SEPTEMBER WRAP AROUNDS-2002: PROPHECY-BIBLE PROPHECY-Bible prophecy studies of OT prophecy and NT prophecy-especially the prophecies of Christ

ARTURO WROTE:

Very dear brother and sister thank you so much for your generosity in sharing the Word of God in this form. I really apreiate
your revelation from God. May God bless you and keep you in good health.
I am Arturo Sanchez missionary in the Amazon Jungle of South America, I am planting churches among the Indian Tribes of
the Amazon Jungle.

Gracias with all my hearth!

DON WROTE:

Thanks for the good word.

Can you give us more information about your ministry?

Don

YOU WROTE:

Wrap Around - Comments
From:
nobody

Question-Comment: but what kind of stone was a jacinth?

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DON WROTE:

Dear "Nobody":

Not being an expert on precious stones, I'm left to the expertise of others. The Easton's Bible Dictionary has this to say about the jacinth.

Jacinth - properly a flower of a reddish blue or deep purple (hyacinth), and hence a precious stone
of that colour (Rev. 21:20). It has been supposed to designate the same stone as the ligure (Heb.
leshem) mentioned in Ex. 28:19 as the first stone of the third row in the high priest's breast-plate. In
Rev. 9:17 the word is simply descriptive of colour.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says:

1 : HYACINTH
2 : a gem more nearly orange in color than a hyacinth

For how the Jacinth stone fits into our study of Revelation, go to the 8th set of our study.

If you know something more than this, let us know and we will share it with our visitors.

Don

ASP Wrote:

Do you have Clock of the Ages in book form?

ASP

Don Wrote:

We get this question quite often.

The answer at this time is no, we do not. Everything that we do at DOWEKNOW.COM, we saturate with prayer and look to the Lord for His leadership and provision. We could undoubtedly put our book in print, but to simply put a book in print is not sufficient. It would also need to be promoted and distributed, and at present we are not set up to do this . As to outside help, we have not contacted a publisher nor has one contacted us.

We do desire your prayers in the matter for we are not opposed to the idea.

Don

Barry Wrote:

I am impressed with some of your work on the internet regarding end time prophecy. I agree with you on most of your "in the sun" work. I am a single covenant / calvinistic and amillenial so I'm sure you know what I disagree with. Hope you won't hate me for this for we are all learning and I pray that you might understand that you have made some mistakes.

I am convinced that that largely repeated passage in 2 Kings 20 and Isa. 38 is one of the five most critical end time passages that relate to the period of the final tribulation. You have done an impressive job on beginning to decipher part of it. I think that the 15 years relates to the length of the Final Tribulation, which Harold Camping has very accurately pinpointed the beginning of (May 22, 1988). I believe that the Final Tribulation is either 15 years or 17 years and that Christ will return on a
Jewish Feast day in 2003 or 2005. Consider the possibility that the waters of Noah's day rising to "15 cubits above the highest mountain" is a critical parallel passage. The top of the waters / 15 cubits above the highest mountain is end of the symbolic "1000 year" church age and the beginning of the FT in 1988. You must know that the accurate and historic reformation amillenial position is that the 1000 years before Satan is loosed began at the cross when the string man was bound. It ended at the beginning of the FT in 1988, or at the end of the 2300 days that ended September 6th, 1994 (May 21, 1988 to September 6th = 2300). I am absolutely certain that one of these is correct.

Barry

Don Wrote:

You say that you are "absolutely certain." I've learned not to make such statements lest I have to eat them later on. I guess that's why we named our site DOWEKNOW.

I'll begin my comments by addressing your first paragraph.

Let me ask you a question. WHY ARE YOU a single covenant / calvinistic and amillenia?

Let's look first at a couple of passages from the Bible.

II Tim. 2:
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane [and] vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

I Cor. 2:
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Now, back to my question. WHY ARE YOU a single covenant / calvinistic and amillenia? I'm afraid that the answer to that question is the same as why is someone a Catholic, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or even a nominal/national Christian. It must be that you are these things because someone in your life who adhered to these things was a strong influence on you. For sure you do not embrace these beliefs because you gleaned them from the Bible, for there are few Scriptures that deal with the topics and those few are obviously taken out of context to support the beliefs for there are too many other Scriptures that do not support them--even contradicting them.

Don't get mad now, for I am not saying these things to offend you, but to get you to think for yourself.

When I first began to answer my call from the Lord, He impressed upon me that when I would begin addressing the things that were dividing His people, that I would have to do so in the Spirit of love and with understanding less I offend those I have been called to serve. He gave me to understand that just as no one will listen to someone who has just insulted their grandmother, neither would anyone listen to me if I insulted their beliefs, for most of our first beliefs are gathered sitting on grandmother's/mother's knee. So, please do not take my comments to be a personal rebuff; for they apply to all of us simply because of who and what we are: i.e., procreated human beings. It is the nature of someone who believes in something strong enough to practice it, to pass those beliefs on to those he or she loves and is responsible for. Consequently, Grandmother Baptist sits in her house rocking her grandbaby on her knee explaining why the grandbaby should be a good Baptist while across the street Grandmother Pentecostal is doing the same with her grandbaby. Meanwhile, over on the next street, Grandmother Catholic is doing likewise even as are Grandmothers Islam and Buddha, etc. Because grandbabies Baptist, Pentecostal, Catholic, Islam, and Buddha, etc., have been taught certain things by loving grandmothers, are they now prepared to live this life and are they ready for the life to come? If you'll listen closely to what the grandmothers told their grandbabies, you'll see that they can't all be ready, for they were all told that the other grandbabies embrace a false religion and to stay away from their errors. I know that for some, the adopted beliefs do not come from a member of the family, but from someone who makes a strong impression. But regardless of whose beliefs we've adopted, they are just that--they are someone else's beliefs and should not the thinking person test them before making them a part of themselves?

This brings up the question, how do I test the beliefs I've been given? Does not God leave us with a plumbline for testing beliefs? The answer is a definite yes. Look again at the two passages quoted and note the underlined portions. In the first passage we are commanded by God to study His Word, but we are caution to "rightly divide" the Word as we study. How do we do this? Can ten different people all get different, contradicting meanings from a passage and yet all be rightly dividing the Word? This is where the second passage comes in. Note the underlined portions in it. God is in the business of "revealing" things to His Children. As we study the Bible, revelation comes from the Holy Spirit Who indwells every believer. And note that the Holy Spirit makes His revelations clear and complete by comparing "spiritual things with spiritual"--i.e., by comparing all portions of the Bible concerning particular topics, one with another. When studying the Bible in this way, one will never take passages having to do with doctrinal or practical issues out of context. However, just the opposite is true when one studies the Bible to make them agree with denomination doctrines--or to prove some point.

Now, let me address your second paragraph.

Before I address the rest of your WRAP, I need to make another point. As we've said, in the case of doctrine and practical truths to live by, our understanding of any passage in the Bible must agree with all other passages dealing with the same subject. However, when dealing with prophecy, the opposite is often true. In prophetic passages it is not unusual for the writer to be writing of himself or of events in his time when seemingly "out of the blue" comes this utterance which really makes no sense in its context. For an example let's look at the Messianic Psalms (those Psalms that prophesy about Jesus). For instance, in the 69th Psalm David is speaking of his own dilemma, confessing his sins and faults, and praising God for delivering him out of the hand of his enemies, when in the 21st verse he makes a statement that really doesn't fit in the context.

Psalms 69:
21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

However, many years later, Matthew was given understanding of the first part of the inserted revelation that David had penned and he recorded it for us in his Gospel.

Mt. 27:
33 And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
34 They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.
35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.

Then, still later, the Apostle Paul gave us the application of the last part of this prophetic insertion.

Rom. 11:
7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8: (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they
should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
9: And David saith, Let their table be made a snare,and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompence unto them:

The Bible is full of such hidden inserts that can only be rightly pulled out and interpreted by the Holy Spirit--these are only two examples--and hidden inserts are only one way that God has used to make His Word a mystery to those that He does not see fit to reveal it to. To illustrate, let me pull out an insert from our book THE CLOCK OF THE AGES.

BIBLICAL "SHROUDING"

We cannot overemphasize the fact that the prophetic Word is put together in a manner that tends to mystify the reader. This has been accomplished by the use of many devices. Parables, for example, hide truths in stories. Types—people or events that point forward to people or events in another time—are used quite extensively and can be very meaningful to the Spirit-filled Christian. Also, even though Christ explained some of His veiled teachings in the Scriptures, leaving us some important keys, we must realize that the final understanding of all Scripture is left to the interpretation of the Holy Spirit. Peter gives us to understand that (because of its nature?), this has always been true of prophecy; but for us so far removed from the time of the New Testament Church, this is especially true concerning the end-time word.

(II Peter 1:20-21)

Know this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Paul adds further understanding of the matter in I Corinthians 2:11-12.

(I Corinthians 2:11-12)

…even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

So, it's true that God has used many things to make His book a "closed book" to the merely curious or the disputers of this world, but it is also true that He wrote it for His Church to understand. Nevertheless, the mysterious prophetic language that serves to confound the unregenerated mind has often puzzled the Church as well; but as the prophesied end-times loom on the horizon, the understanding of more and more of these camouflaged passages will be given to the Church…

Let's look now at your second paragraph. I wrestled with how you came up with 15 years as the length of the final tribulation (whatever you mean by that term), and the best I can decipher is that you ignore the "hidden inserts of prophecy" and are trying to make the whole passage prophetic. (You would probably better understand the passages you mention if you apply the Scriptural meaning of numbers.) Prophecy is one of those things that qualifies as the "meat" of the Scriptures. And because of your first paragraph, I would suggest that you return to the sincere milk of the Word and feed on such Scriptures as:

John 3:3
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Romans 8:16
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

1 John 2:27
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

Let me conclude by looking at the last part of your E-mail regarding dates.

You must know that the accurate and historic reformation amillenial position is that the 1000 years before Satan is loosed began at the cross when the string man was bound. It ended at the beginning of the FT in 1988, or at the end of the 2300 days that ended September 6th, 1994 (May 21, 1988 to September 6th = 2300). I am absolutely certain that one of these is correct.

I'll leave you with the words of Jesus concerning setting dates for the end time..

Matthew 24
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
..................
36 ...of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my
Father only.
.................
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
................
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in
an hour that he is not aware of,

You are in our prayers.

Love,
Don

FARRELL WROTE:

Good day to u ...

Thanks for a wonderful website on the book of Revelations...i just have one
question.

What is being referred to as the " seven spirits of God" in Revelations 4 ?

Thanks for your time and may u have a blessed day!

Farrell N_______

Durban
South Africa

DON WROTE:

Hello Farrell,

Thanks for the good word.

If you will go to the study of Revelation on our site (there is a link on the home page that will take you there) and look at the first set of our study, you will see our comments on the "seven Spirits of God."

Maranatha,

Don

JUDIE WROTE:

U SICKO!

DON WROTE:

Hello Judie:

First, let me thank you for your E-mail and your proper indignation. It served to alert us to a major problem taking place in our server. We could have responded to you one on one, but we felt that because we get many visits from other ministries, we should bring this problem to light on our web site in case they, too, are being used by "sicko’s."

Let me take the time to bring our visitors up to date so they can understand this WRAP. Judie received an unsolicited E-mail from a very corrupt porno site and her response was short but to the point: i.e., U SICKO! What does all of this have to do with our DOWEKNOW.COM site? Well, that’s what we wanted to know. So, we contacted our webmaster and he contacted the people who own and operate our server.

It seems that the problem lies with a Porno shop that is operating out of France—a shop that is conducting its business at the expense of other people. Although the people who work at this porno shop are obviously corrupt and foolish, they are not stupid; for they have figured out how to use other people’s sites to promote their perversions. In our case, they were able to break into our server behind the scenes because we were using an older post-form E-mailer to handle our WRAP AROUNDs. The post-form is located on our WRAP AROUND page. It comes up when you click on the "Click Here and Send Your Questions or Comments" link. Because Judie responded to the address on the E-mail she received, we were alerted to the problem. We have since been assured that the post-form program has been changed to block all outsiders—but not before thousands of unsolicited E-mails were sent out at the expense of the people who own and operate our server.. However, we would ask any of you who might received any unsolicited E-mails in the future that may seem to come from us—to let us know so that we can deal with the problem. It seems that the perpetrators created dozens of E-mail addresses that all either included "dowekno..." in the them or ended with "…@doweknow.com." As I say, we've been assured that they can no longer use our server, but we had no idea that we had been victimized before, so who knows!?!

For our visitors who also have a web site, we might suggest that you check to see if you have a post-form E-mailer on your site. If you do, you should be aware that a new version is available that will block out E-mail pirates. (Click on the following link if you have an older formmailer. http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/) Also, you might consider installing a comprehensive counter on your site that notes all the activity. We now have the Wusage Statistic Reporter and it records everything that goes on at DOWEKNOW.COM so that we can know what is happening behind the scenes--if we take a little time to check it each day.

Incidentally, having learned the hard way that people can mess with your site, I decided to enter "Don Love Ministries doweknow" into the search engines to see what happens. Let me encourage all of you who have a site to do likewise with your own. It might be an eye-opener. It seems that there are unscrupulous people who don’t mind linking to you or using your name and site description to take people to their sites for their own purposes.

Anyhow, thanks again, Judie, for your response which alerted us. We’re sorry that you were picked as a victim, but we’re grateful that you didn’t "take it sittin’ down."

Don