His Hair is Bushy and Black

21 April 2013

Dear Phyllis,

As I have said many times, I am concerned that there is a defect in much of our preaching. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up..., I will draw all men unto Me” (Jn 12:32). Of course He was referring to His Cross, but in a broader sense, I believe this also applies to our preaching. In view of this, five months ago I started a 12 message series describing the beauty of Jesus (Song of Sol 5:10-16). Today was my 5^th message. So far we have considered the purity of Christ – He is white. The humanity of Christ – He is ruddy. The conquest of Christ – He is the flag bearer. And the wisdom of Christ – His head is fine gold.

Today's message was easy – His hair is bushy and black. This verse used to bewilder me until I got in my 40s. Looking in the mirror I noticed streaks of white hair appearing. Then, in the back of my head, my skull got a little shinny. Today my hair is more white than gray and I am grateful for what little hair I have left. It doesn't require deep exegesis to explain what this verse means to us. By looking in the mirror my white, thin, hair tells the story. I am over the hill.

It is common for some men to experience mid-life crisis. From the cradle to their mid 30s everyone is striving for maturity. Young boys want to look like Mr. America, strong and handsome. Girls want to look like models. The day comes when they hit their peak, and then their body starts to go south. The first indication that it is all over is the hair. At a persons physical peak their hair is busy and black (Orientals). When the Bible tell us that Christ's hair is busy and black it clearly means He is still at His peak. It is significant that Christ's physical life stopped when He was 33. He could have lived like David, until He was 70, or like Moses, until He was 120. He could have lived a full life, and then give Himself as a ransom for our sins at the end. But the clock stopped for Christ when He was in His prime at 33. We know that His physical life did not totally terminate then, but He came back to life at the resurrection, and is now in heaven with His earthly body. That is; He took His earthly body back to heaven with Him. There, in eternity, the clock has stopped, and His physical Body is still unchanged. Or there is no decay in Jesus. There is no time that He was better than He is right now. Heb. 13:8 expresses it the best – “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever”.

Aging does two things for us. Physically, we can't do what we used to do when we were young. But, also, there is a personality change. It is generally true that the hills and valleys of a persons personality accentuate. Their strong points and weakness become more pronounced. Supposedly, wisdom increases with age, but sometimes there is a deterioration in character. Solomon was fantastic his youth, but a fool in his senior years. Joash was outstanding in his younger years, but became wicked in his elder (2 Ch. 24). In my early years I was the disciple of a man that I thought was the greatest Christian on earth. Unfortunately, this outstanding man of God became a hazard area when he got old. In retrospect it seems the damage he did to people was about equal to the spiritual good he ministered. There was another dear sister that I knew in Karuizawa who was the greatest soul winner I ever met. She is still the unchallenged #`1. But when she got in her 60s she turned into a difficult crank. Not a few men, in their waning years, have destroyed a very good structure they had established in their prime. This is one of the dangers that accompanies aging. With Christ there is no deterioration. There is no time when He was better than He is right now.

If someone wants to know what Jesus was like, we have only to read the gospels. The Lord has given us four different accounts, or views, of the life of Christ. We see in detail what He was like. That gives us a picture of what we can expect of Him today.

Luke starts out his narrative in Acts with a very significant statement. In Acts 1:1 he writes, “all that Jesus began to do and to teach”. In verse 2 he continues, “Until the day He was taken up, after that HE through the Holy Spirit...”. The same man wrote both accounts. In his gospel account, Luke wrote of the first 33 years of Jesus' life. Acts is the continuation of what Jesus continued to do through the Holy Spirit. It wasn't the physical body of Jesus that was outstanding. It was the Spirit that was in Him. It is the same Spirit that was in Jesus then that is here with us today.

I asked the folks what they would do if there was an announcement that Jesus Christ would be the guest speaker next Sunday. What do you think would happen? Or if Jesus came to Chiang Mai to spend six months doing dendo (evangelism). What do you think would happen? Answer. It would be the same response that we are getting today. If someone would come who was a miracle worker there would be large crowds. I was at a Kathryn Kuhlman meeting in Los Angeles where you couldn't get in if you weren't there two hours before they opened the door. Shriner's Auditorium held 12, 000 people, and it was filled the first 30 minutes after the doors were opened, leaving 4, 000 hysterical people in the parking lot going crazy trying to get in. We have seen large crowds at crusade rallies in America. Japan, and other places, where tens of thousands packed stadiums and thousands came forward. But six month later it was hard to find anyone who had been changed by the meetings. Jesus had large crowds, but, in the end, it boiled down to a few hundred. If Jesus came today there would be serious hostility to His message of loyalty to God. The pervert crowd would go bonkers, and do their best to have Him killed. We don't need to ask what would happen if Jesus was here – He is here now – by His Spirit.

I suggested that you might take the most exotic wine in the world, and put it in a gold goblet. Then take some of the same wine and pour it in a plastic bottle out of the garbage. It would still be the same wine inside. The vessel is different but the wine is the same. The problem is that the wine in the plastic bottle is diluted by something else. The Bible enjoins us to be filled with the Spirit. That is good when it happens, but unfortunately, in most cases, it is the Holy Spirit mixed with a heavy portion of self. It is pretty easy to see when a person is filled with the Spirit of Christ, or filled with themselves. When we do see Jesus in a brother (or sister), we see that it is still the same Jesus that waked those dusty roads 2, 000 years ago. He hasn't changed a bit.

It was difficult to talk to those folks today. There were a number of girls from Destiny Rescue that still are not saved. I broke down with frustration desperately trying to impress upon them there was such a wonderful savior who is so readily available to anyone who will reach out to make friends with Him. This same Jesus who was here 2, 000 years ago is here today, and can still do the same things now that He did then.

But then I spoke about the problem. There is no question about His being here, but why don't we experience Him more? The answer is that He operates in an unusual way. He operates only by invitation. He will not force Himself on anyone. He will knock and plead, but He will not violate their desire. The last message that we read of His discourse to the Seven Churches in Rev. 2 and 3, is His standing at the door calling to the church of Laodicea. He is standing on the outside knocking, pleading, “If any man hear My Voice, and open the door, I will come into Him...” (Rev. 3:20). I mentioned the famous picture of Jesus knocking at the door. Pastor Yora nodded his head when I spoke about that as he had seen that picture also. The point is; that there is no door handle on the outside. No doubt there are a lot of things Jesus would like to do for us, and things he could do for us, but He will not go beyond that which we request.

Then I spoke about one of the sadder stories in the Bible (Mk. 10:17-22). There was a lovely young man who had a great desire to speak with Jesus. We don't know the circumstance other than he caught Jesus in a semi-private way. The Bible says he came running and knelt down. You don't see that very often. Obviously, he was seriously concerned about eternity. The pressing issue was; “What shall I do to that I may inherit eternal life?” The Lord replied, “You know the commandments; Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor thy father and mother.” The boy answered, “All of these things I have kept from my youth. What lack I yet?” This was a very good boy. I told the girls this morning, “You can't say that.” “It is highly doubtful that any of you are morally pure. This boy had never had per-marital sex. I doubt that you can say that. Hopefully, none of you have killed anyone, but I doubt that you can say you never stole anything, or lied about anything. This boy was far better than you, and yet he knew he wasn't saved. If he wasn't good enough to get in heaven, it is a sure thing you are not going to make it.”

But then Jesus put his finger on the problem. He said, “One thing thou lackest.” This is usually the problem. It varies from person to person, but usually there is one thing that is standing in the way of salvation. In the case of this young man it was money. In some cases, it is a boy friend, a parent, a job, or just plain some sin that they don't want to quit. There is nothing wrong with money. There are a number of very wealth persons who are fine Christians. Being rich is not a bar to heaven. But when money gets a death grip on a person, it can strangle that soul so he can't get saved. The power of that has to be broken.

It was a great invitation that Jesus gave to that boy. “Take up your cross and follow Me” On another occasion, Jesus warned, Whosoever doth not bear his cross and follow Me, he cannot be My disciple (Lk. 14:27). Jesus wasn't trying to make it difficult for this young man. That just happens to be the only gate to salvation. There are two things about this story that are particularly melancholic. The first is that Jesus loved him. There was something about this young fellow that touched the heart of the Lord. It tells us what was in the heart of Christ. He really wanted to see him delivered and be saved. It was a sad moment for Jesus. And the tragedy of it all was when we read that this earnest seeker turned around and walked away sadly. There is no way that we can know whether or not this fellow ever got saved, but if he didn't, I am sure he has had time enough in hell to reflect on the disaster of that decision.

That is what we are up against today. Jesus hasn't changed a bit. His hair is still bushy and black. Jesus hasn't aged. He is still in His prime. He can still do anything today that he did 2, 000 years ago. His personality hasn't changed. He is still the patient, gracious, savior that the disciples knew in Galilee. He is still as available today to anyone who truly wants Him. There is still much He would like to do for us; but the handle on that valve is in our hearts.

We didn't see anyone saved this morning, but it is hard to imagine that the Word of God didn't go home to someones heart. Oh my goodness, if no one else got anything out if it, the Lord certainly spoke to me about the awesomeness that this same Jesus, in reality, is with us today. Lord help us to take hold of this with both hands, and walk softly before You.

bill

Who's Blessing Who?

14 April 2013


Dear Phyllis,
Song khron has hit Thailand again. This is the biggest holiday of the year. This is the Thai version of Japans obon matsuri. The big difference is that Japanese obon is when the dead come back once a year to have a festival with the living, and Thai song khron is more secular of a Buddhist virtue of younger showing respect to elders. But both the Japanese obon and the Thai song khron are the number one events of the year where the entire nation shuts down for a week. The US equivalent of that would be Christmas.


Technically song khron is a ceremony where the younger pour water on the hands of elders to show their respect. It started out by simply pouring water on the others persons hands, but it has degenerated into a huge national water fight. I know of nothing in the western world like it. A natural explanation for it is, that we are at the end of the annual dry season. We have just gone through a period of five months where there has been less than four days of rain. April is by far the hottest month of the year. Right now it is burning hot and dry every day. Supposedly it feels good to get doused with water. For five days every child in the country, and a lot of adults, will stand beside the road throwing buckets of water on every poor soul passing by. It is extremely dangerous on a motor bike. It is impossible to go any place in Thailand more than one kilo without getting drenched with water.


Recently the Lord has given us an unusual relationship with a high-class couple living in this muban (living area). Bancha is a PHD professor at Mae Jo University, and his wife, Boom, is an RN who has a school for Nurses assistants. She has her school right here about 300 meters from our house. I thought they were genuine seeker for salvation but it looks more like their interest is more for what they can get out of us. There are a number of things they want me to make for them, and and Boom wants me to teach English in her school.


A week ago they mentioned that they were going to have a special song khron meeting for Boom's school, and invited me to come as one of the dignitaries. I was a little leery as I am not too sure about this pouring water on someones hands. There certainly is nothing wrong with pouring water and showing respect, but it does have its roots in Buddhism. It was one of those gray area things that I am not sure what to do. Most Christians see nothing wrong with it, but some take a stand because of its Buddhist origin.


I am one of the extreme hard heads. I take a hard stand against anything shaded in Japan. One of the basic things with Japanese funerals is kenka (offering flowers). To me, that is black and white. The Japanese have a death fear of dead spirits. Two people can have a squall all their lives. But when one dies the other person is scared to death that the dead spirit will come back to bug them. To solve that problem, the surviving person goes to the funeral, and offers a flower to the dead persons spirit showing that they are sorry for all the bad things that they did while the other person was alive. Or in other words, “Please don't come back and bug me”. Astoundingly, this is commonly practiced at Christian funerals. I draw a line and refuse to offer a flower.


At New Years, the Japanese have their kado no matsu (corner pine tree). They put this decoration up for the dead spirits. The Japanese say, “No, it doesn't mean anything. It is just a New Years decoration just like your Christmas tree”. But the Japanese kado no matsu does have a significance for dead spirits. Because of that, for years I had refuse to allow a Christmas tree in our house. To me, it was impossible to speak against the Japanese kado no matsu when I had what they called the same thing standing in my house.


But song khron had me stumped. I asked Pastor Kichikun what he would do if he was invited to participate in a hand washing ceremony. He generally took a soft stand. The only place he would question it was if the water was special water bought from a temple that had a special blessing (curse) on it. But otherwise he saw nothing wrong with pouring water on someone, or letting them pour water on you. He advised, “If you want to keep your good relationship with this couple, it would be best not to insult them by not going”. Thursday afternoon I still hadn't made up my mind what to do when I got dressed and went to Boom's school.


They had the school fixed up appropriately, and had some tables with a lot of flowers on them. Of course all the students were there, and both Boom and her PHD husband. The only other dignitary that I met was a falang (foreign) looking elderly lady that was a close friend of Boom'. Her grandfather was from Denmark, and, because she was mixed blood, she said she had been a movie star in her younger years. If she had been a beauty , it had all gone south, and left very little but ashes behind. I was shocked when she told me that she was 20 years younger than me. At first she said she spook very little English, but then it came out that she had gone to school at Kansas University. I had a good time sharing Christ with her. She professed some leaning towards Christianity, but said she didn't have a visa for heaven, and didn't want one. I said, “Fine. Don't worry, you won't have to go to heaven. But if you want to get in later, they don't hand out visas on arrival at the gate. If you want to get in heaven you must have one before you leave here.”


But the water pouring ceremony was totally different from what I expected. Boom had told me that the students were going to pour water on my hands to show their respect to me as their elder – and probably their English teacher. Reality was the reverse. Shortly after I got there, someone came to me with a Buddhist necklace that I was supposed to wear. All the dignitaries had one. It was plain enough, but it looked Buddhist, so I refused to accept it. The thing that surprised me was that I had all the high cards. It wasn't a matter of my being concerned about offending them, but they were concerned that they didn't offend me. They were almost apologetic that the necklace had been offered.


When the ceremony started the movie star lady and I were seated at the dignitaries table. Bancha stood before me with a Buddhist tin bowl of water with herbs and a branch in it. Then there was a small cup of water from the bowl. Bancha instructed me to take the branch, dip it in the cup, and sprinkle it on his hands shoulder and head, and bless him. I was surprised that the whole point of it was I was supposed to bless him. When I figured out what I was supposed to do, I asked, “You want me to bless you?” “Yes please.” I replied, “I will be glad to bless you, but not with this branch. Let me bless you with the blessing of God.” Then I raise my hands and prayed over him, pleading that the Lord would indeed bless him in a way that he would know the true God and write his name in heaven. From there on, the Holy Spirit was in charge of the ceremony. I saw there was no need for me to be intimidated by Thai custom. I had the high card and could do what I wanted. They were intimidated by me.


As the ceremony went on, I was seated at the front of the line at the head table. Everyone passed before me expecting that I would bless them. Once I got established, it was very clear. I drew a clear line between sprinkling water; and pronouncing the blessing of Jesus on each one. There were about six or seven of us sitting at the dignitaries table. The obaa chan (grandmother) movie star was sitting next to me. Then Bancha, Boom, and one or two others on the other side of them. As everyone passed down the line all the other celebrities took the branch and sprinkled the lesser ones as they passed by. When the entire student body stood in front of me, I raised both arms to pray, but the Holy Spirit came upon me on an unusual way. At first words would not come out. And then when I did pray, it was like at a revival meting. I raised my voice and pleaded with the Father for the blessing of Jesus, and the salvation of Jesus, on each one. I don't know what they thought. It certainly was a significant departure from a staged sprinkle-the-water ceremony. I meant business, and I am sure everyone in the room knew I was serious about the Lord hearing prayer, and doing something that they would know was of Him.


Several years ago I heard the amazing testimony of a Baptist missionary in Kenya. He had been there for 12 years, and couldn't draw flies. His best efforts at dendo (evangelism) had proved fruitless. In desperation he finally gave up and said, “If I can't see anyone saved, at least, I want to be a blessing to this community.” And he started a crazy program of going all over town blessing everything in sight. He blessed the traffic lights, children's playgrounds, water fountains, etc. One day the inman from the local mosque came to him and asked him to his mosque. The missionary asked why he wanted the mosque blessed. The inman told him that everyone was getting backslid and offerings were down. They needed something to pick it up a little. Shortly after that, one night at prayer time, the inman came running to get him. He grabbed the missionary and dragged him down the street at high speed. He took him inside and straight up the platform to standing him up in front of the entire crowd. Then the inman asked, “Can your Jesus heal people?” “Well, yes...”. Then a man brought up a 12 year old girl that looked like a pretzel. She was born badly deformed. “Heal her.” Komatta (BIG problem). This poor man isn't Bennie Hinn. He is Baptist, not Pentecostal. There were 5,000 set of eyes staring at him. In desperation, he cried to the Lord pleading that the Lord would do something to protect His own Name. The missionary opened his eyes, and the little girl still looked like a pretzel. He said that was the most crushing moment of his life. But the father was a marvelous, gracious man. He thanked the missionary for trying, and turned to walk away. He walked about 10 meters and then turned around and requested, “Sir, I would still like the blessing of Jesus. Would you pronounce the blessing of Jesus on my family?” Suddenly the little girl stood straight up totally healed. The place exploded screaming, “Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus!


A few days later the inman came to the missionary asking if Jesus had any writings. “Yes, of course, He does.' “Sir, I would like to study them. Could you get me a copy of the teaching of Jesus?” The missionary got him a Bible, but the imman protested, “No I don't want that. I am not interested in the Bible. I want to study the teaching of Jesus.” “Gomen nasai, I'm sorry.” So the missionary took the Bible home, ripped the cover off, and pasted a cardboard cover on it with the writing “The Teachings of Jesus”. “Oh thank you very much. This is what I want.” The inman began to study the teachings of Jesus, and within a short time was born-again of the Spirit of God.


A few months later the inman told the missionary, “I must go back to Tehran to tell the professors at my seminary about this truth. The missionary warned that he would get killed, but the man was insistent that he must go. One day the missionary visited the man's home, and the eldest son came to the door. “Excuse me, but is your father here?” “No, I'm sorry he is gone.” He thought, “You dirty rascals! You have killed your father.” Then the boy went on to say, “Our father has been acting very strange lately, and we have been concerned about him. We didn't have much money but we sold a small piece of land so he could go to Terran for a vacation.” So they financed the 1^st missionary trip to Tehran


That is the best story I have ever heard of the blessing of Jesus. I don't know what will become of my song khron last Thursday, but I had a wonderful time pronouncing the blessing of Jesus on Boom's school. May everyone be truly blessed by Jesus.
bill

Signs of The "Time"

7 April 2013


Dear Phyllis,


We had an interesting time at our weekly Wednesday morning prayer meeting last week. The scripture we were discussing was Romans 9. That is the most blatant Calvinistic passage in the Bible and I was the only Calvinist there. Romans 9 is extremely difficult for Armenians to swallow without a great deal of “Yes, but... over here the Bible says...” To say that free will has no part in salvation is heresy. But Romans 9 cuts it totally out of the picture. It talks about, “then it is not him that wills or him that runs, but of God that shows mercy” (Rom. 9:16). And Paul uses the illustration of a lump of clay in the hands of a potter (ver. 20-22). Where is free will in a lump of clay? I challenged the brethren by saying, “I believe the Bible exactly as it stands”. It is almost impossible to say that without inserting a great deal of explanation on why “this cannot mean that because here it says...”. But I stand adamantly by my position as I intensely believe that BOTH arguments are equally valid and true. To say that you must accept that in the realm of the Spirit contradictions do co-exist.


All Christians will go so far under a different term. It is impossible to be an evangelical Christian without accepting the Trinity. This by definition is impossible. You can't have one and three being the same at the same time. There are a lot of explanation for the Trinity. A woman can be a daughter, wife and mother. An egg; shell, white and yoke. Water; solid liquid and steam. Etc. But to say that Jesus is both God and man is difficult. Very clearly the Bible teaches that Jesus is equal with the Father and at the same time He is less than the Father (Jn. 1:1; Jn. 14:28). The post resurrection body of Christ is a mystery. Very clearly the resurrected body of Jesus is the same one that was taken down from the cross an laid in the grave. Jesus said, “Handle Me. A spirit doesn't have flesh and bones.” He ate fish to prove that He wasn't a spirit. Then He walked through a wall (Lk. 24:36-42). Obviously His body is different than anything with which we are familiar at this present moment on earth.


I frequently use the illustration of a stone-age savage in Borneo trying to understand life in Tokyo today. There is no way he could understand how you could rub a wall and the room would be filled with light (fire) without burning anything. Or how you could see and talk to a friend who is three days journey away. The problem we have in understanding spiritual truth is more difficult than the stone-age savage in Borneo. The Holy Spirit is able to explain many things to us. But to do so we must leave our natural mind and reason at the door.


For years I have been strongly of the pre-trib rapture position, but now I am not so sure. One doctrine that we cannot dismiss is the imminent return of Christ. Obviously this was a basic belief in the 1^st century. Paul taught it, and I believe the Holy Spirit has placed this belief in the hearts of believers from the day of Pentecost to this present moment. The question is raised, “How can the Holy Spirit teach that Jesus is coming at any moment when, obliviously, He isn't?” For me that is no problem. The problem with the post-trib position is that Christ can't come yet because the anti-Christ hasn't appeared. They are looking for the anti-Christ – not Jesus. I see no objection why Jesus couldn't come this afternoon – and He may. And yet I am not so sure about the pre-trib rapture position. I believe there will be a rapture, but I am not going to place it in the scheme of eschatology dating. The only thing I do feel strongly about is that it will be at the last trump – whenever that is (1Cor. 15:52).


But for the rest of end time events, I am going out of my mind looking at Fox News. Recently I have discovered You Tube. I had no idea there was so much on the web. I spent most of last week looking at the US national debt. What everyone is saying is startling. I have seen several realistic presentations showing that it is mathematically impossible for America to recover. The car has already gone over the cliff. To me, it looks extremely difficult to believe that we won't hit the bottom in 2013. Everything is in place for the crash. And when the crash comes, it will be one like we have never seen before.


For some time I have been aware that the Federal Reserve is not a government organization. That is no more government than Federal Express. I knew it was private citizens, but I never understood the exact nature of who it is. Everyone (except the Democrats) is screaming that the national debt is now at $17,000,000,000,000. We all know that we are that far in debt, but few people are talking about who we owe the money to, and how much is the interest. Yes we have borrowed some from China and a few other countries. There are a lot of government bonds floating around. But I never fully understood until recently how the system works. The one of the principle loaners to the government is the Federal Reserve. They are are loaning the US government trillions of dollars, and the interest on that is around 6%. The Federal Reserve is a private bank owned by a few select men. It is highly secretive, with no audit, and no accountability. I have known about the Rothschild family and the Illuminati for years, but I never saw the inside of how they are controlling the US economy until last week. Everyone is hollering about the government, to save the economy, but the Federal Reserve are the ones that has their hands on that elevator. They have artificially created an huge stock market bubble by keeping the prime interest rates near 0% for some time. This, along with printing astronomic amount of money, has injected a great deal of money into the economy. I never knew until this past week that the US Treasury Department does not print money. All that money is printed by the private bank, the Federal Reserve. Obama has weakened the national economy by paralytic regulations and taxation so it cannot sustain a shock; and the men who own the Federal Reserve have worked up the stock market to a all time high. The game plan is, when they get the stock up as high as they want, then they pull their money out and let it bottom out. That way they earn trillions of dollars. These men have all the tools they need to pull that off, and they have the motive to do so.


For the governments part, there is no other explanation other than the US government runs on an unbelievable Ponzi system. It borrows huge amount of money to run its budget and pays the interest on the national debt. At the moment the government is borrowing over $1,000,000,000,000 annually just to run the government. It is physically IMPOSSIBLE to raise enough tax money to pay for the annual budget. To get in a position to run the government without borrowing money, would require draconian cuts in everything. And NO politician could possibly suggest such a thing. There is no way out of this hole. The Ponzi scheme has got to collapse. It is mathematically unsustainable. It is just a matter of time.


That is just one side of a very complex international scenario. The situation in Europe is as bad as the US. At the moment 7 out of 17 countries are on the verge of bankruptcy. Greece and Cyprus are already experiencing mass riots in the streets. It is commonly predicted that the US will soon see the same. The game plan for these incredibly wealth bankers is to create a one world currency. Obama is strongly advocating that. The ultimate goal is a one world government; and a world currency is one step in that direction. Guess why we are headed for a one world government? We soon will have such an unsolvable international crisis that only a super man will be able to save the world. This is what prophetic scholars have been saying for centuries. We now have arrived. We have gone through the guard rail and have only to wait for the crash at the bottom. Then the Man of Sin will step forward.


In addition to that, the situation in Israel and Iran is virtually out of control. If Israel doesn't strike Iran within a matter of months it will face annihilation by a nuclear missile extremely soon. Ezek. 38 and 39 could happen at any moment. And Korea... Oh my goodness that is an hour by hour nightmare at the moment.


I see the full spectrum of end time events in chapter 6 of Revelation. Of the Seven Seals the first four are the Four Horses. I see the White Horse as bloodless conquest; the Beast taking over politically. The Red Horse is clearly war. We are there now. The Black Horse is economic collapse. That is what this letter is all about. And the Pale Horse is death and hell. Everything breaking out. Those Four Horse and well within sight.


Then the 5^th Seal is serious persecution. There is much in the scripture mentioning that in then last days the anti-Christ will wear out the saints. The souls under the alter complain “How long, doth Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” They are told to be quiet until their fellow brethren should be killed (Rev. 6:9-11). In chapter 7 we see the sealing of the 144,000. But in chapter 14:1 we see them again standing with the Lamb in heaven. Obviously they all got killed. There is nothing wrong with that. What is the problem with getting g killed for Jesus sake? We all have to die anyway. Wouldn't it be better to die for Jesus sake than rust out in a nursing home?


The main selling point for the pre-trib rapture argument is that Christians will be exempt from persecution and suffering. That argument is in opposition to the very essence of the Gospel of Christ; of taking up our cross to follow Him. (Lk. 14:27). Phil. 1:29 warns that, “it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him but also to suffer for His sake”. Again in writing to the Thessalonian about afflictions Paul says, “For yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto” (1Th. 3:3). The Christians in underground churches that I have worked with for the past 15 years have no delusion of being exempt from persecution. They know that it is part of the program. As the anti-Christ is more and more established in charge of the world government, it is guaranteed that there will be increased persecution. The major separating the sheep from the goats will be taking the mark of the Beast – 666. There will be no middle ground then. I see all this as very encouraging.


The Karakorum highway running from Islamabad, Pakistan to Kashgar, China is one of the most dangerous highways in the world. It was an engineering miracle that they were able to make it in the first place, but it still has landslide about every 10 km. When I was in Sot, that was as far as the bus went. The only way to get from there to the China border at the Kunjerab Pass was by taxi. Of course, I wanted to go that far, and hired a taxi for the day. Coming back, the cab driver spotted a rare Himalayan deer high in the mountain. He stopped, and I got out to take a picture. As I was leisurely walking around, the cab driver suddenly pointed up the hill, and started running for his car. I had no idea why , but I joined him. I dove in the back seat just as he was pulling ahead. He saw the rocks coming down and knew a land slide was on its way right where he was parked.


There is no question but what a landslide is heading our way. We can see the rocks coming down picking up more as they tumble along. Soon there will be a massive landslide right where we are standing. But that will be short lived. The devil knows he only has seven years. We have had four and a half years of Obama. We can tough out another 3 ½. Armageddon is a bad word here on earth but it is a wonderful word in heaven. That is when Jesus gets on His white horse. Oh that will be fun. I hope I can ride one of those horse and follow Him. That is one battle I want to be in. The people in the Philippians had a hard time under the Japanese from 1942 to 1944. But when MacArthur got back there was dancing in the streets. Jesus will be here soon.


Hallelujah, bill