The Apostate, chapter 5
To: In home churches of God’s 10th month, 5,781, 12/19/20
Almighty God: thanks for Your callings, discernment and making Jesus’ followers temples of Your spirit. Strengthen us with gifted faith like Abraham’s, who also lived as a stranger among foreigners and a deceived populous. In the holy name and gifted nature of Jesus we ask Your guidance. AMEN.
Daniel was given a vision of this latter day world order, how it progressed and its ultimate demise. As powerful gentile nations struggle for dominance they’ll use big religious organizations until jealously disrupts. People of the Most High won’t yield and persecutions will be attempted. Review our previous study.
Daniel had sin in his life that needed to be confessed and more was revealed.
(Dan 9:20-27; While I was still speaking, praying, confessing my sin, the sin of my people Israel and presenting my request before the LORD my God concerning his holy mountain: yes, while I was still praying the man Gabriel, whom I had seen previously in a vision, was approaching me in my state of extreme weariness, around the time of the evening offering.)
Remember all these things are recorded for our learning. We too need to be confessing our sins, particularly those of not overcoming and separating from the world as we should. The sins of not loving as we should and taking blessings for granted. Daniel also confessed the sins of his people as we should do likewise. Pray that God have mercy and shorten this time of demonic rule.
(Dan 9:22-24; Gabriel spoke with me, instructing me as follows: Daniel, I have now come to impart understanding to you. At the beginning of your requests a message went out, and I have come to convey it to you, for you are of great value in God’s sight. Therefore consider the message and understand the vision.) (Seventy weeks have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to rebellion, to bring sin to completion, to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual righteousness, to seal up the prophetic vision, and to anoint a most holy place.)
The one who created Gabriel, ‘Jesus’ died for this purpose! Shed His blood for the remission of the whole world’s sins. Evil will be destroyed and perpetual righteousness is coming.
(Dan 9:25-27; So know and understand: From the issuing of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an Anointed One, a prince, arrives, there will be a period of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will again be built, with plaza and moat, but in distressful times. Now after the sixty-two weeks, an Anointed One will be cut off and have nothing. As for the city and the sanctuary, the people of the coming prince will destroy them. But his end will come speedily like a flood. Until the end of the war that has been decreed there will be destruction. He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of that week He will bring sacrifices and offerings to a halt. On the wing of abominations will come One who destroys, until the decreed end is poured out on the one who destroys.)
Jesus’ return is scheduled and that time is to be shortened for the Elect’s sake. Nations will reject Jesus’ powerful return, He’ll defeat, then wars will end. Some had rather fight than switch, because they’re little gods to themselves, that is they love deciding for themselves, what’s right, wrong, good and evil. That apostasy won’t end until Jesus binds Satan and ushers in His righteous way.
It’s in people’s nature to sell what they think they understand, unbelievers work harder at it, but believers are spiritually taught, they can’t call and convert another. That spiritual comprehension is gifted. Believers put forth God’s truth with the understanding that He does the rest. Like Daniel, believers try rationalizing with folk. The difference is in, believing that, opposed to believing IN. Believers are given to understand that God does the calling and converting. Unbelievers attempt to sell ‘a believe that’ philosophy. Teaching that people are saved by simply believing the Son of God came to save. Believers caution folks about that philosophy, from the point of view that, ‘even Satan knows Jesus came to save.’ Satan coaches his followers to teach a lawlessness doctrine.
To believe IN God the Father and God the Son as they’re manifested to be in the holy scriptures is to know by gifted faith that Jesus is Re-creator, Creator, Sustainer, Deliverer, Redeemer, the resurrection, One through whom eternal life is gifted and our only Mediator before God the Father. To know this Jesus is to desire loving obedience. To know this Jesus is to believe IN Him and His miraculous deeds.
Jesus had Gabriel communicate with Daniel regarding the future, was Israel’s Deliverer and the Rock leading His servant Moses. (See 1Corinthians 10:4)
Jesus created manna six days a week for the Israelites and re-created birds for their meat when they complained. He gave them plenty of water from a rock. Many years before, through Elisha Jesus purified water for Israelites drinking and crops. (See 2Kings 2:19-22) Through Elisha Jesus re-created olive oil for a widow woman so she could pay her debts and live on the property. (See 2Kings 4) Through Elisha Jesus promised a Shunammite woman a son and later when her son died, restored life to the boy. (See 2Kings 4:-8) Jesus restored life to Lazarus after being dead four days and telling Lazarus’ sisters that He was the resurrection. (See John 11) Jesus re-created bread and fish to feed thousands, proving by deeds that He is the Son of God. Through Peter, Jesus healed many when Peter’s shadow passed over them and restored life to Tabatha. (See Acts 9:36-43) Jesus did many more miracles, the holy scriptures confirm, ‘so many the book can’t contain them all.’
Each time a mind is opened to understand these truths, it’s a miraculous God gifted event. Otherwise people could boast, ‘they earned salvation.’ When we know and believe IN these things, give God our Father all the glory.
Gifted believing IN faith is promised through Abraham. (Review Galatians 3:29)
Promise to Abraham was that his heir would be through Isaac, ‘the son of promise.’ Likewise followers of Jesus are saved by promise. Abraham’s belief IN God, make sacrificing Isaac possible, because he knew God was the Life Giver, whose promises were sure. Followers of Jesus are heirs with Abraham through Him. (See Galatians 3:29) Let’s review.
(Hebrews 11:17-19; By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only son. God had told him, ‘Through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name’ and Abraham reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead and in a sense he received him back from there.) Isaac’s birth was by promise to parents who were past the age of natural reproduction. Likewise resurrections and judgments are sure things. It’s God’s promise to the world.
When God destroys evil it’s Godly love. God’s promised resurrections and a second death to evil doers is Godly love and a sure prophecy. This is revealed to John four times in His revelations; 2:11, 20:6, 20:14 and 21:5-8.
Re-study John 1:1-5, Col 1:15-20 and Hebrews 1: We review Revelations 21:6-8 for the benefit of new subscribers.
(He also said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water free of charge from the spring of the water of life. The one who conquers ’overcomes’ will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second death.)
Satan has sold every worldly religion on his first lie to Eve. Saying what amounts to calling God a liar and saying God knows you were born to live forever someplace. May we each believe God, rather than the various demonic apostates. This and other truths were established long before Jesus’ revelations to John.
(Malachi 4:1 & 3:19; For, indeed the day is coming, burning like a furnace and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will ‘burn them up’ says the Lord who rules over all. It will not leave even a root or branch. But for you who respect My name, the sun of vindication will rise with healing wings, and you will skip about like calves released from the stall. You will trample on the wicked, for they will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing, says the Lord who rules over all.)
To people God makes thirsty for His righteousness, He gives the holy spirit and eternal life free of charge. His spirit is the water of life!
Jesus’ promises to Abraham, His prophets, apostles and each called out Believer will come to pass in spite of deceived people and the many demonic stumbling blocks. Understand, God could destroy Satan now, but He’s allowing Satan to be the god of this world’s unbeliever for a time and for His own purpose.
God is growing and shaping a priesthood of Believers to be family. A people gifted by promised obedience out of love will, ‘Saints.’ These are gifted to overcoming their inherited nature and Satan’s obstacles.
The holy scriptures define Satan as, the author of confusion and the god of this age. He was first named Lucifer, was brilliant in every way, until sinful pride overcame him. He was the deceiver at Babylon, during Nimrod’s time. The word, ‘Babylon’ means ‘confusion.’ The confusion began long before Babylon, when Satan deceived Adam and Eve with that first lie. ‘God knows that you will not surely die.’ That lie spreading among believers may have been the cause of the first major expansion of the apostasy Jude was addressing.
Jesus taught that immortality was God’s gift to Believers. In conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said; ‘Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again; the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.’ (See John 4:13-14)
All worldly religions teach some form of Satan’s lie. Which is basically, ‘people are born with an inherent spiritual component that will live forever someplace.’ There are many variations of Satan’s lie, the root is from that same first lie. Paul explains in his letter to Timothy.
(2Timothy 1:9-10; Jesus is the One who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on His own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made visible through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. He has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.)
Through the gift of believing IN Jesus’ good news ‘the gospel’ eternal life, ’immortality’ is gifted. Paul explained to the church at Rome and all Believers.
(Rom 5:12-14; So then, just as sin entered the world through one man ‘Adam’ and death through sin, so death spread to all people because all sinned, for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming One) transgressed.)
Each apostle taught, the result of sin is death. To the Pharisees types, those living as though, they were made for the law. Paul explaining that death reigned from Adam to Moses, thus the law was always. Before the law was given through Moses, death reigned. Adam being a type of Christ, ‘death is a result of Adam’s disobedience.’ But the gift of LIFE is through Jesus.