AN EXTRAORDINARY SERIES OF EVENTS IN THE HEAVENLIES SOON TO OCCUR

 

Hopefully you all are aware of Jesus’ warning about signs in the sun, moon, and stars in Luke 21:25 as we near the last of this age.  Elsewhere in the Bible there are other warnings regarding things to happen in the heavenlies in the times that are approaching swiftly.

 

Well, beginning in April and in the next eighteen months we will see some extraordinary things happening.  These are clearly unusual.  The interpretation and implications are yet to come.

 

As background, let me remind all that in Levicticus 23 God lays out seven basic appointed times, or “moeds” as they are called in Hebrew, that the Jews are to observe each year.  Often these are referred to as festivals or feasts.  The first three are coming in April of this year – Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits.  Then there is an appointed time called Weeks which coincides with what we call Pentecost.  And in the fall, three more - Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles (or booths).  There are historical implications to these as well as future implications. For example, Passover’s history goes back to when in Egypt each Jewish household covered the doorposts of their homes with blood from a lamb, and the angel of death passed over their homes the night before the Jews began their walk out of Egypt.  Centuries later, as you know, Jesus with the shedding of his blood on the cross and his victory over sin and death became our Passover lamb.  Now I am not teaching about these appointed times here, just laying groundwork for what is going to happen in 2014 and 2015.  I do recommend your reading Leviticus 23 to get a good grounding in these seven key times.

 

From the NASA web site, we know that there will be a full lunar eclipse in April 2014 on Passover.  This year Passover is the evening of April 14 and the day of April 15.  This eclipse is when the earth comes between the sun and the moon.  During the eclipse the moon should appear red, or blood red as often described in the Bible.  Then, and this is amazing, at the beginning of the last festival of the seven, Tabernacles, there will be another such lunar eclipse – on the evening of October 8 and the day of October 9  (remember, a day to God begins after sundown and goes through the following daylight period until sundown).

 

Then in 2015 the same pattern will be repeated – lunar eclipse on Passover and then on Tabernacles. 

 

These four lunar eclipses are referred to as a tetrad.  The occurrence of the eclipses on these four important days in back to back fashion has happened only three times in the last 521 years.  So this is rare indeed!

 

Now consider what happened at the time of the last three tetrads.  In 1493-1494, the Jews had been ordered out of Spain and were fleeing for their lives.  Spain had been like a home for the Jews, but King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had ordered them out.  And of course you know what happened in 1492 – Columbus discovered America which ended up being a home for more than millions of Jews and historically a strong support for Israel.

 

In 1949-1950 we have the period immediately after the reestablishment of the Jewish homeland Israel.  This was a period of great pressure on Israel from the Arab lands all around.  And then in 1967-1968 we have the period of the six day war, and Israel recapturing Jerusalem again after almost 2000 years of not being in charge there.

 

So it appears the occurrence of such a “tetrad” on these key Jewish feasts is an important sign indeed, important specifically for the Jews and Israel.  And now we have it coming once more. 

 

I want you to be aware and to be alert.  We are living in the last of the last days, are we not?  This appears to me as an extended sign, perhaps just to Israel and the Jews, perhaps more to the world.  That I do not know.  I also do not know if this signals the soon beginning of the seven-year tribulation or anything like that.  But I do know enough to recognize an extraordinary series of events when I see one.  I do not think this is a coincidence. 

 

                                                                                                                                       (February 2014)

                                                                                                                   Copyright © 2014 by John Newlin

 

 

 

 

 

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TO GOD'S ELECT, STRANGERS IN THIS WORLD

 

Have patience.  Have faith.  Your trials will not continue forever.  The continual testing of your very essence will survive this difficult place and time.

 

We believers are as people without a true physical home, though we know where that home truly is and we long to be in it.  To live is Christ and to die is gain – true words that reflect the seeming predicament of our lives.

 

The time is almost at hand when we shall move on.  Already you are in the Kingdom, already you are with him.  Ephesians tells us we are seated with him in the heavenlies even now.  But surely you wish that were full time and all about physically as well.

 

The Lord will complete the heavenly plan.  It will happen.  There will be more joy for the believer, and greater confounding and sense of being lost for those who are not.  And we who with unwavering faith keep our eyes on him must realize that in all things God works for good in those who have been called according to his purpose.  Though we persevere and intercede and pray and obey and at times still puzzlingly see no results that we recognize, we still maintain.  For he is good.  For his loving-kindness endures forever.

 

He is God.  And we are not, though we move steadily to being more and more like him.

He has told us what is to happen.  In explicit words difficult at times to comprehend.  He does nothing without revealing it to his prophets. 

 

Do not let your heart be troubled.  Find that place of peace and live in it, retreat to it, even though at times you must move and act and represent him in a desperate world.  He will never lose you. 

Sometime ago I wrote this poem that fits well here.  Maybe you have already seen it. 

 

We are never home.*

Not now.  Not here.

No matter how we try.

We cannot get there.

 

The moments of joy

Family and friends bring

Cannot dispel

The longing of our hearts.

 

Harsh though the words,

God’s children are

Strangers in a foreign land,

Aliens on planet earth.

 

This is not our world.

But we will soon be home,

That we know.

Our hope is secure.

 

*We Are Never Home, by John Newlin, published in Standard January 11, 2004

 

 

 

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

 

                                                                                                                                       (February 2014)

                                                                                                                   Copyright © 2014 by John Newlin

 

 

 

 

 

[NOTE:  This article may be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included.  We in fact encourage you to do so and especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

P  O Box 15797, Wilmington, NC 28408 * 910 395 1465

 www.johnnewlinministries.org           Email: info@johnnewlinministries.org

WHY DON'T WE HAVE BETTER AND MORE CAPABLE PEOPLE AS OUR POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENT LEADERS?

People that are

• Brighter
• Better leaders
• Better administrators and executives with demonstrated track records
• And most important – serious Christians who are living out the Christian faith?

Why do people with those attributes stay away from the national debate?  And we are left with individuals with harmful intellectual ideologies that in no way conform to the views and the life of a Christian.  Some even seem self-serving and arrogant.

For a few those behaviors may develop after they become elected and take up a powerful office.  The famous quote “absolute power corrupts absolutely” comes to mind.  But that doesn’t have to be the case, does it?  Not if we start with people who know the Lord and his commands and his values, know themselves and live the life of obedience to God.  Not if we have candidates and politicians who see themselves truly as servants of the electorate.

To take this further, such an elected body of leaders should, one would think, wisely and thoughtfully staff the appointed government positions with skilled like-minded individuals.  They would not look at their government role as an opportunity to get rich, exercise power, and build a group of people obligated to them for their jobs.

Then we would end up with a government that would see its role as being accountable to the people and that would go forward as was intended when the Constitution was written.

Why don’t we have such a government? 

I think the answer goes right to us, the people who elect the individuals.  If the electorate is not knowledgeable on the issues and the candidates, does not know what is really going on among the individuals running and the parties, does not recognize sinister ulterior and somewhat hidden motives, and is not itself a group of moral, God-fearing people, well, how can it be expected to elect the people we would like elected? 

The answer – it can’t.  And that is where we are today.

Most Americans have never wanted to be involved with politics or pay attention to the daily happenings in Washington and elsewhere in government.  So they are not knowledgeable.  As long as we had good, moral, God-fearing candidates who understood the Constitution and how America had been built and blessed, this was still ok.  But then the general morality of the country several decades ago began a precipitous slide, and now we live in a society that is rapidly falling away from God, accepts behavior among people that is abominable, is constantly besieged with movies and television programs and just general behavior of many of its most famous personalities that is often immoral and crass and greedy, and more.  Many of the electorate now have a greatly reduced level of Christian values, if they have any at all.  Many have a confused understanding of right and wrong.  And because of their lack of interest and effort, since they don’t know the issues or the true backgrounds of many running for office or serving in office, they just are not an informed electorate.

The second president John Adams addressed all of this:

• “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
   
• “Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
   
  Much further back in history, the famous Plato had some thoughts on the matter:
   
• The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
   
• One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
   
• In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state.”

Again, this is where we are.

If a truly good candidate comes along, will the press give him adequate coverage?  Highly unlikely.  We may never read or hear of his good points unless we hear him in person.

And the press, which itself is staffed with many apparently lost and confused individuals focused and intrigued by this world system and not by God, will seriously even attempt to mislead and destroy any such good candidate, anyone who does not hide his Christian faith, anyone who is not politically correct in every word out of his mouth.

We are in dangerous times, dear friends.  We spiritually are at the end of this age, with the Lord soon to return.  And living in this country which does not have the government we knew years ago is a dangerous and unpleasant thing.  To the extent possible, we should strive to get as many God – fearing individuals into office as possible to counter the evil and false doctrine that now pervades the government world, especially in Washington but also in many states.  And we can pray that it is not too late, that we may have some impact. 

When the Lord comes he should find us still striving to move forward in his commands, his love, his blessing.  And if we do that, for the country and in our own lives, we can’t do more. 

 

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                                                  (February 2014)

                                                                                                              Copyright © 2014 by John Newlin.

 

 

NOTE:  This article may be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included.  We in fact encourage you to do so and especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.

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THERE ARE ONLY TWO GROUPS OF PEOPLE

There are all kinds of religions on earth, and an enormous number of academic systems, and diverse beliefs everywhere.  There are many different types of people as to education levels, knowledge and talents, and skills.

But in the end there are only two groups of people that really matter on earth:  those who know Jesus, and those who don’t.  This second group is lost.  Unless something happens that opens the eyes of people in this group so they can see the truth and receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they are not going to have a good future. 

Unfortunately, this second group is much larger than the first group.  Throughout the Bible the point comes through that the group of true believers just is not the majority of people on earth.  Once Jesus even says that narrow is the way and few are they who find it (the way to life, to eternal life). 

Have you ever wondered why in history and even today certain Christians when threatened with death if they do not renounce Jesus choose to die?  And they do.  In ancient Rome.  And today in many places on earth where believers are attacked and killed by members of false religions.  You know those places.  If you do not you are not paying attention.  Christians are killed on a daily basis in today’s world.

Why would they prefer death over renouncing Jesus and continuing to live an earthly life?  Because they know Jesus.  Because they know their future with him.  And they know that life on this earth in its current form is as nothing in comparison.  Renouncing Jesus would condemn them to eternal hell, life in the lake of fire as described in the last book of the Bible.

We are right now at the great dividing time in human history.  Huge numbers are in the lost camp by virtue of being in false religions and lost societies.  Others actually may think they are Christians and are saved by virtue of going to a church somewhere and sitting there once a week, by growing up in a Christian home, maybe even by doing some good works in that church.  But for some of these nothing may be further from the truth.  Being someone whom Jesus calls out when he comes to collect his true CHURCH depends on your truly knowing him.  In his own words, you must be born again, or born from above (perhaps a better translation).  And the apostle Paul further elaborates:  You must confess Jesus as your Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.  In other words, it is all about truth.  God doesn’t play games.  As the stenographer said in Congress a few weeks ago, God will not be mocked.  She was quoting the Bible.  Mocking God is what happens in Washington, DC on a regular basis.

Two groups of people.   One group already spiritually in the kingdom and on its way to totally realizing that in all ways and the other a collection of lost people.  Unless God draws people from that lost group to Jesus, they will stay there.  As we approach the Lord’s return, I expect to see more and more drawn to Jesus, and I also expect to see a steadily increasing display of people obviously falling away from God, from the Lord, from a true faith.  The Bible in essence says as much.

So keep your eyes on Jesus no matter what happens in and around you.  The return of the Lord is imminent.  In recent decades numerous Biblical prophecies of things to happen before his return have indeed happened.  As described in the Bible, he could come in the clouds at any moment to call out his believers, with the horribly difficult seven year period of judgment on the world known as the tribulation beginning shortly thereafter and culminating in the great Armageddon battle and his beginning to rule from Jerusalem.

As possible, through your words and actions, seek to help the Father in his drawing others to Jesus.  Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance, to pave the way for meaningful conversations about the Lord with others, to arrange situations.  He will.  Always remember, it is all about a personal relationship between a person and the Lord.  No one can get another person into heaven.  You can’t do that for your children or parents, and they can’t do that for you.

Two groups.  That’s all that counts.  What group are you in?  And what group are your friends and family members in?

Where are you all heading?

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

 

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                              Copyright © 2013 by John Newlin.

 

[For more information on all this, go to the web site below and request the CDs such as HOW DOES ANYONE EVER REALLY GET INTO HEAVEN? and WHAT DID JESUS DO, PARTS ONE, TWO AND THREE.  Or watch the videos there such as GETTING INTO HEAVEN and WHAT DID JESUS ACCOMPLISH?.]

 

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