Building on the Foundation

The second Psalm is the first prophetic Psalm, and it is a prophecy of Jesus Christ , the Son of God. The first of many Messianic prophecies in the Psalms, we get into some major elements that later Psalms will address more fully, and it also raises some interesting questions. Something to keep in mind is that while this is poetry, it is poetry that tells the truth. Not every flowery element of poetry is literal (a vault of snow in heaven, for example), but the image it paints is the truth. A vault of snow is an analogy for the clouds and utilizes poetic language. Just because the language is poetic does not mean that it is not describing something very real; it is not the language itself that is literal; it is the thing being described. I bring this up because as we move through the Psalms, we will run into a lot of poetic language (it is a book of poetry, after all), but the picture or prophecy being painted is still very real.  Another thing of interest is that this whole Psalm ...

  At the beginning of His earthly ministry, Yeshua/Jesus entered a synagogue on the Sabbath day “as His custom was” (Luke 4:16) and began to teach. He opened the book of Isaiah and read, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:18-19; quoting Isa. 61:1, 2). Then He closed the book and said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Now, if we go back and read Isaiah 61 in its entirety, it’s clear that the passage mostly refers to Christ’s second coming, when He will set up His Kingdom on this earth. So we can see here that Jesus’ first coming, in many ways, foreshadowed and paralleled His second coming — which He continually preached about and pointed toward. The first time, He did indeed come to s...

  This is Part 7, the final part of this series on the tabernacle. That doesn’t mean we’ve learned all there is to know about it, mind you; there’s always much more to learn from God’s Word! We frail humans could never plumb the full depth of God’s mind and His Word, not in ten thousand lifetimes! But this wraps up our current study of the tabernacle in relation to the Holy Days, the days of Creation, and the ten commandments. Last time , we saw that, on the Day of Atonement, Jesus Christ returns to the earth with His 144,000 saints, slays the Beast and his armies, and casts Satan into the bottomless pit. He will return from the heavens, the Holy of Holies, and stand on the Mount of Olives where He was crucified. Under the Old Covenant, this was foreshadowed each year when, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest returned from the Holy of Holies to the altar of burnt offering and sprinkled it with blood. Jesus Christ’s thousand-year reign, then, also begins on this same day, the D...

Guest blog post by Richard Gray   An angel announces, “…Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance [1411, (miraculous) power, might, strength ] of her delicacies [4764, self-indulgent luxury ]” (Rev. 18:2, 3). Babylon is the world’s corrupt hierarchical one world religious/political system that will bring untold destruction and death on the world. “For  in  those days shall be affliction [2347, oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress ], such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved : but for the elect's sake, whom He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days” (Mk. 13:19, 20). The Great Trumpet will announce the return of the Messiah ...

  Not That Four Letter Word Why do we date? What drives us to seek out someone of the opposite sex and spend exorbitant amounts of our time, emotions, and money getting to know them? Different people will have different answers to these questions, but there should really only be one answer. Some people seek out dating just to be in a relationship with someone. They yearn for a deep connection but don’t want the commitment that goes with a truly deep connection, so instead, they settle for a cheap imitation. Sometimes this dating relationship leads to living together without being married. Still unable to make the commitment that leads to true oneness, they will always have an essential part missing. There will always be a hollow part in their relationship that they won’t be able to fill. So if the reason we date is not just for the dating relationship, why then do we date? Dating is supposed to be a necessary evil on the path to marriage. It is not supposed to be the goal. We date ...