Billy Graham on the Authority of Scripture

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Billy-Graham

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

ISRAEL’S FUTURE FORETOLD AND ASSURED

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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.

Live a Holy Spirit Empowered Life

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Jesus Continued

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.

http://video.christianpost.com/the-holy-spirit-inside-of-you-is-better-than-jesus-beside-you-1-5-6418/

 

 

Jesus will rule the Nations

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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.

The Only Gateway to a Relationship with your Creator

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Jesus on Cross

Belief in Jesus as Saviour is the only gateway to a relationship with God.

“Jesus  said to Thomas, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by me.” John 14:6.

This connection with Jesus (our Lord and Saviour) through faith brings forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and a friendship with God – surely the ultimate goal of every person.

Marijuana is widely regarded as a “gateway” drug, which leads some users to experiment with more serious drugs. In a similar way, every time we commit a “gateway” sin, our sin often leads us to engage in other types of sinful behaviour.

Sin becomes a gateway for the human soul to receive “the stuff of hell” rather than “the stuff of heaven” A sinful thought makes it easier to spend more time dwelling on unholy things. Sinful words make it easier to become even more unrighteous in the way we speak. And sinful deeds become a gateway to various types of sinful behaviour.

In that sense , we never really live a “neutral” spiritual life even for a moment. We are either “flowing down the river” of sinful desires, or we are flowing in the wellspring of God’s living water. And the most miserable people on the planet are those who know the Lord, and yet still pursue sins with premeditation. It feels like you are trying to go in two opposite directions. No wonder such behaviour produces deep agony and restlessness within the soul of a believer.

“1. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2. Blessed is the man to whom Jehovah does not charge iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. 3. When I kept silence, my bones became old through my roaring all day long. 4. For by day and by night Your hand was heavy on me; my sap is turned into the drought of summer.” Psalm 32:1-4

In your life today, what is the direction of the spiritual flow?  Do you find yourself diving into those things which God forbids? Or are you enjoying what the Holy Spirit is producing in your heart as a child of God? Where do you find your joy? Is your soul flowing in the direction of sin, or in the direction of God’s will?  Most of us experience the power and flow of the Holy Spirit, as well as the reality of sinful desires. In fact, they are in conflict with each other (see Galatians 5:17). And yet, the victory is ours through Jesus. We are forgiven, and we are motivated by the Holy Spirit to do those things which please the Lord.

True and noble spirituality isn’t merely about what you did yesterday, or what you want to do tomorrow. It’s about the flow right now, in this moment. As we keep our hearts and lives open to the working of the Holy Spirit , our spiritual lives will flow in the direction of peace and righteousness in Christ.

No matter how you slice it. God’s way is the only gateway which leads to soul satisfaction and eternal life.

Extract from article by Pastor Dan Delzell, Why Every Sin is a ‘Gateway’ Sin in The Christian Post.

Darwin’s destructive influence on the world.

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Apostate - The men

The fact that Christianity has lost an enormous amount of cultural influence in Europe, America and even Australia is without dispute. A recent book, Apostate – The Men who Destroyed the Christian West documents how and why the decline and fall of Western Christian civilization occurred.

Charles Darwin is of course the dominant person on the list of men who destroyed the Christian west.

Darwinian Evolution theories now dominate at least 99% of higher education in America, only 1% of all public and private universities maintain a God centered epistemology and metaphysics in the matter of origins. In 1850 (before Darwin and the Theory of Evolution) virtually all leading scientists and philosophers were Christian men. The world they inhabited was created by God. He had created wise laws that brought about the adaption of all organisms to one another and to their environment. The basic principles proposed by Darwin stand in total conflict with this worldview.

Eliminating God from science enabled Godlessness to prevail everywhere, in classrooms, media, entertainment and politics. Charles Darwin’s naturalistic materialism has so changed the Western metaphysics that the average person hardly senses God’s providential interaction with the world, let alone His existence. The Southern Baptist denomination reports 88% of children raised in Christian families leave the church as soon as they leave home (p. 254)

Swanson concludes: “the impact that Charles Darwin has had on the lives of hundreds of millions of Christian families is overwhelming. It is an undeniable fact that the Christian faith was far stronger 150 years ago in Europe and America. Now their 21st century grandchildren are pagans, atheists, homosexuals, witches and atheist scientists. The sheer number that will be in hell because of Charles Darwin’s commitment to ‘murder God’ is too much – and too tortuous to fathom.” (p. 142).

The other men Swanson says played a role in the decline of Christianity, Hitler, Karl Marx, John Dewey, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, , Friedrich Nietzsche were all powerfully influenced by Charles Darwin.

As stated in my last post, sadly leaders of the largest Church denominations have unwittingly accepted Evolution as fact and distorted Scripture to fit, with disastrous consequences. Fortunately, God has raised up organisations such as Creation Ministries to equip His Church with powerful resources such as the recent “Evolution’s Achilles’Heels” to counter this threat. Check out this valuable resource on http://www.creation.com.

 

Pope Francis leading Catholics astray on evolution.

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Pope-Francis

Sadly Pope Francis on October 27th, 2015 in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences address in Italian clearly indicated he accepts evolution and the billions-of-years timescale. This is not surprising, since the Catholic church has accepted evolution for about fifty years now.

The Vatican quotes Pope Francis:

“When we read in Genesis the account of Creation, we risk imagining God as a magus, with a magic wand able to make everything. But that is not so. (Pope Francis is saying here that God is not able to create ex nihilo as He so clearly claims). He created beings and allowed them to develop according to the internal laws that He gave to each one, so that they were able to develop and arrive at their fullness of being. …(through natural selection, survival of the fittest, pain and death). And so creation continued for centuries, millenia and millenia until it became which we know today, precisely because God is not a demiurge or conjurer but the Creator who gives being to all things……..”

The Bible clearly states that the world was perfect when God created it with Adam and Eve present at the beginning of creation. There was no death in the world until Adam and Eve sinned. Pope Francis however contradicts the clear reading of scripture by accepting evolution’s death and suffering before Adam and Eve.

Unfortunately for Catholics, their sole authority isn’t Scripture, but the Church, which is the only ‘infallible interpreter’ of Scripture according to their theology.

And yet when we look to Peter who they consider their ‘first pope’, we see that his attitude toward the biblical account of origins is very different to that of Pope Francis his supposed successor.

“…scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation’. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and that the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and then perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” 2 Peter 3:3-7.

In Peter’s proclamation we see first of all a complete acceptance of the biblical history of the world. And Scripture is his starting point, not other ideas in the culture. Peter points us to Genesis which states that the world was created from water by the Word of God. The world was destroyed by God with a world-wide flood. We know from creation geology models that a catastrophe of this scale would account for the geological layers containing all sorts of fossils with evidence of carnivory, cancer and thorns – because it’s a record of the post – Fall world. And if a year-long global catastrophe explains the majority of the fossil record, there is no room for millions of years of earth history.

In contrast to Pope Francis, Peter stands on the firm foundation of Scripture. I hope you and your church do so as well.

Extract from article by :Lita Cosner on The Pope on Evolution 1st Nov 2014, http://www.creation.com

Reflections on The Gathering

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Gathering in Jerusalem

As mentioned in the previous report it is difficult to describe what God is doing with these Gatherings. They started in Canada with God raising up Watchmen for the Nations to gather a remnant from that nation to unite in John 17 unity to fulfill His purposes.

When Watchmen for the Nations began to prophesy that God was going to use Canada to bring healing to other nations particularly Israel, it seemed impossible, but then transformation began  with constant prayer being offered up in the nation’s capital.

The liberal government was replaced by the Conservative Party with Stephen Harper, a committed Christian as their new Prime Minister. A group from ICCC Canada also played an important role in bringing repentance and unity between the indigenous people’s – First Nations and the Inuits.

Stephen Harper initiated the nation to repent of turning away almost 1,000 Jews on the MS St Louis in 1939 and recently vowed to stand with the nation of Israel during their current trials.

Watchmen for the Nations next call was to China and the first Gathering took place in 2010 with 3,000 in attendance in Hong Kong, 6,000 attended in 2011, 12,000+ in 2102 and 24,000 in 2013. Through the “Kingdom Come” DVD’s and CD’s (www.asiagathering.hk), you can experience the journey of the 2012 Gathering. God has led believers from more than twenty nations to affirm the leadership role He has called the Chinese to play in His end time purposes on earth.

Chinese Christians believe God put them through over 40 years of persecution under Mao to prepare them for a final three Silk Roads evangelism effort back to Jerusalem. These evangelists  go as Jesus sent his disciples just one pair of shoes. The passion Chinese Christians exhibited at The Gathering in Jerusalem put me to shame.

The Gathering in Japan in July was another watershed event with 3,000 in attendance. The Japanese Christians believe that God sent many Christians from other nations to break open the demonic stronghold over Japan. They saw themselves as the lame man who was lowered down in front of Jesus after they had broken open the roof of the house. The timing of the Gathering – 70 years after the end of World War 2 was also considered significant. The Japanese Christians now believe that God has finally released them to take part in the final evangelism effort being launched by the Chinese. A friend of mine reported that a breakthrough was achieved on the second night with the praise and worship reaching new heights.

Where will the next Gathering take place? I can now confirm that the next Gathering will be in Kobe Japan in 2015 to follow up the one in July of this year. I am still praying that God will bless Australia with one.

Upcoming Trip to Athens and Jerusalem.

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ICCC Athens Conf

I am attending two important events in October and November. The first starts this week in Athens. It is the International Christian Chamber of Commerce Conference, “Possessing The Land – It’s Time”. I hope to post reports on this Conference next week.

Last year ICCC was forced to re-evaluate what God wanted of us when He took both the President and Vice President home unexpectedly.

ICCC is not alone among Christian organisations and churches that are being shaken like this at their very foundations.

I was part of a Leadership Conference in Cyprus in February when the new International Board shared with the ICCC Boards of the Nations their vision for the future. This has now been fine tuned and will be presented at the Athens Conference under the banner “POSSESSING THE LAND – IT’S TIME”. I am excited about what God will do at this conference and of course the opportunity to meet up with many good friends. Watch this space for the reports I will post as time permits.

Gathering in Jerusalem822-banner

The second meeting I am attending which is a very important one is the 822 Gathering in Jerusalem November 10th to 13th.

“At this kairos hour, the Lord is calling forth a remnant, a representation of the family of believers worldwide, to come together as one new man in Jerusalem. In the power of unity submitted fully to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we will stand in the gap and decree that the hour has come for the bride of Christ to wake up and to make herself ready for her bridegroom”.

check out the website http://www.822call.org.

In between the two conferences I am joining a tour “The Hidden Treasures of Israel” sponsored by Kingdom Builders and the Australian friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from Nov 2nd until Nov 10th. It also promises to be an exciting time.

I look forward to sharing with you insights into what God is doing at the “late hour”.

 

A Palestinian, now Israeli diplomat provides understanding and hope

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This young man’s story sheds immense light on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the only possible solution. It gave me fresh insight and hope. It is a 30 minute presentation, but once you start, you will watch it to the end. A must see video.