JOEL 2 GENERATION

Today, a Christian friend of mine, who was formerly a Muslim, shared an illustrated diagram to describe how Jesus is both God and man. He wanted to know what I thought about the diagram. Such illustrations can indeed be helpful, but I told him that I thought all analogies fall short As we are talking about God and His Eternal nature. Instead, I told him that I explain it like this.  The Scriptures teach there is ONE God.  And He has revealed Himself as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We believe Jesus is God, fully God, because He revealed Himself to be so.   The best description I have heard is about the difference between UNITY and SINGULARITY.   Islam and Judaism (at least the Judaism that formed AFTER Christ as earlier Judaism had a doctrine called "Two Powers in Heaven") believe God is a mathematical singularity.   It can be called it UNITARIANISM. The oneness of God for them is a mathematical singularity, a mathematical 'unit'. Mus...

I recently had a lengthy discussion with a man who repeated an argument he had heard elsewhere that "Jesus NEVER claimed to be God". Coming from a Muslim-background, he was arguing for a UNITARIAN view of God, that the One God exists as a type of mathematical SINGULARITY. In his view, followers of certain religions over time DEIFIED their founders. For example, Buddhists made Buddha in some type of God and Christians as well over time, turned Jesus into God. Leaving Buddhism aside, I will address the latter claim that over time, Christians DEFIED Christ and corrupted the pure UNITARIAN MONOTHEISM that Jesus and all true prophets taught which only later was perverted by subsequent generations of followers. This MYTH is widespread on the internet and propagated widely even in popular books and movies. The version that this man had heard was that Christians "invented" the doctrine that Jesus was God in the 4th Century at the Council of Nicaea (AD325). What I proceeded ...

"The Christmas is pagan" crowd comes out in force this time of year and sadly, we many of us have to deal with their claims.  Since the Hebrew Roots/Torahism/Torah Observant false teaching has been on the rise, a lot of their anti-Christmas videos and memes have been getting shared in recent years. Thankfully, their arguments have been dealt with thoroughly for those who are open to the truth. I've done two previous blog posts about this issue for those who want to consider the historical realities of how Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25th. Is Christmas a 'Pagan' Holiday/ (2023) -  LINK Is Celebrating Christmas on December 25th something that came from paganism? NO. -  LINK One of their common arguments is one I haven't dealt with but deserves to be dealt with here.  The claim: CHRISTMAS TREES HAVE A PAGAN ORIGIN I'm not sure why I didn't get into this topic before. I guess I wanted to focus upon the origins of Christmas as a Christian ho...

 

I'm seeing it from several sources already - NeverTrumper Christians and other Christians who are firmly within "the Babylonian System" virtual signalling  about all the ways they "imagine" Christians who believe the incoming Trump Administration and MAGA mandate are going to neglect the poor, mistreat the LGBTQ+ community (yes, I literally saw that from someone criticizing our opposition to "Drag Queen Story Hour"), violate our Biblical mandate to welcome the "alien and stranger" (let's not mention about those who are violent, criminal, drug trafficking, terrorist, human trafficking ones!). They are convinced that somehow we are racist (and blind to it of course) who will take America back to the days of wicked racial discrimination and abusive policies. The list of accusations they are making our truly incredible! And that is ALL that it is. VIRTUE SIGNALING. They will do nothing themselves. But they will message endlessly about all of ...

Bottom line is bitterness and critical spirits are always things we should be aware of! And don't mistake needed criticism for a 'critical spirit'. Why a post about "this hour" in particular? And these two particular things - bitterness and critical spirits? I see that these two things are particularly prevalent right now and they seem to be potentially two of the most toxic things that will hinder what God intends to do. As I've argued, I believe we are in a unique hour of history. There is a kairos moment that we are about to enter into. And the path forward is littered with landmines - two of those are succumbing to bitterness and to critical spirits. It isn't that I can't think of other 'landmines', but these two have been highlighted to us. So if the shoe fits, then wear it. If somehow you don't track with what I am saying and don't see these potential pitfalls, praise God. Pray for me! We have come through one of the most difficu...

My previous post was about Biblical Cyrus' mandate to judge ancient Babylon and I considered 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 had 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 during their 70 years of Babylonian captivity. For all those decades, faithful Jews within Babylon were crying out to Yahweh for deliverance AND for God to judge the very 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...

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...