Has God Forsaken the Jews?

Along with the mistaken idea that all Jews will be saved, there's the opposite error preached by some that God has forsaken his chosen people. Had these people read all the passages in the Bible, they'd see that some will indeed be saved.

As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 9:27 (KJV), "Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:"

There's also the mention of these people in Revelation 12:17 (KJV) which says, "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Knowledgeable students will realize that chapter twelve is a recapitulation of Christ's time on earth. When he was born, Herod wanted him dead but Joseph and Mary took him to Egypt. The flood of waters was the soldiers which were sent to kill all infant boys two years or younger. Christ became the one who was taken up to heaven and will rule all the nations with a rod of iron.

I also agree with Hank Hanegraaff that The Revelation of John the Divine was written for the seven churches of Asia Minor during the first century, not to twenty-first century North Americans. John wrote the book in a code which only Jews would understand. Therefore many passages allude to Old Testament scriptures as an analogy of what would SHORTLY come to pass.

The utter destruction of Jerusalem was the fulfillment  of what Christ prophesied about the people of his generation. Matthew 23:35 (KJV) records him as saying, "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar."

This is such a vast topic that I'll save the details for my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? People come up with the weirdest ideas from the Bible because they read it literally rather than literately. And as rock singer Larry Norman sang about doubters of Scripture, "I bet they all own a Bible that's never been read.

Where is Hell?

Now that I've dealt with what hell is, the next question to answer is where it is.

Many people believe that it's down somewhere since the Bible uses that metaphor. One such verse is Deuteronomy 32:22 (KJV) in which God says, "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."

Though the centre of the earth is hot enough to melt any element, it isn't the actual location of hell. That's because it's not a physical location but a spiritual dimension. The same is true of Heaven. We know this from scriptures which describe Enoch and Elijah being taken into heaven without dying.

As it's written in Hebrews 11:5 (KJV), "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." I trust that nothing was lost in the translation.

Likewise, 2 Kings 2:11 (KJV) states, "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."

And as Hank Hanegraaff shrewdly pointed out, spirits have zero mass. Therefore they take up no physical space. Asking where hell is located would be like asking what the colour blue tastes like.

Though the Bible doesn't give us the physical location of hell, in that it isn't a physical place, it's quite clear on who goes there after death. This is why I feel compelled to write my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? This is thee question we all must deal with. Once I get out of debt, I will save up to pay for its publication.

Why Do Gospel Accounts differ?

This is one of those questions which atheists use to stump Christians. They think that because there are differences in numbers of people or different dates which events happened on that it invalidates the gospels.

Christians who haven't studied scripture and listened to excellent Bible scholars such as Hank Hanegraaff and John MacArthur are at a distinct disadvantage. They don't realize that two of the gospels were eyewitness accounts and the other two were written by friends of eyewitnesses.

As I tweeted to one atheist, "think court. Judges look for similarities in witness testimonies, not discrepancies." Only prosecutors seek inconsistencies but that's not the way to understand scripture.

It doesn't matter that there were one or two demon-possessed men from whom  Christ cast out the legion of evil spirits. The point is that it happened.

Some atheists stump naive believers with the two names for where Christ was crucified. The fact is that Calvary and Golgotha are the same names for the location of Christ's crucifixion but they are derived from different languages.

The purpose for including or not including stories must be understood as well. Matthew wrote to Jewish believers while Mark wrote to Gentiles. John sought to show Christ's deity while Luke was an investigative reporter.

This post is getting long so suffice it to say that the gospels don't contradict each other. Had they been exact copies, people could cite collusion between the authors.

Thanks to good Bible scholars and their radio shows, I've learned so much. Learn what I learned, and what I had to unlearn, by purchasing How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Written in narrative form, it shows how I was led out of error and into truth.

Where is God Anyway?

I've heard that a Soviet cosmonaut once quipped that he couldn't see God when he was in orbit. Whatever people think, the Bible has the right answers to our questions.

We know that God lives in heaven but that he is also omnipresent. But how can he be in heaven and also everywhere at once?

Hank Hanegraaff has a plausible and logical explanation. He believes that heaven and our universe are superimposed on each other. Both are separated by a dimensional division. When Christ returns, this separation will be abolished and heaven will become part of the new creation.

The Bible also mentions three places called heaven or the heavens. Our atmosphere is described as one heaven, particularly when Christ said he'd be riding the clouds of heaven at his second coming.

Space is the second heaven. Scripture often speaks of the stars of heaven or the heavens pouring forth praise.
God's throne is also said to be in another heaven, apart from this sin-cursed universe.

The only way to reconcile him being omnipresent and also in one place is to realize that it's a metaphor. God condescends to our finite understanding by describing spiritual realities in ways we can relate to, hence the throne analogy.

The Apostle Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Wherever we are, we who trust in God and have surrendered our lives to him enter his presence at death. Logically, spirits have zero mass so the idea of heaven being somewhere is a category mistake.

I'm eternally grateful to the Lord for leading me out of toxic, soul-destroying doctrines and into his How I Was Razed book describes the glorious journey on which he led me. Contact me for details on how to purchase this remarkable memoir.

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Where is God Anyway?

I've heard that a Soviet cosmonaut once quipped that he couldn't see God when he was in orbit. Whatever people think, the Bible has the right answers to our questions.

We know that God lives in heaven but that he is also omnipresent. But how can he be in heaven and also everywhere at once?

Hank Hanegraaff has a plausible and logical explanation. He believes that heaven and our universe are superimposed on each other. Both are separated by a dimensional division. When Christ returns, this separation will be abolished and heaven will become part of the new creation.

The Bible also mentions three places called heaven or the heavens. Our atmosphere is described as one heaven, particularly when Christ said he'd be riding the clouds of heaven at his second coming.

Space is the second heaven. Scripture often speaks of the stars of heaven or the heavens pouring forth praise.

God's throne is also said to be in another heaven, apart from this sin-cursed universe.

The only way to reconcile him being omnipresent and also in one place is to realize that it's a metaphor. God condescends to our finite understanding by describing spiritual realities in ways we can relate to, hence the throne analogy.

The Apostle Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Wherever we are, we who trust in God and have surrendered our lives to him enter his presence at death. Logically, spirits have zero mass so the idea of heaven being somewhere is a category mistake.

I'm eternally grateful to the Lord for leading me out of toxic, soul-destroying doctrines and into his truth. My How I Was Razed book describes the glorious journey on which he led me. Contact me for details on how to purchase this remarkable memoir.

THE OLSTEENIFICATION OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY

Hank Hanegraaf of The Bible Answer Man radio show has done a brave thing. He's dared to challenge the cultic teaching of such Christian megastars as Joel Olsteen, Joyce Meyer, and Joseph Prince. Why? Because life and truth matter.

These three superstars of evangelical Christianity teach that you can create your own reality by speaking things into existence. If you want a big house, just positively confess it and you'll get it. Likewise, when you negatively confess something, you attract tragedy to yourself. This is a reprehensible recipe for the destruction of naive Christians' faith. When disaster does strike, the poor victim is to blame. This results in that person rejecting Christianity through having the wrong idea about who God is.

I fell for the same satanic nonsense more than forty years ago. Elders at the church kept nagging me to get healed and to keep my faith up. When my eyes weren't healed but grew worse, I turned my back on the heavenly Father for nine years. I eventually realized that it was that diabolical word of faith nonsense that separated me from my Lord and Saviour.

In addition to preaching the dangerous doctrine of the Word Faith movement, these hugely-popular preachers demote God to the status of a mere miracle-vending machine and elevate humans to the status of God.  Just as in Genesis chapter three, these people are convincing gullible believers that they will be as God. If that isn't blasphemy, I don't know what is.

Having read through the Bible more than seventeen times, I can't help but notice that not everybody who was faithful to the Lord lived in luxury. In fact, Hebrews chapter eleven paints an entirely different picture. From Abel to the first-century Christians, those who followed God often suffered or died for their beliefs. Did they let a negative word slip and doom themselves. No way did they ever do that! God's providence worked through their persecution to temper their faith and reprove the world. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "And we are conscious that all things are working together for good to those who have love for God, and have been marked out by his purpose."

So if you hear some preacher saying you can have whatever you want and that this could be your best life now, run for your eternal life. Satan wants people to trust in material possessions and physical health rather than trusting whole-heartedly in the providential care of the heavenly Father. Don't let these false shepherds lure you with promises of power and authority over your circumstances. They will have to answer for the lives they ruined at the day of judgement.

The Olsteenification of American Christianity is available from the equip.org site in paperback and audio version, the latter being read by the author, Hank Hanegraaff. This book will open your spiritual eyes to the wicked plans of Word Faith preachers as well as inform you of the biblical truth.

How I Was Razed would make an excellent companion book to The Olsteenification of American Christianity. It shows how cruel the elders of an aberrant church were to disabled folks and how God rescued me from their evil influence. Visit Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers for more.

CHRISTIAN TALK SHOW HOST REVEALS MARK OF THE BEAST

To almost everybody who has read the last book of the Bible, the mark of the beast is a mystery. Furthermore, many teachers and preachers have widely diverging notions of what it is. In all the welter of suppositions, one answer stands out as the most logical reading of Revelation and its mysterious imagery.

In The Apocalypse Code, Hank Hanegraaff reveals the key to understanding John's letter to the seven churches in Asia.  Knowing the other sixty-five books of the Bible is what decodes this mysterious book, writes Hanegraaff.

According to The Apocalypse Code, the mark of the beast was a mark of character. Just as the mark of the lamb was a mark of Christ-like behaviour on the part of believers, so the mark of the beast was a worldly attitude displayed by non-believers.

Unfortunately for those unskilled in biblical exegesis, many divergent ideas have been proposed by teachers and preachers today. Some say it's a microchip implanted in people's hands and foreheads. Others claim it's a spiritual mark which people receive for worshipping God on Sunday instead of Saturday. The errant teacher at a house church I attended for fifteen years claimed it was a tattoo visible only under ultraviolet light.

Hanegraaff's Apocalypse Code book clears up the muddle of ideas by noting that the books of the Bible were written to the people of the times when it was written. Though we learn much from these writings, they weren't written directly to us. Therefore, we must keep the customs and history of each book's readers in mind when reading scriptures.

Because I wasn't taught discernment skills when I gave my life over to Christ in 1969, I believed many errant and blasphemous doctrines. I wrote about how God led me to his marvelous truth in How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Visit Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers to read more about this glorious testimony of God's faithfulness.

DOOMSDAY? WHAT DOOMSDAY?

Every once and a while, Jehovah's Witnesses come around to people's houses with their message of a coming doomsday. They cite Bible verses that appear to predict dire consequences for the people of this planet. In fact, this theological cult has predicted worldwide disaster for more than a century. Each time their predictions fail, their leaders set a new date. But will this world end with apocalyptic plagues, falling meteors, and the deaths of millions in a global war? Up until this year, I believed that a time of tribulation would precede the return of Jesus Christ to this world. Hank Hanegraaff, the president of the Christian Research Institute, has convinced me that all these dire predictions are based on a misreading of The Revelation of John the Divine. According to The Apocalypse Code, the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the terrible persecution of Christians by Emperor Nero was the great tribulation. Hanegraaff further explained in his book that John's descriptions of the sun turning black, the moon turning blood red, and the stars falling from heaven are symbolic, not literal events. Similar language has been used by various Old Testament prophets to describe the fall of empires Similarly, the mark of the beast isn't some sort of RFID chip or tattoo, as many "end times" pundits claim. The mark of the beast and the mark of the lamb are metaphors for character. Those who had the mark of the beast were wicked and unbelieving people who refused the gospel message. They were easily recognized for their opposition to Christians proclaiming salvation through Christ. Believers were also recognized by their behaviour. The great red dragon in Revelation chapter twelve wasn't communism or Islam but a picture of Satan's attempt to kill the Christ child. The woman mentioned was Israel and the flood was the soldiers of Herod searching for Jesus. The key to Revelation is to understand that book by the other sixty-five in the Bible. It was written to the seven churches in Asia and the message was of what would soon take place. Nobody in the first century could possibly guess the identity of a twenty-first century antichrist. Therefore, Hanegraaff says that six-hundred, threescore, and six are the numbers indicating the name of Nero. I could write much more about the false and true interpretation of Revelation but I'll leave it for The Bible Answer Man to do. Check out www.equip.org for details about The Apocalypse Code and other resources.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST.

What is this "mark of the beast" that so many preachers talk about? It comes from Revelation 13:16-17 which reads, "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." The host of The Bible Answer Man radio program, Hank Hanegraaff, recently explained that this mark was a metaphor of character, not some sort of RFID chip or tattoo as many teachers claim. This interpretation makes logical sense as John's letter, which is the last book of the Bible, was written to seven first-century churches. It has no prophetic relationship to twenty-first century believers, with the exception of Christ's return. In my upcoming How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity memoir, I wrote about the erroneous explanation that the minister of the house church gave us and how it frightened me in May of 1974. ----------------------------------------------------------------- As with that explanation, I accepted everything else which Brother Herald taught as gospel. During one Bible study in Revelation, he informed us about the mark of the beast beginning its advance. "My son, Brian, was approached by some promoters of the mark at his job in Fort McMurray," he began. "They wanted him to sell their tattoo banking machines for them." He opened his Bible as he continued, "It says in Revelation, chapter thirteen, verse sixteen, that no man may buy or sell unless he has the mark in his hand or forehead. These machines tattoo a person's right hand with numbers which glow in ultraviolet light. It's pretty hard to misplace your hand, whereas credit cards are easily lost or stolen." While we absorbed that, he continued, "Brian informed me about this and I told him it was nothing less than the mark. He told those men never to come back with their satanic machines or he'd bust their faces." A chill of fear shot through me. "Will it come to Edmonton soon?" I asked. "I believe it will, and it will come quickly," Brother Herald replied. The chain stores will soon own every aspect of food supply. The banks already want people to use the MasterCharge cards so it will condition them to accept the mark. This is why we must save up food for the day when we can't buy it in the stores." ----------------------------------------------------------------- How I Was Razed is the testimony of how God revealed his true character to me after charismatic house church elders misled me for more than fifteen years. You're welcome to contact me directly for more information about this upcoming paperback.