Excerpts from Notebook 1 - Prophecy Fulfilled
From Notebook One -
The following is something I wrote many years ago now, but it still holds true today. At the end of this article I will put a couple of website addresses you can use to look up more information.
Thank you.
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Prophecy Fulfilled!
How exciting! Prophecy fulfilled in our day! As recently as 1980 Biblical prophecy was fulfilled.
Are you surprised by this? I was, my sister was and my friends were as we studied our Bibles, history and the Spirit of Prophecy.
The prophecy is found in Luke 21:24, 'And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.'
Some have said that this prophecy is irrelevant. I say any prophecy is relevant. How can we presume to judge the importance of Scripture, prophetic or not prophetic? I say all Scripture is supremely important because it is God's word to us, His people.
People through ages have taken Scripture and picked it apart. They have placed importance on one aspect of the Bible while forgetting the other aspects.
The Sabbath commandment has largely been forgotten by the majority of people around the world. We as Seventh-day Adventist realize this importance of keeping all the commandments in their original Biblically founded truth.
Yet as we place so much importance on the forgotten fourth commandment have we become guilty of lessening the other nine?
What has this to do with fulfilled prophecy?
As always God's word is all important, 'Precept upon precept' Isaiah 28:10. Let's look at the first commandment. 'And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Ex. 20:1-3.
This tells us we are to have no other gods before God, yet how many people are following their pastors (ministers, preachers, priests) believing what they say without studying for themselves? How many pastors are gods for their parishioners?
When you go to church and hear a pastor say something is true or untrue do you believe what he says without question?
It would be wonderful to think that all pastors will be saved, but as we know not all lay people will be in the kingdom the same is true for pastors, they are not infallible.
It was a pastor who said that the prophecy in Luke 21:24 was unimportant. What will your pastor or superior, if you are a pastor, say to you after you read this article?
As an individual accountable to God for your every action please take the time to study in-depth for yourselves this prophecy and its obvious fulfillment.
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Of the three chapters Jesus gives us on the future signs to observe- Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, only Luke 21 has a prophecy that deals especially with time.
'Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.' Luke 21:24
Let's look at a few facts.
Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. Since then for nineteen centuries Jerusalem was controlled by Gentiles- trodden down of the Gentiles. The Romans and different Christian nations during the Crusades, the Turks, the British, and the Jordanians until the Six-Day War in 1967.
You can look up these facts in your library it is all history.
In 1967 Israeli armies recaptured the old city of Jerusalem but the Capital remained in Tel Aviv. In 1980, the Knesset declared Old Jerusalem to be the Capital of Israel.
Many of you may already know these facts, but may not realize the importance of them. This fulfilled prophecy has great importance in connection with our church (with all Christians).
The study is much to detailed for me to go into in this small letter (article). There is a study available by the Adventist Laymen's Foundation of Arkansas. It is a manuscript 57 pages typed, with exhibits of photo copied material. It is not just one man's opinion with a lot of hearsay, It is a thoroughly documented, fact-filled manuscript worth the $2.00 plus $1.00 postage. The Foundation are not making a profit by selling the manuscript at what it costs to assemble and mail, but that is not what they believe God would have them do. God's truth must be available to everyone. (Note- The Foundation isn't currently selling anything due to the failing health of its founder Elder Grotheer. However a lot of information can be found online at the various sites listed below. Remember this article was written many years ago.)
I realize this sounds like a sales pitch but it truly isn't meant to be.
The information in this manuscript is many times more valuable that I can say. It opened my closed eyes to some facts I had no way of realizing. Facts I can look up for myself. I haven't and will not rely on the word of any one man. I will look at the facts and study the Bible. With prayer and a sincere desire to know the truth, God will show any sincere seeker the truth of what they read. I urge each of you to obtain a manuscript and with a mind dedicated to know God's truth read it if only to show others the errors it contains- if you can find any.
I may have over done it a bit and that may turn a few people off. I pray that is not the case. It is our hope only that God will open the eyes of the blind to His truth, that He will reveal His love to all who truly desire to know Him.
Manuscript available at [Address].
Note everything in parenthesis has been added by me recently in the year 2009.
Website addresses-
http://sites.google.com/site/whostosaywereright2/Home
http://www.adventistalert.com/
http://www.adventistlaymen.com/index.html
Contact Info-
[email protected]
4/09/10
Gal 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
So many of us are caught up in the idea that we have to please others. No, I'm not saying please as in physically please others- though that too is an issue of it's own. We grow up being taught to conform at all costs. The ones that stand out as radicals are punished by society in many ways. This isn't to say that our culture hasn't embraced non-conformity as a way of formally protest issues, this it saying that to protest is to be a non-conformist and to be labeled at such. Some, though they are a minority, revel in non-conformity. They love to buck the system every chance they get. Again, labels are attached to those people. They are called troublemakers, rabble rousers, and many other things. The point being we aren't taught to be non-conformists. We are taught from a young age the this is the way things are done and if you don't do them that way then you will suffer consequences. Many countries around the world take this to a very harsh extreme and as such their children learn to conform early on. Other countries are more lax and the result seems to be a society that is much more troublesome.
This verse above--
Gal 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Do I seek to please men?
If we seek to please our fellow man, if we seek to keep the even flow of well-being at all costs, we sacrifice principles to do so. Some might scoff at that and say, that's old school thinking, that happened in the old days now you can do or be whatever you want, worship whoever you want or not worship at all and nothing matters. We don't force anyone to bow down to a king or die, we don't imprison people who stand up and claim God as their Father, we don't imprison those who claim Satan as their Father. And we say this is the way Jesus would have it. Loving all, letting all do whatever it is that is pleasing to them because that is what it's all about. You don't love if you don't accept everyone for who they are. You don't love or show the love of Jesus if you condemn anyone. Jesus loved the sinner we are to love the sinners too, especially because we are among them. So where is a line drawn here? Where does this verse come into play?
Gal 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
We need to understand what it means to please God.
Does it please God when we worship Satan? No.
Does it please God when we accept any faith that denies Christ as the world's Savior? No.
Does it please God when we have no principles that demand we stand up for our beliefs? No.
Time and time again throughout the Bible we are shown that those who believe in God and refuse to worship at any other altar are persecuted. Paul didn't go into the cities of pagans and worship at their altars to their Gods just to show He had love for those people. Paul went into the cities of pagans and stood up for God preaching Christ crucified, preaching the true God in heaven above and for this he was beaten, imprisoned, persecuted time and time again. Was He not showing Christ's love? Today people say if we are unaccepting we are loveless. Today people say to be a Christian is to accept all faiths.
If we please men, we would not be the servant of Christ. We have to be prepared to be disliked for our faith in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. We have to understand that many are going to persecute us and we will seem to the whole world as if we are not loving at all, but haters. We will seem like the devil's own to those who hold a false belief in what it means to be Christ's. Right now we might face this in little things, but the little things are stepping stones leading up to a stronger faith. Our faith is tested and tried and by the Grace of God we will strive always to please God and not worry about pleasing man, or being accepted by man, even those who claim Christianity as a way of life and point to you and say you are of the devil.
God first.
Please God first, always.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ now and forever in Him and His amazing love and forgiveness, through His righteousness.
Amen.
4/9/11