What really happened at Christmas?

(Written by Jack Kelley)

In the past I’ve made the case that Jesus probably was born sometime in September. If that’s the case then what really happened in December? Is Christmas just the result of overlaying Christian beliefs on a formerly pagan holiday as some believe, or is there more to it?

Happy Hanukkah

To find the answer we begin with a look at the Jewish Feast of Hanukkah. Maybe you’ve heard the story of Hanukkah, but if not here’s a brief summary. In 165 BC, during the time of the Maccabean Revolt, the Jews recaptured their desecrated Temple from Syrian dictator Antiochus Epiphanes and undertook a rebuilding and cleansing process to make it fit for worship again. (Angry with the Jews and defiant toward God, Antiochus had captured the Temple, sacrificed a pig on the altar, and erected a statue of the Greek god Zeus in the Holy Place requiring everyone to worship it on pain of death. This outrageous act rendered the Temple unclean and became known as the Abomination of Desolation.)

The Gospel of the Kingdom vs the Gospel of Grace

Part 2. The Gospel Of Grace

(Written by Jack Kelley)

The word “grace” appears 170 times in the English translation of the Bible, 37 of them in the Old Testament.  Of the 133 remaining, only four are contained in the gospels and they all refer to the Lord Jesus (Luke 2:40, John 1:14, 16, 17).  The Book of Acts contains 10 appearances, and  2 others can be found in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 1:4, Rev. 22:21) where they essentially open and close the book. That leaves 117 references to grace in the various Epistles.

As it's used in the New Testament, grace is clearly a word that is meant for the Church. It comes from the Greek word charis, which is defined as “the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”

The Gospel of the Kingdom vs the Gospel of Grace

Part 1.  The Gospel Of The Kingdom

Written by Jack Kelley)
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matt. 3:1-2)

Prophecies of a Messianic King appear throughout the Old Testament and many in the Jewish leadership saw John's arrival on the scene as their fulfillment.  They sent representatives to the place where John was baptizing to see if he was the promised Messiah. He said he wasn't, but that the one they had been expecting was even then in their midst (John 1:19-28).

750 years earlier Isaiah had said when the Messiah came He would reign on David's throne forever (Isaiah 9:6-7) but the throne of David had been vacant for 600 years.  John had come to tell them the time was finally at hand and they had better get ready for Him.

When Jesus began His ministry, John introduced Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:8) and publicly testified that Jesus was the Son of God (John 1:34).  Right from the beginning Jesus began teaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was near (Matt. 4:17), and sent His disciples through out the land to alert the people to this fact as well (Matt. 10:7-8). 

Why Ezekiel 38 Will Precede Daniel 9

(Written by Jack Kelley)
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble” (Daniel 9:24-25).

Dispensationalists believe, with good reason, that there’s one “seven” left to fulfill from the promise the angel Gabriel delivered to Daniel near the end of the Babylonian captivity. From the King James translation we know the prophecy as Daniel’s 70 weeks, where each week represents 7 years. 69 of these weeks (7 plus 62) had passed when the Messiah presented Himself to Israel as their King on the only day in His life that He did so. On our calendar it became known as the first Palm Sunday.

Life Is About Decisions

(Written by Grant Phillips) 

Have you ever thought back over your life and considered the decisions you have made; especially those that have taken you in a new direction? We have all made good decisions and bad ones. Hopefully, there have been more good ones than bad, and there would be, if we would just stop and think before we act.

Far too many of our decisions have been made because of emotional circumstances, and these can often get us into trouble. For example:

·        A young boy and girl are together, and their hormones are raging. If they don’t cool down, their emotions will take over, and their lives take a course they hadn’t planned on.

The End Times Empire Part 2

(Written by Jack Kelley)
Periodically over the past six years I've written about the similarities between Islamic prophecies of an end times leader they call al Mahdi and Biblical prophecies about the one we call the anti-Christ. In their respective prophecies they're both said to come on the scene during a time of great turmoil on Earth, both will claim a desire to restore peace, both have a seven year reign, both head a one world religion and one world government, both claim supernatural origins, and both reigns end in a battle between good and evil that brings Earth's final judgment.

The End Times Empire Part 1

(Written by Jack Kelley)
In the updated commentary on Rev. 17-18 I recently posted, I briefly summarized two major opinions concerning the end times world government. The view that it will be a revival of the Biblical Roman Empire has been universally accepted among believers for generations, but recent world events have caused some to propose an alternative in the form of an Islamic Empire.
The purpose of this study is to is to look at these alternatives in greater detail than I was able to do in the Rev. 17-18 commentary and see if we can come to a conclusion about which is more likely, because as I think you'll see they both have some pretty compelling support.

Standing In The Way

(Written by Jack Kelley)
There are lots of news reports, articles, and even books devoted to the deteriorating state of America and speculating on the likely outcome. Reading them has brought several things to my mind.
As an example, I remembered something Hal Lindsey said 20 years ago about the then current world situation. He said he had been wondering how God was going to fulfill end times prophecy while the Soviet Union was standing in the way of the revived Roman Empire taking its prophesied place in the end times.

The term “revived Roman Empire” comes from Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as a prophecy of “Gentile Dominion”, the time during which Gentile Empires would rule the world. (Daniel 2:31-43).

The Nature Of Post-Church Salvation

(A Bible Study by Jack Kelley)
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matt 24:12-13)
In the debate over the timing of the Rapture, one point is often overlooked. And that is that the terms and conditions of salvation during the Great Tribulation are vastly different from those during the Church Age, and therefore couldn’t be meant for the same group. In both cases salvation is by faith alone, but that’s where the similarity ends. This presents another argument for Church Age believers being taken before the Great Tribulation begins.

The Truth about Roman Catholicism

There are approximately 1 Billion Catholics worldwide. Catholicism claims to be Christian, and Catholics will always say they are "Christians".

It is strange however, that most professing Catholics, while being devout and sincere in their faith, are completely in the dark as to what the official standpoints of the Catholic Church are; and more alarmingly, what the Bible says. The Laws of Catholicism include the Catechisms and Canons of the Church; laws fabricated and written by men that deny the pure and simple Gospel of Jesus Christ. These catechisms and canons are the laws governing the Catholic church, under which ALL Catholics fall and are subject to. What many don't realize is that by following this Church and it's traditions, they are committing a very serious offence in the light of what Scripture says. The purpose of this article is to turn the spotlight of truth upon Roman Catholicism and show conclusively that Roman Catholicism is NOT Christianity.

Seven Dispensations

(Written by Jack Kelley)
The first attempt has been called the Age of Innocence. Between the Creation and the Fall of Man God interacted freely and personally with man. Man was created immortal and while he had agency (the power of choice) he didn't have a sin nature. God placed Adam and Eve in His garden and gave them only one restriction. But they violated this restriction and were expelled from the Garden. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent who beguiled them were all judged, the Creation was cursed, and sin entered the world.

Then came the Age of Conscience. From the Fall of Man to the Great Flood, God allowed man's conscience to rule without Divine interference. Because of man's newly acquired sin nature, the result of this was "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5) After repeated warnings, God destroyed all but 8 members of the Human race in the Great Flood.

The Spirit of Anti-Christ

(Written by Jack Kelley)

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (1 John 2:18-19)

These days, any kind of teaching about the coming anti-Christ is very popular. But less than 60 years after the cross John was already writing about the spirit of anti-Christ being evidenced in the false teaching that would later come to be known as “gnosticism”. The fact that those false teachers had come from among believers gave them a certain credibility in the growing church, but in John’s view the error of their doctrine proved that they had never been true believers. “For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19)

His Mercies are new every Morning

(Written by Jack Kelley)

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

There’s always been a pattern in the way God deals with man’s disobedience. This pattern was first seen in the Garden and appears repeatedly in the lives of the Patriarchs, in the history of Israel, and all through the Old Testament. Disobedience brought consequences, but confession brought forgiveness and a new beginning.

Take the case of Abraham. The Lord had said to him, “Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household and go into a land I will show you” (Gen. 12:1). But Abraham took his father, his nephew Lot, and all their families with him, and went only as far as Haran, about half way, where they remained for several years. After his father died, Abraham completed the journey, again with Lot and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, finally arriving in Canaan many years after they first started out (Gen. 11:31 and 12:4-5).