JOEL 2 GENERATION

Christmas 2025 Update/Thoughts  - My initial blog post/article is below * , but I wanted to add a couple of thoughts about the  5500-Year Prophecy  as it relates to the celebration of Christmas. In other blog posts, we have discussed how the origins of the celebration of Christmas are NOT PAGAN as some claim. It could well be that the fulfillment of the 5500-Year Prophecy was part of the catalyst that led the earliest Christians to establish Christmas as an important day/celebration in the primitive Christian calendar.  As documented below, there was an attempt (which was largely successful) to remove nearly 1500 years from the Old Testament chronologies (mostly from Genesis and also from Daniel). No motivation is given. No justification for why the Rabbis in the early 2nd Century would seek to modify the Hebrew Bible in this way. The ONLY EXPLANATION that makes any sense is that they were seeking to counter the effect of the 5500-Year Prophecy which had been leading...

The keyboard warriors are out in force filling up their social media with creative memes "claiming" Christmas is a pagan holiday. While I agree that for many, the Christmas season is not about celebrating Christ's birth, the claim that Christmas originated in paganism is simply false. I have blogged about the evidence that entirely debunks such claims. Please click on this link if you have doubts.  LINK I would also recommend a new book on the topic entitled, Full of Grace and Truth: The Biblical Roots of Christmas by R.L. Solberg. So, don't reject Christmas - REDEEM IT!!!

This past week I attended an event where the Gospel was BOLDLY proclaimed on a college campus. I won't mention the name of the ministry as this blogpost illustrates a common approach by evangelistic ministries that could have easily been dozens of other well-known ministries. Skeptics, atheists, Muslims, LGBTQ+ students were all interacting with the speakers who presented. It was open Q&A. It was done honorably and respectfully (from ALL sides I should not fail to mention).  Beyond the microphones up front, there were many other "Gospel conversations" taking place amidst the large crowd.  What I am about to say might not apply across the board, but it did apply to the conversations I witnessed and it completely applied to the Gospel presentation that was going forth publically from the microphone at the front. The Gospel was being preached and yet there was no offer whatsoever (or expectation?) that the truth of the Gospel would be demonstrated in some other way.  Wha...

One of our mentors used to say that that "the greatest miracle God will do is to purify and unify His Church before Jesus returns".  At the time, I didn't know what to think about his assertion. I realize now that our mentor wasn't simply using hyperbole to make a teaching point. He was speaking the truth about such a thing being "the greatest miracle"! Of course, Christians will debate IF this is something Jesus will actually do before He Returns. Some Christians ONLY except such a miracle to take place after His Second Coming.  Again, it takes very little faith to believe Jesus will return for a "beat up girlfriend" whereas it does require faith to believe He will return for a "beautiful Bride"! And don't get me started regarding those who reduce all talk of Christ's work of sanctification as merely "positional" and not "actual"! Returning to the discussion of the "state" of the Body of Christ today...

Fighting against centuries of "theological thinking" (much of it if we are honest amounts to UNBELIEF), we have been convinced that much of what we read in our New Testaments doesn't "really" apply to us today. Can we 'really' live like Jesus?  Except for a rare few, most teachers don't hold out the expectation that we can do what Jesus did. And if you do, you will quickly be labeled a false teacher. (and yes, I have some experience to back my claim!) So, for the sake of argument, let's give them/you? that one. The life Jesus lived, and in particular the Kingdom power He moved in, isn't to be aspired to. An entire theology known as "Cessationism" contends that such miracles "ceased" with the death of the Apostles in the 1st Century AD. If only such scholars were familiar with the the 2nd and 3rd Centuries, because miracles continued thereby falsifying the Cessationist position. Some theologians will argue further against b...