Bible Prophecy Update

Is The Bible the Word of God?, Jesus Church

Posted on September 6th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Church, Last Days, Signs

Signs of the Last Days: God is no Longer Male

The new form of worship, which removes words such as “Lord, he, his, him” and “mankind” from services, has been written by the church in an attempt to acknowledge that God is “beyond human gender”. Traditionalists have criticised the changes on the grounds that they smack of political correctness and because they believe they are not consistent with the teachings of the Bible. The alterations have been made to provide an alternative to the established 1982 Liturgy, which, like the Bible, refers to God as a man.

The new order of service, which can be used by priests if they have difficulties with a male God, has been produced by the church’s Liturgy Committee in consultation with the Faith & Order Board of General Synod and the College of Bishops. The controversial changes were discussed at the church’s General Synod recently. The minutes of the synod reveal that female priests had asked why God was still referred to as a man. The altered version of the 1982 Liturgy sees masculine pronouns removed when they refer to God and the new approach has even been extended to humans. For example, the word “mankind” has been taken out and replaced with “world”.
Bible Studies, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Jesus Church

Posted on August 24th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Church, Jesus

The Man Behind The Message

It all started in a small Bible school that my wife, Melody, and I went to during our first year as believers. One of the teachers had recently been to a seminar where the speaker had gone through all the aspects of each of the gifts and callings on men and women of God. He had talked about teachers, administrators, and so on.
The teacher in our little class that day was very excited about sharing the aspects and characteristics of a prophet to the class. He started reading his notes from the seminar he had been to, and he read things like, “Prophets are very moody, they are often very hard to get along with, they see things in black and white and might seem to lack compassion. They are often considered rude and brash, but inside they mean very well, and only want to share the truth – but they don’t seem to mind if they step on people’s toes when they do it.” While our teacher was reading from these notes, I’m sure he didn’t notice the smile spreading across my face from ear to ear. Why, everything he was reading just fit me to a tee! I just couldn’t believe my ears…at last, I had found my calling!
To top all this off, when our teacher was through reading, he turned to the class, pointed his finger at me and said, “My friends, we have a prophet in our midst!” Well, that was it – I was hooked. That’s all I needed to hear! It took the Lord about another five years to completely deflate my head from the delusions that innocent and well-meaning Bible teacher helped to promote in my life. A lot of what he shared was true, but it certainly needed a good deal of warning balance to go with it. That is what I hope to share in this article.
Bible Studies, Is The Bible the Word of God?

Posted on July 30th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Bible, Prophecy

Ruth: A Prophetic Romance of Redemption

This little four-chapter book is often studied (even in secular colleges) as a masterpiece in miniature for its romantic elegance and literary value- and its charming glimpse into life in ancient Israel. It is a classic love story of loyalty and devotion, and yet it also contains some surprising insights that go far beyond the historical narrative itself. One of the principal characters is Naomi, a Bethlehemite, who, because of a famine, migrates with her husband and her two sons to distant Moab. The two sons take Moabite women for wives. During the ten years that follow, Naomi’s husband and both her two sons pass away, leaving her destitute. Upon hearing that things have turned for the better in her native Bethlehem, Naomi decides to return home. She encourages the two young girls to make new lives for themselves among their own people.
Bible Code, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Rob Robinson

Posted on July 24th, 2010

Written by Rob Robinson

Tags
Bible, Last Days

The Fingerprints of the Holy Spirit

We live in a generation of skeptics that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. In times past, the Bible was considered to be trustworthy, reliable and not only contained the words of God, but was entirely the Word of God. Recent discoveries by means of computer technology have given this final generation before Jesus returns, the ability to once again affirm to all skeptics that the Bible is in fact the Word of God. Is the Bible trustworthy? Is it really the Word of God? Is the Bible 100% Accurate? Is there a way to prove these things?

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

One of the amazing facts that has been discovered in the last 20 years, by use of today’s high speed computers, is a phenomenon called the “Bible Code”. The code is composed of words that are spelled out by skipping equal numbers of letters through the original Hebrew text. This phenomenon is called EDLS-Equal Distance Letter Sequences–words with an equal number of spaces between each letter. According to Jewish tradition, Rabbis have claimed for centuries that that “The torah contains all knowledge” and there is a “Hidden Text” in the Torah (Five Books of Moses) which they believe is as old as the Torah itself.
Bible Studies, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Jesus v. Science

Posted on July 20th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

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Prophecy

Fulfilled Prophecy and Mathematical Impossibility

Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events-in detail-many years, sometimes centuries, before they occur. Approximately 2500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter—no errors. (The remaining 500 or so reach into the future and may be seen unfolding as days go by.) Since the probability for any one of these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance averages less than one in ten (figured very conservatively) and since the prophecies are for the most part independent of one another, the odds for all these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance without error is less than one in 102000 (that is 1 with 2000 zeros written after it)! God is not the only one, however, who uses forecasts of future events to get people’s attention. Satan does, too. Through clairvoyants (such as Jeanne Dixon and Edgar Cayce), mediums, spiritists, and others, come remarkable predictions, though rarely with more than about 60 percent accuracy, never with total accuracy. Messages from Satan, furthermore, fail to match the detail of Bible prophecies, nor do they include a call to repentance. The acid test for identifying a prophet of God is recorded by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:21-22. According to this Bible passage (and others), God’s prophets, as distinct from Satan’s spokesmen, are 100 percent accurate in their predictions. There is no room for error. As economy does not permit an explanation of all the Biblical prophecies that have been fulfilled, what follows in a discussion of a few that exemplify the high degree of specificity, the range of projection, and/or the “supernature” of the predicted events. Readers are encouraged to select others, as well, and to carefully examine their historicity.
Creation v. Evolution, Encouragement, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Rob Robinson

Posted on July 9th, 2010

Written by Rob Robinson

Tags
Creation, Salvation

The Inner Law: Proof of Creation

Over the course of past centuries, there have been amazing reports of missionaries who have penetrated the deepest inner most places of the jungle to find isolated tribes of people. Once the missionaries had completed their translation of the native language and could communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ, on many occasions the leaders of those tribes told the translators that they had already known of the Jesus that the Bible speaks of, but they did not know His name. How is it that they could have know about Jesus without anyone ever telling them about Him? When asked how this was possible, the native people explained that they knew inside, in the inner heart, that there was a creator and that they were in need of a Savior. They were aware that there was something obviously wrong with the inner man that was constantly doing wrong.
Freedom of Speech and Religion, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Persecution

Posted on July 3rd, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Bible, Persecution

Florida Schools Ban Bibles on Religious Freedom Day

Maitland-based Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit Thursday to overturn a ban on Bible distribution on public school campuses in Collier County. According to the Liberty Counsel, the Collier County School Board allowed World Changers to distribute free Bibles to students during off-school hours on Religious Freedom Day, but now the school officials claim that Bibles do not provide any educational benefit to the students and the distribution should stop. The Collier County School District policy specifically allows the distribution of literature by nonprofit organizations, but only with the approval of the superintendent and the Community Request Committee, whose members are appointed by the superintendent. Approval was denied to World Changers, despite the fact that its distribution included a disclaimer of any school endorsement or sponsorship and that receiving a Bible was purely voluntary.
Bible Studies, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Other Bible Teachers

Posted on June 26th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Bible, Controversy

Two Isaiah’s and Biblical Criticism

The “textual critics” have insisted that the Book of Isaiah is a compilation of two different writers, each calling himself Isaiah but writing at different times. This “Deutero-Isaiah” theory is surprisingly prevalent in many modern (“liberal”) commentaries. (There are some that even advocate a three-Isaiah theory.) The first section of the book deals with God’s approaching judgment on the nation of Judah. In some of the most striking passages in all the Bible, the prophet announces that God will punish His people because of their sin, rebellion, and worship of false gods. While this section includes many references to the coming Messiah, including His virgin birth1 and his rule on the throne of David,2 the style of this section is distinctive and certainly fits the subject matter. The last section, in contrast to the first, is noticeably different. It emphasizes the Messianic expectation and an ultimate comfort for God’s people. (Most of Handel’s Messiah was drawn from this section of the Book of Isaiah.) The heart of his stunning prophecy occurs in Chapter 53, as Isaiah presents the role of the coming Messiah in its highest point. Some call this passage the “Holy of Holies” of the Old Testament. The Servant’s suffering and death and the redemptive nature of His mission are clearly foretold.
Bible Studies, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Rob Robinson, Salvation

Posted on June 24th, 2010

Written by Rob Robinson

Tags
Bible, Salvation

No Such Thing as an Atheist

I always find it interesting when a person spends so much effort and time trying to convince others that they do not believe in God. If a person does not really believe in something, there would be no need to convince someone else of their stance. It often seems to this writer that the need is on the part of the troubled soul trying to convince their self. The Word of God says that it is the “Fool who has said in his heart that there is no God”. Why a fool? Because the Creator of all things “hardwired” each one of us with a knowledge that they were created and that there is a God. When a computer is built, the designer hardwires into the “Bios”, the basic operating system for that computer, information that tells the computer what it is and how to start up when prompted. So that all men are without excuse, the Lord made us with a basic knowledge that He exists and that we are eternal. If most of us think about it, the thought of dying or ceasing to exist is a strange and foreign concept. “What do you mean I will not exist anymore…” It just seems to be a common feeling within us that we should go on forever and ever.
Bible Studies, The Gap Theory

Posted on June 8th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Bible, Controversy

The ‘Gap Theory’, Part 2: Reasons Against

“The Gap Theory”
This theory tries to reconcile the long geologic eras of Evolutionary thought into the days of Genesis. Those who support this theory say that there was a “gap” of millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. They claim that this is where Lucifer fell from heaven, and God judged Lucifer and the dinosaurs living on the earth destroying them both. Then allegedly God took 6 days to fix the world back. However, not only is there NO Scriptural evidence to support this theory, it is contrary to the fossil record. It omits the humans, insects, mammals, and fish that are also found fossilized with the dinosaurs.
“Without form and void” Question: “Please explain what happened in the 2nd verse of Genesis 1:2. Why is the earth “without form and void?” Esteban (08/03/2001) Answer: The short answer is: Nothing happened. Some people take this verse to mean that when God says that the earth was “without form, and void” he was talking about some type of judgment on a previous race of creatures. They believe that this judgment left the earth in this wrecked condition. The problem is, there is no scriptural basis for this argument.
Bible Studies, The Gap Theory

Posted on June 7th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Bible, Controversy

The Gap Theory Part 1: Reasons For

The doctrine of the “Gap Theory” is one of the most controversial subjects in Christian discussions concerning the text of creation in Genesis chapter one. I do not personally believe that anyone can prove the point for or against the Gap theory with the present information that we have on this side of eternity. I believe that the body of evidence lends itself to a great possibility that there was a gap between Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 and 2 of indeterminate time, but there are also many great arguments for the absence of a gap between verses 1 and 2. In a two part article here on Bible Prophecy Update, I will post first the reasons for a Gap in Genesis chapter one, followed by a second study detailing the reasons against a gap in Genesus chapter 1, verses 1-2. My encouragement to you is to be like the Berean’s described by Paul in the New Testament who listened to every study Paul brought to them, but then took the information they received and compared it to what the Bible teaches and made up their minds based on the facts of the Bible.
Is The Bible the Word of God?, Jesus v. Everything

Posted on May 20th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Controversy, Jesus

The Great Debate on Jesus

Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God ultimately launched the greatest religious movement in human history. Two thousand years have passed, yet today over a billion people throughout the world worship this poor Galillean teacher as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Son of God. Followers of Christ can be found in every nation on earth and in every culture, language, and profession. Over 20 percent of the world’s population — from simple peasant farmers in the Sudan to brilliant, well-educated professors at Oxford — are committed Christians who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that the Gospel record is correct. At the same time, there are millions of people, from all walks of life, who reject the Bible’s claims about Jesus. Many people simply cannot believe the Gospels’ claims about His virgin birth, His miracles, and most of all, His resurrection from the dead.
Archeology, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Jesus v. Religion

Posted on April 17th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Archeology, Jesus

Evidence of Jesus Found in the Dead Sea Scrolls

If someone had asked a minister in 1947 to prove that the original Hebrew Scriptures from the Old Testament were reliably copied without error throughout the last two thousand years, he might have had some difficulty in providing an answer. The oldest Old Testament manuscript used by the King James translators was dated approximately A.D. 1100. Obviously, that old manuscript from A.D. 1100 was a copy of a copy of a copy, etc. for over two thousand years. How could we be sure that the text in the A.D. 1100 copy of the Scriptures was identical with the original text as given to the writers by God and inspired by Him? However, an extraordinary discovery occurred in the turbulent year before Israel became a nation. A Bedouin Arab found a cave in Qumran near the Dead Sea which ultimately yielded over a thousand priceless manuscripts dating back before A.D. 68, when the Roman legions destroyed the Qumran village during the Jewish war against Rome.
Bible Code, Other Bible Teachers

Posted on April 6th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Jesus, Prophecy

The Name of Jesus Found in the Old Testament

In my latest book, The Signature of God, I reported on one of the most astonishing and important biblical discoveries in history. God has hidden the name Yeshua – which is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus in numerous passages throughout the Old Testament. Especially within the great Messianic prophetic passages the Lord has hidden at equally spaced intervals in the Hebrew text the incredible message that “Yeshua is My Name.” This is one of the most astonishing and tremendous biblical discoveries in the last two thousand years.
Bible Code

Posted on March 14th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

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Bible, Bible Code

What is the Bible Code?

Bible codes, also known as Torah codes, are words, phrases and clusters of words and phrases that some people believe are meaningful and exist intentionally in coded form in the text of the Bible. These codes were made famous by the book The Bible Code, which claims that these codes can predict the future. All of these claims are strongly denied by skeptics and many religious groups.
Bible Code Overview
The primary method by which purportedly meaningful messages are extracted is the Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS). To obtain an ELS from a text, choose a starting point (any letter) and a skip (a number, possibly negative). Then, beginning at the starting point, select letters from the text at equal spacing as given by the skip. For example, the bold letters in this sentence form an ELS for the word SAFEST. (The skip is -4. Spaces and punctuation are ignored.)
Archeology, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Science and the Bible

Posted on January 18th, 2010

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Archeology, Israel

Dead Sea Scrolls are Important Discovery in Biblical Archeology

The Dead Sea Scrolls saga is an epic that would have made Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille twitch with envy.
The story has all the elements of DeMille’s “Ten Commandments” and more, everything from biblical prophecies and international intrigue to an ancient treasure map.
The Milwaukee Public Museum’s exhibit “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures,” running Jan. 22 through June 6, is an epic production in its own right. Five years in the making, it’s the largest temporary exhibit ever produced by the museum. The show contains more than 200 items from scroll fragments to pages from medieval Bibles.
The exhibit is designed to explain the importance of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran beginning in 1947. These parchments have shed new light on the Bible itself and on the times in which the Old Testament was created.
Is Jesus God?, Is The Bible the Word of God?

Posted on December 22nd, 2009

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Israel, Jesus

First Jesus-Era House Found in Nazareth

Nazareth, Israel (AP) – Days before Christmas, archeologists on Monday unveiled what they said were the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus — a find that could shed new light on what the hamlet was like during the period the New Testament says Jesus lived there as a boy.
The dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres (1.6 hectares). It was evidently populated by Jews of modest means who kept camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, said archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Is The Bible the Word of God?, Other Bible Teachers

Posted on December 17th, 2009

Written by B.P.U Contributor

Tags
Bible, Church

What’s Wrong With the Gospel, Part 1

I know that the title of this article will possibly raise some worried eyebrows. At first glance, some might say to themselves, “Oh no, Keith has gone too far this time!” But let me quickly put those possible reactions to rest. To the question, “What’s wrong with the Gospel?” I can easily answer, “Absolutely nothing!” That is, of course, if you’re talking about the Gospel of the Bible – the very message that Jesus preached – what the apostles Peter, Paul, John, and the others devoted their very lives (and deaths) to. (Phil. 1:20-21)
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