Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

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March 2007 Issue

Present-Day Sanhedrin Court Seeks to Revive Ancient Temple Rituals
Mar 1st, 2007
Haaretz News 28 Feb 07
Uncategorized

The present-day Sanhedrin Court decided Tuesday to purchase a herd of sheep for ritual sacrifice at the site of the Temple on the eve of Passover, conditions on the Temple Mount permitting. Professor Hillel Weiss, a member of the Sanhedrin, told Haaretz on Tuesday that the action, even if merely symbolic, is designed to demonstrate in a way that is obvious to all that the expectation of Temple rituals will resume is real, and not just talk.

The Days Are Darkening
Mar 1st, 2007

Uncategorized

Chris Hedges, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and former Pulitzer prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times, alleges (in a book and on national television) “the engine that drives the radical Christian right in the US (Evangelicals), the most dangerous mass movement in history, is not religiosity, but despair.” He goes on to say, “they are most easily manipulated by demagogues, who promise a fantastic Utopia, whether it’s a workers paradise, or the second coming of Jesus Christ.”

If our Lord should tarry, we face some dark days. I believe one of the greatest needs of the hour is for the Lord’s Shepherds to “teach the Word”, to “feed the Flock”, to “equip the Saints”. To build up and prepare God’s people for whatever lies ahead. Pray for the Shepherds!

The Great Apostasy
Mar 1st, 2007
Art Sadlier
Uncategorized

The word “Apostasy” means departure from or removal from, the moving away from a previously held position, a departure from the truth of God’s Word to which one once held.

Apostasy began in Paul’s day; he referred to it in Acts 20:29,30. The apostasy which began in Paul’s day has grown exponentially down over the long church age. Today we have the great monolithic structure of Christendom which has departed from the truth of Scripture, although it still claims to be the Church of Jesus Christ. Paul tells us in 2 Thess. 2: 2,3 that when the true Church is taken out of the world, the remaining professing, but unregenerate Church, will totally turn away from the Word of God. I quote the Berean call, “at a certain point in the future, there will be a total rejection of Biblical Christianity, succeeded by the religion of Antichrist: it will maintain a veneer of Christianity which will prove acceptable to all religions.” - T.A. McMahon

Today we are witnessing the stage being set for that coming apostasy. In many fundamental, evangelical churches, experience is given equal authority with the Word of God, that’s Apostasy!

Humanistic programs have replaced that for which God’s Word calls, that’s Apostasy!

A false gospel is being declared, “Just receive Christ as your Saviour”, leaving out repentance, the whole context of the gospel, that’s Apostasy!

The teaching of humanistic psychology, even though the prefix “Christian” has been added is a departure from the teaching of God’s Word, that’s Apostasy!

The acceptance of groups which in there beliefs and teachings deny the gospel, that’s Apostasy!

The seeker-sensitive church-growth movement has pushed experientialism (and its close kin, pragmatism) into overdrive through the power of marketing. Sound doctrine, necessarily, is left by the wayside while churches meet the “felt needs” of consumers who are targeted as potential Christians.

Conviction of sin doesn’t feel good, nor does it sell well. The wishful thinking of a purpose-driven church that would attract the lost by turning to the world’s methods has become a Titanic that has ignored warnings and jettisoned its compass of the doctrine of Christ. While the orchestra searches for a contemporary chorus replacement for “Nearer My God to Thee,” the vessel is sinking into the depths of compromise while dispensing temporal lifejackets to save the world from its problems. T A McMahon

The removal of the Body of Christ from the world is near at hand as unregenerate Christianity steams toward total Apostasy!

The Midnight Hour
Mar 1st, 2007
Art Sadlier
Uncategorized

Events around us tell us we are rushing to the end of the present era, but the multiplying signs are going unheeded. Media attention is focused on distractions such as the antics of Brittany Spears and the saga of Anna Nicole Smith. The really significant news is hard to find, the news that shouts out the signs of our Lord’s soon appearing in the sky. Things such as;

• The Euros ascendance over the dollar and the significance of that.
• The coming ratification of the new EU Constitution with its plan for a permanent president who will have wide sweeping powers (shades of Antichrist).
• The growing EU involvement and commitment to sign a mid-east peace pact, which will recognize both Israel and a Palestinian state (shades of Daniel 9:27).
• The new world order rapidly taking shape, which will facilitate the world wide kingdom of Antichrist which will appear at the mid-tribulation point.
• The growing alliance between Russia, Turkey, Syria, Iran and Hamas and Hezbollah with their threat to annihilate Israel and their plans for the war of Ezekiel 38 & 39.
• The final preparations in Israel for the rebuilding of the third temple.
• The looming attack of Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities and dramatic affect it will have on the whole mid-east situation.
• World wide terrorism on the rise with one report that Al Qaeda has 2000 suicide bombers ready to release havoc in Great Britain.
• The lingering fear of nuclear terror attacks within the US.
• The rising number of natural disasters, flood, storms, earthquakes and volcanoes along with changing weather patterns.

We are living in the “think not” generation, “for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” Increasing signs only result in increasing hardness of heart and indifference.

The Lord said to Daniel regarding the times of the end: “The wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand.” Dan. 12:10

A little old lady was riding on a bus; she turned to the man beside her and said, “I wonder if you could tell me which stop to get off at?” The man enquired as to where she wanted to go. After she replied, he thought for awhile and then said to her, “you watch where I get off and then get off two stops before I do.”

There are no signs for the rapture of the church but all of the signs of the coming awful “Day of the Lord” judgments are now in place. Remember, the church will be raptured before the day of the Lord begins. If you wait to see these things actually taking place, you will be too late!

If you are not saved get off the bus now! Recognize your lost condition and receive Christ in repentance and faith. Crown Him Lord and King of your Life.

If you are a believer, “look up”, “lift up your head” look away from the world, get your eyes off the things of this world and look for the coming of Christ.

What a prospect we have, what a Saviour we have, Jesus said, “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching; verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” Luke 12:37

Think of that! “And what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch” Mark 13:37

The Rapture
Mar 1st, 2007

Uncategorized

Who will be caught up and who will be left behind? Paul says, those “in Christ shall rise”. 1 Thess. 4:16. The issue will not be your practical sanctification at that moment, but whether you are in Christ or not. Paul said, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1. The real issue will be, is your profession of faith in Christ real or is it a false profession? Jesus warned about false professions of faith in Him, a condition which will disqualify many for the rapture. Jesus said, “Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven.” Matt. 7:21 (see also Jn 14:21 & 2 Cor. 5:17)

Jesus went on to say in vs 22 that “many” will be in the category of false professors who will be shocked that they are left behind when the trumpet sounds. How tragic to think you are a believer and to hear Jesus say “I never knew you”.

Of course we cannot always know who is genuine and who is a false professor. (see Mt 13: 27-30 and 2 Tim. 2:19).

However we ought to be concerned and warn of this danger. Paul gave this warning in 2 Cor. 13:5. He is saying make sure your profession is genuine. There are some who, in order to get believers to live as they ought to live, teach that unless you are totally sanctified you will not be included in the rapture. I have two problems with that; first they confuse practical sanctification with positional sanctification. Practical sanctification is the process of becoming in practice what we are in position. Col 1: 21, 22. Second we must never violate what the Scripture says to get believers to live as they ought. The Scriptural motivation for right living is found in Matt 24: 42, 44 “Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh”.

Note: I believe Matt. 7:21-23 has application to both the Rapture and the Second Coming.

The Third Temple
Mar 1st, 2007
Art Sadlier
Uncategorized

Today in the midst of Arab opposition and determination to destroy Israel, the Jewish interest in building the temple continues to grow. One of the recent developments that are feeding this desire is the reestablishment of the Sanhedrin. This body of 71 men met for the first time, in the place where the Sanhedrin last met 1600 years ago, Tiberius, in October of 2004. They now meet weekly in Jerusalem in order to issue rulings on matters related to Israeli Judaism. Their goal is to eventually become the governing body for modern Israel.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum, a Hebrew Christian scholar has noted the following:

The significance of Israel’s reinstituting the Sanhedrin may be another event that leaves in place the possibility of how the Lord will work out His will with His people. Almost sixty years after a 1900 year absence, the nation of Israel came into existence. Jewish people from the four corners of the world have made aliyah to live in the Land. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has reconstructed the instruments for Jewish Temple worship; Jewish men determined to be descendants of Aaron, known as the Kohanim, are being trained in ritual practices to serve as Temple priests; and now we have the establishment of an authoritative body to speak to the nation of Israel on matters of Jewish religion.

It is important to note that as a result of the June 2005 meeting of the Sanhedrin, they have issued a call for specific plans to rebuild the Temple. The Israeli rabbinical council involved with re-establishing the Sanhedrin, is calling upon all groups involved in Temple Mount research to prepare detailed architectural plans for the reconstruction of the Jewish Holy Temple. This demonstrates that increasingly the new Sanhedrin believes that it is taking steps to prepare the modern state of Israel for a new Temple and the coming of Messiah. These stage-setting steps are things that are in concert with the end time events that will take place during a future era known as the tribulation.

In order to specifically carry out the Sanhedrin’s call to prepare architectural plans for rebuilding the Temple, the group will establish a forum of architects and engineers to begin plans for rebuilding the Temple - a move fraught with religious and political volatility. The Sanhedrin is also calling on the Jewish people to contribute toward the acquisition of materials for the purpose of rebuilding the Temple - including the gathering and preparation of prefabricated, disassembled portions to be stored and ready for rapid assembly, in the manner of King David.

I would add two comments - one, these are stage setting events which will not unfold until after the Church is removed from the earth. Two, unknown to Israel, this third temple will be a Temple for Antichrist. See 2 Thess. 2:4