allen belts that could be seen across the Pacific Ocean, from Hawaii to New Zealand.”

A Very Scary Light Show: Exploding H-Bombs In Space

July 1, 2010 4:01 PM ET

Heard on All Things Considered

Robert Krulwich

Hydrogen bomb blast 250 miles into space over the Pacific Ocean, July 9, 1962 from NPR

View from Hawaii

From ThoughtCo by Anne Marie Helmenstine

All of the light seen in the photos above are from the explosion of the 1.4 megaton H-bomb. The test was at an altitude of 250 miles, around 20 miles southwest of Hawaii, at around 2 AM.

Johnston Island, the launch site, is a small atoll owned by the United States, and is located around 825 miles southwest of Honolulu. The EMP damaged electrical systems in Hawaii.

More information on an EMP is available here:

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) – What You Need to Know

By August Neverman, August 23, 2022, “Common Sense Home”

It certainly appears to have been a dereliction of duty to have failed to shoot down the balloon as soon as it entered the air space of the United States. In light of the potential dangers involved, let us hope our government exercises greater caution next time.

An EMP over the United States, at an optimal altitude, would devastate this country and return it to 19th century living conditions for an extended period of time! Small wonder the United States doesn’t appear in Bible prophecy!

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | February 6, 2023

If You Really Wanted to Destroy the United States, Then . . .

(The following article, by Victor Davis Hanson, expresses with great clarity the situation we face today!)

“It would be hard to imagine any planned agenda to destroy America that would have been as injurious as what we already suffered the last two years.

By Victor Davis Hanson December 6, 2022

Also published in American Greatness Wed. November 30, 2022 

First, you would surrender our prior energy independence.

Reduce new gas and oil leases on federal lands to the lowest levels of any president in history. Cut back production at precisely the time the world is emerging from a two-year lockdown with pent-up consumer demand.

Make war on coal and nuclear power. Drain the strategic petroleum reserve to make the pain for consumers more bearable for midterm election advantage.

Cancel the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas field. Block pipelines like the Keystone oil pipeline and the Constitution natural gas line.

Overregulate and demonize frackers and horizontal drillers. Ensure there is less investment for their exploration and production.

Make use of internal combustion engines or fossil fuel power generation prohibitively expensive. Achieve a green oil-dependency along the lines of contemporary Europe.

Second, print trillions of dollars in new currency as the lockdowns end, demand rises, and consumers are already saturated with COVID-19 subsidies. Keep interest rates low, well below the rate of inflation, as you print more money. Ensure that passbook holders earn no interest at the very time prices skyrocket to the highest per annum level in 40 years.

“Spread the wealth” by sending money to those who already have enough, while making it less valuable for those deemed to have too much. Ensure runaway high prices to wean the middle class off its consumerism and supposedly to inspire them to buy less junk they don’t need. Damn the rich in the open and in the abstract, court them in the concrete and secret of darkness.

Third, end America’s physical boundaries. Render it an amorphous people and anywhere space. End any vestigial difference between a citizen and resident. Up the current nearly 50 million who were not born in the United States—27 percent of California’s population—to 100 million and more by allowing 3 million illegal aliens to enter per year.

Fourth, destroy the public trust in its elections. Render Election Day irrelevant. Make proper auditing of 110 million mail-in/early ballots impossible. Normalize ballot harvesting and curing.

Urge leftist billionaires to infuse their riches to “absorb” the work of state registrars in key precincts to ensure the correct “turn-out.”

Blast as “election denialists,” “insurrectionists,” and “democracy destroyers” anyone who objects to these radical ballot changes, neither passed by the U.S. Congress nor by state legislators. Weaponize the FBI, CIA, and Department of Justice.

Fifth, redefine crime as one rich man’s crime, another poor man’s necessity.

Let those who need “things” exercise their entitlement to them. Rewrite or ignore laws to exempt the oppressed who take, or do, what they want as atonement for past systemic racism and oppression.

Six, junk the ossified idea of a melting pot and multiracial society united by common American values and ideals. Instead, identify individuals by their superficial appearance. Seek to be a victim and monetize your claims against perceived victimizers. Call anyone a “racist” who resists.

Encourage each tribe, defined by common race, ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation affinities, to band together to oppose the monolithic “white privilege” majority. Encourage social and tribal tensions. Racially discriminate to end discrimination.

Greenlight statue toppling, name changing, boycotting, cancel culturing, ostracizing, and Trotskyizing. Erase the past, control the present, and create a new American person for the future.

Seven, render the United States just one of many nations abroad. Abandon Afghanistan in shame. Leave behind thousands of loyal Afghan allies, billions of dollars in equipment, a billion-dollar embassy, and the largest air base in central Asia. Appease the theocracy to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.

Beg enemies like Venezuela, Russia, and Iran to pump more oil when it is politically expedient for us to have abundant supplies—oil that we have in abundance but won’t produce. Discourage friends like Guinea from producing more energy and cancel allies’ energy projects like the EastMed pipeline.

Trash but then beg Saudi Arabia to pump more oil right before the midterms for domestic political advantage.

Eight, neuter the First Amendment. Enlist Silicon Valley monopolies to silence unwanted free speech while using Big Tech’s mega profits to warp elections. Declare free expression “hate speech.” Criminalize contrarian social media.

Nine, demonize half the country as semi-fascists, un-Americans, insurrectionists, and even potential domestic terrorists. Try to change inconvenient ancient rules: seek to pack the court, end the filibuster, junk the Electoral College, and bring in two more states.

Twice impeach a president who tried to stand in your way. Try him when he is an emeritus president and private citizen. Raid his home. Seek to indict a future rival to the current president.

Ten, never mention the origins of the COVID virus. Never blame China for the release of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Exempt investigations of U.S. health officials who subsidized Chinese gain-of-function research. Ignore the Bill of Rights to mandate vaccinations, mask wearing, and quarantines.

We have done all of the above. It would be hard to imagine any planned agenda to destroy America that would have been as injurious as what we already suffered the last two years.”

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a Member of the Board of Advisors for both the Independent Institute as well as its quarterly journal, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy.

Twitter

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | January 23, 2023

The Battle in Progress and You!

The Battle for the Souls of the Fallen Race of Adam

There is no neutral ground, you cannot think of yourself as a non-combatant; you are fully committed to this war by reason of your birth! You are either a soldier in God’s army or Satan’s army; those are the only two options! The only way to switch armies is to receive Jesus Christ as Savior; then you are born-again into the family of God and enrolled in God’s army for the duration of the war!

As Christians, we have joined a battle that has been in progress for thousands of years, but only after a profoundly significant change had taken place. On May 25, 33 AD, God created an entirely new form of human, a human eternally indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit. All who received Jesus Christ as Savior, were restored to spiritual life, born-again into the family of God and eternally indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit.

From that point on to this very day, the earth is populated by two distinctly different types of human beings; those born again with living spirits and eternally indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit, and those born of Adam, spiritually dead and under the control of a fallen sin nature.

Race is Irrelevant!

The only point of division is reception of Jesus Christ as Savior, there is no other; racism is nothing more than a Satanic deception! Those promoting racism are serving Satanic objectives in this ancient spiritual battle! I have written more on this in “Racism, Satanic Deception in Action.”

Directly because of the First Advent and the saving work of Jesus Christ, those born of Adam can receive Jesus Christ as Savior by faith alone, be born again into the family of God, given a living spirit and eternally indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit.

This is a battle for the souls of mankind and God’s army has been given it’s marching orders; in Matthew 28:18-20 it is written:

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Our marching orders are very clear, we have a specific objective, make disciples, baptize them and teach them to obey everything God has commanded us. We must remember flesh and blood is not the enemy!

Spiritual Carnage

The death and destruction produced by this spiritual war does not resemble the results of a typical human war; there are no bombed out villages, no mass destruction of large areas, no burned out tanks along the side of the road, nothing like that at all! Instead we have a more subtle carnage which affects the souls and spirits of mankind.

The Bible describes this kind of destruction in Galatians 5:19-21

“19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Any casual examination of the media will reveal an abundance of this sort of thing; this is the carnage being produced by the spiritual war. The greatest danger is the long-range impact of the consequences of this war. While cities can be rebuilt, souls, lost to Satan, will join Satan in the Lake of Fire for all eternity.

The Combatants

The major combatants in the spiritual war are not visible to humans; I suspect things are happening in the spiritual realm that would be overwhelming to humans if they were visible. The angelic creation is divided into two factions, the angels of God and the fallen angels who follow Satan. This information alone, moves the discussion infinitely beyond my comprehension.

Angels and Demons

While the Bible reveals very little about this conflict, we are given brief references to what has taken place before the creation of mankind. I have written more on this in “To the Soldiers in the Spiritual War” The angels of Satan are referred to as demons; one group of demons has been confined to the Abyss but will be released during the Tribulation. The balance of the demons are active in the world today, although limited by the power of God, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit

During this Age of Grace, the Holy Spirit is restraining the forces of Satan, as bad as things are today, at some point in the future they will get dramatically worse! In 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 we read of the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit:

7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

The restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit will stop when the church is removed at the Rapture, which brings the Age of Grace to a close. From that point on to the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, things will get really deadly! The Book of Revelation reveals some of what will take place during the Tribulation, the last seven years given to Israel.

While we live in the Age of Grace, the forces of Satan are kept in check to some degree. Demonic activity is contained by the power of the Holy Spirit but still being manifested even if not visible. By far, the greatest challenge is the sin nature that occupies every human being. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, the sin nature can dominate the children of Adam; we are seeing the results of the sin nature’s activities in the news today.

Christian Soldiers

Christians today are fighting in the front lines of this war; we are engaged in the hand-to-hand combat “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

I find it interesting to note the Greek word for sword used in Ephesians 6:17; μάχαιρα, transliterated machaira which was the famous Roman short sword used in New Testament times by the Roman army. This sword was designed for close combat and was very effective in the hands of a trained soldier!

You may recall that Jesus, when tempted by Satan, used the Bible to defeat Satan in the wilderness. The word of God is powerful; in Hebrews 4:12 it is described:

“12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The word used here for sword is from the same Greek word, transliterated machaira! The Bible is our machaira!

We are warned of the importance of putting on the whole armor of God; no other armor will serve us in this kind of combat! The Bible is our only offensive weapon!

The signs of the times would suggest the Age of Grace is coming to a close. Should that be the case, earth-shattering change is coming soon. Only God knows the exact timing but when God initiates the change, things will happen quickly; the world will never again be the same.

This is the time to make sure you’re on the right side of the cross! Receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Join the Army of God!

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | January 15, 2023

Battlefield Obedience to God!

First of all, this is very serious business and you are fully involved, whether you realize it or not! We, that means you and me and all of us, will live out our entire lives on an ancient spiritual battlefield; we are surrounded, each day, by spiritual carnage that has claimed millions of victims. The media is filled with casualty reports which are disguised to appear as something entirely different!

Every living human being is involved in this warfare; there are no exceptions. The two sides of this conflict are God and Satan; the Bible reveals the ultimate outcome of this war, God wins and Satan loses!

While the final battle is yet future, the outcome is certain, Satan, and all his forces will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire! One important fact is the importance of identifying the enemy; the Bible makes that very clear in Ephesians 6:10-12 where it is written:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Our struggle is against that which we cannot even see; not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces that are vastly more powerful than we are! There is no armor of this world that will be effective against these powerful foes; only the full armor of God can prevail and enable us to stand and fight! In Ephesians 6:13-17 it is written:

“13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

The Sword of the Spirit

This is the reality of the life we face as Christians, there is no escaping it, we are soldiers in the army of God, fighting for the souls of mankind! As soldiers, in a battlefield environment, it is our responsibility to be obedient to the orders we are given by Almighty God! Our Godly armor is ready, let us carefully put it all on and be obedient to the commands of God! I have written more on the Spiritual War in a multi-part series that starts with: “To the Soldiers in the Spiritual War”.

The Background

I have a daily prayer with which I start each day; I pray that I might be obedient to God, be found a good and faithful servant, and always view life from a divine perspective! In the Holy Bible, God has revealed to his children, a great deal about living life in a Godly manner while immersed in a Satanic world system and fighting a spiritual war!

As one examines the Old Testament, it is easy to discover the major source of mankind’s problems has been the failure to be obedient to God’s commands; time after time, disobedience has resulted in calamity, disaster, and death! By way of example, try and imagine life on this earth if Adam had only been obedient to God’s command.

Adam’s disobedience to the one command he had been given, resulted in his death and the death of everyone who would descend from him. I have written more on this in the essay “Is There One Unforgivable Sin?” All of us have been profoundly impacted by Adam’s disobedience; if you are the child of a human father, then you were born spiritually dead.

Also one might try and imagine life in Israel if only Solomon had prayed for the gift of obedience, rather than wisdom; it was Solomon’s disobedience that resulted in Israel being divided into two nations and the idolatrous decline and fall of the northern nation!

The contrast is clear, from the human perspective, the reign’s of King David and King Solomon were glorious high points in the history of Israel; from a spiritual perspective, they were times of crushing defeat; both kings were seriously disobedient to God’s commands in ways that adversely impacted Israel’s future!

On the other hand, it was the faithful obedience of Jesus Christ that resulted in salvation for all who would receive him as Savior! In Luke 22:42 it is written:

42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Jesus deliberately choose obedience in spite of the terrible pain and suffering he would have to endure as he paid the penalty for the sins of the world! The work Jesus did at his First Advent changed the world forever; since that time, the world and it’s population have been changed at a very basic level.

It is by God’s grace that we cannot see the spiritual struggle that is taking place all around us; I suspect the frightful terror of the angelic conflict would be more than we could hope to cope with successfully.

This particular phase of the spiritual war will close with the removal of the true church from the field of battle; this event will call all born again Christians home to heaven and will be followed by the final phase which will conclude with the victorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of his Second Advent.

Next time, The Battle.

Image, Sparrow Publishing House, CH Spurgeon Sermon Excerpts Spurgeon’s complete sermon on the Sword of the Spirit preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on April 19, 1891, is available here.

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | January 9, 2023

DO NOT FEAR THE TIMES

Sunday, I received an email from Hal Lindsey on the subject of the end times. Hal is a pioneer in generating a popular interest in the subject of Biblical prophecy and introduced many to the subject with his book, “The Late Great Planet Earth” published by Zondervan in 1970 and was the first Christian prophecy book to be published by a secular publisher (Bantam, 1973) which sold very well. Since then, Hal has written many other books with total book sales in the millions!

In his article, Hal, a dear brother in Christ, states the Biblical realities of our times with great conviction; I found it very helpful and wanted to share it with my readers.

Do Not Fear the Times.

By Hal Lindsey

Waves of evil come ever more quickly to our world — each wave bigger than the one before. There seems to be no stopping it. The more adamantly people reject God and His ways, the more pain they bring into their lives. With more pain comes a greater desire to self-medicate. Children die of overdoses while drug cartels grow more powerful. Such are the times we live in.

Even those followers of Jesus who live the most insulated of lives now regularly face fallout from a deteriorating society. The rising tides of evil seem to be overtaking and overwhelming us. Governments often work against the best interests of their own citizens. Businesses squeeze more money from customers while giving less value in return. They seem more interested in political correctness than in serving their customers or their employees.

Jesus compared end time events to “birth pangs.” What do we know about the labor pains of a woman giving birth? We know that as the birth approaches, the waves of contractions come closer together and become more intense. They lead to something wonderful, but while they are happening, they hurt!

Right now, we stand smack in the middle of a hurting world. We should be full of compassion and empathy, but we should not be surprised. God told us in advance — in some cases, thousands of years in advance — that such times would come. The truth is, we are a privileged generation. We see with our own eyes the fulfillment of prophesies from ages past. We live in a time when God is on the move in special and unique ways.

Yet even our privileged generation directly feels the pain of this hurting world. The Bible predicts hyperinflation for the last days. That’s a sign of glorious things to come, but it’s no fun. If you’re living on a fixed income, it can be a nightmare. Bible prophecy talks about super-plagues, super-wars, deception everywhere, the loss of human rights, churches falling away from the truth, and hundreds of other sad and frightening trends.

But the Bible also says, “Fear not!” We live in terrifying times, but we are not to be terrified. The times are not greater than the God who holds us in His hand.

In John 14, Jesus tells His disciples how the Father would soon send the Holy Spirit as their Helper. The same Holy Spirit lives in us. Then, in verse 27, Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” [NASB]

The Prince of Peace Himself gives you access to His peace. To the world, peace can simply be the cessation of hostilities. But God’s peace goes deeper. The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom.” It means “total wellbeing.” It has to do with every part of life. 

Sometimes we lose peace because we choose not to access the peace He offers. Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” That means to give His peace command over your thoughts and feelings.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 pronounces this blessing, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance.” Jesus longs to give you His peace in every circumstance. Those circumstances include the times in which we live.

Do not fear the times.

mail: HLMM, P.O. Box 470470, Tulsa, OK 74147

email: questions@hallindsey.com web: http://www.hallindsey.com

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Posted by: davidbowerkingwood | January 1, 2023

A New Year, a New Opportunity

Today is January 1, 2023 and a New Year stretches out before us!

We have now arrived in the future, 2023 is the distant future when spaceships will travel between distant planets and all sorts of technological wonders will be commonplace; at least that was the theme when I was a boy and enjoyed reading science fiction.

I discovered Science Fiction when I was a young boy during World War ll, collecting waste paper for the war effort. Our scout troop would collect waste paper door-to-door and occasionally I would come across a discarded Science Fiction pulp magazine whose lurid covers of spaceships and monsters triggered my imagination so I started collecting them. (My wife reminds me that when we got married all of my worldly possessions consisted of a paper bag of clothes and a stack of Science Fiction pulp magazines.)

They were all about the strange world we would experience in the distant future, say 2023 for example; remember this was in the 1942 era and 2023 was an unbelievably long time away; there was no telling what might happen by that time. Think, for example, about the world in 2100; what kind of world will there be in that distant future time? The fact is some of the people you know, should the Lord tarry, may still be living in 2100 and that is kind of sobering, don’t you agree?

Promotional Poster for 1984, 20th Century Fox

1984

That is the situation we faced in 1949, when I was 16; on June 8th, George Orwell published a Science Fiction book, named, “Nineteen Eighty-Four” which was later made into a movie. In this book, the author describes a future dystopian world where no one is free of intense supervision and control. The book created quite a stir when it came out and was the focus of much discussion by Science Fiction fans.

Fortunately, 1984 came and passed into history without the terrible things described in the book becoming the norm for most people. The book is frequently referenced as contemporary events mirror, to some degree, the events described in the book.

The word, “Orwellian” has passed into the English language as a word to describe totalitarianism; a typical dictionary definition might be as follows:

Or·well·i·an (ôr-wĕlē-ən)

adj.Of, relating to, or evocative of the works of George Orwell, especially the satirical novel 1984, which depicts a futuristic totalitarian state.

ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Orwellian

By God’s grace, we have not experienced the Orwellian world of 1984 but many observers believe we are slowly moving in that direction. I suspect the world of the Antichrist will have many of the characteristics of that world. The technology is already in place to accomplish all that has been predicted in the Bible!

The Age of Grace is Extended Once Again

We have lived our entire lives in the Church Age, the Age of Grace, during which the free gift of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ is available to all who will simply receive Christ as Savior and experience the new birth; this age began on Pentecost, May 25, AD 33.

Only God knows when this age will end, but end it will in an extraordinarily dramatic way, the Rapture of the Church. Whether it will end in 2023 or many years later is in the hands of Almighty God.

As Christians we are blessed with the opportunity to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to help those who have been born again to grow in their faith and knowledge of the Lord. There is only one message that is truly suitable and appropriate for this age of grace and that is:

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!

There is only one sin that will keep the unbeliever out of heaven and that is rejection of Christ as Savior; I have written more on that in “Is There One Unforgivable Sin?” 

I encourage you to avail yourselves of the opportunity we have been given to rejoice in the Lord and serve as a witness to his glory, majesty, and honor. The doorway to the Church is still wide open but it will suddenly close forever at a time known only to God; just as God shut the door to the ark, God will shut the door to the Church.

May your New Year be filled with joy in the Lord and the peace which passes understanding!

First published in December 18, 2018, revised and updated.

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