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“No man knows the day and hour”

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Insights, The Future and Endtime

no man knows flat Jesus said, “No man knows the day and hour”, referring to His return to this world. But He didn’t say, “So forget about the whole thing! Don’t even try to understand it.” It seems very many people draw that conclusion from what Jesus said in Matthew 24:36.

why try flatI don’t think that’s the meaning or the intent the Lord had at all. For one, I certainly agree with the verse that, at that time and probably for now, no man knows the day and the hour of the Lord’s return. For one, back then, they didn’t need to know that because that wasn’t the main thing that was happening right then.

His return was still far off in the future at that time. Also, if we just take literally what Jesus said, He said that no man knows the day and the hour of his coming. But that doesn’t mean that at some point in the future we will know perhaps the year, the month or even the week of His coming.

Why do I say that? If you’re a student of prophecy, one of the most often-prophesied events in the Bible is the coming 3½ years of “Great Tribulation” that Jesus Himself spoke of. (Matthew 24:21). This three and a half year period is also mentioned in Daniel chapters 7 and 9 and extensively throughout Revelation. Over and over again we’re told about this period of “42 months”, “1260 days” and “time, times and half a time”.

Matthew 24 21-a for blog postThe Lord doesn’t waste His Words. This wasn’t put there for effect. While I believe that we won’t know the specific hour of the Lord’s coming, it is one of the clearest subjects of Bible prophecy that this period of 3½ years will come. Even the specific sign of the beginning of this 42 months is pointed out by Jesus Himself. In Matthew 24:15 and 21, He said, “When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place….then will be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time…”. I’ve made a video specifically on this subject of the Great Tribulation that Jesus spoke of and which is revealed in Daniel. The video can be seen here.

At the time of Jesus, no man knew the day and the hour. But the people of the future will be able to have a pretty good idea of how much time there is left, those ones who will pass through the last years and months before the Lord’s return.

Why? Why would the Lord want anyone to know when He was coming back? I believe there are several reasons. For one, it’s going to be a time of tremendous hardship for believers and worshipers of the God of Abraham. But for those who know these verses in the Bible, it will be an anchor of their faith that it’s only for an appointed time, that it will have an end and that end will be the Lord’s coming.

few more months flatAlso it will be something that can be used as a witness to the waverers and the undecided. When the believers in God can tell the undecided what is going on, that it’s the time of the Antichrist and that all those things have been predicted for centuries, it will be a witness and testimony to millions. That’s why it says in Daniel 11:33 “And they that understand among the people shall instruct many”. This comes only two verses after the verse that Jesus Himself pointed to in Daniel when He was teaching about the time before His coming, Daniel 11:31.

The Pact flatYes, “No man knows the day and the hour”. No one knew it at the time Jesus said that and no one knows it right now. But I believe that there will be those of us in the last 3½ years before His return or even in the last 7 years before His return, who will have a pretty good idea of the year, the month and perhaps even the week of the Lord’s return. And it will be a tremendous help and blessing to know that as the believers at that time will face troubles unparalleled in history.

So if someone tells you “No man knows the day and the hour”, don’t let that rattle your faith. Know what the Word says and what is repeated again and again in Daniel and Revelation about the specifics of the Last Days. Then you’ll be strong, prepared and you can “instruct many”. (Daniel 11:33)

“Sound Doctrine”? or Speculation

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Insights, My past, The Future and Endtime Tagged: , ,

The apostle Paul admonished Titus to “speak the things that become sound doctrine”. (Titus 2.1) But there’s really a lot today that is preached here in America or taught on some websites that is really not sound doctrine. It’s often nebulous speculation on Bible themes, frequently mixed with a worldly agenda to compel Christians to vote for one political party against the other.

Fifteen years ago here in Austin, Texas I went to a large, well known evangelical church on a Wednesday night. It was packed with nearly 3000 people. The guest speaker was going to teach on a subject dear to my heart: Daniel chapter 9. But after his first 10 minutes of hurriedly speaking on the things I’d come to hear, he launched into what evidently was the main burden of his heart, a long discourse on a controversial opinion of Bible prophecy that dovetailed perfectly with his political views. I became incensed. At length it became the closest I’ve ever gotten to disrupting a church service in order to be some kind of voice of truth there.

This was a church I attended regularly, where the pastor had really been teaching the pure Word of God and many people were coming to hear the sound doctrine regularly coming from the pulpit. But on Wednesday night, the pulpit was being used for propagating speculation and controversy, mixed with a strongly secular political agenda. But the thousands of people there figured  it was just as much the truth as what the preacher was telling them on Sundays, when it wasn’t. It was speculation and worldly politics from the pulpit instead of sound doctrine.

This was an older, mainline church with many wealthy members. I was a nobody; just a returning missionary, trying to find a home church. But I felt compelled to try to contact the pastor and I went to his office to express my views. He wasn’t there but his secretary took a note of my concerns. To my complete surprise, one evening I got a call from the pastor, the head of this church of around 7,000 people here. We talked for around 45 minutes.

I told him about my background of becoming a Christian through the Jesus Movement of the early 70’s. And then I poured out my heart to him about how I respected his teaching very much. But I felt that he’d allowed his pulpit to be used for speculation and politics when the members of the church would think that anything said there had the same degree of truth that he taught.

He took it really well, basically agreed with me and also agreed that what had been taught on Wednesday night, the “pre-tribulation rapture” doctrine as it’s called, was not really sound doctrine. It was just one of many disputed views on the subject of Bible prophecy and how it will unfold in times to come. Honestly I was stunned that he would even take time to phone me about it. It gave me a respect for that man that he would “condescend to men of low estate” (Romans 12:16), like myself.

And now, being back in the States again after more years on the mission field, I again find the same thing. I find in some places really strong and feeding sermons being preached, which I get a lot out of. But in other places there are the same spurious, specious speculations being taught, especially about Bible prophecy. And often it’s just an opening to supposedly lay a Biblical foundation for extreme political views.

It’s not only heartbreaking, it’s motivating. It motivates me to try to make the material on this web site to be “sound doctrine”. A Bible teacher should consider it essential to differentiate between their own speculations and what can be accepted as sound doctrine. Otherwise you are creating confusion in those you teach. Quite possibly you’re engendering unbelief when your speculation on current events as being a direct fulfillment of Bible prophecy turns out differently from what you taught your flock. This is what I wrote about in “The whites of their eyes”. There’s even a verse about “handling the Word of God deceitfully.” (II Corinthians 4:2) Like by using it to promote your political agenda?

My goal on this site is to lay out from Scripture what can be taken as much as possible to be sound doctrine, not politically-mixed prophetic speculation. So if I’m not political enough or campaigning for your candidate, maybe my articles and videos are not your cup of tea. On the other hand, it would do us all good to remember what Paul said that “our citizenship is in heaven” and our feet need to be planted on the sound doctrines of the eternal Word of God, not speculations and politics. God bless you!

Truth and Integrity or Ignorance and Prejudice

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Current events, Daniel videos and texts, Insights

Truth and integrity or ignorance and prejudice? These things know no boundaries or borders. Are “They” ignorant and prejudice while “We” are innocent of those things? Nope. No one group anywhere has a monopoly on any of these, regardless of what you hear almost everywhere nowadays.

I’ve had some fascinating experiences recently on Facebook.  I “boost” (as Facebook calls it) my blog posts and videos via Facebook to many countries and I receive some pretty interesting responses. I’ve lived in Islamic countries off and on for years and I guess I have a special interest in people in that part of the world. So when I’ve been able to boost the videos to Islamic countries, in languages spoken in those places, I’ve been interested to know what the response will be.

Recently one situation in particular has been special for me. A local language video I’ve done was going out to an Islamic country and I was getting feedback through Facebook. Yes, some of it could be called negative but I could tell that most of those responding had just never heard of the prophet Daniel. Some commented that this was just a Jewish myth. Others were taking an accepted Islamic response that there were only 25 prophets recognized in Islam and that Daniel was not listed as one of them.

But then Facebook responses started coming from a man from that country, trying to edify and correct what he could see were uneducated and often prejudiced comments that were being made. He is Islamic, not a Christian.  But he was reproving his countrymen to not so quickly dismiss things they knew very little about.

The prophet Daniel’s tomb in Tarsus, Turkey

He told them that the prophet Daniel is not mentioned in the Koran but that he’s definitely mentioned in Islamic writings as being an ancient, genuine prophet of the Jews. He went on to tell them that the tomb of Daniel is said to be in Tarsus, Turkey.  He also found and shared in the chat discussion an Islamic website that has extensive information on Daniel chapter 2 from the Bible, the subject of the video I’d posted on line in their language.

And I was like, “Wow, God bless that guy. He’s not Christian but he’s standing up to the ignorance and some prejudice he’s seeing and is trying to rectify it, going against the wind and the trend in order to try to help his countrymen have a more educated, nuanced view of these things, even if he doesn’t actually fully agree with what I’ve shared in the video.”

I don’t know about you but I’m pained and grieved every single day by the prejudice and ignorance I see… everywhere. It seems to be one of the greatest banes of our times and it increases by the day. They say, “It’s not who’s right but what’s right.” So it should be, doubtless. But is that working where you are? Or does it seem that society is in some kind of centrifugal spin, separating into tribes, factions, movements and divisions with nothing but yawning gaps of hatred, ignorance and prejudice between them?

As they say, “Truth is the first causality of any war.” And finding those who’ll stand up for truth, particularly if it goes against their clan or interest group, is very rare indeed, at least as far as I know. So it was fascinating to see this Islamic man going against the wind where he lives, setting straight the uninformed and even prejudiced majority of commentators on my video postings. And actually this has happened with posts of mine to other Islamic countries in other parts of the world and in other languages, where local Islamic ones there also spoke up to set the record straight and inform those commenting that Daniel was in fact recognized in Islamic writings.

How about that? As far as I’m concerned, anyone in these times who stands up for truth and integrity, against prejudice and ignorance, deserves recognition and acclaim. Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” (John 18:37) So you may be part of my clan, living in my state here in America, look like me, talk like me and seemingly we’re really on the same page and in the same category. But if you’re prejudiced and ignorant, if you’re pulsing with hate and spewing out animosity, falsehood and slander against those you oppose, then I’m obliged as a Christian to stand up to your ignorance and prejudice, even if we’re the same in so many other ways.

And if I find “foreigners”, folks of a different religion, race and background from me who are opposing falsehood, ignorance and prejudice, then I strangely will end up feeling affinity with those folks, whoever they may be, who are fighting the same fight I am, for truth, love and righteousness. Jesus said “I am… the truth.” (John 14:6) And some people, even though they may not have all the truth that others of us have, if they’re doing the best they can to live and stand up for the truth they do have, I feel they deserve acclamation and encouragement.

Actually of course, all Christians should abhor and resist ignorance and prejudice.  All of us should stand and fight for integrity and the holiness of truth. But, as most of you know, that’s really not what’s going on in our times, or certainly not nearly as much as there should be.

God help us all to oppose ignorance, prejudge and hatred and to do what we can to bring truth and genuine veracity to our friends and neighbors, even as this dear Islamic man recently did in response to the comments he saw about the videos I’ve done.

Truth and Lies in the End Time

· by · In: Current events, Insights, The Future and Endtime

A lot of people today are so skeptical that they hardly believe anything is true. To me that’s pitiful. Maybe it’s because I grew up around newspapers and worked for two years in the newsroom of a large daily newspaper here in Texas that I just feel, for the most part, all the news is not staged and false, as so many (even Christians) now believe.

It seems there are multitudes now only too ready to gulp down the latest filthy, enticing falsehood, the latest dirt and exposé of someone, the latest unfounded conspiracy theory. It gets to where everyone just reverts to their shell and has become fatally numbed to the world around them, “deer in the headlights”, stunned into stupor and unable to any longer even discern truth from a lie.

And, believe it or not, the Bible seems to indicate that in the End Time this will be happening. In Revelation 12:15, speaking of the very last days, it says “the serpent” released a stream of water out of his mouth. This “water” from the serpent is the putrid, stench-filled essences of Satanic falsehood unleashed on the world. This is the symbolic opposite of the pure living waters of truth that Jesus said would flow out of the belly of believers in Him (John 7:38).

But then what does the Bible say will happen? This is hard to believe. Revelation 12:16 goes on to say “the earth” opened her mouth and drank the waters of the dragon. And isn’t that what’s happening now already? Talk about zombies.

The Bible has a phrase for it, “Because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” (Romans 1:28) “A reprobate mind.” A mind no longer able to discern truth from falsehood, good from bad , right from wrong. And, folks, this is not coming; this is not what may happen. We. Are. There.

“Mark, what’s the solution?! This is so discouraging, Mark!”

Well, personally, I believe in truth. I’m pretty sure I always have. In my university years I didn’t believe in God or Jesus because I just didn’t believe they were the truth. I very surprisingly found out I was wrong.

Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:37) It is written of the final world dictator to come, the “Antichrist”, that he will “cast down the truth to the ground.” (Daniel 8:12) In a very real sense right now in the world, there’s an onslaught against every vestige of the presence and Spirit of God.

Truth is under attack so much that I think most folks have really no idea what to believe. Love, both God’s love and even natural and beautiful human love are also under attack. The Bible talks about “the author of confusion” (I Corinthians 14:33) and that’s what we seem to have more and more. The author of confusion and lies, Satan himself, is rolling out ever evil machination and foolish falsehood imaginable.

It’s like what Jesus said in the book of Revelation to one of the mostly fallen churches at the time of the writing of that book, around 90 AD. To some of them He said, “You have a name, you live and are dead.” (Revelation 3:1) Christians, the saved, but who were so far fallen from the living presence of the Lord that He called them both alive and dead. To these ones He said, “Strengthen the things that remain.” (Revelation 3:2)

This may be extreme for some of my fellow Americans but maybe it’s worth saying here: I’m not trying to save my country. And I don’t know how apt the comparison is but I don’t think Jesus, when He was here on this earth, was trying to save His country. He knew what was to come, that in the lifetime of many of those who saw and heard Him would come another mighty judgment on Israel, greater than that brought by Babylon 600 years before.

Forty years after Jesus’ crucifixion, in 70 AD, the Romans basically destroyed Israel. And Jesus, in His divine omniscience, knew while He was on earth that this judgment was to come and spoke of it. So He spent His energy in trying to win and save individuals to Himself and to bring a new heart and new soul to His lost countrymen.

For me, that’s the only battle worth fighting. For individuals. How? By sharing, pouring out and witnessing to as many as I can and as many as I can help others to witness to. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.“ (John 10:27) And His voice is the voice of truth. He even said that He was “the truth”. (John 14:6)

So many are “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.” (Joel 3:14) For those of us who know the Lord, God help us to be like beacons and transmitters in the gross darkness of these times, pulsing out the light, truth, love and sincerity that we have from Him, out into the teeming masses in the mists of this earth, to draw those seeking truth and the things of God, to be the Light to the World He has called each of us to be. “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me and he that comes to Me I will in no wise caste out.” (John 6:37)

 

 

When God says it 3 times

· by · In: Basic Christianity, Daniel videos and texts, Insights, The Future and Endtime

God doesn’t waste His breath. Like a good Father, He just expects that, if He says something, we’ll respond and do it. But on rare occasions, He said something three times. So, probably, whatever He said was important. One of those places is in Daniel chapter 8, the chapter I’m making the next video on currently.

In a vision, Daniel was by the river Ulai, in what’s now modern Iran, and the angel Gabriel was commanded to explain what Daniel had just seen, a goat and a ram clashing in battle and the goat conquering the ram. But there was more to it, much more, and Daniel tells us he just didn’t understand it. But the angel Gabriel then tells Daniel three times in two verses that “at the time of the end shall be the vision”. (Daniel 8:17-19)

But let’s go to what’s probably the most famous example of the Lord saying something three times. After His resurrection, Jesus was with His disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. They’d just finished a fish supper that Jesus had prepared for them and it says in John 21:15-17, “So after they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs’ . He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Feed My sheep’. He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’  Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep’”.

That’s an amazing passage in Scripture. Jesus told Peter three times, “Feed My sheep.” It must have been that important to the Lord that He did something that emphatic and insistent. Feeding His sheep, teaching, instructing, nourishing and guiding the Lord’s sheep, His flock of believers is obviously just as important as it gets in God’s eyes.

And strangely, another time in the Bible it says that Peter was told something three times from God, in no uncertain terms. In Acts chapter 10 Peter was in Joppa in northern Israel. Peter was the head of the growing group of believers who spread Jesus’ message and truth, after He’d ascended to heaven years before. Peter was on a house top, in prayer, when in a vision he saw a sheet let down from heaven with all kinds of “unclean” animals. The Laws of Moses gave strict rules for the Jews as to what animals were “clean” to eat, permissible, and which ones weren’t.

So Peter sees this sheet coming down with these “unclean” animals and then he hears God’s voice, “Arise, Peter! Kill and eat!”  Peter, being a righteous Jew replied, “Not so Lord, for I’ve never eaten anything that’s unclean.” And the voice said to him, “What God has cleansed, you do not call common.” (Acts 10:13-15)

It says, “This happened three times” (Acts 10:16) and then the sheet was let back up to heaven. It sounds like Peter was arguing with God but this seemed so contrary to everything Peter thought was righteous. Then it says that immediately there was a knock at the door downstairs at the house Peter was at. And the Lord told Peter that there were three men there who’d come to see him and that Peter should go with them, “doubting nothing”. (Acts 10:20)

“What’s the big deal with that?” you might say. The big deal is that these men at the door were Romans, “Gentiles”. The Jews weren’t supposed to have anything to do with Gentiles and certainly not go to their house. But Peter went, as the Lord had so firmly told him. The result? Peter preached to a big gathering of Gentiles,  telling them about Jesus and they all experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, just as the first disciples had in Jerusalem at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

Nowadays it’s easy for us to not appreciate all this. But it was a very big deal at that time. Basically this event was when the Lord opened the door clearly to non-Jews to receive all the blessing and provision of His promises, breaking down the wall between the Jews and the Gentiles, making it possibly for anyone to receive salvation through Jesus. But God had to tell Peter plainly and emphatically, three times, that this was of Him and that Peter should go and flow with it, “doubting nothing.”

And, as mentioned above, another example of God speaking three times when a very important point needed to be made can be found in Daniel chapter 8. It’s a somewhat difficult chapter to understand or even to teach. Prophecy teachers through the years have had some huge debates about parts of it and I’ve been in some of those debates. Some say that it’s all already been fulfilled. But then we can go back to the words of Gabriel, spoken three times to Daniel, “at the time of the end shall be the vision.” At the time of the end. And we’re not there yet. But we may be getting real close.

[This blog post was originally written a few years ago and since then I’ve completing  the full video on Daniel chapter 8. That video in English can be seen here.]

When God says something three times, it’s important. Whether it’s to feed the flock of God, or to not call unclean what God has cleansed, or that the prophecies of God are going to have a future, endtime fulfillment, God thought those were important enough to say it three times. Lord help us to get the point , to believe it and act upon it.