[03]. Ezekiel 13:5-6 “You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the LORD. They see falsehood and lying divination who are saying, ‘The LORD declares,’ when the LORD has not sent them; yet they hope for the fulfillment of their word.”

((There was a terrible misrepresentation of God’s word, and false prophets were everywhere declaring lies and making evil prophecies. Ezekiel could say of them, 13:7, “Did you not see a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘The LORD declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken?” These lying prophets held sway, and their influence eroded the moral and spiritual values of Israel. In verse 4, the prophet called them “foxes among ruins,” sly and destructive. They denied events that were to come, and they prophesied of events that were never to happen. They openly lied and were demonically inspired.

The Day of the LORD will surely come, but Israel will not be prepared, for they have not followed the Lord. In other words, they have not healed the breaches of a spiritual relationship with Jehovah, nor have they built up the walls of decency and godliness. In the future, lying false prophets will arise and mislead many. Jesus warned of this (and the setting is in the time of the Tribulation) – Matthew 24:4-5 “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.'”

Matt 24:11 “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” During the Tribulation, when the world is in the Day of the LORD, Israel will be plagued by false prophets. These evil ones will do a destructive work. Jesus continued – Matt 24:24 “For false christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect,” and the Lord then stated just one of these false claims that will be made – Matt 24:26 “If therefore they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go forth, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.”

We can say with great certainty that in the time of The Day of the LORD, Israel will see an infestation of false prophets and advisors and leaders and religious leaders, sneaking all over the place like foxes among ruins. It won’t be just Israel that will suffer the contagion of false prophets and the demonic delusionists. The whole world will be under the False Prophet, the beast that rises from the land of Revelation 13. Nearly all the world will be deluded into receiving the mark of the beast.

This evil satanic man to come will be more evil and putrid than any false prophet who has ever lived on earth.

It is interesting that in my own nation (Australia), in very recent times, several of the States have mandated that if you have not had a double Covid injection, you are not allowed to work (teachers, police, construction workers, etc., etc.). I can’t speak for other countries. Now, be careful; Covid is NOT the mark of the beast, but it is interesting that God is allowing us to see what it is like not to go along with the dictates of the State – if you don’t take the State’s mandate, you won’t be able to work (in order that you can buy or sell). In case you wonder what my position is on Covid vaccines, well, I don’t oppose them (I am in a very high-risk category with lung problems), BUT I absolutely oppose any compulsion placed on people because it hints of what will come into the world after the Church has been translated.

It is not accidental that today we also see the rise of false teachers and false cults and false prophets, all of which have this focus on eschatological matters, who seem to plague the television and come door to door and worm their way into churches. Be aware of these people! Both now and in the Tribulation, there are and will be deceitfulness and acceptance of falsehood, lies and delusion. In the first few hundred years of the Christian church, you had the rise of the heresies as the weeds of the Parable of the Tares, but today you have another increase in deceitfulness and the spread of false doctrines and false prophets.

Those who proclaim themselves as prophets are false to start with because there are no prophets in our age in the sense of spelling out new revelations from God.))

[04]. Ezekiel 30:1-5 “The word of the LORD came again to me saying, ‘Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’ For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. A sword will come upon Egypt, and anguish will be in Ethiopia when the slain fall in Egypt. They take away her wealth, and her foundations are torn down. Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all Arabia, Libya, and the people of the land that is in league will fall with them by the sword.”

((Chapter 30 has much to do with judgment against Egypt, and this will be future because the things mentioned have not yet happened. In chapter 30, these prophecies about Egypt are all set in the Tribulation (the ones above) and in the Millennium (the ones under this). God is going to punish Egypt because of the opposition it has shown to Israel, but then He turns around to bless Egypt because it cared for Israel for those 400 years beginning with Jacob. So great will the blessing for Egypt be that that nation, along with Assyria, will be the chief nations of earth with Israel in the Millennium.

Here are the supporting verses – Isaiah 19:2 “I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; and they will each fight against his brother, and each against his neighbour, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.”

Isaiah 19:21-22 “Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them.”

Isaiah 19:23-25 “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.'”

Although I am not going to cover this point right now, it is interesting that three of the nations in Ezek 30:5 will be in the Gog/Magog war that I believe can only occur at the time of Armageddon and not before. I dismiss those articles that say it is going to happen at any time.

Glance back at the Isaiah 19:23-25 passage and note the expression “In that day.”

It is a critical expression in understanding prophecy and is used over and over again in all of the Old Testament prophecies. There are a couple of derivatives such as “at that time” and “on that day” and sometimes “that day.” The expression always relates to the nation of Israel, and nearly always, it is connected with national blessing. That places it often in the Millennium or nearing the Second Coming. The three usages above are all in the Millennium, which is normal for that expression (but not in every usage).

The Ezekiel passage clearly states that the Day of the LORD will be a day of gloom (clouds) for the nations and also a day of doom, all spelled out in Revelation.

In the list of nations mentioned in the last verse (30:5), Ethiopia and Libya are listed, but then it says, “and the people of the land that is in league,” which means others. As mentioned earlier, I think this is the Gog amalgamation of Ezekiel 38 and 39, for Ethiopia and Libya are two of those, and the others “in league” will be Iran and all the northern alliance extending up into Russia.

The Great Tribulation will be a time of terror for all nations as God’s wrath is displayed against the world, but it will also have elements of refinement leading to blessing as we see in the great future promise for Egypt and Assyria (territory of the modern Syria and Iraq).))

[05]. Joel 1:15-18 “Alas for the day, for the day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. Has not food been cut off before our eyes, gladness and joy from the house of our God? The seeds shrivel under their clods. The storehouses are desolate. The barns are torn down, for the grain is dried up. How the beasts groan. The herds of cattle wander aimlessly because there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep suffer.”

[[Please note – the whole prophecy from Joel is one of the most important ones anywhere in scripture, and particularly important for The Day of the LORD.

Chapters 1 (2nd half); 2 and 3 all go together in one prophecy. To understand it fully in context, it should be read as one. To deal with all those references here in one posting would be much too long, so, unfortunately, I have to split it. The start of Joel will be here in PART 2 and the rest in PART 3.]]

((This is the first time (the earliest one for Joel dates to about 800-900 B.C.)) that the full expression “the Day of the LORD” (Yom Jehovah) is mentioned in scripture.

Arno C Gabelein says this of the expression in Joel: “That phrase is used so frequently in all the prophetic books. The 15th verse (Joel 1:15) is an exclamation of the Prophet, as before his vision, that day appears. In the midst of the weird description of the calamity present in Joel’s day [referring to the locust plagues), he beholds a greater judgment approaching. It is the same day he beholds, which the other prophets mention; each time Joel uses this expression, it means the coming day of the Lord, still approaching. It may be noticed that the five passages in Joel in which “the day of the Lord” is mentioned are progressive.”

This passage is quite specific, and its concentration is on Israel, for that nation had departed from the Lord as it did so frequently. Judgment had come from God upon the land because all Israel’s blessings are in the land, and when God’s disfavor is against the nation, then the land shows that in drought and famine and plagues. The Jews are an earthly people, not a heavenly people. Their blessings are in the earth, whereas Christians have their blessings in the heavenlies. Those bad conditions were in operation when Joel wrote this prophecy, but he said “the day of the LORD is near,” for it had not come as yet. Joel wrote in approximately 870 BC, and the destruction of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar was still way in the future. Therefore, the conclusion is that the prophet points at the trials of the land and links that with coming judgment in the Day of the LORD.

This passage is an example of the principle of double fulfillment, and in this case, a triple fulfillment. It is very legitimate to say that it had application to what happened under the Babylonians, but it must extend to a greater application in the future because of the very term itself; for in context, all references to it are in the Tribulation. Joel adds to this in a few verses’ time with the wider application when he develops the events that link with The Day of the LORD. “The Day of Jehovah” has one trunk but several arms. The trunk is the setting in the time after the Rapture, but the arms are the various interventions of God on a smaller scale, such as in Joel’s time and under Nebuchadnezzar, and maybe Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans.))

ronaldf@aapt.net.au

What is wrong with the universe? What is wrong with our planet? What is wrong with the human race? The biggest “wrong” with our population of over 7 billion people is SIN — a simple 3-letter word with “horrible, eternal” consequences.

What do you think most of the world even thinks about sin? Not much. How many “religions” on earth even talk about sin and what it truly means? Only one that I know about – obviously, Christianity.

As Christians, we know from God’s prophecy-filled, verifiable word-of-God Bible that Creator God is Holy, Perfect, Sinless and DEMANDS ALL of His created sentient beings – angels and humans – also be just as holy, perfect, and sinless as He is. That is His STANDARD. Anything less is sinful. The definition of sin is “missing the mark.” What mark? God’s mark of meeting His “standard.”

We know from the Bible that 1/3rd of God’s angels missed His mark and sinned when Lucifer and his buddies rejected what God had to offer and chose their own path by sinning, which is an eternal path now separated from God.

Human beings missed the mark from the get-go when the first human God made, Adam, disobeyed God’s warning not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; he sinned right alongside his soul mate Eve by eating from it.

Many people ask WHY. It seems so unfair and wrong for every human being that is born, starting from Adam and Eve, that they would be born spiritually dead due to their sin nature. How can our sin nature come from Adam alone?

We don’t have to wonder about this. God tells us exactly what happened in Gen 3:15. This is when Satan, the serpent, enticed Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in order to be like God and to know about good and evil. Eve took the first bite of the forbidden fruit, followed by Adam. And for the first time, they realized they were naked and hid from God when He came to them. God confronted them, and Eve blamed the serpent. Adam blamed Eve, and then God had a conversation with Satan, the serpent.

In Gen 3:15, the first and most important prophecy in the Bible, God tells Satan, “And I will put enmity between your seed and woman’s seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.”

To create a human being, you need two seeds – one from the man and one from the woman. God has just referred to the man’s seed as Satan’s seed due to Adam’s sin. God created Adam from the dust of the ground, and He created Eve from Adam. So Adam is the one actually “responsible” for the first sin.

Here is an interesting thought: Every sentient being God creates – angels and humans – He creates HIMSELF “directly,” and each one is holy, perfect, and sinless. This applies to each angel, to Adam, to Eve, and to Jesus Christ, as you will see in a moment.

Gen 3:15 is the “first” prophecy in the Bible, and it is the ANSWER to the sin problem that just occurred in the garden. The “He” who will crush Satan’s head (a mortal wound) is Jesus when He defeats death through His resurrection following His crucifixion. And the “you will strike His heel” is a non-mortal wound when Satan thinks he’s won over God when Jesus was crucified.

Obviously, God knew “in advance” that this would occur long before He even created the human race. How do we know that? Simple – God created humans to be able to procreate and produce their own children.

God made EACH angel. They don’t procreate. God made Adam and Eve “directly,” but because they sinned and man’s seed is now Satan’s seed, that means that God Himself will NOT “directly” create more human beings. He now “indirectly” creates them through human beings, but it takes sinful human beings to “directly” create more sinful human beings through procreation. This explains WHY all human beings are born with a sin nature. The ONLY exception is Jesus, who is a human being with a human mother. But as we know, God, the Holy Spirit, conceived Jesus in Mary’s body for one MAIN reason – Jesus HAD to be born WITHOUT a sin nature that only comes from man’s seed. It was God’s seed that DIRECTLY created Jesus since God Himself creates ONLY holy, perfect, and sinless beings.

All of the preceding has laid the groundwork to be able to understand why we are where we are on planet Earth. As Christians, we “know” sin is the problem. The world at large does “not” know that. Why is that? It is because they can ONLY see things from a “natural” human perspective due to our sin nature. Our sin nature is PRIDE, period. It is looking after ourselves FIRST, which is exactly what Lucifer did when he committed the first sin in the Bible by putting himself first before God when he, too, wanted to be worshipped.

So, what does this mean? Does our sin nature really lead to pride where we put ourselves first, or does it lead to love where we put others first? That’s a rhetorical question. Since God is invisible to us and we are not living in His presence where He takes care of EVERYTHING, we now have to provide for ourselves for everything. Since this applies to every human being, this means we are literally in competition with everyone to get what sinful people consider the BEST in living a great life on earth – more money, power, and sex, the gods of this sinful world.

And so, when humans do have a conscience (provided by God, by the way), they look at good and evil in terms of “works.” The saddest thing is that most sinful human beings do not even know they are sinful, and so it is only natural that if there is a God, the best way to please Him and get to heaven is by doing good deeds and serving others. It is love by putting others first. There have literally been hundreds of “religions” over the millennia, and they say you can only go to heaven by being more good than bad. Sort of a scale weighing out the good deeds over the bad deeds and making sure the good deeds are heavier.

This is non-believers’ “human thinking.” Sin never even enters the equation of being saved in order to go to heaven. We humans have to work for everything, and that includes our salvation, according to them.

The good news for those who “see” is that even though God is invisible to us, He has made Himself “visible” through all of Creation and also through His Holy Bible, the word of God. The Bible says in Romans that God has “instinctively” revealed Himself to “every human being” to know deep down that a Creator God created everything in the universe. And it should be obvious to “everyone” that all of creation had to have had a Supernatural DESIGNER vs creating itself perfectly by random chance.

This explains why the sinful human race from the very beginning has always known there has to be someone or something much greater than ourselves and thus ended up worshipping “things” they thought much greater like the sun, moon, or other types of idols. Our sinful nature will do its best to never worship the actual Creator but only some part of His Creation instead. Religions always make the fatal mistake of underestimating the holiness of God and overestimating the goodness of man. That would be like dropping a man in the middle of the ocean where he underestimates the size of the ocean and overestimates his swimming ability – a most fatal mistake, indeed.

All of this explains why the human race fails to understand the “importance” of sin. When unbelievers look at what the Bible calls sin, they always look at it from the perspective of “degrees” of sin. It’s easier to understand how a murderer ends up in hell vs a really good person who tells a little white lie every now and then.

Humans also do something that does not even apply to how God looks at things. Humans “compare.” We compare ourselves to others in terms of good and bad, among many other things. Mother Teresa is super good, and Hitler is super bad, for example. To them, she is obviously in heaven, and he is obviously, in hell. Really? Not necessarily. Since ALL human beings are born spiritually dead due to our sin nature, no amount of “good deeds” can get rid of the sins we commit during our lifetime.

ONLY God can deal with our sins, which He did through His Son dying on a cross to pay the price for our sins. And when we recognize who He is and what He’s done, we can “now” enter into a personal relationship with God and go from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive. THAT is the ONLY way our sins are removed forever. As you can see, WORKS have ZERO effect on changing us from spiritually dead to spiritually alive – ZERO. It’s Christ and Christ ALONE who did it.

The best evangelical question you can ask someone is this: if you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God says to you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you say? Too many people will base their answer on works, saying, I tried to be the best person I could be. I never killed anyone or stole. I went to church, I gave to the poor, and I’m a nice person, so surely this will get me into heaven, won’t it, Lord? WRONG!!! That is a “works” answer. The ONLY right answer is, Lord, I by myself don’t deserve to come to heaven, but Your Son Jesus died on a cross to pay for my sins, and only through His sacrifice could I EVER enter heaven. RIGHT ANSWER!!! You might want to ask your friends and family this question and help them understand if they give a works-type answer.

God’s relationship to every person on the planet is ONE ON ONE. God NEVER looks at billions. He only sees one person at a time, and only God can actually have a personal, intimate relationship with someone through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit as if that person was the ONLY person on the whole planet.

But sin HAS to be dealt with FIRST before any person can have a relationship with God. Jesus took care of that for believers at the cross. When God established the nation of Israel, the first thing He did was set up an animal sacrificial system to temporarily pay the price for their sins in order to have that relationship with Him. ONLY animal blood could be used for sacrifices because animal blood is “sinless” since they are not created in God’s image. Millions of animals with sinless blood were sacrificed over 2,000 years to maintain that relationship until God Himself came down and demonstrated the greatest act of love there is – to die in order to save another. Jesus as God died on a cross to save us by paying the price for our sins, and this ended the animal sacrificial system.

Jesus, as God, obviously had sinless blood, and He sacrificed His sinless blood out of LOVE, something animals cannot do.

Since the world is basically unconcerned with sins, they certainly have no clue how it’s possible to “remove all of our sins” in order to go from spiritually dead to spiritually alive. The saddest thing of all is that mistake is an ETERNAL mistake that leads to living in all eternity separated from the very best God offers those with Him to the very worst there is when you live forever outside God’s presence.

So, what’s the big deal with sin? It’s the biggest DEAL there is because it’s GOD’s ETERNAL DEAL. God has said, accept my Son, and He will save you from your sins forever. Reject My Son, and you will NOT be saved from your sins forever. That’s My DEAL with you.

For anyone who might read this article who is not a believer, let’s ALL pray they will repent and fall in love with our most INCREDIBLE Lord and Savior and join us in spending eternity WITH Him. DEAL?

Maranatha,

David Cogburn

dcogburn789@gmail.com