All Bible verses are from the King James Bible, although I have changed some of the old English. Any similarity to any modern version is only by coincidence. Bible verses other than the King James have been foot-noted properly.
Copyright @ Dennis M. Edwards (photos used from Google Images for educational purposes only) [To go to the first chapters click on link]
Section Three: The Evidence and Arguments
Chapter 31: Israel Has Forsaken Its Maker and Builds Temples!
Chapter 32: Arms, Arms, and More Arms! - It's Blood Money, Baby!
Chapter 33: Israel of Old and America: a Parallel History
Chapter 34: Consequences, Consequences, and More Consequences!
Chapter 35: Blessing or Curse - Which Will You Have?
Chapter 31 Israel Has Forsaken Its Maker And Builds Temples!
Since we have been talking about football stadiums, and infrastructures and how they have been used to put government in debt, I wanted to touch for a moment on another aspect of false religious system predominant in the world today and perhaps since the dawn of man, that is, the deception of building worship.
Supposedly Saint James’ tomb had been lost, but later, it was found by a hermit who saw stars, probably meteors, falling from heaven onto a field. The name “Santiago” means “Saint James” and “Compostela” means “field of stars.” The man informed the local Bishop Teodomiro and an expedition was made to search the field. They discovered the old remains of three people. Somehow, the Bishop realized the bones were none other than Santiago and his two disciples. King Alfonso II, the king of that area of Spain, put his approval to the project and the idea to build a cathedral was soon in the making. Santiago de Compostela soon became a place of pilgrimage, and thousands travelled there seeking forgiveness of sins, healing and other answers to prayer.[2]
Howbeit the Most High dwells not in temples made with hands; Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? Have not my hand made all these things?[3]
His proclamation so infuriated the Temple-worshipping, rule-keeping, attendance-minded, power-hungry, money-making Jews who refused to obey the Word of the Lord that they straightway stoned Stephen to death, while the future Apostle Paul – Saul, looked on with approval.
Later Paul himself, while witnessing near the famous Greek temples in Athens, recalled Stephen’s words and said something similar,
Jesus Himself was not impressed with the Temple buildings in Jerusalem. Reading from the New Testament we find the following:
Of course, Jesus knew the Romans would come and destroy the Temple in the near future. But even in the Old Testament we find God’s disgust with His people over their temple-worship. In Hosea we read,
For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples.[6]
In Jeremiah we again see how the people trust in their building and temple attendance rather than in their obedience to God’s Word.
Jesus, in the New Testament, when talking to the woman at the well made a startling comment showing that God was not interested in temple-worship.
Man, with his buildings, prides himself in the works of his own hands, rather than in obeying God and giving to the poor and living humbly. When I see the great buildings built by some Christian denominations it saddens me, knowing that that money could have been used in a more fruitful way. But the false shepherds glory in their buildings as if they will last forever and as if they are laying up treasures in Heaven by building them. Lord, deliver us from the worship of buildings and the religions that are built around them, whatever they may be. The greatest travesty is that the religion gets built around church or temple-attendance and not on obedience to God and His Word.
Now back to our study on Where is America in Bible Prophecy?
Notes:
[2] http://www.red2000.com/spain/santiago/history.html (accessed 03/2016)
[3] Acts 7:48-50
[4] Acts 17:24-28
[5] Matthew 24:1-2
[6] Hosea 8:14
[7] Jeremiah 7:1-16
[8] John 4:21-24
[9] 1John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
[10] Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[11] Luke 6:31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
Chapter 32
America has also polluted the world through her sales of armaments and weapons of war. Although other countries also sell arms, the USA has had the biggest share in sales of military equipment and weapons of death and destruction. Researcher Michael Klare wrote back in May, 2013,
A New York Times article from October 2013 says,
According to IHS Jane’s, an industry consulting and analysis company, the total global arms trade revenue in 2012 was estimated to be $73.5 billion, and the United States had a 39 percent share.[2]
That’s around 18.4 billion in arms sales for the USA. Another article in Aljazeera America from March 2015 informs us that,
Another article from The Arms Industry: Control Arms Campaign written in back October 2003, explains the horrid state of the arms industry.
The arms industry is unlike any other. It operates without regulation. It suffers from widespread corruption and bribes. And it makes its profits on the back of machines designed to kill and maim human beings. So who profits most from this murderous trade? It is none other than the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—the USA, UK, France, Russia, and China. Together, they are responsible for eighty eight per cent of reported conventional arms exports. “We can’t have it both ways. We can’t be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of arms,” so said Former US President Jimmy Carter, during his 1976 presidential campaign.[5]
A more recent article from April 2016 echoes earlier reports: 
That would mean America has around 35% of world military spending. Any way we look at it, arms sales are big business.
Revelation tells us,
And in her (Babylon the Whore) was found the blood of the prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.[7]
We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In talking about the waste caused by excessive military spending, Eisenhower, a former military man himself, had previously said the following:
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 (in) population. It is two fine, fully-equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
Is this, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking? (No), this is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.[9]
In spite of Eisenhower’s warning, the percentage of America’s military spending continues to increase every year with approximately half of the Federal Budget going to military spending. Read William Hartung’s book Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex[10] if you still don’t believe me, or his short article on the internet entitled There’s No Business Like the Arms Business: Weapons “R” Us (But You’d Never Know It).[11]
And God saw that wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.[12]
War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.[15]
Dwight L Moody, the famous Christian evangelist, when speaking after the Civil War about the then possible war with Spain, said the following:
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asks thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.[19]
Apostle James went on to write that it was the lust for power and possessions that caused wars.
From whence come wars and fighting among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, … that ye may consume it upon your lusts.[20]
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?[22]
Notes:
[1] Michael Klare, Do Arms Sales by Major Powers Signal a Move to a 21st Century Cold (Or Hot) War?, Tom Dispatch, May 30, 2013
http://www.alternet.org/do-arms-sales-major-powers-signal-move-21st-century-cold-or-hot-war (accessed 03/2016)
[2] Edward Wong and Nicola Clark, China's Arms Industry Makes Global Inroads, NY Times, October 20, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/world/asia/chinas-arms-industry-makes-global-inroads.html?_r=0 (accessed 03/2016)
[3] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-military-goals-idUSKCN0X12EQ (03/2016)
[4] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/08/killer-facts-the-scale-of-the-global-arms-trade/ (accessed 03/2014)
[5] http://www.globalissues.org/article/74/the-arms-trade-is-big-business (03/16)
[6] http://news.trust.org/item/20160404220403-g66yf?view=print (03/2016)
[7] Revelation 18:24
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg-jvHynP9Y (accessed 03/2016)
[9] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9743.htm (accessed 03/16)
[10] https://www.amazon.com/Prophets-War-Lockheed-Military-Industrial-Complex/dp/1568586973?ie=UTF8&ref_=nosim&tag=tomdispatch-20
[11] http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176169/tomgram%3A_william_hartung,_how_to_arm_a_%22volatile%22_planet/
[12] Genesis 6:5-6
[13] http://www.takeoverworld.info/pdf/Engdahl__Century_of_War_book.pdf (03/16)
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVctGHYQcOw (accessed 03/16)
[15] Smedly Butler, War is a Racket, 1935. http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf (accessed 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI3lckqaSk0 (accessed 03/2016)
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/smedley_butler.html (03/16)
[16] http://www.biblebelievers.com/moody/12.html (accessed 2016)
[17] Matthew 5:3-12
[18] Matthew 5:38-48
[19] Matthew 26:52
[20] James 4:1-3
[21] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yU0JuE1jTk (accessed 03/2016)
[22] Revelation 6:10
[23] Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin (accessed 03/2016)
[25] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1rio_Soares (accessed 03/2016)
[26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_C._York (accessed 03/2016)
[27] Zechariah 8:16 These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.
[28] Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Chapter 33
At this point I would like to spend some time looking at the similarities between the nation of Israel in antiquity, its rise and fall, and the United States of America. The Bible clearly indicates that
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.[1]
Has America as a nation forgotten God? The Bible also says that
In righteousness, God exalts a nation, but in the nation’s rebellion to Him, He brings it down. In Hosea, which we have quoted earlier, we read,
In other words, neither Israel’s temples of supposed worship nor Judah’s military defenses would protect them in the day of God’s judgments against them. And they did not. Hosea goes on to explain,
According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.[4]
The pride of your heart has deceived you, you that dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high (like the skyscrapers in New York City); that say in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though you exalt thyself as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, thence will I bring you down, says the Lord.[5]
On America’s first lunar landing the landing ship was called the Eagle. NASA announced, “The Eagle has landed,” when the first landing occurred on the moon. America has surely put her nest among the stars.
As America has caused war and destruction upon the nations of Vietnam,[8] Iraq,[9] Libya, and Afghanistan, among others, will she experience the same destruction upon her own land? Finally Jeremiah gives a similar warning.
Are we as a nation being obedient to the voice of the Lord? Or have we hardened our hearts to accept the politically correct and legally right doctrines of men to our own destruction?
Notes:
[1] Psalm 9:17
[2] Proverbs 14:34
[3] Hosea 8:14
[4] Hosea 13:6
[5] Obadiah 1:3-4
[6] Obadiah 1:15
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
[10] Jeremiah 12:17
Chapter 34
Consequence, Consequences and More Consequences!
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.[1] The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.[2]
God therefore decided to
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old … whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water perished.[4][Picture of fossil graveyard.]
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the Last Days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.[5]
Aldous Huxley, the grandson of Thomas Huxley, who was called “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his avid defense of Darwin’s theory, candidly admitted the following,
I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world (and this is what evolution really teaches) is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do (moral liberty is the goal, to be free from religion’s confines). For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.[6]
Apostle Paul, much like Peter, said the following:
Wikipedia defines “itching ears” in the following way:
So we see Aldous Huxley’s honest confession confirms what was spoken by the Apostles. Because we do not want to follow God’s loving voice, but rather our own selfish desires, we reject God’s restraints and do as we will. But as a result, we end up believing a lie. The reason we do not want to follow God is because we confuse Him with the false religious system that speaks in His name. We confuse religion with God, but as one Christian activist said,
True Christianity is about as far from today’s religious system as capitalism is from communism.
After the Flood the next important event is the dividing into different language groups at the Tower of Babel. Mankind refused to follow God’s suggestion and scatter throughout the earth. Instead men began their own building project. They constructed a skyscraper and formed their own religion. As consequences for not doing as the Lord suggested, God divides the languages and mankind is forced to scatter to the four corners of the earth.[10]
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken of him.[11]
Then Abraham has his famous discussion with the Lord, where he says,
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?[13]
Lot, Abraham’s nephew, has been living in Sodom as a judge. He is warned by the angels to flee before the destruction comes. Lot goes and pleas with his married daughters and sons-in-law to forsake the city and live. But they won’t listen to him, and he barely escapes by the persistence of the angels with his two younger daughters and wife. The wife also seemed to have a hard time leaving Sodom and all its luxuries and looks back during its destruction which the angels had specifically commanded them not to do. As a consequence she is turned into a pillar of salt.[15]
But Abraham chooses God. He chooses to do justice and judgment. He chooses doing right above material riches. Therefore, God enters into a relationship with him. Thus begins the history of the descendants of Abraham. It’s a beautiful history which is told in the book of Genesis in the Bible.
Notes:
[1] Genesis 6:5-6
[2] Genesis 6:11
[3] Genesis 6:17
[4] 2Peter 3:5-6
[5] 2Peter 3:3
[6] https://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=680&topic=94 (accessed 03/2016)
[7] 2Timothy 4:3-4
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itching_ears (accessed 03/2016)
[9] 2Thessalonians 2:10-12
[10] Genesis 11:1-9
[11] Genesis 18:19
[12] Genesis 18:21-22
[13] Genesis 18:25
[14] Genesis 18:26-33
[15] Genesis 19:12-26
Chapter 35
Blessing or Curse – Which Will You Have?
Afterward, Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph gets sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, and the seventy-five descendants of Abraham wind up in Egypt. First they are guests of Pharaoh, but after the memory of Joseph and all the good that he did for the land of Egypt is forgotten, Abraham’s descendants are forced into slavery. They learn the ways of the Egyptians and turn from the Lord to the god’s of the Egyptians. But in their affliction of slavery they cry unto the Lord for a deliverer, and God sends them Moses, a man who chooses God instead of the riches of Egypt.
With God’s blessing upon him because of his obedience, Moses leads the descendants of Abraham out of Egypt into the Promised Land. Reading through the books of Exodus and Numbers you can see all the problems Moses and God had with the Israelite people. On various occasions God wants to blot them out of existence, but Moses intercedes on their behalf and God hearkens unto him. Moses also himself gets so angry with the rebellious people that he loses his temper, and as a consequence God doesn’t allow him to enter the Promised Land.
Before his death on Mount Nebo overlooking the Jordan Valley where the Children of Israel would enter the Promised Land, Moses gives his last warning to the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shall sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a-whoring after gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel.[6]
Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.[7] And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this Law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, saying, Take this book of the Law, and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.[8]
We must face the consequences of our behavior both as individuals and as nations. Eventually the Children of Israel enter the Promised Land, with Joshua leading the way, and they begin the quest of the pagan nations inhabiting the land. As long as they are obedient to the Lord, God blesses them. But when they are disobedient, God brings them under oppression by the nations surrounding them.
[1] Genesis 22:17-18
[2] Deuteronomy 28:15
[3] Deuteronomy 28:37
[4] Deuteronomy 28:47
[5] Deuteronomy 30:19-20
[6] Deuteronomy 31:16-19
[7] Deuteronomy 31:22
[8] Deuteronomy 31:24-26
[9] Deuteronomy 31:29
[10] 1Kings 10:23-24
[10] Jeremiah 12:17
Consequence, Consequences and More Consequences!
The Bible from its very first pages is a history of consequences. The decisions we make, the behavior we exhibit, have consequences. Adam and Eve paid the consequences for their decision in the Garden of Eden, and mankind continues to suffer as a result of those consequences. Ancient man also paid consequences for his decisions and behavior. The Bible tells us,
bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.[3]
As a result of that worldwide Flood we find massive fossil graveyards all around the world. Fossils formed in sedimentary rock laid down by flood waters all around globe are a testimony to the fact that a Global Flood without precedent occurred. They are a testimony to the consequences of man’s refusal to acknowledge God in his understanding. Apostle Peter tells us,
Modern man has all but removed the idea of a great worldwide Flood from his understanding, because he does not want to believe in consequences. From the time of James Hutton in 1780’s, to his disciple Charles Lyle in the 1830’s, science has tried to eliminate the idea of a world-wide Flood from geology and has accepted “millions of years.” Why? Because modern man wants to be “free” to live a life without moral restraints. Apostle Peter says earlier in the same chapter,
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.[7]
Wikipedia defines “itching ears” in the following way:
Itching ears is a term used in the Bible to describe individuals who seek out messages and doctrines that condones their own lifestyle, as opposed to adhering to the teachings of the Apostles.[8]
And with all deceivableness and unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned (which means in this case judged) who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.[9]
True Christianity is about as far from today’s religious system as capitalism is from communism.
A few generations later around 2,000 BC, because of his good decisions and behavior, God blesses Abraham. God says,
It was not just because Abraham believed, but because his beliefs caused him to be just and make righteous judgments. God decides to reveal to him the judgment that will be wrecked upon Sodom and Gomorrah as a consequence of the decisions and behavior of its population. And the Lord said,
Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me: and if not, I will know.[12]
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?[13]
Abraham argues that it would be unjust for God to condemn the innocent with the guilty and so asks God to withhold His judgment if He can find 50 righteous people within the city. God agrees. Abraham persists until he has God agree not to condemn the city if there are but ten righteous people.[14]
Notes:
[1] Genesis 6:5-6
[2] Genesis 6:11
[3] Genesis 6:17
[4] 2Peter 3:5-6
[5] 2Peter 3:3
[6] https://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=680&topic=94 (accessed 03/2016)
[7] 2Timothy 4:3-4
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itching_ears (accessed 03/2016)
[9] 2Thessalonians 2:10-12
[10] Genesis 11:1-9
[11] Genesis 18:19
[12] Genesis 18:21-22
[13] Genesis 18:25
[14] Genesis 18:26-33
[15] Genesis 19:12-26
Blessing or Curse – Which Will You Have?
The important aspect though of the history of Abraham is his obedience to God, which brought down God’s blessing upon him.
And the Lord said, That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; …And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou has obeyed my voice.[1]
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.[2]
And thou shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.[3] Because thou served not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart.[4]
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou may love the Lord thy God, and that thou may obey His voice, and that thou may cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of days: that thou may dwell in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give them.[5]
For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the Latter Days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.[9]
Finally, they desire a king over them, and reluctantly God yields to their request. Under Saul (1020-1000 BC), David (1000-970 BC), and Solomon (970-930 BC) they become a rich little kingdom. Insomuch that the Bible says,
So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.[10] [To go to the next chapters click on link]
Notes:[1] Genesis 22:17-18
[2] Deuteronomy 28:15
[3] Deuteronomy 28:37
[4] Deuteronomy 28:47
[5] Deuteronomy 30:19-20
[6] Deuteronomy 31:16-19
[7] Deuteronomy 31:22
[8] Deuteronomy 31:24-26
[9] Deuteronomy 31:29
[10] 1Kings 10:23-24
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