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KEN WILLIAMS MINISTRIES QUARTERLY NEWS LETTER Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved __________________________ Winter 2012 (Dec., Jan., Feb.) Vol. 5 No. 1 IN THIS ISSUE BIBLE STUDY: Finding Jesus in Amos ('Amowc in Hebrew) THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Have You Ever Thought About This? OUR REAL AMERICAN HISTORY: The Jewish Connection President Woodrow Wilson A PERSONAL WORD: From Ken Williams _________________________________ BIBLE STUDY: Finding Jesus in Amos ('Amowc in Hebrew) By Ken Williams This quarter, in our study of "Finding Jesus in the Old Testament - the Jewish Scriptures," we come to the Prophet Amos. Amos was crushed by the unfaithfulness of the Jews to the love of God. We find Amos outraged by the violence Israel had done to the concepts of the justice and the righteousness of God. While Hosea was a prophet to the southern Kingdom of Judah, Amos was a prophet to the northern ten tribes known as Israel. In this book, God pronounced judgment on Israel because of their sin (chapters 1-5). Then he pleads for them to return to the God of their fathers (chapter 5). They fail to do so and are judged (chapter 5). In the final portion of this book, we have the clear anticipation of Messiah. He is seen to have authority to judge, but He will also restore His people. Amos 9:11 begins this way, "On that day..." Remember, this is one of the key phrases we have seen repeatedly that point to end time events. This phrase signifies predictions are coming. The City of Jerusalem would be broken down during the coming judgment, but God says His Messiah will rebuild "The House of David." Listen as God says, "I will raise up the tabernacle (or house) of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old" (Amos 9:11). Notice that the House of David will be restored, and it will be restored as it was in its prime. This has not happened since this was written. It is still future! There are two rather profound statements made in verse 12. The first states, "...they may possess the remnant of Edom" (Amos 9:12a NKJV). Isaiah refers to this as "Edom, Moab and Ammon." This is the area now contained in Jordan. Some of these names still exist. Amman is the capital of modern day Jordan. Amman is east of Jerusalem. Moab is east of the Dead Sea. Apparently this area is going to be decimated by judgment. The King James translation refers to this as "the remnant of Edom." The Living Bible calls it, "What is left of Edom." It is interesting to note that this area is part of what was supposed to go to Israel after World War I, but the British reneged on their promise, and this portion was given to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Hashemites were Arabs out of Saudi Arabia. The second phrase here may be a reference to true Christians. It says, "...and all the Gentiles who are called by My name" (verse 12b NKJV). Let's not go overboard here. For most Christians today are not biblical Christians. They may follow some of the rudiments of their particular brand of Christianity. However, much of Christianity is far removed from the teachings of the Bible. The group of Gentiles spoken of here "are called by My name." God is speaking. So apparently there is a group of non-Jews who come to the Lord during this terrible time of judgment. There are also Jews who recognize their Messiah when He comes back to set up His kingdom, and they, together say, "It is the LORD who does this thing." In the following two verses (verses 13-14), we see three things happen: 1. Jews who have been scattered around the world return to Israel. 2. The cities destroyed during the judgment are rebuilt. 3. The land begins to produce food bountifully. Verse 15 ends with this promise, "I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the LORD your God" (Amos 9:15 KJV). This is a promise without conditions. There is no time in history in which these prophecies have been fulfilled. Know this: God will bring it to pass! Coming up in the Spring 2012 newsletter, we will take a look at the Prophet Obadiah and his predictions concerning Messiah. ___________________________________________________________ THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Have you Ever Thought About This? By Ken Williams If Evolution were true... * Niagra Falls would have eroded all the way around the world, * The Mississippi River Delta would have more than filled up the Gulf of Mexico, * If millions of years old, the oceans would be slimy, lifeless bogs; if billions, the oceans would be solid and the earth would be a desert, * The human population on the earth would be more like 20 billion instead of the 6.4 billion it is, and * Whatever happend to the more than 900 cubic miles of dirt and rock from the Grand Canyon? Niagra Falls has been eroding at the rate of 4.7 feet per year over the past 185 years. If, under the uniformitarian theory of evolution, we pick a number of 3 feet per year, in 120 million years Niagra Falls would have eroded completely around the world, crossing other rivers and falls that were doing the same thing (an impossibility). That would only put us back into the middle of the dinosaur era according to evolutionists. Obviously that cannot be true. Under the Evolutionary Theory, Niagra Falls would have eroded west through the Great Lakes (draining them) to the source of the heard waters of Lake Superior. However, if the Great Lakes and the connecting rivers which take the water to the Atlantic Ocean were created by Noah's Flood, and the esuing Ice Age which resulted from the flood a little over 5,000 years ago, then the falls are about where you would expect them to be. The Mississippi River pours more than water into the Gulf of Mexico. It also dumps 300 million cubic yards of sediment into the gulf each year. But if you calculate the sediment from all the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, the deltas and continental shelf accounts for less than 10,000 years worth of sediment flow. What about the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon? Evolution tells us that the great rift in the earth was formed over millions of years as the waters slowly carried all of the rock and silt down stream without leaving a trace. There is no delta at the mouth of the Colorado River. Are you aware that 900 cubic miles of dirt and rock have gone somewhere? Evolutionists have no answer. Creationists do! It is wrapped up in Noah's Flood and the ensuing Ice Age just over 5,000 years ago. If, as evolutionists insist, fully formed human beings have been around for about one million years, the earth population should be more than three times what it is currently (allowing for sickness, wars, etc.). In addition, some three trillion humans should have lived on this earth in a million years. That means burial grounds and human remains should be found everywhere. There are not nearly enough remains to account for one million years of human existence on the earth. Finally, we come to the oceans. The oceans are becoming slightly more salty with each passing year, decade, century, and millennium. The water runs into the oceans from the rivers. The water then evaporates and returns to the clouds to return as rain. But the mineral content and the sediment that come into the oceans from the rivers remains. If the earth were a million years old, the waters should be thick and soupy, not capable of sustaining life. If the earth has been around a billion years, the oceans should be solid. That means there would be little water to evaporate and create rain, leaving the earth a virtual desert. The evolutionary hoax that it takes millions of years to form... * Oil, * Coal, * Diamonds, * Rock, * Fossils, * Stalagmites and stalactites. Would it surprise you to know that scientists have been watching the development of an oil field off the west coast of the United States for the past few years? It has been forming very rapidly and in a much different way than formerly was believed possible. It is the very first time science has had the opportunity to actually see it happen before their very eyes, and it violates all previously understood knowledge on the subject. Coal takes millions of years under extreme pressure to form, right? Wrong! That's what we used to think. But today coal can be made in the laborabory in a matter of days, and with relatively little pressure. The same is true of diamonds and various other types of rock. What about fossils? Any living thing which dies in the open decays or is eaten, and there is no evidence of any remains. In order for a fossil to be formed, the living thing must be buried alive in mud. That mud must then turn to rock very quickly before the decay process sets in. Evolutionists have no eplanation for fossils other than the Ice Ages and various mini-floods around the world. Creationists point to Noah's Flood which woud have produced rock layers, one on top of the other over a period of several weeks and trapped living things just exactly as we find them around the world today. As a matter of fact, the action and reults of Noah's Flood (including the laying down of the rock layers) has been demonstrated in the laboratory. Evolutionists tell us that "New Mexico's unfinished symphony was started 250 million years ago. Tiny drops of water, over millions of years, silently created the world's most awesome monument to the wonders of nature. Crystal Spring Dome and Hall of Giants are names that hint at some of the magnificent formations discovered in the rooms the size of concert halls." In the October 1953 issue of National Geographic Magazine, page 442, there was a picture of a bat, completely covered in a stalagmite. I wonder how they got that bat to sit under the "tiny drops of water" for "millions of years" so it could be "silently" formed into a stalagmite. In 1987 a picture was published of huge stalagmites hanging from the roof of a lead mine in Mt. Isa, Australia. The water-created rock even covered signs that had been hung in the mine. The mine was only 55 years old at the time the picture was taken. Or how about the stalagmites hanging and continuing to grow in the base of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC? Some of them are more than six feet long. The Lincoln Memorial was built in 1922. DNA by chance...? * Contains the blueprints for life, * Each cell holds enough data to fill paperback books stacked 500 times as high as the distance from the earth to the moon. A computer can hold billions of bits of data. But DNA the size of the head of a pin contains enough data to fill a stack of books from the Earth to the Moon 500 times over! Now, think of the billions of dollars and hours of research it took to develop the computer. No scientist would ever look at a computer and think it could be the result of chance random processes. Yet many of these same scientists look at DNA and insist it arose from evolutionary processes far more complicated than any computer ever dreamed of. Statistics points to the impossibility of Evolution... To get all the elements together to form one simple bacterium is not just an improbability, it is impossible! Statistics is a very complicated field, and there are a number of books on the subject as it relates to Evolution. So we are not going to go into detail. Just remember that anything more than 10 to the 39th power is considered to be impossible. Here are the five things that must show up at just the right time to form one simple bacterium: 1. Chirality 2. Life specific amino acids 3. Correct AA, properly placed 4. Correct Material (right place for each gene) 5. Correct gene sequencing The statistical chance of all of that coming together in the right order and at the right time is 10 to the 112,827th power. Remember, anything higher than 10 to the 39th power is considered to be impossible. The formation of a single bacterium by chance is far beyond the term "impossible." But let's carry it one step further. Let's bring that impossible number closer to our understanding. Let's take all the electrons in the entire universe. That would be quadrillions upon quadrillions of them. Let's take one out and mark it, then mix it in with the rest. The chance of one single bacterium forming through evolution would be like picking that one electron we marked out of the entire universe, not one time, but 1,376 times in a row without missing it one time. And even if that by chance did happen, all you would have is the contents of one single lifeless bacterium. In order for us to have evolved into what we observe in the world and the universe today, you would have to have trillions upon trillions of such events; after which you would have a lot of mass, but still no life. How could anyone conjur up enough faith to believe all of this just happened? Both creation and evolution require faith to believe. Creation rests on divine revelation and has sound scientific reasoning to explain what we observe in the world (the evidence). Evolution rests on the assumption that there is no God and that nothing supernatural can or did happen. Evolution has great difficulty trying to explain much of the evidence found in nature, and literally has to dismiss much of the evidence because it does not fit their model. ___________________________________________________________ OUR REAL AMERICAN HISTORY: The Jewish Connection Columbus would never have set sail for the New World in 1492, nor would the colonies have won their independence from England in 1776, without the very heavy involvement of the Jewish community. We have already seen that Columbus, his mother and father fled Spain for Italy during the Spanish Inquisition. His parents had been forced to convert to Christianity. So they began to study the Old Testament (the Jewish Scriuptures) so they could prove Jesus was not the promised Messiah of Israel. Instead they came to real faith in Jesus, and brought Columbus up to love the Lord God of Israel. Then in 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issued the Edict of Expulsion declaring that by a certain date, every Jewish person had to be out of Spain or be killed. Jewish businessmen contacted Christopher Columbus who was trying to get permission from the king and queen to sail west to get to the east. They gave him the money and maps, and purchased the ships for Columbus and his Jewish crew. Without the "Jewish Connection" Columbus would never have sailed. Fast forward to 1776 when the thirteen colonies were fighting the British in the American Revolution. The American troops were poorly armed and starving to death and were on the verge of defeat at Valley Forge. A Jewish banker by the name of Haym Salomon from Philadelphia went to the Jews of America and even to Europe, who put together a gift of millions of dollars and gave it to George Washington. Washington used that money to buy food, clothes and armaments to fight the British. Thus life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was born in the United States of America. George Washington was so appreciative of the Jewis contribution that he had the engravers of the United States one dollar bill give a memorial to th Jewish people over the head ofthe American eagle on the back of the bill. You will find the 13 star of the Mogen David, which is the Star of Israel. Around that star is the Cloudburst of the Shekinah Glory in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. Flip the bill upside down, and you will see the Jewish Menorah. All of this is in the circle on the left side of the back of the one dollar bill. George Washington said that there must be a memorial to the Jewish people for the contributions they gave to birthing this nation. Their contribution is even more astounding when you realize that Jews made up less than 2% of the populaton of the colonies. President Woodrow Wilson (Segregaton Returns to Washington, DC) After the Civil War great strides were made toward desegregating the federal government. In the south progress was much slower with the Ku Klux Klan (the military arm of the Democratic Party*) wreaking havoc on African-Americans and whites who sympathized with blacks. In 1913, a Democrat, Woodrow Wilson moved into the White House. His first action was to fire all but one of the federal government's black employees. His second action was to re-segregate all of the rest rooms in federal buildings in the nation's capitol. While Woodrow Wilson was known for a number of extremely liberal plans, some of which were implimented by a Democratic Congress, he also has a place in history as an author. President Wilson wrote a three volume set on American history which was then used as the basis for most school history books in the nation. In his history, Wilson deleted all black history, and all mention of God and religious activities. Over the past 20 years there has been a reemphasis on Black History. However, the important black Americans who strove for equality, served in state legislatures and in Congress (many of whom were killed or injured by the KKK) are not among those included in the resurgent Black History movement. The State of Texas Textbook Committee in 2010 voted to return many of these heroes to our school history books, but not without great opposition from the educational community. * There were three different movements of the KKK, the first, right after the Civil War, faded away before the turn of the century. It was organized and funded by the Democratic Party, and was extremely violent. Its purpose was to keep the freed slaves from receiving education, voting and running for public office. __________________________________________________________________ A PERSONAL WORD From Ken Williams Have you ever been reading your Bible, when suddenly another passage of Scripture came to mind which fit in perfectly with what you were reading, any perhaps even amplified it? I was reading in Luke chapter 10 recenty, when just that happened to me. "One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: 'Rabbi, what should I do to inherit eternal life" (Luke 10:25)? Notice that this "teacher of the law" (a rabbi in his own right) was not wanting to know the answer to his question. Instead he was trying to trick Jesus into saying something which would be in opposition to the Law of Moses. Jesus answered him with a question. Jesus' question was, "What does the law of Moses say; How do you read it" (verse 26)? If you read the rabbinic literature for up to 200 years before the time of Christ, you will discover that there was just one answer to this question in their minds. Jewish religious thinkers had combined two passages from the writings of Moses. The first had to do with loving God. The second had to do with loving your neighbor. They claimed that since the first four of God's commandments were directed toward loving God, and the last six were aimed at loving relationships with other people, that these two sentences summed up the Law. This teacher of the Law replied, "You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mnd, and love your neighbor as yourself" (verse 27). When Jesus quoted these same two well known phrases back in Matthew, He added that this summerized "all the Law, and the Prophets." Our lives as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should be wrapped up in loving God, and in loving our neighbors. How do we love God? The Bible presents God as HOLY. Holy to the point that nothing imperfect can enter His presence and live. Because God is holy, anything short of perfect must be judged and punished. But the Bible also indicates that God is LOVE. How can we understand these two truths, both of which are opposites, and both of which are true? According to the Bible, God's love found a way to judge our unholiness, punish it, and declare us to be righteous (as holy as He is)! How? God, laid on Jesus all of our sins; all of our shortcomings. Because Jesus is God, He is eternal and infinite. He could take upon Himself the infinite sins of all the world, past, present (at His time) and future (even up to our time and beyond). Then God the Father laid on Him (Jesus) the penalty for sin, and Jesus gave Himself as our sacrifice for our sins. Now, God asks us to receive His salvation, and to present our "bodies as a living sacrifice" to Him (Romans 12:1). King Solomon understood this. He wrote about how we show our love and committment to God. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart; lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your ways" (Proverbs 3:5-6). How do we show our love to God? We are to: * Trust Him with all our hearts, * Not lean on our own understanding or wisdom, and * Acknowledge Him in everything we do or say. If we do this, the promise is that He will direct and control our lives. Next: how do we show love to and for our neighbors? Friends, it's a lifestyle. In Philippians 2, the first four verses, Paul boils down loving our brothers and sisters in the Lord to three don'ts and three do's. Three don'ts: * Don't be selfish * Don't try to impress others * Don't only look out for your own interests Three do's: * Do be humble * Do think of others as better than yourself * Do take a interest in others In Matthew, the recurring theme is: "the first shall be last; and the last shall be first." Jesus repeatedly said that those who wish to be elevated in the kingdom of God must be the servant of all here on earth. He taught that concept to His disciples. He also used it as a condemna-tion of the hypocritical Pharisees of His day. Paul taught that in the church, the bishops, the pastors, the elders the deacons were not rulers over their congregations; they were to be servants and shepherds, gently leading their people into the good things of God. What a concept! I am not better than the least of God's children! I am to love all by putting away selfishness, living humbly before God and man, thinking of others better than myself, not looking out only for my own interests, but aso for the interests of others. I heard a definition of love back in 1959 that I have never forgotten. Love is "desiring the best for the one loved." You can't end a discussion of love without going to the love chapter in I Corinthians 13. In verse 4 we are confronted with two things love is; and four things it is not. Love is: * Patient * Kind Love is not: * Jealous * Boastful * Proud * Rude But Paul goes on in verse 5: * Love does not demand its own way * Love is not irritabe * Love keeps no record of being wronged That is a tall order. Quite frankly, I don't believe it is humanly possible to live up to this standard. I believe that living up to loving one's neighbor comes only after one has first come to the place of loving God by "trusting Him completely," "not trusting our own understanding and wisdom," and by "acknowledging Him in everything we do or say." This is the work of the Holy Spirit who comes to live within the person who will "trust in the Lord with all your heart" (Proverbs 3:5); or as Paul put it, "I beseach you therefore brethren to present our bodies as a living sacrifice" to the Lord (Romans 12:1). __________________________________________________________________ Click here to return to Home Page Click here for the Fall 2011 News Letter ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ |
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