bosalisbury.com Posts

Addressing the Suicide of Thought, G.K. Chesterton cites the French Revolution as an example of modern man’s inability to truly be revolutionary (in a good way), because of his self-imposed prison of “objectivity” and open-mindedness — euphemisms for an unhealthy and paralyzing skepticism. This degradation of thought, weaving its way through the 20th century and terminating in 2007, may explain why so many Americans (and cloistered, postmodern epicurean, hedonistic European socialists) will trouble themselves (and, the rest of us) over the genocide in, say, Darfur, while villainizing the liberation, in process, of vast numbers of victims of a large, totalitarian regime.… Read the rest

Our brother from Uganda was told by the Lord to deliver a message to our church and he obeyed. It was a very costly undertaking for someone living in a country with an annual per capita income of $280. He has preached five times now from this passage:

2 Chronicles 7:14 …if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

He has spoken of humility, prayer, seeking God’s face and repentance.… Read the rest

Our friend, Pastor Steve from Uganda, is full of surprises. He sings beautifully around the house in the morning, he is a gifted preacher, and he is also a real good soccer player. As he puts it, “when I was in school, I was a sports-man” (an athelete). He said that he hadn’t played soccer in 10 years, but you’d never know it to watch him. He played in running shoes and even when he fell down or slid, his recovery was graceful and showed amazing skill!… Read the rest

The Two Witnesses
In Revelation 11, we meet the two witnesses:

Revelation 11:3 & 4 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

Who are these striking individuals? Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of the most common identifications.

Joshua and Zerubbabel
Pros

• • This would be the literal, natural meaning – they are referred to as “men” who prophesy and work wonders.
  • In the Greek, the use of the article with the “two witnesses” leans toward the identification of them as individuals.

The Temple
What is the temple spoken of in Revelation 11? Is it an end-times temple constructed by faithful Jews in present-day Jerusalem? Or, was it Herod’s temple which was destroyed in 70AD? Perhaps it is a picture of God’s people. Here are a few (not all) of the pros and cons with each of these understandings.

The Restored End-Times Temple in Jerusalem
Pros

• • This would be the literal, natural meaning – we see a literal temple, two real witnesses, in the actual city of Jerusalem, the times are literal, etc..
  • The linguistic argument – it is called “the temple” using the same terminology consistently used throughout the Bible
  • A third temple is prophesied in Ezekiel 40 – 48 and measured in the same way
  • Daniel 9 speaks of the Abomination of Desolation taking place during the tribulation, 2 Thessalonians 2 speaks of the lawless one in the temple before the coming of the Lord and Revelation 13 picks up these themes.

In Chapter 10, John sees an angel holding a bibliridion — a small book or booklet. This was in the day when scrolls were common and small books of flat pages pasted together were just coming into use, so “a small scroll” is an appropriate translation. Some call it the little apocalypse, because it appears to contain much the same message as the entire Revelation. John writes:

Revelation 10:8-11 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”… Read the rest

Recent events in Israel and Lebanon have Evangelical Christians abuzz for a number of reasons. But, when it comes to eschatology, inquiring minds want to know. Is the current Jewish state of Israel the fulfillment of prophecy? Did God promise to return His people to the land in the last days. This is a good question and I’ve assembled some thoughts on the subject. I’ll be throwing around some specialized terms, so be sure to use the resources I’ve linked in the right column if you’re unsure about labels such as futurist, preterist, dispensationalist, etc..

Most dispensationalists such as John Walvoord, Thomas Ice, and Dwight Pentecost would expect to see Israel returned to the land, fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham:

Genesis 15:18 – 21 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.… Read the rest

I think these verses are some of the saddest, most sobering in the entire Bible:

The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood — idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelation 9:20 & 21

This is mankind’s response to the unleashing of the horde of demonic locusts out of the Abyss in Revelation 9, attacking those who have not been sealed by God for His supernatural protection.… Read the rest

What is the relationship among the seals, trumpets, and bowls? Do they follow one another in sequence, do they overlap or do they follow any sequence at all? This is a question that many have wrestled with and the different answers to this question span all methods of interpretation.

There are three options… ( I should learn by now to say, “at least…”)

1. They are sequential, just as they appear in Revelation.
2. The seals, trumpets and bowls conclude at the same point in time, so that each group of seven takes us back to the beginning of the previous seven, describing the same events using different symbols or pictures.

How consistent and effectual are your prayers? Do your prayers even matter? After all, God will do as He pleases anyway. Do you ever wonder if God even hears you when you pray, because you approach Him so half-heartedly? In Revelation 8, we encounter a scene that should hit us like a splash of cold water in our faces and sober us up to the reality that our prayers are powerful, crucial to the execution of God’s plan, impacting the world in which we live.

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.… Read the rest