Faith of the Saints :: By Rick Segoine

All of the Old Testament Prophets and Patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Enoch and Job, Noah, Moses, the Maccabees, and so many more are to be admired for their great faith. The Lord looked upon the faith of these folks to be as righteousness (Romans 4:3-5).

These famous and not-so-famous individuals all lived on the earth long before Jesus came to this world to offer Himself so that His righteousness could cover the sins of all who believed in Him (Romans 3:20-31).

By the inspiration of God through the Holy Spirit, clues were provided by many Old Testament prophets about some of the things the coming Messiah would do and how to recognize Him (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 12:3; Genesis 14:1; Genesis 22:8; Exodus 12:5; Exodus 12:21-27; Exodus 12:46; Deuteronomy 18:15-16; Job 19:23-27; Psalms 2:7; Psalms 17:15; Psalms 22:18; Isaiah 6:1; Isaiah 7:14). These are just a few of the more than 300 Old Testament prophecies of the first advent of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Jesus fulfilled all of those more than 300 Old Testament prophecies. However, none of the Old Testament saints, or those who prophesied about the coming Messiah, had the benefit of reading about or knowing the details regarding the life on Earth lived by Jesus Christ and the things He said or the miraculous things He did.

The Old Testament saints’ efforts to do the will of God our Creator took great courage and tremendous faith and were counted by God as righteousness.

It must have helped that some of the Old Testament saints observed or took part in supernatural miracles. As for knowledge, however, they knew much less than we do today about the overall plans that our Heavenly Father had and still has for the salvation of mankind and how it would involve the entire planet and all of the nations and peoples of Earth. We who are alive today have the benefit of all of history to learn from. That is, if we choose to learn from it.

Because of the invention of the printing press, we have the Old Testament, the New Testament, Bible dictionaries, concordances, and countless commentaries based on years of studies and research translated into every language and distributed all over the world.

We have thousands of books on every possible biblical subject, as well as books about the many colorful characters that populate biblical history. Books written by dedicated Holy Spirit-inspired men and women who have spent countless hours doing their homework and research.

To teach us what paths not to take, we are able to observe the writings and teachings of a large number of false prophets and charlatans who led people astray.

We have the benefit of books such as The Kingdom of the Cults by Dr. Walter Martin. Dr. Martin placed the teachings of the Holy Bible and the teachings of the various cults side by side. In so doing, it reveals the many contradictions of the cult teachings as well as the consistency of Bible teaching.

The book The Kingdom of the Cults allows the Bible itself to answer every question in dispute so that we can see how the wisdom of God prevails over the fiction perpetrated by any and all false doctrines. Doctrines were invented by false prophets and teachers who fulfilled Jesus’s words in the book of Matthew when he warned us not to be deceived, for many would come along teaching “another Jesus.”

Books such as The Kingdom of the Cults also bring the prophecies made by Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 to life and put actual flesh and blood on them. We have the benefit of learning about the deluded human beings who actually fulfilled and embodied the warnings of Jesus. We can see that they did deceive many, and also just how they went about practicing their occultic deceptions. Such knowledge is helpful in guarding against being deceived, as well as warning and helping others become free of deception imposed by false teachings of “another Jesus.”

At the same time, we learn how the delusional imaginations of man and womankind know no boundaries by observing the numerous variations of “another Jesus. All of them are inspired by the father of lies, also known as Satan/Lucifer.

The Old Testament saints had no such benefits as these. Especially the entire New Testament. The New Testament sums up biblical history (Acts7:1-53; Hebrews) prior to Jesus and all of the plans of God for the future of mankind and planet Earth, and about the New Heaven and New Earth (Revelation 21-22; Isaiah 65:17-25). Plans of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are revealed through precise prophecies and detailed teachings.

Because six days have now passed in regard to God’s “Week of Creation,” which comprises seven millenniums, we can now see more clearly how God is in control of His Creation. It is also much easier to see the big picture as painted by the Lord on His eternal canvas. (Reference the entire Holy Bible.)

We are able to know this because scripture reveals that one thousand years is as a day to the Lord. By the way, 1,000 years is 1,000 years and not 1,000 years give or take a few years. (2 Peter 3:8, Psalm 90:4, and about 40 other bible verses speak of this.) The Creator of the Universe, He who Declares the End from the Beginning, knows how to count a lot better than even the greatest of human mathematicians.

It is believed that the great human mathematician Albert Einstein humbly understood that his own intelligence was dwarfed by the intelligence of the Creator of all life. And all of this knowledge is now quite literally at our fingertips and is instantly and easily accessed on a handheld device called a cell phone, a device that pretty much every human being on the planet owns.

The Old Testament saints had no such access because the technology was many centuries away from even being invented, let alone distributed to billions of people. No, they got their information the old-fashioned way, if they got it at all. The old-fashioned way, of course, being on foot, or by way of mule, horse, camel, or for the truly advanced, carrier pigeon.

Then, around the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ancient prophetic words began to be fulfilled slowly yet steadily. Prophecies about how all hidden things would be made known and knowledge would increase in the latter days (Luke 8:17; Mark 4:22; Daniel 12:4). These prophecies appear to be two-fold.

Knowledge regarding technology has led to such things as personal digital cell phones as well as the technology allowing the antichrist to implant the mark of the beast and to control global finance, and the knowledge to be able to discern that we are actually in the latter days.

These advances in technology started out slowly and steadily, then began to pick up steam along the way, and in the last couple of decades, have advanced at remarkable speeds that have rendered previous advances obsolete within a few years or less. An example could be made very easily with telephones. In just about one generation, we have gone from dial phones and party lines to 5G cell phones, which are tiny, highly advanced computers and are possessed by billions of people. Some might argue that it is the phones that possess the people.

(A side note: 5G technology is a subject worthy of discussion in regard to safe radiation levels and the possible misuse of such technology for nefarious purposes.)

Another case in point is devices for listening to music, starting with the crank-up Victrola. Then, record players with 78, then 45, then 33 rpm (revolutions per minute), AM/FM radios, 8-Tracks, and cassettes. Analogue recordings gave way to digitally recorded compact discs (CDs) and then MP3s, wave files, blue tooth, and satellite radio.

Now, anyone can write a song, record all of the individual parts to the song on a computer with music recording software or a digital hard-drive recording unit that is basically a sophisticated computer, mix it down in either format with all the bells and whistles and effects, send it over to another digital machine that records and hands you a mastered Compact Disc of radio quality, put that CD into the computer, copy it in another software program, assign it to a computer file, and finally send either an MP3 or a Wave File of that song to anyone anywhere in the world instantly. All from home.

That is just one of many examples of the technological side of the prophecy about “knowledge being greatly increased” in the latter days.

The Old Testament saints had 4,000 years or less of scripture and word-of-mouth testimony to help them discern the Lord’s plans for the latter times. Four days or less of God’s “Week of Creation.” The closer they got to the first Advent of Jesus, the more info they had by way of the Prophets who lived before them. Prophets to whom were given visions of the end times by the Lord. These prophecies were recorded and written down by Hebrew scribes in the Torah and spread far and wide by oral testimony.

We, on the other hand, have the benefit of 6,000 years or six days of God’s “Week of Creation,” plus all of the knowledge of the New Testament, as well as the many books and written biblical aids mentioned earlier in this article, all to help us discern the signs of our times – signs provided to us by all of the Old Testament Prophets, the Disciples and Apostles, and our Lord and Savior Himself.

This is certainly another reason why “all knowledge shall be increased” in the end times.

Having said all of that, one thing is certain: we live in exciting times.

We have the knowledge that the sixth day of the Lord’s “week of Creation” is coming to a close, and the seventh and sabbath day is not very far into the future. Only the last of the birth pains Jesus alluded to – the Rapture and the Seven-year Tribulation – stand between today and the day Jesus will rule this world in righteousness from the city of Jerusalem. The Holy City that God loves. The apple of His eye. The fig tree that blossoms.

In the future, the Old Testament saints, the New Testament saints, and all true believers will be part of a most beautiful and amazing family. All of the Old Testament Prophets like Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Elijah, and all of the others, as well as Enoch and Moses and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and his sons, Noah and his sons, the Apostles, Paul and Timothy and Stephen and so many others, far too many to mention them all right now, will be there. They will be there along with everyone from the last 2,000 years who died in Christ. And everyone who is alive right now – trusting in Jesus and longing for our blessed hope – will also be there. Old Testament saints and New Testament saints united in one faith. All part of one family with Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. One family united in our love for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We will eventually have all of eternity to get to know each other and do truly amazing things together. And together, all reunited with loved ones, we will praise our Heavenly Father, and we will praise His Son, and we will praise the Holy Spirit who will live in our hearts forever. There will be unimaginable joy and not even the slightest trace of wickedness.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived – the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

If you read these words and have never given your heart to Jesus, please call to Him today. He wants you to be a part of this wonderful eternal future, for it is not His will that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). Jesus would love to be your best friend forever and to bless you eternally with His goodness.

Romans 10:9-10 says: If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess your faith and are saved.”

A friend of Jesus and all of the saints,

Rick Segoine

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