Divine Viewpoint

An apostle of Jesus Christ must be a Jew. He had to be from Messiah’s nation. An apostle must have received a specific call and commission to his office directly from Christ. The nature of his office: he had full plenary powers, full authority. This was the highest rank in the church age. The precedent was set by the Lord Himself in Luke 6:13  “And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles.” Paul elaborates on this in 2 Corinthians, and especially here in Galatians 1:1. They must have been an eyewitness of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and have heard His teaching. If they were to be foundational witnesses to Jesus Christ and what He taught then it was necessary for them to know a) what He taught, and b) to have seen His public ministry while He was alive on the earth. (Paul was probably among the Pharisees and scribes who were arguing with Jesus during Jesus’ time on the earth) Paul made is specifically clear th...

  The beast power was mentioned under various synonyms in Scripture. It was the little horn of Daniel 7, the man of sin, the son of perdition who introduces the mystery of iniquity in 2 Thessalonians 2, the Antichrist of 1 John 2 and 4 and 2 John, Babylon of Revelation 14, 16, 17, 18, and the whore and scarlet beast of Revelation 17. The Antichrist existed long ago even before the birth of Jesus Christ. The Antichrist of the Tribulation period is yet to come. There are too many Antichrists but only one Antichrist of the tribulation. The Scripture provides us with so many identifying features of the beast power that there is left to us no possible doubt whatsoever. Remembering the synonymous terms used for the beast as listed above, we find the following identifying factors of the beast. 1)        Arose from the fourth beast (the Roman Empire) of Daniel 7:7,8 2)        Displaced 3 of the 10 kingdoms into which the Roman...