Call 9-1-1 in the Bible: An Uplifting Commentary on Psalm 91

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Psalm 91:1 (and the rest of Psalm 91) Is the Biblical 9-1-1 to Call in Our Time of Trouble

Psalms 91:1, Secret. Heb. cether means “covering, shelter, hiding place, secrecy,” and is from the root word meaning “to hide, conceal.” When troubles comes our way like a tidal wave, the natural human reaction is to stand and fight or to flee in fear. In psychology this is known as the fight or flight response. There is a time to fight, but at all times we need to be hiding in the secret place of our relationship with our Almighty Father in heaven, to which the latter part of this verse alludes. Out of that place, and from under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty and in his throne room, we will not be cowering in fear from our enemies, but we will find the courage, will and stamina to stand firm in faith, and, if necessary, to come out and to fight the enemy not in our own strength, but in that of Elohim as led and guided by his Spirit.

Abide. Heb. luwn means “to lodge, stop over, pass the night or abide.” A lodge is a place where one temporarily spends the night. When dark times come our way, we need to stop over, spend the night, run to and abide in the throne room of the Almighty! This speaks of prayer, worship, praise and studying his Word.

Psalms 91:1, 4, Under the shadow of the Almighty…under his wings. According to the ancient Jewish sages, Moses composed this psalm for the tribe of Levi who dwelt under the shadow of the wings of cherubim that stood over the ark of the covenant in the Tabernacle of Moses—a physical representation of YHVH’s throne room in heaven. The sages go on to explain that the psalmist describes the devout man of faith who lives with Elohim in his heart, and who never leaves Elohim’s shadow. Such a man is a true biblical hero of faith to whom Elohim pledges (v. 16) he will satisfy with long life and show him his salvation (The ArtScroll Tanach Series Tehillim/Psalms Commentary on Ps 91). This psalm ends with the promise of the blessing of long life to those love and serve YHVH, and beyond that, salvation, which is the Hebrew word Yeshua—the very name of the coming Messiah who would offer his people deliverance from the ultimate enemy, namely sin and its death penalty. The result of this deliverance is the glorious divine gift of eternal life through faith in Yeshua the Messiah—the supreme gift and blessing of all! This psalm is a prophecy pointing to the Messiah.

In Jewish understanding, the Tabernacle of Moses wasn’t complete until the glory of YHVH’s presence took residence in the tabernacle’s inner chamber, the holy of holies. This was evidence that YHVH was making this habitation his own in a most intimate way. How was it possible, they ask, for the Creator of the universe to inhabit a mere tent? They explain that he focused his presence into this tiny spot. This isn’t unlike a magnifying glass that reflects the suns rays into a small but focused point on a piece of wood or paper. Were the earth closer to the sun, it would be burned up. Yet the sun’s light can be brought to the earth in a concentrated form that will not cause harm. This is exactly what Elohim did when he incarnated Yeshua into the womb of Mary. The sages had the understanding that the holy of holies is a picture of man’s heart that the Creator wants to indwell, which is the most sacred sanctuary of all.

The conception and birth of Yeshua was the fulfillment of this prophecy. The fire of the Set-Apart Spirit that came down upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 was a fulfillment of this desire of YHVH of which the fiery glory cloud that dwelt in and over the Tabernacle of Moses was a prophetic portent. Yeshua promised his disciples that through this same divine fire he would dwell in their hearts after his death, resurrection and ascension. The result of this divine encounter of Elohim with those in the upper room resulted in many repenting of their sins and coming to faith in Yeshua the Messiah (Acts 2:38–41), which is the greater message of Psalm 91.

Psalms 91:3, Snare of the fowler. This is literally referring to a bird trap and the trapper. In ancient times, birds were trapped and used for food. This could be a poetic picture of Satan and his demons who fly through the air searching for human prey. A biblical example Continue reading →

 

Are We Experiencing a Leftist Revolution in America? (part 2)

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The raised Antichrist, secular humanist fist of rebellion and defiance against YHVH Elohim

Way back on March 18, 2003 when I had a weekly Hebrew roots teaching program on Christian radio station KKPZ, I put out what I called “A Wake Up Call to the Body of Messiah in America.” That small radio station in Portland, Oregon wasn’t much of a platform to put out such a message, but I used the meager resources YHVH had put at my disposal at that time.

In that message I said,

A righteous remnant of end time spiritual warriors has been fighting an uphill battle against immorality, abortion, rebellion against YHVH’s biblical laws, humanism, Marxism/socialism, Eastern “spirituality”/New Age, and the global takeover by a consortium of political and corporate fascists commonly called the New World Order or biblically known as Babylon the Great. The latest addition to this list is the Antichrist religion of Islam and antisemitism. Both are presently raising their demonic heads in the traditional Judeo-Christian nations of Europe and America. Islam began knocking on the spiritual door of America a few decades ago, and now because of the large numbers of Moslems in this country, Islam has become a threat worth noting. The goal of Islam is definite, for the Koran states it clearly: to take over the world and to dispossess both Christians and Jews of their lands, property and, if necessary, their lives.

As a nation, we find ourselves in this situation because we turned our back on Elohim, and have failed to repent of the sins. Now the judgment of Islam and along with the illegal alien invasion is coming against us (as allowed by Elohim) to hopefully wake us up and drive us to our knees before our Father in heaven. These curses are coming against America because of its moral and spiritual weakness. Like biological pathogens, these threats to America are feeding on the physical and spiritual body politic of this nation because its spiritual immune system has been seriously compromised due to moral and spiritual declension due to its weak, hireling and apostate spiritual leaders.

I then went on to issue a wake up call to America’s Christian leaders and laity, and I identified the specific sins that would bring Elohim’s judgment on America.

Then in September 2007 at our annual Feast of Tabernacles gathering on the southern Oregon coast before about 120 people, I gave out my teaching entitled, “Is America in End-Time Bible Prophecy? What Scripture Prophesies Will Happen to America Economically, Politically, Militarily and Spiritually Just Prior to the Second Coming.” In that teaching, the written form of which I published and has been on the front page of our ministry website ever since (https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/america.pdf), I warned and predicted that Edom (the Moslems) and its Marxists, leftist sympathizers and allies would attempt to take over America because of apostasy and lukewarmness in the Christian church. I predicted, based on my understanding of the Scriptures, that Elohim would use Edom/Islam et al as a giant paddle to spank America (and other western formerly Christian nations as well) for turning away from him. These would be judgments unto repentance. Most, I predicted would remain asleep, but some would wake up spiritually and that there would be a small, remnant spiritual revival, to one degree or another. I even predicted, again based on my understanding of the Scriptures, that, on a limited scale, there might even be some nuclear bombs that would be lobbed into the U.S. by its Edomite enemies or their allies. This was well before nations like Iran and North Korea had the atomic bomb! At this time, Hillary Clinton was running for president against the relatively unknown Barak Hussein Obama. It looked as if Clinton would definitely win the Democratic Party nomination and go on to become the president of the U.S. In my teaching at the Feast of Tabernacles, I predicted that if Obama  won (a long shot), it would fulfill Bible prophecy, since Edom would now be in the White House as a judgment against backslid “Christian America.” Well, Obama did win, and the rest, as they say, is history. Now the predominant daily headlines in the news either pertains to LGBTQ or Moslem Continue reading →

 

Are We Experiencing a Leftist Revolution in America?

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Are we currently witnessing a leftist revolution to take over America? If so, is this part of YHVH’s judgment against the United States for turning away from him spiritually? If so, what must we as the body of Yeshua do to prepare for the events to unfold and the new America that will emerge subsequent to this revolution?

I don’t use the term revolution flippantly. As an ardent student of history for 50 years, I have studied, in depth, several revolutions where societal minorities eventually gained power and influence and up-ended a nations social structure fundamentally changing them forever. This especially includes the American, French, Soviet, Fascist-Nazi, Chinese and Cuban revolutions.

There are revolutions that have had moral, Christian principles, more or less, driving them like the American Revolution. Then there are those revolutions that have been motivated by hatred of biblical values like the other revolutions mentioned. If a revolution is presently happening in America, its provocateurs are certainly not being motivated by a love for Elohim or the Bible—quite the contrary!

In the past, revolutions have been driven forward by small bands of rabble rousing agents of strife. Now they’re called community organizers. These thugs work overtime to stir up conflict between people, causing division and animus between various segments of society, and then use the conflict to their advantage to further the goals of their revolution.

The promulgation of propaganda plays a major role in revolutions. Many, if not most, of our major media outlets are pumping out much fake news, propaganda, innuendo, assumptions, biased opinions or even attempting to create news and calling it news in an attempt to sway public opinion toward the left. I can tell you as a former journalist (I studied journalism in high school and at two universities and was a reporter-writer for six newspapers including Oregon’s largest daily for a brief time), what passes for news today is, to a large degree, anything but fair, balanced and unbiased journalism as we were taught in J-school in my day.

Add to this the bands of masked street thug agitators (remember Hitler’s SA and Brown Shirts, the Bolsheviks, and let’s not forget about the French Revolution’s Committee for Public Safety that helped to enforce that revolution’s Reign of Terror where tens of thousands were murdered?) inciting riots and promoting violence, which is prevalent in all revolutions. Furthermore, who can not see the left pulling out all the stops to discredit and then to topple the presidency of of the US? How about the stifling of free speech (anything that doesn’t agree with the left is called hate speech) including the rewriting of history (toppling of statues—the modern day version of book burning). I could go on.

In all the revolutions mentioned above, a small minority of idealogues backed by their street thug enforcers with the help of the propagandists were successful in slowly and subversively turning the ship of state in their direction and then  commandeering it entirely. This is a matter of historical record. The nations the leftists have taken over have never been the same since. With the exception of the American Revolution, every one has been driving by a satanic spirit of Antichrist and has been the enemy of the church.

In the article I wrote about ten years ago entitled, “Is America in End-Times Bible Prophecy?” (https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/america.pdf), I predicted, based on my study of Bible prophecy, that a revolution would happen in America (and other western, formally Christian, nations) prior to the second coming of the Messiah. These events would be a result of our turning our back on Elohim and his Word—the Bible. This would be the Almighty spanking us spiritually to bring us back to him. I even foresaw the hand of Edom—the Islamists—role in this. Moreover, a couple years ago, I made a video saying that the Islamization of America and the West is Elohim’s judgment against the apostate church. Not only is Islam at the forefront of the move to revolutionize America (and the West), but the left has joined forces with Edom against anything that remains of Christianity in our nation. My predictions seemed far-fetched ten years ago, but not so now.

About four years ago, I made a video that predicted that the remnant church in America would be driven underground because of persecution. (I’ll put a link to it below.) That may have seemed like a far-fetched idea then, but not so much now.

America and the west is so asleep—if not dead spiritually (and this includes the church)—that only the greatest of persecutions will shock it out of its death sleep. Is it beginning to happen in front of our eyes? I’m wondering.

The great and innumerable multitude of Revelations 7:14 that comes out of the Great Tribulation has to come from somewhere! Am I saying that American and the West will have a major spiritual revival? Not exactly, but there will be those who will awaken spiritually out of it as a result. Perhaps this is the trial by fire that Yeshua refers to that the lukewarm believers of Laodicea have to go through to help awaken them spiritually (Rev 3:18).

If what I’m suggesting is true, this begs the question: So what’s next? What must we do to prepare?

You tell me. This watchman has been standing shouting on the wall for years to prepare in every way possible. What more is there to say?

This I know. As Winston Churchill said at the beginning of Britain’s war against Germany in his first speech to parliament in June, 1940 in his famous, “This was their finest hour” speech, will this be our finest hour?

Part of me wants to take my family and flee to Alaska and camp out when the you-know-what hits the fan. That’s the flesh in me. The spirit man in me realizes that faith must rise up. To live is Messiah; to die is gain, as Paul said. We must not love our lives unto death, as Yeshua said in Revelation 12. The gospel message is the thing the forces of Satan hate the most, and it’s our greatest weapon. Now is the time to get armed and dangerous for Yeshua! Now is the time to begin to pray for emboldened faith and to prepare our hearts and minds to be preachers of the gospel. You say “No I can’t.” I say, “Yes you can through Yeshua who will strengthen you and through whom all things are possible—the One who takes our weaknesses and turns them into strengths.” Your survival will depend on it! So now is the time for us all to gird up our loins and focus on Yeshua like never before and on becoming a dangerous and radical disciple—something we should have been doing all along anyway.

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 8-13 Through 8-19-17

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THIS WEEK’S SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

Parashat Re’eh — Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17
Haftarah — Isaiah 54:11 – 55:5
Prophets — Ezekiel 44:1 – 48:35; Hosea 1:1 – 2:23
Writings — 1 Chronicles 9:1 – 15:29
Testimony — 1 Thessalonians 2:1 – 5:28; 2 Thessalonians 1:1 – 3:18

Our full Scripture Reading Schedule for 2016-2017 is available to download and print.

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link below.

The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day. One each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle..

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 8/13/17 through 8/19/17.

 

Is Satan Elohim’s Archenemy or Not?

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I recently received a comment on this blog from a noted rabbinic Jewish apologist who doesn’t believe that Yeshua is the Messiah. He very politely took exception with my viewpoint (and that of the New Testament writers and Yeshua himself) that Satan is a major player in the affairs of men and that he is Elohim’s major end-times antagonist. This is, apparently, the viewpoint of modern rabbinic Judaism, which the commenter promotes.

Without trying to be offensive to this esteemed commenter, I must say that if the devil can get us largely to ignore him and his role in the promotion of evil in the end times, then he has gained a great victory over humanity. 

Now here is my response.   Natan

On this blog, we’re neither partial to nor attempt to promote either mainstream Christian or Rabbinic Jewish viewpoints; we endeavor, rather, to promote the truth as divinely revealed in the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.

Rabbinic Judaism is as divergent from second temple Judaism as modern era Christianity is from the religion of the disciples of Yeshua the Messiah as chronicled in the New Testament apostolic writings.

The same is true with regard to the more modern concept of rabbinic Jewish thought on the nature and work of haSatan as being more a force (the Yetzar Ra) than a personage. Indeed, the Tanakh has a broad view on the concept of “the adversary” or haSatan. On this we agree. But this view in no way precludes a literal personage by that name (which you admit), who is a major antagonist to Elohim (which you don’t admit). According to my research, this latter aspect of Satan’s role was widely accepted among second temple Jewish authors (for example, see Wikipedia’s article on “Satan”) as evidenced by many Jewish Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal writers, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the LXX Jewish translators. Even the Gospels record that the Pharisees (the antecedents and spiritual forefathers of the modern rabbinic Jews), as did Yeshua, acknowledged the personality of Satan (Matthew 12:24–26 cp. Luke 11:14–18).

Furthermore, numerous New Testament passages acknowledge not only the personality of Satan, but his major opposition to Elohim. In fact, Yeshua even calls Satan “the ruler of this world” (John 16:11; 12:31). Elsewhere, Paul calls him “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), whom we learn that Yeshua the Messiah will destroy him at his second coming (1 John 3:8; cp. Revelation 12:7-10; 20:2-10). We could go on.

The main point here is that the Christian view (obviously minus its fantastical “devil” caricaturizations) of the personage and work of haSatan seems to be closer to normative Jewish second temple thought than is modern Talmudic rabbinic Judaism. Again, many examples could be given from second temple era Jewish literature, which viewed Satan not only as the instigator of sin at the tree of knowledge, but, even more importantly, was behind the demonic incursion (i.e. the nephilim led by Azazel at Mount Hermon) into the affairs of men in the antediluvian world thus precipitating Elohim’s flood judgment. The pre-rabbinic second temple era writers and New Testament apostolic writers make numerous references to Satan and his minions’ incursion at Mount Hermon as recorded in Genesis 6:2–6 as the source of the major evil that has fallen on this world and allude to the idea that divine judgments will be meted out against Satan, his fallen angels, demons and those humans that have sided with him in the last days (a major theme of the Book of Revelation) as precursor events leading up to the final redemption of Israel and the Messianic Era. May this day come soon! Amein!!

So we will have to agree to disagree on the point that the person of Satan is not a major player in the world of evil who Elohim will defeat. Divine scriptural revelation and ancient Jewish second temple documents just don’t seem to validate this viewpoint according to my research.

 

Shabbat Shalom…Back from Hells Canyon Jet Boat Trip

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Yesterday, Sandi and I returned yesterday from a 64 mile (round trip) jet boat trip up North America’s deepest canyon (8000 feet deep—yes, it’s substantially deeper than the Grand Canyon and almost as wide) on the Snake River in Hells Canyon on the border between Oregon and Idaho. It has many class 3 to 4 rapids!

Here are several photos.

Stay tuned for the video.

YHVH’s outdoor wonders never cease to amaze me and I’ve seen a lot!

Having a biblical worldview and a faith in YHVH Elohim only heightens the awe and wonder for the natural beauty, splendor and grandiosity of  nature. I can’t imagine that an evolutionist, atheist or agnostic person could even remotely experience the same joy, awe, wonderment and excitement that a person of faith has when beholding these spectacles as they realize that Elohim created this for our enjoyment as a testament of his great power and glory. It was a worshipful experience!