Category Archives: Reblogs

The Fourth Trumpet (Revelation 8:12-13)

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

When the fourth angel sounded his trumpet a third of the sun and the moon and the stars were struck so that a third of their brightness and heat would be reduced.

Again, we don’t know exactly what the cause of this phenomenon is. John MacArthur suggests that it is a supernatural act of God, that He “will supernaturally reduce the intensity of the celestial bodies by one-third.”4 Hal Lindsey believes that the “light reduction will result from the tremendous pollution in the air left from nuclear explosions.”5

In either case, the result will be a radical drop in temperature, producing great changes in weather cycles as well as botanical and biological cycles. More importantly, these changes will make it much harder for all humans to live on planet earth.

But there is a second part to this trumpet judgment. As the earth is still suffering from a…

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Prayer Is God’s Idea

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

There is ample proof, through the life of Jesus, that prayer is God’s idea.  For Jesus, who is really God come to us in the flesh, commanded us to pray, taught us to pray, and demonstrated prayer to us.

He commanded us to pray.  Jesus would not have commanded us to pray unless prayer was His idea and His Father’s idea.  All that He commands the believer is part of His plan.  So when He commands us to “watch and pray,” when he says “ask, seek, and knock,” and when He says “men ought to pray and not to faint,” that indicates to me that prayer is His idea and that He is trying to relay that idea to us.  He wants us to know that it will work if we will do it as He says.

He taught us to pray.  Jesus would not have taken such great pains…

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The Third Trumpet (Revelation 8:10-11)

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

When the third angel sounded his trumpet a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on all the fresh waters. And they called the star Wormwood because a third of the fresh water became bitter and poisonous like wormwood (a bitter and poisonous root); and many died from the waters.

Though Hal Lindsey, again, thinks that the star is another thermonuclear weapon, most commentators think it is a celestial body like a meteor or a comet. Nonetheless, the most important thing here, and in each of the first four trumpets, is the result of what will happen—a third of the fresh drinking water will be poisoned so that many will die.

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5 Benefits of Forgiving Others

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

 

There are so many benefits you can reap when you forgive others.  I will put them into five categories:

1. Forgiving others frees us from the consequences of not forgiving. When we forgive we avoid all the consequences we have previously discussed and more.

2. Forgiving others makes healing possible. When we learn to forgive, God forgives us and cleanses us.  And through that cleansing process He thoroughly heals us of all the pain that our anger, bitterness and resentment have caused us.  Moreover He heals us from disgust and rejection we feel from ourselves (from bad habits) and from others.  His cleansing and healing process is so complete that we will feel like a new person (2 Cor. 5:17).  

3. Forgiving others leads to the growth of relationships.What not forgiving has done to destroy relationships, forgiveness will do to develop and nurture relationships.  And that is…

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The Second Trumpet — Revelation 8:8-9

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

When John saw the second angel sound his trumpet something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea (into the oceans and all the salt water bodies); and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the sea creatures died; and a third of the ships that were on the sea were destroyed.

What was the mountain? The bible says “something like” a mountain was thrown into the sea; 4and it was burning with fire. So we don’t know exactly what John saw, but it looked kind of like a burning mountain. And that means that it was very big. Most commentators say that it will probably be a meteor or an asteroid. But Hal Lindsey, again, thinks it will likely be an H-bomb. He states that a hydrogen bomb that explodes in the ocean “would look like a huge, flaming mountain smashing…

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Five Reasons Why Forgiving Another Seems So Difficult

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1. Pride. Pride I think is the main reason why it’s so hard to forgive. Pride makes it harder for us to trust God. We say to ourselves, I don’t want to forgive, and I don’t have to!  And so in our pride we cut off God’s help to us.

2. Fear. Fear also keeps us from His help. We say to ourselves, I’m afraid; forgiveness is too hard. Here again we are not looking to God for help; we are instead looking at our weakness, the giant who hurt us, and the huge problem ahead of us.

So pride and fear I think are the real reasons why forgiveness is so difficult and why we don’t forgive.  But I also want to give you three of the reasons (or excuses) we will give as to why forgiveness is too hard for us—so we can take a look…

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The First Trumpet — Revelation 8:7

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

The seven trump judgments will be revealed in the breaking of the seventh seal, and are judgments of much greater intensity. Whereas the seals were each opened and revealed by the Lamb of God, the trumpets are announced by angels when they blow their trumpets.

The first four trumpet judgments are much like the plagues of Egypt as they are divine judgments on the earth. The next two involve devastation of earth’s inhabitants; and the seventh trumpet, like the seventh seal, announces all that will follow in the Tribulation: the bowl judgments, and all the events leading up to the millennial kingdom.

In the first trumpet judgment God brings hail and fire, mixed with blood; and the result will be that a third of the earth, the trees, and the grass (and probably also grains such as wheat, rice and oats) will burn up.

Now the Scriptures do not give…

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Forgiving Yourself

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Forgiving yourself is what you will naturally do when you accept and receive God’s forgiveness.  When you are forgiven by Him, His forgiveness flows to you and gives you the strength you need to forgive yourself.

The reason why we don’t always forgive ourselves is because we fail to see that God loves us and cares for us and that He really wants to forgive us.  And so we fail to truly repent of our sins—thus the guilt of our sins remains with us.  Accordingly, because we are unable to trust the sacrifice of Christ for us, we feel the need to punish ourselves, to tell ourselves how dumb and stupid we are, to restrict ourselves from fellowship, and to wallow in our guilt.  Some have tried to starve themselves, and to cut themselves; some viciously mutilate themselves.  I think one of the more common ways people punish…

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The Seventh Seal (Revelation 8:1-6)

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarStudying Bible Prophecy

Since the events in chapter seven is parenthetical (or an interlude of time), this seventh seal should follow immediately after the sixth seal, with all of its cosmic disturbances.

Therefore, it must be our assumption that at some point during the end of the sixth seal, while men and women are hiding in caves for fear of the wrath of God, that suddenly, the skies will clear up and all the chaos will stop; that is, as Scripture says, “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”

Silence In Heaven

What is this silence all about? My first thought is that God will give those on earth a short break. He is not so wrathful that He will not provide any relief. He is a God of grace, and will give a time for people to rest, but also a time to prepare for what is to come…

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Why We Sometimes Don’t Feel Forgiven 

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God tells us in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  This verse doesn’t say anything about repentance, but I think it is implied; with true confession repentance will always be included.  But the point I want to make here is that God has promised that if we confess our sins—which implies that we also repent—He will forgive us and cleanse us.  So if we don’t feel forgiven after we say that we have confessed, I don’t think we should blame it on God, because He will always keep His promise.  The problem must be that we haven’t really, genuinely confessed and repented.

But you say, “I did confess; I did admit my sin.”  Yes, but did you repent?  Did you decide to change your life?  Did you decide not…

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