First Quarter 2016
Issue No. 63
Beelzebub
Lord of the Flies
But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah
the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the
messengers of the king of Samaria and
say to them, ”Is it because
there is no God in Israel
that you are going to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron?”
2 Kings 1:3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
American News & North
American Itiner ary....................3
Beelzebub: Lord of the Flies...4
South Africa Report.................11
First Quarter 2016-Issue 63
Published By Moriel Ministries
International
www.moriel.org
Moriel International Director
James Jacob Pr asch
Administr ator
Mission and Evangelism..........12
Thailand Update.........................14
Typology of Noah......................15
Austr alian Update.....................17
David Lister Phone: 1-412-321-6154
Isr ael Update.................................18
Moriel Austr alia & Singapore
Philippines Update......................22
Margaret Godwin National Administr ator
P.O. Box 112 Tr afalgar Vic 3824
Phone: 61 03 5633 2300 Fax: 61 03 5633 2300
MOB: 0416 138 008
E-mail: [email protected] alis.com.au
State of Moriel 2016..................23
Moriel South Africa
David Nathan
PO Box 1075 The Falls Benoni 1522 South Africa
Phone: +27 11 849 4963 MOB: +27 84 470 6995
Moriel United Kingdom
Allison Dodd
PO Box 201 Maidenhead Berks Sl6 9FB
England
Moriel Isr ael
Elon Moreh
PO Box 249 Nahariya, Isr ael 22102
E-mail: moriel.isr [email protected]
Moriel USA
David Lister
PO Box 100223 Pittsburgh, PA 15233-0223
Phone: 1-412-321-6154
E-mail: [email protected]
Moriel New Zealand
Pierre & Marguerite Moseley
P.O. Box 15334 DINSDALE 3243
New Zealand
Tel: 647 848 1470
E-mail: [email protected]
All cover images courtesy of and copyright
of Shutterstock. Interior photos courtesy
of Moriel.
2
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
American News
Thank you for your Renewals
JACOB’s ITINER ARY
We hope you enjoy our newest edition of the Moriel Quarterly and
just wanted to thank everyone for their continued support for Moriel. We
hope to get four editions out this year. We want to thank Cory Winn who is
working on these for us. Pray for Cory as he handles many things for Moriel.
Cory mails your orders to you and puts together the Moriel Quarterly. Also he
is a dad to two lovely girls and works full time.
Jacob Asks for Prayer
As most of you know Jacob had been in the hospital and at this point
is doing better. Jacob deeply regrets he cannot make the March tour of America due to his ongoing health problem and hopes everyone understands. He is
currently undergoing a series of skin grafts to help close up an ulcer that has
been persistently slow on healing. Hopefully he is starting to do some teaching
close to his house on occasion. So please keep up your prayers for a complete
healing. Jacob thanks you for your many notes and emails and for the constant
prayers and encouragement. Also, he is asking for prayer for his family, mainly
Pavia and his son Eli.
No Dates Planned For This Time.
Jacob Is Recovering From
Illness. Please Check
www.moriel.org
For Further Details
Please Pr ay For Jacob’s Health,
Recovery and His Caretakers In
This Time.
Jacob teaching
We are hoping by the time you read this we have been able to get
Jacob back up and working on recording some of the sermons and teachings
he has been studying while he has been laid up. We definitely need your
prayers to accomplish the logistics of this task and to overcome any technical
problems. In my discussions with Jacob it is our hope if we can for the near
term, get Jacob in front of a camera, maybe from his study, teaching through
the Bible, doing some book by book teaching. So please pray God will give
Jacob the words and wisdom to go through these books and teachings with us
and also the patience to handle the tech stuff.
Prayer for Moriel workers in Israel
Please pray for Steve (our website designer) and his family as well as
Elon and his family who are in Israel. Things are bad right now and we want
our family protected against this evil. Also please pray for all the local congregations we support over there.
Scott Noble and family - missionaries to Thailand
Scott Noble and family are bring their new baby to visit the grandparents and we pray they will have a safe trip. As you all know from the Quarterly Scott is our missionary to Thailand. I look forward to seeing them all
soon.
Thank You and Year End Donations Receipts for 2015
Everyone who has donated to Moriel should have received their year
to date donation receipt in mid to late January 2016. These will include those
who donated via the mail or on the Internet. If something is not right or you
don’t get your receipt, please contact me at [email protected] or
412-321-6154 (Moriel Office). Moriel and all of its workers would like to offer
a big thank you for all of your generous gifts, offerings and tithes. These
offerings do allow us to continue on in the work that the Lord has called us
into. We continue to expand missions and as you will see in the Quarterly.
Again, we are most appreciative of what you give. On a personal note I want
to thank you as we could not do what we do without you. Please continue to
pray for this ministry and for the ever expanding work we are all called to
perform.
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
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Beelzebub: Lord of the Flies 2 Kings 1
Looking at our least favorite subject, Beelzebub, that is a
scriptural metaphor for Satan.
Be-el-ze-bub, literally in Hebrew “the master or the lord of
the flies,” or “Lord of the Flies”—the title of a famous novel by
William Golding for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Obviously Golding got the title and part of the theme of that book from
the Scriptures. Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies.
I’ve pointed out multiple times that everything in the Word
of God is important. By definition, there is nothing in Scripture that
is not important. But there is an order of importance. Everything is
important, but some things are more important than others. Jesus
made this clear; He spoke of the “weightier matters of the Torah,” and
He warned against straining a gnat and swallowing a camel. Now He
didn’t make comments that would denigrate anything contained in
the Word. He said, concerning the minor things, “These also you
should have done.” But He made it clear that some things are more
important than others. We may understand the issue thusly: If something is addressed in the Word of God one time, it is important. If it
is in the Word of God two times, it is more important. If it is in the
Word of God three times, it is more important still. And when it is
found in both testaments, the Old and the New, the importance is
amplified even further. Basically, the more times the Holy Spirit has
inspired something to be included in Scripture, the more important it
is—especially if it is in both Testaments.
This element of multiple inclusion and reiteration is not a
mere literary device of the inspired authors (although there may be
that aspect), but it something God by His Spirit breathed into His
Word for at least three reasons. The first reason is that the element of
repetition conveys a high level of cardinal importance. The second
reason is that when we have multiple references to the same person,
thing, or event in different books or passages, be it synoptically or
otherwise, they are intended to be read and prayerfully studied in
contrast to each other because such passages are mutually illuminating. The parallel passages highlight different aspects of the same thing
where even minor differences in detail or inclusion are significant.
There are reasons that God has given us synoptic accounts of the
Passion of Christ and His Resurrection, etc. This feature becomes
most outstandingly important in properly comprehending the trial,
execution, and resurrection of Jesus, and in understanding His
return. But it also comes into play in other areas—in the case of
Beelzebub, that of demonology. A third reason God has designed His
Word this way is the inter-testamental aspect, where the New Testament explains the Old Testament but the Old Testament inversely
conveys the intricate details explained in the New Testament.
I have encountered some who ignorantly downplay the
importance of the Old Testament on the basis of it having been
fulfilled in the New Testament by Jesus, without understanding what
‘fulfillment” in its scriptural usage actually means. This cheap brand
of religious ignorance propounded by such deceivers as Barbara Aho,
Victoria Dillen, W. Howard, and W. Buester, if believed, would mean
that we only need the Book of Revelation to understand end-time
prophecy. In truth, we cannot understand the Book of Revelation
without understanding the Book of Daniel. Nor can we understand
the actual meaning and depth of the Last Supper unless we understand the Paschal Meal. The same is true for the subject of Beelzebub.
We cannot truly grasp what Jesus was teaching about Beelzebub
unless we first come to terms with the Old Testament background
upon which He was drawing.
4
The false teachers propagating this perverted definition of
“New Testament Christianity” functionally reject the need to
theologically comprehend the Hebraic root of the Christian faith.
This then becomes a false doctrinal bedfellow for Replacement
pseudo-Theology invented after the era of the apostles by some of the
Church Fathers in the Patristic Age.
Replacement Theology was developed under the influences
of Platonic philosophy and secular politics that confused the New
Covenant superseding the Old theologically with the Gentile church
superseding Israel ecclesiologically. Their false ecclesiology then
extended into a false hermeneutic that says the church no longer has
need for the Old Testament because of the New Testament. Such
foolishness (often accompanied by anti-Jewish bigotry) is as perversely contra-scriptural on one extreme as the legalistic lunatic fringe of
much (but not all) of the modern Messianic movement is on the other
extreme; the latter attempts to propagate a neo-Galatianism by
putting Christians under the Law, and emulating and paying homage
to the fundamentally false Talmudic Judaism invented by unbelieving
rabbis. Rejecting such hideous error on both extremes, we must
handle Scripture as Scripture does. Both of these extremes have had
the spiritual food they ingest, that is their doctrine, demonically
contaminated by Beelzebub’s flies. The Lord wants our spiritual diet
to be free from these flies and their vomit.
Beelzebub is certainly in both Testaments. We have the three
synoptic Gospels plus John; we have Kings and Chronicles with parallel accounts (one stressing the biographical, and one the historical),
plus whatever prophets prophesied in those times according to the
superscription of the prophetic books. Once more, when God gives
two, three, even four accounts of the same events or the same teaching, it is marked as having a higher and more emphatic level of importance. However, we must keep in our mind that every Word in the
original inspired autographs in the original languages is important;
not a syllable of the original inspired text is unimportant. Yet, the
more times something is in Scripture the more important it is.
With the multiple references to Beelzebub in both
testaments, this diabolical subject would fall into the category of very
high practical and theological importance. Beelzebub is there in both
testaments—in the Gospels, in more than one place in the Gospels,
and in the Tenach (Old Testament). Let us consider what the Lord in
His Word informs us that He wants us to comprehend and what we
need to know concerning Beelzebub and revealing the modus operandi of our nemesis and adversary who is first and foremost the archenemy of God.
Now Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab,
[Moab is what is today central Jordan] and Ahaziah fell through the
lattice in the upper chamber which was in Samaria and became ill. So he
sent messengers and said to them “Go inquire of Beelzebub, the god of
Ekron whether I shall recover from this illness.” (2 Kings 1:1-2)
A traumatic injury from an accident resulted in an illness; a
wound of some kind likely became infected. Ahaziah then sends his
messengers to ask the lord of the flies, the god of Ekron, if he would
recover.
Ekron is what is today the Gaza strip. The area around the
Gaza strip, and what is today called Kiryat Gat, was the habitation of
the original Palestinians—the Philistines of Scripture. In Hebrew and
in Arabic they are called Philistines, except the original Philistines are
like the original Americans. The original Americans were red Indians,
not Europeans. So also, the original Philistines were Greek; they were
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
Beelzebub: Lord of the Flies
Indo-European, and were not Arab. The Arabs came many, many
centuries later. A real Palestinian is not an Arab; he is originally a
Greek, just as the actual original Americans are Cheyenne or Sioux or
Seminoles. Euro-Americans, Asian-Americans, Afro-Americans,
Hispanic-Americans, all came later. So the actual anthropological
Philistines were in Gaza first, not the Arabs. We know this from the
ruins at Knossos in Crete where they came from. They worshipped,
among other gods, the fish god Dagon and Beelzebub, the god of the
flies, called the “lord of the flies.”
Ahaziah becomes contaminated with this belief and tells to
the messengers, “Go ask Beelzebub if I'll recover.” But the Angel of
the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite (Eliyahu haTishbe), “Arise, go up
to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them ‘Is it
because there is no God in Israel you go to inquire of Beelzebub, the
god of Ekron?’”
We must note that it not “an angel of the Lord,” but “the
Angel of the Lord.” He is the Metatron of Judaism, Ha Melech
Adonai. It is a Christophany, an Old Testament pre-incarnational
manifestation of Christ.
Throughout Scripture God teaches us about Satan through
inspired writers. The book of Job reveals certain things about Satan.
The book of Zechariah teaches us things about Satan. Daniel teaches
us things about Satan. Moses teaches us things about Satan. Peter
teaches us things about Satan. Paul teaches us things about Satan. But
when Satan is manifested or characterized as the “lord of the flies,”
Jesus alone explains about him. In both testaments, whenever it is
Beelzebub, Jesus alone explains about him! The Holy Spirit doesn’t
inspire anybody else to explain about Beelzebub. It’s always Jesus
personally who explains about him. Quite a thing in itself.
God laments: “You’re going to him instead of to me.” We know that
the Greek term, Antichristos (antichrist) means not just against
Christ; it primarily means “in place of Christ.” The Pope’s title in
Latin, Vicarius Christos (Vicar of Christ), translated to Greek, would
be anti-kristos. Whichever pedophile-protecting hypocrite is elected
pope, he’s going to be an antichrist. Who said so? The Roman Catholic Church says so and so does the pope himself.
So we read, “You're going to him instead of to Me.” But the
First Commandment says, “You will have no other Gods before me.”
Elijah says to Ahaziah:
“Now therefore, thus says the Lord ‘You shall not come down
from the bed from where you’ve gone up but you shall surely die.’ Then
Elijah departed. When the messengers returned to him he said to them
“Why have you returned?” And they said to him “A man came up to meet
us and said to us ‘Go return to the king who sent you and say to him “Thus
saith the Lord, is it because there is no God in Israel you’re sending to
inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come
down from the bed where you have gone up but shall surely die.”’ And he
said to them “What kind of man was he that came up to meet you and
spoke these words to you?” and they answered him “He was a hairy man
with a leather belt bound about his loins.” (the same way John the Baptist
dressed as if they had the same tailor centuries apart indicating John had
Elijah’s spirit and mantle). And he said “It is Elijah the Tishbite” [Eliyahu haTishbe].
Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up
to him: and, behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. And he said to
him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down’.” And Elijah answered
and said to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down
from heaven, and consume you and your fifty.” And fire came down from
heaven and consumed him and his fifty. (2 Kings 1:4-9)
This is one of the reasons we can identify one of the two
witnesses in Revelation 11 as Elijah. John the Baptist, Elijah, and
Elisha all had the same Spirit. The question is, “is the Elijah figure in
Revelation 11, the same as the one in Matthew 17:11, whom Jesus said
must come at a future point? Will he be somebody in the character of
Elisha and John, that is somebody who just has the same spirit, or will
he actually be Elijah returned, that we can look at? We can also
question who the other witness is. Many maintain one is Enoch, while
some people speculate that the other one is Moses. In the Middle East
there are some Christians who think that the other witness is the
apostle John (I never heard that view outside of the Middle East
except once, but it is a view more popularly, though not predominantly, held in the Middle East). I only heard one other person not in the
Middle East who held this view, which was very rare, but it is popularly accepted that one of the Revelation 11 witnesses is almost certainly
in some way Elijah. Elijah is always characterized by this question:
“why are you going to another god instead of to Me.”
In the Elijah/Elisha era the group number of 50 is an imperative. Fifty is an important number in Scripture; it is the number of the
Holy Spirit. Remember, Jesus said ‘have the people sit down in groups
of fifty’. So too, it was the number of “the sons of the prophets.” There
is something about a group dynamic of fifty—this Pentecost number
of the Holy Spirit and the Church; feed them in groups of fifty. Thus,
typologically, just as there is a true Church there is a false one, a
principle seen in its Old Testament foreshadowing with the 50 sons of
the prophets having a nefarious counterpart group of 50.
In Verse 11: And he sent him another captain of fifty and his
fifty. And he answered and said “O man of God, thus says the king, Come
down quickly.” And Elijah answered and said to them, “If I am a man of
God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume you and your fifty.”
Then the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his
fifty. So he again sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And when
the third captain of fifty went up, he came and bowed down on his knees
before Elijah, and begged him and said to him, “O man of God, please let
my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your
sight. Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the first two
captains of fifty with their fifties; but now let my life be precious in thy
sight.”
This recurrent phenomenon of calling down fire later occurs
in Elijah’s contest with the priests of Ba’al and in Revelation chapter
11.
When Elijah comes back into play in the book of Revelation,
the Time of the Gentiles has come to a close and with it the age of
grace. During that period God again turns his prophetic and salvific
purposes back to Israel and the Jews. The Church at some point will
be raptured, but once that happens it is “no more Mr. Nice Guy,” as it
were. God is no longer going to show grace upon the rebellious; He
will act as he did in the Old Testament. He will pour out his wrath;
He will deal with people in that character—that is the ministry of
Elijah. Grace upon the gentiles will come to an end. God will turn his
purposes back to the salvation of Israel. Now it is still the time of the
gentiles but that is coming to a close. Only the people who see the
judgment of God will repent, except we are told in the Book of Revelation that men still did not repent of their evil deeds.
Today we have people fancifully pronouncing baseless things
regarding what shall prophetically transpire after the rapture, such as
there is going to be a great revival when they see we are all gone by
means of the rapture. This is absolute rubbish. Before the rapture
there will be a great falling away. After the rapture, becoming a believer is a mandatory death sentence. On top of this, most of what the
Scriptures say is that God is focused on Israel after the rapture. The
Time of the Gentiles will be over. This teaching is greatly overstated
beyond anything the New Testament says. It will be the age of Elijah,
yes, but people sing the hymn, “These are the Days of Elijah.” No, it
is not. When the days of Elijah come they will know it. They can sing
nonsense all they want, but if they are true believers they won’t be here
for the days of Elijah. They’ll be at, some early point, raptured out of
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
5
Beelzebub: Lord of the Flies
here.
So then come the third group of fifty. Please spare our lives.
Verse 15: And the angel of the Lord, [the Metatron, again a Christophany] said to Elijah, “Go down now with him; do not be afraid of him.” So
he arose, and went down with him to the king. Then he said to him, “Thus
says the Lord, because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub,
the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His
word? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you have
gone up, but shall surely die.”
So, we are introduced to Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, the
lord and the master of the flies. We know from the New Testament
and from the Mishnah, Jewish history, that in the Second Temple
period, by the time of Jesus, it was commonly known among the
Hebrews that Beelzebub is a picture of Satan. Let us look to the
Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10:25: “It is enough for the disciple that
he become as his teacher, and the servant as his master. If they have
called the head of the house Beelzebub, how much more the members
of his household?”
The backsliders of the Sanhedrin called Jesus, “Satan.” Such
hypocrites, including those professing to be “Christian,” will always
call the true followers of Jesus, “of Satan.” False religion will call the
true followers of Jesus, Satan, but why Beelzebub? We see the relationship between Jesus and the angels from Psalm 45 elaborated upon
Christologically in Hebrews 1 and 2. This has its diabolical parallel in
the relationship between Satan and his demons. Satan is king of the
demons; he is lord of the demons. In other words, flies are biblical
pictures of demons.
Look at the nature of the fly. There is a species in Africa
called tsetse fly, between the Sahara and the Kalahari. It is not a true
fly; it is a philogenetic cousin of the fly. That kind of fly can kill, but
it is not a true fly. The basic philogenetic term for a common house fly
is Musica Domestica,, literally “House Music.” But there are variations of it. There are phenotypic variations of it. But they all work the
same. Large horse flies bite. We have Musica Vomitoria. This Latin
term obviously means what it sounds like in Latin. The way a fly eats
is to regurgitate onto the food, softening it; it regurgitates a bacterial
slime that emits a fragrance that draws other flies, and then they
ingest that, repeating the emetic process. Flies harass, annoy, and if
they can, ruin the picnic. Certain variations of flies can bite. But there
is only one way a fly can kill, and in the Third World flies do kill.
I often need to spend time working in Africa. The way flies
kill, is that they contaminate the food supply as an agent for spreading
bacterial disease. They vomit this bacterial slime onto the food, eat it,
and then regurgitate it again, transporting fecal matter from animal
waste onto food. If you have been to Africa, or the Middle East, or the
Third World generally, there are a lot of flies. Dave Royle who directs
our Ebyown children’s mission in South Africa has got an electric fly
swatter. He also puts up those sticky strips that lure and trap flies by
adhesive contact. You cannot believe how many flies there are in
Africa. If you go to the meat markets of the Middle East, you wonder
how people can eat that meat.
Flies swarm over the children, over the people; they are
terrible creatures. But they can only bite and harass. They can’t kill
directly; they can kill only by poisoning our food. That is how a fly
can kill; it can spread disease as Musica Vomiteria, by transporting
fecal matter that can contain contagions onto the food and by vomiting highly infectious bacterial content onto food. “Cover your food!”
as the dietary hygienists caution us! Flies don’t merely ruin the picnic.
They can spread disease, and those diseases can potentially be lethal.
It is an indirect process, but kills just as dead as the direct process of
its cousin the dreaded tsetse fly.
Likewise, demons do not destroy people directly and do not
kill believers directly. Demons harass believers. They ruin the picnic.
6
They kill by demonic inspiration of persecution. But they mainly kill
by means of the deception of false dogma, heretical teaching; they
contaminate the food we eat.
If we shoo them away, they come back. How do they kill
believers? They contaminate the food. Many have read the book The
Shack. That book will kill people! It is written by a non-Christian,
William B. Young, who says Jesus Christ did not die for his sin, and
it is endorsed and promoted by Gayle Irwin. It is written by a self-professed non-Christian who does not accept the propitiation or substitutionary atonement of Christ!
Many have read the Purpose Driven Life (better called The
Purpose Driven Lie) by the false teacher Rick Warren.
Instead of a valid translation of God’s Word, some read
Eugene Peterson’s The Message, an unmitigated corruption of the
meaning of the original text. It actually states such false misrepresentations of the original text by deliberate mistranslations such as “The
Word became flesh and moved into our neighborhood” in John 1:14,
which bears no resemblance to the wording or meaning of the Greek
text. Peterson’s The Message (Rick Warren’s translation of choice) is a
nest of flies.
There is indeed a demonic attack on our spiritual food. John
6 teaches us that our food is the Word of God. If we go into a Christian bookshop today; there are flies all over the place. As soon as you
open the door there are flies buzzing around everywhere, vomiting
and defecating onto what doctrinally ignorant and undiscerning
Christians imagine to be tasty cuisine.
What do flies put onto the food? Excrement! In a spiritual
sense, that is what people are eating. We see repeated passages in
God’s Word defining doctrine as food in Ezekiel 2, Ezekiel 3, Jeremiah 15, Revelation 10, John 6, etc. We eat the Word as our food; teaching is our nourishment or our poison, depending on what it is that we
eat. Is it God’s nutriment, or fly vomit? Is it correct doctrine, or is it
infested with bacterial slime and bacteria-concentrated fecal waste
from animals that can spread disease that can even kill?
Do you want to eat fly muck? No problem, just listen to Bill
Johnson, Beth Moore, TD Jakes, or Benny Hinn. But flies can get
into everything, even the most hygienic environments. John MacArthur teaches that it is possible to accept the mark of the beast, worship
Antichrist (a virtual incarnation of Satan) and his image and still go
to heaven. The flies of Beelzebub have vomited slime all over the food
he serves his followers. His church in the San Fernando Valley, in the
northern outskirts of Los Angeles, was once a clean place to eat, with
fairly nutritious food on the menu. But thanks to the flies he let in
when he and Phil Johnson removed the screens, it is now is a greasy
spoon with Phil Johnson serving the infested slop and Jimmy
DeYoung seated at the counter telling everyone how delicious it tastes.
Flies can certainly kill babies and elderly people. The Third
World is filled with diseases, much of it related to hygienic causes, or
lack of hygienic preparation of the food. Have you ever walked
through the Muslim meat market in the Old City of Jerusalem? You
wonder how they get used to it. The filthy meat hanging on the butcher’s hooks is a mere reflection of the contaminated pseudo-spiritual
food they are fed in the mosques with the doctrines of Islam that
“God has no Son,” that “Jews are Pigs and Monkeys” and that “Christians are Infidels.” I do not hate Muslims, but I despise Islam because
of its fly-coated teaching.
We are far better off with traditional dining. We will never
get sick from reading the classics like Andrew Murray or William
Gurnall. If one likes kosher food we would suggest the Messianic
Bible exposition of Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum. For Chinese cuisine,
we recommend The Normal Christian Birth by Watchman Nee. For
Indian food, Zak Punin. If you live in Britain try David Pawson for
traditional English brunch or the books of the late Dr. Martin Lloyd
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Beelzebub: Lord of the Flies
Jones. For meaty American food you cannot beat Harry Ironside or
Dr. Walter Martin and Dave Hunt. It is never enough to alert the
church about false teachers. We must point them to good ones. Warning of bad food is absolutely necessary and crucially important, but
serving good food is even more vital. No expositor of God’s Word is
perfect, but such nutriment is clean, healthy, and fly-free.
When we have synoptic accounts or parallel accounts of
something in Scripture, the differences are just as important as the
similarities. When someone graduates medical college they have a
degree that says they are a doctor of medicine, but it is purely an
academic title. That person is not licensed to practice medicine once
he has that degree. There are going to be another four or five years of
postdoctoral clinical education. The only thing a degree in medical
science gives them is the background to learn to be a physician, but
one is not going to get a license to practice medicine yet. That’s going
to take another four or five years learning whatever specialty someone
goes into. Even at that point, upon graduation you are by virtue of
academic and professional title a doctor, but not yet a practicing
physician. Why? One of the reasons it takes so long to train physicians
is this: just take a handful of common symptoms: fever, rash, nausea,
increased pulse or elevated blood pressure, sweaty palms, sleeplessness. Those seven symptoms can be indicative of at least five dozen
common maladies and hundreds of less common maladies. The
symptoms look the same; it’s the differences that matter.
Which blood chemistries do we need? What kind of biopsy
is required? It is so easy to misdiagnose when the most obvious symptoms are all the same or similar. It takes a long time to train a medical
graduate into an expert in clinical diagnosis because they are looking
for these subtle differences that the average person would miss. This is
why medicine is as much an art as it is a science. It is the similarities
but also the differences that must be carefully weighed and pondered.
Scripture is the same way; when the Holy Spirit puts more than one
account of something, don’t just look at the similarities. The differences are there for a reason.
One time I was in Kenya, I had African mountain fever. It
basically comes from weakening the immune system with dehydration. I was sick. The problem was, it has the same symptoms as
cerebral malaria. But the standard anti-malarial drug Falsiperin
wouldn’t do any good. I didn’t respond to any therapy for cerebral
malaria, and anti-malarial prophylaxis Larium or quinine medications were useless in the prevention or treatment of the mountain
fever. It looked as if I had cerebral malaria, and it felt as if I had
cerebral malaria. One feels as if their brain was frying in their skull! I
was just waiting for meningococcal symptoms. I was suspecting
meningitis; maybe it is cerebral malaria. But it was neither. The
Anopheles mosquito that spreads Plasmodium Vivax can’t live at that
altitude, so it can’t possibly be cerebral malaria, but it looks like it.
Rehydrate, come to a lower altitude, get some antipyretics, get rid of
the fever, a few days it will get disappear. It looked the same, but
wasn’t.
So we have two accounts in the gospels about Beelzebub. Let
us consider them in light of each other—Matthew’s and Luke’s:
Matthew Chapter 12:22-23: Then was brought to him a demon
possessed man who was blind and dumb. [Notice blind and dumb] and
he healed him so that the dumb man spoke and saw. And the multitudes
were amazed, and began to say this man cannot be the son of David, can
he? (Son of David was an idiom for the Messiah).
The Hebrews of that time had what they called “messianic
miracles.” There were certain miracles they believed only the Messiah
could perform. Today, in modern scientific terms, we would call it
neural regeneration. When cytons (nerve cells) are dead they are dead
permanently. Dendrites will repair, they can re-knit. We can fire
signals across the axons if the dendrites (a word for tree in Greek)
reintegrate. We can restore synoptic function (it’s called synapse
where the cells link for purposes of signal or impulse transmission).
But if the cyton is dead, it is dead for good. Once the optic nerve is
dead, that is it—irreparable blindness. Once the audio nerve is dead,
that’s it, the person is deaf. To this day that person will never see or
hear again.
With nanotechnology, there is cutting edge experimentation
not with neuro-regeneration but something that can fire and transmit
signals and impulses by synthetic means. Eventually organic micro
compressors that are carbon based may help change this reality, but it
is costly and slow in coming. Maybe a blind person could see something or a deaf person could hear something with amplified
assistance, but that is in its infancy. Once neural necrosis sets in and
the nervous tissue is dead, it is over.
The ancient Hebrews believed only the Messiah could regenerate neural tissue, as we would understand it with modern physiological science, even though they did not possess the means to understand the problem as we do. Only the Messiah can make a blind
person see, a deaf person hear. Interestingly, even raising the dead was
not a messianic miracle because Elijah did that, but making a blind
person see, or a deaf person hear? That must be the Messiah; that was
their thinking. Could this be the son of David?
We of course understand that these physical healings of Jesus
demonstrated the theological realities of spiritual healing via regeneration that they parodied. We are all spiritually deaf until we hear the
voice of Jesus. Someone may hear the literal voice of an evangelist
proclaiming the Gospel, but by the Holy Spirit they must be quickened to hear the voice of Jesus to be reborn of the Spirit. We are
likewise all born spiritually blind until we are reborn and see the light.
We are all lame until Jesus, by His Spirit, empowers us to walk in the
Spirit. These reserved healing miracles which were viewed in ancient
Israel as the exclusive domain of the Messiah illustrate that only Jesus
the Messiah can make the spiritually blind see the Light and spiritually deaf hear His voice.
Matthew 12:24: But when the Pharisees heard it they said,
“This man casts out demons only by Beelzebub the ruler of demons.”
Satan is the ruler of demons; he is the ruler of the flies. The flies are
once again obviously pictures of demons.
Verses 25-26: And knowing their thoughts he said unto them,
any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, any city or house divided
against itself shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided
against himself; then how shall his kingdom stand? But if I by Beelzebub
cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently they
shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God then the
kingdom of God has come upon you, or how can anyone enter the strong
man’s house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strong man,
and then he will plunder his house.
This principal of spiritual warfare, (and I use that for want of
a better term), only applies in one kind of situation in Scripture—a
term I’ve used before: ekbalo (from where we derive the term “ballistic”), meaning exorcism; casting out a demon. There is not always one
good guy and one bad guy in any conflict. In Syria you have a conflict
now involving Assad, Al Qaeda, and ISIS. There is no good guy. The
innocent people and the children are the victims, but among the
fighting factions, there’s not one good side and one bad. The only time
there will always be a good and a bad is in an exorcism.
You must bind the strong man. This binding of the strong
man has nothing to do with “binding and loosing.” Binding and
loosing, if you are unaware, are simply the Greek translations of two
Hebrew juridical terms, hitir and assur, meaning “to allow” = luo or
“to forbid” = deo in Greek. In Jewish law, called Halakhah, there is a
rabbi called a Dyan, who is an expert in Jewish law, and he decides if
something is permissible or not, supposedly based on the Torah. Of
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Beelzebub: Lord of the Flies
course, the rabbis have corrupted the Torah. However, in order to save
a life a Jew can break any of the 613 commandments of the Torah
except three. They cannot commit idolatry, they cannot commit
murder of an innocent person, and they cannot commit sexual perversion, incest or homosexuality. But they can eat shrimp or pork, they
can light a fire on the Sabbath, they can boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
In order to save a life they can do anything except idolatry, murder
and sexual perversion. They are loosed from the rest of the law, but
idolatry, murder, perversion are still forbidden, assur or deo. They are
still bound. It is a term found twice in the New Testament: 1) It is not
an authority that Jesus just gave to Peter alone. When we read from
Matthew 16 to Matthew 18, he gave it to the eclessia (the “called out”
as a company of believers); it is dealing with unrepentant sin in the
fellowship. If one in the church is cohabitating outside with their
girlfriend in fornication, they may not take the Lord’s Supper. They
may not be accepted as communicants until they repent. It is forbidden; 2) The authority that Jesus gave the apostles to define New Testament doctrine, Acts 15: consumption of blood, assur, that is forbidden, which in Greek is deo,. Idolatry, immorality, strangulation or
cruelty to animals, (which carried a pagan connotation to it) is all deo.
Worshipping on Sunday instead of Saturday however is allowed.
Saturday worship being mandatory is a command from which a
believer is luo,’loosed.
This however is not what binding the strong man means.
Binding the strong man is a different situation where binding is not
employed as a term in juxtaposition to loosing. It is used where someone is under the active possession of Satan (we are not speaking about
oppression), when there is actual demon possession. In actual demon
possession it is generally not the deliverance nonsense practiced in
deluded, demon-obsessed, doctrinally shallow churches.
I was on an island in Indonesia where I witnessed demonized
locals jumping around, wearing grotesque masks, imitating orangutans, and with their teeth ripping giant coconuts to shreds. These
were coconuts one needed to hack open with a machete, yet demoniacs were ripping them to bits with their teeth. After they took the
dragon masks off they were calling down the spirits—one of them
took a plate of glass the size of the palm of a human hand, and literally
ate it like a biscuit right in front of me, showing me that there was no
bleeding of his gums and his teeth.
In demon possession, it does not necessarily mean it is 24/7
animation by an unclean spirit. Remember the youth who was
thrown into the fire? His father comes to Jesus for help and he said “as
often as it grabs him.” If somebody is demon possessed it is not always
continuous 24/7 control; it doesn’t have to be. But when somebody is
under the active possession of Satan, real possession, you cannot lead
that person to Christ. To tell a demon possessed person, “My friend,
you need to be born again, you need to repent of your sin and
accept...” Forget it! That person is being animated by a demon. Unless
the demon is dealt with, we cannot lead that person to Christ. We
must deal with the demon before we deal with that person. It is
impossible to deal with that person if they are under the active possession. The strong man must first be bound because we are going to
plunder his house. That is where the demon resides. Now let us understand this. From here Jesus goes into verse 30:
He who is not with me is against me, he who does not gather
with me scatters.
You can be a little bit thirsty, you can be a little bit tired, a
little bit jet lagged, a little bit hungry, a little bit interested. We can be
a little bit of all kinds of things, but no one has ever been a little bit
dead. Nobody has ever been a little bit pregnant. You either are or you
aren’t. Neither has anybody ever been a little bit Christian. One is
either in or out; there is no tightrope, there is no fence. One is either
saved or needs to get saved. One is either a new creation, or urgently
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needs to become one. We see cases continually where in a family
situation the husband comes to church with his wife because she is a
Christian and he wants to keep peace in the marriage and in the
family, or placate his wife. The children will go to Sunday school, but
they attend just because of their mother. The husband may even
socially hang out with Christians and befriend them, go to the fellowship hall for coffee to chat, go on a church outing. They seem to do
everything a Christian does. They even know the words to the hymns
sometimes. We really see this in Bible belts, such as the American
South or South Korea or Northern Ireland. Such situations are highly
evident where we have cultural Protestantism. They do everything a
Christian does outwardly, but they are not regenerate Christians.
Someone is either in or they are out. One is either working for Jesus or
working for Beelzebub; there’s no middle ground.
But now, let’s look what comes next. Verse 31: Therefore, I say
to you any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men; but blasphemy
against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever shall speak a word
against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak
against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or
the age to come.
I don’t know a single pastor who has been in the ministry any
length of time, who at some point has not had to deal with this issue.
Over the years I’ve had several people come to me fearing they had
blasphemed the Holy Spirit. You can almost read from their face what
they are going to say before they say it. They are beyond desperate.
They are spiritually and mentally tortured. Conventionally, in a
moment of despondency and/or despair, they said something they
wish they hadn’t and Satan got a hold of it and keeps drilling it into
their head: “You’ve committed the unpardonable sin; there is no point
in trying to get back, you can’t be forgiven. You may as well just go
out and enjoy this life to the extent you can because you’re going to
Hell anyway.” These people who think they did this say, “Pastor, did I
do this?”
You can tell these people feel like they are mentally and
spiritually tortured, which is exactly what is happening to them.
What is this unpardonable sin for which even the blood of
Jesus cannot atone? We are reminded of that screaming man in the
cage in Pilgrims Progress who kept yelling “Eternity!” Again, we ask
what is this sin for which even the blood of Jesus cannot atone? My
standard response to such people is this: My friend/lady/sir, if you did
that it is very unlikely you would even be talking to me. If you did
that you couldn’t care less! Look at the people who did it; they
couldn’t care less! Jesus told them, “How will you escape the judgment
of Gehenna?”
What is it? Remember the parable of the vineyard? Remember, “Let’s kill the son?” To cognizantly, with consent of the will,
ascribe to Satan that which you know is of Christ in order to mislead
others away from Jesus, that is the unpardonable sin. It is not something anybody could easily do. The Sanhedrin did it and there were
believers in the first century who were going to go back under the law
to try to save their neck in the face of persecution, who were in danger
of doing it—look at Hebrews chapter 10:28-29:
Anyone who set aside the Torah of Moses dies without mercy on
the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of
God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he
was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
It is not something anyone can just do easily. Now, there have
been people who have done it. I do not take the view held by some
that it was a sin only possible for the Jewish religious leadership in the
first century, which is a position held by some very credible expositors.
I therefore do not say that there are not people who have done it today,
but if they have, they couldn’t care less! However, it is easy to under-
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Beelzebub: Lord of the Flies
stand these people who wrongly believe they have done it when they
have not, and they are emotionally and spiritually tortured. What
they said was foolish; what they did was wrong. They brought something on themselves God would have preferred they be spared of.
They have given the devil a handle in their life to torment them. What
they said was completely wrong, but blaspheming the Spirit they have
not done.
I once had 600 Pentecostal preachers in Wales during the
Toronto laughing-drunken fiasco giving me over to Satan. Some of
them had been friends of mine. But because I said Toronto was a
counterfeit revival, some were saying I blasphemed the Holy Ghost.
To cognizantly attribute to Satan that which you know is of God, and
declare that it is not of the Spirit of God but is done by Satan with the
aim of misleading others away from Jesus is the scriptural example of
it. “Why are you going to Beelzebub instead of to me”? It is just as we
read in The Old Testament.
This is Matthew’s version. Let us consider the synoptic parallel account in Luke’s version: Luke 11: 14-21: And He was casting out
a demon, and it was dumb and it came about when the demon had gone
out of him the dumb man spoke and the multitudes marveled. But some
of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”
Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven. But He
knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against
itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls and if Satan also
is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? For you say that
I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons,
by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently they shall be your
judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of
God has come upon you.”
Let us examine the differences. The common ground is
obvious. If read carefully, Matthew states that he is blind and deaf and
so puts the blindness first. Luke is only concerned with the deafness.
Matthew is writing to Jews, Luke is writing to non-Jews. We have to
always understand the Sitz im Leben, the cultural situation the text is
addressing. This is not to say what is in Matthew does not apply to
non-Jews, nor is it to say that what is in Luke does not apply to Jews.
These truths equally apply to all believers. It simply means that for a
Jew to understand what Luke means for him, he has to understand
what it meant for the Gentiles of that time. And for a non-Jew to
understand what Matthew means for him, he first has to understand
what it meant for the Jews of that time (and still means for Jews today
to a degree). Matthew, John, James, Jude, Peter, Hebrews, they are all
written to Jews. We cannot correctly understand what it means for us
unless we understand what it meant for Jews, particularly the Jews of
that time, but still having relevance today for Jews.
The opposite is true for Jews reading epistles and Gospels
written to non-Jews. So Matthew was written to Jews, Luke was
written to non-Jews. In a spiritual sense, we may on the basis of Scripture say that Jews are blind, gentiles are deaf. Jews seek a sign, gentiles
seek wisdom. The blindness of the Jews is addressed when Paul writes:
“When the Torah is read, a veil is over their face; they can’t see it.”
Israel’s blindness to its Messiah Jesus is exemplified in Paul.
He was struck blind. The blindness of the Jews; struck blind until the
scales fall off. Jews can hear. “Shema Israel, Adonai, Elohanu, adonai
echad”—“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is oneness.” Jews can hear.
We read the Scriptures. In the synagogue the chazan (liturgical
soloist) sings the text, or the rabbi reads the Scriptures to the people.
Worshipping Jews listen to it. It is read out from the scroll, the megilah, or it is sung. Jews hear the Scriptures. Jews can hear and they can
understand at least intellectually, and by virtue of their history and
culture comprehend what you are telling them if they are observant.
They just cannot see that it is about Yeshua (Jesus).
Gentiles are different. We see this when trying to witness to a
Jehovah’s Witness. We can tell them 10,000 times the same thing, but
is like talking to a wall. I once asked a question of some Muslims in
England who were preaching Islam on the street. Arabs (I can speak
some Arabic) invented digits. The Greeks and Jews used letters,
alpha-numerics, but the Arabs invented numbers; they were clever
people. When Europe was in the Dark Ages the Arab world had its
Golden Age. Then, Islam was westernized was based on Greek philosophy. It wasn’t based on Islamic fundamentalism, and it was not like
the Wahabism of Saudi Arabia today. It was different and much more
moderate.
I asked these Moslems about the Koran text that says that
Miriam (Mary), the mother of Jesus, is the same Miriam as the sister
of Moses. Mary the mother of Jesus, Miriam, same name in Hebrew,
is the same woman as the sister of Moses, but they lived 1,300 years
apart. Given the fact that your people invented numbers, don’t you
know how to count? How can the Koran be right? They lived 13
centuries apart! How can Haman from the book of Esther have been
a court bureaucrat of Pharaoh in Egypt 900 years earlier?
They could not answer the question. If Allah is God and he
gave Mohammed this book through the angel Gabriel, as you say, it
means that God doesn’t know how to count. Or did Gabriel make a
mistake? Can you answer? Muslims get angry and yell, “allahu
akbar.” That is supposed to settle everything.
When we speak to Mormons we ask them a question. In the
doctrines and covenants Volume 17 Joseph Smith said there are
Quakers living on the moon. Brigham Young said there are Quakers
living on the sun. I always get the same kind of response when you
just ask the question: “I got a burning in my bosom, and I testify to
you the Church of Latter Day Saints is true.” That is supposed to
settle everything.
Unsaved Jews are not deaf; they are blind. Matthew emphasizes the blindness, Luke emphasizes the deafness. Many believers are
former Roman Catholics and have Roman Catholic families. The
most common response when former Catholics share the Gospel with
their Roman Catholic family is deafness. What is the result? “Hail
Mary, full of grace...”
“Where is Mary ever prayed to in Scripture?” we may ask.
The reply: “The Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women...”
Yet with unsaved Jews it is not deafness. We tell them to look at Isaiah
53, which the rabbinic Targum Yonatan says it is about the Messiah—
aren’t you, a rabbi; can't you see? No the rabbi is blind.
Second difference: Matthew puts it on the Sanhedrin for
misleading the people. He emphasizes the unpardonable sin. It was
the Sanhedrin, knowing Yeshua, Jesus, was from God, yet they misled
the people. Luke says it was a more general phenomenon, specifying
that some of them said He cast out demons. In the text Jesus groups
the Sanhedrin together with the people who believed them. So we
have a second difference. The differences are again as important as the
similarities or as the common ground.
There is a third difference. In Matthew, Jesus states: “But if I
cast out demons by the Spirit of God.…” Here in Luke: “If I cast out
demons by the finger of God.…” In the Greek world God is impassible. A Greek would have no problem with John Chapter 1 until verse
14. He would have had no problem with the logos, but once we said
the Logos became sarx, that is “the Word became flesh,” he couldn’t
handle that. God can’t become a man. To the Gentile mind God
cannot become a man. To the Jewish mind God can do anything.
Adam heard God walking in the garden. Writing to Jews: “I do this
by the Spirit, by the Shekinah.” Writing to Greeks, Luke states that
God can become a man, the same God that wrote the Torah with his
finger; the God who wrote the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments)—that same God was Jesus. God wrote with His finger. He
wrote on the ground in John 8 by the Spirit. It is essential to under-
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Beelzebub: Lord of the Flies
stand why Luke states it one way but Matthew in a slightly different
manner. Those details are important. It is very similar to medical
science where symptoms of two different maladies can so often have
so much in common but there are often initially inconspicuous differences. Those differences create difficulty in formulating the correct
diagnosis. Theology operates on the same principle analytically and
diagnostically.
Let us venture further now: Luke 11:21: When the strong man
fully armed guards his own homestead his possessions are undisturbed, but
when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes
away from him all of his armor on which he had relied and distributes his
plunder. He who is not with me is against me, he who does not gather
with me scatters.
Once more, we are either serving Jesus or we are serving
Beelzebub. Luke 11:24: When the unclean spirit goes out of a man it
passes through the waterless places seeking rest and not finding any, it says
“I will return to my house from which I came, and when it comes it finds
it swept and put in order. Then it goes about and takes along seven other
spirits more evil than itself and they go in and live there and the last state
of the man becomes worse than the first.
What happens when we chase a fly away? It will leave, and
then it will come back again and more flies with it. The fly must die!
We must kill it. We can uselessly shoo the flies away all we wish, but
they’re going to come back. If we cast a demon out of someone, if that
person does not get saved he is going to be repossessed and worse. It is
no good casting a demon out of somebody if they don’t get saved once
the demon is gone.
“He found it swept and put in order.” Yes, you can put them
on Prozac and send them for counseling, but the demon is coming
back anyway, and he is bringing more with him. Chase away all the
flies we can, yet it doesn’t matter; they are coming back. That is why
God uses flies and teaches about the strategy of demons. No, the last
state is worse than the first.
Nobody has ever met the Lord Jesus and been the same. If
someone really meets Jesus they are going to be conspicuously better
or conspicuously worse. If I am in sorry shape now, my wife would
agree with you. But thank God you didn’t know me before I knew
Jesus. I was fooling around with heroin when I was 16. I was self-destructively strung out on cocaine in college. I was a drug dealer. I am
not proud of it, however that is what I was, and that’s what I did.
Nobody can meet Jesus and be the same. You are going to be conspicuously better or conspicuously worse.
Let us dwell briefly on these flies that have ruined the picnic.
Look what God says with reference to such flies in Isaiah 7: 18: It will
come about in that day that the Lord will whistle for the fly in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt.
What happened in the days of Ahab with Micaiah the prophet? “I will put a lying spirit in the mouth of your prophets.” What does
The Lord say through Paul concerning the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2? The Lord will send a delusion. The Lord of all is greater than
the lord of the flies. Even the flies must do his bidding. Let us not
forget that God brought the flies against Pharaoh in Egypt, in
Exodus. To a backslidden people God rhetorically asks: “Do you want
flies?” The Lord will send them flies.
The flies must die. They contaminate the food. They spread
this slime, and the slime draws more flies—again, Musica Vomiteria;
they vomit on the food. They bring animal excrement onto the food,
and are utterly disgusting creatures. I hate every one of them. I wish I
could kill them all. I wish I could just go into the Christian bookshop
with a Holy Ghost insecticide spray. Seven steps to Prosperity, Five
Keys to Victory, The Shack, The Godchasers, The Message, The
Purpose-Driven Lie. I want to kill those flies. I hate those flies. I never
met a fly I didn’t want to kill, never. And over the years, by the grace
10
of the Lord, I’ve become pretty good at killing flies. Pastor Bill
Randles is a fly killer. So too was Dave Hunt. I can kill flies; I can
show you how to kill flies.
Flies are clever. In the eye of a fly there are hundreds of
smaller eyes so they don’t miss a move. It’s almost a supernatural
power they have. And somehow, they know when you are sneaking up
on them; you must be very quick indeed. That is the way flies are.
We are all vulnerable to getting something wrong sometime, but if
you love the Lord the Holy Spirit will show you that you have something wrong. All right, fair enough, but flies keep away from discerning and scripturally astute believers. Not because they are so spiritual.
They simply have become more acutely skilled at dealing with flies
and their methods over the years.
My problem is not the Musica Domestica, the Musica Vomiteria, the house fly, the horse fly; those flies are not my problem. Let
me show you my problem:
Ecclesiastes 10:1: Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a
little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor.
The oil, the shemen, the anointing of the Spirit, the ointment
of God. We should live lives of praise to God and be a soothing
aroma, a pleasing fragrance (to employ the anthropomorphism); a life
of worship to God. That is the way we are supposed to be, but that
requires walking in the anointing of the Spirit. But when we get a
dead fly in the mix it makes the ointment stink.
No, my problem is not the live flies; my problem is the dead
ones. It is the old nature, the old creation, the old man; a corpse draws
flies. Oh, they are not flying around the room anymore, and they are
not contaminating the food. I am not a drug addict anymore, I am a
new creation. Those flies can’t fly, they are dead. But their carcasses
are still rife with bacteria. They are still around and they can certainly
make the perfumer’s ointment stink. I must be honest, that is my
problem. My problem is the dead flies. That’s the bad news. Now I’ll
tell you the worse news; it is your problem too.
The old man, the old woman, the old creation, the dead fly
that makes the perfumer’s ointment stink. Nothing draws flies like a
corpse—nothing draws demons like the old creation. Yes, by the
grace of God the flies that once controlled my life with cocaine addiction and fornication are dead. I praise God for His mercy and power.
That is true, they are dead, I don’t live that way, and I don’t do those
things any longer. Because of Jesus I don’t do those things. But the
carcasses are there. A little foolishness outweighs much wisdom. The
dead fly that makes the perfumer’s ointment stink. Churches that
teach error, that have gone into heresy, apostasy, ecumenism, moral
collapse, and God knows what else—these are infested with flies.
That’s not your problem; your problem is the dead ones. It is the old
creation.
Thank God the flies are dead. Now we have to trust God for
the grace to get rid of the stinking corpses.
God Bless!
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
Moriel South Africa
Dear friends in the Lord
Greetings in the lovely name of our Lord Jesus to who we give all the
praise and glory!
Needless to say its been a busy and exciting year with the majority of work focusing on the development at the mission. As we complete
almost 16 years of service to the Lord here in South Africa our work is
entering its final stages. As you recall from our mission statement right at
the beginning the work was to involve two major stages. First of all a
place of safety and nurture for the youngest and most vulnerable of our
children but after years of development and healing a place where they
could contribute themselves to society. The mission is purely that, a place
where the children can learn life skills and a place where the gospel is
faithfully lived and propagated.
This year we have seen a influx of livestock that will enable the
mission gto sustain the community. Not only that but our vision is to see
surplus used in the sharing of the gospel. The country faces hard times
ahead with a crippled economy and inept leadership. So does the body of
Christ. Therefore this place must be seen almost as an Ark where people
are loved, welcomed and nurtured. Through your help and giving we
have been able this year to make huge steps towards this goal.
This will help us speed up our response time to any future fires.
It will also help us with our irrigation and animal watering needs for the
future too.
It has been encouraging to see that already new green shoots of
grass is appearing. New life springs form the desolation and this encourages us tremendously.
I would like to thank those who have prayed for us during this
situation, those who have encouraged us and those who have practically
given to help with the water and fire fighting project.
We have also been busy sharing the gospel. I have personally
distributed well over 100 bibles and also tracts in the community.
However we do need bibles in Shona, Afrikaans and Xhosa to reach a
wider group.
The children continue to grow. This January we will have three
aged 19 in fact Prudence will turn twenty in August. Our youngest is
now 10 years old and so everyone is participating in every area of mission
life. Health issues have been fairly stable for which we praise God. The
ministrations of our excellent DR who is a believer himself have ensured
the HIV has remained controlled.
Lyn as ever soldiers on with seemingly nothing phasing her
while my diabetes and neuropathy remain a concern. This has mean huge
cutbacks in itinerant ministry plus I can only drive short didtances on a
good day because I simply cannot feel the pedals on the car.
Once again we thank your for your prayers and continued
support. I hope to be in the JUK in March and Australia in June I pray
that this coming year the Lord will continue to bless our friends and
family.
Every blessing in Yeshua
Prayer needs
•Praise God for helping us in every situation in 2015-12-22
•For the missions needs next year 2016. These include a Dam,
solar pump, piping, fire trailer
•The health of the children that they continue to prosper in
Christ.
•For the firm rooting of the seeds of the gospel
•For the health of Lyn and I as we enter another year of service
•We really need a Bakkie (pick up) going forward.
•More help on the mission especially establishing a church
However we have had our challenges. With a world economy
Contacts
shrinking and the base of commited believers faithful to Gods word
•You can contact me directly or you may contact the following people.
becoming a remnant we have had to pull our belts in to fit our circum•South Africa, David Royle [email protected]
stance. However God in His grace and mercy has met all our needs
•UK Joanne Drinkwater [email protected]
because He is faithful and as true as His word. I am so glad His faithful•USA David Lister [email protected]
•Australia and New Zealand, Marg Godwin [email protected]
ness is not dependant on our faithfulness.
Recently we have also had a setback. After 3 years of nurturing Olive
trees, Lucern trees and Cape Lilacs a devastating fire took almost half of
our pasture and 80% of our trees. The good news is that no one was
injured and the livestock seemed to instantly know to huddle together
around the grey water pool while we dealt with the situation. This was a
huge wake up call for us regarding fire safety and this year with your help
and the Lords guidance we aim to do the following.
•
Purchase a fire fighting trailer
•
Install piping and a solar pump from the main Dam
•
Install a 47,000L Dam at the highest point of the farm.
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
11
Mission and Evangelism
MISSION AND EVANGELISM
What is grace? Terry Miethe describes it as: “From the Greek ‘Charis’,
The ultimate goal of missions is to Glorify God. Read Isaiah 46:7
graceful, agreeable. The gift od God, the unmerited favor of forgiveness or
The immediate goal of missions is to fulfil God’s purpose of mercy given to sinners. An outpouring of Gods love and mercy.” 2
salvation by bringing people to God. Read 2 Cor 5:19
No human being deserves heaven. God would have been
Our ultimate goal is thus to glorify God. This should be the completely justified in sending everyone to hell.
motto of our lives. Our immediate goal is to be concerned with the
Oswald J Smith, a man used mightily of God, said the followredemption of people. It is the immediate goal that makes it the ultimate ing: "When you read what the Bible says about man, the thing that amazes
goal possible. The purpose of missions can thus be defined as: “The recon- you is not that God would allow someone to go to hell, but that God would
ciliation between man and God”.
save anyone."
We see why Jesus came in the following verses. Read Matthew Read Romans 1:18-32 again.
18:11 & John 3:16,17. It was to seek and save the lost.
Do we deserve God's grace? No. We should be grateful that
With this in mind, we would define the nature of Jesus' ministry God's grace has been extended to us in the measure that it has. We also
as missionary in nature.
need to realise that the Great Commission is a commission to US! That
Throughout Scripture, we see that the dealings of God concern- the church has not yet reached every country with the Gospel of Jesus
ing the salvation of mankind have been missionary by nature. God is the Christ. After nearly 2000 years is no reflection on the lack of God's grace.
Great Missionary! Jesus served in the capacity of each office of ministry. If anything, it is an example of the lack of love and compassion experiHe acted as Apostle (Mt 16:18), Prophet (Deut 18:15), Evangelist ( Luke enced by His body! When we realise just how much the early church
13:3) Pastor (John 10:11) and Teacher ( Matt 23:8). But, His ministry accomplished in such a short spate of time and with the limited resources
was always missionary by nature. So it should be in every ministry in the that were at their disposal, we should be ashamed at how little we have
church. No matter the office, our task is missionary (read Matt 28:19,20). done in the many years since then!
It would thus be incorrect to think of missions as merely reach- The mission of Christ, therefore, was to pay the price that we were unable
ing unreached nations. This is undoubtedly a crucial aspect of Missions, to pay. The mission of the church is to share this incredible message of love
but not the only aspect of missions. To fulfil any part of the Great and hope with others that their lives in turn will be touched by God and
Commission must therefore be defined as missions.
for God.
In this module, we will take a look both at our role in missions,
and the role of the church in non-western countries and cross-cultural MAN AND SIN
evangelism.
Another point to note is that we are in fact unable to deal with
GOD'S METHOD OF MISSIONS
sin on our own. Victory over sin is another direct expression of God's
grace! Festo Kivengere says: "Man, the upward-looking one, became a
I. THE MISSION OF OUR SAVIOUR
creature of dilemma when he lost his bearings. This tragic experience
Read Eph 1:3-14. You will notice the use of phrases such as "in happened when the upward-looking one turned away from the direction of
Christ", "in Him", "through Christ" etc. Only through a personal life and became the downward-looking one, or the' inward-looking one.'
relationship with Jesus do we receive any spiritual benefit from the Father. Away from the ' life-direction,' he turned to darkness No wonder the inspired
In fact, outside of Jesus, there is no way of fulfilling God's mission to save record described man in this state as ' lost!' 3
people. The only way to deal with sin is through the cross. If there were
any other way possible, the death of Christ would have been in vein OTHER RELIGIONS
(Read Gal 2:21). In fact, the cross is the focal point of the history of
mankind. This was His ultimate purpose (Read Mark 10:45).
What about true seekers of God who are involved in other
Roger Nicole says the following about the death of Jesus on the religions? Will they be accepted by God if they have never heard of His
cross: "Where there is a burden to bear, God Himself bears it; where there is grace through Jesus Christ? I believe that sincere, seeking people will find
a price to pay, God Himself pays it, where there is an obligation to be met, the truth (Deut 4:29)! There are countless stories of men who truly
God Himself provides satisfaction…The saving work of Jesus is emphatically sought God only to have a special revelation of Jesus Christ. Perhaps an
the work of God which no one but God can perform” 1
example that we can all identify with is that of a man named Paul!
Part of the work of missions therefore (and ultimately part of
the call to every Christian), is the need to realize that we can save no one. REVELATION OF GOD (Rom 1)
All we can do is to bring people to God and allow His transforming work
of grace to bring them out of darkness.
There are two types of revelation from God:
How wonderful that God lays on the hearts of His people to go
1. General Revelation
out into the distant reaches of our world to share the Good News with all
2. Special Revelation
people. It is the heart of the missionary that should be found in the heart
Every man has a general revelation of God. We are born with a
of every believer. We need to realise that while we may not be called to go 'God-consciousness.' We know God exists through nature and through
to China with the Gospel or to some remote village on the other side of our conscience. This is what makes man different from animals. No
the world, we should always be busy with the mission of bringing glory to animal has displayed the inward compulsion to worship a greater being.
God in all that we do, and be involved in the process of reconciling those The fact that every society has prescribed rules and a conscious need for
around us to God. By His grace, God sends men into the foreign parts of payment of wrongdoing is proof that God has placed within us the desire
the field to reap His harvest to His glory. But what about the people that to find Him and to know Him. A dog, for example, has no conscience.
do not get to hear the Gospel in their lifetime? Is it fair for God to send The dog may learn to fear being caught for doing something wrong, but it
them to hell? We would be short-sighted to believe that some people do will never feel guilty!
not die without hearing the Gospel message even once. Discuss and read
General revelation can be defined as, “Knowing Gods existence
Romans 1:18-23
through nature and conscience. Special revelation can therefore be
We need to realize one very important point. Read Eph defined as, ”The special act of God which makes His saving power and
1:7;2:5,7. From this Scripture and from personal experience, it should be truth known. People who live without Jesus live without hope and
very clear that no man deserves God's grace! Salvation comes to us only without God in the world. Read Eph 2:12. No matter who we are or
by the grace of God. The fact that we have heard the Good News and where we come from, without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, we live
accepted Jesus Christ is simply an act of God's grace.
under the wrath of God. This knowledge should burden our hearts to
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First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
Mission and Evangelism
reach out to those who do not know Jesus!
day. Terah, Abraham's father was an idol worshipper (Josh 24:2). The
The mission of the salvation of mankind was thus initiated by missionary call today is similar to that of Abraham in that:
God, made possible by God, cemented and sealed by God and commisa) It is often cross-cultural
sioned by God. May the church bring glory to God by fulfilling the
b) It often contains the element of the unknown
commission!
c) It is sustained by faith
OUR MISSION
THE BIRTH OF A REDEMPTIVE NATION
It is easy for us to understand why God the Father entrusted the
mission of salvation to Jesus. What is more difficult to understand is why
Jesus chose men; especially the twelve we read of in the Bible. These men
were ordinary individuals. Some were fishermen; some were government
workers. But Christ's mission was to become the mission of these men!
God's method is a man! Our mission is firstly to learn to obey, and
secondly, to learn to depend on God!
As we have seen in the Old Testament study, Israel grew into a
mighty nation during the four hundred years spent in Egypt. We see here
a sharpening of the missionary purpose given to Abraham in that they
were no longer just the people of God but the nation of God.
It was important for God in His divine mission to separate His
people as a nation.
1. To resist the corruption of sin and idolatry around them.
2. To develop their God consciousness and Moral consciousness.
3. To carry on the redemptive mission.
Israel had spent four hundred years under the influence of
idolatry in Egypt. They had to be separated as a nation in order to be
restored as a people! Israel, however would not remain faithful to God.
We saw in the Old Testament Survey that the continual backslidings of
the Northern and Southern Kingdoms posed problems to the mission
strategy. Instead of being a nation through whom God could reach out to
other nations as He sometimes did through people like Jonah, God had to
send prophets to Israel who, in a sense, acted as missionaries to the chosen
nation. We see in many instances the same pattern in the western world
today. Countries that were used at the beginning of the era to evangelise
the world are now having to open their doors to missionaries as they have
come full circle. Even in our own country, it is no longer the Western
Church evangelising the eastern world, but the Eastern Church often has
to evangelise the western world!
Read Mark 11:12-14; 20-25; John 15:1-8 and Romans
11:16-24. Scriptures such as these highlight the fact that Israel failed to
fulfil its mission and was therefore rejected as a redemptive nation. Israel
is even pictured in the Old Testament as the fruitless vine. (Psalm
80:8-16; Is 5:1-7; Jer 2:21; Eze 15:1-8). Israel failed in their mission as a
redemptive nation because of disobedience.
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN MISSIONS
Read Acts 1:4-8. Reading this we have an idea as to ‘When’
should we witness for Jesus. It is when we have received Power from on
High. God enables us by the power of His Holy Spirit to fulfill the call.
Read Matt 9:35-38. We can see that the plans of Jesus regarding
the lost included more than just the twelve disciples, they included all
who are disciples.
What then is our mission? Our mission is His mission. Read
John 17:18. The disciples were sent into the world in the same way that
Jesus was sent into the world. This is perhaps why Jesus has told us to be
willing to take up our cross and to follow Him. We must be prepared to
love others the way Jesus has loved us! It is in loving God's people that we
give expression to our love for God! Do you love God's people as Christ
loves you?
Read John 15:26. This also tells us that the work of the Holy
Spirit is to testify about Jesus, therefore the Spirit is a missionary Spirit.
The book of Acts records the first missionary thrust of the
church. It tells of the lives of believers who were guided and empowered
by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was real to these people! Is Jesus still real to the
modern-day church? We all have a mission; it is the Great Commission! It
is for all believers (Mt 28:19,20). But that does not necessarily mean that
we all need to pack up our bags and tackle the jungles of Africa or the THE BIRTH OF A REDEMPTIVE COMMUNITY
plains of Mongolia. We are called to fulfil our mission wherever God
The order of God's mission to mankind shifted from a redempplaces us. When we are confident of God's leading and willing to obey at
all costs, we will see the working of His Holy Spirit in and through our tive nation to a redemptive remnant. It would be a handful of Jewish
believers that would be used by God to evangelise the world and carry the
lives!
ultimate message of God's mission to the rest of mankind. What God
accomplished through these people is probably one of the greatest
GOD STRATEGY FOR MISSIONS
miracles ever recorded.
We have seen in recent studies that the fall of mankind was
accompanied by the promise of salvation. The first promise of redemption THE NEW TESTAMENT MISSION
is found in Genesis 3:15. This verse is called the "proto-evangelium",
Jesus Christ is the link between missions in the Old Testament
which means: The first proclamation of the Gospel. Mankind continued
to degenerate after the Fall and it seems that idolatry was introduced in and missions in the New Testament. Once again, as in the days of
the period following the building of the Tower of Babel. Before this event Abraham and Noah, God had narrowed His attention down to one
Person, namely Jesus. It is clear from His ministry that a main theme in
idolatry is not mentioned in the Bible.
This began another stream of history called “Redemptive Histo- missionary ministry must be to train others to do the work of the minisry”. During this period in the history of mankind, God narrowed the try. When the church fails in this regard, it fails in its missionary
purpose. I trust that through the MOTC, God will raise up people who
focus of His Mission of salvation to one man, namely Abraham.
The call of Abraham marked the birth of a redemptive people of will be called to works of service in whatever mission field the Lord has
God. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great ordained. And I encourage you to view the course in this light!
nation. As we have seen in the Old Testament Survey, this was in fact the
nation of Israel. Abraham responded by faith, and this allowed God's IS THE CHURCH MISSIONARY BY HERITAGE?
Mission to go forward (Read Galatians 3:8). It is clear that Paul understood the call of Abraham to be a missionary call.
When we consider the missionary purpose of Christ, we must
remember that missions do not exist because of the church; the church
ABRAHAM'S CALL
exists because of missions! Read Matt 2:19-20 again. Is our central task
missionary in focus? Yes!
This was a cross-cultural call, even as we see so often in our
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
13
Thailand Update
Pentecost highlights this truth. Pentecost represent the following:
1. A time of fulfillment of Gods purpose to mission among the nations.
2. The new era of the outpouring of the Spirit on all people.
3. The birth of a witnessing community.
The Great Commission is binding upon every generation in the
history of the church. This commission is our mission - the purpose for
the existence of the church. The Holy Spirit is a witnessing Spirit (John
15:26). The church is therefore a missionary community by very nature.
It is not surprising then that Timothy, a pastor, is told by Paul in 2 Ti 4:5
to do the work of an evangelist. No matter where we find ourselves and no
matter what our calling, we are to witness the love of Jesus Christ. I hope
you will realize through this study that you have a "mission" obligation!
Take a moment to define your "mission field" at present. Discuss.
The Relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Old Testament
Believer and the New Testament Believer.
Old Testament
New Testament
Limited to selected individuals Unlimited-includes all God’s people
Occasional
Abiding
With God’s people
In God’s people
The Nations came into the
Believers take God’s presence
the presence of God
to the people
It is impossible to effectively minister without the help of the
Holy Spirit in our lives. Any mission strategy that ignores the dynamic of
the Holy Spirit is set on an impossible missionary task. The Holy Spirit as
the Supreme Strategist not only brings the harvest to ripen, but also sends
labourers into the harvest field and directs their actions accordingly. One
sows, one waters, one reaps!
WHEN IS A "CALL FROM GOD" A CALL FROM GOD?
It is important at this point to emphasize the fact that we need
to be fulfilling the part of the Great Commission that God has intended
for us. As soldiers of Christ, we do not make plans; we receive orders! How
do we know when we are acting by the leading of the Holy Spirit or acting
on pure impulse?
This can be extremely confusing, especially to a person with
zeal! I have learnt a simple truth that has been invaluable in knowing
God's direction for my life. A true call from God is a sustained burden it never goes away! It grows stronger and stronger. I think we are sometimes too hasty when trying to do what we feel God is saying.
If God has called me, I can be sure of a few things:
i) I am not going to have to kick down doors
ii) God will not forget to release me
iii) God produces character before He releases kings!
iv) God's release will be in recognition of a ministry, not in the initiation
of it!
Remember: God is not impulsive! Far too often, Christians, in
their zeal to serve God, get involved in ministries to which they have not
been called. While God may be able to use them to a certain degree in
these positions, it is not His will nor his plan for their lives. To be sure that
we can enjoy the direction, provision and empowerment of the Holy
Spirit in our service as Christians, we must be sure of our call (2 Pet 1:10).
Spend time with the Commissioner. Wait for His orders!
Footnotes:
1. Let the Earth Hear His Voice - by Roger Nicole. Edited by J.D. Douglas, World
Wide Publications, 1975
2.Miethe J, Compact Dictionary of Doctrinal words (Bethany House 1988) p99
3.The Cross and World Evangelism - by Festo Kivengere
14
Dear believers in grace,
Hope you all had a good Christmas season, and we wish you a happy
new year in Jesus!
Burma and Lamphun
At the beginning of the month Don was still here and we went
to Burma (north of our house) for a day to visit some believers there and
we also shared the gospel at two market places. The next day we drove
to Lamphun (south of our house-- lots of driving in those two days!).
This was at a papaya plantation about 2 hours from our house. Our
friend had led 5 Shan people to the Lord and wanted Don to come
baptize them.
Before the baptism I encouraged these believers about the
meaning of baptism, using the exodus as an example-- the children of
Israel were saved by the blood of the lamb, which stands for what Jesus
would do for us on the cross-- and they had the Holy Spirit leading them
(the pillar and the cloud) already before going through the water (the
Red Sea), unlike what the Judaizers in Galatians were trying to tell the
Galatians (that they needed to receive the Holy Spirit by their works-Galatians 3:2)-- our faith is in Jesus, not in a ceremony. Jesus was
baptized as an example to us and we are baptized in obedience to His
command-- showing publicly in symbol what has already taken place in
reality-- our death and new life in Jesus Christ. Every true believer is
already baptized by the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 12:13) before their
water baptism, but not every believer is at all times filled with the Holy
Spirit, which is a distinction made in the book of Acts. Our faith is in
the blood of Jesus to cleanse us of our sins, not in water. Here are some
pictures of the group that was baptized.
Christmas Parties
We took the children to a Christmas party on a Sunday, then
took a new believer (a man who prayed with Don when he was here) to
a Christmas party on a Friday along with Khae's Dad, and then on a
different Sunday went back to Lamphun towards the end of the month
for a Christmas party there with the Shan and Lahu people. This was at
the same place where we had the baptisms. I gave a message on how the
various people in the Christmas account responded to Jesus, which was
translated into Shan. Most of the Lahus there were Christians already,
but some of the Shan people responded to give their lives to Jesus. Praise
God for more Shan believers! Our friend Saila is following up with
them.
Buddhist Benny Hinn
About two weeks ago at our local market there was a snake
show. In the backdrop of the show were some Buddhist idols with
incense burning. On the ground there was a large python and another
snake which was poisonous (not sure what kind). The announcer had
the snakes do some tricks and then told the people that usually in the
big city he will charge good money for a show like this, but since this
was in the countryside he was giving the show for "free."
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
Typology In Noah
Then he went on to explain how these were special snakes and
that they could accurately choose the correct lottery numbers! These
numbers (not sure how the snakes selected the numbers) were already in
envelopes and the envelopes could be obtained for a "donation." I didn't
stick around to see the end of the show (=. If these envelopes really did
contain the correct lottery numbers, why didn't the presenter just win
the lottery by himself and stop doing snake shows? Maybe it's out of the
"generosity" of his own heart that he shares these numbers with the
masses, or maybe these idol endorsed numbers are not quite as accurate
as he led the people to believe. Obviously this man and his team,
including the snakes, have been able to make ends meet-- maybe the
people were entertained by his far-fetched claims and decided to buy
envelopes, or maybe having exchanged the truth for a lie (Romans
1:23-25) they were willing to accept these and almost any strange claims
as possibly true. Proverbs 23:23 says, "buy the truth and sell it not."
Prisons
At the women's prison the week following when about 10
ladies gave their lives to Jesus I gave them gospels of John in Thai, telling
them that this is spiritual milk-- just like a baby needs to keep drinking
milk to grow, they need to read God's Word to grow healthy. The week
after that all 60 of the ladies prepared a Christmas song with Christian
lyrics to sing! And, they gave me a very nice blueberry cheesecake for
Christmas (=.
At the juvenile prison we continue to teach Thai each week. I
usually select ten Thai words from a Bible passage and then explain the
passage as well as practice spelling the words.
Children's Classes
The children received gifts at two Christmas parties we took
them to this month. We also took them and a few of the parents to a
hot spring swimming pool. We had 20 people in the truck that day.
Khae shared her testimony before going swimming and talked about
the meaning of Christmas. After swimming we boiled some eggs in the
hottest part of the hot spring and had lunch together.
May God continue to draw people to Himself and raise up
laborers even from among those who have recently given their lives to
Jesus. Wishing you all a happy new year by the grace of Jesus Christ.
Also, here's a comparisons chart of Noah and Jesus.
Peace in Christ, Scott, Khae, and Micahberekiah.
Noah Typified Jesus
The worldwide flood of Noah's day took place about 2300
years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesus compared the days of
Noah to the time before His second coming when in spite of impending
judgment it will be "business as usual." Those who escaped the judgment
were those who remained with Noah in the ark (Genesis 7:23). Those
who are saved now are those who remain with Christ in His Church. In
Noah we see a man who stood almost alone against the tide of wickedness
in his day. This brings to mind Jesus' words that the way to life is narrow
"and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14).
"Ransom" and "Atonement" Pitch
"Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and
shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." (Genesis 6:14).
73 out of the 80 times that the word "atonement" is used in the
Old Testament it is the word "kaphar," which is the Hebrew word that in
English is the first "pitch" in Genesis 6:14. The second word translated as
"pitch" in English in Genesis 6:14, is "kopher" in Hebrew. This word
"kopher" occurs 17 times in the Old Testament, and mostly is translated
as "ransom" (8 out of the 17 times-- the other 9 times the word is translated variously).
It is interesting to note the association of the words "atonement" and "ransom" in relation to pitching the inside and the outside of
the ark. Through Jesus we have received the atonement (Romans 5:11),
and are ransomed (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; I Timothy 2:6).
Just as the ark's design was revealed by God, so the design of
the Church was revealed by God-- and both speak of being ransomed by
atonement. The ark of Noah's day speaks typologically of Jesus' redemption. Jesus is also the ark of the covenant typologically (In Romans 3:25,
Jesus is called a "propitiation" which is the same Greek word "hilasterion"
that is used for the "mercy seat" of the ark of the covenant in Hebrews
9:5).
Rest In The Ark
The name "Noah" means "rest." Through Noah, God accomplished His
judgment for sin on the earth, which brought rest for those who survived
the flood through the ark. Through Jesus, God accomplished His
judgment for sin on the cross, which results in rest for all who believe in
Jesus Christ (who represents the ark). Aside from Noah's name, the
Hebrew word "nuach/noach" is also used in relation to the ark of the
covenant, translated as "resting place:" "Now therefore arise, O LORD
God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy
priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice
in goodness." (II Chronicles 6:41)
In the record of the flood, the words "nuach" and "manoach"
related to "Noah," are used: "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on
the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." (Genesis 8:4) The ark (which was pitched with "atonement" and "ransom")
came to rest on the 17th day of the 7th month, during what later in Israel's
history would be right after the feast of atonement (10th day of the 7th
month), and during the feast of tabernacles (15th-21st of the 7th month).
Noah and his family were resting on the mountains of Ararat, prefiguring
the feast of tabernacles, as the "tabernacled" in the ark.
The birds were searching for rest. The raven did not come
back to "Rest" (Noah's name) for rest, but the dove did come back to
"Rest" (Noah) for rest when it found no rest outside the ark: "But the
dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into
the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put
forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark."
(Genesis 8:9)
Rest in the New Testament
Jesus is the "ark" in whom we rest. In the New Testament, the
parallel word for rest comes from "pauo" (to stop/cease), from which we
get our English word "pause." This Greek word is used with various
prefixes: anapauo/anapausis
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
15
Typology In Noah
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-29)
"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for
the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil
spoken of, but on your part he is glorified." (I Peter 4:14)
"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write,
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow
them." (Revelation 14:13)
In the book of Hebrews what almost seems like an oxymoron
is used in relation to rest-- "laboring" to maintain faith and enter into
final rest: katapausis "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest
any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4:11)
"And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest,
but to them that believed not?" (Hebrews 3:18)
That "labor" is not a resting in the law or resting in our works,
which Paul condemns in the book of Romans: epanapauomai
"Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy
boast of God.... For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles
through you, as it is written." (Romans 2:17; 24)
Our "labor" now is to walk by faith in Jesus in whom is our rest
as we saw in the opening verses of this section (Matthew 11:28-29). In
one sense that's a "labor," but in another sense it's not, because His yoke is
easy, since we are saved by grace not by works. Salvation is a free gift and
faith is what pleases God. "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but
for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man
shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they
unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus
answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on
him whom he hath sent." (John 6:27-29)
In light of other verses in the New Testament, I believe when
Jesus said, "This is the work of God..." He was responding to their desire
to do works to earn salvation, but instead of giving a list of laws, He
turned the word "work" on its head, pointing to the simplicity of faith in
the One whom God sent.
Noah's Faith
In the account of Noah in Genesis the words "faith" or
"believed" are not seen at all, but we know that Noah was a man of faith.
For one thing Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord: "But Noah
found grace in the eyes of the LORD." (Genesis 6:8) As now, grace is not
something earned, but given as a free gift: "For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." (Ephesians
2:8)
Noah walked with God and was a just man: "These are the
generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations,
and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9) Since we know that Noah
was a just man, let's look at how the just live: "For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just
shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)
The inescapable proof of Noah's faith though is in the book of
Hebrews. We know that Noah had faith, because Noah pleased God, and
without faith it is impossible to please God and Noah's faith is also plainly
stated: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things
not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his
house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith." (Hebrews 11:6-7)
Also, in the account in Genesis we see how Noah lived out his
faith: -Being a righteous man in a wicked generation -Building according
to God's plan in spite of what others must have thought of his (in their
eyes) ridiculous ark -Waiting 7 days in a dry ark before the rain began
Conclusion
Noah brought his "house" into the ark (Genesis 7:1). We also are called
16
to bring our house into the ark (Jesus). The men of God in the Old Testament foreshadowed and pointed forward to the life of Jesus Christ. Nowadays the lives of Christians, when yielded to Christ to reflect His character, point backwards to the glorious life of Jesus Christ. In both cases,
Jesus Christ is pointed to as worthy of being exalted and worshipped-- the
focal point of the whole Bible. Paul the apostle said, "Be ye followers of
me, even as I also am of Christ." (I Corinthians 11:1)
Noah
Jesus
Noah was a preacher of righteousness Jesus was a preacher of righteousness
(II Peter 2:5)
(Matthew 4:17)
Noah lived in a generation which
was wicked, evil, corrupt, and
violent (Genesis 6:5; 11; 7:1)
Noah built the ark by which people
could be saved (Genesis 6)
Jesus lived in a generation which was
sinful, wicked, and adulterous
(Mark 8:38; Matthew 12:45)
Jesus built the Church by which
people can be saved (Matthew 16:18;
Ephesians 2:10)
Noah was a carpenter (Genesis
6:13-14)
Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3)
There was no other way of salvation
except through the ark (II Peter 3:6)
There is no other way of salvation
except through Jesus (John 14:6)
There was only one door to the ark to There is only one door to the sheepenter-- people could not climb in
fold, which is Jesus-- people cannot
some other way (Genesis 6:16)
climb in some other way
(John 10:1-7)
Noah offered burnt offerings which
were a sweet smelling savour
(Genesis 8:20-21)
Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice
and a sweet smelling savour
(Ephesians 5:2)
God established an everlasting
covenant with Noah which
prefigured the ultimate covenant
which Jesus would establish
(Genesis 9:9-17)
Jesus is the mediator of a better
covenant (Hebrews 8:6; 12:24;
13:20)
God spoke to Noah (Genesis 6:13;
9:12; 17)
The Father spoke to Jesus
(John 15:15)
Noah had a message which would
affect the whole world.
Jesus had a message which affected
and still affects the whole world.
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
Austr alian Update
Greetings in the Name of Jesus & welcome to Moriel Thank-you’s
To all those who sent in their subscription renewals, for the
2016.
letters, contributions and above all the prayerful support.
Whilst on the subject of thank-you’s – a HUGE thank you goes to those
Frightening isn’t it?
I am writing the March Quarterly and it is currently January – it is an who financially gave to the “water tank trailer” for the Mount of Olives
following the recent fire on the farm.
injustice to we older folk that the time just races by!
Our long time readers will verify that I always say in the Christmas
Break I am definitely going to clean up the office over said holidays – Testimony
In the last issue of the Quarterly I shared with you the engageguess what – still in a mess so best I wait for the next break. Have only
ment
of
Adeline
& David well just a week or so ago I received this from
been with Moriel Admin for the past 17 years – one does not want to
the
happy
couple.
rush these things!
“David and I met in 2009 when we were both seventeen while I
was
on
a
family
holiday in the States. The Lord was working in our hearts
As Jacob says “The Mary & Martha things first”
despite
the
10,000
mile distance and the many years that passed. David was
Due to Jacob’s health we are not sure if Jacob will be coming
praying
about
whether
he was meant to live a life of singleness or if the Lord
to Australia this year as planned. Please keep him in your prayers as he
was
preparing
him
to
be
a husband.
has huge decisions to make regarding the future of Moriel due to his
I
was
also
considering
singleness and whether this was God’s
problems with flying and of course the risk of infection to his legs. It is
purpose
for
my
life.
Through
various
ways, God revealed His beautiful plan
a huge mountain he has to climb (so to speak) as he has devoted his life
for
us
to
marry
and
continue
living
a
life of love in marriage.
to preaching & correcting error in the fallen church all around the
The
more
we
grow
in
love
for
each other, the more we understand
world with such passion that it is hard to contemplate Jacob not coming
how
God’s
love
is
poured
into
our
hearts
because He first loved us. This year
to visit us at least in the near term. But there are plans for Jacob to do
we
will
be
celebrating
our
love
in
the
covenant
of marriage and afterwards
more livestreaming broadcast on Moriel TV.
living
in
Boston
until
David
finishes
his
graduate
program.
I do feel for Jacob, as I have had to accept in a far less degree
Adeline”
huge changes in my health & movements etc. But I know that the Lord
Here in Australia we are
has it all in hand and in that it is time for myself to get off my own
experiencing
extreme weather
determined “merry-go-round.” This acceptance brings such peace; it
patterns
will
many
days over 40
also heightens the memories of wonderful times past & creates an
degrees
which
have
started some
excitement for what lays ahead. This is my prayer for Jacob.
of
our
worst
bush
fires
in many
Yesterday I was watching a new teaching from Jacob recorded
long
years.
Western
Australia
&
on Moriel TV called “The Rapture- the Return of Jesus” DVD6102. It
Victoria
have
been
the
worst
was great teaching and the quality really great. It was recorded with
Jacob sitting at his desk (not his usual pacing to and fro) and I could not affected and now today the west
stop watching and in fact watched it again last evening. Personally I was coast of Tasmania is ablaze.
excited, as I believe that is the way forward using modern technology, it North Queensland has flooding
& NSW dreadful storms whilst
was as though Jacob was sitting here in front of me.
There have been so many letters coming in over the holidays England has excessive flooding
with readers concern for Jacob’s health and praying that his health is and now USA with the worst
restored – WHY - because there are so few men of God doing what snowstorms in many long years.
Christians in each of
Jacob does. So many letters thanking him for bringing the Truth to
these
magnificent
countries must
them & sharing where they had been before being exposed to his teachsurely
be
questioning
where we
ing. I know exactly what they were sharing as in the early/mid eighties
stand
both
individually
and as a
some very dear friends were sent a video of Jacob recorded in New
nation
in
the
things
of
God.
I am
Zealand – the quality of the tape was dreadful BUT the message was
reminded
of
that
scripture
in
Romans 13:11-12-13
awesome. Very excitedly my friends contacted the senders asking for
As
nations
how
much
lower
into
our selfish ways can we sink? I realize
more information about this teacher and the response was “oh it was
that
Paul
is
warning
us
of
living
in
the world as apposed to being a part
some fellow visiting from the UK and he was with Barry Smith & Philip
of
it.
The
warning
is
both
collective
& singular but are we spending
Powell” A group of us had left a church that had gone away from the
enough
both
in
time
and
practise
bringing
correction into our walk(s)?
Truth of God’s Word and as such had been meeting in homes for fellowI
hope
that
makes
sense
to
you
–
far
often
my
thoughts run ahead of the
ship. We watched and watched this message and couldn’t wait to get
pen
so
to
speak.
more – that is another story but Praise Our Precious Lord it exposed us
to Jacob & to what the Lord had called him to.
This is my long-winded way of asking you to join with us in praying for On a happier note:
Our dear Glad Fisher of Queensland (Sunshine Coast) has just
Jacob’s future plans.
celebrated her 98th birthday in late January and on the other side of
Pastor Bill Randles Downunder – STOP PRESS Australia Leo Sheridan turns 80 very shortly.
May the Lord bless you both and we send all our love on these
–VISIT YET TO BE CONFIRMED
your
special
days.
We will be having Pastor Bill Randles and his dear wife Kristin
here in May (see the flyer in the Australian edition of the Quarterly.
Please keep this proposed visit in your prayers and also Bill’s health My love to each & every one of you
In Christ
regarding excessive travel.
We will have Bill’s materials available at the venues and of Marg
course will have his updated book “Beware the New Prophets”
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
17
Moriel Isr ael Update
December 2015
Israeli winter has arrived and it's getting chilly. Israeli homes
are designed to dissipate not retain heat. On days like this I am
cloistered in the office next to a small heater Things are quite busy, I
am currently putting the finishing parts in some outreach literature
before it goes to the translator. I am also combing through, collecting
and collating errors and typos in the texts of Harpazo and Shadows of
the Beast to be ready for the Second Edition.
The terror wave rolls on, and though most of the terror
activity is centred around Jerusalem or Judea and Samaria, Nahariya
has not been untouched. Just over a week ago, as we entered town in
the evening, we were surprised to see police and military vehicles
everywhere. We found out later that a border policeman had been
stabbed and wounded by an Arab youth, who was later apprehended.
Only a week ago, we were walking through town, and came a road
block near the railway and Central Bus Station. Police, ambulances
and fire-engines were all there, and through the barriers we saw the
bomb-disposal robot approaching a suspicious object in the road.
Day after day we are seeing reports, only yesterday another 11 were
injured in Jerusalem in a car ram attack by a muslim terrorist.
Car-ram terror attacks have made using a pedestrian-crossing (a
hazardous activity here that has nearly cost us our lives several times)
something to do with even greater care and observation; and sometimes the thought crosses the mind, of what would happen if a
muslim terrorist ran amok in the busy aisles of our local supermarket.
We don't live in fear, but we look over our shoulders more than we
used to, and it is clear that we are witnessing an escalation, not just
here, but of Islam's war against the West. It looks like terror is going
to be part of "normal" life worldwide now. Peace really is being taken
from the Earth.
War is Declared
Peace also has gone south amongst the Premillennial and
pro-Israel community as well. Few can be unaware by now, that the
disagreement over timing of the Rapture went nuclear at the recent
Berean Call Conference. Dr Paul Wilkinson of Prophetic Word
Ministries International dropped the "H-Bomb" during his rebuttal of
the Left Behind or Led Astray DVD, stating that those who do not
agree with his Pretribulational Rapture position are holding to "terrible heresy". I know Jacob and others have addressed some of the
points raised by Dr Wilkinson, but no one as yet seems to have
covered this one, so I thought it good to include it in this bulletin.
It is not wrong to state one's position with passion, but
laying aside the personal accusations made there, which are a separate
issue; I am not sure that Dr Wilkinson, (who stands by and will not
withdraw his heresy accusation) truly understands biblically what the
term heresy means, or its implications, or he would not have used it
in such an uninformed and offhand manner.
What actually is Heresy anyway?
Heresy has been defined in three main ways:
Denial of the fundamentals of the faith as laid down in
the the Creeds. The wording of the historic Creeds is very specific,
they were formulated as a standard of orthodoxy in response to
heresy. Such a definition, however, is inadequate, as it only holds
good in the areas covered by the Creeds, and because some later
confessions of faith such as the Westminster Confession contain
calvinistic elements that many would regard as defective or seriously
erroneous at best and the logical implications of which are even
blasphemous, as they impugn God's holy character.
Denial of prevailing orthodoxy. This is how most dictionaries would define it, but such a definition only holds good as long
as the Church is in good shape doctrinally. Particularly in the Dark
18
Ages and the Inquisition, the prevailing orthodoxy was actually
anti-Scriptural, as Christianity had became Christendom and drifted
away from any biblical moorings. After all, what kind of orthodoxy
bans you from translating or reading the Bible on pain of death?
Denial of what is explicitly taught in Scripture. Of the
three definitions, of course this is the most important. Scripture is
our ultimate and final authority and the basis for any and all
doctrine.
Heresy Doesn't Happen By Accident.
Heresy is not a difference of opinion on some subject or even
merely possessing erroneous ideas about something: all of us have had
at one time or another some wonky notions, particularly when we
were young in the Lord, thankfully most of these are ironed out as we
mature in our knowledge of the Scriptures and of the faith; however,
heresy is not these. Heresy involves the will and is about a choice:--it
involves demonstrably false doctrine, wilfully and persistently held
to, in defiance and rejection of admonition from the clear teaching of
the Scriptures. Consequently, heresy is not something that happens
to a Christian by accident; it is a way that one has chosen to follow,
therefore, someone who is teaching heresy, is by definition a heretic;
thus, by his employment of the term heresy, Dr Wilkinson has implicated all who do not hold to his Secret Pretribulational Rapture
Theory as heretics.
Scripture teaches us to shun heretics and keep our distance,
because they are uncorrectable.
"A man that is an heretic (or factious) after the first and second
admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and
sinneth, being condemned of himself."
Heresy is the stock-in-trade of false teachers, who no longer
love the Lord Jesus and whose end is destruction.
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as
there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction."
In actual fact Dr Wilkinson is not the first in the Pretribulational Rapture Theorist Camp to make this kind of accusation, he is
merely imitating, in a more emotionally-charged manner, what Tim
LaHaye, the guru of Leftbehind-ism stated in his 1999 book Revelation Unveiled:
This promise, however is to the church of Philadelphia: she will
be raptured before the Tribulation begins. It seems difficult to understand
why some false teachers suggest that the Church must go through the
Tribulation in view of this clear-cut statement of our Lord.
Be that as it may, we can see from the book of Acts that this
does not refer to someone who has merely preached something a bit
"off" once in a while, or whose understanding or grasp of something
is immature.
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an
eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the scriptures.
This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent
in spirit, he spake and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus,
knowing only the baptism of John: and he began to speak boldly in the
synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him unto
them, and expounded unto him the way of God more accurately.
Apollos hadn't got everything perfectly right, so Priscilla
and Aquila took him aside and straightened things up. They didn't
label him a a false teacher or heretic because his understanding of the
Gospel was incomplete. A real false teacher or heretic on the other
hand, is someone who is persistently promulgating demonstrably
unbiblical and destructive false doctrine, and who refuses to be
corrected. It is someone who has gone "off the rails" altogether; which
is why Paul counsels Titus to reject (shun or avoid) such people after
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
Moriel Isr ael Update
they have refused two admonitions. This effectively means disfellowshipping or excommunication.
Scripture also defines false teachers as wolves: Take heed unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own
blood. I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in
among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after
them.
In the Old Testament, when used of people, wolves depicts
those who mercilessly exploit or plunder others for their own gain or
advantage. It is used particularly in two excoriating condemnatory
addresses against Israel's national and religious leadership (Eze.
22:23-31 & Zep. 3:1-4.).
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do
men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree
bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in
heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do
many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
When we take heresy in its biblical definition; Dr Wilkinson, by his declaration of all eschatological views other than his own
to be terrible heresy; has in actual fact labelled all who do not teach
the Pretribulational Rapture Theory as heretics, false teachers and
wolves, exploiters of the Body, workers of iniquity, who await only the
Lord's judgement and destruction, fit only to be shunned and avoided
by other believers.
Heresy is not something about which believers can ever
remain neutral, Scripture commands us to separate from heresy, and
shun those who wilfully propagate false teaching: thus, biblically
speaking, Dr Wilkinson's heresy charge, if taken seriously, is also a
call to Pretribulational Rapturists to excommunicate those who do
not endorse their eschatological theory.
Is Non-Pretrib Actually Heresy?
Can Dr Wilkinson demonstrate that Post-tribulationism or
Prewrath contradict any of the historic creeds, Apostolic, Athanasian,
Nicene? Absolutely not.
Can Dr Wilkinson demonstrate that Pretribulationism was
ever part of the orthodoxy of the Church, particularly the immediate
Post-Apostolic Church? I am sure like other Pretribulation Rapture
theorists he would love to be able to do that, but he is confronted by
a deeply embarrassing silence for the first 1800 years of Church history in regards to anything that could be taken as as serious evidence of
a Pretribulation Rapture. They proclaim Pretrib as a "lost" doctrine
rediscovered by John Nelson Darby, but for something to be
rediscovered, it has to be proved to have previously existed as part of
the Apostolic deposit of faith once delivered to the saints, which they
can not do. Without Scofield's (a convicted felon and con-man)
insertion of Darby's errors into the very pages of Scripture itself,
Pretrib would have remained the crank teaching of a tiny self-excommunicating cult-group. So the "rediscovery" claim is, on their part,
wishful thinking at best, and downright deceit at worst, because they
have no basis for such a pronouncement. Pretribulational teachers
that are claiming definitive Pretrib support from Early Church history or that it is an orthodox doctrine that was "lost" are selling their
listeners timeshares on Mars.
Can Dr Wilkinson demonstrate by sound exegetical process
that Pretribulationism is clearly and unambiguously taught in Scripture? The fact that he could not do so in either his video or written
rebuttal is very telling indeed.
The grounds of his accusation of "terrible heresy" are that
non-Pretrib eschatologies place the Church in the Seventieth Week of
Daniel, because the Seventieth Week is decreed for Israel and the city
of Jerusalem, but his reasoning here is a non-sequitor. Yes, indeed, the
Seventieth Week is decreed upon Jerusalem and the Jewish people,
but it does not follow that it does not affect the Church, for a great
number of very important reasons, just one of which I will list below.
Dr Wilkinson's position makes the assumption that God
can not deal with Israel and the Church at the same time.
Firstly this concept is nowhere found in Scripture; it is one
of those vaporous presuppositions upon which Pretribulational
Rapture theorists build their castles in the air. Secondly God was
dealing with Israel after the New Covenant was inaugurated and
after Pentecost, (which is assumed by dispensationalist to be the
birthday of the Church) and even more so now after 1948, Israel is a
nation once more and the Church is still here. Thirdly it could even
be argued that God has never stopped dealing with Israel, that the
very fact of their judicial hardening and exile among the nations and
the preservation of the Jewish Remnant is evidence of that.
Things decreed or ordained explicitly for Israel actually
have massive relevance for the Church.
Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I
took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my
covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in
their heart will I write it; and I 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 Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive
their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Nowhere will you find in Scripture that the New Covenant
was made with the nations or the "Church". It is made specifically
with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. According to Dr
Wilkinson's rigid and over-realised demarcation, the New Covenant
should have no relevance to the Church because it is "Jewish" and
appointed to the nation of Israel. The fact is however, Scripture
records that the Gentiles are graciously included in this promise given
to the Jewish people.
Secondly the Apostle Paul makes it quite clear in Ephesians
that Gentile believers now occupy the following position:
-Joined with the Jewish Messiah,
-Of the commonwealth of Israel,
-Partakers in the covenants of the promise, sharing in the hope
of Israel.
-Made nigh in the blood of the Messiah.
-Part of the one new man created from Jew and Gentile.
-Reconciled along with Jewish believers unto God.
-Sharing a common access [with Jewish believers) through the
Spirit to the Father
-No more strangers and sojourners1, but fellow-citizens with
the saints, and of the household of God,
-Built upon the foundation of the [Jewish] apostles and
prophets,
-Fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-par
takers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Dr Wilkinson's eschatology is wrong, because his ecclesiolo-
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
19
Moriel Isr ael Update
gy is wrong. Though it is beyond the scope of this article to enter into
great details on the doctrine of the Church, very briefly it could be
said thus: that the "Church" is really nothing other than an expansion and development of the saved remnant of Israel. Paul makes it
absolutely clear that when a Gentile comes to faith he is plugged into
the wonderful promises and destiny that God has intended for Israel;
he comes to share in what Paul calls the commonwealth of Israel, thus
as part of the remnant he shares in its relationship to the nation of
Israel as a whole. So, like the remnant which he has now joined, he is
distinct from unbelieving Israel, but not separated from it, he shares
the same connection with it as does the rest of the Remnant. He does
not become a Jew, or cease to be a Gentile, but he is now of the seed
of Abraham by faith (Gal. 3:29). If then, a Gentile believer is part and
parcel of the commonwealth of Israel, of Abraham's seed, a
fellow-heir of the promise, and of one body with the Remnant of
Israel and part of the nation that would render the vineyard's fruit in
its season, then it stands to reason that he must also share in what
befalls that Remnant also, for example in Revelation 12:
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make
war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of
God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
So then we see on all three counts, the Ancient Creeds,
Historic Orthodoxy and faithfulness to Biblical Truth, Dr Wilkinson's charge of heresy is all flurry and fluff, without substance, an
ill-advised and emotional venting, which while it played to the
pretribulational gallery at Berean Call, does not correspond to any
biblical definition of the term heresy at all.
Dr Wilkinson's Controversial Remarks on the
Trinity.
I am making no accusations and have no desire to; if however, Dr Wilkinson had pointed the finger at himself instead of accusing others, he might have found more grounds for his accusations,
because he is certainly encroaching on the areas covered by two of the
definitions.
In regards to Historic Orthodoxy; his castigation of the
Post-Apostolic and Ante-Nicene Fathers for their faults in order to
discredit their eschatological testimony, was in itself, a tacit admission of the fact that they were post-tribulational to a man, and that a
post-tribulational eschatology was actually stated to be part of Christian orthodoxy in that period; and Dr Wilkinson brought forth no
evidence to demonstrate Pretribulational Rapturism was ever widely
accepted among Evangelical Orthodoxy until very recently (and even
that mostly geographically isolated to the USA). Rest assured, could
he have done so, he most certainly would have.
In regards to Biblical Support, the most important category of all; in place of an exegetical argument, Dr Wilkinson presented
us with this:
Well yes, I would agree that there is not one verse of Scripture to
prove the Pretrib Rapture Theory", as he put it, . . . doctrine. Erm . . . I
don’t believe he should have said that, had no need to say that. It's a none
argument. Are you going to give me one verse of Scripture that proves that
God the Father, that the Father is God and the Son of God and the Spirit
is God, is that what we are about, proof-texting like the Jehovah's
Witnesses? No we have the full counsel of God the progressive revealed
Word of God to our hearts and so when you are talking about like the
Rapture or the Trinity or whatever it is, you pull in lots of Scriptures.
The doctrine of the Trinity, so fundamental to biblical Christianity, cannot be proved by quoting a single verse of Scripture! Joe Schimmel is making a non-argument. We are not Jehovah’s Witnesses hanging
our theology on proof-texts, but Evangelical Christians seeking to show
ourselves approved by studying the whole counsel of God, from Genesis to
Revelation. As we do so, we discover that many of the precious truths of
the Christian faith, including the doctrine of the Trinity and the Rapture
20
of the Church, are progressively revealed. See Comments at end of article.
I am convinced that Dr Wilkinson was not paying any
attention to what was said on the Left Behind or Led Astray video he
was rebutting. Pastor Joe Schimmel was not asking for merely one
isolated proof-verse to support Pretrib. It was clear throughout the
presentation that what was required was more broadly defined:
We had offered 10,000 USD to anyone who could show just
one clear teaching proving that Jesus returns in a Pretrib Rapture . . . .
Can you show us one scripture that clearly teaches Jesus Christ comes
before the Tribulation to rapture the Church? It was not just average
believers who could not give us clear Scripture teaching the Pretrib
Theory . . . . to ask Colin LeNoury if there was one clear verse or passage
of Scripture that taught the Pretrib Rapture . . . . When we asked Colin
for one verse or passage . . . .
Dr Wilkinson is trying to eat his cake and have it here. He
rails on proof-texting, but then actually uses parts of Daniel as
proof-texts for his claim that those who teach that the Church is
present on earth during the Tribulation are teaching "terrible heresy"!
The fact is, that there is nothing wrong with a proof-text, providing it
is in context. He also seems to misunderstand the term "progressively
revealed," as being akin to non-contextual, or inferential, something
which it absolutely does not mean.
And this is really what lies at the heart of this matter of the
Trinity and why Dr Wilkinson is so in error to equate the doctrine of
the Trinity with that of the Pretribulational Rapture Theory. The
doctrine of the Trinity rests on passages of Scripture which in context
either explicitly state or unavoidably imply, to any honest mind, one
or more of the propositions underlying the doctrine.
For example, Jesus explicitly states his divinity on a number
of occasions in John's Gospel and it is clear from the response of the
Jewish authorities that he was making such a claim. He is worshipped
as God, seen as co-equal with the Father and one with the Father, the
Father, Son and Spirit share the same one name, the Holy Spirit is
revealed to be divine and personal not a mere force, etc. There is no
need to read presuppositions into these texts to make them say this;
these passages, in context, speak for themselves. We could fill a small
book with them to exegetically demonstrate the undergirdings of this
precious truth of Scripture.
Pretribulationism on the other hand can offer nothing like
this, as was so vividly illustrated by Pretrib gurus own admissions in
"Left Behind or Led Astray," and their constant scrabbling for pretexts,
be they ever so slim, on which to hang their theory, a pastime which
frequently involves outrageous historical revisionism (to try and read
Pretrib into Early Church history) and the adoption of a thoroughly
dishonest hermeneutical methodology that is completely at variance
with any and all of their claim to "literal interpretation".
Something More Than a Spat.
Consequently Dr Wilkinson's response to Left Behind or
Led Astray's reporting of these Pretrib Leader's admissions (that the
Scriptures do not, as such, teach Pretrib, and that it is a doctrine
derived solely from inference); --was not to present us with clear
biblical teaching for the Pretribulational Rapture Theory, but instead
to hermeneutically downgrade the precious doctrine of the Trinity; to
claim it has the same wretched basis and paucity of scriptural support
as their beloved theory; and thus effectively to debase the Trinity
doctrine, as Jacob puts it,--to the status of mere opinion. This is why
this issue is no mere "strife about words" or a spat between preachers,
but an extremely serious one. Dr Wilkinson's remarks about the
Trinity are so dangerous, not because he himself actually denies the
doctrine, (it is clear from his written rebuttal that he does not) but
because they are a wide open door to those who do and will; because
to put the Trinity on the same basis as Pretrib, is to, in effect, assert
that the Scriptures do not actually teach it, thus undermining it
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
Moriel Isr ael Update
That the LORD would sort us all out, whatever our eschatoaltogether.
The same downgrading is being applied to the scriptural and logical viewpoints, and prepare us for the days ahead and for what is
historic testimony of the Body to other doctrines as well, as leading coming.
Pretribulational Rapture theorists labour to degrade hermeneutical
May the LORD bless you from Zion,
standards to make their theory sound acceptable. We may remember
Elon and Hadas
the reckless remarks of Thomas Ice who on the December 2014 1. The phrase strangers and sojourners corresponds to the O.T. Hebrew words "gerim" and "toshavim,"
Berean Call Radio Show, not only said the same thing; (and was non-Jews who while dwelling among the children of Israel, were not permitted to eat the Passover or
endorsed in it by T.A. MacMahon) but also threw in some historical- partake of the holy things or enter the inner Temple courts. Paul is basically saying that Gentile believers
do not have second-class standing, but are on an equal basis with a full pass into all the benefits and
ly inaccurate and wildly irresponsible utterances about Justification privileges promised to Israel.
by Faith and the Atonement2 as well , all while plugging the lethal 2. See "Theological Propanganda" in Mar. 2015 Moriel Bulletin or go to http://morielisrael.blogspot.co.il/2015/03/theological-propaganda-introduction-to.html
"Apostasy equals Rapture" doctrine with which certain Pretrib
Rapture theorists are currently intoxicated, and which, sadly, Dr Comments 1 and 2 from page 20 of the article are as follows:
Wilkinson includes in his book "Understanding Christian Zionism". 1. Note the question is not about the Rapture as to whether it is biblical, but the PRETRIB rapture,
The Rebuttal Fiasco, the Berean Call endorsement of the whether that is found in the Scriptures. And there is NOT ONE VERSE INTHE BIBLE that gives that
in a clear explicit and uninferential way. (This is in reference to the “Rapture or Trinity”
Trinity Doctrine Downgrade, Apostasy Equals Rapture, undermin- TIMING
section of the quotation).
ing of other core doctrines, etc. all these are unsettling individually,
But that does not mean its inferential only, or that clear scriptures are lacking. (This is in reference to
but taken together they are an alarming indicator of the underlying 2.
the word “progressively” being used).
rot and putrefaction within Pretrib.
The Core of the Matter
Dr Wilkinson's claims about the doctrine of the Trinity,
have exposed very publicly the real contention between the Pretrib
Camp and the Post-Trib or Prewrath teachings, which is actually not
about the timing of the Rapture at all, but is everything to do with
the tortuous and unsound hermeneutical methods by which Pretrib
theorists arrive at their position. Though by no means perfect, the
Post-Trib, Intra-Trib and Pre-Wrath, are at least attempts to work out
an eschatology based on clear and in context or explicit statements of
Scripture. Leaders from these three camps would stress that there is
much that we "see through a glass darkly;" but the basic premise that
the Church will go through the Tribulation is based on a literal
exegesis, backed up also by nearly 2000 years of Church history. The
Pretrib doctrine on the other hand, has to resort to a handling of the
Scriptures kith and kin with cult-groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses,
including denial of what Paul and Jesus explicitly state. Small wonder
that one of the commentators in Left Behind or Led Astray described
Pretrib as a doctrine "characterised by deceit". These kind of
violations of the Scripture text and the manifest errors it engenders,
are what the early opponents of Darby, like B. W. Newton, S. P.
Tregelles and others raised their cry against, and they, in an interesting parallel to our own times, were also castigated as heretics, and
relentlessly hounded and demonised by Darby for standing up to his
unbiblical novelties; but they stuck to the Word, as one of their
number, the famous George Muller put it:
"My brother, I am a constant reader of my Bible, and I soon
found that what I was taught to believe did not always agree with what
my Bible said. I came to see that I must either part company with John
Darby, or my precious Bible, and I chose to cling to my Bible and part
from Mr. Darby."
Sadly, recent events show us, that within the Pretrib Camp,
some are, at present, making the opposite choice.
Prayer Points
That as we distribute leaflets and literature, the scriptures in
them would find fertile soil in willing hearts, that we would see real
fruit of souls saved.
For more opportunities to share the Word amongst our
circle of friends, and that those things already sown would bear fruit,
and that God would ever enlarge that circle bringing us into new
relationships and more open doors.
For the revisions on Harpazo and Shadows of the Beast.
That the LORD would use books like Harpazo and Shadows of the
Beast and the Left Behind or Led Astray DVD to stir up the Body to
begin searching the Scriptures for themselves and laying the
plumbline to the Pretribulational Theory.
Question
for Jacob
Hello,
I would like to know brother Jacob's thought on this. I have been reading
A.W. Tozer and found he credits a lot of the old Catholic mystics for his
spiritual growth and knowledge. This is troubling to me. Should I
continue to read his books and do the studies? I know there must be some
of their beliefs in his writings. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of
dough. Right?
Thank you so much for your help in this matter.
God Bless You! Rebecca
Much of AW Tozer's writing was not only insightful, but in a
qualified sense prophetic. This is not to state that as with any other
leader whom God graciously chose to use that he did not have certain
views with which those sanctioning the ministries of such authors,
theologians, and preachers might not fully agree.
For myself this would be true of Martin Lloyd Jones (who was amillenial), Charles Spurgeon (who was moderate Calvinist), and
Watchman Nee (who incorporated limited influences of cultural
Chinese mysticism in his book :'The Spiritual Man'). Yet, I endorse
the legacy of such figures. A distinction must be made between
fundamental doctrines (the sole doctrinal authority of scripture,
Deity of Christ & Tri-unity of God-Head, salvation in no other
Name, Justification by Faith & Salvation by Faith appropriated by
regeneration etc.) and non-fundamental doctrines (timing of the
rapture etc.). Jesus made this clear when He spoke of "Weightier
Matters of The Law" and "Straining Gnats but Swallowing Camels".
All of God's Word is important, but Jesus made clear that some
elements are more important than others.
Roman Catholicism is a dark, Satanically manipulated false religious
system that counterfeits scriptural Christianity. Some - BUT NOT
ALL of the Roman Catholic mystics were people who were trapped
in a dark age with no alternative church in their era and or location.
Some of these were struggling under very difficult circumstances to
be faithful to what light they had and were persecuted for doing so
(Madam Guyon, John of The Cross - who was imprisoned). There is
little doubt that Thomas A' Kempis was a true believer who knew
The Lord. Unfortunately, their doctrinal understanding was often
nebulous due to their time and circumstances. But this is not to say
that a minority may not have been regenerate. Continued on pg 23
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
21
Moriel Philippines Update
Grace and peace be multipied unto you from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Now that it is December again, we are glad to give happiness to the dump children
and to their parents. We have conducted a “Moriel Give a Gift” clothes to the children.
It is timely for them to use for their School Christmas party and for the Year EndThanksgiving party that will be held on December 29. This activity will give additional
happiness for the children and for them to feel how great God is to them as well as
to praise and give thanks to God's provision and blessings for this whole year.
We are giving thanks to your prayers and to all who prayed for Sis. Ann Liwanag
Sevilla. We are requesting for your continued prayers because she's going to undergo
a surgery this month. We are just waiting for the clearance of the internist.
May we ask for additional prayer for a water tank and water pump to be used for the
Moriel regular Feeding Program. Most of the time, we experience water interruption that lasts
for three days. We only have 3 water barrels where we save water at and they are not enough.
As for the water pump, it will be a big help for we fetch pails of water from the tap downstairs
to the water barrels upstairs.
Again, we appreciate so much your loving-kindness, thank you very much to all
our supporters as well. May God continue to bless every one and His ministry.
Sincerely in Christ,
Ptr. Paul
22
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
State of Moriel 2016
Continued from page 21
There were others who actually before the Reformation preached truth and were martyred by the evil papacy including the Dominican
Savaranola. A genuine carer for the impoverished was Vincent De Paul, also a Dominican, the same demonic religion order responsible for the
Inquisitions. There have always been personally righteous people in false religious systems who went against the grain. Jesus made this very clear
(Revelation 2:24 & Revelation 3:4), and we must view the church as Jesus does which is Revelation chapters 2 & 3. The systems are bad, but
there may be righteous individuals in those systems. AW Tozer's remarks must be assessed in light off these historical and theological facts. Look
for no good in apostate churches. But do not discount that there may be true believers in them that Jesus calls out of them (Revelation 18:4).
I trust this helps. In Jesus, Jacob, Moriel.
STATE OF MORIEL 2016
To our Brethren in Jesus,
It is appropriate for me to commence by earnestly thanking you
all for your much valued and appreciated prayers and support during the
last year. This has been particularly true in light of my own health
struggles with lympho-edema and the infectious cellulites in my lower
limbs that easily cause recurrence. I have spent three stretches hospitalized in the UK & USA totaling nearly seven weeks since September when
I very nearly went home to glory because of bilateral kidney and hepatic
failure due to cellulite infection. I have since that time been hospitalized
twice and had surgery in California plus a series of subcutaneous tissue
ingrates above my ankle. My lower legs remain in compression castings
and I undergo self administered lymphatic pump treatments daily plus,
for the moment, a cocktail of medication. I frequently require crutches
to be mobile. The susceptibility to cellulite reinfection is high and the
ramifications for my neck injury and restrictions on the hydro therapy I
used to reduce reliance on anti-inflammatory agents is problematic. The
anti inflammatory drugs, without which I experience extremely painful
brachio-plexis and partial paralysis in my left arm, are contra-indicated
for other medications I am required to take. Yet The Lord has allowed
this.
I have had to cancel mission trips to India, and postpone another to the rather large Moriel children's work in The Philippines as well as
itineraries in South Africa, Ireland, and the USA additionally postponed
including conferences in New Jersey, Ohio, and Iowa. Our 2015 Conferences in England and Scotland had to be cancelled and, after leg
ulceration, required unexpected surgery in California prevented me from
returning to England for a further month. Although we hope to film
bible teachings on location in Israel, Greece, Turkey etc., all of our Bible
Study Tours have needed to be indefinitely discontinued in case I became
reinfected while leading a tour and require hospitalization abroad during
a tour. These ongoing medical limitations, barring divine intervention,
will be permanent - at least to a considerable degree, and these are things
God has a purpose in no matter how much they may be Satanic attacks,
etc. These trials keep us trusting in Him and His coming and not hoping
in this world. Please pray I am able to reschedule postponed conferences
and that I can resume active ministry on a full time basis and that scheduled trips to China and Austral-Asia & New Zealand will be able to
proceed as planned. There will however need to be major changes.
Until now, too much of Moriel's itinerate ministry has focused
on Jacob Prasch and to a degree David Royle. In the future David
Nathan from Moriel South Africa (a nice Orthodox Jewish boy who got
saved by His Messiah), Marco Quintana (who leads our Spanish
language ministry) and eventually one or two others will be doing itinerate speaking more and Jacob Prasch less. We will also be promoting other
preachers whom we stand with outside of Moriel such as Chris Hill in the
UK. But what of Jacob?
As I and others have sought The Lord concerning His purposes
in allowing adverse situations regarding my health to impact the ministry, it has been clear that His Hand (irrespective of how Satan may be
trying to exploit matters for his diabolical ends) has been causing all
things to work together for good. This is not to understate the disappointments or problems of now being a handicapped person, but it is to
say that God knows what He is doing and He has in these months of
prayer and reflection steadily revealed those purposes step by step. Oddly,
and by divine intervention, the overall ministry of Moriel has not
declined and, in newer areas, even expanded. But it has already changed
with more change coming quickly. The on-line growth if Moriel on
YouTube and social media has been, to say the least, impressive. Moreover, it has become clear that my illness and the curtailed itinerate ministry has been concurrent with the launch of Moriel ROKU TV. Moriel
Ministries is also available as internet TV via Vimeo.com.
I will, in the future, only be speaking at local churches within
2 hours driving time of where I am based due to the need to be home
evenings for lymphatic pumping etc. Plus I can no longer handle driving
long distances with my legs.
My future speaking will either be conferences or seminars,
although I may be able to accept a local church invitation if I am already
away for a conference. Dena in the UK and the various Moriel administrators are restructuring my scheduling accordingly. What will be
happening instead is a regular weekly expository teaching TV program
which will commence soon, Lord willing, plus a live Q&A broadcast
weekly with periodic updates. These will take place in concert with the
already existing broadcast by John Haller from the Moriel affiliated
congregation in Ohio.
__________
Technology has also dictated further major change in the areas
of recorded materials and future books. With the boom we have experienced on YouTube material previously recorded on CD and DVD is
increasingly being web posted free of charge at little cost. I have never
accepted salary or royalties from our published or recorded materials and
we always used proceeds of what we sold to subsidize what we gave away
to poor countries etc. and to cover things like travel costs and contributions to missions. We also kept prices deliberately lower than most other
ministries. But now, by giving away what we once sold, we are going to
need to trust the Lord and the generosity of those led to help sponsor our
teaching, missions, and evangelism to make up for the deficit. It is a
major financial risk we are led of the Lord to accept by faith; but our God
is never broke, the coins are still in the mouths of His fish, and He still
blesses those who bless Israel (where much of our mission budget is devoted), and He still prospers His people to fund His work.
Moriel will still keep its recorded materials available through
the on-line store and catalogue for those wishing it. But from now on we
are just giving it away without cost for "freely we have received, so freely
we shall give" and just trust Jesus to continue to meet the costs of funding
our missions etc.
__________
Book writing is another aspect of Moriel's ministry that is
changing rapidly. The new Moriel TV and on-line ministry is based in
the USA. Technical design and support of the website etc. has been
relocated to Israel as has the copy editing of future books (both were
previously done in California). We have outsourced our technical and
design requirements to a Messianic Jewish firm in Israel operated by a
British born Jewish believer, Steve Davis whose design abilities are
helping us and other ministries.
Planned future books include "NO BALM IN GILEAD";
what really happens after the rapture? This will be the sequel to HARPAZO. Elon Moreh, whose skills are superb, will be the new copy editor.
Israel is closer to the UK than California (and less expensive to get to) so
we expect the book writing process to be faster and easier. The other
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63
23
State of Moriel 2016
development, though, is the obvious growth in e books and Kindle plus
marketing via Amazon as well as direct online marketing through the
Moriel website and Moriel Facebook page. Printed books however will
still be available for the foreseeable future, although more and more
readers are acquiring our books via Kindle.
_________
The Moriel Quarterly will continue limited publication but the
Moriel newsletter in the UK etc. will, in the future, be available through
a standard .pdf file on our website Moriel.org and Moriel Facebook page.
The future of Facebook however may be precarious as Mark Zuckerberg
has agreed to support the pro-Islamic policies of Angela Merkel and is
already removing websites critical of the Islamist threat. Why a Jew and
an anti-Nazi German would team up to pander to Islamo-fascism, which
is the new Nazi-ism, is beyond comprehension. Thus Moriel is beginning
to examine alternatives such as Twitter, etc.
For elderly readers who may not be online or even have computers - no fear. Moriel UK will print off copies of the newsletter by download and post them upon request.
Meanwhile, the Moriel UK office has been mostly relocated to
the West Midlands. The existing Maidenhead address however remains
active.
__________
In any event, these are the basic changes that are coming or
have in some areas already begun to arrive in Moriel.
We are happy to report, however, that our Mission work in
Japan, The Philippines, and Thailand continue to flourish by God's grace
(although Japan remains a very difficult mission field). Our plans to
open Moriel India have had a setback due to my health but remain on the
agenda with the help of Pastor Mark Jackson.
After a hiatus the Moriel Canada branch will reopen but now
as a tax deductible charitable organization under the direction of Chris &
Jayne Pederson (Jayne is originally from Basingstoke in the UK and was
formerly with 'Hope for Today').
At long last Marg & Raewin will no longer need to fly to Moriel
New Zealand by remote control from Australia as they have done since
Nigel went to be with The Lord but Pierre & Marguerite Mosely are
getting ready to assume the administration of the New Zealand branch.
___________
There are still tremendous needs for the future (the biggest of
which is always prayer) and go well beyond finance for which we must
now trust The Lord more radically as we give almost all new teaching
material away freely on line.
One of which is Africa. Moriel has not had the missionaries to
take on the sizable AIDS/HIV children's work in Uganda pioneered by
our dear sister Carol Adams who will need to retire for reasons of age and
health. Please pray in this regard. Such a mission field is not an easy
calling. We want who God calls - but ideally it would seem to be best if
we had an Afro American or a British couple, one of which should have
good medical qualifications. Africa is a very difficult cultural environment to understand and we need missionaries who know they have the
call of God for this work.
In South Africa the children's ministry of Ebyown has had the
best kind of problem to have. By God's grace it has become a victim of its
own success. In the earlier years before anti-retro viral drugs the HIV
children developed AIDS and died. Our mandate was to take care of
them and teach them that Jesus loves them and soon He will be taking
them to their new home in heaven where they won’t suffer any more. It
was heart breaking, but simple. Now children who were never supposed
to survive have thankfully, due to God's goodness and ARV therapy.
Most have learning disabilities and are in or approaching their early teens
and the question becomes what can be done with and for them now.
Indeed, they survived what had initially been a death sentence. For this
we praise God for exceeding anyone's expectations. But what to do now
is a challenge with which we are really struggling. We absolutely need
24
much prayer and wisdom and vision from The Lord. We know that He
has the answers.
In South Africa the children's ministry Ebyown has the best
kind of problems. Due to God's grace, lots of tender loving care and ARV
therapy the children continue to thrive. In fact we have become victims
of our own success through His mercy and constant intervention. In the
early days the prognosis for the children was very poor, in fact we did not
think many of them would make it to their early teens, however God
once again confounds the wise of this world by giving the children life
and a good life expectancy. The problem now has transformed from how
do we take care of these children to the time when Jesus takes them
home, to what do we do with these young men and women who grow
older and who need a future? The difficulties still remain. Health can
literally turn for the worse, most have learning difficulties however God
through His grace has allowed them to thrive. So now the question is
now where from here?
It was decided by the Moriel board to relocate to the Western
Cape. Here outside Swellendam an undeveloped farm of 44 acres was
purchased and here at what is now called The Mount of Olives Mission,
a future was to be set out for the children that would not only sustain a
future for the children but also act as a missions witness for the gospel.
It has been a tough three years since Jacob lay our first Olive
tree and we taught under what was a cattle shed. However since then a
Home has been built. The farm has begun to be developed and our vision
of a self sustaining community is beginning to bear fruit. Through the
kind donations of Moriel supporters not only have we been able to build
a house, the Lord has helped us purchase equipment, Dairy Cattle and
other meat animals. The mission is also self supporting in power and
water and we are off grid. The future which includes a 7 year plan (unless
the Lord returns) includes a farm shop, a butchery, the production of
food and jams. The remaining food is to be used in outreaches to the
poorest of the poor. The gospel goes forth from the mission and bibles
and tracts are circulated. Here we have teaching weekends with guest
speakers. All this will provide a safe secure home for the children and a
beacon for the gospel.
This can only be achieved if God continues to release people
and funding to us. Help is needed as David's health has suffered with
diabetes and resulting complications such as peripheral neuropathy and
so after two operations for broken bones and slipped disks, heavy labor is
impossible for him. So the needs include more help and support. Much
wisdom continues to be needed, but God has taken us this far and will
take the work further.
A final area of need concerns South East Asia. Scott & his crew
do an excellent job with God's help in Thailand which is the platform for
our outreaches into Laos and Myanmar (Burma). But our partner ministry in Singapore has had major internal struggles. My health issues will
affect our low key work in Vietnam and new ministry in China, but we
must pray for our friends and brethren in Singapore which has been our
traditional base in that region for outreaches into Malaysia, China, and
Indonesia. Again, prayer is much required.
___________
Well, this just about sums most things up. We simply report.
We only ask The Lord for money for our operating costs.
We never have fund drives or gimmicks (although we do make
disaster relief appeal exceptions periodically, such as for a major disaster
in a region we operate in).
The Lord will also continue to fund our missions in Asia,
Africa, and Israel. Our emphasis is always on evangelism, bible teaching,
and taking care of sick and impoverished children in the Third World.
Our other focus, of course, is the persecuted church.
There is however one thing we shall ask you for, indeed you
have something we covet - PRAYER! With much love in Yeshua; The
Lord Jesus who saved us and called us and Who is Coming again.
Jacob Prasch & Moriel
First Quarter 2016 - Issue 63