[Trisha]

(b) If anyone truly loves the Lord, they will take every opportunity to learn and talk about Him. No matter where anyone is on their journey, there is always some topic of mutual interest where you can encourage discussion about the Lord. Iron sharpens iron. By contributing to study groups and discussions etc, we are all continually learning and preparing one another to meet Jesus at His second coming.
We should always be aware that some people may be influenced by noticing how we conduct our personal lives.

[Trisha]

I heard a statement on TV that I agreed with. “Live your life like Jesus is coming back today but plan your life as though He is not coming back for the next 100 years”.
I take the view, that preparation is similar to someone in this physical world, who wants to become a citizen of another country. They have to understand the rules/principles of how that country operates and what it expects from them as acceptable citizens.
In order not to be deceived, the Lord has given us a ‘manual’, the bible. I will continue to learn, on a daily basis, (with the help of the Holy Spirit revealing its contents to me), through study, reading and listening etc what the ‘manual’ states about our Creator. (1 John 2.20 – But you have an anointing from the Holy One and all of you know the truth).
I have placed my faith in Christ and what He has done for me at the cross. He has provided me with everything that I need. I will try my hardest to live a life that is pleasing to God because we could also be unaware that we are entertaining angels. If the Holy Spirit convicts me of sinning, I will repent and ask for forgiveness because I know I am covered by grace. Ephesians 2.8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. 2.9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
We all want to hear the words from Jesus that we are “good and faithful servants”. Evangelising is such important work. I will continue to regularly pray for the Lord to not let me believe something that is wrong and to get me back on the right track, if I am off it. I do not want to violate any Kingdom principles.

[Trisha]

Argument that Israelites will always remain chosen by God along with the ‘grafted in’ Church.
Romans 11.1 ask then: Did God reject His people? By no means! (may it never be!) I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
Romans 11.11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 11.12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!
Romans 11.17 if some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 11.18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. (Branches are unbelieving Israel – telling gentiles in the church not to be arrogant – replacement theories are arrogant).

I would also suggest that the 144,000 ‘Billy Graham’ type evangelists, in the book of Revelation, will be part of God’s plan to make sure that all Israel will be saved, during the tribulation period, before the second coming of the Lord Jesus, so that they will be prepared, waiting and recognising Him as their Messiah whom they had pierced.

Consistent with Zechariah 12.10 And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the one they pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son

Isaiah 49.3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display My splendour.” 49.4 But I said, “I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand, and my reward is with my God.” 49.5 And now the LORD says – he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to Himself, for I am honoured in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength. 49.6 he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

[Trisha]

I took quiz 17 and answered the questions 100% according to the notes given for lesson 17, just to prove that I had understood what the notes had conveyed.

There are so many areas that I do not agree with. The notes clearly do not understand the significance of the Book of Revelation and Old Testament prophets, with statements such as “If the OT was fulfilled with the earthy ministry of Jesus, then its relevance is redundant to the future”, “the true Israel is the Church” “the nation Israel is no longer relevant”, “church replaced Israel”, etc.

Notes are assuming, that they know God’s time scale for fulfilment, with regard to the times of the ‘Gentiles’ and the times of the ‘Jews’ in preparation for entry into the ‘Eternal Kingdom’.

The study notes have given no value to the book of Revelation. Is this due to not understanding its signs and symbols? To me, the importance of this book cannot be valued enough. The fact that the book had to be written this way, so that the signs and symbols could only be understood by those that fully knew the OT scriptures, is amazing. If the Romans had understood the manuscript attacking them, the book would never have seen the light of day and it would have been destroyed. They probably thought that John was a ‘mad man’ with this type of writing about dragons and beasts etc. For me, it is the final instruction given by the Lord Jesus and we can only unlock the keys given in Revelation, by getting them from the Old Testament prophets, so they are therefore extremely relevant today. Some of the prophets themselves did not know what they were writing, but the Lord made it clear that the generations that they were intended for, would understand.

[Trisha]

Whether we like it or not, we are in spiritual warfare and need to put on the full armour of God. I see prayer as a great weapon of combatting and restraining the spirit of antichrist activity. There is no greater power for believers, than praying in the name of Jesus, as He instructed us to. John 14:13 Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. We are to pray for all people: 1 Timothy 2.1 states ‘I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people’. We have to pray for our leaders. We have to pray to overthrow the work of ungodly men.
I personally don’t think that 1 John 2.18-19 is referring to ‘true’ believers who have lost their faith in Christ. I think it is telling us that they never had the true faith to begin with. They were individuals who were challenging his message from Jesus. I would suggest that it may be this kind of person, when it comes to judgement day, the Lord will say ‘I never knew you’. As Jude 1.19 states ‘There are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instinct and do not have the Spirit.

[Trisha]

I agree with all that you say Bro. Jean. It has encouraged me to take another look at Lesson 7. We find it all too easy these days to succumb to the desires of the ‘flesh’ because of all the distractions out there, that can keep us from spending time with the Lord. There is pressure to fit in with current ‘cultural norms’ that have moved away from the teachings of the Lord (Eg same sex marriages). We witness many Christian denominations, adopting practices to fit in with society, that even some non-Christian believers know are wrong. As you state, they are denying their Christian faith. We have to stay committed to reading, hearing and studying the Word of the Lord. As you state, this will help us, with prayer, to have wisdom and discernment, to test whether a spirit is of God.
Blessings. Sis Pat

[Trisha]

(a) I still support the Premillennial view. I like the way it offers a structured approach.

The fact that the early church held this view, adds weight.

Fits in with Old Testament Books that deal with prophecy, especially Daniel

Believers have been made joint heirs with Christ so that we can use His name on the earth. I agree with the view that it is the powerful prayers (with the name of Jesus) that is restraining Satan at this time. When believers are raptured (pre tribulation), then that restraining influence will be gone and the antichrist will make his entrance. This makes sense with the pre-millennial view.

(b) With regard to controversy, I thought the other views were basically ‘wishy washy’.

I would be interested to know where evidence is coming from to support comment that Amillennialism “is widely being accepted among bible-believing Christians”. I haven’t seen a shift from prominent TV evangelists changing their premillennialist view.

Although the A-millennialists had some good points, there were far too many conflicting opinions within its views

[Trisha]

I found lesson 16 challenging and would appreciate your comments. I sent an email to Dr. Joshua Iyadurai but no reply as yet regarding the following:
Quiz 16 – Question 11. Spiritual interpretation associates the release of Satan with the …. Copy
Increase of evil / arrival of false prophet / death of antichrist / death of beast / arrival of antichrist

On my first attempt I ticked ‘arrival of antichrist’. This was in response to the study notes on page 20 stating ‘Spiritual interpretation associates the release of Satan with the appearing of antichrist’.

My answer came back incorrect. I couldn’t understand why, so I decided to take the test again and this time I ticked ‘increase of evil’. Understandably, this came back incorrect. I am at a loss as to what was the correct answer? I would appreciate the correct answer, so that I can re-look at the study material.

Another query was Page 14 – When I was studying the notes, I noticed the following wording for 2 Corinthians 4.4 as “For ‘God’ of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. “
‘God’ in 2 Corinthians 4.4, should be amended. Verse should read “The ‘god’ of this age ….
Seeing ‘God’ with a capital letter may lead the unknowing reader to think it is referring to Almighty God and not Satan.

[Trisha]

(a)My understanding of Amillennialism (Inaugurated Millennialism because they do believe in a spiritual reign), is that the millennium reign is symbolic and there will not be a literal or earthly reign of Christ. The Kingdom of God, (which is present and future), began on earth, at the first coming of Jesus and He reigns from heaven with saints who are in an ‘intermediate’ state. They believe that the Old Testament promises to Israel, were fulfilled when the church came into existence and Jesus fulfilled the Davidic covenant.

(b) Because Jesus could come at any time and there will be immediate final judgements, believers must be ready to receive the Lord and evangelise with great vigour. The Lord is King of all, so believers must use His name with authority on earth, to bring in Kingdom values, while Christ is reigning from Heaven.

[Trisha]

(b) DPM believers cannot take it for granted that the Lord finds a way to take righteous living believers out of the way before trouble begins (EG Noah and Lot), and that we would therefore be raptured to escape the tribulation period, especially the last 3 ½ years which is the ‘Great Tribulation’. Even though the church appears to be in Heaven before the tribulation activities start in Revelation chapter 4, it is not totally conclusive. We should still have it in our thoughts that we should also prepare ourselves to go through the tribulation period.
DPM believers are more likely to keep a keen eye on how the rest of the world is viewing the existence of Israel; because Israel plays such an important part in bible prophecy and will be at the centre of some important future world events.
There is an incentive for DPM believers to be extremely active in evangelism because our judgement rewards will be greater the more we evangelise.

[Trisha]

At the moment, I am still firmly in the Dispensational Premillennialism (DPM) camp believing that the second coming of Jesus, will be before the Millennium. There were also some points from the Historic Premillennialism view that I also agreed with. The main one, was point 5, ‘The Church’. The chart notes stated that the ‘Church was an afterthought when Israel rejected God’s plan’. My blood pressure rose at reading this. I would ask, how can an all-knowing God have an ‘afterthought’? I see the church as also being part of God’s original plan even though the plan may have initial different paths for the Church and Israel. I believe the plan was kept secret from the O.T. prophets so that Satan would only concentrate on Israel. If Satan had known about the essential part that the church would play (example reign with Christ on earth during the millennium), he would have made sure that Jesus would not have been crucified. Jesus always intended to buy the ‘whole field’ with His blood and therefore included all Jews and Gentiles.
The DPM view fits more appropriately to Jesus informing us that His coming would be like a thief in the night and that we were to remain prepared and alert for His coming, The rapture could happen at any moment. Other Millennial views, are given more clues before His return, such as a treaty being signed and Israel later being invaded while ‘at rest’ etc.

[Trisha]

The only thing that makes sense to me from the Post Millennial view, is that Jesus will reign on this earth through the ‘Body of Christ’ (Church). We have been made joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We can therefore carry out His work on earth because we have the authority of using His name.

PM has a lot of flaws. On the one hand it is saying that the world will see more Christianity in operation but today, we are seeing an erosion of Christian beliefs and values and an increase in evil works. God has been taken out of our schools and drag-queens are allowed in to influence our children. There is an increase in countries where Christians are being persecuted for their faith. There is a push for ‘one world’ religion and it is now seen as not being ‘politically correct’ to say that ‘Jesus is the only way’. Peace in the world is not increasing it is decreasing with wars etc. Weapons of warfare are not being modified with peach in mind but with greater aggression. If righteousness and peace was going to be the final outcome, then why did Jesus give us the ‘Parable of the Tares’? This suggests that evil will always live alongside righteousness.
They do have the opt out clause that just before the return of the Lord there will be a brief increase in evil and apostasy, which will be crushed by the return of Jesus.

It is more important for believers of PM to have a thorough knowledge of the gospel in order to spread the gospel correctly. They will have to be aggressively involved in missionary and evangelism work if this church age is to be more Christianised and the world under the power of the gospel.

[Trisha]

Hi Bro Jean
Meant to put ‘succinctly’ not ‘distinctly’ – Senior moment
Sis Pat

[Trisha]

Hi Bro Jean
Thank you for taking the time to answer the request for help. I am sure your comments will help others too. Thank you for summarising the points so distinctly.
Blessings
Sis Pat

[Trisha]

We need to be absolutely sure that we meet the criteria to enter the new heaven and earth. You have to acknowledge that you are a sinner and have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, by believing what He did on the cross. We are then covered by the righteousness of Jesus. We are covered by His blood and therefore the power of sin is broken.

Because we do not want anyone to be separated from God because of sin, we should keep evangelising and spreading the word of true salvation at every opportunity.

[Author]

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