THE TIME IS FULFILLED

Ruins at Qumran and some of the cliffs where caves were found that contained the Dead Sea Scrolls.

"Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for you people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy" (Daniel 9:24).

The Essenes lived at Qumran from, roughly, 200 B.C. until after the time of Christ. The Essenes were a strict, conservative sect of the Jews who understood one of their purposes was the preservation of Scripture and some other ancient writings. That is how the Dead-Sea Scrolls came into being. Scriptures were copied and then sealed in clay jars and hidden in caves. It is because of their work that the integrity of Old Testament Scripture has been immensely strengthened. The Dead-Sea Scrolls contain fragments of every Old Testament book but Esther. The most popular Old Testament book for the Essenes was the book of Daniel. More fragments of it were found than any other. It is because of the Dead-Sea Scrolls that we know that Daniel was written when the author said it was, early, and not when the liberals said it was, late.

Because of the work of the Essenes, we know that the reason for the huge amount of Messianic expectation during the time of Christ was not the result of the occupation of the Holy Land by Roman forces, but the result of many Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, particularly those of the prophet Daniel. Daniel's "70 Weeks" prophecy was datable. The scholars of 2,000 years ago could count. They knew that their time fell within the time frame of Daniel's prophecy. They knew their time was the time to expect the Messiah. It is for this reason that there were quite a few people like Simeon and Anna who waited in the Temple night and day worshipping and watching for the Lord's Messiah (Luke 2:25-38). And, it was for this same reason that our Lord Jesus came saying, "The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:14-15).

God has not been so definite about the timing of the second coming of the Messiah as He was about the timing of the first coming. At any moment we could be called to stand before the Lord. Are you ready?

Grace&Peace,

Tom

p.s. I do believe that there are some very general signs of the Lord Jesus' second coming. I will talk about them, the Lord willing, in the future.

ENTROPY HAPPENS

"Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:15-16).

Entropy is a scientific word. It defines the inevitable movement from order to disorder. It defines the movement of all matter and all energy as it moves toward a state of inert uniformity. It defines the loss of information in a transmitted message, and the inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or a society.

There is entropy in every human relationship. Every relationship will come apart unless something holds it together. It takes commitment. It takes love. It takes faith, and it takes energy! That means, husbands, that you need to give your marriage some extra attention--give your wife some flowers! And when she says, "Oh, flowers again," you might have to give her a new house. If all of that fails, you might try listening to her to find out what she is really saying. Listening is work. It takes effort, but it is the best gift we can give to our wives, or to anyone.

The good news about the entropy that is always present in a relationship is that it can be reversed, but it takes energy guided by Wisdom and Love to do it. That is what is meant by "redeeming the time." Redeeming has to do with buying. The Bible says we must invest our time and ourselves to renew relationships, and to make new ones, in these present evil and entropic days. As Christian people, we have a decision to make. Will we just let entropy happen? Or, will we embrace the One who can reverse entropy and walk with Him and be like Him? "He is before all things and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).

Grace&Peace,
Tom

SIMEON'S PRAYER

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel" (Words of the aged Simeon who wanted to see the Messiah before he died. Luke 2:29-32).

For me, one of the most inspiring moments of my tour in the Holy Land was the visit to the wailing wall. A military swearing-in ceremony was about to begin. Some young soldiers were flirting with the college women in our group. The atmosphere was such that one couldn't help but think of the huge amount of history connected with this place and the dramatic history that will yet happen in this place.

I am not going to do an unbroken series on prophecy, but through the remainder of the year I do plan to write about Biblical prophecy. I will hit some of the high spots, but I do not plan to be sensational. There is a lot of sensationalism and pseudo scholarship in the popular writings about prophecy. In the ebb and flow of human events there have been an abundance of predictors and date-setters who have ignored the Lord's words, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority" (Acts 1:7) and have gone on to make identifications and set dates that the grinding-wheels of time have ground to dust. When Isaac Newton predicted that the Lord would not return before 2060 his purpose was not to set a date, but to discourage the date-setters of the 17th century--they were an embarrassment.

During the time of Simeon, because of the prophecies of the Old Testament, there was a great deal of Messianic expectation. His request was to see the Messiah. God granted that request.

At the wailing wall one immediately notices the fervency of prayer by those who are there (I wonder what Obama prayed for?) and the prayer papers jammed into the wall. Most of them are for the Messiah to come, not recognizing that the Messiah has already come. My prayer is that they will recognize Jesus the Messiah and find salvation in Him. My prayer is also like Simeon's prayer in that I would like be alive to witness Jesus' second-coming. I was born in the closing days of 1947, the year of discovery of the dead-sea scrolls, very near the birth year of the modern state of Israel, 1948, both of which I consider to be evidence of Divine providence. Perhaps the generation that was born during that time will not pass away before the return of the Messiah comes to pass. We will see.

Grace&Peace,

Tom

SEEN ANY FAMILIAR HANDS LATELY?

"Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them,'Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe'" (John 20:24-25).

As we were closing our family reunion and saying our "good-byes" my cousin shared with me a comment that her 30-something-year-old daughters made about me. She said, "hold out your hands." So I did. Then she said, "look at them," which I did with a puzzled look on my face. She said, "My daughters noticed the resemblance of your hands to my dad's hands. The way they are freckled is the same and your fingers are the same. Wow! My cousin's dad, my uncle, has been dead for about 10 years. It is so interesting to me that these adult women, even after 10 years, would recognize the similarity of my hands to their grampa's hands. I knew my uncle Harold well. The only way he would have used those hands would have been in a loving and helping way. To me it is an honor to have hands that look like my uncle's.

Noticing hands--is that a female thing? I think so. I think this little story says something about the importance of dad's and grampa's in the lives of their little girls.

Grace&Peace,
Tom

PS: I promise, I will write more about prophecy this week.

IN THE LIGHT OF PROPHECY

". . .no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions" (2 Peter 1:21-2:1).

I am not doing too well with my writing. Even this little blurb will be short because it has been a looong day. Helen and I have had the blessing of spending a lot of time with our grandchildren during the last couple of weeks, and now during this week we have two of them, Alex and Samantha all to our selves. On top of that, we are watching our grand dog, Barkley, a six-month old rat terrier. I, of course, have a farm to run and people to pastor so I should try to do some actual work once in a while. The Fredenberg reunion, my mom's side of the family, is this weekend. Helen and I have a lot to do to host that too. So it is a very busy time. My mind has been tired and numb--I just haven't felt like writing. I do want to write a little now to get you faithful readers set up for next week.

How do we know a thing to be true? The scientific method has reigned supreme in finding and verifying truth in the physical universe. The historical method is used to find the truth about the happenings of human events. One of the legitimate ways of knowing is Biblical revelation. Revelation is information that we could not know unless God revealed it. There are times when it appears that the Bible is at odds with science or with history. When that is the case, I stand with the Bible because neither the scientific method or the historical method have been perfect in the quest for truth.

One of the hallmarks of Biblical revelation is predictive prophecy. About 29 per cent of the Old Testament and 22 per cent of the New Testament is predictive prophecy. That is the subject I would like to discuss over the next 2-3 posts starting next week.

Grace&Peace,
Tom

BACK FROM VACATION

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).

I'm back, but not quite ready to start writing. My family and I have been on vacation. My mind is still there and that is death for my writing, but it was great for our family. We were all together at Rebecca's house in California. The grandchildren are growing so fast! That is why it is important for us all to be together at once. The kids need to understand the family, its beliefs, values, priorities and traditions so that they will be better able to know who they are as they build relationships with those outside of the family.

Hopefully, next week I will be writing something prophetic.

Grace&Peace,
Tom