Bible Study Seattle

“A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will come out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping, we are becoming.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We’re all tempted to worship false gods from time to time. Power, fame, money; just to name a few. False gods come with their own virtues and sins. Recycling has become a god to some – if you throw away something that can be recycled, you should feel guilty for sinning. Never mind that 90% of all recycled material ends up in a landfill because it’s too expensive to recycle. During 2020, a new god appeared, Covid-19. Its virtues are mask-wearing, ‘social distancing’, and vaccine taking. Unfortunately, those virtues aren’t enough. Now we must go to two or three masks, more vaccines due to variants, etc. False gods are never satisfied.

What about the real God? Is he ever satisfied? Yes. There will be a finish line. “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Revelation 22:13,14 There is an End, and it will be glorious:

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 22:1-5

United Airlines announced all employees must have the Covid-19 vaccine. It has started. The AntiChrist is slowly starting to force vaccinations. Definitely a mark of the beast. With in a year, watch this spread like wildfire. Will people be able to work or buy or sell without the vaccination?

“Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.  The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.  It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.” Revelation 13:14-18

Most inhabitants of the world are deceived! Look at everybody dutifully wearing masks. Masks are for conditioning leading up to the forced vaccinations. Media outlets have been exaggerating coronavirus 24/7 for 11 months because there is an evil agenda behind this!

Churches have split over the centuries for many reasons. The Coptic Orthodox church broke with Rome in the 5th century. 1054 AD brought the great schism, separating Eastern and Western branches of the church. Then there was the Sack of Constantinople by crusaders in 1204. The church was fighting itself! Then there was the Protestant Reformation centered around Martin Luther about 1521. This resulted in three new denominations breaking off from Rome. Then the Protestants further split. And on and on. Will Coronavirus split the church? Probably. Already there are churches defying mask mandates. Will we have pro-mask churches and anti-mask churches? Probably. Will there be churches that require vaccination? Probably. But God is not concerned with church splits. He’s concerned with each individual’s heart. Christianity is a personal thing. It’s between us and God and our neighbors. Nothing more.

“As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord.  After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty.  Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord.  I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.” 2 Samuel 6:16-23

Is the bible promoting naked dancing? No. What counts is the heart. Michal sinned by despising David. David’s heart was in the right place. Given what the bible teaches about lust, it’s a real stretch to say that the bible is ok with naked dancing. But the Lord judges. As when David ate of the consecrated bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. God will make exceptions under certain circumstances. But we should not test God. Except when it comes to tithing. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Malachi 3:10

Happy New Year! What will 2021 bring? Where is 2021 on God’s timeline and plan? Will the world tend toward tyranny or will freedom continue to shine?

This author thinks that we have been prophetically in Joseph’s seven ‘years’ of plenty. It will surely be followed by seven ‘years’ of want. But how long are those seven ‘years’? Of course they could just be seven plain years. Because of several other prophetic proportions, namely the 11 tabernacle coverings (Exodus 26:7-9) and the divisions of David’s reign (7.5 years in Hebron and 33 years over all Israel (2 Samuel 5:5)) and half of Noah’s 370 day flood, this author thinks Joseph’s seven ‘years’ are prophetically about 185 years.

But is that wrong? Are we now headed straight into Joseph’s famine, where Christians will be persecuted? Look at how churches have been shut down in 2020. Or will there be a positive surprise this year? We shall have to wait and see!

Fear not? Or fear a lot? Here is an excellent article about the church and coronavirus. Most churches care more about their 501(c)(3) exemption than the great commission. http://www.theblogmire.com/2020-the-year-the-church-was-as-sharp-as-a-two-edged-marshmallow/

What is the mark of the beast.

‘It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.’ Revelation 13;16-18

If anyone is forced to have a mark in order to buy or sell, this is tyranny, which has happened many times in history. One could argue that the stars of David the jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany were the mark of the beast. The number 666 has been associated with the pope. It is also associated with Solomon;

‘The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents.’ 1 Kings 10;14

Solomon typifies both Christ and Antichrist. During the later part of his reign, he became corrupt from many foreign marriages and immense wealth. He was overly harsh in taxation and on the laborers. This is like Satan; he desires control.

Right now, the powers that be are pushing for mandatory vaccination and a cashless society. Could these vaccines be the mark of the beast. Yes. But I don’t believe we’re at the full development of the antichrist yet. They may yet suffer a major setback. Time will tell.

Usually the sabbath is the seventh day or year.

“A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night.” Psalm 90:4

But sometimes the sabbath is a thousand years. And there are four watches in the night; 3 hours apiece. Therefore a watch is an eighth of a day. Which means that a day could be 8,000 years. After Adam’s fall God rested. How long? Many assume 7,000 years. But could it be 8,000 years? Could God’s rest encompass the Sabbath millennium and the Jubilee millennium?

“Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures.” Psalm 90:10

God’s days could reach 80 since he has strength. A curious line from Solomon: “even if he lives a thousand years twice over…” Ecclesiastes 6:6

“Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces
    but he will heal us;
he has injured us
    but he will bind up our wounds.
After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will restore us,
    that we may live in his presence.
Let us acknowledge the Lord;
    let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
    he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.” Hosea 6:1-3

We assume these two days date from the cross, but what if they are also the two thousand year ‘days’ of the Sabbath and Jubilee?

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” Exodus 14:21-22

“Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.  On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.  You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.” Zechariah 14:3-5

Is there a link between these two stories? The Israelites are miraculously saved by God’s intervention. The Exodus occured 2513.5 years after the fall of Adam. Might the Olivet exodus happen 2513.5 years after Christ? That is pure speculation.

“The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.  During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.  He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.”  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea.  The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.” Exodus 14:23-28

Is it significant that the Lord threw the Egyptians in confusion during the last watch of the night and killed them at daybreak? Daybreak during the millennium will be at the half way point – 500 years. Could this be showing judgment of the world at Yom Kippur?

“Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.” 1 John 2:18

The antichrist has been active since before Adam & Eve. It is not just one person, although certain people personify antichrist very well. Pharaoh, Nero, and Hitler come to mind. Satan is the ultimate antichrist. He is opposed to everything that is good and honorable. He lies, murders, cheats, steals, and wants control. He is the ultimate malignant sociopathic narcissist. And he is making his move right now for a cashless, high tech communist society. It will probably fail. The question is when does Joseph’s famine hit? What will that ‘famine’ look like? It doesn’t need to be a famine of food. It was a famine of wheat. “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.” Luke 22:31

The reason the famine comes to the Israelites is to draw them to Christ. They notice a severe shortage of wheat (christians). Are we at that point in history where christians are going to disappear? I don’t think so. The wheat famine is due to lack of rain. “Elijah was a human being, even as we are.  He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.  Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” James 5:!7-18

The rains of truth were sparse for the three and a half ‘days’ or 1260 years from 539AD to 1799AD, the height of Papal domination. We are now in the three and a half days of rain, 1799AD to 3059AD. Satan is being bound in fits and starts. “He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:2

The binding of Satan is not a step function. He will be fully bound after Yom Kippur in the middle of the thousand years. This is when “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.” Malachi 4:2