by Jamie Pantastico | May 27, 2020 | Daily Encouragement |
The apostle Paul makes it clear that in the “Last Days”, “Perilous Times” will come and there is no doubt that we are in the last, very last days and these are very perilous times.
Scripture is replete with passages admonishing Christians to seek God. Not just in times of trouble but all the time; morning, noon, and night. The Psalms are loaded with such passages and provide great comfort to the elect under the law and for us today under grace.
So much of the Psalms teaches believers to seek God and His lovingkindness (mercy), and Psalm 63:1-8 is the epitome of “seeking God”.
With King David in the wilderness of Judah, enemies all around him, alone, he pours out his heart to God sincerely seeking and thirsting for God.
In verse three of Psalm 63:3, we identify why David was so driven to seek God.
‘Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.’
Psalms 63:3
David knew of God’s lovingkindness because he experienced it and to him, it was more important than life itself.
For believers today, we too know of God’s tremendous lovingkindness in the work of the cross. That God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to be the supreme sacrifice for our sin and the sins of the world by and through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (the gospel).
Two passages come to mind immediately that fit perfectly for us today. Read on…
‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. ‘
Galatians 2:20
‘Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ ‘
Philippians 3:8
Now King David’s powerful words in Psalm 63:1-8.
It’s important to grasp the setting, David is in the wilderness in Judah completely alone and without any support. Does David ask God to send armies of angels to crush his enemies? Does David ask for any help at all? No! No cry for help at all. But instead David put his trust in God’s faithfulness as God has saved David many times in times past. And gives thanks and praises God.
We too as grace age believers must place our trust in what God has already done in saving us. And believe that He will faithfully complete what He promised which is eternal life spent with the Lord in glory.
‘being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; ‘
Philippians 1:6
So let us make it a priority to worship God in the morning, in the noonday, and before we go to sleep at night. In other words, let us praise God and communicates with Him by prayer and supplication 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I recommend reading Psalm 63, not once or twice but several times.
Psalm 63:1-8
‘O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.’
by Jamie Pantastico | Apr 28, 2020 | Christianity, Daily Encouragement |
Replacement Theology is Abhorrent and False Teaching
The Church did not replace Israel. Israel is Israel. The Church is the Body of Christ.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The passages used by adherents of this false teaching twist Scripture to fit what they could not reconcile at the time because they had NO FAITH. With Israel out of their land, the Temple destroyed and the Jews playing a role in the crucifixion of Christ they just came to the grand conclusion that we Gentiles will replace Israel and all the promises that God made to Israel are now ours! They ignore the whole counsel of God, doing extreme violence to God’s Word by injecting Gentiles into Scripture were not possible, ignoring the hundreds of promises, the everlasting covenants God made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, usurping 2000 years of divine revelation to Israel about their King and the kingdom by calling God a liar. There is NO Scripture, NO Biblical record, NOT one passage where God says okay it didn’t work with Israel so now the Church replaces Israel.
‘And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’ ”’
Jeremiah 33:19-22
‘Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me; It shall be established forever like the moon, Even like the faithful witness in the sky.” Selah’
Psalms 89:33-37
The Whole Counsel of God Wipes the Floor with the False Teaching of ‘Replacement Theology’
The false teaching of Replacement Theology was dreamed up by a man named Origen around the second century. Because the Jews played a role in the crucifixion of their Messiah, the Temple was destroyed, and the Jews were out the land and scattered into every country (just like God said He would do) on the planet men like Origen had no faith (the couldn’t take God at His word) and could not reconcile how God could continue to keep His promises the nation of Israel.
Moving ahead to Augustine who around 405 A.D. adopted Origen’s false teaching that the Church replaced Israel and infused Replacement Theology into the Catholic Church. Most of the reformers latched onto this man-made theology and most of the large reformed denominations and the Catholic Church teach no end-time prophecy. How can they? If you say the Church replaced Israel or you publish your own version of the Bible and exclude Israel (like the Lutherans did) you have no prophecy to be fulfilled right? It’s insanity! The entire Old Testament from Genesis 12 on is about Israel’s King and the kingdom!
From the call of Abraham around 2000 BC to the stoning of Stephen around 36-37 AD, there are no revelations to the Gentile world for salvation. The only revelations from God about the Gentile world were to “Israel”; God commanded the Jewish people to stay away from ALL the filthy wicked idol-worshiping pagan Gentiles.
The command to the nation of Israel to be separated from the pagan Gentiles was a warning and strick command given by God that was in effect all through the Old Testament, through Christ earthly ministry, and the early chapters of Acts. To deny that fact IS TO DO EXACTLY WHAT ORIGEN AND THE MEN LIKE HIM DID, MAKE IT UP.
THERE IS NO BIBLICAL RECORD OF GOD GOING TO THE GENTILE WORLD WITH A MESSAGE OF SALVATION OR DOCTRINE FOR HOW TO WORSHIP HIM OR LIVE THEIR DAILY LIVES. NONE AT ALL UNTIL THE APOSTLE PAUL.
For the 2000 year period between Abraham to the cross to the stoning of Stephen, there were only 9 Gentiles saved. They were Gentile exceptions saved by a Sovereign God. Their salvation wasn’t based on a divine message that was proclaimed to ALL the Gentile world, NO WAY, because there was nothing of the sort!
The bottom line is the men that dreamed up this false teaching had no faith, they could not take God at His Word. In spite of 2000 years of prophecy and the covenant promises given to Israel and the Jewish people. They usurped the Word of God and made it into their “religion” to satisfy themselves.
The apostle Paul warned that men would come in from outside the Church, like savage wolves to destroy it and even worse would be that there would be men that come from within the body of Christ speaking ‘misleading’ things to draw Church members away from the truth and follow them. The apostle Paul warned the Churches for three years to the point of tears that THIS WILL HAPPEN! And it did.
‘Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. ‘
Acts 20:28
‘For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. ‘
Acts 20:29-30
The Article Below was Published by Breaking News Israel
A recently published translation of the New Testament has one glaring omission: it has excised all references to the place and the people of the Bible. Rabbi Tuly Weisz, who recently published a Hebrew-English version of the Torah, noted that omitting ‘Israel’ from the Bible is equivalent to failing to mention God.
24NYT, a Danish news service, reported on Sunday that the Danish Bible Society just published a revised translation of the New Testament. The new edition has many surprises, including a new name: the New Agreement. But even more shocking is that the “New Agreement has all but removed any references to Israel, whether it describes the land or the people.
The new edition was reviewed by Jan Frost on YouTube who reported that the word ‘Israel’ is only used once in the “Bible 2020”, which is the name of the new edition. In all other passages, the word ‘Israel’ is either replaced with ‘Jews’, ‘the land of the Jews, or not replaced with any alternative term. Frost reported that the publishers justified the change by claiming that the ‘Israel’ referred to in the Bible is not the same as Israel today. Frost noted that this explanation does not apply to the term ‘Egypt’ which remains in the Bible 2020 despite ancient Egypt having significantly different borders and ethnic composition than modern Egypt.
Posts on social media suggested that the change may have been politically motivated as an anti-Israel statement. In a recent interview about the Bible 2020, Elaine Duncan, Global Council Chairperson of the Bible Society, noted that the new edition has already been downloaded to more than 90 countries, which she considered to be a great success at moving towards what she described as a “global church.”
Rabbi Tuly Weisz, the founder of Israel365, an organization that promotes the significance of the Land of Israel to the nations, disagreed strongly with the approach of the Danish Bible society.
“This translation of the New Testament is an important reminder that replacement theology is not a problem of the past,” Rabbi Weisz told Breaking Israel News. “Some segments of Christianity still have a replacement theology problem. The notion that Israel can be scrubbed from the Bible is as ridiculous as removing ‘God’ from the Bible.”
Christian replacement theology, also called supersessionism, holds that the Christian Church has succeeded the Israelites as the definitive people of God. Supersessionism requires reading the term Israel, referring to either the people or the land, as an allegory for the Christian Church.
It should be noted that the Danish Bible Society is run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, a strong proponent of supersessionism. In 2018, Robert O. Smith, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and a stalwart in the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation, addressed a conference at St. Olaf Institute for Freedom and Community. Smith was seated before a Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) banner and made these declarations: “The ancient Israelites are not linked in any substantive or material way to the contemporary, modern state of Israel. . . . The biblical narrative of Israel has almost nothing to do with contemporary Israel other than the intentional manipulation of sacred texts to justify a political project.”
At the same conference, Palestinian Lutheran pastor, administrator, and theologian Mitri Raheb stated, that “it wasn’t the Lord God who promised Israel the land; it was the Lord Balfour.” Raheb also claimed that “Jesus was a Middle Eastern Palestinian Jew.”
Rabbi Weisz believes that Israel is one of the basic tenets of the Bible and towards this end, published The Israel Bible, a Hebrew version of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings with a linear English translation. As its name implies, The Israel Bible focuses on the land in which the Biblical events took place, the people of Israel, and the relationship between them, and the modern state that is the manifestation of God’s eternal covenant.
It should be noted that the term “Israel” is used a total of 73 times in the New Testament, the term “Israel” is used a total of 73 times in the New Testament. The term is first used in the Torah as a name given to Jacob after battling the angel of Esau, meaning “You have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:29). Israel became synonymous with his descendants, the Children of Israel, and the land God promised to them. The word ‘ Israel’ appears over 2,200 times in the Torah, Writings, and Prophets. It is also interesting to note that ‘Jerusalem’ and its alternative Hebrew name ‘Zion’ appear 850 times in the Old Testament.
Click here to view the original web page at www.breakingisraelnews.com
by Jamie Pantastico | Apr 24, 2020 | Daily Encouragement |
‘So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.’
Psalms 90:12
In light of all that God has done for us (the Cross) and the brevity of our earthly sojourn, how do we use our time to glorify God?
As the whole world is on lockdown because of the coronavirus I think it’s a great opportunity for Christians to take an honest look at how we use our time that God has graciously given to us.
There are three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, that’s eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours (8760). That’s a huge amount of time, yet Scripture repeatedly tells us that our life on earth is only but a vapor. Think about that. Why the graphic admonishing about the brevity of life? I think if we take an honest look at how we are utilizing our time we will find that we can do more for God.
Psalms 39:4-5, makes the graphic point that we should constantly evaluate how we use our time on earth because it is short.
“ Lord, make me know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly, every man at his best state is but a vapor. Selah
Psalms 39:4-5
Ultimately, whatever it is that we do in His name if we do with a heart of humility and gratitude we will glorify God.
‘Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.’
I Corinthians 15:58
by Jamie Pantastico | Apr 21, 2020 | Daily Encouragement |
Christianity is Practical
Christian living is practical and the last five chapters in the book of Romans (12-16) are just instructions on practical Christian living. Not a long list of do’s and don’ts, there isn’t anything in these five chapters that would take you out of the mainstream of your community. Nothing the Lord commands us to do would make the unsaved around us say “these Christians are nuts”. The bottom line is Christians are to live peaceably and with love for ALL mankind. And what could possibly be wrong with that?
It is crucial that Christians know they are commanded by God to obey ALL civil authority; from our local police to our Presidents and Prime Ministers regardless of their political affiliation or whether or not they are believers. There is no Scripture support for Christians to fight civil authority period! We are not left here to take over the government or dictate policy.
The reason the Lord doesn’t just take us home with Him the moment we believe the gospel is so we can share the good news with the lost world around us we are ambassadors for Christ. Again, there is no Biblical record of God commanding members of the body of Christ to fight civil authority or dictate policy. This belief is man’s idea and in total opposition to what the Lord has commanded.
On the other hand, Romans 13 does NOT say that Christians can’t own guns, join the military or fight to defend their life or the lives of their loved ones. Nowhere does the Lord say because we are Christians we are to let people walk all over us without defending ourselves from physical harm. Remember Paul himself disobeyed the local magistrates when he refused to leave out a side door in secret (Acts 17:35-40). More about this in another post.
Romans 13:1-5 and the Command to Obey Government
Romans 13 admonishes believers to submit to government authority because ALL GOVERNMENT and Civil Authority are placed there by God himself whether they are believers or not.
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Romans 13:1
That can’t be any more clearer, can it? The next verse is a warning and instructs believers to obey civil authority or they will face punishment, not from God but the government He placed in authority.
Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
Romans 13:2
In the following verses, the apostle Paul expands on why Christians are to obey civil authority.
Romans 13:3a
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil…
Again, look at the practicality. First, God Himself ordained all government authority, from the local level like our police departments right up to Prime Ministers and Presidents of the world. They are in their positions of authority for our benefit, even ungodly countries have laws to maintain order and punish the criminal element. Now the second part of verse 3…
Romans 13:3b
Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
Simple enough right? This isn’t pie in the sky stuff. If you don’t want to be in fear of government authority obey government authority. Furthermore, Christians above all should be setting the example of being obedient and living peaceably with our fellow man regardless of the government’s, beliefs or political affiliation. Governments don’t punish law-abiding citizens.
In the next verse, Paul expands on what he has written in the previous three verses by reminding believers that God is Sovereign and that ALL civil authority is placed by Almighty God. Read on…
Romans 13:4
For he (government or whatever civil authority like our police) is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil (disobey), be afraid; for he (civil authority) does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath (judgment) on him who practices evil (brakes civil law).
Repetition is the mother of learning and I hope you are seeing the repetitiveness in so much of what Paul writes regarding this subject. As verse four is more of the same as in the previous verses with more emphatic language. Civil authorities are God’s ministers, for our good! So if we go contrary to what God has ordained we should expect punishment. In Romans 13:5, we have the underlying reason why Christians are to obey the government.
Romans 13:5
Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.
The wrath portion of verse five was already expanded on up in verse three. But the last part of verse five “for conscience’ sake” is not only the underlying reason why believers are to be subject to civil authority but it is at the core of the Christian experience.
In Conclusion
Ultimately, we obey the government because Christ died for us, was buried for us and was resurrected from the dead never to die again so that we too will be raised from the dead to be with the Lord forever. We no longer are compelled to do things according to what the world instructs us to do, we are compelled to obey civil authority because we are compelled because what God did on our behalf.
‘For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.’
II Corinthians 5:14-15
‘For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.’
I Corinthians 6:20
‘For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. ‘
II Corinthians 1:12
‘Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, ‘
Colossians 3:22-23
‘Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, ‘
Ephesians 6:5-7
‘Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.’
Titus 2:9-10
The bottom line is that we submit to the government but ultimately we obey God.
