• Hebrew year 5760
• Dead and back to life again?
• God's Call?
• Tongues is "demonic"?

Question:
The new Hebrew year is the HY 5760, which began on September 11, 1999 the beginning of their two-day Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) celebration. The year will end on September 29, 2000 -- the day before the start of their next Rosh Hashanah celebration.

Any ideas how to explain this 240 year discrepancy between the what Bible comentators claim that year 1999 or 2000 is 6000 years since the creation of Adam and the Hebrew Calendar claim of 5760 years have elapse since Adam?

Answer:
As a matter of fact, I've been having some e-mail exchanges with one of the e-list subscribers recently about these very things. Calendars, dates, Jewish tradition, etc. He has done a lot more reading on these things than I have. And I asked him this very question. This was his response:

Quote:
In the early Christian centuries, around 130 A.D. many false Messiahs arose to "deliver" the Jews from the persecutions which they were still having, and had several unsuccessful, and bloody, revolts. The Jews were doing everything they could to twist the truth and portray anyone besides Jesus as the Messiah.

So, a specific person (I don't remember his name) came along to lead them to their victory. The Jewish Priests and Scribes decided to twist a little bit of scriptural dates to make Daniel's prophecies "fit" in order to proclaim that --this-- man had "appeared" at the "right time". So, 240 years were "subtracted" from history to proclaim this specific person as the Messiah. Needless to say, their revolution was crushed, the false Messiah was killed and the Priests and Scribes never made the correction to the dates. In fact they had to change many, many records in order to keep their lies straight. Up until that time, I assume they had kept an accurate record of what year we were in from creation, so the "year" to them TODAY is 5760 as of Tishri 1. (AND HERE IS THE PROOF OF ALL THIS) This 240 years is a documented admitted "error" in the Jewish encyclopedia. So, once again, we have another source which states we are in the year 6000 as of Tishri 1: 5760 + 240 = 6000
-endQuote-

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Question:
I was wondering if I could have your input on this... My friend wrote me asking for my opinion.

[Ed: Too much personal stuff to quote the whole account. But, essentially, the person in question died and came back to life a couple of times, and while "dead" was told her "job" on earth was not finished yet. Beyond that, I don't want to retell any more. I think the answer will provide the necessary benefit to us from this Q/A item.]

Answer:
She is told she has more work to do, and now the family is all "saved". I really find myself questioning this. First of all, there are -many- "near death" accounts today. During these states of "death" where doctors register them as being clinically "dead" they see visions, and then come back...having seen peacefulness, and instructions to come back and do this or that...and particularly, to preach a 'gospel' of LOVE.

I even know of ones who call themselves "Christian" who have had such "death" experiences, and saw visions. One such vision I remember reading about, the person saw a "golden cross" streaming "rays of love" towards him. And when one sees what this person preaches, there is a lot of false doctrine and promotion of "doctrines of demons". By "their fruits" (Mt7:20) they are obviously "known" to be "false prophets - plundering wolves" (7:15)

The question we need to ask is, does Scripture have any such examples? Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus dying. The rich man wanted to send Lazarus back to witness to his family so they don't go to the "place of torment." (Lk16:28) And notice that 'Abraham' says, "They have Moses and the Prophets [the term used then for The Scriptures], let them hear them. And he argues, not if someone "should go from the dead to them, they will repent." (vs30) And the reply is, "If they will not hear [the Scriptures], they will not be persuaded even if one from the dead should rise." (vs31)

Because, you see, as we know from Romans 10, "Faith [salvation] is of hearing, and hearing through the WORD of GOD." (vs17)

Now, Lazarus -was- raised and sent back, and notice that the leaders wanted to kill him, too, because on account of his -real- raising from the dead, people were believing into Jesus. (Jn12:10-12) In that day and culture, it was often the rulers that were rich. The rich were rejecting Jesus, just as the "rich man" who was imploring Abraham to send Lazarus back. Abraham's words were proven true.

"..it is easier for a camel to go in through a needle's eye than for a rich one to enter into the kingdom of God." (Lk18:25)

Of course, I don't know the hearts of the family of this one you mention. And, again; what is their definition of "being saved"? Today, many people are "being saved" but are not in Christ, because they have come in "some other way". (Jn10:1) Jesus is the -only- "way". (Jn14:6,Acts4:12) And according to His words, one comes to Him through "repentance and remission of sins". (Lk24:47)

Let us not forget that the times we live in, one of satan's ploys will be "signs and lying wonders" (2Th2:9,Mt24:24) for the purpose of deception. After all, Pharaoh's magicians imitated some of Moses' miracles. (Ex7:11) And when Pharaoh saw his own magicians perform the same acts, he hardened his heart. (7:13) These kinds of signs actually draw people away from God and harden them into their deception so that they will not receive Christ. And the more people rely on signs and wonders, the more they are hardened against God's Truth.

If these people were not 'saved' as a result of being confronted with God's Word, they are not "Saved". "Faith..comes..through the Word of God." (Rom10:17) After all was said and done with Jesus' ministry, the conclusion the disciples responded with was, "You have the WORDS of everlasting life. And we have believed and have known that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Jn6:68-69)

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Question:
How can an individual be called to a specific minnistrie by God and this persons Pastor possibley not know that they are called for that perpose..

Answer:
Who is God calling? The -person- or his pastor? When God called Samuel, He did not tell Eli to tell Samuel...He called to him three times, and when Eli finally realized what was happening, he tells Samuel to reply back, "Speak, for Your servant is listenning." And so the next day, Eli asks Samuel, the little boy, what God had said. (1Sam3) In that case, Eli was like the 'pastor' and Samuel, the 'individual'.

God had said, "..If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make Myself known to him.." (Nu12:6) Yes, we do see recorded in Acts 13:2 a case where the Holy Spirit spoke to the 'group' to send out Barnabas and Saul. And so, yes, an assembly of Believers can jointly "commission" people to certain works, after it is clear that the Holy Spirit has called them to those ministries.

But what we see more, throughout Scripture, is that God called "individuals" to ministry. Quite often they were -quite- "alone" in those ministries, because it was God's call upon -them- 'specifically'. And that call was not for anybody else to be, necessarily, privy to. Thus, they were not 'under' some committee or human governing authority to regulate how they responded to God's call. In fact, usually, the governing human authorities were antagonistic to the called individual...because, quite often, the call of the individual was for the purpose of testifying -against- the establishment, because it had strayed from God's commandments.

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Question:
one of your articles i just read said paul referred to tongues as a demonic activity. where does it say that?

Quote from article:
Paul's writings to the carnal (3:1), corrupt (6:8), immoral (5:1), idolatrous (12:2) Corinthians was to tell them NOT TO follow the demonic activity of speaking in tongues.
-endQuote-

Answer:
I'll try to answer your question in two ways, from two different angles:

1) No. Paul never has recorded a combination of words that says, quote, "speaking in tongues is demonic". In many writings we have concluded from Scripture that "tongues" (the way it is observed in today's 'churches') is a demonic activity. They do not follow the way "discernable languages" occured in the NT. And they are actually more typical of some of the characteristics of people from whom Jesus cast out demons.

However, if you follow Paul's arguments, he is arguing -against- "tongues". So, read that sentence again, understanding writings that have preceded it that labeled tongues as "demonic", and Paul is saying not to do "tongues"...Paul is exhorting against tongues, previously labeled in VW writings as "demonic".

Make sense?

2) Now, let's look at Paul's own words as he introduces the topic of 1Corintians chs 12-14.

First of all, he introduces the topic he is going to teach/exhort on. "Spiritual gifts". And he is concerned that they "not" be "ignorant". (12:1) And, knowing the Corinthian church, we can pretty much assume they've been in error about something in this subject, as they have been on every other topic he has addressed in the book. They were a "carnal" church. They -were- "ignorant" on this topic.

Next, he gives a basis for their -error-. Their background before coming to Christ. They come from a background of "idolatry". (12:2)

So, basic 'logic' would suggest that, if he is correcting -error-, and some of that error is "tongues", and he introduces their background as "idolatry", we conclude that the "tongues" he is setting about to correct originated in their previous lives in "idolatry". What is idolatry, other than 'demonic'?

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