Month: December 2020

1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

I must be honest with you, I’m very biased against Satan. I’ve heard Satan in my head on only one occasion and was fortunate enough to survive it. I now know his voice. Satan assaults our mind when we’re under great emotional stress or weakened through alcohol or drug use to the point where we don’t think very clearly. Satan will always urge us to do something stupid and destructive that will harm us or others because he hates us and his sole purpose is our destruction. Satan never sleeps and either he or his demons watch us constantly, always looking for some weakness and an opportunity to strike out at us.

The Apostle Peter knew Satan well and in the above verse gives us good advice. “Be sober,” means don’t get drunk or take any medication, drugs or anything else that’ll dull your mind and prevent you from adequately recognizing and defending yourself against Satan’s mental assault. “Be vigilant,” means to be constantly on your guard, always on the lookout for Satan, expecting him at any time and being ready for him when he does show up. Don’t be lukewarm about Satan. God hates Satan and so should you. If you always strive to love what God loves and hate what God hates you know you’re in good company. This mantra will help keep you on the right path in your walk with God.

How do we defend against Satan? By learning all we can about Satan and his tactics from God’s Word so we can defend ourselves against the forces of darkness. One of the reasons God gave us the Bible was for our protection from the evil one and his minions. For those who have eyes let them read and understand what I’m saying. The Bible’s message about Satan is clear. Satan is the polar opposite of God. The goodness of God knows no bounds and the evil of Satan also knows no bounds. Satan is a thief, a liar, and a destroyer. If God didn’t place a restraining hand on Satan to hold him back he’d kill every man, woman and child on earth within 48 hours. Satan’s greatest tactic by far is to convince us he doesn’t exist. If that doesn’t work Satan next tries to convince us he means us no harm. Both of those ploys of Satan are nothing but lies. Satan hates us because we are loved by God. Satan can’t touch God so he seeks to destroy us, God’s beloved children.

In the previous blog we read scriptures penned by two of Jesus’ disciples, Mark and Luke, several of the Apostles, and two of Jesus’ brothers, James and Jude, and they all confirmed the existence of Satan. Don’t believe Satan exists just because I say so but because God, Jesus and the Bible confirm it. If you believe in God and his Son Jesus Christ, then believe what they have to say about the wicked one. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, mentioned Satan at least fifteen times during his ministry. Jesus was God come to earth in the flesh. Christians who profess to believe in God and his Word can’t deny the existence of Satan. If they do they aren’t reading their Bibles and paying attention to what Jesus had to say on the subject. Anyone who denies the holy scriptures contained in God’s Word also denies the testimony of the Savior himself and will face the wrath of God on the last day.

Matthew 4:10 – (Jesus speaking) – Away with you Satan! For it is written, “you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.”

Matthew 16:23 – (Jesus speaking to Peter) – Get behind Me Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.

Matthew 25:41 – (Jesus speaking) – Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Luke 10:18 – (Jesus speaking) – I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Luke 22:31 – (Jesus speaking to Peter) – Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.

John 6:70 – (Jesus speaking) – Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?

John 8:44 – (Jesus speaking) – You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Polls consistently show the majority of church-going Christians reject the idea that Satan is real. In part, this is the result of preachers moving away from fire and brimstone sermons so as to not scare away any potential church members and the tithes they bring with them. Many pastors today are afraid to push their members to the point of decision. They meekly ask their members to commit their lives to Jesus but they don’t put any pressure on them. I can’t watch the made for television preachers who only talk up the good things of God and leave out our responsibilities and the consequences of our actions if we don’t repent and continue to sin. God isn’t a slot machine that continually pays out whenever we want something. There is no free lunch.

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Mostly though, it’s people not wanting to face the consequences and the reality of their sins. If we deny the existence of Satan we don’t have to come to grips with our failures. We can continue to enjoy our sinning ways without any threat of penalty. We won’t reach the point of decision if we never face God and respond to the question, “What must I do?” We can run, hide, procrastinate and otherwise avoid God on this issue of our eternal souls but eventually God will get his answer. God put us on this earth to seek him out and make the free will decision to serve God or Satan. God is patiently waiting on the answer from each person. God considers no answer to be same as an outright rejection of God. One last thing about our, “testing time,” on earth. It ends when we die. Sticking our heads in the sand won’t cut it. We need to develop a backbone and obey the commands of God that are in the Bible because the truth of God will save our souls unto eternal life. We need to act quickly before our opportunity passes.

Luke 19:10 – (Jesus speaking) – For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Romans 10:9 – That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

I haven’t heard a good sermon on the devil since the 1960’s when I was twelve years old. I want to thank my old pastor at the First Baptist Church in my hometown for literally scaring the hell out of me and pushing me to the point of decision about what it is I believe and what options I had with that knowledge. I gave my life to Christ at age twelve and even though I was a back slider for many years I never once stopped believing in God and I never doubted the reality of Satan. I can understand how someone might not believe in God and Satan if they never read the Bible and never received the gospel message from anyone. Satan is the god of this world and often steals the gospel message from the hearts of men. God calls those who do not believe in him fools, and so they are. What I can’t fathom is people who believe in God but say Satan doesn’t exist. God and Satan, good and evil, are like bookends, you can’t have one without the other. You can’t just have the good and ignore the bad. Life doesn’t work that way.

John 10:10 – (Jesus speaking) – The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 8:32 – (Jesus speaking) – And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

If you believe in God then you must also believe that God’s Word is without error. If you read the Bible you’ll notice Satan is mentioned in seven Old Testament books: Genesis, Job, 1 Chronicles, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. Satan is found in 19 of the 27 books of the New Testament. Every writer in the New Testament wrote as he was moved by the Holy Spirit and they all, without exception, wrote about Satan. Is God (the Holy Spirit) then a liar? You can’t have that kind of consistency unless it’s the truth. Below I’m listing some scriptures from giants of the Christian faith and they all attest to the existence of Satan and the fact he is after your eternal soul:

Matthew 4:1 – Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Luke 22:3 – Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.

Romans 16:20 – And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

1 John 3:8 – He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

James 4:7 – Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Jude 9 – Yet Michael the archangel, in contention with the devil, when he disputed the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

If I could only have one book of the Bible it would be the gospel of John. The synoptic gospels tell us the life of Jesus, where he went, what he did and what he said. I love all that but John tells us what Jesus meant by what he said which is the truth of God that leads to salvation. John confirms Jesus is God and was preexistent. The book of John is the spiritual gospel and therefore the precious gospel. The gospel of John could be called the gospel of the Holy Spirit because it’s obvious the Holy Spirit took on a greater role with John’s gospel. Jesus faced a dilemma. God came to earth in the incarnation of Jesus to save us from our sins and to make himself known. The problem was the Jews had a law that anyone claiming to be God must be stoned to death for this blasphemy. Jesus set about healing people and doing miraculous signs that only God can do so the people themselves would conclude Jesus was God without him having to declare it.

Numerous times in the first three gospels the priests and scribes wanted to seize Jesus and kill him and each time they didn’t. The gospels usually say he simply walked away unharmed. I always wondered how God prevented Jesus from being harmed during these encounters because I know Satan was behind it. The Old Testament gives us plenty of examples how God usually defeated men who came against Israel or anyone who God wanted to protect. God would confuse them mentally making them turn on each other, become tentative and fearful or sometimes become downright terrorized for no apparent reason and run away. I think God merely confused the Jews mentally to the point where they couldn’t act.

John 8:59 – Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

John 10:39 – Therefore they sought again to seize Him (Jesus), but He escaped out of their hand.

Obviously the Jewish authorities tried to kill Jesus many more times than the gospels indicate. Just when I thought I had it all figured out we have these two verses in John which blow a hole in my theory. In John 8:59, “hid himself” means Jesus made himself invisible. I can’t read it any other way. Jesus didn’t put scales on their eyes. It was something he did to himself. Jesus didn’t slink away. Jesus walked boldly through the midst of them and they couldn’t see him because he was invisible. Jesus passed by and walked out the door of the temple. John 10:39, hints that Jesus took some sort of evasive action which may also have been invisibility. God can protect Jesus any way he wants whether it be by confusing the mind or by invisibility or whatever. I’m just saying the early gospels may not have provided enough information on how Jesus was able to evade being stoned to death. Each of the seven times in John where Jesus claimed the personal name of God, “I AM,” the Jews tried to kill Jesus and the power of God protected him until his time had come.

John 6:19-21 – So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid. But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

The Sea of Galilee is fifteen miles long and seven miles wide so the disciples were in the middle of the lake when they encountered Jesus and a good five to six miles from their destination which was Capernaum. So within seconds Jesus, his disciples, and the boat were miraculously transported six miles to the shore of Capernaum. God can easily do whatever he wishes but if he does it’s for a reason. God has a reason for every word written in the Bible. For the life of me I can’t understand why everyone in the boat needed to get to shore so quickly and why God is telling us about it. If anyone has the answer please let me know.

John 6:53 – Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

The Hebrew idiom, “flesh and blood,” refers to the whole person. Jesus, the disciples and the writer of this gospel are all Jewish. Jesus meant for his words to be taken in neither a literal nor in a sacramental sense. Jesus was merely saying you must believe in him for eternal life. Any Jew would understand immediately this is a metaphorical statement. The Catholic church, on the other hand, took Jesus’ statement literally. Jesus made this statement at the Last Supper and would be shortly crucified and buried so what did the church decide to do? The church made the decision to substitute wine for Jesus’ blood and turn his flesh into a cookie so they could cannibalize Jesus at every mass and drink his blood like a vampire. Of course the Bible prohibits the drinking of blood because life is in the blood.

To make it all work the church gave the Pope the right to supersede the Word of God by establishing church sacraments and interpreting the mind of God. The Popes claim they can forgive sins, decide who goes to heaven or hell and they have the right to give priests the magical power to change wine and cookies to the actual flesh and blood of Christ so he can suffer crucifixion over and over again at every mass. This sacrament of the Catholic church diminishes the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior and turns Jesus into a cookie. It isn’t scriptural and offends Almighty God. Woe to anyone who steals God’s glory and usurps his power. You and I will be there on the last day when these false prophets stand before God for judgment. They will be shocked when the angel of God grabs them and throws them into the lake of fire.

John 8:44 – (Jesus speaking) – You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

The first murder in human history was when Satan incited Cain to kill his brother Abel. Most, if not all, murders throughout history since then have been incited by Satan because he is evil and he hates our guts. Satan laughs in hell every time he convinces someone to take their own life and join him. When God says Satan doesn’t stand in the truth he is referring to Satan sinning in heaven and being expelled as a result because no sin is allowed in heaven. Satan is the father of lies because he spoke the first lie to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden causing their fall.

John 11:17 – So when Jesus came, He found that he (Lazarus) had already been in the tomb four days.

Jesus heard Lazarus was sick in plenty of time to get there but he waited until Lazarus was dead and buried for four days so he could raise him from the dead to the glory of God the Father and the Son. Old Testament Jews believed a person’s spirit could linger around the body for up to three days and reenter the body to bring them back to life. By the fourth day the human body starts to decay and the spirit cannot reenter it. After four days the Jews believed only God could raise someone from the dead therefore Jesus waited four days before raising Lazarus from the dead to prove he was God in the flesh.

Psalm 34:15 – The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears open to their cry.

Psalm 145:19 – He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.

God doesn’t listen to sinners. If you want God’s help with anything your requests are falling on deaf ears until you become a child of the Most High God by putting your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. God makes it very simple to enter heaven but you must believe and you must act of your own free will. The eternal destination of your soul hangs in the balance. Don’t blow it!

The gospel of John was written much later than the three synoptic gospels. Instead of focusing on the life of Jesus the book of John focuses on the deity of Jesus and the preexistence of Christ. John makes sure his gospel contains information about Jesus that the other writers failed to mention which may be why over 90% of the material in John is new and covered nowhere else. John contains many lengthy discourses where Jesus is teaching his disciples about the kingdom of God. The Apostle John is easily the most spiritually perceptive of the gospel writers, probably because the Holy Spirit was very active in John’s life from a teenager and John was an old man when he wrote his gospel.

John 1:30 -This is He of whom I said, after me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.

John 14:9 – (Jesus speaking) – He who has seen Me has seen the Father.

Job 9:8 – He alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.

John 6:19 – So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.

Most people assume Genesis is the oldest book in the Bible because it comes first and because Moses wrote it in the Sinai wilderness around 1400 BC. The book of Job is actually the first book of the Bible to be written. Job was probably written around 2100 BC but it could have been written as early as 2600 BC, making Job at least 700 years older than Genesis. I’ve already mentioned that Old Testament Jews associated God with the one who could still the wind and calm the raging sea. There’s one other thing God does according to the Old Testament and that’s walk on the sea. Everything Jesus said during his ministry was for a reason. Every act of Jesus had a purpose and obviously stilling the wind, calming the sea and walking on water were all intended to prove to the Jews and everyone else that Jesus was God in the flesh. Jesus said he was God and did things only God could do and still the Jews rejected him as the promised Messiah, the King of Israel.

John 6:29 – (Jesus speaking) – This is the work of God, that you believe in Him (Jesus) whom He (God) sent.

John 11:25-26 – (Jesus speaking) – I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

On this earth believers are to witness for Christ and do good works because God commands us to do so. For this we receive treasure in heaven. The only “work” actually required by God for our salvation is faith in Jesus Christ. The only way to become a child of God is through faith in Jesus. Eternal life begins the moment a person puts their faith in Jesus. If we’ve done what God asks of us for our gift of salvation then we’re in the book of life and scripture tells us we cannot be taken out of God’s hands. We’re forever in God’s loving embrace. Trust in God and the truth of God’s Word and let the peace of God reign in your life.

Each gospel has its own set of Bible stories, some of which are also mentioned in other gospels. When this happens I like to compare the different versions to see if additional information is provided. That’s the case with the twelve year old girl Jesus raised from the dead. In Mark 5:35-40, we learn the girl’s father was the ruler of the local synagogue where Jesus was preaching and he came to Jesus to ask him to heal his sick daughter and before they reached his house he found out she had already died. Jesus told the man his daughter was not dead, but sleeping. When Jesus entered the girl’s room he took her by the hand and called, saying, “Little girl, arise.” The girl immediately arose and was well. In Luke’s version he gives us two extra bits of information that Mark left out. First, Luke names the ruler of the synagogue as Jairus. Second, Luke tells us how the twelve year old girl was brought back to life. The girl’s spirit returned to her and reentered her body.

Luke 8:55 – Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately.

We know that God gives each person an eternal spirit at conception, a part of himself. We know that the Bible says a dead body is unclean. At the moment of death our spirit must come out of the corpse. It’s a spiritual law of the kingdom of God. Our spirit is literally expelled from our bodies and if we’re indwelt by the Holy Spirit he leaves as well. Ancient Jewish tradition holds that a person’s spirit remains close to the body for up to three days hoping to reenter the body and only leaves when it sees the body start to decay. God owns our spirit and it goes back to him for disposition. At death our spirit goes to one of two destinations, to hell or to paradise within the earth, in this instance, since it was before the death of Christ. After the death of Christ the spirit of all believers go straight to heaven. What we don’t know is the timeline for spirits to depart. How long can a spirit hang around the body it just came out of? Must the spirit leave immediately? We don’t know.

In Luke 8:55, we can surmise the girl had a spirit and it departed her body when she physically died. Since the girl’s spirit is eternal it therefore had no choice but to leave her body. The girl only came back to life because her spirit returned to her. Of course we know Jesus summoned the spirit with his, “voice of authority,” and had it reenter the girl which brought her back to life. No spirit, no life. No life, no spirit. If you’re alive your heart is still beating and your spirit is still in you. We don’t have any live zombies walking around with no spirit like the “walking dead” movies. This story is just more proof of what of what we already know. We all have an eternal spirit that belongs to God and one day it’ll return to God. We’ve all heard the stories of near death experiences where people briefly die and are brought back to life and they say they were temporarily out of the body watching everything go go on around them. I don’t know whether to believe that or not. It sounds reasonable. What I do believe is our spirit will never leave our bodies as long as there is any chance we might live. It’s all part of the same spiritual law God has established for our lives.

Luke 22:2-4 – And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him (Jesus), for they feared the people. Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.

Luke and John both record the betrayal of Jesus at the hands of Judas by telling us that Judas was indwelt by Satan himself at the time of Jesus’ betrayal. The devil normally leaves the indwelling of human beings to his underlings but in this instance he wanted to personally be the one to betray Jesus and ensure his crucifixion. The only other instance in the Bible where we are told Satan indwells someone is the antichrist during the tribulation.

Luke was a Gentile writing his gospel for the Gentiles. Luke was not an eyewitness to the life of Jesus but he was a believer and disciple of the Apostle Paul. Luke accompanied Paul on some of his missionary trips and therefore knew what Paul knew about Jesus. Luke is the Sherlock Holmes of the New Testament. This spiritual detective knew and interviewed all the people closely associated with Jesus. Luke spoke with Mary, the mother of Jesus, along with Jesus’ brothers James and Jude. Luke spoke at length with all of the disciples of Jesus who were still living. There were many people alive during the first century who had witnessed the miracles and teachings of Jesus and Luke talked to many of them as he researched the facts of Jesus’ life. As a third party investigator Luke didn’t have a dog in the fight. Luke had no agenda other than to follow where the facts led him. For that reason, Luke’s gospel makes the most compelling case for the historical accuracy of the facts about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Based on the evidence found, Luke established with theological clarity that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world to save us from our sins.

Genesis 12:1-3 – Now the Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

When God says something more than once in a verse or approximate verses it’s important. The fact that God said the word “bless” five times in the three verses above means it’s extremely important for us to understand. God is blessing Abram (who God renamed Abraham) and the nation he will create (Israel). God is also blessing the rest of the world (Gentiles) through Abraham. God fulfills this prophecy through his Son, Jesus Christ, who is also a descendant of Abraham, through whom we have forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven. You need to understand the above verses are a covenant between Abraham and God. A covenant is an oath, a promise, between two parties. In this instance God is only holding himself responsible for keeping the covenant and God cannot lie. If God were to break his covenant he would not be God and God’s Word would not be the truth. If God ever broke his word Christianity itself would fall. That won’t happen because God is ever faithful.

I mention these verses to remind people we Gentiles owe our salvation to the Jews and therefore we should show our love and respect to the Jewish people because of this. Throughout history God has punished Israel for disobedience but he hasn’t abandoned her as some church leaders would have us believe. We are in the time of the Gentiles (church age) right now because Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Israel is still the apple of God’s eye and under his protection. If you want proof look at history. No matter how much Jews are persecuted they continue to prosper. Israel has been attacked numerous times by vastly superior Arab armies and each time Israel prevailed because God fights for Israel.

Luke 1:68-75 – Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets. Who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham:

To grant us that we , being delivered from the hand of our enemies , might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.

Church leaders must not be reading the same gospel I am. The above prophecy was made three months before the birth of Christ by the priest Zacharias, who was filled with the Holy Spirit. In the prophecy God makes it clear that Jesus is the horn of salvation and Israel will serve God during the millennium and in heaven forever. The book of Revelation says in the end times at the battle of Armageddon Jesus will set foot on the Mount of Olives to defeat the nations surrounding Jerusalem and he will save a remnant of Israel. The point is, we are to love Israel and the Jewish people. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is now and always will be a Jewish Rabbi. All the Jewish patriarchs and important disciples of Jesus will have prominent positions in heaven. If Jews are going to be prominent in heaven and running the show it’s a good idea to show our love and respect for Jews down here.

In eternity past we know God made an innumerable number of angels all at one time and God isn’t making any more. God created the angels to serve him in heaven. Why does God require so many? How many angels does it take to serve the throne of God? The Bible doesn’t tell us explicitly but God’s Word does make numerous references to believers having guardian angels. There are approximately 2.5 billion people in the world today who profess to be Christians. Let’s say 40% or one billion Christians have actually been saved unto eternal life. One billion is still a lot of guardian angels if every believer gets one.

Don’t forget, the top angel in heaven (Satan) once rebelled against God along with one third of the angels. There was war in heaven and after the fallen angels were defeated they were thrown to earth. These fallen angels are now referred to as demons and their sole purpose is the destruction of man. If it weren’t for the demons bent on our destruction we wouldn’t need angels to protect us. The point is, God is the author of history and he made the exact number of angels he would need, no more and no less. God knew how many angels would fall and how many saints would need protecting. Sometimes you have to take what you know to be true and work backwards to fill in the blanks where information is lacking.

Psalm 91:11 – For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.

Psalm 34:7 – The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.

Matthew 4:6 – He shall give His angels charge over you.

Luke 4:10 – For it is written: He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you.

Matthew 18:10 – (Jesus speaking) – Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones (children), for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

Hebrews 12:22 – But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels.

God makes it clear in the above scriptures that he assigns guardian angels to all believers. God didn’t say he might. God said he “shall,” which is a promise God cannot break. When God says, “charge over you.” he means specific angels have been assigned to you for your protection. Think of it as a heavenly Secret Service detail. When we get to heaven we’ll be introduced to our guardian angel and he’ll be our special friend for eternity. When God says to, “keep you,” he means to protect you. In heaven we’ll be amazed at the number of times we were kept from harm by our guardian angel and didn’t even know it.

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Psalm 106:1 – Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Romans 11:33 – Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

Psalm 31:15 – My times are in Your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

I know bad things happen to good people and some Christians are tragically killed. Why weren’t they protected from harm? I don’t have the answer. God is unfathomable as scripture reminds us. We don’t know why God does the things he does so we just need to accept it as God’s will. Focus on what we know and accept everything else by faith. God has a plan for our lives and a reason for everything he does. God is good and he means us no harm. In fact, God works everything to our benefit as the Bible reminds us.

Psalm 18:30 – As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

Luke 16:22 – (Jesus speaking) – So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.

The above verse is from Jesus’ parable about the beggar and the rich man. The rich man died and went to hades (hell) within the earth where he was in constant pain and agony. The beggar died and went to paradise within the earth, also known as Abrahams’s bosom. This was where all the righteous saints went when they died before the time of Christ. If you remember, while Jesus was three days in the earth he went down to paradise and escorted the saints to heaven because he had paid for their sins on the cross. Any believer dying after the crucifixion of Jesus goes directly to heaven upon his or her death. My point is this, if angels were responsible for carrying the spirit of the beggar to paradise then that means angels will escort all souls to heaven. The beggar’s death wasn’t an exception or a special case. God doesn’t have multiple paths for a spirit to reach heaven; only one.

God always has a reason for any information he places in the Bible and I believe God wants us to know from this parable how we get to heaven so we’re comforted by that knowledge. Does our spirit know the way to heaven on its own? I doubt it. Is our spirit beamed up to heaven like on Star Trek? I don’t think so. This verse tells me our guardian angel, who is on duty protecting us anyway, will be the one who escorts us to heaven to meet Jesus. It wouldn’t make sense for any other angel to do it since our special angel may have been with us for many years protecting us and he’ll know us so well. To my simple mind this makes perfect sense to me. If that’s true could the opposite also be true? If someone dies in their sin who takes them to hell? If believers are escorted to heaven it makes sense nonbelievers are also escorted to hell. If angels escort believers to heaven then demons have to be the ones escorting the unsaved to hell. Who else is there?

Lost souls certainly wouldn’t go to hell voluntarily or on their own even if they knew the way. Could the millions of demons be here on earth, in part, to escort the eternal spirits of the unsaved dead directly to hell to meet Satan in person? Or do demons already in the pit come up to drag the spirits of the condemned back to hell like in the movie “Ghost?” We don’t know for sure. Those who don’t accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will find out when they die. All of us are only a heartbeat away from our eternal destination either way. I’m at peace because I know where I’m going but are you sure? It’s a chilling thought to consider if you’re not saved because you must be right about this. Eternity is a very long time. Make sure your spirit is securely in God’s hands.

Isaiah 45:22 – Look to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

People ask me, “Is God really going to send the Jews, his chosen people, to hell?” My answer is, “absolutely.” Let me be clear. Any person, Jew or Gentile, living after the death of Jesus Christ who does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came down from heaven to die on the cross for our sins will not see eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior then their sins still abide on them. Their sins haven’t been forgiven. One of the spiritual laws of the kingdom of God is the wages of sin is death. Jesus paid our sin debt when he died in our place so we wouldn’t have to die.

Our God is holy and just. For anyone who dies in their sin a just God will condemn them to eternal spiritual death in hell and the lake of fire. There are believing Jews who have salvation but the majority of Jews from then until now view Jesus as nothing more than a Jewish prophet and not the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. For the last 2000 years all these Jews who have died without believing in Jesus Christ have gone to hell. I know that may sound harsh but when it comes to salvation God doesn’t mince his words. God doesn’t bend the rules or play favorites. The good news is a Jewish remnant will be saved on the last day and those Jews will enter heaven as God’s chosen people to join all the righteous Jews who lived before Christ.

Matthew 8:11 – (Jesus speaking) – And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 8:12 – (Jesus speaking) – But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

You can see from Matthew 8:11, that Jew and Gentile get to heaven the same way and are treated equally in heaven. God loves Jews and Gentiles the same. God made both. By the same token, Matthew 8:12, makes it clear nonbelieving Jews are sent to hell when they die. “Sons of the kingdom,” is an Old Testament reference to Jews to whom the kingdom of God was originally promised but who will be excluded because they reject Jesus. “Outer darkness” is a metaphor for damnation in ancient Jewish texts. All Jews know that means going to hell. If there was ever any doubt, “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” is Old Testament Jewish terminology that denotes the anguish expressed by those unfortunate souls who suffer eternal torment in hell. God’s original plan was salvation for the Jew first, then the Gentile. The Jews were jealous of their God and thought he was for them alone.

Matthew 10:40-42 – (Jesus speaking) – He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.

I’m always on the lookout for heavenly rewards I can earn while on this earth. There’s no shame in that. The Apostle Paul said we should all strive for heavenly rewards. We don’t know what those rewards will be but God doesn’t give junk. Doing good works and especially witnessing for Christ are the primary ways to receive rewards in heaven. Note in Matthew 10:40-42, Jesus is saying anyone who helps a fellow persecuted Christian it will be like helping Jesus himself. I include helping Jews in that category. Jesus says we will be rewarded for our compassion as if the person were a prophet of God. We should always act justly because it’s the right thing to do and if we’re also rewarded for it so much the better.

Did you know God gives his blessing to every believer who reads or hears the words contained in the book of Revelation? Every time you read Revelation you get a blessing from God. How great is that! No other book in the Bible can make that claim. I think it’s a good idea to read Revelation regularly to keep those blessings coming. God wants us to know what’s coming in the end times, which are almost upon us, so we’ll be prepared and watch for the coming of Jesus.

Revelation 1:3 – Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

One of the things that stand out to me when I read the gospels is Jesus picking his disciples. The gospels record six of the disciples being recruited by Jesus with two words, “follow me.” I assume the rest of the twelve were chosen in like manner. I find it odd that they didn’t ask “why” or say, “give me more information.” The disciples didn’t say, “let me go tie up loose ends at home before I join you.” These were prosperous men who owned businesses; wealthy men with homes and families and they dropped everything immediately and went off following a stranger who said two words to them. The Bible doesn’t explain why but it’s not a natural reaction for one person let alone twelve. The fact that all twelve disciples immediately obeyed Jesus’ command is another proof Jesus is God. The disciples may not have even understood themselves why they immediately obeyed.

When Jesus speaks with his, “voice of authority,” all of creation obeys the commands of Almighty God. Some people don’t realize it was actually Jesus Christ who spoke creation into existence and not God the Father. Jesus is the Creator of all things and when he chooses to use his, “voice of authority,” all creation obeys. The heavens, nature, man, everything is subject to God’s authority. Things that are alive, dead or inanimate, it makes no difference. The Bible says nothing is impossible with God. If we had been alive in Jesus’ day and he called us to be disciples we would have obeyed the same way. We wouldn’t have a choice just like the disciples didn’t have a choice. The twelve were compelled to discipleship by God’s, “voice of authority.” The disciples were blessed by God because they were chosen to serve him.

Matthew 4:19 – Then He (Jesus) said to them (Simon and Andrew), “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Matthew 4:21-22 – Going on from there, He (Jesus) saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them and immediately they left the boat and their father. and followed Him.

Matthew 9:9 – As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.

John 1:43 – The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Phillip and said to him, “Follow Me.”

In Matthew we see Jesus rebuke the wind and it is stilled. We see Jesus calm the raging waters of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus condemns a fig tree and it withered before his eyes. This was all done to prove to the Jews that Jesus is God. The Israelites of the Old Testament associated God with the one who could control the wind and the sea and everything in nature so the actions of Jesus was proof to the Jews that Jesus is God.

Matthew 8:26 – Then He (Jesus) arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Matthew 21:19 – And seeing a fig tree by the road, He (Jesus) came to it and found nothing on it but its leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

On the last day, when Jesus comes from heaven with his angels and sets foot on the Mount of Olives he will destroy the armies of the world coming against Israel at the battle of Armageddon. In my wild imagination I expected Jesus to hurl lightning bolts at the enemy and rain down fire from heaven. I expected Jesus to cause earthquakes that would swallow up whole armies. The reality is Jesus will destroy the armies of the world arrayed against him by using his spoken word, the same way Jesus caused the creation of the universe. There is nothing more powerful in this world than God’s, “voice of authority.” We’ll be with Jesus and see all these events unfold.

Isaiah 43:13 – From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do.

Revelation 19:15 – Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.