MORIELMoriel Ministries - God is my teacher

Title Scripture Description A Prophet Like Unto Moses Deuteronomy 18:18 The Scriptural similarities which point to Moses as a type of the Messiah to come. Abraham's Journey Genesis 12 Every person's life can be plotted as being along some point of Abraham's journey from Mesopotamia to the Promised Land, a metaphor for our spiritual walk in this life The Crucified Body Luke 9:23 Jesus in the Garden Genesis 3 This message is a midrashic interpretation comparing the events of the Garden of Eden found on Genesis 3 with the actions of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Typology of the Grain Offering Leviticus 2 Most Christians have an idea that the blood sacrifices of these animals were symbols of Jesus; however, most Christians do not think about the grain offering.

But I have a final question. I"m going to read from the Hebrew prophet Zechariah 12…

The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, "Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

The issue is Jerusalem, the final status of Jerusalem. Not the West Bank, not the Gaza strip, not the Golan Heights, Jerusalem is the issue. "All the nations" will come against it.

When the Chinese massacred between 7-8,000 students witnessed by over 1 billion people on television in Tiananmen Square, how many UN resolutions were passed condemning China? None.

When the Moslems massacred 2.3 million black Christians in Sudan " Islamic militias, how many UN resolutions, how many Security Council resolutions, how many calls for boycotts on Sudan? None.

How many UN resolutions passed against Israel? How many Security Council resolutions passing? 50% of all resolutions in the General Assembly and more than 50% in the Security Council. Go ahead, kill a couple of million blacks. Who cares? They"re poor, they"re black and they have no oil. Who went to the Gaza Strip to get people to stop shooting Katyusha rockets and killing your children? The world wants to condemn you.

It makes no sense, but how will this end? Zechariah tells us in this chapter in verse 9…
"And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced…

…crucified…

…and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son…

Who said so? Jacob Prasch? No. Try Rabbi Moshe Elshick. Read what the sages said about this and who it was. They"ll look upon Him pierced and mourn as one mourns for an only son. The one we rejected, the one whose name we spit at, the one we curse is the one who"s come to save us? Yes, He is coming to save you. That is my question.

If He is the one who fulfilled these prophecies, if He had to come and die already, if He was the atonement for your sin, if He"s the one coming to save Israel, and if He"s the one who has already come to save you, do you want to be saved? How can anybody call this rejecting Judaism? That is my question. How can rejecting a Jewish Messiah who taught a Jewish thing in a Jewish way to Jewish people and made non-Jews believe in a Jewish God and read a Jewish book and believe a Jewish book, how can anybody call that "non-Jewish". "anti-Jewish". or departing from Judaism? It may be a departure from what people did to Judaism, it may be a departure from the Judaism responsible for the assassination of Rabin, it may be a departure from the Judaism that proclaimed bar Kochba from being the Messiah, but it is not a departure from the Judaism of your fathers. of the patriarchs, or of Moses and the Prophets.

My Jewish friend, return from sin. You made teshuva, you asked the God of your fathers to forgive your sin that Yeshua paid for in His death. In His resurrection He rose to give you eternal life.

Yes, He did raise. Who said so? Jacob Prasch? No, try reading The Resurrection of Jesus by Rabbi Pinchas Lapide, Orthodox professor of Hebrew University. Try reading Rabbi David Flusser, Orthodox professor, Hebrew University. From a Jewish perspective the resurrection of Jesus is irrefutable. The idea that a Messiah would come and die and then raise again, that"s what the Chabad say about Schneerson, only Schneerson didn't raise from the dead, the rabbis say he raised from the dead.

Jesus came and He would die at Pesach and after dying at Pesach He rose from the dead. His rabbis didn't like Him but said He did miracles as no other rabbi. His disciples did miracles in His name including raising others from the dead. Coming to die at Pesach, raising from the dead doing miracles, His disciples doing miracles, and then ascending to heaven from the Mount of Olives. From where do I quote? The Gospels? No, I quote from the avida zerah. That was not written by Jews who believed in Jesus, that was written by rabbis who were against Jews believing in Jesus. When your fathers will admit these things it"s one thing, when your opponents say it"s true it"s something else. Is He the Messiah? Yes, He is. It"s your decision.

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Please contact us. Please e-mail us. Please talk to us. We want you to meet other Jewish people that have found the truth. The truth is the Tanak was right, the Prophets were right, the Messiah has come. The Messiah has died for sin, He has risen from the dead and conquered death, and He"s
coming again. Git zay g"zunt.

"For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15)

In Yeshua's Service,

James Jacob Prasch & MORIEL

5月の学び会の続編になります。

What was the first opposition little David, not yet king but king-to-be, little David faced? Was it the Philistine? No. Was it Goliath? No. It was his worthless, loser brethren. "Who left you with those few sheep? You"ve got a little church! We"ve got Kensington Temple!"Kensington Temple doesn"t seem capable of stopping the march of Islam; Kensington Temple can not only not get pornography off the television, it can"t even close the the porn shop on the corner right across the street from it.

"Who left you with those few sheep?" Those who have real power, any real capacity to do anything are not the big ones. The big ones have sold out long ago. Your first enemy " the first enemy " will be the loser, coward brethren. "I know your insolence!" King David says it was just a question. "No, it was the wrong question!" On the contrary it was the right one.

Mr. Weaver, you promoted Toronto, you told us it was revival. Mr Glass, Mr. Lewis, you told us this was revival, this was the breakthrough. Mr. Colt you said a revival has happened, revival has come. Where is it? We"re pushing 10 years and they"ve all gotten bigger, we"ve lost more turf, where is it? I"m asking the question why should we believe you now? We're far worse off now than we were 10 years ago. ReadThe Brierly Reports or the Barna report in America. We are losing while you were laughing. What are you going to do now?

What are you going to do now that Christians are being arrested on the streets of London and Bournemouth for evangelism? What are you going to do now when they"re teaching religious education in the school " Hindu, Muslim, Taoist, but not Christian? What are you going to do? What are you going to do when a man from Liverpool has his head sawed off on the Internet? And people will openly speak out against this country saying, "Good for them". When the next day after children were shot in the back on Dresden and in Russia. A Muslim clergyman contended in London said it would be justified to do the same thing in England. Did the politicians say anything? No, why should they? The church wouldn't, except Colin Chapman and Steve Chalke, "Oh, these people can be saved without Christ."

"You ask the wrong question!"  No, David asked the right question. You"re a loser; where"s your big talk now? You said it was revival, you said there was victory, you said there was blessing. Were you a liar or a moron or both? I'm only asking the question.

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit. (James 5:16-18)

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Elijah was a man who could make it rain. The Holy Spirit, through this text, is trying to tell us that, if he can do it, we can do it. We can make it rain. But what does that mean?Rain is a Type of the Holy Spirit Poured OutIn biblical typology, different liquids typify the Holy Spirit in different aspects:

New wine is a liquid which represents the Holy Spirit in the aspect of worship. Another liquid is oil, which speaks of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But the living water, in Scripture, is always the Holy Spirit outpoured. The rain, outpoured, goes into the water table and becomes living water.

Jesus explained it this way:

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:38-39).

Jesus said directly that living water is the Holy Spirit outpoured.

For I will pour out water on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants (Isa 44:3).

Once again, it says that God will pour out the water – that is rain – on the dry ground. And He says that this means He will pour out His Spirit. Rain is a figure.Rain in One City, But No Rain on the Other City And furthermore, I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest. Then I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain; one part would be rained on, while the part not rained on would dry up. (Amos 4:7).
Why is it, for instance, that an evangelist like Reinhard Bonnke can preach in Africa and see thousands and thousands of people saved at a single meeting, but if he goes to Germany or England or Australia, nothing much happens? The answer is here in Amos 4:7. God would send rain on one city, but on another city he would send no rain. And the city without rain would have no harvest.

There is a sovereign work of grace in the outpouring of His Spirit. It is raining in Brazil, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, and much of Africa. But in the Western Protestant countries which have had the Bible for 500 years, there is now a drought. God is turning His grace from the rich countries to the poor ones. White, Protestant Christianity is in numerical, moral, financial, theological and spiritual decline all over the world.

The church is growing in the Roman Catholic countries, the black countries, the olive-skinned countries and the yellow-skinned countries. The Anglican Church has declined massively in England, yet most of the African Anglican Bishops are outspoken evangelicals (Bishop Desmond Tutu being the notable exception). African Anglicans are terribly persecuted by Moslems in Nigeria. Throughout Asia the Anglican Church is very much alive. But in Britain, the Church of England is a dead church. The old time fire that happened in the Sunshine Revival in Australia, the Azusa Street Revival in California and the Sunderland Revivals in England with Smith Wigglesworth – that is what is happening now in places like Ecuador, Chile, the Philippines, Indonesia and Kenya. God will send rain on one city, while the city not rained upon will dry up.

Today we have people teaching formulas for Church Growth. That is nonsense. It doesn't work. There is a missing ingredient – the sovereign grace of God; His Spirit being outpoured.

His Word does not return void. (Is. 55:11) Some people will be saved, one here and one there, but, if you're talking about a massive harvest, no rain means no gain! But Elijah was a man who could make it rain and he was a man with a nature like ours. In other words, if he can do it, we can do it.For the Sake of the Fathers and for His Name's SakeI am convinced that God wants to give the Western Protestant democracies one more chance to repent before Jesus comes. God wants to give the Western countries another chance – not for our sake, but for His Name's sake. Not because we deserve it; we don't deserve it – our churches are, by and large, backslidden – but for the sake of our fathers.

As it says in Romans 11, God wants to give the Jews one more chance at the end of the world before Jesus comes. Why? Because when God looks at Israel, He doesn't just see Israel's sin and her ongoing rejection of her Messiah. When God looks at Israel, He still sees Jeremiah in prison. He still sees Isaiah being sawed in half by King Manasseh. He still sees Zachariah being martyred in the Temple. He still sees John the Baptist having his head chopped off. And he says "for the sake of their fathers, I want to give this nation one more chance."

Great Britain is the same. When God looks at Great Britain, He doesn't just see Britain as it is today, a so-called Christian country where Hindu gods are worshipped in Canterbury Cathedral whilst bishops deny the resurrection and the virgin birth. When God looks at Britain today, He sees all of it – past, present and future. He still sees John Bunyan chained to the wall of the Bedford County Jail for twelve years and writing The Pilgrim's Progress; He still sees John Wesley being stoned by mobs who were stirred up by the Church of England for preaching the Gospel; He still sees Tyndale being burned alive at a stake by the Church of Rome so we could have the Bible in English; He still sees Charles Haddon Spurgeon; He still sees Ridley and Latimer and Hooper, martyrs of England. And God says "For the sake of their fathers, and for my Name's sake, I want to give this nation one more chance."

This is equally true of the United States. He still sees Jonathan Edwards and D L Moody and Harry Ironside. He sees the faithful Christians. He doesn't just see what we have today with the Prosperity Preachers – the Mammon worshippers and the heretics.
God wants to give these Western Protestant nations one more chance to repent. But for them to have that chance, it has to rain.
First of all, we have to face up to the fact that we are in a drought. And, until this drought ends, all the programs in the world will not bring about repentance and revival in the church. It takes rain. No rain, no grain. No rain, no harvest. Elijah was a man like us who could make it rain. And today, God is looking for men and women like us, who can make it rain.

Now Elijah the Tishite, who was of the settlers of Glead, said to Ahab "As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word." And the word of the LORD came to him, saying "Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith which is east of the Jordan. And it shall be that you shall drink of the brook and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there."

So he did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. And it happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to him saying "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." So he arose and went to Zarephath and he came to the gate of the city; behold a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink".

And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand." But she said "As the LORD your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die."

Then Elijah said to her "Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel 'The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth.'"

So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted, nor did the jar of oil become empty; according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah. Now it came about, after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah "What have I to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and put my son to death!"

And he said to her "Give me your son." Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed. And he called to the LORD and said "O LORD my God, hast Thou also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?" Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the LORD and said "O LORD my God, I pray Thee, let this child's life return to him." And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother, and Elijah said "See your son is alive." Then the woman said to Elijah "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."

Now it came about, after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying "To, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth." So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. (1 Kings 17:1- 18:2) And it came about, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him "Is this you, you troubler of Israel?" (1 Kings 18:17)

Then Elijah said to them "Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape." So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. Now Elijah said to Ahab "Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower." So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant "Go up now, look toward the sea" So he went up and looked and said "There is nothing" And he said "Go back" seven times. And it came about at the seventh time that he said "Behold, a cloud as small as a man's hand is coming up from the sea." And he said "Go up, say to Ahab 'Prepare your chariot and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop you'". So it came about in a little while, that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel. (1 Kings 18:40-46)

And it rained and it rained and it rained.Some Background InformationThe three and a half years in which it did not rain is a type of the three and a half years referred to in Daniel and Revelation, when the Spirit will not be outpoured at the end of the world. It is a type of what happens eschatologicallly, when the spirit of Elijah comes back into operation in some way, as predicted by the prophet Malachi. Similarly, the way that Elijah rescued the Gentile woman and her son teaches something about the way that God is going to use the spirit of Elijah, somehow, to take care of the Gentile church at the end of the world.

Elijah, Elisha and John the Baptist all had the same spirit. The Lord told Moses that He would "take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon" the elders of the people (Num. 11:17).

When events happen in the same geographical location it usually means that there is some spiritual and theological connection between them. Elijah's ministry ended on the plain of Jericho where Elisha received his mantle (meaning his authority), and John the Baptist's ministry occurred at the same place. The wicked woman, Jezebel, is a type of the woman Jezebel in the Book of Revelation – the spirit of false religion – who turned the king, the political power, into someone she could manipulate. On behalf of Ahab, she obtained Naboth's vineyard, which Ahab coveted. (1 Ki. 21) In scripture the vineyard speaks of Israel and, by extension or incorporation, the Church. The wicked woman tried to get the vineyard for the king. This brought her into conflict with Elijah and she persuaded the king to try to destroy Elijah. This is exactly the picture in the story of Herodias (Matt 14:3- 12) – the wicked woman turned the king against Elijah (John the Baptist).

Wicked women in the Bible all point in some way to the character of the wicked woman in the Book of Revelation where the conflict with Elijah is going to be replayed in the Last Days.Why Did the Rain Stop?The first thing in our study of how God takes a man like Elijah and turns him into someone who can make it rain is to learn why the rain stopped. The rain stopped because of the sin of God's people. The Holy Spirit is not being outpoured on the Western Protestant world because of its sin, which is identical to the sin of Israel in the days of Elijah.

Abortion replays the sacrifice of children to demons that we see within Israel and Judah in the Old Testament. The worship of other gods – the priests of Baal were not foreigners, they were Jews. Today it is the same. Across the Western Protestant world there is a dramatic increase of the worship of other gods – Islam, New Age, Hinduism. New Age is permeating many of the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches today. People are mixing Christianity with Paganism – that is where Roman Catholicism came from, and that is what is happening today in many Pentecostal churches.

Materialism - the Church is lukewarm, materialistic, filled with crazy doctrines. It has a version of "faith" that is not biblical – the worship of Mammon in Christian masquerade; covetousness disguised as Christianity.

That is why the rain stopped. The first and foremost responsibility for the decline of Western civilization does not lie with secular society, it lies with us. It was the sin of God's people that stopped the rain. the problems proliferating throughout our society – drugs, abortion, divorce, violence, crime – all testify to the failure of the church. God's people compromised and eventual Israel ended up with the priests of Baal. That is what happened in Elijah's day, and that is what is going on today. It is not raining in our countries, because of the sin of God's people.CherithThe first thing God told Elijah to do, was to go to the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan (1 Kings 17:3), and there the ravens would feed him.

Cherith was on the other side of the Jordan. When God told Elijah to leave his land and go to Cherith, he told him to leave behind his national identity, his cultural identity and his home comforts. On top of that, Elijah was to be fed by ravens. Ravens were not kosher – they were an "unclean" bird. God was going to provide for him in ways he would never have expected.

The drought is so critical in the Western world today, that people who would make it rain will have to be willing to go to Cherith.

Sometimes that will mean churches leaving traditional denominations that have compromised. Sometimes it will mean Christians leaving churches that have compromised, or that have gone into error and refuse to repent. And it will certainly mean trusting God to meet your needs in ways and in places you might not expect, even through things we consider to be almost unholy, like the ravens. Elijah had to be willing to put God first and his land second. So often today, the problem is that people are putting their land first – their culture, their identity, their denominations and their loyalties to those denominations – before obedience to the Word of God.

But the people who will make it rain will be the people who are not afraid to go to Cherith and trust God.ZarephathIt is darkest before the dawn. Things will become much worse before they get better. The brook of Cherith will eventually dry up.

In verse 9 we see that Elijah has to go to a place called Zarephath. The word "Zarephath" comes from the Hebrew root meaning "to burn or to purify by fire". For God to take somebody with a nature like ours and turn them into somebody who can make it rain, He needs to purify them by fire.

There is going to be a very difficult period – not just trial and testing, not just drought, nor even persecution – but all those things together. It will get to the point where the people you try to help will think you have betrayed them, as with the widow at Zarephath. But no matter how bad things get, no matter how dark it becomes, no matter how critical the drought, I can promise you two things: there will be flour in the dish and oil in the jar for those who are willing to be purified. Things are going to get bad before the breakthrough comes. But there is going to be flour in the dish and oil in the jar. You will have the Word of God and you will have the anointing of the Spirit, no matter what happens. You will have your grain and your oil when the others die from famine.

So she said to Elijah…

"What have I to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance, and to put my son to death!" (1 Kings 17:18)

Her son died. And she blamed Elijah. The very people you try to help will see the hardship and they will blame you. Things have been so bad for so long that the things we love most will have to die before they can be resurrected.
Much of the church in the Western world will have to die before it can be resurrected. New wine cannot go into old wine skins. (Mk. 2:22) That was one of the problems with the Charismatic Movement – they tried to store the new wine in the old wine skins. In order to renew a church you have to replace the wine skin. The things that we have loved the most will have to die before they can be resurrected.Troublers of Israel "Is this you, you troubler of Israel?" (1 Kings 18:17).

Is this you, you troubler of the church? Is this you, you troubler of the Baptist Union? Is this you, you troubler of the Assemblies of God?You who are standing up against ecumenism and Kingdom Now and Faith-Prosperity and Name-It-and-Claim-It. You who are standing up against false miracles and bogus healings. You who are standing up against ministers making themselves rich by exploiting pensioners with lies. You troublers of Israel!That is what they said to Elijah and, if you want to make it rain, that is what they are going to say to you.
Next they go to Mount Carmel. Here the conflict occurs with Jezebel – the conflict with the spirit of false religion, with Roman Catholicism, ecumenism, Free Masonary, Islam, homosexuality, abortion and New Age. There is going to be a conflict, and those who win that conflict will be those who have been purified at Zarephath.

So much of what we call "charismatic worship" today – with the noise, the ranting and raving, and the hype – looks more like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel than like Elijah. Notice that the priests of Baal really thought it would work, they thought they would get a response.

Our brethren today, caught up in ecumenism, Kingdom Now theology, Restorationism – all unbiblical, false and dangerous doctrines, all associated with hype and with prophecies that don't happen – actually believe these things. But the conflict will come and the people will see who the true prophets are.The Rain CloudIt begins small. It doesn't seem like anything is going to happen at first. Where is it?

With the priests of Baal it was all loud boasting and arrogance and cheering and hype. But God doesn't work that way. It begins small. Like a little hand coming out of the sea. It always begins small. But it gets bigger and soon the whole sky is filled with rain clouds. Lightning strikes and God's Spirit falls. And it rains and rains and rains.

There is no easy way to stop the decline of Christianity in the Western world. It has gone too far for too long. We have been sold down the river by our leaders. All the programs and hype and gimmicks in the world will not bring a harvest of souls. That takes rain. But the rain has stopped. Why? Partly because of the sin of society, but mostly because of the sin of the Church. And until there is repentance in the Church, there is not going to be a repentance in the world.

Why has the rain stopped? It is not primarily the fault of pornographers or pimps or prostitutes or drug dealers or homosexuals or abortionists. It is primarily my fault, because I know the truth and I have the message that can make the difference. It is our fault, because the church in the West is Laodicea (s), because we are trusting in this life and this world more than we are trusting in Jesus. It is not raining because of my sin and your sin.Those Who Make It RainThose who make it rain will be those who are not afraid to go to Cherith – people who are not bound by tradition or institutions.

They won't try to put new wine into old wine skins. They will do what God tells them and trust God to provide for them in ways they don't expect.

They will be people who are not afraid to be purified, people who will go to Zarephath, people who are willing to see things that they love die, knowing that these things will be resurrected in purity. It will be difficult. But no matter how difficult it gets, I promise you that there will be oil in the jar and flour in the dish.

And those people who are purified will go to Carmel and stand in front of Jezebel – in front of false religion and Free Masonry and homosexuality and Roman Catholicism and Islam. They will stand in front of the prophets of Baal – those who dare to call themselves ministers of the Gospel, but who compromise with false teaching.

There will be a conflict. And those troublers of Israel are going to win.

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IntroductionWhen does God speak? Why does God speak? To whom does He speak? And through whom does He speak? When God speaks to us, why is He doing it, when does He do it, and through whom and to whom? Many people today say, €œGod showed me this," or €œthe Lord told me that," or €œGod has been leading us in such and such a direction." Do people really hear directly from God today?

The writer of Hebrews declared:

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days He"s spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world (Hebrews 1:1).

This was written to Jewish Christians in the 1st Century who read the Hebrew Scriptures in the form of a lection. A €œlection" is an annual cycle of reading the Law and the Prophets—the Haftorah—with ritual readings for certain holidays and the Sabbath. This is where we get the idea of the €œportions." It is perpetuated today in the synagogue as Paroch Ha Shavua— €œthe portion of the week."

Long ago God spoke to us through the fathers (Israel"s prophets of the Old Testament) in many portions and in many ways, but that all changed €œin these Last Days." Now, €œLast Days" is an ambiguous term. It can have one of two possible meanings. It is a specific term and it is a general term. Here it is used as a general term. From God's perspective, we are already in the Last Days. The Rapture and Resurrection have already begun. Jesus is, of course, the archetype, the prototype; He is the first fruit of the Resurrection. The Resurrection began with the resurrection of Jesus; the Rapture began with the ascension of Jesus. As far as God is concerned, the Rapture and Resurrection are already under way.  Jesus is simply the first fruit of both.

The Last Days is the age of the predominantly Gentile €œchurch."  It is the €œLast Days" as opposed to the €œFormer Days." Think of a rugby game (or in America, a football game). The game is supposed to be over at 6 o"clock and there is a minute left on the clock. A player is injured when there is one minute left in the second half of the game and they have to stop the clock and call for an ambulance. So the clock freezes.

In eschatological terms it is always one minute "til midnight; the clock can begin again at any time. This is the €œTime of the Gentiles." That is what we"re in now, and what is coming to a close. To the best of my understanding, it is the time period between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel"s vision. This time period comes to an end and God begins dealing with the Jews. Once more the clock is stopped. Time is, as it were, frozen. Israel is God's time-piece for the nations. He reverts to dealing with the Jews once the church is removed in the Great Tribulation. We are already in the Last Days in the general sense, in the age of the New Testament church.

Then there is the specific meaning of the Last Days, the time period leading up to the return of Christ, when the €œTime of the Gentiles" comes to a close and God turns His prophetic and redemptive purposes back to the Jews of the Great Tribulation. The stage is being set for that right now. These events in the Middle East are not really about Iraq; they"re about the final status of Jerusalem and God's prophetic agenda for Israel. That is what is really happening. This is the €œLast Days".

One instance where the New Testament speaks of the Last Days in the specific sense is in 2 Tim 3:1-5: €œThis know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers €¦" That is a reference to the specific €œLast Days."

So how does this apply to €œWhen God Speaks"? Well, it tells us,

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son. €¦ (Hebrews 1:1-2)

God has already spoken. When we consider the subject €œWhen God Speaks," the first thing we have to note is that He had already spoken in the Old Testament and now He is speaking in the New Testament. He spoke in the former days to Israel in the Tanak, now in the Ha Brit HaDasha, the New Testament.  He has spoken already. God has nothing further to say of a doctrinal nature or of a prophetic nature. What there will be is a clearer understanding of what has already been said.

This is what the word €œapocalypse" means, €œunveiling". Something is in back of this. As we get closer to the time of Jesus" return, the curtain progressively goes up. That"s what the Greek word apocalypsis means. It"s already here. What"s going to happen? It"s already here.

But the meaning is unveiled to the faithful as we get closer to the time of Jesus" Second Coming. We"re told the same thing in the book of Daniel 12:4: €œSeal these things up until the appointed time." No new revelation, no new doctrine, simply a clearer understanding of what is already written. God has nothing further doctrinally to say; He has already said it. God may speak prophetically, or He may give a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom or a personal leading in your life, but it will always be on the basis of what He has already said in His written Word. He has no further €œrevelations" to impart to His people.

When you see people always looking for a word from the Lord, it is because they"re not reading THE Word. When you see people always looking for a vision, a picture, a word, a revelation, a prophecy, it is because they are not grounded in Scripture. As a matter of fact, the only people to whom God will give a prophecy,  a word of wisdom, or a word of knowledge, will be the people who are grounded in His Word. The others are receiving counterfeits. If you don"t know what He has already said, He has nothing further to say to you. Even if He were to give you a prophetic word, if you don"t know what He has already said you wouldn"t understand it.Through Whom Does God Speak?In light of this background we can now consider the subject, €œThrough Whom Does God Speak?" beginning with the first chapter of the book of Daniel:

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

Daniel was taken as a child into the Babylonian captivity. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah, but Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem; Daniel was taken in a deportation under Nebuchadnezzar. He was with the people to whom he was prophesying. Daniel and Revelation always go hand-in-hand. They are two aspects of the same picture. Look at Revelation 1:9.

I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Notice that both John and Daniel €•as well as Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea €•were all in the tribulation with the people to whom they were prophesying. Often when God speaks, it"s because we are in trouble. If everything were always rosy, if everything were always going well, God wouldn"t have to speak. Yet He does speak. And He"s already spoken. What we need day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month in our Christian walk, in our relationship with God, is already in the Scriptures. If He"s going to tell us something specific to our lives that is of a prophetic nature, it"s generally not because things are good, but because things are bad. Look at all New Testament prophecy, not only those recorded in the Book of Revelation. Remember that when Paul was going to Jerusalem, Agabus tied his wrists with a belt and said, €œThis will happen to the one who is going to Jerusalem." (Acts 21:10-11) Compare the Scriptural accounts of personal prophecy with some of the nonsense you see today. People go around prophesying this, prophesying that, these are what we call €œear ticklers." They are not prophets, they are would-be soothsayers. What they call prophecy is actually an attempt at clairvoyance.

Also, God most often spoke through people who were in the same situation as those to whom they were prophesying. If God is going to give a prophetic word to the people in South Africa, He is most likely going to raise up somebody from their own midst. Watch out for people who come to your country from the outside, who are going to €œprophesy" over it, then leave.

Now, God sent Amos, who was from the south, from Judah, to the north, to Israel. Amos didn't come to prophesy and then go back; he had to stay there with the people. Be careful of people who come from the outside, who prophesy to you, then get back on an airplane and leave. These are generally dangerous people.

Several years ago a woman from the United States, Cindy Jacobs ۥone of Peter Wagner"s friends ۥcame to Zimbabwe. She prophesied falsely in the name of the Lord how God was going to bless Zimbabwe, and how it was going to be the garden spot, not only of Africa, but of the world. It is a nation on the brink of starvation. She prophesied how God was going to bless it and prosper it. Yet the diametric opposite took place. Does this make her a false prophetess? Yes, she is a false prophetess; the Bible says she"s a deceiver. What did she do after she prophesied falsely to Zimbabwe? She went to Harari, then got on an airplane, and undoubtedly gave a false prophecy somewhere else. In the process she took a lot of money from the people. That"s what false prophets do.

Again, if God is going to speak to you prophetically, He is doing it because things are not good. Secondly, He is going to do it from your own midst. He is not going to bring in somebody from the outside to tickle your ears. Look at Daniel 1:9.

Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials, and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, €œI am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king." But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, €œPlease test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king"s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see." So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.Ten DaysIn verse 12 it says €œten days," and again they"re being tested for ten days in verse 14. In verse 15 it says,

€œAt the end of the ten days. €¦"

(For the 3rd time.)

At the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king"s choice food. So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables. As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar.

(At the end of the ten days.)

And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah;

These were the original Hebrew names that Nebuchadnezzar changed to the Chaldee names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

€¦so they entered the king's personal service.

So things are bad, and now God is going to speak through somebody in your midst. You can prophesy against a nation, but you cannot prophesy to God's people in a nation unless you"re among them. You understand? If God is going to raise up a prophetic voice to the church in South Africa, it shouldn"t be Jacob Prasch they listen to, it should be the people God raises up in their own midst. I can tell you what the Bible says doctrinally (by God's grace), but if God has a word for the church of any country, it is going to come from an insider. Yet even then, all prophecy must be tested by God's Word. No true prophecy will conflict with Scripture.

Then there is this period of ten days. It says it four times. Explicitly three times, and then it refers to it as €œthe end of the days" the fourth time. What is the meaning of €œten days" in biblical typology? Once more, we always read Daniel in light of Revelation, and Revelation in light of Daniel. Read what the Lord said to the church in Smyrna in the second chapter of Revelation:

"Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life (Rev. 2:10).

This was certainly alluding to the period of ten major persecutions of the ten Roman emperors. However, there was a local persecution which lasted ten days in Smyrna at that time.

There are two numbers associated with €œtesting" in the Bible: €œforty" and €œten." Most biblically astute Christians are aware of the significance of forty:

Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights.

Moses fasted forty days and forty nights.

Jonah was told to give Nineveh forty days to repent.

The children of Israel sojourned in the wilderness forty years.

David waited forty days on the mountain overlooking the valley of Elah before confronting Goliath.

Forty is the number of testing when the test comes from God. Ten is the number of testing when it is not from God. God may allow it for His purpose. In Daniel"s day Israel was tested at the hands of the Babylonians. In Smyrna believers in Jesus were tested at the hands of the Romans and the Pagans. When the test comes NOT from God, the number is ten.

Whenever a Christian experiences the ten, it has to be understood distinct from the forty. God allows both of them for our molding, to make us stronger, to deal with our old nature, to make us overcomers and more effective in helping others. There are a number of reasons God allows it, but there is still a difference between the ten and the forty. When God says the ten, He sets a limit. Whenever God allows someone to have a go at a Christian, it is always €œthis far, no further; this long, no longer." Remember Job? You can do this, but you can"t do that; don"t touch him. God will always set a limit as to how far anyone €•including Satan €•can go. When a Christian is suffering demonic oppression, and it seems to mimic or resemble the symptoms of mental illness (demonic oppression is real), there is always a limit. Satan and the enemy €•any person €•can only go so far.

The Soviet Union persecuted Christians just so long, no longer. Not one day longer; that"s it. There is a judgment of God, a sentence of God hanging over the world of Islam for what they do to Christians. This long, no longer.

Whenever the test does not come from God, He sets a limit as to how far, and as to how long it can go on. Ultimately this will be in the Great Tribulation at the end. Satan, in the person of antichrist, will seek to change the times and the law. (Dan. 7:25) And it will be given into his hands for €œtwo times, a time, and a half time": 1,260 days by the lunar calendar. Jesus had 3-1/2 years of public ministry; Satan in the person of antichrist will demand equal time. He will get it this long, no longer. This is the time of Jacob"s Trouble, the period of time for the war against the saints, what Daniel calls €œthe shattering of the power of the holy ones." (Dan. 12:7)

If you"re going through trials, if Satan is really having a go at you, if you know you"re in God's will, you can be assured it is only temporary.  But if it"s the result of unconfessed sin, or if we"re making a mess of our own life through iniquity, we bear the consequences. I"m talking about when we"re in God's will and we"re afraid of our current opposition or oppression. We can rest on the truth that God has set a limit as to how far it can go and how long it can go on. Never get discouraged. Satan"s days are numbered not only in the macro sense, but even in the micro sense.The Role of EducationDaniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, had knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom. They understood the Chaldee beliefs dating back even to the Tower of Babel. They understood the wisdom of the Babylonians and the language and learning of the Sumerians. So it was with Moses. Moses was trained in the knowledge and wisdom of Egypt before he was trained in the knowledge and wisdom of God. Paul was trained in the learning of rabbinic Judaism (as it was then), and he was trained in Greco-Roman philosophy and the Latin and Greek languages before he was really trained in the wisdom of Jesus.

Never disparage the importance of an education. I would never suggest that you have to be a formally educated person for God to use you, but the Bible never demeans education. The scholars of Jesus" day, the theologians of His day, were called sophrim in Hebrew, translated €œscribes." Today, we just think of €œWoe to you, scribes and Pharisees," but we forget that Jesus also said, €œI will send you scribes and prophets." (Lk. 11:49) When a scribe becomes a believer, Jesus says he brings out of the treasury things €œold" and €œnew." (Mt. 13:52) Somebody that can read Greek and Hebrew, for instance, is going to see things that somebody who can"t is unable to. I can read a novel translated from Dutch or Afrikaans, but I"m not going to be able to capture the same flavor and nuances of the text the same way as somebody who can read Afrikaans or Dutch. He brings out of the treasury things €œold" and things €œnew."

Often when God raised up somebody, He took someone who was educated. This was true of the Reformers. For all of their faults, they began right. You needed people who could read the original languages of the Bible to realize that the Vulgate was not the best translation, and to realize that what the medieval papacy was telling people were largely lies. These were educated people. John Wesley was well educated. Paul was an Apostle, Peter was an Apostle. Did God use Peter? Yes. But He used Paul more. Even though Paul was €œthe least of the Apostles," God used him more. €œWhere much is given, much is expected."  

Do not demean the practical importance of education. The problem is when education becomes grounds for spiritual pride. Not until somebody has been broken of their human strength and learns to trust the Lord instead of their education can God use their education. Not until you learn to trust Jesus instead of your human education, can God can use your education. When you can say like Paul, €œIt"s all rubbish," then God can use it.

Compared to the wisdom of Christ, it is rubbish. But Moses knew what Pharaoh believed. Paul knew what Caesar believed. He knew what the Pharisees believed. And, of course, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew what Nebuchadnezzar and his wise men believed.

The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king"s personal service. As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm (Daniel 1:19).Ten Times BetterThey were tested ten days and they were ten times better than the conjurers of Babylon.

People want to know when God speaks; they want to hear from the Lord. €œOh, God, speak to me. Let me know what you"re really saying." Are you willing to be tested the ten days? Their wisdom, their capacity to understand what God was really saying, their capacity to know things others couldn"t, was directly proportionate to the amount of testing they endured. I don"t mean the €œforty"; I mean the €œten".

Why does God let the enemy and the world have a go at us? We don"t understand until we look back in retrospect. When you have overcome in those kinds of tests and trials, you"ll be ten times smarter than unsaved people. A Christian with a high school education who knows the Word of God is ten times smarter than the most brilliant secular academic who doesn"t believe. The capacity to know when God speaks is directly proportionate to the amount of testing we"ve endured. Everybody wants to hear when God speaks, but who wants to be tested ten days? Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world, and in this fallen world we can"t have the one without the other.To Whom Does God Speak?In the second chapter of Daniel, we see what happens when God speaks.

Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. The king said to them, €œI had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream." Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: €œO king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation." The king replied to the Chaldeans, €œThe command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap (Daniel 2:1-5).

The soothsayers say, €œOh, we can interpret dreams." €œYeah," replies the king, €œwell tell me the dream. If you"re genuine, you"ll be able to tell me the dream." They couldn"t do it.

The Chaldeans answered the king and said, €œThere is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer or Chaldean" (verse 10).

Remember, the occult always counterfeits the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some €œshamans/witchdoctors" speak in tongues, don"t they? Fortune tellers predict the future €•not always accurately, but they do it with some accuracy by demonic power. What happens when God's people stop listening to those through whom He really speaks and begin following conjurers, soothsayers, Chaldeans?

Cindy Jacobs who prophesied falsely to the church in Zimbabwe: is she a €œDaniel," a €œShadrach"" a €œMeshach," an €œAbednego"? Or is she a €œconjurer of Babylon"? Well, the Bible identifies her as a conjurer of Babylon. Today in the churches you have white songormas (witchdoctors). They"re doing the exact same things white witchdoctors do.

I was recently in Kwazulu Natal in Zululand. The people there are terrified of songormas. €œDon"t speak against a songorma," €œThe songorma will get you." That becomes €œTouch not my anointed." The songorma will sell muti to bring prosperity. They"ll sell fetishism. They"ll sell a piece of cloth made from a snake or something like this. Morris Cerullo, the American money preacher sends €œHoly Ghost Miracle Handkerchiefs" to take away debt for the poor and unemployed. What"s he selling? Muti! He"s selling muti!  He is a songorma, a money driven false teacher calling himself a preacher doing what a witch doctor does. €œOh, the people brought the Lord"s apostles handkerchiefs!" Did the apostles sell them to poor people? It"s deception and con-artistry. God speaks, but instead of listening to His Word, people listen to the conjurers of Babylon. That is what is happening today; that is what goes on in the Rhema movement and other such things.

In Daniel"s case, the king was going to kill any prophet who can"t tell him what"s going on, so Daniel acts.

Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Arioch, the captain of the king"s bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon; he said to Arioch, the king"s commander, €œFor what reason is the decree from the king so urgent?" Then Arioch informed Daniel about the matter. So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah about the matter, so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven; Daniel said,

€œLet the name of God be blessed forever and ever,
For wisdom and power belong to Him.

Notice, €œwisdom and power belong to Him." €œTouch not My anointed." Jesus is the anointed; that is what €œMessiah" means. Israel"s King David is an Old Testament type of Christ.  David would not touch Saul who was God's anointed at the time. But it didn't stop David from telling the truth about him or stop Samuel from writing the truth about him, that he was a backslidden murderer. And so it continues.

It is He who changes the times and the epochs;

Now, in the Last Days, the antichrist will seek to change times and epochs, and for a limited period of 3-1/2 lunar years these will be given into his hand. In other words, within certain parameters, for a certain period of time, God will forfeit lordship over history to antichrist.

He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men
And knowledge to men of understanding.Earthly LeadersHE establishes kings and removes kings. Why do people have nasty governments? They get the governments they deserve. In Africa, you have a government that allows songormas in hospital wards, that allows traditional healers (people practicing demonic power and superstition who put people into spiritual bondage) to work in medical wards as if they were actually qualified physicians, all in the name of African nationalism. There are songormas who tell people to rape babies, rape children, and they"ll be cured of AIDS. Why do leaders let their own children die, and deny what every scientist in the world says? Countries get the governments they deserve.

Why are Islamic countries feudalistic and oppressive? It"s a judgment for their false, demonic religion. They get what they deserve. Why did America have a president in the White House fooling around with young girls? Just watch TV in America and you"ll understand that the nation gets the leaders it deserves. A sexually perverted society gets a sexually perverted government. Now Christians should make a difference; we should be salt and light; we should make a difference. But one month before the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, Robert Schuller, the self-esteem preacher of the Crystal Cathedral, was singing the praises of Islam. He had the Grand Mufti of Damascus preaching in his church to Christians. Schuller stood up and said, €œI wouldn"t object if my grandchildren became Muslims."

Paul Crouch, the TBN television magnate, one month exactly before September 11th held up a Quran on Christian TV and said, €œI want my Muslim brothers to help me understand this book." One month later, he did.

Countries get the leaders they deserve. President George W. Bush stands up and says, €œIslam is a religion of peace and tolerance." I"ve been from one end of the Muslim world to the other and I"ve never found peace or tolerance. Why do you have a leader who will defend a religion that says €œGod has no son" and which persecutes Christians? You get the leadership you deserve. Oil is money and power. You get a political prostitute owned by international oil. We get the leaders we deserve.

Not only the nations get the leaders they deserve, churches get the leaders they deserve.Profound and Hidden ThingsIt is He who reveals the profound and hidden things;

The Bible is filled with €œprofound and hidden things" so the unsaved can"t understand it. Not only can the world not understand it, but neither can worldly Christians. Even today, even this hour, as events of prophetic significance are being fulfilled in the Middle East and in Europe, there are untold numbers of born again Christians who have the same book right in front of them, who have no idea what is happening. They"re clueless. They don"t know the €œprofound and hidden things." Their leaders will never teach them. They"ve got the leaders they deserve.

He knows what is in the darkness,
And the light dwells with Him.
To Thee, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise,
For Thou hast given me wisdom and power;
Even now Thou hast made known to me what we requested of Thee,
For Thou hast made known to us the king's matter.

So Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar his dream, and in the process of being able to tell the king what the conjurers couldn"t, Daniel saves his own life and the lives of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. He even saves the lives of the conjurers of Babylon. Maybe they"ll repent.

I don"t desire the destruction of false prophets in the churches today; I desire their repentance, even though I believe they"ve gone beyond the point where Jeremiah was told €œdon"t even pray for these people."

Why does God speak? To save our neck. In the third chapter of the Book of Daniel we read where Daniel sees the incredible vision of the image of gold. This image is a major foreshadowing of the image of the Beast in the book of Revelation. Even its dimensions in the Aramaic language tabulate to 666. The number of the Beast €• €œ666" €•occurs many places in the Bible. Before people try to count the Roman numerals of Henry Kissinger"s name, I wish they"d try reading the Bible. The first question is, €œWhere else does that number occur in the Bible?" Well, it appears many places in the Bible, and each time it does it tells us something about Revelation 13. Once more, Daniel understood, the others did not. And once more it saved his neck.The Mind of a BeastNow, in the fourth chapter we see something significant: The mind of a beast was given to Nebuchadnezzar.

Some conservative Baptist missionaries reported a phenomenon in the really remote areas of Kenya in which a witch doctor was turned into a leopard. I know American Indian believers who talk about €œskin walkers," and who see this kind of phenomenon where people begin imitating animals. These of course smoke peyote (Apache Indians smoke peyote to induce religious hallucinations), and they begin hallucinating that their medicine men turn into buffalo.

Whenever you see animal imitations in the Bible, you"re dealing with something demonic. Today, of course, you"ve got people saying it"s the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Randy Clark, the Vineyard pastor who got his anointing from Rodney Howard-Browne by impartation and then delivered it to John Arnott"s Toronto Airport Vineyard (since then disassociated from the Vineyard movement), reported that while he was allegedly drunk in the Spirit at Howard-Browne"s meeting, a lady next to him was oinking like a pig.

The people who promote the Alpha Course defend animal imitations. In England, they defended it. €œI know it was God!"

Well, if it is God, it"s His judgment against you. A mind of the beast was given to Nebuchadnezzar. If people can"t understand the straightforward teaching of the Bible, how is God going to reveal any truth to them, or why should He reveal to them, €œprofound and hidden things"? If you can"t see the difference between a hyena and a human being, what does God have to tell you? Nothing. He has nothing further to tell you. You"re incapable of hearing it.Changing World EmpiresDaniel had an extraordinary spirit...

...knowledge and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and solving of difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Let Daniel now be summoned, and he will declare the interpretation." (Daniel 5:12)

Daniel could do it again. But what was happening? As Medo-Persia aligned, the Babylonian empire was doomed. It was a time when people were in trouble. What you see happening in Daniel is what happens in the Last Days, a very rapid series of dramatic, political changes transforming the face of the known world. Everyone was afraid of Assyria. Out of nowhere was the meteoric rise of Babylon.

In the cold war era, everyone was afraid of the Soviets. America and Britain didn't like the apartheid government of South Africa, but because the Soviets had the Cubans in Angola and Namibia, America and Britain were forced to support the South African apartheid regime. Once the Soviet Union collapsed, America and Britain stopped supporting South Africa and it was the end of apartheid. €œWe don"t need to support you anymore. We needed you to keep the Communists out. You were the lesser of two evils, now you"re the evil." That is what they basically said.

But with the Soviet Union gone, we"re left with something much more dangerous: Islam. Islam is much more dangerous than the Soviet Union ever was. The Soviet Union at least fought rationally; they didn't want a nuclear war; the Imams will push the button in a minute. €œJihad" is €œgoing to heaven." Something much more dangerous comes.

After Babylon was Medo-Persia, after Medo-Persia came Macedonian Greece, after Greece it was Rome.  And in the middle of all this, the Jews were going back to their land. The Last Days are the same.

If you would have told someone of my generation that the Soviet Union would collapse, would self-destruct, and that the Berlin Wall would come down overnight, it would have seemed ridiculous. But it happened.

The post-World War II miracle economies were Japan in Asia and Germany in Europe. They arose out of nowhere from the rubble. Now China is the rising star in Asia while Japan is in permanent, unstoppable economic decline. Even with zero interest rates they can"t stimulate the economy.

At one time the sun never set on the British Empire, now it sets every 24 hours.

France is so frustrated at no longer being a world power that they"ll keep dictators in power just to flex what little muscle they have.

The rise and fall of world empires happen very quickly. That is what the events recorded in the Book of Daniel were like; that"s what the Last Days are like. And, of course, in the middle of it you see the Jews going back to their land.

Daniel had an extraordinary spirit. He understood what was going on and what those things meant. Those who really have an extraordinary spirit, those who really are filled with the Holy Spirit, will know what these things mean.

These world events we see, the rise and fall of world empires, happen very quickly. And the place of the Jews is in the middle of it all. Those who are like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will understand what"s going on. They did; the conjurers of Babylon didn't. No fortune teller, clairvoyant, or astrologer can tell you what"s going to happen. God has already told us what"s going to happen.True Prophetic VisionsDaniel sees it, and with this is unleashed an unbelievable series of dreams and visions. Things that are happening today, Daniel saw. They were, of course, prophesied for his own time; he prophesied for the time of the Maccabees, he prophesied for the First Coming of Christ, and he prophesied for the return of Christ. But look at chapter 7:

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it.

Now look at the last verse of that chapter, verse 28 of chapter 7.

"At this point the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself."

And then the next verse, 8:1.

In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king a vision appeared to me, Daniel...

Notice he has a vision in the first year and the third year. True prophets never went around having visions, pictures, prophetic revelations every ten minutes; conjurers of Babylon do. Rhema preachers do. False teachers and false prophets do. Those to whom God speaks don"t. It"s every once in awhile, but when it happens it"s real and it"s biblical.

You see false prophets going around every five minutes, €œI have a picture the Lord gave me, a word I"m going to prophesy." As we"ve warned many times, that is not prophecy,  it is an attempt at clairvoyance. This is not how prophecy works, it is never how prophecy worked. It is how clairvoyance works. It is occultic.

But now let"s look...

...I kept the matter to myself.

God showed Daniel things that Daniel did not fully understand. He kept it to himself. If God shows you something that you don"t fully understand in the light of Scripture, there"s more to come. Daniel kept his mouth shut until he did understand.

How often have you heard people say, €œI don"t know what it means, but I had a picture"? You don"t know what it means. I know what it means; it means you"re a nut case, that"s what it means. It means you"re a kook or a charlatan or at best an ignoramus. Those are not the people God speaks through. If somebody didn't understand what God showed them, they wouldn"t say anything until they did understand. They would have the prudence and wisdom to keep their mouth shut. They would continue praying and searching the Scriptures until they did understand, knowing that more was to come.

For Daniel prophecy came every so often. It was real, it was biblical, and when he didn't understand he kept it to himself.

What Was Daniel Doing When God Spoke To Him?

Daniel had the most incredible series of prophetic revelations of the future. What was Daniel doing when God showed him these things?

in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. (Daniel 9:2)

What was he doing?

So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Daniel was studying the Scriptures, praying and realizing the need for repentance. Studying the Scriptures came first. If you don"t know what"s in there, you have no basis for God to tell you anything else.Three Kinds of PeopleNow I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision; nevertheless, a great dread fell on them, and they ran away to hide themselves.

When God spoke, these pretenders ran away.  If God really spoke, the conjurers, the would-be"s, the hype artists, would run away. Let"s look at this in light of the New Testament.

"Father, glorify Thy name." There came therefore a voice out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." The multitude therefore, who stood by and heard it, were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. (John 12:28)

When God speaks, understand the thunder as a figure in biblical typology; thunder is a very common figure for the voice of God. In Revelation whenever God would speak from the throne, John would record peals of thunder. Thunder is a metaphor in biblical typology for the voice of God. Only those who were righteous heard what God was saying, the others just heard noise. But then there was a third category: They thought it was the voice of an angel. When God speaks, there will be three kinds of people.
First, there will be those who hear and understand that He has spoken and know what He is saying. And it will always be in Christ and point to Christ. If Christ is not in it, it"s not God. There are those who have heard and understand what God has said in and through Christ.

Second, there will be those to whom it will be just a noise. You"re driving on the road and maybe a Gospel broadcast comes on and you hear a preacher. Somebody who is seeking truth, who is under the conviction of sin, will hear the Gospel and know it is God speaking. A saved Christian will know it is God speaking.  But to a disinterested unbeliever it will just be noise to them; change the station.

Third, at most, it will be €œan angel," from the Greek word angelio, €œmessenger." €œOh, it"s a religious person; he"s a messenger."

There will be three kinds of people: Those who hear God, those it"s just noise to, and those who give it a religious misinterpretation. When God speaks, there"ll be one of three responses: Those who know it and understand it, those to whom it"s just noise €“ it means nothing, and those who just give it a religious misinterpretation when God speaks.ConclusionWhen God speaks, to whom does He speak? He speaks to the Daniels, the Shadrachs, the Meshachs, and the Abednegos, those of extraordinary spirit because they are enlightened by His Spirit. They understand Scripture and wisdom. They know the way the world thinks, and they know how to evaluate what the world says in light of what God says. The Bible will make you smarter when God speaks.

Who is it that He"ll speak to? When does He speak? Who does He speak through? Why does He speak? Quite a list of questions, but now we arrive at a pivotal point in human history where the things Daniel saw and prophesied, and only partially understood, are now coming to their prophetic climax. The veil is going up and God is speaking. He"s speaking alright. I have no doubt that God is speaking. He"s speaking to me, He"s speaking to you; He"s speaking to my family, He"s speaking to your family; He"s speaking to the church in my nation, He"s speaking to the church in your nation; God is speaking to Israel on the Jews, He"s speaking to the Gentiles. God is speaking. There is no doubt God is speaking, but who is He speaking to? Who is He speaking through? Why is He speaking?  

Although there is no doubt God is speaking, here is the big question: who is listening?

Israel is in the midst of a battle for public opinion €“ waged primarily via the media. To ensure Israel is represented fairly and accurately "HonestReporting" monitors the media, exposes cases of bias, promotes balance, and effects change through education and action. Read more. The Apologetics Coordination Team (ACT) provides churches and organizations with an easy way to book apologists and discernment speakers online. ACT does the footwork for your church or event in finding biblically sound speakers in your area. Please click here to learn more. Please click here to watch Jacob Prasch & Friends on Webcast Internet TV. Is the Drum Beat of Rock Music Demonic?

A Scriptural, musical, and historical response to the assertions of Larry De Bruyen by James Jacob Prasch

Is the Drum Beat of Rock Music Demonic? Part 1
Is the Drum Beat of Rock Music Demonic? Part 2
Is the Drum Beat of Rock Music Demonic? Part 3
Is the Drum Beat of Rock Music Demonic? Part 4
Is the Drum Beat of Rock Music Demonic? Part 5
Is the Drum Beat of Rock Music Demonic? Part 6 Azimuth Radio is a free and  non profit making internet based radio station which exists to bring contemporary Christian music and Bible teaching to as wide an audience as possible.

Jacob is broadcast daily at 10 PM UK Time "In The Days" is a web resource dedicated to publishing news events in the light of biblical prophecy. Readmore. The Barnabas Fund exists to assist persecuted Christian minorities by prayer and practical support. Read more. Resources for Evangelism

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Hello, friends, my name is Jacob Prasch and I have met a number of Mormons. I have attended the “Miracle of Mormonism" pageant in Manti, Utah where I met mainstream Mormons and I met fundamentalism Mormons – polygamists, bigamists. I've met Mormons in Great Britain, I"ve met Mormons in Italy, I"ve met Mormons in Israel, an extension of Brigham Young University. I have talked to Mormon clergy. And I know how anxious Mormons are to see people convert to Mormonism, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they call it. They"re anxious in their missionary zeal to establish new “stakes", as you call them, new stakes and to see the beliefs of Mormonism extend and perpetuate.

When anyone comes to me trying to persuade me to believe in a religion, I always examine it carefully and prayerfully, and I look at it and I consider their claims with a fair and open mind. And Mormonism is no different. I considered your religion with a fair and open mind and I have actually investigated it. I have read, I"ve talked to Mormons, I"ve read what the Mormons have told me in light of the Judeo-Christian Bible, and in my interest to pursue the truth and to find out if the Church of Latter-day Saints is true, I"ve made some discoveries from a variety of sources including your own literature – especially your own literature – and as a result of this I have some serious questions.

I hope in listening to this you'll be able to help me answer these questions. Just This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloakaa344a6b80135556ab94ac03f87b6205').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addyaa344a6b80135556ab94ac03f87b6205 = 'MorielCarol' + '@'; addyaa344a6b80135556ab94ac03f87b6205 = addyaa344a6b80135556ab94ac03f87b6205 + 'yahoo' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_textaa344a6b80135556ab94ac03f87b6205 = 'e-mail me';document.getElementById('cloakaa344a6b80135556ab94ac03f87b6205').innerHTML += ''+addy_textaa344a6b80135556ab94ac03f87b6205+''; at our ministry, my office, and I would love to hear from you. Or you can write me at either the American or British or Australian office, and I"ll be more than happy to get back to you. In fact I"ll be delighted to talk to you. Come on our website, send me an e-mail, answer these questions.

The person who directed you here is also interested in having these questions answered. We felt it"s right to give you as a Mormon the opportunity to answer for yourself.

But I would like to ask a third question of my Catholic friends.

Without doubt Mary – her real name was “Miryam" – Mary the mother of Jesus was the greatest woman who ever lived. The angel Gabriel. the archangel “Gabriy"el", “the mighty one of God" appeared to her and told her that God Himself would become incarnate inside of her, she would be the mother of the Messiah, the Savior, who would save His people from their sin. This is the greatest woman who ever lived. And the greatest woman who ever lived, who has ever lived, was told she"s going to be the mother of the Savior who would save His people from their sin in the Magnificat in St. Luke"s Gospel. (Lk. 1:46-55) The only thing that the greatest woman who ever lived could say when she was told she was the greatest woman who ever lived – “Blessed are you among women" (Lk. 1:42) – and she was told she"s going to be the mother of the Savior who would save His people from their sin is, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior". (Lk. 1:47)

If the greatest woman who ever lived tells me that she needs to be saved from sin, that she needs a Savior when she's told she's going to be the mother of the Savior who would save people from sin, who am I to argue with the greatest woman who ever lived? Who am I to argue with St. Luke? When God says, “All have sinned, all fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), “None is righteous, no not one", (Rom. 3:10) Well who am I to argue with God? I believe Mary, but we have Ineffablilis Deus, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

If all have sinned and all full short of the glory of God, and if Mary said she needs to be saved from sin, who do I believe: Mary or the Vatican? Personally, I believe Mary. I'm convinced Mary was right; I'm convinced that Mary told the truth; I'm convinced all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God.

The Roman church speculated and then deduced that if that was the case, Jesus would have been born from a sinful vessel. But if Mary had no sin, by the same token that would have to mean that Mary's mother had no sin, and that Mary's grandmother had no sin, and that Mary"s great-grandmother had no sin all the way back to Eve. But we know Eve had sin and we know Mary had sin.

Again, this doctrine was not proclaimed until modern times, until the 20th Century. Do you believe Mary was wrong?

We are told in the New Testament there is one intercessor between God and man, Jesus the righteous. (1 Tim. 2:5) One intercessor, onlyone, Jesus. Man can"t reach God so God had to reach man by becoming one of us. If there is one intercessor, how can I be expected to believe that Mary “co-redeemed" us, “co-saved" us, and she is the “co-mediatrix" if there"s only one Savior? The Hebrew prophets said all along, “Yahweh – God is our Savior; there is no Savior but Me". (Is. 43:11; Hos. 13:4) Only one Savior, only one intercessor.

Either we believe Mary or we believe the Vatican. I believe Mary. My question to you, my dear Catholic friends, is who do you believe?

But I have a final question. I"m going to read from the Hebrew prophet Zechariah 12…

The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

The issue is Jerusalem, the final status of Jerusalem. Not the West Bank, not the Gaza strip, not the Golan Heights, Jerusalem is the issue. “All the nations" will come against it.

When the Chinese massacred between 7-8,000 students witnessed by over 1 billion people on television in Tiananmen Square, how many UN resolutions were passed condemning China? None.

When the Moslems massacred 2.3 million black Christians in Sudan – Islamic militias, how many UN resolutions, how many Security Council resolutions, how many calls for boycotts on Sudan? None.

How many UN resolutions passed against Israel? How many Security Council resolutions passing? 50% of all resolutions in the General Assembly and more than 50% in the Security Council. Go ahead, kill a couple of million blacks. Who cares? They"re poor, they"re black and they have no oil. Who went to the Gaza Strip to get people to stop shooting Katyusha rockets and killing your children? The world wants to condemn you.

It makes no sense, but how will this end? Zechariah tells us in this chapter in verse 9…
“And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced…

…crucified…

…and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son…

Who said so? Jacob Prasch? No. Try Rabbi Moshe Elshick. Read what the sages said about this and who it was. They"ll look upon Him pierced and mourn as one mourns for an only son. The one we rejected, the one whose name we spit at, the one we curse is the one who"s come to save us? Yes, He is coming to save you. That is my question.

If He is the one who fulfilled these prophecies, if He had to come and die already, if He was the atonement for your sin, if He"s the one coming to save Israel, and if He"s the one who has already come to save you, do you want to be saved? How can anybody call this rejecting Judaism? That is my question. How can rejecting a Jewish Messiah who taught a Jewish thing in a Jewish way to Jewish people and made non-Jews believe in a Jewish God and read a Jewish book and believe a Jewish book, how can anybody call that “non-Jewish". “anti-Jewish". or departing from Judaism? It may be a departure from what people did to Judaism, it may be a departure from the Judaism responsible for the assassination of Rabin, it may be a departure from the Judaism that proclaimed bar Kochba from being the Messiah, but it is not a departure from the Judaism of your fathers. of the patriarchs, or of Moses and the Prophets.

My Jewish friend, return from sin. You made teshuva, you asked the God of your fathers to forgive your sin that Yeshua paid for in His death. In His resurrection He rose to give you eternal life.

Yes, He did raise. Who said so? Jacob Prasch? No, try reading The Resurrection of Jesus by Rabbi Pinchas Lapide, Orthodox professor of Hebrew University. Try reading Rabbi David Flusser, Orthodox professor, Hebrew University. From a Jewish perspective the resurrection of Jesus is irrefutable. The idea that a Messiah would come and die and then raise again, that"s what the Chabad say about Schneerson, only Schneerson didn't raise from the dead, the rabbis say he raised from the dead.

Jesus came and He would die at Pesach and after dying at Pesach He rose from the dead. His rabbis didn't like Him but said He did miracles as no other rabbi. His disciples did miracles in His name including raising others from the dead. Coming to die at Pesach, raising from the dead doing miracles, His disciples doing miracles, and then ascending to heaven from the Mount of Olives. From where do I quote? The Gospels? No, I quote from the avida zerah. That was not written by Jews who believed in Jesus, that was written by rabbis who were against Jews believing in Jesus. When your fathers will admit these things it"s one thing, when your opponents say it"s true it"s something else. Is He the Messiah? Yes, He is. It"s your decision.

Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloak977775c9ff02812ce9fdaaa47572d838').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy977775c9ff02812ce9fdaaa47572d838 = 'MorielCarol' + '@'; addy977775c9ff02812ce9fdaaa47572d838 = addy977775c9ff02812ce9fdaaa47572d838 + 'yahoo' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_text977775c9ff02812ce9fdaaa47572d838 = 'e-mail us';document.getElementById('cloak977775c9ff02812ce9fdaaa47572d838').innerHTML += ''+addy_text977775c9ff02812ce9fdaaa47572d838+''; or write us here in Britain:

Moriel P.O. Box 201 Maidenhead SL69FB

Please contact us. Please e-mail us. Please talk to us. We want you to meet other Jewish people that have found the truth. The truth is the Tanak was right, the Prophets were right, the Messiah has come. The Messiah has died for sin, He has risen from the dead and conquered death, and He"s
coming again. Git zay g"zunt.

Hello, my dear friends. I"m speaking, of course, to our Catholic friends, and I mean friends. I have many Catholic friends and, on my mother"s side of the family, Catholic relatives, including my mother. My mother is of Irish-Catholic background. In her family there are members of the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland and in America and in Canada. I've always had a love of the Catholic people, and I spent 11 years of my youth in Catholic schools through my mother's insistence. But like many other young people at that time I began to question the established religious values of the time and began to do my own seeking and my own searching.

Now I should tell you my own family is a mixture of Roman Catholic and Jewish, and partially for that reason I'm able to speak and read the Hebrew language, and I've also learned Greek. I looked at other faiths – Judaism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism – most of all I studied the Scriptures with an emphasis on studying them in the original languages. I don't say I'm the greatest scholar or theologian in the world, but I do know what I believe and why I believe it.

I have a book here, Rome Has Spoken, written by two academic Roman Catholic nuns Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben – they"re the editors. They are both Ph.D.'s, both Roman Catholic nuns, both quite scholarly women. The book is published by Crossroad Publishing Company and it"s a very, very interesting book, a compilation of Vatican- and papal-issued statements from different times in history.

I"d like to ask you some questions as a Roman Catholic, questions of the sort I once asked myself, questions that other people like me have asked. But before I do that I"d like to read you some quotes from Roman Catholic documents – official Vatican documents – that areimprimatur and nihil obstat, official Roman Catholic documents.

In the year 420, Boniface I, Bishop of Rome: "Instead of what is lawful for what has been decided by the apostolic see to be reconsidered, the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, the current pope vigilist was found guilty of heresy and formally excommunicated from the body of the faithful. And at the Third Council of Constantinople in 681, Pope Honorius had confirmed the impious opinions of the heretic Sergius and anathematizee the pope from the church." According to Roman Catholic history, Roman Catholic documents, popes have been kicked out of office and excommunicated by councils of the church. It was not the belief, according to the Roman Catholic Church, that the pope at that time was somehow infallible in what he was proclaiming.

Of course now they claim, since 1870, when he speaks ex-cathedra he is, but I've never heard in modern history of a Pope being fired – sacked by the church. But things began to change by the medieval church, and again I'm only reading from Roman Catholic history that the creedom of 1140, where matters of faith are concerned, a General Counsel – a kind of magisterium – is greater than a pope. For though the Roman pope has sometimes erred, this does not mean that the Roman Church has. In other words, popes can say things that are erroneous and the church doesn"t have to support them.

By 1200 A.D. Pope Innocent III: "Every cleric must obey the pope, even if he commands what is evil; for no one may judge the pope." In the year 1200 the papacy decreed you have to obey the pope even if he tells you to do something which is evil and that no one may judge it, although the earlier councils of the church fired popes. A religion that came to teach you have to follow a man even when he's telling you to do something evil.

In the year 1302, Pope Boniface VIII, "Unam Sanctam": "We declare, affirm, and define as a truth necessary for salvation that every human being is subject to the Roman Pontiff." In the year 1302 it was decreed by Pope Boniface VIII that to have salvation – that is escape hell and go to heaven – you have to be subject to the pope.

Let"s move to the modern era.

1854, Pope Pius IX, "Ineffablis Deus": "If anyone shall dare to think otherwise the most Blessed Virgin was from the first moment of her conception preserved immune from all stain of original sin. if anyone dares to think otherwise that has been defined here by us, let him know that he certainly has abandoned the divine and Catholic church." The church is proclaimed as divine and if you don't believe that Mary was sinless you"ve abandoned it. That was in 1854. Why was it not taught earlier? The term "theoticos" –"mother of God" is not in the Bible or in the Greek text anywhere, it"s not in the Vulgate. Pius IX was the same pope who issued a papal encyclical in which democracy was condemned – "Quanta Cura".

In the first Vatican Council in the year 1870, "Pastor Aeternus": "We teach and define that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in the exercise of his offices pastor and teacher of all Christians, he defines by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority a doctrine of faith and morals which is to be held by the whole Church. It is by reason of the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer wished His church to be endowed in defining doctrines of faith and morals." Since 1870 there"s been an official doctrine that the pope, when he speaks ex cathedra from the chair of Peter cannot make a mistake; a human being who cannot make a mistake even though earlier church councils said that popes can make mistakes even in matters of doctrine and some were excommunicated for it.

Quite a book. A book not containing Protestant documents, a book compiled by Roman Catholics containing Roman Catholic documents.

Again, Boniface VIII, "Unum Sanctum", 1302: "We declare, affirm, and define as a truth necessary for salvation that every human being is subject to the Roman Pontiff." If you"re not a Catholic you can"t go to heaven they said.

There was a Pope Leo XIII, "Satis Cognitum", 1896: "Let such as these take counsel with themselves and realize that they can in no wise be counted among the children of God unless they take Christ Jesus as their brother and at the same time the church, that is the church of Rome, as their mother." Jesus as your brother and the Roman Catholic Church as your mother. And if that is not the case, you"re not a child of God. John 1 says to all who believed Him, who believed in His name, to all who received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. (Jn. 1:12)

1948. the Holy Office, "Cum Comperum" reminded Catholics of canonical prohibitions against unauthorized prohibition and so-called ecumenical meetings with non-Catholic Christians and in shared worship. They were warned against it in 1948, now all of the sudden it"s to be pursued in order to get people to become Catholic. That tells me something. At one time they were afraid of Catholics being lured away from the church by associating with other Christians; now they think the time is ripe to lure other Christians into the Roman Church.

The Second Vatican Council in 1964, Dogmatic Constitution of the Church: "Those who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or His church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and moved by grace tray in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience, these too may attain eternal salvation." Which directly, of course, contradicts the earlier pronouncement Unum Sanctum.

Contradiction upon contradiction; things have devolved and changed. Yet the constitutional motto of the Roman Church is "Semper Idem" – "always the same". Well, it"s not; it"s changed, changed, and changed. What the Roman Catholic Church is today it became at the Council of Trent, basically, in the aftermath of the Reformation. We can document it from their own documents. Some Catholic scholars admit it. Yet in a way it is Semper Idem. Once they make another doctrine they can"t change it. There are two kinds of doctrines in the Roman Church:proxima fide and de fide You can change a proxima fide doctrine like making the mass from Latin into English, but a de fide doctrine – transubstantiation, purgatory, indulgence – they couldn't change that stuff.

And so looking at these contradictions, coming from a Catholic background on my mother"s side of the family, I have to ask some questions of my Catholic friends – sincere questions. Again, I"m not attacking you, it would be attacking my own family, indeed my own mother. I'm not attacking you, I'm simply trying to arrive at the truth. I'm only asking you questions that I once asked myself.

HARPAZO: The Intra-Seal Rapture of the Church
When it comes to books devoted to eschatology in general and the Rapture specifically, they often either read like a formal academic argument written solely for the benefit of scholars or employ the use of fiction to avoid directly handling the underlying biblical text. As with Jacob's previous books and exhaustive list of sermons covering nearly every area of theology,  Harpazo  presents the doctrine of the Rapture and Resurrection in the strictest biblical sense possible, leveraging the handling of Scripture in the same manner as passed along to us by Christ through the Apostles and Early Church of the 1st century.

Often the typical format of such books is to spend more time explaining and refuting all the positions the author  does not  subscribe to rather than focus exclusively on what they believe and have derived from Scripture.  Harpazo  may be unique in the complete absence of charts and seemingly endless trips to sidebars to constantly compare alternate interpretations the author does not subscribe to in the first place. Jacob was asked to continue to employ in an expanded book format the same exegesis of Scripture which is present in all of his teachings regardless of whether or not they are eschatological. After all, "The Apocalypse" means "unveiling", and that "lifting of the curtain", so to speak, as we approach the ever nearer Return of Christ is the Holy Spirit's revelation of Scripture as already given,  not  a new opinion by man..

The Gospels are clear that immediately in the wake of His Resurrection, Christ not only imparted the Holy Spirit to His disciples, but directly instructed them in how He was the fulfillment of the whole of Scripture. (Lk. 24:27, 44-45) In other words, the interpretation of  all  of God's Word, every Book of the Old Testament included, was re-cast as Christological, having not just a literal, primary meaning for the times any Scripture was originally given, but an added meaning for either Christ's First Coming, Second Coming, or both. Like every doctrine and theology, the Rapture and Resurrection are illustrated through many scriptural people, places and events throughout the whole of God's Word and not simply limited to a single biblical reference.

Using the Early Church hermeneutics of typology to  illustrate  and  illuminate  doctrine, Jacob shows how there are  many  raptures and rescues in Scripture which combine to teach what is going to ultimately take place in the  Parousia—the Second Coming of Christ. Likewise, there is a wealth of similar events and patterns throughout Scripture which teach us what to expect from related issues such as the Two Witnesses, the role of the 144,000 and Israel yet to come, the pattern of judgments in Revelation and how they actually replay Old Testament and historical parallels, and a wealth of other such End Times teachings already established in the canon of Scripture.

Jesus Himself established this hermeneutic by categorically teaching that the Last Days would be realized in the character of the days of Noah as well as Lot. The Apostles in their writings not only confirmed these specific examples but built upon them. The question for believers in the Last Days is not whether or not some kind of "new" revelation or word from God has been revealed, but how what has already been given is, in these final hours, being unveiled to believers by the Holy Spirit. What Daniel was told to seal until the end, John was told would be ultimately unsealed.

Some of the chapter titles in  Harpazo  will sound familiar to those already acquainted with Jacob's teachings, but he has never tied everything together overall to this degree before. This book is not about creating another End Times chart, but making a good faith effort to draw together in one place what the whole counsel of God's Word is teaching not just for a single event or prophetic fulfillment, but the overall doctrinal basis by which believers are supposed to act and behave as they are putting His Word into practice. Whereas many limit their teaching on the Rapture to just the drama of the physical event itself, one of the remarkable differences presented in  Harpazo  is the believer's place in the Rapture and Resurrection and their active role in preparation for it. Recognition of the nearness of His Return invokes a responsibility to live accordingly.

Those expecting an academic treatment of eschatology or hoping for a formal rebuttal of alternative positions will not find such in  Harpazo. But those placing a priority on what God's Word is saying more than the word and opinions of man will derive tangible benefits from the book regardless of which "ism" or eschatology currently held. Jacob presents us with a thorough  proactive  exegesis of Scripture by concentrating on what Scripture affirms rather than a  reactive  rebuttal of the beliefs of man, which all too often actually fall outside biblical boundaries.
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Electronic version is now available as anEbookand is available at Amazon for $9.99.

Australia's books are still in printing but you can pre-order by calling Marg at Tel: 61 (03) 5633 2300

By James Jacob Prasch
No, my friends; we will have our lives as our booty. "If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up," says God. "Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand." That is His promise.

Hello, friends, my name is Jacob Prasch and I have met a number of Mormons. I have attended the "Miracle of Mormonism" pageant in Manti, Utah where I met mainstream Mormons and I met fundamentalism Mormons – polygamists, bigamists. I've met Mormons in Great Britain, I"ve met Mormons in Italy, I"ve met Mormons in Israel, an extension of Brigham Young University. I have talked to Mormon clergy. And I know how anxious Mormons are to see people convert to Mormonism, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they call it. They"re anxious in their missionary zeal to establish new "stakes", as you call them, new stakes and to see the beliefs of Mormonism extend and perpetuate.

When anyone comes to me trying to persuade me to believe in a religion, I always examine it carefully and prayerfully, and I look at it and I consider their claims with a fair and open mind. And Mormonism is no different. I considered your religion with a fair and open mind and I have actually investigated it. I have read, I"ve talked to Mormons, I"ve read what the Mormons have told me in light of the Judeo-Christian Bible, and in my interest to pursue the truth and to find out if the Church of Latter-day Saints is true, I"ve made some discoveries from a variety of sources including your own literature – especially your own literature – and as a result of this I have some serious questions.

I hope in listening to this you'll be able to help me answer these questions. Just This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloaka9e27e4e293b2ec757eebee7a1cda301').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addya9e27e4e293b2ec757eebee7a1cda301 = 'MorielCarol' + '@'; addya9e27e4e293b2ec757eebee7a1cda301 = addya9e27e4e293b2ec757eebee7a1cda301 + 'yahoo' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_texta9e27e4e293b2ec757eebee7a1cda301 = 'e-mail me';document.getElementById('cloaka9e27e4e293b2ec757eebee7a1cda301').innerHTML += ''+addy_texta9e27e4e293b2ec757eebee7a1cda301+''; at our ministry, my office, and I would love to hear from you. Or you can write me at either the American or British or Australian office, and I"ll be more than happy to get back to you. In fact I"ll be delighted to talk to you. Come on our website, send me an e-mail, answer these questions.

The person who directed you here is also interested in having these questions answered. We felt it"s right to give you as a Mormon the opportunity to answer for yourself.

Hello. This is for my friends who are Jehovah's Witnesses. I"ve met a number of them in America and in Britain and in other countries, and they"ve come to my door several times. And we spent time together, sometimes hours.

In my youth I had a friend named Buster Rothman. He was a Jewish man with a fascination with the Bible, an incredibly interesting person. And Buster had a radio program in the heyday of radio before there was television; he was a remarkable man. But he was the first person who introduced me to Jehovah's Witness. He used to go to their meetings although he never became one. He brought me along to their meetings and so I went and I listened. I listened with an open mind because I was seeking religious truth. I was seeking meaning, so I went with my friend Buster in New Jersey but this rightly in New York City. And today not far from there there"s a movie theater taken over in Jersey City, New Jersey by the Jehovah's Witnesses and they have tours of the theater. I used to go to the movies in that theater at Journal Square as a kid. This is, of course, right across the river from New York City " Manhattan.

I had a lot of exposure to Jehovah's Witnesses in those days, and  I began reading the Watchtower, and I read Awake magazine, and I went back and read their earlier publications like Millennial Dawn and studies in Scripture by Pastor Russell. In fact I"ve even been to Pastor Russell"s grave in Pittsburgh, not that that means anything, but that's where the Jehovah's Witnesses began as the Dawn Bible Society back in the late 1800"s. I was really interested in this organization because they claimed to be the one organization in the world that is only based on the Bible, and therefore they are Jehovah"s organization, the only one based only on the Bible, the others were all corrupt. That's what the Jehovah's Witnesses believed, that's what they told me that they believed, and so I began to go with my friend Buster Rothman and I began to listen. And we would talk about it and I'd read Watchtowers, I"d read Awake magazine, I"d spend time talking to them, and over the years I had various other encounters.

I have certain questions that I have to ask before I could join any group. Before I could become part of any religion I"d have to be sure I was doing the right thing. Before I committed myself to any organization as the way of salvation, as the way to God, I really would want to make sure that they were right. And so I began to study the Scriptures in light of what the Jehovah's Witnesses had told me. And I came up with a few questions that I would really appreciate it if somebody could answer. I would really appreciate it if you could write me or contact me or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloakec45d907a6d073cbcbb119fad1639aef').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addyec45d907a6d073cbcbb119fad1639aef = 'MorielCarol' + '@'; addyec45d907a6d073cbcbb119fad1639aef = addyec45d907a6d073cbcbb119fad1639aef + 'yahoo' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_textec45d907a6d073cbcbb119fad1639aef = 'e-mail me';document.getElementById('cloakec45d907a6d073cbcbb119fad1639aef').innerHTML += ''+addy_textec45d907a6d073cbcbb119fad1639aef+''; . You can send me an e-mail on our website and I would love to hear from you if you can answer these five questions. You can write me at:

Moriel P.O. Box 201 Maidenhead SL69FB

Write me, email me,  please answer these questions. I think it's fair to say that I"m somebody who does believe the Bible is the Word of God, I"m somebody who does believe Jehovah is God, and I"m somebody who wants to know the truth. And the person who directed you here is the same; we only want to know the truth.

Now I"ve studied your claims, I've read your literature, and I've read the Scriptures. I have something of an advantage: Although my background was science, I did learn how to read Greek and Hebrew. In fact, my family is Israeli " I can speak Hebrew.