Summary of Bible references on the Rapture

[ZNP]

Luke 12:35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;

36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

This is a fascinating account, it clearly is linked to the account in Matthew where you have ten virgins, five are wise and five are foolish. But in that case the bridegroom is coming to get the bride and bring her to the wedding feast. One story talks about the wedding before the Lord comes and the other talks about the Lord's returning from the wedding. In Matthew we have virgins waiting to hear the call that the Bridegroom is coming, in Luke we have the Lord's servants who are getting everything ready. We are coworkers with the Lord. We may not know exactly when He'll return but we do know where He has gone, why, and have a general idea of when He will return. You should also know from what direction He will be coming so your watching is quite specific.

Many people use the verse that "no one knows the day nor the hour" as an excuse for not watching, but the point here is that is why you must be watching.

The other thing that is fascinating about this account is how strange it is. If the Lord is returning from the wedding is He really focused on finding His servants watching? This is an angle to this story that I would never, ever think of. But, if I was a butler, this would be the story from my perspective. The TV series Downton Abbey is about a British Lord and His house which is filled with servants. Interestingly the servants are at least half of the story. The first shall be last and the last first. We would generally think of a wedding being focused on the bride and the servants are of secondary importance. Yet Luke is talking about those that are raptured first, these were the ones no one regarded, the cast offs, the despised, the servants. Yet this story talks about the Lord girding Himself to serve them. This is what the Lord told us in the book of John when He washed the disciples feet. The Lord came to serve and not to be served. Since He did that we also should do the same. Everyone wants to be the center of attention, the belle of the ball, but if when the Lord comes He finds you serving the saints, watching, then you will be blessed.

Luke 1:46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

 

[ZNP]

Those who are raptured will not allow our house to be broken into.​

Luke 12:39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

What does He mean by the house and even more “the owner of the house”. If you are an “owner” you are a “Lord”, you are the master of your house. You rule and reign over that house. If you are a slave then you aren’t. You don’t own the house and you don’t make the rules and you don’t have the authority to do anything. “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”― Frederick Douglass. In a Democracy the country belongs to the people and they have the authority to prevent thieves from breaking in and robbing them. In a tyranny where you have a king, emperor, or dictator then the people do not have the position of owner. They don’t make the rules. However, what the Chinese and Russians have learned is that they must thoroughly control the education system because knowledge will make the people unfit to be slaves. This is why these countries shut down churches, synagogues and mosques. The knowledge that is conveyed in a church will make you unfit to be a slave. So then the freedoms guaranteed us in the US constitution for free speech and the freedom to worship, these rights are like a fence surrounding our house. You can’t break into the house of God without first breaching that barrier.


Therefore the US is our house. We are witnessing our election being stolen and thieves breaking in to rob us. They have shut down the worship in churches for “health concerns”. Is that reasonable? Every single year we have a flu season and the flu can be deadly, especially to children and the elderly. Churches are filled with children and the elderly. Why not shut down the churches every year? The reason is that adults can decide for themselves what risks they are willing to take. The “deplorables” have taken a stand in the street and refuse to allow our house to be broken into by these thieves. Were they content simply stealing the election? No, they are passing all kinds of crazy acts. They want to claim that telling a man he cannot use the girls bathroom is a form of hate speech allowing him to sue the organization or business that did this. They want this law to include churches, girl’s schools, Christians schools, etc. If this law is passed the potential for lawsuits would skyrocket. They also want every US taxpayer to fund abortions worldwide. Breaching the wall around us of the US constitution allows them to then break into the church, the house of God, and rob it.

This is very different from the word we have heard for 2,000 years that we are in the world but not of it, or that if the Lord's kingdom were of this world His angels would fight. Many times in the last 2,000 years there have been moves of the Lord that have required us to do things we would never have dreamed of. Martin Luther is an example, but there are others. The Puritans coming over to America is another example. To me this is like the Lord's word of the servants who right away open the door to Him when He knocks.

 

[ZNP]

Luke 12:35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;

36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

These verses have really bothered me, what wedding is the Lord coming back from? My understanding is that Luke is referring to those who are raptured at the beginning of the tribulation and that Matthew is referring to those taken at the end of the tribulation. In Matthew we have the call that the Bridegroom comes, the virgins all wake up, trim their lamps and go out to meet Him. But here in Luke the faithful servants of the Lord are likened to servants waiting on the Lord, watching for Him, keeping His house in good order as He returns from a wedding. This is clearly not the Lord's wedding because it says when He sees this He will gird Himself and serve these servants. No one is going to do that on their wedding night.

So then the Lord's return at the beginning of the tribulation is likened to Him coming back from someone else's wedding, finding faithful servants, and rewarding them. This other wedding must refer to the apostasy, the falling away, the marriage of the church with the world. The apostasy comes first.

 

[ZNP]

Esther -- Haman a type of the antichrist.
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This is a story about a super power, a “rich” and “glorious” kingdom full of people in a non stop party. There are some people of God in this story but repeatedly we hear of everyone eating and drinking with the winebibbers. There was a time when the Lord was with the United States, but at some point it becomes clear that the Lord leaves this party like it is described in Luke 12:36. Queen Esther and Mordecai are examples of the servants who were waiting and watching for the Lord and opened to Him immediately.

This is a book of the Holy Bible, is it not? Esther is not “righteous” or “upright” or “holy”. She is not described like Job, she is not “the mother of faith”. In fact in this book there is very little reference to faith, or God, or the worship of God. We don’t see her kneeling in prayer like Daniel. No, she is “beautiful and lovely”. Sometimes the world becomes very arrogant, thinking God is a “goody two shoes” and is unable to step into the mix in their sordid, filthy world. Well surprise, surprise, God is well able to play their game. Apparently you aren’t allowed to mention God in this book, but that doesn’t stop God from moving and acting as a savior.

This beauty contest is really hard to believe. They spend 12 months, can you imagine a campaign for President becoming a beauty contest that lasts for 12 months? Not only so there is one harem and then they are moved to a second harem. It is as though they have to first go through a primary before they get to the final round.

So after this year-long campaign there is another great banquet, I guess we would call it the inauguration ball, and then we had a lessening of taxes. The timing is a little weird, it is the third year of his reign that Vashti displeases the king and after a year long campaign Esther becomes the new queen. It is similar to Hillary displeasing the American people who then choose Trump over her. That is followed by Trump dropping their taxes.

Esther does have one redeeming characteristic, she obeys Mordecai’s commands to her. The Bible says to honor your father and mother with a promise that it will be well with you and you will live long on the earth. This is a central rule to this entire story. Vashti did not honor them and it was not well with her, nor did she remain long as queen. Although we don’t see the Jews as a people of God in this story we do see them as a nation that is cohesive and looking out for each other. Esther is rewarded, she obeys Mordecai and in return Mordecai clues her in on something he overheard about a plot to overthrow the king. Perhaps Vashti hired someone to write up her own version of the “Steele Dossier” to slander the king. Maybe it was the phony baloney impeachment they did to Trump because of Biden’s corruption in the Ukraine. Maybe it was the FISA warrants that illegally spied on Trump’s campaign. Whatever it was they don’t tell us, simply there was a plot among the palace guard and Mordecai warns Esther who in turn warns the King and that in turn results in these plotters to be hanged.

Two years after Trump was elected AOC was elected and the “squad”. What is weird is not that some extremist would be elected, but that everyone bows down to them. Schumer is afraid that if he doesn’t do obeisance he could be unseated. Pelosi also saw this BLM / Socialist wing of the Democratic party as crucial for her to stay in power and bows to them as well.

For months we heard that the BLM protests were “mostly peaceful”. Buildings were looted, there were riots in the streets with burning cars, people attacked, police murdered. But it was “mostly peaceful”. Then when over 100,000 gather in Washington DC for a “stop the steal” rally they are described as a mob even though it was peaceful and orderly. Not mostly peaceful but wholly peaceful with people praying, singing hymns and calling for justice. That night the mob attacked individuals wearing Trump paraphernalia the same way wolves would pick off the stragglers from the herd. But instead of clearly saying the violence was from these BLM and ANTIFA thugs they simply say that “violence broke out”. The mainstream media has become so vague in their news as to be useless, just as the report from Haman for why he needs to build a gallows.

This decree sounds a whole lot like the Great Tribulation. A decree is made to destroy God’s people, they have been sold for 10,000 talents of silver. It seems to mirror the Lord being sold by Judas. It prefigures the Antichrist.

The socialists have teamed up with those from China and Venezuela to destroy the democracy in this country. Biden and Harris are the ones that China chose to replace Trump, the media has done everything in their power to assist with this farce, the tech giants are censoring everyone who would cry out and keeping them out of the public square. We are seeing the history and books get “burned”. They put up algorithms to limit who would see any posts by those critical of Biden or Harris, or those who were conservative voices. We see widespread censorship where no one is allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. So Mordecai stands outside the gate, just like these conservative pundits on platforms like Gab and Parler not allowed in Twitter and Facebook. What we have seen is that those who are most concerned about the loss of freedom and liberty are those who were previously the “silent majority”. Those who have a while ago come to realize that the main stream media was lying to them. You are seeing these people on these various forums mourning for what is happening. So Esther is tuned into the mourning of the nation while the king and his various rulers are insulated from this. There was an interesting dream from a man called Dana Coverstone. In it Uncle Sam executes “Mr. Lincoln” (they get very upset when Uncle Sam refers to him as President Lincoln). It was reminiscent of the book of Esther and Haman building a scaffold on which to execute the Jewish people. This socialist movement in the US tied to these violent protests, riots and looting as a way to ultimately bring America back into slavery.



The message Mordecai sent to Esther was spoken loud and clear at the Washington DC rally for “Stop the Steal”. Stand up now and speak, or you will be on your knees for the rest of your life. There are some courageous people who are being revealed. They are challenging the election. We see them in the halls of congress refusing to acknowledge Biden’s claim to the Presidency until the States certify the vote, there are courageous whistleblowers who have signed affidavits, and I think the number is now over 1,000 affidavits. There are people praying for these ones to be protected at these rallies. Mordecai did everything Esther commanded just as these rallies and protests have. They have challenged the election results, challenged the courts, the legislators and the governors. This place described in Esther is ridiculous, you can’t do anything without a banquet. It would be as though it is not good enough for someone to say we have evidence of voter fraud, we need to do an audit. No, you have to also have hundreds of thousands at rallies all over the country to give the media and the world a “banquet” where they can make this a huge media event. This is no longer “see something, say something” rather it is 1,000 people see something, sign an affidavit under threat of perjury, then get a few hundred thousand together to get a rally and have a big media event before these drunken leaders will take notice. Look at how gleeful Haman and his friends are? After the election we had AOC calling for “accountability lists” where they would black list anyone who worked on the Trump campaign. This is like the gallows that Haman had built. Various CNN anchormen repeated this with threats to people concerning their jobs and their future if they support Trump. This election is weird, it is almost as though instead of one celebration it will be broken into two. First Biden claimed to have won even though it wasn’t certified, Trump hadn’t conceded and there was pending legislation in many states. Then we see the gallows being built for all those who refuse to concede with the second celebration planned for when the vote is certified. So now the leaders of this country cannot sleep. They are having a hearing on Twitter and Facebook use of censorship during the election. They now see that those who had been warning about the lies of the Mainstream media these big tech platforms have finally woken up to take this seriously.

To be continued...

 

[ZNP]

8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

This is what cancel culture is, the ground henceforth not yielding its strength. You could have 2 million police in the US but if one or a couple of them kill innocent people and get away with it the Earth will literally reject all the police. No longer will it yield its strength. They will lose the trust of the people, they will be questioned, challenged and sued repeatedly. Juries will not trust them when they bring cases against others. This doesn't just apply to police, teachers can get cancelled, politicians can get cancelled, businesses can get cancelled.

Now if this can happen if the police kill one innocent person, what happens when Governor Cuomo kills thousands by mandating contagious people with Covid19 go back to nursing homes or other facilities housing the most vulnerable people?

At some point the land will spew the leaders out. We call this a revolution.

 

[ZNP]

Esther -- With what judgement you judge you shall be judged

We now have a vaccine for Covid19, it was developed in record time. In January of 2020 we got the gene sequence of this virus and by March these companies were beginning human testing of the vaccine. The reason both of these companies moved with what is totally unprecedented speed is because the President stepped in to guarantee that the US would buy and distribute the vaccine. We did in two months what usually takes two years at the very least. So you might look at that and say yes, CNN is now giving Trump begrudging credit for this just as Haman probably did for Mordecai. However, Mordecai uncovered a plot to overthrow the king, what does the Pandemic have to do with a plot to overthrow the US? Great question, it turns out that the evidence that the virus originated in the Wuhan bioweapons lab is as close to irrefutable as we can get with the censorship and opaqueness of the CCP. We do know that it did not originate in the fish market as they claim and we also know that patient 0 is almost certainly a worker at the weapons lab. Finally, we know from the gene sequence that it is stitched together from 3 different viruses kept at that lab and that the odds of this happening by chance in nature is much greater than 1 billion to 1. OK, but again, what does this have to do with a plot against the US? There are only two ways this got out of the lab, negligence or intentional. As a rule you do not release a bioweapon unless you have the antidote and of all the countries that have been greatly hurt by this China seems to have suffered the least. That does not make any sense unless they already had the antidote. It seems that China would have no reason to damage the world’s economy until you see Hunter Biden’s laptop and realize that China has a vested interest in seeing that Joe Biden replace Donald Trump. A year ago our economy was doing so well that was not going to happen barring some economic catastrophe. The evidence is growing, China is stole this election, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are compromised, and yes, there is a plot to take over this country that may have been narrowly averted. One thing that is very interesting is the lack of attacks on the challenges to the votes in various states by high profile people. A week ago you could get Obama, Biden and Pelosi all condemning this. But today what you see is a couple of way out loonies on the internet that no one has ever heard of. These people were making the argument that looking for voter fraud is OK in white neighborhoods, but is racist if you do it in minority neighborhoods. Apparently we should not check to see if voters in minority neighborhoods are being disenfranchised of their voting rights as citizens and if we do then we must be racist? It doesn’t make sense, it seems that by definition any policy that is unevenly applied based on race is “racist”. But that is their claim. It is one thing to be a loonie but it is another to be a thug like the mafia. Not only do they make this lame argument about being “racist” but they then dox the county officials they didn’t like. That is they identified their address and where their kids went to school with the threat that harm would come to them if they did not change. So we have seen a huge change in status from a former President to a street thug in the last week. So what Haman’s counselors are telling him is you will certainly lose this battle. If China can control our election our democracy, our freedom, and the republic on which all of this stands will be gone. We saw what happened when NAFTA went into effect, how it turned Detroit into a wasteland and how the US lost all of our manufacturing. We saw how we went from a net exporter of oil in the 70s to a net importer and how these two things had destroyed our economy, turning us into borrowers and not lenders. All of these things have changed in just the last four years. Manufacturing is blossoming in this country due to the new trade deals and the US is now self sufficient in oil again. You can be sure if China takes over the US all of this will end. Pipelines will be shut down, production of fossil fuel will be banned, jobs cancelled, and shipped off to China. There is a right way to petition the king and a wrong way. Vashti demonstrated the wrong way. Praying, putting your trust in God, being humble, but also speaking the truth is the right way. In September of 2018 Trump signed a special decree concerning election fraud. It enables the US government to freeze the assets of those who are involved, not only in fraudulently changing ballots as Dominion is alleged to have done, or of intentionally miscounting votes as 234 affidavits in Michigan allege, or of favoring one candidate over another, etc. But it also allows the US government to freeze the assets of companies that attempt to aid the foreign interference with bogus polls or censoring information. There is going to be a very dramatic turn of events when the US is in a position to freeze the assets of Twitter, Facebook, Google, NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS and ABC. This will cause very many people to come forward and testify. It is now dawning on all these companies that they have fallen into a trap. What is this “gallows” that Haman built? They have been threatening to do blacklists so that anyone who supported Trump would never work again. That sounds like a “gallows”. They have been censoring channels on Youtube and using algorithms to ban them so that they do not show up on google searches or a search on Youtube. In this way they want to destroy the channels financially. That sounds like a gallows. There are people who have been doxing people, posting their personal information online as a threat. They threaten to cancel anyone who disagrees with them getting them fired for having an opinion. This gallows has already been made. When the country realizes they have been lied to and deceived by these evil ones the pendulum will swing to the other side. Platforms like Rumble and Parler will see a huge boost. Channels like Newsmax and NTD will see a huge boost.

So then it is very possible that this current crisis will have a happy ending. Perhaps the “fake news” will get judged on the gallows they built and it will be a good day for democracy and the internet both. Esther has a happy ending, why not our story as well.

What we see here are two very specific issues. Haman was attacking the Queen, it was treason, and he was judged for it. However, he was also attacking the Jewish people as a whole. At the end of the age there will be two battles for the people of God. The saints who are raptured at the beginning of the Tribulation will be those standing for righteousness, obeying the word of God, and watching for the Lord’s return. However, after that there will still be many more of God’s people who will not be taken at that time and will need to “brace themselves” for the battle that is to come. This battle is not won by power or might, rather it is won by the Spirit of the Lord. That is the lesson. What is it that is moving in hundreds of thousands if not millions of people to stand up for righteousness in these rallies? It isn’t power or might, it is the Spirit of the Lord. Have a backbone, trust in the fact that deep calleth unto deep. You are not the only one who will respond to righteousness and truth. There are people in every walk of life who will as well. It is critical that we are speaking the truth like Esther and Mordecai. These fake news sites sacrificed the only thing of value that they had which is that people trusted them to tell the truth. Once you lose that no one will listen to you anymore. If Mordecai becomes more and more powerful it is because people know that he speaks the truth and that they can trust him. Our sword is the Spirit which is the word of God. So who knows who these people were back then, but today the names are Facebook, Twitter, CNN, etc. However, you cannot touch the spoil! If anyone is doing this to get rich or plunder these companies they will be exposed and suffer the same judgement. The focus and goal must be on the truth and on righteousness. Let’s be honest here, there must be a thorough reckoning. Treason is serious and that is what is taking place here. These people must be held accountable, we must have thorough investigations, thorough trials, we must clean up the corruption. Right now the US is being watched by the rest of the world with great concern. However, after this the rest of the world will look on us in awe, seeing how to stand up to the corruption that they live with every day. We will be that shining city on a hill. According to Colossians the festivals and feast days are “a shadow of things to come but the Body is Christ”. We need to learn to pay careful attention to the calendar and the high holy days because they are significant, full of meaning, and are a prophetic vision of the future. Esther shows how this world will be judged at the end of the age. This book shows how the focal point for this judgement will be with this one superpower where you are not permitted to refer to God, where the leaders are chosen with a year long beauty contest, and where the people of God live. But even though they are in the world they are not of the world. You will learn to appreciate every person from the least to the greatest. You will see that your salvation came from people you never expected because you are both taking a stand for the Lord and it is by the Spirit of God that the victory will be had.

Haman gambled and lost. Basic principle, if you dig a pit you will fall into it. We study history so we don’t make the same mistakes.

 

[ZNP]

5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

This account in Revelation 12 sounds like what happened in Esther. Satan, like Haman, is a very important counselor of the King, he is caught in treason and is removed by Esther and Mordecai.

Esther and Mordecai being given a place to rule is one kind of a type of this rapture. Remember, the rapture as I am presenting it refers to the day of redemption.

 

[ZNP]

Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned”. This happens at the time of the rapture and immediately preceding it. This is what is taking place with the investigations into election fraud, we are gathering the weeds into bundles to be burned. This happens before the wheat is gathered into the barns.

This also is similar to the story of Esther. Haman and his coconspirators are the "weeds" that were gathered into bundles and burned. You have to gather them first into bundles before you can replace them.

 

[ZNP]

Revelation 2 -- Ephesus and two paths that Christians take

The apostasy is a very big sign of the Lord’s coming, we learn this from Luke 12. The church is a house of feasting, the Lord’s table is a rehearsal for the wedding feast. If Jesus is returning from this feast it indicates that one by one these churches have been damaged by the apostasy. Therefore let’s look carefully at the account in Revelation concerning the seven churches and trace these two paths.

The letter to Ephesus shows us how how our Christian life begins. We heard the message and believed, it was brought to us by a messenger of the Lord, someone that He holds in His hand. Then we got a vision of Christ in the midst of the church. These are two essential visions for our Christian life contained in the gospel of salvation: Christ and the church. In every one of these seven churches the Lord refers to their works. James said that faith without works is dead. These works indicate the condition of the church. When I read these two chapters of Revelation I see my own experiences in every church. I feel that our experience of the church can be in any one of these and over our lifetime we can experience everyone of them. But here, in Ephesus, is where the split begins and two paths diverge. It is possible to be a believer, in the church, but who has left their first love. It is like floating down a river and the further and further you go on that path the worse and worse your situation becomes. I feel the next six churches give us a view of these two possible outcomes. You can see those who repent and do the first works, returning to their first love, and you can also see those for whom the light goes out until the Lord steps in and removes the lampstand. I subscribe to the theory that the deeds of the Nicolaitanes refer to those who climb above the laity creating a clergy laity system. I am well aware that there are many Bible experts who will squash this theory as unsubstantiated, but to be honest I hate their teachings and get nothing from them. So then, what does it mean to leave your first love? Everyone of us when we first confessed and repented had a “first love”. That was a vision of a Savior that loved me, He didn’t come to judge me but that through His work I could be saved. But at some point many of us leave that first love and become judgemental, self righteous, even “holier than thou”. So how do you overcome? Well we are told later in this book that they overcame by the blood and by the word of their testimony. You need to speak, you need to share, and instead of hiding your sins or pretending you are too holy to be a sinner you need to take the Lord’s blood and stand on His righteousness. Once you leave your first love you begin to pretend to be holy, nothing but a religious pretense. Also, you begin to make up phony testimonies that instead of feeding the saints beats them up.

 

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The Church in Smyrna -- no one wants to be last.

Next, we have all experienced death and resurrection. Especially death to our ego. No one wants to be last, everyone wants to be first. The works here are really different, instead of labor we have tribulation. Instead of patience we have poverty, and instead of them rejecting evil they are being blasphemed by the “synagogue of Satan”. Here, in my experience, you can see the clear divide. Who was our first love? If you return to Him you will be with Him in tribulation, in poverty and in the slander of the religious leaders. Who are those who have left their first love? They leave because they don’t want tribulation, they don’t want poverty. They distort the gospel to create a gospel that says being rich is a sign that you have been blessed by God (and thus being poor is a sign you have not been blessed). They are blaspheming the Lord and His body. If you repent and return to your first love you get to eat the tree of life. There is no crown, but your soul is satisfied, your hunger is filled, and you know it is right. But if you do that you will be strengthened to endure the tribulation, poverty, and blasphemy of these false believers which the Lord calls “the synagogue of Satan”. I don’t mean that they aren’t believers, no they are most likely believers, but they are false, they pretend to be holy, and they pretend to love the Lord. They will say they are a Christian but show no interest in watching for His soon return. What is the second death? Is that referring to those who get rebuked at the judgement seat of Christ? Is that referring to those believers who are not raptured but instead have the weeping and gnashing of teeth? What a nice promise to those who have willingly chosen to take up their cross and follow the Lord enduring tribulation, poverty and slander. You will not be hurt when you appear before the Lord’s judgement seat.

 

[ZNP]

Pergamos -- To hold onto your first love you must be “against all”.

So things have become even more entrenched. Synagogue of Satan doesn’t seem as intense as “where Satan’s seat is” and “where Satan dwelleth”. Those that have left the first love have become that much stronger, that much more entrenched, that much more an enemy of God. When you lie you have to keep fortifying and strengthening that lie. Every time someone seems on the verge of exposing your lie you have to become that much more vehement to shut them down. Antipas, meaning “against all”, was one who was a faithful witness. He did expose their hypocrisy and so they killed him. Balaam was a false prophet. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t a prophet, he was. It simply means he was false, he prophesied for money. He didn’t serve the Lord. On the one hand he spoke the word of God, on the other he would teach the enemies of God how to defeat the church. So what do you do if you are a phony Christian. You can pretend for awhile, but you are going to get exposed. You don’t have the tree of life, no one is being fed, no one is satisfied within, and no one has peace that they are right with God. So, you need a prophet, a Balaam, one who will truly speak the word of God for money. You hire this guy and you can keep the charade going longer. Those who have returned to their first love have saints like Antipas, but they get slandered and killed by these phony believers. What happened? This is straight out of Animal Farm. Initially the church started and everyone hated the works of the Nicolaitans, we can all know the Lord we can all worship the Lord. But those that left their first love soon realize they can’t, they need a crutch, they need something that can make this charade appear real. So, they hire for themselves a prophet for hire. He can be a real prophet but soon he will be a puppet on a string. Do you know what that is like? A church caught in scandal, the Lord shines His spotlight on you, exposes the hypocrisy for all to see, like smearing your face with dung. To overcome Balaam, the Nicolaitans, and those that slew Antipas, that is not a small thing. That is like crossing the Jordan river into the good land. That is like becoming transformed into one of the mighty men of David. That is like having a hidden supply that never runs dry.

 

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Thyatira -- where you learn to rule with a rod of iron.

Eyes like a flame of fire is a repeat from chapter 1. The eyes like unto a flame of fire is likening Him to the powerful judge, signified in the heavens with Taurus the Bull where one of the stars for his eyes is red. To have feet like fine brass indicates that He is frequently polishing his gospel by speaking and sharing. It sounds good, works and charity and more works. But labor is deeper than works and tribulation is deeper still. These works seem almost superficial, and they realize it, so the last works are more than the first. Wow, this is worse than Balaam. Jezebel was a gentile queen, not even an Israelite. Her name means “chaste” but she was anything but, so it means she pretends to be holy but it is a deceitful scam. She taught her husband to murder others and steal their vineyards simply by accusing them of being a heretic. She employed hundreds of prophets of Baal, no longer is it just one guy who is a real prophet compromised by money, but now they aren’t even real prophets of God. They are all about money, pushing their prosperity gospel. We have seen something like this just recently with Falwell’s fall. We also saw what happened to the Catholic church when their sins were exposed. Those that committed the sins are cast into all kinds of legal issues, and the cost of these kill the children. Catholic schools have had to shut down in great numbers due to the cost of the lawsuits. Look at the progression of those that leave their first love. They become a synagogue of Satan, that grows till Satan’s seat is with them and he dwells with them. They bring in false prophets like Balaam, but that gets worse as they give the reigns to the evil Jezebel and she hires prophets of Baal to try and really pump the money up. Ultimately she realizes the fastest way to get rich is by slander, murder and theft. But she has to hide this, so it becomes “the depths of Satan”. As a result those that held to the Lord in tribulation and poverty, those who were slandered, persecuted and killed. They can only remain as long as they are so simple they are clueless to what is going on. If you can make it through this furnace, then you are truly ready to deal with the world as a ruler with a rod of iron. I teach high school in the inner city. Over the years I have been clueless as to how my kids have scammed me. But every year you learn. Scammers like Balaam and Jezebel can teach people to be fallen and wicked, they can also teach the saints to rule with a rod of iron.

 

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Sardis -- Just a facade, a pretend church.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse we come to Sardis. Many of us were taught that the Catholic church (seemingly quite similar to Thyatira) was idolatrous and evil. No doubt the deep things of Satan and Jezebel (Vatican city) are. But at the same time you can find really wonderful saints who do hold to their first love. The movie “The Mission” does a wonderful job of showing the dichotomy of these two groups within the Catholic church. But the seven Spirits of God represent God’s speaking to the churches. This church is dead, they are lucky if they can get just a trickle of God’s speaking. It is like one of those phony Hollywood towns where the buildings are nothing but a facade. Faith without works is dead, this church is “ready to die”. It is like a tree that has been infested with bark beetles and is being dried out. The membership is cratering because they don’t have the living word of God, as a result the only thing they can afford is to pay for the pastor and the building. It is nothing but a shell. Right now the internet is exploding with testimonies of dreams and visions of the coming rapture. The saints are on high alert, literally. Yet you can still hear many from these dead denominations with their “ho hum, heard this before” response. However there are a few exceptions to this rule and this is the only reason they haven’t died yet. Blot your name out of the book of life! Whatever happened to “once saved always saved”? The problem is that this doctrine has crashed into the golden rule: as you have done it will be done to you. Sardis has learned you can no longer kill Antipas like they did in Pergamos or like they did in Thyatira. So instead they “blot your name out”. They excommunicate anyone who stands against the corruption or sinfulness of these dead churches. So then it is a righteous judgement, you blotted the names out of those who came to you from the Lord, so in return the Lord blots your name out. These are really important attributes. The Lord is holy and true, there is no charade, no pretense, no hypocrisy.

 

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Philadelphia -- They have the key of David!

The key of David refers to the “chief of staff” always having the key to enter in and talk to the Lord. Every believer has an angel that will always appear before the Lord, but to have the key of David means you can always appear before the throne with your petitions. Many new believers “ask amiss” they ask according to their flesh or natural man. To be able to open and no man shuts is how you overcome in Pergamos, to shut and no man opens is the lesson you learned in Thyatira.

If there is one thing I can’t stand it is a powerful man of God. Really, where in the Bible do we see a mighty man of God? Moses was the meekest man, Elijah basically curled up in a ball and wanted to die. The name Paul means “small”, surely you don’t think Peter was a mighty man of God. Here we are in Philadelphia, and they have “a little strength”. They are only able to do two things: keep His word and not deny His name. They remind me of those wise virgins Jesus talked about who had filled their vessels with oil but were afraid it might run out if they split it with the foolish virgins. We saw those of the synagogue of Satan in Smyrna, Pergamos and Thyatira. By the time we got to Sardis they were so dead even Satan wouldn’t want to be associated with them. These ones persecuted the saints who had returned to their first love. But at some point they’ll realize they were wrong. Most likely that will be after the rapture when they are left behind. In Sardis and Thyatira there is a promise that some will overcome and be raptured. But the promise to this church, the entire church is raptured. So what is it that makes this church special? They already have a crown, but there are a lot of thieves out there looking to scam them out of that crown. Wow, a lot of rewards. What first caught my eye was “and he shall go no more out”. Everyone in this church has “gone out” previously. Maybe they were with Antipas when he was slain and got driven out of Pergamos. Maybe they discovered the deep things of Satan in Thyatira and had to leave. Maybe they were blotted out of Sardis, excommunicated. Regardless of the cost, the persecution, the slander they were faithful witnesses of the Lord. They had a backbone, just the kind of saint you want for a pillar to hold up the temple. You can see the expression of God in them and you can see they are hoping for a better kingdom like those in Hebrews 13. This path they have taken has caused them to be transformed, they have a new name. They are no longer the old man but Christ is all and in all in them. Well that is great, seems complete, strange that there is still one more church.

 

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Laodicea -- This is the apostasy

This is what happens when the Lord tells you to leave and you don’t say Amen. This is what happens when you are willing to watch the faithful and true witness leave but you stay behind. This is what happens when you don’t have faith in the one who is the beginning of the creation of God. You are afraid to start from scratch, better just stay where you are even though it is dead. This is the boastful, arrogant, and condescending church. In Pergamos others blasphemed them saying they were poor yet they were rich. When you return to your first love this is what you discover, those who the synagogue of Satan is blaspheming as poor it turns out are rich in faith. In Thyatira, those saints who made it through still holding to their first love, they were tried in the fire. In Sardis, those who walked in white with the Lord even though they got excommunicated for it, that is how you pay the price for white raiment. But these saints never did say Amen to the Lord, they made excuses for not being a faithful and true witness, choosing to be more pragmatic and diplomatic. And when it came to trusting in the Lord to make that leap they were faithless, not believing that He was the beginning of the creation of God they were afraid to start all over again. The Lord loves them, but they must be zealous and repent. They have shut the door on the Lord and are ignoring Him even though He is outside knocking for them to open up to Him. In Luke the Lord said that those who opened to Him straightway would be blessed, He would gird Himself and feed them. These were the ones who refused to open that door. How do you overcome? By the blood and by the word of your testimony. By saying Amen to the Lord, by being faithful and true to the Lord, and by trusting Him even if you have to lose everything. On the other hand what is the apostasy? It is a falling away, it is in stages, it begins when you leave your first love and refuse to repent. It gets worse when you choose to be first and refuse to be last. When the word dries up you hire false prophets. That leads to bringing in Jezebel and prophets of Baal, whose whole focus is on money, not the Lord. Eventually the church is totally dead, nothing but a facade, like a tree eaten from the inside, dried out, ready to die. You claim you are rich and mighty in the word yet you are poor, blind and ashamed to open the door and let the light shine on your pathetic situation. That is the apostasy.

 

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1 Samuel 16 -- Jesse’s Son

I like this, I am not sending you to David, I am sending you to Jesse. He didn’t choose David, he chose one of Jesse’s sons. Spoiler alert -- I have a very different reading of this chapter than you often hear. Generally you hear about how biased Jesse was towards David. But up to this point what have we learned. Kings have to be able to deal with bullies. That is what older brothers teach you. I think it is instructive that Michael Jordan learned to play by playing his older brother who was better than him at the time. Whatever doesn’t destroy you makes you stronger. When you are smaller, weaker, slower then your only chance is to be smarter. I think this is what we see with Tom Brady. This is also what we see with David.

Samuel, the Mike Tyson of the Priesthood, knows that King Saul is now much more powerful than he is and is watching him. But God is not just all powerful, He is also the one in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. A lot of people complained about how mean Michael Jordan was but his response was “I never asked anyone to do anything that I didn’t do myself”. Saul was told to follow God’s instructions and Samuel is also told this.

The elders of the town trembled, this is the context. Saul was deceitful in asking Samuel to honor him before the elders. He was able to frame the narrative, “Samuel is trying to get power back for himself”, “Samuel is involved in insurrection”. No one wants to believe it but who are you going to believe? Obviously Saul must have some secret information to say this. Saul has just had some victories, maybe Samuel is jealous. The elders are trembling, knowing that they could be accused of insurrection by Saul, so what is Jesse thinking when he is invited by name?

Do you realize we all need to learn from Samuel. NFL teams who let Brady get picked 199th need to learn from Samuel. People who let Hitler, Lenin, or Mao take power need to learn from this. We all make choices all the time, and these choices are all about choosing people. When you buy a stock you are really investing in people, leaders. Success or failure has a great deal to do with your ability to select the right people. It can be very difficult. I can definitely understand the “never trumpers” attitude, the choice was not easy to make. But being able to discern the heart, that is the key.

The general interpretation points to this to show how Jesse was biased against David. But let’s consider what we know, Jesse has a small business, it is his flock of sheep. He has left David in charge so he surely has a certain level of trust in him. Second we see that Jesse is presenting his seven oldest sons to Samuel so surely Jesse knows what is going on. Third we know that everyone in Israel including the people here know there is a rift between Saul and Samuel and that they could be accused of insurrection for just eating with Samuel. We also know something else, Samuel was not sent to David, he was sent to Jesse. If you watch the NFL you will discover that they will draft 8 players from one college team and no players from another. They have learned that certain coaches and certain programs prepare players very well and others do not. Smart players go to teams that have great coaches not just to win championships but even more to be prepared so that they will get drafted. That is what Jesse is, all of his sons look like kings.

Suppose you were in Jesse’s shoes, being the good Christian that you are, you want to be one with the Lord. If Samuel represents the Lord then I want to stand with him, on the other hand if he has truly become rebellious I don’t want to be tarnished with his rebellion. Now being the great coach that you are, do you really think you are not aware of how good Michael Jordan is? So my hypothesis is that holding back David was a way in which Jesse is testing Samuel. If God is speaking to him then he will know about David, if he is out here on his own, then he won’t. This is a high stakes poker game and Jesse is holding an ace in the hole. Also, compare Jesse with Israel (Jacob). Israel made a big deal over one of his youngest sons, Joseph. How did that work out? We learn later there is a lot of competition in Jesse’s household between David and the older brothers. None of them can complain later, their father gave them the very best chance to get picked. Look what Jesse did! Samuel has to play his hand. The entire town has this big sacrifice and they won’t start until David comes? At this point only a fool like Saul would not understand what is going on.

There is a lot of superstitious teachings about this that I absolutely hate. So let’s try and illustrate this with a modern example. Tom Brady was not regarded as anything by anyone. He was a back up quarterback to Drew Bledsoe, but one day Drew got hurt, Tom was sent in, and from that day on the rest was history. Being sent in to play was being “anointed” in front of the brothers. The Spirit coming powerfully upon him was going to 10 super bowls and winning 7 of them. But that does not mean that saying “Tom, go in, you are playing” is what made him into that. His father, his training, his preparation, his faith in the Lord, his hope, his love. That is what made him. Now it is possible that he could have been cut from the team the first year (he barely made it) and if that had happened he never would have been “anointed” and you never would have seen the “Spirit of the Lord come powerfully upon him”. He told people beforehand that if ever gets a chance to play that will be that, he won’t be on the bench any more. If Samuel could just create a David by pouring oil on him then Saul would be a David, or one of David’s older brothers would be a David.

This is a big deal, don’t ignore this. Evil and wicked people are tormented. The Lord can work to change the situation long before you actually see anything happen. Sounds like a very good education. He knows music, can compete well on the battlefield, speaks well, and has a good appearance. How a person appears in public, the way they dress is not insignificant. I went to a high school that had a uniform. Likewise while in the Boy Scouts we had to have inspections in every troop meeting. You may think that is trivial, but when you went on hikes it really brought home how critical it was. Likewise the private school I went to everyone was on a team. If you weren’t on the first team you were on the second, if not on the second then on the third. By comparison our high school in Brooklyn has 2,000 kids and two basketball teams with about 20-30 kids on them. How about speaking? That is the hardest, it involves reading and writing and comprehension but it also involves much more. It would be wonderful if each kid in high school had to stand in front of the entire assembly and give a five minute speech. Very few could do that. Finally, what about music. Studies have shown how important it is to an education, but music has been all but eliminated from the public schools. So what we see here is that David has had an excellent education, who was responsible for that? Yes, Jesse did that. That is what “the son of Jesse” means. Apparently this mean, biased father, gave his son a top flight education, so good that even the King in Israel has heard about him. Jesse is paying to have his son work for the king. Once again, where is the bias? Where is the abusive treatment everyone talks about? This is like sending your kid to Harvard. Jesse can only do so much, obviously God had a lot to do with this as well. This story tells me that Jesse is a man of faith. He has faith to believe that if God is speaking to Samuel that he’ll tell him about his other son. So I am going to make another inference from this story. We see Samuel’s prayer with God. Samuel learns where to go, who to talk to, and is guided every step of the way. Why can’t that also be true of Jesse? Maybe God had already told Jesse of Samuel’s coming to town which is why he was not trembling. Maybe God told him to keep David in the field. Maybe Saul requesting David was an answer to his prayers? The bottom line that every honest expositor of the Bible has to deal with is this term “Jesse’s son”. Whether it is Samuel, God, or King Saul everyone is talking about “Jesse’s son” not about David.

This blog is focused on the rapture and all the verses surrounding that. But too many are confused by this, just like when David was anointed and the Spirit moved mightily. Look at the preparation, the training, the instruction. Look at his father and his brothers. Knowing the day of the final exam is important, otherwise you might miss it. But if you have not prepared for the exam it won't make any difference if you know the day.

 

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1Samuel 17 -- I am the son of Jesse of Bethlehem

I read this, I know Jonathan is listening to this and yet he doesn’t go out against Goliath. This is how faith works, it grows and grows unto “all the riches of the full assurance of the faith”. Jonathan had “one rich”. He knew that there are two kinds of bullies, those who boast and those who bite. He had the faith to go up against those who boast, but not against those who bite. But to become a king you need to be able to deal with all bullies and so we need to go on to see David’s faith.

Spoiler alert, once again I see this being a very significant portion of the story: David is the son of Jesse. We learn here that Jesse is very old, that is given to us, I would add that we also learn that Jesse is very wise. I know that my interpretation of this chapter differs from all the depictions of the little kid with the lucky shot. Atheists want to depict the Bible stories as fairy tales. In the fairy tale God comes in as a fairy God mother who waves His magic wand and poof, the kingdom is saved and the cute kid becomes king. I don’t buy it. If Samuel is the “Mike Tyson” of the Priesthood, then Jesse is the Sun Tzu of the time. He is the one who turned David into a killer. Everything in this chapter is straight out of “the Art of War”.

First off David has been spying this situation out for forty days and then going back to Jesse to report what is going on and for them to come up with a plan. The idea that David one day comes into camp and sees Goliath is a myth from those who don’t read the chapter. It says in verse 15 “David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep in Bethlehem”.

Second, Jesse sent David to the camp when he killed Goliath. Jesse had 5 other sons besides the three at the camp, but he has chosen David to be the one going back and forth. I believe they have been working on a strategy and practicing for those forty days.

This all played out “as Jesse directed”. Some people are drawn to the battle, they are good at it, they are motivated for it. Jesse had eight sons yet he knew that David was the one who was a killer. David had been in Saul’s house as his armor bearer. Why would the “armor bearer” not be with Saul on the battlefield? Once again, this is “as Jesse had directed”. David has been anointed by Samuel to be king, he is the armor bearer to Saul, and we know that this kid is not shy about getting into the fight. Yet David agrees at this critical moment to go back and tend sheep? I don’t buy that. David is not like you or me. He is like Tom Brady, no one is going to tell Tom Brady he has to leave the football battlefield to go home and take care of the kids. So again, “taking care of the sheep” to me is an excuse to work out a plan and strategy to take out Goliath. The first thing we see this morning is the timing. It was essential that David arrive in time to hear Goliath’s challenge. This is portrayed as though David hears this for the first time, yet the word is very clear here “whenever the Israelites saw the man”. David has been going back and forth for forty days, he knows about Goliath, he knows what people say “whenever they saw him”. David sounds like Joe Namath to me, guaranteeing a victory prior to the super bowl. Eliab knows David better than anyone else there and he has seen through this charade. He knows this is an act and David already has a plan. He is angry because he feels it should have been him. This reminds me of Scottie Pippen sitting out the last seconds of a game because they didn’t draw up the play to give him the final shot. Apparently he couldn’t just go straight to Saul.

This is why I feel Jesse had to be involved with the planning of this operation. I can believe the basic narrative that some shepherd boy is able to kill Goliath with a sling and a stone. But this story is not just about that. David is already realizing he needs to strengthen and encourage the warriors first. Killing Goliath is only part of the story, he will need them to follow him once Goliath is killed. There are many elements to this story which we are about to see that suggest very careful thought and pre planning. Your average superstar young man is not going to be thinking about those elements, to them it begins and ends with killing Goliath.

This is an important point. In the US our warriors are marines, Delta forces, green berets. They all have one thing in common, they all have crew cuts so that no one can grab their hair in battle. If you were to portray Goliath in a movie you would choose Arnold Schwarzneggar. We are not told that Goliath has a crew cut, but we are told he is a warrior from his youth and that he is wearing a helmet. If you were going to plan on taking out Goliath you would want to know exactly what his armor is and where the weakness is.

Remember Jonathan who knew about bullies who bark and those who bite? David has experience with the bullies who bite. Both the lion and the bear are like big bullies who bite.

Nope, not buying this for a second. Very young man volunteers to fight Goliath, ok. Young man has killed a lion and bear before, ok. Young man, novice to the battlefield, tells the king he’s not going to use the armor he gave him? Not only so he says “I am not used to them” or “I have not trained in them”. He has been training, his father has been training him. They know that the one weakness of Goliath is the forehead, it is unprotected. So David has been training for forty days to hit that one little spot. We also learn that speed, agility and maneuverability are his advantage. Goliath is a giant, or in other words is a big target who is slow and lumbering about with extremely heavy armor. David is going to beat strength and size with speed and agility.

Once again, this is straight out of Sun Tzu the art of war. You don’t despise your enemy, you don’t underestimate your enemy. David is coming at Goliath with a brand new strategy that he has never seen before. Up until this point warfare was an arms race that depended on strength and size. They have gotten bigger and bigger and more heavily armored until we reach this extreme of Goliath. His armor weighs 5,000 shekels (about 75 pounds). There is no way he could move quickly or with any agility.

This is so important, who taught this kid! Wow, what a schooling. This word is not spoken to Goliath even though it is addressed to him, this word is spoken to the Israelites. Stop cowering, stand up, be a man, today is the victory.

Let’s visualize this. In the middle of two armies these two are battling on an open field. David looks like a little kid. He used his sling and Goliath falls. Doesn’t mean he is dead, there was no instant replay, but it does mean that everyone on both sides is now watching very intently. Up until this point David looked like a little shepherd boy going up against this giant, a warrior, really an embarrassment. The Israelites are so poor they don’t have any weapons, no warriors, just some little kid. Now in an instant David holds up Goliath’s head with one hand and his sword with the other. There is now no doubt that Goliath is dead and David instead of looking like a harmless little kid looks like some kind of bloody monster out of a very scary horror film. Total confusion, a minute ago I was laughing at him, now I am terrified of him. They tricked us, they have been playing this whole time and now they will destroy and devour us. Run! This is a brilliant strategy to confuse and terrorize the enemy, in a single instant he has been transformed from a joke into a bloody monster. If you, or I or anyone else was David we would have thought this battle begins and ends with killing Goliath, but it doesn’t. That was merely the event that sparked a victory on the battlefield.

David led this charge, he had Goliaths sword in one hand and his head in the other. He used the head for a shield. Think how terrifying, if someone stood to fight with him they would immediately know this is the guy who killed Goliath. But this is also where I realized Jesse trained him. How do you hold Goliath's head during a long battle? You have to have a really good grip in the event you have to block someone’s sword with this. The only way I can think of is to cut the neck at the base, giving you the entire neck as a handle. Every picture I have seen depicts David holding the head by the hair. Several problems with that, first it means you have to take off the helmet which in turn makes the head much less effective as a shield. Second it presumes the hair of a warrior is long enough to hold the head by, and third how hard would it be to cut that hair in a sword fight? Wouldn't be much use as a shield. Yet we are told that at the end of the day, after fighting with the Philistines all day, David is still holding the head. So I find the suggestion that David is holding the head by the hair to require a number of assumptions that are unlikely, or just implausible. Cutting the head off at the base of the neck takes forethought. Every play I have ever seen shows some kid running up there, grabbing the sword and just hacking the head off without any thought that I have cut this precisely so have a good handle for the second part of this battle.

This is what David and Abner could see. There are two ways to interpret this. One way: Saul is a complete idiot with Alzheimers and has forgotten that David is Jesse’s son, even though he has had him playing music for him in his home and told his father he wanted David for his service. Or what he means by "whose son is this" is “who trained this kid”.

How many times do we have to be told that David is Jesse’s son before we realize that this is a key point of the entire story.

 

[ZNP]

The only commandment with a promise, honor your mother and father that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the Earth. David, saying "he is the son of Jesse" is David honoring his father.

 

[ZNP]

Luke 21:34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth.36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

According to this warning and the warning in Revelation 3:3 we need to watch and be careful so that the day of the Lord does not come on us suddenly like a trap. The context of the warning is Jesus giving us the signs of His coming. Doesn't this verse bother you? There are those who continue to say "no one knows the day or the hour" and yet in Revelation 3:3 the Lord says if you don't watch you won't know what hour the Lord will come.

There is one way to reconcile this. You have those who are watching, they will see the Lord coming prior to His coming. Every time the Lord says that we don't know the day or the hour He says that therefore we need to watch. We know the signs, we know the prophecies, so we need to pay attention and watch so that when we see these signs we will realize the Lord is coming.

 

[ZNP]

2 Corinthians 10 -- Weaponizing free speech

Anyone who posts online has been attacked (if you are standing for righteousness). My cousin called me an idiot and a psycho. Others are condescending. The tabernacle had a very thick skin for a covering and you need one too. So let’s talk about our weapons versus the weapons of the flesh. The flesh will do personal attacks (idiot, psycho) and this is called an “ad hominem” attack and is the go to weapon for someone who has nothing else. When they do this it reminds me of the guy whose sword has just been demolished taking his shoe and throwing it at the person. For example, my cousin's comments came after his first comment where twice he spelled thee as the. You can’t spell the word “thee” yet you call someone else an idiot? Truth is critical, facts are critical, but neither of these are “tempered steel”. You can make a weapon out of iron and it is certainly much better than throwing shoes or having a sword out of cardboard, but it is still not as good as tempered steel. The word of God is tempered steel. But you can’t just use the Bible. What is totally awesome is when you mix the word of God with the facts and experiences, combined like carbon steel. That will destroy fortresses. A “sophisticated argument” is much better than to just call someone an idiot, or a “chump” (Joe Biden did that) or the “deplorables” (Hillary Clinton did that). The techniques that big tech are using are extremely sophisticated so let’s explain. These technology platforms like Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, Twitter all have algorithms that recommend other content you might like. The goal is to get you “hooked”. So if you like cute cats you will see more videos of cute cats. But it is even more sophisticated, they will look at GPS data, see where you work, where you live, where you go throughout the day and then recommend content that people in your neighborhood and place of work like. But they also will begin to try and not just give you what you want but to manipulate you into wanting what they want you to want. China is the best at this which is why their apps are being seen as an attack on our state. Let’s say I want you to like a candidate that the Chinese Communist Party prefers one candidate over another. There are things they can do, they can use TikTok to get many people to sign up for a rally that don’t show up to undermine their campaign. They can also send you stories they want you to read while not sending you the stories that might change your opinion about their candidate. They censor stories, claim they are fake news with their “fact checkers” and do many other things to manipulate what people see and believe. But here is their achilles heel, every word, every action they have taken is recorded. It is very easy to lie to people when they trust you but once they realize you have been lying to them everything changes. We can punish every act of disobedience that they have committed but only when the church’s obedience is complete. Otherwise the church gets caught up in the hypocrisy. Judgement begins with the house of God, the dross is removed and we are fashioned into a weapon that the Lord can use. For example, I have heard that the Texas AG’s lawsuit was motivated by some lawsuit that he is hoping the President will pardon him. Reminds me of something they once said about a man I admire more than any other, He was casting out demons and they said that He cast out demons by the prince of the demons. The accusation was an ad hominem attack, didn’t address the facts of the case at all. We need to be humble. If you have the truth, realize others can also have the truth. There are 350 million people in this country, I can believe that 3 million of them are “idiots” and “psychos”, but 75 million? If I see 75 million standing up for something then I want to know what it is. Think about a herd of antelope, they don’t just look to see if they can see the lions, they react if any of the herd appear to have seen a lion. We have promises that “no weapon formed will prosper against you”. That refers to us being built up by the word of God. In chapter 2 of 2Corinthians Paul tells us that the Lord leads us around so that we always triumph. Not sometimes but always. The arrogance that we have seen by some of these companies is stunning. “We called the election”. The media has no authority to “call elections”. They are behaving like fools. This is being fully revealed by an expose where someone recorded the daily editorial meeting at CNN for two months. They are playing these for the world to see and it is revealing an arrogant fool, they put themselves in a class all by itself “the most trusted name in news”, not anymore. They have overstepped. All of the major media outlets along with Twitter and Facebook censored the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. They said it was because it was “hacked”. It wasn’t hacked and just a week earlier they posted the story about Trump’s tax return everywhere, and that story was hacked. They claimed it was Russian disinformation so the Director of National Intelligence went on they record to make it very clear that it was not part of Russian disinformation, the laptop was Hunter’s and the evidence of criminality was authentic. But our news is about the gospel. What exactly is the gospel? Jesus is Lord, He is the king and He will return to judge the earth. That is the message here, and He will return much sooner than these people think. This is disgusting, boasting in someone else’s labor. During the debates Joe Biden boasted that if he were president he would bring this pandemic under control. He didn’t tell us how, only that he would do a much better job. After the election he did share his plan, everyone wears a mask. Wow! I am speechless, I have been wearing masks in NY since April. Maybe if he had come out of his basement he would have known that we are already doing this. Also he is going to give everyone the vaccine! Really, his plan is to use the vaccine that the Trump administration had developed in record time, not only so but somehow take credit for it like this is his plan? I know that many Christians are very uncomfortable with mixing the bible with current events, especially about the powers that be. For two thousand years we walked around in a desert area where we never discussed the Pharaoh’s or the leaders of the five tribes in Canaan. It is like we have crossed the Jordan river and are now in their territory ready to dispossess them. Surely every Christian knew that this was where we were headed. You weren’t planning on staying in the wilderness forever, were you?