AN ADDENDUM

AN ADDENDUM

                I discussed a number of prophets in my last article and since there are quite a few Adventists among my friends, I’m sure some of you might wonder how I feel about Ellen White as a prophet.                 As a young Adventist I grew up on Ellen White. My father had an extensive knowledge of her writings and we sincerely attempted to live out every word of it.

                I have a great deal of respect for Ellen as a godly woman and an inspirational writer. I do not believe that she was infallible as are none of the other inspirational writers in a post canonical world. The Bible’s instruction is to test all subsequent prophecy and to hold onto that which is good.

                Nevertheless I am thankful for the foundations of Protestant prophecy that I received from her writings. She offered a good foundational protestant base of prophecy that became the foundations of my own views to this day. And yet as Ellen said it herself: There was much yet to be revealed beyond her time and it would be discovered in a complete understanding of Daniel and Revelation and the Minor Prophets and she was right.

                Here is the problem that has plagued all Protestant and Catholic prophecy. Since until recent years it seemed impossible for Israel to become a nation again, Bible scholars were forced to treat some prophecies as not being literal. They called them allegories rather than literal events to be fulfilled. And to make God’s Word true, they began to teach replacement theology. They taught that Israel had been finally rejected by God. So the church was to be the new Israel to which all of the promises were written.

                So when Israel did come back into their land, this forced Biblical scholars back to the drawing board. Indeed, Israel’s existence as a nation again is nothing short of miraculous and as such it becomes a new kingpin upon which all end time prophecy now hangs. Some denominations stubbornly continue to deny the significance of Israel’s existence and they continue to stubbornly refute that many prophecies will now be fulfilled literally that were once thought figurative.

                This is not to cast dispersion upon Ellen White or any other prophets that came before Israel’s return. Not even prophets can prophesy that which God has chosen to keep hidden until the proper time. There were however a few prophetic students in the 1800s that concluded that Israel must come back into their own land in order for end time prophecies to be fulfilled and one of these was Sir Isaac Newton and there were others as well.

                And now, with the Biblical prophecies concerning Israel literally evident before our eyes, other revelations are coming out as well. One of these being the fact that Jesus fulfilled the Spring Feasts perfectly to the day and hour and in order at His first coming and therefore we must assume that He will fulfill the fall feasts just as accurately at His second coming. So we need to learn how to frame our understanding of Bible prophecy around the Fall Feasts of Israel which will be just as literally fulfilled in these last days… in fact the book of Revelation cannot be rightly understood apart from the framework of the Feasts for most of what is said in the book of Revelation is derived from the Fall Feasts.

                I do not make light of those who came before us for I contend that we stand on some mighty big prophetic shoulders. Prophetic revelation is progressive, which means that we don’t toss out what came before but rather we refine it and build upon it, making corrections where need be. As I often say; The Feast Days of Israel form a sort of DNA by which we can make sure that we are not getting off track in some way.

                God is calling us to use this DNA now, because large portions of the church are drifting from the fundamentals of the Gospel and embracing the doctrines of demons. They are doing this for the sake of global unity and they are literally selling their souls to the devil and to the antichrist.

                We need to use that same DNA in our understanding and support of Israel because many of the leaders of Israel are also drifting from the fundamentals of the Hebrew Scriptures and they too are preparing to embrace the antichrist in place of the true Messiah Yeshua. Therefore we need to be wise in what parts of Israel we support as well. If we are not wise, then we will be pouring our money and support into the globalist regime of the antichrist rather than into God’s true plans for Israel.

                Bonnie and I became Messianic Jews in order to learn the truth about the Feasts first hand and we still consider ourselves to be Messianic. However the Lord has led us to a church that is not Messianic as such, but that loves the Jews and is praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the preparation of our hearts to receive God’s final outpouring for the harvest.

                We have long ago stopped chasing after labels, but rather the truth and the truth is that the Body of Christ desperately needs the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in latter rain power so that when reality hits the fan, we will be ready to receive power from on high to carry the final message of Yeshua to the world. This final message that must be preached is the Gospel of the kingdom and it must be attended with the same power by which Jesus demonstrated it in His day.

                Churches that are squeamish about the Holy Spirit and His work will not be ready to receive that which is about to be poured out. Their formal services have long since budgeted the Holy Spirit out of their programs… and pride of intellectualism has barred them from God’s great outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh. They will call it the work of the devil and they will continue on with their traditions as if God is not moving in the land.

                Just as in the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the first Pentecost, it is messy. God has a work to do in us that includes breaking our pride and self-dignity. Christianity is not a religion, but a living breathing organism of the Holy Spirit. When He sneezes we all wipe our noses so to speak. He is the head of this body, not us. Therefore we need to learn to hear His voice and to do exactly what He says if we are to carry out His work in the end time harvest. Jesus modeled this for us by His life and then He sent His power down to us to carry on His work.

                We have lost most of that power and we need to repent of our religiosity and pray to receive it back again. All of creation is waiting with anxious longing for the revealing of the sons of God. We are that generation. Will we take the call or will we leave it to a future generation?

                It is not about comparing doctrines any more, it is about coming into the fullness of Christ in every area of our lives. It is about using the entire Bible as our text book instead of just the texts that support our views. It is about walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and in obedience to the living Word of God.

                It will be in earth’s darkest hour that we will be called upon to rise and shine for the glory of the Lord will have risen upon us. Therefore I refuse to be identified by any of men’s labels, rather I am pressing into the Most Holy Place to meet with God there face to face. There are many prophets to help us along the way, but our full faith must be in God and His Word as the Holy Spirit teaches us all things.

                Think about this for a moment: When the great shaking takes place most of what we see as the structure of the church today will be gone. The voices we hear from the pulpit, from TV and from the internet will have been silenced. We will be cut off from all buying and selling and most likely running for our lives from the cities and even from our homes.

                In that day we will be filled with power from on high so that desperate people around us will look to us for comfort, for understanding and for hope. They may even be looking to us for miracles of physical healing as well as a miraculous supply of food to eat and water to drink. Many will gladly receive Jesus as their Savior as the ranks of the redeemed swell into a great company. Thousands of desperate people will come to the Lord even as dead Christians go out to join the antichrist. Even in the midst of persecution millions worldwide will come to Christ for salvation as His true people demonstrate the same miraculous powers that Jesus demonstrated at His first coming and even greater works than these because He will be pouring it out upon millions of believers.

                In other words, I don’t think that the final harvest is going to look like we may picture it today. We see the chaos and the hatred forming right now that will be unleashed upon the world as the spirit of Satan is given free access to men’s souls. We can see it coming.

                How much time we have left is largely up to the Body of Christ. Really it is up to God the Father, but He in turn is watching for the maturity of the harvest. It will come when the fields are ripe for the harvest, of both evil and righteousness. So whatever your denomination may be, make sure your heart is completely right with God. Adventists teach that the true Sabbath of God will be a big issue in the last days. If it is, then true Christians must be willing to change (something that won’t be too hard to do since many of the church structures will be non-existent by then.)

                I think it more likely that our tests will be more along the lines of faithfulness to Jesus Christ and to His Word.  WE have seen this in eth persecution of Christians in other places. It always seems to involve our allegiance to Jesus Christ. Even now they are trying to ban Bibles in California calling them terrorist books or progenitors of hate speech. So it will soon be thought that anyone who is a fundamental Bible believing Christian is a terrorist and a hate monger. Even nominal churches will back away from us and side with the Beast. We see that happening right now too. And the same Christians that hate us hate the Jews as well, so we can see these lines forming in the sand right before our eyes.

                Well, as usual, I have gotten myself in deep water. Shall I publish this or dump it? You know what I decided. Give your life fully to Jesus today and He will become your new life. And there are no issues more important than that!