THE UNWASHED AND UNWANTED INFANT

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By Ken Blue

Abandoned in an open field, un-washed, un-swaddled, and alone,
Thy navel cord was uncut, still in your filth; none took you home.

Then I saw you in the field, polluted in your filth and blood.
I washed, and I swaddled thee, and said; “live;” knowing that you could.

I washed away the blood; anointing you with perfume and oil.
And I clothed you in embroidered work, not counting cost or toil.

I dressed you in linens and silk; gave you shoes of badger skin,
And you were fair and beautiful, as your womanhood did begin.

Then you became my wife, in a covenant relationship.
You were pure, and virtuous, without a blemish, spot, or guilt.

I provided jewels for your neck, for your hands, and your forehead.
I put a crown upon you, “He has made a queen of her,” they said.

You had the best foods, and were exalted to the highest stations.
You were known for your renown, and were the envy of all nations.

But, you trusted in your beauty, and a harlot you became.
You were available to all who passed; you were devoid of all shame.

You were contrary in your filthiness; of none had it been said,
A harlot is paid by her lovers; you hire lovers instead.

You took the garments that I gave you, also the jewels and bread,
You forgot who gave them, then offered them to idols instead.

Your lovers will despise you; stripping your garments, all will see,
As you were in the field of blood, naked again you will be.

Your lovers will all hate you, and will abuse you many days.
You will remember all your sins, and be ashamed of your ways.

You will remember the former days; you will return to Me.
I will establish My covenant; your husband I will be.

I will blot out all thy sins: I will remember them no more.
Oh, Jerusalem let us return, and serve Him evermore.

From the parable of Ezekiel 16.

YOU’RE NOT BRINGING IN THE KINGDOM

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By Ken Blue

Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

We often hear well-meaning Christians say, “We have to get the gospel to all the world, so Christ will come for His church.” Or, you may hear another say, “When we get the last person saved to complete the church, Christ will return.” This is often done to motivate church members to soul-winning.

There are at least two major problems with these concepts. First, the gospel spoken of in the context of Matthew is the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it never got out of Palestine as an act of obedience to the commission. The few who did take it did so because of persecution, and they went to Jew only. This gospel of the Kingdom is the same gospel preached in the four gospels and early Acts, and will be preached again after the rapture of the church.

The second problem suggests that there are a predestined number of believers who must be saved before Christ returns for His church. That idea is false. The Lord is not waiting on His church to make it possible for Him to return. The gospel of grace, which we preach, has already gone to every country on earth. However, the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven must be preached to every creature.

Matthew is not about the church of this dispensation. And chapter 24 clearly describes events surrounding the return of Christ at the Second Advent. Verse 14b says, “and then shall the end come.” The “end” is not the end of the world, but rather, the end of this present age. There are five ages, and we are in the third one. An age is not a dispensation. The age spoken of here reaches from Noah’s flood to the end of Armageddon. The gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to “every creature” before it ends, even if God must uses an angel to preach it. (Rev. 14:6)

LET’S STUDY REVELATION # 29

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Revelation

The Vision is on Earth.

It Consists of the Six Trumpets.

The trumpet sounds to announce war on the kingdom of the beast in response to the prayers of the suffering saints.  Zeph. 1:14-16 says, “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.”

As we have stated, the sixth seal covers events right up to the Second Advent of Christ. Whereas, the seventh seal loops back to the mid-way point and gives another account of the judgments which are detailed by the seven trumpets and the seven vials. The remainder of Revelation is contained in this seventh seal. An overview of the wrath to follow was given in 6:12-17; now God gives the details of those judgments.

“The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;  And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.  And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;  And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”  (Revelation 8:7-11).

When the “…first angel sounded… there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up” (v.7). Some writers believe these judgments are localized in and around Israel, and include the empire of the ten kings which will be taken over by the Beast. If this is so, this judgment is on the vegetation within the boundaries of his kingdom.

Most likely, the events from the second seal through the seven trumpets and the seven vials are all in the last three and one-half years of the Tribulation. It is impossible to pinpoint the exact day or month each begins. However, they do escalate from the mid-point of the Tribulation until the kingdom of the beast is destroyed, and he is assigned to the bottomless pit.

In verse 8 the second angel sounds, and John sees something he describes, “as it were a great mountain,” cast into the sea. This will result in a third part of the sea becoming blood. What this fiery mass is, we are not told. Perhaps it will be a giant meteor entering the atmosphere and breaking up over the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean, or both. It could be a satellite armed with nuclear or germ warfare falling from space. Whatever it is, it brings death and devastation to one third of the sea.

The effects will be the death of one third of the sea life in that region. Water was literally turned to blood in Egypt, and God can easily do it again, or it could be a figure of speech that all who drink it will die. The vessels of the sea are most likely like those used by the disciples. Luke 5:2 says, “And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.” This is a judgment of the marine life and sea vessels of that area.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary says of “wormwood” (v.11): “…It is a type of bitterness, affliction, remorse, punitive suffering. In Amos 6:12, this Hebrew word is rendered, “hemlock” (R.V., “wormwood”). In the symbolical language of the Apocalypse (Revelation 8:10, 11) a star is represented as falling on the waters of the earth, causing the third part of the water to turn into wormwood. The name by which the Greeks designated it…means ‘undrinkable…’”

This object that falls from heaven may also be a meteorite, a satellite, or a rocket carrying some deadly toxin. Whatever it is, one third of the water from the rivers and fountains are contaminated and unfit to drink. Those who drink of them will also die.

 “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”  (Revelation 8:12-13).

Verse 12 says, “…the fourth angel sounded,” This fourth trumpet sounds just prior to the Second Advent of Christ. That event is mentioned under the sixth seal in chapter 6:12. (See also Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24; Luke 21:24; Acts 2:20.)  The question is, will this darkness be worldwide or just over the kingdom of the Beast? Darkness covered Egypt while the land of Goshen had light.

The darkness could be localized as it was in Egypt, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt” (Exodus 10:21).  Revelation 16:10 says, “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain…” The darkness will, no doubt, be confined to that region over which the beast reigns.

Verse 13 says, “…I …heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying …Woe, woe, woe…” The seven trumpets are interrupted between the fourth and the fifth by an angel flying through the air. The remaining three trumpets are called, “woes” because of their great intensity.

IS IT HAPPENING???

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RICH BUSINESSMEN PULLING OUT OF FRANCE AS TAX-HIT LOOMS

Please read my blog “Good-by Jews,” posted a few weeks ago. The following article is exactly what I was pointing out. There is much in the article that I left out. It is unnecessary to get the point across. You will see the continued exodus of companies, as government gets more involved in their takeover. I am not sugguesting that the ones in this story are Jews or not. I don’t have that information. However, the principle and the results will be the same.

“A placard reading “for sale” on a balcony of an appartment building is pictured in Paris’ eighth district in September 2012. A flood of top-end properties are hitting the market as businessmen seek to leave France before stiff tax hikes hit, real estate agents and financial advisors say.

While it is not yet on the scale of the exodus of rich French after the election of Socialist president Francois Mitterrand in 1981, real estate agents said, the tax plans of France’s new Socialist President Francois Hollande are having a noticeable effect.

While the Socialists’ plan to raise the tax rate to 75 percent on income above 1.0 million euros per year has generated the most headlines, a sharp increase in taxes on capital gains from the sales of stock and company stakes is pushing most people to leave, according Didier Bugeon, head of the wealth manager Equance.

French entrepreneurs have complained vociferously against a proposal in the Socialist’s 2013 budget to increase the capital gains tax on sales of company stakes, which they argue will kill the market for innovative start-up companies in France.

They say a stiff increase in capital gains tax would remove incentives to do this in France. They also argue that capital has already been taxed several times in the making.

French officials are looking for ways to reduce the country’s excessive public deficit and debt, and Hollande won election on a platform of making the wealthy carry more of the load.

Bugeon said he was seeing start-up entrepreneurs looking to move their headquarters out of France and taking their families with them.

niel Feau agreed that the profile of those who are leaving has changed, from the idle rich to “managers of major international corporations, entrepreneurs and investors much younger than previously who are scared of the marginal tax rate of 62.21 percent on sales of stock.”

The head of the French employers federation Medef, Laurence Parisot, has complained recently of emerging “anti-enterprise racism” in France.

No one is certain if the rush to the exit will continue, but Daniel Feau noted: “Nobody until now believed that the capital gains on shares would be taxed so high.”

And it is not only the Paris region, more offers are coming onto the market in other areas of the country as well, the realtors added.

The preferred destinations of those leaving are London, New York and Geneva, as well as Canada, Israel and Singapore, said Laurent Demeure, head of Coldwell Banker France.

Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said he told the daily Le Parisien that debate on the 75-percent income tax bracket was “closed” but noted that it was only a temporary tax for two years.”

For full story see http://www.france24.com/en/20121007-rich-businessmen-pulling-out-france-tax-hit-looms

THE PROMISES ARE NOT YOURS

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By Ken Blue

We often hear well-meaning Christians quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 as a prayer promise for America. Also, it is implied that God is judging this nation because Christians are not right with God. The assumption is, if all God’s people would repent and pray, the land would be healed. But, since it is not, it must be the fault of the Church.

2 Chronicles must be understood in its contextual and dispensational setting. In addition, these judgments must be understood in relation to the promised curses to come upon the nation of Israel, outlined in Leviticus 26:14-39, if they refused to walk within the covenant made with them. Solomon clearly understood these.

Compare 2 Chronicles 7:13 “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;” with Leviticus 26:19-20 “And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.” These promises of judgment were to God’s covenant people, Israel. Read the context again. “My people,” and “My land,” speak of the Jews and the land of Israel.

Christians do not have a land or a country. Our citizenship is in heaven. We have the privilege of voting for our leaders, and we are commanded to pray for them. But, the application of 2 Chronicles 7 to Christians places an assumption about a promise that is not theirs, and suggests that the problem in any land is their fault, and they can change it. As we have said, this is a warning and a promise to Israel only.