Undercover God

While I have not watched an episode yet, I have heard that Undercover Boss can be a very heart-touching TV show. I understand the basic premise--a CEO or president of a large company or corporation leaves his high position, goes incognito, and takes the status of a lowly employee temporarily. In doing so, he becomes familiar with the plight of some of his employees, not only in their daily work, but in their life struggles. He reveals his true identity at the end of the show, to the complete surprise of his former fellow workers, and then showers some with material blessings to help them in their difficult circumstances.

An exalted high position. A willingness to forsake all that. Temporarily take the form of an ordinary employee. Empathize with his employees. His identity is concealed and then revealed. He returns to his once-deserted office and position. Showers an employee or two with unexpected blessings.

It seems there was another, much earlier incident that takes that similar story line, except on a much grander scale and a world-altering course. Undercover Boss? Nice conception, but not an immaculate one. For that, we must go to the Undercover God.

The producer-director of this real life drama holds all nations and all companies and all people and all there is in the palm of his hands. Talk about power, but this absolute power does not corrupt absolutely. Donald Trump is a mere speck of dust in comparison to this CEO--Creator, Eternal, Omnipotent. You can not find a more lofty position or exalted office. And you can not find a more heart-changing story, when this CEO left it all to enter the depths of the company of his creation, which went horribly awry after rebellion against this CEO entered the picture.

No movie or TV script can hold a candle to what we find in Philippians 2:1 and following. The narrative of the Incarnation is found in Luke 2, but the theology behind the narrative is found in Philippians 2. What exactly happened in that manger scene? Who was born that day? Who was that crying on Mary's lap? Who was it that shepherds came to see? Who was it that divided our date- setting and calendar between B.C. and A.D.? Well, it was none other than the Undercover God.

Those who say that any discussion of theology belongs only in the realm of academicians in seminaries encounter one of the most profoundest theological statements in the pages of Scripture right in the context of practical instruction in Philippians 2. Theology is practical and personal, and therefore it is most relevant and reverent.

Actually, Paul begins in the first four verses of this chapter by talking about the practical matters of unselfishness and humility. In verse two, Paul tells the Christians then and now, "You want to make my day? Then you all have the same mind-set, the same attitude toward one another, the same love for each one. You do that, and you have made my day and my life!" Maybe anticipating some questions, the apostle continues the thought in the next two verses: "Okay, you might be wondering how can we do that though? Isn't that asking too much? How can we have the same love for every single person in the body of Christ? Well, quit the game of one-up-manship and quit trying to put your best foot forward only to put your foot on the throat of someone else. In fact, start thinking and doing that 'looking after number one' is looking after everybody else besides you." There is no "I" in team, but there sure is in sIn.

And this is not asking too much of you. It is within you to do it. That is why he begins the whole discussion in verse one. Every one of us has Christ, his love, his Spirit, his encouragement, his consolation, his affection and his compassion to do it. It is not asking too much of us, because we have it within us to do it. But not only do we have it within us to do it, but we have it before us to do it as well.

Do we have an example out there before us that can provide the best clue on what selfless living and humility are all about? So, in verse five, the bridge from the practical to the theology is a super natural one. Yes, Virginia, there really is a sacred clause: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

The reason why stories like what we see in Undercover Boss or in other heroic, selfless acts stir our heart's passion is because they only mirror in a small way what the Undercover God has done in history. No matter how depraved the human heart is, there is still enough of the image of God within all of us that we yearn for something bigger than ourselves that tell us what life is really all about. You can't get any bigger than the life and death example of the Undercover God, Jesus Christ, in Philippians 2.

When examined in detail, it becomes even that much bigger. No company president would do or could do what Jesus did. No human interest story on the evening news could match what God did when that Babe was crying at Mary's breast. No act of philanthropy or heroism could ever duplicate the selfless life and sacrificing death of the God-in-human-form.

Two intensive and extensive questions are raised in this passage, that has occupied so much time and space by the best of scholars through the centuries. Number one is "What is meant by being in the form of God?" Number two is "What exactly did God empty Himself of when He became man?" For the answer to those two questions, we will devote some time and space at our next blog posting.

I read today that Bethlehem has recorded this year the most number of pilgrims and travelers in history. Maybe many are having a hard time finding room for themselves in an inn. Why a record number this year? Laying aside for the moment the superstitious motivation behind many who make the journey to Bethlehem, I can only think that there is so much growing uncertainty and fear in this old world, and people are craving such things as stability and hope. We don't read of people in mass making long treks to places like Harvard or Oxford on an annual basis to find solutions to the world's problems. We don't read of people traveling the world over to visit some guru on a mountain in India. We only read of people marching on a nation's capitol to protest what is being done or what is not being done. Yes, we are familiar with Muslims by the millions going to Mecca annually, but only the adherents of this religion of fear and hate can attend, and Allah did not become man and dwelt among us. There is a sword in Islam, but there is no cross. They have dying enemies, but they have no dying Savior.

Why this out-of-place, small hamlet called Bethlehem? Why journey there of all places?

Because it was there that the Undercover God appeared and it is only in Him that perfect love casts out fear, and it is only in Him that hope springs eternal. It is a story like no other, and we don't need CBS to promote it on a weekly show. All followers of this Undercover God have it within them and before them to promote this incredible story of biblical proportions on a daily basis.

Joyfully yours,

Chris

Gog and Magog: The End of the Beginning

Saddam Hussein really wanted to be the new Nebuchadnezzar, the foreign conqueror who took it to the Jews. Saddam is now with the old Nebuchadnezzar, though. Hitler couldn't have taken out all the Jews in Europe, let alone the entire world. Haman, though, could have rubbed out all Jews for all practical purposes, since the Jews were confined within the boundaries of the Persian Empire.

The beginning of Satan's scheme to stop Genesis 3:15 come to fruition would come to its Old Testament climax in the book of Esther, when Haman, number two man in the Persian kingdom, concocted a plan to do in all the Jews. Never before has anyone tried to exterminate all God's chosen people. Not Pharaoh. Not Neb. Not Cyrus. Not Alexander the Great. Not Caesar. Haman, Satan's number one man at the time, went where no man had gone before.

Haman was an Agagite according to Esther 3:1. Agag was king of the Amalekites, a long standing enemy of the Jews, that King Saul was commissioned to destroy back in 1 Samuel 15, but Saul failed to do all God's command. Mordecai, Esther's cousin and guardian, was a descendant of King Saul. So Agag's descendant and Saul's descendant met in the capital city of Susa, where Haman would determine to kill all Mordecai's people scattered throughout the Persian empire.

So the book of Esther is no ordinary story. Considering this unique plot to kill all the Jewish seed, which would mean killing the seed from whom the Seed of woman and the Seed of Abraham would come, we would have to conclude that this earth-shattering event would have been prophesied for sure by some of God's mouthpieces prior to the book of Esther. Had Haman succeeded, there would be no Jesus, no one to squash Satan's own head, and Genesis 3:15 would be proven wrong, so this is not some minor footnote on the pages of human history.

Ezekiel lived many decades prior to Esther. He was a Jewish exile from the 597 B.C. captivity of Jerusalem. In chapters 38 and 39 of his book, God's people were forewarned of a future leader named Gog (Hebrew spelling very similar to Agag; remember Haman was an Agagite) from the land of Magog who would build a "united nations" army to destroy all of the Jews. Such was the case in the book of Esther. Gog is not Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Germany or any other modern nation. The list of nations with Persia heading the list in chapter 38 were nations that were in existence at the time of Ezekiel to Esther.

The type of military weaponry mentioned in chapter 38 does not belong to modern warfare. They belong to the era back then. Our brave soldiers in Afghanistan do not ride on horses with shields and bucklers and bows and arrows. Also we read that the time period when this confederacy of nations would come against all the Jewish people would be a time when the Jews lived in "unwalled villages." While Esther and Mordecai lived in the Persian capital, many Jews had returned to Israel years prior to repopulate the land, under the generous offer from King Cyrus. The temple had been rebuilt, but until Nehemiah came along in the mid 5th century B.C., which was years after Esther, all the Jews lived in unwalled villages with neither gates nor bars. Nehemiah came specifically to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.

There are over 400 miles of walls around Jerusalem today. So much for Gog and Magog being a prediction of what would occur in the modern state of Israel! The walls today serve as a protective barrier from Palestinian terrorists who would drive cars and trucks laden with bombs. Walls today, though, can not prevent bombs from being dropped from planes or from missiles being fired from long range destinations. But walls back in the Old Testament days were essential for protection because the type of warfare then was totally different than what they are today.

We are told in Ezekiel 38-39 that God would come to the rescue of the Jews, which was the case in Esther 8-9. Haman's plot was foiled, God's promise in Genesis 3:15 would stand, and the enemies of God would be destroyed. Israel would take seven years to burn all the confiscated weaponry for fuel purposes, something that would be unnecessary in today's "natural gas/oil" world but it would be something very practical and useful for the days back then. It would take seven months for the house of Israel to bury all the dead. It would not take that long today, but it would take that long during the days of the Old Testament with all the ceremonial restrictions placed upon the Jews and with the lack of modern equipment.

The mass burial place for these arch enemies of the Jews would be called Hamon-Gog or Hamonah. Does anybody see a remarkable similarity in the spelling of that burial site with Haman, the villain in the book of Esther?

All of the events of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38-39 would be for the express purpose of God setting His glory among the nations, and that all nations would come to know that Israel went into exile because of their iniquity, and that is why God led them into captivity in the first place. Israel would come to recognize the Lord is God, and that Israel would put away their false gods. All of this places the events of Gog and Magog in the days then and not in the days now.

I don't have to wait for the NY Times or Fox News or CNN to report what may seem to be a non-literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 38-39. All I need to do is read the Bible, the book of Esther, and there I find literally the end of the beginning of Satan's plot to thwart Genesis 3:15 in the chronology of Old Testament events.

In Esther 8:17 we discover that the nations did come to acknowledge the Lord God, for many of the Gentiles within the Persian empire became God-fearing Jews, monotheists in a polytheistic world. Never before had this happened in the pages of the Old Testament, when a massive number of Gentiles from various ethnic groups became believers in the one true Yahweh God. (The book of Esther has many unique historical/providential features.) Would not that also in all likelihood be prophesied in the pages of Scripture?

Haggai and Zechariah were two prophets God used in the time of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. This is post-Ezekiel, but pre-Esther. In Zechariah 2, God says that Jerusalem would be inhabited without walls (Ezekiel 38!), but God would protect her by being a wall of fire around her. The Jews would flee from the land of Babylon (which they did in three separate returns), and that He would protect them from the nations who would seek to destroy Israel (Ezekiel 38-39, Haman's confederacy of nations in Esther!). Like in Esther 9, the tables are turned, and the victims become the victors. The Feast of Purim today celebrates this wondrous miraculous deliverance. And in Zechariah 2:11, many nations would join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become His people (sounds like Esther 8:17 to me!).

Esther was her Persian name. Her Hebrew name was Hadassah, which means "myrtle", as in myrtle trees. How convenient that in Zechariah 1, God enables Zechariah to see a vision of a man among the hadassahs, the myrtle trees.

All of this is not as scintillating as the modern prophecy experts who have mapped out all types of scenarios of an incoming invasion of foreign forces against modern day Israel. There is another difference too. Modern prophecy experts have all been proven wrong over time, and the Bible has been proven right all throughout time.

"All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord abides forever." 1 Peter 1:24-25

Yours in Christ,

Bro. Chris

The Dirty (and Necessary) Business of Politics

Writing this on election eve, maybe one of the most historic midterm elections ever, I am struck how well-intentioned Christians can be poles apart when it comes to the subject of politics. On one extreme are those that think the pulpit and a political platform or candidate should be connected at the hip. On the other extreme are those that think that anything political in nature should be disconnected at the lip. One church may be decorated in red, white and blue, and it may be hard to distinguish it from an American Legion hall (except maybe for the smell of beer) or a political convention (except maybe for the smell of champagne). The other church at the opposite may think if is a sure sign of ungodliness to do or say anything about "politics", which has to be one of the works of the flesh that should have made the list in Galatians 5.

Both extremes are extremely disappointing and dangerous. To be intoxicated with political pursuits, be it in liberal or evangelical churches, advances the kingdom of man and not the kingdom of God, no matter how justified a person or an entire church may feel toward politics in general and certain hot button issues. To be indifferent toward political matters, though, advances also the kingdom of man and not the kingdom of God, no matter how "spiritual" a person or church may feel by ignoring politics in general and certain hot button issues. Silence and inactivity on the part of those who are called to be salt and light can do as much damage as any misguided political overzealousness.

Some Christians in the land of the free and the home of the brave find any mention of politics as totally repulsive. It should be off limits altogether, because they think somehow it betrays a trust in God's providence by putting one's trust in man instead. These same people though find nothing wrong in going to work on a daily basis, as if God's providence is not going to help them pay the bills and put food on the table.

Politics is a dirty business. So what else is new? We live in a fallen world and everything we do is dirty, because we are all dirty. Being a firefighter is dirty business. Being a salesman is dirty business. Being a nurse is dirty business. Being a preacher of the gospel is dirty business. Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, because when you walk through this world you get dirty. And might it be that God wants to use His children as cleansing agents in all spheres of life, including politics, if He truly is Lord of all?

It reminds me of the raging debate in Martin Luther's day (since we just celebrated Reformation Day on October 31) if a Christian could be a soldier at the same time. Today some of the "spiritually indifferent" would have us to believe that it may not be possible for a person to be a Christian and involved in politics in any sense of the word. The ungodly and unbelievers in our land would love to have all us Christians to become so "spiritual" so we would let others direct the course of our nation, while we have our heads buried in our Bibles and in the sand. If our high and mighty indifference toward anything political is a route we feel compelled to take, just remember that we will have Jehovah's Witnesses as some traveling companions.

Anytime a person erects a new man-made criteria for advanced spirituality, i.e. uninvolvement in anything political, then that only breeds a haughty judgmentalism toward those "weaker brothers" whom they judge to have soiled themselves with political matters. Romans 14 has much to say about these matters, regardless where one fits on the political involvement spectrum. "Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand."

Do we not recall how the saints and the prophets in the Old Testament were involved in the affairs of government in their day? Whether it be Joseph serving in a heathen Pharaoh's court, or Daniel serving in Babylonian or Persian administrations, or Esther finding herself as first lady, what would the Old Testament redemption story look like if any one of those three had removed themselves from the dirty business of secular government life? What if Nathan had decided not to confront the governmental leader of his day, King David, because he thought it would be more spiritual to stay aloof from messy governmental concerns? Be it Moses, Amos, Isaiah or Jeremiah, one can not read their stories and their preaching without finding a man of God who was deeply informed with the main issues of his day and then told the political machinery of his day what he thought about the main issues of the day. John the Baptist lost his head at a dance because he refused to dance around the politics of his day.

Jesus did not come to start a political movement nor a new political party. The Democrats could try to say that Jesus is one of them because he cared for the poor and he rode a donkey and not an elephant into Jerusalem. The Republicans may try to say that Jesus is one of them because after all does not GOP stand for God's Own Party? As Joshua learned when He faced the Commander-in-Chief with a drawn sword in Joshua 5:13-15, our Lord does not take sides; He is here to take over. Jesus came to die for man's sin, because man's chief problem is not his political position but his spiritual condition.

At the same time, Jesus was not afraid to throw Himself in the political arena, be it His involvement with Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Sadducees or the Pharisees. Jesus was not a Zealot out to overthrow the government by political and military maneuvering (although He did have a Simon the Zealot as an apostle), but neither was He an Essene, who withdrew from the dirty business of daily living by just waiting on God out in the desert (after all, He did have a government employee in Matthew as an apostle).

If it were not for our nation's forefathers, most of them very active churchmen including ministers among the group, we would not have a Declaration of Independence or a Constitution or a nation called the USA. So much for spiritual indifference and aloofness. Read the sermons of those God-fearing Revolutionary ministers, and one will not find the extreme of political intoxication, nor will one find the extreme of high-minded spiritual indifference.

If we sit back and do nothing except go to Bible studies, then who are we to blame if our American culture continue its slide toward Gomorrah so that we are not as able to "lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." (1 Tim. 2:2)? Exactly how is uninvolvement a wiser and higher ground we must take? Do not Scripture and history say otherwise?

I am very eager to vote tomorrow, because I am very concerned about the future of our country, which I love very much. I do not want my children to live in a different country, totally different than what our forefathers had in mind and what I have enjoyed for much of my life. This country had the hand and heart of Providence guiding it, and I am not going to let my hand and heart be idle on election day, just as I get up tomorrow morning to head off to work (after I vote) while trusting in Providence to provide for my needs.

I hope my candidates win, and I hope they live up to my expectations. If not, then I can vote them out the next round. If my preferences do not win, I will not writhe in agony and utter hopelessness. God is not limited on man's terms, and God is not term limited. Regardless who is on man's throne, even if it is Nero in the case of Paul, then we must pray for him or her (1 Tim. 2:1-2). God can change the hearts of the kings (Proverbs 21:1) and He can use us in a free country to change our "kings"--our senators, our governors, our presidents, our mayors, etc. How many in other countries would give their right arm to have the right to choose their leaders like we do in ours?

I will not tell the congregation whom to vote for, nor will I have candidates come in to give a political commercial. The church members can watch Fox News and listen to talk shows or read the daily newspaper, but I must preach the Word. The gospel is not for sale to the highest political bidder. At the same time, I will not sit on the sidelines when it comes to election day and all the days leading up to it. Ignorance is not bliss, nor is uninvolvement more blissful.

When it comes to the doctrine of election, I will enthusiastically preach it when the text calls for it. When it comes to the duty of election, I will enthusiastically do it when the day calls for it.

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew; And then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up."

Pastor Martin Niemoller

Yours in Christ,

Chris

Before There was Hitler, There was Haman: Gog and Magog I (part three)

First it was Hitler and Nazi Germany. Then it was Hirohito and Japan. Then it was Stalin or Kruschev and the U.S.S.R. Then it was Mao and Red China. Then is was Ida Amin and Uganda. Then it was the Ayatollah and Iran. Then it was Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Now it is. . .well, it really doesn't matter, because there will be new candidates at the time of the next world crisis, the next Middle East conflict, the next big breaking news story of the day, the next year, the next decade. Gog is the bad boy leader of the bad nation Magog, which is anybody's guess who or what and when that will all come to pass. Anybody's guess is the appropriate term, for anybody can do it so that anybody can be proven wrong.

Those who peddle their end-time books are banking (in more ways than one!) on the selective amnesia of fellow prophecy-imbibed Americans. The speculation game is not confined to Wall Street, nor is fortune telling just for the psychics and palm readers, nor is the ancient Gnostic heresy confined to the first century. Long before Michael J. Fox played the role, American religious crystal-ball gazers have been acting out Back to the Future every time a potential Armageddon explodes on the scene. Instead of reading people's lines in their hands to tell their future, eager beaver spiritual soothsayers will read between the lines in the pages of the Bible to tell us all our future. I am still waiting for the first modern-day prophecy author to step forward and offer a 100% money-back guarantee to all readers should his prognostications do not pan out. That still is a much better arrangement than the Old Testament method of dealing with self-professed prophecy authorities whose predictions did not come true.

But all the above does not matter, because we are so forgiving or forgetful when our favorite authors or preachers make the same mistake time and time again in their predictions. We wouldn't trust our cars to a mistaken-prone automotive mechanic, and we certainly wouldn't hand our bodies over to a clumsy physician, yet we freely turn our minds over to people who are sloppy with the Word for their own monetary gratification. We gobble up their latest end-time books quicker than we can say "sure-fire bestseller", and we soak in every word they say in person or in print without once giving any thought about being a Berean Christian (Acts 17:11) We don't need to check out the Word diligently to see if what Bro. So and So is saying is true about Iran, Israel, the European Union, the United Nations, the USA, China, et.al; all we need to do is check out the latest headlines of the day. Newspaper exegesis takes much less effort than biblical exegesis after all.

The early Gnostics believed that they were the "spiritual elite" who could discern and understand the deeper things of God that the average person could not. They had the key to seeing things that others could not see, and those who could not see stood amazed with bulging eyes and dropped jaws at those who could see. The elite have the charts and diagrams and can bring things out of Scripture things that are not clearly seen by the average Bible reader. And who says that Gnosticism is an ancient heresy that has been buried once and for all? In the realm of eschatology, it seems that Gnosticism is alive and well, and we seem to be content and happy with that. The apostle Paul in Colossians was anything but happy and content as he wrote about the dangers of any type of secretive inside knowledge that only a handful could decipher, where the rest of us ignoramuses were at the mercy of these elitists.

Now when it comes to interpreting Ezekiel 38 and 39, what does every popular error-prone prophecy expert have in common? They all see these two chapters having a modern-day fulfillment; in other words, they are yet to be fulfilled. That opens the speculative can of worms, and those worms crawl out in every possible direction. Worms make good bait for fishing, but herein lies the problem. Many people see prophecy as nothing more than a fishing expedition rather than a rigorous study in biblical theology.

We should all agree that prophecy is about the future. No argument there. Prophecy is not prophecy if it is telling about the past--that's providential history that has been made. Prophecy is about providential history in the making. But why do we think that all prophecy in Scripture, or most prophecy in Scripture, or even much prophecy in Scripture is about our future? Why can't it be about the future of the people to whom the Bible was originally written? In other words, why can't prophecy be about events and people that lived back then in the Bible times and were fulfilled in events and people back then?

In fact, going back to previous blog articles, that point has been made pretty persuasively when one considers the overwhelming biblical evidence. There were numerous prophecies made in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the Old Testament, some of them in their near future, and some in their distant future. Other prophecies made in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the person of Christ and in the days of the New Testament. Scores of prophecies in the New Testament were fulfilled in the days of the first century.

So, here is the crux of the matter. Why can't the prophecies about Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39 have already been fulfilled sometime during the Old Testament? Why do we naturally assume that they have to be about something that is yet to be fulfilled, unless of course it might throw a monkey wrench in all our preconceived notions, cause us to toss out books and tear up notes, put an end to the speculation game, and therefore be a monetary fiasco for all those who profit from being a prophet? Outside of those few insignificant things, I can't think of many reasons why anybody would balk at the suggestion that Ezekiel 38 and 39 be already fulfilled in our past, yet it was fulfilled in other people's future.

My thesis is simply this--Gog and Magog were about people and events in Ezekiel's and his contemporaries' future. They were not about things yet to occur in our future. For me to come to that conclusion, I better have the facts with which to back it up. As in real estate, location is everything. Location, location, location. In biblical interpretation, location is everything. Context, context, context. There are thirty-seven chapters in Ezekiel before we get to chapter 38 and 39. Might it be a wise idea for us to study chapters 38 and 39 in its location? To think that Ezekiel all of a sudden in chapters 38 and 39 talks about something that is totally disconnected with what he says prior to those chapters is totally baffling, and it is being totally reckless with Scripture. Location, location, location. Context, context, context.

Ezekiel lived during the time of the downfall of Jerusalem when people's hopes were crushed beyond measure. To the Jew, it was far worse than our 9/11. We still had a nation after that fateful day. There was no nation and there was no temple after 586 B.C. when the Babylonian terrorists wrecked havoc and destruction upon the southern kingdom of Judah and precious Jerusalem. You can only understnad and appreciate Ezekiel when you put it in context. In chapters 36 on, the prophet turns the corner and begins to preach almost exclusively about the good news that was lying ahead of his people in the immediate future, his future and not ours. It would have no meaning whatsoever to the people back then if Ezekiel all of a sudden started talking about a future prosperity and blessing to come Israel's way in 1948 and on, for example. Tell me, exactly how would that bit of news encourage a distraught people back then, some 2500 years before modern-day Israel became a sovereign state?

In previous chapters, God through Ezekiel told about His judgment that had come not only upon Israel in 586 B.C. and since, but also upon Israel's neighboring nations. In chapters twenty-five and following, we find prophecies and pronounced judgments against Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, Assyria, Elam, and Edom. Those were nations in Ezekiel's day and not in our day to whom God was preaching and referring. In chapter thirty-three then, God turns His attention back to His own chosen people where He explains again why Jerusalem back then, not the Jerusalem of today, was struck by God's hand of judgment. In chapter thirty-four, He rebukes the worthless shepherds, the leaders of God's people back then prior to Jerusalem's fall, and not the Prime Minister nor the Knesset of modern day Israel. He then says that blessings are about to come Israel's way again, the Israel of then and not the Israel of today. That is the focus of chapters thirty-four and thirty-six.

In chapter thirty-seven, we have that famous vision of the valley of dry bones, bones that came alive when flesh enveloped them and the breath of God revived them. After 586 B.C., Israel saw itself without any hope, just a pile of dead bones, with no chance of being back in the Promised Land with God's favor on them again. What is impossible with man is possible with God. God would bring the dead Israelites back to the land and restore them to Himself. He would breathe new life in them.

At the end of the chapter, the vision ends on a teaching point--God would reunite all displaced Israelites, whether from the northern kingdom or the southern kingdom, into one nation, and they will no longer be two kingdoms as was the case post-Solomon to the fall of Jerusalem. That was the purpose behind the two sticks of v.16 on becoming ONE stick in God's hand. That has all happened when Jerusalem and the Temple were rebuilt in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. It was ONE nation under God. None of those prophecies are in our future, any more than the birth and crucifixion of Jesus are in our future. Context, context, context.

All this brings us to the next two chapters of thirty-eight and thirty-nine. What gives us the right to leapfrog over 2500 years of history all of a sudden and think that God is now going to talk about something that is not going to have any effect upon any of the Israelites during Ezekiel's day, especially when everything He has said up to this point is about the Israelites of that day? Do we have God saying now from chapter thirty-eight to the end of the book things that do not concern at all the Jews in that time period? In essence, could God have been saying now, "Okay, you Jews, you can doze off now and not pay any attention to what I am about to say, because nothing now is going to occur in your lifetime and immediate future"? That is so incredulous, and it violates the cardinal rule of interpretation of context, context, context.

Even if that is not convincing enough, there is much, much more to come. A verse-by-verse study of these two chapters reveals some hefty arguments in favor of the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel as having already been fulfilled. (As a teaser, this is not to say that there will not be another Gog and Magog--as there was a World War I and later a World War II, there is a Gog and Magog I and a much later Gog and Magog II--which seems to be the case from Revelation 20:8-10.) What are the internals of these two chapters that tilt heavily in the direction of an immediate fulfillment from the time of Ezekiel's time period? That will be the focus of our next blog article, Lord willing, in my immediate future.

Yours in Christ,

Chris

Will You Love Jesus After the Cheers Die Down?

Summer is winding down, the vacations are mostly over, school is about to start, and that means also one other thing--summer church camps have all been wrapped up by now.

Before anyone accuses me of being down on all summer church camps, let me say at the outset that I have nothing against the concept of summer camps for children, youth and families. I refuse to be a killjoy and one who thinks a good, recreational time is "downright siiiiiinnnnful." I have been a camper as a youth, a college student and as an adult. I have gone to summer camps as a sponsor. My four daughters go to a church camp every year. My oldest daughter goes as a counselor now. In fact, most of them have been to camps in two or three different states. I am not starting a "ban the church camp" movement.

Children and youth can swim; play softball, volleyball, table tennis, pool, or darts; go fishing, kayaking, canoeing, shoot with bows and arrows (so long they aim at non-human targets); and do a host of other things that all children like to do.

The kind of church camps I prefer are those that have all the above fun activities, but they are also small and Bible-driven. Small, because with bigger crowds come bigger issues and bigger control problems. This goes against the grain of thinking that bigger is always better, but I know from personal experience that bigger can mean bigger headaches. Often goes unreported at these larger camps are all kinds of sexual misconduct, because if the word gets out what really goes on there, donations may dry up or heads will roll or a certain well-maintained prestigious reputation is damaged.

The lady who cuts my hair is a 70 year old plus Church of Christ lady. I have always heard that bartenders and hairdressers hear and know everything. I don't know about bartenders, but I do know it to be the case about hairdressers. People will often confide in them before they confide in anyone else. This lady has more than once come to the aid of my mom, now deceased, when this lady told me some things I needed to know about my mom, who was afraid to tell me but told this hairdresser friend instead.

Recently this lady, when she was cutting what little hair I have left, told me something that was not news to me. She said, "Chris, you would not believe all the stories I have heard over the years of girls who have lost their virginity at __________ (she named the camp)." The expression "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" should not be applied at any time to camps that identify themselves as Christian.

I am not saying that no bad things can happen or will happen at a smaller church camp setting (the human flesh is what it is), and I am not saying that nothing but bad things happen at bigger camps, but what I am saying is that the likelihood of things getting out of hand can occur with greater frequency at bigger summer church camps where there is more free time and much less supervision.

I also want a camp to be Bible-driven, rooted in good, solid theology. I just happen to believe that EVERYTHING the church is about should be based on sound doctrine. I can't find anywhere in Scripture that gives us the license to do anything for anybody in the church at anytime that is anything less than Bible-centered. If children and youth can learn biology, chemistry, algebra, trig and world history at school, then why can't they learn theology even at a church camp? Why give them milk when they should be able to eat meat? Why do we shortchange our children at church and at camp? Now we can make Bible and theology understandable on their level, and all of that does not have to be boring either.

I want the Bible taught and preached to my daughters when they go to camp, and that happens every year in our case. They memorize Scripture, they hear mission stories, they have regular devotions, and I love it all. Have fun activities, but also be serious about God and His Word.

If you really want to see, though, a good reflection of where contemporary American Christianity is, all you need to do is attend a summer youth church camp. In many cases I would venture to guess it is heavy on the music, light on any biblical teaching/preaching, major on the fun stuff, and get kids worked up in an emotional frenzy. Church camp is an extension of church life after all.

One year I talked a good friend, a parent of some youth in our church, into attending church camp as a sponsor. He was blown away by what he witnessed first hand. This friend had his eyes opened in a big time way. (As pastor of that church over 18 years ago, I had no choice but to be there at camp for some of the week. I began to dread it each year.) On one occasion, right before the main evening service was to begin, they were playing music videos on the big screens. I was reading my Bible and not watching the music videos, because to put it plainly, there were many things in those videos that young people or anybody should not be viewing, especially at a Christian camp. He came up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder, and asked me if I was watching the music videos. I told him I wasn't, and he in disgust said there were many sexually suggestive things going in those videos. I told him simply, "______ (his name), welcome to ____________ (name of church camp)."

Later on that week he and I had a good talk about other things, and he said to me that he figured out why there was a majority of "decisions" made during the altar call on Thursday night of camp week. From everything I had heard, over 75% of all decisions that are made that week from morning and evening services are made during the Thursday night service on a consistent basis every year. He told me that by Thursday the kids are all worn down physically and emotionally from a fun-packed week that they are simply putty in the hands of any effective presentation, no matter if it were biblically on target on not.

As sponsor during one week one summer, I had to counsel some of those who came forward during the invitation altar call. Every pastor who was back there doing just that were fit to be tied, because in nearly every case the children had no idea why they came forward. The speaker did not use the Bible in his sermon, but instead told one scary or funny story after another. We were being told in the back room by the authorities of this camp that we had to get the names of all those children down on a card, so they can get reported as being saved during the week. The total number of decisions would be impressive for wide-scale publication purposes.

One pastor in the state who preached at a summer youth camp one time told a group of us pastors that the lodge where he stayed on the campgrounds was the lodge regularly used by the guest preacher for the week. On the inside of the door was a chart that had the number of decisions posted for the previous weeks. He said the subtle message was "you got to match last weeks' results at least, or beat them preferably."

It does not matter if a camp is small or big in this case. If a summer church camp relies on "decisionism" evangelism, then it will pull every rabbit out of the hat to get kids to make a decision, even if the children have no idea what is going on, nor can they explain it 30 minutes later to anybody else what they have done, let alone have any fruit to show for it just 30 days later. But we are told all that does not matter that much, since the number of decisions is what matters most.

Jesus told us to make disciples not make decisions, though. It's amazing how the early church did it without our methodologies--just imagine, we might foolishly think, if Jesus and the apostles had at their disposal such things as extended altar calls, "we love Jesus, yes, we do; we love Jesus, how about you?" rah-rah sessions, repeat-after-me "sinner's prayers", and other psychological ploys.

It is easy to get people worked up, and that is clearly evidenced at a football game, a music concert, a political rally, or a highly-charged summer youth camp. All it takes is a leader with some imaginative charisma, and there is no telling what a crowd will do. Mob psychology can do all sorts of wonders.

But there is a huge difference between getting people WORKED UP, and Philippians 2:12-13, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, WORK OUT your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who WORKS IN you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

Jesus never said that you will know the true disciples by how loud they can cheer in a mob situation, but you will know them by their fruit. 1 John says over and over again that the way we tell who are those who are truly regenerated, born of God, is by such things as loving the brothers, loving God, obeying His commands, living the Christian life day in and day out. Walking an aisle, filling out a card, repeating a canned prayer, saying "I love Jesus yes I do" at the top of one's lungs, physically nailing your name on a cross, or any other regular camp ritual simply did not make the cut in the list of 1 John identifiable features of a born again person.

Jesus warned and scolded the Pharisees in their outreach methodologies of making their converts "twice the sons of hell." (Matthew 23:15) Once the son of hell by nature they are children of wrath, which all of us were at one time, and twice, by giving them false assurance they are all right with God simply because they did A, B and C. At church on Sundays or at summer youth camps or at other events, if we are not Bible-driven, we can be guilty of the same as the Pharisees. We can not shake this off as some insignificant matter. It is never the right thing to try to usurp the role of the Holy Spirit, either in conviction of sin (John 16:8) by getting people to make decisions with high-pressured or emotionally-charged tactics or later in giving these same people an assurance of their salvation (Romans 8:16) by telling folks they are saved simply because they did our prescribed A, B and C.

We can do our prescribed A, B and C, and God grades us with an F, because only the Holy Spirit can bring conviction of sin (a necessity for every person's conversion) and assurance of salvation (a necessity for every person's sanctification).

My daughters have been after me for the longest to find them a biblically solid devotional workbook they can use in their daily Bible reading. I have called around and asked the experts in the publishing field, and there are none of those workbooks to be found, at least what my girls are looking for.

If I could write one myself, not just for my girls, but for all the post-summer campers at every church camp everywhere, I at least know the title I would use--Will You Love Jesus After the Cheers Die Down?

One of my instructors at seminary put it this way: It is not how high you jump that counts, but how straight you walk after you hit the ground.

Yours in Christ,

Chris

mormon.org/stillacult

We interrupt our normal scheduled programming on Gog and Magog to bring you a special late breaking news item: In spite of a recent slick advertising campaign on radio and TV, Mormonism is still a cult.

While driving one day in between jobs, I first heard this latest Mormon advertising blitz on the radio. One immediately after another I heard brief testimonials or stories of people from different walks of life, and each person ended with a statement like "I'm Joe, and I'm a Mormon." (mormon.org/joe) Up until that last word, one could not tell what the commercial spot was all about. Then I saw the commercials on TV. They were all very well done from a professional marketing standpoint.

All of them were low-key with no mention of anything Mormon until the very end. One person is a person in hip-hop, another is a skateboarder, but the one I "like" the best is a man who is riding a motorcycle, and he is telling about the importance of his family. He says he can find nothing in the Bible that says one can not ride a motorcycle, and he loves to have dinner conversations with people who disagree with him over religion. In fact, he says he loves to have friends who pray to a different god than he prays to, and that is all very cool with him. Postmodernism has found its way into Mormonism.

When those commercials came on TV a couple of days ago and my wife saw them for the first time, her first remark to me was "Now what are we Christians going to do?" The more I thought about her question, it seems to me that a huge segment of evangelical Christianity has already done a whole lot. We have taught Mormons well. After all, who has championed and perfected the idea that in order to attract people to our churches we need to downplay what we believe, mention very little if anything about the scriptures, keep everything so fluffy, light and positive, highlight instead people's "felt needs" and personal stories, and throw in some postmodern psychobabble dribble to make it more palatable for the average American spiritual diet?

Upon further reflection, I have concluded also that Mormons have evolved (and that is a good word to use, since Elohim evolved from a man to a god, and we can evolve into gods one day ourselves) in their public relations and outreach strategy. In the former days, the Mormon church had all sorts of commercials and advertisements that would show a clean-cut close-knit Mormon family gathered in the family room of their home for Monday evening worship time. At the end of the commercial would be a picture of the Book of Mormon and an 800 number one could call to get a free copy sent to you. The Book of Mormon was another testament of Jesus Christ, which means the Bible is incomplete without the addition of the Book of Mormon.

When is the last time when anyone has seen a commercial spot that is promoting the Book of Mormon? Even better than that question, when is the last time the Mormon church has even mentioned anything about the Book of Mormon in a national advertising campaign? It's been a loooong time. Why is that? Could it be that through the efforts of so many faithful Christian apologists and those who have researched cults well, as well as the work of former Mormons themselves, the Book of Mormon has fallen on hard times, either in reality or in people's perception, regarding its fraudulent claims?

Joseph Smith and his theological heirs have always stated that the Book of Mormon is "the most perfect revelation" given to man. The Holy Bible can not be trusted because it has so many man-made errors in it, so says the Mormon hierarchy. However, it has come to light that over 3000 revisions have been made in the Book of Mormon since Mr. Smith found those golden tablets in New York. So much then for it being the most perfect revelation given to man. You do not need to know a whole lot about the Book of Mormon to carry on a brief intelligent dialogue with a Mormon missionary who comes knocking at your door. Ask the young Mormon to take the Book of Mormon in his possession, ask him to flip to the very back, and then ask him to try to find any maps. He can't do it, because, unlike most of our Bibles which have plenty of maps at the very back, there are no maps in the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon is so perfect, then why can't they find any cities or places cited in the book to put on a map for us to find through geographical, historical and archaeological research and verification? The Bible can do what the Book of Mormon can never do; case closed.

So, the Mormon church realized over time they had a public relations problem with the Book they so cherished and still do. They made a tactical decision to hide the Book of Mormon, and not talk about it so openly. Instead, their next batch of national advertising campaigns featured not the Book of Mormon, but the King James Version Bible, which you could get free by calling the 800 number on the TV screen. Of course, once they get your address, then expect to have some Mormons calling on you at your house someday in the near future.

This approach is also part of their overall philosophy that makes the cult of Mormonism different from most other cults. The Mormon church has always wanted to be received by people as being part and parcel of mainstream Christianity. They don't want to be seen or regarded as fruitcakes or oddballs. Jehovah's Witnesses, on the other hand, do not want anything to do with mainstream Christianity. When is the last time you heard of a Jehovah's Witness running for office or holding down an elected or appointed office, having a nationally syndicated radio talk show, being a sports figure, writing best-selling books, or being a celebrity in the music, movie or TV industry?

It is alarming, for example, how many of the contestants on the pop culture hits, American Idol and America's Got Talent, are active Mormons, which all go back to the days of the Osmond Brothers, who did so much in recruiting young people back then to join the Mormon church. Any collegiate football fan knows that when his team plays Brigham Young University in football or basketball that his team will be going up against players that are two to three years older, because the Mormon church requires two years of missionary service for all of its young men.

The Book of Mormon had a way of saying that Mormonism is not so much mainstream Christianity after all in the minds of people, but what can be more mainstream than a King James Version Bible? But times have changed, and so even the KJV Bible has to be shelved by the Mormon church in its next round of national advertising. This brings us to where we are today with this new crop of TV and radio commercials, which play right into the hands of a feel-good, religiously tolerant, anti-absolutism, postmodern society.

Subjectivism is the big selling point in these commercial spots. Notice that in each case by each person's different testimonial in these commercials, it is all about how that person lives his or her life, and the insinuation is that he or she has a good life because he or she is a Mormon, and look at all the things you can achieve and be in your life and being a Mormon can help you. Nowhere is it about, "What is the truth?" Nowhere is anything of a Mormon doctrine taught, nowhere is a scripture quoted even from the KJV Bible, nowhere is objective truth a standard for judging what is right or wrong. The commercials are all about helping you and me become better people by reaching our potential, and that's what religion is all about now anyway, right? If you don't believe me, just take a casual stroll through your Christian bookstore and see what kind of books are bestsellers and see how few if any are of any deep biblical substance.

The Mormon missionary will eventually challenge someone to read the Book of Mormon, because by reading it one will get an inward "burning sensation" that it is really true. It is true because we feel it to be true. That is subjectivism in a nutshell. I asked a Mormon missionary once how can I know if the burning sensation is not just indigestion or something else. I would hate to make a monumental decision in my life based upon what I ate for supper.

Is not much of evangelical Christianity subjectivism? Our young people are certainly not being taught biblical doctrine for the most part. There is not enough time to do that in between the trips to amusement parks, pizza parties and other entertaining outings. Look at churches' web sites, billboards, hand flyers, or other advertisements, and see if subjectivism does not reign supreme in so many cases. "Come to _____________Church because this is what we offer for your children, look at all we have going on for your family, see all the programs and activities we have, hear our music, etc., etc." We object to objective truth, and we subject ourselves to subjectivism wherever we turn. If we get to the Bible, it may be more along the lines, "What does this Scripture mean to you?" We are as good as hiding the Bible or whispering it beneath our breath as the Mormons are about the Book of Mormon.

So, yes, we have taught the Mormons well. That is what much of evangelical Christianity has done about this recent round of Mormon commercials.

Mormonism is still a cult, a heresy, started by Satan who disguises himself as an angel of light. It is a shame that the Mormon church can follow our example in its newest, clever, subjective, postmodern outreach by disguising itself even more.

These latest Mormon commercials say hardly anything at all about the Mormon church, but they say a whole lot about us.

Yours in Christ,

Chris

Gog and Magog I: Before There was Hitler, There was Haman (part two)

How did we ever live before there were microwaves, cell phones, and google? In preparation for this article, I relied heavily upon the last one, but to my surprise, I came up empty. I googled, "How many Old Testament prophecies where fulfilled in the Old Testament?" After scrolling down through several pages of google results to my search, all I ever saw was something along the lines of how many prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the life of Christ. That is a very worthy study, of course, and it can be said that Jesus Christ lived during the era of the old covenant ("He was born under the law," Galatians 4:4), so what I retrieved was not off the mark from what I googled.

But more pointedly, what I wanted to find was a list of prophecies that were made in the pages of the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the pages of the Old Testament, or were fulfilled in the era of the Old Testament leading up to Christ. I did not find any paper, article or research that had been done with that specific topic in mind. I am sure there is one somewhere, or possibly several, but here goes my hurried attempt to give a very partial list of the numerous prophecies that were made somewhere in the Old Testament pages, and were fulfilled somewhere else in the pages of the Old Testament.

In Genesis 6:3, God said that there would be a 120 year period of time before He would judge the world. That was fulfilled in the very next chapter when the flood waters drowned every living creature, except those eight humans inside Noah's floating zoo. In Genesis 15:18-20, God told Abram the geographical parameters that his descendants would occupy. 1 Kings 4:20-34 we read of the vast extension of Solomon's kingdom that is a direct fulfillment of Genesis 15. In Genesis 18 God said that Abram and Sarah would have a son in their old age, and in Genesis 21 Isaac was born. Earlier God had told Abram in Genesis 15:13 that his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land for 400 years, and surely everyone is familiar with the story behind the book of Exodus.

The plagues visited upon Egypt were all first words spoken by God through Moses to Pharaoh, and all those plagues became reality just as God had said. God even used a Balaam, and a donkey before him, to speak the truth. His four prophecies in Numbers 23 and 24 were all lived out in the pages of the Old Testament. The conquests under Joshua were fulfillment of what had God promised to the Hebrew children. The birth and life of Samson in the book of Judges were foretold by God to the wife of Manoah.

In 1 Samuel 2, God initiates a prophetic judgment against Eli's household, and everything came to pass, including the death of Eli's sons on the same day (1 Samuel 4). The prophet Samuel told disobedient King Saul that his kingdom would not continue and that God would raise up a man after His own heart. Such was fulfilled in the death of Saul, his household and the beginning of the reign of King David, all fulfilled within 40 years.

The prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 12 confronted David after the incident involving Bathsheba and Uriah, and he told him a series of prophecies that were headed his way, such as unending violence in his household, his newborn would die, which did occur in the same chapter, and a son would cause an insurrection, namely Absalom. All those prophecies came to pass, again within the pages of the Old Testament.

After Elijah in 1 Kings 21 told Ahab of his future, he then told the wicked queen Jezebel what awaited her. True to form, the prophecies about Ahab came to pass, and in 2 Kings 9 we read of how Jezebel died, just as God had said. Along came King Jehu, and through him God fulfilled many earlier prophecies. A chapter earlier in 2 Kings 8, Elisha had foretold an incredulous Hazael that he would become king, and that he would wreak havoc upon Israel.

The prophecies are too numerous to mention about all the times God had said that the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah would meet their demise, first by the hands of the Assyrians and then by the Babylonians. The Old Testament prophets carried those messages of dire warning. Jeremiah 25:11 and Jeremiah 29:10 both state that the exact time of the bondage to the Babylonians would last 70 years, and so it was to the exact year. (Daniel 9:1-2). The prophecies are also too numerous to mention about all the times God had said that he would restore the Hebrew children back to the land after their exile. One example is in Isaiah 44:28-45:1,where God even names the king-yet-to-be-born who would do the Jewish people a big favor, fulfilled in Ezra 1:2-4, 6:3-5.

In the book of Isaiah, such as in 16:14, 20:3, 21:16, 23:15, and 37:30-35, we read of how God would act in human history regarding different nations and people groups within a specified period of time. All those were fulfilled within the era of the Old Testament. The book of Daniel is the revealing of God's schedule of events that would come to pass during the four successive world empires leading up to the Messiah Himself. Just reading Daniel 10 and 11 should cause our heads to swim, because there we are told in exact detail the upcoming stratagem of warring kings that would ensue in the Greek empire as it effected the Jewish homeland. Someone has calculated over 100 details of prophecies are made here, all of which played out in the course of history within the Old Testament time period.

We can add all the prophecies made about the coming of the Messiah, which google does provide, and we end up with a large amount of prophecies made in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the Old Testament time period. So where does this all lead us? For our purposes right now, it leads us to the story of Esther and Mordecai, two brave Jewish cousins whom God used to prevent a Jewish holocaust long before there was a Hitler.

In Esther 3, Haman, an Agagite, a descendant of King Agag the Amalekite, hatched a plan to destroy all Jews throughout the entire Persian kingdom on the 13th day of the 12th month. I would consider this to be a very significant event. Not even Hitler and Stalin could have pulled off this plan, but Haman could. There were no Jews living in New York City or Chicago or Miami or Rio de Janeiro or Toronto or London during Haman's time, if you get my drift. Practically all Jews were confined within the borders of the vast Persian empire. They were conveniently fenced in, powerless against Haman's evil conspiracy. In Esther 8 and 9, as the story of Esther unfolds, we see how this holocaust was prevented by God's providential intervention. Instead, 75,000 enemies of the Jews were killed. It was such a dramatic rescue and such an earth-shattering historical development that Jews since then have celebrated the feast of Purim, as a celebration of their deliverance from extermination.

Imagine for a moment if Haman were successful. If all Jews were killed, then how would the Messiah be born--the Lion from the tribe of Judah (which with all other tribes would be extinct), the Son of David (whose family line would be extinguished), the promised Seed of woman who would crush the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15)? Haman was not acting alone, anymore King Herod was acting alone when he ordered the slaughter of the innocents (Revelation 12). Satan was the director-producer of this real life drama.

Of course, God would not allow Haman or anybody else to be successful. God's prophecies would come true, and man and Satan could not prevent the inevitable. Satan is the Big Loser.

Here is where we are going. Considering the vast number of prophecies made in the Old Testament about all sorts of things--some we may esteem more important than others, but regardless, God made those prophecies--and considering the long list of prophecies made that were fulfilled during the Old Testament itself, should it not surprise us if Haman's scheme of Jewish extermination and God's deliverance from it were not somewhere prophesied earlier in Scripture? Let me state it in another way. Why would God completely not mention anywhere else in the Old Testament what would later happen in the book of Esther, since it would involve the entire Jewish people, their destiny and the future Messiah? You mean to tell me that God made no prophecy at all about what Haman would conceive and try to carry out, that God just skipped over talking about the possible elimination of His entire chosen people?

This to me is a very, very significant point. It is not the only point, but it is a point worth making, that I would tend to think, considering God's long string of prophecies made in the Old Testament, that somewhere in the Old Testament, prior to the time of Esther, God would prophesy about what would come down the road. That was God's method of operation over and over again--He would foretell His people what would happen to warn them, to prepare them and to assure them. God told His people ahead of time about the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., but most Jews escaped the clutches of death then. The Babylonians didn't want to kill all the Jews anyway. In Haman's case, though, he did not want one Jew to be left alive. And God would not prophesy about that, but He would about 586 B.C.?

This lays the groundwork for us to look in the next article at the place where God did prophesy about the extremely serious series of events that would play out in the book of Esther.

Yours in Christ,

Chris

Gog and Magog I: Before There was Hitler, There was Haman (part one)

It seems today that the predominant world mindset is that the Palestinians can do no wrong, and the modern state of Israel can do no right. The latest case in point is the the incident involving the "peace flotilla" of six ships that broke the naval blockade that Israel had imposed for its own security purposes. Five of the ships obeyed Israeli military, unloaded their cargo in Ashdod, the cargo was properly examined, and all peaceful cargo was promptly transferred to Gaza, its original destination. The sixth vessel took a different tact; the "peace loving" Turks on board offered violent resistance, a melee ensued, and the Turks were killed by the Israeli commandos in self-defense.

Once again, Muslim terrorists would be hailed as brave martyrs, while the nation of Israel was condemned worldwide as being the bloodthirsty villain. In any conflict, there is always enough blame to go all the way around at times (no one has ever said "war is heaven"), but the united sentiment against Israel by the great majority of the nations around the world, including our own now, is unjustified to say the least. From the PLO to Hamas to Iran and other neighboring Muslim nations, their defined purpose is to see Israel swept away into the sea.

The hatred against the modern nation of Israel stems from many causes, and while one can point to many parallels between present day animosity to the anti-Israel story line of the Old Testament era, the dissimilarities between the two are more striking. Modern Israel is almost totally secular in nature. Religious, orthodox Jews make up a tiny minority in Israel. It is a secular state carved out by political intrigue and historical circumstances in the late 1800s and through the mid 1900s. The Israel of the Old Testament was a theocratic nation; the Temple was foremost the center of national life; whereas today it is the Knesset. People in the Old Testament could trace their lineage back to twelve tribes; today, due to holocausts, intermarriage, destroyed documents and other factors through the centuries, no Jew today can tell you from what tribe they are descended. Jews today are mainly either Sephardic or Ashkenazi Jews, and much confusion and disagreement exist over their related histories. (This lack of genealogical verification on the part of current Jews bears greatly on the proper interpretation of the identity and time period of the 144,000 sealed Israelites mentioned in Revelation 7! But I digress. . .kind of.)

God made a special covenant with Israel in the Old Testament, because through that nation would come the promised Seed, the Savior of the world. It was an unconditional covenant on God's end, in the sense that nothing would interfere with God's plan to execute His plan of redemption through His Son, the Messiah. For that reason, He would not forsake His people, because He could not forsake Himself. (1 Samuel 12:22) In Genesis 15, God made that point in dramatic fashion to Abram when God Himself passed through the divided animal sacrifices. It was AS if God was saying, "May I be cut asunder like these sacrificed animals if I do not hold up to my end of the covenant!" Old Testament Israel did not come into existence because it sought to be God's people; Israel became God's people, beginning with Abram, purely on the basis of God's sovereign choice. (Genesis 12:1-3) God does not change by the way. (John 15:16, Ephesians 1:4-6)

At the same time, it was a conditional covenant on Israel's end, in the sense that if they did not hold up to their end of being faithful to God's laws, then Israel would face the consequences. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 enumerates the consequences, all of which played out in the life of stubborn, disobedient Israel in the pages of the Old Testament. The prophet in Amos 4 says that God brought all these promised disasters upon Israel, yet "you (Israel) have not returned to Me." The tragedy of all tragedies, the disaster of all disasters, the consequence of all consequences was the final one mentioned in Deuteronomy 28: banishment from the land of Israel. The northern kingdom of Israel experienced that in 722 B.C. at the hands of the Assyrians; the southern kingdom of Judah, through which the Messiah would come, experienced that in 586 B.C. at the hands of the Babylonians.

Since we live under the new covenant established by Christ and His shed blood for those who are His own, the old covenant is no longer in effect (the book of Galatians and Hebrews, in particular, expound on this truth). There is absolutely nothing in Scripture that warrants the idea that God will reinstate the old covenant with anybody or any nation at any time. Jesus is not going to rebuild what He tore down by design. (Ephesians 2:11-22) The best temple in the world now is not confined to a geographical plot of land in the Middle East; it is the eternal, blood-bought church of Jesus Christ, the one body of believing Jews and Gentiles. No one can improve on what Jesus did at the cross.

Another salient contrast between modern Israel and old covenant Israel is that the modern state has been giving up land left and right, land that it conquered in wars from 1948 on. Be it the West Bank, the Sinai, the Gaza strip, or the Golan Heights, at first glance, it has all the appearance that modern Israel, the size of New Jersey, is determined to get smaller and smaller all the time. We can question the wisdom and politics behind such moves, but the fact remains that old covenant Israel, when it lived under God's favor and before it was the recipient of God's wrath, had a vast territorial kingdom. Some would argue the point that old covenant Israel did not fully receive all the property God had promised to it in Genesis 15:18-21. It is very hard to make that case when one reads such passages as Joshua 21:43-45 and 1 Kings 4:20-25. After Solomon's rule, and after subsequent periods of apostasy, the land mass of old covenant Israel began to shrink in size, once again as a direct fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28, until the nations of Israel and Judah ceased to function in 722 and 586 respectively.

God always means what He says, and He says what He means. Judah would fall under the rule of

four successive world empires. This was identified by Jesus as "the time of the Gentiles" in Luke 21:24. Those four empires were Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. From 586 B.C. at the first destruction of the Temple by a foreign power (Babylon) until 70 A.D. at the second and last destruction of the Temple by a foreign power (Rome), the nation of Jews had not the freedom it enjoyed like it did in its Golden Era. Except for a brief period of time when the Jews gained their independence under the Maccabeen revolt during the Greek era, the Jews were subjugated to foreign rule for 650 years.

This is where the book of Daniel comes in, because no other prophet gives so much detailed specificity of what would transpire during those six centuries of foreign domination. It all began with Daniel 2 when the teenage captive Jewish boy, through God's revealed wisdom, was able to calm Nebuchadnezzar's paranoia by telling him the meaning of his upsetting dream. A statue with four parts to it would unveil the four successive empires that would control the world stage. During the fourth empire (Rome), God would establish His enduring kingdom, unlike the four temporary earthly kingdoms that set up shop shortly at God's discretion. So in the days of Caesar Augustus, the Roman emperor, Christ would be born, and before the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, Jesus would say, "My kingdom is not of this world."

The rest of the book of Daniel, for the most part, is God revealing major significant events which would occur when these four powers would hold sway over the Fertile Crescent and over the Jews in particular. The most amazing prophecy of all is when God told Daniel in 9:24-27 the EXACT TIMING of when the anointed one (the Messiah, the Christ) would be baptized, 26 A.D., and when he would be crucified, 30 A.D., all during the fourth world empire.

These four world kingdoms were placed in power by God's providential plan. Ol' king Neb had to learn that lesson the hard way in Daniel 4:28-37. In the book of Isaiah, king Cyrus of Persia would be called "God's shepherd." The one and only reason why Neb came to power, why the Medes and Persians overtook Babylon and King Cyrus began to rule, why Alexander the Great marched across the Middle East in rapid fire speed, or why Caesar reigned from Rome is because God put those men there for a reason and for a season. With that being said, it is also true that Satan was at work in all this as well, but not as some independent competitor to God's sovereign rule. The devil is always on a leash, and God has firm hold of the leash.

What Satan hoped to accomplish through these four world kingdoms was to destroy the nation of the Jews, because in so doing he would destroy then the Promised Seed who was to come. This all goes back to Genesis 3:15, the first prophecy made in Scripture, made by God Himself without the intermediary of a prophet of His. Satan heard God's remarks then, because they were directed at Satan himself, and from that moment on until the coming of this Seed of woman, he would make it his number one preoccupation to thwart God's claimed purpose, so stated in Genesis 3:15. The rest of the Old Testament to the coming of Christ can be viewed from a spiritual warfare angle--Satan is trying his devilish best to prevent Genesis 3:15 from being fulfilled. It all began with Cain killing Abel, a satanic plot hatched in the mind of Cain who was of the wicked one. (1 John 3:12) That plan did not succeed; Seth was born, through whom would come the Promised Seed. The omniscient God was always several steps ahead of Satan.

Satan does not give up so easily. The world population would grow at a fast pace, and in Genesis 6, in order to corrupt the entire world, not knowing who was carrying the Promised Seed, fallen angels, "the sons of God" (Job 1-2), intermarried humans, and produced a diabolical hybrid, the Nephillim, from whose death would come the demonic spirits that roam the earth and would possess some people. The world became an increasingly unbearable place, and Satan thought he had won the day, and Genesis 3:15 would be history. Again, Satan failed to take into consideration that God knows all, foresees all, and determines all. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and due to God's sovereign grace, Noah and his family would be spared from a worldwide judgment, and from Noah's son Shem would come the Promised Seed of woman. Satan is foiled again, but he does not give up so easily.

When God called Abram, it then becomes crystal clear to Satan where he needs to spend his most energy from now on. Now he takes his focused aim, from that moment on in the history of the Old Testament, on the descendants of Abraham, and in particular the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:8-12). The rest of the Old Testament can be understood from this vantage point--what is Satan doing to or with God's chosen people at this particular time to undo and prevent Genesis 3:15 from being fulfilled? Read the story of Pharaoh, for example, and his decision to have all Hebrew male children killed. (Exodus 1) Was that just Pharaoh's idea, or was there some sort of sinister power at work in his life as well that helped him concoct such an evil plan? I see Satan's fingerprints all over Exodus 1. We are told at various places in the Old Testament that when Israel became infatuated with worshiping other gods, that it was not just a simple, harmless matter of changing one's religion or adding something to what they already had. Who or what was behind it all? Psalm 106:36-37 inform us that sacrificing to other gods or idols was tantamount to sacrificing to demons, which are the spirits of the deceased Nephillim. God had long ago told them that would be the situation in Deuteronomy 32:16-17.

Many examples could be cited from familiar Old Testament stories and passages that illustrate well this Satanic design to beat God at His own game and stop Genesis 3:15 from becoming reality. The last thing Satan wanted was to be crushed underfoot, and he was not just going to sit idly by twiddling this thumbs or polishing his pitchfork while all that come to pass under his eyes.

This brings us to the "time of the Gentiles." These four world empires became tools in the hands of Satan to stop God dead in His tracks. We all know the story of how Herod the Great (representing empire number four) tried to kill all male children two years and under in and around Bethlehem. Was that just an isolated case of a madman going more off his rocker? Not according to Revelation 12. The devil was behind it all.

Whether it was King Neb of Babylonian fame, or Antiochus Epiphanes of Greek fame, the "little horn" in Daniel 8, Satan was at work, doing whatever he could to halt Genesis 3:15 from being fulfilled. What we are not told in Daniel, though, is how Satan would specifically be at work in hatching a plan during the Mede-Persian empire to prevent that first prophecy in Scripture from becoming reality. In fact, as we learn from Ezra and Nehemiah, the Persian kingdom allowed willing Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild Jerusalem and their beloved Temple.

There is a good reason why there are 39 books in the Old Testament, and not just 38. Enter the book of Esther, and enter the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39 about Gog and Magog I, which came to pass in the book of Esther. What Hitler did to the Jews in our recent lifetime, all of which led to the creation of the modern nation of Israel, Haman tried to pull off on a bigger, most dastardly scale in the Old Testament during the days of the second world empire.

Yours in Christ,

Chris

(Part two will be forthcoming.)