The Salt of the Covenant

In a recent Spiritual Snack, “The Fire of the Holy Spirit,” I explained one example of how Paul wove powerful symbolism from the Old Covenant law into his letters and, no doubt even more so, his teaching. Prior to his conversion, Paul was a Pharisee and an expert in the law. That’s why the fact that Jesus is the Messiah was so powerful to him: he already knew the Law and the Prophets inside and out, so that, when God opened his understanding, he was overwhelmed by the depth and intricacy of God’s plan. Because of this, I have no doubt that Paul used the law to teach the Gentiles, since this was, in effect, how he was taught. For this reason, I believe that many references in his and other New Testament writings that appear to have a connection to the Old Covenant law are deliberate.

The aforementioned article examined how the fire of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us can be compared to the fire on the altar of the God’s temple. Today, I want to look at another reference in Paul’s writing that caught my attention in a similar way

Saved by Grace, but Judged by the Law? (Part 2)

The scripture that sparked this entire discussion for me was Ephesians 2:8-9, the first verse that I quoted in part 1 of this piece, about being “saved by grace through faith.” The very next verse says the following:

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Saved by Grace, but Judged by the Law? (Part 1)

Two central themes throughout the bible are salvation and judgment. Some mistakenly assume that salvation is being saved from judgment, but the scriptures say otherwise. On one hand, the writings of the New Testament make it very clear that salvation is a gift:           

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.

On the other hand, the bible says consistently from cover-to-cover that we will be judged by our works:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Are You "in" the Church?

During the Feast of Tabernacles, for those who may not know, it is typical that hundreds of people, even thousands in some places, will be staying in the same hotel or resort for the duration of the 8 days of God's festivals. Some of these feast sites are located in the midst of a city (such as Daytona or Panama City Beach), but many are held in more secluded towns or at all-inclusive resorts. For feast sites that are more tightly knit, such as the resort that I stayed at in Jamaica last week, it is common to ask yourself a certain question whenever you see someone that you think you recognize: is that person in the church?

This turns out to be a profound question with a diverse range of interpretations and answers. First of all, let's establish what the church of God is.

Can Men Understand God?

Lately, I have found myself dwelling on 1 Corinthians 2 a lot. The subject matter of the chapter is the contrast between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man, and it reveals a key to becoming a true follower of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

There are several lessons just in this short introduction.

Tithes and Offerings: What are they, and what are they good for?

Many people mistakenly do not distinguish between tithes and offerings - I myself thought that they were the same thing for most of my life! The usual picture that people get when they hear either of these words is an "offering plate" being passed around in a church on Sunday with people putting in various amounts of cash, and the ideas of tithes and offerings are one and the same. This modern tradition is not according to biblical understanding.

Do You Obey God Rather Than Men?

Christianity as a whole in today’s world has a diverse range of beliefs. It seems that some of them are so drastically far-removed from each other that the only thing that they have in common is that they claim to follow the same book. Is it really possible that all of these denominations are right? Is it okay for everyone to have his own interpretation of the bible? Not only do I believe that this is not okay – I can show you from the bible that it’s not okay:

1 Peter 1:20-21

No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

There was no such thing as a denomination in the day of the Apostles. There were groups of churches that were close enough together to keep correspondence and visit with one another, but they were all considered part of the “church of God” and they all held to the same doctrines. But which doctrines did they have? And how did they get them? Just as Peter stated in the above scripture, there is only one correct interpretation of the bible: God’s interpretation.

Unfulfilled Aspects of God’s Law: The Day of Atonement

This is a second installment of a series on unfulfilled aspects of God’s law, focusing on the Holy Days (the first part can be found here). To quickly review, the premise of this argument is that God’s Law cannot yet be taken out of effect because, according to Matthew 5:17, a new heaven and a new earth must come before even the smallest part of the law passes away. Furthermore, it says that this won’t happen until everything has been fulfilled. God’s Holy Days, commanded in Leviticus 23, are aspects of God’s Law that have not yet been fulfilled, which demonstrates that we should still be keeping God’s Law – ALL OF IT. The application and administration of certain things may change, such as how Christ is our once-for-all Sacrifice and our High Priest now instead of the Levites, but there is no scriptural evidence that any of it has been annulled. Therefore, we must strive to satisfy all of God’s law to the best of our ability and with the help of God’s Spirit. If you don’t already know about the Holy Days, I hope this gets your attention so that you’ll open your heart to understand. Remember what the scripture says:

Romans 15:4

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

The Second Commandment – Is it Different from the First?

It occurred to me that the 1^st and 2^nd of the Ten Commandments are redundant if you do not have the proper understanding of what each one means. Read them and think about it:

Exodus 20:3 – You shall have no other gods before Me.

Exodus 20:4 – You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them…

Depending on what you believe about how these two commandments are interpreted, they may appear redundant. The 1^st commandment says that you should have no other gods besides the true God. Some mistakenly assume that the 2^nd commandment is exclusively talking about idols. If so, then it is redundant, since an idol is a false god, and is therefore prohibited by the 1^st commandment. This begs the question: is the 2^nd commandment simply an elaboration on the 1^st, or is it addressing a separate issue?

Unfulfilled Aspects of God’s Law: Trumpets

The previous article (What Does God Want?) touched on the fact that God’s law must be fulfilled – that’s why Christ is our sacrifice, so that the laws concerning sacrifice can be satisfied. I’d like to further develop this principle that God’s Law (all of it) is in effect today because it must be fulfilled. A fundamental scripture to this concept is found in the sermon on the mount, where Christ said:

Matthew 5:17

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Most Christian denominations teach that Christ fulfilled the entire Law, making it unnecessary for Christians today to observe God’s laws, such as the Sabbath and Holy Days. However, this interpretation is not consistent with the above verse, which clearly says that the law must be in effect today because heaven and earth have not passed away and because not everything has been accomplished. Unfortunately, many people read this verse and disregard all of that, latching on to the word “fulfill,” and say that the entire Law has been “fulfilled” once for all by Christ, making it unnecessary for us to follow it. Even with this reckless overlooking of what is actually being said, they are still wrong – Christ has not fulfilled the entire Law… yet.

What Does God Want?

Hosea 6:6 

“For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” 

We are given record of Christ quoting the first half of this verse on two occasions: both times He was speaking to Pharisees, and both times He emphasized that we need to understand what “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” means. Some people believe that Christ was speaking against the Law in saying this, indicating that God is not (or was not) pleased with observances of the Law, such as the sacrifices and burnt offerings mentioned. This is one of many scriptures that people twist to try to invalidate God’s law.

Remember Your Journey

 In Micah 6:1-8, God lays out His case for judgment against Israel. He reminds them of some of the things that He has done for them as proof of His commitment to the covenant that He had made with them in verse 5:

Micah 6:5

My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.

When I read this, I did remember the story of Balak and Balaam (you can read it in Numbers 22 for a refresher.) Balak, the king of Moab, sought out Balaam, a prophet, to prophesy victory for the Moabites over the Israelites in battle (this was during their first journey to the promised land.) God, however, would not allow Balaam to speak any false prophecy, and he instead prophesied victory for the Israelites, much to the frustration of Balak, the lesson being that the Word of God is true and that the will of God cannot be changed by any man, prophet or not.

On the other hand, when I tried to remember the “journey from Shittim to Gilgal,” I didn’t have a clue what God was talking about!

Profane Fire

The bible can, in some sense, be thought of as an instruction manual for how God wants us to live. If the bible were written the way that most instruction manuals today are written, there would be fairly large sections entitled “How to Worship God” and “How NOT to Worship God.” Unfortunately, most people today who believe in God are unaware of most of what would be in the “How to” section and would be shocked by some of the things that they find acceptable that would end up in the “How NOT to” section. 

The Measure You Use

When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray in what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer, one of the points that he emphasized was forgiving “those who trespass against us.” Afterwards, he expounds on this:

Matthew 6:14-15

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

That sounds scary – the only way that we can be forgiven (and therefore saved) is if God forgives us of our sin, but he will not do that unless we forgive those who sin against us! 

Reflections from my Father's Funeral

The following scriptures and comments are what I read at my father's funeral on Saturday, May 8. I'm posting this message because it gives a concise insight into what the bible says about those who die, and it is from this that I derive the hope that I will see my father again. Also, the previous post entitled "This Mortal Life" speaks to this further, although the point of that article is directed toward a different purpose. Read the following words slowly, deliberately, and with power, because that's how I read it at his funeral and how I hear it when I read it for myself.

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One scripture that has really resonated with me in the past few days is Matthew 22:31-32, where Christ responds to the Pharisees when they test Him about the resurrection of the dead. He said to them

Matthew 22:31-32 

“Now as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living!”

He is the God of the living, and Christ’s response verifies the reality that this mortal life is not all that God has planned for us. Paul also wrote about the resurrection of the dead in 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:20-22

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

Christ gives us more words of encouragement in Revelation. In chapter 1, Jesus is speaking to John in a vision, and John sees Him in His glory. John says in verses 17 and 18

Revelation 1:17-18

When I saw him I fell down at his feet as though I were dead, but he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last, and the one who lives! I was dead, but look, now I am alive – forever and ever – and I hold the keys of death and the grave!”

It is Christ who has been given power over death and the grave, and, for this reason, He told John not to be afraid, and He gave His own resurrection as an example to assure him of this. And further in the book of Revelation, Christ reveals the Kingdom that He has gone before us to receive.

Revelation 21:1-6

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The dwelling of God is among men. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God Himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more – or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have passed away.

Indeed, many encouraging things have been prophesied about that time. Because of what my father went through, I found the following scripture to be especially meaningful:

Isaiah 35:1-6

Even the wilderness and the desert will rejoice in those days; the desert will blossom with flowers. Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! … for the Lord will display his glory there, the excellency of our God. With this news bring cheer to all discouraged ones. Encourage those who are afraid. Tell them, “Be strong, fear not, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.” And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf. The lame man will leap up like a deer, and those who could not speak will shout and sing!  

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I felt many of these scriptures in a very personal and emotional way as I was writing it and practicing what I would say, and I cried at certain places during that process until I could read it without crying so that I would be able to keep my composure during the service. I did cry some while reading it at Deddy's funeral, but, interestingly, I did so at a verse that I did not expect. When I read Revelation 1:17, I started crying because I realized that just as Jesus put His right hand on John when he fell down, so also He has put His right hand on me. And just as He told John "Do not be afraid!" so also He has told me "Do not be afraid!" And the reason that he said "Look, I was dead, but now I am alive" is to verify that just as Christ was dead and now lives, so also all who have fallen asleep and are dead will again live.

This Mortal Life

Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the bible. If you haven't read it or don't remember it well, I recommend that you go through it sometime soon because it's amazing. In any case, one of the prevailing themes in the book is the transitory nature of this mortal life that each of us is living right now. This issue is something that I have found to be a vital difference between my thinking and that of people with other views on morality and spirituality, and in this discussion I will give 2 specific examples of this phenomenon that I have encountered recently.

As a foundation, I'll first demonstrate from the scripture the nature and purpose of physical life. The book of Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, is one big philosophical discourse on human life. The following scriptures give a broad overview of the progression of thought throughout the book:

Ecclesiastes 2:3
... I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

Ecclesiastes 5:18
Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him - for this is his lot.

Ecclesiastes 6:12
For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Notice the language which is used in the first three passages in reference to human life: our days are "few,"  life is "vain," and it "passes like a shadow." Though much of the book decries many common activities as "meaningless" or "vanity," the second passage admonishes us to enjoy life rather than be caught up in the worries of this world, and the final passage reveals what is most important in this life: that we build a relationship with our Creator by showing Him respect and obedience.

As modern medicine continues to extend the life expectancy of the average person, a certain cultural anomaly has developed in which people become obsessed with living for as long as possible. The "anything to keep me alive" mentality has been clearly and publicly displayed in cases of euthanasia of people who are being kept alive artificially at the bequest of their desperate families. Even before the capability of modern medicine had bridged this gap, it is a natural human response to protect life at all costs, even if it results in poor quality of life.

Let me clarify by saying that I'm not insinuating that human life is not important - indeed, it is a precious gift from God. But exactly how important?

I have encountered certain people who reject the morality of the bible because of this very issue. Essentially, their argument centers on the enforcement of the death penalty that God instituted for ancient Israel, and they claim that any God who would order someone to be killed for breaking the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14), cursing his father and mother (Exodus 21:15-17), or being homosexual (Leviticus 20:13) cannot be the absolute authority on morality because these are not offenses that they believe deserve death. They say that they have a better sense of morality than any god who would support killing people for not resting on a particular day or speaking badly of their parents or choosing an "alternative" lifestyle.

In truth, they fail to see the forest through the trees. Not only did God order that these people be put to death for their sins, but also that every man and woman who has ever lived should be put to death, for "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Every physical human death amounts to God enforcing the same death penalty for sin that he enforced on Adam and Eve - the time and place of death are irrelevant! Humoring the logic of people who think their morality is superior to God's, I ask: what kind of a loving God would kill every living creature He ever made? What they fail to understand is that God has prepared hope for all people through His resurrections.

Specifically, the first resurrection of human beings is a resurrection of God's saints at the time of Jesus' return:

1 Corinthians 15:20-26
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Notice that it says that those who belong to him will be resurrected when he comes, but that he still has enemies to conquer before death will no longer exist. Also, notice that just as all die in Adam, all will be made alive in Christ - not just His followers! We get more details in the following verses from Revelation concerning the thousand year period during which Satan is bound and Christ reigns on earth:

Revelation 20:4-6
I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

It says that they came to "life," and later it says that the "second death has no power over them," indicating that they are, at that time, given eternal life. Furthermore, notice that the "rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended," and this has been called the "second resurrection" since the scripture itself declares that the saints are part of the "first resurrection." This is a vital point: every human who has ever lived will live again (click here for a more detailed proof of this, and here for an exhaustive proof). So no, God did not create us just so that we would live and die, but, rather, that everyone can have a chance at eternal life. Since the first resurrection is only for God's people who are specifically called by God in their life on earth, the second resurrection is for everyone who is not called by God in this life. This includes not only the masses of people who lived and died and never heard the name of Jesus (the only name given among men by which we must be saved), but also the masses of people living today who think that they have been called by God but are actually deceived by false Christianity. They will all live a second physical life and have the opportunity to understand God's way of life and to make their decision to obey Him or not.

There are many prophecies in the Old Testament about the time of the second resurrection. It is alluded to that there will be a period of over 100 years in which people will be living free of disease and death,

Isaiah 65:19-20
I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

Since there is still risk of death indicated during this time period, we know that chronologically this prophecy is before the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20, since death will be destroyed immediately after this final judgment.

Going back to the morality discussion, now we can see that God has not created humanity in vain so that he can punish us with death for doing wrong, but rather so that He can give every person the ability to realize their mistakes and to knowingly choose what is right, in order that He can "bring many sons to glory" (Hebrews 2:10).

Another morality question that I have encountered along these lines goes like this: if someone threatened to kill 1000 people unless you bow down and worship them, would you do it?

First of all, this question is loaded. Would the ethics of the situation change if it were 999 people? 998? I'll save my fingers some typing and go ahead and whittle that down to 1 person. If the issue is the sanctity of human life, then 1 life is just as important to protect as 1000 lives. So now the question is a little less intimidating: would you worship someone other than God in order to protect someone else's life? At a glance, this is a tricky question. Jesus even said "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

This would be a good time to review the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednigo.

In Daniel 3, we have this story of these three Jews who had been serving in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar during the time of the Babylonian exile. Nebuchadnezzar sets up an image of gold and declares that anyone who won't worship it will be thrown into a furnace. These three, of course, being devoted to God, are determined not to break God's law. So Nebuchadnezzar calls them together and reiterates his command. Pay close attention to what he says, as well as their response:

Daniel 3:15-18
     [Nebuchadnezzar said] "If you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?"
     Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

We all know that God did save them from the fire, and walked with them among the flames of the furnace. Notice the last thing that Nebuchadnezzar says: "what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?" Any man who claims to have authority over life and death is challenging God. In the morality problem, though it is not explicitly stated, there is an implicit challenge to God's authority just as Nebuchadnezzar gave. Notice also their response: "the God we serve is able to save us from it... But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." In the same way, regardless of whether it is our own life at stake or that of another person or of a bajillion people, our allegiance must be to God and God alone. Jesus' teaching of laying down your life for your friends does not apply here, since in this case you are not laying down your mortal life for your friends' mortal lives, but your relationship with God for their mortal lives. This is again where the skeptic's view is too narrow: even if God did allow these people to die, the person who killed them has not, despite his best efforts, truly ended their lives because God is going to resurrect them to live again.

As we saw in Ecclesiastes, the whole duty of a man, in the short amount of time that we are given in this mortal life, is to fear God and to keep His commandments. We may always not like the fact that this life passes as a shadow, especially when it is the shadow of a loved one that is passing, but this is the reality of our existence. When answering questions that deal with human life, God's perspective is the perspective that we should try to understand. This is the fault of both of the skeptic arguments presented in this post: that the perspective of the person asking the question was limited only to what they can physically perceive in this life, leading them to the false conclusion that the unconditional protection of human life supersedes all endeavors. As it is written,

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

It's All About the Heart

It is a common thing, whenever my wife and I make observations about the human condition, for one of us to utter the phrase "It's all about the heart," at which point the other will nod in agreement, and this usually concludes the matter. I'm going to try to relay precisely what we mean when we say this.

God talks extensively about the heart in His word. In 1 Samuel 16:7, it says that "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." What do you think he is looking for? Good intentions? The right attitude? When God looks at a person's heart, what does he want to see?

First of all, notice that in Deuteronomy 5:29 that God, after God had given the 10 commandments to the Israelites and the people agreed to enter into the Sinai covenant, the LORD says 

Deuteronomy 5:39

Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!

The key point to take away from this scripture is that God wants people to obey Him so that he can bless them for it. Remember that God promised great blessings for the nation of Israel if they would diligently keep all of His commandments. The Old Testament chronicles their rebellious behavior and all of the pain that they brought on themselves as a result. When God looks into our hearts, he wants to see exactly what he proclaimed that he wanted to see in the hearts of the Israelites: He wants to see a heart that is “inclined” towards Him in such a way that we will keep His commandments and fear Him.

It explains in Hebrews 8 that the whole purpose of the new covenant, which Jesus Christ mediated through his sacrifice, was to give people such a heart:

Hebrews 8:6-8

For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people...

Here it clearly identifies the people as the problem with the first covenant, and the people are the very same problem that God Himself revealed to Moses at the giving of the law, which we saw in Deuteronomy. The above verses in Hebrews concerning the differences between the old and new covenants go on to quote Jeremiah concerning the new covenant:

Jeremiah 31:31-33

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts..."

God reiterates here that the new covenant will be different in that the people will have the heart to keep it. It says that it won't be like the old covenant, because the people, not having the right heart, broke that covenant.

The Pharisees and Sadducees, men who had spent their entire lives studying God's law and considered themselves to be holding up their end of the old covenant, asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. This is what we are to learn from the Pharisees and Sadducees: they were a people of whom God said in Isaiah 29:13, "they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is made up only of rules taught by men." They followed the letter of the law, according to the physical things, but they did not follow the law with their hearts – that is, though they kept the law outwardly, they did not truly love God or their neighbors. Jesus put it succinctly in Matthew 23:27, saying to them “you are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.” Jesus told them what the greatest commandment was:

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Let’s observe also the following verse from the same discussion, in which Jesus revealed to them how had been neglecting the greatest commandments:

Matthew 23:23

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

It says that “justice, mercy and faithfulness” are more important points of the law than tithing on the spices that you grow. This example is used because spices are not generally grown in large quantities, so to offer a tenth of the spices that you grow to God is considered being meticulous to properly observe the commandments about tithing. However, notice exactly what is being said: that you should have “practiced the latter,” being the more important points, “without neglecting the former,” being the minor point of tithing on spices. Jesus is saying that we should be trying to diligently and meticulously keep the law, but that we also need to pay careful attention to keeping the overarching theme of God’s law, which is love. The Pharisees and Sadducees had the former, but lacked the latter because their hearts were not in it.

Our hope, as we saw in Isaiah, is that God will write His laws on our hearts and minds so that we can keep the law both externally and internally. Ezekiel was given a very eye-opening prophecy about the new covenant, where God said the following through him:

Ezekiel 36:26-27

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Those who enter into the new covenant are promised a new heart and a new spirit. We have established that the new heart is what God says we need in order to keep his laws correctly. The heart that people naturally have is one of stone - it's hard, cold, and incapable of growth. God intends to give us a heart of flesh - one that has feeling and can grow in such a way that we will be compelled to keep his laws and to do so with the right attitude and intentions. This is how we can know that we have the Holy Spirit in us: if, over time, we are changing our way of thinking so that we can better obey God by keeping his commandments with sincerity and love. We cannot come to true, heartfelt repentance without “Godly sorrow:”

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this Godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.

This scripture establishes the difference between what we can do on our own, which comes from “worldly sorrow," versus what we can do with “Godly sorrow,” which comes from God’s Holy Spirit. The process of receiving the heart of flesh is shown here to be not all at once, but over time. It’s like God is chipping away the heart of stone and replacing it a little bit at a time with flesh. It begins when God works with us through the Holy Spirit before we are baptized and it continues as God works in us through the Holy Spirit after baptism. Paul highlighted the changes in how we think and feel that come as a result of this process. Examining the previous verse, we see that with our new heart we become earnest and eager to be clean from our sin. We gain “indignation,” which is Godly anger caused by something that is unjust. We are to receive a longing for God’s righteousness to be brought to the earth, concern for the evils that occur, and “readiness to see justice done.” The “worldly sorrow” that is in a heart of stone cannot produce these things, and, therefore, leads to death. Only with a new heart can we begin to see the world as God does – a place of injustice and lawlessness which desperately needs God’s help on the full scale.

Let’s examine further what kind of heart God is intending to give us through his new covenant. Consider that God's law is a law of love. As we saw earlier in Matthew 23, Jesus said that every command that God recorded in the scriptures is vested in the two greatest commandments: love for God and love for our neighbors. Jesus quotes these two commandments from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, demonstrating that he is not insinuating that love is more important than the law, but rather that love is God’s law and always has been. He is saying that if we examine all the laws that God has set forth, we will find that each one of them depicts either how to show our love for God or how to show our love for fellow man. 1 John 4:8 says "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." It is no wonder then that the instrument that we require in order to truly keep God's commandments is a heart of flesh, one that is capable of the kind of love that God requires in His law. God sacrificed His only son out of love for us, that we may be His future children. Such a selfless heart as we require can only come from our Creator, and this is the kind of heart that God Himself has.

When we say “it’s all about the heart,” we mean that every choice that we make boils down to whether we are acting with a Godly heart or with a worldly heart. Everything we do and say comes from the heart, for "out the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:24), so how much more do our thoughts and actions reflect our heart! The worldly heart is selfish and deceitful, whereas the Godly heart yields love for God by obedience to His commandments and love for others in every way. We are all born with a worldly heart, but “[God] is patient with [us], not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9) so that we may receive the only kind of heart that will endure forever in God’s kingdom. 

Seeking Our Homeland

Hebrews 11 is often known as the chapter on the "heroes of faith." I want to key in on the following passage, which comes after some discussion of the faith of figures such as Abraham, Noah, Enoch, and others:

Hebrews 11:13-16
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on the earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were looking for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

After telling of the faith of many other familiar old testament characters, it reiterates in verses 39-40 that "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."

There are a lot of points to be inferred just from simply reading these scriptures, but the thing I want to really focus on is the fact that these people are examples of faith that we are to follow, and part of that example is that they were "looking for a country of their own," or, as the New King James renders it, they "declare plainly that they seek a homeland."

I want to elaborate on this point by examining the life of Daniel, who is not listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. Reading the book of Daniel for the first time, it really hit me that the central theme of the above verses in Hebrews is built into his story. 

First of all, let's get some background on Daniel and take note of his faith.

Daniel prophesied during the time of the Babylonian exile, and much of the prophecy concerning the restoration following this exile is dual, being fulfilled in part by their physical return in order to foreshadow the establishment of God's kingdom on earth. Daniel was descended from the tribe of Judah(thus making him a Jew), and he was a pretty exceptional guy, as it tells us in Daniel 1:4 that he was among a group of "young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to work in the king's palace."

It says in Daniel 1:17 that "God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning" to Daniel, "And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds." Again in verse 20, it says that "In every matter of wisdom and understanding which the king questioned [Daniel and his friends], he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom." God granted Daniel and his friends the abilities needed to impress the king to the point that he appointed them to be rulers over various parts of the kingdom. Over time, Daniel interpreted several dreams for the various kings that he served under, and each time he did so when all of the other wise men in the kingdom had failed.

One of the most well-known stories in Daniel is in Daniel 6, where he defies the king's order by praying to God, for which he is famously thrown into the lion's den. This occurred because Daniel was doing such an outstanding job working for the king that he was planning to set him over the entire kingdom, which made the other officials jealous. So these officials set out to ruin his career, but it says in Daniel 6:4-5 "... They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, 'We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has to do with the law of his God.'" These verses say a lot about Daniel's character. I find it amazing that he was so devoted to God that these people knew that he would follow God rather than the orders of the king, even though such an offense could cost him his life. The officials then went to the king and convinced him to put forth a decree that anyone who prays to any god or man for the next month would be put in the lion's den.

Now notice Daniel's response to hearing the king's orders:

Daniel 6:10-11

Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.

He didn't even think about compromising his beliefs to save his life because of his faith in God. There are other examples as well where Daniel very boldly displayed his faith in and obedience to God before the kings of Babylon.


Now that we have established Daniel as an honorary hero of faith through his actions, I want to look at the other aspect mentioned in Hebrews about the heroes of faith - that they "plainly declare that they seek a homeland." Consider Daniel's prayer in chapter 9:

Daniel 9:2-19

... in the first year of [Darius'] reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures... that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets... Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame - the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you... All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you... Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive!

Here we see Daniel giving an earnest prayer for God to fulfill his promises to Israel that they would be restored from all of the countries in which God had exiled them. It is likely that he prayed from the same window opening up towards Jerusalem mentioned in the story of the lion's den. Before he prays, he cites a prophecy in Jeremiah that the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem would last for 70 years, but notice here that what he asks for in prayer is more than just the restoration of the city of Jerusalem(which was in Judah) - he confesses the sin of "all Israel, both near and far." Prior to the Babylonian captivity, which consisted mostly of members of the tribe of Judah, the Assyrians had taken most of the "house of Israel," which refers to the northern 10 tribes of Israel, into exile and had put foreigners to replace them in the promised land. When Daniel prayed about "all the countries where you have scattered us," he was referring to both the Assyrian captivity and the Babylonian captivity. The prophecy of 70 years of captivity for Jerusalem that Daniel understood concerned only the latter captivity, and yet Daniel looked forward to the time when all Israel would be restored in the promised land. 



Now think back to what it said in Hebrews 11, that "they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return." While Daniel had a particular physical location in mind, what he was praying for was not to return to what he had come out of when he was taken into Babylon - otherwise, the 70 years prophesied in Jeremiah to bring Judah back from Babylon and restore the city of Jerusalem would have been sufficient. Israel as a whole had been off track for a long time. First, the people had fallen away from God by breaking his commandments almost as soon as he gave them. Then, they fell further away by seeking for a man to be king over Israel, rejecting God as their King. Then, they had been divided into two kingdoms after the death of Solomon, and the northern kingdom stopped following God altogether. Because of their increasing wickedness, God allowed the Assyrians to deport most of the northern 10 tribes and scatter them abroad in their vast empire. Daniel recognized the Babylonian captivity as just one step in a long chain of events separating the Israelites from God and the promises that he had bestowed on them, and it was all due to the unrighteousness of the people. Surely, Daniel was not asking to return to the place that he had left in the state that he had left it.


Daniel received an answer to this prayer before he was even finished, and it reveals God's plan to restore his city:

Daniel 9:20-24

While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for His holy hill - while I was still in prayer, Gabriel... came to me in swift flight... He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision: 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."

God revealed that the restoration made in 70 years would not be complete, but rather showed that the coming restoration would be further in the future. He gave some details about what would happen leading up to this restoration. It says that transgression will be finished. Sin will end. Atonement will be made for wickedness. Everlasting righteousness will come. Vision and prophecy will be all fulfilled. And the most holy will be anointed. Can you imagine what Daniel felt when he heard these things? Surely, he was as desperate to "receive what had been promised" at that moment as anyone has ever been.


The book of Revelation gives us some more information about the city that God has prepared for us:

Revelation 21:1-4

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

God instructs us to seek His kingdom. We, like the many examples that are given in Hebrews 11 and throughout the bible, are to consider ourselves pilgrims, sojourners, aliens, and foreigners to this world. The homeland that we seek is a city which our Father has prepared for us, one which will come down out of heaven. The latter chapters of Ezekiel give a detailed description of the dimensions of city and the temple that will be built in the city. Interestingly, it is revealed there that the city will no longer be known as "Jerusalem," or even "new Jerusalem" as it is referred to in Revelation 21. Rather, it says in Ezekiel 48:35 that "the name of the city from that time on will be: The LORD is There." In the promises to those who overcome in the Philadelphian church of Revelation 3, Jesus says "I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name." We should all be striving to overcome, seeking our homeland diligently, so that one day we may be counted among God's saints, and to have our savior, Jesus Christ, write on us "The LORD is There."

Holy Days of Obligation?

I am continually fascinated by the intricate web of lies that has been woven in the years since Christ's death. St. Patrick's Day is coming up, and that's sort of what sparked this post, along with a comment that was made by some of my friends a few months ago. 


So here's the story: I'm out with some friends, some of whom happen to be Catholic, and someone mentions something about Christmas. Of course I can't resist mentioning that it's not biblical and give a mini-rant against the pagan holidays that have infiltrated Christianity. One of my friends responds by pointing out that the Catholic church refers to the biblical Holy Days that I observe as the "Holy Days of Obligation," putting extra emphasis on the word "obligation," as though it was a derogatory term. At the time I didn't give it much thought, except to say that the word "obligation" itself implies that there is something required of you on those days. 


Flash forward to this week, when something comes up about St. Patrick's Day, I check out the Wikipedia article, trying to get informed on how it originated. That's when it happened - I found that St. Patrick's Day is considered a "Holy Day of Obligation" in Ireland!!!! I was very confused at that point, so I did some digging and find out that the term "Holy Day of Obligation" is a term specific to the Catholic church that refers to their own observances throughout the year. Every Sunday of the year is a Holy Day of Obligation, as is Christmas and a few other dates throughout the year (such as January 1 for the "Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God," January 6 for the "Epiphany," and a handful of others.) According the the Catholic Canon Law, every Holy Day of Obligation requires the following:

1. People have to attend mass on that day
2. People are to abstain from any work or other affairs which "hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord's day, or the suitable relaxation of the mind and body

Ummmmm...... Doesn't the first one sound remarkably similar to a "holy convocation," which God commands on certain yearly feast days in Leviticus?  And doesn't the second point sound remarkably similar to how God asks us to observe Sabbaths every week and on certain feast days in Leviticus? 

From this, I draw the following two conclusions: first of all, that my friend was sorely mistaken when they made that comment. I wish that I had known this at the time, because it would have been hilarious to point out that this term refers to the commandments of men instituted by the Catholic church and not to God's Holy Days. Second of all, according to 1 John 5:3, "His commands are not burdensome," therefore, even if you were to see God's Holy Days as an "obligation," that term does not apply in a negative context according to 1 John 5:3. As a point of fact, in terms of outward observance, God demands no more from us on his Holy Days than does the Catholic church demand of people on their "holy days of obligation." Also, note that, aside from every Sunday, there are 10 holy days of obligation in the Catholic church, whereas, aside from the weekly Sabbath, there are only 8 days on which God commands a Sabbath rest. Prior to 1911, there were 36 such holy days of obligation aside from Sundays.. Now that sounds burdensome! 

If this whole business of holy days of obligation isn't confusing enough, it turns out that the bishops in each country pick and choose which ones their region will observe.  AAAAAHHHH!!!! WHAT?!?!? As an even more confusing example, St. Patrick's day is not generally recognized as a holy day of obligation throughout the world, but it is considered one in the country of Ireland - so not only can local bishops decide which of the approved days to observed, they can also add in other days that are not generally observed.

By contrast, God's Holy Day observances in His true church are exceedingly simple. No man has the authority to say who keeps what - we do what the bible says to do, and we do it when it says to do it. No matter where you live, it's the same.

I want to now make a few points about St. Patrick's day in particular.

First of all, it usually falls during Lent (another observance that the Catholic church made up and is nowhere found in the bible), which is a time of fasting and abstaining from indulgence - and yet, in modern culture, it is very commonly regarded as a day on which people indulge heavily in alcohol. At least the Catholic church doesn't condone people indulging in drinking on St. Patrick's day (though, given our previous discussion, it wouldn't surprise me if they did, just for the sake of being convoluted.) 

The first point is admittedly not that relevant and more of just a pet peeve of mine, so let's look at the actual meaning, context, and origin of the day for those who actually observe it as a religious holiday. Up until the last two decades or so, St. Patrick's day was indeed revered by Irish people, and it was a day on which people went to church and spent time together as a family. While this is still the case for some, it has, even in Ireland, become a day of revelry as we are used to seeing in America.


This brings us to an important point about God's Holy Days, that they are not marred and devalued by tradition - we obtain the details of their observance from God rather than men. They are perfectly preserved for us in the bible so that we, through reading God's word, will never lose their meaning.


St. Patrick was largely responsible for establishing the presence of Catholicism in Ireland. He lived from 387-493 A.D., and spent a lot of time in Ireland building schools and converting people. He is noted for driving the pagans out of Ireland, and it is said that he used the shamrock(three-leaf clover) to help people understand the trinity, which is why it is a symbol of the holiday today. Before his time, the shamrock already had a certain religious significance to the Celtic people. The druids thought that the plant had mystical powers to ward off evil spirits, and, to them, the three leaves were symbolic of their own deities - the "Triple Goddess." What an easy transition it must have been! This is a textbook case of the Catholic "switch-the-symbols-to-get-the-pagans-in" game. It's exactly the sort of thing that happened all over the world as the Catholic church expanded - pagan statues of a mother with a child were relabeled as Mary and Jesus, and pagan symbols in the shape of crosses were repurposed to represent the cross that Jesus was nailed to. There is no precedent for such practices in the bible. In Deuteronomy 12:30, God specifically tells the Israelites not to seek after how the pagans worship their gods - God clearly defined for them (and for us) exactly how he wants to be worshiped.


That's another important point to recognize: God specifically included the keeping of His Holy Days as part of how we worship Him. We are to observe these days and only these days. Each one reveals part of the God's ultimate plan for salvation. What's more, they reveal God's plan in sequence and are intended to be instructive. 


It's easy to see how St. Patrick's Day has degraded over time - it does not have God's everlasting Word as a foundation and does not have deep spiritual meaning behind it. So it is also with the other "holy days of obligation" of the Catholic church. Even Christmas and Easter, though they are at least an attempt at the celebration of certain biblical events, have been devalued over time because God has not given the instructions for people to celebrate them; and, therefore, people have imputed whatever ideas they wanted into them until they are unrecognizable in modern culture. In light of these things, it is no wonder God was so particular in laying out his Holy Days. It is a great misfortune that so many people do not keep the Law, which God has clearly outlined in the bible. A review of what these days are and how God says to observe them can be found here. These days are not a burden to us, but a great blessing and an integral part of how God wants to be worshiped. Knowing them and observing them will lead you to a greater understanding of God's plan for all mankind, from Adam to present.

Come Here to Me

God tells us in Malachi 4:3 that, before the coming Day of the LORD, He will send us Elijah the prophet to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers." Jesus taught that John the Baptist was a fulfillment of this prophecy, but that there was another man who was yet to come that would precede Christ's second coming. We find this in Matthew:

Matthew 17:10-13
The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come..." Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

Elijah is revered as one of the most important prophets of the Old Testament. I want to discuss some of the events of his life that may parallel those of the end-time Elijah, primarily to answer the question of what we should be expecting the end-time Elijah to actually do.

When I think of the story of Elijah, two main events come to mind. The first is the contest between Baal and God, in which Elijah very publicly demonstrates the power of God over Baal. The account is found in 1 Kings 18, where Elijah tells King Ahab to "summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel," along with the prophets of Baal and Asherah. He set up the contest as follows:

1 Kings 18:22-24
Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire - he is God." Then all the people said, "What you say is good."

The story is probably familiar to you, and you may remember the outcome. The prophets of Baal spend all day doing all kinds of dancing, shouting, and cutting themselves trying to get Baal to consume their sacrifice to no avail. Afterwards, Elijah has people pour water on his sacrifice before praying to God to take it, which He promptly does, consuming not only the bull, but also the wood on the altar and all the water that had been poured on it.

Now let's focus on some key points in this story and try to discern what this story holds for the Elijah to come. First of all, let's go back and notice what exactly Elijah said in that prayer that cued God to send the fire down: he says in verse 37 "Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so that these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." These are the same words that describe the eminent  purpose of the end-time Elijah in Malachi; therefore, the clear implication is that the end-time Elijah will accomplish the turning back of the people of Israel to God by a public display of God's power over the false system of religious worship which Israel will fall prey to.

In the time of the first Elijah, the prominent false religion in Israel was idol worship, mainly of Baal and Asherah. For John the baptist, the false religion in place in Israel was more subtle, a perversion of God's way achieved by focusing only on the outward observance of God's law and adding in the commandments of men. Jesus taught that their would also be a false religious system in the end times. In it's current state, the world's "Christianity" distorts the doctrines of the bible and has forgotten God's law. Elijah will, by displaying the power of the true God, turn people away from the pagan doctrines that have infiltrated end-time Israel.

Also, recall that Elijah had the king "summon people from all over Israel" to bear witness to this public display of God's sovereignty. In doing this, Elijah made sure that everyone in Israel was going to hear about what God had done, given how epic the sight they had seen was. Consider what is said of John the Baptist's ministry in Luke 3:3, that "he went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance," and in Matthew 3:5 that "people went to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and all the whole region of the Jordan." Perhaps not everyone went out to see John to be baptized, but you can bet that everyone had at least heard what this man was doing because of how the people were moved by his message of repentance. The message of the last Elijah will likewise reach all of Israel, which is a much larger body of people than it was during both the time of John the Baptist and the first Elijah. It will also be a message of repentance to God, as was the message of the first Elijah also.

The second story from Elijah's life that I want to talk about occurs right after the events on Mount Carmel. Jezebel sends a messenger to tell Elijah that she is going to have him killed, and Elijah, fearing for his life, runs to hide in the mountains.

1 Kings 19:13-14
... Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down you altars, and put your prophets to death by the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

Even being the one through whom God chose to display his power through, Elijah was afraid that his efforts had been of no avail and that he was going to be killed if he went back. Then God reveals something to Elijah to give him hope:

1 Kings 19:18
Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel - all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.

In Elijah's time, he was not the only person following God, though it appeared that way. Now recall that Elijah, leading up the the Mount Carmel contest, had prophesied that it would not rain for three and a half years, after which he went into hiding where God sustained him until he came out for the contest. The time period is significant here, as we see that this is the same amount of time in Revelation 12:14 that the "woman," symbolic of God's church, is cared for in a place that is hidden from the "dragon," symbolic of the agents of Satan who are ruling the earth at that time. We also see that after the dragon has unsuccessfully tried to kill the woman, he "went off to make war with the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ." Now it becomes clear that the seven thousand who had secretly been faithful to God during the time of the first Elijah are a type of God's church in the end times, and the prophets of God who had been killed during this time are symbolic of the "rest of her offspring." We know that a time of tribulation and martyrdom is coming, and those who are not taken to the place of safety will meet this end for their obedience to God and the testimony of Jesus. Since the primary mission of the church is to preach the gospel, it is likely that this is the time spoken of in Amos 8:11, where God says that there will be a famine of hearing his word. If we continue into Revelation 13, we see that the false religion of the end-times is referred to as a beast, and anyone who refuses to worship this beast will be killed, and, again, the time period that this will endure is three and a half years. We see later, in Revelation 20, that those who have not "worshiped the beast or his image" will be resurrected at the coming of Christ to reign in the millennium.

We can then draw the conclusion that the end-time Elijah will also be heard at the beginning of the prophesied three and a half years, resurfacing at the end of the period to fully and unquestionably exert God's power. Furthermore, it is likely that this Elijah will not have contact with the rest of the church of God during this time, not knowing what has become of them. Conversely, think about what it must have been like for those seven thousand, having seen all of the evil that was being done for three and a half years, to finally have Elijah come and put the idolaters to shame. It must have been even more of a shock to them than it was to the Baal worshipers that God had prepared these things. Fortunately for the church at the end times, we have the benefit of knowing what is to come by this example, and the hope that springs from that knowledge will help sustain the church in its time of dormancy.

Let's take a step back now to the Mount Carmel event, focusing now on how Elijah prepared for the sacrifice:

1 Kings 18:30 
... Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD.

We know that the event immediately before the tribulation is the "abomination of desolation," which we know from the history provided in Daniel signifies the desecration of the altar of God with by pagan worship. It could be, since Elijah is coming at the end of this tribulation period, that these verses indicate that the end-time Elijah will be the one to restore the altar of God. Notice here that Elijah is careful to make sure that the people watch as he rebuilds the altar. The prophets of Baal had been flailing around all day, and Elijah could have used this time to be building the altar so that he could get down to business when the time came; therefore, we reason that rebuilding the altar was an integral part of turning back the hearts of the people. It prefaced the miraculous sacrifice by reminding the people of the God that they had followed before - the very God who had given them their name, Israel! How wonderful will it be, after all things have been endured, and Elijah says to the people, "Come here to me," and reminds Israel of their identity and shows them their folly, that they may be moved to repentance. And how much more wonderful, when these things have passed, for God's true church to be able to come out of hiding, having not "worshiped the beast or bowed down to his image," to witness the return of Jesus Christ, and to be resurrected to spirit to reign with Him.