Isaiah Biblical Quotes

God is not someone “who has lots of time”: He is outside the domain of time altogether. That is what Isaiah means when he says, “It is He who inhabits eternity.”5

God did not intend the Sabbath to be a burden, but rather a time of joy. The Bible says that blessings come when we honor the Sabbath and call it a delight (Isaiah 58:13). Yeshua said the Sabbath was made for our benefit (Mark 2:27). So enjoy it and give thanks to God for giving us rest.

I WILL ENLARGE EACH PART OF YOUR LIFE I WILL BREAK off of your life any limitations and restrictions placed on your life by any evil spirit. I will enlarge each part of your life and will keep you from evil. My kingdom and government will increase in your life, and you will receive deliverance and enlargement for your life. I will let you increase exceedingly. You will increase in wisdom and stature and in strength. You will confound your adversaries as My grace and favor increase in your life. My Word will increase in your life, and the years of your life will be increased. You will flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They will take root in your house and will do well. They will be trees that stay healthy and fruitful to all your generations. ISAIAH 9:7; 60:4–5; ACTS 9:22; PSALM 92:12 Prayer Declaration Cast out my enemies, and enlarge my borders. Enlarge my heart so I can run the way of Your commandments. Enlarge my steps so I can receive Your wealth and prosperity. Let me increase in the knowledge of God, and let me increase and abound in love.

According to Isaiah, true practice of religion ought to result in concrete change, the breaking of yokes. He does not mean the occasional private act of liberation, but “to break the chains of injustice.” What could this mean other than a transformation of the structures of societies that trap people in hopelessness? Jesus has in mind the creation of a different type of world.

MAY 6 I HAVE BROKEN LEVIATHAN’S POWER FROM YOUR LIFE MY CHILD, I have broken the demonic power of the sea serpent from your life. I have caused all his demonic little demon fish to stick to his scales as I brought him up out of the midst of the sea and cast him into the wilderness to lie on the open field as food for all the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens. The rivers and seas belong to Me, and I will make utterly waste and desolate the places where his evil power has dwelt. I am the one who commands the sea and its streams to run dry, and I have broken the power of the evils of the sea from bringing destruction to your life. EZEKIEL 29:3–5; ISAIAH 44:27 Prayer Declaration Father, in the name of Jesus I bind every sea monster that would attack my life or region. You have raised a watch against Leviathan, and You will not let the demonic powers of the sea oppress me. You have stripped him of his power and have taken away his armor. You have caused the places of his domain to become utterly waste and desolate and have thrown him and his demonic spirits into the wilderness to be food for the beasts and birds who dwell there.

It is at this point that we often make a mistake. We tell people, "Believe, believe, believe," but do not show them how, do not give them anything definite to believe. The biblical way and the intelligent way is, when you tell a man to believe, to give him something to believe. Give him, for example, Isaiah 53:6, and thus hold up Christ crucified; or, give him 1 Peter 2:24. Here he has something for his faith to rest upon. Faith must have a foundation. Faith cannot float in thin air. It is pitiable to see men told to believe, to believe, to believe- and then give nothing for their faith to rest upon.

We use the effect of centrifugal forces on matter to offer insight into the rotation rate of extreme cosmic objects. Consider pulsars. With some rotating at upward of a thousand revolutions per second, we know that they cannot be made of household ingredients, or they would spin themselves apart. In fact, if a pulsar rotated any faster, say 4,500 revolutions per second, its equator would be moving at the speed of light, which tells you that this material is unlike any other. To picture a pulsar, imagine the mass of the Sun packed into a ball the size of Manhattan. If that’s hard to do, then maybe it’s easier if you imagine stuffing about a hundred million elephants into a Chapstick casing. To reach this density, you must compress all the empty space that atoms enjoy around their nucleus and among their orbiting electrons. Doing so will crush nearly all (negatively charged) electrons into (positively charged) protons, creating a ball of (neutrally charged) neutrons with a crazy-high surface gravity. Under such conditions, a neutron star’s mountain range needn’t be any taller than the thickness of a sheet of paper for you to exert more energy climbing it than a rock climber on Earth would exert ascending a three-thousand-mile-high cliff. In short, where gravity is high, the high places tend to fall, filling in the low places—a phenomenon that sounds almost biblical, in preparing the way for the Lord: “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain” (Isaiah 40:4). That’s a recipe for a sphere if there ever was one. For all these reasons, we expect pulsars to be the most perfectly shaped spheres in the universe.

Throughout the biblical story, from Genesis to Revelation, every radical challenge from the biblical God is both asserted and then subverted by its receiving communities— be they earliest Israelites or latest Christians. That pattern of assertion-and-subversion, that rhythm of expansion-and-contraction, is like the systole-and-diastole cycle of the human heart. In other words, the heartbeat of the Christian Bible is a recurrent cardiac cycle in which the asserted radicality of God’s nonviolent distributive justice is subverted by the normalcy of civilization’s violent retributive justice. And, of course, the most profound annulment is that both assertion and subversion are attributed to the same God or the same Christ. Think of this example. In the Bible, prophets are those who speak for God. On one hand, the prophets Isaiah and Micah agree on this as God’s vision: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, / and their spears into pruning hooks; / nation shall not lift up sword against nation, / neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2:4 = Mic. 4:3). On the other hand, the prophet Joel suggests the opposite vision: “Beat your plowshares into swords, / and your pruning hooks into spears; / let the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior’” (3:10). Is this simply an example of assertion-and-subversion between prophets, or between God’s radicality and civilization’s normalcy? That proposal might also answer how, as noted in Chapter 1, Jesus the Christ of the Sermon on the Mount preferred loving enemies and praying for persecutors while Jesus the Christ of the book of Revelation preferred killing enemies and slaughtering persecutors. It is not that Jesus the Christ changed his mind, but that in standard biblical assertion-and-subversion strategy, Christianity changed its Jesus.

it is significant that the eunuch was reading the prophet Isaiah. Theodore Jennings Jr., professor of biblical and constructive theology at Chicago Theological Seminary, writes at length about the significance of this fact. “The Isaiah being read by the eunuch is the same prophet who specifically includes eunuchs in the divine dispensation. Moreover the passage the eunuch was pondering is one that he may well have connected to his situation as a eunuch:

MARCH 16 I WILL COVER YOU IN THE GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS YOU ARE MY beloved child. I have clothed you with garments of salvation and arrayed you in a robe of righteousness. My Holy Spirit has clothed you with power from on high, and you are clothed with My Son, Christ. I have given you My beauty for your ashes, the oil of My joy for your mourning, and My garment of praise for your spirit of heaviness. My righteousness is a breastplate of protection for you, and I have shod your feet with the gospel of My peace. I have made you My ambassador, so that you may speak boldly to explain the mysteries of My gospel. ISAIAH 61:10; EZEKIEL 16:8–13; GALATIANS 3:27; EPHESIANS 6:14 Prayer Declaration I am clothed with the garment of salvation. My God has placed the robe of His righteousness over me and given me the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He has prepared me for battle by preparing me with armor of defense. His righteousness is my strong and impenetrable breastplate, and His justice protects me like armor.

I want to see all oppressed people throughout the world free. And the only way we can do this is by moving toward a revolutionary society where the needs and wishes of all people can be respected.' With these words the radical philosophy professor Angela Davis paraphrases Isaiah's ancient messianic dream of the lion that will peacefully lie down with the lamb in a completely good world. But what the Biblical prophet perhaps could not know is contained with a clarity that leaves nothing to be desired in the opening sentence of an address of the French Senate to Napoleon I: "Sire, the desire for perfection is one of the worst maladies that can affect the human mind.

As with Isaiah’s vision in the Temple, and many other scenes both biblical and modern, Peter’s change from fisherman to shepherd comes through his facing of his own sin and his receiving of forgiveness, as Jesus with his three-times-repeated question goes back to Peter’s triple denial and then offers him forgiveness precisely in the form of a transformed and newly commissioned life. Those who don’t want to face that searching question and answer may remain content to help the world with its fishing. Those who find the risen Jesus going to the roots of their rebellion, denial, and sin and offering them love and forgiveness may well also find themselves sent off to be shepherds instead. Let those with ears listen.

It is one thing to attempt to understand the Old Testament as the sacred scriptures of the church. It is quite another to understand the study of the Bible in history-of-religions categories. Both tasks are legitimate, but they are different in goal and procedure. The hermeneutical issue at stake does not lie in an alleged contrast between historical process and scripture's final form. To understand the Bible as scripture means to reflect on the witnesses of the text transmitted through the testimony of the prophets and apostles. It involves an understanding of biblical history as the activity of God testified to in scripture. In contrast, a history-of-religions approach attempts to reconstruct a history according to the widely accepted categories of the Enlightenment, as a scientifically objective analysis according to the rules of critical research prescribed by common human experience.

Command, promise, Messiah—the basic terms of the Bible’s message are ineradicably verbal and cannot be communicated in isolation from words. Bin the words and whatever else you are left with; it is not Christianity, biblical, historical or otherwise. We do need to think about how such a word-based religion can be communicated in this day and generation; we do need to avoid at all costs becoming a middle-class ghetto for frustrated academics. But we also need to be faithful to the Bible’s own form and matter, both of which involve words at their very centre. Let us not despair: the Word is not just the Word; it is the Word of, in, and through the Spirit. It is powerful in its very essence. Our task is ultimately to communicate it; the power of the communication resides in God alone. Let us remember the words of Isaiah and concentrate not so much upon technique as upon the moral attitude we should adopt: This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. (Isa. 66:2).

MAY 11 IN MY POWER YOU WILL BIND AND CAST OUT ALL DESERT SPIRITS BECAUSE YOU ARE My child and have committed your life to Me, I have given you the power to bind and cast out the desert spirits who have taken authority in the spiritually dry desert lands in the hearts of those who live in disobedience to Me. No longer will the desert spirits make their homes in your life or possess the dark regions of your heart to raise their young. I have given you authority and power to cast out these evil desert spirits. The spiritual desert that once possessed you will be gone, and I will bring forth the blessings of My own habitation within your spirit. ISAIAH 34:11–15 Prayer Declaration I speak to every desert spirit in my life or ministry in the name of Jesus. I bind and cast out any desert spirit sent against my life. I bind and cast out every spirit of the desert owl, the desert fox, the desert dragon, the desert hyena, and the desert vulture in the name of Jesus. I will not dwell in the wilderness, but in a fruitful land.

I know what the cynics will say. I know how the scoffers will sneer. I know the non-dreamers believing only in the brutal ways of force will laugh me off as impossibly naive. But I don’t care. I’ve grown immune to their strain of unbelief. I’ve turned a corner. I believe that what Isaiah dreamed of, Jesus died for. I believe that what Isaiah said would come to pass in the last days, Jesus inaugurated in his resurrection. I’ve caught a glimpse of the better world that can be—a world that Jesus came to give and continues to offer us. I believe the world of peace is possible in Christ. I won’t let the doomsday preppers with their Armageddon obsession talk me out of it. Jesus has already spoken the first word of a new world—the word peace. So things have changed. I have changed. I’ve prayed my last war prayer and preached my last war sermon. I’ve given up bellicose flag waving and singing lustily about bombs bursting in air. I’ve bid a final farewell to Mars. From now on I follow the Prince of Peace. I know others will come with me. Maybe you will be one of them. I hope so.

MARCH 30 I WILL GUIDE YOU CONTINUALLY I WILL BE your hiding place, and I will protect you from trouble. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you. I will always guide you and provide good things to eat when you are in the desert. I will make you healthy. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water or like a stream that never runs dry. I will clear a path in your desert and will make a straight road for you to follow. I am able to fill in every valley you face and to flatten every hill and mountain that seem to hinder your way. I will level the rough and rugged ground so that all may see that My glory surrounds your path. PSALM 32:7–8; ISAIAH 58:11; ISAIAH 40:1–4 Prayer Declaration Father, guide me continually with Your eye. Guide me by the skillfulness of Your hands. Lead me in a plain path because of my enemies. Make the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth before me. Send out Your light and truth, and let them lead me. Teach me to do Your will, and lead me into the land of uprightness.

APRIL 21 MY HOLY SPIRIT WILL REPAIR THE BROKEN GATES OF YOUR LIFE RAISE YOUR PRAISES to Me, for I have strengthened the bars of your gates and made peace in your borders. Through My Spirit I have made the crooked places straight and broken the enemy’s bars of iron from your life. I have opened the double doors of your gates so they will not be shut against Me. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am your God. I will establish the gates of praise in your life and open the gates of righteousness that you may enter in. PSALM 147:13; ISAIAH 45:1–4; PSALM 118:19 Prayer Declaration Holy Spirit, establish the gates of praise in my life. Repair the broken gates of my life, and open them before me that I may go in and receive the treasure of the hidden riches of Your secret places. Let all the gates of my life and city be repaired through You, and break the gates of brass and iron that the enemy has used to try to hold me captive. Open the double doors of Your righteousness in my life so that the gates will not be shut.

In God’s providence he has given us passages that highlight different features of his kingship in Isaiah, which are all part of different rhetorical arguments. This diversity points to the greatness of God, the king, as well as to the many ways his kingship can relate to us today. As we have seen, God is the holy king (6:1–3; 57:15), a warrior king (59:15b–20; 63:1–6), a shepherd king (40:11), the unseeable king (6:2), the king we will see (33:17; 40:5; 52:10), the royal judge (33:22), the saviour and redeemer king (33:22; 44:6; 52:7; 59:20), the king of glory (6:3; 24:23; 40:5; 60:1–2), the king of Israel (44:6) and Jacob (41:21), the king of the nations (2:2–4; 25:6–8; 60:1–3; 66:18–24), the king of heavenly forces (24:21–23), the wise king (2:2–4), the king who inhabits the cosmos (57:15; 66:1), the king of the downtrodden (57:15; 66:1–2), the king in history (6; 36 – 37), the king at the eschaton (24:21–24; 52:7; 60), and more. The book of Isaiah does not want us to condense God, the king, into one simple idea; instead, the book invites us to allow its collage of portraits of God as king to elicit a range of responses.

MARCH 10 NO DEMONIC SPIRIT WILL STEAL YOUR DESTINY I WILL FOIL the plans of the nations and thwart the purposes of the peoples; but My plans will stand firm forever, and the purposes of My heart will be fulfilled through all generations. I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Be strong and very courageous. Do not turn from My Word to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Meditate on My Word day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. I have determined your destiny; who can thwart My plan for you? I have stretched out My hand in the way you should go; who can turn it back? PSALMS 33:10–11; 16:3; JEREMIAH 29:11; ISAIAH 14:27 Prayer Declaration I bind and rebuke any spirit that has been assigned to abort my destiny. God will give me strength to bring forth my destiny. I will do the will of God wholeheartedly, serving the Lord, not man. The world and its desires will pass away, but I will live forever because I do the will of God. He will teach me all His ways.

MAY 7 IN THE NAME OF MY SON YOU WILL DRY UP THE SEAS OF DEMONIC POWER DO NOT FEAR the sea or the demonic spirits that dwell there, for I am the One who commands the sea and its streams to run dry. I will turn rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground. I will cause the dry land to spring forth into watersprings and make a place for you to dwell. I have come to cause waters to burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. My highway of holiness shall be there, and you will walk on My road, for you are My redeemed child. Everlasting joy will be on your head, and you will find joy and gladness as all your sorrow and sighing flee away. PSALM 107:35–37; ISAIAH 35:6–10 Prayer Declaration Father, You have dried up the rivers and seas that the enemy brought into my life to bring me to destruction. You have opened the waters of the deep and destroyed the enemy’s threats against me. You have established Your highway of holiness and have set my feet upon it. I will be found there, and I will walk with You in joy and gladness as Your ransomed child.

APRIL 24 I WILL ABOLISH THE IDOLS IN AMERICA AND THE NATIONS IF MY PEOPLE who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. I will hasten the day when I alone shall be exalted in your land, and everything proud and lofty shall be brought low. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and I alone will be exalted in that day. I will utterly abolish any false idols, that the glory of My majesty may be seen. My anger will be kindled against the idols that speak delusion and the diviners who envision lies and tell false dreams. I will bring shame upon all idolatry and will strengthen My faithful servants. 2 CHRONICLES 7:14; ISAIAH 2:11–18; ZECHARIAH 10:5–6 Prayer Declaration Lord, cause our nation to humble itself and to pray and seek Your face and to turn from their wicked ways. Forgive our sins and heal our land. Sprinkle this land with clean water, and cleanse us from all filthiness and idols. Let all false gods and idols be removed from the land in the name of Jesus. Let America renounce her uncleanness and enter back into a covenant with You that she will put no other gods before You, O Lord.

APRIL 22 LET THE EAST GATE OF GOD’S GLORY BE REPAIRED I WILL GUIDE you continually and satisfy your soul and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. Just as My servant Nehemiah repaired the east gate of My house in Jerusalem, so will the east gate in your life be repaired and opened to allow My glory to fill your life. My Holy Spirit will bring restoration to all the gates of your life, and I will come and dwell within your temple in the fullness of My glory. ISAIAH 45:1–3; EZEKIEL 11:1; NEHEMIAH 1–6 Prayer Declaration Lord, let the gates of my life and city be repaired through the Holy Spirit. Let the gate of the fountain through which Your Holy Spirit flows be repaired in my life. Let the sheep gate of the apostolic and the fish gate of evangelism be restored. Let the old gate of the move of Your Spirit be repaired and active in this present day. Let the dung gate of deliverance be restored, and let many walk through to their deliverance. Let the water gate in my life allow me to preach and to teach of Your great mercy, love, and salvation.

in describing the “virgin Daughter of Babylon wrote: Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood…Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.” (Isaiah 47:12-13)

It is particularly significant that the Sabbath in the Bible has eschatological significance (Isaiah 58:13, 14; 66:23) and is a sign of deliverance (Deuteronomy 5:15; Ezekiel 20:10–12). These realities make it reasonable to think that John coined the phrase “the Lord’s day” to combine the two biblical concepts into one: to tell his readers that he was taken in vision to the eschatological day of the Lord to witness the events during the conclusion of this earth’s history (cf. Revelation 1:7) and to tell them this vision actually took place on the seventh-day Sabbath. This would fit the description of the final events in Revelation and highlight the Sabbath’s central role in the end-time drama.

According to several scholars, this was an incorrect assessment of that passage since Isaiah used that Hebrew word almah, a young woman, and not bethulah, a virgin, will be with child[254].  This singular word choice was another example involving linguistic, historical, literary, and cultural factors involved in assessing the meanings of the biblical stories.

The words of Isaiah 35:5–6 also point to a prophetic perspective of a new creation that reveals the transformation of a fallen, post–Genesis 3 world. Jesus’s miracles were not simply “spiritual healings.” He miraculously altered the material world in real time and space. Blind eyes received sight, lame hands were transformed, and the dead were raised. The blessings of the kingdom of God were a reversal of the brokenness of human sin, frailty, and even mortality. Jesus’s kingdom ministry was no less than a holistic transformation of reality into a new creation. His ministry met people who were broken both spiritually and physically and brought spiritual transformation and physical healing. Jesus then concludes his comments to John’s followers stating the blessed happiness experienced by those who respond rightly in identifying him as the “one who is to come.

Proud - Another thing that our generation is filled with is pride. I penned an entire chapter about the “pride” of the LGBT community in my previous book. Their pride is no different than that of Lucifer. Pride is rebellion against the LORD and His Will. To be proud is to be self-centered, and to take great pleasure in a certain aspect of your life - whether looks, accomplishments, or lifestyle. Your way is the right way, and you could care less what others have to say or for what God thinks. The LGBTQ movement is a perfect example of the pride of the devil, because in their proud attitude they actually celebrate their sin. They are more than happy to rebel against Almighty God, because they feel that they’re right and He’s wrong. A lot of them are well aware that His Word says the way they are living is morally wrong, but they just don’t care. As long as it makes them feel good, the opinion of their Creator takes a back seat. It’s about them, and only them. They remind me of Lucifer with his five “I”s. We read in Isaiah 14:12-14, he said, “I will... I will... I will... I will... I will...” He was so puffed up in pride that he even said he would “be like” God. The LORD rebuked him, and said, no... “you will be brought down to Hell.” We all know how things turned

Isaiah 1:19 says, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.” But we sure weren’t eating the good of the land!

The claim is the very antithesis of Ezra, who is busy excluding, separating, and driving out those who are carriers of abomination. Ezra has given voice to an exclusivism that closely echoes the old practice of Pharaoh. The good news is that this posture did not contain all of emerging Judaism. The poet of Isaiah 56 asserts otherwise!

What then is the origin of the evil or the bad? The biblical answer seems to be that since everything of divine origin is good, evil is of human origin. Yet if God’s creation as a whole is very good, it does not follow that all its parts are good or that creation as a whole contains no evil whatsoever: God did not find all parts of His creation to be good. Perhaps creation as a whole cannot be “very good” if it does not contain some evils. There cannot be light if there is not darkness, and the darkness is as much created as is the light: God creates evil as well as He makes peace (Isaiah 45:7). However this may be, the evils whose origin the Bible lays bare, after it has spoken of creation, are a particular kind of evils: the evils that beset man. Those evils are not due to creation or implicit in it, as the Bible shows by setting forth man’s original condition.

Isaiah 46:10, "My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." On the other hand, man's will is enslaved either to sin or to righteousness: "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness" (Romans 6:17-18). Man has no free will – it is an assumption without any biblical or rational warrant.

beaten and humiliated and experience indescribable suffering and anguish. Will become sin offering and die on job. To qualify: Must be male, minimum age 30. Father must be God, mother must be of house and lineage of David, must have been virgin when he was born. Adopted father must also be of house of David. Must have sinless blood and spotless record. Must have been born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. Must be self-motivated, with aggressive personality and burning desire to help people. Must have tremendous knowledge of Old Testament and firm reliance on biblical principles. Must incorporate the foresight of Noah, the faith of Abraham, the patience of Job, the faithfulness of Joseph, the meekness of Moses, the courage of Joshua, the heart of David, the wisdom of Solomon, the boldness of Elijah, the power of Elisha, the eloquence of Isaiah, the commitment of Jeremiah, the vision of Ezekiel and the love of God. Wages: Holy spirit (without measure) to start. Additional payoff in intimacy with God and receiving revelation as necessary to complete job. Constant on-job training, supervision and guidance by top-level management. Benefits: Position will lead to highly exalted position in future if job carried out successfully. Workman’s compensation: Injuries sustained on job, including death, well compensated by promotion including new body. Management will highly promote name upon successful completion of job, and entire publicity department will be devoted to getting name before multitudes. Will assume presidency of expanding international venture (The Ministry of Reconciliation), as Head of Body of well-equipped members ready to move dynamic new product on world market. All in all, tremendous eternal potential for growth and rewards in return on initial investment of giving life. If qualified, management will contact you. No need to apply.

I suggest that it is simply not possible for a modern Christian, even a fundamentalist, to believe the cosmos to have the exact physical structure that biblical authors believed it to have. By this I mean that it is not really possible, short of severe self-delusion, to believe that the earth is flat, that the sky is not a solid dome beyond the stars with waters of chaos above it, that beneath the ground is the world of the dead, that heaven is literally up, and that the stars are divine beings. I know that many Christians claim that the Bible is scientifically accurate on all matters on which it touches and that they are prepared to reject the findings of mainstream science to hold onto a seven-day creation that took place six to ten tousand years ago, but, as we have seen, this does not go nearly far enough. If fundamentalists really were to have the courage of their convictions then we would see membership of the Flat Earth Society boosted significantly. What happens instead is that this is a bridge too far, even for hard-line fundamentalists, and biblical texts are thus reinterpreted to fit with modern cosmology. For instance, Isaiah's phrase "the circle of the earth" (Isa 40:22) is taken as proof that the Bible authors actually believed in a planetary globe - proof, we are told, of its inerrancy. However, in this tour we have seen that such interpretations are implausible. So I really do not think we can inhabit the biblical cosmos in the same way that ancient Israelites or Second Temple Jews (including the authors of the New Testament) did. The world can never feel the same again after Copernicus. The cosmology of the Bible is ancient and we are not; it's as simple as that.

Secondly, the Temple must also be in place for Jesus to reign from the Temple Mount as Isaiah prophesied. Some have speculated that the Dome of the Rock must first be destroyed in order to build Israel’s Third Temple. That’s not necessarily true. In the mid 1970’s the Jerusalem Post revealed that excavations of the eastern portion of the current Temple Mount confirm that the Temple of Solomon was likely in that location, and not where the Dome of the Rock is today sited. Thus, the Temple could be built without destroying the Dome of the Rock, and would fulfill the prophecy, that the Court of the Temple would be occupied by gentiles (Revelation 11:2).

The warning to flee the Daughter of Babylon couldn’t be any plainer than Zechariah’s words. God, likewise, in Isaiah 48:20, warns the Jewish residents of the Daughter of Babylon to flee: “Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, ‘The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob’.

Isaiah and the writer of Psalm 137 also state how God will view the betrayal of Israel: “O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us” (Psalm 137:8) “A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.”        (Isaiah 21:2) “I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.” (Isaiah 47:3)

Russian/Muslim Invasion Armageddon Location of Battle:   Northern Mountains of Israel                 Jerusalem (Ezekiel 38:8) (Revelation16:16)     Participants:   Six Specific Listed Nations                    All of the World’s Nations (Ezekiel 38: 1-6)           (Revelation 16:14)     Results of the Battles:   Russian/Muslim armies routed (Ezekiel 39:4)           Christ and the ‘armies of heaven’ return to stop world carnage (Revelation 19:19-21) Destruction in Russia- ‘fire on Magog’   Satan bound (Revelation 20:1-3) (Ezekiel 39:6)                                                Israel buries the dead – seven months;          Christ begins 1,000 year reign; (Revelation 20:6) (Ezekiel 39:14)                                           Israel uses booty for 7 years;                  Jesus reigns in the Temple; (Ezekiel 39:9)                                         (Isaiah 2:1-3)     Israel builds the Temple   (Ezekiel 40-48)

III. THE REASONS WHY THE GOODNESS OF GOD DOES NOT PRODUCE THAT EFFECT. These are — 1. Ignorance. “Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Ignorance of their fallen state and exposure to Divine wrath; of the worth and necessity of holiness; of the true character of God, that He is as holy and just as He is merciful and gracious; of the dignity of the Redeemer, and of His great love and sufferings: of the end of man’s creation, preservation, and redemption; of the infinite importance of this short span of human life, and how much depends on our rightly improving it, as a state of trial, for eternity. 2. Hardness, or callousness, contracted by sinning against light, and the formation of evil habits (Ephesians 4:18, 19). 3. An impenitent heart, i.e., an inconsiderate, unreflecting, and therefore unrelenting heart. (Joseph Brown.) God’s goodness: its abuse and its design: — 1. It is an instance of Divine condescension that the Lord reasons with men, and asks this question, and others like it (Isaiah 1:5, 55:2; Jeremiah 3:4; Ezekiel 33:11).

Not in a five year, lingering war; not in a several month conflict; not even destruction over several days, but instead in a single day, in an hour, in a moment. “How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken? How does Babylon become a desolation among the nations?” (Jeremiah 50:23) “Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed.” (Jeremiah 51:8 a) “Therefore, shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning…?” (Revelation 18:8). “For in one hour your judgment has come” (Revelation 18:10) “In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin” (Revelation 18:17). “In one hour she has been brought to ruin” (Revelation 18:19) “But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood.” (Isaiah 47:9a – KJV). In the history of the world, how many world empires or nations have been totally destroyed, in one day, in one hour, in one moment?

all scripture must be considered together, as no verse is of ‘private interpretation.’ An examination of the several Daughter of Babylon verses shows that the verses describe a nation, with numerous cities. Isaiah warns the Daughter of Babylon that she will no longer be called the “queen of kingdoms” (Isaiah 47:5), indicating that she is more than a single community. Jeremiah warns that “the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the King of Babylon and his land…” (Jeremiah 50:18), implying that more than a city will fall. Four verses later in 50:23 he notes “How desolate is Babylon among the nations!” He then settles the issue by recording God’s words to the Daughter of Babylon: “ I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all ‘round about him ,”(Jeremiah 50:32b). Later in 51:43 he writes: “Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness.” That’s “cities,” plural. Needless to say, a city may have suburbs, but only nations have “cities.

Here then is a critical connection between an Old Testament prophet and the Prophet John in the New Testament. Both described the Daughter of Babylon with the same noun – ‘a queen’.’ This is relevant because historical Babylon had long faded into history by the time John wrote his words under the power of the Holy Spirit. The prophecies concerning the coming Daughter of Babylon were exactly that–prophecies about a future nation, not a nation that no longer existed. These verses tie together the several verses in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, and Zechariah with the prophecies of John, seven centuries later, and all of them about a future nation called the “queen of kingdoms.” Is there any nation in our world, in our time, that this title fits more

Later, after the seventy years of captivity in Babylon, Babylon was dealt with in punishment for what it did to Judah, which God allowed.  “And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.” (Jeremiah 25:12) God punished ancient Babylon by taking Babylon into captivity for destroying Jerusalem, which happened to Babylon after Israel served its seventy year sentence in captivity in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar’s son succeeded him, but he was assassinated within two years. Within only twenty-one years of Nebuchadnezzar’s death, Babylon was conquered by Persia under Cyrus, just as God had prophesied through Isaiah (Isaiah 45:13).

IDENTITY CLUE 21 HOW MANY NATIONS ARE SWORN TO DEFEND ISRAEL? The Daughter of Babylon’s future treachery against Israel is shown dramatically in these verses: “O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us.” (Psalm 137:8) “A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.” (Isaiah 21:12) “Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wrong they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 51:24) “May the violence done to our flesh be upon Babylon, say the inhabitants of Zion. “May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,” says Jerusalem. Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “See, I will defend your cause and avenge you;” (Jeremiah 51:35-36)

she shows up in this Biblical context connected with the satyrs and Azazel. The very next verse (Isa. 34:15) talks about the owl that nests and lays and hatches her young in its shadow. But lexicons such as the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament and Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew Lexicon contest this Hebrew word for owl (qippoz) with more ancient interpretations of an “arrow snake.”[17] If they are correct, then the poetry of the passage would be more complete as the NASB indicates.   Isaiah 34:14–15 (NASB95) 14 Yes, the night monster (Lilith) will settle there And will find herself a resting place. 15 The tree snake (qippoz) will make its nest and lay eggs there, And it will hatch and gather them under its protection.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, and John, in Revelation, all give us an insight into how the Daughter of Babylon manifests her arrogance: The Message (NavPress) gives us a contemporary interpretation of Isaiah’s biting criticism of the nation that Isaiah calls the “Virgin Daughter of Babylon”: “You said, ‘I’m the First Lady. I’ll always be the pampered darling.’…Well, start thinking, playgirl. You’re acting like the center of the universe, smugly saying to yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me. I’ll never be a widow, I’ll never lose my children.’…You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life, saying ‘No one sees me.’ You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out. What delusion! Smugly telling yourself, ‘I’m Number One. There’s nobody but me.’ (Isaiah 47:7, 8,10) In the New Testament, John tells us: “In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.’ (Revelation 18:7)

One of the stated signs of God’s blessings on the Israelites was that “every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree.” (I Kings 4:25; Isaiah 36:16; Micah 4:4) Fig trees bear fruit and are a blessing to their owners.

The dictionary defines ‘hindermost’ as a variant of hindmost; farthest to the rear; last. (American Heritage Dictionary). The Hebrew word used in Jeremiah 50:12, “achariyth,” appears 61 times in scripture, translated 31 times as end, and 12 times as latter. In the KJV it is never translated as “least” as does the NIV. The same word, achariyth, for example, is translated in Isaiah 2:2 as “last”: “It shall come to pass in the last days.” In Daniel 10:14 the angel’s words are translated, including the same word, achariyth, as: “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the last days.” The NIV version of Daniel 10:14, translates achariyth as the “future,” not the ‘least.’ Translating acariyth as ‘least’ is not only contrary to other interpretations of achariyth, it is also inconsistent with the other Daughter of Babylon verses, which tell us that the nation is the world’s preeminent superpower, not the ‘least’ nation.

Seven hundred years before John wrote these words about the Daughter of Babylon the prophet Isaiah wrote: “You said, ‘I will continue forever–the eternal queen! But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.” (Isaiah 47:7) “Sit in silence, go into darkness, Daughter of the Babylonians; no more will you be called the queen of kingdoms.” (Isaiah 47:5)

the God of the Hebrew Bible is not in the business of demanding belief in some fixed body of propositions. The biblical God is portrayed as revealing his truths and unleashing his deeds in response to man’s search for truth. He even longs for man’s questioning and seeking. Indeed, his preference for human beings who seek and question is such as to have given rise to an entire tradition of biblical figures questioning God’s decrees, conducting disputations with God, and at times even changing God’s mind – including Abraham’s argument with God over the justice of destroying Sodom; a series of occasions in which Moses challenges God’s intentions to destroy Israel; Gideon’s questioning whether God has not abandoned Israel; David’s anger over what he sees as God’s unjust killing of one of his men; and the arguments of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Havakuk, Jonah, and Job questioning God’s justice.60 In all of these cases, man is shown as able to challenge God’s decrees and yet have the respect of God as a consequence.

as one utilizes the findings of modern scholarship, one renews an essential characteristic of Jewish learning. Biblical exegesis in rabbinic and medieval Judaism has always focused on debate and variety….[T]he post-modern Jew revels in the diverse voices and counter-voices [discovered by critical Bible scholarship] so reminiscent of Talmudic and contemporary dialectic. (from "The Scroll of Isaiah as Jewish Scripture, Or Why Jews Don't Read Books," in Society of Biblical Literature 1996 Seminar Papers)

These are the prophetic verses describing the end of a rich, powerful and influential end times nation:          Psalm 137:8          Isaiah 13; 21:1-10; 47 and 48          Jeremiah 50 and 51          Zechariah 2:7          Revelation 17 and 18 These prophecies total 223 verses–223 amazing verses.

Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

Lucifer (see Isaiah 14), was the anointed cherub who fell, and became Satan, because of his pride. Yet, in Ezekiel 28, we learn that the place of his rule was on earth, in the Garden of Eden. After his fall, and judgment, God later replaced Satan with Adam, a new governor of the restored earth! No wonder Satan hates mankind!: Ezekiel 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and

MARCH 21 YOU WILL SPOIL THOSE WHO ATTEMPT TO SPOIL YOU WHEN THE EGYPTIANS enslaved My people, they oppressed My people and made their lives bitter with hard labor. They even demanded the death of My people’s firstborn sons, ruthlessly stealing from them and spoiling their lives with sorrow and want. But behold, I have created the spoiler to wreak havoc on those who attack My people. Just as I enabled My people to take the silver and gold of the Egyptians with them when I freed them from their captivity in Egypt, so have I given you the power to spoil those who attempt to spoil you. No weapon forged against you will prevail, for this is the heritage of My servants. Through My Son you have been given the authority to triumph over the powers and authorities that would threaten to oppress and enslave you. ISAIAH 54:16–17; EXODUS 12:35–36; COLOSSIANS 2:13–15 Prayer Declaration Lead the princes of darkness away spoiled. I bind the enemy, strip him of his armor, and divide his spoils. Lord, You have spoiled principalities and powers. I spoil the enemy and take back his goods in the name of Jesus. The enemy will not spoil me, but he will be spoiled. Let the fortresses of darkness be spoiled in the name of Jesus.

APRIL 26 CAST OUT THE SPIRITS OF OPPRESSION MY SON, JESUS, went about doing good and healing all those oppressed of the devil. Through His name I have given you the power to rebuke and cast out any spirit that would oppress you. Through that power you shall strip all power from any oppressing spirits. I will be your refuge from the oppressor and will deliver you from the wicked who surround you. I have established you in righteousness, and I will keep you far from oppression. I will not allow the enemy to take your inheritance from you through oppression. My child, you are My temple, My dwelling place, and I will encamp at my temple to guard it against marauding forces. Never again will an oppressor overrun My people, for now I am keeping watch. ACTS 10:38; ISAIAH 54:14; ZECHARIAH 9:8 Prayer Declaration Lord, You are my refuge from the oppressor. Deliver me from the wicked that would oppress me and from my deadly enemies that would surround me. I rebuke and cast out all spirits of oppression, sorrow, and anything attempting to bring me low in the name of Jesus. I am established in righteousness, and I am far from oppression.

MARCH 31 I WILL MAKE THE CROOKED STRAIGHT AND THE DARKNESS LIGHT MY CHILD, I have taken hold of your hand and will guide you. Hold firmly to My Word, for it is the message that gives life. Encourage My people and give them comfort. I selected and sent you to bring light and My promise of hope to the nations. You will give sight to the blind; you will set prisoners free from dark dungeons. I will lead the blind on roads they have never known; I will guide them on paths they have never traveled. Their road is dark and rough, but I will give light to keep them from stumbling. PSALM 43:3–4; ISAIAH 40:1–4; 42:16–17 Prayer Declaration Lead me, and make Your way straight before my eyes. Make darkness light before me and crooked things straight. Teach me to light the way for the blind and to bring hope to the nations. Give me the treasure of darkness and Your riches, which are stored in secret places. Strengthen me so that men may know there is none beside You. You came to reveal the true light that gives light to every man who comes into the world.

MAY 5 I RULE THE SEA AND THE WATERS BY MY STRENGTH I RULE THE sea and waters by My strength, and I am mightier than the noise of many waters or the mighty waves of the sea. The sea is Mine, for I made it, just as I formed the dry land. When you go down to the sea in ships and do business on great waters, you will see My works and My wonders in the deep. It is I who commands and raises the stormy wind and who lifts up the waves of the sea. I cause them to mount up to the heavens and to go down again to the depths. I will calm the story so that its waves are still and guide you to your desired haven. I will make a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters. PSALMS 93:4; 107:23–30; ISAIAH 43:16 Prayer Declaration Lord, You rule the sea and the waters by Your strength, and You will not let any evil waters overflow my life. Your power will protect me, and no evil waves will rise up against me, nor will I be cast into the depths of the sea. Just as You dried up the sea and the waters of the great deep to make a road for the Israelites, so too You will make a road through the sea for the redeemed to cross over.

APRIL 23 LET THE FIRE OF GOD BURN UP ANY IDOLS ALLOW MY HOLY fire to burn up and destroy any idol in your life and nation. Through My power I will cause men to throw away their idols and to turn to Me. Renounce all idolatry in your bloodline, and break all curses of idolatry in the name of My Son, Jesus. Stand in My righteousness and join with My servants to abolish all false idols in America and the nations. I will cleanse the land from the pollution of idols and will cause Babylon, the mother of harlots and abominations in the earth, to fall at the name of My Son. Follow My commandment to put no other gods before Me in your life. ISAIAH 31:7; 2 KINGS 21:21; REVELATION 17:5; EXODUS 20:3 Prayer Declaration O Lord, let all men throw away their idols and turn to You. I will keep myself from idols and renounce all idolatry and curses from my life through the name of Jesus. Cleanse this land from the pollution of wickedness and idolatry, and allow me to join with Your servants to abolish the idols in America and the nations.

APRIL 8 THE ENEMY’S FLAME WILL NOT KINDLE UPON YOU WHEN YOU WALK through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God. Fear not the evil threats of the wicked, for just as the flame consumes the chaff, so will My holy flame burn up their root of rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust. Just as the flame of the furnace was unable to harm My servants Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, neither shall the wicked fire bring harm to you, for I will be with you in the midst of the fire. The fire will have no power to harm your body, and not a hair on your head or your garments will be touched by the flame of the enemy. ISAIAH 43:2; 5:24; DANIEL 3 Prayer Declaration I will have no fear of the scorching flames of the wicked, for the Lord my God will protect me from being burned. In the name of Jesus I will overcome every fire of wickedness sent against my life. The enemy will not be able to burn up my harvest, and in Jesus’s name I quench every torch the enemy would use against my life.

APRIL 7 THE WICKED WILL BE DESTROYED BY THE FIRE OF GOD I WILL AVENGE the attack of the enemy against My righteous servants with the fire of My vengeance. I will rain down coals of fire and brimstone against the wicked. When you walk through the enemy’s fire, you will not be burned, and the flame of the enemy’s attack will not scorch you. I will kindle My fire in you, and it shall devour all the dryness that comes into your life. All your enemies will see that I have kindled it, and it shall not be quenched. My devouring fire will go before you, and the flame of My righteousness will burn behind you. PSALM 140:10; ISAIAH 43:2; EZEKIEL 20:47–48; JOEL 2:3 Prayer Declaration I will not fear the enemy’s flames or run when the enemy attacks. My Lord will rain down the fire of His vengeance upon them. He will place His holy flame of righteousness within my heart, and it will devour all dry and useless places within me. It will go before and behind me, and it shall never be quenched.

APRIL 6 YOU ARE REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE THROUGH THE POWER OF MY SON YOU ARE MY mighty warrior, and I have given you My armor that you may be able to be victorious over the enemy. Use My shield of faith, for with it you will be able to put out all the flaming darts that Satan will try to use against you. Be strong and courageous, for the enemy desires to destroy you altogether. When Leviathan stands before you with sparks of fire spewing from his mouth and smoke going out of nostrils like a boiling pot or a forest fire, you will have the power to utterly defeat him. You will be able to quench every burning light that he uses to try to inflict his destruction upon you. In the name of My Son, Jesus, you will be able to rebuke every firebrand sent against your life. EPHESIANS 6:13, 16; JOB 41:20–21; ISAIAH 7:4 Prayer Declaration In Your power, Lord, I quench with the shield of faith every fiery dart the enemy sends my way. In the name of Jesus I quench the darts of jealousy, envy, anger, bitterness, and rage sent against my life. I bind and cast out every fiery serpent sent against me, and I will not be burned by the fire of the enemy.

There is a distinguishing characteristic between Jeremiah’s warnings to the residents of Jerusalem of his time to flee and his warnings to the future residents of the Daughter of Babylon to flee. God told the residents of Jerusalem at the time of Jeremiah that they would come back home after seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10). The promise was fulfilled. Jeremiah’s warnings to God’s people who would someday live in the nation called the Daughter of Babylon never, not once, tell them that they will return home after the destruction of their home nation. On the contrary, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Psalm 137, and John all specifically, and unequivocally, say that the Daughter of Babylon will be destroyed and desecrated. “The land trembles and writhes, for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand—to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there” (Jeremiah 51:29). Thus, there will be no return of those who flee to go back to the Daughter of Babylon, unlike the residents of Jerusalem at the time of Jeremiah who did return home after seventy years, as He said they would.

FEBRUARY 10 I BIND THE GENERATIONAL REBELLION AGAINST MY HOLY SPIRIT MY CHILD, DO not disobey Me and hide rebellion against Me in your heart as the children of Israel and King Saul did. In My love and mercy I redeemed them, and I lifted them up and carried them. Do not grieve My Holy Spirit, but keep as your pattern sound teaching, faith, and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. I will come to you and will bind the generational rebellion against My Holy Spirit that began with My children of Israel. I am the God of hope, and I will fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Me, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of My Spirit. ISAIAH 63:10; ACTS 7:51; 2 TIMOTHY 1:13; ROMANS 15:13 Prayer Declaration I praise You, Father, for You have loosened my spirit from the spirit of rebellion against Your Spirit that began with Your children in the wilderness. I will guard the good deposit of new life that you have given me with the help of Your Holy Spirit who now lives in me.

MARCH 9 YOU WILL COMMAND THE ENEMY TO LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN ALONE DON’T EVER DOUBT My power over the enemy who would pull your children into a stronghold of evil. I am able to deliver your children out of the hand of the enemy. Even if your sons and your daughters are taken prey, place your hope in Me, and you will not be disappointed. I have given unto you the keys of My kingdom. Whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Your children are a heritage from Me, and the fruit of your womb is your reward for faithfulness. Therefore I will hedge up their way with thorns and make a wall, that the enemy cannot find their paths. ISAIAH 49:22–25; MATTHEW 16:19; MARK 10:14–16 Prayer Declaration I command all devils to leave my children alone in the name of Jesus. My children are a heritage from the Lord, and they have been redeemed from every curse. I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders about God. He has established His covenant between me and my seed in all their generations, to be a God unto them and to their seed.

FEBRUARY 24 MY POWER AND MIGHT WILL SCATTER THE ENEMY MY POWER AND might will deliver you from your enemies. I will be a fortress for you against brutal people who attack you and want to kill you. Do not fear when they are ready to attack. I am the Lord God All-Powerful, and I will be your protection. Why are you so frightened when they plan their nighttime attacks with curses and confidence that no one can hear them? Have I not told you that My mighty power will make them tremble and fall? Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? I am your eternal God, Creator of the earth, and I never get weary or tired. I give strength to those who are weary, so that you will be strong like an eagle soaring upward on wings. PSALM 59:1–12; ISAIAH 40:10–11, 28–31 Prayer Declaration Father, You have given to me the same great and mighty power that You used to defeat my enemies. Your power raised up Your Son from the dead, and I have access to that power to overcome all my enemies and live victoriously through You. Your glorious power will give me patience and strength to be victorious over Satan’s evil intentions.

FEBRUARY 5 I WILL REBUKE YOUR ENEMIES WITH FLAMES OF FIRE LET YOUR HEART rejoice, for I have promised that my faithful servants will flourish like grass, and I will extend My hand to bestow blessings on My servants. But I will show My fury to My enemies and to those who oppress My servants. Do not fear that you will be overcome by your enemies, for I will rebuke your enemies with flames of fire. Stand boldly before your enemies and tell them: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to set fire to you, and it will consume all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from south to north will be scorched by it. Everyone will see that that I the LORD have kindled it; it will not be quenched.” ISAIAH 66:14–16; EZEKIEL 20:47–48, NIV Prayer Declaration Let Your flame come and burn up all my enemies, Lord—all those who seek to bring oppression and captivity to Your followers. Let Your holy fire burn them until none of their wickedness remains. Let them not be able to deliver themselves from the power of Your flames.

FEBRUARY 20 I WILL BE YOUR DEFENSE AND REFUGE I HAVE GIVEN you refuge in the shadow of My wings, and I will keep you in safety until the disaster has passed. My glory will be a canopy of protection for you. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain. I am your shelter from the wind and your refuge in the storm. I will be like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. I have put My words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of My hand. Gladness and joy will overtake you, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. I am He who comforts you. PSALM 91; ISAIAH 4:6; 32:1–2; 51:11–16 Prayer Declaration I will trust in the covering of Your wings, and in the shadow of Your wings I will trust. Be my defense and refuge in times of trouble. I will sing of Your strength. In the morning I will sing of Your love, for You are my fortress. You are my strength. I sing praise to You, for on You I can rely.

FEBRUARY 18 HUMILITY AND SUBMISSION TO ME WILL PROTECT YOU I HAVE HEARD the desire of the humble, and I will prepare your heart and cause My ear to hear. I am great and mighty in power, and I will lift up the humble. But I will cast the wicked down to the ground. The highway of the upright avoids evil, and those who guard their ways preserve their lives. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. But how much better it is to be lowly in spirit, for I will instruct the humble in the way they should go. I will prosper them and bless the one who trusts only in Me. You who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders, and clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. For I will oppose the proud, but I will show favor to the humble. Humble yourself under My mighty hand, and I will lift you up in due time. ISAIAH 57:15; PSALMS 10:17–18; 147:5–6; 1 PETER 5:5–6 Prayer Declaration Father, in humility and submission I stand before You. I have prepared my heart to do Your will and have strengthened my spirit to follow after Your ways. Cover me with Your protection, for I have submitted myself to You, to Your Word, and to Your Holy Spirit.

FEBRUARY 12 UNGODLY COVENANTS MADE BY YOUR ANCESTORS ARE BROKEN IF YOU VIOLATE My covenant, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, My anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land I have given you. But if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers forever and ever. I have laid a sure foundation, and if you rely on My precious cornerstone and make My justice your measuring line and righteousness your plumb line, then I will disannul all ungodly covenants your ancestors made with idols, demons, false religious, or ungodly organizations in the name of My Son, Jesus. I will take hold of your hand and will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for unbelievers. EXODUS 23:31–33; MATTHEW 5:33; ISAIAH 42:6 Prayer Declaration I break and disannul all ungodly covenants, oaths, and pledges I have made with my lips in the name of Jesus. I break and disannul all covenants with death and hell made by my ancestors in the name of Jesus. I command all demons that claim any legal right to my life through covenants to come out in the name of Jesus.

FEBRUARY 6 MY SWORD WILL COME AGAINST THE POWERS OF HELL LET MY FAITHFUL servants rejoice in My protection, for I take great delight in My people, and I crown their faithfulness with victory. I will honor your praises as they rise to Me. I have placed My two-edged sword in your hands so that you can inflict My vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. See now that there is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life. I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of My hand. As surely as I live forever, when I sharpen My flashing sword and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me. PSALMS 45:3–4; 149:6–9; ISAIAH 27:1 Prayer Declaration I release the sword of the Lord against the powers of hell in the name of Jesus. Send Your angels with flaming swords to fight my battles in the heavens. Let Your enemies fall by the sword. Take vengeance on my adversaries and rise up to stand victoriously over all of Satan’s demon warriors.

MARCH 27 YOU WILL WALK IN MY SPIRIT OF EXCELLENCE YOU WILL KNOW that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but I will be to you an everlasting light and your glory. Though you may be hard-pressed on every side, you will not be crushed. When you are perplexed, I will not forsake you. If you are struck down, you will not be destroyed. By faith you will know that just as I raised up My Son, Jesus, I will also raise you up with Jesus and will bring you before My throne in heaven. Therefore, do not lose heart. For your light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for you a far more eternal victory. Do not look on the things that you see, but look at those things that are not seen. ISAIAH 60:1, 15–16; 2 CORINTHIANS 4:7–18 Prayer Declaration Because the Spirit of God is at work within me, I am empowered to walk in the excellence of God. When troubling and perplexing circumstances come into my life, I will not lose heart. I will not look at things as they are seen, but I will look at the unseen power of God. I will place my eyes on my Father’s throne in heaven, and as I walk in His excellence, His Spirit will enable me to radiate His glory.

JANUARY 29 MY INCREASE WILL BE YOURS I WILL REMEMBER you and will bless you. I will bless your house and all those who fear Me, small and great alike. Because of My great love and faithfulness to you, I will increase you more and more, both you and your children. The silver and gold idols of this world have been made by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak; eyes, but they cannot see; ears, but they cannot hear. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. But you, My servant, trust only in Me. I am your help and shield. You who once walked in darkness have seen a great light. I have enlarged your life and increased your joy. I have shattered the yoke that burdened you, the bar across your shoulder, and the rod of those who tried to oppress you. 1 CHRONICLES 4:10; PSALM 115:1–14; ISAIAH 9:1–5 Prayer Declaration Lord, not to us but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness. You will remember us and will bless us. You will bless all those who fear Your name and will cause me to flourish, both me and my children. I will extol Your great name both now and forevermore.

The list of what righteousness does is a list of things that most people would want: it delivers from death (see Proverbs 11:4); gives life (see Proverbs 12:28); exalts a nation (see Proverbs 14:34); establishes the king’s throne (see Proverbs 16:12); and brings blessings (see Psalm 106:3), rewards (see Proverbs 11:18), and peace (see Isaiah 32:17).

As it was written about Abraham, “A father of many nations I have made you.” That is future. But in the present, he was father of no one. You can be honest about what the situation looks like. But you then must find yourself speaking more about what God says to your situation in the Word of God. Staying close to God’s Word will help you speak into future instead of complaining about your present circumstances. Fill your mouth with what He promised, His Word. Finally, the God you believe in will determine your faith level. There is a biblical phrase used many times about Abraham: “Abraham believed God.” It is used all over the Bible—from Genesis to Romans, Galatians to James. But what makes the phrase valid is that there is another phrase associated with Abraham in the Bible just like this one. It’s in 2 Chronicles, Isaiah, and James. And I think it has something to do with the first phrase. The second phrase determined his faith level. It is friend of God. Friend of God makes belief in God easy. Abraham could say, “Regardless of what circumstances I am facing, my Friend is with me.” The God Abraham believed in was his Friend. He trusted his Friend. That’s why when you connect Abraham’s raw circumstances with his faith in his Friend, you get these verses that The Passion Translation makes come alive: In spite of being nearly one hundred years old when the promise of having a son was made, his faith was so strong that it could not be undermined by the fact that he and Sarah were incapable of conceiving a child. He never stopped believing God’s promise, for he was made strong in his faith to father a child. And because he was mighty in faith and convinced that God had all the power needed to fulfill his promises, Abraham glorified God! (Romans 4:19-20, TPT)

My mind is confused, I shudder in panic. My night of pleasure has turned into terror. Setting the table to let the watchmen watch, eating and drinking, “Arise, officers, anoint the shield.” For thus said my Lord to me: Go, station the lookout, and let him tell what he sees. He will see a pair of horsemen...and he will call out like a lion. My lord, I stand on the lookout constantly during the day, and I am stationed at my post all the nights. Behold, it is coming: a chariot with a man, a pair of horsemen. Each says loudly, “It has fallen! Babylonia has fallen!

Centuries later, Isaiah will pick up on this word in one of the most famous verses in the entire OT. A prediction of Messiah foresees, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6). (Some translations render it, “wonderful, counselor” with a comma; YLT). In this way the name Wonderful is now directly linked to Jesus Christ.

Dickinson was a fine biblical interpreter and frequently employed the biblical narrative to identify with the characters she found there. Their stories indicate that it is never an easy thing, to be chosen of God; it is not something people choose for themselves. For Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Jacob, Ruth, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Mary, and Jesus himself, being God’s chosen does not mean doing well. It does not grant access to all the answers but means contending with hard questions, thankless tasks, and usually a harrowing journey, which in Jesus’ case leads to the cross.

One can speculate as to why creation ex nihilo seems less important to biblical authors than transcendent sovereignty. Had it been more important, it would be explicated or implicated more strongly. Certainly, it is not expressed in the terms we might wish to find. But the doctrine is nevertheless there, assumed by orthodox Israelites, implicated in Isaiah, Proverbs, and Psalms, and likely implicit in Gen 1 even though it is neither explicated nor implicated in that particular passage.

If we could actually hear God talking, making His will manifest in words of the Hebrew language, what would He sound like? Since poetry is our best human model of intricately rich communication, not only solemn, weighty, and forceful but also densely woven with complex internal connections, meanings, and implications, it makes sense that divine speech should be represented as poetry. Such speech is directed to the concrete situation of a historical audience, but the form of the speech exhibits the historical indeterminacy of the language of poetry, which helps explain why these discourses have touched the lives of millions of readers far removed in time, space, and political predicament from the small groups of ancient Hebrews against whom Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and their confreres originally inveighed.

Many of the characters in this novel are based on historical figures. These include Daniel, Cyrus, Harpagus, Astyages, Cambyses, Mandana (the Persian pronunciation of Cyrus’s mother’s name), and Nebuchadnezzar. The Bible is silent on whether Daniel was married or single. Some historians have even concluded that he might have been a eunuch. I saw no evidence of this and chose to give him a family. While this novel is a work of my imagination, where possible I have tried to remain faithful to historical and archaeological details. If you are interested in further reading, I recommend the classic textbook From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire by Pierre Briant and Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World by Reza Zarghamee. The events of chapter 54 surrounding the disputed coat are based on a story told by the Greek historian Xenophon about Cyrus’s childhood, which I found in Zarghamee’s book, Discovering Cyrus. Although Otanes is a fictional character, the general story felt like a perfect fit for this thread of the novel. Biblical references to Cyrus include Isaiah 44:28–45:7; Jeremiah 51:11, 28-29; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-11 and 5:14-15. Some of these verses were written decades before Cyrus was born and are considered prophetic in nature, while others describe the return of the Jewish captives to Jerusalem and Cyrus’s role in those events.

Biblical confessions of faith that declare the Spirit of God is upon you: * "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18). * "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4). * "The Spirit of the Lord will rest on me, and the knowledge of the Lord will be my wisdom" (Isaiah 11:2). * "I am temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in me" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Confessing these Scriptures affirms that the Spirit of God is upon you, guiding, empowering, and anointing you for His purposes. Remember to declare them with faith and confidence, and may they bring encouragement and strength to your walk with God.

Faith confessions for a beautiful future and hope: • "I declare that my future is bright and secure in God's hands, and I trust Him to guide me towards a hope-filled tomorrow." (Jeremiah 29:11) • "I confess that God is my rock and my salvation, and He will never fail me. I trust Him to lead me into a future filled with promise and purpose." (Psalm 62:2) • "I declare that God's plans for me are to prosper me, not to harm me, and to give me a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11) • "I confess that I am not limited by my current circumstances, for God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I ask or think, according to His power that works in me." (Ephesians 3:20) • "I declare that my hope is in the Lord, and He will renew my strength and give me wings like eagles, so I can soar into a bright and beautiful future." (Isaiah 40:31) Remember to hold on to these confessions with faith and patience, trusting that God's power and love are at work in your life, shaping a beautiful future for you. Keep seeking Him and His guidance, and believe that He is working for your good.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2 NKJV)

Emulating God's justice is, according to the Biblical prophets, the evidence of what it means to know God. True knowledge of God entails both an appreciation of God's own unswerving devotion to justice and a commitment to live one's personal life in conformity to God's justice [see Hosea 4:1-2, 5:3, 6:6; Jeremiah 2:8; 4:22; 9:2-6, 24, 22:16; Isaiah 58:2. Titus 1:16; 1 John 4:8]

The Minoan Civilization was the first link in the European chain (as Will Durant describes it) and its handcraft of the bull's-head rhyton suggests a prominent role of the bull for Minoan symbolism just as this animal was for ancient Egyptians. However, since the western biblical narrative started off with the heritage of the Pharaohs (and were passed down by the Jews who plagiarized and tampered the Semitic narrative from the Israelites with elements from ancient Egypt), we expect to find an adherence to the ancient Egyptian agrarian system of Theology that culminated the week with a resting day for JHWH (as I have demonstrated in my earlier slides) in Europe; and that is exactly what we witness in the coding of the Phaistos Disc! This artifact of fired clay (were numerically investigated before this work of mine by Alan Butler in his great book 'The Bronze Age Computer Disc') consists of 61 groups of symbols in total on its two sides. But if we to inspect these groups linguistically (i.e. as words; as Gareth Owens insists to do so), we find that (through linking the disk's system with that of ancient Egypt's and based on the 366-circle-system interpretation which were devised by Alan Butler) these words on the disk were modulated annually on top of six decans (i.e. 61/6=10) exactly as is the case with the circular zodiac of Dendera (in the case of the latter they are equinoxes and solstices related decans as I have shown on earlier slides). We also know from Isaiah 58:13 that the Jew keeps his/her cow-glorifying mouth shut on the Sabbath restricting thereby the words' utterance (and the work in general) down to six days (i.e. 61 words *6 days=366 and 61 words/ 6 days=10 commandments) and to thirty six decans for the ancient Egyptian (i.e. 366/ 36 decans=10 days per decan and 61 words/ 6 decans = 10 days). The Minoan Libation Formula is after all comprised of ten repeated words according to Gareth Owens, which I find to be eminently resonating with the Jew formula!

Paul goes on to say in Romans 10:15 that people who proclaim the message have “beautiful feet.” Paul is quoting Isaiah 52:7, where God promised the captive Israelites that he would return them to their land. When someone brings this good news to the depressed captives, he will be welcomed with great joy because he brings news of deliverance from captivity. In the same way, Paul says, when anyone brings the news of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, his coming is “beautiful” for those who receive the message. They will greatly appreciate his coming because he has brought them the message that will save them. Missions is not only the most urgent task facing believers; it is also each believer’s greatest joy and privilege.

words from heaven confirmed the interpretation, not only echoing Exodus 23:21, but also likely Isaiah 42:1, “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” Even Matt 17:7

We are also taught from Scripture that while some events in our lives may indeed be tragic, God is in absolute control (Romans 8:28). While this fact may be hard to reconcile in our own minds, God is the one who knows the end from the beginning. Therefore, only He knows how a circumstance can serve to: • Humble a person (Job 42:1-6) • Draw a person to Himself (John 6:44) • Show Himself to be a greater-than-anything God (Jeremiah 32:17; Genesis 50:20) • Reveal Himself to a believing sufferer as Refuge, Strength and Helper (Psalm 46:1; Isaiah 57:15; John 9:1-3).

In a thousand years, however, Mormonism will no longer be an upstart religion, with all the volatility and vulnerability of adolescence. People will no more leave Mormonism over the Mountain Meadows Massacre than modern Jews leave Judaism over biblical genocide. Mormon polygamy will be no more (and no less) vexing than ancient polygamy. The Book of Abraham will be no more textually troubling than the Bible’s Deuteronomists or multiple Isaiahs. Multiple versions of Joseph Smith’s first vision will be no more faith-shaking than varying accounts of Paul’s conversion or the disharmony of the Gospels. But we live now, not a thousand years from now. The scandals are real, and the doubt and pain they cause are real. To explain a problem and reconcile it in our minds is not to deny its existence or significance. Having spent my professional life working in an academy largely allergic to the extrarational claims of faith, and in a field of religious history where many colleagues are devoted evangelicals or Catholics, I know well that in the view of Enlightenment rationalism and scientism on the one hand and historic Christianity on the other, much of Mormonism appears foolish and scandalous. That the same can be said of every other religion hardly puts salve in the wound. We are not called to abandon our natural reason; to do so would not only lead to fanaticism but also to reject one of our greatest divine inheritances. Yet to remain open to all the infinite possibilities of an inexplicable cosmos, we have to humbly acknowledge the limits of human rationality and accept complementary ways of knowing and being. We do not proceed merely on faith, but we do recognize that faith and trust are essential ingredients in a holistic approach to life. By definition, to have faith—in God, in Mormonism, in anything—is to act on claims that in the end can be neither proven nor disproven. To base one’s life on unfalsifiable claims is not a sign of intellectual weakness or antirationality, but rather a perfectly normal human response to the uncertainty that is the lot of mortality.

The answer to the question raised in the title of this essay - Is salvation a matter of divine determination or human responsibility? - is not divine determination or human responsibility. The only thoroughly biblical answer is yes. Scripturally, it is not an 'either-or' but a 'both-and' proposition. Why is this so hard? For one thing, it is logically unsatisfactory and apparently contradictory. Our insatiable appetite for order and answers makes it difficult to admit...that God's ways are not our ways, and leave it at that. (Isaiah 55:9). We don't mind applying this principle in a general, hypothetical way to God's wisdom or methods. But we balk when interferes with our theological system, our obsession with pigeonholing every Bible fact into a neat, orderly arrangement that leaves no questions unanswered. God transcends our logic. He is supra-logical. His thinking, His design, His way, His theology is infinitely above our intellect, beyond the grasp of our comprehension, out of the reach of our clever rationalizations. God is theo-logical. Man is anthropo-logical.

In one of his essays William Placher comments on a time when the theological use of the Bible presupposed a deep knowledge of what the Bible says.1 The example he serves up is from the final pages of Calvin’s Institutes, where the Reformer thinks through the issue of what Christians should do if they find themselves under a wicked ruler. Placher notes that Calvin reflects on Daniel and Ezekiel regarding the need to obey even bad rulers; he weighs the command to serve the king of Babylon in Jeremiah 27. He quotes from the Psalms, and he cites Isaiah to the effect that the faithful are urged to trust in God to overcome the unrighteous. On the other hand, he evenhandedly notes episodes in Exodus and Judges “where people serve God by overthrowing the evil rulers,” and texts in 1 Kings and Hosea where God’s people are criticized for being obedient to wicked kings. He cites Peter’s conclusion before Gamaliel, according to Acts: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). From these and other biblical passages, he proceeds to weave nuanced conclusions. We should disobey what governement mandates if it violates our religious obligations. By contrast, Christians should not normally go around starting revolutions. But those who are in positions of authority should deploy that authority to deal with those who exploit others. Even violent revolutionaries may in mysterious ways perform the will of God, though of course they may be called to judgment on account of their evil. Placher then comments: My point is not to defend all of Calvin’s conclusions, or even all of his method, but simply to illustrate how immersion in biblical texts can produce a very complex way of reflecting within a framework of biblical authority, compared to which most contemporary examples look pretty simple-minded. We can’t “appeal to the Bible” in a way that’s either helpful or faithful without beginning to do theology. Theology begins to put together a way of looking as a Christian at the world in all its variety, a language that we share as Christians and that provides a context rich enough for discussing the complexities of our lives. Absent such a shared framework, we can quote passages at each other, but the only contexts in which we can operate come from the discourses of politics and popular culture.2

In these early years Brown wrote regularly on sensus plenior. He discussed especially such passages as the application to Jesus Christ of passages about King David in the Psalms, and the application of “Emmanuel” in Isaiah to Jesus. But as time passed, he began to address three problems about sensus plenior. First, he began to doubt its usefulness. If it required “homogeneity,” how could this be measured? Second, responses to the notion seemed to vary, even among Catholic scholars.52 Third, it seemed to depend on controversial ideas of biblical inspiration.53 Brown therefore tended to discard the term in favour of speaking of “levels of meaning.

Regarding Isaiah, it would not be much of an exaggeration to say that his book is the Old Testament prophetic canvas upon which the colors of the New Testament are painted. By one estimate, all but three of the sixty-six chapters of Isaiah are quoted, alluded to, or echoed in the NT. Isaiah’s writings loom so large in New Testament books because of how this prophet foretells, in poetically striking ways, the dawn of the kingdom of God that comes when the Savior is born. Writing in the 700s BC, Isaiah speaks of the virgin birth of the Messiah, that he is the Servant of the Lord, the promised Son of David, the bringer of new creation, and the innocent victim who is put to death for the sins of humanity (see especially Isaiah 53). If we lost all other biblical books, but retained Isaiah, we would still have enough material to teach and preach for a lifetime about the Son of God and his work for us. Isaiah prophesied to his own generation, but he wrote in such a way that, whenever his readers might live, they sense that he is directly addressing them. In addition, Isaiah is rightly ranked among some of the loftiest, most beautiful poetry ever composed in any language.

Sin spins webs of confusion. Repentance breaks those webs and replaces sin with clarity, but sin does real damage, I have done real damage. Repentance means more than saying you are sorry. According to puritan thomas Watson and the doctrine of repentance, true repentance is distinguished from counterfeit repentance by 6 ingredients. Recognition of sin. Luke 15:17, Acts 26:18, Sorrow for sin. Psalm 38:18 51:17, Zechariah 12:10, 19:8 Confession of sin Nehemiah 9:2, 2 Samuel 24:17, Daniel 9:6, 1cor 11:31 Shame for sin. Ezekiel 43:10, Luke 15:21 Hatred for sin. Psalm 119:104, Ezekiel 36:31, Roman’s 7, 15:23 Turning from sin. Isaiah 55:7, Ephesians Because sin is a matter of the head, heart, And hands, it corrupts our thinking, feeling, and doing. Repentance is known by its fruit. Some believe falsely that because Christ has covered our sin and taken our shame on the cross, we should have no consciousness of shame. Others falsely believe that saying you are sorry and then continuing on with no real change, business as usual. But the most dangerous and most insidious misconception, is from those who believe that sin is only a matter of practice, not also, internal desire. Oh! If only sin was so small an enemy as this. Theologian and pastor Mark Jones explains, “Sin is a parasite of the good. It feeds off of what God created. Sins nature is therefore understood as an ethical problem, not a physical problem. The false belief that sin exists as a physical problem, and that it can be domesticated or stewarded for good, is not a biblical idea. It is hell-bound. Thomas Watson comments “loving of sin is worse than committing it. A good man may run into a sinful action unawares but to love sin is desperate. To love sin shows that the will is in sin and the more of the will there is in sin the greater the sin. Willfulness makes it a sin, not to be purged by sacrifice.” Our language reveals the sins we love. The reason that loving our son is worse than committing it, we WILL commit the sins that we love eventually. Repentance must go to the root, to the reckless godless love of sin.