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What is the book of Revelation really about? For ages, it has been the source of sensationalism, idolatry, confusion, and end-times predictions. But at its root, it is about the power and worship of the Lamb who was slain. Biblical scholar Michael J. Gorman joins Mark Labberton to explore how Christians can read the book of Revelation with wisdom, faith, and hope rather than fear or sensationalism. Drawing from his book Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness—Following the Lamb into the New Creation, Gorman offers a reorientation to Revelation's central vision: worshipping the Lamb, resisting idolatrous power, and embodying faithful discipleship in the world. Together they discuss Revelation's misuses in popular culture, its critique of empire and nationalism, and its invitation to follow the crucified and risen Christ into the new creation. Episode Highlights "The book of Revelation is about lamb power—not hyper-religious or political power. It's about absorbing rather than inflicting evil." "This book is for those who are confused by, afraid of, and or preoccupied with the book of Revelation." "We shouldn't look for predictions but for parallels and analogies." "Worship, discipleship, and new creation—that's where Revelation hangs its hat." "At its root, Christian nationalism is a form of idolatry." "The only way to come out of Babylon is to go back into Babylon with new values and new practices." Helpful Links and Resources Reading Revelation Responsibly – https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Revelation-Responsibly-Following-Creation/dp/1606085603/ Reverse Thunder by Eugene Peterson – https://www.amazon.com/Reversed-Thunder-Revelation-Praying-Imagination/dp/0060665033 St. Mary's Seminary & University, Baltimore – https://www.stmarys.edu About Michael J. Gorman Michael J. Gorman is the Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary's Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland. A leading New Testament scholar, he is the author of numerous books on Pauline theology and Revelation, including Reading Revelation Responsibly, Cruciformity, and Participating in Christ. Gorman's teaching and writing emphasize Scripture as a call to cruciform discipleship, faithful worship, and the hope of new creation. Show Notes Introducing Reading Revelation Responsibly "This book is for those who are confused by, afraid of, and or preoccupied with the Book of Revelation." "Apocalypse" means revelation, not destruction. Emerging from twenty-five years of study and teaching, aimed at rescuing Revelation from misinterpretation or neglect Growing up amid 1970s end-times obsession—Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth and fearful youth-group predictions of the world's end Fear of the book of Revelation until he studied it with Bruce Metzger at Princeton Seminary Why he wrote the book: for people who have been scared or confused by Revelation's misuse Interpretation and misreading the book of Revelation Early questions: Does Revelation predict particular events or people? No predictions, but symbolic speaking into every age "Our task is not to find predictions but to discern parallels and analogies." Warning against mapping Revelation onto modern crises or personalities "When those predictions fail, the book gets sidelined or scoffed at." Keep one foot in the first-century context and one in the present Worship and discipleship The heart of Revelation is worship. "This is a book about worship—and about the object of our worship." Explaining the subtitle: Uncivil Worship and Witness—Following the Lamb into the New Creation "Uncivil worship" contrasts with "civil religion"—worship that refuses to idolize political power Influence from Eugene Peterson's Reverse Thunder and his own teaching at St. Mary's, where Peterson once taught Revelation Worship leads to discipleship: "Those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes." True discipleship mirrors the Lamb's humility and non-violence. The lamb and the meaning of power Interpreting Revelation's vision of the slain and standing Lamb as the key to understanding divine power "The crucified Messiah is the risen Lord—but he remains the crucified one." The Lamb appears twenty-eight times, a symbol of universality and completeness. "Revelation is about lamb power—absorbing rather than inflicting evil." Discipleship is cruciform: following the Lamb's way of self-giving love. The unholy trinity and the danger of idolatry Chapters 12–13 depict the dragon and two beasts—the "unholy trinity" of satanic, imperial, and religious power. "Power gone amok": political, military, and spiritual domination that mimic divinity How true worship resists empire and exposes idolatry Warning against reading these beasts as predictions of the UN or the pope; rather, they reveal recurring alliances of religion and politics "At its root, Christian nationalism is idolatry." When political identity eclipses discipleship, "political power always wins, and faith loses." Faith, politics, and worship today Christian nationalism as a modern form of "civil religion," conflating patriotism with divine will "It's only Christian in name—it lacks Christian substance." Idolatry is not limited to one side: "It permeates the left, the right, and probably the centre." Labberton agrees: false worship is endemic wherever self-interest and fear shape our loves. Both stress that Revelation calls the church to worship the Lamb, not the state. "Revelation critiques all human systems of false worship." Revelation's goal: Not destruction, but new creation "Destruction is penultimate—cleansing the way for renewal." Believers already live as citizens of that new creation. "The only way to come out of Babylon is to go back into Babylon with new values and new practices." Communal, not merely individual, discipleship: "Revelation is written to churches, not just believers." Reinterpreting Revelation 3:20: Jesus knocking isn't an altar call to unbelievers but Christ seeking re-entry into his own church. "Jesus always wants to come back in." Living revelation today Spirituality of hope, not fear or withdrawal "Reading Revelation responsibly means engaging the world through worship and witness." How true worship is dangerous because it transforms our allegiance. "Following the Lamb into the new creation is the church's act of resistance." Conclusion: "Worthy is the Lamb." Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment magazine and Fuller Seminary.
274. Holy Spirit Stories and Fruit and Ways to Identify His Guidance in Our Lives with Margaret Feinberg Exodus 31:3 NIV "and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—" *Transcription Below* Questions and Topics We Cover: Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, so will you share some insight into what you've been learning about the Holy Spirit from your most recent research for your latest book, entitled The God You Need to Know? If someone listening has trouble identifying the Spirit's role and God's direction or Jesus' voice in their life, how would you encourage them to grow in attention and recognition of His voice and leading? Do you have any stories to give as illustrations for the Spirit still mightily being at work in the world and in people's lives today? Margaret Feinberg, one of America's most beloved Bible teachers, speaks at churches and conferences and hosts the popular podcast The Joycast. Her books and Bible studies, including Taste and See, Fight Back with Joy, More Power to You, and The God You Need to Know have sold more than one million copies and received critical acclaim and national media coverage from the Associated Press, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and more. She was named by Christianity Today as one of fifty women most shaping culture and the church today. Margaret savors life with her husband, Leif, and their superpup, Zoom. Margaret's Most Recent Work: The God You Need To Know Book and Bible Study Thank You to Our Sponsor: Dream Seller Travel, Megan Rokey Other Related Episodes on The Savvy Sauce: 150 Brain Science and Spiritual Abundance with Ken Baugh Special Patreon Re-Release Theology and Discipleship with Ken Baugh 259 God Speaks to His Kids . . . Here's How with Chris Allen Fruitful with Laura Dugger Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“ Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“ Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” *Transcription* Music: (0:00 – 0:09) Laura Dugger: (0:09 - 2:18) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. Do you love to travel? If so, then let me introduce you to today's sponsor, DreamCellar Travel, a Christian-owned and operated travel agency. Check them out on Facebook or online at DreamCellarTravel.com. Today we get to learn from one of the most joyful human beings I've ever encountered. My guest for today is Margaret Feinberg, and she's an author and researcher and podcaster and speaker. Most recently, her research project turned into a book where she was researching all about the Holy Spirit and His work in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and still His work that's present and active in our lives and around our world today. So, her stories of His specific presence at work in our lives are so moving, and she also pairs that with practical ways that we can more clearly hear from the Holy Spirit and identify His voice in our lives. We also chat about the true definition of the word weird, which I actually want to elaborate on now because in the moment I couldn't find the definition that was so powerful. So, weird is defined as unearthly or uncanny, extraordinary, involving or suggesting the supernatural, and completely fantastic. Sometimes we think the Holy Spirit may be inviting us into something that seems weird, but He's redefined weird for us, and I just pray that all of us after this conversation will accept the invitation with gladness from Holy Spirit in our lives to join in whatever adventure He has planned for each one of us today. Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Margaret. Margaret Feinberg: (2:18 - 2:24) What a delight to be with you today. It's absolute joy, and you look fantastic, by the way. Laura Dugger: (2:24 - 2:45) You're so kind. I can tell that joy is one of your markers already, and that makes me think you just have such a rich spiritual heritage in general. So, we don't typically start here, but can you go back and share your parents' story of coming to faith in Jesus Christ? Margaret Feinberg: (2:46 - 5:22) Absolutely. I share this in the book, The God You Need to Know, in Bible study, but it's pretty beautiful. They actually came to know Jesus back in the 1970s during the Jesus movement, and my father was raised Jewish, and my mom was not really raised much in the church, and so, they got married, and separately on the same weekend, they came to know Christ. My father, back in the 1960s, he was actually a surfboard manufacturer. He helped build longboards the very first time that longboards were cool, and these customers kept coming into his little store and telling him about Jesus, and eventually he grew so frustrated that one weekend he went out turkey hunting, and he was sitting in turkey blind, had tons of time around him, and decided to sit down and read the entire New Testament over the course of that weekend, and he read it, and he thought, “Wow, Jesus came to earth.” He lived, he died, and he was resurrected that we can have eternal life for free, and he thought, in his Jewish brain, that is a good deal, and so, he just believed in Christ, and meanwhile, my mom is at home and has her own encounter. She's finishing reading a book by the name of The Great Late Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, which was actually the best-selling book of the decade back in the 1970s, and at the end of that book, it had an invitation to come to know Christ, and so, both of them come to know Christ separately on the same weekend. They come home on that Sunday, and they're a little awkward about it because it sounds weird. They don't really want to tell each other, and then finally start to spell out, and there's such joy that they both came to know Christ because the Holy Spirit was at work in their lives. What's amazing is that they had been trying to have kids for the first eight years of their marriage and hadn't been able to conceive, and within a month of them coming to know Jesus, I was conceived. So, you just see the work of the Holy Spirit all over that, and that He is leading people to Christ. He is on the move, and sometimes it doesn't involve any of us doing anything, and that's a freedom marker for us. It's not our job to run around and try to save everybody. Holy Spirit is already at work, and when we have the opportunities to be part of that, it is a privilege and a joy. Trust in a God who is so good and so loving and so kind that He will find people through reading books and hiding out in a turkey blind hunting turkeys all weekend. Laura Dugger: (5:23 - 5:45) That gives me goosebumps even to hear the timing of that and you being conceived. Then you also had a unique childhood. At that time, not as many people were homeschooled, and your story was fascinating. So, what was homeschooling and spiritual discipleship like for you in the growing up years? Margaret Feinberg: (5:46 - 8:18) Yeah, so, in those early years, my mom and dad had that mom-and-pop kind of surf shop down in Cocoa Beach, Florida. For all you surfing nerds, Ron Jon loaned my dad the money to marry my mom. I mean, so, we're talking deep surfing roots, still friends to this day, and so, they would work, and a lot of you are entrepreneurs and are listening, and you get this, but they would often work seven days a week, 14 hours a day, just trying to keep this little store open with their employee. It just was. It's just a rough business, retail, and so, the only way that they could get away was they would leave the store in the hands of a manager. They decided to buy a really small, inexpensive boat, and we would go sail from the coast of Florida into the Caribbean. So, as we did that, what do we do for school. I remember for third grade, we actually went for an entire year, and so, it was homeschooling. Now, this is like early 80s, and you have to think like it's not exactly fact-checked, reputable, like you send your work in like once or twice a year. So, I'm living on this boat, super remote, not even around a ton of kids, pretty isolated, and I figured out that if I did all my schoolwork in one day that I could play the other six, and so, that was my year of third grade. Fortunately, things turned out okay, but I learned so much more just meeting people from all over the world, surfing or swimming. I learned how to, at eight years old, shoot my first lobster because we had to survive off the ocean. So, it was an incredible experience. Then after that, ended up going into public school in the later years once we got to like probably fifth, sixth, a lot more steady than those early years. But you know, the thing that I always saw in my mom was I would wake up, and she would usually be on the couch or on the deck of the boat, and she would be reading her Bible, and there was something about that. It wasn't spoken. It wasn't like you must do this, but I watched it, and I saw it, and now all these years later, that's what I do. So, for all those mamas and papas who are listening and watching, I just want to encourage you - like how you live, those little things, the kids and the grandkids and the great-grandkids, they watch, they see, and it matters, and so, thank you. Those of you who are engaging in those things. It pays dividends for decades and generations to come. Laura Dugger: (8:20 - 8:28) That's incredible, and then can you share about your own faith journey? You saw that modeled. When did it become personal to you? Margaret Feinberg: (8:29 - 11:44) Yeah, you know, even as a young kid, I was aware of God and Jesus and Holy Spirit, and just the Lord was very tender to make Himself real to me when I was young. When I went away to college, and this is just normal behavior, you know, there is that kind of making faith your own, figuring it out, and so, my freshman year of college, I partied like a rock star. I got the bees, the beer, the boys, and the Ben and Jerry, like I, you know, I just all the things, and I remember at the end of that year, I had this sense that God was saying to me like, you are my child. I have called you by name. You are mine. Come back to me, and I read about this in The God You Need to Know, but one of those was a turning point I went to. It was actually a Methodist conference on Holy Spirit, and while I was there, I had an unusual experience, but in it, you know, I'm watching, I'm listening to all these lectures. I'm in the conference. I'm attending all these things, and at one point, I had a thought pop into my mind that was not my own, and the thought was go to the prayer room and look underneath the tablecloth. I was like, okay, that's weird, but it was like go to the prayer room and look underneath the tablecloth. So, I'm like, you know what? At the end of the day, like what do I have to lose? I mean the worst thing that happens is I wander into our prayer room. Okay, we'll take the risk, and I remember going in there, and I'm kind of like there's some people praying (a couple). I'm trying to like I don't want to be weird like I know it's a conference on the Holy Spirit, but still I'm like I am not going to be weird about it. So, I'm like trying to peek underneath a tablecloth, and there's nothing there, and there's all these tables around the room. So, I'm kind of like making my way across, and I'm seeing like one lady like eyeing me like what is happening. So, I peek under another one. Anyway, I go table after table, nothing after nothing until I reach the very last table. I pick up the tablecloth, and there is a Bible, and I look, and it's full of like notes and photographs. So, I pull it out, and there's a name on the front, and so, I just kind of said, “You know, excuse me in the prayer room like does anybody know this person, and most people were like no, and one lady says you know what I do know her, and she had to leave the conference early, and I actually have her phone number.” So, all of a sudden I'm on the phone calling this lady and saying “Hey, I just found your Bible on the phone.” She says, “You have no idea. That Bible is full of decades of prayers and notes and photos that can't be replaced. I have been sitting here praying that someone would find my Bible.” So, I'm just in awe like Holy Spirit, I didn't even know - like wow like this is not just a mental learning. This is a real experience, and so, I told a couple people at the conference about it. One said' “You know what, actually, if you're driving up that direction, I've been praying to get a ride up that direction.” So, I was able to drop off this ministry worker, return this Bible to this precious woman, and that really became one of the markers in my life. Oh my goodness Holy Spirit is real. He is on the move. He is leading and guiding us, and this is such an exciting thrilling adventure to be on. Laura Dugger: (11:45 - 12:12) Wow, and it absolutely is. You are an incredible storyteller. It's so powerful the way that you wrote some stories in your books, the way that you're sharing it now. God has really gifted you with that, and that's part of your purpose in life being that storyteller. So, how did you begin to uncover the purpose that God had for you in life? Margaret Feinberg: (12:12 - 15:09) That's such a great question, so, I'm going to answer that a couple different folds. Can I do that? So, the first answer is all of our purpose is the same. It is to love God, love others, and delight in Him forever. That is the purpose of all of our lives, and so, that is the answer. At the same time, a lot of what I think you're saying is purpose is a little bit about vocation. Is that right? And so, we need to recognize that as believers that this idea that somehow our vocation or what we do is our purpose and is supposed to give us meaning and value to God has really only been around for the last 50 to 75 years and largely established in the American culture. But for thousands of years, that has never been the case. And so, what that does is that for a lot of us, when we don't kind of understand that it puts a heavier weight on the job. The vocation that we do to carry all of this burden of purpose, fulfillment, meaning, ordained by God. I mean, that becomes like a heavy burden for a single job or vocation to carry that it was never meant to. Right? And so, again, back to what is our purpose? It is loving God, loving others, and delighting. And that never changes no matter whether you are raising littles, whether you are whatever the title on your business card, if you still have those, or identification on social, whatever it is. But that never changes. And so, I think that we have to step back and recognize that. Now, I do understand that I am in a role in which my job provides spiritual meaning. And that is delightful. And I am super grateful for that. But in that, my spiritual meaning is still not about what books I write or podcasts or any of that nonsense. It's all about how I'm living in my community and real one-to-one relationships that are done privately and never published on social media. That is the real life. And so, I just want to encourage everyone out there to think that that job is the thing. The job is never the thing. Now, don't let that distract you because what do you do when you're retired? What do you do if you can't do that job? But if you are in a vocation, if you are in a role, that to understand, yes, God can use that, and to invite Holy Spirit into that space, but to make sure that we don't find our identity in that. Because that's a short runway. That's going to end at one point. And to really ground ourselves into the eternal and what does not have an end and what will sustain us from our first breath until our last. Laura Dugger: (15:10 - 16:38) Wow, I love how you put all of that. And so, I'm going to share a story, so, bear with me because you may not be aware, but back in 2013, our lives first crossed paths. So, back then, we were pregnant with our first child. And my husband, Mark, and I went with my parents to the American Association of Christian Counselors conference in Nashville. And you were one of those keynote speakers at the Opera Land Hotel. And I was just mesmerized by every word you shared. And so, I see why people write about you, and they say you're one of America's most beloved Bible teachers, because you were so endearing from the first word spoken. But at the time, you were battling cancer. And yet you were still willing to generously and joyfully share about the goodness of the Lord and the ways that we encounter Him in nature through olives and bees and so on. But the one other thing that has stuck with me for over a decade is when you encourage the audience of probably thousands of people in attendance, that if we don't know what to be thankful for today, be thankful for nose hairs. So, do you remember that? Margaret Feinberg: (16:39 - 19:24) I do. Yeah, that defined gratitude in the little things and in the heart. I do. And the reason I said that, because without context, that sounds really, really strange. But whenever anybody who's out there and is walking through any medical, whether that's mental health or physical challenges, one of the difficulties is in the medical world, they don't tell you everything that's coming. And so, there are all these hidden surprises, and you can read about it, and you can WebMD it, and you can read online, and all of them are just going to say you're going to die tomorrow. We already know that. We know we shouldn't Google these things, right? But no matter what you're walking through, there are things that people just don't tell you. And so, I knew that going through chemotherapy, I would lose my hair. And sure enough, in 10 days, it was all falling out. Nobody told me that that included all my hair, including my nose hairs. And so, what I had to learn the hard way is when you don't have nose hairs, like kind of what holds anything that's liquid in your nose, it just falls out. And so, my encouragement was to everybody, you don't have anything to give thanks to God for today. Give thanks for your nose hairs. And just a light way of saying, you know, even when you're walking through the darkness, and I know some of your listeners and your viewers are, you are in dark seasons. And if that is you, I just want to say, I get you. I get it. I have battled cancer. I have battled autoimmune. I have battled being sick for years. I have battled being embezzled. I have battled surviving a destructive pastor. I know suffering and pain. But even when we're in the darkness, we are a people who poke holes in the darkness until it bleeds light. And that's who we are. And gratitude is just one of those tools that helps us do that. So, I just want to encourage you today, like whatever it takes for you. And there is something in this concept of joy. And I don't quite understand. I can't quite wrap my head around it. But joy is something that you can give away even when you don't have it. And in the process of giving away joy when you don't have it, somehow our capacity for joy expands. It's a strange equation in God's economy. It does not add up. It does not make sense. But whether it's, you know, climbing in an MRI machine and saying, man, has anybody praised God from this square inch today? Whether it's showing up and giving just a simple gift to someone else, whether it's writing the note, whether it's encouraging someone else, even in our own pain. When we do that, our capacity for joy just grows bigger and bigger. Laura Dugger: (19:25 - 21:58) And now a brief message from our sponsor. Do you have a bucket list of travel destinations? Or maybe you have a special event coming up like a big anniversary, a honeymoon, or even just that first trip to Europe? If so, you need to call DreamCellar Travel. DreamCellar Travel is located in central Illinois, but works with clients all across the USA. 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Instead of booking online and being the one to deal with your airline schedule changes or the sudden change in country entry requirements, or the hotel that looks beautiful but is really under construction, call a professional. Let them deal with the problems that arise while traveling so you can just enjoy the trip. DreamCellar Travel has been planning dream trips since 2005 to amazing destinations such as Alaska, Italy, Hawaii, Canada, the Caribbean, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, France, South Africa, Iceland, and more. Where do you dream of going? You can reach out to the DreamCellar Travel at 309-696-5890 or check them out online at DreamCellarTravel.com. Thanks for your sponsorship. You just lived this so well, and I know joy is a fruit of the spirit. Will you share some insight into what you've been learning about the Holy Spirit, especially from all your research from your latest book? As you mentioned, it's entitled The God You Need to Know. Margaret Feinberg: (21:59 - 25:44) Yeah, I'm super excited about this book and Bible study. I've had a lot of questions about the Holy Spirit since I was a little girl. I remember reading the Bible and thinking, Jesus, He's so real. He's so human. That I can recognize, and I get the picture of God on the throne, all powerful and sovereign. But when I think about the Holy Spirit, I'd be like, I'm struggling here a little bit. And growing up in Southern Baptist and Methodist and Episcopal and non-denominational and charismatic, I got little pieces of Holy Spirit, but I just kind of struggled. And I think one of the reasons I struggled is that often, maybe like you, when I ask questions about Holy Spirit, I was like, “Well, you need to go read the book of Acts and read Acts 2.” And that's that beautiful moment of Pentecost where the spirit comes in and it's like a violent wind and tongues of fire. They descend and people start speaking in other languages and other people hear they're declaring the glories of God. And then all of a sudden 3,000 people get saved. I think that is awesome. But that doesn't look like my every day. So, I'm not quite sure. And so, for the last few years, I've been struggling to write this book. And when I really came alive was with a scholar by the name of Jack Levison, and he focused in on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. And all of a sudden that changed everything for me. Because what happens is if we jump to Acts, and particularly Acts 2 to understand Holy Spirit, it would be like showing up on your wedding day and being like, this is who you're marrying. And you're like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't know this person. Like we haven't courted. We haven't dated.” I don't, what, what, what? And yet that's often what we do as believers when we're directing people. And so, I took a deep dive into Holy Spirit throughout the Old Testament, looking at Genesis where Holy Spirit hovers over the waters, the chaos, the darkness, looking at how Holy Spirit hovers over our lives and how that's consistent with God, as in the book of Deuteronomy, as well as Jesus in the New Testament, that hovering like a, like a hen, I wanted to gather the children. And you start to see this through it. You start to look in the lives of Bezalel, who was the first person who was filled with Holy Spirit, to do what to make and to make those, you know, the tabernacle and to lead an entire guild of artisans. We see the life of the Spirit in Daniel, where all of a sudden Nebuchadnezzar on multiple occasions is saying the Spirit of God is in him. We have somebody who is literally running around like a wild animal at certain points in his life, who is still recognizing the power of Holy Spirit. I think it's the word in Hebrew is Ketria. We start seeing it in the life of Ezekiel, where the Holy Spirit is lifting him up, giving him new perspectives. And what's cool is that once you start to recognize the rule of Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, you arrive at Acts 2 and you go, of course, it would happen this way. And suddenly for those of us who for maybe we've been hesitant about Holy Spirit, or maybe we've had maybe a lack of teaching or maybe some teaching that was a little bit abusive and was used to manipulate. Like all of a sudden we can back up from that and be like, oh, Holy Spirit, this is you from the beginning of time. This is so normal. This isn't weird. This is just part of just being a follower of Jesus. And so, one of the things that I love about this book is it takes the weird out, takes the scary out. It's so just biblically based, especially in the Old Testament. And I think some of your listeners and viewers will be surprised like, whoa, I didn't know that was, what? That's where? And that's really fun and exciting. Laura Dugger: (25:45 - 26:14) Absolutely. I think it did bring to light so many things from the Old Testament, like I said, especially. And I think you were even able to share some of your own stories, and that's why we're so often called to remember. I think when we preserve and document those and share those stories, we can reflect back and remember God nudging us like he did with you, putting a thought in your mind that was not your own. That increases our faith in others, I think, as well. Margaret Feinberg: (26:14 - 28:25) I think it really, really does. I think that one of the things we have to remember when Holy Spirit, so, in Psalm 139, we know that God knows he made us in the womb. And so, to recognize that all of us are made differently, and my hunches are some listeners right now who are thinking, man, yeah, I know people who talk a lot about Holy Spirit, but that's just not me. I don't really see or enact or feel Holy Spirit. And so, first of all to you, I want to say I don't feel Holy Spirit either. I've been to a ton of churches and conferences, and the person on the stage will say, man, do you feel the Holy Spirit here? And I'll be like, nope, nope, not at all. So, I'm not a feeler. But what I can do in those moments is I can acknowledge with my head, Holy Spirit is here, because we know that as part of the Trinity, Father, Son, Spirit, Holy Spirit is here. And then secondly, to recognize that like Psalm, you know, that describes that He knew us in the womb, that we are all different. We know today that there's a neurodiversity, right? So, some people learn audio, some people visual, some people like myself, ADD, ADHD. And God knows that, like the Creator did not make a mistake. And so, wouldn't it make sense that the Holy Spirit, who knows us as the spirit of a living God, would interact with us in different ways? I have an e-newsletter, and I've surveyed, you know, thousands of people, how they recognize the spirit, and it's just so diverse. Some are like me, a thought pops back in my head that is not my own, that causes me to love God, love others, serve others, take risks in godly good ways. For other people, they do feel it. Some people have like a warmth in their body. Some people kind of just feel like this, this just comfort or peace, like liquid love that envelops them. Some people recognize God and the Holy Spirit through nature. And so, I listen to this, and I think, doesn't that make sense that God and Holy Spirit would know us so well that He would know how to communicate with us? And so, that when we start gathering with other believers and say, “Hey, how is Holy Spirit working in your life?” It starts to get this excitement of recognizing it and celebrating it and making it normal and not weird. Laura Dugger: (28:28 - 28:48) And I think let's even take that one step further. So, if somebody is listening and they currently have trouble identifying the spirit's role or God's direction or Jesus's voice in their life, how would you encourage them with even first steps to grow in attention and recognition of His voice and leading? Margaret Feinberg: (28:49 - 34:09) Goodness, that's such a great question. Something that's really changed my life in the last few months is my friend, Drake. He's a Young Life leader here. And he said, Margaret, when I'm training people how to recognize Holy Spirit, he says, “I and the kids get a journal and write one question down for Holy Spirit each day. The question could be about purpose, identity, Holy Spirit, what's on your heart, Holy Spirit, who do I serve today? And write that one question down.” That's it. That's all we're doing. And then throughout the day, return to that one question in prayer again and again. And then pay attention to conversations that suddenly you have, Bible passages that flutter through your mind, the sermon that's given, conversations with other believers. Like just pay attention. And it's amazing. And then the next day or that night, jot down whatever happens. The next day, change the question or keep the same question. And just start changing the posture of your life to pay attention to that one question. And I think you're going to start to see and encounter some things. It may not happen quickly. It may take a few weeks or even months, but it will happen. I think I was thinking about this just this morning. I haven't shared this with anybody. But in some ways, like people are like, I don't recognize Holy Spirit. It's kind of like my friends who are birders. Okay. Some people super into birding. And I know there are birds. I mean, occasionally I'll see a bird out the window, but birders have a whole different mentality. They slow down. They pay attention. And they have some tools like binoculars to be able to look and to see. And it's the same thing about paying attention to Holy Spirit. We've got to slow down, pay attention. And maybe the tool is just asking Holy Spirit one question a day. But suddenly you'll start to see and recognize. Can I give you a fun story? Please. Okay. So, just at Easter came around and I was probably a couple weeks before and they're having this crazy good sale at Target on some new releases. So, I'm at the Target website early in the morning before they sell out. And I saw a purse and I bought myself a few things. But I saw a purse and I immediately thought of my friend Janella. And so, I was just like, I'm just going to buy this for her. Now, let me be clear. I've never bought a purse for her before. I don't really carry around a ton of purses. I'm a Apple pay, like keep it light. Like it's just not my thing. But put it in the cart, send it to her. So, I get a text from her about a week or two later. And she goes, how did you know? Did I tell you about my Easter meltdown? And I said, no, I didn't know. And she tells me, and I had known this, that her mother had passed away last year. What I didn't know is every single year, since she was a little girl for Easter, her mom would buy her a dress and a purse. And this was the first Easter without her mom. And she could justify financially buying the dress, but not the purse. And all of a sudden this purse, which wasn't a normal purse. She's like, this is an Easter purse. I was like, I don't know that, but okay. Arrived. And she said, I just, I just cried because I knew that the Lord saw me. He heard me. You know, he was with me, part of his kingdom. And so, she says, but here's the thing. The purse matched my dress perfectly. And you start to see that happen. And I didn't hear a voice from God say, go buy your friend a purse. I was just like, “Hey, I've been praying every day, a single thing from Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, will you order my steps?” And then you see something that you couldn't orchestrate on your own in 500 years happen. And you go, that is the work of Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit in the New Testament, it's parakletos. It means advocate. It can be translated comforter, advisor, barrister. For those of you watch too many British shows like I do, you know, the legal counsel. But if I were to kind of break that down from just biblical words, here's how we know it's the Holy Spirit. Number one, Holy Spirit will remind you: God loves you. God sees you. God hears you. And you're part of His kingdom. And what happened in that story was both of us experienced that. God loves, He sees, He hears, and we're part of His kingdom. And so, that is the thrilling part about life in the Spirit. It's not so I feel good or I have little things that happen. It's about being part of God's kingdom on this earth, living out the life that Christ describes and designed for us. And so, we cannot do that apart from Holy Spirit. And also, you may notice I haven't been using the term the Holy Spirit because we wouldn't say I talked to the God today. I talked to Jesus. And Holy Spirit is a person; a person you can have a relationship with. And just as you can have a relationship with Christ and talk to Christ, you can do the same with Holy Spirit who is, again, paracletes, your advisor, your comforter, your helper. Why would you not tap into that? Why would you want to spend a life missing out on the fullness of that? Laura Dugger: (34:10 - 36:48) Oh, that's good, and I'll have to try and apply that and refer to Holy Spirit rather than I even did it there, the Holy Spirit. I'm thinking in the book of John, I love the amplified version where it says, “one of the things to describe Holy Spirit is standby.” And I've thought of that so many times because I love looking up definitions and seeing exactly what that means. And it's just the immediacy of the help available. And that's been a way that I've experienced Him in my life especially the short prayers of help, please help now. Or if I need direction, a lot of times it comes in parenting for me, like, I'm not sure which way to go. Can you give me discernment right now? And He's immediately available. So, I would say my own personal experience, it's a lot of what you've mentioned, definitely through reading the Bible that I feel like He speaks so much. You're like, well, bring the words off the page. Journaling is such a practical way. And I'll link to our friend Chris Allen's episode just about hearing from God and training our kids on how they can do the same. Just those thoughts that they're not always from us, but we're processing thoughts that are given to us. But one other thing, so, this is inspired from your book. You mentioned about dreams and just asking Holy Spirit to speak to you through dreams. So, in our life currently, one of our daughters is going through some health issues and we were launched into having to do this FODMAP diet. And it's not that big of a deal, but I had never heard of it before. And it limits and restricts quite a few things. So, the immediate need of that seemed a little bit overwhelming. We're kind of in a busy season and completely revamping everything our family eats all day. I've been preoccupied and kind of consumed with that. So, twice this week, because in my quiet time I felt like God just kept saying, bring it to me, come to me with this, ask me the questions. And so, I've been journaling and I feel like He's been responding with Scripture. But the last two nights in a row, I've woken up with a recipe in mind for our family. And that has never happened before. But you are the one who challenged us just to say, just ask. And that was probably, probably started asking over a month ago. So, thank you. Margaret Feinberg: (36:49 - 40:32) Wow. I love it. And you know what? That makes me want to ask. Does that make sense? Like there's this excitement and there's this joy. When you share about how Holy Spirit is working in your life, I'm like, I want that too. And that's just, yeah, I think that so often we forget who is with us. The person, the person of Holy Spirit is with us. We don't have to keep all this striving and straining. And man, I got a life hack this on my own. You know, there is this availability of the power and the presence of the person of Holy Spirit, the spirit of the living God. One thing I want to note on the Trinity, just so that I don't, I don't want anybody to think, oh, she's just cutting out one part of the Trinity. No. Trinity is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A couple of things on that. Number one, often, and part of the emphasis on the Holy Spirit, a little bit more in looking at this in the Old Testament, is when we see things in groupings of three, we tend to think that the third one listed tends to be lesser than or third place. Right. And yet Father, Son and Spirit are equal. And what we see throughout the Bible is we have to remember that where there is one, all are present. And so, like in creation, we see God take the lead. But, you know, Holy Spirit is mentioned in Genesis 1 to Jesus using the reference of we is there. And so, we start to see that the word, I think it's the word perichoresis is this term that describes the Trinity in a dance. And so, at different parts of Scripture, we'll see one member of the Trinity take the lead, but the others are always present, whether it's, you know, Jesus taking the lead in the Gospels. But we see the Holy Spirit descending like a dove. We see God saying, this is my son and whom I am pleased. Well, please listen to Him. And so, to recognize that, but also to recognize, again, like this, this reality that Holy Spirit is in us and with us. Like, wow, that starts to change everything. So, all of a sudden, and you say, “It's no big deal changing the way your family eats. Can I just say that is an enormous deal. The time that it takes to prepare the food, the thinking, the thought space, the bad recipes, it is so big.” So, you can try to minimize that. But I'm just going to say, “First of all, I'm glad there's a way forward, but I'm sorry, because that is massive. And it's a lot.” And Holy Spirit wants to meet us there. Remember Genesis 1:2, “In the beginning, God created the heavenly earth and the earth was formless and void.” Tohu wavohu in the Hebrew. “And the spirit was hovering over.” That word is merechefet. And it means to hover, to brood like a mama eagle. One rabbi translated it as to flutter. And what is the spirit fluttering? Remember in the Bible, sorry to go to teaching mode, but whenever someone is introduced in scripture, the introduction is the most important. We see that in the life of Saul. He literally is hiding in baggage and can't find his own donkeys. And it plays out that way, right? So, how is Holy Spirit introduced? Could have entered any place and comes on the scene hovering over the chaos, the uncertainty, and the unknown. And so, here you are in that place of uncertainty and unknown, a little chaotic. And what is Holy Spirit? Here's a recipe. Doing what? Reminding you, you are loved by God. You are seen by God. You are heard by God. And you are part of this kingdom. Man, when we start to share these stories, it just, oh, it creates this hunger to experience and know the spirit more. Laura Dugger: (40:32 - 42:02) It does, and it's so humbling, just his loving kindness. I want to make sure that you're up to date with our latest news. We have a new website. You can visit thesavvysauce.com and see all of the latest updates. You may remember Francie Heinrichson from episode 132, where we talked about pursuing our God-given dreams. She is the amazing businesswoman who has carefully designed a brand-new website for Savvy Sauce Charities. And we are thrilled with the final product. So, I hope you check it out. There you're going to find all of our podcasts, now with show notes and transcriptions listed, a scrapbook of various previous guests, and an easy place to join our email list to receive monthly encouragement and questions to ask your loved ones, so that you can have your own practical chats for intentional living. You will also be able to access our donation button or our mailing address for sending checks that are tax deductible, so that you can support the work of Savvy Sauce Charities and help us continue to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ. So, make sure you visit thesavvysauce.com. Are there any other stories that come to mind to think of Holy Spirit being alive and moving and working in people's lives today? Margaret Feinberg: (42:03 - 46:15) Oh, I'll give you one that I just found. You know what's so funny? Again, when you start to use the prayer prompts, when you start to do these just like a burger, all of a sudden you're like, oh my goodness, I didn't know how many birds there were. So, went over to our friend's house. It was somebody at church. We actually, they weren't our friends at that point. We noticed that when they came to our church, the son is on the spectrum. And so, in Sunday school class would often just stare at the wall in the corner by himself, not interact a whole lot, and their daughter. And so, my husband said, hey, let's bring a meal over to them. And they invited us to stay for dinner. And so, the son comes in and he's probably maybe nine years old, wrapped up in a blanket, like a little burrito. And he won't make any eye contact with us. You know, the mom's like, say, “Hello to Margaret.” Won't interact. Kind of woombas around, disappears, comes through a few times. Finish eating. We go out in the living room. And the mom starts telling the story that she was exhausted as a mom. She was completely burnt out. And she just said, “You know what? I'm going to the reservoir and I'm going to go paddle boarding.” Just take a few minutes for myself. So, she goes out. She's paddle boarding. All of a sudden she sees like a piece of paper on the surface of the water. She looks down and she goes, what is that? So, she picks it up. Turns out to be a QR code to the zoo. Now, she doesn't know if it's used trash or what, but she's like, I'm going to keep this. She paddles some more, sees another piece of paper. It's another QR code to the zoo. She's like, maybe they blew away from the, I don't, so, she grabs it. And she prays and she says, Lord, now you know that we're a family of four. So, if we're really supposed to go to the zoo, we need four of these. Keeps paddle boarding. Finds two more. And so, she comes home and says, “Guys, we're going to try to go to the zoo. I don't even know if these work.” But next day goes to the zoo, scans them. Boop, boop, boop, boop. They all work. So, they go to the zoo. So, they're walking through. And all of a sudden, the son comes upon a display of red pandas. And he just stops in his tracks. And he stares and he watches. And the rest of the family, you know, the sister and the dad want to go on and they do. But he just says, “Mom, can we stay here?” And so, he stays there for several hours just staring in this strange connection. He's never had, Mom had never seen anything like this with the red pandas. And so, she's telling me this story. And suddenly I look around their living room and I realize there is panda paraphernalia everywhere. She looks at her son and says, “Honey, why don't you go put on your panda outfit?” Disappears, comes back in the panda outfit. And all of a sudden, he's looking at us. He's talking to us. He's engaging us. He goes over to his parents and paws them like a panda. And all of a sudden is snuggling with them. And she says that one encounter at the zoo changed their relationship with their son. She says there are days that my son will get completely overwhelmed and start having a meltdown. And she'll use panda language and go up to him and say, “Well, you know that pandas eat 13 hours a day. Maybe you need a snack.” And it is provided this connection and this new language for them as a family that they never had before. All because she went paddle boarding at the reservoir and pieces of paper started floating on the surface of the water. Friends, this is the work and power and presence of Holy Spirit. Reminding us we are loved by God. We are seen by God. We are heard by God. And we are part of this kingdom. And for your listeners, that may be strange stories of paper. And that may seem really odd. But, man, I read a book that talks about Jesus saying, “Hey, go check out the fish.” And all of a sudden a coin to pay taxes comes out of his mouth. I read a book that declares that, you know, he is the alpha and the omega. He is the beginning and the end. He knows where we are. He knows what we need. And He wants to intercept. And sometimes that shows up like recipes in your brain in the morning. Laura Dugger: (46:16 - 47:27) Amen, sister. And you can keep sharing as many stories as you want. But one more. As I was reading your book, it was actually over Easter weekend. And at that time we had some tornadoes that were passing through the Midwest where we live. And in the middle of the night, we're all up. We're in the basement. And once the sirens ceased, we got our girls back to bed. And we came and I just wondered, we came back to bed and I thought, is this just going to be for a few moments? Is it going to happen again? Are we going to be up all night and need to take cover? So, with those concerns on my mind, I crawled back into bed. And, you know, cortisol is kind of rushing through. So, I picked up your book to read. And my eyes fell to the words you quoted from part of Isaiah 31:5. So, I specifically fell to this where it says, “He will shield it and deliver it. He will pass over it and will rescue it.” And I fell asleep well knowing that I could receive comfort from Holy Spirit, that the storm had passed for the night and God was shielding our family from it. And indeed He did. They ceased. Margaret Feinberg: (47:28 - 47:42) Isn't that incredible? I mean, we talk about I mean, just that's the word of God and the power of Holy Spirit, like speaking right in that moment in that exact situation. That is awesome. Absolutely awesome. I love it. Laura Dugger: (47:43 - 48:17) So, I love just Holy Spirit is even working through the words on your pages. I want you to be encouraged. I know you've prayed over this resource, but it's so incredible. Somebody once said that books are little missionaries. And it's so true throughout the world. You have no idea who's cuddled up in bed reading these words and getting to encounter him. So, thank you for all of your work for this. But Margaret, do you have any other practical tips that you want to impart to us so that each of us can cultivate the fruit of spirit in our lives? Margaret Feinberg: (48:18 - 50:39) Yeah, I would say, you know, if you're if you're new to this and this idea, you know, pick up a copy of The Gods You Need to Know. There's also a Bible study. I am passionate about doing this in community. The Holy Spirit, we often in the Americana church, think of our little personal private relationship with Jesus. And that's not church history. That's not the work of God. Since the beginning of time, it has always been through relationships and community and recognizing that each of us has something to bring to the table in relationship with God and each other and gifts and talents and insights. I am in my questions. I think I referred to this later or earlier about, you know, I surveyed a bunch of people in my newsletter just about, hey, so, how do you recognize Holy Spirit? One lady responded and she said, “Well, I recognize Holy Spirit because whenever I'm lost, I ask Holy Spirit for directions, and I just know where to go.” And she goes and it happens over and over in, you know, neighborhoods when I'm driving, when I'm going places. And I thought, okay, so, first I'll just be honest. My first thought was that's weird. I haven't heard that before. And we assign anything weird that we aren't familiar with. And then I thought a little longer. I thought, man, I want her on my team. I want her on my team because I get lost all the time. And I think that at times, sometimes we encounter people who encounter the Spirit differently than us. Remember that neurodiversity, but to recognize living in relationship, hearing how Holy Spirit works in different, sharing those stories. There's something contagious and powerful in it. So, I would say definitely pursue Holy Spirit in relationship with others. Get together with others. Start talking about this. Start praying together. Holy Spirit, we want to know you. You know, it's okay to say, Holy Spirit, in the past, I've seen really unhealthy things. Or nobody's really taught me about you. But I trust that as the Spirit of the living God that you want to reveal yourself. Just start praying, Holy Spirit, I want all of you. See what happens over the course of a week or two of praying that. And what you become aware of. What Bible passages flutter through your mind. What conversations you suddenly stumble upon. What answers to things you've been plagued with suddenly come. I trust God that if you ask and you honestly pursue, God will show up and show off. Laura Dugger: (50:41 - 51:45) I completely agree. And now I'm curious to look up. I feel like the Lord has kind of put on my mind the word weird this year a few times. Because truly, when you think of what he did, even in the Old Testament, think of Noah, just like, okay, I'm obeying. I'm putting nails in this wood for never seeing rain. It's weird what we're called to sometimes. And I think that's what can make me hesitate for obedience sometimes. Like, that feels weird. Or I don't want people to think I'm weird. So, I'm going to look up the definition of weird. I'd love to read it to you. Okay, so, I just looked up the definition of weird. And it says, suggesting something supernatural or uncanny. And I think we should reframe the word weird. And when we're invited into something weird by supernatural God of the universe, that's an incredible invitation, like you say, to adventure. So, I hope we can embrace the weird. Margaret Feinberg: (51:47 - 54:41) And to recognize that feeling of, I don't want to do this. This feels strange. That is universal. That is not you. That is not unique. And for all of our listeners and viewers, I have it. Everybody has it. When we're trying to discern, you know, if something is prompted by the Holy Spirit, number one, is this, does this align with scripture? And does it align with the character of God? Does it increase my dependence on God? Which means it's probably going to go against my natural instinct, which unfortunately is pretty self-word rather than outward. Does it cause me to love God and love others more? And so, of course, Holy Spirit is going to be working in this expansive ground to pull us away from our self-word direction outward. And that is always going to be stretching and feel strange. And sometimes we're not going to see the outcome. And we've got to become comfortable with that. We are not responsible for the outcome. We are responsible for obedience. Some time ago, I swim a lot. And I just felt just in my gut, like, talk to the person in the lane next to you. And so, I go out swimming, and he's next to me, and I'm like, okay. And so, I started this conversation with this elderly gentleman. And I'll just be honest. It was more like a non-versation. I mean, we talked about sports ball teams and the weather and nothing. I really cared. Nothing deep. Nothing meaningful. And on one hand, maybe I misheard. Okay. But no harm, no foul. I mean, I showed kindness to a stranger. Loved others. Like, there's no, like, okay. You know, on the other hand, I will never know what might have happened. Maybe he felt left alone. Maybe he felt seen. But the outcome doesn't matter. And so, there are going to be times that we step out, and we see it, and we encounter it, and it's so exciting. And there's going to be other times that we go to that thing, and we go, Lord, I didn't even know what that was. But maybe that was about quick obedience. You know, almost like building a muscle, getting stronger to say, you did it then. I'm going to keep challenging. I'm going to give you opportunities to do this again and again. Because I want you on the front lines of, you know, eyes are searching to and fro for people who are, you know, obedient, quick to respond, that Holy Spirit wants to use. And so, know that not seeing a result, totally normal. Keep going. Keep going. Because you will see responses sometimes. And it is awesome. And in part of that, it's almost like building a muscle that I think God is so gracious and so loving kind that he will show you, like, quick outcomes sometimes when you respond to that little impulse to keep you going. But there are going to be times you're not going to see them, but he's still at work. Because, again, you may be one of 17 people in a long chain where the fruit or the outcome as part of God's kingdom is still coming. And after a while, it's fine to be number 4, 7, 9. You don't always have to be number 17. Laura Dugger: (54:42 - 55:06) That's so good. That is such the biblical principle of being faithful with little. And then sometimes He allows us to be faithful with much. And, Margaret, this is not your only resource that you've written for all of us to enjoy. Can you share some of your other resources and what's available or what you've learned that we may learn if we pick up a copy? Margaret Feinberg: (55:06 - 56:31) Yeah. You know, I've definitely the most passive. I just gave four years of my life to this book and Bible study. I do a ridiculous amount of research, so, I'm very, very slow. So, top would be The God You Need to Know book and Bible study. But I think another one, and you referenced it earlier, is a book called Fight Back with Joy, and it's also a Bible study. And it just takes a look. You know, it tells a little bit about my cancer story, but it's really about anybody who's battling anything. You know, sometimes in life we pick the battles, and sometimes the battles pick us. And sometimes that's in your marriage, maybe a custody battle. It may be a health issue. It may be a financial calamity. It may be the loss of a business. There's just so much in a strange relationship with a kid that you love so much. And in that darkness, you know, it's so easy to sink. And this book and study is just, it shows that more than whimsy, joy is the weapon we use to fight life's battles. And gives just tons of practical tactics on how to enact that and what that looks like, and how, most importantly, how to rally around others in a healthy, beautiful way when they are in the midst of that. I think one of the failures of the church today is to really equip and train believers of every size and form of how to love others well in the midst of their pain. What to say, what not to say, how to give, how to support. And this book and resource really does that well. Laura Dugger: (56:32 - 56:43) Oh, so grateful for all of those. We'll make sure and add a link in the show notes. And if we want to connect or follow you after today's conversation, where would you like to direct us online? Margaret Feinberg: (56:44 - 57:09) You can find me at my website at Margaret Feinberg. I do my most loving of my people, I'll just be honest, through my e-newsletter. I mean, I sit down, I pray over, I pour my heart and my life into that. It's quiet. Nobody ever sees it. I am also on socials, on Instagram, at Facebook, at MA Feinberg, at Margaret Feinberg. But I would love to connect with you. And if anybody wants to email, my email is hello@margaretfeinberg.com. Laura Dugger: (57:09 - 57:26) Love it. Thank you for sharing all of that. And you may be aware that we're called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge or discernment. And so, as my final question for you today, Margaret, what is your savvy sauce? Margaret Feinberg: (57:27 - 58:05) My savvy sauce is waking up every day and asking the Holy Spirit one question. When I don't know what to pray, I just say, “Holy Spirit, order my steps.” And if you will do this, you will do this for just 15 days. I have a belief. It may just change the course of your life. The great part, it takes less than 30 seconds. This is not doing heavy lifting. This is not time consuming, man. If you're raising those littles and you are overwhelmed, if you're running a business and you are overwhelmed, something very simple like this can change everything. Laura Dugger: (58:06 - 58:10) So good. And you are so obviously connected to the vine, to the Lord. And I just want you to receive this, the fruit of the spirit. I have experienced every single one in this conversation from engaging with you today. You are loving, joy, peace, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. And all wrapped into one. So, praise the Lord for the way He made you. You are an absolute delight. I have enjoyed this so much. Thank you for being my guest. Margaret Feinberg: (58:10 - 58:11) What a privilege and joy. Grateful for you. Laura Dugger: (58:11 - 1:02:30) One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you. Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him. And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started. First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process. And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today. And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.
Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/editorialtpv ¿De dónde salió la obsesión moderna con “el rapto”, el Anticristo y un gobierno mundial? A partir de los disidentes anglo-irlandeses del siglo XIX (Darby y los Hermanos de Plymouth) y su lectura “literal” de la profecía, El auge y la caída del dispensacionalismo sigue cómo estas ideas cruzaron el Atlántico, se institucionalizaron en escuelas, biblias de estudio y campañas de avivamiento, y acabaron impregnando la cultura popular y la política estadounidenses. Del Scofield Reference Bible a los best sellers de Hal Lindsey y Left Behind, pasando por tele-evangelistas, música cristiana y memes apocalípticos online, el libro muestra un movimiento tan teológico como comercial, populista y polémico, capaz de moldear imaginarios masivos y debates sobre Israel, la lectura “en sentido llano” de la Biblia y el fin de los tiempos. Nuestro episodio destila esta historia —sus fases, rupturas internas y declive académico— para entender por qué el dispensacionalismo aún resuena en púlpitos, pantallas y redes, y qué nos dice sobre la relación entre teología, consumo y poder en EE. UU. Basado: Basado en: Daniel G. Hummel, El auge y la caída del dispensacionalismo: Cómo la lucha evangélica por el fin de los tiempos moldeó una nación, trad. Elson Y. Gutiérrez (Lima, Perú: Teología para Vivir, 2025), 1–46. Siguenos: - Web: https://teologiaparavivir.com/ - Blog: https://semperreformandaperu.org/ - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teologiaparavivir/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teologiaparavivir/ - Youtube: https://www.instagram.com/teologiaparavivir/
Matt Slick Live (Live Broadcast of 10/23/2025) is a production of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry (CARM). Matt answers questions on topics such as: The Bible, Apologetics, Theology, World Religions, Atheism, and other issues! You can also email questions to Matt using: info@carm.org, Put "Radio Show Question" in the Subject line! Answers will be discussed in a future show. Topics Include: Matt Announces the Launch of the New CARM Website-October 25, 2025/ Rev. 20-Believers Reigning with Christ, When Does This Happen?/ A Caller Interacts with Mormon Missionaries, Noticing Their Spiritual Blindness/Seeks Advice on Witnessing to Them/Can a Christian Practice Tai Chi?/ Mormonism and 1 Cor. 15:29, Baptizing for the Dead?/ Hal Lindsey, the Nation of Israel, and The Return of Christ/The Parable of The Wheat and The Tares/ October 23, 2025
Do Catholics believe in the Rapture? If not, what *do* Catholics believe about the end of the world? Matt Swaim, Carl Olson, and Dr. Paul Thigpen each came from Evangelical Christian backgrounds where there were lots of theories about how to understand the End Times, from Hal Lindsey to the "Left Behind" series. Now that they're Catholic, they reflect on some elements of the history of the dispensationalist theology that helped popularize belief in the Rapture, and look at some of the things that the Catholic Church formally teaches about what will happen when Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Carl's book, "Will Catholics Be 'Left Behind'?": https://www.amazon.com/Will-Catholics-Left-Behind-Apologetics/dp/0898709504 Paul's book, "The Rapture Trap": https://www.amazon.com/Rapture-Trap-Catholic-Response-Times/dp/0965922820 More stories and resources: https://www.chnetwork.org Our Online Community: https://www.chnetwork.org/community Support our work: https://www.chnetwork.org/compass
Give to help Chris make the Truce Podcast Hal Lindsey published The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970. It was a HUGE hit, selling over 35 million copies by 1999. It was also produced into a film narrated by Orson Welles. That film was shown in movie theaters and church basements and made a splash. The movie is a repackaging of premillennial dispensationalism, which I covered last season. It presents a particular vision of end-times theology, which wrongly predicted that the world would end around 1988. We're going to discuss the book and movie because they have had a real impact on the way that some evangelicals see the world. I'm joined on this episode by Ray McDaniel, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jackson, WY, and Melvin Benson of the Cinematic Doctrine podcast. Chris on the Cinematic Doctrine Podcast Hamilton Ernest Scared Stupid Ernest Saves Christmas Gremlins Sources: National Endowment for the Humanities article The Late Great Planet Earth book and movie Cortney Basham's Master's Thesis The Day of the Dolphin trailer Imdb.com Questions: Have you ever seen The Late Great Planet Earth? What did you think of it? The book and movie echo the Bible in that a false prophet can be identified when their prophecies don't come true. Hal Lindsey's predictions have been wrong for decades. Does that make him a false prophet? What impact do books and movies like this have on the Christian culture? If a book or movie like this does some good (like bringing some people to Christ), but also makes false prophesies, is it still valuable? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In the rubble of two world wars and the establishment of the modern state of Israel, a relatively nascent theological system exploded in popularity in America: Dispensationalism.While dispensationalism traces its roots back to the mid-19th century and steadily grew in popularity in the beginning of the 20th century, it was only with Hal Lindsey's 1970 book “The Late Great Planet Earth”, published at the height of Cold War fears and the threat of nuclear apocalypse, that its ideas firmly gripped the American consciousness.For Hal Lindsey, the supposed return of Israel to the land, the recapture of ancient Jerusalem, and the evangelism of the known world pointed to an imminent rapture and the end of days.It is understandable that in a world teetering on the brink of mutually assured nuclear annihilation, books full of apocalyptic prophecy caught on. But here we are a generation later, the Cold War long over, and many Christians are realizing that we are in this for the long haul. And one of the first orders of business is convincing our leaders that the dispensationalist framing they assumed from decades prior no longer works.A case in point of the collision of dispensationalism with the new right wing is Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz sat down for an interview with Tucker Carlson this past week, thinking the same old answers about blessing Israel and describing them as our greatest ally would work. Spoiler alert: they didn't.This episode is brought to you by our premier sponsors, Armored Republic and Reece Fund, as well as our Patreon members and donors. You can join our Patreon at https://patreon.com/rightresponseministries or you can donate at https://rightresponseministries.com/donateTune in now as we discuss this incredible interview, the fallout, and the quickly approaching end of dispensationalism.*MINISTRY SPONSORS:**Reece Fund. Christian Capital. Boldly Deployed*https://www.reecefund.com/*Private Family Banking*How to Connect with Private Family Banking:1. Receive a FREE e-book entitled "How to Build Multi-Generational Wealth Outside of Wall Street and Avoid the Coming Banking Meltdown", by going to https://protectyourmoneynow.net/2. Schedule a Free 30-Minute Discovery Appointment call today at https://www.liberationeconomy.com*Mid State Accounting*Does your small business need help with bookkeeping, tax returns, and fractional CFO services? Call Kailee Smith at Mid State Accounting at 573‑889‑7278 for a free, no‑obligation consultation. Mention the Right Response podcast and get 10% off your first three months.https://www.midstateaccounting.net*Heaven's Harvest*Get 10% off your Heaven's Harvest order by using discount code "RRM" at checkout on their website.https://heavensharvest.com/rrm*Western Front Books. Publishing for men on the right. Not churchy. Christian.*https://www.WesternFrontBooks.com/*Squirrelly Joe's Coffee - Caffeinating The Modern Reformation*Our audience can get a free bag of coffee (just pay shipping) by visiting https://squirrellyjoes.com/rightresponse
Author Paul Koudounaris explored the profound emotional and cultural significance of pet death and animal memorials, emphasizing their purity and directness compared to traditional human death rituals. He highlighted how grieving for pets often feels more personal and intimate, as the bond between humans and their pets is deeply private and reflective. Pets, Koudounaris argued, become mirrors of their owners, and their passing can feel like losing a part of oneself. This unique grief is compounded by societal norms that downplay the mourning of animals, even though most people experience the loss of a pet, he added.Koudounaris detailed the diverse global practices surrounding pet death, from elaborate Asian rituals conducted by Buddhist monks to specialized cemeteries in the United States, such as those exclusively for bird dogs or coon dogs. He underscored the rich cultural variations in honoring animals, from handcrafted wooden memorials in Finland to glass doghouses in South America. In the U.S., pet cemeteries are particularly abundant, reflecting a vast infrastructure of love and remembrance for pets, Koudounaris said. He shared touching and eccentric stories, such as the controversy over Rin Tin Tin's burial and the elaborate rituals some owners perform for their beloved animal companions.Koudounaris spoke about the spiritual and theological dimensions of pet death. He critiqued the historical belief that animals lack souls and celebrated concepts like the Rainbow Bridge, which provides hope of reuniting pets in the afterlife. Koudounaris tied this to the broader theme of the innocence of animals, asserting that their death feels unjust due to their purity. He also shared stories of paranormal activity linked to pet cemeteries, such as the ghost of Rudolph Valentino's dog, which continues to search for its owner.------------------------------------------Open Lines followed in the latter half of the program. Don in Alberta, Canada, discussed the impressive abilities of dogs, particularly their capacity to detect diseases, including cancer, seizures, and other conditions, often before symptoms become apparent. According to Don, different breeds have varying levels of olfactory sensitivity and he recounted examples of dogs detecting drugs, explosives, and even predators from great distances. Done advocated for the broader use of trained dogs in hospitals and medical settings, suggesting that dogs are more effective and cost-efficient than advanced medical equipment for certain diagnostic tasks.AC in Cleveland shared insights about the Pearl Harbor attack, highlighting lesser-known details. He recounted the story of an Army mobile radar unit at Kahu Point in Oahu, which detected incoming Japanese squadrons early on December 7, 1941. However, their warning to Hickam Field was dismissed, missing the opportunity to scramble planes and potentially mitigate the attack. He also noted the U.S. had broken Japanese codes months prior, which later contributed to victories like the Battle of Midway.The final half our featured a replay of the late author Hal Lindsey discussing biblical prophecy.
In this conversation, Andy, Jeff & Zack explore the complexities of faith, questioning the effectiveness of their beliefs and the struggles that come with them. They discuss the challenges of adhering to Christian teachings in a difficult world, the disillusionment with prosperity theology, and the search for joy beyond material possessions. The importance of morning routines and reframing negative thoughts is emphasized, along with the nature of apologies and forgiveness in relationships. The conversation culminates in a discussion about sin, confession, and personal responsibility in one's faith journey. They discuss the importance of acknowledging one's sins, the dynamics of seeking forgiveness from others, and the transformative power of love. They discuss the death of Hal Lindsey and the impact of his book 'The Late Great Planet Earth' on American Christianity, the role of celebrities in promoting faith-based products, and the complexities of voting as a Christian. Plus Listener FEEDBACK! SUBSCRIBE & SHARE us this week!Contact Us: brosbiblesbeer@gmail.com Leave Us A VoicemailYouTubeSimpleCastSpotifyApple PodcastsFacebook XInstaBros Bibles & Beer is: Jeff, Zack & Andy Find us wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Oh, and share us with a friend this week! Grace. Peace. Cheers!
Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 20 Gary discusses one of Hal Lindsey's lesser-known books called The Road to Holocaust. In it, Lindsey accuses what he calls "Dominion Theology" of denying the "clear teaching of prophecy" as well as promoting antisemitism (a claim still being made today). The book led Gary and Peter Leithart to respond with a small book called The Legacy of Hatred Continues. Get The Legacy of Hatred Continues and the notes from this episode here: https://store.americanvision.org/products/the-legacy-of-hatred-continues
Art Bell - Hal Lindsey - Bible Prophecy. Nancy Sinatra Interview
Ep393-Art Bell-Hal Lindsey-Bible Prophecy. Nancy Sinatra
This week, Sean & Scott discuss: UK bans puberty blockers for children, citing insufficient evidence of safety and efficacy, sparking international comparisons and debate.OpenAI's new AI video generator, Sora, raises ethical and biblical questions about truth and technology's societal impact.Designer babies now teens, with many experiencing identity struggles, reveal the unintended consequences of parental expectations and genetic tailoring.The legacy of Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, prompts reflection on eschatology and its influence on evangelical social action.Listener questions on foster care goals and Bible study methods for teaching and preaching.==========Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith and Culture is a podcast from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, which offers degrees both online and on campus in Southern California. Find all episodes of Think Biblically at: https://www.biola.edu/think-biblically. Watch video episodes at: https://bit.ly/think-biblically-video. To submit comments, ask questions, or make suggestions on issues you'd like us to cover or guests you'd like us to have on the podcast, email us at thinkbiblically@biola.edu.
Ken and Betsey reflect on the Late Great Planet Earth, the monster 197o best-seller by Hal Lindsey, who passed away on November 25th. The cottage industry of apocalyptic books and movies spawned by Lindsey's book live with us to this day. While they acknowledge the need to move on from the distress and anxiety of election day, they invite their listeners into a continued conversation of some of the main headlines. President Biden issued a complete pardon for his son, Biden. The week's political conversation focussed on the president-elect's Cabinet pick for Department of Defense, the controversial Pete Hegseth. Hegseth's extreme political views are rooted in his church's doctrine. Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches founded by the self-described “theologian,” Douglas Wilson of Moscow, Idaho. Health insurance companies are under scrutiny in the aftermath of the horrific, cold-blooded murder of United Health Care's CEO, Brian Thompson. The two agree it's time to gaze at the lights all around and be reminded of the delights and wonder of the Season.Become a Patron | Ken's Substack PageSupport the show
What happens when a pastor uproots his life, late in his career, to embrace a new community and culture? In this episode of CITN, Rob speaks with Terry Sanderson about his ministry journey from St. Louis to Toronto and how his community navigated the challenges of rapid church growth in a few years. They also discuss the church's commitment to intercultural ministry, community outreach, and evangelism with Alpha. Terry is the Lead Pastor of Bayview Glen Church in Thornhill, ON. For more information about his church, visit https://www.bayviewglen.org/. In the pre-show, Rob, Kait, and Geoff get back in the studio with some exciting news, after a two-week break. The CITN crew also discuss the work of the late, Hal Lindsey and the impact his work had on eschatological views in the church - and whether or not we need more sermons about the end times. The conversation shifts to the season of Advent and the hope we have in Christ's return. For more information about the podcast, visit www.churchinthenorth.ca. For questions or inquiries, email us at podcast@churchinthenorth.ca. If you like what you hear, please share this podcast with others, give us a review, or leave a comment.
Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 17 With the recent death of Hal Lindsey, Gary discusses his popular books and the rapture and end times that they promised yet never arrived. Scores of authors and pastors have been influenced by Lindsey's books and prophetic system, but the words they use are as elastic as the timeframes they propose about events which the Bible says were "near" in the first century AD.
Many ideas about the end times including the role of Israel, the mark of the beast, and the rapture became popular through Hal Lindsey's best-selling book from the 1970s, “The Late Great Planet Earth.” Lindsay died last week at 95. We discuss his legacy and how his book is still shaping the American church long after most of its theology has been debunked. Then, Kaitlyn talks to Douglas McKelvey about his series of prayer books, “Every Moment Holy.” He explains the value of using written prayers and not just spontaneous ones, and how to find God in the ordinary activities of life. Also this week—why are Bible sales way up but church attendance still declining? And 80's orca fashion makes a comeback. Holy Post Plus My Hill to Die On: Tipping https://www.patreon.com/posts/117227746/ 0:00 - Intro 1:50 - Show Starts 3:29 - Theme Song 3:50 - Sponsor - Sundays Dog Food - Get 40% off your first order of Sundays. Go to https://www.SundaysForDogs.com/HOLYPOST or use code HOLYPOST at checkout. 4:53 - Sponsor - AG1 - Heavily researched, thoroughly purity-tested, and filled with stuff you need. Go to https://www.drinkag1.com/HOLYPOST 6:14 - Orcas Wearing Fish Hats 13:22 - Hal Lindsey and End Times 26:51 - End Times and an Enchanted World 32:26 - Bible Sales Up! 42:07 - Sponsor - Aura Frames - Exclusive $45-off Carver Matte at https://www.AuraFrames.com. Use code HOLYPOST at checkout to save! 43:11 - Sponsor - Visit https://www.faithfulcounseling.com/HOLYPOST and get the professional faith-based counseling that you need. 44:15 - Interview 46:32 - Why Was Every Moment Holy Written? 52:13 - Why Pray Prayers Someone Else Wrote? 58:36 - What Prayers Made it Into the Book? 1:06:21 - How Is Every Moment Holy Used? 1:16:30 - End Credits Links Mentioned in the News Segment: Orcas Wearing Fish Hats: https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-start-wearing-dead-salmon-hats-again-after-ditching-the-trend-for-37-years “Late Great Planet Earth” Author Passes Away: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/11/died-late-great-planet-earth-end-times-hal-lindsey/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic/bible Sales of Bibles Are Booming: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/sales-of-bibles-are-booming-fueled-by-first-time-buyers-and-new-versions-d402460e Other resources: Every Moment Holy, Volume I: New Liturgies for Daily Life: https://a.co/d/cBD9GzZ Every Moment Holy, Volume II: Death, Grief, & Hope: https://a.co/d/8HQBvBj Every Moment Holy, Volume III: The Work of the People: https://a.co/d/iVKc4Ka Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/ Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
American federal debt is growing faster than the GDP now. This year, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 121 percent. . . about fifth worst in the world. Interest payments on the federal debt have topped 36 percent of total tax receipts. And all of this has its roots in the Keynesian philosophies of the early 1920's and 30's. The present-orientedness, existentialism, and the ideology of Jean-Paul Sartre and John Maynard Keynes are what ran the 20th century and helped produce what we have today. So how much character would it require to reverse the worldview that has soaked our respective nations over the last 50-60 years? How much long-term vision would it take to turn the nation around? Probably a little more than what Elon Musk and Scott Bessett can offer. We review President Trump's pick for Secretary of the Treasury and revisit the history of modern economics on this edition of the program. This program includes: 1. The Worldview in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus (Kamala's bizarre video to supporters; TV channel fined for stating that abortion is leading death cause; Hal Lindsey, author of "The Late Great Planet Earth," died at 95) 2. Generations with Kevin Swanson
It's Friday, November 29th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus 12 Iranian Christian converts face prosecution On November 26th, 12 Christian Iranian converts from Islam were summoned to appear at the 1st Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Nowshahr, a port city on the Caspian Sea coast, reports Church in Chains. In the Iranian indictment, Prosecutor Mohammad Reza-Ebrahimi wrote, “They have identified themselves as Christian during their defense, and this is supported by the messages exchanged in their phones” and by “Gospels and other Christian literature found in their possession.” He concluded that they had “set up groups to teach the Christian religion” and were therefore guilty of a crime. In Matthew 5:10-12, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Australia bans socials for minors younger than 16 A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Senate on Thursday and will soon become a world-first law, reports The Associated Press. The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, and Instagram liable for fines of up to $33 million for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts. The platforms will have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. Online safety activist Sonya Ryan, whose 15-year-old daughter Carly was murdered by a 50-year-old pedophile who pretended to be a teenager online, described the Senate vote as a “monumental moment in protecting our children from horrendous harms online.” French TV channel fined for stating abortion is world's leading cause of death France's Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority has fined a TV channel for accurately reporting that abortion is the leading cause of death worldwide, reports LifeSiteNews.com. On November 13, the French media regulatory authority fined CNEWS 100,000 Euros after journalist Aymeric Pourbaix accurately listed abortion as the world's highest cause of death during the channel's Catholic program called “In Search of Spirit.” In defense of their misguided conclusion, the French TV authority claimed, “Abortion cannot be presented as a cause of death. [The report] equates abortion with a cause of death and, by implication, the embryo or fetus that could not be born alive because of an abortion with a deceased person, even though in law they are not considered as persons,” the Jean Marie Le Méné, head of the pro-life Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, said, “In order for abortion to be practiced with a clear conscience, it is forbidden to say that abortion takes life. Otherwise the keystone of the system collapses. But who believes this fiction? … Abortion, the leading cause of death in the world, is unfortunately a fact, not an opinion.” In Psalm 139:13-14, King David told God, "For You formed my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.” Trump's cabinet nominees targeted with threats Several people who have been nominated for Cabinet positions in President-elect Donald Trump's upcoming administration have reportedly been targeted in “violent, unamerican” threats to their lives and those of their family members, reports NewsNationNow.com. A Trump transition team spokesman said the threats were made Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The attacks ranged from bomb threats to “swatting” which is the criminal harassment act of deceiving an emergency service into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address under a fraudulent premise. Karoline Leavitt, the future White House press secretary, said, “President Trump and the Transition (team) are focused on doing the work of uniting our nation by ensuring a safe and prosperous future. With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us.” Trump's Border Czar set to use 1,400-acre border ranch for deportations Texas unveiled its newly acquired 1,402-acre border ranch purchased in October for nearly $4 million in Rio Grande City — offered as the site of detention facilities to help the Trump administration with proposed mass deportations, reports the Dallas Morning News. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said Tuesday the state is looking to identify additional land to aid the federal effort. The General Land Office has more than 13 million acres of land under its jurisdiction. Appearing on The Angle with Laura Ingram on the Fox News Channel last week, Border Czar Tom Homan didn't pull any punches. Listen. HOMAN: “Trump's made it clear coming around the gate is public safety threats and national security threats, and we have plenty of them to find. Under Biden administration, removal criminal aliens has decreased 74%. So, we got a target rich environment. "For any governor or mayor who doesn't want public safety threats taken out of their communities, you should resign your office because your number one responsibility is to protect those communities. We have ways of finding people. I'm not going to explain it here on national TV because its law enforcement sensitive, but we will find many of these folks. They will be arrested, they'll be detained and they be removed.” Kamala's bizarre message to supporters In Vice President Kamala Harris's first real public statement since her concession speech on November 6th, she released this bizarre message on X. HARRIS: “So I just have to remind you: Don't you ever let anybody take your power from you. You have the same power that you did before November 5th, and you have the same purpose that you did, and you have the same ability to engage and inspire. So, don't ever let anybody or any circumstance take your power from you.” Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, died at 94 And finally, Hal Lindsey, a teacher of biblical prophecy who wrote the bestselling book The Late Great Planet Earth which sold 28 million copies, died on November 25th, two days after turning 95, reports The Christian Post. He wrote The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970 and famously suggested the climactic events of the tribulation would take place "within forty years or so" by 2010. He played a significant role in mainstreaming the premillennial view of the imminent return of Christ among Evangelicals during the 1970s and 1980s. Close And that's The Worldview on this Friday, November 29th, in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
American federal debt is growing faster than the GDP now. This year, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 121 percent . . . about fifth worst in the world. Interest payments on the federal debt have topped 36 percent of total tax receipts. And all of this has its roots in the Keynesian philosophies of the early 1920's and 30's. The present-orientedness, existentialism, and the ideology of Jean-Paul Sartre and John Maynard Keynes are what ran the 20th century and helped produce what we have today. So how much character would it require to reverse the worldview that has soaked our respective nations over the last 50-60 years? How much long-term vision would it take to turn the nation around? Probably a little more than what Elon Musk and Scott Bessett can offer. We review President Trump's pick for Secretary of the Treasury and revisit the history of modern economics on this edition of the program. This program includes:1. The Worldview in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus (Kamala's bizarre video to supporters; TV channel fined for stating that abortion is leading death cause; Hal Lindsey, author of "The Late Great Planet Earth," died at 95)2. Generations with Kevin Swanson
Hal Lindsey Passes AwayYour support sends the gospel to every corner of Australia through broadcast, online and print media: https://vision.org.au/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Explore One Year Bibles by clicking here. Renew your commitment to daily Scripture reading, and begin your exciting adventure!Top headlines for Thursday, November 28, 2024In this episode, we discuss the ongoing debate around transgender individuals in the military, as a spokesperson for President-elect Donald Trump addresses recent reports. Plus, we pay tribute to Hal Lindsey, the renowned biblical prophecy teacher and author, reflecting on his life and legacy following his passing at 95. Subscribe to this PodcastApple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle PodcastsOvercast⠀Follow Us on Social Media@ChristianPost on TwitterChristian Post on Facebook@ChristianPostIntl on InstagramSubscribe on YouTube⠀Get the Edifi AppDownload for iPhoneDownload for Android⠀Subscribe to Our NewsletterSubscribe to the Freedom Post, delivered every Monday and ThursdayClick here to get the top headlines delivered to your inbox every morning!⠀Links to the NewsChurches hold Thanksgiving Day worship services | Church & MinistriesTrump team dismisses 'speculating' about reported transgender ban | PoliticsHuman traffickers using AI to entice, exploit children online | U.S.Texas lawmaker threatens university budget cuts over LGBT studies | EducationCaitlyn Jenner threatens to 'destroy' Kamala Harris in race | PoliticsJudge upholds Missouri's ban on sex-change surgeries for minors | PoliticsHal Lindsey, ‘Late Great Planet Earth' author, dies at 95 | Church & Ministries
Israeli troops spotted Hezbollah fighters on the border Wednesday morning, violating the hours-old ceasefire agreement between Israel and the government of Lebanon. 5) Hezbollah not a signatory to ceasefire, making it worthless; 4) Anti-Israel protesters plan to disrupt Black Friday sales in US; 3) NATO military leader advises European nations to cut Russia and China out of supply chains; 2) Pagan priestess addresses invocation at Tulsa city council meeting to Medusa; 1) Hal Lindsey is called home by God at the age of 95.FOLLOW US!X: @WatchSkyWatchTV | @Five_In_TenYouTube: @SkyWatchTelevision | @SimplyHIS | @FiveInTenRumble: @SkyWatchTVFacebook: @SkyWatchTV | @SimplyHIS | @EdensEssentialsInstagram: @SkyWatchTV | @SimplyHisShow | @EdensEssentialsUSATikTok: @SkyWatchTV | @SimplyHisShow | @EdensEssentialsSkyWatchTV.com | SkyWatchTVStore.com | EdensEssentials.com | WhisperingPoniesRanch.com
we look at Dispensationalism as hyper-modern rather than anti-modern. we look at the spread of the system by "pop-culture". we conclude the series.
**Special Note: Christianity Today will unveil our new redesign on August 12th! Don't miss out—click here for a trial subscription.** "We need to do a better job as Christians of talking about the body in ways that valorize creation—not just criticizing people who want to do things we think are morally wrong, but helping them understand what God made right.” So says professor, author, and theologian Michael Horton on this episode of The Russell Moore Show. He and Moore discuss Horton's new book, Shaman and Sage: The Roots of “Spiritual but Not Religious” in Antiquity. Their conversation explores the growing cultural attraction to Wicca, why people long for a connection to the mystical, and the goodness of our created flesh. They talk about technological advances that attempt to transcend the body, how we arrived in a cultural moment where people are spiritual but not religious, and what it looks like to engage with people who don't believe there are any answers to the universe. Tune in for an episode that encourages Christians to understand how the goodness of the gospel transforms our entire beings—body and soul alike. Resources mentioned in this episode include: Michael Horton Sola Media White Horse Inn Shaman and Sage: The Roots of Spiritual but Not Religious in Antiquity by Michael Horton The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey with Carole C. Carlson The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil Transcendent ManYuval Noah Harari Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com. Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today. “The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper Host: Russell Moore Producer: Ashley Hales Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens Audio engineering by Dan Phelps Video producer: Abby Egan Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Scripture: Mark 4:26-34 In this Sunday's message, Melissa wove together the parables of the sower scattering seed and of the mustard seed growing with the tremendously destructive dispensationalist theology made popular by Hal Lindsey. Dispensationalism is a reading of scripture that is the basis of Christian Zionism, a violent anti-Semitic, literalist misuse of scripture. It is also the underpinning, for many US policies and attitudes towards the modern state of Israel. Unlike the coercive theology that runs through Christian Zionism, we see in today's passage that the kingdom of God is a mystery, one of the Gospel of Mark's favorite words. It's not a mystery in the sense that we don't understand it or can't comprehend it. It's a mystery in our lack of ability to bring it to pass. The lies of Christian Zionism are manifold, but the most central is this, that we can control history. That we can manipulate God's action that we can spur on a desired future through geopolitical maneuvering. And once you're there. Once you start down this path, you have lost the Jesus plot altogether. This is an occasion for us to look at the ways we may also think God needs our help to make history turn out right. What are the ways that we insist that particular political ends, no matter how destructive or violent, may be necessary? What are the ways that we say compromise and capitulation is simply part of the calculus of the greater good? Because there's just no room for that here. And in the seed parables we discover that we live out of control. That is part of the mystery.
In this episode we're talking about Dispensationalism with Dr. Daniel Hummel, who is the Director of the Lumen Center and Upper House in Madison, WI, a research fellow in the History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the host of the UpWords podcast, and the author of The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End Times Shaped a Nation (Eerdmans, 2023). Over the course of our conversation we talk about what Dispensationalism is, how the system of thought developed and became so widespread within Christianity since the 19th century, and also how it fell apart at the time that it was popularized in the 1970s and subsequent decades in the writings of people like Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, etc. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Dr. Brandon Hurlbert, and Dr. Sydney Tooth. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Art Bell - Hal Lindsey - Biblical Prophecy
Revelation 1 (ESV)Andrew and Edwin discuss John's stated time frame for the book. "The time is near." It tells of things which must "shortly take place." That is, it discusses things John's original audience needed to help them with what they were facing. John was not providing his original audience with glimpses of the distant future, but with what was going on to them and what God was about to do about it.Read the written devo that goes along with this episode by clicking here. Let us know what you are learning or any questions you have. Email us at TextTalk@ChristiansMeetHere.org. Join the Facebook community and join the conversation by clicking here. We'd love to meet you. Be a guest among the Christians who meet on Livingston Avenue. Click here to find out more. Michael Eldridge sang all four parts of our theme song. Find more from him by clicking here. Thanks for talking about the text with us today.________________________________________________If the hyperlinks do not work, copy the following addresses and paste them into the URL bar of your web browser: Daily Written Devo: https://readthebiblemakedisciples.wordpress.com/?p=15926The Christians Who Meet on Livingston Avenue: http://www.christiansmeethere.org/Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TalkAboutTheTextFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/texttalkMichael Eldridge: https://acapeldridge.com/
About the King's Business Daniel 8:1-27 by William Klock The books of 1 and 2 Maccabees in the Apocrypha detail the persecution of the Jews in the mid-160s BC, during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. 2 Maccabees 6, for example, tells how “the king sent an Athenian senator to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their ancestors and no longer to live by the laws of God; also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and to call it the temple of Olympian Zeus” (6:1-2). The gentiles used the temple of God for their orgies and drunken banquets. Antiochus desecrated the alter with the sacrifice of a pig. On holidays the king's men would round up Jews and force them to participate in his parades and sacrifices. Those who refused to participate or who were caught living by torah were killed. Two women, for example, were caught having circumcised their baby boys. Their babies were tied around their necks as the women were paraded through the streets to the wall of the city and then thrown down it to their deaths. Faithful Jews who were caught secretly observing the sabbath in a nearby network of caves were burned alive. 2 Maccabees 7 tells the story of seven brothers and their mother, who were threatened with torture to eat pork. Despite being beaten, they refused. The king fell into a rage, and gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated. These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, “The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song that bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, ‘And he will have compassion on his servants.'” (2 Maccabees 7:3-6) The king went on to do the same to the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh brothers who all refused. We read that: The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Although she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. She encouraged each of them in the language of their ancestors. Filled with a noble spirit, she reinforced her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them, “I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.” (2 Maccabees s7:20-23) She stood firm—and so did her sons—because they hoped in the Lord. They knew that he is the Lord of history. They knew his goodness. They knew his faithfulness. They knew their story and how it was interwoven with the story of the faithfulness of the God of Israel, and so even as they were brutally murdered by a mad king, they trusted in him. Daniel was written for these people. The stories in the first half of the book show Daniel and his friends standing firm for the Lord during the Babylonian exile, but the dreams and visions in the second are situated right in the middle of those days of violent persecution four centuries later. That's what we see now as we come to Chapter 8 and to Daniel's second vision. Let's start with verse 1 and read through to the end. In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.” When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.” And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. He said, “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.” And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it. Another vision during the reign of the blasphemous king Belshazzar. In his ways, he foreshadows the evils of Antiochus Epiphanes. But as the first vision revealed, the days of Babylon were soon to be over, so this vision whisks Daniel hundreds of kilometres to the east, to Susa, which would become the capital of the Persian empire. And there he sees another animal, this time a ram. This is another clue as to when the book was written. The ram as a sign of the zodiac was associated with Persia—not in Daniel's day, but in the time of the Greeks. The symbolism of Daniel 7 was difficult and there's a fair bit of disagreement about what it all means, but not so much with Daniel 8. This vision is simpler and the explanation pretty straightforward. Most everyone agrees on the major points. So it begins with a ram representing the combined empire of the Medes and the Persians—those are the two horns, one bigger than the other. Horns, in ancient imagery, represent strength. The Medes were strong, but the Persians eventually become stronger and gobbled them up and so Daniel sees the ram, lowering its head, and charging from the east into the north and into the south and into the west—which is exactly what the Persian empire did, until it controlled the known world, even as far as Greece. Daniel writes that the ram did as it pleased and became strong. It's the way of human empires. But as the ram reaches the peak of its power, Daniel sees a goat appear in the west. It helps to know that in the biblical mind, the goat was stronger and more powerful than the ram. This goat had a single horn and it made its way across the land so fast it might have been flying for all it seemed to touch the earth. It put its head down and charged the mighty ram and shattered both its powerful horns. In case the symbolism wasn't already obvious, the angel explains that the goat is Greece. The jutting horn is Alexander the Great. Alexander was the son of Philip II, King of Macedon. He was tutored by Aristotle and assumed the throne when his father died in 336 BC. He was only twenty years old. By the age of thirty he had conquered the known world, from Greece in the west to India in the East, from Central Asia in the north to Egypt in the south. And then, in 323 BC, still a young man, Alexander died of a fever in Babylon. For twenty years his generals fought over his empire, eventually carving it up into four kingdoms, which Daniel sees as four horns. The two relevant ones for the Jews were that of Seleucus who controlled Syria and the east, and Ptolemy, who controlled Egypt and Palestine. But this is all the background to the most important part of the vision. Out of those Greek successor kingdoms arises another horn. He isn't named, but as the details of the first horn obviously point to Alexander, the details of this new horn point very obviously to Antiochus IV Epiphanes. In the great sweep of history, Antiochus was hardly the greatest of the Greek kings, but when he defeated the Egyptian Ptolemies and took control of Judah he became very important to the Jews. The Ptolemies had treated the Jews well and allowed them to govern themselves as a sort of religous state as long as the high priest coughed up the annual taxes. Antiochus, however, wanted to make good Greeks of the Jews and to get his hands on the temple treasury. Under his rule the priesthood was bought and sold and eventually observance of torah was outlawed and torah scrolls burned. God's worship in the temple was ended and it was turned into a temple to Olympian Zeus. And Antiochus murdered faithful Jews by the tens of thousands. In Daniel's vision, Antiochus takes the form of this great horn that rises up against heaven itself. These verses, especially 12-13, are difficult. Just when I was glad to leave the Aramaic of chapters 2-7 behind, here come these verses that I can only describe as a Hebrew word salad. The Hebrew of Daniel is something else that points to it having been written in the Second Century, because it's not written in the great literary Hebrew of Daniel's day, but in a sort of clunky Hebrew that looks a lot like it was written by someone who probably spoke Aramaic as a first language. But that's okay. The gist of Daniel's vision is that Antiochus, in going up against the temple and the priesthood, was really shaking his fist at the God of Israel. This little earthly king who called himself “Epiphanies”—the manifestation of God—was pitting himself against the living God, the Lord of history, the one the Babylonian kings had had the good sense to acknowledge as God Most High. That never ends well. And yet, for a time, the mad king seems to have won. Israel's identity was centred on the temple. That was the place where heaven and earth, where God and man met. They were the holy people who lived with God in their midst. And not only did Antiochus do his best to make sure they broke their end of the covenant with God by preventing them from keeping his law, but he suspended the very sacrifices that acknowledged God's presence in the temple. He wanted the Jews to live like good Greeks and when they insisted on living like Jews, he banished their God from his temple and set up an altar to Zeus. Judah was now his land. Their God was gone, so they had no reason to obey his law. Of course, the Jews knew better. Like that mother and her seven sons in 2 Maccabees, they knew the faithfulness of the God of the Israel and they knew that no puny human king could blaspheme against him forever. But, for a time, he would seem to have won the day. According to Daniel's vision, for 2300 evenings and mornings the temple would be desolate. That's a reference to the morning and evening sacrifices that were—or were supposed to be—made every day. The sacrifices that Antiochus suspended. Depending on how you parse this detail out, it's either about three years and three months or it's about six years and six months. Most people tend to go with the three years, which corresponds closely to the time when Antiochus had suspended the worship of the Lord in the temple. But the six-and-a-half years works too, if you count back to when the high priest was deposed. Either way, we know what the vision represents. And either way and for whatever reason, it's not an exact number, which means it may also be symbolic—we just can't be sure exactly how. However we parse out the number, the important point is that the Lord has numbered these evil days. And that's the point I want to close on. Too often we get fixated on numbers and on fixing dates and end up missing the point. We do it with books like Daniel. We do it with books like Revelation. We do it with the prophets and with the apocalyptic discourses of Jesus. It's nothing new. Christians have been setting dates for over a thousand years and whenever we do, we seem to end up distracted from the gospel mission we've been given. Often it ends with the creation of schismatic sects and cults. William Miller, for example, worked out from these 2300 evening and mornings that Jesus would return in 1843. His argument convinced a lot of people (and it helped that he threw in plenty of “God has told mes”). Of course, it didn't happen so he adjusted his formula, admitted a small error, and corrected the date to 1844. That didn't happen either. But his followers had given up everything and then many of them walked away and became jaded. They called it the “Great Disappointment”. But, still, to this day Miller has his ardent followers. They're the Seventh Day Adventists and believe that it really did happen in 1843, and that it wasn't about Jesus returning to the earth, but that Jesus on that date entered the heavenly temple to begin is work of judging souls in anticipation of his return. And many of us remember Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth that became a sensation in the 1970s. Lindsey made a point of not setting an exact date, but he wasn't shy about saying things like the 1980's would probably be the earth's last decade. It motivated some people to become missionaries, but it motivated lots of other people to abandon their jobs, their families, and to run up massive credit card debt because they were convinced that in a year or two none of it would matter. In more recent years we've had similar predictions made about “blood moons” and the like. Christian bookstores were filled books about the imminent return of Jesus and end of the world. People were, once again, all worked up about the end of the world and, once again, nothing happened. Again, we too often forget the point of passages like this one in Daniel 8. Even if we could estimate or even set a date by it, the point is that God is in control and, because of that, we have every reason to stand firm in the midst of trials and persecution, knowing that God will vindicate us in the same way that he has vindicated his people in the past and, especially for us as Christians, in the same way that he vindicated his son when he raised him from death. Daniel 8—and so many other passages—remind us first and foremost that God is sovereign. No matter how it seems, history is not random. No matter how much they may shake their fists at the heavens, no king is outside the sovereign will of God. No matter how much we may abuse our God-given liberty, every one of us will be held to account. Sin and evil will not go on forever. God is judge, one day he will deal with sin and death once and for all, and eventually all of creation will be to rights—including us. And we know that this will happen, we believe, we have hope, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. At the cross God did the hard part needed to set the world to rights. At the cross Jesus won the decisive battle and one day the war will be over when we, the church, his people, have accomplished the work he has given. He has equipped us with his own Spirit and sends us out to proclaim the life giving and renewing good news of his death and resurrection. And for two thousand years, that good news has driven away the false gods of the pagans and brought kings and their people to their knees before Jesus and to give glory to the God of Israel. Brothers and Sisters, date-setting, goofy predictions, and eschatological paranoia do nothing to witness the sovereignty of the Lord of history. They do just the opposite and they undermine our witness. They make Christians look foolish and the scriptures untrustworthy. Our mission is to proclaim the gospel, because in Jesus and in his death and resurrection, that is where the world meets the living God and knows his faithfulness. And that brings me to the final point. Look again at verse 27 and Daniel's response. The vision left him troubled. He even lay sick in his bed for “some days”. He was in some sense dismayed because he didn't fully understand it. But what did he do? He says that he arose and went about the king's business. Brothers and Sisters, the prophecies and apocalypses that the Spirit has given us in the scripture were never meant to send us out in a panic or a frenzy, they weren't given to have us abandon our earthly responsibilities because the world is coming to an end. They were given to us to remind us that God is sovereign, that he will judge the wicked, and that he will vindicate his people for their faithfulness. So be faithful. The Lord had placed Daniel in a position of authority in the court of the king of Babylon. That pagan court was soon to fall. That pagan king was soon to die. But the Lord had put Daniel in that position for a reason and so he went faithfully back to his work. The same goes for each of us. The Lord has put us where we are for a reason. Be a faithful husband and father or a faithful wife and mother knowing that the Lord is sovereign. Be faithful in your vocation, whatever it may be, however mundane it may seem. Be faithful to your earthly obligations: to your family, to your business, to your school, to your church, to your club, to your friends, to your debts, to your country knowing that the Lord has placed you where you are. That is, after all, the King's business. This witness to our trust in the sovereignty of God is the foundation that undergirds our greater witness to Jesus and the gospel. It is what prepares us to stand firm should the day come when we find ourselves forced to choose between obedience to an earthly king and obedience to our heavenly King. May we stand firm like the saints of old and declare with the mother of those seven martyred sons, “The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us.” Let's pray: Almighty God, look with mercy on your people; that by your great goodness we may be always governed and preserved both in body and soul, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
For many American Christians, the presumptive next big event in redemptive history will be the Rapture. Many believers have been influenced by the fictional stories of the Left Behind novels and movies which depict military conflict in Israel, the Rapture in which all true believers are taken to Heaven, and the great tribulation in which those who are left behind must endure seven years of war and suffering. In this episode of the podcast, we explore the key theological ideas of a theological system called Dispensationalism, which was the predominant default theology of American Christianity for most of the 20th Century. We discuss key figures, like John Nelson Darby, James H. Brookes, D.L. Moody, C.I. Scofield, Lewis Sperry Chafer, John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, Hal Lindsey, and Tim LaHaye, and how a whole pop-dispensational media complex developed that undermined the scholastic movement of the Bible institutes and seminaries. Daniel G. Hummel, Ph.D., (American History, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the author of the new book, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End Times Shaped a Nation (Eerdmans Press, 2023). Dan is the Director of The Lumen Center, located at University Square on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Lumin Center is a community of Christian scholars working at the intersection of Christianity and culture. He has held appointments at UW-Madison and Harvard University. You can purchase this book from independent booksellers Byron and Beth Borger at Hearts & Minds Bookstore. Order online through their secure server or call 717-246-333. Mention that you heard about this book on the Reintegrate Podcast and get 20% off. ________________ Thanks for listening! Please leave a review and share this podcast with your friends. Your hosts are Dr. Bob Robinson and David Loughney. Go to re-integrate.org for the latest articles on reintegrating your callings with God's mission and online resources for further learning. You can also find out about a Bible study book that you can use in your small group or individual devotions: Reintegrate Your Vocation with God's Mission. On Reintegrate's podcast page, you'll find more episodes and ways to email us to comment on this podcast. Music provided by Brian Donahue.
Day 254 Today's Reading: Revelation 16 One of the scariest movies I have ever seen was not in a theater but in a church. It was called A Thief in the Night, and it was circulating in the 1970s about the end times. I knew I wanted to be ready for the rapture, the second coming of Jesus. I remember leaving that church service as an elementary student knowing full well in my heart that I needed to be ready for that day. I went on to read Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth. At that time, they had it in a comic book form, and it was the clincher for me that I was going to be ready for Jesus to come back as a thief in the night. If things could get any worse for earth and humanity, Revelation 16 tells us it does in the great tribulation. As if seven trumpets of disaster were not enough for the planet, God unleashes seven bowls of wrath into the earth, from bodily affliction to polluting rivers and water. What's interesting is that in the midst of these wrathful bowls of God's judgment, one theme keeps being shouted by the angels inflicting the punishment: “Righteous art Thou O Holy One.” Their words remind us that God is not doing anything we don't deserve—this is a day of wrath and judgment after millennia of mercy and patience. These bowls are terrifying, as is men's response to the outpouring of God's wrath. Almost as many times as it says “God is righteous” after one of the bowls is poured out, it says as many times, “They did not repent so as to give Him glory.” How corrupt is man by this time in his history? The chapter ends with a name many of us are all familiar with. As if things can't get any worse, we are introduced to Armageddon, the place of the final battle on the planet. All that to say that in the midst of these horrific verses, a parenthetical statement shows up and stands alone in these passages because the verse speaks to the now and not to the future: “(‘Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.')” (Revelation 16:15). Verse 15 is a parenthetical life preserver for humanity now, right now before this chapter comes upon the planet with the wrath of God. When I say parenthetical, it's just a large word for parentheses, an insert of another thought, a little path from the original thought. But this is not a little diversion. This is deliverance from the wrath of God. It is as if John breaks from the vision and, in terror of what will happen, says to humanity, This doesn't have to happen to you. Stay awake and ready for the rapture. The parentheses show us John being overwhelmed and wanting to help us all. The parentheses bring us to the rapture, the second coming of Jesus. The apostle John says that Jesus will come like a thief in the night, but this is not only John's description of the second coming of Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 24 that this is the way it happens. In 1 Thessalonians 5:2, Paul uses the thief-in-the-night image. And in 2 Peter 3:10, Peter also says He will come like a thief. The thief-in-the-night day is the rapture. The rapture is Jesus coming physically a second time to the earth, not to redeem it but to start judging it. The rapture has two important days attached to it: the wedding day and the judgment day. The wedding day is the celebration of the “born again” dead and living all going to heaven. It's the final call, our reward of heaven. And the Bible calls it a wedding-day celebration. The second day is judgment day, and it is God making all wrongs right. No one gets away with anything because of this day. Every person will be judged for what they have done. Hitler and Saddam Hussein will be there. Stalin and Castro. People from your city and my city and every pl
Bruce Gore and Jacob Toman discuss Postmillennialism, memorizing the entire book of Revelation, hearing Hal Lindsey teach, moving to Postmillennialism and more.Bruce Gore on YoutubeWatch all of our videos and subscribe to our channel for the latest content >HereHere
A DAY is coming when Jerusalem becomes “a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples.” This is a prophecy of the Day of the Lord, or the Day of Yahweh, which culminates at Armageddon. Zechariah saw the coming of Messiah, and the key verse in our view is Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” In other words, on that day, when Jerusalem is the scene of the final battle of the age, those fighting for Jerusalem will realize that “him whom they have pierced” is the One they were waiting for. The war between Israel and Hamas enters its third week. Aaron Lipkin, CEO of Lipkin Tours, has purchased equipment for the IDF troops defending his community in Samaria (what the world calls the West Bank). If you would like to contribute, go to https://bit.ly/lipkintours. Choose option #21 (donation). The Hal Lindsey book Derek mentioned is The Road to Holocaust, Lindsey's response to Dominionists and Reconstructionists who believe that the church has replaced Israel and the Jews in end times prophecy. We agree with Hal that Replacement Theology is the basis for anti-semitism, and the Israel-Hamas war is bringing it to the surface in many Christian congregations. The article by Dr. Thomas Ice on Hal Lindsey and Dominion Theology is at https://bit.ly/tommyice. Our Build Barn Better project is making progress! Our 1,200 square pole barn now has HVAC, along with a new floor, windows, ceiling fans, upgraded electric service, and insulation. Wall paneling is going up and we're beginning to produce programs out there. Thank you for your support! If you are so led, you can help out at GilbertHouse.org/donate. Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs Unraveling Revelation and A View from the Bunker, and the podcast that started this journey in 2005, P.I.D. Radio. Best of all, it bypasses the gatekeepers of Big Tech! The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/. Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site! Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study. Take advantage of our monthly specials!——————Join us in Israel! Our 2024 tour of Israel features special guest Timothy Alberino! We will tour the Holy Land March 31–April 9, 2024, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to www.GilbertsInIsrael.com.——————Subscribe to our new YouTube channels! Unraveling Revelation: www.YouTube.com/UnravelingRevelationThese weekly studies and Derek's podcast: www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse ——————Our favorite Bible study tools! Check the links in the right-hand column at www.GilbertHouse.org. For the complete Gilbert House Fellowship archive, go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship.
A DAY is coming when Jerusalem becomes “a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples.” This is a prophecy of the Day of the Lord, or the Day of Yahweh, which culminates at Armageddon. Zechariah saw the coming of Messiah, and the key verse in our view is Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” In other words, on that day, when Jerusalem is the scene of the final battle of the age, those fighting for Jerusalem will realize that “him whom they have pierced” is the One they were waiting for. The war between Israel and Hamas enters its third week. Aaron Lipkin, CEO of Lipkin Tours, has purchased equipment for the IDF troops defending his community in Samaria (what the world calls the West Bank). If you would like to contribute, go to https://bit.ly/lipkintours. Choose option #21 (donation).The Hal Lindsey book Derek mentioned is The Road to Holocaust, Lindsey's response to Dominionists and Reconstructionists who believe that the church has replaced Israel and the Jews in end times prophecy. We agree with Hal that Replacement Theology is the basis for anti-semitism, and the Israel-Hamas war is bringing it to the surface in many Christian congregations. The article by Dr. Thomas Ice on Hal Lindsey and Dominion Theology is at https://bit.ly/tommyice.
Episode Synopsis:I begin this episode with a personal testimony.I was born and raised a dispensationalist. Our family owned a Christian bookstore. The first Christian book I picked out and read on my own was Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth. Years later, I was challenged by one of our delivery men about the books we were selling–all the dispensationalist best sellers. He said he was “Reformed.” I thought he meant that he had gone to “reform school” or was on work release from prison. The questions he put to me bounced off like BB's against a Battleship. Dispensationalism was biblical. How could anyone doubt that?But those BB's actually penetrated my embarrassingly thin armor. Eventually, I became a very reluctant Calvinist and then I started re-thinking my eschatology. After university and a year at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law (which was founded by John Warwick Montgomery, the faculty included Walter Martin, and Rod Rosenbladt, and is now the Trinity Law School in Santa Ana), I was steadily moving away from my doctrinal roots (Arminian and dispensational). I found that the Reformation views on law and gospel, the five solas, and the end times, were absolutely compelling because they were thoroughly biblical. To my surprise Drs. Montgomery and Rosenbladt suggested a career change–seminary, specifically the new seminary in Escondido (90 miles to the South), Westminster Seminary California.In the Acts and Paul class taught by Dennis Johnson, I first encountered what I came to know as the two-age model–terms I was familiar with from reading the New Testament but never thought much about–“this age” and “the age to come.” After reading Herman Ridderbos and Geerhardus Vos on Paul, I realized how serious a challenge the two-model was to my premillennial eschatology (I had pretty much given up on most of my dispensationalism by then, although I still thought like one). Driving home after Dr. Johnson's class, I had an “ah-ha moment.” “I can't be premillennial any more.” The two-age model makes premillennialism (in all its forms) a biblical impossibility. I dug in my heels and fought the inevitable. But here I am far down the road, presenting and defending the two-age model. If you've not heard this before, you are in for a real surprise. This is a game changer in terms of your view of the end times.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/
In this episode, join Dudley and Karis for a conversation on the importance of understanding our place in God's story, which includes the period of time before Christ's return to earth (known as the “end times”). Dudley and Karis also discuss the repercussions of people having believed that they are part of the last generation ever on this planet, the joy and importance of learning where we as individuals fit within the Biblical story, and “The Late Great Planet Earth,” a 1970 book by Hal Lindsey. For more information and resources, visit https://kerygmaventures.com/podcast/ Follow and subscribe:Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/41N9SAP Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3LEIxeo YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@kerygmaventures Google Podcasts - https://bit.ly/kerygma-ventures-google-podcasts Watch our "Conversations At The Ranch" series: https://bit.ly/conversations-at-the-ranch Watch our "Papa, I Have A Question" series: https://bit.ly/papa-I-have-a-question This episode was produced by Story On Media & Marketing: https://www.successwithstories.com.
For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.For further study:Read the original two-article series I wrote in London (1986). Click on Armageddon!Read a paper on Matthew 24 and the Destruction of Jerusalem I wrote at Duke University (1980). Click here.See also John Clayton's article The 2012 Mayan Demise of Earth.If you'd like to learn a lot more, you might want to order Revelation and the End of the World. This audio series:Includes 4 lessons on audio CD (3 hours total).Also has the paper on The Destruction of Jerusalem.Contains further material (40 days of study) on every chapter of Revelation. (These notes are also available at the premium site, under N.T. Studies.)Some failed predictions & estimates:Rabbi Menachem Schneerson: “The Iraqi crisis may spark the terrible war that will herald Messiah's arrival.”Billy Graham: “There are spiritual forces at work in the Persian Gulf confrontation. History has gone full circle, and we are coming back to these [Bible] lands. This is not another Korea, it is not another Vietnam – it is something far more sinister and far more difficult."Jack Van Impe: “Four major prophecies in the Bible pinpoint Iraq and the Persian Gulf as the prelude to the Battle of Armageddon, a conflict that will begin at the Euphrates River in Iraq.”Lester Sumrall: “I predict the absolute fullness of [the] man's operation in planet earth by the year 2000 AD. Then Jesus Christ shall reign from Jerusalem for 1000 years.”Mary Stewart Relfe: “The second coming of Christ will occur in 1997.”Jerry Falwell: 2000.Hal Lindsey: 1987 or 1988Jehovah's Witness predictions: 1914, 1918. 1925, 1941, 1975, etc.Update: Interestingly, just days before 21 Dec 2012, the very moment my editor and I were exchanging emails and joking about the big day (he said I had just 9 days to get my corrections to him before it was "too late"), I received a warning from a fellow who wanted me to know that he had intelligence that am undetectable dwarf star was on a collision course with the earth. The date of impact: 21 Dec 2012.Related podcasts in the current series:What Happens After Death?The Rapture & the TribulationThoughts on Heaven & Hell
Episode Synopsis:As a baby boomer, I grew up during the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear war was real and constant. In 1948, Israel became a nation and many Jews began returning to their ancient homeland. The “Six Day War” of 1967, fought between Israel and a confederation of Arab states, sure made it seem as though the dispensational expectation of the rapture of the Gentile church, followed by a seven-year tribulation period in which antichrist would make a peace treaty with Israel, only to turn upon the nation leading to the Battle of Armageddon, was at hand. Fear and uncertainty among God's people during this time created a huge and eager audience as well as perfect timing for Hal Lindsey to release his blockbuster book, the Late Great Planet Earth which was the best-selling book in the United States during the 1970's, selling some 28 million copies by 1990. Lindsey put into popular terms how current events were unfolding as the fulfillment of God's plan to redeem his people, save Israel, and usher in the millennial age. But what was to come next on this time line? The “rapture.” The rapture became the main hope of vast numbers of Bible-believing Christians. Jesus will return to rapture believers before any nuclear holocaust thereby sparing believers from such horrors, and the removal of the Gentile church will allow God to return to dealing with Israel, the apple of his eye. Everything centered upon the “rapture.”But when Paul discusses the meaning of Jesus Christ's parousia (or his coming) in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, does the apostle actually teach anything like the end-times scenario as taught by dispensationalists and popularized by the likes of Hal Lindsey? In this ninth episode of season two of the Blessed Hope Podcast in which are working our way through Paul's two Thessalonian letters, we will consider Paul's discussion of the Lord's return. While Paul is certain of the Lord's return to raise the dead, judge the world and make all things new, he knows nothing of the “rapture” in the form embraced by so many. What does Paul teach about the Lord's return? Stay tuned.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/
Our topic is the 70 weeks and logical conclusions. I want to share the testimony that brought me here. Back in 1981, I was caught up in Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth, which was all about futurism and the end times. But then I attended a seminar by a man named David Campbell who presented historicism, specifically the 70 weeks of Daniel. In just three hours, he proved from Scripture and history that the 70th week of Daniel was perfectly fulfilled during the ministry of Jesus Christ. This devastated everything I thought I knew about Bible prophecy. I began a ten-year journey of study and research, which resulted in my book, The 70 Weeks: The Historical Alternative. I never asked for a dime of royalties from any of the ministries who published my work. I wanted the money to go towards getting the books out and blessing the ministry. This seed, along with the seed of other ministries, is leading to an awakening of the truth. We need to get the 70 weeks right in order to understand our history and our present. We will explore different interpretations of the 70 weeks and look at the Reformation and its unifying doctrine. We need to handle the truth wisely and with fear and trembling. In this segment, we will be examining the false doctrine being taught and the sources from which it originated, designed to destroy the Reformation. We will be looking at the Jesuits and their role in the Counter-Reformation, and how their teachings have influenced most of the Protestant Bible prophecy teachers. We will also be examining the Protestant Reformation and the role of figures like Wycliffe and how they opposed the counter schemes of the Roman Catholic Church. We will be discussing relevant issues, such as the hindrance that will come and the removal of the Holy Ghost. We will also be addressing the issue of the temple being rebuilt and how it is a lie that leads to chaos. We will be exploring the divine time measures in the Bible, particularly the prophecy of Daniel 9, and how it must be interpreted as day for a year. We will also be examining the futurist teachings and their logical conclusions. Finally, we will be looking at the six messianic prophecies and the time measures surrounding them, and how they relate to Christ.
Hal Lindsey is continuing with part two--the Book of Revelation. Hal is a terrific prophetic teacher who has been around for decades. Jaggy and I thank you for tuning in! Our studio line: 888-476-3111
Excellent teaching by Hal Lindsey, who has been a prophesy teacher for many decades now. I first listened to him around 1985. Jaggy and I thank you for tuning in and sharing!
Make sure to join us for this awesome broadcast classic where Bob Enyart interviews Jonathan Cahn on the end times, AND for the first 10 minutes of our Bob Enyart End Times seminar. To get the entire seminar, click here! * About this Interview and on this Page: We a'e eagerly looking forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that should not make us vulnerable to fake news, even Christian fake news, and confused Bible teaching... - Rejecting The Harbinger's Claim of Divine Signs (far below) - Leading End Times Preachers All Dyin' of Old Age (just below) - List of the Erroneous Calculated Dates - Last Days vs. Last Minutes - The Timing of Christ's Return has Changed And related BEL Resources: - Debunking the Blood Moon Claims with a Creationist Astronomer - Bob Schedules Meet with End Times Preacher 9/24/17 (after predicted rapture) - BEL Y2K Survival Kit Cuts Power to House (so our wives don't think that were nuts) - Two Decades After 9/11 End Times Predictions Still Pending - Bob Enyart's End Times Seminar filmed four days after 9/11 to a live and "still here" audience!* 2016 Update: If Christian brother Jonathan Cahn would have paid closer attention to Bob's comments in this interview, and had taken this written show summary to heart, he could have averted the embarrassment of his failed prophecy of economic collapse for 2015. Further, at rsr.org/blood-moons#rsr-vs-the-apocalypse-gurus we make our argument that while the predictions of the End Times gurus are systematically wrong, here at Bob Enyart Live and RSR our biblically-based general and science predictions have an uncanny way of being confirmed! This is a Special Edition of Real Science Radio. * LIST OF LEADING END TIMES PREACHERS * Leading End Times Preachers All Dyin' of Old Age: The modern end-times movement really took off way back in the 1970s and 1980s. Did all the big-name end times teachers think that they would still be preaching in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, and as a group dying of old age? No, of course not. We discuss this in a series on BEL beginning on May 14th, 2018 for the 70th anniversary of the modern State of Israel. See specifically the program, How to turn perfectly good Scripture into bad predictions. We love these guys, and Bob personally (and literally) sat at the feet of Chuck Smith and Chuch Missler for scores of Bible studies. But clearly, their dying of old age indicates that they got something very wrong in their interpretation of the headlines and the Scriptures... - Tim LaHaye (90, 1926 - 2016, Left Behind Series) - Chuck Smith (86, 1927 - 2013, founder, Calvary Chapel) - Chuck Missler (83, 1934-2018, end times teacher) - Harold Camping (92, 1921-2013, founder, Family Radio) - Hal Lindsey (91, b. 1929, Late Great Planet Earth) - Noah Hutchings (92, 1922-2015, six decades on Southwest Radio Church) - Irvin Baxter (75, 1945-2020, Endtime Ministries) as described by B.E. - John Hagee (81, b. 1940; recent error: Blood Moons) - Jack Van Impe (88, 1931-2020; had celebrated his 60-year anniversary with Rexella; began in ministry in 1948 and as a preacher in 1952). See Enyart discuss all this with WND readers. * 2020 Update: * List of the Erroneous Calculated Dates: Here's an example of the never-ending, and so far, universally incorrect, calculating of end times dates by a Christian author, and then another example by the leader of the Jehovah's Witnesses... * Remember When -- The Dates & The Headlines: Countless Christians were told that the following dates were significant because they represented end-times markers. Thousands of news headlines were misinterpreted prophetically to arrive at these erroneous dates. Of course the Lord will return one day, and hopefully, soon. But confused teachers used events and dates like these to confuse others. - 1850 for the ascent of the Anti-Christ (calculated by London's protestant scholar Robert Fleming, V.D.M in 1701 by adding to 608 A.D. the "1260 days" of Revelation, converting each day to a year - 1948 the nation of Israel is reconstituted in the Middle East - 1957 European Common Market (ECM) established with six nations - 1973 The ECM added three more nations, prophecy teachers added this up to Daniel's "ten toes" - 1980 In the decade of the 80s, three more nations joined the ECM, still adding up to Daniel's ten toes - 1993 The European Union (EU) was formed with 12 nations - 1995 Ten Nation European Alliance (WEU) formed, claimed to be Daniel's 10-toed prophecy - 2001 Islamic terrorist attack on America, claimed to represent the end times - 2010 Ten Nation European WEU decides to disband claimed as major fulfillment of prophecy - 2011 Ten Nation WEU officially disbands and absorbed into the EU - 2016 The now 28-nation EU begins to unravel with the UK's Brexit and Italy's no-confidence vote- 2020 With the U.K. officially out, the EU is down to 27 nations.* Counting Backwards From 2020: It's been... 1,520 years since A.D. 500, the year when Irenaeus, et al, predicted that Jesus would return 1,220 years since A.D. 800, the year when Sextus Julius Africanus predicted Armageddon 1,020 years since A.D. 1000, the year when Pope Sylvester II, et al, predicted the beginning of the end 176 years since 1844 when the early 7th Day Adventists believed Christ would have returned 170 years since 1850 when Robert Fleming, writing in 1700 A.D., calculated the anti-Christ's reign 142 years since 1878 when Jehovah's Witnesses said would be the last year for the church on earth 116 years since 1914 when the Jehovah's Witnesses said it would be the end 99 years since 1921 when the JW's said millions now living will never die 84 years since 1936, the year when Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the end (updated to 1943, '72, '75) 72 years since 1948 when Israel became a nation again after World War II 63 years since 1957 when the European Common Market was Daniel's ten-nation alliance 39 years since 1981 when Chuck Smith, et al, taught the seven-year tribulation would begin 35 years since 1985, the year Lester Sumrall wrote about in his book, I Predict 1985 38 years since 1982, the year Pat Robertson predicted would be the end of the world 32 years since 1988 a generate after Israel became a nation with 88 reasons for the Rapture in '88 26 years since 1994, the year that Harold Camping predicted would start the great tribulation 23 years since 1997, the year that Bishop James Ussher predicted would be the end of the world20 years since 2000, when the Y2K bug was predicted to herald the end times, and when and Lester Sumrall predicted would be the end, and when Jerry Falwell predicted would see God's judgment. 19 years since 2001 when America was attacked on 9/11 13 years since 2007, the year Pat Robertson wrote in 1990 would be the end 6 years since 2014 when the blood moons were supposed to indicate the end times.* Last Days vs. Last Minutes: Many years ago my call screener put through to me someone who told him that the diseases in the world were evidence of the Last Days. The guy, Jim from Columbus, Ohio asked me, "Bob, where do you stand on the Ebola virus?" I answered, "I'm against it." Looking at the news events listed above, when they occurred popular prophecy teachers claimed they represented end times prophecies. Well, it's been a long time since. The "end times" is a lot longer than any of them would have predicted. As we say at Denver Bible Church to those misinterpreting last-days prophecies, "From now only, will you only tell us about the Last Minutes?" Afterall, the most famous end-times teachers are all dying of old age and these last-days interpretations have been around for more than half a century. * The Bible shows the Timing of Christ's Return has Changed: You can link directly to this section as kgov.com/second-coming-timing or kgov.com/second-coming-timing-has-changed. For most folks, before reading this list we recommend praying, "Lord, if Your Word clearly teaches something that I will tend to reject because it conflicts with some of my biases, please help me to be humble before You and willing to challenge my preexisting beliefs." - God Views the End Times Calendar as Changeable: "I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time" Isa. 60:22 - Believers Can Change the Time of Christ's Return: Peter wrote that believers too should set about, "hastening the coming of the day of God" 2 Pet. 3:12 - Even the Length of the Tribulation will Change: Jesus said that, "those days will be shortened" Mat. 24:22 - Like God Shortening His Punishment of Israel: the Old Testament precedents for God shortening the coming Tribulation, include, "choose... seven years... Or... three months... Or... three days' plague..." And David said... "His mercies are great..." So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. 2 Sam. 24:12-17, 25 - For God Promised Mercy Regardless of Prophecy If...: "The instant I speak concerning a nation [Israel], to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will repent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it." Jer. 18:7-8 (see also a dozen more Category 1 verses like that one, including the next, about Nineveh) - Again, Get This Down, God Promises Mercy Regardless of Prophecy If: "...forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! [But then] they turned from their evil way; and God repented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it." Jonah 3:10 - Before You Get Through Israel's Villages: "...I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." Mat. 10:23 (yet this did not happen, because as warned, God changed His plan for Israel; Jer. 18:9-10; Rom. 11) - Some of You Won't Die Until: "there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." Mat. 16:28 (this didn't refer to the Transfiguration which occurred about a day later; see too Mark 9 and Luke 9; yet they all did die, because God changed His plan for Israel, and grafted in the Gentiles; Jer. 18:9-10; Rom. 11) - John Might Not Die Before: "Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, 'If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?'" John 21:23 - This Generation Won't Pass Until: "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place." Mat. 24:34 (yet that generation did pass away, because God changed His plan for Israel and instead grafted in the Gentiles; Jer. 18:9-10; Rom. 11) - Before Paul, Believers Sold their Homes: "all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need." Acts 4:34-35; 5:1-2 (this behavior, appropriate at the time, changed after Paul's Acts 9 conversion when God grafted in the Gentiles) - Christ's Soon Return Permeated His Teachings: "Sell what you have and give alms" Luke 12:33; "And everyone who has left houses... or lands, for My name's sake..." Mat. 19:29. "...do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on" Luke 12:22. The "ravens... neither sow nor reap" yet "God feeds them" Luke 12:24. "He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff——no bag..." Mark 6:8. "Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your moneybelts..." Mat. 10:9. "Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and... come, follow Me" Luke 18:22. (yet He did not return soon, as He had warned that He may change His mind). And even that Jesus went about all Galilee preaching "the gospel of the kingdom" Mat. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; Mark 1:14-15 and Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel [of the kingdom]" Mark 1:15; Mat. 3:2; 4:17 - With Homes Sold, They Became Poor: Remember that "all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them... and they distributed to each as anyone had need." Acts 4:34-35; 5:1-2 - It Was the Converts of the Twelve Who Fell into Poverty: 1 Cor. 16:1–4; 2 Cor. 8:1-9:15; Gal. 2:10; Rom. 15:25–31; Acts 11:27–30; 24:17 for communism quickly fails; the sale of pesonal property was to be a short-term tactic to survive the Tribulation and enter the Kingdom; the Postponement led to their poverty. - Paul's Converts Kept Their Homes and Provided Relief: (The "apostle to the Gentiles" was able to raise relief from his converts) 1 Cor. 16:1–4; 2 Cor. 8:1-9:15; Gal. 2:10; Rom. 15:25–31; Acts 11:27–30; 24:17 to support the believers in Judea who fell into poverty; they hadn't immediately become poor after selling their property, but after the delay in Christ's previously-expected soon return - God Warned He may Not Give Israel their Kingdom as Prophesied: "And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will repent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it." Jer. 18:9-10 (see also Jer. 18:7-8; for God, unlike a juvenile judge, does not make empty threats) - One Year Probation Followed Three-Year Earthly Ministry: "'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree [figuratively, Israel] and find none. Cut it down...' But he answered and said, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.'" Luke 13:7-9 - Daniel's Seventieth Week Suspended: The prophet Daniel's 490-year prophecy (Dan. 9:24-27) of 483 years between the command to rebuild Jerusalem (by Artaxerxes Neh. 2:1-8) until the execution of the Messiah, followed by the next seven years that were to be the Great Tribulation (Mat. 24:15; Mark 13:14); but Israel rejected their resurrected Messiah so as God had warned (Jer. 18:9-10) He changed what He had prophesied for them by postponing both the tribulation and the Kingdom it would usher in. - After the Cross Ten Signs of the Tribulation Were Evident: See chapter 9 of kgov.com/the-plot for details; in the year beginning with Christ's death the signs of the Great Tribulation that occurred included the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, signs and wonders, earthquakes, believers beaten by councils, the laying on of hands to imprison, arrests leading to occasion for testimony, martyrdom, expectation of an abbreviated end times and of the soon appearance of signs in the sun, moon, and stars, irresistible wisdom displayed. - Fulfillment of Prophetic Seven Feasts of Israel Suspended: God ceased the apparent fulfillment of the Feasts of Israel on their very calendar days, for Jesus died on the day the Jews killed the Passover lamb; He was in the tomb during Unleavened Bread; raised on Firstfruits; gave the Holy Spirit on Pentecost; and He "tabernacled" among us (John 1:14, with the Greek saying not "dwelt" but "tabernacled"), likely fulfilling that feast; but the remaining two feasts including Trumpets are yet awaiting fulfillment, as God postponed His prophetic plan for Israel. - Jesus Hardly Spoke About the End Times Until Just Before the Cross: The apocalyptic Olivet Discourse happened when Jesus said to His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." Mat. 26:1-2 - God the Son Didn't Know the Timing: and neither did God the Holy Spirit but only the Father, for it is in His purview to decide when Jesus shall return. Just Google: open theism verses, and see Category 15, which includes the following: The Holy Spirit, third person of the Godhead, did not know something that the Father knew, namely, the planned day and hour of the Second Coming Mark 13:32 and of course that lack of knowledge did not negate His divinity for the quantitative attribute of omniscience is not like the absolute qualitative attributes; likewise, no man, no angel, nor even the Son knew, for "of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only" of the persons of the Godhead, with even the Second Person not knowing the timing of the Second Coming which was in the purview of the Father alone Mat. 24:36. - Israel's End Times Signs Not Relevant Today: When the Lord temporarily set aside Israel's Kingdom and their covenant of circumcision and grafted in the Body of Christ with its covenant of grace (this is not replacement theology), God's new sign, so to speak, of the end of the Body of Christ's time on earth is the "fullness of the Gentiles", whatever He means by that, be it a billion believers to populate heaven, or the Gospel preached worldwide, or holiness within the Body, etc.; so that, when "the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" then God will graft Israel back in again, "for God is able to graft them in again", and thereby resume the countdown on their end times calendar; Rom. 11:11-32. - To Read More about the Changed Date of the Second Coming: Click to get a copy of Bob Enyart's life's work, The Plot: An Overview of the Bible is the Key to its Details and review the list of 33 Categories of more than 500 scriptures at opentheism.org/verses. * Tonight on Denver's 7News: Bob Enyart said on 7News to Colorado's ABC audience that Christians who say that the death penalty is immoral are unwittingly accusing God the Father of being unjust, for He required a payment of death to pay for the sin of the world. We thank God for the opportunity to promote the principles of the Gospel on the nightly news! Please also see AmericanRTL.org/death-penalty. Now Back to the Harbinger: * Enyart & Cahn Agree on the Theme of The Harbinger: Bob Enyart interviews Jonathan Cahn, the NY Times bestselling author of The Harbinger. Bob appreciates Cahn's warning to an America defiant of God but Enyart disagrees with Cahn's claim that 9/11 was a specific sign from God. See just below Bob's notes regarding his reasons for disagreeing with Jonathan Cahn's claims of a specific divine message in the events following the Attack on America. * Rejecting The Harbinger's Claim of Divine Signs: (This is not meant to be harsh, for we love and appreciate Jonathan Cahn, and though airing a daily radio talk show, we don't want to be like David who became battle hardened; yet, this is meant to be direct.) The last nine minutes of audio on today's program were recorded twelve years ago at an End Times seminar conducted in Winona Lake, Indiana only four days after Sept. 11, 2001. Bob Enyart predicted that sincere Christian authors (who love and honor God and preach the Gospel) would find a Bible passage with a few uncanny similarities to 9/11, and so would claim that therefore Al Qaeda's attack on America was a sign from God. Consider Jonathan Cahn's few parallels (which get repeated often) from Isaiah 9:10 to 9/11 events. In the audio from September 2001, Bob Enyart illustrates how easy this is to claim fulfillment of a prophetic pattern when, compared to the Harbinger, he quoted more, and more significant, 9/11 parallels, not from Isaiah but from Revelation 17 and 18. As one small example, the greater parallel between Scripture and 9/11 is not a sycamore and a fir tree, but Washington DC and NYC debating the patent rights of murdered unborn children so that "the merchants of the earth" can buy and sell the "the bodies and souls of men." So Bob intentionally misinterpreted the Scriptures to show how easily (and even innocently) this is done, and while Cahn's parallels get to select from events over a period of years, Bob's many more prophetic parallels were all fulfilled on the very day of September 11th. Harbinger Expert Critic says: "Bob, I read your analysis this morning and it was dead right on every point." - David James, 3/24/13 The Internet hasn't existed for 2,700 years. Jonathan Cahn's nine harbingers are based on a quote in the Bible of men defiant against God, who, after suffering God's judgment, repeated in utter ignorance, "The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stone; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars" (Isaiah 9:10). If the web had been forever, a Google search would probably return countless pages recording, after attacks, utterances throughout Judeo-Christian history of that quote. About 18 minutes into the program, Jonathan Cahn says about Isaiah 9:10 and the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that back then, "you don't have anyone quoting the Scripture of judgment." Perhaps, perhaps not. In the very center of the Internet's page of Pearl Harbor Quotes we read Isaiah 9:10, not in the NIV or NASB, because those versions were translated later, but in the King James Version. Cahn chose to present his message in a book of fiction. Not unlike the folks who think Star Wars is real, for many readers, Cahn's literary device blurs the distinction between truth and fiction. The requisite suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy the elements of the story, a wary reporter, a surprised liaison, and an unnamed prophet with curious ancient seals, works to bias the reader who emerges from the novella into the real world lacking the desire to expend the mental energy necessary for an objective consideration of The Harbinger's theological claims. The first harbinger (i.e., a seal in the book's metaphor) is the 9/11 attack. Cahn says at about 6:30 into today's program that a first attack is a sign of God's judgment and that God's protection will be further lifted if the nation does not repent. Bob suggests to Cahn that not unlike 9/11, Pearl Harbor suffered 3,000 casualties, about 2,400 of whom were killed. We live here, today, and so we are inclined to discount far-flung attacks over the last 2,700 years and view the world, unsurprisingly, through our own eyes. Bob mentioned to Jonathan that years ago he had interviewed the beloved Hal Lindsey who, through a similar here-and-now-centered interpretation, suggested that the Second Coming would be in 1988. (This was not unlike superstitious European Christians who would panic when pestilence coincided with Halley's Comet, nor unlike those who thought Jesus would return on the Y2K computer bug, nor unlike those who thought that lightning strikes signified judgment from Zeus, until that is lightning rods ruined the divine aim. Superstition, sadly, is as rampant among Christian authors as it was among the Greeks who worshiped the pantheon.) We interpret our own suffering as though it were of biblical proportion, as Cahn said at about 21:40, that in addition to the harbingers (signs), America has suffered "economic collapse". Well, collapse means different things to different people. Within 48 hours of our prerecorded interview, Dow Jones reached an all time high, and at the very minute today's show began, Reuters reported, "Housing starts point to growing economic momentum." Compare that just to even recent decimation by tsunami, typhoon, earthquake, and to the countries bankrupted, the millions slaughtered, and tens of millions ruined by war, and even to the billions in Asia and Africa who've truly suffered debilitating poverty. That's economic collapse, whereas if God brought economic sanctions against America, it wouldn't look like a downturn, and it wouldn't primarily hurt the poor and middle class. Given the freedom to be arbitrary, fans of Nostradamus (who apparently predicted the second coming, to America in the year 2013, of Twinkies and Ding Dongs) and Jean Dixon point to fulfillment of prophecy. Ironically, Isaiah 9:10 itself is not even a prophecy, so any claimed fulfillment is metaphorical at best. However, The Harbinger itself fulfilled an actual prophecy, uttered in the very week of 9/11, at that End Times seminar, which predicted that such books would be written :). And I'm not even a prophet. Over a million Americans were killed in the civil and world wars. Weren't those lives worth a Bible verse? Around 25 minutes into the program, Bob agrees with The Harbinger, in that "for Israel, being a prophet was a matter of life or death" (p. 9). Enyart then explains that today, God has withdrawn His accountability system for prophets. Jonathan did not anticipate Bob's statement that stoning a false prophet to death is no longer commanded, nor permitted, by God, as the New Testament says, that with "the priesthood being changed [by Christ], of necessity there is also a change of the law" (Hebrews 7:12). So today, while Christians tend to forget and forgive (often without even admitting) the false prophecies of their brethren, unbelievers have long memories and stumble over our false prophecies and prophetic interpretations. The actual parallel between Israel and America, regarding 732 B.C. and 2001, is only thematic, not divinely particular. When a nation ignores God, she becomes increasingly weak and vulnerable to destruction from within and without. Contrary to The Harbinger's emphasis (p. 19), this is true for Israel and America and for Italy, Germany, and Argentina. Christians disagree terribly over interpretation of the plain words in the Bible. Realize how loose our interpretations will then be of events! What is the meaning of a flood? An earthquake? An attack? It is God! Or perhaps it's the devil! Or was it, in fact, Osama bin Laden? Jesus disapproved of such interpretations of current events in Luke 13:1-5, and when Enyart debated D. James Kennedy's Professor of New Testament from Knox Theological Seminary, this very passage, regarding 2,000-year-old headlines of murder and a fallen tower, was central to the matter. The Harbinger makes the important observation that, "during national judgment, both the righteous and the wicked perish" (p. 30). Then Cahn writes, thankfully, that God was not with Al Qaeda, but he claimed this as part of the prophetic pattern, in that, God was not with Israel's enemies who attacked her. But again this is arbitrary, for there were plenty of times when God Himself orchestrated the attacks on Israel in punishment for her national adultery. Yet it is wrong to extrapolate from those extraordinary biblical interventions that, therefore, God is the one who orchestrates a molester's rape of a child, or the Holocaust. Attributing to God the designs of the wicked comes close to blasphemy, except that it is done in ignorance, although often, through negligent ignorance. Jonathan Cahn says, rightly I assert, that God was not with Al Qaeda, yet because of a degree of superstition, he then interprets defiance against Islamic terrorism as defiance against God. Is Israel defiant today against God? Yes. (Sadly, like America they are a nation of socialists who defend abortion and homosexuality.) Does that mean that Israel's defiance of Hamas is inherently condemnable? Of course not. Cahn takes a Time magazine reporter's perfectly valid quote as a double entendre, with the entire thrust of the book implying that the defiance is against God, even though it is typically explicitly stated, as in this case, that it is against Islamic terrorists. "Rebuilding Ground Zero was going to be America's statement of defiance," (p. 63, from July 1, 2008) "to those who attacked us."Four days after the attack on American on 9/11, in our End Times seminar at Winona Lake (home of a famous Bible center, Billy Sunday, and a prayer launch pad for Billy Graham's first crusade), I didn't have to stretch the details, as Jonathan does somewhat, to make far greater and more substantive parallels between 9/11 and the book of Revelation. The world trade center, her sins had reached to heaven, the nations, peoples, tongues, and languages, Babylon the great, is fallen, the kings of the earth see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, watching the smoke of her ruin, the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury, her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning, she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her, alas, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come, their commerce has ceased, no merchandising today of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, silk and scarlet, every kind of object, of wood, bronze, iron, and marble, incense, wine and oil, flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, pork bellies, and bodies and souls of men. For in the previous week, the targets of God's wrath, New York and Washington D.C. were debating the patent rights of the tiniest innocent babies, the embryos destroyed so that their bodies could be harvested and sold, by the Israelis, to businesses around the world, while American financial interests were angered that they may not be collecting the royalties they were demanding. And on the Hudson and in the New York harbor, all who travel by ship, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, "What is like this great city?" Both can't be correct, but either or both, the Harbinger and the Revelation 17-18 prophetic "parallels", could be wrong. As the above paragraph demonstrates, the more powerful and biblically extensive prophetic interpretation of 9/11 is not The Harbinger, but The Revelation. And that one is certainly wrong! For one, I intended it to be wrong. And secondly, if Revelation 18 was being fulfilled before our eyes on September 11, 2001 that would mean that we are now twelve years into Revelation chapter 19, and by now, the Second Coming should have occurred. So if the strong prophetic parallel (Revelation) isn't true, the weak one (Harbinger) probably isn't true either. Allow me to be petty. A sycamore tree and a Norwegian fir (the claimed sixth and seventh signs) do not come close to the extraordinary depth of substance and parallel between 9/11 and Revelation 17 and 18. Besides (and these are insignificant, but mentioned because such trivialities in reverse, are used in The Harbinger to make its point. The World Trade Center wasn't made of bricks. (On the contrary, it is noted for being the first supertall building to be made without masonry.) And yes, (p. 72) New York City and America rebuilt. But so did Berlin. And Rome, one could say. Destroyed cities throughout history rebuilt, with notable exceptions like Nineveh. Isaiah speaks of many sycamores, not one as at the WTC. And as Cahn acknowledges, that tree destroyed on 9/11 had the same name, sycamore, but it was a different kind of tree; in fact, a different species, and a different genus. And a different family, and a different order. If it were much different, it wouldn't be a tree, one could say. (But then again, what couldn't one say?) Isaiah says the Sycamores (plural, not singular) would be cut down (not crushed) and replaced with woods of cedar, not with a single pine tree. (2014 Update: And as the replacement of the tree was a sign of the end times, so was the removal of the tree, after it died, said Cahn.) The Harbinger also embraces the invalid contradiction of freedom yet being forced, justifying this by saying, "It takes two oars to make a boat go straight" (p. 86). Yes, but that boat illustration presents not even a theoretical contradiction, let alone an actual one. And the world isn't going straight, unless we mean straight to hell. Some of the claimed fulfillments of the prophetic pattern are really the same thing, repeated references to the attack itself, and tower falling, and the rebuilding, and the quoting, in hubris, it is true, of Isaiah 9:10 to rebuild, as by one significant government official who was… John Edwards? That disgraced non-official failed vice-presidential candidate. The 8th harbinger, coming with some peculiar justification in that spoken words are invisible, has to do with the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, which is as it should be because D.C. was also a target (although there was no harbinger from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for that was not an intended target no doubt). A claim repeated about slavery and the civil war is that every drop of shed blood was due to the judgment of God. So then why could the British and much of the world end slavery without a similar judgment? (That could be answered, but would require prophetic interpretations specific to the unique history of each country.) And a biblical hewn stone did not need to be quarried from a mountain, let alone in upstate New York, though that claim adds flavor to the fiction and yet another confirmation of the prophecy! One would think that bureaucracy could not thwart a divine sign. That stone, though, that Jonathan writes so much about, being quarried and celebrated, ended up not as the cornerstone at ground zero but at a suburban office building. For Mayor Bloomberg, et al., changed the One World Trade Center design and diverted one of the harbingers… to Long Island. A few words about Jonathan Cahn. We don't think that we convinced him, nor even gave him pause. Yet, at the same time, we don't think that he loves God any less than we do, nor do we believe that God approves more of us than He does of Cahn. We're just asking God to help us to do our best to rightly divide, and to urge all believers to rightly divide, the Word of Truth. The Ten Commandments judge Roy Moore publicly apologized here on KGOV.com for misinterpreting something as simple as a court ruling. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the partial-birth abortion "ban", Judge Moore, currently Alabama's chief justice, praised that ruling as a godly pro-life victory. Traveling to Birmingham, Alabama we challenged him to actually read the opinion, and he did, and so admitted that it was the most brutally wicked ruling in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court (and that's saying something). So there's hope for Jonathan too :) The great upside of Cahn's book is its theme, which is the nation's desperate need to turn to God and the horror of losing His blessing, for as Jonathan quoted a Bible commentary, "The defiance of God shuts out immeasurable good" (p. 76). The Harbinger's downside though, is that many of its Christian readers will become even more superstitious. -Pastor Bob Enyart Denver Bible Church (See also Bob's Writings at KGOV.com/writings, and Bob's End Times seminar, and his super fun verse-by-verse study of the Book of Revelation!) Today's Resources: Bob Enyart's Last Days Bible Studies! Have it your way! You can enjoy Bob's: * Last Days Bible teaching on the end times (downloadable or on MP3 CD) * End Times seminar in Indiana given the week of 9/11 (downloadable or on MP3 CD) * Verse-by-verse studies on 1 Corinthians and 1 & 2 Thessalonians, both of which address rapture passages, or * Bob's Bible Study on The Book of Revelation, or read the End Times chapter in Bob's life's work, * The Plot. With any of these resources, you'll get the benefit of decades of Bible research!* See Our Bible Study Resources: We invite you to check out our theologythursday.com or our monthly subscriptions.
Joshua is a Christian hard rock/AOR band that formed in 1980 and is centered on guitarist Joshua Perahia. Despite being based in Los Angeles, CA they are probably best known outside of the United States.The band's first release was entitled The Hand Is Quicker Than the Eye, which referred to Perahia's guitar skills and songwriting ability, was released by Enigma Records in 1983. The single "November Is Going Away" was the band's biggest hit, achieving No. 1 status in Japan. Perahia had a religious experience at a Hal Lindsey–lead Bible study in 1983, and converted to Protestant Christianity from his Greek Orthodox upbringing.Perahia put together a new band for his 2nd album, Surrender, which included singer Jeff Fenholt. Surrender was released in 1985. Lyrically, the album marked a change in the band's style to lyrics which were evangelical in nature. Rob Rock was involved with their third album on RCA Records, Intense Defense. In 1988, Intense Defense, which was recorded at Dierks Studios and produced initially by Eddie Kramer and then Dieter Dierks (Scorpions fame) was characterized by the editor of HM Magazine as being "probably the best AOR melodic metal album in the universe." It sold well worldwide, but not in the United States. In 1995, the group re-formed and they released one album under the name M Pire, Chapter One, though it was never released in the US. The band then expanded its name back to Joshua Perahia. The addition of Joshua's last name was to avoid confusion as so many bands were using the name Joshua at the time. The band lacked a permanent vocalist and hired Alex Ligertwood of Santana to fill the spot on the follow-up Something to Say in 2001. However, while in production, the band recruited Jerry Gabriel and re-recorded the vocals. As a result, the album (except four tracks) contains Gabriel's lead vocals, and Ligertwood's vocals are available on a re-release. One song, "The First and the Last", appeared in the Larry Buchanan–directed movie The Copper Scroll of Mary Magdalene in 2004.2012 saw the release of the band's latest work, entitled “Resurrection” and featured vocals from Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen, Ring of Fire, Shining Black, etc.). While Joshua still writes music today for a possible future release he has shifted his focus to his son and their passion for vintage muscle cars and exotic cars as well. It's a passion that was ignited when Joshua was just 13 years old. The fact that Joshua still writes music means that fans can be hopeful of seeing a new recording in the future but for now please enjoy this episode of The Jersey Guys Podcast!
Part Two of Gary's discussion of a new book by David Jeremiah and the publishing history of (failed) prophecy books. Gary relates a conversation he had with an individual that believed Hal Lindsey's book, The Road to Holocaust, was an accurate representation of what the Bible teaches about the history of the Jewish people. Dispensationalism teaches that an unthinkable extermination of millions of Jews is still yet to come.
Gary discusses David Jeremiah's new book, which is essentially repeating the same message about being "near to the end." He also begins talking about another book written in 1989 after the failed prophecies of a prior book by Hal Lindsey. The discussion ran long so we cut decided to break this one into two parts.
In Episode 128, we talk about the part one of the five great overturnings that will happen in connection with the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in Christ's second coming. His ascension will be personal, visible, and beautiful, a joyful hope for which we must continuously watch and pray.Many find it incomprehensible that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would be marked by the simultaneous outpouring of divine wrath and redemptive grace. However, it is not mercy against which people object. It is the belief that God is furious with those who oppose the gospel and will hold them forever responsible for rejecting Jesus Christ.Tune in now, and let's go bigger, better, and deeper! If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to the God Stuff Podcast, so you're always the first to know when a new episode is released.Episode Timestamps: Intro – [00:00] The Second Coming of Jesus Christ – [01:45]5 Revolutions – [06:18]Revolution #1: Rapture – [08:44]Revolution #2: Tribulation – [09:30]Outro – [25:45]Biblical References:1 Thessalonians 4:16-171 Corinthians 15:50-52Philippians 3:201 Thessalonians 4Matthew 24:21Daniel 9:24-272 Thessalonians 2, 2 and 4Revelation 13, 15-18Revelation 12 and 13Revelation 9revelation 16: 14-16Revelation 14:20Revelation 19:11-16Book References:Alpha Christians: A Manifesto for Menhttps://www.amazon.com./s?k=9781946654304&i=stripbooks&linkCode=qsThe Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031027771X/ref=x_gr_w_bb_sout?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_sout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=031027771X&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2 Understanding End Times Prophecy by Paul Benwarehttps://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Understanding_End_Times_Prophecy.html?id=bCoOAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y About Our Host: Bill Giovannetti is the Senior Pastor at Pathway Church, Redding, California — an experienced senior pastor with a demonstrated history of working in the religious institutions' industry. He also teaches ministry-related college classes at Simpson University and the A. W. Tozer Theological Seminary. Bill has always had a passion to bring the deep things of God's word to the everyday people of God. Resources: Veritas School Online Theological School https://www.veritasschool.life/The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031027771X/ref=x_gr_w_bb_sout?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_sout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=031027771X&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2 Understanding End Times Prophecy by Paul Benwarehttps://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Understanding_End_Times_Prophecy.html?id=bCoOAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y Connect with Bill Giovannetti: ● Visit the website: https://www.veritasschool.life/● Subscribe to the podcast: https://maxgrace.com/category/podcasts/● Follow Bill on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.giovannetti● Follow Bill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillGiovannetti● Follow Bill on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billgiovannetti/ Thanks for tuning in! Please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe!
On your MARKS, get set, go! We all know those fateful numbers 6-6-6 by heart, but most people's assumptions about what they really mean don't add up. To help us decipher this inscrutable integer, we're joined by Beverly, longtime record-breaking member of our own Mark of the Beast club. SHOW LINKS Only Sky: After legal threats, Kansas school board repeals ‘Satanism' ban in dress code Revelation 13 Against Heresies, Irenaeus (180 CE) A Commentary Critical & Explanatory of the Entire Bible: Revelation 13, Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown (1876) International Bible Commentary, William Farmer (1998) The Antichrist: A New Biography, Philip Almond (2020) The Late, Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey (1970) Naming the Antichrist, Robert Fuller (1995) LA Review of Books: The Desperate Search For the Mark of the Beast, Anna Merlan (2019) The Conversation: No, the COVID Vaccine Is Not the Mark of the Beast, Eric Vanden Eykel, (2021) YouTube: Watch out for 666! YouTube: Kathy Don't Go! GET IN TOUCH WITH BLACK MASS APPEAL Facebook Twitter Instagram Patreon Tabitha Slander's Instagram Discord server SATANIC BAY AREA Website Facebook Twitter (as @SatanicSF) Instagram Sign up for Satanic Bay Area's newsletter On TikTok as DailyBaphirmations Coffee Hour is the third Thursday of every month from 6 – 8 pm at Wicked Grounds in San Francisco!
Day 113 Today's Reading: Acts 24 Recently I read a quote about being good stewards of our time and made me sit back and really think about what I do with the time God has given me: Each new day brings us 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds, each moment a precious gift from God . . . each calling for us to be good stewards, mindful that one day we must give an account for how we spent the time God loaned us, how effectively we “bought up” the opportunities He provided. William Penn once said, “Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst.” Acts 24 is about a man who did not use time effectively. The man, Felix, was a king, and he heard a three-point sermon preached by one of the best, the apostle Paul. It was a sermon that made a king tell the preacher to stop: Some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.” At the same time too, he was hoping that money would be given him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him. But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. (Acts 24:24-27) Listen to an old Methodist preacher, Halford Luccock, and what he makes of Felix's mistake: There is a unique characteristic about time which we overlook: We can lose time, but we can never find it. We have to make it. Felix found lots of moments for what he wanted to do—to satisfy his curiosity about Paul and open the way for a bribe. We read that he would send for him “pretty frequently” (Acts 24:26), but he found no moments to face the big issue squarely and render a judgment. Such moments are never found. They must be made.” And what we conclude from the passage is that Felix never found time to deal with the most important issue of his life—eternity. Here is how it reads in The Message, and it's raw: As Paul continued to insist on right relations with God and his people, about a life of moral discipline and the coming Judgment, Felix felt things getting a little too close for comfort and dismissed him. “That's enough for today. I'll call you back when it's convenient.” (Acts 24:25) To say, “I don't have time,” is like saying, “I don't want to” or “I'm not interested.” I read something that is only too true: “Time is a strange commodity. You can't save it, borrow it, loan it, leave it, or take it. You can only do two things with it—use it or lose it.” Felix lost it. A. W. Tozer said it like this: “When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.” Felix heard a sermon that keyed in on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. And he got frightened. I know that feeling. It happened to me. I was twelve years old and picked up a comic book at a youth camp, called The Late Great Planet Earth. It was the kid version of the book by the same name by Hal Lindsey, that dealt with the end times and the judgment to come. I was struck with such conviction and fear that I was not ready for the rapture that I sought out my counselor to get things right with God. What I learned was this, when you don't do something about the conviction of the soul, the intensity does not get stronger. The opposite happens and it lessens. The more we ignore the voice of God toward obedience, the more difficult it is to act. When God speaks, respond. When you feel convicted about something, do something. Felix got convicted and all he did for two years was listen to Paul but would not respond. It seems he never felt that way again, and by verse 27 he was out and another king came in.
With the battle between Russia and Ukraine, do you think this will be the end of the world? Ernie and Chad discuss Hal Lindsey's book that describes how things might end. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.