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The FOUR HORSEMEN
The MARK OF THE BEAST
The
SEVEN LAST PLAGUES
"Blessed is he
who watches and keeps his garments... Rev.16:15
THE GREAT TRIBULATION
The Counterfeit Christ
Perilous Times
Jerusalem |
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Lets look at the next couple “hard to understand texts in Romans 9
14 Ҧ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
This phrase is from Exodus. We will need to read it to understand this declaration of God.
“ And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” (Ex 33:19 AV)
Immediately after stating this to Moses He passed by before Him while Moses was in the cleft of the rock and said, In Exodus 34
6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. (Ex 34:6-8 AV)
“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” James 4:6
“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” 1Peter 5:5
Confession is the act of humbling our selves. The promise is “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9 AV) Moses knew this holy principal in God’s dealings with men. Moses had recognized that Israel had been proud and stiff-necked. He began to make intercession for Israel confessing their rebellious attitudes against the One whom had shown them such great mercy.
“And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.” Exodus 34:9
God will have mercy upon all who call on the name of the Lord for salvation confessing their sins humbling them selves seeking His mercy. God will also in the end be forced to execute justice upon all who refused to submit to His commandments rebelling against His wisdom thus leaving God with no other choice but to blot out there names from the Book of Life. |
What about the scriptures dealing with God “hardening Pharaohs heart”? Well lets look at them. 16 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 17 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 18 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 19 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 20 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 21 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 22 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,” (Ro 9:14-23 AV)
This is not such a hard thing to understand. Come reason with me. Jesus taught us to “love your enemies,” “for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:44,45. The same sun that shines on wax and melts it shines on clay and hardens it. It is not the fault of the sun rather it is the substance that the material is made from that causes it to react one way or another. There fore Jesus who loved His enemies showed Pharaoh love and mercy as he gave him one chance after another to obey His commandment to let Israel go. Pharaoh’s heart was proud and would not let Israel go each time God had one plague after another cease. God who is all powerful could of in a single manifestation destroyed pharaoh, yet He gave him ten chance to obey God. Finally when Pharaoh had shown that there was no way he would ever obey God no matter how much mercy was shown him it was thena dn only then that God sent the tenth plague and killed all the first born of Egypt so that the Egyptians would be compelled to let Israel go. Even after this Pharaoh went after God’s people with a great army with intentions to force the Hebrews back into slavery. Pharaoh knew this was against God’s will for God had said, “let my people go, that they may serve me.” Pharaoh was not in ignorance of God’s will. Rather He deliberately chose to disobey God. God had extended to Pharaoh as much mercy as He possibly could and ultimately God was left with no other choice but to destroy pharaoh and his army to preserve the Hebrews.
God had manifested through Pharaoh that it is God that “bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.” (Isaiah 26:5 AV) It was God that made Egypt great through Joseph over 400 years before. During the 7 years of famine God had used Joseph to bring all cattle, lands, and men under the ownership and control of Egypt. As long as Egypt obeyed the leading of God Egypt was blessed and made great. When Egypt began to disobey God, the Lord manifested through the ten plagues that He has power to strip the mightiest nation from all its cattle, lands and men.
“It is a fascinating fact that the Hebrew word “chazaq” is translated “hardened” in almost every account of God’s dealing with Pharaoh. But when Pharaoh “hardened” his own heart, the Hebrew word “kabed” is used. Why this difference? Actually the word “chazaq” has a literal meaning of “strengthen, courage.” For example, we read in 1 Samuel 30:6 that “David encouraged himself in the Lord,” but the word translated “encouraged” is “chazaq”—the same word which is translated as “hardened” in this passage. “Chazaq” is also translated as “encouraged” in the following verses: 1 Samuel 30:6; Deuteronomy 1:38; 2 Samuel 11:25; 2 Chronicles 35:2; Psalms 64:5; Isaiah 41:7; Deuteronomy 3:28; Judges 20:22; 2 Chronicles 31:4. When we take the true meaning of the word, we find that God actually encouraged Pharaohs heart to let Israel go. But when Pharaoh hardened his own heart the Bible uses a different word—“kabed”—which means “to make heavy, hardened.””
“But why did the “encouragement” of the Lord have the effect of hardening Pharaoh’s heart? We might just as well ask why the same encouraging, inspiring ministry of Jesus could produce a loving John and a traitorous Judas. One was softened and the other hardened. The same sun that softens the wax will harden the clay. Every man is exposed in some degree to the grace of Christ (John 1:9) The Lord is spoken of as a sun (Psalm 84:11) who lightens every man. Some reject light and grow hard (Zechariah 7:12). Some accept and are softened. The end result depends on the response of each individual.”—Joe Cruz Answers to Difficult Bible Texts p.2
Only those who have their names in the Book of Life during the final time of trouble overcome the mark of the beast.
“ And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Re 13:8 AV)
Only those today who by grace through faith in Jesus are overcoming sin will not have their names blotted out of the Book of Life.
“ He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” (Re 3:5 AV)
We are now in the day of Investigative Judgment and it starts with professed Christians.  |
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