[Excerpts from The Bible Readers Companion]
Rebellious (Ezekiel 12:2). Grasping spiritual truth is a matter of attitude rather than intelligence. Eyes to see and ears to hear speak of man’s natural capacity to process information. Don’t be surprised when the “wise” of this world ridicule biblical faith. The failure to truly see or hear is rooted in mankind’s attitude toward God. Only a heart open to the Lord will grasp and respond to His truth.
“They will know … when” (Ezekiel 12:15). The thought is repeated three times (cf. vv. 16, 20). The Jews of Jerusalem and the exiles will know God is Lord after judgment has fallen. Ultimately every human being will acknowledge that God is the Lord—willingly, or unwillingly. How vital the “when.” We can acknowledge Him now, in salvation. Or later, in judgment. When it is too late.
“Many years from now” (Ezekiel 12:26–28). Even those who did believe Ezekiel, did not believe that his words would affect them. Maybe someday. But not now. Maybe someone. But not us. God’s response through Ezekiel was, “Not someone … you!” And, “Not someday … soon!”
The attitude of the people of Ezekiel’s day is still pervasive in the church. Only if we truly believed judgment was coming to us and soon would we break the bondage of our materialism, and live completely for the Lord.
Richards, Lawrence O.: The Bible Readers Companion. electronic ed. Wheaton : Victor Books, 1991; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996, S. 492
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
General Eisenhower Warned Us
It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.
He did this because he said in words to this effect:
"Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened."
This week, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beat, experimented on and humiliated' while the German people looked the other way!
Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Being Changed by the Word
[It] is important that with every message something of an intensely practical character should be incorporated lest its hearers be carried away with the glowing pictures of the future and the visions of such prophecies as set forth in Daniel and The Revelation, while very careless and indifferent as to their life. Once when I was asked to give some addresses on the Second Coming of the Lord, a speaker sitting beside me remarked as someone entered before the meeting commenced, "There is one of the most godless men in our community and yet he is always on hand if anyone lectures on prophecy." He is so interested in finding out all about the future--When I got through preaching, this man came up to me. "Brother," he said, "I'm glad to know that you hold the Second Coming - I hold that too." I asked, "Do you? Does it hold you? It is one thing to hold the Second Coming, it is quite another thing to be held by it. The Word says, 'Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.' Does it have that effect on your heart and life?"
--H.A. Ironside
--H.A. Ironside
Friday, October 23, 2009
Ironside on Calvinism
On Calvinism (From The Berean Call Today)
"Turn to your Bible and read for yourself in the only two chapters in which this word predestinate or predestinated is found. The first is Romans 8:29-30, the other chapter is Ephesians 1:5 and 11. You will note that there is no reference in these four verses to either heaven or hell but to Christ-likeness eventually. Nowhere are we told in Scripture that God predestinated one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Predestination means that someday all the redeemed shall become just like the Lord Jesus.
"D.L. Moody used to put it very simply the elect are the 'whosoever wills' the non-elect 'whosoever wont's.' This is exactly what Scripture teaches, the invitation is to all, those who accept it are the elect. Remember, we are never told that Christ died for the elect.
"Whosoever means, whosoever. Only a biased theologian, with an axe to grind, could ever think that it meant only the elect."
--H.A. Ironside
"Turn to your Bible and read for yourself in the only two chapters in which this word predestinate or predestinated is found. The first is Romans 8:29-30, the other chapter is Ephesians 1:5 and 11. You will note that there is no reference in these four verses to either heaven or hell but to Christ-likeness eventually. Nowhere are we told in Scripture that God predestinated one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Predestination means that someday all the redeemed shall become just like the Lord Jesus.
"D.L. Moody used to put it very simply the elect are the 'whosoever wills' the non-elect 'whosoever wont's.' This is exactly what Scripture teaches, the invitation is to all, those who accept it are the elect. Remember, we are never told that Christ died for the elect.
"Whosoever means, whosoever. Only a biased theologian, with an axe to grind, could ever think that it meant only the elect."
--H.A. Ironside
Friday, October 16, 2009
10 Brief Facts On The Israeli Conflict
Friday Church News Notes, October 16, 2009, www.wayoflife.org
The following is adapted from a list that was sent to us recently.
1. Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two thousand years before the rise of Islam. 2. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
3. Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for over three centuries, but it has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity.
4. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Holy Scriptures, but it is not mentioned once in the Koran.
5. Jews pray facing Jerusalem; Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.
6. Arab refugees were intentionally not integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been integrated into their own people’s lands.
7. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
8. The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
9. The PLO’s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.
10. Of the 690 United Nations General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel, but the UN was silent while the Jordanians destroyed 58 Jerusalem synagogues, systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
The following is adapted from a list that was sent to us recently.
1. Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two thousand years before the rise of Islam. 2. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
3. Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for over three centuries, but it has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity.
4. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish Holy Scriptures, but it is not mentioned once in the Koran.
5. Jews pray facing Jerusalem; Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.
6. Arab refugees were intentionally not integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been integrated into their own people’s lands.
7. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
8. The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
9. The PLO’s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.
10. Of the 690 United Nations General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel, but the UN was silent while the Jordanians destroyed 58 Jerusalem synagogues, systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
"Palestinians" and Peace
The idea that a Palestinian state can lead to enduring peace in the Middle East has become a diplomatic obsession for American policy makers. Bringing such a state into being has become the equivalent of finding the Holy Grail. In fact, however, a Palestinian state would not only fail to bring peace and stability to the region, but would make it an even more dangerous place than it already is. And ironically, given its adamant backing for a government that would have been led by Yasser Arafat and now would be headed by Abu Mazen, U.S. support for the creation of "Palestine," which would immediately ally itself with and become a client of rivals and enemies of America such as Iran, would harm American, Israeli, and even Arab interests.
The history of the PLO's Abu Mazen - who is hailed by the US administration as a peaceful leader - tells us something important about the likely character of a Palestinian state. As a graduate of Moscow University (Ph.D. thesis: Holocaust Denial) and a beneficiary of KGB training, he managed the logistics of the Munich Massacre of eleven Israeli athletes in 1972. He was the architect of PLO ties with ruthless communist regimes until 1989 and, since 1993, a series of PLO accords with Hamas. In 1950, 1966 and 1970, he was forced to flee Egypt, Syria and Jordan, respectively, for subversive activities. During the 1970s and 1980s he participated in PLO attempts to topple the Christian regime in Beirut, which resulted in the 1976 Syrian invasion of Lebanon and a series of civil wars, causing close to 200,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of refugees. As Yasser Arafat's confidante and first deputy for over fifty years until Arafat's death, Abu Mazen is one of the engineers of contemporary Palestinian hate education, which has become a production line for terrorists. In 1990, he collaborated with Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, despite the Gulf country's unique hospitality to 400,000 PLO-affiliated Palestinians.
The proposed Palestinian State would inflict destruction upon America's Arab allies and would enhance the fortunes of its rivals and enemies. Other states in the region know this. During the October 1994 signing of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, top commanders of the Jordanian military urged their Israeli counterparts to stop short of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, "lest it destroy the [pro-US] Hashemite regime east of the River." Home to the largest Palestinian community in the world, Jordan is considered by the PLO to be Palestinian land. Why would the US support the Hashemite regime on one hand, but doom it to oblivion, by promoting a Palestinian State, on the other?
(Ettinger, FrontPageMagazine.com, Wednesday, August 26, 2009)
The history of the PLO's Abu Mazen - who is hailed by the US administration as a peaceful leader - tells us something important about the likely character of a Palestinian state. As a graduate of Moscow University (Ph.D. thesis: Holocaust Denial) and a beneficiary of KGB training, he managed the logistics of the Munich Massacre of eleven Israeli athletes in 1972. He was the architect of PLO ties with ruthless communist regimes until 1989 and, since 1993, a series of PLO accords with Hamas. In 1950, 1966 and 1970, he was forced to flee Egypt, Syria and Jordan, respectively, for subversive activities. During the 1970s and 1980s he participated in PLO attempts to topple the Christian regime in Beirut, which resulted in the 1976 Syrian invasion of Lebanon and a series of civil wars, causing close to 200,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of refugees. As Yasser Arafat's confidante and first deputy for over fifty years until Arafat's death, Abu Mazen is one of the engineers of contemporary Palestinian hate education, which has become a production line for terrorists. In 1990, he collaborated with Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, despite the Gulf country's unique hospitality to 400,000 PLO-affiliated Palestinians.
The proposed Palestinian State would inflict destruction upon America's Arab allies and would enhance the fortunes of its rivals and enemies. Other states in the region know this. During the October 1994 signing of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, top commanders of the Jordanian military urged their Israeli counterparts to stop short of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, "lest it destroy the [pro-US] Hashemite regime east of the River." Home to the largest Palestinian community in the world, Jordan is considered by the PLO to be Palestinian land. Why would the US support the Hashemite regime on one hand, but doom it to oblivion, by promoting a Palestinian State, on the other?
(Ettinger, FrontPageMagazine.com, Wednesday, August 26, 2009)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Love Is the Most Abiding Grace
Love is the most abiding grace. This will stay with us when other graces take their farewell. In heaven we shall need no repentance, because we shall have no sin. In heaven we shall not need patience, because there will be no affliction. In heaven we shall need no faith because faith looks at things unseen (Heb. xi. 1). But then we shall see God face to face; and where there is vision, there is no need of faith.
But when the other graces are out of date, love continues; and in this sense the apostle says that love is greater than faith, because it abides the longest." Charity never faileth" (1 Cor. xiii. 8). Faith is the staff we walk with in this life." We walk by faith" (2 Cor. v. 7). But we shall leave this staff at heaven's door, and only love shall enter. Thus love carries away the crown from all the other graces. Love is the most long lived grace, it is a blossom of eternity. How should we strive to excel in this grace, which alone shall live with us in heaven, and shall accompany us to the marriage supper of the Lamb! -
~Thomas Watson, "All Things for Good" pg. 96
From The Berean Call Today
But when the other graces are out of date, love continues; and in this sense the apostle says that love is greater than faith, because it abides the longest." Charity never faileth" (1 Cor. xiii. 8). Faith is the staff we walk with in this life." We walk by faith" (2 Cor. v. 7). But we shall leave this staff at heaven's door, and only love shall enter. Thus love carries away the crown from all the other graces. Love is the most long lived grace, it is a blossom of eternity. How should we strive to excel in this grace, which alone shall live with us in heaven, and shall accompany us to the marriage supper of the Lamb! -
~Thomas Watson, "All Things for Good" pg. 96
From The Berean Call Today
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