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Can You Trust Bible Prophecies? 
God sometimes uses signsthat we do not understand. But when they are revealed, we can see that they were perfect signs. God often speaks, and we should pay close attention - even if it doesn't make sense! By Ken Raggio
Take a trip with me - back in time.
Somewhere in the night sky, a sign was appearing. Since the ancient days of the prophet Balaam, a star had been scheduled to appear. The sheep fields outside Bethlehem are so poignantly plain, it is difficult to believe that ANY earth-shaking event could ever have happened there. But suddenly, without warning, a congregation of angels appeared to a motley crew of sheep tenders - the most ordinary men. The whole scenario is unimaginable. In the near distance, rising above the pastures was a tiny village enshrouding the local hill. It was just a meager dome of dirt with a few hundred villagers and a vast barren sky. But God can turn a meaningless situation into a major theatrical event. He can take a mound of dirt, and a few measly animals and some pitiful nomads, and produce a spectacular show. Turn on a brilliant star. Spread out angels in every direction. Turn the reverb up really high. And SING them to the high heavens! The shepherds on the ground surely must have trembled in shock. Their mouths were dry, their eyes glazed. Their hearts were racing. It was like a freeze-frame. Nobody moved. The angelic message was clear, and everybody paid perfect attention. Why all this fanfare? God just showed up in the flesh. It is an irony from the beginning. It does not make sense. This is no way for God to make his debut on earth! People have been waiting for thousands of years to see God in the flesh. Moses was obsessed with desire, but never really got to see God. God always appeared in some temporary form - like thunder and lightning, or a pillar of fire or a cloud. He ventured out temporarily as a man and as an angel at times, but He never took on a permanent form, and never told His full name. So this event in Bethlehem was not just news. It was BIG news. REALLY BIG news. And that was the puzzling problem. Why on earth would He go to Bethlehem? Why not a spectacular, glorious setting to more closely represent the regency and splendor of His Deity? Why didn't God show up in the beautiful Swiss Alps, or at the spectacular Niagara Falls, or at the breath-taking Grand Canyon? Why did He not appear with some gorgeous tropical backdrop where Palm trees swayed, or in a lush flower garden, or on some spectacular white-sanded, blue-water sea shore? On second thought, why didn't God choose the STATELY PALACE of some wealthy, powerful king, where servants would be in attendance, a lavish banquet hall could be prepared, and dignitaries from around the world could witness His inauguration as the King Over All The Earth? The reason is clear. We do not think the way God thinks. His ways are not our ways. They are higher. I know it doesn't figure, but that is His way. If God thinks that it is best for Him to come to a shepherd field, amidst a flock of sheep, in the near distance to a town of the lowest estate - so be it! Amazingly, the more thought you give to it, it actually begins to make sense. This is the same field where a little boy named David had watched his father's flocks hundreds of years before. Bethlehem was also David's home town. And David was the same fellow of whom God had said long ago, "I will establish his throne forever." So it makes a lot of sense for the King of Kings to touch down right there. In one majestic swoop, an eternal covenant has been sealed. A testimony to the entire world has just been choreographed for all the history books in every generation. God knew exactly what He was doing, and He did it exactly as He intended to from the beginning. We just have to get used to it. "If I was God..." It would be arrogant of us to think that God could have done things better than He has already done them. We just cannot comprehend how infinitely complex His workings already are. How often have we found ourselves day-dreaming, "If I was God, I would have done it differently..." If you were God, you would have done it exactly as He has already done it! If you were God, you would know all the reasons, the timing, and every one of the other ramifications. And you would not expect mortals to understand. That speaks directly to the things that are presently happening in the world. Every smidgen of today's headlines was a full-blown fact in the mind of God eons ago. His entire providence is structured around those events. That does not mean that men do not have free will. Men do, in fact, have to make their own choices about the directions they take in their lives. But God is so infinitely omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful) that we can do anything and everything we want to do - whether it is right or wrong - yet in the end, the results will nevertheless come to the very conclusions that God planned in the beginning. In the end, the only casualties - the only losses - will be our own. God knew exactly what His losses would be from the very beginning, and He has made all of His calculations accordingly. Known only to God are the great hidden secrets Some people believe that God is a Mystery - unfathomable and unknowable. And there is a certain amount of truth to that statement. But we must also reckon with the fact that "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter." God wants us to search Him out. He wants us to know Him. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." In the eternal presence of God, those of us who arrive there will "know even as we are known." That is an incomprehensible truth - that we will "know even as we are known," especially in consideration of how much God knows. For ME TO KNOW in that day AS HE KNOWS now - yes, that is unfathomable. But to say that it cannot be so - that is foolishness. Who can know the Mind of God? Consider the sobering nature of events in the world today. On the surface, our world appears to be hopelessly scrambled with chaos and confusion. People earn Doctorate Degrees for learning to analyze society's complexities. Economics, psychology, sociology, and dozens of other "-ologies" attempt to force all the answers into perfectly aligned columns. But when they are done, these very EXPERTS argue and squabble among themselves as if none of them knows what in the world they are talking about! They refute and deny one another - even their respected peers! The Wall Street soothsayers are hardly any better off than a country boy with a water-witching stick. One of the most self-contradicting phrases I have ever heard is "the foreseeable future." That is an oxymoron if there ever was one. To the natural, carnal mind, the future is NOT FORESEEABLE! Only to God is the future foreseeable, certainly not to one of us. That last statement, however, is pivotal to our comprehension of the way things are. Truth is, God CAN see the future. Not only can He see it, He also dwells in it. God dwells in the Past, Present and Future When Albert Einstein submitted his Quantum Theories of Physics, he proposed that there are at least four known dimensions: 1. Height, 2. Width, 3. Depth, 4. Time. He was the first to explain in-depth the relativity of time. He proposed that time is based upon the speed of light, and that beyond the speed of light, time slows. Modern science has demonstrated that in far reaches of the universe, events occur on a thoroughly different time-base than what we are acquainted with on earth. I am neither a scientist nor a quantum physicist to venture any further into the complexities of those details. But I do intend to make the point that IF TIME IS FLEXIBLE OR VARIABLE AT ALL, then it can certainly be experienced in a different baseline than what we are acquainted with. And that, I believe, is God's perspective. God can experience time in any dimension, past, present and future - simultaneously. I am convinced that Almighty God not only CAN but also HAS known the end from the beginning. That fact brings me to this conclusion... Prophecies are NOT Predictions! I am of the opinion that GOD NEVER PREDICTS ANYTHING! Any time we ever see or hear God defining the future, we must remember that the dynamics of prophecy are anything but predictions. FIRST of all, God has the unlimited ability to SPEAK THINGS INTO EXISTENCE out of absolutely nothing. He calls those things that are not as though they ARE. Then, lo and behold, they ARE! The CREATIVE FORCE of God's Word dictates and defines the future with flawless accuracy. SECONDLY, because God is timeless, and because of the nature of His infinity, we can be confident that WHAT WE CALL PROPHECY is more accurately called HIS INFINITE FOREKNOWLEDGE. Learn this lesson from the story of King Josiah. Let me give an example of God's foreknowledge. In the days of King Jeroboam, an unnamed prophet declared, "Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee," (I Kings 13:2). THREE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO YEARS LATER, far beyond the lifetimes of either Jeroboam or the prophet, there was a king born named Josiah, and he did in fact tear down the pagan altar that Jeroboam left behind! "And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchers that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchers, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words," II Kings 23:16 How could the Prophet foretell the very name of a man hundreds of years into the future? By the FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD! God already knew Josiah by name over three hundred years before anybody else could possibly have known. Consider this... There are TWO KINDS of Light In the book of Genesis, when God said, "Let there be light," the thing that came into existence was not physical light as we know it in the physical world. That light of the physical world (e.g., the light of the sun, moon, and stars) was NOT EVEN CREATED until the Fourth Day of Creation. The first light God created did not exist in any of Einstein's four dimensions. Einstein theorized that God, if He existed, would be in the fifth dimension, at the quantum or sub-atomic level. That is where TRUE LIGHT exists. You cannot see TRUE LIGHT with the natural eyes. But it is there alright. Count on it. There is a SPIRIT WORLD that is different from the MATERIAL WORLD. In that quantum world, that sub-atomic WORLD OF SPIRIT, everything happens in a mysterious way. It is mysterious simply because we do not know how it works. I believe that they are hidden from us. The SPIRITUAL things of God cannot be discerned with the CARNAL mind. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard. Only when the SPIRIT of a man honestly and diligently searches for God, can he ever hope to find the keys to unlock the great hidden secrets. In Luke 10:21, Jesus said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." The implication is inescapable: God takes pride in concealing things from people who do not genuinely intend to give Him full credit for the discovery. Jesus dealt in mysteries. Jesus' entire ministry showed that He exercised hidden laws of another dimension beside the material dimensions. In the material world that we live in, we just do not normally open blind eyes, or unstop deaf ears, or raise the dead, etc. Such miracles are not the stuff of the carnal, material dimensions. Jesus was the Master of another dimension. He was the Master of hidden wisdom. He could cause things to happen that no other man in the history of the world had ever done. As such, Jesus is our Teacher, our Master, and our Mentor. But to know what He knows, we must press our way into His intimacy. There are Wheels within Wheels. In every secret society in world history, a common thread appears, that of circles within circles. From the day a person is initiated into any secret order, he can expect to progress gradually from one degree of understanding to the next. Only the most loyal INITIATES ever become ADEPT and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of MASTERY. Those who attain to the highest of the Masteries are known as the INNER CIRCLE. Only the most loyal, the most faithful, and the most diligent can ever hope to become the Grand Masters of their order. In virtually every secret order, the compelling spirits are diabolical, evil. God has an Inner Circle In the Kingdom of God, His Spirit has been known through the ages to speak repeatedly to anyone who has an ear. He says, "Come up higher!" Two things can be deducted from that invitation: ONE, there is a higher dimension. TWO, we are not in it. Unfortunately for the average person, the Bible is written-off as an over-complicated, antiquated, impertinent collection of pious mumbo-jumbo. Tragically, the hidden treasures of the Bible remain undiscovered to most people for no other reason than that they are unwilling to sit down and take the time to crack the code. Biblical insight is the most priceless treasure! If only every man could PATIENTLY CONSIDER this sobering fact: the treasures that are to be found in God's Word are infinitely more valuable than the cost of their discovery could ever be. The scriptures call it a TREASURE HIDDEN IN A FIELD! I believe that BIBLICAL INSIGHT is more valuable than a Pirates Chest full of gold and jewels. They are the secrets of the universe, and they are there for the taking. You simply must take care to appease the Author, so that He will give you open access to His priceless riches. People are destroyed by the lack of knowledge of God's Word. I will digress to say that I am personally horrified by the lack of interest for the wisdom of God that I observe in our modern society. Only those of us who have tasted of the good things to come can even partially appreciate the immeasurable store of wealthy wisdom and knowledge that is nestled into the text of God's Holy Word. God's Word is all wisdom. The eighteenth century rabbi, the Genius of Vilni, believed that "all the wisdom of all the ages is contained in the Torah," (the Old Testament). I concur that the Old Testament is the root of all wisdom. But we amplify that wisdom exponentially when we open the New Testament beside it. The wisdom and knowledge of God's Word does not take the form of rigid religious platitudes, nor is it something that is foreign to all but to the most adept scholars. Quite the contrary. Every literate man on earth has the potential to ascend into the far reaches of God's eternal wisdom and knowledge, by merely taking the Word of God, line upon line, and precept upon precept. A revelation of the living God will quickly begin to unfold. The past, the present and the future are at your fingertips in the Word of God. If you think that the principle reason the Bible exists is to maintain a historical record of ancient characters, how much you miss! God's Word can read YOU like a book! It can speak to you more plainly than can a friend standing in the room with you. God has, time and again in every age, spoken directly to the hearts and minds of men through the pages of that Book. The Bible employs divine communication techniques that are far more sophisticated than any literary devices, poetic licenses, metaphors or hyperbole. Through the pages of the Bible, the ANCIENT GOD speaks in LIVING WORDS and phrases to LIVING MEN in our present time, place, and circumstances. Mortal words do not enable me to express to you the awesome, MIRACULOUS nature of the Word of God. The Bible is its own greatest proof of its genuineness and validity. Take for example, "The Bible Code." In the 1990s, it was revealed that the ORIGINAL HEBREW TEXT of the Bible contains countless HIDDEN MESSAGES from ancient times. Many of them pertain to events, people, places, dates and things that have occurred in modern times. Several notable writers have described this phenomenon, which was first unveiled by a Russian Jew, a scientific mathematician and professor at Hebrew University, Dr. Eliyahu Rips. Ripps used a mathematical process to search for hidden messages in the Bible. He called it "Equidistant Letter Spacing." Using a sophisticated software program, he analyzed the original Hebrew text of the Bible, and precipitated the discovery of many phenomenal hidden messages. He and others have found words - hidden words - including names, places, dates, and events that are relevant to our modern times, and describe many of the most important historical events of recent history (things like the names of modern nations, kings, dictators, wars, scientific discoveries, important historical events, etc.). ONLY GOD could have known the secrets that are hidden in the ancient Hebrew texts. It is miraculous beyond all human comprehension. Moses wrote not only the plain Hebrew text of the Pentateuch, but also unknowingly wrote in a highly sophisticated cryptological language that could not possibly have been conceived in any human mind. The code itself is infinitely complex. All the mainframe computers in the world today cannot create another book containing as many important hidden messages as those found in the Bible. That miracle is magnified infinitely by the simple fact that the hidden messages were not even known when they were written. The information that has been uncovered is very dramatic. In addition to the well-known obvious messages of the Bible, the writers were also writing as it were the history of the human race, from ancient past to modern future. Precise names, places and dates of significant world events from every age appear almost methodically. Often, the hidden messages appear in the most conspicuous places within the plain text so that they actually complement or validate each other. And amazingly, this all is given to us from the incredible vantage point of 3,400 years ago. No matter how miraculous, some will never believe. Skeptics are furious. Doubting, carnal minds of men adamantly oppose any such irresistible evidence of a truly awesome God. They will literally go mad in their efforts to discredit it. It is the same kind of opposition that Jesus Christ faced during His tenure on earth as a mortal man. The religious experts of their day were thoroughly convinced that Messiah could not possibly come in such an unattractive package as the lowly Jesus. They rejected the fact that "never a man spake" as Jesus. They wondered out-loud, "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" John 7:15. Jesus was the incarnation of the wisdom and knowledge of eternity. As God manifested in flesh, Jesus knew ALL THINGS - past, present and future! The unbelievers finally went mad and murdered Him. Those kinds of things apparently never change. People do not want to embrace "weird" signs, because they do not understand the infinite knowledge of God. In the imaginations of men, God must fit their own molds. Anything God says or does has to cater to their selfish inclinations or they reject it. Men refuse to allow for a God whose Kingdom is neither material nor temporal. If God does not fit their bigoted, preconceived notions, they say that He simply doesn't exist. If He doesn't do what they want, when they want, they will kill Him. Foolish children! They never learn that THE WISDOM OF GOD IS INFINITE! The inferior WISDOM OF MEN is FINITE! God sees all and knows all. Men cannot see and cannot know even a tiny fraction of what God knows. It is with this conclusion keenly in mind that I have written and published the mountain of evidences that I have found in over forty years of intense Bible study. Through my Internet website and my other publications, I intend to carefully document as many of the profound proofs of God's foreknowledge and sovereignty as I can. I do so in the good hope that everyone who reads my writings will be pressed to pause and take note that God is infinitely bigger than we have ever claimed He is. The bulk and sum of most modern Christian prophecy experts have overlooked many dramatic evidences that have been waiting for generations to be discovered. I have assembled as many of these hard-to-deny proofs as I have been able to. I have attempted to make as strong a case as ever was presented in a court of law to show both the PROPHETIC STATEMENTS OF THE BIBLE, and their modern fulfillments. Here are several of my conclusion from the start: I will state my conclusions from the beginning, based on the PROPHETIC CLAIMS OF THE BIBLE. 1. There is a God. His name is Jesus Christ. He rules over all the affairs of men and will soon return to earth to rule for 1,000 years. 2. Lucifer is Jesus' principle adversary. Lucifer is presently assembling his own worldwide anti-kingdom, complete with a hierarchy of high-powered demons and men around the world who are pledged under unbelievable Luciferic oaths to reconstruct and complete his "tower of Babel," a "new" world order, proceeding from ancient times. 3. All the principle means and methods that Lucifer employs in this process are alluded to quite explicitly in the Bible, and the entire outcome of Lucifer's New World Order is plainly enumerated in the scriptures. Nothing is hidden from God, and very little is hidden from those who will consecrate themselves to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. I have spent tens of thousands of hours in Bible research and writing Bible lessons that will teach you some of the most amazing and most exciting truths to be found anywhere in the world. Are Bible prophecies believable? There is nothing on earth more believable than the prophecies of the Bible!! I urge you to consider more than 5000 Bible lessons that I have written and posted on my website at KENRAGGIO.COM. You will see powerful proofs that ancient Bible prophecies are TRUE and ACCURATE, and many have been impressively fulfilled in our modern times. But there is more! You will see that many of TODAY'S HEADLINES - our current events - are leading us directly to the fulfillment of hundreds of more prophecies in the next few years! Jesus Christ will return to the earth and establish a 1000-year Kingdom in Jerusalem, Israel. Afterward, His saints can look forward to an eternal New Heaven, New Earth and New Jerusalem. It is the most amazing fulfillments of PAST PROPHECIES that makes me so confident that every FUTURE PROPHETIC FULFILLMENT will come to pass exactly as the scriptures have said. If you are a skeptic, there is only one real cure for skepticism. "Ye shall know the TRUTH, and the truth shall make you free!" John 8:32. God bless you! Sincerely, Ken Raggio
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Continue to "The Four Horsemen of Revelation - Modern Prophecy Fulfilled!" SEE COMPLETE LIST OF ARTICLES ON HOME PAGE I am continually writing new content for this site. Please return often for more material, and tell your friends about www.kenraggio.com , too! THANKS! And God bless you! Ken Raggio 
Click here for BOOKS and VIDEOS by Ken Raggio ALL ARTICLES WRITTEN BY KEN RAGGIO, Copyright 1988-2010 Articles may not be republished on the Internet without express permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Thanks for coming by!
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