Can't See the Forest for the Trees

Eldon Adams

Description

If there is any blessing that you receive from reading this book, I pray that your 'tree of life' continuously bears all the Fruits of the Spirit and that you protect yourself in these times of trials and tribulations by putting on the whole Armor of God. Seek wisdom AND understanding, for knowledge without understanding is not wisdom.

“Sometimes the deepest knowledge of God comes from those who had to trust in Him the most”

What does this book’s title, “Can’t See the Forest for the Trees” imply? A simple answer is:

• The ‘Forest’ is symbolic of God’s Plan, revealed in Bible scripture with all of its mystery to be understood and fulfilled with steadfast belief, faith and trust in the power of the Holy Trinity: God (the Father), Jesus Christ (the Son), and the Holy Spirit (one for all, all for one). God’s Plan is a work in progress nearing fulfillment.

• The ‘Trees’ are symbolic of obstacles, like gullibility, false teaching, false prophesy, false doctrine, apostasy, hate, lying, deceit, evil, love-of-money, blind speculation and the like; all of which are growing rampant in the United States.

• The message reveals Spiritual Blindness as a curse that God has imposed upon His Church for their lack of true faith in Him (not unlike the Israelites), as they turn away from the New Covenant Law, blindly accepting unsuspected guidance from Satan, to employ worldly ways and promote apostasy. By misguided faith some may be unprotected by the “Armor of God”, and their failing to cultivate the Fruit of the Spirit makes matters worse.

The author is hopeful that his book will bring awareness of spiritual blindness, to summon a repentant reaction for ‘restoration’ of religious understanding and direction in line with God’s real purpose.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Social Issues
• Philosophie et théologie
• Trials & Tribulations (Bizzy Bone album)
• Apostasy
• Falling Away

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664280526
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

CAN’T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
A WARNING MESSAGE TO AMERICA
ELDON ADAMS


Copyright © 2022 Eldon Adams.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8053-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8054-0 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8052-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022918784
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 11/9/2022

 
 
Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction
 
First Things First
Jonah and the Great Fish
Understanding Death and Dying
My Calling
God’s Guiding Hand
My Trials and Tribulations—Restoring Faith
Living Water
Doubt
The Bible and Faith—The Oneness of Jesus and God
Faith Is Instinctive
Faith—An Action Word
Unity in Christ’s Church?
The Bible—A Plan and Mystery
Mystery in the Bible
Salvation Is Not Free
Hope
Discernment
False Teachers
Memorizing Scripture
Wisdom
Understanding
Blindness Is Delusion
Parables
Bible Translations
A Paradigm Shift
God’s Purpose-Driven Plan
God’s Word Is His Plan
Socialism and Capitalism
Works of the Flesh
A Divided Church
Judge Not
Forgiveness
Fruit of the Spirit
Human Judgment Leads to Hate
The New Covenant Law
Inequality
Hate and Ignorance
Politics in the Church
Voting Considerations
Accountability and Ministry
Backsliding and Apostasy
The Great Apostasy
Trials and Tribulations
The Abomination of Desolation and the Harvest of Souls (Rapture)
End of the Church Age and Rapture
Christ’s Return
The Wrath of God
Know Your Enemy
The Order of Melchizedek
Righteousness and Justification
The Love of Money
Revelation 3:10: Rapture or Safety?
God’s Message to America
Repentance
Unfulfilled Prophesies
• The Seven-Year Tribulation Period Begins
• Peace Treaty Between Israel and Its Enemies
• The Antichrist’s Appearance
• Abomination of Desolation and Beginning of the Great Tribulation
• The Mark of the Beast
• The 144,000 and the Multitude
• Restoration and Resurrection of Israel
• The Two Witnesses
• The Battle of Armageddon
• The New Heaven and New Earth
• The Millennium
• The Great White Throne Judgment
• The Battle of Gog and Magog
 
Epilogue
About the Author
Introduction

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV): If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land .
 
My name is Eldon Adams. I have been a professed Christian, all of my life. By professed , I mean I thought and believed I was a Christian, but my thoughts and beliefs were largely based on ignorance.
My purpose for this writing at the outset was only to share my testimony about the ups and downs and ups of my Christian life, so that others might find strength from reading about the struggles my wife and I endured and how God guided us to a whole new perspective and way of life. Our pastor, Rick Warren of Saddle Back Church in Southern California, encouraged his congregations to consider writing and sharing our come-to-faith-testimonies as a good exercise in ministry, to share with our church. He encouraged us to adopt a hundred-day plan in his sermon on January 16, 2022. If you finish reading this, and I hope you will, you may believe that I got a little bit carried away with my assignment. It became a small book, as I felt a calling to also reveal a more urgent matter that I believe the Holy Spirit also assigned me to write about.
I believe my testimony is an example of the way that God patiently recovers lost souls and puts them back on the path to salvation. God has had a patient, guiding hand in transforming my thinking after I pushed Him and my faith to the back burner years ago. I now believe He had a bigger purpose in mind for me. I used to hear the pastors talk about godly calling, and I always wondered what God had in mind for me. At seventy-seven years of age, I was beginning to think maybe He overlooked me or I didn’t have a calling. And then came this call from Pastor Rick to write my testimony, and I thought, I can do that .
I have thought for some time that the trials and tribulations during my adult life had some similarity to the tribulations of Job in the Bible but with different Godly motives. In Job’s case, it was to prove to Satan, Job’s faith, contrary to belief that it was to punish him by removing God’s favor. In my case, it was to redirect and restore lost faith by also removing favor. So I was inspired to work on writing my testimony. As I began, I was already immersed in a personal Bible study in the book of Revelation and the end-time, which really had all of my primary interest. Eventually, the two endeavors became one—this small book.
What intrigued me most about the Bible study was the apparent lack of understanding and the abundance of disagreement among experts over what the Bible teaches. I found it surprising to see the confusion and to ponder the multiple theories and pure speculation voiced by experts in the field of end-time prophesy. I became immersed in my study, spending hours reading the Bible and books by different authors, including Tim LaHaye. In a short time, I became more confused than I was when I started. I had read Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series of books published from 1995 through 2003. So my understanding in the beginning was largely from fiction, and I was a pretribulation rapture believer when I started this new study.
In recent years, my eyes have been opened to discoveries in reading God’s Word, discoveries that I feel a growing need to bring to the attention of others. I am also very concerned that the biblical warnings, relative to end-time prophecies, are being ignored or overlooked. I fear that American Christians are being misled and readily blindsided because of gullibility, false teaching, false prophesy, false doctrine, apostasy, lying, deceit, and the like, all of which are running rampant in the United States, and such effects are determined to destroy our nation.
The salvation of America is much too large a problem for anyone to tackle alone and fully address every aspect; nonetheless, I believe I can do my part. Others need to step up to the plate and express their concerns for how the country is being blinded by the obvious interference of Satan, as Christ’s church turns a blind eye to the end-time prophesies that seem imminently close to fulfillment. Outward appearances are that Satan already is in strategic control to derail the salvation of many Americans.
My title for this small book, which I picked before I started, Can’t See the Forest for the Trees , came to mind because it made a statement somewhat like what I hoped to make regarding spiritual blindness. It also represented an age-old statement that I hoped would attract attention and arouse the curiosity to investigate the meaning. My purpose is solely to sound an alarm that might make you look up and at yourself, perhaps to see blindness. My intent is to hearten you to look at your motives, at what is really driving you, and ask yourselves, “Am I spreading God’s love, or am I spreading Satan’s hate?” Perhaps you may realize you are so busy and intent at chopping on trees that you have lost sight of the forest or never even focused on the forest