Duck dynasty and Phil Robertson part #3 of 5

The balance of this article is going to be from an article by: Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., who serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he accurately presents it three ways and I will carry the whole article for your study:
1. The Law of God speaks against it.
Leviticus 18:22, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” (An abomination is anything that is disgusting to God.)

Leviticus 20:13, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

Deuteronomy 23:17,28 “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” The word “dog” means a sodomite or a male prostitute.

2. Biblical history speaks against it.

Genesis 19:4-12, “But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:”

is 19:23-28, “The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.”

1 Kings 14:24, “And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.”

1 Kings 15:11-12, “And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.”

1 Kings 22:41-46, “And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places. And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.”

2 Kings 23:7, “And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.”

I told you I would provide you with scriptures, didn't I?

Lets Go to Part #4

Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson part #2 of 5

In Part 1 of my 'Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson' articles, I said I would give scriptural references explaining why homosexuality is wrong according to God. Continue through the entire "parts" of the Duck Dynasty's articles I've written and you will find many scriptures.
This debate is itself, nothing less than a revolutionary development. Any fair-minded observer of Do we have a distinctive message in the midst of this moral confusion?

American culture and American churches must note the incredible speed with which this issue has been driven (or forced) into the cultural mainstream. The challenge for the believing church now comes down to this:
Our answer must be, "Yes".
The Christian church must have a distinctive message to speak to the issue of homosexuality, because the Bible has a distinctive message. Faithfulness to holy Scripture demands that the Church hold to the Biblical witness. Anything less is a road to theological oblivion.
Biblical Christianity represents the greatest obstacle to the normalization of homosexuality. The reason for this is quite simple — the Bible emphatically condemns all forms of homosexual behavior. If homosexual advocates are to succeed, with satan as their chief enthusiast, they must either marginalize or neutralize the Bible as an authority (which a dead church will allow).
The Biblical witness is very clear and accurate and cannot be changed without doing damage to the integrity of the Bible itself. Predictably many don't care as long as they can justify their sin. Fortunately this will never happen because when it comes to the homosexual and lesbian, the scriptures don't just speak, they yell. In any event, below is the beginning of the scriptural references I promised you:
Genesis 1:26-28
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (KJV)

As Genesis 1:27 makes apparent, God intended from the beginning to create human beings in two genders or sexes — ”male and female He created them.” Both man and woman were created in the image of God (v.26). They were and are distinct, and yet inseparably linked by God’s design. The genders really are different, and the distinction goes far beyond mere physical differences, but the man recognized the woman as “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.”

The bond between man and woman is marriage, which is not an historical accident or the result of socialization and cultural evolution. To the contrary, marriage and the establishment of the heterosexual covenant union is central to God’s intention — before and after the Fall. Look at this, immediately following the creation of man and woman come these instructive words: “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
 

Evangelical Christians have often failed to present this biblical truth straightforwardly, and so many of our churches and members are unarmed and unprepared for the ideological, political, and cultural conflicts which we are going to come up against. The fundamental fact upon which the church corporately, and Christians individually, must base any response to homosexuality is this: God alone is sovereign, and He has created the universe and all within by His own design and to His own good pleasure. Furthermore, He has revealed to us His creative intention through Holy Scripture — and that intention was clearly to create and establish two distinct but complementary genders or sexes. The Genesis narratives demonstrate that this distinction of genders is neither accidental nor unimportant to the divine design. “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make for him a helper suitable for him,” determined God. And God created woman. [It is not to be confused. When God said "husband" it means man, "wife" means woman.]
 

God reinforces His purpose of the man and women for each other in the cleaving of man to the woman [“his wife”] and their new identity as “one flesh.” This biblical assertion — which no contorted interpretation can escape — clearly places marriage and sexual relations within God’s creative act and design. How can you mess with this scriptural truth and justify homsexual behavior as acceptable? And we are only in our first scripture reference.

The sexual union of a man and a woman united in covenant marriage is thus not only allowed, but is commanded as God’s intention and decree. Sexual expression is limited to this heterosexual covenant, which in its clearest biblical expression is one man and one woman united for as long as they both shall live.

Therefore, any sexual expression outside of that heterosexual marriage relationship is illicit, immoral, and outlawed by God’s explicit command and law. That fundamental truth runs counter, not only to the homosexual agenda, but to the rampant sexual immorality of the age. I want to add this little note to our conversation as well. The Bible has much more to say about illicit heterosexual activity than about homosexual acts. Adultery, rape, bestiality, pornography, and fornication, for example, are expressly forbidden.  Sexuality because of the innate power of it, and because its desire is purposely woven into our instinctive fabric by our Creator, is clearly given ground rules to keep it morally, socially and behaviorally safe and beneficial to the good health of mankind.

(More Scriptures in Part 3)
(next article is more clear, 'don't do that,' than ever

Revelation (d) The Rapture

This part of my article is going to focus on part #2 only.
Remember Part #1 of the three-part division is "the things which thou hast seen,' (which was about Christ).
Part #3 is 'the things which shall be heareafter,' this is everything that happens after the church is raptured, which includes all the chapters from Rev. 4-22.
Part #2 of the three-part key to the book of Revelation (which is what we're looking at in this article, using Rev. 2 & 3)  is, "write the things which are," (those things concerning the churches at the time he was writing, and all the churches throughout the Church age up to the rapture.
Remember in the book of Revelation, the word "church", or "churches" isn't used after chapter 3 and then but once in chapter 22 and it is used only as closing remarks. Why is the word "church" or "churches" not used after chapter 3? It is Biblically simple and scripturally noted..... because it is raptured, gone, snatched away. 
This is the only part of the entire book of Revelation that is now being fulfilled.  Is that crazy or what? All of the two thousand-or-so year history of the church, and all of the many events and happenings of the church have taken place in only these 2 chapters.  Geez talk about brevity.
Ok, so let's move on. Since we are still here, it is safe to conclude that the rapture has yet to take place.  While we are all to look forward to the coming of the Lord, there is still a perspective that we must maintain as earth dwellers. So I want to put the rapture into a perspective.
The greatest thing that ever happens in the church is what happens everyday throughout the world---it's when a sinner receives salvation. Nothing can ever top that. That's the purpose of the church and is also the highpoint of the church. Bringing forth new life, birthing new believers!
But the greatest unfulfilled event that will happen to the church is the 'rapture' of the body of Christ.  Jesus coming forth in the heavenlies, and saints being lifted off the earth into heaven within the twinkling of a eye is an "off the charts" experience. It is also called being translated, snatched away, the parousia, the rapture of the church. The idea of God transporting people off the earth to heaven is not limited to the one New Testament event we call "the rapture"; no, things like this happened in the Old Testament as well.
The first and most astounding example of this involves a man named Enoch, in the book of Genesis.  He was such a friend of God and a man who was righteous and holy in his lifestyle that he "walked with God 300 years and then...." he was not, for God took him"(Gen. 5:23-24). He did not die, he was not killed. God took him. He was translated from earth to heaven without dying. Being a good boy for 300 years is unimaginable for someone like me. I really think Enoch must have been a very special man. How did he stay out of trouble for 300 years and, here I can't do it for 365 days. Geez!
Later on in the book of 1 Kings, there was another man, Elijah. He was a great prophet who was also taken back to heaven by God without the instrument of death.  When Elijah was taken, he and Elisha his servant had been walking together when a fiery chariot came down from heaven and snatched him from earth and away he went as Elisha stood there watching him vanish into the heavens. This event is unique in that it involves an eyewitness account, which is pretty neat.
In 1 Corinthians 15:50-53, the apostle Paul tells us; "What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These perishable bodies of ours are not able to live forever. But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die."(NLT)
 Here the scripture tells us that the remnants or ashes of christians who have gone on before us will be translated into new, heavenly bodies and will be joined to their spirit which is in heaven with the Lord. At the same time, in the twinkling of an eye, all living Christians will also be translated immediately, with them, to meet Jesus in the 'clouds' and together they will go into heaven (1 Thes. 4:17). Is that kool or what?
Let's conclude this article with Hebrews 11:5, where the apostle Paul makes it clear that even in the Old Testament this translation (or ressurrection, rapture, snatching away, parousia) experience was dependent on one special factor - 'faith.' The verse says, 'By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death, "and was not found because God had translated him," for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God'.
Enoch & Elijah were just normal human beings, and in one second, God simply and suddenly
snatched them away to another place. It will not be any more difficult for Him to perform such an event for every living Believer - in the twinkling of an eye - as it was for them.
(the next Revelation (e) article will explain the difference between the second coming of Christ and the rapture).

Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson? part # 1of 5

Is America trying to rewrite the Bible? Various groups and individuals made a stink over Phil Robertson's statement characterizing homosexuality as a sin. Many of the homosexual organizations are claiming that Phil didn't accurately represent the Bible or the faith he professes. This attack is the latest in a "pro-homosexual trend" to discredit the accuracy, infallibility and authority of the Scriptures.
The problem is that what they are doing is to invalidate the need for repentance, forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection.
A person speaking on behalf of a group called GLAAD, a leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, said: "Phil's lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe".  Liars, liars are they.
So we have a group of people who represent a sin, which God calls an abomination, telling us what the Bible means. Interesting?
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a news release, that Robertson didn't represent "people who consider themselves followers of Christ." Are they now speaking for me? They never asked me, and I am a follower of Christ? I agree with Phil, he represents me on this matter.
The new push to get people to accept this sin, against God's law of marriage, is to say that we are misusing the Bible and that the true interpretation of the inspired Word of God is that it is pro-homosexual. (Really?) Or maybe, and more truthfully than I want to admit, the gays have figured out that many of the people who "say they are Christians", do not know their Bibles very well at all, and the reason they are able to say whatever they want is because most of those so called Christians don't know what it says anyway.
Throughout the Bible, homosexuality is absolutely forbidden. We are told that those who practice it will not inherit the Kingdom of God, and that they are hell-bound in their homosexual practices (1Corinthians 6:9-10).
The Bible clearly tells us, in no uncertain terms, how God expects man to conduct himself. He has never requested that GLAAD, or some animal group, or any group explain what He has clearly written. The men responsible for giving the world God's Word are His holy, called men. We are not called to interpret His Word, we are called to preach it as He gave it. To teach it as He gave it to us. We are an ambassador of His Word and an ambassador does not redefine who he represents, he speaks only what is said by the one he represents. An ambassador never speaks for himself, only for whom he represents.
The problem in the church today is that pastors have grown too accepting of sin. The church is ducking the moral issues and the silence is advancing our moral decline. There are sins of comission and sins of omission and I believe that many of these cowardly pastors will be held accountable to God for what they are not saying.  Many people will die and go to hell from that silence, and the blood of those individuals will be on those Pastor's hands. Those who are truly called men of God need to stand together and teach what God has truly said. Let the words fall however they will on the members of the congregation. God's Word is a sifting word. It will sift out the true believer from the unbeliever.  His Word does that. We should all be modern day Lots who, in christian love, vex our souls because of the sins of men.
God places what He has to say on whom He wants and trusts to say it, (Romans 10:14) "How can they hear without a preacher"? How can God's Word bring conviction if it is not applied to the transgression by holy men who speak for God, with His impressive and unflinching anointing behind them.
The Bible says that the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be an offense to many. It says that the message of Christ in 1 Pet 2:8 is "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence." We can now ask, to whom is God's Word a stone of stumbling or a rock of offense? The answer is "even to them which stumbled at the word, being disobedient."  This applies to homosexuals or anybody that finds God's Word has no sympathy with their transgressions and sins.
 We must face the bad news of our sin and depravity before we can receive the Good News of His loving forgiveness through repentance and faith in Christ. We must, in love, find the sinner, teach them God's hope, pray and lead them to forgiveness, and then go back out and do it time and time and time again. (next message: a scriptural explanation on the subject).

Revelation(c) - The Key to Revelation

Rev 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter (KJV).
The (NLT) says it this way....."Write down what you have seen-- both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen later."
   Everything we do has a key to it. Cars require it to be engaged before you can start the thing or even get into it. We use keys to lock up our valuables. Songs are written in it. Without the key to a song,  you don't sing or play it properly. Well, the book of Revelation is no different. When God had the Apostle John write the apocalypse He gave him a key. Like an automobile, this literary key will help you unlock this marvelous book and provide smooth intellectual and apocalyptic understanding of what God is teaching in this study.
Thanks for joining me in this walk through the Word. Let's put the key into the book of The Revelation and open it for our understanding. The key is the three part division found in Rev. 1:19. "Write down the things, (first) which thou hast seen, (second) and the things which are, (third) and the things which shall be hereafter."
Because the book of Revelation is a succession of consecutive events from beginning to the end, the events are to be taken in the order as God gave them, and not according to some person's own whimsical or preconceived idea as to their occurrence. God clearly uses His written 'key' to explain the three time periods of how things will happen, as well as what will happen in each time period.
  Part#1 of the key to Revelation is, the things "which thou hast seen.' This is what John was seeing at the time of this vision. I believe it was so that John knew with certainty and unmistakable conviction that what he was about to write was given to him from the mind of Jehovah God.  So John's first vision is meant sell him on the magnanimity of the Author Himself, and the dependability of that source. This is no menial dream, make no mistake about it.  Jesus is saying to John, "you are writing about Me, and you know Me, but the Me that you know will be an obstacle as we proceed.  What you know of Me as Jesus the Messiah, the earthly Savior, will obstruct you concerning the universiality of the apocalypse - and the apocalyptice events forthcoming." So, Jesus appears to John in so much grandeur, and with so much glory and power, (and blows him up inside is head). John sees the magnificent vision of Christ in the midst of the candlesticks (Rev.1), the beloved of the Lord saw the cosmic Creator, the Alpha, the yesterday, today and forever; maybe we can call it a glimse of the Shikinah glory, and it was magnificent to him. So this first division of Revelation is 'the things which thou seest.'  Rev.1:19; 4:1.
Part #2 of the key is, "write the things which are," that is, the things concerning the churches then and those which should exist throughout the Church Age up to the rapture. This Part #2 includes Rev.2-3.  Special Note: This is the only part of the entire book of Revelation that is now being fulfilled. When the church is raptured  before the begining of the fulfillment of any detail of Rev. 4-22, the messages to the churches that exist at this time will cease to apply to the those left behind from the Rapture. The Church age will be finished and the things which must be fulfilled after, will begin to be fulfilled.
Part #3, the last part of the key is, "write the things which shall be hereafter." These are the things that take place with the churches remaining who have not been raptured. Everything that starts from Chapter 4 to the conclusion of the Book is considered in Part 3 (which is quite intense and something, I am certain, that none of us want to be here for!!)