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PROPHECY WAS WRITTEN NOT MERELY FOR KNOWING THE TIMES, BUT ALSO SO WE CAN FIND THE TRUTH WHEN WE LOOK BACK, TRYING TO MAKE SENSE.

This was the key that unlocked hidden truths some of which I will mention here.

The conversion story of Elna van Coller

Jesus never said that “It does not matter what you do”, nor that “accurate doctrine doesn’t really matter, just as long as deep down inside you are a good person.

 

I grew up Dutch Reformed (NG), with both my mother and father having brothers that were Dutch Reformed ministers. I’ve always loved God and the Bible and any/ all activities around it. During my varsity years, I’ve drifted towards the charismatic movement and when I started working (as a lawyer) I moved in the direction of Baptists, always investigating anything new that came my way, including the pro-Israel lobby. Eventually I’ve discovered an online blogger with a chequered history similar to mine, only he used to be a Muslim, now a convert to Christianity and who ended up converting to Catholicism and I was fascinated by his online apologetics.

 

Have you ever wondered about Ezekiel’s temple (Eze 40-44) (the so-called 3^rd temple)? When and where and by whom will it be build? Before or after Jesus’ 2^nd return? And what about its unused slaughter knifes? Many see Ezekiel’s Temple as a literal physical temple, while others completely spiritualize it (symbolic), but they both ignore the ancient/ traditional golden rule, which is to interpret the Bible, using the standard of applying both the spiritual and the literal to any interpretation, in order to find The Truth. Doing this means we can see how Daniel, Ezekiel and even John in Revelations, were all speaking of one and the same temple, and not just any earthly temple.

 

Ezekiel’s temple has no showbread, no golden lamp stand, no altar of incense, no veil covering the entrance of the holy of holies and even no ark. For this unusual temple to be rebuilt by the Israel Temple Institute today, you will have to convince such Jews to follow Ezekiel’s design, and deal with their objections that this design is to be rejected because it in fact spiritually matches Christian theology. Ezekiel’s temple already exists in one sense, i.e. spiritually in the worldwide Christian (orthodox and catholic) body of believers, where no more meat/ animal offerings are required, besides the grain and wine (communion or daily mass). What would I do with this knowledge?

 

The Exodus Passover is 1^st set in motion when Moses left Egypt and sets the New Testament’s (NT) foundation for holy communion (orthodox and Catholics call it the Mass/ Eucharist offering). The Eucharist (Passover) is a Godly instituted eternal observance:- “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.” (Ex 12:14)

 

In Malachi 1, this holy sacrifice is passed on to the gentiles as a pure and “perfect grain offering”. Note that nothing can be “perfect” from God’s viewpoint, unless it is divine.

The shocking ‘red light’ that such offering is done by the Gentiles (not the Jews), and is the so called “grain offering” leaves no question, that this is a ‘sacrifice’ (perfect divine offering) and is the Christian communion which daily continues “for ever”, thereby fulfilling Ex 12. Malachi made it absolutely clear that the sacrificial system in the old testament Temple will be transferred to the Gentiles (the Church) using the “grain offering” (communion/ Eucharist) of Christian churches which are administered by His new priests, and consumed in the temple (of every believer):

“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you [Israel, the Jews]. For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations [gentiles, the Church], and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations [gentiles/ Church],” says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 1:10-11)

 

I had to accept that this “sacrifice” is no longer a Levitical “kindled fire” on God’s “altar” but a Christian “grain offering” which is eaten continually (daily).

This also helps to better understand now Daniel’s prophecy, where the Antichrist will stop the “grain offering”. What Malachi prophesied was that God will do away with the old sacrificial Levitical offering and that God will reach out to the “nations” (gentiles) with a new sacrificial system in observing a “grain offering that is pure” including “incense”, and which will be “daily” offered, from “the rising of the sun even to its setting,” it is a continual observance. This the daily mass in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, and now we also understand the two lampstands mentioned in Revelations, i.e. the Orthodox and Catholic. 

According to orthodox Christianity, without the Eucharist, (daily Mass) it is all over. No communion means no confession, no sacrifice, no Christianity. This is the whole crux of the issue is the abolition of the sacrament of Communion, and gives insight into Daniel 9:27 “ … but in the middle of the week he (Antichrist) will stop the sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until the complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who causes the horror.”

 

In the Protestant tradition, communion is only meant to be a symbolic reminder, and each congregation is at liberty to offer it as much or as little as they wish, sometimes even only 2 or 3 times a year. When Jesus taught us how to pray in the Our Father, He taught us to eat bread (communion) daily and grow spiritually from the basis of His perfect sacrifice for us, (bread/ flesh).

 

Then there is in Ezekiel where God ordered His warriors to place a physical mark on the foreheads of the righteous, and to slay the unmarked rest:

Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity (Eze 9:4-5). This corresponds with Revelations where God marks His own, He marks them with a visible mark also right on the foreheads. (Rev 7:3) And looking around today we see that the only Christians who boldly and annually take the mark of God on their foreheads, are the Orthodox, and Catholic. They have been doing it annually for 2,000 years during Lent, with a cross of ashes on their foreheads.

 

My journey had me give up all and converted to the Catholic Church, in obedience to Christ: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Mat 19:29). My wish is that everybody will join and learn and serve God according to His truth as set forth in the Bible and Catholic church.