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“WHO IS TRUTH?”
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, March 7, 2024 – During Jesus’ trial, Pontius Pilate rather sardonically muttered as an aside: “What is truth?”, likely not expecting anyone to answer him let alone record his question for posterity. And yet here we are, nearly 2000 years later, not only repeating Pilate’s question but happy to finally set the poor man straight. (“Better late than never”, as my grandmother would say.)
First of all, Pilate’s remark needs rephrasing. He shouldn’t have asked “What is truth?” but “Who is Truth?”, and the answer to that question is, of course, “God”.
God is Truth. As believers, we’ve heard this countless times and (if we’re believers) wholeheartedly agree. But for unbelievers like Pilate, it’s simply a shrugging moment. So what if God is Truth?
We believers need to address their shrugs because a lot rides on God being Truth. God’s quality of being Truth works in tandem with all his other qualities, like being Loving, Just, Merciful, Good, Omniscient, Eternal, Unchanging, and so on. If God isn’t Truth, then he can’t be the wonderful qualities we’ve come to know about him. He would just be relative lies, the kind that social justice and the evil “DIE” trinity are based on.
Back when I was an atheist, I would have waved enthusiastic jazz hands at Pilate’s sardonic aside. But the instant I was born-again, I knew Truth, and knowing Truth, I also knew what wasn’t Truth. Jesus tells us that Truth is a Spirit – not a thing, but a living being – and that the Spirit of Truth inhabits believers. At my rebirth, God’s Spirit of Truth entered into me and I could see – really see – for the first time in my life. By “see”, I mean that I finally understood how the world works and why people do what they do. I could see what motivated them and what enticed them. I finally understood why things are the way they are, an understanding that had eluded me from the time I was old enough to wonder why things are the way they are.
My eureka moment of understanding has lasted now for nearly 25 years. In that time, I’ve come not only to know who Truth is, but to get to know him personally, one-on-one. Truth is my heavenly Father, the same Father Jesus spoke of during his ministry years, the same Father Jesus was referring to after his resurrection, when he told Mary Magdalene: “go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God”.
God is Truth. Because he is Truth, he is also all good things by virtue simply of being Who He Is. Jesus said that none are good but God. Since we know that is a factual statement (Jesus never lied to us), then we know of a certainty that God is good and that all good things come from God. We know of a certainty that the way things are is precisely as God’s Spirit of Truth shows them to be. My understanding of God’s Truth and God-as-Truth is not based on my own understanding but on God’s revelations through his written Word and his Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit has been with me now for nearly two and half decades since my rebirth, teaching me and revealing more and more of God to me as my capacity grows to receive him. By “capacity”, I mean faith. By “capacity”, I mean faithfulness.
The world is blind and deaf to God and his Spirit, as Jesus told us it would be. We who see and hear are blessed beyond measure, as this gift cannot be bought or bartered or sold, no, not for any price. The richest and most powerful people in the world, even if they pooled all their wealth and persuasion, still could not purchase the smallest measure of God’s Holy Spirit. The tiniest of slivers would still be unattainable to them, and yet we, the “afflicted and poor”, received a generous measure of God’s Spirit as a welcoming gift when we entered into God’s Kingdom at our rebirth.
Pilate knew Jesus didn’t deserve the death penalty, but his hands were tied and he had to give into the mob’s demands. If Pilate had known God to be the truth he’d so cynically dismissed, perhaps he would have stood his ground. Perhaps he would have taken Jesus and hidden him away, like Paul had been hidden away before being rescued. But had he done that, Pilate wouldn’t have fulfilled scripture. His blindness to Truth was part and parcel of prophecy, as is the world’s blindness, as was our own blindness, before we could see.
God is Truth. Thank God we know this now with every fiber of our being.
Thank God we see.
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“Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them….”
Luke 10:23-24
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WILTED ROSES AND AN EMPTY CHOCOLATE BOX: A MEDITATION ON ROMANTIC LOVE
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, March 6, 2024 – God permits romantic love as a comfort to those who won’t receive his love. God also uses romantic love to test his children, to see where their loyalty lies. Jesus’ first order of business, after calling his disciples, was to have them leave their wives. This was a permanent separation. When the remnant of the children of Israel returned to Jerusalem after their Babylonian exile, they had to leave their non-Jewish spouses. This leave-taking was also permanent. Romantic love in and of itself isn’t evil, but the devil can use it as a conduit for evil, which is why we children of God are better off without it.
As a woman raised in Western tradition, I am as much a sucker as most other Western females for a happy ending that involves an impossibly handsome prince declaring his undying love and loyalty and sealing the deal with a ring. Only there is no such prince in reality, and the only one who can declare his undying love and mean it is God.
“I will never leave you or forsake you.”
Romantic love is different things to different people, but the core always involves replacing God with a person. You place your love in a person and look to that person to love you in return. And not just love you but be faithful and honest and perpetually attentive and sensitive to your every mood and whim. You set yourself up for a fall in romantic love by expecting a human to be what only God can be. And then when the beloved is revealed to be just that – a human with all the attendant flaws of a human – along come the hurt feelings and the accusations that may or may not resolve, and the ring on your finger turns into a dead weight dragging you down into the realm of compromise where even infidelity and abuse become more acceptable than being alone.
In the opening pages of Genesis, after Eve admits to her disobedience, God tells her that all her desire from that point onward will be to her husband and that he will rule over her. This is not a blessing; this is very much a curse. Eve was created as a “helpmeet” to Adam, to be his companion and equal; different, but equal. Adam and Eve enjoyed each other’s company but didn’t obsess over each other. Their loyalty was to God. This joining of equals whose focus is on God is no longer possible in a fallen (that is, cursed) world, which is why it is better for God’s children not to marry. Marriage in a fallen world, even between believers, will not only bring pain but will divert the spouses’ attention away from God and onto each other.
Jesus describes how some people become eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake. He’s not talking here about physical alterations to the body but spiritual ones. Paul states that it’s best to remain as he was (unmarried and celibate), though he also admits that such a choice is not for everyone. What he’s saying is that not everyone is willing to give up romantic love for God’s love. What he’s saying is that not everyone is willing to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. If you love God like that, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and in so doing keep the first and what Jesus called the most important Commandment, you have no need for romantic love. You have no room for romantic love. You have no time for romantic love.
I wrote a few days ago about the difference between wants and needs. I add to these your emotional needs (also your spiritual needs), which are to love God and to receive his love in return. If you’re deprived of one or more of your physical needs for long enough, your body will die. If you’re deprived of one or both of your spiritual needs, your soul will die.
Romantic love is a diversion that shifts your focus from God to your romantic partner. As such, romantic love has no intrinsic spiritual value, but God allows it as a comfort for those who won’t receive his love. Romantic love is a God-replacement, but why would we, as born-again believers, want to replace God? Jesus said that those who are worthy of the Kingdom neither marry nor are given in marriage. Why would we, as followers of Jesus, ignore Jesus’ advice?
The pain of romantic love shows its vast inferiority to God’s love.
TALENTS
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, March 5, 2024 – Imagine if all God’s children took the talents God gave them and invested them solely in God’s Kingdom. Imagine if all God’s children took their wisdom or their intelligence or their athleticism or their creativity and gave it all to God so that he could redistribute those talents where they were needed most, to help those who need them most.
Imagine if all God’s children took the very best parts of themselves and gave them all back to God.
When you give the best that you have to the service of God’s Kingdom, God magnifies it, perfects it, focuses it, and invests it. So instead of one talent, you have ten, and instead of ten talents, you have a hundred, and those talents are dispersed and mixed and spread and massaged until they take root in the darkness and drive it away. God does more with your talents than you or the devil could possibly do, because he knows where those talents are needed most and because the devil is there, too, waiting in the wings. Oh, you’d better believe the devil is there, biding his time and waiting to catch your eye to give you The Offer™. Jesus isn’t the only one standing outside knocking; the devil is knocking, too, only he wants to pay you for your talents.
He wants you to expect payment.
Big payment.
He wants you to think that payment in exchange for your talents is your birthright.
But payment is the devil’s way of owning you.
“You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Giving the best of yourself to the service of God’s Kingdom means giving it without expecting payment. But why would you do that? Why would you give away for free what can make you money? When we financialize the talents God gives us to use in his service, we’re serving mammon, not God. It’s a very simple and very clear distinction.
Jesus never sold the Gospel. He never charged for his healings. He fed the thousands for free. He never begged or asked for donations. Paul likewise never charged for his service to God. None of the apostles did. They went without food and shelter rather than charge a fee. Their poverty was a test, as ours is for us.
Imagine if all God’s children took the very best part of themselves and gave it to God, like Jesus did, expecting nothing in return.
Imagine if everything we did was all and only for the glory of God.
WANTS AND NEEDS
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, March 4, 2024 – What are your needs? As a born-again believer, you have needs like everyone else, but what are they?
The answer might surprise you. Here are your needs: Enough food and water to keep you alive for the day, sufficient heat to keep your body warm, breathable air, and sufficient sleep. Jesus even did without the need for food and water for 40 days and nights, as did Moses when he was on Mount Sinai. Funny, that, how they could live so long without food or water when allegedly (according to scientists) you die within a few days without hydration. How did they manage to stay alive without water? Were they both fibbing about their fast?
What did Jesus himself say about needs? He said “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything you need will be given to you”. He didn’t say that everything you want will be given to you (prosperity preachers, I’m talking to you!). He didn’t say everything that would be nice to have would be given to you. No, he said “everything you need”.
So again I ask you – what are your needs?
We need to know what our needs are and to be satisfied with having those satisfied, because if we don’t know what our needs are, the devil is going to tempt us into wanting more than we need, and that’s when the trouble starts.
Coveting is as much of an issue today as it was back in Moses’ day when the Command not to covet was given to us. To covet means to want something you don’t need. It’s a lot like greed. The devil is having a field day capitalizing on people’s covetousness, which is why you see so many obese people, so many divorced people, so many people in jail, and so many people in debt from mortgages, credit cards, and other loans. Sell people the idea that their wants are their needs and that they deserve whatever they want, and you’ll have a fat, lustful, indebted nation that’s overlain with a spirit of entitlement. Such a nation is actually just a slave to its debtors.
A slave is not free.
Born-again believers have no business enslaving themselves in any way, including through credit card or mortgage debt. If you have to borrow money to buy something, you don’t need it; you may want it, but you don’t need it. Let that be your rule of thumb when it comes to money.
Our needs, as followers of Jesus, are surprisingly few – food and water to last the day, temperature sufficient to keep our body warm, breathable air, and a good night’s sleep. One way or another, our needs will be provided so that we can focus solely on doing Kingdom work and serving God, not doing slave work and serving the devil. Our reward is in Heaven, not here. Let us for our time here be satisfied with having our needs satisfied and be grateful for that. The instant we want more than we need, we turn from God ever so slightly; if we act on that want, we turn from God even farther.
The world will tell you that your needs are nearly infinite, but Jesus will tell you that your needs are modest and few. The world wants you to endlessly covet and focus on making money, but Jesus invites you to focus entirely on the Kingdom, assuring you that in so doing your needs will be met.
Who will you heed?
MAYBE THEY MEANT GOLDEN ARCHES? DECONSTRUCTING THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM
CHARLO, New Brunswick, March 3, 2024 – Jesus never talked about it. He didn’t even mention it in passing. In fact, he never said a word about a golden age “heaven on earth” millennial kingdom that is allegedly supposed to be established at some point in the future. Don’t you think it’s odd that he never said anything about a golden age during his ministry years, either publicly or in private with his disciples? You would think he’d at least have given a general description of it. He certainly talked in great detail about God’s Kingdom – why didn’t he say anything about a millennial kingdom?
The reason Jesus never talked about it is because it’s a lie of the devil based on a misinterpretation of scripture. The devil’s very good at misinterpreting and misapplying God’s Word, as we know from Jesus’ tests in the wilderness. In Revelation 20, which for most people forms the sole scriptural basis for their understanding of the millennial kingdom, the prophet sees the souls – not the bodies, the souls – of the resurrected. Note also that some of these souls are those of beheaded believers. The prophet sees these beheaded saints in their glorified (that is, heavenly) bodies that are obviously no longer without heads (or at least we hope not). But why would glorified saints come back to live on Earth? Why, for that matter, would Jesus? What possible reason would any of them have to do that? Even more to the point, could they even do that?
According to scripture, God’s holy angels do on occasion come to Earth in their glorified bodies, but only for very brief visits, such as when the archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary or the angels to the shepherds. Glorified bodies are not well suited to time and space, which is why Jesus wasn’t fully glorified until his ascension. Even in their non-glorified forms, the holy angels never stay very long on Earth (I think their overnighter in Sodom with Lot’s family was their longest recorded stay here). So how are these resurrected saints in their glorified bodies going to manage to live hundreds of years on Earth, allegedly as priests, surrounded by a still very imperfect and fallen nature?
The answer is they’re not, and the so-called Earth-bound millennial golden age kingdom is a fairy tale based on a lie. Revelation 20 isn’t about a golden age; it describes God’s Kingdom on Earth, which is a spiritual realm founded by Jesus. It’s referred to as a “millennial” period not because it lasts a thousand years, but because it lasts a lengthy and indeterminate (only God knows how long) period of time. So far, it’s been nearly 2000 years and counting. From that realm, Jesus reigns over all souls, including the souls of his spiritual enemies, both mortal and immortal. Note that his enemies are not in the Kingdom, but he still has authority over them. Reigning as priests with Jesus are all the saints who’ve been resurrected in what is called the first resurrection, along with born-again believers who are still on Earth in their mortal bodies (that would be us!).
We know that true believers are resurrected because Jesus said they are and then he revealed two of them – Moses and Elijah – during the transfiguration. We’re told that Moses and Elijah appeared in shimmering white robes and their faces shone “like the sun”. In fact, the disciples found their appearance so overwhelming, their legs gave out from beneath them and the usually straight-talking Peter could only babble nonsensically. Scripture describes other people responding similarly to God’s holy angels. Whenever they appear in glory to us humans, the angels nearly always say “Fear not!” as an opener, as their presence seems to strike fear in us or to physically incapacitate us, or both. I can’t imagine that a kingdom where all the humans were perpetually fainting or on the verge of fainting would function very efficiently or would be considered a golden age.
Jesus didn’t talk about an earthly millennial kingdom because there’s never going to be one. Jesus’ focus was God’s Kingdom on Earth, which is the Church of true believers: He taught about it. He preached about it. You could even say he waxed poetic about it. God’s Kingdom on Earth formed the lion’s share of Jesus’ teachings, and rightly so: His followers needed to know how to live in the Kingdom after their rebirth.
Jesus, as Messiah and Lord, reigns over us now and has done so since his resurrection. He took his place at the right hand of God after his ascension, and we who are born-again are in his Kingdom. What does it mean to be in God’s Kingdom? It means we’re spiritually protected from our enemies, the same ones who were Jesus’ enemies during his time on Earth. These enemies have no power over us, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice. More specifically, they have no power over us as long as we remain loyal to God. They may briefly have power over our bodies, as they did over Jesus’ body during his arrest and execution, but they have no power over our soul.
Do I believe that Jesus will return to Earth? Absolutely I believe that Jesus will return because he said he would. He said he would return in glory (that is, in his glorified body) and that he would send his holy angels to gather together the last of his believers to take them Home. He did not say he was coming back to set up an earthly kingdom; what he did say is “My Kingdom is not of this world”. He also reminded us that, as his followers, we we’ll have trouble in this world, but we should take heart because he’s overcome the world. Never once does he talk about a golden age.
The Kingdom of God has been up and running for the past nearly 2000 years and is the closest thing we’ll ever have to Heaven on Earth. So be very wary of wolves coming to you bearing good news of a future earthly golden age marketed as a messianic millennial kingdom, because if Jesus didn’t mention it, it ain’t gonna happen.
SCHISM
CHARLO, New Brunswick, March 1, 2024 – There’ll come a time of no more turnings, a time when no matter how much you preach, there’ll only be permanently deaf ears and ears that already hear. The sealings will be sealed and the saints will be undergoing their final trials to see where they belong in Heaven’s hierarchy, if indeed they belong at all.
Nothing will be certain still at that point except the fact of no more turnings.
And Jesus’ return.
And God’s coming wrath.
Did you know that the saints in the early Church believed they were already living the end? Already nearly 2000 years ago they were waiting for Jesus to come down the same way he went up. They were waiting for him to come down not to set up an earthly kingdom but to gather his people together and take them all Home the same way he had gone Home. This is what they believed, and that belief persisted for hundreds of years, through countless persecutions and martyrdoms.
And then one fine day in the early 4th century, Christianity was normalized, it was sanitized, it was compromised and institutionalized. This represented the greatest schism in all of human history – the dividing of the church from the Church.
The Church has lived on, though. The Church has survived. It has not changed. The Church has not been transitioned like Christianity. So not surprisingly, the Church is still persecuted and the latter-day saints still understand that we’re in the tribulation that began when the early-day saints said it did thousands of years ago. There are lulls in the war, but no ceasefires. There will never be a permanent ceasefire between the church and the Church.
There’ll also not be a seven-year Tribulation with a capital “T”. What there will be is a worsening, by orders of magnitude, of the now 2000-year tribulation. There will be a turning of thumbscrews, though not of souls anymore, because souls will be done turning when the orders of magnitude appear.
The Church has always been persecuted. Jesus said it would be and so it is. All the saints I know are mocked and despised; saints have always been mocked and despised: That’s how you know they’re saints. The Roman Catholic church, which first tried to supplant the Church and then tried to kill it by a thousand-year Inquisition, teaches that you have to die first to be a saint, and then only if the pope says you’re a saint, though I would be very hesitant to believe anything the pope says about spiritual matters, since he isn’t born-again. If he were, he’d know what a saint is.
The day after I was reborn, God showed me during my first-ever reading of the book of Revelation that the Roman Catholic church was the whore riding the beast. I didn’t want to believe it at the time, so God tucked that knowledge away for me until later, until a time when I could see it for myself. That time came three and a half years into my rebirth when I was sitting in a Roman Catholic pew with a key to the church door in my pocket. I was on my way to becoming holier than the pope when God opened my eyes and I saw where I was. I ran screaming. Actually, I walked very quietly and orderly out the front door in a state of shock at what I had just seen. Then I dropped off the key and never went back.
The church is an enemy of the Church in the same way that Lucifer appears as an angel of light. That’s all I’ll say about that for now. There are no more turnings and then comes the judgement.
We’re already living the end.
SCREECHER PREACHER
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, February 29, 2024 – I had the misfortune a few years ago of attending a church service where the minister screamed the Word. He didn’t just raise his voice out of courtesy for the people sitting in the back row; he hollered himself hoarse. It was my first (and only) time attending that church, and I’d unwittingly taken a seat near the front. Everything was fine for the first half-hour or so, as the minister just made some general church announcements, led a few hymns, and did a reading from the Gospel. But when he started preaching, it quickly turned into screeching, and I felt like I was sitting next to a speaker that was turned up too high and couldn’t be turned down.
I had to get away from him, and fast.
As unobtrusively as possible, I shifted a few rows back. But the screeching continued and even seemed to go up an octave, so I scooted as quickly as I could to the far end of the room. Still no good. Desperate for relief, I stuck balled-up Kleenex in my ears and put earmuffs on, but the sound tsunami only increased. I found the only way I could tolerate the excruciating pitch of the minister’s tirade was to stand next to the door, and then to stand outside the door, and then to start walking… all the way down the street.
Ahhh – much better!
I found out later that the yelling I’d experienced during the church service is actually a style of preaching common in some southern US denominations. The ear-splitting, larynx-destroying delivery is an affectation to convey the impression of passion rather than actual passion itself. The purpose of this style of preaching, I’ve since learned, is to demonstrate zeal, emphasize the urgency of the Gospel, and wake people up to the fact that God means business. Well, as a born-again believer, I certainly know that God means business, but he’s never had to yell at me and split my eardrums to convey that message.
We do a disservice to God when we deliver his Word in such a way that it becomes physically painful to listen to it, especially when all that yelling and screaming is just for show. Spiritual discomfort we should aim for at times, when it’s called for, but never physical discomfort. My enduring memory from that church visit is how painful it was to be there, not how uplifting or convicting it was. I would much rather have left that place spiritually convicted in some way than aurally assaulted.
I recalled this experience today when I unwittingly clicked on a YouTube video featuring a minister who preached in the same assault-style method. I had to immediately hit the mute button and get him off my screen. Never again!
Here’s a funnier version of what I heard at that church. Frankly, I’d rather listen to the goat than the preacher.
Just a heads up, though – you might want to turn the volume waaaay down:
THE RAPTURE AND THE ASCENSION: PART 1 OF 2
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, February 29, 2024 – Since my dream last summer, I’ve been poring over feature-length movies, short movies, and other depictions of the alleged future event known as the the “pre-tribulation rapture”, or “rapture” for short. What I’ve found is that very little in these fictional presentations is scriptural, which should not be surprising, since the rapture itself is a modern invention that isn’t named in scripture. What is named is an event described as a “taking up” or an ascension. The ascension has already happened to several people (most famously to Jesus) and is prophesied to happen to many more.
There are major differences between the rapture and the ascension, mainly because they’re not the same phenomenon. Since its creation in the mid-1800s, the pre-tribulation rapture and its related mythology have led countless people, including born-again believers, into error. But what is it about the rapture that leaves so many so rapt?
First of all, the rapture gets a lot of press. Over the decades, untold millions have been poured into promoting and marketing the alleged future sudden disappearance of “true believers”. That’s why there are so many feature-length movies (we, the “afflicted and poor”, certainly aren’t bankrolling them!) as well as well-oiled TV and Internet evangelists stumping for the rapture at every turn. The trend has also infected church youth groups, with many of the short phone-filmed rapture videos written and performed by teenagers.
The second main reason for the rapture’s popularity is its formulaic “easy on the soul” mythology. In movies and short videos, the rapture is almost always presented the same way. The opening scenes portray a family or a group interacting amicably, with occasional squabbles. Some of the members are described as being “true believers”, while the rest are either unbelievers or backsliders. The true believers are shown urging and warning the others to repent and turn back to God, but their efforts are mocked or ignored. Then, out of the blue, the rapture occurs and the true believers disappear, leaving behind only their clothes and jewelry and whatever else they were wearing or carrying. Sometimes the left-behind clothes are neatly folded, sometimes they lay in a heap, and sometimes they remain rather comically strapped into the front seat of a car or lounging on a park bench.
The rest of the movie deals with the fallout of the rapture event on the people who are “left behind”. We learn how they feel about their dilemma and we see them struggling to adapt to the post-rapture reality. The so-called tribulation period has also been unleashed at the same time as the pre-tribulation rapture, bringing with it additional challenges (e.g., militarized world government, forced mark of the beast, etc.). Many of the left-behind believers respond to the ever-worsening situation by upping their game as Christians, while many more turn their back on Christianity altogether. Those who do turn back to God are persecuted and martyred.
A third reason why the rapture has caught the attention of Christians is that it offers hope beyond hope. Where scripture tells of a time when it will be too late to convert and be healed, those who believe in the rapture are assured that it’s never too late. The message here is: “Take your time; there’s always another bus” (even though in reality the final one’s long gone).
The ascension is nothing like the rapture. Rather than a one-off event, ascensions have occurred throughout history, with the final ascension set to take place at Jesus’ second coming. Also, instead of a disappearance, the ascension is a physical rising of a believer, body and soul, into the air. The rising is described in scripture as a “taking up”, so that whoever witnesses the ascension sees the ascending person literally rising up into the clouds. No clothes are reported to have been left behind after the ascensions, except for Elijah’s prayer mantle, which Elisha immediately claimed and put to good use.
Besides Jesus, other notable ascendees include Enoch and Elijah, as well as the two witnesses in the book of Revelation. There are also the holy angels described by Jesus as “ascending and descending” and the ascending and descending angels described by Jacob in one of his dreams. Additionally, random unnamed believers known only by their location (e.g., “in the field”) or activity (e.g., “grinding at the mill”) are likewise unexpectedly “taken”.
Paul describes the final ascension in some detail, explaining how the dead in Christ along with any remaining believers on Earth will be “caught up… to meet the Lord in the air” at Jesus’ second coming. Jesus mentions the same event in both Matthew and Mark, with his angels being sent to “gather together” the last believing stragglers from one end of heaven to the other. The use of the word “heaven” implies that the believers rise into the air with the angels, where Jesus is waiting for them in his glorified body.
The lists below highlight the main differences between the rapture and the ascension.
THE RAPTURE
- People disappear
- One- or two-time mass event
- Not in scripture
- Clothes left behind
- Heavily promoted
- Unknown until the 1800s
THE ASCENSION
- Taken up into the sky
- Multiple singular events and final mass event
- In scripture
- Clothes not left behind
- Not promoted
- Known since Enoch
Given these and other significant differences between the mythical rapture and the scriptural ascension, what is the point of pushing the rapture not only on Christians but also on the public in general? In other words, who created the pre-tribulation rapture mythology, why was it created, who benefits, who’s pushing it, and why are they pushing it now? And most importantly, why is all this especially relevant to us as born-again believers?
I explore these questions in detail in “THE RAPTURE AND THE ASCENSION: PART 2 OF 2”, posted here.
NOT READING THE APOCRYPHA? YOU’RE MISSING OUT!
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And their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfil My commandments, and I will be their Father and they shall be My children.
And they all shall be called children of the living God, and every angel and every spirit shall know, yea, they shall know that these are My children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that I love them.
Book of Jubilees 1:23-24
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CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 28, 2024 – If you haven’t yet done so, you should start reading the apocrypha. Many of the books that are excluded from the Bible are as important as those that are included. At the very least, these “rejected” writings (i.e., rejected centuries ago by the worldly church and more recently by profit-driven publishers) fill in a lot of blanks and so paint a more detailed picture of the people and events in scripture. If you say you read the Bible but your reading doesn’t include the apocrypha, you’re missing out on countless blessings and insights that God wants to give you through his Word.
I’m currently working my way through as much of the apocrypha as I can find on the Internet. Yes, there are hard-copy books that have different collections of the apocrypha, but nothing I’ve found so far has all of the publicly available apocryphal books in one volume or in a set of volumes. I guess I’m holding out for the impossible (a book with all the apocrypha, including the “nonexistent” texts hidden in the Vatican and in private collections). In the meantime, I read whatever apocryphal books I can find online, and I’m deeply grateful for the efforts of the people who posted them.
Also, if you’re so inclined (and have the technology), you might want to consider printing off each book as you find it (inkjet, not laser!). There’s a good chance that the apocrypha, along with the Bible, will one day vanish from the Internet due to the looming “hate speech” laws in former Christian nations. If (when) that happens, your printed copies will be a precious gift to the future Church.
The beautiful verse at the start of this article is from the first page of the first chapter of the Book of Jubilees. I include it here as an example of the richness of the prose and the force of the Spirit that is characteristic of many of the apocryphal texts. The setting for this verse is one of God’s conversations with Moses on Mount Sinai when he was giving him the Ten Commandments. I do not consider these words “uninspired”, which is the measure used to include or exclude books from the official canon (that, and the publishers’ bottom line). When I say in my blog articles that “the Bible’s been messed with”, this in part is what I’m referring to.
I’ve posted links below to some of the better-known apocryphal books as well as to a few that are less well known. I’ve also included links to their descriptions.
Note that the books appear here in no particular order.
May you be as blessed in reading the spiritual treasure trove of the apocrypha as you are in reading the Bible!
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The Book of Jubilees
Description: Book of Jubilees – Wikipedia
Online text: Jubilees (pseudepigrapha.com)
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2 Esdras
Description: 2 Esdras – Wikipedia
Online text: The Apocrypha: 2 Esdras: 2 Esdras Chapter 1 (sacred-texts.com)
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1 Enoch
Description: Book of Enoch – Wikipedia
Online text: The Book of Enoch: The Book of Enoch: Chapter I (sacred-texts.com)
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Apocalypse of Abraham
Description: Apocalypse of Abraham – Wikipedia
Online text: box.pdf (marquette.edu)
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Apocalypse of Elijah
Description: Apocalypse of Elijah – Wikipedia
Online text: apocalypse-of-elijah.pdf (wordpress.com)
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Life of Adam and Eve (Apocalypse of Moses)
Description: Life of Adam and Eve – Wikipedia
Online text: Apocalypse Of Moses (scriptural-truth.com)
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Book of Giants
Description: The Book of Giants – Wikipedia
Online text: The Book of Giants • The Lost Books of The Bible
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THE WELLSPRING OF PRIVATE REVELATION
CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 27, 2024 – I stumbled across a website today that preached the primacy of the Bible as the sole source of Christian revelation. To the website’s authors, the Bible should be used not only to inform but to restrict information and dictate behavior. Private revelation, which if you’ll recall forms the basis for both the Old and the New testaments, should not be trusted. In other words, the website promotes that God allegedly stopped talking to his people after John signed off on his book of Revelation nearly 2000 years ago, and none of us have heard a peep from him since.
This is obviously nonsense. The whole point of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was to pay the sin price so that “whosoever will” could get back in right relationship with God through spiritual rebirth. The establishment of God’s Church on Earth, with Jesus as the high priest and born-again believers as priests and prophets, has reopened the doors of communication with God through his Holy Spirit. Recall that in the gospel of John, Jesus promised us we’d be able to go directly to God in prayer; we wouldn’t have go through anyone else, not even him. So if we born-again believers are back in right relationship with God and have an open channel of communication with him and with Jesus through God’s Holy Spirit (as promised by Jesus in John’s gospel), how can we not be receiving private revelation? Our whole relationship with God and Jesus is based on private revelation.
We should never dismiss the reality of private revelation. It plays a profound role in the body of believers and always has. Without private revelation, there would be no Bible because there would be no prophets to relay God’s Word. Jesus didn’t warn us to beware of prophets; he warned us to beware of false prophets. A prophet is someone who has been sent by God and speaks God’s Word on behalf of God. A false prophet is someone who has not been sent by God and so does not speak God’s Word, even if he or she quotes the Bible, chapter and verse.
Private revelation has not ceased in the intervening years between Jesus’ earthly ministry and now. God has not stopped talking with his people and is in fact with them 24/7 rather than just on occasion as he was with the Old Testament prophets. We born-again believers are profoundly blessed to have ongoing communication with God through his Spirit, but this also comes with a great responsibility. God expects much more from his children than he does from others. We are to speak his Word in Truth as he gives us guidance to speak it, not when we decide on our own volition to speak it. He’ll test us on this, to see how much he can entrust us with.
I love the Bible and dote on it; I sleep next to it, read it every day, and carry it with me wherever I go, but I also know that the Bible’s been messed with, especially in the agenda-driven retranslations and in the leaving out of certain books. The Bible contains men’s words as well as God’s Word, so I don’t worship the Bible. I don’t consider it a holy relic. I don’t hold it up for adoration. I use it as a resource, which is what God intends us to use it for, but it’s God’s communication to me through his Holy Spirit that is the pure source perpetually springing up in me. That wellspring has not been messed with and is the source of my private revelation, the source that Jesus promised us that God would give to all genuine believers.
Private revelation from God to his people has never ceased and never will, as it forms the basis of our relationship with God. In Old Testament times, private revelation came via designated prophets, who were then to relay the revelation either to the general public or to a specific people or to certain individuals, but now God’s revelations flow through born-again believers as one of God’s many kept promises that are rewards for Jesus’ sacrifice.
Regardless of what the “Bible or nothing!” website claims, we should never be wary or dismissive of private revelation coming from genuine believers; we should, however, be wary of so-called revelations from those who claim to be speaking on God’s behalf but are not. We’ll know the difference between those who are sent by God and those who aren’t because God will let us know through (you guessed it!) private revelation.
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I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.
Jeremiah 31:33-34
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If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
John 14:23
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But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
John 4:14
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A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 