Love God

31 December 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Today is the last day of 2017. Tomorrow we start again. I don't know if this is an appropriate message for such an occasion or not but the Lord spoke to me through our cat last week.

There are various levels of relationships we have with animals. Some animals are dangerous – they will attack you. Other animals are spooky – they are afraid and will run from you. Some are curious and will come to you. And some like to be with you. A couple of months ago a little black kitten from the house down the street wandered in our yard and came in the house. She seemed to like Pammy and adopted us. Pammy put out some food and slowly the little kitten became our cat.

I like animals. I love dogs and horses. I like nearly all animals and like to pet them. It took a little doing before Blackie got used to me and was willing to come to me. The main event in my life every day is sitting in my chase lounge chair on our balcony having devotions with Jesus. Blackie has figured out that the balcony is an interesting place to be. I like to have Blackie sit with me but she wasn't too sure how safe that was. After a little coxing she jumped up to sit with me and at length fell asleep on my lap. That was the ultimate. Blackie was perfectly relaxed with me and I loved to hold her.

In a somewhat perverse way the Lord showed me this is the relationship He desires with us. For an animal to come and fall asleep on your lap is the ultimate expression of being relaxed and trust you. Beyond that it also means they like you and desire to be with you.

One time I was staying with some friends on a ranch in Colorado. They had an unbroke horse that was pretty skidish to be around people. As I stood outside the fence the horse finally got curious and came to see me. Holding out my hand, the horse finally got curious enough to lick my hand. Very carefully I got to where I could pet the horse's nose, then pat him on his neck. After spending quite a bit of time with the horse he decided I was safe and I could stand next to him and pet him all over. The ultimate was when I would go to the corral he would come to me and follow me around inside the corral. This is what God wants with us.

­It has been accurately said, fallen nature has a fear of God. Allah certainly is not a loving heavenly Father. God was not known as Father in the Old Testament. It wasn't until Jesus appeared that He told us, “When you pray say, “Our Father...”. That was an entirely new relationship. And Jesus told us, “Fear not little flock, it is our Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). Mentally we give theological consent to that truth but in practice we aren't too sure how it works. It is safe to say that God has a lot of things He wants to give us but He is having difficulty getting us to come close enough to where He can do all that He wants to for us. I thought that cat sleeping on my lap is the relationship that God is trying to bring us to. And that cat perfectly secure lying on my lap was a good illustration of faith.

I was preaching in a Lahu church this morning . It was awful. That place is so bad to call it dead religion would be an exaggeration. If they had a corpse in a casket, at least that would be an improvement. That place is supposed to be part of the Body of Christ but it is more like one leg bone and three ribs. The Holy Spirit is so far from there that it s doubtful that you could reach Him by email. As for burning hearts and being on fire for God, with our body temperature being 98.7 F I would estimate their spiritual temperature as being around 34 or 35 F. But my heart wasn't much better hovering around 53 F. Apart from the pastor there were only three old ladies and one man, two of which looked like they were sound asleep. How you are supposed to speak to a congregation like that is beyond me.

I started out by saying last Tuesday was the 13^th anniversary of the historic Sumatra tsunami that killed 250, 000, 000 people. That tsunami completely devastated Phi Phi Island and Phuket, Thailand. When the people on Phi Phi got up that morning they had no idea that three hours later 800 people would be washed away never to be found and another 5,000 would be lying dead on the island. In answer to the question what the world would be like when Jesus comes again, the Lord said it would be like the days of Noah (Mt. 24:37,38). The main interest then was eating, drinking, and marriage. It would be business as usual, planning for the future. In Noah's day they had no idea that the clock was ticking and soon everybody on this planet would be dead; although they had 100 years notice with Noah's preaching. My preaching this morning had the effect of a light breeze blowing on a rock. Then I went on, “With the impending end of the age bearing down on us, how can we prepare, and what should be our spiritual condition?”.

When a scribe asked Jesus what was the most important commandment, the Lord answered, “That is easy – love God and love your fellow humans” (Mk. 12:29-31). I said to the folks this morning, “I doubt that that is news to you. I'm sure you have heard that before”. And then I took a dive trying to strike reality, and asked, “Do we really love God?”. There is a simple test for love – how badly do we want to spend with a person? When I was young I had girl friend. Man, I counted the hours when I would see her again. And then when we had a date the thing I dreaded the most was saying good night and going home. “How about that? Do you know what I am talking about?” For the first time there was a faint glimmer that I mentioned something they could identify with. “You say you love God. How much time do you spend with Him every day? How much time do you spend reading His Word? Do you just relish your time of devotion every day?” It is doubtful that these Lahu had ever had devotions.

I said, “You can't love someone that you don't know. If someone asks me, 'Do you love the people in Uzbekistan?' I would reply, 'I don't know. I have never been to Uzbekistan and have never met anyone from there. How can I love them?'.” The reason we don't love God is because we don't know Him. If we knew Him better no doubt we would love Him more.

Knowing God is one of the three promises of the New Covenant – “all shall know Me” (Heb.8:11). The only way this is possible to know God is by the Holy Spirit. One of the unique characteristics of someone born-again is that they say “I know God”. Without the Holy Spirit it is impossible to know God. Anyone who is not born-again and says, “I know God” is either lying or deceived. One of the blessings of salvation is that God gives to us eternal life. But having eternal life doesn't just mean we will live for several thousand years. Jesus said, “This is LIFE ETERNAL, that they might KNOW YOU” (Jn. 17:3). Eternal life isn't how long you will live; it is knowing God.

The name-of-the-game is loving God. But the only way we can love God is by knowing Him. How do we know God? First of all ye must be born-again. Secondly the Holy Spirit must have free access to your heart. He must be the sole possessor of your heart. It can't be Jesus plus xxxx. But most of all we must love to spend time with Him. You can't know God by having hurry up, canned, 5 minute devotions. Love takes time. True love is loving to be together with your lover.

I don't know if anyone out anything out of my message this morning. I doubt it. But the Word certainly convicted me. May 2018 be a year when we close in with God and love Jesus more.

Have a holy, fruitful, new year loving Jesus,

                                                          bill

2017 christmas Message

24 December 2017

Dear Phyllis,

On the 24^th of December it is unthinkable to write anything but a Christmas message. The greatest Christmas message I ever heard was by Roald Lidal at the Manza Hotel in Kusatsu. We were having a Christmas party there and Roald was the speaker. Roald told the story of a elderly Chinese Christian man.

This dedicated man and his wife had prayed for many years for a child and, in her later years, his wife quite miraculously had conceived and bore a son. Because the baby was so unusual, and asked of God, they named him Samuel.

While the lad was still very young, the Christian man got embroiled in a legal controversy with a man in town that hated him, and unjustly took him to court. While the case was still under litigation the Lord spoke to the Christian man and gave him the most obscene instruction imaginable. The Lords said, “I want you to give your son to your enemy”. The poor man recoiled in horror, but the Lord's message burned in his heart. At last, with a trembling voice, he spoke to his wife about the subject and was stunned when she replied, “Yes I know. The Lord told me the same thing”. Such a thing was unheard of in China – to give an only child to an enemy??. Unbelievably, the enemy accepted the offer, but that still didn't slow him down. Tragically the case went against the Christian man, and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

During his incarceration his wife died, and when, at last, he was released from prison there was nothing else left for him to do but travel around sharing what he knew of the gospel with people who had no hope. He had been a traveling evangelist for several years when one night he was riding in a bus that broke down in a rural area in central China. It was a cold snowy night and the passengers had to fend for themselves to find shelter. As the poor man was walking along the road, he passed a farm house, and stopped to ask if they would give him shelter for the night. The people turned out to be Christian and gladly offered to let him stay with them for the night; but they were going out. They were on their way to a dendo (evangelistic) meeting in another town. There was a well known gifted speaker that would be speaking that night. If he was interested, they would be glad to have him go with them. Of course he was delighted to go.

As they were on their way to the meeting the old man shared his testimony how he and his wife had prayed for many years for a son. Then in the midst of the court battle. they gave their son to their enemy. While he was in prison his enemy had moved to a distant city. There had been a serious earthquake and everybody was killed. With his son gone and his wife dead there was nothing else left for him in life but what he was doing.

They were late getting to the meeting; the house was packed, and they had to sit in the back. The old mans eyes were dim; and the seating was so bad he stood to try to get a better view. When the speaker up front saw the old man standing in the rear, suddenly he stopped in the middle of his message and exclaimed, “Are you my father Zhau?”

The amazing gift of love had born fruit. Some time after the court case the enemy and his family had been converted. They raised the boy Christian and told him the story of his actual parents. The report about the earthquake was true, and the family had been killed, but the boy was spared. He had been wonderfully saved and became a powerful evangelist. It was on Christmas eve as he was preaching in a house church meeting that he saw the old man standing in the back of the room that looked like it might be his father.

What a meeting! What a night! What a sight! The people there saw two men standing up front. The man who gave his only son to his enemy. The wonderful fruit that had come from that act. The gift of love had borne tremendous fruit. The enemy had been saved and the lad they gave away had become a mighty man of God. And the Lord brought this all together to present His Christmas gift to the father on Christmas eve.

The angels were singing the night Jesus was born in a barn. And the angels must have been singing the night the story of Christmas was reenacted in a house church in China. I don't know if the angels were singing the night Roald Lidal related that testimony at a Christmas party in Manza but I know there was one man sitting in the back so broken up by this story that he couldn't move. As the people filed out of the room, I just sat there sobbing.

Sometimes it takes a long time before we see the results of our sacrifice for Jesus. Very few people have offered to Jesus such an expensive gift as that couple did in China. And very few people have received such an amazing reward as the father did that night. More than that, the loss was only for a very few short years, but their reward will last for eternity. It may be trite to say we can't out give God. It is true that at times it may look like we are slightly ahead, but when the books are balanced we will be on our face wondering and worshiping the Father that gave His only Son to the most undeserving enemies (Rom. 5:8). It is only spiritual blindness that keeps us from weeping so hard now that it would seem tears would wash away our eyeballs.

Gomen, I don't know what to say. I don't want to talk about Santa Clause. I don't want to talk about a Christmas tree. I don't want to talk about Christmas presents. Even the very story of Baby Jesus in a manger seems out of place. I can scarcely share this story that I heard 17 years ago in Manza. When the reality of what God did for us in giving to us His only Son breaks through my dull mind like a small shaft of light in a dark room; that just faltens me so badly I am speechless.

Oh, Lord, please be merciful to this poor man. There is no way I can come close to repaying my inestimable debt. Please, Lord, please give me something I can offer to Jesus. As unworthy and as unfit as I am, if there is any way You can take the tatters of this life and put it in the plus column to bring honor to Jesus, all I can say is that it is unconditionally Yours. Oh, thank You Father for sending us Jesus.

                                     bill

God's Timing

17 December 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I was preaching at a Lahu church. As we are into December I was supposed to bring a Christmas message. I didn't feel very Christmasy but choose to speak on Gal. 4:4 - “When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman”.

There are many things about God that are utterly amazing. No one can fully comprehend the love of God. When we examine it, the mercy of God and His forgiveness are mind-boggling. How He does it is utterly beyond me. The various attributes of God are so far beyond our human experience to fully appreciate Him is like getting a 6 foot ladder to pick stars. Among the amazing features of God is His patience. We are always in a hurry and want everything right now. This is particularly difficult for children but for all of us waiting is hard.

But God is in no hurry. Somehow He is able to wait millenniums. Shortly after the dawn of creation God promised the day would come when the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. It is with bewilderment that we read of God's dealing with humanity from the days of Noah, through Abraham, Moses, the time of the judges, the kings, and the Babylonia captivity; that in every conceivable way God would extend mercy to His people only to see things go sideways. Then we read, “When the fullness of time was come”. God was in no hurry. He could wait. He knew what He was doing and when the fullness of time was come He sent forth His Son.

This sheds a little light on some of our perplexing problems. In Isaiah 30:18 we read, “Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you”. The problem isn't that God is unwilling to give us good things,, but there is the need for Him to work in our hearts before we are prepared to receive them. God is waiting that He might give us His best. We want what we want now; but God is waiting that He might give us His best.

After Rosemary left my life went to zero. I lost everything. For a long time I felt like I was a sub-species of humanity. In reading the 22^nd Psalm I saw where Jesus cried, “I am a worm and no man” (Ps. 22:6). I said. “Me too”. I was reading my Japanese Bible at the time, and the Japanese said, “I am not a 'ningen' (human)”. For the next several years I adopted the attitude that I was no longer a ningen. I had a great desire to rejoin the world of homo-sapiens but I had to be content that I was no longer a ningen. There were many hopeful candidates that appeared on the horizon that I would have loved to marry but everyone fell through. The Lord waited 21 years until I was burned out, then He gave me a partner was was a run-away freight train evangelist.

Sometimes God gives us what we want right now but usually there is a period of waiting. One of the reasons for this is that waiting adds value to the gift. Things that come cheap are cheap. Things that come after years of waiting are of great value. The longer we wait the more valuable the gift.

Sometimes it is a lifetime. One of the finest Christians I ever met was Bob Holsten. But I never met a man that had more things go south on him. His entire life was a series of great hopes only to see it explode in his face. I don't know one thing that ever developed into real fruition. But one thing it did produce was Christian character like you seldom see in anyone.

Some times we never see what we have hoped for. For several years Lavinia McCart was my secretary. I never had a friend that was more devoted. But Lavinia's life was a tragedy. She was as dedicated a Christian as ever walked on God's green earth. She had been a missionary in Cambodia for eleven years. When things went sour in Cambodia with Sihanouk she was put out with the rest of the missionaries. From Cambodia she came to Japan to work with Kyoritsu Girls school. That didn't work out. Then she joined TEAM, but nothing major ever happened. Like all women Lavinia had her dream of being married with a nice family. There was a man in her life that she deeply loved but heart-ache was all she ever got. After I stated working in Cambodia I wrote Lavinia telling her how wonderfully God had heard her prayers and Cambodia was blooming like a flower. I had gone through the horrible Pol Pot years with Lavinia when all her dearest friends were being slaughtered. Now the Gospel was in Cambodia and thousands were being saved. I thought she would be thrilled to hear the fantastic reports of what was happening there. To my surprise Lavinia's sister replied to my letters thanking me, but said Lavinia was in a nursing home a very sullen person. She said Lavinia had never told them much about anything. They were delight to hear reports and information that Lavinia had never shared. Lavinia died with a broken heart.

But some time later, as I was praying, I saw Lavinia in heaven in my mind. I am not a spiritual person and don't have visions, but I believe what the Lord showed me was true. On earth Lavinia was a very plain person. She was a long ways from anything you might call good looking. But what I saw was a beautiful, radiant, woman. Lavinia was gorgeous in her wedding dress married to Jesus. She was raving, “Oh the Lord is good! He has given me His finest”. And now she has this for eternity.

I believe this is another chapter in the Inverted Kingdom. I believe heaven will be just like Abraham told the rich man in hell- “Remember in your lifetime you had the good things and Lazarus the bad, but now he is comforted and you are tormented”. I believe this is one of the laws of the Kingdom of God. The people of this world have their part right now, but the people of the Kingdom of God will get their part in the life here after. I am sure that in heaven we will see this in very clear contrast. The cute girl that was so poplar here, that married the guy who became the pastor of the 1^st church and had a wonderful life, will be in the bleacher section; and the poor, lonely, wall flower that got left behind here will be the most joyous soul in the front row in heaven. They might have to wait a lifetime, but God is good as His Word and He will make it all up.

The Father waited a long time before He sent His Son, but in the fullness of time Jesus came. After He left the last thing Jesus promised us was “behold I come quickly”, and He repeated that twice (Rev. 22:7, 12). He has been away a long time, but eternity runs on God's clock – not ours. When we see Him I am sure we will all agree that He kept His promise. In the mean time, “blessed are they who wait for the Lord” (Isa. 30:18)

                                                       bill

Heaven

10 December 2017

Dear Phyllis,

I don't know what is going on. As usual Pammy is going wild telling everybody in sight about Jesus. For the past year or more she has had extensively contact with the Lahu minority people. SEA is filled with millions of different ethnic people that have their own culture and language living within the borders of the various counties. The Lahu are one large group here in northern Thailand. The children all go to Thai schools which means that they can speak Thai, but among themselves their native tongue is still Lahu. A large number of Lahu are Christian, but their church worship services are in their Lahu language. Last Sunday a small group came to our house for church. Of course I was expected to preach. My heart really wasn't in it and I had done no preparation, so, desperately, I asked the Lord for a message to deliver. A thought came of something the Lord had been sharing with me recently.

It is surprising that the Bible tells us very little about heaven. I suppose the reason for this is that it is impossible for us to comprehend what heaven is like. For children in Thailand it is impossible for them to know what snow is like. They have never seen a snow flake. They have never seen a frozen pond and it is impossible for them to know what it is like to ski down hill. Heaven is so much out of our known environment that it is impossible for an angel to tell us what it is like. Apart from Revelation, the Bible only gives us two or three briefs glimpses. One of them is what Isaiah saw in chapter 6. There he saw the Lord sitting on the Throne with the seraphims crying ceaselessly, “Holy, holy, holy”. Six hundred years later John had a similar experience and the scene hadn't changed. The seraphims were still crying “Holy, holy, holy” (Rev. 4:8). Then he saw the Lamb and millions of saints worshiping Him, but their message was different. From Rev. 4:11 to 5:12 we see the word “worthy” uttered five times. The thing about God that impressed the seraphims the most was His character. But the greatest impression of the Lamb upon saints is His worthiness. Seraphims and saints are looking at the same Being but His main impression on them is different. I say the same Being but here we are talking about the difference between the Father and the Son. To say He is holy is to admire His character, but to cry “worthy” is to marvel His performance. The reason for the different impression is that Jesus never died for seraphims, but when saints look upon the Lamb of God they know that I was for them that He died. It is because of what He did that makes Him so worthy. If we had never sinned perhaps we might look upon God and marvel at His character, but when we look at the wounds of Jesus and know it was for us that He came, lived, and died; is there anything else that could escape from our mouths than “WORTHY”? If we were responsible to arrange the seating order in heaven who is the one who is worthy to sit in the front seat? Oh, thank God they have it right in heaven but the scene here on earth is mind-boggling insanity. Even among Christians self sits up front and Jesus gets to sit in the back row.

Last Sunday the Lord gave me an illustration of the worthiness of our Savior. Suppose there were two men who both had one son. The son of one man had a very bad heart. The father took him to the hospital and the doctor told him that his only possible chance to live was a heart transplant. It is only in the past 60 or so years that medical science has been able to do organ transplants. Today they are fairly common. Kidney transplants are the easiest. We all have two kidneys, and if someone needs a kidney transplant a downer can give one and still survive on the one left. But we only have one heart. To get a heart transplant we have to wait until someone dies. But suppose there were two men with one son and one boy needed a heart transplant. Then the father of the healthy lad said, “I will donate the heart of my boy to save your son.” What do you think of that? That is utterly obscene. But what God has done for us is infinitely greater.

What do you think about the performance of Jesus? For 30 silent years He was spectacular. When Jesus was baptized God broke His silence in heaven and in an audible voice He said, “Thou art My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Lk. 3:22). The ball game isn't over yet. Jesus has only played 7 innings but the Father couldn't help but remark, “Son, You have done marvelously well”. It was only in the 9^th inning that Jesus hit the winning home run.

My illustration of the two fathers with sons is imperfect as it features the fathers. I don't know which is greater - what the Father has done for us or what the Son did. It is the character of the Father who would give His Son, but it is the performance of the Son who did so well when He became a man and trounced the devil by His sinless life and sacrificial death. Oh my goodness, is there anything else we can say but “Worthy! Worthy! Worthy!”? In heaven we will get that right and Jesus will be in the front seat. Is it possible that any human being could put themselves up front. Astoundingly, here on earth even among Christians self gets to sit up front and Jesus is relegated to the back row. If Jesus is so worthy, how is it possible that self could challenge Him for supremacy in our lives? How is it possible that we could be half-hearted in our devotion to Him?

The message of surrender just blows my mind. The only thing that I can think of that is more mind-boggling is salvation. Somehow we have got the salvation message utterly inverted, and now we present God as the supplicant pleading with sinners to please accept His offer of forgiveness and eternal life. I can only wonder at the bewilderment of angels as they observe pastors in thousands of churches pleading with sinners to please come forward and accept what God is trying to give them. It is sinners who should be crying and begging God to please forgive their treasonous transgressions. How we got that upside down to make God the supplicant is utterly beyond me. But then the message of surrender. Somehow we think that we can be saved - we can accept God free gift of salvation – and still be in charge of our own lives. Question. Who is worthy to possess everything we have? I have never surrendered my life to Jesus. I didn't know you were supposed to. When I asked Jesus to come in to save me from sin, I assumed He was to control my life. All I have ever tried to do for the past 60 years is to follow and obey Him.

The other day Pammy was talking to me about all the people we need to reach to save them from going to hell. I said, “Yes that is true. If we love them we should do everything possible to keep them from going to hell. But there is a better reason. Jesus came and paid the price for their salvation. He needs to get His money worth of the full price He has paid for.” No one is worth of salvation but Jesus is worthy to receive what He paid for.

I don't know if anyone else got anything out of my message but the Lord certainly spoke to me. What I am trying to say is that Jesus is worthy. Oh for grace to love Him more.

                                                       bill

Daniel 2

3 December 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Last week my niece Pam Gill wrote me asking if I could write about Daniel 2. Unquestionably Daniel 2 is one of the major chapters of the Bible. It is the the corner stone of all eschatology that everything from 400 BC clear through the end of the Bible in Revelation 22 is built upon. I don't know how concise I can be in getting the basics in one letter but I will try. Gomen nasai if this letter is 10 pages long, and if it gets boring you can delete it and go get some coffee.

The book of Daniel is unique in scripture. Daniel was a young Jewish boy who was captured in Jerusalem and taken to Babylon in the first captivity. Because of his exceptional gifts he was chosen to be sent to a special college for training to be one of the king's wise men. He was in the inner core of the palace for the period of four kings.

Nebuchadnezzar had had a dream and called his wise men to explain it to him. He couldn't remember what the dream was, and was furious with his wise men because they couldn't tell him the dream and the interpretation. He ordered all of them executed, which would have also included Daniel. Daniel pleaded, “Let me have a crack at it”; and in answer to prayer the Lord revealed the dream to Daniel. When Daniel explained the dream and interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar, the king fell down to worship Daniel. This gives undeniable validity to the accuracy of this prophecy.

Nebuchadnezzar saw a dream of a statue with a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron and feet of a mixture of iron and clay. Then a little stone that was cut without hands struck the statue on it toes shattering everything and became a great mountain that filled the whole earth. The interpretation was that there would be four successive kingdoms, and “in the days of these kings (the ten toes) the God of heaven would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed” (verse 44). The first kingdom was Nebuchadnezzar (Babylon), and the last Kingdom obviously is the time when Jesus comes back to set up His menial reign of Christ and beyond (Rev. 19-22). The first three kingdoms of the gold, silver, and brass, are right straight forward. Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, “Thou art the head of gold” (Babylon) (verse 38). The next one would be silver (Media-Persia), and the following one, brass, was obviously Greece (Alexander the Great). But the fourth kingdom (iron) is not so clear. The traditional interpretation is that the fourth kingdom (iron) is the Roman Empire and the ten toes of the feet that get smashed by the little stone (Jesus) is the revived Roman Empire. Four decades ago everyone confidently said that this is the European Union, and we were all waiting until it came to ten; then the anti-Christ would make his appearance. But then the EU went to twenty eight. Today I am not so sure. I feel very strongly that anyone who dogmatically says he understands exactly who the fourth kingdom is demonstrates that he really doesn't understand anything at all.

In recent years several scholars have come up with a Middle East position. Personally, I feel Joel Richardson is the closest. Richardson has set forward some highly radical views. He has some excellent arguments; much of which I feel he is right on. But there are some holes in his position that are troubling. Looking at the big picture as for the occupation of Israel and the Middle East; the four successive major kingdoms are Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome. No question that the Roman Empire was the dominant kingdom at the time of Christ. But if we take the literal position that the day “God will set up a Kingdom that shall never be destroyed” is the menial reign of Christ we have to accept that there is an enormous gap between the first century and now.

Daniel 9:24 give a very significant statement when it says, “70 weeks are determined upon thy people and thy holy city.” To try to interpret end time prophecy on anything other than Israel and Jerusalem is to engage in foundationless, unbiblical, speculation. There is absolutely no warranty to suggest that the lion is England, the eagle is America, and the bear is Russia. Accepting that Israel is God's time clock we see in Daniel's 70 weeks the Bible predicted to the day that Jesus would present Himself to Israel as her Messiah. When Israel's Messiah was cut off the clock stopped, and God started another clock that is called the time of the gentiles (Lk. 21:24). This has been running for the past 2, 000 years where God has opened the door to all nations and whosoever will may be saved. But when that time is full God's Israeli clock will start ticking again and that will be a specific period of seven years that is left. Then Jesus will come to set up His Kingdom.

The problem with the legs of iron in Nebuchadnezzar statue is that we have to deal with the connection of the legs with the feet. Very clearly the feet with the ten toes is the end time kingdom. Daniel 2 is the corner stone and the rest of Daniel is the further explanation. To go into any serious discussion of the legs of iron would take an in depth study of the entire book of Daniel. This would require a very large book, and I can't cover this in one short letter. But let me mention just the highlights.

Daniel had four visions, two of which were dreams – chapter 2, 7, 8, and 10-12. Chapter 7 is a further explanation of chapter 2, and 8 is tied to 10-12. (10 to 12 are all one vision). Chapter 7 and 8 are two visions separated by three years, but 8 is a more detailed explanation of 7. Putting them all together is one piece of fabric.

The identification of the first three kingdoms of Daniel 2 are perfectly clear. But when we come to the legs of iron we have a very blurred transition from Alexander to the anti-Christ. Chapters 7, 8, and 11 give more detail about the anti-Christ than any other portion of scripture. Jesus mentions Daniel and points to the abomination of desolation (Dan:11:31; 12: 11) as one of the most significant end time events (Mt. 24:15; Mk. 13:14).

For centuries Bible scholars have taken the western position of Rome and the revived Roman Empire; and have speculated the the anti-Christ would be the head. Scholars have identified the anti-Christ as anyone from a Jew to the Pope to Barack Obama. Joel Richardson has come up with a very compelling position that the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's statue is not the EU but an Islamic caliphate of ten countries and the anti-Christ is the Islamic mahdi (twelfth Inman).

Had you asked me to explain Daniel 2 five years ago I could have laid it out in a very clear presentation. Today I have no idea what it means. I believe I know a great deal more about Daniel today than I did 40 years ago, but I am increasingly convinced that spiritual truth is not as black and white as we wished. There is a lot in scripture that just doesn't make sense, and I am willing to put Daniel 2 in that category. But on one point I will be absolutely dogmatic; that is, in heaven the Lord will explain all this to us and we will agree He was 100% correct. I am absolutely sure that God's prophecy of the end time stared out with Babylon and will culminate in Jesus being Lord and King over all the earth. But the details of transition in the legs of iron is not as clear as I wish. Looking at the world situation today it is difficult to imagine that we have much time left on the clock. The stage is being rapidly set and if we ever had a time to look up it is today. Let's let it all hang out for Jesus.

Gambarimasho, bill