Updated: Moving Forward
It's obvious that the world stands on the precipice of disaster, the ill-starred events enveloping us daily. This also accords with Biblical prophecies concerning us as a people. However, if someone asked you, being a Christian, to go to the Biblical record and point out your ancestry, that is, who are you referenced in those end-times Biblical events, where would you go? You might turn to John 3:16 to show you are a gentile. But that would be a misleading, not to mention a grievous, conclusion. Why? The fundamental reason is that our Bibles are misleading. This is a bold statement, no doubt, especially for those of you who read the Bible. But, there is valid evidence, and reasons for making it. To be clear, this is not a comment about the Biblical record’s content. Rather, it's a comment about Christian misperception, about having the wrong map. And it's about a deliberate focusing of our attention in the wrong direction, down the wide gate and broad way that leads to destruction. [Mat. 7:13].
What's of concern here is the original inspired, ordained manuscript order of the New Testament books canonized by the apostle John for us versus the jumbled chaotic order in which they are found in our modern translations. This is not a trifle. While we are unsuspecting of its impact, it has made a huge negative difference to Christianity over the past two millennia. Imagine, if after trekking 2000 miles, we discover that we were given the wrong map to our destination. Unawares, when we came to that fork in the road about five miles in, we took the wrong road. Our correct destination is so far away now, it’s not even on our map! What do we do when discovering we are 2000 miles off course, not on safe ground, but in treacherous terrain? How did Christianity end up in this predicament 2000 years on? Well, it’s why the first century apostles warned us upfront about false prophets creeping in unawares, handing out bogus maps. They weren't kidding.
In the first century, as we can read in the Book of Acts, Peter, along with James, John and the other apostles, established the church, the ekklesia, in Jerusalem. This is a reason why the early Christians misleadingly are referred to as "Jewish Christians." They weren't of Judah, but of the House of Israel. [Mat. 15:24]. Jerome, a Roman church cleric and historian, sent knowledge of our ancestry off in the wrong direction with his Latin Vulgate translation, so that the identity of the early church had increasingly morphed into "gentiles," with Rome, the “Mother church,” at the center of the "Christian" world, rather than Jerusalem. By the late fourth to early 5th century [390-405 CE], Jerome, albeit in the Orwellian tradition, had taken the original inspired order of the Bible's books, and with his corrupt translation, like a dealer with a deck of cards, shuffled them in favor of the house. Jerome’s house in this case was the Church of Rome. Mainstream Christianity was given a false map, and a fake ID.
Identity politics of the theological kind started that early on. In truth, this Johnny-come-lately Roman church, which wasn't around in the early first century, had nothing to do with the church of God, then or now, according to the Word of God in the Biblical record as we'll discover. This is why we've lost our Biblical identity. And this is why we've lost our place in Biblical prophecy. And this is why we don't know who we are in today's world events. We need to recover our correct map, "the tapestry woven from ancient threads," with the true headings needed to get back on track. So let's go on a theological expedition to discover where this leads us. Make sure to put on the whole armor of God [Eph. 6:10-20] as not to be sidelined by falling dogmas. And with a sword of the Spirit of truth in hand, let's go slay some lies and deceits that we may walk the path of righteousness and truth of our God-given heritage. [See the Feature article, Is The US, And Great Britain, In End-Times Bible Prophecy?].
Book Excerpts
One is.
It’s just two little words. Five Letters.
Never have two little words held such ominous implications for our age. For they lie, today, at the heart of the Genesis Birthright ....
Sneakers
We’ve probably all heard or read about "The Beast" of Revelation having its deadly wound healed, but which head? “And I saw one of the heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” [Rev. 13:3]. What was the deadly wound? And which one of the heads was wounded to death? And who inflicted it? When we know our place in Biblical history, we can know our place in Biblical prophecy. The Biblical record interprets itself, and provides the answers we seek. No guessing required. So, let’s go to the source, the book of Daniel first, and then to the book of Revelation.