Where’s The Hope? :: By Nathele Graham

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles, Nathele Graham

“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD” (Psalm 31:24).

The news is bad. Everything is doom and gloom, and depression hangs heavy over the population. The political climate in the United States is ugly. And I get very discouraged when I listen to all the political babbling. A crazy young man who may or may not have been acting alone tried to assassinate Mr. Trump. What do many of the loony liberals say? “I’m sorry he missed.” That’s just cold-hearted. They take a miracle of God and turn it into something evil.

In speaking of the end of days, Jesus said, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).

This makes me concerned for the state of America. On the other hand, I see so many video clips asking people why they will vote for the Democrats’ nominee, and their reasoning is absurd. “Because she’s a woman.” Really? She’s not running for president of the PTA but running for leadership of the United States of America. I’m a woman, but that doesn’t qualify me to be president. Where’s the hope for America if this is the basis of casting votes? What will she do when facing an important meeting with world leaders? I also have doubts that she even knows where our Southern Border is located, nor does she think there’s trouble there. It leaves me scratching my head.

The Bible is always the best place to look for answers and encouragement. Names and places change, but the same failures of humanity are always there, as well as the same love of God.

Job was a man who had many afflictions. Satan was waging war against this man who loved the Lord. All of Job’s children died, he faced horrific health issues, he lost his fortune, and his wife was little or no support in his trials. Nothing seemed worth living for, and he desired for God to take his life. He did have some so-called friends who would have been more help if they had stayed home; their advice was not good at all.

Job was very depressed. “Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should hope? And what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?” (Job 6:10-11).

The truth that Job would eventually come to realize is that God was his strength, his comfort, and his hope. “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and although after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25-26).

Job’s hope was found in the Redeemer, and we know His name: Jesus Christ. America, Jesus Christ is our only hope. Christians cannot give up and stop praying.

The truth is, when studying prophecy, it seems as if America is missing. Americans tend to think that the world will stop turning without this nation to keep it going. America was once a great nation but has turned into a culture that esteems pagan lust and evil. We have fallen so far from God’s grace that I’m amazed we are still a nation. The only hope for any nation, or any individual person, is Jesus Christ. No national leader, whether conservative or liberal, will ever make a nation great.

The greatest human king that ever ruled a nation was King David. What made him great? He was a man after God’s own heart. The Apostle Paul gave a short history of Israel and told how the people desired a king, and God gave them what they deserved: Saul. Saul was a bit crazy. It was David whom God desired for their king, but the people demanded a king immediately, and David wasn’t ready. After years of poor leadership and crazy actions, Saul committed suicide during a battle.

David was ready to be king and led Israel to greatness. “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will” (Acts 13:22).

David wasn’t a perfect man, and he committed great sin. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed. When Nathan the prophet confronted him with his sin, David went to God and humbly repented and asked for mercy.

“For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightiest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” (Psalm 51:3-4).

A truly repentant man or woman will be forgiven by God. We learn from the account of Jonah being sent to the city of Nineveh to preach repentance that that evil and wicked city repented from the king to the least of the populace. Their judgment was delayed. Sadly, Nineveh returned to their sin, God sent judgment, and they were destroyed. It seems as if it’s time for Americans to repent and turn from the sins that are destroying this nation.

Abortion and homosexuality are two of the worst things that show our rebellion against God. America is ripe for judgment. Even our churches are full of sin and false teaching. How can we ever find hope in this fallen world?

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

We can’t expect God to continue to turn a blind eye to the sin in this nation.

No nation can survive if God isn’t honored. The only nation I can think of that has endured through many attempts to destroy it is Israel. History shows that they haven’t always honored God, and at those times, they have been taken captive, and their God-given land was defiled. Prophecy was fulfilled in 1948 when the nation of Israel was re-established.

“And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God” (Amos 9:14-15).

Prophecy gives me hope. No matter how evil the world seems, God is still God. He has foreseen all things and told us in advance so we can be aware of the times in which we live. Israel has returned to the land and will not be removed. The attacks on Israel that we are witnessing today are leading up to a very evil time known as the Great Tribulation. We see the various nations named in prophecy aligning for battle and the rise of the Man of Sin (the Anti-Christ). We also see the coming world monetary system… be wary of the World Economic Forum. The technology is being put in place to enable the Mark of the Beast to be implanted in everyone. God foretold all of this in prophecy. The troubles that are coming are caused by people turning away from God and embracing Satan’s lies.

All the people of the world will look to Satan for their hope, but there is no hope in evil.  We can only find hope in God. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13).

God can’t fill you with joy and peace if you don’t turn to Him. That means repent and turn from sin. Without God, there is no hope.

There’s a teaching in some churches today that all you have to do is believe in Jesus, and you will find His grace with no need to repent and turn from sin. That teaching forgets the fact that repenting means changing your mind. That teaching also ignores many verses that tell of sins that will keep a person from Heaven.

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

We have all sinned, and until we are safe at Home with Jesus, we will continue to sin. But when we place our hope in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. He is our only Hope. Is it acceptable, then, to profess Christ and hold tightly to sin? No. Jesus told the woman taken in adultery, “…Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more” (John 8:11b). God knows your heart, and if you are struggling with certain sins, He will help you overcome them, but don’t embrace sin as your right. In Christ, we have hope.

We cannot find hope in any human. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). 

There is no hope in a human being, but there is hope only in Jesus Christ. God establishes nations and raises up men to rule. As Christians, we need to pray for whoever is in leadership, but we also must pray for guidance for whom to vote. It may be that God will allow an evil ruler, just as He did with King Saul ruling over Israel. The people of Israel got what they deserved, but when David became king, Israel flourished.

We are living in some very troublesome times. If you don’t study prophecy, you cannot understand what’s happening. You will not understand that Christians have a hope that nobody else on this earth has. That is the hope of the Rapture. Some will try to say the rapture is an erroneous belief started in the 1800s, but that’s wrong. Enoch was the first example of God removing His people from Earth prior to His judgment. Today, judgment is coming fast. Only Christians have the hope of escaping the very evil and wicked times coming quickly upon all the earth.

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:13-14).

Now, that’s hope. Jesus Christ is our blessed hope. Are you zealous to do good works? If not, why? Time is short, and there are many, many people who haven’t heard the Good News of salvation. We need to share our hope with the fallen world around us.

We need to make decisions based upon Scripture. Let the Holy Spirit lead you in all things. Share your hope with everybody around you.

God bless you all,

Nathele Graham

twotug@embarqmail.com

Recommended prophecy sites:

www.raptureready.com

www.prophecyupdate.com

www.raptureforums.com

All original scripture is “theopneustos,” God-breathed.

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“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee” (Psalm 122:6).

 

 

Can God Change His Mind About Israel, or About Us? :: By Jonathan Brentner

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles

What I’m about to write may seem unlikely. How is it possible that a topic unrelated to Bible prophecy could further validate my conviction concerning the Lord’s promise to restore a glorious kingdom to Israel?

I’m totally persuaded that Scripture confirms the nation’s continuing place in God’s sovereign plan for the future. But long ago, what I learned as I worked on my master’s thesis in seminary led to a deeper understanding of why this must be true.

The title of my paper was “Roman Catholic Justification in the Light of Scripture.” My understanding of what Paul wrote about justification by faith, first of all, solidified my belief in eternal security. The message of Romans 8:31-38 is clear: If God pronounces us righteous, it’s a done deal. No one can overturn His judicial verdict on our lives.

In other words, it’s impossible for justified saints to lose their salvation or walk away from it. Such things can never happen to those whom God declares forever righteous. Never!

Long ago, Roman Catholic theologians moved God’s justification of the sinner from the time of regeneration to the end of his or her life. I suspect they did this to add uncertainty to the lives of believers, which enabled the church to exert considerable control over their behavior. Perhaps they understood its finality, and if it happened at the moment that one became born again, absolutely nothing could change one’s rock-solid place of favor in God’s sight.

Satan’s tactics remain the same today; he still seeks to inject insecurity into the final outcome of our faith. He loves to make us feel as though we need to keep earning the Lord’s favor rather than believe what the Bible says about us.

What does our security in Christ have to do with the future of Israel? Paul sums up this vital link in Romans 11:29:

“For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.”

Please stay with me as I connect the dots between our permanent righteous standing before God and His promise to someday restore a glorious kingdom to Israel.

The Lord Cannot Renege on His Promises

As I worked on my thesis about justification by faith, I read a book by Erich Sauer, The Triumph of the Crucified. In it, he wrote:

The question of the Millennial kingdom is, therefore, not only a question of final history but touches, at the same time, the very heart of the Gospel (freedom from law, universality of the Gospel, gift by grace). To deny it makes either God a liar in relation to His prophecies or Paul a false witness to us. Romans 9–11 is no mere justifying of God, but a justification of Paul’s doctrine of justification.[1]

In Romans chapters 9-11, Paul points to Israel’s secure place in God’s redemptive program as confirmation that God can’t change His mind regarding those whom He justifies (Romans 8:31-39). The final outcome of His promises to both us and Israel is all about His character as a promise-keeping God. Human behavior can never negate God’s decrees whether it be on our behalf or that of Israel.

Paul thus assures us that because God can never renege on His covenants with Israel and David, we can know that we will bring all those He declares to be righteous to glory.

The One who has not rejected Israel (Romans 11:1-25) is the same One who affirms our absolute secure place as justified saints (Romans 8:28-39).

Nothing, not even the nation’s rejection of their Messiah in the first century AD, could alter His love for His chosen people or cancel His oft-repeated statements through the Old Testament prophets whereby He gave His solemn word pledging Himself to restore a glorious kingdom to Israel.

This does not mean, as some suggest, that all the Jewish people will receive eternal life or secure a place in Jesus’ future kingdom on the earth. Forgiveness of sins and eternal life has always come through faith in Jesus. In the Old Testament, saving faith sprang from believing what God progressively revealed about His Son and His future sacrifice for their sins. Today, we look back with a clear picture of all that His death and resurrection signify for our deliverance from the penalty of sin and our receipt of eternal life.

Scripture reveals that the time is coming when a Jewish remnant will turn to Jesus as they recognize Him as their Messiah and Savior. Zechariah wrote about a great repentance of a remnant of the people of Israel, which will happen during the last days (12:10-13:1). Paul certainly had this passage in mind when he confidently predicted the salvation of the Jewish people that would happen after the church age (Romans 11:25-36).

Christ Himself prophesied regarding this future group of redeemed Jews (Matthew 23:37-39). He declared that someday the residents of Jerusalem would greet Him with these words, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” They had done so a few days earlier, but He knew many of them would soon cry out for His crucifixion. As Jesus grieved over His beloved city, He found solace by looking to the future time when He would hear those same words from a truly repentant Israel.

God’s Amazing Mercy

God’s continuing mercy toward the nation of Israel despite its past and, might I add, their current state of unbelief and waywardness, speaks to the great depths of His amazing mercy toward us as New Testament saints. In Romans 11:30-32, the apostle wrote about God’s matchless mercy toward both us and Israel:

“For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” (Emphasis added)

For Israel, God’s mercy signifies that His covenants and promises are “irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). He will not fail to bring the nation to the place of repentance that Zechariah said would happen.

For us, it means that regardless of our behavior, wrong turns, sins, or failures, the words of Ephesians 1:3-14 will always define us. Once God pronounces us righteous in His sight, nothing whatsoever can diminish the unfailing and unending favor we enjoy in His sight.

It’s the Lord’s amazing mercy toward all that motivates us in our walk with Him, as Paul wrote in Romans 12:1:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Do you see it? The phrase “mercies of God” is plural. Paul’s instructions for Christian living in Romans chapters 12-16 flow from God’s unalterable and steadfast love for both us and the nation of Israel. (The chapter break before Romans 12 came centuries after Paul wrote to the saints at Rome.)

Our response of service and sacrifice for the Lord flows from the realization that it’s not possible for Him to change His mind about those He chooses. We begin our walk with the Lord as those He declares to be forever righteous and forever remain in His favor.

In his book, New Morning Mercies, Paul David Tripp wrote the following on the message of Lamentations 3:23, “His mercies are new every morning:”

Not only does God lavish on you love that will never cease and grace that will never end, and not only is he great in faithfulness, but the mercy he extends to you and to me is renewed each morning. It is not tired, stale, irrelevant, worn out, ill-fitting, yesterday mercy. It is form-fitted for the needs of your day. It is sculpted to the shape of the weaknesses, circumstances, and struggles of each and every one of his children.

Is it any wonder that Paul sets our walk as believers in the context of the Lord’s amazing mercy that permeates all His dealings with both Israel and us?

Contradictions

The failure to fully understand God’s mercy, which lies at the heart of the Gospel, opens the door to at least a couple of inconsistencies in interpreting Scripture.

Many Bible-believing pastors correctly teach the finality of our salvation yet deny that same unending grace and mercy for the nation of Israel. Is it not contradictory to proclaim God’s unfailing love toward believers and yet deny it for the people that God chose so long ago and with whom He made everlasting covenants (i.e., Psalm 105:7-11)? I believe it is.

Do they not see the inseparable link between the finality of our justification and Israel’s continuing place in God’s redemptive program, which Paul addressed in Romans chapters 9-11? They teach the eternal security of the saints yet tell us that this same mercy doesn’t apply to the descendants of Jacob.

Is it not equally contradictory for those who preach God’s ongoing purposes for Israel to also teach that New Testament saints can lose their salvation or walk away from it? Yes, it surely is.

Those who understand God’s irreversible grace for the nation of Israel, regardless of her past or current state, err greatly by making our continuing place in God’s favor dependent on our behavior. Our security rests in the Lord’s love for us, never in our love for Him.

We don’t obey the Lord in order to gain or stay in His favor. It’s something we enjoy every moment of every day and can never lose. We serve Him because of His steadfast love toward us.

Paul David Tripp put it this way:

If you obey for a thousand years, you’re no more accepted than when you first believed; your acceptance is based on Christ’s righteousness and not yours.

Is there not unspeakable comfort and energizing encouragement in knowing that the Lord can never change His mind toward us? Such grand assurance flows from His character as a covenant-keeping God who will not fail to keep all His promises to all those He loves, whether it be the nation of Israel or us as those whom He has redeemed with His precious blood.

Why did my master’s thesis on biblical justification confirm my belief that the Lord will someday restore a kingdom to Israel?

It did so because I saw the unbreakable connection between Romans 8:28-39 and chapters 9-11. The God who can never change His mind about His promises to Israel is the same One who can never change His mind about those whom He declares to be forever righteous in His sigh.

Our security in Christ is never about us; it’s always about Him and solely because of Him. How can anyone expect that it would be any different for the nation of Israel to whom the Lord has pledged in no uncertain terms to restore as the means of defending His Holy Name (see Ezekiel 36:22-38)?

***

In Eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times, I not only provide a compelling defense of our belief in the pre-Tribulation Rapture but explore its wonders for the redeemed. The glory ahead for us exceeds all our fanciful imaginations of what it might be. In the last section, I explore five amazing truths of the wonders that lie ahead for us as saints.

Note: Please consider signing up for my newsletter on the home page of my website at https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/. Thanks!

 

[1] Erich Sauer, The Triumph of the Crucified (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 1952), p. 150.