The Gospel Of Repentance

Chapter 8 – God promises complete restoration of the nation. He will once again be their God and they his people. All nations will seek the Lord in the last days. Israel will be so godly that ten pagan men will cling to a one Hebrew, because they’ll know that God is with them and will follow them resulting in mass salvation, vs 23. Chapter 9 – The first eight verses deal with the defeat of Israel’s by God’s servant Alexander The Great. Verse 9 deals with Messiah’s first advent fulfilled in Matthew 21:1-5 and John 12:12-16 – the triumphal entry on a donkey. The remainder of the chapter deals with the future salvation of his people, and future prosperity that is everlasting, vs 16-17. Chapter 10 – The prophet predicts the restoration of the entire nation of Israel – the northern and southern kingdoms. God made a covenant with Abraham which is an everlasting covenant. The Lord will mightily prosper his people by giving them rain in abundance, vs. 1. God will punish those wh

                                        Zechariah began prophesying in Oct/Nov 520 B.C., two months after the prophet Haggai (Haggai 1:1). Zechariah along with Haggai were part of the refugees who returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Persia to rebuild the Lord’s house and help to re-establish the nation that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in 586 B.C. Chapter 1 -   First and Second Visions - The prophet is calling the people to national repentance, vs 2. He commands them, “don’t be like your fathers who didn’t listen to the prophets in their day”, vs 4-6. Zechariah on the 24 th day of the eleventh month, which would have been around February 14 th 519 B.C. in his day, receives the first of eight visions:   First vision - He sees a man on a red horse, another on red horse, one on a brown horse, another on a white who were patrolling the earth and found it at rest. The horseman are an angelic police of some sort, vs 7-9 Another part of the chapt

It’s important to remember that we’re dealing with two separate issues; our sins judicially and our sins in real time. Jesus Christ is our advocate, our defense attorney, our mediator. His blood sacrifice on the cross satisfied the Father’s holy wrath regarding our sins past, present, and future. Jesus’ suffering and death was a plea to the Father for our vindication and forgiveness. Jesus went to trial on our behalf before the Father and declared us “not guilty ”. The Lord accepted the Son’s sacrifice on our behalf. The devil who’s our accuser and prosecutor head was bruised (Genesis 3:15). This the bible says was done before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:7). This is how our sins were dealt with judicially. This was pre-salvation. Once we believed in what Jesus did, we were saved. We’ll never be punished eternally for those sins and go to hell since the Father already punished Christ for them (Isaiah 53:1-5). But, because of the wickedness that still remains in

My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any pluck them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one  - John 10:27-30 There are many in Christendom that believe that eternal salvation can be lost due to a pattern of unbroken, habitual sin in one’s life. It should raise the question if that person is actually saved in the first place; My answer is no. This type of thinking smashes against one’s liberty and confidence in God and his word. It also causes anxiety and promotes a joyless experience in Christ.  This type of theology also promotes a spirit of fear which does not come from God (II Timothy 1:7). One can never be sure if at some point God will pull the plug on their salvation and revoke it – nonsense!! It’s an entirely different matter and heresy to believe that one c

“You did not choose Me , but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                – John 15:16. There is a very clear line between how God and man make choices.  Man makes common choices everyday of his life; such as what to eat, what to wear, where to live, where to attend school, who to marry, what career path to choose, his belief system, what car to drive, how to raise their children, etc. These are normal choices that God obviously knows about, but he does not pre-determine them; these choices aren’t critical to his eternal plan, and were not made for man before the foundation of the world. These human choices are always made in real time . God allows us to make these choices whether they’re good or evil, u

                                             Chapter 1 – The prophet Haggai begins his prophecy in the second year of King Darius Hystapes which is in the Hebrew month of Elul , the sixth month, and the first day of the month. On our calendar today it translates to August, 19 th , 2012. The year then was 520 B.C. and the date was August 29 th . Haggai was a contemporary of the prophet Zechariah (Ezra 5:1). The prophet spoke to Zerubbabel the governor, and to Joshua the high priest along with the Hebrew refugees who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of the Lord. The work had begun in 536 B.C. but was halted by neighbors who did not want to see the temple built admittedly because they were afraid Israel's God. These enemies wrote a letter to King Artaxerxes stating to the king why the building project should be stopped. The king read the letter and demanded the work to cease. The Hebrews were forced to stop (Ezra 4:21-24). God’s house was delayed b

Chapter 1 – The prophet declares the day of the Lord is imminent. The Lord will destroy all things from the face of the earth, vs 1-3. Why? Because man has sinned against the Lord, vs. 17. Man’s wealth can not deliver him in the day of the Lord’s wrath. God will quickly wipe out his enemies, vs. 18. Chapter 2 – The prophet calls the nation (Israel) to repentance; especially those who have been faithful to the Lord (the meek of the earth). This the Lord commanded so that they could escape his wrath, vs. 1-3. Next, the prophet judges the nations such as the Philistines, longtime enemies of Israel. Their lands (Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Ashdod, Gath. Their five main coastal cities), will be dwellings for the Israelites and their flocks when the Lord dispossess the Philistines, vs 4-7. The prophet also condemns the nations of Moab and Ammon (descendants of Lot Genesis 19:36-38) for their threats and intimidation of Israel. God will make these two nations a wilderness, vs 8-9.