The Spirit of Prophecy
This being the “Season of the Reason,” it’s good for us this week I think to talk about Jesus. He’s “Israeli” and as a Jew was born in Bethlehem, so this is a profitable discussion for us just days before what I hope is a joyous Christmas for you.
This week, Pete Garcia posted this intense thought on X:
“I had a pastor tell me once, ‘I don’t focus on the book of prophecy, I just focus on Jesus.’ The book of Revelation 19:10: ‘…For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’”
(I’m a big Pete Garcia fan, a veteran who is known in the prophecy community. He knows his stuff. His comment struck a chord with me.)
We all know that too many pulpits in America today refuse to talk about Bible prophecy. This is dismaying and, to be honest, infuriating. These alleged shepherds are depriving their congregations of great hope and the Blessed Hope by ignoring 35 percent of the Bible.
I wrote a piece on my Patreon page this week about Bethlehem. In it, I cited a few examples of CHRISTIAN LEADERS that in the last century have worked hard to cast doubt on the historicity of Jesus’s birth in that little Judean town. Some say it’s outright myth, some say the prophet Micah cited the “wrong” Bethlehem (they claim, wholly without evidence, that the town of Jesus’s birth was the Bethlehem of the Galilee). To add a finer point to it, these skeptics deny the Virgin Birth!
In 1961, Rev. James Pike, Episcopal bishop of California, said that the Virgin Birth is a “primitive myth.”
In 1964, a Baptist editor said that while a majority believed in the Virgin Birth, a “substantial minority” do not. This minority did not need to believe in the Virgin Birth in order to accept the deity of Christ, because it isn’t dealt with by Paul, or in the Gospels of Mark and John (This is called the “Argument from Silence”).
A new United Church of Christ curriculum of that era taught youth that it isn’t important to believe in the Virgin Birth.
The question is, why would they do this?
Because they are of their father, the devil. That’s the answer. We often try to find other, kinder and softer reasons, but this is the reason. Most people have no idea how absolutely corrupt the seminaries in this country have been for 150 years. Really. They turn out pastors that deny the faith—which, very ironically for them, fulfills NT prophecies that teach of the coming apostasy in the last days. You can’t get more compromised than denying the Virgin Birth and the accuracy of the prophets.
Remember, it is God Himself—the Lord of History—that has given us very specific, detailed prophecy, so that we can be sure of our faith. As Pete wrote, we should be highlighting the fact that Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. Denying prophecy is denying the Redeemer, the Messiah sent to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind. We each have only to accept, as Paul wrote in Romans 10, that God sent Jesus in the flesh and raised Him to life after three days in the grave.
When a pastor refuses to preach the whole Bible, he is engaging in dangerous and sinister work.
There are plenty of terrible examples of churches in the U.S. holding bizarre services, especially at Christmas, when they have “captive” audiences that normally don’t attend church. Featuring the “Grinch Stole Christmas,” complete with professional dancers, is not preaching the Gospel.
Jesus is indeed the spirit of prophecy. Scripture tells us so. If pastors (your pastor!) isn’t teaching this, and growing the congregation in a healthy understanding of eschatology, you’ll have to do it yourself in your own network.
This is the perfect time of the year to teach your children, grandchildren, neighbor, or anyone else the beautiful story of Jesus born in Bethlehem, and the marvelous, stupendous, astonishing prophecy given in Micah 5:2, that the Messiah would be born in a tiny hamlet way out in the sticks. It happened 700 years later! In fact, David and Jesus would both be born in Bethlehem, 1,000 years apart. Two kings, one eternal.
I pray that each of you will experience pure joy and contentment and peace this Christmas season.
And most of all, remember the Reason for the Season!
Blessings to you all.
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