Blood Moons, the Shemitah and Prophetic Implications We Can't Ignore - The Next One is October 8, 2014

Blood Moons, the Shemitah and Prophetic Implications We Can't Ignore

6/26/2014 ALEX KOCMAN  CHARISMA NEWS

A blood moon viewed through the wall of Damascus gate in Jerusalem's Old City during a total lunar eclipse, June 15, 2011 (Reuters)

Israel is appropriating $29 million to help farmers observe a critical agricultural commandment from the Mosaic law, according to WND.

That commandment instructs the Israelites to give the land a rest from all agricultural activity once every seven years.

In the Torah, the Sabbath concept isn't limited to the seventh day of the week; it also applies to every seventh year—also known as the Shemitah year.

The $29 million in funding is headed to Israel's Religious Affairs Ministry, which will spend the money encouraging and enabling Jewish farmers who wish to follow the command.

Though farming regulations may seem insignificant to Western eyes, it was in part Israel's original failure to observe the resting years that resulted in the 70-year exile (2 Chronicles 36:20-23)—a seven-decade "Sabbath rest" for the land.

The Sabbath year command has not been observed in any real official capacity since A.D. 70, when God judged the nation of Israel for rejecting the Messiah, Jesus Christ, about 40 years earlier.

Biblically, while Israel may once more seek to observe the ordinance, the Jewish people remain in spiritual exile (Romans 11:7-11, Acts 28:25-28) because they rejected the Messiah's true Sabbath rest for the soul (see Hebrews 4).

The move on Israel's part may be critical as the nation navigates through events surrounding blood moons occurring in 2014 and 2015, which may be prophetically significant.

In the book of Joel, the prophet writes, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (2:31-32). At Pentecost, the Apostle Peter quotes that passage in reference to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now, many are connecting that same passage to a new end-times move of the Spirit preceding Christ's return—whenever that may be.

The question is: why Israel's revived interest in the law? Is it drawing closer to seeking God's will just as when King Josiah rediscovered the law in 2 Kings 22? Or is it instead keeping God "on their lips" but far from their hearts as they "seek to establish their own righteousness"—not knowing that the whole point of the law is to be fulfilled in the righteousness given freely through the Messiah (Romans 10:3-4)?

The unusual tetrad of lunar eclipses correspond with Jewish feast dates, beginning with Passover of April 2014 and ending with the Feast of Tabernacles on September 28, 2015—around which time Israel will celebrate the end of the Sabbath year.

The next blood moon will occur October 8, 2014.

What if God Really Did Do This One Thing? by ALEX KOCMAN

We like to keep God in our own theological box, but the hardest pill to swallow in the book of Romans is that God is perfectly justified in condemning or saving whomever He pleases. (CreationSwap/Travis Silva)

What if God Really Did Do This One Thing?

5/6/2014 ALEX KOCMAN  CHRISTIAN LIFE NEWS

Whenever I’ve had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with someone, perhaps the biggest regret I have in every conversation ismaking too little of God’s justice.

We pray for help, healing, guidance, and the salvation of others. We thank God for good things, like food in our stomachs and a roof over our heads. When we’re feeling inspired, we give God some holy attention in worship. And, in moments of great clarity, we may even have the wisdom and soberness to thank Him for the cross.

But almost never do we dare let our minds wander to God’s justice—much lest praise Him for it.

What if God _________?

Theologians argue in circles over God’s sovereignty and our own free will, and countless volumes have been written throughout church history with little consensus. And in the name of unity, many young Christians tune the whole thing out.

But as a result, one of Paul’s most frightening verses has been profoundly ignored.

“What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy…?” (Romans 9:22-23a)

Many believers, upon reading this verse, will barge into Scripture to douse the fire of this verse. “Surely God doesn’t create people just to send them to Hell,” we are quick to specify—and rightly so, of course.

But that said, the problem is that Paul’s point isn’t mainly to teach a theological principle about how we get saved. His main point is to ask one question:

What if?

What if God did have full control over who chooses Him and who didn’t?

What if He did have the ability to force everyone into Heaven by trusting the Gospel, but to glorify Himself, He didn’t?

Am I suggesting that God made certain people just for the hell fire? Certainly not. But regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, consider this.

Before You Answer…

How you answer the questions of God’s sovereignty in this passage is not the point. The point is that God has the right to do whatever He wants.

He is not arbitrary, unjust, or egotistical.

He is, simply put, God.

He does nothing that’s inconsistent with His perfect justice and righteousness—even forgiving us required that His wrath be unleashed against a substitute. But His sense of justice is just a wee bit superior to ours.

Are we okay with the possibilities that opens up?

Respectable thinkers can make compelling arguments for both sides of the Calvinism/Arminianism debate. But whoever you are, as soon as you find yourself clinging at all costs to, “God can’t do _______,” you might be thinking in the flesh.

We all must realize already that God would have been perfectly justified not to saveanyone at all; why are we so quick to limit the character and behavior of a God whom we can only access at a blood-bought, great and terrible price?

“Perfect love casts out fear,” we cite over and over again, reminding ourselves that we don’t have to be scared of God. But even this oft-used verse implies that there was some fear to begin with in need of being cast out.

In other words, God is fearsome—yet the sacrificial punishment of Christ grants us the tremendous gift of full access to His love and mercy only, Christ having absorbed all His justice and wrath.

The mercy bought to us at the cross gives us access to the same God who proclaimed against His own chosen people: “Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!” (Isaiah 10:5, ESV)

Regardless of where you stand theologically, do not forget that you—the clay has no right to question the potter (Romans 9:21).

The Right Reaction

Biblical theology has its place. But, to butcher Paul’s words from Romans 11 and 12…

Who can fully understand the depths of the riches of God’s knowledge, planning, and power over the human heart? Who can give God advice? To whom does God owe anything? Answer: no one.

By contrast, everything—from the greatest galaxies to the insects crawling the earth, including you and the person you’re sharing the Gospel with—is all for God, from God, to God, and through God. His glory is chief.

So give Him glory sacrifice yourself to Him, and let Him transform your limited human mind.

Can You Guess the One Word That's Banned From Disney Movies?

Disney has relaxed its appropriateness standards a lot in recent years - but one standard that doesn't seem to have any sign of budging is its unspoken rule: don't mention God. (

Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Can You Guess the One Word 

That's Banned From Disney Movies?

 4/23/2014 ALEX KOCMAN  Christian Life News

Now, the writers of several of the movie’s hit songs, including “Let it Go,” are revealing one unsurprising fact about Disney.

God is banned.

“Well, you can say it in Disney but you can't put it in the movie,” songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez told NPR.

Disney prides itself for having an open attitude. It hasn’t filtered out creative talent that has worked on inappropriate and questionable content, hiring the makers of the grotesque musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” which even Anderson-Lopez described as “off color and racy.” Disney’s Touchstone division was responsible for the entertainment empire’s first R-rated film, and regularly hosts gay pride events at its theme parks.

“Disney is not this sanitized place that you might imagine it to be,” fellow songwriter Robert Lopez said in the interview.

But the only place where it draws a line is anything hinting of God—much less Christianity in general.

“It's funny. One of the only places you have to draw the line at Disney is with religious things, the word God,” Anderson-Lopez observed.

For those who have follow Disney in recent years, such news is likely to cause little surprise. Late in 2013, Glenn Beck, a notable Mormon and proponent of biblical values, described the company as “rotted fruit” on-air.

Still, however, American evangelicals have yet to take a broad stance on whether the company has overstayed its welcome in the conservative Christian home.

But one thing is certain—if God was ever welcome in Disney before, he’s long since gone.