Behold, A King Will Reign in Righteousness

For unto us a Child is born, to us a Son is given and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace; of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the [latter] time forth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, in his book the Footstep of the Messiah, clearly explains to us the meaning of this prophecy: The eternity of the Davidic dynasty throne, and kingdom is assured; it rests in the God-Man. As to His humanity, He is descendant of David; as to His deity, He is eternal and so is His throne. His government will be characterized by justice and righteousness forever. In Jeremiah’s prophecy similar to that of Isaiah, he says: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, and He will reign as King and do wisely and will execute justice and righteousness in the land (Jer. 23:5). YAHSHUA’S throne will be established in Jerusalem, but His reign will extend over the entire earth. YAHSHUA will be considered as one God by the entire earth. The beginning of His reign will be marked by a procession of the King into the millennial Jerusalem described in Psalm 24:7-8: Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lifted up, you age-abiding doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

There will be a Gentile branch in His millennium kingdom consistent of His church. Revelation 20:4 John writes, Then I saw thrones, and sitting on them were those to whom authority to act as judges and to pass sentence was entrusted. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been slain with axes for their witnessing to YAHSHUA and for the Word of God, and who had refused to pay homage to the beast or his statue and had not accepted his mark or permitted it to be stamped on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived again and ruled with Messiah a thousand years. The chain of command will be from Messiah to the church and the tribulation saints to the kings of the Gentile nations. In the millennium time there will be earthly kings, but YAHSHUA will be over all of them. He will be King of kings and Lord of lords. The Jewish branch will be through David, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel so described: But they will serve their God and David’s their King, whom I will raise up for them (Jer. 30:9); and I will raise up over them one Shepherd and He shall feed them, even My Servant David; He shall feed them and He shall be their Shepherd and the Lord will be their God and My Servant David a Prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it (Eze. 34: 23-24). (Fruchtenbaum- The Footsteps of the Messiah)

The Faithlessness of Today’s Church

Will not God defend and protect and avenge His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf? I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18: 7-80)

The faithlessness of today’s church is perceived everywhere. The Lord YAHSHUA rightly asked the question: When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? What possibly caused the church to lose her faith? From one extreme to another, the church has lost her faith through the multiplied wickedness and through the pursuit of worldly things. The prosperity teaching has caused the church to lose focus on YAHSHUA’S teachings concerning the pursuit of heavenly treasures. They instead are running after the worldly treasures and losing faith. Do not gather and heap up and store up for yourselves treasures on earth, He said, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal. But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:19-21).  The church’s heart is sunk in the wealth of the world, not in heaven. In their faithless acts they pursue the world, not YAHSHUA. So they have become faithless.

The church’s faithlessness happens also when wickedness abounds and super abounds without correction. The acceptance of wickedness is easily received and adopted, as one example, the case of moral issues. Faithfulness to the teachings of the Word of God has faded and many has followed the wide road, in the attitude of co-existence, instead of taking a stand for the teachings of the Lord. They spare their lives but will lose it in the end.  YAHSHUA said, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven; many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?  And then I will say to them openly, I never knew you; depart from Me you who act wickedly (Matt. 7:21-23).

Humans in Peril

Created in the image of God, humans are sought to be destroyed, being hunted as animals in hunting season. Babies are extracted from the mother’s womb, who consented the action and their organs harvested for the use of transplant, and the flesh is served as hamburger meats at fast foods restaurants like McDonalds. Evidences have been traced to confirm the facts. What days are we in? The days of Noah. YAHSHUA warned us that as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the coming of the Son of Man.  The news of the day has becoming fake news to cover the reality that is happening right before our own eyes. We, without knowledge from other sources, have fallen to their lies. These are the days when we need “ears to hear.”  Humanity has lost God’s image due to sin; without the sacrifice of our Lord YAHSHUA to redeem us, we are nothing but dust and to dust we will return. Men of the same equal as the rest of us, born of women, have raised their heads against God the Creator, and planned to depopulate the world. Their plan has succeeded in many instances of massive deaths in these two years and more, on their way to death, unless something happens to stop their madness. The works of Satan is visible to all who can perceive and understand the signs of time; those who have ears to hear.   Businesses are flourishing at the expenses of human trafficking at a fast pace. A thing that has happening for many years past. Young lives being destroyed by the minute, with warnings of billboards, but nothing else has been done to stop it.

Why the Rapture

(Psalm 91:14, Matthew 24:37-42, Revelation 3:10)

 The word rapture excites some, but angers others. There are three beliefs pertaining to the time of rapture that divides the church of Christ: the pre, the mid and the post tribulation beliefs. Although we are considered to have the same faith, we are far apart in understanding this important time line of when the rapture will take place in the consummation of time. Seemly, the majority of Christians are not waiting for the Lord, but for the antichrist and the tribulation. Many are physically preparing for it by storing extra foods and everything else necessary according to their knowledge of the situation, with the help of tele-evangelists. These televangelists misinform the people and bring in them a feeling of fear and panic, when they should be rejoicing with the promised deliverance through the rapture. They convince many who are not knowable of Scripture to believe a lie and persist in selling their expensive foods and other amenities. Some Christians have gone all the way financially to prepare for every situation the tribulation will bring, forgetting that when one is under the wrath of God there is nothing one can do to escape it. One cannot fight against God and prevail. If when the rapture happens, you are found to be left behind, there will be nothing you will do to alleviate God’s painful judgments. The only group of people protected at that time will be the 144 thousand, who will be chosen to evangelize the world. Revelation 7:3-8 says: …Harm neither the earth nor the sea nor the trees, until we have sealed the bond servants of our God upon their foreheads. And then I heard how many were sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel: there were 144,000. These will be the only people on earth who will not suffer the consequences of the tribulation because they are sealed or marked with the protection of God. It will not be because they have prepared themselves for the event, neither because they put themselves in that privileged position. God was the one Who chose them. Why would God seal His Jewish servants and not His Gentile bride? The fact remains that the tribulation is the precise reason why the rapture will take place before it happens. The tribulation is called Jacob’s trouble. It is directed to the unredeemed Israel and to all who rejected the Son of God. It will be for the purpose to purge the nation. We read in the book of Jeremiah 30:7: Alas! For that day will be great, so that none will be like it; it will be the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he will be saved out of it. To the church of Philadelphia YAHSHUA promised to deliver her from “the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world.” He rewards the Philadelphia church because she has guarded and has kept His word of patient endurance (Rev. 3: 10). What is this hour of trial, if it were not the great Tribulation? The word of God says that the way to escape His wrath will be by faithfulness to His word and endurance of faith. It will not be by means of physically preparing oneself to go through His judgements, for there will not be tribulation for His bride.  There would not be a rapture if there would not be a tribulation. The word of God never commanded us to be prepared for the coming tribulation. Instead He warns us to be ready for His coming. Paul said this to the Corinthian Church: ….That you are not falling behind or lacking in any special spiritual endowment or Christian grace, while you wait and watch for the coming of our Lord YAHSHUA and (His] being made visible to all (I Cor. 1:7); and to the Thessalonians, And  [how you] look forward to and await the coming of His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead- YAHSHUA, Who personally rescues and delivers us out of and from the wrath which is coming [upon the impenitent] and draws us to Himself (I Thess. 1: 10). If there will not be a tribulation, there will not be a need for the bride of Christ to be rescued and delivered from it. If the bride of Christ must go through God’s wrath, then there would not be the promise of hope and of comfort for His bride.

The Absence of Truth Is a Betrayal of One’s Confidence

What is truth? Pilate asked YAHSHUA during His trial. But he left without hearing the answer. The absence of truth is the presence of a lie, the mother of dishonesty.  YAHSHUA, the essence of truth and Truth Himself, stood before Pilate, who under pressure, felt compelled by the Jewish authorities to have Him crucified. Had Pilate waited for the answer to his question, What is truth? He would not have had YAHSHUA crucified. So, it is that ignorance of truth seemed to be Pilate’s choice. Pilate stands guilty for rejecting knowledge concerning truth, making a decision based on lies presented to him, even knowing YAHSHUA was innocent. The Jews of those days betrayed truth and their knowledge of the fact by their false accusations against YAHSHUA.  They consistently stepped on the truth, by not believing it, when YAHSHUA presented the truth concerning Whom He was. The High priest insisted on Him to tell them Who He was by saying, I call upon You to swear by the living God, and tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. YAHSHUA Then answered, You have stated [the fact]. More than that, I tell you: You will in the future see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty coming on the clouds of the clouds of the sky. They could not handle the truth; they spat in His face and struck Him with their fists; and some slapped Him in the face and sentenced Him to death (Matt. 26:63-64.67). This was Israel’s ultimate rejection of their Messiah, and when they handed Him to Pilate to be crucified, then there was their ultimate betrayal. YAHSHUA was betrayed by His Own and arrested to face six illegal trials, which resulted in His crucifixion.  He was sentenced to death without first having a hearing to determine what He had done wrong, according to the Jewish law.

Truth is the clear, concise and honest reality. Truth conforms itself to facts and reality in their correctness and accuracy, for it establishes itself on verified fact and principle. Truth is the liberator of guilt and torment. When Peter denied knowing the Lord, he based his facts on the lie, “I do not know Him”. He chose to lie in order to protect himself. He did not want to associate himself with YAHSHUA in His trials, afraid of what could happen to him.  He even pronounced a curse on himself. Doing that, Peter lost the sense of integrity and honesty. He disengaged himself from the truth and allowed the lie to permeate his heart, which opened the way for remorse and guilt. The betrayal of one’s confidence through the absence of truth has a long-term consequence in one’s life.

Truth confessed in difficult circumstances hurts at first, but clears the conscience and sets us free. Freedom of the soul is that flowing peace we all desire. When we cover truth with a lie, we are betraying truth itself. Jacob, whose name means deceiver, well represented the meaning of his name, when he knowingly deceived his father Isaac, in order to steal his brother’s blessings.  He became a fugitive from his brother for many years. Esau was bruised for the rest of his life, when Jacob betrayed his trust by causing him to give up his right of first-born son for a bowl of soup. However, the seed of deceits he had been planted followed Jacob’s life even to his old age, when his sons deceived him concerning the death of his favorite son, Joseph. The root of lies is deeper and long in its consequences throughout our life. It is much better to be truthful from the beginning of our mistakes, than to hide it in the presumption of lies. At the end, truth always prevails, always truth wins.

The Importance of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal

(Deuteronomy 11:29-30)

Directed by Moses before he died, Israel was to set the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal, after they had reached the Promised Land. On that day, Moses set before Israel a blessing and a curse- the blessing if they obey the commandments of the Lord, and the curse if they did not obey the commandments of the Lord their God. He said, And when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal (Deut. 11:29-30).  The people were to hear the blessings from Mount Gerizim, when they obeyed the law and the curse from Mount Ebal when they disobeyed God’s law. The significance of these mountains, in particularly the Mount Ebal is relevant to us today in its symbolic prophetic meaning.  The late Dr. Francis A Schaeffer, an American theologian, philosopher, an apologetic and pastor, a thinker of his time, suggested that these two mountains represented two life styles: obedience and disobedience. Consequentially, the mountains were to remind the people that keeping God’s law was as if they lived on mount Gerizim. From there, God’s blessing would fall on Israel. But an altar was to be built on Ebal mountain when they sinned against God. Shechem, a city of long history, is found between these two mountains. There, the Patriarch Abraham built the first altar to the living God; Joseph, his great-grandson, sought for his brother in Shechem; his bones were buried there many years later after Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Jacob dug a well near the city and many years later, YAHSHUA providentially met a Samaritan woman there with a message of salvation. The Samaritans, after hearing what the woman had to say about YAHSHUA, said, Now we no longer believe just because of what you said; for we have heard Him ourselves and we know that He truly the Savior of the world, the Messiah. Many more believed Him, because of His personal message (John 4:42,41). The city of Shechem, was a silent witness of past history and of the spiritual meaning they carried, according to the words Moses spoke to Israel before they entered the Land.

Every Life is a Book

Without paper, without a pen, every minute pages are written through someone’s life. From the crib to the grave, life speaks through attitude and actions without language, without voices one’s book is developed page by page in a subtle way, until life’s breath is taken away from us. Life is a beautiful expression of God’s wisdom, love and His mercy.  It demonstrates the immensity and depth of God’s wisdom. Created to bring glory to God, we humans have failed God’s purpose for creating us, but not nature around us. Look at the flowers of the field, the firmament declaring His glory. They are faithfully declaring their Creator’s glory. The Word of God says, The heavens declare the glory and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night shows forth knowledge (Ps. 19:1-2).  From the time we are born we start the first page of our book. For many, their stories are filled with joy, pomp privileges and smiles. For others, not so fortunate, nonetheless. The pages of their book start with misfortune and death. Millions of others will not have a chance to see the light of the day, only anguish and despair, for their lives are taken away in suffering. They have been denied the right to live when being sucked out of the mother’s womb, the supposed safest place to be. Their book is a wordless book. No one knows what would have been their lives’ story registered in a forever book. Only God knows. Life is given to all by God with a future planned under each name, as David so wrote: I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret intricately and curiously wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when yet there was none of them (Ps. 139: 14-16).

Sharing in God’s Holiness

To share in God’s holiness is God’s ultimate goal for mankind. When He gave us His Son to be sacrificed on the cross, He confirmed His goal by let Him pay the ultimate price with His own life. Therefore, apart from YAHSHUA’S sacrifice, man can never share in God’s holiness. His death opens the way for the process of sanctification into God’s holiness. God’s plan of salvation involved the Trinity- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Peter’s letter confirms it:  Peter, an apostle of YAHSHUA Messiah, to the elect exiles of the dispersion scattered abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who we chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to YASHSUA the Messiah, and to be sprinkled with His blood may grace and peace be given you in increasing abundance.  (I Peter 1:1-3). Here we see that God the Father was the Master planner of it, YAHSHUA His Son performed the plan, and the Holy Spirit took His position as the Counselor, the Helper, the Comforter the Advocate, the Intercessor when YAHSHUA ascended to heaven. He is here to continue the work YAHSHUA started. And that is of sanctification, among many other plans.  YAHSHUA said, When He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness; He will guide you into all the Truth. The process of sanctification is that of molding the lives of those who are born again. Romans 8:29 says, For those whom He foreknew, He also destined from the beginning to be molded into the image of His Son, that He might become the firstborn among many brethren. When God breaks and molds the clay, He is doing the work of sanctification. Correction and discipline of God’s children are the ways in which the process achieve sanctification. My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him; for the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes. You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not train and corrects and discipline? (Heb. 12:5b-7). When we reject God’s correction, we are positioning ourselves to be outside of His plan of sanctification. The in-result will be that we will not see God; and hear the hard words, “I never knew you, depart from Me.”

YAHSHUA at Thirty Years Old

Monumental for YAHSHUA was the age of thirty, because it was when the reason and reality of His coming into this world started to take shape in the eyes of the people. He was revealed to John the Baptist as the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world, when he came to him to be baptized. John testified by saying, Look! There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world; this is He of Whom I said, after me comes a Man Who has priority over me, because He was before me and existed before me; and I did not know Him and did not recognize Him; but it is in order that He should be made manifest and be revealed to Israel, that I came baptizing in water; He gave further evidence saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and it dwelt on Him. He Who sent me to baptize in water said to me, Upon Him Whom you shall see the Spirit descend and remain, that One is He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit; I have seen and my testimony is that this is the Son of God! (John 1:29-35).

John’s testimony leaves no doubt in our minds Who YAHSHUA was. Obscure to many, the truth was clearly revealed to the world, and in particular to Israel: “The Son of God, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” Powerful words that shone the light for all to see and receive YAHSHUA as the Messiah- the Savior, the Redeemer. He was then thirty years old, entering the time that would change the hearts of many, when seeing the evidences of Whom He was by miracles performed before all to see. He was until then, the Son of Mary- His human connection. She allowed God to use her for the purpose to bring His Son into the world, and for a time, she would shine as an important part in His life. But the time came when He had to disconnect Himself from the human connection and follow His heavenly Father’s purpose, for which He had come into the world.  At the wedding at Cana of Galilee, when they lacked wine, and His mother told Him about it, His response was one that sealed His position between them. Not in a disrespected term did He addressed her as “woman, what is that to you and to Me”? [What have we in common? Leave it to me.] My time has not yet come. In response, His mother said to the servants, Whatever He says to you, do it (John 2:4-5). By saying that, Mary surrenders her position of earthly authority of a mother. She realizes that aspect of her role, had come to an end. He enters into a new phase to perform that which He came to do, and under the authority of His heavenly Father. No longer was He identified as her Son, but the Son of God. An agreement happened that day between the two of them, that Mary’s role of a mother in every sense of the world had been finished. To prove that, one day when He was very busy, healing all who had come to Him, with no time to eat, His mother and brother concerned for Him, came looking for Him. Hearing that, He said, Who is My mother and who is My brothers? And stretching out His hand toward [not only the twelve disciples but all] His adherents, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers; for whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother! (Luke 12:47-50)

For I Know Whom I Have Believed

This phrase confirms the credibility of the pronoun Whom. It is essentially good for one to know the source in whom he puts his trust and reliance.  Faith in money or positions seemly stable, faith in politicians representing government is to be up for big surprises. Putting faith in anything pertaining to what the world offers is without a doubt, foolish and disappointing. History frequently shows us humanity’s failure in delivering the promise. In the political world, they come with promises and they leave without fulfilling them. Job positions are relevant only upon success one has achieved. It is all circumstantial and transitory, together with what we as humans are. Friends often betray each other’s confidence and the bridge of relationship destroyed. Even the closest to us, as in family, has failed many times causing family to break up. Where then can one go to find the assurance and the certainty he is looking for? The Apostle Paul gives us the sure answer that will never frustrates, neither fails us. In His words, “For I know Whom I have believed,” with these words, he establishes a firm foundation and pillars that will not collapse our faith and belief in time of trials. Amidst Paul’s suffering persecution for the Gospel, he never gave up, because he knew Whom he had believed. I know He is able to guard and keep that which has been entrusted to me and which I have committed until that day (II Tim. 1: 12). Faith is not blind; it does not walk with a stick for guidance; it is not ignorant. Instead, Faith is knowing, although not seeing, it is sure, although not touching. Faith is hope, it is proof of things we do not see, it is the assurance of their reality; faith perceives as real of things not yet revealed. Believing in God it is for knowing Him; it for having a relationship with Him. It is to disregard everyone else and everything else in order to embrace His words of promises, especially in our most trying times. “Be still and know that I am God!” The stillness of the soul rests on Him Who can calm the storm and rage of the sea. He rushes the storm to a calm and to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still (Ps. 107: 29). That’s our only true God. In Him we can put our trust in confidence. “I believed; therefore, I have spoken.” Words from the Psalmist, who after great time of suffering anguish and grief, said, Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as a Live; the cords and sorrows of death were around me, and the terrors of Sheol had laid hold of me; I suffered anguish and grief; then I called upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech You, save my life and deliver me! I believed, and therefore Have I spoken (Ps. 116:3-4.10).