Britain and the Struggle for the Holy Land

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Chuck Coty

(Missing part 4)

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Are men growing worse and worse?

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Chuck Coty
Is the world getting worse and ready to implode? Have people been on a fast track toward moral decay since the Apostle Paul warned Timothy of impending corruption 2,000 years ago? (2 Timothy 3:1-13) If you think times are so horrific right now and you could pick any time in history to live, when would that be? I continue to hear references to “the good ole days” as if there was a time in the history of the world when things were far better than they are now. Have you ever considered the possibility that “the good ole days” never were? Does the following verse capture the moral depravity of your neighborhood?

Genesis 6:5 (NASB) Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Consider the conditions surrounding the composition of our Canon [the Bible] in the first century. How do the religious leaders of our day (Dobson, LaHaye, Falwell Stanley, Colson, Swindoll etc.) stack up against the contemporaries of Jesus? Is there truly any comparison?

Matthew 23:33-36 (NASB) “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Would you like to exchange places with the Apostles? Ten out of the twelve were brutally murdered, one ended his own life, and we believe the other was banished to an island prison. Association with Christ meant certain death. On one side were the Jews, who regularly, according to the writer of Hebrews, plundered the goods of Christians…and on the other side were the Romans who fed the Christ-followers to the lions or strung them up on posts, tarred and lit them on fire in order to light their grounds for dinner guests.

I’m not suggesting that we live in a perfect world…far from it. We have incredible challenges up ahead. What I am attempting to get people to think through, is the misconception that things are bad, getting worse, and will continue to worsen until a cataclysmic end. Not only do I think this is unBiblical, but it is far and away relegating the Gospel to ultimate failure.

Consider our progress. Consider our potential through Christ. We have never had this kind of unabated access to the Word of God and the communication ability to spread the good news to every person on this planet. I think we are extraordinarily blessed to live in these amazing times! Yes, man is born into depravity today just as he has been since the fall of Adam. However, that doesn’t negate the fact that the resurrection of Christ has had and will continue to have a dramatic effect on our world. Everywhere the Gospel has been proclaimed that part of the world has been significantly altered.

It is my opinion that we MUST change our perceptions in accord with the expectations of Scripture. I continue to hear of the impending “New world Order”, and I don’t doubt there are nefarious individual at work who’d like nothing better than to control the masses. But I want to know where in the NT do we find an antiChrist led one world government? It’s simply NOT there.

In the latter 60’s AD, we find the writer of Hebrews refer to the Old Covenant as “becoming obsolete“, “growing old” and “ready to disappear“. (Heb 8:13) The New Covenant was a “new world order” in which the righteousness of Christ would dwell.

Revelation 21:3 (NASB) And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

This is exactly the what we have right now! Consider the exhortation from John’s 2nd epistle.

1 John 4:4 (NASB) You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

1 John 5:4-5 (NASB) For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

These words were written 2,000 years ago before the destruction of the Temple and the elimination of the Old Covenant sacrificial system. So how is it that we have developed such a glass half empty mentality? Why has it become so fashionable to believe that we’re supposed to lose to evil? It seems odd that God would forcefully advance His Kingdom for 2,000 (the sprouting of the mustard seed) only to allow it to be overcome.

Sadly, I believe the prevailing eschatology of our day (that many aren’t even well-versed in) is like the tail wagging the dog of our expectations. Where in Scripture do we find evidence that the Gospel is supposed to be defeated by the evil forces of an antichrist, that was already in the world 2,000 years ago? It should not escape our notice (as it did mine for too long) when these words were written. With Christ all things are possible!

1 John 4:3 (NASB) and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

1 John 2:18 (NASB) Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.

For a point of reference, below is the Apostle Paul’s warning to Timothy. Remember, this was written in the mid 60’s AD and warned the Christians at that time what was on the horizon for the “last days”, which both Peter and the writer of Hebrews made clear was in their day. (1 Peter 1:5, 20; Hebrews 1:1-2) Have you ever considered the fact that, if, for the past 2,000 years, “evil men and impostors” have been “proceeding from bad to worse”, there would be few remaining survivors? It simply makes no sense whatever to uproot this passage from it’s context and force it as a fait accompli in our day.

2 Timothy 3:1-13 (NASB) But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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BP, Wormwood and Other Fairy Tales

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Chuck Coty

I have grown very weary of the interminable contrived associations of the BP oil spill with the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. With every scientifically enshrouded attempt to manufacture a global apocalyptic “end of the world” scenario, I find eschatological presuppositions at the epicenter. First, it was Henning Kemner, then Dr. James P. Wickstrom and now Lindsey Williams. All arguing that this is not just the greatest ecological disaster this country has ever faced, but it is the beginning of the end. I found that Williams, whom I initially presumed to be making objective scientific claims, is also being driven by his dire apocalyptic paradigm.

A friend recently wrote:

“My thoughts are based solely on my opinion of Lindsey Williams. I bought the book [“Where’s the Food”] in 1987 “when I was young and gullible” and he had me believing the food would be gone in 2 years (which was his prediction). Looking back now I’m quite ashamed of my gullibility. I had no idea the guy was still around till I saw this post. I know nothing of the radio host [Alex Jones]. Back then he was driven by his eschatology and it looks as if he still is. Preterism rescued me from all that..”

Following is a sound hermeneutical (science of interpretation) discourse on Revelation 8:8-11.

Part 2

Thanks to Gary DeMar (above videos) for his commitment to a well-reasoned interpretational approach. Being driven and tossed by the proverbial winds of the prophetic speculators, is a very sad place to be, and I can’t begin to verbalize how grand it is to have stepped off that merry-go-round. Shame on the modern day “prophets” for contributing to a fear-based mindset which is causing the spiritual indifference and ultimate malaise (or is that mayonnaise 🙂 that too many in the Church are wallowing in.

As I’ve stated before, simply because this is NOT a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, doesn’t lessen the severity of this eco-disaster. Many lives will be irreparably altered by what appears to be the callous negligence of BP. However, instead of panicking and assuming this is a God ordained “last days” plague, which it is not, we must strive to find the solution.

The Gospel will be victorious. We aren’t living in the “present evil age” (last days) that passed away with the Old Covenant in the first century. Therefore, I believe God is looking for messengers who will view serious problems like the one we’re facing now, not as unscalable mountains but as mere hurtles to be traversed. It’s all a matter of perception. I’m so looking forward to the day when the Church steps out of this defeatist, glass-half-empty rapture mentality. A whole lot more can be accomplished if we expect success rather than doom.

Let me close by quoting from both the first and last chapters of Jesus’ last canonized revelatory words. We may be confused by the contents of the imagery contained in this book of imagery, but as long as we recognize that God cannot lie, we can rest assured these events are not in our future.

Revelation 1:1-3 (NASB) 1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Revelation 22:6-7 (NASB) 6 And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place. 7 “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”

Revelation 22:10 (NASB) And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

Revelation 22:12 (NASB) “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.

Revelation 22:20 (NASB) He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Could God have been any clearer regarding the timing of His intentions? When we ignore the clarity of His prophetic word, we allow visions of disaster to dance in our heads.

NOTE: If it’s considered “orthodox” to believe that God was not capable or willing to communicate truthfully and clearly to His first century Church, then at at that point I must reject orthodoxy. The God I worship is faithful and true and it is not within His divine nature to lie, deceive or intentionally mislead. By arguing that the Revelation’s fulfillment is still future when in the first century Jesus Christ prophesied “the things “MUST soon take place“, are we not in grave danger of unwittingly calling God’s veracity into question?

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The unprovoked 1967 attack on the USS Liberty

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Chuck Coty
Was Israel’s 1967 Attack on the USS Liberty, a mistake in identity?
 

You be the judge whether “mistaken identity” was even a remotely plausible excuse for the deaths of 34 servicemen and the injuries of 174 more. In the videos to follow, watch the testimonies of the courageous men who survived this horrific unprovoked attack. Under Secretary Ball’s concluding comment (below the first of two videos), will forever ring in my ears. Will we learn nothing from this tragic event? To what degree has our Middle East policy been shaped by this attack? And to what measure does the Israeli mindset, KNOWING that “they can get away with almost anything” without retribution, shape the Middle East today, some 43 years later? Our consistent acquiescence and insistence that their acts (like the one detailed below) are fully protected and empowered by the sovereign hand of God, is leading us in every direction but the Promised Land.

“Loss of Liberty” – The cover-up of the 1967 Israeli assault on the USS Liberty

George Ball (1909-1994), the Under Secretary of State of Economic affairs during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, wrote: “The ultimate lesson of the Liberty attack, was that it had far more effect on policy in Israel than in America. Israel’s leaders concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America’s leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that the American friends would let them get away with almost anything.”

  
Comments from the surviving decorated heroes of the USS Liberty: “If we could get the truth of the Liberty out, it would change the history of this country.” “I can’t understand why the American newspapers and TV people have helped cover this up by not covering our stories.” “Never before has the U.S. Navy ignored eyewitness testimony of American Military, to accept on faith the story told by their attackers.” “There should be a congressional committee, both senate, and house, to examine all the data…and it’s getting late to do this, because, like McGonagle, God bless, he’s gone.” “To me, that was one of the worst cover-ups in American history. How low can our government go?” “So I will never buy the idea that some of the pilots thought this was another ship.” “We didn’t know who was attacking us. They didn’t know who was attacking us. I don’t know how Washington can say, Don’t go, because they’re friends of ours. That’s the thing that’s always bothered me, right there.” 
 

Anytime anyone even questions Israel, the immediate cry is racism and/or antisemitism. Let it be clear that I am neither a racist nor an Antisemite. Few abhor bigotry any more than I do. I love the Israeli people. and they desperately need the Gospel of Christ. However, they have not been well served by their Zionist leaders who have appeared to stop at nothing to further their cause. As Christians, I don’t believe it’s prudent to blindly accept Israel’s every action as though they are empowered by the hand of God. Clearly, they are an ally, but then again, what did that mean for the crew of the Liberty? Do allies intentionally sink the ships of their compatriots?

Forty-three years after the vicious and sustained attack on the USS Liberty, the testimonies of the survivors and the blood of the dead speak clearly. We can squabble about motives all day long but the fact is that only those so heavily weighted by presupposition could possibly believe this was merely a mistake in identity. The Zionist track record is simply not very good. With what many refer to as an ethnic cleansing in the late 1940’s throughout the 50’s (see Elias Chacour’s “Blood Brothers“) and the attempted sinking of the $40m USS Liberty intelligence ship in international waters, what else are they prepared to do?

(In my view, the above video by sensationalist Alex Jones, somewhat clouds the waters.)

The following quotes are from the book, The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel’s Deadly Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship (2009, Simon & Schuster), by James Scott, a longtime journalist living in South Carolina, whose father was an officer on the Liberty.[http://mondoweiss.net/2010/05/the-u-s-s-liberty-and-the-culture-of-impunity.html]

[With the Liberty] the United States had the capability to intercept and decipher VHF and UHF radio frequencies, common frequencies used for government and military communications…

In the case of the Liberty, the White House, afraid of offending Israel’s domestic backers at a time when it needed support for its Vietnam policy, looked the other way…

Hints of disbelief did emerge, often from small newspapers outside the Beltway. Many puzzled over how Israel’s exceptional military could make such a blunder…

[T]he overall lack of criticism of Israel baffled some senior government leaders. The dogged press corps consistently challenged the administration on its Vietnam policy and ambitious social programs. In the case of the Liberty, the press aimed most of its critical questions at the American government. Israel in contrast, enjoyed a reprieve. Reporters soon adopted the phrase ‘accidental attack,’ a description that frustrated Pentagon officials, who felt it minimized the ferocity of the sustained assault that had killed or injured two out of every three men on board…
 

“We were quite convinced the Israelis knew what they were doing,” [Thomas Hughes, director of the State Department’s Intelligence office] later said. “It was hard to come to any other conclusion.” Other senior staffers agreed, believing that Israel did not want the United States reading its wartime message traffic….

 
Despite Jerusalem’s close ties with Washington, many State Department officials–and others in the intelligence community–believed the Jewish state’s survival instinct was so strong that, if necessary, Israel would attack a close ally in the interest of self-preservation….
 

[According to William Wolle, former State Department:] “The feeling of those of us at the working level in NEA [State Department Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs] was that the Israelis had deliberately done this so that we couldn’t read all of their communications, etc. We are their ally but they are not going to trust us when it comes to a wartime situation in terms of what information might get out, what we might pass along to someone. We all felt it was no accident.”… 

Soon after the Liberty attack, [National Security Agency director Lieutenant General Marshall] Carter appeared before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee to discuss the Liberty. [Deputy Secretary of Defense] Cyrus Vance joined him… “Cy Vance just told me to keep my mouth shut,” [Gerard] Burke [Carter’s chief of staff] recalled his boss telling him…. “There was absolutely no question in anybody’s mind that the Israelis had done it deliberately,” Burke said. “I was angrier because of the cover-up… The only mystery to me was why was the thing being covered up.”… 

Some of President Johnson’s advisers later regretted the handling of the attack. “We failed to let it all come out publicly at the time,” said Lucius Battle, the assistant secretary of state for near eastern and south Asian affairs. “We really ignored it for all practical purposes, and we shouldn’t have.” George Ball, the former undersecretary of state prior to [Nicholas] Katzenbach, wrote that the Liberty ultimately had a greater effect on policy in Israel than in the United States. “Israel’s leaders concluded that nothing they might do would offend Americans to the point of reprisal,” Ball wrote. “If America’s leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with anything.”

” . . . an act of military recklessness reflecting a wanton disregard for human life.”
 
Then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk in a 10 June 1967 diplomatic note to the Israeli Ambassador, wrote the following:
 
“But I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation. Their sustained attack to disable and sink Liberty precluded an assault by accident or some trigger-happy local commander. Through diplomatic channels, we refused to accept their explanations. I didn’t believe them then, and I don’t believe them to this day. The attack was outrageous.” Rusk, As I Saw It, W.W.Norton, 1990. p 388
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BP’s Deep Water Horizon Oil Blowout

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Chuck Coty
The truth behind the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history – It’s not the conspiracy theory Alex Jones helped promulgate

 

I’ve received more than one email warning that this BP Oil disaster is not a solvable problem. This, I am told, is the wrath of God being literally poured out as the seas turn into blood. Following is from Dr. James P. Wickstrom, warning in “Oil Volcano Pressure Too Strong For Containment” that BP accidentally drilled into an underground volcano.

 

Wickstrom writes:

“It has been estimated by experts that the pressure which blows the oil into the Gulf waters is estimated to be between 20,000 and 70,000 PSI (pounds per square inch). Impossible to control. What US Scientists Are Forbidden To Tell The Public About The Gulf What you are about to read, is what the scientists in the United States are not allowed to tell you in great fear of the Obama administration.

They are under the threat of severe repercussions to the max.. Scientists confirming these findings cannot be named due to the above, but what they believe, they want to be known by all. Take a U. S. map, lay it flat and measure inland just the minimum 50 miles of total destruction all around the Gulf of Mexico as to what you will read below. The carnage to the United States is so staggering, it will take your breathe away.

Should what the scientists who are trying to warn everyone about be even close to being true… all of Florida will be completely destroyed as will everyone and everything on it.You decide!! Everyone has the right to read what I have just written in this article, as well as to what is written below by the scientists who the Obama administration and BP are trying to shut up.” (http://www.rense.com/general91/oilor.htm) PDF

What fosters this kind of paranoia? Why would a supposed expert (he may be but just based upon this leap of logic one wonders how committed he is to scientific inquiry independent of bias) jump to such wild conclusions? One can understand the grave concern over such a catastrophe, but making these statements without proof seems telling. Wikipedia (clearly, Wiki is NOT always accurate) has this to say about Dr. Wickstrom: “James P. Wickstrom is an American radio talk show host, Christian minister, white supremacist and antisemite who lives in Linwood, Michigan.”

The “white supremacist” and “antisemite” charges may be a significant overreach, but the fact that he’s a pastor and radio host speaks volumes about his proclivity toward sensationalism. Dr. Wickstrom and others with similar backgrounds cross-pollinate with Alex Jones because their paranoia fits his schtick like a glove. Wickstrom went on:

“SUMMARY OF EXPECTATIONS:  At some point the drilled hole in the earth will enlarge itself beneath the wellhead to weaken the area the wellhead rests upon. The intense pressure will then push the wellhead off the hole allowing a direct unrestricted flow of oil, etc.   The hole will continue to increase in size allowing more and more oil to rise into the Gulf. After several billion barrels of oil have been released, the pressure within the massive cavity five miles beneath the ocean floor will begin to normalize.   

This will allow the water, under the intense pressure at 1 mile deep, to be forced into the hole and the cavity where the oil was. The temperature at that depth is near 400 degrees, possibly more.   The water will be vaporized and turned into steam, creating an enormous amount of force, lifting the Gulf floor. It is difficult to know how much water will go down to the core and therefore, its not possible to fully calculate the rise of the floor.    The tsunami wave this will create will be anywhere from 20 to 80 feet high, possibly more.

Then the floor will fall into the now vacant chamber. This is how nature will seal the hole.     Depending on the height of the tsunami, the ocean debris, oil, and existing structures that will be washed away on shore and inland, will leave the area from 50 to 200 miles inland devoid of life. Even if the debris is cleaned up, the contaminants that will be in the ground and water supply will prohibit re-population of these areas for an unknown number of years.”

This kind of junk science, based on a faulty reading of God’s Word, creates a “Last Days Madness” that permeates Christian circles. And it will continue to plague the Church while eroding the Bible’s integrity until we mute this shrill, misguided voices and figure out how to use sound hermeneutical principles to interpret the Bible.

Let’s bring sanity back into Christianity. I know people who were so convinced that the Dr. Wickstrom and the bevy of conspiracy theorists were right, who were in the process of trying to sell their homes and move out of Florida. One friend, a very successful businessman, was a hair short of apoplectic about the whole thing. This nonsense must stop! Those who spread the CTs are as guilty as those who start them. 

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“And the Sea Became Blood?” – The Gulf Oil Crisis

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Chuck Coty

It has been alleged that Rahm Emanuel, Barak Obama’s Chief of Staff, once uttered, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste”. True or not I don’t know but he wouldn’t be the first to consider the implications of making hay while the sun’s shining. So, it should come as no surprise that the prophetic gloom and doomers are working overtime on this one. “And the Sea Became Blood“, the next apocalyptic thriller, is likely to hit a Christian bookstore near you. (Actually, it’s yet to be written but probably will be.)

The end is perpetually “near” and every negative event from school shootings to financial meltdowns to man-made or natural disasters, are always proof that we are living in the “last days” of this late great planet earth. We may not always buy into the gloom but the incessant barrage wears like a grease-soaked shirt on a hot muggy day.

I wrote the following to a friend yesterday regarding the growing disaster in the Gulf. Images of oil-coated pelicans perched upon a sea of black gold are enough to turn crusty old sailors tearful.

 

Thanks, Theophilus [name changed]. It kind of makes your heart stop doesn’t it? Mark my words. It won’t be long, if it hasn’t already begun, before the forever apocalyptically-minded prophecy “experts” begin talking about this as the sea turning into blood [from the book of Revelation]. They never miss an opportunity to capitalize monetarily on the gullible sheeple.
 

Revelation 8:8-9 (NASB) The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, 9 and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.

 

Keep your eyes and ears open. You can say you heard it first from me. On a serious note, all we can do is pray for the mercy of God to intervene. Thanks again for keeping me informed.

Blessings,

Chuck

__________________________________________

  

Then, today, less than 24 hours after my stab at prophetic infamy (move over Pat Robertson), I received the following video courtesy from a dear friend. He was borderline apoplectic.  

 


Sure enough, my above prediction came to pass exactly as anticipated. The horrific Gulf oil spill (in this instance a seriously inadequate word—it’s more like a Gulf oil GUSHER) is now proof that we are living in the final stages of the “last days.” Before our very eyes, Revelation 8:8 is being fulfilled! The sea is literally turning into blood! Following is another specutologist warning of our impending doom.

 

 

And not to be outdone, the conspiracy theorists at InfoWars and PrisonPlanet have gone into overdrive. Alex Jones called the BP spill “A false flag event”.


Paul Joseph Watson, the editor, and writer of www.prisonplanet.com, made the following statements in the final segment of the Alex Jones Show.

Earlier in April, Alex Jones was on RT and said the following:

The point is that conspiracism is becoming an ever-growing problem. Along with the decentralization of the information flow through the internet, which has been a wonderful thing, there is a now a responsibility on individuals to be prudent. 

Listen, at this point, let me make clear that this disaster is no laughing matter. I pray that God will have mercy on our negligence and greed. God’s intervention is our hope. So please don’t misunderstand me here. This is an incredibly serious incident which has catastrophic implications not to mention the significant loss of life. 

Therefore, given my sensitivity to what may be a catastrophe of mega proportions, I never cease to be amazed how people take the heavily sign-ifed (Rev 1:1) book of Revelation and interpret literally what was highly figurative language. Is Revelation 8:8-9 really to be taken literally? How can we KNOW? Do you ever feel driven and tossed by the winds of these prophetic speculators?

 

 

If we want to get to the bottom of this issue, I believe we need to first determine to whom Revelation was written and when this vision was to take place. Jesus made certain both were clearly delineated in the first few verses of the vision. So after we make this discovery, the rest of the apocalypse must be interpreted in that context. To do anything else is, in my view, irresponsible.

Revelation 1:4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

This book was written directly to the seven real first century churches in Asia (latter 60’s AD), shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. These churches were a staging ground for the proliferation of the Gospel throughout Asia. So I believe it is imperative that we first consider the relevance of this book to the audience at hand. In other words, how can we determine what this book means (today) if we don’t know what it meant (in the first century)? The Revelation wasn’t given to the early Church to confuse them but rather to offer hope, comfort, and direction.


Now we know to whom it was written, next we need to ascertain when it was to take place? As Jesus spoke to John through the angel, I don’t think He could have been clearer.

 

Revelation 1:1-3 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

How could they “heed the things which are written” if it didn’t apply to them? If we ignore the audience and timing of this book, we will never understand the complex imagery that exists within. Multi-headed beasts, stars crashing to planet earth, locust-like scorpions wreaking havoc…and the list goes on.

 

Disasters throughout history have been pinned to various sections of the Revelation because people chose not to take the timing of God’s prophesies literally. They chose to allegorize the clear timing while literalizing the flowery apocalyptic-styled language. From my earlier days as a believer Pastor, James Saxon used to always say, “Interpret the unclear with the clear.” The timing is clear, the imagery is unclear, and not as clear to those of us 2,000 removed from the culture and times surrounding this book’s writing.  

 

Nowhere in Scripture is time allegorized, and please don’t cite 2 Peter 3:8 as a proof text to say that God can’t communicate clearly. He is not a God of confusion. The mysteries that had been hidden were revealed in the person and work of Christ.

 

Colossians 1:26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,

Ephesians 3:9-10 (NASB) and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.  

The Revelation was to be understood by the original recipients! The mystery, which for ages had been hidden, was now being made known. Amen and amen.

If, presuppositionally, we begin with the premise that the Bible was inspired by the very breath of our Creator, is it possible that God deliberately used words disingenuously? Did God intentionally mislead His precious children by creating false expectations? (We did an entire radio program debunking the God supposed inability to tell time and speak clearly. HERE) If we continue to commit this logical fallacy that near can mean far because to God time is irrelevant, I think we unwittingly bring disrepute to His Word and lend credence to the subversive attacks of liberal scholars.

So as we hearken back to Revelation 1:1, it should be noted that Jesus didn’t say, “things which MIGHT shortly come to pass”. He said, “Things which MUST shortly come to pass.” Therefore, why is it that we continue to ignore these clear words and chase after visions of sugar plums? For thirty-three years I, like so many, caved into the pressure of the “experts” (whom I assumed knew far more than a criminal justice major). Although I was never comfortable with this kind of treatment of the Bible, I truly thought I had no viable alternative. I praise God that is no longer the case.

 

If Jesus was intentionally lying to those hurting, heavily persecuted first-century Christ-followers, leading them to believe these things were imminent when they weren’t, we may as well pack it in and stop the charade. I realize that sounds harsh, but I don’t believe we can continue to run the Bible aground, giving credence to the views of atheists and agnostic. I simply will not subscribe to the notion that Jesus lied, and there’s no way to sugarcoat it, if the Christians living in Asia Minor in AD 66, were told these things were “must soon take place” if they were still thousands of years future.

I admit that this is a difficult book to understand but I believe in its past fulfillment for one very basic reason. I believe God was faithful to carry out His prophetic Word in the timing He predicted. Was God faithful or not? I believe He was and therefore is. Five years ago I said, no mas to the massive industry of “Left Behind”. I finally refused to be driven and tossed by the winds of this kind of prophetic speculation.

 

I don’t doubt Henning Kemner (the producer of the above video) is a sincere man. who probably loves God. However, if we continue on this interpretational path, misapplying these horrific events to a book that “MUST” have been fulfilled in the first century, we will continue to lose our resolve to tackle these kinds of severe problems. If this sea of gushing oil is an inevitable fulfillment of Bible prophecy, why try to stop it? Can anyone stop the hand of God?

 

So what is the basis of Kemner’s conclusion? Is it based in the least on some sort of scientific hypothesis that this is an underwater volcano? It appears that he commits the same logical fallacy that many before him have fallen prey to. He’s captive to an eschatological system that is guaranteed to fail. And it should be asked, when was the literal mountain burning with fire thrown into the sea? Or a third of the ships destroyed? The Revelation 8:8-9 passage Kemner is using (quoted above) was about the termination of the nation of Israel in AD 70. But that’s another story that would take time and Scripture to flesh out.

Consider The Black Death plague epidemic that swept through Europe killing between 25-60% (75,000,000 – 200,000,000 people) of the population from 1348 through 1351…people surely thought they were nearing the end. Since the incarnation of Christ, history is replete with these kinds of horrific events. It’s imperative that we maintain perspective when these kinds of things come our way.

I pray this growing oil crisis may not have equally disastrous consequences…but if we are to adhere to the hope and clarity of God’s Word, we simply cannot continue to ignore the Scriptural time referents as they pertained to the second coming. Words like “shortly”, “at hand”, “soon”, “near” and “in a little while”, are screaming to be heard. I hope this kind of Kemner prophetic fatalism, misapplied in my humble opinion, does not destroy our resolve to be faithful stewards of God’s creation.

This kind of newspaper exegesis is the worst manifestation of premillennialism where people are convinced that the ship is sinking and there’s nothing we can do about it…that bailing water is futile because we’re told the hull has a deep irreparable gash.

As always, I offer my thoughts not as dogma but as things merely to ponder. I always reserve the right to be wrong but in this case, if I am wrong on God’s sincerity re the first 3 verses in the book of Revelation (and almost 100 similar NT references), I’ve wasted a lifetime of attempted service when I could have been out living it up. God WAS, IS and FOREVER shall be faithful. I’m convinced of that.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Posted in BP, Conspiracy Theory, Oil spill, Revelation; dispensationalism | Leave a comment

Biblical Armageddon Must Be Taught Next to Global Warming!

Posted on May 25, 2010 by Chuck Coty

“Some people think that the world’s gonna heat up, and we’re going to be baked alive… but other people think a monster with seven heads is going to come out, and rip us apart… I’m still deciding.” Classroom student

“Polls show that more than eighty percent of Americans believe God exists and He has an intelligent plan for how we will all die.” “Armageddon in the Classroom” Proponent

Posted in Eschatology, Revelation; dispensationalism | 3 Comments

Christian Zionism and the Palestinan-Israeli Conflict

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Chuck Coty

Galatians 3:26-29 (NASB) 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

(This movie is 80 minutes and can be purchased HERE) 

Romans 2:28-29 (NASB) 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
 
Romans 9:6-8 (NASB) 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

I love Israelis but I love Arabs as well. They are all created in the image of God. Are we not called to love impartially? So, does this make me anti-Semitic by not favoring the Jewish people over their region’s neighbors? Some seem to think it does but is that consistent with the above passages and the tenor of the entire New Testament?

I have found that most Christians are not cognizant of the facts, partly because we have been blinded by indoctrination. Few of us are aware of the manipulations and machinations that surrounded Israel’s statehood in 1948 and thus unaware of the current Palestinian/Israeli conflict’s origin. Being told ad nauseum that the current occupiers of Israel are God’s chosen people…and that the only way to be blessed is to bless Israel (Gen 12:3), has caused a blindness to the overwhleming message of the New Testament (which is the Old Testament revealed). The included Pauline passages simply don’t bear the proposition that one must bless the modern day nation of Israel in order to receive God’s blessing.

Is the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 12:3) still in effect? Absolutely. But the question is, is its fulfillment of the flesh or of the Spirit?

During the first ten years of the Church’s existence, the disciples were mandated by Christ to preach the Gospel to ONLY the Jews. The early church was comprised of almost 100% fleshly children of Abraham. Salvation was of the Jews and Paul preached nothing but what was found in the law and the prophets.

Acts 26:22 (NASB) “So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place;

Acts 24:14-15 (YLT) 14 `And I confess this to thee, that, according to the way that they call a sect, so serve I the God of the fathers, believing all things that in the law and the prophets have been written, 15 having hope toward God, which they themselves also wait for, that there is about to be a rising again of the dead, both of righteous and unrighteous;

Christianity is the fulfillment of Old Testament Judaism. There is only ONE people of God and only ONE way to obtain peace with God.

Galatians 3:7-9 (NASB) 7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

Galatians 3:14 (NASB) in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

So who is the seed of Abraham that will be blessed? This is absolutely critical to understand.

Galatians 3:16 (NASB) Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

There is ONLY ONE seed of Abraham who will bless the nations and that person is Jesus Christ! Only by being “in Christ” does ANYONE become children of Abraham. Racial barriers have been eliminated. The wall of separation between races was forever put away.  

Ephesians 2:14-16 (NASB) 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

The truth is that through Jesus Christ we can ALL unite as brothers. We desperately need to tear down these artificial ethnic barriers. There is no racial distinction in Christ. There is NO genetic advantage in God’s economy. There is no special blessing achieved from blessing Israel. Jesus Christ is the one whom we all must bless and worship. It must be clear that according to Scripture, no one relying upon their heritage can have peace with God. Jesus Christ is THE way, THE truth and THE life for all who trust Him to absolve them of their sins.

Do you remember what Jesus told Nicodemus, who was a Jew according to the flesh, a child of Abraham? He must be born again…born of the spirit because only those born from above can have eternal life with God.

What did John the Baptizer tell the Jewish religious leaders of his day regarding their supposed ethnic advantage? That God could raise up stones as Children of Abraham! And the Apostle Paul made it clear that there are no ethnic distinctions in Christ. Who are the true decedents of Abraham? The Scripture is clear. Only those who, by faith, embrace Jesus Christ. Genetic predisposition is not part of the New Covenant economy.

So if you are confused by this issue, please take the time to watch the above movie. Peace can be achieved. God has not foreordained this conflict. This strife is man-made and it is up to Christians to bring an unbigoted message of the Gospel to ALL. I long to see the day when Jews and Arabs unite in mass under the Lordship of Christ. What a glorious day that will be.

As a postscript, please consider watching the short trailers below. The cycle of violence must stop and Christians need to be the peacemakers of Christ.

“Little Town of Bethlehem” 

The Directors Commentary


Posted in Israel, Zionism | Leave a comment

The Shot that Rocked the World

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Chuck Coty

Armwood 56 Brandon 55

Deanna sunk the shot that won the district tournament.

Posted in Armwood, Basketball | Leave a comment

2012 and Beyond? – The Mystery of Mayan Calendar

Posted on January 23, 2010 by Chuck Coty


And now you know the rest of the story…Good day!

 
Posted in End of the World, Eschatology | Leave a comment

Premillenialism Explained…

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Chuck Coty

Let’s play NAME THE ANTICHRIST!

The prophetic speculators are running wild and our imaginations are not far behind. We are piqued with impending excitement wondering how all of this end times drama will play out. Many eschatological specialists wait with an eager sense of anticipation to see whether the vacant European Parliament seat number 666 will be filled by Spaniard Javier Solana (the 1st European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy). Nice title, eh? And why is this of any relevance you ask? Because Javier may soon be fulfilling his role as the antichrist! Seat # 666 is the golden ticket, or so some content.

But didn’t John tell his readers 2,000 years ago that he KNEW it was the “last hour” because many antichrists had come and the spirit of the antichrist was already in the world? (1 John 2:18; 4:3) John quit spoiling the fun. You’re ruining a really good ‘Where’s the antichrist?’ adventure hunt? Reminds me of “To Tell the Truth”, a game show I loved when I was a mere youth. They would ask the three guests (one of whom was the real deal) various questions, trying to figure out who was telling the truth about who he or she claimed to be. Then at the end, the impostors would remain seated while the real person stood up. So, will the real antichrist rise to your feet!

Further evidence that some say we are nearing the end… A website steeped in these current apocalyptic signs points to the clever way the UN displayed its 60th anniversary. Do you see it? In the picture above, which was taken at a 2005 UN meeting (Condoleezza Rice is 2nd from right) we see 666 cleverly adorning the UN Wall. Convinced yet?

As the Apostle Peter wrote, “The end is near!” and “the elements will melt with fervent heat.” (1 Pet 4:7; 2 Pet 3:10,12) And according to many profits of doom (play on words intended), the elements are already heating up.

Oh, but it gets better.

Quoting from www.Jesus-Is-Savior.com, we see another clear reference to the antichrist as he is about to be revealed. What recommendation number do you think gave Javier emergency powers over the military wing of the EU in 2000? You guessed it…recommendation number 666! The pattern is unmistakable, right?

“The purpose of the European Union’s creation was and is, ultimately, to create a European super-state or “United States of Europe,” as some have suggested naming it, that would eventually rival the United States in influence and military might. In 1999, Javier Solana became the High Representative for the European Union’s foreign and security policy, and through recommendation number 666, he was given emergency powers over the military wing of the European Union in 2000. All that currently remains to create a truly revived Roman Empire is the creation of a permanent executive branch of government and the full integration of the new Euro currency. With the introduction of the new European Union constitution, the groundwork is being laid for just such an executive branch and economic system.”

Identifying the Antichrist

They say that “Mr. Europe” (Solana), as he’s affectionately titled, is a perfect match for the man referenced in Daniel 11:37.

He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all. Daniel 11:37 (NKJV)

Although his Jewish heritage is questionable (“shall not regard the God of his fathers”) and considering the fact that he’s married with 2 children (“nor his desire of women”), these minor discrepancies do not seem to slow the abounding speculations one bit. So they go on to highlight the fact that Solara does have the tendency to “exalt himself above them all.” As if this could not be said of 25% of our planet’s male population. 🙂

So if you feel driven and tossed by the prophetic winds (and you will if you partake a steady diet of these “proofs”), stop and gain a clearer understanding of the premillennial system that spawns this kind of speculation. It is clearly the “end times” champion of our time, so it might be beneficial to see it from a fresh perspective. It’ll only take about 15 minutes and I believe it will be time well spent.

In the following 3 videos, William Bell takes a closer look at premillennialism. You may find his conclusions challenging, but hopefully, he will facilitate a desire to see if these things are so.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

 For more information, William Bell can be reached at www.AllThingsFulfilled.com.

Posted in 2nd Coming, Antichrist, Armageddon, Audience Relevance | Leave a comment

Collision: Atheism vs. Christianity

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Chuck Coty

When worldviews collide. God-hater vs. God adorer. Christopher Hitchens (an avowed atheist) vs. Douglas Wilson (pastor and evangelical theologian). COLLISION is a movie about diametrically opposing paradigms. It opens at theaters nationally October 27, 2009, and is also available in DVD at American Vision.

This is no ordinary debate. It doesn’t take place behind separate lecterns in a sterile stodgy auditorium. These men interact at the deepest level in a variety of settings. They are passionate but civil. They pull no punches. Whatever your theistic position you will be stretched and challenged.

“(Christianity) is a wicked cult, and it’s high time we left it behind.” – CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

“There are two tenets of atheism. One, there is no God. Two, I hate him.” – PASTOR DOUGLAS WILSON

SYNOPSIS
The documentary COLLISION pits leading atheist, political journalist and author Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything) against fellow author and evangelical theologian Pastor Douglas Wilson on a debate tour arguing the topic “Is Religion Good For The World?”. Lives and worldviews collide as Hitchens and Wilson wittily and passionately argue the timeless question, proving to be perfectly matched intellectual, philosophical, and cinematic rivals. COLLISION is directed by prolific independent filmmaker Darren Doane (Van Morrison: To Be Born Again, The Battle For L.A., Godmoney).


OVERVIEW
In May 2007, leading atheist Christopher Hitchens and Christian apologist Douglas Wilson began to argue the topic “Is Christianity Good for the World?” in a series of written exchanges published in Christianity Today. The rowdy literary bout piqued the interest of filmmaker Darren Doane, who sought out Hitchens and Wilson to pitch the idea of making a film around the debate.

In Fall 2008, Doane and crew accompanied Hitchens and Wilson on an east coast tour to promote the book compiled from their written debate titled creatively enough, Is Christianity Good for the World?. “I loved the idea of putting one of the beltway’s most respected public intellectuals together with an ultra-conservative pastor from Idaho who looks like a lumberjack”, says Doane. “You couldn’t write two characters more contrary. What’s more real and punk rock than a fight between two guys who are on completely opposite sides of the fence on the most divisive issue in the world? We were ready to make a movie about two intellectual warriors at the top of their game going one-on-one. I knew it would make an amazing film.”

In Christopher Hitchens, Doane found a celebrated prophet of atheism. Loud. Funny. Angry. Smart. Quick. An intimidating intellectual Goliath. Well-known for bullying and mocking believers into doubt and doubters into outright unbelief. In Douglas Wilson, Doane found the man who could provide a perfect intellectual, philosophical, and cinematic counterpoint to Hitchens’ position and style. A trained philosopher and deft debater. Big, bearded, and jolly. A pastor, a contrarian, a humorist–an unintimidated outsider, impossible to bully, capable of calling Hitchens a puritan (over a beer).

It was a collision of lives.What Doane didn’t expect was how much Hitchens and Wilson would have in common and the respectful bond the new friend/foes would build through the course of the book tour. “These guys ended up at the bar laughing, joking, drinking. There were so many things that they had in common,” according to Doane. “Opinions on history and politics. Literature and poetry. They agreed on so many things. Except on the existence of God.”

John Piper interviews Wilson – 15 min

BIOS
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Christopher Hitchens (b. April 13, 1949) is a popular political journalist and the author of several books, including God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Hitchens is regarded as one of the most fundamental figures of modern atheism. A regular contributor to Vanity Fair, The Atlantic Monthly and Slate, Hitchens is also a frequent guest on The Daily Show, Charlie Rose, Washington Journal, and Real Time with Bill Maher. He was named one of the US’s “25 Most Influential Liberals” by Forbes and one of the world’s “Top 100 Public Intellectuals” by Foreign Policy. Hitchens lives in Washington, DC.

DOUGLAS WILSON
Douglas Wilson (b. June 18, 1953) is a pastor of Christ Church, editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine, and a Senior Fellow at New Saint Andrews College. A prolific writer, he is the author of many books, including The Case for Classical Christian Education, Letter from a Christian Citizen, Reforming Marriage and Heaven Misplaced: Christ’s Kingdom on Earth. Wilson lives in Moscow, Idaho.

DARREN DOANE
Darren Doane is a Los Angeles-based independent filmmaker. Doane made his name as a music video director. His work for Blink-182, AFI, Jimmy Eat World and Pennywise is credited for helping bring punk rock into the mainstream in the 1990s. His previous documentary film, The Battle For LA, explored the underground battle rap scene in Los Angeles. Doane is currently in production on the documentary film To Be Born Again about legendary musician Van Morrison and has also written and directed several feature films, including Godmoney, 42K and Black Friday.

Author: featuring Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens

Specifications: DVD, NTSC 90 minutes

© 2009 Level4

(1 min)
Posted in Apologetics, Atheism, Christianity | Leave a comment

Is the Islamic Savior the Biblical AntiChrist?

Posted on August 26, 2009 by Chuck Coty

We are being bombarded by things apocalyptic from every angle and there seems to be no end in sight. As 2012 approaches, I believe “end times” infatuation will explode exponentially. We are being inundated from every angle. A group of astronomers has joined to debunk the 2012 Doomsday theories. Consider the list of supposed doomsday triggering events or objects: Planetary alignment; Galactic alignment i.e. solstice, black hole and dark rift; Doomsday objects e.g. Nibiru, Planet X, asteroids, comets etc.; Magnetic pole shift; Rotational pole shift; Solar flares…and the list goes on and on.

The other day while on WorldNet Daily, I noticed an ad for “The Islamic AntiChrist” (right). The Christian bookstores are inundated with these types of “end times” reads. Is it possible that the coming Islamic messiah is, in fact, the Biblical antichrist? How can we know? Are we at the mercy of these “last days” prophetic speculators? Is there truly no hope for the rest of us in our quest to be faithful Bereans “seeing if these things are so?”


The Islamic Anti-Christ – Official Trailer

It seems as though the steady diet of antiChrists, 666, embedded microchips and overall gloom & doom (even emanating from the secular world), is surreptitiously laying the groundwork for more apathy and confusion within the Christian community. These books are continually repackaged with a few key date and player changes, yet few of us seem to be keeping score.

Listen, I don’t doubt the sincerity of any of these authors, but is this a justifiable reason for not holding their feet to the fire of accountability? Since many of us do not possess a sound interpretational approach to Scripture, we are constantly being driven and tossed by the winds of these predictions.

Try as we may to turn a deaf ear to these constant prognostications, they unwittingly take their toll far beneath the cognitive processes of the brain. When anything negative happens i.e. a kidnapping, a disease outbreak or we witness blatant evidence of our ensuing cultural breakdown, it’s not long before we hear something to the effect of, “It’s just a sign of the times.” The inference? It’s only going to get worse so just buckle down, grin and bear it…before you know it we’ll be raptured out of this evil abode.

Recently, I was visiting a church in another city. The Sunday school lesson centered on chapter 2 of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. Apparently, some of the Brethren living in Thessalonica were under the false understanding that the Lord Jesus had already returned. Seems rather preposterous that they were so far off given our current expectations, doesn’t it? Have you ever wondered how they could have been so confused?

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2

How they could have thought their Messiah had already come if His return was to mark the cataclysmic end of planet earth, is certainly a question worth pondering. And why did they miss the timing so badly? 2,000 years off! Or did they?

Actually, it’s not really difficult to understand their plight given their Lord’s rather emphatic statements that He would return within a generation, while some of His followers were still alive and before His disciples finished going through the cities of Israel. (Mt 10:23; 16:27-28; 24:34) Coupling these expectations with the really intense statements of the NT author’s (Heb 10:36-37, James 5:8-9, 1 John 2:18; 1 Peter 4:7, 1 Cor 10:31, 1 Cor 7:29-31) and there’s no wonder the persecuted Thessalonians thought they missed this great cloud coming event.

So as the discussion wound down in that Sunday school class we were exhorted much the same way Paul challenged these troubled men and women who feared they missed the Lord. Slightly paraphrased, our class leader charged us with this. “Men, it’s going to get a whole lot worse out there so hunker down and get ready. I don’t know how long it will be, but I feel that it’s going to be soon.”

I find it fascinating that we are prone to the same sense of imminent expectations they felt in Paul’s day. Two thousand years ago the Apostle Paul wrote, “The time is short…for the form of this world is passing away.” This sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it? Don’t we say the same thing? Have you ever wondered how a man inspired by the Spirit of God could be so far off? Do you see the predicament? Somebody’s wrong on this one. It’s either Jesus, Peter, Paul, John or it’s us.

People are even being lead to believe that financial doom is part and parcel of this near-term (we are told) cataclysmic collapse that’s a precursor to the end…that it’s part of the “birth pains” prophesied in Matthew 24:8, 1 Thes 5:3 and Romans 8:22. Yet nowhere does Jesus predict high unemployment rates, a stock market collapse or crippling gas prices. But even if He did, consider the unemployment rates throughout the Depression Era. For 11 years during this very difficult time, unemployment was higher than it is now. And for 4 of those years, it was double our present rate.

The sheer weight of this multimedia blitzkrieg is affecting us far more than we realize. We simply cannot escape the impact of men like that well-meaning Sunday school leader who is convinced that all of the tumblers are falling into their final place. The mere fact that so many believe the Gospel’s 2,000-year reign and extraordinary Kingdom expansion is going to be defeated by the forces of evil, should be enough to cause all to pause.

Eschatology is clearly not a foundational doctrine and one we should never divide over, but unfortunately, in it’s presently accepted form, it is creating many beneath-the-surface expectations that I believe are rather unhealthy and unBiblical. Isn’t it possible for the “Left Behindology” to have precipitated a self-fulfilling prophecy? “For as he thinks within his heart, so he is.” (Prov 23:7) Could the signs of moral decay be the result of taking ourselves out of the game instead of some sort of proof that the last days are upon us?

Let me ask you this? What happens if we are wrong? What if we are encouraging an Armageddon that is not destined by God?…that actually stands contrary to His Word and against a foe that may be a future target of God’s grace and mercy? What if this presumed world-ending clash took place almost 2,000 years ago between the spring of 66 to the fall of 70 AD? Preposterous? Is it possible that Peter, John, and Paul were not mistaken? What if there is a mass conversion of the Muslims on our horizon? Is this too large a task for God? 

Not unlike the rest of the boatload of these prolific apocalyptic money-makers, The Islamic Antichrist touts a “devastating account” leading up to the world’s demise. It’s uniqueness (although it is a carbon copy of a similar work from the 1920s) and intrigue springs from its boldness (in my opinion) to compare the Biblical antichrist with the Islamic savior. In the synopsis, we find, “The Bible predicts that in the last days a charismatic leader will establish a global following in the name of peace.” Oh really? Where these authors come up with this stuff only their hairdresser knows for sure. 🙂

This book can be discredited by simply analyzing the sensationalism of its synopsis.

  1. The New Testament authors made it clear that they were nearing the end of the “last days” in the first century. (1 Cor 7:29,31; 1 Pet 4:7; Heb 10:36-37; 1 Cor 10:11; Heb 1:1-2; 1 Peter 1:20)
  2. The Apostle John offered proof that he was living in the “last hour” by the fact that many false Christs (antichrists) had already come. “…by which we KNOW that it is the last hour.” This fulfilled Jesus’ prediction in the Olivet that “false prophets will rise up and deceive many. “
  3. The word “antichrist” never appears in the book of Revelation and John only uses it 4 times found in two of his three epistles. As far as the Apostle John’s testimony is concerned, all the fuss over identifying THE modern day antichrist is absolutely baseless.
  4. Notice (below) John tells us that “the spirit of the antichrist” was already in the world 2,000 years ago. Just because there are and have been many evil rulers and regimes, does not mean that any qualify as THE antichrist, since there’s no Biblical mention of a single antichrist much less one that’s 2,000 years old. =) Hitler was “anti-Christ” and so was Stalin, Mussolini, and Napoleon.
For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Matthew 24:5, 11 [The Apostle John said this was fulfilled by the writing of his epistles – somewhere in the mid-60s AD – yet for some reason, many ignore his testimony] 
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2:18
 
and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 1 John 4:3
 My hope is that we will stop buying these books and encourage others to do the same, lest we continue to cause the credibility of the Scriptures to suffer. I’m not insinuating that people like Joel Richardson are insincere. I believe they are definitely committed to their views. What I do question are their guiding hermeneutical principles.

Few seem to care that hundreds of these books fly off the shelves and yet not one of them has been right. I’m hoping we begin applying pressure on these authors to be accountable when they’re wrong. And why this obsession with antichrists anyway? Shouldn’t Jesus Christ be our primary focus?

Posted in Updates | Leave a comment

The TRUTH Project – Creating a Christian Worldview

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Chuck Coty
The TRUTH Project is a marvelous 12 part series with the intent to help create a Biblical world and life view.

“In a recent study, the Barna Research Group revealed a stunning statistic that continues to reverberate throughout the evangelical world. Only 9 percent of professing Christians have a biblical worldview.”

Because of this, today’s believers live very similarly to non-believers. A personal sense of significance is rarely experienced, we spend our money and time on things that fail to satisfy and we begin to wonder what life’s ultimate purpose really is. We are, in short, losing our bearings as a people and a nation.”

In order to make disciples of all nations, I believe it is imperative that more than 9% of Christians develop a Biblical worldview. Our nation has lost its way in large part because too many Christians (including yours truly until 4 short years ago) are aimless, fearful and confused. Do we believe the Gospel has the capacity to reform planet earth or are the doom and gloom prophecy pundits correct? Should we become involved in all areas of life, or is it simply too late? If we think best sellers like “The Late Great United States – What Bible Prophecy Reveals about America’s Last Days” have no effect on our resolve to make disciples of all nations, I believe we are naive.

The incessant bombardment of these kinds of apocalyptic books (that I believe have little Scriptural foundation) are helping create a generation of Christians who actually believe the Gospel is in route to defeat at the hands of the dark forces of the antichrist and the new world order. But what does Scripture say about these matters? Did God really set us up for defeat? Did Christ’s death and bodily resurrection (overcoming sin and death) only have a personal salvific application? Or is the saving grace of Jesus as manifested by the power of the resurrection and the infestation of the Holy Spirit, going to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil?

When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Col 2:15

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Heb 2:14-15

You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world… 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:4-5

It seems that if we continue to believe the “time is short” and the “form of this world is passing away” in our generation (removing these statements from their original immediate context), many will see little need in reforming our paradigms in accord with God’s Word. I continue to hear statements like, “Let’s convert as many as we can before the final collapse and the dissolution of planet earth.”

If we transport the expectations of the inevitable moral decline (prophesied by the Apostle Paul as he referenced the “last days” of Old Covenant Judaism in Timothy’s day – 2 Tim 3:1-13) to the 21st century, how will the paradigm shift-changing TRUTH Project have maximum benefit? If we believe the Gospel’s effectiveness is going to be increasingly stunted and ultimately turned away, and if we think that through Christ we cannot have a significant impact in the reversal of evil, what is the use in continuing to polish brass on what too many believe is a sinking ship? What the TRUTH Project gives, our modern day eschatological assumptions unwittingly take away. Therefore I believe we must develop a Christian worldview espoused by the TRUTH Project and in consort begin to recognize the need to revolutionize our eschatological assumptions.

I believe series like The TRUTH Project are an absolute must if we are to fulfill our mandate to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. I hope you will prayerfully consider involvement as this TTP comes to your city. My church, Bay Life Church (Brandon, FL), is hosting this series beginning on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (my 31st Anniversary!) at our 60 campus. I hope to see you there.

As I have attempted to share time and again, one’s eschatological presuppositions (although clearly not foundational to our faith) have and will continue to affect our expectations. Gary DeMar, in his small book, “Is Jesus Coming Soon“, offers a Biblical “end times” view that is in diametric opposition to that of most of our modern day prophetic speculators. In order to see the need for developing a well-rounded Christian world and life view offered by The TRUTH project, I believe it is necessary to create expectations that fall in line with the overcoming nature of the Gospel.

I also highly recommend an audio series entitled “Last Days”, found at www.charlescoty.com/audio2.html. Scroll down near the bottom right under “Dan Norcini”. These sermons will absolutely blow you away. Dan is thoughtful, humble, as Scripturally literate as any you will find, and he is adept at creating a sound Biblical argument. Enjoy! And don’t forget to tune in to a TRUTH Project near you.

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America’s Christian Heritage – American Vision

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Chuck Coty

This is an exciting new DVD series that should be available within the month at American Vision.

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