Bible Interpretation, Prophecy, and Bible Texts

Posted on January 27, 2019 by dknezacek

You know, I want to write about the coming break-up of the European Union, and the state of the world today, but I need to write about the reasons why I wrote my last posting.

Some of you will find it strange that a blog about bible prophecy would do an article about polygamy. The reason I wrote that post is because that is what the bible teaches! And, there is a definite relationship between that subject and the subject of biblical End Times prophecy!

According to Jeremiah 3, God views Himself as a husband to a large number of wives! He is capable of loving millions of people at the same time, and of having an intimate relationship with each one!

God is not interested in dealing with you, and me, through human priests; He wants to deal directly with you, individually! Did God create the world, and billions of people only so that he could have a relationship with one leader (the pope) or a group of leaders (priests)? Absolutely not!

In fact He says many times that the Church is “a kingdom of priests”! That is you, if you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! The saved person can deal directly with God the Son, or even God the Father, or the Holy Spirit!

At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. John 16:26-27

God the Father loves you, and this is why He sent His Son to die in your place; so that God could enjoy fellowship with you, and so you could enjoy a personal relationship with God forever!

The bible is full of statements that we can’t understand, because we refuse to let go of our preconceived notions about God! The subject of my last post is merely one of a large number of subjects Christians make-up their own rules about without consulting the Word of God!

Once we have accepted the Roman Catholic Doctrine that polygamy is immoral, then we can’t understand passages like Jeremiah 3! I had read it myself several times before it hit me what was being said! The worldview I had grown-up with had actually hindered my understanding of the Word of God! Churches erect barricades against our understanding when they make-up their own rules!

The same thing happened with Isaiah 4:1. I had been through the entire book of Isaiah several times, and loved much of it, such as chapter 53, without being able to see what chapters 2-4 were saying! My eyes were blinded by the philosophy I had learned in Baptist Churches, as a child!

In fact, for several years I had read numerous articles about bible interpretation by men like David Cloud ( https://www.wayoflife.org/ ) and other independent Baptists. What I found with these men was excellent teaching on the theory of bible interpretation, but the practice was a little different than the theory!

You see, the bible interpretation hermeneutic taught by Cloud, and other Fundamentalists, is the “Plain-sense” method, that has been taught by Christians around the world since the Apostles were here! This method is neither literal, nor is it allegorical, but each passage must be read using the same understanding you would use when in a conversation with a normal person, or reading a normal book in a normal language.

This is evident even in the language used; The Koine Greek was the common language of the Roman Empire of the first century AD, and Hebrew was the common language of the Israelite people of the kingdom of Israel. There is nothing especially spiritual about each language.

The problem comes when the plain-sense interpretation of Scripture comes up against some preconceived notions. When this happens most “Christians” run back to their traditions, and refuse to accept the plain-sense meaning of the Holy Scriptures; Even men who have written very good articles on bible interpretation have a tendency to backpedal when confronted with Scriptural teaching on polygyny, alcohol, baptism, Salvation, etc.!

The issue of alcohol consumption is one of those subjects where the plain-sense method of interpretation will get you into trouble with these people; they are inconsistent in their approach to the Holy Scriptures! As soon as you understand that Jesus made wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, in John 2, you will find people telling you that “it says wine, but it can’t really be wine, because it is a sin to drink wine”!

So what these people do is they put their own moral ideas ahead of the plain teaching of Scripture! In effect they make the same error as the pope does, saying “You can’t understand the Scriptures by yourself, you need me to interpret it for you”! And so each Pastor becomes the local pope, usurping the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer! (The pope might not make this error on the subject of alcohol, but he uses the same methodology on a number of subjects, and it is always wrong, and often worse than the error of Baptists on the relatively minor subject of alcohol!)

This kind of mindset actually comes from a lack of faith on the part of those who practice it! It also comes from the cultic mentality of trying to control the thoughts of others!

Coming from this background on a number of subjects, it took a lot of time and study before I came to the point where I was able to accept everything the bible says and to allow the Holy Spirit to interpret it for me. It was only then that I was able to start to see things I had not been taught in the Scriptures! To be honest, I am constantly battling the tendency to retreat to the “security” of the “old” traditions

Once I came to this point, however, the study of Scripture became a joy and an adventure!

The other issue is the Scriptures themselves;

Which text are you reading? The text that Christians have always used, until very recently, is the text known as the Byzantine text, or the Textus Receptus. This is the text that millions of believers have lost their lives over, often having their bibles burnt along with their owners! This is the text of the Albigenses and the Waldenses. It is also the text of the ancient Celtic Christians and the Armenian Christians, who were slaughtered in the millions by the Turks in 1914!

The other text, the one that has recently supplanted the Textus Receptus, is the Critical Text, aka the Nestle-Aland text, or the United Bible Societies text. This text was compiled from about 1% of the extant manuscripts, and did not exist as a text until it was cobbled together by two British Occultists in the nineteenth century, Messrs. Westcott and Hort.

The Nestle-Aland text is a fluid thing, and is constantly changing, and in fact, recently over 400 TR readings were put back into the Nestle-Aland text. Well, why were they removed in the first place? Well, that was the plan of Westcott and Hort, I am certain that eventually all the TR readings will be inserted back in the Critical Text, so why not just stick with the true Word of God, the Textus Receptus?

We live in the days spoken of by the prophet Amos:

11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. Amos 8:11-12

It is not that the Words of God are not available to us, but that our preachers refuse, for the most part, to preach from it, and instead preach from doctored, perverted bibles that have had many modifications.

When researching the history of the modern bible text I came across some quotes from “the Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort” published by his son. Dr. Hort and his friend Dr. B.F.. Westcott worked on their test the “Textus Criticus” from about 1851 to 1881 when it was published. This quote is from the middle of that period;

To HIS WIFE

HARROW, October 23rd, 1864.

. . . We had a pleasant evening, six of Westcott’s Sixth Form boys dining with us. Yesterday we worked all the morning till I had to go to Mrs. Butler’s (sen.), where I lunched. Then we worked till near dinner, when we had a very nice little party, the two De Morgans, H. M. Butler, Farrar, Bradby and his mother, and H. W. Watson. Mrs. Bradby, whom I had never seen, and who was well worth seeing, came in the evening. We tried to turn tables, but the creatures wouldn’t stir. Both the De Morgans were radiant and pleasant. Today we have been to morning chapel, and had a good sermon from Bradby; but a great number of boys are away, this being ‘Exeat Sunday,’ which gave Westcott a holiday yesterday. After evening chapel I am going in for a little to Montagu Butler’s. Our work thus far is very satisfactory, and we are going now to have two or three pages of the beginning of St. Matthew set up in type at once; not with any idea of printing off immediately, but as experiment. We shall, however, be very soon printing off in earnest.

The term “we tried to turn tables” might seem strange to some readers. This is a term originating from the practice of Séances, where groups of people sit around a table and attempt to contact spirits. The group sits with their hands on the table and the leader invokes the spirits. When they get an answer the spirit will turn or tip the table in the direction of the answer.

In this case, Dr. Hort did not get an answer from the spirits, hence “the creatures wouldn’t stir”!

I might speculate on the reason the spirits wouldn’t answer on this particular day, and this is just a guess, but it appears that Mrs. Bradby might have been a Christian, since she was the mother of a preacher. The spirits won’t come around if there is a born-again Christian present! Born-again Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and demons don’t like to be around people with God in them!

My point is this, that these men were conducting Séances at the same time as they were working on their bible text! This was a common practice with them and the fact that the spirits did not answer this time is meaningless; they had conducted many Séances in which the spirits DID answer them!  How is it possible that men, who were in contact with demonic spirits, could produce a “superior” bible text?

The bible itself says this about those who contact spirits through occult methods;

A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:27

There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Deuteronomy 18:10-12

So, F. J. A. Hort, and B. F. Westcott deserved to be put to death for the sin of consulting with familiar spirits! Now in the age of grace we don’t put witches to death for their sins, but this does not mean that we should elevate them to positions of authority in the Church! No, they should have been put-out of the Church of England, and their work should be shunned today!

Any “bible text” that these people put together should be shunned and ignored by the true Church! There is no way that God would honour people He had commanded to be put to death, by giving them the best bible text, one that is the “closest to the original autographs”! On the contrary, I believe the reason God made this command in Leviticus 20:27is because He saw that it would be this kind of person who will ultimately corrupt His Church, and lead many to perdition!

Unfortunately the “Hort Theory” of bible preservation has been adopted by almost all Bible Colleges and Seminaries around the world! Even by Conservative, Fundamentalist institutions, like Bob Jones University, for instance!

The net effect of the Westcott/Hort text being introduced into Christian Churches has not been a revival of pure Christian doctrine but an age of apostasy!

So now we know what John meant when he said;

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. Revelation 17:6

Why would John have such admiration for this harlot? He could not help himself, because she looks like the Christian Church! This is the end of the Christian Church; the entity that puts the Antichrist on the throne! To be sure the event spoken of in Revelation 17 will occur after the Rapture, but the entity referred to in verse 6 will certainly identify itself as “Christian”!

For your own safety I would recommend that you stick to Textus Receptus bibles like the AV, the Geneva Bible, or the New King James, although this last one still uses paraphrase, which is a dubious method of translation.  If you are going to use a NKJV I would recommend keeping a KJV along side of it, and double-check everything!

For more information;

http://jesusisprecious.org/bible/wh-heretics.htm

http://deanburgonsociety.org/index.html

http://www.worldincrisis.org/KJV-HB/KJV-textual-criticism.htm

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Our God, the Bigamist

Posted on January 2, 2019 by dknezacek

I am always coming up with new article ideas, but somehow, lately, very few of them get written.

When I hear preachers preaching error, I want to correct them, but then I have to ask myself “Do I really want to go there?”  Do I want to rock the boat again?

Really I don’t! I hate having people angry with me, especially “men of God”, but my first commitment is to God Himself, and my commitment to people, even His people, must be to a lesser extent. How can I help them if I keep my mouth closed and say nothing?

“But what if I’m wrong?” I ask myself. “What if I got everything wrong in all my studying of the Scriptures?”

When I published The Spirit of Prophecy nine years ago, I placed a challenge in it; “Prove me wrong with a plain-sense reading of the bible and I will withdraw this book from publication.”

That’s a simple enough statement to understand, isn’t it?

There have been a handful of people who have stated that I am wrong, but none of them have been sincere enough to prove it from the Scriptures!  Of all the people who have bought my book, none of them has taken the time to prove me wrong; either they agree with me, or they just don’t care.  I hope they agree, because they have studied these passages for themselves!

You see, I came to the conclusion that God is not opposed to the practice of polygyny, of one man marrying several women.

This is not about me! I am still married to the one woman I was married to when I came to these conclusions. In fact while it is not wrong for a man to marry two women, per se, it would be wrong for me! Why? Because I made a promise to her, when I married her, that there would be no one else.

Jesus said “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” Matthew 5:37

Actually it is all about God! I mean the God of the bible, not the God that many have invented in their own minds!

Have you ever read through Jeremiah chapter 3? In this chapter God compares Himself to a man with multiple wives. As you read this, keep in mind that Israel and Judah had been separate nations, at the time this was written, for several hundred years;

1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord.

2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

You could be forgiven for thinking that this is about the whole nation combined, although the context would dictate that this is specifically about the northern kingdom of Israel, but keep on reading;

6 The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.

11 And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

As you get to verse 7 ask yourself “who is this treacherous sister of Israel?” and “If God’s wife Israel has a sister, why would Israel’s husband be concerned with what his sister-in-law is doing?”

But you see, in verse 8, God is married to both of these sisters! God considers Himself to be a bigamist! In fact this Bigamist has been hurt by both of His wives; Israel was unfaithful and received a bill of divorce, but Judah pretended to be faithful, remained married to Him, but was secretly having affairs! In fact His anger with Israel was less than His anger with Judah, because at least Israel was consistent!

God still hates inconsistency! This is why He says…

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” I Peter 4:17

The end of unbelievers is terrible, but He will start his judgment with the unfaithful professors of Christ! (The faithful believers will be taken out of harm’s way in the rapture, but His wrath rests upon those who claim to be faithful even when they see the rapture and explain it away!)

But back to our subject…

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever.

13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord.

14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

Notice in verse 12, that He is calling those He has divorced, back to Himself! (Israel was in the north) God does not believe in divorce, because marriage is for ever!

Notice also in verse 14, that “children” is in the plural! So is the old English “you”. God is married to everyone in Israel, not merely to the nation as a whole!

In the New Testament, God marries the Christian Church, His third wife, but in the same way as is His relationship with Israel, His relationship with each believer is a one-to-one relationship!

So, please don’t let your Pastor tell you that God is against polygamy; God is the divine Polygamist!

Remember the command that God gave in the beginning, middle, and end of the bible. God doesn’t waste words; He repeats things for emphasis;

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Deuteronomy 4:2

Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Proverbs 30:6

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Revelation 22:18-19

As Christians we are called to spiritual faithfulness, even if it is not politically correct!  It is far better to be biblically correct!

You see, those pastors who claim that God is opposed to polygamy are indeed adding to, and taking away from the Holy Scriptures! When they make these claims they are diminishing His character! They are also placing their congregation in harm’s way!

I will write about that next time! Lord willing.

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God’s Absolutes

Posted on November 21, 2018 by dknezacek

You know, the bible makes a lot of absolute statements.  Statements like “there is none righteous, no not one” or “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” are absolute statements that put the entire human race in the place of needing a Saviour.  If you and I have “come short” of the glory of God, then we haven’t measured up to His standards!

There is no hope for us in our own righteousness!  If we stand before God trusting in our own “good works” to get us in to Heaaven, we don’t stand a chance!

 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Romans 3:10-12

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6

Isaiah 53:6 is a profound verse, not only do we see our own helplessness in this verse, but it tells us what God has done about it; He has laid our iniquity on a substitute; Someone who could take all the sin of the world on His own shoulders!

Read the rest of Isaiah 53; Rabbis will tell you that the “righteous servant” of God is Israel, but Israel is the “we” in the beginning of this verse, so the “righteous servant” has to be someone other than the nation of Israel.  In fact He came from Israel, but he is an individual man and not the nation as a whole; the Lord Jesus Christ!  Indeed He is more than a man; if there was a righteous man, he could only die for one other person, but Jesus, being God, His blood, His life, is more valuable than the entirety of humanity!  Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has more value than all the sin of all time!

Of all the sins He was accused of, he was totally innocent, and his death was an unjust execution perpetrated by the Romans, and the nation of Israel together!  Think about it; after being examined by both Herod and Pontius Pilate, Jesus was declared innocent, but these evil men handed Him over to the executioners anyway!  Yes they did it to appease the crowds, but they had the power to set Him free.

You see, behind the scenes, Jesus was orchestrating His own execution, because He has a deep unbelievable love for the whole human race. Not only did he die for you and me, but he also died for Pilate, Caiphas, Herod, and every person ever born… even Adolph Hitler!

And, God leveled the “playing field” in the process.  He didn’t say that you need to perform some act of valour to be right with God, because then only heroes would have made it to Heaven.  He didn’t say that you had to be a part of a certain race, because then only people of that race could make it to Heaven.  He didn’t say that you need to have some secret knowledge to go to Heaven, for then only those initiates who had that secret knowledge could be saved!

He didn’t say that you must live a perfect life to get to Heaven, because then no-one would ever make it! Rather, Jesus saves those who believe in Him, and trust Him to take away their sin.

He said;

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:9

6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans 5:6-9

We are justified by the blood that Christ shed on the cross!  It is nothing we have done; He did it all!

2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Romans 4:2-5

Proud men want to be their own Saviours, and this is their downfall, for all our works of righteousness are nothing in the eyes of God!  You think you did a good thing?  Maybe you did, but all the works of righteousness you could do cannot undo one sin!

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Titus 3:5

David,  the king of Jerusalem, was a murderer and and adulterer, two capital sins.  All the works of righteousness in the world cannot undo the act of adultery and murder, which David did, but David was not depending on his own righteousness, instead he depended on the righteousness of God, and his sins were put on the shoulders of his own descendant, Jesus Christ, and David now resides in Heaven!

6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Romans 4:6-8

David’s sins were covered when Jesus took them to the cross of Calvary!

What about yours?

28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:28-29

5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE Lord OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Jeremiah 23:5-6

The Lord Jesus is my Righteousness!  Is He yours?

Remember;

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.  12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:11-13

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On being “turned back” and Ezekiel’s war

Posted on August 14, 2018 by dknezacek

I was watching J.D.Farag, of Calvary Chapel Kaneohe, the other day when an amazing thought hit me.

He was talking about the Trump/Putin meeting and its prophetic significance, in relation to the Gog and Magog war.

No doubt the presence of Russia in Syria is prophetically significant; It is certainly true that Russia, Turkey and Iran will be a part of an invading coalition of nations when the Ezekiel 38-39 war occurs, but I am not as certain of its imminence as is pastor Farag, nor Amir Tsarfati.  Both of them seem to think the Psalm 83 war has already occurred, but as I have already noted, not all of the conditions of the Psalm have been met as yet.

Anyhow, Pastor Farag was reading from Ezekiel 38 when something hit me;

  2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

  3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

  4 And I WILL TURN THEE BACK, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Ezekiel 38:2-4

The phrase that caught my attention is the one that says “And I will turn thee back”.  You can’t go “back” or “backward” toward Israel, unless you have been there before.  Now the Russian armies will not have been in Israel before this attack, but today they are in Syria, right on Israel’s doorstep!

What could this mean but that Russia will leave Syria, for some reason, and their leaving will be viewed with relief by the people of Israel, but then something sent by God will cause them to change their minds and go back in the direction they had just come from!

A lot of prophecy scholars think that Russia will attack from their current base in Syria, but I think they will participate in a surprise attack after leaving and giving Israel the impression that they are not interested.

The other time Scripture uses the same phraseology is when Sennacherib, king of Assyria came up and camped against Jerusalem in 2 Kings and Isaiah 37;

Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. II Kings 19:28

Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. Isaiah 37:29

In this case God “turned them back” by kiling 185,000 of the enemy soldiers, and the remnant returned to Assyria.  Sennacherib himself was killed by his own sons two years later.

Using the principle of comparing Scripture with Scripture, we see that for the phrase “turn thee back” to be used in an actual attack on Israel the armies in question must be moving away from Israel first!

So, look for the Russian armies to leave the Middle East, before they turn around, and with a large company of allies, come back and attack Israel in a surprise attack!

I generally enjoy J.D. Farag’s Prophecy Updates, and consider him a brother, but this time as he went on, I realized that he has missed the magnitude of this attack.  These people assume that Turkey is Magog or maybe Russia, and that Gomer, and Togarmah are also Turkey.

  5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

  6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

The truth is that there are descendants of Magog, Gomer and Togarmah, living in Turkey and Russia, but these are not the only places where the descendants of these men live today. Togarmah is actually one of three sons of Gomer, Noah’s grandson.  This man was the father not only of Turkey, but of the Turkmen tribes which are scattered from Turkey all the way to the Western province of China, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region! (The Uyghur’s are a Turkmen tribe!)  You can certainly find many of them in places like Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan as well!  So don’t expect these nations to sit-out this war!

The other two sons of Gomer are Riphath, and Ashkenaz.  Riphath was the father of the Celtic tribes; the Welsh language is known as Gomerad, or Kemerad, which contains the name of the patriarch of this tribe, Gomer.  The Scotts and Irish are also descendants of Riphath, although the Scots are also mixed with descendants of Magog! The inhabitants of Brittany in France are also Celts as are the Catalans in Spain.

Gomer’s son Ashkenaz is the father of the Germanic tribes.  These tribes can be found in places like Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and ENGLAND!  The English are descendants of three German tribes that crossed the channel in the 600s AD, the Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes.

When Ezekiel wrote “Gomer and all his bands”, he certainly meant western Europe from Ireland in the west to Austria in the east, and Scandinavia in the north to France and Spain in the south!  No doubt this is why Islam is making great headway in these nations today.

The Czechs, and many other Eastern European nations, are descendants of Magog.

I find it interesting that the ancient histories of the Scots claim that they are descendants of Magog. My wife is of a mixed Cornish/Welsh and Scottish heritage.  She and I recently had our DNA tested, and the results were somewhat surprising; She has about 9% Eastern European DNA in her, while I, with my Czech/English background have 6% Eastern European DNA!

This appears to be confirmation that we are both descendants of Magog, as well as Gomer!  This would also indicate that Magog is the father of the eastern Europeans.

In fact the ancient histories indicate that Magog’s descendants occupy Eastern Europe from around Hungary in the South to Finland in the north, and from Georgia in the east, to the Czech Republic in the west.

All of these nations will be allied with Russia, Turkey, and Iran when they attack Israel!  This will not be some small local conflict, and I don’t think Israel will be alone as the target either!  They will have partners, the Southern Europeans, who will also suffer during this war.  The bible says nothing about this part of the attack, but please note that the Southern Europeans, descendants of Gomer’s brother Javan, are not included in the account and neither is the one last brother Madai!

I guess most prophecy teachers think it would be preposterous to claim that this war would include all of these nations, but it will.  If you see a war without them, you are NOT looking at Ezekiel’s war!

When Ezekiel wrote “Gomer and all his bands” he meant all the nations whose armies are mainly Gomerites, and when he said “the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands” he not only meant Turkey, but that all the nations of Togarmah’s descendants will be involved, from Turkey in the west to the borders of China in the east, and it just might be possible that the western province of China, Xinjiang, might participate as well!  Even today there is a separatist party in Xinjiang, called the Turkistan Islamic Party. Will they succeed with their wish?  I don’t know.  But I do know that it is suicidal for nations to tolerate Islam in their midst!  They will have representation in the armies of Ezekiel’s war!

All of the nations noted in Ezekiel 38 are indeed moving toward a position of hostility with Israel, but they are not ready to join Russia in that attack just yet.

No!  First there will be an attack of the Arab nations against Israel, and after Israel is forced to use nuclear weapons, just to survive, a part of Europe will broker a peace treaty between Israel and the Arabs.  In this agreement, Israel will give up her nuclear weapons in exchange for an iron-clad guarantee of security.  They will allow themselves to be disarmed on the promise that Southern Europe will come to their aid in the event of an attack. All the Arab nations who have joined in the Psalm 83 war will also be disarmed in this deal, and both they and Israel will be dependent on a group of nations in Southern Europe for their security!

This is the Psalm 83 war, and its aftermath.  This peace treaty will identify the European leader as the Antichrist, in the eyes of many who have a limited understanding of biblical prophecy, or an understanding based on the popular western prophecy teachers interpretation of these passages.

This will be the set-up for the war of Ezekiel 38-39.  This peace treaty will actually work for a time.  This is also why the Arab nations, identified as Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish, will not join in the attack but rather protest it! They too have benefited from the peace with Israel, and have prospered.  And don’t forget they will have no weapons to join the attack anyway!

This is also why the group of nations who have guaranteed Israel’s security will also be targeted in the Gog/Magog attack; If they have guaranteed Israel’s security then their armed forces, and capital city, must be neutralized when the Northern European armies go after Israel’s wealth!  Will that capital city be Rome?  I believe this is the best answer posed by this puzzle.  This is the answer that fits in best with the bible’s prophecies!

Will the leader of the Southern European Union be the Antichrist?  No!  Satan always has his counterfeits, and that is all that is going on here; The Southern European Union, and its leaders, a president and the pope, are merely decoys being set-up to be destroyed, to distract attention from the real Antichrist, who will come from the tiny nation just to the east of Jerusalem, and not from Europe at all!

What better way to put people off their guard about the Antichrist, than to  make them believe the Antichrist is dead!  If these prophecy teachers don’t wake up soon, they will end up participating in a great deception!

Here is Pastor Farag talking about the End Times events.   He is correct that we are close, but we’re not as close as he thinks.

also see;

The Table of Nations; http://www.soundchristian.com/man/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2524563/China-tightens-grip-on-western-province-Xinjiang.html

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The compounding of errors

Posted on July 27, 2018 by dknezacek

Well, I guess I owe my readers an apology of sorts; I have been so busy this summer that I haven’t had time to write much.  For the past 4 months I have been doing some much-needed maintenance work on my home, in my spare time.  And, that has pretty much eaten up most of my spare time, except for a few days helping out with my wife’s and my own parents 60th wedding anniversaries.

I am sending The Spirit of Prophecy to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, and that is somewhat exciting, except that I know the subject of biblical prophecy is not a big seller these days.  Hopefully the Lord will find a few people who are interested enough to read it through, and hopefully a major publisher will pick it up!.

But, enough about me..

Have you ever read through the parallel passages of Matthew 24?  I was reading through Luke 21 the other day and realized something; I realized that I had been looking at verse 8 in the wrong way!

 8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. Luke 21:8

The punctuation was not included in the original biblical languages, and even when they get it right sometimes our unfamiliarity with them leads us to an incorrect conclusion.

A semi-colon separates two independent clauses, but also emphasizes the connection between.  Often the second clause elaborates on, or defines, the first.

For years I had read this passage like this:

And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying,”I am Christ”: and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

This is wrong, but how many Christians read it the same as I had?  I think there are many. He is not saying to avoid false teachers as the time draws near, we have always had the need to avoid false teachers, from the time of Simon the Sorcerer until now!  There are and have always been many false Christs, and other Scriptures point this out, but this is not what is in view here; these false teachers are saying that Jesus is Christ and the time of the earthly kingdom is drawing near.

Here is how it should be read:

And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, “I (Jesus) am Christ”; and “the time draweth near”: go ye not therefore after them.

These false teachers use a Christian testimony to get into Churches and then proceed to teach error! They say that Jesus is the Christ, but that is the end of the truth they preach!

This is an indictment of many End Times ministries!  Every ministry that teaches that it is the Job of the Church to bring in the Millennial reign, is a false ministry!  You can find this kind of ministry in post-Millennial, and Amillennial churches like Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Emergent/Emerging, and sadly, it is increasingly popular in Evangelical Churches who were formerly true to the Scriptures!

Every Christian ministry should be grounded and rooted in Scripture.  The Gospel of Salvation through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, should be front and center.  And yes, they should teach End Times prophecy, but if they are doing it properly they will never teach that it is the job of the Church to set-up the Kingdom of God on earth!  Jesus will do that himself when He returns!

All Christians who are saved during the Church-Age, will be removed before the beginning of the Tribulation; not one of us will go into the Millennial reign in fleshly bodies!  Everyone who goes into the Millennial reign will be unsaved on the day that the Church is removed!  They will survive the Tribulation and will be used by God to repopulate the earth during the Millennial reign.  These are the same people Matthew wrote about (Matt. 24:31), who will be carried aloft by angels, as Jesus brings destruction on the earth beneath them!

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One Man, One Woman Marriage

Posted on June 12, 2018 by dknezacek

Is biblical marriage to be between one man and one woman? Are there ever exceptions?

It is certain that the earliest chapters of the bible speak of marriage partners in the singular;

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24

Jesus quoted this verse in Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:7, and used this as His reason to prohibit divorce.

I think it is safe to say that the bible does indeed teach that every marriage is indeed between one man and one woman, but this is different than saying it is wrong for a man to be married to two women at the same time; he has an individual relationship between himself and each wife, individually! The women in a polygamous family are NOT married to each other! Each is the wife of the one man.

We can see this relationship spoken of in the case of David and Bathsheba, after their first child passed-away;

And David comforted Bath–sheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the Lord loved him. 2 Samuel 12:24

You see, here Bathsheba is called David’s wife, in the singular. This does not mean that he had divorced his other wives, it only means that her status had changed from being Uriah’s wife, in verse 15 to being David’s wife later in the chapter. She had the status of a wife, just as Ahinoam and Abigail also had the same status with David. Each one was his wife.

David had an individual husband-and-wife relationship with each woman, and the women were not married to each other!

God sees this as analogous with His relationship with the believer; He is collectively married to the Church, but He is also individually married to each believer!

This is the same relationship that Jesus is using as an analogy of His own return for the Church in Matthew 25:1-13; there are 10 virgins to whom he intends to marry, but in the end he only marries 5. Why only 5? because of the ten professing believers only 5 have the Holy Spirit; all the others were false believers, only going through the motions.

Some would point to the phrase that says “and they shall be one flesh”, and they will ask “how can a man be one flesh with two women at the same time?”

My answer is to quote I Corinthians 6:16

What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

So clearly, in the context of 1 Corinthians 6:16, it is possible for a man to be one flesh with his wife, and also one flesh with a harlot, or a prostitute, at the same time. So if it is possible for a man to be one flesh with two women at the same time, one legitimately and one illegitimately, it is also possible for him to be one flesh legitimately with two women at the same time, by being married to both!

There is no contradiction here!

What about the second verse of the next chapter? Does it teach that a man can only be married to one woman at a time?

“Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” I Corinthians 7:2

If it does, then this verse is also teaching that every Church throughout the Church-Age must have equal numbers of women and men! Is it? I don’t think so. Most Churches I have attended have generally more women than men in attendance. Very often Christian women, because they can’t find an available man in the Church, often marry unbelievers, and live a life of heartache!

“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” II Corinthians 6:14

Very often Christians cause others to sin because of our misunderstanding of Scripture. The idea that polygamy is wrong has become so ingrained in Christian teaching that no one questions this concept. The result is that if there are not enough men in a Church that many of the young women end up marrying unbelievers, contrary to Scripture!

I Corinthians 7:2 is commonly used to say that polygamy is prohibited in the Church-Age, but is that what it says?

“Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. “

So, as we have seen, there is rarely if ever, a balance in the numbers of men and women in Christian Churches. What would be God’s purpose in giving us this passage?  Without even numbers of men and women in the Church how is it possible to obey this command?

Well, he stated his purpose in the very beginning “to avoid fornication”. But how can this be accomplished if there are more women than men in the Church? Do some of the women have to marry unbelievers, as is practiced in most Churches?  Does God insist that some women must live without a husband, contrary to the desire that God gave her?

I don’t think so. I think God’s purpose hasn’t changed since the time of Israel until now. People haven’t changed, either.  Like Rachel and Leah, God intends each woman to have her own husband, so she does not indulge in risky, sinful behaviour like sleeping around with many men!

When we look at women like Leah, we should ask “who was Leah’s husband?” The answer of course is Jacob. So who was Rachel’s husband? Jacob!

What about Ahinoam? Who was her husband? Was it not David? Of course it was! Abigail’s husband was David. After the fiasco of their beginning, Bathsheba’s husband was David.

In each case these men of God had a one-man/one-woman relationship with each wife. In the same way what Paul is teaching is that for every woman to have her own husband sometimes circumstances would dictate that women might have to double-up on their men.

God does not have a problem with this arrangement, it is only people who do!

This was God’s plan for the Church-Age, although very few Churches have followed this doctrine. Early on the Christian Church was infected by false doctrines from Rome.

Here’s the thing; when did God change His mind? My bible says He never changes!

How could He go from commanding polygamy in certain circumstances to prohibiting it? Well He didn’t, of course. Here are a couple of instances where polygamy is actually commanded in the Old Testament;

“If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.” Deuteronomy 25:5

You should read the entire passage, but please realize that this was a command from the Lord. It was a sin to disobey this command, although the punishment was merely public humiliation. There were various punishments for different sins. This one is minor in comparison to others, but it was still disobedience!

Notice that there is no exemption if the man was already married! He was still commanded to do his duty toward his dead brother’s wife.

Here is another one, and this time polygamy is the consequence of fornication;

“And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.” Exodus 22:16

Notice that there is a disqualifying condition for the woman, but not for the man; If she is not betrothed this passage applies. If she was betrothed then this act was adultery and the appropriate punishment applied, otherwise the man has obtained a wife. It does not matter if he was married already or not, the law still applied, and at times this would result in polygamy, by the command of the Lord!

So when did God change?

Well, He didn’t!

A Nation of Priests?

The law stated that priests were to be married to only one woman, and some have told me that since we are “a nation of priests”, that therefore this command for Levitical priests would also apply to us.

Notice the selective application of the law.

Christians do not follow any of the other Levitical commands for priests! There were a whole bunch of them, having to do with ceremonial washing, not touching the dead, the clothes they were to wear, etc. No one says that Christians, because we are all priests, must now follow all the laws regarding the Levitical priesthood, so why this one law?

You see, God is very specific in His commands. We don’t have to interpolate between them. If he doesn’t say something to one group, it is because that command does not apply to that group!  God does not miss things!

In Titus and Timothy we are given the qualifications for deacons and elders, and among those qualifications we are told that he must be “the husband of one wife”. Again, many Christians say that all believers should follow all of these commands, but how can we do that when there are differences between them? 

The overseer (head elder), in 1 Timothy 3:3 is told that he must not be “given to wine” but in verse 8 the deacon must “not be given to much wine”. Again in Titus 1:7 we are told that the overseer, or head elder, must “not be given to wine”, but in 2:3 the aged women are told that they must not be “given to much wine”.

Which one should we follow?

The command “be not drunk with wine wherein is excess” is found in Ephesian 5:18 and it is a general command for all Christians, we can drink wine, but must guard ourselves from getting drunk.  So, there is no need for us all to follow the commands meant for those who hold a particular office. If you are a pastor and don’t like the fact that others can do what you cannot do, you are free to resign!

Anyway, there is no evidence in Scripture that pastors can’t participate in the Communion wine, so if you are a pastor you can leave it at that!

So, just one quick question; Why do you think God approves of polygamy?

I think it is because…

“For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:18

You see, in many instances throughout history, usually because of war, there are situations where there are many more women than men. God loves people, and He wants to see the world full of them!

And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men. II Chronicles 13:17 

Given the natural birth rate close to  50/50 male/female children, this war between Judah and Israel left a half-million women without a man!  God’s plan for them was that they would all marry, so none would go without a family, and none would attempt to seduce men who were married to other women!  His plan was to benefit everyone, and the society as a whole!  Think about it; how would a society of a half-million old women defend itself if they had not had any children?

Every time a baby is born there is another person who will glorify God for all eternity, and another person who has the chance to be saved and to spend eternity with Jesus Christ!

This is why God not only allows, but actually approves of, polygamy!

This is also why He is opposed to homosexuality and Lesbianism. These lifestyles are designed to prevent the conception of children! They never have children…ever!

It is exactly this result that has the global elites excited about these lifestyles! There is a nature worship commonly practiced by elites around the world, and these people hate people! Ultimately it is because of the fact that they hate God, and would rather worship His creation, than Him, that motivates them!

People are made in the image of God, so the existence of people on this planet is a constant reminder that God will one day judge us all!

So yes, every marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman, it has always been this way, even among polygamists like David, and Jacob.

God sees this relationship as symbolic of His relationship with the believer! Yes! God is a polygamist!  Don’t believe me? Here are some selections from Jeremiah 3;

6 The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.

11 And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever.

13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord.

14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

Yes, God is a husband to every believer, and He sees in a man like David a man after His own heart! David loved his wives the same way that God loves the believer!

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Adding to Scripture, more common than you think

Posted on April 15, 2018 by dknezacek

Have you ever noticed that the bible commands us NOT to add commands to its laws? In fact this command occurs 3 times in Scripture, at the beginning, the middle and at the end!

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Deuteronomy 4:2

Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Proverbs 30:6

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Revelation 22:18, 19

Since the first of these commands was written by Moses in the beginning of the Scriptures, it cannot mean that God can’t add Scriptures, since most of the bible was written after that command, but what it meant then, and still means now is that mankind has no authority to add our own ideas to God’s Word! It is a sin to add commandments to Scripture!

Our job is simply to read it, believe it, and obey it!

The Old Testament Jews looked at God’s 613 commands and said “these commands mean that we must add commands in order to fully follow God’s law” and so they added another 2,000 commands to the Word of God!

The fact is that they were not able to follow those 613 commands. Not completely, and not in Spirit! In fact if we were to boil God’s commands down to the core 10 commandments the Jews were not really able to follow even those ten completely!

The purpose of the law was not to save Israel, or anyone, but to condemn us! It was written to show us what we are inside! Unfortunately most people are so blind that we have a tendency to look at other’s sin, and ignore our own!

The Gentiles also have this same problem. Not only are we not able to follow the 10 commandments completely, we also have the same tendency to add laws to God’s law! Christian denominations have the same tendency to bind up their followers under a mess of laws, most of which do not appear in Scripture!

The Catholic Church is probably the worst one, but they are far from alone!

A lot of times there is an element of logic in the creation of these laws; for instance since the Scriptures say “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;” (Ephesians 5:18) many consider themselves justified to add the law “Thou shalt not drink wine, beer, nor any form of alcohol”!

You see, if you have a “good cause” you can justify any kind of evil! The Good Cause Syndrome will lead millions to the Lake of Fire!

Yes! Adding “good things” to Scripture is still incredibly evil!

Essentially those who do this are saying that “God was not able to express Himself completely and so it is up to me to finish what He failed to say!”, “Poor God! He needs me to finish His Word for Him!”

It makes me feel sick to just type these sentences! This is exactly the attitude of myriads of “men of God” around the globe! Pope Francis’ recent pronouncements from the Vatican display this attitude exactly, but I have seen this attitude in the Baptist Churches I grew up in as well!

The truth on that subject, as in any other, is that you have God’s commands, so it is up to you to figure-out how best to obey them. It is not up to your pastor to make-up new commandments for you to follow!

If I see a Christian brother showing the signs of drunkenness then it is my job to show him what the Scriptures say, and to do my best to help him to obey them, but I must not create laws for him. Ultimately that is between him and the Holy Spirit. If he truly is a brother the Spirit will convict him and will also give him the strength to exercise self-control!

If we believe the bible then we need to let the Holy Spirit do His work. When we create laws like this we encourage legalism, and the truth is that legalism is worse than drunkenness!

Drunks know they are sinning, and are under God’s condemnation, but Legalists think they are doing God’s work!

Something else that Legalists do is to take an example of what God did in the Garden of Eden, and then to create a law based on something that happened 6,000 years ago.

Someone might say that since God created Adam and Eve as vegetarians, that we need to be vegetarian today! Such an idea ignores the permission that God gave Noah after the flood, in Genesis 9:3, and which were repeated to the Christian Church in Acts 15:29 and 21:25. Everything changed at the fall!

Another example from the Garden is the fact that God made Adam and Eve as the first monogamous couple.

Many, including most Churches I have attended all my life, tell us that since God made only one wife for Adam that this means that all polygamous relationships are wrong for all time! When you point out godly men like Jacob or David, they will say that God made an exception in these cases, as if God is a respecter of persons! Or, that God favoured these men more than any other!

Christians have made this a law, and it is a law that does not appear in Scripture! In fact you will find that just about all Christian denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church, have this law. This is a law that does not have its origin in Scripture, but actually has its origin in the ancient Pagan Greek empire. Later it was adopted by the Roman Empire, the only exception in both cases was the nation of Israel, which was allowed an exemption!

Even Jesus, when he made his statements regarding marriage never condemned the practice of polygyny!

It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. Matthew 5:31-32

You see here that Jesus defines it as adultery when a man divorces his wife and marries another; He does NOT define it as adultery when a man marries two women at the same time! Polygamists don’t divorce one wife when they marry their second!

He repeated Himself in chapter 19;

He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. Matthew 19:8-9

He elaborated a little more in Mark;

5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart [Moses] wrote you this precept. 6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Mark 10:5-9

Some would argue that he uses the term “wife” here in the singular, therefore signifying that there is only to be one wife per man. I would argue back, that the relationship between a man and his wife is to be one of equals, regardless of how many wives a man has; each wife is to be dealt with on a one-to-one basis, as an individual. A man like David is “one flesh” with each of his wives!

When Nathan the prophet confronted David over his affair with Bathsheba, and the murder of Uriah, he, speaking for the Lord said;

And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. II Samuel 12:7-8

Here’s the thing, there is no evidence that David’s mother in law ever lived with him. This is not to be taken literally but is a euphemism that essentially means that “I put you in your master’s place so that you could have multiple wives, like him”. The phrase “such and such things” is based on הנה which comes from הן which is “them” in the feminine plural, and so it could actually mean “more wives”! It certainly means “more of the same”!

Yes indeed God gave David his wives!

Now look at Jeremiah 3. This is a passage where God identifies with a man who has two wives! For brevity I will just quote from the pertinent verses; you can read the whole passage on your own;

1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord.

6 The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.

11 And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

In case we do not understand that God has two wives in this passage, He makes it clear in verse 14. Please note that in the KJV the words “you” and “ye” are always in the plural; always referring to more than one person!

14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

Yes indeed, God views Himself as a husband with many wives!  He also says that “David is a man after my own heart”, in both Testaments!

Ultimately God has a purpose for this practice which will become a world-wide phenomenon during the early years of the Millennial Reign of Christ! Jesus will use polygyny to repopulate the world after the devastation of Armageddon!

1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:

4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. Isaiah 4:1-4

The context of this passage is set in verses 25-26 of the previous chapter; the “war” it speaks of is Armageddon, and the reason that these women come to this man with this request is because there are no other men left for them to marry! These seven women and one man are not only representative of the survivors of Israel, but also of the whole world!

Every soldier who participates in Armageddon will die, on both sides of the conflict! Jesus told His followers that when they see the “abomination of desolation” in the Temple, they are to flee to the wilderness without delay (Mat. 24:15-18). Well, the believers will obey Him, but the rest of Israel will stay and fight the Antichrist, and will die for their trouble! (Some might actually fight on the side of the Beast, and so this could actually become a civil war, but either way this war will result in the deaths of all the soldiers who fight on either side!)

Notice that in Isaiah 4:3 all the survivors are called “holy”! Yes that’s right, these men are holy polygamists!

Please don’t think that I am saying it is OK for you or me to become a polygamist today. If you are married you probably said something in your wedding vows like “I shall have none but thee”, or words to that effect. You see Jesus commanded us to keep our word, so we really need to take our vows seriously, even if there is no command to make these particular vows!

Once you say it you need to keep your word!

If you live in a western nation, you probably have laws in effect that prohibit polygyny, and since Paul said that we ought to “obey every ordinance of man” (1 Peter 2:13) we should not be disobeying the laws of our nation, unless those laws command us to disobey Scripture.

Nevertheless, in nations that allow polygyny, I can’t say it is wrong, but I would caution all prospective polygynists of another command that God gave us;

But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. I Timothy 5:8

It is the responsibility for a husband to not only provide for the food, clothing, and shelter of his family, he is also responsible to ensure his sons and daughters are educated so that they can care for themselves and their own families! If you have multiple wives you will have many children who will need to be educated, and that is your responsibility!

But why would God tell us now of His plans for the Millennial Reign? Surely telling us about it during the Marriage Supper of the Lamb would give us enough time to get our minds around this bomb-shell of a revelation?

The reason is that He is providing a contrast between the reign of Jesus Christ and the reign of the Antichrist! This is one way you can tell who the Antichrist is!  This is a sign that will be seen before the Rapture of the Church!

36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. 37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. Daniel 11:36-37

The phrase “the desire of women” is a direct reference to Isaiah 4:1, and this shows the contrast between Jesus Christ and the Beast; The Lord Jesus will allow polygyny after the greatest war of all time, but the Antichrist will prohibit polygyny as he is rising to power after the Gog/Magog war. He will be appointed as some sort of administrator, or governor, over the nations that have just been defeated in that war, and Ezekiel 39:2 tells us that only one in six of the soldiers who came against Israel will survive to return home.

Those men will find that there are six women waiting for each one, when they return from the battle, and having mostly come from Muslim nations, those survivors will expect that they will be allowed to marry six women each! This time, however, this ruler, who also comes from a Muslim nation, will prohibit this practice, and western “Christians” will applaud this man!

By prohibiting polygyny, the Beast will force women who want children, to either have affairs, or to steal men from their wives, and thus this policy will cause sin to increase!

How blind are western Christians that they can’t see this?

This is why you should never add commands to Scripture! Accept that God knows what He is doing and obey the law he has given. Accept that there is freedom when there is silence, and don’t add to, nor take-away from His Word, lest you are found to be a liar!

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How Many Jews Are There?

Posted on April 7, 2018 by dknezacek

One of the websites I visit regularly is Arutz Sheva, a conservative Israeli news site.  If you are interested in what is going on in Israel, or around the Middle East, this is an informative site written from an Israeli viewpoint.

One article that caught my attention this week was about the number of people, world wide, who have a Jewish, or Israelite background.  The number is astonishing;

As you read the article, you find that 95 million is a conservative estimate; estimates of the number of people with a Jewish background go as high as 150 to 200 million!

I am not sure if they have taken the number of Jews in Saudi Arabia into account.  They haven’t mentioned them.  These are “invisible” Jews, whose ancestors converted to Islam during the time of Muhammad.  Today they live as Arabs, and are often leaders in Islam.  These people won’t return to Israel until they realize that Allah can’t help them.  That won’t happen until the Arabs lose the Psalm 83 war.

As the bible says, the world will be astonished when they all return to Israel.  There will be so many that there won’t be enough room for them all!

I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.  Zechariah 10:10

11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Isaiah 11:11-12

When the Jews finally return, after the Psalm 83, and the Ezekiel 38-39 wars, the nation will be larger than nations like England, or Germany!

I am convinced that we are within a decade, or two, of that day!

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The Cross and the Resurrection

Posted on April 1, 2018 by dknezacek

The most important event in human history is the cross and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else pales by comparison. Death was defeated by the resurrection, but Justice was satisfied by His death on the cross, and you and I can be saved because of what Jesus did on that cross!

We had such a wonderful service this morning, remembering the cross and the resurrection, I just couldn’t speak of lesser things today!

Do you remember how, very often context changes in the middle of prophecies? How, in the middle of speaking of one event, the prophet will speak of another event, often separated from the first, by thousands of years?

Zecharia 13 is a wonderful, End Times prophecy, yet in the middle of it there is a prophecy of the crucifixion;

6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.

Verse 6 is clearly speaking of the wounds Jesus sustained on the cross of Calvary. His “friends”? The Jewish people unto whom He was born, and lived with. Those people who He ate with, and who ate the meals He prepared for them. They were fickle friends, and He carries the scars from those wounds even today!

It was his intention to die. This was the purpose of His visitation among us; for without the cross there could be no reconciliation between us and God! Jesus paid all that was required to save the entire human race! There was nothing more that needs to be done to save us, except that we need to receive the payment He made on our behalf!

Thank God for the cross…and the resurrection!

Look at verse 7; Who is God’s “fellow”?

Look at this definition:

fel·low

ˈfelō/

noun: fellow; plural noun: fellows

  • 1.  informal

    a man or boy.

    “he was an extremely obliging fellow”

    synonyms: man, boy;

     boyfriend or lover. (“has she got a fellow?”)

    2. a person in the same position, involved in the same activity, or otherwise associated with another.

     

    “he was learning with a rapidity unique among his fellows”

    synonyms: companion, friend, comrade, partner, associate, coworker, colleague;

    – a thing of the same kind as or otherwise associated with another.

    “the page has been torn away from its fellows”

adjective: fellow

1. sharing a particular activity, quality, or condition with someone or something.

“they urged the troops not to fire on their fellow citizens

We can ignore #1, that definition does not apply to Jesus Christ, except for the fact that He actually was a man, (not a woman, nor was he androgynous), but look at #2. “a person in the same position, involved in the same activity, or otherwise associated with another” This is Jesus exactly! He is in the same position as God the Father! Indeed He is intimately involved in the activity of creating the world, and saving souls, and Has been the associate of the Father from before the founding of the earth!

The adjective also applies to Him, for he shares the quality, activity and condition of God the Father! Just as the Father is God, so is Jesus Christ! God the Father loves you, and sent His Son, His fellow, to die in your place, so that you could be saved by faith in Him!

He is coming soon! Make sure He knows your name before it is too late!

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:23

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Romans 5:12

8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:9-13

This is a promise! Make sure you avail yourself of it, before it is too late! He is The Promise Keeper! You can’t trust anyone else, not even yourself, but you can trust Jesus to take care of your sin problem!

You don’t need to know everything, just believe that His Sacrifice on the cross was for you, and that it was acceptable to God the Father, believe that He was raised from the dead, trust Him to save you, and tell someone about it!  Then start reading Scripture and He will open your eyes!

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Communion and the Lord’s Day

Posted on March 11, 2018 by dknezacek

My family and I have been attending a Brethren Assembly for just around a year now. We have found it a wonderful church; the people are friendly, and the teaching is bible-based and solid.

One thing that bothered me from the beginning, is the fact that we use leavened bread during our communion services. The Churches I grew up in always used unleavened bread, and because it is easy to prove that Jesus ate, and served, unleavened bread at the last supper, I thought there would be no debate over what to use for our Communion services.

When one of our speakers talked about the institutions of the Christian Church, he said that it really didn’t matter what Churches use; it could be either unleavened or leavened bread. He said that the bible doesn’t really say much about it, and the Greek word used is the word for regular leavened bread.

Well, that was too much for me, so I wrote him a letter challenging his position.

He responded by saying that he and a couple of the elders wanted to meet with me some night that week. Well, I lost some sleep over that, thinking that I was about to be kicked out of another church!

I needn’t have worried.

They came one evening and we had a good discussion.

Among the arguments they used is that the word in the Greek is the general word for bread, not the specific word used for unleavened bread. “Azumos” is unleavened bread, while “artos” is just bread. They also said that insisting on leavened bread could lead to legalism.

It is fairly easy to prove that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder. Basically just read Mark’s account;

12 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?

13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.

14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?

15 And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. Mark 14:12-15

So, “the Last Supper” was on the first day of unleavened bread. Under the law of Moses, it was a sin to eat leavened bread during the Passover and the seven days of unleavened bread following it. Jesus stated that he was eating the Passover with his disciples, so there was no way that He would have eaten leavened bread at that time.

Not only was Jesus a law-keeper, but He is actually the Law Giver! Jesus is Yehovah (יהוה) of the Old Testament, so the law is an expression of His character, and not merely a code of behaviour. So no, Jesus would not play fast-and-loose with the law.

Here is what Moses said about the Passover;

Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. Exodus 12:15

The phrase “cut off” can mean to be put to death, or it could mean exile from Israel for the rest of your life. What it certainly means is that it was a serious sin to eat leavened bread during the days of unleavened bread.

Jesus was “cut off” the next day; was He cut off for His own sin, or was he cut off for your, and my, sin?

He is our Passover lamb, he died for you and me! So, no! He did not eat leavened bread at the Last Supper.

My friends said that since the yeast is killed in the baking process that all bread is unleavened, but my response is that this would make Moses’ command senseless. Why would someone be “cut off” from Israel for eating leavened bread if all bread is unleavened? Also, leavened bread still contains the dead bodies of the yeast. (this last point is key, but I did not understand why at that time)

I am not writing this to embarrass those gentlemen; the fact is that their main argument is correct, but it took some digging before I understood what was going on. Some of their arguments were incorrect, but using an incorrect argument does not negate your main point, it just means that certain arguments should not be used, because they are based on faulty logic.

Before they arrived I read a couple of articles on the subject. One very interesting point that the articles, and my brothers used is the fact that the primitive Christians all used leavened bread in their Communion Services. The Roman Catholic Church did also, and only went back to unleavened bread around the 900s AD!

That got me thinking. Was there something that the “Primitive Christians” knew that I did not know?

I told them that I was aware that the wave loaves of the feast of Pentecost were leavened, and that they represented the Christian Church. Therefore it looked to me that using leavened bread was like “eating the Church”.

It was about this time that the Lord brought a certain verse to my attention. It just popped into my head;

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. I Corinthians 11:29

Now I had always tried to view the communion bread as representing the Lord’s body, on the cross, and not just as bread, but the thought came to me “Am I not discerning the Lord’s body the way He wants me to understand it?”

You see, there are numerous passages that speak of the Christian Church as being the “body of Christ”.  Was He trying to show us that we need to view ourselves as having been crucified with Christ?  Indeed He was!

Does the Lord want us to see ourselves in the communion service? When I said that eating “leavened bread is like eating the Church” I didn’t realize how close I was to the truth!

Doesn’t Paul say that we are crucified with Christ?

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Galatians 5:24

As I thought on these things I realized that God wants us to view Christ’s crucifixion as our own crucifixion! He wants us to see ourselves in the communion service, not that we are the Saviour; He is the Saviour. He is the bread, and we are the leaven!

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3

Isn’t this a picture of what we see in the communion loaf? We see the bread, and the yeast is present, hidden within the loaf. In the same way, He is the bread of Life, and we are the leaven, hidden in Christ!

There is more;

As I thought about it, I considered the conditions in which the 3,000 Jewish converts were observing on the feast of Pentecost; That day they were eating the leavened wave loaves of the feast of Pentecost. When they heard Peter preach the gospel these people believed and were immediately indwelt with the Holy Spirit.

Here is Moses, on the feast of Pentecost, or Shavuot;

15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:

16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord.

17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. Leviticus 23:15-17

Lots of people calculate Pentecost incorrectly, but just in case we got it wrong, Moses gives a different way of calculating it in verse 16, that ends up with the same day; Sunday. The feast of Pentecost was to be held on the day after the seventh sabbath; Sunday!

The sheaf of the wave offering was offered during the Sabbath day that Jesus was in the tomb, and Pentecost occurred 50 days later, or seven weeks to the day after His resurrection!

So these Jewish converts had no problem moving their day of worship to Sunday, because they had experienced the indwelling of the Holy Spirit on that day, the very same day they were eating the leavened wave loaves! Indeed the Spirit witnessed to them that they were to change the day they set aside for worship to Sunday! Does this mean it is wrong to worship on Saturday, or Tuesday? Absolutely not; Christians should be living in communion with God seven days a week, but the day He wants us to set aside regularly, is the first day, Sunday.

This answers two questions; The bread the early Church ate was leavened, because of the wave loaves of Pentecost, and the day they met was the first day of the week, also because of Pentecost!

The coming of the Holy Spirit during the feast of Pentecost (Shavuot, the feast of weeks) is God’s seal of approval of both Sunday worship, and Leavened bread in the Church’s Communion Service!

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