"Tell us, when will these things be...?"

Matthew 24.

Most important! What does Jesus say first? "See to it that no one misleads you." How can you be sure you are not mislead? Do your own study. Go through what Jesus says about His return. Do not add one jot or tittle. Do not be mislead by Satan who is at war with us. Jesus does not lie, not even by omission!

Read all of chapter 24 at one sitting. Then get your notebook and make a list. Jesus gives preliminary signs of the times. I use the New American Standard Version and in verse 12 comes an enemy battle tactic. He says, "And because lawlessness is increased, the love of many will grow cold."

When people see the growing hatred for others, their own love for people gets buried. Hatred grows and love dies. But remember, we are to love our enemies. Pray for those who persecute us (for they know not what they do). Those boys in ISIS are deceived. Their eyes have been blinded. Pray for the worldwide revival.

What revival? I'm hoping God will have mercy, not because we deserve it, but because when He was on the cross He asked God to forgive those who were hammering the nails because they did not know He was actually the Son of God until He gave His life and His soul went to Gehenna. Then one said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

The Manasseh judgment explains that God does not forgive nations that legalize child sacrifice. There is a great possibility that before the Great Tribulation there will a worldwide revival because in verse 14 Jesus says, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come."

I believe for one generation child sacrifice and pre-born genocide will be outlawed in the world. If not, then the end of this great dark epoch will end. Hallelujah!

Now in verse 15 is the key to the Great Tribulation. What is the key? Jesus tells us that Daniel wrote about it. Go to Daniel and read chapters 9 through 12. Write in your list (no commentary until the list is finished) all references to judgment. [on a side note, why don't we fast while wearing sackloth and sitting in ashes? I'm going to look into that.]  Notice one thing. One important thing. Daniel prays for God to glorify Himself. His prayer is not for those whose only true right is to burn in hell but to show the world how much God loves people who do not deserve it.

So in chapter 9 is the key. The end of sacrifice. What sacrifice? The sacrifice as ordered by God's law in the Mosaic covenant. So that type of sacrifice is stopped. Then the key event occurs. Someone comes who commits the "abomination" or detestable things and "makes desolate" or causes horror (I love those little reference numbers). Whatever the someone does, it is abhorrently disgusting and causes what? Sounds like the Great Tribulation to me. God has no recourse but to be just and to avenge the death of the innocent.  On the human level what is the greatest sin, murder. What does God say about human sacrifice? Why does He hate it so much?

As a Father, He hates it so much because He had to send His Only Son to be sacrificed for all other humans. That is why He hates it. We never have to do it because Jesus already did it for all. There is never a reason for it. Never. No exceptions. We can never sacrifice others for our own blessing.

We can lay down our own lives to save our friends from dying, the greatest love, but not for any other reason. Not for money, not for anything else. We can make other kinds of sacrifices. Not buying clothes, not eating lots of food, not buying the car, not doing what we want but doing what they want, etc, etc, etc. But our death for others must be to save their life.

Read and re-read any verses that float over your head. You know, when you read the Bible and it is not sinking in. You just read on a shallow level (not creating long term memory, actually) not on a whole brain level. Like when you read and don't think about the other places where the Bible explains the same topic.

So do not be mislead. God does not mislead in His letters to us. He does not mislead through omission. He tells us the truth because He is truth.

Daniel 11 and 12 expound on the time of the abomination that causes desolation. Take the time to know it thoroughly. Medidate on it, ruminate about it, but rejoice because Messhiah the Prince returns to rule.

A Beautiful Mind

One of my favorite movies and I always cry at the end. Thinking about it, Nash had schizophrenia and had delusions when stressed. He overcame reacting to the repetitive visions when he realized that one of his delusions, a little girl, never got old. He had been believing a lie that his mind had created.

We all believe lies. We all believe our own fallacies.  A great portion of mental illness stems from false beliefs. Sin comes from following lies. We want to believe that something that we are not to do is good or that there will be no consequences. Sometimes we get away with no consequence. But our happiness is temporal.

Sometimes doing what is right is painful and hurtful, and the rewards are temporal, or not received. Most often we don't get to see the good in trauma or loss.

The temporal things of life teach us about the eternal. We have a duty to teach others what God has said not to do and what to do because those things never change. They are based on who God is and He is Truth. So always search for the truth and you will be searching for God and getting to know Him.

God rules the nations, but individuals have free will?

Is there a difference in the way that God rules the nations? There is a red line that cannot be crossed without dire consequence for nations and that red line is legalizing child sacrifice. God said He would not forgive the nation of Judah for filling the streets of Jerusalem with the blood of the innocent.

“Surely at the command (mouth) of the LORD it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; AND THE LORD WOULD NOT FORGIVE.”  (All caps mine) 2 Kings 24:3 & 4

With repentance came a revival, but then one generation later the practice was started again and then came the invasion and destruction. Ah, for the individual there is also a red line, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. But that was taught by Jesus so was it also in the Old Testament? Must have been but where?

Searching for the question is giving some answers, but this one is particularly interesting in light of the current war against Christians and Jews...Listen.

"Consequently, when we come to the text of the Synoptic Gospels there is a history of interpretation and applications that prohibit anyone ( Lev 24:15-16 ; includes the sojourner ) from denouncing the God of Israel, repudiating his claims, and insulting his honor. What Jesus claims is that a similar type of sin is being committed whenever one speaks against the Holy Spirit as revealed powerfully in his ministry. What caused stoning in the Old Testament, now incurs eternal condemnation; such a sin is unforgivable."

http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/blasphemy-against-the-holy-spirit.html

So, those who say the One True God of Israel is not God are not forgiven. We know who they are. They are at war against Christians and Jews. They are also the ones I believe who are allowed to exact judgment on the nations for committing the unforgivable act of child sacrifice. 

Will study more in the morning and edit at that time. 2016-08-02