Watchman Blog

The “Interfaith Alliance” and Islam, followup

2011-07-11T18:56:00-07:00

CARM (Link) - Matt Slick (July 12, 2011)

An organization called “The Irnterfaith Alliance” promoted a “Faith Shared” project where churches across the U.S. would do things like have a Muslim Imam read the Quran at the Christian Pulpit.

The churches that participated were listed on the Faith Shared website. They consisted of United Methodist churches, some liberal Lutheran churches, a few that were Catholic, several that were United Churches of Christ, along with Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Unitarian universalist churches. There was a Baptist church and one church called “The Church of our Savior.” Undoubtedly, these “churches” are so liberal they probably aren’t Christian. After all, why would any Christian church want anti-Christian literature read from the pulpit, the place where the truth of God’s word is supposed to be preached?

Why? The answer is simple; they have ignored God’s word and trampled underfoot the gospel of Christ so they might follow the liberal call of political correctness and social tolerance. Fortunately, there were less than 75 churches that participated. But even one is too many.

The Faith Shared website has this to say.

The “Faith Shared event as a way to engage faith leaders on the national and community levels in interfaith events intended to highlight respect among people of different faiths.” 1
“this project will not only serve as a model for tolerance and cooperation and promote local faith leaders as champions of such, but it will also create a concrete opportunity to build and strengthen working ties between faith communities moving forward.” 2
“Faith Shared asks houses of worship across the country to organize events involving clergy reading from each other’s sacred texts. An example would be a Christian Minister, Jewish Rabbi and Muslim Imam participating in a worship service or other event.” 3

As noble as Faith Shared’s intention is to promote tolerance, it is also extremely misguided and profoundly unbiblical.

The Christian church is not for reading anti-Christian material like the Quran which denies the Trinity, denies Christ’s deity, denies his atonement, and denies his resurrection. To promote such reading at a Christian pulpit is to violate God’s word.

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean,’” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).

The Christian church is for the edification of the body of Christ, for the presentation of God’s word, and the administering of baptism and communion. It is not supposed to be a place of liberal social activism practiced by those who deny God’s word, as is often the case of the churches listed above who routinely deny the essentials of the Christian faith.

Consider what God’s word says is the purpose of the pastors and teachers.

“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ,” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

This is a high calling. In fact, God warns about doing what the “Faith Shared” project promotes. Consider what God says in Revelation 2:18-20.

“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: 19 ‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. 20 ‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.’”

God warns about a false teacher who leads God’s people astray. Is not Islam a false teaching when it denies the true God, the true Christ, and the true Gospel? When churches promote the reading of the Quran by Imam’s at Christian pulpits, is this not a toleration of false teaching and helping to lead astray God’s people? Yes it is!

Anyway, there were two churches in my area, Boise Idaho, that participated in what I’ll call “False Teaching Sunday.” I wanted to do something about it, so I wrote up a tract and went to one of two churches that were here in Boise, Idaho. I only did one church because I didn’t have enough people to do two churches. A friend named Shawn helped out for an hour, and later in the morning my wife and daughter showed up. We stood out in front of the church on the sidewalk and passed out the tracts to cars as they were entering and leaving the church. I’d say we handed out about 75 tracts.

Most people were not happy with what we were doing. I was verbally rebuked more than once. A woman said “shame on you.” A man told me to go away. Several people said that I was “wrong” for passing out literature. But, the majority of people seemed apathetic.

Okay, so what did the information we passed out say? If you want the full text go to http://carm.org/interfaith-alliance. But, let me just list some of the quotes I provided in the tract that, I hope, informed the readers of what Islam really teaches.

Battle for Allah

“Those who believe do battle for the cause of Allah; and those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols. So fight the minions of the devil. Lo! the devil’s strategy is ever weak” (Quran 4:76).
“O Prophet! urge the believers to war; if there are twenty patient ones of you they shall overcome two hundred, and if there are a hundred of you they shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they are a people who do not understand” (Quran 8:65).
“O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination” (Quran 9:73).
“O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil)” (Quran 9:123).

Don’t take Jews and Christians as friends:

“O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people” (Quran 5:51).

A Man’s Seed Comes From His Chest:

“Now let man but think from what he is created! He is created from a drop emitted-Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs” (Quran 86:5-7).

Salvation by works:

“And He answers those who believe and do good deeds, and gives them more out of His grace; and (as for) the unbelievers, they shall have a severe punishment,” (Quran 42:26). Also, “Then those whose balance (of good deeds) is heavy, they will be successful. But those whose balance is light, will be those who have lost their souls; in hell will they abide,” (23:102-103).

Lying is okay when furthering Islam.

“Muhammad bin Maslama got up saying, ‘O Allah’s Apostle! Would you like that I kill him [Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf]?’ The Prophet said, ‘Yes,’ Muhammad bin Maslama said, ‘Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Kab).’ The Prophet said, ‘You may say it’” (Hadith Vol. 5, Book 59, #369).

The Quran says it is okay to beat wives:

“As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them, refuse to share their beds, beat them...” (Quran 4:34).

Muhammad said that women are deficient in intelligence:

“O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women).” They asked, “Why is it so, O Allah’s Apostle?” He replied, “You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you.” (Hadith Vol. 1, Book 6, #301).

Obviously, Islam teaches many things contradictory to the Bible. It’s a real travesty that those who are supposed to be following Christ would promote the reading of Antichrist material from the pulpit in an attempt to promote harmony and peace. This is nothing more than compromise and the promotion of teachings that contradict Scripture.

The Bible says,

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14).

God calls us to be separate from the deeds of darkness, and this includes separation from the teachings of Islam which should never be promoted from any Christian pulpit. †

See also Interfaith Alliance and Islam

1. faithshared.org
2. faithshared.org
3. faithshared.org

Ezekiel 37 and End-Times Bible Prophecy: Fulfillment Before Our Very Eyes

2011-06-28T23:53:00-07:00

Christian Post (Link) - Blog: John Claeys (June 28, 2011)

Frederick the Great of Prussia, who had been listening to Voltaire’s agnostic ideas, asked one of his court chaplains: “If the Bible is true, it ought to be capable of very clear and succinct witness. Generally when I ask if the Bible is true, I am handed some long scholarly volume which I have neither the time nor the patience to read. If your Bible is true, give me the proof of it in one word.” The chaplain answered in this way: “Sire, Israel.”

Israel is the one-word demonstration of the veracity of Scripture because God has chosen the Jewish nation to be at the center of God’s kingdom plan. In addition, the miracle of Israel demonstrates the trustworthiness of Scripture. After all, the Bible predicted Jews would be scattered from the land—which occurred in 70 A.D.—and then would be brought back to form a nation.

Never before in the history of human-kind had a nation been dissolved and then, after many years (in Israel’s case, almost 1,900) resurrected—until it happened with Israel. Never before had a language been lost to the world and then resurrected—until it occurred with Hebrew, the language of the Jews of Israel.

Israel truly is a miracle and is one of the very greatest proofs that the Bible is true. But because Israel is at the very center of God’s prophetic plan, recent occurrences in Israel may also be strong indicators that we are nearing the return of Christ. Specifically, two occurrences indicate this: 1) the migration of Jews into the land of Israel; and 2) Israel’s recent possession of Jerusalem. We begin with the migration of Jews into the land.

For example, 7,500 Jews of the lost tribes of the northeast will migrate to Israel later this year. These Jews, which have been located in India, will go to the “Promised Land” after “their peers from South America” migrate to Israel.

Jews making aliyah (migrating to Israel) before the rapture of the Church and the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period occur are all part of the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37. In that chapter, God predicts that, following the scattering of the Jews (which occurred in 70 A.D. when the Romans besieged Israel), He would bring Jews back to the land of Israel in preparation for the salvation of Israel. Israel’s salvation will occur during the seven years prior to the return of Christ and will be fulfilled at the initiation of the kingdom of God, following the return of Christ to the earth.

At the end of the nineteenth century, God began to fulfill Ezekiel 37, which predicts that God would bring Jews into the land of Israel in order to prepare for the salvation of Israel. Israel’s spiritual salvation will take place within the seven-year tribulation period prior to the return of Christ, while Israel’s physical salvation will occur at the return of Jesus to the earth. Thus, the fulfillment of Jews immigrating into the land of Israel would indicate the nearness of the day of the Lord (the seven-year era, initiated by the beginning of the end-times treaty with Israel). So, how close is that fulfillment?

Prior to Israel becoming a state in 1948, the Jewish population grew to 600,000 in five great waves of immigration. More than 3 million more have followed, and Israel’s Jewish population now stands at 5.5 million. Of the world’s population of just over 13 million Jews, Israel’s is the biggest portion, having surpassed America’s in 2006.

In referring to the immense number of immigrants to Israel in comparison to the smaller number of citizens, Sergio DellaPergola, a prominent demographer at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, announced: “There is no place in the world where the number of immigrants is five times the number of the people who were there. It is unprecedented.”

However, since the occurrence of that great influx, the immigration into Israel has achieved a slowdown. In fact, according to DellaPergola, “Israel is nearing zero growth from immigration.” This may indicate that Israel is nearing the number of Jews God has appointed to be in the land when the day of the Lord begins. If so, the day of the Lord may be right around the corner.

Another important indicator of the nearness of the day of the Lord is Israel’s possession of Jerusalem, and this is another part of the miracle that is Israel. In June of 1967, Israel was attacked by seven Arab nations, outmanned so badly it appeared to be the end of the Jewish nation. However, miraculously, Israel not only won that war in six days, but it obtained land from three different nations, as a result.

Part of the spoil of that war for Israel was the regaining of Jerusalem. “The city of God” became Jewish for the first time since 70 A.D.!

When God put Jerusalem back into the hands of Israel in 1967, it fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy of Luke 21:24, where he announced that the Jewish capital would be under Gentile control “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” It seems that “the times of the Gentiles” refers to God’s focus upon Gentiles for salvation; in fact, this must be the identification of “the times of the Gentiles.” How do we know?

According to Luke 21:24, “the times of the Gentiles” are connected with the possession of Jerusalem. As mentioned above, Jerusalem came under Gentile control in 70 A.D. when the armies of Rome besieged Israel. Why did that occur? It was due to Israelite hardness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result, God’s judgment came upon Israel, part of which involved the chasing of Jews from “the city of God.”

This means that Israel’s current possession of Jerusalem signals that God has begun to turn his attention toward Israel for salvation. Since that salvation will occur during the seven years immediately preceding the return of Christ to establish God’s kingdom upon the earth, the initiation of that seven-year period cannot be far away. (Israel’s possession of Jerusalem is also necessary for the rebuilding of the temple, which will occur during the first half of that seven-year era, as per the treaty of Daniel 9:27, as well as indicated by Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:4. For much more on the riveting events predicted by the Bible during this future seven-year period, see Apocalypse 2012: The Ticking of the End Time Clock—What Does the Bible Say?)

This means the return of Christ is growing close. So, keep looking up! †

Revolution in the Middle East and its connection to Revelation

2011-02-07T18:48:00-08:00

The Examiner (Link) - Nicole Horrelt (February 7, 2011)

In response to the recent wave of Arab revolts and current uprising in Egypt, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his February 4 Friday Prayer sermon in Tehran, welcomed the “revolution and awakening” and interpreted in detail his ideological analysis and aspirations with regard to the “explosion of sacred anger” in the Middle East.

Khamenei, identifying himself as a ‘brother in religion’ to the Arab people, concluded that the recent wave of unrest shaking the nations was an “earthquake” triggered by the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and condemned the Mubarak regime for siding with the West; choosing to support the ‘Zionists’ rather than the Palestinians, pointing out that since Camp David a great divide was created between the Egyptian people and the government.

During Friday prayers the Ayatollah addressed the Egyptian protestors saying “the uprising of the Muslim Egyptian nation is an Islamic and freedom-seeking movement. I, in the name of the people and government of Iran, send salutations to you and pray to God for your complete victory. Of you and your uprising I am filled with pride.”

Egypt’s main opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, rejected this claim of an Islamic revolution by the Ayatollah just hours after Khamenei’s remarks on Friday. Editor in chief Khaled Hamza of Ikhwanweb, the Muslim Brotherhood’s official English website, stated that the current uprising in Egypt is ‘a revolution of the Egyptian people and is by no means linked to any Islamic tendencies, despite allegations nor can it be described as Islamic.’ Such confusion!

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian Regime share a common goal despite their differences, uniting them together with many of the Muslims who are protesting, and that is the hatred for the nation of Israel and for those who support them.

This revolt and ‘resistance’ against the existence of Israel is at the spiritual heart of the Middle East conflict - not the economy, which no doubt plays a role, but suggests a man-made fix could end the disputes. Rather, an entire ideological shift would need to occur to change the spiritual condition and ambition of Israel’s neighbors. Thus, it is essentially a ‘spiritual battle,’ and the current situation threatens to disrupt more than the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, given that the Islamic agenda (see Article 27: Hamas Covenant) proceeds and war threats in the region become more than rumors: There are several prophesied events concerning Israel and the nations aligned against Zion: Zechariah 12:1-3, Psalm 83, Isaiah 17:1, Ezekiel 38-39, Joel 3:2

Joel C. Rosenberg explained in his February 4 blog post:

If Egypt falls into the hands of the Radicals, this will be a disaster of historic proportions. Egypt and Iran would be the Twin Towers of the epicenter, two nations that have collapsed at the hands of the jihadists who are determined to rebuild the Islamic caliphate and usher in the End of Days, even if many in our foreign policy establishment don’t recognize this.

In many ways, Egypt and Iran could not be more different. Egypt is ethnically Arab and spiritually Sunni. Iran is ethnically Persian and spiritually Shia. Traditionally, Arabs and Persians have hated each other. So have Sunnis and Shias. But now they are coming together for two common objectives:

To surround Israel, destroy the Jews, and capture Jerusalem for Islam.

To surround the Arabian peninsula, destroy the “apostate” House of Saud regime, and capture control of Mecca and Medina

This is why the Iranian regime is so excited by what is happening in Egypt, and determined to help where and how they can.

A MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) dispatch dated October 6, 2010, a translation from Arabic to English of a weekly sermon by Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammad Badi’, solidifies this common unifying factor between the Ayatollah’s claim of Islamic Revolution and that of the Muslim Brotherhood and makes a bold statement of Islamic, anti-Zionist intentions outside of the mainstream media’s attention:

“According to the Islamic shari’a that Allah [has bequeathed] to mankind, the status of the Muslims, compared to that of the infidel nations that arrogantly [disdain] his shari’a, is measured in a kind of scale, in which, when one side is in a state of superiority, the other is in a state of inferiority...

“Many Arab and Muslim regimes have not managed to build up their peoples, due to their weakness and their dependence [on the West], and in many cases they have begun to work against the interests of the [Muslim] nation... The lands of the Arabs and of Islam are now plagued with problems because [the Arabs] have lost their [strength of] will, leaving it to the Zionist enemies and their supporters. [The Arab and Muslim regimes] have forgotten, or are pretending to have forgotten, that the real enemy lying in wait for them is the Zionist entity. They are aiming their weapons against their own peoples, while avoiding any confrontation with these Zionists and achieving neither unity nor revival for their nations. Moreover, they are disregarding Allah’s commandment to wage jihad for His sake with [their] money and [their] lives, so that Allah’s word will reign supreme and the infidels’ word will be inferior... ”

It is important to note that many government officials in the allied international community act as though blinded by the Muslim Brotherhood’s core intentions as though they can’t read the writing on the wall, choosing to blur reality and portray the MB as a ‘Moderate’ regime. It reminds this writer how the International community stood by numbly while Hamas was voted in as a legitimate governing body - all the while Hamas boldly declaring in their charter their will to destroy Israel.

Here is the writing on the wall:

The Muslim Brotherhood’s stated mission is as follows:

Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.

Does the Islamic agenda, with its will to destroy Israel at its core and pursuit of a world under sharia law, play a role in the end times?

Absolutely. When the nation of Israel - Jerusalem becomes the focus of the world’s attention and is surrounded by threats of war - and false peace (plans) and world dominion is lusted for by such an organization, the book of Revelation is worth the time and study.

Bible Prophecy Teacher Joseph Chambers writes, ‘This is a big matter. Taking this earth and the entire realm, which he has invaded, back from Satan is at the heart of this Book of Revelation.’

Revelation Chapter 5

The Seven-Sealed Scroll of Revelation

John says,

“1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?

3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.

4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.”

The Seven-Sealed Scroll is a title deed to the earth! The Book of Ruth makes clear that only a Kinsman redeemer could redeem the land.

John was weeping knowing no ‘man’ (Adam had forfeited his dominion of the Planet Earth) could be found qualified to redeem the deed. But! Fortunately, Mercifully, there was One Who was able, and willing:

“5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

7 And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.

8 And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”

The LORD Yeshua Ha’ Mashiach is the Lamb of God who was slain for the sins of the world. He has risen from the dead and He is returning to Earth again - HE is the Kinsman Redeemer!

The opening of the seven seals in the Book of Revelation initiates a series of judgments upon the earth: seven seals followed by seven trumpet judgments, seven bowl judgments, ending with the LORD Himself appearing to rescue the remnant of Israel at the Battle of Armageddon and to destroy the Antichrist (a wicked world leader who will come to power) and his False Prophet (who will perform signs and wonders and persuade the world to worship the antichrist). The Messiah will then set up His Millennial Kingdom on this earth with all those who have not followed after the antichrist and the believers who have returned with Him from Heaven and He will rule the earth from Jerusalem, Israel!

Before this, however, Islam should not be underestimated, for it does play a role - we read (Revelation 20:4) that those who refuse to follow the Anti-christ are martyred by beheading. We only know of one ‘religion’ that practices such form of execution.

This spiritually-rooted Middle East Conflict will not be solved by physical man-made means, although well-intended peace-making efforts should never be discouraged.

The Prophets of old and John spoke about these end of days and the future glorious Kingdom of the LORD and wrote them down thousands of years ago so we could above all, prepare our hearts for the LORD’s return.

In closing, the battle is essentially not between Arab and Jew, or flesh and blood, it is ultimately between Allah and Yahweh.

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Can evolution determine right and wrong?

2011-01-13T19:09:00-08:00

Creation Science Evangelism (Link) (January 13, 2011)

A critique of an article entitled “The Science of Right and Wrong” in the January 2011 edition of Scientific American.¹

The science of right and wrong

Scientific American has recently published an article on the science of moral issues, written by the atheist publisher and author, Michael Shermer. The purpose of the article—which quotes favorably from Sam Harris’s book, The Moral Landscape—is to claim that morality is something which human beings have acquired by a process of evolution. As one would expect in an article by an atheist, Shermer’s writings contain a number of presuppositions and logical fallacies.

For example, Shermer begins his article by declaring: “Ever since the rise of modern science, an almost impregnable wall separating it from religion, morality and human values has been raised to the heights.” In fact, the majority of scientists of the modern era were men who believed the Bible to be true—men such as Newton, Lister, Hooke, Boyle, Kelvin, Faraday, etc. All of these subscribed to a morality based not on naturalistic principles, but on God’s law.

The foundations for Shermer’s ideas of morality are deeply flawed. On the origins of morality, he states:

As a species of social primates, we have evolved a deep sense of right and wrong to accentuate and reward reciprocity and cooperation and to attenuate and punish excessive selfishness and free riding.

The first thing we should notice is that the statement relies on evolution, but assumes evolution to be true. This is the circular argument fallacy—or “begging the question.” The sentence does not seem to explain how this “sense of right and wrong” evolved, or why. If we assume that the first subordinate clause is the explanation, then it is not clear why being a species of social primates should cause a sense of right and wrong to develop.

No moral yard stick

This point becomes clearer when Shermer reports on some of his own moral convictions:

These examples are the low-hanging fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so it is easy for both science and religion to pluck the ripe ones and declare with confidence that such acts as, say, lying, adultery and stealing are wrong because they destroy trust in human relationships that depend on truth telling, fidelity and respect for property.

Leaving aside the clear allusion to Genesis, we see that Shermer has catalogued some behaviors that he considers to be wrong. But on what basis can they be declared wrong? Why is adultery wrong, for example? In evolutionary terms, surely multiple partners would spread genetic information more widely than monogamy.² If there is no external yardstick of morality, then there is no logical reason why any behavior should be considered wrong.

If human beings really were “a species of social primates,” then you would expect similar “morality” among supposedly related species. According to evolutionists, our closest relatives are chimpanzees—and especially the rarer, smaller chimpanzee known as the bonobo. Bonobos are noted for behavior that would, if it were found among humans, be described as promiscuity.³ So it makes little sense for an advocate of evolutionary theory to claim that adultery is wrong, when it has served bonobos pretty well in the wild.

Made in the image of God

A more objective analysis of the origin of right and wrong is found in the Bible, specifically in Genesis. Humans have not evolved from a common ancestor with bonobos, so the behavior of bonobos is not to be classed on the same moral grounds as human beings. Unlike bonobos, humans were made in the image of God, and the very first humans were given a law from God to obey, which they were capable of obeying or disobeying—not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 3 is a clear and objective account of the origin of sin. If we start with the presupposition of Genesis being true, it is much easier to understand why we live in a society comprised of people capable of noble acts (because of common grace), but frequent purveyors of dreadful sin (because of original sin). The moral yardstick is God’s law, as presented to us in His word. The failure of writers such as Shermer and Harris to take such a viewpoint into account shows that their view of morality is not only flawed, it is empirically erroneous. The obviousness of our sin, and its cause—the cause being disobedience of God’s law—points up the reason why we need a Saviour, and why the only possible Saviour is the “seed of the woman” promised in Genesis 3:15. †

Footnotes

Shermer, M., The Science of Right and Wrong, (Scientific American: January 2011)
See, for example, Infidelity: Is Monogamy Just a Myth?, ABC News website,
de Waal, F.B.M. (1995), “Bonobo Sex and Society,” Scientific American, March 1995, pp 82-88

The Fig Tree Has Budded

2010-12-13T21:26:00-08:00

Douglas Hamp (Link) - Douglas Hamp (December 2010)

Evidence from Matthew 24 that the Lord will return in the span of a generation from Israel’s Birth

As a boy I remember feeling the rush of the wind strike my face, the sky grow dark as ominous clouds rolled in and covered the sun. Then the sounds of the thunder could be heard in the distance and the sky flashed. It was a time of great anticipation and excitement. Even though the storm was several miles away, it was clear to all that it was coming. The end times can be likened a great deal to a coming storm. We can see the storm coming and feel its effect even though it has not yet arrived fully. So it is with the Lord’s return, the signs are evident even though the event itself has not yet arrived.

Concerning the time of the Lord’s return, Jesus’ disciples asked him: “what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” (Matthew 24:3b ESV). Jesus then began to describe the many things that would precede His second coming – many of which are being fulfilled before our eyes. Jesus said “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many,” (Matt 24:5). Since 1900 there have been many dozens who have either claimed to be Jesus or the Christ in one form or another. Some of the most notable are Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church and David Koresh of the Branch Davidian religious sect, Ariffin Mohamed from Malaysia and Sergei Torop from Russia.

He then spoke of wars, rumors of war and nation against nation.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows, (Matthew 24:6-8).

Only in the twentieth century have we seen the entire world at war not just once but twice. The projected death toll for the Second World War alone is upwards of fifty million people – a number unheard of before in human history. The past century could easily be classified as wars, rumors of wars, nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

There are many signs of the Lord’s second coming just as there were for his first coming and the Lord rebuked the leaders of his day for not picking up on the revealed signs that were evident of his first coming.

When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (Luke 12:54-56, emphasis mine).

Just as the signs of the coming storm were obvious to me as a boy, so should those leaders have known that their Messiah was coming. Jesus noted that they could easily and successfully forecast the weather by simply looking at the sky yet failed to see (or at least to accept) the Messiah in front of them. We too see the last days’ signs that Jesus spoke about are either happening or about to happen in our day.

Knowing the Times and Seasons

Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians wrote that believers could and should know the times and seasons of the Lord’s (second) coming since they were not in the darkness like others.

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness,” (I Thessalonians 5:1-5, emphasis mine).

Birth Contractions

Jesus likened all of the events mentioned above to birth pains by saying: “All these are but the beginning of the birth pains,” (Matthew 24:8). Just like for a woman in labor, the contractions will get closer and closer until finally the child is born, so it is if we were to consider today’s events in terms of giving birth, we might say that prophetically all that is left is to push the baby out. All that the Lord had said so far (discussed above) was a response to the disciples’ question “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

The Fig Tree is the Sign of His Coming

Jesus then gave an important sign to look for concerning his coming: the fig tree. The sign of his coming and the end of the age is the fig tree:

Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near–at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place, (Matthew 24:32-34, emphasis mine).

The Fig Tree Is Israel

There are two obvious questions concerning this parable: who or what is the fig tree and how long is a generation? The answer to the first question is unmistakably Israel. God clearly compares Israel with a fig tree. The following verses are given in chronological order.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season, (Hosea 9:10, emphasis mine).

Here God compares Israel to grapes and the fathers to fruits of the fig tree. Then in Joel He speaks of “my land” as being comparable to “my fig tree” again showing that Israel (both ethnically/nationally and geographically) is symbolized as a fig tree.

For a nation has come up against My land, strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white, (Joel 1:6-7, emphasis mine).

Next God shows Jeremiah a vision of baskets of good figs and bad figs. Note that both the good and the bad are representative of Israel (Judah). The “good” are taken out of the land, that is, out of danger, and the “bad” are left to be judged.[1]

One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: “Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. “And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’–surely thus says the LORD–”so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt, (Jer 24:2, 3, 5, 8 emphasis mine).

Jesus continues the correlation of Israel with a fig tree during the final stage of His ministry. Keep in mind that Jesus had been ministering in Israel for about three years when He gave this parable. Just like the illustration of God seeking good fruit from His vineyard and finding none in Isaiah 5:1-7, so too Jesus, had come in person expecting to find some good fruit and found little or none.

He also spoke this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down,’ (Luke 13:6-9, emphasis mine).

That Jesus had Israel in mind is confirmed at the end of the chapter when Jesus laments over Jerusalem because of their unwillingness to receive their Messiah and declares that their house is left desolate. Furthermore, the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem could in no way say “blessed is He…” so long as they were not living in the land of Israel (during the time of their exile).

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ (Luke 13:34-35).

The Cursed Tree

Jewish men were to present themselves before the Lord three times a year. Jesus came up to Jerusalem via Jericho on a number of occasions during the three plus years of His ministry in order to celebrate the feasts. There was a fig tree by the road (Matt 21:19) that He invariably must have seen on a number of occasions as He went up to Jerusalem. The day of the triumphal entry, when He came up from Jericho on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus must have seen the tree noting that there was not any fruit on it – just as the land owner in the parable found none. Coming into Jerusalem, He was hailed as the Messiah by the masses. He then drove out the money changers from the temple foreshadowing his coming pronouncement that Israel, like the fig tree, was barren. In the evening He set out for Bethany to spend the night with His friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus (Bethany was on the same road which came up from Jericho). Returning to Jerusalem in the morning, Jesus passed by the fig tree, noted that there was no fruit on it when there should have been at least some early fruit. Seeing that the tree was unfruitful, He then cursed it.

And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away. (Matt 21:19)

Thus, just like His parable of the fig tree, He had come looking for fruit from the Jewish leadership for over three years finding none. They were like the barren fig tree with no fruit was to be found and so He then pronounced judgment on the worthless tree causing it to die immediately which symbolized the nation. With all of that as our backdrop, we then come to the time markers that He gave us during the Olivet discourse, this time reading Luke’s account:

Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near, (Luke 21:29- 30).

When Jesus commanded them to learn a parable from the fig tree, they must have had swirling in their minds the recent events of the parable and the cursed fig tree. The Hebrew Bible (OT) background makes it clear that Jesus is likening Israel to the fig tree and just as the fig tree withered, so too would Israel soon be destroyed by the Romans.

Israel was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD and then again in 135 AD. After the second Jewish revolt they were warned not to return to Jerusalem upon the pain of death. They were then dispersed to the four corners of the earth – without a home land for nearly 1900 years. Furthermore, the curse appears to apply to the land itself as well. Rabbi Menachem Kohen of Brooklyn discovered that the land of Israel “suffered an unprecedented, severe and inexplicable (by anything other than supernatural explanations) drought that lasted from the first century until the 20th – a period of 1,800 years coinciding with the forced dispersion of the Jews.” [2] Journalist Joseph Farah, prompted by the research of Rabbi Kohen, later discovered that only after the Jews returned did the rain begin to come:

For 1,800 years, it hardly ever rained in Israel. This was the barren land discovered by Mark Twain. So-called “Palestine” was a wasteland – nobody lived there. There was no indigenous Arab population to speak of. It only came after the Jews came back. Beginning in A.D. 70 and lasting until the early 1900s – about 660,000 days – no rain.

I decided to check this out as best I could and examined the rainfall data for 150 years in Israel beginning in the early 1800s and leading up to the 1960s. What I found was astonishing – increasing rainfall almost every single year – with the heaviest rainfall coming in and around 1948 and 1967.[3]

Then after those many years and just as Isaiah had foretold, Israel was born in one day:

Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth[4] be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children, (Isaiah 66:8).

On May 14, 1948 Israel (the fig tree) declared independence and then was ratified as a nation by edict of the United Nations and literally was born in one day. 1948[5] becomes the year by which a generation can be measured against.

Early Christian Commentary Confirms Israel is the Fig Tree

Getting a “second opinion” is always advisable when there is a lot riding on a decision or when contemplating a new perspective. Thus investigating what early Christians thought about the fig tree parable would seem prudent. An early Christian writing, the Apocalypse of Peter, clearly identifies the fig tree as Israel and the time of its budding as the time of the end.[6] While we do not consider extra-biblical sources to be Scripture, they can occasionally serve as a type of commentary from early Christians. Scholars generally accept a date of composition[7] around A.D. 135. This is a significant date because the early Christians had seen Israel destroyed once in AD 70 under Titus who destroyed the Temple, killed upwards of a million Jews and took the rest as slaves. However, not all of the Jews were taken away and those that remained made a comeback.

Caesar Hadrian visited the city in AD 130 and had intimated that he might rebuild the city as a gift to the Jews. When he changed his mind and also outlawed circumcision, the Jews found themselves once again in a deadly conflict with the Romans a mere 62 years after the destruction of the temple. The Jews rallied behind a man named Simon Bar Koseba. Rabbi Akiva would later declare him to be the messiah at which point the Christians who had been helping in the battle left the non-believing Jews to fight for themselves. Hadrian squashed the rebellion in AD 135. He was so angry that he changed the name of the land from Judea to Syria Palestina and salted the land so that nothing would grow. Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina and a temple to Zeus would eventually be built on the ruins of the Temple mount. Hadrian also banished all Jews from the city on pain of death. With this in mind, to find a text that declares that Israel, which had been utterly decimated, would one day flourish again is truly incredible.

This text, which again, we are treating like a commentary on the Scripture (and not equal to Scripture), clearly states that when the fig tree has budded, the end of the world would come. The text has interpreted Jesus’ parable of the fig tree to be speaking of Israel. When Israel comes back as a nation, then the last days would come:

(learn a parable) from the fig-tree: so soon as the shoot thereof is come forth and the twigs grown, the end of the world shall come. […] Hast thou not understood that the fig-tree is the house of Israel? […] when the twigs thereof have sprouted forth in the last days, then shall feigned Christs come and awake expectation saying: I am the Christ, that am now come into the world. […] But this deceiver is not the Christ. And when they [Israel] reject him [the deceiver] he shall slay with the sword, and there shall be many martyrs. Then shall the twigs of the fig-tree, that is, the house of Israel, shoot forth: […] Enoch and Elias shall be sent to teach them that this is the deceiver which must come into the world and do signs and wonders to deceive.[8]

The correlation of the fig tree being Israel in the text is unequivocal. According to this text, Israel, likened to a fig tree, was cut down (twice in fact) and exiled (in agreement with the parable of the land owner in Luke 13:6-9). Thus the author clearly saw Israel removed from her land and the people no more. But the author firmly believed that they would come back as a nation: “when the twigs thereof have sprouted forth in the last days” and then the end will come in the days of their sprouting. Notice also that the two witnesses (Enoch and Elias) will come back in the days of their shooting forth and be killed by the false Christ (Antichrist). This text certainly proves that some in the ancient church interpreted the end times in a very literal fashion. However, it also demonstrates that Israel was considered to be the fig tree and that the shooting forth of its branches would happen in the time of the end and more specifically, at the time of the Lord’s coming. Thus we have ancient testimony that Jesus’ mention of the fig tree was a reference to Israel. Her putting forth branches and becoming tender was a reference to her rebirth in the last days which would also be the time of the two witnesses and the Antichrist.

All the Trees

We have seen that the fig tree represents Israel in the parable that Jesus told His disciples. No less than three prophets clearly used the fig tree as a representation of Israel. Jesus also did so in the parable of the land owner and the fig tree, He then cursed a fig tree and told the parable of the fig tree concerning the last days. However, when we read in Luke’s Gospel that Jesus also mentioned “all the trees” – just what are we to make of this? Jesus said to learn the parable of the fig tree and all the trees. We learned what is the Scriptural meaning of the fig tree, but what do “all the trees” represent? Sometimes when Jesus would tell a parable He would then give its interpretation. For example in Matthew 13:18, Jesus interpreted the meaning of the parable of the sower in which each ground represented a type of person and their particular spiritual condition. So it is with our parable and for the answer, we need to go to God’s Word.

Since the fig tree represents Israel as a nation, then we should expect that “all the trees” would represent nations as well. Looking in the pages of God’s Word we find this to indeed be the case. In fact, we find that trees are often used to represent people and especially nations in at least eight passages of the Tanakh (Old Testament) alone. We first encounter a parable of trees in Judges 9:7-16 where Jotham, a son of Gideon, addresses the men of Shechem who had just killed seventy of his brothers in order to follow his other brother Abimelech.

The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I cease giving my oil, With which they honor God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ “Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come [and] reign over us!’ But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, And go to sway over trees?’ “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come [and] reign over us!’ But the vine said to them, ‘Should I cease my new wine, Which cheers [both] God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ “Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come [and] reign over us!’ And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me as king over you, [Then] come [and] take shelter in my shade; But if not, let fire come out of the bramble And devour the cedars of Lebanon!’ Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him as he deserves, (Judges 9:8-16).

In Isaiah 10:33 God refers to chopping off “the tops of trees” as to those who are arrogant and will be “hewn down”. Similar imagery is used in the book of Ezekiel. God in Ezekiel 15:2-6 likens the wood of the vine to the inhabitants of Jerusalem which will be burned in the fire because they are useless (that is idolatrous). God uses the tree motif to speak of Judah being taken into captivity in chapter 17 as well. “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘A great eagle with large wings and long pinions, Full of feathers of various colors, Came to Lebanon And took from the cedar the highest branch. He cropped off its topmost young twig And carried it to a land of trade; He set it in a city of merchants,’” (Ezekiel 17:3-4). In 606/5 BC Nebuchadnezzar took some of the leadership of Judah into captivity – thus Judah is likened to the cedar of Lebanon and the highest branch represents the leadership, which probably included Daniel. We know this to be the case because God gives the interpretation “Say now to the rebellious house: ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its king and princes, and led them with him to Babylon,’” (Ezekiel 17:12).

God later in the chapter tells what He is going to do with the highest branches in contrast to what King Nebuchadnezzar had done. Whereas King Nebuchadnezzar made it a “spreading vine of low stature” (Ezekiel 17:6) God would set up a king and a kingdom that would be great among the nations. “On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a majestic cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell.“ (Ezekiel 17:23). God then makes reference to all the trees of the field, which represent the nations. Whether all the trees represent all the nations of the world or just the nations of the area is not clear. “And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the LORD, have spoken and have done it,” (Ezekiel 17:24).

Ezekiel 20:46-48 contains another example of nations represented as trees. However, perhaps the most telling of all is Ezekiel 31:3-15. There Assyria is likened to a cedar of Lebanon that was greater than all the other trees (which is to say nations). “Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field […] and in its shadow all great nations made their home,” (Ezekiel 31:5-6). God describes how Assyria, the cedar of Lebanon was greater than other kinds of trees though God would send another to cut it down.

‘The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, And the chestnut trees were not like its branches; No tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty. I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches, So that all the trees of Eden envied it, That were in the garden of God’. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have increased in height, and it set its top among the thick boughs, and its heart was lifted up in its height, therefore I will deliver it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations, and he shall surely deal with it; I have driven it out for its wickedness,’ (Ezekiel 31:8-11).

Daniel 4:10-11 and Zechariah 11:2 also offer more examples of rulers and nations represented as trees. With the background of the Old Testament, we can now turn back to the New Testament and find Jesus’ use of seed (Matthew 13:6, 40), vine branches (John 15:6) and trees (Luke 3:9; 21:29) to represent people or nations not surprising but very much in keeping with the Scriptures. Therefore, let’s look again at Luke 21:29 “Then He spoke to them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.’” The fig tree is Israel and therefore all the trees are other nations. The question then becomes which nations was He referring to?

The answer comes from the comparison with the fig tree; it was dried and then sprouted again. Israel was dried for many years and then came back to be a nation. It would appear therefore that Jesus was referring to other nations close to Israel which would also be reborn. What is astounding to discover is that all of the countries that border Israel came back to be independent nation states around the same time as Israel. The CIA World Fact Book discusses how Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt gained their independence all between the years 1943 and 1952 – all within five years of the birth of Israel.

Lebanon

Following World War I, France acquired a mandate over the northern portion of the former Ottoman Empire province of Syria. The French separated out the region of Lebanon in 1920, and granted this area independence in 1943.

Jordan

Following World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the UK received a mandate to govern much of the Middle East. Britain separated out a semi-autonomous region of Transjordan from Palestine in the early 1920s, and the area gained its independence in 1946; it adopted the name of Jordan in 1950.

Syria

Following World War I, France acquired a mandate over the northern portion of the former Ottoman Empire province of Syria. The French administered the area as Syria until granting it independence in 1946.

Egypt

Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt’s government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914. Partially independent from the UK in 1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty with the overthrow of the British-backed monarchy in 1952, (CIA World Fact Book, emphases mine).[9]

These countries, like Israel, did not exist as independent countries until 1943 and after. They were simply parts of the Ottoman Empire and then parts of the British Empire or a colony of the French. Their birth around the birth of Israel strengthens the significance of 1948.

What is a Generation?

We have determined what the fig tree represents and now what we must determine is just what is a generation. “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation [genea γενεά] will by no means pass away till all these things take place,” (Matthew 24:34). When considering this question we might first of all do well to remember that Jesus was not speaking Greek to His disciples but Hebrew, which is documented in my book Discovering the Language of Jesus. Not only was Jesus speaking Hebrew to the Jews of His day, which most certainly included His disciples, but according to what are known as the fragments of Papias, the book of Matthew was first written in Hebrew and then later translated to Greek.

Papias was one of the early Church Fathers who lived from 70 to 155 AD. The early church historian Eusebius notes that he “had the privilege of association with Polycarp, in the friendship of St. John himself, and of ‘others who had seen the Lord.’” (Eusebius 3.39.15) […] He says about Matthew (fragment VI) “Matthew put together the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.” (Eusebius, III, 39, 1) (Hamp, 2005 Discovering the Language of Jesus).

Given that Jesus was speaking Hebrew, the word that we ought to be truly considering is the Hebrew word dor (דּוֹר), which underlies the Greek word genea (γενεά) (the Greek Septuagint translates dor as genea). Dor is defined by Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon as “(1) an age, generation of men, as if the period and circuit of the years of life.” Brown Driver Briggs defines it primarily as “1. period, age, generation, mostly poet.: a. of duration in the past, former age(s)” and also as “2. of men living at a particular time (period, age).” Based on my own research where I examined the 79 times that word is used in the Hebrew Bible, the word should be defined as the period of a person’s life. In other word, generation is defined both as period of time and a group of people which cannot be separated. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) explains the meaning of generation as it relates to the entirety of a person’s life:

Occasionally there is a Hebrew word wherein etymology, as a route to discovery of ancient thought patterns, is all-important in discovering the true life-situation in which the word must be understood. Such is the case here. Authorities all agree that dor, the noun, is derived from dur, the verb. The simple primitive sense, not expressly found in any biblical text, is to move in a circle, surround. […] In this manner an original meaning of “go in a circle” […] provide[s] the basis for a word of important theological meaning. […] By a thoroughly understandable figure, a man’s lifetime beginning with the womb of earth and returning thereto (Gen 3:19) is a dor, (TWOT Dor).

While it is true that a new generation begins with the birth of one’s offspring, that still does not negate the fact that the length of a particular generation is the total lifespan. In reality, the Hebrew or Greek word is not that different from their English equivalent. If we talk about my parents’ generation it is the people group born around the similar time as them. I am not in my parents’ generation – I am the second generation. In fact, I was born some thirty years into my parents’ life. However, we should not define the length of a generation as the interval between the two but rather as the lifetime of a given person. After all, my mother is still alive and many people in her generation are too. Some people in her generation, like my father, have already passed on. However, there will be some that will live into their eighties and even a few into their nineties.

Let’s consider the following verses that show that the people group of a certain period of time all died: “And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation,” (Exodus 1:6 emphasis mine). The verse clearly was not talking about people in Abraham’s day or people in Moses’ day. It was the people group of a particular time that died – that is a generation. The Psalmist demonstrates a similar usage wherein he is exhorting those living at his time to not be like the generation (time of) their fathers: “And may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God.” (Psalms 78:8). Notice that generation is being used as both a people group (fathers) and also a time period (since fathers necessarily come before their progeny). Therefore, when the psalmist says “a generation that did not set its heart aright” he is talking about a specific group of people who lived at a specific time.

his is reinforced by Deuteronomy 2:14 where Moses discusses the time that was spent in the desert as punishment against the generation that rebelled against the Lord. “And the time we took to come from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp, just as the LORD had sworn to them,” (Deuteronomy 2:14). The generation was the lifetime (forty years plus twenty) of a group of men as derived from the book of Numbers in which God gives the minimum time of a generation [Hebrew: dor דּוֹר Greek: genea γενεά] as sixty years (twenty and above plus wandering forty years):

Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me… So the LORD’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation [LXX reads: genea γενεά] that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone, (Numbers 32:11, 13 emphasis mine).

Thus the minimum age of a generation is sixty years (forty years is never a generation in Scripture contrary to what many have claimed). However, there is another verse that provides a more average lifespan of a human being which is also the key to see approximately when the Lord will return for the second time, (a fact pointed out to me by Dr. Kenton Beshore, Sr.).

The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away, (Psalms 90:10).

The fullness of a generation being 70 or 80 years is striking when one considers that Moses, the author of this Psalm, lived to be 120 years old. Bible commentator Thomas Constable points out:

It is interesting that he said the normal human life span was 70 years. He lived to be 120, Aaron was 123 when he died, and Joshua died at 110. Their long lives testify to God’s faithfulness in providing long lives to the godly as He promised under the Mosaic Covenant, (Constable, Psalm 90)

It would seem that the Holy Spirit guided Moses to write of what a typical lifetime is, versus his (and other ancients’) lifetime.[10] We find further biblical evidence that a generation is a lifetime which is equivalent to 70 (or 80) years in Isaiah 23:15 which correlates: “seventy years like the days of one king.”

Modern Research Confirms Psalm 90:10

According to the CIA World Fact Book[11] the longest average life expectancy (by country) for 2009 was 84.36 years in the country of Macau. The Swiss had the 10th longest life expectancy of 80.85. Israelis ranked 12^th in the world and on average lived to be 80.73 years old, Americans ranked 49^th with an expectancy of 78.11 years and Guatemalans ranked 143^rd with an expectancy of 70.29. People in only 38 countries (out of 224) live less than 60 years on average.

Psalm 90:10 therefore provides a very realistic picture of how long a generation is. The vast majority of people (by nationality) on the planet live until they are sixty (185/224 or 82.5%). Fewer, though a majority still, live into their seventies (144/224 or 64.2%). However, only a fraction live on average into their eighties (22/224 or 9.8%).

Matthew provides our last clue in the beginning of his Gospel when discussing the number of generations from Abraham until Christ thereby demonstrating that generation (genea γενεά – the same word used in Matthew 24:34) signifies the lifetime of a person:

So all the generations [genea γενεά] from Abraham to David are fourteen generations [genea γενεά], from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations [genea γενεά], and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations [genea γενεά], (Matthew 1:17, emphasis mine).

Here we see that a generation was the lifetime of a person and not the specific amount of years though we have learned that the duration of a generation is anywhere from sixty years to eighty. We need to understand that generations overlap one another. When a father and mother have children a new generation is born, but so long as all the people born around their birthdates are living, their generation has not passed away. Think of it this way: the Baby Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) has not yet passed away. In fact, the oldest members would just now be reaching their mid 60’s. Certainly some of its members have passed away already, but the majority can expect to make it well into their 70’s and some into their 80’s. In the same way, the generation spoken of by Jesus will not pass away until all the things he mentioned take place. The following diagram depicts how generations overlap one another. The 1^st generation could be likened to the Baby Boomer generation. Generation X (2^nd Generation) was born toward the beginning of a Baby Boomers life (generation) but they are not of the Baby Boomer generation. Considering all the evidence we explored, I’d like to propose that the Baby Boomer generation is the generation that will not pass away until the Lord comes back.

1^st Generation (Total lifespan)
2^nd Generation (Total lifespan) overlaps 1^st
3^rd Generation (Total lifespan) overlaps 1^st and 2^nd

Which Generation?

So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near – at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place, (Matthew 24:33-34, emphasis mine).

The generation spoken of here must be the generation that would see all of the things that Jesus spoke of when the disciples questioned Him and specifically it would be the generation that would see the “fig tree budding”. Since we have seen that the fig tree was Israel in both the prophets and according to Jesus, then “this generation” must be the one that began at the commencement of the new state of Israel.[12]

The Fig Tree Has Budded

Thus we see Israel was a dried tree for about 1900 years and then miraculously the branch put forth leaves in one day on May 14, 1948. Jesus told us that when this happens His return is at the doors. He said that the generation that saw this would by no means pass away. A generation is the lifetime of a person and that is on average between seventy or eighty years. Thus, according to the above considerations we could write out our equation in the following manner:

1948 + 70 ≈ 2018

OR if by reason of strength

1948 + 80 ≈ 2028

The parable of the fig tree was the answer to the disciples’ original question at the beginning of the chapter:

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” (Matthew 24: 3).

The observant student of the Word has noted that this reference to when the end of the age will be is in seeming contradiction to Jesus’ own words in Acts 1:6-8.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth,’ (Acts 1:6-8).

This apparent contradiction is resolved however, when we consider just who Jesus was talking to – the disciples that He was speaking to in Acts were the same men who, only some forty days earlier, He had told what to look for at the end of the age. And the sign that He told them would definitively mark the beginning of the generation that would see the end was nothing less than the fig tree putting forth its branch and becoming tender. Thus, the solution is the fig tree. They asked a question which he had already answered for them – look for the revival of the fig tree (which Jesus had pronounced cursed). In other words, there was no point in looking for the end of the age so long as Israel was a dried tree! There was no point in looking for the second coming so long as the fig tree remained cursed (that is: not a nation). Only when it would become tender could the restoration of the kingdom occur. That is why Jesus told the disciples of what they would receive in the meantime (“but you shall receive power”) and what their task was to be (“and you shall be witnesses to Me”) until the revival of the fig tree and ultimately His coming. Therefore, until the fig tree (Israel) was revived, there would be no restoration of the kingdom to Israel – which is of course only logical: Israel cannot have the kingdom if they do not exist as a national entity (a dried tree). But within a generation (lifetime of a person) of the revival of the fig tree (Israel) the kingdom will be restored in the millennial/messianic era.

Occupy Until He Comes

We have seen that the biblical interpretation of the fig tree is clearly Israel. We have also seen that a generation is the lifetime of a person which according to Psalm 90:10 is generally 70 or 80 years. Whether or not the Lord is required to return within 80 years exactly we obviously cannot be dogmatic. Nevertheless, in light of the incredible accuracy of His first coming, we ought to be persuaded that the above dates are both reasonable and likely. The Lord’s second coming, therefore, appears to be between 2018 – 2028.[13] The beginning of the Great Tribulation (subtract seven years) then would most likely commence between 2011 – 2021.[14] Remember we are to know the times and the seasons yet Jesus said very literally that the day and the hour no one can know. The Lord’s second coming between 2018 and 2028 is seemingly the time and the season, but is not predictive of the day or the hour. In light of the events that are happening in numerous categories (economics, natural disasters, etc.) on a global scale, the Lord’s return within the 80 years from the reestablishment of Israel in 1948 appears almost certain. Nevertheless, no matter when the Lord returns, occupy until He does and tell others the good news of the gospel. Heed Jesus’ warning:

“Constantly be on your guard so that your hearts may not be loaded down with self-indulgence, drunkenness, and the worries of this life, or that day will take you by surprise like a trap. For it will come on all who live on the face of the earth. So be alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to take your stand in the presence of the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36 ISV). †

[1] This is analogous to the rapture in that the “good” are taken out of the land and the “bad” are left to be judged.

[2] Retrieved October 4, 2010 from: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=65288. Thanks to my friend Bob Rico for bringing this to my attention.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Could the earth be a representation of the UN?

[5] An interesting circumstantial confirmation of the 1948 date is found concerning the birth of Abraham. According to biblical chronology (reading from the Massoretic text) he was born 1,948 years after creation (Anno Mundi). While that calculation is based on the year of creation and not the Gregorian calendar, the same number is striking. Furthermore, the date of Abraham receiving the covenant in Genesis 15 was given 2,018 years anno mundi. Given that the birth of Abraham, the father of the nation, and the rebirth of the nation both occurred in the same year (on their respective calendars), is it possible that AD 2,018 (on the Gregorian calendar) will also be significant?

[6] My study of the Scriptures was not influenced by the Apocalypse of Peter – I in fact found it after I had written most of the chapter.

[7] Retrieved July 15, 2010 from: http://www.ntcanon.org/Apocalypse_of_Peter.shtml. The authorship of the work is uncertain though some suggest that it was Clement, Peter’s disciple since he is mentioned in the work itself.

[8] First published by the Abbe Sylvain Grebaut in Revue de l’Orient Chretien, 1910: a fresh translation from his Ethiopic text by H. Duensing appeared in Zeitschr. f. ntl. Wiss., 1913.

[9] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html

[10] If we understand from Genesis 15 that Abraham’s descendants will be afflicted for four hundred years and that they would come back in the fourth generation, then the maximum lifespan would appear to be 100 years – which again demonstrates that generation is the lifespan of an individual.

[11] Retrieved May 3, 2010 from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html

[12] A speech given by Benjamin Netanyahu May 16, 2010 at Ammunition Hill in honor of Jerusalem Day confirms that he is of the generation that is saw the rebirth of Jerusalem. Netanyahu was born in 1949 which makes him just one year younger than the nation itself. “We are the generation which was lucky enough to see our holy sites liberated and returned to our hands, and it is upon us to transfer this right to our children.” Retrieved May 20, 2010 from: http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=175392

[13] Thanks to my good friend Dr. Beshore for his valuable insights into these dates via personal communication.

[14] These dates seem to be confirmed extra-biblically by virtue of several discoveries: a massive Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun is expected between 2012-2014; there will be a series of four total lunar eclipses (tetrad) between 2014-2015 all of which fall on biblical feast days (as discovered by Mark Biltz) which potentially spells trouble for Israel; the all seeing eye on the back of the dollar bill (as discovered by Tom Horn) point to the coming of the antichrist between 2012 and 2016; both the Mayan and Aztec calendars have ending dates of 2012

The Fig Tree Has Budded Dec 2010

Prosperity Gospel Treads Fine Line Between Blessing, Materialism, Say Theologians

2010-10-29T23:38:00-07:00

The Christian Post (Link) - Michelle A. Vu (October 29, 2010)

There needs to be a clear distinction between true biblical prosperity and the gospel of materialism, said two African theologians who are experts in the area of prosperity gospel.

The message that God blesses those who give crosses the line from biblical into prosperity gospel when it becomes self-serving and is used to support the preacher’s extravagant lifestyle, said Kwabena Asamoah, the academic dean and associate professor of Religion and Pentecostal Theology at Trinity Theological Seminary in Legon, Ghana, at the recent Lausanne III conference.

Asamoah, who also served as senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., in 2004, defines prosperity gospel as “preaching, interpreting, teaching the word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord in a self-serving manner that places its emphasis on consumerism to suggest that the possession of material things, of those wealth are necessary indicators of general Christianity and God’s approval.”

“Prosperity is not alien to Scripture,” explained Asamoah last Saturday at the multiplex session titled, “Poverty, Prosperity and the Gospel.”

“God does promise to bless His people. But prosperity gospel distorts the blessing to mean only material blessing.”

The African theologian was joined by Femi Adeleye, associate general secretary for Partnership and Collaboration with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Adeleye’s special areas of interests are poverty and wealth, and the prosperity gospel.

Adeleye pointed to John 10:10, a verse often used to support material prosperity. He emphasized that the Greek word for life used in the Bible is zoe, which means life in the spirit and in the soul. Zoe is different from bios, which refers to physical, material life. Therefore, what Jesus is telling his followers is to have an abundant life in the spirit and not necessarily in material riches.

“So in this discussion about prosperity gospel, it is important to have [an] educated, biblical interpretation,” Adeleye emphasized.

The respected African Christian leader shared that he has tried to study the prosperity gospel over the last 20 years and found that it thrives significantly in contexts of extreme poverty where there is little potential wealth and where the minority controls much of the money.

He challenged churches to do more than “dangle the carrot of prosperity before people” and to deliberately look for opportunities to provide vocational training and other ways to lift people out of poverty.

Several participants in the multiplex commented during the Q&A time that the church needs to do a better job teaching the value of work and to be more active in addressing how people can get out of poverty, which the prosperity gospel addresses.

“Giving is part of our worship but prosperity gospel makes giving a transactional activity,” commented Asamoah. Believers are taught that when they make an offering to God they can expect a certain return. But God blesses according to His wisdom and it is not necessarily material wealth.”

“[We] cannot use offering to buy God’s grace [and] that is what prosperity gospel doing,” said the Ghanian theologian.

More than 4,000 Christian leaders representing over 190 nations attended Lausanne III last week in Cape Town. The purpose of the Lausanne Congress was to bring the global body of Christ together to discuss how to best evangelize the world. The conference concluded on Sunday. †

Strange Prophetic Silence

2010-10-18T13:13:00-07:00

Bible Prophecy Today (Part 1 | Part 2) - Rapture Ready - Terry James (October 18, 2010)

Todd often makes the observation these days that there seems to be a strange lack of prophetic activity; nothing in the news rivets the observer in the dramatic way, say, that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities might grab one’s attention.

This Strandberg perception of a lull in prophetic progression, as he calls it, might seem at first nonsensical, considering the tremendous procession of probable end-times issues and events that we at Rapture Ready address each week. Geopolitically, there are many signals of biblically prophetic significance. The European Union (EU) continues to consolidate power while remaining at the same time loosely confederated. Certainly, we legitimately can and do make the case for this strange entity being the likely candidate for producing revived Rome – the ten toes of iron and miry clay given in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream-vision of the final world empire (Daniel 2).

Russia is a brooding giant to Israel’s north, and at every opportunity, Iran threatens the Jewish state with oblivion. These nations combine with Turkey and others to constitute a coalescing agglomerate that has the characteristics of the foretold Gog-Magog military machine of Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin openly displays ambition that easily qualifies him as one who might aspire to be the Gog of the Ezekiel prophecies. Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spouts the kind of hatred for God’s chosen people that the prince of Persia no doubt will use to inspire Iran’s (Persia’s) leader to join with Gog in raging against Israel in that satanic attack (Daniel 10:20).

Recently, Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has brought his nation into the Iranian and Arab world’s mantra for Israel to, in effect, be neutralized – be eradicated as an entity in the Middle East. Thus, Ezekiel’s prophecy about the Gog-Magog forces continues to congeal, with the ancient area of Togormah now firmly within the foretold mix of peoples that will storm over the mountains of Israel to meet their God-ordained doom.

So, again, it seems nonsensical to say that there is a lack of prophetic progression, based upon such spectacular developments. Yet, Todd Strandberg and, I must say, I have agreed with his assessment during our conversations. And, yet the signals of this being the very end of the age continue to accrue.

Socioeconomically, the end-times signals are prolific, with the whole world in economic distress. The 2008-2009 U.S. and international monetary crises were nothing short of earth-shaking. With the global financial structure intricately linked to the U.S. dollar and its economy, America’s banking meltdown and all attendant to it suddenly had the western nations in panic. The panic is unabated, despite America throwing trillions of dollars that don’t really exist into the fiscal fiasco.

Rioting in Greece, Spain, Italy, and other so-called “civilized” countries displayed in blatant fashion the economic turmoil. Rage over government-provided social services being withdrawn and jobs cut from government, along with unions losing their funding, caused - and continue to cause - withdrawal spasms like those suffered by addicts needing their heroin fixes.

The nations are in distress with perplexity, just as Jesus prophesied as recorded in Luke 21:25. There is a call for a rearrangement of the economic order. It is just such an order that will serve Antichrist’s dastardly regime as he sets about to enslave the world. His 666 numbers-and-mark system as found in Revelation 13:16-18 can be seen in the making in these very days in which we live.

The electronic means to produce such a system exists, too. The computer-satellite capabilities and linkages – with Internet connecting practically every place on earth - doubtless will be all brought together in some spectacular way to produce the Beast’s system of economic gulag.

Ironically, about the only area of the world that seems to be progressing economically is part of Asia – particularly one specific nation that almost certainly has a prophetic destiny. While the economic and technological apex nation of the world – the United States of America — is suffering, causing the other industrial nations and socialist countries to suffer, that great prophetic Oriental region of the world benefits mightily from the distress and perplexity. China holds much of the debt owed by the most economically powerful nation ever to exist!

China will almost certainly be the “king” of the “kings” of the east mentioned in Revelation chapters 9 and 16. It is even now apparently acquiring the level of wealth that will assure the accumulation of military strength with which to (along with demonic assistance of major magnitude) kill one-third of the world’s population (Revelation 9:15-16, 16:12).

It seems beyond irony that it is the U.S. that is funding most of the Sino-monster. It is the American technological/wealth base that has been primarily instrumental also in providing the financial wherewithal for paving Antichrist’s future kingdom. It is perhaps within these fiscal facts that can be found America’s own ultimate judgment for straying so far from the godly founding principles upon which it was based. Yet there is this strange silence of prophetic progression that bugs Todd and me. We will further examine the matter in this column.

Part 2 - October 25, 2010

So, again, we come to the seeming disconnect – the tremendous number of biblically prophetic indicators from a strange prophetic silence that surrounds these signals.

Todd and I analyze these matters without ceasing. The signs are everywhere that we are at the end times as given by Jesus when He foretold, for example, that it will be like the days of Noah’s pre-Flood time and Lot’s days in Sodom at the moment He will break in like a thief in the night on an unsuspecting world. And, yet, we are both amazed that the “prophetic progression” seems strangely slow – even to the point of causing us to constantly ask why things seem at a standstill.

How can we ask that question when every one of the apostle Paul’s 2 Timothy 3 perilous-times characteristics of end-times man is observably on the front burner of society today? People are lovers of themselves, boasters, proud. Children are disobedient to parents, with the assisted rebellion built in to the public school systems of America. We are a people – worldwide — who are unthankful and, certainly, unholy. The government-backed - even church-organization-backed - homosexual agenda, with hate crimes being legislated and implemented to punish those who dare to say God’s Word teaches homosexuality is a sin, shows the perilous-times characteristic “without natural affection” is in our face today.

Abortion takes the lives of more than four thousand babies per day in America. This, too, speaks to the characteristic Paul prophesied would mark the end-times generation, “without natural affection.” We only have to look at the divorce rate today to see that the characteristics Paul gave in prophecy are exhibited within marriage. Infidelity is rampant. People are traitorous to their marriage partners, they are false accusers and truce-breakers. We are an incontinent or addictive generation, whether thinking on illicit or prescription drugs, or on pornography that sears the minds of those who spend hours before computer screens. Also, we are addicted to spending money to satisfy ever-increasing and insatiable material desires.

People love pleasures more than they love God. Mankind is fierce, while at the same time many have a form of godliness, but deny Jesus Christ – who is the power of godliness. The holy name of Jesus is used far more as invective than as a term of reverence and praise in this end-of-the-age hour. That name that God says is above every other isn’t even allowed in many of America’s workplaces, public schools, or government facilities – another panoply of reasons the nation’s judgment is certain.

Why do Todd and I see this as a time of slow prophetic progression, considering this avalanche of prophetic markers? How can we say this when Israel is in position precisely as biblical prophets foretold that nation would be as history draws to a close and Armageddon nears?

Isaiah and Daniel the prophets foretold that Israel would be involved in a peace process at the very end of things to come. Zechariah, many other prophets, and the Lord Jesus himself prophesied that Israel would be surrounded by and hated by all nations of earth at the time of the end. All of those developing prophecies regarding God’s chosen people are front and center right now!

There is a prophetic silence at present. But it is a perceived rather than an actual silence, I think. It is part of the strange cognitive malady with which we all suffer, perhaps.

Overload of day-to-day human activity causes desensitization to even the most traumatic of injuries. “Time heals all wounds” is one common explanation of this cognitive condition. We lose a loved one, and while we will often recall memories of him or her and suffer anew, the overloads of life continue to cause the scar to thicken. The pain fades, to some extent.

So it is in the matter of being watchful in the sense of Mark 13:37. We are so saturated with issues and events of our time that look like prophecy in stage-setting for fulfillment that we develop a malaise. We become desensitized to the phenomenal crush of end-times exigencies.

This is so disconcerting to those who work within prophecy ministries such as Rapture Ready, I think, because it is a solitary feeling at times that comes from such lack of interest among true believers. One finds oneself almost hoping something dramatic will happen to shake those believers into understanding exactly how late is the prophetic hour.

Come to think of it ... Jesus foretold a strange prophetic silence. He said it would be just at such an hour that He would break in upon a world in darkness. Because our time is so saturated with indicators of Christ’s Second Coming, the apathy-ending event isn’t in the offing. Or maybe it will be the most lethargy-ending event possible that will do the shaking up. Maybe the next prophetic indicator that will end this strange prophetic silence will be the Rapture itself.

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 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. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:42-44). †

Economy Nucleus of Tribulation

2010-08-30T19:28:00-07:00

Bible Prophecy Today (Link) - Terry James (August 30, 2010)

One prophetic element stands out in considering the seven-year Tribulation era, with regard to the Antichrist regime. That is the economic platform prophesied to be at the heart of the beast system.

With so many signals in view that point to the brewing Tribulation tempest, we should expect - if we are reading the end-times signals correctly - that this heart of the Beast should be well along in its construction. We have covered all of the indicators found within current issues and events that we believe are signals like those given by Jesus and the prophets. National and world economies have been dealt with in our efforts to make prophetic sense of the dynamic rearrangements taking place in recent years, months, weeks, and days.

America’s staggering weight of debt and swift economic decline is front and center in pointing to the fact, we believe, that this is the generation that stands at the end of one dispensation – the Church Age - and upon the precipice of the next – the Tribulation. Each hour seems to bring additional confirmation that the Tribulation storm is about to break upon an uncomprehending world. Such confirmation is present in abundance in the realm of geopolitics and global economics.

Since Bible prophecy clearly foretells that the Antichrist government, thus the economic engine that will power that absolute dictatorship, will emerge from Europe, we need keep our prophetic antennae pointed in that direction - i.e., we must be especially alert to news involving movement within Europe to cause significant changes to global economic structure.

The following excerpt from the Wall Street Journal registers an interesting blip on my own end-times radar screen.

PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the world's twenty largest economies to work together to reform global monetary order.

"We must define a new framework for discussing currency movements," Mr. Sarkozy said, adding that it is "nonsense" to talk about exchange rates without including China, which has accumulated huge foreign exchange reserves.

He said stabilizing erratic foreign exchange and commodities markets will feature high on France's agenda when it heads the Group of 20 [in] November. He added there is a need to reduce the U.S. dollar's dominance as the reserve currency of choice." (Nathalie Boschat and David Pearson, "Sarkozy Outlines G-20 Priorities," Wall Street Journal, 8/26/10)

Prophecy scholars and others have long pondered why the U.S. , the most powerful nation in history, isn’t mentioned by name – or even by significant reference — in God’s Word. We continue to flounder in attempts at finding an exact answer for that question. However, with the recent astonishing changes nationally and abroad, the answer seems to be in the process of forming.

Monetary manipulation is at the root of the change taking place. The American dollar must be removed as the currency standard so that a global currency not underwritten by any national monetary unit can be established. This is precisely the Beast economic order I’m convinced Bible prophecy describes as outlined in the following:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six (Revelation 13:16-18).

This speaks to me of a computer system – a hybrid Internet whereby all citizens of the global economic order will be absolutely controlled at every level of life. Probably, it will consist at its heart of electronic funds transfer (EFT)– a system of Special Drawing Rights (SDR). Anyone refusing to toe the mark of the Antichrist’s regime will face having his or her SDR account blocked or removed completely from the system. Fear of starvation is a mighty motivator to comply.

Pressures are mounting for a completely changed global economic order. Even the king of the kings of the East, China, is at the center of the dynamics driving the changes.

Most economists who are honest will admit that the current building economic heap of debt cannot continue to accumulate. They are amazed, in fact, that everything hasn’t already collapsed into total, worldwide depression. I again offer my belief that it will be the Rapture that causes the ultimate implosion and collapse.

The great world leader called in Revelation “the Beast” will be there to implement a satanically-inspired economic scheme that will at first offer hope – that will for a time “cause craft to prosper” (Dan. 8:25). But Antichrist’s plan will achieve what it will be designed to do: enslave most of the world in electronic bondage.

Jesus offers the opposite of what the counterfeit, Antichrist, will produce. Jesus promises:

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

We must at every opportunity lift up the Holy name of Jesus before the eyes of a world headed into the terrors of the Tribulation.

I currently remain of the opinion that the power and the kingdom of the coming man of sin will rise out of Europe as well, although I also hold open the possibility that this center of power could arise from the Middle East. I can see both sides, but I still feel that the beast of Revelation 13 will be centered in Europe and the false prophet in the Middle East, essentially tying them together with the head of power rising from Europe.

However I wanted to primarily address the aspect I disagree with in the article and that is the idea of a seven year tribulation. As I've pointed out before, I have yet to find a seven year tribulation in scripture. There is one seven-year period in Daniel 9:27 that Yeshua clearly specifies the middle of which starts the time of great tribulation, but it is not seven years long. Perhaps it seems a small point, but when you delve deeper into the framework of the 70th week of Daniel to understand our coming future, every little item matters.

I also offer an alternate perspective on the harpazo (rapture) that differs somewhat from the pre-trib viewpoint offered in the article, the pre-wrath perspective. I doubt that this event will so drastically change the landscape in the world given the prophesied apostasy that we see coming to pass now. Rather I think the world will breathe a sigh of relief and continue on. I could well be wrong, but even of those who identify themselves as Christians, only half will actually go. Matthew 25:1-13

7 Signs of the End Times

2010-08-26T21:52:00-07:00

Bible Prophecy Today (Link) - Britt Gillette (August 26, 2010) crooked

What are the signs of the end times?

It’s important to know so we can explain to others why Christians believe what we believe.

As Peter says:

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” 1 Peter 3:15

Unfortunately, too many Christians are unable to explain why they believe we’re in the last days when the opportunity presents itself.

One argument in particular seems to catch today’s Christians off guard.

Peter forewarned us of this argument:

“Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, ‘What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.’” 2 Peter 3:3-4

The particular version I hear most often is, “Sure, you think Jesus is coming, but so have previous generations.”

The implication is that our generation will pass without the Second Coming just as those previous generations passed without His Coming.

Aside from being illogical, this assertion flies in the face of plain observation as well as mountains of irrefutable evidence.

A Sign of the End?

Is the prevalence of Peter’s end time skeptic argument in-and-of itself a sign of the end times?

No.

But let’s take a second look at what he said:

“They will say, ‘What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.’” 2 Peter 3:4

Sound familiar?

How many times have you heard someone say, “It’s the same now as it’s always been” or at least something along those lines?

Probably a lot.

But is it?

Is it really the same?

When non-believers tell you there are no signs of the end times which are unique to our time, you need to be prepared to set the record straight.

Below are at least seven signs of the end times.

Commit them to memory, and as Peter says, “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

Clear Signs of the End Times

Below is a list of seven clear signs of the end times, which highlight the nearness of Christ’s return. In fact, He’s so close He’s knocking on the door:

1) The Holocaust and the Re-Emergence of Israel

One of the preeminent signs of the end times is the Jewish survival of the Holocaust and the re-emergence of the nation of Israel as a Jewish state.

Over 2,600 years ago, the prophet Ezekiel foretold these events:

“Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones - all hope is gone.’ Now give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:11-13

As God says, the bones in Ezekiel 37 represent the people of Israel - otherwise known as the Jews.

Following the first century Roman conquest of the Holy Land, the Jews were banished from the land of Israel. The Romans renamed the area Palestine, and exiled its people to the farthest corners of the Roman Empire.

Yet, in Ezekiel 37, God promised to bring the Jews out of exile. He promised to bring them back into the land of Israel.

Not only did He promise to restore their nation, but God promised to do so by opening their “graves” at a time when the Jews feel that “all hope is gone.”

The aftermath of Hitler’s Holocaust of the Jewish people created these very conditions, nearly destroying an entire race of people and draining the hope of countless survivors.

But out of the Holocaust, God brought the Jewish people back into the land of Israel, just as He had promised.

On May 14, 1948, the nation of Israel reappeared in fulfillment of not just Ezekiel 37:11-13, but countless Old Testament prophecies.

Of all the signs of the end times, the re-establishment of Israel as an independent nation is the clearest and most unmistakable sign that we are in the last of the last days.

2) Jerusalem Is a Burden to the World

Another visible sign of the end times is the world diplomatic struggle over Jerusalem.

The prophet Zechariah foresaw this event centuries ago:

“I will make Jerusalem and Judah like an intoxicating drink to all the nearby nations that send their armies to besiege Jerusalem. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone, a burden for the world. None of the nations who try to lift it will escape unscathed.” Zechariah 12:2-3

Since 1967 when the Israelis retook Jerusalem in the Six Day War, the division of Jerusalem and ownership of the Temple Mount in particular, have been a source of countless U.N. resolutions, diplomatic crises, and calls for war.

The struggle over the “Peace Process” in the Middle East is the stated number one priority of world diplomats, and Jerusalem resides at the center of discussions about “land for peace.”

With the threat of World War III casting a shadow over every decision to rebuild Jewish settlements or expand Israeli society, the City of Jerusalem is no doubt “a burden for the world.”

Is this “the way it’s always been?”

No.

Until this generation, Jerusalem was not “a burden for the world.” In fact, prior to 1948, world diplomatic leaders rarely mentioned it.

3) The Dramatic Increase in Travel and Knowledge

One of the signs of the end times that anyone can easily recognize is the recent explosive increase in travel and knowledge.

In a vision, God revealed to Daniel that in “the time of the end,” travel and knowledge will increase:

“But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end. Many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase.” Daniel 12:4

According to the book of Daniel, two things will increase in “the time of the end” - travel and knowledge.

Is this the case now?

Yes.

At the time the Book of Daniel was written, horses were the world’s the fastest mode of transportation.

In fact, horses remained the world’s fastest mode of transportation for over 2,000 years until the Industrial Revolution spawned such innovations as the steam boat, the locomotive, and the horseless carriage.

Prior to the 20th Century, most people rarely traveled more than 30 miles from where they were born. Today, people routinely travel from one continent to another within the same day.

Today’s world is definitely not “the way it’s always been.”

Frequency and speed of travel have markedly increased!

What about knowledge?

In Daniel’s time, few people received a formal education. In fact, basic literacy was a foreign concept to all but an elite minority of the world until the past 100 to 150 years.

Yet, in the past century alone, human knowledge of science, biology, technology, and countless fields of endeavor has exploded. And the advent of the Internet has created a worldwide archive of human knowledge that far exceeds even the wildest dreams of the great ancient civilizations.

Is humanity’s knowledge base today “the same as previous generations?”

Absolutely not. Human knowledge has also markedly increased.

Given that all this can be ascertained from mere observation, how can anyone say with a straight face that “things today are the same as they’ve always been?”

4) Exponential Growth Marks the Times

If a marked increase in travel and knowledge constitute one of the most clearly observable signs of the end times, then the two are merely components of a much larger sign of the end times - exponential growth.

Jesus pointed to exponential growth as a sign of His Coming:

“Later, Jesus sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and asked, ‘When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to signal your return and the end of the world?’ Jesus told them, ‘Don’t let anyone mislead you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will lead many astray. And wars will break out near and far, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won’t follow immediately. The nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come.’” Matthew 24:3-8

This translation fails to communicate an important revelation from Jesus - that the end times will be analogous to the birthing process.

According to Strong’s Concordance, the word “horrors” as translated above comes from the word “odin” which is best translated as “the pain of childbirth” or “birth pangs.”

This means that, much like birth pangs, signs of the end times will appear with greater frequency and intensity as Christ’s return draws near. This is why Jesus mentioned this sign first when answering his disciples’ questions “When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to signal your return and the end of the world?”

According to Jesus, three things in particular will increase in frequency and intensity as the world draws closer to His return:

Wars
Famines
Earthquakes

Have we seen these three things increase in frequency and intensity in the recent past?

Yes.

Let’s take a brief look at wars, famines, and earthquakes over the past 500 years.

Wars - A Sign of the End Times

According to a Wikipedia list of wars, the past 500 years have witnessed an increase in the frequency of wars:

15th Century - 29 wars
16th Century - 59 wars
17th Century - 75 wars
18th Century - 69 wars
19th Century - 294 wars
20th Century - 278 wars

The first decade of the 21st Century has already witnessed 55 wars, putting humanity on course for 550 wars over the next one hundred year period.

Have these wars increased in intensity?

Yes.

For most of human history, wars were fought through individual hand-to-hand combat. But the past few hundred years have witnessed the ascension of more accurate guns, machine guns, and aerial bombing. Today, a single weapon of mass destruction can kill hundreds of thousands of people.

Famines - A Sign of the End Times

According to a Wikipedia list of famines, the past 500 years have also witnessed an increase in the frequency of famines:

15th Century - 6 famines
16th Century - 10 famines
17th Century - 24 famines
18th Century - 28 famines
19th Century - 30 famines
20th Century - 44 famines

The first decade of the 21st Century alone has already witnessed 12 famines, putting humanity on course for 120 famines over the next one hundred year period.

Have these famines increased in intensity and severity?

Yes.

As the population of the world has grown, famines have caused more and more death and destruction in their wake.

In fact, while the Roman Empire’s entire population at the time of Jesus is estimated to have been approximately 55 million people, the first half of the 20th Century alone witnessed these famines:

The 1921 famine in Russia (5 million+ dead)
The 1928-1929 famine in China (3 million+ dead)
The 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine (2.6 and 10 million+ dead)
The 1932-1933 famine in Kazakhstan (1.2 and 1.5 million+ dead)
The 1936 famine in China (5 million+ dead)
The 1942-1943 famine in China (1 million+ dead)
The 1946-1947 famine in the Soviet Union (1 million+ dead)

That’s an estimated 18.8 to 26.5 million who perished from famine just from these seven famines alone!

And from 1959 to 1961, the Great Chinese Famine is estimated to have killed more than 36 million people.

Famines have dramatically increased in both frequency and intensity since Jesus first answered His disciples’ questions.

Earthquakes - Another Sign of the End Times

According to a Wikipedia list of earthquakes, the past 500 years have witnessed the following number of earthquakes described as a magnitude 7.0 or greater:

15th Century - 2 earthquakes
16th Century - 3 earthquakes
17th Century - 7 earthquakes
18th Century - 13 earthquakes
19th Century - 29 earthquakes
20th Century - 123 earthquakes

The first decade of the 21st Century has already witnessed 144 earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.0 or greater, putting humanity on course for 1,440 such earthquakes over the next one hundred year period!

The dramatic increase in devastating wars, famines, and earthquakes from the time of Jesus until today is one of clearest signs of the end times.

5) Rise of the Gog/Magog Alliance

Yet another sign of the end times is the current rise of the Gog/Magog Alliance.

The details of this future military alliance against Israel are found in the Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 38 and 39:

“This is another message that came to me from the Lord: ‘Son of man, prophesy against Gog of the land of Magog, the prince who rules over the nations of Meshech and Tubal. Give him this message from the Sovereign Lord: Gog, I am your enemy! I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws to lead you out to your destruction. I will mobilize your troops and cavalry and make you a vast and mighty horde, all fully armed. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya will join you, too, with all their weapons. Gomer and all its hordes will also join you, along with the armies of Beth-togarmah from the distant north and many others.’” Ezekiel 38:1-6

The nations cited in the verses above are associated with their Old Testament predecessors, but they all represent nations that exist today.

Below is a list of those nations, each followed by its modern day equivalent:

Magog, Meshech, and Tubal = Russia
Persia = Iran
Cush = Ethiopia
Put = Libya
Gomer = Turkey
Beth-togarmah = Turkey, Armenia, and the Turkish-speaking people of Asia Minor

According to God, Russia will mobilize a coalition that includes these nations in the last days.

Throughout human history, there’s never been a cooperative military alliance between the nations of Russia and Iran - at least until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Since then, a cooperative diplomatic and military alliance between Iran and Russia has formed and slowly expanded, ultimately leading to Russia’s assistance in providing Iran with the necessary support to make the Bushehr nuclear power plant operational in 2010.

So when does the Bible tell us this alliance will form?

It definitely says, “in the last days:”

“Get ready; be prepared! Keep all the armies around you mobilized, and take command of them. A long time from now you will be called into action. In the distant future you will swoop down on the land of Israel, which will be lying in peace after her recovery from war and after the return of her people from many lands. You and all your allies - a vast and awesome horde - will roll down on them like a storm and cover the land like a cloud.” Ezekiel 38:7-9

According to Strong’s Concordance, “in the distant future” is better translated as “achariyth shaneh” which means “end years.”

6) The Rise of Global Government

Another sign of the end times is the current trend toward globalization.

According to the Book of Revelation, globalization involves more than just multinational corporations and global commerce. One day, a single man will rule all the people and nations on the earth:

“And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation.” Revelation 13:7

With each passing day more and more nations are ceding their sovereignty to larger institutions such as the European Union, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Court.

Given the current global financial crisis and the potential catastrophe of a global war, more and more diplomatic leaders and world politicians are calling for global government.

And as human technology continues to advance and mature, we’re quickly reaching a point where global totalitarian rule will be possible.

7) The Good News Preached Throughout the World

Jesus revealed the following sign of the end times to His disciples in response to their questions about the end of the age and the sign of His coming:

“And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14

According to Christ, His Coming is preceded by the preaching of the Gospel “throughout the whole world.”

This idea is reiterated in the Book of Revelation.

“And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the eternal Good News to proclaim to the people who belong to this world - to every nation, tribe, language, and people. ‘Fear God,’ he shouted. ‘Give glory to him. For the time has come when he will sit as judge. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all the springs of water.’” Revelation 14:6-7

In the time of Jesus, the Gospel was confined to a relatively small number of people in and around Israel. And much of the earth’s land mass was completely unknown to the disciples of Jesus, so the odds of the disciples preaching the Gospel of Christ “throughout the whole world” in their own time was quite remote.

Yet, 2,000 years later, the Gospel is preached in every nation, the Bible is translated in hundreds of languages, and the Gospel of Christ is delivered through thousands of ministries via radio, cable TV, satellite, and the Internet.

Is this “the way it’s always been?”

Nope.

The truth is our generation is closer to preaching the Gospel “throughout the whole world” than any preceding generation.

Signs of the End Times

These are just seven signs of the end times, but they aren’t the only signs.

The Bible has much to say about the last days and the time of the end, and as followers of Christ, we are warned to recognize the signs of the times.

“Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.” Matthew 24:28

Why?

Because if we acknowledge the signs of the end times as well as our Lord’s command to stay awake and alert, we will be driven to live Godly lives. Paul emphasized this in his letter to the Romans:

“Another reason for right living is that you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for the coming of our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Romans 13:11

Remember, all prophecy exists to give a clear witness for Christ:

“For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.” Revelation 19:10

And prophecy is telling us that Christ is coming.

“In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door.” Matthew 24:33

Heaven, Hell, and Emergent Heresy

2010-07-25T18:47:00-07:00

Bible Prophecy Today (Link) - Eric Barger (July 25, 2010)

When one does a careful evaluation of the teachings of Emergent leaders, such as Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell, and Brian McLaren, it becomes apparent that they do not believe that Heaven, as described in the Bible, actually exists. Even clearer is their denunciation against the notion of a literal Hell. Their focus is only on the “here-and-now” existence of this life and experiencing the “journey” and “conversations” it presents.

Pagitt, for example, bristles at the notion that Heaven and Hell are actual places. According to Pagitt, God interacts with all people the same way. When asked what happens to the “good Muslim” when he dies, Pagitt told commentator Todd Friel,

“God’s going to judge the life and repair and restore and heal the life of everybody in the same way.”

Pagitt then stated that God will interact with Christians in the same way that He will with Muslims after they die. He is very clearly stating that every orthodox idea of Christianity has been mistaken and that in the end God reconciles ALL people, regardless of what they believe or even if they believe. This is the heart and soul of so-called “reconciling” universalism. (See: YouTube clip)

Emergent godfather, Brian McLaren, made his feelings on Hell and the Cross known to “Bleeding Purple Podcast” interviewer, Leif Hansen, in this well-traveled statement:

“The Cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God.”

Brian McLaren

McLaren also told Beliefnet Online interviewer Sherry Huang,

“For many Christians, their faith is primarily about what happens to people after they die. That distracts them from seeking justice and living in a compassionate way while we’re still alive in this life. We need to go back and take another look at Jesus’ teachings about hell. For so many people, the conventional teaching about hell makes God seem vicious. That’s not something we should let stand.” Link

Rob Bell muses his redefinition of Hell, saying,

“When people use the word hell, what do they mean? They mean a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be. Famine, debt, oppression, loneliness, despair, death, slaughter - they are all hell on earth.” (Velvet Elvis, p.148)

In an interview discussing their 2009 book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile, Bell and co-author Don Golden say that the Church in America is in exile today. Bell and Golden say that by participating in our culture (they call America an “empire”) and by supporting our government/military system and by using oil, we are “oppressors” and create suffering for others. They conveniently ignore the fact that America, in particular the Christians in her, have done more to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ than any other nation in history - hands down! But in emergent/leftist thought, anything smelling like capitalism must be shunned (except for enjoying the many benefits life in the USA offers). This is nothing less than 1960’s, counter-culture, hippie liberalism now being referred to as “Evangelical Christianity!”

One might wonder how a nice evangelical kid from Wheaton ended up as perhaps the most popular leader in the heretical Emergent Church. Bell and his wife, Kristen, say that their Christian world became constricting - in Kristen’s words, “black and white....” And how did the Bells find their way out of the black-and-white world where they had been so successful and so dissatisfied? “Our lifeboat,” Kristen says, “was A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren.”

If you wish the same fate that has befallen the Bells, all one has to do is abandon the teachings of God’s inerrant Word and adopt what McLaren, Pagitt (and now Rob Bell) are selling.

How much documentation will we have to produce and how many more reasons will be needed for postmoderns with any scrap of biblical understanding to come to their senses and realize that Emergent Christianity isn’t really Christianity at all? Instead, it is cultic, deceptive and eternally damning.

This audio is from Coast to Coast AM and is both demonstrative of the aversion to the idea of an eternal hell (as evidenced by the host’s reaction to the concept) and a good explanation by Bill Wiese of what hell is like and how we get there with the analogy of heaven being God’s house. Was it a dream or was he given a glimpse of the separation from God as a testimony? 18 minutes

Bill Wiese - 23 Minutes in Hell