May 2004 Contents - pdf.cgg.org Forerunner · May 2004 Forerunner Magazine ... Rodriquez, Rizal 1860...

Forerunner · May 20042

Forerunner Forerunner Forerunner Forerunner Forerunner MagazineMagazineMagazineMagazineMagazineEditor-in-ChiefJOHN W. RITENBAUGH

Associate EditorMARTIN G. COLLINS

News EditorDAVID C. GRABBE

Managing EditorRICHARD T. RITENBAUGH

Graphic and Layout EditorKRISTEN M. COLLINS

CirculationDIANE MCIVER

May 2004 May 2004 May 2004 May 2004 May 2004 ContentsContentsContentsContentsContentsVolume 13, Number 4Volume 13, Number 4Volume 13, Number 4Volume 13, Number 4Volume 13, Number 4

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Revelation 6 contains theintriguing prophecyof the Four Horsemenof the Apocalypse.What fearsome diastersdo they represent?Are they already riding?Artwork byArtwork byArtwork byArtwork byArtwork byPat Marvenko Smith,Pat Marvenko Smith,Pat Marvenko Smith,Pat Marvenko Smith,Pat Marvenko Smith,copyright 1982/1992 -copyright 1982/1992 -copyright 1982/1992 -copyright 1982/1992 -copyright 1982/1992 -www.revelationillustrated.comwww.revelationillustrated.comwww.revelationillustrated.comwww.revelationillustrated.comwww.revelationillustrated.com

No. 13 Mt. DahoAmityville

Rodriquez, Rizal 1860PHILIPPINES

3 PERSONAL FROM JOHN W. RITENBAUGHThe Beast and Babylon (Part TThe Beast and Babylon (Part TThe Beast and Babylon (Part TThe Beast and Babylon (Part TThe Beast and Babylon (Part Twwwwwo)o)o)o)o)

8 The Pentecost WitnessThe Pentecost WitnessThe Pentecost WitnessThe Pentecost WitnessThe Pentecost Witness—David C. Grabbe

11 A READY ANSWER:FFFFFast-Fast-Fast-Fast-Fast-Forworworworworwarding the Tarding the Tarding the Tarding the Tarding the Tapeapeapeapeape

—David F. Maas

12 PROPHECY WATCH:The FThe FThe FThe FThe Four Horsemen (Part Tour Horsemen (Part Tour Horsemen (Part Tour Horsemen (Part Tour Horsemen (Part Twwwwwo):o):o):o):o):The White HorseThe White HorseThe White HorseThe White HorseThe White Horse

—Richard T. Ritenbaugh

16 SearSearSearSearSearching for Israel (Part Tching for Israel (Part Tching for Israel (Part Tching for Israel (Part Tching for Israel (Part Twwwwwo):o):o):o):o):Blessings in FaithBlessings in FaithBlessings in FaithBlessings in FaithBlessings in Faith

—Charles Whitaker

23 WORLD WATCH—Charles Whitaker

24 BIBLE STUDYThe Parables of Luke 15 (Part TThe Parables of Luke 15 (Part TThe Parables of Luke 15 (Part TThe Parables of Luke 15 (Part TThe Parables of Luke 15 (Part Twwwwwo)o)o)o)o)

—Martin G. Collins

3Forerunner · May 2004

AAAAA

P E R S O N A LP E R S O N A LP E R S O N A LP E R S O N A LP E R S O N A L ➤ from John W. Ritenbaugh

As the last article began to show, Europe is notshowing signs of the kind of unity and strength onewould expect the Beast to have. An interesting newsarticle by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard strongly accen-tuates how divided—and therefore weak—Europe is.His article, “1,000 changes sought in EU constitu-tion,” appeared first in the United Kingdom’s TheDaily Telegraph on February 28, 2003, following ameeting in Brussels, Belgium, the previous day of theConvention on the Future of Europe:

The Convention on the Future of Europe was ina ferment of revolt yesterday as delegates of allstripes assailed the leadership for refusing tolisten to the people as they draft the EuropeanUnion’s first constitution.

More than 1,000 amendments poured in de-manding changes to the first 16 articles, whichwere released by the forum’s elite praesidiumtwo weeks ago.

It is difficult to imagine a thousand change re-quests—and that after the first sixteen articles of theproposed constitution had been in existence only twoweeks! The British put their finger on the centraltheme of almost every disagreement:

The British had other concerns. Still fuming over

federalist undertones at the convention, Toryand Labour members alike demanded the re-moval of a clause giving the EU “primacy overthe law of member states.”

They are most alarmed by the concept of “sharedcompetence” put forward in the text, an innocu-ous sounding term that would prohibit memberstates from legislating in everything from publichealth to social policy, transport, justice andeconomic management unless Brussels waivedits powers first.

The British are upset over the same issue thaterupted into the American Civil War: Which is su-preme, the Federal government or the individual stategovernments? Slavery, though a reality, was the emo-tional flashpoint, but the real struggle was over whocontrolled what. Who had the right to determine whatis right and wrong, which way a thing was to be done,or who was to do what and when? The British areconcerned about this very thing regarding the newEuropean Constitution.

David Heathcoat-Amory, a Tory MP on theconvention, said the insiders had seized controland were pushing through a constitutional revo-lution that would leave the British Parliament anempty shell.

Part Two


P E R S O N A L P E R S O N A L P E R S O N A L P E R S O N A L P E R S O N A L ➤

“This has now reached a dangerous stage,” he said.“What we are looking [at] is a completely differentUnion, with its own legal personality, endowedwith rights by the constitution, not by memberstates,” he said.

Lord Stockton, a pro-European Tory MEP, said theconvention had degenerated into a “power grab” bythe political class, who had forgotten that the pur-pose of the forum was to bring Europe back closerto the people after anti-EU referendums in Denmarkand Ireland.

Things are not going well in Europe, and they have notbeen going well for quite some time. The time the BerlinWall came down marked a high point for European unity,but since then, Europe has backtracked in many areasimportant to national greatness.

Another report from The Daily Telegraph authoredby George Trefgarne, economics editor, touches on theeconomic dilemma of one of its strongest member states:

Here is a surprising fact: 100 Germans are losing theirjobs every hour. Imagine being Chancellor GerhardSchröder. Like a starlet in a Hollywood disaster movie,he is trapped in a car heading over the cliff.

The speedometer just keeps whizzing round as hetries the door and screams for help. He pumps thebrake and turns the steering wheel, but to no avail.Last week, the counter hit 4.4 million.

Apart from his own bad driving, who or what canMr. Schröder blame? His predecessors, the worlddownturn and the Americans have all come in forcriticism. But he may soon find the perfect cul-prit: the French. For although France and Ger-many are having a wonderful flirtation over theIraqi question, they are actually star-crossed lov-ers. (“France and Germany will soon fall out,”March 10, 2003)

Elise Kissling, writing in the Frankfurter AllgemeineZeitung, March 7, 2003, touches on the same issue in herarticle titled, “Record Jobless Rolls Shock”:

Unexpectedly high unemployment figures for Feb-ruary have prompted calls for immediate action topropel the economy and stimulate job creation.

The jobless rolls jumped to 4.7 million in January fromjust under 4.3 million last February and up 83,000 fromlast month, the Federal Statistics Office reported onThursday. The February figures, the third-highestlevel since World War II and the highest sinceunification, caught bank economists off guard.

German companies are hurting. Hugh Eaken writes inAustralia’s The Age, “Deutsche Telecom has posted aloss of $44 billion (American), the biggest annual loss inEuropean corporate history” (“Deutsche Telekom PostsEurope’s Biggest Loss,” March 12, 2003). Where is allthis heading? Journalists all over the world are beginningto publish their conclusions, which indicate a Europeaneconomic and political world in its greatest turmoil sinceWorld War II.

The following article excerpt, “Germany Plans Two-Tier E.U. over Iraq Splits” by Geoff Meade, derives fromThe Scotsman:

Germany is reviving plans for a two-tier E.U.,leaving Britain and Spain out in the cold in anger overthe Iraqi crisis. The “two speed” Europe idea is notnew; it has been mulled over in Paris and Berlinevery time a policy difference casts Britain againstthe continental mainstream.

But Britain has repeatedly resisted being left in theEuropean slow lane, and will not welcome any sugges-tion of a European “hard core” group driven by Franceand Germany—particularly one seeking to drive awedge into the E.U. on the basis of policy towards Iraq.

“It looks as if Schroeder is out to reinvent the originalfounding group of countries—the old six against allthose which have joined since,” stated the leader ofLabor’s Euro-MPs, Gary Titley.

The Australian published an article by National Secu-rity Editor Patrick Walters, “Strategic alliance system indecay,” on March 13, 2003:

The world is witnessing a rapid breakdown of theUS-led multilateral alliance system built up sinceWorld War II and with it the demise of the UN,according to a leading strategic analyst. “It’s adefining moment,” argues Francois Heisbourg, chair-man of the London-based International Institute ofStrategic Studies, and one of Europe’s most re-spected strategic analysts. “We are witnessing a seachange vis-à-vis everything which has been built upsince the Second World War.”

Finally, from the February 11, 2003, DEBKAfile comesa four-part conclusion its authors see arising out of thispresent crisis:

A. The steady disintegration of the United Nationsfor all practical purposes.

B. The breakdown of the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization—the strategic pact binding the UnitedStates and Europe since World War II.


The Beast and BabylonThe Beast and BabylonThe Beast and BabylonThe Beast and BabylonThe Beast and Babylon

C. The serious erosion of the European Union as aWest European-oriented community, followed bythe redistribution of the continent’s power centersto the nations supporting the US offensive againstIraq: the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Nether-lands, Denmark and the new NATO members ofeastern Europe.

D. The race for domination of the Asian-Pacific regionamong the United States, Russia and China.

Revelation 13:4 says regarding the Beast, “So theyworshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast;and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like thebeast? Who is able to make war with him?” The majorpoint to remember from the previous article is that Europeis, at this time, missing the factors of national greatnessthat would cause it to be feared. In short, Europe isdeclining. Its trajectory is unlike what one would expect ofa great power that other nations tremble before, as theywill fear the Beast. In addition, no leader of the Beast’sstature has appeared on the world’s political, economic,and military scene.

As pictured in verse 1, God uses three fearsomeanimals, including the so-called “king of beasts,” to por-tray the Beast. Instead, Europe is moribund. It has beensteadily waning in world influence for the past decade ormore. The nations’ economies are shrinking and theirpopulations declining. Even though each nation has it own

military, Europe is in fact dependent upon the UnitedStates to defend it should all-out war erupt. In reality,there is little in Europe to fear!

The first article suggested two conclusions:

1. If the Beast is indeed to rise in Europe, theneither we have much longer to wait until Christreturns, or

2. absolutely miraculous events will have to happenrapidly to turn the tables completely. This wouldentail bringing down the U.S. while simultaneouslyraising the EU to the superpower status that othernations fear.

Please note that I have never said the Beast will notarise in Europe.

The last article also provided a brief overview ofNebuchadnezzar’s image in Daniel 2, with its head ofgold, chest and arms of silver, hips and thighs of brass, legsof iron, and feet of iron and clay. It also touched onDaniel’s dream in chapter 7 of the four beasts, each ofwhich corresponds to one of the four parts of the imageof Daniel 2. Historically, the four parts and four beasts arethe Chaldean, the Medo-Persian, Greco-Macedonian,and Roman empires. The Beast of Revelation 13 corre-sponds to the feet of iron and clay of Daniel 2 and thefourth beast of Daniel 7. All of them reveal aspects of theRoman Empire.

A Babylon/Rome Connection?We need to consider the Babylon/Rome relationship, firstin regard to Rome’s location and then to what Babylon isbiblically.

Concerning the Roman Empire, the church has as-sumed that its prophetic usage is confined to the basicgeography it occupied anciently or during the MiddleAges. But should we make this assumption? There issome possibility we should not do so, and we will see whyas we proceed. For instance, consider the image of Daniel2. Every time the metal changed—from gold to silver tobrass to iron—the geographical location of the worldpower that the metal represented also changed. Whycould this not also happen in its final change?

From gold to silver, the geographical location changedfrom Chaldea in the extreme south of the Tigris/EuphratesRiver valleys to Medo-Persia in the extreme north ofMesopotamia. From there, it moved to Greece in south-eastern Europe and then to Italy in south-central Europe.The history of the resurrected Roman Empire shows thatthrough the ages its boundaries expanded and contractedas its various heads came and went.

Its seat of power was not the same under Justinian asit was under Charlemagne (western Germany), Otto the

Great (further east in Germany), the Hapsburgs (Austria),Napoleon (France), or Garibaldi (Italy). In prophecy,geographical location is a generality. Thus, location is notconsistent in these fulfillments.

As for Babylon, some do not understand what it is.Biblically, Babylon can be a city or a nation. Though itis sometimes figuratively portrayed as a woman, it isnot a church. In prophecy, especially in the NewTestament, it symbolizes the worldly system opposedto God. One must discern from the context in which“Babylon” appears which interpretation is intended,but experience shows that Babylon overwhelminglysignifies a nation. Even when it suggests a city, we haveto remember that God often uses a city to represent theentire nation.

Moses writes in Genesis 10:8-10:

Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one onthe earth. He was a mighty hunter before theLORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mightyhunter before the LORD.” And the beginning of hiskingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, inthe land of Shinar.



Not Everyone MigratedSome remained in Babylon and through the centuries be-came the Babylonian nation, dominated by the Chaldeans.Babylon was the name of their capital city. One of their greatearly kings was Hammurabi, but Nebuchadnezzar becameBabylon’s greatest king. God gave him the dream of a greatimage, and Daniel later told Nebuchadnezzar that he repre-sented the head of gold (Daniel 2:38).

The other portions of the image represented powerfulkingdoms—Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome—that,through the centuries, would follow Babylon in dominatingthe Western world. They did not dominate the entireworld but perhaps could have. They certainly dominated

Rome rose to power to continue the Babylonish system.Another migration began when the Babylonians subju-

gated the Jews, beginning about 604 BC, taking many ofthem to Babylon as captives. II Chronicles 36:17, 20 addsdetail:

Therefore He brought against them the king of theChaldeans, who killed their young men with thesword in the house of their sanctuary, and had nocompassion on young man or virgin, on the aged orthe weak; He gave them all into his hand. . . . And thosewho escaped from the sword he carried away toBabylon, where they became servants to him and hissons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia.

Beginning about seventy years later, a small remnant ofJews began to return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel andlater under Ezra and Nehemiah, but the great bulk of Jews

Other vast Migrations OccurredJust as the dominating power systems eventually geo-graphically migrated from Babylon to Rome, so othermassive, ethnic migrations also occurred. II Kings 17:6,18 states:

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria tookSamaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, andplaced them in Halah and by the Habor, the River ofGozan, and in the cities of the Medes. . . . Thereforethe LORD was very angry with Israel, and removedthem from His sight; there was none left but the tribeof Judah alone.

Assyria defeated Israel and relocated its people toMedia more than a hundred years before the nation ofBabylon arose to full strength. Then, in tandem with theAssyrians, they migrated, eventually settling in central andnorthwest Europe. They began settling there long before

Babylon became established as a city through theman, Nimrod. A telling statement showing the attitudeand conduct of the founder of this kingdom is “He wasa mighty hunter before the LORD.” “Before” is a literallycorrect translation. However, a person standing “before”another can be either neutral, for, or against him. Weunderstand that Nimrod was “before” God as an en-emy; he was “against” God. Genesis 11:8-9 helps clarifythis:

So the LORD scattered them abroad from there overthe face of all the earth, and they ceased building thecity. Therefore its name is called Babel, becausethere the LORD confused the language of all theearth; and from there the LORD scattered themabroad over the face of all the earth.

God’s scattering the builders shows Nimrod’s and

therefore Babylon’s adversarial attitude toward God.From this beginning, Babylon eventually grew to becomea worldwide political, military, economic, and religioussystem bearing the basic attitude as its founder. It can bea nation or a system that is against the Lord. “Babylon”thus became the Bible’s code word for what the NewTestament writers call “the world.” They use the Greekterm cosmos, implying an organized worldwide systemopposed to God.

At the time of Genesis 11, the people scattered from theTigris-Euphrates valley, taking much of the antagonism toGod’s ways with them. To some degree, each languagegroup adapted the attitude and system of Babylon to theirethnic traits. Undoubtedly, each group altered it some-what, but secular evidence reveals a common strainconnecting all civilizations worldwide to Mesopotamia. Ittook centuries for the people to migrate and settle in theirnew lands, but occur it did.

the part of the world the Bible is concerned with—theportion the Israelitish descendents of Abraham, Isaac,and Jacob lived in. Nevertheless, because the head rep-resents Babylon, and the head directs the entire body, wecan safely assume that this image confirms the continua-tion of the same general Babylonish system right on downto its end represented by the feet and toes.

Geographically, this interpretation of the image placesthe Babylonish system firmly in what media personalities,political figures, geographers, and anthropologistswidely call the “West.” What is included in this term?We shall see.



(continued on page 17)

remained in Babylon. Over the centuries, their descen-dants eventually migrated elsewhere, and many of themended up in Russia and Eastern Europe.

In a paper published in the 1970s, Ernest Martin (formerWorldwide Church of God minister and Ambassador Collegefaculty member) established that the Chaldeans migratedfirst from Babylon to Tyre, but when Alexander the Greatdestroyed Tyre and Sidon, they migrated into Italy, eventu-ally making up a large portion of Italy’s population.

Notice how Babylon’s influence spread into the West-ern world in much more concentrated doses than the

original migration at the confusion of languages. It directlyaffected the Israelitish people as they simultaneouslycarried and disseminated it through their migrations.

The New Testament’s concept of Babylon is of aworldwide system. It began in the Tigris/Euphrates Val-ley, but it did not remain there. The Roman Empire was adominant power within that anti-God system, and becauseof the migrations of ethnic groups it ruled over, the entireMediterranean area and much of Europe, including theBritish Isles, became enveloped by this Roman/Babylonishsystem.

Perhaps even more interesting is that almost all the peoplewho inhabit the northern and western parts of the RomanEmpire are Semitic. Israel, the Assyrians, and the Chaldeansare all descended from Shem: Israel from Shem’s son,Arphaxad, through his descendant, Eber, and later Abraham;Assyria from another son, Asshur; and Chaldea also fromArphaxad but through another line.

Let us take this one step further. From where did thepeoples who colonized Australia, New Zealand, SouthAfrica, Canada, and the United States begin their coloni-zation? Semitic Israelitish people from northwest Europecolonized every one of them. The first and the majority ofthe colonists came from within the vast area of the RomanEmpire, and in the same manner that the people fromNimrod’s domain took the Babylonish anti-God systemwith them, the colonists from Northwest Europe carriedwith them much of Rome’s Babylonian culture—but withtheir own Israelitish, semi-biblical twist to it. English,Dutch, French, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Belgians, Danes,Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, and Germans colonized first.It was not until later, after the colonies were well estab-lished with Semitic peoples, that large numbers of immi-grants from Eastern Europe came to the Israelitish colonies.

The Bible clearly reveals Babylon to be a worldwideentity. For the past two thousand years, the history ofthe Israelitish people has been culturally dominated byRome’s Babylonish system because they have beengeographically within its borders and, more importantly,under its religious, economic, military, and politicalinfluence. Even though the Bible does not directly presentRome as being as geographically massive as Babylon, itis nonetheless culturally dominant on a worldwidebasis because of the migrations and influence of theIsraelitish people.

The dominant religions in all Israelitish areas are Ro-man Catholicism and its Protestant daughters. They allhave a form of government based on Roman republican-ism. Why, then, should we think the Beast must begeographically confined to Europe if Israelites havecarried its influence everywhere they have traveled?Remember, too, that the Bible shows the geographic

location of the dominant powers consistently changing.The West consists of all those countries that arepredominantly Semitic ethnically, Roman Catholic andProtestant religiously, and representative governmen-tally. This, then, could include Australia, Canada, NewZealand, South Africa, and the United States within thefinal Beast’s sphere.

At present Europe is weak. It has no united army. Thenations’ economies are pathetically weak as is theircurrent political and cultural influence. They are suspi-cious of each other and therefore very divided, eventhough their leaders are trying to unite them into acommon market. They hate it, but they are dependentupon the United States economically and militarily.

If this is indeed the end time, and the Beast arises in andis confined to Europe, then—unless something truly un-usual, even miraculous, happens to completely reverseAmerica’s and Europe’s present conditions—we have along time before Christ’s return. Presently, however, theU.S. is acting much as we thought the Beast would. This,of course, does not mean America is the Beast of Revela-tion, but only that it is acting in that manner. It is theworld’s only military superpower, and it dominates theworld economically, culturally, and politically. This makesno judgment regarding the quality of its domination, onlythat it is a reality.

The world has never seen one nation so dominant in allthese critical areas. Not even Rome at the height of itspower was as dominant. Even though other nations areenvious of what God has given America, and some seemto hate it vehemently, they nonetheless eventually give ittheir grudging support. An example is the issue of Iraq.European nations are resisting the U.S. for a varietyreasons, perhaps most of all because they see their wayof life, national interests, and influence on other nationsseverely threatened by a colossus they fear. They knowthey cannot control America, but they are nonethelesstrying to do so because they feel that the towering andoverpowering influence of the United States threatenstheir political and economic ideals.

Rome Dominates Israelite Culture


ThePentecostWitness

TTTTThe day of Pentecost is typicallyassociated with stupendous

signs and miracles. Acts 2 recordsthat when the Holy Spirit was given,the display of ability and power as-tounded everyone present. Therewas a sound like a mighty rushingwind (verse 2). It appeared that firerested on the apostles (verse 3), andwhen they spoke, every personpresent could hear what was beingsaid in his own language, even hisown dialect (verses 4-11).

Because of the brief descriptiongiven in Acts 2, various religiousdenominations have sprung up whichpractice speaking in gibberish—which the disciples definitely werenot doing—and being “slain in theSpirit,” which is clearly not a biblicalconcept. These sincere but misledpeople focus on miracles and mani-festations as “proof” that they havereceived the Holy Spirit. Every weekthey gather to “pray down” theSpirit—or at least a spirit—for theirown use and gratification. The focusof their meetings is on the experi-ence rather than on instruction, ad-monition, rebuke, or encouragement(see II Timothy 3:16).

Before this event in Acts, JesusHimself explained to His disciples

the importance of their receiving theHoly Spirit, as well as what signswould be shown as a result:

And being assembled togetherwith them, He commanded themnot to depart from Jerusalem,but to wait for the Promise ofthe Father, “which,” He said,“you have heard from Me; forJohn truly baptized with water,but you shall be baptized withthe Holy Spirit not many daysfrom now.” Therefore, whenthey had come together, theyasked Him, saying, “Lord, willYou at this time restore thekingdom to Israel?” And Hesaid to them, “It is not for you toknow times or seasons whichthe Father has put in His ownauthority. But you shall re-ceive power when the HolySpirit has come upon you;and you shall be witnessesto Me in Jerusalem, and in allJudea and Samaria, and tothe end of the earth.” Nowwhen He had spoken thesethings, while they watched, Hewas taken up, and a cloudreceived Him out of their sight.(Acts 1:4-9, emphasis added)

The very last thing the resurrectedChrist said before He ascended tothe Father was, to paraphrase, “Youwill receive power when you receivethe Holy Spirit, and this will enableyou to be witnesses of Me.” Throughthe giving of the Holy Spirit, Christ’sdisciples would have the necessarymeans to be lights to the world andto demonstrate a way to live thatglorified God.

Israel’s CallingIsrael’s CallingIsrael’s CallingIsrael’s CallingIsrael’s Calling

GGGGGod chose ancient Israel out ofall the nations of the earth and

determined that they would be a holynation. He ordained that they wouldbe a people set apart from the rest ofthe world. The Old Covenant wasintended not only to be a schoolmas-ter to teach Israel how to live in sucha way that they would recognize theMessiah when He came (Galatians3:24), but it was also intended to setIsrael apart—to make them holy. Inso doing, He intended the entire na-tion to be a witness of Him. Deuter-onomy 4:5-10 demonstrates this:

Surely I [Moses] have taughtyou statutes and judgments, justas the LORD my God commandedme, that you should act accord-ing to them in the land which yougo to possess. Therefore be care-ful to observe them; for this isyour wisdom and your under-standing in the sight of the peopleswho will hear all these statutes,and say, “Surely this great nationis a wise and understandingpeople.” For what great nation isthere that has God so near to it,as the LORD our God is to us, forwhatever reason we may callupon Him? And what greatnation is there that has suchstatutes and righteous judg-ments as are in all this lawwhich I set before you this day?Only take heed to yourself, anddiligently keep yourself, lest youforget the things your eyes haveseen, and lest they depart fromyour heart all the days of yourlife. And teach them to your chil-


dren and your grandchildren, es-pecially concerning the day youstood before the LORD your Godin Horeb, when the LORD said tome, “Gather the people to Me,and I will let them hear Mywords, that they may learn tofear Me all the days they live onthe earth, and that they mayteach their children.”

God proposed the Old Covenantto Israel on this same day—the dayof Pentecost. Israel accepted theterms of the agreement and therebysigned up to be a light to the rest ofthe world. God had given them themost superior set of laws that man-kind had ever encountered, whichwould leave the rest of the world inawe due to the beneficial effectsthat would come from it.

We know from the New Testa-ment that the only problem with thiscovenant was the heart of the peopleentering into it (Hebrews 3:10-12;8:7-8). The God-given terms of theagreement were absolutely perfectfor what He wanted to accomplish.One of His main purposes was forIsrael to be an example, a witness, tothe rest of the world of the right wayto live. Incidentally, the Tabernaclethat Israel carried with them in thewilderness was even called “the Tab-ernacle of witness” (Numbers 17:7;Acts 7:44).

If Israel had been faithful to thecovenant, they would have receivedblessings beyond belief. In the bless-ings portion of Deuteronomy 28, Godwas prepared to set Israel high aboveall the nations of the earth. Theircities and farms would be prosper-ous; their children would be healthyand strong; their herds and flockswould be numerous; they would havean abundance of food; and theywould have protection from theirenemies. They would have rain indue season, and everything they puttheir hands to would be blessed. Theywould have enough that they couldlend to other nations and not borrow.God intended them to be a holy peoplewhose behavior and prosperity wouldmake it obvious to the rest of the

world that God had set them apart.The effect would be so dramatic thatIsrael would be feared!

However, as we know, Israelfailed. The accounts of the Old Tes-tament prophets show the greatlengths to which God went for Israelin cleaning her up and taking herunder His wing. Yet, once she caughta glimpse of her God-given beautyand wealth, all she did was play theharlot with the surrounding nations,rather than being a witness to them(see Ezekiel 16).

Today, the United States is therichest nation on earth, which seemsto coincide with God’s promise ofblessing until we realize that Americais also the greatest debtor nation.Parts of the nation suffer drought,and other parts are practically float-ing away. Much of our food is eitherimported or grown from geneticallymutated seed. Our cities are filthy,crowded, and corrupt, and our familyfarms are dying through environ-mental regulation and corporatebuyouts. We live in abundance yetcannot afford our lifestyles, plungingfurther into personal debt. Thenation’s churches are patheticallyweak, barely standing to fight theonslaught of secular culture—and, infact, accepting much of it in a mis-guided spirit of tolerance. In short,America is the farthest thing frombeing a kingdom of priests or a holynation. Our entertainment industryshows, like nothing else, what sort of“witness” we are making to the world.

Israel failed because her heart wasnot right. Biblically, the word “heart”is synonymous with “mind” and“spirit.” We know that God desiresthat all Israel be saved (Romans 11:26;II Peter 3:9) and that in the future Hewill replace Israel’s heart of stoneby pouring out His Spirit (Ezekiel36:26-27). However, for a few—known as the remnant, the church,the Body of Christ, spiritual Israel,the Israel of God, or the firstfruits—God decided to do this ahead of time.

He gave His Spirit on the Feast ofthe Firstfruits, the day of Pentecost,AD 31, so that a remnant of Israelwould have a heart of flesh and not

of stone. God gave His Spirit so thatspiritual Israel could obey God bothin the letter and in the intent of Hislaw. In addition, as we saw in Acts 1,just as He gave Israel His law so shewould be a witness, God gave thechurch His Spirit so that Christ’sdisciples would be witnesses. Byreceiving a portion of the Spirit thatproceeds from the divine Lawgiver,the firstfruits are able to understandthe intent behind God’s laws. Morethan this, by yielding to the promptingsand motivations of God’s Spirit, theycan begin to take on His characterand actively do good rather thanmerely avoid sin.

God’s Image in UsGod’s Image in UsGod’s Image in UsGod’s Image in UsGod’s Image in Us

IIIIIf we are begotten children of Godand led by His Spirit, we will ex-

hibit His character and spiritual im-age:

For as many as are led by theSpirit of God, these are sons ofGod. For you did not receive thespirit of bondage again to fear,but you received the Spirit ofadoption by which we cry out,“Abba, Father.” The Spirit itselfbears witness with our spirit thatwe are children of God, and ifchildren, then heirs—heirs of Godand joint heirs with Christ, if in-deed we suffer with Him, thatwe may also be glorified together.(Romans 8:14-17)

Before God summoned us, beganto reveal His truth to us, forgave us,justified us, and imparted His Spiritto us, our spiritual father was Satan!We were no better than the Phari-sees, whom Christ told that theywere of their father, the Devil, be-cause they were doing Satan’sworks (John 8:39-47). Children dis-play the characteristics of theirparents, so Christ judged the Phari-sees to be the children of Satanbecause they were exhibiting theDevil’s characteristics.

Before God intervened in our lives,we, too, were the children of Satan(Ephesians 2:1-3), because we


were exhibiting his spiritual charac-teristics. However, God began toredeem us and called us into a rela-tionship with Him, which, as Romans8:15 says, was symbolically an adop-tion. God was not our original father,but He took on that role after Heextracted us from the grasp of Satan,sin, and this world.

Verse 16 reiterates that the HolySpirit is intended to provide a wit-ness of who we are and who God is.If we allow the Spirit to lead us, weare sons of God. It follows that, if weare sons of God, then we will beexhibiting the same characteristicsas our Father! When we exhibitGod’s characteristics, we are a wit-ness to the world of His characterand the way He lives.

Under the New Covenant, withaccess to the Holy Spirit, the qualityof our witness must be much higherthan what God expected of physicalIsrael. To whom much is given, muchalso is required (Luke 12:48)! If ourneighbors, co-workers, or familymembers look at us, and all they seeare people who go to church on differ-ent days, do not eat certain foods, givemultiple tithes on their income, and donot believe in the Trinity, are theyseeing anything different than OldCovenant Israel, who did not havethe Holy Spirit? Certainly, God’s lawwill set us apart from the worldbecause the world is against God, butmerely keeping the letter of the lawwill not provide the complete witnessthat God is looking for.

This is not to denigrate the royal lawof liberty to any degree. Acts 5:32says God gives His Spirit only to thosewho obey Him. However, one can benominally obedient, keeping God’s lawin the letter, without making a trulyeffective witness for God.

Flesh or SpiritFlesh or SpiritFlesh or SpiritFlesh or SpiritFlesh or Spirit

PPPPPaul lists various “works of theflesh” in Galatians 5:19-21:

Now the works of the flesh areevident, which are: adultery, for-nication, uncleanness, licentious-ness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,

contentions, jealousies, outburstsof wrath, selfish ambitions, dis-sensions, heresies, envy, mur-ders, drunkenness, revelries, andthe like; of which I tell you be-forehand, just as I also told you intime past, that those who prac-tice such things will not inheritthe kingdom of God.

Consider this passage in light ofthe laws and beliefs that we fre-quently point to as setting us apartfrom the world. A person can keepthe Sabbath, at least in the letter, andstill display drunkenness, hatred, con-tentions, outbursts of wrath, and dis-sensions. One can reject the Trinitydoctrine, the doctrine of eternal se-curity, and the immortality of the soulyet promote and practice heresies,since a heresy is simply any devia-tion from truth. An individual cantithe yet exhibit selfish ambitions,envy, and jealousy. Someone canobserve the laws of clean and un-clean meats and still be unclean in hisheart and in the decency of his life. Aman can be physically pure in hisrelationships while living vicariouslythrough revelries, which AdamClark’s commentary defines as wildparties and obscene music.

The warning at the end of verse21 is explicit: Those who practicesuch evils or make them a part oftheir lives will not be in God’s King-dom because they simply would notfit in. Their lifestyle is contrary to thequality of the life God lives and ex-pects His children to live.

To put this another way, whatkind of witness does a person makewho keeps the Ten Commandments(including the Sabbath and holydays), eats only clean meats, tithesfaithfully, and rejects false doc-trines, yet has a temper, curses,tells dirty jokes, has a perpetualchip on his shoulder, always has acomplaint against another, alwayslooks out for “number one,” drinkstoo much, and revels in perverseentertainment? Such a witness ofnominal lawkeeping is useless toGod, just as ancient Israel’s witnessto the nations gave the enemies of

God an occasion to blaspheme(Ezekiel 36:20-23).

When Jesus Christ introducesHimself in the letter to the Laodiceanchurch, He highlights the fact thatHe is “the Faithful and True Wit-ness.” He points to this title to showwhere the Laodiceans fall short.They are so enamored of the worldand so much a part of it that it isdifficult for an observer to tell themapart from the rest of Babylon! Theirlives do not glorify God because theydo not demonstrate a separation fromthe world. They do not demonstrateholiness or sanctification.

In contrast, the result of the HolySpirit being active in a person’s lifewill be love, joy, peace, longsuffer-ing, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness (meekness), and self-con-trol (Galatians 5:22-23). These atti-tudes are not manifested all at once,which is why Paul calls them “fruit.”Fruit takes time to develop and ma-ture. Nevertheless, one whose lifeGod dominates, who is led by HisSpirit, will be exhibiting these thingsin addition to obeying God’s law.He will be not merely obeying butalso imitating God. He will be exhib-iting these characteristics becausehe is a begotten son of God whoexpresses the traits of his Father.

God has given us His Holy Spiritso we can fulfill His purpose. Aprimary responsibility that God hasgiven to those He has set apart overthe years—whether physical or spiri-tual Israel—is to be a witness to therest of the world of God’s way oflife. Physical Israel failed in this, andthe Laodicean Christian is currentlyfailing in this.

Yet, if we have received the HolySpirit and maintain a close relationshipwith its Giver, we have the means to bethe true and faithful witnesses thatGod desires and commands His peopleto be. We will obey the laws that Godrehearsed to Israel on Pentecost, beled by the Holy Spirit that God en-dued His people with on anotherPentecost, and ultimately be unifiedwith the rest of the firstfruits ofGod’s spiritual harvest.

—David C. Grabbe


R E A DR E A DR E A DR E A DR E A D Y A N S W E RY A N S W E RY A N S W E RY A N S W E RY A N S W E R“Be Ready A lway s To G i ve An Answe r ” – I Pe t e r 3 : 1 5 (K JV )


“A prudent man foresees evil

and hides himself;

the simple pass on and are punished.”

Proverbs 27:12

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Fast-Forwarding the TapeGod’s Word tells us that there are occasions

when fast-forwarding the tape may be beneficialand even life-saving. We fast-forward the tapewhen we count the cost, when we look for dangers onthe road ahead, when we are tempted to sin andneed to understand the consequences, and whenwe need to detach ourselves from a grim trial—looking forward to a happy ending or a transcendingmeaning to it all. In addition, we can fast-forward thetape to provide ourselves motivation and hope. Sev-eral years ago, Herbert W. Armstrong, with a mis-chievous grin, said, “Brethren, I’ve looked ahead tothe end of this story—and you know what? We win!”

Sneak PreviewsProverbs 29:18 teaches that without vision (sometranslations have rendered this “prophetic vision”or “revelation”) people perish. Anticipating andpreparing for danger requires that we fast-forwardthe tape, as Proverbs 27:12 says, “A prudent manforesees evil and hides himself; the simple pass onand are punished.”

At our baptism, we are encouraged to move for-ward in time mentally, thoughtfully counting the cost ofour discipleship: “For which of you, intending to builda tower, does not sit down first and count the cost,whether he has enough to finish it” (Luke 14:28). Weneed to be sure that we are willing and able to see ourcourse through to the end.

Sneak previews of specific consequences of keep-ing God’s laws are given in Leviticus 26:3-13 andDeuteronomy 28:2-14, while sneak previews of spe-cific consequences for breaking God’s laws are pre-sented in Leviticus 26:14-39 and Deuteronomy

Do you like to see the ending of the movie orread the ending of a book to get a sneak preview ofthe conclusion? Have you ever asked a friend whohas previously seen a certain movie or read aparticular book how it all turns out? Some people doand have, their curiosity getting the best of them.

A few years back, when my family and I wentto the movie Cast Away, we arrived at the tail endof the previous showing. Instinctively, I walkedinto the dark theater to see the final few momentsof the movie—seeing the hero with a FedEx box,walking around the veranda of a rural farmhouse.Immediately, I felt a tug at my arm as Julie pulledme back into the lobby, insisting that I would spoilthe movie for everybody.

Not long thereafter, my son watched a JohnWayne picture that his friend Tim had previouslyseen. I kept asking him to tell us what wouldhappen, only to hear Julie retort, “Don’t you dare!”

I have a collection of favorite movies that Ihave played repeatedly: Gene Autry and GloriaHenry in The Strawberry Roan, Clark Gable andJoan Crawford in Strange Cargo, Lloyd Bridgesand Marie Windsor in The Tall Texan, and Gre-gory Peck and Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound.The tension, anxiety, and suspense of these sto-ries do not bother me because I already knowhow they end.

I have always had a curiosity about what is goingto happen—or where the events in which I aminvolved will lead. Before our son Aaron was born,the nurse took a sonogram. She asked if wewanted to know what gender our child was. We did,and this gave us several more months to choose aname. I do not feel that fast-forwarding the tapeto see what happens is necessarily a bad thing. (continued on page 20)

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“Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals;and I heard one of the four living creatures

saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’And I looked, and behold, a white horse.

And he who sat on it had a bow;and a crown was given to him,

and he went out conquering and to conquer.”(Revelation 6:1-2)

We live in an age of information and ideas.Granted, most of them are not worth theelectrons upon which they zoom through

cyberspace, but a handful of them receive enoughtraction to influence wide audiences. It is conceivablethat someone tapping away at his keyboard in Pocatellocould, under the right circumstances, affect events orattitudes in Paris or Pyongyang. Like nuclear energy,today’s unregulated flow of ideas has the potential forboth great benefit and great harm.

One can argue that this has always been the case,which is true. However, modern rapid and mass commu-nication methods make the dissemination of informationand ideas almost instantaneous. It no longer takes weeksor months—even years—for a document to travel fromone point to another, as it took for, say, Paul’s epistles toreach their intended recipients. Now, with a few key-strokes, the church can send out a letter, article, or anentire magazine to anyone in the world with an emailaddress, and it will arrive at its destination in seconds.

Information and ideas are the lifeblood of every humanendeavor. Nothing progresses far without communicationamong the participants in a scientific enterprise, a businessventure, a political movement, a military operation, or areligious cause. Usually, the better a group’s communica-tions are the more successful its results.

Perhaps this can be seen no better than in religion.Beginning with its most fundamental elements, com-munication plays a major, vital role. In Christianity,everything its adherents know about it has been re-vealed—or communicated—to men through the Word(John 1:1-18; Matthew 4:4). The Bible, one could say,is merely God’s communication device to waywardman, informing him of the right way to live to attaineternal life. The church takes the message of Scriptureand broadcasts it, both to its own members as well asto potential converts, through a variety of methods, allof which entail some form of information- and idea-

transfer. Without communication, religion cannot exist.The white horse and the crowned bowman on its back,

embodying the first seal of Revelation 6:1-2, are all aboutreligious communication. Like his fellows, this horsemanhas nothing benign about him—he goes out “conqueringand to conquer.” He is the one who commences—somewould say ultimately causes—“the beginning of sor-rows” (Matthew 24:8) that results in the death of aquarter of earth’s population (Revelation 6:8)!

A White Horse and a BowA White Horse and a BowA White Horse and a BowA White Horse and a BowA White Horse and a BowThe descriptions of the horses and their riders in Revela-tion 6 are spare, but the intended symbolic meaningsbecome plain enough once we allow the Bible tointerpret its own symbols. The paucity of detail may befrustrating to some interpreters of prophecy, yet it issufficient to get across Christ’s intent in sending outthese fearsome judgments. For the white horse and itscorresponding horseman, the symbols are the colorwhite, the bow, the crown, and its activity, conquering.

Biblically, white is an interesting color. In our day,it is immediately associated with cleanliness and pu-rity, as all advertisers know: Marketing a cleanser thatis itself white or comes in predominantly white pack-aging helps to convince the consumer that the productis effective. However, an ancient Israelite might notsee white that way. In Leviticus, white appears as thecolor of leprosy more than a dozen times (see, forinstance, Leviticus 13:3). In Genesis 40:16, white basketspresage the death of Pharaoh’s baker, and in Joel 1:7, itis the color of a land stripped bare by an enemy.

Conversely, at other times it represents the morepositive associations we are accustomed to. InEcclesiastes 9:8, Solomon writes, “Let your garmentsalways be white,” which most commentators feelrefers to the joy, purity, and beauty of a righteous,godly individual. The Shulamite describes her Beloved,a type of Christ, as “white” (Song of Songs 5:10),implying His spotless and holy character. Similarly,Daniel sees “the Ancient of Days” clothed in a gar-ment “white as snow” and with hair “like pure wool”(Daniel 7:9), reminiscent of John’s description of theglorified Christ in Revelation 1:13-16.

In the book of Revelation itself, white is predomi-nantly positive in meaning, as most of its appearancesdescribe God, Christ, glorified saints, or associated

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objects like the Great White Throne. Overall, whitesuggests purity, righteousness, holiness, glory, victory,and perfection. This preponderance of positive, sym-bolic meanings for the color white—without consider-ing the mainly negative aspects of the othersymbols—has led many interpreters to misidentify thishorseman as a positive, even divine, image.

For starters, the white horseman carries a bow, aweapon of war. Strangely, John makes no mention ofarrows or a quiver, although we may infer the former,since a bow is nearly worthless without arrows. (Thenagain, the lack of arrows may suggest war fought, notwith blood-letting weapons, but with words or ideas; seePsalm 11:2; 64:2-4; Jeremiah 9:8; Ephesians 6:16.) A bowis a purely offensive weapon, even more so than a sword,and is highly effective from long range (for example,archers killed Uriah the Hittite and kings Ahab of Israeland Josiah of Judah). Thus, the foremost idea behind thisbiblical symbol is powerful, penetrating, deadly accuracywith an intimation of distance.

A sidelight of the bow’s imagery is the frequency ofits use as a symbol of God’s judgment. Job complains,“His archers surround me. He pierces my heart anddoes not pity; He pours out my gall on the ground. Hebreaks me with wound upon wound” (Job 16:13-14). Inhis dirge over the fall of Judah, Jeremiah writes:

Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow. . . .On the tent of the daughter of Zion, He haspoured out His fury like fire. . . . He has bent Hisbow and set me up as a target for the arrow. Hehas caused the arrows of His quiver to pierce myloins. (Lamentations 2:4; 3:12-13)

Interestingly, Jeremiah also uses the bow in hisprophecy of God’s judgment on Babylon:

For behold, I will raise and cause to come up againstBabylon an assembly of great nations from thenorth country, and they shall array themselvesagainst her; from there she shall be captured. Theirarrows shall be like those of an expert warrior;none shall return in vain. . . . Put yourselves in arrayagainst Babylon all around, all you who bend thebow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she hassinned against the LORD. . . . Call together thearchers against Babylon. All you who bend the

bow, encamp against it all around; let none ofthem escape. Repay her according to her work;according to all she has done, do to her; for shehas been proud against the LORD, against the HolyOne of Israel. (Jeremiah 50:9, 14, 29; see 51:3)

The white horseman’s bow, then, represents an effec-tive instrument of God’s judgment on the world forrebellion against Him. Unlike the sword that Christ wields(Revelation 19:15), the bow’s long range hints at Godbeing somewhat removed in His judgment, yet it is just asdevastating in its effectiveness at meting out justice. Inaddition, whereas the sword symbolizes the Word of God(Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12)—His truth—the bowsuggests a counterfeit “truth” or a false gospel. As IIThessalonians 2:11-12 says, “God will send them strongdelusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all maybe condemned who did not believe the truth but hadpleasure in unrighteousness.”

A Crown and ConqueringA Crown and ConqueringA Crown and ConqueringA Crown and ConqueringA Crown and ConqueringThe rider of the white horse is given a crown to wear,after which he goes “out conquering and to conquer.”These two symbols are related both in their proximityin the verse and in their meanings. First, the word ordersuggests that being endowed with a crown allows orauthorizes the horseman to go to war. Who gives himthis crown? Notice Romans 13:1: “For there is noauthority except from God, and the authorities thatexist are appointed by God.” An angel tells Nebuchad-nezzar in Daniel 4:17, “The Most High rules in thekingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and setsover it the lowest of men.” God is sovereign over allearthly authority, and it is from Him that this horsemanreceives his crown and purpose.

Second, crowns generally represent some state ofhonor or blessing for the wearer. We normally associ-ate crowns with royalty, which in Classical Greek isrepresented by the word diadema, which has comedown to us as “diadem.” The word in Revelation 6:2,however, is stéfanos, a circlet, wreath, or garland,oftentimes made of leaves and twigs but sometimes ofprecious metals. It was awarded as a prize of victoryor triumph, as a symbol of honor or authority, as abadge of civic worth or military valor, or as a sign of

H o r s e m e ne W h i t e H o r s e



S E A R C H I N GF O R I S R A E L

Last month, we identified the promises God made tothe patriarchs as search criteria that point to modern-

day Israel. This month, our quest for search criteriatakes us from promise to blessing. These blessings alsoserve as the search criteria we seek.

The patriarchs granted these blessings in faith, asHebrews 11:20 (speaking specifically of Isaac) attests:“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerningthings to come.” Isaac’s blessing of Jacob is importantfor two related reasons:

1. God renamed Jacob to Israel. The children ofIsrael were literally just that, the descendentsof Israel, through his twelve sons. In renam-ing Jacob, God identified the principal char-acteristic of Israel—when it is faithful toGod. (See “Jacob’s New Name and the Char-acter of True Israel” on p. 16.)

2. Jacob’s blessing concerns “things to come.” Itis prophetic, looking forward to Israel’s future.

Genesis 27:28-29 records Isaac’s blessing of Jacob.Isaac says,

Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven,of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain andwine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bowdown to you. Be master over your brethren, and letyour mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed beeveryone who curses you, and blessed be thosewho bless you!

Notably, this blessing includes wealth and power.

Israel would be served by peoples and nations, andIsrael’s posterity would have a preeminent place amongthe nations.

However, there is something else. Jacob’s motherhad only two sons, Jacob himself, of course, and Esau.Yet, Isaac, speaking to Jacob, uses the word “sons,”plural, as if Jacob had more than one brother. In fact,God’s Word says nothing of Rebekah having three ormore sons. This perplexes us as much as it must haveperplexed Jacob when he heard these words. Why doesIsaac use the language he does?

Clearly, Isaac is speaking of Abraham’s extendedfamily. The word “brethren,” which is an old form of theplural of “brother,” refers to all the descendants ofAbraham, those through Hagar and Keturah, as well asthe descendants of Esau himself. Jacob’s “mother’ssons” refers to all the progeny of Rebekah, fallingthrough Jacob himself and Esau. “The blessing hereraises to the idea of universal domination” (Keil andDelitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: ThePentateuch, p. 177).

Therefore, the blessing points to future generations,not just to the lifetime of Jacob himself. Its thrust is forthe Israel of a future time. Here, then, are importantsearch criteria.

Jacob as PJacob as PJacob as PJacob as PJacob as PrrrrrophetophetophetophetophetJacob, like his father, was a prophet with insight into thenature of Israel’s future. Genesis 49 records a numberof prophecies concerning his sons “in the last days”(verse 1). Since these prophecies refer to these lastdays, we are on solid ground adding them to our list ofsearch criteria pointing to modern-day Israel.


Part Two: Bless ings in FaithBy faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

By faith Jacob . . . blessed each of the sons of Joseph”(Hebrews 11:20-21)


• Verses 2-4: Reuben, “unstable as water,” would“not excel,” because of his sexual depravity.Although he was the firstborn, he did notreceive the birthright blessing, as we will seelater on.

• Verses 5-7: Simeon and Levi, treated together,would be “divided” in Jacob, “scattered” inIsrael, because of their “fierce” and “cruel”anger. (Jacob is referring to the duplicity andbrutality they displayed in the slaying of the menof Shechem. See Genesis 34.)

• Verses 8-12: About Judah, Jacob asserts, “Thescepter shall not depart from Judah, nor alawgiver from between his feet, until Shilohcomes.” Judah was to remain the princelytribe indefinitely.

• Verse 13: Zebulun would “dwell by the haven ofthe sea” and “become a haven for ships.” Hisdescendants would be a seafaring people.

• Verses 14-15: Issachar would become a “band ofslaves,” bowing his shoulder to bear a burden.

• Verses 16-18: Dan would judge, though hewould have to wait for his salvation. He is alsodescribed as a viper who lies in wait, biting “thehorse’s heels so that its rider shall fall back-ward.” Snakes leave markings as they crawlover the ground. Everywhere Dan has traveled,he has left his name as a marker.

• Verse 19: Of Gad, Jacob simply says, “A troop shalltramp upon him, but he shall triumph at last.”

• Verse 20: Jacob says that “bread from Ashershall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties.”

• Verse 21: “Naphtali is a deer let loose; he givesgoodly words.”

• Verses 22-26: Jacob devotes quite a few wordsto Joseph, “who was separate from his broth-ers.” He will become “a fruitful bough by awell; his branches run over the wall.” Al-though he would be “bitterly grieved” in war,his strength would be made strong “by thehands of the Mighty God of Jacob.” Josephwould be blessed “up to the utmost bound ofthe everlasting hills.”

• Verse 27: Jacob calls Benjamin “a ravenous wolf.”

The Blessing of Joseph’s SonsThe Blessing of Joseph’s SonsThe Blessing of Joseph’s SonsThe Blessing of Joseph’s SonsThe Blessing of Joseph’s SonsFinally, the blessings Israel (Jacob) bestowed on Joseph’stwo boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, generate some firmsearch criteria pointing to the whereabouts of Israeltoday, especially the part of Israel that descended fromthe two brothers. The account appears in Genesis 48:14-20, where Jacob

stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’shead, who was the younger, and his left hand onManasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, forManasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Jo-seph, and said: “God, before whom my fathersAbraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fedme all my life long to this day, the Angel who hasredeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; let myname be named upon them, and the name of myfathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow intoa multitude in the midst of the earth.”

Now when Joseph saw that his father laid hisright hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeasedhim; so he took hold of his father’s hand toremove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’shead. And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, myfather, for this one is the firstborn; put your righthand on his head.” But his father refused and said,“I know, my son, I know. He also shall become apeople, and he also shall be great; but truly hisyounger brother shall be greater than he, and hisdescendants shall become a multitude of nations.”So he blessed them that day, saying, “By youIsrael will bless, saying, ‘May God make you asEphraim and as Manasseh!’ ” And thus he setEphraim before Manasseh.

Israel did not bless his grandsons in this way simplybecause they were “nice boys.” Rather, he had come tounderstand the substance of the promises God had givenhim, his father Isaac, and his grandfather Abraham.Accordingly, he blessed the boys, as Hebrews 11:21states, “by faith.” His conviction that those promiseswere sure led him to bless his grandsons as he did.

It is important to understand the first part of theblessing. Israel granted none of his own sons the birth-right blessing. That went to Joseph’s sons instead. Thatis why he goes out of his way to inform Joseph, “Yourtwo sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to youin the land of Egypt . . . are mine; as Reuben and Simeon,they shall be mine” (verse 5). As part of the blessingitself, he makes his wishes clear; the brothers are to bearthe name of Israel: “Let my name be named upon them”(verse 16). This is important: Ephraim and Manassehwere born in Egypt (Genesis 41:50-52). Jacob wants toestablish legally that they were not Egyptians, but wereof the family of Abraham and therefore part of thestructure of promises given by God to the patriarchs.

With that important legality out of the way, Jacobcontinues to bless his grandsons. He blesses Manasseh,the firstborn, with greatness; he blesses Ephraim, theyounger boy, by saying that he would be still greater,not only a people but a multitude of nations (Genesis48:16, 19).

Much to the consternation of Joseph, Jacob crosseshis hands, placing his right hand on the head of theyounger boy, Ephraim, and his left hand on the head of



Not YNot YNot YNot YNot Yetetetetetthe older boy, Manasseh (verse 14). This was un-usual, as the right hand, signifying the greater blessing,generally was placed on the head of the older son. Jacobrefuses to realign his hands, telling the concerned Josephthat his actions were no mistake. He had “guid[ed] hishands knowingly” (verse 14) when he placed them onthe boys’ heads. Jacob knowingly bestows the greaterblessing on the younger son, Ephraim, reserving a lesserblessing for Manasseh, the firstborn. This crossing of thehands is very important to the understanding of thewhereabouts of modern-day Israel.

The promises God made the patriarchs, as well asthe blessings those patriarchs bestowed in faith ontheir sons, describe Israel. Considered in aggregate,the promises and blessings provide a good part of theinformation necessary to identify Israel throughouthistory. However, God has provided more. Nextmonth, focusing on the covenant God made with thechildren of Israel at Mount Sinai, we will continue ourquest.

[TO BE CONTINUED]—Charles Whitaker


GGGGGod’s renaming of Jacob to Israel is so importantthat God’s Word provides two witnesses of the

event. God actually tells Jacob about his new nametwice. That new name, Israel, instructs us consider-ably about the nature of the true Israel.

The first mention of Jacob’s new name wasduring the all-night wrestling match recorded inGenesis 32:22-32. Near the end of the struggle, thedialogue between God and Jacob goes like this(verses 26-28). God begins,

“Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said,“I will not let You go unless You bless me!” SoHe said to him, “What is your name?” And hesaid, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shallno longer by called Jacob, but Israel; for youhave struggled with God and with men, andhave prevailed.”

This is the first appearance of the word Israel inGod’s Word.

Jacob’s request for a blessing shows that he knowswith whom he is wrestling. In fact, he later names theplace Peniel (or Penuel), which means, “the Face ofGod,” for, as he explains, “I have seen God face toface, and my life is preserved” (verse 30). Jacobclearly understands that God could have prevailed inthe wrestling match, but that He chose not to do so.

He realizes that God spared his life because He hadother plans and purposes in mind. He realizes thatGod can empower human beings to overcome.

In Genesis 35:10, God reminds Jacob of his newname. This, the second witness to the renaming ofJacob, takes place in Bethel. God asserts, “Yourname is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacobanymore, but Israel shall be your name.” On thissame occasion, God reiterates some of His promisesto Abraham (verses 11-12).

True Israelites are those who, like the patriarchsin Canaan, are persuaded that God prevails forthem—provides for them—according to His pur-poses. This is a persuasion of faith that defines a trueIsraelite; it is a faith totally foreign to the rationalismof today’s secularists, many of whom, sadly enough,are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Intheir rejection of the sovereign God, these secular-ists adopt the fatalistic and deterministic view thathistory is blindly automatic, and that what we havetoday (capitalism, democracy, America, al Qaida,etc.) is the result of a natural progression (or evolu-tion, if you will) of the actions and ideas of the past.

God’s people understand that such a purblindprogression simply does not take place. They knowthat God intervenes in the affairs of men and thatHis plan moves inexorably from promise to proph-ecy to reality.

Jacob’s New NameJacob’s New NameJacob’s New NameJacob’s New NameJacob’s New Nameand the Character of Tand the Character of Tand the Character of Tand the Character of Tand the Character of True Israelrue Israelrue Israelrue Israelrue Israel

WWWWW hat makes the promises and the blessings soimportant today is the fact that they have not

been finally and fully fulfilled. The writer of thebook of Hebrews makes it plain that the faithful ofyesteryear—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and somany others—died without receiving the promises.Hebrews 11:39-40:

And all these, having obtained a good testimonythrough faith, did not receive the promise, Godhaving provided something better for us, thatthey should not be made perfect apart from us.

Notice the record:

• In Genesis 17:6, God promises that kingswould come from Abraham. Yet, neitherIsaac nor Jacob were ever kings, nor did


FFFFFu l f i l l edu l f i l l edu l f i l l edu l f i l l edu l f i l l edthey even beget kings. (Genesis 41:40-44indicates that Joseph came to great power inEgypt, but remained only second-in-com-mand under Pharaoh.) The first king tocome from Abraham’s descendents wasSaul (of Benjamin), who was born hundredsof years after Abraham’s time.

• It is true, according to Genesis 13:2, thatAbraham became “very rich in livestock, insilver, and in gold.” However, Abraham, Isaac,Jacob, and Joseph never owned any land inCanaan besides a burial plot (Genesis 23).Hebrews 11:9 describes Abraham as an alien,sojourning “in the land of promise as in aforeign country, dwelling in tents with Isaacand Jacob, the heirs with him of the samepromise.” Stephen says that God gaveAbraham “no inheritance” in the land, “noteven enough to set his foot on” (Acts 7:5).

God did not bring His promises to the patriarchs tofruition in their days. Indeed, in spite of all the

promises God made to Abraham concerning land, hehimself came to own only one small parcel. Remind-ing the sons of Heth that he was “a foreigner and asojourner” among them, he purchased a field with acave on it to serve as a burial place for Sarah. Lateron, Ishmael and Isaac buried him there as well(Genesis 25:7-10). Isaac and his wife Rebekah, aswell as Jacob and his wife, Leah, were also buriedthere (Genesis 49:29-32). Importantly, Abrahamhad to buy that land; it was not given to him as aninheritance. The patriarchs never come into posses-sion of the land as a legal, eternal inheritance.

• The patriarchs of course witnessed somepopulation growth in their own children andgrandchildren. In fact, Joseph saw Ephraim’schildren to the third generation, Manasseh’sto the second (Genesis 50:23). But, thepatriarchs never saw their descendants mea-sured as the sand of the seashore.

The patriarchs admitted openly that they were“strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews11:13). They “all died in faith, not having receivedthe promises.”


(continued from page 7)


their political and economic ideals.Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer addressed

“American Unilateralism” at a dinner sponsored by HillsdaleCollege on December 4, 2002, in the nation’s capital:

At the end of the Cold War, the conventional wisdomwas that with the demise of the Soviet Empire, thebipolarity of the second half of the 20th century wouldyield to a multi-polar world. You might recall theschool of thought led by historian Paul Kennedy, whosaid that America was already in decline, sufferingfrom imperial overstretch. There was also the Asianenthusiasm, made popular by James Fallows andothers, whose thinking was best captured by thelate-1980s witticism: “The United States and Russiadecided to hold a cold war. Who won? Japan.”

Well, they were wrong, and ironically no one has putit better than Paul Kennedy himself, in a classicrecantation emphasizing America’s power: “Noth-ing has ever existed like this disparity of power,nothing. Charlemagne’s empire was merely West-ern European in its reach. The Roman Empirestretched farther afield, but there was another greatempire in Persia and a larger one in China. There istherefore, no comparison.”

We tend not to see or understand the historicaluniqueness of this situation. Even at its height,Britain could always be seriously challenged by thenext greatest powers. It had a smaller army than theland powers of Europe, and its navy was equaled bythe next two navies combined. Today, the Americanmilitary exceeds in spending the next twenty coun-tries combined. Its Navy, Air Force and spacepower are unrivaled. Its dominance extends as wellto every other aspect of international life—not onlymilitary, but economic, technological, diplomatic,cultural, even linguistic, with a myriad of countriestrying to fend off the inexorable march of MTVEnglish. . . .

So we bestride the world like a colossus.

Journalists are awake to the fact that the stakes in whatis happening with Iraq are exceedingly great. Iraq’s threatis not military but geopolitical and economic—and to thewhole world, not just to Europe, Israel, and America. Wemay be seeing the first major, visible steps to fulfill theprophecies of the Euphrates River drying up and thearmies of the great, populous powers of the Eastmarching westward toward Jerusalem.

(see next page)


The Beast: Rome was the administrative center ofthe Roman Empire when it was at its peak of influence,and it is also headquarters of the world’s largestreligious organization. In the Bible, Rome is neverdirectly mentioned as anything more than a city wherechurch brethren are located. However, its operationsand influence in secular history are significant, andgeographically it seems to be the most likely adminis-trative center of the coming Beast.

The False Church: Begun a few short years fol-lowing the birth of the true church, the counterfeitchurch has far exceeded the true church in its influ-ence worldwide. Like Europe, it is in disarray, frac-tured by division, badly bruised by blatant immorality,and led by men of liberal bent who have tolerated andeven seemingly promoted conduct clearly condemnedin the Bible.

The stage is worldwide in scope, and the major playersare moving into position. The roles to be played are clear,but the specific personalities who will play the leads havenot yet been revealed. Stay tuned.

In Christian love,

Summary of the Five EntitiesIsrael: It began as a small nation confined to the area ofCanaan, but because of God’s faithfulness in fulfilling Hispromises to Abraham, Israel has grown to become themost powerful group of nations the world has ever beheld.Though not completely united, they hold a great deal incommon. Its dominant nations are of the families ofJoseph, Reuben, and Judah. God’s relationship to nationalIsrael was altered by a divorce, but He has made clearthat, despite Israel’s whoredom, His faithfulness to Hispromises remains unbroken. He will move to rescue Israelfrom their stubborn blindness.

The True Church: When begun by God, it became thespiritual Israel of God (Galatians 6:15-16), showing thatthis Israel, not the physical nation, was His focus. Hisspiritual purpose moved ahead. However, at the end, thechurch is influentially weak, scattered, and without anadministrative headquarters.

Babylon: This entity is no longer a secular nationbut, in one sense, is like the church, a spiritual entity.It has no physical place specifically designated in theBible as its headquarters, but as we shall see inRevelation 17, it has a geographic focus, a place whereit reaches the height of its influence. Perceived spiritually,it exists in all nations, and in that sense it is the entireworld. It is the worldwide, anti-God system called “theworld.”

P E R S O N A L P E R S O N A L P E R S O N A L P E R S O N A L P E R S O N A L ➤ The Beast and BabylonThe Beast and BabylonThe Beast and BabylonThe Beast and BabylonThe Beast and Babylon

The Church Is Worldwide TooMight it not have been a coincidence that the church wecame out of was called the Worldwide Church of God? Inone sense, God’s church was planted and took root in Hiscalling of Abraham, to whom He made the promises. Byand large, Abraham’s descendents were confined toCanaan until Joseph was sold into slavery and faminedrove Jacob and his family of seventy-five into Egypt.

There they prospered and grew to a couple of millionpeople, but they eventually became slaves of the Egyp-tians. Under Moses, God released them from their sla-very, and after a forty-year trek, Israel returned to thePromised Land—Canaan. Once there, another 400 yearspassed until they were united as a nation under David.

In the same location about a thousand years later,Christ was born, and to those in that New Jersey-sizedarea He preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God.After His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection, theHoly Spirit was sent from heaven, and the church of Godwas born in Jerusalem.

By that time, over 1,800 years had passed since thebirth of Abraham and around 4,000 years since thecreation of Adam and Eve, and God’s spiritual purposewas still confined to a tiny area of the earth. However,that changed dramatically once God gave Peter the

vision of the unclean animals and sent Cornelius, aGentile, to seek him out. God was opening a door to theconversion of the Gentiles, the other nations of Hiscreation besides Israel. In a few years, before theconclusion of the first century and the death of theapostle John, the church had expanded all around theMediterranean Sea and had leaped into northwestEurope as far as the British Isles.

The church, like Babylon and the Roman Empire,was becoming a worldwide entity. This was achievedlong before the twentieth century. It never had influ-ence like either of those two, but a corrupted versionof it, created by combining some of its tenets withoutright paganism from the Babylonian system, didbecome very influential worldwide. The corruptedversion’s greatest influence has historically existedprimarily in the Semitic, Israelitish nations. The trueversion is primarily located in the United States al-though small numbers of its members are also scat-tered in the other Israelitish nations, Germany, someLatin American nations, and the Philippines.

In summary, five entities are the focus of prophecy atthe time of the end: the true church, the false church, theIsraelitish people, the Beast, and Babylon. All possesssome measure of worldwide influence. None of them iscontained solely within the place of its origin.

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nuptial joy or festal gladness. Due to the verse’s heavymartial emphasis, it is likely that the horseman’s crownsignifies triumph, authority, or military valor.

Third, this horseman goes “out conquering and toconquer,” a fairly literal rendering of the Greek. To us,this phraseology sounds strange, but it is merely ex-pressing two different tenses of the same verb (nikao,“conquer,” “subdue,” “overcome,” “prevail,” “get thevictory”): the present participle and the aorist subjunctive.In other words, John is telling us that the horsemanbegins and continues to conquer, and he will certainlyconquer or will ultimately conquer (see A.T. Robertson’sWord Pictures in the New Testament on this verse).The implication is that his entire purpose is to conquer,to dominate, to subjugate the peoples of the earth.

Overall, the white horse and its rider are vivid repre-sentations of a powerful, aggressive, victorious forcerunning unrestrained over mankind. Like a knight in armoror a soldier in full dress uniform, the first horsemanappears to the eye as glorious and noble, but its intent isto kill, destroy, and subdue its enemies. Its white façadeis deceptive, concealing a deadly, unholy purpose.

Jesus’ InterpretationJesus’ InterpretationJesus’ InterpretationJesus’ InterpretationJesus’ InterpretationThese interpretations of the symbols may seem highlyspeculative and arbitrary until we unlock their mysterywith the key supplied by Jesus Christ Himself in theOlivet Prophecy. In a series of four verses, He de-codes the meanings of the Four Horsemen. Of thewhite horseman, He says: “Take heed that no onedeceives you. For many will come in My name, saying,I am the Christ, and will deceive many” (Matthew24:4-5; see Mark 13:5-6; Luke 21:8). The white horseand its rider represent religious deception.

First, notice to whom He is speaking, His disciples.They had come to Him, asking Him to tell them the signof His coming and of the end of the age (verse 3), and Heproceeded to do just that. His remarks are pointedlytoward His disciples, that is, He presents these signs fromtheir perspective. In the first seal, He is concerned thatthey, specifically, not allow themselves to be deceivedbecause the effort to deceive the elect would be potent.

Second, the number of deceivers would be multitudi-nous: “many will come.” This should be seen in contrastto the frequent description of His own disciples as “few,”a “little flock,” “a remnant,” “not many,” etc. The truedisciples of Christ could be overwhelmed by the seem-ingly inexhaustible supply of false teachers, liars, andspiritual cheats that would be thrown against them.

Third, these frauds and double agents would come inHis name, that is, appearing to bear His authority. Inparticular, the name of “Christ” would be exploited ascover for their nefarious trickery, and by this ruse,great numbers of people would be deluded. The phrase,“saying, I am the Christ,” should not be understood, asthe New King James Version has punctuated it, tomean that many would come claiming to be the Mes-

siah. No, they would come claiming that Jesus is theMessiah—a truth—and thereby gain people’s trust.From that point forward, deception through doctrinalchange, both major and minor, provides the means ofdeception. As the anonymous maxim puts it, “Thenearer a lie to truth the more deceitful it is.”

If not earlier, this first seal must have been openedvery soon after the apostle John wrote the book ofRevelation. Once the last of the original apostles wasdead, the false “Christian” church began its swift andsteady rise to dominance, eventually collaboratingwith Emperor Constantine (reigned AD 306-337) tobecome a major influence in the Roman Empire. Thischurch, with its pompous ecclesiastical politics andChristianized pagan practices, looked nothing like thechurch the New Testament describes. The relativelytiny true church, often persecuted for its “primitive”beliefs and demeaned for its “Jewish” practices, wasforced to flee to the relative safety of frontier landsand wilderness areas where its members could prac-tice their biblical beliefs more freely.

It was not until the age of the Protestant Reformation,when the power of the Catholic Church began to wane,that Sabbath-keepers could once again express theirbeliefs openly. Even so, Protestantism—its variousdenominations merely rebellious daughters of the Uni-versal Church—has not been entirely sympathetic tothe law-keeping elect. Even today, a spirit of antago-nism and condescension exists within Protestant circlesfor anyone who really believes and practices thedoctrines of Jesus and the first-century church.

Still RidingStill RidingStill RidingStill RidingStill RidingReligious deception, false gospels, and unchristian phi-losophies have continued unabated to our own day.Mainstream Christian churches continue to teach anantinomian gospel about the person of Jesus rather thanproclaiming the true gospel of the Kingdom of God(Mark 1:15). They still lead their members to worshipan unbiblical triune God, constructed out of a hodge-podge of Jewish mysticism, Gnostic Christian belief,and Greek philosophy a few centuries after the apostleJohn completed the New Testament canon with the bookof Revelation. They continue to refuse to keep thebiblical weekly Sabbath made for man (Mark 2:27), aswell as the annual holy days that reveal God’s plan formankind. The churches also teach the pernicious doc-trines of the immortality of the soul and eternal security,leading adherents to believe they already have eternallife and their place in “heaven” is guaranteed.

Another modern false gospel—endorsed by many,especially those who embrace New Age beliefs—isthe “tolerant” idea that there are many roads tosalvation. This notion posits that all religions are equal,and each is effective in bringing a person to eternallife. In other words, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims,Jews, and Christians will receive the same salvationand after




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P RP RP RP RP R OOOOO V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2“A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; the simple pass on and are punished.”

replete with temptation, allurement,and intrigue. Fortunately, as we fast-forward to the end of the story, thegory, destructive consequences ofthis initially pleasant encounter arerevealed as a warning to us:

Immediately he went after her,as an ox goes to the slaughter, oras a fool to the correction of thestocks, till an arrow struck hisliver. As a bird hastens to thesnare, he did not know it wouldtake his life. Now therefore, lis-ten to me, my children; pay atten-tion to the words of my mouth:Do not let your heart turn aside toher ways, do not stray into herpaths; for she has cast downmany wounded, and all who wereslain by her were strong men.Her house is the way to hell,descending to the chambers ofdeath. (Proverbs 7:22-27)

Another, more succinct sneak pre-view of the consequences of adul-tery appears in Proverbs 9:17-18:“‘Stolen water is sweet, and breadeaten in secret is pleasant.’ But hedoes not know that the dead arethere, that her guests are in the depthsof hell [the grave].” We can usethese cause-and-effect illustrationsto help us avoid, not just sexual sins,but many others, including devastat-ing spiritual sins like idolatry.

These biblical scenarios followedby the gruesome consequences re-mind me of a haunting Twilight Zoneepisode I saw many years ago. Ayoung lady is pursued by a threaten-ing apparition riding a horse. Theviewer later discovers that the riderof the horse is actually herself, com-ing back from the future to warn hernot to pursue her life’s course anyfurther lest it destroy her.

God has given us a mind with afast-forward mechanism to look atthe consequences. When we aretempted to sin in any way, we shouldbe looking ahead to discern the re-sults of our behaviors. Yet, all toofrequently, we fall prey to cognitive

distortions (twisted thinking patterns).In other words, instead of looking atthings God’s way and choosing to dothe right thing, we allow our carnalhuman nature to skew our judgmentsand make wrong decisions.

In his book, The Feeling GoodHandbook, Dr. David Burns pro-vides a self-awareness test for con-fronting temptations. He lists thepleasant allure of the temptation inone column and the cognitive distor-tion beside it. Here is a brief, repre-sentative segment illustrating analcoholic struggling with a habit:

Temptation: I’ll really feel goodif I have a beer now. And it willtaste so good.

Cognitive Distortion: This is an-other example of “fortune tell-ing” because Frank is predictingsomething very unrealistic. Whileit is true that an occasional beer isharmless, Frank won’t stop afterjust one. Once he starts drinking,his inhibitions will disappear, andhe will quietly devour one or twosix-packs.

All of us have repertoires of poi-gnant lessons from past sins, repletewith shame, guilt, and embarrass-ment. As we are tempted to give anencore performance, we need to ru-minate about what those uncheckedbehaviors and thoughts have broughtus in the past. One should not stopreflecting on the sin itself, but shouldfast-forward the tape to the sureconsequences.

Seeing the FutureA parallel reason for fast-forward-ing the tape is to maintain stability ina trial. In one four-month period, Ilost my firstborn son and my jobunexpectedly, throwing me into anemotional tailspin. In times like these,one has to be resourceful at locatingshreds of hope. Like all individuals,my inclination was only to look re-gretfully back, seething in bitterness

28:15-68. These are known as the“Blessings and Cursings” chapters.

As our forebears with foresightcontemplated the prospect of beingsmitten with madness, blindness, andconfusion of heart, groping at noon-day as a blind man, oppressed andplundered continually (Deuteronomy28:28-29), some probably had sec-ond and third thoughts about trans-gressing God’s statutes! Lookingahead is not so bad, after all!

Recently, having not ruminatedenough about the consequences of cer-tain driving behavior, I found myselfagain participating in a defensive-driv-ing class. One of the most valuableconcepts taught by instructor LeeStolley was the “What If?” game, inwhich we had to anticipate a host ofpossible, potential mishaps. He told apersonal story of parking his squad carright next to an elderly, handicappeddriver when there were many otheravailable parking spots. He relatedthat, moments before he drove into theparking place, numerous alarm bellswent off in his head warning him not topark there. Ignoring his anticipatoryinstincts cost the city of Big Sandy,Texas, $800 in damages.

The Bible is replete with “Whatif?” scenarios, warning the foolishand unwary to turn back. As wisdompersonified calls the youthful, shegives a sneak preview of the conse-quences of ignoring her counsel:

Because I have called and yourefused, I have stretched outmy hand and no one regarded,because you disdained all mycounsel, and would have noneof my reproof, I also will laughat your calamity; I will mockwhen your terror comes, whenyour terror comes like a storm,and your destruction comeslike a whirlwind, when distressand anguish come upon you.(Proverbs 1:24-27)

Proverbs 7 presents a Technicolor®

movie of a lurid, adulterous affair



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R E A DR E A DR E A DR E A DR E A D Y A N S W E RY A N S W E RY A N S W E RY A N S W E RY A N S W E R“Be Ready A lway s To G i ve An Answe r ” – I Pe t e r 3 : 1 5 (K JV )

about loss and the impossibility ofrecovering what I had lost.

One resource I found valuablewas an account of a man’s experi-ence in a concentration camp, ViktorFrankl’s Man’s Search for Mean-ing. Frankl developed some profoundinsights, survival skills, and techniquesfor building inner strength when theexternal world around him was goingto perdition.

Frankl suggests that “a man wholet himself decline because he couldnot see any future goal found himselfwith retrospective thoughts [rivetedto the past].” He goes on to say,“Any attempt at fighting the camp’spsychopathological influence on theprisoner by psychotherapeutic orpsychohygienic methods had to aimat giving him inner strength by point-ing out to him a future goal to whichhe could look forward. Instinctively,some of the prisoners attempted tofind one on their own.” Frankl ex-plains that it is a peculiarity of manthat he can live only by looking to thefuture. And this future-looking capa-bility is his salvation in the most dif-ficult moments of his existence,although he sometimes has to forcehis mind to the task.

Amidst the most degrading kind ofhuman slavery, Frankl formed in hismind’s eye a picture of his futurefreedom—when he could reclaim hisdignity. He described in vivid detailthe picture that he created to helphim fast-forward the tape to somedistant time in the future:

I saw myself standing on theplatform of a well-lit, warm andpleasant lecture room. In front ofme sat an attentive audience oncomfortable upholstered seats. Iwas giving a lecture on the psy-chology of the concentrationcamp! All that oppressed me atthat moment became objective,seen and described from the re-mote viewpoint of science. Bythis method I succeeded some-how in rising above the suffer-ings of the moment, and I

observed them as if they werealready of the past.

Frankl concludes this account byaffirming that the prisoner who hadlost faith in the future—his future—was doomed. With his loss of beliefin the future, he also lost his spiritualhold and became subject to mentaland physical decay. His insights area rediscovery of vital truth that psalm-ists and prophets of the Bible prac-ticed faithfully.

In the early days of my grief, whenI was preoccupied with feeling sorryfor myself, I would instinctively incor-porate many psalms of despondencyinto my prayers and meditation. In theabundant greenery of the Tyler StatePark, I would recite over and overthe contents of the supplicativepsalms—Psalms 51, 60, 69, 88, 60, 71,90, 143—really letting the emotionshave free reign as I cried:

Save me, O God! For the watershave come up to my neck. Isink in deep mire, where thereis no standing; I have come intodeep waters, where the floodsoverflow me. (Psalm 69:1-2)

Do not cast me off in the time ofold age; do not forsake me whenmy strength fails. (Psalm 71:9)

I have been afflicted and readyto die from my youth up; I suf-fer Your terrors; I am dis-traught. (Psalm 88:15)

These words easily rolled off mytongue as I identified with the mindsetof the psalmist. Then I learned apeculiar thing about many of thesesupplicative psalms. The psalmistwould fast-forward the tape to atime of hope and deliverance. Spacedoes not permit me to go to all thesneak previews of happier times pro-vided by these supplicative psalms,but consider, for instance, the one inPsalm 69:35-36:

For God will save Zion and build

the cities of Judah, that they maydwell there and possess it. Also,the descendants of His servantsshall inherit it, and those who loveHis name shall dwell in it.

In the melancholy and reflectivePsalm 71, the psalmist fast-forwardsto an expected future time of hope:

You, who have shown me greatand severe troubles, shall re-vive me again, and bring me upagain from the depths of theearth. You shall increase mygreatness, and comfort me onevery side. (verses 20-21)

A despondent Moses quickly fast-forwards in Psalm 90:13-14, crying,

Return, O LORD! How long?And have compassion on Yourservants. Oh, satisfy us earlywith Your mercy, that we mayrejoice and be glad all our days!

In Psalm 37, where David warnsus not to fret because the evildoersliterally get away with murder, hefast-forwards the tape in verse 34,promising,

Wait on the LORD, and keep Hisway, and He shall exalt you toinherit the land; when the wickedare cut off, you shall see it.

Coming AttractionsAnother whole section of the Bibleprovides fast-forwards to buoy thedepressed and afflicted: the MinorProphets. After detailed descriptionsof mayhem and affliction, theprophet fast-forwards the tape tothe solution. Notice, for example,Habakkuk 3:18-19:

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, Iwill joy in the God of my salva-tion. The LORD God is mystrength; He will make my feetlike deer’s feet, and He willmake me walk on my high hills.


P RP RP RP RP R OOOOO V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2V E R B S 2 7 : 1 2“A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; the simple pass on and are punished.”

In numerous other passages, theprophets assure us that the future isbrighter than the past (see Joel 3:16-21; Amos 9:11-15; Zephaniah 3:8-20;Haggai 2:23; Zechariah 14:16-20; etc.)

When our Elder Brother JesusChrist said in the Garden of Gethse-mane, “Your will be done, not mine,”He was fast-forwarding to the timeall of His suffering would be over.This glimpse of His glorious futurehelped Him to endure all the pain,ignominy, and loneliness He knewHe was about to experience.

Like all the other holy days, Pente-cost is a preview of coming attractions.Romans 8:20-21 describes the presentdistress and futility that the entire cre-ation is subject to, groaning as if withbirth pangs. But Paul does not leave ussuffering in this state of corruption butmercifully fast-forwards the tape tothe time of redemption:

Not only they, but we also whohave the firstfruits of the Spirit,even we ourselves groan withinourselves, eagerly waiting for

the adoption, the redemption ofour body. (Romans 8:23)

The day of Pentecost provides afast-forward for the firstfruits—asneak preview of the way the entirecreation will be brought into God’sKingdom. Just knowing that ourpresent distresses will turn out sowonderfully makes life more bearable.We have so much to look forward to!

See, knowing how it all turns out isnot so bad after all, is it?

—David F. Maas

life despite their markedly different beliefs and prac-tices. This also means that there is no reason for aperson to convert to another religion, so each faithshould accept and acknowledge the others in a spirit ofgoodwill and ecumenism. Of course, this flies in theface of Acts 4:10-12, in which Peter asserts that onlyby the name of Jesus Christ is salvation possible.

In addition, as God maneuvers events in preparationfor His Son’s second coming, a great deal of propheticspeculation—which many call outright heresy—isappearing in the major media. No more successfulexample can be found than the twelve-volume LeftBehind series by authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B.Jenkins. Millions of copies sold in the U.S. and abroadhave made these men wealthy and famous. They havealso garnered their share of critics who see end-timeprophecy somewhat differently.

For instance, the books’ major premise is the au-thors’ belief in an unscriptural “rapture” of believers toheaven before the Great Tribulation begins. Howmany people will profess belief in Christ because oftheir reading of these books, expecting to be spared thehardships of the Tribulation, yet will be forced toendure the time of greatest trouble ever to occur on theearth (Matthew 24:21-22)? At the very least, thesebooks provide false hopes of physical deliverancefrom destruction. The Bible, on the other hand, tellsChristians to be prepared for Christ’s return throughwatchfulness, overcoming sin, growing in character,prayer, and enduring to the end (Matthew 24:13; Luke21:36; I Thessalonians 5:4-8; I Peter 3:10-18).

Over the past year, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Codehas been a media darling, ranking in the top three for57 straight weeks on the Publishers’ Weekly fictionlist. Its many unorthodoxies appear not to matter to itsmillions of readers, many of them Christian:

[It] is a thriller whose characters malign traditional

Christianity as fraudulent. But both liberal and con-servative writers say it’s rife with errors.

Among inaccuracies they list: The characters’ claimsthat belief in Jesus’ divinity appeared in the fourthcentury rather than the first century; that the fourNew Testament Gospels became authoritative inthe fourth century rather than the second century;and that the Dead Sea Scrolls and Gnostic writings(deemed heretical by the church) contain the earli-est Christian records—though one Gnostic textdoes have some scholarly promoters.

“Da Vinci” [sic] also supposes that Jesus marriedMary Magdalene and sired a royal Judeo-Frenchbloodline that still exists—and that sinister Chris-tians suppressed information about this. (“FurorOver Popular Religion Novels,” CBSNews.com,April 15, 2004)

These are just a few examples of the white horseman’swork. He is still riding throughout the world, spreadingcounterfeit “truths,” conquering through the communica-tion of lies. He has used His bow mightily to shoot falseideas and plausible but erroneous beliefs into the minds ofmen cut off from God and opposed to His way of life(Romans 8:7). He has used his whiteness as a façade totrick the world into thinking he has come in peace andrighteousness, when the truth is just the opposite.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:15-16, “Beware of falseprophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, butinwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will knowthem by their fruits.” It is not difficult for us to observethe fruits of false teaching masquerading as the truth intoday’s world. Next time, we will see that the redhorseman’s mission is at least in part a product of hiswhite counterpart’s work.

[TO BE CONTINUED]—Richard T. Ritenbaugh


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http://www.worldwatchdaily.org

by Charles Whitaker

N o M o n e yN o M o n e yN o M o n e yN o M o n e yN o M o n e y , N o E m p i r e, N o E m p i r e, N o E m p i r e, N o E m p i r e, N o E m p i r e

Is America destined to lead aglobe-encircling empire foryears to come? Not if the analy-

sis of Nial l Ferguson andLaurence Kotlikoff in their article,“Going Critical” (The National In-terest, Fall 2003), is correct. Theirreasoning: no money, no empire.“Chronically unbalanced domes-tic finance, primarily the result ofa mismatch between earlier so-cial security legislation . . . andthe changing demographics ofAmerican society” will render themaintenance of any Americanempire impossible.

In just five years’ time, 77million ‘baby boomers’ willstart collecting Social Se-curity benefits. In eightyears, they will start col-lecting Medicare benefits.By the time they are allretired in 2030, the UnitedStates will have doubled thenumber of its elderly popu-lation but increased by only18 percent the number ofworkers able to pay for theirbenefits.

The size of these pension li-abilities “is so large as to renderthe U.S. government effectivelybankrupt.” How big is thegovernment’s debt to pension-ers? If the federal governmentcould get its hands today on allthe revenue it could hope to col-lect between now and 2030, anduse that money today to pay allprojected pensioners’ claims upto 2030, the government wouldstill find itself with a shortfall of$45 trillion. That figure is “twelvetimes larger than the current offi-cial debt and roughly four timesthe size of the country’s annualoutput.”

What would the governmenthave to do to generate that $45trillion? It would immediately haveto “raise income taxes (individualand corporate) by 69 percent, or. . . raise payroll taxes by 95percent or . . . cut Social Secu-

rity and Medicare benefits by 56percent.” Or, of course, it coulddefault on pension liabilities. Onlya politician intent on political sui-cide would consider that courseof action.

The signs of economic melt-down appear here and there. How-ever, no one, least of al lgovernment officials, wants toadmit the impending crisis in“generational accounts.” Eveninvestors in government bondsseem largely to be in a state ofdenial. Reality has not yet hithome.

It is only a matter of timebefore the realities of a $45 tril-lion shortfall do. When that hap-pens, “rational gloom” will set in,and the “U.S. economy will likely‘go critical.’” Foreign investorswill dump U.S. Treasuries in fa-vor of euro-denominated securi-ties. America, “the much-vaunted‘hyperpower,’ would quickly finditself humbled.” To meet its debtpayments, the government wouldprobably turn to the time-hon-ored trick of printing money,thereby causing inflation, possi-bly of the triple-digit variety. Thenation would enter economic dol-drums. America’s pretensions ofempire would end.

Three steps could help resolvethe “generational accounts” im-balance:

1. “Break . . . the link betweenstate pensions and wages.”The Israelite nations of Brit-ain, Australia, Canada, Ire-land, and New Zealand havealready done this. Thesenations could balance theirbooks “with tax increasesof less than 5 percent.”

2. Control Medicare costs,which account for 82% ofthat $45 trillion shortfall.But, the current President’sbribe to gain votes by creat-ing a “fabulously expensive”drug-benefit program indi-cates how politically tempt-

ing such entitlements are.Do not look for sanity in thegovernment’s Medicareplanning.

3. Privatize Social Security,which would go a long wayto filling up the $45 trillion“black hole.” However,AARP and other strong in-terest groups would assertpolitical pressure to haltproper privatization.

All three options mean sacri-fices on the part of seniors, few ofwhom are in any mood to forfeit apenny of their “well-earned” pen-sions. In fact, American seniorsare on an unprecedented spend-ing binge. “Economic researchshows conclusively that the eld-erly as a group are indeed con-suming with next to no regard fortheir adult children.” Expensiveretirement communities, trans-continental RV caravans, andocean cruises are among se-niors’ favorite pastimes. Sincethe inception of Social Securityabout 50 years ago, “consump-tion per retiree relative to con-sumption per worker” hasdoubled. Seniors’ materialism isreflected in a bumper sticker seencommonly today: “I’m SpendingMy Kids’ Inheritance.” All this indefiance of Proverbs 13:22: “Agood man leaves an inheritanceto his children’s children.”

In an economic meltdown, apublic mood of isolationism wouldprobably gain ground; “discre-tionary” federal spending wouldbe curtailed. Expenditures asso-ciated with nation-building in Af-ghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovowould be among the first to go.“The decline and fall of America’sundeclared empire will be duenot to terrorists at our gates norto the rogue regimes that spon-sor them, but to a fiscal crisisof the welfare state. . . . Inshort, the colossus that cur-rently bestrides the world hasfeet of clay.”

BIBLE STUDY:THE PARABLES OF LUKE 15

(PART TWO)

r r r r rr r r r rr r r r rr r r r rr r r r r

In analyzing the illustration of the Lost Sheep, we saw thatthe sheep that was lost was worth saving, and theshepherd’s pity for it motivates him to rescue it. In thenext illustration, what many Bibles title the Parable ofthe Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10), the value of the lostsilver piece motivates the woman to search her housediligently until she finds it. Concern over something lostand the joy at recovering it are the fundamental issues ofeach illustration.

Unlike the lost sheep, the coin is lost inside the house,not in a vast wilderness, and since it is not alive, it hasno consciousness of being lost. In the same way, itslost condition does not bring upon it discomfort oranxiety. The silver piece is lost, not because of anyinferiority in its composition, but because it was eitherbadly handled or unconsciously misplaced. Part Two ofthis three-part study will consider the lessons of Jesus’second illustration.

1. Who does the lost coin symbolize? Luke 15:8.COMMENT: The sinner who is largely ignorant of himselfand passive in the hands of those with whom he associatesis symbolized in the lost coin. People can be lost not onlyin dens of iniquity but also in good homes and churches(Revelation 3:14-17). The Garden of Eden was the mostconducive of environments, but it did not guarantee thatman would live God’s way of life. This does not negate thevalue of a godly home (Proverbs 3:33). Such a homeobviously gives a person a far greater advantage inlearning how to live God’s way of life compared with anungodly one. This illustration teaches that, even in a goodenvironment, a person may still be lost.2. What causes the coin to become lost? Luke 15:8.COMMENT: Unlike the lost sheep that wandered away andbecame lost, the coin’s lost condition is due to thecarelessness of another. The coin is lost because it hadfallen from its intended place, just as sin always lowers aperson and never lifts up (Proverbs 14:34). This negli-gence of another reminds us that the sin of one person canbring tragic, spiritual consequences upon another. As anexample, the backsliding dissenter almost always takesothers with him, because it is sin’s nature to take othersdown with it (II Peter 2:1-2, I Timothy 6:3-5, 20-21).False teachers and church dissidents put many coins onthe floor spiritually.3. What are the consequences of the coin’s lost condition?Same verse.COMMENT: The coin becomes useless and unclean, just asa person does through sin. While lost, the coin is essen-tially worthless. Likewise, an unrepentant sinner is use-less to God and of no benefit to others. The apostle Paulwas a lost coin, as it were, until he met Christ on the roadto Damascus (Acts 9:1-6). Sin destroys our value inservice to both God and man; we become useless.

If the coin fell on the floor, it fell onto one of the dirtiestplaces in the house, making it unclean. The woman’ssweeping of the floor indicates it was dirty. This defile-ment of the coin shows what sin does to a person: Itpollutes, thereby defiling him (Titus 1:15-16). The onlyspiritual cleansing agent that will cleanse away the filth isthe blood of Jesus Christ (I John 1:7-9).

4. Why is finding the coin so important? Luke 15:8-10.COMMENT: Several things are involved in the woman’ssearching for and eventually finding the coin. Her motiva-tion to find the coin is due to the value she placed upon it.She also suffers from the loss of the coin, while the coin,of course, feels nothing. The woman represents thechurch through which God works.

In the eyes of God, the sinner, represented by thecoin, is not only a suffering being, like the sheep onwhom He takes pity, but he is also precious, created inGod’s image and assigned a part in the accomplish-ment of His plans. In the illustration of the sheep, thelost person is viewed from man’s perspective—he isone who suffers and therefore needs salvation. In theillustration of the coin, the lost person is seen fromGod’s perspective—he is one who has great value, theloss of which God feels. In considering this, we shouldrealize the great effect of sin upon God’s glory andinterests.

The lamp represents both the Word and the Spirit ofGod (Psalm 119:105). Both shed light on the plight ofsinners and give solutions to their problems. Spiritualillumination enables the church to see how to help sinnerswho cannot see their fruitless condition. Just as thewoman has to sweep the floor of debris, the church mustmake its surroundings clean and pure by sweeping awaythe filth from its domain (Isaiah 52:11). Doctrinal corrup-tion makes it hard to see through the debris of falseteachings. Today, doctrines have been so corrupted inmainstream Christianity that it is impossible to find spiri-tually pure teachings within it.

That the woman seeks the coin diligently shows adedication to looking cautiously and continuously(Ecclesiastes 7:25). She is not haphazard in looking for thecoin but organized and systematic, and she persists in thejob until it is completed. Sadly, there are always those whoattend God’s church who work vigorously and earnestlyfor a short time then quit.

Finally, the whole illustration depicts her as enthusias-tic, hopeful, and joyful in her responsibilities. This is theattitude we must have as we do God’s work in preparationfor His coming.

May 2004 Contents - pdf.cgg.org Forerunner · May 2004 Forerunner Magazine ... Rodriquez, Rizal 1860...

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