Category: FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK

THE “RAPTURE” QUESTION II

tyFROM THE PASTOR'S DESK

Critics have said, “The rapture is fake”. or “There is no rapture in the Bible”!

When you refer them to the rapture passages (listed below), they then respond, “I don’t see the word “rapture”!

The word “rapture” is not in the King James Bible because it’s a Latin word found in the Latin translation of 1 Thess. 4:17 “caught up”.

NT PASSAGES DEALING WITH THE RAPTURE:

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2-3)

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up (harpazo, Greek) together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)

  1. 1 Corinthians 15:51, tells us that it is a mystery (family [of God] secret). Something revealed only to the church not the public.
  1. Jesus spoke of it in John 14 in a private briefing (upper room discourse) only to the 11 Apostles after kicking out Judas!
  1. 2 Thessalonians 2 mentions it in the context of false teachers who were teaching that they were already in the “tribulation” or the time of Jacob’s trouble.
  1. 1 Thessalonians 4 contains the expression from which the word rapture comes from: (caught up/harpazo).

OTHER PASSAGES WHERE HARPAZO IS USED:

Mt 11:12 the violent take <harpazo> it by force <harpazo>.

 Mt 13:19 and catcheth away <harpazo> that which was sown

 Joh 6:15 ¶ take <harpazo> him by force <harpazo>,

 Joh 10:12 the wolf catcheth <harpazo> them

 Joh 10:28 neither shall <harpazo> any man pluck <harpazo> them out of my hand.

 Joh 10:29 no man is able to pluck <harpazo> them out of my Father’s hand.

 Ac 8:39 the Spirit of the Lord caught away <harpazo> Philip…

 Ac 23:10 and to take <harpazo> him by force <harpazo> from among them

 2Co 12:2 such an one caught up <harpazo> to the third heaven…

 2Co 12:4 How that he was caught up <harpazo> into paradise…

 Jude 1:23 pulling <harpazo> them out of the fire…

 Re 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who …was caught up <harpazo> unto God…

THE “RAPTURE” QUESTION. PT. 1 INTRODUCTION

tyFROM THE PASTOR'S DESK

I will be starting a series of articles on the “rapture” question. There seems to be a lot of discussion on this topic nowadays. This one is an introduction to the subject of eschatology (Which is a highfalutin way of saying end-time prophecy). Some may accuse me of defending a denominational teaching, but you would not if you knew me! Some will say, “You just hold to that view because you’ve never had your view challenged.” Au contraire! That is to say, “Nothing could be further from the truth!” I have been a diligent student of the Bible for nearly 40 years and have gone through it all (tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine) and held to postmill. amill. and now hold to premill/pretrb.

BELOW IS AN OVERVIEW OF THE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN ESCHATOLOGY

1st Preterism: This view holds that Daniel’s 70th week and most of the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled in in the first century. Prophecy for the most part is not to be taken literally but as poetry. For example, Matthew 24: 29&30,

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

  To the preterist this was fulfilled in A.D. 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and simply means the fall of the old age and the beginning of the new age of Christianity. Origen is the origin of this view of prophetic poetry. He taught at the gnostic Alexandrian School in Egypt in the 3rd century. This is the view of the Roman Catholic church. In the Counter-Reformation, the Jesuit Luis de Alcasar promoted the preterist view among protestants. Preterists are either Amillennial (no future reign of Jesus for a literal 1000 years but the millennium is the church age) or Postmillennial (Jesus will return after the church has established a thousand years on earth).

Allis, Oswald T., Prophecy and the Church. (Eerdmans 1945)

Campbell, Roderick, Israel and the New Covenant. (Presbyterian & Reformed Pub. 1954)

Chilton, David, Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation.  Ft. Worth Texas: Dominion Press (1987)

__________, The Great Tribulation. Ft. Worth Texas: Dominion Press (1987)

________, Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion. Ft. Worth Texas: Dominion Press (1987)

Gentry, Kenneth, The Beast of Revelation (Institute for Christian Economics, (1989)

_______, Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation (I.C.E.: 1989)

Hanegraaff, Hank, The Apocalypse Code. (Thomas Nelson, 2007)

Russell, J. Stuart, The Parousia (1878)

Next is Historic Premillennialism: Like preterism, this school believes the 70th week of Daniel was fulfilled in AD.70, but the millennium is future and literal and the Olivet Discourse and the Revelation is in continuous fulfillment. The major problem with H.P.is like Preterism, it fails to distinguish between God’s program for Israel and the N.T. church! Popular among the Protestant Reformers, but it is mostly promoted today by the Seventh Day Adventist cult.

R. Clouse (ed.), The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views. (Intervarsity, 1977)

Gundry, Robert H, The Church and the Tribulation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973  

Ladd, George Eldon, The Gospel of the Kingdom. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959)

________, The Blessed Hope. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980)

Smith, Uriah, Daniel and the Revelation (1897)

Finally, we have futurism, The distinguishing point about futurism is that it sees Daniel’s 70th week (7years) as a future event. This study of the “rapture” has to do with the rapture’s timing: pretri. midtrb. posttrib. Or prewrath.

THOUGHTS ON PREACHING

tyBook Review, FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK

Preachers and other Christians who know that, “the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying,” desire books to read in compliment to the Scriptures. As Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:13, “…bring with thee…the books, but especially the parchments. (Scriptures)” Spurgeon continues, “Some of our very ultra Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. How rebuked are they by the apostle He is inspired, and yet he wants books He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, ‘Give thyself unto reading.’ You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service. Paul cries, ‘Bring the books‘— join in the cry.”

Reading books is important but is more important to read the best books, because as the Book of Ecclesiastes says, “...of making many books there is no end…” and not every book is worth reading. But how do we know before we read it? The best way is to ask someone who has read it if it is any good. That’s why many preachers and Christian readers are always asking, ”What are you reading?” That is why I’m starting this section to say what books are on my desk.
I have discovered a great resource for older (and usually better) books is PDF files which can be found at places like www.archive.org or www.ccel.org . However I also suffer from what some folks call the Piccard syndrome. Piccard was the commander of the Enterprise in the 1980′s Star Trek tv show. In the age where everything is on the ship’s computer, Piccard could be found reading a hard bound book. Those PDF files are wonderful but there’s nothing like a real book.  I even like them used and musky. Ahh, Bring the musky smelling books!
Always on my desk is the Bible. I still have the Bible I used in college back in the 80′s, a Cambridge turquoise center column reference, King James Version of course and a New Pilgrim Bible KJV, which is a study Bible like the old Scofield Reference Bible.

So what are you reading?

Pastor Ty

THIS JULY 4th, 2020 MARKS OUR 244th ANNIVERSARY. CONSIDER WHAT THE FOLLOWING QUOTES TELL US ABOUT OUR HERITAGE,

tyFROM THE PASTOR'S DESK, WHAT'S HAPPENING

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.” Patrick Henry

 The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”  John Adams

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event.” Thomas Jefferson

 –On July 4, 1821, President John Q. Adams said, “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: “It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity”

 Proclamation on January 1, 1795 of February 19th, 1795 as a day of national Thanksgiving.  “It is in an especial manner our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experienced. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe, without the agency of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to govern the universe without the aid of a Supreme Being. It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason, in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to.”    George Washington

 HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY AND GOD BLESS!

Pastor Ty

COVID-19 AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST?

tyFROM THE PASTOR'S DESK

During this trying time (the Covid-19 Stay at Home quarantine) there have come up a multitude of “conspiracy theories” on YouTube and social media. Mind you I am aware of a conspiracy to bring in a one world government (New World Order) which I have studied for nearly 40 years. More importantly, I have studied and taught the Biblical prophecies which speak of these things occurring in the end times. However, I think some are trying to stir up fear when the Bible-believing Christian should in reality get excited if end-time Bible prophecy is being fulfilled! The only ones who should be in fear are those who are not prepared.

   One of these conspiracy theories alleges that Covid-19 was created in order to get everyone to accept a vaccine which is a microchip and further alleges that this chip is the mark of the Beast. Most who know anything about Bible prophecy have probably heard of this. Let us examine this theory in the light of Scripture and let it guide us in evaluating all these theories.

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Revelation 13:16-18).

We read further:

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:9-11).

It is true that the text says in the right hand or forehead and the mark could very well be a chip implant. However, in order to qualify to fulfill this prophecy, the vaccine cannot be in the shoulder or anywhere else but, can only be the right hand or forehead! Also, receiving the mark requires allegiance to the “beast’s” one-world-government.

Before this prophecy can be fulfilled requires other events to occur before. First the rapture, then the revelation of the man of sin. While the Satanic occult world knows this prophecy and have been working long and hard to make it happen, but it cannot happen until God allows! For us as Christians, we need only to trust and obey!

God Bless

Pastor Ty

THOUGHTS ON PREACHING

tyFROM THE PASTOR'S DESK

Monday, December 19, 2011

posted by Ty Blake

Image result for preaching pulpit bible

        Those who are called to preach (it’s not a vocation that we choose) know that our “charge” is given in the Scripture in the inspired writing of the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:2. Simply; “preach the word!”

        PREACH: To proclaim, herald, teach with authority, pronounce, public discourse on a religious subject or from a text of scripture.

        THE WORD:   The word is used of two things in Scripture: 1. The LORD JESUS CHRIST the incarnate WORD.  Which we are to proclaim.  But the context supports here 2. the Scriptures.  (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

        So, then we see the preacher is to preach the Scriptures.  Not opinions. politics, philosophy or psychology!  Let us leave the political punditing to the political pundits.  It does not belong in the Pulpit!

        Expository preaching is preaching the word.  Some preachers may preach a message and then try to build the Scripture around his message.  However, in expository preaching the message comes from the text.  That is, the text itself gives the message.  As Haddon Robinson teaches it’s finding the “big idea” of the text of Scripture and that becomes the message.

        EXPOSITION means the setting forth of the meaning or purpose; A discourse designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to understand; An explanation of something.  As a verb TO EXPOSIT means to set forth, expound, elaborate, flesh out, to clarify the meaning of a subject (In our case the Bible).

        To exposit also means TO EXPOUND (see above): To present or explain systematically and in detail or to explain the meaning of.  The word expound is used several times in the New Testament:

        But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples. (Mark 4:34)

        And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.  (Acts 18:26)

        And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)

        Here notice the response: And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24:32)    

        Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures (Luke 24:45)

        Maybe this is explained best in Nehemiah 8:8, So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. 

        Expository preaching gives GOD the voice not man.  It gives the teaching authority because it’s “Thus saith the LORD”.  Expository preaching increases the Biblical knowledge of the congregation and stirs in them a love for GOD’s word and promotes a desire in them to study it for themselves.  Bible exposition puts forth HIS word to them and it’s the word of GOD that transforms lives (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

        The preacher’s employ is THE BOOK (The Bible, The Scriptures, The Word)!  He is to faithfully exposit/expound (teach) it.  And he is to be the faithful steward of it’s mysteries. (2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Corinthians 4:1&2).

        In expository preaching, GOD and HIS Word are exalted and not the man behind the pulpit!  While, at times, the preacher as a “watchman on the wall” (the subject of another post), he must warn against current trends.  But to step down from the pulpit into the world of politics is to put one’s hand to the plough and looking back (Luke 9:26).

 Pastor Ty

The Importance Of Reading.

tyFROM THE PASTOR'S DESK
Image result for child reading a book

My granddaughter loves books! She is only about a year and a half old, but she has her books in a bookcase. I’ve watched her look through her books and sometimes she’ll bring one for somebody to read it to her. My son (an avid reader) and my daughter-in-law (a schoolteacher) are raising her right encouraging her to read. Each week they take her to the library. I now know what Fort Dodge does with the tax dollars that thy don’t use to fix their roads! (Priorities, right?) The ability to read is the basic building block of all learning. The better we develop our reading skills the better we can learn all subjects. The fact that God gave us a book (Bible) shows us that He wants us to read. Paul wrote to Timothy who was Pastoring the church at Ephesus at the time, “Give attendance to reading…”! Timothy 4:13

Pastor Ty

ENCOUNTERING THE ARK!!!

tyFROM THE PASTOR'S DESK
Image result for ark encounter

Not long ago, over a dozen from our church (and some friends) went to the Ark Encounter. Upon arrival to the parking lot my GPS said we still had 1.1 miles to go. Indeed, you could see the Ark replica a mile away. A bus takes you back to it.

I’m funny in that I can get a little queasy on the second-floor roof of my house cleaning out the gutters, but in the canyons out west I have no fear. The last time we were in Colorado I videoed the Mesa Verde, but you cannot fully grasp their size unless you’re there. The same with this life-sized replica! Its size must be experienced. I find the cargo space on this thing is HUGE.

For many years some have seen the Ark as a tiny boat with a giraffe’s head sticking through the top. No wonder so few take it seriously! Unfortunately, it’s not just the “Priests of the Evolution Cult” that mislead people about the Ark. A lot of the misinformation came from some well-meaning Sunday School teachers. HOWEVER, I THINK IT’S TIME FOR THE TRUTH TO BE SEEN.

Noah, the Ark and the flood are not just allegorical stories but historic facts. They were believed to be literal by the Apostle Peter (1 Peter 3:2, 2 Peter 2:5) and more importantly Jesus! (Matt. 24:37, 38 & Luke 17:26, 27) And that alone is good enough for me.

POSTED AUGUST 6TH, 2016 BY PASTOR TY BLAKE

WHY REVIVAL TARRIES – LEONARD RAVENHILL Thursday, February 17, 2011 posted by Ty Blake

tyBook Review, FROM THE PASTOR'S DESK
Image result for why revival tarries

I have read and reread Ravenhill’s book many times. When I have taught in Bible colleges I said (and still say) that this is a must read for anyone who believes they are called to preach!

   This book is as old as I am as it was published in the same year that I was born (I know you never dreamed I was that old). However, it is still up-to-date, just change his references of “Communists” to “Islamic terrorists” and it’s timely.

   Consider some of these quotes from Why Revival Terries:

   On prayer he writes: “Prayer is profoundly simple and simply profound…a Niagara of burning words does not mean God is either impressed or moved.”( p-24) ” We may preach and perish but we cannot pray and perish” (p-20).

   On Spiritual warfare: “Do we count in hell? I mean would demons ever say, ’Jesus I know and Pastor ______ I know!’ Or, as we preach do they say, ‘But who are ye?’” (p-50). “The Word, Like the Lord, was immutable. Paul’s anchor was cast in the depths of God’s faithfulness. His battleaxe was the Word of the Lord; his strength was faith in that Word. So the Spirit alerted Paul to the coming strategy of the devil. Paul was not ignorant of his devices; therefore hell suffered.” (p-164). Unfortunately I fear most Christians today ARE ignorant of Satan’s devices (schemes/plots) and want to remain so!

   Writing to preachers, Ravenhill says, “Brethren, if we will do God’s work in God’s way at God’s time with God’s power, we shall have God’s blessing and the devil’s curses. When God opens the windows of heaven to bless us, the devil will open the door of hell to blast us…Mere preachers may help anybody and hurt nobody; but prophets will stir everybody and madden somebody. The preacher may go with the crowd; the prophet goes against it. A man freed, fired, and filled with God will branded unpatriotic because he speaks against the nation’s sins; unkind because his tongue is a two-edged sword; unbalanced because the weight of preaching opinion is against him. The preacher will be heralded; the prophet hounded.” (p-39) Writing of the preaching of the Apostle Paul he says, “He upset synagogues, had revivals and riots—either one or the other, sometimes both. (We seem to have neither.) “(p-119).  

   After mentioning briefly about “…the evil geniuses of Moscow…” (Here replace this with “Islamic Terrorism”) Ravenhill continues: “Behind follows the purple pageantry of Papal Rome. Moreover, the devil has substituted reincarnation for regeneration, familiar spirits for the Holy Spirit, Christian Science for divine healing, the Antichrist for the true Christ, and the Church of Rome for the true Church. Against the twin evils of Communism (terrorism?) and Romanism, what has the Church to offer? Where is the supernatural?… Even Rome does not call us Protestants anymore; we have just the juiceless name of non-Catholics! Significant, isn’t it? Hell hath no fury like that of this “Mother of Harlots” when she is stirred. But who now “earnestly contends for the faith once delivered to the saints?’ “(p-20).

    Let me share two more choice quotes from this incredible book: “We must alter the altar, for the altar is a place to die on. Let those who will not pay this price leave it alone!” (p-58) In a chapter called AS THE CHURCH GOES, SO GOES THE WORLD he writes, “The church began with these men in the ‘upper room’ agonizing—today it is ending with men in the supper room organizing. The church began in revival; we are ending in ritual. We started virile; we are ending sterile. ”

In this 168-page book published in 1959 at Bethany House, it seems to me that Ravenhill asks and answers Why Revival Tarries.

Pastor Ty

NEW OLD STUFF!

tyFROM THE PASTOR'S DESK
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One of my favorite places to go to on the internet is the Internet Archive www.archive.org. Found there are public domain books in PDF form. Although I’m not a fan of reading my books on a computer screen or Kindle type programs, I usually print them off for hard copies. Also found there is a service called the “Wayback Machine” that saves screenshots of websites in the past. Our two previous websites “crashed” and we lost all of the content of the earlier posts that I did not save copies of. One day I looked up proclaimingliberty.org and found just about all of our previous posts. I am excited to repost them here in the next few weeks.

Pastor Ty