2018 : The Year of Hope And Anticipation

At the end of each year, we usually have a foretaste of what the New Year will bring. Last year, I felt

that the year will be filled with many changes and challenges. It was so, both in my personal life and in the world affairs.

What I sense for this New Year 2018 is hope and anticipation of what the Lord will bring about. It looks like the new wave of protests taking place in Iran right now will eventually finally bring down the oppressive regime that is holding Iranian people hostage for nearly four decades now, which will also bring an end to many terrorist activities around the world that this regime is funding, including Hamas.

I look forward to see if the biblical pattern of 70s for Israel will hold and what type of restoration will take place there as well. In the Church also there is a sense of renewed energy and joyful expectation as the movement of prayer and cooperation between different churches continues, there will be pouring out of God's blessings upon His people worldwide.

Last year, we saw how the materialist and postmodern philosophy that pushed people towards increased ungodliness began to crumble and an interest in the Bible began to grow in unexpected places. It does not cease to amaze me how a secular liberal Canadian psychologist, Jordan Peterson, is able to draw hundreds of thousands into listening of his series of lectures on the Bible stories and they cannot get enough of it. The spiritual hunger among the people, especially the young people is growing. There are therefore many reasons to hope.

It is often easy to focus on all the bad that is happening in the world, but we have to remember that God is always on the move and way ahead of the enemy and that where the darkness gets deeper, His light can shine the brighter. So, determine to notice all those good things and understand what The Lord is doing, and be encouraged by it. God bless everyone and have a blessed New Year 2018!

Study: What Is The Great Tribulation?

The Great Tribulation is mentioned four times in the New Testament. One of these mentions

is by Jesus Himself found  in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24 in which He linked this period to the time of  "trouble" such as never happened  since there was a nation prophesied of by Daniel ( Daniel 12:1). Both Hebrew and Greek words used in these passages for "trouble" and "tribulation" mean adversity, suffering, and persecution.

There were of course many times in history, including, even now when God's people were being persecuted and suffered greatly because of it, but it is evident from Scripture that during the time of Great Tribulation it will be worse than ever before, and that there will not be another time like this after.

Jesus placed this period after the "abomination of desolation" is set up in the Holy place. Many Bible scholars concluded that this event will be the Antichrist proclaiming himself God in the rebuilt Third Temple in Jerusalem, which is very plausible since the description of his global reign in the Book of Revelation 13:7-10 includes great persecution against both Israel and the gentile believers in Jesus:

"And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints."

 

The reason why Bible scholars think  that the reign of the Beast ( Antichrist) and the Great Tribulation are one and the same is that both last for 42 months, but the good news is that this period will be shortened by God Himself when He returns to Judge the earth and throw the Beast and his false prophet into the lake of fire before His 1000 year reign.

 

It is not clear from the Scripture exactly when in this chain of events the Rapture of The Saints will take place, whether before the Great Tribulation, during, or after it, but nowhere it these passages do we see Great Tribulation described as the wrath of God. Furthermore, Jesus told us Himself that in this world we will have tribulation, so I think it is wise that we prepare ourselves spiritually and physically for it just in case.

 

There is also a description of the great assembly of the saints who washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb who according to Scripture " came out of the Great Tribulation." It is found in the Book of Revelation chapter 7:9-17:

 

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

 

So, we know for sure that there will be believers in Jesus living during this terrible time. though we don't know whether it will be the Church or the people who will come to faith in Jesus after the Rapture, one thing is certain, God will deliver them out of it in one way or another, and those who die during Great Tribulation for their faith will share  the victory of Christ over the Beast:

 

"And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Great Tribulation therefore is the reign of the Beast ( Antichrist) and a short lived wrath of the devil, and not of God.

Author's Note: Image courtesy of pintrest.com

Is Great Tribulation The wrath of God?

This question is very important as it is the key to resolving a big debate among Christians today about the timing of an event predicted in the Bible called "Rapture of the Saints" or simply "The Rapture." There seems to be two or even three camps. 

The first camp claims that the period of time called in the Scripture "the great tribulation," is the time when God pours out His wrath on the earth and therefore the Church will be taken away before it begins, and everyone agrees that it will begin with the appearance of a man called "The Antichrist" on the world's stage.

The second camp believes that God's wrath will begin to be poured out in the second half of the great tribulation period and that the church will witness  appearance of the Antichrist, but will be snatched away before he shows his true face as all agree that he will be a very charismatic man, highly respected by the world community who will succeed in bringing peace to the world, especially Israel for a short time and will be even accepted as the Messiah  by Israel, but they will reject him when he desecrates the newly rebuilt third temple by proclaiming himself God, after which he will seek to destroy Israel and will be ultimately destroyed by the return of the true Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth to earth.

And then there is a third camp that believes that Jesus will take up His Church to heaven very shortly before His physical return to earth at the end of the great tribulation period, and then He will judge the wicked of the earth for their wickedness, but all three positions depend on the timing of God's wrath and whether or not the great tribulation is indeed the judgement of God or not.

Personally, I take neither of those positions, but I choose to remain open to each one of these three possibilities. I would love it if the rapture happened before the great tribulation, but just in case it does not, I am preparing myself mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to endure it by the grace of God by walking close with Him and listening to His Spirit.

In the parable of the foolish and wise virgins( Matthew 25), Jesus warned us against not being ready for His coming. All of them were virgins, which symbolizes the believers and all of them woke up when the call went out that the  bridegroom ( Jesus) is coming, but it took longer than they all thought it would and half of them did not have enough oil in their lamps to last until the end. I am putting  extra oil in my lamp by being open to the idea that the end time prophetic events written in the Bible might not come to pass in the order or the timing that I expect. I think it would be wise of all of us to be more flexible in this regard, and to focus more on  filling ourselves with the Word of God and His Holy Spirit, growing  spiritually stronger, and into greater maturity,  and on preaching of the gospel to this dark world instead of fighting amongst ourselves over eschatology.

The Bible admonishes us that we must endure until the end. Jesus told us that we will have tribulation in the world, especially the closer we will get to His return. That means that we are not immune from persecution, as a matter of fact there are more Christians being persecuted and killed for their faith right now than at any other time in the history. What makes the Western Christians who at the moment enjoy relative freedom to practice our faith think that somehow we are better than our brothers and sisters who live elsewhere? Jesus said that the time will come when the whole world will hate us because it hated Him first, so let us toughen up and not get offended at God when things are not easy for us and remember in our prayers those who have it even worse.

He is with us no matter what and  He gives us the power to overcome Satan himself and his hordes of hell by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony if we stay faithful to Him and do not love our lives even unto death. ( Revelation 12:11)

Why Early Churches Did Not Practice Tithing, but Joyful Giving

If you grew up in, or are part of the church who teaches tithing, it might come as a shock to you to find out that early Christian gentile church did not tithe.  For those of you who do not know, tithing was an Old Testament practice of honouring God with the first 10% of one's increase, so the rest would be blessed as well. It was to be given to the priests and used for their sustenance and for helping the poor. The earliest biblical example we have of it was when Abraham gave the tithe of the spoils of war to a priest called Melchizedek, and later it became part of the  temple system law.


It is interesting to note that Jesus never talked about tithing, but  He talked a lot about giving generously to those around us who are in need. As a matter of fact, the only time Jesus even mentioned the tithe was when he rebuked the Pharisees for paying so much attention to tithing and so little attention to more important tenets of the Law.


Perhaps many churches today are committing the same error. The leadership of way too many churches today is not bothered when their church members engage in sinful lifestyle, when they commit sins such as adultery, idolatry, fornication, or when they take financial advantage of the poor or refuse to pay back what they borrowed, as long as they tithe...


Early Christian church, on the other hand, especially the gentile one does not seem to have practiced it at all. There is not a single mention of tithing in Acts of the Apostles or in the letters of the Apostles to the churches, even in passages about giving and supporting financially the ministers of the gospel. Also the counsel of Jerusalem, when they were asked about what gentile churches should observe did not mention it either.  Have you ever wondered why?


I did wonder about that ever since a pastor in Poland whose church did not practice that either, pointed it out to me. And now I think,  I understand why.


You see, when Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead, he fulfilled the Law and restored those who accepted His gift of Salvation to the free fellowship with God. Before people get saved, they try to earn God's favour by doing as  many "good deeds" as they can in hopes of earning it, but when they get saved they do them because they are right things to do. They don't do what is right to get saved, but because they already are saved.


In the same way people in the time of Old Testament  gave tithes,  so they could get blessed, now in Jesus we are already blessed, so we give because we ARE blessed, not to get blessed. Though it is true that when we give, we get blessed even more, but it should not be the reason for giving. And the amount such as 10% is not specified in New Testament like it was in the old because we are expected to go way beyond it in our giving.


If you have conviction to give tithe, by all means give it, but understand that you are free to give any amount you like to give, according to your ability. Ten percent is a good place to start, but don't limit yourself just to that, and know that giving is not just about giving your money or things (originally tithe was never money but things), it is also about giving of your time, love, and care to others in the name of Jesus. Giving is about sharing joyfully with others what God has already blessed us with. So, don't allow people to manipulate you into giving by saying that if you will not ( give to them or their church), then God will Curse you( quoting Scriptures taken out of context of the entire Bible), or that you should give in order to receive as a some sort of get rich quick scheme. Don't give to such people, especially if you see that they are living a lavish lifestyle out of offerings. But listen to the Holy Spirit and give generously to the churches, ministries, or people in need that He wants you to give to and do it freely knowing that you are already richly blessed.


"H who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32 )