Prophecy is on Fast-Forward

I recall a conservative political commentator saying that the Democratic Party was the "A" team, while the Republicans were the "B" team on the road to socialism. Boy, oh boy was that a truism. Things are moving so fast in the last six months that stage-setting events are happening so fast that no one person can keep up with events. Prophecy is on fast-forward!

Virtually all future prophecy will start to be fulfilled when the rapture occurs ending the church age. Then the world will enter the time when the birth pangs that Jesus spoke of begin to be fulfilled (Matt. 24:8). This post-rapture period known in the Old Testament as the "latter days" (Deut. 4:30; Jer. 30:24; 48:47; Dan. 2:28; 10:14), the "last days" (Jer. 23:20; 49:39; Ezek. 38:16), and the "latter years" (Ezek. 38:8) will last for seven years (Dan. 9:24–27; compare with Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6; 13:5). None of what is happening today indicates that the rapture is near since that event is a signless event that could happen at any moment. Are you ready for the rapture?

The signs of the times that are occurring today relate to Israel as God is preparing the world for the time when He will resume His plan for Israel and that will then involve the fulfillment of times and seasons. One major indicator that we are likely near the beginning of the tribulation is the clear fact that national Israel has been reconstituted after almost 2,000 years. The signs also relate to what is happening in the Gentile world as we move toward a global government centered in the Revived Roman Empire, which is mainly Europe. Dr. John Walvoord explains the significance of signs occurring in our own day as follows:

But if there are no signs for the Rapture itself, what are the legitimate grounds for believing that the Rapture could be especially near of this generation? The answer is not found in any prophetic events predicted before the Rapture but in understanding the events that will follow the Rapture. Just as history was prepared for Christ's first coming, in a similar way history is preparing for the events leading up to His Second Coming. . . . If this is the case, it leads to the inevitable conclusion that the Rapture may be excitingly near.[1]

In every generation since Christ's ascension there have been Christians who thought that there was reason for His return in their lifetime. However, almost all of these past expectations were derived from the belief that they were experiencing events of the tribulation in their own day. Only in the last 200 years have some interpreters begun to return to a literal, futurist understanding of the impending events of the tribulation, as generally held by most in the early Church. Thus, while so many have believed that Christ's return was near, the basis for such an understanding has not always been the same down through the history of the church—that the church was in the tribulation. The fact that Israel became a nation in 1948 is an undeniable fact of history that indicates that God is up to something in history in our day that could not be said in previous times.

God's plan for history always moves forward in relation to what He is doing with Israel. Thus, the fact that Israel has been and continues to be reconstituted as a nation is prophetically significant, so significant that it makes Israel God's "super-sign" of the end times. Were Israel not a nation again it would be impossible for events of the end time to occur since so many of them take place in that tiny country or in reference to her. But she has returned and so it is that all other aspects of Bible prophecy are also being prepared for the grand finale of history.

Recently we have seen that the European Union threatened and warned Israel about not being open to the so-called "two-state solution" of the Arab-Israeli conflict in their effort to impose a human solution to the conflict.

The prospect of a new hawkish government, with Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman as a possible foreign minister, will be seen in Europe as a setback to the Middle East peace process.

"Let me say very clearly that the way the European Union will relate to an [Israeli] government that is not committed to a two-state solution will be very, very different," said Javier Solana, the EU's foreign and security affairs chief.[2]

New Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is opposed to the two-state solution, which is the EU's framework for dealing with the problem. Whatever the supposed human solution affixed to this crisis will bring, the situation will not be genuinely solved until our Lord returns and imposes His will as the ultimate solution to the situation.

Since the election of Obama to the White House, we also see the United States changing from a sympathetic supporter of Israel to one who will be pressing for an imposed solution. New Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton is said by observers of the Mid-East Conflict to have shifted her pro Israel position she displayed as a U. S. Senator from New York.

Morton A. Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America, is just one of many supporters of Israel who say that Hillary Clinton, an outspoken supporter of a Palestinian state, has made an anti-Israel switch of late. Klein writes that the U.S. Secretary of State, once a "reliable and vocal supporter of Israel," has now taken many positions that are not in Israel's interest.[3]

When George W. Bush was president he was ostracized and viciously attacked for acting upon the national interests of the United States within the now dominate global environment. As a pronounced citizen of the world, Obama instead insists that we must all shoulder "the burdens of global citizenship."[4] Thus, the United States of America, the last major holdout against global governance, has under President Obama joined efforts to deal with most matters within the framework of globalism. Whatever reluctance was shown in the past, America has now officially under the Obama administration joined the global community lock, stock, and barrel.

Scripture teaches that the Antichrist will rise to power out of a federation of nations that correlate in some way with the Roman Empire of two thousand years ago. Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost explains:

Now, when we turn to the prophecies of Daniel 2 and 7 and to Revelation 13 and 17 and other parallel passages, we find that at the end time, during the Tribulation period, the final form of Gentile world power is a federation of ten separate nations, the ten toes or ten horns. It seems as though Europe's leaders are advocating that which Daniel prophesied hundreds of years before Christ, when he said that the final form of Roman world power would be a federation of independent states who elect one man to take authority over them while maintaining their own sovereign authority. The more movement we see in Europe for a common market and a federation of nations, the closer the coming of our Lord must be.[5]

One would have to be totally ignorant of developments within the world of our day to not admit that through the efforts of the European Union, Humpty Dumpty is finally being put back together again. This is occurring, like all of the other needed developments of prophecy, at just the right time to be in place for the coming tribulation period. Prophecy popularizer, Hal Lindsey tells us:

"A generation ago, no one could have dreamed that an empire formed of the nations that were part of old Rome could possibly be revived. But today, as Europe is on the advent of real unity, we see the potential fulfillment of another vital prophecy leading to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ."[6]

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has recently said concerning the global economic downturn that we all should seek global solutions. He further said that the world has never been more willing to see globalism as the answer to our problems, to which he also promised a bright future if we join arms and march in this direction. Henry Kissinger has recently said on multiple occasions that President Obama has a tremendous opportunity to steer America toward globalism in an effort to deal with our problems. Kissinger has further opined that only globalists can solve these problems in the area of economics, environment, agriculture, religion, political, and so on.

It may be true that mankind without God and His word cannot figure out how to solve the pressing problems of humanity without some kind of global governance. However, the realities concerning these matters are always and only found in the Bible and in our Lord's plan for the future as outlined through biblical prophecy. Some critics say that we become fatalists because we trust the veracity of Bible prophecy and thereby contribute to the decline of culture and society. Yet, how can we expect people to find biblical solutions to their problems when they are clearly and vocally in rebellion against God? What Bible-believing Christian would want the unbelieving world to succeed in solving the world's problems apart from God and His word? The Bible predicts this kind of direction and outcome because man is sinful and God is righteous. However, for any individual who will listen to God's word, He has provided a way of salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Him. Maranatha!

From what I have learned Paul wrote the so called claimed ‘rapture’ doctrine, Thessalonians first, about the end of 52 or the beginning of 53 A.D. Some even hold it was the first book of all the New Testament written.

Interesting to me is that by the time Paul gets to Rome and writes Ephesians, probably the end of 62 A.D., Paul does not even hint of anybody still alive in the ‘end’ days going any place. As matter of fact Ephesians 6 says the exact opposite and Paul tells us what is the require armour to stand against wiles of the devil.

And Paul being the Hebrew scholar that he was would have been very familiar with Ezekiel 13:17

Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy People, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them,

18 And say, ‘Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of My People, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?

19 And will ye pollute ME among My People for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to My People that hear your lies?

20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD;

‘Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.

21 Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver My People out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I AM the LORD.

And Christ said the first sign of His return was ‘mass’ deception....

FWIW, I’ll type from the hip, and probably display a gross amount of misunderstanding, but just some intuition of how I’ve perceived the Church’s role during the GT.

It strikes me that we are raptured at the beginning or close to the beginning of the GT. While with the Lord in the clouds, and BTW, I think of Shadrack, Mishach, and Abendigo going into the firey furnace when I think of the Rapture. I don’t see the worldly perspective of the Rapture as being something glorious, rather, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the Church isn’t gathered up, and slaughtered, say in a valley with a nuclear device, purging the planet of the Church all at once.

I suspect it would coincide with attempts to use hitech neurological devices several steps above Bluetooth, to establish a 2-way comm system, with unique ID for each person so marked, and the same system interferes, interrupts, or disrupts something neurological associated with prayer between the human and God.

It would probably be associated with the person at the helm, being able to communicate to the people directly with these devices.

If that occurred, I could see people asking, ‘Who could ever oppose such a person?’

I could see people falling away from God, simply by any sin they commit, but never being able to return into fellowship based upon 1stJohn 1:9, because of active interruption of the prayer life.

If the Church were no longer present, a great falling away had occurred, and God the Holy Spirit was not performing anything good by indwelling believers any longer, because their ability to return to Him was interrupted, then I can understand why God the Holy Spirit might depart on His own volition, His Sovereignty, because He does nothing that is ‘good for nothingness’.

I could then see a gross injustice and unrighteousness having occurred at the Divine level. Something our Lord and Savior paid for had been denied Him by a third party.

I can see the Church with Him in heaven, with human technology to the point of altering neurological designs, then at a point of rewriting our hearts and minds so we no longer have to teach one another.

I can see the rewards predestined from eternity past, being given to His elect who remained in fellowship, at the right place and at the right time, to later stand at the bema seat and be given rewards.

All the injustice performed here on earth, simply would get burnt up in a fashion, perhaps spiritually or soulishly, I don’t know, so that we are purified like gold.

Upon receiving those eternal crowns, we are now equipped to perform as we had been made and as we had been tested to perform by His Plan.

Meanwhile, a remnant of believers remain, who might not have been part of the Church at the Rapture, but upon perceiving the abomination of desolation, immediately understand exactly who the Messiah is and who the son of perdition is, and remain a remnant through till the end.

Even with the Church removed, those unbelievers, falling into the cosmic system of the world won’t stop at simply grieving the Holy Spirit. They will have an insatiable lust to quench the Holy Spirit and worse, the son of perdition will naturally seek to make himself as God, leading to the abomination of desolation.

A Temple service is likely to occur again, because with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit removed, God still will provide a Temple for His volition to have fellowship with His believers in fellowship with Him. Perhaps that remains in the mind, in our soul, or perhaps its a sacred building provided by Him, I don’t know, but wherever it might be, IMHO, it has to be something provided by God, otherwise the abomination wouldn’t deface anything holy, rather it would be defacing something counterfeit to His provision (so it wouldn’t matter to God.). Instead, IMHO, the Temple must be provided by God, must be where He dwells, and it is defiled by an abomination, which also makes the Temple desolate.

IMHO, I can understand this as something in the mind interfering with the proper method of returning into fellowship with Him. If it’s the sacred building, then that building would have to be provided by God, in order to meet the Divine criterion for a Temple/dwelling place for God, and for it to replace the present Temple of God, the human soul of the believer.

The millennial reign, then seems fairly straight forward. Hi tech has advanced, at least the stuff founded through faith in Christ. Not yet time for the new heavens and earth, that will still come in the future. Besides, man is still wretched, even after getting all the evil and wickedness out of the way.

Even amongst believers in fellowship, we still have an incredible way, with our own volition, to stumble about and not get it right, not performing the way God really intended.

Anyway, that’s my take on it at present, but I’ve got a lot more study to perform and where I’m likely scarred in my thinking, is simply not always relaxing and taking the inbreathing of the Word at His pace, instead of mine.

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.