JD Farag’s Mid-Week Prophecy Update
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Calvary Chapel Kaneohe, Hawaii


[This is the word-for-word transcript (the looong version). I post these as soon as they’re ready, which is generally Monday night.]

[The video is titled “Syria Update & 1 Samuel 6:7- 21.”]
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What a week! Kind of makes one weak! (I know: that’s -- that’s -- I’ll get back to you on that one.)

Hey, I want to get right into the Word tonight, so I hope you don’t mind if I forego the announcements.

We are going to -- I am determined to -- complete chapter 6 of 1st Samuel tonight. We will pick it up in verse 7. You can go ahead and turn there and just kind of hang out there for just a moment. A couple of things first.

I do and will have a few comments on Syria, but also I wanted to -- by way of a prayer request -- just ask you on Saturday night, 7:00 [sic]. It was confirmed today that I’ll be in attendance here at the church for the Seventh-Day Adventist meeting. They’re going to put to a church-congregational vote the approval of the extending of our lease -- or not.

So we’re not concerned -- in the sense that the Lord, if He closes a door, He’ll open up another one. And we’re not concerned -- in the sense that we’re going to be thrown out on the street tomorrow. We have a lease that’s good until June of next year, and even in the voting, if they decide that the time has come for us to move on and find a place of our own, then they would likely give us even another year beyond that, which would put us into 2015.

So -- but do pray. I’m going to be here at the meeting -- at the first part of it -- answering their questions and addressing some of their concerns. Yes, they do have some concerns. **laughs briefly** So I’m just praying that the Lord will give me the words to speak, that I’ll be able to satisfy their questions and--

I was asked, “Can we come to the meeting?” Please don’t. **laughs** It’s not that kind of a meeting. But you can come by way of prayer: just pray on Saturday night that the Lord would just continue to grant us favor in His sight -- and in their eyes as well.

They have been most gracious over the years. Really it’s been going on nine years now that we’ve had the privilege of sharing this beautiful church building, and I think in some ways maybe we have to some degree taken it for granted, and so-- But anyway, just pray as the Lord reminds you, and just pray for me Saturday night. I hope to be able to have a good report on Sunday morning after the vote.

I will be recusing myself prior to the vote, for obvious reasons, you know. I don’t want to see who votes against us and then get their license number afterwards and all that. **congregation laughs** I wouldn’t want to do that, but-- I’m just kidding! Sort of.

But anyway. So yeah, that’s Saturday night, 7:00, and so, thank you in advance. And we’re just going to trust the Lord.

The Lord is always so good, isn’t He? He’s always so good. I was just reflecting on that this last week, and how that He’s our ever-present help in times of trouble. And He will never leave us nor forsake us.

And sometimes He just will show us in supernatural ways that He’s right there. And He’ll let us kind of see His fingerprints sometimes, and say, “Don’t fret; don’t worry. I’m right here. I’ve got everything under control. You have nothing to worry about.”

And He gives you that peace that Jesus said He came to give, not as the world gives. It’s the peace that Paul talks about in Philippians 4:6 and 7 (really through 8 ). But it’s that peace that surpasses human comprehension. And it just keeps your heart and your mind in check, that everything is going to work out for the good, according to His will and in His time. And it’s always for His glory.

And it’s also for our betterment, though we oftentimes don’t see it, do we? When -- you know -- circumstances are such that we start questioning: Oh Lord!

And we pray and we kind of give God directions and instructions. You know: like He needs to be apprised of the situation so He can better answer our prayer -- our way! **laughs** And so we’ll say things like, “Lord, You know they’re going to have a meeting Saturday night--”

Really? Like God doesn’t know that? You know, He’s omniscient. He doesn’t know they’re going to have a meeting Saturday night? “So, Lord, You know-- And You know-- And You know--”

And I just imagine God saying, “I know. Can you just--? I know all about it. I see the end from the beginning, and you have yet to see what I’m going to do. Just stand back and behold the salvation of the Lord.”

You know, the hardest verse for me in the Psalms is Psalm 46:10. It’s -- and you know it:

Be still and know that I am God.

I have -- I don’t have any problem with the “knowing He is God” part; I just have incredible difficulty with the “being still” part. You know, it’s kind of like when you were in school and young and they would say -- the teacher would say, “Sit still!”

Now if you’re kinesthetic and you have to be moving all the time, this is the worst possible thing that could come upon you, is to have to sit still. Because you always have to be doing something and moving, and so the thought of sitting still goes contrary to the way that you’re wired.

And -- **laughs** -- I’m learning the hard way. I have the scars to prove it -- that it’s best if I just stay out of God’s way and let Him have His way.

And so maybe that’s a word for somebody tonight if you’re going through a situation that’s perplexing and difficult and even confusing, it may not seem like it, but God, behind the scenes, in the realm of the Spirit, is choreographing the steps. And He’s orchestrating those circumstances, and it will work out for the good. We don’t know how, we don’t know when, we don’t know the way, we just know that at some point He will make good come from it.

So anyway.... Well, let’s just close in prayer. That was the-- **laughs**

Hey, let’s talk about Syria just real quick! If that’s possible (we’re going to make it possible). Actually, I’m really excited to talk about the Tabernacle and the Mercy Seat in 1st Samuel 6, so we will get there. But I do want to make a couple of comments on Syria -- actually for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I think I got some ’splaining to do with regards to the homework assignment that I gave on Sunday.

And actually, this is how I know who did their homework and who didn’t. The ones who did their homework were quick to discover that I gave you two opposing views, right? Some of you are going -- **making a confused face**. “Like a trick question, right?”

Thomas Ice was one of the recommendations for 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 and the other was Justin Alfred, and they’re both on polar opposite sides of the table as it relates to 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 concerning “the departure,” “the falling away.”

Thomas Ice believes it is speaking of the Rapture, the Departure, in 2nd Thessalonians 2:3, and Justin Alfred believes it is not speaking about the Rapture, that it is actually talking about an apostasy, a Last Days departure from the faith. So please know--

By the way, I got some very interesting emails and comments from all of our YouTube subscribers and Facebook friends and-- Please know that it was not my intention for anyone to be confused or upset by my doing this. If you were, then please accept my sincere apologies; that was certainly not my intent. I will explain the method behind the madness on Sunday -- the why behind the what -- as to why it is that I wanted to suggest these two opposing views from these two respected Bible scholars -- and really Greek scholars as well.

So actually on Sunday-- I made the decision today to preempt the Romans teaching on Sunday [Sept. 8th]. So we’re not going to continue on in our series on what blesses God in Romans 15. We’re actually going to devote the entire time to Bible prophecy concerning Syria. And then also, since we didn’t partake of communion last Sunday, we’re going to -- I don’t want to rush through -- I always feel like we’re rushed and I’m trying to cram through.

You know, I’ve got the Prophecy Update and then the announcements before. And so announcements, Prophecy Update, study, and then communion. And then I start looking out at you poor people who have major treasures in Heaven for sitting on those hard pews for such a long time, especially when there’s no Trade Winds and it’s humid like it is tonight.

And so sometimes I just look at you. Bless your hearts, you have been sitting there so long! And I rush through and I end up really kind of cannibalizing some of what I really believe God would have me to share.

So what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our time. We’ll have the Prophecy Update concerning Syria, we’ll forego Romans until -- Lord willing -- the following Sunday on the 14th, and we’ll then -- after the prophecy teaching we’ll have a time sharing together in the communion table.

So that’s, Lord willing, this Sunday.

But one last thing concerning the homework: 1st and 2nd Thessalonians are passages of Scripture that are unforgiving when it comes to rightly dividing them. In other words, they’re passages concerning the Rapture that are unforgiving of us not rightly dividing them, especially in light of the prophetic significance of Syria.

You know, what was really interesting today: I happened upon a couple articles. **obviously talking around a cough drop** I spent a lot of time, really, today just kind of researching, reading -- pardon me, I’ve got my cough drops -- because I still have my cough. Ha: imagine that! And -- but I was just reading today, and I was kind of -- what’s the word I -- I don’t know if I was “taken aback” or I was -- I guess I was kind of amused by a couple articles, one of which was a secular article concerning-- And it had the title something like, “Bible prophecy teachers are freaking out over Damascus, Syria, because of Isaiah 17.”

That was a really long paraphrase of this title from a secular article. And it went on to talk about -- you know -- Hal Lindsey, Joel Rosenberg, you know. They didn’t talk about me, thank God. I’m still under the radar and I want to keep it that way.

But they were talking about these Bible teachers, you know, prophecy teachers, and how they’re all excited! And this is -- Bible prophecy, this is Isaiah 17, and you know, they’re all sounding the alarm, and -- sorry --**while waving his arms about, he bumps into a metal music stand which is 8” away from the pulpit, and has to grab it to keep it from toppling** --getting excited and hitting music stands: it’s crazy.

And -- what I was sort of amused about was that they had a difficult time in this article refuting the possibility that this could be the beginning of the fulfilling of Bible prophecy.

The second one kind of along those lines were [sic] not necessarily the secularists or even the atheists, but the Preterists. Some of you are looking at me like, “What is a Preterist?” There’s no relation to “terrorists” -- though it-- **laughs**

The Preterist is the one who believes that all of the prophecies that we have in the Bible have already -- pre-, pre-terist -- have already been fulfilled. Past tense! How they get there is really quite amazing; it’s really remarkable how they twist the prophetic passages into a pretzel to come up with this: “Well, you know Syria was fulfilled in this year BC or AD.”

“And you know the destruction of the Temple and Matthew 24: well that was fulfilled in 70 AD.”

And so they assign all of these prophecies to dates previously in history, and ascribe their fulfillment to a time in the past. [sic]

And I just have to say that I used to -- when I was younger, I was more millitant, and I used to like to roll up my armsleeves and have a really good argument with them, but I’m getting too old for that now. So now I just kind of pity them; I just kind of pray for them.

What a depressing belief to hold when it comes to -- So when they see things happening --

Let me just go on record to -- by the way, some of you are kind of wondering. Maybe you’ve never heard of this before, but let me just go on record and say that this is absolutely false, and there is no way that any reasonable mind, any thinking person with just even an average or below-average IQ could come to the conclusion that these prophecies have already been fulfilled.

You know what it is: it’s akin to replacement theology, which believes that the Church replaces the Jew, that God is through with the Jew. And I -- again, I used to be more militant, but now I just pity those people. I mean, what do they do when they read their Bibles and they see what’s happening in Syria, and they see what’s happening in the Middle East, and they see what’s happening with Israel?

But yet we’ve replaced Israel, so all of these prophecies are sort of now null and void, I guess. And what a depressing place to be, and theology and eschatology to hold! I mean, what -- how could you be a) encouraged, and b) encouraging?

You know, one of the most exciting things for me -- and it’s a privilege for me that every Sunday I get to come up here and stand behind this pulpit and talk about my favorite thing to talk about -- **laughs** -- Bible prophecy. I bet you didn’t know that, right?

And I just -- because it’s so exciting and so encouraging, and it just changes the complexion of everything that we’re going through in this world, this world that we’ve overstayed our welcome.

And when I know that I have Heaven to look forward to, the Rapture to look forward to, the imminent Rapture to look forward to, it makes what I’m going through easier to get through, knowing that I have that to look forward to.

The Preterist does not have that to look forward to. The Preterist has to go through -- you know, who knows what before they can finally -- I guess at the Second Coming-- **after a series of wide gestures off to the right -- toward the future -- his wrist bumps the music stand again**

I keep hitting this music stand. I’m sorry, Ramona. **picking up the music stand and walking out of camera range** Is it okay if I just throw this away -- I mean put it over here? Maybe like this? Is that all right? Just for now? Otherwise it’s going to get slain in the Spirit. **laughs and returns to the pulpit** I’m just kidding. That’s a whole ’nother-- That’s a whole ’nother one! That’s -- uh-- Anyway--

So -- I kind of digressed a little bit there; forgive me. But anyway: it’s just kind of interesting that even the Preterists are having extreme difficulty trying to explain away Damascus, Syria, and Isaiah 17:1.

“Ooh, it was already fulfilled.”

**with a baffled expression** So Damascus will be an uninhabitable city in whatever AD or BC you said it had already happened and was fulfilled in? **gestures off in the direction of Damascus** Uh-- So what is that that we’re reading about? Is that like Damascus II: The Sequel?

I’m sorry for my cynicism, but it’s just absurd. And sad! It’s sad.

Anyway, I just wanted to get it off my chest. I feel so much better now -- at your expense. Thank you for listening.

Hey: things are moving really fast, obviously. I just want to give you a quick snapshot of what happened.

On Monday of course we were all sort of ambiguous about the President ... dithering is the word, and that’s a kind word. There’s been some other words.

But it is a -- it sends a message of weakness. Iran -- make no mistake about it -- is watching from the sidelines, and they love it when the President of the United States flinches, as it were, and shows this undecisive weakness. And one commentator said, “It’s amateur hour.”

Amateur hour. This is a weak leader. And Dan Gillerman, the former UN ambassador for Israel, made the comment; he said, “Our neighborhood” -- speaking of the Middle East -- “is so dangerous and so unforgiving of dithering.”

In other words, “In my neck of the woods, in the Middle East, you don’t dither!” They have a word for dithering, it’s called “done.” **laughs** You’re done! You can’t dither. You have to be decisive, and you cannot show weakness: they’ll just eat you for lunch. (My words, not his.)

But anyway, so then on Tuesday, the Senate hearings commenced. I don’t know if any of you watched this with Secretary of State John Kerry.

And oh, by the way, interesting: I was -- as I’m sure you were -- for those of you who heard about this -- I was just flabbergasted by John McCain. One called him “Insane McCain” and I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but when I tell you -- for those of you who don’t know what he was quoted as saying -- you’ll understand why.

He made the following comment; he said, “When the Arabs, the Muslims say ‘Allahu akhbar,’ that’s that’ s like the Christian saying, ‘Thank you, God,’ or praising God, or--” I forget what the exact quote was; you get the idea. Okay.

And I guess it shouldn’t come as any surprise -- I’m taking way too much time here, aren’t I? It shouldn’t come as any surprise that they caught him playing on his phone poker during the Senate hearings. Really? **shrugs**

Anyway, just for the record again, Allahu akhbar does not mean “Allah is great.”

In Arabic it has the literal translation of “Allah is greater.”

And the reason I stress that and continually mention that is because it is akin to what Lucifer, as recorded in Ezekiel, would say when he was cast out of Heaven: “I will ascend my throne higher. I will become greater than the Most High.”

And if you understand the history of Islam, you know that that was really Mohammed’s whole point of forming the religion (which he did). It was to bring the Jews and the Christians together under the banner of one religion. Interesting: kind of coming full circle in some respects.

But it is Allah: not the same as Jehovah. And it’s not “is great,” it is “is greater.”

And so, please: make no mistake about it!

And for John McCain to say that is just-- It’s inexcusable. It’s inexcusable.

But anyway, such is the-- I hope it’s just ignorance. I hope it’s just ignorance.

But if it is ignorance, it’s still not excusable. In fact, it’s even more inexcusable, because of the position that this man holds, and those with him who may also hold the same view. Anyway.

So Secretary of State John Kerry gets approval with a 10 to 7 vote on Wednesday, yesterday.

Then today -- how many of you saw this?

[Graphic shows a photo of Putin and Obama shaking hands. Putin is seen in profile; he looks grimly pleased -- if not downright malevolent. Probably 4-5” shorter than Obama, he stares not up at Obama’s face, but straight ahead, which is somewhere below Obama’s chin.

Obama’s body is almost at right angles to Putin’s, and Obama is looking off in that direction rather than at Putin. It looks as if Obama would be walking away from Putin -- if only Putin weren’t gripping his hand.]

President Obama is in Russia for the G20 Summit, and wouldn’t you know, as it turns out, that this is -- they call it poetic justice. I think it is.

It’s hosted -- **laughs** -- this year by Russia, of all places: in Saint Petersburg, Russia. And so there was this really awkward handshake between Putin and Obama earlier today. And this was on the heels of Putin -- who, by the way-- You know it’s really bad when Putin makes more sense than some of the lawmakers in Washington. How sad is that?

Actually -- I haven't got the documentation as to the authenticity of it, but the rumor has it that he was actually calling for protection for Christians. Putin was.

And by the way, this Assad -- Bashar al-Assad? Think about this. This is the untold story. He, like Hosni Mubarak in Egypt before him, was a protector of the Christians, as evidenced by when he was overthrown and this Mohamed Mursi, Muslim Brotherhood President, came in, and then was overthrown.

And by the way, isn’t it interesting too that all of these news stories -- I’m talking more about this on Sunday -- but all of these news stories are just eclipsed. You know, we’ve got the debt ceiling coming up: few, if any, are talking about that; this is huge! You have no idea.

All of those scandals: what about the 9/11 Benghazi, Libya, cover-up? Just totally now eclipsed by what’s happening.

And what’s happening in Eypt is not on hold, it’s not on pause: it’s still going on. There was a foiled assassination attempt today in Egypt.

Anyway, but very interesting that this was on the heels of Putin calling -- and I’ve got to hand it to this Russian President. He called John Kerry a liar. And he said, “Not only is he a liar, he knows he’s lying.”

And they have shown us absolutely no proof that the Assad regime used these chemical weapons. In fact, the evidence would be supporting the contrary.

And by the way, did you see that New York Times today? They had a video -- it was actually back in April -- of the -- **air quotes** -- quote/unquote, “rebel forces,” freedom fighters: the ones that we’re going to support -- shooting at gunpoint the military officials of the Assad regime.

By the way, Assad, like Mubarak before him, is a protector of Christians.

The Christians are begging us to pray for us in Syria, because if there is -- **air quotes** -- “regime change” (they swear up and down it’s not)-- If there’s regime change and Assad is removed -- and that’s really the goal: don’t be so naïve as to believe it’s not -- if he’s removed, it will not bode well for the Christians in Syria, the ones who remain.

Keep in mind that they estimate some -- I want to say about 2 million Syrians have fled, like we read last week on Sunday in Amos chapter 1, verse 5: the prophecy about how they will flee Syria and they will go into Jordan.

And they have all these refugee camps. I saw an aerial photo of these refugee camps, and there’s tents as far as the eye can see. And they can’t handle it. They can’t handle all of these people, so voluminous numerically in such a short window of time. It’s a crisis unto itself, and--

But what’s really interesting to me is that nobody really knows who’s who and who’s supporting who in the Middle East. I mean, even CNN was starting to question: “Well, wait a minute: we’re going to support the rebel forces, but it -- the rebel forces are doing this -- and aren’t the rebel forces Al Qaeda?”

There was an interesting -- it appears to be a legitimate news article that somebody published. I guess you can publish an article-- Anyway, it’s titled “A short guide to the Middle East.” And basically it covers the “who’s who” as it relates to Syria. And maybe this will clear up the confusion about who’s who and who’s supporting who.

[Graphic shows a short article, part of a larger page. The author is listed as “KN Al-Sabah, London EC4, UK” -- the format used to sign letters to the editor in Britain. It originally appeared in the Financial Times; it is available on their site to registered users only, but also appears here:

http://now.msn.com/a-short-guide-to-the-middle-east-letter-to-the-editor-published-in-the-financial-times ]

This is what he has to say, this KN Al-Sabah. I presume he’s Syrian or at least an Arab. But here’s what he said. He said, quote:

“Iran is backing Assad. Gulf states are against Assad!

"Assad is against Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim Brotherhood and Obama are against General Sisi.

"[But Gulf states are pro Sisi!] Which means they are against the Muslim Brotherhood!

"Iran is pro Hamas, but Hamas is backing Muslim Brotherhood!

"Obama is backing Muslim Brotherhood, yet Hamas is against the US!

"Gulf states are pro US. But Turkey is with Gulf states against Assad; yet Turkey is pro Muslim Brotherhood against General Sisi. And General Sisi is being backed by the Gulf states!

"Welcome to the Middle East. Have a nice day.”

Did that clear it up for you? Okay!

How about this visual? This one someone emailed to me. This is great: I’m a visual guy, right?

Here’s the visual. It’s also titled A Guide to the Middle East. Now I’m sure this will clear it up for you.

[Graphic shows a chart. There is a circle formed of 19 small boxes, each labelled with the name of a 19 government, a group, or an army; other than the U.S and Russia, all are located in the Middle East. Each box is connected to certain other boxes by blue, red, or green arrows.

The chart (footnoted “ * subject to daily change” ) can be found here:

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2013/08/idiots-guide-to-middle-east-chart.html ]

Here’s the legend: you see all the lines? The blue lines represent who supports who.

The red lines represent who hates who.

And the green lines? Well, they represent those who have no clue! **he laughs heartily and so does the congregation**

There! There you have it! Welcome to the Middle East!

That’s-- Sadly, it is just that -- it’s complicated. As they say, it’s complicated.

Actually, you know, Joel Rosenberg simplified it with a tweet earlier today. He said:

“We’re witnessing clash of 2 great evils in #Syria. Assad’s brutal regime vs. bloodthirsty, demonic al Qaeda. How far off can judgment be?”

And that’s where I want to end the Syria comments. We’ll talk more about it on Sunday, but he is spot-on.

These rebel forces that we’re trying to get approval -- which is going to be an uphill battle. Who knows how it’s going to go down?

But by the way, Russia’s bringing in more ships, China’s bringing in ships, the U.S. has, I guess, still five ships there.

And very interesting that all of this posturing now is taking place. But there is a delusion. You know, we’re told that after the Rapture, God Himself will send the world a strong delusion and deception. People are deceived.

These rebel forces that we’re going to go in to support, that Putin and Russia and Iran do not -- are supporting Assad. [perhaps that should be “Those rebel forces that we’re going to go in to support, that Putin and Russia and Iran do not-- Putin and Russia and Iran are supporting Assad”?]

Those rebel forces that we’re going to support: do you realize it is Al Qaeda?

I saw a thing on Facebook; it was really quite astonishing. It was an armed services in -- I’m not sure which branch -- in military uniform, covering his face with a sign. It said ... “I’m not serving my country so I can go to Syria and fight with Al Qaeda.”

I mean, that --

Well, you know you’re going to hear it as, “Well, there’s many elements.”

Well, that might be, but they’re all dancing to the same demonic drum. And it’s the proverbial lesser of two evils.

[At this point, Pastor JD goes directly into the 1st Samuel 6 Bible study.]

And here's the video for those who prefer video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=br_G3ricSlA&list=UUkz3m787ygph7Uvjxzngl-g
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And a link to the video discussion thread:
http://pub48.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=4086901292&frmid=13&msgid=1106356&cmd=show
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Normally I post a link to Pastor JD's sermon notes (otherwise known as the short version). However, I have no idea if he posts written notes for the Thursday evening teachings; you may be more likely to find a downloadable audio file than written notes. In any case, nothing has been posted for September 5 yet. So it may be some time yet, but when it’s up, it will be somewhere on their site:
http://www.calvarychapelkaneohe.com

Thank you, Perian for all your hard work! The links and everything! You are awesome!!!!

You're welcome, Mom of 2 and Joseph.

Gotta do those links! Don't know if I should blame my being a librarian, or blame the Lord for giving me the weird brain that thinks links are necessary.

Either way, you're stuck with the links.

I am right in there with you my brother and go for the links. I like them

Thank you, Perian! You are wonderful to do this for us!

Thank you Perian

Be blessed
Daniel

Thanks, Daniel and Shellayne!

Pastor JD's new (Sunday) video is out; I guess nobody's started a thread for it here yet.

Thank you for posting, Perian, ma'am!