Friday 22 April 2016

The God Who Responds, And The Sin Of Hananiah.

Our Passionate God


One of the things that is extremely important to us as believers, is a right apprehension of the nature and character of God. If our trust in God's goodness or His beneficial disposition towards us is compromised, it leaves us vulnerable to spiritual seduction and demonic attack. Satan is well aware of this, and in fact God's goodness and holy character was one of the very first things the father of lies attacked in the Garden. Quite some years ago, I was quite affected by Calvinistic theology and I can remember that over time it had the subtle but growing effect of undermining my trust in God's goodness and truthfulness. I lost confidence in God's gracious disposition toward me, and thus any confidence in praying for the lost, or any assurance that God was truly interested in saving them, and though I never verbalised it or thought about it in those terms till afterward, I realise now that I had accepted an inner portrait of God that depicted Him as even duplicitous. Praise God, he set me free from those evil teachings, and over the following years I began to learn about the character of God afresh. I am still learning of course.


However, another bad thing I learned from Calvinism was a faulty idea of how God connects with His Creation. In the exhaustive determinism of Calvinism, everything, absolutely everything, down to the last movement of the smallest sub-atomic particle, is pre-scripted from Eternity and ensured to happen. This kind of Determinism thus views the Creation rather like a computer simulation. In the same way all human acts, events, thoughts, motives, feelings are also preordained and ensured to happen. Consequently, in such a scenario God's interactions with His Creation as recorded in the Scriptures, are not real at all, but merely pre-scripted sub-routines set to happen at a certain moment in the "run-time" of the Creation simulation, which God watches impassively from Eternity.


Nothing could be farther from the truth! I can not explain how God in Eternity interacts in "real time" with events in our temporal Universe, but the Scriptures make it absolutely clear that the Creator of the Universe is genuinely affected by events in His Creation and genuinely responds to them. A totally impassive God, unmoved by anything, who on a whim calmly and coolly decrees the life or death, destruction or damnation of individuals and nations; is the product of Greek philosophy and paganistic fatalism, not of biblical theology. God's essential nature and characteristics do not change, (Mal. 3:6) but Scripture is absolutely clear that He is deeply moved by what goes on in His Creation. The LORD responds to faith and obedience, (Heb. 11:6) and conversely, He is angered and grieved to the core by the depth of human depravity. His holiness, righteousness and justice is often outraged by Man's sin, yet at the same time God yearns over our lost condition and so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to save us. In fact, if we want to understand how God feels about what is going in His Creation, we have no better proof of God's passionate nature than can be found than in the life and ministry of Jesus himself, where we see this clearly displayed:

"Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?."

Whenever we think about God's nature we need to remember how He is revealed in Christ, because Jesus is the express image of the Father.

Implied Conditions: God reacts to our responses to His promises and warnings.


There are places in Scripture where the LORD seems to threaten or promise something in an absolute way, but it is readily apparent from information given elsewhere that there were implied conditions. For example Jonah was given the message "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." (Jon. 3:4), there no mention of any possibility that this frightening decree could be ameliorated, but on seeing the people of Nineveh had taken the message to heart and humbled themselves in repentance:

"God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."

After the people of Israel sinned at Baal Peor, Phineas one of the sons of Aaron, intervened to stay the wrath of the LORD by slaying those committing blatant immorality in sight of the door of the tabernacle. Consequently, God made him the following promise:

Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

During the time of the judges the priesthood had degenerated somewhat, and Eli the old priest did nothing to restrain the immorality and corruption of his sons and the priestly ministry was tarnished as a result. Consequently God responded and intervened.

I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.  And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.  And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.  (see 2 Sam. 2)

It is clear then, when we look at other parts of Scripture, that what sounded like an unconditional promise to Phinehas had implied conditions; namely that of faithfulness to the LORD in the priestly function. We can see then, how human responses can nullify what seemed sure promises, or even avert seemingly inevitable judgements, because there were implied conditions that were met or violated, and our passionate God responds to our breach or upholding of those conditions.


It is supremely important when interpreting Scripture that we always seek to look at the parts in the light of the whole. Many times as believers, our theology may appear to be based on Scripture, but not be ultimately biblical. This sounds like an oxymoron, but it's nonetheless true. A good example of this is the OSAS (Once Saved Always Saved, also known as Unconditional Eternal Security) doctrine so popular in the USA particularly in Calvinistic circles. There are certain statements made by Jesus that on the one hand appear to be unconditional, just like the examples I gave above; but when compared with other statements made by Jesus himself and the Apostles, it is clear that actually such promises as "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." are conditional in nature. In other words some scriptures may appear to teach OSAS when taken on their own, but in the light of the whole teaching of Jesus and the Apostles (and indeed the rest of Scripture) we see that OSAS is not part of any real biblical theology.


There are some promises which can not be annulled by human misdeeds and whose eventual fulfilment is unconditional and ensured, but our participation in or enjoyment of those promises is conditional. An example of this would be the Land promise made to Abraham; God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants for ever, but they, because of their sin have not truly enjoyed the benefits of that promise. Nevertheless the promise stands, it will never be annulled, and will be fulfilled in its entirety, but only those who are of the faith of Abraham will enjoy it.

God's judgements and our response to them.


Scripture reveals to us that not only can our enjoyment of a promise be affected by our response to it, but the severity of some inevitable judgement can be affected by our human actions and responses as well. This is vividly played out in Israelite history.


From the time of Solomon's apostasy onwards, there was a gradual but definite decline in the spiritual condition of Israel. Solomon's apostasy brought division; the Northern Kingdom went rotten from the outset; on the other hand, the southern kingdom of Judah embarked on a more gradual downward trend with occasional upward "blips" when a national revival occurred during the reign of a good king.


What particularly tipped the kingdom of Judah over the threshold and finally exhausted God's patience though, was the dreadful reign of Manasseh, who not only practised idolatry but even the child-sacrifice of Molekh worship outside the very city walls in the Halley of Hinnom in full view of the Temple Mount.


Things were so bad, that even during his own reign judgement fell on Manasseh, he was carried off to Babylon by the king of Assyria. Astonishingly enough, during his captivity there, he experienced genuine repentance, God had mercy upon him and he was returned to Judah and restored to his throne,--but as a vassal king to Assyria. Manasseh promptly began a clean up, and removed the abominations he had placed in the very Temple courts. Even though his earlier wicked deeds had initially exhausted the LORD's forbearance, Manasseh's true repentance caused the LORD to hold off the inevitable severe chastening for a few more generations.


Of course it was not just Manasseh who was at fault, Judah's sin and apostasy was national. The heavy hand of God's chastening had to fall at some point as he responded to the deteriorating spiritual condition of the nation. After Manasseh there was only one more good king,--Josiah, and after his reign was over things went from bad to worse. It was into this situation that Jeremiah was called to speak.

Jeremiah and his unpopular message.


Jeremiah's message of submission to the yoke of Babylon1 was particularly unwelcome, because it was directly opposed to a number of vested interests, both political and religious. On the whole, it seems he was mostly preaching to a hostile audience. In fact in the pages of Scripture, Jeremiah was probably the most hated and ill-received prophet apart from the Messiah himself.
The people were bent on their backsliding and enjoying their sin, so to hear messages of Divine displeasure, reproof and approaching chastening was not something that appealed to them, they actually preferred the messages of the false prophets (Jer. 5:31).


Jeremiah's message was not well received politically. For quite some time Judah had been a tributary to the Assyrians, but now the Assyrian empire had almost completely collapsed following internal struggles and the encroachments of a rising Babylonian-led coalition which included the Medes and some northern barbarians. The Judaean national leadership were hoping this would be the opportunity to finally shake off hated foreign shackles by playing off Assyria's former ally Egypt against a Babylon which was now dominating Judah as it filled the vacuum left by a receding Assyria. Jeremiah's message that the LORD required the nation to submit to the yoke of the king of Babylon, was not only a slap in the face to national pride and the currently rising expectations of liberation from foreign oppressors, but it was also diametrically opposed to the national leadership's foreign policy initiatives.


The Temple priesthood, ministering in the name of the LORD, where one would have thought Jeremiah would have found ready allies, and the national religious leadership, were even more antipathetic towards Jeremiah than the politicians and common people, because they were corrupt, spiritually compromised and had mingled the worship of Yahweh with paganism.

Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. (2 Chr. 36:14)

It was the voices of the prophets and priests that clamoured loudest against Jeremiah, (see Jer. 26) and cried out to have him done away with; because they, using the false prophets as their mouthpiece, were ringleaders in the apostasy of the people. They hated Jeremiah's message of judgement and chastening, partly because it affected their position, prestige and (probably) personal incomes.

Hananiah and his very popular message.


And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:2 And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Hananiah is listed as the son of Azur the prophet. Prophets, whether of the LORD or otherwise, were often court appointees in ancient Israel. David had a true prophet of the LORD, Nathan, and Ahab and Jezebel had their appointed (false) prophets. There is an Azur listed in Eze. 11: 1-13. Interestingly enough Azur is described as a "prince of the people" so he had political connections, but he is also described as one of those who "devise iniquity" and give "wicked counsel in the city", which the LORD specifically spells out as their saying, "it [judgement] is not near". Though it can not be established with absolute certainty, the son of a court hanger-on with powerful and crooked connections would definitely characterise Hananiah.

What was wrong with Hananiah's message?


Though Hananiah uttered his prophecy in the name of the LORD, that of course did not guarantee it was of the LORD. At that time the worship of Yahweh had become corrupted by syncretism and idolatry, even within the Temple courts. Hananiah's message certainly appeared on the surface to be pro-Israel, that would have sounded appealing today to many within the Christian Zionist community. However the LORD did not view it with approval.

Then the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,  Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.  For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.  

It was inconsistent with the tenor of prophetic revelation.


God had been consistently warning concerning the national situation for a long time. Isaiah, ministering during the reigns of previous kings had clearly foreseen the exile to Babylon and their regathering (Isa. Chas.14, 39, 48). Hananiah's message also explicitly contradicted what the LORD had been saying through Jeremiah for most of his ministry.

It mingled truth with error in order to gain an audience.


Effectively, Hananiah's message was an attempt by the false prophet to neutralise the message coming through Jeremiah by taking part of what was true and then mixing it with a lie. Thus Hananiah was saying "Yes, God was angry like Jeremiah said, he was going to judge, but he has done that now, and it's all over. It's all smooth sailing from now on." This was actually a form of what today we would call preterism. Unfortunately this was not true, God had barely even begun to enter into judgment with his sinning people.

It by-passed the Divine call for repentance.


It was a message of national restoration, salvation and victory without the much needed repentance and faith that the true prophets had been calling for. This kind of false teaching was particularly dangerous, because it had the ear of the people, who were already predisposed to hearing messages that did not bring conviction to the sin in their lives or any requirement to forsake it. It was a cheap grace message.

It appeared to be a calming and comforting message but it presented the people with a false hope that would make matters far, far worse for them in the long run.

"Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron."

The LORD actually lays the responsibility for the heavier judgement that would ensue, directly at the door of the false prophet. He says that ultimately it was their false teaching that made the yoke heavier and stronger.

Modern Day Hananiah's.


"That's All Folks!" a deadly deceit.


Jacob's preaching and Moriel generally, have a specific focus on presenting the prophetic testimony of the Scriptures, both to the Church to prepare her for what is to come, and to the unsaved to exhort them to flee from the wrath that is to come, and in this context Jacob often refers to "et tsara l'yakov", the time of Jacob's trouble.

Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

What may come as a surprise to some, is that just as in Jeremiah's day, there are certain high-profile groups in Israel that are teaching that Jacob's Trouble is already past or doesn't really apply to eschatological events within Israel. The quote below is from Chuck Cohen of Intercessors for Israel:

"According to those verses in Jeremiah, Jacob's trouble occurs before Israel comes back to the land and before Israel becomes an independent nation again. Israel became a nation again in 1948. Did anything occur to Jacob's descendants before 1948 that could qualify as Jacob's trouble? While some believe that the whole 1,900 year exile can be seen as Jacob's trouble - and there can be a good argument made for this - still the event that seems to be the climactic fulfilment was the demonically inspired Nazi Holocaust. Jacob's trouble has been fulfilled."
"As noted briefly before, there can also be a future fulfilment, based on a spiritual principle of 'now-and-not-yet' that applies to some prophetic passages.3 That principle, if we are being honest with the text, would indicate that if there was another wave of anti-Semitic hatred leading to the deaths of many Jews, it would happen in exile. Jews who refuse to return to Zion are - and will continue to be - in much more danger than those Jews who have come home."

The Cohen's article goes appallingly wrong on a number of levels, one of which is on the timing. While they are correct in establishing that the fulfilment of this passage is in the Last Days, (which biblically can mean any time from the Cross onward) what they fail to give adequate weight to is the phrase:

"Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it"

Jer. 30:7 stresses the historical uniqueness of this period of trouble. This kind of phraseology also occurs in Matt. 24:21-22, Mk 13:19-20, which clearly draw on Dan.12:1-24. All three of these passages, clearly place this unique and unparalleled time of tribulation of Israel's history in the period after the setting up of the Abomination of Desolation, that is, the latter half of the Seventieth Week of Daniel. A period called in Daniel the "Et-haQetz", the "time of the end". Both Daniel and Jesus state emphatically that this time will eclipse all other periods of national and international distress which then means it will be worse than the Holocaust. It is also starkly explicit that the epicentre of the tribulation is within the Land of Israel itself.

Zechariah chapter 13 speaks clearly of a horrifying time when two-thirds of the nation shall be cut off (Zec. 13:8) and this is clearly linked to prophecies connected with the Day of the LORD, however Cohen attempts to evacuate this prophecy of its force:
I.F.I.'s annual Intercessors Prayer Conference in January 2015 included a message5 on Zechariah 12-14 that explained why its middle chapter refers to the period around the Lord's first coming and not to the one for which we are all still waiting. In short, Zechariah 12 ends with all Israel being saved, as they look upon the One whom they have pierced and mourn for Him as if He were their precious only child (12:10). In the Hebrew, the word in the KJV translated upon, should be to/toward as with spiritual sight.
While grammatically and syntactically it is possible to understand the meaning of the Hebrew word "אלי" as looking to in a non-physical way. There are extremely serious problems with I.F.I.'s handling of the text from Zec. 12:10. Let us compare their interpretation with the Holy Spirit inspired handling of this verse in the New Testament:

But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:  But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.  And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.  For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. Jn 19:37
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. Apoc. 1:7
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matt. 24:30
The following points are abundantly clear from the texts where Zec. 12:10 is quoted or alluded to:

  1. It refers to literal seeing of the One who we pierced, with our physical eyes. It does not in any wise refer to a figurative turning toward Him "as with spiritual sight".
  2. It is clear from the eschatological contexts in which this verse is used in the NT, that this verse refers to Yeshua's coming in power with His angels in the glory of the Father, which Matt. 24 places explicitly after the Tribulation.

What Chuck and Karen Cohen are claiming about this verse is simply patently untrue, it is false teaching of a very dangerous kind.6 It is the deadly preterism of Hananiah.

There is much more in the Cohen's article that raises concerns; like Hananiah it does not take into account the the depth of our national sin and apostasy, and its inevitable consequences. To be quite honest, in modern Israel, we have exceeded by more than a thousandfold anything that Manasseh ever did. Notwithstanding anything else, we have the blood of more than 2 million unborn on our hands. Severe chastisement will eventually be coming our way because of our multiplied national transgression and our lack of national repentance.

Don't Worry! It Will Never Happen To Us.


Once again just as in the time of Jeremiah, in addition to the "It's already happened" school of false prophecy, there is the "It will never happen to us" school of false teachings as well.

. . . Hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

This school of false-teaching is exemplified by such statements as this, which Dr Paul Wilkinson gave at Berean Call:

" . .the Post-Tribulation belief . . . the Pre-Wrath view, these are heretical views. To teach that the Church is going to go through any part of the Tribulation period is an abominable thing to teach. because it robs believers of the blessedness of the Blessed Hope. It doesn't fill believers with joy and expectancy and longing, it fills them with fear, it fills them with a kind of militancy that they have to stand against the Antichrist, they have to face the Mark of the Beast. I have spoken at Churches in England where people have been in fear how they are going to get through the Tribulation, how their children are going to get through the Tribulation. Will they be strong enough to resist the Mark of the Beast when it comes. Praise God the Lord uses many of us to bring freedom and release from that kind of teaching.."

In Jeremiah's time, the weight of national transgression had become so great that judgement was inevitable, and the LORD specifically wanted to prepare His people with the mindset that they would have to endure a yoke of suffering. By presenting the people with a false hope, the lying prophets were dissuading the people from resigning themselves to the Divine chastening and thus teaching them rebellion against the LORD. This in the end would only make their suffering worse and even result in the needless deaths of many.

For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

The Hebrew is very strong, the word l'ma'an translated as "to" in the A.V. has the force of in order that or to the intent that: thus the LORD explicitly says that there is a causative link between the teachings of the false prophets and the Exile and perishing of many.

Events that cannot be avoided and how they affect us.


Like God's judgement on the kingdom of Judah, the Tribulation, the Return of Jesus and the Day of the LORD are settled inevitabilities. God, who in Eternity sees all choices, events and possibilities in ways beyond our comprehension, knows exactly when they will happen. There may, from a temporal perspective, be events and choices made that can delay or even accelerate the arrival of these events, but they can not be avoided altogether, at some point they will inevitably occur. The fact is however, that responding in faith and obedience to God's message makes a massive difference as to how those coming events will affect us. A correct understanding of God's goodness and holy character will help us in this, we must understand that we are not dealing with a duplicitous and sadistic deity as portrayed by Calvinism, but an infinitely loving and gracious God, who will (if we are that generation) permit His Body to endure the Tribulation only for their ultimate good and for a the good of a lost world in which God will use them to bear witness, so that He may bring in the final harvest.
In both Joel and Malachi, we have terrifying predictions of the oncoming eschatological Day of the LORD, as the enemies of Israel approach to consume her at the end of the Seventieth Week of Daniel. At the very end of Malachi we read the following:

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

The word translated "curse" here, is kherem. In the OT it is the word used when something is devoted totally to destruction. The word "lest" tells us that this judgement is conditional. If it were not for the prophetic ministry of Elijah and a positive response from the people the Land would be completely destroyed.


We see also the same pattern in the second chapter of Joel. Where in light of the terrifying events approaching, the people are summoned to seek the LORD in prayer and repentance, and it is the change of heart in the people that prompts a response from the LORD to destroy the invading hosts, because "he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil."


The birth pangs of end-time events may well come upon our generation, just as judgement came upon Judah. But also like them we have an option. We can either close our ears and live in a state of denial, following the modern-day Hananiah's who without any biblical grounds are telling us it's either already happened, or at least won't happen to us, thus leaving us unprepared and easy prey to coming events and effectively predisposing ourselves to spiritual deception and apostasy. Or, we can seek the LORD with ever increasing vigour, that He might arm us with the mindset that is prepared to forsake all, even our own lives for Him in order to be His witnesses. Jesus has a solution for our fears about the future and our worries about our families and children, if the Tribulation does indeed come upon our generation, and it is this:

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. . . . So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

All that we have, including our families and children are a gift of God and do not truly belong to us, we are merely custodians. The God whose very nature is love, who is utterly good, utterly holy and in whom is no darkness at all, must be our highest treasure, and greatest love, and we must trust His character. This is the only solution to fears about the future and the judgements, even the possibility of the Tribulation itself, coming upon us.

We noted above the causative link between false teaching and increased apostasy. We actually see a similar situation in Matt. 24 where contextually the teachings of false prophets and false christs, lawlessness (anomia which in context means divine law) and apostasy are linked. What is particularly interesting though is that the false doctrine that Jesus specifically links to these false christs (and the consequent anomia and apostasy) is the teaching of a coming other than the globally visible, glorious and unmistakeable one He Himself describes and which is preceded by certain signs. This is particularly pertinent, because some pretrib ministers are linking the Gospel proclamation with the Pretrib Rapture Theory in a "believe in Jesus so you won't have to go through the Tribulation" message.

I often wonder how Dr Wilkinson's statement quoted above would be received in places like the Sudan, Nigeria, Vietnam and ISIS controlled territories in Iraq and Syria. Would Christians there, some of whom watch their families butchered before their eyes before they themselves are slaughtered, feel freed and released by pretribulational rapturism; would a message of "you don't have to endure", "you don't have to stand", "don't worry you'll be taken out before the Tribulation hits town," help them? Or would they be better served by "and they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death?"

The severity and mercy of God's response to Hananiah.


One of the specific charges God brought against the false prophets of Jeremiah's time, was that they did nothing to prepare the people for what was coming:

O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.  Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.

The Hebrew word translated "stand" also means to abide or endure. The problem with Hananiah, was not just that his message was false, it was effective at garnering adherents and was popular. It brought "freedom" and "release" from thoughts of divine displeasure, judgement or chastening. It made no demands for amendment of life, repentance and trust in God, and of course this is always an appealing message! However in actual fact, Hananiah and the false prophets were presenting the people with a satanically engineered counterfeit specifically designed to inoculate them against the true message of God's Word, and one which would leave them unprepared for what was coming, and unable to endure it. The LORD's response to this had to be radical:

Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord.  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

Hananiah died three months later. Why did God not simply strike Hananiah dead right then and there? I really believe that the LORD was giving Hananiah time to repent. Hananiah knew in his own heart that the message he gave was false. I do actually believe that if he had confessed his false teaching and repented, God would have have responded by sparing his life, because Had already had spared the life of Manasseh who did things far worse. Sadly repentance was not forthcoming.


False teaching is a serious matter, and those who profess to teach the Word are held to a higher standard of accountability (Jas. 3:1). Based on God's past dealings with the false prophets in Jeremiah's day, I can not believe that our God who does not change, will not for the sake of the Body at some point act in response to ministries who stubbornly hold to and promote doctrines that they actually know they have no real biblical warrant for and have been repeatedly warned about;7 particularly false teaching that leaves the Body unprepared for very serious future events,--and this will include certain elements even within the premillennial pro-Israel camp, who stand against what the Scriptures clearly teach concerning what is coming. God is giving space to repent, and I really do think they need to reassess what they are teaching in the light of Scripture and not repeat Hananiah's fatal mistake.

1Jer. 27:8-12.

2There were actually three deportations of Judeans to Babylon. The first around 605 B.C. (which is probably when Daniel was taken there) under Jehoiakim, the second around 598 and the third after the city fell in 587.

3"For example, while Peter said that the outpouring of the Spirit on Shavuot, the Day of Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2, was a fulfilment of Joel 2:28-29, many still expect a final fulfilment - when all Israel gets saved, as the context of both Joel and Acts is specifically talking about Jews. We do not see this as applying to some still-to-come future end time global revival that will sweep away the 'gross darkness'. Revival is happening now!" Jacob’s Trouble - Past or Future? Intercessors For Israel Sept. 2015.

4"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." See also Matt. 24:15-21 "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)  Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:  Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:  Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.  And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!  But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."
5 "Zechariah 12-14 Today", Chuck Cohen. Intercessors for Israel.

6When they are promoting an error of such magnitude, the reader will not then be surprised to find that the Cohen's are long standing members of Wayne Hilsden's King of Kings Community Jerusalem, which is linked with and thoroughly saturated with the doctrines and practices of the New Apostolic Reformation.


7This is clearly evidenced by the open admission of Pretrib Scholars that they have no scripture that clearly teaches what they claim; the recent withdrawal by major pretrib figures Dr Thomas Ice, Mark Hitchcock and Dr Paul Wilkinson from debating the scriptural basis of their Pretribulational Rapture Theory and their promotion of such things as their "The Apostasy Is The Rapture" teaching. All these things taken together are a more than tacit indicator that they themselves are full aware that their Secret Pretrib Rapture Theory is manifestly unscriptural.

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Spiritual Fitness; -Daniel Takes His Pulse(s)

This originally appeared in the Moriel Bulletin of August 2013.

One of my favourite books is Daniel, not just because it contains some of the most important eschatological prophecies in the Bible; (Jesus' dialogue in Matthew 24, and the entire book of Revelation being vitally connected to it), but because it contains some of the most vivid depictions of living godly in the midst of persecution and standing for the LORD in the very heart of Babylon itself. We see the great trials of faith of for Daniel's and his friends with the Fiery Furnace, and the Den of Lions. However we should take note of the progression in the book. The fight of faith for Daniel and his friends begins not at the moment of potential martyrdom, but in chapter One.
“And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,... But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. ...said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days."
Daniel purposed he would not defile himself with the meat and wine of the king of Babylon. Of course under the Old Covenant a faithful Israelite would avoid foods not permitted in the Torah. Interestingly enough the Torah does not mention wine itself as being unkosher. Perhaps underlying this there was an issue with the food (Aramaic pat-bag: delicacies) and wine of the king of Babylon being connected to idolatry in some way as well, in a manner reminiscent of that which Paul addressed the Corinthians about. The main application that I want to make here is typological. Babylon is THE major scriptural type of a world religious and value system that is directly opposed to God. It is typological of an evil and seductive religious system, that if it cannot deceive, entice or enslave the people of God on the one hand, will attempt to persecute and destroy them on the other. Daniel saw that if he began to compromise and let a little of that which is tainted by Babylon's idolatrous system in, it would begin a process which would cause problems further on down the line.

The Wine Of Babylon

Typologically wine has a number of different meanings, but in connection with Babylon they are wholly negative: it is called the wine of the wrath of her fornication; that is the wine of the wrath arising of her immorality and idolatry. Wine can lull us to sleep, or leave us disoriented, like a drunk in the street; vulnerable and ready to be mugged, or lay us open to further seduction in our intoxicated state. At the very least it can make us insensible just at the moment when we need to be alert and watching, The wine of Babylon is particularly dangerous as it leads us into actively sinning and drifting away from the LORD. Scripture tells us very clearly in the Last Days the love of many would grow cold because iniquity would abound. “Once Saved Always Saved” was never part of Jesus doctrine nor that of the Apostles or the Early Church. Paul says that if we are drunken and fall asleep, then the Day of the LORD (which is not the Tribulation, but when Jesus visibly returns in glory to gather up His saints and punish the ungodly), has every possibility of catching us unawares too. It shouldn't but it could, something that both Jesus and the Apostles said could happen to genuine believers (Luke 12:45-48; 1 Thess. 5:4-8 ; 1 Pet. 2:15-22, you will look in vain for a “Once Saved Always Saved” doctrine in the Scriptures. In its proper biblical context Eternal Security is always conditional).

Spiritual Junk Food

To eat of the delicacies of Babylon means we ingest its essence and values, they become a part of us, and change our makeup. They will weaken us, subtly sap our spiritual vitality, incrementally crush our spiritual vigour. To draw a parallel with modern day nutrition, it's like trying to live on a diet of Megaburgers, Chicken Mucknuggets, sugar filled shakes, snacks and sodas and the processed rubbish that is passed off as food. In fact we know that eating this stuff is a sure but steady way to obesity, diabetes, clogged arteries and congestive heart failure (It does make you wonder if the plague of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in the UK and USA is typological of the spiritual state of those nations, but that's another issue).

Typlogically speaking we are exiled in Bablylon until our Lord returns in glory and frees us. As believers the King of Babylon comes to offer his delicacies, Satan wants to re-program our system of values and priorities, to squeeze us into the world's mould (Rom 12:2). One of the primary ways that he does this is through the entertainment media, which when not seducing us with the world's value sytem acts as a marvellous sinkhole down which our precious time disappears to no profit. Ever done that come home from work relax after tea-time flop in front of the telly thing, and wonder how it got to midnight, finding yourself too tired to read even a small portion of God's Word? So we go to bed exhausted, wake up later than we intended and rush to work without that needed time with the LORD? For most people and many believers too this is a pattern of life. 

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying its sinful to own a TV set, but somebody once defined insanity as repeating the same course of action but expecting different results each time. If this is our lifestyle then somethng is seriously wrong! In this modern era the entertainment industry has become the siren-song of Satan to seduce the saints into sin and serial squandering of the precious and all too finite time we have left to grow and develop in the knowledge of God and His Word. Satan uses the world system and its entertainments very powerfully indeed against the believer. He uses the bright lights of Babylon to draw strangers and pilgrims in from the wilderness, so he can entrap them in his allurements. We may be exiles in this world, trapped in the Land of Babylon awaiting our deliverance, but we dare not settle down in its city and become naturalised citizens! We seek a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God.

God's Healthy Diet Plan

In Hebrews 12 we are warned not just to cast off entangling sins, but every other encumberance which can hinder our walk with God, and one of the biggest stumbling blocks for modern day believers is mismanagment of our time! Jesus called these things "the lusts of other things entering in, which choke the word and render it unfruitful".

If the spiritual spring has gone out of our step, if we feel jaded and exhausted in our inner man, we need to be realistic with ourselves and look at our priorities. In Genesis 18, if Abraham was a modern Christian, he would have asked the LORD and his angelic companions to "Sit down over there for while will you, -I just have to catch this episode of Coronation Street!". Of course in reality Abraham dropped everything in order to serve the LORD and sit with Him. We should be mindful for the LORD to be lord of our lives indeed, means that He be master of our time also.

If Daniel had not set his heart to be faithful and not defile himself with the wine and delicacies of Babylon, he may not have had the strength to stand in the later much more severe trials. If he had not run with the footmen he would not have been able to run with the horses. He that is faithful in little will be faithful in much.

We are living in highly dangerous and volatile times and the LORD is not going to snatch us away at any moment a la J.N. Darby's delusions, (Darby, in addition to founding a self-excommunicating and controlling cult-group, promulgated an eschatology that flat out denies explicit teachings of the Scriptures by adopting a spiritualising hermeneutic to insert teachings into the Body that can not be honestly derived from Scripture. Not only so, but he held to a form of Neo-Marcionism, that hacked the Scriptures up and effectively wrote major parts of the New Testament off. No one should claim that these errors are the product of the work of the Spirit.), but things can change so rapidly that we could quite possibly be standing on the very cusp of the Tribulation itself At the very least Europe and the USA are fast becoming places where faithful believers in Jesus are being officially persecuted. Remember democracy and religious freedom are a historical anomaly in human history, not the norm. Are we ready for this? Unless we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, we imperil ourselves. The junk food of Babylon can cripple our spiritual health and effectiveness, and render us unfit for service, or even worse.
“Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.” (v.16)
Daniel and his friends chose to eat pulses and drink water instead of eating Babelburgers and Nebuchadnezzar McNuggets. Interestingly enough the Hebrew word for pulses is "zaronim" from the Hebrew word "zera" -a seed, a type of the Word of God (see Matthew 13, Mark 4 etc) . We are to desire the word that we might grow thereby.
“at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.” (v. 15)


Consequently they enjoyed better health than those who ate from the King of Babylon's portion. They were not just better equipped for the trials ahead but God also blessed them for their faithfulness, and gave them wisdom and understanding above that of their peers, in particular that which related to the Last Days. To him who hath more shall be given but to him that hath not even that which he hath shall be taken from him. We all desperately need understanding for the days ahead, but it comes at a price, that of forsaking the things not needful and choosing the good portion.

Thursday 31 December 2015

"Christian" Mystic Bill Subritzky Dies in New Zealand

Subritzky was certainly a deceiver who did much harm in NZ (and in the UK via Ellel Grange deliverance centre which he was a co-founder of along with Peter Horrobin, who, with no valid scriptural grounds,(such as unrepentant adultery on her part) divorced his Christian wife and married another woman.

From his ecumenism to his promotion of Toronto to the clairvoyance he called revelation, to his promotion of the pseudo Christian witchdoctor TB Joshua, Subritzky now knows it was all a big lie that he swallowed and then regurgitated for the consumption of others. I did actually know Bill Subritsky (and his son Paul) through Barry Smith. Truth Watch, Moriel, and Philip Powell all warned him,(or tried to) but no one could ever tell such a man anything. If he would not listen to The Word of God, there was no one he would listen to. He was the commensurate mystic, conned into thinking he was hearing from The Holy Ghost. He deceived many, but in the end he now knows that he chiefly deceived himself. Ethical issues of finance were another dimension of the Bill Subritszky debacle.

We all have horror stories. I recall a young Kiwi believer named Colin who after being saved for only 7 weeks was taken by a friend to a Subritzky meeting in Palmerston North. Subritzky claimed a 'word of knowledge' that Colin's father was a homosexual pedophile who molested him as a baby and that Subritzky needed to cast 7 demons out of Colin. In actual fact, when Colin was a baby his dad was in a body cast and physically and sexually non-functional. The damage such counterfeit spirituality could do to a new believer, including destroying his relationship with his father, is stupendous. The damage done to so many young believers by Subritzky must be incalculable except to God.

Jacob Prasch

Wednesday 30 December 2015

CORRECTION & APOLOGETIC REGRETS

MORIEL ISRAEL·WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015

Some months ago an incorrect statement was made by Jacob Prasch on the April 2015 Prophecy Update on Moriel's Face Book page.

Following an itinerary in the UK by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, whose ministry Ariel  Moriel & Jacob Prasch strongly endorse, the phraseology used by  Arnold on one of his teachings led to a misunderstanding among several  people that Arnold had altered his position on the timing of the Rapture.  This however was not the case and what was reported by us was a  mistake for which we expressed our apologetic regrets both to Arnold and  to our readers.

Arnold's view is indeed  unusual and unlike most pretrib brethren known to us, he holds that  the Great Tribulation, and not necessarily the Rapture, cannot take  place until the church knows the identity of the Antichrist. He does not believe the Rapture cannot take place until the Antichrist is  revealed , and this is what led to the confusion in the UK, as most British  Pretrib advocates equate the identification of the Antichrist with the  onset of the Great Tribulation; as do many in the USA and elsewhere.  Thus, a variation of the belief in imminency is held by Arnold who is Pretribulational, although his particular position on the Antichrist needing to be identified before the Great Tribulation lent itself to  being misconstrued. His position as explained in his book is in fact  clearer.

Jacob instructed that the clip be  removed once we were made aware of the error by the Ariel office in  Texas. Unfortunately, somehow the former team member suffering from  multiple sclerosis took ill and had to be replaced for medical reasons  when she was hospitalized. Her replacement, not familiar with the  situation, may have rebooted the entire page inadvertently reposting it.  As it stood, without  anyone realizing it - the corrected version ("A  House Divided") was removed, and the original clip containing the error  was re-posted! It has only come to our attention today and will be  corrected again immediately.

We once again can only yet again express our apologetic regrets for this embarrassing mishap.
Moriel  & Jacob  continue our  endorsement of Dr. Fruchtenbaum's  ministry and we suggest our  readers visit his Ariel website as a  recommended link. His books are indeed well worth reading, most  especially 'Israelology'. While Arnold's rather unique perspective on  the timing of the Rapture appears to be found somewhere between what  most Pretribulationists believe and our own Intra-Seal position, he  does nonetheless remain in the Prettribulational camp and we regret any misunderstandings to the contrary. It was an error and the  responsibility for the error is primarily ours although we were unaware  of it. We were sure it was redressed in April of 2015, not knowing it  became re-posted in the change of personnel.

Jacob has been on  medical leave since September, only able to do short spurts of work and  had no idea of  the error as neither did the new Facebook maintainer.

An updated version of "A HOUSE DIVIDED" will be re-filmed in the near future.
Sincerely in Christ,

Moriel

Monday 21 December 2015

War is Declared

In a strange parallel to the departure of peace from Europe and the US; it has now also gone from the Premillennial and pro-Israel community as well. Few can be unaware by now, that the disagreement over timing of the Rapture went nuclear at the recent Berean Call Conference. Dr Paul Wilkinson of Prophetic Word Ministries International dropped the "H-Bomb" during his rebuttal of the Left Behind or Led Astray DVD, stating that those who do not agree with his Pretribulational Rapture position are holding to "terrible heresy". I know Jacob and others have addressed some of the points raised by Dr Wilkinson, but no one as yet seems to have covered this one, so I thought it good to include it in this bulletin.

It is not wrong to state one's position with passion, but laying aside the personal accusations made there, which are a separate issue; I am not sure that Dr Wilkinson, (who stands by and will not withdraw his heresy accusation) truly understands biblically what the term heresy means, or its implications, or he would not have used it in such an uninformed and offhand manner.
      1. What actually is Heresy anyway?

Heresy has been defined in three main ways:

Denial of the fundamentals of the faith as laid down in the the Creeds. The wording of the historic Creeds is very specific, they were formulated as a standard of orthodoxy in response to heresy. Such a definition, however, is inadequate, as it only holds good in the areas covered by the Creeds, and because some later confessions of faith such as the Westminster Confession contain calvinistic elements that many would regard as defective or seriously erroneous at best and the logical implications of which are even blasphemous, as they impugn God's holy character.

Denial of prevailing orthodoxy. This is how most dictionaries would define it, but such a definition only holds good as long as the Church is in good shape doctrinally. Particularly in the Dark Ages and the Inquisition, the prevailing orthodoxy was actually anti-Scriptural, as Christianity had became Christendom and drifted away from any biblical moorings. After all, what kind of orthodoxy bans you from translating or reading the Bible on pain of death?

Denial of what is explicitly taught in Scripture. Of the three definitions, of course this is the most important. Scripture is our ultimate and final authority and the basis for any and all doctrine.
      1. Heresy Doesn't Happen By Accident.

Heresy is not a difference of opinion on some subject or even merely possessing erroneous ideas about something: all of us have had at one time or another some wonky notions, particularly when we were young in the Lord, thankfully most of these are ironed out as we mature in our knowledge of the Scriptures and of the faith; however, heresy is not these. Heresy involves the will and is about a choice:--it involves demonstrably false doctrine, wilfully and persistently held to, in defiance and rejection of admonition from the clear teaching of the Scriptures. Consequently, heresy is not something that happens to a Christian by accident; it is a way that one has chosen to follow, therefore, someone who is teaching heresy, is by definition a heretic; thus, by his employment of the term heresy, Dr Wilkinson has implicated all who do not hold to his Secret Pretribulational Rapture Theory as heretics.

Scripture teaches us to shun heretics and keep our distance, because they are uncorrectable.
"A man that is an heretic (or factious) after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself."
Heresy is the stock-in-trade of false teachers, who no longer love the Lord Jesus and whose end is destruction.
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."
In actual fact Dr Wilkinson is not the first in the Pretribulational Rapture Theorist Camp to make this kind of accusation, he is merely imitating, in a more emotionally-charged manner, what Tim LaHaye, the guru of Leftbehindism stated in his 1999 book Revelation Unveiled:
This promise, however is to the church of Philadelphia: she will be raptured before the Tribulation begins. It seems difficult to understand why some false teachers suggest that the Church must go through the Tribulation in view of this clear-cut statement of our Lord.
Be that as it may, we can see from the book of Acts that this does not refer to someone who has merely preached something a bit "off" once in a while, or whose understanding or grasp of something is immature.
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the scriptures.  This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John: and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more accurately. 
Apollos hadn't got everything perfectly right, so Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and straightened things up. They didn't label him a a false teacher or heretic because his understanding of the Gospel was incomplete. A real false teacher or heretic on the other hand, is someone who is persistently promulgating demonstrably unbiblical and destructive false doctrine, and who refuses to be corrected. It is someone who has gone "off the rails" altogether; which is why Paul counsels Titus to reject (shun or avoid) such people after they have refused two admonitions. This effectively means disfellowshipping or excommunication.

Scripture also defines false teachers as wolves:
Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.  I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock;  and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.  
In the Old Testament, when used of people, wolves depicts those who mercilessly exploit or plunder others for their own gain or advantage. It is used particularly in two excoriating condemnatory addresses against Israel's national and religious leadership (Eze. 22:23-31 & Zep. 3:1-4.).
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.  By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.  Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
When we take heresy in its biblical definition; Dr Wilkinson, by his declaration of all eschatological views other than his own to be terrible heresy; has in actual fact labelled all who do not teach the Pretribulational Rapture Theory as heretics, false teachers and wolves, exploiters of the Body, workers of iniquity, who await only the Lord's judgement and destruction, fit only to be shunned and avoided by other believers.

Heresy is not something about which believers can ever remain neutral, Scripture commands us to separate from heresy, and shun those who wilfully propagate false teaching: thus, biblically speaking, Dr Wilkinson's heresy charge, if taken seriously, is also a call to Pretribulational Rapturists to excommunicate those who do not endorse their eschatological theory.
      1. Is Non-Pretrib Actually Heresy?

Can Dr Wilkinson demonstrate that Post-tribulationism or Prewrath contradict any of the historic creeds, Apostolic, Athanasian, Nicene? Absolutely not.

Can Dr Wilkinson demonstrate that Pretribulationism was ever part of the orthodoxy of the Church, particularly the immediate Post-Apostolic Church? I am sure like other Pretribulation Rapture theorists he would love to be able to do that, but he is confronted by a deeply embarrassing silence for the first 1800 years of Church history in regards to anything that could be taken as as serious evidence of a Pretribulation Rapture. They proclaim Pretrib as a "lost" doctrine rediscovered by John Nelson Darby, but for something to be rediscovered, it has to be proved to have previously existed as part of the Apostolic deposit of faith once delivered to the saints, which they can not do. Without Scofield's (a convicted felon and con-man) insertion of Darby's errors into the very pages of Scripture itself, Pretrib would have remained the crank teaching of a tiny self-excommunicating cult-group. So the "rediscovery" claim is, on their part, wishful thinking at best, and downright deceit at worst, because they have no basis for such a pronouncement. Pretribulational teachers that are claiming definitive Pretrib support from Early Church history or that it is an orthodox doctrine that was "lost" are selling their listeners timeshares on Mars.

Can Dr Wilkinson demonstrate by sound exegetical process that Pretribulationism is clearly and unambiguously taught in Scripture? The fact that he could not do so in either his video or written rebuttal is very telling indeed.

The grounds of his accusation of "terrible heresy" are that non-Pretrib eschatologies place the Church in the Seventieth Week of Daniel, because the Seventieth Week is decreed for Israel and the city of Jerusalem, but his reasoning here is a non-sequitor. Yes, indeed, the Seventieth Week is decreed upon Jerusalem and the Jewish people, but it does not follow that it does not affect the Church, for a great number of very important reasons, just one of which I will list below.

Dr Wilkinson's position makes the assumption that God can not deal with Israel and the Church at the same time.

Firstly this concept is nowhere found in Scripture; it is one of those vaporous presuppositions upon which Pretribulational Rapture theorists build their castles in the air. Secondly God was dealing with Israel after the New Covenant was inaugurated and after Pentecost, (which is assumed by dispensationalist to be the birthday of the Church) and even more so now after 1948, Israel is a nation once more and the Church is still here. Thirdly it could even be argued that God has never stopped dealing with Israel, that the very fact of their judicial hardening and exile among the nations and the preservation of the Jewish Remnant is evidence of that.

Things decreed or ordained explicitly for Israel actually have massive relevance for the Church.
Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Nowhere will you find in Scripture that the New Covenant was made with the nations or the "Church". It is made specifically with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. According to Dr Wilkinson's rigid and over-realised demarcation, the New Covenant should have no relevance to the Church because it is "Jewish" and appointed to the nation of Israel. The fact is however, Scripture records that the Gentiles are graciously included in this promise given to the Jewish people.

Secondly the Apostle Paul makes it quite clear in Ephesians that Gentile believers now occupy the following position:

Joined with the Jewish Messiah,
Of the commonwealth of Israel,
Partakers in the covenants of the promise, sharing in the hope of Israel.
Made nigh in the blood of the Messiah.
Part of the one new man created from Jew and Gentile.
Reconciled along with Jewish believers unto God.
Sharing a common access [with Jewish believers) through the Spirit to the Father
No more strangers and sojourners,1 but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
Built upon the foundation of the [Jewish] apostles and prophets,
Fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

Dr Wilkinson's eschatology is wrong, because his ecclesiology is wrong. Though it is beyond the scope of this article to enter into great details on the doctrine of the Church, very briefly it could be said thus: that the "Church" is really nothing other than an expansion and development of the saved remnant of Israel. Paul makes it absolutely clear that when a Gentile comes to faith he is plugged into the wonderful promises and destiny that God has intended for Israel; he comes to share in what Paul calls the commonwealth of Israel, thus as part of the remnant he shares in its relationship to the nation of Israel as a whole. So, like the remnant which he has now joined, he is distinct from unbelieving Israel, but not separated from it, he shares the same connection with it as does the rest of the Remnant. He does not become a Jew, or cease to be a Gentile, but he is now of the seed of Abraham by faith (Gal. 3:29). If then, a Gentile believer is part and parcel of the commonwealth of Israel, of Abraham's seed, a fellow-heir of the promise, and of one body with the Remnant of Israel and part of the nation that would render the vineyard's fruit in its season, then it stands to reason that he must also share in what befalls that Remnant also, for example in Revelation 12:
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
So then we see on all three counts, the Ancient Creeds, Historic Orthodoxy and faithfulness to Biblical Truth, Dr Wilkinson's charge of heresy is all flurry and fluff, without substance, an ill-advised and emotional venting, which while it played to the pretribulational gallery at Berean Call, does not correspond to any biblical definition of the term heresy at all.
      1. Dr Wilkinson's Controversial Remarks on the Trinity.

I am making no accusations and have no desire to; if however, Dr Wilkinson had pointed the finger at himself instead of accusing others, he might have found more grounds for his accusations, because he is certainly encroaching on the areas covered by two of the definitions.

In regards to Historic Orthodoxy; his castigation of the Post-Apostolic and Ante-Nicene Fathers for their faults in order to discredit their eschatological testimony, was in itself, a tacit admission of the fact that they were post-tribulational to a man, and that a post-tribulational eschatology was actually stated to be part of Christian orthodoxy in that period; and Dr Wilkinson brought forth no evidence to demonstrate Pretribulational Rapturism was ever widely accepted among Evangelical Orthodoxy until very recently (and even that mostly geographically isolated to the USA). Rest assured, could he have done so, he most certainly would have.

In regards to Biblical Support, the most important category of all; in place of an exegetical argument, Dr Wilkinson presented us with this:
Well yes, I would agree that there is not one verse of Scripture to prove the Pretrib Rapture Theory", as he put it, . . . doctrine. Erm . . . I don’t believe he should have said that, had no need to say that. It's a none argument. Are you going to give me one verse of Scripture that proves that God the Father, that the Father is God and the Son of God and the Spirit is God, is that what we are about, proof-texting like the Jehovah's Witnesses? No we have the full counsel of God the progressive revealed Word of God to our hearts and so when you are talking about like the Rapture or the Trinity or whatever it is, you pull in lots of Scriptures.
The doctrine of the Trinity, so fundamental to biblical Christianity, cannot be proved by quoting a single verse of Scripture! Joe Schimmel is making a non-argument. We are not Jehovah’s Witnesses hanging our theology on proof-texts, but Evangelical Christians seeking to show ourselves approved by studying the whole counsel of God, from Genesis to Revelation. As we do so, we discover that many of the precious truths of the Christian faith, including the doctrine of the Trinity and the Rapture of the Church, are progressively revealed.
I am convinced that Dr Wilkinson was not paying any attention to what was said on the Left Behind or Led Astray video he was rebutting. Pastor Joe Schimmel was not asking for merely one isolated proof-verse to support Pretrib. It was clear throughout the presentation that what was required was more broadly defined:
We had offered 10,000 USD to anyone who could show just one clear teaching proving that Jesus returns in a Pretrib Rapture . . . . Can you show us one scripture that clearly teaches Jesus Christ comes before the Tribulation to rapture the Church? It was not just average believers who could not give us clear Scripture teaching the Pretrib Theory . . . . to ask Colin LeNoury if there was one clear verse or passage of Scripture that taught the Pretrib Rapture . . . . When we asked Colin for one verse or passage . . . .
Dr Wilkinson is trying to eat his cake and have it here. He rails on proof-texting, but then actually uses parts of Daniel as proof-texts for his claim that those who teach that the Church is present on earth during the Tribulation are teaching "terrible heresy"! The fact is, that there is nothing wrong with a proof-text, providing it is in context. He also seems to misunderstand the term "progressively revealed," as being akin to non-contextual, or inferential, something which it absolutely does not mean.

And this is really what lies at the heart of this matter of the Trinity and why Dr Wilkinson is so in error to equate the doctrine of the Trinity with that of the Pretribulational Rapture Theory. The doctrine of the Trinity rests on passages of Scripture which in context either explicitly state or unavoidably imply, to any honest mind, one or more of the propositions underlying the doctrine.
For example, Jesus explicitly states his divinity on a number of occasions in John's Gospel and it is clear from the response of the Jewish authorities that he was making such a claim. He is worshipped as God, seen as co-equal with the Father and one with the Father, the Father, Son and Spirit share the same one name, the Holy Spirit is revealed to be divine and personal not a mere force, etc. There is no need to read presuppositions into these texts to make them say this; these passages, in context, speak for themselves. We could fill a small book with them to exegetically demonstrate the undergirdings of this precious truth of Scripture.

Pretribulationism on the other hand can offer nothing like this, as was so vividly illustrated by Pretrib gurus own admissions in "Left Behind or Led Astray," and their constant scrabbling for pretexts, be they ever so slim, on which to hang their theory, a pastime which frequently involves outrageous historical revisionism (to try and read Pretrib into Early Church history) and the adoption of a thoroughly dishonest hermeneutical methodology that is completely at variance with any and all of their claim to "literal interpretation".
      1. Something More Than a Spat.

Consequently Dr Wilkinson's response to Left Behind or Led Astray's reporting of these Pretrib Leader's admissions (that the Scriptures do not, as such, teach Pretrib, and that it is a doctrine derived solely from inference); --was not to present us with clear biblical teaching for the Pretribulational Rapture Theory, but instead to hermeneutically downgrade the precious doctrine of the Trinity; to claim it has the same wretched basis and paucity of scriptural support as their beloved theory; and thus effectively to debase the Trinity doctrine, as Jacob puts it,--to the status of mere opinion. This is why this issue is no mere "strife about words" or a spat between preachers, but an extremely serious one. Dr Wilkinson's remarks about the Trinity are so dangerous, not because he himself actually denies the doctrine, (it is clear from his written rebuttal that he does not) but because they are a wide open door to those who do and will; because to put the Trinity on the same basis as Pretrib, is to, in effect, assert that the Scriptures do not actually teach it, thus undermining it altogether.

The same downgrading is being applied to the scriptural and historic testimony of the Body to other doctrines as well, as leading Pretribulational Rapture theorists labour to degrade hermeneutical standards to make their theory sound acceptable. We may remember the reckless remarks of Thomas Ice who on the December 2014 Berean Call Radio Show, not only said the same thing; (and was endorsed in it by T.A. MacMahon) but also threw in some historically inaccurate and wildly irresponsible utterances about Justification by Faith and the Atonement as well2, all while plugging the lethal "Apostasy equals Rapture" doctrine with which certain Pretrib Rapture theorists are currently intoxicated, and which, sadly, Dr Wilkinson includes in his book "Understanding Christian Zionism".

The Rebuttal Fiasco, the Berean Call endorsement of the Trinity Doctrine Downgrade, Apostasy Equals Rapture, undermining of other core doctrines, etc. all these are unsettling individually, but taken together they are an alarming indicator of the underlying rot and putrefaction within Pretrib.
      1. The Core of the Matter

Dr Wilkinson's claims about the doctrine of the Trinity, have exposed very publicly the real contention between the Pretrib Camp and the Post-Trib or Prewrath teachings, which is actually not about the timing of the Rapture at all, but is everything to do with the tortuous and unsound hermeneutical methods by which Pretrib theorists arrive at their position. Though by no means perfect, the Post-Trib, Intra-Trib and Pre-Wrath, are at least attempts to work out an eschatology based on clear and in context or explicit statements of Scripture. Leaders from these three camps would stress that there is much that we "see through a glass darkly;" but the basic premise that the Church will go through the Tribulation is based on a literal exegesis, backed up also by nearly 2000 years of Church history. The Pretrib doctrine on the other hand, has to resort to a handling of the Scriptures kith and kin with cult-groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses, including denial of what Paul and Jesus explicitly state. Small wonder that one of the commentators in Left Behind or Led Astray described Pretrib as a doctrine "characterised by deceit". These kind of violations of the Scripture text and the manifest errors it engenders, are what the early opponents of Darby, like B. W. Newton, S. P. Tregelles and others raised their cry against, and they, in an interesting parallel to our own times, were also castigated as heretics, and relentlessly hounded and demonised by Darby for standing up to his unbiblical novelties; but they stuck to the Word, as one of their number, the famous George Muller put it:
"My brother, I am a constant reader of my Bible, and I soon found that what I was taught to believe did not always agree with what my Bible said. I came to see that I must either part company with John Darby, or my precious Bible, and I chose to cling to my Bible and part from Mr. Darby." 
Sadly, recent events show us, that within the Pretrib Camp, some are, at present, making the opposite choice.

1 The phrase strangers and sojourners corresponds to the O.T. Hebrew words "gerim" and "toshavim," non-Jews who while dwelling among the children of Israel, were not permitted to eat the Passover or partake of the holy things or enter the inner Temple courts. Paul is basically saying that Gentile believers do not have second-class standing, but are on an equal basis with a full pass into all the benefits and privileges promised to Israel.


2 See "Theological Propanganda" in Mar. 2015 Moriel Bulletin or go to http://morielisrael.blogspot.co.il/2015/03/theological-propaganda-introduction-to.html