Our Sunday School class offers an alternate focus on an issue of current relevance. Last year one discussion featured a study of Mark 1:15:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
Each of these phrases may have a new and deeper meaning…
The time is fulfilled. Peter would say, “beloved, be not ignorant…one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack…the day of the Lord will come.” 2 Pet 3:8-10. Pioneers believed that the end-time apocalyptic period, “the day of the Lord,” would come after 6,000 years because God gives man six days to do all his work, Exodus 20:9.
Ussher’s Chronology supports 6,000 years as completed by 2000 AD, confirmed by Sir Isaac Newton’s chronology and also by science:
“May 5, 2000: The date that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn [lined up] with the sun and moon—the first time in 6,000 years.” TIME Magazine, Jan 17, 2000.
That was ten years ago; why is it relevant now? Because of the context of the Bible’s solar system alignment. “The sun, moon and stars made obeisance” to Joseph. His brothers didn’t like his dreams and they sold him as a slave. But after seven good years, there were seven bad years when his brothers came and bowed to him like the stars in his dream. Since 2000, we had seven good years, but the seven bad years may have started in 2008.
On 14 August 1791, a black slave and witch doctor named Boukman led the slaves in a voodoo ritual. They sacrificed a pig and drank its blood to form a pact with the devil, whereby they agreed to serve the spirits of the island for 200 years in exchange for freedom from the French. An iron statue of a pig stands in Port-au-Prince to commemorate the ”Boukman Contract”.
“Haiti’s former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is a former Catholic priest who gained notoriety with the Catholic Church and popularity in Haiti in the late 1980s on account of his liberation theology.
On April 2003, President Aristide made voodoo an official religion in Haiti declaring, “voodoo is an essential part of national identity.”Haiti is reckoned as being 95% Christian (80-85% Catholic), but according to Catholic missionary John Hoet, Haitians “are 100% voodoo.”When people make a pact with the devil, God does not interfere with their choice. He is a “gentleman” in the sense of giving us freedom of choice. And if we shut Him out, we have only ourselves to blame for what may come… For a look at what may come, please visit a Future Forecast on Haiti, Voodoo and Catholicism. It also has an interesting insight on economy…
1. Drugs offer relief of symptoms that gives an illusion of being okay. You don’t have to be as careful about what you eat. Your blood sugar, blood pressure or cholesterol will still be okay.
2. Drugs do not cure disease. If they did, you wouldn’t have to keep going back to the doctor.
3. Drugs usually have a long list of adverse effects that people would never guess possible.
A purple pill (heal the damage) has 120 side effects listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference.
4. Our bodies don’t have a chemical deficiency supplied by the drug, and they become toxic to it sooner or later. Then they go to their doctor for the “headache, diarrhea, or abdominal pain” for an additional prescription instead of quitting the one that caused it. They are now at risk for www.LeadingCauseOfDeathPrescriptionDrugs.com (visit for more information)
Repent means to have a change of mind, like the man who sold all that he had to buy the field of treasure in Matt 13:44. In every age it has meant something different. In Noah’s time the gospel meant being saved from the flood. For Abraham, it meant land, in Moses’ day, it was deliverance from bondage. Christ offered eternal life. The good news is better for us—all of the above! So how do we cash in and make it ours? Visit www.Exodus2.info for more…
PS: If you live in America and celebrate your freedom, please visit http://tinyurl.com/mqswjf to see a video that a friend is risking his life to share, and pass it on.
The gospel is the good news, and in every age it has meant something different. In Noah’s time, it meant being saved from the Flood. Abraham was offered land, in Moses’ day, it was an exodus from bondage. Christ offered eternal life. The good news is better for us—all of the above and higher reward–”ruler over all that He has” if we are ready for what’s coming. For a better understanding, visit http://Exodus2.info and if you like what you read (it’s brief) click on the link at the bottom for a handout you can share. Thank you!
June 1 (Bloomberg) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand for a halt to all construction in West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu, who spoke at a meeting of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said a call by the U.S. to stop all so-called natural growth in existing settlements was unreasonable.
“The LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” Genesis 15:18. It was a unilateral covenant in which Abraham went to sleep and only God (as a burning lamp) passed between the sacrifice, meaning that God alone has the obligation to provide the land to Abraham’s descendents.
But before God acts, He says, “I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity… Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations.” Zechariah 14:2,3
Solomon’s Temple and Herod’s Temple both burned on the 10th day of the 5th Jewish month (Jeremiah 52:12; Josephus) which is why many Jews fast on the 9th of Av. Maybe we should too, on August 2?
President Obama said, “Israel must move quickly to resume peace talks with the Palestinians and insisted that negotiations start from an existing agreement.” USA Today, May 12, 2009.
This is like forcing an engaged couple to marry when something convinces one of them that it would be impossible to live peaceably. No one knows better than someone who makes serious concessions, only to find that more and more is required, that it is not a good deal. We believe in democracy, and Mr. Natanyahu is reflecting those who have to live with the results of this decision. Can we not respect that we are living in a time of prophecy and we are pushing “all [United] nations” Zech 14:2?
Richard Ruhling
www.PopesVisit.net
If so, there will be a huge earthquake (Joel 3:16), but why would the Lion of Judah roar?
- A peace accord is the missing ingredient in the Middle East and it may constitute what is needed to fulfill 1 Thessalonians 5:2,3–“the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them.” “The day of the Lord” is not about the 2nd coming, but the apocalyptic period leading to it, which most scholars say will be seven years.
- Earthquake is linked to several “day of the Lord” passages in Hebrew Scripture and could cause the “sudden destruction” in the text above, Joel 2:10,11; Zephaniah 1:7,10; Zechariah 14:1,5. Earthquake is also how the church of Laodicea (where Christ “knocked” in Revelation 3:20) ended. Type/antitype? read more…
Smith-Glaxo is merging with Pfizer. This is news note one of about 7,810,000 for mergers and acquisitions on a Google search on mergers and acquisitions. Maybe the “Great Teacher” understood more than we know? In His parable on wheat and tares (weeds), He said,
“Gather together first the tares and bind them in bundles…as, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world.” Matthew 13:30,40.
Do we think He would change His mind about drugs or greedy business practices today?
In the book that is said to be “the Revelation of Jesus Christ,” it says, “Babylon is fallen…come out of her, my people, that you partake not of her sins and receive not of her plagues….for by her sorceries [pharmekeia] were all nations deceived.” Revelation 18:2,4,23. The Bible is ahead of us–see http://www.squidoo.com/RxDrugsCauseDeath
