Tag: the EndTimes

Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.

² Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you.

⁴ But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.

⁵ Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

⁶ Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

⁷ For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

⁸ And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

⁹ Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

¹⁰ Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

¹¹ And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

¹² And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.

¹³ And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

¹⁴ And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

¹⁵ Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

¹⁶ Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

¹⁷ The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

¹⁸ The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:

¹⁹ And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

²⁰ But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

²¹ Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:

²² But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land.

²³ Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.

²⁴ For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

²⁵ When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger:

²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

²⁷ And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.

²⁸ And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

²⁹ But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

³⁰ When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

³¹ (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

³² For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?

³³ Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?

³⁴ Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵ Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him.

³⁶ Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.

³⁷ And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

³⁸ To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.

³⁹ Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lordhe is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

⁴⁰ Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever.

⁴¹ Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;

⁴² That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live:

⁴³ Namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites.

⁴⁴ And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:

⁴⁵ These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt.

⁴⁶ On this side Jordan, in the valley over against Bethpeor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come forth out of Egypt:

⁴⁷ And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;

⁴⁸ From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which is Hermon,

⁴⁹ And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.  (Deuteronomy 4 :1 49) King James Version (KJV) Public Domain

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

² In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

³ And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

⁴ And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

⁵ And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

⁶ And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

⁷ Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

⁸ And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.

⁹ Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

¹⁰ And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

¹¹ He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

¹² And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

¹³ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

¹⁴ Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

¹⁵ For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

¹⁶ I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

¹⁷ And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

¹⁸ For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

¹⁹ And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

²⁰ He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

²¹ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:1-21) King James Version (KJV) Public Domain

The Pope in Rome seems to think that he can change the Word of Yahweh-God. Yahweh’s-God word says that it can not be changed without dire consequences. The traditions of Man are being use to trump the Bible. We are seeing the Rise of the Anti-Christ.

If you regularly check the headlines, then you may have read about the Vatican’s efforts to revise a particular verse in what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer.” Led by Pope Francis, Rome wants to change the wording of a long-standing translation that has brought a mixture of comfort and confusion to many.

The verse in question can be found in Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4, and in the eyes of the Pope and the leaders of the Roman Catholic institution, they believe that “lead us not into temptation” should be reworded to something like “abandon us not when in temptation.” While the Vatican has taken significant time to study ancient versions and do the proper leg work, the faithful student of God’s word should wisely question the purpose and validity of this enterprise.

And for those of us who have studied history, how could we forget the unjust power plays from the Popes of Christmas past? When the majority of Christendom doesn’t know their right from their left when it comes to the Bible, should we just leave this one up to the self-appointed experts of Rome to solve this translational and interpretative puzzle?

By no means should we follow Rome’s lead, or even shrug our shoulders like the rest of the undiscerning world. Instead, let’s apply our minds (the mind of Christ; cf. 1 Cor. 2:14-15) and use the tools available to the true body of Christ in order to separate the wheat from the chaff in this translation controversy.

For starters: What does the text actually say in the earliest surviving Greek manuscripts? Next thought: We should understand that even a literal, word-for-word translation requires some interpretation on the part of the translator. There is a wide semantic range for many words and phrases written in the ancient biblical languages and the variety of English versions attests to this fact. Consequently, the answer is not as simple as what does the Greek say. We must also consider the context of the chapter and book in order to gain a biblically-informed understanding of the inspired author’s intent.

My aim, however, is not to get into the theory of translation or interpretation right now, so I strongly invite you to read this well-written and thorough blog post authored by Dr. Daniel Wallace, a senior Greek professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, entitled “Pope Francis, The Lord’s Prayer, and Bible Translation.” He addressed this controversy a year ago when the Vatican first announced their plans to alter the Lord’s Prayer.

In this post I want to challenge a particular conclusion reached in one of many news outlets reporting on this issue. Michael Dorstewitz, writing for Newsmax, provides an objective piece for the most part, offering several quotes from both Catholic and Protestant leaders. However, the objectivity abruptly ends with this crude summarization:

…in the meantime, the message for all the detractors should be: No, Pope Francis is not rewriting the word of God” (see, “Pope Francis Calls for Change to ‘Lord’s Prayer’ and Critics Go Mad“).

Mr. Dorstewitz’s reply is a great example of an all-too-common attitude in our time: What’s the big deal, so what? Let the Pope change a word or two in order to smooth out a difficult translation and bring unity among Christians. What’s all the fuss about, and why is this news anyway? Nothing to see here, move along.

Well, I beg to differ, because this isn’t the first controversial thing the current Pope has said or done—the leader of the Roman Catholic Church has been rocking the boat and helping to pave the way for a one-world religion ever since he was appointed back in 2013 (for specifics, see Gary’s post, “The Wolf“).

So, on the contrary, Mr. Dorstewitz, Pope Francis is trying to rewrite (re-word, re-interpret) the word of God. Though well-intentioned or not, the Roman Catholic Church is not only twisting the Scripture but also fulfilling end-times prophecy. And there is a tragic irony in the specific verse the Vatican is seeking to emend that relates to Catholics and the coming Tribulation.

…if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14, ESV).

What Say You, Matthew?

Matthew and Luke are the only biblical authors to record the content of Jesus’ model prayer to the disciples known throughout the world as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Luke appears to have a more condensed version, and so, for the sake of clarity and convenience, we will stick with Matthew’s gospel for our purposes here.

When you survey the English versions for Matthew 6:13, you will discover that virtually everyone follows the lead of the KJV and translates the Greek word peraismos as “temptation.” However, when you look up the word in most Bible lexicons or dictionaries, you’ll find that there is a broad range of meaning available.

For example, I have found three primary definitions in the semantic range for peraismos, Strong’s 3986:

(1) Trial
(2) Testing
(3) Temptation

As you can see, these words in isolation evoke different imagery even though they are synonymous. Context, as always, is important in order to narrow down which definition in the semantic range is appropriate for any given verse. Therefore, it is possible that some of the confusion surrounding Matthew 6:13 could be resolved if more Christians understood that the ideas of “testing” and “trial” are legitimate English translations for peraismos.

Nevertheless, some will still confuse this verse in the Lord’s Prayer with James 1:13. On this alleged contradiction please refer to Dr. Wallace’s article linked above. When peraismos is used with God or Satan as the subject, Dr. Wallace makes an important theological point of distinction, “God tests; Satan tempts.”

But the Pope along with many others will object, “God would never lead or bring anyone into temptation, that’s the Devil’s job.” Oh, really? So God would never lead, bring, or send someone to be peraismoed [tested, tried, tempted, etc.]? Well, as it turns out, we don’t have to go very far to answer that rebuttal. Just turn back a couple of pages to chapter 4:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted [Grk. peraismos] by the Devil…” (Matthew 4:1, HCSB).

And, there you have it: Led up by the Spirit…of God. It was God who led Jesus into the desert to be tempted. Now, if you can accept that God led Jesus into temptation, or to be tempted, then how does this affect our interpretation of the controversial verse in the Lord’s Prayer?

To further clarify this crucial literary connection within Matthew’s gospel, here is Dr. Wallace’s brief comment on Matthew 6:13 found in one of his Greek textbooks:

Although the KJV renders [Matt. 6:13] ‘deliver us from evil,’ the presence of the article indicates not evil in general, but the evil one himself. In the context of Matthew’s Gospel, such deliverance from the devil seems to be linked to Jesus’ temptation in 4:1-10: Because the Spirit led him into temptation by the evil one, believers now participate in his victory” (in Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, pg. 233).

And it’s little wonder why many Christians, or so-called Christians, misunderstand this verse in the Lord’s Prayer. The reason is they are confused about the very gospel itself. To conclude, here are some of Dr. Wallace’s most powerful statements in his response to the Pope Francis debacle:

…the temptation that the Lord faced was the ultimate temptation—the offer of the entire world on a platter. Jesus can ask the disciples to pray that the Father would not lead them into temptation and that God would deliver them from the evil one precisely because Jesus himself faced the ultimate temptation by the evil one…[i]t is precisely because of Jesus’ substitutionary death and life that this prayer can be recited today by Christians with the full assurance that God will answer us. Pope Francis’s translation, however, subverts all this…[t]he original text speaks clearly of God leading, not permitting. To tamper with the wording misses the connection with the Lord’s temptation.”

Now then. I’ve shown you how Pope Francis and his cohorts at the Vatican are twisting the Scripture and thereby polluting the waters of the true gospel once again. They are the blind leading the blind. But how is the pontiff also fulfilling end-times prophecy by this latest move?

The Final Exam

The terrible irony in all of this mistranslation mess is the fact that the leader of the largest group of Christians worldwide has no clue that the LORD will not only lead him and the rest of the non-born-again Catholics into temptation, Jesus says most explicitly that He will throw them into the ultimate time of testing—the Tribulation:

Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death…” (Revelation 2:22-23, NKJV).

Do you see the irony in all of this?!

The Pope wants to alter Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4 and absolve God from leading anyone into testing or temptation. However, truth be told, the Lord Jesus doesn’t simply lead the Roman church into the Tribulation like a shepherd gently guiding his sheep to green pasture, He throws them into the Trib like a diseased sack of potatoes going into a burning trash heap.

Yikes.

But please note: For all who are willing to examine the Scriptures for themselves and follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, even if you identify as a former or current Roman Catholic, there is still hope for exemption from the Final Exam. There is still time…but it is quickly running out.

Look, the first and last uses of the Greek noun peraismos in the New Testament are book-ended by Matthew 6:13 and a shockingly relevant verse in the book of Revelation:

Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing [Grk. peraismos], that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10, NASB).

Therefore, you must hear what the Spirit is saying (Rev. 2:29; 3:13) and believe the one and only true gospel of salvation. It’s under heavy attack right now and has been for many centuries. But now that we are nearing the day of the Final Exam, you must examine your beliefs and find out whether or not you are trusting in Christ alone and His finished work alone (Heb. 10:10-13; Rev. 2:26, emphasis “My works”).

If you are trusting in the once-and-for-all atoning sacrifice of Jesus, then you are exempt from the Final Exam according to the correct translation and interpretation of Matthew 6:13 and Revelation 3:10. Rest assured, the LORD will not lead the true body of Christ into the testing period of the Tribulation. We will all be led in another direction—up, up, and away!

After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice [Jesus] that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here…” (Revelation 4:1, HCSB). (Click to Source)