HEBREW WORD STUDY

Have you heard of NASA? The National Aeronautical and Space Administration? The Hebrew word Na'Sah means "to go up." This is no accident. Someone in that space agency had a bit of humor. In some other contexts it can mean "to lift up, raise up," or "to be exalted."    The Hebrew word M'aR means "bitter" as in "bitter or salty water." It is a feminine word in Hebrew. The name Mary comes from this word. The word filtered into Japanese. Japanese ships are named "Something Maru" in reference to the salty sea! The planet "Mars" is red!     The Hebrew word Ad'am is a reference to the first man. The word Ad'amah means "ground, dirt." Adam was created from the dirt. The word Ad'am can also refer to "people." Because soil is often red, the word can sometimes mean "red" and "blood."  --Dr. Mal Couch     (10/11)

EUROPE IS LOST!

Strangers have invaded Europe. They don't speak the same language. They know nothing about the Reformation history of Europe. They despise the religious heritage of the countries they have settled in. The wives walk several paces behind their husbands. Many ghettos are controlled by religious fanatics. The police cannot communicate—they don't know the language.    Some cities are controlled by the so-called immigrants. In some European cities the foreigners have one-quarter of the population. In some cases, a majority! The majority of the foreigners in many cities are under 18. The city of Paris is surrounded by the strangers. 1 in 10 in the population of France are the strangers. Pigs cannot be mentioned in the farm country. Many state schools only serve halal food to all pupils. Non-stranger women who are born in these countries are called out in public "whore." Satellite dishes are pointed not to local stations but to stations of origin.    Teachers in French schools cannot mention certain authors lest it offend the strangers. The history of the European Holocaust cannot be mentioned in schools. In England, courts of the strangers are now open, passing by local laws. Many Jews are having to flee these countries for fear. People in the country are not free to go where they want. One-third of the strangers are not objecting to suicide attacks. The strangers never mention any support for Israel. When 9-11 happened, the strangers danced in the streets. These "settlers" refuse to integrate into the country. The strangers are now a swing vote in elections though they know nothing of the country they are settling into.    The concept of European personal freedom is out! Because of these minorities the support for Israel is dying.    A war of sorts has started internally in these countries. And it will touch every nation. Meanwhile, Europe is about to go under economically. All Europe is interlocked just as prophecy said it would be. Europe is becoming one nation.    What is happening there is coming to America because we have renamed liberty to mean the rights of a minority that will swallow up true biblical and American freedoms.    Only where Judeo-Christianity flourishes is there true liberty. Goodbye Europe. Goodbye America. Slavery and a war of ideology is about to begin. Many Christians are asleep and have no idea what is going on—mainly because the pastors are not teaching biblical prophecy and warning their people of what to expect! We are spiritually, socially, and culturally asleep!        —Dr. Mal Couch (10/11)

HEBREW WORD STUDY

Ezekiel 37:14: "I will put My Spirit in you." That is, within the Jewish people. Or, with the Hiphil form, "I will deposit, leave, provide" My Spirit within you." And, "I will place you on your own land." "Will place" is the Hebrew word Na'Can meaning: with the Hiphil form: "I will come down and settle, lower you in your own land." The amillennial guys, and covenant guys, try to defuse the meaning of this incredible verse. The verse is telling us what God will do when the Davidic kingdom begins. The orthodox Jewish Rabbis tell us: "When the miracle of Israel's national revival is performed, the people's faith in God will be firmly established. This is the explanation of the breath entering the bones of Israel to revive them. Israel's restoration could not be achieved by human power, but only by the Spirit of God." It is great being a premillennialist who takes the Bible at face value! The Word of God is plain and clear and requires no hard work to accept all that it is saying. But the poor amil guys keep getting it wrong. For example, Ellicott writes: "These promises prepare the way for the prophecy of the great and final attack of the enemies of the Church." What? How in the world could Ellicott write that? —Dr. Mal Couch (10/11)

THE SECULAR WORLD AND THE BRAIN

Even the secular scientific world gets it—about the brain, that is. They write: "The human brain is the most complex entity in the observable universe. Hundreds of billions of small nerve cells called neurons communicate with each other by releasing tiny quantities of chemicals, called neurontransmitters. Our critical mental capacities depend on an orderly system of chemical communications among the neurons of our brain." (Psychiatric Drugs. Drs. Stuart Yudofsky, Robert Hales, Tom Ferguson) God has made man so unique. And this is what the Bible tells us. We are at the top of the creative ladder. Our creative genius is unexplainable, apart from what the Scriptures tell us! And yet it is corrupted by sin. It is all observable in science but also in the Bible. Only the redemption found in Christ can make the difference, just as the Word of God tells us! --Dr. Mal Couch (11/10)

THE POOR COVENANT GUYS

Dr. Iain Campbell, writing in TableTalk for November, says that in Revelation 19:11-14, Christ is seen as the Word of God who comes riding out of heaven as a warrior King coming to defeat sin and Satan. While this is true, Dr. Campbell downplays what this passage is all about. It is about Christ coming to fulfill His messianic one thousand year kingdom reign on earth. Campbell gets questions like: "Do we take the Bible literally?" He answers, "We need to find out what their question means." What does he mean by "What does their question mean?" It means just what it says. Do we take the Word of God literally or not? Part of his answer, he says, is against "trying to interpret Revelation woodenly." In other words, no, we should not interpret the Bible literally, especially when it has to do with future prophecy! Campbell goes on: "The book of Revelation is a picture book using vivid imagery to convey who Jesus is and what He has done." While this is right, he goes on and attempts to get rid of all references that we should take as literal language with historic fulfillment in view. The covenant guys will do anything to get rid of Christ as Israel's literal Messiah, coming to a literal earth, to reign literally for one thousand years. To take the Bible that way means that they have to see the Jewish people as the recipients of an actual kingdom with Christ ruling worldwide on a literal earth, from a literal city of Jerusalem. And by avoiding this plain interpretation, their anti-semitism is revealed! They hold to replacement theology. The church has replaced Israel in God's future, kingdom plans. Satan loves this! He can get rid of Christ as returning as Israel's promised king. The second coming is taken allegorically without any real meaning behind it. Campbell finishes by writing: "As our King, He will finally triumph over all His enemies and the enemies of His church." Again, while there is some truth to this, Israel and the Jewish people are then out of the picture! --Dr. Mal Couch (11/10)

THE EVIL UNITED NATIONS!

The UN has declared Rachael's tomb in Hebron as a mosque! For centuries it has been recognized as the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rachael, Rebecca and Leah. There has never been a question about this site or location of the Patriarchs or Matriarchs of the Jewish people. Hebron is in an Arab section of the Holy Land, and so this move was meant to placate the Arabs. The world does not mind lies when it serves their purposes. The UN sees the Arabs winning and the Jews losing. Truth and what is right has nothing to do with their decisions to change the facts or play with history. Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu described the UN's decision as "ludicrous." Israel immediately suspended all cooperation with UNESCO. This UN decision could bring about a "hot" confrontation between the Arabs and the Jews! --Dr. Mal Couch (11/10)

A SICK NATION

The other day I watched several men in their 20s on TV say things about themselves that I have never heard from a past generation. What I heard was fired up by secular psychology that is prevalent in our public government schools. While I realize that every younger person may not think this way, I'm afraid that too many have this opinion about themselves.    I heard them say: "I love myself," "I could just hug myself," "I'm a good person," and "I'm really very smart."    The entire reason for receiving Christ as our Savior is because we are not worthy of His grace and love. We have to come to Him in contrition, realizing that we are sinners, and that only He can save us. This pride and self-exaltation brings about God's judgment. And, it fosters sin that is destructive to others and to ourselves.    Abraham Lincoln realized that America needed to be humbled before the Lord. Pride and sin is what brought on the Civil War, he noted. Only judgment from God will turn the nation around!    --Dr. Mal Couch (11/10)

END OF DISCUSSION

Anyone who has thoroughly researched the issue of prophecy knows that the discussion is over, as to what the early church thought about premillennialism. Premillennialism says that Christ will come to establish the Davidic kingdom for one thousand years, as prophesied in Scripture. By taking the prophecies in their normal reading, this is the only view that the Bible gives. The Godly orthodox Jews, Christ and His disciples, held to a premillennial position. The Messiah "would come before (pre) the establishment of the millennium, or the promised Davidic, Jewish earthly kingdom.    Those who hold to another view are brainwashed by positions that are man-made and created by contrary theology for a purpose. They have a misguided agenda that violates common sense and the plain reading of the Word of God!    Those who hold to other positions have not done their homework, their research in history and theology. They have not researched the laborious and exhaustive four volumes entitled "The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers." This was researched over about thirty years and was published by Seven Day Adventists. No, their 7th Day Adventist views are not brought forth in the first three volumes, so one reading this work is getting pure history. Dr. John F. Walvoord had the four volumes in his office, located just behind his head in his bookcase. He shared with me personally that there were no works like this that proved beyond a doubt what the early church believed.    The editor, LeRoy Edwin Froom, led a research team of dozens of men who began the project from 1935 to 1938. World War II caused them to stop the project but it was renewed after the war, in 1948. The team surveyed dozens of libraries across Europe and Italy. They gleaned volume after volume of ancient texts to demonstrate that the early church, and even many of the churches during the Middle Ages held to literal interpretation when it came to Bible prophecy. They quote exhaustively the pre-Reformers and the Reformers to give to us what the best of scholarship was thinking at that time. Only a fool would ignore and misread what was said by so many concerning the literalness of Bible prophecy.    The covenant theologians of today, the postmillennialists and amillennialists, and the Replacement guys (those who believe that the church has replaced God's Plans with Israel) just can't deny this scholarship that is so understood today by premillennialists and dispensationalists. What is most interesting to me is that premillennialists came to the same conclusions without knowing about these volumes. They just read the Bible and let it speak for itself. And then over time, it was discovered what the early church and the most spiritual during the Middle Ages were thinking earlier. In other words, dispensationalists and premillennialists have always been right while the other guys are just dead wrong—and their wrong-ness can be proven with thorough research.    By the way, "The Prophetic Faith" volumes can be purchased online for only $400 for the complete set—but few can afford them! As a professor, with the urging of Dr. John Walvoord, I got my set some years ago and made sure that many of my students could also get them as well.    Sorry covenant guys, you have misled so many through the years and you really are out in the cold as to what the Bible says, and what church history tells us as well!    Dr. Mal Couch (11/10)

IMPORTANCE OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

Many people ignore the covenant God made with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). The covenant includes three main points: (1) God would give to him a land (the land of Canaan), (2) He would make from Abraham a great nation, and, (3) Through him He would bring forth a blessing or a curse on those who curse him. "And in you (Abraham) all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (v. 3b).    We dispensationalists and premillennialists understand that this covenant is the key to the Bible and to world history. The covenant theologians think that this covenant is no longer in God's purposes but this is not so. Psalm 105:6-11 indicates that the Abrahamic covenant is still with us. "The seed of Abraham is His servant; the sons of Jacob (Israel) are His chosen ones!" (v. 6). The Lord "will remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations" (v. 8).    Notice the guaranteed promise: "The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statue, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, 'To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance'" (vv. 9-10).    Notice that this is a "literal" covenant, one that is kept by the Lord forever, and it is made with the immediate and far generations of Abraham, His son Isaac and then Isaac's son Jacob, and ultimately to a "thousand generations." The covenant also has to do with the land of Canaan. The covenant guys force themselves to reject and deny this great covenant that has to do with Abraham's descendants and also concerning the land promises!    The entire Bible hinges on this great promise made in Genesis 12!    --Dr. Mal Couch   (11/10)

A NATION GONE BONKERS!

More and more we are seeing on TV a nation that has gone nuts! Crazy things are happening in America that make no sense at all. People have lost their moral and mental sense of balance. They are making decisions that defy common reasoning. A survey taken some years ago pointed out that people in America had three great concerns. (1) Food, (2) Shelter, and (3) how to have plenty of work to provide for their family. Now two great needs stand out: (1) the ability to buy things, gifts for themselves or for others, and (2) taking care of their pets who now are like additional family members. While I love my Kitty Kat, she is not a person. I enjoy my Kat and I enjoy and relate to people! But my animal is not human! For Halloween there was a news feature that talking about (1) "how to keep your pets safe." And, (2) how to take care of their emotions when you put on a Halloween mask because it may frighten them and they would become spooked! This is madness and the sign of a nutty nation! Other surveys have shown that this younger generation has two great desires: (1) how to become wealthy, and (2) how to become popular! Religious and biblical ignorance is growing fast. One young girl went to the jewelry store and wanted a necklace with "that little man on the cross" on it! I can remember the days when the Dallas Cowboys were forced to have short hair and would be kicked off the team if they had pierced tongues and lips and tattoos. There was a code of appearance and conduct that those in sports had to abide by. Now, anything goes and there are no moral and social standards that guide and control the culture. No one cares, and, the younger generation does not know the difference. More than likely it will get worse and not better. There is no such thing as biblical standards that even the society adheres to. We are moving deeper and deeper into a cultural and social apostasy, along with an apostasy of the church. The lost used to conform to biblical principles, even to a degree; but no longer! Paul warns: "Do not be conformed to this world (culture), but be transformed (metamorphosized) by the renewing of your 'thought processes' that you may prove what is the will of God ..." (Rom. 12:2). --Dr. Mal Couch (11/10)

THE FALL OF SATAN

Christ was there when Satan was cast from the heavens by the Lord, following his rebellion before the throne of God! Christ said "I watched, observed, Satan fall from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18). Translating the verse gives chills up and down the spine. Christ is speaking with strong and forceful words how Lucifer was instantly, at the speed of lightning, tossed from the throne room of the God of the Universe!    At some point in eternity past, Christ as the Son of God, observed Satan plunging from heaven! "I saw" is an Imperfect (Past) tense in Greek and means that at some moment in eternity past the Lord observed this happening. The Greek word is "theoreo" which means "to watch as a spectator." It was God the Father who was driving him from His presence. This is described in poetic form in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Theoreo is generally used as an Imperfect (Past) tense in Greek. It is the reporting of an event that took place at some historic moment.    "To fall" is an Aorist Participle of "Pipto." With this form, the point is that he was suddenly, without a pause, quickly tossed from God's presence. The Participle gives the word the force that Satan has moved to a different position; he is now occupying a new status. He is classified as one who should no longer be accepted with God in His eternal glorious state.    Satan was removed from heaven with the speed of lightning, or light! Without a moment's hesitation he was thrown from the presence of God. If one blinked the eye one would have missed this event! Satan was suddenly gone from the Lord's presence!    The next verse, verse 19, indicates that the disciples will now have to confront Satan's emissaries, the angles, who fell with him, who are described as serpents and scorpions. The disciples will have spiritual authority over them as they travel about doing the will of the Son. The apostles will have authority "over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you."    I wrote in my Luke Commentary, "What a protection afforded these followers of Christ!" I added, "This also tells us that the seventy disciples faced awesome evil beings who are the followers, the fallen demons, who belong to Satan. The demons are now in three classifications: (1) Those who are now active among humanity, (2) Those demons who are confined until a judgment, and (3) Those demons who will be released to do their dirty work during the tribulation (Rev. 9).    "These seventy disciples, along with the twelve, were given authority over all the power of the enemy, and Jesus told them, "nothing shall injure you" (v. 19). Christ also reminded His disciples that their names were recorded in heaven (v. 20). Such deep truths are hidden from "the wise and intelligent."    "Christ added, 'All things have been handed over to Me by My Father (v. 22a).'" He said, "As well, it is the sovereign prerogative of the Son of God to reveal the Father to whom He wishes. These seventy were blessed because of what their eyes had witnessed (v. 23)." Satan and his spiritual followers, the demons, are what we face now in this world! --Dr. Mal Couch  (11/10)

THE HISTORICAL LIES CONTINUE!

It amazes me how ignorant our historians are who comment on early American colonial history. They keep trying to get rid of any argument that would have us face religious issues in the founding of this great nation. The majority of the issues in regard to the Revolutionary War were religious and theological.    The main point of contention was theological not political or about prosperity. Listen to the words of our second President, John Adams who tells this happening. He said:    "Fear of the Church of England contributed as much as any other cause to arrest the attention [of the people] not only of the inquiring mind, but of the common people and urged them to think carefully on the Constitutional authority of [the English] Parliament over the colonies, … The objection [they had] was not only about the office of a [church] Bishop, though that was dreaded, but to the authority of Parliament on which it must be founded. The reasoning was this: There is no power less than Parliament which can create [Anglican] Bishops in America. But if Parliament can erect dioceses and appoint Bishops, they may introduce the whole [spiritual] hierarchy, establish tithes, establish religion, forbid [religious] dissenters, [turn church] schism(s) [into] heresy, impose [civil] penalties [in regard to religion] extending to life and limb as well as to liberty and prosperity."    Adam's thinking:    If Parliament could appoint Anglican Bishops for America then Parliament could impose itself in all American affairs. Note that Adams said this issue would "contribute as much as any other cause" for the people to stop and think of the implications of the appointment of a church Bishop!    Something happened that was as important as the dumping of the tea into Boston harbor, though it is almost never referred to. When the church of England sent a new Bishop over to America, the people rushed him back to the ship and sent him on his way home to Britain.    This event was reported in 1769 in the paper the Political Register. "The bishop had attempted to land, but was greeted by cries of 'No lords spiritual or temporal in New England!' 'Shall they be obliged to maintain bishops who cannot maintain themselves!' The bishop was bundled back on the ship, the wheels of his carriage dismantled, and his mitre and crosier thrown after him. A banner surmounted by a liberty-cap read: 'Liberty and Freedom of Conscience.'"    Then someone hurled a book of Calvin's Institutes at him. The people shouted out: "Lord, now let Thou Thy servant depart in peace."    Does anyone know about this event? I don't think so! --Dr. Mal Couch    (11/10)