EarthHarvest


                                              

OTHER LANDSCAPES

     This system of belief, represented in several major religions, does not accept the deity of Christ, but gives Him such characteristics as great, wise, a laudable humanist. Where this system falls short is not acknowledging that Jesus was God incarnate, that Jesus was the distinct and separate personality of God revealing Himself to man as a Man.

When Jesus was arrested by the chief priests and temple officers of the temple in Jerusalem, He was brought before the Council of Elders, the Sanhedrin, and questioned (Luke 22:70-71):

And they all said, "Are You the Son of God, then?" And He said to them, "Yes, I am." And they said, "What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth."

Jesus' claim was blasphemy to the Council of Elders and they sent Him to Pilate, the Roman Governor, requesting that Pilate crucify Him. Pilate summoned Jesus and asked Him if He was the King of the Jews.

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." Pilate therefore said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You can say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears My voice" (John 18:36-37).

Jesus, more than anyone else, asserted His claim to be God. If one is living in a dark room, as represented by the many belief systems existing in the world today, what better way to see the truth than by turning on the light. The Old and New Testaments testify to the truth and tell us who the Light of the World is. "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5). "I have come as light into the world, that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness" (John 12:46).

No man has ever done the miracles Jesus did which include: restoring sight to the blind; raising the dead (a little girl, Lazarus, the only son of a widow); turning water into wine; healing a paralytic; ordering demonic spirits out of the possessed and ordering a legion of demons into a herd of wine; healing a leper and a woman with a hemorrhage of twelve years; feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish; walking on water; ordering the wind and waves to be still. The miracles go on and on. No man who has walked on earth ever made the claims Jesus did and backed these with such power over nature, demons, sickness and death itself.

Even the grave could not hold Him down. The prophets of man all lie decomposed in their graves. Jesus does not lie in a grave. As he prophesied, He rose on the third day. He was without sin. Death could not keep Him in the ground. When He hung on the cross at the ninth hour, He did cry out, "My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). Darkness had enveloped the land for three hours. At the moment Jesus cried out, He was being assailed and engulfed by the sins of man from every age. He was the sacrificial Lamb, and for the only time in His earthly life, He was cut off from God. The sin which separates man from God is so dark and evil. The fact that He rose again reveals that His atonement was perfect and final. Which prophet of man has ever claimed, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die" (John 11:25-26). Are those words of a "greater teacher," a rabbi, Abraham, Moses, or of God Himself? Which "great teacher" has made promises reaching beyond man's physical death?

Jesus did not rise from death as a spirit. He rose in His physical body. Eleven of the apostles saw Him (Judas hung himself for having betrayed innocent blood). Jesus told them, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself, touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Luke 24:39). He then asked them for something to eat because He was hungry. It had been three days since His last meal. They gave Him a piece of broiled fish and He ate it in their sight. (He later again ate fish with three hundred people.) He then said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled" (Luke 24:44).

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No prophet of man ever fulfilled prophecies of his coming. Jesus, however, fulfilled an incredible vast body of prophecy. Unless God Himself had woven such a canvas of prophecy, it is impossible for these prophecies to have been coincidentally fulfilled. Many of these Old Testament prophecies are referred to by the authors of the gospels—Luke, Mark, John and Matthew—and by Paul in the Book of Acts and in his Epistles. To look at a few of the Old Testament prophecies should be highly persuasive to any unbeliever that history is directed by the hand of God:

The prophet Micah, who prophesied from 756 to 697 BC, foresaw the coming of a Ruler of Israel who has been in existence since "the days of eternity":

But as you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity. (Mic. 5:2)

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. His father, Joseph, was of the clan of Judah. He will, upon his return, be the ruler of Israel, fulfilling yet another extensive body of prophecy. And as God His days are from eternity.

Isaiah 9:6, written around 700 BC, prophesies, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." When has a child ever been called "Mighty God" and "Eternal Father?"

Psalm 22, written four hundred years before crucifixion was known to the Jews, describes Jesus' sufferings on the cross. Psalm 22:16 reads, "A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet." It was not uncommon for those who were crucified to hold their bodies up, thereby delaying suffocation, by pushing up with their feet and knees. This kept the chest cavity propped up and allowed the victims to breathe. For a quick death, the soldiers would break the leg bones of the victims so their lungs would collapse. Jesus was crucified the day prior to the Sabbath. Crucifixions were not permitted to take place or drag on into the start of the Sabbath. When the Sabbath drew near, the soldiers approached Jesus to break his leg bones, but He was already dead and no bones had to be broken. Psalm 22:17 says, "I can count all my bones."

Isaiah, who prophesied between 758 and 698 BC, states, "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed" (Is. 53:5-6). Without a God existing outside linear time and giving His prophet Isaiah a glimpse into His plan of redemption, it would have been impossible for Isaiah to compose his fifty-third chapter which is entirely prophetic and describes the coming of Jesus and His death as a substitutionary sacrifice.

The prophet Zechariah, who was born in Babylon, returned to rebuild Jerusalem with the first caravan of exiles under Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and was involved in the building of the second temple, prophesied, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey" (Zech. 9:9). Zechariah delighted in visions he received from God. In Zechariah 11:12-13 he prophesies:

And I said to them, "if it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!" So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, "Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them." So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord."

Judas Iscariot delivered Jesus to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver. When Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying he had sinned and betrayed innocent blood. He threw the money into the sanctuary ("in the house of the Lord"). The chief priests concluded it was not lawful to return the money to the temple treasury as it was the price of blood. Therefore, with the money they bought a potter's field in which to bury strangers. God had revealed this to Zechariah hundreds of years earlier. He wasn't fooled, however, by the priests' legal machinations to avoid the stain of innocent blood in this verse, but placed the potter right in the house of the Lord.

The Bible makes many prophecies, which are yet to happen. Only some of the prophecies in the Book of Daniel have been fulfilled and the ones in the Book of Revelation have not been fulfilled. The many prophecies that have been fulfilled give credibility to the ones that have not come to pass. Only God can clearly see the past and the future as He exists outside the linear plane. Only those inspired by Him can make such accurate prophecies that bear witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The prophet Micah, who prophesied that the Ruler shall spring from Israel (discussed above), also prophesied:

And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And we will remain, Because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. And this One will be our peace, when the Assyrian invades our land. (Mic. 5:4-5)

This appears to be a prophetic passage only partially fulfilled. Jesus did shepherd His flock in the strength and majesty of God. The Antichrist, a demonically possessed leader who, according to Bible prophecy, is to rise in the last days, has been referred to as the "Assyrian" or as the "beast." The Assyrian is to occupy Israel, but Israel will be saved by supernatural intervention. "And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse, and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone" (Rev. 19:19-20).

"He will be great to the ends of the earth," parallels His return to earth expounded in Revelation 19:14-15: "And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron." This passage concerns a heavenly intervention, yet to occur, in the affairs of man.

Zechariah 12:8-10 also prophesies an event that is yet to happen, describing an attack by many nations against Israel which leads its people to realize who Jesus Christ is:

In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them. And it will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over the first born.

Prophecy is consistently present throughout the Old and New Testaments and attests to an intelligent Being charting the course of human events. The fulfillment of prophecy is evidence that the message contained in the Old and New Testaments is accurate and not one of man's mythologies. The extensive number of prophecies that have already been fulfilled gives a sound foundation to the truths expounded in the Bible and attests to their supernatural authorship. There is no way that Jesus as a man could have "staged" the fulfillment of prophecies regarding His birth, His mission, His nature, His personality, His death, and His resurrection.

As God, He certainly could have and did. He wrote the script. What other "great teacher" had his or her arrival on the human stage prophesied thousands of years earlier by unrelated, independent prophecies, with the prophecies naming the place of birth, the personality of the "teacher," his mission, how he would die, the mode of transportation he would employ, how much money he would be betrayed for, etc. One must simply read thoroughly the detail in Isaiah 52:13-15 and Isaiah 53 to appreciate how thorough these prophecies are.

Lastly, which "great teacher" has ever risen from the dead and helped his friends catch fish (John 21:6) and eat fish in their company on two separate occasions?

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"When I was involved in meditation and yoga, and reading Hindu and New Age literature extensively, I kept running into the belief that Jesus was an avatar (copied from author's biography, "Death of a Pharaoh"). An avatar is believed to be the incarnation of powerful spiritual beings which incarnate over time to show mankind the way. Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and your latest guru or New Age leader are all considered avatars of equal dignity.

The concept of avatar was more often than not tied into the Hindu belief in reincarnation wherein all organisms die and return as a more complex organism. There was a general belief that humans reincarnated as humans in Western circles, and in Eastern circles, that fish, birds, insects, animals and humans could reincarnate among their various forms. I never ran across a situation where a plant or a legume, such as an asparagus, wilted and died and then reincarnated as a household cat.

The belief in evolution seems to happily coexist with the belief in reincarnation, as there appears to be a general consensus that in the next go around one would return "more evolved," assuming one had not accumulated any bad karma. Karma is that property which keeps you from reincarnating into a higher life form. It can restrict you to the level you are presently at or send you several levels down.

If a person has done bad things, bad being conduct which is not necessarily evil, but more "anti-life" or "energy depleting," then that person will have accumulated bad karma and, in their next incarnation, will have to balance the bad karma with good karma through their positive actions. When the good karma outweighs the bad karma, that person, bird, fish or animal will progress to a higher life form. Thus, a toad with good karma may reincarnate as a canary, a shrimp as a cricket, an eagle as a lemur. Those who do not believe in crossing the line between life forms would only have a sardine reincarnate as a sea bass, a grasshopper as a beetle, or a Roman mule trader into a mini-van dealer.

Avatars, as powerful spiritual beings, have transcended the wheel of reincarnation. Yet, having escaped the wheel, they look back at those who are still toiling and wish to help them break out of the cycle as well. They incarnate as avatars or prophets in various times and in various parts of the world. They make a great impact in those communities and are revered by their fellow men.

The gospel they bring, however, is not of God's plan of salvation and of the blood of Jesus Christ. These Old Age/New Age avatars, according to those who believe in them, preach reincarnation, the necessity to obey the avatar, meditation, yoga, and anything from chanting all day and night to sitting in the mountains of Uruguay trying to "make contact" with UFOs.

Jesus is not seen in His historical perspective as the Son of God. The fall of Adam and Eve, sin, separation from God, and redemption through the sacrifice on the cross are all totally foreign concepts. Jesus is generally an "enlightened" incarnation along with many other incarnations, a mere stepping stone among a series of other avatars. A picture of Jesus will hang on the wall of an ashram along with numerous other "beings," many of which are quite bizarre.

The party line is that Jesus was either a mystic who had training with the Essenes, a mystic and ascetic sect which lived around the Dead Sea, or that He had spent his "lost years" in India. These are undocumented speculations with no basis in fact. Having a portrait of Jesus along with the more bizarre avatars such as Krishna, an individual whom we are not sure even existed, gives the Western devotee an element of familiarity. In the midst of the incense, the sitar music, and the picture of the guru whose ashram he is in, a photo of a languid Jesus is vaguely reassuring. But the Eastern Jesus is not the Biblical Jesus. As a carpenter, a profession which entails lots of physical exercise, Jesus was probably strong and rugged. His ministry was assertive and dynamic.

He did not teach reincarnation and the Bible makes it quite clear that, "It is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27). Jesus did not teach His disciples physical and spiritual exercises which would take them to "godhead," "cosmic consciousness," or "rama." His claim was quite plain: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies" (John 11:25). The New Ager, Eastern mystic or "Christian" cultist will take the "I" in Jesus' personal claim and expand it into a universal "I."

The "I" will be explained as "the I existing in all of us," to use New Age phraseology. Without an understanding of God's plan of salvation, already discussed, one could be easily deceived by this play in semantics. After all, the serpent flattered Eve in the garden and told her, "You shall be like God" (Gen. 3:5) if she ate of the tree."

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    As we move into the twenty-first century we find the planet largely populated by men and women who would be as God, but are selfish little gods trying to grab for themselves as much as they can get, and questioning the existence of the True God. When the True God is irrelevant, then man becomes his own god, and since man is sinful, societies fall apart. There are no moral restraints in politics, business, sexual conduct, personal and international relations, or respect for God's creation.

In the United States alone, nearly two million abortions are performed a year. Large parts of the former Soviet Union are blighted by extensive environmental pollution. Gangs of hoodlums bring terror to major cities such as Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro and Moscow. "Upper class" hoodlums manipulate stock and commodity markets from fancy offices. As the law of God breaks down the law of man brings lawlessness and anarchy, only to be replaced by the eventual repression of dictatorships, also run by flawed men.

God does not tolerate man's evil antics forever. Noah's generation was destroyed by the flood. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with brimstone and fire. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God warned the kingdom of Judah that He would bring calamity on its people because they had forsaken Him and had offered burned sacrifices to foreign gods. The calamity would come "because they had filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high place of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal" (Jeremiah 19:5).

Today, the mills of death are grinding across America killing over five thousand unborn per day through chemical injection, fetus mutilation, and pills of death. Abortion has become big business, legalized and subsidized by the courts and government, by men and women who mete out death to those who can't cry out. Just as Judah burned its sons on its high sacrificial altars, so have we killed our sons at the altars of the goddess of lust.

Babylon attacked and destroyed Jerusalem, and took the people of Judah into captivity, transplanting them as they did all their conquered peoples. Many years later, Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, took the sacred silver vessels he had stolen from the temple in Jerusalem and defiled them by drinking from them at a party, as did his guests and concubines. Out of nowhere, a man's hand materialized and began writing on a wall. Daniel interpreted the message, which read, "God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. You have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. Your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians" (Dan. 5:26-29). That same night, impregnable Babylon was invaded through its water system and Belshazzar, a mortal god, was slain.

Ozymandias I met a traveler from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far way. Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822 Concerning Ramses II. .