From: Greg
To: The Path of Truth
Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2013 3:18 AM
Subject: To Victor & Paul.
Greetings from Australia.I found your site about 3 weeks ago and have read a number of your papers.What a breath of fresh air to read someone who tells it as it is.I have wasted many years on the false gospel you write about;no growth or fruit to speak off until I gave up trying.There is hope anew.
From: Paul Cohen and Victor Hafichuk
To: Greg
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 7:57 AM
Subject: Re: To Victor & Paul.
Hi Greg,
Good to hear of the hope the true Gospel has brought you, which is especially appreciated contrasted with what you’ve experienced. Could this now be your time to come to the Lord, take up the cross and receive true life from above?
Faith is a wonderful gift from the Lord. Treat what you find here as precious, and so it will be to you. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21 MKJV).
Victor
www.ThePathofTruth.com
From: Greg
To: Paul and Victor
Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2013 6:03 AM
hi,Paul and Victor. I have just read your paper on the second coming and have a question. if Jesus does not come physically, whose feet split the mount of olives and how do we look on Him whom we Pierced? I believe as you teach that He comes to each believer in Spirit but have also been taught a physical appearance as well. Please be assured that I am not trying to waste your time with this and that this is a genuine enquiry. Kind regards, Greg.
From: Paul and Victor
To: Greg
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 10:03 PM
Subject: The Lord’s Appearing
Hi Greg,
We receive your question as one of sincere inquiry. You ask, “If Jesus does not come physically, whose feet split the mount of olives and how do we look on Him whom we Pierced?”
The answer to your question is right there in your question. How do we look on Him Whom we have pierced? The Scripture is in Zechariah 12, and goes as follows:
“And I will pour on the house of David, and on the people of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers. And they shall look on Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be bitter over Him, as the bitterness over the first-born” (Zechariah 12:10 MKJV).
Now we know that “the house of David,” signifying Judah and the Jews, hasn’t “looked on” or believed in Messiah till this day:
“For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, lest you should be wise within yourselves; that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the nations has comes in” (Romans 11:25 MKJV).
But those who have believed in the Messiah, both of the nations and the Jews, have looked on Him Whom they have pierced, and mourned, indeed. We believe because we have seen the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified on our behalves.
Galatians 3:1-3 HNV
(1) Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Yeshua the Messiah was openly set forth among you as crucified?
(2) I just want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing of faith?
(3) Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?
Seeing the Lord is a spiritual, not a physical event, and is proven by our seeing being linked to the gift of repentance accompanied by grace and prayers and faith in the First-born Son. The Lord descending on the Mount of Olives is therefore also a spiritual event received by faith, as described in Zechariah two chapters later:
Zechariah 14:3-4 MKJV
(3) And the LORD shall go out and fight against those nations, like the day He fought in the day of battle.
(4) And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall divide from its middle, from the east and to the west, a very great valley. And half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
The Lord fighting for and saving Israel in the prophecy is likened to how He fought for them in the past, “in the day of battle.” So what happened there – did the Lord appear as a giant with sword in hand, doing physical battle?
“And Moses said to the people, Do not fear. Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will prepare for you this day. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them anymore. The LORD shall fight for you, and you shall be silent” (Exodus 14:13-14 MKJV).
God certainly did fight for Israel, delivering them from the Egyptian army, which He drowned in the sea. Is it any less noteworthy or significant because He didn’t appear physically to accomplish this miracle?
Next, we hear about the Lord fighting for Israel as they prepared to enter the land of Canaan:
“The LORD your God Who goes before you shall fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes” (Deuteronomy 1:30 MKJV).
“And I commanded Joshua at that time saying, Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. So the LORD shall do to all the kingdoms where you pass. You shall not fear them. For the LORD your God shall fight for you” (Deuteronomy 3:21-22 MKJV).
Did the Lord fight for Israel in the flesh, or by His Spirit accompanying men who believed?
Hear what Isaiah has to say:
Isaiah 31:1-4 MKJV
(1) Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and lean on horses and trust in chariots, because it is great; and in horsemen, because they are so very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor do they seek the LORD!
(2) Yet He also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back His Words, but will arise against the house of evil-doers and against the help of those who work iniquity.
(3) And Egypt is a man, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not Spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out His hand, both he who helps shall fall, and he who is helped shall fall down, and they shall all cease together.
(4) For so has the LORD spoken to me: As the lion roars, even the young lion on his prey when a multitude of shepherds are gathered against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor fret himself because of their noise. So the LORD of Hosts shall come down to fight for Mount Zion, and on its hill.
The Spirit of God saves us, not by a physical, sensational experience, which man in his carnality is always looking for, but by faith – “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 MKJV).
This is the Lord we’ve seen and known, the Same Who descends onto the Mount of Olives in a glorious spiritual event, both personal and universal, but not in the localized physical way that men expect. Didn’t Israel miss His appearing by this very kind of thinking and expectation? Let those who believe not fall into the trap of looking for the Lord in the flesh, but endure by seeing Him Who is invisible.
“So as we now know no one according to flesh, but even if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we no longer know Him so” (2 Corinthians 5:16 MKJV).
May you have faith, Greg, to receive the Lord and all He would do for you in your obedience.
Victor
www.ThePathofTruth.com
From: Greg
To: Paul and Victor
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:12 AM
Subject: the resurrection
Hi Paul and Victor, have just read the paper on Mystery’s Message.Very good.I see so many of the lies I believed wee truth.I would like to read your thoughts regarding a . We know Jesus was crucified in the morning, died in the afternoon and buried toward sunset.After three days and three nights would He not have risen in the afternoon? Maybe Saturday?
Kind regards,Greg.
From: Paul Cohen
To: Greg
Cc: Victor Hafichuk
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2014 4:20 PM
Subject: Re: The Resurrection
Hi Greg,
Did you mean to say, “I see so many of the lies I believed weren’t the truth”?
You’re right about the timing you present for the Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. He was buried before sunset on Wednesday, because the Jews didn’t want to violate the Passover Sabbath (God was perfectly fulfilling the Passover through Christ), and He was raised three nights and days later, before sunset Saturday, the weekly Sabbath.
There are writings on the net about this topic. Here’s one by Herbert Armstrong (a false teacher with some true teachings):
We see you’re checking in from time to time, Greg. Would you like to be on our mailing list for letters we send in response to inquiries and criticisms of our site?
Paul
From: Greg
To: Paul Cohen
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2014 2:57 AM
Subject: Re: The Resurrection
Hi Paul, many thanks for your correspondence.I would appreciate being on your mailing list as I read the papers you and Victor write often.I haven’t heard such teaching before.I don’t understand all you say immediately but have come to see much to meditate on.ln my intro I meant that those things Victor pointed out as false in mystery’s message were things I believed were true.Sorry for any confusion.Look forward to hearing from you soon. kind regards,Greg.
From: Paul Cohen
To: Greg
Cc: Victor Hafichuk
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2014 8:49 AM
Subject: RE: The Resurrection
Hi Greg,
Thanks for the clarification. The Lord is doing something good for you there.
You’ve been added to the mailing list, and this, being a particularly heavy mail day, you should have received several emails already. The one thing we ask is that if you have any comments or questions, send them directly to us and not to those are receiving our replies.
Paul