Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah - may Yahweh's grace be upon us all.

What a strange and - if you don't have Yah'shua (Jesus) - unnerving time this is. I cannot tell you the deep sense of foreboding I have been feeling since I penned my last article on The Trumpet & Spider's Web. I sense, like never before, this dark cloud enveloping the world and a hastening of those days I have been warning about for so many years - the approaching Judgment of the West, and indeed of all the world.

I feel a great sorrow because the deadline for repentance has almost passed for so many people now - a deadline that has been extended again and again out of the Father's great loving kindness. It is as though further admonitions will now have no effect because everyone has made up their minds which side of the dividing line they're going to be on. And I for one do not want to keep on repeating a message that is going to fall on deaf ears. I get the same sense as Jeremiah did when Yahweh said to him, on three occasions (and that's, then, final):

"So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with Me, for I will not listen to you...Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to Me in the time of their distress...Do not pray for the well-being of this people" (Jer.7:16; 11:14; 14:11, NIV).

It has been a great struggle to bring this sermon to you today. I struggled a whole week, trying to avoid the subject of Judgment because I know how fed up with this message people are, but when I did, the anointing disappeared. Not until I finally surrendered to Yahweh's will last night did He reopen the anointing and I was able to prepare this message. We must not resist the Ruach (Spirit) for to do so is not only disobedience to Yahweh but to deny someone ready to repent to hear it and be delivered. Please bear with me and share this message! I don't know whether this will be the last for a while or not.

There are times in history - and these times often come in cycles - when what Yah'shua (Jesus) prophesied comes true:

"Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold" (Matt.24:12, NKJV).

We stand in disbelief - we are appalled - at the increasing callousness of people one toward another today. There is an insanity in our midst that was never - or very, very rarely - present when I was young. Sensitivity, respect, and empathy for fellow human beings are unknown to many of these people, destroyed as they are by opiate drugs, promiscuity, a break down in family life and discipline, immersion in a culture of violence, and an identity crisis, all of which come about when a people cuts its moorings from sound emet (truth). It is that emet (truth) which defines reality and ensures sanity.

When I was young only two genders were recognised, and this accorded both with that the eyes saw and what genetics confirmed. That remains emet (truth), it is still reality, because your genes cannot lie. Today upwards of 63 genders are claimed even though there is no objective evidence for 61 of them. But gender isn't the only thing the insane are trying to bend - a new genocide is in the making, a genocide against Caucucasians and all males. White men are the new Jews.

The prediction made ten years ago, by the Christian philosopher, Ravi Zacharias, has came come to pass not only quickly but with a ferocity we could never have imagined possible as all the hounds of hell have seemingly been let loose amongst us by the agents of sin. Because of the willfull sinning of mankind, we have come close to the end of reason [1].

Fortunately, not everyone has lost their minds. A large minority is hanging on but it is shrinking. Universal insanity, save amongst the tiny gathered-out remnant, won't happen until the very close of this age a few years down the road. But we are most definitely getting a large foretaste of it. Could it get any worse than it is? Oh yes, when you'll be lucky to find one or two in a town or city who haven't completely lost their minds. Today about a third know what's going on, at least in the West, that is, 3 in every 10 people, so there are still lots of us, but they will diminish in number as the wicked in authority start rounding victims up and murder them en masse. I know that you young folk, who know what it is like to be in a minority already, are shocked and revolted at the possibility that toward the very end there maybe will be less than one in 100,000 who are of a right mind and not hopelessly lost in artificial reality. You will appreciate one reason why there has to be a gathering out toward the end.

You see, this mini-Exodus that we have been commanded to take part in is but training for the 'big one' yet to come. Those who think that we're entering the Great Tribulation now have no idea - not a clue - what the final condition of this world will be like before Yah'shua (Jesus) returns. Were believers, and the Remnant in particular, to be thrust into those conditions right now, they would be fried up. We have so much more to learn. Our training has hardly started!

You know that reason has departed when leading atheist intellectuals like Sam Harris say that they would rather eradicate religion than rape. I remember hearing a left-wing German woman, in the wake of the troubles caused by the mass migration of extremist Moslems to Germany, similarly declaring that she would rather be raped than be seen to be a racist for criticising someone who wasn't of her ethnicity. She was completely brainwashed. Seemingly, while belief in atheism and/or Marxism is worth any price to these people, the raping of women and children has significantly less value...until it happens to them or a loved one. How is this different from Jews passively going to the slaughter in the 20th century? When there is a disconnect from reality - when the afterglow of historical Christianity has gone out in our nations, as it almost has done now - then all proportion and sense of moral value, is permanently lost. If there is no standard any more, save the unstable human heart and mind, then how can there be balance and sanity? There cannot and there is nothing you can to to change it except through the Besorah (Gospel).

Lawlessness always leads to "more lawlessness", said Paul (Rom.6:19, NIV), and lawlessness is birthed when we begin submitting to the passions of our flesh. Therefore, Paul says, "present your members (NIV - 'the parts of your body') as slaves of righteousness for holiness" (bid.) because if you will not, then you will one day hear those terrifying words from the Judge of all: "Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" (Mt.7:23, NKJV).

Abandoning religion, the good along with the bad, is not a recipe for paradise. As Ravi Zacharias himself said:

"The reality is that the emptiness that results from a loss of the transcendant is stark and devastating, both philosophically and existentially" [2].

It is this emptiness that has led great atheistic minds to commit suicide. I have mentioned the brilliant Hungarian-Jewish writer, Arthur Koestler, to you before, for as some of you may remember he and his wife committed suicide because they could find no purpose in life. Suicide has reached unprecedented levels now because of the loss of meaning and purpose in life that atheism and nihilism has brought to the West. Intellectuals in the universities, which are hotbeds of Marxism and post-modernism, both the young and the old, are taking their lives in increasing numbers, and no wonder. It is the satanic age of lawlessness and unreason which breeds meaningless and purposelessness.

To have balance and wholeness in life you have go to know fundamentally who you are, and where you fit in the grand scheme of things. You have to have a purpose based in reality and not the insanity of some intellectual fruitcake. It is for this reason that Messianic Evangelicals, like Baptists and others, are first and foremost KERYGMATICS. Most people know what a 'charismatic' is but few, if any, have heard of a 'kergymatic', which is not surprising since I invented the word (as far as I know), though serious students of the Bible will know what the Greek word kerygma means.

'Kerygma' means to 'proclaim'. Therefore a kergymatic is "one who preaches the Besorah, Gospel, or Good News of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ)". I want today for us to be absolultely clear what that is so that we can explain in the simplest way possible to those we are witnessing to. It is often said by properly trained ministers that "our historical knowledge of Yah'shua (Jesus) validates the Christian or Messianic kerygma". Therefore the essence or heart of the Gospel consists of vital historical events. This is the earthiest, and yet at the same time the most spiritual, religion there is. That which roots its adherents is very much 'in the here-and-now' (physical earth life) as well as 'in the there-and-after' (heaven).

So if someone asks you what the Besorah or Gospel is, what would you tell them? What do you personally understand it to be? And why is it important to you? Could you explain it in such simple terms that an eight year-old child could understand it? Before we look at one or two of the suggestions made by contemporary ministers and theologians, I want to find the simplest and most concise defintion from Scripture that I can, and though I know that Paul can sometimes get rather complex and so "hard to understand" (2 Pet.3:16), I think his definition to the Corinthians is the best we have. So let's go to chapter 15 of his first letter to the qodeshim (saints) there:

"Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand" (1 Cor.15:1, NIV).

So what we're about to read is what Paul preached, it's what the believers accepted and upon which they were taking their stand. This is what they were staking everying on, so it must be pretty important. Further:

"By this Besorah (Gospel) you are saved, if you hold firmly to the davar (word) I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain" (v.2, NIV).

Now we get a listing of the davar (word) that Paul preached consisting of four simple facts:

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:

• 1. that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
• 2. that He was buried,
• 3. that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and
• 4. that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me (Paul) also, as to one abnormally born" (1 Cor.15:1-8, NIV).

Three of these facets of the Besorah (Gospel) are physical and therefore historical: Yah'shua (Jesus) was buried, He was raised from the dead or resurrected, and He was seen by hundreds of people afterwards. So the testimony of those who 2,000 years ago witnessed these three things is of key importance. They are witnesses and we are the jury. That's one reason we have four accounts of 'Gospels' written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The fourth facet is partly physical (that He died) and partly theological (that He died for our sins) in nature and, the latter not being something the original witnesses 'saw' with their physical eyes, nor can we today, and that is, Yah'shua (Jesus) dying for our sins according to the Scriptures. In other words, this is the doctrine of the Atonement. Everything else is basically derived from these two categories of emet (truth) - physical (3½ parts) and spiritual (½ part). If we believe in the physical, historical events [3] then 88 per cent of our enquiry is a matter of intellect and only 12 per cent a leap of emunah (faith), which is why Christianity isn't by 'blind faith' but intelligent faith! So long as you can use your mind and think things through, as people like Norman Anderson and Lee Strobel did, you can know that the testimony of the witness was reliable and true. That is one reason why Satan promotes unreason. He hates people who think clearly. He hates clear-thinkers. He hates free-thinkers, not those who claim they are when their heads are muddled by extreme prejudice.

So these are the two categories of saving principles that we base our hope on - the testimony of physical witnesses and a theological emet (truth). We have to believe them and hang onto them (no 'once saved, always saved' allowed). Can the theological emet (truth) - the reality of the atonement - be tested? Absolutely!

Now understanding the Atonement is a huge thing that we will be fathoming the rest of our lives and for probably for eternity. Obviously an eight year-old isn't going to understand that to any great depth but he can understand in very basic terms - he can know what being rescued from the consequence of wrong-doing means. He knows, if he smashes a neighbour's window, that his parents can be counted on to pay for the damage, which he can't. A child can therefore understand that wrong-doing is what happens when we break Elohim's (God's) rules, the Torah (Law). If his father says, 'you can play ball in the garden but not on the side of the property facing the neighbour's house', and he disobeys, he knows he has broken his father's rule for which there are consequences. If he's too small to have an income and can't pay for the new window pane and repair work, he knows he will have to ask his father for help. That's 'atonement' on a human level.

But indemnifying (make compensation to) an offended Elohim (God) whose Law we have broken is a little 'bigger' to fathom. The method, too, is hard to understand...the cross, something we can't do. The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) has to bear witness of this supernatural rescue from sin by Messiah to our spirit. We can only understand so much intellectually because, whilst there is a physical component to the proxy-indemnity, there is also a massive spiritual one which is beyond our ken. We can only experience its effects, which we'll talk about in a moment. Having accepted the payment of our sin through Messiah's atonement, and been saved, we are thereafter commanded to live the Besorah (Gospel) lifestyle, in other words, the mitzvot (commandments) of New Covenant Torah.

The fact that Yah'shua (Jesus) died, was buried and rose again signifies that something has been done that had never been done before: death had been conquered for the first time ever. Death is the one thing human beings have no control over, the attempts by the élites to find the modern medical equivalent of an elexir notwithstanding (a reason they are promoting transhumanism). It's what mankind fears the most and it's what Satan originally promoted in Eden and what he attempts to drive men and women to before their time. He wants us dead and off the world he once was given charge of before his own rebellion.

Let's now look at what some ministers and theologians think the Besorah (Gospel) is and then I'll ask you to make a summary of your own. Here's what Ed Stetzer put together after meeting with various teams of ministers, asking them for their definitions, and then sticthing them together. It's theologically absolutely correct but could everyone you witnessed to understand it?

"The Besorah (Gospel) is the good news that Elohim (God), who is more qadosh (holy, set-apart) than we can imagine, looked upon with compassion, people, who are more sinful than we would possibly admit, and sent Yah'shua (Jesus) into history to establish His Kingdom and reconcile people and the world to Himself. Yah'shua (Jesus), whose ahavah (love) is more extravagant than we can measure, came to sacrificially die for us so that, by His death and resurrection, we might gain through His grace what the Bible defines as new and eternal chayim (life)."

That's a little meatier than Paul's Corinthian definition but like I said, it's quite accurate, though it emphasises those aspects of the Besorah (Gospel) that mean the most to Stetzer. His emphasis is on grace, which we'll come to in a moment. If you take all that Paul said about the Besorah (Gospel) and try to lay it out - and he went to great length to do so (along with John, James, and Peter) - you will find this subject to have infinite depth...as you might expect [4]. My mind is still spinning from it all. So in making a personal definition, it really depends on what you focus on, and people tend to focus on those things which have impacted them the most in their Christian or Messianic experience.

Definitions like Stetzer's, especially of deep subjects, are not the way the Hebrew mind would present them. Truths the Hebraic way are layered, being built up from the simple to the complex. What matters the most is the overall pattern or tavnith. One way the Scriptures deal with a subject like the Atonement or Cross is to take a key word like 'Gospel' and add simple modfiers, thereby expanding the concept further, giving as a second layer of meaning with which to wrestle and grasp. So throughout the New Testament you will find various 'modifiers' attached to the word "gospel" - there are eight I am aware of - which add more depth and insight, especially when you combine them. Here they are:

• 1. The gospel of Elohim (God) (Mk.1:14; Rom.15:16);
• 2. The gospel of Yah'shua the Messiah (Mk.1:1; 1 Cor.9:12);
• 3. The gospel of His (Yahweh's) Son" (Rom.1:9);
• 4. The gospel of the Kingdom (Mt.4:23; 9:35; 24:14);
• 5. The gospel of the grace of Elohim (God) (Acts 20:24);
• 6. The gospel of the glory of Messiah (Christ) (2 Cor.4:4);
• 7. The gospel of shalom (peace) (Eph 6:15); and
• 8. An eternal gospel (Rev.14:6).

In other words, each modifier indicates distinctive aspects of the message of the Good News, though they are all echad or one. Finally, Paul speaks of "another gospel" which is not an equivalent because it's fake or counterfeit, which he warns believers against (Gal.1:6–11). Needless to say, there are thousands of varieties of these.

As you combine these various modifiers together, so the message blooms like an incredible divine flower of emet (truth), each petal being like a modifier, and Paul's simple Corinthian definition takes on added meaning, and this is what we want both for ourselves and for those we are witnessing to. It's a reason the New Testament writers explain concepts again and again from different angles so that we can get a three dimensional picture of it. If the Besorah (Gospel) is such fantastic news then surely we want to know everything we possibly can about it, especially having experienced it so that we can communicate why it is so incredible precious and needful! This isn't just a product and it's not for sale. This is a matter of life and death and is the difference between one short mortal span on earth and eternity.

Let's now take a look at some pairs formed by modifiers and you'll see what I mean.

(1) The gospel of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) (Mark 1:1; 1 Cor.9:12) and the gospel of His Son (Rom.1:9). These two descriptions speak of the good news of salvation that comes through the person and work of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) who is the very Son of Elohim (God) in human flesh. This is the mystery of the incarnation, and it's a huge mystery and emet (truth). Again, this is a piece of good news about deliverance from sin's penalty (death), power and presence through the two advents of Messiah.

(2) The gospel of the grace or undeserved loving kindness of Elohim (God) (Acts 20:24) emphasises that salvation in all of its aspects is on the basis of grace rather than on some meritorious system of works. The basis is unmerited favour. This is so important because we can't do it ourselves through our good works, as false religion teaches. There is no question of having our good deeds weighed up against out bad ones and hoping the good outweigh the bad, thus leading to salvation. That's paganism. This Gospel of Grace in turns shapes the way we are commanded to treat other people by loving them unconditionally, without expecting them to earn our ahavah (love). We are to show grace to them as Yahweh through Messiah has shown grace to us. So this is double-good news and defines the quality of our relationships down here. This is, then, the two-edged secret of happiness.

(3) The gospel of the kingdom (Mt.4:23; 9:35; 24:14) is the good news that Elohim (God) will establish His kingdom on earth through the two comings or advents of the Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ). The earth doesn't just 'carry on' with all the present ongoing misery until one day it dies millions of years in the future because the sun explodes as a supernova. Yah'shua (Jesus) is coming back to glorify it, removing death, pain and suffering forever - that's really good news too!

(4) The gospel of shalom (peace) (Eph.6:15) describes how this good news of salvation in Messiah brings peace in all its many aspects (peace with Yahweh, the peace of Yahweh, peace with others, and world peace) through the victory accomplished by the Saviour. You'll agree there isn't much shalom or peace in this world. The effect of Yah'shua's (Jesus') death and resurrection brings the shalom (peace) that human beings, especially national leaders, talk about all the time but never seem able to deliver.

(5) The eternal or everlasting gospel (Rev.14:6) expands our perspective of the Besorah (Gospel) as we normally think of it. This gospel as proclaimed by the malak (angel) to the apostle John has several key elements of gloriously good news that are developed in three mitzvot (commandments) and two reasons. First let's read the key passage together:

"Then I saw another malak (angel) flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Besorsah (Gospel) to preach to those who dwell on the earth -- to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people -- saying with a loud voice, 'Fear Elohim (God) and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water'" (Rev.14:6-7, NKJV).

So let's look at the three commandments and reasons here:

Mitzvah or Commandment #1: "Fear Elohim (God)." This refers to a qadosh (holy, set-apart) reverence that recognises the sovereign authority and power of Elohim (God) to deal with man in His qadosh (holy, set-apart) wrath (anger) and thus, to bring an end to the world of sin as we now know it. To fear Elohim (God) is to recognise Him as the true Elohim (God) who can destroy the soul (the whole being) and not just the body as Elohim (God) will do with the beast of Revelation and His anti-Messiah (antichrist) system. This is a unique kind of "fear", very different from the slavish fear that Satan drives the world system with because the fear of Yahweh it is a combined of fear with true ahavah (love), which makes for deep reverence;

Mitzvah or Commandment #2: "Give Him glory." This refers to the praise and honour that should accrue to Elohim (God) from mankind due to our recognition and high estimation of Him as the sovereign Creator of the universe; and

Mitzvah or Commandment #3: "And worship Him who made..." The word "worship" means to show reverence or respect. This word emphasises the external display as seen in our Torah-obedience, prayer, singing, and formal worship. The word "fear" emphasises the reverential mental attitude behind the worship. In the Great Tribulation people who reject Yah'shua (Jesus) will be forced to slavishly fear and formally acknowledge the beast and his image. In this message the malak (angel) is demanding that mankind reject the beast and formally turn to Elohim (God) to worship Him alone (cp. Rev.14:11).

Why should we carry out these three mitzvot (commandments). Two reasons are given:

• Reason #1: "The hour of his judgment has come" is a reference to the final judgments of the Great Tribulation — the 'bowl judgments' as they're called in the Book of Revelation — which are soon to occur (in the time of the generation after my own) that will put an end to the system of the beast and bring about the rule the Master Yah'shua (Jesus), the King of kings. These will conclude with the return of Messiah Himself (Rev.19) and lead to the removal of all unbelievers from the earth. The emphasis is to not delay because the time is short; and

• Reason #2: This is seen in the reference to Elohim (God) as the Creator in verse 7b. Here we are called to pay attention to the ageless and universal message of the creation itself. Age after age creation has called mankind to recognise Yahweh-Elohim’s existence and to seek after Him (cf. Ac.17:26-27; Ps.19:1-6). This means people are without excuse and that, when the malak (angel) proclaims this Everlasting Besorah (Gospel), the hour of the Creator’s judgment is about to fall (see Rom.1:18f). Though this is the essential and primary element of the malak's (angel’s) good news, perhaps he will say more than this, for from age to age a person's capacity to reverence, glorify and worship Elohim (God) has come only through believing and knowing Messiah (cf. John 14:6 with Acts 4:12; John 4:23-24).

It is these three primary mitzvot (commandments), and the two reasons for doing so, that we urgently need to learn and teach in the coming Mishpatim Yahweh - the judgments that are about to erupt furiously on us now. These judgments Yahweh is executing for our sake to prepare us for the even worse time of the Great Tribulation and Final Judgment to come. These are the lessons we have to learn and this is the Besorah, Gospel or Good News that we must both internalise peroperly and proclaim above all else. My generation will see you younger ones through this period but thereafter you have to take up the baton and lead yourselves, cleansed of all worldly thinking, bearing a 100 per cent pure Besorah (Gospel) of Salvation free of the contaminations of man.

Any day now the desperate élites will launch their 'dark event'. An announcement will be made by the Deep State through their cronies which you must not believe and certainly you must not panic. Stay calm, stay cool, keep your eyes on Yah'shua (Jesus) and wait on Him for instructions for your family. Rather than go and do something foolish, keep your mind affixed to the Divine Commission to witness the Besorah (Gospel), at whatever level, to those whom He sends to you or to whom He sends you by revelation. Do all by revelation. Be where you are supposed to be, ready and alert, do nothing rash, and everything will be fine. Fear Yahweh, give Him glory and worship Him! May Yahweh bless us in that endeavour is my prayer in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Ravi Zacharias, The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 2008)
[2] Ibid., p.16
[3] See Sir Norman Anderson, Jesus Christ the Witness of History (Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England: 1985) and Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1998)
[4] See, for example, N.T.Wright, Paul and the Fullness of God, 2 volumes (SPCK, London: 2013) & Paul and His Recent Interpreters (SPCK, London: 2015); James S.Stewart, A Man in Christ (Hodder & Stoughton, London: 1972)

Acknowledgements