Just a Cult

Just a Cult

By Richard P. Joseph

Is there any one thing that you can say that would eliminate nearly all cults from being justified as legitimate?  People often ask me “what difference does it make if you are a preterist or not”?  I have given many answers in other articles but I would like to address another aspect of the benefits of understanding fulfilled theology and that is to explain why cults are illegitimate religions.  

In Daniel 9 we read this from Gabriel's prophecy:

“Seventy weeks[a] are determined

For your people and for your holy city,

To finish the transgression,

To make an end of[b] sins,

To make reconciliation for iniquity,

To bring in everlasting righteousness,

To seal up vision and prophecy,

And to anoint the Most Holy.

In Daniel’s writings we find in a couple of places the idea that once his 70 weeks are completed that “vision and prophecy” would be completed and the Messiah would be anointed as everlasting king.  

If you are a futurist then all of these items are still open for business.  In other words a cult leader can arise and declare that his writings are scripture.  Muhammad, Charles Taze Russell, Mary Baker Eddy, Joseph Smith Jr., Vernon Howell etc would all have legitimate right to claim that they speak under the power of inspiration.  We can easily shoot their theology down by using sound scripture against them but I prefer using the easy way and that is by simply being a preterist.  Islam, for example was not invented until the 7th century AD.  By applying fulfilled theology, Islam is automatically eliminated as a legitimate voice for God.   All scripture has a continuity from Adam to Revelation.  All spoke of the same God, building on the law of Moses and the prophets.  No one book in the bible contradicts another.  However, when cults arise, they have no consistency with canonized scripture.  They don’t because they are not inspired by God plain and simple.  They cannot be inspired because that would make Gabriel a liar.  

Being a preterist, we can understand this as we know that Jesus was the anointed one who fulfilled his mission at his second coming by AD 70.  Our faith is cut and dry; there are no scriptures after AD70, period.  We have clarity while others struggle, we have a mission where others have anxiety, we have boldness while others have uncertainty, no one can mock us while others can be mocked concerning the parousia.  Being a full preterist covers a multitude of insecurities.

The Normal World

“The Normal World”

By Richard P. Joseph

I have had a nice life so far.  Sure there were times of struggle, and there still are, but for the most part I had a nice childhood, have a nice wife, have a job, and have great kids.  I also have clean water to drink, food on the table and a relatively lawful society.  I even get to vote, not for a king, but for someone who is “supposed” to represent me in government.  Theoretically I can make as much money as my ambitions allow.  Some people would describe this as the “normal world”.  However, the more I educate myself on the history of this world, I am now convinced this is not even close to the normal world.

After doing a little “light” reading:

I have concluded that what we know in the United States is far from normal.  The normal world as I have come to know from historical documentation is one of violence and treachery.  Basically, the rule is: he who kills the most wins.  After reading books like “Israel & the Nations”, several books from the NAZI era, some Native American accounts and other historical accounts, I have concluded that the general peace of the United States is an anomaly to say the least.  In the United States we vote people in office and out of office.  This is not the case in past times.  You don’t “vote” people out of your government, you assassinated them, and their family, and their cousins, and their friends, and whoever else needed to be executed.  When William Shirer (news correspondent) went to Afghanistan in the early 1930’s he found that there were 4 heads of state in the previous year; none died in bed.  I always wondered what kind of story it was that King Herod (the Great) would order the execution of all male children in Bethlehem just because his family dynasty might be threatened in 30 years down the line.  But after reading how he executed three of his sons, his wife, her mother, his uncle, his political opponents, and anyone else that I forgot to mention, I believe he made the decision to murder all of those babies while eating breakfast and didn’t miss a bite or even look up when he calmly gave that order.  It was “just another day” for the tyrant.  We all know how many people the despots like Hitler, Stalin, Mae, Pol Pot, and others have killed just to secure their tax base and their wealth.  This brings me to current events.

When you hear of all of the Clinton deaths, one has to use sound logic and reason to figure this out.  After reading how the normal world operates, I have no problem believing that those murders may be real.  I can’t prove it, but I certainly believe it could be real.  If I believed otherwise I would be going against all real historical facts.  In other words, there is nothing odd about killing off your opponents because you are a despot.  I highly recommend you reading F. F. Bruce’s book Israel & the Nations.    The book basically covers Israel’ historical surroundings from the time of Moses to the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.  There was hardly even one king that was not executed or died of old age in the entire book.  They were either assassinated by their own kids, their own countrymen or another despot looking to increase his tax revenues.  We all remember that even King David’s own son attempted to murder his father just to gain the throne.  On page 209-10 of Bruce’s book there is this statement:

Gaius was assassinated by leading Romans because there was no constitutional means of removing an emperor who had become intolerable.  The Roman senate thought of restoring republican government after his death, but the praetorian guards proclaimed his uncle Claudius emperor; and the senate had to accept their decision.

The main point is that in times past there was no civil way of removing your leader.

I remember when the United States tried to force Iraq to have an election.  Of course Saddam Hussein won pretty much every vote.  They understood that a vote against him was a vote to get your head, and your wife’s head, and your kid’s heads, and your extended family’s heads chopped off.  So what is my real point here?

I suppose my point in all of this is that civility and peace really did not enter this world until the Christian nations arose and became powerful.  I always laugh at liberals who make ignorant statements about how America is evil and we began as a nation of slavery and we are still racist today etc etc.   I always ask them; “well, name me one nation in 1776 that didn’t have slavery”.  That is when they realize how ignorant they really are. It was in fact the Christianized nations that “ended” slavery.  It is only the backward Democratic party that keeps racism on the front burner.  It is the Christian nations that allow voting instead of barbaric murder.  It is the Christianized nations that allow freedom to the common citizen.  When I see all of the rioting and looting I realize that we can at any moment slip backward into the messy violence of the past.  On page xv of the introduction to William Shirer’s “The Nightmare Years” he says this:  “To my consternation most Germans joined joyously in this Nazi Barbarism.”  It is funny to see the same thing happening today in the United States.  Once we darken the light of Jesus Christ, entropy ensues.  The more Whimpey the church gets, the greater the violence.  The more we reject the bible the more ignorant we become.  I for one am not interested in regressing back to the days where kings went to war as if it were football season.  I am not interested in the idea that if I want something, I just kill the other guy and take it.  I am not interested in having a dictator like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton want to be. I am not interested in going back the the cast system like many nations still follow.  It was actually depressing reading F. F. Bruce’s book because it is basically one murderous war after another but the book is necessary for the understanding of the Normal World and how blessed the United States really is.  Most people look at English Imperialism as a bad thing, I actually see it as a blessing to the world.  Maybe we can talk about that some time in the future.

Perhaps what I am really saying in a roundabout way is that we “can” easily regress back into those days.  Our primal instincts are still there and all we need to do is erase Jesus Christ out of society and bam we are there.  That is the ultimate goal of all liberal groups such as the Democratic Party, the ACLU and the homosexual activists.  Many people do not believe we can slip back to that and many people don’t even know about that but it is actually happening right before our very eyes.  History doesn’t lie and the gospel doesn’t lie. The United States of America is truly an anomaly and I want to keep it that way.  God bless

Demons today?

Demons today?

By Richard P. Joseph

We often hear people today talking about demon possession.  I have never seen it in my life except to say that there have been people who become very agitated by my presence or my words.  So, do demons possess people today or is this something that only occurred in the past?  Are demons real or is there another definition?

There are some that say that the devil, Satan and demons are really a description of any opposing force against God.  There is some truth to that but is there an actual spiritual being we call Satan or the devil?  

Satan is not mentioned much in scripture compared to the existence of God.  However, when he is mentioned, it seems that they assume it is a common belief that he exists in some form or another.  There are also places where Satan is used simply as a term for an opposer of good or in other words the opposition party.  However, the overall concept of Satan in scripture and in extra biblical literature such as the Book of Enoch,  is that he is an actual entity who can tempt, accuse, oppose, and be imprisoned in a real hell.  So is he just an opposition party or a real being?

I have a question for you all;  Who was the first group of people that knew who Jesus really was?  This is a multiple choice question.

1. The Pharisees
2. The disciples
3. The poor
4. The demoniacs

Let’s go to Mark chapter 1;

 23 Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24 saying, “What [n]business do we have with each other, Jesus [o]of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” 28 Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.

Yep, if you guessed #4 then you are the winner.  There are several instances in scripture where demoniacs shouted out that they can identify who Jesus really is, the Christ.  They recognized him immediately and with certainty.  So if the word satan is only an opposition or just the evil side of man then how come those that are “demon” possessed were able to identify Jesus immediately and no one else could?  Can a sickness or a rebel have that kind of discernment?  Of course it can’t.  Only a “personage” can.  That puts Satan into the realm of a real being who had some previous experience with the son of man.  He could identify him with an uncanny accuracy where the scholars could not.  This proves that Satan is an actual spirit that is subject to the power of God. Another example is Acts 19:15. Someone who was not yet a solid Christian attempted to cast out a demon but the demon denounced them and attacked them physically.
 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” The evil spirit readily recognized Jesus and Paul but did not recognize that person as having power over him.
So then I ask are there demon possessed people today? I personally do not think so.  In Revelation 20, Satan’s earthly power was destroyed.

10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and [f]brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.   

Those that follow Satan today are doing it out of choice rather than by force.  In AD 70 Satan was cast into hell where he will stay forever.  He may be shouting orders from hell but you do not have to listen.  That kind of demon possession is over and we are freed from the bondage of sin and death.  Anyone who desires sin and death are in it by choice and not by force.  Satan is no longer the prince of the power of the air but is a defeated foe who is the prince of nothing any more.  Jesus Christ crushed his head and bound him forever.  

Rev 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The [f]kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” 

We could go on and on but I think there is a deeper meaning to contemplate. Many of us are familiar with the music of John Lennon.  Although a great musician and songwriter, he fell into the same trap that many others fall into. He saw Christianity as just another religion and eventually rejected them all. Many of his darkest songs were about his rejection of religion.  Songs like Imagine, God and I found out were types of manifestos of how he saw religion. This is similar to how many young men go to seminary and somehow come out atheists.  As I study the bible and I come across the commentary of so called scholars, I feel the same weight that those young seminary students feel.  If I believed everything that these kooks are saying I will end up just like them where there is no God, no devil, no heaven and no hell.  I sometimes wonder why they are in it at all if it only leads them to the desperate position of “we all just evolved” and there is nothing but survival of the fittest and we all rot in the grave and give back to mother earth.  I was told outright by someone that Satan was really only the concept of opposition to God.  Lennon said it best in his song called God where he says “God is a concept” at the beginning of the song and then concludes the song with  “I just believe in Yoko and Me”.  The fastest way to come to ruins is to believe in yourself.   You can all go down that path but as for me and my family “we will serve the LORD”.  

God is real, the devil is real, heaven is real and hell is real.  The good thing though, is that Jesus has overcome the world.

Ps.  I found this sermon from the Berean Church in Virginia.  It has some pretty good information on it.

https://youtu.be/FRcbzVYIFWY

Heaven and Hell

Heaven & Hell

by Richard Joseph

Most people’s religious view never goes past this simple statement; “good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell”.  Of course when their child molesting perverted uncle dies they totally forget the later part of that statement and proclaim he still went to heaven.  Life would be a lot simpler for me if I could boil my “religion” down to such a simple and naive statement.  I am, however,  a little too high strung to live in such blissful ignorance.  People like me dig and dig and dig until we prove what we believe.  The good thing about it is that we do eventually find answers but unfortunately for every answer we find, ten more questions pop up.  The existence of a true heaven and hell is one of those areas of contention among certain biblical scholars.  Some believe in a literal heaven and hell and some do not.  Some believe in eternal conscience rewards and punishments and some do not.  A healthy discussion can do much good but this is one of those areas that the answer could make or break someone’s faith and that could  be dangerous all together.   It could also lead you to Heaven or Hell!

So, what am I really talking about?  As you know, most Christian outlets believe that our souls are eternal and therefore are not subject to destruction but lives on after physical death in either an elevated state where we can commune with our creator and, conversely,  some believe that we are similar to animals in that we just die and that is the end of it; they believe we are annihilated at death.  This discussion really has far reaching implications and concerns, not all of which I can address in a blog setting.  So what is annihilationism?

Annihilationists have much in common with Deists, Universalists and Eastern mysticism.  One explanation is that there is a god but he only concerns himself with the perpetuation of sensible life on earth (eternal life), not with the after life.  They continue with the idea that our good deeds and the proper upbringing of our children is the eternal life that God meant, not the eternal existence of our souls.   This is not any different than Buddha or Confucius giving us good advice to spread our good karma to the next generation.  This places Jesus squarely in the same camp as other religious philosophers.   I hope I don’t have to explain why this is a serious misconception of what Jesus Christ is.  I also hope I don’t have to explain to anyone that, that type of hippie philosophy is a complete failure.  So, what does the bible actually say about heaven and hell?

Admittedly there are no scriptures that plainly say “good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell”.  That, however, does not mean that this subject was not discussed or even commonly believed throughout biblical scripture.  The very concept of “God” necessitates that there is a heavenly abode.  God is not man and does not live on earth; so this begs the question “where is he”?

He is in heaven, of course.  Jesus plainly teaches us in Matthew chapter 6;

9 “Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.  10 ‘Your kingdom come.

Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

This verse tells me that God’s abode is different than ours.  I have heard by some annihilationists that heaven really only means a higher authority.

The problem with that is that Jesus didn’t say “our father who has authority over us”.  That was already assumed.  Jesus said “who is in heaven”.  Heaven has several meanings which could include any of these:

1. Authority.  

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)

2. Physical.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  (Genesis 1:1)

3. Abode.

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen  (Acts 1:-2)

4. Governmental state of affairs.

7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:7)

When Jesus said “who art in heaven”, he was talking about God’s abode.  Let’s look at Matthew chapter two where angels suddenly appeared out of nowhere to the shepherds.

13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace among men [g]with whom He is pleased.”

15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”

My questions are this; where did the angels come from and where did they go?  Did they come from a higher authority?  Even though a higher authority sent them, they didn’t come “from” there.  Did they come from the sky (as in the air, clouds, sky).  No.  Did the government send them?  No.  That leaves the idea that they came from the very abode of God.  They came from a different dimension.  What I am really saying is that if there is a real God then there is a real abode that he really dwells in.  It is a spiritual realm as far as we are concerned but it is a physical realm as far as God is concerned.  Verse 15 above said the angelic host had gone away from them into “heaven”.  My point is that there is a different dimension that we as humans cannot understand.  When Jesus ascended he was in essence transferred from one dimension to another.  He didn’t necessarily “float” away but was taken up into a cloud back to his father.  The cloud represented the power of God himself.  The crux of this is that Jesus is really “somewhere”.  It also appears that our souls are somewhere also.

The book of Revelation is the announcement proclamation that the Parousia of Christ was about to begin.  The scroll that Daniel was forbidden to open was opened at this time.  The resurrection that Daniel was told about was about to occur also.

2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake,these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting[a]contempt. (Daniel 12:2)

13 But as for you, go your way to the [n]end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the [o]age.” (Daniel 12:13)

Try as you may but these verses cannot be successfully twisted into meaning a resurrected state of Israel.   They are very personal and direct.  It clearly states that Daniel himself will rise again at the resurrection event.  It clearly talks about those that are dead in the ground.  Of course it is their souls that will rise, not their physical bodies.  That is what sheol is all about.  At the beginning of the Parousia, Jesus emptied hades out and each person was given a new body suited for their new abode in the realm of God.  This makes our faith very personal and sacred.  God is not just about a philosophy of love and tolerance and peace.  That is what the hippies were about and that didn’t work so well.  God is about eternity, truth and justice.  So, yes we are to live in the New Jerusalem on earth and rule the earth by the justice of Christ but there is an ultimate state of being for our souls.  And make no mistake about it, we will not be just floating around on some cloud; there is work to do in heaven.  Idleness is not a part of God’s vocabulary.  We will have real work to do and real pleasure doing it.  Revelation chapter 20 is the chapter that concerns itself with our eternal state.  

Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of[b]their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand. (revelation 20:4)  Beheaded people are not just regular people who lived after AD 70, they are dead people.  Their bodies have been killed but their souls were now under the auspices of God himself.  There are many other verses that make this type of statement.

At the last supper, Jesus comforted his disciples by saying;

36 Simon Peter *said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”

(John 13:36)

Jesus did not appear on earth after AD 70 so he could not have been talking to them about that.  Besides none of the disciples made it past that date either.  So, when would the disciples follow Jesus “later”?  It would have to be in his heavenly abode.  

“Do not let your heart be troubled; [a]believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.(John 14:1-3).

I very much realize that there was a new order after AD70 but that does not negate a heavenly realm.  This was assumed throughout the bible and is also heavily  expressed in other extrabiblical accounts such as the Book of Enoch.  If Jesus was talking to his disciples about them being where he is, then how can anyone stretch that to mean that the disciples are with Jesus on earth now?  How did Paul tell the Thessalonians that they will meet Jesus in the air along with the risen dead?  There is no way to interpret that into Israel’s resurrection into the church age.  

In conclusion, I can go on and on and quote one scripture after another but the real point I want to make is that it was already assumed that there is an afterlife.  Infact that was one of the big arguments that the Pharisees and Sadducees had.  Jesus put the Sadducees to shame when they asked him about which man would have the woman that they all married.  He informed them that there is no marriage at the resurrection.  If the resurrection is, like the annihilationists say, the church age then why are we getting married now?  Jesus must have been talking about the resurrection of the dead.  The resurrection of the dead apparently occurred about AD 66 when Jesus emptied Hades and then cast it into the pit.  So, yes, I do believe in heaven and hell and a real judgement and account of our lives on earth.  

Jefferson's Problem

Jefferson’s problem

By Richard P. Joseph

I just finished reading The Jefferson Lies by David Barton.  It was a great and necessary read.  I highly recommend it, not only to older readers, but to young college aged readers.  It spells out how liberal bias has overtaken our education system and has led many people away from our Christian foundation.  Having said that, it doesn’t let Jefferson off the hook for his awkward view of the bible either.

It appears that Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong student of the bible and especially the gospels.  He, however,  distrusted the epistles and could not understand the book of Revelation.  He seems to have been an intellectual to a fault.  He never denied Christ necessarily,  but he had trouble reconciling the epistles and the book of Revelation with the gospels and especially the moral teachings of Jesus.  There remain people today with similar views of the bible.  Barton makes it clear that Jefferson was definitely not an atheist as the liberals try so hard to make him out to be in order to lambast our founding fathers.  However, Abigail Adams, who actually had long and intimate conversations with Jefferson, actually did refer to Jefferson as an atheist and an infidel (John Adams, Page Smith pages 1055, 1062).  These statements, on the other hand, makes it difficult to nail down whether or not he was an unbeliever or just an unorthodox believer.   So, why would someone have trouble reconciling the gospels with the epistles and with the book of Revelation?  

One thing that I would like to clear up first is that Christianity is not a religion or a moral philosophy.  Jefferson looked at Christianity as the best moral code ever given to mankind.  Jefferson said of the moral teachings of Jesus that they were “the most sublime edifice of morality which had ever been exhibited to man” (page 114).   No one can ever argue against that statement but unfortunately it is a huge mistake to boil down the mission of Jesus Christ as just a “giver of a moral code”.  This would falsely put Jesus Christ in the same category as other famous philosophers such as Plato, Buddha, Confucius etc, which would be a mistake of magnanimous proportions.  This is one reason that Jefferson may have had trouble when Paul gave his explanations in the epistles and when John wrote the Apocalypse.  Peter, Paul, Jude and  James not only gave moral direction but they were pressed by the overarching doctrine of the impending second coming of Christ and his judgment upon his unfaithful city and the idea that Jesus is God incarnate.  This goes way beyond mere moral teachings.  Moral teachings are only a result of our faith in the creator of the universe and the messiah who paid the price for our sin.  So when Jefferson called the book of Revelation “the ravings of a maniac” (page 228), and accusing the Old Testament writers of teaching that God was “Cruel, vindictive,capricious, and unjust” (page 229), I believe it wasn’t because he didn’t believe in God but that he didn’t understand the real purpose of scripture or the true nature of God.  He obviously did not understand that the Parousia (visitation of Christ) was to occur in the first century, not in some distant future.  This makes all the difference in the world when trying to interpret scripture.  

I have gone to great lengths in my other posts to help people understand that Christianity is not a religion but is rather the fundamental truth of the universe.  That is why people often have trouble with scripture; they attempt to fit biblical writings into the same box that man made religion is in.  The two have nothing to do with each other.  One is man’s attempt to create a god and one is God’s attempt to describe himself to man.  (See my other post “And the Word became Flesh” for a more lengthy discussion on this.)    If Jefferson, and most others today, misunderstand that Revelation was written as an announcement that the Parousia was about to occur, then no matter what you come up with, it will be wrong.  That is why it sounded like the ravings of a maniac to the very intellectual Thomas Jefferson.  Instead of it sounding crazy to modern preachers it sounds more like a busy cash register to them.  Charlatan preachers today are making millions selling the idea that they can interpret Revelation for them almost like a palm reader entertains the curious crowd at a carnival.  That is why they are so afraid of the preterist view of end times events.  It is akin to politicians voting in a rabid liar just so that the gravy train of cash doesn’t stop flowing into their pockets.   This gravy train idea was one of the reasons that the first century priesthood simply could not accept that some poor carpenter was the long awaited messiah; it would put an abrupt halt to their power and wealth.   

Summing this up I would say that the true rapture preterist view can cure a multitude of illnesses as far as scripture interpretation is concerned.  Also, understanding that the mission of Jesus Christ was not to bring us a “moral code” but was to pay the price for our sins, reconcile us to God, to punish unfaithful Israel and to usher in the everlasting kingdom.  Now that I understand the outline, I no longer have confusion over scripture and I don’t ever have to explain why the bible doesn’t make historical sense to anyone.