BRINGING GLORY TO GOD

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Ron Edwards

So what is glory?

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Hebrews 1: 3,

God’s glory (divine light) radiates through Jesus, who is the ‘exact representation of his being. To put it simply – when God is seen for who he is, he is glorified. Jesus showed us God – fully, precisely, completely – allowing divine light to shine unimpeded. As for you and I, the more people see God in us, understanding his loving nature, the more God is glorified (seen for who he is).

God is glorified when we remove the blocks that shut divine light out of our lives. As hindrances are removed, people see God for who he is; they see his light in us. They see his work and nature. We glorify God when He is free to act in our lives. When we allow the Holy Spirit to direct our steps, therefore our lives.

The Bible provides wonderful scriptures that demonstrate how God is glorified in us.

God is glorified when: We ask and receive.

Why does asking and receiving glorify God? Because it demonstrates his love. He is seen for the wonderful Father he is.

‘And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’ John 14:13

Read that Scripture again “I will do whatever you ask in My name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son”. Do you stand on that Scripture?

When we minister in the power of the Spirit

‘”If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever.” 1 Peter 4:11

When we give and receive generously

‘And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work…You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.’ 2 Corinthians 9:8-13

Here, Paul writes of the financial blessing of God, and us taking our part in its flow. God is glorified when we rise about the mundane limits of the world’s financial reality and move in the generosity of the Lord’s provision and blessing – not for ourselves, but to meet the needs of many. The liberal movement of money to meet the needs of humanity shows the generosity and abundance of God. People can see that he provides, and is generous.

When we take discipleship seriously

‘With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ 2 Thessalonians 1:1,12

God is glorified when people see the outworking of the goodness of God in our lives, transforming us and inspiring us to faith-filled deeds and sincere good works, flowing from love. Such people are beautified by the glory of God, who is seen for who he is – compassionate, involved, teaching and leading us.

When we walk in righteousness by the power of the Spirit

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11

As our love abounds in knowledge and insight, as our discernment grows, and as we respond evermore to the call of love, God is seen for who he is – the source of all nurturing and love.

When we bear fruit

“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:8

God doesn’t want us to lead fruitless lives, with no real impact on the world around us. He wants us to abound, to multiply, to make disciples – not for the sake of it or as a matter of performance, but because he is always reaching out to those yet to know his love. When we yield to this aspect of his nature, lending ourselves to him freely, he is seen for who he is – the good shepherd who goes after the lost sheep.

In miracles

‘So the multitude marvelled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.’ Matthew 15:31

In miracles, God is seen for who he is – a living, powerful, supernatural, loving, compassionate being. I firmly believe we have lost our grasp on this important aspect of following Christ, casting it aside as somehow irrelevant when it was the heart and soul of Jesus’ ministry. Some churches react against extremes and fakery by shutting down the real deal, but this does not honour or glorify God. The Christian Church should be a place of regular outpourings of power, and if it is not, we must fall to our knees in repentance for trivialising this crucial expression of his compassion, and commit to seeking a breakthrough, however long it takes.

When we are unified

‘May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Romans 15:5-6

When we speak with ‘one voice’ – a voice of genuine, hard-won, ego-busting unity, God is seen as the one who binds us together despite our differences, rather than divides us. In a world riven by political and religious strife, we glorify God when we build community, togetherness, and friendship on the foundation of his love. Are you one who tears down or builds up?

In showing mercy

‘For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.’ Romans 15:8-9

God’s mercy is fundamental to his nature in a way anger is not. As the psalmist wrote: ‘The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy.’ The Lord has chosen to show his greatness not through wrath, not through judgement, but through his mercy. When we show mercy, we are aligned with the nature of God.

When we give thanks

‘I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.’ Psalms 69:30

When God helps us in our suffering

‘Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.’ Romans 5:3-5

God is not the author of suffering. If in the midst of suffering we lift our eyes to the Lord, and if we learn and grow in the face of the challenges we face, and as we overcome those challenges and find our way to freedom, God is glorified. He is seen and understood as our rescuer from pain.

When we rely on the promises of God

‘Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations…he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.’ Romans 4:18-21

When we are ‘fully persuaded that God can and will do what he promises, and when God fulfils those promises, he is seen for who he is – faithful and true to his word.

HOW TO COPE WITH PERSECUTION IN THE DAYS AHEAD

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Ron Edwards

Josef Tson: What His Suffering for Christ in Communist Romania Taught Him, and Can Teach Us

This article by Randy Alcorn www. patheos.com July 21, 2022 is very applicable to the “end times ” persecution that is unfolding in our time.

I opened the Scriptures with Josef in 1988, with a group of theologians discussing eternal rewards. Twenty years later, writing my book If God Is Good, I remembered his stories and insights and called him again, in order to share his insights with others. Josef explained to me how the belief that God doesn’t want His people to suffer once corrupted the Romanian church. In the interests of self-preservation, he said, they failed to speak out against injustice, tyranny, and the idolatry of turning men into gods. He recalls joining the crowd on the streets and crying, “Glory to Stalin.”

God convicted Josef. As a pastor, he refused to glorify communist leaders and started to speak out boldly for Christ. Interrogators threatened him with death every day for six months. Finally he told them, “Your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying. My preaching will speak ten times louder after you kill me.”

Josef said, “During the time I was expecting to be crushed by the Romanian secret police interrogators, God became more real to me than ever before or after in my life. It is difficult to put into words the experience I had with God at that time. It was like a rapture into sweet and total communion with the Beloved. God’s test for me then became the pathway to a special knowledge of the reality of God.”

21 Coptic Christians beheaded by Isis in Tripoli, Libya

Finally, in 1981, the Romanian government exiled him. After facing much evil and nearly being martyred in Ceauşescu’s Romania, Josef told me, “This world, with all its evil, is God’s deliberately chosen environment for people to grow in their characters. The character and trustworthiness we form here, we take with us there, to Heaven. Romans and 1 Peter 3:19 make clear that suffering is a grace from God. It is a grace given us now to prepare us for living forever.”

He also told me he believed that 95 percent of Christians pass the test of adversity, while 95 percent fail the test of prosperity.

In the West, with our conspicuous prosperity and ease, Christianity’s popularity continues to shrink. In Africa, Asia, and South America, with much greater adversity and suffering, it continues to grow.

Josef Tson believes, “The gospel will never be spread without someone suffering.” He said our first question in suffering should not be, “Why?” but, “God, what do you want to do in the world through my suffering?”

Josef continues, “God achieves great things in the world through the one who accepts His way of suffering and self-sacrifice. In the end, however, it turns out that the greatest things are achieved in the sufferer himself. The one who sacrificially expects to be a blessing for others discovers that, in the final analysis, he is the one who has harvested the greatest blessings.”

Suffering can help us know God and prepare us to trade a shallow life not worth keeping for a deeper life we’ll never lose.

When interrogators worked Josef into exhaustion for ten hours a day, one of his persecutors made a strange statement: “Pastor Tson, when I interrogate people I am used to feeling their hatred for me. But you do not hate me. It has become a delight for me to be with you.”

Jesus saw our suffering as an opportunity to share the gospel, do you?

“Jesus said to them, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you, they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain your lives.” Luke 21: 10-19

Josef viewed his suffering as God’s means to accomplish God’s purpose. He told of guards coming to Christ while beating Christian prisoners, then confessing their faith and being imprisoned and tortured themselves. As a result, the gospel his persecutors tried to dismiss touched them instead.

PROOF MOSES WROTE THE PENTATEUCH

Posted on July 28, 2022 by Ron Edwards

The most ancient Proto-Hebrew inscription ever discovered!

This article is by Gavin Cox of Creation Ministries International in The Journal of Creation 2022 Volume 36 Issue 2

Tablet found on Mount Ebal in the Samaria mountains in the West Bank containing the word “curse” 10 times.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

According to Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), the inside surfaces of the amulet contain 44 proto-alphabetic letters (a script that precedes paleo-Hebrew) and is centuries older than the oldest known Hebrew texts from ancient Israel. Douglas Petrovich, also an associate with ABR, has been working on even older proto-consonantal scripts found in Sinai dated to 1842 bc. 6 These were featured in the film Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy. 7 All this evidence is highly significant because many liberal theologians postulate there was no evidence of an alphabet in which to write during the LBI–II period, hence, the Bible must have been written much later than Moses—in contradiction to Jesus’s clear statement in John 5:46. Furthermore, the divine name YHW occurs at an Israelite covenant site of LBI–II age. This new discovery forever buries skeptical claims of the late formation of the Bible, or of Israel as a nation. It cannot be overstated how important this artifact really is: it truly is “one of the greatest discoveries to ever come out of the Holy Land.” ABR have yet to publish their translation of the outermost tablet surface text—which may reveal to whom the tablet belonged, who it was written by, or to whom it was addressed. We will wait with anticipation for the publishing of their textual analysis (hopefully by the end of 2022) and for further exciting archaeological discoveries on Mt Ebal!

MADNESS OF PROPOSED CLEAN ENERGY MIX

Posted on July 28, 2022 by Ron Edwards

Team Biden is still intent on getting 100% hydrocarbon-free electricity by 2035. It wants to eliminate fossil fuels throughout the US economy by 2050: no coal or natural gas for electricity generation; no gasoline or diesel for vehicles; no natural gas for manufacturing, heating, cooking, or other needs.

America’s electricity demand would soar from 2.7 billion megawatt-hours per year (the fossil fuel portion of total US electricity) to almost 7.5 billion MWh by 2050. Substantial additional generation would be required to constantly recharge backup batteries for windless, sunless periods. Corn-based ethanol demand would disappear, but biofuel crops would have to replace petrochemical feedstocks for paints, plastics, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, cell phones, wind turbine blades, and countless other products.

This is just for the USA. Extrapolate these demands to the rest of a fossil-fuel-free developed world … to China and India … and to poor countries determined to take their rightful places among Earth’s healthy and prosperous people – clean, green energy requirements become monumental, incomprehensible.

We’re certainly looking at tens of thousands of offshore wind turbines, millions of onshore turbines, billions of photovoltaic solar panels, billions of vehicle and backup battery modules, and tens of thousands of miles of new transmission lines. Hundreds of millions of acres of US farmland, scenic areas, and wildlife habitats would be affected – blanketed with enormous industrial facilities, biofuel operations, and power lines.

Add in the enormous and unprecedented mining, processing, and manufacturing required to make all these energy-inefficient technologies – mostly outside the United States – and the land use, habitat loss, and toxic pollution would gravely threaten people, wildlife, and the planet.

Let’s take a closer look, now just from a US perspective, but knowing these are global concerns.

**Indiana’s Fowler Ridge wind turbines**

Solar power. 72,000 high-tech sun-tracking solar panels at Nevada’s sunny Nellis Air Force Base cover 140 acres but generate only 32,000 MWh per year. That’s 33% of rated capacity; 0.0004% of 2050 US electricity needs. Low-tech stationary panels have far lower efficiency and generating capacity, especially in more northern latitudes. Meeting 2050 US electricity needs would require Nevada sunshine and nearly 235,000 Nellis systems on 33,000,000 acres (equal to Alabama).

Triple that acreage for low-tech stationary panels in less sunny areas. For reference, Dominion Energy alone is planning 490 square miles of panels (8 times Washington, DC) just in Virginia, just for Virginia. Then add all the transmission lines.

Wind power. 355 turbines at Indiana’s Fowler Ridge industrial wind facility cover 50,000 acres (120 acres/turbine) and generate electricity just over 25% of the time. Even at just 50 acres per turbine, meeting 2050 US power needs would require 2 million 1.8-MW wind turbines, on 99,000,000 acres (equal to California), if they generate electricity 25% of the year.

But the more turbines (or solar panels) we need, the more we have to put them in sub-optimal areas, where they might work 15% of the year. The more we install, the more they reduce wind flow for the others. And some of the best US wind zones are along the Canada-to-Texas flyway for migrating birds – which would mean the massive, unsustainable slaughter of cranes, raptors, other birds, and bats.

Go offshore, and even President Biden’s call for 30,000 MW of electricity (2,500 monster 12-MW turbines) wouldn’t meet New York State’s peak summertime electricity needs.

Biofuels and wood pellets. America already grows corn in an area larger than Iowa, to meet current ethanol quotas. Keep-fossil-fuels-in-the-ground lobbyists need to calculate how many acres of soybeans, canola, and other biofuel crops would be needed to replace today’s petrochemical feedstocks; how much water, fertilizer, labor, and fuel would be needed to grow harvest and process them; and how much acreage would have to be taken from food production or converted from bee and wildlife habitat.

Climate activists also approve of cutting down thousands of acres of North American hardwood forests – nearly 300,000,000 trees per year – and turning them into wood pellets, which are hauled by truck and cargo ship to England’s Drax Power Plant. There they are burned to generate electricity so that the UK can “meet its renewable fuel targets.” And that’s just one “carbon-neutral” power plant. That’s one year to slash and burn the fuel, and fifty years to regrow replacement trees. This is not green, sustainable energy.

Organic farming. Environmentalists dream of converting all US (and even all global) agriculture to 100% organic. That would further reduce wildlife habitats – dramatically – especially if we are to simultaneously eliminate world hunger … and replace petrochemicals organically.

Organic farms require up to 30% more land to achieve the same yields as conventional agriculture, and most of the land needed to make that happen is now forests, wildflower fields, and grasslands. Organic farmers (and consumers) also reject synthetic fertilizers, which means more land would have to be devoted to raising animals for their manure unless human wastes are used. More lost wildlife habitat.

They reject modern chemical pesticides that prevent billions of tons of food from being eaten or ruined but utilize toxic copper, sulfur, and nicotine-based pesticides. They even reject biotechnology (genetic engineering) that creates crops that are blight-resistant, require less water, permit no-till farming, need fewer pesticide treatments, and bring much higher yields per acre. Translation: even less wildlife habitat

There are alternatives, of course. Government mandates and overseers could require that “average” American families live in 640-square-foot apartments, slash their energy use, ride only bicycles or public transportation, and fly only once every few years. They could also switch us to “no-obesity” diets.

Indeed, “scientists” are again saying we “common folks” could “reduce our carbon footprints” by eating less beef and chicken, and more insect protein, ground-up bugs – or roasted bumblebees. Or we could just reduce the number of “cancerous, parasitic” humans. (Perhaps beginning with wannabe overseers?)

From article “Real Threats to Biodiversity and Humanity” by Paul Driessen May 9, 2022, http://www.cornwallalliance.org

It is interesting to consider what Jesus will do in the Millennium to provide power for the world. I would suggest nuclear fusion will finally be perfected for use as a power source. Cars will be powered by hydrogen or batteries. It will be interesting to see which of these technologies will be the most efficient.

Man’s time of ruling this planet under the influence of Satan and his demons is coming to an end. Satan and his minions will be bound in the abyss for a thousand years and Jesus and the Saints will rule the nations.

“The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron… even as I myself have received authority from my Father.” Revelation 2:26-27

“From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron.” Revelation 19:15

“She gave birth to a male child, One who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,” Revelation 12:5

AUSTRALIA: FAST BECOMING AN ANTI-CHRISTIAN NATION

Posted on July 27, 2022 by Ron Edwards

A great article in the WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN by Greg Sheridan 23rd July 2022

Lost in the Secular Desert: Christianity Under Siege

**Seven Manly NRL Sea Eagles Players have stood down from Roosters Game over Club’s Pride Jersey**

We are on the way to becoming, for the first time, an avowedly anti-Christian nation. Not just non-Christian, but anti-Christian. The census tells us. The culture tells us. The law tells us.

The 2021 census represents an explosive dam burst, with a flood of biblical proportions to follow. For the first time in the modern nation’s history, only a minority of Australians identify as Christians.

This is not a gentle decline. It is a bus hurtling over a cliff. As recently as 25 years ago, nearly three-quarters of Australians called themselves Christians. In 2011, 61 percent was still a solid majority; five years later it was 52 percent, and last year just 44 percent and still falling.

That’s a staggering 17 percent fewer of the population who are Christian in 10 years. Nothing as dramatic and consequential has happened in Australian belief and outlook since 1788.

To be sure, there are nuances in the census. “No religion” does not equate directly to formal atheism. The National Church Life Survey suggests a small majority of Australians believe in God. That’s consistent with the census. Non-Christian religions – Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, and others – take total religious affiliation above 50 percent.

The census also has some surprises. Sydney, Sin City, is the most God-loving part of Australia, just as London is the most religious part of Britain.

But difficult as it may be for some Christians to accept, and much as some secular commentators may want to play it down, claiming that Christian affiliation was formerly overstated or to avert the public gaze from the radical wave engulfing us, Christians must understand they are a minority. That should free them to become a creative, dynamic minority, offering something magnificent to society. They also should get the same rights as other minorities, but that’s another story.

In his brilliant 2021 book, Being the Bad Guys, Perth evangelical pastor Stephen McAlpine presents the dramatic transformation in Christianity’s standing: “Wasn’t it only yesterday Christianity was regarded as a societal good? Now? It’s not only unpalatable; it’s positively toxic.”

In a justly famous blog post a few years ago, McAlpine suggested most Christians accept that Christendom – with all its virtues and all its villainies – is over and they are now in exile. They envisaged this exile in a metaphorical Athens, debating their beliefs in polite and interested company. That was Stage One Exile. Now, Stage Two Exile is in a much more hostile Babylon, where they confront a state and culture uninterested in their ideas, determined instead to bludgeon them into submission.

This should not take us by surprise as Biblical prophecy tells us what will happen prior to Jesus’ return to this planet to put things right.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:9-14

KENYA HOUSE CHURCHES IN RURAL AREAS

Posted on July 26, 2022 by Ron Edwards

The Holy Spirit is setting a fire under the believers in the rural areas of Kenya. I have been connected to the Kenya House Church Movement for about 4 years now and have seen it grow from six house churches to twenty-one. Moreover, I met with most of the leaders in April of this year in Migori, Kenya for a three-day training meeting. I reported on it in an earlier post.

Pastor Charles Otieno Owino, the leader of the KHC, is on the far left. All of the leaders received a copy of my latest book Living Eternal Now – Ready for Jesus Return. Some are holding it.

This post will help you understand the task ahead for the church in Kenya. As well, I have included pictures taken of meetings at some of the new house churches by way of inspiration which I hope will encourage some of my followers to join me in funding this work. I have put a DONATIONS icon on my Home Page for this purpose.

temp_image_20211205_180611_34110c4a-4397-4dfe-a1c0-a13efca6babb.jpg

temp_image_20211201_110348_686f12f7-6540-412d-926d-7b3190d6c669.jpg — Buembu House Church

temp_image_20211201_105536_3c67c86e-e5b9-4b40-91b6-4f7455aac522.jpg — Bondo House Church

temp_image_20211201_105454_015e3ea2-e393-4469-b1ed-67ea7ba1415d.jpg — Nyarombo House Church

Previewing temp_image_20211112_091115_4e48eefc-1581-432e-8c42-9d95b340812e.jpg

Previewing temp_image_20211201_105219_4622dac6-d338-4990-9d61-4a17bc58c796.jpg — Nyarombo house church. Believers are praying after hearing the gospel message. They are not sleeping.

Previewing temp_image_20211112_090740_e0bb0474-b909-4e35-8de8-d2b4fa72539b.jpg — Great teaching on the early church from the Book of Acts which is serving as the model on which the KHC movement is built.

REPENTANCE AND HOLINESS

Posted on July 26, 2022 by Ron Edwards

Scripture is clear: “As He who called you is holy, you also must be holy in all your conduct” 1 Peter 1:15

*From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”* Matthew 4:17

Look what A.W.Tozer said:

“I look back and remember a day when it was common for men and women to come to an altar of prayer and kneel there, shake, tremble, and weep in agony of conviction over their iniquity. We do not see it now because the God we preach is not the everlasting, awful Holy One who cannot look upon iniquity. When we get a vision of the Holy One as he desires to reveal himself, this will come back as a mighty power to change us into his likeness.”

Tozer then quotes this hymn by Charles Wesley:

Lord, incline me to repent; Let me now my fall lament, Deeply my revolt deplore, Weep, believe, and sin no more.

Repentance is the lost word in the Christian dictionary. You may want to consider adding the sentiment of Charles Wesley’s words to your next prayer. I am sure you won’t use Wesley’s words exactly.

It is not as if we have to repent and be holy in our own strength. Jesus made it possible for our Heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit to enable us to be holy. He will produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life and enable you to do the ministry that God has called you to do. We just need to submit to His leading day by day and not grieve Him or quench His work in our lives.

EVIL AND SUFFERING IN THIS WORLD

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Ron Edwards

This is an extremely good sermon on the evil and suffering that exists in our world. John MacArthur is one of the most eloquent preachers that I have heard and on this subject he does a great job.

One of the most pressing challenges to Christianity is the problem of evil. Unbelievers are quick to ask how Christians can believe in the existence of a good God in the face of so much evil. In this session, Dr. John MacArthur examines what Scripture teaches regarding evil and suffering and why it exists in the world. You need to listen to this and send it to others. God is sovereign and actually has a purpose for evil which for most of us is hard to comprehend but all of us must come to grips with this truth.

“I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me, there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.“ Isaiah 45:5-7

“What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.” Romans 9:22-23

John MacArthur preaches eternal conscious torment as God’s judgement for unbelievers. I do not hold to that position because Jesus taught punishment and second death.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’” Revelation 2:11

“Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:6

The following Scripture clearly teaches that the second death occurs in the Lake of Fire: “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

How many more references do we need to a second death before we believe that it is the eventual judgement of God for sin.

THE BEAST FROM THE SEA IN DANIEL 7

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Ron Edwards

What is the identity of the Beast from the Sea in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13? Are they the same creature? What kingdoms make up the seven heads? Who are the seven kings associated with the heads? Are the 7 heads mountains or hills? Who is the beast that was not; now is, and comes out of the abyss? Is the beast a man, a demon, or a kingdom; or is it all three at once? Watch to discover the likely answers to all these questions.

The Beast is one of the most important end times understanding particularly the fourth Beast, it is a composite of the others. It fits most of our end-times theories together. One of the keys to understanding is that the Beast is a man, Kingdom, and demon all at the same time. Nelson’s comparison of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue and the 7 heads of the beast is also an important understanding.

You will need to copy the website link in the caption below the video and open it in your browser. It helps Nelson’s ratings if you watch on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/i_VPTbZMmRA

LIVING ETERNAL NOW

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Author Archives: Ron Edwards

BRINGING GLORY TO GOD

So what is glory?

The Bible provides wonderful scriptures that demonstrate how God is glorified in us.

God is glorified when: We ask and receive.