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Who are the "Sons of God" in Genesis Chapter 6? (Part 4) - Steve Schmutzer -
http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=8675 Part 4: The Fallen Angels' Agenda Against Humans I've done a fair bit of writing, but few topics have generated as many impassioned comments as this series. I've reviewed the comments I've directly received and those generated on various forums. While most of the readers have been very supportive, a few have been "less" so. Nothing divides like the truth of God's Word. I want to briefly glance back at the first three parts of this series. A short review will set the stage for this fourth installment. In Part 1, I laid out what I believe to be the proper standards of Biblical interpretation. A valid hermeneutic accepts that the Bible means what it says and says what it means. It is irresponsible to impose alternate meanings on a text when its literal interpretation does not suit our preferences. Those who do this disqualify themselves from productive dialogue. In Part 2, the Hebrew term, b'nai Elohim, was studied in view of Genesis 6:1-4. The term's original construct, its use in other parts of Scripture, and its consistency of application were carefully considered. It is only after the death and resurrection of Christ that believers are given this distinction, and at no point prior to this are natural humans defined by these terms. Part 3 dove into the origins of the "sons of Seth" theory. Special attention was directed to the ways its proponents choose to spiritualize Biblical texts in order to achieve the interpretations they most covet. A frank assessment of the dilemmas this raises - including a review of the heresies of Replacement Theology, as an example - was provided. With the content of these prior installments in the rear view mirror, I believe it's wrong to force a natural human interpretation of b'nai Elohim upon the Genesis 6:1-4 passage. And so the "approved" student of God's Word (2 Tim. 2:15) is left with a burning question, "Why did fallen angels leave their first estate (Jude 1:6) to enter into unlawful sexual relations with normal human women and produce these gigantic hybrid "Nephilim?" I believe the answer starts back in Genesis 3:15 where, following the entrance of sin into the human race, God pronounces specific curses upon the man, the woman, and the serpent. It's here the first Biblical promise of the Messiah is given. We learn the Messiah will come from the "seed" (Hebrew: "zera") of the woman, and of course we see this prophecy fulfilled in the Gospels when Jesus Christ came into this world by virgin birth. But it's also here in Genesis 3:15 that Satan is put on official notice. Now he knows a future Messiah is prophesied to defeat him. Now, he also knows that Messiah will come from a human source - the physical "zera" of a woman. But that's not all God pronounced in Genesis 3:15. He also laid out two other important facts. First, there would be a certain "enmity" or hostility that would perpetuate from that point forward, and second, that enmity would be expressed between the woman's "zera" ("seed") and the serpent's "zera" ("seed"). The same Hebrew term is used to describe both "seeds." It's here that some folks want to claim that the "zera" of the woman means "physical descendants," but the "zera" of the serpent means "spiritual descendants." They want to allegorize the text to suit their preferences. Nope - sorry. You can't make up the rules as you go. That's being irresponsible with the Bible, but mostly it's being disrespectful to its divine Author. Remember, the first rule of proper Biblical interpretation says passages must be understood in light of their original Biblical meaning, and "zera" is used to describe the genetic seed of humans, animals, and plants. Genesis chapter 1 emphasizes this "zera" reproduces "after its own kind." It's always worked that way, and it still does - - for sperm, ovum, mosquitos, and coconuts. God underscores a key point in Genesis 3:15: the woman and the serpent will each produce descendants through their "zera," and there will be a conflict between the two sides. This helps us to understand the behind-the-scenes situation with Genesis 6:1-4. If Satan can derail God's plans to bring the Messiah into the world, then He can also prevent his own destruction by that same Messiah. After Genesis 3:15, Satan knows the integrity of the human "zera" - or genome - is conditional for the Messiah's arrival. Satan's objective from that point onward is to corrupt the genetics of humans in order to prevent this. The fallen angels' agenda in Genesis 6:1-4 was therefore broadly directed against the human race. The sexual mingling of the "sons of God," (the fallen angels, or the b'nai Elohim) with the "daughters of men" (normal human women) was an effective incursion into God's divine order of Creation. The details of Genesis chapter 6 underscore a couple of important things:
In the details of Genesis chapter 6, we find Satan's plan to genetically corrupt the human race was masterfully-executed. God's omniscience and omnipotence was not in question here - but in human terms, the situation had become dire. Satan had made his moves and the Nephilim were now taking over the entire earth. Now it was God's turn. Enter the great worldwide flood. Those who paint God as becoming so keenly frustrated with man's sinful condition that in a brash and unguarded moment He chose to drown everyone like a bunch of rats, have subordinated Almighty God to a status no better than the pagan gods of any heathen culture. This is heretical and it makes no sense. "You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Psalm 86:15). Many passages in Scripture make clear the fact that the One True God is not measured by the limitations of human understanding. He is also the same "....yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8) which places profound stress on any argument that suggests God had a momentary lapse of reason way back at the time of The Great Flood. There must have been another motive for this global event. There was! Noah's "zera" remained genetically secure - unadulterated by the corrupt invasion of fallen angelic "zera" into the sphere of humanity. The flood was God's way of protecting Noah and his family in order to preserve the Messianic promise of Gen. 3:15. The Great Flood was necessary for our salvation. In effect, God rebooted mankind in a boat. Noah went into the ark with his wife and his sons, and their wives. Eight folks embarked on the world's first Mediterranean cruise and everyone else was left outside to tread water. There were no survivors in the latter group as Gen. 7:21-23 makes abundantly clear. It's here things get quite interesting because the Bible makes it plain that the Nephilim returned after The Great Flood. Yes - the giants! Genesis 6:4 even says so. The questions here are "Why?" and "How?" The first question is the easier to answer. The reason they returned is God had prophesied there would be an ongoing enmity between the two sources of "zera:" one from fallen angelic origin, and the other from human origin. One battle between the two "seeds" had been settled by The Great Flood, but the larger war was still ongoing. Satan was still desperate to prevent the Messiah's arrival, and this should not be hard for us to understand. The Messiah's arrival meant Satan's defeat, and Satan was not going to give up on his own plans. The Nephilim had already been a pretty good hand for Satan. He was going to try again - but this time, a bit more strategically. It's the "How?" question that's harder to answer. "How did the Nephilim return after The Great Flood?" There are two theories. The first theory suggests there was a second incursion by fallen angels into humanity the same way the first incursion had taken place (Gen. 6:1-4). Proponents of this theory are inclined to say, "Hey, the Bible said it happened this way once before, so it must've happened this way again." Among the various problems with this notion is the fact God took strong action against the fallen angels that had "abandoned their proper dwelling" (Jude 1:6, 2 Peter 2:4). He punished them with imprisonment. In other words, God made an example of them. It's a stretch to me to suggest other fallen angels discounted God's demonstration of just judgment and decided to "try it again." Furthermore, the Bible never states that the dynamics of Genesis 6:1-4 repeated themselves. The second theory suggests the fallen angelic "zera" somehow became a stowaway on the ark. I hold to this theory because I believe it makes the most sense. I also believe it's the angle the Bible supports, and in no way do I think it means "Satan pulled a fast one" on God. God knows everything and nothing gets by Him. He allows sin to find expression today and He did then too. But how do we explain this idea that "a bit of bad blood got on the boat." Going back to Genesis 6:9, we learned Noah was "perfect in his generations." The original language and the greater context of Scripture makes the case this was a statement about Noah's genetic - or "physical" - integrity. We also know Noah was a "preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5), so he had standards consistent with God's values. It doesn't mean he was a mistake-free person because we find out after The Great Flood that he was not (Gen. 9:21). Be that as it may, I believe it's essential to conclude Noah chose a Godly wife, one whose "tamiym" was as his own. In fact, we know this to be the case because Jesus descends through Shem, one of Noah's sons (Luke 3:36), and for Shem to be genetically pure in keeping with the prophetic Messianic conditions of Gen. 3:15, that meant Noah's wife had to be genetically pure too. It also means Noah's other two sons, Ham and Japheth, were also genetically-unaffected by fallen angel "zera." That narrows things down to one of the sons' wives. I conclude one of these gals was a "carrier." One of them had the fallen angel "zera" hidden in her, and it is here that we need to take note of certain details in the Scriptures quite carefully. It would seem that Shem's line would be called out as the one to follow after The Great Flood. He's the son of Noah that Jesus descended from, so it would be reasonable to find that Shem's lineage gets the attention from this point forward. But it doesn't. Neither Shem or Japheth get much genealogical limelight because the Scriptures want us to notice that God had not forgotten this "enmity" He first spoke of back in Genesis 3:15. It is Ham's lineage that the Bible emphasizes. Of Ham's four sons, three are demonstrated in the Biblical narrative to produce Nephilim descendants, and of those three sons, it is Canaan that the Scriptures focus on the most. All said, we can reasonably conclude it was Ham's wife that carried a latent Nephilim gene. From the point Ham exits the ark in Genesis 9:18 to the point the Nephilim are once again mentioned by name after the flood in Numbers 13:31-33, it is the descendants of Ham that the Bible traces very precisely. Specific individuals within that lineage, and their activities, are expanded on (Gen. 10:6-11) until we get to the report of 10 of the 12 spies that Joshua sent to scout out The Promised Land in Numbers 13:31-33. This report from the 10 spies mentions "....the giants, the sons of Anak," and by all accounts they are a fierce and imposing lot. They are also traced directly back to Ham, and that's the whole point of the detailed lineage that is given back in Genesis. That ancient hostility between the two different "zera" was still simmering under the surface, just waiting for the right occasion to express itself once more. A new battle was being prepared, and with the arrival of the Israelites at the threshold of The Promised Land, it was about to erupt again. I need to mention here that a superb detailed outline of the Nephilim genealogies can be found at: http://beginningandend.com/ . The research is phenomenal and worth reading fifty times. I won't repeat here what is stated there, but I will urge each reader to explore it diligently since it backs up what I am saying. In the next installment of this series, we will see how the fallen angels' agenda became more focused. We will see how Satan learns something after Genesis 3:15 which directs him to concentrate on a narrower target, and we see how that same focus plays out even in our time today. Minister: It's official - More Jews in Israel than US - David Rosenberg - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/248357 Immigration Minister confirms that Israel now home to world's largest Jewish community, surpassing the US. Israeli Jews now constitute the largest Jewish community in the world, a government minister said Monday, surpassing the American Jewish community by nearly one million people. Since World War II, the United States has been home to the world's largest Jewish community. Numbering some four million people at the outbreak of the Second World War, the American Jewish community grew rapidly in the immediate post-war era, rising to five-and-a-half million by 1970. From then on, however, declining birthrates and a surge in level of assimilation slowed the growth of the American Jewish community. While the precise number of Jews is difficult to discern, and depends heavily on the methodology used and definition of Jewishness adopted, the Jewish population of the US is believed to have peaked between the early 1990s and early 2000s at roughly six million, before going into decline. By contrast, the Jewish population of Israel has increased steadily since the establishment of the state in 1948, rising from some 650,000 in 1948 to 1.8 million a decade later. By 1980, there were 3.2 million Jews living in Israel, rising to 5.8 million by 2010. According to official numbers collected by the Israeli government and provided by Immigration Minister Sofa Landver, some 5.7 million Jews now live in the US, compared to 6.6 million in Israel. Speaking at a meeting of the Knesset's Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs on Monday, Landver discussed the demographic shift in the world Jewish community, and her ministry's efforts to ease the immigration process for Jews seeking to make Aliyah to Israel. "We are working to reduce administrative obstacles, and we've increased the number of languages available in service centers," Landver told the committee. "We've also seen an increase in the number of olim [immigrants] who settle in the Negev and Galilee (24% of all new immigrants - 6,917 people - settled in these regions in 2017, compared with 4,307 new immigrants who settled in these regions in 2016), we've increased assistance and accompaniment for entrepreneurs, and we've also seen an increase in the number of businesses opened by olim and a significant drop in delinquency among new teenage immigrants." Other figures cast doubt, however, on Landver's claim, suggesting that the American Jewish community may in fact be significantly larger than 5.7 million. A 2013 Pew Research study on the American Jewish community highlights the difficulty in accurately measuring the number of Jews, given the variety of definitions - both from pollsters, as well as from those being polled. While Jewish tradition recognizes any person with a Jewish mother or conversion performed according to Jewish law as Jewish, such details are difficult to come by in nationwide studies. The 2013 study found that just 4.2 million Americans identified with Judaism as a religion, though nearly 1.2 million more said they considered themselves either Jewish or "partly Jewish". An additional 2.4 million Americans said they had "Jewish background", for a total of more than 7.7 million people with some level of Jewish identification. A 2017 study based on population estimates provided by the US Census Bureau for 2014 show the number of Jews in the US is still nearly identical to the number in Israel - and significantly larger than the figures provided by Landver, at 6,850,864. After Israel and the United States, the largest Jewish communities are in France, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Russia, Immigration Ministry Director General Alex Kushnir said during the meeting on Monday. Nearing Midnight: The Political Landscape Is Getting Very Nasty and Very Dangerous - Todd Strandberg - http://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ After several high-profile harassment incidents, it is quickly becoming clear that America faces a future where political violence may become the norm. There is such a fine line between verbal and physical abuse, an appeal for civility needs to be given top priority. Those who try to toss gasoline onto the dumpster fire need to be called out and punished. A new poll by Rasmussenreports.com shows that most voters fear that political violence is coming. Thirty-one percent (31%) of Likely U.S. Voters say it's likely that the United States will experience a second civil war sometime in the next five years. But 59% of all voters are concerned that those opposed to President Trump's policies will resort to violence, with 33% who are Very Concerned. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters is in my view the worst person currently serving in Congress. In 1992, she cheered as racist mobs burned Los Angeles. There is hardly a day that goes by where she is not blaming others for racism. Waters has drawn fire from across the political spectrum for telling an audience that they should hunt down anyone linked to the Trump administration and harass them in public. "If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere," Waters said. This woman is promoting the game plan of Hitler's Brownshirts. Before they had the power to just grab someone off the street and take them on a one-way trip to a death camp, they followed their foes from place to place, shouting Nazi slogans. We're quickly approaching the point of no return. Once both sides become radicalized, it will become almost impossible to put the hate genie back in the bottle. The owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia who refused to serve Sarah Sanders and her family has a legal right to her decision. The public also has a right to put this restaurant out of business by boycotting it. The district voted for Trump by a 2 to 1 margin, so the lack of conservative customers would doom this eatery. It is very hard to rationalize leftist logic as it relates to this incident. Why is it okay to tell Sarah Sanders to leave a restaurant, but not okay to refuse someone a gay wedding cake? Under their thinking, Sanders should be able to go into a Vegan restaurant and demand to be served a T-bone Steak. There should be a lesson learned from the attack on Rep. Steve Scalise, who was seriously wounded a year ago in a politically motivated mass shooting at a Congressional baseball team practice. Since he was a Republican and was shot by a Bernie Sanders supporter, the left quickly forgot about that event. The liberal media thinks it still has room to reason with the American people, but almost everyone knows about their agenda. I think the CNN propaganda machine does more harm than good to the leftist cause. Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather tried to attack President Donald Trump last week and ended up giving him a possible campaign slogan to use, calling him "mean as a wolverine." Here is what a couple people posted on Twitter: Nick Short: "I think @realDonaldTrump would endorse the slogan. 'As mean as a wolverine!' Has a nice ring to it actually. We should thank Rather for the terrific campaign slogan." Kambree Kawahine Koa: "Dan Rather said President Trump is 'Mean as a Wolverine.' Yes sir, he is. We didn't vote to put another sissy in the White House who doesn't have a spine to stand up for America. We voted for an America First President that is tough, fights back and plays the media like a fiddle!" President Trump does have a character flaw by mocking people for no reason. His shortfall can never be an excuse for people on the left using terms that call for violence. The possibility of conflict was bad enough with Congress. A new Battle line has suddenly emerged at the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Anthony Kennedy informed the White House of his intention to step down from the high court, effective July 31. The war over Trump's next nominee will be brutal; it's been nearly 30 years since an actual swing vote retired. I can already hear Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying, "Trump's nominee is too radical to be a member of the Supreme Court." My understanding of Bible prophecy forces me to be very pessimistic about the future. The only way for us to buy time and delay political chaos is by being mindful of the Golden rule that Jesus used to summarize the Torah: "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12 ESV). New Cold War: Russia, China & The United States Preparing For Future Conflict - By Michael Snyder - http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=2369 While most of the world is focused on the World Cup and other trivial pursuits, the three global superpowers are busy jockeying for nuclear superiority. Historians will debate the extent to which the first Cold War ever really ended, but everyone pretty much agrees that a new Cold War has now begun. Russia, China and the United States are all racing to develop the next generation of nuclear weapons and delivery systems, and at this moment it is unclear who will ultimately come out on top in this new arms race. In Russia, nearly the entire nation is united behind the push to modernize the Russian strategic nuclear arsenal, but the United States is a deeply divided society today, and most of the population believes other priorities are far more important than developing new weapons. Of course the United States started out with an edge in this new arms race, but now Russia and China have been working extremely hard to eliminate that edge, and to a large degree they have succeeded. When World War 3 is fought someday, submarines capable of delivering nuclear weapons will be one of the key factors, and all three global superpowers are rushing to upgrade their fleets. The following comes from USA Today... The world's three largest naval powers are all developing the next generation of their nuclear submarine fleets, accelerating the underwater arms race between the United States, China and Russia. In this race, the United States is focusing on sheer power, but for both Russia and China "speed and stealth are key"... Meanwhile, Russia expects to complete four Borei-II submarines by 2025, and China will begin constructing Type 096 submarines in several years, both of which will be able to travel at speeds of more than 30 knots - or about 10 knots faster than the new Columbia-class SSBN. While the United States is most focused on the lifetime savings from the Columbia-class's improved nuclear core reactor, for both Russia and China's next generation of boomers, speed and stealth are key. Russia has already developed "black hole submarines" that can approach our coastlines without ever being detected by us. Theoretically, someday the Russians could send an entire fleet of these "black hole submarines" along our coasts and hammer us with a barrage of nuclear missiles before we even know what hit us. And don't think that this type of scenario is too far off in the future. According to naval analyst Christopher Cavas, a new super-silent Russian attack submarine called "the Severodvinsk" has "got everybody spooked"... "The Severodvinsk is way quieter than anything we've encountered and it's got everybody spooked," said Washington naval analyst Christopher Cavas. Of course the Russians are not just developing a new generation of submarines. They are also reportedly building "intercontinental nuclear torpedoes" that could potentially travel thousands of miles underwater and hit U.S. coastal cities without warning... It sounds like the stuff from a Cold War novel: A Russian intercontinental nuclear-armed torpedo that can travel thousands of miles and strike U.S. coastal cities with minimal warning. But that weapon isn't just a work of fiction. It's actually being developed in Russia, according to a new Defense Department report that assesses the arms advancements being made in other countries. If relations with Russia were rapidly deteriorating, this is the kind of stuff that should be keeping our leaders up at night. Oh, that's right, our relations with Russia are rapidly deteriorating. The Russians are also way ahead of the United States when it comes to developing hypersonic missiles. This is something that Vladimir Putin made a point of emphasizing during a speech to the Russian public earlier this year... He said the plane-launched hypersonic missile, called Kinzhal or dagger, could manoeuvre while travelling at more than 10 times the speed of sound, making it "guaranteed to overcome all existing and I think prospective anti-missile systems" and deliver a nuclear strike. Putin claimed it had completed testing and was already in use. He also spoke about the RS-26 ballistic missile, Avangard, which Putin said "heads towards its target like a meteorite". The missile has already raised concerns in the US about its compliance with global arms treaties. By the way, the United States doesn't have anything that can shoot down a hypersonic missile. Meanwhile, the Russians have the best anti-ballistic missile technology on the planet and can handle just about anything that we can currently throw at them. The Chinese are working extremely hard to develop hypersonic missiles as well, and the brass at the Pentagon has been trying to warn us that this threat is very real... Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), said he has the full support of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin to advance the development of space-based sensors that would defend the nation from hypersonic attacks by America's adversaries. The Pentagon believes funding will be in place next year to begin the constellation of missile-surveillance satellites amid new warnings of hypersonic weapons being tested and deployed Russia and China. "The hypersonic threat is real, it is not imagination," Lt. Gen. Greaves explained Tuesday at the Capitol Hill Club, emphasizing that defending against hypersonic missile attacks has become a top priority for the agency. But he forewarned the audience at the elitist, members-only club in Washington, D.C., that the Pentagon has a poor track record developing satellite constellations and should not deploy new systems unless a considerable amount of testing has been completed. Let us pray that war with Russia or China (or both) is as far off as possible. It has been said that nobody wins a nuclear war, but Russia and China are both rapidly developing systems that we cannot defend against, and meanwhile Russia has extremely advanced anti-missile systems that can definitely handle most of our very antiquated missile systems. And when you throw in the fact that the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has declined by about 95 percent since the height of the Cold War, it could be argued that a nuclear war against the United States could conceivably be won if a devastating surprise first strike eliminated our ability to launch a sufficient counterattack. Unfortunately, most Americans have been trained not to think about these things since the end of the first Cold War, and that could end up being an absolutely fatal mistake. Daily Jot: Day of Liberty Part II-The Responsibility - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com Prior to the last presidential election, the progressives (communists) had a long-term grip over the US government. The nation was being transformed, or remade, into a socialist system. It was fast approaching tyranny as evidenced by what we now know of how the left and the deep state tried to prevent Donald Trump from being president, and how it is now trying to remove him. In essence, the nation reversed a secret coup of the Constitution. As we approach Independence Day, let's recall the 2016 election where Christian men and women voted responsibly in choosing between an imperfect man and a woman who openly stood against the precepts of God. Since then, the godless have raged against America. Christians have responsibility to freedom. Freedom of worship permits disciples of Christ to preach the gospel to all creatures. "Freedom sees in religion the companion of its struggles and its triumphs, the cradle of its infancy, the divine source of its rights. It considers religion as the safeguard of mores; and mores as the guarantee of laws and the pledge of its own duration."--these are the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat who came to America in the 1830s to observe what made the country so great. His "Democracy in America" is considered a historic treasure about the unique success of the United States. Tocqueville wrote that America is free because of its collective Christian religion. He pointed out that the laws that governed the Plymouth colony were derived from the Hebrew texts. In the later 1600s, even the law of Connecticut stated that man shall not "have or worship any other God, but the Lord God." He said that Americans "have succeeded in incorporating somehow into one another and combining marvelously...the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom." According to the laws and the nature of early Americans, men and women who identify as progressives, socialists, communists, etc., would not qualify as legitimate leaders because their very nature denies God and embraces the state as the ultimate source of human rights, religious expression, and physical authority (tyranny). Cotton Mather wrote in 1820, "There is a liberty of corrupt nature, which is affected both by men and beasts, to do what they list; and this liberty is inconsistent with authority, impatient of all restraint; by this liberty we are all inferior; 'tis the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are bent against it. But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty, which is the proper end and object of authority; it is a liberty for that only which is just and good; for this liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very lives." Romans 8:2 says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." The foundation of progressivism/socialism/communism is abolishing all religion and morals, making these systems manifestations of sin and death. We have a responsibility to stand in the gap. Daily Devotion: The Shield of Faith - By Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. -Ephesians 6:16 Spiritual attacks will often come when you are attempting to do something great for God. But if you're floundering spiritually and never doing anything with your faith, the devil doesn't see you as a threat. However, if you dare to say, "I'm going to try to influence those around me for Jesus. I want to step up my game and speak up for my faith," then you'll get hit with what the Bible calls "the fiery arrows of the devil" (Ephesians 6:16 NLT). These also will come at you when you read the Scriptures. You can read any book you want, watch any television program you want, or look at any website you want. But the moment you pull out the Bible and start reading it, all hell breaks loose and the devil's arrows start flying. The last thing he wants is for you to open the Word of God. That is why he will hit you with his flaming arrows, and that is why you need to hold up the shield of faith. It is faith in God's Word and in what God's Word says. It is the ability to quickly apply what you believe so as to repel everything the devil does or attempts to do to you. When you are hit and don't know what to do, put up the shield of faith. Maybe it's a financial crisis, and you're wondering how you will get through it. Remember what the Bible says: "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19 NKJV). Or maybe someone has threatened you. Read Psalm 91. God promises to protect you. As long as you believe God, your shield is raised. But the moment you stop believing Him, your shield goes down. 
FROM THE HEART
IF YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED THROUGH THIS MINISTRY, THEN WE ASK THAT YOU WOULD PLEASE REMEMBER PROPHECY UPDATE IN YOUR GIVING - WE ARE TRULY, TRULY, THANKFUL FOR YOUR SUPPORT Prophecy Update has no corporate sponsors. This ministry is paid for and prayed for by readers and supporters. Without your support, there would be no Prophecy Update, Please pray about becoming a monthly supporter - thanks! If ever there was a time to invest in God's Kingdom, it's now! What on earth are you doing for Heaven's Sake? "Share in the Blessings and Rewards that will last Forever!" "Folks, it's all beginning to unravel. America is in more danger of falling than at any time in its history. But I believe Bible prophecy predicts this very decline. From this point on, we believers have to get serious. We are going to face discouragement, disillusionment and, most certainly, persecution in the time between now and the Rapture. But don't be discouraged or disillusioned. The coming turmoil will provide us unrivaled opportunities to share the good news of the Gospel. So be ready to share your faith and your hope with those who need Christ. We still have time to reap a great harvest of souls for God's kingdom!" - Hal Lindsey 1) We need your prayers!- We proclaim the Truth of the Word of God and we are under constant spiritual and sometimes even physical attack. 2) We need your encouragement!- We need to hear from you, let us know how the Lord is blessing you through this ministry so that we can share it with others. 3) We need your input! - If you have a prophetic article or story or if there is a news related item we missed, let us know. 4) We need your financial support!- To put it quite simply, without your support, there would be no Prophecy Update. I ask that you would prayerfully consider partnering with us to get the Word out and keep the world informed. Remember, your gift, no matter how small, does make a difference! You will be helping to touch lives, around the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thanks to the internet your generosity carries a global impact! - Thanks! Our Prayer for You- "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else." 2 Corinthians 9:10-13 Prophecy Update is a 501 (c) (3) tax exempt - non-profit organization, and all your donations are tax deductible. If you have been blessed by Prophecy Update and would like to help support this ministry financially. You can make a secure donation online by going to: DONATE NOW Or Visit our website: http://prophecyupdate.com/donations/ Or write us at: Prophecy Update P.O. Box 40516 Bakersfield, CA 93384-0516 
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