Lighting the Incinerator With a Paper Match

In a nearby city, there was a huge municipal incinerator. It could be seen from a long distance, it was so large. It was used to burn all the waste of a city of half a million people. A conveyor belt moved the trash as it burned until there was nothing left but ashes. The only things that made it through unburned were grass clippings and watermelon rinds. They needed to be recycled.

A reporter asked what source of heat was used to heat it. The operator said, "It just burns by itself. We start it with a paper match."

To most, the mention of the mistranslated word "hell" describes a place deep within the earth where immaterial souls are tortured by material fire before they are put on trial. Again, where brimstone or sulfur is mentioned in the Bible, we are seeing a description of an open-air dump for the incineration of corpses. The interior of the earth has no need for sulfur to heat it. Without an air supply it would not burn there anyway.

Away with pagan myths and the eternal torment theory!

The Elect of God

And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Mark 13:27

That God has chosen certain people to be His, before the world was made, is easily proven from multiple scriptures. Yet it is considered a "controversial" doctrine, and one which can get you hated and yelled at. For not only does the Bible plainly say that some people are chosen to be saved, but that some were created to be destroyed.

Let me make it very simple. One chapter of one book can do these things very nicely. That would be chapter nine of Romans. In extreme cases one could even look up two words in an exhaustive concordance--"elect", and "election". Online, it will take less than a minute. You would find every mention of the two words in context. I have just done this before my present writing.

Bible study can often be so easy, yet so few will do it. They would rather rely on church teaching, or just get angry, which comes naturally.

This doctrine really stirs up the flesh as few others will. It takes self, or ego, entirely out of the picture. It makes our origin and destiny a matter of God's will, not ours. Once understood, it is a source of peace like no other.

• See KJV references for "elect" here.
• See KJV references for "election" here.

Helicopters With Hair Like Women?

And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. Revelation 9:8

As unlikely as it is that the locust-like creatures of Revelation chapter nine are helicopters, it is quite often proposed. Each feature given in chapter nine is interpreted as a piece of military hardware. This is done by those who have a total bias against anything outside the realm of nature as they know it. This is called the anti-supernaturalistic bias. Old and young have it.

I have tried to reveal the errors in this interpretation by using the old word substitution technique. You put their word in the place of the Bible's word and read it that way. Thus we have helicopters with hair like women.

While stationed at Ft.Knox, I came across a helicopter square dance used as a demonstration for visitors. Helicopters were dressed up as "hill billys" and performed a dance to country music. It did show extreme skill on the part of the pilots, but no one thought the helicopters, with pigtails fastened to them, were locusts.

Of all the books of the Bible in which to deny the supernatural, Revelation must be the worst to try it in. But the deniers persist. In its extreme form, this is exhibited by a denial of the death and resurrection of Christ, because this was supernatural.

Who the Woman is Not

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Revelation 12:1

Many rightly ask, "Who is the woman?" Here is a short theology course. To the Roman Catholics, she is Mary. To the Protestants, she is the church. Bingo, both are wrong.

Now who am I to disagree with the two giants of Christendom? Simply one who has chosen to study the Bible and to ignore so-called "church teachings". Since these two entities disagree, at least one of them is wrong anyway. In fact, both are.

Before these two erroneous views are examined, lets look at the first text in the Bible that mentions the woman. Though she is prominent in Revelation, her story begins in Genesis. Amazing how many errors could be avoided by really studying the first book in the Bible!

Here she is,in Joseph's dream.

Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisanse to me. Genesis 37:9

"But there are only eleven stars, and where is the woman?"

There are twelve stars, eleven stars bowing down to one star. And Israel is here, but she is not pictured as a woman until she is ready to give birth to the manchild.

Let us examine the Roman Catholic view first. By simply replacing Mary for the "woman" in our readings, its errors are obvious. It works in a number of places, but I'll choose Revelation 12:6. And Mary fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God.

Why is Mary, known to the Catholics as Queen of heaven--even Queen of the universe--fleeing into the wilderness? They will say that this is her flight to Egypt to escape Herod. But that event is in the past, while Revelation deals with events yet to occur. And Egypt was certainly not a wilderness.

I could go on substituting "Mary" for the "woman", but I'm sure you get my idea.

The main line Protestants have real problems too. For if the woman is the church, who is she giving birth to? Not Israel, not to Jesus. But they try to cram the church in where she does not belong.

So then who is the man child? Israel has been formed up long ago. The church is in heaven. So who is he? There is a group (for the woman and her child are not singular, but plural) born during the exact time covered in this prophecy. They come out of the twelve tribes of Israel and they are all men. They are caught up to heaven, as firstfruits, as soon as they are born. They are the 144 thousand of Revelation 7:4-8, and 14:4.

I was shocked when I heard this explained by Finis Dake in Revelation Expounded or Eternal Mysteries Simplified. Maybe you are too. But compare the manchild with the 144,000. They fit together perfectly.

This explains who the woman is.

Sing Me a Song of Doom, Please

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: Ecclesiastes 7:8

A man witnessing a baseball game between a prison team and a visiting team wondered why the inmates cheered for the visitors, but booed the home team. "The home guys represent the prison, which they hate," he was told. Same for me, concerning the world. I hate it and the devil who runs it. I am eager for it to die.

But, like Sodom, the righteous must leave before the end of the present world. There will be a refuge for "the Woman" (And the woman fled into the the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. Revelation 12:6). The church will be taken out (Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. Revelation 3:10, NIV).

At this point it would be lovely to discuss who the "they", who will feed the woman, are, but I will restrain myself. We will be in heaven, Israel will flee to a place "prepared of God". Then He will try the earth in horrible ways. After this seven year period, the last three and one half years of which are the Great Tribulation of Matthew 24, will come the thousand years of peace, with Christ on the throne. New Jerusalem will be our home some day, so die world, die.

Triune Man?

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing and even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

It is being taught that, just as God is triune, man is also. We are body, soul, spirit. We are , after all, made in God's image. According to this philosophy, we are little gods! If an impertinent person (I would never do this) were to ask if man is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the answer would be, "Certainly not!" But, the argument maintains, man has three of something, and therefore is God-like.

The quest to elevate man never ceases in some quarters, as does the quest to make the church the all-in-all. Most sermons are about how to be better and more successful, though God is mentioned as a kind of coach to aid us in our goal of self-improvement.

The quote from Hebrews speaks of man's heart, another aspect of our humanity. Body, soul, spirit, mind, and heart--that basically defines man. Not divine, but descriptive of our natures.

Did I say "soul"? We all have one, but like the rest of us, it ceases when we stop breathing.

Are we God-like? We should try to be Christ-like. How well are we doing?

The Last Seven Years

"Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put and end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Daniel 9:24

We commonly use decades to measure time, but Israel uses septads, or periods of seven years. These septads are often called "weeks".

Many years ago, I found a little book called Daniel's Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. I was just beginning to think of prophecy as a subject to study. So, I read the little book. It was incomprehensible to me. I persisted though. Slowly, I was learning the Bible's way of saying things. Often this is new to us. Years later, I came to love this book on Daniel's great prophecy.

The seventy weeks are foretold in only four verses. These verses, the whole book, are shunned by old-line churches, like the Presbyterians, who believe they have supplanted Israel. But sleeping Israel will be back, and that is what the Seventy Weeks are all about. Therefore Presbyterians and Jews (though Daniel is their prophet) treat this amazing prophecy as Superman does Kryptonite.

At this time it would be appropriate to ask, "So what have all the septads got to do with me?" Then I would have to be honest and say, "Nothing, directly." It was written by a Jew, for the Jews. But God loves his people, don't you?

Plus, when Israel comes back to life, after the church is in heaven, the greatest events in her history will occur. "The prince who is to come" is antichrist. His rule will take place within the last half of the prophecy's seventieth septad. It is foretold in several places as 42 months (Rev. 11:2 and Rev. 13:5), as 1,260 days (Rev. 11:3, and 12:6), and as "a time, times and half a time" in Rev. 12:14.

Daniel's time table mentioned in the book of Revelation? This part is future of our day. This prophecy is well rooted and verifiable in history. The faithful spread palm leaves on the street of Jerusalem to welcome Messiah, based on it. It has been, and will be accurate to the day, based on the lunar calendar. It promised and delivered our Savior to an unbelieving nation.

Sixty nine of the septads are already fulfilled. There is only one septad left. It's starting point will be the signing of a treaty between Israel and antichrist. That will light the fuse to history's biggest explosion.