Friday Church News Notes
Volume 21, Issue 3 - January 17, 2020
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
I LOVE THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE (Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - I love the Bible’s teaching about the Pre-tribulation Rapture. I have studied it for nearly half a century, and have no doubt that it is a Bible doctrine and that it is a fundamental doctrine. It is not based on any one verse; it is based on the totality of the Bible’s teaching on prophecy. If you interpret Bible prophecy in a consistent normal-literal manner, which is the only proper way to interpret it, you land on the clear distinction between the church and Israel, and you understand the 70 Weeks of Daniel 9 and Revelation 5-18 as Israel ground, not church ground. You understand that the doctrine of imminency, which is clearly taught and hugely emphasized throughout the Epistles (e.g., Ro. 13:12; Php. 4:5; 1 Th. 1:9-10; 5:4-9; Tit. 2:13; Jas. 5:8-9; 1 Pe. 4:7; Jude 1:21; Re. 1:3), demands that church-age saints be Raptured before Israel’s program is brought back to the fore. The Lord is at hand! As far as I’m concerned, the matter is settled. I have made the effort to look at all sides of the issue and the Pre-tribulation Rapture has resonated with me ever more strongly through the years. The first Bible course we published in the 1980s was on prophecy. In more recent years we have published Understanding Bible Prophecy; The Future According to the Bible; Jews in Fighter Jets: Israel Past, Present, and Future; and other prophecy studies. Dispensationalism, as a system of theology, began in the 19th century, but the literal interpretation of prophecy and the imminent return of Christ and the distinction between Israel and the Church and the literal fulfillment of Israel’s covenants are clear Bible doctrines that were taught by the apostles and believed by the early churches. The Spirit of God restored this doctrine to prominence in the 1800s and it impelled a great spiritual revival of holy living and zeal for evangelism and world missions. The imminency of Christ’s coming has great practical implications for Christian living and ministry. It preaches holiness, watchfulness, and encouragement, and keeps a church’s focus on the Great Commission. We are seeing great fruit from preaching it, and I will do my best to keep the influence of preachers who reject the Pre-tribulation Rapture away from our church and family. I definitely consider it to be a separation issue.
THE IMMINENCY OF CHRIST’S RETURN FOR CHURCH-AGE SAINTS TEACHES THAT THE RAPTURE PRECEDES DANIEL’S 70TH WEEK (Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Bible states that the coming of the Lord is “at hand” (Ro. 13:12; Php. 4:5; 1 Pe. 4:7). This is from eggizo, meaning “near, approaching.” The English phrase is a metaphor to indicate something that is close by, at the ready, like your hand. It is used to describe the location of Jesus’ tomb, which was “nigh at hand” to the place of His crucifixion (Joh. 19:42). Paul used it to describe his imminent death (2 Ti. 4:6). The coming of Christ for church-age saints is always at hand; it is imminent, impending. It can happen at any time. This teaches us that the Rapture described in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 precedes Daniel’s 70th Week (Da. 9:27). If it occurred at any time during that seven-year period, it could not be imminent, because the events are laid out clearly in Scripture. It begins with the Antichrist’s seven-year covenant with apostate Israel -- “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” During the first three and a half years, the third temple will be built (Re. 11:1-2), the preliminary judgments will occur as described in Revelation 6 (war and famine that will destroy one-fourth of the earth’s population, a great earthquake, signs in the heavens), the 144,000 Jewish evangelists will preach and produce a great harvest of souls in the midst of terrible persecution (Re. 7), and the two witnesses will prophesy in Jerusalem (Re. 11:3-6). After three and a half years, the Antichrist will break his covenant and set up the abomination of desolation in the temple as described by Daniel, by Jesus, and by Paul. “... and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” (Da. 9:27). See also Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. After the first three and a half years, the two witnesses will be killed and a great earthquake will destroy one-tenth of the city of Jerusalem (Re. 11:7-13). The events of the last half of Daniel’s 70th Week are described in other places in Revelation. These include the hail and fire that destroy one-third of the trees and grass (Re. 8:7), the third part of the sea turning to blood (Re. 8:8-9), the third part of the waters becoming Wormwood (Re. 8:10-11), the terrible locusts from the bottomless pit (Re. 9:1-11), the 200 million-man army from the east whereby one-third of mankind will be destroyed (Re. 9:13-21), the worldwide worship of the Antichrist and his dictatorial rule (Re. 13), the rivers and fountains turning to blood (Re. 16:4-6), the scorching of men with great heat (Re. 16:8-9), the darkness (Re. 16:10-11), the destruction of the Mystery Babylon religion (Re. 14:8; 17:16-18), the destruction of commercial Babylon (Re. 18:5-24), Armageddon (Re. 16:12-16). If the Rapture does not precede Daniel’s 70th Week, it could not be at hand, because it would be preceded by these events and its time would be known exactly as those events unfolded. Church-age saints are looking for Christ, not the Antichrist; we are looking for the Blessed Hope, not the horrible Tribulation. “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. ... But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ... For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Th. 1:9-10, 4-5, 9).
RABBI INTERRUPTS NETANYAHU’S SPEECH TO CALL FOR THE BUILDING OF THE THIRD TEMPLE (Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - While speaking recently of the importance of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interrupted by Rabbi Yehuda Glick to call for the building of the Third Temple. At the Kohelet Policy Forum on January 8, Netanyahu said, “If Israel is not present on the hills of Judea and Samaria, Islamists will take over instead.” Rabbi Yehudu Glick immediately yelled, “Same with the Temple Mount!” (“Rabbi Glick,” Breaking Israel News, Jan. 8, 2020). Glick told the media afterward that they must keep the idea of the Third Temple alive. “You have to keep saying it. If you don’t say it, you’ll forget it.” Glick, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, survived an attempted assassination in 2014 when he was shot four times in the chest by Muslim terrorist Mutaz Hijazi. Hijazi, a member of the Islamic Jihad who had spent 11 years in Israeli prisons, was killed four days later in a shoot out with Israeli police. Glick is the author of Arise and Ascend, a guidebook for Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. He is associated with the Temple Mount Faithful, which is one of the organizations preparing to build the next temple. In an interview in 2015, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute, said that all of the materials for the operation of the temple are “all ready in crates in the basement, so that when we reach Jerusalem there will be trucks that unload everything, and we can get to work” (“Ariel’s Jerusalem,” Arutz Sheva, May 7, 2015). In Jewish tradition, the rebuilding of the temple is associated with the coming of the Messiah. According to Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides or Rambam) (1135-1204), one of the highest rabbinical authorities, any Jew of the family of David that starts rebuilding the temple is a potential Messiah. Maimonides was looking for a Messiah who would rebuild the temple “on its original site.” Other rabbis have broadened this so that it is not necessarily required that the temple builder be of the lineage of David. Shimon ben Kosiba was considered a Messiah in the second century when he led a revolt to recapture Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. He was named Bar Kokhba (“Son of the Star”) based on the Messianic prophecy of Numbers 24:17, and a coin was struck depicting the temple with the ark of the covenant inside and the Messianic star on the roof. By this tradition, it is simple to see how the Antichrist or his false prophet will be looked upon as the Messiah. Israeli tour guides, though most of them are “secular Jews” as opposed to “religious,” talk about the coming of the Messiah from the Mount of Olives. One told us in 2019, “You Christians are looking for the Messiah to come again, and we are looking for him to come. It is a difference of only one word. We are all looking for him to come to the Mount of Olives.” The Jews in Israel are primed to accept a Messiah who comes from the Mount of Olives and establishes peace between Israel and her neighbors and announces the rebuilding of the temple. The Antichrist described in Bible prophecy will fit this bill with perfection. Probably he will come across to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives to make this point. (For more on the Third Temple building preparations see Jews in Fighter Jets: Israel Past, Present, and Future, available from Way of Life Literature, www.wayoflife.org.)
THE HEARING EAR (Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, December 23, 2019: “The human ear has to be one of the most remarkable mechanisms that you can find. The bit of the ear that we can see is only part of the mechanism that God created for us to hear with. The outer ear, or pinna, is shaped in such a way as to direct the compressions and rarefactions of sound waves into the ear-hole--or auditory canal. What do you do if you can’t quite hear what is being said? Do you cup your hand around your outer ear? This helps collect a little more sound, reflecting into the auditory canal. At the inner end of this canal, there is a layer of skin stretched across--the timpanic membrane, or ‘eardrum.’ The sound waves cause this to vibrate. This, in turn, sets three tiny bones vibrating – the smallest bones in your body known, because of their shapes, as the hammer, anvil and stirrup. These bones, known collectively as ossicles, vibrate each other in a manner which achieves two important effects. First, the sound entering the ear is concentrated and amplified, and second, distracting side sounds are reduced considerably. The ossicles amplify sound by up to 20 times. Finally, the stirrup vibrates the secondary timpanic membrane--another layer of thin skin--which, in turn, affects the vestibulocochlear nerve which transmits the messages to the brain. Evolutionists believe that the ossicles evolved from the reptilian jaw bones. Yet, everything in the ear works together so well that it is an obvious example of high level design. Ref: Encyclopedia Britannica, britannica.com/science/ear.”
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
THE IMMINENCY OF CHRIST’S RETURN FOR CHURCH-AGE SAINTS TEACHES THAT THE RAPTURE PRECEDES DANIEL’S 70TH WEEK (Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Bible states that the coming of the Lord is “at hand” (Ro. 13:12; Php. 4:5; 1 Pe. 4:7). This is from eggizo, meaning “near, approaching.” The English phrase is a metaphor to indicate something that is close by, at the ready, like your hand. It is used to describe the location of Jesus’ tomb, which was “nigh at hand” to the place of His crucifixion (Joh. 19:42). Paul used it to describe his imminent death (2 Ti. 4:6). The coming of Christ for church-age saints is always at hand; it is imminent, impending. It can happen at any time. This teaches us that the Rapture described in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 precedes Daniel’s 70th Week (Da. 9:27). If it occurred at any time during that seven-year period, it could not be imminent, because the events are laid out clearly in Scripture. It begins with the Antichrist’s seven-year covenant with apostate Israel -- “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” During the first three and a half years, the third temple will be built (Re. 11:1-2), the preliminary judgments will occur as described in Revelation 6 (war and famine that will destroy one-fourth of the earth’s population, a great earthquake, signs in the heavens), the 144,000 Jewish evangelists will preach and produce a great harvest of souls in the midst of terrible persecution (Re. 7), and the two witnesses will prophesy in Jerusalem (Re. 11:3-6). After three and a half years, the Antichrist will break his covenant and set up the abomination of desolation in the temple as described by Daniel, by Jesus, and by Paul. “... and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” (Da. 9:27). See also Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. After the first three and a half years, the two witnesses will be killed and a great earthquake will destroy one-tenth of the city of Jerusalem (Re. 11:7-13). The events of the last half of Daniel’s 70th Week are described in other places in Revelation. These include the hail and fire that destroy one-third of the trees and grass (Re. 8:7), the third part of the sea turning to blood (Re. 8:8-9), the third part of the waters becoming Wormwood (Re. 8:10-11), the terrible locusts from the bottomless pit (Re. 9:1-11), the 200 million-man army from the east whereby one-third of mankind will be destroyed (Re. 9:13-21), the worldwide worship of the Antichrist and his dictatorial rule (Re. 13), the rivers and fountains turning to blood (Re. 16:4-6), the scorching of men with great heat (Re. 16:8-9), the darkness (Re. 16:10-11), the destruction of the Mystery Babylon religion (Re. 14:8; 17:16-18), the destruction of commercial Babylon (Re. 18:5-24), Armageddon (Re. 16:12-16). If the Rapture does not precede Daniel’s 70th Week, it could not be at hand, because it would be preceded by these events and its time would be known exactly as those events unfolded. Church-age saints are looking for Christ, not the Antichrist; we are looking for the Blessed Hope, not the horrible Tribulation. “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. ... But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ... For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Th. 1:9-10, 4-5, 9).
RABBI INTERRUPTS NETANYAHU’S SPEECH TO CALL FOR THE BUILDING OF THE THIRD TEMPLE (Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - While speaking recently of the importance of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interrupted by Rabbi Yehuda Glick to call for the building of the Third Temple. At the Kohelet Policy Forum on January 8, Netanyahu said, “If Israel is not present on the hills of Judea and Samaria, Islamists will take over instead.” Rabbi Yehudu Glick immediately yelled, “Same with the Temple Mount!” (“Rabbi Glick,” Breaking Israel News, Jan. 8, 2020). Glick told the media afterward that they must keep the idea of the Third Temple alive. “You have to keep saying it. If you don’t say it, you’ll forget it.” Glick, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, survived an attempted assassination in 2014 when he was shot four times in the chest by Muslim terrorist Mutaz Hijazi. Hijazi, a member of the Islamic Jihad who had spent 11 years in Israeli prisons, was killed four days later in a shoot out with Israeli police. Glick is the author of Arise and Ascend, a guidebook for Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. He is associated with the Temple Mount Faithful, which is one of the organizations preparing to build the next temple. In an interview in 2015, Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute, said that all of the materials for the operation of the temple are “all ready in crates in the basement, so that when we reach Jerusalem there will be trucks that unload everything, and we can get to work” (“Ariel’s Jerusalem,” Arutz Sheva, May 7, 2015). In Jewish tradition, the rebuilding of the temple is associated with the coming of the Messiah. According to Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides or Rambam) (1135-1204), one of the highest rabbinical authorities, any Jew of the family of David that starts rebuilding the temple is a potential Messiah. Maimonides was looking for a Messiah who would rebuild the temple “on its original site.” Other rabbis have broadened this so that it is not necessarily required that the temple builder be of the lineage of David. Shimon ben Kosiba was considered a Messiah in the second century when he led a revolt to recapture Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. He was named Bar Kokhba (“Son of the Star”) based on the Messianic prophecy of Numbers 24:17, and a coin was struck depicting the temple with the ark of the covenant inside and the Messianic star on the roof. By this tradition, it is simple to see how the Antichrist or his false prophet will be looked upon as the Messiah. Israeli tour guides, though most of them are “secular Jews” as opposed to “religious,” talk about the coming of the Messiah from the Mount of Olives. One told us in 2019, “You Christians are looking for the Messiah to come again, and we are looking for him to come. It is a difference of only one word. We are all looking for him to come to the Mount of Olives.” The Jews in Israel are primed to accept a Messiah who comes from the Mount of Olives and establishes peace between Israel and her neighbors and announces the rebuilding of the temple. The Antichrist described in Bible prophecy will fit this bill with perfection. Probably he will come across to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives to make this point. (For more on the Third Temple building preparations see Jews in Fighter Jets: Israel Past, Present, and Future, available from Way of Life Literature, www.wayoflife.org.)
THE HEARING EAR (Friday Church News Notes, January 17, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from creationmoments.com, December 23, 2019: “The human ear has to be one of the most remarkable mechanisms that you can find. The bit of the ear that we can see is only part of the mechanism that God created for us to hear with. The outer ear, or pinna, is shaped in such a way as to direct the compressions and rarefactions of sound waves into the ear-hole--or auditory canal. What do you do if you can’t quite hear what is being said? Do you cup your hand around your outer ear? This helps collect a little more sound, reflecting into the auditory canal. At the inner end of this canal, there is a layer of skin stretched across--the timpanic membrane, or ‘eardrum.’ The sound waves cause this to vibrate. This, in turn, sets three tiny bones vibrating – the smallest bones in your body known, because of their shapes, as the hammer, anvil and stirrup. These bones, known collectively as ossicles, vibrate each other in a manner which achieves two important effects. First, the sound entering the ear is concentrated and amplified, and second, distracting side sounds are reduced considerably. The ossicles amplify sound by up to 20 times. Finally, the stirrup vibrates the secondary timpanic membrane--another layer of thin skin--which, in turn, affects the vestibulocochlear nerve which transmits the messages to the brain. Evolutionists believe that the ossicles evolved from the reptilian jaw bones. Yet, everything in the ear works together so well that it is an obvious example of high level design. Ref: Encyclopedia Britannica, britannica.com/science/ear.”
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:11-14).
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Distributed by Way of Life Literature., publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL. IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
The Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.
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