Christ is coming to reign on earth

In my last post I indicated that the Bible foretells a catastrophic turn of events for the nation of Israel still to come. I believe that this turn of events is shortly to unfold and that the trigger will have been the brutal actions of Hamas provoking a response from Israel that will eventually set the Middle East alight.  Israel has possession of the land for now but it is as temporary a possession as was the possession under the return of Cyrus. Israel of today is in a state of unbelief in the eyes of God just as it was in the days before the first captivity and in the days of the first coming of Christ to the earth.    Their possession of the land was conditional upon their continued obedience to God's will. Their disobedience resulted in their removal twice from the land of their fathers, a fulfilment of God's promise to them in Leviticus 26 v 27-33, an excerpt of which is below   And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me.....

Almost twelve years ago, I was Masada in southern Israel. I was listening to the tour guide describe the last stand of the Jews against the Romans in AD73. The Roman empire had besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and mostly captured and enslaved the inhabitants of the land. A few Jewish rebels remained, holed up in the fortress of Masada. The siege eventual overthrow of Masada marks the conclusion of the bloody and violent Roman conquest of the land of Judea.   The siege of Masada is often revered in modern Israel as "a symbol of Jewish heroism". Some Israeli Defence Forces inductees proclaim their loyalty to the Jewish state on top of Masada. Others take it at the Western Wall, the remnant of the sacred Temple in Jerusalem. The oath taken concludes "Masada shall not fall again."    The average Israeli today has an unflinching determination to protect their homeland, the place that they were given by God via the promises to Abraham, partially fulfilled in the conqu...

In the last post, I laid out the clear, unambiguous principles upon which salvation is based. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, said Jesus in Mark 16 v 16. His apostles conveyed this same message throughout their preaching work after his ascension.    Belief in the saving work of Jesus and his integral part in God's plan of salvation is the first condition. Once we are convinced of the truth of that gospel message, we must then be baptised, fulfilling the second condition. This baptism must be a "believer's baptism": a full immersion in water. It is certainly not the sprinkling of water on an infant.    In the last post, I spent a little time dwelling on the implications of this for Christianity today. Let me try and make my meaning here as plain as possible because understanding this verse and its implications is literally life and death.   If you do not believe, you cannot be saved  If you are not baptised after you believe,...

We started and finished the last post with a quote from Galatians 3. We're going to start with it again because there are some issues with which we still need to deal.    For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3 v 26-29)   So, who exactly can count themselves as part of the number of Abraham's seed? Does everyone who calls themselves a Christian get to do so? Does it matter what you believe or what you do as a professing Christian? Does doctrine matter? Does what you do in your life matter? Will you receive salvation purely on the basis of your works? Or do works not count at all and is it all based on grace?   Take a poll of your f...

In the last post on Hebrews 11, we talked about the fact that the men and women of faith mentioned therein waited for but had not received "the promises".  It seems to me, then, that we need to talk about these promises and define what they are. Only by understanding what they are can we truly say we understand the basis of salvation offered through Christ and also why the Jews cling so dearly to their possession of the land of Israel.    Not the Law of Moses  The first thing we need to realise is that what we are referring to predates Moses and the Law that Israel held themselves up as the keeper of at the time of Christ. The law of Moses contained no promises of life. It contained no message of salvation. Paul said that the Law could not give life. It only promised punishment for sin.    The promises to Abraham  The promises which contained life were given earlier to Abraham. God made a covenant with Abraham and promises to him and to his s...

Faith.  It's a small little word with very big implications as shown in Hebrews 11.  Hebrews 11 is sometimes described as the "Faith Chapter" as Paul (supposed to be the writer of the letter to the Hebrews) runs through a list of faithful men and women throughout the ages.    Faith, it is proclaimed in the chapter at hand, is the essence of things hoped for and the firm assurance of things not seen. Each person mentioned in the chapter had faith and because of that faith, they did something.  "By faith, Abel offered unto God",  "By faith, Abraham... obeyed and went out" "By faith, they (Israel) passed through the Red Sea" etc.   The word faith occurs 31 times in this chapter. What might be less easy to spot is that there's another word repeated oft in this text and it's the word "promise". The word promise occurs 7 times in this chapter, with most being in the form of "the promise" or "the land of promise...

 A change of pace from the heavy but important stuff on the immortality of the soul. This is a lesson in the practical response to the gospel message when its preached. It has some bearing on the previous topic but its real relevance is in undercutting the ideas that underpin universal salvation.  A. An exposition of Jesus' parable of the sower.  I would encourage you all to go and read the parable in its entirety in Mark 4 and Matthew 13 for in these chapters Jesus both tells the parable to the multitudes and then expounds it to his disciples afterwards.    https://biblehub.com/kjv/mark/4.htm  https://biblehub.com/kjv/matthew/13.htm   In broad strokes, the parable sets out a story of a man who sows seed The seed falls in four different places and the end result for the seed differs based on where it falls.   The hard path The stony/ rocky ground The ground full of weeds, thorns and thistles The good ground  This parable would ...