In A Great Silence in the Land, K.W. Swain adamantly defends the Holy Bible--the actual dictation of the Holy Spirit who inspired holy men of old first to speak it, then to record it, and later translate it on its way around the globe to spread the Gospel of Christ.   It is the Word of the Holy Spirit, and His watch care over it is described in a small but interesting history of the KJV.

Why has it been disavowed?

Could it be the desire of today's world to be free of its "outdated" commands and the torment of conscience that has extinguished it as a light to the nations?

Could this time of great wickedness be a result of its silence?

The Holy Bible tells us how the world began and how it will end, but the world in its pleasures is blind to prophecy that is being fulfilled even now. Is the Book of The Revelation coming to life before our eyes?

Here is an awakening look at the signs of the times. Believers will have much to think about. Unbelievers will scoff, but as events make headlines, even they may be surprised.

A Great Silence in the Land

By K. W. Swain

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 K. W. Swain
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-6791-9

Contents

Preface......................................................................................................ixPrologue.....................................................................................................xvChapter I. "But Why King James?".............................................................................1Chapter II. The Holy Bible is Disavowed......................................................................5Chapter III. The Real Myths..................................................................................11Chapter IV. Delusions and Deceptions.........................................................................27Chapter V. Sexual Freedom....................................................................................31Chapter VI. Abortion.........................................................................................37Chapter VII. Suicide.........................................................................................41Chapter VIII. A Great Silence in the Land....................................................................45Chapter IX. The Death of the Witnesses.......................................................................47Chapter X. Who Are the Two Witnesses?........................................................................51Chapter XI. The Three Days and a Half........................................................................55Chapter XII. A Time of Great Wickedness......................................................................59Chapter XIII. Our Nation Sits on Shifting Sands..............................................................63Chapter XIV. The Power of the First Resurrection.............................................................67Chapter XV. The Time Line....................................................................................71Chapter XVI. "... and made war against them."................................................................75Chapter XVII. The Earthquakes of the Bible...................................................................87Chapter XVIII. The Great Earthquake, the Beast, and the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ......................91Conclusion...................................................................................................113Afterword....................................................................................................117The Bible of The Holy Spirit.................................................................................121A Brief History of The Holy Bible............................................................................123Endnotes.....................................................................................................141

Chapter One

"But Why King James?"

"How can we depend upon the King James Version of the Bible to be the true Word of God?"

First, I believe that title to be a misnomer. King James was its sponsor and we thank God for that because at that time there was much dissension about publishing another Bible. King James was in favor of it, and his will prevailed. Moreover, it is not a version but a true and faithful translation of the ancient texts into English. I prefer it because all revisions add, interpret, take away, and change. I would name it the Bible of the Holy Spirit, but I will refer to it as KJV or the Holy Bible.

If we believe in the omniscient and omnipresent God, we must believe in His ability to care for and protect His Word down through the ages as shown by its history.

We can depend also upon the intelligence and talents of the various handlers of the Scriptures whom God raised up to faithfully bring his Word to this present time.

It is true that the Word was given first to lowly men; the Spirit through Peter calls them holy men of God:

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21).

Not low, but lowly, humble men who felt their ignorance and unworthiness to be called by God to preach and prophesy to the people, and almost to a man they attempted to convince Him that someone else would be better at it. Were they holy in themselves? No, it was the holiness, not of their works, but of the only Work the Holy God would ever accept: that of the One who stood as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world—just as those known as "righteous" have been given the Righteousness of Jesus Christ.

'Jesus as a Lamb slain'—that's a strange thing to say isn't it? But it is a precious phrase to a believer's heart. The Lamb is Jesus in His sacrificial office. He stood as the sacrificial Lamb for all those who died before His sacrifice. That's why the Great Cure for sin was supplied even for Adam and Eve who, you might say, poured out the illness of sin all over the world.

But God knew that in the latter days ... the way of truth shall be evil spoken of (2 Peter 2:2).

The Lord once used the weak and lowly to execute a powerful work. But the time would come that He would use both the powerful and men of great expertise to condemn the ... mockers in the last time (Jude 18).

And that time came ...

In the summer of 1603 James VI, King of Scotland, went to London to receive the English crown and become James I, King of England; he was presented with a petition of grievances by the Puritan clergy, which led James to call a conference for a hearing of the subject.

During the three-day conference a motion was made that a new translation of the Bible be undertaken. The majority at the conference was against the motion, but it was God's will that the idea appealed to King James, and he commanded it to go forward under strict guidelines.

The King James Version bears the name of its sponsor only. Even though it is known as the Authorized Version, no act of Parliament was ever passed approving it. King James pushed for a Parliamentary act that would stamp it with his authority, but there was no subsequent official act. It is the Word of God, and so it deserves to stand without unnecessary government endorsement.

The KJV has been:

• accepted universally,

• translated into every major language,

• preached in the entire world as a witness unto all nations, and

• reprinted and distributed more than any other bible today.

These facts secure its endorsement by God, and it deserves to be called simply The Holy Bible.

Chapter Two

The Holy Bible is Disavowed

"What does disavow mean?"

It means 'refuse to acknowledge.'

There was a time when a person's testimony in court was sworn to be the truth by calling on the Holy Bible to witness with him. This was because the Bible was acknowledged by our nation to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Some of you older readers may have heard someone foolishly `swear on a stack of bibles,' as though his word could be even more surely upheld. You don't even hear that anymore.

The Bible, the Word of God, is now rejected as an unreliable witness to literal truth by unbelievers as well as some we thought faithful. Now, a simple raised right hand suffices for the truth. We really should not be amazed. The world has certainly worked its way through a stack of Bibles to bring us to this point in a time of almost universal unbelief.

A devout Christian couple, whom I had admired for years for their knowledge of and faith in the Scriptures, astounded me with this:

"We don't believe the entire Bible because so many have handled it and revised it, we can't know if it is the true Word of God."

I would rather they had been talking about a revised bible, but they were speaking of the true Bible of the Holy Spirit!

A fellow teacher, a Christian, and good friend, revealed this amazing fact; her husband, a minister, was in the group when she said it, and didn't disagree:

"Oh, we really can't be telling our children that everything in the Bible is true because God would not ask us to believe what science has already disproved. After all, the Bible doesn't even mention dinosaurs."

It does mention that "there were giants in those days" before the flood (Genesis 6:4). That could mean giant reptiles, too. But must we disavow the truth of the Bible by things it doesn't say? If science finds life on another planet, does it nullify the truth of the Bible? Faith says no.

A man very close to me, a member of high degree in the Masons, said,

"I learned in the Masons that the people whose names are put to the books of the Bible were really ignorant men of low degree, illiterates, and such, and we should really not trust a bible written by such men."

Such a lack of trust disavows the Holy Spirit's presence in the matter.

Once in a while we hear remarks such as these on radio and television:

"The Old Testament is not literally true, but is composed of myths that may have meaning for someone; the New Testament just expresses the opinions of the writers."

Dear Reader, people who make such remarks as those above, simply do not know God as God. They bring Him down to a god who can't, or worse, who isn't! When we refuse to acknowledge the truth of His Word, God is silenced, Satan laughs, deceptions take over, and error prevails. So it is today.

Stand for the Truth!

These following facts come from eye-witness testimony:

Jesus preached from the Hebrew texts:

Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures ... and ... Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures....

Did not our heart burn within us ... while he (Jesus) ... opened to us the Scriptures (Matthew 21:42; 22:29; Luke 24:32)?

He expounded them, giving a full account of the prophecies concerning Himself and their fulfillment in Him:

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me (Luke 24:44).

Jesus fulfilled all prophecies concerning Him. There are many websites that list nearly all the prophecies He fulfilled: from the Old Testament, at His advent, and on the day of His death. Jesus Christ is the true Messiah.

His apostles and their disciples studied the Scriptures and persuaded from them:

And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks....

For he (Apollos) mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ (Acts 18:4, 28).

Would the Son of God have established His New Testament church on a foundation of hallucinations and myths? Read (Matthew Ch. 5-7).

The disciples were not sent out to preach their own philosophies but only that which Jesus had commanded them:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.... (Matthew 28:19, 20)

Paul did not have the privilege of learning at Christ's knee; however, Paul specified whether his words were his own or the Lord speaking through him:

And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband (1Corinthians 7:10).... That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting (2Corinthians 11:17).

The writers of the four narratives of the gospel and the epistles wrote as the Holy Ghost taught them:

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (John 14:26).

Right across the border from El Paso, Texas there is a mountain in Mexico on which is painted the words (translated): "The Bible is truth; read it!" And let me add three more: "We need it!"

Chapter Three

The Real Myths

A myth is a fantasy written to represent or explain an observed phenomenon about which the author has no understanding. Myths fade away in the light of knowledge.

The Big Bang Theory

It seems that back in the great nothingness, according to this popular theory, an infinitesimal something called a singularity happened: a super intelligence that contained within itself everything needed to give birth to the universe.

There was no actual explosion in the big bang, they believe; the singularity, incalculably hot and dense, expanded and ejected a minute universe that continued to expand over eons of time into everything that can now be observed within it:

"... scientists had to confront the notion that our universe had come into existence at some moment in the past, and that everything in the universe—space, time, matter, and energy—`must have emerged from a single point of zero size and infinite density, a singularity (Gribbin 11-12).'"

It is a very exciting time for scientists to be able to pursue their dreams of parallel universes and travel across time, of reproducing singularities of super intelligence to implant in machines.

In the summer of 2008 in Switzerland an international group of scientists (CERN) planned to reproduce the energy of the Big Bang in the lab hoping to find what they call the "God Particle" that would prove their standard of the origin of the universe or not. There are many articles about it on the internet. An electrical meltdown postponed further tests until the spring of 2009; a restart occurred in November, 2009, and success was reached this March of 2010. It will take the scientists a while to know what they have learned, but the internet will keep us in touch.

Scientists persevered until they finally isolated the DNA molecule to replicate life. Will they also succeed in their search for the mind of God? After all, God has already affirmed: Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do (Genesis 11:6).

And so it is today. When the people desired to make a name for themselves by building a tower to Heaven, God frustrated their efforts (Genesis 11:1-9). Will He do so today? If so, it will have to be soon because scientists believe a super-intelligent race of machines that will eventually supplant humans is only decades away, and I believed them when I learned of a car on the market today that can parallel park itself! But let's ...

Stand for the Truth!

• The Big Bang theory seems to acknowledge the existence of a Creator who holds the secret of the first atom of creation.

• Take a look at the immutable laws of science: The total amount of matter and energy available in the universe remains fixed: Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed.

These laws come from proven theories; then, where did the first atom of matter originate?

• One proof of God, the Creator, is that man has never created something from nothing.

If scientists knew God as God* they would know that the vastness of the universe is but an infinitesimal measure of the Wisdom of God.

* To know God as God is to know Him by all of His attributes of which wisdom is only one.

I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight (Matthew. 11:25).

Evolution

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision (Psalms 14:1; 2:4).

Scientists will ever strive to find evidence of "The Beginning," but they will not name this singularity, to which they give credit for creation, God because science cannot coexist with an Intelligence that can speak a world into being or spontaneously generate life. In the present debate they still are not ready to call Intelligent Design God.

They would have nothing left to do, so God has graciously allowed them to search out the Earth and the universe and come to whatever conclusions they may; thus, they have found that ...

God is dead, and the Theory of Evolution sits on His throne.

What's wrong with this picture? Just that the evidence is still missing, but scientists are diligent and continue to try to find something that demonstrates one species evolving into another. "The evolutionists seem to know everything about the missing link except the fact that it is missing."

It must be a real disappointment to many hard core scientists that the trail seems to always lead back to God.

This brings us to Creation Science: many Christians (part of the "lukewarm" crowd) who believe don't really believe. They accept the idea that the Bible and true science can coexist in full harmony with each other—an idea that neither true scientists nor true believers can stomach. They support this idea by assigning eons of time to each day in God's creation.

In great condescension to man's understanding, the Holy Spirit gave us this record of God's creation in common language. A day of creation is morning and evening, no more, no less.

But rather than believe God created the world in six days, finished on the seventh and rested, unbelievers just say, "It's impossible!"

Can you hear the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable God with whom nothing is impossible laughing in derision (Matthew 19:26)? In fact, in sifting through information about true science, creation science, and atheism, the statement I have found most often in favor of discounting biblical creation is: It is impossible! But any attempt at proof of impossibility can only be advanced by those who do not know God as God. As they arrogantly denounce Him, creation loudly speaks for Him.

"But you said it was impossible for God to...."

Yes, I know, I listed four things that God cannot do; actually, there are five: He cannot err, lie, change, or die, and He cannot deny Himself. That is, God is both Love and Hatred, both Mercy and Judgment, paradoxes natural minds cannot reconcile. Mine couldn't, but I believe the Holy Spirit has taught me that when a soul cries for mercy, God cannot deny it because Mercy is what He is. But when the soul will not humble himself before God, then God cannot deny His wrath and judgment, for that also is what He is.

For example, Manasseh, son of Hezekiah probably made more blood flow throughout his land than Stalin, Castro, and Saddam Hussein put together, but when he repented and humbled himself before God, he was forgiven; whereas, Manasseh's son did the same things as his father, but was hardened and did not repent and humble himself before God; thus, he was not forgiven. This great and austere God is a jealous God—jealous of His own glory in His creature's trust and belief.

The atheist complains, "If there is a God, why doesn't He speak to us?"

(Continues...)

Excerpted from A Great Silence in the Landby K. W. Swain Copyright © 2010 by K. W. Swain. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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