General Articles

Permanency :: By Grant Phillips

Published on: by RR7

Permanency as defined is: the state or quality of lasting or remaining unchanged indefinitely.

Is there anything that is truly permanent? Solomon said, “And there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9c). Some things seem to be permanent, but are they really? Take “sin” for example; it was introduced to mankind with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and six thousand years later, it continues raising its ugly head within every human heart. However, after the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, there will be no more sin. Therefore, it is not permanent, at least with true believers.

Have you ever noticed that your possessions eventually have to be replaced because they tend to wear out? Every homeowner is conscious of the never-ending upkeep to ensure everything is in working order.

How long will your vehicle last? I haven’t seen one yet that doesn’t eventually wear out. Could the same be said of our clothes, cell phones, batteries, ink pens, etc.?

As we travel the highways and dodge the potholes, it is immediately obvious they (the highways) are not permanent.

Nothing is permanent that is made by man, except for one thing, and I’ll come back to that.

Even this old earth will someday pass away.

Peter said, “… the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

When thinking about permanency, we cannot omit the word “eternal.” Jesus spoke of eternal (everlasting) life. Life that is eternal never ends. Methuselah is the longest living human being, and he lived on this earth for 969 years. Wow! That’s a lot of years, but 969 years isn’t even a speck in the light of eternity. His 969 years on this earth ended at his death, but his soul lives on in eternity. Methuselah is not dead. Only his body is dead. His soul lives on in the eternal realm.

God is eternal or permanent, and not just looking forward to the future, but also looking backward in the past. However, there is no “past” with God. He has always been, and He will always be. That’s why He told Moses His name is, “I am.” He is God. He is the only one who has always been and always will be.

Heaven and hell are eternal and therefore also permanent. The short span of life you and I live on this earth is not even a hiccup in relationship to eternity. The life we have on this earth is temporary, but the life we have in eternity is permanent, whether it be in Heaven or hell (the lake of fire).

Even if we live to be as old as Methuselah, and none of us will in this life (except maybe in the Millennium), we have been provided this temporary earthly life in order to decide where we will spend our permanent, eternal life.

When I think of eternity, I think of something that is never-ending because that is exactly what it is … never ending. When I think of permanency, I think of something that will always exist … never ending. Every human being has been created to enjoy something that will always exist and will last forever, but most choose the wrong destination and therefore lose the real prize offered by our Creator.

“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

What is the real prize mentioned in this verse? The real prize to me, and I’m sure to you also, is the fellowship we will have with the Lord Jesus Christ for all eternity; and that, my friends, is definitely permanent. It is a prize that will never fade away.

“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20).

God created mankind that we would all have a fellowship with Him that would be eternal (permanent), but we blew it at the very beginning. Sure, Adam and Eve were the first to sin, but we would have done likewise if we had been there.

Genesis 3:15 is the first mention of the Gospel, showing us that He provides the one way we can all be forgiven and enjoy that fellowship He longs for us to have. He informed us through Peter that He is not willing that any should perish.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

I mentioned earlier that there is one thing man makes, which is permanent and therefore eternal. That one thing is the choice we make concerning Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “… I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

If we do not repent and ask Jesus to save us before we die, it will be too late. Once we take that last breath, there is no going back and getting a re-do. How many times in this life have we wished we could go back and change a bad decision? Maybe we somehow managed to correct a bad decision in this life, but once our body is dead, there is no going back. The decision we make about Jesus Christ while alive in this body is permanent and will last for eternity.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, I haven’t believed in Jesus, but I’ve been a good person.”

“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:18-19).

Millions of “good” people refuse to go to the Light because they prefer what the world has to offer. They are like Lot’s wife, who longed for the world and not the Savior (Genesis 19:26). Then they die and are condemned by God to an everlasting hell.

Nothing is more final and permanent than the life we live after our earthly life is over. Call on Jesus today. Don’t let it be said of you, “It’s too late.” Hell is eternal and permanent.

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).

Grant Phillips

Email: Phillip5769@twc.com
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready: https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html

Isaiah 45:18: God Formed the Earth to be Inhabited :: By Gary W. Ritter

Published on: by RR7

 

(Isaiah 45-47; Colossians 3)

The globalist narrative for many years has been that the earth is overpopulated. These elites have said we must act now or we’re doomed. How will the planet support any more people? In fact, Paul Ehrlich, way back in his 1968 book The Population Bomb, apocalyptically stated:

“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date, nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate ….”

He subsequently argued as late as 2018 that the optimal population for the earth was no more than 1.5-2 billion people.

Actually, we have to give Ehrlich credit for being a humanitarian of sorts because he would allow so many people to continue living. A more drastic approach to this “population bomb” is expressed in the Georgia Guidestones, of which I’ve written and spoken many times. The author of these ten commandments, written in eight different languages on the monolithic rock slabs of this American Stonehenge, pulls no punches. The very first declaration is that we – the inhabitants of the earth – must:

“Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.”

Given that our planet’s population is approaching eight billion, it would require a fairly sizable reduction of about 93% of mankind to die off in order to reach this goal.

There are a lot of connecting strands making up this desire to reduce the number of people living on the earth. Here are several:

You may recall that following the fall of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party in the USSR, in the aftermath of his nation’s dissolution, became a champion of the environmental movement. He founded Green Cross International (​​https://www.gcint.org/) so as to “Give Humanity a Chance” and to “Give the Earth a Future.”

One of the connections that has become obvious over the years is that of the environmental movement with communism. Is it a coincidence that Earth Day on April 22 is also Vladimir Lenin’s birthday? Who was Lenin? He was a Marxist revolutionary leader and the first head of the communist Soviet Union. Interestingly, the first Earth Day in 1970 coincided with Lenin’s 100th birthday. Estimates vary, but communism that arose from Lenin’s regime killed 65-100 million people over its first one hundred years.

What has been the cry of environmentalists? Too many people inhabit our planet. It is unsustainable. We must stop having babies as it will mean our doom.

I tell you this: The communist ideal is alive and well. It was no mistake that Comrade Gorbachev went on to advocate for the Green movement. The intent of that, just as it was for the out-and-out communists before it, is to kill off humanity.

It is believed the Rosicrucians are behind the Georgia Guidestones. They are aligned with Freemasons. It all gets shadowy and opaque when following the trail of the movers and shakers in the world who have been Freemasons, but they have left many breadcrumbs. There is little doubt that people at the top of their professions – in literally every sphere of the world power, be it technology, politics, arts, even religion – are part of this secret society. Because of what they believe, they are inevitably people opposed to God. Many are well-known eugenicists. Here’s what Merriam-Webster says about eugenics:

“… the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations (as by sterilization) to improve the population’s genetic composition.”

In order to control the earth’s population, there has to be a lot less of it.

The global elites behind this movement need fewer people. They desire slaves that they can direct to do their bidding. To make this a manageable proposition, they have to eliminate that 93% of mankind, noted earlier. This is all part of the agenda bringing us to the Great Reset, which we also know as the New World Order, and which will coincide with the 7-year Tribulation. These people think that by bringing us to such a time that all their dreams and desires for utopian existence will be realized.

The ultimate head of these efforts is found in the demonic spiritual realm. The plans of the communists, environmentalists, and globalists – who are effectively all the same – originate from Satan and the dark forces aligned with him. In his book Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky wrote this dedication:

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins— or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom –Lucifer.”

Yes, Alinsky really did dedicate the book, his efforts, and those who would follow in his footsteps to Lucifer. Alinsky was a Satanist, just as Karl Marx also was. Their god was Lucifer – Satan – and both of these men gloried in that association.

Why is there such a connection by the demonic realm to the efforts to depopulate the earth? It all goes back to the Garden and to the curse in Genesis 3:15 that God placed upon the serpent:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Satan knew his time was limited as a free (im)moral agent. He had to destroy the progeny of the Seed. In other words, he could not allow man to become fully human, or he had to kill the One who would become that Seed, or he had to annihilate humanity, which was God’s pride and joy – or all of these. Satan and his minions are the evil power behind every plan and purpose of men to reduce earth’s population.

This is a problem with God, as you can imagine. From the very first in Genesis 1:27-28, we see:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'”

Following the flood, God likewise instructed Noah and his descendants in Genesis 9:1 to do the same. Overpopulation of the earth is not a concern for God. He is sovereign and will provide. Man’s wisdom is foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:20).

God declares that He is the One who should be heeded. He made the earth for man, not the opposite, as environmentalists proclaim when they decry how humanity is destroying nature. Consider Isaiah 45:18:

“For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other.'”

Does it sound to you like God is worried that the earth is on an unsustainable course because there are too many people?

It may seem like the global elites and all the dark forces creating such chaos in the world will succeed. They’re on an upward trajectory in their power and how they are exercising control over humanity. It’s easy to be discouraged at what we see all around us. But here’s a little secret that God declares in Isaiah 45:23:

“By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.'”

None of the plans of man will prevail. Every human and non-human knee will bow to the Lord God Almighty. That time is coming soon.

Hold on, and hold tight to the Lord!

[Author Note: Briefly, I want to set the stage for you as to the nature of most of my articles in this season. Each year I read the Bible through completely at least once – that has been my practice since I came to the Lord in 2005. I remain astounded at what God has done in my life because of that discipline! Each day I read from both the Old and New Testaments. I choose a verse from one of those passages and write my commentary and reflection based on that. In the title of my article, you’ll see the verse I chose. In addition, you’ll see the reading for that day if you’d like to follow along with greater context.]

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Gary W. Ritter is a lay pastor, Bible teacher, and prolific author. His Whirlwind Series comprises three books: Sow the Wind, Reap the Whirlwind, and There Is A Time. These books are contained in the collected volume of the Whirlwind Omnibus. Gary has been given the Christian Redemptive Fiction award for three novels: The Tattooed Cat, Alien Revelation, and for his collaboration with Terry James in writing The Minion Protocols, the third book in James’ Second Coming Chronicles.

Earlier this year, Gary released a four-volume set of Awaken Bible Study Notes that comment verse-by-verse through Scripture from a Biblical prophetic lens. He is currently editing a sequel to Alien Revelation called Alien Zombie Plague, which he plans to release later in the fall of 2021. Recently, Gary wrote a novella for the new Kindle Vella platform. That story is called Tribulation Rising: Seal Judgments – The Coming Apocalypse. This seven-part short work can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099Z462WD.

Each day this year, Gary has been writing commentary and reflections based on his reading through the Bible in a year. The intent in all his writings is to bring a strong Christian witness to what people read. You can see all his books and blog articles and reach him at his website:www.GaryRitter.com or his Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/gritter3390. You can also see his older video Bible teachings on his Gary Ritter YouTube channel – look for the fish symbol, and more recently on Rumble on his Awaken Bible Prophecy channel: https://rumble.com/c/c-783217.