THE GOSPEL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT!

What is the "gospel" as mentioned by Paul in Romans 1:1?     The word gospel in Greek is euagelion and it literally means "good news, message." Paul writes that "he is a servant of Christ, a called/apostle, set apart for the gospel of God." "Of God" can be in Greek grammar a Genitive ("about God") or an Ablative ("from God"). The answer may be found as to how the gospel is used in the OT, especially since most of the references are in the book of Isaiah. In the Hebrew text "gospel" is simply the word as a verb "basar" meaning message with the implication that it is a good message, good tidings, or good news.    The most important verses in the OT refer the "gospel" or the "good tidings" to the actual appearances or the coming of God Himself, and/or the coming of the Messiah. That is specifically what Paul is addressing when He says that he is a "called/apostle" "having been previously set aside (Perfect tense, "appointed") for this gospel that was promised before hand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures (v. 2).    What gospel is Paul referring to then? Isaiah says "Get yourself up on a high mountain (so that one can call throughout the valley), 'O Zion, bearer of good news, ... O Jerusalem, bearer of good news, ... say to the cities of Judah, 'HERE IS YOUR GOD!'" (Isa. 40:9). The good news in this verse is that GOD HAS ARRIVED in the person of the Son of God, or God the Son! The same idea is repeated in 41:27!    This thought is also brought out in 60:1-6 where Isaiah says "The Lord will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you. And nations will come to your light" (v. 3). "The wealth of the nations will come to you ... and will bear GOOD NEWS of the praises of the Lord" (60:5-6).    Isaiah 61 is a distinct chapter about the Messiah. Here it says that "the Spirit of the Lord God will be upon Me (the Messiah), because the Lord has anointed (Meshioch, "Messiah") Me 'to bring good news (the gospel) to the afflicted ... to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God" (61:1-2). When God the Son came He brought both blessing and judgment!    The Rabbis get the point. They write in the rabbinical commentary: "A Divine voice requests the prophets to announce from the mountain tops the advent of the Lord of hosts." THE LORD HAS ARRIVED!    The Rabbis come close to being very honest that Isaiah 52:7 is definitely messianic. The verse reads "Say to Zion: 'Your God reigns.'" "The Lord will comfort His people" (v. 9). Then comes that great passage in 52:14 where the Messiah is so beaten (before His crucifixion) that H is unrecognizable. "Many were appalled at You—so marred was His face unlike that of a man, and His form (His body) unlike that of the sons of men." On verse 7 the Rabbis comment: "God reigns! God has become King and has re-established His kingdom in Zion (Israel)."    The first part of verse 7 is so important! It reads: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger of 'GOOD NEWS (TIDINGS),' that announces peace, the harbinger of GOOD NEWS, that announces salvation."    The Rabbis add: "God's people are comforted, Jerusalem will be redeemed and the power and the salvation of the Lord are made known to the uttermost ends of the earth."    This is what Paul is addressing in Romans 1:1! – Dr. Mal Couch (August 2009)

YOU MAY BE EUTHANIZED!

This information comes to me from those who have been warned AT FIRST HAND!    The Veteran's Administration is now calling in families of Vets and warning them that prime care may be removed from vets in Veteran Homes as ordered by the government. The hospitals the government now controls will be the first to impose euthanizing patients, at least by means of withholding important care for their patients. It will only be a short step to imposing such an order on those who are receiving Medicare and Medicaid assistance.    This is no longer a theory. I happen to know of families personally who are being called in by the doctors and given a warning of what may soon happen to their loved ones. In one Vet hospital, in one such medical counseling session, the nurse stepped forward (who apparently is a Christian) and said "If I can help it, this will not happen on my watch! This goes against all of the oaths we have sworn to!" One doctor also spoke up, while talking to relatives and said, "But don't worry! This order will probably not go through from our present administration." I believe the doctor is overly optimistic! What is often so forcefully entertained will in time come to pass!    A few years back, I told my congregation that I did not expect to die a natural death; that I may be euthenized with the way things were going. While I am not a prophet, I seemed to have called this right!     For those of you who are younger, and with the way things are going, it is likely that you will indeed by taken out by the government.    It is also a fact that patients are being asked, "In your condition, and at your age, what value are you to the society?"    The final analysis is that the children are responsible as to what happens to their parents. Everyone reading this with parents still living need to take this warning to heart. In the New Testament, the insensitive Jews were withholding financial care from their parents by claiming Corban. This word means "a gift." The Jews would claim that their money was designated as a gift to the temple. They would tell their parents "Corban" and then refuse to help them in their old age. Christ brought an accusation against the Jews for withholding funds. He said, "A man says to his father or his mother, anything of mine you might have been helped by is Corban (that is to say, given to God), you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother" (Mark 7:11-12).    Please print this article out and pass it on to your family, friends, or to your church. And then write your congressman! You need to also ask who you voted for last fall. We are now moving into terrible times. While what is coming upon the church is not the tribulation, things are indeed moving in that direction. Christ warned that in the tribulation "lawlessness will increase, and most people's love will grow cold" (Matt. 24:12). – Dr. Mal Couch (August 2009)

THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS!

Everyone has heard by now of the tornado that went through Minneapolis August 9 while the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was meeting to vote on accepting homosexuals as priests in their church!    I've been asked, "Was this simply an accident or did God provide them with the tornado?"    There are no accidents in God's world. Please read your Bible. Those who have this question show that they do not read it! Job makes the sovereignty of God quite clear.    "God tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt, . … He restrains the waters, and they dry up; and He sends them out, and they inundate the earth" (12:14-15).    "God sees everything under the heavens. When He imparted the weight to the wind, and meted out the waters [in the heavens] by measure, when He set a limit for the rain, and a course for the thunderbolt.  … ."  (28:24-26).    God "draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from the mist, which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thundering of His pavilion? He spreads His lightning about Him, .…   He judges peoples; … He covers His hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. … Under the whole heaven He lets [the lightning bolt] loose, and His lightning to the ends of the earth. … He thunders with His majestic voice; and He does not restrain the lightning when His voice is heard. … To the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the downpour and the rain, 'Be strong' " (36:27-37:6).     "He disperses the cloud of His lightning. And it changes direction, turning around by His guidance, that it may do whatever He commands it on the face of the inhabited earth. Whether for correction, or for His world's [needs], or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen'"(37:9-13).    Those of you who do not believe in God's sovereignty, read the above and weep! – Dr. Mal Couch (August 2009)

IN OUR MOST RECENT TIMES …

There is no question in my mind that God's purposes for Israel are still taking place in the march of history. God says in the Abrahamic covenant: "I will bless those who bless you (Abraham and his descendants), and the one who curses you I will curse" (Gen. 12:3).    I am convinced this is what brought on the Russian revolution. Czar Nicholas II hated the Jewish people. He vowed their destruction and approved of the destructive pogroms that wiped out hundreds of Jewish villages and slaughtered thousands of God's earthly people. Nicholas even laughed upon hearing of their slayings. The Russian revolution followed that brought about his death and the death of his immediate family.    The Russian people as a nation shared in his hatred. This is why twenty million Russians died in the revolution that took place through the 1920s.    About 20 million Germans also died because of that nation's hatred and the genocide that attempted to liquidate all of the Jews in Europe. As well, millions of Poles, who likewise detested the Jews, died during World War II.    Before that great war, Spain was brought to her knees in 1492 because of her pogroms against the Jews in the terrible Inquisition carried out by the Jesuits. Spain would never be the same as a great world power!    Either the Bible means what it says or it does not! God keeps perfect records, and He brings about the judgments that were prophesied, just as He determined. God added: "I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you [Israel]" (Jer. 30:11). Something for America to think about! – Dr. Mal Couch (August 2009)

Lutheran Church To Allow Gay Clergy, Couples

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed several resolutions Friday that recognize committed gay relationships and, for the first time, permit non-celibate homosexuals to be Lutheran clergy. The resolution on clergy, easily the most controversial, passed by 559 "yes" votes (55.3 percent) to 451 "no" votes (44.6 percent). It committed the ELCA to open its clergy ranks to people in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships." Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson asked for silence and prayer for several minutes after the historic vote. A klatch of female pastors, several of them lesbians, who were standing in the rear of the cavernous assembly hall at the Minneapolis Convention Center dissolved into tears. "I feel a tremendous amount of joy and a tremendous amount of pain," confessed the Rev. Jenny Mason, a St. Paul cleric who said she was ejected from the official list of ELCA "rostered" clergy in 2001 for having a same-sex lover. "This means our church can move forward and practice this welcome" toward gays. The Rev. Donna Simon, pastor of Abiding Peace Lutheran Church in Kansas City, Mo., echoed Ms. Mason's sentiment. "It was time our church was in front of our world and not behind it." But one of the top runners for vice president of the ELCA called the vote on gay clergy "appalling." "The assembly has voted to remove the ELCA from the universal Christian consensus on marriage and homosexual behavior," said Ryan Schwarz, a leader of the Lutheran Coalition for Reform. "The church should not be voting on whether or not to follow the teaching of the Bible." A prior vote, which allows congregations to "recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships," passed by 619 "yes" (60.6 percent) to 402 "no" votes (39.3 percent) Friday morning. Bishop H. Gerard Knoche, head of the 90,000-member Delaware-Maryland Synod, said he wept after the first resolution passed. "I was in despair over this; that the church has moved in this direction," he said. "I went into the worship session and cried. That helped. I am now trying to deal this reality before I retire. I'll do what I can to hold the church together." As they stood in long lines in front of the microphones during morning and afternoon sessions Friday, Lutherans passionately spoke, quoted Scripture and their founder Martin Luther, and prayed during one of the last days of their churchwide assembly. Many warned the 4.7-million-member denomination will continue to lose disenfranchised members. "What had been the teaching of my church has been reduced to personal opinion," said Catherine Ammlung, a member of the Delaware-Maryland Synod. "[She and others like her] find ourselves not in step any longer in the foundational premises of our church's teachings." Others, such as Allison Guttu of the Metropolitan New York Synod, said her congregation has grown with the involvement of gays. "Recognizing the gifts of gay and lesbian pastors would encourage more growth," she said. "This resolution is about allowing people to follow their conscience." Emily Eastwood, executive director of Lutherans Concerned, the denomination's gay caucus, said Friday night that she was "proud to be a Lutheran." "Supporters and advocates of full inclusion have longed for this day since the inception of the ELCA, and for many of us what seemed like a lifetime," she said. "The ELCA has always had gay ministers; now those and all ministers are free to claim who they are and to have the love and support of a lifelong partner, regardless of orientation or gender identity, which is all we ever asked." Each of the four resolutions before them concerned some aspect of welcoming homosexuals into all aspects of church life. The first resolution, which promised that Lutherans respect the "bound consciences" of those who disagree with them, easily passed by 771-230 Friday morning. A fourth resolution, which implements the other three, passed early Friday evening by a 667-307 vote. "The results will be immediate, deep and for many, profoundly negative," said Mr. Schwarz, a McLean, Va., layman who as of late Friday was a top candidate for vice president of the ELCA. "I believe the decisions we have taken are wrong." Matthew Riak, leader of the Sudanese Christ Lutheran Church in Wyoming, Mich., said the votes meant "that you do not need Africans in this church." Saying he represented 114 African immigrant congregations, "The African national congregations may leave this church," he added. "You care so much for your [gay] brothers and sisters and you forget us." His is not the only foreign group to protest the votes. In late July, Bishop Nicholas Tai of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong said the votes, if passed, would be "a source of profound embarrassment for the Lutheran Church in Asia." This article originally appeared in The Washington Times by Julia Duin on Saturday, August 22, 2009.

How America Began

Below is a series of study in the history of the founding of America. Since the majority of our citizens today, and especially the immigrants, have no clue as to how our great nation began, it is hopeful that these short articles will be helpful.

THE FOUNDATION OF NEW HAVEN

Archbishop Land of the Church of England was attempting to arrest vicar John Davenport of St. Stephen’s Church in London. Davenport was accused of stirring up problems in want of freedom of expression in his church. To keep from being arrested he had escaped to New England! Davenport and others felt that the Law of Moses, and all of the Scriptures, was necessary for good civil government. He and others took these ideas to the new world and attempted to apply them in the theocracy that they wished to establish there.

In time, it would be to the benefit of the new land that such a theocracy would not come about. But at the time, who could see that this would have been a curse to the new American system of government!

Nevertheless, a reliance on the Bible would bring a spiritual component to the founding of the new nation. Few nations on earth were so relying on Scripture to guide their laws and their thinking.

Davenport and others felt that “Without charter or governmental constitution of any kind, they undertook to found a commonwealth ‘whose design is Christian.’” It was stated: “With serious consideration it was agreed, concluded and settled as a fundamental law, not to be disputed or questioned hereafter, that the judicial laws of God, as they were delivered by Moses and expounded in other parts of Scripture, so far as they are a defense to the moral law, and neither typical nor ceremonial nor had reference to Canaan, shall be accounted of moral and binding equity and force, and as God shall help shall be a constant direction for all proceedings here, and a general rule in all courts of Justice.”

For generations this statement guided local and national governmental bodies. The people of this land felt that God’s laws had an impact on all that was done in America. No one complained, argued, or fought this idea. All agreed that the new nation was to be guided by a biblical and a spiritual component, though the country was not to be a theocracy! This is why America went so far as a Christian guided nation. Now that has been destroyed, and it will never return again!


PROPHET OF DEMOCRACY

This was the title given to the Anglo-Saxon Thomas Hooker (1586-1647). He arrived in America on the same ship as John Cotton. He was a well-known preacher who had taught in Chelmsford in Essex, England. He became popular in his preaching at Newtown, now Cambridge.

In a fiery sermon in Hartford Connecticut, he had said that “The foundation of authority in government is found in the free consent of the people.” And, “the choice of public leaders belongs to the people of God’s own allowance.” He added, “They who have power to appoint officers and magistrates have the right also to set the bounds and limitations of the power and place unto which they call them.” (Present America, take heed!)

He further said, that “what the proponents of democracy sometimes forget, that the right of voting belongs to the people ought not to be exercised according to their whims, but according to the blessed will and law of God.”

Therefore, for a democracy to work, the people must continually pray and give thanks for their freedoms. They must be appreciative of the charge of freedom bestowed upon them by God’s sovereignty. If the people are no longer appreciative the blessings will depart!

THE PILGRIMS ATTENDING CHURCH

A Dutch merchant described how the Pilgrims practiced worship in Plymouth in 1627. The Anglo-Saxons and Europeans met in a large meetinghouse made of heavy plank wood with a flat roof. On top were six cannons. The lower part of the building was used for Sunday church services. The people assembled by the beat of a drum, each man and husband coming with his flintlock weapon. It was expected that the men, with their weapons, were ready to defend the women and children from the Indians, if necessary. They assembled in order with three abreast. The Governor, William Bradford sat up front in a long robe, with the preacher Elder Brewster coming in last, also wearing his cloak. He was armed with his handy side-weapon and pistol. Each man had his gun at the ready! To bear arms was a right expected of all the men!

By the end of 1630 there were twenty thousand Anglo-Saxons who had arrived from England to escape the tyranny of Charles I and the zeal of the Archbishop of England, Bishop Land. They were not Separatists who said “Farewell Babylon; Farewell Rome!” But we want to say “Farewell, dear England, farewell, the Church of God in England and all the Christians friends there! We do not go to New England as Separatists from the Church of England, but we go to practice the positive part of church reformation and to spread the gospel in America!”

CHURCH AND STATE IN MASSACHUSETTS

Following the example of churches in Salem and Boston, other towns, all founded by Anglo-Saxons and Europeans, organized their congregations. The ministers were, as they should be, pastors and teachers, not priests. They exercised no priestly functions and recognized no hierarchy while rejecting the Anglican liturgy. Each church controlled its own affairs. The churches were emancipated in spiritual matters from the control of the state. But Massachusetts came close to making the state the servant of the churches. The sovereignty of God was the fundamental article of the Puritan’s creed, and they sought to establish a theocracy, which was in time, rejected. In the life of the state as well as in that of the church, the congregation aimed at complete obedience to the will of God as revealed in Scripture.

The statues of Governor John Winthrop in Boston represent him holding the Bible in one hand and the state Charter in the other. From 1631 to 1664 only church members could vote as freemen. They had to show satisfactory evidence of being born again.


THE SEPARATISTS BECAME PILGRIMS

At Scrooby, England, a group of Separatists met each week in the local manor house. William Bradford (1588-1657) remarked that “As the Lord’s free people they joined themselves to a covenant of the Lord into a church, in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all His ways, … whatever it should cost them.” “And that it did indeed cost them, history will declare.” To escape persecution, they fled to Holland, and after eleven years, fearing lest their English heritage be lost and their children fall into strange customs and untoward ways, resolved to remove to America. Edwin Sandy invited them to the Virginia colony, where it was said of them later, “These English have lived now among us ten years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation against them, or any of them.” In appreciation of God’s blessings, they lived an exemplary life that no one could fault! These Anglo-Saxons would set the pace for a holy people!


THE YOUNGEST WENT FIRST

It was decided that the youngest and the strongest of this English church now residing in Holland would travel first to America. William Brewster, the elder, went with them, though pastor John Robinson stayed behind. His parting counsel to those who embarked is memorable. “He charged us … to follow him no further than he followed Christ; and if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of His, to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his ministry; for he was confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of His Holy Word.” This little crowd of Pilgrims went aboard the brig Speedwell at Delft Haven. They would never see their families again! And, many would die of diseases and deprivation, never fully experiencing the blessings of the new world!


THE FIRST SABBATH ON CLARK’S ISLAND

The ship, the Speedwell, carried these Pilgrims to England, but it would be the Mayflower, finally, which bore them from Plymouth to America. They arrived at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, and spent a month in exploration. On Saturday, December 9, an exploring party, after many difficulties, landed on Clark’s Island. They “gave God thanks for His mercies, in their manifold deliverances. Since this was the last day of the week, they prepared there to keep the Sabbath.” On Monday, they explored the neighboring mainland, found it to be a “most hopeful place,” and decided there to build their homes. The new settlement was named Plymouth, in remembrance of their port of departure. A poem was later written by Felicia Hemans entitled “The Pilgrim Fathers.”

“Oh, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod.
They have left unstained what there they found—
Freedom to worship God.”

GOD CAME FIRST

The Pilgrims at Plymouth were without a pastor for nine years. John Robinson died before he could join the little colony. They were led in worship by elder William Brewster (1566-1644), the oldest. He was the ruling elder who led the congregation in times of prayer and study. He “taught twice every Sabbath, and that both powerfully and profitably. … In teaching he was very moving and stirring of affections, also, in what he taught. … He had singular good gifts in prayer, both public and private. … He always thought it were better for ministers to pray oftener, and divide their prayers, than be long and tedious in the same.” The people met around the fire in a wooden structure that became their church building. Appreciation for their spiritual freedoms was ever in their thoughts. Because of all their struggles they would become the most free of the Christian groups of that time!

JOHN COTTON: “PATRIARCH OF NEW ENGLAND”

Cotton (1585-1652 AD) had tremendous influence on the colonies in New England. Though he was a pastor his writings were still used in the public schools in Massachusetts and even beyond. For twenty-one years he was the vicar of St. Botolph’s Church in Boston. Because he refused to carry out certain Anglican observances the authorities tried to arrest him, but he escaped. For years he taught in the church at Boston. His catechism entitled Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in either England was used in churches and schools to teach morals to the youngsters. The subtitle read: “Drawn out of the Breasts of both Testaments for their soul’s nourishment of our children.” The book was used for more than 150 years and was incorporated into the New England Primer.

THE RIGHTEOUS GENTILES (Yad Vishim)

When the Germans invaded Belgium, a group of 100 German Jewish children who had found refuge there, fled and found their way to France. There they were hidden in an abandoned Chateau de la Hille. Elsa and Alexander Frank, who were the caretakers of the children's home, arranged for them to be cared for. Hidden away in the mountain abandoned lodging, the children survived the war. The children colored pictures that showed their hideaway. In the drawings, they sketched German bombers flying overhead on their way to bombing cities on the West coast. – Dr. Mal Couch

Canadian Health Officials: Our Universal Health Care Is Sick, Private Insurance Should Be Welcomed

Dr. Anne Doig, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association, said her country's health care system is "sick" and "imploding," the Canadian Press reported. "We know there must be change," Doig said in a recent interview. "We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands." Canada's universal health care system is not giving patients optimal care, Doig added. When her colleagues from across the country gather at the CMA conference in Saskatoon Sunday, they will discuss changes that need to be made, she said. "We all agree the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," she said. Current president of the CMA, Dr. Robert Ouellet, will make a presentation at the conference about his findings when he toured Europe in January, and met with health groups in several countries. Ouellet has said that "competition should be welcomed, not feared," meaning private health insurance should have a role in the public health system. Doig said she isn't sure what kind of changes will be proposed when the conference wraps up, but she does know that changes have to come – and fast. She said she understands that universal health care, while good in some ways, has not always been helpful for sick people or their families. "(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now — if it keeps on going without change — is not sustainable," Doig said. This news story originally appeared here on Fox News

WHEN A TEDDY BEAR SAVED THE CHILDREN

Jewish mother, Margaret Gruenbaum, had already lost her husband to a Nazi death camp. Now the order went out that she and her two children, Michael and Marietta, were doomed and scheduled to be deported, thus on their way to the death camp at Auschwitz. But Margaret persisted and convinced the Germans that her job of making teddy bears for German children for Christmas, was important and necessary for German Christmas-time family morale. The Germans were convinced and a telegram was sent taking her and her children off the death list. The celebration of the birth of Christ, and teddy bears, saved three Jews who survived the war! – Dr. Mal Couch

A LETTER FROM A NATIONALLY KNOWN BIBLE TEACHER

"Thank you so much for the book sent to me: America, The Nations, And Israel. As soon as I got it I opened it and read all the way through to the end. Thank you so much for writing it. I am going to donate it to our library here at the University. This way many of our students will be able to read it and use it for their studies. Thanks again for the volume. Sincerely in Christ." ET    The book is going extremely well and we appreciate the comments of so many. Almost everyone who has written me or sent an email, tell us they could not put it down until they finished it. – Dr. Mal Couch

A Thank You Note!

Dr Couch, I have been meaning to tell you FOR THE CAUSE OF ZION turned out great. The message of Christ's soon return needs to remain before the  people. You pulled together key thoughts, people, and events to  announce the direction the world is jetting toward. Your insightful  statement "Secular psychology has brought us into the first stages of  religious apostasy!" may turn out to be the quote of the decade! Thanks!! In Christian friendship, Pastor