eBible Fellowship

Welcome

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Sunday afternoon Question and Answer Program. Thank you for joining us today. Typically, during this time we usually take questions and comments and we will take a couple of questions today. I just want to let you know that this will be a shorter program than usual. We are probably only going to go about a half hour, or so, but first I want to lay out what EBible Fellowship is thinking at this time.

EBible Fellowship’s Plans for the Future

As we all know, October 7^th came and went and we were incorrect about the end of the world coming on that day, so we are going to go back to the Bible and, by God’s grace, continue to search all the more for truth and to pray for wisdom. This is what the Lord would always have His people to do.

I would like to say that it is a benefit in some ways when we pass a date like this, where we were very specifically looking for the end of the world and the creation of a new heaven and new earth and that did not happen, so as far as this understanding is concerned, we were wrong. The world did not end. There was no new heaven and new earth. We were incorrect and that can be helpful in the sense that we know we were incorrect and that day was not the end of the world. So now we have received correction and we can go back to the Bible afresh.

Now contrast that with many church doctrines that all the world’s denominations teach. If you picked 10 churches, it would not be surprising that on a particular doctrine, they would have 10 different understandings and some of these churches have held onto their doctrinal understanding for hundreds of years. Obviously, they cannot all be correct and only one is correct (if any of the 10 are correct), but sometimes all 10 are wrong. That means that there are multitudes of churches and, in fact, all churches in the world maintain and hold onto false doctrine. Often, it involves very serious doctrinal error, especially insofar as the matter of salvation and they haven’t changed their position for hundreds of years, in some cases, and it is “set in stone.” It is in their confessions and creeds and it is part of the personality of that particular denomination or church and it is what differentiates them from another church that believes something else about that verse. They have not had the benefit of a “past date,” where they could return to their misunderstandings on their doctrines in order that they might receive correction.

If we look at this correctly, the passing of this date, in some ways, is a benefit and now we return to the Bible to find what God is teaching us. Our plan is to turn to the Book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1 and go, verse by verse, through the Book of Genesis. This will be good in a few different ways. If the Lord tarries, it will allow us to go carefully through the genealogies of Genesis, which are the foundation for the Biblical calendar. We can go slowly and carefully through the Biblical calendar. There is also the flood account in Genesis, chapter 8, which appears to be very significant, especially since we have never properly understood this chapter. I can tell you right now I do not understand Genesis, chapter 8, but I plan to spend as much time as I can, looking up each word and praying for wisdom and asking God for help. Hopefully, by the time we get to that chapter, we will have a better understanding of what this chapter means.

Here is why Genesis, chapter 8 is significant. We know from Genesis, chapter 7 that God brought the flood and shut the door of the ark on the seventeenth day of the second month and He told Noah, “Yet, seven days,” before He brought the flood and we know how that fits with a 7,000-year time line from 4,990 BC until May 21, 2011. May 21, 2011 had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of 2/17, which matched the very date that God shut the door of the ark and May 21, 2011 was exactly 7,000 years later and we know God said that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” This pictured the beginning of Judgment Day and then there was a prolonged judgment in the Book of Genesis. The rain began to fall on day 1 and it fell for 40 days and God also brought water from other sources to flood the earth. The waters of the flood was the judgment of God and the effects of the flood continued until the next year. It is recorded in Genesis 8 that for a time Noah, his family and the animals in the ark were living in a world that was submerged in water, under the wrath of God and they were waiting for the waters to decrease to the point where they could come out of the ark. Once they could come out of the ark, it would be akin to a “new earth,” because the first earth was destroyed. So they were waiting for a “new earth” to take shape, in a sense, and they had to wait for the waters to decrease and for the land to dry. All the while that was going on, we find God giving certain dates in Genesis 8. There were certain periods in which things were happening — a raven was going forth and a dove was sent out, and so forth. So all this would relate to our time since May 21, 2011, living on the earth in the Day of Judgment and waiting for God’s judgment to subside and for the new earth to appear because that is God’s plan; this world must pass away and there must be a new heaven and new earth set up. So there are definite similarities we can see in this account and that is one of the reasons we want to go carefully through the Book of Genesis.

I would just like to mention that this is “Plan B” and it is also “Plan C” and “Plan D.” It is just to go to the Bible and keep studying the Bible. Of course, we also need to live as children of God in this world. As far as we know, Christ’s command to feed the sheep is still in effect. The door is still shut. The church age is still over. Nothing has changed and we are to continue looking for truth and to publish these things as the Lord gives us opportunity.

I think it is very extremely significant that practically everyone wants us to stop. The churches are telling us that we must stop predicting dates and the world is also letting their displeasure be known because we do not stop. And, yet, we are not going to the Bible with that exclusive idea that we are looking for a date. We are going to the Bible to find truth concerning “times and seasons.”

How does a ministry know that we are in the Great Tribulation unless we understand the church age is over? How do we know where we are in God’s program of “times and seasons” unless we go to the Bible and see that information laid out according to the Biblical calendar? Our desire is to learn truth.

We are going to look into every statement and as we go through the Book of Genesis, we will look at creation in a major way. We are very interesting in the truth of creation, especially in this time when the world has been blinded and thinks that evolution is a fact.

God’s people love the truth and it is our desire to find truth. People want us to “wall off” a whole area of Bible inquiry, as if they are saying, “Oh, do not look there. You are not allowed to look there.” Well, maybe that is the idea of some churches that we are not allowed to look in that direction, but this is what God says about the purpose of the Bible, in 2 Timothy 3:16:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

And this means all scripture, whether it is Daniel 12, Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2 or the Book of Revelation, where God is talking, specifically, about the end of the world and we follow the “lead” of the Bible; wherever a Bible verse takes us, that is where the people of God follow. We never say to God, “Oh, do not show us that.” That was the point of discussion in Acts, chapter 10, where God made a change in program concerning the Gentiles and He instructed Peter to rise and eat of “unclean animals,” and Peter said, “Not so, Lord.” Well, that is what Israel of old did concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the 1st century and that is what the New Testament churches did with many doctrines God opened up in His Word. They refused them, but God’s people are given hearts desiring to do the will of God and they are in submission to the will of God, so we do not tell God, “Not so. We are not going to look in that area any longer.” Whatever God would have us to do, that is the direction we go.

Questions and Answers

At this point, we are going to open the lines for a couple of questions, so let us go to our first caller this afternoon. Welcome to our Sunday afternoon “Q & A” program. Please go ahead with your call.

Question #1 - 00:16:34

Caller: My question is in Jeremiah 8, verse 7, but before you read that, I would like you to read three verses in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, which is for our comfort today:

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Answer: Yes, we have much for which we can rejoice because God has granted His people salvation and eternal life, eternal joy and happiness and peace. This is what the future holds for the child of God. We are disappointed for a time as we are still here for a little while longer. Today the people of God have gone through so many things over the course of the Great Tribulation and during the prolonged Day of Judgment and we have developed a very “thick skin.” We are tough-minded and we are able, by God’s grace, to live in a world that has been given over to unrighteousness and, yet, to be a good family member and worker and to maintain all our responsibilities while struggling with spiritual things like the war between the flesh and the spirit and the evil spiritual forces at work in this world, and so forth. The unsaved people of the world also have the difficulties of this world, but they do not have the additional difficulties of trouble in the spiritual realm, so God’s people are very tough-minded because God has helped us to endure and to continue. So a big help to the child of God is to thank the Lord for salvation and all the blessings we read about in the Bible.

So, now you want me to read Jeremiah 8:7:

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.

Caller’s Question: The Bible says His people “know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.” In other words, we are supposed to know judgment. Is that correct?

Answer: The implication is that it is not a good thing to be ignorant, like when the churches instruct their members that they cannot know anything about “times and seasons” and that Christ is coming as a thief. They are teaching their congregations to be content in that ignorance. Ignorance means “to lack knowledge.” They lack knowledge concerning the coming of the Lord and God’s end time program of “times and seasons.” Nowhere in the Bible does God commend people for “ignorance,” or for lacking knowledge, as we read in Luke, chapter 19 concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus. This also has spiritual implications regarding the end of the church age. It says in Luke 19:43-44:

For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Again, you would think that the way the churches push the doctrine that “no man knows,” you would think they would be commended by God for their ignorance: “You did not know when Christ came the first time. You were not aware and that is okay.” But there is no commendation, but it is the judgment and wrath of God. He is going to destroy the temple and not one stone will be left upon another for this reason: “because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” They were unaware and, yet, they had no excuse for being unaware. Historically, Jeremiah the prophet had proclaimed God’s judgment upon them. At the time of Christ, John the Baptist was going before Him and proclaiming the birth of Christ. They heard. Remember, the Bible said that Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled by the message the wise men from the East brought concerning the birth of the King. They heard. They knew, but they preferred “ignorance.” They preferred to stay in the dark and they dismissed it. They did not respond in the manner that a child of God that was looking for the Messiah would have responded. It is the same today. The churches desire darkness. They desire not to know the things related to the coming of Christ and the judgment that began at the house of God, and so forth. They do not want to know these things. They prefer operating as normal because they really love the world. They are attached to the world and they are very concerned with what the world thinks about them. They are upset with EBible Fellowship because, in their opinion, we are the reason that people “will not be Christian,” because we set a date. They have their eyes focused on the world: “How does the world view us? How does the world respond to us? Are we pleasing to the world?” They love the world because the churches are now full of “worldlings,” unsaved people that are of the world. Babylon of old gained supremacy over Judah because just prior to that Judah had cast their eyes upon Babylon and looking to that power in the nations of the world of their day. It is the same today. The churches are involved in spiritual harlotry, as the Bible would say, as it casts its eyes upon the world and as it strives to do things the world will accept.

Yet, God’s people do not seek approval from the world or the churches. Our concern is approval from God through His Word. In other words, our authority is the Bible — only the Bible and always the Bible. Others may try to impress upon us the way we must go or the way we must teach. I am sorry and we are people, too, and we would like to please everyone, but we cannot seek to please men. We must always follow the Word of God. Thank you for calling and let us go to our next caller. Please go ahead with your call.

Question #2 - 00:27:26

Caller’s Question: Now that the 1,600 days of spiritual judgment have expired, is it possible we are still in the Day of Judgment—spiritually?

Answer: Well, yes. We were looking at 1,600 days as the duration for Judgment Day since May 21, 2011. It seemed to fit very strongly and that is why we said there was a “strong likelihood,” due to the Biblical information that pointed to October 7, 2015. You see, this is where the disappointment and confusion comes in, when you follow the Biblical methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture and you are trying to be very careful and the evidence mounts and points to a day like October 7. Now the primary part of the main question we have to answer is: “What about that evidence? What do we do with it?”

We have to pray for wisdom and guidance. For example, I was around back in 1994 and, typically, what happened was that the key date of September 1994 was misunderstood. It was the “dividing point” of the Great Tribulation and not the end. Then on May 21, 2011, we lacked understanding about the spiritual nature of the judgment. Now we are in the time after the Tribulation. I am sure that I and many others will be reviewing these things because we always want to review and go over things and see if we missed anything. Is there any other information? We need to look at it anew since we have passed October 7, 2015 and, yet, at this point the Great Tribulation still appears to lock into a 23-year period that concluded on May 21, 2011. And once we have the date of the Great Tribulation established, the Bible speaks of what happens “immediately after the tribulation.” We have all that language of Matthew 24:29 regarding the darkened sun, moon and falling stars and so many other verses that stress that the Gospel light is out. In Mark 13, verse 24, it indicates that this is a period of “days,” not a single day, when it refers to “those days after that tribulation.” In Ecclesiastes, chapter 12 it speaks of “years” in which the sun is dark and the moon is not giving its light, so we had thought it was that four years, four months and 16 days that concluded on October 7, 2015, but we now know that was incorrect. Yet, we still have statements that refer to “days” and “years” after the Tribulation, so we just need to go back to the Bible and see what God would have us to know, if He would be so gracious to help us in understanding. That is why we also want to look at Genesis, chapter 8, Lord willing. We see different periods after the flood or after the door shut. This is one reason why 1,600 days may have some significance – it more than likely does, since it fit so well. It could be a “stage” of some sort.

This is why we are not doing the “Q & A” as regularly as we did before. There is a good verse in Proverbs that I think it is important that we follow. It says in Proverbs 15:28:

The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.

What do we study? Of course, we study the Bible in order to answer the questions we now have and study is necessary. Sometimes I think it can be helpful in a one-to-one setting or in a group of people to talk about this idea or that idea or writing ideas to one another, but when it comes to a program like this or to EBible group outreach, we are not to “minister questions.” We are not to just throw out speculation. Speculation is not helpful to anyone in that kind of setting. Typically, we can look back at the time after May 21, 2011 and we find that when one individual starts speculating in one area and another individual is speculating in another area, little groups are going to form. Both cannot be correct (or maybe neither is correct), but some people might follow that line of speculation for years. We want to avoid that. We want to study. As far as personal interaction, if anyone has a verse or idea, send me an email or send someone else an email and let us know what you are thinking. But in regard to EBible Fellowship’s ministry, we want to avoid speculation. Thank you for calling and sharing and let us take one last caller. Welcome to our question and answer program. Please go ahead with your call.

Question #3 - 00:35:15

Caller’s Question: Will there be a “Day in the Word” on Sunday October 25?

Answer: Lord willing, as far as I know, Robert is going to check with the Union Hall concerning our rental. If everything is okay there, then we would hold the “Day in the Word” on the fourth Sunday, as normal, Lord willing. We will have to let you know, but thank you for calling and sharing.

Closing

And I would like to thank everyone for joining with us today. Good afternoon and may we all keep our thoughts on things above. May the Lord’s perfect will be done.