Joel -Prophet of the Latter Rain SERIES: Call to Repentance

Chapter I.

"Verse 9: The spiritual barrenness of the church is revealed, and the situation implies that the final stroke is near: "The meat offering

and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn."
---Since the "meat offering " and "drink offering " are called "a blessing " (Joel 2: 14), their absence at this time shows that God's people are greatly devoid of spiritual power.

Verse 11: The serious condition of the ministry is portrayed: "Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen [appropriate term for evangelists whose duty it is to weed out sin and sinful habits by their preaching]; howl, O ye vinedressers [appropriate term for teachers who extract the wine from the word the true doctrine], for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished."

Verse 13: The priests are not only to be ashamed, as called for in verse eleven, but in view of the unprece­dented, impending calamity, the "min­isters of the altar " are called to pass days and nights in prayer and suppli­cation before God. "Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God."
The "evil servant " (Matt. 24: 48) would not lay aside his delicious programs to do this, and so is appointed a portion with the hypo­crites.

Verse 14: As all the land was to be stricken, a fast and a solemn assembly was also enjoined upon "all the in­habitants of the land." "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord."B.G.Wilkinson/1928

Creation Moment 8/4/2020 - Darwinian Inspired Racism Brought to Public View

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9

Their motive is may be wrong (the reason for admission is just to be Woke) but at least their Eugenics (Darwinian) past is getting exposure for what it truly was.

 

"The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Bronx Zoo, has publicly apologized for “unconscionable” acts, one from over a century ago.

“First, we apologize for and condemn the treatment of a young Central African from the Mbuti people of present-day Democratic Republic of Congo,” the statement, written by Wildlife Conservation Society President and CEO Cristián Samper, said.

The Bronx Zoo “put Ota Benga on display in the zoo’s Monkey House for several days during the week of September 8, 1906 before outrage from local Black ministers quickly brought the disgraceful incident to an end,” the Wednesday letter explained.

In the statement, the WCS announced that Ota Benga’s records will be made available online in an effort to “publicly acknowledge the mistakes of our past,” and has denounced the “eugenics-based, pseudoscientific racism, writings, and philosophies” promoted by two of its founders; Madison Grant and Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr.

Grant authored the eugenics book The Passing of the Great Race, and Osborn contributed the preface.
The book was used as a defense exhibit for Nazi doctor Karl Brandt, who served as Adolf Hitler’s personal physician and director of the Third Reich’s “euthanasia” program."
Breitbart

Creation Moment 8/3/2020 - Romans 8:22 & DNA G-quadruplexes

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Romans 8:22
DNA G-quadruplexes may show us the ramifications of sin---the groaning of all Creation--right down to the cellular level of the malfunction of an otherwise brilliantly DESIGNED system.

"Quadruple helix structures, called DNA G-quadruplexes, have previously been detected in cells. However, the technique used required either killing the cells or using high concentrations of

chemical probes to visualize their formation, so their actual presence within living cells under normal conditions has not been tracked.
Now, a research team led by University of Cambridge scientists has invented a fluorescent marker that is able to attach to DNA G-quadruplexes in living human cells.
Dr. Di Antonio and colleagues think G-quadruplexes form in DNA in order to temporarily hold it open and facilitate processes like transcription,
--where the DNA instructions are read
--and proteins are made.
This is a form of gene expression,
--where part of the genetic code in the DNA is activated.
DNA G-quadruplexes appear to be associated more often with genes involved in cancer, and are detected in larger numbers within cancer cells.
“With the ability to now image a single DNA G-quadruplex at a time, we could track their role within specific genes and how these express in cancer,” the scientists said.
“This fundamental knowledge could reveal new targets for drugs that interrupt the process.”
SciNews

IN the NEWS - Collapse of Morality

"According to a new Gallup poll, more Americans (43%) said buying or wearing fur clothing is morally wrong than said sex outside of marriage (27%), divorce (18%), or homosexual acts (32%) were unacceptable.

Well, you could sum up this poll with one verse of Scripture, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
And 44% say abortion is morally acceptable, while only 18% believe suicide is morally acceptable. So why is it okay to murder unborn children but not kill yourself? In a biblical worldview we can say both are wrong, but in a secular view this distinction is totally arbitrary.
Just over one in three (36%) say pornography is morally acceptable—but only 9% are okay with adultery. But, again, that’s completely arbitrary—it’s okay to look at and fantasize over explicit images and videos of women and men, but it’s wrong to go out and act on fantasies with others who are married?"
KenHam/AIG

IN the NEWS - They Just Don't Stop

But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
Genesis 13:13

"Glendale priest Rev. Francis J. Hughes was arrested Wednesday on a child pornography charge, federal prosecutors said.

A Queens priest was arrested by the FBI Wednesday after investigators caught him swapping sexually explicit texts and nudes with a 15-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr.
Francis Hughes, the pastor at St. Pancras Church in Glendale, was charged with receiving child pornography for the explicit exchanges, federal prosecutors said.
Hughes, 65, is accused of sending the Westchester teen photos of his genitals and trying to meet up with him for sex, according to Manhattan federal court records."
AbuseTracker

Joel -Prophet of the Latter Rain SERIES: Keynote for All Succeeding Ages

Chapter I.
Verse 2: "Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?"
The prophet will foretell some­thing to come: a colossal scene,
---greater than the flood,
---greater than crossing the Red Sea,
---greater than anything which heretofore has happened in the memory of man.

Verse 3: "Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their chil­dren, and their children another gen­eration."
The coming event must be retold from one generation to another.
It must be passed on until it becomes a proverb; it must be the keynote for coming ages.

Verses 4-15: As when one pitches a tent, he drives the first stake,

then the last, and sights into line all the inter­vening stakes; so with Joel.
He drives the last stake when he drives the first.
After a series of instructions, then painful descriptions followed by in­structions, comes the CLIMAX in verse fifteen: "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a de­struction from the Almighty shall it come."

That which is to be told from one generation to another (as stated in verse 3) is information concerning the four great devastating powers de­scribed in verse 4 as follows: "That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left thath the caterpillar eaten."
We cannot say definitely that by the palmerworm, the locust, the canker­worm, and the caterpillar God had ex­actly in mind Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, yet the following significant statements are worthy of due consideration:
1. These devastators are called "a nation," Joel 1: 6.
2. They are likened to a "lion" (Joel 1 :6), as is Babylon elsewhere.
3. They are likened to an army. Joel 2: 25.
4. They are identified as "the hea­then." Joel 2: 17.
5. They are spoken of as rational creatures.  Joel 2: 17.

If, however, the prophet has precisely in mind literal locusts, canker­worms, palm, cankerworms, and caterpillars, he must by these foresee the devasta­tions of the seven last plagues, which later we will notice in reference to Joel 1: 16-20.
In verses 7 and 8 we find the region or people to be devastated by these four great powers, designated by the following terms:
a.  A Vine.—" He hath laid my vine waste." Christ called His church a vineyard. Matt. 20: 4.
b.  A Fig Tree.—" And barked my fig tree." Christ likened His people to a fig tree. Luke 13: 6, 7.
c.  A Virgin.—" Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth." Paul likened the church to a virgin. 2 Cor. 11: 2."
B.G.Wilkinson

Joel -Prophet of the Latter Rain SERIES: Intro

"Joel is the prophet of the latter rain.

Joel was the first of the inspired prophets whose writings form a part of the Bible, who saw the events con­nected with " the day of the Lord," and he refers to it as follows: Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Joel 1: 15."
B.G.Wilkinson/1928 

SDA Issues- James White on Swine's Flesh

"James White published an article on this subject called Swine’s Flesh – Forbidden in the Word of God.
The article appeared in The Health Reformer, Vol. 7, No. 1, January, 1872, p. 18.
James White not only talks about eating pork but he also says what the fat of pigs should be used for. He used three Bibles verses showing God’s prohibition on eating pigs.

“And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.” Deuteronomy 14:8.
“Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels.” Isaiah 65:4.
“They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 66:17.

Now notice James White’s arguments against eating pigs. This ending is not for those with weak stomachs:

God said of the flesh of swine in the days of Moses: “It is

unclean unto you.” What change can have taken place to make it clean, and a proper article of food for Christians? Has God changed his mind on the subject?  Did the death of the Son of God sanctify the swine? And does the freedom of the world-wide proclamation of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ give liberty to Christians to eat those things which were an abomination if eaten by the Hebrews?
Then for what was the swine made? We may not fully understand why God made rats, lizards, hogs, and rattlesnakes. And we are very grateful that we are not obliged to eat all the brutes and reptiles for which we

cannot definitely assign other uses. But swine’s grease is used extensively to lubricate carriage and railroad car wheels. And the swine’s nature and taste adapt him to the work of a scavenger, to gather up the filth, and thus prevent impurities in the atmosphere. The swine delights in filth. He revels in it. He is happiest when nearly buried in it, or satisfying his vile taste with most horrible rottenness.
If, by chance, he meets a fellow swine that has lain dead a week, until the carcass has become a blackened mass of putrefaction, he will delight his taste, fatten on carrion, and hold jubilee. He devours that with the keenest relish which is most in harmony with his gross nature. And,

more, the swine is an absorbent. Through his lungs, and the pores of his skin, he takes in miasma (tainted air), as a sponge absorbs water. His taste and his smell are in harmony with the most abhorrent rottenness. As a scavenger, the swine takes into his brute system, from the filth he eats, and from the corruptions he delights to breathe, until every particle of him contains the deadly infection.
And then, Christian men and women, in their turn, do him the honor to become scavengers to the swine, in serving up the flesh of his abominable dead carcass as an article of food. And how very careful and prudent these Christian people are not to waste any portion of the precious swine. They will use his heels, where issue the grossest secretions from his corrupted blood, and his snout, which never blushed or turned aside when coming in contact with the most disgusting corruptions.
Some will recognize more of the delicious in a roasted pig’s tail than in a pint of ripe strawberries. And lest a precious scrap of the swine should be left, they even use his miserable intestines for sausage cases. The terrible

influence of swine-eating upon the human system is beyond description. The word scrofula, which represents a nearly universal disease in our day, the almost endless varieties of the taint of which may be named legion, comes from the Latin word scrofa, which signifies “a breeding sow,” the mother of abominations. And it may be a question whether the word, or the terrible disease signified by it, would have had existence, had man never eaten swine’s flesh.
The very character and disposition of the swine accords with his gross habits and diseased flesh. We do not say that the moral evil of swine-eating is proportionate to the physical; but we do say that the very close connection of physical and mental, of matter and mind, would lead one to conclude that the moral evil would run very nearly parallel with the physical ruin. At least, the character of the swine is complimented by the poor devils, as Christ was about to cast them out of the man from the tombs, who, seeking their affinity, “besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.”

 AdventMessenger

IN the NEWS - History of Saul Statue

And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice. 1 Samuel 18:11

"An impressive marble sculpture of the first king of Israel, which disappeared from public view for 150 years, has been acquired by a North Carolina art museum from a boarding school in England.
 But before the sculpture titled “Saul Under the Influence of Evil” is

installed in the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art, conservators must remove the glitter stuck in the crevices of the statue’s clothing and remnants of what might be black fingernail polish.

It seems the students of Rendcomb College, a private boarding school, liked to dress up Saul as various characters during the holidays, including Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and Santa Claus, said John Coffey.

American sculptor William Wetmore Story carved “Saul” in 1865 in Rome, and it was shown that same year in Dublin after Pope Pius IX paid for it to be exhibited there, Coffey said.  When art historians began reviewing Story’s career some 100 years later, they couldn’t find “Saul,” he said.  Turns out, Sir Francis Goldsmid — the first Jew to become an English barrister — had bought the statue and taken it to his country house in Gloucestershire. The house later became Rendcomb College, which sold the statue to the museum earlier this year for an undisclosed amount.

Story said his sculpture depicted the king at the moment when the evil spirit enters him with one hand clutching his beard and his other hand reaching for his dagger.
“You’re put in the position of being David when you confront this statue,” Coffey said. “He’s just glowering at you from this pedestal.”

Anne Faircloth, daughter of the late US senator Lauch Faircloth and a member of the museum’s board of trustees, and her husband, Frederick Beaujeu-Dufor, bought the statue in honor of Coffey."
TimesOfIsrael

Case Study of Saul & Failed Leaders

And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched. 1 Samuel 10:26

"When a man makes a failure in a position in which he is placed,

we are liable to think that God has made a mistake in allowing him to be placed there; but this does not follow.

---God made no mistake in having Saul to be king of Israel;
---but Saul made a mistake in not becoming what God wanted him to be. He made a mistake in following his own ways and schemes, rather than listening to the voice of God.

God may call me or you to a position, and if we have some point of weakness which will prevent our usefulness, and God sends us a message, that message is to make us what he wants us to be, that through his grace we may stand where he wants us to stand."
A.T.Jones

IN the NEWS - Bible Burning Antifa

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 Timothy 3:1

"According to the Portland Police, the crowd lit several fires,

including a large bonfire in the middle of the street in front of the federal courthouse. One video shows protesters feeding a small fire with Bibles, which were engulfed in flames:

 

I don’t know what burning the Bible has to do with protesting against police.

Do not be under the illusion that these protests and riots are

anything but an attempt to dismantle all of Western Civilization and upend centuries of tradition and freedom of religion.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray)

Antifa protesters in downtown Portland have started burning American flags in the street. They are also burning Bibles.

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo)

 Portland Police did not engage with the demonstrators but did respond to a nearby shooting, where over 150 rounds were shot. One round struck a woman."
Breitbart

IN the NEWS - Prince of Persia Inspired Old Fashioned Barbarism

Being filled with all unrighteousness, .... wickedness, ....maliciousness;... debate, deceit, malignity...
Romans 1:29

"Antifa demonstrators placed a decapitated pig's head on an

American flag outside the Justice Center in downtown Portland before putting a police hat on it and setting the whole thing on fire."
TMZ
This wasn't the first of such barbarism:
"In a clear message that hardly leaves anything to the imagination, a severed and bloody pig head was left on a spike in front of LAPD’s Rampart station over the weekend."
LawEnforcmentToday

Creation Moment 8/2/2020 - Hot Jupiters Undermine Jupiter Evolutionary Cosmology

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God...
Hebrews 11:3

"Kenneth Croswell describes some of the new models trying to explain the birth of Jupiter. Planetary scientists thought they had the gas giants figured out in the 1990s, until some inconvenient

facts got in the way.

The discovery of “hot Jupiters” around other stars threw the models into disarray; instead of slow accretion out beyond the “frost line,” they had to invoke gravitational billiards to get them to migrate in close to the parent stars. It also threw the models of our Jupiter’s origin into a cocked hat.

Everything they thought they knew was wrong, and it was time to start over. They invented new models, like pebble accretion and disk instability, with type-II migration to move the gas giants closer in after they formed."
CEH

Creation Moment 8/1/2020 - Lesson of Naming the 7th Day

"The days of creation are sufficiently designated by being numbered, but the day that completes (and celebrates) creation is honored by having a name.
The name of the seventh day is "Sabbath."
Thus a double purpose is served.

---By the naming of the seventh day it is distinguished from all other days,
---and by the numbering of the others without naming them the fact that the Sabbath is a definitely recurring day is made prominent."
E.J.Waggoner

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
 Exodus 20.8-11

Philosophical Thoughts on Noah's Ark

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.
Hebrew 11:7

"There was a rainbow on the other side of the flood, but the great thing when the rain began to fall was how to get through that flood!

It was God who told Noah that the flood was coming.

He told him to preach and warn the people and He also said, “Build an ark.”
Noah was to practice what he preached.
He was to preach what he was practicing.

Hear this wonderful statement from The Story of Redemption, page 63: “He was not only to preach, but his example in building the ark was to convince all that he believed what he preached. …"
Elder W.D. Frazee

Health Note- Polyphenols of Grapes

Beloved,

I wish above all things that thou ...be in health....

3 John 1:2

"All grape varieties contain polyphenols.

Polyphenols are compounds that give grapes and certain other plants their vibrant colors.

Polyphenols are known antioxidants that help fight free radicals in the body. The grape skins and pulp contain the most polyphenols. They also have the highest antioxidant abilities.

Grapes are good for you, in large part thanks to their polyphenol content. Polyphenols may help fight:

• diabetes
• cancer
• Alzheimer’s disease
• lung disease
• osteoporosis
• heart disease

Eat grapes for a healthier heart.

The polyphenols in grapes may help prevent cardiovascular disease.

In addition to scavenging free radicals, it’s thought that grapes have anti-inflammatory effects, antiplatelet effects, and support endothelial function. Endothelial dysfunction is linked with risk factors for the buildup of plaque in the arteries, or atherosclerosis."
Healthline

Deep Lesson of the "Singers"

And these are the singers . . . they were employed in that work day and night.
1 Chronicles 9:33

"As mercy did not cease to rule either by day or by night, so neither

did music hush its holy ministry.

My heart, there is a lesson sweetly taught to thee in the ceaseless song of Zion's temple....God's praise is constant in heaven.

Around the earth as the sun scatters his light, his beams awaken grateful believers to tune their morning hymn, so that by the priesthood of the saints perpetual praise is kept up at all hours, they swathe our globe in a mantle of thanksgiving, and girdle it with a golden belt of song.


Have we not something to sing about at this moment?
Can we not weave a song out of

--our present joys,

--or our past deliverances,

--or our future hopes?

Let us be stirred up to close the day with a psalm of sanctified gladness."
Charles Spurgeon

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The eternal God is thy refuge,

 and underneath are the everlasting arms:
Deuteronomy 33:27

 

 

 

 

 

   

Top 3 Viewed Posts of Month

1- IN the NEWS - Biden goes all Laudato Si’ 

2-  Creation Moment 7/5/2020 - Consciousness Shatters Evolutionary Worldview

3-  IN the NEWS - Confessions of a Green Priest

 

Puritan Corner - Holy Days for Worship

To institute holy days, and to make them parts of God's worship, is a privilege of God alone. God only can prescribe His own worship.
by Daniel Cawdrey (1588-1664)
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God....
Exodus 20:10

Digging Deep into That "Change" of Job 14

"Job says: "All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my

change comes" (Job 14:14).

This change is at the resurrection, for says Paul, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed- in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet" (1 Cor. 15:51, 52).

Again says Job: "If I wait for the grave as my house, if I make my bed in the darkness, where then is my hope?" (Job 17:13-15).

Here it is: "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" (Job 19:25-27)."
A.T.Jones

Creation Moment 7/31/2020 - Evolutionary Worldview Simplified

I have seen the foolish taking root. Job 5:3

"Materialistic literature transports observers into a magical world where analytical principles that explain cause in man-made things inexplicably don’t apply to living things, and where invoking a mystical environmental volition to explain cause displaces everything engineers know about design.
The irony is that evolutionists insert these mystical elements into a theory that is supposed to explain life solely by the material properties of physics and chemistry."
Dr. Randy Guliuzza, ICR Acts & Facts July 2017