Bible Fulfillment

Each Day Brings new Fulfillment of Prophecy.

Revelation 16:12 - Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.

Historic Euphrates River is drying up

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/666343

JUBAISH, Iraq – Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat.

"Maaku mai!" they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. "There is no water!"

The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of neighbouring Turkey and Syria; a two-year drought; and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago.

Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.

The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilization that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end, has decimated farms along its banks, left fishermen impoverished and depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.

The drought is widespread in Iraq. Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned to baked dirt. Canals have dwindled to shallow streams, and fishing boats sit on dry land.

The area sown with wheat and barley in the rain-fed north is down by roughly 95 per cent, and the date, palm and citrus orchards of the east are parched. (see the link for the rest of the article.)

What’s Wrong with ‘Rapture’ Theology? (Or, A Theological Application of Newton’s Law of Gravity)

By BenjiOvercash ⋅ May 7, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Let us begin with a story.

Around the middle of the nineteenth century there was a series of charismatic revivals in Scotland. It was during this time that a 15-year-old girl named Margaret MacDonald, on her sickbed, had a vision regarding the Church being taken away before a time of suffering in the last days. Soon after, a preacher named John Darby began to preach the doctrine of a ‘rapture’ of the Church. When Darby came to preach about the rapture in the United States, he influenced a Bible student named Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, who later published notes on the rapture in the 1909 Scofield Reference Bible. Since these notes on the rapture were in the Bible, swarms of Christians took them to be actual scripture, and this ‘rapture’ theology took off.

To be fair, Margaret MacDonald’s vision may not have actually been the direct source of the ‘rapture’ theology popularized by John Darby. Nonetheless, her story does encapsulate the more general milieu of the eschatological thought and preaching which ultimately gave rise to the escapist theology of Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, and the like. This is an eschatological understanding that simply did not exist among early Christians.

Aside from the fact that the word “rapture” does not appear anywhere in the New Testament (or the Old Testament, Apocrypha, or Pseudepigrapha for that matter), there are several other reasons why rapture theology is bad theology. Our attention will be briefly focused, however, on the two passages most commonly cited in support of an escapist ‘rapture’ eschatological understanding, namely Matthew 24:36-41 and especially 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.

A discussion of the events surrounding the coming of the Son of Man is indeed the context of Matthew 24:36-41. These events include signs of cosmic distress (24:29) and mourning among all the nations of the earth (24:30). Indeed, it is said that the Son of Man will arrive in great power and glory in the midst of his angels’ loud trumpet call (24:30-31). This makes the idea of this coming as being clandestine or secret incredible if not absurd.

What is described beginning in the following section has the same event in view, namely “the coming of the Son of Man” (24:37). The concern here regards what is meant by, “one is taken, and one is left” (24:40-41). Most recently many Christians, especially Evangelicals, have understood the Christian to be the one taken and the non-Christian to be one left behind to endure the cataclysmic (Greek, kataklysmos, used in 24:38 to describe the flood) events just described. The key to understanding who is taken and who is left behind, however, involves the analogy drawn with regard to the days of Noah in the previous verses. Notice that here it is those who are swept away by the flood (i.e. those who are being judged) who are “taken away,” not Noah and his family.

This is exactly what Jesus means when he speaks of the two men in the field and the two women working at the mill in the following verses. The “one [who] is taken” is being taken away for judgment—not to escape the cataclysmic events of the eschaton! Clearly, Jesus’ first hearers would have understood the analogy this way. Quite unlike many evangelical Christians today, they didn’t want to be taken away!

But what about those who are “snatched up … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17? First of all, it is important to realize that Paul does not intend for this to be taken as a literal description of eschatological events. This is simply a metaphorical way of alluding to the parousia, that is, the return of Christ to eternal presence among his people. I’ll allow N. T. Wright to explain further:

When the emperor visited a colony or province, the citizens of the country would go to meet him at some distance from the city. It would be disrespectful to have him actually arrive at the gates as though his subjects couldn’t be bothered to greet him properly. When they met him, they wouldn’t then stay out in the open country; they would escort him royally into the city itself. When Paul speaks of “meeting” the Lord “in the air,” the point is precisely not—as in the popular rapture theology—that the saved believers would then stay up in the air somewhere, away from earth. The point is that, having gone out to meet their returning Lord, they will escort him royally into his domain, that is, back to the place they have come from. … Being citizens of heaven … doesn’t mean that one is expecting to go back to the mother city but rather means that one is expecting the emperor to come from the mother city to give the colony its full dignity, to rescue it if need be, to subdue local enemies and put everything to rights. (Surprised by Hope, pp. 132-3)

This is exactly the picture we find in Revelation 21 (cf. also 2 Peter 3:13) of Christ returning to rule over his domain and bringing with him a new heaven and a new earth. The hope of the biblical salvation-history is not that God will take his people away from this evil planet to dwell with him, but that God will return to the world he created in order to “put everything to rights” and dwell with his people.

From beginning to end, the biblical story is one of a God who longs to cohabitate with the human beings whom he created. In Genesis 1, God creates the earth and human beings and dwells with them in Eden. When things go awry, Yahweh still chooses to dwell among his people in a tabernacle and then a temple (cf. Exodus 29:45, “Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God”). In John 1 we meet the Word who “became flesh and dwelled among us” (1:14) through the person of Jesus Christ. Finally, when Christ returns, John of Patmos tells us that he saw

a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:1-5a)

Thanks be to God.

Surrender

“Surrender.” What does this word tell you? In literal terms, surrender means “to give up something to another person.” It also means to relinquish something granted to you. This could include your possessions, power, goals, even your life.

Christians today hear much about the surrendered life. But what does it mean, exactly? The surrendered life is the act of giving back to Jesus the life he granted you. It’s relinquishing control, rights, power, direction, all the things you do and say. It’s totally resigning your life over to his hands, to do with as he pleases.

Jesus himself lived a surrendered life: “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). “I seek not mine own glory” (8:50). Christ never did anything on his own. He made no move and spoke no word without being instructed by the Father. “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things…. For I do always those things that please him” (8:28–29).

Jesus’ full surrender to the Father is an example of how we all should live. You may say, “Jesus was God in flesh. His life was surrendered before he even came to earth.” But the surrendered life is not imposed on anyone, including Jesus.

“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:17–18).

Jesus was telling us, “Make no mistake. The act of self-surrender is totally within my power to do. I’m choosing to lay down my life. And I’m not doing it because some man told me to. Nobody’s taking my life from me. My Father gave me the right and the privilege to lay down my life. He also gave me the choice to pass up this cup and avoid the cross. But I choose to do it, out of love and full surrender to him.”

Our heavenly Father has given all of us this same right: the privilege to choose a surrendered life. No one is forced to yield his life to God. Our Lord doesn’t make us sacrifice our will and give back our lives to him. He freely offers us a Promised Land, full of milk, honey and fruit. But we may choose not to enter that place of fullness.

The truth is, we can have as much of Christ as we want. We can go as deep in him as we choose, living fully by his word and direction.

Intercession

“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

What does Scripture mean when it says Jesus makes intercession for us? I believe this subject is so deep, majestic and beyond human understanding, I tremble even to address it. Bible scholars hold various views on its meaning.

Through prayer and trust in the Holy Spirit’s guidance, I’m beginning to grasp just a little of this incredible subject. Recently, I’ve prayed very simply, “Lord, how does your intercession in heaven affect my life? Your Word says you appear before the Father on my behalf. What does this mean in my daily walk with you?”

The English word intercession means “to plead on another’s behalf.” This speaks of a figure who takes your place before others to plead your cause. When you hear such a definition, do you picture Christ continually pleading to God for you, asking for mercy, forgiveness, grace and blessings? In my opinion, this image makes our heavenly Father appear tight-fisted. I simply refuse to believe that grace has to be pried out of our loving God. If we limit ourselves to such a narrow definition of intercession, we’ll never understand the deeper spiritual meaning of what Christ does for us.

The Bible declares that my heavenly Father knows my needs before I can ask him. And often, he supplies those needs even before I pray. Therefore, I find it difficult to accept that God’s own Son has to plead with him for anything. Besides, Scripture says the Father has already entrusted his Son with all things: “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

I don’t claim to know everything about Christ’s intercession for us. But I do believe that whatever our high priest is doing in his intercession for us, it is a very simple matter. And I believe that intercession has to do directly with the growth of his body here on earth. He is at work supplying every joint and part with might and strength.

Psalm 22:14

MORNING
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.”
- Psalm 22:14
Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body, our Lord felt himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all his bones. Burdened with his own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering; while to his own consciousness he became nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision, he thus describes his sensations, “There remained no strength in me, for my vigour was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength:” how much more faint must have been our greater Prophet when he saw the dread vision of the wrath of God, and felt it in his own soul! To us, sensations such as our Lord endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to our rescue; but in his case, he was wounded, and felt the sword; he drained the cup and tasted every drop.
“O King of Grief! (a title strange, yet true
To thee of all kings only due)
O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for thee,
Who in all grief preventest me!”
As we kneel before our now ascended Saviour’s throne, let us remember well the way by which he prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink of his cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it may come. In his natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the spiritual; but as out of all his griefs and woes his body came forth uninjured to glory and power, even so shall his mystical body come through the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon it.

Faith 3-17-2009

Thoughts for today, along with hope we must exercise faith. Our hope is unable to accomplish much without our faith in operation. We must have confidence in God's ability to meet our needs and fulfill our hopes. We read in Matt. 19:26 where Jesus tells us "With God all things are possible". Our faith is meant to reveal God's faithfulness to us in the middle of our most difficult situations. God can change our situations. but more often he wants to change us by manifesting our faith in Him. Often for us to experience God's power in our lives we must trust in Him to be faithful in our most difficult times. In short faith says, "God is enough!". This is what then releases the POWER of God in our lives. With Faith and Hope in God, we then become a powerful adversary against satan. Until later, Praise the Lord!

New Blog 3/14/2009

Today starts something new in my web experience, with this thing they call Blogging. I have been to a few blogs via links on a website visited but never expected to actually have a blog or be what may be called a blogger. But here I am. Never being especially one to throw out my thoughts and feelings for all the world to see will be a very new and different experience for me. So I hope anyone that happens to cross my path will be willing to bear with me a little. I actually will appreciate comments and suggestions that are of course appropriate.
I would like to start with the thought that 'There is Hope for Today' if that hope is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ. No matter what the news brokers, who are given their agenda or the world says, there is only one true and faithful hope that we can believe in and that is our faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else will fail us in this time we now live in. As a good friend and brother in Christ, Alvaro(Al) wrote in his new book "The Greatest, Most Amazing Love of All". 'God created this magnificent and awe-inspiring world for us to truly enjoy. He created this world of splendor for us to experience together and for us to remember forever. All of God's beloved children, who have been born-again in the Spirit, will always remember all the wonderful and positive experiences they had in life.' Read Psalms 37:4, and we can see that by delighting in God i.e. trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and following His commandments, he truly desires to provide for our needs and protect us in this raging storm called the world. My prayer for all of us today is that we all will truly delight in the Lord. Now, I would like to say hi to all my family and friends and hope to hear from you all in the future. Until later, Praise the Lord!