Bible Study Seattle

“Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.”  Zechariah 14:16

“I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
“The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
“And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Will be delivered;
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As the Lord has said,
Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.”  Joel 2:30-32

Who are these survivors?  If we assume that all people have been resurrected before the battle of Armageddon, what about those that hadn’t yet died?  Those that die in this plague could be dying their second death and should’ve known better.  But there could be those that are dying for the first time.  These would have to be resurrected in the Jubilee.  Perhaps that’s where these come from:

“No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Will be thought accursed.”  Isaiah 65:20

Perhaps this is part of the reason there needs to be another test at the end of the Millennium?

“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,”  Revelation 20:7

The other possibility is if there is a complete clearing of people before the general resurrection.  Is the what The earth being completely dry in the account of Noah is hinting at?  I don’t think so, but who knows.  In what sense is the earth ‘dry’ after the flood that Jesus compares his second coming too?

“About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  Matthew 27:46
This happened Nisan 14 33AD.

“Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.  About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!”  And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.  Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.”  When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants, and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.”  Acts 10:1-8

This happened exactly three and a half years after Jesus’ crucifixion to the hour!  How’s that for exactness?!

“Cornelius said, “Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man stood before me in shining garments, and he *said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.  Therefore send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea.’  So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”

Opening his mouth, Peter said:  I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”. Acts 10:30-35

Jesus spent three days and nights in the grave.  Then he came out.  On the fourth day of Cornelius’ vision, he was baptized by Peter as the first Gentile convert.  This was to fulfill what Daniel said:

“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.”  Daniel 9:24

The baptism of Cornelius was the end of the seventy weeks.  This is not to say that there aren’t other fulfillments of Daniel’s seventy weeks.

“The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their utterances to the end of the world.
In them He has placed a tent for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;
It rejoices as a strong man to run his course.
Its rising is from one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.”  Psalm 19:1-6

Here the sun is compared to the Son.  As a strong man who runs around the earth in a day, where no one remains untouched from his presence.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;
In keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins;
Let them not rule over me;
Then I will be blameless,
And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”  Psalm 19:7-14

Here is the effect of the Son bearing down on everyone in His great Day.  The law will go out and everyone will know it.  He will judge, and even small indiscernible errors will be searched out.  He will refine us, and the one who submits will find great reward.  In the end, those that live will always have acceptable words and heart meditations.

“So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”  2 Peter 1:19

Peter wrote this in the first century AD.  Some have said that dawning days only apply to 7,000 year days.  But the day dawned in 627BC in the 7,000 year day begun at the fall 4127BC, and Peter implies that the day hadn’t yet dawned.   Therefore Peter must be talking about another day, the Day of the Lord.  He quotes Moses that a day is as a thousand years.  Moses no doubt learned from the first ten patriarchs who all fell short of their 1,000 year birthday.  The day dawns at 500 years out of 1,000.  The day will dawn near the start of the Grand Jubilee, the 50th 1,000 year period since creation started on earth.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”  Ephesians 5:25-27

Paul is comparing the husbands’ duty to Christ.  The husband is to wash the wife with the word.  Bible study or reading is essential.  People often have to hear things many times to sink in.  For example, if someone tends to think about negative things, they need to be reminded of, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”. Philippians 4:8. If someone has trouble with honesty: “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”  Matthew 5:37

This is a hint at how we all will be cleansed.  Remember when the disciples were confused after the crucifixion Jesus enlightened them.  “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”  Luke 24:27

If a person has no interest in religion or the bible, they will not be able to escape it in the resurrection.  All errors will be corrected.  But even so, some will still turn away from God to make war with the saints.  It will not end well for them.  “Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.”. Zechariah 14:12

I’ll take God’s rules instead, thank you very much.  Unfortunately, some wives are like these rebels.  No amount of washing will keep them from ultimate folly.  Pray that this is not your wife.

Here is a great article with some history from the 1500s:

http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/luther-tyndale.htm

When researching current Jewish belief, a great resource is jewsforjesus.org.  It is also helpful to read Jewish sites like whatjewsbelieve.org.  Reading both sides is a very helpful exercise.  Some of the current Jewish objections today are the same ones that the Pharisees had 2,000 years ago!  Not much has changed!  The whole thing shows the immense genius of God, who is able to hide the truth in plain sight in order to take out a people for his name until the Gentile church is complete, whereupon he will return his focus to the Israelites, whom him will raise up to splendor.

Why is Hebrew read right to left?  I don’t know for sure, but it fits a pattern in the bible:

“So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”  Genesis 3:24

The garden of Eden was entered from the east – right to left.

“Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; also in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.”  Leviticus 16:14

The Tabernacle could only be entered from the east – right to left.

“and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets”  2 Chronicles 5:12

The Temple could only be entered from the east – right to left.

“When the cherubim departed, they lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight with the wheels beside them; and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.”  Ezekiel 10:19

Ezekiel’s Temple is entered from the east – right to left.

“And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east.”  Ezekiel 43:4

The glory of the Lord enters from the east – right to left.

“In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.”  Zechariah 14:4

The Messiah will stand on the Mount of Olives facing the Temple – he will come from the east – right to left.

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,”  Matthew 2:1

The Magi arrived from the east to visit the Messiah – right to left.

“For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”  Matthew 24:27

Jesus will come from the east – right to left.

“[ The Sixth Trumpet—Army from the East ] Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.”  Revelation 9:13

God’s army comes from the east – right to left.

What will happen in 2015?  Here are some guesses:

Per the blood moons landing on Jewish feast days, Israel will have trouble from her neighbors, but will ultimately come out on top.  Joseph has her back even though they don’t realize it.

China’s real estate market implodes sending waves throughout the world.  Japan continues to deteriorate.  A deflationary wave hits in October causing several large banks to fail and crazy new measures to stabilize markets.  Banking is further consolidated as the powers-that-be continue their course toward one global banking monopoly.  Civil unrest strikes causing governments to enact severe measures.  In the U.S. The elites lick their chops at calling a constitutional convention of the states (article V), to formally rewrite (i.e. Gut) the Constition.  The people become alarmed and the elites do not make as much progress as they’d like.  Organic movements such as homeschooling, etc. gain momentum as public confidence in institutions continues to decline.  Obamacare gets its first major setback from one of the dozens of lawsuits against it.  Banking stimulus grows ever larger halting the decline in commodity prices at the very end of the year.  Although the first part of 2015 will be relatively smooth sailing, people will be mad to face another financial crisis.  In the distress, many will gaze heavenward wondering if God cares.

Here is a summary of why some Jews believe Jesus is not the Messiah:

http://whatjewsbelieve.org/explanation3.html

The prophecies cited are very legitimate.  The article states that God abhors human sacrifice.  True enough. But then why did God command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?  Was that not a real test and not just some cruel joke?  It also states that no one can die for the sins of another.

“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”. Genesis 3:21

Why did God kill an animal to cover Adam & Eve?  Was that not a sacrificial death hinting at a future atonement?  Also, the article compares Jesus’ birth to pagan traditions of human-God matings.  But what about Adam?  Was he not born of God directly?  Wouldn’t that put the Jewish creation story also in league with the pagans?

After this, the first bullet point in the article states that Messiah must be born of two human parents in the lineage of David.  If the Messiah is of the seed of Adam, how could he redeem mankind? He would be sinful like the rest of us. It is similar to when Jesus said John the baptist was Elijah. John the Baptist filled the role of one calling the way in the desert, but he was not the complete fulfillment of the Malachi prophecy. For that, Elijah must be raised from the dead or brought back from where ever God whisked him too.