Hello out there!

I've been blessed to have some readers from overseas.  I seem to be getting hits from Germany and Russia with some regularity.  But a week or so ago I got 443 page views of my blog from Russia -- all on the same day.  I figure that simply has to be a glitch in the software.


That being said, if you are a regular reader of this blog, and you are not on the e-mail update list (I send out e-mails letting people know I've posted new material) would you be willing to drop me a line and introduce yourself?  I'd love to know what you've found most helpful and I'd be very open to suggestions on what to write on in the future.


My e-mail is mac61107@gmail.com.  I'd love to hear from you.

Where do we think we're going? (Part 2)

As Christ followers mature in their faith they find they aren't satisfied with where they're at and they begin to focus on where they are going.  Part of being a mature Christian involves seeing something that most people never see and setting your heart on it.  Most of us will not see it with our eyes in this life but we can, and we must, see it with our hearts.  Once we've seen it will never be the same again. 

In Hebrews 11 we read that Abraham "lived as a alien in the land of promise … for he was looking for the city … whose architect and builder is God."  (vs. 9, 10)  We don't know exactly how or when it happened, but Abraham got some kind of a glimpse, some kind of a vision, and after that he was never completely satisfied with life on this planet and he was never completely at home here.  He knew there was a heavenly city.  He knew he was going to live there someday.  And that dream became the focus of His life.  This was in spite of the fact that Abraham was unbelievably wealthy by the standards of his time.  Abraham could buy anything he wanted.  For that matter, he could afford to buy a dozen of anything he wanted.  But somehow Abraham caught a glimpse of what was coming and after he had that vision nothing on earth could ever truly satisfy him again.

That same passage speaks of the people of God "seeking a country of their own."  "They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one."  (Hebrews 11:14)  So they journey on serenely, confident that God "has prepared a city for them."  (v. 16)  It is a perfect place full of perfected people.  Everyone who meets you loves you with a perfect love.  Everyone you meet will become your new best friend.  Every human interaction will be marked by kindness, consideration, and respect.

And the presence of God will be manifested in that place.  You will be able to go into the actual presence of God and gaze on Him.  He is the source of all beauty and all joy.  In His presence you will experience an overflowing joy so intense that it would overwhelm and burn out the body you are living in right now.  But in that place you will be able to experience God's love and joy like powerful drugs that will lift you into ecstasy beyond your comprehension without doing you the slightest bit of harm.

I have a friend who recently lost her father.  This is a tough time for her because her mother is also terminally ill.  But she managed to get some relief because God showed her something.  It only lasted for a moment, but she saw her dad in perfect health, just radiant and vibrant with life, walking up to the gates of that city that is now his home.

We're never going to understand life until we get some kind of a glimpse of life's goal.  This isn't something you can see with your physical eyes; it is something that God alone can reveal to the eyes of your heart.  Abraham saw something and it changed him.  It is my prayer that each of you, my dear readers, will see something, if only for a moment, that will change you for the rest of your life.

Where do we think we're going? (Part 1)

Spending time with cancer victims has led me to this conclusion:  the easiest way for me to die is the hardest for my family, and the hardest way for me to die is the easiest for my family.

When someone is battling cancer they usually suffer and if the illness is terminal by the time they are ready to die their family is usually ready to let them go.  Their loved ones don't want to see them suffer any longer.  On the other hand, if you get hit by a bus and die instantly, assuming you are going to heaven, that's a great way to go.  No hospital.  No suffering.  Maybe an instant of pain and bang!  You're standing over your dead body wondering what just happened.  And then you see the angel who's come to fetch you to your real home and suddenly everything becomes clear.  That's easy for you, but it comes as a terrible shock to the people who love you.

The point that I want to make is that if you mind is right, there really isn't that much difference between dying in a protracted struggle with cancer and getting hit with a bus.  In either case, your suffering is finally over.

Sometimes we are suffering and we don't even know it.   The only time in our lives when we were treated right was when we were babies.  All we had to do was show up and we were a big deal.  Everyone loved us.  Everyone was kind to us.

Then we got a little older and all of a sudden we weren't so special any more.  We weren't a big deal.  Adults were no as excited to see us.  Then we began to interact with other little kids and we found out what life was really life.  We got insulted.  Some of the cruelest things that were ever said to us were said to us by other children.  In some cases we got beat up.

Something inside of us began to tense up.  We couldn't truly relax around other people.  We had to keep up our defenses.  We never really loose that fear of being mocked and ridiculed.  Some of us won't go back to a high school reunion because we don't want to relieve the memories of the way we were treated and the things that were said to us.

And then you die, and if you are a Christian, you go back to being the way you were when you were a baby.  You are taken to this perfect place where everyone treats you like a VIP.  Everyone loves you.  No one will ever ridicule you or be mean to you ever again.  Complete strangers will love you just as much ore more than your mother loved you.  Everyone will be unfailingly kind to you.  And that part of your heart that is all tensed up, that has been tensed up since you were a little kid, will finally be able to relax and interacting with others will be a continuous joy to you.  Once you've spent some time in heaven an experienced the perfection of true, brotherly love, you wouldn't be willing to come back here for anything.

As delightful as your interaction with other humans will be, it will pale in comparison to the delight you will find as you spend time in the presence of God.  The Spirit of God will flow unhindered through your being like a spring breeze.  You will experience infinite love, perfect peace, and the fullness of joy.  You will look back at the happy times on earth and realize that the best thing about them was the absence of pain.  Your soul will, for the first time, be fully satisfied.   

You will look back on your earthly life and say, "I was always thirsty inside.  Sometimes I was less thirsty than at other times; I called those less thirsty times happiness.  But I was never really happy.  The very best that earthly life has to offer now has no appeal to me.  In the presence of God is the fullness of joy.  I would never want to go back to the emptiness and thirst of my earthly life."

So you're in the prime of life; you've got your health, a good job, and a good family; and all of a sudden you get hit by a bus.  And everyone says, "It's so sad.  He had so much to live for." 

But people who really understand life would say the same thing about that man that they would say about a man dying after a long struggle with cancer.  They would say, "Well, at least his sufferings are finally over." 

The identity of the Anitchrist

What we call the end times centers around a seven year period of time that is frequently referred to as the tribulation.  The Bible is crystal clear about the beginning of this seven year period; it starts when Antichrist signs a treaty with the state of Israel.  The state of Israel is already in existence, but what about the Antichrist?  As it turns out we have a great deal of information that should enable us to see the Antichrist coming.

This is a brief synopsis of what you should be looking for.  We are looking for a ten nation confederacy/alliance/empire to arise out of the old Roman Empire.  It will contain two different kinds of people.  One group will be a military powerhouse, kind of like Germany in WWII; the other group will consist of militarily weak nations, kind of like Italy in WWII.  If I had to guess the two groups are Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa and the "used to be Christian" nations of Western Europe.  Don't ask me which group will be the military powerhouse; right now the Europeans are more powerful, but only because they have better technology.  These two groups will not work well together and will require a great deal of diplomatic effort to maintain their relationship.  Scripture indicates that this alliance will be involved in a great deal of military activity.

Once this ten nation alliance is in place, at some point, three heads of state will be removed and a fourth person will emerge and take control of the ten nations.  If that person goes ahead and signs a treaty with Israel then you can pretty well take it to the bank that person is the Antichrist.  (If you are wondering where all this came from, see Daniel 2 and 7.  And please, keep in mind that probably 80% of Bible believing Bible teachers in North America would agree with my basic interpretation of those passages.)

How does the Rapture tie into all this?  The most popular interpretation says that the rapture will come very near to the beginning of the seven year period.  I personally believe that the Rapture will happen in the second half of the seven year treaty period, but doesn't affect my main point one way or the other.  If the rapture happens anywhere near the beginning of the treaty period it would just about require that we would be able to see the ten nation alliance in existence before the rapture actually happens.  With a pre-trib Rapture it is also possible that the we might still be here when Antichrist removes three heads of state and takes power.  If the Rapture comes after the beginning of the seven years, then boys and girls, the church will definitely be here to see Antichrist take power and sign that treaty.

Now some of you may be saying, "If what you say is true, and it 80% of evangelical Bible teachers would agree with it, why don't we hear more discussion about this ten nation alliance?"  The answer is not very flattering to the church.  If conditions were right, you would be hearing a great deal about the ten nation alliance.  Back in the 60's and 70's when the Common Market and then the European Union were coming together you heard about the ten nations all the time.  People would say things like "Israel is in place and Antichrist's kingdom is being formed.  The end is very near!"  But then the European Union got larger than ten nations and the focus shifted away from the ten nations.  Here is the thing:  what I've shared with you, what I've told you to look for, isn't something that is "hot" right now.  I can't write a book on this and sell a million copies.  I can't make people's pulse race and have pastors waiting in line for me to come speak at their church.  But even though it's not "hot," it's still pretty standard Biblical interpretation at the present time.

Waiting for a ten nation alliance isn't very exciting, but wars and natural disasters are very exciting (as long as you don't have to live through them).  Jesus spoke of these signs at the beginning of Matthew 24, and whenever we get a new crop of wars or natural disasters someone writes a book and explains that the coming of Jesus is right around the corner.  The only problem with this is that people have been making these claims for 2,000 years and for 2,000 years they have been wrong.  This doesn't mean that Matthew 24 is wrong, it means that we need some kind of a guide that will help us to understand which wars and natural disasters Jesus is referring to so that we don't go off the deep end every time a calamity happens.  And the book of Daniel gives us that key.

If you read a little farther in Matthew 24 you will find that Jesus references events from the book of Daniel!  The people he was teaching were familiar with the book of Daniel.  So they took the information about the wars and the natural disasters and incorporated it into what they already knew.  And they knew about the ten kings.  They knew about three kings being removed from power.  And they knew that the man who would take over that alliance would be the Antichrist.

Let me close with this.  There was a man named Irenaeus.  He was the Bishop of Lyon around 180 A.D.  He was originally trained by a man named Polycarp.  And Polycarp was trained by (drum roll please) the Apostle John.  Irenaeus lived at a time when the Roman Empire was intact.  So what was he looking for as he waited for the second coming?  Here is my paraphrase.

"In the last days the Roman Empire will be divided up among ten kings.  The Antichrist will kill three of these kings and rule over the other seven."  (From "Against Heresies," Book Five, Chapter 26.)

Why is it important that we remain clear on these issues?  Once upon a time there was a man who went off to fight in a great war.  One of the enemy rulers was a man named Mussolini.  Mussolini was the dictator of Italy and he was bragging that he was recreating the Roman Empire.  So the man going off to war had the whole thing explained to him by a preacher.  Mussolini was the Antichrist and the end of the world was very, very near.  That man was part of a bomber crew that was shot out of the sky on it's third mission.  The man parachuted to safety and was put in a POW camp where he met a minister and became a born again Christian.  That man is my father.  He's in his late 80's now and we don't discuss complex subjects like Bible prophecy, but back in the day we did have a little talk about the subject.  Dad understood that the man who had taught him had made some major mistakes, but he didn't confuse a man making mistakes about what the Bible says with the Bible having mistakes in it.  Not everyone is that wise. 

I wonder about the other guys who listened to that preacher (and there were a whole lot of preachers giving that same message back in those days).  Did any of them come to the conclusion that the Bible is full of bunk when the news reached them that Mussolini had been hanged by his own people?

If we live long enough strange and maybe even terrible things will happen.  They always do.  And when they do people are going to be asking themselves, is this the end?  And you'll be able to explain it to them and maybe, just maybe, keep an irresponsible brother (who may or may not be a famous preacher/author) from damaging precious souls with false information.  A ten nation alliance; three rulers removed from power; the guy who removes them from power takes over and signs a treaty with Israel.  If you are alive at that point you might want to stop making deposits in your retirement savings plan.