Tag Archives: God

April 28, 2012 · 2:06 pm

“There’s Nothing in It for You”–It Is All for God, Who Is Love

There was an old saying at the mission that rings true now some 40 years later.  “There’s nothing in it for you.”

I didn’t really understand then just how profound that simple statement was.  But Time is a faithful teacher.  And as I look now in the mirror and see a much more wrinkled image with a head laden with a heavy hoary frost, I take more time to contemplate the increasing fragility of my physical state.  It seems that the reality of my own mortality crowds daily into my thoughts.

In that mirror I also see in my own eyes how the years have neutralized the piss and vinegar that I was so full of back then in my 20’s and 30’s.

As my earthly frame grows weaker, that old saying–how that there’s nothing in this walk with God for you–rings truer.  It is making so much more sense now as I am staring down the time when I just may have to depart this old earthly body before Christ returns to this earth to set up His kingdom.

For, you see, in those younger years I thought that surely I would be alive when the LORD would come back.  Christ did say that “whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11: 26).  And, that “there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Mt. 16: 28).  Those destined not to taste death would have to be the generation of believers alive when He returned to earth.  Anyway, I always thought that I would be one of them.

But now, as the years tick on, and my body creaks with age more every day, I must take this into real consideration–this “falling asleep,” this “shuffling off of this mortal coil.”

And, yet, I now realize that God has this death of the physical body hanging over us for a reason.  We know that He gives life and He takes life.  Our very breath is in His hand.  And it is this impending destiny with dust that helps us understand the futility of living for one’s self.  The self just cannot see us through, for our earthly bodies must betray us, for that is the very nature  of the physical body formed of the dust of this planet.  The house of dirt was made for us by God on purpose not to last.  It is temporary housing.

God fashioned our bodies to be as ephemeral as butterfly wings.  He deliberately formed them to be fragile in hope that we might sense someday our own vanity before death came knocking.  As we see our bodies decay and crumble with age, He hopes that we will see the futility of living for the self.

Our fragility betrays our pretentious egos that always seem to shout, “Hey, everybody, seriously, I really am something!”  But that self-centered imagination breeds the ultimate deception, for “when a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6: 3).

And we have all been guilty of that thought; it is in the spiritual genes of old man Adam and his offspring.  Yes, we are initially made that way by the Creator in hopes that we would see the purposelessness of selfish thinking and be humbled so that we could all realize one truth: Every man is created for only one thing, and it is not for self-glorification; it is for God-glorification.

And if we are blessed to be chosen by Him to reveal this truth to, then we are coming much closer to where we need to be in our walk on earth before our Creator.

There’s nothing in it for you.  For everything in the vastness of the universe and here on earth is for God and His pleasure.  This is the great sticking point with natural-minded man, who earnestly believes that he is the center of the cosmos.  Secular humanism is the new many-headed false god.  “Thou shalt not have any other gods before Me.”  Especially our self.

“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11: 36).  Breaking it down, all things are of Him; they came from Him, and through His creative power all things (including us) exist.  And in the end, all things are created by Him for His pleasure and glory.

For instance, Him delivering us from utter degradation and destruction, and us returning and thanking Him and telling others about His saving love and power–He loves that and gets glory out of it.

“All things were created by Him, and for Him” (Col. 1: 16).  But God does not become a pompous little jerk like natural man when he gets power.  No.  God is LOVE.  He created us so that He could bring us to a place spiritually, where His essence and nature (which is Love) could be multiplied–eventually to fill the whole universe with LOVE!  Our gratitude toward Him for our deliverance from sin is the fertile soil where the seed of Love can grow.

And God-in-human-form is our example and showed us the way.  Jesus (Yahshua) tasted death for us all so that we would not be banished to the dusty tombs of oblivion.  “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory” (Hebr. 2: 9-10).

That’s the plan.  It is all for Him, so that He may glorify those who realize that it is all for Him.  He will share Himself and all His glory with the overcomers, even to the point of sharing His throne with them (Rev. 3: 21).

It is all for the Creator.  When we turn that page in the book of our minds, then joy and serenity will overtake us, for we will have embraced the heart of God with arms of humility, born of His true nature, Love.

{For more on this subject, check out this article:  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/gods-endgame-where-this-life-on-earth-is-leading-us/ }

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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September 11, 2011 · 3:32 pm

“God’s Eternal Purpose Seen in Nature”–Chapter 16 of the Book YAH IS SAVIOR: THE ROAD TO IMMORTALITY

      Many people say that we cannot know what is in the Father’s heart; we cannot know His plan and purpose.  Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. Rom.1:20.

     We look around to the things that have been made, and what do we see?  We see nature.  We see the grass grow, come to maturity, produce seed, and reproduce  itself.   We  see animals of all shapes and sizes—mammals, reptiles, insects, fish, et al—and we see them grow, come to maturity, produce seed and offspring and thereby reproduce themselves.  We see human beings grow up, come to maturity, and reproduce themselves.  It is built into every living thing; if it lives, it strives to  reproduce itself. 

     And every living thing reproduces another that very closely resembles itself.  Oak trees and their acorns produce oak saplings.  Basset hounds give birth to litters of long-eared pups, and humans give birth to humans.  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so…Let the waters bring forth abundantly.. Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. Gen.1:11, 20, 24.

     We can look at the creation and see what God is doing.  In nature everything is reproducing itself.  We can know what God is about, what His plan and purpose is by simply observing nature. The revelation is that God is reproducing Himself, too.  He has the same longing to reproduce Himself that all of his creation does.  He created the earth and every living thing in it to have strong instincts and desires to procreate.  Nature would mirror His desire to have offspring, just like Him.

    Reproducing Himself is the business He is about.  That is why He created the worlds, the heavens and earth and everything in them.  They are all just an environment for Him to reproduce Himself.  He is the Seed and each seed bears its own kind. 

He is also  the  Gardener  who sows Himself (the Seed/the Word) into the earth.  But it is a special earth that He is sowing the Seed/Word into. That special garden is the earthly human bodies who respond to His choosing them for this purpose.  The seed is the word of God. Lk. 8:11. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63.

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August 7, 2010 · 5:26 pm

God’s Eternal Purpose: “Bringing Many Sons unto Glory”

The thoughts and intents of the Father’s heart are without beginning and end.  His purpose has existed through all time and has never wavered, has never changed. His intention toward His creation is everlasting.

It is forever the same and will always be true and valid.  His purpose will always go on; it will never stop.  It will come to pass; nothing can prevent His eternal purpose from finding full fruition in this earth and in the heavens.  His purpose is, of course, the perfect example of the  definition of “eternal” (Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, 2nd College Edition).

God not only has, but is the definitive word on what will transpire here on earth and in the entire universe.  “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God” John 1:1.  “Word” is translated from the Greek word Logos, meaning “(1) a thought or concept; (2) the expression or utterance of that thought” (note, Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1114).  Therefore, in the beginning was the thought or concept, and that thought or concept was the Supreme Being.  And that thought, that Word, became an utterance of that thinking.  And that Word, that Thought, would unfold into a living reality throughout the universe.

Those thoughts, expressed in words, comprise the purpose of God.  His purpose is the road His creation will travel.  His thoughts are His counsel, and they shall stand forever and will come to pass.  The counsel of Yahweh standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Psalms 33:11. 

    Both “purpose” and “thoughts” are words in English translated from the same Hebrew word machashabah, #4284 in Strong’s Concordance.  His thoughts are His purpose.  They express His intentions, His plan, His purpose.  And these thoughts, this purpose, are an intention directed personally and deliberately by God toward His people.  It is a plan that involves people right here on earth.  David knew this intimate truth that God hovers in thought abundantly over his people.  Many, O Yahweh, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Psalms 40:5.  David was well aware of God’s purpose, which definitely concerned him and all of Israel.

And the Word, the Purpose, the Thoughts of God “became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” John 1:14.  The Word/Purpose/Thoughts of God was made flesh; He is called the Son of God, and He is full of grace and truth.  If we can tap into the truth of God’s purpose, if we can conceive of His plan, then we will know the thoughts and intents of His heart.  And when we think those thoughts, and have the same intention and purpose that He is and has, then we are well on the way of pleasing the Father.

Knowing of God’s eternal purpose, which is the grace and truth that the Word-made-flesh was full of, will bring light to us.  For the Word-made-flesh is Light.  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.  He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:9-11. 

The Purpose Incarnate was walking around on the earth He created with the people He had chosen to reveal Himself through, and the majority rejected Him.  But some will receive Him, and they will receive power to become like Him.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12.

     Received Him?  Who is He?  He is the Word, the Thought, the Purpose of God from the beginning put into earthen vessels.  Receive His thoughts and intention and purpose and you are receiving Him.  And you will then receive power to become His sons.  And the sons will have believed on His name.  The sons will not only know His real Hebrew name Yahshua, but they will believe what His name means.  More on that later.

His Purpose Is Sharing Himself with His Offsprin

Yes, Yahweh has a purpose.  He has thoughts toward certain chosen vessels, His sons and daughters to be.  To get them into His camp, He deliberately contacts them or calls them.  He lets them know He is real in some way.  He puts a desire and a hunger in their hearts to know the truth as to why they are here.  He feeds their hunger with small portions of the truth, and they grow.  And soon they begin to realize that everything seems to work out for them.  Even through the bad times, the times of suffering, both of their making and through no fault of their own, God seems to bring some good out of it.  They realize that they are maturing and becoming less selfish.  They begin to love this invisible God who has provided a plan to deliver them from their sinful selves.  Where once they were destroying themselves and their families, they now are enjoying more peace and harmony in  their  lives.   And  we  know   that   all  things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.  Romans 8:28. 

      At first, his offspring may not realize that they are a special creation descended from Adam, who was created some 6,000 years ago in God’s image.  Other men had been created by God earlier.  We know this because Cain was cast out to the east of Eden after murdering his brother Abel, and there he took a wife from those people. But the descendants of Adam had a special destiny in God’s heart.   God had His eye on a few of these Adamites  before they ever were born on earth.  Unknown to them at first, He would call and choose out a few whom He knew beforehand.  And He gave them a destiny before their entry into a mortal earthly fleshly existence.  He predestinated them to be made into the exact image of the Son of God, the Word-Thought-Purpose of God.  They are to be His siblings, his brothers.  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con-formed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 8:29.  For God knew his own before ever they were, and also ordained that they should be shaped to the likeness of his Son. 8:29. NEB.

     And those that He predestinated to be exactly like Himself, those are the ones that He first contacts or calls.  And, as far as He is concerned, it is a done deal.  It is His Thought toward them that they should be like Himself.  What He has purposed, who can prevent it from coming to pass?  To those that He called, He gave them a new heart that does not sin against Him.  He justified them.  They are in His sight justified from all of their despicable past actions.  They, of course, must witness this on earth by believing the word of God about His Son, who is the sacrifice for our sins, whose shed blood slays the sin within us.  It is already done and over with in God’s mind before it ever happens here on earth to His children! And to those called ones who He has justified, He in His thinking,  in  His heart, has already glorified!  More-over, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 8:30.  He chose them long ago; when the time came he called them, he made them righteous in his sight, and then lifted them to the splendour of life as his own sons. 8:30. Phillips. 

This is God’s Doing and Not Ours

      God the Word has thought it all out and has purposed it and planned it to happen according to His predetermined counsel. Nothing accidentally happens.  He is calling, justifying, and glorifying His elect, the chosen few.  They will be “conformed to the image of His Son.” They will shortly be glorified and have their mortality swallowed up by His miraculous eternal life!  God is for them!  He helps them to do His plan, and this personally pleases Him. He gives them what they need and when they need it to become what He has pre-determined for them to become.  In the face of all this, what is there left to say?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not grudge his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need?  Romans 8:31, Phillips. 

 Not According to Us, But to His Own Purpose

      We cannot do anything to become a part of His purpose and plan.  God is saving some and calling some with a holy calling, but it is not because of anything “good” or “evil” that they have done.  You cannot work at it  in  order  to be accepted as a son or daughter.  You work at it because you realize you are chosen by God.  You cannot give enough offerings or go to church tirelessly and endlessly and expect to be one of the chosen ones by your efforts.  To be called to be like Him, to be chosen as one of his sons is not according to our own works.  It has nothing to do with what we have done, do, or ever will do.  He calls us to be His immortal sons and daughters in accordance with His own purpose that was given to us in Yahshua His Son before the world began.  Who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Yahshua the Messiah before the world began.  II Timothy 1:9.

     Our perfection and sonship in Him was given to us before the creation of the world.  Therefore, we were in existence before the world began!  We had to have spiritually been with Him in the beginning in order to have received the holy calling of sonship from Him.  It is he who brought us salvation and called us to a dedicated life, not for any merit of ours but of his own purpose and his own grace, which was granted to us in Yahshua from all eternity. 1:9. NEB.

The Inheritance

The sons and daughters of God have obtained an inheritance.  Our destiny is to inherit all things and to reign with the King of the Universe.  Now this inheritance that some are to receive is a destiny that He has pre-arranged for that elect few.  He has predestined them for greatness.  He has selected these chosen few before the world ever was, to be like Him.  And their lives—their destiny as His sons and daughters—have been predestinated in accordance with His own purpose.  He  thought  it  through  before  the  world  ever  was,  and He purposed and planned it all out to the finest detail.  He then began to work all things after the counsel of His own will  and  purpose.   For  God has allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: He purposes in his sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its  perfection and fulfillment in him.  And here is the staggering thing—that in all which will one day belong to him, we have been promised a share (since we were long ago destined for this by the one who achieves his purposes by his sovereign will), so that we, as the first to put our confidence in Christ, may bring praise to his glory! Ephesians 1:9-12, Phillips.

Summary

The great Creator, the Giver of life, has a definite plan and purpose in creating all things.  He has revealed His purpose over the last 6,000 years to only a few human beings.  We call them apostles and prophets, and they by inspiration of the Spirit of God have left us some writings that tell of His purpose.

They tell of His promise to humankind of a life everlasting—an eternal life where our frail, flimsy earthen bodies will be replaced by a glorious spiritual body in which those blessed ones will live with the Heavenly Father as His spiritual sons and daughters, His heirs of His kingdom.

The apostles and prophets speak of the following concepts that are a part of the perfecting of His sons and daughters:

  • Purpose—No accidents.  He has an eternal purpose in reproducing Himself in His children.
  • Predestination—He has given a royal destiny to a few human beings before they were ever born here on earth.
  • Foreknowledge—He knew who they would be before they were born into this earth.
  • Election—Same word as “chosen.”  He chooses or elects certain human beings to fulfill His will.
  • Grace or Favor—He favors the ones He has chosen.  They are predisposed to respond to Him, and He showers great grace on them, or He favors them with a depth of knowledge about His purpose and how He is going to perform his plan.
  • Kings and Priests—The elect or the chosen ones will acquire immortality according to His will and become like Him.  They will do the “greater works” as His ruling royal family.  They will be His immortal offspring, able to mediate the glorious blessings of His Spirit to the rest of creation.  They will be His inner circle, His cadre, His round table of rulers in His exact image, able to love mankind in the same powerful way that He did.
  • Sovereignty—He is sovereign and can do whatever He desires to do and whenever He decides to do it, in order to accomplish His purpose, plan, intention and thoughts.

[This is Chapter 2 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God.  If you would like to read more, I have it online at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…” ]  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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September 27, 2008 · 3:56 pm

Wisdom Is the Principal Thing–Key to God’s Treasure House

     Those of us who are on this quest for immortality must have the key that unlocks the vault to God’s treasures.  He has left it in plain sight, for He wants us to find it.  That key is wisdom.

     “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom” (Proverbs 4:7).  We’ve got to get wisdom.  It is the main thing.  Why?  Because we cannot find God without it.  He didn’t say that we first need to come down to the front of a church building, go to meetings or tithe or jump through  manmade hoops.  We need wisdom, the key that unlocks God’s spiritual treasure house.

     Many people have tried to enter into the vaults of the  Supreme  Being where His treasures are stored.  Many  have  wanted  to  explore   the   unsearchable riches of Christ–without wisdom.  Many people have tried to clone the Messiah or make temples and buildings to please Him, without wisdom. Mankind sometimes uses interesting but futile chants, hums, repetitions, songs, shouts, “slayings-in-the-spirit” and the like, but the Almighty is not impressed by them. He seeks people to worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

     Many have twisted the word “riches” to mean only money: filthy lucre, mammon, riches of this world that finance luxurious cathedrals midst the poverty,  wealth that  the  world  and  Satan  can  give  ( “I’ll  give you all the kingdoms of this world if…”).

     And yet, Wisdom personified cries to us, “Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness” (Prov. 18: 8).  The durable riches, those that will last, are with wisdom.  And the righteousness that will last and endure is with wisdom, as well.  In the end man will be destroyed “that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches…” Psalms 52:7-8. 

 

The True Riches

     So what are the true riches of God that comes with wisdom?  Paul said that “all the treasures of wisdom” are hid in Christ (Colossians 2:3).  After we get rid of our old selves on the cross, we then are “dead and our life is hid with Christ in God.”  We receive His Spirit in us.  We then have the opportunity to grow up spiritually into Him-walking-around-in-our-body! Which has now become His body!  Think about it: Us doing the same things that He did 2,000 years ago!  Christ did say that those “who believe on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works shall he do also” (John 14: 12).  

 

     That right there should put us in awe of our Creator–which, incidentally, is the very definition of “wisdom.”  More on this next time.  {This is from chapter one of my book, Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality found here:  http://www.yahwehisthesavior.com/yahch1.htm )  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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August 11, 2008 · 10:34 pm

“God’s Elect”–His Body, His Chosen, His Church

     God’s church is His elect, His “chosen ones.”  To those drenched in humanism, that will sound elitist and unacceptable, for humans do the choosing in this world.

     But the Scriptures of truth say otherwise.  They speak of an “election”–one not in which we choose or elect, but one in which God chooses those whom He wants to reside in.  And this truth goes against the grain of unsurrendered modernism.

          The words “elect” and “chosen” are translated from the same Greek word eklektos (Strong’s # G1588); its root word means “to pick out, to choose.” 

     These “chosen ones” are called “God’s elect.”  And these play a big role during these last days.  But who are they exactly?

Saints, Faithful Brethren, Elect of God

     The apostle Paul shows us a clear picture of them in the book of Colossians.  He writes “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ” (1:2).  They are also fruitful Christians (v. 6).  They have “love in the Spirit” (v. 8).  Paul confirms their “redemption through His blood” and includes them as being members of Christ’s “body, the church” (v. 18). 

     Paul, as their minister, is so close to them as Christian brethren, that he shares an astounding revelation from God.  He declares to them “the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1: 25-27). 

     Paul continues to share precious truths to the Colossians in ch. 2.  He has called them saints, the body of Christ, and the church.  And in lieu of all this, he admonishes them: “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” (3: 12). 

      Being Christ’s body and church, and having His Spirit makes you His elect, Paul is telling them.   And because He dwells in you, you are the “elect of God.”  Or, because you are the “elect of God,” He dwells in you.  Here we see the Colossians called saints, the body of Christ, the church, and the God’s elect–or His chosen. 

“I Have Chosen You”

     Speaking to His disciples, Christ says, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit…” (John 15: 16).  The word “chosen” here is from the same word translated “elect.”  You are my elect, He is saying, my chosen ones that will bear the spiritual fruit, bearing witness that my Spirit is in you.

     Later in that sequence, Christ prays for those disciples, and “for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they may be one; as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee” (John 17:20-21).  Oneness–the Spirit of God in His chosen ones as the Father is in Christ. 

     That’s us, brothers and sisters.  We have believed on Christ through the words written down by His very disciples whom He prayed for.  We are His body, His church, His elect, His chosen.  

     So when we see “the elect” spoken of in the scriptures, know that it is His church, His body of believers.  And we see “the elect” on earth during the Tribulation Period (See “No Pre-Tribulation Rapture” at  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/no-pre-tribulation-rapture-gods-elect-on-earth-during-tribulation/ ).           Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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August 5, 2008 · 5:30 pm

No Pre-Tribulation “Rapture”–God’s Elect on Earth During Tribulation

The Scriptures do not support a “Rapture” that happens before the Tribulation starts, as millions have been taught.  They do support a post-tribulation event where Christians are “caught up to meet the Lord in the air”  (see post “The Pre-Tribulation Rapture–A Parachute That Will Not Open here  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/the-rapture-a-parachute-that-will-not-open/ ).

If we can see in the Scriptures the church, actively and literally living on earth during the Great Tribulation, then we will have proof positive that Christians were not “raptured” out of the earth before Tribulation started.  If you will stay with me for a moment, I will show you proof of this.

In Matthew 24, Christ’s disciples ask Him, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (v. 3).  He lists many signs like deception, wars, famines, earthquakes, which “are the beginning of sorrows.”  Then “false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many (v. 4-11).

Then He says, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (v. 12).  The end of what?  The “end” of the tribulation that precedes His coming back to earth.  Then He says that “this gospel of the kingdom” will go out all over the world, and then the end will come.

Then the big sign comes when He says to watch for “the abomination of desolation.”   This is when the Anti-Christ desecrates the newly rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.  When you see that, you better run for cover.  Remember He is talking only to His disciples, which are a type of all of His disciples.  “For then shall be great tribulation” like the world’s never seen.  It will be hellish, as seen during the seven trumpet plagues and the seven vials of wrath in Revelation ch’s 8, 9, 16.

Stay with me, now.  Almost to the proof-text.  It is so bad and destructive to mankind that “except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Mt. 24:22).  In other words, if God allows the destruction to continue, no human beings would survive!  “But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (v. 22).

If the church, God’s elect, have already been “raptured out” to safety before tribulation started, then why would God be so concerned about saving His elect from the physical destruction happening on earth?

“For the elect’s sake” means He doesn’t want His body of believers to die with the wicked in a total annihilation of earth.  For their sake, so that they won’t perish with the wicked, He cuts the tribulation short to prevent total destruction.

It will be horrendously bleak.  Christ’s followers will be looking for their Savior’s return.  He warns that at that time false prophets “shall show great signs and wonders…that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mt. 24:24).  These false teachers are so convincing that they almost deceive the elect of God!

If God’s church, His elect, are already in heaven, then how could they almost be deceived by imposters on earth? They would be in the very presence of God.  They couldn’t be deceived.  No, during this horrible time, His church, His body of believers are still on earth, enduring the suffering, waiting patiently for their Savior’s return.

But some will say that “the elect” spoken of here in Matthew 24:22, 24 are not the church, the body of Christ.  Don’t believe this falsehood.  His elect is His true church.  I will prove this in the next post entitled, “The Elect of God–His Body, His True Church.”  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

For more, check out my books found here:

http://yahwehisthesavior.com/

See also:  “The Cup of Fury”–Yahweh Has a “Controversy With the Nations”

“God’s Elect”–His Body, His Chosen, His Church

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August 2, 2008 · 2:45 pm

The Pre-Tribulation Rapture–A Parachute That Will Not Open

Millions of Christians are depending on a pre-tribulation “rapture” to save them from going through the Great Tribulation Period.  But it is a parachute that will not open.  This teaching has become so pervasive since 1900 that few question its truthfulness.

I certainly don’t blame my Christian brethren for wanting to escape all the destruction that’s coming to this earth during the Tribulation.  And I do certainly believe in a “catching away” of the saints when He comes back.  But the Rapure doctrine teaches that He will come for His church before the tribulation starts.  That sounds so good.  But there’s only one thing wrong.  The scriptures don’t back it up.  They speak of Christ coming back and the church being “caught up to meet Him in the air” at the end of the Tribulation.

Proponents of the “rapture” teaching usually base it on one-half of one verse in the Bible. It is found in I Thessalonians 4:17.  Christ comes back to earth; and the Christians who have died shall be raised first.  “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

We see here that Christians, who will have been changed into their spiritual bodies (II Cor. 5:1-2) “shall be caught up” to meet Christ as He nears touch-down on earth.  We will meet Him “in the clouds” and “in the air.”  Clouds and air are only found in the earth’s atmosphere!  We will rise up to meet Him in the earth’s atmosphere, and then we will come right back down here to earth!

“And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” This is the second half of verse 17 that is never quoted.  He is coming back to earth at the end of the Great Tribulation Period, and since we are ever to be with Him, then we will be coming right back to earth with Him!

I Thessalonians 4:17 does not support Christians being caught away into the third heaven, the traditional concept of heaven, mystically up there somewhere in another dimension.  Yes, there is a rising up in our new spiritual bodies, to meet Him for a moment “in the clouds” and “in the air.”  However, it is a temporary lift-off, for He is on His way to earth, and we are ever to “be with the Lord.”

He is coming here to establish His 1000 year reign of peace, setting up His government, the Kingdom of God, right here on earth.  And few doubt that He will come back here after the Tribulation Period is over.  So the “catching away of the saints” happens at the end of the Tribulation Period, at the moment of Christ’s return to earth to establish His Milennial Reign.

This “Rapture Doctrine” is of utmost importance for us to either prove or disprove, for our families’ future is at stake.   We are told to “purge out the old leaven” doctrines ( see post https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/brutal-honesty-with-ourselves-purging-out-the-old-leaven/ )

Future posts will show scripturally the church, the body of Christ, active here on earth during the Tribulation Period. We as God’s princes and princesses must get this right.  We must study these things out in great detail in order to prepare ourselves to be rulers in His kingdom (see “Studying to Be…” at https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/studying-to-be-a-prince-and-princess-of-god/ ).   What’s your thoughts?         Kenneth Wayne Hancock

For more on this check out my books here: http://yahwehisthesavior.com/     or click link on the Blogroll to your right

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July 31, 2008 · 2:22 pm

Time of the End–“The Cup of Fury”

The New World Order will come down.  This counterfeit of the Kingdom of God is destined to be destroyed by God’s fury.  It is going to get ugly before it gets better.

For “the LORD (Yahweh) has a controversy with the nations…He will give them that are wicked the sword” (Jeremiah 25:31).  Earlier, the word of the LORD (Yahweh) itemizes just who these nations are.  He mentions many by their ancient names, and then in a sweeping indictment, says, “And all the kings of the north, far and near…and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth” shall drink “the cup of fury” that God will force them to drink (v. 26).

By teaching us to pray, “Deliver us from evil,” Christ alludes to these dark days of Tribulation at the end of this era–“the time of the end” spoken of by the Hebrew prophet Daniel.  He is talking about the end of evil on a global scale.  For that is what it is all coming to.  The internationalists, the super-rich bankers and globalists, think that they are going to pull this thing off, this setting up of a “one world government.”

But just as their dreams come to fruition, it will topple as Christ returns to this earth to set up His kingdom.  The die is cast; the book is written.  We need only to study the script so that we may play our parts well.

“The righteous shall scarcely be saved” from the wrath that is coming.  And what will God’s wrath consist of?  God shall “roar” from on high (v. 30).  He will “come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire” (Isaiah 66:15).

It’s the “seven angels which had the seven trumpets” of wrath in Revelation 8.  “Hail and fire” being cast upon the earth burning up a third of the earth (v. 7), and a ” great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea” (v. 8).  This is an assault from the heavens in the form of asteroids or comets colliding into the earth.

This “cup of fury” being poured out onto the earth just keeps on comig in Revelation 8.  “A great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp” will fall into the earth (v. 10).  And this is just three of the seven trumpets unleashed on earth.   And then the “vials of wrath” come next.

No, it’s all coming down.  And some Christians are counting on a “Rapture” theory, based on one-half of one verse of scripture.  How conveniently they have clutched on to this parachute that will not open.  But that’s another post.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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July 26, 2008 · 7:25 pm

“Overcome Evil With Good”–Forgiving One Another

     Been betrayed lately?  Lied to?  Cheated on?  Robbed?  Beaten up?  Victimized?  Abused mentally or physically?  

     Have you ever wondered, Why do good-hearted people suffer at the hands of evil ones?  It is the age old question explored in the Book of Job in the Bible.  Why do the righteous suffer?

     The short answer: God allows it.  For a very good reason.  He wants us to be like Him, but to be like Him, we must have something to forgive.  If this does not make much sense, we need to remember that “HIs ways are not our ways, His thoughts not our thoughts.”  We must look through His eyes to comprehend the answer to this one. 

     His eternal purpose is what He is about from the very beginning before time as we know it.  And it is this: He is in the process of reproducing Himself.  He is the Seed, the Word, and He is multiplying Himself in us. 

He Is the Forgiver

     We receive His Spirit within our hearts and begin to grow.  One of His major traits that He is keen on passing on to us is that He is the Forgiver.  “To forgive a wrong” is an attribute of God, for only He can do it; only He has a heart big enough for it. 

     We, in order to be His sons and daughters, should now forgive.  The English poet Alexander Pope wrote, “To err is human; to forgive is divine.” 

     But it is not in the old nature of man to forgive.  We hold on to things that people do to us.  We hold grudges and forge weapons of revenge, or harbor little agonies about wrongs committed aganist us.  

     And since forgiveness is not a natural human trait, we then are forced to go to God and ask Him for His Spirit-of-forgiveness to be channeled through us to the one who wronged us.

     This has a powerful impact on both the forgiver (us) and the forgiven (them).   We will have contacted God and witnessed His Spirit of forgiveness flowing through us, and the forgiven knows now that something greater than a victim stands there–in peace.

     This is how we are delivered from the evil done to us by others–when we forgive their sins toward us.  We have that power with God.  In fact, He wants us to forgive others, for it shows the world that we are His offspring.

     We are to “be partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4).  By forgiving, we show His godly nature in us.  This gives God glory.

     Forgiving will not put an end to “people hurting people.”  The old nature will sin against others. But we can transcend this lower, earthy, devilish cycle of hurt-for-hurt and an eye-for-an-eye.  With God’s help, this we can do to end the cycle of sin.  We forgive and thereby join the ranks of God’s princes and princesses who have now partaken of His divine nature–the nature of forgiving.

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July 22, 2008 · 12:00 pm

“But Deliver Us From Evil”–From the Evil Within the Heart

     Evil comes in three sizes: the personal, the inter-personal, and the national/inter-national size.

     Christ is teaching us here in the “Lord’s Prayer” to ask the Father for deliverance from all evil, beginning with the evil that lurks within the heart of natural man.

     Christ spoke sharply about the spiritual state of those who do not have the Spirit of God within them–those who were not re-generated by His Spirit. 

     He exposed the religious hypocrites who asked Him why His disciples ate with unwashed hands and not “according to the tradition of the elders.”  He told them that it’s what comes out of the man that defiles the man, not what goes into the man.  “For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit…blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:20-23).  In a word, these sins come from within the heart of the old nature.

     The prophet Jeremiah knew of the treachery of the old Adamic heart when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?

     This old heart is natural man’s dirty little secret; it is what propels people into doing evil things that they don’t really want to do (See ch. 27 of my book Yah-Is-Savior: The Road to Immortality at http://www.yahwehisthesavior.com/yahch27.htm ).  The apostles call it “being a slave to sin.”

     Secular humanism, however, teaches that the human being, though flawed, inately has the answer to his own problems–already within himself.  It has made a man’s SELF his god!  It teaches that the human being is its own physician and savior. 

     But try as people may to clean up their old sinful self, eventually “the screaming blue monkey” crashes into their minds, demanding that they do what they know they shouldn’t, demanding that they take the path of darkness, a trail that leads them to guilty shadows of loneliness far from the light of the sun.  This monkey is the selfish little bastard-child ego, incessantly wanting to be worshipped by all.

     This evil presence in unregenerated human beings is not being dealt with in the vast majority of churches.  It is too raw of a confrontation.  And many lives are being destroyed “for lack of knowledge” of these things.

     It takes honesty and humility to take that old self to the cross.  This “personal evil” in one’s heart has to be crucified with Christ, or it will always flare up.  It must be recognized, renounced, hated, and crucified (in spiritual revelation).  Then buried with Him, and then raised with Christ’s Spirit now within, thereby becoming a new creature.  “He that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:3-7) {See post “Love from Above–Down and Through” at https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/love-from-above-down-and-through/ }.

     The old heart and old spirit of man keeps God’s Spirit away, for He will not dwell in an “unclean temple.”  We are, after all, to be God’s temple.

     But God has provided us a way to do away with the personal evil within at the cross.  But other evils still exists.  And we are to pray to be delivered from them as well.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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