Laughing at
Prophecy Pt. 3:
Prophecy Pt. 3:
Will History Continue
to Be Revealed?
In addition to those hundreds of prophecies that have been fulfilled in the past, there are those that belong to a special class of prophecy belonging to the last days. In some cases they are related to in a general sense, a relative sense if you will, but they usually refer to the closing days of the age. The age generally referred to as the closing of the time of the Gentiles, and also the return of Christ to the Earth.
I am not really trying to study eschatology, as I have had some responses to this series that attempt to dissect minutia from scripture as though it were a history book and not something which is first and foremost a spiritual book. But, rather, I am trying to stress the spiritual influence of these scriptures, since many of them are being fulfilled right before our eyes in this day and age.
I have already discussed the re-establishment of Israel as a nation in its homeland, which is probably the most important of these prophecies. That a nation could be destroyed as an entity, as it was by Rome in 70 A.D., its people killed and scattered all over the Earth, its land occupied by foreigners for over 1900 years, and yet survive as a distinct nationality until it regained it’s homeland and its recognition of its authenticity as a nation, is freaking impossible. It’s never been done.
When Israel went into captivity, including Judah, in 588 B.C., the “times of the Gentiles” began. Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome were successive world empires and their domain included Israel. After Rome destroyed the city and the temple, a prophecy by Jesus Christ himself (Luke 19:41-44), the people of Israel were scattered, as prophesied in Deuteronomy, “among all the people, from one end of the Earth to the other.” (Deut 28:64)
In this context we come to an amazing Prophecy by Jesus himself, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be lead away captive to all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24)
The word “fulfilled” is the same word in Greek as “finished”, therefore when Israel is no longer under the control of the Gentiles, the time of the Gentiles is finished. But this can only be accomplished when Christ returns to banish the Gentiles from the land. (Remember, according to God, there are only two groups of people in all the Earth, the Jews and the Gentiles.) Thus the restoration of Jerusalem to the chosen people is necessarily accomplished by the Messiah’s return when he will set up his world kingdom to be ruled from Jerusalem. (Let’s not argue just yet over terms like “chosen people”, that’s not my point here, actually, the logic I am following leads to the Antichrist.)
The Jews began to return to Palestine in small numbers in the early part of the twentieth century, and then in much larger numbers after World War I. Jerusalem was still under British rule, however.
After World War II the nation declared its independence in 1948 and was soon recognized by the United Nations. The new city of Jerusalem did indeed go back to the control of the Jews at this time. However, the old city, including the all important temple site of Mount Moriah, has remained under the control of the Jordanian Arabs.
In the 1967 Six Day War, which has an interesting inside story if you have never read it, Israel recaptured the old city and has sworn to never let it go again. Yet, the Lord has not returned, it would appear that the times of the Gentiles are still in full force. With one small exception of course. The Temple itself, at Mount Moriah.
It was Mount Moriah that God told David to purchase from Ornan the Jebusite and to set up the altar there. (I Chronicles 21:18). This was the spot where Abraham had set things up to sacrifice his son Issac. (Genesis 22:2). This is where Solomon built the temple that David had longed to build. This spot IS Jerusalem, and amazingly, this is the only spot left controlled by the Gentiles. The Arab Dome of the Rock is still sitting there today. The second most Holy place in the Muslim world. The Jews, for many reasons, have not yet chosen to expel the Arabs from this site, to raze it, and then rebuild the temple. What a mess that would be to have this happen and then have no follow up of prophecy, but that is exactly why the moment hangs in the balance. As much insanity as it seems to be, the Jews not seizing a mountain in their own land and tossing out seeming invaders after all this time, 42 years, can only point to higher purposes held up by God himself, for what sense does this make without God holding back the Jews from performing the obvious.
People often don’t believe me when I tell them that as Israel goes, so goes the world. Israel has a very unusual connection to all of history and it’s no fluke if you have studied the nation of the Jews along side the record of history. What amazes me is that many Jews themselves don’t know about this. For instance, there are several feast days, well many actually, that Jewish peoples celebrate every year and it has been so since the establishment of this people. So let’s take The Feast of the Tabernacles for instance. They celebrate this every year and it is a positive feast day, I believe it is a “returning” or victorious feast day. Now Israel has been in and out of wars and famines and such for hundreds of years and if they are at war, then the war, some of them hundreds of years apart will come to an end on the Feast of the Tabernacles. Or if there is a famine in the land, the famine will end on that feast day. So as an example, the year is 500 B.C., there is a famine in the land that has lasted for about 40 years, the famine comes to an end on the Feast of Tabernacles day. Or they are at war and the year is 1967 A. D., the war comes to an end on the Feast of Tabernacles.
The opposite happens also, if it is a bad feast day, they will go into captivity or lose a war or else famine will strike on that day sometimes hundreds of years apart. There is no other nation on Earth for which this happens. Israel is special indeed. There are those who say that America’s pressure on Israel to give up some of the land they have captured, back to the Palestinians, is the reason Hurricane Katrina happened. It’s something to think about. That’s all I have to say.
There are many other prophecies dealing with the alignment of nations in the last days. The emergency alliance of Eastern European nations and Muslim nations under the domination of Russia all in opposition to Israel and the Western Nations is prophesied in Ezekiel 38:1-16. The rise of a great oriental confederacy is prophesied in Revelation 16:12. The development of the European Union in a similarity to Rome is suggested in Daniel 7:19-24.
Jesus was asked, “What shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world?” And he answered, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows, or more accurately the beginning of birth pangs. The Hebrew idiom used conveys the idea of a world wide state war. Thus the prophetic sign includes a world war and great physical calamities as the first sign of the new birth.
The decade from 1914 to 1924 saw all of these things come to pass. The first World War was followed by the first great pestilence (1918 influenza epidemic), the first great famine (Russia and China which saw the starvation of hundreds of millions) and the greatest earthquakes in recorded history in China and Japan (1920 and 1923 respectively). The half century since that time has continued to see wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilences all in World War II, the Cold War, the war on terror, the great depression, huge storms and earthquakes, some of those earthquakes in diverse places as never before, and also of course in the complete wiping from the map of Waveland, Mississippi.
As I have covered here in this blog, by studying the teachings of Freud, Darwin and Marx. There is a strain of thought that has defined our educational system since the late 1800’s or so, the school of evolutionary uniformitarianism. In this strain of thought all things, origin and development, are being attempted to be explained in the terms of the uniform operation of the same natural laws and processes which still continue today. In Peter 3:3,4; he prophesies, “In those days there will come scoffers, saying all things are as they have been from the beginning.”
In the area of science and education Daniel prophesied, “In those days, the time of the end, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.” The Hebrew words convey a vast increase in both frequency and speed of travel, as well as other forms of communication, along with great advances in science and technology.
James 5:1-6 prophecies great upheavals in the economic and social realms. For centuries, the poor have been exploited by the rich, the workers by the privileged classes. The uprising of the laborers leading to a “day of slaughter” (or a tea party) is also implied in Daniel and Revelation. (Daniel 2:41-43, Revelation 18:1-19) We’ve had the French revolution, the Russian revolution, the American revolution (only one so far, but let’s wait and see shall we) and many other uprisings around the globe.
Moral conditions of the last days are also prophesied to descend to the days of degradation like the times of Noah. (Luke 17:26) But the one that really gets me is the one about the Christian churches themselves, they will essentially be the same as the heathens in the old pagan world. That is, one could describe the sins of today’s church as being identical to the ancient godless rebels of Romans 1:28-31. And when I read things like “Adam and Eve had sex with Satan in the Garden of Eden” and Cain was half devil, which lead to Noah’s wife being Cain’s descendant, thus she had to have sex with her son Ham in order to birth Canaan... (sigh) so on and so forth,.... I worry worry worry.
Religious apostasy in the ranks of Christian leaders is also prophesied in other scriptures. Not only would false teachers deny the second coming of Christ (II Peter 3:3) they would even deny the Lord that bought them (II Peter 2:1). Not only would they despite much learning never come to a knowledge of the truth (II Timothy 3:7), but turn away from their knowledge of the truth and give way to the teaching of fables (II Timothy 4:4). These are all prophecies that are being fulfilled by the “Christian” world today, and only those who refuse to see will miss it.
A particularly ominous form of apostasy is the rapid rise of demonism in the last days, and I am not just referring to the necrophilia of something like the Twilight movies, although there is definitely something to think about there, “In latter days some shall depart the faith and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.” (I Timothy 4:1) “Seducing” being a pivotal word here. During the great tribulation, these trends will culminate in a world wide worship of Satan (Revelation 13:4,8) But first they shall worship demons and idols (Revelation 9:20) with an increase in pharmaceuticals. You know pharmaceuticals, those legalized drugs that almost everyone has, anyone who has a doctor, that is. You know the word “sorceries” is a Greek word from which we get the modern day word for pharmaceuticals, and means “magical incantations by the ritual use of drugs.” That an age of scientific enlightenment could be followed so quickly by a revival of occultism and paganism is truly amazing, but that is exactly what has happened and it was all predicted by the Bible.
Still think it was all just written by men? II Peter 1:21 says, For prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” And history backs this up.
I am not really trying to study eschatology, as I have had some responses to this series that attempt to dissect minutia from scripture as though it were a history book and not something which is first and foremost a spiritual book. But, rather, I am trying to stress the spiritual influence of these scriptures, since many of them are being fulfilled right before our eyes in this day and age.
I have already discussed the re-establishment of Israel as a nation in its homeland, which is probably the most important of these prophecies. That a nation could be destroyed as an entity, as it was by Rome in 70 A.D., its people killed and scattered all over the Earth, its land occupied by foreigners for over 1900 years, and yet survive as a distinct nationality until it regained it’s homeland and its recognition of its authenticity as a nation, is freaking impossible. It’s never been done.
When Israel went into captivity, including Judah, in 588 B.C., the “times of the Gentiles” began. Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome were successive world empires and their domain included Israel. After Rome destroyed the city and the temple, a prophecy by Jesus Christ himself (Luke 19:41-44), the people of Israel were scattered, as prophesied in Deuteronomy, “among all the people, from one end of the Earth to the other.” (Deut 28:64)
In this context we come to an amazing Prophecy by Jesus himself, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be lead away captive to all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24)
The word “fulfilled” is the same word in Greek as “finished”, therefore when Israel is no longer under the control of the Gentiles, the time of the Gentiles is finished. But this can only be accomplished when Christ returns to banish the Gentiles from the land. (Remember, according to God, there are only two groups of people in all the Earth, the Jews and the Gentiles.) Thus the restoration of Jerusalem to the chosen people is necessarily accomplished by the Messiah’s return when he will set up his world kingdom to be ruled from Jerusalem. (Let’s not argue just yet over terms like “chosen people”, that’s not my point here, actually, the logic I am following leads to the Antichrist.)
The Jews began to return to Palestine in small numbers in the early part of the twentieth century, and then in much larger numbers after World War I. Jerusalem was still under British rule, however.
After World War II the nation declared its independence in 1948 and was soon recognized by the United Nations. The new city of Jerusalem did indeed go back to the control of the Jews at this time. However, the old city, including the all important temple site of Mount Moriah, has remained under the control of the Jordanian Arabs.
In the 1967 Six Day War, which has an interesting inside story if you have never read it, Israel recaptured the old city and has sworn to never let it go again. Yet, the Lord has not returned, it would appear that the times of the Gentiles are still in full force. With one small exception of course. The Temple itself, at Mount Moriah.
It was Mount Moriah that God told David to purchase from Ornan the Jebusite and to set up the altar there. (I Chronicles 21:18). This was the spot where Abraham had set things up to sacrifice his son Issac. (Genesis 22:2). This is where Solomon built the temple that David had longed to build. This spot IS Jerusalem, and amazingly, this is the only spot left controlled by the Gentiles. The Arab Dome of the Rock is still sitting there today. The second most Holy place in the Muslim world. The Jews, for many reasons, have not yet chosen to expel the Arabs from this site, to raze it, and then rebuild the temple. What a mess that would be to have this happen and then have no follow up of prophecy, but that is exactly why the moment hangs in the balance. As much insanity as it seems to be, the Jews not seizing a mountain in their own land and tossing out seeming invaders after all this time, 42 years, can only point to higher purposes held up by God himself, for what sense does this make without God holding back the Jews from performing the obvious.
People often don’t believe me when I tell them that as Israel goes, so goes the world. Israel has a very unusual connection to all of history and it’s no fluke if you have studied the nation of the Jews along side the record of history. What amazes me is that many Jews themselves don’t know about this. For instance, there are several feast days, well many actually, that Jewish peoples celebrate every year and it has been so since the establishment of this people. So let’s take The Feast of the Tabernacles for instance. They celebrate this every year and it is a positive feast day, I believe it is a “returning” or victorious feast day. Now Israel has been in and out of wars and famines and such for hundreds of years and if they are at war, then the war, some of them hundreds of years apart will come to an end on the Feast of the Tabernacles. Or if there is a famine in the land, the famine will end on that feast day. So as an example, the year is 500 B.C., there is a famine in the land that has lasted for about 40 years, the famine comes to an end on the Feast of Tabernacles day. Or they are at war and the year is 1967 A. D., the war comes to an end on the Feast of Tabernacles.
The opposite happens also, if it is a bad feast day, they will go into captivity or lose a war or else famine will strike on that day sometimes hundreds of years apart. There is no other nation on Earth for which this happens. Israel is special indeed. There are those who say that America’s pressure on Israel to give up some of the land they have captured, back to the Palestinians, is the reason Hurricane Katrina happened. It’s something to think about. That’s all I have to say.
There are many other prophecies dealing with the alignment of nations in the last days. The emergency alliance of Eastern European nations and Muslim nations under the domination of Russia all in opposition to Israel and the Western Nations is prophesied in Ezekiel 38:1-16. The rise of a great oriental confederacy is prophesied in Revelation 16:12. The development of the European Union in a similarity to Rome is suggested in Daniel 7:19-24.
Jesus was asked, “What shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world?” And he answered, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows, or more accurately the beginning of birth pangs. The Hebrew idiom used conveys the idea of a world wide state war. Thus the prophetic sign includes a world war and great physical calamities as the first sign of the new birth.
The decade from 1914 to 1924 saw all of these things come to pass. The first World War was followed by the first great pestilence (1918 influenza epidemic), the first great famine (Russia and China which saw the starvation of hundreds of millions) and the greatest earthquakes in recorded history in China and Japan (1920 and 1923 respectively). The half century since that time has continued to see wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilences all in World War II, the Cold War, the war on terror, the great depression, huge storms and earthquakes, some of those earthquakes in diverse places as never before, and also of course in the complete wiping from the map of Waveland, Mississippi.
As I have covered here in this blog, by studying the teachings of Freud, Darwin and Marx. There is a strain of thought that has defined our educational system since the late 1800’s or so, the school of evolutionary uniformitarianism. In this strain of thought all things, origin and development, are being attempted to be explained in the terms of the uniform operation of the same natural laws and processes which still continue today. In Peter 3:3,4; he prophesies, “In those days there will come scoffers, saying all things are as they have been from the beginning.”
In the area of science and education Daniel prophesied, “In those days, the time of the end, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.” The Hebrew words convey a vast increase in both frequency and speed of travel, as well as other forms of communication, along with great advances in science and technology.
James 5:1-6 prophecies great upheavals in the economic and social realms. For centuries, the poor have been exploited by the rich, the workers by the privileged classes. The uprising of the laborers leading to a “day of slaughter” (or a tea party) is also implied in Daniel and Revelation. (Daniel 2:41-43, Revelation 18:1-19) We’ve had the French revolution, the Russian revolution, the American revolution (only one so far, but let’s wait and see shall we) and many other uprisings around the globe.
Moral conditions of the last days are also prophesied to descend to the days of degradation like the times of Noah. (Luke 17:26) But the one that really gets me is the one about the Christian churches themselves, they will essentially be the same as the heathens in the old pagan world. That is, one could describe the sins of today’s church as being identical to the ancient godless rebels of Romans 1:28-31. And when I read things like “Adam and Eve had sex with Satan in the Garden of Eden” and Cain was half devil, which lead to Noah’s wife being Cain’s descendant, thus she had to have sex with her son Ham in order to birth Canaan... (sigh) so on and so forth,.... I worry worry worry.
Religious apostasy in the ranks of Christian leaders is also prophesied in other scriptures. Not only would false teachers deny the second coming of Christ (II Peter 3:3) they would even deny the Lord that bought them (II Peter 2:1). Not only would they despite much learning never come to a knowledge of the truth (II Timothy 3:7), but turn away from their knowledge of the truth and give way to the teaching of fables (II Timothy 4:4). These are all prophecies that are being fulfilled by the “Christian” world today, and only those who refuse to see will miss it.
A particularly ominous form of apostasy is the rapid rise of demonism in the last days, and I am not just referring to the necrophilia of something like the Twilight movies, although there is definitely something to think about there, “In latter days some shall depart the faith and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.” (I Timothy 4:1) “Seducing” being a pivotal word here. During the great tribulation, these trends will culminate in a world wide worship of Satan (Revelation 13:4,8) But first they shall worship demons and idols (Revelation 9:20) with an increase in pharmaceuticals. You know pharmaceuticals, those legalized drugs that almost everyone has, anyone who has a doctor, that is. You know the word “sorceries” is a Greek word from which we get the modern day word for pharmaceuticals, and means “magical incantations by the ritual use of drugs.” That an age of scientific enlightenment could be followed so quickly by a revival of occultism and paganism is truly amazing, but that is exactly what has happened and it was all predicted by the Bible.
Still think it was all just written by men? II Peter 1:21 says, For prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” And history backs this up.
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