We must understand a couple of the basic principles of the way in which the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit helps us to transform uncertainties about God into certainties. People don’t really know God. We are not on the same level. Therefore, God gave his own Spirit to us with the main purpose of helping us to get to know Him. The Spirit knows precisely who God is – it is indeed his own Spirit. All that we know about God was disclosed to us by the Spirit. Even when we look at God in nature and recognise God as creator of heaven and earth, the Holy Spirit helps us to make sense of and to recognise God.

But the spirit does more. He shares gifts with us. To name a few: 7… All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: 8 wise counsel, clear understanding, 9simple trust, healing the sick, 10 miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues.

When the Holy Spirit moves into someone there are many benefits. People change. People’s way of life changes. People start behaving differently, because they received special gifts. When the special gifts start working, their actions will obviously be different. Suddenly that person starts giving wise counsel. Or in difficult times that person simply keeps on believing in God. Or people are healed and miracles happen. Some even speak in tongues.

That is the result if people allow the Holy Spirit to take control of their lives. Then these things happen and people are surprised. But we don’t see many of these gifts taking root. I wonder why? Is it because the Spirit no longer moves into people? Is it because He only worked really hard for a short period after Jesus’ death?

No, I don’t think it’s the Holy Spirit who changed. Maybe we changed and no longer give the Spirit his rightful place in our lives. Maybe it’s become too important to us to be in control of our own lives. Therefore, our actions don’t tell the story of the Spirit’s gifts, but rather of hurt and destruction. Maybe it’s more about what I want to take from the world.

That is not the way the Holy Spirit works. The spirit doesn’t focus on us when He distributes gifts. No, He focuses on others: 7Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people!

The Holy Spirit lives in each of us. He gives each of us gifts that we have to use. The idea is that others, not us, should benefit from these gifts. Our fingers are on the switch. The question is whether we are prepared to switch on the power so that others can experience the wonder of the work of the Spirit through you.

Reflection

Are you prepared to switch on the power of the Holy Spirit to work in you?

What does your gift look like?

Do others experience your gift?

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Prayer

Holy Spirit, who lives inside me, thank you for the gifts that You have given me that I can use to mean something to others. Remind me to use them every day so that others can experience Your power that is working in the world. Amen

A Gurudwara is the holy temple of the Sikhs. But unlike Hindu temples and Christian churches a Gurudwara has no image of any guru or saint. There are also no statues or icons inside. The only object of worship in a Gurudwara is the Granth sahib the holy book of the Sikhs.

The tenth Guru Gobind Singh had decreed that after his death there would be no guru and all Sikhs were enjoined to worship the Granth sahib the holy book of the Sikhs. The Granth sahib written in a Hindi dialect of that period called the Braj Bhasa is a compilation of sacred writings and verses of the Sikh gurus and also includes Muslim and Hindu saint’s verses.

The granth sahib is worshiped as a god and all rituals are carried out by treating the granth as the epitome of the Sikh religion. The holy book is kept in the centre of the prayer hall and a granthi or Sikh priest reads the verses of the book. In addition the book is kept on a raised podium with a canopy on it as a cover.

All visitors to the Sikh temple are to first remove their shoes and socks and enter the temple only barefoot. They are also enjoined to keep their head covered.Sikhs will wear the turban or a small under turban called the patka. Non Sikhs can enter by covering their head with a handkerchief or cloth or scarf. No woman is to enter the temple without covering her head. Even the Prince Charles had entered the Golden temple at Amritsar with his head covered.

Devotees entering the temple must remove their shoes and socks as well as wash their hands and feet before entering the prayer hall. Woman worshipers are also to follow the same ritual.

After entering inside the devotee is to walk towards the Granth sahib and kneel before the holy book. If he wishes he can make a donation in the box that is kept in front of the book. After kneeling he can take a round of the holy book and then sit down on the carpet to listen to the recitation of verses from the granth.

Sikh gurudwaras are open to people of all faiths and castes. There is no bar to anyone and even a scheduled caste Hindu can pray at the temple. Sikh gurudwaras are the centre of the Sikh religion and all functions revolve around the holy book. Marriages are also conducted with the bride and groom taking 4 rounds around the guru granth sahib.

The Sikh religion is a simple religion with very little complications and rituals. It is in effect a religion in tune with the modern age.

Will Providence permit foreign murderers in our midst (in attitude, if not yet in action) to unleash nuclear fires within our major cities? Will militant minorities work with them against us? Won’t our British-Israelite brethren suffer the same within their respective biblical inheritances?

If our beloved nation has refused to remember our Hebrew roots and biblical responsibilities (and forswear foreign religious ways and hollow days of pagan origin God’s Word condemns) and sustain a healthy interest in the spiritual and return to the God of the Bible, aren’t we only reaping more of what we’ve sown and suffering cause and effect, the dire consequences of our national sins? (Daniel 9:11).

Will the Great God of history and all Creation let us continue to get knocked down and around until Europe deals us the death blow? Are we headed for the disasters of food and water shortages, race riots, terrorist sleeper cells activated, supernatural weather and plagues of biblical proportion until we suffer NATIONAL DEFEAT AND DEPORTATION?

Is the fascist EU destined to conquer the Anglo-Saxons and Jews? Will we save ourselves and our loved ones from the savage state of near extinction, hear and heed the warnings of imminent famine, destruction and houses left desolate? (2 Chronincles 7:14). Or will we demand divine intervention after three and a half years of “hell” before Heaven is established on Earth?

The choice is ours to make. God help us to CHOOSE LIFE!

Isaiah 1:4-9

4Alas, sinful nation,

A people laden with iniquity,

A brood of evildoers,

Children who are corrupters!

They have forsaken the LORD,

They have provoked to anger

The Holy One of Israel,

They have turned away backward.

5Why should you be stricken again?

You will revolt more and more.

The whole head is sick [the government],

And the whole heart faints [national morale].

6From the sole of the foot even to the head,

There is no soundness in it,

But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;

They have not been closed or bound up,

Or soothed with ointment.

7Your country is desolate,

And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard,

As a hut in a garden of cucumbers,

As a besieged city.

9Unless the LORD of hosts

Had left to us a very small remnant [some Holocaust survivors],

We would have become like Sodom,

We would have been made like Gomorrah [totally extinct, destroyed].

Planet Earth did not just happen by accident, nor did God bring about this magnificent sphere through a great chaotic explosion in the Universe. On the contrary, the book of Genesis specifies God’s intricate fabrication of our planet and all that is in it and on it, through a carefully planned and detailed order of design.

And where order exists, priorities must also exist.

God was working with a precise intention, preparing a place to carry out the greatest story ever told. Planet Earth was being prepared to manifest His glory and teach His created beings about the benefits and blessings of a relationship with Him.

The word, “prepare,” means to get ready, arrange, organize, plan, set up, practice, and put in order.

“Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40)

Preparation is God’s hallmark, the significant character quality that defines His nature. He is a God of order and has admonished us to follow His example.

“In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.” (Psalm 71:1)

The opposite of order is confusion and in the Scriptures, confusion is always presented in a negative light describing it as sin or something to avoid.

Priorities of life and death, as our Creator defines them, have more to do with our survival than with the complex choices of time management, we hear so much about today.

Unless our own priorities are in harmony with God’s specific priorities for our life, we may be headed in the wrong direction and not even realize it. Taking the wrong road on this journey that we call “life” could cost us our physical life, but could also cost us something even more valuable-our eternal life.

Whether we believe in God at this point in time or not, we are helpless to stop the destructive consequences that await us at the end of the wrong road.

Chaos does not produce order; chaos breeds more chaos and in the midst of chaos, evil thrives. The devil is committed to our demise and understands the power of priorities. Therefore he works to hide the value of order and has become the author of confusion, fragmented thinking, and thoughtless, impulsive actions.

However, everything in life testifies that order comes forth from the mind of God and is instrumental in accessing, nurturing, and developing all that has ever been created. Where would we be without the orderly systems found in biology, botany, math, physics, computer technologies, art, music, language, and even our simple filing system based on the alphabet?

Somehow we all know in our heart of hearts, when our priorities are not in order. Eventually the consequences of chaos catch up with us. The sad news is that we have learned how to silence our own heart and tune out the Voice of God in order to get in step with the system of this world. Many of us have exchanged godly order for man’s substitute, believing that somehow chaos, multi-tasking, and burning the candle at both ends is the way to success.

There is only one way we can safely stop the crazy chaos and get off the sinking ship that is being tossed to and fro in the stormy sea of life.

We simply must realign our priorities with the Word of God. This is a life and death decision and the most important decision we will ever make.

How can the book called, “the Holy Bible” and “the Word of God” transform a chaotic life into a life that flows with balance and order?

We must first understand that the Word of God is the Voice of God-that God actually resides in His Voice.

“The voice of the LORD is upon the waters… the LORD is upon many waters.” (Psalm 29:3)

“The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.” (Psalm 29:8)

These verses contain more than poetic symbolism. They reveal the truth regarding creation and are verified in Genesis where we are told that the world was created when “God said…” or by the power that resides in His Word and Voice.

By searching for all of the words in the Scriptures that refer to the power found in the Word of God, it becomes obvious that God wants mankind to know about the amazing power that resides in His Word.

Our brain was designed to be affected by and is perfectly compatible with the Word of God. As we hear the Word and read the Word, it can discipline our mind to focus and follow the Creator’s thoughts. These are thoughts based on all that is good, wise, and beneficial to every dimension of our life-thoughts founded on the intended order and maintenance of all He has created. He knows how His creation functions best and He wants to pass that knowledge on to us.

While this process is based on the content of what we find in the Holy Bible, we also benefit from the function we must engage in, in order to access the wisdom and Spirit of God as we read and hear His Word.

The Holy Bible is not like any other book on the shelf.

The real God of the Bible desires to communicate with His people through His Word, just as we communicate and reveal our thoughts and true nature with the ones we love, through the words we speak and write.

Our brain was created by God to flow with complete thought patterns via electrical impulses in the brain. From the time we are born, our brain is learning and perfecting all of the various techniques of thought.

Most of the time the brain just flows with random thought, but it must also learn to intentionally compose thought, hold one thought and interject another as well as revise thoughts and connect a series of related thoughts. This is also how we construct our basic spiritual, as well as our mental, frames of reference.

The Word of God tells us that our first priority is the Word of God. What God says must be preeminent in our life. When this happens, our heart and mind harmonize with the heart and mind of God and as we hear His Voice and follow Him, He will reveal the specific priorities He has ordained for every dimension of our life.

This is the only way to real success, peace, order, and abundant life.

Jesus, the Living Word, confirmed this when He said, “… the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)

Hindus believe that life and death are an eternal circle. After life comes death, then reincarnation and so on, until, in some circumstances the soul can be set free from that eternal circle. One such circumstance, is the person dying in or near the holy city of Varanasi in North East India, where the funeral ghats are beside the sacred River Ganges.

Hindus also believe that cremation allows the spirit to move on to its next incarnation and therefore nearer to heaven. Thus, although death is a sad event to Hindus, the emphasis is more on the soul’s onward journey and that is celebrated. The flames of the funeral pyre are said to represent Brahama, the Hindu God of Creation.

After a death, the family of the deceased will meet as soon as possible to pray by the body. The body will not be touched if possible, as a corpse is considered to be unclean.

The deceased will be normally be dressed in white (a wife pre-deceasing her husband is dressed in her red bridal outfit) and will be placed on a bier and decorated with flowers and sandalwood.

The funeral service will be conducted by a priest and lead by the eldest son or nearest male relative of the deceased, who will light the fire and will circle the pyre praying for the soul of the dead person. The exact order of service may vary depending on location and family traditions. The ashes are often sprinkled on water and some families go to the River Ganges to do this to ensure the most auspicious passage to the next life.

The house of the deceased will be cleansed and purified by a priest using spices and incense and the 13 days of mourning will begin. During this time, there will often be a picture of the deceased on display, garlanded with flowers and friends will come to the house to offer their condolences. Mourners will wear white. On the 13th day, the ceremony of Kria is performed, which involves the offering of rice balls and milk in thanksgiving for the life of the deceased, after which, life for the family returns to normal.

One year after the death and sometimes every year thereafter, Shraddah takes place, where the family offer food to the poor and needy in memory of the deceased.

If God is God then how can he be the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost? The Holy Trinity is a key foundation to Christianity, although, this is definitely one of the most confusing concepts of Christianity. I am going to do my best over the next few paragraphs to explain this concept.

I am going to begin with an analogy to explain how all three is just one God. Take the chemical compound H2O or water. Below 32 degrees Fahrenheit it is frozen solid. Above 212 degrees Fahrenheit it enters a gas state becoming water vapor. Everywhere in between 32 and 212 degrees it is in the liquid form of water.

No matter what state it is in, the chemical compound is still H2O. All three have specific and extremely beneficial purposes but still the same. God is exactly the same. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are all still God.

Each form of God has a very specific purpose in building our relationship and all three are paramount in acquiring spiritual maturity. God the Father is who we pray to and who created the universe and everything in it. His role in our life is just like our earthly father's. He sets the ground rules for how we are to live our lives.

Then there is God the Son or more commonly known as Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God who came to this earth to show us how to live. He lived a sinless life and was willing to die a terrible death because it was the will of God the Father. Can you imagine the bragging rights He would have had? However, even being the Son of God, He still was a servant. There is a story in the Bible about how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. Jesus wants us to serve others and love them as He did.

Finally, there is the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit serves as a guiding light that illuminates the path we are supposed to walk to get closer to God. You are baptized with the Holy Spirit and it becomes your spiritual conscious. Being filled with the spirit of God motivates you to want to read the Bible, pray and walk in the way of the Lord. It is a lot like a muscle that needs developed within us. The more we exercise or grow in faith the more we become filled with the spirit.

To tie it all together … You are baptized into the Spirit of God and that Holy Spirit motivates and guides your actions and thoughts much like a conscious. The Holy Spirit guides your walk in Christian maturity. You are to follow the footsteps of Jesus and the Spirit drives you to do that. Then finally, God the Father has created us, set the ground rules and is whom we build our relationship with.

Leapfrogging (Haiku)

Death is nothing more than a shadow-

To those who know Christ!

You will jump over it, like a frog leaping!

Written 2-12-2014/No: 4183 (Galilean: 550)

Note: John 17:20/Acts 6:5 & 7:55

Ps. I never have understood man’s fear of death, if he is truly one in Christ, filled with the Spirit, in glory with the Father. Perhaps I am still that gullible child, walking down that old dirt road in my backyard, complaining to Christ, I never had a real father, and he said, “I’ll be Him for you!”

A Person filled with the Holy Spirit?

A man filled with the Holy Spirit,

What does this mean?

First, he is a man filled with the love of God;

Second, he is inspired by the Holy Spirit;

Third, he has given himself up, to bear

Witness to the Gospel at any cost!…

Written 2-12-2014/No: 4184 (Galilean: 550)

The Boat with the Sail (Haiku)

I am the boat with the sail-

The Holy Spirit, the wind:

The wind drives me forward!

Written 2-13-2014/No: 4184 (Galilean: 551)

Truth, its Origin! (II)

Truth, where does it come from?

One might think it comes from eating beef,

Or perhaps vegetables, or sheep!

Or even the consensus, which does not know

The difference from an upside down cake;

It doesn’t know even if truth exists!

Jesus told us: truth comes from the Holy Spirit;

And that the Holy Spirit will guide you to truth!

With Pilate, truth was in from of him, yet he

Was blind to it…

Truth is the face of God, brought to light

By the Holy Spirit! (John 16:13/John 14:17)

Written 2-14-2014/No 4185 (Galilean: 552)

Note: the first poem on truth was “What is Truth” (I) John 18:37

The Would-be God

((Antiochus IV) (Antiochus Epiphanes))

In 171 B.C., the Messiah of the Greeks came to earth

In the person of the divine Emperor…

This startled the Jews! (Under his heel.)

Hence, he was the new Greek god in flesh;

Zeus now was placed to his side: in essence,

Antiochus IV, became Olympian Zeus!

Satan had done his homework, “God-Made-Manifest!”

And when the Jews bowed they bit their lips:

To hide their contempt-

But it proved one thing, if anything:

Satan duplicates, and will try whatever it takes

To plague the name of YHWH.

Written 2-14-2014/No 4186 (Galilean: 553)

God’s Hard Love

(Love and Punishment)

God works something like this:

When you accept his punishment

(let’s say for being obstinate)

You also accept his divine compassion-

No matter how deep the dungeons are,

He will be with you…

And it was in those far-off days

Of the Hebrew exile, by Nebuchadnezzar

That in those days thereafter,

The Canaanites and Babylonians vanished

From the face of the earth!…

But the Hebrews lived on, as Yahweh

Projected they would.

Written 2-14-2014/No 4187 (Galilean: 554)

If you’re looking for a World of Warcraft Karazhan walkthrough and guide for Maiden of Virtue, then you’ve found the best on the net.

Once your raid has slain Moroes, leave The Banquet Hall and walk back out to The Grand Ballroom. Kill any trash that might be in your way by now then make your way through the doorway to the left. The raid will find itself in The Guest Chambers. This is where the Maiden of Virtue lies. There are a couple groups of trash in the hallway that need to be cleared first, but don’t fret – it isn’t that hard. Use shackles on the undead and a warlock can enslave the concubines. With a good tank, a warlock, and a priest the trash is a cakewalk.

Ideal Group Compisition:

1 Main Tank (needs to be crit immune)

3 Healers (1 holy paladin immensely useful)

6 DPS (1 warlock, 1 priest helps a lot with trash)

This fight is quite intensive on healers and DPS because everyone in the raid takes damage this fight. The most common causes of death are Holy Fire and Holy Wrath. I recommend that the raid have no more than 2-3 melee DPS, not counting the tank.

Only one tank is required for Maiden. Many Karazhan raids bring a druid offtank which is convenient for this fight as they can simply DPS in cat form, rather than switch someone out.

Clear the entire hallway. There aren’t that many pulls, and there is also no need to kill the mobs in the rooms to the side (though it is wise to stick to the right so that you don’t aggro them). One of the side rooms contain a book for one of the Karazhan quests, we usually tell people that they need to come back the next day on their own when all the trash will be clear. This happens after the boss linked to that trash is dead.

Buff up, use consumables, then all ranged DPS and healers need to spread out around Maiden, positioning themselves between the pillars around her. All DPS needs to have bandages or be able to heal themselves in addition to health potions. The main tank will go in and tank Maiden where she stands once everyone is ready.

Blessing of Sacrifice must be used by a holy paladin and spammed on the main tank the whole fight. This is because Maiden casts a spell called Repentance that stuns the raid for 12 seconds, however it also breaks if any damage is done to the target. In order to have a healer up during this period so that the tanks don’t die, the Blessing of Sacrifice is necessary so that when Holy Ground (an AoE that hits melee and the tank) ticks, the paladin’s stun will break.

If your raid is without a holy paladin, resto druid heal over time spells kept on the main tank can suffice to get him through Repentance. All of the melee DPS should be able and ready to back out of the AoE and bandage and not always expect heals.

Maiden has two other important spells she casts – Holy Fire and Holy Wrath.

Holy Wrath is a single target damage spell that chains off to nearby members, doing successively more damage. Luckily, this ability doesn’t affect pets. By staying spread out this can be avoided almost entirely.

Holy Fire does direct damage to a single target, then leaves a damage over time debuff on them that deals around 10k damage over 12 seconds. The best way to deal with this is to have a paladin or priest on their toes to dispel it. Mages, paladins, rogues and dwarves may use ice block, shield, cloak of shadows or stoneform to remove it as well. Having a shaman in your raid drop grounding totems helps by eating some of the Holy Fires as well.

Maiden is only a single phase fight, and hopefully you shouldn’t run into too much trouble. If you do, then here are a few helpful pieces of advice:

If melee are dying, Holy Protection Potions can almost completely negate the effects of the AoE

Healers need to cross heal the raid. Make sure that healers have raid frames for the entire raid pulled out.

The entire raid must be kept topped off at full health.

Do not use Amplify Magic, it will greatly boost Maiden’s damage.

Dampen Magic can reduce the amount of the AoE to less than 200 when put on melee DPS. It is probably best to not use it on the tank, however.

Finish off Maiden, loot her, and enjoy your new epics! Have faith, keep checking guides and stay up on strategy, and soon enough you’ll be clearing Karazhan in a single night!

History is the story of God’s love expressed through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is really His Story. Everything preceding His arrival looks forward to it. Every event after His resurrection reflects back on His time on earth.

The Gregorian calendar: The most widely used calendar in the world today marks two periods of time: before Christ – B.C. – and Anno Domini (the year of our Lord) – A.D. The division may not be exactly the occasion of Christ’s birth (many scholars believe Jesus was born between 6 and 4 B.C.), but the intent is clear. The coming of Jesus Christ marked the most important event in history.

The Bible: The sixty-six books of the Bible are divided into two sections. The Old Testament chronicles the journeys of faithful men and women of God who looked for the Messiah. Many prophesied about that day.

The New Testament begins with the birth of Jesus, gives the story of His life, building His church, the activities of the first century church and promises His final appearance.

Of all the events in the life of Jesus that marked the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament that was fleshed out in His person in the New Testament, His resurrection is the culmination of all that had come before.

Easter: The resurrection of Jesus Christ marks the pivotal point in history where reconciliation between God and man became possible. His birth was miraculous. His life was pure and without sin. Jesus revealed God in the flesh. His death was the sacrifice for our sin. It was the resurrection that put the period on all that had come before. With the resurrection of Jesus, His mission was completed.

Jesus was always looking to the cross. Even when as a young boy of twelve He told His mother that He must be about His Father’s business, He knew that would lead Him to the cross. …looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…(Hebrews 12:2).

Mary and Joseph knew the prophecies about Jesus. The angel told Joseph that he was to call the child Jesus and that He would save His people from their sins. When Simeon saw Him in the temple when He was just a few days old, he warned Mary that her heart would be pierced. Although she and Joseph may not have known all the details of the horrors that lay ahead for Jesus, they were aware of how sin was paid for – a sacrifice. Even the wise man who brought myrrh as a gift to the Christ child knew that it was used for anointing the dead.

Unlike the sacrifices of the Old Testament which were continually repeated, Jesus’ righteous offering of His own body and subsequent resurrection was enough.

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:11-12)

Over 500 years before the birth of Christ a predictive prophecy was given that foretold the exact time of Christ's death. This prophecy is contained in the ninth chapter of the Old Testament book of Daniel.

The Old Testament contains over 300 prophecies of the birth, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Messiah. ("Messiah" is synonymous with "Christ" and is derived from the Hebrew word "Mashiyach.")

It is interesting to note that of the more than 300 predictive prophecies that tell of the coming of the Messiah very few actually use the word "Messiah." Most Old Testament prophetic passages that describe aspects of the coming Messiah do so without actually using that specific word.

The passage in Daniel we are about to study, Daniel 9: 24-26, is one of the few passages that uses the word "Mashiyach" in the original Hebrew to describe the coming One. In fact, this one passage uses the word, Mashiyach, twice. Therefore we can say that this passage is not only clearly messianic but is certainly one of the strongest messianic prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures.

The ancient rabbis considered Daniel 9: 24-26 to be predictive of the coming of the Messiah. (The Talmud in Yalkut Vol 2, page 79B and Nazir 32B records their opinions on this.)

Daniel 9: 24-26 also predicts the destruction of the Second Temple. The rabbis rightly came to the conclusion that the Messiah had to come before the destruction of the Second Temple. The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD.

Daniel the Jewish prophet was captured by the Babylonians around the time that the Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Daniel was taken to Babylon and there he wrote his book which was later incorporated into the Old Testament.

In Daniel 9:21 Daniel wrote that the angel Gabriel appeared to him and gave him a prophecy regarding a time period of 490 years. It would be a time period marked out by seventy periods of seven years each. We measure years in decades but the ancient Hebrews measured years in septads (weeks of years).

In the prophecy given by Gabriel to Daniel it is revealed that after the decree is issued to rebuild Jerusalem there would be 70 weeks (70 x 7 = 490 years) in which certain events would take place and that after the 69th week (or septad) , Messiah would be "cut off." The term "cut off" is an ancient euphemism for "killed." Hence, a very clear time frame for the coming and death of the Messiah is given.

I will now quote the relevant portion of this prophecy from a Jewish Bible: "The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text" (Jewish Publication Society of America; Philadelphia 1980). The wording in this traditional Jewish Bible seems to partially conceal that the passage refers to the Messiah but even this unsympathetic translation can't obscure its true meaning.

Here is Daniel 9: 24-26 with my comments interspersed within it: "Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to forgive iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,… " (Messiah died for our sins so that we can receive forgiveness and begin to live righteously)

"… and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint the most holy place. Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem."
(According to Bible scholars, the word to rebuild Jerusalem was a decree given by King Artaxerxes on the first day of the month of Nisan, 444 BC, see Nehemiah 2: 1-8.)

"… unto one anointed, a prince, …"
(The Hebrew word rendered "one anointed" is "Mashiyach" which is usually anglicized to "Messiah." The fact that the Jewish Bible renders it "one anointed" rather than "Messiah" is perhaps to conceal that this passage is referring to the Messiah who, as we shall see, was to have come by the early part of the first century AD and Jesus of Nazareth certainly fits into that time frame !!!)

"… shall be seven weeks; and for three score and two weeks,…"
(7 plus 62 equals a total of 69 weeks of years or 483 years)

"… it shall be built again,…" (Jerusalem was built again, it had been destroyed in 586 BC) "… With plaza and moat, but in troublous times. And after the threescore and two weeks shall an anointed one.."
(Again "Anointed one" is the word "Mashiyach" in the original Hebrew !!!)

"… be cut off …" (Daniel 9: 24-26)
("Cut off" is an expression meaning death, ie, the death of the Messiah aka Jesus of Nazareth!) So this is a clear prediction of the coming and death of Messiah. The resurrection is not mentioned here but other Old Testament passages do prophesy of the resurrection of Messiah.

HW Hoehner, in his book Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ has calculated the time period of the 69 septads (weeks) which is 483 years (lunar calendar, 360 days in each year) which comes to 173,880 days from Nisan 1, 444 BC and comes to the conclusion that on Nisan 10 (March 30) of 33 AD Jesus the Messiah made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. (See Josh McDowell's book A Ready Defense pp. 57-59.)

On April 3, 33 AD Jesus was crucified or "cut off" (Daniel 9:26). His death brought forgiveness of sins because Jesus in His suffering and death endured the wrath of God in our place. Thus He made an end of sins and brought in everlasting righteousness.

We've discussed 69 of the 70 weeks; the 70th week has its own dramatic fulfillment which occurs after the death and resurrection of Messiah but that discussion is beyond the scope of this short article.

The resurrection and ascension of Jesus are prophesied in other passages of the Old Testament. The second coming of Jesus the Messiah is prophesied in several passages in the Old Testament including a very dramatic unfolding of events leading up to it recorded in chapters 12, 13 and 14 of the book of Zechariah.

Prophecies and fulfillments such as these are not seen in any other writings of any other world religion. For instance, Muslims have traditionally not claimed that Mohammed came in fulfillment of prophecy. The sacred writings of nonchristian faiths have nothing to compare to the Bible's amazing record of prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy.

The Bible alone is the holy book that is inspired by God and reveals God's loving forgiveness and mercy through Christ who came to die in our place and obtain redemption. The prophecies and their fulfillments are like God's signature on His holy book.