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"MORIEL"
GOD IS MY TEACHER
July/Sept. 2012
S
Tamuz /Av/Tishrei 5772
No. 51
the
carlet Cord
IN THIS ISSUE: “ Midrash and the book of . . .
Revelation”
James Tissot – The Flight of the Spies
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly F
From The Director
"MORIEL"
GOD IS MY TEACHER
UNTIL HE COMES
So often I have tried to convey to our Moriel readers and friends why this time
in history is so different from the other times in history dating back to the early
church when true Christians thought they were in The Last Days before the return
of Jesus. This has taken on an expanded dimension of importance in light of the
trend to ignore the “BE ALERT” commands of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse with
the false teaching of Rick Warren and Mark Driscoll urging Christians to avoid the
study of eschatological prophecy in open defiance of the instructions of Jesus and
the unambiguous directives of His Word. The rejection and even mocking of the
doctrine of the rapture by propagators of error such as Gerald Coates, Rick Joyner
and others as well as by the disseminators of such bogus dogma as radical preterism
and Dominion theology compounds the challenge of proclaiming the return of Jesus.
The producers of the film “The Daniel Project” and I designed the film to engage the
unsaved evangelistically by the use of end time prophecy. But it is an exception to
the fledging popular trends of pseudo evangelism witnessed in everything from the
post modernism of the Emergent church to the false unity of ecumenical seduction to
market driven programs falsely called ‘purpose driven.’
Indeed, during the crusades the nations at the center of world events were the ones
geographically the same nations from biblical history and figures from Charlemagne
to Napoleon to Mussolini attempted to re-confederate the Roman Empire. Even great
apostasy has overtaken Christendom in times past, such as after the time of Constantine the Great and the post Nicean church fathers in the patristic era. But as always,
we are left to ask why these times are not the same – just another constellation of
global events that resemble a potential apocalyptic scenario? Indeed, Peter’s epistle
warns us in 2 Peter chapter 3 that people, even supposed Christians, would mock
those proclaiming the return of Jesus just as Noah was mocked before the flood.
This same chapter however tells us that a thermal destruction of the biosphere
would take place and we are warned by Jesus that if He does not return no flesh will
be saved. Never before in history however has mankind had the potential to exterminate himself from the face of the earth by nuclear combustion. Moreover, the predictions of Jesus in Luke 21:24 and Matthew 23:39 states that the Jews would need to
be in Israel and re-gathered to their capital Jerusalem to facilitate His return. This has
never taken place before and it’s taking place at a time when as Romans 11 predicts
Jews as the natural branches will be regrafted back into the church again as believers
in their Messiah Yeshua. This is why Satan has inspired false teachers like John Piper
and the late John Stott to mislead the church with replacement theology, and deny that
contemporary events in The Middle East fulfill prophecy, which is why Mark Driscoll
and Rick Warren are used by the devil to divert Christians away from prophecy.
A further difference however is that man’s science and technology is allowing him
to reverse the curse on the human race from the Tower of Babel where the language
barrier will soon be demolished by digital technology, where a Japanese speaker and
an English speaker can speak to each other by automatic translation via cell phone
or computer texting. God cannot allow man to reverse divine pronouncement. It is
likewise only the reduced longevity of the Third World that keeps average human life
expectancy below the 80 years God allows in response to sin. These are just a few of
the factors that with certainty designate the present time as different from other times
when believers thought it was the last days.
Our times are indeed different. And this is a message that The Lord has dictated
by His Spirit that Moriel is to proclaim. By His grace we shall endeavor to proclaim
it. This time is absolutely different. He is coming, and at least in relative terms, He
is indeed coming soon.
James Jacob Prasch & All at Moriel
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
Jacob’s Itinerary
FOR
USA & CANADA
– Winnipeg, MB –
October 11-13, 2012
22nd Annual Winnipeg
Prophecy Conference
The Victoria Inn
(near the International airport)
1808 Wellington Cres. Winnipeg, MB
– CALGARY, CANADA –
2nd Annual Calgary Israel Bible
Prophecy Conference
March 21 – 23, 2013
Calgary, Canada
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"MORIEL"
GOD IS MY TEACHER
july–september
Issue No. 51
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MIDRASH/ Book of Revelation . . . . . . . . .11
MORIEL SOUTH AFRICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
MORIEL ISRAEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
AUSTRALIAN REPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Dealing with Prophetic Attention Deficit Disorder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
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THE Scarlet Cord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MORIEL JAPAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
PERTINET FACTOID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
20
AUSTRALIANnews
22
Dealing with Prophetic Attention
Deficit Disorder
by Danny Isom
MORIEL THAILAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
OUT OF SEASON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
24
moriel japan
31
“Out of Season”
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
Feature Article
Jacob Prasch
fabric—is thrown into the fire with hyssop. Hyssop is paschal. When the Passover
lamb was sacrificed they would dip hyssop
into the towel and take the paschal blood
and mark the bloody doorposts and lintels
in the form of a cross. David, in his Psalm
of penitence said, “Purify me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7). We have
the hyssop, the blood, the cedar (which is
the wood from which the cross may have
been made) and the scarlet cord.
“…then the priest shall give orders to
take two live clean birds…
(As there are two goats there are two
birds.)
S
the
“…and cedar wood and a scarlet
string and hyssop for the one who is
to be cleansed.…As for the live bird,
he shall take it together with the cedar wood and the scarlet string and
the hyssop, and shall dip them and the
live bird in the blood of the bird that
was slain over the running water. (Leviticus 14:4, 6)
The running water is a picture of washing with the blood, but we also have the
hyssop and the scarlet.
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“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD, “Though your
sins are as scarlet, They will be as
white as snow; Though they are
red like crimson, They will be like
wool. (Isaiah 1:18)
Every year, on the Day of Atonement
before the Temple was destroyed, the High
Priest would put on a special white tunic
with a red sash wrapped around his waist.
He would wear this only once a year. He
would take the two scapegoats (called
seir la’azazel in Hebrew) and bring them
through the streets of Jerusalem, foreshadowing Christ where people would spit on
them, kick them, hit them with stones and
curse them for their sin. One would be sacrificed; the other would be taken into the
wilderness and pushed from a precipice.
But before that, the High Priest would take
the scarlet sash and cut it in half into two
cords; one he would tie between the horns
of the seir la’azazel released into the wilderness, the other he would hang before the
“Qodesh Qodeshim”—the Holy of Holies
in the Temple.
The Jews believed that if their sin was
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
forgiven on the Day of Atonement—Yom
Kippur—the scarlet cord would turn white.
We are told in the Mishnah (Jewish history)
that for the forty years before the Temple
was destroyed—in other words, from the
time Yeshua was rejected as Messiah until
the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, which
both Jesus and Daniel predicted—it never
turned white. Talmudic Judaism itself admits that the sins of the Jewish people were
no longer forgiven on the Day of Atonement once Yeshua was rejected.
We need to understand Old Testament
atonement, or Yom Kippur. If the Hebrews
had real faith and real repentance, the blood
of the scapegoats would cover their sin until the Messiah came and removed them; it
was a temporary provision.
It Speaks of Salvation
“…your sins are like scarlet, they shall
be white as snow” speaks of salvation.
Consistently throughout Scripture we have
the scarlet cord speaking about salvation.
‘The priest shall take cedar wood and
hyssop and scarlet material and cast
it into the midst of the burning heifer.
(Numbers 19:6)
Notice that the scarlet cord—the scarlet
Judah recognized them, and said,
“She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son
Shelah.” And he did not have relations
with her again. It came about at the
time she was giving birth, that behold,
there were twins in her womb. Moreover, it took place while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the
midwife took and tied a scarlet thread
on his hand, saying, “This one came
out first.”
(This almost certainly had to be an act of
providence or divine intervention in itself.
Christian and Jewish obstetricians who
have looked at this have said that normally
this would not happen.)
But it came about as he drew back his
hand, that behold, his brother came
out. Then she said, “What a breach
you have made for yourself!” So
he was named Perez. Afterward his
brother came out who had the scarlet
thread on his hand; and he was named
Zerah. (Genesis 38:26-30)
Notice that only the second born has the
scarlet thread; only the second born has salvation. But the hand came out first. I am not
a Calvinist, nonetheless the Scriptures are
clear: “those whom He foreknew” (Rom.
8:29; 11:2). The Lord knows who is going
to get saved even before we get saved.
No place, however, is this scarlet cord
more prominent or important than in
the narrative of Rahab the harlot.
Jacob Prasch
…unless, when we come into the land,
you tie this cord of scarlet thread in
the window through which you let us
down, and gather to yourself into the
house your father and your mother
and your brothers and all your father’s
household. (Joshua 2:18)
There is the scarlet cord; only those who
have it will be rescued. The rescue narratives of Scripture such as the Exodus, Noah,
Lot, the events of AD 70 and in this case
Rahab, each of these prefigures the Rapture
of the Church. We do not base doctrine on
typology or symbolism, but we do use the
typology and symbolism to illustrate and
illuminate doctrine on a deeper level. It
shows us what is going to happen.
Scriptures from a Hebraic
Viewpoint
If a Jewish believer at the end of the first
century was reading the Book of Revelation (there would have been no chapter divisions at that time) during the persecution
of the Emperor Domitian, they would have
read it quite differently than we do with a
Western, Hellenistic mind. (Unfortunately,
the patristic church fathers Hellenized a
Hebraic faith. They took a Jewish Christianity and turned it into a Greek one.) They
would have read it midrashically. They
would have seen it as a midrash on the
Book of Joshua.
In the Book of Joshua is found seven
days of marching around Jericho, but on
the seventh day there was a subset of seven.
Coming out of the seventh seven, they had
to do it seven times. So, in Revelation, we
have the same pattern with seven seals, but
out of the seventh seven there is a subset of
seven trumpets.
When they marched around Jericho there
had to be total silence (Josh. 6:10). And so, in
Revelation 8:1, “there was silence in heaven
for about half an hour.” How time is applied
to eternity is another matter, but there it is.
There are the two spies who come into
play in Joshua (Josh. 2). They prefigure the
two witnesses (Rev. 11).
When the last trumpet—the last shofar, is
blown in the Book of Joshua, “This city has
been given to us by the Lord” (Josh. 6:16),
and so when the last trumpet is blown in
Revelation, “This world has become the
Kingdom of our God and His Messiah”
(Rev. 11:15).
If we want to know the future, look at
the past. The Book of Joshua—the rescue
of Rahab, is just like the rescue of Lot in
that it is not just simply a past event, it is a
future one. The rescue of Noah is not just a
past event, it is a future event. If we do not
know what did happen, we are never going
to know what is going to happen. That is
how a Jewish believer at the end of the first
century would have read the Book of Revelation. We need to read it with the mind of
the original first century Christians, not with
the mind of the sixteenth-century Reformers or fourth-century “church fathers.”
Rahab the Harlot
Rahab is quite a figure who is mentioned
with favor three times in the New Testament
(Mt. 1:5; Heb. 11:3; James 2:25). Why Rahab? Why is she given such favorable mention? She is the great-great-grandmother of
King David. The royal line of David—the
Messianic line through whom the Messiah
the Savior would come, has Rahab as one
of his direct ancestors; a Gentile prostitute.
We have to understand that Abraham is a
Gentile whom God converted to Judaism.
There are two Gentile women in the genealogy of Jesus dating back to the line of
David in Ruth and Rahab. Why is this? It is
simply because the Messiah would be Savior of both Jew and Gentile.
Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by
Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.
(Matthew 1:5)
This, of course, picks up where the Book
of Ruth ends. The genealogy of Jesus actually begins in the closing verses of the
fourth chapter of Ruth. The great-greatgrandmother of the Messiah would be Rahab, this Gentile prostitute. She marries
into a Jewish family after converting to belief in the true God.
By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the
spies in peace. (Hebrews 11:31)
Here in the index of the faithful she is a
role model. Why does God make this Gentile prostitute a role model of faith?
In the same way, was not Rahab the
harlot also justified by works when she
received the messengers and sent them
out by another way? (James 2:25)
The previous verse tells us…
You see that a man is justified by works
and not by faith alone. (James 2:24)
Martin Luther began well, but he ended
very badly. During the Peasants’ Revolt he
said the peasants should be murdered. He
said every Jew should be cornered into a
corral and forced to confess Christ at the
point of a knife. “We, the German nation,
are to blame if we do not enslave these
Jews to prove we are Christians.” (This
is quoted extensively by Hitler in Mein
Kampf). Not only that, he ended his life a
complete heretic. He denied the canonicity
of the Book of Revelation and also the canonicity of the Epistle of James. He said it
Feature Article
was not part of the New Testament canon
because he disagreed with it. He did not
understand the difference between “works
of the Law” and “works.” Because he was
reacting against medieval Catholicism—
salvation by works, by sacraments, by indulgences, etc., he could not handle what
James was saying because he really did not
understand it. What James is saying is simply this: Christians do not do good works
to get saved, they do good works because
they have been saved. We are saved by
grace through faith, but what do we mean
by “faith”? The problem had to do with the
English and Latin languages.
Faith & Faithfulness
In Hebrew, the word for “faith” is “emunah” from which we get the word “amen”;
in Hebrew the word for “faithfulness” is
“emunah.” It is the same word, like from
the Book of Lamentations: “Great is Thy
faithfulness” (Lam. 3:23) The Hebrew language makes no distinction between “faith”
and “faithfulness,” and neither, technically,
does the Greek—“pistis.” There may be a
difference in the case endings, but the word
for “faith” and the word for “faithfulness”
is the same. In other words, if somebody’s
faith is genuine, they are going to be faithful.
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the
Son will not see life, but the wrath of
God abides on him.” (John 3:36)
A saving faith is not a mere, intellectual
faith. Satan has an intellectual faith; Satan
knows it is true. If it is a saving faith, there
will be faithfulness. The problem is that
instead of following the Hebrew or Greek,
our translations generally follow the Latin
Vulgate of Jerome. “Faith” and “faithfulness” are different in Latin. Hence, in English, we get the wrong perspective. If it is a
saving faith, we will be faithful.
The righteous will live by “faith” (Hab.
2:4)? The righteous will live by “faithfulness.” We are saved by grace through
“faith” (Eph. 2:8)? We are saved by grace
through “faithfulness.” (Commencing, of
course, by the faithfulness of Jesus). Without “faith” it is impossible to please God
(Heb. 11:6)? Without “faithfulness” it is
impossible to please God. We make a distinction between “faith” and “faithfulness”
because of translational complications we
should not be making.
Lying to Hide the Spies
By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the
spies in peace. (Hebrews 11:31)
Rahab is commended because she hid
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
Feature Article – Continued
these spies. Theologians are divided asking,
“Did she lie?” “Was it right for her to lie?”
But she is commended for what she did. I
do not personally see it as a lie, but that she
changed sides during a military conflict.
I see it as military disinformation. Others
may disagree, but I will relate a true story.
I knew a lovely lady named Loki Nussenbaum, a Jewish lady. She and one brother
lived in New York, but she has since gone to
the Lord. I knew her in Israel. She became
a believer at the age of fourteen and after
becoming educated she became a missionary to the Bantu tribe in Angola. She was a
remarkable woman who could speak Portuguese, French, Hebrew, Yiddish and German, but she could also speak Bantu, the native language of the bushmen to whom she
was a missionary for many years until the
communists took over Angola and kicked
the missionaries out. Loki was incredible.
Most of her family was murdered by the
Nazis, including her father, mother, little
sister and little brother. Loki and one brother escaped. They were smuggled by Christians from Belgium to Lausanne, Switzerland, at the age of thirteen, and a year later
she became a believer.
There were Christians in Switzerland
who told her to look at Romans 13, their
interpretation being that since politicians
are God’s ministers, Adolph Hitler was a
minister of God. They added that since lying was a sin, those who had lied to the Gestapo to smuggle her out had sinned. They
told her since she now had a Christian testimony, she needed to go back and give herself over to the Gestapo even though they
would put her in an oven. They actually told
her this! These were people who were too
heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.
(I guess they did not like James’ epistle either.) At the age of fourteen she was very
confused and actually contemplated doing
it. Thank God someone with some sense
got to her before she did so.
Rahab is spoken of very highly. She is a
role model for all of us. Let us see why King
David’s great-great grandmother is spoken
of so highly in the New Testament—this
Gentile who married into a Jewish family after coming to believe in the Jewish God and
was one of the people who was in the lineage
of David and in the pedigree of the Messiah Himself, bringing salvation to all of us.
Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two
men as spies secretly from Shittim,
saying, “Go, view the land, especially
Jericho.” So they went and came into
the house of a harlot whose name was
Rahab, and lodged there.
This was a smart move, really. Who
would ever think of looking for a couple of
nice Jewish boys in a whorehouse?
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
It was told the king of Jericho, saying,
“Behold, men from the sons of Israel
have come here tonight to search out
the land.” And the king of Jericho sent
word to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the
men who have come to you, who have
entered your house, for they have come
to search out all the land.” But the
woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, “Yes, the men
came to me, but I did not know where
they were from. “It came about when
it was time to shut the gate at dark…
(Shutting the gate, it is getting dark—
these are eschatological nuances.)
…that the men went out; I do not know
where the men went. Pursue them
quickly, for you will overtake them.”
But she had brought them up to the
roof and hidden them in the stalks of
flax which she had laid in order on the
roof. So the men pursued them on the
road to the Jordan to the fords; and as
soon as those who were pursuing them
had gone out, they shut the gate.
Now before they lay down, she came
up to them on the roof, and said to
the men, “I know that the LORD has
given you the land, and that the terror
of you has fallen on us, and that all the
inhabitants of the land have melted
away before you. “For we have heard
how the LORD dried up the water
of the Red Sea before you when you
came out of Egypt, and what you did
to the two kings of the Amorites who
were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and
Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When
we heard it, our hearts melted and no
courage remained in any man any
longer because of you; for the LORD
your God, He is God in heaven above
and on earth beneath. (Joshua 2:1-11)
(This pagan woman came to believe in
the true God.)
She Knew What She Was
Who is going to be saved? If we are here
at the time, who is going to be raptured?
Only people who know what they are.
Nobody has to tell a prostitute she is a
hooker. I was a cocaine addict in my teenage years; no one had to tell me I was strung
out and dealing drugs. Nobody has to tell a
pimp he is a pimp; people like that know
what they are. The most difficult people to
get saved, of course, are religious people.
Nobody has ever gone to heaven because of
religion, but many people—countless people, have gone to hell because of religion.
Rahab knew what she was. All have
sinned, all fall short of the glory of God
(Rom. 3:23). If we do not know we are morally bankrupt and spiritually abject before a
holy and perfect God, we cannot be saved.
Unless we know that we are no good, we
will not know how good He is; unless we
know that we cannot save ourselves and
desperately need Him to save us, we cannot get saved. Remember, the enemy gets
more people into hell with religion than all
the immorality, all the covetousness and all
the substance abuse put together. She knew
what she was.
She Knew Joshua Was Coming
She was not like Rick Warren who tells
us to avoid end-time prophecy. Fortunately
she listened to the Word of God; she did not
read the “Purpose Driven Lie.” She knew
Joshua was coming.
Even unsaved people have a sense that
human history is coming to some kind of
apocalyptic, catastrophic end. The Late,
Great Planet Earth was a superficial book
doctrinally, but many people were saved
through that book in the 1970s. Why? Because it did what Jesus said by preaching
the Gospel of the Kingdom (Mt. 24:14);
it used end-time prophecy to present the
Gospel. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 3:2). John the Baptist
preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. In
Matthew’s Gospel, He spoke three times as
much about hell as He did heaven. When
we use end-time prophecy, Yeshua says the
Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached.
It is the same Gospel of salvation, but it is
presented in a certain eschatological character; it is prophecy used to engage unsaved people.
Why are they going to fortune tellers,
the occult, horoscopes and all this garbage?
They want to know the future. Well, we
know the future. Use prophecy evangelistically. That is the only way to successfully
evangelize a post-Christian, neo-pagan,
post-modern world; not the Emergent garbage, not the Purpose Driven garbage, not
the Rob Bell garbage—the Word of God.
Do what Jesus said—use prophecy to engage unsaved people evangelistically.
She Knew God’s Divine Plan
for Israel
Thirdly, Rahab did not pay attention to
people like John Piper; she did not adhere
to Replacement Theology. She knew God
had a divine plan for Israel. She knew that
God’s prophetic agenda depended on His
prophetic agenda for Israel and the Jews.
Israel is a litmus test. If somebody is right
about Israel, it does not prove that they are
right about other things; there are plenty
of crazy people who understand that God
has a prophetic purpose for Israel. We have
people who lift up “Jewishness” instead of
“Jesus-ness” in the Messianic Movement,
Feature Article – Continued
putting Gentiles under the Law and all kind
of craziness. There are people like John
Hagee and International Christian Embassy
(ICE) saying Jews do not have to be evangelized. If somebody is right about Israel,
that does not prove that they are right about
other things; it is not that kind of a litmus
test. It is not a litmus test for orthodoxy, but
it is, however, a litmus test for heterodoxy.
I have never found a single preacher,
author, or theologian who is wrong about
Israel who is not wrong about other things.
If they deny the prophetic significance for
Israel and the Jews, we can bet our boots
they have other seriously wrong doctrine.
Being right about Israel does not prove they
are kosher, but being wrong about Israel
proves they are not kosher. Do not pay any
attention to them as they have nothing to
say that is worth listening to that cannot be
obtained elsewhere.
It is no wonder John Piper is pushing
Rick Warren; he was never any good. How
can an endorsement be given to someone
who says we must unite with Muslims and
Hindus and Buddhists to bring in global
peace? How can one promote someone
with an antichrist agenda unless they are
out to lunch to begin with? No one does
something so crazy overnight. It proves
something was always wrong. If they are
wrong about Israel, they are wrong about
other things.
The Temporal Work of Redemption
Rahab knew the divine plan, she also
knew the signs of the times, but she knew
something else, that redemption was not
only eternal, but temporal. When Jesus
died, He did die to save us from hell, and
he did die to bring us to heaven, but He
also redeemed us to do something in this
life and this world. It does not matter what
she did or what she was, it does not matter
what we did or what we were.
Before I emigrated to Israel, my church
in New York had a rescue mission to street
people, homeless people, alcoholics, drug
addicts and teenaged prostitutes; we would
rescue them. I never met a prostitute who
was not a professional liar. They lie to their
clients to pretend they like them—all they
see is green. They lie to their pimps about
how much they made (or not), and above
all they lie to themselves. One has to be a
liar to be a prostitute. So look at what Rahab did. When the authorities came looking
for the two Israelite spies, her human skills
were redeemed and transformed to be used
for God’s purpose.
When Bibles were not legal in China,
I used to smuggle them in. When Bibles
were not legal in Vietnam, I used to smuggle Bibles from Bangkok, Thailand into
Vietnam, and before that from Hong Kong
into China. Why? Because before I met Jesus I used to smuggle hashish from Toronto
into Amsterdam.
It does not matter what we did, it does
not matter what we are; it only matters if
we have been redeemed. God redeems the
whole person. It could be a professional
skill in medicine or law, it could be something from the humanities like writing or
music—it could be anything, even something sinister like a prostitute or a drug dealer from the East Side of Manhattan. It does
not matter what we did; it only matters if
we have been redeemed. Whatever it is, the
Lord is going to crucify the whole person.
He is going to take it to the cross, then He is
going to raise it up and use it for His glory.
That is the total meaning of “redemption.”
Remember that in Matthew 25, the gifts
are given in proportion to the talents. That
was some talent to have, but God used it.
Rahab understood redemption.
The Victory is Already Assured
“Now therefore, please swear to me by
the LORD, since I have dealt kindly
with you, that you also will deal kindly
with my father’s household, and give
me a pledge of truth, and spare my father and my mother and my brothers
and my sisters, with all who belong
to them, and deliver our lives from
death.”
(As we see in the Exodus narrative, as
we see in the Lot narrative, as we see in the
Noah narrative, God is in the business of
saving whole families.)
So the men said to her, “Our life for
yours if you do not tell this business of
ours; and it shall come about when the
LORD gives us the land that we will
deal kindly and faithfully with you.”
Then she let them down by a rope
through the window, for her house was
on the city wall, so that she was living
on the wall.
(Sounds like Paul in Damascus, does it
not?)
She said to them, “Go to the hill country, so that the pursuers will not happen upon you, and hide yourselves
there for three days until the pursuers
return. Then afterward you may go
on your way.” The men said to her,
“We shall be free from this oath to
you which you have made us swear,
unless, when we come into the land,
you tie this cord of scarlet thread in
the window through which you let us
down, and gather to yourself into the
house your father and your mother
and your brothers and all your father’s household. It shall come about
that anyone who goes out of the doors
of your house into the street, his blood
shall be on his own head, and we shall
be free; but anyone who is with you in
the house, his blood shall be on our
head if a hand is laid on him. But if
you tell this business of ours, then we
shall be free from the oath which you
have made us swear.” She said, “According to your words, so be it.” So
she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the
window.
(Notice that twice it is reiterated, “Do
not betray us” (Josh. 2:17, 20), and twice
it is reiterated, “Tie the scarlet cord” (Josh.
2:18, 21). It becomes emphatic when it is
repeated.)
They departed and came to the hill
country, and remained there for three
days until the pursuers returned. Now
the pursuers had sought them all along
the road, but had not found them. Then
the two men returned and came down
from the hill country and crossed over
and came to Joshua the son of Nun,
and they related to him all that had
happened to them. They said to Joshua, “Surely the LORD has given all
the land into our hands; moreover, all
the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us.” (Joshua 2:12-24)
Notice how the war is won even before
the battle is fought. In Christ, the victory
is already assured; the outcome is fixed in
eternity. Even Luther realized that truth before he went off his rocker. He composed,
“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”—“Christ
Jesus is He and He must win the battle.”
There is no other possibility. Yes, things
are tough and they are going to get tougher,
dark and getting darker, but do not worry,
I read the end of the Book, and in the end,
because of Jesus, we win. There is no other
possible outcome. The only question is
whose side we want to be on.
If we turn away from Jericho and turn toward the God of Israel, He will bring us into
His family, and bring us into His people,
and bring us into the lineage of the Messiah
the same as He did with Rahab. We either
perish with the kingdom that is fading, or
we become a patriarch or matriarch in the
Kingdom that is coming.
She Desired the Salvation of
Her Family
I suppose that because prostitutes see the
dark side of human nature for what it really
is, and they see the dark side of themselves
for what they really are, they know the depravity and depths to which a person can
sink. Perhaps that engenders strong family
values. Despite what she was and what she
did, she desperately desired the salvation of
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
Feature Article – Continued
her family.
After our own relationship with the Lord,
there is nothing more important in our lives
than the salvation of our loved ones. It is
more important than our own biological
lives. Rahab desired the salvation of her
family, and God desires the salvation of our
families. May they repent and believe.
She Switched Allegiances
Then she switched allegiances and joined
the other side.
Yes, things are getting very unpleasant
for Christians in the world, and I speak in
places where the Church is persecuted. I
was just with the Hmong people in Vietnam.
They are impoverished—and I mean really
poor. They are persecuted, and for the most
part they do not have any Bibles, yet their
churches are growing! They have nothing
to hope in, nothing to trust in except Jesus.
Their only hope for a better life and better world is the coming one. Remember, it
was Smyrna who was really rich (Rev.2:9),
and it was Laodicea, although materially
and financially rich, who was broke (Rev.
3:17). The Hmong people are Smyrna; we
are Laodicea.
Rahab desired the salvation of her family and she switched allegiances. Someone
who has switched allegiances and become
part of the invading army has no problem. It
is like Kaddafi, who was deposed as dictator of Libya. Who wanted to fight for him?
He couldn’t win. But it is specified, “Do
not go out” (Josh. 2:19). Just as it was with
Lot, it is an application of, “Forsake not the
fellowshipping together, one with another,
especially as you see the day approaching”
(Heb. 10:25).
She Was Told Not to Go Out & Not
to Betray
If we have a Bible-based church that is
centered on Christ with decent leadership,
we are very fortunate. But there are many
Christians in America, Australia, Britain
and elsewhere who do not have this. I find
more and more people meeting in homes
and small groups simply because they can
no longer find a biblically-based church
where they live. It does not matter if someone meets in a tent out in the middle of a
field, they must be in fellowship. If people
are out of fellowship with other believers,
it is because they are out of fellowship with
the Lord. If they are in prison for the faith
in Saudi Arabia, that is something different;
God will take care of them. But the norm?
He who separates himself seeks his
own desire, He quarrels against all
sound wisdom. (Proverbs 18:1)
When we see people who are chronically
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
out of fellowship with other believers, they
are actually out of fellowship with the Lord.
Some claim they do not go because the
church is filled with hypocrites. Well then,
they ought to fit right in. No matter what
they say, they quarrel against all sound wisdom. They are really seeking the desire of
their own nature.
They say, “I don’t need the church, I
have Jesus!” If that was true, they would
want to be in fellowship with other believers. They are quarreling against all sound
wisdom; they seek their own desire—they
lack sense. People who are out of fellowship in the last days put themselves in a
situation of tremendous peril. If we cannot
stand together, we will never stand alone.
“Do not go out!”
When people leave the church (I am not
saying a given congregation, but out of fellowship) they are going to backslide if they
have not done so already.
And twice it is reiterated, “Do not betray.” What did Jesus say was going to happen? “Many will fall away and betray one
another” (Mt. 24:10). This is happening already, but it is going to happen big time.
Just to begin with, let me tell you who is
going to betray us tomorrow: the ones who
tune into the idiot box and listen to Benny, Kenny and Joyce today. Those listening to the money preachers and their false
promise, “You don’t have to suffer! You’re
a King’s Kid! God wants you rich! Blabit-and-grab-it! Just confess the victory and
you won’t suffer!” When opposition and
trials come, they are going to be the first
ones to fall away, these people who listen to
those religious liars who have a lying spirit.
These money-preaching televangelists are
at the forefront of the false prophets Jesus
warned would come to deceive the elect in
the last days (Mt. 24:24). Do not pay attention to any of them.
She Hangs a Scarlet Cord
But there, finally, hanging in the window
of the room where Rahab gathered together
her family, the scarlet cord is found. And
here we are, all together where the scarlet
cord is. Our sins are like scarlet, but they
shall be white as snow (Is. 1:18)—the blood
of the paschal lamb.
In the house where I live in England, near
the suburbs of London, there is on the door
a “mezuzah”—the way the Torah is put on
the doorposts of a Jewish family’s house.
Then there is a sticker on the garage, “Jehovah’s Witnesses Welcome Here.” (I have
a great time when they come over, though
I have reason to believe I have been put on
their black list and they tell their people to
avoid me now.) But there is a third thing
I still have to get: I want to hang a scar-
let cord in the window. I have the sticker, I
have the mezuzah, but I must get a scarlet
cord. We all need a scarlet cord.
How did Rahab get rescued? Why was
she saved? Why did God bless her and use
her so much? Why did she become a matriarch and a role model of faith and faithfulness? How did she become memorialized
for all time in the Word of God and an ancestor to Jesus the Messiah Himself? How
did a Gentile prostitute reach this stature?
She was not just a shiksa, but a hooker to
boot! It is not how low we have been, but
how high we can go in Christ. She knew
what she was.
Conclusion
If you have never trusted Jesus for your
salvation, it is quite simple. Believe me,
you are not the only person who has sinned.
But even if you were, you are so important
to God and He loves you so much that He
would have come and been nailed to that
cross just for you alone personally. Jesus did
not die just for all of us, He died for each of
us; that is how important you are to God. The
price has already been paid. You are either
going to repent and ask Him to forgive you,
or you will spend eternity wishing you did.
Rahab knew what she was, that she was
no good. In and of myself, I am no good,
and I do not know who you are, but take
my word for it, the Scriptures say you are
no good. Once you realize that, we can get
someplace. In other words, if you want to
spend eternity in the Lake of Fire, a place
prepared for Satan and his angels (Rev.
20:10; 21:8), you do not have to be an upstanding member of society, you do not
have to be a priest, a rabbi or a liberal minister, you do not have to be a member of the
professional or business community, you
do not have to be an outstanding citizen to
go to hell, but it helps.
On the other hand, if you want to be
saved, you do not have to be a hooker like
Rahab, you do not have to be swindler or
crook, a cocaine addict like me or a drunk,
you do not have to be immoral, you do not
have to be a fornicator, you do not have to
be debauched or a gambler in order to go
to heaven, but it helps because at least you
know what you are. All have sinned, all fall
short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Rahab knew what she was.
Rahab knew Joshua was coming, and,
believe me, Joshua is coming! We can call
Him “Joshua,” we can call Him “Yehoshua,” we can call Him “Yeshua,” we can call
Him “Jesus,” but He is coming.
She knew that His coming depended on
God’s plan for Israel. Wise Christians still
know that. She knew the signs of the time and
we should know the signs of the time as well.
Feature Article – Continued
Her redemption was not just eternal,
it was temporal. Whatever we are, whatever our background, God wants to turn
it around and use it for His purpose and
our blessing in the salvation of others. He
takes all of us to the cross and crucifies our
good points as well as our bad. On the other
hand, He saves all of us; He saves our good
points and bad and uses it all for His purpose and redemption.
Rahab desired the salvation of her family. Every day and every time we think of
it, we need to be praying for the repentance
and salvation of our loved ones. There is
nothing more important than our own walk
with the Lord.
Rahab switched allegiances. We cannot
trust in this world and the world that is coming. We cannot trust in this fallen kingdom of
Satan and the Kingdom that is coming soon
to replace it. We have to make a decision—to
which kingdom does our allegiance belong?
“Do not go out!” Stay in fellowship with
others who believe the truth. One way to
think of a church that holds to the Word of
God is a lifeboat on a Titanic that is sinking. Remember, this is not a social club for
nice people; it is a rehab center for sinners.
“Do not betray!” Many will fall away and
betray one another (Mt. 24:10). Be wary of
those who follow false doctrines; they cannot be trusted. They may be Christians, they
may say they are born again, they may be
nice people, but if they are believing false
doctrines, following false teachers, do not
trust them.
But above all, get ahold of that scarlet
cord and hang it in the window. Though our
sins are like scarlet, in the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, they shall be white as snow.
God bless.
Jacob Prasch †††
S
She Hangs a
carlet Cord
Quotes of the QUARTER !
“He who believes in the Son
has eternal life; but he who
does not obey the Son will
not see life, but the wrath
of God abides on him.”
John 3:36
Creationist Headway in
Northern Ireland
UTV News
An exhibit in the new Giants’
Causeway Visitors’ Centre acknowledges the creationist view of how the
world-famous stones were formed.
The National Trust said it wanted
to “reflect and respect” the fact that
some people contest the views of
mainstream science.
Its state-of-the-art new complex,
which opened on Tuesday, features
an interactive audio exhibition showcasing the stories and the science behind the Giants’ Causeway.
It looks at the origins of the basaltic
columns on the Co Antrim coastline.
The trust said that the exhibit gives
recognition to the fact that, for creationists, the debate about the age
of the Earth is still ongoing.
A statement read: “The Giants’
Causeway has always prompted debate about how it was formed and
how old it is.
“One of the exhibits in the Giants’
Causeway Visitors’ Centre interpretation tells the story of the part the Giants’ Causeway played in the debate
about how the Earth’s rocks were
formed and the age of the Earth.
“This is an interactive audio exhibition in which visitors can hear some
of the different debates from historical characters.
“In this exhibition we also acknowledge that for some people, this debate continues today and we reflect
and respect the fact that creationists
today have a different perspective
on the age of the Earth from that of
mainstream science.”
The National Trust worked alongside the Caleb Foundation, which
represents mainstream evangelical
Christians in Northern Ireland, during the development of the centre.
Its chairman, Wallace Thompson,
said he is pleased with the result of
the engagement and the inclusion of
the creationist view.
“We have worked closely with the
National Trust over many months
with a view to ensuring that the new
Causeway Visitor Centre includes an
acknowledgement both of the legitimacy of the creationist position on
the origins of the unique Causeway
stones and of the ongoing debate
around this,” Mr Thompson said.
“We want to thank senior National Trust officials who have worked
closely with us over a prolonged period, and we are pleased that this
constructive engagement has helped
to bring about such a positive result.
“This is, as far as we are aware, a
first for the National Trust anywhere
in the UK, and it sets a precedent for
others to follow.”
Over 600,000 visitors come to see
the Unesco World Heritage Site every
year.
The £18.5m new centre, which
takes the form of an underground
complex with a sloping grass roof
hiding it from view, opened its doors
to the public some 11 years after the
previous one was destroyed in a fire.
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September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
Hebrew Teaching
Jacob Prasch
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a. midrash study
1. history of the church
a. christ’s teachings
b. apostolic teachings - paul
2. history of false teachings
a. gnostic
3. history of hellenistic teaching
4. midrash
a. jewish culture
b. how rabbi’s taught - paul
IIntroduction
R
ecently, a blogging match concerning my comments on the New Testament use of midrash sprung up
between believers who seriously study the
Word of God, and religious babblers who
mislead those who imagine themselves to
be the guardians of scriptural truth.
A wide array of conservative Evangelical
scholars has affirmed the use of midrashic
hermeneutics throughout the history of the
church. These theologians include John
Lightfoot, the 17th century English Puritan
who published a midrashic commentary
on the New Testament, to Bilderbeck and
Strauss, to more contemporary figures such
as T. Dockerty, E.E. Ellis, Richard Longnecker, Moises Silva and many others.
Midrashic hermeneutics was used by the
first-century Jewish Apostolic church from
the Sitz im Leben of Second Temple period
Judaism in the New Testament. Prophecyas-pattern, “pesher” interpretations, and
apocryphal typology are ways a growing cadence of conservative Evangelical
scholars account for the way in which the
New Testament handles the Old Testament.
10
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
This is seen in everything from the infancy
narrative formula (eg., the Matthew 2:15
pesher interpretation of Hosea 11:1, etc.),
to Paul’s parody of Sarah and Hagar in Galatians chapter 4, to the literary genre of the
epistle of Jude.
It is obvious that Jesus and His apostles,
being Jews, wrote not from a cultural vacuum but were divinely inspired to write
from the context of their own language and
culture. The Midoth of Rabbi Hillel that St.
Paul would have learned from his rabbinic
mentor Rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) are
evident throughout his epistles and in the
epistle to the Hebrews. In short, the New
Testament handles the Old Testament in the
same manner in which the Qumran Dead
Sea scrolls and the inter-testamental apocryphal I & II Maccabees and I & II Enoch
do. This responsively refutes the claims of
liberal theologians (such as Oxford Professor James Barr) who argue by grammaticalhistorical exegesis that the New Testament
is not to be taken literally because its apostolic authors did not handle Scripture in a
literal fashion.
In fact, it is not a misuse of midrash,
but the misuse of the grammatical-histori-
cal exegesis that the Reformers borrowed
from 16th-century humanism that gave
rise to higher criticism by theological liberals. A more recent attempt made by the
Anglican ultra-liberal John Shelby Spong
to argue that midrash negates literalism, is
automatically discredited as bogus and devoid of substance by the fact that the literal
‘peshet’ interpretation must be established
before the further ‘pesher’ meaning can be
determined. Spong’s very premise reveals a
fundamental ignorance. Moreover, in light
of the Qumran discoveries even traditional
Evangelical attempts to explain the New
Testament’s handling of the Old by conventional conservative Protestant exegesis (as in
the views of otherwise credible voices such
as Walter Kaiser whose overall ministry this
author endorses) cannot carry significant
weight in light of the Qumranic evidence.
Essentially, believers who are serious in
their approach to the Word of God focus on
what Scripture actually states concerning
midrash and not on later rabbis or subscribers to the doctrinal errors of replacement
theology debunked in Romans by Paul. Either of these extremes is erroneous.
There are multiple passages in the origi-
Jacob Prasch
nal Hebrew canon which are either called
“Midrash” or refer to it. Key examples,
which we shall explain, pertinent to the
Book of Revelation are as follows:
“Now the remainder of the deeds of
Abijah, and his ways and words are
written in the Midrash [vrim] of the
Prophet Iddo”. (2 Chronicles 13:22)
“As to his sons and many oracles
[burdens] against him, and the reconstruction of the House of God, behold
these are written in the ‘MIDRASH‘
[vrim] of the Book of Kings. Then
Amaziah his son became King in his
place”. (2 Chronicles 24:27)
Because the King James Version mistranslates the original term “Midrash” as
“Treatise”, some objectors reject the validity of the term midrash. These do not accept the scriptural teaching that the priority
belongs with the original meaning of the
original languages (Nehemiah 8:8). Their
authority is not with the intended meaning
of the original text, but with a 17th-century
post-Elizabethan English translation of a
translation (even though the KJV can be
readily documented to often deviate from
both the Masoretic and Textus Receptus
manuscripts it portends to follow). These
KJV-Only adherents are simply too ignorant to warrant any further consideration in
their absurd efforts to canonize a 1611 edition that quotes Apocrypha as Scripture and
lists Roman Catholic feast days of Mary as
sacrosanct. This is to say nothing of their
efforts to beatify King James, (son of the
Roman Catholic Mary Queen of Scots),
who persecuted born-again Christians. By
the accounts of secular historians (including Winston Churchill), King James was
corrupt and by common report a homosexual. These rejecters of Midrash are the
followers of the racist serial divorcee Peter
Ruckman, the proven fraud Gail Riplinger,
and the lunatic fringe conspiracy theorist
Texe Marrs. Others are simply too uninformed to know the term ‘midrash’ is even
found in God’s Word, yet they insist it be
ignored or expunged from Holy Writ.
Among the ranks of the opponents of
scriptural midrash are those who confuse
the scriptural teaching of midrash with the
later rabbinic midrashic writings produced
by Talmudic Judaism, which Moriel, this
author, and more importantly Jesus Christ,
denounced as a false religion. Talmudic
Judaism is no more the Judaism of Moses
and the Hebrew prophets than the Church
of Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy, or liberal
Protestantism are the Christianity of Jesus
and the apostles. It is not difficult to understand how sincere believers can be misled
by crackpots who do not know the original
languages or Judeo-Christian history, but
misrepresent themselves as having an expertise where they demonstrably have none.
To reject midrash—something found and
used in Scripture because later rabbis distorted it—makes no more sense than rejecting the meaning of the original languages
in favor of the KJV because the rabbis of
Talmudic Judaism and the Eastern church
fathers in the patristic era of the Greek Orthodox Church misinterpret the meaning
of the Greek and Hebrew. But such people
never make much sense. Since liberal Protestantism emerges from a hermeneutical
misuse of the grammatical-historical exegesis the Reformers used to re-identify the
Gospel in terms of justification by faith and
salvation by grace against the lies of papal
Rome, shall we reject literalist grammatical-historical exegesis?
We have demonstrated repeatedly in article after article and film clip after film clip
that we detest Gnosticism, mysticism, and
Talmudic Judaism and have shown repeatedly that the scriptural use of midrash has no
more to do with the later midrashic writings
of the rabbis than papal encyclicals have to
do with apostolic epistles. Let such foolish virgins cling to their oil-less lamps. We
need to fuel ours up for the coming night.
More problematic however are well intentioned academics with a scholarly perspective not framed by Scripture itself (which is
Hebraic), but by denominational traditions
and their respective systematic theologies
(which is Hellenistic). They confuse midrash with the ancient battle between the
Alexandrian School of theology that spiritualized texts out of context under the incipient influences of Gnosticism and Philo
and the more literalist Antiochian School.
Both of these schools emerged in the patristic age, but midrash was already in the
apostolic age long prior to Gentile theology
coming into the church. Fortunately, this
higher level of ignorance is fading due to
the Qumran discoveries and is giving way
to a renewed sense of Hebraic scholarship
championed by conservative scholars such
as James Charlesworth at Princeton University. Such serious academic theology however is not to be confused with the charlatanism and legalism that has defined too much
of the modern “Hebrew Roots’ movement.
Along a related line, to be co-equally ignored of course, are false teachers such as
vulgar-mouthed Mark Driscoll, and Rick
Warren, author of his ‘Purpose Driven Lie,’
both of whom defy the plain teaching of Jesus to be alert to prophetic events. Instead
they urge their followers to avoid studying eschatology and the return of Jesus. As
the truths in Scripture of the Last Days are
unsealed by the Holy Spirit, none of the
wicked will understand (Daniel 12: 4-11)
and the foolish virgins following such se-
Hebrew Teaching
ductive trash will have no oil in their lamps
and not realize it until it is too late (Matthew 25:1-13). Satan is working through
deceivers like Driscoll and Warren and
their supporters to set their followers up in
fulfillment of these prophetic warnings.
The third category of those to be avoided
are conspiracy theorists. For sure, no saved
Christian should be involved in Freemasonry and should be aware of the designs
of the Jesuits as agents of the Vatican, etc.
However, those consumed with such things,
instead of placing their emphasis where
Scripture does, are simply the same as secular conspiracy theorists who are borderline
psychotics, reframing their conjectures and
obsessions about the Illuminati and Freemasonry, etc. as, in their minds, “discernment ministry” or “end times prophecy”.
Any not subscribing to their fancifully concocted scenarios become suspect of being
party to the conspiracy. As we warn on our
recorded teaching, “The Four Sons of Isaiah,” the confident determinations of these
sad, yet often well intentioned clowns are
not to be paid any attention to by God’s
people (Isaiah 8:12). They waste their time
dwelling on speculative matters Scripture
does not teach, but under-emphasize what
Scripture does stress.
Having by way of preface noted these
realities, let us examine the inductive basis
for the use of midrashic hermeneutics in the
book of Revelation in order to understand
the interpretation.
THE BASIS OF MIDRASH IN THE BOOK
OF REVELATION
No theological commentator of any persuasion has ever declined to recognize that
the literary character of the Book of Revelation draws on Old Testament themes
and motifs more than any other New Testament book, rivaling or arguably exceeding that of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The
images and narratives of Genesis, Exodus,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zechariah, Joel,
Zephaniah, and above all, verse-by-verse
in Ezekiel, are recycled in every pericopae
of the New Testament Apocalypse. Indeed,
although no chapter divisions occur in the
original canon, every chapter of Revelation
contains some reference, allusion, or citation from the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel.
From a purely literary as opposed to doctrinal avenue of consideration, the Book of
Revelation is much closer to the Old Testament in its genre. This however reflects
a doctrinal dimension. Specifically, when
the ‘Time of the Gentiles’ closes, the age
of the predominantly Gentile church ends,
culminating with the episunagoge (rapture
and resurrection) after the age of grace concludes and God once again refocuses His
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
11
Hebrew Teaching – Continued
prophetic agenda mainly on Israel and the
Jews. Thus, God begins to again deal with
Israel and the nations as He did in the old
covenant; that is in His wrath and correction of His own people unrepentant Israel
and the Jews. The shift in literary genre
back to an Old Testament literary structure
and character matches the divine reversion
back to Israel. The church as such no longer exists after chapter 3. This is not however to place the parousia at that point (this
author places that between the 6th and 7th
seals). Neither does it deny that the Book
of Revelation was written primarily for
the church to understand and prepare for
the future. It indeed descriptively predicts
what will transpire concerning unbelieving
Israel, but it is not written mainly for Israel
(apart from the remnant of Jews who will
turn to Christ during the time of Jacob’s
trouble’). Yet clearly the eschatological
emphasis in the Book of Revelation goes
from being ecclesia-centric (concentrated
on the church) to Judeo-centric (concentrated on the unbelieving Jews) and the
switch in literary genre underscores and
characterizes this transformation in God’s
prophetic dealings.
Even more acute from a literary perspective, however, is the Book of Revelation’s
kindred textual character to the inter-testamental apocryphal books of I & II Enoch,
the books of Maccabees, and the Septuagint
(LXX) translation of Old Testament apocalyptic books such as Daniel, Zechariah, and
Ezekiel. The Intertestamental Period and
Hasmonean periods witnessed the development of apocalyptic concepts in Hebraic
thought and saw the combination of Hebrew eschatological theology with Greek
apocalyptic forms, minus the pagan mythology or where it was transformed into
the Greek language descriptions of Old
Testament concepts.
Examples of this are features from the
Hebrew TENAK (Torah, prophets and
writings) that were related by terminology
borrowed from Hellenistic eschatology
such as sheol becoming hades, “Destroyer”
becoming “Apollyon,” and in the Book of
Daniel, the citation of animals popularly
understood even in Greco-Roman culture
to be metaphoric of political empires. The
similarities and differences (apart from the
obvious monotheism) between Hebraic and
Hellenistic apocalyptic is a massive subject
in its own right beyond the parameters of
this article. However, what we have in the
Book of Revelation in essence is Old Testament Hebrew apocalyptic literature in
genre translated into the Greek language
written mainly for the church.
We must note as believers that “all Scripture was written for us”, but “all Scripture
was not written to us.” Hebrews, the Epistle
12
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
of James, 1 & 2 Peter, Jude, John’s Gospel,
and to a large degree Matthew’s Gospel and
portions of Romans and Galatians, were all
written to Jews, and it is essential for us to
grasp this consideration in our reading and
study of those books in order to properly
comprehend under the illumination of the
Holy Spirit what the content of those books
means for us. Unless we comprehend what
the content meant for the Jews to whom it
was written, we are handicapped in correctly determining its precise meaning for
us in Christ, be we Jew or non-Jew.
The Book of Revelation however goes
well beyond this, although it is written to
the church at large consisting of both Jew
and non-Jew. While it is imperative we
avoid the errors of Marcionism (misreading
it as a radical difference between the God
of the Old Testament and The God of The
New) and hyper-dispensationalism (seeing the Book of Revelation as part of the
Old Testament), from a literary viewpoint
it must be read as we would read a Greek
translation of The Old Testament yet retaining the awareness that the promised Messiah has already come but is coming again.
Most of these simply draw on Old Testament references in Revelation and focally
employ two of the seven midoth used by Paul
in his epistles acquired from the School of
Hillel, ‘Binyan Ab M’Shna Ketubim’ (deriving an interpretation from the principle
that the same terms or points used by relating two kindred texts apply to all scriptural
texts having the same terms and points) and
Binyan Ab M’ Katub Achad (an interpretation where the principle meaning of terms
in one text carries the same consideration
in others texts having the same terms and
points). The other five midoth are used in
Revelation to a lesser degree. These midoth
existed from the early scribal era associated with the ktav tradition of the Hebrew
prophet Ezra in the post captivity restoration
period but were not codified and formally
formulated until the time of Rabbi Hillel,
the grandfather of Paul’s tutor Gamaliel.
Once again, the ignorant spout religious
clichés about Paul counting all things as
waste after coming to faith in Christ. They
are too unlearned to read the context that
he was speaking of efforts to be justified by
his own righteousness under the Torah, not
about his background. In the New Testament he spoke of himself in the Greek text
in the present continuous active as still being a “Pharisee of the Pharisees,” not as in
trying to be justified by the law but in terms
of what a Pharisee meant from the Hebrew
infinitive ‘L’ Paresh’, that is ‘one who interprets.’ He continued to ‘L’Paresh’ after
salvation—that is to say Paul continued to
interpret the Word of God, and his use of
midoth is evident throughout his writings.
Others likewise cite Jesus’ warnings from
Matthew 23 “Woe unto you Scribes and
Pharisees,” omitting that Jesus also said, “I
will send you scribes” (Hebrew scholars).
Whenever addressing issues concerning
midrashic content in the New Testament,
it is essential to filter out the background
noise of the ignorant babblers who misdirect others because they do not know what
they are talking about.
The other recurrent midrashic feature
permeating the Book of Revelation is the
Peshet (straightforward grammatical-historical literal or simple meaning speaking
of one event) and its pesher (applied further
meaning to a future prophetic event.)
We see the Exodus judgments on Egypt
(still commemorated in the Paschal Haggadah) recapitulated globally in the Book
of Revelation: blood, darkness, frogs, etc.
We see Ezekiel’s marking with the tav from
Ezekiel 9:4-6 in a pesher interpretation in
Revelation 7:3. Joel’s four invasions of
locusts representing the four Babylonian
invasions as the peshet find their pesher in
Revelation 9 as the demon cohorts of hell.
No place is pesher interpretation more
conspicuously important in the Book of
Revelation than in the eschatological recycling of Pharaoh and his magicians (identified by Paul and by Jewish historical writings as Jannes and Jambres) counterfeiting
the miracles of Moses and Aaron as the
antichrist and false prophet will counterfeit the miracles of Jesus and His witnesses
in Revelation 13. Paul places an eschatological contrast on Pharaoh’s magicians using “Binyan Ab M’Shna Ketubim” in his
teaching on the Last Days in 2 Timothy
3:8. Paul tells us this will transpire again
eschatologically and so, alas, in Revelation
13 we see it happening.
The content of the ‘Midrash of Iddo’ (2
Chronicles 13:22, 2 Chronicles 24:27) is
hinted at or referred to various times in other
Old Testament passages revealing its content. This was known in the early church,
even into the patristic era, as in Questions
Hebraica by Jerome and is noted in the historical record by Flavius Josephus (Antiquities VIII .8,5).These cite the words (dvarim)
of Iddo in relation to 2 Chronicles 12:15.
Of stronger note eschatologically however is the closing reference to Iddo’s visionary writings in 2 Chronicles 9:29. It is
in this passage, and in its synoptic parallel
in 1 Kings10, that the total number of the
beast, 666, is used four times in connection
with backslidden Solomon. It is used twice
for the weight value of gold and twice in the
architectural design of Solomon’s throne.
In total, the number of the beast is used for
backslidden Solomon more than with any
other figure in Scripture (we examine this
phenomenon in some depth in the book
Your Letters and QUESTION:
First I want to tell you, we have never
enjoyed a DVD as much as the Daniel ProjComments
ect. Very informative. We watch it over and
Letters & Comments
Shadows of The Beast). What is keynote in
the account of Iddo’s version of these 666
events, however, is that it is called a chazon
or vision. The Hebrew name of the Book of
Revelation is not the Greek Apokalypsis but
the Chazon—that is, the “Vision” of John.
Thus, in the original language text we have
a plain link of midrash and understanding
666 (“Let he who has wisdom count the
number of the beast”).
To be sure, Gematria (Greco Hebrew
alpha numerics), and a panorama of other
places where the number 666 is found in
Scripture, among other considerations, are
vital to arriving at a proper understanding
of the exact meaning of this number of a
man which the Holy Spirit will disclose to
the faithful believers at the appropriate hour
(again, these issues are addressed in detail
in Shadows of the Beast). But God’s Word
directly and overtly links midrashic interpretation to identification of the antichrist
whether the ignorant critics of New Testament uses of midrash approve of it or not.
The fact that such misguided figures
with their illiteracy in Greek and Hebrew,
and their confusing of the midrash found in
Scripture with later rabbinic convolutions
of it, is irrelevant. God has placed midrash
in His Word and He has done so for a reason whether they agree with Him for doing
so or not.
Of all the books of God’s Word, an understanding of midrashic hermeneutics in
apostolic exegesis will prove no place more
crucial than in deciphering the correct interpretation of the Book of Revelation.
J. Jacob Prasch
(Moriel)
ok
the bo
d
n
a
h
s
“Midra evelation”
of r
a. midrash study
1. history of the church
a. christ’s teachings
b. apostolic teachings - paul
2. history of false teachings
a. gnostic
3. history of hellenistic teaching
4. midrash
a. jewish culture
b. how rabbi’s taught - paul
“Now the remainder of the deeds of
Abijah, and his ways and words are
written in the Midrash of the Prophet Iddo.” 2 Chronicles 13:22
“As to his sons and many oracles
[burdens] against him, and the reconstruction of the House of God,
behold these are written in the ‘MIDRASH‘ of the Book of Kings. Then
Amaziah his son became King in his
place.” 2 Chronicles 24:27
ficiently familiar to comment on the work
of AG Roth. I trust this helps.
AMERICAN LETTERS
QUESTION:
The Aramaic English NT by AG Roth is the
new craze amongst Messianic believers. The
translation looks spurious. I read a portion of
1 Peter from it – a bit dicey. As far as I know,
no Aramaic copies of the NT have been authenticated. Please advise.
REPLY:
Thank you for your question.
The earliest Syriac / Aramaic New Testament texts we have are translated from Greek.
There are no existing Aramaic originals.
If there were they were burned by the
Moslems in Lebanon when they torched
the Christian libraries in the 8th century.
The closest text we have to the Aramaic
(Hebrew dialect of Chaldee) spoken by Jesus would be the Peshita text which is not a
New Testament.
There is however an academic value in
the scholarly sense of comparing the oldest Syriac manuscript copies we have from
various scriptoriums with both the Greek
NT text and the Hebrew NT text of Franz
Delitzche. This however is a scholarly pursuit in the domain of a rather select group
of academics and requires a very high level
competence of the ancient languages and
even in this realm of expertise, the experts
themselves are not infrequently divided.
We have around 20,000 NT fragments
and codexes and nearly all are in Greek,
not Aramaic. Despite the unsubstantiated
and often hyper speculative and conjectured claims of the Jerusalem School of
Synoptic Research (JSSR) of David Bivin,
Joe Frankovick, Roy Blizzard etc., except
for a historical reference from Heggispus in
the patristic era claiming Matthew’s gospel
was originally composed in Hebrew (which
may have meant Hebrewised Aramaic),
the overwhelming bulk of manuscript, historical, and linguistic evidence supports
the New Testament as having been written
mainly in Koine Greek.
One book you may wish to consider in
this regard is “The Reliability of The New
Testament Manuscripts” by FF Bruce. While
I myself no longer value him much as a
theologian, some excellent work was in
the past done in this area by Craig Blohmberg. This is a massive and complex area
of scholarship, but much of what is being
bantered about these days is often not even
scholarly. Hyper Messianic crackpots and
charlatans abound. I am not however suf-
over again, as it is a great witnessing tool.
One question... we noticed Jeremy Hitchen, appeared to be reading from notes or
note book.
We had a problem with Ezekiel 45 vr 12,
when we looked to the Bible, it mainly talks
about the shekel as weights and measurements, nothing that we read mentioned it be
re-established as a coin. Could you explain
this to us as an end time prophecy. Thank
you so much
Pat
REPLY:
Greetings in Jesus from Singapore,
The second half of Ezekial’s book is prophetic of the future inclusive of eschatology and the millennial reign of Christ as well
as addressing circumstances of the author’s
own era. These aspects however are beyond
the focus of the Daniel Project.
In Hebrew, (both ancient and modern
Hebrew) the term for money and silver
are the precise same word - “ casef” and
the monetary valuation is detemined by
weight. The equivelant of cents or pence is
the subdivision by weight denominated into
“agarot” ( used in the old Israeli currency
priort the sheqal in 1980 and new sheqal
in use today) drawn from the scriptural
term ‘gerah’ found in the text of Ezekial
45:12 which has as its synonym “mina”.
The colloquial Hebrew term for pocket
change (coinage) is “garushim” from the
same root word.
In the original Hebrew text it makes perfect sense; weight and cash value are the
same. But even in a good English translation
it is clear enough. There was a problem in
the ‘ Sitz im Leben ‘ (historical and cultural
context and setting ) of Ezekial 45 where illicit expropriation was taking place (Ezek.
45: 9) in both metallic currency and in the
busheling of grain ( see also Amos 8:5) by
over valuating units of measurement by subtracting from content as defined by weight.
I trust this answers your question. There
is no distinction in the original Hebrew
text between monetary value and metallic /
avoribus weight. It appears you are misunderstanding the translation or are perhaps
reading an inaccurate translation. I am away
in Asia and your e mail was forwarded to me.
I am afraid I cannot respond further at present . Suffice to say however that our priority must always be on the original meaning
of the original languges (Nehemiah 8:8).
In Jesus, JJP/ Moriel
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
13
Moriel South Africa
Dear Friends and Family,
We hope we find you blessed and running the race in our Lord Jesus.
Please make note of our new postal address. We managed to rent a post office box
in the village after all this time. So here it is:
Moriel Missions South Africa
PO BOX 210,
Napier 7270,
Western Cape, South Africa
Just a week or so ago we took possession of our Kombi, a VW Caravel. Straight
away we put it to good use by organizing a
trip down to Cape Peninsula and staying at
Protea Cape Castle Hotel near the VA Waterfront. This gave a great schooling opportunity for the children; able to see so many
places gave them a good insight into what a
diverse and beautiful place South Africa is.
We took them to see:
Butterfly world
World of Birds
Two Oceans aquarium
Blue bus tour of the peninsula
Along with this was a beautiful trip
through Frenchoek and the Huguenot monument, a trip to the Cinema, some really nice
meals on the waterfront plus many treats.
The kids would like to thank everyone
concerned for helping us make this happen
for the children. They were really amazed
at the things they saw, from the statues of
Bartholomew Diaz to the diverse flora and
fauna of the area.
MUGGED BY MONKEYS
Yep, just for a laugh I put this in. While
in ‘Monkey World’ I was set upon by a
14
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
David Royle
troop of small yellow Monkeys who managed to get away with a cell phone, glasses
and bus tickets. When they found out they
could not eat them they gave them back
quickly enough but it was a bit worrying
having them going through my pockets;
they were so fast.
During this time it gave opportunity to
witness to a few people. The kids are a natural conversation opener as we went into
restaurants and bought tickets. I have exchanged contact details with two especially. Please pray for them both, Reggie and
Miguel a young man from Argentina. I will
be following up with them shortly.
Healthwise, for the children it’s been a
mixed bag. Paulina had to make yet another
trip to the Doctor for more antibiotics. Her
foot had a deep hole in it due to an abscess
that had gotten infected and it was having
difficulty in closing and healing.
ARV medication also compounds the
mental faculties of some of the children,
particularly Jo and Peewee. However, we
are also seeing certain similar traits with
N’tombi as she grows. We really do not
know how all this will end or what the prognosis is concerning their development. Mental health support in this area is not readily
available, so we ask your prayers on this.
Please also pray for prudence who begins college in Hermanus late August. This
is a great opportunity for her to develop her
skills in the food and wine industry and we
are thankful for Bartho and Sune who have
established the college for the Bursary that
is enabling her to pursue a career.
ITEMS FOR PRAYER
•Thank you Lord for your goodness and Mercy
• Thank you Lord for your provision
• Give us Lord our daily bread
• Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Syria
• Please pray for Moriel missionaries all over
the world • Please uphold the garbage dump children in
the Philippines • Please pray alongside us for inroads for the
Gospel • For all our administrators and our workers
worldwide • For Jacob as he is in the middle of a grueling
world tour
• For David Lister who organizes him in the
USA • For the Mount of Olives Project and the finances to complete it
• For the sale of our properties in Gauteng
• For Prudence and her studies
• For Bill Randles as he comes in December
TEACHING
In the last newsletter we began a look at
Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ,
Latter-day Saints (LDS). It’s an important
issue because many evangelicals are unaware that this group is a cult with a different
gospel and a different Jesus. With the USA
elections due in November it is conceivable
that a Mormon president could be elected.
This will in the long term have ramifications
for the country with a push for polygamy
by the LDS and the inclusion of the LDS
among the mainstream churches with little
compromise to their own belief system.
After all Mitt Romney has already been to
the Southern Baptist convention and visited
Jerusalem. The cult had senior evangelicals
speaking and Christian musicians such as
Michael Card performing at their Temple.
The following website link I submit to
David Royle
you as former Reachout trust representative
in South Africa to give insight into this cult.
Not only is it informative but also offers
insights into witnessing to LDS members
and other resources that can be obtained
through Reachout trust in the UK.
One final word: David Lister, who like
me is a board member of Moriel, has been
a missionary to the Mormon people for
many years. He once told me that the burning in the bosom the Mormons experience
which comes to mind whenever they are
cornered by questions they cannot answer
is probably demonic in nature. Then the
possibility is that if Mitt Romney gains the
presidency of the USA, they would have
a demonically oppressed if not possessed
man leading the country.
A Mormon or a closet Muslim at the helm
of the most powerful nation on Earth is something that should concern the whole church.
A difficult decision for the voters in the USA.
Other resources including, Book of Mormon vs DNA, the Bible vs Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith vs the Bible are
available through our USA Office
Please look at the index on the link carefully, you can also download articles for
printing. “http://www.reachouttrust.org/articlesMormons.php”
TRUE FELLOWSHIP – Pt. 2
1 John 1: 1 – 10
“That which was from the beginning,
that which we have heard, that which
we have seen with our eyes, that which
we beheld, and our hands handled,
concerning the Word of life (and the
life was manifested, and we have seen,
and bear witness, and declare unto
you the life, the eternal life, which was
with the Father, and was manifested
unto us); that which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you also, that
ye also may have fellowship with us:
yea, and our fellowship is with the
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ:
and these things we write, that our joy
may be made full. And this is the message which we have heard from him
and announce unto you, that God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with
him and walk in the darkness, we lie,
and do not the truth: but if we walk
in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship one with another, and
the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us
from all sin. If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us. If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and righteous to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have
not sinned, we make him a liar, and his
word is not in us.”
If you remember last time we looked at
part one in this three part series of fellowship,
we looked at the word for ‘fellowship’ itself
and how God has called us, not unto superficial relationships but relationships which
have a depth of quality about them. Today
we are continuing by asking two questions;
In what do we have fellowship?
With whom do we have fellowship?
But I think that it’s important, first of all,
to remind ourselves of Vines definition of
fellowship, or ‘koinonia,’ so we can have a
platform to build upon as we discuss these
areas. Vine says ‘koinonia’ is ‘communion,
fellowship, sharing in common, that which
is the outcome of fellowship, a contribution.’
So with this in mind, what does the Word
of God say we must have fellowship in?
First of all in Ephesians 3:8–9 Paul says
“to make all men see which is the fellowship (koinonia) of the Mystery.” And it’s a
Mystery which Paul says is from the beginning of the world. So in fact God’s plan for
this mystery stretched before the foundations of the world; and what is that mystery? I believe in using the term mystery,
Paul links us to Colossians 1:27 “To whom
God would make known what is the riches
of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory.” Christ in us, the mystery, that
through the power of the Holy Spirit, God
has made his tabernacle with man. Christ in
us, our hope and glory. Christ in us, which
brings a hope of a future kingdom, and yet
because Christ is in us, also a sense that in
part the kingdom has already come.
Let me ask, have you, have we, fellowship in the Mystery today? Is Christ in us, in
you; the only hope, the only glory? You see
‘The Mystery,’ Christ in us, is a test to see
if we are in the faith, Lets look at 2 Corinthians 13:5. “Try your own selves, whether
ye are in the faith; prove your own selves.
Or know ye not as to your own selves, that
Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed ye be
reprobate.” Are we having fellowship in
the Mystery? Is Christ in you? Do you pass
or fail the test? Are we in the Faith?
What else do we have fellowship in?
Philippians 1:4–5 says “Your fellowship
(koinonia – participation) in the Gospel.”
So what’s Paul saying here? According
to Lightfoot, throughout this Epistle Paul
thanks the Church for their practical aid towards the Gospel, but not only for time and
the effort put in. According to Lightfoot
the Greek is very specific, the prefix before
‘koinonia’ denotes the object, in terms of
money paid in. So in other words Paul’s
fellowship with the Gospel denotes financial fellowship to help with its propagation,
not only did they put in the effort, they contributed to the cost. Let me ask, how is our
Moriel South Africa
fellowship in the Gospel today?
What else do we have fellowship in?
Philippians 3:10: “that I may know him,
and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death.” The fellowship of
His sufferings! So often we focus on the
“Power”, the ‘dunamis’ of the Spirit. So
often the Church focuses on the miracles,
healings, tongues and prophecy but in the
context of scripture the Church is focusing
on the wrong things. We forget and neglect
the fellowship of suffering. We forget about
being conformed to His death because suffering and death are not popular doctrines
to a church that sees itself as victoriously
triumphant, kings kids and heirs to the
anointing. Ralf Martin in his commentary
said that “The Apostles represented Christ
so completely, that there was an expectation to share in the cost.” Are we willing to
share in the cost today? Are we willing to
share in the fellowship of His suffering so
that we may know Him and the power of
His resurrection? Because we cannot have
one without the other! Or is there no cost to
our present fellowship?
So we’ve seen what we have communion, fellowship, a sharing in common in,
so who do we have fellowship with? We
saw last time that Koinonia was exhibited
in the early Church in Acts 2: 42. Scripture
goes on by saying in 2 Corinthians 8: 4 that
we have fellowship in the ministering to
the saints. Galatians 2: 9 says that it is good
to give the right hand of fellowship to fellow workers for the gospel’s sake. But all
this fellowship though, great and good as
it is, is technically man centred. What we
must understand is that although fellowship
can be man centred it cannot be complete
unless it is focused on the Tri-unity of the
Godhead. God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit.
So let’s first look at fellowship in the
Spirit. Philippians 2:1. “If there is therefore
any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation
of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any
tender mercies and compassions,” So why
do we need the fellowship of the Spirit?
Firstly because, according to Philippians
2: 2 in the NASB, the Spirit brings unity.
He makes us of one accord.
Secondly, The Spirit leads us into all
Truth as we see in John 16: 13.
Thirdly, The Spirit points us only to Jesus. John 16: 14.
If we want or desire to be united, then
we need the fellowship of the Spirit. If we
want to be led into all Truth, then we had
better have fellowship with the Spirit. If we
want fellowship with Jesus, then fellowship with the Spirit is needed. And if you
haven’t fellowship in the Spirit today, you
cannot be saved because we need the Spirit
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
15
Moriel South Africa – Continued
to reveal and glorify the Son, as well as to
convict of sin.
Secondly, we have fellowship with the
Son. 1 Corinthians 1:9. “God is faithful,
through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We have to have Koinonia with the Son
for the following reasons. As the passage
says, ‘Jesus is Lord.’ Why is He Lord? Because the Father has made Him so. Turn to
1 Corinthians 15:20-28 it says for “But now
hath Christ been raised from the dead, the
firstfruits of them that are asleep. For since
by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam
all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive. But each in his own order: Christ the
firstfruits; then they that are Christ’s, at
his coming. Then cometh the end, when he
shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even
the Father; when he shall have abolished
all rule and all authority and power. For he
must reign, till he hath put all his enemies
under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
abolished is death. For, He put all things
in subjection under his feet. But when he
saith, All things are put in subjection, it is
evident that he is excepted who did subject
all things unto him. And when all things
have been subjected unto him, then shall
the Son also himself be subjected to him
that did subject all things unto him, that
God may be all in all.”
He shall put down all rule and authority.
He shall deliver the Kingdom to God.
He must reign till all enemies are under
His feet.
He shall have all things subject to Him.
And Acts 4:12 says, “And in none other
is there salvation: for neither is there any
other name under heaven, that is given
among men, wherein we must be saved.”
Jesus is Lord! He is salvation. If we do not
have fellowship with the Son, in the very
real sense of the Word, we are in danger
of coming to Him in these last hours and
saying “Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in
your name, cast out demons in your name,
perform miracles in you name” – And because we had not ‘koinonia’, no fellowship,
nothing in common with Him, He will say
“I never knew you, depart from Me you
who practice lawlessness.” Think of the
horror of that situation. “I never know you.”
Notice He didn’t say, “You never did works
for me, you never evangelized for me, you
never tithed to me.” “I never knew You”!
You see it’s about fellowship, it’s about relationship, it’s about communion with Jesus
as your Saviour, ‘koinonia’ with our Lord.
Thirdly, because we have fellowship
with the Spirit, because we have fellowship
with Jesus, we can have fellowship with the
Father. 1 John 1:1-3: That which was from
the beginning, that which we have heard,
16
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
David Royle
that which we have seen with our eyes, that
which we beheld, and our hands handled,
concerning the Word of life (and the life
was manifested, and we have seen, and
bear witness, and declare unto you the life,
the eternal life, which was with the Father,
and was manifested unto us); that which we
have seen and heard declare we unto you
also, that ye also may have fellowship with
us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ:
Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father,
interceding as our advocate, so we can
come before the Father and be reconciled
through His precious blood and have fellowship. Why do we need to be reconciled?
Because we as human beings were lost in
our Sin and the Father is a Holy God; and
not just Holy… But as Isaiah says in chapter 6 ‘Holy, Holy, Holy.’ The Father is Holy,
the Son is Holy, the Spirit is Holy. Holiness
is the very nature of His being.
And a Holy God required the payment
of our Sin and He knew works could not
cover the debt or the sacrifice of animals.
He needed a perfect sacrifice that no human
being could pay. And so in His love, in His
mercy, in His justice, He sent Him who was
most precious to Him, His only begotten
Son, Yehsua. You see Genesis 1:26 says,
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
When we see the tri-unity of the Godhead,
we see all that is balanced, wholesome and
lovely in perfect harmony and perfect fellowship. And He created us for fellowship
too so that we may have fellowship with
Him. From the beginning, that was the way
it was meant to be and now through Jesus,
God sees us as restored, reconciled with
Him if we are in Christ today. And what
fellowship we can have and will have with
Him because He is holy, because He is the
creator, because He is omniscient, omnipresent, He holds the universe together and
yet, as Psalm 8 says, He is mindful of us’.
And as John 3:16 says, He loves us so much.
Fellowship, Koinonia, with the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit and yes, even
us too. That we should have communion, a
sharing together with them that we may grow
to be more and more like Jesus everyday.
Are we really in fellowship? Are we ready
for fellowship? Do you now understand
the depth of fellowship God called us too?
Let me conclude. In Genesis where it all
began, God spoke forth His creation and on
every level He said “it is good,” the earth,
the trees, the seas, the sun, the moon. But
when He looked at Adam, He said, “it is
not good that the man should be alone, I
will make a helper for him,” in the Hebrew
a counter balance. Marriage was the second fellowship created, the first was with
God Himself. The next was with families
as the man and woman had children. You
see koinonia rings us balance, koinonia
keeps us stable, koinonia draws us closer
to each other and to God. Do you deserve
Koinonia? Isn’t it funny that since the fall,
and particularly within these days, our relationship with God, within marriages and
with families, the first three created are
ever more being attacked, ruined, decimated by the father of lies. Why? Because
Satan understands more than us the effect
koinonia has. So He wants to your this assembly. He wants to ruin our marriages. He
wants to ruin the relationship between father, son, mother daughter, brother, sister. I
have recently been investigating the attack
on marriage by homosexuals and Liberals
with their insistence on the normality of
same sex union. Our cowardly backslidden
government allowing children as young as
five to be groomed for sex changes when
they are older. Satan is at work world wide
and it seems at this time he is winning the
battle for our families.
Next time we will look at who we should
not fellowship with and the barriers to fellowship along with the issues of marriage
and families. But maybe right now you are
beginning to recognize the importance of
deep fellowship with the triune God. And
maybe you are recognizing that there are
obstacles in its way. And if that’s the case,
are we going to do something about it?
May it never be that some of us may one
day hear these words “I never knew you.”
But also, you may recognize right now, that
old Cloven Hooves, has been pitter pattering around your assembly. Even worse that
through his lies and half truths he has been
waging war on your marriage, on your family. In that case, again, what are you going
to do about it? Are you just going to give
in? Are you going to ignore it? Or are you
going to fight for your son or daughter?
Fight for you husband or wife? Fight for
that person in the assembly?
How do you fight? Well those who have
been around the block once or twice know
how he works. First of all he uses our pride.
“I won’t say sorry.” “I won’t make the first
move.” “I’m right, they’re wrong” Sound
familiar? Then he uses our rebellious nature - even when we know what the word
says, we say “Why should I humble myself?” “Why should I have to go that extent?” Sound familiar? Isn’t it funny that
pride and rebellion are the best things that
Satan does next to lying.
Fellowship with God.
Do you have fellowship with the Spirit today?
Do you have fellowship with the Son today?
Paul Sevilla
Moriel Philippines
Do you have fellowship with the Father today?
If not put it right. What about your fellowship, the relationships with the ones you
love? Do you have fellowship with your
brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you have
fellowship with your husband or wife? Do
you have fellowship with your parents and
children?
If not, you have the opportunity ‘TODAY’ to put that right. Let’s not do things
Satan’s way and give into lies, give into rebellion, give into pride! But give in to God
and restore fellowship. Dave Royle
Western Cape Moriel Fellowship
Dear friends and family, some sad news. . .
Lyn and I got some sad news the other day.
One of the children that we nursed for a couple of years ‘Letty’ went to be with the Lord.
She would have been 17 this month.
Letty because of her small brain syndrome,
blindness and epilepsey was a real character.
She loved singing at church and usually put
the preacher off his step, I think Jacob and I
can testify to that. But when singing Hymns
it was amazing how her face used to change
and she would raise her hands as if to grasp at
something that we could not see.
Letty’s life was tough, found in a tent in
a Joberg Park she became entrenched in the
care system and was woefully thin, so thin she
could not walk. However, Lyn and I decided
to take her back to Ebyown for a few years,
where she met Jacob, and spent her time fattening up and learning to walk. The carers
who worked for us did a fantastic job and her
epilepsy was controlled wonderfully. Bless
Victoria and Julie for their wonder care for her.
When we moved to the Cape unfortunately
we had to make plans to leave her in a hospice. Her condition was not good and her biological mother wanted somewhere near so she
could visit. We would like to thank Tini Vorster Hospital for their love and care and making her last days comfortable. Letty had been
with the Lord for a while when we found out
and so we missed the funeral. It is however
still sad when a young lady goes home, even
sadder that she lived so many years not seeing
or walking and obviously suffering. I would
like to think that through the Lords work at
Ebyown that her final years were filled with
song and laughter and more importantly Jesus.
In Jesus
Dave and Lyn
moriel missions philippines
#66 Tagumpay St. Purok 4 Landfill,
New Cabalan
Olongapo City, Philippines
August 2012
Dear Brethren and Christian Friends,
We praise and thank the Lord for you
who have a generous heart for supporting
the ministry.
While beholding the children in taking
their food we feel the joy of God’s goodness. Truly the Lord loves the children
(Mark 10:14) and we follow Christ’s instruction – commissions. Around 40% of
the children accepted the Lord Jesus Christ
as their personal Lord and Savior. On our
Bible Study after we finished the lesson
about baptism, only nine children followed
the Lord in water baptism showing their
first step of obedience.
The visit of Bro. Geoff Toole here for
Bible Seminar encourages mothers, church
members, pastors and pastor’s wives.
Some of our young children are now
having confidence in singing praises for the
Lord in front of Christian people, like when
we brought them to the Young Peoples Fellowship at Botolan Zambales and Church
Anniversaries.
blessings
Jacob and Letty
and it helps them do their school homework.
We sometimes use the computer in
teaching the children about Bible stories
by C.D. and internet viewing. My son Jacob uses it in searching praise and worship
songs for the young children for practice.
Some of our young children learn the basics of playing the organ. The young girls
are assigned to play it in time of Bible education while the young boys lead in song
and organ playing during Chapel Hour.
As of now we use the former cafeteria
for a computer room and for a Bible study
room for ages 8 and below.We use the
newly constructed room for Young Children’s Hour, Prayer Meeting, Bible Study
of children ages 9 and above, Bible study
of Mothers and Chapel Hour.
Mothers and children were happy and
thankful for the new cafeteria. We are sure all
of us involved in the ministry are happy too.
prayer request
• For dump children to grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• For Good Health.
• Good health for all Moriel Ministries
and Family.
• More Blessings for Moriel Ministries.
• Daily Bread, Physical and Spiritual.
Sincerely In Christ,
Ptr. Paul Sevilla
Our prayers were answered by the Lord
and you are the channel for God’s answers.
Thank you very much for all this blessings. We have now sound systems – (microphone, speakers, and guitar), personal
computer and a new cafeteria.
The young children are eager to learn how
to use the computer. My son Jacob teaches
them the basics; some of them easily learn
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
17
Moriel Israel
Northern Galilee July 2012
Dear Friends,
Greetings from the sunny and somewhat
sweaty Mediterranean coast, where Hadas
and I gasp and drip our way through Summer.
Here are some things that are happening.
As the Lord leads, please take it upon
your hearts to pray.
For the time being at least (until more
babies are sent our way) Hadas’s childminding services are not needed. So she is feeling the need to find other ways to serve and
looking for the Lord to open other doors.
Please pray for her.
Because of her dyslexia, Hadas has always had problems with Hebrew. Her understanding has grown but her ability to express herself is severely limited. Anything
in Hebrew I usually take care of, but am
naturally more reserved and less talkative
than she. We make an odd couple, but the
Lord is bigger than our limitations and we
would appreciate your prayers for ways to
develop relationships with our mostly Hebrew-speaking neighbors and even people
we meet on the street. For example, twice
a day at least we walk with our funny little
dog. Just some days ago a lady stopped us
and, smiling, said in Hebrew, “I see you
from my flat regularly and that dog gets
more walking than I do!”
The following night as we stepped out
again with Doggy, we heard a shout from
above, and there was the lady waving and
calling from her balcony. Please pray that
the Lord will give us opportunities to open
our lives and develop genuine relationships
and friendships with people like these, that
we can serve our neighbors and also that a
door will be opened to share about the Savior of Israel.
18
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
Elon and Hadass Moreh
Congregation Or HaGalil (Light Of
The Galilee)
Ephraim Goldstein (http://www.cjfm.
org/about-us/intl-representatives/efraimgoldstein.html) has been appointed leader,
and at long last the congregation has a permanent pastor. Ephraim is a very mature
believer with many years experience in outreach activity as well as nurturing believers
and encouraging growth in the Lord. He is
highly respected and of good repute here in
the Land. There is eager anticipation to see
how things will develop under his hand. He
should be formally inducted at some point
in the coming months. I would say most are
very pleased indeed about his coming to
Nahariya, and perhaps we will also begin
to see some greater inroads into the local
community. Please pray for him and his
wife Jeannie, that they will quickly become
a part of the furniture here and have a fruitful and blessed ministry.
Sad Departure
With sadness we recount that one of
our young couples is leaving Israel and returning to South America. Our soldier and
his wife are leaving for Brazil at the end
of August. Economic conditions here are
harsh for young families who are not at the
top of the employment tree, and state assistance is minimal. (Bituakh Leumi (National Insurance) agency here is considered
to be one of the most obstructive, inhuman,
truculent and notoriously stupid of all our
government bodies, barring of course our
(equally infamous and universally loathed)
Interior Ministry. Our soldier’s wife suffered from chronic elevated blood pressure
during her first pregnancy, which made it
impossible for her to work. To their shock
she fell pregnant again some 6 months after
the birth of their first child. She was hospitalized, but she discharged herself because
the doctors were pressuring her to abort
the baby. However, once more, this means
that she had to stop work. Because both incomes were needed, their fragile finances
have collapsed and they are returning to
Brazil where their respective families can
help them get back on their feet. We would
ask your prayers for them.
O and C
Among our dear friends is another delightful couple from South America. We
ask your prayers on their behalf, for their
growth and maturing as they develop their
ministry within the believing community
here. The husband is very keen to reach out
to the unsaved with the Gospel so please
pray for their success in this regard. On a
personal note, they would dearly love to
have another child but that does not seem to
be happening at the moment. I am sure that
your prayers for them in this matter would
be appreciated.
Sister T
Sister T lives in what should be a beautiful apartment block. Because of greed,
graft and corruption by both the building
contractor (who among other things built
another three stories without a permit) and
(I am told) our Moroccan mafia controlled
city hall, her building has not received its
final approval and thus cannot be legitimately connected to the electricity supply.
She (and the rest of the block) relies on
intermittent electric from an illegal supply
shared off a neighbor. Because of this, it is
impossible to run air conditioning or heating. This would be difficult enough for a
younger person, but Sister T is 78. Because
Elon and Hadass Moreh
of legal complications the residents of this
block are paying for the sins and corruption of the now bankrupt contractor and
the incompetence and indifference of the
municipality. The total bills could be nearly
100,000 Shekels per resident of the block,
but even after that there is no guarantee
that the building will ever be finished! This
building has become a city joke. Everyone
knows about it, but nothing is being done
and it is tragically symptomatic of the endemic corruption and outright wickedness
that plagues local and national government
here. We covet your prayers that the Lord
bring a solution to this situation for Sister T
who is suffering greatly.
Some Observations From The Israeli Pro-Life Conference.
In late June I attended the annual B’ad
Chaim conference in Tel Aviv. I have
known for quite some time that the abortion
rate here in Israel is shockingly high. About
1,500,000 Jewish children were murdered
by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Since the
establishment of the State of Israel, Israelis themselves have murdered more than
2,000,000 in the womb. Abortion is used
as a regular means of contraception in the
Army here. Each girl, if she falls pregnant,
is allowed up to 2 free abortions during her
army service. I have known these things for
some time. However, because I have not
followed pro-life issues too closely what
really surprised me was the following:
Babies in Israel undergo more pre-natal
testing than anywhere else in the world. This
is in order that “defective” babies can be
screened out and disposed of before birth.
Approximately 40% of all abortions are
undergone by married women, because the
couple either feel they cannot afford, or
simply do not desire, another child.
If a couple have three children of the
same sex already, and the woman falls pregnant with another who is found to be of the
same sex, then it is perfectly legal to abort
the baby as unwanted on grounds of gender.
In Israel it is legal to carry out abortions
almost up to the moment of birth.
Due to its horrific abortion record, Israel is now 4,000,000 Israelis short of
the population we should have had since
1948. Precisely because of this we have
a major demographic problem vis-a-vis
Moslem Arabs, and the demographic issue is one of the main reasons why Judea
and Samaria were ceded to the control
of the Palestinian (Terrorist) Authority. Our national sins have found us out.
In many ways Israel is very child-friendly. Child protection legislation is very
strong here (even corporal punishment is
illegal contributing I am sure to our ma-
jor school and home disciplinary problem,
but that’s another story). For the most part,
children are much safer to roam the streets
than in the UK for example, where parents
are afraid to let their children out of their
sight. However that protection and friendliness does not extend to the unborn who are
a disposable commodity.
One speaker at the conference put it this
way: Israel is an intensely hedonistic society, taken up with quality of life rather than
the sanctification of life. Thus the intense
obsession with having a “perfect” baby,
which leads to the slaughter of so many of
our unborn, or the disposal of unwanted babies that may intefere with a couple’s lifestyle or financial prosperity.
A nation cannot indulge in such sins
without some adverse effect on itself. In
the film, The Pianist, a family watched
the German soldiers enter a second-floor
apartment across the street to arrest the occupants. They saw through the window the
soldiers begin to push the Jews out of the
door towards the stairs. One man however
was in a wheelchair, so they simply shoved
him through the glass window to fall two
stories to the cobbled street below. It struck
me that the Germans, in treating the Jews
like vermin—in dehumanizing them—actually became less than human themselves.
In like manner Israel cannot continue unrepentant in the sin of mass murder of the
unborn without paying a terrible cost in
the loss of her own humanity. Some moral
sclerosis or induration of the heart must
and will occur. Though all sin is grievous
in the sight of God, there are certain sins
which are particularly loathsome and defiling which will provoke him to anger more
than others. Nationally sanctioned and approved child murder certainly falls into this
category. So the question that arises is what
will it take for us to wake up?
As I ask this question I am well aware
that 10km away Hezbollah has been stockpiling rockets since the last Lebanon War,
and evidence is coming to light that Syria
has not only been producing biological and
chemical weapons for years, but may have
inherited the WMDs that went missing from
Saddam Hussein’s regime. On our southern
border is an Egypt that is increasingly Islamic and hostile, and we also have an Iran
that is racing to produce a nuclear bomb
that it can use to precipitate the apocalyptic events that will usher in the “Mahdi.”
While I do not for one moment think that
the Lord will abandon us, in light of our
national sin I cannot believe that we will
escape heavy chastening at His hand. I also
cannot believe that the Lord is anything but
grieved and angry at our national conduct.
I do not say these things with any kind
of relish. There is a tendency to read about
Moriel Israel
Last Days events with a kind of emotional
distance, as if they are to happen to someone else. The gathering clouds and lowering sky close to our borders remind us that
we may well be the players in this narrative
and not merely the readers of it. It is all too
easy to forget that the purpose of End Times
prophecy is not merely to increase our
knowledge or get our eschatological order
of events right (though there is most certainly a basic order of events), but to prepare
ourselves so that we may stay the course.
We do not know for certain what events
will be unleashed upon us in the future
here. Please pray that the Lord will ready us
for whatever lies ahead, and may we plead
with Him for the nation that “in wrath He
remember mercy” (Hab.3:2), and that whatever comes our way, we may be a light and
a voice here for the Savior of Israel.
With our blessings,
Elon and Hadas Moreh
Chris Brown, beloved husband of June
and father of Greg and another son who
resides in Australia, has been a faithful
servant of The Lord and loyal member of
the Moriel UK team working voluntarily
as a conference organiser. His long and
courageous battle against a rare malignancy saw Chris repeatedly defy the
odds to the point of benefitting from a
radical surgical procedure at one point
that carried only an 8 percent success
rate. Yet Chris laboured on in The Lord
surviving years beyond the normal clinically projected life expectancy due to
his faith, his faithfulness, and the power
of prayer seeing his son complete medical studies as a physician and the birth
of two beautiful grandchildren. The
confidence in Christ and peace of Christ
that Chris continually demonstrated
throughout his health struggle was
nothing short of remarkable and an example of Christian fortitude to others
around him. Because of his saving trust
in Jesus, our separation from Chris will of
course be but a temporary one. We do
ask prayer for his wife June and his family during this period of bereavement
until we are all united on that great and
coming day in Jesus.
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
19
Moriel Australia
Margret Godwin
news
AUSTRALIAN
Australian/New Zealand Report – September Issue 2012
Greetings in the Name of Jesus,
T
hus far, 2012 has been an extremely busy year. There have
been highs and lows, but throughout the hectic schedule
our gracious Lord has seen us through.
At the risk of repeating myself, I am totally “blown away” by
the way the Lord has all in place— not so much of the “big” things
but the “awesomeness” of Him as He clears the way for the “little”
things—things that in the whole scheme of things seem somewhat mundane but go to make up the incredible tapestry that is
our “Walk” with Him.
Since Nigel (Moriel NZ) went to be with the Lord earlier this
year I have been going to and fro across the “Ditch” to what has
almost become my second home. (For our overseas readers, the
“Ditch” is actually the Tasman Sea, which separates the Australian
East Coast and New Zealand.) Through the generosity of Nigel’s
daughters we have been able to continue operating out of their
dad’s home, but it was time to wind it all up and put it into storage
until the new administrators, Mike and Diane Keaney, take over
sometime in November. In the meantime the Quarterly and all the
resource orders will be serviced by Australia.
It was awfully sad to see the final box packed onto the removal
truck. Actually there were quite a few tears shed by the girls and
yours truly. A very dear brother, Lothar, has made a room available in his home in Hastings to store everything.
The December issue of the Quarterly (actually out in about
mid-November) will have all the Moriel NZ details, i.e., phone
number, email address, etc. There will also be a new catalog for
our Kiwi readers, which they have never had in its entirety before.
Please uphold the plans for Moriel NZ, that all our endeavors with
reflect the glory of the Lord.
W
Jacob’s 2012 “Downunder Tour”
hat a wonderful six weeks. Jacob, although extremely fatigued, was “on fire,” preaching many new topics. These
new titles will be available in DVD, CD and MP-3 format and are
all listed in this newsletter. Each of the Australian meetings had
wonderful attendances
As always, when the Moriel people get together, boy what a
family reunion! There are so many things to catch up on, news to
be shared, tears to be shed. As I said to the people at the Napier
meeting, I knew it was a Moriel function as they were so very
noisy. Bless them.
I joined Jacob in Tauranga and I was met by the loveliest couple (Peter and Loretta) that chauffeured me around. Thank you
so much my dears. As we were driving along – coming on dusk
I thought I saw a sign on the roadside with “Jacob Prasch” on it,
and then a little bit
further on I did
see one. Mike had
wonderfully clear
roadside
signs
made and erected in prominent
places on the main
roads. Included is
a photo of JP help-
20
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
ing to dismantle them the next morning. – Very impressive.
The Tauranga meeting was really great and I was able to meet
people who up until then had been a voice at the end of the phone.
The greatest surprise was seeing Nigel’s sister Barb and her husband Wally – again lots of hugs and tears.
The next day we had a small intimate meeting in one of the
ladies homes, and Barb again was there. It was really special to sit
quietly with Jacob and share the Word.
Jacob seeks to debate Stephen Tollestrup in NZ
Moriel (on behalf of Jacob) placed an advertisement in the NZ
Challenge Weekly. (The complete advertisement is available on
the Moriel website, http://www.moriel.org). The essence of the
challenge was as follows:
Moriel Ministries NZ extends an invitation to STEPHEN
TOLLESTRUP, TEAR Fund NZ to debate with J.J. Prasch Moriel
Ministries the views he has expressed in his recent interview with
Dr Stephen Sizer.
After running the ad in the Challenge Weekly we had numerous calls of support with callers asking that they be advised if and
when the debate was to be organized. A number of people contacted Mr. Tollestrup’s office only to be told he was not available
and knew nothing of the challenge. We waited several weeks for
Mr. Tollestrup to contact us but we heard nothing. In mid-July (as
Jacob was to fly to NZ) I received a letter from Advertising Standards Authority advising us that a complaint had been made by S.
Tollestrup re the said advertisement.
Complainant, S. Tollestrup said: “The advertisement in question appears intended to bring ridicule and hostility towards me….
It calls into question my faith and fitness to be a Christian leader
and implies I am a Holocaust denier, anti-Semite, that I consort
with criminals and terrorist sympathizers. Obviously I reject these
claims entirely.”
The Chairman’s Ruling: The Chairman ruled that there were no
grounds for the complaint to proceed.
Chairman’s Ruling: Complaint No Grounds to Proceed
Should you require a copy of the advertisement and the response
by the ASA please send a self-stamped/addressed envelope to Moriel Ministries Aust/NZ, P.O. Box 112, Trafalgar Vic 3824 Australia
Jacob in Tauranga NZ
Vicki Duda and Trish MacDonald
Margret Godwin
It is time for me to draw this effort to a close.
With love to you all
In Christ,
Marg
“YOUR LETTERS”
Dear Moriel,
Could you please pass this onto Jacob?
Today I was sent a You Tube video of you
talking about debating with the Tear fund
man Stephen Tollestrup.
Thank you Jacob for standing up and offering to debate with him. Here in Christ
Church a number of us also objected the
shameful stand taken by Laidlaw College
and St. Christopher’s Church in supporting
such downright deception by a so called man
of God. As you have so clearly said its all a
matter of truth, they have taken off the belt.
We do appreciate your offer to debate with
Stephen Tollestrup but it should not have
been necessary in the first place
All the very best to you Jacob, the Lord
bless you and your family richly.
P of Christ Church NZ
Jacobs Reply:
Blessings and thanks for your comments.
In Jesus,
Jacob
moriel’s
prayer
closet
A Small corner of rest from the chaos
and tumult of the world around us....
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter
onto thy closet, and when thou
hast shut thy door, pray to thy
Father which is in Secret; and thy
Father which seeth in Secret will
reward thee openly.”
– Matthew 6:6 –
“If two of you shall agree in touching anything they shall ask, it shall
be done of them by my father which
is in heaven.”– Matthew 18:19
• Prayer - Moriel & Jacob Prasch request
prayer for Mary Nelson, mother-in-law of a
Moriel volunteer, diagnosed with ovarian
cancer. Please also pray for her salvation as
she is Catholic.
• PrayER - Moriel & Jacob Prasch request
prayer for Aeron Morgan of the Sunshine
Coast Queensland. Aeron was the Former
General Superintendent of the AOG United
Kingdom & Principal of the CBC Bible College Australia.
The way it was explained to me
was, how can you accept what God
has to offer if you have no way to
take it. If your hands and heart are
full of all your problems, your stuff,
your worry and your fear you don’t
have room for what God has for
you. Give that stuff to God, free up
your hands and heart and lift them in
the air, be ready for what God has for
you. I love it and I get it. Bless and
be blessed. Chris at em doodle
Aeron has been diagnosed with a brain tumour
and is currently being readied for surgery
in Brisbane. Please uphold Aeron, his wife
Dinah & daughter Angela before the Lord.
• PrayER - Moriel & Jacob Prasch request
urgent prayer for Jeffory Walker who was in
a helicopter crash. Jeffory is undergoing surgery to save his lower left leg. Please pray for
guiding of the surgeons hands, speedy recovery and to draw him closer to the Lord.
• PrayER - Moriel & Jacob Prasch request
prayer for his aged mother, Maureen, who is
unsaved and has been diagnosed with type B
lymphoma (a lymphatic blood cancer). Please
pray for her health and more importantly her
salvation.
• Prayer - Moriel & Jacob Prasch request
Moriel Australia
prayer for Micah Oppenheimer, son of apologist Mike Oppenheimer, who has a serious
medical condition involving side effects of
drugs he has been required to take for an ongoing disorder that has greatly disrupted his
life and education.
• Prayer - Moriel & Jacob Prasch request
urgent prayer for Virginia, sister of Chuck
and Paul Smith who is in a very serious battle with cancer that appears pre terminal. We
likewise request prayer for Damien Kyle, pastor of Calvary Chapel Modesto in California.
Damien has advanced stage lukemia. Please
pray for God’s intervention.
• Prayer - Moriel & Jacob Prasch as a matter of some urgency request prayer for Pastor
Robert Huntsdale in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Robert is suffering serious post operative renal complications and we praying that dialysis
will not become necessary. May The Lord’s
presence be with him in this ordeal and may
God grant his physicians wisdom and intervene in this situation.
• Prayer - Moriel & Jacob Prasch request
prayer for Scott Blatchley in the UK who is
again battling recurrent tumors in the UK after years of struggles with cancer. Scott and
his wife have young children.
• Prayer - Updated prayer request for
Maggie Vivian in the UK from Jacob Prasch
& Moriel - Maggie has just had a CT chest
and upper abdominal scan which showed no
change in her lung cancer since the last CT
scan in October, and the Oncologist was very
happy, praise the Lord.So her maintenance
chemotherapy will continue, every three
weeks, and she had her fifth cycle this morning.
Not so good was that they discovered while
comparing the scans that Maggie had had a
blood clot on one of her kidneys in October
which has now gone, good news in itself
but a warning that Maggie is at risk from
further blood clots, and that she needs to go
on Warfarin, which she has now started. Although not serious compared to cancer, being
on warfarin does have its own risks and can
have side effects, so we would be grateful for
prayer about this, in addition to prayer that
the maintenance chemotherapy will continue
to be effective in controlling the cancer.
• Prayer - Moriel & Jacob Prasch request
prayer for Jacob’s mother, who has a heart
condition. Please pray for her health and her
salvation.
• Prayer for Dr X - Dr. X, an Iraqi military
surgeon who worked with the US when we
went into Iraq, and thus, has weathered death
threats against himself, and also fears for his
family (wife, and four kids). X applied for
a special immigrant visa, and-despite being
highly recommended by the US colonel he
served under, being approved for that visa by
the US Embassy in Baghdad, being approved
by two US homeland departments, and having
a successful interview at the US Embassy in
Amman (Jordan) way back in September, Dr.
X and his family are still waiting to come to
the US.
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
21
Guest Author
Danny Isom
Dealing with Prophetic Attention
Deficit Disorder
by Danny Isom
“Be on guard, so that your hearts will
not be weighted down with dissipation
and drunkenness and the worries of
life, and that day will not come on you
suddenly like a trap; for it will come
upon all those who dwell on the face of
all the earth. But keep on the alert at
all times, praying that you may have
strength to escape all these things that
are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36)
“…However, when the Son of Man
comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
(Luke 18:8b)
“Because lawlessness is increased, most
people’s love will grow cold. — Matthew
24:12
“Those who have insight will shine
brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the
many to righteousness, like the stars
forever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)
B
elieve it or not, between all the
predicted events and signs of the
Last Days provided by Christ,
the apostles and the prophets is the precise
information of what to do when such are
recognized as taking place. Regardless of
one’s spiritual status as a believer or nonbeliever, Scripture clearly tells both what
they are supposed to do with the information. It would be hard to find a Christian
who would disagree that according to
Scripture the only suitable action for a nonbeliever when seeing some kind of sign or
prophetic event fulfilled is to repent from
the heart and receive Christ as their personal Savior; the only suitable action for
an unsaved person to take is to get saved.
But there seems to be far from universal
agreement among Christians as to what the
already saved should do. In fact, I would
argue that a significant percentage seem to
cling to the notion that they need to study
22
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
more, read more books and websites, go to
more prophecy conferences, and do whatever it takes to “solve the puzzle.” This is
what happens when the prophetic passages
of the Bible are read in the pursuit of increasing one’s knowledge instead of the
more important goal of strengthening one’s
faith. When the unsaved see such things,
it is a warning to hurry up and get saved;
when the saved witness the same, it is a
warning to live as if they really and truly
are saved.
Jesus warns in the Olivet Discourse on
the End Times that the saved are not to
have “hearts…weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life” (Lk. 21:34). The Greek word
“kraipale” in some translations is rendered
in English as “surfeiting” instead of “dissipation” to convey the meaning of something that is overdone to excess so that it
actually becomes disgusting. Few things
are more illustrative of what it means to
achieve an excess of disgusting proportions than “drunkenness,” where both one’s
thoughts and behavior leave reality and
visibly testify on the outside the degree of
disgusting deterioration achieved on the inside. When we understand that the biblical
definition of “worries”—rendered in the
Greek as “merimna,” actually means to become so disrupted by something that it results in changes to both our mind (internal)
and personality (external), we can see that
Christ is warning that even the most obvious prophetic signs and fulfillments will be
missed by those consumed with this life.
Satan understands this very well. He
understands it so well, in fact, that every
single false teaching, false movement and
purveyor of false doctrine has, at its core, a
common, unified purpose: to get us to trust
in this life. The age of apostasy in which
we currently find ourselves currently living is defined by a growing number who
no longer live exclusively for the next life,
but embrace an attachment that is excessive
to the point that it alters their thoughts and
behavior in favor of this life.
At Christ’s First Coming, there was
something in the sky so obvious to a few
believers that they were driven to leave their
homeland and seek Him out. But in spite
of the vast majority in the land of Christ’s
birth having the Scriptures, the temple, the
priesthood, and allegedly practicing a faith
that anticipated the time and place of His
arrival, most could not and did not see it.
What happened at His First Coming is a
shadow of what will take place at His Second Coming. Their hearts were weighted
down by this life.
“For the coming of the Son of Man will
be just like the days of Noah. For as in
those days before the flood they were
eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the day that
Noah entered the ark, and they did not
understand until the flood came and
took them all away; so will the coming
of the Son of Man be. (Mt. 24:37-39)
It would appear to be the same today as
in this earliest shadow of final judgment in
the example of “the days of Noah,” an illustration of what is to ultimately come: an excess leading to a loss of reality to the point
it kept them from seeing what was taking
place until it was too late.
Notice that Christ’s admonition is not to
pray only for escape from what is to come,
but “that you may have strength…to stand
before the Son of Man” (Lk. 21:36). Those
who heed His warning to “be on guard”
and “keep on alert at all times” (Lk. 21:3436) are not meeting such requirements by
simply having knowledge and awareness,
but by putting His Word into practice to
the point that they are going to be able “to
stand before the Son of Man.” Again, it is
not a test of knowledge, but faith.
Both the Hebrew word for “faith”—
“emunah,” and the Greek word for
“faith”—“pisteos,” can be equally translated as “faithfulness.” They are interchangeable. The biblical definition of “faith” fits
someone who is “faithful” in their walk and
obedience to the Word. Luke 18:8 could be
realistically rendered, “However, when the
Son of Man comes, will He find faithfulness on the earth?” It describes believers as
being in the exact opposite state of those
whose hearts are “weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of
life” (Lk. 21:34). The proof that a Christian
truly understands the fulfillment of biblical
prophecy in our times is a life that is even
more obedient—more faithful to the Word
than ever before. They are not just “knowl-
Danny Isom
edgeable,” they are faithful. The education
system of our fallen world would have us
think that the definition of “faith” is to simply “believe” or “acknowledge” or “vote in
favor of”; God’s definition is to be a doer.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word
and not a doer, he is like a man who
looks at his natural face in a mirror;
for once he has looked at himself and
gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But
one who looks intently at the perfect
law, the law of liberty, and abides by
it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will
be blessed in what he does. (James
1:23-57)
And what will be the parallel evidence
of an unfaithful life? Someone who is not
“an effectual doer” of the Word but whose
heart has become weighted down with the
cares of this life.
“Because lawlessness is increased,
most people’s love will grow cold.”
(Matthew 24:12)
Also, the fallen world’s definition of
“lawlessness” would have us believe Christ
is speaking about a situation or circumstance where there is no law, perhaps referring to someone who has not heard the
Word and therefore cannot put it into practice. But the repeated context of the use of
“lawlessness” (anomos) in the New Testament clearly specifies that the biblical definition is that of setting aside and refusing to
adhere to what is already known. What Jesus is saying is, “Because people who have
been given the Word will refuse to live by
the Word, it will be visibly evident in their
lack of love.”
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. (1 Jn. 3:4)
I am speaking in human terms because
of the weakness of your flesh. For just
as you presented your members as
slaves to impurity and to lawlessness,
resulting in further lawlessness, so
now present your members as slaves
to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. (Rom. 6:19)
A true believer recognizing the signs
of the End Times is not characterized by
“faith” in those signs, but “faithfulness” in
the quality of his personal and public testimony of a deepening walk with Christ. He
is not transformed simply by the knowledge of such events, but by being sanctified
by a deeper rejection of this life in favor of
the one to come.
If we study all the words of Christ, the
apostles and the prophets when it comes to
the Last Days, and abstain from a kind of
myopia which fixates only on the events to
the exclusion of the surrounding text accompanying them, the teachings and principles
in these verses are richly repeated throughout the whole of Scripture. It is in character
with a proven Hebrew principle of interpretation called “light to heavy,” meaning that
what is important in a “light” situation is
even more important in a “heavy” one.
On any given day in any age of history it
has always been important for God’s people to avoid being obsessed with this life;
in the shadow of Christ’s return it is even
more important. On any given day in any
age of history it has always been important
for God’s people to live as a visible example of faithfulness to His Word and ways;
in the shadow of Christ’s return it is even
more important. On any given day in any
age of history it has always been important
for God’s people to be a visible example
of the biblical definition of “love;” in the
shadow of Christ’s return it is even more
important. If Christians were gaining the
right lesson from all the books, websites
and conferences devoted to topics concerning the Last Days, what would it actually
result in? A visible testimony of biblical
faith, hope and love exceeding that of any
previous generation in history. Seeing for
certain that the end to life as usual on this
planet is on the horizon, they would live
even more passionately for what they know
is to surely follow.
But the issue is not confined to just the
flock. What about the shepherds? How are
leaders supposed to act in the shadow of the
Last Days?
Guest Author
Word, but put it into practice. They understand that by doing so the flock will be biblically aware of what is about to come, will
be found biblically faithful upon Christ’s
return, and will fulfill Christ’s qualification,
“By this all men will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another”
(Jn. 13:35). They make an application of
knowledge which results in authentic faith
as evidenced by faithfulness. They do not
merely explain the meaning of each piece
of the “puzzle,” but instill how to put it
into practice to the point that it results in a
life conformed to God’s Word and ways—
“righteousness.”
There is room enough to argue about
the particulars of the Last Days such as the
Rapture, the Antichrist, the two witnesses,
the four horsemen and so on, only as long
as we have addressed the greater issues of
faithfulness to the rest of God’s Word in the
first place.
In Him,
Danny Isom
[email protected]
GodlyConferences
www.radiofreechurch.com/home
“Those who have insight will shine
brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead
the many to righteousness, like the
stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:3)
“Insight” is a unique understanding of
cause and effect in a specific context. Biblically it is characterized as something that so
thoroughly understands not just the immediate consequences, but all the myriad and
multiplied effects it will ultimately have
on all related people, places and things. So
what action does a truly biblical shepherd
take to most effectively put that insight to
its best use? They “lead many to righteousness;” they put an even greater emphasis
on how to live in the world but not of the
world, they hold the sheep accountable to
the biblical standards of a faithful walk, and
they engender obedience to the Word so that
the warmth of true Christ-like love does
not diminish on its way to ineffectualness.
Leaders who truly understand the times
know it is more important now than at any
time in history to make faithful and obedient disciples who do not merely know the
About Godly Conferences: This web-
site provides information about upcoming and ongoing Christian Conferences
focused on expounding and teaching
the Word of God. For each conference
listed, we provide a schedule, information on the speakers present at the conference, and links to the conference’s
live internet broadcast (when available).
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
23
Moriel Japan
Geoff Toole
moriel japan
News from the
Far East
September Report
2012
K
Konnichiwa,
Moriel Japan Report August 2012.
It is well and truly ‘natsu’ (summer) in Japan! All the talk about getting rid of the nuclear power plants sizzles away in the summer heat! The electrical companies say “No
nuclear, No air-con. What’s it gonna be?”
The big news here in our fellowship is
the birth of Daisuke and Jean’s son, Nathan. His name means ‘name bearer’ in
Japanese. Jean is having to cope with a new
country, a new language and being a new
mother all at once. But Daisuke is doing his
best to look after his new family. We praise
the Lord for providing Daisuke with a new
job just in time for this trial period. Jean
is quite tough, coming from the Philippine
hills, so nothing stresses her too much. Especially not the heat.
Another testimony is that of a believer
who found Moriel on the internet. Having
spent a large amount of time away from
his family (most Japanese men think the
normal thing to do), he was challenged
through the teaching (mostly of Proverbs,
emphasizing a father’s biblical responsi24
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
bilities in the home) and God led him back
home (though it cost him his business).
Praise the Lord for changing our thoughts
and our ways. His wife, children and even
his mother are grateful for the Lord’s work
there. He is now looking for a new job!
The somewhat surprising appearance of
another ‘Moriel’ affiliated missionary in
our area brought great joy. Grant Norman,
26, has been living close by for two and a
half years but, like me in my first few years
here, was so absorbed in his evangelism
and mission work he didn’t realize who
else was here. As soon as he found out that
our branch was in the Kobe area, he called
and we met up. Lord willing, Grant will
‘officially’ join us from October and help
with a new church plant and outreach we
have been planning. Grant brings a lot of
fresh zeal, especially in terms of outreach
and new ideas to reach Japanese kids. He
has already experienced different ways of
sharing the Gospel from campus ministry
to basketball camps. I feel this is truly an
answer to prayer. And the greatest part is,
we didn’t have to teach him Japanese or
help him get used to the country! An instant missionary. (Actually other believers
have been supporting Grant, including his
home church, Hemet Christian Assembly,
and his family. Grant’s father, Pastor Steve
Norman, also knows Jacob. Praise the Lord
for their mission support to Japan).
This is Obon week. The week that Japanese call back the spirits of their dead ancestors to offer food. Lots of ‘matsuri-festivals,’ kimonos and fireworks. It is also
a good time for street witnessing. People
hang around city parks and streets during
the summer evenings, a temporary respite
from their busy lives. Next week in Kobe
we will hold an evangelistic outreach in a
local community center, so we have been
busy handing out invitations to that.
In one recent night on the streets, the first
lady we spoke to was part of Soukagakai.
This is a zealous, politically active kind of
Buddhist movement. They chant in order
to get ‘energy’ for life. Like most Japanese
they believe in reincarnation. We discussed
with her the problem of sin and how reincarnation offers no solution. During the
conversation, she seemed most interested to
hear about our conversion and what made
us change. How could you go from loving
sin to hating it? Grant shared his testimony
at length with her. Her name is Miki. She
was challenged that night.
The second lady was more typical of
Japanese. She explained how the only important thing is to teach to the next generation what has been taught to you. She was
very self-righteous, but when challenged
with the law, especially lying, she acknowledged her sin. Still, blind faith was attractive to her as it took away the need to think
seriously about anything.
The rest of the night was spent handing
out invitations and testimony tracts. The last
boy we spoke to seemed interested. That
was an encouragement to end the night. We
hope to be out a lot more this summer.
With the new website up and running,
we are now able to post some of the many
Japanese and translated teachings we have
been stockpiling recently. This last year we
have been able to complete our basics of
prophecy series through Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah and Malachi. Some of
these were done in seminars and others at
our local fellowship. We have also finished
sets on the offerings, true and false shepherds and the Daughters of Zion. The next
seminar series will be on Shiloh and Samuel, as we go through the life of Samuel,
Saul and David. Even when difficulties and
disappointments appear all around us, there
is great joy in finding a continual feast of
revelation in the Scriptures.
This May I was finally able to reach Aomori to meet the two ladies who join us each
Geoff Toole
Sunday from the far north of Japan through
Skype. It is not perfect, but we have had
great fellowship each week and have tried
to include them as much as possible in the
service. I spent the first day meeting their
families, and the second day we sat on
their Tatami mats from 10 til 6 in a virtually non-stop discussion of theology, Bible
study, truth, error and their experiences in
the false teaching they came out of. It was
a real eye opener to me to find out just how
the Asian churches hold the pastors up to be
a ‘gurus,’ almost god-like individuals. They
kept shaking their heads in amazement that
they could invite the pastor and not have
to go to the most expensive restaurant in
town. Previously, in their experience, visiting speakers required the most expensive
hotels and other such treatment. Pastors
had to be called ‘bokushi-sensei-sama.’
The length of the title indicates the vanity
of it. I hope and pray that in time we may
be able to plant a fellowship in that part of
Japan. The extreme snow and cold weather
would be a real challenge (especially for an
Aussie or Californian!). The short visit reminded me again of the great blessing it is
to have the truth. We take for granted how
much access we have to good teaching.
Still further north is Hokkaido. We are
planning our first meetings up there in October as the mailing list in that area is slowly
growing. Just as we were planning our trip
we received an unexpected e-mail from an
AoG pastor from the north coast of Hokkaido. He is asking for a book about midrash.
He says he carefully reads the discernment
articles also. Perhaps this newsletter will be
the basis for that project. I took it as a confirmation of beginning a Hokkaido teaching ministry. Please pray for guidance.
Hokkaido is deceptively large. Transport
to and from the small towns may be costly
and hard in the winter.
Philippine News.
Pastor Paul from Olongapo informs us
that some great work has been done on the
facilities there. They have new computers,
one of which is used to teach the local children computer skills. They also have greatly improved the area where the children
regularly eat and have their Bible studies.
It is truly a blessing to see the Gospel being
lived out there and God’s love extended to
the community. Praise the Lord that their
property was spared some of the disastrous
monsoonal floods that have hit the Philippines in the last two weeks (early August).
Down in the islands, Hope has begun his
itinerant ministry by God’s grace, regularly
teaching churches across his island with a
desire to know more about midrash and the
Word. We have a plan next month to have
a teaching day in Puerto Galera and distrib-
ute copies of Strong’s Concordance to the
regular attendees. They are all ministers of
local congregations. From there Hope plans
to go North to Urdaneta City where some
churches have recently welcomed Moriel
teaching. Then, Lord willing, he will proceed to the Ifugao province, famous for its
rice terraces and head hunting traditions. It
has become necessary to separate ministry
into different regions now. The travelling
there is very tiring. Please pray for Hope
as he introduces Moriel teaching and discernment to new churches and contacts.
All of this is possible due to the support
of Moriel Australia and US, and the fact
that his regional overseer removed him
from ministry after he stood against error
within his denomination. Another blessing
is the fellowship which is beginning to take
place between Moriel affiliated churches in
the Philippines. These small independent
churches need the fellowship of others who
will stand against apostasy and focus upon
the Lord and His Word. Please pray that they
will find the means to meet together from
time to time. It is a vital part of church life.
*Thanks to God for the continual provision
of our needs.
*Thanks for the open doors we are experiencing now.
*Thanks to Michael in Bohol, who is faithfully distributing Moriel newsletters to
prisons and churches on top of his own
evangelistic activities. Pray for more
teachers to be raised up in his area.
*Please pray for the Gospel message in
Japan, that those who are open might
hear and that more believers might actively witness and share their faith.
*Please pray for our growing list of friends
in the Philippines and their congregations.
They all express their gratitude that God
has opened the door for His teaching there.
We try our best to keep things simple,
purposely having a very low budget for
seminars and teaching. Money can be
such a temptation, but faith grows when
we believe and see God provide. In this
way, we are confident that those who love
Moriel love it for the right reasons. Jesus
is the shepherd and He feeds the sheep.
*Finally, please pray for the October Kobe
and Hokkaido meetings.
In Christ,
Geoff
Moriel Japan
Daisuke and Jean with their baby Nathan
A few photos from
Moriel Japan
Elliot, Manoah and Sami holding a chunk of
Mt. Fuji lava
Glad to have Dad back!
A family restored in Christ.
Hope
mj
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
25
Pertinent Factoid
f
i
Danny Isom
c
t
i
o
n
s
ns
tio
ep
dec
Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Do not
listen to the words of the prophets who
are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision
of their own imagination, Not from the
mouth of the LORD. (Je emiah 23:16)
“Behold, I am against those who have
prophesied false dreams,” declares the
LORD, “and related them and led My
people astray by their falsehoods and
reckless boasting; yet I did not send
them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,”
declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:32)
There are those who have expressed shock
and dismay that I not only refuse to endorse
Jonathan Cahn’s The Harbinger, a popular
work of so-called “Christian fiction,” but
that I continue to publicly denounce it. In
turn, I am shocked and dismayed when
those who are supposed to be set free by the
Truth of God’s Word (Jn. 8:32) elevate and
endorse something which so prolifically
confuses the truth with error. Peter not
only identified this process by the Greek
term “pareisaxousin”—literally meaning
to lay truth side-by-side with error, but in
a stunning case of political incorrectness
actually calls such things “destructive
heresies” (2 Ps. 2:1-3) and rightly points
out that the ultimate casualty is that “the
way of the truth will be maligned”. It is
scripturally impossible to claim that just
because something is declared to be a
“work of fiction” that the obvious biblical
errors can be overlooked because “some”
perceived good can come out of it. My
friend, “The means justifies the ends” is
NOT a sanctioned principle of God’s Word.
The primary argument presented is that
The Harbinger is “just a work of fiction.”
If that is true, then why is the author being
sought and accepted as a theological expert
on eschatology and the End Times? If he
were just an ordinary author like every other author, we would only see him at book
signings and the normal venues for promoting a book. When approached, he would be
the first to vehemently deny being any kind
of expert or theologian and would confess,
“I just happen to be a Christian who had an
idea for a book.” He would of his own volition advocate that it is dangerous to give a
work of fiction equal footing with Scripture.
He would not use a work of fiction to promote himself as a theological expert and to
26
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
r
”
u
u
m
n
o
t
r
r
s
u
t
h
s
tall tales
gain a foothold within the Church as such.
But instead we see nearly every corner
of the Church flooded with promotions for
The Harbinger which promote it as a new
revelation of God’s Word, with Jonathan
Cahn elevated to the status of the foremost
authority on all things End Times, and a
total disregard for its errors because it has
“some truth” in it. Many tout the author as
having produced a “new revelation”. Such
messages are repeatedly documented in
Scripture as coming through true men and
women of God; when did they ever contain even the smallest error? When was it
enough that they just have “some truth”?
When did we have to pay $16.95 before
we could hear the revelation God only gave
to one particular messenger? Wake up and
smell the deception.
The Berean Call, Lighthouse Trails and
a host of others have reviewed and documented the salient issues of the book. There
is no shortage of qualified biblical reviewers who have categorically revealed the
errors in detail. However, I suppose this is
yet another sign of the nearness of Christ’s
return when it is getting spiritually darker
and deception among the Elect becomes
normative. Even worse, we have a disturbingly large number of Christians whose
only knowledge of eschatology—the study
of the End Times, comes not from Scripture but from works of fiction. Someone
who claims to just be an author but in reality acts in such a contrary manner so as to
make such inroads into the Church is a false
teacher. There is no confusing the two.
But then there is the second most offered
justification: “What is wrong with Christian
fiction? After all, isn’t Pilgrim’s Progress a
work of fiction?” Yes, Pilgrim’s Progress is
indeed a work of fiction, but can you please
identify for me the doctrinal and/or scriptural errors and misrepresentations found in
Pilgrim’s Progress? Even just one? John Bunyan never compromised a single doctrine
or principle of Scripture! True “Christian
fiction” never does! Just because a Christian
writes within a genre called “fiction”, there
is no license to be “mostly” right or to malign Scripture. Because of the very fact that
they ARE a Christian, they have a greater
obligation to ensure there is nothing out
of alignment with God’s Word and ways!
Then I am told, “But don’t you want
people to know about the judgment that is
coming on America?” How do you break
the news to these converts that the book
was “sort of” right? Can you show me one
biblical example where the right spiritual
gateway to God begins with “some” truth?
When did a similar, legitimate revelation
from God contain error? But this argument
actually reveals something quite revealing
about the person making it, who alleges
that the purpose of the book is to reach the
unsaved or hard of hearing. They are revealing that they are themselves deceived
because the book isn’t achieving anywhere
near the market penetration of the unchurched as it is the churched! This is not a
tool of evangelism or revival, but an agent
of deception among the Elect. Just look at
who it is really directed and to whom it is
most earnestly being marketed to.
A repeated theme throughout the whole
of Scripture is that God hates a mixture. Jacob has preached on this many, many times.
It is another application of, “What fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Co. 2:14)
Just look at all the contradictions which accompany the book and its author:
On the one hand it is categorized as nothing more than a “work of fiction” but on
the other it is touted as a new revelation of
God’s truth.
On the one hand Cahn is just an “author”
but on the other he is now an “expert,” and
it is based not on an authoritative exposition of God’s Word but a work of fiction.
On the one hand the work is seen as a
potential springboard to reach unbelievers,
but it is being marketed more heavily to believers and the author is gaining a greater
foothold within the church than in secular
venues to reach unbelievers.
On the one hand we are told we can put
up with its scriptural errors because there is
“some” truth worthy of publicity.
Even more disturbingly, the greatest “silent” casualty of all is God’s Word, both
within the Church proper and without. Truth
is laid side-by-side with error to the detriment of both those who need to hear and embrace the whole Truth and nothing but the
Truth, and serving to replace what believers
are supposed to definitively and uncompromisingly know. “Christian fiction,” when it
compromises God’s Word, is a deception
in the most classic definition of the word.
In Him,
Danny
[email protected]
Scott Noble
Moriel Thailand
Bangkok Skyline
Ric
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Chi
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Ma
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Introducing our New missionary to . . .
thailand
Moriel September Update... We”ve been sharing the Gospel with
Khae’s family for over 5 years now. Seven
months ago Khae’s dad became a Christian!
He’s been a Buddhist monk before, and
used to give food to monks on their morning
rounds almost every morning, had lots of
idols, did not drink any alcohol, and even led
some of the chanting at the temple. If anyone could have earned their way into heaven
it would have been him. But, of course, no
flesh shall be justified by the works of the
law (not to mention he was serving a different law anyway). Now though, he’s stopped
all of that. He reads his Bible (almost half
of the Bible already), goes to church every
Sunday, and seeks to honor and love God.
And his wife is furious because of that.
She used to call the shots at home,
and now he’s taking a stand and not following her orders when it comes to compromising his faith. Khae helped him put up a sign
at his barber shop at the house which said,
“This shop will be closed on Sundays, because the barber is going to church to worship Jesus.” That was a few months ago. His
wife tore the sign down. Last Sunday he
stayed at church a little later to attend a Bible study, and while he was there, some customers came to get their hair cut. His wife
called him and ordered him to come home.
He refused, at which point she scolded him
using very rude language. But he stayed at
church. So his wife tried to burn two of
his Bibles. She did burn one, but Khae
caught the other one in time. Khae’s mom told him not to come back,
and she even tried to force Khae’s dad
out of the house (it’s actually his house).
We keep advising Khae’s dad to “love
your wife.” Last week we had a four day
weekend and decided to drive down there
to visit them along with Paul and Marisa
from Mana Missions.
We reached Khae’s parent’s house at
about 5pm. The children from Mana Missions all stayed downstairs with Khae’s
dad, while Paul, Marisa, Khae and I went
upstairs to say hello to the mom. When I
opened the door she told me, “Jesus doesn’t
need to come into the house.” We came in
anyway (with Jesus). Then she began to
scold Khae and me about many things,
mostly lies, about how we never help them
and we just bring trouble to them, etc.
Paul prayed against the evil spirits in that place and they let me be the
spokesperson. Mostly I just listened, but I
told her that we love her and that we want
her to go to heaven. Actually her name is
Sawan, which means “heaven.” She talked
about all of the community mocking her
and laughing at her now that her husband
is a Christian. I told her that going to heaven is more important. After another round
of scolding I got down on my knees and
stretched out my hands pleading with her,
“Mom, you don’t need to go to hell.” She told
me I was crazy. I said it again, “You don’t
need to go to hell, Mom.” She left the room.
Later she came back saying that she and
her husband are about to get a divorce and
that it’s all our fault. I told her, “Humble
yourself a little, Mom.” She said she didn’t
know what language I’m speaking (though
I know she was just speaking sarcastically),
so I said it again. Finally, the children began singing songs on the first floor. After
a while she passed us and went down the
stairs to scold the children, saying “What
hole did these things crawl out of?” We
came downstairs, and as I passed her I put
my hands on her shoulders for a couple of
seconds saying, “We love you, Mom.” Surprisingly, she didn’t shake my hands off,
but she continued to scold.
The next day, we came to the house to
get something, and I went upstairs to say
goodbye to the mom through the window,
and “God bless you.” She was actually in
the bathroom at the time we heard from the
dad, but she asked the dad about that later
and he told her I came to say goodbye and
God bless you. On Saturday night the dad
came to the church where we slept, for a
Bible study. We finished about 8pm and
when the dad went home the door was already locked, so he came back to the church
to sleep with us. But the next day, the mom
gave him some food from her breakfast,
which she hadn’t done in a long time. So
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
27
Moriel Thailand – Continued
it seems her heart is softening up a little
bit. But from recent reports, she’s still very
much on the attack. She doesn’t just need a
softened heart. She needs an entirely new
heart through being born again.
On Saturday morning we left the church
at 5am to go to a market and sing and
preach. We started on one side, but it was
a bit noisy, so then we moved to another
side right in front of a 7/11. The children
sang many songs while we handed out
tracts. Marisa later said that people are very
anti-Christian in this area, more so than in
Nakornsawan, seeing many people refusing to take a tract. When it came my turn to
preach a second time, I felt a lot of freedom
in preaching about Jesus being the Savior
and the only way to heaven.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been
teaching part of a course for Bethany College of Missions students on witnessing to
Buddhists. In preparing for this course, I
read an article which talks about how one
should witness to Buddhists. This is written
by a Thai woman whose husband is a Thai
pastor. In December of 2010 our neighbor,
Marisa was a Buddhist. She came to our
house to talk with Khae one day. Khae talked
with her for about an hour, clearly explaining the Gospel. When Marisa went back
home she told Paul she wanted to become a
Christian. The witness that Khae gave that
day broke almost all of the “rules” that this
Thai “expert” is teaching missionaries. For
example, she says, “Christians can bring up
religious issues only when they have deep
relational bonding with non-believers.” At
that time Khae and Marisa hardly knew
each other. Also, the apostle Paul did not
follow this approach in going to many new
cities to preach.
Then, in critiquing some traditional evangelistic methods, the author of this article
quotes an unbeliever in her survey as saying,
“I do not want anyone to talk about death.”
Khae brought up the issue of death very
clearly with Marisa that day. Another rule
that is brought out in this article is, “do not
contrast religions.” Again, Khae did not follow that rule and she pointed out the benefits
of believing in Jesus as opposed to Buddha.
Of course that doesn’t need to be done
in an offensive way, but at some point the
unbeliever needs to see what the real differences are. In Buddhism people are told
to be a refuge unto themselves. In Jesus
Christ we have a Savior who saves us—
something we could never do by ourselves.
Even Khae’s dad, as good a man as he was,
when his wife tried to bring him back to
Buddhism, told her, “I’ve found the way to
salvation, and you want me to go back to
the dead end way?”
This same article advocates using chanting during Christian worship and Buddhist
28
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
rituals to reconcile with people. Because
Khae spoke clearly and uncompromisingly
in love that day, Marisa made a clear break
with her old life and now she, Paul, her
daughter, son, and niece are real Christians.
Of course it was God who did the real work
in their lives, but my point is that God uses
truth to set people free (John 8: 31-32). If the
church is using lies and compromises, that
is a hindrance to the truth and a hindrance
to people being set free. Thailand needs
truth, not compromise, Thais and missionaries who shun to declare all the counsel of
God (Acts 20:27 “For I have not shunned to
declare unto you all the counsel of God.”).
Aside from this we continue to teach
English and Bible at the women’s prison
every week, have a weekly Bible study
with mostly non-Christian college students, teach part time at a junior high and
a college, and we have a weekly class at
our house for students, teaching them English and the Bible. This is a busy schedule,
so I’m hoping to cut down on the English
classes at the junior high and college for
next term (two months from now). But, it
has been good to be there this term in order to meet new students and invite them to
classes where they can hear the Gospel.
Praise God we have a Savior in Jesus
Christ. We are not left to our own limitations.
In Christ,
Scott
Book Review:
I don’t know how popular this book is
overseas, but I keep encountering it here in
Thailand, even in its English version. So, I
wrote a review of it, hoping to slow the tide
of syncretism which this promotes...
From Buddha to Jesus by Steve Cioccolanti: A book review by Scott Noble
Exaltation of the Buddha
Throughout this book there are frequent
comments exalting the Buddha. Here are
some examples:
“...one leads to the other...The last words
of Buddha open up to the first words of
Christ in the New Testament.” (33) “...Buddha was a very wise man...” (46) [the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Did the Buddha fear the Lord?] “Buddha pointed to the way...Buddha did the
Christian a great service...” (50) “I think
Buddhism is really a friend to Christianity...” (55) “Buddha’s excellent teachings
to Asians carries the same heart as God’s
commandments to the Jews.” (60) “...we
have a strong ally in Buddha’s moral commands. They are virtually the same laws as
God’s laws.” (76) [Only if by “virtually the
same” he means it’s OK to omit the first 4
of the 10 commandments, and change two
others]. “You are Buddhist? That’s Great!”
(84) [Is it great to be on a path leading away
from God and unto damnation?]
“...we’re all bad Buddhists!” (93) [We
are? Steve frequently tries to put Christianity and Buddhism on the same level, even
though one is of man, and the other is of
God] “Buddha was wise. Why, Buddha, is
there suffering? Buddha said because of
your karma...Buddha was right!” (110) [In
addition to “conversing” with the Buddha
here, Steve also falsely equates karma with
sin. Karma is an impersonal system for justice, in which there is no person overseeing the whole process. To sin is to break the
commands of the personal God of the Bible.]
“Buddha was a man of reason and evidence, of which reincarnation has none.”
(115) [Steve has exalted the Buddha so
much now, that he cannot believe the Buddha actually taught reincarnation—contrary to the Pali Canon—though re-birth
would be a more correct term, because of
the doctrine of anatta. This highlights another theme (Gnosticism) throughout this
book. Instead of representing Buddhism
according to what the Pali Canon teaches,
Steve just comes up with his own ideas
of what the Buddha really taught. This is
Gnosticism—finding “secret knowledge,”
not based on real evidence, but on spurious
claims or wishful thinking. It’s the DaVinci
Code (a story based on imagination, not
evidence) applied to Buddhism.]
“Reincarnation is one of the best doctrines Buddhism is known for. I think it is a
great friend to us who are Christian.” (129)
[Here, Steve contradicts himself again while
offering more praise to Buddhism.] “What
is Jesus saying to us? Exactly what Buddha
was teaching.” (137) [Really?] “Buddha
never denied the existence of God.” (141)
[The Buddha’s whole life was a denial of
the existence of God, even if he did not put
that into words. His followers understood
this. At the World Buddhist Sangha Council (WBSC) in 1981 they stated, “Whether
Theravāda or Mahāyāna, we do not believe
that this world is created and ruled by a god
at his will.”] “Buddha was a very humble
person.” (146) [Contrary to Steve’s opinion, the Pali Canon records the Buddha’s
no- so-humble proclamation, “Chief am
I in the world, Eldest am I in the world,
Foremost am I in the world! This is the last
birth!” (D II, 12)]
“Buddha really paved the way for sinners to trust in Jesus.” (160) “Because they
know Buddha taught the right thing...”
(195) “If you say you’re Buddhist, then
you should follow Buddha” (197) [I would
never encourage someone to follow the
Buddha]. “Buddha’s prediction was not so
far off from what Jesus teaches us about the
End Times.” (202) [This is like his “virtually the same” comment regarding the com-
Moriel Thailand – Continued
mandments. Steve exalts the Buddha to be
on the same level as Jesus, even though the
intent of their teachings was worlds apart.]
“Buddhism is probably more like Christianity than any other religion in the world!
Buddha would have agreed with much of
the Old Testament and embraced the gift
of the New Testament. If Buddha were
alive today, I am convinced he would be in
church and love hearing the Good News of
Jesus Christ.” (208-209) [Again, these are
Steve’s opinions, not based on reality, but
on his own wishful thinking.] “There is evidence, particularly from his last words, that
Buddha may have had a relationship with
God.” (228) [This is from the chapter, “Is
Buddha in Heaven?” While he leaves it as
a “maybe,” it is a strong “maybe” to Steve,
based on “evidence” of his “last words.”
These so called “last words,” though, are
not from the Pali Canon. Rather, they are
an unconfirmed rumor (and not ancient, but
modern), which is yet another way of saying “Gnosticism.”]
“...he would be a better Buddhist by getting saved.” (233) [Is that the goal? This
is already approaching the level of heresy of which “Mother” Teresa was known
for—wanting to make better Hindus, better
Muslims, better Buddhists, etc.] “Jesus and
Buddha had much in common.” (237) “If
Buddha were alive today, I have no doubt
in my mind that he would be in church and
reading the Bible. If Buddha were alive today, he would say to Buddhists, ‘Reform
your religion...’” (238) [In true gnostic
fashion, Steve puts imaginary words into
the Buddha’s mouth, and sees Buddhism as
so similar to Christianity that the Buddha
would have been a Christian if alive today.]
Misrepresenting the Bible
“...I had to receive payment for my
karma through Jesus’ blood on the cross.”
(58) [Karma and sin are not interchangeable terms.] “Jesus the Sinless Man...burning in hell for 3 days.” (61) [This is based
on the false “Word of Faith”/“Rhema”/
“Prosperity” theology, which teaches that
Jesus had to be born-again. On the cross,
Jesus said, “It is finished.” He did not burn
in hell after that. Also, on page 92 Steve
promotes his “secrets of the rich” audio or
video, and his book is endorsed by the Directors of Rhema Australia.] “Jesus actually tells us the exact amount of spiritual debt
a sinner owes to God... and exactly how
many lives you would owe...” (132) [No,
Jesus did not.] “Christians can work with
no sweat...become richer than sinners...”
(140) [false “prosperity” Gospel.] “And so
God said, ‘I’m going to have to send the
Lord of Heaven Himself.’” (140) [What
chapter and verse is that?] “I believe Jesus
died on the Cross to pay for the penalty of
my karma...” (157) [Nope.] “God deals
with our nature by replacing it with His own
Son’s.” (179) [That would make people divine, having the nature of God.] “Christ is
a more valuable hostage to Hell...” [Again,
based on the false “Rhema” theology.] “...I
would still owe at least 1,644 lives for every sin, according to the Lord Jesus.” (195)
[Jesus certainly did not say that.]
Misrepresenting Buddhism
There are several book reviews on the
Web, written by Buddhists, which call
Steve a liar. I have to agree with them on
this, because many times Steve “quotes”
the Buddha, but gives no citation. The
footnotes are mostly about Thai language,
which is almost irrelevant since that’s not
the language the Pali Canon was written in.
Though I’ve read more than 10,000 pages
on Buddhism, many of Steve’s “quotes” I
have not heard of before, and he does not
provide his sources so that a person can
double check whether or not it is quoted
accurately. Many of his “quotes” are paraphrases in which he tries to emphasize the
similarities between Christianity and Buddhism, as he does with the “four noble
truths.” Steve also said, “...Buddha never
offered a solution.” (131) [This is another
false claim. Buddha did offer a solution,
but it is a solution that falls short, as it does
not reconcile us to God.]
Probably his worst misrepresentation of
the Buddha in this book though, which he
mentions often, is the so-called prophecy
of the Buddha. Based on only one witness
(and no extant texts), Steve draws many
far-fetched conclusions from this “prophecy.” It makes the Buddha into a prophet of
God (which he is not), and it makes Jesus
into a Buddha (which is blasphemous, using the name Metteya or Maitreya, which
in the Pali Canon is defined as a Buddha).
But, this “prophecy” is not at all ancient,
and again is an example of Steve preferring
secret knowledge to actual evidence.
Conclusion
There’s a lot more that could be said
about this book. I found something offensive on almost every page. Steve is very
good at exalting the Buddha, which tickles
the ears of many Thai Christians, as they
don’t want to stand out as being different,
and thus face persecution. His book leads
to compromise and a mixing of what Buddha and Jesus taught. This kind of ecumenism is becoming more and more common
in these anti-God times in which we live.
Steve even admitted on page 111 that a
pastor who does not use his “bridge building” techniques and who speaks against
Buddhism, “wins many people to the
Lord.” I’ve also seen people come to the
Lord Jesus Christ without resorting to using sneaky and false methods. Let us be
faithful to God and to His Word, which we
can do in love.
Appendix A
Jesus repeatedly warned about deception
in the last days. As Christians we should
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is
good.” I Thessalonians 5: 21.
In brief, here are some reasons why the so
called Buddha prophecy is not something a
Christian should promote or even believe...
-It’s not in the Tripitaka (the Pali Canon)
-It’s not even in the commentaries on the
Tripitaka (compiled by the 5th century AD)
-It’s mostly unknown among people on
the street and monks alike. In fact the only
ones who seem to have this text are Christians. Even a senior monk at the temple from
which this text is supposed to have come
didn’t know how to get a copy of the text.
-The text prophesies about Metteya, who
is supposed to be a Buddha
-Every Buddha is supposed to follow a
certain pattern: his mother dies when he is
7 days old, he is uncircumcised, and must
be born in India, which completely rules
out Jesus Christ from fulfilling that role.
-If we say Jesus fulfills this Metteya role,
then it is saying that Jesus is a Buddha,
which is a serious distortion of the character of Jesus Christ.
-Not only does this so-called prophecy
downgrade Jesus’ character, it also elevates the historical Buddha to the role of
a prophet of God. The Buddha does not
in any sense qualify for this, as he has not
only false prophesies but also very unbiblical teachings.
-Using this in evangelism is not only dishonest (because the prophecy is not historical at all) but it also confuses the would-be
new believer into exalting the Buddha as a
prophet and downgrading Jesus Christ to
the role of a Buddha.
May we as Christians be faithful and honest as we serve Jesus Christ who is the truth.
Do not compromise with the father of lies,
or give heed to seducing spirits. Promoting
this false prophecy only introduces distortion and thus disease into the Body of Christ.
“As many as I love, I rebuke
and chasten. Be zealous
therefore, and repent.”
“As many as I love, I rebuke
and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.” Rev 3:19
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
29
Hebrew Feast
Hasidic Jews performing tashlikh on
Rosh Hashanah, painting by Aleksander
Gierymski, 1884
Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets)
(Hebrew
, literally “head of the
year”), is the Jewish New Year. It is the first
of the High Holy Days or Yamim Nora’im
(“Days of Awe”) which usually occur in the
early autumn. Rosh Hashanah is celebrated
on the first two days of Tishrei. It is de( Yo m
scribed in the Torah as Teru’ah, a day of sounding [the Shofar]).
Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding
the shofar and eating symbolic foods such
as apples dipped in honey.
Etymology
The term “Rosh Hashanah” does not appear in the Torah. Leviticus 23:24 refers to
the festival of the first day of the seventh
month as “Zikhron Teru’ah” (“a memorial
with the blowing of horns”), it is also referred to in the same part of Leviticus as
‘
’ or penultimate Sabbath or
meditative rest day, and a “holy day to
God”. These same words are commonly
used in the Psalms to refer to the anointed
days. Numbers 29:1 calls the festival Yom
Teru’ah, (“Day [of] blowing [the horn]”)
and symbolizes a number of subjects, such
as the Binding of Isaac and the animal sacrifices that were to be performed. (The term
Rosh Hashanah appears once in the Bible
in Ezekiel 40:1 where it means generally
the time of the “beginning of the year” or is
possibly a reference to Yom Kipur,[2] but
the phrase may also refer to the month of
Nissan in the spring, especially in light of
Exodus 12:2 where the month of Nissan is
stated as being “the first month of the year”
and Ezekiel 45:18 where “the first month”
unambiguously refers to Nissan, the month
of Passover, as made plain by Ezekiel 45:21.
The Hebrew Rosh Ha-Shanah is etymologically related to the Arabic Ras as-Sanah,
the name chosen by Muslim lawmakers for
the Islamic New Year, reflecting the Islamic
immitation of older Jewish traditions. PreIslamic mid-eastern cultures, besides the
Jews, did not use this unique name, e.g.,
Egypt, Persia or Babylon. Rosh Hashanah
30
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
marks the start of a new year in the Hebrew
calendar (one of four “new year” observances that define various legal “years”
for different purposes as explained in the
Mishnah and Talmud). It is the new year for
people, animals, and legal contracts. The
Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new
year for calculating calendar years, shmita
and yovel years. Jews are confident, that
Rosh Hashanah represents either figuratively or literally God’s creation ex nihilo.
However, according to Rabbi Eleazar ben
Shammua Rosh Hashanah commemorates
the creation of man.
Shofar blowing
Yemenite-style shofar
Laws on the form and use of the shofar
and laws related to the religious services
during the festival of Rosh Hashanah are
described in Rabbinic literature such as the
Mishnah that formed the basis of the tractate “Rosh HaShanah” in both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud.
This also contains the most important rules
concerning the calendar year. The shofar is
blown in long, short and staccato blasts that
follow a set sequence:
• Teki’ah (long sound) Numbers 10:3
• Shevarim (3 broken sounds) Numbers 10:5
• Teru’ah (9 short sounds) Numbers 10:9
• Teki’ah Gedolah (very long sound) Exodus 19:16,19
• Shevarim Teru’ah (3 broken sounds followed by 9 short sounds)
Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar will result in Rosh Hashanah falling
no earlier than September 6.
• Rosh Hashanah will occur on the following days of the Gregorian calendar:
• Current Jewish Year 5773: sunset September 16, 2012 - nightfall September 18, 2012
• Coming Jewish Year 5774: sunset September 4, 2013 - nightfall September 6, 2013
• Although the Jewish calendar is based on
the lunar cycle, so that the first day of
each month originally began with the first
sighting of a new moon, since the fourth
century it has been arranged so that Rosh
Hashanah never falls on a Wednesday,
Friday, or Sunday.
• The Torah defines Rosh Hashanah as a
one day celebration, and since days in the
Hebrew calendar begin at sundown, the
beginning of Rosh Hashanah is at sundown
at the end of 29 Elul. The rules of the Hebrew calendar are designed such that the
first day of Rosh Hashanah will never occur on the first, fourth, or sixth day of the
Jewish week (i.e., Sunday, Wednesday, or
Friday). Since the time of the destruction
of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70
CE and the time of Rabban Yohanan ben
Zakkai, normative Jewish law appears to
be that Rosh Hashanah is to be celebrated
for two days, due to the difficulty of determining the date of the new moon. Nonetheless, there is some evidence that Rosh
Hashanah was celebrated on a single day
in Israel as late as the thirteenth century
CE. Orthodox and Conservative Judaism
now generally observe Rosh Hashanah
for the first two days of Tishrei, even in
Israel where all other Jewish holidays
dated from the new moon last only one
day. The two days of Rosh Hashanah are
said to constitute “Yoma Arichtah” (Aramaic: “one long day”). In Reform Judaism, some communities only observe the
first day of Rosh Hashanah, while others
observe two days. Karaite Jews, who do
not recognize Rabbinic Jewish oral law
and rely on their own understanding of
the Torah, observe only one day on the
first of Tishrei, since the second day is not
mentioned in the Written Torah.
(Wikipedia)
Duration and timing
• Rosh Hashanah occurs 163 days after the
first day of Passover (Pesach). In terms of
the Gregorian calendar, the earliest date
on which Rosh Hashanah can fall is September 5, as happened in 1899 and will
happen again in 2013. The latest date that
Rosh Hashanah can occur relative to the
Gregorian dates is October 5, as happened
in 1967 and will happen again in 2043.
After 2089, the differences between the
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Out Of Season
Jackie Alnor
“Out of Season”
with Jackie Alnor
2 Tim 4:2 - ...Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering...”
by: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT
Christian Zombies: The New Breed of Prophets
Looking for the Christian book section
at a Barnes & Noble recently, I was startled to discover a whole new category of
books I had not seen before. The new genre
is “Teen Paranormal Fiction.” Besides the
“Twilight” series, the aisle was filled with
titles like, “Beautiful Demons,” “The Mind
Readers,” “The Gossip Ghouls: Zombies
and Lipstick,” “Alice in Zombieland,” and
“Intuition: The Premonition Series.”
Twilight, Beautiful Demons,
The Mind Readers,
The Gossip Ghouls,
Zombies and Lipstick,
Alice in Zombieland
The world today is obsessed with the
paranormal and young people are drawn in
even more than adults. Entire television networks have sprung up featuring programs
that appeal to that base nature in man to
cross over into the unknown. Ghost-hunter
programs are very popular as cameras follow the hunters into the deep recesses of
‘haunted houses’ trying to capture a spectre
on tape. “Celebrity Ghost Stories” are very
popular. Some first-hand accounts sound
like downright demonic attacks on the un-
suspecting victims who wrongly believe
their tormentors are spirits of the dead.
The same spirit of the age that inspires
the world’s fascination with the paranormal
excites many of today’s so-called Christian
leaders. Instead of calling the genre ‘paranormal,’ charismatic enthusiasts call it ‘supernatural.’ Like their secular counterparts,
the leaders of the ‘new Christianity’ seek
after the same signs and wonders. They
testify of visitations from departed loved
ones. They sign up for occult initiation in
“schools of the prophets” where they learn
formulas for making ‘creative miracles’
happen. They study quantum physics in
order to create their own reality. They call
themselves ‘warriors’ who hunt down demons to rid entire regions of their presence.
New Breed
The days of the old guard of modern
prophets are over. Phase One is long gone
as men like William Branham, Kenneth
Hagin, and John Wimber died out. They
were replaced by the second phase starring the Kansas City Prophets (Bob Jones,
Paul Cain, Jack Deere, Mike Bickle, etc.),
Mark Chironna, Bill Hamon, Kim Clement,
Cindy Jacobs, Sid Roth, Benny Hinn, John
Arnott, Randy Clark, Bill Johnson, Rodney
Howard-Browne, Patricia King, Stacey
Campbell, etc., who are preparing younger
ones for the next and ultimate new breed of
super prophets. Phase Three includes new
names like David Herzog, Manasseh Jordan, John Crowder, Todd Bentley, JoAnne
McFadder and Caleb Brundidge.
The Kansas City (false) Prophets, Bob
Jones and Paul Cain, both prophesied the
same vision as seen by their predecessor
William Branham. These so-called seers
had visions of an end-times army that
would rise up and do miracles, signs and
wonders before the Lord’s return and even
cheat death and never die. (It escapes their
notice that the only place in the Bible that
speaks of those who can’t die is in the 9th
chapter of Revelation – and that is a judgment when they want to die and can’t.)
They called these warriors of the future,
‘the new breed.’ They also prophesied
that in that time they would be able to fill
entire sports stadiums with youth and get
the attention of the secular media – which
seemed important to them.
In order to save face, it appears that the
older false prophets are trying to fulfill the
prophecies of the end-times army of youth
by focusing their attention on young people, using worldly and carnal enticements
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly
31
Jackie Alnor
to lure them in for their initiation into the
fires of judgment. They use words like
blaze, fire, flame, burning, while graphics
of fire and flames decorate their banners
and websites.
They expend much energy in hyping
their national campaigns to draw crowds
to their rented arenas in an effort to fulfill
the prophecies of crowded stadiums. Lou
Engle is in the forefront with his annual stadium event, The Call. New Age Mormon,
Glenn Beck, however, has them beat with
his ‘love America’ rallies in his own effort
to bring all men and women of good will
together for spiritual unity regardless of
their religion.
Worldly Prophets & Seers
Patricia King of Xtreme Prophetic Ministries in Phoenix, Arizona promotes many
of these new flames when she’s not giving them theatrical performance lessons.
A favorite of hers is “worship leader” Caleb Brundidge who runs “Club Mysterio
where people (mostly young) come together and experience Ekstasis worship/dance.”
What on earth is Ekstasis worship you ask?
He wrote for Elijah List, an umbrella promoting media center for false prophets, the
following:
Ekstasis - Greek word for “trance”
• moving beyond oneself
• finding freedom from the perceived constraint of time and space
• being in a state of amazement
• being astonished by
• being of one mind, beside one’s self - insane
• throwing of the mind out of a normal state
In reality, it is the spiritual exercise of
Kundalini yoga that initiates these gullible
Christian youth into occult experience. Promoter Patricia King would argue that what
is done in the occult is only a counterfeit of
true spirituality and she thinks she has the
authentic manifestations.
Sid Roth, host of It’s Supernatural, introduces his audience to the latest and most
outlandish psychic prophets, dream interpreters, and mind-readers. A frequent guest
is David Herzog who Roth promoted in
this fashion: “David Herzog moves in signs
and wonders such as instant weight loss,
restoration of sight and being supernaturally transported from one location to another.” That sure beat Jenny Craig and Delta
Airlines! This new breed of a man testifies of gold teeth appearing in the mouth of
his followers as he teaches them to walk in
the glory realm by harnessing the creative
force of their thoughts.
Benny Hinn, when he’s not hosting lowkey guests like The Harbinger author Jonathan Cahn, is busy propping up the latest
cold-reader illusionist, ‘Prophet’Manasseh
32
Moriel Quarterly • September 2012
Jordan. He is the son of certified false
prophet, Bernard Jordan, a cold-reader
psychic prophet who charges $365 for a
personal prophecy from himself. His son,
a chip off the old block, entertains Hinn’s
audience with his own mind-reading seer
skills of calling people down based on
their first name, weight, hair color and even
their PO box number. (Not as impressive
as the mentalist who recently appeared in
America’s Got Talent.) He also knocks people down in his charade of anointing them.
Todd Bentley, the tattooed goon who was
anointed ‘prophet of the new breed’ by the
ruling junta prophets and apostles (NAR),
while he was having an extramarital affair
with his assistant. He has anointed his own
discovery. Pastor Stan Tyra of Revolution
Church in Northwest Arkansas runs his
own youth outreach. “Adullam School of
Warriors is an apostolic school of revivalists whose purpose is to bring Heaven
to earth. “Our desire is to equip men and
women to transform their spheres of influence and surrounding culture into Kingdom
culture.” Bentley has pronounced that God
told him Pastor Tyra has been given the
spirit of the Norse god Thor.
Conclusion
As the new breed of false prophets makes
their way into the mainstream of the charismatic church, be prepared to see actual
demonic signs and wonders and not merely
psychosis, hypnotic suggestion and copycat antics. These ‘Christian’ zombies now
invading the ‘Kingdom’ are being trained
to communicate with devils as they satiate their desire for more, more, more fire
and glory. They will most likely receive
more than what they bargained for, as they
combine their mind powers to create a new
paranormal reality.
Those young people who are falling for
this satanic seduction need to be rescued
from the flames before they succumb in the
carnage. (Jude 23).
Jackie Alnor
Quotes of the QUARTER !
The visions of your prophets
were false and worthless;
they did not expose your sin to
ward off your captivity.
The oracles they gave you were
false and misleading.
Lamentations 2:14
Out Of Season
TO THE CHURCH AND
NATION OF BRITAIN
A few months ago Moriel web posted this
prophecy by our friend & brother Stewart
Dool from a sister ministry Moriel endorses here in Britain. While some contacted
us in objection, I prayerfully considered it
right to publish the prophetic prediction for
prayerful consideration. I am in retrospect
glad in light of recent events that we carried it and promoted it. He has certainly
been vindicated; as it says in Romans 12 he
“propheseyed according to his faith”. Jacob
Prasch The following is a prophetic word
received by Stewart Dool (who heads up
Intercessors for Britain) in the week 23-27
July 2007. It has been weighed and tested
by others in senior positions of ministry. TO
THE CHURCH AND NATION OF BRITAIN I am about to send fire upon you, the
fire of My judgment, and it will consume
on the right and on the left. All who have
spurned My ways and My words will reap
what they have sown, for in My burning
anger I will judge the gods in whom you
have put your trust, the gods of materialism
and covetousness. The gold and the silver
will be taken from you, and your portion
will be emptiness, desolation and vanity. I
will bring the stability of your currency into
doubt, to show you that it is I alone who
caused you to prosper in the past. I raised
you to prominence among the nations and
gave you authority over many peoples:
so you became rich, and boasted in your
wealth, but I will bring you low, and the
nations over whom you once ruled will say
“What has happened to this great nation?”
As you have feared other gods, and not
feared Me, so I will visit your deeds upon
you. Your idolatries have led you astray,
and you have become like those before
whom you bow down. I commanded your
fathers that they should not fear the gods of
the nations, but you have not obeyed Me.
Therefore I have given you into the hands
of abominations and all manner of uncleanness . . . .
Edited, See Original Report Here: http://
morielbealertblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/
to-church-and-nation-of-britain.html
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