Summary of Bible references on the Rapture

Isaiah 54 -- No weapon forged against you will prevail

The entire world is looking to the US right now. They see what is happening with our election, they know that socialist forces are trying to steal the election. They also know that the fate of the free world hangs in the balance. The world’s fate depends on the “deplorables”, the ones that Hillary Clinton said were “irredeemable”. It is ironic that she calls them irredeemable whereas the Lord refers to their rapture as the day of redemption. These are those who rank very low in tests of math, english and other subjects. Yet here is where we can be very proud of the children of this nation, they have learned to question authority. That is not true of kids in China, Korea and Russia. Our kids have learned to stand up to bullies. They are not going to be cowered by people calling them “the deplorables”. And they have learned to reject the media that lies and is deceitful. For years they have mocked our education system, well now we can break into song and shout for joy because our kids are going to stand up to the totalitarian attempt to steal this country.

I was at a rally and was interviewed by a news agency that wondered if I thought we would be able to win the election. I believe we already have won. I taught Forensics and learned that no one can commit a crime without leaving a trace. We have the evidence of this crime, so whether the trial is concluded by Dec 14th, or January 20th or in February it doesn’t matter. These are felonies, they are treasonous, everyone convicted will go to prison. Giuliani said he had 234 affidavits, a week later he said he had over 1,000 affidavits. People are lawyering up and cutting deals at a dizzying rate. If you were a poll worker for the Democrats, you have a family, perhaps you are a nurse, and you saw things that you can now go to prison for ten years for, sorry you are going to exchange your testimony for a deal. Peter Navarro went through all the numbers in six states and demonstrated extraordinary evidence of election fraud. Mike Lindell has shown that the US military has evidence of election fraud in the dominion machines. These cases are still being tried and laws legislated. The battle is not over, you are not defeated until you say you are defeated. The rest of the world that humiliated and shamed the US education system will forget that because we will stand up to these thieves and demand truth and justice.

The Lord is our redeemer. In the US we see phony religions, we see churches that tolerate Jezebel and do away with various commands of the Lord they don’t like. We see churches that are only a shell of real worship, nothing but a performance. And we see those who think they are rich and have need of nothing. That is God’s sovereignty. That is how we got trained. That is how we learned to question authority. We have gone through this before. We have been outcasts, and when you overcome the victory is that much sweeter. We have learned to think for ourselves. General Patton said "if everyone is thinking the same then someone isn't thinking". When I was twelve years old my football team was playing in the championship game. Both teams were undefeated. A columnist for the local newspaper wrote an article in which he said our opponent was favored because they had bigger linemen than we did. We had six linemen that played first string, I was the only one that was less than the maximum weight. I was about two or three pounds less than the maximum. So I understood his article to be singling me out as the weak link. We obliterated the opponent, the coach pulled our entire first string out of the game at the end of the first quarter because the game was over at that point. I was not by any form of measurement the “weak link” in that game. But I learned a valuable lesson, these talking heads in the media are often complete idiots. Are you going to listen to them or to your redeemer? How do you deal with the pressure when you are there in the moment seemingly all alone? We have gone through this training. Here is the interesting thing, it is very possible that that story was written by my coach (I say this because in the game the guy I was blocking was smaller than me, not bigger). This was the first game for me to play middle linebacker, and it was essential that I read the offense and call out the defense. During the week he had contrived to get upset that I had blocked the wrong person on a play and so sent everyone home to study the playbook. This had never happened before so when we come back the next day everyone was scared and came to me to see if I had figured out who I was supposed to block. I said “the man I blocked, I didn’t make a mistake”. Our coach understood that 80% of the game was mental. Noah is one example of this training. Noah was warned, he prepared for this event. God gave him specific instructions on exactly what he should do and he followed those instructions. He was mocked, he was shamed, he was humiliated, his family was probably the laughing stocks of the town right up until the rain came. Americans have a covenant of peace with God, it is called the Mayflower Compact. This country was set up as the New Jerusalem, the city on the hill from the very beginning. God has honored that. Everything that has happened to this country has prepared us for this day. That is what the rest of the world missed when they disparaged our education system and the inner city kids. We are being taught by the Lord and by His word. He is turning us into precious stones. The striking thing about that football team is that we all had complete confidence in each other. My focus was to do my job. Likewise I am looking at this legal team that is going after this election fraud. Sydney Powell reminds me of Lawrence Taylor. He also was a free agent that was totally disruptive to an opponent. Guiliani and his team remind me of the best linebacker corpse in football from the great Pittsburgh Steelers. This guy brought down the mob, he knows RICO and he likes being “the captain of the deplorables”. Then you have media people like Dan Bongino and Steve Bannon. My point is not that these people are Christians, but rather that God is sovereign, He has trained all of us and prepared all of us for this moment. Each of us needs to stand in the gap, the gap that the Lord has assigned to us. This battle is to keep tyranny from taking over this country, this is what is at stake. Stand up for righteousness, take a stand against tyranny. Shine a light in the darkness and terror will flee. It was a big mistake to try and steal this election. If they had simply lost the election it would have been a small loss, but this loss will be epic. There are foreign companies involved, that makes this treasonous and it allows the US government to freeze their assets. Google, Facebook, Twitter and the mainstream media were all involved. The US government is going to be able to freeze their assets! Not only so, but treason is a very serious felony. Sydney Powell is pursuing this and since she is a military lawyer she can pursue it with a military tribunal. The leverage they have on the every poll worker and everyone involved is crushing. They stepped into a bear trap. Who knows more about their weapons than God? He created the blacksmith that makes the sword, He created the destroyer who wields the sword. Follow His instructions and He will teach you how to bring them down.

17 no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is obviously not true for everyone. There are a lot of people who have suffered due to false accusations, there are a lot of innocent people who have been convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord. Yep, a lot of people neglect this little portion of the promise. First you must be a servant of the Lord. Second, you must need “vindication”. That implies you are suffering mockery and humiliation just like Noah for being a servant of the Lord. If you are not suffering mockery and humiliation you are probably deceiving yourself and are part of the synagogue of Satan. For example, right now these rallies are being mocked and ridiculed because “the election is over” and they are all a bunch of poor losers”. So when it turns out that these “deplorables” are the ones that save the US from tyranny and terror then they will be vindicated and that vindication will be of the Lord.

Galatians -- Fixing injustice is the Gospel

Every religious leader and cult leader claims they are sent by God. How do you know the difference? Theudas claimed to be somebody (Acts 5:36) and after him Judas the Galilean claimed to be somebody. So how do you know which one is truly sent by God with the word of God? God’s word is like gold, it is precious, it is treasured, it does not rust or corrode. 2,000 years later gold is still as precious as it was. Fool’s gold on the other hand does rust and decay. The words of Paul have been treasured for 2,000 years, how about the words of Theudas? How about Judas the Galilean? Gamaliel’s counsel was accurate, time will tell if this is truly a word from God, but it is also pathetic. You are a teacher of the Jews, you should be able to discern the words of God from the words of man. Still, if they are the words of God they will have the resurrection power, you will not be able to kill them, and that is the point that Gamaliel made. If you are going to bring this extremely revolutionary message of the gospel to an evil age, you know they will kill you. That is a given. So the only ones who could possibly send this message are those that have conquered death.

Paul was not alone. There is a fellowship of the Body. Right now we are watching the Black Lives Matter movement. They also want to rescue people from this evil age. There are a lot of people with them. But many of those in this movement are not interested in being in the fellowship with everyone else. Many people have their own agenda. An apostle does not have his own agenda, he is a messenger. He is bringing a message from Jesus and from the Father. It is not his word, it is their word.

This word is to the churches. Do you need to be rescued from this evil age, well this word is for you. Do others need to be rescued from this evil age? Well, “to me to live is Christ”, if Jesus Christ rescued you from this evil age, then for you to live is to help rescue others from this evil age. The church is the vehicle that brings in the kingdom of the heavens. The only weapon the evil age has against this word is to “kill it” and Paul said “to die is gain”. Therefore the enemy is powerless against the gospel.

What do you think, as you watch these protests, are they ministering grace and peace to you from God our Father?

Jesus was the true revolutionary. No one else would do this. Give yourself for the sins of sinners to rescue them? The idea is utterly revolutionary. When you pray according to God’s will that is a prayer that is powerful and God will answer. Many people right now are praying for justice, walk according to God’s will and you will be unstoppable. Jesus' victory over death was glorious. But much of what we are seeing is not glorious, it is shameful. The woman who set fire to Wendy’s, shameful. Looting, rioting, and vandalism shameful. Much of what is done is done in ignorance, again shameful. For example, there is a statue of Teddy Roosevelt on a horse with a strong African man and a strong native American on either side. This statue is in front of the museum of natural history and depicts the two continents, North America and Africa. Teddy Roosevelt was a naturalist who gathered creatures from both continents that are in the museum showing our natural history. This includes archaeological digs and dinosaur bones gathered by many, many other scientists. Since Teddy’s contribution was the real foundation of the museum he is depicted. There is nothing insulting about this statue nor does it have anything to do with oppression. When BLM protestors want the statue torn down they are declaring their ignorance. Many people complain saying “who can you believe”, there are different denominations, one argues that you can have musical instruments, another argues that you can’t. One insists on women wearing head coverings, another doesn’t. Petty squabbles are not something that is unique to the civil rights movement, it has been a common theme for 2,000 years. I don’t marvel that there are certain minor issues that people are not clear about. The rapture, is it post tribulation, pre tribulation, mid tribulation, a mix of all three? Should we celebrate Columbus, Lincoln and US Grant? These disputes don’t surprise me at all. What does astonish me is that some would desert Jesus for a preacher with gold chains, a luxury car, private jet and mansion. The Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head yet their gospel is one of material blessing. If cars, mansions and airplanes prove God has blessed you where does that leave Jesus Christ and the apostles? Likewise, why would you desert Jesus and the apostles for people like Theudas who got 400 people together for a rebellion. He has been consigned to the ash heap of history, but Paul and the truth in his message has shone brighter and brighter for the last 2,000 years. What does astonish me is how anyone could be confused by the message Jesus gave. He made it very simple, “love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself”. Is there anyone who can honestly say that confuses them? If the civil rights movement is about “loving your neighbor as yourself” it will get powerful resonance in billions of people worldwide. But if it is an anarchist movement designed to destabilize and confuse, it will simply result in shame and defeat. I have heard preachers say that we cannot fix injustice. How, if you are one with Jesus Christ who rescues us from this evil age can you say that? Fixing injustice is the gospel. If you are not preaching this what are you preaching?

Galatians -- The only like that matters

No one should be surprised that some are trying to throw you into confusion. Confusion, sin, darkness, doubt, all these things are of Satan. The gospel was preached to you, everyone has seen Jesus who gave Himself for our sins that we might be saved. That is good news. The fact that there are people masquerading as angels of light and trying to confuse people should not be a surprise to anyone. In the gospels the only person trying to make money off of Jesus was Judas. He was under God’s curse. Why would anyone turn from Jesus to follow Judas? Prior to Jesus there were people who preached insurrection, but when they died their movements died. Why would you imitate them? You can’t even remember their names? Besides Jesus, and the apostles what other revolutionaries can you name from 2,000 years ago?

What does it mean to be a servant of Christ? Jesus said that He would build the church and that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. You are serving Him in this mission. You do whatever He tells you. You are not worried about pleasing people, You are simply worried about pleasing Jesus. Many of these so called ministries are completely focused on pleasing men, how many views, how many likes, how many subscribes. The only like that matters is if Jesus says “well done good and faithful servant”. In Jerusalem the crowds wanted to tear Paul apart, he was imprisoned, stoned, slandered and rejected. Yet 2,000 years later we are here reading his letter. That is because he had a word from God that the rulers of this evil age did not want you to hear. It is still true today, this is the word that they don’t want you to hear.

I used to be a stock broker and I learned a key secret. Once the accountants take over a company sell that stock. Accountants are totally focused on pleasing men, not just any men, but the stockholders in the company and the men who employ them. They ask themselves, ‘How do I justify my ridiculously high salary?’ The answer: ‘I save the company more than they pay me’. If you pay me $1 million I justify that salary by saving the company $10 million. How? Suppose I am able to “trim” 100 people from the payroll who each make $100,000, or better yet, trim 200 people who each make $50,000. So companies that began with a vision on providing some key service or product better than anyone else turn into companies you hate to deal with. When they are small these “accountants” can’t use their strategy, but when they are big they can. When you call them you get an answering machine because that is cheaper than a person. The company begins with a vision, but once the accountants take over, everything changes, it is now a company of men pleasers. Filled with overpriced suits who justify their pay by getting rid of the workers who gave the company a soul.

Galatians -- The game plan on how to be rescued from this evil age

Paul advanced in Judaism by persecuting the church and trying to destroy it. His job was to gather up those, like Stephen, and bring them before the jewish leaders who would “fire them”. Sunbeam corporation can illustrate this. They brought in a new CEO in 1996 “Chainsaw Al” who said he would halve the payroll. Stockholders loved it, the price rose 73%. But it was all an accounting fraud, and they declared bankruptcy in 2001. How do you motivate accountants to commit fraud? Simply threaten to lay them all off. Deceit, fraud, threats, these are all the traditions of men. So let’s consider what Paul has told us here. After the Lord’s death there were a few people preaching Jesus, but nothing to worry about. The Jews call Peter, James and John in and threaten them and basically hope the thing goes away. Acts 4:18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. When that doesn’t work they begin rounding up Christians and stoning them beginning with Stephen. Acts 7:57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. Then, with the threat of death it is easier for them to infiltrate the church and try to pervert the gospel by convincing the believers to desert Jesus and the apostles. This is the way to be zealous for the religion and advance beyond your peers. This is what Paul saw with the Jews and it is no different today with “Chainsaw Al”. It wasn’t until Jesus and the gospel that anyone learned the way of peace.

The gospel is something completely different from the traditions of men. It is right to be angry at injustice, but revenge is not a workable strategy. The blame game doesn’t work. Replacing one tyrant with another doesn’t work. This book lays out what does work, how you rescue us from this evil age. Marketing campaigns are all lies. People create a compelling narrative to sell their product. One recent Presidential hopeful sold herself as a “Native American” from Oklahoma to get into Harvard. For those who don’t know it is extremely difficult to get a native American into Harvard so if one applies Harvard needs a very, very good reason to turn them down. Her story was a lie. Witness Lee presented himself as the successor of Watchman Nee in much the same way as Elisha was the successor of Elijah. Therefore it was essential to his compelling backstory that Watchman Nee be seen as an apostle. Witness Lee called him the “apostle of the age” with “the vision of the age”. However, one problem with the story was that Watchman Nee was disciplined for several years because he had taken a mistress. Witness Lee lied about this saying the elders had mistaken Watchman Nee’s mother for a mistress and that Watchman Nee was too spiritual to correct the error. This lie led to a warped understanding of what it is to be spiritual. Paul’s backstory is very different. He is less than the least of all the saints. He persecuted the church and tried to destroy it. He doesn’t have any righteousness of his own, but he does have a first hand account of how this evil age operates.

24 And they praised God because of me. What more would any of us want people to say? Simply “he is preaching the faith that he once tried to destroy” and praise God for it. This reminds me of a story from my own past. My freshman year at college I was not in the church and was not preaching the faith. In many ways I looked and acted quite differently (I had long hair, bare feet, grateful dead Tshirts, and was on the Rugby team). After two years of preaching the gospel on campus we had a meeting with students who were in Intervarsity, a Christian group on campus, because they had been slandering us. (This was when “The GodMen” and the “MindBenders” were out, two books accusing Witness Lee of being a cult leader. I don’t like this term because it is not Biblical, I think a better term is “false prophet”. A false prophet can be a real prophet, Balaam and Judas were both real spokesmen for God, but they were false because they were motivated by money). One person there said he knew me from my Freshman year, I was very surprised that he could recognize me, but he insisted “yes, we know who you are and we praise God for what he has done”. Paul saw this evil age operating firsthand, his testimony is that of an eyewitness and he swears he is telling the truth. When he takes this gospel to Jerusalem James tells him to take the Nazarite vow. This involves sacrificing an animal, an insult to Jesus who is our sacrifice. The key point to the gospel is that Jesus gave Himself for our sins. Paul begins this epistle telling us that Jesus gave Himself to rescue us from this evil age. These two things are in apposition. In the evil age the leaders threaten you (Peter asks who should we listen to you or God) and kill you if you don’t follow them, in the gospel Jesus gives Himself for our sins. In the evil age whoever heard of such a thing, the Lord dies for the sins of His people? While participating in the Nazarite vow the Jews in Jerusalem are outraged at the sight of Paul and want to tear him apart. But he is rescued by the Romans and since he is a citizen he gets a trial. He hasn’t broken any Roman laws, but do they release him? No, they want to please the Jews and on the other hand they are hoping for a bribe from Paul. You can see how corrupt and unrighteous the Roman government is, just as the Jewish leaders were. This is an example of “pleasing man” rather than pleasing God. However, just as the Jewish leaders didn’t think this was a big deal at first, the Romans also do not see Paul as any kind of threat to their rule. In prison he is able to focus on the word and write the New Covenant. Because he is now taking this gospel to the gentiles he is beyond the sphere of influence of the Jews. Especially after Titus destroys Jerusalem. The age of grace has begun, the church grows to the point the Romans feel threatened and like the Jews they also threaten and kill Christians, and then use that threat to infiltrate the church at the time of Constantine just like the Judaizers at the time of Paul. Historians believe this first began with Nero. The story is very enlightening, he wanted to buy up some real estate, the owners didn’t want to sell it to him, so he had their houses set on fire and since he controlled the fire department they did not come to put out the fire. Then, he blamed the Christians. He buys up the real estate for a fraction of the cost and at the same time he is able to blame the only threat he sees to his rule. They may not have seemed like much of a threat at the time but they refused to worship the Roman Gods and they said certain things were sins. So based on these insults Nero killed them. This is how the evil age works, it is how the Jewish leaders operated, it is how the Roman leaders operated and it is how “Chainsaw Al” operated. This is how tyrants operate, it is how fascists operate, it is how abusive police departments operate. If you understood what truly happened during the Mortgage Crisis you would be outraged. The banks wrote mortgages that they knew people could not pay. They even had NINJA applications, No Income, No Job. For the first five years the payments were reasonable, relatively low interest rate, and people could scrape by and make these payments. Imagine you are paying $1,000 a month for 60 months. Then the balloon rate kicks in and your mortgage doubles to $2,000 a month. It had taken all you had to make the original payment, now you can’t even hope to make this payment. Within six months you are evicted. The bank gets the house back and keeps the $60,000+ you gave them. Now they can sell the house again. Also, they don’t have to worry about you defaulting on the loan because they sold your loan to an investment bank who turned it into a “mutual fund of loans” and sold it to investors. Every salesman along the way made big bonuses on these. But in the end they knew they would be stuck with billions and billions of dollars of worthless loans. But they weren’t worried, they knew the US government would bail them out, they were “too big to fail” and they would then defraud the taxpayers whether or not you have fallen for the first con, you paid for it in the end. If the civil rights movement is all about rescuing people from this evil age then it is one with the Lord, and the church. This is the gospel. The gospel is the game plan on how to be set free from this evil age. Ultimately that is what the rapture is, our rescue from this evil age.

Galatians 2:1-4 False believers have a mission to make slaves of you.

In Galatians chapter 2 Paul shares his experiences with the church as it was first being formed and God’s people were being rescued from this evil age. There are parallels between Paul’s experiences and our experiences in this country during the Revolutionary war as we struggled for freedom from an oppressive tyrant. If we consider this chapter in light of our own experiences it can help to light our path in the current struggle for civil rights in this nation.

The esteemed leaders like Peter had been there from the beginning, they knew Jesus, if anyone can let Paul know if he has gone off on a wild goose chase it is them. Likewise, we have Civil Rights leaders who were there in the 60s, I wonder if those running these current protests have approached them? Paul is sharing his experience with us, he is also reminding us of his training in the scriptures under Gamaliel, and he is also indicating that he has put 17 years of study as a result of his revelations. He tells us he didn’t act until God gave him a revelation to act, and even then he first checks with the leading apostles. These five criteria indicate his responsibility in this matter. Who better to learn from than those who have been there before and come out victorious like Jesus, Paul, and the Revolutionary war.

Let’s not confuse circumcision with justification. Circumcision was a sign of the covenant that Abraham had with God. It is similar to a wife wearing a wedding ring. It is like God putting His signature on the contract saying you belong to Him. Titus was Greek, so he was never circumcised, yet no one compelled him to be. The gospel that Paul preached was a “New” covenant in which the signature of God is written on your heart, not on your flesh.

False spies trying to make you into slaves is a critical point in this book, and one we have to understand. This is not some bizarre story that is 2,000 years old, this is what goes on today, it is common, far too common, and we need to understand it. Jesus told us we need to judge a tree by its fruit, Peter talked about false prophets, and Jude did also. The book of Revelation talks about the false prophet at the end of the age, the gospels present Judas as an example of a false prophet, and there are false prophets in the book of Acts. Paul talks about wolves that will come into the flock. So we need to understand what “false believers” are. Peter says that false prophets want to make merchandise of you. That is why people were enslaved, to make merchandise for their masters. Jesus says that these false prophets compass land and sea to make disciples and when they do they are worse sons of gehenna than the false prophet. Saul of Tarsus was among these false brothers, his job was to bring the saints into bondage. How does the Jewish scribe get control of the church and make merchandise of them? He tells them there is one key piece missing before they can get the covenant with God. The Judaizers have the vision of this key piece, they are the “minister of the age” and if you want to be in the center of the New Testament move of God you need their ministry. They have a compelling backstory, James, the brother of Jesus is there with them. Who can you trust if not the brother of Jesus?

Ezekiel 45:9 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have gone far enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign Lord.

The Lord’s salvation makes us God’s people and that in turn makes any attack on us an attack on Him. This was the basis for our complaint of “no taxation without representation” and it is also the complaint today that minorities of color are treated like second class citizens.

Galatians 2:5-13 Treated like illegitimate step children

Many people don’t like conflict. They try to avoid it. False believers sneaking in to make slaves of you is not something that is trivial. You can’t say “what difference does it make”. This is not something where you can say “in the interest of keeping the oneness I’ll get circumcised”. This is about the truth of the gospel. How you respond will not just impact you but everyone else after you. If we have a New Testament with God when was it signed, when did it go into effect, where is the proof that I am an heir of God? This is the essential truth that Paul is fighting for in this chapter, it is also the essential truth to the civil rights movement. If you receive circumcision as the signature you are rejecting everything the Lord did on the cross. You are a sheep in the Lord's flock and they are trying to steal you and turn you into a slave in Satan's flock. Likewise, if someone today wants to do something that violates the US constitution that is not something you can ignore.

He is talking about Peter, James and John. James is the brother of Jesus, Peter and John were the closest apostles. It may not have meant anything to Paul but I bet it meant a whole lot to most people. This was a truly revolutionary message. Paul makes it clear that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross established a New Covenant. There were many trying to portray Jesus as a Jewish prophet and the Christians as a sect of Judaism. Paul had a revelation of the New Covenant that not even Peter, James or John had fully seen. The same today, many say this is not the time. Everyone agrees it is time to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and everyone agrees that the rescue of the nations from this evil age is the gospel. If we have been rescued from this evil age, just like the man that the good Samaritan rescued who had fallen among thieves, then isn’t it time for us to “go and do likewise”?

Preaching the gospel in a nutshell is to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants Leviticus 25:10. In 1751 Independence Hall was built in Philadelphia and inscribed the bell in the tower with Leviticus 25:10. This bell is called “the Liberty Bell”.

This is the story of how the New Testament came to be and also the story of how the revolutionary war came to be. Two different groups, one you treat like family, the other like illegitimate children. This was the key issue at the time of the Revolutionary war. This is what I see as the key issue in the Black Lives Matter movement. It seems that the police protect the one race like they are family, and treat the other race like illegitimate step children. If we are going to have one country then the police need to serve and protect everyone alike as one family. In Galatians 2 It appears there was an inherent bias against the Gentiles by the Jews. This is quite insightful, how do you clearly convey to “whites” what the issue is? I personally have had positive interactions with police where they treated me like family. But this cuts to the heart of the issue, if you will not eat with the Gentiles you are not in the full fellowship with them that you are with Jewish believers. You have created a two tier system in the church with the Gentiles being second class citizens of the kingdom.

Galatians 2:14-16 Act in line with the truth of the gospel

The reason for the protests is the violence done to the people where innocent blood has been shed. This is not in line with the truth of the gospel. This was also the response to the “shot heard round the world” in Lexington, Massachusetts. This is the history of this country, and this revolutionary history is based in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus crucifixion revealed the violence done to the people and the fact that the government was shedding innocent blood. So then if this issue is central to the gospel, central to the day of redemption then it must be central to the rapture.

Peter was born and raised a Jew. Yet, he was very radical in the eyes of the Jews. He went into Cornelius' house and ate with Gentiles which is unlawful, a violation of dietary rules since the kitchen was not kosher. So in the eyes of Jews he lived like a Gentile, not like a Jew. Yet he makes it clear they can’t have full fellowship with him unless they act like Jews. That doesn’t make sense. And where will it end? Getting circumcised is simply the beginning, it means you also have signed a contract to follow all the Jewish customs. This is the “other gospel which is not a gospel”. This would simply be to make Gentiles imitate Jews. That isn’t a gospel, that is telling people that they need to abandon their heritage, their culture and adopt the Jewish culture. Is this the issue with the Black Lives Matter movement and the cops? Do the cops want blacks to speak the same language, listen to the same music, and dress the same as whites? Consider the school system, are they treating Blacks as full fledged members of the community or as illegitimate children? If we consider our current situation it is easy to see that there is an inherent bias in the system where some people are treated as full fledged members of the community and some are not.

If you read about the Jewish history beginning with Abraham you realize being Jews did not prevent them from being sinful. The difference between King David and King Saul was not their “Jewishness” but their faith. David was not justified by the works of the law, he was justified by faith. Saul was convicted for his lack of faith. Can we find anyone in the Old Testament that was justified by the works of the law? Abraham wasn’t, Moses wasn’t, David wasn’t. In fact, the only one that has been found worthy is Jesus Christ. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. We know that the only way we are justified is by faith in the Lord.

This is what the Pilgrims prayed before leaving England. The Puritans were compelled to flee their country. They were concerned that their children were not being assimilated into the Dutch culture. Their situation was quite similar to what we see today where minorities are concerned that they are not being assimilated into the US. However, the pilgrims had seen the catastrophe that was the Jamestown experiment. Out of 3600 settlers 3,000 had perished. Jamestown was better funded than the Pilgrims were. But none of that matters, they knew that justification is by faith alone and in this prayer they put their faith in Jesus Christ for a safe journey.

Galatians 2:17-19 No Justice No Peace

What is the rapture if not the Lord's testimony that you have been justified in Him. Valley Forge was where the Revolutionary Army spent a very long cold winter. The army was broke, starving and freezing to death. The Continental Congress failed to supply the basic needs of human survival, much less pay the soldiers what they had promised to pay them. But just because man is faithless, it doesn’t mean God is. Washington prayed for supplies, churches had all night prayer vigils and one man, Robert Morris was moved to not only donate money but to go door to door among the wealthiest in Philadelphia to gather supplies for the army that saved the army.

When we express Jesus Christ living in us, we are a testimony of His saving grace. However, when we sin it doesn’t mean that we sinned because Jesus promotes sin. It means we are still in the process of being sinners saved by grace. The cross of Christ destroyed sin, it crucified the world, the flesh, the old man, and Satan. The sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law. We had sinned, a sacrifice needed to be made to pay for that sin, Jesus paid the price. If He had paid for our sin only to then promote sin, He would not be fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law, He would be a lawbreaker. In the same way if a revolutionary replaces one tyrant with another he shows himself to be a lawbreaker. Replace the Czar with Lenin and Stalin, it is just one tyrant for another. Replace the KMT with Chairman Mao, just one tyrant for another. They were rebuilding what they destroyed, they proved they were lawbreakers. When the government is not under the authority of God we have an obligation to resist. The revolution of the United States was focused on bringing our government under the authority of God, not of a new and different tyrant. Today people are arguing to “defund the police”. What this means is that if the police are not acting under the authority of God then we need to resist. We don’t need to continue to pay them, shut the local police department down, have the County Sheriff’s office take over. Then when they rehire police they can look very carefully at complaints for abuse and only rehire those who are not abusive. In this way you don’t have to wrestle with the union. At the same time the police union will realize that either they reform the police and come under the authority of God or else one by one they will all lose their job.

Jesus paid the price for sinners to be reconciled to God, He did this so He could save us by grace, but at the same time He knew that this would be a process. So then He saved sinners knowing they would sin again. How do you explain that in a way that is not promoting sin? When we receive Christ we receive the seed of the kingdom. Our flesh is the soil, not the seed. The seed of the kingdom is what Jesus is promoting, not our stinking flesh. On the cross of Christ I died, and the goal now is for that seed to grow. You can water and feed it just like a gardener. Singing hymns, praying, fellowshipping, spending time in the word, sharing a testimony are all ways to water and feed the seed of the kingdom. What was the seed of the kingdom for the United States? Patrick Henry’s “give me liberty or give me death”. This is the same today. They have given lip service to police reform, but there is no justice. The seed of this present movement is “no justice, no peace”.

Galatians 2:20-21 -- A word that rescues us from this evil age

“The seed of the kingdom” is Jesus Christ living in me. Imagine the “seed of the kingdom” is a lion cub. At first it is harmless. But, you feed and water that lion cub and it will grow into a full grown lion. Maybe the day the lion was born no one feared it, but two years later, five years later, it is a very different story. Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. If the Civil Rights movement grows into the image of the Son of God it will be in the image and likeness of the lion of the tribe of Judah. During the Revolutionary war Britain was the Superpower of the day and the US was a despised colony that no one feared, but not today. This word of Paul produces lions.

These two chapters present the gospel that rescues us from this evil age. Paul began these two chapters telling us that Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this evil age, now at the end of this portion, the life that we live, we live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. It is essential that we remember the Lord’s providencial love for us, without it we would surely have perished. In the Revolutionary war our army at Bunker Hill was in danger of being utterly destroyed which would have led to our swift defeat to the British. Washington organized a very dangerous retreat across the water. If the British boats had spotted it the Continental army would have been annihilated, but a dense fog rolled in at the critical moment. Those who were there saw this as an answer to their prayer. This in turn greatly encouraged them that God was fighting on their behalf. James 5:16 The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. If you live this life, with this faith, all those who try to bring you into captivity will be terrified. They have no way to conquer the one who has conquered death.

What is it that the civil rights movement is trying to gain? Righteousness. So then, do not set aside the grace of God! You will never achieve righteousness through the law. There is the temptation to say that they did this to me so I can do it to them, that is not how Jesus rescued us from this evil age, that is the approach Theudas took. No one remembers Theudas because “he came to nothing”. What does “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven” look like? Does it look like a bunch of looted buildings with people rioting? Does it look like the Civil War? Or does it look like the church where there is no Greek, no Jew, no slave, no free, but just Christ who is all and in all. We are all partaking of the Lord’s table, no distinction, one fellowship, one Lord, one Baptism, one God and Father of all. The United States was formed after many people died to form a new nation. During his inaugural speech Washington, in his first official act, did not set aside the grace of God: “it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official Act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe, who presides in the Councils of Nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the People of the United States, a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes: and may enable every instrument employed in its administration, to execute with success, the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than either: No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. And in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their United Government, the tranquil deliberations, and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most Governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join me I trust in thinking, that there are none under the influence of which, the proceedings of a new and free Government can more auspiciously commence.”

The culmination of our being rescued from this evil age is the rapture.

1Samuel 18 The snares, traps and palace intrigue

We are seeing the “passing of the torch” from Jonathan to David here. I was always impressed with the way in which Larry Bird and Magic Johnson reacted to Michael Jordan. They instantly appreciated his play, his footwork, his fundamentals, his balance. If you have given your whole life to become a master of your craft you will instantly appreciate the other masters. Michael Jordan said the one man he feared was Akeem Olajuwon. Charles Barkley said there was no shame in losing to Michael.

Prior to the defeat of Goliath David’s life seemed to move in slow motion. Spending 40 days with his father training and going over their strategy must have seemed like an eternity. When he finally did get the green light he was like a dog unchained. But after that point everything has sped up. He has this relation with Jonathan, he also has to worry about Saul, he has the troops and all the battles. The troops will appreciate anyone that they have confidence in and want with them in the heat of battle. The officers will appreciate anyone who can carry out orders precisely and do everything they are told.

This one little song caused David a lot of trouble. Think about it, ego is what sunk Saul, but here it is the boasting of others that brought trouble on David. What is the normal response to that, to humble yourself, to make yourself of no account. Joseph learned this lesson when he boasted that his brothers would bow before him. David didn’t even do any boasting but he learned to keep quiet about accomplishments and give all the credit to his troops. Can you imagine, you just can’t win. If you lose battles you lose, and if you win battles you lose.

Talk about abusive relationships. This is similar to what happened with Joseph being snared by Potiphar’s wife. David has to watch his back even when he is at home. Who are you going to tell about this? The king is trying to kill me? It is like living in an abusive relationship or like being in a cult. This is a whole new level of bully. If a kid is bullying you at school you at least have peace when you go home and on the weekends and on the breaks. But if you are being bullied at home there is no rest.

He is planning to give his daughter to David as a snare to him. The palace intrigue is incredible. The more the people loved him and the more successful he was the more there will be those trying to snare him.

The people who seem to be your friend are actually part of the palace intrigue. This book is about how to become a king. So, if you are going to be a king you have to deal with the bullies that are like the dogs who bark and bite, you will also need to spot the snakes in the grass, the snares, the traps, and the intrigue.

What was God’s plan? It seems to me that Saul may have meant this for evil but God meant it for good. He was pushing David to become more and more skilled as a warrior and a leader. Saul thinks pushing David to battle hundreds of Philistines will kill two birds with one stone, but in reality it is God who is pushing David to train harder. If you want to be the best you have to defeat the best. Little by little everyone else learns to trust and appreciate David.

This chapter presents a very nice contrast between Jonathan, a man of faith and Saul whose sin is unbelief. Men of faith appreciate other men of faith, their service is a sacred service and anyone else who is a servant of the lord they appreciate. Your thought is you can learn from them and it is a joy to have them minister. However, frauds and posers feel threatened by men of faith and are jealous and paranoid. So then, examine yourself. Your reaction to the ministry of others can reveal what is in your heart. The first rapture is the Bema judgement, that is like winning the gold medal in the Olympics. If you are jealous and envious of others you need to deal with that. Jonathan is not worried that David will become King, that is a very good testimony about the condition of his heart.

Isaiah 5:1-7 -- He looked for good grapes but it yielded only bad fruit

It is fair to say the US was a fertile vineyard that belonged to the Lord, a Christians country.

The US had some stones that were dug up by the Lord during the Civil war.

At the time of Teddy Roosevelt the Lord built a watchtower, making the US a superpower.

After WWII the Lord cut out a winepress, giving us the most productive economy in the world.

Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. We had the assassination of JFK, we had the Roe v Wade ruling violating the US constitution, Vietnam war, Watergate, IranContras, removing God from schools, etc.

4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed;

9/11 our hedge of protection was taken away. You can’t ask “where is God” after 9/11. You drove Him out of the country, out of your schools, out of your public life. You took away the word of God, that was your hedge of protection. Terrorists will come and trample the wall. As a result of 9/11 we invaded Iraq, the land of ancient Assyria. But they were not the cause of the breach. The problem is not an enemy outside our walls, the problem is inside the walls.

7 The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

The protests we are witnessing are “the cries of distress”. The mortgage meltdown where the rich stole the houses from the poor. The people who voted for Trump were also cries of distress. NAFTA had sold out their jobs and left them destitute and their cities a wasteland. Detroit was worse off than many third world countries. BLM is a response to the fact that minorities are not given a helping hand. There are programs and money spent, that is not the issue, the issue is they aren’t “given a helping hand”. Let me explain: I teach in an inner city school in Brooklyn. After our recent election for mayor the school changed out our desks with these little triangular desks and chairs that fit together into tables of four. Teachers and students alike all hated them. No one asked for them. It probably cost our school approximately $500,000 for this. I could be greatly underestimating the true cost which realistically could have been much closer to $1 million. Many of our kids need computers and wifi to do their work. The school has both of these, so leaving the school open for an extra 2 hours each day, say 3 days a week would have had the absolute biggest impact on helping them. I estimate you would need 3 teachers, 2 hours each so that would be 6 hours per day, 18 hours per week, perhaps do this for 30 weeks a year. This program would cost the school about $20,000 a year. So we buy $1 million of furniture no one wants and no one needs but don’t have $20,000 for tutoring which they desperately need. Teachers complain they don’t have enough money and the public wonders why, you get way more than any other school system around the world, and all that money is simply politicians paying back their backers with government contracts.

Isaiah 5:8-16 -- Everyone will be humbled and the Lord exalted

When you look at what we get with our public education per dollar of taxpayer money it is horrible. Politicians who control the budgets use it to enrich their cronies, not to make the schools better. Because of this poor school system the people of the US lack understanding and they will die because of it. This pandemic has highlighted how people have a lack of understanding. For example, many said that Covid19 was less deadly than the Flu and they showed statistics that seemingly supported that. In a given year so many die from the flu based on a certain number that had it. From that they get a mortality rate, it is lower than Covid so it is less deadly. Clearly they didn’t understand these numbers. We don’t have massive testing of people for the flu each year so we really have no idea how many get it. The numbers are estimates based on who got sick with symptoms. With Covid we have learned that 80% of those who got it didn’t get sick. So if you were going to compare it to the Flu you should also multiply the number that got sick from the flu by 5 to get the number that probably had it. If you did that the Flu would appear to be 1/5th as deadly as it does now. Because of this misunderstanding they didn’t see how dangerous Covid was. The nobles are the ones who tell everyone nothing to worry about, the revelers are those who go the bars, restaurants, concerts, the super spreader events, and the brawlers are those in the streets rioting. What is happening right now is people are being brought low (bankrupt) and the eyes of the arrogant humbled. We were told that the riots and looting were due to Trump and yet they continued after Biden was elected, even in March we are still seeing riots in Portland and other cities. Cuomo was the most arrogant governor being cheered as a "mature voice of reason" winning an Emmy in the process. We now know that his policies and mandates were responsible for thousands, maybe even ten thousand deaths in NY. The California governor was one of the key leaders of the Democratic party, he is being recalled. The same is true with Governor Whitmer.

The responses and failures of these three groups (nobles, revelers and brawlers) proves the Lord is the Lord of all. The brawlers want to make a stand for righteousness but don’t know how. Jesus’ work on the cross exalts His justice and proves He is holy by His righteous acts. The revelers getting sick, spreading sickness, and walking according to their flesh and lusts proves His holy precepts are righteous and good. His warnings to us time and again shows He is the true Lord. We should have been warned by SARS, by Swine Flu and by Ebola. The nobles have brought more death and destruction by their own inept actions.

Isaiah 5:17-20 The Bitterness of a Totalitarian State

On the one hand it looks like it is very tough on people right now if they have lost their jobs and are unemployed. But the governments are realizing they must have a moratorium on evictions, so even if you can’t pay rent you still get to stay where you are with electricity, water, and heat. Also, they can’t let people starve so they will need food kitchens. It will be the rich who are ruined. Also as a result of the pandemic every teacher has put their entire curriculum online. This will make it very easy to set up "home schools" in local churches run by teachers in semi retirement. We can return to a very effective school system without the corrupt politicians having their hands and fists in the pie.

"A cart of wickedness" is Hillary Clinton’s foundation. It was "drawn along with cords of deceit" (pretending it was a charitable foundation) and wickedness (taking contributions of foreign countries to buy influence on policies of the US government).

The atheists, the mockers, say “hey where is the fulfillment of these prophecies, nothing is happening”. Well, the fulfillment will be a very great woe to the atheists and unrighteous. You had a chance to repent and they wasted that chance.

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Recently the NY Times released Donald Trump’s tax return. They didn’t get it from him, but rather an anonymous source. We can assume that this anonymous source was not approved by Trump and so the acquisition of this information was sketchy if not illegal. Still the NY Times published it and kept their source secret. This is what journalists do. But when a laptop for Hunter Biden was found with evidence of a corruption scandal on Joe Biden and many other crimes for his son the NY Times refused to publish the story because the acquisition of that laptop seemed “sketchy” to them. So what has been good, using whistleblowers to expose corruption is now being called evil by the NY Times and other news agencies who have used this technique for their entire career. The same thing happened in the case against the cigarette companies with lawyers calling it “tortious interference”. The argument was that if you reveal secrets about our company that show we lied to congress and intentionally sold addictive drugs that would kill people then we can sue you because revealing that secret is damaging to us. So shining light on evil is in their words “darkness”. People want to know what is going on, why is the US which was the greatest nation on earth becoming a wasteland. We discover it is because the highest officials in the land have been selling us out to foreign countries through Clinton’s foundation or Biden’s crime family and Facebook and Twitter censor that news. They sold us social media as a platform where we could speak freely as a way to get around the censorship inherent with every publisher. We were sold on how “sweet” social media would be and the freedom in it, but they have substituted that with the bitter reality of a totalitarian state that censors what you can and cannot say.

Isaiah 5:21-30 -- Woe to those who spurned the word of the Lord

They thought they were slick, this horrible story comes out on Biden and they call it a “Russian disinformation campaign”. Adam Schiff who is on the Senate intelligence committee says this. So instead of exposing Biden this story actually exposes Russia who is trying to help Trump to win. The problem is the Director of National Intelligence, the source of all the intelligence Adam Schiff sees in his committee and the one who would be aware if this laptop were part of a Russian disinformation campaign comes out and makes it abundantly clear that Adam Schiff is lying. So now it is Adam Schiff who is guilty of disinformation and tampering with a US election.

Let’s think about this. The FBI had this laptop with evidence of Joe Biden colluding with a foreign power a year ago. They had it at the exact same time the government is impeaching Trump on these charges. They don’t start an investigation, why? The pictures will convict Hunter Biden of other crimes and the inference is that it will be child porn because the person the FBI sent to look at the hard drive is an expert in child porn cases. They had exculpatory evidence to clear the innocent and held onto it, and apparently were convinced not to release this damaging evidence on Biden. Perhaps we’ll learn they were bribed.

There is outrage building. The top ten sites on Youtube and the top ten referenced sites on Facebook are all running with this story. Google, Facebook and Twitter will all be prosecuted and their special accommodations removed. CNN, NY Times, ABC, CBS and NBC will all become bankrupt and disgraced.

You will see a massive response at the election, this has confirmed the accusations of fake news and we can see the swamp creatures. In return you will see protests and riots in the street. What people don’t understand and need to see is that the massive upheaval in the US is due to the trade war with China. They will fight with every tool in their arsenal. They will turn our cities into total chaos by causing blackouts which lead to riots and looting. That in turn will cause UN peacekeepers to come. Does that sound impossible? It will be amazing how different the US will be. Already we see the Capital surrounded by barbed wire and troops.

The world will change in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. The last trumpet announces the coming of the Lord, it announces the coronation of the king, and the wedding of the lamb. It is a beautiful sound for those who are raptured. But for those who remain there is only darkness and distress. Right now we understand that human history has hinged on before Jesus Christ and after His crucifixion. Well in a few days everyone will realize a whole new hinge on which human history turns: before the rapture and after the rapture.

Galatians 3:1-5 Who has bewitched you?

You have to make a choice. Who is in control of your life? What is a slave? It is a person who does not control their life, they don’t make the choices for what is right. To be “free” is to take control and make your own choices. Jesus chose to go to the cross, it wasn’t forced on Him, it was His choice. He made this very difficult choice because this was the way to achieve something He cared about. We also must take up our cross and follow Him. The Christian life is all about learning how to do things you thought you couldn’t do. Choosing to be crucified to save us is the perfect example of what it means to be “free”. What is a “cult”? It is a group of people who appear to have been bewitched because they give the leader of this “cult” control over the choices in their life. In a cult what is reinforced is not that you should believe the words spoken by the Lord, but rather that the leader of the cult believes the words and that is why you allow this person to control your life. It is foolish and it is amazing that people could be bewitched like this. What really stood out to Europeans that visited the US in the first hundred years was how independent Americans were, making choices for themselves. Paul reveals a very interesting secret about how his mind works. He knows that his salvation was completely based on Jesus crucifixion, so in his mind he is playing a video of that crucifixion, the “clear portrayal” of “Jesus Christ crucified” and then he examines that video to answer questions like “how did I receive the spirit”.

The Judaizers were trying to get the Galatians to finish by means of the flesh. You need to be circumcised in your flesh, if you are then you get to sit at the table with the apostle, then you get a voice and everyone listens to you. The point of the Lord’s crucifixion is that He listened to everyone, even the thief on the cross. Everyone had a voice and He listened to everyone which is why He told John to “behold your mother”. He could empathize with how His death was going to impact John and His mother. When I hear these protests for BLM what I really hear is that their voices have not been heard, they have not been given an opportunity to speak, and they feel ignored. There is a comparison between the crucifixion which is the circumcision of the heart and the circumcision of the flesh. The crucifixion demonstrated that we have a voice, God listens to our needs, and it demonstrates that the Lord is sensitive to our needs. This is how the church will finish our course. This also reveals an interesting facet to Paul’s mind. He is always connecting the dots of his experience, his life is a narrative. He realizes how he began, it was by repenting and receiving the work Christ did for him on the cross. Then he asks how will he continue on this journey, is he going to go back to the approach that he just repented of? That would be foolish. This is what we are talking about, how do we finish our race, the rapture is the finish line. We must feel our work is meaningful, it is not in vain. Second, we need to focus on our experiences, learn from them, turn them into a narrative, so that they can guide us going forward. There is a temptation to put your Christian life on autopilot. I’ll follow Peter, I can trust him. I’ll follow the brother of Jesus, I can trust him. This is the slave mentality, you need someone else to direct you. So again, consider Paul’s experience. He was struck blind when he heard the Lord say “why do you persecute Me?” He responds meekly “who are you?” This is his repentance, he realizes he didn’t even know God yet he was running around arresting people thinking he was serving God. One brother comes in, lays hands on him, and says “receive your sight”. He had asked “who are you Lord” and now he can see this brother. The Lord struck him blind and also removed the scales from his eyes, that was the miracle, but what caused that power to be transmitted from the Lord, through that brother to Paul is that they all “believed what they heard”. What is it that Paul believes? He believes that this brother is one with Jesus, that he is the “body of Christ”. If we are listening to each other we can summarize what we heard, we can answer questions, we can admit when we don’t know the answer to a question. Once again, look at the example in chapter 2, everyone was able to speak, everyone was able to express how they felt, and they listened to one another. Peter’s epistle makes it clear that he heard Paul. How many times does Paul need to ask us if we believed what we heard? What is distracting them? Where is their focus? Is it the great apostle Peter? Is it that some have come from James, the brother of Jesus?

This is a distinctive characteristic of those who have been bewitched and are in a cult mentality. They are unable to hear, unable to listen, unable to ask questions and think for themselves.

Galatians 3:6-11 What is the hearing of faith?

Abraham believed God about what? About taking his son, his only son, and sacrificing him. Put yourself in Paul’s shoes, God tells him to withstand Peter and James. These are the two chief apostles, James is the leader of the church and brother to Jesus, Peter is the leading apostle. Who is Paul to withstand them? The battle is over what? The church that he has raised among the gentiles. This is his only son. He could have felt like Abraham in being told to sacrifice his only son. I know people who dislike any conflict, especially in the church. They would be afraid to withstand anyone who had a reputation, whatever it is. They look at the flesh. This person has known Jesus his entire life, much longer than I have, he must be right. Even Barnabas who was well versed in the gospel that Paul preached to the Gentiles was swayed by them. But when Paul stood up against the Judaizers it wasn’t a destructive conflict but a productive one. You cannot believe what you heard unless someone speaks. This goes both ways. Paul gave Peter the respect and consideration to treat him the same way he wanted to be treated. Paul received the Spirit because he believed what he heard and he also trusted that Peter would receive the same spirit by believing what he heard. If we have a conflict we need to speak. In the church we need to have an environment where everyone can speak, Jews and Gentiles, male and female, slave and free. We need an environment where everyone can hear everyone, where the “great apostle Peter” can hear Paul who was less than the least of all saints. This reveals another secret about how Paul’s brain works. He is correlating his salvation experience with Abraham’s. He is using the Old Testament stories as a mental model for his own walk. This is what it means to be children of Abraham. Paul took a chance, risked sacrificing his only son, but it was not in vain. It was credited to him as righteousness and he was walking as a child of Abraham. Ananias had faith to lay hands on Paul, that indicated he was a child of Abraham.

There were seven blessings associated with the covenant that God made with Abraham. The seventh and culminating blessing is that “all nations will be blessed in you”. This is why I say that BLM can be blessed “in believing Abraham”. This is why I say that the New Testament is a covenant that rescues us from this evil age and also empowers us to rescue all nations from this evil age by showing them the way of salvation. How does Paul come up with this? He is considering his experience and also the Old Testament stories. Now he has a question, where does it say that God would justify the Gentiles? If I can’t answer this we could all be going the wrong way. He then sees that is the seventh blessing to Abraham, it is there, as part of the original covenant God made with Abraham. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If you “rely” on faith you must rely on the word of God. You have to meditate on the word, pray over the word until you can hear that word being spoken to you by God. Fellowship with others, hear the word of God in their speaking, in their preaching. When someone gives you a command, you are cursed if you don’t obey, but you are not righteous if you do. This is known as head covering. Suppose I was in the Marines, given clear orders and did them, and yet many men died. I am not righteous, but I am also not cursed because I was following orders. And sometimes it can be extremely difficult to “follow orders”. Think about Ruth, she is a Moabitess. According to the law she can’t enter the congregation to the tenth generation. That means her kids will be excluded from the fellowship. The guardian redeemer knew this law so refused to marry Ruth. However, Boaz did marry Ruth and they were the great grandparents of King David. Why didn’t Ruth’s kids get excluded to the tenth generation? Because the law also says that the next of kin is to marry the widow of an Israelite. Ruth had two statuses, one was a Moabitess and the other was the widow of an Israelite. So what do you do in this situation? God judges the heart. In the very first chapter Ruth tells us “your God will be my God and your people will be my people”. According to her heart she was a widow of an Israelite. On the other hand if I took actions that were extremely risky, violated all kinds of common sense for the military, as Macarthur’s landing at Inchon did, yet I did that based on faith. Then it would be seen as righteousness. Because of the tides it was an extremely risky move to land his forces at Inchon because the initial group would be stranded for hours before more boats could arrive. However, Macarthur realized that the North Koreans would also see this the same way and view it as a wall that the enemy could not breach. As a result he felt if done correctly they could make the landing before the North Koreans realized it because they wouldn’t be guarding it that carefully. He was right and it resulted in the very rapid defeat of the North Koreans in South Korea. Prior to the attack everyone thought he was making a terrible mistake, afterwards everyone agreed he was right and that he wasn’t relying on general principles but on faith. Boaz was also relying on faith, and Ananias was relying on faith. How foolish it would be for Paul to begin his Christian life based on the hearing of faith and then try to finish the race with the works of the law. Based on the works of the law Ananias would never have laid hands on Paul and Boaz would never have married Ruth.

Galatians 3:12-14 Circumcision of the heart means you have nothing left to lose.

A slave does not have the right to walk by faith. The master tells you what to do and you had better do it. Just like Balaam’s donkey. The donkey could see the angel of God that was guarding the way and tried to avoid him. Balaam kept beating the donkey for not obeying him until his eyes were opened to see the donkey had saved his life. We have been redeemed. We are no longer cursed to live like a slave to the rules and orders of this law. In the previous chapter the Gentiles being “second class citizens” in the church, that is a curse. If your job is to live according to all the rules that the Judaizers give you then your voice will be silenced. When Macarthur suggests to try landing at Inchon he will be silenced because this idea violates the rules. We don’t walk by faith, we walk by the dictates of those who “know these rules”. George Floyd was not the first person killed while being restrained by police. No, the trigger was that people finally stopped being so foolish and realized that these rules were a curse. I think that Macarthur was famous for one thing, he had the fewest men die under his command relative to the amount of men they killed. I think the ratio was 10 Japanese died for every American. Whereas he exemplified a General who walked by faith, the Japanese exemplified those who lived by the law. One of the things he did was to skip many of the Islands that the Japanese had taken and set up defenses on. As a result he was able to cut their supply lines, ignore many battles, and retake land in the Pacific at a spectacularly fast rate. Meanwhile these Japanese stayed on these islands according to their commands and twenty years after the war was over you could still find some poor Japanese soldier “holding down the fort”. What a great expression “cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole”. These Japanese soldiers still fighting on remote islands 20 years after the war is over, they are “hung on a pole”. It is as though one simple little rule has ruined you so that you are forever stuck in one place, unable to think or act rationally. Today we see many people are like that, "orange man bad" is the rule. The conclusion of the Mueller investigation was that the accusation of Russian collusion was a hoax, it was based on a political smear job by Hillary Clinton. So many did not listen to the outcome, they are bewitched with this mantra "orange man bad". When Trump was president many were alarmed because he wanted to have military parades, yet they say nothing now that Biden is president and has surrounded the capital with barbed wire and the military troops. When Trump was president they were outraged at "kids in cages" yet now that Biden is president they are silent even though we have three times as many being kept in the same cages. The border has become such a crisis even the President of Mexico is alarmed. Children are being sold for $3,200 by the traffickers, yet you hear crickets from those who have been bewitched. When Trump was president we were alarmed at his cavalier attitude towards the pandemic. He was accused of being xenophobic for closing the border to China, something he is now commended for. He was accused of being unscientific for promoting the use of Hydrochloroquine and yet is now vindicated by the scientific studies for that suggestion. No, Cuomo was held up to us as "the gold standard" for how to respond to this pandemic. Yet we now know that Cuomo was personally responsible for thousands maybe even ten thousand deaths due to his mandates. Everything they said about Trump was a lie, everything they said about Cuomo was a lie. But they are silent, it is as though they have no right to think for themselves, no right to question, no right to judge.

The promise of the Spirit refers to the blessings of the covenant. This is a very big topic and Paul covers it in the book of Ephesians where he goes into the seven blessings we have received. These blessings are given to us through our covenant, and the book of Galatians is all about how we receive this covenant. Abraham signed the covenant he had by circumcision. It was a sign on his flesh that they had a covenant of God. We receive our covenant by receiving Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Jesus Body and Blood are the signs that we have received this covenant. It is called a testament because to go into effect Jesus had to die. Therefore it is the death of Jesus on the cross which is the proof of our covenant with God. Jesus redeemed the Gentiles to fulfill the promise made to Abraham. Jesus death on the cross is part of the original covenant. That means that walking by faith is also part of the original covenant. What a picture! How could Paul be so bold to rebuke Peter in front of all? Who is Paul, he is nothing, he is less than nothing. How dare he speak to Peter, the one with the keys to the kingdom, the one who came from James, the brother of Jesus. Who does Paul think he is? Paul thinks he has been crucified with Jesus. If you are already dead what more can they do to you? This is what it means to have your heart circumcised by the cross of Christ. Whatever you could possibly hope for in this life has already been cut off, so you have nothing to lose because you have already lost it.

Galatians 3:15-29 Your authority is based on being Clothed with Christ

In the United States our covenant is the constitution. No law is legal if it is unconstitutional, that is, if it violates the contract that we have. This constitution was not made simply to those people alive at the time but is still in force as long as the United States is a country. The constitution also had promises of liberty and justice for all. In the same way our covenant was enacted when Jesus died and no one can come in later and change that. So then, why does Paul keep talking about Abraham and the old testament? The New Testament was prefigured in the Old testament. Our being rescued from this evil age was prefigured in the Jews being rescued from Egypt. Walking by faith versus walking by the curse of the law was also prefigured and Paul will talk about that. This is the mental model we need in our walk. Doing this allows us to be very fine in our reading of the Bible, to really hear the very subtle distinctions like the promise to Abraham’s “seed” rather than “seeds”. Paul was able to see that this promise to “Abraham’s seed” was a promise of Jesus Christ.

I think if you ask Christians they will tell you the gospel is about being saved, but what does that mean? Some will talk about being saved from eternal damnation, but how many will talk about receiving our inheritance? Our inheritance is the blessings of the Spirit. The first blessing is to get a vision of our inheritance, to see all that we will inherit. This includes that God will make a great nation of us. We will receive a great name. We have been blessed to bless others. Those that bless you will be blessed and those that curse you will be cursed. Finally, all the nations will be blessed in us. This was given to Abraham through a promise, not by keeping the law. Think about it, the blessing is to make a great nation out of slaves, you don’t need to be a great nation first, otherwise what would be the point? The blessing is to make your name great, you don’t need a great name first, otherwise what would be the point? These promises don’t depend on the law, no, God giving them to us by promise is the grace of God. These promises weren’t made to me, or you, or Moses. They were made to Abraham’s seed. Not “seeds” but “seed”. These promises were made to Jesus Christ. The law was a stop gap measure until Jesus Christ came. An egg shell is also a stop gap measure until the chick is hatched. Man fell at the time of Adam, Abraham believed God, it was reckoned to him as righteousness and God made a covenant with him to bless his seed. But that seed would not come for another 40 generations. God gave the control of the law to angels and mediators. The law only works when we trust everyone involved to have our best interests at heart. If I trust those people who are giving the law and mediating the law, then it can help bring me to Christ. So the proper application of the law does not oppose the promises of God. But there is no law that is going to tell the general to try landing at Inchon, there is no law that instructed Paul when he should withstand Peter before them all. Abraham is not going to sacrifice His only son unless he has the hearing of faith. MacArthur’s righteousness was because of his faith. Abraham’s righteousness was due to his faith, Paul’s righteousness was due to his faith. All of the promised blessings in the New Testament are dependent on receiving the word by faith and are only available to those who believe.

The Judaizers were “guardians”. They wanted the church to be under their control. But Jesus Christ is the head of the church, we are no longer under these third party guardians. Paul was taught the Old Testament by Gamaliel, and we can see how he uses that teaching as a mental map for his walk of faith. It helped to lead him to Jesus, but once he got the vision of Jesus he wasn’t guided by these weak rules, he was guided by Jesus, by His ministry, and by the clear portrayal of Jesus crucified on the cross. When Paul stood up to Peter and to those who had come from James he was standing as a child of God, a brother who had clothed himself with Christ. Our standing in the church is that we are children of God, not that we are “great apostles” or “the brother of Jesus in the flesh”. Your authority is that you are clothed with Christ, not in yourself, or in your natural man. This is a revolutionary message, not just for Paul’s day but for this entire age. This deals with civil rights based on race, religion, status, and gender. Enslaving the “working class” is the traditions of men. This revelation that we belong to Christ, that we are Abraham’s see and that we are heirs according to the promise is critical. Yes, Peter is and James is too. But when you stand at the judgement seat of Christ you can’t say “I was just following Peter” or “I was just following James”. That will not be reckoned as righteousness.

Psalm 19
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

Genesis 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times

We believe every word of the Bible is the inspired word of God. According to the Bible the stars, sun and moon are to serve as signs to mark sacred times. There were signs in the heavens that marked the Lord's birth and crucifixion. Therefore it should not seem strange that they are also given to mark the day of the Lord.

Isaiah 13:9-11 A solar eclipse is a sign of the coming of the Day of the Lord.


9 See, the day of the Lord is coming —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. 10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.

So let’s look at the recent lunar and solar eclipses.

April 15, 2014 was a lunar eclipse which occurred on Passover

October 8, 2014 was a lunar eclipse which occurred on Sukot

April 4, 2015 was a lunar eclipse which occurred on Passover

September 28, 2015 was a lunar eclipse that took place on Sukot.

There was a total solar eclipse that went over the US and was visible in Washington DC on August 21, 2017 and then another solar eclipse over Chile on December 14, 2020 which took place in the middle of the eight days of Hannukah.



Ezekiel 32:7-9

7 When I snuff you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. 8 All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you; I will bring darkness over your land, declares the Sovereign Lord. 9 I will trouble the hearts of many peoples when I bring about your destruction among the nations, among lands you have not known.


Here we learn a little more about this solar eclipse, it is “among lands you have not known”. The solar eclipse in 2020 during Hanukkah was over Chile, a land that Israel did not know at the time of Ezekiel and the battle over this new world order is taking place in the US, a nation that did not exist at the time of Ezekiel.


Amos 8:9-10

9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

Again, we see that this day is during a solar eclipse, and that it is during a religious festival. The festival begins with singing and ends with weeping. Hanukkah begins on December 11th, on the 14th Biden is supposed to get the electors from the electoral college that makes him president. Those who have perpetrated this fraud are claiming that this is the deadline and after that it is too late to contest the election. However, the Lord here says that their religious festival (Hanukkah) will begin (December 11th) with singing and then in the middle of it (ie the 14th) the sun will be darkened and the end will be a bitter day like mourning for an only son (December 17th).

29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;

30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

31 So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

32 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

May 14, 1948 Israel declared it's independence. A generation is 70 years (that would be 2018) 80 if you are strong 2028. To say that this generation will not pass away indicates that at the very least the strong ones are still around. Although end times eschatology has many interpretations I think there is a general consensus that within all of the prophecies there is a final seven years. One accepted theory is that there are basically three reapings (raptures), one at the beginning of these seven years (the first fruits), one in the middle of these seven years (the rest of the Christians who remain) and then one at the end of the seven years (the nation of Israel). Along with these the dead in Christ are also raised and those that die in the Lord during this time are blessed as well. The word tribulation refers to an instrument used in threshing the grain designed to separate the wheat from the chaff. The seven years of tribulation are desiged to separate out the believers from the unbelievers.