Book review

Here is a quick book suggestion.  This book is a study of the decade before Jerusalem fell in AD 70.  It is a chronological compilation of events leading up to the Jewish revolt and the Roman siege.  This is a study guide for any serious bible student and especially one who wants to understand the second coming of Christ in it's actual context.  This book doesn't go through the actual war but gives you a detailed list of events that led up to the war.    Go to www.preterist.org to order it. 

My web-site makes no money on the sale of this book.  I am merely sharing some good information.

  

The Tragic Event

The Tragic Event

By Richard Joseph

We all woke up Sunday morning to the news of a mass murder committed by a devout Muslim man in Orlando, Florida.  According to the normal hatred of the Islamic religion, a young Muslim man entered a gay bar and opened fire killing 49 people and injuring dozens of others.  He pledged his allegiance to ISIS during a 911 call that he made to police. This is just another hate filled event in a string of violence that has been promoted by our homosexual, Muslim dictator living in the White House.  In the past 7 years, while Barack Obama was living in the White House, we have seen a rise in racism, riots, looting, terrorism and general hatred toward the traditions of the United States.  

This attack at the nightclub has elicited much sympathy for the homosexual community.  It certainly was a horrific event that teaches us, in our new hate- filled country, that we need to protect ourselves in the absence of a legitimate government.   

And now for the “tragic event.”  What is really just as tragic is the attack on traditional American and Christian values by the homosexual community.  This has been going on openly since the 1970’s.  This, however has elicited no sympathy from anyone that I know of.  I have to live a life of shame akin to what the Jews had to endure at the beginning of Hitler’s reign when they had to wear the yellow star of David on their chests.  I know that I am not facing a death camp at this time but it is heading that way.  I feel like I am wearing a yellow cross.  The Christians now have to endure an onslaught of anti-Christian rhetoric including, but not limited to political correctness, Hate Crimes Legislation, Celebrate diversity slogans, Mean people suck bumper stickers, the ACLU, the Democratic Party, the Nation of Islam, evolution teaching, global warming and liberalism in general.  None of the above would exist if Jesus didn’t exist.  They are direct attacks on Christians just like the NAZI’s attacked the Jews.  Most of the above anti-Christian slogans are inventions of the homosexual community.  And to let us know that they are serious, they are now suing our cake companies, our pizza restaurants, and are forcing men into women’s bathrooms, they creep around playgrounds, churches and YMCAs.  They lurk around, seeking children to molest and recruit and cause many other social ills.  So why am I writing all of this?  Simply said, I am not going to feel sorry for the gay community until someone feels sorry for the Christian community.  No, I am not in competition for victimhood, I am only trying to make a point that the media is totally biased on this issue.  

In the end, we have two tragedies:  One in which gay night club patrons were mercilessly mowed down by an Islamic terrorist and the second, Christians who are daily bashed by the gays.  I have to walk into work each day and pass the “celebrate diversity” sign which is prominently displayed for all to see. As I walk past it I am reminded that my workplace thinks I am some sort of “right wing, hateful  Christian bigot” just because I do not embrace the homosexual lifestyle as valid.  Of course I hold my head up high because I am of the truth but I have to endure daily bullying by my workplace and by homosexuals in general just for being a Christian.  So, yes, the Orlando shooting was certainly a tragic event but it certainly is not the only one.  

Post script:

I just saw this on facebook.  It is Franklin Graham making the same observation that I just posted.  

Franklin Graham

Yesterday at 8:25am ·

Mr. President, I read in the The New York Times today where you reportedly blasted Donald J. Trump for wanting to tighten the borders and accused him of painting a whole religion as violent.

A Muslim can murder 49 innocent people in a gay club, and you still defend the religion of Islam.

But a Christian who refuses to bake a homosexual’s wedding cake endures prosecution, financial ruin, and nation-wide shaming because of their faith, and you stay silent!

What Omar Mateen did was following the teachings of the Koran. It is incomprehensible that you will not acknowledge the dangers of Islam’s teachings in order to protect the American people under your watch.

Post script II

The military is now using our tax money to mutilate the genitals of confused soldiers.  I guess they think they are transgendered even though there is no such thing as one gender turning into another.

Also, the homosexuals are at it again.  They sued Christian Mingle to include a product that isn’t on their web-page.  A gay on gay choice.  

Like I said, the homosexuals cause more havoc in the United States than does Islam.

Post script III
I just got news that the homosexuals just sued Christian Mingle . com.  because they didn't offer a male seeking male and female seeking female option.    
Stay posted for the next attack on America by the homosexuals.  All while the church sleeps.
Post script IV
They just sued a florist.  I know I am missing a lot but every time I hear of one I will post it.  If you hear of one then let me know in the comments.  The hate continues from the homosexuals and they are on a roll.

Review of Preterism

Preterism article #1

Introduction   by Richard Joseph

Preterism is the study of the bible from the perspective of the bible.  It promotes the idea that all of the eschatological events mentioned, especially in the New Testament, have been fulfilled by AD 70.  I have been following the teaching of Ed Stevens at his link www.preterist.org for a long time and get most of my information there.  If you are interested in this type of study then I highly recommend that website which is the home for the International Preterist Association.  That does not mean that I follow all of those that sell books on that site but Mr. Stevens has done a great job explaining the ins and outs of preterism.  So where do we start?  Let’s start in the pew where I heard several preachers say, almost word for word, that; “All of the disciples thought that the end was coming in their lifetime but they were mistaken”.

Yes, I actually heard them say that and your pastor has probably said it too.  That is a statement that you will never hear me say; ever.  In other words those pastors actually believe that they themselves are the inspired writers of scripture but Peter, Paul, John etc were not.  That is called a cult.  So why would someone say such a thing?  It is because of a lack of knowledge of historical events and from faulty theology being taught year after year in our seminaries.

Preterism, on the other hand, dictates that the Apostles and Jesus were correct in everything they said.  Jesus spoke as if the end of the age were to happen within the current generation of the disciples.  Every New Testament writer spoke of the end coming very soon.  There is no mention of a long and protracted waiting period.  These are the things that I would like for us to discuss.  So let us begin.

Preterism article #2

Daniel lays it out.  By Richard Joseph

The book of Daniel is one of the most amazing books in the bible as far as prophecy is concerned.  Gabriel gave Daniel visions so accurate that I sometimes wonder how people could get it wrong, but we have.  The first century Jews missed it and then nearly everyone else missed it as well even up to today.  Let’s take a quick look at the Book of Daniel and especially what it has to say about end- times events.

Daniel not only interpreted the king’s dreams with pinpoint accuracy but he was also given the itinerary for what we commonly refer to as end-times events.  In this vision he foresaw turbulent times beginning during his lifetime and the return of the Jews from captivity back to the land of Israel to begin building their temple once again.  From that time there would be a period of events (called Daniel’s 70 weeks) that predicted several items including:

Historic events in the Middle East leading up to the coming Messiah

The ushering in of the Anointed one

The anointed one being cut off

The city destroyed

A flood of wartime events

An end to sacrifice

Abomination that causes desolation.

God’s true followers delivered

Resurrection of the dead and judgment

I may have missed some stuff but this is a basic list of things that will come into finality during that period of time.  Daniel was given this information and then was told to seal up the scroll that contained the vision until the time of the end.  One last message that he received (it appears that Jesus himself was one of the messengers) is that “When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed”.

The one word that sticks out is completed.  We will examine this as we go on.  I am not going to spend time explaining everything in one article.  For one reason, I can’t explain everything due to lack of knowledge and secondly, it would take volumes and a lifetime to do it.  My goal is to give an overview of events so as to debunk faulty theology.  If this is an interesting study for you then it is really up to you to study this on your own to more fully understand the bible and the kingdom of God.  Every generation from the first generation on has predicted that the end-times events were to occur in their generation.  We will soon find out which one was correct.  All others were wrong.

                                              “WE ARE IN THE LAST DAYS”!

The newspaper had the usual “LAST DAYS SEMINARS” advertisement with a full half page ad.  This is common these days.  If you drive around, it will not take long before you notice a church with signs about having “END TIME PROPHECY” seminar banners.  I just have one question.  In Matthew 24:20 Jesus warns that you should pray that your flight during the persecution of the great tribulation isn’t on the Sabbath day.  So my question is: What should I do if my flight is on the Sabbath Day?

Any suggestions?  That is what I thought; none.  I don’t even think that present day Israel has Sabbath Day laws.  So why would Jesus warn us about not being able to flee from danger on the Sabbath Day if he knew outright that there would not be any Sabbath laws when the great tribulation was upon us?  The answer might shock you but here it is.  Jesus knew that the Sabbath Law would still be in effect during the Great Tribulation of the End Times.  That is why he said in Matthew 24:34  “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”  Since it was to occur during the very generation of the Apostles then the Sabbath Law would still be in effect.  It is not going to happen in my generation, and it isn’t going to happen in Marco Polo’s generation, and it isn’t going to happen in my grandchildren’s generation.  It already happened in Peter’s generation.  If you don’t believe me then ask Jesus, Peter, John, Paul, Jude and any other inspired New Testament writer.  They all agree that it was to happen very soon and that it was upon them during their lifetime.  In fact if you study the actual timeline of events then you will see a crescendo of intensity starting in around A.D. 62 as the tribulation period was beginning to start.  The Apostles began a massive campaign to warn the elect to flee and prepare for the parousia which would include a rapture event.  The Jews of the first century would have to worry about fleeing on the Sabbath because you were not allowed to travel more than a certain distance on the Sabbath by civil law.  If the Parousia was to occur after the first century then Jesus would not have made that remark.  Jesus and the Apostles did not make any mistakes as far as writing scripture or interpreting the events of the End Times.  If something seems amiss then it would be us who are making the mistake, not the inspired New Testament writers.

So when you read the newspaper and a church is trying to scare you into joining them or if some scam artist gets on television and asks you to send money because the end is coming then I highly suggest you go back and read the words of the inspired Apostles and find out when the end is really coming.  While you are at it, you might want to find out what the end really is.  You will certainly find out as I hope to continue with these articles so that we can understand the word of God better.

An overview

I will attempt to give a brief overview of the history of End Times events.  There is no way to explain everything here so this will simply be an overview.  Then we can take the rest of our lives explaining the details.  However, after you read this overview, I would challenge you to read the entire bible with a different mindset.  Your mindset should be one of what is called “audience relevance” which simply means for you to put yourself in the position of those that first read the particular scripture that you are reading.  Pretend that you are living in that time and hearing that for the first time and that you are of their culture.  Trying to interpret scripture from an American perspective 2,000 years later is not recommended.  Of course scripture is valid for us today and we reap its benefits, but you need to understand it from a Jewish first century perspective in order to get the real feel of it.  So let us begin.

As you remember, Daniel laid out several things which must come to pass during or at least by the end of his 70 sevens of years.  Within that timeframe near the end of the “490” years marked from the beginning of the building of the temple after the Babylonian captivity several odd things began to occur.  A virgin gave birth to a male child and the young woman was given a message that this boy would be given the throne of David, that he was the son of the Most High, He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.   Jesus asked the Jews how they cannot read the signs of the times because it was so obvious that their visitation had begun exactly when Daniel said it would.  Jesus preached the good news that the kingdom of God was at hand but they couldn’t seem to grasp what he meant.  They eventually rejected him and killed him but only to their detriment.  While he was physically dead he went down to sheol and preached the resurrection message to all of the past dead that were awaiting the resurrection.  He then rose from the dead physically and showed himself to the apostles.  He predicted a time when the old would give way to the new.  He told of the end of the age and that they would experience this end.  This occurred about AD 30.  The apostles were given special power and authority by the Holy Spirit to perform miraculous healings and to preach the kingdom of God to all of the known world.  They were persecuted not only by the Jews but by the occupying Romans as well.  Beginning around AD 63, civil war broke out among the Jews and also a revolt began against the Roman occupation.  John was then given a vision of what was soon to take place.  This book that we call the book of Revelation was the announcement that the scroll of Daniel will now be opened.  Jesus will be revealed as the victorious king, the law will be fulfilled and the true church will rise out of the ashes.  Wars, heavenly signs, famines and plagues ensued.  Nero, the Roman dictator, began a severe persecution against Christians also.  Finally the Roman general Titus sacked Jerusalem and the temple was presently burned down and the soldiers pried the stones apart one by one to retrieve the gold that had melted in between them fulfilling the prophesy that Jesus had made 40 years earlier that not one stone would be left upon another.  The saints were raptured just prior to this occurrence and the dead in Hades were raised out and death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.  This was the end of the Jewish world and the ushering in of the everlasting Church of Jesus Christ which will have no end.  There is no future rapture to occur since it already happened before AD 70 during what is called the parousia (which means a visitation period).  That was a fast and sloppy description of what happened in the first century but I am only writing short articles in order to give brief views of subjects.  I will hopefully continue and perhaps get more specific as time allows.  For an in depth study I highly recommend the www.preterist.org website already mentioned.  This is a study that will last the rest of your life as really it should.  

When did the Apostle John die?

When did the apostle John die?

By Richard Joseph

Most scholars believe that the apostle John died around the year AD 96.  This is a result of one of the church fathers, Irenaeus, who made the statement that John was still alive near the end of the reign of Domitianou.  According to Ed Stevens’ book First Century Events in Chronological Order; page 9, this is a reference to Nero, not the emperor Domitian who reigned from 81-96.   Nero reigned from 54-68.  Due to a misunderstanding of names, John was believed to live a long life and therefore most put the writing of the book of revelation at a late date which would be after the second return of Christ and the rapture which all occurred around AD 70.  There is absolutely no sense in John writing an entire book predicting the destruction of Jerusalem 25 years after it was destroyed.  The book of Revelation was the announcement that the parousia was about to begin; and he was correct. 

Nero was an adoptive name he used as emperor.  His birth name was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus.  According to Stevens, “There are several scholars who believe that Irenaeus was referring to Nero when he said that John was still alive toward the end of the reign of Domitianou.  This is an adjective form of Domitius (Nero’s family name) and not the adjective form of Domitians’s name (which would instead be Domitianikos).” In other words, John more than likely died during the Neronic persecution before AD 70.  This was during the great tribulation period from 63-66 which Jesus warned of.  His second coming according to all of the New Testament writers including Jesus would occur during that generation.  Since Jesus predicted that John and James would both be martyred, ( John just prior the Parousia), this means that John  did not stay alive for the rapture that was predicted by Jesus, Paul and others.  Jesus predicted that the two brothers would be martyred and that John would be martyred just before the Parousia began.  In Mark 10:35-40 Jesus predicts the martyrdom of the two brothers.  James was indeed killed in AD 44.  However, according to John 21:22-23, John would not be martyred until near the beginning of the Parousia. 

      This passage had always puzzled me:

John 21:22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”    

It says that a rumor spread that John would not die because he would live until the Parousia.  In other words, he would be raptured!   That would be the only way that he would never die.  I believe the Parousia began in AD66.  John nearly made it but was more than likely martyred just before that.   Any saint left alive after the tribulation was raptured, then the wrath began on those that murdered the saints and Christ.   The church after this point started all over again by use of the Holy Spirit and the scriptures that were left behind and by those that were converted after the rapture. 

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

     Truly, heaven and earth (the current state of things) passed away and the only thing left standing were his words.

Bibliography:

Islam & Paradise!

Islam & Paradise!

By Richard Joseph

These days we are now getting daily reports about the civil war in the Middle East due to the power vacuum created by the Illegal Muslim Dictator of the United States, Barrack Obama. He helped eliminate the Middle Eastern dictators that were, at least somewhat, keeping the peace in that volatile region of the earth. With this disruption of power, every evil spirit has come out of the dust and is now formed into several factions of Islamic fighters hoping to conquer as their founder, Muhammad had, by the edge of the sword. It is abundantly clear that the way  to appease their blood thirsty Islamic pagan god is to go about and spread as much misery, violence, hatred, oppression, lies and evil as possible. Once you have done that, you then can enjoy your booty by capturing women from other religious sects and raping them repeatedly. As if that is not enough, you then collect many virgins upon your death and entrance into Paradise! That of course is for the men, the women get to eat figs or something like that when they are not getting abused.

So who created the Islamic view of heaven anyhow? Man did of course. You see, if you ask any normal man to create a heaven he would immediately create one where women are at your beck and call to perform one continuous orgy; and you won’t even need Viagra because you are in heaven. Being that Muhammad was a pedophile, the word virgin is used. Virgin in ancient cultures meant pre-adolescent girls who have not even had a period yet. Once they begin to menstruate they were married off. Muhammad, as we know, consummated one of his wives at 9 years old.

Since the Quran has no checks and balances, as it was written by one man only, Muhammad is responsible for its contents. Muhammad’s heaven is nothing but abusing little girls, just as he did on earth.

Unfortunately for Muslims, that is only a big lie as man does not have the ability to create a real heaven. Muhammad’s promises are nothing but what is commonly deployed in cults around the world; a promise of sex, money, power. In the end it is all one big lie. Let’s compare what a Muslim would say when he stands before his false god and explains why he should enter paradise compared to what really happens.

A good Muslim would stand before the judgment throne and say; Allah, I have killed, hated, molested, raped, lied and conquered in your name. Now may I have my young girls so that I can continue to rape them for ever and ever?

The real scriptures that were inspired by the real and true God was written by about 40 different inspired authors who confirmed the contents of the other. This is not the invention of one man but the word of many inspired men who confirm the goodness of God. When a Christian dies he really will not have to say anything but if he did he would say something like this: "Lord, I am not worthy to enter your realm but only by the blood of Christ can I enter. I did my best to show love to my neighbor, feed the poor, help the helpless, pray for my enemy and preach the gospel of hope to the oppressed. I tried to forgive those that hurt me and to welcome the lost into my home and church. I realized I have failed but thank you for the mercy and forgiveness that Jesus gave me. I realize that heaven is created by you for us to live in your eternal presence where nobody will ever get abused again."  What the true God has in store for us in heaven is pure and just.  Islam has reduced God to the pedophile level.  Jesus, has shown us that God has a much higher existence for his followers that does not include rape and abuse.  God is Holy which means his ways are separated from our corrupt ways.  

If you are a Muslim, please let me know if I got this wrong so I can correct it. If it is right however then please consider joining the truth and rejecting the lie.

Tithes, Tongues & Doom

Tithes, Tongues & Doom

By Richard Joseph

Well, I am at that dangerous point where I don’t know if I will go to church any more.  I just can’t take it.  No, I’m not being funny.  The theology is so faulty that a truth seeking Christian cannot stomach it any more and maybe that is part of the decline in Christian ethics in society.  All of these preachers, who really mean well, go to seminary and come out like they went through a cookie cutter.  If the theology was good then that wouldn’t be such a bad thing but it appears that once faulty theology gets a grip, it then gains a stronghold and is thus replicated over and over and over again.

After hearing the same thing week after week I am finally  calling it quits, for a while at least.  That last sermon (just like most of them) started out pretty good with some challenges to get serious about your faith in Jesus Christ.  However, what I am figuring out is that being serious about Jesus really means being serious about tithing, brainwashing and being scared.

The preacher (who I think is a great guy and has a good heart) started out by talking about tongues which, at this point is not really part of the service.  He is misguided about scripture and what tongues really were used for.  Yes, I do mean used for.  One thing one must understand is that everything that Jesus or the Holy Spirit does is productive and functional, always producing fruit.  The Apostles were gifted with tongues in order to preach to a diverse population of multiple languages.  It produced much fruit because they understood the gospel in their own language and was baptized into the faith.  The harvest was plentiful.  That is a far cry from today where you get a bunch of excited people blabbing away without any real fruit produced.  Paul’s groanings had nothing to do with tongues necessarily.  Those were his deepest prayers and supplications to God that were personal and meaningful.  In fact Paul says that these groanings by the Holy Spirit “cannot even be uttered”.  But they keep on uttering. Then on to the next point.

He then assured us that the end was very near!  The world was getting more dangerous and earthquakes are more frequent etc etc.  I have been hearing that my entire life.   The funny part of this is that Jesus and the Apostles said the very same thing.  In fact they were so sure of it that they sold their property and some even would forgo marriage because they believed the end was going to come in their lifetime.  In ancient Israel all property was to be returned to the original family every 50 years (the year of Jubilee).  But they sold it and gave the money to help the church as if they did not expect to get the land back.  Neither did they invest the money for gain.  They were that convinced that the end would come in their lifetime.  So, who shall I believe, the seminary taught preacher or Jesus and the Apostles?  Well, quit guessing, I will tell you plainly; I believe Jesus and the Apostles every time over anybody else.  History and scripture bear out the fact that the second coming did infact occur during the first century (please see my other articles or email me for more information if you do not understand this).  So why is this important?

It is important because we are losing the world because of it.  Here is the long short of it.  The doomsday preachers are basically saying that the Christian Church lost the battle and that Satan won.  We should therefore send the preacher more money and tithers, then sit on our butts and wait for the big Jesus to come and beat the bad guys up.  The preacher is waiting for Jesus to come and do something.  In truth however, it is Jesus that is waiting for “us” to do something.  Jesus is sitting on his throne saying “I already did my job.  I suffered, died, rose again, and became the fulfilment of the scriptures.  Now it is your turn to take the Holy Spirit and conquer the world in love, and justice and freedom”.  Jesus already conquered death and defeated the enemy.  He also punished those that killed the prophets and hung him on a cross.  It is our turn to take the power he gave us and be the victors of planet earth.  Why are the homosexuals and the Muslims gaining power and the Christians are losing power?   It is a direct result of our new seeker friendly preachers who are not equipping the flock to be victorious and become involved in society with the gospel.  Instead they are telling us to tuck tail and run (oh and don’t forget tithe and buy the latest DVD on the END OF THE WORLD).  Just sit in that pew for 50 years and never make an impact on society.  They believe that “the Lord’s work” is only at the church so give your money here and don’t worry about taking the gospel to the voting booth, to the school, to work, to the world.  The modern church is a complete failure.  

In the end all I here is Tithe (which is an Old Testament law and never mentioned in the New Testament because there is no “law” in the New Testament), Tongues & Doom.  This does not go over well with me because I seek the truth.  The truth is that Jesus already returned by AD 70 and gave us the power to conquer the earth with the gospel, not to sit and let the homosexuals and Islam be the victors.   If the Christian Church fails then the earth fails.  If the Christian Church thrives, the earth thrives.   There is no second choice.  It is Christ or doom.  

What is Sin?

What is Sin?

By Richard Joseph

What is sin?  If you ask 10 people you would certainly get ten different answers.  Here are some common answers you might get: something bad, something you did wrong, something God does not approve of, something religion made up to control people, nothing because everything is ok, something you did against someone else, a bad habit, etc, etc.  Actually some of those answers could be helpful but there really is a better way to explain it.  Hopefully this will help.

I have recently been told by a so called long time Christian that “sin” really isn’t even mentioned in the bible.  Here is the best way to answer that; just ask them where it says that the Messiah would suffer, die and rise on the third day?   Most church goers would never find that in the scriptures.  When Jesus met the two disciples on the way to Emmaus he made this statement to them after they admitted that they were puzzled by the recent events of Jesus being seen alive just three days after he was crucified;

25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

So Jesus is saying that the answer is in the scriptures: can you find them?

They are right near where it describes what sin is.  Does that help?  If not then let’s take a short journey and see if we can locate it.  Let’s start with the suffering of the messiah first.

Although we get glimpses of a suffering messiah in the Psalms (22 etc) or in Isaiah (53 etc), these still do not spell out exactly what was going to occur.  This is, of course, on purpose.  God hid his message in the scriptures so that it could not be faked when the messiah finally did appear.  The Old Testament is really a shadow of things to come and the New Testament is the realization of that shadow.  The suffering, death, resurrection and return of Christ are all foreshadowed in the seven feasts of Israel.  These feasts, which are detailed in Leviticus chapter 23, are probably the first place that Jesus showed the two travelers to Emmaus.  Paul, who was a scholar, preached exclusively from the Hebrew Torah on his missionary trips as he explained that the message of the law was a prediction of the Messiah and his life.  The seven feasts of YHWH is an exact account of what Jesus went through when the Jewish leadership hastily put him to death on the day of preparation of the Sabbath and when he rose three days later, sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, then returned in Judgement against his accusers 40 years later.  A couple of good resources for a study on this is a book by Ed Stevens called: Final Decade (gives a historical perspective of the time right before the second coming which occurred between 66-70 AD) which you can order at:  www.preterist.org and a sermon series called Feasts of the LORD by David B. Curtis at www.bereanbiblechurch.org . This is how the life of Christ was hidden in the scripture which was perfectly fulfilled by the Messiah.  This is the same way that sin is hidden in the scripture.  Let’s see if we can’t find a simple and practical way to describe sin.

I think the best place to show what sin is, is by taking a look at the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20New King James Version (NKJV)

The Ten Commandments

20 And God spoke all these words, saying:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image...

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain...

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy...

12 “Honor your father and your mother...

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Just doing a quick review of these commands you can see that in order to break any of the commands, especially 5-10, you would have to be “selfish”.  The 10th commandment sums it all up when it orders you to not covet.  To covet is to be selfish.  It is to want something out of jealousy or out of gluttony.  It is to want, not out of need, but out of greed. It is to give in to the flesh instead of the spirit.  In the 23rd Psalm, David starts out by saying “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want”.   We are to be satisfied in God and in life without greed or being over indulgent.  If you want to know if you have sinned, simply ask yourself if you have acted in a selfish way or not.  Jesus made this clear in the sermon on the mount by showing that sin is something that begins in your inner soul.  In Matthew 15:11 Jesus said:

Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”  So, what is sin?  It is an act of selfishness that originates in the heart of man.  If you steal, it is not necessarily that you took something that is not yours, it is the idea that you felt that your “want” has justified your means.  In God’s eyes, you have sinned before you acted.  It is not something you did or some act your performed, it is your impure heart that defiles you.  Another way to look at it is by comparing the word “lust” with the word “love”.  Lust only thinks of himself (selfish) while love considers the other person first.   Here is an example of people who externalize sin instead of internalizing it;  I have met many people that attempt to make themselves feel justified when they say “I would never have an abortion but I believe it is ok for others to choose to have one”.  Sorry, but in God’s eyes, you are just as guilty as the person that murdered their child.  You are not off the hook.  You have sinned in your heart whether or not you performed the act.  If you are not born again into God’s family then you are a slave to sin.  

If you are truly born again then you are tempted to sin but you have options.  You are not bound by that sin and have an escape by way of the blood of Christ.  The simplest way to explain this is the difference between animals and humans.  If a male dog is placed near a female which is in heat he would have no choice but to mate.  He does not attempt to reason anything out, he just acts on instinct.  A carnal human does pretty much the same thing.  But once you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you then enter a different dimension.  You can now reason things through.  You no longer have just one option, you have two.  You can act upon your selfish desires or you can choose to seek the counsel of the almighty and make a wiser decision.   You are no longer bound by sin. Sin also is tied in with the original sin of Adam. We are all born into that sin and therefore are in a condemned state of being just by being born. We are only released from that sin by the blood of Jesus Christ but that is a subject for a later date.

In conclusion, we do find sin spelled out for us in scripture, but you have to open your spiritual eyes to find it.  It is all over.  There are many things hidden in scripture that are like fine pearls but you have to dig to find them.  You need to desire the truth.  This is why Jesus said “...Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  You cannot hear the voice of Jesus unless you are of the truth.  You must come first, then you can hear.