95 Theses for the Church Today

Today is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his famed 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, the spark of the Reformation. He had no thought of splitting the church, only of reforming it. He had no idea of the impact. Small events often have wildly disproportional consequences.

Here are 95 theses from me for the church today.
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1. Rightly did the Old Testament teach Israel that there was only one God.

2. Rightly did the early church come to understand that the one God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

3. Rightly did the early church discern two testaments to go along with two covenants, the old and the new.

4. Rightly did the early church come to affirm the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed.

5. Rightly did the early church come to discern the canon of the New Testament, consisting of 27 books.

6. Rightly did the church recognize with certainly the canonicity of 39 books of the Old Testament.

7. Seven more, along with additions to Daniel and Esther, are in a sort of middle status, a "deutero" canon.

8. Luther demoted them entirely out of the canon. In response, the Council of Trent (1545) promoted them to full status. Both moves changed their status.

9. The doctrine of purgatory, while logical, has no clear basis in Scripture, not even in 2 Maccabees.

10. The doctrine of hell is biblical, but Scripture uses figurative language to point to something we probably cannot understand.

11. The Old Testament does not engage the question of the afterlife much, chiefly in Daniel 12:2-3.

12. Paul never engages the question of hell, but clearly indicates a resurrected body on the Day of the Lord for those who are in Christ.

13. Revelation speaks of a lake of fire, originally prepared for the Devil and his angels.

14. Matthew speaks of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

15. Scripture does not teach that ministers must be celibate.

16. Nor does Scripture teach that ministers must be male.

17. In Christ there is not "male and female," therefore, there is no function in life or the church in which a qualified woman or man cannot serve.

18. The laying on of hands is attested in Scripture as a means of grace whereby individuals are sent with ministry purpose.

19. Scripture also attests to the importance of study for the minister.

20. Therefore, it is appropriate for groups of believers to provide means of education and commissioning for the work of the ministry, known as ordination.

21. The doctrine of justification by faith is well attested in Romans and Galatians, and indicates that, when we first enter the people of God, a right status with God is only attained by putting our trust in him and in his king Jesus.

22. We put our "faith" in Jesus by confessing allegiance to him as our Lord.

23. The writings of Paul in Romans 2, 2 Corinthians 5, and James 2 also indicate that our works as a believer will be recognized on the Day of the Lord.

24. Works follow naturally as a result of having the Holy Spirit.

25. The Holy Spirit inside us empowers the image of God within us to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

26. We can be in Christ, have received the Holy Spirit, have left Egypt, and still not make it to the Promised Land. We can be disqualified for the prize despite having once been justified by faith.

27. Depravity in Paul is a thorough depravity rather than an absolute depravity. Every aspect of our selves is marred by the power of Sin over this world.

28. But the image of God is not destroyed. Thus while we do not have the power to be righteous for justification on our own, the goodness of God is present in us because we remain in the image of God.

29. All the world is under the power of Sin. Augustine called this dynamic a "sin nature."

30. For Paul, human flesh is under the power of Sin in this world unless the power of the Spirit takes over. Paul does not speak of this dynamic as a nature.

31. Temptation is not sin. It is when temptation has conceived by intention that it is sin.

32. There is such a thing as unintentional sin. Christ has atoned for all the unintentional sin of the believer.

33. Paul never says that we sinned "in Adam," as Augustine indicated. Rather, because of the power of Sin we sin like Adam.

34. Therefore, no individual is condemned because of the sin of Adam.

35. Original sin only has validity as a reference to Adam's original sin. I have no guilt because of Adam's sin, only its consequences.

36. The power of the Spirit makes it possible to love God and neighbor and thus to fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law.

37. Paul rejects any theology that considers sin the default life of the believer. We are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.

38. The basis of justification is the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

39. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ is his obedience unto death.

40. Paul likens Christ's death to an atoning sacrifice that God offered or displayed.

41. The doctrine of penal substitution goes beyond the scope of what is claimed in Scripture.

42. We find in Scripture the sense that Jesus satisfied God's justice and that Christ died "for us."

43. But Scripture does not develop a doctrine whereby Christ mathematically satisfied a quantitative justice that was the sum of all sins past, present, and future.

44. "Sola fide," faith alone, thus must take into account the full biblical picture. Our act of faith is the trigger of justification.

45. Our faith is more than an intellectual assent but an act of allegiance that involves a life of faithfulness.

46. If our faith allegiance departs from Christ, then those acts can disqualify our justification. Any version of sola fide that does not take these truths into account is not biblical.

47. Being in Christ is a relationship. Relationships are seldom broken by a single moment or act, but they can be broken.

48. In the working out of Christian theology, both Calvin and Wesley suggested that God's grace empowers us to make the choice of faith. These are logical extensions of broader theology.

49. Wesley believed that this "prevenient grace" was a grace that empowered a free choice. This "theology of the iceberg under the surface" fits best with the appearance of a free choice in Scripture.

50. "Sola gratia," grace alone, needs to recognize that grace in the biblical texts derives from the world of patron-client relationships. In this world, grace could be solicited and could come with informal expectations.

51. Biblical grace thus can be solicited by our prayer of repentance, and our faith in God and his Christ can solicit forgiveness and justification.

52. Grace thus also comes with the expectation of commitment to Jesus as Lord. Such grace can be trampled on and insulted. One should not think such grace would then continue.

53. "Sola Christi," Christ alone is the effective basis for justification. God has chosen of his own free will the offering of Christ as the sole basis of justification.

54. Abraham was justified by faith in God when he was still uncircumcised, that is, a Gentile. He is thus the model of those who are justified by faith in God who are not Jews, as well as the model of faith for those Jews who are justified by faith.

55. He is at least possibly a model of those who have faith in God even though they have not yet heard of Christ. Such individuals would still be justified by faith on the basis of the offering of Christ.

56. When Augustine, Wycliffe, and Calvin read the predestination language of the New Testament in absolute terms, they did injustice to half of the biblical language.

57. Predestination is primarily about the plan of salvation rather than the individuals who are saved, and God's plan involves the participation of human wills.

58. When the Reformers invoked "sola scriptura," they had a pre-modern hermeneutic that was unaware of the extent to which their reading of Scripture was still guided by the rule of faith God developed in the church.

59. The Reformers only eliminated extraneous aspects of catholic tradition that were obvious to them but retained many appropriate core features of tradition, like the Trinity.

60. Because individual interpretation of Scripture uses the individual to provide the "glue" that joins the different teachings of the Bible together and serves as the basis for determining the continuity and discontinuity between that time and our time, the Protestant principle arises. The Protestant principle, set forth by Paul Tillich, is that Protestant churches will continue to split and re-split, to multiply without end, because there is no common basis to join scriptures together or determine the connection between that time and today.

61. Today there are over 30,000 Protestant churches who think they are just following scripture alone. In short, history has shown Luther the loser of his debate with Erasmus.

62. Interpretation and exegesis only tell us what it meant. They do not tell us how God wants us to appropriate it.

63. The Bible should thus be appropriated in communities of faith.

64. The appropriation of Scripture not only requires contextualization by communities of faith.

65. The appropriation of Scripture to individual situations requires improvisation. There is no Pharisaic list of application that can account for every possible situation.

66. Communion was originally a meal that remembered the Last Supper of Christ and looked forward to another meal with him in the eschaton.

67. God has used communion throughout the centuries as a means of grace, whereby the partaker with faith is spiritually empowered to love of God and neighbor.

68. Baptism was a Jewish rite that the early Christians used to signify the washing of sins and incorporation into the people of God.

69. As children were born to these first believers, it is at least possible they were baptized as well. Certainly this became the tradition of the church.

70. Infant baptism indicates that the child is in the people of God, a partaker of its faith, until the child reaches a point when he or she could make that faith his or her own.

71. The child receives a grace mediated through the community in which he or she is baptized. It is a protecting grace.

72. The adult in baptism receives a means of grace as well through the community. It is an including grace. The adult is now reckoned fully in the people of God.

73. The legalization of Christianity was not evil.

74. The organization of Christianity is not intrinsically evil.

75. Nevertheless, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When the church and state coincide, oppression eventually happens.

76. Therefore, the church should be very cautious about its involvement with the state.

77. In keeping with the way God governs the world, the church should not try to force the world to believe as it believes.

78. The church should not try to force the world to pass laws that fit with its particular theological understanding--especially the understanding of one specific Christian group.

79. The church should focus its involvement with the state on supporting laws of general morality--those which prevent harm to others.

80. In keeping with the prophets, its activism should focus on protecting those who cannot protect themselves and empowering all the members of society.

81. The social gospel was not wrong because of its focus on helping the needy and marginalized--this is what Jesus did on earth.

82. The social gospel was wrong because it left out other essential parts of Christian faith--Jesus as Lord, not least.

83. Fundamentalism is a reduction of the Christian faith to a visceral reaction against changes in modern culture.

84. All truth is God's truth, no matter where he reveals it or we discover it by his grace.

85. The New Testament says "Love God and love neighbor" is the fulfillment of the whole law. There is no commandment of God for our lives that is left out (Matt. 22:37-40; Rom. 13:8-10).

86. The love of neighbor includes the love of enemy. God himself loves Satan still and grieves at his perdition.

87. The love of neighbor and enemy never contradicts the love of God, for God never asks us to do or be anything for him that is unloving toward our neighbor.

88. God's justice fits within the context of his love. He is not a slave to justice.

89. God has the authority to forgive without payment. This would be no problem for him but less helpful for us.

90. Our love of God and Christ consists in our submission to his will as our Lord, and his will is that we love one another. God's will is that we love what he loves, and he loves not just the individual but the whole of humanity, groups within humanity, and indeed his creation.

91. There are many points on which Christians disagree. Paul gives guidelines for such situations.

92. On matters of personal conviction, each person should be fully convinced of what God expects of him or her.

93. Despite individual freedom, Christians should behave in a way that is loving toward others. Despite individual freedom, Christians should behave in a way that builds up the faith of others.

94. Paul affirms that no object is intrinsically unclean. It is a matter of personal understanding and conviction. Many actions are not intrinsically unclean. It is a matter of your intention as you act.

95. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Everything else is mostly ice cream on the cake.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy Final

This is the eighteenth and final installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, without comment.
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A Recapitulation Plus
In this booklet we have tried to show:

1. That the Fall of Man necessitated a Coming of the Lord.
2. That the truth of a Kinsman Redeemer required the Coming of the Lord.
3. That this Kinsman Redeemer would come into this world by a different process by which ordinary men came.
4. That God gave to Abraham Four Promises in which may be seen the Coming of the Lord.
5. That these promises applied especially to Abraham's descendants through Isaac (Israelites) and not through Ishmael (Arabs).
6. That God began to work on this Four Promise Program when Joseph was sold into Egypt.
7. That He has worked on it since then with some successes and hindrances.
8. The World Setting at the First Coming of Jesus Christ.
9. A Lost Golden Opportunity at Jesus' First Coming.
10. How Far God has progressed with This Program in the time of people now alive and the prophetic meaning of this.
11. The chronological order of chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39 of Ezekiel, a sign of the Coming of the Lord.
12. The riddance of Palestine of the Turks in World War I, an indication of the end of this age later on.
13. World War I was the first birth pang in the period Jesus called the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:8) Armageddon will be the last travail pain which will bring the birth of the Millennial Dispensation, hence, a Second Coming Sign.
14. That World War II, another birth pang, helped bring the New Jewish Nation and made way for, at least, a three fourths partial fulfillment of Ezekiel 37, indicating the end of the age.
15. That the Jewish economic situation now following the groove of Ezekiel 38 is a sign of the coming of the Lord.
16. That the Palestinian stage is so fully set now for the Russian invasion that it is a great sign of the Coming of the Lord.
17. How the Fourth Promise has determined the destinies of Nations and Individuals.
18. The Time of the Russian Invasion.
19. The Purpose of the Tribulation.
20. How the Fourth Promise applies to the antichrist and the False Prophet in connection with Armageddon.
21. The details of the Battle of Armageddon.
22. The Four Promises to Abraham as they apply to Christ's Millennial Reign and to Gog and Magog of Revelation.
23. Two prophetic outcroppings in the Election of 1960 show the shaping of events pointing to the Coming of the Lord. The sentiment of incongruous Church Federation is a sign of His Return.
24. Jesus Christ, at His Revelation with His Holy Angels, will wipe out all communists, including the Greatest, the antichrist, and destroy Communism forever. Amen!
25. We are living in a world of smouldering animosity, trying to get rid of God. It is an hour of pent-up tensions. Smouldering animosities eventually will blaze and pent-up tensions will break.

VIII. The Count Down On The Launching Pad
In these days of missiles, we read about rockets on their launching pads before they begin their journeys—in case of war journeys of devastation and destruction. When these missiles are placed on their launching pads, there probably is a period of anxiety and tension, especially while the count down is on and very especially at the moment of the Zero Hour of firing. The Nations today are on a launching pad of Anxiety and Tension. In the light of the whole of prophetic signs, God, in His heaven, has already begun the count down. The Zero Hour is the shout and descent of the Lord for His upward-looking and deceased saints—the Rapture. The count down, seemingly already on, is 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0. Only God knows where we are in it. For the nations, following the Zero Hour, is the terrible, incomprehensible Tribulation. For the redeemed, at the Zero Hour, is eternal salvation and immortality. Reader, are you, yours, your neighbors, and acquaintances ready for this Hour?

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 17

This is the seventeenth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, the second to last post. His opinions were quite intertwined with events almost 60 years ago, a good warning against tying contemporary events to interpretations of Revelation. JFK did not turn out to be the beginning of the end or the final push of communism (he actually sparred strongly with the Soviets). Indeed, the Roman Catholic Church would undergo a spiritual revival in the late 60s at Vatican II. My grandfather's thoughts, however, are fascinating from a historical perspective, as difficult as they may be to read at points.
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VI. The Last and Greatest of the Communists
In our previous discussion of the Third Promise to Abraham in the Election of 1960, as well as in the caption above, we may, at first thought, seem far field. But not so, for the forces at work under both captions are headed eventually to try to block this promise to bless Abraham had to make him a blessing to all the families and nations of the earth, through his greatest Son—Jesus Christ.

In discussing this theme, we need to refer to some Bible truths. There's the truth of a Divine Trinity, comprising God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is also a truth of a True Church and a False Church. The former is hidden and known by God alone. The latter is already in existence, but not fully made up nor fully revealed. As there is a true Divine Trinity so, also, there is a satanic trinity, a counterfeit of the true. We find this given in Revelation, chapters 12 and 13 and chapter 19, verse 20. In chapter 12, we have Satan, counterfeiting God the Father or anti-father. In chapter 13, the composite Leopard beast counterfeits Jesus Christ the Son or antichrist. The beast out of the earth in verses 11 to 18, and called the False Prophet in Ch. 19:20, counterfeits the blessed Holy Spirit or anti-holy ghost. In chapters 4, 5, and 19, we have the True Church and in chapter 17, the false church—the purple and scarlet clad woman. Here this false church must be in peaceful co-existence for the time being with the scarlet-colored beast, for it is carrying her. But who is this beast? A comparison of chapter 13, verses 1 to 3, will show that it is the same beast in both chapters. But in chapter 17, the yellow leopard has lost his black spots and become, apparently, scarlet all over. What does this change of color mean? In my opinion, it indicates not only his ruthless, bloody disposition, but also his communist ideology of government. I would say, here is the last (with the False Prophet probably included) and greatest of the Communists—worldwide communism in its final form under the terrible antichrist of the Great Tribulation, which and whom Christ Jesus will destroy with the brightness of His Coming.

VII. A League or Federation of Churches (Revelation, Ch. 17)
And who is this purple and scarlet-clad woman who is the Mother of harlots and Abominations of the Earth (v.5)? In the Bible, spiritual fornication consists in infidelity to the true God and the forsaking of Him for false gods—the sin of idolatry. Written upon this woman's forehead was, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots (or margin fornications) And Abominations of the Earth? The word, Babylon, has the idea of confusion in its meaning. This woman then is in religious confusion. She is the mother of spiritual fornications—evidently, the mother or originator of false and idolatrous religions. She was born over for millenniums ago (about 2347 B.C.) down at old Babylon under the institution of the mighty Nimrod, the rebellious panther and mighty rebel against God. Before the building of the tower of Babel, he and his wife, Semiramis, originated the beginning of idol worship from which have descended spiritual fornications of the earth. As The Scarlet-Clad Woman, decked with the outward finery of the world (17:4), she is here in her final form before her destruction. At this time of her life, there is a federation of ten nations, which we may call the Bible League of Nations that will have put their economic, political, and military might at the disposal of and under the terrible scarlet beast (Ch. 17:13)—the awful antichrist. They, for a while, will tolerate this idolatrous False Church and then finally turn on her and destroy her root and branch (Rev. 17:3, 15-17). In the light of her origin and nature, we may safely conclude that she is a religious monstrosity made up of idolatrous Roman Catholicism, Apostate Protestantism (the Modernists, including all churches who preach only a Social Gospel), the Orthodox Greek Church, Mohammadanism, possibly Buddhism, and some other false faiths—a League or Federation of Churches or Faiths.

But who is this miracle-performing False Prophet that directs and controls the religious side of the antichrist's kingdom (Revelation 13:11-18)? As he is likely the head of one of the federated religions above, and as the Roman Catholic faith is probably the strongest of these, could it be that some Pope will eventually be this Prophet? Whether this be true or not, he will finally establish the worship of the antichrist of God (Revelation 13:12, II Thessalonians 2:3-4) and the worship of the antichrist's image. Death will be the penalty for those who refuse to comply (Revelation 13:12-18), possibly including the martyrs of Revelation 6:9-11. If we are as near to these events as prophetic truth seems now to point, the only way to escape these two satanic possessed men, this through death or being translated at the coming of our Lord at the First Resurrection. The late election (1960) either began the acceptance of or toleration of the public sentiment that a man's religion does not make any difference as to his fitness to be President of the United States. As this election headed us as a nation in the direction of this idolatrous, purple and scarlet-clad woman, I wonder what God in Heaven thinks now of "the land of the free and the home of the brave?" As free enterprise and religious liberties will finally perish under the Last of the Communists (the antichrist, etc.) at or following the Coming of Christ "with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God” to rapture the true Church, (I Thessalonians 4:16) our hope is to pray that God will preserve these till that event. Amen! Surely, this coming is at hand in God's sight (Philippians 4:5).

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 16

The sixteenth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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The election through which we have just passed (1960) has, at least, two significant prophetic outcroppings. Both should be cause for profound misgivings and consideration on the part of all patriotic Americans and should not be brushed aside or forgotten because the election is apparently over. The First One is the part and the success the big labor bosses had in one of the National Conventions, as well as in the voting, which is heading the groove of the Book of James, chapter 5:1 to 9. Here is the Capital and Labor struggle of the end of this Gospel Age with its predicted outcome. In this, we can see a period in which those with money heaped up colossal fortunes partly because they, by fraud, retained the hire, or at least part of it, of the laborers. Then the laborer raised his cry and the Lord of hosts heard it and took record of the struggle. In this record, the struggle began with the advantage in favor of the capitalist. Finally, the advantage shifts to the laborer, for the multi-millionaires weep and howl for the miseries that have come upon them. These miseries will probably stems from the loss of their possessions, their stocks and bonds, their money, and probable physical inflictions which shall come upon them at the hands of their despoilers. Verse two says their riches are corrupted. The Greek word (sepo) translated corrupted, means to cause to become putrid. It would seem to indicate that some of this great wealth was acquired through smelly ways. Verse three declares that their gold and silver is cankered. Here, the Greek word (katioomai) translated cankered, means to be rusted. Rust indicates lack of proper use, decay, and eventually loss. They had wantonly used their wealth till now it is lost and the loss burns their minds as fire.

This capital and labor struggle was already underway when the American Federation of Labor was organized December 7-8, 1886, and Samuel Gompers became president. Strikes since World War II and the 116-day Steel Strike the summer of 1959, with the president election campaign, indicate how far Capital and Labor have traveled in the predicted groove of this Fifth Chapter of James. During the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1908) Capital was in the saddle and he brought suit against big trusts to curve them. Now the big Labor bosses are in the saddle as predicted, and no one seems able to curb them but the Federal Government, and the politicians seem afraid to buck them. We, the innocent consumers, have to suffer and eventually pay the bills for the strikes which are passed on to the public through increased prices. This is unchristian and when God's Great Judgment Day rolls around, Capital and Labor both will have to meet whatever is unjust in this gigantic struggle.

According to the news press, the Los Angeles National Convention was rigged and one of the most powerful Labor barons pulled the strings which nominated the head of the ticket. He, and others, also helped deliver the votes, no doubt, which brought success to that candidate. The continuance of this type of work will eventually dominate and control the government. Free enterprise is facing jeopardy and the final loss of their holdings by the rich, in all probability, will come under a socialistic or communistic in government, which is already looming on the American political horizon. This type of government seems to be the final end of this fifth chapter struggle which, apparently, was near enough to the Coming of Christ that the Christians were told to be patient and, of course, get their deliverance through that Coming. The left-wing liberals in both major parties unknowingly and unwittingly pointed in this direction in the recent campaign. Many blindly and ignorantly are swapping off Individual Liberty for the idea of "Security from Cradle to Grave.

I have been thinking for some months, that we are seeing the struggle between the two Great Personalities in the universe in the end of this Gospel Age, namely—God Almighty and Fallen Lucifer or Satan. During this recent election campaign, I had a feeling that a master mind was working out a satanic design and plan and the people high up in our land and lower were blind to Satan's work and plan to destroy our land and liberties through the twins—socialism and communism. Apparently, providentially, an article came into my possession at this time on a similar theme. I will pass out of its ideas on to the reader. Forty-eight years ago (1912), Colonel E. M. House, a personal adviser to President Woodrow Wilson, put out a book with its authorship concealed, advocating a revolutionary movement in our country. He tried to influence President Wilson in the direction of his book's idea, succeeded some, and then failed, with Mr. Wilson repudiating him on Mr. Wilson's death bed. Later he turned to Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt and influenced him in the direction of the revolutionary movement, advocated in Colonel House's book. In the year Mr. Hoover was elected President, (1928) a Socialist Professor of a London school, who also believed in Carl Marx communism and whose name was Harold Laski, came to the United States to help Felix Frankfurter teach a nucleus of Harvard University students in revolutionary socialism. The object was for these, later on, to turn our government in the same direction. After Mr. Roosevelt was elected President, Professor Laski was asked to come to America and help plan the New Deal with its NRA, WPA, etc. During the summer of 1935, young John Kennedy was sent by his father to take work in the London school above, under the revolutionary Professor H. Laski. Later, he returned home and went to Harvard where were the revolutionary sowings of Mr. Frankfurter and Mr. Laski. It seems to me, from all of this, that Satan is the master mind behind a set program, working through people ignorant of his purpose, to turn our country away from blood-bought liberties and privileges and set up a Godless dictatorship.

The Second Prophetic Outcropping in the recent election (1960) is to be seen in the breaking down of what may be called an unwritten, verbal precedent of thinking that a true Roman Catholic cannot be a true and safe President of the United States because of the views held by the leaders of his church by which he must abide. According to printed statements which appeared during the late contest in the publications fearful about American religious liberty, this church does not believe in the American doctrine of separation of church and state. As far as I have ever read, the Pope has never renounced the claim to political authority as well as to spiritual authority and infallibility. Hence, it is not being a bigot to feel and say that no American can be a safe and true American leader as long as he is under the authority and control of such foreign power. The late election, at least, began a breach in the thinking barrier against such leadership and danger, and with a hole in the dike, this election trickle unless dammed up four years hence, may become a flood which can never be turned back. Suffice it to say, very little change may be seen in the coming four years, but may we not reasonably expect a considerable widening of the break in the dike if four years more are added? And we may add this, that in states where a governor of this church has been elected, legislation has been passed, granting rights not existing before, such as public bus transportation to Roman Catholic schools and allowing garbed nuns to teach in the public schools and be paid out of public tax money, which then finds its way into the coffers of this church. Let Americans beware!

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 15

The fifteenth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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The Four Promises To Abraham, 
The Millennium And Magog

Let us now give some consideration to God's Four Promises to Abraham in connection with Christ's Millennial reign. In point of time the first part of Promise Three, namely, to give him a blessing, would come first. Only a third of the Jews in the Promised Land had survived the awful Tribulation (Zechariah 13:9) and they needed to repent and acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Saviour. In verifying this promise in the hour of their great need Jesus lets them "look upon Him Whom they have pierced" and then "pours upon them the spirit of grace and of supplications". Immediately follows their great national repentance in which their anguish is so great that each family mourns apart, the men mourning to themselves and their wives mourning to themselves (Zechariah 12:9-14). Christ hears and gives them redemption (Ch. 13:9).

Next it would seem that the Holy Land would need some kind of rehabilitation after the world-shaking events of Armageddon. Possibly this may be referred to in the blessing of Daniel 12:12. Then God could really give Israel the land as originally promised in Promise Two, all of the way to the Euphrates.

Promise One would now be in order as the Jews had been scattered by the antichrist (Daniel 12:7). Jehovah (Christ) will gather them from the corners of the earth from their last dispersion. The woman of Revelation 12:14-17 who fled out of the Tribulation into the wilderness for three and a half years—probably to Petra in Edom—will be gathered also and the Nation rebuilt and reunited under one ruler (Ezekiel 37:22 and 24). In the light of this last reference and of Matthew 19:28 and Revelation 3:21 there might be some sort of tribal dividing of the land again. Also the millennial form of government would seem to be Jesus Christ, Lord of lords, "king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9, Revelation 19:16), David sub-king and prince over the whole nation again, the twelve apostles sitting "upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew 19:28) and the glorified church sitting with Christ in His throne of glory and associated with His ruling. With this setup established there will follow the most glorious period of government and peace that this world has ever seen. In it will be seen the millennial Temple of Ezekiel chapters 40-43. Also in it, "Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Isaiah 27:6), probably spiritual fruit more especially than economic and physical, she being the head nation of the world (Romans 11:12). From these scriptures, from Zechariah 8:21-23 and Isaiah 11:9 we infer that Israel, under their Messiah, will be the missionaries and evangelists of the Millennium with astonishing results.

At the end of this thousand years and after the devil has been loosed from the bottomless pit he will lead a senseless rebellion out of earth's millennial population against Jerusalem, the capital of Christ's millennial kingdom. Those involved are called Gog and Magog. Then will God verify the Fourth Promise to Abraham again that his descendants shall in great measure determine the destinies of nations and individuals, devouring these by fire from heaven. There is a sense in which this Fourth Promise will apply in the Cycles of Eternity, as destinies finally determined are eternal.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 14

The fourteenth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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From Zechariah 12:7-10, 14:2, and Revelation 11:1 it seems there will be an element and place of protection for a Jewish remnant in Jerusalem. Yet the invading forces will besiege the city. In connection with their military equipment they will have horses (probably cavalry), mules, camels and asses. Finally Jerusalem will fall. The Jew-hating soldiers will rifle the houses, ravish the daughters of Abraham and carry into captivity half of the city. Then will come the climax of this great and final battle of this age. The Bible says in Zechariah 14:3: "Then shall the Lord (Jehovah—Jesus Christ) go forth, and fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of battle" (Joshua 10:14). This "going forth" is described in Revelation 19:11-21 shortly after the marriage of Jesus Christ, the divine Bridegroom, to His earthly bride, the true Church and quickly following the great marriage supper. By referring to Zechariah 14:4 we conclude that on His white charger He leads the armies of heaven on a sort of honeymoon down to the Mount of Olives on the east of Jerusalem.

To round out the setting further we need to notice that Armageddon is the harvest of the vine of the earth, the godless, and a wine-press scene. In Bible days grape juice was obtained by placing the grapes in circular vats and letting men bare-footed tramp the juice out. Naturally they would stain their raiment with running around in the vat. At Armageddon the grapes for the vats are the armies of all nations and the vats are filled to overflowing. The treader is Jesus Christ, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5) Who has left His heavenly covert with a "roar from on high" (Jeremiah 25:30 and 38). When His hallowed feet shall touch Mt. Olivet as mentioned before it will cleave asunder from east to west and half of it "shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south," ( Zechariah 14:4), making a very great valley under such an earthquake as was never on earth before. (Revelation 16:18). Besieged Jerusalem was divided into three parts, Rome, Paris, Berlin, London, New York "and the cities of the nations fell" with their statues and monuments (Revelation 16:19-21). The configuration of the earth's surface was changed, for "every island fled away." Also the Alps, the Andes, the Rockies and "mountains were not found" (verse 20). The consequent result of this terrible earthquake in the nations was the loss of multitudes of lives. Simultaneous with all of this is another phase of truth about the Armageddon scene.

We refer to Isaiah 63:1-4. It would seem from this passage that the treader of the wine press goes from Olivet to Bozrah in Edom and alone treads northward the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God along the 200-mile battle front from Bozrah to Armageddon, dying His garments with the blood of His enemies. (Here He is also the smiting stone of Daniel 2:45 "cut out of the mountain without hands"). When he encounters their cavalry He smites the horses with terror and blindness and their riders with insanity till probably they, caught in the "great tumult from the Lord" with the rest of the invading host will turn on each other to help destroy themselves and others in their armies (Zechariah 12:4 and 14:12). Two more critical phases of the battle will add to its awful carnage. At this juncture the Lion of the tribe of Judah, in His wrath, will deal two trip-hammar blows against His enemies and the enemies of the descendants of Abraham. We gather this from Jeremiah 25:32, 33 and Revelation 16:21. According to these passages He will raise up a great whirlwind (great tempest A. S. V.) and hail storm far, far worse than Hurricane Donna which brought devastation to Florida this year. This storm will wreak havoc "from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth." As these hailstones are to weigh a talent and as the Attic talent was about fifty-six pounds and a Jewish talent about 102 pounds it is likely that these stones will vary between these two weights. We can hardly conceive of the damage, devastation, ruin and death that this terrible storm will bring to the armies at Armageddon and to people and buildings all over the world. The other blow is a living death upon those who have escaped other destructions by means of "their flesh consuming away (possibly rotting) while they stand upon their feet, their eyes consuming away in their holes and their tongues consuming away in their mouths." The cavalry of these armies, their mules, camels, asses and beasts shall consume away like the soldiers. By these two frightful blows shall these invading forces be battered and inflicted till blood will come out of this Armageddon wine press for 200 miles unto the horse bridles (Revelation 14:20). According to Jeremiah 25:33 there will be no mourners, no undertakers and no funerals for these slain but according to Revelation 19:17 and 18 God will give their bodies to the fowls of the heavens in a great supper. The commander of these armies, the antichrist, and the false prophet seemed to have escaped death for they both were cast alive into the final hell—the "lake of fire burning with brimstone." (Revelation 19:20). I think they received resurrection bodies like the lost dead will have after the Judgment of the great white throne because they were still alive 1000 years later when Satan was cast into the same final hell. Thus we see according to the fate of the antichrist and and the false prophet, and according to God's Fourth Promise to Abraham may and are a great determining factor in the destinies of nations and individuals.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 13

The thirteenth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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The Fourth Promise, The Antichrist 
The False Prophet And Armageddon
Because the antichrist will, near the middle of the Tribulation, after his breaking of his covenant with many Israeli, launch and carry to and through Armaggedon the most terrible persecution which they have ever experienced, he must incur the penal consequences of God's Fourth Promise to Abraham. Eventually he will silence every preacher except the angel of Revelation 14:6 who will preach the Everlasting Gospel from the heavenly spaces to all peoples. He will add to his other murders the despiteful slaying of the two heavenly-returned witnesses of Revelation 11:3-13—Elijah and Moses or Enoch. He and the False Prophet will increase his guilt further by their compulsory, ruinous, totalitarian, collectivistic economic policy (buying and selling) and by their meting out death and starvation probably to those who refuse to cooperate (Revelation 13:16, 17). In addition they will put over a repulsive idolatrous worship of the antichrist and also of his image, with pain of death for refusal to comply. Jews, of course, will rebel and be slaughtered by the thousands probably. During the three and a half years ministry of the two witnesses mentioned above, in all probability the 144, 000 Israelites of Revelation 7:3-8 will be saved and sanctified holy. These fire-baptized evangels will go out into all the world and be used of God to turn to Him the great host of Gentiles which no man could number (Revelation 7:9-17). As the two witnesses' ministry is 1260 days or three and half years, and as the antichrist slays them at the end of the second woe or Sixth Trumpet Judgment toward the end of the Great Tribulation, then their work would have to begin before the middle of the Tribulation. Hence the campaign of the 144,000 Israelites would be in the last half of it (Revelation 11:1-14). Therefore the antichrist will not stop all preaching till near the end of the Time of Jacob's Trouble toward Armaggedon. From Matthew 24:14 we can infer part, at least, of what they will preach. From Psalm two we can see the effect of their ministry. I think they will preach the gospel of the kingdom, (Matthew 24:14) saying as John the Baptist and Jesus did, "Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." They will probably remind the nations that their Messiah has come and taken back to heaven with Him all the redeemed ones who were ready, dead or alive, at this time of the rapture and resurrection. They will also declare that He will in a short time come again to earth, set up His earth-wide kingdom upon the restored throne of His father David in Jerusalem, His capital city, and that the law of the Lord for the world will go out from the capital (Isaiah 2:3) and that all sin will be put down. According to Psalm two this message will cause a furor of anti-Semitic hatred. The antichrist will call his ten confederate dictators to a Conference, possibly inviting others also. According to Psalm 2:1, marginal reading, they will tumultuously assemble. Their satanic-inspired decision will be to blot out the Israelitish race and block the setting up of a Messianic kingdom (Ps. 2:2 and 3). Satan will take a personal part by sending out a demon from himself and by helping the antichrist and false prophet send out of their mouths a demon apiece (Revelation 16:13-16). These three demons will be a satanic recruiting officers to enlist and gather the kings of the inhabited earth with their multitude of troops to Armageddon to the great day of God Almighty. Thus with the help of the devil will the antichrist assemble his vast host for the great and bloody battle of Armageddon—far, far more bloody than bloody Antietam in 1862.

The Battle of Armageddon
Armageddon is located in southwestern Galilee either in or near the plain of Esdraelon, an Old Testament battle ground, in the vicinity of Mount Carmel. Here will be the northern end of the Armageddon battle line of the combined forces of the nations. Isaiah 63:1-4, especially verse 1, gives us where the southern end will be, namely at Bozrah in Edom, south of the Dead Sea. Between these two points will the antichrist station these united troops, for 1600 furlongs or 200 miles (Revelation 14:20). He, as generalissmo, will place his headquarters "in the glorious holy mountain" (Daniel 11:45) possibly the Mount of Olives on the east of Jerusalem, or Mt. Zion in the city. From the following Bible passages we may infer some of the likely details of this terrible battle: Zechariah 14:14, chapter 14:1-16, chapter 12:2-9, 13:8 and 9, Joel 2:32 and 3:2, 9-17, Jeremiah 24:29-38, Revelation 11:1-2, 14:18-20, 16:16-21, and 19:11-21. According to the first reference Judah will fight at Jerusalem in this battle. The present population (1960) of the new State is about two million. (1,837,000 Jews and 225,000 non-Jews, total 2,062,000).

If the two million Jews in Russia and if some of the five million in the United States should immigrate into the new Jewish nation before Armageddon this influx might increase the present population. This we cannot tell for this battle is as the very end of this Time of Jacob's Trouble and as the bloody persecution (Zechariah 13:8 and 9) and scattering (Daniel 12:7) of the Israeli by the antichrist will have been under way for almost three and a half years the total population then might be even less than now. At least according to Zechariah 13:8 and 9 two-thirds of the people will be killed before and including the battle casualties. Since Haifa bay is the finest sea port on the eastern Mediterranean it is likely that the antichrist will land many or all of his armies from the West at this place. In such a case he would send them south past Jerusalem through the valley of Jehoshaphat, (Joel 3:2 and 12) east of the city, and on to Bozrah in Edom—a 200-mile battle line. Whatever may then be left of the present, very efficient Israeli army may contest this southward march, at least fight at Jerusalem as mentioned before (Zechariah 14:14). In some of the struggle it seems that these Jewish troops, supernaturally helped, will give an unusual account of themselves and inflict heavy casualties on their foes (Zechariah 12:6-8). The subnormal among them will be equal in fighting abilities to Israel's greatest king, David in his palmiest days. The house of David among them will be in this battle as the angel of the Lord.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 12

The twelfth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, copied here without comment, although I find it fascinating that my grandfather was drawing on the ASV. I wonder if it was in one of his sources, or perhaps he used it when he was a student at Wabash College in the first decade of the 1900s.
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The Time of the Russian Invasion
When will Russia march into the Middle East? In my opinion this question cannot be specifically and dogmatically answered. We may, however, offer some preferential ideas on this point. I do not think this invasion is at the same time as Armageddon but before because at the latter all nations gather against Jerusalem. In this Russia with certain, well-specified allies will invade the land. Also here Russia is the commander Ezekiel 38:7 (American Standard Version 1901, marginal reading). At Armageddon the antichrist is the commander. Then the means of divine destruction in Ezekiel 38:19-23 varies from Armageddon in Revelation 16:18-21 in brother's sword against brother in the invading forces, and in the use of blood and an overflowing rain with fire and brimstone. Armageddon has the earth's greatest earthquake with fleeting islands and obliterated mountains (Revelation 16:18 and 20). In Ezekiel 39 the sacrifice following Russia's destruction is for fowls and beasts whereas the supper after Armageddon is for fowls only. (Revelation 19:17). In Daniel 9:27 we have mentioned the length of the Tribulation, the Jewish covenant of one week or seven years with the antichrist. Jeremiah chapter 30:7 calls this period or at least the last half of it the Time of Jacob's Trouble. In my opinion the Russian hordes will enter Palestine either in the first part of this period or three and a half years before it begins. Ezekiel 39:9 tells us that, after the Russian slaughter, the Israeli will be making (A.S.V.) fires of the military spoils for seven years. As the antichrist will break his covenant with the Jews in the midst of the Tribulation week and launch the worst campaign of persecution and destruction which Israel has ever undergone, they certainly could not be burning the spoils of the Russian invasion in the last three and one half years of this time of Jacob's Trouble. Hence they will have to do this seven years burning during the first three and one half years of the Tribulation plus three and a half years in the Millennium or during three and a half years before the Tribulation plus the first three and a half years of the Tribulation. The first alternative would have the problem of separating the spoil of this invasion from the spoils from the awful battle of Armageddon. If the second alternative is correct the time of Russia's march would seem to be near and certain in the lives of people now alive.

Let us pause briefly to give an example on the positive side of this verification of Promise Four. We, with our finite limitations, are not able to roll back the undercover curtain which conceals some things in the affairs of men. But when the affairs of men and nations shall have been unrolled at the last great assize (Revelation 20:11-15) of the human family, I dare say we shall find that the forward march, success, fame, prosperity and greatness of our nation will have stemmed in considerable measure from the positive phase of this Fourth Promise to Abraham because we have blessed his descendants in giving them equal rights and privileges with all other nationalities and with our native born.

God's Purpose And Intent For The Tribulation
In order to understand better the Fourth Promise and its connection with the antichrist and Armageddon it will be well to give consideration to the why, purpose and intent for the Tribulation. God's main thought in fulfilling His promises to Abraham is the salvation of Israel and of the Gentiles as well. As the Jews as a whole will never come back to God in a spiritual return and believe on Jesus Christ as their Messiah, they will have to be driven into a corner to bring such spiritual recovery of them that will believe. One why then for the Tribulation will be to drive Israel into this corner. Another reason is found in the Scripture truth that the righteous shall inherit the earth. It is an evident fact that not many of the righteous are inheriting much of this earth now. Then with Satan and his crowd in almost complete control of this world and with it characteristic of them that they will refuse to give up such control without a struggle, it will be necessary for God to use the Tribulation to break their grip upon the earth and thrust them out in order for His Son and His saints to inherit the earth in the Millennium. Hence the why, purpose and intent of the Tribulation is that God in carrying out His Four promises to Abraham may bring Israel and the Gentiles to submission and salvation, thrust the devil and his crowd out of earth's possessions and control and turn this world over to His Son, Jesus Christ, and His redeemed ones for their inheritance in the Millennium. Hallelujah! Another why is God's retributive justice and judgment against sin.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 11

The eleventh installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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Promise Four: Israel The Determining Factor in the Destinies of Other Nations and of Individuals
Let us consider again the Fourth Promise to Abraham. It is: "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee" (Genesis 12:3). Another way to state it is: That God would make Abraham and his descendants through Isaac The Determining Factor in the destinies of other nations and of individuals. The treatment the Jews received from nations and individuals will determine more or less the prosperity or downfall of them. (Matthew 25:34, 40, 45, 46) All of the other three promises have had fulfillments and suspensions on account of Israel’s disobedience and sins. But this Fourth one has had God's fulfillment from time immemorial down to our modern present and will continue to have it throughout the coming Millennium and the cycles of Eternity. One of the earliest examples is to be found in the loss of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea after the years of Israelitish bondage in Egypt. The present ruins of the mighty Babylon whose king Nebuchadnezzar carried the children of Judah down to that city after destroying Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem testifies to this same fact. The fall of the great Roman Empire after her destruction of Jews and Jerusalem under Titus and martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul, give eloquent witness to the same truth. Coming down to modern days the dropping down of England in the rating of nations and her loss of India and the Suez Canal probably stem from this Fourth Promise because of the contributing part she had in the slaughter of the six million Jews under Hitler by the shutting the doors of Palestine to the fleeing sons of Abraham through the MacDonald White Paper restrictions* (May 1939). Another example is seen in Germany reduced by World War II from the foremost nation in Europe to a far less powerful and divided country. The Eastern part of it (and possibly the Western) will according to the Scriptures, march with Russia, in the near future, to a terrible retribution for destruction of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whom she sent to their graves alive, and whom she consigned to the gas chambers, crematory ovens and mass graves with other suffering. We have a newspaper clipping giving the death of Mr. Hitler and his one-day-old bride, Eva Braun, in which a German war prisoner detailed to help dispose of their bodies, April 30, 1945, before the fall of Berlin which gives this information. Mr. Hitler's last wishes were that his body be cremated so that he would not be captured dead or alive by his enemies. This German and two others were to burn the bodies of Hitler and his bride. Hitler shot himself and she poisoned herself. The three men did not fully succeed in the burning. Mr. Hitler's head was not marred and it, with what was left of their bodies, fell to the Russians. Thus his terrible persecution of the Jews was a determining factor for his fate and that of his country and he was even denied his dying request for his body.
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* The slaughter of six million Jews under Hitler and MacDonald White Paper restriction’s part in it, taken from “The Fall and Rise of Israel”, by Wm. L. Hull, publisher, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, page 234, used by permission.
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Let us now give consideration to how this Fourth Promise has affected and will affect the destiny of Russia and her final allies. The 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel give the final word on the subject. First, it seems to me that Russia has, for the present, blocked God's regathering of the two million Jews from her land which should have returned with other nationalities under Isaiah's 43:6 "I will say to the North 'give up' or 'give me.'" This is, in a sense, cursing them because of more favorable living conditions in Israel which Russia is preventing them from enjoying. Then Russia is taking a murderous attitude toward the little Israeli nation. The Arab block of Nations with President Abdel Nasser of Egypt as one of the main instigators, is bent on the destruction of the State of Israel. Russia has fanned this Arab hostility and has promised extreme Arabs to obliterate Israel. This commitment is more than two years old and it would seem that she must make good on it pretty soon or lose face with the Arabs. She has armed Syria and Yemen and rearmed Egypt and Arab nations next to the Jews have clearly given the information that these munitions are to be used on Israel. Before the Middle East Crisis * in October and early November 1956, Russia had armed Egypt far beyond what the Egyptian army could use. Colonel Abdel Nasser had trained a commando army called fedayeen in Cairo, Sinai and in the Gaza Strip. They had been used by night to raid Israeli settlements, destroy homes and property, waylay houses, kill school children and others. Finally the Egyptian high commander indicated over the radio The Voice of the Arabs that Egypt was about in readiness to begin the war to destroy the Jewish State. The Israeli seeing that they would get little help from the United Nations, mobilized their forces and shortly before dark on October 29, 1956, struck at the Egyptians in the Sinai Peninsula campaign. In a week's time the sturdy, fast, Jewish troops conquered the Peninsula, destroyed or dispelled upwards of a third of the forces of Egypt, and took great amounts of military equipment. The Russians in part or the whole had furnished this vast amount of equipment. It included hundreds of tanks, heavy artillery, armored cars, one million heavy wool blankets, two million cotton sheets, 100,000 summer uniforms, an equal number of winter uniforms, a large amount of munitions which the Arabs did not understand how to use, trucks, fuel oil, gasoline, twenty-five years supply for Israel of medicines and antibiotics and other things. Evidently the Jews had captured a Russian supply and storage arsenal for future use of Russia in trying to take over the Middle East. This very successful Israeli campaign had uncovered Russian duplicity and intentions. Russia was angered greatly but prior events in Hungary probably hindered Russian retaliation. But Russia with her allies will yet march with a mighty army against the little Jewish State. Then the Lord of hosts will intervene to save His chosen people and to verify the fourth promise to Abraham. According to Ezekiel 38:18-23 (especially v. 23) and 39:7b; 13b; 17b:21 and 27 not N. A. T. O. but God, will turn Russia back and destroy five sixths of her till it will take the Israeli seven months to bury the dead (Ezekiel 39:2 and 12). By this the nations will know something about God and that He overrules in the affairs of nations.

*Some of truth about the Middle East Crisis (1956) and the Israel Sinai campaign gleaned from Wm. L. Hull’s book “Israel Key to Prophecy”, publisher, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, pages 36-37, used by permission. Some truth from other sources, including Dr. G. Frederick Owen’s book “Abraham to the Middle-East Crisis” published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, pages 384-387, used by permission.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 10

The tenth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's 1960 prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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From the setting up of the New Israeli Nation it was declared that the State would be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of the world, although the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) did not pass the Law of the Return till June, 1950. The door was now open for the second great exodus of Israel. The first was out of Egypt under Moses. This we have seen since World War II which it seems to me is a fulfillment lacking the spiritual return of Israel, or a token fulfillment of the following Bible passages: Jeremiah 16:14-19, Chapter 30:18-24, Chapter 31:1-14, Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Isaiah 43:5-7. Possibly the fishers of the first passage was the Zionist agitation following World War I and the hunters may have partly been the terrible, brutal work of the Nazi under Mr. Hitler, the butcher. Chapters thirty and thirty-one were to be connected with a return in the latter days. The four points in the return of Ezekiel thirty-seven seem to have been fulfilled except point 4 which now seems to be in a process of preparation. The four points are (1) Regathering, (2) Rehabilitation, (3) Restoration (as a nation) and (4) Rebirth Spiritually. The First Prime Minister of the new Israeli State, David Ben Gurion, has said: "Ezekiel thirty-seven has been fulfilled and the nation of Israel is hearing the footsteps of the Messiah." If an unsaved Jew feels that way about the Jewish situation how should we feel? In my view Isaiah 43:5-7* is included in fulfillment in this extensive, mass exodus we have seen since Israel was recognized as a new State among the Nations—1945. In these verses God states and promises that He will regather Israel from the four points of the compass. In each case the Hebrew verb is different with a different meaning. In connection with Jews in the East God said, "I will bring thy seed." This gathering then was to be sweeping, free and without opposition. And it happened that way. Thousands came by ship or airplane from China. Others came from Malaya, Burma, India, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. About the West God said, "and gather thee from the west." The Hebrew translated "gather" means collect, assemble, gather. Here the idea is take some but leave others. Jews have returned from Egypt, Libya, Tunia, Algeria, Morocco, Argentine, United States, Canada and other American nations but not like from the East. About five million are yet in U. S. A. In speaking of the gathering from the North God said, "I will say to the North 'give up' or 'give me.'" And they have returned to Palestine from Italy, France, Holland, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon but not from Russia where about two million Jews yet live. Should a large influx from here occur it would seem to have special prophetic significance as pointing to the end of our age. Concerning the fourth group God, according to the Hebrew, mentions a country and not a direction, and yet that country would show the direction. He says, "I will say to Teman" the Hebrew name for the land "Yemen" or "I will say to Yemen keep not back or do not restrain or hold back." God's hand is seen in this very interesting regathering for an Arab king of Yemen permitted them to go freely after a 3,000 years stay in that Arabian country, and at a time (1949) when all of the Arab nations wanted to destroy the Israeli nation. Also a sudden, spontaneous urge to leave Yemen spring up within them and from above eight hundred different localities they started to go toward Aden on the south shore of the Arabian peninsula in the country, Hadhramaut. All they knew was that there was an Israeli state with a David (David Ben-Gurion) as ruler. The urge then must have been from Jehovah. When the Jewish nation learned of their exodus it brought them from Aden by an airlift into Israel. Something over 48,000 were flown in. The urge came in 1949 and by September 1950 Yemen was without Jews. When the old men would get out of the planes they would stoop, kiss the ground and say, "Where is he?" Evidently meaning the Messiah. Certainly God was fulfilling Isaiah 43:6 and working toward his promises to Abraham.

In this great exodus of Israel, the saddest phase is to be seen in the case of 200,000 Austrian Jews who had been in the Nazi death camps and gas chambers. Their cremated bodies were brought in June 1949 in thirty jars in a large glass casket for burial in Israel like Joseph's bones in the First Great Exodus. The prophetic meaning of this great modern exodus of Jews is that God has been and still will be carrying out His Four Promises to Abraham up to the coming of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who will then take over the completion of those promises in the Millennium and probably in the New Heaven and New Earth.

There is still another angle of truth which stems from this Jewish return. It is found in Ezekiel Chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine verse 10. Mentioned here is an economic condition among these returned Jews which throws some light on where the world is as to the coming of the Lord. This Scripture informs us that in the latter years and latter days (verses 8 and 16), after this modern exodus the returning ones would be living restfully, safely (verses 8, 11, 14) and prosperously (verse 12). They were to be prosperous enough to have spoil and a prey of silver, gold, cattle and goods. Also they were to be living in towns without walls and gates. When Ezekiel penned this 2500 years ago, the towns usually had walls " and there was no spoil or prey to take". Also there were no forests because of God's curse on the land on account of Israel's failure to obey him. Now there are no villages which have walls and the spoil and the prey are there, including the stupendous mineral wealth of the Dead Sea. As the Zionists have planted millions of trees, the forests are there or are now growing. Three years ago (1957) a man called Carl Alpert wrote of conditions in the Israeli nation and he found that the people were dwelling not only prosperously, restfully, and safely but also confidently. The Hebrew word translated "safely" may be translated also "confidently." While there was some tension and awareness of danger from Arab hostility yet there was among men on the street the feeling of confidence that the splendidly-trained and well-equipped Jewish army simply could not lose in case of an Arab war. Hence, if we have eyes to see, we behold the Jewish economic condition today following the groove Ezekiel said it would take in the latter days when Russia (Magog with leader Gog) would bring a great war machine upon the mountains of Israel. The Palestinian stage seems fully set for this foretold invasion shortly before the return of Christ the second time. This economic condition is God's modern work on the Third Promise to Abraham that he would bless him and one way to do that would be to restore productiveness to and in the land.

*Truth about the mass exodus of the Jews suggested in Isaiah 43:5-7 with meaning of Hebrew verbs obtained from "The Fall and Rise of Israel" by Wm. L. Hull, and from same author's book, "Israel, Key to Prophecy" both published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, pages 345-349 and (Key) pages 11, 14, 15, 18, 22, and 23.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 9

The ninth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's 1960 prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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The Palestinian stage was now set for the working out of the Third Phase* of a Jewish return to the land. This phase would be the ceasing of the Mandate and the control of the land coming into Jewish hands and the setting up of a new nation and a mass immigration of Israel from all parts of the earth. But this Third Phase was to meet with terrible opposition. During the great war England made two opposite commitments to two different peoples. To the Arabs, through Colonel Lawrence, she promised to maintain the present status of them if they would rebel against the Turks. To the Jews, through the Balfour Declaration, she promised her support of the Zionist idea of Palestine as a National Home for the Jews. Trying to carry water on both shoulders caused trouble and plagued the British administration of the Palestinian Mandate. Eventually she favored the Arabs above the Jews because this course seemed to be more to English interests and practically counteracted the Balfour Declaration. Thus she let down God's cause and purpose for the Holy Land and abetted the conflict between Arabs and Jews which began centuries before in the household of Abraham at the weaning time of Isaac, the father of Israel, when Ishmael (the father of the Arabs) made fun of Isaac. In May 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II in the same year, the British Government inaugurated its MacDonald White Paper policy* by which only 75,000 Jews would be permitted immigration into Palestine in the five following years. The yearly rate was to be 10,000 with 25,000 refugee cases being added. Then there was to be no more immigration of Jews without Arab consent. By this policy the death knell was rung for Jews fleeing under Hitler’s purge. They tried to flee his gas chambers, crematory ovens and tortures, to Palestine but many were turned back by the British navy and could not enter the land. Certainly many of the six million that perished would have entered if it had not been for the White paper policy. After the second great war ended in 1945 the blunders of English administration of the Mandate drove the Jews into terrorist practices until needless deaths of British soldier boys in Palestine stirred up a public sentiment back home which brought the British surrender of the Mandate, May 15, 1948.

With the passing of the Mandate came immediately the new Jewish state. The forerunner of it was the Jewish Agency† of the Zionist Movement. In the early days (1923) of the British Mandate the Jewish Agency had been suggested by Dr. Weizmann but it did not begin to function till 1929. It was to be the instrument of Zionism for the Holy Land. The one who was President of Zionism's Organization was to be the Jewish Agency President. The end of the Mandate actually came at midnight Friday, May fourteenth. Eleven minutes later President Harry Truman recognized* Israel as a nation—6:11 P.M. New York time, 12:11 A.M. Palestine time. The next morning on the Jewish Sabbath, officials of the Jewish Agency instituted the new Jewish Nation, David Ben Gurion, a Russian Jew, became the first Prime Minister, and a nation was born in a day. But God the third time had verified His first promise to Abraham to make him a (great) nation.

* Gleaned from "The Fall and Rise of Israel", by W. L. Hull, page 120, used by permission.

* MacDonald White Paper policy truth taken from “The Fall and Rise of Israel”, pages 204, 210, and 234, used by permission.

† Truth about Jews Agency obtained from “The Fall and Rise of Israel”, by Wm. L. Hull, pages 151 and 158, used by permission.

* Truth about President Truman recognizing the new Israeli nation, its first Prime Minister and the Law of (Jewish) Return, gleaned from "The Fall and Rise of Israel", pages 316, 323, and 350, used by permission.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 8

The eighth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, brought to you unedited from 1960, without comment.
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Before the great war broke out he had, in his research in chemistry, discovered a new process of fermentation by which to produce acetone, necessary for making cordite gunpowder. With the war's beginning he offered this information to the English officials. This gunpowder made naval guns effective. Early in the struggle a serious shortage of this gunpowder occurred. First Lord of the admiralty Winston Churchill engaged Dr. Weizmann to produce 30,000 tons of acetone to remove the powder shortage. In connection with his work for the war effort he pushed for Zionism and its aim for a Jewish home in the Holy Land and for the stand finally taken by the British Government in the Arthur James Balfour Proclamation, November 2, 1917. This Balfour Declaration stated that the British Government was in favor of a Jewish national home in Palestine and that it would put forth its efforts to achieve this goal. Though Dr. Weizmann was mainly responsible for the issuance of this Proclamation, God's hand may be seen further in the truth that some well-known British men, as Prime Minister Lloyd George, Mr. Churchill, Secretary Balfour and others who, loving the Bible and believing in it, had been taught that the Jewish return to the Holy Land would be a move of God. But at this time the Turks were still in control of the Holy Land. Earlier they had entered the war on the German, Austro-Hungarian side. Now they and English troops were fighting for its possession. The outcome of this struggle would decide the success or failure of Dr. Weizmann's efforts to obtain Palestine for a Jewish home under British control. As God was behind the Weizmann effort so now the Lord evidently stepped in to bring success to the English arms in order to clear the land of the Moslem Turks and make way for the Jewish return. This is evidenced by some providential things in connection with the following events: In the war the Germans considered the Suez Canal, controlled by England, the jugular vein of England's Empire. Britain was using it over which to bring troops from New Zealand, Australia and India and she was determined to hold on to it. She gathered troops in Egypt and sent an expedition against the Turks into the southern part of the Holy Land. This had bogged down around Beersheba and Gaza for a while. In my opinion God moved on the mind of prime minister Lloyd George* to cause him to call from the western battle front in France, the brilliant cavalry General Sir Edmund Allenby and place him in command of the foregoing Palestinian expedition, in July 1917. Two things in connection with General Allenby's command of the British Army providentially help to break the morale of the Turkish army and eventually to give the victory to the English. One was the Arab proverb which held that when the waters of the Nile River reached the Holy Land the Turks would lose Jerusalem. General Allenby in his advance into the land brought along with his army of twelve-inch pipeline conveying daily 600,000 gallons of Nile water. This carry out of the Arab proverb put fear into hearts of the Moslem Turks. The second thing which help break Turkish morale was the fact that Allenby's name could be read in Arabic Allab Nebl—meaning Prophet of God and this put another fear into their hearts. Allah was the name of God in the Mohammedan or Moslem religion. With these providential helps coupled with Allenby's brilliant generalship God brought the fall of the Holy City of Judaism, Jerusalem, December 9th, 1917, the clearing later of Palestine of the power of the Turks to the Euphrates River and the signing on October 31, 1918 of a Turkish armistice. On November 11, 1918 the great war ended all over the world in eleven days after this armistice, after God's purpose to wrest the land from the Turks was accomplished, thereby advancing the furtherance of his four promises to Abraham.

When British Prime Minister David Lloyd George called General Allenby in June 1917, from France to take charge in July of the expeditionary forces from Egypt he informed Allenby that he desired Jerusalem for a Christmas present for the English people. For 673 years it had been under the control of those of the Mohammedan or Moslem faith, 400 years of which was under the Turks. The Crusaders in eight religious crusades had been unable to rescue it permanently from the Moslems. Why did the Christian General Allenby succeed when others had failed? It seems to me the only answer is God. Allenby was God's man for this hour and this was God's hour for His purpose for the Jews.

According to Ezekiel 38:8, 12 and 16 in the latter days and latter years—the days of our generations—there would be a gathering of Israel out of the nations into the Holy Land which had been brought back from the sword. It is a known fact that the Moslem religion is a faith that has been propagated by the sword. Its founder Mohammed declared that to spread this religion by the sword was the will of God. Then this bringing back of the land from the sword would be ridding it of the Turks and the control of the Moslem faith. This event was to be near the end of this Gospel Age when men in their greed, covetousness and lust for power would help set the stage for the last great events in human affairs before Christ's coming back to take over control of this world. World War I was the beginning of the setting of this stage. For Jewry it opened the almost closed door to Palestine. In April 1920, just after the war, England was given the Mandate for the Holy Land and during her almost thirty years mandate 500,000 Jews entered the land of their fathers. Thus World War I brought to pass the second phase of God's work to rid the land of the Turks, put it under the control of a nation in favor of it as a homeland for the Jews and to inaugurate the earlier parts of the modern fulfillment of God's Promise One to Abraham to Make Him a Nation.

* Truth about Lloyd George and General Allenby’s Palestinian Campaign obtained from Wm. L. Hull’s book “The Fall and Rise of Israel”, published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, pages 125-130, used by permission. The Abrahamic application is our own.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 7

This is the seventh installment of my grandfather's prophecy book. I present his words exactly as they were in 1960 without evaluation. They are very interesting from a historical perspective.
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It is my belief which can be backed up by numbers of examples, that God in His eternal purpose at certain and at critical times has His man for that particular hour who may be Christian or sometimes non-Christian. He, by God's overruling power, turns some situation in a direction it would not have gone and by this turn God's eternal purpose is eventually or immediately reached. An example of this is to be seen in Abraham Lincoln the savior of his country 100 years ago. Such also was the situation in the Jewish world in the early 1890’s when God was stirring up Jewry. Anti-Semitic outbreaks in Russia, Germany and in France in connection with the unfair treatment of a Jewish French army officer named Dreyfus, had occurred. God needed a modern Moses to lead His people and help them respond to the urge to return to the land of the Jewish fathers—the Holy Land. That man for that hour was Theodor Herzl,* a Jew born in Hungary 100 years ago (1860). He completed his education from the University of Vienna with the degree Doctor of Laws. Within one year he took up journalism and writing which carried him to France at the time of the persecution of Dreyfus. Stirred by this case he became the leader of the Jewish return under Zionism partly, at least, through his book Der Judenstaat—The Jewish State and was princely chairman of the first Zionist Congress. In 1949, forty-five years after his death in 1904, his body was taken by airplane from Vienna to the Holy Land and buried on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, after his coffin had been viewed by thousands of appreciative Jews of the new Israeli nation which he had helped to found. Before his death he had written, "God breaks the instruments that have served his purpose. No Moses ever enters the Promised Land."†

At the death of Herzl time was ripening for God to put His hand into world affairs in order to verify to Abraham in the modern world His first promise to make Abraham a great nation. As the Moslem Turks were in control of Palestine and as they would not sell it to Jews and vacate it, God must now channel some ambition of some nation to bring about phase number two—the passing of the control of the Holy Land into the hands of some nation favorable to a Jewish home in it. Again we will see that God had another man for this hour to follow Theodor Herzl. He was the Jew, Chaim Weizmann, Born in the Russian Pale in Motol in 1874. Educationally he achieved a doctorate and became a lecturer in science and a research chemist. In 1904 he moved to England, took up work as a lecturer in chemistry in Manchester University and in 1907 took a three-weeks trip to Palestine. Out of this visit came enthusiasm and plans for Zionism and the Holy Land. These were pushed by him after he came in touch with three members of the First World War British cabinet—namely Prime Minister David Lloyd-George, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill and British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour. This work of Dr. Weizmann and more we shall mention was in divine order, in order to carry out God's eternal purpose and verify His promises to Abraham.

At this point in world affairs we can see a clear fulfillment of the Bible statement, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain" Psalm 76:10. in 1908 Austria Hungary had annexed the two Serb (now called Yugoslavia) provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This stirred the range of the Serbians and they formed a terrorist society called the Black Hand, with which to retaliate. Partly, at least, through the meddling of some big European powers the Balkan states, aroused with fierce nationalism, were a veritable European powder keg. The Austro-Hungarian rape of the two provinces above was the fuse to the powder keg. What would be the match by which the fuse would be ignited? The following circumstances were the match which set the fuse afire that ignited the powder keg. Around 10 a.m. June 28th, 1914, the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife went to Sarajevo, the capital of the Bosnian Providence. While they were motoring from the town hall a Black Hand Serbian terrorist boarded the running board of their car and shot both of them to death. This gave Austria Hungary the excuse to declare war finally on little Serbia (Yugoslavia) which set off the largest war, up to that time, in the annals of mankind—World War I. In this war God channeled the wrath of contending armies to His praise and to the forwarding of phase two—the changing of the control of Palestine. Dr. Weizmann had a very important part under God in helping make this change possible.

* Page 120, used by permission. Information on Theodor Herzl, his birth and work. Also on Mr. Chaim WEizmann, his birth and work from Wm. L. Hull's book "The Fall and Rise of Israel", published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, pages 109-123, used by permission.
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† "The Fall and Rise of Israel", by Wm. L. Hull, page 114, used by permission.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 6

This is the sixth installment of my grandfather's prophecy book. I present his words exactly as they were in 1960. They are very interesting from a historical perspective.
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IV. How Far Has God Progressed With This Program?
When the Lord began with it, naturally, He must begin with number one the formation of the nation. Then the second one would be the providing of a land in which to place the nation. With this people still in existence but in a world-wide dispersion we would naturally expect this order to be reversed when God began his work of bringing the Abrahamic Promises to final fruition. We would also expect the prophets, if their writings and the Bible are inspired, to follow the same order, too. In other words, the Lord's Work Program would begin on the land first to take away the desolate condition and then follow this with the return of the people, letting them help rehabilitate the land. If you will turn to the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh chapters of the Prophet Ezekiel, written about 2500 years ago, you will find this reversed order in connection with world affairs in the time of the end of this Church Age. In chapter thirty-six God gives a discussion in connection with the restoration of the fertility and productivity of the land of Israel. In chapter thirty-seven He follows with the truth of the restoration of His dispersed chosen people to the land in this end time. This is immediately followed by chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine concerning the destruction of trouble-making (verse 13) Russia and her satellite allies in the end time. This reversed order is the one in which God has been working and therefore we must be in some phase of this end time.

In 1860, one hundred years ago, God began to increase the rainfall of the Holy Land. A similar increase is promised and Ezekiel 34:26. See Joel 2:23. The former rains fall in autumn; the latter rains in the spring. The rains now, 1960, are about twice as much as one hundred years ago and some of the finest oranges in the world are now being grown in the little Israeli nation. God in His work on the Abrahamic Promises has used His returning people to drain swamps, to fertilize barren lands, to water dry places and to cause the desert to blossom in fruit-producing gardens. The divine order has been the land first—the second promise—and the nation second—the first promise—so as to have the land in shape to receive the great modern Israeli Exodus of our day. Surely this order of work, as well as the work itself, is a sign of the return of Abraham's greatest son. Let us consider next, God's modern work on the first promise to Abraham to make him a great nation.

In this discussion we are indebted to the splendid book of Mr. William L. Hull, entitled, “The Fall and Rise of Israel”,* for some ideas and information which we offer within from an Abrahamic angle. After God began the rejuvenation and rehabilitation of the land which had lain more or less desolate for centuries, He must of necessity turn His attention to His chosen people, dispersed among the nations of the earth, in order to begin again the verification of making Abraham a nation. There was no Israeli or Jewish nation at the end of the nineteenth century but God was at work on this phase of His Abrahamic Program. Jews satisfied with their surroundings, possessions and state, would have to be stirred up or bitterly persecuted before they would want to return to the land of Jacob's descendants. Then the first phase of God's work to get such return would be for him to create in the hearts of many Jews an urge and feeling that the time had come for a Jewish return to the Holy Land. Shortly before the outbreak of Russian Anti-Semitic pogroms in 1881, God began to do just this. From this urge and feeling sprang the lovers of Zion movement in Russia out of which came the agricultural colonization movement of 1882. The Lord continued this urge and feeling in the decade 1890-1900 from which came the Zionist movement whose first Congress met in Basle, Switzerland, Sunday, August 29, 1897, with 196 delegates from almost all lands where Jews lived, with the object of establishing in the Holy Land a Jewish national home. In order for God to carry this work of a Jewish return to a more complete fruition, two other phases would need to be carried out. After the stirring up of Jewry the land of Palestine must be wrested from the Turks who had held it for 400 years. Then the second phase would be for the land to come under the control of some nations in favor of a Jewish return and settlement of it. The third phase would be for the land finally to be controlled by the Jews themselves with the setting up of a new nation and with an exodus of them from all over the world.

* Ideas of truth and information have been taken here and there from Mr. William L. Hull’s book, “The Fall and Rise of Israel” between pages 102-350, and restated in our own ways. The Abrahamic angles are our own. Mr. Hull’s book is published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. This part from Pages 102, 110, 111, and 1:20, used by permission.

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 5

This is the fifth installment of my grandfather's prophecy book.
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THE WORLD SETTING AT THE TIME OF
THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRST

Let us look at the world setting at that time. Rome is Mistress of the world. The gates of the temple of the heathen God Janus—are closed for the third time in the 750 odd years of Rome's existence. These gates were opened in times of war and closed in times of peace. It then was a time of peace, with Augustus Caesar as Emperor. Wise men from the East break in suddenly upon the Roman scene with the question, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him"—the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) born in this time of Roman world peace. Also a fiery evangel appears in the wilderness of Judea preaching "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Some time later the world's greatest Evangel appears, using the same text as above. What does this world situation mean? This—that God in His Work Program has inaugurated the beginning of the third promise to Abraham of a blessing and to be a blessing. This, of course, would be brought about through the birth, coming, ministry and complete work of the world's Redeemer—Jesus Christ—the second evangel who used the text "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

The Jews Reject a Golden Opportunity

What will the descendants of Abraham—now called Jews—do with this golden opportunity to receive this third promise and pass it on to this Roman world situation? God lets his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, give the Jewish leaders and nation three years of divine teaching, ministry and works to see. At its end they reject and crucify their Messiah in His coming in humility as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief—His First Coming, saying, "His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matthew 27:25). This rejection of their Messiah suspends again mainly Gods Four Promises to Abraham. In about forty years (70 A.D.) the Romans destroy their Holy City—Jerusalem—their Herod's Temple, and scatter them over the Empire. They lose Promise One and so no nation. They lose Promise Two and no longer any land. The called-out ones, the church, born at their Pentecostal Feast with 120 Jewish members, accepted the Third Promise and preached its benefits to Jew and Gentile individually over the Roman world. The kingdom of heaven, preached by John the Baptist and Jesus was postponed and the Church Age came in.

With this national rejection of this third promise great economic loss came upon the Holy Land to continue for centuries. When Joshua parcelled out the land to the twelve tribes of Israel it was a land flowing with milk and honey with no danger of a depression. The absence of that danger was to be conditioned on the obedience of the Israelites. If they obeyed God the Holy Land would be blessed by its great Care-Taker, Whose eyes were constantly upon this land, and it would yield abundantly (Leviticus 26:3-13 and Deuteronomy 28:1-14) to them. If they disobeyed, God's curse would come upon them and also upon the land. It would finally become a desolation. The Israelites and the land go together. It seems this land will not yield for other peoples. This might account mainly for poor Arab farming. It has been said that with Israel obedient and in the land, world affairs are prosperous and with Israel disobedient and out of this land, world affairs are troubled. As they failed in obedience the land became desolate for centuries under God's promised curses (Leviticus 26:16-46 and Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Such was the Holy Land's condition 100 years ago when Abraham Lincoln was elected sixteenth President of the United States. Such it was when I was born in 1883. Let us see somewhat how far the world has come and how far God has come in the renewal of His work on the Four Promises to Abraham, in the lives of some of us older ones and thereby raise a reasonable inference as to how near we are to the coming, the Second Time, of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, as part of these Abrahamic Promises. Our fourth major point is: How Far Has God Progressed With This Program?

Harry Shepherd Prophecy 4

This is the fourth installment of my grandfather's prophecy book.
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III. God's Work On This Four Promise Program
Let us now turn to a consideration of how God has worked and is working on this program. His work will finally bring the Coming for the Second Time of the Jewish Messiah—our blessed Lord Jesus. God's work in the past, as well as in the present, was seasoned with mercy, expediency and wisdom. Although Abraham was willed the entire Holy Land, God let him be a sojourner only in it and never let him possess personally one foot of it except the cemetery lots which he bought of Ephron the Hittite among the children of Heth—namely the field of Machpelah with its cave near Hebron. Here he buried Sarah. God's mercy is seen in this in that the cup of iniquity of the Amorite was not yet full (Genesis 15:16) so God postponed their destruction and dispossession of the land. The expediency and wisdom is seen in that God's instrument of destruction—the children of Israel—was not yet available. As we have indicated before, God sent Jacob and household of seventy-five souls into Egypt in order to form the nation and build this instrument till the cup of iniquity above was filled. Then God under Joshua destroyed and dispossessed the Canaanitish tribes and gave possession of the land, under warnings and promises, to the 12 tribes of Israel. Just before they entered, Moses (Deuteronomy 11:7-21) told them that God was the great, divine Caretaker of this Holy Land—from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates—and that the Lord's "eyes were always upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year" (verse 12). He also promised that economic prosperity would be theirs for wholehearted obedience to the Divine Caretaker and that reverses and chastisement would follow their failure in obedience. According to Joshua 24:31 Israel gave this obedience all the days of Joshua and all the days of the contemporary elders who overlived Joshua. Afterward failure upon failure followed till God's chastisement fell upon them and God's instrument of punishment, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, destroyed their capital city, burned Solomon's temple and carried the people into the seventy years Babylonish Captivity. Up to this time God and His work on the Four Promise Program to Abraham had carried out mainly only 2—(1) the making of the nation and (2) the giving of the Land for that Nation. On account of Israel's failure and the consequent Babylonish Captivity, God's work on the Four Promises was partially suspended.

When the seventy years Captivity was accomplished in 536 B. C. God resumed His work by causing the great Persian king Cyrus to command his Jewish captives to return to the Holy Land and to rebuild the temple. Some over 49,000 under the governor Zerubbabel returned and finally built the Second Temple called Zerubbabel's. Later under Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah the Persian King Artaxerxes' Butler, another group returned, rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and helped to restore the nation in the Promised Land. Thus God resumed His work on the promises to Abraham. If we want to understand the Bible and the meaning of prophecy we need to remember the part the descendants of Abraham through Isaac have in God's purposes and plan for our world and also remember that they will play the leading earthly role under God in the millennial earth. Israel is a key to Bible truth. With the return from Babylon and with the remainder of the Old Testament, God was shaping things for and working toward the third promise to Abraham—namely to bless him by sending his greatest Son, Jesus Christ, into the world.