Saturday, March 26, 2016

7000 YEARS DECREED FOR MANKIND

PART A: THE 7000 YEARS

That YHWH has decreed 7000 years for the redemption of mankind may not be mere supposition. It is not conjecture that there is within the scriptures, evidence to support this hypothesis and such evidence starts with the very first verse of scripture. Written in the Hebrew language. Genesis1:1 in the original Hebrew reads;

‘Bereishit - b’rah – Elohim- et- hashamayim  
       1            2            3       4           5
 - v’et- ha’eretz’
      6       7

There are seven Hebrew words in the first passage of scripture and one hypothesis is that each word symbolizes 1000 years of YHWH’s plan for mankind. In support of this hypothesis the fourth word ‘et’ representing 4000 years, is spelt using the first the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet; the aleph and taw. In Rev. 21:6 Messiah says He is the aleph and taw (Alpha and Omega), the beginning and the end. Therefore, according to this philosophy, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the fourth letter in this first sentence as well as representing 4000 years is also representative of Messiah. The truth of this conclusion can be supported in the scriptures as explained below;

PART B: 4000 YEARS

1) From Adam to Avraham*

Adam to Sheth              130     years     Genesis 5:3
Sheth to Enosh              105        "         Genesis 5:6
Enosh to Qeynan             90        "         Genesis 5:9
Qeynan to Mahalal’el      70        "         Genesis 5:12
Mahalale’l to Yered         65        "         Genesis 5:15
Yered to Hanok              162        "         Genesis 5:18
Hank to Methushelah       65        "         Genesis 5:21
Methushelah to Lemek   187        "         Genesis 5:25
Lemek to Noah               182        "         Genesis 5:28-29
Noah to the flood            600        "         Genesis 7:6
Flood to Arpakshad            2         "        Genesis 11:10
Arpakshad to Shelah         35        "         Genesis 11:12
Shealah to Eber                 30        "         Genesis 11:14
Eber to Peleg                     34        "         Genesis 11:16
Peleg to Re’u                     30        "         Genesis 11:18
Re’u to Serug                     32        "         Genesis 11:20
Serug to Hahor                   30        "         Genesis 11:22
Nahor to Terah                   29         "        Genesis 11:24
Terah to Avraham               70         "        Genesis 11:26

Total Adam to Avraham  1948 years

Israel the people was borne of Avraham is it not a great coincidence that it was in the year 1948 that the state of Israel was born.

2) From Avraham to the time Ya’aqov Entered Egypt*

Avraham to Yitshaq           100     years   Genesis 21:5
Yitshaq to Ya'aqov               60        "       Genesis 25:26
Ya'aqov’s birth to him
going to Egypt                   130         "      Genesis 47:28

Total Avraham to
Ya’akov entering Egypt     290      years

3) From When Ya’aqov Entered Egypt to the Exodus*

The scriptures do not provide us with the means of accurately calculating this period however there is sufficient information to enable a good estimation.

a) Ya’aqov’s son, Qehath went with him to Egypt (Genesis 46:11)
b) Qehath had a son, Amram (Exodus 6:18)
c) Amram had a son, Moshe (Exodus6:20)

Considering Moshe is the grandson of Qehath lets assume a period of 63 years from Egypt to the birth of Moshe.

d) Moshe was 80 years old at the time of the Exodus (Exodus 7:7)

Therefore we need to add another 80 years.

Therefore the total period from Ya’aqov to the exodus = 143 years

4) Exodus to the death of Y’hoshua*

In the wilderness                           40  years
Numbers (23:13)
Wilderness to death of Y’hoshua  30     "
Y’hoshua 14:7, 24:29

Exodus to death of Y’hoshua        70  years

5) Period of Judges*

Under king Kushan-Rish'athayim     8    years
Judges 3:8
Under Othni'el                                 40       "
Judges 3:10-11
Under king Eglon                            18       "
Judges 3:14
Under Ehud                                     80       "
Judges 3:15, 30
Under king Yabin                            20       "
Judges 4:1-3
Under Deborah                                40       "
Judges 4:4, 5:31
Under the Midianites                         7       "
Judges 6:1 2
Under Gid'on                                   40       "
Judges 6:7, 8:28
Under Abimelek                                3       "
Judges 8:32, 9:22
Under Tola                                       23       "
Judges 10:1-2
Under Ya'ir                                       22       "
Judges 10:3
Under Ammonites                            18       "
Judges 10:5-8
Under Yiphtah                                    6       "
Judges 12:7
Under Ibtsan                                       7       "
Judges 12:8-9
Under Elon                                       10       "
Judges 12:11
Under Abdon                                      8       "
Judges 12:13-14
Under Philistines                               40      "
Judges 13:1
Under Shimshon                                20      "
Judges 16:30-3
Under Eli                                           40      "
1 Shemu'el 4:15,18

Total Period of Judges 450 years

6) Period of Kings*

King Sha'ul                       40 years
Acts 13:21
King David                       40   "
1 Chron.29:26-27
King Shlomo                    40   "
1 Kings 11:42-43
King Rechav'am               17   "
1 Kings 14:21
King Aviyam                      3    "
1 Kings 15:1-2
King Asa                           41    "
1 Kings 15:8-10
King Y'hoshafat                25    "
1 Kings 22:41-42
King Y'horam                     8     "
2 Chron. 21:5
King Achazyah                   1     "
2 Chron. 22:1-2
King Atalyah                      6     "
2 Chron. 22:12
King Yo'ash                       40    "
2 Chron. 24:1
King Amatzyahu               29    "
2 Chron. 25:1
King Uziyahu                    52     "
2 Chron. 26:3
King Yotam                       16     "
2 Chron. 27:1
King Achaz                        16     "
2 Chron. 28:1
King Hizkiyahu                  29     "
2 Chron. 29:1
King M'nasheh                   55     "
2 Chron. 33:1
King Amon                           2     "
2 Chron. 33:21
King Yoshiyahu                   31     "
2 Chron. 34:1
King Y'ho'achim                  11     "
2 Chron. 36:3-7
King Tsidqiyahu                   11    "
2 Chron. 36:11

Total Kings of Judah 513 years

7) Babylonian Exile

King Tsidqiyahu was the last king before the Babylonian exile. History tells us that the Jews were taken into Babylon in the year 586 BC

8) Summary to Part B

Adam to Avraham                                 1948
Avraham to Ya'akov entering Egypt       290
Egypt to the Exodus                                143
Exodus to death of Y'hoshua                    70
Period of Judges                                      450
Period of Kings                                       513
Babylonian exile                                     586

Total Period Adam to Messiah Yeshua 4,000 years

PART C: REMAINING 3000 YEARS

We now have three words remaining from Genesis 1:1 symbolizing a 3000 year period subsequent to the first coming of Messiah Yeshua. Once again the truth of this interpretation can be found in the scriptures, first let us consider a passage from Hosea;

After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up
(Hos.6:2).

Scripture is known to expresses periods of time by misrepresentation. For example, prophesies spoken of in Daniel have years expressed as days. 2 Peter 3:8 confirms that a day is like a thousand years to the YHWH adding credence to this understanding. We can therefore quite justifiably interpret Hosea in the context that the time periods are referring to two thousand and one thousand years respectively.

We know that Messiah Yeshua will reign for the final 1000 years, which leaves two thousand years being the period between His first and second coming. Hosea is telling us that it is with the culmination of the post sacrificial era, the current two thousand year period (Hosea’s two days), that Yeshua will revive the Israelite people. We can find confirmation of our interpretation of Hosea 6:2 in the book of Zechariah;

‘And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for Him as one grieves for a first born’ (Zach.12:10).

Add

‘In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David
and for the inhabitants of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), for sin
and uncleanness. It shall be in that day’ says the YHWH of hosts ‘that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirits to depart from the land.’ (Zach.13:1-2).

These latter verses talk about the revival of Israel AND THE LAND but these verses begin with a conjunctive phrase ‘in that day.’ It is a continuation of the previous chapter 12 and Chapter 12 tells us when this revival will happen, that is, when they look upon the one whom they pierced. Which can only happen when Messiah Yeshua returns.

As an aside, today there is a common misconception that believing Gentiles have a duty to return the Jewish people to the land but this is NOT what is prophesied. Indeed, scripture tells us that the whole of mankind; Jew, Gentle, righteous and unrighteous alike, will go through the tribulation. After which YHWH will pour out His wrath on the whole of the earth following which Messiah Yeshua will return and commence his millennium rule. So there is little purpose in placing the Jewish people in the land prior to these events.

Referring to Israel’s revival YHWH explicitly says He Himself will gather the Jewish people and return them to the land;

“I will take you, one from a city, two from a family, and bring
you to Tziyon, I will give you shepherds after my own heart
and they will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jeremiah 3:14-15).

Where are Israel’s good shepherds today? Today Israel is as secular as any other nation and the majority of the land YHWH has designated for Israel, is occupied by Arabs. The situation in the ‘land’ today is far from what is described in the scriptures. Whilst there is nothing wrong in assisting those Jewish people who desire to get to Israel, it has to be understood that such assistance has nothing to do with the scriptures. Continuing with Jeremiah the following verses highlight when it will be that YHWH will gather His people. These verses show complete correlation with both Zachariah and Hosea;

“And,” says YHWH, “In those days, when your numbers
have increased in the land, people will no longer talk about
the ark for the covenant of YHWH – they won’t think about it,
they won’t miss it and they won’t make another one. When that time comes, they will call Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) the throne
of YHWH. All the nations will be gathered there, to the name of YHWH, to Yerushalayim. No longer will they live according to their stubbornly evil hearts. In those days, the house of Y’hudah (Judah) will live together with the house of Israel, they will come together from the lands in the north to the land I gave your ancestors as their heritage.”
(Jeremiah 16-20).

Here again we have the phrase ‘In those days’ referring to what is said in the preceding verses 14-15. In other words, they will be gathered together at a time when there will no longer be any need for the ark for the covenant. When will this be? The ark contained the two tablets of stone with the ten Words (Commandments) etched into them, so when will Israel no longer have a need for these two tablets? It will be when they receive the New Covenant spoken of in Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31-34. Of the new covenant YHWH says “I will remember their sins no more.” Only Messiah’s blood was good enough to take away sin (Hebrews 10:4 & Matt. 26:27-28), therefore the new covenant must also be a prophecy of Messiah. Consequently to enter in to the new covenant there has to be belief in Messiah’s sacrifice. But as is said in Zachariah the Jewish people will not accept that it was their Messiah that was executed 2000 years ago, until His return.

These verses appear to infer that the Jewish people will remain dispersed and in a state of unbelief until Messiah returns, when He will commence his 1000 year (1 Day) rules. The verse quoted above from Hosea is referring to the Jewish people’s final two days (2000 years) of dispersion and unbelief, that being the period between the first and second coming of Messiah Yeshua. Then a third day being Messiah’s millennium rule as their priest and king.

The three days, representing 3000 years, in Hosea completes the 7000 years confirming the opening verse in YHWH’s Scriptures.

PART D: YHWH’s SABBATICAL NUMBER 7 = 6 & 1.

YHWH’s 7000 year plan for the redemption of mankind mirrors His sequence of His creation work. There were six days of toil followed by a day of rest (Sabbath). Through disobedience we have 6000 years (6 Days) of toil;

And to the man He said, “Because you have listened to the voice
of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded
you, saying, ‘Do not eat of it:’ Cursed is the ground because of
you, in toil you are to eat of it all the days of your life, and the ground shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you are to eat bread until you return to the ground for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you return
(Genesis 3:17-19).

The last 1000 years will be the sabbatical reign of Messiah Yeshua who referred to himself as Master of the Sabbath. At the end of 6000 years when He returns He will rid creation of all apostasy and will restore YHWH’s weekly Sabbath;

“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand
before Me,” declares YHWH, “So your seed and your name
shall stand. And it shall from New Moon to New Moon, and
from Sabbath to Sabbath. All flesh shall come to worship
before Me,” declares YHWH
(Isa. 66:22-23).

We find another comparison of a six and one proportion in the treatment of slaves;

“When you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve six
years and in the seventh he goes out free, for naught.”
(Exod.21:2).

PART E: IS MESSIAH’S RETURN LATE?

We have just said that there is 2000 years between the first and second coming of our Messiah Yeshua but at the time of writing this study we are already beyond this period, it being 2011. This would mean Messiah Yeshua is currently eleven years late and counting? However, the Gregorian calendar, used by the majority of the world today, was a 16th century innovation by pope Gregory 13 and not the dating system used in the scriptures. According to the Hebraic calendar we are in the year 5772. If Messiah Yeshua is to return at the end of the year 6000 then there are 228 years remaining until His return. Considering the wicked state of the world today and the accepted view that Messiah Yeshua’s return is immanent, this would seem far too long a period - and it is.

It is accepted by scholars that we have lost approximately 220 years from the Hebraic calendar, it is believed that these years were lost during the Persian era and there are differing opinions of how many years have been lost. We do not know the truth. However, the fact that about 220 years are lost is accepted. So, if we add the lost 220 years to 5772 we get 5992 which would leave 8 years before Messiah returns.

When we look at the state of the world today maybe 8 years is not an unrealistic period. Whilst we are unable to fix Messiah’s return to a calendar what we can be sure of is, that we are at the end of YHWH’s 6000 years and have entered the End of Times. It is therefore paramount that we are obediently following the rules set our Father and contained in His Torah - Instruction.

Friday, March 25, 2016

The Three Abominations

There are a few things the Bible speaks of as abominations leading to judgment - three in particular…

The First Abomination

The first was Israel’s sin of offering its children as sacrifices on the altars of Baal and Molech. The blood of the nation’s innocents cried out for judgment. And in 586 B.C. the judgment would come. America has committed the same abomination. Beginning in 1973, it has offered up not thousands of children as Israel did, but millions of them, killed in their mother’s wombs, on the altars of convenience and self. And America’s collective hands are now, likewise covered with blood.

The Second Abomination

The second abomination cited in Scripture linked to judgment is that of sexual immorality, specifically that involving the twisting of gender. America began driving God out of its culture, at the same time it began embracing sexual immorality, endorsing it, and then promoting it. Its descent in the direction of sexual immorality has been continuous, progressive, and intensifying in its twisting of God’s natural order.

The Third Abomination

The third abomination would seem to be the most unlikely in modern America. In Hebrew one of the words for abominations, “shikkutz,” has a double meaning – it also means an idol, a false god. As Israel turned away from God, it turned to other gods. In its last days as a nation, the images of these gods filled the land – and then judgment came. America has also turned away from God. The American gods are not called gods and the American idols are not recognized as idols, but they are so nonetheless. As the culture expunged God from its midst, it became filled with the gods of self, pleasure, sensuality, money, success, comfort, greed, sexuality, entertainment, power, vanity, and a multitude of others. But could the sign of foreign gods appear in America as the images of these gods appeared in ancient Israel in its last days?

The God of Darkness

This past summer - 2015, the same summer in which America struck down the biblical definition of marriage, an image appeared in New York City. It was seen on the tower which once represented America’s grandeur and stature among the nations, the Empire State Building. It was an image of a foreign god – the god Kali. Kali is the Hindu god of darkness. The image was created by projecting thousands of lumens of light onto the tower – light used to produce darkness – or as the Bible says “woe to those… who put light for darkness.” Kali is also the god of death and destruction. The face appeared with its tongue sticking out. This is because the god Kali is typically depicted as in a drunken frenzy dripping with blood from its tongue. Since the book "The Harbinger" came out, the harbingers have not stopped appearing in America. As believers, we would have to be blind to not see the signs of the times all around us. In a time of gods and idols, we must all the more strongly, boldly, and unapologetically stand for and manifest the only true and living God with our words, our actions, our lives, and our ways. Stand as a light manifesting the light of His truth, and the radiance of His love wherever you go, and in all you do.

The Sacred Ceasing

When we think of the Sabbath, a day of peace comes to mind. In Hebrew, Sabbath comes from the word Shabbat. It is a verb; a doing word. It means to cease. As with other verbs, it is something you choose to do. You choose to pray, to eat, and to read. The same goes for choosing to cease. Messiah is the Lord of the Shabbat and gives you the power in Him to choose to cease from the old life; old sin. In ceasing from the old, we have peace. That’s when we find Shabbat. You can have peace at all times when you choose to cease striving, cease from your ego, cease from your flesh, from your worries, from your fears - and rest in God. When you die to self, there’s peace. That’s when the Sabbath comes. For the peace of the Sabbath, like the joy of the Lord, and the blessings of God aren’t dependent on any of your circumstances, but on the Lord of the Sabbath and on the choice of your heart. 

The Lion-Hearted

Messiah came the first time as a lamb. But when He comes again, He is coming as a lion - bold, strong, mighty, roaring, and unstoppable. He is coming as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Revelation 5:5 says “Weep not, behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open the book.” We are the people of the Lion, here to prepare for the second coming. As end-time believers, we should begin living more like lions. We must stop living weak and compromised walks, and be strong and of good courage. It’s time to put away our weaknesses and timidity, and put on His strength and power. We must renounce fear and anxiety and start living confidently and unafraid. The time is now to become strong in righteousness, strong in faith, and strong in action. So put on a lion’s hope, a lion’s faith, lion-hearted love and lion-hearted confidence. Be as bold as a lion and unstoppable in the Spirit. It’s time to begin living the lion-hearted life, because we are preparing for the coming of the Lion. 

The Cosmic Huppah

In every Hebrew marriage, there is a Huppah, a canopy that’s spread over the bride and groom. In a sense, the bridegroom spreads it over the bride as a symbol of his covering. Isaiah 4:5 says, “The Lord will create over Mount Zion a cloud of smoke by day, a glow of flaming fire by night, and over everything the glory will be a canopy.” Only in Hebrew it doesn’t say “canopy;” it says over everything the glory will be a Huppah! Amazing! Why? Because God will marry us in that day. Everything will be under His Huppah, under His covering. If you are in the Lord today, you are already in His Kingdom and, in a sense, married. That means everything you have is His and everything He has is yours. You are now under His covering. So learn to live and rest under His covering of love… protected and provided for. And live in the blessings of His joy and His peace, because your life is now under His Huppah. 

Heaven's DNA

In the parable of the sower, Messiah said that the seed is the Word of God. How can a seed be related to the Word of God? The comparison is very striking. A seed has to be sown and received by the earth. It contains DNA, the code of life. So, with the Word of God. It has to be sown and received to come alive. It contains the nature of Him who gave it. It contains the DNA of God. The Word of God transmits the nature of God to the one who receives it. Each word is designed to transmit the nature of God to anyone who receives it. Do you want to receive the life and the power of God and be conformed to His image? Receive the Word of God into the soil of your heart and mind. Let it soak into your life and become part of you. Receive it with your whole heart because the Word is seed, and in the seed is the life of God. 

The Oil Of Ministry

Aaron, Moses’ brother, began his ministry with an anointing, with oil poured on his head. How did David’s ministry begin? The prophet Samuel poured oil on David’s head. What is oil a symbol of? Oil is the symbol of the Spirit of God. Ministry must always begin with the Spirit. Messiah’s ministry began with the Spirit coming upon Him at the Jordan. The Apostles’ ministry began with the Spirit coming down on Pentecost. From the oil on Aaron’s head to the Apostles at Pentecost, ministry began with the Spirit. Every ministry, every calling must begin with God and His power. You too must be empowered by the Spirit, for without the Spirit there is no real ministry or power. There is an anointing given for your ministry also so that you may have the power, the gifts and whatever else is needed. But you must receive it and be led by the Spirit. So receive the anointing to fulfill your calling, because every ministry begins with the oil of the Spirit. 

The Synagogue And The Church

Acts 18 says “He departed from there and went to the house of a certain man named Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue.” Right there, by the synagogue, were the God-fearing gentiles. Those who would begin the church of Corinth. Where did the church start? Right next to the synagogue. This faith we call Christianity is the Messianic faith, which was started right outside the synagogue. It was clearly a Jewish faith branching out. Paul ministered there, right next to the synagogue. Christianity’s roots have always been inherently Jewish; a daughter of Israel. In Ephesians it says, “You are now of Messiah, citizens of Israel.” The fact is, you are now a child of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You have been grafted in by His Spirit. Rejoice in the fact that, in Messiah, you are now one of the children of Israel in Spirit. You don’t replace Israel. You are a part of Israel. You are of the house that is right next door to the synagogue.

The Crown On The Priest

In the Old Covenant, according to the law, a king could not be priest and a priest could not be king. Then God tells Zechariah in 6:11, “Take silver and gold, make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua the high priest.” Although this seemed to be breaking the law, in reality it was a prophetic act. The Lord said, “this is a sign of the man who will be called the Branch”. That’s Messiah! He is going to be Priest and King at the same time. He is going to build the temple of the Lord forever. So that means, when Messiah comes, there has to be a New Covenant, because it would be against the law in the Old Covenant. Messiah is of the royal house of Judah and is the High Priest of the New Covenant. A crown on the head of a high priest. A sign that in God all things are new in Messiah. You are a new creation, not bound by the past. You are free in the power of Messiah, who is both your King and High Priest

Monday, March 21, 2016

The Building of the Third Holy Temple

By Gershon Salomon

Chairman: Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement

In the following article we are going to bring to your attention one of the most important topics which is deeply connected to end-time godly events that we 

are currently experiencing.  The article was written after a long period of research by the Temple Faithful Movement and it will be of greater length than other newsletters that we have sent.  We want to bring your attention to evidence and facts that are scientifically based and that compliment the historical, biblical and archaeological descriptions of past events that took place on the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  All of this has been used as a basis for the preparations of the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement and of Israel for the building of the Third Holy Temple in the lifetime of our generation.  The Third Holy Temple is going to be an House of Prayer and Worship for Israel and all nations.  Israel is called by G-D to build the Third Holy Temple and everyone in the world should become a part of this holy project especially the Lovers of Zion and Israel.  We shall be more than glad to hear from you regarding your responses to this article.

I have been extremely surprised to learn about a very strange theory that has been put forward in recent years that incorrectly claims that the location of the First and Second Holy Temples was not on Mount Moriah, the location of the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the place that has always been well-known to everyone until today.  To begin with and most importantly, I would like to say that no theory of this kind is relevant.  What has been known during the last 3,000 years since the building of the First Holy Temple by King Solomon until today as the Holy Temple Mount, Mount Moriah, is absolutely the only location of the First and the Second Temples and will be the location of the Third Holy Temple soon to be built by G-D's people Israel. This location was given by the G-D of Israel to King David through prophecy.  This is the only place that was chosen by G-D to be the location for His Holy House where He, His Name and His Shekina would dwell there among His people Israel forever and in the Third Holy Temple among all of His creation.  This location according to the Word of G-D can not be changed or moved to any other place and, indeed, it never was moved to any other place.  This place was dedicated by G-D since the beginning of creation to be forever the one and only location for His Holy Temple.  This article comes to bring clarification of this historical fact to everyone while we are presently dealing with the preparations for the building of the Third Holy Temple on the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem during our lifetime.

On the day of the liberation of the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem in the year 1967, I had the distinct privilege to be together with the Israeli soldiers who liberated this most holy place of the Jewish people on that godly victorious day.   To place this major godly event in historical perspective, we must keep in mind that the 1967 liberation of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple Mount happened after almost 2,000 years of Jewish exile from the Land of Israel where the Jewish people were repeatedly scourged, persecuted and murdered in nearly every place where they found a haven and when their own Land, given to them by G-D Himself, suffered from multiple occupations by various foreign empires.  The day of the 1967 liberation was certainly one of the most significant days in more than 4,000 years of Jewish history.  The dream of thousands of years of the people of G-D became a reality.  The liberation of the Holy Temple Mount was a true godly event that was unique in Israel's history and will remain incomparable to any event in the future.  I will not explain at this time what every one of us felt when General Motta Gur declared at that heroic and godly moment: “The Temple Mount is in our hands!”  My eyes were filled with tears of joy and excitement together with the Israeli soldiers and all the House of Israel.  End-time prophecy became word-by-word fulfilled in my lifetime and the lifetime of our generation.  The Holy Temple Mount was, is and will be forever the heart and soul of the G-D and people of Israel.

For thousands of years the Jewish people have passed along from father to son and from generation to generation the known fact that the Holy Temple Mount is the only location of the First, the Second and the soon to be built Third Holy Temple.  I knew that the G-D of Israel returned us to this most Holy Mountain, to the place that He revealed to King David and also to our forefathers and to the exact place where He wants us to rebuild His Holy Temple.  I knew, without a doubt, that He returned us to this place, which is the heart and soul of the G-D and people of Israel, for this purpose.

I want to share with everyone many important features of the evidence that confirm the historical location of the Holy Temple Mount and the Holy Temple and that serve an ongoing part of the preparations for the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, the Third Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The Third Holy Temple could not and can not presently be built, according to the Word of G-D in the Torah, in any other place besides the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Indeed, the Holy Temple Mount and the Holy Temples were never moved from their original location and this is the place that G-D appointed and no human being has ever been permitted to change this location which is based on the very Word of G-D.

The Holy Temple Mount is located on the top of the Moriah Mountain which is also at the top of the historical City of David.  This is the place where the G-D of Israel proclaimed that His Holy Temple will be built, where His Shekina and His Name would dwell in the Holy of Holies of the Holy Temple among His people Israel forever.  G-D called to His people Israel: “Build Me a temple and I will dwell among you” Exodus 25:8.  G-D appointed this place through prophecy to King David and consecrated it for His Name.  This is the reason, as we said, that the Second Holy Temple was built on exactly the same place as the First Holy Temple.  This is exactly the very same place where the Third Holy Temple must soon be built so that it will stand on the same location of the First and Second Holy Temples on the Holy Temple Mount, which is well-known until today by the people of Israel and by historical and scientific researchers in Israel and throughout the entire world.  Any calculation or theory that attempts to locate the Holy Temple on any other location is in major error.

The history of the Holy Temple Mount begins during the time when G-D created the universe.  The intention of G-D from the beginning was to create 'first' the place which would be the location of His Holy House where He would dwell in the midst of His people Israel.  So G-D created first the 'foundation rock' which is located until today on the top of Mount Moriah or the Holy Temple Mount as it is commonly called.  A very old tradition that was passed along the Jewish people from father to son says that this rock was the 'foundation rock' upon which G-D created the entire universe.  G-D created the universe in circles of holiness.  The first circle which is the most holy place in the world is the foundation rock.  The second circle which is also very holy is the location of the Holy Temple Mount until today.  The third circle of holiness is Jerusalem.  The fourth circle of holiness that G-D created is the Holy Land of Israel.  The fifth circle is the rest of the world.

It is not an accident that the holy rock was called the 'foundation rock' of the universe and was located in the midst of the Holy of Holies of the First and the Second Holy Temples.  In the First Holy Temple and situated on the 'foundation rock' was located the most important and holy component of the Holy Temple which was the Ark of the Covenant.  Inside the Ark of the Covenant were located the two tablets with the Ten Commandments that G-D gave to Moses.  When Israel liberated the Holy Temple Mount in the year 1967, the original 'foundation rock' still existed under the Dome of the Rock on the Holy Temple Mount.

The discovery of the 'foundation rock' after the Six Days War in 1967 completely confirms that the well-known Holy Temple Mount is the authentic location of the Holy Temple Mount and the Holy Temples.  This is the most conclusive evidence that cancels any other theory concerning the location of the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem.  The 'foundation rock' was and still is located on the peak of Mount Moriah, the Holy Temple Mount, exactly as the 1st century CE Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, described in his book “The Wars of the Jews”.  Josephus, who was born in Jerusalem in 37 CE, provided an eyewitness account of Herod's Temple and the Holy Temple Mount in his historical writings.

The Byzantines, who occupied the Holy Land from the 4th century CE, found many remains of the Second Holy Temple on the Holy Temple Mount and covered these remains with garbage in order to humiliate the Jewish people.

When the Arab Caliph Omar occupied Jerusalem and the Holy Temple Mount in the year 638 CE, he brought a Jewish companion with him who showed him the location of the Holy of Holies on the peak of the Holy Temple Mount, the location of the 'foundation rock'.  Indeed, the Caliph Omar still found on the Holy Temple Mount many remains of the Second Holy Temple, including the original western wall of the Holy Temple itself and the 'foundation rock' and the holy altar.  He declared that the Holy Temple Mount is holy only for the Jewish people and not for Muslims or other religions.  The many remains of the Second Holy Temple completely confirmed for him that this was the location of the First and the Second Holy Temples.  He cleared away the garbage from the remains of the Holy Temple and also from the 'foundation rock'.

Between the years 691-701 CE, the Islamic Caliph Abd al-Malik, who ruled from Damascus, built the Dome of the Rock that still stands today atop the Holy Temple Mount.  He built the Dome of the Rock precisely on the 'foundation rock' of the Holy Temple Mount as a respectable and honorable building that designated the location of the Holy of Holies and the holy 'foundation rock' of the Jewish Temple.  He anointed the Dome of the Rock to be an house of prayer for the Jewish people as he wrote about in his writings.  The walls of the Dome of the Rock are filled with the Jewish symbol of the 'star of David' and inside the dome-capped shrine are designs of Jewish ornaments.  Abd al-Malik also built the Dome of the Chain on the location of the holy altar of the Holy Temple.  For both caliphates, the remains of the Second Holy Temple and it's holy altar confirmed that this place was the location of the Holy Temple Mount and the location of the First and the Second Holy Temples.  Caliph Abd al-Malik even anointed ten Jewish families and gave them responsibilities of guardianship of the Holy Temple Mount in the name of the Jewish people.  Until today, the Muslims call the Holy Temple Mount: “Bayt Al-Maqdis” which is Arabic for the exact Jewish name of the Holy Temple, which in Hebrew is called: “Beit HaMikdash”.  These facts alone could serve as enough evidence to confirm that the Holy Temple Mount was and is the real location of the First and the Second Temples.  However, we shall bring more evidence and historical facts.  These will enrich the knowledge of everyone about the most holy and important godly site in the world.

For thousands of years since the First Holy Temple was built in the approximate year 960 BCE and since the destruction of the Second Holy Temple in the year 70 CE, Jewish travelers have journeyed to make special pilgrimages to the Holy Temple Mount during the times when foreigners ruled over the Land of Israel and allowed them to do so.  They came to the Holy Temple Mount, the location of both Holy Temples, and not to any other place in the City of David or any other site.  Many of the visitors down through the centuries, Jews and non-Jews alike, described in their journals the location of the Holy Temple Mount and they documented valuable observations of what they saw when they were able to ascend the Holy Temple Mount.

On the western wall of the Holy Temple Mount, we can still see until today what one of these Jewish pilgrims engraved (after the destruction of the Second Holy Temple) from the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah found in the chapters on consolation:  “And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like young grass...” (Isaiah 66:14a).  These words were taken from the prophecy of Isaiah that speaks about the rebuilding of the Holy Temple which will indicate the redemption of Israel, Jerusalem and the Holy Land given by G-D to His people Israel.  It is not an accident that this Jewish traveler engraved these words on the wall of the Holy Temple Mount.  He knew clearly, like everyone did, that this is the location of the First and Second Holy Temples and the location of the Third Holy Temple soon to be built.  This is one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries that has been identified on the Holy Temple Mount.  The discovery filled every Israeli's heart with joy knowing that we are living in the special time when this prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled.  The redemption of Israel is a major historical fact, not only in the lives of the Jewish people, but also in the lives of all mankind and this includes the reality that the Third Holy Temple is soon to be built on the Holy Temple Mount during the lifetime of our generation.

When the righteous man Noah built an altar for G-D after the flood and he sacrificed on the altar in honor of G-D, it was on the location of Mount Moriah, next to the 'foundation rock'.  Later when the Holy Temple was built, the altar of the Temple was built on the location of the altar of Noah.  This is also the place where G-D made for the first time a covenant with His creation through His Words to righteous Noah.  It appears in Genesis 8:20 and 9:8-17.

Later G-D sent Abraham to Mount Moriah, which is the same location as the 'foundation rock' on the top of the mountain which is the Holy Temple Mount, where Abraham bound and nearly sacrificed his son, Isaac, the son whom he loved (Genesis 22:1-18).

The 'foundation rock' on the Holy Temple Mount is the place where Jacob had his godly dream when he saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder from heaven to earth.  When Jacob awakened and saw this place on the peak of Mount Moriah, later to become the location of the Holy Temple Mount, he said that this is the gate of heaven from where the angels went up and down and he called the place the 'House of G-D' ('Beit El' in Hebrew).  Jacob anointed the place to become the location of the House of G-D, the Holy Temple.  Let us allow Jacob to share with us his words: “And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!  This is no other than the house of G-D, and this is the gate of heaven....and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be G-D's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth to thee” Genesis 28:17, 22.  This place was the 'foundation rock' that still exists until today and is also the same 'foundation rock' that will be located inside the Holy of Holies of the soon to be built Third Holy Temple.

A very ancient tradition shares with us that as long as the Holy Temple existed, this gate from heaven that Jacob saw from this holy ground (later called the Holy Temple Mount) was 'open' and through it G-D shared His Word and His Shekina (Divine Presence) with His chosen people Israel.  This gate was closed after the destruction of the Holy Temples. The historical message was that this gate will again be opened when the Holy Temple is rebuilt.

I want to share a personal memory from my experience on the Holy Temple Mount on the day of the godly moment, on the day of liberation of the Holy Temple Mount during the Six Days War.  I felt that this gate from heaven was once again 'open' for a time and from where G-D is going to continue to appear to His people Israel when the Third Holy Temple is rebuilt.  All of us who stood on this major godly day inside the Dome of the Rock in front of the 'foundation rock', the location of the Holy of Holies, felt as with Jacob, that angels were ascending and descending to bless the people of Israel and calling His people to immediately rebuild the Holy Temple.  This was a great and godly moment, one of the greatest in the history of the people of G-D, that no words can accurately describe.  It will dwell forever in the hearts of the Jewish people and will never be forgotten.

The location of the 'foundation rock' on the top of Mount Moriah was shown to King David to be the location of the Holy Temple that would later be built by his son, Solomon.  Indeed, King Solomon built the First Holy Temple, approximately 3,000 years ago, exactly on the same location and the holy 'foundation rock' was located in the midst of the Holy of Holies.  G-D appointed this place to be the location of His Holy Temple forever and it can never be changed or moved not even one inch from this place to another.

The First Holy Temple, as was the Second Holy Temple, were the destination for pilgrimages of the children of Israel who are called by G-D to come to the Holy Temple three times a year during the three festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot (Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles).  In Hebrew, the word 'pilgrimage' is called “a'alot l'regal” which means 'to walk up with your legs' to the Holy Temple of G-D.  This walk started from the City of David and continued along the ascending slope up to the top of the mountain, where the Holy Temple Mount is located until today, in order to worship with love and joy the G-D of Israel.

The Second Holy Temple that was built in the year 516 BCE was constructed according to biblical law exactly on the same location as the First Holy Temple on the Holy Temple Mount, whose location was very well-known to the Jewish people. Some of the ruins of the First Holy Temple still remained on the 'foundation rock' on the peak of the Holy Temple Mount, which is the top of the slope of the mountain where the City of David is located.  Jewish people continued to make pilgrimages to the Second Holy Temple exactly as they had done to the First Holy Temple.

The size of the area of the Holy Temple Mount of both the First and the Second Holy Temples was a square of five hundred cubits length.  During the Second Temple period, the numbers of Jewish pilgrims coming to the Holy Temple Mount became so great that the area of the Holy Temple Mount itself was not large enough to include all of the pilgrims.  King Herod, who was the greatest among the ancient builders in the Land of Israel, enlarged the surface area of the Holy Temple Mount to the south and to the north so that in the midst of it was located the Holy Temple, and this allowed a half-million pilgrims to ascend onto the Holy Temple Mount.  On both the southern and northern areas of the Holy Temple Mount,  Herod extended the platform length.  The southern extension was constructed with vaults and with the addition of new walls that still exist today.

On the new southern wall, Herod built additional gates from where the pilgrims who ascended from the City of David could enter.  These gates exist until today and are known as the double gate at the western side of the southern wall and the triple gates toward the eastern side of the southern wall.  The double gate was called the Hulda Gate, named after the First Temple period prophetess Hulda, who was very much appreciated and admired by the people of Israel.  From the double gate, the pilgrims who ascended from the sloped City of David, entered onto the Holy Temple Mount from one gate and exited from the other gate.  In this way, the pilgrims who entered unto the Holy Temple Mount could meet on their way those who were descending from the Holy Temple Mount and they could take time to bless and congratulate those who had marriages in their families and also to comfort those who experienced death in their families.

These beautiful gates, including the construction underneath the southern platform, are described in the books written by the historian, Flavius Josephus, who lived during the 1st century CE and was an eyewitness of what King Herod added and built atop the Holy Temple Mount.  Flavius Josephus even explained with many details how King Herod re-modeled the Holy Temple itself upon the same exact location of the First and the Second Holy Temples on the Holy Temple Mount.  The Temple of Herod was, at that time, the tallest building in the world with a height of more than 50 meters, which corresponds to a 20-story building of today.  According to biblical law, he did not move the location of the Holy Temple on the Holy Temple Mount, but on the same exact location, he was able to re-model the Holy Temple to such a height and still abide by biblical law.   The Holy of Holies was located inside Herod's Temple and the stones of this building were marble-stone and they reflected the aura of a blue color like heaven.  In the writings of  Josephus, it says that the edifice of Herod's Temple was so beautiful that those who never saw this Holy Temple never saw a beautiful building in all of their life.  The statuesque building was located specifically and primarily on the 'foundation rock' which still exists until today on the Holy Temple Mount.

Josephus, who saw with his own eyes the Holy Temple and the Holy Temple Mount that King Herod re-modeled, gives us details about the constructions that Herod built inside the Holy Temple itself and also on the Holy Temple Mount.  Important details and archaeological remains of Herod's Temple and its compound including details even from the First Holy Temple of King Solomon, were found on the Holy Temple Mount after the Six Days War.  We could confirm word-for-word what Flavius Josephus wrote on this important subject and especially that the Holy Temple Mount was and is the one-and-only location of both Holy Temples.  Josephus' descriptions have been considered by historians throughout history until today as honest and completely faithful to the facts of history measured on a serious and scientific level.

After the destruction of the Second Holy Temple in the year 70 CE, Jews who survived the destruction never forgot the Holy Temple Mount and it's location which always signified the time when King Solomon built the First Holy Temple.  The message about the Holy Temple Mount and its location was transmitted from father to son through centuries of Jewish history.  The Jewish people never allowed themselves to forgot the Holy Temple and its location on the Holy Temple Mount and were faithful to what they swore:  “...if I will forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her skill.  Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy...” Psalm 137:5, 6.  How could they ever forget the place of the house of their beloved G-D in Jerusalem?!  Throughout 2,000 years of exile, Jews were oftentimes forbidden to ascend to the Holy Temple Mount, but they did everything possible to come and make pilgrimages to the Holy Temple Mount and they even tried to sacrifice their personal sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of Passover.  Their prayers, their hearts, their faces and their hopes were always directed toward the location of the Holy Temple Mount.  Even their dead were buried for thousands of years even until today with their faces directed toward the Holy Temple Mount in order to await the coming of the Messiah. This will happen when the G-D of Israel brings forth the resurrection and every one will enter the Holy Temple Mount in order to worship their beloved G-D, the G-D of Israel, in the coming Third Holy Temple.  All of these buried Jewish bodies have been silent witnesses, as their faces are directed toward the Holy Temple Mount, that this is the real location of both Holy Temples and the location for the Third Holy Temple.  Inside Jewish homes there is a custom practiced to this day that on the eastern wall there is a portion of the wall intentionally left unfinished as a daily reminder to never forget the destruction of the Holy Temple and the Holy Temple Mount at its location in Jerusalem.

There is a very exciting and historical story about the great Rabbi Akiva who lived after the destruction of the Second Holy Temple.  In approximately the year 150 CE, one day he walked together with his students on the Holy Temple Mount and suddenly they saw a fox that was running out of the ruins of the Holy Temple.  All of Rabbi Akiva's students began to weep and cry when they saw the fox coming from the location of the Holy of Holies of the G-D of Israel.  The rabbi asked them not to weep but rather to know that if the prophecies about the destruction of the Holy Temple were fulfilled, then this means that the prophecies of the redemption will also be fulfilled and soon to come.  Rabbi Akiva and his students walked on the Holy Temple Mount and not on any other place.

After all of this, I want to ask:  How could the title of one of the two books which have been written that suggest an alternative location for the building of the Third Holy Temple be called: “The Temples That Jerusalem Forgot”?  How could these two books, including the book “Temple”, claim that the First and Second Holy Temples may have been built down the slope of the City of David and not on the mountain at the top of the slope where the 'foundation rock' is located until this very day?

In the year 638 CE when the Muslims occupied the Land of Israel, Jerusalem and the Holy Temple Mount, as we previously described, they cleared away the garbage that the Byzantine Christians had heaped on top of the ruins of the Holy Temple.  They also removed all of the ruins of the Holy Temple and threw them out of the eastern wall of the Holy Temple Mount and the pile of ruins formed a hill that still exists until today.  Later the Muslims constructed a Muslim cemetery upon this hill which also exists until today.  They believed that by blocking the Golden Gate of the Holy Temple Mount with this hill and cemetery that they could and still can prevent the coming Messiah ben David from entering to the Holy Temple Mount.  They also believe, mistakenly, that the Messiah will be a priest and therefore, as a priest, he is not allowed to cross through a cemetery on his way through the Golden Gate.  However, the Messiah will be a descendant of King David who was not a priest.  The Golden Gate exists until today on the eastern wall of the Holy Temple Mount but it is covered and blocked by the hill that we have described.  When the Third Holy Temple will be built, this hill will be removed and the Golden Gate will be opened.  The Temple Mount Faithful Movement is presently acting for the immediate opening of the Golden Gate, the most important and holy gate on the Holy Temple Mount.  This gate was directed toward the location of the Holy Temple and the Holy of Holies.  Every morning at sunrise when the sun's rays shone from the Mount of Olives in the east, it was an exciting view to watch how the rays of light entered through the gates of the Holy Temple directly to the Holy of Holies.  This holy gate is directed until today toward the location of the Dome of the Rock which is the location of the Holy of Holies.

I want to share another exciting occurrence from the day of the liberation of the Holy Temple Mount during the Six Days War that happened during these great moments in history.  Suddenly there appeared on the Holy Temple Mount a civilian person speaking to me in English and he said, “I am an Arabic tour guide.  My job was to guide tourists and people on the Holy Temple Mount and I know every point and place on this Jewish Temple Mount.  Even in the Qur'an, it is written that one day G-D will return the Jews to the Land of Israel and they will build their Holy Temple.  And now these verses have been fulfilled.  I have been sent here by G-D to show you the exact location of the Holy Temple where you should now build the Third Temple and to show you every other location on the Holy Temple Mount that has remained from the First and Second Temples.”  This Arabic gentleman took us again to the Dome of the Rock and showed us the 'foundation rock' and said that this is the location of the Holy of Holies where you should build the Holy of Holies of the Third Temple.  Then he showed us the Dome of the Chain and said, “Here you should build the altar of the Third Temple”.  Then he took us to the beautiful Hulda Tunnels from where the Jews entered in order to worship inside the Holy Temple.  Then he took us to the location of the eastern Golden Gate and he said that it was covered by the Arabs to prevent the Messiah from entering.  He continued, “You should clean it and open it so that your Messiah will come through this gate.”  Then he took us to one of the complexes of the Holy Temple on the Holy Temple Mount (which also survived until today, which today is mistakenly called 'Solomon's Stables').  He said that this complex was part of the Temple compound where the temple priests could exit in order to purify themselves.  And so, he took us from place to place and then suddenly, he disappeared.  Years later when we had meetings with soldiers who were the witnesses of this great and exciting occurrence, everyone was sure that the man was an angel who was sent by G-D in order to show us the exact location of the First and Second Temples and for the Third Holy Temple and to share with us the call of G-D:  “Build immediately my Holy House”.

Aside from being the liberation of the Holy Temple Mount during the Six Days War of 1967, that was one of the greatest moments in the life of the Jewish people ever, it was also the greatest personal moment in my life.  Another great moment of my personal life was when I was severely injured as a young Israeli officer during a heavy eight-hour battle on the Golan Heights and G-D appeared with His angels during this battle.  Thanks to G-D Who fought together with us, my unit of 150 soldiers defeated thousands of Syrian soldiers, just like in biblical times.  On this day of battle, when I became gravely injured by an Israeli tank that accidentally ran over me, G-D and His angels appeared as I laid in the field of battle completely paralyzed and He spoke to my heart telling me that I still have to fulfill an important mission in my life.  Later in the hospital, there arrived observers of the United Nations who told me that the Syrian Arab officers shared with them that they could not shoot and kill me because I was totally surrounded by angels of G-D.  This was the moment that I swore to dedicate my life to the rebuilding of the Holy Temple to the G-D of Israel on the Holy Temple Mount.  Like in the field of battle, I knew that G-D had called me and anointed me for this extremely important mission.  I will share more details about this memorable event in another article.

After the 1967 Six Days War when I founded the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, I had the privilege to visit again and again on the Holy Temple Mount.  I saw with my own eyes remains of the Holy Temples and the Holy Temple Mount.  I knew very clearly and was sure that this is the exact location of the First and the Second Holy Temples and will be the location of the Third Holy Temple.

One of the most exciting places that the historian Flavius Josephus described in his book “The Wars of the Jews”, is the 'tunnel of the priests'.  He wrote that the gate of this tunnel was located on the western wall of the Holy Temple Mount that King Herod built.  In the year 1981 when the righteous rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Yehudah Getz, was cleaning-out the rabbinical tunnel of the Hasmonean period that extends along the western wall of the Holy Temple Mount in a northerly direction from the Western Wall, he discovered the gate to the 'tunnel of the priests'.  The gate was blocked not by the original Herodian stones, but rather by the stones that the Arabs commonly used after they occupied Jerusalem.  Rabbi Getz immediately removed the stones and opened the gate.  Suddenly before him, there appeared an exciting and beautiful tunnel whose direction led directly toward the location of the Holy of Holies to one of the secret rooms under the 'foundation rock'.  He immediately knew from the Kabbalah and from the Talmud and from the writings of the historian, Josephus, that this was the original Herodian 'tunnel of the priests'.  Through this special tunnel the priests used to enter to the Holy Temple in order to worship inside it's precincts.  This tunnel enabled them to remain separated from other Jewish pilgrims who also entered the Holy Temple to worship.  In this way the priests could retain their condition of extra purification.

The discovery of the priestly tunnel was another extremely exciting and outstanding moment in the life of Israel and also in my own personal life.  The Ark of the Covenant was about to be discovered!  It all happened in the middle of the night when Rabbi Getz first opened the gate and suddenly discovered the priestly tunnel and though it was after the midnight hour, I suddenly heard my phone ringing.  When I picked up the phone, there on the line was Rabbi Getz.  With greatest excitement he declared, “Please come immediately!  The dream of your life is about to be fulfilled and become a reality.  We are going to discover and pick-up the Ark of the Covenant.  As we have heard from those who prophesied, the moment that the Holy Ark will be discovered, the Holy Temple will immediately be rebuilt!”  I was so moved and excited that I had not time to even put on my shoes but only to run to this tunnel.

When I arrived and saw the tunnel, I knew immediately that this was the 'tunnel of the priests' that Josephus had described.  Despite that the tunnel was filled with garbage and dirty muddy water that the Arabs allowed to drain through the opening on the Holy Temple Mount, I immediately felt the glory of G-D covering every inch of the area including the walls and the arches of this beautiful godly tunnel.  My eyes were attracted to the extension of the tunnel when suddenly Rabbi Getz and I hugged each other with tears in our eyes.  Rabbi Getz exclaimed, “We are so near to the most Holy Ark of the Covenant! We are so close to the rebuilding of the Holy Temple!”

Workers began immediately to clean-out the tunnel. Only a few days would be necessary to completely clean-out the tunnel and to reach the secret room underneath the holy 'foundation rock' where the Ark of the Covenant is located.  The Ark of the Covenant has been located there since the righteous King of Judah, King Josiah from the House of David, commanded the Levites to hide the Ark of the Covenant in a secret room underneath the 'foundation rock':

“...and he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the LORD, put the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel, did build...II Chronicles 35:3.

King Josiah knew through prophecy that soon will come the Babylonians to destroy the Holy Temple and he wanted to prevent the Ark of the Covenant from being taken to Babylon.

Unfortunately, a few days later the media heard about the discovery of this 'tunnel of the priests'.  It was immediately published and the Arabs started to demonstrate on the Holy Temple Mount.  The Security Council of the United Nations passed a resolution that the Jews are digging underneath the Holy Temple Mount in order to rebuild their Third Temple.  This United Nations' resolution called on Israel to stop the work on the tunnel and to block it.  Weakness of the Israeli leadership and pressure from the United Nations led the Religious Affairs Ministry of Israel to block the tunnel.

The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement published in Israel a declaration of protest against the blocking of this holy tunnel.  In the declaration the Faithful Movement stated that this step was a critical mistake by Israel and the result of political weakness.  The Faithful Movement called the government of Israel to trust the G-D of Israel only and His promises that He will always stand with His people Israel against any pressure or threats coming from human powers in the world.  The Movement called the Israeli government not to fear any human power and not to demonstrate any weakness as Israel is called by the G-D of Israel to continue to redeem the Holy Land of Israel and to rebuild her wasted cities and villages.  And finally, in the climax of her redemption, to build the Third Holy Temple on the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem which will change the moral face of all mankind.

Again Israel missed another major, godly and historic moment.  The discovery of the Ark of the Covenant could lead to the immediate rebuilding of the Holy Temple of G-D, to the complete redemption of Israel and to the opening of the door to the coming of Messiah ben David.  The Faithful Movement declared that Israel exhibited the same weakness that the defense minister of Israel, Moshe Dayan, demonstrated after the Six Days War in 1967.  Moshe Dayan considered that a billion Muslims and perhaps the rest of the nations of the world may come to destroy Israel if Israel would remove the Muslim enemy and its pagan shrines from the Holy Temple Mount.  Instead of trusting the G-D of Israel and His promises to stand with Israel against any human power, Dayan showed weakness when he considered, mistakenly and sinfully, that if Israel removes the foreign Islamic occupation and its pagan shrines from the Holy Temple Mount and immediately builds the Third Holy Temple, that the Islamic and Arab enemies of Israel together with the great powers will come to destroy Israel.  The Faithful Movement's declaration stated that no human power in the world and especially not any feeble weakness of the Israeli government can stop the determination of the G-D of Israel and His call to His people to rebuild His Holy Temple on the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement intends to answer the call of G-D to His people Israel to rebuild the Holy Temple.  “The Holy Temple should be built and will be built in the lifetime of our generation!  Israel and even the entire world can gain peace and safety only when the Holy Temple of G-D stands on the Holy Temple Mount and the G-D of Israel and the universe dwells in the midst of His people Israel and the entire world in the holy capital of Israel in Jerusalem!  Real peace will come to Israel and to the entire world only when the Holy Temple is rebuilt!”

With all things considered, the discovery of this holy priestly underground tunnel within the precincts of the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem was clearly additional solid evidence that the Holy Temple Mount is the authentic location of the First and Second Holy Temples and the same location of the coming Third Holy Temple.

Very important pieces of evidence regarding the Holy Temple Mount being the only location of both Jewish Temples are the artifacts that archaeologists have recovered from the earthen debris that the Arabs have more recently and carelessly discarded from the Holy Temple Mount.  Tons of this earthen rubble were heaped into the Kidron Valley just east of the Temple Mount.  Many interesting artifacts that were used in the First and Second Holy Temples have already been sifted-out from the 13,000 tons of earth that were taken away from the Holy Temple Mount by the Muslims not many years ago.  The recovery of these valuable artifacts is an ongoing project that is yet to be completed but those remains that have already been found have confirmed again and again that the Holy Temple Mount is the location of both of the Jewish Holy Temples.

The massive archaeological diggings that have been carefully conducted by Israel in the areas around the Holy Temple Mount, especially at the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, have uncovered remarkable archaeological finds that supply ample evidence that the Holy Temple Mount is the original location of both Jewish Temples.

The original huge Herodian stones from the wall of the Holy Temple Mount that fell when the Romans destroyed it were discovered by Israeli archaeologists near the southern section of the western wall and they are another piece of clear evidence that the Holy Temple Mount is the true location of both Holy Temples.  Everyone can view these huge stone remains until today.

There was such excitement and acknowledgment of a major historical moment  when one of the stones that was discovered at the southwestern corner of the Holy Temple Mount was found with it's original engraved words: “Beit HaT'kiyot”, which means in Hebrew: 'the place from where the priests on the Holy Temple Mount blew the shofar (horn)'. When the Holy Temple stood, the shofar was blown every Friday in order to announce the beginning of the Sabbath to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  Flavius Josephus, and even the Talmud, say that the priests used to blow the shofar on the top corner of the southwestern wall of the Holy Temple Mount exactly in the same place where this stone was discovered in the archaeological diggings.  This exciting discovery, like many others, confirmed again so very distinctly that the Holy Temple Mount is the location of both of the Jewish Temples.

Immediately after the 1967 Six Days War, the chief rabbi of the Israeli army, Rabbi General Shlomo Goren, called the commanders of the Israeli army to immediately remove the foreign Arab pagan shrines from the Holy Temple Mount and to build the Third Holy Temple.  He blew the shofar at the location of the Holy Temple on the Holy Temple Mount.  He measured the entire area of the Holy Temple Mount and the location of the Holy Temple and the Holy of Holies.  His measurement fit completely 100% with the measurement of the Holy Temple and the Holy Temple Mount that the historian, Josephus, who lived during the time when the Holy Temple still stood and after the destruction of the Holy Temple, shared in his book.  It also fit with the measurement listed in the volume “Midot” of the Talmud that was written when the Holy Temple was still standing.

There is much more evidence which corroborates that the Holy Temple Mount is absolutely the authentic location of the First and the Second Jewish Temples.  However, what we have shared until now confirms without any doubt that the Holy Temple Mount is the only correct location of the Jewish Temples.  All of this substantive evidence ultimately cancels any other theory about the location of the Holy Temples.  This article was written because I want that everyone in Israel and in the world will know the exact and correct location of the First and the Second Holy Temples and that they will not become misinformed about this critically important subject.  The Holy Temple Mount and the 'foundation rock' were very clearly shown to King David by the G-D of Israel to be the eternal location where the G-D of Israel will dwell in His Holy Temple among His people Israel and where He placed His Name forever.  This can never be changed in any way.  This is the very Word of G-D.

The Third Holy Temple that Israel will build is going to be an 'house of prayer for all nations' as the prophet Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 56:7.  Everyone in the world should know that the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the only correct location of the two previous Jewish Temples and it will be the location of the Third Holy Temple exactly as the G-D of Israel has shown to His people  Israel.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

The Lord's Prayer #1 - Our Father

by Pastor Eric Chang
We very often use this prayer in our own prayers, but often, its meaning escapes us. We mumble the words without really knowing what we are saying. I should mention to you that in the Lord’s Prayer - look at these words in Matthew 6:9; the Lord Jesus says this: “Pray then like this”. Notice He did not say necessarily pray these words, but, “Pray... like this”. In other words, this is a model for prayer. It does not follow we have to repeat it every time.

Now, there is nothing wrong in repeating it. There is nothing wrong in doing that. But it is not meant for mere repetition. Unfortunately, many of our Catholic brothers and sisters have gone into serious error at this point, and their prayer is basically limited only to “Our Father” and “Hail Mary”. Beyond that, they seem to be totally incapable of prayer because they have not been taught how to pray. You remember that I mentioned the other day that when I was in Germany, not too long ago, I met a Catholic priest with whom I had some fellowship, if you can call it that, at the end of which I asked him to conclude in prayer, and he did not know how to pray. Why did he not know how to pray? It is because all his life he simply mentioned; he simply repeated; “Our Father” and “Hail Mary”.
The Lord’s Prayer Is a Model for Prayer

Those of us, myself included, who spent many years in Catholic schools, will know the tragedy of this, because we were never taught to pray. We simply do not know how to pray. And when we have to pray, the only thing we know how to do is say: “Our Father who are in heaven”. [KJV] That is what I used to do when I was in Catholic school. Every night I knelt down beside my bed, and I said, “Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name” and so forth. And it seemed so short that when it was finished, I said, “Hey! That wasn’t long enough!” So, I repeated it once more. From this comes the whole notion of the rosary. Many of you may have seen a rosary. It is [comprised of] beads on a string or beads on a wire, at the end of which there is a cross hanging there. Every time you pray a prayer, you push one rosary bead along. That is what the rosary is for; to help you to count how many “Our Father’s” you have prayed so that you do not lose count at the end of the whole thing. So, here we notice then that the Lord’s Prayer is not just for mere repetition. The Lord’s Prayer is a model for prayer.

Let us look then again at this prayer. I think the words of it in Matthew are extremely familiar to us:
Our Father who are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. [Matthew 6:9-13]
That is where the prayer stops in the original. The latter part of that prayer was later on added on because it was felt that the prayer, as it stands, was incomplete. That shows us again that the prayer was not meant to be repeated, but that it was a model for prayer. Its importance and its preciousness we are going to see in the weeks to come.
Awareness of the Presence of God Is Essential to Prayer

When we come to God in prayer, there are two things of exceeding great importance for us. First of all, when we pray, it is clear that the presence of God is essential to prayer. That is to say, we must be conscious of God’s presence. There is no point trying to talk to somebody who is very obviously not in the room. I was talking to a sister the other day about taping things when nobody is in the room. I find this exceedingly difficult. I am not very used to talking to a tape recorder and trying to imagine that this tape recorder is my friend or some brother and sister in Christ. No matter how I stare at this tape recorder, it does not look like my brother and sister in Christ. Thus, I find myself utterly ridiculous trying to talk to this machine and still in my mind trying to imagine that eventually this brother and sister will be receiving this message. Now maybe some people are much better at imagining than I am. Maybe my imagination is not terribly good, but I find it extremely difficult to talk into a tape recorder. I have, from time to time, sent a message off on tape because it is often a lot quicker than writing a letter, I find, and you can say a lot more. Maybe you have got used to these taped letters. But I find that when I am talking to this tape, my voice becomes monotonous and sounds rather like a meditation because, eventually, it seems to me, that I am really just talking to myself. Why is this a problem? The problem is because you are not conscious of that person’s presence in the room. And of course, he is not present! That is the truth of the matter. That is the problem for many people when they pray.

The problem of prayer, then, is the problem of God’s presence because we very often are simply not aware of God’s presence. And so, we find that we have no desire to pray because who has the desire to talk to the wall? Now, who has the desire to talk to your bed if you kneel down by your bed, or talk to your chair if you kneel by your chair? That is not a very interesting experience. Now prayer, if it is to have any meaning at all, cannot be simply a mental exercise or a spiritual exercise. It is talking to God, or better, talking with God, so that it does not end up as a monologue, by which we are doing all the talking to God and we never listen or give Him a chance to say anything to us.
This lack of the understanding of God’s presence is the very thing that the Lord Jesus is dealing with right here and you will see the beauty of the arrangement of the Sermon on the Mount.

Everything is arranged, in the divine wisdom of God, in perfect proportion and beauty. The reason why we are not aware of God’s presence is due to our own lack of spiritual insight and understanding. There is a certain spiritual blindness that afflicts Christians.

1) EVERYWHERE GOD’S PRESENCE CAN BE FOUND

Now, wonderfully, our Brother Wilson just now asked us to read together Psalm 139, in which I hope you will notice the fact that God is to be found everywhere, in that psalm. I think this is really wonderful; the arrangement; because no psalm could have been more appropriate. I guarantee you that I did not ask him to read that psalm. He chose it entirely himself, without knowing perhaps that I would be touching or making any use of that psalm because, of course, in that psalm there is no reference to God as Father. So we find that here in this psalm, the psalmist is saying that there is nowhere that God’s presence cannot be found. God is absolutely everywhere! He is up in the heavens, but if you go down to Hades, the realm of the dead, you do not escape Him there either. Many people think that they can escape by committing suicide. Suicide solves no problems at all. You have not escaped from God’s presence by suicide or by any other means. There is no way by which anyone can escape the presence of God. God is to be found everywhere! Now that seems to be something we are familiar with, but you know there are many truths we are familiar with, without having deeply appreciated the meaning of that truth. We say, “Oh yes, God is everywhere.” But think for a moment what that means, that God is everywhere, that at all times, He knows exactly what there is to know about you, that there is no way you can escape from His presence. It is not a question of finding His presence; it is a question of not being able to escape from His presence. Now think about that next time you pray.

You know, Adam and Eve, when they sinned, they hid themselves in the bushes. That is not very clever, is it? Can you imagine trying to hide from God in the bushes? There is no way you can hide from God, [not even if] you dug a great hole and found your way down to the center of the earth. There is no way to hide from God, [say,] to find a cave in a remote desert. Everywhere God is! And it is we who hide ourselves from God; that is, we shut out His presence. At least, we try to, but it is all in vain. Remember then, the first point: It is that God’s presence cannot be escaped. You do not have to look for it. He cannot be escaped. That is the Scriptural teaching.

2) GOD IS PRESENT IN US

The second point is this: When we become a Christian, this question of whether God is present or not becomes even more meaningless. And it should be meaningless because Christ is in us. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. The whole New Testament tells us about this, that the Holy Spirit now lives inside of us and that we become the temple of God. Now what is the temple of God? If the Holy Spirit does not dwell in us, we are not the temple of God. But Paul tells us in Corinthians that the very body; in 1 Corinthians Chapter 6 and 1 Corinthians Chapter 3; that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God lives inside of us! Think about that. How easy [it is] to commune with God when you realize this truth, when you deeply ponder upon the reality that God dwells inside this humble body of ours. We have this treasure, Paul says, in earthen vessels. [2 Corinthians 4:7] God dwells inside of me. That is something wonderful. I must say that that is a thought and a reality that has been for me a tower of strength, to go out day by day to realize God lives in me. In this earthen vessel, in this house of clay, God dwells in me. Ponder that sometimes. Do not take great spiritual truths, and just say, “Yes! Yes!” but ponder it. This is where there are deep Christians and shallow Christians. The shallow Christians are the ones who say ‘yes’ to everything. The deep Christians ponder it deeper and deeper, considering what this means, working out its implications; that God dwells in me. This second point, then, describes, you might say, the Scriptural teaching of God’s presence in us.

3) GOD IS SPECIALLY PRESENT IN HIS CHURCH

The third point deals with the special presence of God that we find in the Scripture, which, for example in a meeting like this, there is God’s special presence. Did you know that? The Lord Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, I am in the midst.” [Matthew 18:20] Now He dwells in all of us, that is true, but He dwells in us particularly in the midst of His congregation. That is the special presence of God. God is everywhere, yes, but He is specially present in us and He is then also specially present in His church. Just as we saw in Israel, God is everywhere; also in Israel! He has His special presence in the temple. That is where the Israelites went to seek God’s face. There is no point saying, “Well, God is everywhere, so why should I bother to go to the temple?” The point of bothering to go to the temple is because God’s special presence is in the temple. You may say, “God is everywhere, so why should I bother to go to church to pray?” “God’s presence is everywhere, so He is also in my home.” Yes, He is! But His special presence is to be found in the church. And you miss the blessing of that presence unless you meet together, even if there is only two or three. “If two or three gather in My name,” not just gather, but “gather in My name”, i.e., gather for His sake, under His authority, [then] His presence is there in a very special way.

That is why, oftentimes, you will find that it is so good to have a prayer partner. Praying by yourself is good, but having a prayer partner makes prayer so much more effective because of God’s special blessing, special presence. “Where two or three of you agree on any one thing,” the lord Jesus says, “it shall be done for you.” [Matthew 18:19] And we shall, in due time, see the richness of the meaning of that saying, too. But we see then that there is a special presence. You will find that where God’s people gather together, it is so much easier to pray. Have you found out for yourself how much easier it is? It is not just, in any sense, that you are conscious of their presence, but that you find that their presence has, that is, the prayer there has a power that raises you somehow closer to God.

Have you found that? When you pray with those who really love the Lord, there is a special presence. It is not surprising that many times it is in a gathering of the Lord’s people that there is an unusual outpouring of the Spirit, such as I shared with you the experience that we had a unique experience for me, at any rate; where at that Easter conference, the Holy Spirit just poured down upon us and came down upon us with astonishing power. This kind of experience is something that is found, again and again, where God’s people meet together, seeking His presence, seeking His face.

Now so we see that prayer, we must know that God’s presence is with us. When we realize these three things, we know that God’s presence is with us. Even when we are alone, on those two points: that God is everywhere [and] that God dwells in us, that is sufficient. When you pray, you know that God is there, and you can talk with Him. And above all, if you find some difficulty in prayer, then look for some brother and sister who really loves the Lord, and say, “Can I pray with you? Can we have a time of fellowship and prayer together?” You will find that that is a time of tremendous blessing and help.
Our Concept of God Affects Our Prayer

But there is still a second problem in prayer, and this is our conception of God. You see, it is the question of understanding not only that God is there, but how does God relate to me? You see, it is very hard even when a stranger is there to talk to [him]. It is very hard to open your heart to a stranger. If a stranger is there, he is there, but he is a stranger. There are lots of things you would not say to a stranger. You would say them to your brother or sister, but you do not say those things to a stranger. With a stranger, you have to behave in a very special manner; you put on your best behavior; you put on your nicest smile; and so you talk to the stranger in a very certain way. But when you get home, you relax and then you forget about all the outward behavior. You forget about the way to put on the nice smile, because after all, that is your brother and sister. You live with them. You see them everyday. You can be yourself. Now this is a very interesting thing to observe: when many Christians come to God, they are no longer themselves; they put on the best behavior. And so, they put on the nice smile that is reserved for God. [They put on] the tone of voice that is reserved for God (like those Anglican bishops) where somehow God’s ear is used to a higher pitch of voice and so you have to present this higher pitch of voice for God to hear. That just shows you how utterly ridiculous is this situation when we lack a true concept of God and it really makes you very tired to listen to this [way of speaking of] one or two notes higher and [to see] the special kind of behavior and movement and so forth. When we pray to God, who are we talking to? Now if you are treating God as some kind of an archbishop or pope, or whatever it is, then presumably you have to behave in this sort of way. Or if you think of Him as some kind of a dictator, or tyrant, or king, or president, or whatever He is, then you have to behave in this sort of way.

Thus, we come to the heart of the message that the lord Jesus gives us here in the lord’s prayer. What He is teaching us here in these words, “Our Father”, is a totally new concept of God. He is saying this: when you become a disciple, when you become a child of God, you have a totally new concept of God. We saw that the whole Sermon on the Mount deals with a new person and here He is saying, when you become a disciple, your whole concept of God becomes new. We saw that becoming a new creature is to have a new way of thinking, and here He is telling us what is our new way of thinking about God. The old ways of thinking about God must go.
Our Old Concepts of God Must Go!

[Maybe] you thought about God as some kind of a fierce schoolteacher, a nasty grandfather, or whatever it is you thought of Him, and are terrified. As I have shared with you sometimes, that in Catholic school we used to be issued with pictures, and God is pictured up there in the clouds as an old man with a very, very long beard that disappeared right down below the clouds. You kept wondering, how much further does it go down? Now, if you picture God like this - and after all, we children in Catholic school were issued with pictures of God like this - clearly you think of God in the sky with a long white beard, and you say, “Now, is He kind? Is He severe? Is He patient? Is He...?” Generally the feeling we got was that He was rather severe and you could not come too close to Him; you have got to go around the corners. You have to get to Mary because Mary is so kind and gentle. If you look at her statue, you see that she is very kind and gentle. Her hands are always [folded as in prayer]. Her face is that of a young girl of around 25, or maybe 24. I do not know how old that picture looks, but no statue of Mary ever shows her above the age of 30, that I have seen anyway. So she is young and tenderhearted and patient and kind. But this fierce-looking character - think of me at the age of 6 or 7 looking at this fierce person, with spread-out hands, with the long beard - a terrifying picture! So we go to Mary and say, “Would you like to talk to Grandpa?” After all, that is what He looked like to me and maybe He looked even more than grandpa! My grandpa did not even have a beard like that, [so He is] much more impressive than grandpa.

But Jesus is saying that when you become a Christian, when you become a disciple, your whole concept of God must radically change. It must change utterly. These kinds of notions of God, in which we dare not approach Him [and] we have to look for Mary to come round the back and whisper some words in His ears; well, why else would you pray to Mary? You see, this is the teaching. The only reason you pray to Mary is because you dare not approach to God. God is too fearful to approach! And if Mary is unapproachable; she may be too busy; so you get a hold of the saints. I mean, it is better to have the saints than nothing, after all. They might have more time for you because so many people are praying to Mary, so you have got to get around to the saints. What kind of a notion is this? Have these dear people never seen the teaching of Jesus? What kind of travesty of the teaching of the Word of God is this?

Now we do not want to be severe with them because the Bible, we must remember, was a closed book for the Catholics, the Catholic brothers and sisters, for a very long time, and they are trying very hard to catch up now, so we must not be severe with them. But we must remember, too, that this concept of God is not only peculiar to the Catholics. I am sure that if you examine many Protestants, you will find that that is also the way they think of God, even if they would not have put it exactly in those words. So we see that we need a new concept, a new understanding of God.

So Jesus is teaching us that our concept of God must become new, not, on the one hand, to regard God as a dictator to be feared, or on the other hand, as a grandfather to be taken advantage of. As I was saying, when I was small, we think of grandfathers and grandmothers as being very patient and loving people. They seem to have no end of patience with their grandsons and granddaughters, whereas they seem to have taken a very different line with us. Just like my mother, you see - she is one who is always spotlessly clean. Oh, the house is spotless. The floor shines! The table shines! Everything must be spotless! If I ever dare to put my handprint on the glass table somewhere, dear me, I had really run into trouble. But when my daughter goes there and puts her fingerprints everywhere and knocks over this and throws over that, my mother has no end of patience! She says, “It does not matter! It does not matter!” And so we conceive of God, since He has such a long beard, He must be kinder even than a grandfather. After all, he has been around longer than the grandfather. Since grandfathers are so kind and grandmothers are so kind, then God must be like one of these sugar daddies that we can ask for sweets, ask for popcorn and ice-cream and whatever it is. Thus, we must avoid these two extremes of erroneous thinking about God.
Jesus Taught of God as Father

Now, Jesus taught of God as Father. Notice not grandfather, [but] Father. I mentioned just now that fathers can be severe. Let us remember that before we start beginning to get over-familiar. Fathers and mothers can be severe. My father was very severe with me. I got beaten almost every single day. In a way, I thank God that He is not quite like that. I got beaten everyday because, you see, I was an only son and my father wanted to make sure that his only son was not going to get spoiled. He wanted to make it so sure that he went somewhat to the other extreme. I got beaten for every small thing that I did wrong, at least that was until the age of 5 or 6. I must say that I began to get a very bad impression of fathers who seemed to me to have the only function in the family which was to beat up the son. I am grateful that after the war, i.e., when my father came back from the war, his whole attitude changed. He went again to the other extreme; he never once beat me again. He became to me a friend of friends and extremely kind and loving and patient. And so human beings are [like this].

Grandfathers are again different; they were severe with their sons, but very kind with their grandsons. Just like Helen’s father; [he] used to be such a person who never ever talked with her, never played with her. When our daughter came, Helen was amazed to see her father sitting on the floor playing with Evelyn! Helen had never seen anything like this. She just blinked her eyes in astonishment.

So, remember, the Lord Jesus says, “Father”, not grandfather. There is a big difference here. But first, let us notice that there is no teaching in the Lord’s teaching about some kind of vague notion of the universal fatherhood of God. Let us wipe that out straightaway. There is no teaching in the Scriptures about a universal fatherhood of God, in which God is father to everybody. There is no such teaching at all. There are some aspects, for example, the Unitarians, which is a sort of offshoot of Christianity, that has this false teaching, this erroneous teaching of God as universal father of everybody. God is no such father to everybody. But Jesus taught plainly that God is not a universal father, but that He can become “our Father”. Now that is exactly what the Gospel is about. It is the Good News that you and I, ordinary people that we are, can actually become God’s children. That is something really wonderful that we need to think about.
A Child Has Access to the Father

What is it then that we can become God’s children? This is something truly precious. Last Friday, in our Bible study, we saw that becoming a Christian is not merely a matter of escaping from destruction. That is not the point of becoming a Christian. The point of the Good News is not just that we can escape from destruction, but that we can become God’s children. We saw how in the hierarchy of heaven there are many, many different ranks. There are spiritual beings. There are angels. There are archangels. There are these 4 mysterious creatures who do not even have a name; there is nothing by which they can be described, as we read about in Revelation and Ezekiel, these mysterious creatures who seem to be higher than even some of the angels, than even the archangels, because they are nearest to God. But the amazing thing about the Gospel is this: that God lifts us up from the lowest section of creation to the highest, and puts us above the whole hierarchy of God’s creation and makes us to be His children.

Now you have often heard that we are children of God, but did you know what it means? We are lifted up, right next to God. As Paul says, we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, right at God’s right hand. The children are right next to God. That is where He wants them to be: close to Himself. Oh, the privilege, the beauty of that. Just try and meditate! Don’t take spiritual truth, as I said earlier, in a superficial way, but meditate deeply into it until your heart overflows with thanksgiving, that God lifts us up to such a place. It is truly wonderful that we may be able to be seated in the heavenly places, not because of anything that we are. Let no Christian ever think that he is better than anybody else in the world. Most of us are much worse, much lower than most of the other people in the world, but God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the strong; the low things; and lifted them up high so that it might be seen that it is of His grace.

I have mentioned before that my father was an official of some rank in China. As a result, I sat in the high places beside the ministers of government; [beside] the generals; beside prime ministers. Who was I? Nobody! I was just a boy that nobody would have looked at twice, perhaps, in the streets of Shanghai or Nanking [now Nanjing] or anywhere else, but because of who my father was, I could enjoy these things: sit at the right hand of the Prime Minister. I remember sitting at the right hand of Wang Yang Wu 王雲五, who was at that time Vice Prime Minister. He was on my left side and his wife was on my right side. I was squeezed between the two of them, and between them they did a good job of destroying me, by which I mean that they kept piling the food into my bowl, one chopstick here and the other chopstick there and I was struggling to finish what was in my bowl. I do not know if you have heard of Wang Yang Wu 王雲五. He has written, i.e., he has compiled “Da Zidian 大字典”, the dictionary, which was a great [contribution]. It is the four-cornered system of dictionary 四角號碼字典. He was a man of very humble origin himself, but through hard work and great intelligence, he reached a very high [position]. Even now, I understand he might still be alive and in high position in Taiwan. But in any case, he was there, and as he was talking, he was piling this food into my bowl, not noticing that his wife, on the other side, was doing the same. I was fighting a losing battle with this food in the bowl. But there it was that at this table, in which there were not very many people, maybe 15 or 16 people at this round table, there was this nobody, who was me. What right did I have to be at this table of all these dignitaries? No right whatsoever, except that my father was who he was.

Thus, in the kingdom of God, too, we are nobody. But we are what we are due to the mercy of God, our Father, that He raises us up to sit, where? In the heavenly places, where? With Abraham and Isaac, with Archangel Michael and Gabriel, with these four mysterious beings, whoever they are, that we read about in Revelation, these mighty beings of the heavenly places. You think about it. A little you and a little me seated with these people, these spiritual beings, who would make all these dignitaries of the earth look like so many peanuts. Just think of it sometimes: the privilege that God has given us to be called the sons of God, in comparison to which the glories of this earth are simply utterly insignificant. He has raised us up like this. Do you know what it means to be called a son? When you walk into the kingdom of God; sons of God! Ah, let all those angels and heavenly beings look, wow! That is the son of God! That is him.

What mercy! As Paul says, He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. God did not withhold anything from us. What kind of gratitude we must have to live a life in this world that pleases Him!

You know, brothers and sisters, it sometimes sickens me, it makes my heart feel weak when somebody says, “Oh, I can’t do that for the Lord. I am too busy.” I think, “What did God not do for you?” What did God not do for you? Did He withhold any mercy from you and you are too busy for God? When God is too busy for you, brothers and sisters, then you really have had it. Then you will be in trouble. He withheld nothing and we want to withhold this. We feel we are giving God too much. Maybe our attitude only proves that we are not yet children of God, or if we are children, we do not know what it means. We do not even know what kind of blessing He has blessed us with. So we can see that becoming a child of God is the highest privilege. And the Lord Jesus is saying, “When you have become my disciple, you become a child. Do you know what that means? And when you pray, therefore, say, ‘Father’ - “Our Father who are in heaven.” [KJV]

Consider then what kind of access we have as a child, as a son. What access, what right did I have to walk past all the guards, all the soldiers, all the people [and their] the doors. I walked straight into my father’s office. Other people cannot come. No, no! Nobody can come. Only by special appointment they can come. But me; the nobody; nobody will challenge, nobody will question. I can walk into the office 20 times a day, anytime I like. Why? It is because I am a son! That is why. I am no dignitary. At that time, I had no education. I was only a boy. I had never been to university, I had no qualifications to produce, but I can walk into that office any number of times, and nobody; no matter how many guards there are, no matter how many commanders and officers there are; nobody can stop me. In the same way, we have access. This is the point. That is why I say that is the beauty of the arrangement of the lord’s prayer. When you pray, how do you pray? You pray as a child! You have access. Not all the spirit beings in the world can stop you, and say, “You can’t go into God’s presence.” Who said so? I am a son! It is by the grace of God. No, I did not earn it! Whoever earned being a son? What is there to boast about? But by the mercy of God, I am a son! Nobody can stop me; I am coming into His presence. What is your problem in prayer? Where is the problem? You can come into the innermost presence. As the book of Hebrews says, “We have access into the holiest, the innermost place.”
Our Conduct Is the Evidence of Our Being Children of God

Now we see then that the only way we become a child, as we saw earlier, is to be born from above. How do we become a child? By being born; that is how! And we ‘become born’ means that God's Spirit does the work of making us a child. It is not something that we can earn, but (here is another thing we must notice about a child) the Scriptural teaching is this: a child must prove worthy in his life and conduct. Our conduct is the evidence of our childhood. How do other people know that we are God’s children? In fact, how does anybody know that we are God’s children? The lord Jesus, and God Himself, in the wisdom of the Scriptures, has given us one factor by which we can know that we are His children. We have not got a birth certificate that we can produce. We have not got, in fact, any other evidence that we are God’s children, in the wisdom of God’s teaching, except our conduct: that we look like God’s children.

Now, you see, when I go to see my father, the people knew that this is the son. But how did they know? There must be some means to know. I cannot just say, “Well, I am a son.” I cannot go to Mr. Trudeau’s office [Mr. Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada at that time] and say, “I want to see Mr. Trudeau because I am his son.” They will say, “What? You don’t look like it!” What am I going to do? There must be some way to establish this: either that my father confirms that I am his son, but also that there must be a certain evidence. And in this life, the only evidence that we have, that is given to us, is the evidence of our life and conduct - the likeness with God. We saw this earlier on in our teaching, when we saw in the Lord’s teaching in Matthew 5:45 that it says this. We read from v.44: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may (become the) sons of your Father....” Now the lord Jesus did not mean by that that we can, through doing this, earn our sonship, but only that by this we have the evidence of sonship, which is very different from earning it. We do not earn sonship, we do not earn eternal life, but what we must have is the evidence of that sonship in our lives. That is absolutely essential. And when there is evidence of that sonship, you will find that there is nowhere you cannot go. Now test it and see.

You try committing sin and you try praying, if you do not believe what I have said. You will find that you can go and claim all day long that you are God’s son, and see if your prayer gets through. See if God answers your prayer. See if that prayer goes unhindered. It does not work. That, you see, is the point which is not true in our analogy. Even if I have offended against my father, other people will still see me as his son. I still have access. But you will find that when you sin, it is not only that your sin comes, you will find that there is somehow an obstacle. Many people who have sinned have said that heaven becomes brass and earth as steel. Strange! What does that mean? Is it that God does not want to see you? He says, “If you will repent of your sins, you come to Me at anytime.” He did not say He does not want to see you. But somehow, suddenly, powers can intervene. Enemy powers could intervene. You have given them something to intervene with. It is the evidence of the sonship we must carry with us, if we are going to have access. This does not mean that if you sin, you cannot repent. Certainly we can repent of our sins. We can still come back to God. We can still ask the Lord to take away the hindrances, but the hindrances will certainly come. And that hindrance is not merely psychological. You will find that it is a very actual hindrance.

I have shared with some of you before, how, when I first told a brother of ours sinned, he found himself unable to pray through. Though he dearly wanted to get through, the door was closed; he could not get through. There was no way. It was not that he did not desire to pray. It was not that he did not desire to call on God, but the way was closed, that somehow forces outside of his control had shut the door. He had given Satan an opportunity, in other words. It is not God who shuts the door. It is not angels who shut the door, but it is Satan who now comes in and shuts the door. And we suddenly found that he has got the authority to do it, strangely enough. You gave him a chance. We will look into this more fully when we see the prayer, “Lead us not into temptation.” You have got to be sure that there is no sin in your life if you want to pray, if you want to come to God as son. This shows the point that sonship in the Lord’s teaching is not something that can be abused. It cannot be taken for granted. That is the other point we must clearly understand. If you abuse it or take it for granted; it is not a question of dogma or argument; it is a matter of experience; you are going to find that you cannot get to God’s presence. And then you can only cry out in the distance and ask the Lord to take away your sin. I am now talking, of course, about more serious sins. I am not talking about smaller sins. I am talking about serious sins that can shut you out from God.

So, then, we see the great difference between a child of God in the world and a child of God in the kingdom of heaven. In the world, because you are a son, you think you can do anything you like and nobody can question you and can deal with you. This, unfortunately, was the kind of experience that we had in China. Being the son of a high official meant that you could do virtually anything you liked and nobody, but nobody, could challenge you. There were sons of high officials who did anything they liked and they did every manner of evil. They could kill, they could violate girls, and nobody could do anything about it. They could go into a shop and eat a meal and walk out without paying. Nobody dared to do anything about it because they feared the families of these people. The families of these higher grades were often issued with a special badge, which very few people had. You need only put that badge behind your lapel and you turn that lapel, and absolutely no one would dare to stop you anywhere. You could eat, you could go into a restaurant, you could sit on an airplane, ride on a train, sit in a tram and you never paid anything because nobody would dare to ask you for a penny. All you do is turn your lapel over and show the badge. There were only a very few of those special badges that were issued out.
So, you can see that in the world, you are still a son and you can misuse your privileges as a son; you can commit sin; and nobody dares to stop you. But that is where the analogy ends because in the kingdom of God your sonship is immediately tied up with the evidence of your conduct. The moment your conduct does not match up to your sonship - it does not follow you may not be a son, but you lose the privilege of a son. You may still be a son in fact, or only in name, either way, but all the privileges of the son are taken away. Until you have repented, you do not strut about as a son. You cannot go about thinking, “Well, I can sin and do what I like.” You simply cannot do that. This point I really want to emphasize because so many Christians do not see the relationship of conduct and prayer. Prayer and conduct are vitally related - I beg of you clearly to understand this; that if you live in sin, there is no way you can pray through. And you can say “Our Father” as long as you like, and nothing, but absolutely nothing, will happen to you until you have repented of sin. So please notice carefully this vital aspect of the lord’s teaching.
We Become Children of God by Opening Our Life Totally to the Holy Spirit

Now, when we come to realize these things, you will see that it is only through being born again, as we said earlier, and that by the Spirit of God, that we can call God “Father”. It does not mean that you can call “Father” just because you happen to want to call God “Father” or just because you think, “Well, Jesus said, ‘Say, “Our Father”,’ so I say “Our Father”!” Jesus was talking to His disciples. I addressed God as “Father” simply because I was taught the Lord’s Prayer in a Catholic School, when I did not really have the right to say “Our Father” at all! I was not His son. We can only rightly call God “Our Father” when the Spirit of God comes into our life. That means, we become God’s children only when we open our lives completely and totally to the Holy Spirit. Have you opened your life totally to the Holy Spirit? And I mean, totally! God does nothing by parts. He either has the whole of your life or He does not have your life at all. This is a truth that I have been trying to make clear to people wherever I have been going to: God does nothing by parts; He does not accept a partial offering. There is no partial offering that He ever accepts. If you want to become a child of God and experience the benefits and privileges and responsibilities of a child, you have got to open your life totally to God. The reason why many Christians find it difficult to say “Our Father” in prayer and really understand that it comes right up from the heart is because they have never totally opened their life to God. There are simply Christians who are 50%, 80% and they never know the joy of sonship. If you want to know the joy of sonship, make sure that you ask yourself right now, “Am I totally open? Lord, am I honestly, totally open?” Otherwise, you can say “Our Father”; there is nobody to stop you. Everybody can say to Mr. Trudeau, “Hi, Father.” There is no law that will stop you and say you cannot do that. The only trouble is he will look at you, and say, “I’ve never seen you before. Who are you?”

So, the point here is this: you have got to open yourself totally. That is what Paul says in Romans 8:15: “It is the Spirit crying out from our heart, ‘Our Father’.” There is a difference between saying “Father” with your mouth and saying it with your heart - that is the point. When the Lord Jesus [said] in the lord’s prayer, “When you pray, say ‘Our Father’,” He did not mean to say, “Just say it with your mouth.” The question is: Can you say it with your heart? Think of it right now. Can you say, as you sit there, listening to the Lord’s Word, can you say from the depth of your heart, “Father”, [and it comes] right straight from the depths of your heart? If you can say it from your heart, it is because the Holy Spirit is working in your heart, enabling you to say so. Paul says this on two occasions to make sure that we have not missed the point, that is, in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6: “The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God.” That is where true assurance comes from. True assurance; Biblical assurance, as we will see when we get to Romans Chapter 8; is the assurance of God witnessing in us, the Holy Spirit witnessing with us, saying, “Yes, you are a child of God.” I have the certainty that I am a child of God; I am not guessing. I have the certainty that I am a child of God because I have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. It is not based on alleged, external promises because the question is whether you are entitled to claim those promises. How do you know whether you are entitled to claim those promises? You only know it when the Spirit witnesses with your spirit that you are a child of God and you may claim those promises.

I remember some years ago when I was in Hong Kong, there was Andrew See preaching at a meeting in which he illustrated this very truth in his words. He said that somebody came and was saying to him that she was not sure that she was a child of God, though she had committed her life a few days earlier to the Lord. So Andrew See said, “Well, what did you pray when you came to the Lord?” She said, “Well, I prayed like this: I said, ‘Father’.” He said, “Stop! That’s enough. I don’t want to hear the rest of the prayer.” Then she said, “Why did you ask me what I prayed?” “It is because I just wanted to hear the first word. When you said ‘Father’, did you say it from your heart?” She said, “Yes! I said it from my heart.” Then he said, “Praise the Lord! You are a child of God.” Why did he say this? He had grasped this truth that we have seen right here in Romans Chapter 8 and Gal. 4:6 that it is the Spirit of God who enables you to say from your heart, “Father.” That means you have really become a child of God. You have opened your life totally to Him. That is the secret of prayer.

Now the uniqueness of the lord’s teaching in this we must really come to notice. The lord Jesus is the only person who ever taught anyone to pray to God as Father. Did you know that? There is nowhere, in no religion in the world, not even in the OT, do you ever find God addressed in prayer as “Father”. Nowhere! Nobody has ever called God “Father”. Did you know that? And so, those of us who were brought up, as some of us were, in Christian schools, in Catholic schools, have missed the realization of this: the uniqueness of this teaching! The lord’s teaching was absolutely unique. The Jews have never heard such a thing in their lives, that anybody can address God as “Father.” We have many prayers of the Jews today in which He is addressed as the Great King and title after title is piled up, but nowhere in the prayers of the Jews, or in the OT, is God addressed as “Father.” Nobody ever knew of such an expression for God. Nobody had ever had the privilege of calling God “Father”. Now think about that. That is why when we become new persons, our whole concept of God is renewed in this unique way that we are the only people on earth, through all generations of human history, who call God “Father” and have the right to call Him so because we, in God’s mercy, have become His children. It is only in Christ that we have this privilege to call God “Our Father,” and what is more, to address Him as “Abba! Father!”
What It Means to Call God “Abba! Father!”

Now, “Abba” is very interesting - this word “Abba”. “Abba” is the Aramaic form of “Father”. We find this word used in the Bible exactly in the places I have just quoted in Romans Chapter 8 and Galatians 4:6. Paul says that by the Holy Spirit, we say, “Abba! Father!” What does that mean? Oh, the richness of this is really wonderful! It means, first of all, that by the grace of God we have come into a relationship with God that is on the level of that; think about it; of the Lord Jesus Himself. Is that something enough to make one be stunned? On the level of the Unique Son himself! The lord Jesus himself is the only one who addresses God as “Abba Father.” You see that in Mark Chapter 14. In that prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, He says, “Abba, Father, if it is Your will, if it is possible, take this cup away from me.” [v.36]

This word “Abba” is the kind of word that the Aramaic people use in relation to their own fathers. It was a familiar form of address, rather like, you might say, the Germans would say “Papa”, or the English would say “Daddy”, or in Chinese, we would say “Baba”, which is very close to “Abba”. The Shanghai dialect is even better. Maybe the Shanghai dialect belongs in the kingdom of God [because in] the Shanghai dialect, we say exactly, “Ah Ba! Ah Ba!” when we address our father in the familiar term. It is exactly the same as the Aramaic - think of that. Every Shanghai person knows the word “Ah Ba” very well. “Abba, Father!” Even with the right intonation, exactly as in the Aramaic: “Ah Ba, with the emphasis on the second syllable.
Think about it. God is not saying that we address “Our Father” simply as “Father”, in a very official tone, but we address Him as “Daddy”. Wow! The Jews are really perspiring by now, [and saying], “You address the Great King as ‘Daddy’? Wah!” How can you do a thing like this? But why not? We are His children! How would you address your father? I do not know how you address your father; I address my father as “Dad”. I do not come to him and say, “Father, sir, here I am.” Now, in old Chinese custom, some people did that: “fu qin da ren 父親大人”, you would say: the big man father, literal translation, [which is] a term of respect. But that is to put a lot of distance [in the relationship]. That was because in Chinese families, there was often a lot of distance between father and son. The relationship was very formal and very cold. But that was not so with the Aramaic people, and certainly not so with the Jews, who have a very close relationship between father and son. Anyone who have been in a Jewish family will know that. The relationship of fathers and sons and of the whole family is very, very close. And so the father was addressed as “Abba, Father.”

Thus, we find that the Lord Jesus is saying, “Now you are children. You come into God’s presence, and you say, ‘Daddy, Father I’m here.’ And you talk with Him.” Oh, what a privilege! And that was not used just with children. I mean when we grow up, we still say Dad, don’t we? I mean when I was small, I still said “Dad”. When I am big, I still said “Dad”. I did not change to some other term. The word “Dad”, in no way, connotes any kind of disrespect. I would like you to notice this. It is expressing a certain intimacy - the intimacy of father and child - [and] love of a certain affection as well as respect. I respected my father every bit as much as when I addressed him as “Dad”. I did not take any liberties with him. I always respected my father and I am sure you do, too. So, it does not matter that you address him as “Dad”. It does not mean that you do not respect him. The reason why I am emphasizing on this point is because I want to deal with a subsidiary question here.
Addressing God in the Familiar ‘You’ Does Not Mean Disrespect

Just for example, the fact that Luther, in translating the German Bible, did not use the polite form in addressing God, but used the familiar form, was he wrong? Certainly not! Why did he use the familiar form? It is because nobody addresses their father with a polite form in Germany. In German, you know that there is the word ‘sie’ and there is a word ‘du’. ‘Sie’ is polite form; ‘du’ is the familiar form. But no child addresses their father as ‘sie’. You do not address your friends as ‘sie’. You address no one in the family as ‘sie’. You always say ‘du’, that is, the familiar form of ‘you’. And so, if the logic about ‘thou’ as a respectable form was right, then Luther was wrong, which he simply was not. And then you find also in French, when the Christians pray, do they address God as ‘vous’, or as ‘tu’? I am sure that they do not address God as ‘vous’, the polite form, but as every child would address their father, as ‘tu’. By addressing their father with the familiar form ‘tu’, they are, of course, not disrespecting their father, but showing that this is my father, not a stranger, or somebody that I have to put on airs with or be polite with.
And so in the same way in Chinese, when we address God, we do not say ‘Nin 您’, in the polite form, we say ‘Ni ä½ ’. I do not know if in Cantonese there is such a thing as ‘nin 您’, but in the Mandarin, [there is]. Is there ‘nin 您’ in Cantonese? No? Oh, the Cantonese have no problem! But in Mandarin, we have the ‘nin 您’ form, the polite form, and only people from very old families might have addressed their fathers as ‘nin您’. I do not know [any]. They must be well beyond my generation. But we always address God as ‘Ni ä½ ’ and that truly expresses respect, an attitude of respect.
What Matters in Prayer: Knowing Who God Is and Who He Is in Relationship to Us

We can see that all this is essential to prayer. And at this point, we need to close. And the fourth point here is. Why it is essential to prayer is: we said right at the beginning in relation to the second point, that talking to the person, we must know who that person is, in relation to us. To talk to a stranger makes us feel very closed up, very inhibited. But when we speak to a person that we know, we feel very open. Now, in praying to God, we do not know, of course, what He looks like. Maybe some of you when you pray, you try to imagine, “What does God look like?” Maybe you try to see Him as a great spot of light there, shining in a distance, or you try to imagine Him. The trouble with our minds is we have to try to picture the person that we see. It is like talking on the telephone. Have you ever picked up the telephone and you tried to imagine what the voice looks like at the other end. You hear the voice and you are trying to picture: Is this person fat or thin or round, big or short, or blond? And we have seen before that this kind of exercise in imagination is generally exceedingly futile. You hear a rich, resonant voice and you picture a big man, tall and dark-haired, big 40-inch chest, talking down the telephone. What is your surprise when you see him to be a small man with a very small chest, but happens to have a very big voice, so that you find that what you imagine generally tends to be wrong. Or you listen to a voice on the radio and you listen and you are trying to imagine what this person looks like, and you can be sure that every time you are wrong.

Now the point is, in prayer, we try to imagine God. Have we not? We try to see Him. [We say,] “I cannot talk with somebody I cannot imagine,” so we try to imagine Him. But we seem to get on very well in everyday life. Those of you who work in an office, you pick up telephone calls and you speak to people you have never seen in your life, but you carry on very well. You get your business done without having to imagine what that person’s face looks like. The point is: what the person looks like is the least important point of all, as far as the spiritual matters are concerned. But we have all been bothered by this question, have we not? We have been sitting there or kneeling there, and wondering, “Now, what does God look like? If I could only imagine Him, I could pray a lot better.” If you want to think of the lord Jesus, that is quite easy, I should think. He had a human body when He came into the world. He looked like a person. But I am not sure whether it helps a lot to know if He was blond or black-haired or blue-eyed or dark-eyed, or whatever [color] it was. But, you see, our minds are engaged with the superficial things and it becomes a great hindrance in prayer. The lord Jesus said, “Say, ‘Our Father’.” That establishes not what He looks like. It does not matter anymore what He looks like, but who He is; that is what matters; and who He is in relation to me. That is what matters.

There was a sister that we had, for example, in Liverpool, who had not seen her brother for 17 years. He was a small tot when she left home, and 17 years later, she did not know what he even looked like. How tall was he and what does his face look like? She did not know! She had never seen him in person at all. And yet, one day, the brother phoned. It was a long distance call. She picked up the phone and she was talking to her brother. Well, what does it matter? She did not know what her brother looks like, but what does it matter? She knows that, “That’s my brother!” and that is what mattered. She knows who he is in relation to her.
Now we do not know and there is no use pretending we know what God looks like. One day, we are going to see Him. As we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” [Matthew 5:8] We are going to see God, but in the meantime we live by faith, which means we do not see Him with our eyes but we live on the security of the relationship that we have with Him. We are His children! Just like this sister, that person was her brother. He was no more less her brother because she did not know what he looked like. Is he not her brother because she does not know what he looked like?

I did not see my father for years during the war. In the Japanese war, my father went, left Shanghai, straight to the enemy lines and went to fight in Chunking [now Chongqing], the war time capital. I did not see my father for over 5 years. I did not know what my father looked like. You know, it is very different when you see a person in a picture and when you see him in real life. It is very, very different. Have you noticed that? Now I have pictures of my father from 5 years ago. The funny thing is when he stood in front of me, I was not sure that he was my father. Now if I held up a picture beside him, I might have seen the resemblance. And yet, when I saw him, it was a totally different impression. But was he any less my father because I could not remember what he looked like, because I did not know what he looked like? He was still my father and everything was exactly the same. And so, in the same way, we do not right now know what Our Father looks like in terms of physical appearance, but we know who He is. He is Our Father. And in prayer, we must grasp firmly this point; otherwise, your prayer is going to go on the rocks with so many problems.

Thus, today, we have summed up from the Lord’s teaching the important fact concerning prayer: that if we grasp and grab hold of this fact, our prayer life is going to enter into a new phase because our whole concept of God is changed. We love Him and we respect Him. We can draw near to Him as we draw near to a dear father. We can talk to Him because we know He is present.