PROPHETIC SIGNS THAT WE ARE IN THE END TIMES [A good summary of SOME key evidences--QX]

"I believe God has protected plenty of His written Word for us to establish and maintain a close relationship with Him."

I don't. I put my faith in God but I know that man can screw up anything and God isn't going to stop us - He has given us that freedom. Anyways, the bible may contain some of God's words but it is not the Word of God. It is a book written and compiled by men probably no less failable than you or me.

"I don't think God makes it difficult in a way that only the super smart and great researchers can ferret such things out."

Actually, I think most things can be "ferreted" out by prayer. Prayer, a bit of reason and most importantly grace are necessary. Anyways, whose said that the spiritual life is easy? Jesus and his disciples certainly didn't have an easy time of it. Maybe God really expects us to do some work too? Not just to nod our heads, lift our hands and say "I believe!" Any fool can believe. Who loves God without cause or condition while knowing full well that he or she really knows nothing with certainty of His plan for us? Such is the kingdom of Heaven in my opinion.

I think I understand your perspective. I doubt we will come to agreement on the issues about the texts that you feel strongly about.

I appreciate your clear and thoughtful sharing.

"I think I understand your perspective. I doubt we will come to agreement on the issues about the texts that you feel strongly about."

Actually, I don't feel strongly about any of them - that is my point. There is some guidance and inspiration but in the end they are just words - not the Word of God. Understanding, which comes alone by the grace of God, is not dependent on scriptual interpretation, semantics and theology - those things are probably worth less than dust in God's eyes.

"Suffer little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of heaven." - Matt. 19:14

"Blessed is the pure in heart, for they shall see God" - Matthew 5:8

Who put his trust completely in God like a child trusts his father or mother? When I say trust in God I don't mean believing the scriptures and how God's plan is described therein - I mean trust in God with no qualifications and no conditions.

When it happens, I will be ready, otherwise, God wants to come back to intelligent life, and I am getting on with business until that time when he does arrive here.

I though of a profound statement in the movie Lord of the Rings, " What will you do with the time given to you? "

I'm going to learn as much as I can and experience the same.

I try--earnestly TRY to

MAXIMIZE ON THINGS OF ETERNAL CONSEQUENCE--AT LEAST POTENTIAL ETERNAL CONSEQUENCE--

and minimize chaff in my life between now and graduation day.

Oh, well, then,

evidently we are already in pretty wholesale agreement! YEA GOD!

QUIX NOTE: I have come to believe that the 10 regions that the puppet masters have divided the world up into and are planning concurrently with the world government . . . will turn out to be the 10 nation confederacy. But I could certainly be wrong. Just a cognition; a guess.

Nevertheless, this doc is an interesting read. Blessings,

From:

Gladrags2@webtv.net (Anita Bush)

To:

end-times_news@associate.com

Subject: In the Days of These Kings

Special Report: ''In The Days of These Kings'' Jack Kinsella
Prophecy - Signs
Friday, December 10, 2004
Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor

"If the formation of the European Common Market were an isolated development in the line of Bible prophecy, then it would have no significance for our study."

"However, combined with the other pieces of the prophetic puzzle which we are attempting to develop for you, it takes on immense importance. We believe that the Common Market and the trend toward the unification of Europe may well be the beginning of the ten-nation confederacy predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation." -- (The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey, 1969)

Thirty-six years ago, when Hal confidently named an as-yet non-existent ten-nation confederation arising out of the heart of the old Roman Empire, Europe's unification was still only a dream.

It had only been some twenty-one years before that the fledgling Brussels Treaty that created the Benelux Customs Union had been signed on March 17th, 1948.

At the time Hal was writing the Late, Great Planet Earth, the ten nations of Western Europe that form the core of the WEU (and who remain the only nations to hold full membership status) had not yet reached their full number.

The Western European Council was still debating applications for membership from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland and Norway. It wasn't until 1995 that the Western European Union's roster of ten full members was filled when Greece was accepted into the fold.

The European Union is NOT the Western European Union, but the Western European Union IS the EU. That sounds confusing -- I'm not even sure I can explain it coherently, but I'll try.

Modern Europe was born OUT of the Western European Union, but the WEU itself continued on as a separate organization. The requirement for full membership in the Western European Union is membership in both the greater European Union and NATO. The modern European Union was born out of the 1957 Treaty of Rome.

The Western European Union was born out of the 1948 Brussels Treaty as a replacement to the failed European Security and Defense Assembly under the terms of the 'Modified Brussels Treaty' signed in 1954. (NATO was created in 1949)

The EU and WEU formed a partial merger in areas of defense and security. A full merger had been planned by 2000, but as of 2004, the WEU is still very much alive and most European military planning takes place within its constituent cells.

A book published recently by New York University entitled, "Defending Europe" argues that events of the first four years of this century point more toward a revival of the WEU than its absorption into the greater EU.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the WEU is composed of the delegations of the member states to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which, fearful for its future existence with the winding up of the WEU, has been lobbying for itself to be recognized as the "European Security and Defense Assembly".

In a speech delivered to the WEU Assembly gathered in London in February, 1996, by NATO'S Deputy Secretary General, he told the WEU delegates; "First, the question of NATO's European component. That function is currently fulfilled by the WEU. The WEU, of course, performs a dual role. The Treaty on European Union refers to the WEU as an integral part of the development of the EU and requests the WEU to elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the EU which have defense implications."

Javier Solana's deputy went on to exhort the WEU delegates; "So let us remind ourselves of one central fact: NATO, the WEU and the EU have the same strategic interests - shaping the security environment of the future for the better and enhancing stability and security throughout the wider Europe."

Hmmm. Sounds almost Biblical -- 'these three are one'. The fact that the WEU is taking steps to strengthen its existence and power within the framework of the greater EU, instead of allowing itself to be absorbed, is of great significance when trying to understand the whole 'ten toes' of Daniel prophecy.

Simply put, the greater EU, now consisting of 28 member states, needs the WEU to ensure its security. And since the ten core nations of the WEU are simultaneously the most powerful states in Old Europe, the EU is really an extension of the WEU -- and not the other way around.

The European Union is the administrative and economic arm, but the WEU is the hand that holds the hammer.

King Nebuchadnezzar summoned the prophet Daniel to interpret a dream he had that had baffled all his counselors and sorcerers. The king couldn't even remember the dream, only that it greatly troubled him.

Daniel was tasked with both telling the king what his dream was, and interpreting its meaning. Daniel told the king that he saw, in his dream, a great image of a man, with a head of fine gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, with two legs of iron and his feet part of iron and part of clay. (Daniel 2:28-33)

Daniel went on to describe what troubled the king the most, even though he couldn't recall the details:

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." (Daniel 2:34-35)

The image, as you undoubtedly know, described four successive world empires; the head was Babylon, chest and arms was the Medo-Persian Empire, belly and thighs was Alexander's Greek Empire and the two legs of iron represented Rome, which eventually divided itself into an eastern and western empire.

The Western Empire was ruled from Rome, the Eastern Empire from Constantinople, until both finally collapsed under their own weight.

Insofar as the feet of iron and clay, Daniel told the king:
"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay." (2:41)

Iron mixed with clay is partly strong and partly weak. So is the revived Roman Empire partly strong, and partly weak.

Without the strength of the member states of the WEU, the greater EU would soon collapse. Without the economic power, infrastructure and participation of the greater EU, the WEU would be just another military alliance.

Donald Rumsfeld divided Europe into two categories; "Old Europe" and "New Europe". So did the prophet Daniel. "And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." (2:42-43)

Daniel's description could not be more specific. And, as a side observation, its fulfillment is dripping with symbolism. 'Old Europe' came to the foreground as a consequence of its opposition to a war to invade Iraq (ancient Babylon) for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein, a dictator who claimed to be the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar.

When he was restoring the old city of Babylon during the 1980's, Saddam had bricks struck that superimposed his profile beside that of Nebuchadnezzar. In 1988, he commissioned a coin celebrating himself as the second Nebuchadnezzar.

The removal of the 'second Nebuchadnezzar' split both NATO and Europe down the middle, with most of the newly admitted member states to the East siding with Washington, and the majority of Western Europe opposed. 'Partly strong, and partly weak, but they shall not cleave together' is the way Daniel described it.

The WEU is, as of 2004, a ten-nation core of powerful European states in charge of maintaining Europe's military security. It controls NATO, the world's most powerful military alliance and it insists on retaining a separate identity to keep its voice from being diluted by that of the greater EU.

Often at odds with its own members (as in the Iraq War), it remains, nonetheless, the heart and soul of greater Europe. And it is committed to replacing the United States as the world's only superpower.

And, according to the prophet Daniel, it will be the world's last superpower.

"And in the DAYS OF THESE KINGS shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." (2:44)

So when Joel talks about end times and men and women prophesying, that's not scriptural either?

I believe that it's absolutely scriptual and has been happening since Christ came and thus brought in the end of time. God's Word however, is only preached by the called, same as ever

Another SIGN OF THE TIMES . . . incrementally marching toward the Mark of The Beast . . . FROG IN THE WATER data point . . .

From:

Gladrags2@webtv.net (Anita Bush)
To:

end-times_news@associate.com

Subject: TSA Widens Test of Biometric IDs

TSA widens test of biometric IDs
Privacy experts worry about precedents
By Brock N. Meeks Chief Washington correspondent MSNBC

The U.S. government is spending $25 million this fiscal year to road test a universal secure identity card loaded with biometric and personal data and tied to government "watch lists." Though the program is aimed at simplifying the security checks that airport personnel and other transportation workers must go through, privacy experts are warning of unintended consequences.

The card, known as the Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC), will allow workers at the nation's railways, ports, mass transit agencies and airports to carry a single card to access secure areas within these facilities. Currently, many of these workers have to carry several individual cards.

"Anyone who needs unescorted access to secure areas of [a transporation facility] would need a TWIC card," a TSA spokesman said.

The credit-card sized device will contain fingerprints, an iris scan, palm geometry and a digital photo. It will have microchip and magnetic strip technology, along with holographic images and ultraviolet printing for added security. Think of it as a kind of universal remote of secure IDs or, if you're more inclined to a Middle Earth meme, this is the "one card to rule them all."

The biometric and personal data will be tied to various government "watch lists" that contain the names and data of known or suspected terrorists, according to the Transportation Security Administration, which is overseeing the testing.

"The TWIC will be issued to transportation workers after thorough screening for ties to terrorism and will utilize a biometric to eliminate the use of fraudulent credentials," said TSA chief David Stone. A key factor of the card is improved "resource management," TSA said in a statement about the card's rollout. "By positively identifying 'known' transportation workers, the TWIC allows TSA to focus resources on 'unknown' individuals who present a greater threat risk," TSA said.

The rollout of the card for real world use marks the third phase of testing for TWIC. The card was put into use recently at the Port of Long Beach, Calif. Over the next seven months, the card's use will be expanded to 34 sites in Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

By the end of the phase III testing, TSA hopes to have enrolled some 200,000 transportation workers in the program. Participation is voluntary, a TSA spokesman said.

But just because a worker holds a TWIC doesn't automatically grant him or her access to secure areas.

"Local facilities are responsible for granting or denying access to their facilities," Stone told Congress in his response questions during his June confirmation hearings.

Card faces hurdles Although the card is being narrowly targeted for use by transportation workers, privacy groups are closely watching its implementation. One concern is that the card may be the victim of "mission creep" and turned into something outside the scope of its original intent, such as becoming the forerunner of a national ID card.

Although the use of TWIC has been "narrowly drawn to transportation security, some provisions require close attention" to ensure that the card doesn't fall "in the traps of unintended uses," said the Electronic Privacy Information Center, in formal comments filed to the TSA in October.

And because the TSA intends to hold all the data collected for administering the TWIC in a centralized database, privacy groups caution that such a system could be vulnerable to compromise and mismanagement.

For its part, TSA acknowledges that rolling out the card is a tricky process.

"TWIC is a complex project that needs to balance three key goals: improving security, enhancing commerce, and protecting personal privacy," Stone told a congressional panel during his confirmation hearings. "Similar to other large integrated projects, TWIC has inherent management and technology challenges as well as program-specific challenges in the fields of identity management systems, information technology, information security, advance credential technology, biometrics, encryption, and physical and logical access control technologies."

It's just that laundry list of potential hurdles that worries privacy groups. Because such a large amount of personal information is gathered and made accessible to a large number of people, the potential for compromise is high.

"The information TSA gathers ... has the potential to pose a serious threat to personal privacy and the stated goals of the programs if it is used in ways unrelated to transportation security," EPIC said in its comments to TSA. "The inclusion of the Social Security Number is especially problematic because it was never intended to be used as an identifier, and its disclosure gives rise to the risk of identity theft," the center said.

After the prototype phase is complete, a full review of the card's use under real world circumstances will be done, TSA said. Recommendations for rolling out the card nationwide --or killing the program altogether-- will then be made to the Homeland Security secretary.

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive

Am curious of your assessment of Charles H Spurgeon???

Am also curious,

Why do you think Samuel was not stoned when he told King Saul that the kingdom of Israel was torn from him by the Lord THAT DAY?

Thank you very much Quix for posting this thread!

I have bookmarked it.

I am in the process of reading the Bible from cover to cover for the first time. So far I'm up to 1 Kings. It's cool to see Biblical references throughout the thread and actually know what they are referring to.

As a humorous aside, I can't believe that a thread about Signs of the End Times has gone for over 1,000 posts without even one reference to this:

Boston Red Sox win the World Series!

LOL! Thanks.

Thanks for your kind words.

Am planing to post sometime this evening a historic example of 'power evangelism.'

It's an exciting example.

God's best to you in your reading. I heard recently that someone was instructed to read Acts 50 times. And they did--with God meeting with them in supernatural ways in the process.

Certainly it is a great manual for Christian life--as of course is the whole of Scripture.

More than 1,000 posts and more than 6,000 views.

The following is taken from pp 197-198 of YOUR SONS & DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHECY: Prophetic Gifts in Ministry Today.

The source: David E Schoch, who knew Tom personally:

Following all quoted except when noted in [brackets]. All bold and color emphases are by Quix.

--------------------------------

Genesis 11 recounts that God cursed the sinful society of the day by using different languages to confuse and scatter the people. Now, in Acts 2, this alienation of nations is being reversed through Christ [welll, somewhat, as suits Holy Spirit's goals and purposes--Qx]. God shows His concern for the nations and sets the course for the era of the Spirit by having the first prophecies of the new age come forth in Gentile tongues, not Hebrew.

Do such literal languages ever occur in our day? A most interesting story from this century involves an early Pentecostal evangelist and missionary named Thomas Hezmalhalch (1948-1934). "Although he was not considered a great preacher by some contemporaries," writes W.E. Warner, "Hezmalhalch's name is legendary in both the U.S. and South Africa as a man who walked in the Spirit and who had great influence in the early Pentecostal movement." ⁶ He is best known for his ministry in South Africa beginning in 1908 (after he had reached sixty years of age!).

Brother Tom felt God wanted him to preach to the Zulu people. To reach their country he had to cross a river, so he acquired a boat and rowed across. Then he beached the craft, looked up and found himself facing a group of Zulu warriors. Because he did not speak their language, he addressed them as best he could in what he thought was English. But something other than English was coming out of his mouth, and they seemed to understand what he was saying.

Taken captive to their village, Hezmalhalch continued to communicate with the people in Zulu, much to the consternation of the witch doctors, who were apparently planning to kill and cook him. For three days and nights Tom was kept in a hut near the place of assembly. Each night at midnight the drums throbbed as the witch doctors practiced their incantations in preparation for the feast, and Tom prepared to die. But for three days and nights he was left in the hut in safety.

Finally the tribal leadership confronted him.

"Who are those tall men with you?"

"No one is with me," Tom answered in amazement.

"Oh, yes, there are. Each night when we've come to kill you, you're surrounded by tall, white-robed figures with flaming swords!"

Brother Tom's amazing ministry continued to the Zulu people. Until his death he was able to communicate with them in their own language with no accent, formulating English words in his mind and finding Zulu words coming spontaneously from his mouth. Thomas Hezmalhalch's was the primary effort that opened that tribe to the Gospel of Jesus Christ [footnote is at the beginning of this post about his friend].

-----------------------------------

PRAISE GOD FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS!

PRAISE GOD FOR FOLKS WILLING TO APPLY THE ACTS 2 MANUAL FOR CHRISTIAN LIFE!

Some seem to miss the CONTEXT of ACTS 2 entirely. Am chewing on writing an article about that this coming week. Those of like mind might pray accordingly.

LUB,

Here's a great article on power evangelism and related issues:

by John Piper

from:

http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/90/010790.html

Compassion, Power, and the Kingdom of God
An Introduction
January 7, 1990

1 Corinthians 4:15-21

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. Therefore I sent to you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
We begin a series of messages this morning that will probably take us all the way to the middle of April. It's called "Compassion, Power and the Kingdom of God." The series is unusual in at least two ways.

First, it is directly related to remarkable things that are happening in the world today and in our own experience; our aim will be to search the Scriptures concerning the rising worldwide tide of activity in gifts of healing, the gifts of prophecy, signs and wonders, personal spiritual warfare, territorial spiritual warfare and power evangelism. Are these things of God? Are they Biblical? Has God begun to draw us into the warfare in a way that demands greater discernment and zeal for spiritual power?

The other thing that makes the series unusual is that it will be coordinated with the Plenary Session of the BITC on Wednesday evenings. Wednesdays will take us deeper and give a chance for discussion and application. This series has been a kind of staff decision. We have been studying and discussing these things for a some time. Tom Steller and I will team teach the course.

Today's message is an introduction to the series as a whole. What I want to do is show how the questions have been raised in our experience and then close with just a brief look at the text and how the New Testament itself raises the issues we will be looking at.

First, then, what is happening in the world that prompts this series?

The first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization took place in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Until now the most remarkable upshot of that congress was the new focus of mission agencies on unreached peoples. Ralph Winter sounded a startling cry that about 90% of the missionaries of the world were working with already reached peoples, while only 10% were working with people groups with no church at all. He pointed out that the completion of the Great Commission should not be understood as reaching all the individuals in the world, but all the peoples of the world. He showed that there are (today) some 12,000 of these unreached groups, and that this should be top priority for the mission agencies of the world. This new understanding of the missionary task has gripped almost all evangelical mission agencies and denominations today.

I say this has been the most remarkable upshot of Lausanne until now. But now something else is happening in the world, especially in missions and evangelism, that may owe its strength to Lausanne and may prove just as significant as the concept of unreached peoples. Peter Wagner, of the Fuller School of World Mission, pointed this out to those of us who were at the second Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Manila last July.

He said that history may show that the most significant influence of Lausanne I was tucked away in two sentences of Article 14 of the Lausanne Covenant—the document that John Stott and Francis Schaeffer helped put together and which Billy Graham and thousands of others signed. Article 14 is entitled The Power of the Holy Spirit. The last two sentences go like this:

"We therefore call upon all Christians to pray for such a visitation of the sovereign Spirit of God that all his fruit may appear in all his people and that all his gifts may enrich the body of Christ. Only then will the whole church become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice."

Many Christians today believe that some of the spiritual gifts that were manifest in the New Testament have no place in the church or in missions today—like gifts of healing and miracles and prophecy. But that was not the position of the Lausanne Covenant. The Covenant calls all Christians to pray that all the gifts of the Spirit may enrich the body of Christ. And it specifically connects this prayer with the success of world missions. "Only then will the whole church become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice."

Peter Wagner pointed out that this last sentence may prove prophetic because it seems that most of the remarkable breakthroughs in world missions and in church growth around the world today are happening among those groups that pray the way Lausanne urges us to pray, namely, for all the gifts of the Holy Spirit—groups that deal forthrightly in the supernatural realm and take evil spirits and power encounters seriously.

This movement can hardly be labeled anymore. It's not merely Pentecostal; it's not merely charismatic; it's no one denomination or group of denominations; it is theologically diverse and includes Wesleyans and Calvinists. It is a worldwide movement with no organization, but a common zeal to seek all the gifts and the power of God described in the early church. Whatever we think of it, this movement cannot be ignored. According to Wagner in 1945 there were 16,000,000; 1955 - 27 million; 1965 - 50 million; 1975 - 97 million; 1980 268 million; 1989 - 351,000,000. Thus about one in every five professing Christians in the world today is in this group.

Three weeks ago I was invited by Peter Wagner to a one day POST-LAUSANNE II CONSULTATION ON COSMIC-LEVEL SPIRITUAL WARFARE which is supposed to take place Monday, February 11 in Pasadena. Let me give you an example of the kind of thing that is happening today which we will be discussing.

More and more people today are taking seriously the tremendous reality of Satan and evil spirits in the work of evangelism and world missions. People are asking whether the demonic effect of Satan in blinding unbelievers1 calls for some kind of special power encounter. And the reference in Ephesians 6:12 to "principalities and powers and world rulers of this present darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places," has raised the question whether there is a hierarchy of evil spirits with some assigned by Satan over whole territories with the responsibility to keep them darkened and blinded from the gospel.2 So increasingly efforts are being made to identify territorial spirits and combat them in a direct way by prayer and spiritual authority, to prepare an area for more effective evangelism.

For example, in the fall of 1984 a group of pastors and leaders for the San Nicolas/Rosario area of Argentina gathered to discuss and pray about Spiritual Warfare. The gathering was prompted by the realization that 109 towns within 100 miles of their training center had no Christian witness. They did some preliminary studies and discovered that the town of Arroyo Seco appeared to be the seat of satanic activity in the region.

Years before a well known warlock (wizard or sorcerer) by the name of Mr. Meregildo operated out of that town. He was so famous and his cures so dramatic that people would trek to Arroyo Seco from overseas for his services. Before he died he evidently passed his powers on to 12 disciples. Three times a church was established in Arroyo Seco and three times it closed down in the face of severe spiritual opposition.

After several days of Bible study and prayer, the pastors and leaders came together in one accord and placed the entire area under spiritual authority. A few of them traveled to Arroyo Seco. Positioning themselves across the street from the headquarters of Mr. Meregildo's followers they served an eviction notice on the forces of evil. They announced to them that they were defeated and that Jesus Christ would attract many to himself now that the church was united and pledged to proclaim Him. Less than three years later 82 of those towns had evangelical churches in them. An unverified report indicates that as of today, all of them may have a church or a Christian witness.3 Unusual breakthroughs in world missions are increasingly being associated with spiritual warfare.

Another example of this movement and the kind of thing we will examine is what is called "power evangelism". The term has been popularized by John Wimber, the pastor of a church called the Vineyard in Anaheim, California (that has grown from one congregation to 270+ congregations in the last 10 years). He has drawn attention to the fact that almost every instance of successful evangelism in the New Testament involves some demonstration of supernatural power alongside the preaching of the word—a healing,4 an exorcism,5 a prophecy,6 a resurrection from the dead,7 speaking of foreign tongues.8

His point is that this part of New Testament evangelism is missing in the western church for no good Biblical reason and that this accounts for some of our weakness and ineffectiveness. These confirming miracles (called "signs and wonders") have a valuable function, Wimber says, namely, not to replace the verbal gospel but to win a more open hearing for it and confirm it. That's the pattern in Acts 14:3, "So [Paul and Barnabas] remained for a long time [at Iconium], speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands." The "signs and wonders' were the Lord's direct miraculous witness to his word.

Another example of the kind of thing we will be talking about is the increasing use of the gift of prophecy. Wayne Grudem is a good friend of mine. I taught with him at Bethel for several years before he became a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and I came to Bethlehem. Wayne an ordained Baptist minister, grew up in the BGC, has the highest view of the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture of anyone I know and is a thoroughgoing Calvinist. But he has also written a very influential book on The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today (Crossway Books, 1988).

His position is that prophecy in the New Testament is not the same as the infallible prophecies of the Old Testament prophets or the words of the apostles. The prophecy practiced by the New Testament church was simply "telling something that God has spontaneously brought to mind." The telling is not infallible, but as 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 says, is to be tested: "Do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good." The purpose is not mainly to give details about the future but, as 1 Corinthians 14:3 says, to "speak to people for their upbuilding, encouragement and consolation." J.I. Packer calls the book "careful, thorough and . . . convincing." We have to come to terms with this if we are to be like the Bereans in Acts 17 and test all things by the Scriptures and be obedient to the Scriptures.

These then are some of the ways that our contemporary experience is raising for us the cluster of issues which we are summing up with the phrase "Compassion, Power and the Kingdom of God." Now we turn briefly to our Biblical text to see how Scripture itself poses these questions.

Paul had some very puffed up opponents at Corinth. But he was confident that there was no kingdom power in their puff. So he says in 1 Corinthians 4:20, "The kingdom does not consist in talk but in power." This raises two questions we will need to consider.

First, what is the nature of the kingdom of God? Here it seems to be a present demonstration of power. But two chapters later in 1 Corinthians 6:9 it seems like a future realm: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" Is it future or is it present? Is it a power to be exerted in the world by Christians or is it a realm that we will one day enter in the age to come? Is it both? How do these fit together? And how does this Kingdom relate today to what Jesus calls the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 12:26)?

Second, what is this "power" that the kingdom exerts now in the church? Paul said the same thing back in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, "My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." What is this power? Is it the power of 1 Corinthians 5:4 that the people use to deliver a member to Satan for the destruction of the flesh? Is it the power of Romans 15:19, "the power of signs and wonders"? Is it the power of Colossians 1:11, the power "for endurance and patience with joy"? And is this kingdom and this power for us today?

Finally, notice that Paul wants to come with this power in love and a spirit of gentleness. Verse 21: "What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?" I don't think he means that the rod of rebuke and discipline would be unloving. He simply means, Shall I come with disciplinary love or gentle affirming love?

But the important point for us is simply the connection between love, power and the kingdom of God. The power of the kingdom is going to issue in love. This is what we want to stress in this series: love is our aim. Our interest in these things is very practical: How shall we love unbelievers to Christ with greatest effectiveness in the 1990's? How shall we love our way into the unreached peoples with most effectiveness in the 1990's? How shall we most effectively love demonized, addicted, enslaved, broken people to the freedom of Christ in the 1990's? How can love most effectively break the power of entrenched institutional evil, like abortion in the 1990's?

Love and compassion are the summation of all practical Christian living. When you love you "fulfill the whole law" (Romans 13:10). "Faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13). "Faith working through love" is the only thing that avails with God (Gal. 5:6). "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Love is the test of whether spiritual gifts and power amount to anything: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love I am nothing" (1 Cor. 13:1-2).

Our goal is to learn how to love with the greatest power and effect that the kingdom of God will grant in this evil age. May the Lord give us a deep Biblical faithfulness as we search the Scriptures together.

1 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers." Matthew 13:19 shows the Satanic work against the gospel: "When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path." Acts 13:7-10 shows how Paul struck back with spiritual power when Elymas the magician tried to turn the Proconsul from the faith during Paul's preaching.

2 An example of this is often found in Daniel 10. Daniel begins to pray and prays for three weeks. An angel is dispatched to help him but does not arrive for three weeks. He explains his delay like this: "Fear not , Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help, so I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to befall your people." This "prince of the kingdom of Persia" is taken to be some kind of demonic power assigned some special evil responsibility over Persia.

3 Account taken from report of the Spiritual Warfare Track Workshop at Lausanne II, by Edgardo Silvoso in a paper entitled "Spiritual Warfare in Argentina and the `Plan Resistencia'" Harvest Evangelism, Inc. P.O. Box 9039 San Jose, CA 95157.

4 Acts 9:34f, "And Peter said to him, `Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.' And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord."

5 For example, Acts 8:6-7, "And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice."

6 For example the effect on the woman at the well in John 4:17-18 when Jesus told her the secrets of her heart. Her evangelism was, "Come see a man who told me all that I ever did" (John 4:29).

7 For example, consider the effect of the raising of Tabitha in Acts 9:42, "And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord."

8 This was the thing at Pentecost that caused the crowds at first to gather and be amazed (Acts 2:12). "`We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.' And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ` What does this mean?'"

Here's another good article available here: on power evangelism and related issues:

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:gjSmie5cbjwJ:www.ashland.edu/seminary/semcours/F04_MS710_Payne_Clev.pdf+power+evangelism+examples&hl=en&client=REAL-tb

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MS 710 Power Encounter in Ministry and Missions Fall Quarter, 2004, Thursday – 6:30-9:30 PM Cleveland Extension Professor, Dr. Bill Payne

And, a fun new thread is available here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1299635/posts

RE:

For a lot of people, the Bible and mathematics are dry subjects, but not for Edwin Sherman – he believes he's found how the two fit together.

Sherman, founder of the Isaac Newton Bible Code Research Society and a professional mathematician, is convinced that the Hebrew Bible contains coded messages that are evidence of God's authorship of the Bible. His book, "Bible Code Bombshell: Compelling Scientific Evidence that God Authored the Bible," describes numerous examples of encoded phrases and sentences that are both lengthy and relevant to the text where they were found.