Category Archives: Kingdom of God

How to Conquer a Death Cult

by Andrew Torba

There are moments in history when the veil is lifted, and the true nature of an ideology is laid bare for all to see. The aftermath of the cowardly assassination of Charlie Kirk was one of those moments. While patriots across America mourned the loss of a bold voice for freedom, truth, and the future of our nation, the Left erupted in celebration.

They laughed. They cheered. They shared memes. They hailed the murderer as a hero. They desecrated the memory of a man gunned down for the simple act of speaking truth.

This is not an anomaly. This is not the work of a few bad apples. This is the logical endpoint of liberalism: a death cult that worships at the altar of destruction.

At its core, this ideology venerates death. It champions the right to end innocent life in the womb, rebranding the slaughter of the unborn as “healthcare” and a sacred right. It encourages the chemical and surgical mutilation of healthy young bodies, a grotesque parody of medicine that severs the individual from their own biological reality. It pushes policies that dissolve the fundamental bonds of family and community, leaving isolated, atomized individuals adrift in a meaningless sea of consumer choices and state dependency.

Now, they celebrate political assassinations.

This is who they are. This is what they believe in. There is no life in their ideology only decay, degradation, and death. They cannot create, so they destroy. They cannot build, so they tear down. They cannot defend truth, so they silence those who speak it.

Charlie Kirk was a threat to them not because he was violent, not because he preached hatred, but because he represented something they despise: life, vitality, courage, and a future for our people. He stood for the America they are trying to erase. In their twisted world, the murder of a young man with a family, friends, and a mission is cause for joy. In their moral vacuum, the blood of the innocent is just another tool in their war against God, nature, and order.

We see you. We see your hatred. We see your emptiness. We see the hollow, lifeless eyes of a movement that has nothing left to offer but destruction, and we will not be silenced. We will mourn Charlie. We will honor his legacy. We will continue his work. And we will remember this moment, the moment the death cult showed its true face to the world.

They think this will frighten us into submission. They are wrong. It only strengthens our resolve.

For we are the builders. We are the defenders. We are the bearers of life, faith, and hope. We will never stop fighting for the future they are so desperate to destroy.

The modern liberal worldview is a hollowed-out edifice built upon a foundation of nihilism and resentment. It is not merely misguided; it is, in its essence, a metaphysical rebellion against creation itself. Its pillars are not principles of life, order, or continuity, but glorifications of decay, fragmentation, and ultimate negation.

This is not an accident. A culture that severs itself from its spiritual and biological roots—from faith, from heritage, from the natural order of the family—has nothing left to affirm. Having rejected the sacred, it can only profane. Having rejected creation, it can only dismantle.

This is the death cult. It masks its emptiness with the language of “compassion” and “progress,” but its fruits are everywhere: fatherless homes, soul-crushing addiction, mental illness on an epidemic scale, and a culture that produces young people so deracinated and hopeless that they cheer for murder.

They offer no future, only an endless, sterile present of managed decline. They cannot create beauty, so they deface monuments. They cannot produce harmony, so they amplify chaos. They cannot foster life, so they defend every manifestation of death.

Our response cannot be mere political opposition. It must be a total and profound rejection of their entire worldview. We must be the unequivocal champions of life. We must build large, faithful families. We must create beautiful and lasting things. We must reaffirm our connection to God, to our people, and to the land. We must be so generative, so life-affirming, and so filled with purpose that their culture of death simply withers in the shadow of our vitality.

They celebrate the darkness because they have forgotten what the light looks like. It is our duty to shine it so brightly that they are forced to remember, or to look away.

The spirit of the age does not knock politely at the Church’s door; it slithers in directly from the pulpit. The same death cult that celebrates murder in the streets and glorifies mutilation in the classroom has found a comfortable home within the compromised walls of modern Christianity. It has exchanged the robust, world-conquering faith of our fathers for a weak, effeminate, and apologetic social club, a chaplaincy to the very regime that seeks our destruction.

This infiltration is a betrayal of our entire history. Look to the men who built Christendom. They were not managers of decline. They were not anxious pleasers of the world. They were conquerors. They were kings, knights, saints, and martyrs who carved civilization out of wilderness and darkness with the sword of truth and the shield of faith. They understood that the Gospel was not a suggestion; it was a mandate to reclaim every inch of creation for Christ the King.

This was a masculine Christianity. It spoke of order, justice, duty, and victory. It built cathedrals that scraped the heavens, universities that pursued divine wisdom, and legal systems based on eternal law. It tamed empires and baptized cultures. It did not ask for permission from the world; it commanded the world to bend the knee.

Now, look at what we have been given. A Church that has traded its crown for a begging bowl. A faith that preaches “tolerance” instead of truth, “dialogue” instead of discipleship, and “inclusion” instead of repentance. It busies itself with ESG scores, climate change rituals, and draping rainbow flags over the cross in a pathetic attempt to gain the approval of a world that will always despise it.

This weakness is a theological and spiritual sickness. It is a failure of nerve and a failure of faith. It is the direct result of a Church that has abandoned its masculine, commanding nature and instead embraced the world’s feminine, receptive values of passivity, feel-good therapy, and endless compromise.

We see it in the pulpit, where the fire of prophecy has been replaced by the damp squib of motivational speaking. We see it in the seminary, where future shepherds are taught to be bureaucrats rather than warriors. We see it in the pews, where men are given no mission, no challenge, and no standard to strive for and so they leave.

This must end. The roots of this parasitic ideology must be ripped out, burned, and salt poured into the earth where they grew.

We must return, with unapologetic fervor, to the Christianity that built the West.

We must preach a God who is a Father, a King, and a Judge not a vague, affirming force. We must call men to be saints, not therapists; to be leaders of households and nations, not passive observers. We must reclaim the arts, the laws, the sciences, and the governance of our people as our rightful domain, given to us by God to steward for His glory.

This means cleansing our institutions. It means defunding and disempowering every committee, diocese, and seminary that trades in this death-cult poison. It means supporting only those bishops and pastors who act like fathers and generals, not like corporate spokesmen. It means building parallel networks of education, media, and community that operate wholly outside the corrupt systems of the world.

We are not called to be a quaint subculture. We are called to be a conquering army, baptizing the nations for the glory of God. The same faith that once turned the Roman world upside down is still there, waiting beneath the layers of weakness and compromise. The remnant remains intact. It is time to rediscover it. It is time to stop managing our retreat and start planning our advance.

The world offers death. We must offer life, fierce, abundant, and eternal. We must be so strong in faith, so clear in truth, and so bold in action that the world has no choice but to once again reckon with the power of the God we serve.

Do not let the fire in your belly die. The righteous anger, the profound grief, the clarity of purpose that Charlie Kirk’s martyrdom ignited within you. This is not a fleeting emotion to be forgotten with the next news cycle. This is a sacred fuel. Guard it. Nurture it. Feed it with prayer, with action, and with an unbreakable resolve to ensure his death was not in vain.

Let this flame forge you into a sharper tool for this battle, a more formidable wall against the advancing darkness. The world wants you to get tired, to get comfortable, to forget. Do not give them that satisfaction. Honor Charlie’s memory by making this fire the eternal pilot light of your spirit, guiding your every thought, word, and deed until the work is done and our people are once again free, sovereign, and thriving under God.

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab AI Inc
Christ is King

Published in Bold Christian Writing

Why Jesus Had To Come Again

Most Bible-believing Christians wait Jesus’ second coming after 2000 years.

We are told that Jesus’ return will be unexpected. People point to Matthew 24:36, which states, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” 

But in that same discourse to the same disciples, Jesus said I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take placeMatthew 24:34.

Jesus’ words are precisely why the early Christians expected Jesus to return very soon, even within their lifetimes. As we read the letters of the apostles, we see that evidence repeatedly.

How could the apostles be so sure? The answer is they believed Jesus.

There are over one hundred passages in the apostles’ letters. These passages show how the first believers were more than confident of his return in their lifetime.

Just as these ‘timing’ passages confine Christ’s Second Coming to the first-century generation, they saw the end of the age squarely in that generation as well. See e.g.

-Phil 3:20.  . And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

-Titus 2:11f. . . . . we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior

-2 Thes 2:1.  . .  about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him.

James 5:8-9. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

But when his Second Coming did not appear to happen, how could the delay be explained? Some scholars suggest that early Christians misinterpreted Jesus’ words, leading to disappointment when the Second Coming did not occur as anticipated. Even C S Lewis blatantly said Jesus was mistaken! He said Jesus did not come back as he said he would. (See his book “The World’s Last Night”). That is also the view of many liberal scholars, atheists and Islamic writers.

He failed to show up?

But is there any biblical reason to believe anyone would optically ‘see’ him coming in his glorified resurrected body to earth? Paul described the ascended Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no human being has seen or can see

(1 Timothy 6:13-16).

This demand for him to be seen optically is a grave mistake. It discredits Jesus. These teachers fail to look at the rest of the New Testament. The evidence is there. The disciples believed him. He had to come on time. If not, Christianity would be falsified. Yet we know it is true.

It further appears that Jesus intended the disciples to believe in His imminent return. He often urged His followers to whom he spoke face to face to “be ready”. These passages show this:

Mark 13:33. And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert[

Luke 12:40.  You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.”

Luke 21:36. Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”

These passages must be seen in their historical context—Jesus was speaking to Jewish disciples not to us.

Paul hoped to see the resurrection before he passed away, see:

Philippians 3:11, I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

And 1 Corinthians 15: 51-53.  But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!  It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. That is resurrection!

And most importantly, the author of Hebrews wrote:

    For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. 25 And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. 26 If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come a second time, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.  Hebrews 9:24-28.

Did you catch that?

It is a fact that Jesus’ sacrificial death assures us of sins forgiven. He has effectively dealt with our sins by his death on the cross, as the apostles’ letters in the New Testament attest. We believe this today.

However, there is more!

The Jews in the Old Testament eagerly awaited the high-priest’s coming out of the temple on the Day of Atonement each year. His emergence alive from the Holy of Holies meant their sins were atoned for.

In like manner, Jesus would come to bring completed salvation to all believers, eagerly awaiting His coming a second time.

Without his return, those First Century believers would have expected to pass away and go to Sheol. There they would await the resurrection.

That’s why he had to come a second time.

Of course, few today believe we go to Sheol, but to Heaven. That’s what we hear and sing about at every funeral of a Christian!

Now because of his return we will enjoy the resurrection and Heaven!

I am not saying here that you, dear reader, lack complete salvation today.

Why?

Because He has already come and completed your salvation—even if you don’t believe that!

The Replacement of the Jerusalem Temple

Commentary of John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:13-17)

Commentary verses 13-17

13. The Passover of the Jews was near. There would be many thousands in Jerusalem for the Passover–the most important Jewish feast of the year. Note the term ‘near’ (Greek engys) which always means very close and occurs 30 times in the New Testament. It can never mean many years hence, let alone 2000 years!

15. He drove them all out of the temple. By ‘temple’ is meant the court of the Gentiles where non-Jews could worship. This was also the place where the traders selling oxen and sheep and doves for sacrifice and the money changers did their business.

16. My Father’s house: This is a clear claim to be the Son of God. He is establishing a whole new order, the end of the temple worship and the whole Jewish religion—the start of the new age.

By Jesus’ cleansing the temple, he demonstrated his authority over it.

From the very beginning of all four gospel accounts, this is Jesus’ clear objective—replacement of everything Jewish, replacement, replacement.

17. Jesus’ disciples remembered Psalm 69:9 in which David expressed his complaint to God about his enemies’ scorn and his zeal for God’s house (the Temple): “For zeal for your house has consumed me and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.”

His zeal for God’s house and the purity of worship, will certainly consume him in his continual fight against the Jewish leaders as we read in this passage. Ultimately, this engaged his entire attention, with his continuous conflict with the authorities, even to up his death. 

The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do you show us as your authority for doing these things?”  Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.  (John 2:18-22)

Commentary verses 18-22

18. John used the term “Jews” throughout his gospel to mean the Jewish ruling establishment, not the general Jewish population.

The rulers are outraged by his statements which challenge their authority. What is your authority to be doing these destructive acts in the holy place? Who do you think you are? What evidence do you have?

19. Jesus ignores answering them directly. They think he speaks of the temple building, the absolute centre and symbol of God’s worship in Israel. The disciples thought the same, until after his resurrection.

But he says prophetically ‘you destroy this temple and I will raise it up’. He knew they would try to destroy him but he would be raised from death. Perhaps he gestured towards his own body as he said this.

A mere “man” would never say this. No dead “man” can have such power over his body. This is the Messiah, the Son of God!

This is an extraordinary statement. The Body of Christ will be what is rebuilt, replaced—the tabernacle of David restored (see Amos 9:11 and Acts 15:16)!

Then within that generation the Jerusalem temple would be destroyed (Matthew 24) and many Jewish people would suffer the vengeance and wrath of God. They will fall by the edge of the sword and “all things which have been written will be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:20-24).

Jesus spoke here prophetically about when the temple will be destroyed. The Roman army, as we know took place in 70 AD, ended the Mosaic age with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. The whole system, lasting many centuries, was deemed invalid by God.

Jesus was acting as God’s replacement temple. He was the reality to which the temple pointed all along. All that the temple had meant for Israel for almost one thousand years was now to be found in Israel’s Messiah. The presence of God which human beings longed for would be found through a personal connection with Christ, not in a building in Jerusalem. 

His apparent contempt for the huge, sacred, magnificent temple was all the evidence that the rulers needed to condemn Him at his trial:  Finally, two men came forward declaring, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” (Matthew 26:60-61}.

On the cross they taunted him with his statement saying Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!” (Matthew 27:40). Three days later God raised him from the dead!

20. The Jews then asked him how he could possibly rebuild the temple in three days if it took so long to build. But he ignored their question. They will have to wait and see the inevitable.

In the meantime, His claim, in their judgment, was ridiculous and indicated, as they supposed, that he had no authority to do what he had done.

 20-22. John here tells the reader that Jesus spoke of the temple of his body. John revealed the plot early for readers. John did not leave his readers in suspense till the end.

So John tells us it was only after Jesus was raised from the dead, that the disciples remembered what he said. Only then could they believe the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. What ‘scripture’?

Without doubt, the Old Testament Psalmist David predicted his resurrection:

No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.  My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. Psalm 16:9-10

And Peter quotes David this in his address on the day of Pentecost:

He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.  “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.  (Acts 2:31-32).

In the New Testament, Jesus is often referred to as the temple of God, symbolizing that he embodies the presence and glory of God. In his own words about himself:

I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the Temple (Matthew 12:6)

And Paul:

all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:16-17)

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To be continued next post: The Replacement of the Jerusalem Temple—Part 2

the Authority of Jesus

Some question the authority of Jesus. Yep, I know it’s strange.

Do they have a Bible? Here are just a few texts illustrating His authority:

Jesus told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth’. Mat 28:18.

‘All things have been handed over to me by my Father’  Mat 11:27.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand’John 3:35.

‘Father, glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him’.  John 17:2.

His authority in His coming again

Long ago He came on the clouds of Heaven in judgment on wayward Israel. See Jesus’ words, Luke 21:22:

For those will be days of God’s vengeance, and the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled.

Read Jesus words in Matthew 24:30:

And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the land. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 

And His amazing authority that follows recorded in verses 24:32-34:

“Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door.  I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place.

He claimed his return was very near, right at the door, and not 2000 years in the future as many suppose. There would absolutely be no point telling his disciples His coming was far and away in the future!

The seat of Jesus’ authority

The actual seat of Christ’s throne both then and forever is the Jerusalem that is in Heaven, not on Earth, just as he told Pilate—John 18:36:

“My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”  

And see Hebrews 12:22-23.

. . .  you [believers] have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. 

See also Galatians 4:26:

   But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem.

The seat of Christ’s throne then and forever is with the Father as Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4:31-32:

Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.’

And Peter on the Day of Pentecost, Acts 2:33:

Now he is exalted to the place of highest honour in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today

And Stephen as he boldly told his accusers, Acts 7:48-49:

. . . the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says,

 ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that?’ asks the Lord. Could you build me such a resting place? Didn’t my hands make both heaven and earth?’

As Paul wrote to the Philippians 2:9-10:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Erroneous teachings

Dispensational teachers say that Jesus’ return to the earth will mean He will establish His Kingdom on earth where He will reign from Jerusalem”. some even think He will sit a new temple! They try to support these assertions with texts like Isaiah 2:2-4, 11:6-9, Jeremiah 3:17; Luke 1:31-32,Revelation 5:10, 19:15, 20:4-6).

Nothing here about his return to earth, nor his rule from earthly Jerusalem. No. He rules from heaven where He has ascended on high with the Father. See Revelation 3: 12 re the overcomers: 

. . . . .  they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God.

See also Psalm 2:3, 9 and Acts 4:25-26.

. . . .   But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. . . . . .  You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.’”

Luke 1:31-32 “The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”  Israel? We believers are the Israel of God, Galatians 6:16.

Others draw attention to the obvious situation here on earth that wickedness prevails under satan and thus conclude that our Lord has limited authority.

Satan can be bound! Believers can resist him. Believers have a greater One within them. Jesus showed he could bind satan and plunder his goods (Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27 and Luke 11:21-22).

Jesus gave his disciples power and authority over evil spirits. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.(Matthew 10:8).

The Lord has created all people with the power of choice. He will not act against our free will. He invites us to choose between life and death, light and darkness, truth and lies.

Conclusion

Let us take heart. Our mighty King of Kings rules from heaven where He has ascended on high with the Father. And his people reign with Him here. We don’t look forward to the absurd notion that Jesus will come and reign in a stone temple in earthly Jerusalem for 1000 years.

We look forward to eternal life with Him. What an exhilarating future awaits us!

Rejoice!

Peter and His End Times Teaching

Peter wrote: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time(1 Peter 1:3-5).

Peter wrote this letter to Christian believers living in various places, scattered throughout Pontos, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These were real places in the Ancient World. It’s interesting if you check Acts chapter 2 you find those same places mentioned among the many other regions, from which people had come to Jerusalem for the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. Acts 2 describes how on that day the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.

So Peter was addressing some of those same people who had heard him proclaiming on that day some 25 or 30 years previously. These would have gone back to their homelands and no doubt bore witnesses for Jesus by the power of the Spirit where they lived.

He encouraged his readers, both Hebrew and Gentile believers, to prepare for a most important, earth-shattering event that was soon to take place. Terrible judgment was about to come on many Jews in Jerusalem and Judea. The temple and the Jewish religion known for centuries, Judaism, would be destroyed and replaced by a new creation. This would also seriously impact them and many traditional Jews where they lived.

Although Peter wrote that they were born again and their inheritance was safe in heaven, he said to them that their salvation was the future –it was ready to be revealed! When? In ‘the last time’. What?

Yes, the last time or the end of the age.  That’s not the end of history or the end of the world but the end of the Mosaic era, the Old Covenant, and the Jewish sacrificial economy. He wrote they are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

The New Testament teaches that salvation was not complete until the return of Christ: . . . so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. (Hebrews 9:28).

You see, this strongly reflects the Old Testament type of the high priest’s role on the Day of Atonement and his safe exit from the Temple to appear to those Jews who eagerly awaited him (Leviticus 16). God had accepted the sacrifice! In the same way, when our Great High Priest, Jesus, appears a second time, Christian believers are assured of their complete salvation. Until He appears again, believers are waiting.

In the gospel of Luke, we read So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near (Luke 21:28).

‘All these things’ included Jerusalem ringed by armies, great tribulation in the land wrath against the Jews and the coming of the Son of Man in judgment. Jesus was addressing His disciples 2000 years ago (not us today). If those things did not happen then completed salvation did not happen!

If Christ did not return, then your salvation is incomplete and no one has yet gone to heaven.  Jesus had told Peter on the Mount of Olivet that all things which were written would be fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed and that included His coming again. See Luke 21:22: For this is the time of punishment in fulfilment of all that has been written.

Then Peter wrote: In all this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy 1 Peter 1:6-8)

Though they were excited and joyful, they would suffer for a little while until the time when Jesus was revealed. They were suffering persecution most likely from Jews who had rejected Jesus.

Peter says at the coming of the Son of Man, after ‘a little while (not 2000 years!) these believers will offer up praise, glory and honour. At His coming the dead will be raised! (1 Corinthians 15:52-53, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).  Their Jewish persecutors judged! This has happened long ago.

Since resurrection begins only at the Second Coming, the ‘End’, so if the Son of Man did not come no one yet has been resurrected. The dead remain in Sheol.

But, dear reader, where do you believe that you go at death? Heaven, yes!

Well, I have good news for you! Jesus DID return in clouds of God’s glory 2000 years ago and that means your salvation is complete! Sheol has been emptied.

Peter wrote, Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. (1 Peter 1:13)

Peter said they are to set their hope on the grace to be brought to them at the revelation of His coming. Peter expected His coming was soon for them. Do you honestly think that they were disappointed, left utterly without any hope? No grace brought to them? Of course not!

You may not have known it, dear reader, that your salvation is complete! Because He came!

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The Man of Lawlessness

Introduction

Shortly after writing 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul received a report (2 Thess. 3:11) that the Thessalonian church had accepted the strange claim that “the day of the Lord has come” (2:1–2). Paul sent them a second letter in A.D. 49–51. He was probably in Corinth at the time. This letter was addressed to the Thessalonians.2000 years ago when these people and Paul were expecting Jesus’ imminent return in their lifetime. It was seriously relevant to the Thessalonians. It is not relevant for us as 2000 years have passed but it useful for our studies and the truth is always relevant.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-9

  1. Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him.
  2. Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. 3 Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the son of destruction.

Paul here assured the Thessalonians that a great rebellion against God and therevealing of a man who opposes God and exalts himself above everything that is called God must occur before Jesus’ return. Jesus told the disciples in the Olivet discourse (Mat 24:10-12) about this falling away.

4 He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God.

Paul described this “man of lawlessness” as being empowered by Satan, performing signs and wonders, and deceiving many (verse 9).

Who was this son of destruction? Was it the Roman general Titus who entered the Jerusalem temple?

Josephus wrote that Titus entered the Holy of Holies with his generals in A.D. 70. (Wars, 6.4.7.) Shortly thereafter, Titus was worshipped in the Temple as was customary of someone declared imperator. As Josephus wrote, “And now the Romans . . . brought their ensigns to the temple and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator.”(Wars 6.6.1)  A metallic image of Vespasian and Titus was also worshipped at that time. Images of the emperor and his favourites were regularly attached to the Roman ensigns at that time. 


5. Don’t you remember that I told you about all this when I was with you? And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes.

Jesus had spoken about these things to the disciples in the Olivet discourse, Matthew 24:15-16: “So when you see the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains”. Daniel, during the Babylonian captivity, had written about this happening just before His return. Jerusalem and the temple were to be destroyed and countless numbers of Jews would perish at the hands of the Romans.

Paul had told the Thessalonians about all this when he visited them previously. They already knew so he didn’t have to repeat what he had said. But Paul didn’t repeat it in this letter so it is difficult for us to know what was ‘holding him back’ from his appearing. We are left to assume that Paul never bothered to record this information in writing.


7 For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie

Paul wrote to them about this lawlessness being already at work—the hidden, evil Satanic forces at work in the world opposed to God and His people.

So who or what is the one holding the man of lawlessness back? Many attempts have been made to identify this person or entity.

I believe the only possible explanation is that God is the restrainer, as He is the only one who can restrain Satan. God restrains evil and eventually turns unrepentant sinners over to indulge in evil (Romans 1:20-24, 26, 28). And Job reveals that God prevents Satan from certain activities (Job 1:10-12). Only God can restrain evil and the man of lawlessness.  

Paul said the one who is holding it back would step out of the way. When that would occur then the man of lawlessness would be revealed and the Lord Jesus would overthrow him and destroy him by the splendour of his coming. 

But does it really matter that we today know the identity of the one who Paul believed restrains him? That wasn’t Paul’s issue in this letter. His concern was that the Thessalonians were worried they had missed the Lord’s coming and to reassure them that they would not miss out.

We may be curious of course. And for those today, even after 2000 years, who believe the Satanic lie that Jesus is yet to return, it arouses a lot of comment. The man of lawlessness has indeed been revealed and the Lord Jesus long ago overthrew him.

Peter’s Jerusalem Temple Speeches

In this article we look at part of Peter’s great speech recorded by Luke in Acts 2:14-21. This event was the inauguration of the New Covenant which took place in Jerusalem during the Jewish feast of Pentecost when thousands of Jews from many countries joined the locals. The New Covenant means the END of the Old Covenant! Forget Israel. Forget Jerusalem!  Luke 2:14-21:

Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this.  These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”.

V 16. Joel’s prediction

Peter was referring to the phenomena of supposedly drunken people which was the evidence of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the 120 disciples gathered in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. He affirmed that “this” supernatural phenomena was the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28) in the Old Testament. Fulfilment means fulfilment. Done.

The Book of Acts goes on to this describe how was fulfilled: God certainly poured out his Spirit on all sorts of people–sons and daughters prophesied, young men saw visions and old men had dreams: Even on servants and handmaidens, God poured out His Spirit in those days. Luke describes many stories of miraculous healings and many other astounding gifts of the Holy Spirit.

This was the inauguration of the New Covenant which we enjoy to this day with the continued pouring out of the Holy Spirit. It was the birth of the movement we call Christianity. It marks the change from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And from a focus on the Jews and Israel as a piece of land to the true focus of the Israel of God—the ekklesia, spiritual Israel. This is exactly what Jesus spoke about to the Samaritan woman in John 4:

“. . .  it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.  . . . .   But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

V 17. the last days. The biblical writers used these expressions “the last days” or “the end” to mean the last days of the Jewish economy and the end of the Mosaic religious era and the time of the second coming of the Son of Man and the day of God’s wrath.  They did not mean the end of the world. Not the end of history.

Vs 19-20. Some think that verses 19 and 20 are describing the results of global nuclear war as they believe they are living in the last days. They are sorely mistaken because the New Testament records that Jesus promised his disciples that he would come again before his generation has passed away as recorded in Matthew 16:27-28 and 24:34).

These verses 19-20 describe the signs of the coming of the Son of Man in the familiar terms of judgment using non-literal expressions.  This was a common motif we find in the Old Testament prophets —the collapsing of cosmic entities in their judgment prophecies, e.g. Isa 13:10, 19:1,24:18-20, 34;8-15, Ezek 32:7–8; Joel 2:28).

These cosmic signs are not descriptions of the results of global nuclear war or the end of the world. These would take place ‘before the great and notable day of the Lord comes.’ So what great and notable day is this? The answer is found in the next chapter of Acts (3:18-21).

We find Peter addressing another crowd curiously attentive after the healing of the crippled man and the ensuing sensation:

But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.  Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.

Fulfilling the prophecies. Because God now at last was fulfilling the prophecies told about Jesus, this was the most significant time in Jewish history and for the whole world as well. All was fulfilled! (also see Luke 21:20-22).

Repent. Their repentance would guarantee the presence of the Lord in their lives. No more squeezing stale refreshment from the Law or the sacrificial system. Now they would experience wonderful refreshment from the presence of the Lord in their lives. Relationship not religion.

God will again send you Jesus. God will again send Jesus to redeem them. Peter addresses them, ‘you’ (not us today). He wil gather his people back to himself and that will be the completion of His atoning sacrifice. See Hebrews 9:11-15 and 27-28: He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him. His re-appearance means completed salvation—just as the appearance of the Jewish high priest on the Day of Atonement meant the sacrifice was successful.

He must remain in heaven until. So there was still more to come for those believers—God will again send them Jesus for the final restoration (Greek apokatastasis), completion, or filling up of all things, as God promised long ago through his prophets (Deut 18:19).

For us today as we read Luke’s account this apokatastasis is long past. For He did return as He promised His disciples (Mat 10:23, 16:27-28, 24:30-34. This assured His people of a completed atonement.

If you doubt His second coming then you should be pleased that He came 2000 years ago to complete your salvation. Good news!

But if Jesus did not come in the generation of Peter and his listeners, then that’s bad news—you still await the consummation, your completed salvation.

At the Gate of Something Great!

A word from the Lord through Veronika West: https://www.hiskingdomprophecy.com/at-the-gate-of-something-great/

There is a fierce battle that is raging over your testimony and destiny in this hour!

But I hear the Father say, “MIGHTY Warriors FEAR NOT, take courage and stand your ground.  Do not retreat.  It’s time to raise the sword and shield and dig your heels in deeper!”

Listen, the greater the impact of God’s power on the earth, the greater the onslaught of darkness and wickedness will be.

I see the fiery darts of fear, frustration, discouragement, despair and death flying by day and by night.

Satan is waging war over the testimony and destiny of many believers in this hour.

The enemy’s goal and agenda in this season is to distort, derail and destroy the faith, hope and expectation of God’s people.

Satan’s strategy is to divert our attention and indeed our affections away from the Father.  He comes to distinguish our passion and our pursuits for the Kingdom of God.

Satan is coming to weaken the witness of the son’s of God and cause us to retreat into places of obscurity and isolation.

I hear the Spirit say, “Warriors stand still, and do not be moved, for I have called and anointed you to guard.

Stand and defend the ground that you are standing on. 

Watch, for even now, My Spirit of power, strength and might comes to enable, empower and sustain you in the midst of this battle.

Beloved, trust in My Power to prevail and in My Wisdom to win.  Now is the time for you to take the land that I have given you.

Do not give in, do not give up, do not look back, and do not be afraid, son/ daughter!

You must stand and be still, greater is He that is with you than He that comes against you in this hour.

Now is the time to raise the sword and shield and dig your heels in deeper. 

Warriors, fear not, for My salvation and justice comes quickly,” says God.

I Declare!  Yes, it is time for me to dig deeper and defend the ground of destiny.

While praying for many of you this morning, The Holy Spirit quickened this story to me;

“And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite.  And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils: and the people fled from the Philistines.
But he stood still in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines: and the LORD wrought a great victory,”   2 Samuel 23:11-12.

Here is what I hear Father saying to us today, in this Word, we see that Shammah wouldn’t move!

He stood his ground in the midst of the lentil field and would not give in, even though he was greatly outmatched and outnumbered.

It looked like an impossible situation, but this one man dug his heels in deeper and stood still against a troop of mighty soldiers .

Shammah guarded that piece of ground, he did not stand alone but he stood empowered by the Spirit of God, and he defended his ground.

Now what if he had given into the spirit of fear and fled the field?  Well the enemy would have come in and taken hold of his testimony and his kingdom destiny.

Shammah was a man who knew the power of God.  He did not shrink back, he did not run and hide, he did not give up, he did not look back but he stood his ground and looked straight into the face of great opposition and the LORD wrought a great victory. Hallelujah!

I Decree:  In this season, I AM AT THE GATE OF SOMETHING GREAT, I will not shrink back, but I will stand my ground.  I will lift my sword and shield and dig my heels in deeper to defend my field.  I am prepared and positioned for a great victory!

Blessings to you all.
~ by Veronika West

The new covenant signs

Last time I wrote about the seriousness and the importance of covenant . . . Covenant is the same word as Testament in the original biblical (Greek) language. So New Testament means New Covenant. God expects us to live in the new covenant. Not the old. The old no longer pertains. If we fail to obey the implications are very dire. But if we respond, then untold, unimaginable  blessings and benefits accrue and the Kingdom of God will be experienced.

This morning the Holy Spirit directed me to the words of the Hebrew prophet Joel which are repeated by the apostle Peter to the multitudes in Jerusalem . . . .

“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below .

. . .  And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Look at this. Read it. Hear it. Let go to your guts, your will. These are the signs of the new covenant.

What are we waiting for? Why do we settle for anything less? Why bother with religion?

Why  do we go on living under a man-evolved system when the Lord of glory has given us the new to live by, brought about at titanic cost by sending His Son in the form of sinful humanity and giving Himself to be a sacrifice for us?

“This is the new covenant in my blood!”

We must be united to him, one with him, in this new covenant in his blood. Jesus is everything.

We must be freed from the dominance of an old system, old wineskins. Immersed in the new.

Come on! Leave the old system which is no longer effective for God’s people.

More next post. Soon. (God willing).

Psalm 64

As I read this psalm today my heart grieved for that transparently good man of the greatest integrity who in Washington DC, is being accused of sexual attack on a woman decades ago and without any corroborating evidence. Mere accusation. This could happen to anyone. Of course the victim must be able to start court proceedings even though the accused may be innocent of the crime. This eminent person with his loving family has been through a terrible hell.

Also I thought of the way they treated Jesus.

We prayed. We cried to the Lord, the Lord of justice and righteousness and loving-kindness, before whom every one of us will have to give an account some time up ahead.

We prayed this psalm for him. Like David 3000 years ago he has been accused and declared guilty by his many apparent prosecutors who have undertaken to destroy him. Ps 64 says it all – how David was surrounded by enemies unjustly. And how he called on his God, his Saviour,

Hear me, my God, as I voice my complaint;
protect my life from the threat of the enemy.

Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked,
from the plots of evildoers.
They sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim cruel words like deadly arrows.
They shoot from ambush at the innocent;
they shoot suddenly, without fear.

They encourage each other in evil plans,
they talk about hiding their snares;
they say, “Who will see it?”
They plot injustice and say,
“We have devised a perfect plan!”
Surely the human mind and heart are cunning.

But God will shoot them with his arrows;
they will suddenly be struck down.
He will turn their own tongues against them
and bring them to ruin;
all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.
All people will fear;
they will proclaim the works of God
and ponder what he has done.

10 The righteous will rejoice in the Lord
and take refuge in him;
all the upright in heart will glory in him!

Will you also who read this join Joan and me in crying for righteousness, for justice, for uncovering of the crimes in many who operate together in unheard of  wickedness in the U.S. but not only in that nation, but in the whole world—the most awful things are happening in secret mostly. Join us in crying out for our PM who faces hourly difficult decisions and for Australia and who has many enemies.

But we have received a kingdom which cannot be moved. It is an everlasting kingdom which endures throughout all ages! It is the Kingdom of God, nothing less and we need nothing more. The Kingdom of God has arrived with Jesus and is present with us if we have the eyes and ears open.

 

This kingdom knocks all other kingdoms out flat as the prophet Daniel saw. And the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ! And he shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah!

 

“ The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”