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Saturday, December 19, 2015

Did the Romans invent Christmas?


"Christmas falls conspicuously close to the same days as the Roman festival of “Saturnalia” – a Roman holiday that celebrated the quest for knowledge along with the winter solstice and spanned roughly from December 17–23. Many believe that early Roman Catholic Church councils simply proclaimed that December 25 was the day Christ was born in order to retain their beloved holiday." - http://www.brockpress.com/2015/12/the-original-reason-for-the-season/




""Io Saturnalia!" Two thousand years ago this was the seasonal greeting which would have chimed out across most of Europe, not "Merry Christmas". The Roman mid-winter festival of misrule has heavily influenced many Christmas traditions - including the time of year we celebrate.

At no point is a date for Jesus's birth given in the Bible, but references to the lambing season have led some theologians to conclude that he was born in spring. Why then do we celebrate his birth in the middle of winter?

"Christmas in December is a Western, Roman idea whereas in the Eastern Church it falls later, around the feast of the Epiphany in early January," explains Dr Matthew Nicholls, senior lecturer in Classics at the University of Reading.

For seven days from the 17 December it was party season in Roman times. Homes were decorated, parties held and slaves became masters - at least for one banquet. It was the start of a lengthy mid-winter period of merry-making and the season of goodwill - Saturnalia.

Saturnalia originated as a farmers' festival and commemorated the dedication of the temple of Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and the harvest.

During this festival, there was a reversal of traditional roles, with slaves wearing fine garments and sitting at the head of the table. Families gave each other gifts, and homes were decorated with wreathes and greenery. Gambling was allowed and the festival is described as a joyful period.

Over-eating, drinking, singing and gift-giving are all things that we associate with Christmas - another, more modern, season of goodwill.

"The Christian Church appropriated quite a few Pagan festivals and Pagan activities," according to Sam Moorhead, national finds adviser for Iron Age and Roman coins at the British Museum.

So many of our Christian traditions can be traced to Roman mid-winter festivals that a time-travelling centurion would feel quite at home sitting around the table for the Christmas banquet or joining in office party revelries.

"People would go round the streets and there was merry-making and singing songs, which some people associate with modern carolling," adds Mr Moorhead.

"You were also not allowed to give lectures at the time, unless they were witty or funny - which could be seen as the origin of cracker jokes."

Originally a one-day feast at the end of autumn, Saturnalia gradually moved to later and later dates, with longer celebrations, throughout the Roman period.

By the time of Christian conversion it was running into and incorporating a number of festivals. These included the Opalia - the festival day for Saturn's consort Ops - on the 19 December and the Sigillaria- the day of present-giving - on the 23 December. The 25 December was dies natalis solis invicti - the birthday of the 'invincible' Roman sun-god Sol.

Cancelling Saturnalia was unthinkable, so Christian Rome converted it to a Christian holy day instead.

"If Christianity moves Christmas into December, at the Saturnalia and the birthday of Sol, you can then fade out these other festivals and incorporate elements into the Christian festival. You can attempt to move on as if nothing has happened." explains Mr Moorhead" - Extracted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/20617780    CLICK HERE to Continue Reading...

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Reformed Commentary on Job: Chapter 19

In chapter 19, Job gives readers a vivid display of how he does not curse God because of his afflictions, but rather places his trust in his Redeemer, confident in the resurrection from the dead.



Chapter 19  (For Previous Chapter Click Here, For Subsequent Chapter Click Here)

It is surprising that Job’s friends did not relent at this point. We already made clear in our discussion in chapter two that their intent was initially console Job. Why do they press so hard on him now?

Again, though Job obviously takes it personal, claiming he was “insulted…ten times” (Job 19:3, a bit of an exaggeration but the Bible often is not literal with numbers), Job makes a keen observation. “Even if I have truly erred, my error lodges with me,” says Job in verse four. It is as if he is crying uncle and saying, “Even if I’m wrong, just stop bothering me!

So, why do his friends “get so into it” and want to prove a dying man wrong? Obviously, as the friends have already stated, they think that Job is speaking wrongly about God’s justice. Now, there are times Job does. For example, Job says “God has wronged me and has closed His net around me” (Job 19:6) and and accuses God of injustice (Job 19:7).

While it is true that God Himself admits that He was supposedly “incited” to “ruin him without cause” (Job 2:3) far be it from God to be unjust (Rom 9:14). In reality, God was merely condescending Himself to Satan by using a figure of speech. He cannot be incited to do something that He did not already purpose since the beginning of the world to do, for all things have been “predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (emphasis added, Eph 1:11). So, while what Satan did to Job was wrong, God allowed it to occur to fulfill a righteous purpose. In this sense, God has not wronged Job at all.

Job’s friends respond with a hatred of verbal excesses such as “God has wronged me,” but in the wrong way. They argue not that God is just even when the righteous suffer and God is glorified in our suffering, but rather that the wicked only suffer and in order to end suffering, one must pick himself up from his boot straps and through good works gain God’s favor. Then, and only then, can suffering cease.

Can we see how satanic such a doctrine is? There is no reliance on Christ’s intercession and righteousness, but instead on man’s works. “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom 9:16). Further, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man” (Psalm 118:7).

Job rejects such an idea, because he is a faithful man, but this likely does not motivate his responses to his friends as much as his frustration with his own suffering. It is not entirely clear why Job speaks so strongly. Is he trying to prove his friends wrong? In some sense, is he indignant about God supposedly wronging him? However, he obviously feels that both are true to some extent.

Rather then God’s hedge protecting him, he feels “walled up” (Job 19:8). Like the rulers who God has confused (Job 12:24-25), God has supposedly thrust Job into “darkness” (Job 19:8). Job appears to be accusing God of acting against His promises to the faithful, as God does not thrust us into darkness, but rather into light: “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ“ (2 Cor 4:6).

It should be no wonder that God takes offense not at Elihu, but rather Job, by saying: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge” (Job 38:2)? It is not God who leads men into error and thrusts them into darkness. Men lead themselves into their own error (1 Cor 3:18, Matt 15:14, James 1:13). Job himself in chapter three especially, but also in other chapters, yearns for the darkness as if it were light. He is in serious error and God will later call him out on it.

Job has certainly lost his honor and God has allowed Satan to utterly humiliate him (Job 19:9-10). However, he is in error in saying God has moved against Job as an enemy (Job 19:11-12). In fact, God has done nothing of the sort. It is Leviathan, the deceiving serpent, who Job himself called upon not knowing the very evil in the beast, that ravages him. The “troops” surrounding Job (Job 19:12) can very well be a legion of demons that Satan has tasked with assaulting Job for all this time.

After these words, Job makes some interesting observations about his family. Job’s brothers and other relatives, who appear later and reunite with Job (Job 42:11) have all but abandoned him (Job 19:13-14, 17, 19). This is not unheard of during great times of suffering. Those closest to us that we depend upon the most for years often turn their backs on us.

King David complained about a friend who backstabbed him saying, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9).  Job’s closest friends, including the three here, have done the same (Job 19:13, 14, 19).

Job’s wife still gives him heartache (Job 19:17). Local children do not pay respect to him as an elder (Job 19:18). His associates, probably a reference of those who were ruling elders at the city gate (Job 29:7), have turned their backs on him (Job 19:17). Such a position was very respected in those days (Ruth 4:1-2, Prov 31:23).

His servants have grown weary, perhaps from lack of pay, and no longer respect him (Job 19:15-16). As we spoke about earlier in chapter three, the book is showing us how the whole moral fabric of existence in Job’s life has been torn to shreds.

The Scripture teaches in several places the submission of citizens to the government (Rom 13:1-7, 1 Pet 2:13-17), wives to husbands (Eph 5:22-23, 1 Cor 11:3, Col 3:18, 1 Pet 3:1), children to adults (Eph 6:1, Col 3:20), and slaves to masters (Eph 6:5, Col 3:22, 1 Pet 2:18). The fact that Job is being disgraced by every one of these parties is the very height of social disorder and injustice against him. It is so easy to miss this being conveyed in Job, because submission to authority is not very popular anymore. However, it is very important in Scripture and it is obvious with a Scripture-centered view of the moral order of things that Job’s complaints are extremely relevant.

For a moment, Job wallows in self-pity, complaining both God and his friends are persecuting him (Job 19:20-21). He is barely hanging on for life, he feels as if all of his teeth have been knocked out and all that he has is his gums (Job 19:20, it should be noted this is where the idiom “by the skin of my teeth” to mean “by the thinnest margin” comes from). After all, Satan was permitted by God to touch everything of Job’s other than his very life.

Yet, as it seems like there is no hope, a spark flickers in Job. Will his hope go down with him to Sheol (Job 17:16)? No. He will be in the presence of God (Job 13:16). If a man dies, will he live again (Job 14:14)? Yes!

Job’s hope erupts out of his dark despair, its spark brighter and refined like gold and silver in the smith’s fire (1 Pet 1:7, Ps 66:10). “And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God’” (Zech 13:9). The Scripture is speaking of one’s faith growing as the result of suffering: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (Psalm 119:71).

In this way Malachi describes God:

For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord (Mal 3:2-3).

A great light truly comes out of the darkness in Job’s historic pronouncement of faith:

Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

That with an iron stylus and lead

They were engraved in the rock forever!

As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

Even after my skin is destroyed,

Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

Whom I myself shall behold,

And whom my eyes will see and not another.

My heart faints within me (Job 19:23-27)!

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for,” Heb 11:1 states. Job knows his Redeemer lives. Just as he wants the Earth to bare witness to his injustice (Job 16:18), he wants His hope to be never forgotten. It is to be made eternal in an eternal book, that is the Scripture. Yes, Job’s sufferings are indeed engraved forever so not a word will ever pass away (Matt 24:35).

Job knows that in the Last Day, though his body is destroyed, he will be resurrected in the flesh. He will see God, face to face, and in this beatific vision he will see no other. The greatest blessing is that “the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you” (Num 6:25). Job’s heart bursts thinking of the beauty. The beauty he knows will be his. He will be redeemed…

But, while at one time he felt as if he was close to God, now God appears as his enemy. He does not know why this has happened. Everything has not gone according to plan. Nevertheless, he will wait and hope for the Lord, years if he must, in his present condition. Hence the title to the Christian song, “I will praise you in the storm.” We must continue hoping in and having praise in our hearts for God.

Job finishes his beautiful words with a horrible warning to his friends. He knows his Redeemer will vindicate him. He also knows his friends will look to devise new charges against him in order to assert that their warped theology is true (Job 19:28). However, just as sure as Job is in the resurrection of the righteous, Job knows that there will be judgment: “Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword so that you may know there is judgment” (Job 19:29).

Sadly, his friends do not take heed.

Saturday, December 05, 2015

Job: When the Righteous Suffer (Part 1 & 2) - John Piper



Job Doesn't Surrender

"Job regards this party line as utterly out of sync with the way things really are. In 9:22–24 he says,

It is all one; therefore I say, [God] destroys both the blameless and the wicked. When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges — if it is not he, who then is it?
Job never surrenders his belief in the sovereignty of God, but he knows it's too simple to say that things go better on this earth for all the righteous.

Job insists that he is not guilty as charged. He is righteous. He prays in 10:6–7, "You seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although you know that I am not guilty." - Extracted from http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/job-when-the-righteous-suffer-part-1




"Are God's Ways Right Simply Because He Is Almighty God? 

This is disturbing argument. Does God mean that we are to submit to the justice of his ways simply because he has a powerful arm? Are we supposed to acknowledge his right simply because he has might? Is something right and good just because God does it?

I think the answer to that question is yes and no. On the one hand, there is no greater reality than God with which we can judge God's actions. He would not be God if he submitted to something outside himself.

But on the other hand, when we say the sentence, "God is good," or, "God always does what is right," God wants us to mean more than simply, "God is God." He wants us to see that his might does not make right in the sense that it could be capricious and arbitrary and irrational and nevertheless right. Instead he wants us to see that his might is purposeful." - Extracted from http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/job-when-the-righteous-suffer-part-2

Monday, November 30, 2015

Jōb the Film



Job lost everything: his wealth, his health, and his ten children. All swept away in one satanic storm. Reduced to a heap of flesh, ashes, and tears—rebuked by friends and jeered by strangers—righteous Job wrestled over the purpose and presence of God in the midst of unbearable pain.

Originally published by Desiring God in 2008 as a 128-page hardcover book, JŌB retold the biblical story through the beautiful, compassionate poetry of John Piper and the stunning illustrations of Chris Koelle.

Out of print shortly after its release, the story of JŌB is now being reintroduced through a new adaptation of moving artwork, music, and poetry: JŌB is an independently produced full-length (45 min.) motion graphics animated movie.

Through John Piper's own gripping narration of the poem, music by J. Aaron Greene, original illustrations by Chris Koelle, animation by Danny McNight, and line production by Will Parker, we are invited to revel in God's sovereign and surprisingly joyful purposes in allowing exquisite suffering in the lives of his saints. This story of human suffering and the sovereignty of God is artfully brought to new life as a deeply moving resource especially for those experiencing great suffering and loss. - https://vimeo.com/36283974

Saturday, November 21, 2015

SATAN'S ARMY 2015

“If there is a Hell, Rome is built upon it. It is an Abyss from whence all sins proceed.” - Martin Luther



"This … Godless society operates in an extremely efficient manner at least in its higher levels of leadership. It makes use of every possible means at its disposal, be they scientific, technical, social or economic. It follows a perfectly mapped-out strategy. It holds almost complete sway in international organizations, in financial circles, in the field of mass communications; press, cinema, radio and television."  - http://www.granddesignexposed.com/pdf/RulersofEvil.pdf

"The Jesuit Order is the most dangerous organization in the World today. It was originally created by the Vatican to counter reformation movements in Europe. In 1814 it took complete control of the Vatican.

Many have come to the conclusion that “the Jews run it all”. There is no denying that the corporate media is vastly dominated by Jewish business men, that Israel manipulates the American government through AIPAC, that the British Monarchy is intertwined with Jewish banking interests (Rothschild finance dynasty) and so on. In order for the true controllers to remain hidden, a patsy must be put in place. This is where Israel and Zionism fits into the picture.

The Jesuit Order is the head of the serpent. It controls the Military Order of Malta (Knights of Malta), The Knights of Columbus, The United Nations, the European Union, NATO (the modern day Holy War Crusaders), various central banks including the World Bank, the IMF and the Federal Reserve Bank, big corporations, secret services like the CIA, and numerous secret societies such as Freemasonary, The Bilderberg Group, Skull and Bones, Council on Foreign Relations and The Trilateral Commission.

What they don’t have yet but want is complete control over the United States. They have agents inside the United States who are now working to destroy and conquer the United States and its Liberal thinking people. This brings me to explaining the title of this article. The Jesuit Knights of Malta are planning on detonating several nukes in the United States before the 10th anniversary of 9/11 – the first large scale attack against the United States by the Knights of Malta." - Extracted from Vatican’s own Jesuit Knights of Malta planning to detonate nukes in the United States



"Choose any war, revolution, assassination, religious persecution, plague, poisoning, etc., etc,. for the past 500 years, and you can be sure that it can be traced right back to the Jesuits and their general, the Black Pope.

Of the 30 black popes, 33% are Romans (Italians); 27% are Spanish; the rest are all Europeans (Greater Romans). Never a Jewish, Arab, French, English, Portuguese, Irish, American, Australian, Canadian, Asian, or African Black Pope!" -

Moret & Battis: Jesuits behind 1979 Iranian crisis and 2015 Jade Helm to destroy US constitution


Leuren Moret & Laurens Battis: Jesuits behind 1979 Iranian hostage crisis and 2015 Jade Helm to destroy US constitution How Richmond CA’s Space Preservation Act Resolution can deconstruct the Jesuit-Pope-Obama End Game and create a positive future...MORE. Click HERE.

Monday, November 16, 2015

The Winds of Change in the Hand of GOD of Israel.

Do you know where did the name PHILIPPINES came from? And what kind of a person this Phillip II of Spain was? To the blinded people of the Islands now we call THE PHILIPPINES I'd like to share to you that although this King Phillip II is highly regarded by the Roman Catholic world as a hero, but to many he was a cruel evil man who was a murderer and a man used by Satan to make the foundation and beginnings of the 16th Century New World Order...


Monarch Profile: King Felipe II of Spain

The monarch whose reign has traditionally been used to mark the zenith of Spanish power was King Felipe II. Although the Spanish empire would reach its peak size much later it was under Felipe II when Spain came the closest to upsetting the rise of England (and thus later Britain) in her rise to dominate the oceans. Given the numerous foes on multiple fronts King Felipe II faced it is difficult to imagine that he, or anyone, could have triumphed over them all completely. However, it is no exaggeration to say that, to a considerable extent, Felipe II saved Roman Catholic Christendom from almost total collapse from the combined threats of Protestantism in northern Europe and Muslim expansion in the Mediterranean. He is rightly remembered by Catholics even today as one of the great champions of the Counter-Reformation. However, because he came so close to defeating England but was unsuccessful, the image of him that has been propagated in the English-speaking world is that of a cruel and villainous tyrant. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, though the values of his time were certainly not those of today, and would come as a surprise to King Felipe II himself who considered one of his greatest flaws to be overly sensitive.

Felipe II was born on May 21, 1527 in Valladolid to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (King Carlos I of Spain) and his queen Isabella of Portugal. He grew up at the Spanish court and was culturally always Spanish first and foremost whereas his father had always been a bit more cosmopolitan, growing up in Belgium and spending much of his time in Germany. The glory of Spain and the defense of the Catholic Church were, from his childhood throughout his life, the two dominant priorities in his heart. This is not that surprising considering the example of his father, Emperor Charles V, who saw himself as the great champion of Catholic Christendom and who retired, renouncing the royal life to spend his final years in prayer. Of course, the Emperor had at times been at odds with the Catholic hierarchy, even waging a bitter and horrific war on the Pope himself. In the same way, though to a lesser extent, depending on the political situation, Felipe II would also at times have an adversarial relationship with certain popes. The Inquisition was going strong in Spain under Felipe II and it sometimes seemed to him that even the Pope was not ‘Catholic enough’. He has since been criticized for his burning of heretics but, one must remember, such measures did spare Spain the horrific and bloody religious wars fought by France, Germany and to a lesser degree in the British Isles. In terms of human life, the Inquisition was comparatively very cost effective. - PLS CLICK HERE to Continue reading.



"Philip's foreign policies were determined by a combination of Catholic fervour and dynastic objectives. He considered himself the chief defender of Catholic Europe, both against the Ottoman Turks and against the forces of the Protestant Reformation. He never relented from his fight against heresy, defending the Catholic faith and limiting freedom of worship within his territories.[3] These territories included his patrimony in the Netherlands, where Protestantism had taken deep root. Following the Revolt of the Netherlands in 1568, Philip waged a campaign against Dutch heresy and secession. It also dragged in the English and the French at times and expanded into the German Rhineland with the Cologne War. This series of conflicts lasted for the rest of his life. Philip's constant involvement in European wars took a significant toll on the treasury and played a huge role in leading the Crown into economic difficulties and even bankruptcies.

In 1588, the English defeated Philip's Spanish Armada, thwarting his planned invasion of the country to reinstate Catholicism. But the war continued for the next sixteen years, in a complex series of struggles that included France, Ireland and the main battle zone, the Low Countries. It would not end until all the leading protagonists, including himself, had died. Earlier, however, after several setbacks in his reign and especially that of his father, Philip did achieve a decisive victory against the Turks at the Lepanto in 1571, with the allied fleet of the Holy League, which he had put under the command of his illegitimate brother, John of Austria. He also successfully secured his succession to the throne of Portugal." - Philip II of Spain From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada; the Apothecaries painting,[57] sometimes attributed to Nicholas Hilliard.[58] A stylised depiction of key elements of the Armada story: the alarm beacons, Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury, and the sea battle at Gravelines.[59]
Defeat of the "Invincible" Spanish Armada

"Pope Sixtus V was delighted with the destruction of the "Invincible" Armada!!

Believe it or not, the reigning White Pope, Sixtus V, greatly admired the courage and intelligence of Queen Elizabeth and even wished he could marry her. Here is a quote from a pro-Spanish English writer:

In Rome the shrewd, vigorous, tactless, uneducated Sixtus had just succeeded his old enemy Gregory as Pope. He greeted the news of Mary's death with lamentation, but added in an aside about Elizabeth: 'What a valiant woman—she braves the two greatest kings by land and sea. A pity we cannot marry, she and I, for our children would have ruled the world!' To the Spanish Ambassador he repeated his promise to give Philip one million ducats as soon as Spanish soldiers landed on English soil, but would not advance a single one by way of a forward loan. (Graham, The Spanish Armadas, p. 67).

When news of the doomed Armada finally reached Rome, Pope Sixtus refused to pay the promised one million ducats (about 1 billion dollars or 1/6 of the cost of the Armada). A satire or lampoon was posted in Rome about the Pope's attitude to the loss of the Armada:


When the news of the Armada's failure arrived in Rome, there was posted up a pasquilade, in which Sixtus was made to offer, out of the plenitude of his power, a thousand years' indulgence to anyone who would give him information respecting the whereabouts of the Spanish fleet: whether it had been taken up into heaven, or had descended into hell; whether it was hanging in mid air, or was still tossing on the ocean. (Wylie, History of Protestantism, vol. II, p. 460)."  - Extracted from http://www.reformation.org/spanish-armada.html



'GOD'S WINDS AND WAVES' CHANGED HISTORY

Spain led the Holy League to defeat the Muslim Ottoman Turkish navy at the Battle of Lepanto near Corinth, Greece, in 1571

Hilaire Belloc wrote in “The Great Heresies” (1938): “This violent Mohammedan pressure on Christendom from the East made a bid for success by sea as well as by land. The last great Turkish organization working now from the conquered capital of Constantinople, proposed to cross the Adriatic, to attack Italy by sea and ultimately to recover all that had been lost in the Western Mediterranean. There was one critical moment when it looked as though the scheme would succeed. A huge Mohammedan armada fought at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth against the Christian fleet at Lepanto. The Christians won that naval action and the Western Mediterranean was saved. But it was a very close thing, and the name of Lepanto should remain in the minds of all men with a sense of history as one of the half dozen great names in the history of the Christian world.”

Spain successfully saved western civilization from being overrun by Islam by defeating the Ottoman navy, but rather than following up on this victory and freeing the rest of the Mediterranean from Muslim control, Spain sent its invincible Spanish Armada on May 19, 1588, to capture England.

Consisting of 130 ships with 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns, carrying 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers, they were planning on picking up another 30,000 more soldiers from the Spanish Netherlands.

Wearing armor, Queen Elizabeth rallied England with her most famous speech, Aug. 9, 1588: “Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself, that under God I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects. … I am come amongst you … resolved, in the midst and heat of battle, to live or die amongst you all – to lay down for my God, and for my kingdoms, and for my people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king – and of a King of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm. … By … your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.” - Continue READING click HERE.


Monday, November 09, 2015

ROME and ISLAM SATANIC WORLD ORDER 2016.



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND ISLAM REALLY DO WORSHIP THE SAME GOD By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Jun 27, 2009 in Islam, Roman Catholicism

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)

The Roman Catholic Church Preaches A Different Gospel, No Gospel At All

Men and women please believe me; I am not trying to be an alarmist as it is my firm conviction in Christ that I have only saying what needs to be said. And truthfully, I am even doing so reluctantly. As Apprising Ministries covers the slide into apostasy within mainstream evangelcialism we can observe Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren, a most prominent “Protestant” Southern Baptist minister, Double-Minded On The Reformation And Roman Catholicism. Or take the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church, now morphing into Emergence Christianity, which we’ve been showing lately has now even penetrated into mainstream evangelicalism.

In his recent book Finding Our Way Again Emergence Guru Brian McLaren makes the following ridiculous statements and nary an eyebrow is raised: 

Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have more in common than many people realize because they all share a primal narrative, and they all flow from a common sacred fountainhead: a single figure, at once famous and mysterious, a Middle Eastern man named Abraham of Ur.

We can date Abraham’s birth to about 2000 BC, in modern-day Iraq, near present-day Nasarif. Like Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad—and like us—Abraham was was raised in a pluralistic, polytheistic world. During his lifetime, he lived side by side with others who honored many different gods and praticed many different religions.

And during his lifetime, Abraham—like Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad—had an encounter with God that distinguished him from his contemporaries and propelled him into a mission, introducing a new way of life that changed the world… How appropriate that the three Abrahamic religions begin with a journey into the unknown.
 (22, 23, emphasis mine) 

No doubt the bats are very much alive in the belfry. Muhammad may indeed have had a visit from the spirit world, but as we compare his god with the one true and living God of the Bible below, we know with certainty it was not a spirit from the LORD God Almighty; the only God there is. So as bad as it is dealing this postliberal cult of the inclusive Emergent Church with their rethinking [read: reinterpreting] the Christian faith what really needs to re-discovered today is the proper view of how the evangelical Protestant must approach this critical subject of apostate Roman Catholicism, which as you’ll see, holds the same dead wrong view as Maharisi McLaren.



Allah is just another name for lucifer. It stands to reason , because Jesus / yeshua says that muslims are antichrist. They do not believe that Jesus is the son of God.  Muslims say that Allah is their God and Muhammad is his messenger. 






One of the ways to recapture proper theology concerning the genuine Gospel of Jesus Christ is to look more closely at the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the churches in the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia. We know it of course as the Book of Galatians. Those of you who use the NIV Study Bible actually have the benefit of a very good introduction to this Epistle, by a man who’s worked on numerous translations of the Bible, Dr. Robert Mounce, who tells us:

Galatians stands as an eloquent and vigorous apologetic for the NT essential truth that man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ – by nothing less and nothing more – and that he is sanctified not by legalistic works but by the obedience that comes from faith in God’s work for him, in him and through him by the grace and power of Christ and the Holy Spirit (1985 ed., 1779)

Let’s stop right here for a minute. What Dr. Mounce, a noted evangelical biblical scholar, has just elucidated is actually the heart of the matter before us in the purity of God’s Gospel. In other words, how is a man saved from his debt of sin before a Holy and Righteous God? And clearly a debt requires a payment of some kind, does it not? For the wages of sin – [which is the debt] – is death (Romans 6:23). However, you may recall, that Christ Jesus already paid that wage–that debt–with His own death.

That’s why Dr. Mounce can say – “Galatians stands as an eloquent and vigorous apologetic for the essential NT truth that man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ – by nothing less and nothing more.” It is truly such a shame, and a travesty of God’s justice, that this has been allowed to slowly erode over the nearly 500 years since an Augustinian Monk named Martin Luther nailed those 95 Theses Of Religion upon the door of Castle Church Chapel at Wittenberg. Theses, which essentially said – “We protest” – and would become the very document that would end up igniting the whole Protestant Reformation.

In this ecumenical time, where Satan is busy continuing to lay his foundation for the coming One World Global religion, it’s vital that we come to fully understand what is at stake here. For we need to get this absolute Truth from our head down into our very hearts, and all the more as what professes to be Christianity is falling further away from the Lord in this growing apostasy. Dr. Mounce is firmly reminding us of this matter of grave importance that we are going to have to defend in increasing measure when he says – “that man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ – by nothing less and nothing more.” And we state the only Gospel which has any saving power more concisely by saying that a man is solely justified by the grace of God alone–through faith alone–in Christ alone. - CONTINUE READING.. PLS. Click HERE.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Why Prayer Changes Things


One of the most wonderful mysteries in the universe is that prayer changes things. God has so arranged his world that we have the ability to make significant choices, some good and some bad, which affect the course of history. One means God has given us to do this is prayer—asking him to act. Because he is all-wise and all-powerful, knowing “the end from the beginning” (Isa. 46:10), he's able to weave our requests into his eternally good purposes. - Continue reading pls. CLICK HERE.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Saying and Meaning “I Love You”


We love to talk, think, and sing about love. But, what does it mean? We don’t often think deeply about what love really is. Often we just mindlessly say, “I love you” because it seems appropriate. We can leisurely toss the phrase around like we are playing frisbee at the park. It would seem that for a subject as important and enduring as love that we might want to have a handle on it and make sure we know what we are saying and then actually mean it.

This is especially true for Christians. Remember, we serve and worship a God who says that he is love (1 Jn. 4.8). He is the source and truest expression of love. Everything he does is loving. Further, God has told us that we can actually know what love is by looking at the doing and dying of Jesus for sinners like us: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us…” (1 Jn. 3.16). At its very core then our understanding of love must carry the gospel scent. It must be reflective of God’s love, particularly in and through the gospel.


What then is love? ...Continue Reading Pls. Click HERE.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Why God Became Man - Lehman Strauss

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ

The word incarnation does not occur in the Bible. It is derived from the Latin in and caro (flesh), meaning clothed in flesh, the act of assuming flesh. Its only use in theology is in reference to that gracious, voluntary act of the Son of God in which He assumed a human body. In Christian doctrine the Incarnation, briefly stated, is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became a man. It is one of the greatest events to occur in the history of the universe. It is without parallel.

The Apostle Paul wrote, ''And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh . . . " (I Timothy 3:16). Confessedly, by common consent the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is outside the range of human natural comprehension and apprehension. It can be made known only by Divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, and to those only who are illumined by the Holy Spirit. It is a truth of the greatest magnitude that God in the Person of His Son should identify Himself completely with the human race. And yet He did, for reasons He set forth clearly in His Word.

Before we examine those reasons, it would be well at the outset to distinguish between the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth of our Lord, two truths sometimes confused by students of Scripture. The Incarnation of the Son of God is the fact of God becoming Man; the Virgin Birth is the method by which God the Son became Man.

These two truths, while distinct and different, are closely related to each other and stand in support of each other. If Jesus Christ was not virgin born, then He was not God in the flesh and was therefore only a man possessing the same sinful nature that every fallen child of Adam possesses. The fact of the Incarnation lies in the ever-existing One putting aside His eternal glory to become a man. The method of the Incarnation is the manner by which He chose to come, namely, the miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin.

A noteworthy passage pertinent to the Divine purpose in the Incarnation is recorded in the Gospel according to John-- ''And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory. the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth'' (John 1:14).

Cerinthus, a representative of the system which arose in the early church under the name of Docetism, claimed that our Lord had only an apparent human body. But the statement, ''the Word became flesh," indicates that He had a real body.

John 1:14 cannot be fully appreciated apart from verse one: ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . And the Word became flesh." He who was one with the Father from all eternity became Man, taking upon Him a human body. He ''was with God'' (vs. 1); He ''became flesh" (vs. 14). He “was with God”' (vs. 1); He ''dwelt among us'' (vs. 14). From the infinite position of eternal Godhood to the finite limitations of manhood! Unthinkable but true!

Paul gives another significant passage on the Incarnation in his Galatian Epistle: ''But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons'' (Galatians 4:4, 5). In these verses Paul establishes the fact of the Incarnation-- " God sent forth His Son, made of a woman."

God sending His Son presupposes that God had a Son. Christ was the Son in His eternal relationship with the Father, not because He was born of Mary. Since a son shares the nature of his father, so our Lord shares the Godhead coequally with His Father. Yes, "God sent forth His Son," from His throne on high, from His position of heavenly glory. God did not send one forth who, in His birth, became His Son, but He sent One who, through all eternity, was His Son. Centuries before Christ was born, the Prophet Isaiah wrote of Him, ''For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given . . . '' (Isaiah 9:6). The Son was given in eternity past before we knew Him. His human birth was merely the method of coming to us.

Again, Paul records the following noteworthy statement in the Epistle to the Philippians: ''Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also bath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father'' (Philippians 2:5-10).

Before His Incarnation Jesus Christ was ''in the form of God'' (vs. 6). From the beginning He had the nature of God, He existed (or subsisted) as God, and that essential Deity which He once was could never cease to be. If He seems Divine, it is only because He is Divine. He is God.

He ''thought it not robbery to be equal with God'' (vs. 6). The eternal Son did not consider it a thing to be seized unlawfully to be equal with the Father. Equality with God was not something He retained by force or by farce. He possessed it in eternity past and no power could take it from Him. But in the Incarnation He laid aside, not His possession of Deity, but His position in and expression of the heavenly glory.


One of the purposes of the Philippian epistle was to check the rising tide of dissension and strife growing out of Christians thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Being a general letter, it exposes no false doctrines but does enunciate our Lord Jesus Christ as the believer's pattern in humiliation, self-denial, and loving service for others. This is evident in the seven downward steps of the Saviour's renunciation of Himself.

(1) ''He made Himself of no reputation." God emptied Himself! He did not lose His Deity when He became Man, for God is immutable and therefore cannot cease to be God. He always was God the Son; He continued to be God the Son in His earthly sojourn as Man; He is God the Son in heaven today as He will remain throughout eternity. He is ''Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

(2) ''He took upon Him the form of a servant.'' His was a voluntary act of amazing grace, the almighty Sovereign stooping to become earth's lowly Servant. Instead of expressing Himself as one deserving to be served, He revealed Himself as one desiring to serve others. He did not boast His eternal glory and right to be ministered to, but instead evinced His humility and desire to minister. ''The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many'' (Matthew 20:28).

(3) "He was made in the likeness of men." This phrase expresses the full reality of His humanity. He participated in the same flesh and blood as man (Hebrews 2:14). Although He entered into a new state of being, His becoming Man did not exclude His possession of Deity, for He was and is today a Person who is both God and Man, Divine and human, perfect in His Deity and perfect in His humanity.

(4) ''And being found in fashion as a man." When He came into the world, Christ associated with His contemporaries and did not hold Himself aloof. Thus He manifested to all that He was a real Man. One obvious distinction marked our Lord's humanity; His perfection and sinlessness. As a Man He was made under the law, yet He never violated the law. As a Man He was tempted in all three points in which we are tempted (I John 2:16), yet His temptation was apart from any thought, word, or act of sin.

(5) "He humbled Himself." The world has never witnessed a more genuine act of self-humbling. So completely did our Lord humble Himself that He surrendered His will to the will of His Father in heaven. His desire was to do the will of the Father, therefore He could testify, "I do always those things that please Him" (John 8:29). It was humiliation for the eternal Son of God to become flesh in a stable, and then to dwell in a humble home in subjection to a human parent. God was ''sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin'' (Romans 8:30). Only eternity will reveal the depth of meaning for Him and for us found in those words, " He humbled Himself."

(6) "He became obedient unto death." Remarkable indeed! Here the God-man dies. Did He die as God, or did He die as Man? He died as the God-Man. The first Adam's obedience would have been unto life, but because he disobeyed unto death, the last Adam must now obey unto death in order that He might deliver the first Adam's posterity ''out of death into life'' (John 5:24 R.V.). ''For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). To subject Himself to the cruel death of a criminal on the cross was a necessary part of God's plan of salvation for men, and to such a death our Lord voluntarily submitted. Implicit obedience!

(7) '' . . . even the death of the cross." Our Lord died as no other person died or ever will die. Other men had died on crosses, but this Man, the eternal Son of God, voluntarily and willingly died the kind of death meted out to criminals, even the death upon a cross. His own countrymen considered crucifixion the worst kind of disgrace. In their law it was written, "For he that is hanged is accursed of God'' (Deuteronomy 21:23; cf. Galatians 3:13). Not only did our Lord die, but He died bearing the burden of the worst of criminals and the guiltiest of sinners. Down He came from heaven's glory to earth's sin and shame through His Incarnation.

The purposes underlying this phenomenal occurrence can be summed up in seven points.

HE CAME TO REVEAL GOD TO MAN

The Incarnation of the Son of God unites earth to heaven. God's greatest revelation of Himself to man is in Jesus Christ. Revelation is the disclosure of truth previously unknown. Before the coming of the Son of God to earth many varied forms of revelation existed. Belief in the existence of God is innate. Since man is a rational, moral being, his very nature provides him with intuitive knowledge. As the mind of a child begins to unfold, it instinctively and intuitively recognizes a Being above and beyond the world that he experiences.

Man is so constituted that he recognizes the fact and the power of God by the things that are made. Many of the ancient philosophers marveled at the starry heavens above them and the moral law about them. We live in a world of order and harmony conducive to our happiness and well being, and we, too, recognize a revelation of God in nature.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:19, 20). Men may hinder or suppress the truth by their unrighteous living, but there is that which may be known of God which ''is manifest in them." The existence and power of God are discernible to us all by the things we observe in the external world. Those only who have abnormal, distorted, or biased minds can possibly deny God's existence.

Job realized that the nature of God in its different characteristics and qualities was not all revealed to man, yet he knew, as all men know, that the omnipotence and unchangeableness of God are exhibited in creation (Job 6:10; 23:12). The savage and the scientist can know two things about God; He is a Being and He is supreme. These are the two things God has been pleased to reveal about Himself.

Do not plead innocence for the man who does not possess a copy of God's Word. All men have a Bible bound with the covers of the day and the night whose print is the stars and the planets. What is knowable about God has been displayed openly, and any man who suppresses the truth does it "without excuse." Nature reveals the supernatural, and creation reveals the Creator. Read Psalm 19:1-6 and you will see that the heavens are personified to proclaim the glory of their Creator. Day and night pass on their testimonies giving clear evidence of the existence of the One who made them.

There are other evidences of primeval revelations of God to man, such as to Adam (Genesis 3:8) and to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 26:3-5). The writer to the Hebrews quotes the Son speaking to the Father, in which reference is made to an early primitive and temporary revelation through a book which God allowed to pass out of existence (Hebrews 10:5-7). Doubtless there were other books which likewise have passed out of existence, as the Book of Enoch of which Jude made mention (Jude 14).

We know, further, that God often revealed Himself in dreams as when He spoke to Jacob (Genesis 28), to the patriarch Joseph (Genesis 37), to Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2-4), to Joseph (Matthew 1:20), and to others. Through Moses and the prophets God revealed Himself (Exodus 3:4 and chapter 20). Over thirty-five authors, writing over a period of fifteen hundred years, wrote consistently and coherently, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, of one historically accurate plan of salvation. The Bible in its entirety is a progressive revelation of God.

But of all the amazing revelations of almighty God, none was set forth more clearly and fully than God's final revelation of Himself in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Since God is an infinite Being, no man could understand Him fully save the Son who is One in equality with the Father. Jesus said, ''. . . neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him'' (Matthew 11:27). Here, then, is one reason for the Incarnation—to reveal God to man. The fact of God's existence may be seen through test tubes and laboratory experiments, detected through microscope and telescope, and stated in the discussions of the seminar. But the glorious attributes of a loving God manifested in behalf of sinners can be found in no place or person apart from Jesus Christ.

Philip said to the Lord Jesus, ''Lord, shew us the Father . . . " and our Lord answered, ''. . . He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father . . . " (John 14:8, 9). When the Word became flesh He brought to man an adequate revelation of God. Whatever the ancient seers and saints knew about God before Jesus came, we have a more adequate revelation. Since God remains an abstraction until we see Him in terms of personality, so the Son became Incarnate that we might see and know God. ''No man hath seen God at anytime; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him'' (John 1:1, 8, 9).

The dictionary definition of the word ''light'' means nothing to a blind man, but one glimpse of a glowworm would be worth more for the understanding of light than all the definitions in the world. One glimpse of Jesus Christ will bring God closer to the human mind and heart than all the theological definitions of Him. No man could perceive the grace of God until the almighty Sovereign of the universe stooped to the level of His own creatures, suffering cruel treatment and dying the death of shame for them. No man understood fully the patience and longsuffering of the Father until Jesus Christ who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, and when He suffered, threatened not (I Peter 2:23). No man can comprehend just how perfect and holy God is until He comes face to face with the sinless Son of God. God has revealed Himself anew to the intelligence of man through the Incarnation.

HE CAME TO REVEAL MAN TO HIMSELF

Through His Incarnation Jesus Christ reveals man to himself. He shows us what we are and what we may become. As we study the purposes of God in Christ, the fact impresses us that man is grossly ignorant of his real self, and that the mission of the Son's coming included a plan that would enable man to see and know himself as God sees and knows him. We are not the least bit impressed with man's vain philosophical views of himself, but rather with the accurate historical account of man as it is recorded in the Bible.

The primary fact that man needs to know about himself is his origin. Men are divided in their theories concerning this. We are not strangers to the evolutionary idea which attempts to explain man's place in the earth. In 1871 Darwin published his book, The Descent of Man, but he said very little that had not been said before. The idea of evolution might be here to stay, but not because Darwin said so. Evolution was taught by Roman and Greek philosophers and even by ancient Egyptians. But the evolutionary idea that man must swallow his pride and be content with the fact that he has oozed from the slime along with the snails is contrary to the revelation in Scripture.

The Bible teaches clearly that the human race had its origin by the immediate creation of God (Genesis 1:26, 27) and that man is the grand consummation of all creation. We are forced to accept this view as against the theory of evolution because of the immeasurable gulf which separates man, even in his barest savage condition, from the nearest order of creation below him. Moreover, history corroborates Scripture in that man was destined to rule over all other animal life. God took special care in the creation of man, for " God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them" (Genesis 1:27). Actually it was not the body of man that was created, for the body was merely ''formed'' of those elements necessary for man's body and which were created long before man (Genesis 1:1). What was new in man's creation was a form of life which only God and man possess (Genesis 2:7). Created in the image and likeness of God, man differs from every other form of animal. Man, in his lowest estate, seeks an object of worship and has been known to bow before gods that he cannot see, but animals never!

However, man did not retain God's image and likeness. When God placed our first parents in Eden He set before them one simple restriction, namely, not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for, said God, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Genesis 3 is a record of the fall of man. He disobeyed God and immediately the life-cord was severed. Adam died both physically and spiritually. Physical death began to do its work, and the grave for Adam was but a matter of time. Then, too, his spirit was separated from God, so that he was dead spiritually while alive physically.

Now all men, from Adam down, are born into this world spiritually dead in sin, possessing a sin-nature capable of every trespass against God (Ephesians 2:1). The sin-nature of Adam and the guilt of his sin were imputed to the whole human race, so that Adam's corrupted nature is of necessity a part of all his posterity. The highest self in man is altogether unprofitable to God. All men are not equally corrupt in word and deed, but all are equally dead, and unless the function of death is brought to a halt, it will destroy not only the body but also the soul in hell. Because of the solidarity of the human race, sin and death have passed upon all men (Romans 5:12). When Adam defaced the Divine image and lost the Divine likeness, he begat sons ''in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:3). Yes, "by man came death" and ''in Adam all die" (I Corinthians 15:21, 22).

While all of this is clearly stated in the Bible, man still thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think. There were many who had no Scriptures at all in Christ's day, and they needed this revelation. In order that man should see himself, not in the light of his own goodness, but beside the perfect standard of God's holy Son, the Son of God became Incarnate. Our Lord said, ''If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin" (John 15:22).

Responsibility increases with knowledge, and so Christ's coming showed man how far short he came of God's standard of a righteous man. The Lord Jesus said, "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin . . . " (John 15:24). Our Lord did not mean by this statement that man would have been without sin if He had not come. There had been sin all along, as God's dealings with the human race through its four thousand years of earlier history prove. But the coming of Christ to the earth revealed the heart of man in cruel hatred for Divine holiness. The Son of God Incarnate was sinless in every respect, yet man, Jew and Gentile alike, crucified Him. Alongside Christ's perfect life and works, man can see the sin and guilt of his own heart.

When man sinned against the Son of God, he sinned against the clearest possible light, "the Light of the world'' (John 8:12). He came unto His own and His own received Him not (John 1:11), and then Gentiles joined hands with ''His own'' to put Him to death. How sinful is the heart of man? Look at that spectacle on Calvary's hill and you will see human hearts and hands at their worst.

Time has not improved human nature. Today men still trample under food the precious blood of Christ, and if our blessed Lord were to appear in person today as He did nineteen centuries ago, the world would crucify him again. The world, having seen the light, has turned from the light, for "men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil'' (John 3:19). Romans 1:18 to 3:20 enunciates the most searching and conclusive arraignment of the human race found anywhere, and the birth and death of Jesus Christ attest to the truth of this awful indictment.

He Came to Redeem Man

The Apostle Paul states clearly the purpose of the Incarnation in the following words--''But when the fulness of the was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law" (Galatians 4:4, 5). The Old Testament contains the accurate record of some four thousand years of sin, human failure, and consequent Divine judgment. The one bright hope was the coming of the promised Seed, the Redeemer (Genesis 3:15). With each succeeding revelation from God, the promise grew clearer and the hope brighter. The prophets spoke of the Messiah who would come to deliver the people from their sins. Perhaps the classic prophecy is Isaiah 53. Since the people needed a deliverer from the guilt and penalty of sin, the intent of the Incarnation was to provide that Deliverer. Moreover, all of history and prophecy moved toward that goal even as all subsequent movements have proceeded from it.

Jesus Christ is man's Redeemer, his Saviour. This truth is implied in His name. Said the angel, " Thou shalt call his name JESUS (meaning Saviour), for He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). At His birth the angel testified again, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a

Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). Even the Lord Jesus Himself voiced emphatically the purpose of His Incarnation when He said, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).

The awful state of the world of mankind necessitated the coming of the Redeemer since there could be no hope of deliverance apart from Him. The character of God, which is righteousness, absolute and uncompromising, demands that every sin be dealt with. While God is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger, forgiving iniquities and transgressions, ''that will by no means clear the guilty " (Exodus 34:7)., While God is love, God is also holy and righteous, so holy that He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and [canst] not look on iniquity'' (Habakkuk 1:13). His righteousness demands that every sin must be dealt with impartially. In order to be true to Himself, God had to deal with the problem of sin. In order to deal justly and, at the same time, mercifully, someone had to suffer the death penalty for the sin of the world.

In the Person of Jesus Christ God solved the problem of the eternal well-being of the sinner. He sent His Son to die as the sinner's perfect Substitute, and thereby redeemed the sinner. Man was lost to God and heaven, and God's purpose in redemption could be realized only through the Incarnate Son of God, for the Son of God Incarnate is the connecting link bringing together God and sinful man. The sinner's relation to Jesus Christ is vital. Christ became a man "that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Hebrews 2:9). The Word, who is the eternal Son of God, became flesh and was obliged to be made in the likeness of man in order to redeem him.

Christ defined the purpose of His Incarnation and earthly ministry when He said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Mark 2:17). There is no implication in these words that there is a sinful class of men who need repentance and another righteous class who do not. Nor is there a suggestion that there are "righteous ones," for in Romans 3:10 it is said, "There is none righteous, no, not one."

Consider the conditions under which Christ stated this purpose. Scribes and Pharisees were upbraiding Him because He had gone into the house of Levi to eat with publicans and sinners (Mark 2:14-16). His critics exalted themselves above sinners, priding themselves in an unpossessed righteousness which thereby excluded them from any realization or acknowledgement of their own sin.

In Levi's house, however, there were those who recognized their sinful state. It was for this reason that the Lord Jesus went to that group, namely, to bring salvation to them. Physicians go into sick rooms, not because of the pleasantness of disease and suffering, but because of a desire to relieve and cure the sick. So sinners are the special objects of the Saviour's love and power. He came into the world to save sinners.

Although all men are unrighteous, those scribes and Pharisees called themselves ''righteous," for they were possessed of self-righteousness that is as "filthy rags" in God's sight (Isaiah 64:6). Therefore, as they went about seeking to establish their own righteousness, they failed to see the purpose of His coming. Hence they never heeded the Saviour's call to salvation. Their kind seldom do!

Had there been righteousness in the human heart, there would have been no need for the Incarnation of the Son of God. And only in the self-righteous heart of the religious, moral man, satisfied with himself, do we find the careless indifference to the Gospel of redemption. When a man assumes a righteousness all his own, he is outside the reach of the Great Physician. The man who excludes his own need of Christ misses the purpose of the Saviour's coming and will not be saved. Each of us must say with the Apostle Paul, " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (I Timothy 1:15).

HE CAME TO RESTRAIN SATAN

The purpose of the Incarnation is further revealed in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Three verses, linked together, assert that the coming of Jesus Christ was to destroy the devil. "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man . . . Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same [flesh and blood]; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:9, 14, 15).

In these three verses in Hebrews, we are reminded that the subject of death is dealt with in each of them, and the fact of the Incarnation is substantiated in the clause, "who was made a little lower than the angels." Furthermore, the purpose of the Incarnation appears in the words, "that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." From this verse, as well as verse 14, it is evident that the eternal Son became flesh in order to die.

Christ's crucifixion by wicked hands was "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Our Lord Jesus Christ testified, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). Jesus Christ willed to die, not a sudden and unexpected death but a lingering, anticipated death that He would taste every day of His earthly sojourn. He became man to suffer death.

But why should it be so? We considered the purpose of the Incarnation relative to the sin question. Referring to the matter of death, the Word affirms that the Son of God became incarnate that "through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Of all the works of Satan, among the worst is that of destroying life. Our Lord testified, "He was a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). Satan is the spoiler of humanity, his malignant purpose being to bring both physical and spiritual death to mankind.

God placed our first parents in the Garden of Eden and surrounded them with every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Two of these trees are mentioned; ''the tree of life . . . and the tree of knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9). Eating the fruit of the latter tree would bring sin and death, for, said God, " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Satan knew this, therefore we are not surprised when we read that it was of the fruit of this very tree of death that he enticed Eve to eat. He chose the tree of death because he is a murderer. He knew that the death sentence was already pronounced upon all who would eat of it. He delighted in the fall of Adam and Eve, for he knew that physical and spiritual death had struck.

But thanks be to God for the Incarnation of His Son. By the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, through His death and resurrection, He wrested from Satan the power of death. Death no more holds its lethal grip upon the believer. Although death has held sinners in bondage ever since the severing of the life-cord between God and man, the appearing of the Lord Jesus has broken its grip. "According to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began . . . the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel" (II Timothy 1:9, 10).

Before sin was indulged in and death struck, the inclusive salvation plan provided death's abolition. Since the death and resurrection of our Lord dealt comprehensively with sin, it of necessity affected death. The coming of the Saviour rendered death harmless, and the "sting" of it is gone (I Corinthians 15:55). Oh, the blessedness of an accomplished redemption! How wonderful to know Him who said, " I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death" (Revelation 1:18). Death once held man in the vise of hopeless doom, but now Satan is defeated.

The shadow of the cross hung over the manger in Bethlehem, assuring the world that the Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). As Adam yielded himself to Satan, Satan held him in death; but by His dying, Christ entered into our death and wrested from Satan that power which he held over us. At Calvary Satan was brought to naught, and now "death is swallowed up in victory. . . Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 15:54, 57). "The prince of this world is judged" (John 16:1 1). The Seed of the woman traversed the realms of death but was not captured by the enemy. Instead, He conquered the enemy. Thank God the Saviour came.

HE CAME TO RESCUE THE WHOLE CREATION

The Incarnation of the eternal Son is part of the divine plan. That plan comprehends a goal, and God assures the accomplishment of it. Though the salvation of man was God's chief concern, His plan was never limited to the world of mankind. It is written of the eternal Son, who was with God and who is God, that "all things were made by Him" (John 1:3). Paul writes, ''For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth'' (Colossians 1:28). Man was higher than all other created beings in the earth, and other creatures were subject to him. However, after the fall this condition changed. Now if man is to have dominion over the beasts, he must first capture them at the risk of his own life, and then imprison them until they are tamed. All of this resulted from the fall.

But the question is, Will God restore again to man the dominion which he lost through the fall? The prophet said, ''The wolf also shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cocatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:6-9). Indeed, it appears that the prophet here is looking beyond to a time of rescue and restoration of the earth and all of its creatures.

The cruelty of beasts was not the order before sin entered. Such discord among God's creatures has sprung from the sinfulness of man and is a necessary part of the curse. To remove this curse and rescue God's creation is one of the purposes of the Incarnation. When Christ comes back to reign and "the government shall be upon His shoulder" (Isaiah 9:6), then the sons of God will be manifested and will share with Him in a restored creation. If it were not so, then all of animated nature would remain spoiled by Satan. But God has said, "In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground" (Hosea 2:18). Yes, God will "gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him'' (Ephesians 1:10). At that day our blessed Lord will "reconcile all things unto Himself' (Colossians 1:20).

Many Christians fail to see that this redemptive work, wrought through the Incarnation of the Son of God, is wider than the salvation of human beings and that it affects the whole creation. The Apostle Paul writes, " For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:19-23). Here we are told that the deliverance of the whole creation will be revealed at the manifestation of the sons of God.

All creation lies in hope (expectancy) of a rescue from present corruption and of deliverance to that place God gave it in the beginning. Nature is now under the curse of sin, groaning and travailing in pain. It is not what it was at first. Nor is it now what it will be when the incarnate Son returns to "put all things in subjection under His feet" (see Hebrews 2:5-9). Before Adam sinned, no savage beasts, no desert wastes, no thorns and thistles existed; but when he fell, all creation fell with him. Now that the Son of God has come and purchased redemption by His death at Calvary, the whole creation must be rescued from the curse, and restored to its original state.

HE CAME TO RESTORE ISRAEL

Any reader of the Old Testament cannot escape the clear teaching that the Messiah was promised to Israel. Of this the prophets spoke and wrote. The Jew had great advantages. "Unto them were committed the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2). Theirs was "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" (Romans 9:4). None can deny that from the call of Abraham (Genesis 12:1) to the Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar (606 B.C.), authority in the earth and divine representation was vested in the Jew. It is common information that since the overthrow of Jerusalem and the transfer of dominion in the earth to the Gentiles, Israel, as a nation, has not held authority in the earth.

When Jesus Christ, the Word, "was made flesh," "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (John 1:11, 14). ''His citizens hated Him, and sent a message after Him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14). In blind unbelief the children of Abraham, refusing to recognize or receive Him, drove Him from their midst and crucified Him. After His resurrection and ascension He revealed to the apostles this mystery. No longer did Israel have priority on the truth, but the message was to be spread abroad to every creature and, during the present dispensation of grace, God would visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name (Acts 15:14).

When Christ came the first time He traversed Palestine proclaiming, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). He opened the door into the kingdom, but only the regenerated could enter. Were the people ready to receive the kingdom, the King would establish it. However, the offer of the kingdom met with an ever-increasing opposition, and our Lord withdrew the offer for that time. He said to the Jews, ''Therefore say I unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21:43). There was no mistaking what the Lord Jesus meant, for the chief priests and Pharisees "perceived that He spake of them" (vs. 45).

Israel is still set aside, but only temporarily. The Apostle Paul writes, ''I say then, Hath God cast away His people? God forbid . . . God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew . . . For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:1, 2, 25).

Anti-Semitism, raging throughout the world today, might lead one to question the future restoration of the Jew. Yet we know that both national restoration and national regeneration for the Jew are a definite part of the plan of God. Israel is not beyond recovery; she is not irretrievably lost. By her fall the whole world was blessed with the message of salvation. A national tragedy resulted in an international triumph. ''And so all Israel shall be saved'' (Romans 10:26). The Jew lives in a dark present with a bright future before him. When our Lord said in Matthew 21:43, that "the kingdom shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof," He was not referring to any Gentile nation but to regenerated Israel.

God gave Palestine to the Jews unconditionally as a possession and a dwelling place (Genesis 12:1-3). He wants them there. That the Jews would be scattered is plainly taught in the Word of God, but coupled with such teaching are the assertions that they will also be regathered. Study Hosea 3:4,5 and see plainly the scattering and the gathering with the period between. (See also Ezekiel 36:19,24). The Word became flesh and tabernacled among them once (John 1:14). That same holy One, the incarnate Christ, will come again to tabernacle with Israel. Study, for example, such passages as Isaiah 12:1-6; Joel 2:26, 27; Zephaniah 3:14-17; Zechariah 8:3-8. Already modern inventions have revolutionized Palestine and its surrounding territory. This fact, coupled with the thought of the vast area granted by God to Abraham (Genesis 15:18), will assure any interested person that there is ample room in the Holy Land to hold all Jews.

While the Jews continue to return to the Land, all signs point to the return of the incarnate Son, the One who is both human and Divine, and the One in whom God's purposes for Israel are to be fulfilled. According to prophecy, the incarnate One, Immanuel, the virgin's Son, is to occupy David's throne. ''For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this'' (Isaiah 9:6, 7). Let us rejoice to see that day approaching.

HE CAME TO REIGN

When the Incarnation had been announced, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him" (Matthew 2:1, 2). They were wise men indeed, for they were followers of the truth of God. When the Old Testament prophets wrote of Messiah's offices, they included that of King. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy king cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation: lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass" (Zechariah 9:9). David wrote of Christ and His kingdom when he recorded the words of God, "Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion" (Psalm 2:6). Our Lord is not only Prophet, and Priest, but also Potentate.

In studying the purposes of the Incarnation we are forced to the scriptural observation that the eternal Son became Man in order that He might be King of the earth. Paul wrote that "God hath highly exalted Him" (Philippians 2:9). We dare not limit the exaltation of Christ as some try to do. We acquiesce with those who teach that the steps in Christ's exaltation were His resurrection, ascension, and His sitting at the right hand of God. But such teaching does not go far enough. Study carefully Philippians 2:5-11, and you will see that the steps in our Lord's humiliation were temporary steps leading to a permanent exaltation, culminating with the bowing of every knee and the confessing of every tongue in heaven and in earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The incarnate Son is to appear in His resurrection body and is to sit on the throne of His glory. Jesus Himself spoke of the day "when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him; then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory" (Matthew 25:31). John writes, ''Every eye shall see Him'' (Revelation 1:7). The prophetic utterance spoken by God to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 concerning David's seed having an everlasting throne and kingdom, has a double fulfillment. Primarily it referred to Solomon's temple. Ultimately and finally it speaks of Christ's earthly reign as Zechariah 6:12 shows. The day must come when all things will be subjected unto Him (I Corinthians 15:28).

The Psalmist spoke of His throne as an enduring throne (Psalm 89:4, 29, 36). God promises that this earthly throne and kingdom are to continue forever, and that the One to occupy it shall be David's seed, his rightful Son (I Chronicles 17:11). The genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 will support the relationship of Jesus Christ to David. During our Lord's earthly ministry, those who sought His help called Him "the son of David" (see Matthew 9:27; Mark 10:47; Luke 18:38).

Christ's kingdom is literal, therefore it cannot be realized apart from the Incarnation. Such a kingdom men have been trying to establish for centuries, but nations are farther from realizing it today than ever before. A perfect kingdom demands a perfect King. At the end of the conflict of the ages, Jesus Christ, the God-Man will return to earth to establish His righteous kingdom which will never be destroyed. His kingdom of glory, and His throne in the midst, was God's first promise through the mouth of the angel Gabriel to Mary, and it links together the Incarnation and reign of the Son of God, ''And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:31-33).

When the King comes, then will His perfect will be done in earth as it is in heaven. This is a blessed truth not without history or hope. The day will surely come when all men will see the revelation of the glory of holiness and joy in the earth. But His reign awaits His return to carry away His Bride, the Church. Everything has been deferred until He gathers her unto Himself. It may be at any moment that the last soul will be added to the Church, and then He will come.

This meditation in no wise exhausts the divine purposes of the Incarnation. Others have written at greater length and, doubtless, we could do likewise. But one thing more must be said. The supreme purpose in the eternal Son's coming into the world was to glorify the Father. In His great intercessory prayer, Jesus said, " I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (John 17:4). God had been glorified in creation, in the remarkable deliverances of His people, and in the exercise of His power over His enemies, but at no time had He been glorified like this. God could never have been glorified if the Son would have failed in His earthly mission in the smallest degree. But the Lord Jesus could say, " I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." Nothing was left undone, and in everything He did, the Son had the Father's glory in view. He glorified the Father; His earthly mission was complete.

And now to all of us who have been redeemed by His precious blood, the Apostle Paul writes: "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Corinthians 6:20). (Taken from https://bible.org/article/why-god-became-man )
 
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