EASTER is the time when we remember our Saviour’s resurrection which makes our own resurrection sure.
“JESUS answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19
Jesus knew He was going to die in Jerusalem, but He also knew he was going to be raised from the dead. He knew the Messianic Psalms were about Him:
“For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” Psalm 16:10 (Prophesy is proof the Bible is God’s Word)
Jesus knew nothing could separate Him from the Father’s love and we have been given the same promise in Romans 8: 38-39. And we have been given the same promise of resurrection Jesus was given.
” Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead? But if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also vain ……………………….. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15: 12 -20
“For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will arise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4: 15-16
Paul says to comfort one another with these words and so we should, what a wonderful God we serve.
There is considerable debate these days concerning the inerrancy (infallibility) of Scripture. The authority of God’s Word is the main issue. But, if one yields to the authority of Jesus Christ, he must, in turn, yield to Christ’s view of the Scripture itself. Anyone and everyone who claims to be a Christian (a believer under the authority of Christ) must hold to the same view He did! What was it?
Destroying faith in the Bible as God’s Word has opened the door today to a ‘new’ Tradition.
The above leaves no room but to conclude that our Lord Jesus Christ considered the canon of Scripture as God’s Word, written by the hand of men.
Although some religious leaders profess to accept Scripture as ‘God’s Word,’ their low view of ‘inspiration’ belies the fact. They believe and teach that Scripture is, to a very significant degree, man’s word. Many of their statements are in essential disagreement with those of Jesus Christ. From the evidence of their books, we conclude that some Christian leaders are opposite to Christ in His regard for the authority, the inspiration, and the inerrancy of Scripture.
And now, the most important point.
Jesus obeyed the Word of God, not man. He was subject to it.
In all the details of His acts of redemption, Jesus was subject to Scripture as God’s Word. He obeyed it. It was His authority, the rule by which He lived. He came to do God’s will, not His own, and not man’s. Note how all of His life He did things because they were written—as if God had directly commanded. He fulfilled Old Testament prophecies (300) about Himself. The passages are found all over the Old Testament. We cite here only a very few quoted in the New Testament: Matthew 11:10; 26:24, 53–56;Mark 9:12, 13; Luke 4:17–21; 18:31–33; 22:37; 24:44–47.
He Himself is the Word of God. All the words from His lips were the Word of God. (John 3:34). If He had desired, He could have written a new set of rules and they would have been the Word of God. But, He did not. He followed without question the Bible already penned by men.
We need to do the same. May all who read this adopt Jesus’ attitude and become subject both to Him as Living Word (living Torah) and to the Bible as the infallible, written Word of God.
http://www.creation.com: article by Dr David Livingston – Jesus Christ on the infallibility of Scripture
I believe we can boldly assert that no man of all the myriads that have ever lived – let him be as wise as Solomon, the very best as Job, could have possibly invented from his own “thoughts” the GOSPEL.
Paul says as much in Galatians 1:11 “For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.”
It was absolutely impossible for such a plan of salvation ever to be devised by man’s thoughts. It is utterly at variance with those thoughts. It is infinitely to intricate in all its marvelous adaptations to all the involved problems that have to be met , so that no careless, thoughtless one could ever have conceived it. He would cease to be careless. But that eliminates most of us, for indeed aren’t most of us careless? But could a proud man, let him be ever so thoughtful and intelligent, have invented it? I don’t think so, for it humbles him to nothing , telling him that he is ungodly and without strength and only as in heart confessing this can he be saved. He would have to cease being proud in order to have conceived it, to have been its author.
There only remains the poor is spirit, the confessed sinner. Could such have invented the idea that the Creator of all, glorious in holiness, that so high, so Holy a One should give up His dearest Treasure to bear the sins of one like himself, so conscious as he is of his unworthiness? Would it be likely a humble mind to invent such a plan? He would cease to be humble to have invented it. In fact how blasphemously proud would such a person be!
Then I would suggest, it is proved that since no man – careless or thoughtful, proud or humble, bad or good – could have conceived it, it must have been a divine revelation, the result of God’s thoughts and not man’s.
“For My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declared the Lord.”
Vern Gowdie of the “The Daily Reckoning” produced by Port Phillip Publishing (Financial News and Analysis Publications) wrote this article today “Its an Upside Down World”. He certainly tells it like it is and paints a bleak future, no a catastrophic future ahead.
‘A man secure in his faith need not fear the words of a blasphemer. A fanatic must hide from the truth wherever he suspects it.’ Author unknown
The US markets may have risen overnight but the world is very much poorer for the events that have occurred in Paris.
Slaying 12 people because they had the ‘temerity’ to express an opinion is barbaric. Freedom of expression and the sharing of opinions (whether you agree or disagree with them) is what gives rise to a richer society. One that is rich in knowledge, tolerance and ideas.
Using fear and intimidation to stifle the robust exchange of views has the capacity to make our society more insular. It is our hope that the brutal and cruel actions of a tiny minority do not succeed in this objective. Sadly, I think people will, at least in the near term, be more guarded in their views for fear of becoming the next victim.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of the victims of this senseless atrocity. We stand with you and with the ideals of free expression— whatever that expression may be— that the journalists and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo fought and died for.
At The Daily Reckoning, we will not succumb to fear…and promise to continue bringing you our uncensored views, from business and finance to geopolitical events.
The opening quote, by the way, was sent to me by Bernd Struben, the DR’s Managing Editor. It’s from a newspaper cut-out his mother kept tacked to the family refrigerator when he was growing up. It makes you wish more people were secure in their faith. And it tells you the three cowardly terrorists in Paris are riddled with doubts about their own fanatical dogma.
Now let’s move on from these events to something closer to home.
Maybe I’ve become a grumpy old man, but the world makes less sense to me these days.
People pay good money and endure pain to permanently disfigure themselves by putting indelible ink all over their bodies. Then, some pay even more good money and endure even more pain to have the ink (partially) removed.
People with no other talent other than blatant self-promotion make millions from narcissism. What does it say about society that these people attract an audience?
People turn a baseball cap backwards, mumble into a microphone and get paid millions for pumping out (c)rap. Reality TV creates instant fame for the most obnoxious people.
Some people have no shame or manners for that matter, yet society puts them front and centre, on magazines, TV promos etc., and the crowd goes wild. What sort of message are we sending?
Political leaders who dare mention the concept of living within our means and paying down debt see their approval ratings plummet to a level that’s on a par with Ivan Milat.
I don’t get it.
The world is being dumbed down in oh-so-many ways. Experienced teachers are voicing concern over the watering down of curriculum content, not to mention the lack of respect and discipline from a growing percentage of the student body.
A dumb society makes dumb choices and accepts dumb decisions.
Perhaps this explains why the financial world no longer makes sense to me.
A 22 year old invents a virtual reality headset that enables people to play more realistic games and Facebook pays him US$2.8 billion for it. What’s the going rate for the cure for Alzheimer’s?
Twitter (a narcissist’s must-have) is valued at US$23 billion. I wouldn’t give you a hundred bucks for it. I’ve never used it and my life is none the poorer for not knowing what self-absorbed people are doing every minute of the day.
My grumpy old man rant could go on — Uber, Facebook, Alibaba. Sure these companies have a value, but not the stratospheric ones that are currently — and I stress, currently — applied to them.
This is the upside down, valueless society we currently — and again I stress, currently — live in.
There’s a scene in Remember the Titans where Gerry Bertier (the white captain of the football team) accuses Julius Campbell (one of the African American players) of having a bad attitude. Campbell replies, ‘Attitude reflects leadership, captain.’
And so it is with the attitude of today’s society.
For forty years, the Western world lived beyond its means, borrowing to fund a lifestyle we had not earned. The GFC was the moment when the natural order of the universe had had enough.
Instead of heeding this call, our leaders put on earmuffs, hummed loudly and continued on as if nothing had happen.
Were those responsible for bringing the financial system to its knees held accountable? Hell no, they were given trillions to recapitalise and go back to business as usual (and along the way pay the token billion or three in fines from the multi-billion dollar profits they’ve been making).
Politicians continue to think money grows on trees (and to a large degree, the central bankers confirm it) and go on making promises that in the longer term cannot be met.
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe is the pin-up boy for spendthrift politicians. Abe-san knows no bounds on how to conjure up money to pay for mounting interest, welfare, health and energy costs. Given the lacklustre turnout at the recent Japanese elections, my guess is most Japanese realise they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. So what the heck? — let Abe write his name in the ‘Catastrophic Disasters’ chapter of the economic history books.
Then we come to the leadership of our central bankers. These folks have enough letters after their names that you’d think they’d know better. Unfortunately, none of those letters spell c-o-m-m-o-n s-e-n-s-e.
Central bankers, in their effort to keep in play an economic model well past it use-by date, have turned the world of asset values upside down. Economic growth derived from wanton, credit funded spending is not sustainable.
In our upside down investment world, Japanese 10-year bonds are paying a measly 0.3% while Japan’s inflation rate is averaging around 1.5%. The Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) ability to print an unlimited amount of yen to finance Abe’s grand plans has completely distorted the bond market. Is this phenomenon permanent or temporary?
Likewise, we see the US share markets (S&P 500 and Dow Jones) soar to record highs during the most anaemic economic recovery since WWII. The wind beneath the market’s wings has been the Fed’s provision of plenty of cheap dollars to Wall Street. This is why multi-billion dollar valuations can be placed on tech companies that offer questionable value to society.
The following extremes in long term valuation metrics indicate how far from the norm we have strayed.
| Valuation metric | Current | Historical Mean | Year historical Mean measured from | Deviation from Mean |
| Shiller PE 10 | 27.2x | 16.6x | 1870 | +64% |
| Market Cap/GDP (the Buffett Index) | 123% | 69% | 1950 | +78% |
| Tobin Q Ratio | 1.14 | 0.68 | 1900 | +68% |
The average deviation from mean is 70%. This is in the seriously over-valued territory where only the rarest and most infamous of markets have ventured — 1929, 2000 and 2007.
We may currently live in an upside down world, but the laws of mathematics remain the same — reversion to the mean is tried and true. The euphoria of ’29, ’00, and ’08 was short lived; the stratospheric prices soon returned to earth with a resounding thud.
The dumbing down of society has enabled our political and financial leaders to carry out this fraud in broad daylight. Mainstream economists not only endorse but actually encourage these hare-brained stimulus strategies.
Far too many people have little idea what is actually going on. So long as they can continue to buy tattoos, watch reality TV, play mindless computer games and listen to (c)rap while enjoying free health coverage and collecting welfare then all is okay with the world and woe betide anyone who wants to turn the world right side up.
Well folks, a reversion to the mean is coming, and when it does, the world is going be far meaner to a lot of people.
My gut feeling is the corrective activity the universe has destined for us will be of such a magnitude that it will change society for generations to come.
And when it does, this grumpy old man will be a lot happier.
I have already posted one Christmas video “Mary, Did You Know” by the group Pentatonix but when I saw this I just had to put it up. It even made the Guinness Book of Records. I hope you like it.
Doubt can be a severe problem and was something that both Billy Graham and Charles Templeton faced.
In the late 1940’s, Billy and Charles attended a conference in California where a number of young theologians including Charles were expressing their doubts about the authority of the Bible. They were good friends, both budding evangelists, and they discussed those doubts.
“Suddenly, I wondered if the Bible could be trusted completely,” Billy said in his book “Billy Graham: God’s Ambassador.
Those same doubts eventually caused Charles Templeton to say goodbye to God. It was the 20th century, anti-creationist, scientific community claiming the earth was millions of years old (and later billions of years) that influenced Charles Templeton, who later wrote the book Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith. Sadly, Templeton was not able to distinguish the difference between the observations of scientists and their opinions (scientists with ulterior motives).
In contrast, Billy immediately began to study the subject intensively turning to the Scriptures themselves for guidance. “The Apostle Paul,” Billy said, “wrote to Timothy saying, ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.’ Jesus himself said, ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away but my Word shall not pass away.’ I also thought of Christ’s own attitude, He loved the Scriptures, quoted from them constantly, and never once intimated that they might be false.”
Billy recalls the moment that changed him forever. “That night , I walked out in the moonlight, my heart heavy and burdened. I dropped to my knees and opened my Bible on a tree stump. If the issue was not settled soon, I knew I could not go on. ‘Oh God, I prayed, ‘there are many things in this book I do not understand. But God, I am going to accept this book as Your Word by faith. I’m going to allow my faith to go beyond my intellect and believe that this is Your inspired Word.’ From that moment on I have never doubted God’s Word. When I quote the Bible, I believe I am quoting the very Word of God and there’s power in it.
This all occurred one month before his very successful Los Angeles crusade which marked a decisive turning point in his ministry. The Los Angeles rally pushed him onto the national scene. A lifetime of ministry has followed and even in his 90’s Billy is still impacting the world for God.
The Bible is God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation and the Apostle John’s last words in the book of Revelation are warning enough to those that reject the authority of scripture.
“For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22: 18,19
Jeremiah 600 BC said:
” ‘For behold , the days are coming, says the Lord’, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it”. Jeremiah 30:3
“Hear the word of the Lord, O Nations, And declare it in the isles afar off, and say HE who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd does his flock”. Jeremiah 31:10
The message itself is simple. First it was God who scattered Israel (from their own land). Second the same God who scattered Israel is now regathering them (to their own land). Third God will not merely regather them; HE will also keep (protect) them. Thus the ultimate safety of Israel is guaranteed by God.
Another remarkable prophecy concerning Israel’s regathering is made by Isaiah 750 BC:
“Those who war against you shall be as nothing, As a non-existent thing. For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand.” Isaiah 41: 12,13
When Israel declared itself a Nation on May 14, 1948, the armies of seven Arab nations marched in defiance against her, boasting that they would push the Jews into the sea. Outnumbered 100 to 1, Israel not only repelled the invaders but acquired more of Palestine than was granted in the UN partition plan. Many miracles occurred as Biblical tactics were employed.
One of the greatest military feats in history was the 1967 War. The Arabs again boasted they would destroy Israel. However in six days Israel overran the combined forces of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and took the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, the West Bank (Samaria and Judea), and the Sinai.
Psalm 129: 5,6 and Psalm 125:3 reinforce what Isaiah declared.
“Let all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back. Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up”
“For the sceptre of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous ….”
‘The sceptre of the wicked’ is I believe an accurate description of Islam.
Finally Psalm 33: 8-12 is an unequivocal declaration that it is God’s Word that brought the world into being; and that it is the same Word that directs the course of history. Nations and their governments may hold their councils and issue their decrees, but whenever these are in opposition to God’s prophetic Word, they will come to nothing.
“Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His inheritance.”
As the surrounding darkness increases, the light of biblical prophecy grows correspondingly brighter. It is the only reliable source of information concerning the Middle East. Whilst bible prophecy signals tough times ahead for Israel we do know that God will fulfill all His counsel and His promises. The critical point of the Lord’s revelation to Israel is prophetically depicted in Zechariah 12:10
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieves for a firstborn.”
Two chapters further on, Zechariah pictures the actual return of the Messiah, JESUS in person on the Mount of Olives.
Why does God often feel more like a doctrine we know about than a Person we know? Why do so many of us think of Christianity as a lifestyle to which we conform, rather than a God with whom we commune?
Jesus gave his disciples the audacious promise that it was to their advantage he go back to heaven because the Holy Spirit could then come to live inside of them. How many of us consider our connection to the Holy Spirit so strong and so real that we would call his presence in us better than Jesus beside us?
In his book and in this video Pastor Jason Greear explains how any follower of Jesus can have a satisfying, powerful relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.
As we approach Christmas, this beautiful rendition by Pentatonix is a wonderful reminder of who JESUS is and what He has done and is still to do.
Jesus is coming again and when He does it is to rule and reign. Do you know him as your Lord and Saviour? Do you know His Father as your heavenly Father? Do you have the Holy Spirit within you as your comforter, counselor and teacher producing the fruit of the spirit in your life – love, joy, peace, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness, goodness, patience and self control. If you do, you are truly living eternal now.
May you know His love, peace and joy this Christmas.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 