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“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:1-5 This first passage of the Bible establishes God as the creator of the universe. It also establishes the fact that he did it in terms of days, not billions of years. The passage clearly ends with terminology defining a day in terms of the traditional cycle of morning and evening, not some abstract length of time that can be stretched to accommodate billions of years of creation. And yet so many Christians want to force such an accommodation into the text (or in more extreme cases, abandon the text altogether) to fall in line with the secular world view of evolution. One such attempt is known of as the “Gap Theory” whereby they insert billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. They claim the first verse represents an original creation that was corrupted by Satan and the Fallen Angels and therefore God destroyed it and started over again in verse 2. They say that this destruction gave us all the fossil records and the rock layering and took place over a sufficient amount of time to fall in line with the secular world view of evolution. The main problem with this view is that it places an entirely unsupported first creation/first Fall narrative into Christian doctrine. To be blunt – it is making stuff up. The Bible does speak of the fall of Lucifer and a third of the angels, but there is nothing to indicate that this Fall took place as part of some first creation earth that was then destroyed and recreated. We must be careful about taking such liberties with the scriptures, because there could be no end to the assumptions or distortions that could be carried out to conform to secular notions, leaving us with a doctrine that is built on the spirit of the age instead of the unchanging word of God. An alternative to the Gap Theory is a belief that the days of creation do not represent literal days, but instead entire ages of earth’s history. This allows them to draw out creation to fit a timeline that matches up with that of the secular view of the age of the earth. But in doing so they are denying the literal reading of the Bible. Each description of the day refers to it in terms of an evening and a morning. You really have to strain against the words clearly spelled out in the text to accommodate any kind of indefinite and lengthy time period. Once again, I direct you to the warning about bending scriptures to fit a worldview. Does a 6-day creation sound unbelievable? It most certainly does. But no more than raising someone from the dead. You have to ask yourself – do you believe in the power of God or don’t you? If you cannot bring yourself to believe in the literal 6-day creation that he clearly describes, how can you believe in his plan for salvation? If you are going to start to twist the Bible and deny it right from the very start, you might as well just put it down and find something else to believe in. It is ok to have doubts and questions. But you must have faith as well. We Christians have been put in a false trap of having to defend creation as merely faith while evolutionists claim absolute truth. The fact is, they are operating from a position of faith too. They are engaging in theoretical science, not observational science. Theoretical science requires faith in a series of assumptions and conclusions you draw based on extrapolations from observations. Darwin saw variations in species while visiting the Galapagos Islands and extrapolated those observation to create a theory that humans evolved from simple organisms. Not a single scientist was alive to observe the creation of the universe or the rise of the first living creature. Everything they offer in the realm of creation is a theory and we are learning more and more that there are flaws in their theories. Christians must understand what they are dealing with when it comes to evolution. It is not an honest form of science. There are certainly honest scientists trying to chase down and prove aspects of the theories related to evolution. But Christians need to understand the underpinning of the evolution movement before we give any more ground and make any more changes to our doctrine to comply with its assumptions. The late 1700’s and early 1800’s was a time of revolution against monarchies. Many revolutionaries viewed the Bible as supporting monarchies, so they sought to discredit it. They used observable occurrences like erosion to extrapolate the age of the Earth back millions of years instead of the commonly held Biblical view of roughly 6,000 years. Out of respect for “science” Christians did not push back against this view and instead tried to incorporate it into Genesis by creating the “Gap Theory” described earlier. This re-dating of the age of the Earth opened the door for Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, as it allowed what he claimed to be the necessary time for the gradual process of evolution to take place. While there are still many flaws and mathematical improbabilities concerning the scope and complexity of evolution even at a current alleged age in the billions of years, the Theory of Evolution absolutely could not stand if the Earth were only 6,000 years old. Therefore, it was and remains essential for evolutionists to prop up an age theory of billions of years. This is what I mean when I say that evolution is not an honest form of science. It started out with an agenda to discredit the Bible. It should be noted that Christianity was not anti-science at that time, nor is it now. Virtually all the prestigious institutions of higher learning were founded by Christians. But the spirit of revolution made the Bible a target and scholars who owed their education to Christianity began to turn against it. Darwin had just finished seminary studies and had plans to be a minister before he came across Charles Lyell’s “Principles of Geology”, a book that advocated for an earth that was millions of years old. This watered seeds of doubt that had already been planted via other exposures he had to ancient earth theories during his studies. So you see how the failure of Christians to stand for the Biblical 6-day creation when challenges first emerged snowballed into Darwin’s divergent path which led to science being put at odds with the claim that humans were made in God’s image. I will devote a separate post to the flaws in the theory of evolution. Right now I want to frame the nature of the debate. You need to understand the gravity of standing for a 6-day creation. Satan is a master of sowing seeds of doubt. He did it with Eve in the Garden of Eden. He first got her to question what God said: “Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Genesis 3:1 Compare that to secular scientists coercing Christians to question whether God really meant 6 days when he said 6 days. Next Satan convinced Eve of an outright contradiction to God’s word: “And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die.” Genesis 3:2-4 Compare that to secular scientists convincing Christians that the entire creation story as described in the Bible is wrong and their Big Bang Theory and Theory of Evolution are the truth. Lastly Satan convinced Eve that she would be like God, determining for herself that which was good and evil. “For God knows that in that day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5 Science’s attack on Biblical creation did not rise up in the face of compelling scientific proof. It was based on a desire to seize the godlike power to define good and evil. Monarchies claimed rule by divine right. In America, revolutionaries found a path to reconcile Christianity with revolt against a king by pointing out his abuse of authority and appealing to the rights God bestows to all humans. In places like France, revolutionaries took a different path and turned against both the Monarchy and the religion that helped to prop it up. Science became weaponized against religion, first in the name of bringing political freedom to the people, but over time it became a perceived vehicle to bring freedom from the moral judgements contained in the Bible. If you disprove the veracity of the first chapter, what value has anything that follows it? If you think you are entering a scientific debate, you are wrong. We are fighting a theological worldview. It is a viewpoint that does not just dismiss the idea of God because they feel the evidence is against him, but rather it is a viewpoint that hold the concept of God in contempt, because it calls into question their moral judgments, or more precisely, their choice to be their own God. You will see in future posts how the deck has been stacked against creationism and how much of what you thought were facts are either outright lies or one-sided presentations that ignore a more plausible creationist explanation. Eve had the choice between trusting in the words of God and trusting in the words of the serpent. She chose poorly. Let us not repeat her mistake.
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The other day I saw a clip of a popular evangelist with a very large following of young people giving a message that Christians should completely disavow the Old Testament and focus only on the Gospel of Christ. His justification was that there are elements of the Old Testament that are too difficult for Christians to defend or reconcile with modern science, so rather than expend any further effort, they should just abandon the majority of the Bible. His logic is that by freeing Christians from doctrines that are at odds with the secular world, they will have more credibility when attempting to share the Gospel. He could not be more wrong.
For starters, how many aspects of the Gospel can be reconciled with the secular world’s perception of modern science? Are we to abandon Genesis because we find it difficult to defend a 6-day creation and yet cling to a story of a man rising from the dead? Are we to ignore the Great Flood and Noah’s deliverance because we find it hard to explain how all those animals fit in the ark and yet effectively articulate a tale of a man who turned water into wine, walked on water, and feed the masses with two fish and five loaves of bread? Or will this wise teacher next tell us to abandon the outlandish miracles of Jesus and just focus on his parables and the wisdom of his teaching? I don’t mean to single this individual out, and it is for that reason that I am not naming him, for I am sure he is well-intentioned in his desire to spread the Gospel. But his message is dangerously misguided, and he is not the only one spreading it. It is true that Christianity represents a New Covenant with God that replaces the Levitical doctrine of the Old Testament. Jesus came as the ultimate sacrifice to wash away the sins of the world, replacing the old order of animal sacrifice, that at best could only cover sin, not take it away completely. It is correct for Christians to focus on the message of salvation through Jesus. But that message begins in the Old Testament, not in the New Testament. The coming of Jesus was prophesized repeatedly in the Old Testament. It is the knowledge of these prophesies that allowed him to gain a following. The people were looking for a savior because the Old Testament scriptures told them to expect one. There would have been no forum for Jesus’s ministry without the set-up that took place in the Old Testament scriptures. Indeed, Jesus referred to the words of the prophet Isaiah when the followers of John the Baptist asked if he was the Messiah: “Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Matthew 11:4-5 Jesus is referring to the following prophecy from Isaiah: “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.” Isaiah 29:18 Do you think the Old Testament laws are too restrictive and need to be amended for our modern world to accept things like homosexuality, transgenderism, or sex outside of marriage? Do you think Old Testament prophesies are just a bunch of nonsense not worth trying to understand or explain? Consider what Jesus said: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-19 Jesus repeatedly refers to people, laws, and events from the Old Testament. Does that mean we should edit the New Testament to remove those references for fear of getting drawn into uncomfortable debates with non-believers? Without the laws of the Old Testament there is no need for salvation and therefore, the entire Gospel would be meaningless. The life events and teachings of Jesus are profound, but they are ultimately meaningless in a world that denies the Old Testament. Without Old Testament prophesies, he is just another child born in Bethlehem. Without Old Testament prophesies, he is just another wise teacher speaking clever parables. Without Old Testament prophesies, he is just another rebel crucified by the Romans (if he even gains enough of a following to rise to that level). The problem when you start twisting scripture or blocking it out to fit modern “norms” is that everything then becomes up for grabs. In the end, you will never win through such compromise. Your faith will keep getting chipped away, little by little, until you are clinging to a belief that is entirely hollow and unrecognizable. The answer in the face of scriptures that are difficult to understand and explain is to first trust in their truth and then dig in and do the hard work of understanding them so that you can properly defend them when challenged. Up until recently I was guilty of denying the literal 6-day creation and trying to reconcile scientific claims of an earth that is billions of years old with the Genesis account of creation. But the more research you do, the more doubt is cast on the accuracy of scientific methods for setting dates. I would encourage you to check out Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis on YouTube to gain a sound Biblical understanding of creation. In my next post I will begin a series focusing on some of the aspects of scripture that are difficult to explain. The First Amendment freedoms of this country are responsible for every significant cultural and political movement (good or bad) that has occurred since our founding. How much longer would slavery have endured if not for the right of the Abolitionist Movement to freely express their opposition to that inhuman institution? How much longer would the treatment of African Americans as second-class citizens have persisted if voices like those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had never been allowed an audience? How much longer would women have had to wait for the right to vote if the Suffragettes had been silenced?
Change in this country has occurred because vocal minorities have been allowed to speak freely, worship freely, assemble freely, petition the government without fear of reprisal, and have their point of view reported on by a free press. This hasn’t always been carried out as perfectly as the Founders envisioned, but overall these freedoms have allowed meaningful change to take place in our country. Change that may not have occurred or would have been much longer in coming, had the majority been able to silence voices of opposition. The Progressive Movement has had as its purpose enacting change. Interestingly enough, racial equality was not always one of those changes, as early Progressives like Woodrow Wilson and Margaret Sanger were intensely racist. But other changes, from abortion rights, to gay marriage, to the expanded role of government in every aspect of our lives have been made possible through Progressive activists using First Amendment rights to persuade the majority to accept what had previously been minority viewpoints. But now that Progressives have achieved or are within the grasp of achieving every significant cultural and political victory they sought to achieve, they are actively working to shutdown freedom of expression. They won over culture through provocative books, movies, and TV shows that challenged the values held by the majority in this country. Now Amazon is banning books that defy certain aspects of the new culture. Movies and TV shows all tow the new cultural line and any stars, writers or directors who dare to voice an opposing view run the risk of being blacklisted. Universities that once used to be forums for debate and bastions of free expression when run by Conservatives, now have become no-go zones for anything that challenges the orthodoxy of the Progressives who have taken them over. The Free Press has devolved into nothing more than propaganda arms for the political parties, where objective truth has been replaced with spin and commentary. Try being a scientist with a differing view on climate change. Try being a psychologist who believes that transgenderism is a mental disorder that should be treated with therapy instead of surgery. Try being a doctor or a nurse that is opposed to performing abortions. Trying being a comedian who tells jokes that target anyone beyond Trump and his basket of deplorables. If the various cultural and political revolutions the Progressives carried out had faced the same stifling censorship there would be no mainstreaming of homosexuality, no acceptance of a growing Muslim influence, no tolerance for any viewpoint that contracted the Judeo-Christian majority. For all the criticism that Christians get for being bigoted and uptight, we have shown ourselves to be far more accepting and open-minded (perhaps to a fault) than the Progressives who have taken over our culture. And this brings me to the current debate over Social Media. The Big Tech companies have made themselves part of our daily lives. Through free offerings and engaging platforms, they have accumulated a massive following of users that transcends cultural and political lines. Need an answer to a question? Google it. Have a hot take about last night’s debate? Tweet it. Want your friends and family to see the new car you just bought? Post it on Facebook or Instagram. Are you an up-and-coming performer? Upload a video to YouTube. Want something delivered next day or want to read a book right now? Find it on Amazon. So many of these tech platforms drew us in because they were free, fun, and easy to use. But they weren’t really free. They have cost us our identities. These companies have been compiling every piece of data they possibly can on us, from the demographic information we willingly turn over when we register, to our search habits, our viewing habits and anything else they can glean from our various posts and interactions. This information is a marketing professional’s dream and it is a valuable commodity, so much so that all these companies are among the wealthiest in our nation without charging a dime for use of their service. But like so much else, they are run by Progressives. And like everything else, once the Progressives achieve power, they begin to use that power to shut down any opposition to them. Anyone who has watched the uniformity of ideology on college campuses or in the media, should not be surprised by the growing elimination of diverse opinions on Social Media platforms. The debate has now become whether Social Media should be regulated as a utility. Others suggest that they should have to declare whether they are platforms or publishers and lose any legal protections if they show themselves to be publishers making editorial decisions regarding what is allowed on their platforms. Regulation will not stop the silencing of opposition, as Progressive ideology is interwoven in Federal Bureaucracy. The platform vs. publisher argument will just force them to admit what they are and then force the hands of everyday Americans to decide if they want to continue to participate in a forum that is hostile to their beliefs. In the end, many will probably continue to use such platforms. Others will look for alternatives that may arise. But in the end we will continue to become an even more divided nation – adding politically segregated Social Media platforms to our already politically segregated print and video mediums. And that is the true legacy of Progressivism. In the name of trying to make America a better place, it is making us worse. Not because all the causes they have championed have been bad (though many have), it is what they have done once they have gained power. They are seeking to close and lock the door behind them. They arrogantly believe that their plans are the final and best solutions for the current problems facing the country. And they blindly believe that they will have the appropriate answers for any future problems that will arise. The refuse to tolerate any point of view that calls their point of view into question. In doing so they deny Americans access to a full spectrum of ideas and they limit opportunities to find common ground and restore a sense of unity. What they fail to understand in their hubris is that there will always be dissent – even to the most wisely conceived ideas. If dissent is not allowed a reasonable outlet, then it turns into something festering and ugly. Something that must either be dealt with through re-education camps or pogroms. Or something that grows into a violent revolution. That is why reasonable people of every political, cultural, and religious background must stand for our First Amendment freedoms and accept no encroachment upon them. Banning hate speech may seem like a fine idea until social norms shift and suddenly the things in which you believe are deemed hateful. It is better to be offended than to face the prospect of being silenced. And for those who think that silencing is a good idea, ask yourself how far are you willing to go and what ramifications are you willing to unleash? If you don’t think your ideas are capable of standing up against a challenge, then you should ask yourself if they are worth supporting in the first place. “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling, the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
“I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.” Daniel 7:7-8 “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.” Daniel 7:35 “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. “And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? “And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. “It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:1-8 These visions by Daniel and John describe the future leader that is commonly called The Antichrist. Daniel sees him as a tiny horn rising up in the final ten-nation world empire. John sees him as the ten-horned beast in its entirety, the culmination of the pagan world empires into one final Satanic empire led by an individual possessing supernaturally evil powers. These visions tell us some key things about The Antichrist. He will come from the final ten-nation empire. Previous passages lead us to believe that this empire is some kind of revived Roman Empire. We are also told that this leader will blaspheme the name of God. We already know that the ten-nation empire will have a pagan religious system. However, I think that it will quickly evolve into a unified Messianic religion centered on the prophetic teachings of Judaism, Islam, and what I believe will be an apostate Catholic Church. This will also draw in New Age believers so that the entire world, having been rocked by the bizarre mass disappearance of the Rapture and the unfolding disasters of the Tribulation, will be seeking a single supernatural leader to usher in an age of peace. The Antichrist will be that leader. He will become famous by brokering a peace treaty with Israel and its enemies as Daniel describes: “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.” Daniel 9:27 One week in prophetic terms is 7 years. It refers to the final 7 years of the prophetic timeline for Israel that God had revealed to Daniel. A change occurs in the leader who brokers this seven-year treaty at exactly the mid-point of the treaty. In an act of blasphemy, he desecrates the Jewish temple and declares himself to be God. It is at this point that he turns not only against the Jews, but on any others who refuse to worship him. “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” Revelation 13:11-18 As I described in a previous post, I believe this second beast, or false prophet, will be an apostate Pope. He will declare The Antichrist to be the Messianic leader all the religions have been waiting for and as such he will declare him to be God. Satan will give this false prophet supernatural abilities to perform miracles in the name of The Antichrist. What you see is Satan setting up his own unholy trinity with himself as the Father, The Antichrist as the Son who comes to reign on earth, and the false prophet who takes on a role similar to the Holy Spirit. We can already see the technological developments that are in place to create the oppressive world that John describes. A lifelike robot or deep fake AI image could become the image of the beast. A switch to total electronic banking could make it so only those with an approved computer chip or “mark” can buy or sell. Much has been made about trying to decipher The Antichrist’s identity using the code 666. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew letters have numeric values tied to them. Over the years many have tried to come up with combinations that would reveal the name of The Antichrist. Among the most popular is using the Hebrew conversion to come up with Nero Caesar. The infamous Roman Emperor was indeed evil and a great persecutor of Christians. It is possible that The Antichrist claims to be a reincarnation of Nero, hence the reference to the deadly wound that was healed. However, it is probably more likely that The Antichrist will have his own unique name whose numeric values will add up to 666 in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew. I don’t think our time as Christians is best served trying to chase down various alpha-numeric calculations to try to prove that The Antichrist is some contemporary figure of whom we are suspicious for whatever reason. Nothing we can do will stop his rise to power, as it has been ordained by God to fulfill his purposes. Indeed, both Daniel and John reveal that he will be allowed to reign in a state of blasphemy for three and half years. Daniel describes it two ways. First as the saints be given over to his hand for “a time, and times, and half a time” with time meaning one year – so one year, plus two years, plus half a year equaling three and a half years. He also describes The Antichrist launching his campaign of abomination at the exact midpoint of the seven-year covenant, which would leave three and a half years in his reign. John says that the beast will reign forty-two months, which equals three and a half years. I don’t expect any current Christians will actually see the emergence of The Antichrist. I do believe he is alive and working his way into a position of power even now due to the convergence of other prophetic events. However, I don’t think he will reach the point of definitive identification until after the Rapture. So rather than get caught up in trying to figure out the identity of The Antichrist or deciphering which ten nations will comprise the final world empire, let us focus on the remarkable convergence of prophetic events that is taking place. 1. Israel has been reborn and the generation that saw this rebirth will not die off until Jesus returns. In biblical terms, that generation has at most 9 years left. 2. The Gospel has been spread throughout the entire world. 3. The remnants of the Roman Empire exist today in the modern EU, although some kind of reorganization must take place to create a ten-nation kingdom. 4. There has been a world-wide focus on creating a peace deal between Israel and her neighboring countries. I expect such a deal to be signed no later than 2021, since it must be for seven years and the generational prophecy related to Israel runs out in 2028. The Anti-Christ will be the one brokering this deal and he will be from the ten-nation final world kingdom. 5. The conditions that existed in the days of Noah are very much part of our current world. We have lost focus on God. Most of us are willfully blind to the convergence of prophetic events leading to the coming wrath of God. Our wickedness is great – from the evil of abortion to our embrace of all manner of sexual perversion. And we are playing God by redefining marriage and gender and manipulating the genetic code. Jesus said that no person would know the day or hour of his arrival, but we would know the signs that his coming is drawing near. We are now seeing such signs. It is important that we Christians spend whatever time we have left spreading the Gospel to the lost, so that they too may share our hope and rejoice at the return of the King of Kings. “You, O king, were watching and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron, and partly clay.
“You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. “This is the dream, Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all – you are this head of gold. “But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” Daniel 2:31-44 The above verses are the details Daniel revealed to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar regarding a dream the king had. Much like the beasts described in Daniel’s other prophetic vision, the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream describes the world empires in terms of parts of a statue of a king. As Daniel describes, the gold head is the Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar. The silver chest and arms are the Persian Empire that defeated Babylon. The bronze belly and thighs are the Grecian Empire of Alexander the Great that conquered Persia. The legs of iron are the Roman Empire. The stone that strikes the feet and collapses the entire statue is Jesus. It is interesting to note that just as the statue had two legs of iron, Rome reached a point of division into a Western and Eastern Empire, with the Western Empire being based in Rome and the Eastern Empire based in Constantinople (modern Turkey). A division also occurred in the religion of the empire (after it converted to Christianity) with the West following the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the East establishing the Orthodox Christian Church. Both cultures claimed to carry on the mantle of Rome. The German title Kaiser means Caesar, as does the Russian title Czar. In the year 800 Pope Leo III bestowed upon Charlemagne the title Emperor of Rome and crowned him with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. This crown was used to crown several of the Holy Roman Emperors. Napoleon Bonaparte received the Iron Crown in 1804 when he was consecrated by Pope Pius VII and became Emperor of France. Napoleon founded the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown in 1805. Emperor Franz I of Austria re-established the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown after it had collapsed following the defeat of Napoleon. The Austrian Empire endured until World War I ended it in 1918. Hitler attempted to revive the notion of a Roman Empire. The term “Third Reich” represents Hitler’s belief that his Nazi regime was a continuation of the Holy Roman Empire. The assertion being that the original Holy Roman Empire was the First Reich and the unified German Empire that emerged under Otto Von Bismark was the Second Reich. The German Empire and Nazi Germany both used the Iron Cross as a symbol and medal of honor. As far as the East goes, the claim of Russia as successor to the Eastern Roman Empire was asserted when Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, married Sophia Paleologue, the niece of Constantine XI, the last Eastern Roman Emperor. The coat of arms of the last imperial dynasty of the Eastern Roman Empire with its double-headed eagle is also very similar to the coat of arms of the Russian Empire. This same symbol was adopted as the coat of arms of the Russian Federation in 1993 following the fall of the Soviet Union. The coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation also incorporate a double-headed eagle. The reality of a Western and Eastern division persisted throughout the history of Europe and continues to our current time. Indeed, the aftermath of World War II gave rise to the Iron Curtain, separating Western Europe from Communist Eastern Europe. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, there still persists a Russian sphere of influence over the East while the West is united in the form of the European Union and NATO (though the West has extended its influence further east). So what we see is a divided Roman Empire that never really ended, but just transitioned into different states of being over the centuries. Throughout it all you have references to “iron”. And it continues into our present time. In 1950 the groundwork for the European Union was laid with the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community. This was just two years after Israel officially became a nation. Both events were made possible by World War II. In 1957 The Treaty of Rome created the European Economic Community. This paved the way for greater political integration, which eventually led to the modern European Union. I would also note that some of the symbology of the EU, both on some of its currency and in sculptures, depicts the consort of Zeus, Europa riding a bull (the form Zeus took when he first encountered Europa, according to mythology). This serves as a not so subtle link to the imagery of John’s vision of a woman riding a beast. There are two points to make in regard to the EU, however. First, it currently has 25 member nations, which greatly exceeds the ten described by John and Daniel. Second, its capitol is in Brussels, not Rome. I believe we will see a restructuring of the EU in the very near future. We already have the Brexit movement underway in which Great Britain is trying to leave the EU. Once this is accomplished, other nations could follow. However, I think the key event that will drive a reorganization of the EU will be the Rapture. I think the chaos that follows that event will be a game-changer. I think when all is said and done, the strongest ten nations will unite and form the final empire described by John and Daniel. They will also move their capitol to Rome. One must also take into account the clay that is mixed with iron in the feet and toes of the statue Daniel described. I believe this is a reference to the growing Muslim population in Europe. Just as iron does not mix with clay, so to are we seeing conflict between the native populations of Europe and the increasing Muslim population. After the rapture, the population of Europe will be a mix of atheist/pagan native Europeans and Muslims. I believe any remaining Jews will flee to Israel. I also think that there will be enough of an apostate Catholic leadership remaining to form the basis of a new pagan religion that will rise to power alongside this ten-nation kingdom. I am not saying that all Catholics are apostates. I am saying there are most likely Cardinals who care more about power than Christ who have lost their way and will be left behind after the Rapture. Pope Francis himself has issued some worrisome statements that make one question his belief in the exclusivity of Christ as the means for salvation. Why do I think the Catholic Church will serve as the basis for the final pagan religion? Throughout its history the Catholic Church has shown itself to be more concerned with political maneuvering than Christian doctrine. It also has bestowed a level of deification on the Virgin Mary that is very much in-line with the goddess worship of pagan religions. Indeed the Roman Catholic Church borrowed from several pagan traditions in order to quickly transition the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianity. But most of all there is this from the vision of John: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” Revelation 13:11-12 The description of two horns like a lamb creates the impression that the religion is Christian in appearance, but the doctrine is Satanic. I believe the Catholic Church is the best candidate to carry forward the trappings of Christianity after the Rapture, while transforming into something Satanic in the name of political expediency. Based on the imagery that John describes, it sounds like what happens is that a ten-nation confederation comprised of elements from the ancient Roman Empire will rise to power. In doing so, they will embrace a pagan religion that will be in constant conflict with the growing influence of the Muslim religion in Europe. Not long after their rise to power, a strong leader will take over their confederation. He will at first work to bring peace among the competing groups, but he will ultimately proclaim himself to be god and he will be affirmed by the false prophet (the Second Beast described by John). This false prophet will most likely be an apostate Pope. At this point, the ten-nation kingdom will renounce the pagan religion and wipe out all those who practice it so as to have no competing claims to the godhood of the Antichrist. This is what John describes in the vision of the Harlot being made desolate. I will describe the rise of the Antichrist in greater detail in the next post. “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
“Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. “And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.” Revelation 13:1-3 The beast John describes represents both a summary of former world empires and the final empire that will arise in the Last Days. He goes on to describe it in more detail in the following verses: “So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth. “I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. But the angel said to me, Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. “The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen and faithful. “Then he said to me, The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:3-18 There is a lot going on in all the verses I have quoted. Let’s begin by addressing the composite nature of the beast John described. To do that, I will refer back to the prophet Daniel: “And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. “And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: Arise, devour much flesh! “After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.” Daniel 7:3-7 The four beasts that Daniel saw represent four world empires. Bible scholars have determined that based on the symbology, the lion represents Babylon and the bear represents the Medo-Persian Empire which conquered Babylon. The leopard represents Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire. The four wings symbolize the speed at which he conquered the known world and the four heads represent the four kingdoms that arose after his untimely death: the kingdoms of his generals Seleucus, Cassander, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy. The fourth beast represents both ancient Rome and the final world empire. Rome is different from the other empires in that it was never officially defeated and replaced by another empire. It is also different in the respect that it switched from a pagan system of religion to Christianity. One might say that the beast went into hibernation and will awaken again in the Last Days. This is another aspect of the Church Age. Just as God paused the timeline of Israel, he also paused the timeline of the final pagan world empire. We have already seen how Israel has been revived and is on the brink of seeing its prophetic timeline restarted. In a moment I will reveal signs that the Roman Empire is undergoing a similar resurrection. But first let’s continue the examining the beast in John’s vision in Revelation. You will note that it has characteristics of a lion, bear, and a leopard. It also has ten hours. So what we see is all of the world empires rolled into one vision. Next we have the seven heads, which we are told have a dual meaning. In one respect they represent seven kingdoms. Five are fallen. All prophecy must be viewed through the prism of God’s relationship with Israel. There are five fallen ancient empires that crossed paths with Israel – Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. John is told the sixth head “is”, meaning that it is the empire of his current time, which would be the Roman Empire. The seventh is not yet come and will continue only a short time when it does. This seventh empire will be the ten-nation revived Roman Empire. It is the wounded head that is healed. The other thing the seven heads represent are the seven mountains upon which the Harlot sits. The Harlot represents all the pagan religions that were the belief systems of the ancient world empires. These religions rose to power on the back of these conquering empires, hence the imagery of the woman riding the beast. The final pagan world empire – Rome – is a city that was built on seven prominent hills. So what you have is an illustration of all the ancient world empires and their pagan religious systems. The cycle of pagan world empires was paused close to the same time God paused his prophetic timeline for Israel and started the Church Age. This explains the mystery of the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. When God enacts the Rapture and ends the Church Age, this will pave the way for the return of the final pagan world empire, described as the beast rising out of the bottomless pit. This empire will be a confederation of ten nations, as illustrated by the ten horns. It will also be a revival of the Roman Empire because it is a maturation of the fourth beast in Daniel’s vision. So is there evidence of a revival of the Roman Empire in our modern age? I will discuss that in my next post. “But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”
Matthew 24:37-42 Jesus describes the time of his Second Coming to be like the days leading up to Noah’s flood. He speaks of a society that is utterly blind to the disaster that is about to overtake them. I imagine some of them probably ridiculed Noah as he worked day after day building a massive ship in the middle of dry land. And today we have a parallel situation as more and more voices speak of the Second Coming of Jesus and the terrible time of tribulation that is drawing near. Yet most of society is completely unmoved by the warning, to the extent that they even hear it at all. We instead go about watching or favorite TV shows, debating the final season of Game of Thrones, or rooting for our favorite sports team. Jesus goes on to speak of those who will be taken and those who will be left behind in what appears to be an obvious reference to the Rapture, which I described in a previous post. Just as Noah and his family were taken up into the safety of the ark, we Christians will be taken up to the safety of Heaven just prior to the beginning of the Tribulation. I have noticed more and more Christians spreading the word of the Rapture, but sadly many people are ignoring or rejecting this message and will be left behind. But it is not just this willful blindness to the pending judgment of God that marked the days of Noah. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5 The culture of Noah’s day had become completely wicked. How different is our culture today than it was just a generation earlier? We have gone from mainstreaming homosexuality to actively celebrating it and we have redefined God’s definition of marriage in the process. We have completely turned away from God’s teachings on relationships and sexuality, whether it be through divorce, premarital sex or pornography. Everything about our culture has been hyper-sexualized. Men are now claiming to be women and women men. We are completely redefining God’s two genders into an infinite number of genders limited only by the imaginations of those creating them. Some are refusing to “assign” a gender to a child at birth, instead letting the child decide what they want to be, regardless of the truth of their biology. Some children are transitioning to opposite genders whether their parents agree with it or not, as government and medical officials conspire to provide them with hormone therapy and body-altering operations. But nothing is more wicked than our culture’s embrace of abortion. With millions of unborn children already dead, the debate has reached the point where virtually an entire political party in America is advocating the killing of infants only moments from birth and in some cases, immediately after birth (or after having survived an abortion procedure). We are no longer arguing over some mysterious line of when a human life begins, but actually admitting that a child is being killed, but justifying it under the guise of reproductive rights for women. What cannot be lost in all of this is the hatred Satan has for God. This hatred is focused most keenly on the pinnacle of God’s creation – human beings. All the wickedness I just described has at its core the destruction of the family unit and an end to the perpetuation of the human race. Satan champions homosexuality because it is a relationship that results in no human offspring. Satan has championed gender confusion because it leads to individuals destroying their biological ability to reproduce. Satan has championed the sexual revolution because it has severed sexual pleasure from reproduction. Satan has championed abortion because it is the ultimate destruction of humanity – mothers willingly killing their unborn children. There is no greater form of wickedness. But there is an ancient attack against the very core of God’s creation that is re-emerging, and it is one that had reached epidemic levels in the days of Noah: “There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6:4 “So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Genesis 6:12-13 As strange as it sounds, the first verse above describes angels having intercourse with mortal women. A case could be made that all forms of mythology – Greek, Nordic, etc. – derive from this event where heavenly beings bred with human women. The corruption spoken of in the second verse is the corruption of the human genetic code that resulted from this forbidden union. The fallen servants of Satan and their offspring were carving out kingdoms on earth, conquering and proliferating their hybrid genetic code to the point where the true human DNA created in the image of God was facing extinction. That was the reason for the flood – to put an end to Satan’s attempted hijacking of creation. The line of Noah had remained true to God and as such they had not corrupted their genetic code. That is why God was able to salvage humanity through Noah and his family. We are seeing a similar corruption in our current age. It is taking shape in two forms. The first is outright manipulation of the genetic code. It is currently being pursued under the benevolent guise of eliminating genetic predispositions to disease and birth defects. But it will be impossible to limit it to that once perfected. What will result will be everything from vanity enhancements – preferred eye color, hair color, etc. – to attempts to extend the human lifespan indefinitely. The temptation will be to splice in elements of non-human DNA if the benefits are profound. We already see such Chimeric dabbling in certain scientific tests to grow human replacement organs in animal hosts. The second form of corruption facing us is Trans-humanism. This phrase refers to a coming convergence of human biology with man-made technology. From bionic limbs to microchip implants to enhance memory and increase intelligence, the union of human and machine appears to be rapidly approaching. There is talk of minds that will be connected directly to the Intranet and even the possibility of downloading your mind so that it can later be uploaded into a humanoid robot with the possibility of living forever. It is my belief that the infamous Mark of the Beast will be an implantable microchip. But it will be much more than a credit card embedded in your hand or forehead. It will be something that actually recodes your DNA, transforming you into a being in the image of Satan rather than the image of God. That is why there is no redemption for those who take the mark. This brings us full circle to the very act that brought about the Fall of Man – the desire to be as God. In our desire to make our own laws to live by and then modify our DNA to live forever, we are actually fulfilling Satan’s desire to be like God. We are becoming his creations and no longer God’s. But just as God did with the flood, he will cut Satan’s plans short, only this time he will do it with seven years of intensifying destruction until Jesus returns to claim his rightful throne. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:14 The above words were spoken by Jesus when his disciples asked for a sign of his Second Coming. This is one of several signs that Jesus gave. This sign carries no ambiguity whatsoever. Once the gospel is preached in all nations, the end will come. We have reached the point where the gospel has reached all nations. It started with the disciples of Jesus spreading the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, the Roman Empire, which had previously persecuted Christians, became a powerful vehicle for spreading the message of Christ. This led to the Holy Roman Catholic Church which kept Christianity alive even as barbarians tore the Roman Empire apart. The Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther and others corrected the course of Christian doctrine after centuries of corruption had turned the Catholic Church into an oppressive political force. As the great European Empires rose and started to explore and colonize the world, they took Christianity with them. Innovations in transportation and communications technology facilitated the spread of Christianity. From steamships to jet planes, from the printing press to the Internet, the ability for Christians to spread the gospel has increased exponentially. There is no corner of the world beyond the reach of the gospel. Even closed societies like North Korea and Islamic Republics like Iran have been unable to stop the message of Christ from finding its way into their nations. The Church Age was intended to last as long as it took to fully spread the gospel. When the Soviet Union fell and Communist China opened its economy to America, there was an opportunity for one final great push of Christian evangelism to an enormous group of people who had been living in restrictive, largely atheist countries. But now we are seeing a contraction in Christianity. China is cracking down on Christianity. The rise of Islamic extremism is growing, wiping out Christian communities in the Middle East and threatening those in Africa and Southeast Asia. Even the great missionary nations in Europe have seen Christianity turn to a fading tradition, replaced by secularism and an influx of Muslim immigrants from the war-ravaged Middle East. And America, the greatest Christian nation the world has ever seen, is seeing a waning influence of Christianity in its culture. The fact that we have now reached this turning of the tide in Christianity appears to be an indication that the Church Age is drawing to a close. The gospel has been spread throughout the world and now, as Jesus said, the end will come. The fact that this is happening even as Israel has been restored as a nation and the end times prophecies related to it are falling into place create a convergence of prophetic fulfillment that goes beyond coincidence. In my next post I will discuss another sign of which Jesus spoke that further substantiates this convergence. I recently saw an old video of actor Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones) giving a speech to the 2012 graduating class at Bennington College. It was a wonderful speech, combining an excellent mix of realism and inspiration. You can find it on YouTube if you are interested in seeing it. But one thing that struck me was when he said one of the greatest gifts his parents gave him was forcing him to make his own way once he graduated from college.
That statement is so profound and yet it flies in the face of how society treats young people today. More and more we are coddling young adults and keeping them in perpetual adolescence (and in some cases childhood). Such an approach does them no favors in the long run and carries grave implications for society in general – as we are starting to see. The fact is, the values we are imprinting on young people and the attitudes we are indulging are the blueprint for the demise of a civilization. They run counter to everything that make individuals and societies stable and prosperous. The prosperous society in which we live was settled by courageous individuals who braved a long ocean voyage to find freedom in a new land. It was founded by people who risked everything to stand against the greatest world power of their time. Its boundaries were established by pioneers who loaded their families and few worldly possessions into wagons to stake their claim in the wilderness. It was built by immigrants who left the world they knew to come to a new country seeking nothing but an opportunity to prosper. And all of this has been and continues to be defended by men and women who storm beaches, race across battlefields, sail to the ends of the earth and fight in the skies. The Greatest Generation that fought and won World War II did not just magically appear. They were raised by parents who gave them the tools to fulfill their collective destiny. And this blueprint for greatness has not been lost beyond our reach. Too many of us have simply refused to follow it. Courage, hard work, perseverance, and self-reliance – these are the traits that have built this prosperous society and all successful societies before it. They are the traits possessed by all those who have built every major corporation, created every life-changing invention, and achieved every crowning moment of human endeavor. Today we have politicians falling all over themselves to offer free things to young adults (although nothing is truly free, it is just a matter of who pays for it). We have parents who are indulging their children to the point that they are stunting their maturity and destroying their prospects of achieving the greatness locked inside them. It’s not that this generation of young adults is somehow intrinsically different from those that came before it. What is different is how they were raised. Instead of fostering courage, we have cultivated fear in young people – fear that Climate Change will destroy the planet, fear that a political party will oppress you, fear that the police will kill you if you have the wrong skin color, fear that the patriarchy will keep you down. In place of hard work we have put entitlement. You have a right to free health care. You have a right to free education. You have a right to free child care. You have the right to a job. You have the right to a guaranteed income if you can’t find a job to your liking. Perseverance has given way to immediate gratification. Everyone wants to run the company or reach some other pinnacle of success in their chosen field immediately, or at the very least before they are thirty. If they can’t reach that goal then it is not their fault, but rather racism, sexism or homophobia. When failure inevitably comes, they can’t deal with it because they’ve been raised in a bubble of self-affirmation filled with participation trophies. Self-reliance has been replaced with demands for dependency. Every previous generation has managed to find their way in the world and raise a family, often leaving the next generation better off than them. But somehow this generation of young adults feel that they are incapable of carrying out their role in this cycle without a massive social safety net. So now they cry out for Socialism, not fully understanding what it is, drawn in by the siren call of free stuff but blind to the rocks of disincentivization and oppression that have destroyed every previous society that has tried it. The fact is, these traits of success work in conjunction with one another. It takes courage to be self-reliant. It takes courage to believe that your hard work will pay off. It takes courage to persevere and pick yourself back up each time you fail. It is hard work to stay brave. It is hard work to persevere and keep trying over and over again. It is hard work to rely on yourself instead of seeking handouts from others. It takes perseverance to keep working hard. It takes perseverance to stay brave. It takes perseverance to remain self-reliant. Self-reliance is the heart of courage. Bravery is not something that someone can give to you. It comes from within, either through belief in yourself or a belief in God. Self-reliance fuels hard work and perseverance because when your fate is determined by your own efforts and not contributions from others, you will be more likely to work harder and keep trying to improve your station in life. This nation cannot survive a system of upbringing that continues to reinforce dependency, immediate gratification, entitlement and fear. If we continue to imprint future generations with those values, our society will fail. If you truly love your children, you must let them find their own way, even if their road starts off in a difficult place. But you must also be sure to teach them the values of courage, hard work, perseverance, and self-reliance. A successful society is one comprised of successful individuals. We must give each generation the tools to succeed and then give them the freedom to use them. The sequence of events in the Revelation lend to a Pre-trib Rapture. First, there is the ascension of John into Heaven:
“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” Revelation 4:1 The description of a voice like a trumpet calling John up to Heaven bears similarities to Paul’s description of the calling up to Heaven during the Rapture. And John is not the only human in Heaven. He sees 24 elders before the throne of God (presumably the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel and then the 12 apostles of Jesus). And after he witnesses the Lamb (Jesus) open the six seals that begin the Tribulation (the first being the unleashing of the Antichrist as depicted as a rider on a white horse), he sees this: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! “All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying: Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever, Amen. “Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from? And I said to him, Sir, you know. So he said to me, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9-14 I believe John is seeing resurrected Christians in this scene. The elder says that they have come out of the great tribulation. The Greek interpretation of “out of” in this verse does not necessarily mean to come out of the Tribulation as it is already underway, but can be interpreted as being taken out of the way of the Tribulation, as the Greek “out of” has both a time and space component to it. This view of being spared from enduring the Tribulation is bolstered by Jesus’s message to the Church in Philadelphia: “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” Revelation 3:10 Jesus’s messages to the early Christian churches carry a dual purpose. They describe conditions that will be mirrored at the end of the Church Age. Each message contains either a warning or a promise of reward resulting from the behaviors exhibited by the early Christian churches that will manifest again as the world enters the End Times. The Book of Revelation is a book of prophecy for the Last Days, therefore to think that the messages to the seven churches only apply to the literal churches of John’s day is not congruent with the context of the book. So to summarize, the Pre-trib Rapture view is supported by three significant Biblical truths: 1. The Church Age needs to give way to a return to Daniel’s prophetic timeline for Israel to complete the final appointed seven years. The Rapture ends the Church Age. 2. The Holy Spirit must be temporarily removed from Earth to enable the Antichrist to ascend to power so that he can confirm the covenant with Israel to begin the final seven-year countdown. Since the Holy Spirit resides in all Christians, all Christians must be removed to open the way for the Antichrist to rise. The Rapture removes the Holy Spirit from the Earth. 3. The Tribulation is God’s appointed time to judge the wicked on the Earth and to turn the hearts of the Jews to accept Jesus as their Messiah. Its purpose is not to test the faith of Christians. There will be later converts to Christianity who will get caught up in the horrors of the Tribulation and their faith will be tested, but that is ancillary to the true purpose of the Tribulation. I think there are many well-intentioned Christians who simply hold different interpretations of the scriptures that lead them to “Mid-trib” or “Post-trib” views of the Rapture. I find it sad that they have denied themselves the great hope and comfort of being spared from the Tribulation that Jesus himself conveyed through his message to the church in Philadelphia. I believe that all true Christians will be Raptured, regardless of whichever view they hold regarding the timing. But God’s intent is that we live in the hope of being spared from wrath, not living to prepare ourselves to live through it. I do think there are others who hold these views for less than honorable reasons. I think there are some who promote “Mid-trib” and “Post-trib” views to make a profit by peddling survival equipment to Christians who are led to believe that they will have to find a way to live through the chaos of the Tribulation. I think there are other Christians who have fallen into a trap of pride, whereby they feel they have to prove something to God by suffering through the Tribulation. It is almost as if they view the Rapture as too easy of a way out. One almost gets the impression that they would be disappointed if they missed out on the Tribulation. To those people I say be careful what you wish for. And to those who would say it is better to be prepared for the worst, I would say there is nothing that will prepare you for the horrors that will be unleashed in the Tribulation. No amount of “prepping” will be sufficient to cope with the devastation coming our way. And if you think you can face Roman Coliseum-style persecution, I would ask you to reflect on the stands you are currently taking to show your Christian faith. Perhaps your faith is that strong. But if you are the type of person who can’t bring yourself to stop shopping at your favorite store that actively undermines Christian values, I’m guessing you might find it hard to resist the Mark of the Beast. My point is, rather than fear the worst, let us put our faith in God to deliver us from the wrath to come. There is abundant proof that God spares those he loves from the wrath he unleashes on the wicked. Noah and his family were delivered from the Flood. Lot was delivered from Sodom. The Jews were spared from the plagues God set upon Egypt. In the words of Paul: “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 We will be spared from the wrath of the Tribulation. A convergence of signs is pointing to the likelihood that the time of tribulation is coming soon, which means our great escape may be drawing near. In the next post I will delve into the other signs that Jesus said would mark the approach of his Second Coming. |
Joseph Blaikieis a Christian writer whose books include "Why You Don't Believe in God and Why You Should" and "You are Never Too Far Gone for God". To learn more about Joseph Blaikie visit: Amazon.com: Joseph J. Blaikie: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle 
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