JOEL 2 GENERATION

My previous post was focused on Cyrus' mandate to judge ancient Babylon and the parallel with Trump's role in doing the same thing to our modern-day Babylonian system. Cyrus had another role to play which was to set God's people free from the captivity they were in. That is what this post is about. What does it mean that the Church is being set free? What should we be doing if in fact a modern-day Cyrus is being used by God to free us from things that have been holding us captive? That have been holding us back? So, let us get back to our Biblical character of Cyrus. Imagine we are in the 6th century BC and God's people have been under judgment for 70 years in Babylon. For all those decades, faithful Jews within their Babylonian captivity were crying out to Yahweh for deliverance AND for God to judge the ones who God was using to judge them. And then the deliverer came. Cyrus the PAGAN Persian emperor basically took over the entire Middle East and beyond. The year when

To review a key chapter in Biblical History, God's people came under judgment in 586 BC when the southern Kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians and they were taken into captivity in Babylon for 70 years as was prophesied. Also prophesied was that one day they would be freed from their captivity and allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Jewish Temple. A great story - faith-filled, inspiring and yet sobering. Disobedience leads to judgment. And God ultimately delivered His people. God has never changed and "everything that was written in the past was written to teach us" ( Romans 15:4 ). An aspect of the story however that only recently seems to have been re-considered is that God raised up a PAGAN king, King Cyrus, to judge the PAGAN Babylonians. While God judged His people for their disobedience of His commandments, He also judgment upon the pagan "tool", the Babylonians, that He used to first judge the People of God. Cyrus is mentioned in several pas

Recently I gave a message entitled "Confessions of a Modern-Day Pharisee". I believe that the reason over 20% of the Gospel of Matthew involves the Pharisees (and other Jewish religious leaders) is because we would struggle with our own "Pharisaical Tendencies". God knew we would struggle with the same things Jesus confronted them about. I know I do.  I came up with a Pharisee version of Tim Hawkin's "You Might be a Redneck if..."  I MIGHT BE A PHARISEE IF... …IF I AM THE SELF-APPOINTED CORRECTOR OF EVERYONE ELSE'S DOCTRINE   IF I THINK THAT THE " SPEAK THE TRUTH " PART OF "SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE"  IS THE "KEY" TO THAT VERSE…   …IF ONE OF MY FAVORITE VERSES IS "THE SPIRITUAL MAN JUDGES ALL THINGS" (1 Cor. 2:15)   IF PRAYING THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS MAKES ME OUTRAGEOUSLY HAPPY…   …IF I THINK THE “GIFT OF DISCERNMENT” MEANS KNOWING WHAT IS WRONG IN EVERYBODY ELSE'S LIFE   IF I AM SITTING HERE THINKING ABO

This past week as we are teaching through the Epistle of First Peter  we came across what I believe to be one of the most challenging verses for modern Western Christians because somehow we have been taught and believed that we can somehow live a Christian life that won't include suffering. And I know many Christians that when suffering came into their lives, that teaching/belief, led to the shipwreck of their faith ( 1 Timothy 1:19 ). Some of that has been the result of being Christians in the Western First World (be that North America, Western Europe and/or Australia/New Zealand). We haven't faced a lot of the suffering that is far more common in other parts of the world. As to those that TEACH this idea, that has come from a radical misunderstanding of God's covenants, taking promises out of the Old Testament that were EXCLUSIVELY and ONLY for Israel as a NATION under the Mosaic Covenant (i.e. Deuteronomy 28:1-14 ). This is a false teaching and tragically has destroyed t

 

I just attended a conference with some of the world's leading apologists and polemicists in the area of Muslim Evangelism. The material presented was incredible, persuasive and intellectual. I was attending with a friend who himself is a former Muslim. What was sadly lacking however was an emphasis on presenting Muslims the Gospel along with the power of God.  It isn't that the those who were presenting didn't believe in the miraculous, as I am sure all of them know how critical things like visions, dreams and other miraculous demonstrations of God's power are in the bringing Muslims to Christ. The stories of such things are impossible to deny.  However, most of the people at this particular conference would probably relegate such things to God's initiative exclusively and minimize the ways evangelists can be learning and growing in ministries that are more supernatural in nature.  This is the tragic oversight. We can and do grow in ministering in divine healing. Th

Several years ago, I was horrified to discover that a man I had known personally and respected was a co-founder of the group known as "Evangelicals for Biden". He was undoubtedly more motivated by his Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) than he was by actively supporting the unChristian platform of Biden/Harris at that time.    And today, a new generation of so-called "Evangelicals", who are no longer really Evangelical Christians, but rather are "Progressive Christians" who are somehow still using the term Evangelical.   The speakers Evangelicals for Harris have are steeped in Marxist ideology which is incompatible with Christianity. They are advocate for offsprings of Marxism such as Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality and radical LGBTQ+ ideas - such as surgically mutilating the bodies of boys and girls surgically without the knowledge and/or consent of their parents!   They will claim to be pro-Life and against abortion while they are "for Harris&

Megan Basham's new book, Shepherds for Sale - How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda , exposes numerous ideologies that have infected the church.  Even before her book was released, the Evangelical leaders she exposes for their compromise (and/or the "disciples" of these leaders) started a campaign to attempt to discredit Basham, claiming she mischaracterizes them or the people she calls out and even that she lies.  Thankfully, Basham brings receipts and aside from some minor honest mistakes that will be corrected in all future editions of her book, she irrefutably demonstrates the false teachings and godless ideologies that these Christian leaders have attempted to "baptize" and present as somehow Christian. Marxism and all of its ideological offspring, such as Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory (CRT), Intersectionality, White Privilege, and Systemic Racism, are COUNTERFEITS to Christianity. They are IRRECONCILABLE with the historic Ch

I’ll never forget the morning Seth Gruber, a pro-Life revolutionary, spoke at a Men’s Ministry about abortion. I thought I knew a lot about the evil that is abortion, but Seth woke me up in a new way to the horrors of the practice. I wept during his presentation. In this election year, the Democrats think that can mobilize the deceived masses by making abortion rights the dominate issue for them. The timing of the release of this movie is critical in the nation. I believe God will use it to help protect the unborn all up and down the ballot in November.   Abortion has ALWAYS been something Christians stood against – from the earliest days of Church History – a blog post I wrote about the topic:  LINK   https://joel2generation.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-only-early-christian-position-on.html   Tragically, many Christians today have been deceived into thinking that infanticide (which is what abortion essentially is) is somehow allowable for Christians.   That being said, I am going tomorrow

Known as either the  5500-Year Prophecy  or the Great Prophecy of 5 1/2 Days , this prophecy was believed to be one of the greatest prophetic words ever given, and yet most Christians today know nothing about it. That was not the case in the earliest centuries of Christianity. It was a prophecy that the Jews and Christians knew well. It was one of the reasons so many Jews became followers of Jesus as their long-awaited Jewish Messiah!   I find it particularly ironic that so many Charismatic Evangelicals (of which I am one) who are extremely interested in (if not obsessed with) prophetic words, have never heard of the 5500-Year Prophecy!  A prophecy believed to have been given to Adam himself after he fell at the time that he and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden.   I began learning more in depth about this prophecy myself through several sources.   One source is the work of S. Douglas Woodward who wrote  Rebooting the Bible - Part 1 and 2, A Chronology of the Christian Bible an

I'm sure this blogpost would be unpopular with many of my friends who have been poisoned by a modern heretical trend called "Progressive Christianity". It should rather be called Progressive ANTI-Christianity as it has all the markings of being 'antiChrist'. The Apostle John describes them in the 1st Century in his first Epistle and it describes them today in the 21st Century.  1 John 2:18-26 - Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come . Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us , but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth . 22 Who is the liar but he who de