End of Times: Recognizing the Signs

Let us go to Daniel 9: 24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Here is time period where visions and prophecy are sealed. We know from history that the Bible was a closed book for about 12 hundred years. What this closed book meant is only the priest could read and interpret the Bible. The average person did not have access to the Bible. Martin Luther in the 1500s brought about a revolution. He printed the first Bible in German for the common person could read it. Now the Bible wasn't restricted to only the Priest but the average person could read the Bible for him or herself. From that time many different translation have been printed including King James Version from 1611. Even though everyone has access to the Bible, we still limit our knowledge of the scriptures by many traditions we don't even question that are taught in the churches today. What did Stephen and the apostles have in common that were healing people even by their shadows, it was their knowledge of the scriptures. We can tell from reading Acts chapter 7 Stephens knowledge of the Bible is extensive and he is condensing it but complimenting the Old Testament. The Pharisees were amazed how Peter and John that were fishermen were full of knowledge in the scriptures. We can see where Peter quotes from the Old Testament several times while he is speaking to the fellow Israelite as we read Acts. The point is men had power and knew the scriptures well. Their power came in through the knowledge of the word through Jesus Christ. Most of us Christians today do not even open our Bibles unless we are sitting in church. The ones of us that do study still prohibit the understanding of scriptures by traditions that we take as gospel taught by the church today. We read the scriptures but do not really study as we should. Then we wonder why we do not have the power that we see in the apostles in the New Testament. An example is that most of us do not understand Dispensation. In Genesis Adam and Eve were Vegetarians, Noah after the flood could eat any type of meat, Israel under the law could not eat pork as an example of the restrictions that were put on the Israelite while Paul teaches us we can eat any type of meat as long as we do not offend our brethren. Which one do we follow, we follow Paul because his teaching is in the New Covenant and we are under the New Covenant. I could go on but allow for others to comment on this blog. Let us study the scriptures so we can rightly divide the word. Remember the power is in the knowledge of the word through Jesus Christ.