Going to Hereafter with a Smile

It was almost like going home. Only we had just come from home and were here in the Christ In Prophecy studio. And there were smiles to go around. We had a joyous time being together in a physical setting for the first time in quite a while.

My friend Mike Hile and I travel together and have done so for many years because I’m now blind and have to have Mike to help keep me between the ditches. So we were in McKinney, Texas, near Dallas to shoot TV programs for Lamb-Lion Ministry and their Christ In Prophecy weekly program.

It was like a homecoming –great to be again with my great friends Tim Moore, the program’s host and head of Lamb-Lion Ministry, and with Dr. Nathan Jones, TV co-host and Lamb-Lion web minister. And it was doubly great to sit right beside my wonderful friend of many years, Lamb-Lion and Christ In Prophecy founder Dr. David Reagan.

Dave, Tim, Nathan and I caught up on things of our lives apart from each other for those intervening years. We did so, even while taping the programs, but especially between the sessions of doing the programs. It was, for me, a heartwarming time of being with those who have been so special in my ministry life.

In retrospect, thinking on the topic for our television get-together, the wonderful time spent there appropriately sparks just an inkling of what that Grand Reunion will be like once in the Hereafter following the Rapture.

Dave and I were in the studio to do programs about two of our books –each of which involves Bible Prophecy, as you might expect. But these books have at their centers the theme of the future for Christians in eternity. These books focus on that Glorious Place Jesus said He was going to go in order to prepare a place for those who believe in Him for Salvation.

Dr. Dave Reagan’s book’s title is How To Die With A Smile On Your Face. My and my co-author Jonathan Brentner’s book has the title HEREAFTER: It’s Far Better than You Imagine.”

Dave, in his unequaled way of presentation, expounded on the marvels that await those who have accepted God’s Grace Gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world for the Redemption of fallen mankind.

My title comes from years ago hearing the great radio broadcast personality Paul Harvey expounding on one of his sponsor’s products. He said something like: “If you want to keep your pearly whites from here to hereafter, you should (use whatever toothpaste he was promoting.) The word hereafter made me think what a great title that would be for a book about Heaven.

Dave and I were precisely on the same page from the very start of the program’s taping. As a matter of fact, I accused him of stealing my thunder in using exactly the scripture I was going to use. He was first to speak, and he quoted the following.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor 2:9-10).

In our book, HEREAFTER, we further look at the Joyous future that awaits each and every believer when their time on earth is through.

[Book Excerpt]

In Psalm 16:11, David wrote:

“You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

When the day described in Revelation 19:1-10 arrives, our joy will know no bounds. Our fondest moments in this life will pale by comparison.

During the TV taping, I was asked to recount my brief clinical death visits to that Sphere that is the Hereafter. I can’t tell you what a joy it always is to do just that. As a matter of fact, I recount that Good Friday experience of April 22, 2011, most every morning when I awake. For some reason those Moments spent in that Realm flood back into my thoughts upon awakening to a new day.

Dr. Reagan brought up during the programs that Heaven isn’t just some ethereal realm or dimension of existence where saints will be floating around as disembodied spirits. He said it is a real place, according to all we know from Scripture.

Again, in our book HEREAFTER, we address this place called Heaven, about which Jesus said the following.

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).

A Physical Abode

The Greek word for “place” in John 14:2-3 is topos, which denotes a physical location in almost all its usages throughout the New Testament. It frequently denotes a specific location such as a city, village, or area. Jesus is preparing actual “rooms” in His “Father’s house” for the multitudes that would come to know Him as their Savior since that evening. Our new home will be visible with many amenities that will please our immortal resurrection bodies. Not one saint will feel any disappointment when he or she sees their heavenly accommodations.

The word Jesus chose for “prepare,” hetoimazo, also depicts a tangible, physical preparation. Paul used this same term when asking Philemon to “prepare a lodging place” for him (Philemon 22).

Although my own trip to somewhere on the periphery of Heaven didn’t take me to that final place that the Lord Jesus is preparing, the trip itself was exactly as the Apostle Paul said it would be. He said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor 5: 8).

I.e., when the last heartbeat happens upon passing from this life, we who know Christ for Salvation are instantaneously in that Heavenly Sphere. To this, I can attest firsthand, although it was obviously not yet my time to go all the way to the place prepared for me in the Hereafter. The trip was, however, instantaneous –in the twinkling of an eye speed. I was sent back, among other reasons, to tell you about that Abode that is, as our book subtitle has it, far better than you can imagine!

If you are not yet in God’s Family, for whom Jesus Himself is preparing places of unimaginable splendor where we will live in Glory Forever, here is how to become part of that Family. You will then be certain to go to the HEREAFTER with a smile on your face.

“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

–Terry

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A Future Palm Sunday Celebration

On Palm Sunday, we remember Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem just five days before His death on the cross. Matthew records the messianic hopes of the crowd reflected in their shouts of “Hosanna,” or “O Lord, save us” (Matthew 21:9). The word originally signified a cry for help in the Hebrew, but over time became an expression of praise to the Lord (see Psalm 118:25).

The multitudes also proclaimed, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” as they watched Jesus, seated on a donkey, ride into the city (Matthew 21:9). These words, taken from Psalm 118:26, signified their belief that Jesus was the long-awaited King of Israel.

Why am I recounting a past fulfillment of prophecy? It’s because it points to a future time when Jewish people living in Jerusalem will welcome Jesus as their King, reciting the words of Psalm 118:25, just as their ancestors did so long ago. The outcome, however, will differ greatly.

During the week after His triumphal entry, Jesus spoke these words:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'” (Matthew 23:37-39).

When Jesus made this prediction, He knew that a brutal death upon the cross awaited Him. Fully aware that the previous cries of “Hosanna” would soon change to “Crucify him,” He looked forward to another entry into Jerusalem when He would also hear the words of Psalm 118.

The outcome of His future arrival, however, will be far different.

The latter-day repentance of a Jewish remnant, also prophesied by Zechariah (12:10-13:1), will lead to those in Zion truly welcoming Jesus as their King, and it will be a kingdom that awaits Him rather than death upon the cross.

Current events in Israel make the fulfillment of Jesus’ words seem impossible. The nation is fighting for its survival as the result of deadly attacks on all sides. In addition, it faces mounting world pressure for it to give up its fight against terrorism and reward its oppressors with a nation of their own. How could the nation survive for long if the world forces a two-state solution on it? But God!

The almost constant warfare and criticism will someday lead to Israel’s acceptance of the peace terms offered to them by the antichrist. However, just as Jesus also predicted in Matthew 24:15-17, this will also not end well for the people. However, the betrayal and necessity to flee Jerusalem to avoid death will bring many Jews to saving faith in their Messiah by the end of the Tribulation. Not long after His Second Coming, they will welcome Jesus into Jerusalem as their King.

The differing “Palm Sunday” events illustrate two important truths regarding Bible prophecy:

First, what we see often differs from reality. When Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the words of Zechariah, the disciples could never have imagined that He would be hanging on a cross in less than a week.

Likewise, when we look at current-day Israel, steeped in worldliness and deadly conflicts, is it not difficult to imagine the fulfillment of Jesus’ words? Yet we know that a future group of repentant Jews will again shout, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” as He again enters Zion to reign over them as their King.

Bible prophecy enables us to look beyond what we see and believe what it reveals about the future. Apart from what we read in the New Testament, how could we expect Jesus’ soon intervention in our world to take us home to glory?

Second, the fulfillment of Bible prophecy always exalts Jesus, always. As followers of Jesus, we anticipate meeting Jesus in the air and, after that, suddenly appearing with Him in glory with imperishable bodies (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; Philippians 3:20-21; Colossians 3:4). During this time, we celebrate the marriage supper of the Lamb as praise for our Savior thunders throughout Heaven (Revelation 19:6-10).

The book of Revelation magnifies the Lord Jesus from beginning to end. The apocalypse is all about His unveiling as the head of the church, the One who brings judgment upon the earth to take the kingdoms of the world away from Satan, His all-glorious return to the earth, His spectacular kingdom during which time we will reign with Him, and His ultimate victory over death that will lead to the wonders of the eternal state.

Sound biblical teaching on future things always springs from the words of Scripture, not what we see, and glorifies Jesus by fixing our hope on Him and on Him alone as our expectation of what is and what is to come. That’s why we believe that a future day is surely coming when Jesus will again arrive triumphantly in Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

It will also be a joyous day for us since we will reign with Jesus in the kingdom that will follow.

-Jonathan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Satan’s Antichrist Amoeba

That half of a nation so advanced to the point that it is the apex nation of human history can embrace such insane concepts is mind-boggling. Yet half of America, according to statistics I’ve read, for example, believes it is okay to literally murder people through abortion. As a matter of fact, it is preferable to do so, in most cases, merely for the sake of convenience.

I.e., abortion on demand is no different in such thinking, apparently, than simply throwing out the messes made after a big party. The fun is over, and the results are that one must either get rid of the mess or else live with the rubbish that continues to grow. Abortion is, in the large majority of cases, a matter of convenience after the fact.

Now I realize there are legitimately considered reasons for the procedure, but only the God who Issues life can Rule on the legitimacy of such action. So abortion performed for these reasons, considered in cases of a mother’s life, fetus viability, rape, incest, etc., can ultimately be determined only by Heaven’s Authority.

Man determines such taking of life, only at the risk of offending the Giver of life.

So, in these cases where convenience is truly not the motivating factor, we must, in my view, leave Heaven’s Judicial Determination between God and those performing the taking of life in the womb.

What I would like to examine under this title, Satan’s Antichrist Amoeba, includes the human mindset of abortion and all other thinking growing today that more and more leave behind what used to be considered normal. It is more than obvious, if studying God’s Word on the inevitable outcome of embracing anti-God thinking, that the reprobate mind moves ever further away from the ability to form rational thought.

Here, of course, is what Paul the great apostle says, under Holy Spirit Inspiration.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity whisperers” (Romans 1:28-29).

We read stories of the brain-eating amoeba, which enters its human victim through the nose while the person is swimming in waters that are warm and infected with the insidious microbe or whatever it is considered by the microbiologists. Once infected, the person, if not immediately treated, is shortly unable to survive the brain damage. Death quickly follows.

We human beings were infected with a deadly amoeba-like entity called sin through the bloodstream of our father, Adam. He received this sin infection by the serpent, Satan, who injected him –and all humankind that has ever been born except for the Lord Jesus Christ. The result is that humanity, as a whole, continues to go further and further from God, unless Saved from the Sin-infection through belief in Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, as a sacrifice to deliver from that sin infection.

God’s Word tells of this ever-present determination by fallen man to move away from God. The antediluvians of Noah’s day had to be destroyed for their corruption due to this satanic, spiritual-mind-destroying amoeba running through the bloodstream untreated. Because of unbelief, anti-God reprobate mindset moves mankind, ultimately, into total perversion.

The same was the case with Nimrod’s tower-building generation following the flood. The satanic amoeba again so infected that the Lord destroyed the anti-God project at Babel and scattered infected humanity throughout the world.

We look at the world of rebels at this present hour and how mankind has once again reached the point that, apart from Christ’s sin-cleansing Intervention, there is near total corruption and reprobate mindset. The Lord is about to have to again reach down and destroy through Supreme Judgment all anti-God rebelliousness. This will eventuate in the Tribulation –Daniel’s seventieth week.

During that Tribulation –the final 7 years before Christ’s Return at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11)—God will Allow the satanic Antichrist amoeba to totally infest the minds of anti-God rebels. Those so infected will believe the lies, and especially a big lie of some sort. Here is what the prophetic Word has to say in that regard.

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thes 2:8-12).

We have seen some foreshadowing of the fallen minds of men being set up for believing this great lie following the Rapture of the Church. Jesus said the last of this Age of Grace will be marked by deception and deceivers. Paul wrote under Inspiration that human beings will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

We have all witnessed great deception in these days that are growing ever darker in terms of movement away from godliness. Even secular observers can see and understand that something evil is taking place as deception grows.

The following excerpt speaks to the discernment that even those who aren’t necessarily believers are displaying regarding setting up the minds of people for destructive lies.

Journalist Lara Logan on Monday told a U.S. Senate roundtable, “We live in the age of information warfare” aided by advanced technology, and “we have never been here, not in all of human history….

Other experts who participated in the roundtable discussed how the news media have become propagandized and warned that media-supported propaganda will lead to a totalitarian society.

‘Vast censorship network’ includes government, nonprofits

Journalist Lara Logan, formerly of CBS News, told the panel of experts, “These are the worst of times for the media in this country…”

Logan said:

“The media is collaborating with government agencies and operatives to censor and shape the information battlefield to justify certain actions. For example, when the president of the United States threatens the unvaccinated, saying ‘Our patience is wearing thin,’ and accuses them of putting communities at risk, his words are designed to justify hatred, censorship and intimidation.”

According to Logan, a network of nonprofit organizations whose purpose is to stifle free speech is contributing to information warfare:

“For too long we have allowed nonprofit organizations to masquerade as nonpartisan media watchdogs, when in fact, they are a little more than highly paid political propagandists and assassins whose entire reason for being is to crush anyone who stands in their way and along with them, the long-held and cherished ideas of free speech, free thinking and free minds.”

“This is a blood sport for them, their political allies, and their puppetmasters. They know how to kill a journalist without murdering them. We call it ‘cancel culture’ …. They get away with it because they have information dominance.”

[Source: War for Our Minds’: Journalists Warn of Vast Propaganda, Censorship Network Unlike Any Before in Human History by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D, Children’s Health Defense]

Satan’s Antichrist amoeba is already at work in setting up the minds of mankind for the Tribulation when the Holy Spirit no longer Restrains to the same degree as while indwelling believers during this Age of Grace. The deadly amoeba’s spiritual mind-eating is observable in every direction one looks upon today’s darkening prophetic horizon.

Jesus Christ, Alone, is the Answer to cure the sin disease caused by this infernal parasite injected by Satan, that old serpent who introduced into Adam’s bloodstream those eons ago. To accept Christ’s Healing from sin infection, follow God’s Rx.

“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

–Terry

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We Are Heirs to an Eternal Kingdom

The items that most often fill our news feeds are disheartening at best. Much of what’s reported on the mainstream media is gaslighting, the attempt to persuade people that the things they see and experience are not real. The repetition of lies has been effective; most people go about their lives unaware of the dangers hidden by the misdirection of the day pointing them to a return to a semblance of normalcy.

The widespread deception of our time fulfills Bible prophecy. When His disciples asked Jesus about the signs of the last days and His Second Coming, He began with the words, “Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matthew 24:4). Paul also warned about the “wicked deception” that would characterize the appearing of the antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

Behind the false information that permeates today’s airways lies Satan’s agenda to establish his kingdom on the earth with the man of lawlessness at the helm. He mistakenly believes he can stop the Lord’s restoration of a kingdom to Israel and thus prevent Jesus from setting up His realm.

There’s actually good news behind the push of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and UN to establish the devil’s new world order. It not only tells us that we live in the last moments of human history, but it also points to the nearness of the glorious kingdom that we will inherit, one that will be far more glorious than we can imagine.

We Are Heirs to a Kingdom

Amid the wickedness, terrors, deception, lawlessness, and violence that define our day, we possess an unfailing hope of a realm where righteousness will reign supreme and our joy will know no bounds. The Bible says we are heirs to this glorious realm.

In Ephesians 1:11-14, Paul writes we have “obtained an inheritance” of which the Holy Spirit is our “guarantee.” It’s one of the many blessings we have because of Christ. In another passage, the apostle identifies our inheritance as “the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50).

Yes, of course, God transfers us to His spiritual domain at the moment of our redemption (Colossians 1:13-14). However, the Bible also tells us that we are also heirs to the physical and yet future manifestation of the Lord’s kingdom. Oh, what a jubilant day that will be for us!

At first glance, the words of 1 Corinthians 15:50 seem to convey bad news to us regarding our inheritance:

“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”

Despite telling us that we are now physically unfit to receive our inheritance, these words contain remarkably good news. They signify that our current experience in this vale of tears cannot be the glorious realm that the Lord promises us.

If we received our inheritance of a kingdom in our “flesh and blood” bodies, it would leave us with an exceedingly brief time to enjoy the Lord’s bequest to us amid the pain, suffering, and death that come our way here below.

Does it not dishonor Him when teachers tell us that this fleeting, troubled existence is His gift to us of a kingdom? I’m certain that it does. I fail to see any encouragement in viewing the church as our inheritance of a kingdom.

Furthermore, our current experience in this troubled world is not even remotely close to how the Bible describes Jesus’ future reign upon the earth (see Psalms such as 2, 46, and 110 as well as Revelation 20:1-10). Things such as wars, abortion, lawlessness, gaslighting, ethnic strife, and sex trafficking will be nonexistent when Jesus rules over the nations.

Jesus Will Make Us Fit for the Kingdom

The comforting news in all this is that Jesus will someday, hopefully soon, make us fit for the kingdom in which we will reign with Him.

In 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, Paul writes that He appears, Jesus will raise the dead with “imperishable bodies,” and “we,” too, will experience immortality. Although we cannot receive our inheritance in our current existence, the Lord will make us fit for His eternal realm when He appears and “transforms our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21).

Earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul states that apart from the hope of this resurrection, which later in the passage he says happens at the time of the Rapture, “our faith is futile” and “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:17, 19). The good news of the Gospel includes the promise of a realm that we will enjoy in glorified, incorruptible bodies.

Those who say that God has rejected Israel and transferred its kingdom blessings to the church, albeit spiritually, not only severely minimize His covenant promises to the nation but also seriously degrade the wonder of our inheritance of New Testament saints.

All this is exceedingly good news for us because it signifies that:

1. Our current experience of suffering, pain, and death is most certainly not the realm to which the New Testament says we are heirs. (The Bible says we are heirs to a kingdom, not possessors of it.)
2. We will reign with Jesus in His kingdom with immortal bodies because Jesus will make us fit for His eternal realm when He takes us home to glory.

We will reign with Jesus for a thousand years and then forevermore. We greatly rejoice knowing that our glorious inheritance lies in the future rather than now in the confines of the church.

-Jonathan