Month: November 2017

Watching the news from the Middle East concerning which religious doctrine should have sway where and what technology each country should be allowed to develop is intriguing. The world is transitioning into an era of dogmatic leaders head-strong in asserting their dogma and increasing their country’s hegemony. The whole situation shouldn’t be surprising since this is exactly the conditions foretold in the Bible to bring about the rise of the antichrist, but, I must confess I am still amazed (Daniel 11).

Mankind inherently recognizes it is not above the law. We must eat to live, we grow old, we die. Nothing mankind has ever done or can ever do will change that (Genesis 3:17-19). To live in sin is not to live outside the law of God, that is impossible. Living in sin is to rebel until God’s law finally wins out; the end. This the state of the world’s nations, including Israel, today.

Adam and Eve, Cain, Cain’s descendent Lamech, and almost all the antediluvian world could not escape God’s law. But the most notable rebel of Genesis is Nimrod. He was the first leader to bring mankind into organized rebellion (Genesis 10:8-12). His notorious tower, which was intended to reach into the heavens, was symbolic of his direct defiance to God’s command for mankind to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). Nimrod failed and mankind was scattered (Genesis 11:1-9).

The one thing in common, from Adam to Nimrod, was mankind’s recognition of one God, the Most High (Genesis 10:9). The great deceiver realized that if God was unwilling to compromise on His judgment of mankind, and therefore open a way for him and his minions to escape eternal punishment, then Satan would deceive as many of Adam’s descendants as possible into redefining who is the only true and living God. Perhaps then the loving and caring God, that even Satan knows He is, will be weighed down into compromise by the sheer numbers of the lost; not going to happen. And so religious pluralism was born.

Today mankind is rift with ways to ascend into the heavens, called religious pluralism, just as mankind attempted with the tower of Babel. They range from the better known such as Islam, Bahá’í, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism to the lesser known Slavic or Semitic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Heathenism, and Hellenism. Mankind has overcome its fear of the consequences of rebellion to the living God by inventing various ways into the heavenly apart from God’s Messiah. The beginning of Wisdom is to reverently fear the Lord (Proverbs 9:10; Psalms 111:10). Mankind has done away with that fear through religious pluralism and, therefore, has lost Wisdom and its way.

God gets no pleasure from the death of sinners but there is no compromise for those who rebel (Ezekiel 33:11; Romans 6:23).

May God bless you in your study of His word.

 

In Christian eschatology Babylon, in some form, plays a role in the antichrist’s reign prior to the return of Christ (Revelation 14:8; 16:9; 17:5; 18:2, 10, 21). The prophet Daniel had visions of the end-time Babylon during the Babylonian captivity of Judah. What is less understood is why Babylon is used by God to symbolize the righteousness of His judgment on the wicked.

As an old man, Daniel was praying for both his people and the temple to be restored in accordance with the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:10). Daniel’s expectations were that the temple in Jerusalem would be restored and that the Shekhinah, the manifestation of the presence of God, would once again reside in the Holy of Holies. Historically, we know that the restoration of the temple with the Shekhinah has not happened and is not expected to occur until the second coming of Christ. To be clear, Ezra did lead a remnant from Babylon to Jerusalem and did restore the temple as prophesied by Isaiah but, the Shekhinah was never present in that temple or in King Herod’s temple after it (Isaiah 45:3-4; Isaiah 44:28 – 45:6). God emphasized the point that the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem and the return of the Shekhinah was for the end-time when He gave Daniel the prophecy of seventy-sevens (Daniel 9:24).

What is striking is that Babylon has been the symbol of rebellion from the beginning. The first great man on the earth was Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah. Nimrod established many city states beginning with Babel in the land of Shinar (Genesis 10:10). It was at Babel that Nimrod built his infamous tower toward heaven as a symbol of his reign over the earth and his attempt to contravene God’s command to Nimrod’s great-grandfather; the command to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1; Genesis 11:4). Babel and the land of Shinar would become known as Babylon in the time of the prophets.

Babylon is where rebellion began and it is the symbol God has chosen for wickedness throughout the Bible. Nimrod sought to contravene God’s command and it is Satan’s way to counter God’s prophecy with rebellion. As Jeremiah’s prophecy of Jews returning to Israel is fulfilled I suspect that Satan will gather his minions back to the land of Shinar in opposition (Jeremiah 16:14-16). In the end, at the battle with Gog and Magog, God will put an end to rebellion as he foretold to Daniel (Daniel 9:24; Revelation 20:7-10).

May God bless you in your study of His word.

I suppose there are many reasons why theologians study eschatology focused specifically on end-time prophesies. In human nature it is often gratifying to puzzle out a mystery. Understanding God’s prophesies is not meant exclusively for the most gifted puzzle solvers of the Church, but they were given in the way they were in order to transit the eons until their fulfillment.

There is one book that stands above all others in the Bible that testifies, beyond doubt, that the God of Abraham, Issacs, and Jacob exists and that His prophesies are true and unstoppable; it is the book of Isaiah. Many prophesies in Isaiah have already been fulfilled but the most striking prophecy was naming King Cyrus as the one to restore Judah to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem; not just a king but the actual name of the king some hundred years before his birth (Isaiah 45:3-4; Isaiah 44:28 – 45:6). This was done to show that the God of Israel is the only true God, there is none beside Him (Isaiah 45:6).

This realization will be paramount in the great tribulation coming on the world. The antichrist is not just a supreme leader of the end-time Babylon but his intention is to be worshiped as the Messiah (Daniel 8:25). For Satan to convince the world to worship the antichrist he must offer a plausible replacement for Jesus. The book of Revelation tells that Satan turns the world from the belief of Jesus as the true Messiah and King of kings.

To accomplish his goal, Satan gives the antichrist satanic super powers (Revelation 13:2). This is immensely convincing to all who do not have the Word of God, much like the seed that falls along the road side in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:19; Mark 4:14; Luke 8:12). Those who do not have the testimony of Jesus Christ will worship the antichrist and exclaim, “who is like” the antichrist meaning, not even Jesus was able to do the things the antichrist is doing (Revelation 13:4).

Satan must also discredit God’s word, the Bible. A second, satanically empowered being, rises during the tribulation to cause the world to worship the antichrist. In Christian eschatology this second being is known as the false prophet (Revelation 13:11-15). Muslim eschatology has a similar prophecy where Jesus returns not as the messiah but to declare the Mahdi as the king of kings and correct the falseness of the Bible concerning the Muslim Jesus’ relationship to God. The false prophet will likely employ a similar argument. Those who have no root in the Word of God will be swayed to worship the antichrist (Matthew 13:20-21; Mark 4:16-17; Luke 8:13).

The real test for the saints of God comes with Satan’s ploy to coerce the saints to worship the antichrist. No one will be allowed to buy or sell unless they have the seal of the antichrist (Revelation 13:16-18). Faced with the consequences of no income or sources to survive how many will we worn out and convert (Daniel 7:25)? Most likely it will not happen abruptly but slowly over time adding burden upon burden until there seems no reasonable choice but to comply in order to maintain a source of income (Matthew 13:22; Mark 4:19; Luke 8:14).

As daunting as this all sounds God will not leave His saints to suffer the perils of the tribulation without Him (Revelation 2:8-11; 3:7-13). God has His own spiritual super heroes thwarting every false miracle of Satan (Revelation 7:3-4; 11:1-6). There is no indication in the Old or New Testaments that the saints of God will starve or lack what is needed to survive. We may not live in luxury while on this earth now or during the tribulation but the best this world will ever have to offer is not comparable to what awaits the saints in heaven where we will see God face to face. What the saints will face in the tribulation is persecution, prison, and death for refusing to give up the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 6:3-4; 6:9-11; 12:17).

What’s the use of studying eschatology? God gave us His prophesies in order that we can be assured that His word is true, that there is no God besides Him, and that we should not be swayed into giving up the testimony of Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:23-25; Mark 13:21-23).

May God bless you in your study of His word.

Perhaps the best source in determining what starts the clock towards the second advent of Jesus is the book that speaks the most about the subject, the book of Daniel.

The first timeframe comes in the vision of Daniel eight. The vision follows the same outline as the two previous visions of chapters two and seven where the antichrist is destroyed at the end. There are two holy ones speaking with Daniel and one asked how long is the time from the rise of the antichrist to the end. The answer was 2,300 days (Daniel 8:13-14). A little fuzzy math tells that these days are a bit longer than six years but well short of seven. Why, then, is the timeframe of the tribulation spoken of as seven years?

The second timeframe comes in the vision of Daniel nine, the vision of seventy weeks of years to stop sin, bring rebellion to an end, usher in everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24). Sixty-nine weeks have been fulfilled and only one week, seven years, remains. The last week begins when the antichrist makes a covenant “with many” to restore the temple (Daniel 9:27). It is this restored temple the antichrist will desecrate.

The last vision of Daniel, chapters ten through twelve, expands on the vision of chapter eight. It begins with the war between Javan and Persia and quickly transitions to the turmoil of the four kingdoms. (If you’re wondering why I call the first nation-state Javan and not Greece see the April 17, 2017 blog post titled Where In The World – The Ram and Goat?) Out of the turmoil the antichrist rises to rule a turbulent world reeling from the devastation of war between the north and the south. Again, there are two holy ones and one asks how long these events will last. The answer was a time, times, and a half time or three and a half years (Daniel 12:5-7). But Daniel presses the issue to understand the meaning of the timeframe. He is told that from the time the abomination of desolation is set-up to the end is 1,290 days (Daniel 12:11-12). More fuzzy math equates these days to roughly three and a half years.

It appears that the clock starts ticking on the last week of Daniel nine approximately 1,000 days prior to the desecration of the rebuilt temple; 2,300 minus 1,290 or 1,335. Where might we mark the start of those first 1,000 days? There is nothing in scripture that allows us to point to a specific event. The rise of the antichrist to power likely precedes the covenant to restore the temple.

What we can know and watch for is the coming conflict between the land of Javan and Persia. While this does not start the clock it does signal the approach of the antichrist. The countries that occupy those lands today are Turkey and Iran. If we are living in the days where Daniel eight and eleven will begin, then we should expect Iran to rise in hegemony until it forces a conflict with Turkey, a conflict that changes the geopolitical face of the Middle East and leads to the rise of the antichrist.

What about the missing three-quarters of a year between Daniel eight and nine; 2,300 days and seven years? The book of Revelation gives the answer. Daniel nine qualifies the seventy years decreed as stopping sin and ending rebellion. The battle of Armageddon and the return of Jesus does not accomplish those goals. There is to be a final battle with Gog and Magog following the millennial reign of Jesus that puts an end to sin and rebellion and ushers in everlasting righteousness. That battle fulfills the remainder of the seventh year (Revelation 20:7-15).

May God bless you in your study of His word.