A day off before The Day that is coming soon.

It’s been a great two weeks from Fire Valley State Park in Nevada to Palm Desert, CA, to Scottsdale, AZ, (more in pics to come of amazing sights of sites), but it’s left me unprepared to present the blog I wanted to on EMPs.  So that will come next Saturday.  Lots to read and digest to understand this threat to our nation and to the world on top of all I have already researched.

But for Christ-followers, do not be afraid.  It is still Father’s world and He seems to be getting ready to tell Jesus, “Enough! Go get our people and start the final countdown to the New Heavens and New Earth.”  History is not repeating itself.  It is heading for a climax after 6000+ years of rebellion against the Creator, and it will be important to be ready.

In Luke 21:25-28 Jesus said, “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.  For the powers of the heavens will be shaken…  Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Hallelujah!  Maranatha!  Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Training Camp for Heaven

Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and for most things, these involve training.  Our spiritual performance is no different.  We must train ourselves for Heaven the same way we would train for a marathon or athletic performance.  It is not that we will “perform” in Heaven as we would at an Olympic competition, but how we live here on earth is preparation for our eternal life.

The transformation when we leave this world, either by Jesus’ second coming or by our “graduation” when we die, will be profound.  We will be changed, but only based on what we are now; we will not be changed from animals to angels; from created to uncreated; from finite to infinite; from air-breathing to carbon-monoxide-breathing; from free-willed individuals to slaves in the new world.  We will still have free will!

The idea of Heaven not having temptations because of the devil’s absence is inadequate to explain the purity we will enjoy there.  The two other sources of temptation will still be with us, the world and the flesh.  In fact, if the new Heaven and earth is as magnificent as Randy Alcorn teaches in his book called Heaven, I suspect there will be more temptation there than in this decrepit universe with all its ugliness and filth.  Add that we will still have bodies, and though “glorified” like Jesus’ resurrection body, it will still be flesh and bone.  Might we need to do some “remedial training” when we reach our Home or will we be ready to judge angels?  The Scripture teaches that we must be as disciplined as any athlete or soldier.

So what will be so different that we will not yield to temptation?  Actually, if we remember, temptation is NOT sin, it is likely we will still “feel” temptation.  The difference will be our history here, that we have been “trained in righteousness.”

Like children learning to walk, our resistance to temptation now on this earth should be training us that NOT yielding to whatever physical whim our “ids” promote is better and more rewarding than sinning.  So in the new age, on a new earth, with Jesus present with us, the main reason we will not yield to temptation will be the maturity of “walking as He walked,” as “in His steps,” in service to one another and the pleasure of knowing we are without sin.

Visiting with C.M. Ward once, he spoke of the delight of traveling all around the USA.  While he missed his family, the one thing he enjoyed was the crisp clean sheets every night in his hotel rooms.  This was before environmental warriors convinced us we could save the planet by foregoing this travel luxury.

He noted that there was only a little fun in getting dirty, but that the higher joy came from a hot cleansing shower and crisp clean sheets in which to sleep.  In the same way, once we have matured enough to enjoy CLEAN, why would we ever go back to the mud-pit of sin⁉️  The Bible even describes habitual sin as a dog eating its own vomit‼️ YUCCCK‼️ Maturing in Christ means growing up to a stature that besetting sins no longer attract us.

Are you really satisfied from the emptiness of lust and porn?  Does gluttony really satisfy the hunger of your heart for good health and spiritual food?  Do you enjoy eruptive anger at others; does your bitterness feed your soul or deplete it?  Will lazing around in bed when there are things that need our attention make us feel more accomplished?  Do we really think pilfering that extra money will make us content?  Will electing “our” candidate make us less anxious, as though he/she will bring peace to the Middle East, protect out lifestyle, ensure a prosperous America and protect the vulnerable?

Socrates said, “It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”  How much worse to grow old and not discover the beauty and power of God’s Holy Spirit in one’s life!  Christ-followers, it is time for us to grow up and live like Jesus.  Ghandi declared once that he loved Jesus, but Christians were another matter.  First called Christians in Antioch, the term was intended to be derisive of “goody-two-shoes” people that acted like “little Christs.”

Anita reminded me of when we visited some friends in Bulgaria and they were teaching Gypsy children basic life lessons: how to read time on a clock, why seasons change, how to multiply and divide.  But as they arrived at the house where the lesson was to be held, the children saw their teachers coming and started calling to others, “Jesus is coming, Jesus is here!”  Maybe if we could be accused of trying so hard to be like Jesus, the world would notice that we were overcoming temptations and becoming “little Christs.”

1 Timothy 3:16

One Week After…

Sometimes it is still hard to believe.  A man who was beaten, scourged with a whip and crucified, pierced with a spear into His left side so that water and blood flowed from His heart, buried in a tomb and left for three days and three nights… NOW, He IS ALIVE⁉️

His own apostles, the eleven who had been with Him for three years and saw the miracles: the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame could walk, Lazarus and others raised from the dead… did not believe at first.
“But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.” (Mark 16:11)
“These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe [the women].” (Luke 24:11)

It wasn’t until I was a teen that I realized how absurd it was to believe someone could arise from the dead, yet Jesus DID just that!!  So what must it have been like one week after the event described in Luke 24?
“Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’  But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.  And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself.  Touch me, and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’  And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.  And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’   They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

“Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.  But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’”

Imagine Jesus coming and going among the disciples for 40 days.  One wonders what He was doing when He was not with them.  Can you imagine the times together when He would open the Old Testament and line by line explain how He had fulfilled over 300 prophecies?!  How slow they were to believe and how dull of mind we are sometimes to understand the Truth!

The apostles and all Jesus’ disciples seemed to have a hard time believing He had risen from the dead.  In Matthew 28, just before the ascension of Jesus, even still some doubted.  We do not know exactly who as the text does not say, but we assume that they changed their minds by the time they saw Jesus ascend, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.  And it leaves us wondering why doesn’t He just appear to each of us that He knows will put our faith in Him?

Everyone gets on Thomas’ case because he would not believe the ten other apostles’ claims that they had seen Jesus until he put his finger into His wounded side and saw the nail-scarred hands himself.  But ALL of the apostles were just as unbelieving when the women first reported Jesus resurrection!  Even after visiting the empty tomb, Peter and John would not believe until Jesus appeared to them.  Thus eight days later, Jesus told them all, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

So that first week must have been a mind-bending one: to see their friend and mentor, having been crucified and buried, now walking and teaching them in a crash course in Old Testament theology!  Yet, the disciples were still quiet and tried to avoid the High Priest and his associates, even going back to fishing in Galilee, in spite of Jesus command to wait in Jerusalem.  Were they just wanting to avoid the authorities who had crucified Jesus?  Were they considering going back to their old profession?  Perhaps this was the meeting He had scheduled with them?

Before being too hard on the apostles, consider that such are we even after God has done amazing things for us.  We have seen healings, been baptized into the Holy Spirit, watched Jesus work miracles in the lives of others.  Some of us have experienced miracles… six strokes and still walking around like a “normal” person and typing blogs.  And yet, at times my faith wavers.  I yield to temptations.  My anger flares up and moments later I have to ask forgiveness from Him, if not the person at whom I was angry.  Don’t I believe He is risen!?  Do you believe He is alive from the dead?  Because He IS.  He is risen, indeed!

The empty tomb was proof enough; the Sadducees and Pharisees could not produce a body to refute it.  The Roman guards who should have been executed for failing to guard the tomb were bribed to keep the strange event quiet… if they even understood what had happened; only that they had failed to keep the tomb closed.

Now it is up to us, one week after the Resurrection to live in light of the Truth that death will not have the last word.  Because He lives, any who place their faith in Him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and confess with their lives that He is Lord, will be saved from sin’s most destructive effect: death.  We who believe in and live for Jesus will also live forever.

Hallelujah, He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!

Linda Holm left this world on December 30, 2023.  Dallas wrote this song to say goodbye… until Forever.

Oneta Hayes is “dancing with Jesus.”

Oneta Hayes is a dear friend and beautiful blogger who has graduated to Heaven: our loss, Heaven’s gain.  I miss her, but will see her again when we meet around our Master’s throne.

Visit her blog and read some of her thoughts from her archives while she was here on earth with us.  Rich theology and cultural views.

Until We Meet Again….

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Roger Hayes for Oneta Hayes

Thank you to each of you who have followed my mother’s blog. Your interactions have been rewarding to her in so many ways. We pray that her words ministered to each of you. We know that in her heart, her intentions were always from love. So let this be a farewell since she is now dancing in Heaven with Jesus. – Roger Hayes and the Hayes Family.

In Loving Memory of Oneta Hayes…

A Toast to Introduce 2024

I was asked to give a toast at our First Alliance Church Boomers’ Gathering on New Years Eve as 2023 passes away and 2024 begins. This is what I said:

Robert Schuller graduated from life on earth in 2015.  In his 2011 autobiography, My Journey, he recounts an accident that almost killed him in August of 1991, when he hit his head on a car door and did not notice any problems until he had passed out in his hotel room.  Ten years later, he wrote about “standing on the edge of tomorrow” and being amazed at what lay ahead of him when he would go to Heaven.

Various family members and friends have also graduated from this life in 2023 and are in Heaven with our Lord.  Some of us may graduate in the next year, and that is not a bad thing.  I sincerely look forward to my own passage, whether through “the veil” or by Jesus’ Glorious Appearing.  We are not suicidal, as though we should interfere with Father’s plans for our departures, but like Paul says in the Common English Bible, “For me, living serves Christ and dying is even better.”

When Jesus comes again, He will establish His kingdom with the capital of His world government in Jerusalem.  And then 1000 years later, He will fold up this universe as one folds up a blanket and create a new universe and a new earth.  Peter described it this way: “In keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”

Thus, moving into 2024 just moves us one year closer to our true Home.  Who knows, beside Yahweh, whether we will be here in 12 months or in Heaven or in Jerusalem?  So until then, we pray for the peace of that city; we pray that He who began the good work in us will will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ; and we pray that we will hold fast to the Hope that is set before us.

So I toast to the edge of tomorrow, to the peace of Jerusalem and to our Hope of living with Him forever.
So my toast for 2024: To Jerusalem and to our Lord Jesus, the Messiah!

The Dechurching of America in 2024

I am not a prophet, but there are trends that anyone can see that can help us prognosticate.

“We are experiencing the largest religious shift in US history – greater than the Great Awakenings, but in the opposite direction.” The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan Burge

First Alliance Church in Lexington, Kentucky is at a cusp of decision as the attendance is topping 1000 almost every Sunday.  Do we try to figure out how to stay in our location, add to the current three meeting times, expand with property across the street, move to a new location and new building?  Hmm, some say these are “good problems” to have.

However, this seems to be unique, even in Lexington.  Many legacy churches in town struggle with budgets, personnel and schedules.  Nationally, attendance at evangelical churches is down as some 40 million (40,000,000) former church-going adults no longer put in an appearance.  The pandemic that taught us we could “attend” online seems to have taken a toll on “in-person” attendance.  Yet, the overall continuing trend in America is toward less church attendance, even “online.” 

The “dechurched” grew gradually over the last few decades, but since the pandemic this shift has become a startling jolt!  If the trend continues to expand, as such trends tend to do, the number of “dechurched” may soon surpass the “unchurched” – those who never attended.

A greater concern addressed in The Great Dechurching is that too many alleged Christ-followers have come to depend on the “wow” appeal of churches to win people to Jesus.  The authors raise the question if we have forgotten what it means to be salt, light and yeast in the world? (Matthew 5:13-14; Matthew 13:33)  Have we succumbed to the succubus of contemporary rock worship performances or flashy sermons complete with videos or textured art presentations to the loss of personally feeling responsible for our next door neighbor’s salvation?

The result of “dechurching” means that for the first time in eighty years, more adults in the USA do not attend church than those that do.  This accelerating of the “dechurching” from the 1990s to now may have many factors, but probably the most influential sociological impact came from the rise of the internet.  While only 20% of American homes had internet service in the late 1990s, connectivity via the web has grown exponentially.  Since 2021 over 90% of homes have access.

Of course, this alone does not explain the “dechurching,” but is a major contributing factor.  Increasing secularization, promoted by the web, grows in the USA as our religious foundations continue to erode.  One of the most significant reverberations of 40,000,000 adding to the more than 100 million (100,000,000) who already do not attend means that less than half of the US population will be attending church services in 2024!

The predictions in the Bible (Zechariah 12:2-3, 14:2) that no nation will stand with Israel at the end of time means that even the USA will abandon our ally.  Christ-followers will continue to support the tiny nation, but “dechurching” will remove the influence of orthodox doctrine that churches teach, and leave the less than half of Americans who still attend church on the outside of the political trends that will eventually lead to our demise as a world leading nation and supporter of democracies such as Israel.

More so, the declining belief in the special status of the Hebrews being God’ chosen people will result in those of us who do believe being ostracized as hateful religious radicals, dangerous to society and a menace to the “acceptable” political order. While there is currently some push back against anti-Semitism, watch for the resistance to decrease and the hatred of Jews, globally, to increase.

Are we as Christ-followers really ready to embrace Paul’s view, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”?  How enamored are we of our McMansions, our worldly comforts and secular “values?”  How can we influence new adherents to commit themselves unreservedly to Jesus and His power to redeem?  How can we “shine as lights” in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation as the Philippian Christians did?

Maybe the “dechurching” of America is a good thing in one way.  As a black background is used by a jeweler to expose the brightness of a diamond, so the changing of America will make those of us who follow Jesus in every aspect of our lives look even more different than we have in the past few decades.  We may have to lose some of the trappings of contemporary society, but it is a society that is going to hell in a handbasket.  Do we really need better “production values” for our worship?  Should the cult of personality dictate who we select for pastors?  Maybe scale back on the investment in hi-tech sound boards and multiple LED screens and spend a little more in training and supporting evangelism and time in prayer?

What is there for us in a culture that worships Barbie, idolizes hypersexed icons, believes that we have to “learn to love ourselves,” and that humans can do anything we set our minds to do?  Is there anything there that we would really want to take to Heaven with us? Is there anyone you would like to see go to Heaven with you? Have you told them of your desire?

All I want in Heaven is to see Jesus and live with Him for eternity with others who will have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Happy New Year. Maybe next year in Jerusalem⁉️

Christmas 2023 in New England – Wish I Was There!

The Mid-Tribulation Letter from One Who Missed the Rapture – from “The Mark” by Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins

To: The beloved tribulation saints scattered to the four corners of the earth, believers in the one true Yahweh God and His matchless Son, Jesus the Christ, our Savior and Lord.
From: Your servant, Tsion Ben-Judah, blessed by the Lord with the unspeakable privilege of teaching you, under the authority of His Holy Spirit, from the Bible, the very Word of God.
Re: The Dawn of the Great Tribulation

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
As is so often true when I sit to write to you, I come in both joy and sorrow, with delight but also with soberness of spirit…  And I always thank God for the miracle of technology that allows me to write to you all over the world.
Though I have met few of you personally and look forward to that one day, either in the Millennial Kingdom or in Heaven, I feel deeply that family bonds have been created by our regularly sharing the deep riches of Scriptures through this medium.  Thank you for your continued prayers that I will remain faithful and true to my calling and healthy enough to continue for as long as Father gives me breath.
I ask that all of you who have volunteered to translate these words into languages not supported by the built-in conversion programs begin that immediately…
Glory to God for news that we have long since passed the one-billion mark in readership.  We know that there are many more brothers and sisters in the faith who are without computers or the ability to read these words…  Hundreds of thousands join us every day, and we pray you will tell more and more about our family.
We have been through so much together, I say this without boasting but with glory to God Almighty: As I have endeavored to rightly divide the Word of Truth to you, God has proven Himself the author over and over.  For centuries scholars have puzzled over the mysterious prophetic passages in the Bible, and at one time I was one of those puzzled ones.  The language seemed obscure, the message deep and elusive, the meaning apparently figurative and symbolic.  Yet when I began an incisive and thorough examination of these passages with an open mind and heart, it was as if God revealed something to me that freed my intellect.
I have discovered, strictly from an academic approach that nearly 30% of the Bible (Old and New Testaments together) consists of prophetic passages.  I could not understand why God would include these if He intended them to be other than understandable to His children.

While the messianic prophecies were fairly straightforward and, indeed, led me to believe in Jesus as their unique fulfillment, I prayed earnestly that God would reveal to me the key to the rest of the predictive passages.  This He did in a most understated way.  He simply impressed on me to take the words as literally as I took any others from the Bible, unless the context and the wording itself indicated otherwise.
In other words I had always taken at its word a passage such as, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” or “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  Why then, could I not take just as straightforwardly a verse which said that John the Revelator saw a pale horse?
Yes, I understand that the horse stood for something.  And yet, the Bible said that John saw it.  I took that literally, along with other prophetic statements (unless they used phrases such as “like unto” or others that made it clear they were symbolic).
My dear friends, the Scriptures opened up to me in a way I never dreamed possible.  That is how I knew the great Seal Judgments (Revelation 6) and the Trumpet Judgments (Revelation 8–9) were coming, how I was able to interpret what form they might take, and even in what sequence they would occur.
That is how I know that the Bowl Judgments (Revelation 16) are yet to come, and that they will be exponentially worse than all those that came before.  That is how I knew that these plagues and trials were more than just judgments on an unholy and unbelieving world.  That is how I knew that this whole period of history is also one more evidence of the long-suffering, loving-kindness and mercy of God.
Believers, we have turned a corner.

Skeptics – and I know many of you drop in here now and then to see what we zealots are up to – we have passed the point of gentility.  Up to now, while I have been forthright about the Scriptures, I have been somewhat circumspect about the current rulers of this world.
No more.  As every prophecy in the Bible has so far come to pass, as the leader of this world has preached peace while wielding a sword, as he died by the sword and was resurrected as the Scriptures foretold, and as his right-hand man has been imbued with similar evil power, there can be no more doubt.
Nicolae Carpathia, the so-called Excellency and Supreme Potentate of the Global Community, is both anti-Christian and Antichrist himself.  And the Bible says the resurrected Antichrist is literally indwelt by Satan.  Leon Fortunato, who had an image of Antichrist erected and now forces one and all to worship it or face their own peril, is Antichrist’s false prophet.  As the Bible predicted, he has power to give utterance to the image and to call down fire from heaven to destroy those who refuse.

What is next?  Consider the clear prophetic passage in Revelation 13:11-18:
“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down on the earth in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man: his number is 666.”

It won’t be long before everyone will be forced to bow the knee to Carpathia or his image, to bear his name or number on their forehead or right hand, or face the consequences.
Those consequences?  Those of us without what the Bible calls the mark of the beast will not be allowed to legally buy or sell.  If we publicly refuse to accept the mark of the beast, we will be beheaded.  While it is the greatest desire of my life to live to see the Glorious Appearing of my Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, at the end of the Great Tribulation (a few days short of three and a half year from now), what greater cause could there ever be for which to give one’s life?
Many millions of us will be required to do just that.  While it conjures in us age-old self-preservation instincts and we worry that at that hour we will be found lacking courage, loyalty and faithfulness, let me reassure you.  The God who calls you to the ultimate sacrifice will also give you the power to endure it.  No one can receive the mark of the beast by accident.  It is a once-for-all decision that will forever condemn you to eternity without God.
While many will be called to live in secret, to support one another through private markets, some will find themselves caught, singled out, dragged into a public beheading, to which the only antidote is a rejection of Christ and a taking of the mark of the beast.
If you are already a believer, you will not be able to turn your back on Christ.  If you are undecided and don’t want to follow the crowd, what will you do when faced with the mark or the loss of your head?  I plead with you to believe, to receive Christ, to envelop yourself with protection from on high.
We are entering into the bloodiest season in the history of the world.  Those who take the mark of the beast will suffer affliction at the hand of God.  Those who refuse it will be martyred for His blessed cause.  Never has the choice been so stark, so plain.

God, Himself, gave a name to this three-and-a-half-year period.  Matthew 24:21-22 records Jesus saying, “For then there will be Great Tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect’s sake [that’s you and me, believer] those days will be shortened.”
In all God’s dealings with mankind, this is the shortest period on record, and yet more Scripture is devoted to it than any other period except the life of Christ.  While the Hebrew prophets referred to this as a time of “vengeance of our God” for the slaughter of the prophets and saints over the centuries, it is also a time of mercy.  God goes to extreme measures to compress the decision-making time for men and women before the coming of Christ to set up His earthly Kingdom.
Despite that this is clearly the most awful time in history, I still say it also a merciful act of God to give as many souls possible an opportunity to put their faith in Christ.  Oh, people, we are the army of God with a massive job to do in a short time.  May we do it with willingness and eagerness, and the courage that comes only from Him.  There are countless souls in need of saving, and we have the truth.
It may be hard to recognize God’s mercy when His wrath is also intensifying.  Woe to those who believe the lie that God is only “love.”  Yes, He is love, and His gift of Jesus as the Sacrifice for our sin is the greatest evidence of this.  But the Bible also says God is “holy, holy,…holy”  He is righteous and a God of justice, and it is not in His nature to allow sin to go unpunished or unpaid for.
We are engaged in a great worldwide battle with Satan himself, for the souls of men and women.  Do not think that I lightly advance to the front lines with this truth, nor understanding the power of the evil one.   But I have placed my faith and trust in the God who sits high above the heavens, in the God who is above all gods, and among whom there is none like Him.

Scripture is clear that you can test both prophet and prophecy.  I make no claim of being a prophet, but I believe the prophecies.  If they are not true and don’t come to pass, then I am a liar and the Bible is bogus, and we are without hope.  But if the Bible is true, next on the agenda is the ceremonial desecration of the temple in Jerusalem by Antichrist.  This a prediction made by Daniel, Jesus, Paul and John.
My brothers and sisters of Jewish blood, which I proudly share, will cringe to know that this desecration will include the sacrificing of a pig on the sacred altar.  It also includes blasphemy against God, profanity, derogatory statements about God and Messiah, and a denial of His resurrection.
If you are Jewish and have not yet been persuaded that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and you have been deceived by the lies of the Antichrist, perhaps your mind will change when he breaks his covenant with Israel and withdraws his guarantee of Israel’s safety.  But he shows no favoritism.  Besides reviling the Jews, he will slaughter believers in Jesus.  If this does not happen, label me a heretic or mad and look elsewhere than the Holy Bible for hope.

Thank you for your patience and for the blessed privilege of communicating with you again.  Let me leave you on a note of hope.  My next message will concern the difference between the Book of Life and the Lamb’s Book of Life, and what those mean to you and me.
Until then, may you rest assured that if you are a believer and have placed your hope and trust in the work of Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins and for life everlasting, your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  And it can never be erased.
Until we meet again, I bless you in the Name of Jesus.  May He bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you, and give you peace.

Your servant, Tsion Ben-Judah

Be Ready! Jesus IS Coming Soon!

Dear reader, things are moving at lightning speed in developments of Artificial Intelligence, CBDCs and digital money, the Pope calling for a global authority in the Vatican’s “secretive” Synod, the mixture of unrest and peace in Israel and the broader mid-East, rumblings of war from Ukraine to Taiwan to India to Afghanistan and all across the African continent, the EU and USA dealing with political polarization and unregulated immigration crises.

Time is winding down to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. All the key pieces for a one-world government under a man who has all the answers for our global problems are rapidly coming together!

What could stimulate the attraction of the world to one man who will lead the New Order the World Economic Forum envisions?  I will suggest the answer* later in this blog.

The most clear and detailed look at the Book of Revelation (aka The Apocalypse) can be found free online at The Patmos Project under the tab for The Gold Mine, a text written by Dr. James Christie, updated in 2020. Today I want to call attention to Chapter 7, Survivors, available as a word document on my pages, all 10,000 words of it.

Dr. Christie says in this chapter, “I rather expect that my conclusions about Revelation will please no one. I have not ‘landed’ in any traditional, ‘pre-millennial’ camp, as it were. There will not be many readers who will say, ‘Yes, this is exactly what we believe.'” 

However, I think Dr. Christie is too harsh on his self-assessment, because, “Yes, this is exactly what I believe!” This blog presents a condensation of one chapter of The Gold Mine, dealing with the last seven years of earth history according to The Revelation of Jesus Christ to one of Jesus’ dearest friends when He was on earth, the Apostle John.

To lay the foundation for Dr. Christie’s (and my) view of the end-time events that are about to unfold in history, we recognize, “The Lord is not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) The One True God will make every possible effort to save humanity from the destruction of sin’s effects and the devil’s devices.

There are soon coming seven years of what Jesus and John call “The Great Tribulation.” (Matthew 24:21, Revelation 2:22, and 7:14)  There are three differing views of when Jesus will come in relation to this seven-year period.  Dr. Christie explains:
“You may recall that early in this chapter I noted three different views of when the rapture would happen: pre-tribulation (before the tribulation); mid-tribulation (in the middle of the tribulation); and post-tribulation (at the end of the tribulation). The reason that there are three views is that as people study Revelation and the rest of the Bible, the matter is not exactly clear. There are verses and statements found in support of all three views, which has led to the development of different ‘camps’ of [end-times-teaching]. But what if they are all correct?“

This has become my view.  God does not want anyone to go to hell!  “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23)  The God Who Is who revealed Himself to Moses as the I AM, the Creator of the universe and all of us, and who has most clearly revealed His love and holiness in Jesus, is going to make every effort to save us from our sins and the devil’s destruction.

Soon He will collect anyone who has put their faith in Him and prepared for Jesus’ return prior to the beginning of God’s judgments on the earth.  These start with the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse,” the first being a man who will conquer the world (the Beast or Antichrist), the second being a time of violence such as the world has never seen, the third being an economic holocaust, the last being war, famine and disease that will result in the death of one-forth of those still living on earth. (Revelation 6:1-8)

*This collection (called the pre-tribulation rapture) of those who are preparing for Jesus to return will cause untold panic around the world as every nation on earth will have people who disappear in “a twinkling of an eye,” or as rapidly as lightning flashing from east to west. (1 Corinthians 15:52,  Matthew 24:27)  This will be the event that will usher in a man who will seem to understand.  He will speak words of peace, assure the world of a path to universal prosperity and cooperation, and seem the logical choice for global leadership.

For three and one-half years, this world ruler will collect all government power under his umbrella promising peace and security, but will actually be the cause of the second to fourth horses.  It is likely that he will seem to bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, somehow convincing Jordan and the world’s Muslims to allow reconstruction of the Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah, the current site of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

However, after 1,260 day (42 months) from his ascension to world power, he will come to the new Hebrew Temple and enter the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the structure where the Jews believe God’s Presence resides.  He will declare himself divine, immortal and require the global community to worship HIM! 

This will mark the middle of the Great Tribulation when The God Who Is will again collect (called the mid-tribulation rapture) all who have come to faith in Him during the first half of this period. (Daniel 11:31, Matthew 24:15-18, Revelation 13:5)

It will also be at this time that the Jews will recognize that Jesus WAS their Messiah, a truth they have resisted persistently since their leaders first lied about His resurrection. (Matthew 28:11-15)  The Jews’ rejection of the Antichrist’s claim to be god will mark them for annihilation, a more thorough genocide than the Holocaust of WW2 (Revelation 13:16-17).  Though some will survive, along with non-Jews who resist the Antichrist, most will be martyred. 

At the very end of the seven-year Tribulation period, Jesus will collect (called the post-tribulation rapture) these final survivors who will join Him as He returns to earth to set up a New Kingdom that will last for the next 1000 years (referred to a the Millennium). (Revelation 20:1-6)

These are not empty philosophies of ancient wise men nor fantasies nor made-up legends like elephant-headed gods nor personal visions.  As surely as Jesus fulfilled over 100 specific prophecies about His first appearance on earth, He will come again and fulfill the rest of the Bible’s prophecies.  Note, there has never been a credible refutation of any of the Bible’s prophecies that in the past predicted certain events.

I encourage you to prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. (James 5:9, Revelation 3:20)
Maranatha, even so, Lord Jesus, come.

Where Is The Sting?

The American (or entire Western) way of death has always fascinated me.  At almost any funeral, people say nicer things about a person than they ever spoke in their hearing.  Many funerals cost as much as an elaborate wedding, complete with decorations, flowers, and receptions that can involve chefs and sit-down meals.

The most despicable people in life are suddenly “sainted” into loving and thoughtful ones who were invaluable to their community.  If everyone were really as selfless and noble as their eulogies portray, there would be a lot less suffering and problems in the world.

If death is so inevitable for everyone, why is there such a fear and moaning about it?  For the atheist or materialist, I understand its finality can be intimidating.  Questions come flooding in as the Spectre approaches: “What is on the other side!?  What if I was wrong?  What if there IS a God?”

While Hindus and Buddhists take a more sedate approach to death, one must wonder how they know they will get recycled and come back in another form?  And why haven’t any of them arrived at Nirvana yet?  Why do they expect to lose personal identity to become part of some disinterested universe?  There is no evidence of this. In contrast, the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is overwhelming to anyone who will look with an open mind.

Here in the West, though, most people do not ever expect to die, or at least, that is the way they live; as if this life was going to extend forever.  What is most surprising to me is the fear even Christ-followers express about dying!  Tell some Christians that a loved one who follows Jesus is in hospice and the reactions are similar to if the one near death was a drug dealer, though in their burials both the Sunday School teacher and the drug dealer get treated as though they never sinned.

Just a few anecdotes about death among “Christians:” 
1. A part-time minister of an evangelical church shared some lab space and responsibilities with me at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.  As we were eating lunch together one day, I commented on a dying patient from whom we had drawn blood.  I was looking forward to dying so that I could meet Jesus face-to-face.  He replied, “Gross!  Dying is not something I go around thinking about all day.” I silently wondered how he avoided it while working in a hospital.

2. Joe Doty served as a Christian And Missionary Alliance international worker in the Philippines for many years of his life.  Meeting some friends one evening, we were told he had been admitted to the hospital and his sons and daughters had been called in anticipation he was near death.

Anita and I knew and loved Joe, so we immediately went by the hospital to see him and found him bright-eyed and talking on the phone. This is his side of the conversation that we could hear:
“Yes, they brought me to the hospital last night and I heard them calling my kids, so I figured I was going Home….. No, not to that ratty old house; I thought I would get to see my Savior at last.  But I woke up here in the morning, so I thought I might as well have breakfast.😄  Well, c.a. and anita are here, so let me visit with them and I’ll call you back.” 
He want Home two days later.

3. Elva was a beloved friend and had introduced Anita to Jesus when she was a graduate student at our university.  Near the end of her life, she wrote, “The doctors do not know how much longer I might live on earth.  I have been able to live my life serving the Lord, so now when I think of dying, all I can think of is seeing my Savior and my whole immediate family.  What a joy that will be!  Every time I think about it I tear up. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness and provision of salvation so we have no fear of dying.  I said that to a social worker and she said, ‘Are you thinking of committing suicide?'”😄

Guest Blog: Elva Craig Shows How To Live Forever

4. My own first near-death experience was a major stroke in 2007; 99% blockage of the basal stem artery that supplies 90% of the blood to the brain.  I remember vividly expecting that the last things I would see on earth were the lights of the operating room as the anesthesiologist put the fun mask on my nose and mouth.  I dozed off expecting to wake in Heaven and meet Jesus and angels.  Imagine my disappointment when, instead, I woke to ceiling tiles of the recovery room and a tube in my throat.  Seriously, my first thought was, “Crud, I’m still on earth!”

5. My second came as Anita and I left New York on a 2018 flight to Europe. Our jet, flying in a clear sky, suddenly experienced violent shaking and twisting, such that we thought we were going down into the ocean. You can read the details of our reaction here.

Death is not what Christ-followers seek, but neither is it something we fear or moan about.  As my mother said before she went to Jesus, “Death is when we exhale here, and next time we inhale it will be the sweet air of Heaven.”

“For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?’ [Hosea 13:14]
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:53-57)