Prophetic Significance of the Olivet Discourse

Johan Malan, University of the North, South Africa

Abstract: The Lord Jesus made various cogent statements about the future of both Israel and the Gentile nations in His Prophetic Discourse, also known as the Olivet Discourse.

A very clear prophetic scenario of the first and last generations of the present dispensation is described by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse. Both these generations are characterised by the coexistence of Israel and the Church. In the first generation, the Church was established and phased in, while Israel was on a course of being phased out by way of the Diaspora. In the last generation, Israel is restored and phased in while the Church must prepare itself to be phased out by way of the rapture. These facts are often disregarded in prophetic analyses, or misinterpreted for of a variety of reasons. This immensely important discourse will be considered within its appropriate dispensational framework, from which its great prophetic significance is evident.

Different perspectives of the Gospels
As an introduction to this article, I would like to explain the reasons for the different presentations of the Olivet Discourse by Matthew and Luke (Mark's version of the Olivet Discourse is virtually the same as that of Matthew). Appreciation of these facts will, hopefully, keep one from reading the version of Matthew only and from wrongly identifying the prophetic future of the Church in the typically Jewish scenario described by Matthew.

An intensive study of the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) reveals the fact that they have complementary theological perspectives. Although the basic message of salvation is described by all three of them, the Gospel of Matthew was written for the Jews. It has a decidedly Jewish orientation in which preference is explicitly given to Israel for proclaiming the message of God's kingdom. In the period before the national rejection of Jesus by the Jews, the disciples were ordered to concentrate on Israel and not to go to the Gentiles such as the Samaritans, and He Himself said He was sent only to the Jews (cf. Mt. 10:5-6; 15:24). References to the Old Testament predominate in Matthew so as to demonstrate to a sceptical nation that the life and works of Jesus in minute detail fulfil the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. A Jewish genealogy is quoted for Jesus, which is reckoned from Abraham. His descent from David is often mentioned and He is specifically described as the King of the Jews.

In the presentation of prophecies, including the Olivet Discourse, the Jewish perspective is maintained. The destruction of Jerusalem is clearly foretold, as well as the fact that the Jewish nation who rejected Jesus would be left desolate and see Him no more until the time when they would accept Him and bless Him in the Name of the Lord (Mt. 23:37-39). The hardships of the tribulation period and also the desecration of the temple are recorded by Matthew in chapter 24 since Israel, as a nation, will go through the tribulation period. In this Gospel, clear instructions are given to the Jews on when and how to flee urgently from Judea in the middle of the coming tribulation. In this description, use is made of typical Jewish terms such as the Sabbath (Mt. 24:15-22).

Luke, in his Gospel, offers a strikingly different perspective. This Gospel was written for non-Jewish believers and has a much more universal orientation in that the position of the Christians as well as the unsaved Gentile nations is specifically described. The genealogy of Jesus is reckoned back to Adam (Lk. 3:38) as Jesus has come for all the descendants of Adam "to seek and to save” the lost sheep of both the Jewish fold and of the Gentile world outside that fold (Lk. 19:10). The Jewish disciples are rebuked for their intolerance towards the Samaritans (Lk. 9:51-56), while the Jews are reproached by the Lord Jesus in that of the ten lepers whom He healed, only one, a Samaritan, turned back to glorify God (Lk. 17:11-19).

In his prophetic review, Luke not only discusses the fate of the unbelieving Jewish people but he also records prophecies for the Messianic believers, the non-Jewish Christians and the nations. The escape from the destruction of Jerusalem, which had been promised by Jesus to believers, is mentioned by Luke (Lk. 21:20-22) but not by Matthew. Likewise, the promise of the rapture to Jewish as well as non-Jewish believers is inferred by Jesus in Luke (Lk. 21:34-36) but not mentioned by Matthew. On the other hand, Luke only summarises the events of the tribulation period and does not refer to the desecration of the temple by the false messiah, as does Matthew. It is also conspicuous that Luke clearly indicates the times of the Gentiles that would span the long period between the first and last generations (Lk. 21:24). Mathew makes no mention of this period.

The meaning of a generation
A further concept that needs to be properly defined to gain a better understanding of the Olivet Discourse, is that of a generation (Gr. genea). This word denotes a specific period in the existence of a nation or any community of people, thereby referring to a group of contemporaries. When Jesus called the Scribes and Pharisees "an evil and adulterous generation" (Mt. 12:39) He characterised the evil and adulterous generation that was alive at that time. Events related to the end-time immediately preceding His Second Coming, have been clearly prophesied to occur within the time-span of a specific generation: "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things are fulfilled" (Mt. 24:34).

It is obvious that in the chronology of a group, such as the nation of Israel, there are many generations. These generations come and go, and therefore all have a starting-point and a terminal point. The one generation is succeeded by another.

Since the three living generations of a group (grandfather, father, and son) overlap, a single generation may be equated with the adult life of a person – not his entire life span. In the history of Israel, a generation in their chronology represents a period of about 40 years. This is not a rigidly defined period as a single generation may be up to a few years longer than 40 years. A generation is, therefore, a period that can be extended or shortened.

During the period of the kings of Israel a number of generations were exactly 40 years long: Saul, David and Solomon all reigned for 40 years. A few of the kings reigned for periods slightly longer than 40 years, but that was exceptional. The 27 generations from David (born in 1085 BC) to the birth of Jesus in 4 BC (Mt. 1:17), a total span of 1081 years, gives an average of 40.037 years for the 27 generations.

There are three generations in the history of Israel that are of immense prophetic significance. They are associated with:

(1) the exodus and founding of the nation in their land;

(2) their international dispersion; and

(3) their end-time restoration.

The Lord said the following about the generation (adult persons) of the people of Israel who were delivered from Egypt:

"Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… So the Lord's anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone" (Num. 32:11, 13; also see Ps. 95:10).

It is obvious that not the entire nation, but only one specific generation, died in the wilderness during the 40 years of their wanderings.

The other two generations, associated with the events culminating in the Diaspora and the end-time restoration of Israel, were both mentioned by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse. The generation that spanned the period between the rejection of Jesus as Messiah in 32 AD and the destruction of Jerusalem in September 70 AD was 38,5 years long. Allowing for the dispersion of the captives of war after the siege, the length of this generation comes close to 40 years. There is, however, not a fixed time for a generation since a number of generations during the kings of Israel were more than 40 years in duration.

The last generation began with the recapturing of Jerusalem in June 1967 and its restoration as Israel’s capital city in 1980 and will end with the appearing of Christ on the Mount of Olives.

The Olivet Discourse
In the Olivet Discourse, the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples clear signs pointing to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, as well as signs related to His Second Coming:

“Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’ Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’” (Mt. 24:1-3).

Two questions were posed to the Lord: (1) "When will the temple be destroyed?" and (2) "What is the sign of Your coming and the end of this age?" In the discourse following these questions, various important events of contemporary significance to the Jews of the first generation after the rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah were discussed, as well as events related to the last generation before the Second Coming of Jesus. In these prophecies, a clear distinction must be made between first generation events (which relate to the first of the two questions the disciples asked Jesus) and last generation events (which relate to the second question). It is also significant that the beginning and end of both generations are linked to events in and around the city of Jerusalem.

When referring to the immediate future of Jerusalem and its inhabitants of the early first century, Jesus addressed the sceptical Jewish leaders who rejected Him, just as their fathers had rejected and killed the prophets. They filled up the measure of their fathers' guilt and would inevitably have to bear the consequences of their actions:

"Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!’” (Mt. (23:36-39).

"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near… For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (Lk. 21:20, 23-24).

When Jesus refers to the last generation, He does so in the context of a restored Jerusalem which is in the midst of the great tribulation, with its unprecedented distress, wars and natural disasters that will culminate in His Second Coming. This generation would begin after the long period of the trampling of Jerusalem had come to an end:

"And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And [after that] there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near… Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things are fulfilled" (Lk. 21:25-32; see also Mt. 24:34).

The parameters of the first and last generations of the present age (the dispensation of the Church) are clearly defined in the above quotations from Scripture. The first generation started when the inhabitants of Jerusalem rejected their Messiah-King and delivered Him to the Roman authorities to be crucified. The end of the first generation was marked by the destruction of Jerusalem and the beginning of the Diaspora.

The last generation commenced with the restoration of Jerusalem to its former position of Israel’s capital city. Please note that with the rebirth of Israel as a nation in 1948, biblical Jerusalem (Mount Zion and the Temple Mount) was not under their control. They only recaptured it during the Six Day War in June 1967, and fully restored the city’s constitutional position in August 1980, thereby ushering in the last generation. This last generation will end when the inhabitants of Jerusalem receive and accept their Messiah-King when He suddenly appears on the Mount of Olives at the end of the tribulation period. They will look on Him whom they have pierced, and say: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Mt. 23:39; also see Zech. 14:4; 12:10).

The last generation will end in the place where the first one began: The inhabitants of Jerusalem will again be given the opportunity to accept Yeshua as their Messiah-King and to bow down before Him for salvation and cleansing from their sin (Zech. 13:1). On the first occasion they rejected Him, but on the second occasion they will fully accept Him.

A very conspicuous characteristic of the inaugurating and concluding generations of the Church dispensation is the coexistence of Israel and the Church. During the first generation, the Church was gradually phased in while Israel was on a course to be phased out as a nation by way of the Diaspora. During the last generation, modern Israel is gradually phased in while the true Church must prepare itself to be phased out by way of the rapture.

Prominent events of the first generation
A matter that receives great emphasis in the Olivet Discourse is that the true believers of the first generation would be spared from the divine judgements upon Jerusalem. The same Biblical principle is also applied to the last generation in that true believers will again be removed from the disaster area of divine judgements. This is a long-established principle, as God never pours out His divine wrath upon believers when He judges the wicked. Noah, Lot, and their families were also removed to safety before God judged the wicked generations of their time.

The following promise was given to the believers of the first generation:

"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are days of vengeance, that all things that are written may be fulfilled" (Lk. 21:20-22).

This promise was literally fulfilled to the believers in November and December of the year 66 AD. The occasion was the siege of Jerusalem by the forces of the Roman governor of Syria, Cestius Gallus. After realising that he was not well enough prepared for a long siege of Jerusalem, which was a strongly fortified city, he withdrew to Syria.

The Jewish leaders wrongly concluded that God was giving the enemy into their hands, and pursued them. In their pursuit the Jewish forces killed 5300 of the retreating Roman soldiers, while sustaining virtually no loss themselves.

At the same time, the Messianic believers observed the promise of Jesus and fled the city in a north-easterly direction. They crossed the Jordan and took refuge in Decapolis, in the city of Pella, where they were safe from the impending doom of Jerusalem and its inhabitants.

At this time Nero, one of the greatest tyrants in history, was the emperor in Rome. He was outraged when he heard of the humiliating defeat of his Syrian army at the hands of the Jews. He ordered one of his best generals, Vespasian, to subdue the Jews by brutal force. The climax of Vespasian's bloody campaign was the siege of Jerusalem that started on 10 May, 70 AD. His son, Titus, joined him with his soldiers who were stationed at Alexandria. When Vespasian was called to Rome to succeed as the new emperor, Titus took command of the forces in Judea.

Contrary to the clear instructions Jesus gave in Luke 21:20-24, great numbers of Jews flocked to Jerusalem after various Jewish towns and cities were captured and destroyed by the Romans. They thought that they would be safe in Jerusalem, but Jesus foretold an opposite scenario:

“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation’” (Lk. 19:41-44).

During the siege of Jerusalem, 1,1 million people died – half of them of hunger. The temple was set alight and subsequently all its walls broken down to the rock foundation to retrieve the molten gold that had seeped into the cracks in the floor. All the buildings in the city were burned and demolished. On 26 September in AD 70, the once famous City of David died. Only one wall (the present Western Wall on the Temple Mount) was left standing to serve as a shelter for Roman soldiers who remained behind to ensure that the Jews did not rebuild the city. The 97 000 surviving Jews were taken as captives of war. Many of them were expelled from the land of Israel and sold on slave markets in other provinces of the Roman Empire.

The long period of Israel's exile from the land and global dispersion, and the trampling of Jerusalem by the Gentiles had dawned in AD 70. The subsequent period is described as the times of the Gentiles (Lk. 21:24), that is the time of world evangelism. It was not until late in the 20th century that Jerusalem would revert entirely to Jewish control.

Prominent events of the last generation
The physical restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish control occurred in June 1967. Israel had to be established in the surrounding country for a number of years to become strong enough to capture the Old City and the West Bank area. That happened during the Six Day War, when they achieved remarkable victories on three different fronts – fighting Egypt, Syria and Jordan at the same time. Their control over the entire greater Jerusalem area paved the way for the declaration, in August 1980, of Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel.

There are striking similarities between Israel and Jerusalem in the time of the last generation, and the situation that prevailed during the first generation:

· By far the great majority of the Jews still reject Jesus as Messiah, as their counterparts did in the first generation.

· The Messianic Jews constitute a small minority group who are threatened in various ways, should they continue to preach salvation in the Name of Yeshua.

· The nation waits for a Messiah who will liberate them from their enemies, ensures a peaceful future for Israel, and allows them to reinstate and continue the temple service. Jesus warned them against accepting a false Messiah (Jn. 5:43) who will pose as a religious and political leader and will arise from a desert area in the Middle East (Mt. 24:26).

· The rejection of Jesus in the first century led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Diaspora of the Jews. The renewed rejection of Jesus by members of the last generation will give rise to the time of Jacob's trouble in the tribulation period (Jer. 30:7), during which the false messiah will severely persecute them (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:13).

· An escape route was promised to first generation believers from the judgements of God (Lk. 21:20-21), while last generation believers are also promised an escape from the judgements of God in the tribulation period (Lk. 21:36).

· The devil deceived Jews of the first generation into rebelling against God by rejecting and killing His Son, and consequently to forfeit God's favour and be killed or exiled from their city and their land. The same spiritual blindness induces last generation Jews to also rebel against God by rejecting Jesus and His followers. They will come very close to being driven from their city and their land, and also to being annihilated (Zech. 14:2), at which point Jesus will come back to save the remnant (Zech. 14:3-5) and enter into a new covenant with them (Jer. 31:7, 31).

The phasing out of the Church is a very prominent event during the last generation. The judgements and testing that Israel as well as the Christ-rejecting nations must pass through in order that a remnant may be saved, are not meant for the true Church:

"Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Lk. 21:36).

Please note that nominal believers will not be counted worthy to escape the coming tribulation period. True Christians are vigilant and praying witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. The others only have a form of Godliness as they are not born again of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says:

"These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honour Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" (Mt. 15:8).

After the rapture, the Antichrist will reveal himself and be accepted by Israel and all the other nations (Jn. 5:43). In the middle of the tribulation period he will enter the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, stop the sacrificial service, declare himself to be God, and institute the forced worship of an image of himself (Dan. 9:27; 2 Thess. 2:4; Rev. 13:15). When the Jewish leaders refuse to accept and worship him in his new capacity, he will try to annihilate them. Jesus warned the Jews against this very serious turn of events and advised them to flee hastily from Jerusalem when it happens:

"Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation’, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those with nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 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" (Mt. 24:15-21).

This escape will occur 3½ years after the rapture, and will be aimed at preserving a remnant of the Jews during the dark days of the great tribulation, that they may live to see the coming of the true Messiah 3½ years later and so be saved.

At the end of the seven-year tribulation period, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus will take place. The surviving Jews will assemble at the Mount of Olives where He will stand on the mountain after having descended from heaven. "In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east" (Zech. 14:4). They will then greet Him with the long-prophesied words: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Mt. 23:39; Ps. 118:26).

The spiritual restoration of the remnant of Israel will conclude the events of the last generation of the present age (Zech. 12:10; 13:1).

In the light of these very clear prophecies in the Olivet Discourse of Jesus it should be obvious to everyone that the last generation is now far spent. The rapture of the Church is very near, and will be followed by the revelation of the false messiah and the beginning of the tribulation period. Jesus warned against the deception that will coincide with the coming of the false messiah (Mt. 24:4-5).

Prophetic turning-points in the history of Israel and the Gentiles
In the Olivet Discourse it is clearly stated that during the Diaspora the position of Israel, their land and their city, Jerusalem, was never meant to be one of permanent rejection. The word until or till is used several times to underscore the fact that at some future time their fortunes will certainly change and take a turn for the better. Likewise, the times of the Gentiles will also not continue indefinitely:

· "Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (Lk. 21:24). In this verse the word until (Gr. achri) carries the idea of a terminus. The situation described will, therefore, not continue indefinitely but come to a certain end. From the evidence of recent history we know that the physical trampling of Jerusalem by Gentile nations was to a large extent terminated in June 1967 when modern Israel gained control over the city, and in 1980 when Jerusalem was declared the eternal capital of Israel. However, the present restoration of Jerusalem is only partial. Before the Messiah comes, the city is destined to become a furnace and a place of great distress to Israel for the spiritual purification of a remnant (Ezek. 22:18-22). As an indication of the nation's spiritual blindness, the desecration of the Temple Mount continues right through the last generation period. This situation will be partially changed in the tribulation period (the 70th week of Daniel) when the third temple is built, but only permanently changed at the end of this generation when the Messiah comes back to completely restore Jerusalem. The entire city will be rebuilt after the disasters of the great tribulation (Jer. 31:38-40; Is. 2:2-3; 52:1-2; 60:1-18). Part of the final restoration of Jerusalem and the land of Israel will be the rebuilding of the fallen throne of David and the construction of the fourth temple (Acts 15:16-17; Lk. 1:32; Ezek. 40-48). We all need to earnestly pray for the realisation of this coming glory of Jerusalem (Is. 62:6-7).

· "You shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Mt. 23:39). The word till (Gr. heos) may be rendered until, or even unto. It will be during His coming at the end of the present last generation, which will also be the end of the tribulation period, that the remnant of Israel will see Jesus and bless Him in the name of the Lord. Jesus also linked His public appearance to the end of the coming tribulation period: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mt. 24:29-30).

· "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till (Gr. heos) all these things are fulfilled" (Mt. 24:34; see also Lk. 21:32). The last generation of the present age will also reach its point of consummation, but not before several very significant events have come to pass. These events include the present (partial) restoration of Israel and their capital, Jerusalem, and all the deception and disasters of the tribulation period.

Supporting prophecies
There are also other prophecies about the future of Israel and the Gentile nations in which the word until is used in the same way as in the Olivet Discourse. Paul said:

"For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that hardening in part has happened to Israel until (Gr. achri) the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Rom. 11:25-27).

The national conversion of the remnant of Israel will occur right at the end of the present last generation, which will also be the end of the great tribulation. By that time, the after-crop among the Gentiles will also have been gathered during the preceding tribulation period; and then "all Israel" will be saved (Jer. 31:7, 31, 34; Rom. 11:26).

Through the prophet Hosea, the Lord rebukes Israel for their spiritual revolt against Him and indicates the implications of their consequent rejection of the Messiah:

"For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them away and no one shall rescue. I will return again to My place till (Heb. ad) they acknowledge their offence. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will diligently seek Me.

"Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight" (Hos. 5:14 - 6:2).

The time will certainly come when Israel experiences great distress because the nation has rejected their Messiah during His first coming. However, the full realisation of their national rejection of the Messiah will only take place after "two days". These prophetic "days" of a thousand years each (2 Pet. 3:8) are the same as those used by Jesus when He referred to His own ministry: "I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected" (Lk. 13:32). After the "two days" (2 000 years) of the ministry of Jesus to save people from the bondage of Satan, He will reign as King in the third millennium (also referred to as "the Day of the Lord" – Zech. 14:1-9). These three "days" began with the coming of Jesus to the world two thousand years ago, which was the beginning of the Messiah’s earthly ministry.

From this prophetic context it is clear that two millennia after the first coming of the Messiah, a time of great affliction and distress will dawn for Jacob, i.e. Israel (Jer. 30:7). As indicated by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse, Israel will first worship the false messiah. After he has set up his image in the temple and declared himself to be God (Dan 9:27, 11:31, 36; 12:11; 2 Thess. 2:3-4), Israel will realise that he is a false messiah and break their covenant with him. This action will greatly infuriate the false messiah and induce him to try and annihilate the Jewish people. That will be a time of great distress, when Israel will realise their past sin of having rejected Yeshua ha Mashiach. Their meeting with Him at the Mount of Olives will lead to their national conversion (Zech. 12:10 - 13:1).

After the false messiah has set up his image in the temple during the middle of the tribulation period, the remnant of Israel will study the Messianic prophecies and discover that great distress awaits them, but that it will not be long before the true Messiah will come:

"…there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered… And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1290 days" (Dan. 12:1, 11).

The last 42 months of the tribulation period, referred to as the "great tribulation" by Jesus (Mt. 24:21; Rev. 11:2, 13:5), will elapse between the self-deification of the false messiah in the temple and the coming of the true Messiah on the Mount of Olives. That will be followed by a month of mourning by the Jews while they are reconciled with Yeshua ha Mashiach (Zech. 12:10-14; cf. their mourning for Moses in Deut. 34:8). By then, 43 prophetic months of 30 days each (1290 days) will have passed since the day that the false messiah desecrated the temple and forced people to worship him as God.

In this study we have seen that in His Olivet Discourse the Lord Jesus refers to both the first and last generations of the Church dispensation, as well as to ‘the Times of the Gentiles’ period linking them. We are certainly very close to the rapture and the beginning of the seven year tribulation period with this last generation.

Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Mark 10:14b

I wanted to give a brief testimony of my daughter repenting and trusting Jesus Christ to save her, to forgive her of her sins.

Last Tuesday night (11/10/09) she started to walk upstairs to go to bed after we all prayed and she stopped after a few steps and began to cry because she was scared, she told my wife that she as afraid of going to hell and being punished - that she knew she had sinned against God, she has done things that the bible said she wasn’t suppose to do.

This didn’t happen over night my wife and I could tell she has been under conviction for over a month now. She has been very concerned and she has been asking many questions in regards to Salvation and punishment, things like who does and does not go to hell and my wife and I are frank with her, loving but plain spoken with the truth and we've done this ever since they could talk.

Sunday we had a guest pastor and that night his wife spoke to all the women at our Church, she gave her testimony and my wife said Rachel (my six year old daughter) was paying close attention and my wife told me that this lady was saved at the age of six herself. She explained how she asked her father if he knew where he would go when he died and he replied “to heaven because I’ve trusted Jesus as my Lord and Savior” and she asked “where will I go when I die?” And he answered “to hell if you don’t repent and trust Jesus Christ to forgive your sins!” Without going into the many details the woman was saved that night and gone on to serve the Lord faithfully ever since.

My wife said Rachel also told her about that testimony and I believe that was the point where the Holy Spirit convicted her strongest because she told me that night that she was “crying and asking Jesus to save me” and my wife and I explained the gospel and told her that she had to believe that Jesus would do what He said He would and she did and she was saved.

The next morning she was like a new child, it was evident the burden had been lifted off of her (something only God can do) and Rachel said that she wasn't afraid anymore but she told her mother and I that her legs were shaking and she could hardly stand the night before! And while no parent ever wants their child to be afraid, when it comes to genuine fear of God I am very thankful because now I know she has passed from death on to life, she has been born again!

Its been over a week now and I have to say it again, this is a different child, she isn’t perfect but she isn’t the same -- it is very important to make sure our children are really saved before we tell them they are.

I cannot thank God enough for His mercy and now we will keep on praying for all the rest to be saved and if your a parent pray for your child and teach them about the Lord now before it is to late.

The Catholic Church Definitely Was Not Established By Jesus Christ

An excerpt from the book "Some serious, popular false doctrines answered from the Scriptures" by Dr. John R. Rice 1970

"One of the easiest things in the world to prove is that there was no Catholic church in New Testament times. There was no Pope in Bible times. There were no priests in the New Testament church. There was no sacrifice of the mass. There were no nuns. There were no monks. There was no confessional. There were no prayers to Mary. There was no teaching of purgatory. Neither the Roman Catholic organization nor anything even remotely like it existed. The present doctrinal stand of the Catholic church did not exist nor was there anything like it in the New Testament churches.

On the contrary, there were simple local congregations of Christians. Everybody who was saved was baptized and received as a member in a local congregation. The word “bishop” in the New Testament refers to a pastor of a local congregation. There were no denominational bishops, secretaries, popes, or cardinals. All of these have been invented later by worldly-minded men.

Peter never went to Rome. He was not accepted as superior by Paul, but openly rebuked when he was wrong (Gal. 2:11-14). He was never regarded as infallible. He did not even preside in the Council at Jerusalem (see Acts 15). He never went to Rome. When Paul wrote to Rome, among many, many people he greeted, Peter was not ever mentioned. When the book of Acts tells how Paul came to Rome, it makes quite clear that Peter was not in Rome. In all the letters wrote from Rome he never mentioned Peter. On the contrary, Peter was at Babylon, as he plainly tells in his epistle, which was far in the other direction (1 Pet. 5:13)

The whole idea of priesthood, nuns, monks, popes, bishops, of purgatory, Masses, prayers for the dead, prayers to the Virgin Mary and all the statues and images, feast days and programs of the Catholic church – all were wholly unknown in Bible times. Anyone who is acquainted with the Roman Catholic organization, doctrine, and practice would not have found anything even remotely like them in the New Testament churches. Jesus organized no denomination. It always means a local assembly or that general assembly including every person ever saved in all the ages who will be caught up to meet Christ in the air at the rapture. That group of all ages who are born again will be the body and bride of Christ in Heaven, and in that sense, those who are saved are in the true church.

The worldly idea of a human super-church organization like the Roman Catholic system is not taught in the Bible. Jesus would have had nothing to do with it when He was on earth. He did not start it. And the Catholic Religion is not at all New Testament Christianity, either in doctrine, in organization, or in historical sequence.

The monstrosity of heresy and worldliness which is the Roman Catholic church today is a growth through the centuries. It was not until 1870 that the Catholic church officially decided on the doctrine that the pope is infallible when he speaks officially. At the same time, it was decided as a law of the church that the church tradition is as authoritative as the Bible. It was not until 1950 that it became official Catholic doctrine that the body of Mary was taken to Heaven. In doctrine and in organization and practice, The Roman Catholic church has far departed from Bible Christianity.

Jesus built no denomination and all of the denominations, He would have most certainly repudiated Catholicism as being untrue to the Bible, untrue to what he Himself taught and trained His apostles to teach. No, Jesus did not establish the Catholic church and only the most biased or ignorant could so declare. "--John R. Rice

SOLZHENITSYN…HE TRIED TO WARN US

By: Pastor Bill Randles



”“Wisdom cries out loud in the streets, she raises her voice in the squares…" Proverbs 1:20




Harvard’s motto is “Veritas”. Many of you have already found out, and others will find out in the course of their lives, that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate our attention totally on its pursuit. But even while it eludes us, the illusion of knowing it still lingers and leads to many misunderstandings. (From Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard address “A World Split Apart”)


Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Nobel Prize winning author, Soviet dissident and a survivor of an eight year sentence in the brutal Soviet Gulag system, passed away yesterday in Russia. He had been exiled from his homeland for his writings, in 1974, and lived in Vermont until 1994 when he was able to return to Russia.


His passing is being largely noted because he was useful in exposing to the outside world the brutality and suppression of the Soviet system, through novels based upon his own experiences in the Gulags, such as “A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH”, and “CANCER WARD”. His non-fiction expose, “THE GULAG ARCHIPILAGO” had to be smuggled out of the USSR and published first in France. It was this particular book which led to his banishment from Russia.


What will perhaps not be as appreciated as it should be is the fact that Solzhenitsyn used the occasion of a Harvard Laureate Award in 1978 to offer a warning to the West that was both stinging and timely. Unfortunately the warning largely went unreceived, as always “A prophet is without honor …”. The speech, “A World Split Apart” created a firestorm of controversy, warning the West of its spiritual emptiness and blindness. President Carter snubbed him, his wife Rosalyn repudiated the speech at the National Press Club, and there were editorials in the New York Times and the Washington Post, among others, which railed against the speech.


What did he say that caused him to go from a ‘cause celebre’ to almost a pariah? Among other things, he called us on our failure of courage,


A decline in courage may be the most striking feature, which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course, there are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life. (“A WORLD SPLIT APART”)


He warned us that we were losing the courage to defend our own civilization, that especially in our leadership, self serving calculation was taking the place of real conviction and that the outcome would be devastating. Solzhenitsyn warns us,


Should one point out that from ancient times declining courage has been considered the beginning of the end? (ibid)


Solzhenitsyn then offers a diagnosis as to what happened to make us lose courage - the false belief that individual freedom would guarantee happiness - as in “The Pursuit of Happiness”, although he warns us that the meaning of word ‘happiness’ has been debased lately -


Every citizen has been granted the desired freedom and material goods in such quantity and of such quality as to guarantee in theory the achievement of happiness -- in the morally inferior sense of the word which has come into being during those same decades. (ibid)


Freedom without restraint has not given us ‘happiness’. In fact, Solzhenitsyn charged that such ‘freedom’ is the cause of much of the depression and disillusionment that characterizes western society.


Ironically, on top of the rebuttal of our concept of freedom, he accused us of becoming a hyper legalistic society. See if this doesn’t speak to the situation as it stands today-


People in the West have acquired considerable skill in interpreting and manipulating law. Any conflict is solved according to the letter of the law and this is considered to be the supreme solution. If one is right from a legal point of view, nothing more is required. Nobody will mention that one could still not be entirely right, and urge self-restraint, a willingness to renounce such legal rights, sacrifice and selfless risk. It would sound simply absurd. One almost never sees voluntary self-restraint. Everybody operates at the extreme limit of those legal frames. (ibid)


It is this “skill” at the use of the letter of the law in the very face of the ‘spirit’ of the law that has developed into the “Death of Common Sense” as the title of a book written by a Federal Judge decries. How else is it that the enemies of our civilization have even a prayer of destroying us, other than through our courts, and the very ‘legalistic spirit’ our friend Solzhenitsyn warned us of? On this point he rightly concludes that such use of legalism will lead to two evils - the paralysis of true leadership and the inability to resist societal evil.


Destructive and irresponsible freedom has been granted boundless space. Society appears to have little defense against the abyss of human decadence, such as, for example, misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and horror. It is considered to be part of freedom and theoretically counterbalanced by the young people's right not to look or not to accept. Life organized legalistically has thus shown its inability to defend itself against the corrosion of evil. (ibid)


We didn’t have to wait very long to see the words of this prophecy come to pass - within ten years of Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard address, President Reagan’s Counsel on Pornography failed to even be able to agree on a definition of pornography. Do “we the people” really want pornography, gay marriage, abortion or Sharia law? Absolutely not, but unfortunately for us the pornographers, Sodomites, Eugenicists and CAIR are all able to successfully employ legal counsel, in a legalistic system to impose their will to the devastation of our society! Exactly what Alexander Solzhenitsyn warned us of in 1978.


Perhaps it was his critique of our flawed analysis of human nature that stung us the most, our humanism leads us to deny the effects of the fall. Therefore freedom without corresponding sense of responsibility to the spirit tilts towards evil.


Such a tilt of freedom in the direction of evil has come about gradually, but it was evidently born primarily out of a humanistic and benevolent concept according to which there is no evil inherent to human nature. The world belongs to mankind and all the defects of life are caused by wrong social systems, which must be corrected. (ibid)


No wonder he was so ill received! He was “messing with our religion” of a humanistic Utopian “Brave New World”.


I have no doubt he was rejected largely because he diagnosed our problem as being the same problem the Russian people suffered from, Humanism!


There is a disaster, however, which has already been under way for quite some time. I am referring to the calamity of a despiritualized and irreligious humanistic consciousness. To such consciousness, man is the touchstone in judging everything on earth -- imperfect man, who is never free of pride, self-interest, envy, vanity, and dozens of other defects. We are now experiencing the consequences of mistakes which had not been noticed at the beginning of the journey (ibid)


I am in danger of reposting the entire speech to you but my commentary really doesn’t do it justice - read it and realize that we were officially warned thirty years ago, and for the most part have failed to heed the warning which has been validated by history point by point.


The solution? Solzhenitsyn calls us to nothing short of spiritual renewal, a return to the “Christian roots” of our humanism and a rejection of the “ossified “ dogmas of the Enlightenment. Almost anticipating the current Islamic Jihad, he warned us that without spiritual renewal, the humanistic and Godless west would be rendered “unable to resist the East”.


Rest in peace Alexander Solzhenitsyn. You warned us.

TRUTH WILL NOT GIVE ITSELF TO A REBEL

by A.W. Tozer

"......He that followeth me...shall have the light of life." John 8:12

Too many people consider Jesus Christ a 'convenience.' We make Him a lifeboat to get us to shore, a guide to find us when we are lost. We reduce Him simply to a Big Friend to help us when we are in trouble.

That is not biblical Christianity!

Jesus Christ is lord, and when a man is willing to do His will, he is repenting and the truth flashes in. For the first time in his life, he finds himself willing to say, "I will do the will of the Lord, even if I die for it!"

Illumination will begin in his heart. That is repentance - for he has been following his own will and now decides to do the will of God.

Before the Word of God can mean anything inside of me there must be obedience to the Word. Truth will not give itself to a rebel. Truth will not impart life to a man who will not obey the light. If you are disobeying Jesus Christ you cannot expect to be enlightened spiritually.

No man can know the Son except the Father tell him. No man can know the Father except the Son reveal Him. I can know about God: that is the body of truth. But I cannot know God, the soul of truth, unless I am ready to be obedient.

True discipleship is obeying Jesus Christ and learning of Him and following Him and doing what He tells you to do, keeping His commandments and carrying out His will.

That kind of a person is a Christian - and no other kind is!

WHAT IS WORSHIP

by R.A. Torrey


Exodus 4:31 ".....the children of Israel .......... bowed their heads and worshipped."

Exodus 34:5-8 ".....And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped."

Joshua 5:13,14 "......And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship....."

2 Chronicles 7:3 ".....all the children of Israel .......bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever."

2 Chronicles 20:18 "And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord."

2 Chronicles 29:29 "And when they had made an end of offering, the king, and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped."

Nehemiah 8:6 "And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground."

What is worship? Worship is the soul bowing itself in adoring contemplation before the object worshipped. To worship God is to bow before God in adoring contemplation of Himself.

The word worship is commonly used in a very loose and unscriptural manner - e.g, we speak of the whole service of the Lord's Day morning and evening as "public worship," but there is a great deal in it that is not worship. Reading the Bible and meditating upon it is not worship. It may lead to worship but it is not worship.

Listening to a sermon is not worship. Praying is not worship. It may be, and should be, accompanied by worship; but it is not worship. There are hymns which, if sung intelligently and in the proper spirit, would be worship, but they are comparatively few in the hymnology of the day.

Worship is a definite act of the soul bowing before god in adoring contemplation of Himself. The root of the Hebrew word translated "worship" in the Old Testament means "to bow down."

It has been well said "in prayer we are occupied with our needs, in thanksgiving we are occupied with our blessings, in worship we are occupied with Himself."

We owe worship to God. It is His due We owe love to man, (honour) to parents, worship to God. It is our first duty toward Him. He is the All holy, All wise, Almighty, The Infinite, All Perfect One, and our rightful attitude toward Him is that of bowing before Him, or prostrating ourselves before Him, in adoring contemplation of His infinite loveliness and glory, of His attributes, of Himself.

If we do not worship God we are robbing Him of what is His due. It is not enough that we obey Him, that we pray to Him, that we return thanks to Him, that we seek to serve Him and do His will. We must worship.

Have you ever worshipped God? How much time do you spend daily in worshipping him - in pure and simple worship, in bowing before Him in silent and adoring contemplation of Himself?

What The Bible Teaches, R.A. Torrey, pg. 471

Clinging To Jesus Alone

by Joseph R. Chambers

The greatest trap that Satan sets for every hungry Christian is to fill them with a love for religion and religious activities instead of a love for Jesus Christ. At many intervals of my life, I have found myself literally filled with enthusiasm for the Lord’s work, His Kingdom, souls that needed mercy, and every good work; but suddenly feeling empty inside. His wonderful mercy has on each occasion gripped my heart to refocus my attention on Him, the Lover of my soul. The greatest moments of our successes while laboring for the Lord are the most perilous times. The flesh is so quick to rejoice in victories and to enjoy the process more than our relationship with the Master.

I shall never forget a story I heard many years ago. The source I do not remember. A father and his daughter were very close and each afternoon would go for a walk together. Suddenly, the daughter was preoccupied and would beg to be excused from the walks with her dad. After weeks of excuses, the father was grief-stricken. His birthday arrived and he invited the daughter for an afternoon together. She joyously accepted and met her father at the appointed place. In her hand was the most beautiful sweater, hand woven and intricately designed by her masterful patience. “Dad,” she said. “I have woven for you this special gift over many weeks because of my love for you.” He suddenly knew and wept with joy; but his response was two-fold. “My daughter, your gift overwhelms my heart but please, please never wi thdraw your presence from me again to make for me a gift. Your presence to me is far more wonderful than the greatest thing you could ever create.” What a story about our labor versus our time with Him.

Oh, the joy of just coming into the garden of love and worship to think of nothing but Him. To reach out in faith and attention to His triumph on the cross and His victory from the tomb and just to share that victory because we are redeemed is precious to Him. He is forever our Savior and Lord. To Him we owe all our praise and obedience. It is a relationship not just an experience. It is an experience, but religious people have experiences. Our experience must move into a relationship that we covet and build until we talk together one on one. If I could name one place where I have failed the most over fifty-six years as His servant, it would be this alone. All other weaknesses have resulted from this failure.

Jesus said as quoted by John the Beloved, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:4-6). This disciple is the only one to quote these words of the Master because he knew the meaning best. His leaning on Jesus’ breast opened his heart to the glory of his relationship over his experience. The greatest faith is learned not in the head but in the heart.

The perfect heart is not just a heart free from sin; it is a heart free from self and attached in unfailing love to Him. This is greatness of surrender that exalts the heart to be so overwhelmed with Him that we can worship without a song. We must all confess that worship is usually the result of great songs, powerful sermons, and wonderful fellowship with His saints. He wants us to learn to worship just because we are His and He is ours. Then, worship can move beyond a sanctuary to become a lifestyle. We will not want to miss His House of Worship once we learn the worship that consumes our greatest moments of every day.

He said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love” (John 15:7-9). Remember, fruit is different from works. Works are our religious responsibilities, but fruit is the nature of the vine extended in the branches. Never allow the works to consume you until the vine cannot provide this nurture and nourishment of Him. Clinging to Him (abiding in Him) is the Believers’ greatest joy.

Hebrew the Original Language of Man?

I read this in a bible study on Genesis Im reading by David Cloud and I thought this was very interesting...



Genesis 2:23 is evidence that Hebrew was the original language of man. “Adam’s first recorded statement has a significant element in it called the paronomasia or word pun. He punned on the name ‘man’ (ish) with the word ‘woman’ (ishshah) which means ‘from the man.’ John Gill argues that this pun is not found in other ancient versions: ‘This paronomasia does not appear in the Syriac version, nor in the Chaldee paraphrases of Onkelos and Jonathan. The Syriac uses Gabra for a man, but never Gabretha for a woman, not even in places where men and women are spoken of together….The Syriac or Chaldee language will not admit such an allusion as is in the text. Just a Gabra is used for a man, and not a Gabretha for a woman, so Itta, and Ittetha, and Intetha or Antetha, are used for woman, but never Itt for a man…. This seems to prove that the language Adam spoke to his wife must have been the Hebrew language, and consequently is the primitive one.’ Hebrew students recognize that there are numerous other puns in the Hebrew language, many of which are not translatable in any language, even the English of the KJV, in Gen. 1:11” (Thomas Strouse, “Scholarly Myths Perpetuated on Rejecting the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament,” 2004, Emmanuel Baptist Theological Seminary, Newington, CT).

The Person of Jesus Christ

by Henry M. Morris from the book "Many Infallible Proofs".

Biblical Christianity is also absolutely unique in the nature of its central personage and founder, Jesus Christ. There is none other like Him in all of history or even in all of literature.
Some writers, of course, presume to place Christ as merely one in a list of great religious leaders, but this is grotesque and absurd. He stands in contrast to all others, not in line with them, not even at the head of the line. His uniqueness is illustrated in the following partial list of attributes.

Anticipation of His coming. His coming was prophesied in fine detail, as to lineage, birthplace, time, career purpose, nature of death, resurrection, and many other things, hundreds of years prior to His actual appearance. Of no other religious leader – indeed, of no other man – in all history was such a thing true.

The Virgin Birth. Although tales of demi-gods, the progeny of unions between men and the gods (actually demons) are common in the ancient mythology, the narrative of Christ’s virgin birth stands entirely alone; nothing like it was ever imagined elsewhere. God Himself took up residence in embryonic human form in a virgin’s womb, thence to be born in a fully natural human birth, with no actual genetic connection to human parents, even though legally the natural heir of a human father and embryologically the seed and fruit of a human mother. No other human birth was ever like this, in fact or fiction, yet it was uniquely and ideally appropriate and natural when God became man.

The Divine-Human Nature. Though men have often thought of themselves as children of God, Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God. Although there have been power-crazed dictators and fanatics who have claimed to be God, even these individuals recognized and acknowledged that their assumption of divinity was only relative –they hardly imagined that they had created the stars or even their own mothers! But Jesus Christ was God in the highest sense, the creator of all things (Col. 1:16), and he claimed to be God on many occasions and in many ways. He was also man in the fullest sense, except that he had no sin. He was not half-man and half-God, but rather all man and all God, in a perfect and indissoluble union. No other man was ever thus – indeed, no other man ever claimed to be thus.

Sinless Life. Of no one else in history could the claim ever be made in seriousness that he lived a whole lifetime without sin, in thought or word or deed. But this very thing was claimed by Jesus’ closest friends, by His worst enemies, by the greatest of the apostles, and by Jesus himself. Peter said, “[He] did no sin” (1 Pet. 2:22), and John said, “In him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). Judas said, “ I have betrayed the innocent blood” (Matt. 27:4), and Pilate said, “I find in him no fault at all” (John 18:38). Paul said, “[He] knew no sin” (Cor.5:21), and Jesus said concerning himself, “The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). Jesus Christ was the only man who never sinned; he was the unique, representative Son of Man, man as God intend man to be.

Unique Teachings. Many non-Christians have acknowledged Christ to be the greatest teacher of all time. The Sermon on the Mount is without parallel, and the beauty and the power of the Upper Room discourse, the compelling majesty of the sermon on the Mount of Olives, the Power of His parables, and all His other teachings are separated by a great gulf from even the finest teaching of other men. And yet His teachings continually include both the claim and internal awareness that he was uniquely God’s Son, and that His teachings were absolutely true because of this. In no other religious writings does anyone find such a phenomenon as this.

His Unique Death. After a cruel mockery of a trial and a period of incomprehensible suffering in prison and on the cross, “ He said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). Literally, He “dismissed His spirit.” No one else can die like this. It is evidently quite a difficult task even to commit suicide, but certainly no one can simply decide to die and then, by his mere volition, proceed to die. But Jesus did! He said, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (John 10:18).

The Resurrection of Christ
Not only did Christ die by his own power, but he rose again on the third day by His own power. “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”(John 10:18). The overwhelming proof of the bodily resurrection of Christ will be discussed later, but here it is merely noted that this constitutes the final and greatest proof of His absolute uniqueness. All other religious founders and leaders are dead. In most cases, their tombs are known and venerated. But the tomb of Christ was occupied only three days and there after became empty forever. Other men have been temporarily restored to life after dying, but only Christ is “alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:18). Death is man’s last and greatest enemy (1 Cor. 15:26), which conquers all alike, no matter how brilliant or powerful. Christ alone “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).

Pg 24
Salvation by Grace
The final proof of uniqueness to be offered in this section is that of the all important teaching concerning salvation. The Bible uniquely teaches salvation through faith alone. All other religions teach salvation through faith plus works.
Of course, the specific objects of faith and the specific list of works required for salvation vary widely from one religion to another. But the basic principal is universal.
Biblical Christianity alone, among all the religions of mankind, teaches that eternal salvation is the free gift of God’s grace, to be received by faith alone, apart from works of any kind. The watchword of other religions is “Believe and do”; of Christianity, the word is “Believe and live.”
This does not by any means imply that Christianity has a lower or easier standard than other religions. To the contrary, the standard of works in Christianity is so high as to be unattainable by the natural man, so that no man could ever earn salvation by his own good works. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). “For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ez. 18:4).
Nor does it imply that Christian salvation by grace goes against the grain of human nature, since man’s pride is at stake here, it clearly must be of divine origin. Man would never invent a standard of righteousness which he could never hope to attain. It is s significant that every one of the standard of works required in the many religions of men is quite capable of accomplishment by human effort. This fact clearly indicates they were originated by human ingenuity. Only God would ever prescribe a standard which could be attained by God himself. The uniqueness of salvation by grace through faith alone clearly stamps the Christian gospel as divine in origin.

The Song of the Vineyard

1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

B. Fox
I posted these verses from Isaiah chapter five because I believe they show the heart of God, His loving heart. And I also posted them to show Calvinism doesn't make any sense. Think about it – God inspired Isaiah to write this poetic (and prophetic) song/parable (finalized in Mark 12; Luke 20), going into great detail in describing His care in cultivating Israel, pleading with her and then in verse four asks the question “what more could I have done!?”

Well, according to Calvinism NOTHING because they were not His elect. He already predetermined this from before the foundation of the world? So these beautiful scriptures that portray a loving God trying to reason with His people don't mean what they say. I agree with Joseph Chambers when he stated...
"Calvinism is adrift upon the Sea of Intellectualism and Emptiness. It has no sure footing in the Word of God. Almost everything they believe is paradox between conflicting doctrines. God's Sovereignty decides, yet man is accountable. God is love, yet a multitude is unconditionally rejected. God ordained irresistible grace, but yet inspired His prophets to proclaim "Repent or Perish". God ordained the devil and every deed of evil, every abortion, etc. and yet Calvinists are marching against abortion clinics and trying to reclaim the culture of America. Their theology is a stew of confusion."


Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:8

God is Faithful

I'm will try to put in words what a blessing it was for me that I was asked to go to Fort Yukon a few weeks back! One of the biggest reasons for the blessing is that I met Ron & Rebecca Starr. My pastor another family and I went to help finish work on their home. The house was a cabin built over thirty years ago and later the Starr’s built a house on top of that cabin and the cabin started to sink. The house needed to be jacked up, the old cabin removed and the downstairs area needed to be framed, floored, dry-walled, wired, etc., etc. We were the last crew in so we dry-walled, wired and basically tied up any loose ends.

I was so blessed to be given an opportunity to witness first hand the gospel truths being lived out due to the Starr's faithfulness to God. The Starr’s told us how the villagers weren’t very receptive to the Gospel and how God opened another door. They opened a Christian school and the locals started sending their children to it! God works in ways we don't always see, the adults were rejecting the gopel however their kids were going to hear it and Gods ways daily! God is Good (Mat. 5:15)! Anyway we came thirty years later and had the privilage of seeing a wonderful Church made up mostly of those kids and their children and their children’s children and like the song says…

“Boundless as the universe around me

Reaching to the farthest soul away…

Isn’t the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,

O, Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful! Wonderful it is to me.”

A blessing on a more personal level was that God used this occasion to teach me to trust in Him for every detail because He is near and He is Faithful (Mat. 6:27-34)! My children asked me very specifically to bring them home a “surprise” and they were all looking me dead in the eye telling me “don’t forget daddy” and I promised them “I won’t forget, I’ll bring you a surprise back from Fort Yukon” as I was walking out the door.

We arrived Monday evening and started work Tuesday morning we worked until Friday afternoon and after that we had to get on a small plane and head back to Fairbanks. Thursday night it occurred to me that I hadn’t gotten the “surprise” and there really wasn't any stores in this village that you could get something like that. I prayed about it and I asked God to provide me with something for the kids, it didn’t matter what, it could be whatever, but I couldn’t come back empty handed! I also knew in the back of my mind that God was going to have to do it rather fast because I was leaving the next day. I also want to make it clear I wasn’t doing this to test God because that is foolish. Friday morning came and went and I had forgoten about the surprises for the kids but as I was literally getting ready to walk out of the Starr’s home, Mrs. Starr asked me and my pastor (Wes) to hold on. Mrs. Starr came into the kitchen and placed this box on the table and it is full of children’s toys! Then she tells us pick out whatever you think you kids will like and that she had them around for kids to give to children an ice breaker so to speak. I explained to Mrs. Starr and my pastor how God had just answered my prayer the night before and we were just thankful to God that we can go to Him but we can through Jesus Christ (John 3:16)!

And more thing: I lost my phone card while I was there. My wife and I have had this card for four or five years, and no, it has no sentimental value it’s just a stupid phone card but she keeps it in her purse for whatever reason and I asked her for it because I didn’t know the phone number on it. I do remember the code number, but not the 1-800. My wife assured me that I would lose the card, and yep, she was right. Hate it when that happens! So I lost the card almost as soon as I got there! I asked God to help me find it because I needed it (and I didn’t want to hear my wife tell me “I told you so”) but I never did find that card. I was back a little over a week and I get this card in the mail from the Starr’s, a wonderful card that she had made with our pictures on it telling us thank you for coming there and helping out. But there was something else in the envelope so I turned it over and out pops my phone card and another note telling me she found it under my bed.

That might seem small time but while I was there I listened to so many amazing stories of how God had supernaturally provided for the Starr’s through out there life, every night I went to bed thinking about how my faith was so weak and how much I wanted to trust God and rely on Him like they did. God cares enough about us to show His children that He is here and He is personal and we can ask Him anything according to His will because He cares about us and He want's us to trust Him - Amen!
B. Fox

Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.(1 Cor. 1:8-9)

True Worship

I read this from one of Harry Ironside’s commentaries and I typed it up because it really blessed me and I hope it will others as well. (Excerpts from Daniel pg 30-31)


“The special place given to the great orchestra is very noticeable, as much so as in large worldly religious gatherings at the present time. It excites the emotions and, thus working upon the feelings, gives people a sense of devotion and religiousness, which after all may be very unreal. In the Old Testament dispensation, musical instruments were used in the ornate temple services, but there is certainly no warrant for it in the New Testament. People may call it worship to sit and listen to a trained, and possibly unconverted, choir and orchestra rendering sweet and touching strains. But the music simply acts upon the sensuous part of out nature and has nothing to do with true adoration of the Father and the Son, which must be in spirit and in truth to be acceptable to God. Those who plead for its use, because of the place it had in Old Testament times, should remember that that was a typical dispensation. The instruments then used typified the melody now made in the hearts of God’s redeemed ones. We sometimes sing, and very truly –

O Lord, we know it matters not
How sweet the song may be
No heart but of the Spirit taught
Makes melody to Thee.

A minster once remarked to me that many esthetic persons attended his church to worship God in music, so he sought to have the best performers and the finest music it was possible to obtain, as otherwise the people would not attend. What a delusion it all is! And yet people actually look upon that as really worshiping God, whether they have ever been converted or not! In reality they are only gratifying there own taste for melody and harmony – a taste God given, I grant you, and proper enough in its place, but not to be confounded with true worship. A heart filled with Christ gives forth the sweetest music that ever reaches the ear of God the Father. He says, “Whoso offerth praise glorifieth me” (Ps. 50:23) Let us remember, then, that in the New Testament dispensation it is “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19) to which the Christian is exhorted. That is where the music is to be – a heart full of praises to the God of all grace. May we know more of it.
I remember on one occasion taking a friend of mine – unquestionably an earnest Christian – into a little hall where perhaps a half a hundred believers were gathered together one Lord’s Day morning for worship. He had been accustomed to a service very much like that which I have referred to above. On that particular morning it seemed to me the Lord’s presence in our midst was especially manifest. One after another took part in praise and thanksgiving as the Holy Spirit seemed to lead. Together we broke the bread and partook of the cup that speaks so loudly to the Christian heart of Him who gave Himself for us. At times there was hardly a dry eye in the room as we remembered Him who in infinite grace had redeemed us to God. Returning home, I inquired of my friend if he had enjoyed the meeting. He replied, “Oh, very well. There were many things about it that appealed to me very much. But I did miss the music. “ “Why” I replied, “did you not hear the music?” I answered. “Each heart that was occupied with Christ was like a stringed instrument touched by His own blessed hand, and He, the chief singer on the stringed instruments, was there in our midst, leading out our hearts in worship and praise to the Father.” But, alas, my friend did not seem to be able to enter into this! How is it with you, my hearer? Have you yet learned what it is to “worship…in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24)

Islamic Radicals & God's Solution

The world is rightly alarmed at the threat of the Islamic radicals. The fundamentalist elements of this false religion may not be the majority, but they control a scary multitude. According to recent polls conducted by a reputable organization, approximately seven percent (7%) of Muslims worldwide are radical, support suicide bombers and are committed to an Islamic domination of the world. With 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide that 7% represents 91 million, and at least 117,500 of these radicals live in America. Every one of the 91 million Muslims are potential candidates to be used to attack, kill, and eliminate humans that stand in their way. What an awesome fact to go to bed with every night!

A massive effort is underway by leading radical Muslims to guarantee that their Islamic forces possess a nuclear arsenal. We must understand that the only thing protecting Israel and America at this very moment is our massive military power. Within our military circles there also exists a powerful and capable intelligence network. It’s important for the intelligent organization to tap telephones and gather information from every available source. You should be thankful for their ability to disrupt planned attacks.

If there was not – above all of the military and intelligent abilities — a Sovereign God that controls every final act of mankind, we would still be hopeless. This earth is the Lord’s and He will have the final word on how this scary world ends the present age. That does not mean that suffering and sorrows will all be eliminated. Every aborted baby, every act of adultery or fornication, and every same-sex act or marriage will be adjudicated in judgment. Sin -- unconfessed and unforsaken sins -- must be judged. Every single act of sin that is not purified and cleansed by the Blood of Christ will be purified by judgment. Great sorrows are clearly on the horizons.

But Our Heavenly Father will have the last word. I believe the War of Gog and Magog will occur right before the Rapture or immediately after the Rapture. This war will affect the Islamic world and every individual that believes in this religion. They have been promised that the twelfth Imam is soon to appear. He is their messiah and promises to establish a One World Kingdom ruled by the laws of the Koran. This teaching is supposedly believed by all 1.3 billion Muslims, not just the radical elements. The clash between this Islamic One World Order and the Western version of a One World Order must occur at some moment.

When you understand these two world views that basically dominate the present earth, you can understand why “One Worlders” in the West are determined to succeed ahead of Islam’s mad plan. Thank God that the prophecies of the Bible have promised a third alternative to the first two plans. There will be a One World Order and it will be worldwide and breathtaking. Jesus Christ will lead His army of glorified saints and we will establish a peaceful world of righteousness and prosperity. I am grateful that the Bible does not leave us in a fog. We have hope that is sure and unfailing.

God’s perfect revelation has left us a prophetic picture of the coming end to both the Islamic and Western plan. First, our Eternal God will deal with the Islamic plan for an “Islamic One World Order” and then He will deal with the Western plan for a “One World Order.” Both of these massive efforts to control the world and rule it for their god will end in Northern Israel. Also, the coming spiritual kingdom will be centered in the Land of Promise, Israel and Jerusalem. No wonder Christians are commanded to pray for the “Peace of Jerusalem.”

Ezekiel prophesied on the bank of the river in Babylon as his heart panted for the rolling hills of Judea. By the powers of God’s Holy Spirit, he saw the future clash in his homeland of a massive army to be destroyed by Divine intervention. His words are most revealing, “After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee” (Ezekiel 38:8-9). This prophet of God gave the exact details of this great army m arching on Israel.

This revelation names the geographical area and the nations that will be a part of this attack. Every description is clear to show that this is an attack by the Islamic world. It is led by Iran, which was the first country named. The Spirit said, “Persia (Iran), Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee” (Ezekiel 38:5-6). The Spirit named a geographical area that fits perfectly with Russia and other Northern powers. “Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am a gainst thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal” (Ezekiel 38:2-3).

This army could act with only the need of a few weeks to mobilize. They are probably talking in secret even as I write. When this Islamic Army marches, it will be awesome. As these nations gather somewhere north of Israel, probably in the southern tier of the former USSR territories, the world will think that we are on the verge of annihilation. The media will go ballistic. Politicians will gather at strategic locations amid a mad rush to defuse the coming storm. Bomb shelters will be prepared over much of the world.

Israel will prepare for the ultimate moment to fight to the death or simply be buried. They will be given little possibility of escape. At one time, America would have marshaled her total military might in Israel’s defense; but at the present time, would cower and make excuses. Israel’s entire nuclear ability, which is great, will be prepared for a full response. The small nations north of Israel will be quickly turned into an armed encampment. Literally, this army will be so massive that these nations will be rendered helpless and expect that nothing can be left but battlefields. There will be a great effort made to persuade Israel to surrender, dissolve their nation, and leave their Promise Land. Governments will offer refuge to those willing to give up and flee. While some Jews will submit and board planes and ships, the majority will prepare to fight.

As this Army marches south and reaches the border of Israel, the God of Heaven will call all the angels, cherubim, and seraphim to an emergency summit. Sometimes, I think I would like for this to happen after the Rapture so we could be up there to join this momentous moment. My personal opinion is that it will probably happen before the Rapture. In that case our duty will be to call prayer meetings all over the Bible-believing church world. Believe me when I say, this war will not last long and will leave the greatest devastation since the great Noahic Flood.

Will be continued next week . . .


Joseph Chambers

To Be Or Not To Be (a Faithful Pastor) That Is The Question?

I was talking with my Pastor yesterday and he mentioned to me and someone else that he is pressured from time to time by local pastors to bring our Church together with them to fellowship in the spirit of "unity" at one of their ecuminical functions, concerts or whatever.

Thankfully our pastor does not compromise regardless of the labels such as Pharisee, legalistic, mean, or the looks of disgust and disapproval. He mentioned that one of the local pastors really “lit into him” the first time they met. That pastor was waiting at the end of the stairs outside our Church and asked my pastor if he “was one of those mean Baptist preachers”. I assume “mean” because my pastor wouldn’t disobey the scriptures like himself and a few others. That and if he had any issues pertaining to the Word of God, it was never brought to my pastor’s attention. This really burned me up because the man that “lit into” my pastor is my former pastor and it looked as though he wasn’t going to tolerate my pastors intolerance!

Sadly, my former pastor wasn’t content in his own deception so now he was going to come on over and rebuke a faithful pastor he had never even met. And, should his rebuke succeed, then my former pastor would be an ungodly influence on my current pastor and have him disobey Paul's instruction to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them". (Eph. 5:11)

I was reminded of my former pastor's apathy towards false teaching & teachers; I once suggested he reconsider allowing an evangelist from coming to my former Church a second time because the "evangelist" had quoted heretics and false prophets like Bill Hybels and Rick Joyner the first time he was there. Not to meantion the evangelist had very strong ties to the “Brownville Revival” (Tit 3:10). Unfortunatly the evangelist came with my former pastors blessing. Yep, no rebuke waiting at the end of any stairs for this fellow.

I also recall my wife commenting to him & his wife on how she thought it was a bad idea, but more importantly it was disobeying God to fellowship with the local Roman Catholic Church (Romans 16:17; 2 John 1:9-11). The pastoral response was a sharp rebuke and told “they still believe in Jesus” though Paul warned of “another Jesus” (2 Cor 11:4) and “another gospel” just like the one Rome teaches (Gal 1:8-9). But that didn't seem too important. And don't misunderstand me, I understand we are called to be salt and light and that is not possible unless we interact with people (1 Cor. 5:10). However, we cannot worship God in Spirit and Truth beside false religions such as Roman Catholicism or those that do not uphold sound doctrine and are in blatant error -- that is either true or the Bible is a lie (John 4:23-24; Romans 16:17; Tit. 1:9; 2 John 1:8-11; Jude 1:3).

I thank God our Father He still has obedient men and I pray they continue to resist the pressures and ungodly influences from unfaithful ones because the obedient pastors, unlike the unfaithful, understand that wolves need to be kept away from the sheep according to Jesus Christ our Lord!
B. Fox

For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. (Acts 20:29-31)

The Father Loves His Son

by Joseph R. Chambers

Nothing makes our Heavenly Father more real to us than His love for His Son. It is a Divine love; but, it makes our Father seem almost human. The Son of God’s love for His Father is just as wonderful. The entire Redemption story in the Bible was played out like a Father and His Son on a love journey to bring the prodigal family home to the Father’s house!

The love of God the Father for His Only Begotten Son makes Christianity the only religion conceived by love. Apostle Paul describes this love relationship with words of eloquent splendor, “Who being the brightness of His (the Father’s) glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He (the Only Begotten) had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). The Father and His Son are so perfectly blended in likeness that unwise souls have tried to destroy their distinct difference. Their love for each other would be deception if they were not two in revelation.

The Book of John is the unique Gospel of the Father and the Son. To read it just for the purpose of studying the “Father-Son” relationship is an experience of indescribable glory. Over and over you see them blending as one in action while still manifest in their individual persons. It’s the mystery that leaves the devil in tatters.

Look at the opening scene of this Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-5, 14).

A Biblical “Golden Text” is found in chapter three. Often this passage becomes so familiar that we fail to see its beauty. “For God (The Heavenly Father) so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17). To deny the unique differences in the Father and His Son is insane; but, to separate their perfection of revelation is heathenistic. Our God is both perfectly one and perfect individuals. It will be grand when we can truly understand this mystery. In the meantime I am perfectly willing to bask in its majesty.

The Son of God encountered great criticism for speaking of His oneness with His Father. The religious crowd of His own people had no spiritual discernment to grasp His and His Father’s perfection in revelation. They were not willing to accept but one person in this concept of the one God. Listen to Christ Himself settle this question, “Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me” (John 8:15-18). “The testimony of two” spoken by Christ Himself certainly ends the debate.

Listen to the eloquent words of the Son of God, “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15).“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17-18).

His pastoral prayer in John chapter seventeen is one of the most breathtaking moments in His ministry on earth. Every word of that prayer was Heavenly; but, the cry in His heart for His return to the Father’s presence is Divine. “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:4-5). To speak of His prior glory with the Father “before the world was” certainly settles His eternal Divinity.

In the great Epistle of Hebrews we see the Apostle Paul’s version of the “Father-Son” relationship. Listen in on these Divine words of God talk, “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands” (Hebrews 1:5-6, 8-10).

The saints of God are a blessed people. Our redemption is undeniable and unchanging. We have been brought out of darkness and into the marvelous light. To be “Born Again” is not to become religious, it is to be transformed. We do not just know about God and our Savior Jesus Christ; we know them in a relationship that is both peaceable and holy. The world -- even at its very best -- immediately becomes a trash pile to us. Born Again Christians live for the future Kingdom. We must use the world; but, we do not abuse it. Our citizenship is in Heaven. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

The character of a saint of God is no longer determined by the world’s standard but by Heaven’s citizenship. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:1-16). Living for the Father and His Son is the grandest life and the future is star-studded.

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