KEN WILLIAMS MINISTRIES

      QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER

                                                        Copyright 2009 by Ken Williams Ministries

                                                                          All Rights Reserved

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Fall, 2009 (September - November)                                                                                                      Volume 2, Number 4

Bible Study

                             Finding Jesus in the Prophets

                                                                             By Ken Williams


          The books in the Jewish Scriptures, and the books in the Christian Old Testament are exactly the same.  However, they are not in the same order.  In the Christian Old Testament we have divided the books according to the Pentetuch (the Books of Moses), the Books of History, Poetry, and the Prophets.  The Jewish Scriptures are divided into three categories: The Torah (the five books of Moses; The Nevi'im (the Prophets); and The Kethuvim (the Writings).

          Jesus referred to the Jewish Tanakh in several different ways.  When He talked of "the Scriptures," He was not referring to the New Covenant, for the New Testament had not yet been written.  Let's look at several examples.

1. "Did ye never read in the Scriptures...?" (Matthew 21:42 KJV).
2. "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures..." (Matthew 22:29 KJV).
3. "But how, the, shall the Scriptures be fulfilled...?" (Matthew 26:54 KJV).
4. "...the Scriptues must be fulfilled..." (Mark 14:49 KJV).
5. "He expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself" (Luke        24:27 KJV).
          
          Jesus also called the Scriptures, "The Law and the Prophets" or "Moses and the Prophets."  Again, let's look at several examples.

1. "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets; I am not come to     
     destroy, but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17 KJV).
2. "...for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 5:17 KJV).
3. "On these commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:40 KJV).
4. "And he said unto them, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be 
     persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31 KJV).
5. "And beginning at Moses and the Prophets, he expounded unto them, in all the 
    Scriptures, the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27 KJV).

          The third section is "The Writings" (Kethuvim in Hebrew).  This section contains the books of Poetry and the historical books.

          By the way, the term "Tanakh" (the Hebrew word for Bible or Scriptures) is really an acronym.  Your boss might tell you, "I need that ASAP, meaning "As soon as possible."  Remember that English and Hebrew letters do not coincide.  Hebrew has 22 letters, all consonants, no vowels.  We add English vowels to the Hebrew letters to be able to pronounce the words.  So the acronym for Tanakh is as follows:

          Ta - Torah (the five books of Moses)

          Na - Nevi'im (the Prophets)

          KH - Kethuvim (the Writings)

          The Old Testament books included in the Jewish Bible under the division known as "The Prophets, include: Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.  These will be the books we will consider in this order as we continue our search of the Jewish Scriptures to find references to the Promised Messiah, Jesus.

          The Old Covenant propohets were men raised up by God to bring His message to His Chosen People.  They were usually raised up during times when Israel had departed from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and had gone after the idolatrous goods of the surrounding nations.  Their message was one of "Repent or God will use the Gentile nations around you to bring you back."  That message was generally not well received.  People do not like to be told how wrong they are.  Yet, these prophets told of One who would come, God Himself, who would bring Israel into a wonderful kingdom age, in which God would rule the world from Jerusalem, and His chosen people would be priests for the entire world.

          The prophets present Messiah as "a suffering servant," and as "a victorious, reigning Messiah."  The propohets themselves did not understand this.  In spite of their lack of understanding, they presented the message as God gave it to them.  The presented ONE Messiah, with both of these incompatible roles.  These roles led future rabbis to believe that there might be two Messiahs.  However, the the time Jesus arrived on the scene, the largest sect of Judaism, the Pharisees, had forgotten about the "Suffering Messiah," and looked only for the "Reigning Messiah" who would deliver them from Roman oppression.

          The prophets also predicted that God's chosen people (at least the ruling religious leaders) would reject the Messiah.  If Jesus had been welcomed by the religious hierarchy of His day, it would have been proof positive that He was not God's Promised Messiah at all, but an imposter - and there were many imposters.

          Israel's prophets were treated badly.  Isaiah was sawn into pieces because Israel was so angry at his message.  It was a case of "kill the messenger," because they surely could not punish God.  Isaiah was taken by the religious leaders to a valley outside the Holy City, where he was stretched and tied between four poses according to ancients Jewish writings and tradition.  Two men holding a large iron tree saw stood over him.  he was ordered to recant his prophecy.  He refused to do so.  The saw was moved back and forth over his stomach, cutting the skin.  Again he was ordered to recant.  He refused.  The saw went back tne forth again, cutting deeper into his stomach.  When he died, they continued to saw until he was cut in two.  The New Testament makes mention of this in the "Faith Chapter" in the book of Hebrews.

          Jeremiah was thrown into the dungeon on several different occasions and threatened with death.  He was eventually kidnapped, and carried away into Egypt where he died.  He was known as "the Weeping Prophet."

          Zechariah was stoned to death outside the city walls for his prophecy.  The others were treated in like manner.  It is not a great deal different today.  Many Christians do not want to go to a church where the Scriptures are preached in their entirety.  They would rather go to a church where they come away with "a good feeling."

          If the prophets were treated this way, how, then did their prophecies ever make it into the Jewish Scriptures?     

          In Bible times, the elders of the city, the rabbis, religious leaders and judges sat in the city gates.  As the prophets, both Propohets of God and false prophets, came with their messages, they were copied down by scribes and put away.  The false prophets mostly brought messages of good things to come.  The leaders and people liked their messages.  But their predictions did not come true.  The Prophets of God were beaten, imprisoned and killed, because the leaders and people did not like their message.  They were deemed traitors by man, because they spoke of God's judgment through invading armies.  The prophecies, as taken down by the scribes, were archived.  If the prophecies came true, the leaders knew they were true prophets of God, and tiehr propohecies were resurrected, and made a part of the Scriptures, even though in some cases the Prophet had already been killed.

           An example of this is found in the Propohet Amos.  Amos was a herdsman from Tekoah, a small town near Gaza.  He was one of the fortunate prophets.  He came into Jerusalem, proclaimed his message, and then made a quick get-away back to his hometown, far from Jerusalem.  His message was written down just like the others.  Then, two years later (according to the scribes note in Amos 1:1, the great earthquake - a quake so great that it was referred to by three other prophets.  That fulfillment of prophecy made a place for Amos in the Holy Scriptures.

           In our next study, we will take up the search for Jesus, in the first book of the prophets - Joshua, as we continue our study through the Jewish Scriptures
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SCIENCE (or the lack thereof)

           EVOLUTION: THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR RACISM

                                                                           By Ken Williams

          That is a very volatile accusation.  But think about it for a moment.  Evolution was the basis for both Nazism and Communism.  Both ran on very racist philosophies.  In addition, the basis of Evolution - the presumption that humans are only a higher level of animal - means that there is nothing sacred about human beings.  Also, there is no right or wrong.  Right and wrong become relative and depends on the situation.  The U.S. Supreme Court declared in the "Dread Scott Decision," that "Negroes" (as they were called at the time) were not people, and therefore had no standing before the law.  The Nazi courts ruled that Jews were not people and therefore had no standing before the law.  The U.S. Supreme Court delcared that unborn babies are not people, and therefore have no standing before the law.  It was this same philosophy that allowed both the Nazi and Communist governments to do unthinkable experiments on human beings - unthinkable only if you accept, even to a small degree, the Judeo-Christian ethic.

          Where did the idea of a German, Aryan, while race come from?  And what ethic allowed German scientists to conduct experiments to make that race even "better, more brialliant and more perfect?"  It was the Theory of Evolution.

          In these two opening paragraphs, we have made some pretty strong accusations against the Theory of Evolution.  Now it is time to present some evidence.  The late Stephen Jay Gould, Paleontologist and well know evolutionist at Harvard University, was the author of a book titled "The Mismeasure of Man."  In this book, Gould attempted to show the rollof observer bias in skewing the size of the cranial vault larger for Caucasians and smaller for American Indians and other races.  He wrote, "Racism can be justified...on evolutionary grounds."  Gould wrote that racism increased by "orders of magnitude" due to Darwin's research being used as justification.  By using these quotes, I am not suggesting that all Darwinists or evolutionists are racists.  But the whole concept of Darwinism is consistent with racism in so far as it can be used to call various people groups a "subspecies."

          At the World's Fair in 1904 in Saint Louis, Missouri, a Congolese pygmy by the name of Oto Banga was displayed as a primitive, less than human being.  After going through this experience, he eventually took his own life.

          Go back to 1925 and the Scopes Trial.  The man on trial was not the biology teacher.  John Scopes was a substitute teacher who taught evolution as it was presented in the textbook, "A Civic Biology" by George Hunter.  Here is what that book of science taught - what evolution taught.  "If we follow the early history of man upon the earth, we find that at first he must have been a little better than one of the lower animals.  At the present time there exists upon the earth, five races or varieties of man...the highest type of all, the Caucasions, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America."  By the way, this evolutionary viewpoint was endorsed by many groups at the time, including the American Civil Liberties Union 9ACLU), which brought the legal action.

          Do you see in this the justification of the European nations for the colonization of the world?  They felt an entitlement to pillage Africa and India, even taking captives and selling them as slaves, because they were, as they felt, a subspecies of the human race - inferior to themselves.

          Today scientists studying human beings tell us that the total difference between people of all nationalities and cultures is about two tenths of one percent.  That includes the difference between males and females, different colors of skin, eye shape, bone density and everything else.  The difference between colors of skin in people is just 0.0125%.  Biologically, that is considered to be insignificant.

          The Bible has been right all along.  It says, "He (referring to God) has made from one blood every nation of men todwell on all the face of the earth..." (Acts 17:26a KJV).

          If the Theory of Evolution had any scientific proof to back it up, that would be one thing.  And be sure that I am not suggesting that the Theory of Evolution be expelled from the classroom.  Not so!  It is a theory that is accepted by many in the scientific community and in the educational community.  Certainly it needs to be discussed.  However, when all other theories of our origins are censored from the classroom and evolution is presented as the only option; that places it in the position of "truth."  That is especially so when it is presented without its problems, discrepancies and shortcomings (and there are many).
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AMERICAN HISTORY (as it used to appear)

  THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN THE FOUNDING OF AMERICA

                                                                            By Ken Williams

         
           What role did the local church play in the founding of our nation?  Did church pastors and ministers engage in the battlefield and the political arenas of their day?  Or were they, as modern society now informs us, relegated to serving only religious matters within the four walls of the church?

          Prior to and duringing the American Revolutionary War, pastors and churches played an important role in shaping the direction of the colonists.  Pastors actually had as mcuh, or likely even more influence over the people, than any other single group in the years approaching the Revolutionary War.  Not only did they talk about the issues from their pulpits, but they were on the battlefield leading their congregations into the struggle.

          We have all heard the story of Paul Revere riding from Boston to tell all the surrounding communities that the British were coming.  I alsays thought he rode wildly through the countryside shouting, "The British are coming!  The British are coming!"  As he did, the settlers along the way grabbed their funs and headed to the battle.  That is not at all what happened.

          There were two men waiting for the light to appear in the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston to signal that the British were coming.  One was Paul Revere.  The other was an African-American patriot named Wentworth Cheswell, a strong Christian, a politician and a businessman.  When the signal came, Cheswell rode north to warn that the British were coming.  Revere rode west to Lexington towarn of the approaching British army.  Revere was not riding from home to home yelling the warning.  He was riding to the home of one man - the Rev. Jonas Clark.  Clark was the pastor in Lexington and the most respected man in town.  He was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature and helpted write the resolutions for the colony to separate from Britain, and was the delegate from Lexington to help write toe Massachusetts state constitution following the Revolutionary War.  When Revere arrived, he discovered that John Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying at Clarks home that night.

          When Revere passed along the warning, Hancock and Adams looked at Rev. Clark and said, "Pastor, are your people ready?"  Clark's response was, "I have trained them for this very moment!"  The church bell was rung, and 150 townsmen showed up at the church to fight the British.  Clark gave them final instructions.  He said, "God blesses a defensive war.  He does not bless an offensive war.  So do not fire the first shot."  [Notice that he did not say anything about "the whites of their eyes."]  By the time it was over, eight of Clark's church members were dead and ten were wounded.  As the British troops retreated to Boston, they lost many more of their men.  For now, instead of fighting 150 members of Clark's church in Lexington, there were many hundres of men rallied by Cheswell who were sniping at them from both sides of the road.  Most of those groups along the road were individual pastors leading their congregations.

          John Adams wrote that the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper were two of the individuals who were the "most conspicuous, the most ardent, and influential in the awakening and revival of American principles and feelings" that led to our independence.  Others included the Rev. George Whitfield, the Rev. James Caldwell, the Rev. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenburg, the Rev. Fredrick Augustuis Muhlenburg and many more.  These names used to be an integral part of any writings on the founding of the United States.  But they have been expunged by the revisionists who are dedicated to removing any mention of religion from our history.

          Whitfield was the leader of one of the great early revivals in America.  But Whitfield also was a leader in the push toward independence from Britain.  He said Britain was trying to force a national church on the colonies, and was taking their God-given liberties away, both civil and religious.  Whitfield is credited with leading thousands to faith in Jesus Christ.  But his sermons, by today's standard, were also very, very political.  He never considered that there could be a separation between the church and plitics.  His understanding of the Scriptures was that it was the church's responsibility to demand righteousness on the part of government and its leaders.  Whitfield even sailed to England to confront the British Parliment over the Stamp Act in 1765.  He was very much in the forefront of American preparations for the revolution.  However, he never lived to see it, dying in 1770.

          Rev. John Muhlenburg pastored two churches in the tiny Virginia town of Woodstock, on the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  One was an English speaking Episcopal Church.  The other was a German speaking Lutheran Church.  He was also a member of the Virginia Legislature.  On January 21, 1776, Rev. Muhlenburg stood in his pulpit.  He first read from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in the Old Testament.  Then he said, "In the language of Holy Writ, there is a time for all things: a time to pray, a time to preach, but a new time has come - a time to fight."  And as he said those final words, he pulled back his robe to reveal a soldier's uniform.  He went on, "And that time is now.  If we fail to stand against the oppressor; if we don't rise up to protect ourselves and our precious liberties, we will lose them to the tyrants.  For none else will take up this cause for us.  We must make the sacrifice.  We must bear up arms in the fight.  So I call you now, to stand with me in this cause most urgent and noble."  Outside the church drummers beat the call to arms, and some 300 men from both churches came to join him.  He went on to become one of the highest ranking military officers in the revolution.

          The Rev. James Caldwell, a Presbyterian minister from New Jersey was another great early American leader.  The Americans had very little to work with.  They were short of guns and ammunition.  They were short of food and clothing.  Most of the soldiers fought for three years without being paid.  During a battle outside Rev. Caldwell's church, the americans ran out of wadding for their guns.  The wadding was used to shove into the firing chamber to separate the powder from the lead.  Without the wadding, the guns were useless.  Rev. Caldwell ran inside the church and came out with the hymn books.  Most of the hymns in the books had been written by Isaac Watts.  Caldwell joked that they could deliver a double message to the British: the message that they wanted to be free from the British, and the Christian message of Isaac Watts.  The British tried to assassinate him.  They shot through the window of his house, missed him, but killed his wife.  Caldwell fought the British during the week, leading his church members.  On Sunday he preached in his church with two pistols lying on top of his pulpit Bible.

          Many today, including many Christians, have fallen into the belief that Christians should not be involved in civil government.  We are told that there should be some sort of compartmentalization; that our faith should be kept in one arena and real life in another, and that the two should never meet.  The Bible does not teach that, and fortunately our founding fathers and early church leaders did not believe that either.

          Have you ever heard of "The Black Regiment?"  That was the name the British gave to the American ministers on the front lines, because they dressed in black robes.  The British understood that it was the pastors who were recruiting the armies and out on the frontlines leading them on.  The British accused the preachers of stirring up sedition.  When the British captured a preacher as a prisoner of war, they were treated much more harshly than other captured American fighters.

          Not only were pastors active in the revolution, but they were also leaders in their communities.  They weren't leaders just by their position or title.  They earned their leadership through courage, conviction, their knowledge of the Word of God, proving that they were worthy of that leadership.  May 8, 1778, the Continental Congress decided they wanted to give a report on how the revolution was going.  They didn't send it to be published in the newspapers, or posted in each community on the public posting boards.  They sent it to all the pastors in the colonies and asked them to read it following the Sunday morning service.  The preachers had more impact in getting out the news than did the newspapers.

          While pastors and churches were a main influence in America gaining its independence, they were also just as substantially involved in helping America get its constitutional form of government.

          It was preachers like John Witherspoon (a signer of the Declaration of Independence) who said that the Continental Congress was not sufficient to run the newly independent colonies.  As a matter of fact, of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 24 had pastoral credentials.  Forty-four of the representatives to the constitutional convention were pastors.

          Once the new government was formed, the very first Speaker of the House, Fredrick Augustus Muhlenburg, was a minister of the Gospel.  His brother, John Peter Gabriel Muhlenburg, was also a member of Congress.  To top that off, there are only two signatures on the Bill of Rights.  One of them is the Rev. Fredrick Augustus Muhlenburg.  We would not even have the Bill of Rights today, it it were not for ministers being in places of leadership to accomplish what they did.

          The Bill of Rights was demanded by the states to make sure that the federal government could never take away any of the rights of individual states and their citizens.  It was the Baptists that demanded an addition to the first amendment.  They wanted to make sure that the federal government could never set up a national church.  Thomas Jefferson said a second phrase was added to make sure that the federal government could never stop a public religious activity.  The Bill of Rights was given to guarantee the free exercise of religion, and forbid the federal government from placing any restrictions on free expression of religion whether in public or in private.  However, in the last fifty years federal courts have ruled that it can be illegal to express your religious rights in a public place - a complete reversal of what the founding fathers intended.  We have free speech, but that doesn't include religious speech, according to the courts.  All of these right that were pioneered and championed by ministers of the Gospel are now being used against Christians to supress their speedh.  We even have Christians' faith used against them in running for office.  And Congress has been especially bad about judicial appointments.  Congress threatened a filibuster because one appointee was said to be an Evangelical Christian.  Another was turned down because he was a Sunday School teacher.  Still another was rejected because of a Christian testimony on a website.  So, the very protections to guarantee our freedoms are now being used to take away freedoms that the Constitution guaranteed (past tense).

          Once the Constitution was complete, it still had to be ratified by the various states.  It is interesting to note that several of the states held their official ratification convention in churches.  All of the colonies opened their conventions with prayer, and prayer was held throughout the convention.  They even had preachers preach sermons.

          Have you ever heard the term "Election Sermon?"  Technically they are illegal today.  Yes, you heard right.  If a pastor preaches an "Election Sermon" today, the church stands to lose its tax exemption from the IRS.  But election sermons are a tradition in this country.  The first was preached in Virginia in 1634 and each year right up through the middle of the 20th Century; election sermons were preached on an annual basis in churches across the country.  These sermons were based on the Biblical concept that God had placed us in a country in which power was given to the people, and that Christians had the God-given responsibility to try to point the government of the country toward godliness and righteousness.  These sermons talked about what qualities our leaders should have - even pointing out statements and programs supported by some candidates which did not line up with the Scriptures.

          Or, how about this?  Did you know that most state legislative sessions began not only with prayer, but with a sermon?  A preacher would be invited in to give a sermon on the Biblical principles of lawmaking.

          The Rev. Mathias Barnet said in 1803, "Finally, ye...whose high prerogative it is to...ionvest with office and authority or to withhold them and in whose power it is to save or destroy your country, consider well the important trust...which God...has put into your hands.  To God and posterity you are accountable for them...  Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you."

          In the first two verses of Romans 12 it says, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed..." (KJV).  Or, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold..." (Phillips Translation).  Most Christians have adopted the prevailing philosophy that the church should not get involved in politics.  If there is some Biblically incorrect program being promoted in Congress, or is being supported by a particular candidate, would it be proper for a pastor to point that out?  According to the IRS, that would be a violation of the law.  According to most of his church member, he would have overstepped his bounds.  According to the Word of God, he would be a false prophet if he did not speak out.

          Except for preachers who preached righteousness, there would never have been a Declaration of Independence, or a Constitution, or a Bill of Rights.  Now these very documents are being used against Christians, the Church and pastors.
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Summer 2010 - Ken Williams Ministries News Letter

Spring 2010 - Ken Williams Ministries News Letter

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Summer 2009 Ken Williams Ministries News Letter

Spring 2010 Ken Williams Ministries News Letter

Winter 2009 Ken Williams Ministries News Letter