One thing we learn in the Scriptures is that the Only Holy God does not give any people the right of discretion that He will or must bless it. If we seek to follow God we must, all of us, repent of celebrating the Pagan and to instead celebrate the Sunday following the Passover, the day Jesus arose.

Last year my Church family invited a Messianic Priest over to help in serving the Massah and the Roasted Lamb and there was no Easter Celebration nor egg hunt nor any of the rest. We celebrated the Death, the Burial and the Glorious Resurrection of our Master from the Grave. We have surrendered and repented of the sin, Ishtar invokes when celebrated. Please read and pray over the information found in the tract linked below.
http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html

Bill Taylor
Killer Spade 806 CE
1969

A Bed Time Story

Once upon a time, long, long, ago and teenager joined the US Army and upset his dad a great deal. After a few years in the Army he was serving, safely, in Europe when a war in another country erupted with people trying to force the people there into subverting what freedom they did have and to force them under the rule of an evil man named Ho.

The young soldier wanted to be a good leader and knew that respect was everything and those leading people into the Field of Battle must know, first hand, what to teach his men to expect and he volunteered to serve and to protect his nation and the Little People in Vietnam. His First Sergeant, His C. O. and his Sergeant Major thought to protect him and refused to let him go there.

This caused the youngster to destroy his career and to get a flag on his Personal Records as being P. I. (He broke the Chain of Command and used Political Influence.) The lad wrote His congressman to get orders into the Field of Combat.

There is a nation, here in the U. S., full of such old men today. Some of them were forced to go to Vietnam and some of them volunteered but none ever refused to defend their nation, discarding the Saigon Warriors, and they, everyone of them, were a little crazy. Some of them tromped around the Jungle Floor and some of them flew LOG (Logistical Resupply Missions) with the unfriendliest people in the world shooting Quad Fifties, B40s and all other manor of, terrible, instruments of death at them.

Some of these kids were Killer Spades, Black Bandits and some, bless their crazy hearts, were Smiling Tigers. They did LOG Missions and Insertion and Extraction Missions and when thye MedEvac could or would not land, they did MedEvacs at three in the morning instead of sleeping to be ready for the missions in the morning.

Today, they, finally, have a reason to be proud of their people because they are not treating their new Veterans with the disrespect that was, over-abundantly, afforded the Korean and the Vietnam Veterans. But America, the man in the Oval Office is setting you up to fall. Combat has no equal for evil on this earth and none of your vets want you to, ever, know the evil we saw first hand, please, wake up.

Christian Position on Evolutional Creation

I scanned the OP and page 14 so this point might have already been made but here goes.

Hate is a strong word and not, usually, applicable, to this false teaching as being truth. As a Christian, I believe, no I know, the Bible is the Word of God and God has no part with sin. For this "Theory," not empirical science, to be true God would have to leave part of the truth out of the Genesis 1 through 3 story. That would be the "sis" of omission and remember, God has "no" part with sin.

The latest "argument" for this position is the attempt to make theories stand as empirical science by redefining the truth to be relational, it is not! What is truth to me and what is truth to you are not both true... perhaps both are not!

This entire discussion is designed by Satan to destroy the witness of the saved by dragging them deeper into sin and making them feel guilty... silly discussion.

Rev21

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

I have, since shortly after beginning to teach the Primaries class in '92, believed that the oceans of the Earth were not here or were all one span, when the LORD created the Earth. (Not being perfect, I might be wrong.) As I understand it, the Earth, just like the Saved Man and Woman, will be restored to it's intended state. (Folks tend to think the Earth was flooded by the 40 days of rain and I tell you that if that was what our Almighty Master wanted, it would have been that way. But, the waters under the Earth, also, erupted from under the Earth. (See the Flood texts in Genesis.) There were no seas or oceans when God created the Earth and it was perfect.)

Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

Rev 21:4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

Rev 21:5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He *said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."

Rev 21:6 Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

Rev 21:7 "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

Here we find such Life Application and reason for Faith. The cute, little ditty, 'I know how this all ends because I read the end of the book,' has real meaning to the Faithful... we really do win! Ever since I volunteered to serve in South Vietnam, people have cautioned me to be careful because I might die. In verse 16 Jesus informs us that it is He we need to be mindful of, not ourselves. He is the beginning and the End so as long as I serve Him, I cannot die, period.

In the service to my country, I learned that good leaders are,also, good followers. At the age of 24 I served under a few 19 year old Officers and though I sometimes pulled them aside for Survival Lessons, I followed these, very, brave young men where they led. With the NVA, in the north end of South Vietnam, tracking us with SAM Radar, Shooting at us with Quad Fifties and every manor of Small Arms, B40 Rockets and an assortment of weapons, still I followed... could I, should I, ever not trust and follow my Saviour?

Rev 21:8 "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

There are Annihilationists among us today, claiming the name of the Christ as their own. Are they saved? I cannot judge that! Are they wrong? According to the 'whole' Word of God, yes, they are. We have read, in God's Word, Rev. 20:4&5, that, even, the Lost are resurrected. They remain in the Grave until the Thousand Year Reign is fulfilled by our LORD and then they stand the Great White Throne Judgment. From there they suffer the Second death, the eternal, unending death... forever dying, not exterminated.

Rev 21:9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."

Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

Rev 21:11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.

Rev 21:12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

Rev 21:13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west.

Rev 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Rev 21:15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall.

Rev 21:16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal.

The normal position of the Average Man (not Christian) is that Heaven cannot be all that large... if it is real. For the Bride of Christ... it is real! God's Holy Word says it and I believe God's Word! Life Application? Who in their right mind would choose a life in a Lake filled with burning Brimstone over a life, both for eternity, in Heaven?

Rev 21:17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.

Rev 21:18 The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

Rev 21:19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;

Rev 21:20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.

Gold, so pure it can be seen through like glass. My take? Yes, that is what I read when I read this and diamonds and all other precious stone in the foundation and the walls, now, let's look at the gates.

Rev 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

Rev 21:22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

The gates must be awesome and then the streets are paved with Gold! We are given these references to stir us because there is nothing to compare Heaven with, it is unlike anything else.

Rev 21:23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Rev 21:24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

Rev 21:25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;

Rev 21:26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;

Rev 21:27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

So, we need to be perfect to enter? No! Our righteousness is the imputed righteousness of the Christ, received, only, when we submit to the Lordship of Jesus. If you feel the need for more information on receiving Jesus, please ask me.

The Image of God

Many are they that cry out against God for the unfairness of it all. They are protesting their sin nature (Rom. 3:10,23) inherited from the father of mankind Adam. But the truth is that, for a couple of, and perhaps more reasons it can be no other way. I’m stepping off the deep end here to cause thought, meditation on the Word of God and research into that same Word. God created Adam in His own image and that is an entire subject, by itself. Many have determined that God has the physical appearance of a man, but does He? Is that the image God created man in? I think not. We see in the first three chapters of the Holy Bible that God created the star, planets, universes and critters of the Earth and finished His creation with His most cherished creation, man. When we read the beginning of the Bible we see that God walked in the cool of the evening with Adam, God loved Adam. For this reason it follows that the man, created in the image of God, can also love. When we look at young men and women today, heck, look at our own youth, at the courtship rituals we went through, we spent time with our perspective mates expressing our love for them. Can you see the image of God?
Or a man or a woman to love they, absolutely, must have free will! A very similar free will to that of our Creator. We are much like our Father and yet, because of our free will we are different. My physical appearance is a combination of my mother’s father and my birth father. My grandfather was a farming railroader and my birth father was a cab driving alcoholic but because of my free will I am a Christian that chose to follow my step-father into military service in Aviation. Just as Adam was made perfect, in God’s image and chose to sin, in like manor I did my best to leave the bad behind me and be an honorable man who followed God. But as hard as I’ve tried, I still look like my father, in many ways.
My point is and what I wish for you to consider is that we inherited certain qualities from God, our Creator but we also inherited certain qualities from Adam and Adam used his free will to sin. We, having that same free will, do not have to live in the sin of our choice! As men and women, of the image of the most Holy God, we can choose to live a holy life, separated to God. We can also choose to eat, drink and be merry and die, the choice is one we make by choosing God or by refusing to choose. In either case we make a choice that we will be bound to for eternity.

No Literal Hell?

I have just been surfing a few Christian Forum sites and the things promoted by people naming the name of Christ amazes me. Over the years I have heard the name Rob Bell more than once and in seeking the wisdom of other Basics Grounded Teachers have avoided wasting my funds on the books he pushes as Christian. There is a post on one forum this morning that seeks? to equip other members of this particular forum for the upcoming debate that is, apparently, sure to come. I’m going to attempt to be kind here but the truth is that in his link I did not find the scriptures.By the scriptures, of course, I mean the Bible, the Word of God’s personal revelation of Himself. The book, it is reported by the poster, is concerning the lack of any real Hell. In all the copies of the Bible that I own Genesis 1:1 points out that it is Almighty God that created the Universe and all that it contains. And when we go to John 1:1-3 we learn that the Son of God, popularly known as God in the flesh and Jesus, is the Creator of all of this. As it is very popular to ignore the Bible and to read the Commentary instead, I’ll limit this post, from here forward to that Commentary, the New Testament. In the Four Gospels, Jesus/God taught more on the turth and fact of Hell than He did on Heaven. If any of us then puts it forward that there is no such place as a literal Hell… we are guilty of calling God a liar!
I know that I will stand, what is popularly known as, the Bema Seat Judgment but I certainly never wish to even be near the Great White Throne Judgment and calling God a liar, directly or by inference, is one sure fire way to get there and to, experientially, find out that Hell is real and that it is never ending. Throughout the scriptures we find that God cannot tolerate sin in His presence and Jesus stated that he was ‘the’ way, ‘the’ way and ‘the’ life. (John 14:6) Not even that He was or might be one of the ways, He is The Way.(Emphasis mine.)
So my question is this, “Why do we believe that a Finite Man, created by God knows more that the Infinite Creator that has forever been?

the Rapture

For some time since my salvation I have been presented with a variety of ideas as to just what a Christian is and it has become very popular to lower the standard to allow greater numbers to come into the fold and to disregard what the Bible, the revelation of God and f His will for His people. Before I became a follower of my LORD, Jesus, the Christ, I thought the idea of any of the scripture being the truth. Since my conversion in 1990 my entire out look and my complete life has been regenerated and it is my firm position that every word of the scriptures, contained in the Christian Bible, is the God inspired truth. Now you have my statement of faith and we’ll move on to the subject matter. The variety of beliefs today that attempt to be labeled ‘Christian’ run a very wide range from my position to ‘the Bible is not the Word of God but the Word of God can be found there.’ After the past 21 years of study, the one thing that I know for certain is that a saved man, woman or child are indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God! Now, on that basis and God’s knowledge of what each of His Children needs I understand that the applied meaning of any scripture or group of scriptures will vary from Child of God to Child of God.
As I have studied and as I have matured in my faith over the past two decades I have read and reread the scriptures. On each reading God has revealed new truths and all of them from the same scriptures. Not one lesson learned disagrees with any other lesson from a certain point in scripture but rather each lesson clarifies and magnifies the other. As the years have passed I have learned some great points I had not discovered yet and at the same time I have been used of God to teach some points others had missed until God revealed them through me.
From all of this we have, what I am instructed to understand as twelve points of Christianity. I submit to you;
Twelve Points That Show Christianity is True
Truth about reality is knowable.
The opposite of true is false.
It is true that the theistic God exists.
If God exists, then miracles are possible.
Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God
(i.e., as an act of God to confirm a word from God).
The New Testament is historically reliable.
The New Testament says Jesus claimed to be God.
Jesus’ claim to be God was miraculously confirmed by:
a. His fulfillment of many prophecies about Himself;
b. His sinless and miraculous life;
c. His prediction and accomplishment of His resurrection.
Therefore, Jesus is God.
Whatever Jesus (who is God) teaches is true.
Jesus taught that the Bible is the Word of God.
Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God
(and anything opposed to it is false)
Copied from theologyweb.com
Now we are at my point concerning the Rapture! The term rapture is not found in the English translations I have read, rather the term is used to codify the teaching of Paul in 1Thes. 4;13-18. In a recent post, in response to one of mine a slippery accusation was leveled at me that fell just short of accusing the person of not being saved. While in my post I had not even alluded to such I am guilty of believing every word of the scriptures and I have serious doubt of anyone that does not hold that position.
So we have arrived at the point where I usually recommend self examination because I am not God and I can condemn no one, that is God’s providence. As per Matt. 7, all of it, it is my place to judge/discern the truth and the criteria I am to use is to inspect their fruit. If a person tells me they do not believe anything the Bible teaches, their fruit is suspect! It all comes down to one point, if the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, teach it we must believe it by faith or we need to nourish our faith a bit more, one or the other.