Summary of Bible references on the Rapture

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VII. Summary Position​

EvidenceDirection it points
Isaiah 13:11, 19 — global scope, "glory of kingdoms"Babylon falls from a height, not from exhaustion → early
Jeremiah 50:31 — "most proud"Same → early
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 — peace/safety, sudden destructionTies sudden judgment to the opening of the Day of the Lord → early
Luke 17:28-30 — Sodom typologyConfirms manner (sudden, total); its own wording leans toward the end of the age for timing — caveat, not support, for early placement
Revelation 14:8 — proclaimed before the bowlsStructural evidence for early placement, with 17-18 as flashback/expansion
Revelation 18:7 — "I sit a queen... shall see no sorrow"Confirms unbroken pride at the point of fall → early
Revelation 12:6, 14 — woman's flight, 1,260 daysThematic (Lot/deliverance) parallel is legitimate; used as a timing anchor it more naturally supports a mid-tribulation reference point, not early — held loosely

Working conclusion: The convergence of Isaiah 13, Jeremiah 50-51, 1 Thessalonians 5, and Revelation 14:8/18:7 supports Babylon's judgment as the catalyst that opens the seventieth week, with Revelation 17-18 functioning as a later narrative expansion of an event already announced in 14:8 — not as a late-tribulation event. This is a structural and thematic case, not a numbered chronology, and should be presented in the manuscript as such.
 
An Example of binding and loosing

Matthew 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees...11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees...17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven...21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Think about this. Why, right after saying whatever you bind will be bound and whatever you loose will be loosed does He then say He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and be raised the third day? Why not just bind the elders and chief priests and scribes?

22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. 24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Jesus is binding the doctrine that you don't need to go to the cross and He is loosing all those who would come after Him. In this chapter we are told to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and we are led to understand that doesn't refer to bread but to doctrine, and then Jesus binds the root of all their doctrines. First and foremost they will teach you that you don't need to take up your cross. But if you reject that then they will rebuke you if you want to come after Jesus. I have been rebuked by Christians many, many times. Not for sin, not for saying we don't need to take up the cross, but for having the audacity to think that I could follow after the Lord. If the elders and priests have taught something, who are you to dispute it? In order to follow after the Lord you will have to abandon the doctrines of the scribes and pharisees and that is what you get rebuked for.

For example, "how dare you say the ten virgins carrying lamps in wedding procession are bridesmaids!" That is one example of many.
 
Proverbs 10:5 He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.
 
The Day of the LORD is Near: Five Vantage Points

A Synthesis Brief — Ezekiel 30, Isaiah 13, Obadiah 1, Joel, and Zephaniah 1

Purpose and Method​

This brief synthesizes a study of the phrase “the day of the LORD is near” across the Old Testament prophets (Isaiah 13:6; Ezekiel 30:3; Joel 1:15, 2:1, 3:14; Obadiah 1:15; Zephaniah 1:7, 1:14), and organizes the material around a single observation: each “near day” oracle is spoken from a distinct vantage point. Read together, they form a composite picture of the day of the LORD as it bears on five different parties — a Gentile commercial/political power, a Gentile imperial power, a kinsman-nation, the covenant people themselves, and (in a further typological extension) those who remain after a future rapture event.

Two kinds of material are distinguished throughout, consistent with the falsifiability standard (2 Peter 1:20–21) applied elsewhere in this research: (1) the grammatical-historical sense the text asserts about itself, drawn from standard expositors (Keil-Delitzsch, Block, Motyer, Oswalt, Robertson, Allen, Baker), and (2) typological or applicational readings developed in discussion, which are original synthesis rather than exegesis and are labeled as Prophecy Parallel Notes throughout.

I. Ezekiel 30 — The Day of the LORD Against Egypt (a Gentile Commercial/Political Power)​

Ezekiel 30 belongs to the oracles against Egypt (chs. 29–32), dated to the years surrounding Nebuchadnezzar's Egyptian campaign (c. 587–571 BC). Verse 3's “the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near” applies the stock day-of-the-LORD formula to a specific historical judgment: Egypt's political and religious pride — her idols, her Pharaoh, her alliances — broken by Nebuchadnezzar as Yahweh's appointed instrument. The chapter tours Egyptian cities and their idols (vv. 13–19) and closes with the image of Pharaoh's arm broken while Babylon's king is strengthened (vv. 20–26).

Prophecy Parallel Note (typological, non-analytical): read allegorically, Egypt corresponds to the global commercial/financial order and the Nile to the flow of capital. On this reading, vv. 10–12 (“I will make the rivers dry”) parallel a 2022–23 liquidity contraction after the 2020 stimulus flood; vv. 4–9 (allies dragged down with Egypt) parallel contagion through supply-chain-linked economies; and vv. 20–26 (one arm broken, another strengthened) parallel a dollar-hegemony transition in which one monetary order weakens as a rival strengthens. This is an applicational layer, not the plain sense of the text, which names literal Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar.

II. Isaiah 13 — The Day of the LORD Against Babylon (a Gentile Imperial Power)​

Titled “the burden of Babylon” (13:1), this oracle was delivered roughly a century before Babylon supplanted Assyria as Judah's chief threat, and names the Medes as Babylon's conqueror (v. 17) more than 150 years before Cyrus's actual conquest in 539 BC — a point conservative expositors treat as a marker of genuine predictive prophecy. Verse 6's “the day of the LORD is at hand” introduces cosmic upheaval language (vv. 9–13: sun, moon, and stars darkened; the heavens shaken) that most expositors read as functioning on two horizons at once — Babylon's literal historical fall, and a type of the final, cosmic Day of the LORD, the same language Christ later uses of the eschaton in Matthew 24:29. The taunt against the king of Babylon that follows in 14:12–15 has long been read (Jerome onward) as operating on two levels: a human king, and behind him, a spiritual power.

Together, Ezekiel 30 and Isaiah 13 form a matched pair: judgment against two categories of Gentile world power — one economic, one imperial — in each case executed through a named foreign army as God's chosen instrument.
 

III. Obadiah 1 — The Day of the LORD Against Edom (the Betraying Kinsman)​

Obadiah, the OT's shortest book, is dated by most expositors to shortly after Jerusalem's fall in 586 BC. Edom — Israel's twin-brother nation through Esau — is condemned not for opposing Judah as a stranger would, but for standing aloof, looting, blocking escape routes, and handing over refugees to Babylon (vv. 10–14), a betrayal aggravated by kinship. Verse 15's “the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee” turns Edom's specific case into the paradigm of a universal lex talionis principle. The book closes (vv. 17–21) with Zion's deliverance and repossession of Edom's territory — read by most conservative expositors as pointing forward to a fuller eschatological hope.

Prophecy Parallel Note (typological, non-analytical): Esau/Edom is read as a permanent type of the “profane storyteller” — the twin brother of Israel, “the people of the book.” The anchor text for this reading is Hebrews 12:16, which names Esau explicitly “profane” (Gk. bebelos, that which crosses from sacred to common) for selling his birthright “for one morsel of meat.” On this reading, mainstream entertainment (film, television, popular music) inherits biblical narrative substrate — a chosen deliverer, sacrificial death, resurrection — and monetizes it while stripping or replacing its true Author (Harry Potter's “boy who lived” marked by sacrificial love and a scar, delivered through the very sorcery Deuteronomy 18:10–12 forbids; The Matrix's chosen-one and Judas-figure who betrays his crew literally for a meal). Verse 16's “ye have drunk upon my holy mountain” is read as appropriation of the sacred story's power without its covenant source, and vv. 17–18's image of Jacob as fire and Esau as stubble as the eventual reclaiming of that narrative inheritance by its rightful bearers. This is explicitly the author's synthesis, not Obadiah's stated subject, which is the historical nation of Edom.

A related, separate line of discussion concerned public figures who have disclosed childhood abuse within the entertainment industry (e.g., Corey Feldman, Todd Bridges, and others on the public record). That material stands on its own factual footing — documented, first-person disclosure of a real and acknowledged industry pattern — and was deliberately kept distinct from unverified claims of specific wrongdoing based on association or attendance records, which do not meet even a T4 evidentiary standard and were excluded from this synthesis.

IV. Joel — The Day of the LORD Upon the Covenant People (Internal Warning, Then External Vindication)​

Joel is addressed internally — to elders, priests, and the nation of Judah itself (1:2, 5, 9, 13) — not to a foreign power. The locust plague and drought of chapter 1 function as covenant discipline in the pattern of Deuteronomy 28. “The day of the LORD is at hand” (1:15) and “nigh at hand” (2:1) are conditional warnings calling Judah to repentance, fasting, and a solemn assembly, with the explicit hope that God “may turn and repent” (2:14) — unlike the unconditional pronouncements against Egypt, Babylon, or Edom. Only in chapter 3 does the day of the LORD (3:14) turn outward, vindicating God's people against the nations gathered in the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Joel therefore supplies a category the other oracles do not: judgment beginning at the house of God, before it is executed on the nations — the same pattern named explicitly in Ezekiel 9 and 1 Peter 4:17 (“judgment must begin at the house of God”).
 

V. Zephaniah 1 — The Day of the LORD as a Prepared Sacrifice​

Dated to early in Josiah's reign, before his 622 BC reforms, Zephaniah 1 indicts Judah for syncretism — swearing by both the LORD and Malcham (v. 5), astral worship, and the practical atheism of a complacent merchant class who say “the LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil” (v. 12). Verses 7–9 describe the day of the LORD as a sacrifice the LORD himself has prepared, with Judah's own princes and royal house as the offering and (most likely) the coming Babylonian army as the invited “guests” — the same structure as Ezekiel 30 and Isaiah 13, a foreign power as God's executing instrument, but now turned against God's own house. Verse 14's “the great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly” intensifies Joel's warning into the book's climactic, creation-undoing judgment scene (vv. 2–3, 14–18).

Prophecy Parallel Note (typological synthesis — non-analytical, not a T1–T3 signal): Zephaniah's “prepared sacrifice” is set alongside three other judgment-and-deliverance scenes read as pictures of a future rapture-and-tribulation sequence: Samson's death pushing out the pillars (Judges 16:29–30); Moses summoning the Levites and the 3,000 slain after the golden calf (Exodus 32:26–28); and Elijah's fire on Carmel followed by the slaying of Baal's prophets (1 Kings 18:38–40). In each of the first three, the slain are the antagonists while a faithful party is vindicated or removed — a pattern Zephaniah 1:7–8 does not cleanly repeat, since the “sacrifice” there is Judah's own royal house. The proposed resolution is that Zephaniah's sacrifice describes not a verdict against those left behind, but the cost subsequently required of them: those not removed at a rapture event are not thereby damned, but are called — like the tribulation martyrs on the sea of glass mingled with fire (Revelation 15:2; cf. 6:9–11, 20:4) — to a martyr's path. The supporting type is Matthew 16:22–24, where Peter's “this shall not be unto thee” (rejecting the cross) is immediately met with Christ's call to “take up his cross, and follow me” to that same audience — those left behind, having in effect held Peter's position, are called to the cross-path they had hoped to avoid.
 

Synthesis: Five Vantage Points on One Day​

Arranged together, the near-day oracles yield a composite structure:

  • Ezekiel 30 — Egypt: a Gentile commercial/political power, judged externally and unconditionally.
  • Isaiah 13 — Babylon: a Gentile imperial power, judged externally and unconditionally, with a double near/far horizon.
  • Obadiah 1 — Edom: a kinsman-nation, judged externally on a lex talionis principle for covenant betrayal.
  • Joel — Judah: the covenant people, warned internally and conditionally before the day turns to vindicate them against the nations.
  • Zephaniah 1 — Judah, again: the day as a prepared sacrifice, extended typologically to those who remain after a future rapture and are called to a martyr's cross rather than judged as reprobate.
The consistent structural thread across Egypt, Babylon, and Zephaniah's oracle is that God summons a foreign power as His own instrument of judgment — Nebuchadnezzar, the Medes, and (implicitly) Babylon again in Zephaniah — while Joel alone offers a conditional door to repentance before judgment falls. Read as a whole, the near-day oracles move from the outer ring of Gentile powers (Egypt, Babylon), inward through a betraying kinsman (Edom), and finally into the house of God itself (Joel, Zephaniah) — the day of the LORD closing in from the nations toward the sanctuary, consistent with the broader biblical pattern that judgment begins at the house of God.

A Note on Method​

The typological material above (Egypt/Nile as commercial system and capital flow; Edom as profane storytelling; the rapture-and-sacrifice reading of Zephaniah 1, Samson, Moses/the golden calf, and Elijah) is retained here as Prophecy Parallel Notes for the Feast of Trumpets Convergence manuscript. Consistent with the Hobab Briefing's own falsifiability discipline, none of it should be cited as exegetical consensus or elevated above the grammatical-historical readings given by standard expositors in Sections I–V above; it is original applicational synthesis, explicitly labeled as such.
 
New signal logged — Temple Incense (Ketoret) Recovery Claim

Source & tier: T3/T4. YouTube interview (Christian prophecy-commentary channel, unidentified host) with Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel365 News, promoting "Project Qumran." Advocacy source with a direct financial interest — the segment explicitly solicits donations and email signups for the project it's covering. Treat accordingly; not independent reporting.

What's actually new vs. what's recycled: The core claim — ~300kg of reddish incense material recovered from a sealed cave near Qumran, tested by Rabbi/Prof. Marvin Antelman and later analyzed by a palynologist for plant-species identification — dates to a 1988 discovery by Vendyl Jones, with testing conducted in the early-to-mid 1990s. This is the same "old-event-recirculated-as-current" pattern already flagged for the Sanhedrin high-priest story (Type 1 distortion: true historical event, presented without clear dating so it reads as fresh). The only genuinely current element is the interview's claim that additional decades-old samples are presently being flown to France for renewed testing "as we speak" — a single-source, unverified, unscheduled claim with no named lab, no timeline, and no independent corroboration.

Distortion check: Fails corroboration (T1/T2 absent — this rests entirely on Antelman's own decades-old self-description as "certain," by his own account never peer-confirmed; no subsequent published verification located). Financially interested source. Recommend not citing specific figures (300kg vs. 600kg dispute, "11 organic + 3 inorganic ingredients") as established fact — only as a claim under this project's own framing.

Trigger assessment: Does not meet Fault Line 8 trigger criteria. No sacrifice performed, no structure built or begun, no change to Israeli government prohibition. This is precursor-material research (ingredient identification/testing), several steps removed from priesthood reinstatement or an altar. Status remains MONITORING.

Prophecy Parallel Note (non-analytical): Source ties the ketoret directly to Revelation 8's incense-and-prayers imagery preceding the trumpet judgments.
 
When do they announce Peace and Security?

The 15th of Av carries a density of "curse reversed" meaning found nowhere else on the Jewish calendar, making it a fitting date for an announcement that the desolation dating to the Temple's destruction has ended. This date already commemorates the moment the wilderness generation's dying under the curse of the spies finally ceased, the day the wood-offering for the altar concluded, and — most strikingly — the day King Hoshea ben Elah removed the roadblocks his predecessors had erected to keep Israelites from making pilgrimage to Jerusalem. That last detail alone makes 15 Av the one date on the calendar whose existing, longstanding meaning is literally "the barrier preventing access to the Temple was taken down." Layered onto that is its position exactly six days after Tisha B'Av — the date of both Temples' destruction — so that an announcement on the 15th would function as a direct, symmetrical answer to the 9th: the day of the curse's onset now bracketed, within the same week, by the day tradition already treats as its lifting.

This calendar fit also clarifies a sequencing question in Daniel 9:27 itself. The Hebrew verb rendered "confirm" (higbir, from gavar, "to strengthen") implies reinforcing something already established, not creating it from nothing — which suggests the resumption of oblations and sacrifices could itself be the confirming act, the visible seal placed on a covenant already agreed to. But that sequencing has a practical precondition: sacrifice cannot resume on the Temple Mount without prior political and security clearance — the removal of the modern equivalent of Hoshea's roadblocks — and that clearance would not exist without an underlying agreement already having been reached and communicated in advance. In other words, the covenant would need to be in place, and its terms known, before the security apparatus permitting physical access could be authorized; the sacrifices resuming later on Feast of Trumpets would then mark the covenant's confirmation, not its formation. The agreement itself would necessarily precede the feast of Trumpets by however long securing that access requires — the announcement is the covenant surfacing that the curse has been lifted.
 

WARNINGS!!! More Revelation on Marty Breeden Dream - Additional Warnings from Marty/Wife & Others!​

 

"Lord" Without Paying the Price​

Peter's words to Jesus set the pattern for every counterfeit gospel that follows: "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you" (Matthew 16:22). Peter wants the title without the cross — Jesus as "Lord" while skipping the very thing that makes Him Lord in the first place. That instinct, once you see it, is the entire distorted gospel in a single sentence.

The true gospel is not complicated at its foundation: Jesus became Lord by paying the price to redeem us. The authority was earned through actual suffering, actual death, actual resurrection. Every counterfeit version of this gospel offers some version of the same trade Peter proposed — the crown without the battle. "This is like claiming you are the champion without having to enter the ring to battle for the championship." You get to call yourself Lord, you get to wear the title, but you never entered the ring. You are a phony. You don't bring salvation to anyone, because you were never willing to pay anything for it — all you actually care about is saving yourself.

This matters because every specific counterfeit examined elsewhere in this study — cheap grace, cultural accommodation, mystical avoidance, the mark's false security, the harlot's transactional intimacy — is simply this same core lie wearing a different costume. Each one offers standing, authority, or belonging without ever requiring the actual cost that produced Christ's own Lordship. Each one lets you skip the ring and still claim the belt.

The test this gives us is simple to state and hard to apply honestly: does this teaching, this leader, this version of faith ask anything of you that resembles a real cross — real submission, real cost, real willingness to lose something for the sake of Christ? Or does it hand you Lordship, security, spiritual maturity, and belonging as a free upgrade, no battle required?

Philippians 2 gives us the true pattern in full: Christ, "being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant... and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil 2:6-8). He already held the Lordship the counterfeit gospel wants handed out for free — and He emptied Himself of it anyway. That is the only Lordship the true gospel has ever offered: one paid for, not one claimed.
 

Be Dressed Ready for Service​

"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him" (Luke 12:35-37). This is not a passive posture. Dressed and burning are both active states requiring continual maintenance — a robe can come untucked, a lamp can run dry of oil. Readiness is not a decision made once; it is a condition kept.

Notice what the servants are actually waiting for: a master returning from a wedding banquet. That detail is usually read as incidental — wedding feasts ran long, so nobody knew exactly when the master would walk back through the door. But sit with the picture a moment longer. The servants themselves were not at that banquet. They stayed home, dressed, lamps lit, doing the work of the house while somewhere else a celebration was happening without them. Their entire assignment was to be found faithful at the door regardless of how long the celebration outside dragged on.

That is the position of the faithful in every age: excluded from whatever counterfeit celebration is running its course elsewhere, and entirely undistracted by the fact that it's happening. The servants don't send someone to check on the party. They don't grow anxious that they're missing out. They tend the lamp.

And the payoff for this posture is astonishing, and easy to miss on a quick read: "Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them" (v. 37). The master, upon finding his servants ready, reverses the entire household order. He serves them. This is the picture behind every warning in this study — Eden's expulsion, Sinai's golden calf, Adonijah's interrupted feast, Samson's collapsing temple, the letters to the seven churches. In every instance, a false celebration is underway, and the true Lord's return breaks in on it. But the outcome for the ones who kept watch is not merely survival. It's reward, intimacy, and being served by the very One they were waiting for.

So "be dressed ready for service" is not a grim, white-knuckled command to avoid getting caught unprepared. It's an invitation into the best possible outcome available to any servant: the master returning not to scold you for missing the party, but to sit you down and serve you himself.
 
Matthew 18:1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

At the same time as what? At the same time as the transfiguration on the mount and the healing of the epileptic and Jesus saying that the sons of the king do not pay tribute.

2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

A little child wants to do everything and try everything. If you show them a piano they will want to play it. If you are singing a song they will want to sing with you. Later when we get older we get scared, we know how much work it is to learn how to play a piano and so we shy away, we know we don't have the "greatest" voice and so we defer. Why do Christians sit in pews and let someone else do all the speaking? Because we know how much work it is and that this person does it better than us. We need to be converted. We need to be just like we were when we first learned to walk or when we first learned to talk. Everyone starts out at that same spot, we simply have to focus on improvement. For example, consider Tom Brady, the quarterback. When he came into the NFL he was not a superstar, was not even a very good quarterback. If anything he had the bare minimum skill set for a quarterback in the NFL, but he gave himself fully to improve every day. According to his coach it was four years before he was a very good starting quarterback in the NFL. But he continued to improve until by the time he retired he was truly the greatest. He wasn't born that way, that is what we need to be converted from. I thought Michael Vick with all of his speed, or Aaron Rodgers with his incredible skill at throwing or Brett Favre with his incredibly powerful arm. Everyone has certain skills, but Brady showed us that regardless of the skills we are born with we can improve day by day until our skills exceed others.

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

It is humbling. According to his coach Brady started by taking the lead with the practice squad. He started at the bottom, he didn't despise correction, he embraced it. Everyday he was looking for one more thing he could be better at rather than thinking "how great he is" his thought was "how can I improve". He was the slowest quarterback in the league and knew that his job was to give the ball to someone else as quickly as possible. We need to humble ourselves.

5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

The other half of this "humbling ourself" is to appreciate the skills others have. It was amazing how Brady could take mediocre players and turn them into champions. One year he didn't have any "skilled players" on the offense with him and yet they went to the Superbowl. He won the "lowest scoring Superbowl in history".

6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Look at what is happening today. Many Christians have stepped forward to speak on the internet, on Youtube, on Facebook, etc. What do we see? We see other Christians mocking them, ridiculing them, insulting them. You need to believe in the Lord before you can step forward, but once you do step forward it doesn't mean you won't make mistakes. What we need is correction, encouragement, leading and guiding. We need coaching. Is it any surprise that the people who are in the hall of fame always turn out to be the ones who were the "most coachable"?
 
Matthew 18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

There is a difference between correction and offences. It is not fun to be disciplined. It is not fun to be corrected. A lot of times we get very offended at being corrected and yet, we know, that at least in part it was warranted. You have to take it to the Lord. You will see that the correction was warranted, your complaint was how it was handled. You will think it should have been done more diplomatically, more discreetly, more whatever. But then you should remember the Lord's word, if you forgive men their offenses then God will forgive yours. I love to forgive people who are not that diplomatic, not that discreet, not that polite because those are my faults. Being a Christian is a contact sport, it is not for wimps. Take a look at Jesus going to the cross, that was OG (original gangster), that is not for wimps, and if you want to follow Him you need to take up your cross.

8 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

This is OG. The reason so many Christians struggle for years with all kinds of issues is they don't cut off the offending members. Recently this woman showed up at my door unannounced. She was telling me she was abused by her husband and showed me her arms which she said was bruised, I did not see any bruises. She told me her husband was doing things that were criminal and she was thinking of calling the police. (This was not the first time she has made these complaints). So I told her if he did something criminal call the police, I am not the police. She then said she had called one of the friends of the family and this one said that he would need to hear the husbands side of the story first, he is not going to condemn someone based on her testimony alone. (That is the correct attitude). This offended her and so she came to us. (She was seeking to find someone who would condemn him based solely on her testimony). So when I heard that I told her she needed to take this to the pastor, not me. I declined to listen to her anymore, nor did I allow her into my home. The proper procedure for dealing with an offense was being followed. No doubt she had complained to her husband many times. After that she brought in one or two other brothers and sisters to hear her case. We have come to the conclusion that she is not trustworthy. She has also brought in the Pastor and his wife. At this point her going around to the rest of the congregation looking for someone who she can poison is evil. By all means, if there is abuse, contact the police. But claiming abuse is not the same thing as proof. We need to learn to cut off gossip, cut off evil speaking, cut off false witnesses.

9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

We listen to stuff because "we want to know what is going on". But it poisons you. The next day her husband had a job interview and so he dropped off the three kids with us to watch. We did not gossip, we did not try and get dirt on his wife. There is a proper procedure for dealing with sins and over the last fifty years I have had to go to the elders at least three times and every time it resulted in someone being excommunicated. I'm not saying that we are to ignore real problems, but you need to know before you go to someone that this road leads to excommunication. If you think this sin is not that serious then don't take that road. Forgive and move on. You also need to realize that honorable, faithful brothers will look at the entire situation and if you are at fault you too will be condemned. Finally, I did not talk to anyone but those involved in mediating the situation about these sins. Satan is the one who wants to spread this stuff around the congregation. Our one goal should be reconciliation. Spreading evil speaking around makes it harder to be reconciled, not easier.
 

Suddenly Comes the 3 Days of Darkness 7-24-26@4:00 PM Shared 7-25-26​

 
Looks like the US will soon take ground forces into Iran.
As if we do not have enough problems.
And the "Art of the Deal" is to be a bully.
And he was so convincing that he conducted himself morally.
And his autistic son made something like 160 million last year.
And he acts as if his mind is unsettled and being hammered by demons.
I want to feel sorry for him.
But he has clearly gone away from Christ.
 
LTL said:
Looks like the US will soon take ground forces into Iran.
As if we do not have enough problems.
And the "Art of the Deal" is to be a bully.
And he was so convincing that he conducted himself morally.
And his autistic son made something like 160 million last year.
And he acts as if his mind is unsettled and being hammered by demons.
I want to feel sorry for him.
But he has clearly gone away from Christ.
Click to expand...
Pray for him to repent and return to the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Matthew 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

The Lord is pointing out a very specific sin. If you divorced your wife because you wanted to marry someone else, then obviously that is adultery on your part, and this woman who marries you is also committing adultery. But that is not the point here, the point is you are forcing your ex wife to commit adultery. The other three people (the one who marries her, your second wife, and yourself) all made this choice themselves, they weren't forced. But in those days there was no retirement account, no pensions. The woman inherits with her husband, so her husband and children are her retirement account. When you break your covenant with her, she is put into a situation where she is forced to commit adultery and so you are responsible for that sin as well. Now if she had already committed adultery and that is the reason for the divorce then you didn't force her to commit adultery, that was her choice. Also you are not responsible for breaking the covenant, that also was her doing.

But I list this to highlight how common is sin. 40% of Americans have experienced divorce. Not only so but 95% of Americans say they have had sex prior to marriage. So the sin of fornication is near universal in the US.

We can repent of these sins, the blood of Jesus washes us. But know this, if the Lord has forgiven you of this sin then you also should forgive others. That includes a spouse who has sinned. Romans says "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". These sins are common.

Another stunning conclusion from this is that all divorces involve adultery. We think that if adultery is the reason for divorce, then it involves adultery, but according to the Lord if you get divorced for any other reason than adultery then you commit adultery when you remarry, and you force your spouse to commit adultery when they remarry. One consequence of women's liberation is that close to 70% of divorces in the US are initiated by women, so they are now the ones responsible for forcing their husbands to commit adultery.

10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. 11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
 
Matthew 19:23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved 26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. 27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. 30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

I just wanted to point out one thing. Most of us do not consider ourselves "rich". When we hear that we think of multi millionaires and billionaires. But look at what the Lord said in verse 29 "and every one who has forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or fathers or mother or wife or children or lands for my name's sake". The Lord's definition of "rich" is much broader than ours.

Let me share a personal testimony. My father, mother, brothers and sister all rejected me speaking the gospel to them. My sister went ballistic about not wanting to hear the name of Jesus Christ. I was rebuked for discussing Jesus' birth over Christmas because it would be "offensive to our cousins who were Jewish". So "keep your religion to yourself" applies to me, but not to them. Now you are stuck with a decision to make, you can continue to attend family functions with your mouth closed, or you can focus your labors elsewhere. That is what I did, I decided that if they were not interested in me sharing with them I would go to those who were interested. We had a prevailing gospel ministry on my college campus, even though it generated a tremendous amount of attacks. I was also involved in evangelism in the Far east for 8 years preaching the gospel to thousands and training others to preach the gospel. This blog is simply an extension of this. When I first started sharing it was on Facebook and soon I was suspended (even though I had not violated any rule) and so I shook off the dust and left. I have also been forced to leave two other Christian forums as well. This is now the third Christian forum I have been on, and when I started this blog in 2021 I figured there might be ten other people interested in this topic. I don't hide this from others, if they ask what I do I let them know I write a blog, and yet there is almost no one in my circle of about 50+ people I have told that are interested in this blog. Actually I think two people expressed interest and have read some posts on this blog. But I didn't care, I was interested, I was burdened and I pursued this as a service to the Lord. There have been 855,000 visitors to this blog. Think about that, if I had let the 48+ people who were not interested dissuade me it would have been a shame. Also I don't get offended, my two brothers have both written books which I have read, my Mom has written poems and a biography which I read. I understand that the Lord doesn't want us to get hung up trying to speak to three or four people when in reality if we would simply witness regularly, (since joining the Gideon's I would say that I have averaged speaking to at least 4 people a day about the Lord. That is based on my handing out over 100 new testaments a month, in reality for every new testament I hand out I probably talk to four people) then the number of people we would talk to a year would be over 1,000 and the number over ten years would be over 10,000. The only way you can do this is if you forsake houses or brethren or sisters or fathers or mother or wife or children or lands for the Lord's sake
 
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