I really love these people who tell me that they really believe the world is coming to an end in 2012, or they are certain that the Rapture has to happen within a year or two, or that they have the date of the second coming all figured out, or that Jesus has to come before 2019 because of their interpretation of the “Fig Tree Parable”, or based on some pagan prophecy, or the sayings of  Jack Van Impe, etc., etc., but they continue to retain all their wealth like they are going to live here forever or take it with them.

If you really believe what you say you believe on the Internet and in your emails, what need will you have for all your money? Give it to someone who will use it for Christian ministry in the couple of years that you are certain that we only have left.

I certainly could use a million bucks to hire a staff and to set up a modern office and expand this ministry. I would use your money to help get the message out that Jesus is coming soon and warn Christians about all the latest heresies, and warn about the wolves in sheep’s clothing running around seeking wheat to sell baloney to, so the wolves can devour them (with mustard) before Jesus even gets here for supper.

Not to mention, that the average attender in most congregations today is brain dead when it comes to biblical knowledge and understanding, and they really needs to read my shock courses on basic Christian doctrine so they don’t get Jesus mixed up with the Mahdi or some stain on a coffee table.

Others just need to hear what I want to ramble on about (like here) but I can’t be doing much rambling on if I am busy with other tasks that go along with keeping up a website and Blog and also keeping an abode in the deepest darkest jungles of the Ozark wilderness. (We still have to appease and fight off leprechauns and trolls here, not to mention, the government wilderness control freaks).

So if you are so certain that Jesus must return before 2012 or thereabouts just send me one of those spare millions that you know you won’t ever be needing and help expand this ministry. You will not get a tax deduction because I am not on the list of IRS approved charities and probably never will be with my constitution. But what do you need a tax deduction for anyway?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not asking for small donations from anyone reading this or from those who have any doubts about the Lord coming before 2019. I can’t expand a ministry on a thousand bucks here and there, and certainly can’t on your spare change. Send your seed faith change to the TV hucksters. I need really big bucks, like a million or so from the faithful that have no doubt in their mind that Jesus must return before 2019 and so are certain they will not ever need the million bucks. I give no refunds, if you change your mind or Jesus does not return before your date, your just out a million bucks and probably used it for a better cause than you would have. You probably would have just bought more gadgets like one that will allow you to text with your toes while driving  (now don’t ask me where to buy it).

If you do not want to send the million to me then give it to the ministry of your choice or the poor. So, as the saying goes, put up or shut up!

People spouting this stuff about Jesus coming in 2012 etc., really need to put their money where there mouth is and not be hypocrites or else they should tone down their date speculations. That includes the authors that are banking money from selling 2012 new aged baloney.
You can send those million dollar donations to Don Koenig, PO Box 234, Summersville Mo, 65571.

In return I will send you a semiannual picture of my well fed (thanks to you) six dogs and six cats. Sorry, they cannot write you letters. As a bonus you will receive a envelope of fairy dust from the local leprechauns. I think if you sprinkle the dirt… er…I mean dust.. on your upside down St Joseph statue your multi-million dollar mansion will be the first one to sell on your block (not valid in California, Nevada, Arizona, or Florida).

I am certain that this post will upset some people but with all the hype and speculation about Jesus coming between 2012-2019 the truth has to be said by someone. I will say dogmatically that Jesus is not coming to rule the earth between 2012-2019 as some Bible prophecy teachers are now saying.

First let me make it clear that I am not talking about the Rapture. The Rapture of the Church is not the second coming of Jesus Christ to rule the earth. The Rapture is always imminent and it can occur anytime even quite some time before the seven year tribulation. For example, Enoch as a type of  Rapture was taken alive to heaven more than  half  a lifespan (of that era) before the flood judgment.

Some are actually saying that we have already entered the seven year tribulation. Other Bible prophecy teachers are saying that Russia is about to fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39 any minute now.  Is any of this remotely possible? The answer is no. How can I be dogmatic about this. I will tell you why.

The reason why  Jesus is not coming to earth in 2012-2019 to rule the earth is that if Jesus did come in this period there is no human way that Bible prophecy could be fulfilled literally as stated in the scriptures.

Contrary to what many are saying, Russia along with the tribes mentioned in Ezekiel 38 cannot realistically fulfill this prophecy within the next decade. Russia’s army today is not a mighty army it is really in pretty sad shape. Except for a few elite units the Russian army is very poorly equipped. Sure Russia has nuclear capabilities but it could not assemble “a great company a might army” “all splendidly attired” like is describe in Ezekiel to move against Israel. Even when moving against tiny Georgia the elite units of the Russian army were stealing the boots of the Georgian’s soldiers because they had none of their own. The alliances as described in Ezekiel are not even complete today. Turkey is still in NATO as I speak. It is not an ally of Russia but Turkey comes with Russia in the Ezekiel war.

For those few who think it is Turkey that is Gog and not Russia that nonsense does not fly either.  Turkey today cannot even put down the Kurd’s yet be the leader from the uttermost parts of the north that  invades Israel. Would the God of Israel then become known to the whole world as said in Ezekiel by destroying an invading army from Turkey?  Israel could destroy this army by themselves they would not need God’s intervention to save them.

Israel today is not living in security like Ezekiel said they will be prior to the Gog invasion. Therefore, things have to radically change in the Middle East before the Ezekiel prophecy can even be fulfilled.  You might wonder why the tribal nations surrounding Israel are also not mentioned in Ezekiel? Perhaps it is because they are occupied lands after the war of Psalm 83? So lets be realistic, the war of Ezekiel 38 and 39 could occur in a decade or so but it is not imminent. The Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophecy cannot realistically take place as soon as some Bible prophecy teachers imply.

The only war mention in the Bible where everything is fully in place that can be fulfilled today is the one described in Psalm 83. In that war the nations surrounding Israel form a confederacy and try to cut off Israel from being a nation.  We see that very alignment in the Middle East today. But there is no reason to think the war of Psalm 83 has to be in the tribulation. More likely the Psalm 83 war sets up the peace conditions that is necessary before the Ezekiel war can even be fulfilled.

Has anyone even considered that God has people to call out of  the Muslim nations that are in bondage to Islam before the end times? Why should over a billion Muslims be totally excluded from hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ? I am suggesting that there will be a window of opportunity for these people to hear the gospel before the Antichrist is revealed. Just as there was a window of opportunity to hear the gospel by those in bondage under the old atheistic Soviet Union. So rather than expecting a Islamic Antichrist to get all Muslims to fight against the coming of Jesus Christ you probably would be on higher ground if you expected Islam to fall before the time that the Antichrist is even revealed.

As those that study Bible prophecy know, there will be an army of two hundred million from the Far East that will cause the deaths of  a third of men on the earth. Does any rational thinking person believe that it is possible for anyone to field this army within a few years? China and India are rapidly developing nations but it will probably be about two decades before they could move such an army to the Middle East. Some see that China has two hundred million military aged men and think that makes it possible for them to fulfill this prophecy today. But you cannot move an army that size to the Middle East without supply lines and support . China today only has an army of a few million. If it even tried fielding twenty percent of that two hundred million army today everyone in China would soon be in starvation and the nation would collapse.

Besides, the Bible gives us a clue. It says that this army was prepared for a hour, a day, a month, and a year. In other words this army was prepared for a specific time on earth. I do not think it is mere speculation to say that much of this prepared army is made up of surplus men caused by China’s one child policy and the birth control and infanticide practices of China and other far east nations. These surplus men began to be born about 1980 when China started this one child policy and if you do the math the surplus men of military age (with no hope of a normal family life) will peak in numbers about 2030-2040. That is the most likely time when this army prepared for a hour, a day, a month, and a year will march to the Middle East. By that date China and India will be world superpowers and they will have the military capabilities and populations to support and move such huge numbers of men to the Middle East. That prophecy is simply not going to be fulfilled within the next decade.

We might also use a little rational thinking about the Mark of the Beast Economic System. We know the Bible tells us that no one can buy or sell without it. To have such a world economic system you would also need a world communications system that will reach everywhere on earth and you would also have to have the electronic scanning systems in all market place. We see the world is moving toward such a system today but what is described is not possible within one decade even if the world were to make an all out effort beginning today. Much of the world still does not even have the necessary electrical communications for such a system. The communication system therefore most likely would have to be a worldwide satellite system or a very long range over-the-air system or an ultra low frequency through-the-earth system. That kind of  buy or sell system is simply not going to be developed and in place worldwide within the 2012- 2019 time frame.

If  Jesus is coming in 2012-2019 where are the ten leaders that give their power to the Beast before the little horn even rises among them? Things in Europe or the world can change rapidly under conditions of war but I sincerely doubt that even the woman riding the Beast, described in Revelation, can be in her position on the Beast in a few years.

If you really take all  the prophecies about Babylon in a literal sense the city of Babylon has to be rebuilt. There are plans underway to make Babylon a international center but Babylon is not going to be anything earth shattering within the next decade.

I know some insist that the Church will  be in the tribulation and that the tribulation will start before or during this 2012-2019 period but I am glad I never got a invitation to their tribulation  party. I think these people are going to have to wait at least another decade to taste what they seek to find in the tribulation (if God allows) because Jesus is not coming to rule the earth within their 2012-2019 deadline.

Having said that, I am not saying that things will not get real nasty in the world even before the tribulation especally for those living fat and happy in the United States.

Well meaning Christians that even sense that the time of the Lord’s return is near have offered their higher criticism for what they think is date setting on my timeline projection table. They imply that I should not have complied this projection because the Bible says no one can know the day or hour of the Lord’s return. Actually, I am not setting a date for the Lord’s return on this table, at most I imply a general season for Jesus seekers looking for the Lord’s return. My view on the no one knows the day or hour topic is just about the same as what Jack Kelly wrote in a recent article, so just read the above link.

Actually, the main reason I wrote that article was to get people to my website so they would read what else I have to say. What would you think is the number one keyword phrase through which people find my website? Is it “David Wilkerson’s prophecy” or “Enoch and Bible”  or “socialism obama” they are the top keyword search phrases that bring people to my blogs but the number one keyword phrase that brings the most people to my website each month just happens to be the phase “when will Jesus return“.

That is no accident. When I wrote the article I designed it and keyworded it so that people seeking a date for the Lord’s return will find my website and get some reasonable eschatology. I really did not write the article to tell anyone when the Lord is coming.

Many of you who are reading this blog first came to my website and blog first through that article. So should I have not wrote it because some think it seems to imply a date of the Lord’s return?  Should not the many people who are looking for answers on when the Lord will return find a realistic answer from those who study Bible prophecy? I think better that they find my article and website then those websites that are saying the Lord is coming between 2012 -2019 based on Mayan and/or Islamic pagan prophecies or even science fiction like Planet X speculations.

Now I suppose I will get higher criticism for using the term “seeker friendly” in the title (clue..articles mainly get hit on from the keywords in the title and article).

I think one of the reasons why people get way off on Bible prophecy is that they do not understand the nature of the Bride of Christ. The Church is the betrothed Bride of Jesus Christ. Even those who do seem to understand that concept often completely miss how God showed us the future of His blood bought Church in the process of obtaining a wife in the culture of the ancient past. I think Jack Kelly explains this as good as anyone I know in this article. I hope it will help you understand that God has a unique role for the Church apart from Israel and that the bride of a soon coming King would rule with the King but would not replace the King’s Kingdom. Apart from ancient customs there are also stories and “types” in the Bible that convey similar concepts. Kelly points out such a “type” in the details surrounding the obtaining of a bride for Abraham’s son, Isaac.

Keep in mind that after the price was agreed on and the Bride agrees to become the wife she does not know when the Groom will come for her. She also cannot disown the groom and the groom cannot disown her except if there is clear proof of adultery. We do have eternal security if we remain faithful to Jesus.

The Bride | GraceThruFaith

by Jack Kelley

This is an update of an article originally published in March 2004. While it’s based on the Bible, it also includes Jewish wedding traditions from Biblical times. Some of these traditions go all the way back to Abraham’s time and are described in Genesis 24.

the young woman was to watch and wait at her parents’ home. She and her bridesmaids had to maintain a constant state of preparedness, since the wedding date would not be revealed to her until the bridegroom actually appeared at her door to take her to their new home.
Surprise, Surprise

For his part, the groom would try to show up unexpectedly to surprise her, carrying her off suddenly “like a thief in the night” when no one would see them. The only advance warning she would get was the sound of his voice shouting her name and the blast of a ram’s horn.

Full article

Many people are interested in things to come in these last days but some say it is a waste of time to teach on these things at all since interpretations of bible prophecy can be somewhat subjective. However, I assure you that if the Church does not teach on Bible prophecy people will go to the cults and those that give aberrant interpretations of Bible eschatology for wrong answers and spiritual bondage.

I see many different theories on how the end times events will all play out. Some think the end time prophecies in the Bible will be fulfilled when an Islamic Antichrist comes against Israel. Others think that the Antichrist will come out of Europe and is identified in some way with the Harlot of Revelation chapter 17. Still others think the world will be visited by alien beings that will turn out to be fallen angels just disguised as beings from another world or dimension. They say these beings will give the world a message that is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ and that this will be the great deception that brings in the Antichrist.

In my opinion, Islam, the pseudo Christian Harlot, and fallen angels posing as aliens will all play their own unique role in end time Bible prophecy. However, I also think that we do have to considered all this in the proper sequence of events.

Arabs in Islam will bring about the war of Psalm 83 and later other Islamic nations will be involved in the war of Ezekiel 38 and 39 against Israel but these wars happen before the Beast Antichrist is revealed.

The Harlot of Revelation chapter 17 obviously reigns on earth prior to the Antichrist also since she is seen riding the Beast before the Beast turns against her. The description of this harlot queen highly suggests that she is set up in Rome. She also commits adultery with the kings of the earth so she herself is not a king or political system. She is some religions system that has great influence on the kings of the world.  There is only one religion headquarters in the world that qualifies as this harlot queen of Revelation chapter 17 and that is the Vatican of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic religion has been somewhat of a harlot since it reared its head over 1400 years ago and brought in Babylonian priesthood practices and rituals into Christendom. For complete details and her entire  history I suggest that you read “A Woman Rides the Beast”, by Dave Hunt.

Before anyone gets too excited about my identity of this end time harlot of Revelation with the Roman Catholic religion.  I want you to realize that I believe that this passage in Revelation is speaking about end time events after the Rapture of the true Church. So true Christians that might today be in the Roman Catholic denomination would have been removed at this point. I also am not saying that Roman Catholicism is the only religion or the only religion controlled by the Harlot. I believe the Harlot is a one world religion that the Vatican leads. The Pope has more influence in the world than any other religious figure. The Vatican today has diplomatic relations with most other nations in the world as if it were a separate nation state.  No other religion has such qualifications. The Roman Catholic Church also has an advisory seat at the UN. So even today we see that the stage is set for Rome to lead a world religion but the major deceptions that will advance this world ecumenical religious system have not even occurred yet but they will come.

Here is the way I think it will play out. The Western world will be a world war with Islam and it will be a very deadly war with little hope of a good outcome for all involved. All of a sudden there will be great signs and wonders in the heavens and messages that will be attributed by many to Mary. The messages will be that we are all God’s children and mankind must put aside its religious differences and learn to live in peace and do good works or we will destroy the world. This “Queen of heaven” deception (this is satanic deception, it is the same “Queen of Heaven” spoken about in the Old Testament that was worshiped by the people of that time. This is not the Mary of the Bible it is a demonic spirit posing as Mary) will say that religions have to come to common agreement. It will be claimed they they all express different truths about the same God. The claim probably will be that there are many paths to the same God and that we are free to have our own religious expressions and differences but man must all unite and work for the common good on earth or man will destroy the earth.

Believe it or not Muslims revere Mary above any other woman, they revere Mary more than Jesus, as do many Hindus, so it is not far fetched to believe that the Islamic world will be tired enough of war that the majority will embrace this message of inclusiveness and rebel against the radicals in Islam that brought about the world war.

When the world war ends the inclusive Harlot religious system uses her influence to bring  world governance into place.  Many will be expecting some type of Christ to return to help solve the problems of the world and the Harlot Queen will be sitting fat and happy in Rome. People will be saying peace and safety and many will be following false teachers that are saying the Christ has appeared here or there. During the time of the Harlot’s reign in Rome you will not be allowed to claim that your own beliefs are the only way to God or talk against the religious believes of others because leaders will fear this would lead to new religious wars. So these things will be forbidden in the name of world peace. Those that do not conform will be reeducated or killed for the common good of the world, thinking that doing so is doing God a favor. This brings the persecution of true believers talked about at the fifth seal of Revelation. It will be much like it was in the days of the inquisitions when many thousands of Christians and Jews that would not bow their knee to Rome were killed in the name of God.

This persecution of followers of Jesus will be the last straw and God will rule against Satan’s administration over the earth and give the Kingdom over to Jesus. Satan and his angels will then war against God’s angels and lose and Satan and his angles will be cast out of the heavens unto the earth (Revelation chapter 12). Then Satan knowing that his time is short before Jesus will come with his angels to rule the earth will do all in his power to deceive the world to oppose Jesus and the God of heaven.

The first major event is that an angel will come out of the Abyss, possibly Satan himself or his lieutenant, and he will take over the body of a man and enter the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem (it will part of the ecumenical center built on the Temple Mount overseen by the Roman Harlot to appease the major religions of the world) and he defiles the Temple and claims to be above anything called God. He will probably claim to be the ascended master of the universe perhaps Zeus (the God of Gods) who came into this dimension to save the world from a hostile aliens led by Jesus/Jehovah (said to be posing as God but said to intend to enslave the world under Bible laws).

The Beast Antichrist will demand worship as God and he will have supernatural powers and his fellow travelers (fallen angels) will quickly control the political system of the whole world. His message will especially appeal to those in eastern religions and the “New Age”,  New Spiritually, polytheistic and pantheistic movements. His message that God is a force in Himself and that it can be received by others by taking his mark of initiation will bring a world revolution against the Harlot of Rome and this world religious system will fall and be burned. The Beast/Antichrist will then shake up world government and remove three of ten kings that are running the world and move his world headquarters to Babylon. At that time the trumpet and bowl judgments will start but the Beast/Antichrist will continue to lead all nations against Israel and Jesus Christ where he and all on earth that oppose God’s anointed King for the world will meet their end.

So everyone is not wrong when they say Islam will bring in the Beast, or a Western Antichrist will be the Beast or a Alien deception will set us up for the Beast. Some views are probably just too narrow, they just might not be seeing the full prophetic picture.

While reading Carla’s excellent and always discerning More Books and Things blog I came across an article that I think needs further attention by those who study world events and Bible prophecy. I might not agree with every single point in this article but I certainly agree with Prof. Malan’s major concepts. Bible prophecy teachers seem to convey that Israel today is in the will of God. Therefore they suggest we better not do anything that could be conveyed as touching the apple of God’s eye. Some even suggest that if we do not bless this largely atheist nation that God will judge our nation. There are some erroneous teachings going around that relate judgments on America to how we treat unrepentant Israel. That concept is wrong. The judgments coming on America today is due to our own sins. We are judged on how we treat all nations not just Israel. If we are a just and moral nation we have nothing to fear. God will judge all the nations on how they treat Israel after Israel accepts their true Messiah.

Israel today is still reaping the curse because they rejected God’s salvation in His Son. When God said He would curse those who curse the descendants of Abraham and Jacob he was talking about those cursing the children of the promise, the people of faith. They are the true children of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Remember, the leaders of Israel claimed they also were children of Abraham but Jesus called them children of their father the Devil. So did Jesus curse these descendants of Israel? Actually He did. He cursed the unbelieving descendants of Israel as represented by the fig tree that had no fruit when He came (Mt 21:19).

Other Christians will not even evangelize Jews thinking that Jews already know God. They are also wrong. Those who do not accept Jesus Christ do not know the Father either (John 14:6). The nation of Israel will certainly prove that point when they accept the false Messiah that is coming in his own name and not the Father’s name like Jesus. Some of these Christian ministries will raise large sums of money to send Jews back to Israel but spend nothing on giving these Jews the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They do not even tell them that two-thirds of the people that they are sending back to Israel will be killed in the coming Jewish holocaust (Zec 13:8).

One might think that if Christians really loved the Jews they should be telling Jews about Jesus so they would get saved before these terrible events happen to them? But it is not happening, not that anyone is actually allowed to preach the gospel in Israel anyway. So what does that say about Israel? Instead we rant about how nations are dealing with Israel as if God is not sovereign and not using the leaders of these nations toward His own ends to bring Israel to repentance. Had not God said that these things would happen to the Jews in the end times?

So how will Christians siding with Israel on world events give them physical peace and spiritual enlightenment? Even if we could change our national policies toward Israel the things God said about Israel in the latter days are still going to happen. The real problem with Israel is not the Gentile nations and our leaders decisions. The real problem with Israel is the unbelief of the Jews in Israel. The Gentiles will just be used to bring Israel to a place of repentance. God would protect Israel if they came to belief in Jesus Christ but instead they will believe in the Antichrist and go into more national tribulation before they finally get the message that peace and security is only found in their Messiah Jesus Christ.

If I did not know that we were in the end times when God’s words about Israel will be fulfilled I would have to believe that the unbelieving Jews now occupying God’s land would again be cast out. Yet, the religious Jews living in Israel think that God is on their side while they reject His Son and the non-religious Jews think that they are going to hold unto the land by their own military might. Sorry, but that is not God’s plan for Israel. Many Christians by what they say and do, seem to covey similar false pretense as well. Ever wonder why the Jews flee to the mountains for 42 months? Because Satan seeks to kill every Jew in the world (Rev 12:13). That is the real destiny of those in Israel before they come to God’s Messiah. Exactly what world actions and reactions get us to that point is frankly very subjective stuff that even Bible prophecy experts do not agree on. So how do we know where God’s will is on every current event in the Middle East so that we take the correct position? Does our position even matter in God’s plan?

So knowing these things lets teach the truth to Israel and evangelize those that can be reached instead of acting as if Israel’s leaders or America’s leaders will make correct decisions to keep Israel from the holocaust that clearly will come upon Israel in these last days. In the final analysis, it really does not matters one iota if Israel or the US takes out Iran’s nuclear capabilities at least not if we are in the sequence of end time events like Bible prophecy teachers claim. Iran will invade Israel in the latter years because Ezekiel says so, and the end of that war has already been determined by God. It really does not matter if Israel agrees to divide Jerusalem in some false peace deal either because the Bible says it will happen anyway, “Zec 14:2  For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.”

It really does not matter what action Israel takes because whatever action Israel takes in unbelief will lead to the same biblical end that God foretold the prophets and that us Bible prophecy believing Christians should be aware of. The primary Christian commission is to teach the gospel to Israel and everyone else. Our commission is not trying to stop or change Middle East events that have to happen if we are in the last days. If Christians should learn anything from Bible prophecy it should be to discern how close we are to the Lords coming for the watching faithful Church. If Christians use Bible prophecy it should be to used to evangelize those who might come to know God through Bible prophecy. Bible prophecy for Christians should not be about trying to figure out every insignificant detail and the exact dating of all events beforehand. Some of these things cannot be known with any certainty.  Nothing at all has to be fulfilled before the rapture of the Church and after the restrainer is removed all end time events will rapidly come on the earth just as God said. For most Christians it is enough to know that what God said about the last days will take place literally and that the time to work is short.

If you want more thinking on this issue read the full article.

Jesus Christ in Biblical Prophecies

Jesus Christ in Biblical Prophecies

Prof. Johan Malan, Middelburg, South Africa (June 2009)

The spiritual and doctrinal value of various articles currently published on Israel is extremely poor. Authors mostly offer only a secular review of news events without giving a balanced biblical perspective on them.

It is an alarming fact that even Christian analysts on the situation in the Middle East reveal very little insight into Israel’s end-time position. Obama is now blamed for isolating and forsaking Israel. Is he responsible for these actions or did the Lord ordain them? According to Ezekiel 22:18-22, Jeremiah 30:7 and Zechariah 14:2, the Lord will bring Israel into great affliction because they have, spiritually, become dross in His eyes for dishonouring His Word and rejecting the Messiah. In the light of this situation we should understand their international dispersion during the past 2000 years, as well as the Holocaust of World War II. Or will we merely blame the Roman Empire, the Nazis and other nations for this human tragedy? These nations are definitely guilty, but Israel is more guilty and mainly responsible for their own problems. Didn’t Jesus say that Jerusalem would be destroyed and trodden down because its inhabitants refused to accept Him as their Messiah (cf. Matt. 23:37-38)? In the attached addendum a Messianic Jew, Arthur Katz, explains the full implications of Israel’s sin and lack of faith.

As for Israel’s future, it is really irrelevant what Obama, the pope, the EU, Iran or Russia say or do with regard to Israel. If they don’t persecute or isolate Israel the Lord will allow other groups or nations to do just that. The fact is that the Israelis have to go through the time of Jacob’s trouble because of their continued apostasy.

Why are there so few people who have the boldness to inform Israel on the true reasons for their problems? Why is their own spiritual bankruptcy not addressed? Why are even organisations such as the International Christian Embassy engaged with the establishing of good relations with unsaved Israel without explicitly proclaiming the Messiah to them? Why do preachers such as John Hagee deny Jesus as Messiah of the Jews by alleging that they don’t have to accept Jesus to be saved? Why do all the Christians follow him and merely donate money to Israel, but withhold the gospel from them, which is their only hope?

When will Israel’s fortunes take a turn for the better – when the United States again support and assist them militarily, or when they have accepted the Messiah? Will they ever seek the Messiah unless they are in a great affliction (cf. Hosea 5:15; 6:1-2)?

The less people think and speak about the Lord Jesus, the less they will believe in His promise of a pretribulation rapture (Luke 21:36); the less they know about His judgement seat, the less they will be prepared for His sudden coming (1 Cor. 3:9-15). Many people become so involved with a study of the signs of the times, including possible dates for the second coming of Christ, that they never seriously attend to the necessities of our relationship with Him (holiness), and also neglect to work for Him while it is still day – the night of God’s judgements is approaching when no one can work.

I do believe that Israel and many other signs are prophetically significant, but this knowledge should lead to deeper spiritual insights and particularly to the glorification and exaltation of the Lord Jesus – also to fear for the coming day of His wrath upon sinners, including all the carnal, agnostic and unholy people. His judgements should be considered as part of the bigger picture, lest people think that the nature of the future world will only be determined by the decisions and military actions of the present generation of world leaders. One actually pities them when listening to their decisions and beholding their military manoeuvres, as they don’t have the faintest idea of what is waiting for them. They don’t know that they will be gathered in Israel to be judged by the Lord (Joel 3:2; Zech. 14:2,12).

Israel is prophetically one of the most uninformed nations in the world as far as events at the end of the church dispensation are concerned. Their ignorance will cause their virtual downfall as they will lead the way in concluding a covenant with the Antichrist under the false impression that he is the true Messiah (Dan. 9:27; John 5:43).

People in the end-time are shallow in their thinking and judge all things in terms of secular, humanistic criteria. Even Christians start conforming to this way of thinking and are in most cases not able to correctly determine and describe a spiritual perspective on world events. Many of them do not even realise their own spiritual poverty and blindness,

every Christian is committed to inform Israel on the correct biblical route to their full restoration. If they are not warned against the coming false messiah and the great tribulation, how will they ever be able to correctly understand these times and make the right decisions? Without accepting Jesus the Messiah by faith they cannot be saved – neither can they share in the blessings that He promised to the believing remnant in Israel and also to the whole world during His coming reign of peace.

Full article

This is an astute article by Jack Kelly on Pentecost and rapture of the Church. Like Kelly, I also believe that the parables of Matthew 13 describe the Church on earth and would also say each parable is linked to what Jesus also said to the seven different Church types in Revelation.

*Chuck Missler gives us a small taste of this design and correlation in his teaching on Revelation:

The Seven Kingdom parables:

The Sower ……………   Ephesus: The apostolic Church

The Tares …………….   Smyrna: The persecuted Church

Mustard Seed…………..Pergamos: Marriage to the World

Women/Leaven ……….Thyatira: The Papacy in the Medieval World

The Field………………. Sardis: Denominational/Dead Orthodoxy

The Pearl ………………Philadelphia: The rebirth of the Missionary

The Dragnet …………..Laodicea: The apostate Church

* The Book of Revelation , supplemental notes page 60, Koinonia House Inc., 1995

I believe that it is very possible that the Church will be taken alive to Heaven on Pentecost on the very same feast day when the Bride of Christ was born. The Church like Enoch was born on Pentecost and tradition tells us Enoch was taken on Pentecost. Enoch was taken because he walked with God before the judgment of the flood. The bride of Christ will also not reap the coming judgment of God because she is the Bride of Christ. Only after Jesus takes his rightful role as King of Israel and takes a Gentile bride can Israel’s promised restoration come.

I know many want to believe the Rapture is on the Feast of Trumpets but remember the Feast of Trumpets will be another fulfillment through Jesus for Israel. The Feast of Trumpets starts the last week for Israel foretold by Daniel and it ends it seven years later with the second coming of Christ. Some like to think the Rapture will occur on the same date that God deals with Israel again. However, scripture really gives no indication that the Rapture has to occur precisely seven years before the second coming of Christ. The Rapture could occur months or even a few years before the final seven years for the Jews.

One thing is certain in my mind. The 70th week and the lifting of the blindness of Israel cannot even take place until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in (Ro 11:25). In this passage Paul was speaking of the grafting in of a Gentile Bride into the Commonwealth of Israel. This Bride born from above is born of the Spirit she is not born of any flesh, be it Jew or Gentile. However, anyone not Jewish by natural birth (she is spiritual) is typed as a Gentile by definition. Therefore, the Bride is not Jewish even though there are people who were natural Jews within the Bride. This Bride gives no sin offering of her own as required by the law. Her sins are covered by the blood of God’s Jewish sacrificial Lamb. That is the reason why Pentecost is celebrated with leavened bread (leaven represents sin), the Church is full of sinners covered by the blood of Christ.

Anyway, this article by Jack Kelly is well worth the read and it is timely, being right before the Feast of Pentecost.

Pentecost and the Rapture of the Church | GraceThruFaith

Pentecost and the Rapture of the Church

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Pentecost comes in the early summer (May-June). This year it’s May 31. It’s the only Holy Day between the 3 Spring Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits) and the 3 in the fall (Rosh Hashanna, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles). Its Hebrew name is Shavuot. Pentecost is a Greek word and translates “50 days” since it comes 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits, the day we should know as Resurrection Morning . The Feast of First Fruits is celebrated on the day following the first Sabbath after Passover and Pentecost on the day after the Sabbath seven weeks later, (Lev. 23:15-16) giving rise to its nickname “Feast of Weeks.” Since the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday, both these Holy days are Sundays.
What’s a Pentecost?

Jews celebrate Pentecost (I’ll just use its Greek name to avoid any more confusion than necessary) as the day Moses received the Law on Mt. Sinai in the wilderness and the nation Israel was born. (Exodus 19-20) Christians celebrate it as the day the Holy Spirit fell on the Disciples in Jerusalem and the Church was born (Acts 2). If you agree with my view that the parables of Matthew 13 describe the church on Earth and that the parable of the yeast predicts there will be sin in the church, you’ll be interested in the fact that unlike all the other Jewish Feasts that call for unleavened bread, Pentecost requires bread baked with yeast (Lev. 23:17). Pentecost also began the annual wheat harvest, perhaps pointing to another of Matthew’s Kingdom parables, the Wheat and the Tares.

By tradition Enoch, one of the patriarchs from Genesis 5, was born on the day later to be known as Pentecost. Enoch’s name means “teaching”, a primary function of the Church. For this reason many scholars see him as a “type” of the church as well. Genesis 5:21-23 indicates that Enoch was very close to God and was actually taken live (raptured) into Heaven before the Great Flood. Pre-Trib scholars see this event as hinting of a yet future disappearance of the Church before the Great Tribulation. These same traditions also hold that Enoch disappeared from Earth on his birthday. So here’s a model in Genesis 5 of a man identified with the church being born and raptured on the day that would become Pentecost, the day the church was born.

Full article.

About every other week I get a email telling me in one way or another that the parable of the fig tree means that all will be fulfilled by 2019 AD. Thus they believe the start of the tribulation or rapture has to be by 2012. There are well known Bible prophecy teachers teaching this today. I am tired of answering questions on this over and over so I am writing my own position on the “Parable of the Fig Tree”. In the future if anyone asks me about it or suggests that the Rapture has to occur within two or three years they will get a link to this post.

I will put the discourse from Jesus about the parable of the fig tree in proper context below so we can also see and consider what Jesus said before and after His parable of the fig tree statement.

Matt 24:3  And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8  All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9  Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
10  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16  Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17  Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18  Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19  And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20  But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
23  Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25  Behold, I have told you before.
26  Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27  For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
36  But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40  Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41  Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42  Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43  But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44  Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47  Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49  And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50  The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The whole discourse here is a reply to what the disciples asked Jesus. They asked when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? Jesus then gave them a sequence of events. Scholars differ as to if part of it was already fulfilled in Jesus time, or if it is all yet to be fulfilled, or even if part of the prophecy might have a past and future fulfillment. I take the position that there could be a partial fulfillment in the past but this whole discourse is now about the future.

Lets look at what the passage implies and lets also look at what the passage does not imply. That part of the discourse is in bold print in the scripture passage above.

The parable of the fig tree implies:
When the branch of the fig tree puts forth leaves you should know that summer is near and when you see the signs Jesus talked about you know His coming is near. The other part of the discourse following the parable passage confirms that it is talking about the Lord’s coming for the elect.
The passage also implies the generation that saw what Jesus talked about in the discourse would still be around when the Lord returned, implying that all things would take place in a short period of time of less than one generation.

The parable of the fig tree does not imply:
That the fig tree is Israel, although some believe it is.
That this last generation started when the UN allowed the rebirth of the State of Israel
That a generation is 40 50 or 70 years. More likely all Jesus said takes place in less than a twenty or thirty year period since the generation seeing the signs would also have had to reach the full age of reason to comprehend them. Also, the generation that saw the Lord return most likely would not also be so old that aged brains would forget the data. The discourse does imply that some will actually give up waiting so this period spans more than a few years.

We seem to have false birth pains called the beginning of sorrows, persecution, birth pains and the second coming in this passage. This all could take much longer than just the seven years that most assign to end time things and that also may be why the discourse says that some people will give up waiting. The big clue for me that this is more than seven years is that in the first series of events Jesus makes it perfectly clear that the end is not yet. These are just the beginning of sorrows of this last time generation.

Was Jesus telling his disciples to learn that the fig tree represented Israel’s rebirth? I kind of doubt that, they would not have a clue unless He was referring to the fig tree that He cursed that did represent Israel. If that is true His using the fig tree here with the sprouting of leaves would have to refer to Israel returning to God not the rebirth of a nation that still rejects Him.
“Fig tree” is used 32 times in the King James. Most of the time it is used with other trees and is just describing abundance of food or the lack of it. A few are describing the spiritual condition of Israel but calling Israel the fig tree from those few passages is a stretch. Actually, Israel could more easily be identified with the olive tree in scriptures.

Luke adds a little more than Matthew on this passage and says when the fig tree and all the trees are putting forth shoots you know summer is near. So If Israel is the fig tree who are the other trees that are also putting forth shoots? Perhaps this parable is more straight forward than some like to think. Perhaps Jesus was just saying when you see the things He was talking about taking place on earth this will be the generation that would see His return if they do not give up waiting. Just as when a fig tree puts forth shoots you know that summer is near you can know that the Lord’s coming is near when you see the events Jesus talked about. Perhaps there is no hidden reference to Israel in this passage at all? I do not think we can be dogmatic about it one way or the other.

If the parable of the fig tree is all about the rebirth of Israel like many teach. I would like to know why a still dead tree at the time of these events is putting forth shoots and putting forth leaves?  What are the leaves anyway? Ask those who teach this and you will get different answers.

In any case, this passage does not imply the generation that saw the rebirth of the state of Israel is the generation that would not pass away before the Lord returns. It seems to me that Jesus is really talking about the generation seeing all the things that He was talking about in prior versus.

Why do I bring this up? Because some are saying that Jesus has to come before 2019 and the Rapture is before 2012 and that they get hostile toward Christians who do not believe the time is as soon as the dates they set. There was a time when people said that Jesus would have to come in 1988 because it all had to happened within a generation of forty years from the rebirth of Israel. Then when that date came and gone they said that a generation was about 50 years. When that date came and gone they said a generation is a life span of 70 years and that is where some stand now. All of this latest date setting by some new prophecy teachers probably has more to do with their interpretation of pagan Mayan calenders then it does with sound exegesis of biblical prophecy.

Never mind that the latest interpretation of a generation being 70 years logically makes no sense because during the first decade or two of their life people of that generation would have been been too young to observe the events and properly process it. Some others extend the date by saying we should count the generation from when Israel took Jerusalem because taking new territory represented the leaves on the tree. That again is subjective speculation at best. Meanwhile, the whole concept has opened up Bible prophecy teachers to just criticism because some Bible prophecy teachers seem to be straining at gnats and swallowing camels in order to be dogmatic about their own subjective interpretations with date setting.

I do not know when the rapture of the Church will be because that date is always imminent but just looking at the signs on earth that are necessary to fulfill prophecy tells me that the coming of the Lord to set up His kingdom on earth is still twenty or thirty years down the line. If you do not want to wait that long tell it to God because the time is set by the Father. Meanwhile, lets not be so dogmatic about our prophecy speculations.

Boy do I have mixed feeling about this article by Chuck Baldwin because it is just chock full of truth spun with some of his usual crap. Please read the full article and not just what I clipped so you can follow what I am about to say about Baldwin’s views.

First, I do not like his title although there may be some in truth in it. However, my definition of a lazy Christians is not Chuck Baldwin’s definition. To me lazy Christians are those will will not read the word, take the time to fellowship with God, or with other Christians and do little if any work for Christ on earth. Baldwin in his articles seems to think you have to be an American Patriot resisting the New World Order in order to be a fruitful Christian.

Second, I disagree that Christians cannot know the season of the Lord’s return. In spite of the usual passages that Baldwin uses out of context as if they were for the latter day Church. The Church can know the season of the Lord’s return and can know that the days we live in are prophetic times and very near the time of Christ’s return. It would make no sense for Jesus to tell us to watch if there was nothing to look for. I will not burden anyone here with how we can know these things from the signs in scripture and the signs in world trends. You can read all that in my twenty-five article series on World Current Events and Bible prophecy.

Next, I do agree with Baldwin that some following Bible prophecy have become unbalanced and do have the attitude that it all has to end within a decade. Some spend their days doing nothing but looking for tea leaves to reinforce their speculation. The prophetic scripture is not enough for them so they go to Islam eschatology and read books based on pagan myths or hidden formulas that conform to their 2012 – 2019 deadline for Christ to return. There is a lot of that going on. I call them the post-modern theologians of Christian eschatology because whatever is relevant to their new found theory or Gnostic truth is used regardless of the source.

In my opinion, Baldwin in his many articles confuses Christian constitutional patriotism with the Christian commission. Frankly, he seems to believe in American Christian dominionism. He seems to think that those not pursuing the goal to make America ruled by Christians are not pulling their weight. Also, much of what he says about our forefathers is true but not all all of them were the wonderful Christians that Baldwin paints. Just read early American history and you will see many evils. Most did confess Christianity but their actions did not always reflect Christianity. They had diverse differences in what true Christianity was in their faith and practice. Defacto Christianity in America was not really established by some great Christian effort by our forefathers as Baldwin indicates. Christianity became the defacto religion because almost all American early immigrants were already Christians. Most of them left Europe become of the persecution there against Christians.

Baldwin said if pastors and Christians of Colonial America believed and acted as most Christians believe and act today this country would still be a Crown colony. The fact is that most pastors and Christians had no part against the Crown at first. It was only a very small percentage of elitists that broke with the British and led the American rebellion. Since when is rebellion initiated by God anyway? The early settlers were not really living under tyranny, they were some of the freest people on earth at the time. Who knows what America would be like today if there never had been an American revolution? We would probably be another common-wealth country. Did nations like Canada fair that much worse than us? After looking at American wars and our civil strife are we that much better off because of the revolution?

Which brings me to another point. What new world order are Christians supposed to rebel against? Baldwin’s Illuminati conspiracy version, the present version, the half dozen future versions that are on think tank drawing boards, or maybe one that has not even been conceived yet? Why is world government more evil than nation government even before the arrival of the Antichrist? Should not Christians be working from within to be the salt and light to the coming world government? After all, we already know a world government is coming. Bible prophecy tells us so. The world had previous world kingdoms did God tell his people to rebel against them? So who says that a future world government has to be evil and not in God’s will? The next world government is likely to occur some years before Satan is cast out of Heaven and given free reign.

That is not to say that Christians should not oppose evil anywhere but lets really draw the line on opposing what is evil, and not determine what is good and evil based on Baldwin’s vision of some future real or imagined evils of a new world order.

I do not like the slave-like mentality that people in America have today either, but it seems to me that our government is really a reflection of the people of this nation. Americans put their task masters into power and if Americans did not want them they would get rid of them. They want them because they promise them handouts. So why do we tolerate evil in America? Because that is what most Americans want. America morally is post Christian. Even many so called Christians are morally post Christian. So knowing that, how does Baldwin or anyone else expect to establish some new Christian dominionism in the United States? Through force? Through civil disobedience? It is not likely that it will be done through ballets because we are certainly outnumbered. The only real way to achieve this goal would be through conversion of Americans to true Christianity but Baldwin is not ever suggesting that. Instead he expects to get Christian blood out of a dead stone.

I do agree with Baldwin that many Christians see Bible prophecy and the world through American eyes and wrongly think America will never see judgment before the Rapture. It is obviously to me that we will, in fact the judgment has already started because even so called Christians have rejected God in their actions and choices and that is reflected in the evil people they put into power.

God can bless America if we turn back toward him. However, it is not the teaching of Bible prophecy that is preventing that from happening. It is as Baldwin himself said and that actually contradicts his thesis that Christians are using Bible prophecy as an excuse to become lazy.

I believe the real reason why so many professing Christians are so apathetic
and indifferent to what is happening has nothing to do with the teachings
of Scripture, Bible doctrine, eschatology, or anything of the like.
It has everything to do with old-fashioned laziness. Today’s average
Christian just flat does not want to be bothered. He has a comfortable
house, an easy chair, television, and a set of golf clubs in the closet.
He takes two or three weeks’ vacation every year, goes to church on
Sunday (a church that does not intrude on his comfort zone, of course),
pays taxes, and votes for his favorite “pro-life” Republican
candidate every two years, and assumes that he is a “good”
Christian and “patriotic” American. He is neither!

So even Baldwin admits that belief in the soon return of the Lord’s is not the real problem with Christians. The problem is that Christians in the U.S. have just become laodicean and lazy. If we can get pastors to solve the lukewarm issue in the Church, that will be about the best pastors can do to solve the issue of evil in America.

Chuck Baldwin — Christians Use Prophecy To Excuse Laziness

In response to my two previous columns regarding the current development of a devilish New World Order, many professing Christians wrote me with comments to the effect that we should not be concerned about whatever global tyranny may be developing, because “it’s all a part of God’s plan,” or “Jesus is coming soon,” and similar statements. I, too, believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ to earth. But, then again, so did Christians from every generation over the last two millennia. In fact, the Apostle Paul was looking for the return of Christ while he lived (Philippians 3:20). But does anticipation of Christ’s Second Coming excuse personal neglect, indifference, and downright laziness? Of course not.

When confronted with an obvious evil (a burgeoning tyrannical New World Order, not to mention a number of lesser evils), modern Christians will shrug and glibly say, “It’s God’s will; we must not oppose it,” or words to that effect. This attitude says, “I will tolerate or even condone evil in order to hasten Christ’s return.”

In the first place, no one knows when Christ will return, no matter how many books or tapes they have produced to say they do.

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In the meantime, millions of Christians across America are trying to play God. They talk as if they know when Christ will come. It’s actually worse than that. They have the attitude that they have no personal responsibility to defend freedom and resist despotism. They seem to look at God as some kind of glorified fireman, who is obligated to rush in at the last minute to rescue them from a burning fire–a fire that they helped ignite, or at least, refused to put out themselves when they had the opportunity to do so. It’s the old, “God would not let that happen in America” syndrome.

I believe the real reason why so many professing Christians are so apathetic and indifferent to what is happening has nothing to do with the teachings of Scripture, Bible doctrine, eschatology, or anything of the like. It has everything to do with old-fashioned laziness. Today’s average Christian just flat does not want to be bothered. He has a comfortable house, an easy chair, television, and a set of golf clubs in the closet. He takes two or three weeks’ vacation every year, goes to church on Sunday (a church that does not intrude on his comfort zone, of course), pays taxes, and votes for his favorite “pro-life” Republican candidate every two years, and assumes that he is a “good” Christian and “patriotic” American. He is neither!

A real Christian patriot would never allow his country to be taken over by a gaggle of elitist goons bent on stealing his liberties–including his religious liberties–without doing everything in his power to prevent it. A real Christian patriot is active, alert, engaged, zealous, and committed to preserving liberty.

Tell me again that “there is nothing we can do about it,” or “it’s God’s will,” or “Jesus is coming soon.” Better yet, tell it again to the suffering Christians around the world; tell it again to our Christian forebears; tell it again to your children and grandchildren who are going to inherit a land of tyranny and oppression, all because you were too lazy to resist.

So, the next time you hear some piety-draped Christian talking about how he won’t engage the enemy and fight for liberty, because of prophecy, or some other spiritually-sounding platitude, just remember, it has nothing to do with prophecy, or anything of the sort: it has everything to do with old-fashioned laziness.

Full article

The Handwriting on the Wall Reads – Prepare for the Apocalypse Now

Prepare for the apocalypse now

Some have asked me how close we are to the prophesied end time events of the Bible and the promise of the second coming of Jesus. I am not setting a date but I have been indicating in my articles that by what I see taking place in the world, that all events are very likely to take place within two to three decades. I believe all that is written about the last days before the second coming of Jesus will most likely be completed in this period. Nevertheless, I do not believe it will be anywhere near thirty years before the false and the real birth pains of the Kingdom begin on earth. I see many signs that the handwriting is already on the wall. It reads, “Prepare for the Apocalypse now”. The hoof beats of the four horsemen of the apocalypse may be heard much sooner than many think but not as soon as 2012 – 2019 AD as some are now teaching. All these things will take a couple decades to play out, the end is not as close as some lead you to believe. Follow my reasoning and decide for yourself why we are rapidly moving toward the time of the Apocalypse but why a few pieces of the puzzle still do not quite fit.

Full Article

The Two Witnesses From Heaven Will be Hell to the World

The ministry of the two witnesses from God in Revelation chapter 11 will last for 1260 days. This event is the most understated event of Bible prophecy. The witnesses, the two prophets from heaven will shake the world to its core and the whole world will rejoice when they are killed because they tormented those who dwell on the earth.

I think we totally underestimate the impact that these two prophets will have on the world. They will be second in power to no one until their ministry is complete. No weapon formed against them will succeed. If a nuclear missile is fired at them it will land on the nation that fired it. These prophets with supernatural powers will have God’s angels at their disposal. Anyone who dares to harm them will in like manor be killed. They are going to have such a profound impact on the world that after they are risen and taken into heaven the sinful world will want to be led to believe that they can stop the kingdom of Jesus from coming. Thus, at the end of this period of Antichrist rule the Antichrist gathers all nations against Jerusalem to try to stop the second coming and the fulfillment of their prophecies.

Full article

Apparently Steve Gregg tried to come to the rescue of Partial Preterism after Dr. Norman Geisler reviewed “The Apocalypse Code” book written by Hank Hanegraaff that attacked premillennial theology and those who are looking for the soon return of Jesus in the Rapture.

I guess someone needed to come to the rescue and bail out Preterism after some of Hank Hanegraaff’s erroneous assumptions were pointed out by Dr. Geisler in his review and some of Hanegraff’s book could not even be fully accepted by preterists. This is the response by Dr. Geisler to Steve Gregg’s apparent defense of partial preterism.

In this article Dr. Geisler is brilliant and often demolishes the arguments of Steve Gregg’s Partial Preterism Theology, often with many of the inconsistent silly arguments of Gregg and other preterists.

What is quoted bellow are just a few of the many examples given in the full article. Also go to Norman Geisler Articles for his other articles on this and other topics. Dr. Geisler is a one of the great minds of our time and I highly recommend that anyone interested in Bible prophecy absorb his teachings.

A Response to Steve Gregg’s Defense of Hank Hanegraaff’s Partial Preterism

By Norman L. Geisler

My comments will be divided into two basic categories. First of all, several areas in which we are in agreement will be mentioned. Second, comments on numerous points of disagreement with his defense of partial preterism, a view he shares with Hank Hanegraaff, will be discussed.

Eleventh, it is amusing that Gregg uses a third century heretical teacher, Origen, as a basis for his amillennial view and dismisses earlier second century orthodox Fathers as a basis for futurism. Further, contrary to Gregg, Renald Showers (in Maranatha, Our Lord, Come!) has demonstrated that the very earliest Fathers believed in an imminent coming of Christ, not just the fourth century Ephraem. This is to say nothing of the inspired writings of the NT which proclaim Christ’s imminent return repeatedly (Jn. 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 1:7-8; 15:51-53; 16:22; Phil. 3:20-21; 4:5; Col. 3:4; 1 Thes. 1:10; 2:19; 4:13-18; 5:9, 23; 2 Thes. 2:1; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1; Titus 2:13; Heb. 9:28; Jas. 5:7-9; 1 Pet. 1:7, 13; 1 Jn. 2:28-3:2; Jude 21; Rev. 2:25; 3:10; 22:7, 12, 20 ). Passages like “The Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4:5) and “the coming of the Lord is at hand” (Jas.5:8) can hardly mean anything other than imminent, unless one is a full preterist and denies a literal future Second Coming, claiming Christ returned in the first century. He summarily dismisses all this with a vague “for all anyone can say” and a guilt-by-association with the Word of Faith movement!

Twelfth, after rejecting the early Fathers who were opposed to preterism, Gregg inconsistently appeals to the early Fathers to justify his amillennial views. He speaks of the pretrib beliefs before Ephraem in the fourth century as unsupported by earlier Fathers. Yet, he criticizes futurist who use the early Fathers to support their view (see “Sixth” above).

Thirteenth, he rejects the dispensational belief in a literal restoration of Israel which is firmly based in the historical-grammatical interpretation of Scripture (see Geisler, ibid., chap. 15). Yet he claims to hold the historical-grammatical hermeneutic.

Eighteenth, Gregg dismisses a massive array of unconditional promises that are based on the historical-grammatical interpretation which says that there will be a literal restoration of ethnic Israel to their land (see our Systematic Theology, vol. 4, chaps.14-16). None of the passages he cites deny this future for Israel, and numerous passages he does not cite affirm that there will be one (Gen. 12-17; 2 Sam. 7; Psa. 89; Mt. 19:28; Acts 1:6-8; Acts 3:19; Rom. 11, and many more). So strongly are these texts in favor of a literal restoration of the land and throne promises to ethnic Israel that even some non-premills like Vern Poythress and Anthony Hoekema have been forced to acknowledge such a future for Israel. And not to see that Paul is speaking of ethnic Israel in Romans 9-11 (which he calls Israel “my kinsmen according to the flesh” (9:2) to whom God gave “the covenants” and “Promises” (9:4) is a bold act of exegetical blindness. And it is this same “Israel” in this same passage of which Paul says they will be “grafted into their own olive tree” (11:24) because “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:29). Ironic as it may seem, a fundamental problem with reformed amillennialism is that it does not believe in unconditional election–at least not for Israel! As for the clear literal truth that Jesus will literally come again with his literal twelve disciples who sit on twelve literal thrones and reign over the literal “twelve tribes of Israel” (Mt. 19:28), the best Gregg can offer is “the suggestions” that “this is not the only way in which Matt. 19:28 can be interpreted.” Of course, it isn’t; there is the spiritualistic way Gregg interprets it as “a present reality.” But this is certainly not the result of the historical grammatical hermeneutic preterists profess to accept. Nor is his contention that Jesus “unambiguously” established His kingdom at His first coming, as any literal understanding of numerous passages reveals (see Matt. 19:28; Acts 1:6-8; 3:19-21; Rom. 11:11-36). For an example of straining out a hermeneutical gnat and swallowing a doctrinal camel, Gregg declares of Revelation 20 that “the passage says ‘a thousand years.’ It does not say, ‘a literal thousand years.’” The passage also says “the Devil” (v. 2) and not “a literal Devil,” but does this give us warrant for denying a literal Devil. It also speaks of “nations” (v. 3), martyrs (v. 4), “heaven” (v. 1), and even “Jesus” (v. 4). But surely all these are literal. Sure, there are figures of speech used in the text like “key” (v. 1), but the literal method of interpretation has always allowed for figures of speech about literal realities (see ibid., chap. 13). It simply insists that the figures of speech and symbols are about literal realities (cf. Rev. 1:20)

Nineteenth, when confronted with the obviously literal land promises to Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 13-15), Gregg replies, “I don’t find the word ‘literal’ in any of the passages cited.” Yet, he later says these literal promises were literally fulfilled in the days of Joshua–something that could not be true since they are repeated after Joshua’s time (Jer. 11:5; Amos 9:14-15; Acts 1:6-8; Acts 3:19-21; Rom. 11). As for insisting on the use of the word “literal” to determine whether a passage is literal, I would suggest that he look at the death and resurrection of Jesus passages again. The last time I looked the word “literal” was not in the resurrection accounts. Nor do I find it in Genesis 1-3. But there again, consistency of hermeneutic is not a primary characteristic of the preterist position. Further, it is far from “clear” that Heb. 4 or Gal. 4 teaches there is no ethnic fulfillment of the ethnic promises to Israel. On the contrary, it is a denial of both God’s unconditional grace and of the historical-grammatical interpretation of numerous passages already mentioned. Just because Abraham has a spiritual seed does not mean there are no promises for his ethnic offspring.

Twentieth, as to the promise that the land promises to Israel would be “forever,” Gregg says two things: 1) The Hebrew word for “forever” (olam) does not always mean eternal. While this is true, it is also true that it can. And when it does not, it certainly means a long period of time. But Israel has never occupied all the land designated in these promises for a long period of time. As all good interpreters know, the meaning of a word is discovered by its context. And the context of Psalm 89:37 declares that the Davidic covenant will be “established forever like the moon.” And the last time I looked the moon was still in the sky! 2) Greggs wrongly assumes God’s promises to Abraham and David were conditional, but they clearly were not. Abraham was not even conscious when God made a unilateral unconditional promise to him (in Gen. 15:12), and Psalm 89:31-36 declares that even “if they break my statutes,” God promised “Nevertheless My loving kindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed will endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me.” As Paul said of this same God, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). God has not given them back the land yet, but will in the future when the remnant returns to Him (e.g., see Gen. 13:17 and Deut. 30:16-20).

In brief, Gregg’s attempt to rescue the partial preterist position he shares with Hank Hanegraaff is a failure. It rests upon a methodologically unorthodox way of interpreting Scripture. If this same method were used on the Gospel narratives of the resurrection of Christ, the preterist would also be theologically unorthodox. Thus, while partial preterism itself is not heretical, its hermeneutic is unorthodox, and if applied consistently, would lead to heresy, as indeed it does in full preterism.

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It is nice to see Todd Strandberg and Terry James Rapture Ready website make the national media again. All the exposure helps to get the message out about Bible prophecy and that we are very near the prophetic end times on earth. If you have not visited the site I highly recommend it. For years RaptureReady has been the top Bible prophecy website in the world and I still very much appreciate the link they have up to my website.

Rapture: Distress about wars and the world economy feed apocalyptic warnings – Salt Lake Tribune

Strandberg, founder and editor of raptureready.com, the largest Christian prophecy site on the Internet, spends his days linking current events with biblical passages. He created a Rapture Index, modeled after the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which consists of 45 categories of prophetic indicators from the occult to inflation and the crime rate. Each is assigned a value of one to five depending on the level of activity in that category. The numbers are adjusted weekly, and the higher the number, the faster the world is moving toward its end. Just before the time known as the Great Tribulation, some believe there will be a “Rapture,” where Christ takes the righteous to heaven without their tasting death.
In recent weeks, traffic on Rapture Ready site spiked to 50,000 hits a day.

In his 22 years working on Rapture Ready, Strandberg has seen an “avalanche” of anti-Christ suggestions, including Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. Obama doesn’t fit the bill, he says, but he could be a type of “anti-Christ,” which simply means too many people see him as a replacement for Jesus.
Still, Strandberg believes the end is at hand and Jesus’ Second Coming will surprise everyone, coming as “a thief in the night,” according to the Bible, but close observers will at least know “the season.”
He points to tensions between Israel and Iran, Russia’s invasion of Georgia, and the possibility of global depression as some of the top indicators.
“We are one big event from triggering a cascade that will not stop,” he says. “There are so many indicators that are active. It’s like an overhang of snow on a mountain top. Cracks are forming on the ridge and once the ridge breaks free, it will tumble down the mountain and nothing can stop it.”

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The bailouts may bring us one step closer to the one world Beast economic system but there are some things said in this article that quite frankly make unfounded innuendos about people in our government and in the financial management of our money that are just not appropriate.

The article seems to paint that since the great depression we have been control by a worldwide conspiracy that is deliberately leading us to the Mark of the Beast system. There is no such conspiracy there is no such evil cabal of men. What is happening is the inevitable results of man’s mismanagement of the world’s economic systems. Man is designed to organize and manage things on the earth and anywhere you have civilization management is going to take place. Otherwise you have anarchy.

Because of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life one thing man does always leads to another. He overspends and goes into debt (the borrower will be the slave of the lender) so he becomes enslaved by the lenders through his own debt to them. The lenders are people of the same nature and they do the same thing and end up being the slaves of those with more money etc., soon everyone is owing more than they can pay and the debts have to wiped clean or the whole system collapses. That is where the U.S. is at now.

God had a way to deal with that weakness in man in the law. There was a Jubilee every fifty years where everyone’s debts were wiped out and they were to start afresh. We of course do not do what God instructed Israel to do in the law so we just keep piling up debt until the system has to collapse. When the latest modern collapse of the monetary system takes place the world elite will not want to make the same mistakes again so they will create the best system they can with the tools that they have available. In the future that means RFID tags, embedded chips and a secure worldwide economic system.

it is not really a sinister conspiracy plot as some try to sell. If man could actually manage his own sin on earth he would not need bailing out by a Savior. In addition, as long as the Church is here to be salt and light things on earth may get bad but they are not going to get totally out of control. It is only after the restrainer is taken out of the way and Satan is cast out of Heaven that the Beast system takes control of the inevitable world electronic economic system. Before Satan and his angels are cast out of heaven there are no restrictions on taking part in any of this. The electronic system only becomes sinister after the angels are cast out unto the earth and force people to take the mark and worship the Beast in order to buy or sell. Only when Satan has control of the whole earth does world electronic banking fulfill Bible prophecy.

Let’s not put the cart before the horse here and think that Satan actually can do anything he wants now, he cannot. He answers to God and only in the last 42 months does God give Satan free reign on earth in order for him to deceive those who would not have Jesus rule over them.

This article also jumps to the conclusion that Americans have lost control of their destiny. Did we ever have control of our own destiny? Not only that, the U.S. is only one nation on the earth. Believe it or not, everything is not about America.

America + decline does not = end of world, as some like to think.

America is not in Bible prophecy and that most likely is because America is not a major factor in the world during end time events. Nations have risen and fallen in the past and the Beast never rose to power because of it. Will the Beast come to power now because of U.S. economic troubles? If he does it will not be because America falls but because true Christian’s rise (Rapture) and Satan falls (to the earth).

There simply is something missing in the logic of those who love these ongoing conspiracy themes. I know saying that will not be popular with those who see demonic cabals everywhere, or the end of the world every Feast of Trumpets. The truth is that the Rapture is not likely to occur on the Feast of Trumpets this year and it probably will not come on the next or the next. The Rapture does not have to occur on the Feast of Trumpets at all despite all the Internet speculations. The Church is not Israel.

Events will go on until the time set by the Father and some Christians just need to get used to that fact and stop looking for some magic formula so they can scare their friends with their new found revelations. They need to stop blaming all the inevitable problems caused by man as proof text that the end will be here in 2012.

It is always getting closer to the end but there is no conspiracy of demon possessed men running the earth. They could not get along with each other if there were. We cannot even get the Pastors and deacons of our churches on the same page and we are led by the Holy Spirit. How in the world then does Satan get his possessed and his also possessed to see eye to eye on anything?

Then you wonder why some Christians get upset with those who spend all their time trying to figure out the timing of the Rapture and the second coming instead of using their gifts for the Church and working to get people saved? In my experience half the people coming up with these dates and theories do not even attend a local church.

Don’t get me wrong, I teach Bible prophecy and I think the Lord is coming in the lifetime of most of the people reading this article but much of what is being said lately in the name of Bible prophecy really are pagan theories with Bible terminology. I guess I am now in big trouble with some of you. Please spare me the email because when I do not see things your way you send me insults. I really do have better things to waste my time on. I get a little tired of unsolicited emails from those who just have to get me to agree with their conspiracies or agree that they know the day or dates of the Rapture or second coming. Almost always after a half dozen exchanges the only thing accomplished is wasted time.

But I digress, what the big bailout means is that most of us are too greedy and we spend far more than we have and we are so far in debt that we can never pay it back. We buy houses we cannot afford betting on them to rise in value ten percent a year and we expect our mutual fund managers to keep giving us ten percent returns on our investment when they can only safely give us five. We knew that they were gambling with our investments but we thought that everything keeps going up and that they were too smart to lose. Well, they did lose, and there will be a bailout by us or there will be a depression. There also will be more bailouts by us until the world decides it does not want to bail out America anymore. When that happen we are going to lose more than you can imagine.

That is really what all the bailouts mean. It is not some dark conspiracy by satanic bankers to take over the world it is our own enslavement to debt!

What the big bailout means

Do you think it’s an accident?

Do you think it’s just a case of bad management?

Do you think the proposed $700 billion taxpayer bailout of U.S. financial institutions just happened?

I don’t think so.

In fact, I think it’s part of a master plan – one pushing us inevitably, inexorably closer to a closed cashless global economic system of total control.

I know. This seems like an extreme statement. It sounds like I’ve drunk deep of the conspiracy Kool-Aid. But let’s take a look at history.

Americans have lost control of their own destiny. Elections don’t mean much. Congressional debates are illusory. We are on a path to tyranny. Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain is going to stop it. Neither a Republican Congress nor a Democratic Congress is likely to slow it down.

Most Americans seem ill-equipped to understand what’s happening or to comprehend the forces at work behind it. They seem more concerned with their basic needs and material pleasures than the fact that they are losing their birthright of self-government and individual freedom – that their children will never experience the promises of the Constitution.

What just happened? To simplify it, the government just got a lot bigger and more powerful, which means another nail was just hammered into the coffin of American liberty. And, in one of the largest wealth transfer schemes in history, a few wealthy and powerful individuals just got wealthier and more powerful – at your expense.

But this is not the end. This is not the final fix. This is not the final solution – not by a long shot. There will be more consolidations of power and money. There will be more “reforms.” There will be more regulations, more restrictions on the way you conduct your affairs, more centralization and control.

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David Flynn’s “Temple at the Center of Time: Newton’s Bible Codex Deciphered and the Year 2012, is probably all very interesting but can you really tell significant biblical events on the earth from the distance from the Temple in nautical miles or feet?

As in the Bible Code, what we have here more likely than not, is selecting what supports the theory and ignoring what does not. If God was going to make a unified system of Bible prophecy everything would fit not just what the author choose to select.

I also do not believe the Millennial temple will be at the Temple Mount of Old Jerusalem. It is much too large. So what does that do to the exact measurements when you do not even know the exact point on the earth to measure from? Are you measuring from Ezekiel’s Millennial Temple or the ancient Temple Mount?

Was God using our modern calenders and nautical miles for events? That would not be likely. Why measure to London just because it took over that area of the world in 1917 and then apply London to the year 1948 because it is 1948 nautical miles to London? The British hindered the return of the Jews in the end, so it seems more fitting to me use the nautical miles to the UN in New York city should be used but that distance would not fit the 1948 theory. Why were Nautical miles used in one measurement and feet in another? Just because they fit?

The book is being compared to the “Bible Code” but as far as I am concerned the Bible Code has been adequately debunked. These theories all sound good because the author stacks the deck. Only after
the scholars and skeptics give their reason why the theory does not hold up is there any balance brought to the speculations. It is like going to court and only hearing the case against the defendant and not ever
hearing the defense. This is why those that give doctoral theses also have to give a defense of their thesis.

I have not read the book so I cannot comment on the details in it but I surmise that after the scholars critique the book it will fittingly join with the Bible code.

It seems that an awful lot of people have figured out a date for the start of the tribulation or the second coming. Many are jumping on the 2012 to 2019 bandwagon others are picking 2032 2033 as the return of the Lord. Did we not also hear not so long ago about dating schemes built into the Great Pyramid where the end was going to come in 2000? Now we have the Mayan Calendar influence for 2012 that is plaguing us and helping to spawn these new theories. I have news to a certain TV Bible prophecy teacher and everyone else, God has no reason to follow pagan calendars and theories. Why should any Christian believe they contain truth?

I get documents from people writing books who have the timing of the second coming or the start of the tribulation all mathematically figured out to an exact year and feast day. However, I notice when one starts with what one believes to be the prophetic date and then makes all their data conform to fit that date it will come out to the date they want it to come out.

We are getting close to the end. We can see that by world events but when you are tossing out your precise theory of when Jesus will return or reading someone else’s profound theories on that date, you might not sell the farm quite yet.

Is Temple Mount God’s time bomb?

Was the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem more than a place of worship?

Was it, indeed, a roadmap to future events – a kind of prophetic landmark whose significance is only now revealed through the development of satellite imagery?

That is the contention of an explosive new book, “Temple at the Center of Time: Newton’s Bible Codex Deciphered and the Year 2012,” by David Flynn.

The book asserts it has “deciphered Isaac Newton’s greatest paradox: None other than ‘the unified field theory’ of Bible prophecy.”

The Romans established Londinium in about A.D. 47. It was a civilian settlement built where the Thames became narrow enough for a bridge to be built across it but was still deep enough to admit large ocean vessels. In the 16th century, William Camden believed that the “London Stone” was a Roman milestone from which all distances were measured in the province. In the 17th century, Christopher Wren was able to observe the foundations of the London Stone underneath Cannon Street during the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire. With this information, it is possible to extend a measuring line from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to the exact center of ancient London, and by fixing a point on the site of the temple mount, a measuring line extended over Jerusalem to the center of London produces 1,948.40 nautical miles.

Therefore, incredibly, recorded in the earth between the Temple Mount of Jerusalem and the historic center of London is what Flynn sees as the fulfillment of Newton’s own prediction: Israel became a nation again May 14th, 1948, corresponding perfectly to a distance between the temple and London of 1948 nautical miles.

As the reader moves through Temple at the Center of Time, these time-length correlations accumulate quickly, including numerous ancient dates such as 1441 B.C. when the Exodus from Egypt occurred. It turns out is 1,441,000 feet from the Jerusalem Temple to the Great Pyramid in Giza. Flynn finds dozens of other key dates in the past through similar satellite mapping measurements including some related to the United States, Russia and Rome.

Before it is even officially released, Flynn’s book is causing a sensation in some circles where it is being compared to “The Bible Code.”

Today Sept 17th I am adding the following information because some are saying that Flynn never implied a set date for the end of the world. Obviously WordNetDaily is hyping the 2012-2013 date in order to sell this book. The following quote was taken from the article posted on WND today. The belief that world will end in 2012-2013 is prophetically preposterous.

“But,” says Flynn, “there remains a valid aspect of Newton’s calculation. There is reason to believe he was correct in his assumption that there would be 1,260 years until the return of Christ at the rebirth of the Roman Empire, but that the year he chose was incorrect. There is actually a better date based on the founding of Rome and the methodology of Daniel’s prophecy.”

Flynn explains: “The Romans had fixed the birth of the city of Rome and the Empire in 753 B.C. It was believed that the patriarch of the city, Romulus, had marked out the boundaries for the wall of Rome in this year. Known as Ab Urbe Condita (literally, from the founding of the city) the Roman calendar began with 753 B.C. according to the dating of Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 B.C.) who lived at the time of the Empire itself.

Because of how the prophet Daniel divided the prophetic week in half, Flynn believes the original founding date for the empire of the prophecy, Rome, would follow this pattern and be bisected. Therefore, correcting Newton’s date, the year 753 B.C. designates the founding of the physical Rome while A.D. 753 establishes the rebirth of spiritual Rome. Counting 1,260 years forward from A.D. 753, one arrives at the year 2013.

Additional significance can be attached to this finding when considering that 2013 follows the end of the great cycle of the Maya calendar and the planetary cycle of the Aztec calendar, which concludes Dec. 21, 2012. This date has raised apocalyptic fears in corners around the world. According to “The Bible Code,” the world will end on this date due to a collision with a meteor, asteroid, or comet. Another theory – the “Novelty Theory” – claims time itself is a “fractal wave,” which will end abruptly in 2012. Even the popular television program X-Files speculated that colonization of the earth by “aliens” would occur in December 2012.

The Maya themselves describe past visits of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, descending through a “hole in the sky” on a rope ladder. They believe at the end of 2012 the serpent rope will emerge again from the center of the Milky Way, and Quetzalcoatl will return, heralding a new era at the start of 2013. Another version of the story has Quetzalcoatl sailing down on a winged ship, causing some to speculate that a UFO armada or “mother ship” could descend and take up position over earth on that date.

Besides this type of speculation, an unusual number of important events will occur beginning in 2012. NASA is predicting the next Solar Maximum will arrive in 2012 and will be the strongest in 50 years. At the same time, the sun will align with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in 26,000 years, on the exact date of the end of the Mayan calendar, Dec. 21, 2012. This will also be the year when the United States and the United Nations elect a new president and a new secretary general, considered by some to be the two most powerful “thrones” on earth, and the seat from which prophecy experts say the Antichrist will rule or receive power.

On a YouTube video here, well-known preacher Jack Van Impe says that the year 2012 and the end of the Mayan Calendar could mark the return of Jesus Christ.

Based on his research into the Jewish Feasts, Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries (as laid out in a series of two DVD teachings produced by WND Videos called “The Feasts of the Lord”) believes this time frame between 2012-2015 could be prophetic and may signal the return of Christ. He says for people who believe in a “pre-tribulation rapture,” this would make the year 2008 very important. For those who believe in a mid-tribulation rapture, 2012 may mark their departure. And on his website, he adds “if you’re prewrath, then 2014 might be interesting [and] if you’re a posttribber, 2015 is the date to watch for.”

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