Mac It is well accepted within secular circles that the ancient Persians are today’s Iranians. Though less known, it is also understood that the Elamites were what they were known as even before they became Persia.
Ancient Elam was situated in the area from SW Iran (just east of the Persian Gulf) up to western Iran. As they grew and spread out, they moved eastward, even as far as India (see the Parsee of India, a derivation of the word Persia).
Written ~800 BC –
Theme: Day of the Lord
Joel 2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD is coming, For it is at hand:
Joel was there in a vision and he is recounting it to the people of Judah (Southern Kingdom)
How would you be if you saw the same thing? What would you do?
Wouldn’t you want to tell everyone:
what was going to happen
AND
how to avoid it
This is exactly what Joel’s message is
What happens when you die, playing harps? reincarnation? nothing?
If you will stay with me today, we will go through and reveal God’s plan for mankind
Where is God? Why does He not reveal Himself? If He exists, why does He not just come to Earth and prove it and prove all the naysayers wrong? Why does He remain in heaven and allow fallible and imperfect humans to do the work of preaching the Gospel and feeding the flock?
There is no doubt about the pagan origin of Christmas and all its trappings.
The word “Christmas” is not found in the Bible
Malachi shows how completely devoid of understanding the Jews of his time were. They did not have the answer to the most basic questions that God posed to them.
But before we think too harshly of them, we must first realize that the book was written for us as well today.
Message for the church today, for the leaders, for the people
The centerpiece of the Feast in the past has been….
How great it is going to be during the millennium
Lion and lamb
beautiful settings
rain in due season; bountiful crops
wild animals are no longer an issue
healings are taking place
a revitalized earth
