REVELATION: FALL OF JUDEA, RISE OF THE CHURCH
Copyright 2009 Maurice A. Williams
EXCERPTS FROM PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS OF MY BOOK:
Richard R. Blake of ReaderViews.com says: “[Williams] presents his case in an orderly, logical way. Williams has opened my eyes to an amazing new appreciation of first century followers of Christ.”
Melissa Levine of IPBookReviewers.com says: “Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church will challenge the standard interpretations of the book of Revelations and open up discussions among Christians and non-Christians about the manifestation of the last days as recorded in the Bible. The author weaves an intricate web through the history of Judea as it relates to the four winds and the three woes to make his case against the futurist theory of revelation, the prediction that atrocities of the last days are yet to come.”
Michael Dunford of MidwestBookReviews.com says: “Have the events outlined in the book of Revelations already occurred? ‘Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church’ is an examination of that claim, explaining that all of those events have occurred in ancient and more biblical times, hence why the world is so engulfed in religious turmoil today. Looking at the early fall of Judea, the naming the Messiah, and the thousand years that followed, ‘Revelation’ is a different look at Christianity, refreshing and highly recommended.”
Amanda of GetBookReviews.com says: “Revelation: everyone talks about it, everyone speculates, but what is the history? What do we know for sure? No matter what religion you believe, this book will open your mind and your heart. Maybe it will challenge your beliefs or prove them more concrete, but you will gain insight and knowledge of history and faith. A history lesson and bible lesson all mixed into one, Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church is a great read for believers and non-believers alike.”
John Weaver of PageOneLit.com in an author interview says: "’Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church’ is very well written -- Who was John the Baptist? Who were the Judeans?”
Dr. Bennis, reviewing for Bookreview.com says: “In this ambitious work (an earlier edition of my work), Williams takes on a challenging subject in a masterful and unusual way. Not only does Williams describe in detail the political, financial and social woes suffered by Christian devotees in the years directly following the crucifixion, he ties together well-documented historical events that match Revelations 4 through 16. This book is a MUST HAVE for any true biblical scholar. It is an even-handed, well-written look at a subject that is too often moved from research and faith to pure fiction.”
Deborah Porter, reviewing for Faithwriters.com (of another earlier edition of my work) says: “In communicating this alternate view, Maurice Williams has done a credible job of presenting a case for believing that many, if not most, of the events outlined in the Book of Revelation took place during the time of Christ and the Apostles. [His book] may very well broaden your thinking to at least consider that there are other possibilities. I could be wrong, but I believe the author would be quite satisfied knowing his book had achieved that purpose.”
Links to all the reviews and available on my website
http://www.mauriceawilliams.comthrough the link “Professional Reviews of All My Books” in the left-hand navigation column.
REVELATION: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN
Revelation intrigues people. The graphic scenes capture one's imagination. Symbolic visions fit many different interpretations. All interpretations claim some nation, at some time, will experience disaster. Most interpretations predict that we or our children will face these predicted, terrifying calamities. I, at first, agreed. Then, after investigation, I became convinced that these warnings were primarily addressed to the Judeans of Christ’s time if they failed to recognize and accept the Messiah promised to their ancestors and announced by John the Baptist.
I may be wrong, but even if I am wrong, Judea did experience catastrophic disasters for sixty years following Christ's crucifixion. In A.D. 135, Rome deliberately destroyed the entire nation. From A.D. 135 to the nineteenth century, only a small population of people descendant from the Judeans made Palestine their home. For example, as late as A.D. 1856, only 10,500 Jews resided in Palestine (Harel, p. 147 see Bibliography).
If I’m right, Revelation seems so harsh on Judea that I want to look at the other side of the coin, not the side that shows what happens when you are not ready when God is ready, but the side which shows God's overall plan throughout history as revealed to the ancestors of the Judeans. I did this using a structure similar to the structure in Revelation. I present seven grand scenes or visions. Instead of someone on the ground viewing scenes in the sky, I ask you to imagine yourself in the sky viewing scenes on the ground. I then describe seven historical events that occurred on Mt. Moriah, events that span the past and the present.
My first scene is the day after Christ's birth. My second is David contemplating the Temple. My third is Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac. My fourth is Omar accepting Jerusalem' surrender. My fifth is the British conquering Jerusalem from the Turks. My sixth is the events leading to the six-day war. My seventh goes back to Christ on the cross. With these seven scenes, I try to point out a destiny more hopeful to the Judeans. I try to bring some perspective to the visions in Revelation that are so somber for these people. I hope this gives everyone a wider perspective on Revelation and help us all recognize and prepare for what is likely to happen in our lifetime. So here it is.
Imagine that you are hovering above Jerusalem, high enough that you can see the whole city. Imagine your head pointed north, your feet south, and you are looking straight down on the city. Today is the morning after the birth of Jesus. The sun's first rays slowly creep from your right but have not yet swept across Jerusalem. The rays will, in a few moments, illuminate the Temple's front wall. Covered with gold leaf, this wall will shine almost as bright as the sun. Imagine yourself closer now. The Levite on morning watch just sighted the sun's first light illuminating the east behind the Mount of Olives. "It's becoming light!" he shouts down to the others, "The East is bright!"
Someone shouts, "Is the East bright as far as Hebron?"
He looks to his right. "Yes!" he shouts back, "The light has risen."
Then the priests and Levites who were waiting for that moment begin the morning sacrifice. As the lamb is sacrificed, the front of the Temple begins to glow with the reflected light of the rising sun. The Temple is the city's tallest structure. Part of its outer surface is plated with gold. This day, the day you are watching, the savior God promised to restore all things has finally arrived. He was promised to our first parents. He will make remedy for the bondage our first parents took upon themselves and their offspring by their sin. He is the one predicted to the serpent, the one who will subdue the spirit behind the serpent. He will accomplish the mandate given our first parents to subdue and dominate everything that moves upon the earth (Gen. 1:28).
The priest and Levites who are conducting the sacrifice this morning are, of course, unaware of his birth. If they were aware of it, they might have conducted the ceremony with more fervor and joy. If they realized the prophetic implications of the sacrifice they just made, they might wonder why God would allow such things to happen. And they would be apprehensive over the choices they must make as they and their fellow Judeans interact with the promised one now that he is here.
Now imagine yourself moving higher. All of Jerusalem comes into view, then the surrounding area, as you go still higher. To the southwest of Jerusalem, five miles from the Temple, under your right foot, is Bethlehem. The shepherds talk to one another, awed by what they saw. If you look to your upper right, you can see, not far away, the Magi's caravans heading toward Jerusalem. They will soon call on Herod to ask him about the new king whose star they follow. Continue moving upward and see Jerusalem in relation to Judea and Judea in relation to the neighboring countries, they in relation to the whole world. Then come back again.
As you come down, you can see ground detail getting larger. Everything blurs as you pass through the depths of time as well as space. Then you can see clearly again. You recognize that you are coming in to the same spot, but at a different age. It is now one thousand years before Christ's birth. David is king, and the Temple has not yet been built. All that exists of Jerusalem at this time is the first part of the Lower City atop Mt. Ophel. You can see it there under your knees. It looks quite different than it did when Christ was born.
David is in his dwelling on Mt. Ophel to the south. He recently offended God by ordering a census to count his subjects the way pagan kings do. He had been told not to do it, but he did it anyway. He was given a choice of punishments for his arrogance. The people whose number he impiously learned will be reduced in size to a number unknown to him. This can be done through an enemy attack or through a famine or through a contagious disease. David had chosen a contagious disease. A disease is under God's direct control, and David knew that God is merciful.
Today while you are looking down upon Jerusalem, David is looking up. He sees a vision. He sees the Lord's angel approaching Jerusalem with sword unsheathed to continue the punishment already started in the other cities. When the angel of the Lord had stretched his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord had pity on the affliction, and said to the angel that slew the people: It is enough. Now hold thy hand. And the angel was by the thrashingfloor of Areuna the Jebusite (2 kings (2 Sam) 24:16).
Now imagine yourself moving higher. All Jerusalem comes in view again, then the surrounding area, just as it did last time as you moved away. Continue upward till Jerusalem fades in the mists of time, and you can again see the whole hemisphere containing Judea and the neighboring countries. Then come in again. Everything blurs once more as time recedes ahead of you. Then you notice the smell of fresh mountain air as your vision clears. The first things that catch your eyes are the abundance of wildlife on and around the mountain. You realize that this is a very early stage in Mt. Moriah's history. There are no structures, not even a threshing floor. The highest points of the mountain, the points that will later become the foundation for the altar and the Holy of Holies, are bare rock and are plainly visible.
As you descend closer, you see a man and a boy approaching Moriah's summit. The boy carries wood on his shoulders. As they ascend, the boy asks the man: "Father, we have the fire and the wood, but where is the victim for the holocaust?" The father, very much concerned and sorrowful, says: "God will provide himself a victim for the holocaust, my son" (Gen. 22:8). The time is two thousand years before Christ; the man is Abraham; the boy, his son Isaac. They journey to where Abraham will make the sacrifice God asked. Abraham solemnly stops at the bare rock and sorrowfully spreads wood for the holocaust. His sorrow will soon turn to joy because God will not require that he make the sacrifice.
God rewarded Abraham for his faith. God promised that Abraham's offspring would multiply and be as numerous as stars in the sky or sand on the beach, not only from his son Isaac but also from his first son Ishmael. "And as for Ishmael I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bring forth to thee at this time next year" (Gen. 17:20‑21).
Now back away; and, as you back away, watch in your imagination the descendants of Abraham as they increase and multiply. First there were Ishmael and his branches of Abraham's seed passing down through Ishmael’s twelve sons. Then there were Isaac and his two sons Esau and Jacob who passed down Abraham's seed through Jacob's twelve sons and Esau's fourteen grandsons. Then there were more branches through Abraham's six additional sons by his wife Cetura whom he married after Sarah's death. Watch as his progeny multiplies. They become whole tribes and whole nations, not only the twelve tribes of Israel, but tribes and nations of Arab and other Semitic peoples as well. Imagine them as numerous as sand on the beach or as stars in the sky, and wonder how can God be God to so many peoples with so many conflicting ideas.
Now imagine yourself coming back again. Just hold your arms close to your body and fall. When you feel close enough, spread your arms to slow your descent. As you get closer, you can see that Mt. Moriah is much different than it was during Christ's time. It is now A.D. 638. The whole Temple site is ruined. The platform marking the outer courts that King Herod improved is still intact, but not one building is standing. As you draw closer you can see, and smell, that the platform is being used as a refuse dump. Where the Temple once stood now stands a deep layer of human excrement. The Byzantine Christians piled it there in a misguided attempt to humiliate the Jews.
Just outside the city, you can see a caravan approaching. When it gets close, two men with one camel break off and approach the wall. One man is Omar, Caliph and successor to Mohammed. Only twenty‑eight years before this occasion, Mohammed led the Arabs out of paganism into faith in the Most High God, the God who spoke directly to their common father Abraham. Mohammed told his followers to accept circumcision to mark themselves as descendants of Abraham and, like Abraham, to be submissive to God's will.
Until then, most Arabs had embraced pagan religions even though they were Abraham's descendants. Their neighbors to the east, the Persians, had also worshiped pagan gods. The Persians fought often with the Byzantines. Their success pushed Christian influence away from the Arabs, consolidating the Arabs in their acceptance of paganism. In A.D. 533, after many fruitless wars, proving that both empires were too strong to defeat the other, they signed an "Eternal Peace Treaty" (Cooke, p. 51). The two empires agreed to accept the status quo. This gave Persia a free hand to dominate all Arabs. Thirty‑seven years later, Mohammed was born. Forty years later, in 610, Mohammed called the Arabs out of paganism. Thirty‑four years after that, only about one hundred years since the eternal peace had been signed, Mohammed's followers launched a holy war against the Persian empire and conquered it.
A few years later, the Moslems attacked the Byzantines and forced the surrender of Jerusalem. This day, the day we are looking down on Jerusalem, is 105 years after the eternal peace was signed. Omar ibn‑Khattab, Caliph of all Islam, is approaching Jerusalem to accept the city's surrender from the Christian Bishop Sophronius. He is walking. The other man, a man who is subordinate to him, is riding the camel. Omar is doing this humble act in accord with Mohammed's teaching. He also wants to show his profound respect for the city where the Most High God spoke to Abraham. He wants to emulate the ancient prophets and patriarchs who were submissive to God's will.
When Omar reaches the bishop, he will accept the surrender. He will pledge not to mistreat the inhabitants. He will then ask to see the holy shrines made sacred by the God of Abraham. He especially wants to see the rock where Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac. In your imagination, watch the bishop's face as he realizes the rock his conqueror reveres so much lies buried under tons of human excrement. Imagine also Omar's shock and disbelief when he realizes what the Byzantines have been doing. He immediately gets on his knees. With his own hands, using his own cloak, he begins cleaning this holy place where Abraham expressed faith and where David and Solomon built the Temple (Klein, Temple Beyond Time, p. 135).
How inscrutable is God's Providence. How quickly and inexplicably prophecies come true. And how difficult it is for us to understand why God lets history unfold the way it does. And yet most of us, like the Byzantines of that age, so disgrace what God has already done that we are not entitled to understand why and how God brings prophecies to fruition. This day, the day we are watching, and every day afterward, all the tribes descendant from Abraham, be they Jew, Christian, or Moslem, will at least recognize the God Abraham worshiped.
Now back away. As you back away, catch a glimpse of the Moslems down through the succeeding years revering the rock upon which stood the altar: clearing it, washing it, anointing it every day with perfume. They will build a beautiful dome over it. They will care for it until such a time as the Most High, in an unfathomable way, shall decree what will happen next. Now come in again. When you are close enough to make out the city's outline, you can see that it is much larger. As you get closer you can see that it is modern times. It is 1917, December 9, 1917. Several months earlier, Arthur Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, declared Britain's intention to support Jewish claims for Palestine as their national home. Five years in the future, the League of Nations will accept their claims. But, today, December 9, 1917, the British are still conquering Palestine from the Ottoman Turks.
As you come closer, you can see British warplanes flying over the Temple mount. The Turks have prepared for the British assault, but they do not have antiaircraft artillery. The British bombers fly over the city to encourage surrender. The Turks do not want the holy shrines damaged during a bomber attack. Cognizant that their resistance cannot stop the bombing, they will retreat without firing a shot and allow the city to fall unharmed into British control (Rimmer, pp. 27-8). As you hover over Jerusalem, the Turks watching the warplanes are coming to that realization.
For almost thirteen‑hundred years, Moslems controlled the temple site, save for a few brief periods during the Crusades. When John wrote about measuring the Temple, he prophesied that the outer court was not to be measured. It had been given to the Gentiles (Rev. 11:2). Moses spoke of a proviso in God's law concerning land. The land that God gave the twelve tribes was not to be taken away from them or their descendants. Even if their descendants sold it, or otherwise lost possession of it, it was to revert to the original heirs within fifty years. "And thou shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of the land: for it is the year of jubilee. Every man shall return to his possession, and every one shall go back to his former family . . . .. In the year of jubilee all shall return to their possessions. When thou shall sell anything to thy neighbor, or buy of him: grieve not thy brother: but thou shalt buy of him according to the number of years from the jubilee . . . .. The more years remain after the jubilee, the more shall the price increase: and the less time is counted, so much the less shall the purchase cost . . . .. The land also shall not be sold forever: because it is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me. For which cause all the country of your possession shall be under the conditions of redemption . . . .. . . . the buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the jubilee. For in that year all that is sold shall return to the owner, and to the ancient possessor." (Lv. 25:10‑28).
Now as you move away, let your imagination span through the next fifty years from 1917 to 1967. They are years of bitter conflict as the Arab nations insist the Jews shall not possess the land. Arab nations once allied with Britain, now chaff against British control. They helped the British defeat the Turks. They felt Britain should have placed the land in their hands. Repatriation of Jews becomes more serious, and for the Jews more desperate, as Nazi Germany murders six million Jews during the Holocaust. Repatriation turns Palestine into a powder keg as Arabs and Jews struggle for control when the British prepare to leave in 1948. When the British do leave, the surrounding Arab nations attack the new Jewish Commonwealth. But by incredible, almost impossible, victory for the Jews, they defeat the Arab armies and maintain their independence.
There are more confrontations, even another war, but the new Jewish Commonwealth cannot be extinguished. Finally in 1967, a serious war erupts as the surrounding Arab nations, again in a concerted effort, try to extinguish Jewish independence. This war will last six days. The Arab armies will be defeated. The Temple site will be conquered from Jordan. Fifty years after Britain publicly promised that the Jews could possess their ancestral homeland, Jerusalem and much of Palestine will fly the Israeli flag. Jeremiah, 2580 years ago, prophesied that something like this would happen (Jer. 23:7-8). Think what this might mean as you move farther and farther away. Could this be the end times of the Gentile era? If so, will the Gentile nations who resist God face the same disasters the Judean nation faced at the beginning of this era?
Let us move back in time to the beginning of this era. We will see how Jesus responded in his heart when he reached his ultimate confrontation with his enemies. We will see how he chose to deal with those who did not want to obey and whom he did not want, not yet anyway, to force into obedience. The years flee away as you come closer. Then you see the city clearly on that Friday when Jesus came face to face with his opponents. He had God's power at his disposal. He could easily have forced all his opponents into absolute and total obedience, against their will, merely by himself willing that they obey. But he did not want to do that. To do that would destroy their liberty. If he forces them against their will, he would get obedience, but what a sorrowful experience it would be for him. Their bodies would do what he wants because he has the power to make it so. On their faces would be the expressions he wants; through their lips would flow his words; in their minds would be his thoughts.
Only in their wills could they resist. They would will what they want, and he would instantly flood them with the force he possesses to compel obedience. Their defiance would never be put into thought, much less into words and deeds. Their choice to disobey would immediately be stifled by an overpowering compulsion to do what they choose not to do. Their complaints would be drowned with words they do not want to speak. Their resentment would be smothered with thought-control of unimaginable magnitude, the degree of magnitude that only God can generate. It would be infinite, untiring, and everlasting. What agony for God to deal this way with individuals who are totally dependent upon God. What unimaginable hell for those individuals who experience it.
If God so wanted, God could forever postpone using force, but why should that be done? Sin, disobedience, cannot go on forever. From the beginning of God's revelation through Moses even to the revelation through Jesus, God always made it clear that human disobedience will not be tolerated forever. If God were human, God would risk life itself, if humans were minded to take it, rather than use force. God's Word did become human. In the human confrontation Jesus had with the people of his own generation, he did refrain from using force. He did so right up to his death.
Come in closer. As you come closer, you can see him hanging on a cross on a small hill just outside the city walls. People surround him. They taunt him saying: "If you really are the son of God come down off the cross." How can he control his human emotions so effectively? Almost anyone else, if he could, would come off the cross. But if Jesus comes off that cross, then he will come down off the cross of our wills, the crosses you and I have given God. That would be the end of our ability to disobey, ours and everyone else with us. Scripture prophesied important events in Christ's life long before his birth. He was to be the Pascal lamb. Many things the Israelites were told about the Pascal lamb have some bearing on Jesus. They were told not to break any bones in the Pascal lamb (Exodus 12:46). The Pascal lamb was offered as a sacrifice to make recompense for sin, to stay God's hand poised in retribution. It was the Pascal lamb's blood that spared the Israelites when God disciplined the Egyptians.
As you look down into the city you can see that it is getting late. The Temple officials observing the crucifixion are impatient because Jesus is not yet dead. They send men to ask Pilate to order Christ's legs broken to hasten his death. If you look closely, you can see the men going northeast toward the Praetorium outside the north wall. Jesus could endure his sufferings forever. He has the power to lay down his life and the power to pick it up again (John 10:18). But his mission was to fulfill Scripture. The lamb's bones are not to be broken if the sacrifice is to be acceptable. It is time now for him to die before the men return. He stirs one more time on the cross. The people become silent. You can hear his words: "It is consummated. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit." His heart, already filled with sorrow, literally breaks as the muscles rupture with the intensity of his sorrow, and he dies.
Back away now, and for the last time move away from Jerusalem. As you move away, try to get a wider perspective on this day's events. What do they mean for the people of that city? What do they mean for all people? As you leave, you can see that things are happening below. A storm moves in, darkening everything. An earthquake shudders The Temple mount. Everyone in the city had all day been nervous because of the trial and crucifixion. Now their anxiety turns to terror because of the storm and the earthquake. In the sky, brilliant flashes of lightning illuminate the clouds. On the ground, the earthquake opens tombs. The dead mingle with the living amid frightening peals of thunder and cries and moans of people convinced the world is ending. If God were like you and I, this would have been the end. Two or three mega flash thunderbolts and a massive earthquake, and all would be finished. After all, the promised savior has been killed. It is time to judge all humanity.
But this is not the end. It is a new beginning, the beginning of the end times, assuredly, but a new beginning anyway. With this new beginning, there will be a new temple. It will not be like the old, built by human hands. God will build this temple. It will be built of people marked by baptism. It will span through time and through space, in heaven and on earth. Jesus will regulate this temple as a head regulates the body. He will nourish it and bind it together, giving it identity and unity as the vine gives the grapes. It will be wonderful to behold.
As you catch your last glimpse of this holy place, let your mind's eye look through the ages and see how this new temple spans time and place. Imagine people through the ages that have followed Jesus. Start with the apostles at the last supper. Imagine Mary's fifteen lonely years after her son died. Imagine the approach of his disciples. At first they were a small gathering, about one‑hundred individuals. Thousands joined them on Pentecost, the day the Church got its official start. Their gathering grew rapidly as the Church spread among the Judeans. It was a Judean Church then, almost exclusively Judean. They were the elect allowed now for the first time to enter the "Holy of Holies" and eat at God's table. They were joined later by Greeks, Romans, and Gentiles from other nations. These are the others that join the elect, the others who are too many to count. These others come from all nations and all strata of society, following Christ despite disapproval and opposition from those who do not believe. The Church grows and spreads until ten times twenty‑four years later the elders of the Roman Empire, and the emperor himself became Christian. Under them, and after them, the Roman Empire will be remade into a Christian society.
Imagine that you see those who have left this life before you and now reign with Jesus. They passed from death into the first resurrection. They reign with Jesus right now in a spiritual way. They already have been given dominion over everything that moves upon the face of this earth. They strengthen us in our struggle, for the struggle is in this life. They are now worshiping the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son through the Incarnation of the Lamb that was slain but now lives. They, and all the angels with them, even before you began imagining it, have been singing beautiful songs of praise and joyful happiness and eternal gratitude in the heavenly counterpart of the new temple.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Harel, Menashe, "The Jewish Presence in Jerusalem Throughout the Ages" in Jerusalem, ed. Msgr. John M. Oesterreicher and Anna Siani (New York: The John Day Co., 1974).
Cooke, Jean, Ann Kramer, and Theodore Rowland-Entwistle, History's Timeline (New York: Crescent Books, 1981).
Klein, Mina C. and H. Arthur, Temple Beyond Time (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1970).
The above is condensed from “Apocalypse: Four Horsemen Three Woes.”
By Maurice A. Williams
Available as a free download on
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MARY AS CHRIST'S MESSENGER
Over the past 150 years, there has been a growing interest in the occult: in non-Christian spiritualism, in extra-terrestrial life forms, and in astral powers that might influence humans or be controlled by humans.
To counteract this, Christ has been sending messages from heaven, mostly through his mother, warning us where we are headed. Many people balk at the idea that Christ’s mother plays any role in Christ’s mission to save souls. I have posed these questions to some of them: “When you get to heaven, what do you expect to do? Will Christ have nothing for you to do? Won’t Christ count you among his saints and angels to do his bidding and work with him to save souls? If you expect to serve Christ in heaven (and you should expect to do so. After all, Christ rules heaven) why would his mother not be at his service?
Which one of us has a better relationship with Christ than his mother? She serves Jesus like we serve Jesus. Don’t confuse respect for Mary as “worship.” I, myself, know better than to worship Mary. I respect Mary. I respect everyone who is in heaven. I hope to get there myself someday. If I do get there, I hope people will respect me also. I also hope that Jesus will have something for me to do.
I believe that, in this life, Jesus wants me to serve him even though I’m not perfect. I’m sure Jesus wants all of us to spread HIS message to other people and to do whatever we can to help other people find salvation. We stumble around in this life because we are confused by all the arguments we hear. However, in heaven, we will not make any mistakes. We will, finally, be perfect.
If you and I expect to be perfect in heaven, why would Christ’s mother not be perfect? Instead of balking at the messenger, why not examine the messages?
Maurice A. Williams
Taken from :Apocalypse: Four Horsemen Three Woes”
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IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY
In 1951, I read a book that has intrigued me ever since: Immanuel Velikovsky's "Worlds in collision." I already had an adequate education, was aware of what our predecessors struggled to learn, and read avidly about science and the origin of the universe. For those readers who never heard of Velikovsky's "Worlds in Collision," Velikovsky analyzed the legends and folklore of ancient peoples all over the world. He surmised that when ancient people described events occurring in the skies, they described what they really saw, but added their own interpretation to make these things understandable to them. They described battles in the sky between planets they thought were gods, and massive disturbances on earth caused by the planets, which disturbances ancient peoples attributed to gods chastising the earth.
Modern science in 1950 compared the solar system to a flawless watch that, once wound, just ticked away stably century after century. Velikovsky proposed a much less stable solar system. He argued that cataclysms occurred several times in recorded history. Major disruptions affected the planets, causing major disturbances on earth. Velikovsky added supporting geological evidence in a second book “Earth in Upheaval.” He found reason to surmise that the deluge occurred when a massive eruption of Saturn expelled vast amounts of water that inundated the Earth, our Moon, and Mars. He planned a book detailing his thoughts (Worlds in Collision, preface, p. 12), but never had time to write it. In "Worlds in Collision," he proposed that Venus entered the solar system (or erupted from Jupiter) and spent some time in an erratic orbit around the sun, much like a comet. When close to the sun, Venus had a comet-like tail, but huge because Venus is huge. The tail was a mixture of flaming stones, cinders, dust, iron oxide, and the gaseous atmosphere of Venus, which atmosphere was composed of hydrocarbons. Velikovsky also claimed that Egyptian history was mismatched with Middle East history by several hundred years.
What fascinating concepts! What challenging arguments Velikovsky made. He based his argument on ancient human observation. They helped me understand, among other things, why three cultures (European, Chinese-Japanese, and Aztec) described dragons when science claims dinosaurs have been extinct for tens of thousands of years. I believed then, and still do, that Velikovsky's thoughts were worthy of serious consideration and further investigation. How surprised I was when many influential scientists of his day vehemently opposed his book, forced the publisher to stop publication, confronted Velikovsky on every side with obviously biased rebuttals, forcing Velikovsky to spend the rest of his life defending what he had already written, causing him not to have time to publish his findings on the deluge.
What a pity! If Velikovsky was right, how much deeper our understanding of the past would be today. He started his book acknowledging that we are "Homo sapiens" then he listed many things we can't explain. He opined that since there are so many things we don't know, he renamed us "Homo ignoramus". Today, I would give us an even less-flattering name. We believe only what can be clearly demonstrated: how can we refute what is clearly demonstrable? But we extrapolate a lot and enter into areas that cannot be demonstrated. Our goal should be pursuit of truth, but more often it is pursuit of what we want to believe, true or not.
D. S. Allan and J. B. Delair, in their 1997 book “Cataclysm! Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B.C.” pick up the same theme, but go into much more detail, benefited by more access to source documents than Velikovsky had and having more discoveries and better instruments at their disposal. They ascribe different causes and different dates, but also claim that Venus and other planets have shifted orbits during historical times. They also propose a cosmic cause for the Deluge. Both authors are specialists in their fields. Dr. Allan is a science historian specializing in paleogeography and a science teacher for many years. Dr. Delair is an Oxford-based geologist and anthropologist and Museum Curator of Geology at the University of Southampton, England.
As for Velikovsky’s claim that Egyptian history is misdated by hundreds of years compared to Middle East history, David M. Rohl published “Pharaohs and Kings” in 1995. Following a life-long interest in Egyptology learned from his parents, he studied Egyptology and Ancient History at University College in London, earning a doctorate in Egyptology. He is currently Chairman of the Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Sciences. He discovered compelling evidence that Egyptian history is indeed misdated. He doesn’t agree with the magnitude of error that Velikovsky proposed, but Rohl found the correct dates for Joseph’s entry into Egypt, found Joseph’s tomb in Egypt, and proposed a more accurate date for the Exodus. Because of the vanity of Velikovsky’s contemporaries, serious work on his hypotheses was delayed fifty years. Glad I lived long enough to see other scientists re-investigate his claims.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Velikovsky, Immanuel, “Worlds in Collision:” (New York: Pocket Books, 1977printing).
Velikovsky, Immanuel, “Earth in Upheaval:” (New York: Pocket Books, 1977 printing).
Allan, D.S. and Delair, J.B. “Cataclysm! Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B.C.:” (Bear and Company, Rochester, New York, 1997).
Rohl, David, M., “Pharaohs and Kings. A Biblical Quest:” (Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1995).
Maurice A. Williams
Author of
Revelation and the Fall of Judea
ISBN: 1401068049
http://www.geocities.com/mauricewms2003Labels: Mars, Velikovsky, Venus
WHAT'S REALLY LEFT BEHIND?
The “Left Behind” series has popularized the futurist interpretation of Revelation. During the future rapture, righteous Christians are suddenly taken to heaven to rule with Jesus Christ while the unrighteous are left behind. Curious proposal that so many are caught up immediately to be with Jesus. I would have thought that very few human beings are so eminently righteous, while in this life, that they qualify for immediate acceptance into heaven to rule with Jesus.How many people do you know that are absolutely perfect, everything God wants them to be, without the slightest imperfection? I think when the proposed rapture comes; nobody will notice it because everybody will be left behind to face the tribulation. Consider what it must be like to be presented one-on-one with Almighty God. No physical body anymore, with all its limitations. Your bodies got left behind. Does your soul harbor resentment, anger, jealousy, gossip, rash judgment, prejudice, and all those peccadilloes everybody tends to ignore?Will God be pleased with our imperfections? Will we be ready, immediately, as we are, to be alongside Christ and rule with the saints? I really doubt it. All of us have heard every conceivable contradiction of what Jesus taught. Did you ever teach anybody something Jesus knows is not true? What possible excuse can you have before the one who knows? The one who will say “I gave you MY Word. Why did you not believe?What about non-Christians? They will one day be one-on-one before God just like we will. Was it something you said that caused them not to believe? Have you ever hurt someone with an unkind word, something that seemed small to you but had a really negative effect on that person? Which one of us is so perfect that we can immediately rule with God, as we are, without the slightest rehabilitation?When we die, we will all be presented before God outside of time because we have left our physical bodies behind. In a situation where time is no longer relevant, since, among other things, God is not bound by the dimension of time, God will cause us to purge our own defects, if we are willing, in a self-awareness process that would take many years if we were still in our bodies; but, in eternity, this happens outside of time. I think the main reason that we, ourselves, experience purification is because we do not loose our identity as persons. It was each one of us that had imperfections. It will be each one of us, the very same persons, who will become absolutely perfect without losing our identity. It will be then, and only then, that we will be fit to RULE with Christ as one of God’s saints.Should any one of us balk, resist, refuse to become what God created us to be, our resentment against the person who created us and wants out total and willing, our free obedience, will turn to hatred. If unchecked by us, our hatred will become an overpowering hatred, unchecked by time, eternal, an eternal hatred for God who wants our free obedience. This will be our individual private judgment. There will be another judgment at the end of the world when our bodies will be raised and reunited with our souls. That will be a public judgment, the final judgment.I think the notion of less-than-perfect persons, joined immediately with Christ, coming back to Earth to kill and send to eternal damnation, persons less perfect than they, just doesn’t ring well in my ears. God wants salvation not vengeance. Sure, there are some whose hatred and defiance will merit punishment, but I think, in the final days, God wants a harvest of repentant souls from all races, all nations, from sources you never dreamed of. All that’s really left behind is the presumption, self-righteousness, and intolerance, that all of us, in varying degrees, are afflicted with.Maurice A Williams
Author of Apocalypse: Four Horsemen Three Woes
http://www.lulu.com/maurice-williamshttp://www.geocities.com/mauricewms2003Labels: Judgment, Rapture
EVOLVING LIGHT
In the beginning, there was nothing, not a single thing, except God. God made light. This "light" should not be understood through the primary definition of "light" because "light," in its primary meaning, does not yet exist. There is no physical universe, no stars, no sun to provide "light" in its primary meaning. Consider a secondary definition of light: perception, cognition, illumination, not the luminosity of the physical universe, but something non-material. Consider something spiritual like thought. We all have a spiritual capacity to think, to perceive, to "catch on," to "see the light."
The first thing God created was the spiritual world, uncountable spiritual beings brought into existence out of nothing, having no mass, no size, occupying no space, suddenly appearing, and appearing before the physical universe was made. They came into existence fully potent: no infancy, childhood, adolescence like we experience. They were fully able, immediately, to perceive what God made: every spiritual being, all individuals, everything open, nothing hidden, each of them perceiving the whole harmonious spiritual world. They discovered things as things really are, true, because God is true, everything wonderful because God is full of wonders, everything lovable because God is love. God loves them all.
But there's more. God made each spirit a person. God granted each person autonomy, the ability to choose to love and serve, or to refuse and pursue their own ambition. What an honor: to be able to freely choose, without compulsion, what God offers. What a risk! being capable of rejecting what Gods offers and choose differently. That would lead to chaos. Because who, other than God, would know what should be chosen to keep what was made in complete harmony? Choosing against God would bring chaos, disorder, not the "light" that was omnipresent to begin with, but darkness, blind darkness, night.
In the beginning, that's what happened. God created "light," presenting each spirit with free will that each spirit might be a real person, not an automaton, a robot, a thing that appears conscious, but actually has no choice. Such a thing's not really "alive." It's not a person. Each free spirit chooses, and, with that choice, darkness can enter. God separated the darkness from light, and now the spirits are in two camps. One camp remained light, perfect harmony, perfect love, unending happiness and purpose. All are persons, free to choose, freely choosing to love and serve God. The other camp pursued their own ambitions, knowing full well that they are free persons. How can one choose wrong, if one isn't free? Free persons now out of harmony with God and everything God made. God separated that camp so that disharmony will not disturb the perfect expression of God's love among those who exist in light. This was the first act of creation.
Then God made the physical universe, and, with it, three-dimensional space and time, matter and energy. Who can say how long it took or how long ago it happened? It started at the beginning of time, when darkness was separated from light.
We humans start existence extremely small and develop slowly, so slowly that none of us can recall the events of our first few years, yet we know we were alive and active those first years even if we can't remember. We live, grow old and die, all in the matter of a hundred years at most, and, for many, far less.
Scientists say the physical universe began 13.7 billion years ago. What a long time that is for us who are locked in the dimension of time. I wonder how long it seems to God, who exists outside of time, or for the spiritual beings who were made before time and who, like the spiritual souls animating our bodies, will never cease to exist. I wonder how it seems to the spiritual beings of darkness, separated now from light, probably interacting with the physical universe, there to express their self-ambitions, their rebellion against the one who must be obeyed so that light can permeate everything.
How illustrating the "Big Bang" theory is. An unimaginably huge explosion from an infinitely small, infinitely dense, origin at the beginning of time, exploding and expanding with immense force and power, seemingly ordered but filled with chaos, collisions, explosions, perils at every quarter; and, for us, accidents, sickness, sadness, and physical death, for us and every other living, physical being.
This is not light. It is far closer to darkness than light. This physical universe is a long night of darkness. Do you realize that none of us can perceive God? Maybe some of us can realize that God must exist, but we have almost no perception of any details about God. We live all our days in darkness. It's almost the same with our knowledge of the physical universe. Of the immense vastness and intricate complexity of the physical universe, we know very little, far less than a fraction of one percent of all there is to know. Similar with each other. We know very little of what goes on in other person's hearts and souls, even within our own family, even within the children we've raised all through their formative years.
A far cry from those who dwell in light. For them, every thing is knowable. No thing is hidden, even the spiritual lives of others. For us here in the physical universe, every thing is barely perceived, and very little is agreed upon. Argument, conflict, disagreement, darkness confronts us on all sides.
Doesn't it seem possible that the spirits who chose against God would perceive, through the physical universe, the consequences of disharmony with God? It starts with the stars and planets, with the cataclysmic way the universe began: horrendous explosion, unimaginable temperatures, colliding bodies, matter forming stars, blowing up, condensing, colliding, forming planets, some re-igniting into new stars, continuing until our own day. It all seems ordered, but there's much chaos and uncertainty, ruin and sometimes destruction.
The same continued when living organisms appeared on our planet. Organisms seemingly ordered and in ecological balance, but, with these organisms, chaos and destruction reigns on an individual basis, especially with animals. Strong animals hunt down and devour weaker animals, in many cases their own offspring. Frightening as the animal world is with dinosaurs, for example, the insect world is even more brutal. Surely, intelligent persons ought to get the point that the physical universe mirrors the chaos that follows from choosing for self regardless of what God chooses.
Then human beings appeared, the first physical life forms able to think, to realize they exist, persons, really. Is it really true that the first human beings were enticed to disobey and do what God did not want them to do? Is it true that from that first disobedience, the human race plunged into the same darkness and disorder that the whole physical universe is in?
Interesting, if it's true! The knowledge of such information would have to be sustained by Divine Revelation for humans to remember it for so long. Just consider what is said. After the separation of darkness from light and the creation of the physical universe (who knows how long that took?), God created the first human beings. They were perfect: no sickness, no accidents, no sorrow. They were in harmony with all nature. They were told to fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over every living thing that moves upon the Earth. They were also given a simple test of obedience: don't eat the fruit of one tree. No special reason, just an opportunity to show they were willing to freely obey. The same opportunity that was given the angels, to demonstrate that, as free persons, without any compulsion, they would freely choose to obey. If every person chose to obey, all persons would dwell in the happiness and harmony that God provides.
The tradition passed down to us, most likely preserved by Divine Revelation, is that one of the fallen angels, the most powerful one, took the form of a snake and moved on the Earth. That would put that angel under the dominion of the first human beings, wouldn't it? No wonder the mandate was "subdue and rule over" everything that moves on the earth. It's no simple task for a human being to subdue and rule over a rebellious angel.
The first human beings were misled by the fallen angel and disobeyed God, and chaos came to them and all their offspring because we all, even today, possess the same genome, biological DNA, inheritable traits, that they had after they disobeyed. Enlightening story! They and the fallen angel, all three, were judged. Human beings from now on would experience nature opposed to them. Humans would have to provide for themselves. They would experience hardships and bodily death. Tough punishment! But they were offered a promise of redemption. It was much more severe for the fallen angel. "Because you have done this . . . I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your brood and hers. They shall strike at your head, and you shall strike at their heel.
"Now we have some explanation of what is going on. We are in a titanic struggle, we humans, against the spirits of darkness. God has decreed the impossible task that we will subdue and dominate them, have dominion over them and rule over them. If these stories really are preserved by Divine Revelation, our situation is further clarified when the very first human being (that we know of) is born in the natural way we are born. Cain was jealous of his brother and was sulking. God told Cain: "Why are you so angry and cast down? If you do well, you are accepted; if not, sin is a demon crouching at the door. It shall be eager for you, and you will be mastered by it." How would you feel if you heard God tell you that directly? Would you then murder your brother?
I believe these stories are true and are preserved by Divine Revelation. They are the only sources that allows one to make sense of this world. We are immersed in darkness, and our own sins make us so deeply immersed, we can't possibly bring ourselves out of it. The woman's seed is one of her descendants. That descendant will carry out the mandate to subdue and dominate. As Divine Revelation continued through the years, it becomes obvious that the woman's descendant will make remedy for all sin and will bring salvation to all who are repentant and want salvation. This Divine Revelation was preserved, and later ratified, through one race of people. Consider the situation with the vast majority of people who, within their races, did not preserve the traditions of what happened in the beginning. Their offspring have no idea of what is going on. Like us, they do not remember the first instant of their existence.
Whatever interaction the spirits of darkness previously had with the physical universe, these spirits now have to deal with persons, physical bodies with spiritual souls that do not automatically comply with whatever they are prodded to do. They question the prodding and are able to resist. They have minds of their own. Look at the misery the human race experiences, the aggression, hatred, wars, murders, people grabbing for themselves whatever they can take. Doesn't this mirror the darkness among spirits who refuse to obey? However, even with many thousands of years of human beings questioning their inspirations, the rebellion continues. So, a few thousand years ago, a Divine Revelation is made through Moses to the Israelites. They are given God's ordinances that must be obeyed even if free persons are not inclined to obey. Now a small beacon of light illumines the darkness.
Even so, the rebellion continues. So, in the fullness of time, the promised descendant of the first woman appears. He is the one who will carry out the mandate to subdue and dominate everything that moves on the earth. After 13.7 billion years, he appears. Surely this has to be the "End Times." How much more time should be given to those who, after observing the physical universe for billions of years, still refuse to obey? The promised descendant came with a "gospel." The original meaning of "gospel" was not "good" news, as we understand it today, but "good" in the sense that it is reliable. It is the official news that should not be doubted. It's not rumor or speculation. It's authentic! Roman magistrates used to send messengers ahead of them to tell the people whom they are going to visit what to expect when they arrive. Their "gospel" will dispel all doubt, so that persons will have no delusions when the magistrate arrives. The news is still "good" in that some persons will be glad to hear it, but, primarily, it is "good" because it is unerring.
The promised one came. His "good news" was and still is accepted by, but not by all. He set up a procedure to offer salvation to all who are willing, but many do not accept it. For two thousand years, persons have fought against it and are still trying to destroy it. If this revelation is true, how close can we be to the end of God's patience, to the end of time, to the end of all rebellion? At the end of time, as we know time, all persons will experience the final separation of darkness from light, we humans also. We humans too will be separated into children of light and children of darkness.
Doesn't this seem a more plausible explanation of the origin and purpose of the physical universe that the theories of evolution?
Maurice A. Williams
Author of
Apocalypse: Four Horsemen Three Woes
http://www.lulu.com/maurice-williamshttp://www.geocities.com/mauricewms2003Labels: Creation, Evolution, God, Revelation
RWANDA
Starting in 1981, Christ sent his mother to six girls and one boy in Kibeho, Rwanda with messages from Christ (Soul Magazine, Jan-Feb. ’87, p. 28). The children are Alphonsine Mumureka (born 1965), Anathalie Mukamazimpaka (born (1965), Marie-Clare Mukangango (born 1961), Stephanie Mukamurenzi (born 1968), Vestine Salina (born 1958), Emmanuel Segatashya (born 1967), and Agnus Kamagaju (born 1960). Alphonsine was the first to see Mary who said: “I am the mother of the Word.” Mary said she came to Rwanda to prepare for her son’s return. “The world is coming to an end. Mary said: If I come to Kibeho, it does not mean that I am concerned only for Kibeho, or for Rwanda, or for the whole of Africa. I am concerned and am turning to the whole world.” (The Internet).
Rwanda is Africa’s most Catholic country. Of the country’s eight million people, approximately 65% are Catholic. On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down near Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city. Immediately thereafter came one of the most devastating massacres in human history. In the months following the assassination, an estimated eight hundred thousand to one million Rwandans, nearly one-seventh of the country’s entire population, were slaughtered by guns, machetes, hammers, and spears.
Ernest Rutaganda is the forth child of a Christian family in Cuyangugu, Rwanda. He received messages in his sleep. At 3 AM on day in 1983, he saw Jesus and Mary. Five years later, he saw Jesus again (1988) during a pilgrimage in Kibeho where Jesus and Mary were appearing to other visionaries. For refusing to obey government orders to stop holding prayer meetings in his home, where people came in great numbers daily from 1988 to 1990, Rutaganda was imprisoned for six months (March 12 to December 12, 1990) in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.
Jesus visited Ernest in prison and advised him to leave Rwanda immediately upon release, or he will be killed. When Rutaganda was released, he hesitated and was arrested and taken with others to a desolated spot to be killed. A guard recognized that Rutaganda was recently freed from prison and let him go.
During one vision of the future, which lasted eight hours, the visionaries saw horrible images of tragedy: massacre, decapitated bodies, and many bodies thrown into the rivers. They saw that if Rwanda did not return to God, there would be "a river of blood and many abandoned, decapitated corpses". The Rwandan holocaust came a few years later.
Christ told one of the visionaries: "Too many people treat their neighbors dishonestly. The world is full of hatred. You will know my Second Coming is at hand when you see the outbreak of religious wars. Then, know that I am on the Way" (The Internet).
In 1993, Ernest was told that there would be a massacre of Tutsit. This happened a year later in 1994. Other predictions are that if people do not pray, a country in North America, one in Europe, and one in Asia will provoke World War III. The famine after the war will encourage many to follow the Antichrist. It is important to reconcile oneself with God right now.
Recently, the Oprah Show interviewed Lisa Ling, who showed a documentary about the massacre in Rwanda and another massacre in The Congo: almost a million killed in Rwanda in 1994 and more than 3,500,000 killed in the Congo since 1997, with no end in sight. Suffering without end for human beings caught in a maelstrom of hatred and destruction. Surprisingly, Lisa did not mention the apparitions. We were warned, and our Media ignores the warnings.
In late July 2005, one of the main American TV networks aired a documentary about Rwanda. The documentary covered the political background that led to the hostility between the Tutsit and Hutu peoples in Rwanda, the rebellions, the coups and counter coups, the assassination of President Habyarimana, and the ensuing genocide. I was surprised that the documentary did not mention the apparitions in spite of the fact that the apparitions would have lent a more universal appeal to the documentary. The messages given the children at Rwanda were not merely meant for black Africans, they were meant for all of us. The God who created all of us has been warning all of us to repent. We have been warned to give up our lives of defiance or face the consequences. Unchecked sin can and will race through the world inspiring unprincipled persons to commit atrocious acts against those deemed weaker and unable to defend themselves. Because we do not listen, all of us are faced with these warnings right now.
There are also two movies about the genocide: Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April. Both are excellent, well-done movies that show the suffering the Rwandan people experienced during the genocide. Sometimes in April was especially poignant because two of the main stars portrayed brothers who were on opposite sides during the genocide. Surprisingly, neither movie mentioned the apparitions. Hotel Rwanda was a true-life story of a man who tried to save as many people as possible. He managed a hotel in Kigali, the capital city, where Rutaganda was imprisoned. It’s hard to believe that he did not know about the apparitions. Excerpt from "Apocalypse: Four Horsemen Three Woes."
Maurice A. Williams
author of
Apocalypse: Four Horsemen Three Woes
http://www.lulu.com/maurice-williamshttp://www.geocities.com/mauricewms2003Labels: Christ, Kibeho, Kigali, Mary, Rwanda, Tutsit
WHAT GLORY FOR GOD?
After reading many volumes in the “Left Behind” series, I finally read “Glorious Appearing.” I have major problems with it.
What glory is there if God destroys and punishes with eternal damnation persons totally dependent upon God? Persons who would not exist if God did not create them, persons who could not continue to exist if God did not deliberately keep them in existence.
There might be human glory in such actions, the kind of human glory that always triumphs seeing the wicked utterly destroyed, pushed out of the way, and annihilated so that they never cause trouble again. I have a feeling, however, that even for human beings, there is no real glory in this. God is so much more than a human being that any glory that seems plausible for human beings would fall far short of the glory that belongs to God.
Consider for a moment that God created all these persons. They made no prior agreement, no acceptance, showed no willingness to exist. Before these persons were created, such agreements are impossible. God, through God’s own intentions, created every person, no exception. Once created, these persons, by God’s design, were given free will, the freedom to obey God or refuse obedience.
A tremendous gift, when one considers it, because, being free persons puts us almost on a level with God. We are not compelled to obey. We are free. Freedom gives us individuality. Freedom makes us a conscious reality. We are real, and we know it, and we make our own choices of what we want to do.But, obviously, we must all obey God. Any disobedience on our part will disrupt what God has given other persons. Our disobedience deprives other persons of what God wants them to have.
Since God knows everything, God knows what conduct will bring, not only the greatest happiness, but perfect happiness, perfect happiness and perfect fulfillment for everyone.
What a dilemma we all face. We did not ask to be created, yet here we are. We did not agree to any prior conditions, yet we must obey. If we were not persons, we would have no choice. We would automatically obey without any conscious thought. We wouldn’t be human. We are persons! We have a choice. We can obey or refuse to obey.What dignity if we freely choose to obey. Nobody forced us. We chose on our own to obey. We can say, we should say, we chose to obey because we recognize who God is. We know God is right. There is no other way for all created persons to have happiness and fulfillment unless we all obey.
What dignity to freely choose obedience. We do so because we know God, we trust God, we love God. Loving God and, in return, being loved by God, as free persons, is the greatest gift imaginable. We would be like gods ourselves, not the one-and-only Most High God, but children of God, acting freely and wholeheartedly as God would act, loving God and every person God created as God loves them, caring for them and providing for them as God would. We would all be gods with a small “g.”
But what if any of us refuse obedience? The damage our disobedience would do is incalculable, not only for our victims, but to ourselves also. The powers God gave us to serve God, the special way we were predestined to accomplish what God wanted us to accomplish are now thrown away. In throwing them away, we have inflicted unimaginable harm upon other persons.
Look at the injustice, persecution, and selfishness in the world today and realize what disobedience can do.Once someone realizes the blunders made by disobedience, one can long for annihilation, to no longer exist, to be gone, disappear, or take it upon oneself to commit suicide, as if, by our own choice, we can no longer exist. But God will not permit annihilation, nor will God annihilate any person. God revealed through Scripture that, once created, we would always exist.
We must take responsibility for our actions. We have to make recompense to God for our disobedience, which, of course, is impossible because the consequences of our disobedience are too enormous. We cannot make recompense for our disobedience. Only God can. But we can repent. We can recognize that we have chosen wrong and ask God’s forgiveness. Most important of all, we can accept God’s retribution for our disobedience and God’s reconstruction of who we now are despite our disobedience.
God said many times in Scripture that (some of) the first will be last and (some of) the last will be first. Jesus also said, that if your eye offends you, tear it out. It’s better to enter the kingdom of heaven minus an eye than to enter hell with ones whole body. So there is some retribution God expects from us if we disobey, some loss of the power and ability given us if we misuse that power and ability. If we were created to illumine the thinking of others, but refuse, or, worse than that, deliberately spread falsehood, then we are no longer fit to illumine others. Someone else will do it. That does not mean that God will not forgive us if we repent, but it does mean we lost the original position God gave us.
We all passed through a trial when we were first created, a trial that established how we would use our freedom. If we used our freedom incorrectly, and many of us did, then God will give us different positions, different ministries, dependant on how we acted. We all can be forgiven, if we seek forgiveness, and we all will fit into a new heaven and a new earth consistent on how we acted during our trial. Remember that all persons who did choose to obey, especially those victimized by persons who refused obedience, would now have a different and better relationship with God.
Salvation is what God always wanted, what God always said throughout Scripture, the repentance of a sinner and the sinner’s restoration to spiritual wholeness. This is why Jesus died: to earn forgiveness for sinners. His most terrible agony in the Garden of Gethsemane was the realization that, in spite of everything Jesus did to make remedy for disobedience, some persons will not take advantage of it and will never choose to obey.
It makes sense that these persons will have to be forever excluded from the kingdom of heaven because, in the end, God will not tolerate any disobedience in the kingdom of heaven. Their exclusion will be eternal because no person will ever be annihilated.If God wanted Jesus to suffer so much to save sinners, what glory could God possibly find in killing millions of persons during the rapture and with the locusts and the horsemen and the battle of Armageddon? As I said earlier, even an ordinary human being would not find glory in that.
What would be glorious would be the repentance of sinners; those who were once spiritually dead, but now are spiritually alive. I think the prophecies in Revelation are not meant to be taken as literally as LaHaye and Jenkins take them. It leaves a person spiritually cold to read about so many persons slaughtered and confined to eternal punishment by a God that acts more like a human being than a divine, loving creator. What if the predictions were meant to be warnings for those who decide never to repent, but when God starts to show sternness, many do repent and find salvation? Wouldn’t that make more sense?
The greatest glory for God would be if every disobedient person repented. Even I don’t think that will happen. I think, when the Glorious Appearing occurs, those who do repent, receive forgiveness, and find a place in the kingdom of heaven will manifest God’s glory.Those who do not repent will always be a source of sorrow for God, and for Jesus, and for those closest to Jesus, those who recognize His divinity and God’s glory. This makes more sense to me.
Maurice A. Williams
author of Apocalypse: Four Horsemen Three Woes
http://www.geocities.com/mauricewms2003/Aindexhttp://www.lulu.com/maurice-williamsLabels: Freedom, God, Persons
