Messages From Heaven: It Will Happen!

Messages From Heaven: It Will Happen!: 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will c...

It Will Happen!

¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. ¹⁵So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. —Matthew 24:14-16

In Matthew 24, Jesus gave us some clear connecting points between Daniel 9 and the Book of Revelation. If we are going to be diligent about Bible reading, we are going to have to learn how to read prophetic passages. God is very clear that a prophet speaking for Him must be exactly right or he should be killed! (see Deuteronomy 18:20-21) This means the “prophets” featured in the supermarket papers wouldn’t last long!
Some of the things that happen through church history to make the fulfillment of prophesy apparent to the people of God are what are called “touchdown fulfillments.” Not the ultimate fulfillment, but an intermediate fulfillment. Take, for example, the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” There was a fulfillment of that in Isaiah’s day; and then ultimately in Christ.
The prophesy of Joel 2 mentioned in Acts 2 about young men dreaming dreams and old men seeing visions. That was fulfilled in Joel’s day and again in the birth of the Church, and there will be an ultimate fulfillment of that prophecy in the time ahead.
So it is with the Matthew 24 passage and the “abomination of desolation” that Jesus mentioned. Interesting, in 175 B.C., Antiochus the IV, a Syrian king, took the name Theos Epiphanes which means God Manifested. He marched through the Holy Land, down to Egypt. But because he was turned back (in 170 B.C.), he had such anger that he took it out on the Nation of Israel. He went into the Holy of Holies in the Temple and offered a pig on the altar there. And then he forced Jewish people to eat that meat and to bow down to him.
Now Theos Epiphanes had a bit of an ego problem, right? “Just call me God Manifested.” Eighty thousand Jews refused to bow down to him and they were all murdered in the streets of Jerusalem. Daniel’s prophecy was fulfilled and will be fulfilled again in the end.
Biblical prophecy is not a fantasy movie script. These are realities. And God has given us times in history to see a touchdown fulfillment of it. So we’re like, “That could totally happen. I can see that happening. It has happened — It will happen!” Like that. The ultimate fulfillment of the abomination of desolation is yet future, as Matthew points out when he notes, “let the reader understand.” Let’s anticipate God’s promises every day!

Messages From Heaven: Is It Okay to Harvest Fetal Tissue for Research?

Messages From Heaven: Is It Okay to Harvest Fetal Tissue for Research?: I've been hearing a great deal about fetal experimentation and some of the possible medical breakthroughs that could be realized as...

Is It Okay to Harvest Fetal Tissue for Research?

I've been hearing a great deal about fetal experimentation and some of the possible medical breakthroughs that could be realized as a result of this research. Do you think it is ethical to "harvest" tissue from fetuses if it means we'll find the medical solution to debilitating diseases?
There is no hypothetical medical discovery that will justify the horrible procedure by which organs are "harvested" from a tiny human being. If most of us had to watch the grisly task of cannibalizing the body of a baby, it would sicken and outrage us. At the risk of distressing my readers, I am going to describe that procedure. Be forewarned! What I'm about to write will be disturbing.
First, it is important to remember that a child born alive presents a major problem to an abortionist. It is the ultimate "complication," because legally, every effort must be made to keep a breathing newborn alive. That's why the physician usually crushes the fetus's head while still in the uterus. However, a baby who is born dead is of less value to researchers because brain tissue and other organs quickly deteriorate when deprived of oxygen. Thus, the abortionist must employ a means of extracting the body parts and brain matter from a living baby who is not yet expelled from the birth canal.
The method is called "dilatation and extraction," or "partial-birth abortion." It is grotesque beyond imagination. It occurs on fully viable babies, weighing as much as six to eight pounds. Over a period of two days, the cervix is dilated. Then an ultrasound device and forceps are used to reach in and grab the baby's feet. The little body is pulled into the birth canal until only the head remains in the cervix. Next the abortionist grasps the nape of the neck and stabs the back of the skull with blunt scissors. A device called a cannula is then inserted into the wound, and the brain material is sucked out. If kidneys or other organs are desired, they are removed while the child is still partially in the vagina. Initially at least, these surgical procedures are performed on a live baby who has not specifically been anesthetized. The dismembered and lifeless body is then delivered the other few inches.
If puppies or kittens were subjected to such cruel treatment, the protests of the animal-rights people would be heard around the world--and I would be one of the most vocal.
In this instance, however, we're dealing not with animals but with human beings of inestimably greater worth, who are created in the image of the Creator. How anyone with the remotest sympathy for the sanctity of life could play God with the destiny of these little ones is beyond all comprehension. Without question, they comprise the most disadvantaged and defenseless segment in our culture today. And the excuse for this evil? It is the remote possibility of some distant medical breakthrough--or more commonly--for the convenience of the physician in late-term abortions! I will oppose it for as long as I have breath within my body.

Messages From Heaven: Have Parents Stopped Using Common Sense?

Messages From Heaven: Have Parents Stopped Using Common Sense?: Why have so many parents forgotten the common-sense approach to child rearing that has worked for generations? Why look for something ne...

Have Parents Stopped Using Common Sense?

Why have so many parents forgotten the common-sense approach to child rearing that has worked for generations? Why look for something new?

Good question. People began losing confidence in the traditional approach to child rearing during the 1920s and 1930s. Science was making great contributions to their lives through inventions and discoveries, so it was reasonable to think that the experts could provide a better approach to parenting. An array of gurus--educators, psychiatrists, and psychologists--rose to the challenge. They began passing off their personal biases and opinions as scientific fact. Dr. J. B. Watson, the first and most bizarre of the lot, became enormously influential in that era. Known as the father of behaviorism, he offered what he called a foolproof method of child rearing, and mothers bought it hook, line, and sinker. If only they would follow his advice, he said, they could produce any kind of child they wanted: "a doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and--yes--even a beggarman and a thief." ¹
Watson believed that the mind does not exist--that the human brain functions as a simple switchboard connecting stimuli and responses. From that ridiculous foundation, he went on to offer parents advice that was truly off-the-wall. He wrote:
Never hug and kiss [your children], never let them sit in your lap. If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say good night. Shake hands with them in the morning. Remember when you are tempted to pet your child that mother love is a dangerous instrument--an instrument which may inflict a never-healing wound, a wound which will make infancy unhappy, adolescence a nightmare, an instrument which may wreck your adult son or daughter's vocational future and their chances for marital happiness. ²
Unbelievably, millions of parents followed these notions explicitly for nearly two decades. A generation of mothers and fathers worked diligently to condition their children the way Watson recommended. This strange era in child rearing illustrates the way public confidence shifted from the time-honored wisdom of the Judeo-Christian ethic to the bizarre rumblings of pseudoscientific claptrap.
Unfortunately, Watson was succeeded by a long line of self-appointed "experts" who dreamed up and promoted their own concoctions. Included among their conclusions were the beliefs that loving discipline is damaging, authority is "undemocratic," religious instruction is hazardous, defiance is a valuable ventilator of anger, premarital sex is healthy, "children's rights" should supersede parental leadership, and on and on it went.
In recent years, this humanistic perspective has become even more extreme and anti-Christian. It encompasses everything from "sex equality training" for three year-olds to teaching homosexual and lesbian propaganda to elementary school children. In short, the 20th century spawned a generation of professionals who ignored what has been learned in 2,000 years of parenting and offered what they considered "better ideas." Most of what they cooked up was ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst.
Given that background, you can understand why I have never tried to invent new concepts or methodology. Instead, my purpose has been simply to reconnect us with the traditional wisdom of the ages. I didn't concoct it, nor have I sought to change it. My task has been merely to report what I believe to be the prescription of the Creator Himself. And I am convinced that this understanding will remain viable as long as mothers and fathers and children cohabit the face of the earth.

Messages From Heaven: What Is Grace?

Messages From Heaven: What Is Grace?: Many years ago, Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined a term that has come to characterize much of evangelical Christianity — it's the term &quo...

What Is Grace?

Many years ago, Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined a term that has come to characterize much of evangelical Christianity — it's the term "cheap grace." Cheap grace is in reality a self-imparted grace, a pseudo-grace, and in the end the consequences of living by it are very, very costly.
Cheap grace is not at all a reference to God's grace; it's a contemptible counterfeit. It's a grace that is "cheap" in value, not cost. It is a bargain-basement, damaged-goods, washed-out, moth-eaten, second-hand grace. It is a man-made grace reminiscent of the indulgences Rome was peddling in Martin Luther's day. Cheap? The cost is actually far more than the buyer could possibly realize, though the "grace" is absolutely worthless.
Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and Nazi resister. He was hanged in 1945 by SS guards, but not before his writings had left their mark. Bonhoeffer's theological perspective was neo-orthodox, and evangelicalism rightly rejects much of his teaching. But Bonhoeffer spoke powerfully against the secularization of the church. He correctly analyzed the dangers of the church's frivolous attitude toward grace. After we discard the neo-orthodox teachings, we do well to pay heed to Bonhoeffer's diatribe against cheap grace:

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian "conception" of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure the remission of sins. The Church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, it is supposed, ipso facto a part in that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.
Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. "All for sin could not atone." The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners "even in the best life" as Luther said. Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world's standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin (The Cost of Discipleship [New York: Collier, 1959], 45-46).

Cheap grace has not lost its worldly appeal since Bonhoeffer wrote those words. If anything, the tendency to cheapen grace has eaten its way into the heart of evangelical Christianity. While verbally extolling the wonders of grace, it exchanges the real item for a facsimile. This bait-and-switch tactic has confounded many sincere Christians.
Many professing Christians today utterly ignore the biblical truth that grace "instruct[s] us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age" (Titus 2:12). Instead, they live as if grace were a supernatural "Get Out of Jail FREE" ticket-a no-strings-attached, open-ended package of amnesty, beneficence, indulgence, forbearance, charity, leniency, immunity, approval, tolerance, and self-awarded privilege divorced from any moral demands.
Sadly, the rank-and-file Christian is further cemented in an unbiblical view of grace by what comes out of some seminaries. There are scholars who actually legitimize the error as a correct understanding of grace. They call their teaching "grace theology" and their movement "The Grace Movement."
They advocate a "grace" that alters a believer's standing without affecting his state. It is a grace that calls sinners to Christ but does not bid them surrender to Him. In fact, no-lordship theologians claim grace is diluted if the believing sinner must surrender to Christ. The more one actually surrenders, the more grace is supposedly watered down. This is clearly not the grace of Titus 2:11-12.
No wonder Christians are confused. Christian churches mirror the world; Christian leaders follow the culture; and Christian theologians provide their stamp of approval. The situation is nothing short of deplorable.
But here's what I propose — let's start by laying down a biblical definition of grace with this simple question: What is grace?
Grace is a terribly misunderstood word. Defining it succinctly is notoriously difficult. Some of the most detailed theology textbooks do not offer any concise definition of the term. Someone has proposed an acronym: GRACE is God's Riches At Christ's Expense. That's not a bad way to characterize grace, but it is not a sufficient theological definition.
One of the best-known definitions of grace is only three words: God's unmerited favor. A. W. Tozer expanded on that: "Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits on the undeserving." Berkhof is more to the point: grace is "the unmerited operation of God in the heart of man, effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit."
Grace is not merely unmerited favor; it is favor bestowed on sinners who deserve wrath. Showing kindness to a stranger is "unmerited favor"; doing good to one's enemies is more the spirit of grace (Luke 6:27-36).
Grace is not a dormant or abstract quality, but a dynamic, active, working principle: "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation…and instructing us" (Titus 2:11-12). It is not some kind of ethereal blessing that lies idle until we appropriate it. Grace is God's sovereign initiative to sinners (Ephesians 1:5-6).
Grace is not a one-time event in the Christian experience. We stand in grace (Romans 5:2). The entire Christian life is driven and empowered by grace: "It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods" (Hebrews 13:9). Peter said we should "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).
Thus we could properly define grace as the free and benevolent influence of a holy God operating sovereignly in the lives of undeserving sinners.
Paul frequently contrasted grace with law (Romans 4:16; 5:20; 6:14-15; Galatians 2:21; 5:4). He was careful to state, however, that grace does not nullify the moral demands of God's law. Rather, it fulfills the righteousness of the law (Romans 6:14-15). It does not annul the righteous demands of the law; it confirms and validates them (Romans 3:31).
Grace has its own law, a higher, liberating law: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2; cf. James 1:25). Note that this new law emancipates us from sin as well as death. Paul was explicit about this: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2). Grace reigns through righteousness (Romans 5:21).
That is the good news of the gospel! God has acted to set us free from sin — not just the consequences, but it's very power and presence. One day we will never know the experience of temptation, a stray thought, a misspoken word, a false motive. Guilt will be gone, and with it shame, and "so we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
In the meantime, we enjoy the liberation from sin's cruel power and defiling influence. God has enabled us, through grace, to "deny ungodliness and worldly desires" so that we can enjoy a sensible, righteous, and godly life in the present age (Titus 2:12). "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).