Creation Moment 4/21/2018 - The Supernatural

"If you exclude the supernatural from science, then if the world or some phenomena within it are supernaturally caused -- as most of the world's people believe -- you won't be able to reach that truth scientifically."
Alvin Plantinga, philosopher
And he believed in the Lord;
Genesis 15:6

DESIRE OF AGES: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 49

At the Feast of Tabernacles

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/MAw16J-Eopc?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C

Three times a year the Jews were required to assemble at Jerusalem for religious purposes. 

He who had ordained these national assemblies and understood their significance witnessed their perversion.
The Feast of Tabernacles was the closing gathering of the year.
Standing thus, the center of attraction to that vast throng, Jesus addressed them as no man had ever done.
The priest had that morning performed the ceremony which commemorated the smiting of the rock in the wilderness. That rock was a symbol of Him who by His death would cause living streams of salvation to flow to all who are athirst.
Suddenly Jesus lifted up His voice, in tones that rang through the courts of the temple:
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:37
The cry of Christ to the thirsty soul is still going forth.

Living Judges 7:20

The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

Judges 7:20

"Gideon ordered his men to do two things: covering up a torch in an earthen pitcher, he bade them, at an appointed signal, break the pitcher and let the light shine, and then sound with the trumpet, crying, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!"

This is precisely what all Christians must do.

First, you must shine;
*break the pitcher which conceals your light;
*throw aside the bushel which has been hiding your candle,
*and shine.
Let your light shine before men;

Then there must be the sound,
*the blowing of the trumpet.
*There must be active exertions for the ingathering of sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified.
*Take the gospel to them; carry it to their door; put it in their way; do not suffer them to escape it; blow the trumpet right against their ears.

Remember that the true war-cry of the Church is Gideon's

watchword, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" God must do it, it is His own work. But we are not to be idle;

--If we only cry, "The sword of the Lord!" we shall be guilty of an idle presumption;
--and if we shout, "The sword of Gideon!" alone, we shall manifest idolatrous reliance on an arm of flesh:
*we must blend the two in practical harmony, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!"
Charles Spurgeon 

The "Really" File - (Beyoncé Mass?)

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:3

This includes Beyoncé, African, Hindu and Roman goddesses....

"A California church is getting ready to stand in the light of Queen B’s halo.

San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral is planning to host a Beyoncé Mass on April 25, using the pop icon’s music to celebrate black female spirituality.
 

The Wednesday evening service is part of The Vine, a weekly contemporary gathering organized by Grace for San Francisco’s “urbanites and spiritual seekers.” The Beyoncé Mass promises to help attendees discover how the musician’s art “opens a window into the lives of the marginalized and forgotten ― particularly black females.”



From the "Really" File

In recent years, Beyoncé has begun making more explicit references to female spirituality in her music and in her public persona. During her Grammy performance last year, she incorporated imagery from African, Hindu and Roman goddesses. 

In July, Beyoncé ignited Instagram with a portrait of her holding her newborn twins, draped in a veil and flowing robes. The image provoked comparisons to the Virgin Mary, who for centuries has been represented as a white woman in Western art. Beyoncé’s portrait challenged the association of Mary, often seen as the ideal feminine figure, with whiteness." HP

REALLY?

 

 

Creation Moment 4/20/2018 - Evoutionary Metaphors

met·a·phor

ˈmedəˌfôr,ˈmedəˌfər/

noun

noun: metaphor; plural noun: metaphors

1. a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

"The trouble with metaphors is that they don’t just mirror scientific

beliefs, they also shape them. Our imagery is never just surface paint, it expresses, advertises and strengthens our preferred interpretations. It also usually carries unconscious bias from the age we live in – and this can be tricky to ditch no matter how faulty.... Evolution has been the most glaring example of the thoughtless use of metaphor over the past 30 years...."
 Mary Midgley, “The selfish metaphor,” New Scientist, 1/31/2011
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,...
2 Corinthians 10:5

Maid of Orleans & the GREAT CONTROVERSY

And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou?

Then Satan answered the LORD, and said,

From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Job 1:7

I. BACKDROP

"In 1425, English and Burgundian forces drove off all of Domremy's cattle and burned the town. The

same year of this trauma, when Joan was 13, she started hearing "voices." 
 The first of these voices spoke to her from her father's garden, and was accompanied by a blinding white light. Joan claimed that the voices were angels and saints, through whom God was addressing her. She identified the saints as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, all crucial French saints of whom Joan had learned through statuary in the church she attended and through her mother's careful religious instruction. Although she was initially afraid to speak to other people about them–she never mentioned them to the Domremy priests even though she was constantly at confessional–she would claim to talk to these saints and hear their voices regularly. 
 Joan said they always spoke in French."
SparkNotes

What role did Joan of Arc play in this Great Controversy?

Was she hearing voices from God, demons or just psychotic?

My opinion (just an opinion) is that she was hearing from demons.
Q: Why?
A: Because she was hearing from "Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret"...."Michael is the pre-incarnate name of Christ. Catherine and Margaret were dead, awaiting either the 1st or 2nd resurrection of Revelation 20. So NO, she wasn't hearing from God. And considering what she accomplished, I don't think it was a coincidence via psychotic episodes.

 

II. GREAT CONTROVERSY Aspect

We have examples to Peak behind the scenes:
1- In Daniel, Gabriel had to struggle against the Prince of Persia (Lucifer) to get the kings of Persia to do what God wanted to guide the flow of history. (God struggles against our Free Will). Gabriel was losing and had to call down Prince Michael (Christ).
2- God held a council to decide how to deal with Ahab. A spirit (Lucifer, the father of Lies) stepped forward and offered to put lying words in the mouth of Ahab's false prophets which led to Ahab's death. Obviously Lucifer offering to help God was for his own agenda.
3- Of course you all know the story of Lucifer and God squaring off over Job.

JOAN of ARC- The English had overrun most of France during the first part of the Hundred Years War. France was nearly defeated. Many elites had turned to the winners to maintain their power and prestige. The Dauphin (next for the throne) was in a rough spot.

-*-I believe Lucifer used Joan to attempt to finish off France. God needed France for the prophecy of the French Revolution in Revelation as well a France to deal the deadly wound to the beast. 

---IF--- Lucifer could get the Dauphin to follow a peasant girl foolishly, lose badly, then all would be lost-both his claim to the crown and France. His support would collapse, more would defect, and England would emerge victorious.
---But God intervened in His way and worked it out so that the MAID OF ORLEANS became a rallying cry and the French made a comeback and ultimately-well-you know the rest....JUST A THOUGHT

DESIRE OF AGES: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 48

Who Is the Greatest

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/H5ZKQJJZA5Y?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C

The strife for the highest place was the outworking of that same spirit which was the beginning of the great controversy in the

worlds above, and which had brought Christ from heaven to die.
 Now the cross was just before Him; and His own disciples were so filled with self-seeking--the very principle of Satan's kingdom--that they could not enter into sympathy with their Lord, or even understand Him as He spoke of His humiliation for them.
 Jesus had told them that He was to die for their sake, and their selfish ambition was in painful contrast to His unselfish love.
It was evident that this was He who through David had declared, Every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof. Psalm 50:10-12

Lessons from Joshua's Farewell Speech

"Joshua declared to the people that his work among them was done; for he was soon to die. He appealed to themselves as witnesses that God had faithfully fulfilled his promises to them.
 
The Lord has not changed. His character is the same to-day as in the days of Joshua.

He is

*true,

*merciful,

*compassionate,

*faithful in the performance of his word,

 --both in promises and threatenings.--

One of the greatest dangers that besets the people of God to-day, is that of association with the ungodly; especially in uniting themselves in marriage with unbelievers. With many, the love for the human eclipses the love for the divine. They take the first step in backsliding by venturing to disregard the Lord's express command; and complete apostasy is too often the result. It has ever proved a dangerous thing for men to carry out their own will in opposition to the requirements of God. Yet it is a hard lesson for men to learn that God means what he says.

As a rule, those who choose for their friends and companions, persons who reject Christ and trample upon God's law, eventually become of the same mind and spirit."
Signs of the Times 1893, E.G.W.

 ...choose you this day whom ye will serve;

whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood,

or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell:

but as for me and my house,

we will serve the LORD.

Joshua 24:15

IN the NEWS - Who's Banning Books Now?

Ah yes, more "Tolerance" from the anti-American secular Left....

"The California State Assembly is slated to vote on legislation that has been interpreted as broad enough to ban the sale of books that address helping people overcome unwanted same-sex attractions.
AB 2943 adds “advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual” to the state’s list of illegal “unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person in a transaction intended to result or that results in the 

The Liberal Democrat California version of AmeriKa

sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer.”
“Sexual orientation change efforts” are defined as “any practices that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation.”
The bill makes no exceptions for adults who actively seek such efforts, or minors whose parents have given their consent. (California minors are not currently required to obtain parental consent for abortions.)
The bill passed the assembly’s Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee 8-2 and the Judiciary Committee 8-1, clearing the way for a floor vote. That vote has yet to be scheduled, but the California Family Council says it could take place as soon as Thursday.
“Conversion therapy as a practice implies an inherent wrongness in who I am,” Democratic Assemblyman Evan Low, who introduced the bill, declared on April 10. “There is nothing wrong with who I am or with anyone in the LGBT community. This legislation sets California apart as a state of inclusion, not exclusion.”
Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), disagrees.
“Traditional medical ethics, enshrined in the Oath of Hippocrates, requires physicians to prescribe according to the best of their ability and judgment, and to avoid doing harm. And patients have the right to choose their therapeutic goals,” she said. “These bills impose on all Californians, by law, the opinion of an activist lobby that same-sex attraction or the belief that a person is imprisoned in a body of the ‘wrong’ biological sex is always normal, healthy, and immutable.”
Lifesite
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:
Romans 8:7

Creation Moment 4/19/2018 - "perhapsimaybecouldness"

"Early Life Had Evolutionary Power to Survive Radical Changes in Environment (Space.com).

Evolutionist reporter Charles Q. Choi never saw an evolutionary claim he didn’t salivate over. “Life on Earth could have originated in cold conditions near the surface, before spreading to warmer environments, according to research that analyzes the possible gene sequences belonging to the earliest life,” he begins.

Has anyone seen the first life?
Has anyone seen the proposed Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA)?
Has anyone seen a cell originate? Enough said.

But he adds some anti-science to the mix: “Ultraviolet light can damage RNA, but it may have also triggered chemical reactions that helped create key building blocks of life.” He uses the perhapsimaybecouldness word may, may, may all over the place. He even calls on a fictional debunked myth as if it is a creative force: “The Late Heavy Bombardment could have instigated a dramatic shift in climate and environment that helped spur the formation of life on Earth.” Back to Philosophy of Science class for you, Mr. Choi, after you watch Origin." CEH
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;
1 Corinthians 1:25

DESIRE OF AGES: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 47

MINISTRY

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/gY9cb9aNfOE?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C

A hush had fallen upon the entire company. Now the afflicted father made his way through the

crowd, and falling at the feet of Jesus, poured out the story of his trouble and disappointment.
The boy was brought, and as the Savior's eyes fell upon him, the evil spirit cast him to the ground in convulsions of agony. He lay wallowing and foaming, rending the air with unearthly shrieks.
Again the Prince of life and the prince of the powers of darkness had met on the field of battle,--Christ in fulfillment of His mission to preach deliverance to the captives, . . . to set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke 4:18...And this mighty Redeemer, who but a few hours before stood glorified before His wondering disciples, stoops to lift the victim of Satan from the earth where he is wallowing, and in health of mind and body restores him to his father and his home.
It was an object lesson of redemption,--the Divine One from the Father's glory stooping to save the lost.
 

"OUR FATHER" means.....

"In this prayer ("Lord's Prayer") there are three parts observable:-
1. The preface.
2. The petitions themselves.
3. The conclusion

In the preface we have a description of God, as always we should begin prayer with awful thoughts of God. God is described partly from his goodness and mercy -Our Father; and partly from his greatness and majesty -which art in heaven.
I. His goodness and mercy: Our Father; where is set forth:-
1. The relation wherein God standeth to his people, in the word Father.
2. Their propriety and interest in that relation, wherein, not the particular interest of a single believer is asserted, My Father, but the general interest of all the elect in Christ, Our Father.

II. What advantage have we in prayer by taking up God under this notion and relation, when we can come to him and say, ‘ Our Father’?
1. It conduceth to our confidence in prayer.
2. It furthereth our duty

How will God perform the parts of a father?
l. In allowing them full leave to come to him in all their necessities.
2. In supplying all our wants.
3. Pitying our miseries.
Own God in the humbling way. Learn the policy of the prodigal: Luke xv 18, 19, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.’ This is the policy and art of a humble faith, to call God Father.

We now come to speak of the possessive particle—Our Father. The word is used for a double reason:
1. To comfort us in the sense of our interest in God.
2. To mind us of the common interest of all the saints in the same God. It is not my or thy Father only, but our Father.
That all the saints have a common interest in the same God; therefore Christ taught us to say, ‘Our Father. They have one Father, as well as one Spirit—one Christ, one hope, and one heaven: Eph. iv. 6."
Thomas Manton (1620-1677)

A Successful Pleader

But I am poor and needy:
make haste unto me, O God:

Thou art my help and my deliverer;

O Lord, make no tarrying.

Psalm 70:5

"In our text we have the soul of a successful pleader under four aspects: we view,

--first, the soul confessing: "I am poor and needy."
--You have next, the soul pleading, for he makes a plea out of his poor condition, and adds, "Make haste unto me, O God!"
--You see, thirdly, a soul in it's urgency, for he cries, "Make haste," and he varies the expression but keeps the same idea: "Make no tarrying."
--And you have in the fourth and last view, a soul grasping God, for the psalmist puts it thus: "Thou art my help and my deliverer"; thus with both hands he lays hold upon His God, so as not to let Him go till a blessing is obtained."
Charles Spurgeon

Creation Moment 4/18/2018 - Calling on "father Darwin"

"Ctenophores and the story of evolution in the oceans (Phys.org). Little children, let us call on Father Darwin so that we can “understand the evolutionary history of these remarkable animals.”

This article is supersaturated with the word evolution, and yet we find that the scientists don’t

understand anything about the evolution of these creatures. Does it concern the Darwinians at Monterey Bay Aquarium that ctenophores, or comb jellies, appeared in the Cambrian Explosion and are unchanged after over 500 million Darwin Years of evolution?

One way to dodge the issue is to say it’s complicated. They state, “ctenophores as a group have a long and complicated evolutionary history.” Toss in a little microevolution and convergent evolution, and they can avoid the main question: how did these complex animals emerge in a geological instant from non-ctenophores? It doesn’t matter to them, because evolutionary storytelling is always a work in progress, with futureware vanishing forever into the horizon: “it’s likely that some of his team’s work will shed further light on the history of animal evolution.” Well, it hasn’t yet. How much longer do we have to wait for the light to shine?" CEH
But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them;Psalm 59:8

Armageddon Sermon SERIES by Doug Batchelor

Armageddon Sermon SERIES

(by Doug Batchelor)

And he gathered them together into a place

called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Revelation 16:16

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qJS9CG8VwwE

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/embed/avr-8s8tR1Y

DESIRE OF AGES: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 46

He Was Transfigured

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/c0pcSvgkHlE?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C

Divinity from within flashes through humanity, and meets the glory coming from above. Arising from His prostrate position, Christ stands in godlike majesty.
Jesus was clothed with the light of heaven, as He will appear when He shall come the second time without sin unto salvation. For He will come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. Hebrews 9:28; Mark 8:38
Beside Him are two heavenly beings, in close converse with Him. They are Moses, who upon Sinai had talked with God; and Elijah, to whom the high privilege was given--granted to but one other of the sons of Adam--never to come under the power of death.
 

No Mist or Cloud

........and the lusts of other things entering in,
choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
Mark 4:19

"Nothing should be given as food to the brain that will bring before the mind any mist or cloud in regard to the Word of God."
MS 15,1898 E.G.W. 

IN the NEWS - Politicians Lie???

What???...POLITICIANS LIE???? R U SERIOUS?????....whoever would've thought a POLITICIAN would LIE???

"A former senior adviser to President Obama has confirmed what his most strident critics have said all along: Barack Obama lied to the American people about opposing gay “marriage” to boost his chances of winning the 2008 presidential elections.
David Axelrod, a veteran of Chicago left-wing politics who advised Obama during the campaign, makes the admission in a book Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.....

Obama first indicated his support for redefining marriage while running for state office in Illinois in 1996, filling out a questionnaire that said, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”
Candidate Obama wanted to publicly broadcast his views during his campaigns for national office but was afraid the position – then radically unpopular – would end his chances of becoming president. Axelrod writes that campaign manager Jim Messina warned Obama that backing same-sex “marriage” could cost him the electoral votes of North Carolina.

During a 2008 debate, Obama told Saddleback Church megapastor Rick Warren, “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”
But Axelrod reveals in his new book that, after proclaiming his support for marriage at one campaign event, Obama dismissed his rhetoric as nothing more than a bout of “bullsh---ing.”

As a candidate, he walked a thin line, stating his support for traditional marriage – but opposing any efforts that would legally codify that belief and backing government policies that would grant greater acceptance (and benefits) to homosexuals. In 2008, he dismissed opposition to homosexuality as based on “an obscure passage in Romans.”

Obama hinted at a bloggers conference in October 2010 that “attitudes evolve” on gay “marriage,” “including mine...I think it’s pretty clear where the trend lines are going.”
Axelrod exposes the fact that Obama was actually dying to place the full rhetorical weight of the bully pulpit behind same-sex “marriage.”

“I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told ABC News reporter Robin Roberts in an interview that aired on May 9, 2012. “When we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing Himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule.”

Yet liberal writer Jonathan Chait praised Obama in New York Magazine, writing that “Obama had the decency to lie badly.” Lifesite

Let's Look at the supposed "Obscure Passage" in Romans---And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Romans 1:27

17 Reasons SERIES PAGE

17 Reasons SERIES PAGE

In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
Colossians 3:11 NLT

 

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BRAZEN SERPENT Archives PAGE

BRAZEN SERPENT Archives PAGE

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,

 even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:14

Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/mysteries-of-brazen-serpent.html
Lift Up The Suffering Symbol performed by MICHAEL CARD
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/lift-up-suffering-symbol-performed-by.html
Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness

https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/brazen-serpent-in-wilderness.html
Numbers 21:5-9 Commentaries
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/numbers-215-9-commentaries.html
Brazen Serpent Chiasm
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/brazen-serpent-chiasm.html
Serpent in the Wilderness
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/serpent-in-wilderness.html
Hezekiah Destroys Nehushtan
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/hezekiah-destroys-nehushtan.html
Michelangelo’s Fresco
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/michelangelos-fresco.html
Serpents vs. the Sheep
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/04/serpents-vs-sheep.html
Bitten? an in-depth study
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2012/07/bitten-in-depth-study.html
Governor of the Universe & the Brazen Serpent
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/11/governor-of-universe-brazen-serpent.html
2 Symbolic Representations of the Fiery Serpents
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2018/12/2-symbolic-representations-of-fiery.html
Why the Fiery Serpents?
https://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2020/02/why-fiery-serpents.html

Creation Moment 4/17/2018 - Silly Evolutionists

"The evolutionary advantage of having eyebrows (The Conversation). Penny Spilkins weaves this

tangled logic: ‘eyebrows exist, therefore they evolved.’ This is from not just an ordinary Lecturer in the Archaeology of Human Origins, but a Senior Lecturer in the Archaeology of Human Origins. Is this science? She says, with imagination supporting Klinghoffer’s description,

It seems then that for humans (and dogs), being able to get along with others was key to survival. And for our ancestors, the evolution of the eyebrows performed an important function in expressing friendliness. All of which forms part of a process of “self-domestication” – where our human brains, bodies and even anatomy reflects a drive to get on better with those around us." CEH

 But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them;
Psalm 59:8

DESIRE OF AGES: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 45

The Foreshadowing of the Cross

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/3WvPku35yac?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C

He would win back the world to its loyalty to God. Although the baptism of blood must first be received; although the sins of the world were to weigh upon His innocent soul; although the shadow of an unspeakable woe was upon Him; yet for the joy that was set before Him, He chose to endure the cross, and despised the shame.
The word Peter signifies a stone,--a rolling stone.
-Peter was not the rock upon which the church was founded.
-The gates of hell did prevail against him when he denied his Lord with cursing and swearing.
-The church was built upon One against whom the gates of hell could not prevail.
Centuries before the Savior's advent Moses had pointed to the Rock of Israel's salvation.
The psalmist had sung of the Rock of my strength. Psalm 62:7

17 Reasons SERIES: #17

17 Reasons why Christianity should NOT have succeeded....

"17 factors to be considered -- places where Christianity "did the wrong thing" in order to be a successful religion. It is my contention that the only way Christianity did succeed is because it was a truly revealed faith -- and because it had the irrefutable witness of the Resurrection." J.P.Holding

Factor #17 -- Encouraging People to Check the Facts for Themselves Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15  "Encouraging people to verify claims and seek proof (and hence discouraging their gullibility) is a guaranteed way to get slammed if you are preaching lies. ---Let us suppose for a minute that you are trying to start a false religion. In order to support your false religion, you decide to make up a number of historical (i.e., testable) claims, and then hope that nobody would check up on them. In other words, despite the advice given in factors #7 (i.e., don't make up historical claims) and #13 (i.e., that people will check out your claims), you've decided to take a punt and hope that people will be gullible enough to join your religion.  Suppose, for example, you are starting a new UFO cult, where the faithful will be taken up into a

UFO that is waiting for them. Such a cultist would usually follow advice from factor #7, and make sure the UFO is somewhere where people can't go and check up on it (e.g., assert that the UFO is hiding behind the Moon). But suppose you ignored this advice, and instead asserted that the UFO was waiting in a cave in a mountain not far from the city. The last thing you would do is encourage people to go to the cave and check out your claim - thereby discouraging the very gullibility that your cult's survival depends on. If you wanted to attract people to join your cult, you'd have to do the direct opposite - discourage your potential recruits from checking it out. Throughout the NT, the apostles encouraged people to check seek proof and verify facts:

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. As if the apostles weren't making things hard enough for themselves by making extraordinary and testable claims in a social environment where it was difficult to keep secrets, they increased the odds significantly by actively encouraging people to check out their claims. Encouraging people to verify claims and seek proof is a guaranteed way of ensuring that your fledgling cult is a flop - unless, of course, those claims hold up under the scrutiny that your encouragement will undoubtedly generate."

J.P.Holding

Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,

 even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:14

 "We are told by wise men that all languages are based upon figures, that the speech of men who are

uncivilized is mainly composed of figures; and that indeed the language of the most civilized, when cleaved so as to bring it to its natural foundation, is based upon a set of metaphors perceived by the mind, and then used in language.

Now, beloved, it is the same in spiritual language as it is in natural speech Nicodemus was but a child in grace: when Jesus Christ would teach him to speak concerning things of the kingdom, he did not talk to him in abstract words, but he gave him metaphorical words whereby he might understand the essence of the thing better than by giving him a mere abstract term.

"Like as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness." And so the first religious talk of converted men must always be in figures....the words of Jesus, must first be applied to the sinner, before he is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and understands the mysteries of the kingdom.

I. Our first figure represents MEN IN THE ESTATE OF SIN; and the figure is borrowed from the children of Israel in the wilderness, when they were invaded by the fiery serpents. Can you imagine the horror and dismay depicted upon the countenances of the Israelites, when, for the first time, they saw themselves invaded by an army of fiery serpents? They had stood valiantly in fight against Amalek; but these were things that trembled not at the sword.
And now, dear friends, if we could all of us see our position in this world, we should this day feel as Israel did when they saw the serpents coming upon them. But the picture blackens; we must have deeper shades to paint it. Behold the people after they were bitten! Can you picture their writhings and contortions when the poison of the serpent had infected their veins? We are told by the old writers that these serpents when they bit caused vehement heat, so that there was a pain throughout the body.
But the death of the sinner, who hath been bitten by his lusts, and hath not been saved by faith in Christ—oh, how terrible! And now, my dear hearers, you are not dying now; but you will be dying soon.
Yes, the condition of the mass of men is just like the condition of the children of Israel when they were bitten by the serpents.

II. And now comes THE REMEDY. The remedy of the bitten Israelites was a brazen serpent; and the remedy for sinners is Christ crucified.
This much I know, if they did not despise the brazen serpent, there be many that despise Christ crucified.
But remember, that much as those who heard of the brazen serpent might have despised it, yet there

was no other means of cure.

III. And now WHAT WAS TO BE DONE WITH THE BRAZEN SERPENT?
 The text says, "Moses lifted it up;" and we read he was to lift it up upon a pole. Ah, dear friends, and Christ Jesus must be lifted up.

He has been lifted up;

--wicked men lifted him up, when, with nails on an accursed tree, they crucified him!
--God the Father hath lifted him up; for he hath highly exalted him, far above principalities and powers.
--But the minister's business is to lift him up. There are some ministers who forget that their errand in the world is to lift up Christ.
*"The Bible," says the Church of Rome, "must not be read by the vulgar crowd! How can they understand it? It is a thing too sacred for the common people to see! No, wrap up the brazen serpent; wrap it up in a cloth, do not let it be exhibited."
*"No," say our Protestant ministers, many of them, "the Bible must he given, but we must never alter the translation of it!" There are some passages in the present translation that are so dark, that no man can understand them without an explanation. "But no," say the divines of this age, "we will not have the Bible translated properly, the people must always put up with a faulty translation. The brazen serpent must be wrapped up, because it would a little unsettle matters."

IV. And now, dear friends, WHAT WERE ISRAEL TO DO? What are convinced sinners to do? The Israelites were to look; the convinced sinner must believe.
Oh, how' many have said, "A little sleep, a little folding of the hands!" and they have been like men on shipboard, when the ship was foundering, who would not escape while they might, but still tarried on deck; at last a sea swallowed them, and they went down alive into the depths. Take heed of procrastination.

Remember there is

the same Christ for big sinners as for little sinners;
the same Christ for grey heads as for babes;
the same Christ for poor as for rich;
the same Christ for chimney sweeps as for monarchs;
the same Christ for prostitutes as for saints."
Charles Spurgeon

Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3: 14, 15

"The lifting up of the brazen serpent was to teach Israel an

important lesson. They could not save themselves from the fatal effect of the poison in their wounds. God alone was able to heal them. Yet they were required to show their faith in the provision which He had made. They must look in order to live.

They knew that there was no virtue in the serpent itself, but it was a symbol of Christ; and the necessity of faith in His merits was thus presented to their minds.

--Heretofore many had brought their offerings to God, and had felt that in so doing they made ample atonement for their sins. They did not rely upon the Redeemer to come, of whom these offerings were only a type.
--The Lord would now teach them that their sacrifices, in themselves, had no more power or virtue than the serpent of brass, but were, like that, to lead their minds to Christ, the great sin offering. . . .

 So the sinner may look to Christ, and live. He receives pardon through faith in the atoning sacrifice.

Unlike the inert and lifeless symbol,

Christ has power and virtue in Himself to heal the repenting sinner.

While the sinner cannot save himself, he still has something to do to secure salvation. "Him that cometh to me," says Christ, "I will in no wise cast out" (John 6: 37). But we must come to Him; and when we repent of our sins, we must believe that He accepts and pardons us."
God's Amazing Grace p.314 E.G.W.