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Shareware Overload Trio 2
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Shareware Overload Trio Volume 2 (Chestnut CD-ROM).ISO
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PROPHETS
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1993-10-02
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PROPHETS.
Have you ever been confronted by one or two people coming
to your door and declaring they were prophets?
Some not only declare they are prophets but insist the wrath
of God will fall upon us if we do not accept their claim.
Others have office hours and calling cards, with a message of
doom about to encompass the world.
Most of these are 'foretellers of the future' obviously
believing that was the one and only gift a prophet possessed but
sadly for them even this is denied them because their prophecies
either fail, or are so far in the future that no one can possibly
verify them!
It seems useless to warn them of the danger to themselves and
their hearers if when they prophesy and their message does not
agree with the Word of God we already have in our hands.
Remember what God said to Moses. 'When a prophet speaks in the
Name of the Lord and the prophecy is not fulfilled....thou shalt
not be afraid of him.' (Deuteronomy 18:22).
Many, especially in these last days', are only concerned with
a message of doom and the appearance of the Anti-Christ, and while
it is true this has happened and will happen again and again as our
Lord Jesus Himself told His disciples in Matthew 24:5, 'Take heed
that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying "I
am Christ", and deceive many,' and we are not amongst those who
will be deceived by a false christ who comes in the guise of a
deliverer from doom for the Christ we expect will come to take us
to be with Him in the place He has prepared for us.
We don't need a prophet to tell us of the return of our risen
Lord. We expect it and when He does appear, as John penned in his
first letter. 'We shall know Him because when He shall appear we
shall be like HIm,' 1 John 3:2.
The real message is that the Day when our Lord Jesus Christ
our Saviour is coming again draws near and we should be doing all
we can to present Him and tell of His saving power.
And this we can do despite the efforts of those satanic forces
which seek to draw us away from this knowledge and give us, through
earmest but misled prophets, false christ's to look for who can
only be the forerunners of the Anti-Christ himself.
Our task is to declare the salvation found in the Son of God.
A prophet's real message is to convey to us the Divine Will
and Purpose of God!
Many of God's Promises are also recorded in the Scripture's
and one to which every prophet referred to in hope, was the promise
of the coming of the One who, 'in the fullness of time', would
defeat satan and restore us to God. Galatians 4:4. Romans 5-6.
This was, as Moses reveals, first promised to Eve and then to
Abraham, Numbers records it, and many prophets repeated it for
encouragement to God's people. Isaiah even set a time, and David
and Jeremiah wrote of it. Malachi revealed how near it was and John
the Baptist declared it was fulfilled.
Of course if we do not follow God's Plan as He revealed it to
them and are disobedient or rebellious we must expect His
correction and, because of this, predictive prophecy also enters
into a prophet's message at appropriate times. However, first and
foremost, a prophet is a 'proclaimer', one who tells us about the
Plan of God, the Way to enter into it, the sorry end of those who
will not follow it, and the wonderful future promised to those who
answer His loving Call and walk closely with Him.
Our Lord spoke of John the Baptist as the greatest of all
prophets when He said, 'Among those that are born of women there is
not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.' Luke 7:28.
Indeed the words in the opening verses of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, according to Mark, make this very clear. 'Behold I send my
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of
the Lord, make his paths straight!'
And John was very much aware of it all as we can see by his
own words, verse 7. 'There cometh one', he said, 'Mightier than I
after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down
and unloose.'
He declared the Messiah had come, fulfilling the prophecy of
Malachi 3:1 as John writes in John 1:29, 'Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sins of the world.'
Luke 1:67-79 reveals that Zacharias had the same gift of
prophecy and there are many other passages in the New Testament
showing that the real meaning of the word is not that of telling
the future (Judges 6:7-10), but of opening our eyes to see God's
Divine Plan so that we might live together in the joy of His
Presence both now and in Eternity.
It is hard to resist the thought that perhaps Adam was the
first prophet but from what Genesis and Luke 11 tell us, it seems
more likely that although Adam and Eve both knew what God wanted
they did not see it was their duty to make it known because, when
we read of the offerings of Cain and Abel, only one of them made a
sacrifice which God accepted. The other was rejected with a warning
which leads us to think that the proper way had been made known and
Cain had not bothered to follow it.
The account of this event has concerned many at times because,
after all, Cain did bring of the fruit of his labours and, until we
look more closely at the event, it seems strange because God spoke
to him as though there was a remedy.
And he had been told what was required of him!
By the first prophet to reveal what God required!
His own brother, Abel!
There was a remedy!
Repentance and obedience.
However it is obvious that Cain took no account of the 'way
out' and went the one terrible step further of killing his brother!
Luke 11:47-51, reveals clearly that Abel was the first prophet.
They are the words of our Lord!
'Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets,
and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow
the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye
build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I
will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall
slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was
shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this
generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias
which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto
you, It shall be required of this generation.'
Cain even though he obviously knew that a 'sacrifice' was
required deliberately brought, not what God asked, but what he
thought good enough even though he could have easily, by trading
with his brother, offered the sacrificed God really required.
Listen to God's words as He warned Cain.
'Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If
thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not
well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and
thou shalt rule over him.' (Genesis 4:6-7).
It is the same message which comes to us today.