After the Tribulation, Connecting the Testaments

In the Gospel of Matthew, the now famous chapter twenty-four, verses 29-31, Y'shua tells us:

“And immediately after the tribulation of those days, 

‘the sun will be darkened 

and the moon will not give its light, 

and the stars will fall from heaven, 

and the powers of heaven will be shaken.’

And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect together from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other end of it.


Was Yeshua (Jesus) making a new claim, or reinforcing an old Israelite hope?
What did the Rabbi Shaul (aka apostle Paul), teach?  

We see in a letter to the believers in Thessalonica:

"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be snatched away at the same time together with them in the clouds for a meeting with the Lord in the air, and thus we will be together with the Lord always." 1 Thess. 4:16-17


Zechariah 8:2-8 ² "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.' ³ "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.' ⁴ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. ⁵ 'And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.' ⁶ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?' declares the LORD of hosts. ⁷ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; ⁸ and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.'


So we see, reading our Bibles contextually, that Y'shua did come to fulfill the Messianic hope.  He is both Messiah ben Josef, and Messiah ben David, still to come in glory and conquering power!  The Protestant and Catholic churches have been steeped in the tradition of men for so long that there is a difference, a separation between the first and the Renewed Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33), that for many, the Old Testament is not a serious object of inquiry (to their own destruction).


But in truth, the Bible contextually has one theme throughout, and Yeshua came to restore the lost ten tribes (Mat. 15:25, 10:6), to reunify the tribes of Israel (Ezekiel 36:22-28)) under Torah (Zech. 14:16: Is. 2:3; Mic. 4:2).


The Gentile Church is not a separate people from the Jews, nor should it be.  Any simple student of history can verify that Sunday observance by the Church shifted formally under the reign of Constantine.  The early church kept Sabbath, observed Yahweh's feasts (Lev. 23) and observed the teaching of the clean and the unclean.  Who the Gentiles are... is that they are now the prophetic fulfillment of Ephraim, who was prophesied by our father Jacob to be the "fullness of the Gentiles" (Gen. 48:19).  As the one who received the blessing of the firstborn (along with Judah), Ephraim was also known as the head of the ten northern tribes (the "lost tribes").


This is why, Jeremiah tells us, the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33) is for the house of Israel and the house of Judah (no one else is named).  But the tribes were to be dispersed through all the world and mixed with all the peoples (Hos. 8:7) so that they could be brought back in to Covenant with Yhwh, and walk in His commandments (1 John 2:6).


Y'shua lived a sinless life, by walking according to the words of life, Torah (Deut. 30:15,16).  All who follow Him are commanded to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6).

Whose Identity is More Important, the Man, or His Lawlessness?

In recent months, something has become more and more apparent to me, as countless people through the pas decades and centuries have been named or considered as candidates of the Antichrist, that there are any number of people who could be that person... but to what avail is identifying him before hand?  In that day it will be evident enough!


What is more important, I think, is being able to identify the Lawlessness to which he is ascribed (2 Thess. 2:3).  This seems to be a topic that is largely untouched by the mainstream church, and much to its own detriment!  Biblically speaking, this is not a hard topic to figure out.  But I think because of its blinders towards the Law of Yahweh, the modern church cannot see it, and again, much to its peril!


For the student of scripture, they know that Law, as translated in most English bibles, is the translation of the word "Torah" in Hebrew, which more accurately means, "Instruction" rather than "Law".  Through certainly the past century, there has been a gradual drifting away from the Law within the church as binding upon believers lives.  Gradually people began less and less to see the world upheld and governed by the Laws of God, and more and more of a Gentile understanding that Jesus came to set us free from the Law, because it is a "ministry of death, written on tablets of stone" (2 Cor. 3:7).


This is an example of a Gentile (non-Hebraic) misunderstanding of scriptures.  Of course the Law (Torah) is a ministry of death to people, because of our sinful nature and attitudes.  We would much rather follow the law of Crawley, "Do as thou wilt..." rather than keep the Law of Yahweh, whose very words are life:


Deuteronomy 30:15-20 ¹⁵ "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷ "But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. ¹⁹ "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."


So we see from the Torah, in Dt. 30, that Yahweh commands his covenant people, the Israelites, and the sojourners among them, that His word is life!  To obey Yahweh's word is life and prosperity, and to deny it, to disobey it, is death and adversity.  And so we see the proclaimed Church in the world, proclaiming that we have been set free from the Law by the very one who claimed to be the Word of Elohim in the flesh, the Messiah, Son of David.


But what did Yeshua teach?  He taught:


Matthew 5:17-19 ¹⁷ "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


Yeshua said that He did not come to abolish the Torah, but to fulfill it.  And he did fulfill some of it, known as the Spring feasts (mo'edim).  But he is still to fulfill the Fall feasts!  That is, "until heaven and earth pass away, not the [least part] shall pass from the Torah, till all is accomplished!


Did anyone see if heaven and earth passed away yet?  Oh wait, ok, we're all sitting here, the heavens and earth are still all around us.  Ok, it didn't pass away.  Whew!  I'm so relieved!  Aren't you?  So why then do we think the Torah passed away?  Can anyone say Gentile Dummies?  Yes, that is what we are, and have been for the past two thousand years! Because in our anti-Semitic bias, we have refused to see it, and we have spurned, and kicked against the word of God, all the while proclaiming a love for God and his people (except the Jews, His people).


For two thousand years, we have had Gentile leaders of a Semitic religion.  The Gentiles really did hi-jack Christianity, and morphed it into our anti-Semitic, Greek/Roman/Babylonian form!  And so that brings me back around to the theme of the blog, whose identity is more important, the man, or his lawlessness?


I think as a follower of Messiah Yeshua, my brother and king from Judah (yes, he was a Jew, not a Palestinian), that identifying the Lawlessness is far more important, especially when God's word, and obedience to it are life!  Didn't Peter say to his rabbi, "To whom shall we go?  You have the words of life!"  For the orthodox Jew, this has the ring of Torah (Deuternomy 30) to it, and again, a Messianic confession!


The apostle John, the beloved of Yeshua, warned his readers about the spirit of lawlessness in his day:


1 John 2:18-19 ¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
1 John 2:22 ²² Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.


In my Gentile understanding, brought in a Southern Baptist church, I used to think that this meant those who had left the Church, that is, the Protestant Church.  Now, understanding that "the secret of Yhwh is for those who fear Him, and to them He makes known His Covenant (Ps. 25:14)," I see that the Jewish apostle was writing of those who were "leaving the Church" of his day, those who were turning away from the sound doctrines of scripture, that is, Torah/Tanak.  John tells us that they had/have a spirit of antichrist!  He tells us in 3:4 that sin is lawlessness (torah-lessness)! 


So today, what do we have in most churches across America?  We have the spirit of antichrist, the spirit of lawlessness, where the pastors proclaim confidently and unashamedly to turn people away from the Law of the Most High, through which He will reign again upon His return (cf. Ezek. 40-48).


The Great Deceiver in our midst has already proclaimed that the Cross is to no avail, and it "did not work!"  And he is gathering all his children to him already! 


So how about you?  Are you in a church where they proclaim Jesus set us free from following the Law (Torah)?  You should flee from there, get yourself into a congregation of believers who want to keep the instruction of Yahweh, who want to keep His word, His Sabbath, and His Mo'edim, as He proclaims in His word!  Are you a pastor preparing people to accept the anti-Messiah, and his doctrine of lawlessness?  Even most of America's big-name, celebrity preachers are doing so, leading people astray, they are wolves in sheeps clothing, ravening the sheep.

Gentiles Frees from Jewish Law.

I thought this was great, by 119ministries, I had to share it.

Tom Horn - Latest Warning to the Church 2015 - Demonic Breakthrough 2015...

Let The Lion Roar film trailer

Is the Church Growth Model Biblical?

Last night at church, I was disheartened to begin on another Bible "study" that is not Biblically correct!  The study simply has the purpose of helping believers know "why they are here."

Biblically speaking, that could go on for quite a bit, listing all the reasons why God has created us in His image, and purchased back the believers from their fallen state in sin, into a new creation through the prophesied substitionary death of His Son on the cross.  For knowing Yhwh intimately, calling on Him as Abba, Father, living in fellowship with the Trinity, for worship, etc. etc.  That could be and maybe should be a study of its own!

But so what got me so disheartened was one of the final reflection/action steps at the end of the study.  It told us to think of one person we should invite to the next study.  And the response of anger and disbelief when I stated an objection to this goal!  Looking back, it was almost funny.  Now let me state that I am still in good graces with all the people who were in the study, as it should be... but should we be inviting and bringing unbelievers into the church?

Let's say what the scripture says  about unbelievers (from God's persepective):

14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial[b]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

(2 Cor. 6:14-16).

But the LORD goes on to say in the next verses - 

As God has said:

“I will live with them
    and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.”

17 Therefore,

“Come out from them
    and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
    and I will receive you.”

18 And,

“I will be a Father to you,
    and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”

We see from this passage that God commands His people, the redeemed in Yeshua Messiah, to come out and be a separate people, thus there is no intimate living or mingling together (now, today's modern "church" in America is not intimate living together either, but that's another post.)

Rom. 3:9c  "all under the power of sin.10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”[b]
13 “Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.”[c]
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[d]
14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16     ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”[f]
18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[g]

All being under the power of sin, is before those are set free from the law of sin and death by the Spirit of God, and for those, there is no longer any condemnation Paul tells us later in Rom. 8:1.

6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.  (Rom. 8:6-8)

And Yeshua taught His followers:

6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Now this is just from the perspective of a difference between the redeemed and the unredeemed. There are many more differences that should be studied and known, what it means to be elect, the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-33), the role of pastors, true purpsoe of the church... but as for a lack of time, I'll stop here for now.

Shalom.

The Lawless One - His true Character

All of us have an idea in our head about the Lawless One, mentioned in the Bible as coming in the last days, setting up his world-wide empire to rule.  But is he really Lawless, in the modern sense of the word?  Is he going to be this Anarchist Anton Levay look-alike with horns on his head?  Probably not.

But isn't that the meaning of the word, "Lawless", i.e., without Law?  Sure, in the modern English venacular.  But is that really what the Bible is telling us?  In scripture, the word Law had a deep and rich heritage, being translated from the Hebrew word Torah, which was that great and lofty revelation given to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai via angels.

In fact, from some of the things that the Bible tells us concerning the Lawless One, we conclude that he is really not all that lawless of a guy.  In fact, Confirming a 7 year peace treaty (Dan. 9:27), being the leader of three regional world empires and controlling armies (Dan. 7:20-21) and the world economic system of the last days (Rev. 13:17).  Revelation tells us that he will require everyone who is on the earth to take the mark of his name, or be put to death by beheading (guillotines?) (Rev. 13:16,17).

Many Bible prophecy "experts" think the end is near, but still believe its 15-20 years down the road.  I think it is much closer, even before the year is out!  My fate is with the LORD, Most High, and He laughs at the powers that be (Ps. 2)!  Many (all) who are reading this blog will see these things come to pass.  Now I'm not one to try and propagate fear.  That is the evil one's agenda, and how he has been passing his legislation, and setting armies in place, through fear, and in the name of safety!

So from what scripture tells us of the Lawless One, he doesn't really sound that lawless.  In fact, using secular language, I think he is going to be a little overly lawful, oppressive, to carry out Satan's destructive scheme, to turn Yhwh's Creation into his own mutant, hybrid creation, bowing in worship to him instead of to the only true God!

The Lawless One, described in scripture is indeed not lawless, as most English Bibles spell out, but rather, he is Torah-less, as our churches have been since the fourth century A.D. anyway.  Was that the great deception, the great falling away?

Jim Staley - Truth or Tradition (HD) - Should Christians Celebrate Chris...

For the follower of Jesus Christ (Yeshua), this is a must see!!!  If you don't believe, but are interested in the origins of religions, you should watch, you might find something interesting.

The Truth about Easter

First off I would like to say, Happy Resurrection Day everyone!  This is truly the most glorious day of the Chrisitian calendar (and one day it will be on the Jewish one too)!  When the historical Lord Jesus was taken and arrested by the Roman centurions, taken and unjustly beaten, mocked, whipped and crucified for the sins of those who would be saved from every nation, tribe and language.

Revelation 7:9-10  ⁹ After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;  ¹⁰ and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

This is why the apostle John can say, “For God so loved the Word (i.e. humanity) that He sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that whoever believes through Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).  If anything is under attack today, it is the good news that Jesus came into the world to preach.  And I mean, under attack, not just from the secular progressives and the atheists that are trying to destroy a groups culture and religion, their very lifestyle (boy, talk about intolerant!), but from the very churches where we sit each and every Sunday.  The places where we go to worship, the places where we serve, and often seek to fulfill, at least in part, our service and devotion to God.

I want everyone to know that I love the pastor whose message I’m about to use as an example.  He and I have got together on a few occasions and had wonderful fellowship!  He shall remain unnamed, because I do not want to bring public shame to his ministry, but desire his recognition of his error, repentance and correction of an erring theology.  In fact, today in the Resurrection service, my wife and I were having a wonderful worship experience, and following the message wonderfully, until right at the end.  Now the reason this concerns me so, is that pastors are called to be God’s spokesmen in this age, much as Moses was to the Jews.  So there is a much higher accountability before God, whose ways and Word they are claiming to teach.

It is well said in church that you can’t understand the good news, until you know the bad news (and just how bad the bad news really is, I mean, BAD!!!).  He did a wonderful job setting out how sinful we are as people, and that all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), that all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before  just and holy God (Isaiah 64:6).  All of this is right on, and completely Biblical.  In fact, there were more scriptures used, but from lack of recall I list these examples.

All was great, but then, bringing the sermon to close, trying to really “bring it home,” trying to really “clinch the audience,” he shifted, and in his sincere efforts, he made God look weak and responsive, and even dependent on us humans.  That’s where the sermon crashed.

So let me state a few things to make sure we all have a Biblical understanding of the Gospel, (the good news) as taught in the Bible.  God is not weak.  He is not dependent on us, nor does he need us.  God created human beings as a way to manifest His glory and increase the glory of His perfection and praise.  Saying that God is omniscient means that God knows all things.  God created a race of beings that he knew would turn against Him and hate Him and reject all His commands, and try to take His place over them.  He knew that they would through their sin and rejection, earn a just sentence of eternal punishment (2 Thessalonians 1:9 says ‘destruction’ ).  But the Bible tells us that Christ was crucified from before the foundation of the world.  His ‘tabernacling among us,’ and his death on the cross were NOT a ‘plan B’ or ‘plan C’ that God fretfully came up with, wringing His hands as humanity continued to reject Him and break His covenant love and His righteous commands!  God FOREKNEW from before the creation of the world!  This was God’s plan.  God knew that humanity would rebel against Him, and that everyone of us, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Southern Baptist, would fall short of His righteous ways, and that we would create religions, and we would put on a face of righteousness, while justifying out sinful behavior.

But scripture teaches that God always leaves Himself a remnant of humanity.  You see, our creation was and is a manifestation of God’s overflowing goodness and love for and to Himself.  The way my theology professor, Dr. Russ Moore put it, “All of creation is a gift, from God the Father to His Son.”  The tiny little sparrows flitting about on the tree branches, is a gift from the Father to Jesus His Son.

But as God knew, all humanity has rebelled against God’s holiness.  But in His love, God foreordained, before the creation of the world (Eph. 1:4-6), a group of people, from every nation, tribe and language, predestined for salvation.  “In love  ⁵ He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the ²kind intention of His will,  ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” Ephesians 1:4-6.

And so today at church, at the close of the message, people were invited to “accept” the good news.  The pastor showed a verse on the screen that was right on.  The verse is Mark 1:15  ¹⁵  and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."  But see, here’s the trick, no where are we asked or pleaded with to “receive” or “accept” the gospel.  The Bible already tells us that there is no one who seeks God (Rom. 3;11), and that of our own power, we do not want to, nor are we even able to obey God’s commands (Rom. 8:7-8).

That is why churches today are weak and apathetic, because pastors, whose sermons are seething in Arminiansism, plead and beg with their people to “accept” and “believe” the gospel, and then they get frustrated when no one responds.  Who wants to follow a God who can’t make a people obey Him?  What kind of God is that?  Certainly not omniscient!  Who wants to follow a weak, worried God that is always responding to the whims of man, and enacting ‘plan B’ and ‘plan C’ to get things right?  Not me.

Here is the God I want to follow (although it’s only by His grace and not of myself in any way Eph. 2:8,9):

·         One who takes wretched, foul, broken sinners, and in a gift of love and grace, applies the satisfaction of His only Son’s passion and sacrifice to my account (Rom. 5:8, 2 Cor. 5:21). 

·         A God who is in complete control of all things, and directs the path of humanity, even in their wickedness, according to His will (Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:22-23, 11:36). 

·         I want to follow a God who raises up evil wicked men, to show His power and greatness over them, and to show just empty their threats of grandeur and greatness really are.  I want Him to show them for what they really, false prophets, who promise people freedom, while all the while being slaves of carnal desires and lusts themselves, only further enslaving those who follow them (2 Peter 2:1-19).

And this is what God does!  According to God, Men cannot and do not want to follow God!  Even us who are born again into new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), can sometimes fall back into sin, for a brief period.  But it is quickly followed by open confession, repentance and making amends for the wrongs committed during the sin.  John 3:19-21  ¹⁹ "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  ²⁰ "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  ²¹ "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

  So no more teaching that we can “accept” the gospel!  What really happens, is that through the teaching and preaching of the good news, the Gospel, that God has foreordained from the creation of the world, some to eternal life.  And they will be convicted of their sins, and respond to the effectual calling upon their life.  Jesus said,  ¹⁶ "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.  John 10:16  Jesus laid down His life for His sheep.  But there are those whom God raises up for destruction, to manifest the riches of His grace and mercy on the objects of His kindness… for none of us deserve it!  Romans 9:21-24  ²¹ Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel ¹for honorable use and another ²for common use?  ^{22 1}What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?  ²³ And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,  ²⁴ even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

So if you have had the patience to read through this, and you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, God commands you right now, Mark 1:15  "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

Praise be to Yahweh!

Godless, churchless, faithless lifestyle weighing on women?

Godless, churchless, faithless lifestyle weighing on women?

Humanity in their pride and rebellion, running away from, against the ways of their Maker's design, ends up only hurting themselves.  "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death"  (Pro. 14:12).

What Will Be The Technology Behind The Mark Of The Beast?

What Will Be The Technology Behind The Mark Of The Beast?

In the above link, Nathan Jones of Lamb Lion ministries examines what the mark of the beast might be and how the Church will have already been raptured away to heaven.  So for those who remain on earth, taking the mark will not be a matter of mistake, but a knowledgable, willful choice on behalf of the receipients!

Scientific Enlightenment or The Depravment?

The Bible indicates that in the last days, there is going to be spiritual warfare like no other, demons manifesting, and nephilim again upon the earth, as it was in the days of Noah (Mt. 24:37). So why are so many leaving the church, and forsaking it for the ways of the world? Well, aside from 1 Jn. 2:18, many don't see the 'supposed' power of the gospel! We (the majority in SBC circles) don't see healings, life transformations, devoted followers etc. What did we gain from the "Enlightenment"? Scientific study has rended useful in adding to human knowledge the workings of the world around us, and most of history's most famous scientists and artists, who made some of the greatest world impact, were Christians. But since the spreading teaching of Naturalism, which is forced upon the American public (and yes, they force it on your children in public (read: government schools, and university), we have lost belief in the Bible as God's error-fre...

e, completely true Word! How's that for being Enlightened. As the falling culture is working this principle out, in truth it should be called "The Depravement".

Let us repent of bowing ourselves to the gods of this world, to Mother Nature, to Evolution and 'random processes' and the god of Mammon! Let us be people of the Book, who believe what the Book teaches, and live in faith on the claims that it makes!

Matthew 10:7-8 7 "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

Mark 16:16-18 16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. 17 "These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Christians, let us be obedient to the gospel, for the glory of our God. Time is short, let us not delay! 2 Peter 3:11-13 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

My Journey to being Charismatically Reformed

My Journey to becoming

Charismatically Reformed

By Chris Parker

May 9, 2012

When most hear the word "charismatic," they envision someone speaking in tongues, being slain in the "spirit," or running up and down church aisles whooping and hollering.  That is not what I intend by the use of the word "charismatic".  Rather, I intend it to mean, someone who holds the belief that the gifts of the Spirit have not ceased in apostolic times, but are still intended for the church in the present age.  And, with my "of-late" coming to this realization and utilization in my life and ministry, believe that the cessationist view that most American Christians hold today, and that their pastors teach, has greatly contributed to our declining numbers, troubled physical health, ministry and outreach to the increasingly troubled world around us.



My journey begins, concerning this association, not long after my salvation in early college.  Presbyterians played a major role in shaping my interests and desires for theology, apologetics and correct doctrine.  At the time, they had more of an academic slant than did the Southern Baptists, among which I had grown up.  I had a Presbyterian friend who used to try and tell me that I was Arminian, but I would reply to him that I was neither Arminian nor Calvinist, but Southern Baptist. 


After graduating from UNC-Asheville, I served overseas with Campus Crusade for two years in the Slovak Republic.  One winter we attended a Bible study conference in Bucharest, Romania, on the book of Romans.  It was then the LORD won my heart over to Calvinism, (or a.k.a., the Doctrines of Grace), when we came to Romans 9:16, “So then, it is neither up to the man who wills, nor the man who runs, but up to God, who has mercy.”  After my second year with Campus Crusade, I returned to the States to attend seminary and prepare for the full time ministry which God had called me to shortly after being saved.

I attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, presided by R. Albert Mohler, who is very staunchly a Calvinist, and requires all the seminary professors to sign a statement confessing their beliefs in the doctrines of grace.  It was during this time that my confidence and belief in theses doctrines were confirmed and built up.  During this time, I was a cessationist in my views of the spiritual gifts, though through this and later missionary experience I would gain in Ghana, Kenya, Sudan and then home again in North America, I came to see the moving of the Spirit of God and the realities of the spiritual realm around us.

While In seminary, I took a Spiritual Warfare class with Dr. Chuck Lawless, and one of the projects we did was watching taped episodes of Dateline, featuring a NC Baptist pastor who had been called into performing exorcisms. We watched the show and evaluated and discussed the implications and realities of this ministry.

While in Kenya, a newspaper reported on a young boy who fell to the floor convulsing and foaming at the mouth while the teacher had led the children in saying a prayer at the opening of the school day.  Pastors were called upon to pray over this child and cast out the spirit.  This was unlike anything I had seen or heard of before in America!  During college I was a philosophy major, and so I could discern, and really see that outside of the ‘westernized cities,’ I was in a land that had not been effected by the scientific enlightenment, and still lived very much like people of Bible times.

Later In Kenya, doing my tribal group research, we interviewed one fellow who was telling us of his tribes “shatanyi dances.”  When a member of the tribe got sick, the tribe would encircle the person, dance around them and chant, and then they would ask the spirit what it wanted for the person’s healing.  Whatever item the spirit indicated, (shoes, tools, etc.) it was brought, and the person was healed.  Siince this was a pre-evangelistic work, we merely recorded the young man's stories and included it into our resesarch.

I also saw God move in some uncanny ways through prayer during this time in Kenya.  Later, serving in my first church, there was a sweet, humble little woman in the church.  You would never know it, but one day as my wife and I spoke with her, she told us that she had the gift of tongues.  She also had a spiritual prayer language, but never made a show of it.  Her husband was an agnostic, and once the news featured some an interview to some native American Indians, and this woman with the gift of tongues was in the other room, and told her husband what the people were saying!  Needless to say, as an agnostic, this was quite shocking to him!

Another time at this church, after a Sunday morning service, the congregation was standing up and moving into the aisles to leave.   In the center aisle, one woman  turned and looked over her shoulder, and her eyes had changed.  They were no longer human, but the eyes of demon.  This was my first experience seeing a demon manifest itself.

After the LORD had moved us from this church, He brought us to this small trailer we rented located on five beautiful acres of a farm.  This was in answer to prayer for a place to raise our boys and for our desires to garden.  During this period, I served as an theological email answer-man for CARM.org, founded by Matt Slick.  I also poured myself into the study of the New Age religion along with end-time prophecy and its fulfillment.

At the corner of the property were we were staying, the owner had a waste pit, where he would dispose of the remains of animals that he butchered for meat.  We knew that UFOs and ‘aliens’ had an interest in cow reproductive organs, and there was a large committee of vultures that roosted around this area.  We began to sense spiritual attack in our lives.  One night while I slept, a demon appeared in the upper corner of our bedroom, and spoke to my wife.  He asked her if she thought she was strong enough to take him, and she responded, “No, but He who is in me is greater than you.” And with an expression of disgust, the demon disappeared.

Other supernatural things happen to us during this time.  In our first church, it was apparent that there were differences in theological belief between us and the church.  After the LORD moved us, we prayed for a pastor to serve with who beleived as we did, that we could stand with and carry out ministry.  The LORD took us there to stand alongside the current pastor.  After some time, we were again hired on by a church to serve as youth pastor.  The community was filled with Masons, and many in the church leadership were Masonic members.  Because of this, they were very works oriented in their theology, and were/are serving demons.

I was introduced by a pastor to the work of Henry Wright, A More Excellent Way.  My wife had some health issues, allergies, asthma, problems with her sciatic nerve and a phobia of rats.  When we moved to this new community, all her maladies were intensifying.  I read Wright’s book with regard to what it said about my wife’s maladies, and in faith we confessed sins and laid on hands and prayed for healing, and saw my wife freed and cured from her sicknesses that doctors were only able to manage with medications.

One day my wife had been on her feet on the hard floor most of the day, and her sciatic nerve was searing her with pain down her leg!  I looked this up in Wright’s book, and it said the spiritual root, or cause was a demon of sciatica!  So in the name of Jesus Christ, I commanded this demon to leave, and the pain went away.  Another time when my wife was having an asthma attack, she asked me to lay hands on her for it to stop.  When I did, and I commanded it to be healed in the name of Jesus, it ceased and she has not used her breather since.  Since then, there has been a time or two when her lungs would begin to get tight, so she would lay hands on her chest and pray healing in the name of Jesus.  Then her lungs would loosen and she could continue her activity and breathe regularly.

Once my wife had pain in her shoulder and arm much like scitica and I tried to cast the spirit out, but my wife's pain intensified.  I repeated myself, trying to command it out in the name of Jesus, but it kept increasing the pain.  My wife was screaming hysterically, and I was imploring the Lord to have mercy on her.  After 10 minutes of this, the pain gradually subsided.  It was gone, but we were shaken.  Serving at this church was an intense period of spiritual attack, as the community was dominated by the Masons, and the leadership of the church were Masons, and the demons didn't like us on their territory!

A young man came by the church office one day when I was there alone.  He wanted me to give my blessing for him and his girlfriend to live together.  I would not do it.  This man was schizophrenic, and heavily on drugs (at least in younger years).  I asked him what the voices said to him, and he told me that they tell him to kill people, all the time!    I responded by telling him that in Bible times people would take drugs to open them to spirit beings they thought were gods.  The Bible tells us that these were demons.  I said, “I think those voices in your head are demons.”  Over the next couple of minutes, as I continued to refuse to bless his living in fornication, his face hardened, and his eyes went from blue to yellow!  The demon in him manifested itself.  It was literally like looking into the eyes of a serpent!  I knew he could spring upon me and finish me off, but the Lord gave me a peace.  

As he was leaving with his girlfriend, I prayed for him and the healing of those voices, but the next he called the church, I tried to pray for him, he hung up the phone on me.  I was going to command the spirits out in the name of Jesus.  His uncle is a pastor, and I wanted to try to share the gospel with him.

This church had also fired the last four or five pastors in a decade or so.  They held a vote of no-confidence for my senior pastor (which is unbiblical).  An older woman in the church led the charge against the pastor.  She was also a member of the Eastern Star.  A young man who stood up, out of turn( according to Robert’s rules of order), and demanded the woman answer the spiritual test question, “Has Jesus Christ ever walked the earth in the flesh?” (1 Jn. 4:2).  The lady never answered him, but looked at him with a sinister smile on her face and said, “You’re silly, sit down.”  as he was out of turn according to Robert's rules, the rest of the church asked him to be seated.

Later it came to my attention (on Facebook) that female members in leadership were going to see, and raving about the Twilight Vampire Series.  I took a stand against this and asked them to stop.  I had been teaching the youth in church that it opened gateways to the demonic, but these female leaders in the church was openly broadcasting their love for the antichrist movies.  The senior pastor resigned from the church, and two weeks later, the leadership moved to fire me.  They tried to get me on areas of theology, and on mismanagement of church monies. When they saw that I was blameless in these areas, they tried to get me by saying that I was not reaching the youth.  When the youth defended me, those particular individuals were “exceptions to the rule.”  So they brought me to a vote of no-confidence before the church.  The LORD told me to stand, so I refused to resign as the pastor had.  Our friend, who had the gift of prophecy told us that the Lord told her we would have victory.  The vote failed by about three votes.    I had fully expected to have my job terminated at the close of this meeting.  So both my wife and I were in shock that I still had my position in the church.  But the persecution against me and my family continued, and I could not carry out my ministry in that environment.

During this meeting, and in several encounters with church members involved in Masonry or Eastern Star, I would see a dark cloud around them as they raged against me.  God is my witness that I walked in complete integrity all during my ministry, but the enemy did not like that I was beginning to teach the church of healing, and that involvement with the world opened gateways to the demonic, and that many of our sicknesses and depressions are caused by unconfessed sin and demons.  If the church had accepted it, this would have brought delieverance, holiness and freedom, and healing to the lives of many who were sick and dying.

The LORD has brought us now to a beautiful farm.  I and my wife, who is my partner in ministry feel that the LORD has called us here to get the farm ready for the economic collapse that is coming and the LORD brought a couple of different people with the Spirit who have prophesied that this will be used for an end-time ministry.  And so the journey continues...