Intro

Of late many of us have been enthralled with the heavily reported Revelation 12 sign. As the day nears and the conversations with friends and family grow more pointed and urgent the need for recap and introduction becomes more important. We intend to have more Left Behind letters on Unsealed, but here is a good primer.

There is much in prophecy, in the precision of creation and the precision of the Word that screams that God is who He says He is. This blog is just a very light sparing overview of a few highlights. I have provided a link or two, but for each there is much more material available from many different sources of wide and varied backgrounds.

In Jesus' first appearing there were many prophecies (proclamations about what will happen in the future) fulfilled. This topic has been widely written about over the centuries and different accountings depending how you count, but essentially something like 60 prophecies that were fulfilled and referenced in roughly 300 passages. See Here and Here

Chief among these was the Daniel 9 prophecy, that foretold the exact date of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem 483 years prior - Here

Another favorite can be found in Genesis 49:10, explained here by the highly esteemed Dr. Chuck Missler.

In addition to the 300, there are a host of others not specific to the Messiah's first appearing. Everything from Joseph's fulfilled dreams to Judah's return from Babylon after 70 years in captivity.

There are over 8 times as many prophecies about what is still to come and they have much to say about right now. Here.

The big prophetic stumble

Many in Christendom have choked by this point (if they even made it this far). No one knows the day or the hour they cry and they stop dead in their tracks. Would that they would study the prophets. Frustrating that they will not read, will not study and will not suffer anyone who would try to tell them what's in the book. If this is you, these verses may help.

Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3 are a reminder. He was the elder statesman and perhaps the most revered man in his time, yet he didn't get it. Don't be too discouraged Nicodemus, your peers didn't get it either. See Matthew 16. Of course they should have read, studied and known what to watch for, but they didn't.

Hebrews 10:23-25 (NASB)
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

1 Thessalonians 5:4-6 (NASB) But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.

Revelation 3:3 (NASB) So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.

Amos 3:7 (NASB) Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. We should be those who see, who are aware, who are watching and who are awake.

He intends for us to see. He always shares knowledge freely for those who hunger and thirst to know Him.

James 1:5 (NASB) But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

No one knows the day or the hour

Matthew 24:36 (NASB)

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

This verse may be the most misunderstood in all of the Bible and the cause of many to stop and look no further.

Christ didn't say, you can't know anything about the time of the end. He didn't say, you can't know what will happen, what to look for and so don't try. He just told us in the preceding verse that He expects we will know.

God's appointed days - The Moedim

Some background from Leviticus 23 and for deeper study - see more from Dr. Missler.

God has 7 appointments on His annual calendar that are elevated and holy.

3 in the spring
1 in the early summer
3 in the fall

Christ fulfilled the first 3 at His first appearing.

Passover - Christ was the once for all perfect sacrificial lamb. Once for all - sin was paid. He died at 3 pm on Passover, just as the lambs were being slaughtered for sin. Tetelestai "it is finished" were the words of Christ. No longer is the sacrificial system needed. Once for all paid in full. It is finished indeed.

Unleavened bread - Yeast is alive. During the Exodus the Jews were instructed to bake unleavened (no yeast) bread. Flat - baked - dead. Jesus was flat - crucified - dead (unleavened) in the tomb. Yeast (a symbol for sin) puffs up as does sin. No longer do we eat our bread in silence realizing that we are saturated with sin. Reminded of a line from Don Francisco - Adam.

First Fruits - Easter Sunday. He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed. He who was dead is alive again and so are we who have submitted to dying to ourselves and being raised to walk in new life with Him. Death is defeated. The Grave has been overcome.

Summer

Pentecost (50 days) - Just as 50 days after the Exodus the Israelites were at Mount Sinai, God set up His covenant and gave the 10 commandments to Moses, so too in Acts 2 in the New Testament did the Spirit come and conceive the New Testament church. Here and Here (in Exodus 32:28 and Acts 2:41 are some fascinating parallels)

Fall (we'll do these backwards)

The Feast of Tabernacles - In this week long celebration people live in tents to remember when God dwelt among us in a tent. We long for a time when we are no longer separated by sin and God once again makes His dwelling place among us. This will happen again at the end of the millennial reign of Christ when all things are made new.

Revelation 21:3-4

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

Big big day #6 - The Day of Atonement (Judgement Day). This solemn occasion occurs one week after The Feast of Trumpets. One week (group of 7 years) from now, Christ will be back to rule with a rod of iron. A thousand years later at the end of 7,000 years of creation, we find this event. The White Throne judgement. People judged on their own merit against God's perfect HOLY standard and not using Christ's substitutionary perfect sacrifice. This is found in Revelation 20:11-15

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The fulfillment that's right in front of us. The Feast of Trumpets. Also called Rosh Hashanah or The Day No One Knows. This is the fall harvest. This begins with the sighting of a new moon. That first sliver of moonlight. When you're watching for a new moon you know it is soon, but never the day or the hour. Will it be today or tomorrow? Can we see it because of rain or cloud cover? In Matthew 24, Jesus was using a common expression to say He would come back for His bride, the Church at the fall harvest, when the sickle is laid low to the ground. Of course we don't know the day or the hour, but we seek to tell you that we can know the season, we can know what to watch for and we may even have a strong inclination on the year.

Signs (list prepared by Greg's wise sister, Rebekah! She is a blessing, dearest friend and encouragement.)

The big super sign. Israel is back! No country in the history of the planet has been reconstituted and certainly not after two millennia. When in Matthew 24 Christ predicted the diaspora (the dispersion of the Jewish race) and the destruction of the temple, He was of course spot on. God said many times that He would regather Israel a second time. He did that on May 14th, 1948. In Ezekiel 4 God said it would happen 2,520 years to the day before it did - Koinonia House
The 6 day war of 1967, 19 years after the retaking of Israel. This retaking is a parallel to the loss of Judah, the loss of Jerusalem and the temple 19 years later in 587 B.C. The war may be the fulfillment of Psalm 83.
Mark 13:10 says the gospel will be preached to all nations. Well it has been at least once. Now with satellites, cell phones and the increase in social media the gospel is very widely available. Some argue that it's not available to everyone this minute, this second. No, but over the course of two millennia it has been fully disseminated to every nation.
Luke 21:25, Joel 2:31 and others say that there will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. Genesis 1:14 says the sun, moon, and stars will be for signs. We've had the blood moon tetrad and on August 21st we may see part of the fulfillment of Joel 2:31.
The discovery of the Star of Bethlehem by Rick Larson - video.
A Pacific Ocean California Grey Whale was spotted off the coast of Tel Aviv - The Sign of Jonah revisited - Link
Of late there have been super moons, solar flares, eclipses, meteors, asteroids and increasing signs in the heavens.
Of course the Revelation 12 sign on September 23rd, 2017, that needs nothing added here.
Across the planet there have been unexplained trumpet sounds as the preparations begin.
The sea and the waves roaring according to Luke 21:25 and links here to the Thailand and Fukushima tsunamis. If there was ever a sign that life on this planet is unsustainable in the short run and time is about over, the events at Fukushima and the continued massive radioactive dump into the Pacific should put you on your knees. - link
Sinkholes. Last year it seemed like you couldn't go a day without hearing of another - Numbers 16:30 Ezekiel 5:14
Famine and Earthquakes increasing (Matthew 24:7 and Luke 21:11).
Mass animal deaths (see Hosea 4:1-3 and this comprehensive link). You should spend some time here if you haven't been keeping up. And what's up with all of the shark sightings and attacks? Also the many deep sea animals like the oar fish that are washing up - link
Water turning red ("into blood") - see here.
In my mind the BP, Exxon Valdez and Ixtoc I oil spills were all reminders of the impossibility of life continuing much longer without divine intervention. This is a recurring theme in my posts to try and wake people up. If you don't believe anything else, you should see the futility and impossibility of it all. Some still naively believe Congress or the E.U. or the U.N. will save us. They can't tackle even the most pressing issues.
The 1986 Chernobyl "wormwood" disaster was a type of what's coming in the 7 year period of Jacob's Trouble. Revelation 8:11
Other examples of our own frailness like Three Mile Island, BP Oil Spill, Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse, Delta flight 91, American Airlines 191, Bhopal disaster in India, Love Canal, the 2010 Hungarian toxic sludge and the Danube River and smaller reminders like Y2K,
Wars and rumors of wars - the 20th and 21st centuries have been full of them: WWI, WWII, Congo, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gulf II, more Afghanistan, along with rape and genocide in places like Rwanda and across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Oppression, slavery and the sexual exploitation of adults and children is rampant across the globe and at unprecedented levels.
172 species of migratory birds have been found in Israel in preparation for the soon coming Ezekiel 38 and 39 war.
Pestilence (disease) is occurring in record numbers. Ebola, Zika, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, SARS, HIV/AIDS...With the mass production of food and ease of global travel, a global mass casualty event is just a matter of time. Luke 21:11
In Hosea 6 God declares He will return "after two days". 2 Peter 3:8 tells us a day is like a thousand years and we know 2,000 years have transpired. In John 4, we are told twice that Jesus stayed with the Gentiles in Samaria for two days. This is a parallel with the two days (2,000 years) that have been given to the Gentiles (the church age). The end of the church age is upon us, the time of Jacob's trouble (7 year tribulation), followed by the 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ is dead ahead.
More Christians have been martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. Matthew 24:9 - link
The abortion holocaust. Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17. Have you ever asked yourself why satan hates the unborn? What demonic plan is he up to? Our fight is not against flesh and blood... Ephesians 6:12. Perry Stone has suggested it is because God prophesied that the young men would prophesy. Does satan want to stop the warning? Yes he does. The big old USA lost Vietnam after the Roe v Wade decision and America rapidly began to lose her faith.
Apostasy on the rise. Europe, the great stronghold of the faith is lost and the cathedrals are empty and filled with dust. The USA is following close behind. Matthew 24:10, Revelation 3:14-22.
Now the world calls good evil and evil good - Isaiah 5:20. Gender-less, marriage-less, commitment-less, and perversion. LGBT. The perversion of the rainbow. The LGBT Supreme Court ruling. Romans 1 has become super-explanatory right about now.
The lack of men and the singleness of women - Isaiah 4:1
Unprecedented moral decay - Romans 1:24 and Luke 17:26. Fighting, road rage, airplane rage, homosexuality, violence, tension (everyone is tense and they're all on Prozac or other behavioral drugs).
Demonic activity, the occult, Satanism, witches, and drug abuse. The 2017 Superbowl half time show comes to mind.
The demonic possession of those with hard drug addiction. See bullet #12 here.
Spirit of lawlessness as in the days of Noah, yet the world is angry at our police officers (I get that there is sometimes unfair and revolting treatment, but the permeating lack of respect pushes many to the brink).
Lovers of self and the selfie stick - 2 Timothy 3:2
False teachers and the prosperity gospel are rampant - Matthew 24:11.
Terrorism. The book The Harbinger was an excellent reminder that America's days are numbered. If the USA is not around to protect Israel what will stop the Ezekiel 38 and 39 war? 9/11/2001 has come and gone. The 777 points stock market crash of 2008 is old news. The 2015 book end is also come and gone. A rebuke would have been a warning, but silence tells me something bigger is on the way.
The Gog and Magog War actors (Russia, Iran, Turkey - et al) are now aligned on the world stage with alliances in hand for the Ezekiel 38 and 39 conflict.
People are going on their merry way. Jesus said he would return when it was not expected.
The stock market is way over-bought and the debt load is even higher. Sudden destruction is coming. The web is full of collapse warnings. The utter insanity of Quantitative Easing and "Too Big to Fail" is soon coming to a crushing end. We are way, way out on a ledge.
The nuclear tension and proliferation is way too high with man-children like Kim Jong-Un and he-men like Vladimir Putin and the crazies in Tehran all too eager to engage in a worldwide performance of Lord of the Flies.
The Twelvers in Tehran believe in the imminent arrival of their messiah - the Madhi. He will supposedly come out of a hole in the ground, while there is great chaos and calamity and they're ready to get the show started. They don't want peace, they want chaos and then a caliphate.
We are in the year 6,000 since the garden of Eden and not 5,777 as widely published in Jewish circles. See here and here.
The Jews have returned home as prophesied in Ezekiel 36:22-24.
Israel has been restored from a desolation to a flourishing modern day Garden of Eden (Isaiah 27:6, Isaiah 35:1-2, Ezekiel 36:34-37). Israel is now the number one exporter of flowers in the world.
The predicted destruction of Damascus, Syria is right on top of us - Isaiah 17. This is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and it's collapsing in 2017. Presently I wouldn't give you 5 cents for all of it, but a day is soon coming when someone is going to set off an explosion of Saddam's WMDs that are all over Syria and stored underneath Damascus and there you will have it. Still I see God's mercy there as He has driven people out and away, although through tremendous suffering, death and carnage, much like The Great Tribulation that is coming. 6 months or so until the 7 year anniversary of the start of this great shaking.
The plans and preparations for rebuilding the prophesied third temple are completely ready. They've even found the descendants of Levi and have them vetted, trained and ready. See - The Temple Institute - here.
The technology for the Mark of the Beast (global embedded e-commerce chips) is ready and being rolled out (see India).
The chip technology has a shelf life. Soon this technology will be old news and retina scanning or brain scanning will replace it as a more secure alternative for global identification.
The satellite technology is in place to broadcast the two witnesses all over the planet.
Trump has more resources and focus placed on the Middle East peace process than on any other region or domestic endeavor. His son in law Jared Kushner met with P.A. President Abbas just last week. Donald "The Art of the Deal" Trump will make this happen. Each side needs the U.S. to keep them from getting swallowed up. The P.A. can't even generate their own electricity without the support of the U.S. and Israel. So turn it off. Israel can't last an hour against their many powerful enemies without the threat of U.S. intervention (of course THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY has their back and that is PLENTY!!!)
The drive for a one world government, new world order, a tower of babel "we can do it ourselves" attitude is at a frenzied pace from the E.U. in Brussels (the woman riding the beast) to NAFTA and a hundred other agreements, like OPEC, the ENP treaty, the United Nations, and on and on.

There is no longer a single dominate superpower as in times past (Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, The Vatican, Spain, France, Britain, the USA, Russia, China). There is no longer a political restrainer to hold this multi-polar world in check.
There has been rapid movement in the E.U., the USA and India towards a global cashless currency. See also Bitcoin. For the U.S.A.'s protection Saudi Arabia traded oil in U.S. dollars, but now Saudi Arabia is fading and currency exchanges are popping up everywhere, sans U.S. dollars. - link
The world is ripe for an alien deception. No longer are there a few zealots in Roswell with a theory - now theories and conspiracists abound everywhere. Even NASA believes there are inhabitable planets and SETI efforts are their main focus. The constant Hollywood drumbeat of movies and TV shows from Lost in Space, Star Trek, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Encounter, ET, Alien, Independence Day, Men in Black and on and on have primed the pump. When fallen angels (demons) are cast down and the body of Christ is lifted up, the great delusion will sink in deeply - 2 Thess 2:11-12. We don't even have one spacecraft capable of going on the hunt for the big chunk of humanity which will have left - satire and commentary on the smallness of mankind.
CERN - this in my estimation will be the great delusion, that somehow a wormhole opened and many inhabitants of planet earth were sucked through the spacetime continuum and aliens (fallen angels) took their place.
Mrs. Clinton tells us we can no longer have religious diversity and the move to one world thought and one world religion is required. link
Pope Francis champions this inclusive demonic posture as well -link. He seems rather well positioned to take the role of the false prophet, particularly given the lateness of the hour. He is blurring the religious lines and excusing all manner of depravity.
Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel predicted the end - link
St. Malachy's "last pope" prophecy - link
Pope Francis said he only had 2-3 years left in 2015 - link
Pope Francis said "I come in my own name" - link. See John 5:43.
Genetic manipulation / CRISPR with custom babies, three-parent babies, human/animal chimeras, reversing the aging process and taking us back to Genesis 6. Particularly verse 9 - here. Noah is declared a righteous man and then perfect. We know no one is perfect, but a better rendering might be that his DNA was perfect (not corrupted by the intermarrying of fallen angels, who were trying to stop God's plan of redemption). We're coming full circle - link.
Genesis 12, Zechariah 12:3 and Daniel 9:27 say that you'd better not divide God's land, but Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Carter and Nixon have all tried to do it. Satan wants to prove God to be a liar, but God will throw a foul this Fall when someone tries to kill his children, deny God the privilege of giving Israel one last chance and divide the land that will not be divided. When this happens look out. Christians will be taken out of harms way, wrath ensues and Israel will end up with more land, and eventually repentance and conversion. Ariel Sharon had a stroke after giving away Gaza - link
The time is right and people are hungry for someone to do the impossible. There is no hope in Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, the U.S.A., U.K., the E.U., Mexico, Canada or anywhere else. The world has been inundated with impossibly disastrous government, corruption and debt. Democracy is lost. People always trade freedom for security. When the rapture happens, the world's economies will collapse and war will break out, people will huddle together in Tower of Babel-style and will be ready and willing for the rise of a world leader to make it all better. Someone is already on the world stage and ready to go. He'll do it his way, without God. He will try to lead without Christ and will then be the famed antichrist.
Conspiracy theories are everywhere from the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam body count lies of McNamara, Watergate, Iran Contra, Roswell, Area 51, Illuminati, The Bilderbergs, Rubby Ridge, 9/11, Waco-David Koresh, Russian election hacking, Birthers and on and on. People believe lies at the drop of a hat and you can no longer convince them of the truth. Professing to be wise, they became fools - Romans 1:22
No one listens to the news. Lies and fake news are everywhere. Why does satan want misinformation right now? So truth will be hidden and many deceived. I'm reminded of the military tactic of flooding the airwaves with information and misinformation before something big.
Underground bunkers, preppers, guns, CHL, Open Carry... paranoia and fear - link
The U.S. movement of the embassy to Jerusalem is coming - link
770 earthquakes in Yellowstone. Of course we had the Northridge earthquake in the porn capital of the world. The New Madrid Fault has also been in the news every few months and again recently - here. Let's not forget Christchurch, Chile, Nepal and Haiti.
Volcanoes from Mt. St. Helens, Alaska, Iceland, Mexico City and Rome continue to make the news. Still we bumble along thinking there's nothing we can do and "it won't happen to me".
Hurricanes like Andrew, Ike, Gustav, Katrina, Sandy and tornadoes like Oklahoma City and Tuscaloosa are on the rise.
The Arab Spring may have been part of the fulfillment of Isaiah 19 and the continued unleashing of the pale green horse - video (I remember seeing this with my own eyes on live TV).
The alignment of numbers, 1897, 1917, 1947, 1948, 1967.... also 6,000 years of creation....120 jubilees, etc... Well covered here on Unsealed and elsewhere.

Summary

The signs are getting louder, stronger and closer together. Just like the birth pangs and contractions that were prophesied.

The stage is set. The actors are in place. We just need one spark, one domino and the whole thing goes off.

My personal theory and it's just that - a theory:

Trump and Kushner make some progress in the peace talks. Russia, Iran and China were expecting the status quo with Hillary. Trump has them rattled. Trump is unpredictable, uncontrollable, not afraid to act (rightly or wrongly) and dangerous (at least in their minds).

If the U.S. was out of the way, they believe they could easily take Israel, control the U.N. and world trade. The U.S. has nothing but more debt to offer. With all of the military provocations, it won't take much for there to be an international incident and another shot heard round the world or another Archduke Ferdinand.

My guess - something is going to happen in the U.S. Something distracting. Perhaps related to the first mark in the "X" target over the U.S. during the August eclipse. There are many options: Yellowstone, New Madrid, North Korea, a dirty bomb, EMP, or financial scare, but no worries! At least Apple will unveil the iPhone 8.

While the U.S. is licking its wounds, the Axis of Evil quickly mounts a plan to attack Israel and the war of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is unleashed. God who has sworn to give Israel one more seven year period to repent, will intervene, much like He did in 1967. It's amazing that after countless failed attempts Lucifer still thinks he can prove God to be a liar.

This time God must get His children (the Bride of Christ) out of harms way and the great snatching away (Rapture/Harpazo) will occur (just like Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah), before The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. The Time of Jacob's Trouble. The Tribulation.

I don't know the day or the hour, but I'm not dead and I'm not blind. It's really not that hard to see, as God has graciously chosen to unlock and reveal the mysteries that have been hidden away for ages past.

If we're right (God is not a God of confusion 1 Corinthians 14:33 - He's giving signs for a reason) then:

T-minus 88 days and counting (more or less - I don't know the day or the hour).

Be ready.

Help those around you get ready.

Maranatha.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.