The Sword of the LORD

"But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." (1 Corinthians 15:13, 14) The resurrection of the dead is a fundamental truth of the Christian faith. Upon this one truth lies the hope of every man and woman who names the name of Christ. Jesus' entire life and ministry was driven toward this one outcome: that He would give His life freely as an offering for our sin, and that God would raise Him from the dead to gain the ultimate victory over death, sin, and the devil. The mystery of eternal life begins in Genesis, in the very beginning when God created man and woman. He planted a garden in Eden, and in it He placed two trees. The one tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The other tree was the Tree of Life. God told Adam and Eve that they could freely eat of any tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This included

"For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." (Matthew 13:12-16) There has never been a time in the history of the world when the gospel message has been so thoroughly proclaimed. Volumes of books, magazines, and tracts are published every year on vari

"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." (Luke 4:16-21) There is an interesting backdrop to this story in Luke chapter 4. Jesus had just been in the wilderness for forty days of fasting. While He w