My dear readers,

Answers to Remaining Questions from Calvary Pandan Church Camp 2025 (16)

Question 1: What would be a biblical response when people ask us about the Gaza situation?

Answer 1: It depends on the nature of the question. Always answer according to the Holy Scriptures; you can never go wrong. For example, if the question is “What is God’s plan for Israel in the future?” God’s plan for Israel in the future is that Israel will make a covenant of peace with the Antichrist just before the seven years of the Great Tribulation begin. Midway through this period, i.e. three and one-half years into the seven years of the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist will place the abomination of desolation into the Holy Place of the Tribulation Temple and break the covenant of peace. Daniel 9:27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”Matthew 24:15-22: “¹⁵When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) ¹⁶Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: ¹⁷Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: ¹⁸Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. ¹⁹And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! ²⁰But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: ²¹For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²²And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.”

Question 2: What is the most biblical way to respond to war? For example, if Singapore gets attacked, how should common citizens respond to it biblically, in a manner that most glorifies God?

Answer 2: Every believer’s life is under the sovereign control of God, the Almighty. Hence, there is no authority under all of God's children except that which He has ordained. Romans 13:1-2: “¹Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. ²Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” Therefore, if the government sends God's children to war, they need to know that this is God's will. That is what the training during national service is for. They must remain courageous and obey the authorities over them and be the best soldiers for Christ wherever God sends them.

Question 3: In Genesis 15:18, God promised Abraham that the promised land would be from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates. How do we see this in the current conflict between Israel and Iran? When will this promise be fulfilled?

Answer 3: Genesis 15:17-21: “¹⁷And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. ¹⁸In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: ¹⁹The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, ²⁰And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, ²¹And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” God always keeps all the promises He made in the Bible. If God fails to keep any of His promises, He becomes a liar. But the God of the Bible is incapable of lying. Titus 1:1-2: “¹Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; ²In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.”

Israel was at the height of her glory in the days of King David and King Solomon. Yet in their days, the boundaries of Israel did not reach “the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” The only time in the Bible when Genesis 15:18 will be fulfilled has to be during the Millennial Kingdom when Christ will rule in the New Heaven and New Earth for 1,000 years.

There is no link in the present conflict between Israel and Iran to the fulfilment of Genesis 15:18.

Question 4: Is there a biblical basis for God to highlight so many details of the cruelties and atrocities of the Assyrians and Babylonians?

Answer 4: God does not reveal any truth in the Holy Bible without a spiritual purpose for His children. We know God does not over punish any sinner, but often under punishes based on His mercy. When Jeremiah lived through the sins committed by the Jews and saw the punishment of the LORD through the Babylonians, he said that Judah was not consumed only because of the LORD’s mercy. Lamentations 3:22: “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”

Having established the divine and holy justice of the all-righteous God, one of the reasons God reveals the details of some of the punishments inflicted on Israel and Judah by the Assyrians and Babylonians is to highlight the evil nature of the sins committed by God’s people. The consequences of God’s people worshipping idols in the name of Jehovah are far worse than the sins of idolatry by Gentile nations. These Gentile nations, like the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, including the Philistines, did not malign or slander the Name of Jehovah, for they did not make a covenant with the LORD to be God's people and for the LORD to be their God. Israel did!

The sin of misrepresenting Jesus Christ by calling oneself a Christian is a grave sin that Israel committed in the Old Testament, which many professing believers in the New Testament are committing!

God made it very clear that the only Name under heaven that can save a sinner out of hell is the Name of Jesus Christ. When a sinner believes in the Name of Jesus Christ, he must be taught the Jesus Christ of the Bible. This means that when “Jesus Christ” is believed in the heart and understood in the mind, it must be the truth of Jesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures. If the Jesus Christ that a sinner believes in is not the Jesus Christ of the Bible, he is believing in a false Christ. Sadly, he has no salvation, even though he thinks he has. It will be worse for these sinners who believed in the false Christ to teach this false Christ to others! This was the sin Israel and Judah committed against millions of their own people and the surrounding Gentile nations – their kings and all their powerful men and spiritual leaders and false prophets committed this sin for centuries!

In the last days, there will be many false Christs, i.e. professing believers who are misrepresenting Christ by their confession and carnal lives! Matthew 24:24: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” The false prophets are the preachers and teachers of God's Word, including seminary professors and Bible College teachers! But they will not succeed in deceiving genuine believers who know God’s Word and have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to help them recognise who these false Christs and prophets are!

Thus, God warns all teachers and preachers of God’s Word in James 3:1: “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.”