“Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem”
(Message delivered by Pastor at the True Life Church 10.30 am Service, Sep 19, 04)
Text: Psalm 122:1-9
The Bible tells us not only to pray for kings and those in authority but also for the peace of Jerusalem. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. (Ps. 122:7)
For rejecting our Lord and crucifying Him the Jews were an accursed people. They became a dispersed people and became exiled for 2,000 years.
But God for Abraham’s sake restored them. They became a nation again soon after WWII, on May 14, 1948. An incredibly tiny nation of only 600,000 people. Immediately the Arab nations surrounding Israel attacked it but with God’s help Israel defeated them and gained more territory instead.
War broke out again in 1967. Israel won immensely in a Six-Day War with a loss of only 600 lives.
In 1973, in what is known as the Yom Kippur War, a War of the Day of Atonement, Israel lost heavily over 2,500 lives to Egypt, though she captured Gaza and the whole of the Sinai Desert.
Sadat the Egyptian President however took the initiative to make peace with Begin the Israeli President. Such unprecedented act was from God to make Israel safe. Following suit, Jordan’s King Hussein also made peace with Israel. With no more multiple frontiers to face Israel became a super power to the Arabs.
Now Rev. 9:13-16 says the last World War, recognised by theologians to be WWIII will break out in the Euphrates, i.e. Iraq again. Seeing that there were 21 years of peace between WWI and WWII, and by next year it will be 60 years if WWIII breaks out, are we not coming to the end of the world and Christ’s Second Coming? Then will be His establishment of David’s throne again to rule the world a thousand golden years and we who are saved together with Him.
When we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and it comes, we have the wonderful prospect to rule with Him and live with Him forever.
Have you first of all found salvation in Him and your sins are now forgiven?
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The Blasphemy of The Da Vinci Code Part I
Jeffrey Khoo
Satan is a liar and a deceiver (John 8:44, Rev 12:9). Dan Brown’s bestselling novel—The Da Vinci Code—which has sold 6 million, is the latest Satanic attack against our Lord Jesus Christ and His inerrant Word. Brown seductively weaves a highly imaginative story in a vain attempt to prove that the Jesus believed by Christians today is not the same Jesus who lived in the first century. According to The Da Vinci Code, the true historical Jesus was only an ordinary man and not God at all.
Brown’s Deception
Brown questions the inspiration, preservation, and canonicity of the Scriptures. The Bible he says, “is a product of man, … Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book. … [T]housands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man. To rewrite the history books, … Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.”
As far as Brown is concerned, the historical and factual gospels have been destroyed in the 4th century. What remains today are the spurious and fictitious Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that promote a mythical, godlike Jesus. So, all this while, Christians have been reading the wrong Gospels and believing in a false Jesus!
God’s Perfection
Does Brown’s unbelief make the faith of God without effect? “God forbid; yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom 3:4).
How do we know that the Bible today is truly the Word of God, perfect and without mistakes? Simply because God says so! The declaration, “Thus saith the LORD,” or “Hear the Word of the LORD,” or “The LORD spake … saying,” appears over 3,000 times in the Bible. Be not deceived, the Bible is altogether God’s Word, not man’s word. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God
(theopneustos, literally, “Godbreathed”) and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim 3:16-17). The Bible was written over a span of 1,500 years by more than 40 different writers, and despite all its diversity, its miraculous unity is obvious. It goes without saying that though the Bible has many writers, it has but one Author— God Himself. That every one of the OT prophecies concerning Christ’s first coming has been fulfilled precisely proves the Bible’s authenticity (eg, Isa 7:14 cf Matt 1:22-23).
How do we know that the Scriptures that we have today are the true ones, and not those that have been lost for over a thousand years? We know this because God promised to preserve His words perfectly and perpetually. Psalm 12:6-7 says, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Jesus Himself promised, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt 5:18). “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33). “The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
The true Bible can be easily identified. It is the one that has an unbroken lineage, fully and continuously preserved by God down through the ages, and always in the possession of His people. Thus, the perfect and true Scriptures are not in the lately found Alexandrian manuscripts underlying the modern corrupt versions (which incidentally present a less than divine Jesus preferred by Brown), nor are they in the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi codices (Gnostic manuscripts from Egypt) as mentioned by Brown, but in the long-existing, timetested and Christ- honouring Hebrew and Greek Scriptures underlying the good old Authorised Version. (to be continued)
The Garden Tomb, 11th Holy Land Pilgrimage (Aug 26 – Sep 11, 2004)
