Zion's

Promise

The Prophets Speak Today

Dennis R. Wilson

“It will come about that just as you

were a curse among the nations, O

House of Israel, so I will save you

that you may become a blessing. Do

not fear; let your hands be strong.”

Zechariah 7:13 (NASB)

Zion’s Promise

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system

or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the

author except as provided by USA copyright law.

Scripture quotations marked (KJB) are taken from the Holy Bible, King

James Version,

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American

Standard Bible®,

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James

Cover concept by Naomi Wilson

Published in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-154-474828-3

1. Religion / General

2. Religion / Biblical Studies / General

13.08.01

Dedication

Holly Wilson, my partner through it all

Josh McDowell, who broke the Bread of Life

Dr. Duane Gish, who opened the book of nature

Dave Hunt, whose discernment has been a guide

Dr. Chuck Missler, Dr. John G. Mitchell

Pastor Wendel Grout, Dr. Bill Bright

Contents
My Kook Book.....................................................................5
A Door Opens....................................................................16
The Chosen People Return...............................................30
The Second Exodus...........................................................51
Shall Know My Name........................................................81
Battle With Gog…...........................................................103
Desolation Temple..........................................................109
The Blessed Hope and Appearing..................................132
The Crown of Scripture..................................................146
Lord of the Seven............................................................151
Delayed Bridegroom…....................................................163
The Seven Seals..............................................................165
The Army is Mustered....................................................177
Zion’s Promise................................................................202
The Seven Trumpets.......................................................209
Credentials of the Great King........................................222
Intermission: The Two, the Woman, and the Beast.......226
The Last Call...................................................................260
Seven Bowls....................................................................265
Whore of Babylon...........................................................272
The Wedding of the Lamb..............................................291
Rider from Heaven.........................................................298
Epilogue….......................................................................317
4

My Kook Book

Regular people just didn’t do Revelation; my parents, the minister, and all

the “normal” people simply agreed. Revelation was for kooks and weirdos.

And where I grew up we were deﬁnitely not about looking, acting, or

becoming kooks. We didn’t speak yahoo, and we sure didn’t chew,

nobody kept a hooded robe in the trunk of his car; and we didn’t meet in

little clapboard boxes with names like New Apostolic, or Full Gospel

Temple over the door.

There were no sweaty nights in the revival tent, no shouts of “preach it,

brother,” to spur on the rant, no casting out devils or dancing in the aisles,

no speaking in tongues, and nobody I knew could even conceive of

picking up snakes for any reason whatsoever. But we just knew such

things went on among those “Revelation types.”

Not much more than a kid, Dad had been part of what we now call the

“greatest generation” young Americans, not much more than teens

themselves, who answered their nation’s call, to ﬁght a European war to

keep freedom alive on planet earth. Somehow they met that enormous

threat, defeated it, and came home again to a world much diﬀerent than

the one they had left behind.

Crossing the Atlantic in convoys of fragile “tin cans,” the

government called “liberty ships,” they were like “ducks in a row for

lurking Nazi submarine packs. But the war ﬁnally turned and Dad found

himself ferrying troops across the English Channel as part of Operation

Overlord and the D-day invasion of Europe.

His ship had just joined the armada, and as they neared Gold Beach with a

shipload of Aussies, they struck an acoustic mine and began sinking. As

the junior radio oﬃcer on board it was his job to grab a radio, a bunch of

deck hands, and get the captain’s lifeboat into the sea.

But he’d survived and thrived, and by the time he was ready to start a

family, many progressive new ideas had been sealed into his thinking. The

conﬂuence of the skeptical university, and the hard knocks of a youth

spent in war, will do that to you. Graduating as a geologist, Dad had

gained a love for science in all its forms. And it wasn’t just rocks for him;

Dad was interested in the whole gamut of the world of nature. From the

smallest atom to the farthest reaches of space, he speculated upon and

taught his children to appreciate the incredible breadth of science. But

even so he never questioned the existence of the Almighty as Creator and

Sustainer of all he saw.

Raised on a little dirt farm near Lawton, Oklahoma, a place where

God in one’s life was just a given, his early exposure to a simple country

Christianity was inevitable. I’m sure he’d rather have been dragged by

wild horses than go back to one of those sweaty sawdust revival meetings

he’d experienced as a kid, none-the-less, God remained.

Though I doubt he’d read it often for himself, he agreed strongly with

Paul in Romans. He could see there was order in the universe which

proved God’s existence. Everything in nature seemed to point at some

sort of “preparation.” The whole earth had been made ready for the

advent of someone or something who could admire its beauty—from the

soil, with its ability to consume and cycle wastes; to the seasons, with their

ability to replenish; to the tides of the sea, washing each coastline two

times daily. Nature seemed to be moving in an orderly and predictable

cycle.

The night for sleep, the day for work; the world of plants; living

things with a complex architecture of branches and leaves, growing,

accumulating carbon out of the breath of living animals, generating new

oxygen for these animals to breathe. Things which seemed designed to

ﬂawlessly to take a waste product of animal respiration, and by using the

energy of the sun, make that waste into sugar, a substance for animals to

eat. While underfoot, in the teeming world of the soil, complex bacteria

tirelessly ﬁxed nitrogen, enriching the soil upon which the plants could

grow, consuming refuse dropped by animals, protecting living things from

their own wastes.

In other words, the universe was composed of complex cycles within

cycles— and it all spoke of a balance prepared to be the self-sustaining

home of someone who could appreciate it all. The earth, he realized, is a

ﬁnely tuned machine for nurture and preservation; the perfect home for

man.

Some call this the anthropic principle, and it is real. Somehow all

nature has been constructed to ready itself for man. Even in such simple

observations my father could see clearly what those in many technical

ﬁelds try to hide. There is some controlling power over nature directing

everything. Blind chance might produce some fortunate aspects, but it

would also have produced some nasty adversity, as well. But some “One”

like a Creator would have ﬁlled all nature with the beauty and harmony

men actually see.

If earth were 10 percent farther away from the sun, the waters of the

sea would freeze solid—10 percent closer, and the oceans all boil away.

And as it turns out, liquid water is pretty spectacular stuﬀ and very rare. It

is the aqueous nature of this planet which makes life even possible. Only

water can carry so many chemicals and still be a liquid. Blood circulation,

and cell metabolism would be impossible without water. Moreover water

is the only liquid that freezes from the top down, leaving space underneath

for ﬁsh and other living things and able to carry the air required for

survival even in the colder months.

So Dad never had time for self appointed experts; he called them

“pseudo” intellectuals. He knew most of the “educated elite” would

disagree with his views, but he simply mocked those he called educated

fools. Carl Sagan, it seemed, could ponder the immense complexity of his

own brain making grand assertions that such matter had the highest order

in all the cosmos, and all the while claiming he couldn’t ﬁnd evidence for

God anywhere. Perhaps God was too close to such enquiring minds as

Sagan. Dad only laughed at such blindness.

Nevertheless, he was no kook. He was always careful not to behave

like those he decided had gone too far in the other direction. They were

fanatical, and just strange. All his early experiences with religion back on

the farm gave him pause to be as skeptical about the traveling salvation

show as he was disdainful of celebrated atheists like even the queen of all

unbelievers, Madelyn Murray O’Hair.

So he always kept religion in its place.

A little church was ﬁne, but too much smacked of the charlatans and

ranters he’d seen down in the South. For him, “goin’ to meetin’” was

mainly a habit which took him dutifully back to church on Sunday

morning. In the rest of the week oil was the family business and wherever

there was potential for a new strike, Dad was sent. We were moved about

like military brats all over the western United States. We moved from the

Four Corners region of Arizona, to the frigid Dakotas, and everywhere in

between. We ﬁnally ended up in Calgary, Canada where I went to high

school, and I suppose there is a bit of the “Canuck” still in me to this

moment.

But wherever we lived, the habit of church persisted. Some would

have given up constantly trying to break into new churches, but Dad and

Mom insisted on getting us up and going every Sunday morning. And we

always attended one of those respectable old brick castles with their tall

steeples and stained glass on the outside. They all looked alike to me, and

they certainly seemed the same inside.

So there we were each week, sliding into a hard wooden pew on

Sunday

Morning to pay our respect to the conventional, respectable, middle class

“god.” The pastor—and we had many—was always a man of letters,

spoke in a deep clergy voice, and wore long black robes. He was always

referred to as “reverend,” and most often had an impressive blueblood

handle like Barnhill.

I don’t suppose he did it intentionally, but Dad always sought out the

same sort of church for his new little family: high, liberal, and mainline.

Inside was an enormous organ that could shake the sidewalks, and the

sanctuary always smelled of old furniture polish. Heavy wooden doors led

back into passageways whose secrets were never opened up to little

church mice like me.

But even such churches weren’t all bad. I remember one potluck

supper in late December which went on very late watching an old reel-to-

reel about the Christ child. The story was told from the perspective of the

traveling wise men, and I remember the glow of the season, the carols, and

the wonderful scent of the candles. It was a night of magic, singing all the

old songs amidst the pageant which re-enacts every year. Dad loved to

sing in those days, and always fancied he could sing the harmony line.

Whether he could, or was just oﬀ key a lot, I am still uncertain, but I

remember leaving with a wonderful glow that night. And I remember

thinking how awesome the story of the Bible could be and wondering why

it was always something quite diﬀerent during the rest of the year.

Because church was invincibly dull. The day was tedious and

predictable. The boredom usually gave me glazed eyes, and a splitting

headache. And the church itself was simply drab. No one would ever

accuse our group of being outlandish or unusual in any way. We did all

things in order, and unfortunately always the same order. Three songs, a

verse taken from where no one ever knew, announcements, twenty

minutes of a tedious preachment, and then we were shaking hands and free

at last. It was the best moment of the day, and it was the same every week.

Such a religion was more staid than any little kid could have been

expected to endure for a whole hour. Actually, snakes would have been

fabulous.

But our attendance was consistent.

In those days practically every family in America went to church

somewhere and the children went along—there was no argument.

Everyone went in nice clothes, the girls gussied up by their mothers in

billowing skirts with scratchy multiple petticoats. Boys wore bow ties,

white shirts, and those dedicated instruments of torture, itchy woolen sport

jackets. I could hardly breathe with that monkey suit and that choking bow

tie acting as a tourniquet, cutting oﬀ the blood to my head. But that’s just

the way people thought religion ought to be: smug, middle class, fancy

dressed, and boring. And I endured it, week after tedious week. There was

no getting round it.

Of course, it’s never been fashionable to talk about one’s religion,

even among adults, unless you were one of those “weird kook people,”

who talked about nothing else. But these were the’50s, and there was

nothing wrong with having a religion; so long as you just didn’t talk about

it. And it didn’t matter a great deal whether you were Methodist or

Episcopalian, Baptist or Congregational, they were all pretty much the

same. Mainline Christianity had become pretty homogenized, and even the

old antagonists—Catholic and Protestant—had mostly reconciled. Nobody

I knew understood anymore what all the ancient hubbub had been about.

Catholic fathers had a neat black top, with that reversed high collar. It was

always said they dressed better, but spoke worse. And that was about the

sum of it. Though I can’t imagine anyone with a more consistently boring

delivery than Reverend Barnhill. Week after week he may have had just

one sermon the whole time and numb as we were, we never would have

known it.

The “social gospel” was all the rage in Christianity at that time, and it

was fairly simple. We were all “God’s children,” and supposed to act like

brothers and sisters. It was the old saw of the “brotherhood of man,” and

over all of us, the “fatherhood of God.” Whatever that meant, it sounded

nice. And though the cross was on everything, most of us had little

understanding of what that symbol even meant. It was Christian, and we

were told over and over Christ had died for our sins, as though that might

mean something while choking on our ties, and scratching all over. We

were in a Christian church, and that was enough to make us Christians.

Well actually, I really did know what the cross was for. The cross was

a symbol of “good power” when waved at werewolves and vampires in

old “B” horror ﬁlms, at least it always worked that way for Basil

Rathbone. Only the lack of werewolves left most of us without much

opportunity to try it out in the here and now. But all joking aside,

whenever we went into a church, we expected the cross to be displayed

inside and out. It was the proper label on the Christian package.

Jesus—I knew—had been some sort of suﬀering martyr. Yes, we

knew he died, but we weren’t sure why. Jesus’ cross was there for the

atmosphere and the Catholic, with Jesus suspended on it, had a bit more

drama, but we saw it as basically the same.

Strangely enough, nobody seemed able to explain how Christ’s death

mattered to us in the present, some 2000 years after the event. In fact his

death seemed sort of irrelevant. The preacher kept mouthing the Christian

mantra about our sins but in relation to the cross it meant nothing because

we didn’t understand, and we had no context. Our social gospel taught us

to be law-abiding citizens, and nice people. Be a good guy, attend church,

and go to heaven. That’s all there was to it. So what was this cross thing?

Someday God would simply weigh everything, the bad and the good,

and if a person was about as good as the next, he or she had little to worry

about. Hell was out—I hoped—because I wasn’t a jailbird; and heaven

would be long in coming, because I really didn’t much care about harps

and clouds. And like me, I think, many were secretly of the opinion

heaven was going to be a royal bore spent strumming harps for eons—

kind of like millions of years in church. And oh horrors, I had to admit

that thought a bit daunting. I didn’t know how anyone could get too

excited about a place where you sit for endless ages on a big ball of cotton

and strum on a harp. Maybe that was why Mom made me practice the

piano, for what seemed like hideous eternities. Honestly I think she was

getting me used to music-based torture.

On the other hand, hell was something out of a Larson’s Far Side

strip--though Larson’s comics wouldn’t come into existence for some

ﬁfteen years. Just a bunch of funny-looking devils playing nasty tricks on

each other. Both places were just about this real. To a kid like me, the

latter sounded more interesting.

When a funeral was held, there was never any doubt the individual was

now gone to his everlasting reward and it was bad taste to even imply

something else. Actually, it was kind of an unspoken taboo. We were not

to mention either heaven or hell at a funeral, that was for sure. It was

much better to talk about how good the punch was, that and the Green Bay

Packers.

I would hear my “enlightened” Sunday school teachers waxing

eloquent over how it didn’t matter if there were a real hell anyway. In their

estimation bad people already carried around their own hell, so it didn’t

matter much if anyone actually went there. And I supposed this might be

true emotionally, but I still had a little bit of worry. I didn’t think I would

do ﬁre real well.

But rather than turning to the Bible for information, many in the social

gospel turned to the sensational tales of near death researchers like Kubler

Ross and Raymond Moody, who got very popular for a time. There

seemed to be a surprising number who could talk about their own near-

death experiences. Story after story appeared in the press about people

who had popped out of their bodies over operating tables to watch their

own resuscitation. Their stories were remarkably similar. They had some

violent accident, and during the scramble to repair the damage they found

themselves ﬂoating out of their mortal bodies. Just jaunty little puﬃes

ﬂoating about the ceiling fans. Then, in very extraordinary conditions,

they slid down some gigantic umbilical into a separate reality they were

certain was heaven. But few ever reported about a post-death experience

of ﬁre and brimstone. Strangely, none of these people ever seemed to end

up in the oven. Some said they were anti-religious, even atheists, prior to

their out of body experience. But after their near-death, not one of them

ever feared death again, or so they told the rest of us. How could anyone

ever know if they were truthful, lying, or deceived? Were they just victims

of overactive imaginations or chemically induced hallucinations? What

was happening to them?

No one can be sure. But many in the main stream of religion were

very superstitious. Mom was reading everything she could ﬁnd on Jeanne

Dixon, and it was no wonder. People had sort of given up on the

bumbling, friendly, social-gospel god, and gone out to explore spirituality

for themselves. Even Christian leaders, like Episcopal Bishop James Pike

got into it. He reported poltergeist activity in his home; things were ﬂying

oﬀ the walls, and soon he was participating in nationally televised séances

with the self-styled medium Arthur Ford. It was an attempt to contact his

dead son whose suicide had shocked and broken his father’s heart.

Youth groups were sort of chummy cool, ﬁlled with a kumbaya

goody-two-shoes religion. It was about the same as listening to Peter,

Paul, and Mary. We bought little bunnies at Easter and waved palm

branches on Palm Sunday, wondering what in the world that was all about.

Everybody had God as his or her “Father,” whatever name you called him,

or for that matter, her. And that god was god; call him Allah or Odin or

Zeus or Baal or even Jehovah. Whoever and whatever he was, he was

obviously still God. And the lessons were the same. “… do unto others as

we would have them do unto us,” This was the essence of the social

gospel, and frankly about all the rest of it as well.

But there was one group we stayed away from like the plague.

These were others who also fancied themselves Christians. They may

as well have been aliens from outer space. These were the kooks, of

course, religious fanatics of various sorts, who usually got banished to the

other side of the tracks for their ramshackle little meeting boxes. We had

little to do with them, and wanted nothing to do with them. Some of them

worked in oﬃces, but we didn’t socialize. They were Birchers, weirdos,

and Bible bangers. Some were even Democrats. They knew we disdained

them.

But that didn’t stop them from trooping right up to the front door. And

when they came, Mom was way too nice to slam that door. But she did

have another method. She would snatch their literature through the crack

in the screen door, nod, and slowly press against the screen. This would

get rid of them as quickly as the snap of the latch took hold.

She would smile, shake her head, and plop their literature into the

nearest wastebasket. They might have been nice people, but we never gave

them the chance to prove it because they seemed odd, and their kids

wouldn’t stand for the pledge every morning.

Perhaps they thought they could blend in. But the more they tried, the

more obvious they became. One notorious group cruised around the

neighborhood in their big old rusty “boats,” old Buicks and Oldsmobiles,

with their chrome falling oﬀ, and they didn’t fool anyone. And there were

the pairs of young men on bikes in white shirts, their nametags blazing

with Elder Smith, and Elder Jones. But they never did look too elderly to

me. And I suppose they thought they looked just like everybody else out

riding bikes in starched white shirts with backpacks in 100 degree

weather. They all stood out like vultures at a bird bath.

And they all carried a Bible, and they all promised to tell you the

“only” way to God. And they all seemed to base their views on the book

of Revelation.

But it was because these people thought the Bible could tell the future,

I was always a bit intrigued. The kooks never brought plastic shoehorns to

our door like the Fuller Brush man; but they had their religious magazines.

And some of us liked to snatch them from the waste basket when Mom

wasn’t watching. It was always pretty interesting.

One thing was obvious even to kids like us: whether we liked these

people, or the books they carried, they were devoted to what they were

doing. They had a passion lacking in our churches. They talked about new

worlds and wars, and adventures, things quite alien to our stiﬀ collars and

boring hymns—and the contrast was amazing, especially to children.

And each one of these people at our door was sure he had discovered

the only way to heaven and had to warn the rest of us. But even though

they all seemed utterly conﬁdent in their views, they all seemed to

contradict. And of course, they were all recruiting for their speciﬁc brand

of cult. But at least they weren’t being cynical about it. I knew our own

sloppy-unprepared Sunday school teachers; reluctant parents pressured

into the role, stuck in front of the class without even reviewing the

material, couldn’t hold a candle to them. In the little weekly Sunday

School folders were repetitive questions even we kids knew wouldn’t help

us very much. It was the warm body method, and it is no wonder all

mainline churches have continued to dwindle.

But these others, trying to get their feet into our door, were diﬀerent.

They made me wonder about many things in my own church. And

Revelation, which had never even elicited so much as a shrug, suddenly

began calling to me. When no one was looking I would page through my

little Sunday school Revised Standard Version of the Bible given as a gift

somewhere along the line—and doors began to open in my mind. And like

the kook literature at our door, Revelation seemed strangely forbidden, and

even foreboding. It was like a movie about a mansion with a sealed room,

forbidden, but still part of the house. An extra room, abandoned for some

curious reason, and pregnant with questions. What was the family hiding?

My pastor would never mention the book, so I wanted to know all the

more. Why indeed was it called the Revelation of the Christ, when it

seemed so closed? To whom was this so called unveiling addressed?

These people at our door might be wrong, but one thing was clear, they

weren’t out to bore their people to death.

Jesus proclaims he would rather run into a red-hot sinner than a lukewarm

saint; and in spite of all the twaddle liberal churches put out about their

superiority to Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the other major

religious groups—my take is Jesus is much angrier with sleepy Christians.

At least the unorthodox kook is sure of what he believes, and is willing to

get persecuted for it.

But in my own case, as I devoured the magazines from these Bible

based non-Christian groups, I began to engage with the underlying

prophetic fabric of the word of God, the stuﬀ which ties the sixty-six

books of the Bible together into one whole.

I had no plan. I dove in here and there, I had no structure, I had no

outlines or guidance, and all I got for it was confused. But it was anything

but boring. What gripped me most was its symbolism. And it certainly was

a new experience being excited while reading something religious. Those

little two-page handouts they gave us at Sunday school never

accomplished that.

There was no way I could possibly understand it, but already inside

my life was changing. In poorly illustrated, pulpy cult rags, I had found

something C. S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, would

have said had a “chest.” You put your battle decorations on your chest.

There was no battle in the blather of the robes and rituals of the liberal

church. Even the preacher looked bored. But in the battle and the grit of

these cult magazines, I had awakened something. I wasn’t sure what was

happening, but at least it gave me something to think about. Yes the

explanations in this quazi Christian material was ﬂawed, but ﬂawed

interpretation didn’t much matter to me as yet. But I could see that in

them was the real world, down and dirty, which gripped me. It was the

possibility that there was more to God than just being nice, singing two

hymns, and itchy sports jackets.

The Boy Scouts helped my behavior lots more than choking on my tie

every week if the point was only to be nice. But the point of the Social

Gospel escaped me, it didn’t seem to do anything. I wasn’t synthesizing

concepts just yet, and understanding would come later. But in the

meanwhile, something was waking up inside, and it had a chest, and I

think it was starting to have some medals on it.

A Door Opens

So why I wondered was Revelation such a closed book in our

church? Even as an adolescent, I knew that what I had snatched from

the trash was cult literature and I sort of assumed it presented a ﬂawed

view of the Bible. But somehow, due to my limited understanding, I

seemed to have missed most of the propaganda and latched onto an

underlying issue of truth. No matter what error they were injecting at least

these people were excited about what they believed. And it was just so

obvious the people of my church were going through the motions.

Years before, in what seemed to have been a rite of passage in liberal

churches, I had been given a copy of the World-Council-of-Churches-

approved Revised Standard Bible. Even though it is published by an

extremely progressive arm of what calls itself Christianity, the Revised

Standard is reasonably true to the original languages. Many of us got these

gift Bibles sometime in our Sunday school years and placed them neatly

on our bookshelves in the “forgotten and collecting dust” sections. That

was what I had done with mine.

But now my appetite for Bible had been awakened, and the day

ﬁnally came when I noticed that little black book on my shelf where it had

been hidden in plain sight for years, and started to read. I opened that book

with my hands shaking, and turned to the forbidden door of that missing

room called Revelation. And there I saw for the ﬁrst time John, the old

Apostle, introducing his book. And there with growing excitement I read:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day! From this, John’s astonishing

introduction to the last page, I quickly came to the conclusion that

Revelation was nothing to triﬂe with, and nothing to ignore. In fact as I

explored its amazing pages, I was simply shocked at what things could be

found in the same stuﬀy old Bible I thought I knew so well.

We have mentioned C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, and in this

novel someone asks if Aslan is a tame lion, and his listeners laugh. No, he

is not tame; he is the most dangerous lion of all. But he is good. Aslan is

Lewis’ Jesus, and he represents the Lion of Judah. Like Aslan I think the

Book of Revelation is not a tame book, but it too is good. And I had

already guessed why this most important book had long been ignored by a

very ﬂaccid clergy. It was simply too much for them. It was too much for

a convenient religion. It was simply too explosive for a lazy church, too

dynamic for ﬂaccid hands and furniture polish. Because Revelation is a

plunge into spiritual hyperspace. It’s as jarring as ﬁnding Star Wars in a

manuscript for dishwasher repair. Revelation has such aspects—spectral

riders, ghosts with the smell of hell still on them, equestrians on lions with

snakeheads which kill a fourth of the human race. The gargantuan throne

of God Almighty surrounded with lightnings and thunders, and holding in

his hand a giant scroll upon which rests the fate of the whole human race.

And there also a man standing alone as center of the universe, the

Lamb, who is not a lamb, but rather a Lion, The Lion of Judah, who was

once the man from Nazareth called Jesus with the power to enter that

inferno, to stroll up to the One who is the deﬁnition of power, and take the

scroll. And then, and only then, would all be well.

It is to watch as the stars of heaven begin falling like streamers of ﬁre

into a roiling red caldron called earth, a world made of blood. It is to

watch the men of that hour struggling to stay alive, to see them doubting,

moving away from God and accepting a Mark of everlasting damnation. It

is even to watch as the everlasting covenant of nature starts fraying, as the

sun erupts into a ﬂaming scorching, inferno, baking mankind back into the

ground from whence he came. All of which is followed by a contrasting

blackness, like a shroud of hell, covering all the earth with a lost mankind,

shaking their ﬁsts in the face of heaven.

And then I happened into inky swarms of ﬂying scorpions covering

the face of the skies. Stinging swarms of ﬂying insects with faces like

people, visions of horror set free to torment those still on the earth, who

try to escape in vain. And for some reason these people, stung again and

again, can’t even ﬁnd relief by dying. And after reading this, I actually

slammed the book shut and decided I wouldn’t go back to doing it again.

Perhaps the pastor and the church leaders had been right all along. Only

crazy people messed around with this Revelation stuﬀ.

And I could see why they were crazy. Some of this Revelation was

composed of nightmares. And I didn’t think I would be reading Revelation

again very soon. But I did, every time I noticed that dusty black Bible on

my bookshelf, and I was alone in my room. It held the same sort of

fascination that the cult literature had held. It was deliciously forbidden,

and yet I couldn’t just give this Revelation stuﬀ up.

Then on one memorable Sunday morning, seated in a liberal church

with my family in Calgary, now as a young adult, watching with a great

sense of well placed-doubt as the preacher sprinkled babies in their

mother’s arms, I came to the conclusion my own sprinkling had only made

me damp. In fact it had all become so much phony baloney churchism that

I might have tipped over right there into the bleakness of atheism except I

still had a nagging suspicion there was something awfully real about

Revelation. It just “tasted” like something hard and true.

So on that fateful Sunday I asked God in the most direct way to do

something for those little babies. I wanted to see God at work someplace,

because I was pretty sure religion had done nothing for me. Strange how I

remember this one service, when there were hundreds of others. But

important events often pivot around the simplest of moments. I hoped the

magic in the baptismal font would work for these babies because it

certainly hadn’t worked for me.

But these were years of transformation, and so it was not long after

that I was enrolled in college in Arizona trying to ﬁnd the roots of my

existence and perhaps some old friends, in the state of my birth. And there

I met others who had been raised in their mainline religion and had

rejected it outright. But I noticed that it was often to justify hedonistic

lifestyles not exactly the sort their parents wanted for them. Some where

along the line they had convinced themselves it was intellectual suicide to

have a belief in any sort of god at all.

They had simply put their family religion behind their backs and

refused to look at anything other than the selﬁsh ways they had committed

themselves to living. They wanted me to join with them and live life as it

came, forgetting the tired old religion of my family and live in the rush of

the moment…And I admitted ﬂaccid old gentlemen in long velvet gowns

had never done much for me, either. I had already ﬁgured out the social

gospel had very little staying power with any but the dullest of people.

They knew my background, and some of them challenged me to be

courageous.

The world was an oyster. All you need do is grab the pearl. And my

own family religion had proven as worthless as theirs. But then I thought

about those babies being sprinkled and my own experiments with the

Bible and I was sure there was meaning to be found somewhere. And

suddenly it dawned on me that some One had been listening to my cranky

prayer that morning in a liberal United Church of Canada service—and

how strange was that, I thought. Somehow I knew he had been listening. I

think this is the way God speaks. Suddenly you know, and you know you

know, and I can’t explain it better than that.

For at that instant I knew there was more to all of this than readings,

robes, and rituals. I knew the real author of all that lived, God—I decided,

really had to exist someplace.

So no, I couldn’t join my friends in their hedonist adventure no matter

how enticing to my ﬂesh. I told them there was a God and He was out

there somewhere and they just laughed at my eﬀorts to convince them. I

admitted I didn’t know him personally, and didn’t know how to ﬁnd him,

but he had listened to me that one day and I knew he had written the

Revelation. And even if that was all I knew, I was sure about him, I just

wasn’t so sure about me.

That said, I sure had no allegiance to any particular religious group,

not even the family tradition. But there was something starting to stir, and

it had to do with reality, not the games of either the ritualist or the skeptic.

I didn’t see how I could ever ﬁnd anything like ultimate reality, whatever

that was, but He was out there, somewhere. He had to be.

So I stumbled about for over a year determined to ﬁnd the truth.

I even transferred back to my home in Alberta. College in Arizona

hadn’t been going anywhere, and I started classes again in Calgary. But

my heart wasn’t in it. I was emotionally confused, lost in regard to my

studies, and rarely even bothering to go to class. I was looking for

something far more important than school.

And then one special afternoon something happened at the University

of Calgary. God ﬁnally moved into my life, or rather He allowed me to

encounter him where I was. I met the living Jesus Christ. Not the

eﬀeminate Jesus of the social gospel, not the Jesus in the statuary of your

local Catholic diocese; I met the living Jesus as surely as any apostle ever

did, and all my world was turned on end.

Josh McDowell, a very popular speaker with Campus Crusade for

Christ, spoke on my campus. McDowell has spoken on all six inhabited

continents to millions of college students and even then, in 1970, he was a

very popular and well-known speaker. But honestly at the time this all

happened, I had never heard of Josh, nor even the vast and growing

ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. (Campus Crusade is known

today as the ministry of Cru and is still thriving on every major campus in

the United States and most worldwide. ) As I said, the year was 1970, and

it was in the fall near Thanksgiving Day.

Oh I had seen the teasers. “Josh is coming!” It had been written on

every blackboard in the university; but the students doing the writing

hadn’t deceived anyone. We knew this Josh guy had to be one of the

greatest wack jobs of all the kooks around. This was obviously one of

those times when the religious wing nuts were making their play for the

rest of us.

Perhaps with my struggles you would have thought I would have been

one of the ﬁrst in line to listen. And I might have been, except for my

many bad experiences with religion. I expected Reverend Barnhill in long

dark cloaks again. And I wasn’t about to be pressured into God by a bunch

of kooks.

So in my mind there was about a zero chance of this guy going to

listen to any of that “evening presentation,” as they were calling it. My

mindset, while appearing to be contrary in hindsight, was set on

discovering the truth. So that even though I was struggling with “spiritual

issues,” I had no intention of becoming a kook on top of all that. I had

even sort of bought into the strange notion of being “spiritual” without

being in church, whatever woo woo that idea comes from. Eastern

religion had gotten to be sort of interesting. It was kind of a fad at that

time. I had heard someone talking about the sound of “one hand clapping”

while reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and thought

such nonsense might be profound. Well, not really, at least not after about

a half hour of it. I had too much common sense. I was looking for reality,

not more of the guﬀ of religion. So I wasn’t ready to go out and buy the

biggest leather bound gold leaf Bible I could ﬁnd, either. That would make

me a kook and I would need to wear a suit all the time. Kooks do, you

know.

But as a matter of fact I didn’t even go to see Josh, he came to me.

The afternoon of his arrival he set up his overhead in the middle of a

student lounge, full of overstuﬀed chairs, and started to speak. Like

everybody else in that lounge I’d been half asleep myself, pretending to be

working. I don’t even remember seeing him set up. But as he went live

and introduced himself, and began to promote his evening meeting, I

thought the guy must be oﬀ his rocker.

The ﬁrst question I would have asked him was, “why?” Why set up in

the middle of a study lounge. Nobody did that. Everybody knew that

nobody was awake in there. And Josh didn’t even have slicked down hair

and a suit jacket, like kooks are supposed to have. He sort of looked like

one of us, in a clean-cut sort of way. We were all pretty scroungy in those

days. But whatever else he was, surely this character was about to have a

quick exit, courtesy of the campus police. But for some reason the

campus cops never arrived. Maybe he had some sort of deal with them, I

never knew.

But right there in the middle of that lounge with all the courage and

conviction which comes with knowing you are right, Josh began to speak

about Bible prophecy—fulﬁlled predictions thousands of years old, and

things yet to be fulﬁlled in the future. And his arguments could not be

assailed. My mouth had fallen open, my heart had started to pound; his

words were astonishing me and all my sophomoric braggadocio which

held religion illogical had eluded me.

His thesis dealt with the human authors of the Bible—he called them

prophets, those who could apparently see things hundreds of years

ahead of the events themselves. His logic? If these prophets had been

right in the past, they could be trusted to know the future. If it was

possible for anyone to know the future, these were the guys who could

know it. It all made perfect sense to me.

He pointed out that the prophets of our time; Edgar Cayce, Jeanne

Dixon, and all the prognosticators in the tabloids were wrong more often

than they were right. Even Jeanne Dixon, who seemed to have the best

reputation, had missed more future events than she had guessed right.

And every year at New Year’s all the psychics lined up in the grocery

store tabloids because “inquiring minds want to know.” And every year

they missed by a mile.

Strangely while in Arizona I had actually met Jeanne Dixon—sat with

her in her home in Window Rock, on the Navajo reservation and had a

nice long personal chat about how she practiced this thing she regarded as

her “gift.” The woman had some sort of a spiritual aura, that was for sure,

and she claimed to have the same gift as the Bible prophets. Moreover, she

had gained a reputation for accuracy by predicting the assassination of

President Kennedy. But there was one vast diﬀerence, she had often been

wrong, sometimes very wrong—and for a prophet of God to be wrong,

given what the Bible says, should not be possible. It would bring a loss of

trust in the Name of God. So when something was predicted in the name

of God, and the prediction failed, that meant death by stoning. The prophet

spoke for God so he had to be right, or God was not speaking through him.

No doubt there was some power at work over Dixon. It was actually a

little spooky. Sitting on the sofa nearby, she seemed to be the point from

which came some sort of aura or energy, and she somehow had the power

to make everyone in the room fee incredibly relaxed with a sense of well

being. In fact she projected serenity which felt very good and yet left me

wondering.

But it seemed to me she was doing parlor tricks, giving what she

called life readings over each one of us, making us feel good in our bodies,

but she had no point to her prophecy other than self-gloriﬁcation. It was

all about Jeanne Dixon. True Bible prophets always pointed back toward

God. In her defense Jeanne Dixon spoke often about God. But there was

something wrong with her, something occultic. She used amulets and

crystal balls, and she was deeply respectful of the mediumistic medicine

men on the reservation, one reason for her home in Window Rock, capital

of the vast Navajo nation. And as we have said, contrary to the prophets

of the Bible she had often been wrong.

When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not

come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not

spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be

afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 18:22 (NASB)

In fact, according to Josh, in order to prove himself a Bible prophet

would usually predict something not many years distant. It would be a test

of the gift. Many would still be alive to see if the prophecy came to pass.

If the prophet could be trusted for the near future, he could be trusted

period. Even Jesus proved his prophet’s credential in this manner. The fall

of Jerusalem was coming in only 38 years, well within the lives of most of

his hearers. He made a prediction that the temple would soon come down,

and that every stone composing it would be torn apart from the others.

Many would be alive to see if it happened. Many were alive when it did.

To be a prophet in Israel was a very risky business. It meant you were

in touch with God, really in touch with God, or you could quickly end up

very dead. If the prophecy did not come to pass as stated, you were stoned,

pummeled into the ground, and there was no grading on a curve. Clearly

if such a thing as real prophecy exists, it must be thus; to protect his name,

it must be as accurate as God. That is, if God reserves to himself the

power to look into the future.

I was listening as he spoke in the student lounge, and Josh began with

the modern state of Israel, as the most important prophetic sign on planet

earth.

This was all entirely new to me. Until that moment, I had never

understood how important the return of the Jews to their own land really

had been. My birth in 1951 had happened only three years after the

establishment of the modern state, and nobody had ever told me. I don’t

think they knew. But Josh was ﬁlling in some blanks even in my own life.

And it was as if there was some sort of special connection from Josh

McDowell right into my head that day. His words were punching deep

into me, breaking up old stuﬀ inside. And I felt I was being swept along in

a sort of wonder.

I had never heard anything similar. Not in all my days of occupying a

seat in church. I felt good, I felt high, but it was not making me

intoxicated. I was more alive and alert than I had been in years. Even

when some of the things Josh was saying were not all nicey peace and

happiness. In fact Josh spoke of events which would tear at the fabric of

the world. And while I understood all of that, the message of God’s

reality was what I had been searching for, and it was like the loveliest

song in my ears. My soul sang within me. At last I had found the truth, the

100% truth. Thrilled to the depths of my being I knew; God was real, the

Bible true, and eternity would not be boring. I didn’t even have to rush out

and buy a harp. I could even quit playing that dang piano. I was sure Jesus

Christ must be standing somewhere close. And though I couldn’t see

him, he was there-yes he was there.

Josh tied prophecy from the whole Bible together, and invited us back

for the evening where we could hear more. And I, the guy who was never

going to be at that evening presentation—wild horses couldn’t drag me

there—could hardly wait for the sun to go down. I wasn’t even going

home for dinner. I didn’t care if I ever went home again.

And by the end of that fabulous day I knew. The prophecies

concerning Jesus had come to pass in both broad brush strokes and the

ﬁnest detail. I had even discovered that there are hundreds of tiny details

scattered throughout the Old Testament which lend proof to his claims,

some of them spoken at the time of the Creation four thousand years

before Christ was born. These are details so varied, and of such number, it

would be impossible for any one man to falsify in one lifetime.

Even so, there have always been some who try to debunk Jesus. In

spite of his great moral teaching, his eye-witnessed healings, his impact on

history, and his aﬃrmation by prophecy, they are convinced Jesus was the

greatest fraud of all time.

Hugh Schonﬁeld, one such antagonist, wrote The Passover Plot in

1965, a travesty of half-truth and outright lies in which he tries to expose

Jesus as a false Messiah. He attempts to make the Lord into some sort of

trickster with bogus powers, allowing him to fake his person to the

unsophisticated, resulting in the New Testament. And according to

Schonﬁeld the New Testament is all just a spurious fraud.

In The Passover Plot, this “conniver,” Jesus, set up all the ingredients

of his being recognized as Messiah in advance. He actually went out of

his way to get himself cruciﬁed by the Romans so he could be revived in

the “cool” of the Garden Tomb. By the way, according to Schonﬁeld and

others, that “cool tomb” is apparently a detail of massive importance

missed by most historians. Somehow a cool tomb can even revive a man

after 40 lashes with his internals hanging out, with the accompanying loss

of most of his blood, and even after being declared dead by cruciﬁxion!

But to even assert such a thing, Schonﬁeld must have understood that

40 lashes with the Roman cat-o-nine tails was already considered an

execution. It would have opened his back to massive bleeding and

infection. And that, followed by hours on the cross, the shock, and even a

spear thrust into his side, (yielding blood and water separated, sure sign of

lung failure); convinces us that we know with certainty he died. In

actuality a cool tomb could do about as much to revive such a victim as

ice does for dead ﬁsh. Four professional cruciﬁers took him down and

declared his death, and no honest historian would be willing to joust with

such four experts. These men knew death. But even so, Jesus was revived

when he went into the tomb. Because, as Schonﬁeld reveals, Jesus had

just swooned and the cool tomb revived him.

And when he woke up again, he was able to drag himself oﬀ to the

Apostles and convince them he was the expected Messiah, the very power

of God in heaven. And Josh likes to have fun with this scenario.

“After being whipped, cruciﬁed, and speared, Jesus just jumped up

from his shelf in the tomb. Still bound in the grave clothes, encased like a

mummy, and breathing through it all, he hobbled over to the door, pushed

a two-ton stone out of the way and tied up the guard outside with the linen

cloth.” Or something like that!

Well after all, it couldn’t have been too hard for him, having already

convinced these ﬁrst century know nothings he could feed 5000 with a few

loaves and ﬁshes, that he could walk on water, and still the storms! He

had already managed to light himself up on a mountain, looking like the

very glory of God, and speak out of the cloud like some monstro

ventriloquist.

But even could he somehow manage all this, Jesus still had to fulﬁll

hundreds of major and minor prophecies about the Messiah throughout the

Bible. How could he decide ahead of time which town was going to host

his nativity? Especially when his mother Mary was living in far away

Nazareth, and he had to be born in Bethlehem? And how could he arrange

the correct family linage—King David’s line? And how did he arrange for

a star to have appeared; the predicted star of the Messiah, just over his

own bedside? A star of such majesty, a star of such peculiarity, that magi

noticed from their home in the east and followed it to his crib side. It had

to have been the predicted “star of the Great King,” to be ruler in

Jerusalem? Jesus couldn’t even have manipulated the amount of money

Judas would take for his betrayal.

None of these predicted details, and thousands of others, could ever

have been arranged. They all depend on heavenly signs, or other people.

Even Judas had no control over the amount he got from the Sanhedrin. But

the price for Jesus’ betrayal had already been set in stone by the great

prophets of Israel as 30 pieces of silver.

So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver…Then the LORD said to

me, “Throw it to the potter, that magniﬁcent price at which I was

valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them

to the potter in the house of the Lord. ZECH 12:11-12 (NASB)

Nor could the testimony of the apostles be faked.

I suppose there are a few people so committed to a program they will

give up their lives for what they know is a lie. But you will look high and

low over all the history of the world and never ﬁnd such determination, as

that residing in these eleven ordinary, extraordinary, men. We call them

the apostles; Jesus’ disciples.

So what were they like, these eleven remaining apostles? Their deaths

are not recorded in Scripture, but we have the scrolls, their histories. Were

they unstable characters, politically motivated, after power and money?

Not one of them. They were simple ﬁshermen, men who worked a trade

with their hands; not politicians, not the educated, not even men of great

means. They stood to get no ﬁnancial gain, and their testimony would

eventually get them killed. From the beginning others warned them to

stop talking.

They all knew the loneliness of serving in places where they were

unwelcome and far from home but not one of them recanted, not one

walked away from Christ.

Why did these apostles aﬃrm Christ to their own deaths? The only

answer is the Bible answer. They had seen what they were absolutely

convinced was true. They had seen a man named Jesus raise the dead, and

heal the sick. They had seen him still violent waters and make bread out of

thin air. Finally, they had seen him alive after cruciﬁxion, and they had

watched him slowly ascend into the clouds, really the ﬁrst of the rapture.

Not just one but all eleven of them, faced the torture of a Roman death.

All of them including John, who ﬁnally died of old age because the boiling

oil that Domitian plunged him into couldn’t kill him. They all died

horrible hideous deaths, and not even one broke down with a diﬀerent

story. The fact that they all refused to renounce the resurrection, the

single most important message of Christianity, is a matter of history. They

could go happily into the next world because they knew death was not the

end.

They had heard Jesus’ words, seen Jesus die, and then they had been

there to walk with him again after he came back to life. With their own

bodies as a witness to the truth, they testify from the grave that death has

no hold on the one who is born from above. They testify that they actually

watched as he went away into the sky, promising to come and receive

them back again, just as he had gone away. If this is not a description of

the coming snatch, the Rapture, then there can be none.

Peter was cruciﬁed upside down in Rome; he had not felt worthy to

die in the same manner as his Lord. John, as we said, was boiled in oil but

miraculously survived, living to see old age in banishment. Nathaniel was

killed in the east by whipping; Matthew in Africa by the sword. Thomas

was speared in India. James had his head cut oﬀ in Rome. Every single

one of them paid for his testimony with blood. But the Church remembers,

and histories were written in detail. They died to the glory of the One

whose glory they wanted to copy.

Peter’s words are clear:

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made

known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,

but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For He received from

God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him

from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I

am wel pleased.”

2 Peter 1:16–17 (NKJV)

Listening to Josh in that study room I was in ecstasy, and in shock.

Had much of this been in that little gift Bible hidden in plain sight for

years and years?

But the most stupendous truth of all was yet to come.

Jesus is still alive! He was, and still is alive and ready to rescue every

one of us. Because of his death we can live. And every one of us require

his help to keep us out of everlasting hell.

Behold I [ Jesus] stand at the door and knock; if anyone

hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him

Revelation 3:20 (NASB)

As I listened it gradually dawned on me that I ﬁnally understood

something that had eluded me all the years of my attending church. I had

not been a true believer. I had gone to church, sat through all those

sermons, but I had never come to know Christ. If I would have died in all

those years, I would have gone straight down. I understood that even yet,

I was headed for hell. Everyone naturally is. Headed to the place of ﬁre

and loneliness forever.

So even as I had suspected, those children I had seen getting sprinkled

were only getting wet. They were too young to understand. Sprinkled, wet,

or bone dry, we must all be born again. To be alive is to be born once, to

receive Christ is to be born a second time. Jesus told a puzzled Pharisee

one evening, that we, each one of us, must be born of both the water and

the Spirit, in order to go to heaven. We are all born once into the ﬂesh of

Adam, and we thus pass through the waters of our mother’s womb. But

when we say yes to God through Christ, the Ruach—the very breath of

God—envelops and ﬁlls us, just like our mother’s watery womb once did,

and we are born again, by the living Spirit of God.

That day I learned the Social Gospel’s promises are all false. The

righteous do not live eternally by trying to be good, helping the poor, or

even as a metaphor of living forever in everyone’s good memories.

Everlasting life is real, and all the high sounding expressions of being

made eternal as an example to others; of carrying on the torch of

goodness, or some other New Age twaddle, is just more of this

foolishness. And every human soul will be conscious forever in one place

or the other, in heaven or in hell.

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe

in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will

be saved.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the

mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:9–11 (NKJV)

Josh explained the Bible as being a letter written to those who love

God, a letter that requires the Holy Spirit to understand it, and ﬁnally I

got that too. A lack of salvation had been my problem. No wonder the

Bible had seemed so dry for so many years. Now, as I understood Josh

correctly, I could poke around the book in my ignorance forever, and stay

the same. I would never properly understand the Scriptures.

But by accepting Christ, I knew I had to agree with God that my whole

life had been based on myself. I had been serving the almighty me and I

needed to ask Christ to come inside and take his rightful seat on the throne

of my life, as my King, my Savior, and the best friend I will ever have, the

one true God for all eternity. Finally in coming to him, I had to admit only

his death could pay for all that is wrong with me.

Jesus spoke with authority, because he is almighty Authority. Such

authority that they followed him all over the hills of Judea, and this Josh

McDowell seemed like him. This wasn’t robed religion and furniture

polish anymore, the God so obviously living within this man was

empowering him. Josh made being a kook seem cool, and I wanted to

change sides and stand up before the whole world with him, and that

feeling has never gone away.

I had ﬁnally heard the truth, the absolute 100 percent unvarnished

truth, and I was so excited. And my friend seated nearby told me to sit

down; I was embarrassing him. And he was right, I had already caught

everyone’s attention in that room. But I didn’t care in the slightest. I felt

like I had never been so free. I seemed to be ﬂoating. It was like what the

Bible says, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

I suppose the Spirit of Christ came into me right then. But that night I

knelt by my bedside and formally gave my life to God. The year was

1970, in the fall near Thanksgiving time, and I ﬁnally understood the

cross. Some decry the cross because it is an instrument of torture, but

Jesus embraced his cross. In fact it was for the joy set before him that he

went to die in the ﬁrst place. He had come in fulﬁllment of the promised

sacriﬁce, the only thing that could have broken the curse sending all of us

straight into hell.

That night I gave all my past life to him, for it was all sin. I gave my

present to him because I had no purpose in living. And I gave my future to

him because he would lead me on to heaven. I also bade the fraudulent

social gospel farewell, as I opened the door into my soul, and gave God

total permission to take charge and save me. Eternity has changed. For

that day in the student lounge at the University of Calgary, I met the

real Jesus.

and the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life,

and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who

does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I

have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so

that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:11–14 (NASB)

And the next day I couldn’t get over the change. It seemed some sort

of subtle diﬀerence had occurred in even my ability to see things, ordinary

things. Even the concrete beneath my feet was not the same. Oh I know it

hadn’t changed, but I had.

And I opened the Bible, and read in the book of Matthew chapter 24,

and the Lord told me to write a book, this book, though I had yet to live

many years to learn what should go into it. But what came into being that

night was the concept for Zion’s Promise. It has been a wrestling with the

Spirit of God to write it ever since. It is not Scripture, and do not take it

for that. It is one man’s adventure with God, and I hope it becomes as

exciting an adventure for you to read, as it has been for me to write.

The Chosen People Return

Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your

country...And I will make you a great nation...And in you

all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

12:1–4 (NASB)

On May 14, 1948, two thousand years of wandering came to an end.

Right before the eyes of the nations the modern state of Israel seemed to

rise from the dead, and even now, some 70 years later, the world does not

really understand what all the excitement is about. But for those who do,

this thing is electric. For it is the great marker of God. It is a major sign of

the times—a sign not unlike the star which led to Jesus’ crib in Bethlehem.

And like that star, it speaks very loudly of things to come. For against all

odds God’s chosen have returned in the latter days, in fulﬁllment of all the

prophecies about regaining their land. The Star of David now ﬂutters over

Jerusalem, and Israel’s name is back in their land.

When the rains of spring begin falling the ﬂowers of early summer are

about to bloom; so it is with the return of the Lord’s Chosen at this hour.

They have come like the fresh spring rains, and the full bloom of the

Second Coming cannot be far behind.

Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem, You

who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of His anger;

The chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs.

Therefore, please hear this, you aﬄicted,...

“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, The

chalice of My anger; You will never drink it again. “I will put it

into the hand of your tormentors, Who have said to you, ‘Lie

down that we may walk over you.’

Isaiah 51:17, 21, 23 (NASB)

The return of Israel is a true miracle, an event so amazing that only by

the Second Coming itself will it ever be exceeded. The return of the

Chosen to ﬂourish in their land has stopped the mouths of skeptics,

enraged the Islamists, and stunned liberal Christians. And it is such a

happy truth. Israel is home, and God is moving all things to their long

awaited climax.

Narnia author C.S. Lewis put it, “…Aslan is on the move!” God has

emerged, and he is playing out the ﬁnal act as it is written down on the

page. The Bible coming true is the very thing that surprises Zion’s critics,

and enrages her foes. Messiah is coming, and coming soon. The future is

his, and no power anywhere can derail his everlasting plan.

Israel is the primary indicator of what God is doing. And since the

state has reappeared there is no longer room for a reasonable debate. We

are living in the days of the Coming King and Israel will never again go

into captivity. Let the super powers threaten the world’s end, with their

giant arsenals, let Iran produce her vaunted nuke, let the whole earth

surround them, in order to run them into the sea, and there will still be no

third captivity. The prophets tell us that Israel is now in her land to stay.

And though they don’t yet know his name, Israel is under the hand of the

Mighty King who is Yeshua/Jesus. The shadow of great miracles, signs

and wonders is already cast. Even now many lost in Islam are having

visions of Jesus. He is visiting people in their dreams, often even during

their required pilgrimage to the black stone of Saudi Arabia, leading them

onward like sheep to places where they will ﬁnd his still waters.

thus says the Lord God, ‘Now I shall restore the fortunes of

Jacob...When I bring them back from the peoples and gather

them from the lands of their enemies...they will know that I am

the Lord...I made them go into exile among the nations, and

then gathered them again to their own land

Ezekiel 39:25–28 (NASB)

But what made Israel leave in the ﬁrst place? Why did they leave their

land? Why did they travel to the ends of the earth; into the great captivity

they call the Diaspora? Why those long years of wandering? What terrible

thing befell them to make them pack their bags and abandon their

ancestral home? What made them leave?

Moses warned, as far back as Exodus, so long as they walked in

humility with God, he would stay nearby. But if Israel ever departed and

began to chase after what are called gods by the nations, she would be

rejected and vomited up. She would lose her home, and wander. And as it

has turned out, she would be gone at least two thousand years. She would

have no permanent place, and everywhere a sword—the metaphor of death

and destruction—would follow close behind.

keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that

the land to which I am bringing you to live will not spew you out

. Leviticus 20:22 (NASB)

The Jews left this special land in 70 AD, after her temple was

destroyed. But it wasn’t the ﬁrst such temple or the ﬁrst time she had been

made to leave. It had actually happened the ﬁrst time some 600 years

before, in a kind of warning, when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came in

and destroyed the ﬁrst temple and took thousands of Jews captive into his

land of Babylon.

The prophet Jeremiah told them way back then that they would stay

captive in Babylon seventy years to learn what it meant to live in a land of

idols. And after exactly seventy years, true to their 100 percent accuracy

in prophecy, the Jews returned and rebuilt Jerusalem.

And the years passed while the city grew, and the temple was

expanded and even remodeled most dramatically by the non-Jew Herod,

who wanted a temple as big and glorious as Solomon’s. These so-called

“quiet years” were the inter-testamental times, the time between the two

testaments; but they were anything but quiet, as reading Jewish history

like the Maccabees, makes very clear. Such histories are accurate, but

have never been considered Scripture because God was silent during those

400 years.

Then suddenly, as the prophets of old had predicted, an amazing

young man; the carpenter from Galilee, came into the temple. And the

crowds which followed him recognized a great prophet had arisen. Some

followed him because of his wisdom and some because of his miracles,

but the ordinary people welcomed him without reservation. They followed

him in droves, and ate his loaves, embracing every word. They were in

awe of him. Never had anyone spoken the way he spoke, and never had

anyone done the miracles he had done. Not even Elijah had been able to

walk on water, and the people were certain they had found the promised

Messiah.

Then, after three years of his ministry, came the time for shouting and

loud hosannas, to welcome this great king to his throne in Jerusalem. Born

with the star of Messiah over his cradle, tapped out by John the Baptist as

the Lamb, able to raise the dead, and teaching with real authority like

no man ever taught before him; Jesus was the most amazing person ever to

set foot in Jerusalem.

And as he rode into town the people were declaring him their king.

The whole city, everyone, was coming out to him and most were

worshipping, scandalizing the Chief Priests and the elders. They shouted

for him to control his followers, and he made no attempt to stop anyone. In

fact, when commanded by the priests and scribes to silence his

overzealous followers, he declared the “rocks would cry out” if the people

should stop worshipping him.

Like the commander of a victorious legion, he entered the city, his

followers throwing garments on the road for him to tread upon, waving

palm branches in honor of the great victor; horsed like a conqueror, but

astride the wrong steed, his ride but a lowly donkey. It was so classic Jesus

—to be almost the Messiah the people longed for; powerful enough to end

the Roman occupation, and refusing to do so. The popular leader the

people craved, but not quite what they wanted. He just never seemed to ﬁt

into the human program.

They should have understood him. He had never hidden his real

mission. One warm morning, on another day in Nazareth, he’d explained

what he was up to but the people of Nazareth had simply refused to

understand. He had come to open the way to heaven, and not to judge and

destroy their oppressor. Some day he would return. Some day he would do

all they hoped, but he would be their captain later, and as it has turned out,

much later.

Then from the pinnacle of popularity, he seemed to plummet into total

submission, even into what looked like defeat to the people. The high

priest, leader of the Jews and master of the temple, had taken him captive,

and he seemed doomed to accept a Roman execution, saying almost

nothing in his own behalf.

What shock was theirs, seeing their champion cuﬀed and paraded and

whipped? A sense of betrayal, dejection, and disappointment must have

diﬀused through the streets of Jerusalem. Their palm branches hardly

withered, their shouts of hosanna still echoing in their ears; they raised

now their voices in hatred of the one they now considered a phony king.

Soon all in Israel were outraged as Roman spikes were pounded

through his hands. It is said that love and hatred are close relatives, and

this was certainly true of Jesus. The people of Jerusalem had believed in

him, and trusted him; but he couldn’t possibly be the predicted one now.

Their Messiah must be more powerful than the iron ﬁst of Rome, and

Rome had defeated this one.

So they missed entirely why he had come. Moses had promised a

Messiah who would lead them out of bondage, but Rome had quickly

subdued this one. So it all had to have been some terrible mistake. The

people would just have to wakeup and shake oﬀ the magician from

Galilee, and wait for their King all over again. And Israel has continued

this wait for over 2000 years.

By the time he went to his cross the same people shouting “hosanna”

on Sunday, were calling for his blood on Thursday. And even though he

had to be rejected and placed on the cross to pay for the sins of men, his

almost complete rejection by his own people was the true disaster which

came out of this. The Jewish people have suﬀered for this wholesale

rejection of their King ever since.

It was not his death which precipitated the Diaspora. His atoning

death had to happen, or there would be no heaven for anyone. Jesus was

born to die. In the vast plan of God, Jesus had been “slain from the

foundation of the world..the righteous Jesus in place of all men, the

unrighteous who deserved the cross.” But it was the national organized

rejection of Jesus afterward, even refusing to take a second look after his

resurrection, which as a tripwire into judgment and dispersal. The

Diaspora sent them into all the world in a second judgment much akin to

their captivity in Babylon, so many years before. As before it cost them

their temple which burned to the ground exactly 656 years later to the day.

So it was in rejecting their Messiah that the remnant would be swept

oﬀ the land as they were when Babylon came. They would be dispersed in

all the world; and this time it would last for a very long time.

The children of Abraham, these Israelites, have never yet understood

why they were chosen in the ﬁrst place. They have worn their status as a

badge of rank, rather than as a foot-washing commission. They have

lorded it over, rather than serving it under. And because they do not

understand their identity in God, they do not understand their own

Promises as given by him to Abraham. But they will, through testing they

will, and when they do, the whole earth will rejoice.

In the meanwhile, God formed the gentile (non-Jewish) Church.

When Jesus walked back out of his grave on that ﬁrst resurrection

Sunday morning, (it is called the Lord’s Day for that reason) in what must

be the most joyful thing that ever happened, he left the sin of the world in

the grave and brought a new thing into being called the Church. An

altogether new kind of human life, empowered and ﬁlled by the Holy

Spirit, something long promised in the Old Testament, there by prophets

and seers. Hearts of stone would morph into hearts of ﬂesh and blood, and

those of the Church would live forever with him in heaven.

And for the ﬁrst time since creation there were now three types of

people on the earth: the gentile nations, who know almost nothing about

the Word of God, these are what the Bible calls the restless “sea,” and

second, the Chosen (Israel itself); and a new group called the Church,

mysteriously hinted at throughout the Old Testament, a people who have

the Holy Spirit resident within them, and too often this group seems

beneath the honor given to them, because they do not really understand

what they are. The Church is today composed of some Messianic Jews

and many gentiles, those who have been rescued from hell by Christ’s

blood. And Paul explains in Romans chapter 11 that the gentiles of the

Church were grafted into the “olive root,” which is Israel.

The Church represents the true people of God for this age, during a

long season of Christ’s rejection by Israel. (We will speak more of this

parenthesis in God’s scheme when we look at Daniel chapter 9. This

situation has a reason but but will not go on forever. ) Unlike some, in

what is called “replacement theology” assert, Israel has not been thrown

away forever. On the contrary, in Romans, Paul pictures these gentiles of

the Church as merely grafted in. But the “stump” into which they are

slipped is not dead and will grow a new “shoot,” someday. In fact the

Church, all gentile believers are called the “wild” olive grafted into the

true olive tree which is still Israel. With the establishment of the nation in

1948, the “tree” has “budded” and the “bloom” may be coming soon.

But tragically, at the time of Jesus’ cross, most in Israel clung to her

tradition, rejecting Messiah, and hoping to be made ready for heaven by

their traditional religion, the ongoing, slogging, never-ending attempt at

self-improvement that is the keeping of the Law of Moses.

There is one atomic clock by which all other clocks are measured.

And rightly used the atomic clock is very good. In fact the atomic clock

almost perfectly tells the time. It is not quite perfect, but it works close

enough to act here in the way of analogy. The other clocks will never be as

accurate as the atomic clock. That’s why it’s the standard. And when the

Law is used rightly like the clock, it works to set the standard in the same

manner. Used rightly, God’s perfect standard always shows us how far we

have moved away from God and directs us back toward his mercy. The

Law is a standard which only Christ managed to live.

We can never hope to reach such perfection, at least not in this world.

Jesus had to reach this perfection. It was required of him. To become the

payment before a holy God for everyone else, to take the place of sinners,

Jesus had to pass the standard of perfection. Only he could.

But some have diﬃculty believing in Jesus’ perfection. Was Jesus

really perfect, according to the Law of God? As we have said, he had to

be, and he actually proved it in a very simple way. In front of those who

knew him best, his friends and family, he declared his own perfection, and

shockingly not one of them raised the slightest question.

To those who might be wondering if such a scenario proves anything;

what would happen at a family dinner if you foolishly announced to all

present that you were perfect in every way? When they all got back up oﬀ

the ﬂoor I would expect you would get an earful. But at this dinner, this

family remained quiet. It was quite evident, this brother, this son, was

perfect.

I defy any other human being who has ever lived to pass such a test.

Mother Teresa wondered every day if she even belonged to God. Billy

Graham would tell you he must confess his sins, every day. Mohammed

wasn’t even sure he would go to heaven himself (he wouldn’t), and he

was quite sure he couldn’t help anyone else. Gandhi never claimed

anything but the quest for perfection on a never-ending spiral of

Hinduistic reincarnation. But when we are dealing with Jesus the

incredible thing is that even under the critical stare of his brothers and

sisters, the people who lived and worked and suﬀered with him most, he

emerges the perfect man. Not one of them could ﬁnd even the slightest

ﬂaw in him.

Thus Jesus is set apart even by what others thought about him.

And this is entirely a good thing. In fact, it had to be. Without utter

perfection, under the scrutiny of the Law of Moses, Jesus could not have

died in payment for the sins of anyone, he would have been dealing with

his own.

But Israel, not interested in the salvation of their own souls, and

thinking themselves sort of above such things, given a pass as the Chosen

people, wanted a king, and not a redeemer. Oh they understood they had

sin, they just assumed God would overlook their sin and rescue them from

Roman tyranny, which is what they really wanted.

But in the rejection of his redemption, Israel began her long

“transgression” which will last until they discover that Jesus really is their

Messiah. This is what drove them out of their land for the second

captivity. Israel had missed Yeshua (Jesus), or rather she had deliberately

refused his friendship; and so the great madness came.

The legions of Rome poured into Jerusalem under Titus, son of

Emperor Vespasian, and the defense of Palestine was on. It didn’t go well

for Israel. A thousand Jews committed suicide at the mountain fortress of

Masada, thousands more were deported, and many became galley slaves to

the ends of the earth. As the prophets of Israel had warned, the land had

vomited them up again, and a “sword” would follow wherever they went.

As the centuries passed, that sword hounded them. Pogroms and

persecutions followed them everywhere and made their lives tenuous. And

because they were driven, they circulated ever farther from any contact

with their land, trying to ﬁnd comfort and understanding among strangers.

They percolated into every city and province of the ancient world.

And wherever they went they hoped and dreamed their imaginary

military Messiah who would ﬁnally come to rescue them. After a while,

most of them just stopped expecting him. Every year they would hold their

Seder meal at Passover and set the table with one extra place for the great

prophet Elijah who was expected to come as the forerunner before this

military Messiah. But it was all for show. If Elijah really would have

appeared as he actually will someday, people would have regarded him as

a ghost, and ﬂed for their lives. But in misery they covered their eyes from

all the obvious clues found in their own Scriptures and insisted Yeshua

could not have been the true Messiah.

And though at his death their great temple curtain, which covered the

most holy part of the temple and by some accounts inches thick, had

mysteriously split from the top down, at the very moment of his death,

they never understood the connection. The New Testament, which they

reviled and refused to read, reveals that Jesus really was God but veiled in

humanity. When the veil of his human body was broken, the veil of the

temple was symbolically torn, opening the way into heaven. Jesus even

called himself the doorway, and indeed his death is the way, the way into

the most holy place—the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the temple

representing heaven, the throne room of the Almighty God.

After his death and resurrection, for the short time Israel still had the

temple they couldn’t keep the veil together anymore. They would sew it

and darn it, and ﬁnd it split again. It seemed to be telling them Jesus’s

death was a one-time thing for all men of all times, and there was no going

back again. But the great temple veil with the rest of the temple, was

burned by the invading armies of Rome, and Israel no longer has that

object lesson facing them every day.

But because they kept hiding their eyes from him, they put up a new

veil, deep inside their own hearts. And they remained blind to him. And

they kept repeating the mantra, “Jesus is not for the Jews” hoping against

hope they were right. Wanting another, more attuned to their own wishes,

but no longer sure what those wishes really were. Jesus himself had

warned them, they would be deceived “if another should come in his own

name,”—and he told them—“him you will receive.”

Who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

…He has no form or comeliness;

And when we see Him,

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and aﬄicted.

He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:1–5 (NKJV)

Like all men everywhere, these Israelites had been concerned for what

they wanted in the here and now. They wanted Jesus to become a king for

their political ambitions and like Esau (the twin brother of Jacob, who sold

his Godly birthright), they were willing to trade their birthright in heaven

for what they thought would be like heaven here below.

And because of their rejection of Christ Israel has lived before a great

veil for a long time now. Through all the long years of her temple worship,

where she always served outside the important part of the temple and was

never allowed inside. The blood on her altar was only a symbol of that

which truly could become the satisfaction for her sins. She needed the true

Passover blood from the true Lamb, the blood over each doorway for each

person in payment for her sins. But she rejected the Messiah and his Own

Passover blood, the Lamb in his ﬁrst appearance.

Only the high priest could go inside the most holy part of their

temple, and then only once a year. And while the high priest was inside,

the whole nation would wait outside with baited breath, wondering if God

would accept their oﬀering for yet another year.

The temple itself had various rooms all representing the life of the

believer. The outer courts for the people, the Holy Place where the priests

worked, just outside the heavy veil covering the inner sanctum called the

Holy of Holies. And inside the veil there was the box called the Ark of the

Covenant whose top was known as the mercy seat, guarded by angels,

whose wings touched over it.

Because he was not yet covered in the blood himself, it was a

dangerous proposition for the high priest to invade the Holy of Holies each

year, to place the blood on the mercy seat between the angels on Yom

Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and get back out of there again.

But even after the temple burned, and they no longer had the great

veil of the temple, they were still spiritually blind. Now they were blinded

by the veil they still carried inside their own heads. Israel still couldn’t

see Jesus’s Day of Atonement blood placed between the real angels, in the

Holy of Holies of his tomb.

What a picture God set before them.

The true Holy of Holies was actually a picture of Yeshua’s tomb! On

the morning of his resurrection, when the women had approached his

sepulcher, there were the angels at foot and head, and the longed for blood

of a “better high priest” between, just as had been modeled from antiquity

by the Holy of Holies of the temple. Only the real death and sacriﬁce of

Jesus could break through the veil into heaven, where they needed to be.

But they closed it back up quickly, and cauterized it. By forcing every Jew

to agree that Yeshua was only for the gentiles, to take Jesus was to cease

being Jewish. And to this day Israel still holds that veil before her own

face and she is still in her transgression, and for the most part is still not

willing to let Yeshua take that blinder away.

When I was ﬁrst attracted to prophecy, and especially the Book of

Revelation, I understood that the word Apokalypse (English Revelation)

meant unveiling. But to whom? It is oﬃcially the Unveiling of Jesus

Christ, but who needs to have Jesus unveiled? Well many human beings

all over the earth, but especially Israel, the errant children of Abraham are

the veiled. Revelation has been waiting over the years for them to

discover, and many believe it will be soon. Revelation is more tied to the

Old Testament than any other New Testament book. It is the Jew who

carries a veil against Jesus, and needs to be unveiled. The whole purpose

of the Book of Revelation is the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to

those who already have seen and know him, but to his self-blinded and

deluded chosen Jewish brethren. Revelation is the unveiling of Christ to

lost and wayward Israel.

So the Romans came, and the Great Diaspora had ﬁnally begun. It

would last for at least 2000 years And while the people were missing,

scattered everywhere, squatters would begin to settle in their empty land.

But the land would become a curse to those who didn’t belong. But in the

meanwhile there was no home for the Jews, and the wandering Jew

became a saying, as Israel could ﬁnd no rest in all the world.

In the vision God gave to Abraham, Israel is attached to her land. It

was part of the tripartite blessing of God; a land, a seed and a blessing.

She is a people attached to a special land. She still is, even though little of

it remains to her, and even to this present hour the world keeps trying to

take this smallish land away again. What other nation has to buy peace

with their own land? Most of the land promised to Abraham, he has never

yet possessed. But the land will not thrive in others' hands. Today from

earth orbit, the green outline of the Jewish national map can be plainly

seen. It is strange to see the spiked shape of the modern state as though a

map were actually drawn on the face of the ground itself. But there it is.

From space; a green oasis set against the unremitting brown of the lands

all around.

In antiquity, it was not so. In the days of the Great Diaspora the land

grew forlorn. A land once described as that of “milk and honey” became

rough and overgrown by thorns and deserts and even the muck of swamps,

ﬁlled with poisonous reptiles and scorpions. Israel had become a

foreboding land.

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) visited in 1867, and he certainly

wasn’t very impressed with it.

We traversed some miles of...a desolation … here that not

even imagination can grace...We pressed on. The further we went

the...more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape

became...It is a...heartbroken land...Over it broods the spell of

a curse that has withered its ﬁelds and fettered its energies...And

should it be otherwise? Can the Curse of the Deity beautify a land?

—The Innocents Abroad Volume II, p.216-359 Samuel Clemens

(Mark Twain)

Once more the prophets of Israel had spoken, and they had spoken

truth.

I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell

in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations

and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and

your cities waste.

Leviticus 26:32–33 (NKJV)

So Israel scattered, and the world responded with a sword. Pogroms in

Europe, Russia and the Middle East seemed to move in waves. The Jews

were even blamed for the plagues of Europe. Sometimes they seemed

better able to survive because they practiced better hygiene, as prescribed

for them in their Scriptures. The gentiles around them got the notion they

were poisoning the wells.

Sometimes in Russia the Czar would persecute to get attention oﬀ his

own ﬁnancial problems, and sometimes the clergy throughout Europe

would stir up trouble against the “Jewish heathen,” to shake them down

for money. Houses were burned, people were killed, and all manner of

mayhem occurred. There were thousands of these pogroms occurring

from at least the times of the Crusades. Even during the terror of the Nazi

Holocaust, when all eyes were on the Axis powers, Israel was being

destroyed in Baghdad in ordinary pogroms.

Having borne such persecution, it is a miracle they still exist at all.

And by all the experience of mankind, once they left the place of their

home, they should have blended in to other tribes never to have been heard

from again. Israel has survived, and part of the testimony for their God-

shaped pedigree is their persistence. They have been persecuted and

shunned and left homeless far more than any other people, and yet they

have this uncanny ability to persevere. It has never been so with others.

Where are the Etruscans? They were called the ﬁrst Romans. If

anyone should have had a presence, it would have been the Romans. But

they abandoned the boot of Italy in their ships and vanished into the sea.

And where are the people who built the ruins of Zimbabwe, in the middle

of an African rainforest? The only knowledge we have of them are some

lonely architectural ruins. Or whatever became of those on Easter Island?

These islanders felt the need to carve giant heads and left them there as

lonely relics. They literally lost their heads. They have all vanished like

the wind. Not so Israel. And that alone is astonishing!

But as the years passed, and memory of the old kingdom faded, few

really believed in the possibility of going back any longer. They would

toast “next year in Jerusalem,” but few believed in it anymore. It was all a

formality. And to all appearances God was doing nothing, and old Israel

was ﬁnished. They would wander to the end of time. No wonder some

Christians began to say God was “through with the Jew.”

For a time, God did seem to place the Jews on a “spiritual” shelf,

apart from the main show of what he was up to: the gentile people being

saved in the New Testament. God did seem to turn away his focus from

his own Jewish brethren for a speciﬁed period, but it was all in the plan as

Paul explains here in Romans chapter 11. Israel was set aside so that the

Church (“the wild olive”) could be grafted into the “olive” Israel.

But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. …if somehow I

might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some

of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the

world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

But if some of the branches were broken oﬀ, and you,

being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became

partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not

be arrogant toward the branches…the root supports you…

and so all Israel will be saved…

Romans 11:13-15, 17, 26 (NASB)

But even as we have said, the long years of Israel’s eclipse and

dispersion convinced many in Christ’s Church that God had given up on

his chosen people altogether. Hadn’t Paul stated that the Church was

composed of Abraham’s children by faith? Many had even convinced

themselves that they had become the new Israel. God was never going to

do anything further with the Jews. They had turned their backs on Jesus.

In their minds God had returned the favor.

So some Christians, no longer satisﬁed with merely being grafted into

the root—that root being Israel—actually believed all the promises

coming to Israel now belonged to the predominantly gentile church. Such

is the view called replacement theology. The Church is the new Israel,

and the nation now known as Israel in Palestine means nothing. In fact

such churches were unhappy to see Israel come back into being.

But in 1948 Israel suddenly and quite unexpectedly came storming

back to life right in the face of their ecclesiastical collars. Even yet, some

of them still refuse to believe Israel is Israel, and all of them expect the

Arabs to throw these upstart Jews back into the sea. And unfortunately

many would say, “Good riddance!” The Jews are stealing their thunder.

Meanwhile, and even during the Church Age, there has always been

an aliyah (return) to the land. From as early as the Middle Ages and right

up to this present, a few stalwart Jews slowly trickled back from every

corner of planet earth into their historical land. Just a few here and there,

but they began to congregate in what they reminded themselves was still

the promised land.

Most came back with hearts ﬁlled with hope only to be shocked and

disappointed by the terrible conditions they found when they arrived. They

had been absent for so long and had built up such great expectations. But

the land had been neglected. Instead of the land of milk and honey, they

came back to the land of dust and no money. In fact the land they found

had been neglected for centuries and reduced to the desolation Mark

Twain saw on his trip in the1860s. Regardless, the refugees just kept

ﬂowing in. As the twentieth century dawned, with darkness accumulating

on the continent of Europe, more and more ﬂed this growing darkness.

Anti-Semitism was on the rise again. The return to Israel was almost pre-

mature.

Once in the Holy Land they began using donated money from wealthy

Jews in America to buy up land. But it was dismal property. Most of it

was land even the Arab squatters didn’t want. And for a while all of

Arabia thought they would make a killing selling foolish Jews the

badlands of Palestine. They couldn’t imagine anyone actually wanting to

live in fetid swamps with mosquitoes as big as horse ﬂies, mosquitoes

carrying endemic malaria.

But the Jews began to organize into the communal kibbutz and others

into the family-style moshav, and pressed deeper and deeper into inky,

dangerous swamps. Olive groves and pasturelands began to emerge where

ﬂies and jackals had ﬂourished.

But as Israel began to transform, the local Arab populations began to

worry. The Jews were making headway, and the Jews were starting to

accumulate. Jews were used to being segregated and persecuted in other

places, but they hoped that they were away from all that in their new land.

But it didn’t take long for recriminations against Jewish emigrants to start,

and they became ever more frequent.

The Mufti wasn’t happy.

Several times, under the pressure of the Grand Mufti—the local Arab

leader—the Arabs had already risen up and begun pogroms to destroy

Jews and the Jewish land. In spite of the overwhelming Bible evidence

God had given this land to them in ancient times, they had to buy it back,

one square inch at a time, all over again. It was land no Arab had the

fortitude to use for anything, but it still came at a premium price when a

Jew made the oﬀer. But ever so slowly eucalyptus trees and green

pastures were emerging from black pools and blowing sands. As the

malaria came under control, even the health of nearby Arab populations

was improving.

But as the green increased, the pogroms grew in violence. For self

protection these pioneering Jews began organizing into militias they called

the Haganah, the army of the people. And the Haganah kept increasing,

much to the frustration of the Grand Mufti and his thugs, until they had

some twenty thousand young Jewish men and women under arms. Hard

to keep secret, the existence of such armed resistance also infuriated the

English who after WWI had the over arching responsibility for the area,

and millions of Arabs, whom the English were trying to placate for their

oil.

For a while, in a rather cavalier manner, the Jewish leadership would

continue to deny this militia even existed-- but neither the British, nor the

Mufti’s men were dissuaded. They knew that Israel was building an army,

and it was getting stronger every day.

A vicious anti-semite, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem at the time was

Amin al Husseini, who had previously garnered the duties of this position

by intimidation and murder. Several other candidates had quickly

abandoned their campaigns for Arab leadership in Jerusalem under

somewhat interesting circumstances, some said to save their lives. Finally,

Amin Husseini had been deemed Mufti unopposed, and nobody dared run

against him again.

Amin’s rule was exerted by gangs of thugs on the streets of Jerusalem.

But as it turned out this was only the beginning of Husseini’s career of

intimidation and murder. Oftentimes over the years he had taken the side

of the British in the struggle over Palestine. But during the Second World

War, the British had run him out of the mandate for causing trouble and

acts which were on the side of the Axis powers.

Because of his hatred for the Jews, secretly the Mufti had been in

alignment with Adolf Hitler all along. And after he left Jerusalem this

sinister creature slithered west to Berlin, where for the rest of the Second

World War he was entertained like royalty by the leader of the Axis

powers himself. Becoming one of the dictator’s inner henchmen he began

broadcasting Nazi venom to the whole Arabic world. It is even said that

much of the impetus for Hitler to write and release the document for the

Final Solution demanding the death of all Jews came from his fevered

mind.

But as we turn this searchlight on Husseini and the Arabs, no

discussion of the return would be complete without looking at the origin of

this people the Arabs, cousins to Israel itself, and especially their religion,

which has so resisted the new state from its foundations.

As it turns out, the intense religion of Islam stems from a terrible

mistake Abraham made. Abram, as he was then known, had been taken

aside by God and shown the stars of heaven, where he had been promised

a special son. A son through whom God was going to bless the whole

world. (the seed and the blessing)

And He took him outside and said; “Now look toward

the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count

them.” And he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

… “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the

Chaldeans, to give you this land to posses it.”

Genesis 15:5,7 (NASB)

This promised child would be the beginning of a new thing on the

earth, a new people, the Chosen, through whom would come a Promise

which would continue to grow until it would eventually bless every human

being in every family of man. It was an amazing vision, and a wonderful

one.

But some years passed, and Abraham’s faith wavered waiting for God

to send to him the promised child. Worse yet, Abraham and Sarah were

getting very old, too old to have a son in the normal way, and still no

promised son had come.

Panic began to set in between them. Apparently God needed some

help to keep his promises. Finally Abraham’s heartbroken wife Sarah

concocted a plan. She would agree to let him go into young Hagar her

maid, and this younger Egyptian woman would have a son to fulﬁll the

promise. It was an early example of surrogate motherhood. But why they

thought God would go for this plan seems incredible. It was bone headed

to the bone, but that is exactly what they did.

Hagar readily conceived, and bore Ishmael. And the whole thing

turned out pretty much as what one might expect of two women and one

man. Abraham now had a son by the wrong woman, and no son by the

other to whom God had promised one. Such is an absolute recipe for a

man to bring havoc into his life. By putting two contentious women under

one roof, especially when one is jealous and the other can’t stop gloating,

Abraham certainly demonstrated that he was not following God. We

wonder if Abraham ever got a moment’s peace between them.

And God wasn’t pleased with this arrangement either. It could only be

the promised Son through whom Abram’s great seed would come. Though

God did declare that Ishmael, Hagar’s son, would also be blessed. Nations

would also come out of him. Since God’s word never fails, even when it is

an unmitigated disaster, Abraham reaped what he had sown. Nations have

come out of Ishmael, who is the father of the great tribes of the Arabs.

There are millions of angry Arabs in the world today because of

Abraham’s foolishness, and every single one of them is still jealous of the

Jews. Because, as God commanded, Sarah would still bear the child of the

promise.

Hagar, the Egyptian mother of Arabia, was told that her son’s seed

would be a wild ass of a man, incapable of getting along even with his

own people, and especially with the Jews. And how this prediction has

played out in history; Arabs have been ﬁghting among themselves and

others for thousands of years. Much more blood has been shed by Arab

against Arab than against the Jews, and they have never been able to get

along with each other, and are still busy killing each other today.

But if that was where the story ended, it would have been bad enough,

but some 500 years after Christ things really went into overdrive with the

birth of a man out of Saudi Arabia called Mohammed.

Young Mohammed began to have visitations by what he ﬁrst thought

was a demon, deep in a cave. A being calling himself “Jabra’il” appeared

claiming to be from Allah, a deity related to the moon. Mohammed was

afraid this was a visitation of evil, but one of his younger wives convinced

him the angel was not from the devil. She convinced him that he was

being tapped out by god for greatness.

What followed after is a bit confusing, since there are several

renditions; but we know Mohammed’s own tribe, the Quraysh of Medina,

refused his wild-eyed prophecies of a new desert religion. Apparently in

anger he turned on his own people and wiped them out to the last child,

and from this bit of arcane Arabic history derives the religion some

politicos call the religion of peace.

Moreover this new religion was supposed to supplant both Judaism

and Christianity, according to the angel. But when the Christians and the

Jews refused him Mohammed, and those who followed after him, began a

“jihad,” or a holy war against everyone, of such stupendous magnitude

that within two hundred years, it swept Islam into power over the Middle

East.

Soon North Africa had fallen to Mohammed’s crazed marauders, and

this religion even crossed over Gibraltar into Spain. And from there it

very nearly took over all of Europe. If Charles Martel and a host of French

knights had not met the Muslim Moors near Tours in 721 AD, all of

Europe might have fallen to them, as well.

Over the years, it has been suggested that the monotheistic religions

of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all were attempts by men to worship

the same God. This is clearly not the case.

Such a view does no service to any of the three, and misrepresents

them all. It is clear to those who have studied Allah, that whatever else he

is, he is not the same as the God of Israel. Even the English word “God” is

rejected by his devotees as being inadequate to describe him. The Quran

(the religious book of Islam) does make some overture to Jesus (calling

him Isa) as a prophet, but he is never the Son of God. For according to

Islam, Allah has no son. Moreover, writings in Islam subsequent to the

Quran, require the eventual death of all Jews and Christians. So Allah is

not Yahweh (Jehovah), nor is he Yeshua (Jesus). And even if Christians

and Jews tried to equate their Biblical God to this deity of the desert,

Islamists would never allow it. Islamists never allow Allah to be in any

way equated with others' gods. But Islamists do believe in peace. There

will be peace when all the world is in the hands of Allah.

So having given such a background, we return to Abram.

Though Abraham had grown tired of waiting for him; eventually Isaac

came in fulﬁllment of the promise to Israel. It took a wait of twenty-ﬁve

years, but God ﬁnally gave Sarah a baby of her own. She named him

Isaac, which means laughter, but the joke was on Sarah. When told that

God was going to give her such a child in her old age, she had laughed in

unbelief. But like so many of God’s surprising works, her unbelief had

changed into joy when the child ﬁnally came, and little Isaac was “Sarah’s

laughter.”

Once there was Isaac, Ishmael would always be in the background.

Though the normal progression in the Middle East is from father to

ﬁrst born Ishmael, but because of Jehovah God, Isaac, born second, would

be God’s Chosen child, and from his “seed” would come Jacob and twelve

tribes of Israel. But this was not very satisfactory to Ishmael. And because

of what happened with Isaac and Ishmael, there has always resided

between the two half brothers a huge question. And that question is still

the issue of the Promise.

Who has been given the Promise - Isaac or Ishmael? In the minds of

Arabia the Promise came to their forebear, Ishmael. He was the ﬁrst born.

Since Hagar and Sarah, this has remained a white hot issue, and has never

gone away, despite four thousand years, and the eﬀorts of the UN and

modern man.

In the Quran, Ishmael is pictured as the son of the Promise, being

oﬀered up to God on Mt. Moriah by father Abraham, slightly diﬀerent

from the story as presented with Isaac in the Bible but near enough that

secular men say the Bible and the Quran are nearly the same. And because

of that, many argue that this shows the kinship between the Quran and the

Bible. Some even argue that these two religions are really the same. Their

books tell almost the same story. But this is an incredible

misunderstanding.

This diﬀerence of Ishmael and Isaac, the chosen one of God on that

altar, who is the child of the Promise, is the basis of open war between the

half brothers, and their heirs. If Ishmael was really oﬀered on Moriah, the

child of the promise is Arab, and Jerusalem belongs to Arabia. But if the

child of the promise is Isaac, then all belongs to Israel, and the Jews are

the Chosen people.

Abraham is shown in each book oﬀering up one of the two in what is

believed to be the very place where someday the Holy of Holies of the

temple will be built. In the Quran the position of the promise is

dishonestly given over to Ishmael, and it is Isaac who is the troublemaker

and usurper. Abraham’s sin is still being played out daily, in every

encounter between these two.

The very existence of Israel and the Jew, is an aﬀront to the claim of

Ishmael and Islam, and most especially and acutely so with the return to

Jerusalem by the Jews. Isaac the Jew must be removed to make room for

Ishmael. The usurper has to get rid of the one to whom the promise was

due. And after all these years, the Arabs still see the struggle as between

Ishmael and Isaac, and they care very little for western solutions. No

political solution exists. That is why American interference rarely

accomplishes anything over there.

Like the Mufti preaching Jewish annihilation in Berlin, strict Islamists

would not mind a return to a World-War-II-style extermination campaign.

Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, though not an Arab but Islamic, has called

for the vaporizing of every last Jew; and with an Iranian nuke, he and the

Mullahs of Iran, are more than willing. In international polls, even so-

called moderate Arabs ﬁnd little fault in the terrorist organization Al-

Qaeda, responsible for the deaths of 3000 Americans at the World Trade

Center in New York. In the mind of the Islamist, America supports the

usurper, so America too must die. Strict Islam cannot coexist with any

other religion or philosophy.

As the Bible predicted, Ishmael is a wild ass of a man who cannot

tolerate anything diﬀerent from himself. Islam does stem from the Arabic

word “salaam,” or peace; but peace, as they see it, only occurs after the

other side converts or is wiped out.

So it is by both history and religion, Islam despises Israel.

But there is nothing diﬀerent or unusual about that, for so does

everyone else on planet earth to one degree or another. And that too is a

puzzle. Why should every people on the face of this earth hate Israel?

It can’t be for jealousy over her abundant natural resources. Israel is

blooming now, but the Arabs used to laugh about the stupid Jew buying up

rocks and swamp land. There is little oil there, certainly not like in the

Arab countries nearby, though that is not to say oil might not play a part in

the future of the state. Vast gas reserves have been proven oﬀ the

Mediterranean coast. Where we ﬁnd large gas we almost always ﬁnd large

oil pools associated. And there is even an obscure prophecy over the tribe

of Asher, who occupies what is called the toe on the Mediterranean coast.

“His toe would be dipped in oil,” and apparently the vast gas and oil plays

coming on line may be oﬀ Asher’s Toe as it points into the sea.

But why should everyone hate the Jew? There can be only one

answer. Israel really is diﬀerent than the nations. God looks upon the

gentiles divided up into what he calls nations as very diﬀerent from his

chosen.

The world hates Israel because the world hates God, and like it or not

they represent him. Such is the very reason which drove Israel to ﬁnally

seek out for herself a refuge from all the hatred of the world. After World

War II it became a matter of survival.

The Second Exodus

The modern Exodus began years before 1948, and the modern state of

Israel. Credit is given to a hapless Austrian Jew by the name of Theodor

Herzl as the father of the nation. But Herzl never set out to be anything

more than a French newspaper reporter.

Austrian born, not religious, and someone who bounced from career to

career, he ended up becoming the inspiration for other Jews to join him on

the path to Zion (the mountain of the Great King). But Herzl was a most

reluctant visionary. He had little knowledge of the Bible and could see no

diﬀerence in his people and others. He regarded the idea of the Jews being

chosen by God as fantastic nonsense.

Overlooking Jewish history, he assumed Jews would be treated fairly

in a modern European state, just like everyone else. He knew some law,

and the law in honorable countries is blind. The law does not favor one

class over

another, one religion over another, or one people over another. In the law

courts of Europe the Jew could expect to be equal to all other men. All of

which may have been fairly naive for a member of a people who had

already suﬀered so many indignities at the hands of so many other people.

Nevertheless Herzl was a man of integrity himself, and he believed

that if you gave someone a fair shake, they would respond in kind. Thus

he was happy to be part of European democracy, and European law.

Embedded within such a culture, he supposed his people were safe from

the bigotry and persecutions of the past. Then came a shocking scandal.

In civilized France—a country of supposed western-style freedom—

Herzl, following the story as it unfolded, watched with increasing horror

as an innocent Jewish man, a loyal French Army oﬃcer by the name of

Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was unfairly charged and condemned for a

treason everyone knew he hadn’t committed. Dreyfus had served France

with distinction for many years, but suddenly and without any proof of

guilt, he was charged with spying for Germany and sent to the terror of

Devil’s Island. Thus began the so-called Dreyfus Aﬀair.

In 1894, it became known to French authorities that military secrets

had leaked out to the Germans, and an investigation was begun. Of course,

the French were trying to discover the traitor in their midst. A handwritten

note addressed to Major Max von Schwartzkoppen, with some French

secret documents, had been uncovered, and the culprit’s hand had a slight

resemblance to that of Captain Dreyfus’s. He was arrested and charged,

but everyone agreed he had received summary treatment because he was a

Jew.

Dreyfus protested his innocence, and most of the military believed

him. But his chief enemy, a famous anti-Semite by the name of Édouard

Drumont, published accusation after accusation in his news rag, La Libre

Parole, and the poor captain was considered guilty even before trial.

There was no evidence, save that similar handwriting, and no motive

was ever associated with him. But because of his Jewishness, and his

natural military stoicism, Captain Dreyfus could not mount a strong

defense. Proving a negative is always diﬃcult, and because of his

ethnicity, all Dreyfus had in his behalf was the testimony of his comrades-

in-arms, men who knew him to be a loyal Frenchman.

But Drumont, and some other French anti-Semites, were obsessed with

Dreyfus’ death. Drumont went so far as to lead street demonstrations,

which usually broke down into riots, demanding Dreyfus be executed.

Without evidence to the contrary, Dreyfus was tried, convicted, and

sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island.

Incarceration on Devil’s Island, the penal island near French Guyana

oﬀ South America, was considered a death sentence anyway. Men who

arrived there were permanently chained and would remain so until they

dropped from heat exhaustion and malaria. Those who died were often

buried in their chains. Others trying to escape by the sea were eaten by

sharks, and those attempting to hide in the forest. fell into mantraps, where

they were left to die by disease, hunger, and the natural dangers of the

jungle.

While serving their sentences in the green hell, these frightful souls

worked under the lash to clear land for farming, cutting down trees, and

clearing swamps. Disease was rampant. Many simply dropped from the

heat, the excruciating labor, and the sickness, every day.

So would have ended the tale of Alfred Dreyfus, in such obscurity and

despair, had it not been for an honest member of the French Secret

Service, one Georges Picqaurt, who had discovered the real culprit,

another French oﬃcer of Hungarian royal descent. But this oﬃcer was of

noble family, and was thus given special consideration.

In order not to create an international incident, the French High

Command chose not to indict the man and left Dreyfus to suﬀer for the

crime. Better to let the wrong man, a Jew, rot on Devil’s Island, than to

bring a nobleman before a French court.

So it was reported in the media, and Herzl was rightly appalled.

But instead of righting this terrible injustice, Picqaurt was also made

into a scapegoat, demoted, and sent to the French colony in Tunisia to be

shut up. Even from Tunisia he would not remain quiet, as the French

government wanted. From overseas, he kept up his steady drumbeat of

accusations toward the ruling class in France. Eventually, he too was

arrested on trumped-up charges and sent to prison. And for the next ten

tortured years the Dreyfus Aﬀair split the country, while Dreyfus

continued on the chain gang in that stinking island hell. Here was an

innocent man, something privately admitted to by almost everyone, kept

as a political prisoner to keep the high command of France from suﬀering

embarrassment.

Then more crimes were discovered, crimes committed by Dreyfus’

accusers, people involved in a conspiracy to forge more of Dreyfus’

writing and frame him for even more nefarious crimes. Apparently

Devil’s Island wasn’t enough. Some bigots still hoped to send him to his

death. Some of these ended up in prison themselves, and eventually those

in leadership were replaced.

Finally to his everlasting credit, Georges Clemenceau, the new French

premier, acquitted Dreyfus fully, and reinstated him into the military. He

was given the rank of major, and decorated with the Legion of Honor, but

he died ﬁve years later from the terrible extremities he had suﬀered on the

terrible island hell.

It was a total miscarriage of justice, perpetrated by human beings who

were irrationally hateful of Jews, and Herzl had undergone a radical

change. He decided the life of a Jew was not worth anything to all other

people in the world. Proving Dreyfus innocent, speaking out, and even

uncovering the real culprits had not provided exoneration. Jews were

expendable, and could not depend on European courts for justice, as they

all would soon discover.

There was to be no due process for millions of Jews headed to death

camps in German boxcars. Herzl ﬁnally decided that in order to live the

life of a Jew one must be separate. He and others of the Zionist movement

had concluded that Jews would have to make their own destiny; a destiny

away from the anti-Semites of the world, men like Édouard Drumont.

Not that world Jewry hated other people, it was quite the contrary;

they were hated, and it was time to ﬁnd a place of their own. They would

have to acquire land and somehow get it declared a new country, no small

task when there was no unclaimed place left on planet earth. A new

country would have to be built and nurtured, but, where and how? That

presented the dual problems of where to locate and how to make a nation

out of the land you ﬁnd. Not being religious, and realizing the

determination of the Arabs not to yield up Jerusalem, he couldn’t allow

himself to dream of the traditional aliyah, a return to their promised land.

But being a secular Jew, perhaps that didn’t much matter to him anyway.

He was not out to deliberately establish an Israel in the biblical

homelands. Even if he had known much about the “Promise” God made to

Abraham, it probably wouldn’t have mattered much to him. He didn’t

believe in any of those “old Bible promises,” anyway. Still, the biblical

name Zion stuck to his movement, and this probably humored Herzl more

than anyone. Being such a man of the world, it would have seemed the

greatest irony that a religious title should come to him.

Nonetheless, he knew the so-called Promised Land had long before

fallen into disuse. He’d been told it was loaded with stones and stumps,

and had become almost impossible to make productive. He also

understood that people in such a new Jewish country as he proposed,

would have to subsist on what they could grow. They would not be given

help from any other source or nation. They could depend on no one but

themselves. And being a city Jew to whom the whole idea of agriculture

was mysterious, the last place in the world he wanted to try to grow his

own food was some place hard to farm.

Moreover most of these Zionists were city Jews like himself. They had

little experience on the farm. They needed some place with rich soil and

ease of plowing, a place with soil so ﬁne it would be diﬃcult to make a

mess out of growing their own food. The challenges of Palestine simply

scared them. Out loud he wondered who would ever want such a place as

old Zion again.

So far as he knew, the land was ruined, full of snags and stumps and

rocks, and without water where it was most needed. Not even the Arabs

who had been squatting there for hundreds and hundreds of years wanted

it. Everybody knew that.

So Herzl brought to the ﬂoor of the World Zionist Convention of 1905

a motion for a migration to almost anywhere else on earth, any place

where Jews could be left alone. The American pilgrims had done it in

America, and he was sure that the Zionists could do it too. He made no

reference to the Scripture, and in fact there is no evidence Herzl had any

knowledge of the Scriptures he was helping to fulﬁll. He favored a place

in the wilds of Uganda, or even in the rain forests of South America. He

reasoned from a purely secular position, the children of Abraham could

simply getaway from the rest of mankind, and vanish from memory. In his

secular mind, it would be good to rid themselves of this chosen people

nonsense, and the sooner the better. It was the chief cause of their troubles

with the rest of the world.

Then World War I intervened, and the Jews fought in the trenches of

Europe alongside their British comrades-at-arms. And in spite of all the

good press that T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) captured for the

Arabs, a far larger contingent of Jews actually fought in the war. Unknown

and unheralded, there had been crack units composed completely of Jews,

and many were decorated for their service to the British crown.

Even more important were their scientiﬁc contributions. At the

beginning of the war, England found herself with a desperate shortage of

rubber. In order to ﬁght a modern mechanized war, England had to come

up with a source for truck tires. Jewish scientist and statesman, Chaim

Weizmann, a chemist of great international standing, produced a method

for making acetone, which had hitherto escaped other eﬀorts. This was

signiﬁcant, as it made the synthetic manufacture of rubber and munitions

possible.

No longer were the allies dependent on rubber plantations, most of

which seemed to have been in German hands. Weizmann produced rubber

by a cheaper and quicker method. Truck tires rolled oﬀ the assembly line,

and they certainly helped in the victory. For this, some in England still

believe Weizmann singlehandedly had a role in winning the First Great

War, known better in America as World War I.

Whether he did, or did not, England felt gratitude for his contribution;

and in 1917, Lord Balfour—personal friend of Chaim Weizmann,

representing a thankful England—wrote to Baron Rothschild to thank him

for the Jewish contribution to the war eﬀort. And in that letter, he penned a

view that prevailed among the Conservatives in Parliament, the famous

Balfour Declaration:

His Majesty’s government view with favour the

establishment in Palestine of a national home for the

Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to

facilitate the achievement of this object

—Lord Balfour, 1917

The old League of Nations, progenitor organization to the United

Nations, quickly followed up with a mandate for Britain to take charge of

the Palestine portion of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, which had aligned

itself with Germany, and her loss in the war. The League’s intention, as

contained in their resolution, was for the Brits to establish, with as little

delay as possible, a homeland for the Jews in Palestine.

But the Arabs, led by the Grand Mufti, went berserk at such news out

of Whitehall, and quickly responded with riots, the Mufti himself making

a trip to London to speak several times in favor of a complete halt to

Jewish immigration. He also demanded a stop to the accumulation of land

into the hands of Zionists, even though they were buying up inferior

pieces and doing so at extortionist prices.

Then the Conservatives in Parliament lost a British election.

Progressive Liberals under Chamberlain took charge in London, and

everything suddenly started to change. To the utter shock of the Jewish

Yashiv (their word for community) in Palestine, in 1939 the British

published the ﬁrst of their infamous White papers. The Progressives aimed

to limit immigration of the Jews into Palestine to a trickle.

The Mufti seemed to have won. The White papers, a series of

declarations by the British government created by Colonial Secretary

Malcolm MacDonald, outlined the determination of the British Crown to

abandon its previous inclination toward Israel, and to make Palestine into

an Arab state.

Thus, the liberal government of Neville Chamberlain began the

process of overturning the Balfour Declaration. And in hindsight this

decision would be ranked among the most foolish ideas ever entertained

by the British leadership. Eventually it made Great Britain appear as if it

were in support of the Nazi holocaust, and according to the Word of God,

it put a ﬁnger into the “eye” of God, his Chosen people. This is something

Britain would rue for many years to come.

Britain had received this mandate from the League to create the new

state for the Jews in 1922, but now it appeared to Jews worldwide that

England had imperialist ideas of keeping the land for themselves or

making it into an Arab client state. But even if Whitehall had no fear of

God, which they apparently didn’t, they had blundered badly from a

purely political perspective.

In one fell blow they alienated most of the world; and from that point

on, the great British Empire began to shrivel into what it has become

today, only an echo of what it once was.

In the ﬁrst of the White Papers, the very purpose of the mandate was

denied, and the Progressives of London dishonestly made the claim Great

Britain had never agreed to a partition of the Jewish homeland for the new

nation. Worst of all, the total immigration of Jews into Palestine was to be

limited to 75,000, after which all Jewish movement there would be halted

forever. This was a measure thankfully never enforced due largely to the

rise of the Second World War.

On top of all, the White paper of 1938 had the singularly bad timing of

being published on the eve of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass)

in Berlin. At the very moment when hundreds of Jews were being burned

to death in synagogue ﬁres in Germany, by Hitler’s SA thugs, England had

begun to tighten a knot which denied many Jews an escape into Palestine,

and condemned many to die in the Nazi death camps. On that terrible

night, Hitler rampaged throughout the German nation, destroying the

shops and synagogues of thousands of Jews, revealing just who he was,

while England was stopping Jews from escaping to a new home in

Palestine.

The ensuing war with Hitler was largely fought by the democracies to

save themselves, and the plight of the Jews was left as a side issue. The

western democracies have tried to deny they knew much about the Final

Solution to eliminate all Jews from Germany and Poland, and afterward

they blustered about the terrible conditions in the camps and said that they

had been too busy to do much more. But their protests were ingenuous.

Boatloads of Jewish refugees, turned loose on the high seas by the

Nazis in inadequate leaking ships without documents, were turned away

by Allied nations, including the United States, for lack of proper papers. In

some cases these ships ran into heavy seas and sank with the loss of all

hands. Hitler mocked the western democracies over such hypocrisies,

telling the world nobody wanted these “vermin” Jews.

There actually had been a plan by the Allies to bomb German death

camps into powder. But the plan was stopped under the excuse that

innocent camp inmates might have been hurt or killed. One wonders at the

logic of allowing a certain genocide of millions to continue over the loss

of some few hundreds on the ground.

But after the War, and it had been disclosed what horrors were

uncovered, England—to her ongoing shame, instead of trying to aid in the

comfort of the Jews—continued to renounce their Balfour Declaration,

and stuck by her infamous White papers. The result of which, reduced

Jewish immigration into Palestine to a trickle, even after hostilities ended.

During the war, Palestinian Jews who had learned how to ﬁght the

Mufti as youths with their Haganah and Palmach units became some of the

best shock troops of the British Empire. Whole platoons of Jews

performed daring escapades against the German forces, some of which

may never be known. These were the warriors of David, come back to life

in the 20th century.

General Rommel, often called the Desert Fox, was creating havoc

against the British in North Africa by the swift maneuver of his tanks

across the desert pan, and the Allied command felt he had to be stopped.

Jewish forces, ironically acting under British command, were given the

job of breaking his Afrika Corps, and liberating the countries of North

Africa. As it turned out, many Jews who had escaped from Europe ahead

of the holocaust spoke German like natives. In one well-known operation

which broke the back of the Afrika Corps, these German Jews were

dressed in Nazi uniforms, and sent in to the garrison of Tobruk.

They came in as guards escorting trucks ﬁlled with men posing as

English POWs. Because of the quality of their German, the trucks sailed

through unhindered. Of course, they all would have been shot as spies had

they been suspected and caught, but their job was to get in as a Trojan

horse; destroy and not necessarily get out again. Their ruse worked, and

during the night they blew up the greater share of the German tanks, tons

of ammo and fuel, and returned Rommel to Europe where they met him

again on D-day. In such ways Israel fought bravely on the side of the

Allies during the whole course of the war, and some of the most highly

decorated members of the British Army were from Jewish Palestine.

When D-day, and Operation Overlord, ﬁnally came, the Jews,

hardened by battle, had been among the ﬁrst wave onto the beaches at

“Sword” and “Gold,” digging in and gaining a foothold, under the

withering machine guns of the Third Reich. Israel fought, and thousands

of Jews lost their lives in battle, while the vaunted Arab Foreign Legion,

so decorated in World War I, never placed one soldier into actual combat

on the side of the Allies during the whole of World War II.

No, but in the background, back home in Palestine, they did prey on

unprotected Jewish settlements, after the Jews declared statehood in May

of 1948. Three towns near the Gaza were slaughtered to the last child by

this vaunted Arab League, and some renegade British oﬃcers along for the

ride. Of course, it was claimed by the politicians that they could not

control the local Arab populations, determined to rob, rape, and pillage the

Jews. But it was no deep secret that the Arab war machine, aided by

England, committed terrible things after Jewish independence.

The British Foreign Oﬃce was still enamored with Arabia, and

Lawrence was still larger than life to them in spite of the fact that the

Arabs generally lined up with the Axis powers throughout the Second

Great War.

London had begun to do what they could to appease the Arabs. Oil

was now the issue. A modern state ran on petroleum, and England was on

the side of the Arab because the Arab had the oil. Even though the Grand

Mufti had been in Berlin during the war as Hitler’s personal guest

speaking out for the Nazis, England sided with the local Arabs and against

Israel during most of the war.

But it was a poor policy. The twilight of the British Empire came as

England, to the horror of the average British citizen, seemed doomed to

follow in lock step with the Germans. And they continued to do so as they

set up their own concentration camps on Cyprus to receive Jewish

refugees. They ended up incarcerating thousands of Jews trying

desperately to get to their ancestral home in Palestine. Many even bore the

Nazi tattoos, the ugly evidence of time served in Buchenwald or

Auschwitz, or one of the other Nazi death camps.

In fairness, these British refugee camps on Cyprus, though crowded

and Spartan for life, were not Auschwitz. Bedding and medical care was

humane and the food while not spectacular, was fairly good. But these

camps did have barbed wire perimeters, and there were armed guards in

the towers, and they were set up for detention. People being held in these

camps were not free to come and go.

No wonder many in England began to ask what the war had been

about after all. In the end, England learned the hard way that a nation

cannot touch Israel, and long remain untouched themselves. The glory of a

nation does not long stand against the crushing stone which is hurled from

the throne of God. That “crushing stone” is Christ.

And it will come about in that day that I will make

Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift

will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth

will be gathered against it. Zechariah 12:3 (NASB)

The Nazi holocaust, in terms of numbers and methods, was the

worst of all the terrible things which have happened to Israel over the

years. Hitler was responsible for the death of some six million Jews, and

millions of others, in battles fought all over the world. But the vast

majority were Jews who were systematically executed by the millions,

using the techniques of mass extermination, many in a gas created to kill

insects. And even some sixty years later the crimes of National Socialism

still make the head and the heart sick. How anyone could have treated

anyone else with such cruel inhumanity is still very troubling. How they

could have made it public policy, atrocity systematically committed daily,

by accountants and managers, should make us all aware of how easily

such things can become strangely accepted. When evil is done with

ciphers and charts, rather than guns and razors, it becomes almost ordinary

behavior. When it is covered by what has the appearance of law, it

becomes respectable. Many of the guards at Auschwitz had been average

ordinary people; church members, policemen, and those who deliver milk.

But the Jews, even little children with their mothers, were hauled away

in train cars, like cattle going to the slaughterhouse. It was all evidence of

a demonic madness taking hold of a nation. And much of it was under

cover, using euphemisms to keep reality away. People worked in factories

of death run like ordinary worksites. They would bring their lunch pails. It

was all so behind board and sanitized.

But even in the depths of the holocaust, God was never taken by

surprise. Even in the most hideous of the death camps, the ironies and

coincidences of this incredible people called Israel, continued on.

God had his people even in Auschwitz. The little Dutch woman Corrie

ten Boom with her family, taken prisoner for hiding Jews in their home,

discovered how God could even use the ﬁlth of Ravensbruck to see many

come to know their Savior. As Corrie and her sister Betsy discovered, in

that lice-infested hole, reading out loud to the other inmates from a copy

of the Bible God in his providence had provided, could say, “No matter

how deep the darkness, God is deeper still.”

With the holocaust, tragedy enveloped Europe on many fronts.

Millions of Jews lost their lives.

But with all we have said, we cannot mince words. Israel had rejected

the Son of God, and his death on the cross. They did not understand the

price he paid for them, nor the price they would pay in the aftermath of

their rejection. And because of this rejection, the eyes of their hearts had

been veiled. As Jesus warned, “having eyes, they still do not see, and

having ears, they still cannot hear.”

Why? Because Israel wanted a powerful leader. They were not

interested in the One who came to save them, and most of them simply

cannot see Jesus even yet. They still mistakenly call him the “gentile

Messiah.” So to be clear, nobody is so evil as to justify the atrocity called

the holocaust, which came as a result, but we must attribute it where it

belongs, to the sinful heart of man.

And another thing, many Jews still miss is the truth that most gentiles

are not Christians. To be a Jew is to accept the religion of Judaism, at

some level because it has an ethnicity with it, but that does not follow with

Christianity, at least not real Christianity. All gentiles are not Christians.

Hitler was not a Christian. Hitler simply heaped scorn on men like the

protestant pastors who opposed him saying they sweated like pigs. It is an

old cliché, but going into a church does not make you a Christian any

more than going into a garage makes you a car.

Even the very religious who call themselves Christians, often

misunderstand, and miss the whole thing. And certainly the monsters of

the Third Reich, had rejected Christ altogether. To Himmler’s heel-

clicking SS, Christ was merely a weak Jew. Jesus was actually disgusting

to these jack-booted, pride-laden copies of Satan. The Nazis wanted

nothing to do with the meek, suﬀering Messiah of the Hebrews. Their

gods were “Berserkers,” Viking warriors of Asgard, casting spells in

bloody oaths, as practiced in the ancient myths of the Aryans, the warrior

men of India.

Hitler’s Gestapo and SS thugs followed what the New Testament calls

“doctrines of demons” and were always more lost than Israel ever was.

The Nazi’s, especially those of the SS and Gestapo, made bloody oaths to

Hitler and to the devil, and they rejected the Bible.

The Jews have always had the Scriptures of the Old Testament, though

they have not always understood and obeyed them. So Israel is still under

her discipline, leading to eternal life, while the Nazis thankfully are no

more.

But Israel’s discipline is not a topic for any gentile to be glibly

pointing ﬁngers about. The very fact that humankind was so evil as to pin

the Son of God to a cross, is a fact of history, and there is plenty of blame

to go around. But the good news is that Jesus isn’t looking for blame

casting. He is looking for honest confession.

When I take responsibility, when I am willingly covered by the gore of

his death, only then I am humbled by my own sin, my own responsibility.

I helped to kill the Messiah with my sin! I ask his forgiveness, and I am

saved. In admitting my part in his death, I admit my part in shedding his

blood. My confession allows him to apply that blood over my life. And

when I do his death becomes the propitiation, the suﬃcient payment, and

the oﬀended Father God is satisﬁed.

On the cross Jesus declared “It is ﬁnished” ( John 19: 30). And the sin

which separated mankind from God was ﬁnished. Every sin from Adam

was now covered by his sacriﬁce.

Over the centuries, a few misguided so-called “Christians” have called

Jews “Christ Killers ” and other equally rude and hurtful things. But this

has never been right. All men must have a covering for sin, all men. So

the simple fact is that we all were “Christ Killers.”

I killed the Son of God with my sin and so did you. The Lamb was

innocent, and I was guilty. And yet he accepted the punishment for all my

sins as John the Baptist clearly stated he would. And those were Roman

nails which pierced his hands, and a Roman lash which cut his ﬂesh, and it

was a Roman cross on which he died. So who are the Christ Killers,

really? The Jews or the Romans? Both! All of us! Every last one of us.

And it is long overdue that both Jews and Gentiles own up together to

their individual responsibilities, for this man lifted up on the cross was the

Passover Lamb of God.

You see, real Christians have a natural love for those who brought

forth the Scriptures, and the people of whom their Savior was born. His

star over Bethlehem was David’s star, and it is this star which leads

everyone who loves Messiah. It led the magi who followed it with great

awe knowing the Great King had been born. It led them to the city of

David, to Bethlehem. Bethlehem’s star, David’s Star, is the Jesus star. He

was born under that star in David’s city, and he will rule forever under that

six pointed star, from Mount Zion.

And in that six-pointed star Christians ﬁnd their Savior. And in that

six-pointed star Jews ﬁnd their King. And in one of the greatest ironies of

all time, it was that same star the Nazis pinned to everyone they intended

to kill. What honor it was to die under that star then, and now.

But what happened then? Is there some innate evil in being German?

In fact Germany was the most cultured, the most educated, perhaps the

best nation on the face of the earth. But Germany, like all of humanity,

was composed of fallen sinful men. And they forgot. Given the right

circumstances we would all fall in the same way.

Young men and women, full of youthful ambition and good intention,

turned out to help their country, as youth has done since time began.

Usually this is a good thing. But Germany set about to exploit the

enthusiasm and the energy of her youth, and ruthlessly twisted it to evil

ends. Hitler, who had bought into the myths of the pagans, and his thugs,

turned much of a generation of German youth into Aryan monsters.

One such youthful oﬃcer, SS Colonel Adolph Eichmann, an especially

promising young leader, was given responsibility to open the biggest,

fastest, and most hideous death camp ever. Covering many square miles, it

was a marvel of German technology, and it killed more human beings than

any other prison camp in history. Germany needed an eﬃcient machine.

There were just too many Jews for killing, and in Eichmann and

Auschwitz it got what it wanted.

Eichmann himself was a quisling, capable of tender fatherhood, and in

the next breath, cold-blooded genocide. It hardly seems possible to regular

people that they could become Nazi monsters. But it is inside of all of us

without Christ. Many simply did what they were told, and committed

murder in the ordinary course of their jobs. Somehow they could close oﬀ

that part of their lives, do the unthinkable, and go home to wives and

children.

In family photos, Eichmann is pictured holding his own tiny babies

and singing Christmas carols in his home on Christmas Eve 1942. Then

later in the evening, after tucking his children into bed, we know he drove

to nearby Birkenau, and with a shrug, ﬂipped switches killing mothers

holding theirs. And he seemed quite capable of doing so without the

slightest sense of remorse, or even seeing the irony of singing “Silent

Night” just hours before releasing the killing gas.

Only a few miles from his home at Birkenau, in the gas chamber units,

they were running people through at full capacity. While Nazis were in

their warm homes singing Christmas carols, thousands died on that

Christmas in 1942. It was just another shift at the plant. Millions

eventually died there, with their “soap bar” of stone in one hand while

showers of Zyclon B gas poured in on them.

Macabre to the point of astonishment, the lines outside the chambers

shuﬄed eﬃciently along, while a full orchestra of Jewish musicians, some

of them world famous for their mastery played what came to be known as

the “Death Waltz” outside. Guards and victims apparently escaped the

enormity by simply keeping the lines tight, and the people moving. Inside,

the screams could curdle blood, outside guards were almost kind. And the

music continued playing to hide the screams.

But it wasn’t like it was a big secret. Even in the lines, many knew

what was happening. Perhaps they were too shocked by the silent horror

of standing in line to die. For who could think such a thing could happen?

Perhaps they were in simple denial, and most acted almost nonchalant.

They just waited their turn, hardly speaking. Most of them knew full well

what was going on, but they kept the delousing shower ﬁction to stay sane,

and to avoid embarrassing their guards. And every ﬁfteen minutes, the line

moved forward.

During the summer, lush ﬂowers grew along the walls outside. They

say it was all a bit inconvenient for the people of Poland. The sky turned

black and stank of roasting human ﬂesh.

But against German tanks the Poles were mostly powerless, like the

rest of humanity. But they endured this sickeningly sweet obscenity

throughout the Second World War, and most just got used to it. The

Orwellian shuﬄe, the billowing remains of what were people, the death

march to keep them moving, it had a deathly rhythm. Mothers, sons,

daughters, grandparents, fathers, everyone, being killed with impunity;

where trees and ﬂowers grew in ﬂourishes of color. It is a shame such ever

blighted the face of the ground God made, but it was inevitable from the

fall.

And the horror didn’t end with their shrieks and cries.

Sonderkommandos (Jewish inmates who cleaned out the gas

chambers) would enter with hooks and ropes to pry the dead apart, and

drag them oﬀ to the ovens. Zyclon B made the eyes of the dead bulge out

and turned their purple faces into masks of hideous pain. It was not a

quick death, though sadly it was a certain one, this death by insecticide.

The gas would dissipate, ropes were fastened, hooks went in, and more

bodies were dragged away to the incinerators. One-way windows provided

the SS with good viewing, and there was always a group there to watch.

Many of the sonderkommandos quickly lost their minds, and not a few of

the guards ended up stuﬀed into their own ovens.

But though they do not yet know it, even in their suﬀering, God has

never been far away from his Chosen people. He has never left them for a

single day. And one evidence of this is the Ninth of Av.

In the Hebrew it is Tish B’Av, and the Jews hate this day. Israel’s

greatest trials are often tied to this date known as Tish B’Av, the ninth day

of their ﬁfth month, called Av. This usually hits gentile calendars around

the 1st of August.

The Ninth of Av is ﬁlled with strange curses and even stranger

coincidences. As we have said, in the eyes of God Israel is not actually a

nation in the ordinary sense of the word at all. And the “Ninth” is another

such example of this peculiarity. God works with this people for his own

purposes and to fulﬁll his promises.

Herzl’s Zionism began the process. He restored some desire in Jews to

ﬁnd a place to be a nation, but he didn’t get very far. All his plans were

interrupted by two very disruptive and destructive World Wars. Millions

of Jews were dead, and the Zionist movement had been too little and too

late to save world Jewry. But this is the way men think, and God is not

limited to our smallish thoughts. For as it turns out there is a great irony

embedded in all that came out of WWII, demonstrating again God’s

providence and God’s wisdom.

The Zionists never had a chance to go to Uganda.

It may come as a very big surprise, but the modern Exodus of the late

1940s connects the holocaust to the ﬁrst time Israel was sent back into her

land, during the Exodus with Moses out of Egypt. It all deals with what

the Book of Hebrews calls the deep “provocation” of God. Israel once

provoked God.

Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me…

Indeed did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

And to whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with

those who sinned...to whom did He swear that they should

not enter his rest

Hebrews 3:15–19 (NASB)

Incredible as it sounds, both temples (the Temple of Solomon, and the

Temple Herod remodeled) burned to the ground on this very same day,

Tish B’Av, half a millennia apart! The destruction of Solomon’s Temple

happened on Tish B’Av in 586 BC, and Herod’s also, burned on Tish

B’Av in 70 AD. And if we were not dealing with Israel, where

coincidence is commonplace, this adherence to the same date exactly 656

years later would be on television as one of those late night mysteries,

along with the mumblings of Nostradamus, and the secret passages inside

the pyramids.

Bad things happen to Israel as a reminder of their grave provocation

against God at a place called Kadesh Barnea where they did not go in and

possess the land of Canaan. This was the land God had promised to

Abraham and sent Moses, their deliverer, to ﬁnd. Tish B’Av has been

used by God to remind them ever since.

The destruction of the Second Temple (Herod’s) in 70 AD was

terrible;

the stench of burning human bodies was like that at Auschwitz itself. As

reported by the great Jewish historian Josephus, in the long siege by the

Roman army against Jerusalem the people began eating weeds, and leather

belts. Eventually they were reduced to consuming their own ﬁlth. Roman

Legionnaires even encountered some few who had cooked their own

children, a crime so heinous, even battle-hardened warriors pulled back in

horror.

Titus, the Roman general, had given explicit order not to burn the

Jerusalem Temple; but in spite of all his eﬀort to save it, the great building

caught ﬁre. Before very long it was burned to the ground on Tish B’Av,

just as Jesus had predicted, thirty-eight years prior.

Years later, adding insult to injury, the Emperor Hadrian built a pagan

temple to Jupiter on the now empty temple platform, over all the rubble of

Herod’s temple, on Tish B’Av 136 AD. And this thing stood as a shrine

against God for nearly 400 years, much in the way Islam’s “Dome of the

Rock” now occupies the same place of aggravation. Over the years, many

other disasters, pogroms and calamities also happened on this bleak day of

all days.

And then came the Nazis. And for some reason, the actual date of the

signing of Hitler’s Final Solution, the document which called for the

genocide of Israel, remains in controversy. At the Nuremberg Trial (where

the Allies prosecuted German war crimes) a letter from Reich Chancellor

Goering to the head of the Gestapo, Heydrich giving him the actual order

to instigate and pursue this most hideous of all practices, took place on

July 31, 1941, just the day prior to Tish B’Av, in that year.

So most historians tell us it missed the day of the “curse” by one day.

Now that does not seem like such a huge error, one day, but God is never

approximate. So these say that the Final Solution did not get published on

Tish B’Av, but they would be wrong.

The Ninth of Av did actually fall on the next day, August 1 that year,

according to all gentile calendars. However most forget that the Jewish

day begins at sundown. The oﬃcial letter was signed and delivered on the

evening of what we call July 31, which for Israel is already part of the next

day!

So whether Goering knew or didn’t care, he signed the order for the

Final Solution at the beginning of Tish B’Av, 1941, and the curse of the

provocation continued on in the most hateful way ever. The Nazi High

Command signed the most hellish document ever, calling for the

extermination of Israel, on Tish B’Av in 1941.

And one year later, on Tish B’Av again, as it turns out, the gas

chambers at Birkenau (Auschwitz) were given their trial run by loading

them with the last resistance of the Warsaw ghetto and these were the ﬁrst

gassed with Zyclon B.

But how did it start? How did Israel end up with a day devoted to

God’s wrath? And does this day really connect to the present and to the

most horrible events in the history of Israel, and probably all mankind?

Tish B’Av begins back on the ﬁrst anniversary of this black day in late

summer, during the original Exodus with Moses. Their own decision not

to obey God began the ﬁrst time they tried to enter their Promised Land.

For over 400 years the people had been in Egypt, at least 200 of those

years “dancing” in the mud pits, making bricks for Pharaoh’s cities; and

the deliverer was certainly slow in coming.

But in the “fullness of times,” as the Bible puts it, Moses did arrive,

and after God convinced Pharaoh with many strong arguments, we call the

plagues of Egypt, Pharaoh ﬁnally let the people go. And they came out

and marched by the millions out onto the desert ﬂoor, heading straight for

the Red Sea, which is not exactly the right direction. Of course the

Egyptians thought the God of Moses was very foolish, leading his people

into a trap against the sea.

But in what would be regarded by Pharaoh as a trap, God had intended

to show himself mighty in their hour of need. So after a few days travel, in

which Israel came up against the Red Sea, Pharaoh had changed his mind

and had come charging after with his great chariots ready to make the sand

red with the crushed bodies of Israel. And so out of what seemed a certain

slaughter of millions, backed up against an ocean on one side, and an army

on the other, came great deliverance. God had opened the way through the

sea. And God had closed the sea over the bodies of Egypt.

God had delivered through wonders. But that was only the beginning

of the protection Israel received as she marched through many desert

kingdoms with a pillar of ﬁre by night, and a pillar of smoke by day. The

Jews should have been in awe of their spectacular deity.

Over and over they had watched as God delivered them from their

enemies. But for some reason at Kadesh Barnea, at the very doorway to

the Promised Land, they hesitated. Instead of going in and accepting the

land, they sent in spies. And because of their fear God allowed them.

Incredibly, they were more afraid of the giant people in the land than the

gargantuan God, who had parted the waters of the sea.

So after forty days of poking and peeking the spies returned with fruit

the like of which nobody had seen since the Garden of Eden. It took two

men to carry a bunch of grapes. Joshua and Caleb were excited, ready to

go in and sack the rest of the land. But the people had suddenly ﬁlled with

fear, and grown men were crying. They said they were as grasshoppers

before the men of the land. A people who traveled around with a pillar of

ﬁre thought they were only “grasshoppers” before the men of the land. No

wonder God was insulted.

Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said ‘We

should by all means go up and take possession of it, for

we shall surely overcome it.’ But the men who had gone up

with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the

people, for they are too strong for us.’… all the people we

saw in it are men of great size…Then all the congregation

lifted up their voices and cried”

Numbers 13:30–32 and 14:1 (NASB)

In spite of Caleb and Joshua, grown men wept in cowardice, and God

wasn’t happy. Heedless of the pleading of Joshua and Caleb they refused

to go into the land, and that was a direct disobedience to God.

The Children of Israel wept without cause, [and]G-d declared that

He would make that day a day for weeping. ‘You wept in vain. I

will establish this date for you as a time of real weeping for all

generations.

—Tanis 29a: Mishap Commentary

The Tanis Commentary above is not Scripture, but it is from the

ancient writings of the Jews. This was the “provocation” Paul warns about

in Hebrews. God very nearly destroyed them for what they had left

undone.

Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle

meeting…Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long

these people reject Me? And how long will they not

believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed

among them? I will strike them with the pestilence

disinherit them.

Numbers 14: 10–12 (NKJV)

God did not “disinherit” Israel, but he would never forget the

provocation at Kadesh Barnea. The whole of the Chosen, save Joshua and

Caleb, had acted like Esau who chose his own comfort and safety over the

Promises of God. And God would remember, for a very long time:

The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness…

but…[will visit] iniquity of the fathers on the children

Numbers 13:18,20 NASB)

This happened at that ﬁrst Tish B’Av. God forgave, but Israel suﬀered

the consequences of their act, and so did their children’s children. All the

old timers who disobeyed wandered in dry places until they withered and

died. They never knew abundance the rest of their lives, and they died in

the desolation of the desert. They had gone out from Egypt, but they had

never gone in to the land. They never would.

In 70 AD, Israel pulled back again. Instead of trusting in their

powerful Messiah, after he arose from the dead, they turned their backs on

him. And once more they endured terrible consequences, learning to suﬀer

among the nations in the dispersion.

But amazingly, with the terror of the holocaust, Moses’ sword

following them more than ever before, the curse seemed to climax and

then in the most unexpected way it was reversed. In fact God had suddenly

used the stick that had been spanking Israel for two thousand years to

ﬁnally send them back.

God always turns evil around for good. There is no better example

than the cross itself. The cross of Christ was the most terrible crime

mankind had ever committed, and yet God has used it for more good than

any other event in the history of this world. Terrible as this may sound to

the ears of most Jews, it was time for God to send them home; and they

were most reluctant to go. They had grown comfortable in the midst of the

tombs of the nations. They would say, “Next year in Jerusalem” but it was

meant only as a toast. Many had enjoyed the pleasures of New York and

other great cities for generations. They were still trading the promises of

God for a full stomach with Esau.

But because of the Holocaust, a new spirit had erupted in the heart of

Israel, a spirit like that of ancient Joshua and Caleb’s. After the war, the

youth of Israel lined up to board fragile old scows, many of which had

been barges from the Great Lakes, and even worn out ferry boats, to join

the Armada of Zion going home.

Had Herzl lived to see it, he would have been amazed.

With the horrors of the camps still fresh on their minds, Nazi runes

still tattooed into their bodies, they began their migration back to the Land

with a vengeance that would have surprised Caleb. They had no place else

to go. Their homes were destroyed, their families decimated. Many would

never ﬁnd what was left of their families again. Their former life had been

destroyed, and they had nothing left to lose.

In the days of Moses, God had simply waited on death for the last of

the older Jews, those who broke the promise God made to Abraham and

would not face the hardships of going inside the land.

The extremities of the Nazi camps, in like manner, had taken out most

of an older generation, a generation which had only toyed with the idea of

going back to Israel. Now a generation arose which had nothing left in the

world to go back to. They wanted no part of a world that had treated them

in this way.

The vast majority of all who survived the war were youth. A whole

generation had vanished inside Poland and left their children to face a new

world. So not unlike the days of Moses, it was the youth who were left to

tackle the trials of Zion. They had lost all faith in the democracies of

Europe, and had little faith even in the God of Israel; but they would stick

together as Jews, and they would choose to go to their traditional home in

Palestine on their own.

And this time Israel would not fade back. A new breed had come of

age. And the holocaust had given these Jews a grim sense of purpose. Tish

B’Av had poured molten steel into their veins. Europeans no longer, these

were all like Sabra Jews (Jews of the deserts of Palestine).

On Tish B’Av, the people had originally stayed out, craven in their

fears. On Tish B’Av, they lost their two Temples and had many other

terrible things happen to them over the years of wandering. But now in the

last great irony of Tish B’Av they would “man up” on the rebound from

the Final Solution and fulﬁll the requirement to go into the land without

question. After more than 2000 years of wandering they would ﬁnally

enter the “land” and make it their own. The dithering was over, the return

was on. So began the modern aliyah in earnest.

Like the Israelites of old, it was the young who were being pulled

home by God. They came in the thousands from every refugee camp in

Europe. Rather than destroying Herzl’s Zionist impulses, the Second

World War opened the gates of Zion. And there was a new energy, and the

energy continued to build. To go home, to be a nation, to cross whatever

“Jordans” they encountered, and to face whatever giants were in the land.

Two thousand years of disappointment, and the death camps of Adolf

Hitler, had toughened their resolve, and they were ready.

They were going back to the land God gave to Abraham or die in the

attempt. And just as all the Old Testament prophets had predicted, they

began to ﬁlter in from every corner of the planet. The “Four Winds” were

starting to blow, sending the children of Israel home. First at a trickle, and

then the dam seemed to break, and thousands were going home.

Once it began, no power on earth could stop them. The English tried.

Their vaunted CID, their military intelligence, fought the aliyah with

everything known to man. But not even imperial England, at the top of its

international power, nor all the Arabs in the world, could put a dent in the

ﬂow. An invisible hand was carrying them along, and there is no power on

earth that could oppose that power.

Some Jews returned with darker faces and European last names. After

2000 years, some mixed marriages had obviously occurred. But from all

over the world though they had taken on some new genes, these were still

Jews in custom and character. And when they arrived in the land without

jobs and without homes, they kissed the ground and joyfully accepted the

hardships. A new world had opened. Through persecution, death, and

sorrow, they had emerged, as from their “graves.”

Once they had been driven oﬀ their land in fear. Once they had failed

to go in. But they were home again, and the prophets told them this would

be the last time. No power on earth would ever again dislodge them from

the land God gave to Abraham.

I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;

They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;

They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;

They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.

I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they

be pulled up From the land I have given them,” Says the

Lord your God.

Amos 9:14–15 (NKJV)

From the destruction and banishment of Jerusalem by the Romans, to

the humiliation of the Islamic Caliphate, to the “Star Chamber” of the

Spanish Inquisition, to the pogroms and murders of the Russians, Czarist

and Communist, to the cold-blooded slaughter by the Third Reich, they

had seen it all, but they were going home, never to leave their land again!

Soon, Europe was full of Jews waiting to go to Palestine by any means

they could ﬁnd. Some of them actually walked. The British in a panic, still

tried to limit immigration to less than twenty thousand, and even that

trickle was under withering pressure by the Mufti and his murderous men.

But the Haganah crept into Europe to take charge of the movement, and

all over the continent and even in America, broken down old steamers

were being retroﬁtted by mysterious new buyers. It was enough to keep

Great Britain’s CID men pulling their hair out at night. And their

frustration grew with the day. The Americans were helping these Jews as

were Cypriots. Even the newly liberated Vichy French. All had a joyful

hand in their return. All seemed obsessed to see these displaced Jews

restored to the land of their ancestry.

So without registry, and without papers, the Mediterranean Sea ﬁlled

with a ﬂotilla of old ships of many kinds. They renamed them Exodus, The

Star of David, and The Hope of Zion and there was no doubt they were on

their way to the Promised Land. The modern Exodus was underway and

woe to the British, or anyone else, who got in their way.

As in the hopeless days of the Nazis themselves, when they set many

Jews onto the seas to starve or be scuttled, Israel was once again under sail

without a real country save the dream of Zion. But far from the

hopelessness of those former ghost ships, these were under their own ﬂag

and ﬁlled with indomitable hope. God was saying once more to Pharaoh,

to Germany, to Arabia, and now to England, Let my people go!

For the British did try to ﬁght this ﬂow though it was like ﬁghting the

wind. And while it was certain God would eventually see them home to

Israel, many of these freedom ships were diverted to Cyprus and their

occupants placed into detention there. So instead of getting to their new

home right away, many of these Jews ended up in yet another camp. An

English camp, with barbed wire, and machine guns on the walls.

For Whitehall did not dare to cross swords with the old Nazi

collaborator himself, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. So English picket

boats set up a perimeter to blockade the coast of Palestine. At the point of

a gun they boarded these old lumbering lake barges, as they entered

Palestinian waters, quickly taking them over. Far from welcoming such

refugees from Hitler’s ovens in the tradition of English fair play and

decency, they were taking the occupants of these freedom steamers back

to their concentration camps on Cyprus.

None the less, right in the face of the nations, ancient prophecies were

being fulﬁlled. The British camps formed on Cyprus, but the Jews

continued to come. And what was this leaf in the wind, this Great Britain,

against that? Until WWI, the sun never set on the British Empire; but after

they threw the Jew overboard, and denied they ever meant the Balfour

Declaration, they were never the same Empire again.

Up, Zion! Escape “He sent Me after glory, to the nations

which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple

of his eye.

Zechariah 2:7,8 (NKJV)

I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to

all the peoples around…I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone

for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured.

And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against It.

Zechariah 12:2,3 (NASB)

With the organization of the UN in 1945, old business left over from

the League of Nations, was the ﬁrst thing they began delving into. Among

them was a resolution of 1922 creating the British Mandate in Palestine.

The stated intention had been the creation of a national homeland for the

Jews. When the Conservatives had been in power in England this had been

moving towards quick solution. But with the publication of her

Whitepapers, Britain had demonstrated a decided determination to stay in

control, even turning the whole area into a client Arab state. The UN set

about to resolve the logjam.

So while hopeful, the prospects for a Jewish victory looked grim.

There were only some ﬁfty members of the UN at that time, and many

were under the direct authority of the Stalinist Soviet Union, decidedly

against Israel as a free nation. The Jewish community was in favor of a

“partition” of area to be set aside for the formation of new Jewish state,

the rest of the mandate to become the nation of Jordan.

The communist world was all against partition, as were the Arab

states, and much of South America and Britain. As members of the

Commonwealth, Australia and Canada were expected to join with

England.

So when late in November of 1947, the vote for partition was

undertaken, it looked like the Islamists had the thing in hand. But once

again the “coincidences” of Hebrew prophecy become amazing.

I am the Lord, that is My name

Behold, the former things have come to pass,

And new things I declare;

Before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Isaiah 42:8–9 (NKJV)

Israel was not supposed to win this vote according to all the news

analysis of that day. Most of the world under the inﬂuence of England,

Arabia, and the Communists, should have brought Israel to her knees. The

delegate from the Philippines declared his country’s determination to vote

no, but under pressure from US President Harry Truman the delegate was

recalled, and the nation subsequently changed votes to a yes. And

Truman, who was totally committed to Israel, was on the phone with most

of the leadership of South and Central America, and most of them went

toward partition.

For the ﬁrst time ever, Canada and Australia broke ranks with their

Commonwealth directives, and even the Stalinist Soviets decided to

surprise everyone and support little Israel. Scandinavia largely voted for

partition, and America to nobody’s surprise, was ﬁrst in line to vote for

little Israel.

As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons,

Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery,

says theLord. Isaiah 66:8 (NASB)

Israel travailed like a woman in labor through the blood and the horror

of the Third Reich, and through the threats and terror of the Arabs. But

like a woman who labors through the night, when the morning comes, and

the baby arrives, all the horror of the night is gone. So the new nation was

being birthed, and it amazed the whole world. And even though the Jew

had returned to the land of his Messiah in great darkness and unbelief he

had triggered the great sign on the earth that Jesus Messiah was soon to

come. The great sign was emerging right before the eyes of the whole

earth. And who would have thought after all that had happened, the new

nation could be born in a day. The ancient prophets of Israel; that’s who.

Can a land be born in a day? Can a nation be brought forth

all at once? ...Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her,

all you who love her”

Isaiah 66:8–10 (NASB)

To the utter astonishment of Muslims and skeptics alike, and in

literally a day, the old British Mandate from World War I was partitioned,

creating the new nation of Israel. Politically how quickly it all passed from

the despair of the Birkenau ovens to the hora danced in the streets of

Jerusalem. War would come and quickly to outnumbered and indefensible

Israel. But she had been born. Against all odds she had been born again

from the dead, a resurrection second only to Christ’s own.

Israel is a land built by God, and thus the prophecies and so-called

coincidences are to be expected. Even so they verge on the astonishing.

But what we next consider is so amazing, it is controversial even among

many who otherwise agree with most of what we have written. Biblical

scholar Grant Jeﬀrey seems to have been the ﬁrst to note an incredible fact

regarding the day of modern Israel’s birth. Some of us believe he

discovered something awesome, something so beyond the pale of

incredible that many just will not accept it. If it were not associated with

this miracle “nation” of Israel, nobody would accept it.

Prophets were known to do peculiar things to make their point, but in

chapter 4 of the book of Ezekiel the prophet is told by God to do

something very odd indeed. There Ezekiel is told to lay on his left side for

390 days for the iniquity of Israel and forty days more on his right side, for

the iniquity of Judah. This is all very well, except that usually when the

Holy Spirit tells a prophet to do something, it is a symbol of something far

greater. When time is involved, the Spirit of God is asking the prophet to

make known some timed event.

Ezekiel was to stay put on his side, and even cook his food, from that

position—the shorter period for Judah on one side, and the longer period

for Samaria, the northern kingdom, on the other. We have all heard of

publicity stunts where the local DJ will sit in a tree for some weeks to

promote a car sales outlet. Well this was literally a publicity stunt,

organized by God.

People must have come up to the prophet inquiring, and it would have

given Ezekiel excuse to preach. Like most preachers, he was probably

looking for such an excuse.

But before we attempt to explain this strange activity, one must

understand how the nation was constituted. Israel was composed of twelve

tribes. Each tribe was named after the son of Jacob who was the patriarch

of that tribe. Each was a great grandson of Abraham. When the time came

for Jacob, the father of all twelve, to die, he placed his hands on each son

and blessed them with a prophecy, just as his father had done for him.

Over his son Judah he pronounced the royal line, from whose ranks

Messiah must come. Time passed, and David, who was of Judah, was

made the great king of the twelve tribes, just as Jacob had prescribed.

David ruled well, and his son Solomon followed him.

Unfortunately, near the end of his life Solomon had become a tyrant,

forgetting the warnings of the Lord against having foreign wives which

would take him in wrong directions. He went into pagan temples and

allowed himself to be led away from Jehovah, to lift up his hands to Baal

and Molech and all sorts of pagan idols. As his love of worldly things

increased, he became more selﬁsh, and less interested in his people, and

his God.

So after the death of Solomon, a division arose in the nation.

Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, attempted to follow him as king, and quickly a

controversy developed. A leader of the north, Jeroboam, of the tribe of

Joseph, decided his people had suﬀered enough of the tyrannical rule of

Solomon and the rightful kings of Judah. It was one thing to serve

Solomon the wise, but Jeroboam was not going to put up with this new

upstart who had every potential of becoming more of a tyrant than his

father ever had been.

So Jeroboam rebelled, made himself a competing king over the

northern tribes, and ten tribes followed his revolt and made Jeroboam

king. They called the northern region Israel, and the south became Judah.

Only Benjamin in the south followed Judah, and the rightful king.

The northern kingdom, because it was already operating without God’s

approval, went into sin immediately setting up golden calves, like the

golden calf of Aaron, in copies of the temple in Jerusalem, so that

Jeroboam is remembered as the man who caused Israel to sin. But Judah

was not far behind, as they too went far from God.

Even so, in the northern kingdom, Israel’s sin was far deeper, and of a

nature more directly against God than Judah’s. Thus God gave Ezekiel

390 days to lie on one side for wicked Israel, and only forty days for the

lesser crimes of Judah.

As we have seen Moses had warned all Israel not to go away from

God. When they did, he promised the land itself would spit them out. But

they didn’t listen, and so they were headed for exile the ﬁrst time. Israel

would go into Assyria, and Judah into Babylon. In 721 BC, the vile and

violent nation of Assyria attacked the northern kingdom of Israel, taking

thousands away into captivity.

But Judah, in its turn, was also conquered by Babylon in 606 BC, and

somewhat later, the ﬁrst temple was burned to the ground by the

Babylonian conquerors, on Tish B’Av in 586 BC, some twenty years after

the original conquest. Thousands, including Daniel, the man for whom the

book of Daniel is named, were carried into Babylon to serve the

Babylonians in captivity for seventy years.

During Israel’s captivity time in Babylon, the Babylonians themselves

fell to the Persians, and Daniel and the Jewish captives were handed over

with all the rest of the spoils. But in evidence of the grandeur of God’s

great prophecy,

Cyrus, the Persian king who would conquer Babylon and send the Jews

home, was named by name through Isaiah. But when this prophecy was

stated, Cyrus would not even be born for 200 more years!

It is I who says of Cyrus, He is My shepherd! And

He will perform all My desire. And he declares of

Jerusalem, ‘She will be built!’ And of the temple,

‘Your foundations will be laid.’

Isaiah 44:28 (NASB)

And just as Isaiah had said, it was Cyrus of Persia who sent Israel

home to rebuild her temple in 536 BC, seventy years after her deportation,

just as the prophets predicted.

For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have

Been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulﬁll

My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.

Jeremiah 29:10 (NASB)

But that is not the end of the story. It does, however, set the stage for

the next, and most explosive act. Remember those 430 days (390 for Israel

and 40 for Judah) during which Ezekiel lay on his sides? As Jeﬀrey noted,

very often a day represents a year, in prophet speak, and the Jewish

prophetic year was exactly 360 days. Grant Jeﬀrey postulated that God

had already deducted the seventy years spent in Babylon as part of the

time of discipline, so that the remaining years of captivity would be down

to 360 years. Three hundred sixty years of remaining discipline for both

kingdoms. (Each year also being a 360, 360 days.)

But here then is the problem.

Israel never had a 360 year period of captivity, nor did Judah.

In fact, looking through the entire history of Israel and Judah there is no

place with a 360 year interval anywhere. Bible scholars have studied

Ezekiel for centuries and have come up empty handed. Ezekiel chapter 4

has been read over and over through the ages, puzzling everyone. It seems

like something important the way it is featured in the prophecy, so it has

been examined again and again. But it has remained enigmatic.

Many scholars have simply chosen to ignore this problem as one of

those troubling “small points” nobody could quite ﬁgure out. It is still

thought of this way in the minds of the vast majority of prophecy scholars

today. God will explain it someday; and it certainly means something, but

nobody knows what. Then another verse by Moses suddenly stood out

from the page, at least it did for Grant Jeﬀrey.

then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling

to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times

Leviticus 26:21 (NASB)

God told the people if they failed to listen to his instruction, after a

ﬁrst period of discipline, they would incur seven times the penalty. And

when they went into captivity in Babylon, they did not listen well enough

to see with “eyes that see” when Messiah came their way some 500 years

later.

And here is where the controversy comes into play.

Since the re-combined and returned from Babylon captivity of Israel

deliberately rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah in AD 32, the remaining

360 years of judgment would be multiplied seven times for their next

round of exile. (see Leviticus above) Seven times 360 yielded 2520 years.

Jeﬀrey, looking at this data, decided that the Israel/Judah complex would

be under the judgment of Almighty God for 2520 more years. But can we

show this to have actually happened?

When we multiply this number of years by 360 days (the length of

their prophetic year in days) you get exactly 907,200 days. Using this

series of logic statements, 907,200 days of punishment exile should be

left, after deducting the seventy years already served in Babylon.

The ﬁrst captivity ended in 536 BC, according to Josephus, in the

middle of the month called Nisan, which occurs in the spring of the year,

usually in our month of May. So when you add all these days to the days

of the original captivity, starting from May 15, 536 BC, something

startling emerges.

We end up exactly at May 14, 1948—the very day that modern Israel

ran up the Star of David for the very ﬁrst time! Out of hundreds of

thousands of days possible, it is right on the day, and we are amazed. The

very ﬁrst day of the modern state—could that possibly have been

predicted by Ezekiel laying on his side in ancient Persia? Did God tell

them the exact day their Great Diaspora would end?

As we have stated, due to the manipulations involved, these numbers

of Grant Jeﬀrey’s have caused much controversy, and it has it’s detractors.

But we are sure God is capable of doing exactly what Grant Jeﬀrey has

shown. And for that reason alone, it is very interesting. What makes it

doubly interesting are the parallels between the two events: the return

from Babylon, and the return from the Diaspora. And because we have

already seen God do such detailed wonders, through these fabulous

prophets of Israel, we assume the captivity was supposed to end on May

14, 1948, the exact day the modern nation was born. Now I can’t think of

anything so incredible in all the experience of mankind as this? Can you?

The ﬁrst captivity ended when Israel returned from Babylon, the

second when Israel returned from all the world. And we have come to the

prophetic end of the second captivity on the very day modern Israel raised

the Star of David over the land God gave to Abraham. Truly nothing is

impossible for God.

Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to

come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your

graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.

Ezekiel 37:4,12–13 (NKJV)

One thing is absolutely certain, carved out of nations that hate her to

this moment, and outnumbered by millions, Israel’s Star of David is

ﬂuttering in the breeze over the Knesset in Jerusalem.

Theodor Herzl had been wrong. The Jew could not go oﬀ by himself

and fade away. He could not ﬁnd some corner in the wide world to hide in.

Instead, until the end of time, he will stay out in front of the eyes of the

world, the ever-present testimony to God’s own existence. Israel cannot

vanish even if she would want to, and even in the midst of such genocide

as Hitler committed, she is surrounded by the presence of God.

For God says he has connected the survival of Israel to the stars and

the moon and the sun itself. If the sun can be destroyed, and if the stars

can be cast from outer space, only then can Israel be wiped out as God’s

testimony upon the face of the earth. I sincerely believe, that if man ever

destroys the Jews, he will destroy the universe, and he will destroy

himself.

the Lord...who gives the sun for light by day, and the ﬁxed

of the moon...by night. If this ﬁxed order departs from

before Me...then the oﬀspring of Israel shall also cease

Jeremiah 31:35–38 (NASB)

The “star” has appeared again. It is not a star over a manger as it was

before, but it is still over Bethlehem, and over Jerusalem, and over all the

earth. This is the same star, though on a ﬂag, the banner of the modern

state of Israel. It is the banner of the Great King, now in plain sight. Like

any knight, he has set up his pavilion with his colors ﬂying over the peak.

His coming into the lists of war, cannot be far behind.

Shall Know My Name

After partition by the UN, there had been dancing in the streets in Tel

Aviv. The original boundaries of the Jewish state, as cut down again and

again by the United Nations prior to partition, were nearly indefensible,

but they belonged to Israel. That alone was enough to make them dance

the hora until the dawn came up.

But ominously, even as the celebrations began, news outlets

worldwide reported the Grand Mufti, Husseini, still threatening a stillbirth

for the new Jewish state. Once the Brits and their stiﬀ dedication to order

pulled out, he promised, all the surrounding Arab nations in the world

would move in with thousands of crack troops and make short work of the

pathetic little Jewish state. Without exception, the Arab nations declared

jihad (holy war) against tiny Israel.

They would throw these upstarts, and their Jewish prophets, into the

sea. They even had press releases made up ahead of their onslaught, to be

run in papers everywhere, as they plowed over the new nation. It was a

foregone conclusion.

They would quickly level every Jewish town in their way. As in the

days of Sanballat and Tobiah, who had mocked and threatened Nehemiah,

when Israel returned from its ﬁrst captivity in Babylon, “If even a fox

should press on that wall, it will fail,” they all laughed. But the Jews had

worked with one hand on the trowel, and one on the sword, and the walls

of the nation had risen. It was no diﬀerent in 1948. Israel prepared for war,

even as they ran their new ﬂag up the pole.

News sources worldwide said it was remarkable the Jews ever

reached a majority in the UN. The Arabs had so many already committed.

But soon the Jewish state would have to ﬁght a serious war with few arms,

and repulse enemies with trained divisions, and even air forces. The odds

makers in Vegas gave them no chance.

The English, angry with the whole world, had pulled out from a well-

established fort system in Palestine, leaving their small arms to their

friends, the Arabs. Some of the most anti-Semitic of the English oﬃcers

had even taken commissions with the Arab League in order to punish

these upstart Jews. And of course, many Jews, dragging themselves back

from every corner of the world, were just dog tired of the struggle. Huge

numbers were still in a state of shock, as was the world, reeling from

Hitler’s genocide.

The world could hardly believe such savagery was still possible. The

Jews had lost their homes, and their families, and they just wanted to go to

Jewish farms and raise oranges. But their ancient prophets had said, when

ﬁghting for their land even weak Jews would all become like David, and

like David they became. The Mufti already in country with several armies

of irregulars, mostly Nazi thugs, moved about, causing trouble right up to

the very moment of partition. Several kibbutz were singled out for

slaughter because they were ﬁlled with children, or the aged, or very

religious Hasidic who they believed would never ﬁght.

The story of the war of 1948 is fascinating and worth an entire volume,

but it is not in the scope of this work, and would require at least another

book. In a nutshell, a people, the outﬂow of the ghettos and camps, along

with many born as sabras in Palestine, resisted armies some ﬁfty times

their number. It was yet another miracle of a miracle-working God. Many

involved had waited for Messiah for a long time, and they hoped again for

their military Messiah to help against Arabs trying to destroy their young

nation. But he didn’t come. It seemed to many of them by this time that

Messiah would never come.

Most of the middle eastern born sabras had become humanistic, and

like other secularists had long since given up on God’s very existence.

Perhaps the God of Abraham had died sometime in the past, perhaps he

had never lived. They could read their Bibles and the stirring history of

their ancient people, but there was no “milk and honey” just lying about

on the ground, and all they saw about themselves everywhere were

deserts, and rocks, and a desolation they would now have to forge into a

home. There seemed to be no supernatural help from above, either. They

now owned a small slice of the land promised to Abraham, but the land

was in ruins. Only the tiny parcels they had bought from the Arabs and

tirelessly worked for years were productive. But it was now clear that

Jews and Arabs together had to become a nation. Electric grids, water, and

roads were only a few of their challenges. And only the young sabras (the

native-born Jews) were really ready and able to build the country. Most

wanted no part of their cultural history, let alone the God of Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob. They had all heard the stories since they were born. They

knew well the story of how God parted the Red Sea, but many wondered

why he hadn’t parted Auschwitz and Treblinka.

And most of Israel was still in the hands of those who at best

mistrusted, and at worst hated, their new Jewish leaders. It was only a

matter of time before new wars would break out. In 1967, and again in

1973, wars did come back to haunt these determined people. But in both

cases, when things appeared desperate, an unseen hand seemed to open the

way. Perhaps something supernatural was going on after all. But after the

world war, and the Nazi ovens

they felt anything but chosen.

Few of them knew that nearly three thousand years before, God had

already given a vision to Ezekiel on this very subject. The prophet was

taken out to a very dry and desolate place. And in this desolate place,

probably the desert near the Dead Sea, the prophet is shown a ﬁeld of dry

bones. These, he is told, are the dead bones of the house of Israel,

scattered throughout their symbolic graves in the nations.

But as Ezekiel watches, the bones begin to rattle, and in a most

frightening scenario they ﬂy together, and assemble. And then they stand

up. Imagine being Ezekiel, alone in the desert, facing an army of skeletons

walking. It sounds like a horror movie, but they are there, and so is

Ezekiel. They are a whole people of skeletons. And then the Lord speaks

to Ezekiel:

these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold they say,

‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We

are completely cut oﬀ !’

Therefore prophesy, and say to them

‘Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will open your

graves and cause you to come up out of your graves... and

I will bring you into the land of Israel.”

Ezekiel 37:11–12 (NASB)

Ezekiel saw his people, as God sees these people. All over the world,

in the “tombs” of the nations. They appear to be living and going through

the motions, but really they are dead and dry spiritually. But God wants

Israel to know this will not remain so forever. One day all Israel will

come out of the nations, and they will live again.

But even when they return to the land, they will remain dry and like

skeletons walking. This is how they have returned to their land, like

walking skeletons. They will have come out of the graves of the nations,

but the graves will not yet have come out of them.

These are Jews who have struggled so long, and seen so much tragedy.

What faith they have, a faith based on the laws of Moses, has left them

sterile and without hope, and many had lost their faith in the God of Israel

altogether. And most have become convinced that all their “Bible stuﬀ ” is

just so much ancient superstition. Some of them know ancient prophecy

has come to pass, even with their return to Palestine, but most are

convinced their survival is based upon hard work, good planning, and

good ﬁghting.

To this moment, many in Israel are sure God has nothing to do with

this modern state. “God” to these people is a fairy tale. In their own minds,

they have become “hardheaded realists” who believe all power ultimately

comes out of the barrel of a gun, the very words of atheist, communist

Mao Tse-tung. Most are determined to protect themselves against anyone

trying to chase them away again. They are a desperate, and a deadly

serious people. But as Ezekiel predicted, they would return dried up to the

bone.

The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me Out in the Spirit

of the Lord, and set me down in the midst

Of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me

to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very

many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.

And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

Ezekiel 37:1–3 (NKJV)

Though skeptics, they are still Jewish. And even such skeptical Jews

quickly took Hebrew names for the sake of their new nation. As secularist

Herzl became identiﬁed with a return to Zion, men like David Ben Gurion,

ﬁrst prime minister and others with him who were not known to be

particularly religious, took on Hebrew names. They called them sabra

names. Those with the sabra names were now the free men of the new

Israel.

The sabra is a desert fruit which has a tough exterior and can hold in

water against the desert heat. But inside of the sabra, one ﬁnds a juicy

sweet pulp. Like the sabra, the Jew raised in Israel has a tough exterior,

but his heart is sweet. Still the sabra is not interested in Bible tradition,

except as it proves ownership of the land. They will not submit to outdated

laws, even Jewish laws. They would be Jews, and proud of that fact, but

they would not hide in the ghetto, or even the synagogue, ever again.

So as Ezekiel was warned, the Jews have returned. They are

hardheaded men and women of the world. And this bothers some visiting

Christians, who already know what these young Israelis need. And they

have never seen such hardness against Christ.

But it won’t last. The Lord patiently will allow his children to get far

from him, and then suddenly just like wandering toddlers on a leash, they

will all be yanked back. Then to the secularist’s consternation, God will

quickly reintroduce himself again.

Secularists never reckon on God’s real existence. So when the Lord

God Almighty does show, as he always does, he always astonishes them.

As God promised Ezekiel, one day the sinews would come upon these dry

bones of the desert, and then the breath of the Holy Spirit would come into

such dead bones walking. Some say it is hard to remain a skeptic when

you live in Israel, and the Bible is all around. But it is the living God, and

not the Bible lands, which will return Israel to her Messiah.

But yes, Israel will soon return. Return to the God of her fathers, the

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But it will not happen as Christians

generally expect. Because too often, Christians mistake religion for truth.

Many would like to see a strong form of Judaism take over in Israel. But

that would not do at all. Jews do not need to go back to traditional law

keeping, as in the case of the Pharisees of old. The Pharisees only acted

out their faith, to gain the attention of men. Such faith as that would only

make Jews into pretenders, whitewashed tombs for these dead men’s

bones. They will never become followers of the way through their old

retreaded legalistic zeal. If that didn’t work for Paul, it will not work for

anyone now.

To be ﬁlled with the Spirit, they will need the “One Name.” The One

Name, which is the only way of salvation, the name of Jesus Christ,

Yeshua Hamashia (Jesus the Messiah), and that day might be closer than

anyone now imagines:

Come from the four winds O breath and breathe on these

slain that they may come to life.’...I will put My Spirit within

you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own

land...And they will be My people, and I will be their God.”

Ezekiel 37: 9–10 & 23b (NASB)

God is not through with the Jew, though some Christians have tried to

say so. It would be God against himself, against his own plan, to reject

Israel.

But today Israel is still dejected. Her Temple Mount is still in the

hands of Islam, and she seems to have lost hold on God. She can’t even

connect to her amazing miracle-laden past, save by showing them round to

Christian tourists, and telling these visitors of past glories she relates to no

longer. But we say on the authority of their prophets, lookout. God is not

through with the Jew, and the best is yet to come. For King Jesus will

reign over all the earth and the littlest of nations, Israel under his power,

will become the greatest.

Messiah is returning with healing in his wings, and your best days, O

Israel, are still coming. The city of the great king is not mythology, and

the day of the Great King is yet coming. Eternity has not been spoiled by

something men did, and God has not forgotten his promises. Israel will

live again, and the latter house will be much greater than the former.

Just as when she was pinned between the sea and the army of Pharaoh,

at the moment of Israel’s direst need, when death is on the doorstep, the

true Messiah will suddenly stand, and Israel will see his glory at the last

possible moment, just as when she passed through the sea. And it will be

then, during this new deliverance, with their backs against the wall, that

the breath of the Holy Spirit will ﬁnally come in, and the life of Christ will

give sinew, skin, and even breath to the dead “skeletons” walking.

One day soon the King of Kings will come, and he will rule from the

throne of David. And his mountain will rise and become the tallest of the

mountains, and his land will increase from the Great Sea to the Rivers of

Iran, The King will reign, and he will reign forever.

And it will come about in the last days That the mountain

the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the

mountains. It will be raised above the hills, And the peoples will

into it. And many nations will come and say, Come

and let us to up to the mountain of the Lord… And to

the house of the God of Jacob… and they will hammer their

swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks;

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, And never again

will they train for war.

Micah 4:1–2,3 (NASB)

The Israel promised from the beginning will ﬁnally become reality,

and that reality is not far away. Someday soon, as much as the peoples of

the earth have hated her, they will love the Chosen people. And the

redemption of the nation of Israel will prove the redemption of planet

earth.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our

God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation,

joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north,

the city of the Great King.

Psalms 48: 1–2 (KJB)

This is their destiny. But the question remains; what is it that will

bring them to life in Christ? I think the answer to this question has been

overlooked by most expositors and Bible students for many years.

Most expositors read Ezekiel 38 and 39, and they believe that a great

battle is coming near the beginning of the ﬁnal seven year period called

the Tribulation, that terrible period of human history to which man has

been plummeting since he fell. Most call this battle the Battle of Gog and

Magog, and some understand that this is probably the terrifying spectre of

World War III, but they have little idea why it is fought or why the Lord

should drag Magog down to threaten Israel. It is just one more interesting

aspect of prophecy, to most of them. But many never stop to ask… why?

Even now clouds are gathering for what history will call the Third

World War. A new axis of evil: the major players of the Middle East allied

with the North Koreans, Turkey, Iran, and an aggressive and armed

Russia, are joining together. And the Bible indicates that God is dragging

Magog, the “bear” down from his den in the far north for his own

purposes.

But what are those purposes? I am quite certain they are similar to

God’s purposes for Israel when she was locked between Pharaoh and the

deep blue sea. Remember God drove Moses toward the Red Sea to

demonstrate himself before the people, that they might trust in him. He is

doing it again.

God wants to save his people, and to do so he must place her into

danger. When faced with the almost inﬁnite power of the “bear,” a war

which tiny little Israel cannot hope to win, she will turn again to her

Savior the very one she denied at his ﬁrst coming. At the point of a nuke,

she must decide to trust God. But how? She does not know his name. She

does not know that Yeshua she has rejected has been protecting her

through all the long ages and returned her to her land.

Somehow, in the day she is faced with Magog, as Ezekiel says, “they

will know his name.”

So what does the Lord use to drag Magog down?

Perhaps the Lord will use the developing wars of the Middle East to

put the hooks into Magog and pull him down. Russia might enter into

various battles under the cover of being a peace keeping force, but Russia

is an opportunist and when she sees weakness, she takes over and

occupies.

The tinder box called the Middle East gets worse by the day. Along

with explosive Iran, Syria and Iraq, factions of the Muslim Brotherhood,

Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda are busy fomenting wars themselves,

and attracting the Russian attention.

Turkey especially, is angry. It has been a land which was pro-Israel,

even part of NATO, and has been trying to join the European Union for

years. But due to old animosities, Europe has locked Turkey out. She has

been rejected again and again from entry into the EU. She has tried to look

west, but the west has rebuﬀed, so Turkey is following a new suitor—Iran

into an axis led by Russia, and the touch of fanatical Shiite Islam with

closer ties to Moscow.

They are gathering together into a new coalition of hatred against the

modern state of Israel. Iran promises to vaporize its Jewish neighbor with

new toys, its’ nuclear weapons courtesy of North Korea and China.

Even more disconcerting, Iran is ever more fanatical, and is looking

for what we call it’s anti-messiah, the sinister ﬁgure known as the 12th

Imam. This person, perhaps a purely mythological ﬁgure, but believed on

with ferocity by the Iranians, is a hero to all of Shiite Islam the Islamic

subculture within Iran. This mystery leader, who is also known as the

Imam Mahdi, is expected to emerge anytime with the power of nuclear

weapons to enforce his bid to take over the region, and perhaps the world.

Iranian Shiite Muslims expect this being to wield the power of the atom, to

destroy Israel and her protector America.

But what makes this aspect of the situation so terrifying is the

fanaticism of the leaders of Iran, who are convinced they can unleash the

nuclear genie and not only survive, but conquer all that oppose Allah.

Without so much as a blush, they actually announce that this Mahdi has

been alive and living in some cave since the seventh century. Moreover

he is about to emerge and change the whole power structure of the Middle

Eastern world.

But regardless of how long he has actually lived, or if such a person

ever emerges at all, he is predicted by these Shiites to rise up in a time of

unrest, and bring war upon the earth for seven years. During the course of

these wars they believe he will destroy Israel and conquer the world for

Islam.

Neither Turkey, nor even nuclear Iran, is much of a threat to the

highly-skilled, nuclear-armed military personnel of the Israeli Defense

Force. They feel totally competent to take on both Turkey and even a

Mahdi-crazed-nuclear neighbor like Iran. But they will fear Gog of the

Magog when he comes.

The Russian Bear:

Seated in the subdued light of a situation room, deep underground,

eyes nervously hovering over every screen and dial with growing anxiety,

the men and women of the IDF watch their ﬂickering blue and ﬂashing

yellow screens. There is no conversation, just a growing sense of

tenseness etching the garish blue glow on ashen faces.

The elephant in the room is Russia.

One hundred feet beneath the Mount of Olives, lurid electronic lights

seemed to be playing tag on banks of computers. In the gloom, the little

points of yellow appear like red-hot beads around glowing panels of blue.

Now their operators lean forward catching every nuance they can ring

from their electronics.

Such are the men and women of the strategic rocket forces. Old-white-

haired veterans of every war since 1948, the gold on their collars speaking

of many campaigns, whispering orders to younger smarter IT guys and

gals sitting before banks of consoles as data comes in from an American

AWAC’s ﬂying low over the hills of the Ukraine.

In the garish shades of the room, all eyes are riveted upon Russia’s

dark outline in the northern sector of the big panel across the front. They

would see the attack there ﬁrst. In the background, a Hebrew commentator

on ordinary TV is trying to get the latest from the Mullah’s spokesmen

who now control Tehran. They have again declared their intention to

destroy Israel, just as the great oil platforms oﬀ Joppa have started to come

on line. Every oﬃcer in the room knows if Russia joins this escalating

threat, Israel is over.

Tiny Israel cannot hope to ﬁght the Russian bear. No David is strong

enough for that Goliath. And then, dismay registers on every face in that

gloomy cavern. Without warning, their screens start ﬁlling with incoming

bogies from the steppes of the Urals. The general in the back of the room

hisses out an epithet. How could these Russians be so stupid? And he

swears bitterly under his breath.

A ﬂashing light over the main screen suddenly announces what every

person in that room of shadows and ﬂickering lights already knows. There

has been a launch. And all the brave men and women in rocket forces

begin to know fear for the ﬁrst time in their young military lives.

The general in the back throws out his enormous rolled Cubana. He

had been sucking on the thing for long enough, and it had drooped to

pathetic. A brilliant young tech beside him whispers what he already

knows. These bogies are moving too fast and too high for jet aircraft. By

his reckoning most are ICBM’s with some atmospheric cruise missiles in

the bunch. She speaks into his ear from her perch at his side, but he hears

as through a long hall. She tells him the tracking computer is already

indicating preliminary target as eastern Mediterranean. He knows the

target is Israel.

From Moshe Dayan, who stated clearly that the next big war would be

with Russia, Israel had dreaded this attack. On the television over them,

broadcasting in English, the crew now hears air raid sirens starting to go

oﬀ in downtown Jerusalem.

What fools, he thought. The population of Tel Aviv was being urged to

move slowly toward their assigned bomb shelters, only there aren’t

enough. He swore again under his breath at the shortsightedness of liberals

who just could not get it through their fat heads that war was inevitable.

Peace, peace and there is no peace. He smiled grimly as he tugged at

another giant cigar in the humidor on his work station.

Looking at the ﬁnely rolled monster from Cuba, he decided there were

a few perks for generals still and wondered where that asinine thought had

come from. At the same time, he also decided he missed that one-eyed old

pirate Dayan, he would be good at a time like this.

In the back of his head, television commentators were instructing

about the civil defense, as they were taught to do. It was a major

undertaking to issue so many gas masks and Geiger counters. Word had

already gotten out. Every bunker in the nation must prepare for WMDs

and even the nuclear eventuality. The nuclear “eventuality” he smiled

grimly. Everyone would need to be inside a ventilated code red cover; but,

thanks to the liberals, especially Tobia, the so-called peoples man of the

Knesset, there just weren’t enough for everyone.

Well it was doomsday anyway, he sort of half-acknowledged to himself

through the puﬀs on his exotic cigar, he was still trying to get going. It

was the day Israelis have been dreading since 1948. As smoke curled

around his nose, he was blowing out the match, and his adjutant had begun

mildly coughing, to get him to turn on the small portable ﬁlter on his desk.

He didn’t think the thing worked worth a hoot, but it seemed to satisfy the

woman. She had made it quite clear she despised his habit.

The background on the map continued darkening rapidly, now not

only registering incoming from the Russian, but from Iran too. There was

now a black shroud rising, covering over a full compliment of what were

probably Chinese Silkworm missiles, also with probable nuclear payloads

maybe 200 kilotons, not too much to worry about.

These would have a trajectory of only about ten minutes, though Iron

Dome would probably get most of them. But they threw up another

curtain to the east. It was a coordinated attack, as they knew it would be.

The sounds these military men never wanted to hear began to clutter

the air. Somewhere, military style, a klaxon was sounding to break the

silence. A blast door, down the hall somewhere, reached its closing point,

and its bolts banged home. Various other alarms now began sounding as

automatic systems started breaking into the normal shift of the night, even

as the enunciator, a mechanical female voice, demanded their attention,

“Alert, incoming,” and then the inevitable countdown to impact.

“Estimated forty minutes to ﬁrst impact, target is Tel Aviv.”

Tracking computers automatically begin alerting Iron Dome defenses. Out

in the Galilee, they knew batteries were emerging from their underground

trapdoors in the desert ﬂoor, and most were spinning round to face the

Northern Bear.

Next he heard a few cheers as tracking picked up the swift moving

lines of Iron Dome anti-missile interceptors reaching out over the

atmosphere like David’s few stones to stop the Bear.

Circles of energy began to radiate away from the Iranian curtain to the

east.

There had always been a risk that Russia or China might get into this.

How often had he explained this to his wife who had always felt that the

young American president would protect them? Now he wanted more than

anything to see her again, one last time.

The Iron Dome Interceptor was proving itself. It was he knew an

amazing defense weapon. Out at the edge of the atmosphere a bullet was

hitting a bullet, again and again. The ﬂavor of the Cubana ﬁlled his senses

as he ﬁnally got the thing lit and smoking. An incredible leap over

America’s Patriot, on which it had been patterned, the Iron Dome

interceptors already in route would connect with hundreds of Russian

payloads, knock their deadly cargo out of existence, but there were so

many. On the screen they looked like a plague of locusts. The Dome

weapon was made for an attack by Iran, not a full assault from Russia. He

knew that, and so did his colleagues, they weren’t being fooled for a

second. It was so over.

Already shudders could be felt from the granite overhead,

as powerful rockets screamed away, accelerating to the speed of sound

faster than any human could exercise command and control. On their

screens more lines from their side approached the fog on the other, and

detonation circles started to erupt on the Russian side.

Hit after hit, the Iron Dome interceptors were doing their doomsday

best to knock out a power too great to imagine. But it doesn’t even lighten

the wall of fog moving relentlessly toward their own position.

In the background, the electronic tones of the simulated woman’s

voice droned on. Fifteen minutes to ﬁrst detonations. Ten minutes to ﬁrst

detonations. Large black circles continued to appear. Iron Dome hits on

incoming outside the atmosphere. The system is better than expected, he

noted from the data stream, but it does not even lighten the edge from the

black fog enveloping Israel, now coming in from all sides.

On the television screen overhead, the American president appeared on

the White House lawn in the midst of a press conference. That is all the

Americans will do, he knew, talk a lot. Warn the Russians with the utmost

severity. Promise sanctions, the usual political stuﬀ.

“We need to know what the intentions are for this attack?” he spoke,

trying to control what were obvious nerves, though he was doing pretty

well for the leader of a country whose power had waned in recent years.

He spoke in a tailored suit from the Rose Garden, on the White House

lawn.

But why not? The general mused to himself, there are no missiles

headed for Georgetown or the Washington Monument, at least not yet. He

was biting into the Cubana. He blew smoke toward the screen, as he

started data entry into his own workstation. He knew the time was coming

in only moments for the red phone on his own desk to light.

It was the one old fashioned communication device left in the whole

underground command facility. It was a real phone, except it really did

light up. Their own nuclear ICBM’s were warming in their silos.

“What are their intentions with this attack?” “What did it matter?”

Now he was no longer even amused. “Are they planning to bring in

troops?” No, he cursed, there won’t be anything left to capture, what was

wrong with this American president? Yes, a conservative had been

elected, but it had done Israel no good. Were the Russians trying to

conquer, or were they just after Israel’s nukes? “Nobody had any time for

this. But he had heard such language before...in the Bible? In Ezekiel at

his grammas’ knee? How she had believed that old nonsense.

A news ﬂash shot across the screen.

Russian missiles were now headed for Washington as well, and there

was a commotion near to the podium, a scene on the White House lawn,

with a group of men in dark suits hustling the leader of the free world to

Marine One, whose blades were already thropping. He only heard the

choppers hop into the air, as he was much too busy with the launch codes

he needed to get into his own computer. He already knew where the

American president would go to wait out Armageddon. They were

classiﬁed pretty high up; his smoke had gone out, and he was just chewing

on it.

But the Americans held little or no concern for the IDF furiously

working against time in their fortress under the Mount of Olives. They

were bound for sites not released to the media.

Damage estimates to the nation, he knew, were beginning to exceed

classiﬁed thresholds. The red phone’s ﬂashing lights indicated to him time

to initiate Samson, a call to the prime minister on the glowing red phone

was simply protocol as permission to activate “Samson” he knew was

automatic, and permission was quickly given. He related to the whole staﬀ

that the prime minister wished everyone an easy trip into the afterlife.

His adjutant rolled her eyes. She was right, it really was not the time

for telling jokes.

Samson had been one of the ancient Judges of Israel, or so the story

went, a man to whom God had given great strength only to see him waste

it on foreign women. One of them, a Philistine by the name of Delilah,

ﬁnally had him captured and destroyed him. But with the last of his

strength, he brought down a pagan temple on himself and his enemies. It

was a desperate move, but it gave him vengeance.

When all else fails, the whole Jewish inventory of nuclear weapons

will be unleashed to damage her enemies as much as possible. It is a

program of desperation, and it will randomly destroy vast numbers, before

she herself is annihilated. However unthinkable to most Jews, secular or

religious, they have this option because it tells the world they will never

again return to Auschwitz.

Israel is very capable and can engage armies of greater size with more

tanks and greater explosive power. But there are limits. She cannot ﬁght a

superpower. She also knows that even with a Republican in the White

House, America will never risk nuclear war over a bunch of Jews. No

matter how hard they protest, they would, they won’t. Israel doesn’t yet

have enough oil, though if they keep ﬁnding monster reserves of gas,

someday they might.

But the Samson option is there to say that any victor will get nothing

but heavy losses and no spoils, a deal they are betting most other countries

will not accept. And it is a maxim among military planners that the Jews

mean what they say and will do exactly as they plan to do. They will put

into play the “Samson Option” should they be called to do it, bringing

down the Philistine temple on their enemies. They would be willing to go

oﬀ to their own reward rather than go back to the gas and the ovens.

Perhaps, and the thought just ﬂickered across his bushy brow, the Jews

of America might survive all this, though he knew that some of this

ﬁrepower was now headed to the US east coast. But some Jews would

always survive somewhere, he decided. Not on the basis of the folk

religion his mother had taught him, some sort of nonsense about Israel’s

existence tied up with the sun and the stars.

He just knew that they were a survivor people. In every nasty dirty

prison-based society on this crazy planet his people had survived. But he

could ill aﬀord such musings as he focused on the detailed coding of the

launch computer. It must be perfect, and he had little time. Surely this

facility would be target priority one. The Russian bear knew where

command and control was kept.

Nevertheless, his thoughts were very strange as he hunkered down

grimly before his consoles, his adjutant standing by for his next

instructions. The quiet in the room seemed so tangible he was sure people

must be able to hear him sweat, and he felt beads gathering near his eyes,

which had started burning. The tracking computer kept up her frequent

annunciations, now seconds to impact. Of course the war must be fought,

Samson must be unleashed, regardless of the consequences. Many

Russians would die, but they had brought it on themselves.

Now he felt the shudder of the ﬁrst wave of ICBM’s from the

Jewish state. The arrow had shot away from its bow, way deep in the

bunker, as their own enormous ICBM’s began to leave their silos to

deliver ﬁre to Moscow.

He had just entered the target codes into these machines of death and

pressed the arming button sequence. After that, the computers took over

and it was almost instantaneous. Most were bound for Russia but some to

Tehran. It felt exactly like someone was outside pounding an enormous

hammer on the ground as they roared to life in their containment silos

overhead.

His job done, the old general allowed himself some moments

reﬂection. The Cubana was a disgusting mess, but there was no more time

to get another out. With a half smile, he mumbled something barely

coherent to his nearby adjutant. She looked dismayed.

It was just too bad the God of Abraham wasn’t really true, he mused.

How we could have used him about now. Who couldn’t use a being that

could separate the waters of the Red Sea and hold them there? If he could

do that, he could probably do some other things too. But like everyone

else in his group, he didn’t believe in the boogie man any more. He knew

the God of Abraham had turned out to be just the writings of a bunch of

desert shaman trying to gain the upper hand over his comrades.

Mohammed hadn’t been too diﬀerent after all, he decided. Write

something religious and get a following, that was what it was all about.

He wondered why he was wasting his last seconds of life on religious

mystery men. But it was too late to trace his steps back and think about

something else. The experiment called Israel was so over, and he heaved a

deep sigh and clicked in the last of the codes.

Far out over the Atlantic a missile was making a tiny adjustment which

would vector the warhead several hundred miles north to a direct hit on

the colorful ice cream tops on the Kremlin.

All that he could do completed, he placed his hands behind his back

and leaned back awaiting death in his enormous leather chair. It dawned

on him that he had never considered the chair before. Amazing what one

thought about while waiting for a 5000 degree ﬁreball to burst though the

door.

And he knew the ﬁrst detonations, no doubt some of the old Russian

ﬁfty megaton MIRVs would begin in seconds. They had to begin in

seconds. But actually as he considered it, these last moments were taking a

very long time. He turned, and wished his staﬀ Shalom, as everyone in the

room braced for the ﬁrst detonation, which now appeared to be over Tel

Aviv. The bunker had been built for Gaza Strip rockets not ICBM’s with

nukes for warheads. The underground might possibly withstand the energy

of twenty megatons, but a direct hit and nothing more.

So the old general, hands still clasped tightly behind his head,

struggled to make his last thought about his wife coherent. He was having

trouble envisioning what she looked like, and for some reason he thought

that important. There was no time to get emotional but it was hard to

suppress at least one heave, as one thought about one’s family as glowing

gases over a new parking lot, that was once thriving Tel Aviv. No life

could be sustained through this barrage, he was sure of that. The Russian

bear was sending enough ﬁrepower to reduce Israel to radioactive dust.

Mushroom clouds with heat like the sun would forever obliterate the

Jewish aliyah.

Hitler just hadn’t had the right bombs. There never would be a “next

year in Jerusalem” again. He grimaced for impact. One of the women

nearby was now crying.

But something seemed to be wrong. The last seconds seemed to be

taking an awfully long time. He glanced down at his watch. Why were

they all still here? They had run out of time minutes ago. Where was the

ﬁreball? Something had gone terribly wrong.

And was that singing he was hearing? Singing about Jesus? Coming

from inside this bunker? What?

The men and women of the brave and highly successful Israeli

Defense Force outnumbered from the start of their nation, have fought

their unfriendly neighbors over their indefensible land shape in two major

wars and numerous skirmishes, and always they have outshone them.

During the 1973 war, Egypt had inﬁltrated almost to their observation

posts while all Israel was attending services for the Yom Kippur (Day of

Atonement) holiday, sleeping, and playing cards. The observation points

had been so busy napping and shooting pool, they almost didn’t notice an

enormous dust plume, rising up out on the desert ﬂoor before them.

They were nearly overrun before they could even sound the alert.

Egypt had brought with them more Russian battle tanks than the total

number of tanks which had fought on both sides in World War II. And for

a few hours, the situation looked grim. In the north on the Golan Heights,

outposts up there encountered the same thing. The Syrians had come down

oﬀ the hills at lightening speed. In those days the Syrians controlled the

Golan and had the advantage.

But then that unseen hand moved again. And within days the United

Nations was calling on the United States to keep the Israeli army from

annihilating the entire Egyptian expeditionary force, now surrounded in

the Sinai desert.

Similarly up in the north, the Jews had pushed the Syrians back up and

oﬀ the Golan Heights, and had won them for herself.

So there is no doubt that the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) well exceed

their neighbors in technology, military discipline, and battleﬁeld tactics.

But nobody thinks for one minute the Israeli army could face a super

power for even a day. A war with Russia is unthinkable. This would be a

war against an enemy who ﬁlls the sky and is armed with weapons of such

power the earth itself might not outlast the event. It is a war no Israeli

planner wants to even contemplate. But it is coming.

Israel, and probably the whole world, will see this as doomsday, as

Armageddon, though that war will not happen for seven more years.

Russia will see no reason why it cannot squash tiny Israel like a bug.

And that will be the point. Israel will face an enemy she cannot hope to

contend with. David would have been squashed by Goliath, if God had not

been there, too. But this battle, between Gog and God, is not yet

Armageddon; and God has set it up for a reason. This battle will come at

the beginning of the times of trouble, the Tribulation.

The battle is actually between Russia and Jesus Christ, and is set up for

the same purpose as when God led Israel to the Red Sea, and certain doom

by Egyptian power. It must come soon after the rapture.

God will simply grab the Russian bear by its jaw and bring it down

from the far north. They will probably come with the help of Turkey, Iran

and maybe Syria. The invasion will be a surprise, come like a storm and

cover the land.

And Israel, faced with this Colossus, its very existence hanging in the

balance, will quickly come to the conclusion all is lost. The power they

will deal with is far beyond their capacity, and in short order they will

throw all hope aside. Before a single detonation, Israel will be on the

ropes, ready to unleash the Samson Option, which by all accounts is real.

This is how the prophet Joel described what is coming:

Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm...let all the

inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the Lord is

coming; surely it is near. A day of darkness and gloom...

there is a great and mighty people; there has never been

anything like it…a ﬁre consumes before them…the land is

like the garden of Eden…But a desolate wilderness behind

…with a noise as of chariots They leap on the top of

mountains Before them the people are in anguish; All faces

turn pale…they each march in line, Nor do they deviate from

their paths…they burst through the defenses…they rush

on the city before them the earth quakes…And the Lord utters

His voice before his army…who can endure it?

Joel 2:1–11 (various) (NASB)

Israel is about to be utterly overwhelmed by the power of this terror

from the far north. But then something spectacular happens. It will be

completely supernatural, a “God thing” of some enormous description.

Israel is about to experience the tug of God on his leash, some

supernatural demonstration of the existence and power of Yeshua, to make

that predicted about face. Perhaps the nukes will mysteriously vanish in

ﬂight, never to arrive, as in our vignette. Perhaps they will misﬁre right in

their silos, and Israel, to her own surprise, will survive unscathed.

Nobody knows, but one thing we do know, or rather two. The rising

Anti-Christ will try to take credit, and the Lord actually will have stopped

the invading bear, and many in Israel and elsewhere, will ﬁnally know his

Name. This is what this battle is for. Israel will ﬁnally know the Name.

God will create a huge earthquake and enormous hailstones with ﬁre,

like that which rained on Pharaoh in ancient Egypt. But whatever else,

Israel will ﬁnally know their Messiah’s name, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach. And

it will be so plain not one Jew will miss the signiﬁcance. And perhaps

many gentiles will come to know his name too.

And My holy name I shall make known in the midst of

My people Israel; and I shall not let My holy name Be

profaned anymore Ezekiel 39:7 (NASB)

What drags Russia south is uncertain, save it is taken south by the

hand of the Lord. And it is even more uncertain how this war teaches all

Israel Jesus’ name. But it is going to happen. God himself has decreed it

will happen, and it is the expectation of this writer, it will have something

to do with nuclear Iran. But Gog is pulled down from his place in the

north. He does not come willingly.

For God is using Gog, a power he created for just this moment, to

demonstrate something to his own Chosen people. The power of his

Name, which has been spurned. Yeshua, which has been hated and

scorned.

Some wonder about that name. What name is God speaking about?

It cannot be the name of the Father. For the Jews have always been

very careful of the use of the names of the Father. They cannot so much as

spell the word “God,” even in English, without a hyphen; as in G-d. And

they certainly are not taking the name Yahweh, God’s name in Hebrew,

they are not even allowed to pronounce in vain. And it is not the name of

the Holy Spirit, because we don’t even know his name, or even if he has a

name. So this unknown name is the holy name of Jesus Christ (Yeshua

Hamashiach), the Son of God whom Israel rejected when he lived and

died among them, in the ﬁrst century. Israel has only profaned the name of

the Son. Not the Father, with whom they are quite comfortable. Nor even

the Holy Spirit of whom they know very little. But the name of the Son

has been rejected, and this is the name they need to know for salvation.

That name is Christ Jesus, and there is no other given under heaven

through which men may be saved.

And when Israel ﬁnally knows that precious name, receives that

precious name, and proceeds to be saved by that precious name, she will

join the Church, or more correctly now in the Tribulation, the Tribulation

Saints, as the Holy Spirit comes into Jewish believers just as he has done

for the Church. But Israel must wait until after the rapture. Had she

already been in the Church when the rapture hit, she would have

vanished, as all true Christians were snatched away, in that blink of an

eye.

The prophet Zechariah tells us when they see Jesus, they will return

with tears as to a long lost son. And anyone who calls on the name of the

Lord, whether Jew or gentile, is saved, and is joined to the group called

the Tribulation Saints in the aftermath of the rapture. The Church could

remain during the Magog invasion; but if it did, it would be raptured away

from earth sometime in the aftermath and Israel too, when they would

know his name. Both would vanish and the earth would be doomed

without any witness left.

So Zion’s Promise God’s pledge through Abraham to bless every tribe

and family on planet earth, must come out of Jacob’s Trouble (the Jewish

way to say the Tribulation). Israel’s destiny lies within the Tribulation,

left on earth after the rapture as a saved people. Full of the Holy Spirit like

144,000 Pauls ready to take the gospel of the kingdom to the last ends of a

dark and darkening world.

I shall…take you [Gog]…from the remotest parts of the north,

and bring you against the mountains of Israel.

Ezekiel 39:2 (NASB)

and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to

cover the land. It will come about in the last days that I shall

bring you against My land, in order that the nations may know

Me Ezekiel 38:16 (NASB)

and I shall enter into judgment with him; and I shall rain on him

and on his troops and on the many peoples who are with him…

hailstones, ﬁre and brimstone

Ezekiel 38:22–23 (NASB)

You [Gog] shall fall on the mountains of Israel you and all your

troops, and the peoples who are with you…and I shall send ﬁre

upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and

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will know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 39:4–6 (NASB)

And I will pour out on the house of David and on the

inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace…so that

they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they

will weep bitterly over Him…like over a ﬁrst born…In

that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David

and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity

Zechariah 12:8–10,13:1 (NASB)

It is the day of Israel’s double deliverance—delivered from certain

destruction, and delivered from eternal damnation. An old song tells the

story:

There is a fountain ﬁlled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s

veins; and sinners plunged beneath that ﬂood lose all their

guilty stains. .

. —William Cowper (late 1700s)

Israel will have ﬁnally discovered her Messiah….and there will be

public weeping. Israel had expected the very worst, just as when she was

pinned against the sea by Pharaoh. But Jesus/Yeshua himself will

suddenly step out of the background and make war against the invader

from the north. God will destroy Russia and protect his people in that most

needful of hours.

Joel said that on God’s holy mountain and in Jerusalem there will be

protection. Only in Israel will there be protection from the terror of the

Russian bear.

But I will remove the northern army far from you, And I will

it into a parched and desolate land, And its vanguard into the

sea, And its rearguard into the Western sea, And its stench will

arise and its foul smell will come up…I will pour out

My Spirit in those days; And I will display wonders in the sky and

on the Earth, Blood, ﬁre and columns of smoke. The Sun will turn into

darkness, And the moon Into blood…whoever calls on the name

of the Lord Will be delivered For on Mount Zion in Jerusalem

There will be those who escape

Joel 2:20, 29b–32 (NASB)

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A nuclear battle could not be better described by a man from 600 years

before Christ. It is ﬁre and (enormous) columns of smoke—wonders of

ﬁre in the sky, and on the earth—turning the sun into darkness and the

moon into blood. The nuclear detonations, enormous ﬁre ﬁlled columns of

smoke, will suck up tons of dust into the high atmosphere, blocking out

the sun, and turning the moon into blood red.

But suddenly, in some as yet unknown fashion, Jesus will stand in the

way of those who would destroy Israel. So that both the invader and Israel

will know that Jesus has protected them.

the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God

from that day onward… I hid my face from them…Now I

shall restore the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy on the

whole House of Israel; and I shall be jealous for My holy

Name…when I bring them back from the peoples, and gather

them from the lands of their enemies…I will not hide My

face from them any longer, for I shall have poured out My

Spirit on the house of Ireal Ezekiel 39:22–29 (NASB)

And when they ﬁnally understand the Jews will begin to weep! And I

believe it will be literal weeping. They will weep for sorrow and for joy.

They will weep for release from the bondage of sin, and for their foolish

blindness, a blindness which has lasted for thousands of years.

In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David…

for sin and for impurity…And one will say to Him ( Jesus)

What are these wounds (in) your arms?’ Then He will say,

Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friend

Zechariah 13:1,6 (NASB)

For in that day….they will ﬁnally know Messiah’s Name.

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Battle With Gog…

God had been waiting so long for these people.

But they are skeptics. They deny the battle of Gog and Magog is even

for this present hour. And they are quite smug about all that because of

the very antique sounding battle equipment which the prophet Ezekiel

seems to be describing. So in such minds the battle described in Ezekiel

37-39 was at best some minor desert skirmish, lost to modern history, and

could be nothing more.

They say emphatically that Zion will never be invaded by an army

from Russia in the present, and that all this was probably no more than an

invasion from Turkey or Syria, and it was something that happened in

ancient times, and has largely been forgotten anyway.

The armies in these Scriptures do appear on horses wearing armor.

Proof positive that this had nothing at all to do with the modern situation.

So what is the truth in all of this?

I am absolutely convinced that this army of Magog will come from

Russia to invade Israel in the remaining days ahead before the Great

Tribulation, and there are good reasons to believe this way.

But ﬁrst who is Gog and who are his people, the Magog?

A spokesmen of antiquity, namely Herodotus of the ancient Greeks,

marked out the people of the regions beyond the northern seas, the

Caspian and the Black, as the rough men of the northern mountains and

vast plains in today’s Russia. According to the Table of Nations in

Genesis 10, they were children of Japheth, third son of Noah, as were the

Greeks and Romans.

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The tanned peoples of the Mediterranean called them the barbaric

Scythians, and there is no doubt that the Scythians were the forebears of

modern Russia. And although many have tried to move this discussion to

Turkey or some other minor player directly to the north of Israel, we land

ﬁrmly into the region of the tribes of Magog, as they are listed way back in

the Genesis table of nations in chapter 10, as the forbears of modern

Russia. Some have gone even farther by equating the names “Tubal” and

“Meschek” to Moscow and Tobolsk, regional capitals of east and west

Russia.

And the names do have sort of an aﬃnity to the modern regional

capitals, superﬁcial or otherwise. But frankly such ﬁne detail does not

matter, because we do know who the major player, the people known as

Magog is. They are the Russians. The major group of Russians within the

Scythians was known though antiquity as the Magogites, and the surname

Gog is still very prominent in some of the various tribes.

Scythians themselves were a militant group of tribes known for their

horsemanship, marksmanship, and the propensity for war. They had the

uncanny ability to ride a horse at full gallop restring their bow, and hit a

bird with an arrow at the same time. No wonder they were feared by most

of the tribes to the south on the continent.

But the strongest evidence lies in the name of the mountain range

which marked their southern boundary. That mountain chain, the barrier

between the Black and the Caspian seas, is today called the Caucasus, but

is signiﬁcantly known as the “Fort of Gog” in various tribal tongues, and

in ancient Chinese, who also feared them.

Clearly the names Gog and Magog from Genesis onward are

associated with the people who lived in the region of Russia today.

This means that there is no getting around the identity of the invader.

These are not the people of Turkey or Syria, as has been asserted by

various recent commentators seeking to turn the major scriptural portion

of Ezekiel 37-39 into a local war of little consequence, because a war of

major proportions does not ﬁt into their view of the last days. So apart

from the argument over when the Magog War happens, it is Russia who

comes to take a spoil out of Israel. We may not yet know the time, but we

do know the people. It is not then a question of who is the invader; but

when will he invade? Was it in the past? Or will it yet happen in the

future?

Perhaps, as in our vignette, it will be a modern attack by aircraft and

missiles. We are given such an image of this assault. Ezekiel tells us

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“They will cover the land like a storm.” And by invoking the idea of such

a cloud the prophet is reminding mankind of how a locust plague descends

upon a region. Billions of insects threaten all life, and create such a sound

as to break the mind. Such a movement of insects leaves nothing behind.

The terrifying nature of a locust plague which covers the land, is just the

sort of imagery the prophet Joel wanted to insert into the mind of those

listening to him, something they had all experienced, something much

larger than just a small invasion by Turkey or Syria, acting alone.

Ezekiel, the prophetic observer, was a man born some 600 years

before Christ. Assuming he was seeing a war of the future, how could

such a man describe the modern equipment he saw in the vision?

Had he described them with modern ideas and terms, he would have

invalidated what he wrote. Writing in such an early time Ezekiel can’t

know very much about modern warfare save to make an attempt to

describe what God is showing him. If Ezekiel would have spoken of the

thrust of a modern jet, the speed of a modern helicopter, or even the

discharge of a riﬂe, his words would have been immediately discounted as

the product of fraud. A modern reader would immediately realize that

such words had been written in a age of science.

But Ezekiel is authentic. He describes such terrible weapons in terms

of things he knew and understood. So when he says some of them were

“leaping from mountain to mountain,” he may be describing helicopters.

When he describes shining armor, perhaps he is describing the surface of

burnished metallic aircraft.

But no matter how he relates this invasion to us in the here and now,

one idea emerges strongly. Ezekiel is describing an attack of great power

and vast consequence, power as to render Israel helpless, just the intent of

God in “putting hooks into Magog’s jaw” and bringing him down.

because of the constant refrain from Ezekiel about “horsemen and

bucklers, swords and shields so that it certainly sounds like an ancient war,

does it not? And the prophet certainly knew what shields and swords look

like.

So, the skeptics ask, why such antique armaments, if this really is a

modern war? To skeptics, even skeptics who do accept the Scriptures, this

concludes the argument. The Magog war of Ezekiel 38 and 39 must be

some sort of war in antiquity.

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The only diﬃculty with this view is that no such war ever happened.

Israel was never attacked from the north in this way. No riders ever rode

down from Turkey in such mass that they looked like a cloud coming to

cover the land. But far more importantly, no northern army ever invaded

an Israel, having returned to the land from a scattered Diaspora over all

the world. No ancient invader ever came down to an Israel which had been

regathered. This regathering only happened to Israel in the modern era.

Thus this battle is yet to happen.

A few have tried to overcome the armament objection by bringing out

the horsemanship of the Scythian Russians. They were great riders, so

perhaps they will attempt a modern day invasion of Israel by horsemen.

Perhaps millions of Russians will mount their horses in the last days and

use those to ride all the way down to Israel. And maybe they will all be

dressed up in medieval armor and come bearing shields!

Of course this is patently ridiculous, and reminds one of the invasion

of New York City by the ﬁctional Grand Duchy of Fenwick in the 60’s

Peter Sellers production of The Mouse That Roared. One F-16 dispatched

from Tel Aviv could render millions of riders and their horses as carrion

within a matter of a few hours, no matter how good they were with that

strange shaped bow of theirs.

I am afraid that such an invasion would scare Israel into ﬁts of laughter.

But unfortunately this Magog invasion has nothing whatever to do with a

latter day horse attack.

It has everything to do with the great King stepping back into the

picture for the nation of Israel. He will rescue them in such a way that they

will know who their benefactor from heaven, the Messiah, has always

been, “they will know his name,” and their hearts will be broken. They

will also know that the Church has been raptured, and the time is short.

Only seven short years will remain. And it will ﬁnally be the time of the

“blessing going out to every tribe on earth,” the ﬁnal part of the Promise

God gave to Abraham.

Behold, I am going to save My people...and I will bring

them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem;

and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in

truth and righteousness...

It will come about that just as you were a curse among

the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I

will save you that you may become a blessing...men from

all the world will grasp the garment of a Jew saying,

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“Let us go with you, for w have heard that God is with you.

Zechariah 8:7,8,13,23 (NASB)

Very quickly God will put his Mark on a very special group of Seal

Team 6 style evangelists to rescue the whole earth. And much of the

hatred for God’s Chosen will quickly turn into love as God uses them to

lead vast numbers to confess Christ with the hope of joining the coming

Kingdom as the Tribulation Saints.

To aid them in this worldwide endeavor, in all likelihood God

reverses the confusion of tongues for those in this group in order to reach

every tribe on earth, as he did when Peter preached at Pentecost. That day

the many heard Peter in his own tongue, though Peter was probably

preaching in Hebrew. We call this army of Seal Team 6 evangelists, the

Army of Zion, and it must bring the hope of the Kingdom to every family

on the earth.

Because of the testimony of these Jewish evangelists, millions will be

blessed in every nation and family on earth. Multitudes around the world

will go into the Millennial Kingdom because of the testimony of these

evangelists.

“After these things I looked and behold, a great multitude

which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes

and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and

before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches

were in their hands;...these are the ones who have come out

of the great tribulation and they have washed their robes and

made them white in the blood of the Lamb...”

Revelation 7:9,14 (NASB)

God told Abraham his oﬀspring would be countless like the stars; and

in Abraham, God would literally bless each family on earth.

Therefore my people shall know My name: therefore they

shall know in that day I am he that doth speak: behold it is I.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that

bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace;

that saith unto Zion, thy god reigneth! …The Lord made bare

His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of

the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 52: 6-7, 10 (KJB)

Isaiah says:

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“how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,”and what

feet are these? The beautiful tramp of 144,000 witnesses on the mountain

of Transﬁguration with Jesus, as John saw in Revelation 7 proclaiming

Good News to every dark place left on planet earth. The Magog war is yet

to come, and when it does Israel will ﬁnally ﬁnd her true role in the plan

of the ages.

This is the Promise of Zion, out of the midst of the Tribulation. It is

God’s ﬁnal plan to reach planet earth

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Desolation Temple

On the hillside, just over the valley from the Temple Mount, Jesus

held what could be called the ﬁrst prophecy seminar, with three of his

closest disciples. They were high up on the Mount of Olives, overlooking

Herod’s temple, one of the eight wonders of the ancient world. Perhaps the

little group sat in the freshness of a mild zephyr and relaxed for a moment

to take in the view.

With good reason, you might say Jesus’s disciples were hicks, just

ﬁshermen from Galilee, and not at all like the cosmopolitan sophisticates

of the teeming city below. Not accustomed to the architectural splendor,

and as Jews dedicated to Moses and Abraham, no sight in the world could

be more wonderful. Herod’s temple was the grandest structure in all the

Mediterranean, with its forty-foot doors of inlaid gold, and its majestic

setting on an enormous platform, elevated over the rest of the city of

Jerusalem, the city of the Great King.

The building was imposing; a cube almost ten stories on a side, one of

the most fabulous buildings of the ancient world. Dazzling from the city

ﬂoor, it must have looked like something right out of heaven to the

disciples, from their perch somewhat higher. With all its inlays of precious

metal, and the yellow limestone of which much of Jerusalem was built,

glowing in the bright Jerusalem sun, it must have appeared like it was

made out of solid gold. Today tourists still sit on the same hillside and

admire the brilliance of the Islamic Dome.

But as beautiful as the gold dome is, it is small potatoes in comparison

to what Herod’s temple must have looked like in Jesus’s time. For the

temple was much larger. and ﬁlled the whole mount with the grandeur of

gold, in the bright Mediterranean sunshine. Beautiful yes, but the temple

was a fraud from top to bottom.

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When Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant into the most holy

place, of the original temple, the whole ediﬁce and even the surrounds had

been so charged with the presence of God, no man dare even lift his head

for fear of it. But that temple burned, and Israel was taken into captivity.

God had made his presence known in the ﬁrst temple. His light could

be seen over the altar by ordinary eyes, and the holy glow of God over the

Ark never departed until the people grew distant, and their hearts stopped

seeking his presence. Un-noticed to everyone but the prophet Ezekiel, the

glory had ﬁnally departed from Solomon’s temple, never to return. It was

a picture of Israel’s growing spiritual blindness, a blindness which would

be total when Jesus ﬁnally began his ministry around 30 AD.

And from the point at which the glory left the ﬁrst temple, its

destruction had been certain. So it wasn’t long before Nebuchadnezzar of

Babylon had come in; ﬁrst to conquer the nation, and twenty years later to

take a spoil of the people. Many Jews went into captivity in 606 BC; and

then again as he returned to crush the forsaken temple. All was in ﬂames

on that fateful day 586 BC, on the ninth day of the Jewish month Av,

when evil things happen to Israel. And so had ended the ﬁrst great temple.

Then after seventy years, the people had returned and built the second

temple. But the new temple never had an ark, nor the light of the Shekinah

rising over the innermost altar. Still, nobody ever talked about it. Only the

high priest on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) ever saw the darkness

at the heart of the sanctuary. Yom Kippur was the one time a year when

anyone ever entered that sacred inner room, the Holy of Holies. And

perhaps the high priests who saw it kept its’ darkness secret. But whatever

else, the second temple was desolate.

Some might say the second temple, as built by Zerubbabel, had meant

something more than the desolation within; new hope and a fresh start. Its’

construction had been at the behest of the great Cyrus of Persia, and

fulﬁlled the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah. And there was hope in that

return from Babylon.

But when dedicated that building had caused many of the old men to

weep bitter tears out loud. Some few of them were old enough to

remember the glory of Solomon’s temple. Not that Zerubbabel’s temple

had been ugly; it was beautiful in its own way. But it was much smaller,

and above all else, it lacked the glory of the Almighty in the presence of

the “Shekinah” glowing on its altar.

Five hundred years later, Herod had been made king of the province

of Palestine by a pagan Roman government, interested only in the “pax

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Romana,” the peace of Rome. And what an unhappy peace it was, under

the crushing control of an ancient totalitarian government. As such, the

temple had become a pawn in an evil game of political chess between

Herod and the Jewish leadership. There was no spiritual reality on either

side, just a spider’s web of deceit and lies. It was remarkably like this

present world.

Herod’s personal friend, Emperor Augustus, had placed him on the

throne of Palestine; and Herod, who understood clearly that only a

descendant of David could rightfully rule Israel spent the rest of his rule

trying to insert himself into the royal line. Herod was a pretender, trying to

buy oﬀ his subjects like any modern tyrant, and knowing the Jews national

pride in the face of the Romans he had done a complete facelift on

Zerubbabel’s temple, a building he had deemed too small and parochial to

be worthy of someone in “David’s” line. Seeking glory for himself, Herod

wanted his temple to rival Solomon’s of old. And hoping to be accepted

as something like a descendant, the pretender began living the pretense of

Jewishness, trying to insert himself into the royal line.

But Herod was a descendant of despised Esau, Jacob’s slightly elder

twin. Both the children of Isaac; both grandsons of Abraham, but as the

ﬁrstborn between the two, Esau should have the right of inheritance from

God, not Jacob. But Esau had despised the birthright, nothing less than

the great Promise of Zion given to Abraham by God himself, given when

Abraham had sat with God and looked out at the stars of heaven.

Esau had been a little hungry one day coming in from the ﬁeld, and

had ﬁlled his belly, promising to give away the birthright in trade for a

bowl of red stew. Little did he know he had given away the world, for a

pot of stew. He had given away eternity to ﬁll his belly. Flippantly before

God, he questioned the reality of the whole thing, saying, “what is that to

me?” So with no more than a shrug, Esau like all worldly men, had thrown

away the most precious things of the Spirit which still divide the Middle

East—promises over who owns the land, and who are the Chosen people.

Because Esau despised his birthright God declared his hatred for him

forever, and all who are like him. Esau reminds us that God despises those

who despise Him. God is not arbitrary in this, as some in the Reformed

camp think, saying some are chosen and some are not. Esau chose his

belly over the things of God, and the curse of Esau still comes to those

who put their own sexuality, their own greed, or anything else ahead of

God and his promises to them. It is those whom God despises. It will be

the same when people someday make the dreadful choice of the 666.

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But Herod was of this hated linage in both ways. He was an Edomite,

an actual great great grandson of Esau. But more in line with his character,

like his hated forebear, all Herod did was for his belly. He had no care for

God and no fear. All Herod craved in life was the throne of Israel, and to

get this he had to create a pretense of being like David. But such lust for

power ﬁnally drove him insane. Fearing rumors of a heavenly born king

coming to take away his rule, he lashed out and killed the children in

Bethlehem, in a crazed and futile eﬀort to defeat God’s plan.

This lust even made him suspicious of his own children. He executed

a number on only the suspicion they might try to assassinate their father

and usurp his throne. It is what he would have done. It was said by Caesar

that it was safer to be Herod’s pig than his son.

And like his life, his temple was a sham.

It ﬁt Jesus’s description of the religious Pharisees, who had the

appearance of being outwardly white washed in word and deed, but inside

they were ﬁlled with hypocrisy and death. The beautiful temple inspired

awe but was nothing but a shell. The real diﬀerence between the ediﬁce

Herod built and Solomon’s temple, touched as it was by awe within and

without, was what was hidden inside. There was no miracle inside Herod’s

temple.

When Jesus was carried in by his parents on his ﬁrst visit to the

temple on his eighth day of life for his circumcision, the glory had again

returned to a temple in Jerusalem, but it had returned in secret dressed in

the tiny body of Jesus. Most people couldn’t see God’s glory hidden in a

baby. The glory had returned in the greatest measure ever, but few of that

generation would ever even know.

But there were always a few with eyes to see.

Two awaited him. Abiding inside the temple for years and years, they

had grown old and nearly blind, waiting for the Messiah. But old Simeon

and Anna knew him instantly. The glory of Israel had returned, and

Simeon, holding the Child to his breast said:

And when eight days were completed before his circumcision…

they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord…

and behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was

Simeon And it had been revealed to him…that he would not

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see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ…and when the

parents brought in the child Jesus…he took Him into his arms,

and blessed God, and said, ‘Now Lord let Thy bond servant

depart In peace…for my eyes have seen Thy salvation

Luke 2:21–30 various (NASB)

But not only was there no glory in Herod’s temple, there was no holy

Ark with a mercy seat where the high priest could put the lamb’s blood

each year. The Ark, that golden box with the angels over it and the mercy

seat on top, which received the blood of atonement seems to have been

lost with Solomon’s ﬁrst temple, perhaps destroyed, or hidden in some

deep vault somewhere underground.

But returning to our little band seated on the Mount of Olives with

Jesus, this was all past history. Perhaps Jesus was feeling a bit nostalgic a

bit alone in a crowd, as his own destiny was drawing near to him. We

forget as a human being, he had the same emotions with which we are

born. This would be his ﬁnal week, and the cross was looming over him.

On the previous Sunday when he came riding triumphantly into the

streets of Jerusalem, with shouts of “hosanna,” and “blessed is he who

comes in the name of the Lord!” the little people had called him King, but

they would soon be calling for his blood, and he knows it.

His destiny approaching, he may have been feeling very much alone.

Especially since his followers with him, Peter, James, and John, are all on

another wavelength. For his men, it was a given the temple, so dazzling on

the other side of the valley, so precious to Jewish religion and culture,

would be something Jesus would love and protect.

And I’m sure they were nearly giddy with the prospect. The people

were ready to make Jesus their king. Just a few days prior, they had been

with him at his triumphal entry. They were on the crest of a wave. In their

minds, Jesus was just about to declare himself, and it was obvious to them

the people would want him, and that magniﬁcent temple would ﬁgure

prominently in it all. No doubt Jesus would rule his people from that

beautiful ediﬁce over there. It would become his palace.

And they were exalting with the anticipation of ousting Rome and the

glory that would follow. Perhaps, being fallen human beings, it excited

them that they would share some of that glory. To sit on his right and his

left, that was something to think about.

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He understood them perfectly, but he had a diﬀerent sort of love for

his Father’s house than they did. Some might say, typical to his way of

keeping everyone oﬀ balance and to teach an important principle, he

could be almost contrary. To his giddy apostles he announced simply,

“Not one stone would stay placed upon another.” In fact the whole temple

was coming down, and soon.

One can only imagine how these words left the three Apostles

reeling.

I am sure they wondered what Jesus could be talking about. They had

felt the energy during his triumphal entry, less than a week ago. The

crowd in Jerusalem had been ready to crown him. Jesus would soon be in

charge. Jesus was going to be king, and they would sit on high thrones

beside him. All the city was coming to him. So what was all this talk

about the temple being torn down? Was he going to build an even bigger

one? The temple had stood in one form or another for over 500 years; it

would not soon fall down. What was Jesus talking about?

So these apostles could hardly believe what they had just heard. It was

God’s house, his Father’s house. Hadn’t Jesus already thrown out the

money changers more than once? Hadn’t the Old Testament prophets said

Messiah would be taken up with a zeal for his Father’s house? Wasn’t

Jesus the Messiah? Hadn’t he just ridden into town in fulﬁllment of the

prophecy the King was coming on a donkey? Wouldn’t he soon be taking

charge of that temple down there, to set up his court, and run Herod and

the Romans out of town? What was going on here?

But Jesus had never been impressed with the externals of human

politics. He would leave that to the Pharisees, and their less spiritual

partners the Sadducees. No less a power than the devil himself had oﬀered

him all of the prestige and all the military power of humankind, in one

great package, and he had spurned it as nothing compared to the unending

privilege of doing his Father’s will:

the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed

Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory and he said

to Him, ‘All these things will I give You, if You fall down and

worship me.’

Matthew 4:8–9 (NASB)

Esau sold the Promise for a pot of stew while all the wealth and power

of the world made no diﬀerence to Jesus. The accolades of the people had

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no hold on him at all. Power had no draw, and wealth seemed

unimportant to him. His disciples were all eager and gleeful at the thought

of becoming earls and dukes, and whatever other landed royalty they

would be. Perhaps they could accompany Jesus on a mission to visit with

the Roman Emperor himself one day. King Jesus, he would be greater than

Solomon of old.

But Jesus was never impressed with any such trappings of the world.

He was always about personal reality, and even risky personal reality. He

wanted his disciples and anyone who would follow after him to place their

hope on him only, and throw oﬀ any other source for their stability. To

lean on anything not the Lord God Almighty is idolatry. He wanted those

he taught to see that what they were depending on was their true god.

Money, power, military might, education, sex, personality, good looks—

all that entices men to trust in its’ strength, instead of him, is idolatry.

Faith is simply another way of asking each one of us to choose where we

will plant our feet, and stand. Will we trust the Word of God, or human

experience? And he kept positioning this question to the front with his

own disciples. Would they trust the size and beauty of the temple? Would

they trust the size of the crowds, even with palm branches in their hands?

Or would they trust in the Lord when his words seemed so wrong to them?

I would imagine these disciples probably went aside to rethink and

reload, after Jesus told them the temple would be coming down. And when

they approached their Master again, they did so in the risky business of

truth and ﬁnally dared to ask him the next logical question. Perhaps for the

ﬁrst time he has gotten their attention and they are frankly frightened.

“Jesus, if the temple is going down,”—they ask— "what is going to

happen to us?” Within, their minds were jangling. This temple was going

to be your throne room. “Don’t you remember, Jesus?”—queried James

—“when our mama asked if John and I could sit on each side of you?”

“We thought we were all going to be sitting in high seats over there in that

beautiful temple, and now that we know diﬀerent, Jesus, what is going to

happen to us?”

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 end of the age?’

Matthew 24:3b (NASB)

So they ask Jesus two great questions. Jesus, are you coming

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back? And its subsequent, When? When will you come? Every other

question falls beneath these two. Is he coming? And if so, when will he

return?

Everyone wants to know. And so we should thank our puzzled

disciples for asking. So yes, Jesus, we all press in, “Are you coming back,

and when?” Everyone wants to know.

One of the most fascinating subjects in the New Testament is the issue

of Jesus’s announcing his own death. He has already told the disciples he

would die several times, but the disciples never seem to hear him. But here

on the Mount of Olives, in this intimate little conclave, discussing future

events, these disciples have ﬁnally heard his words.

He is going to die. He is leaving them. In previous days he told them;

he would have to leave, and the leaving would require his death. But they

have always refused to hear him. Messiah can’t die. Messiah has to come

and make everything okay. Messiah can’t be Messiah if he dies, can he?

His words have never made any sense. Now they know. They still do

not understand, but they know he will do exactly what he says. He always

does. So the disciples have ﬁnally snapped out of denial. But now they

face the question directly. They want to know what he is doing. And he is

asking them to trust him through the process.

And it brings up a bit of panic. So it ought to do the same in us as we

face the walls of faith in our own lives. Faith always demands something

of human beings we are reluctant to give; it requires us to go through

things we would rather avoid.

So to steady them, he begins to tell them about a series of signs that

will mark the run up to his return. In the process he gives them an

introduction to the great book of Revelation. Because the good news to

these apostles was--yes. Yes he is coming back, and yes he will open to

them the signs of his coming.

At which point, perhaps while the sun was setting, the little group must

have walked down to the temple. At least he did. For later, as he left the

temple for the last time, he pointed back to the building and began his

most detailed prophecy lesson of all. It is found in Matthew the twenty-

fourth chapter.

He told them to look for the “Abomination of Desolation” as spoken

about by the Old Testament prophet Daniel. When they see the

abomination in the holiest place in the temple, then his coming will be

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drawing very close. This he said was key. When the people of Israel

would see the desolation of a temple, it was time to run away.

But for us to understand his words, we enlist the agency of the

greatest scholar on Daniel chapter 9, anywhere, Sir Robert Anderson.

Near the turn of the century an Englishman, Sir Robert Anderson,

penned a book, The Coming Prince, which demonstrated the unparalleled

accuracy of the Bible in foretelling the future. He focused on a small

section of the book of Daniel chapter 9, a section which is so astonishingly

clear that the critics have long held this prophet up for contempt. It is not

Daniel’s errors they complain about; it is his accuracy. They say he must

have lived after the facts because nobody could see the future with the

clarity he saw. Daniel is just too close to telling history in advance of his

time, and how exciting!

To secular minds, blinded by the way this present world has always

worked, it is inconceivable that there is a personal God who actually

intervenes into time, space, reality. Skeptics rarely mind religious people.

They just don’t put any weight on what they say. So long as religious

people mouth proverbs they are ﬁne, inconsequential, but ﬁne. But when

they avow a deity who actually intervenes into human history, that is not

ﬁne. In fact, the secular mind actually runs from the clarity of the Bible

and prefers the gauzy quatrains of fakirs like Nostradamus, who has

become very popular right now.

But anyone who has read even a little of the mysterious Frenchman

knows his work is just plain murky. If he was a prophet at all, he was most

certainly not a Bible one. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t communicate

very much about anything. People say he predicted everything from the

moon landing to the rise of nuclear Iran. But it’s because his words are

cleverly designed like a fortune cookie. They can mean anything.

But when a prophet of the Bible speaks, he does not try to dodge his

critics. He cites dates, places, and even on some occasions the actual

names of individuals. Both King Josiah and Cyrus, Emperor of Persia, are

mentioned in the Scriptures by name, hundreds of years before they were

even born. And all the rest were so clearly presented one can easily ﬁll in

the blank of his name. For a true prophet of God, there are events which

can be cross referenced against their prophecies. But no matter how

intently they are examined, the prophets of Israel bat at 100 percent.

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But Daniel is too accurate, so he is doubted.

Skeptics cannot fathom that a man of 600 BC was able to predict the

day of Christ’s death, which we will show Daniel did, so he is often late

dated. In the mind of the skeptic, history cannot be told in advance,

because in the mind of the skeptic what is to come does not yet exist. That

would prove a God living outside of time, and they can’t have that.

So, they reason, he must have written about the events from the

historical, perspective, rather than looking ahead. In their skeptical minds,

Daniel had to be looking back. Since we simply accept the Word of God

we believe that Daniel, the real Daniel, was given one of the most amazing

prophecies ever.

It is a clock. The clock deals with 70 sets of 7s or weeks, because a

week is a seven. Moreover this clock is the timepiece of Israel alone, for

Daniel’s people, not the people of Greece, or Rome or America. Not the

famous Mayan calendar, just the great clock of Israel.

But as I stated earlier, it awaited the advent of the 20th century, and

Sir Robert Anderson of Scotland Yard, to discover how incredible this

little prophecy of Daniel really is.

Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people…to ﬁnish

transgression….

Daniel 9:24 (NASB)

The ﬁrst thing Anderson determined was that this clock did apply only

to the Jews. Seventy weeks were given for the people of Daniel to ﬁnish

their transgression. Their “transgression” was their rejection of God’s

plan.

Still one observation more: The Chosen are intended by God to be a

testimony to all mankind. This clock tells us prophetically where Israel is

at, and Israel in turn, tells us how far along the road the whole world has

traveled. Israel is always God’s timepiece for the human race.

But in order to have a clock, you have to be able to set the time. And

it is a miracle in itself that we can actually set this ancient clock. We

actually know when it starts. Thank Robert Anderson for pointing out the

obvious.

So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree

to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there

will be seven weeks and sixty two weeks it will be built again,

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with plaza and moat, even in times of distress

Daniel 9:25 (NASB)

It is clear that the beginning of this seventy-week clock starts with “a

decree to return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem.” This prophecy is not

talking about rebuilding the temple. It is speaking about “the city” and that

city is Jerusalem. (We must make this emphasis because there was another

decree by another monarch to rebuild the temple.)

While Israel was still in the captivity, their captors, the Babylonians,

were conquered by Persia. So it would be a Persian monarch who would

issue the decree. What is so wildly improbable is that the date of such a

minor decree is known after nearly 2,500 years. According to Anderson,

and veriﬁed many times since, this decree was given by the Persian

Artaxerxes Longimanus, and it took place on March 14, 445 BC, the

ancient date converted to our current calendars.

But how in the world can we possibly know this bit of ancient trivia?

Well, actually it is because God wrote it down in a memo and kept us

informed. And I am only jesting slightly. God wanted this date retained so

that Robert Anderson could package it up for the world. Well we don’t

actually know that, but we do know the date with great assurance. Because

it too is in the Bible, in the book of Nehemiah chapter 2:

And it came about in the month Nisan [March in that

year] in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes”

Nehemiah 2:1a (NASB)

So who in the world was Nehemiah?

Nehemiah was also a Jew in the captivity in Persia with Daniel.

But unlike Daniel and his friends, Nehemiah was not among the magi, or

the wise men of the Babylonians. He was a cupbearer. The cupbearer was

a servant who protected the king from the dangers of poisoning by one of

his less loyal subjects. And the cupbearer provided this service by drinking

some of the cup before the king. Needless to say, it was a pretty intimate

relationship that the cupbearer shared with the king.

And one important qualiﬁcation for being a cupbearer was to put on a

joyful face. The last thing the man with the burden of ruling an enormous

empire wanted was a sad table attendant. To be sad before the Persian

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monarch during the meal could get you beheaded. Nevertheless,

Nehemiah was sad, and the king noticed, and asked him about it. And so,

perhaps with fear and trepidation, Nehemiah told the king about his

people.

Israel had already been back in the land of their forefathers for some

years, and the walls of Jerusalem were still ﬂat on the ground. The Jews

had returned with such excitement, built the Second temple, and had

expected to live happily ever after. But as such things go, not all had

panned out as planned.

While the Jews had been absent, others had moved in and squatted,

and these others were not too willing to give the land back to its rightful

owners. So the Jews in Jerusalem were still without walls around their

city, unprotected, and growing increasingly tired of being hassled by the

brigands of the countryside.

[Nehemiah]…said to the king, ‘Let the king live forever Why should

my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father’s tombs, lies

desolate and its gates have been consumed by ﬁre?’

Nehemiah 2:3 (NASB)

At that point, everyone in the throne room must have held his breath,

knowing the law, and wondering what this absolute monarch might do.

But instead of dropping his scepter, indicating Nehemiah’s life was over,

he raised it up, and asked if he could help.

And I said to the king, if it please the king, and if your

servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to

city of my father’s tombs, that I may rebuild it.

Nehemiah 2:5 (NASB)

To the amazement of all, Nehemiah was given grace by Artaxerxes,

and a decree to empower him to return to the city of Jerusalem and rebuild

the wall. And as Daniel describes it, this is the exact decree Daniel’s great

clock depends on for a starting point! God allowed those of us in the far-

ﬂung future to have a bench mark from whence to know the start of

Israel’s great clock. How often do great wonders turn on the fulcrum of

little deeds? All this came about because an ancient king asked about his

servant’s down-turned face.

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Sir Robert Anderson believed he could use the great clock of Daniel

9, with the date provided by Nehemiah chapter 2, to determine another

date which had been obscured by the passage of time. He wanted to know

the exact day Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he want to

know what date was the ﬁrst Palm Sunday.

What an audacious idea. To use a date from the deep past, to ﬁnd a

more recent date, a date which had been lost in history. But being the

meticulous police detective he was, he began to calculate. And he came to

some startling conclusions.

are to know and discern that from the issuing of a

decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the

Prince…there will be seven weeks and sixty two weeks;

Daniel 9:25 (NASB)

At the start of the shorter period, the seven weeks of years, a week

being also a seven, (7 x 7 = 49 years), the decree issued by an ancient

monarch to rebuild the city would occur. And it did. The city was

completed, and all that was predicted happened in about that period of

time. (The reader is encouraged to read the book of Nehemiah for a

complete rendition.)

be seven weeks and sixty two weeks; it [the city]

will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of

distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be

cut oﬀ

[the Messiah will be killed…Messiah killed in the Old Testiment!

How awkward for the Jew who denies Jesus]…

Daniel 9:25 (NASB)

Then after this 49 years, the larger interval—the, sixty-two sevens

equaling 434 years, would run to the time of the death of Messiah, and

also happened, just as Daniel the prophet said it would.

Reading his own prophecy would have been shocking to Daniel and to

any Jew who would take the time to think about it. Messiah was supposed

to be the conquering power of God. The death of their Messiah was not

something any Jew was even contemplating. It is still shocking to Jews

living in Israel today.

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Isaiah had written about the death of the Messiah in detail in Isaiah

53, and David had mentioned him in multiple places in his Psalms, but

Israel was waiting for her conquering champion, and had no time for a

“suﬀering substitution.”

Yes this “suﬀering Messiah” was known by some rabbis who wrote

about him after a careful reading of the Scriptures, but he was not

someone they were very attracted to, and certainly nobody could have

dreamed that the “suﬀering” Messiah and the “conquering” Messiah

would turn out to be the very same person.

They wanted a political king, not some spiritual person who would die

for their sins; something they only vaguely understood anyway. The

political problems of man always seem to cause a distraction from the

every bit as real spiritual requirements of God.

After all, they were the oﬀspring of Abraham. They had been given

the Law from Moses. It never much dawned on them they were also

sinners even though the blood of sacriﬁced animals ran in streams from

the temple. They just did not understand their need, very well.

It was no doubt shocking to Daniel. But as the faithful witness of

Jehovah he had to say it. Sixty-nine weeks of years after the second

temple, Messiah would be cut oﬀ (which is killed) “but not for himself.”

Daniel had the audacity to predict in great detail, a series of events that

would take almost 500 years to come to pass. For 25 centuries the Jews

have tried to ignore this plain and clear fact that the death of their Messiah

was in their Old Testiment Bible.

Remember we already discovered that this sequence begins in 445

BC (on the Julian calendar) when Artaxerxes Longimanus actually issued

the decree to start this clock running, now 2500 years ago.

Using Hebrew years of 360 days, making all the leap year

conversions, and taking into account there was no year zero between 1 BC

and 1 AD, Robert Anderson calculated that there were exactly 173,880

days represented in chapter 9 verses 23-27. So if we start at the decree

from Artaxerxes in 445 BC, and count forward 173,880 days, we end up

exactly at April 6, 32 AD nearly half a millennium later, and that is when

our jaw drops onto the ﬂoor.

Almost too incredible for words we discover this sequence lands us

right on top of what the perpetual calendar says was a Palm Sunday, the

day Jesus came into the city in preparation for his death near the end of the

week. Perpetual calendars simply line out the days of the week. They do

not “know” when the commemoration begins. Because of this April 6,

32AD had to have been the ﬁrst Palm Sunday.

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Imagine how unlikely it is to have hit the very day of Christ’s

triumphal entry, four hundred and eighty three years later. But because of

this, we have total asurance, we were on the right track all along. This

must have been the original Palm Sunday. Without question then, Jesus

made his triumphal entry on April 6, in the year 32 AD, and was cruciﬁed

on the following Thursday evening at sunset (when the Passover Lambs

are all killed), on the 10

, really the next day in Jewish reckoning the day

we call “Good Friday.”

The incredible thing is that now we know with certainty the year, and

the day of Christ’s death, and we know it exactly. April 6, 32 AD, must

indeed be the correct date for the triumphal entry of Jesus the Christ into

Jerusalem in preparation for his going to the cross, to be lifted up for the

sake of all men.

How awesome are the Scriptures of the Jews.

And in respect to this, we are utterly convinced of Daniel’s power as

a true prophet of God. Zechariah, also writing from about the same time

frame, would add how this “Great King” would make himself known;

riding on the foal of a donkey:

 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph,

O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your king is coming to you;

He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble and

mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9 (NASB)

By the end of the week, Messiah was pinned to a cross on Mount

Calvary for the sins of the world, and his resurrection would come on the

following Sunday morning.

But what about that 70th week remaining?

It is the 70th week in which the Abomination of Desolation comes, the

very event for which we began looking at Daniel in the ﬁrst place.

Remember Jesus told his three disciples to look for this Abomination as

spoken of in Daniel?

But this last week of Daniel’s great clock is still not accounted for,

and what happened to it? Did Daniel ﬁnally drop the ball? Or is there

some other reason?

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Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut oﬀ

but not forhimself] and the people of the prince who is to

come destroy the city and the sanctuary And he [the coming

prince of Rome]…will make a ﬁrm covenant with the many

[all Israel] for one week [missing

week of Daniel…but in the middle of the week he will

put a stop to sacriﬁce…and on the wing of abominations

will come one who makes desolate…

[The Abomination of Desolation] Daniel 9:26 (NASB)

It is in this last week where the Abomination shows up in connection

with the coming prince of Rome, the man John calls Anti-Christ. So we

back up once more to where we left Jesus enjoying a respite with his

disciples on the Mount of Olives. And there he tells them to prepare.

Trouble is coming. Trouble will come to Jerusalem soon; trouble from

the Romans. An invasion would soon appear to destroy their fabulous

temple. And with the acuity of hindsight, we know all this happened right

down to the smallest detail. In less than forty years, the Romans, under

Titus, Emperor Vespasian’s son, would literally pull the temple down and

take it apart, stone by stone, just as Jesus predicted. So Daniel’s reference

to the people who destroy the sanctuary, were the Romans. It was the

army of Rome which burned down Herod’s Temple.

The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the ﬁre, which Titus’s

soldiers set against orders, caused much gold from the temple to sweat

into the cracks between the stones. Gold fever soon took over, and the

soldiers began to loot. So much gold seeped into the cracks that the

soldiers took up crow bars to break upart the stones; Jesus’s words “Not

one stone left upon another” would be fulﬁlled right down to the smallest

letter.

It is said that Titus wanted to spare the temple; but God

decreed that it would not be spared…the Jews could not be

, neither with threats or exhortations, to give uptheir fortiﬁed

positions, the soldiers realized that the temple could only be

conquered with ﬁre; some of the men set it aﬁre.And in that

hour the magniﬁcent, exquisite and priceless building, which

was celebrated far and wide, burned and was reduced to ashes.

—Josephus Antiquities

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So terrible was the siege and slaughter, the smell of cooking human

ﬂesh everywhere, it is thought to have been equal in horror to Hitler’s gas

chambers in Poland. Nevertheless, evil as he was, the demon-possessed

man of reconstituted Rome, Adolf Hitler, who wanted a “Third Reich,”

another thousand years of Rome, even he was a mere shadow of the

sinister “prince” Daniel 9 says is yet to come. A man of the same race as

those who burned down the sanctuary. He is the one Jesus alluded to,

when he mysteriously injected into conversation, “if another should come

in his own name, him they would accept.” Daniel calls him the “little

horn.” John calls him the “beast” and he will be.

And in the latter period…when transgressors have run their

course, A king will arise. Insolent and skilled in intrigue

And his power will be mighty, but not of his own power, by his

inﬂuence…But he will be broken without human agency”

Daniel 8:23-26 (NASB)

So often prophecy has a tendency to be interpreted by the newspaper.

And because of the rise of radical Islam, several commentators, looking at

the current world, have concluded that this prince is from Islam, perhaps

from an Islamic country once ruled by Rome. They base this upon several

lines of reasoning, and it would be good if we stopped for a moment and

considered the Islamic Anti-Christ.

One of the major reasons modern Bible scholars think that this

coming prince is from Islam is based around the ascendance of the so-

called “Twelfth Imam,” otherwise known as the “Imam Mahdi” who is to

come out of Shiite Islam, and rule the world for a suspicious period of

seven years. Of course the last week of Daniel, also known as the

Tribulation, also lasts for seven years.

This Imam has other similarities. He will conquer the world and

destroy the Christians. So the Imam Mahdi, in certain ways, mimics the

Anti-Christ of the Christians. Because of this similarity some Christians

have succumbed to the temptation to say the Mahdi is the Anti-Christ,

which must make Shiite Islam the great apostasy (the great falling away)

spoken about in the Book of Revelation.

Beware.

Who is to say the Mahdi ever materializes, anyway? Shiite Islam has

been more wrong than right in predictions of the future. And if he does not

ever appear, are we saying Christianity has also been wrong in its

predictions of the coming Anti-Christ? The Bible is not tied to the

mumblings of the desert sheiks. And we should never allow extra-Biblical

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sources drag us away from the plain teaching of the Bible. And the plain

teaching of the Bible is that the coming evil prince will be Roman, and not

from some later Middle Eastern stock, as some are now saying. We

presume that he will be as Italian as Titus, the adopted son of Vespasian,

emperor of Rome, who crushed the sanctuary, this last time.

So in regard to the Mahdi we urge caution. Deception is the order of

the last days, and while it might be the current vogue, this Islamic Anti-

Christ is most likely error. In fact, such a scenario would never even be

considered were it not for a rise in Islamic power since aircraft slammed

into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City.

Imam Mahdi, is not Anti-Christ, and Islam is not the religion of the

Christian apostasy for at least three strong biblical reasons.

The real Anti-Christ must declare himself God in the Jewish temple.

No staunch Muslim would ever do this. No Imam would ever be

found dead in a Jewish house of worship, except to burn it. In fact no

ordinary Muslim would ever do such a declaration in anything so Jewish.

He might declare himself in a leading mosque somewhere or next to the

Kaaba Stone. But he would never lower himself to so glorify a Jewish

temple so as to make his grand announcement there.

Secondly, no prophet of Allah on the earth would ever claim to be

God at all, regardless of where he was doing it. But Anti-Christ will do

this. Not even Mohammed could say he was God. The “deity” called

“Allah,” whatever else he may be, he never allows his followers to claim

anything close to godhood for themselves. Even when Islamists are on his

side, they would never do this. Jesus is denied by them for this very

reason, he declares Himself equal to the Father.

According to the Quran, Allah has no son. And why is that? Because

Islam understands the claim Jesus makes with his Father, and that being of

the same essence, he is equal with God, He is God. Muslims would be

petriﬁed that Allah would strike down anyone making such a claim. Allah

is a proud being who can tolerate no equality with anything or anyone.

The Twelfth Imam, whatever else he is, cannot be Anti-Christ, because

Anti-Christ will wrongly declare himself to be God in the Jewish temple.

Finally, the Anti-Christ will make a seven year covenant with Israel

and this will likely include the building of the third temple. It is an

absolute that no Imam of Islam would ever allow a third temple to be built

by Israel on the Temple Mount, which Islam regards as their endowment.

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Moreover, the Imam Mahdi will be too busy ﬁghting and breaking things

to stop and make ﬁrm covenants with his main enemy, anyway.

No, the Anti-Christ, as the White Horseman, conquers with an empty

bow that is, with the craft of his mouth. This Mahdi will conquer with

armies and may even resort to nuclear weapons. Anti-Christ and the Imam

Mahdi are similar, and probably come from the same evil source, but they

are not the same person.

So what about this missing last week of Daniel? Did Daniel ﬁnally

make a mistake? That would be unlikely. But he did seem to end at 69

weeks, not the required seventy. Why? It is because Daniel couldn’t see

the Church. There is a huge gap between the death of the Messiah and this

last week, because Israel rejected Jesus. It had to happen.

If the Jews would have accepted Christ at his ﬁrst coming, he would

have declared the Kingdom then and the world would have been left out,

and only Israel would have been saved. But in order for all of mankind to

to be blessed in Abraham, as promised, Israel was set aside, but only for a

period.

The gap between the 69

and 70

weeks of Daniel is the age of the

Church, something which remained a mystery in the Old Testament.

Though strangely enough, God from his timeless perspective, regards the

Church as having taken up no time at all! In fact this is one reason why

speaking of the loss of salvation makes no sense. The moment of true

conversion God already sees the believer as eternally seated beside him on

his throne. Some wonder why the writers of the New Testament kept

repeating that they were already in the last days, even in their time, this is

the reason.

But Daniel left a marker, which would indicate the start of his last

week. It was a “ﬁrm covenant” of seven years entered into by Israel and

the coming prince of Rome, the Anti-Christ. That ﬁrm covenant is still

coming, and we are still in the gap until the Church is gone. So then what

marks the end of the Church? The Church leaves with the rapture, about

the time that last week begins. Many believe we are very close to the end

of the Church age and the rapture is coming. Then comes that last week,

containing the Abomination of the Temple Jesus warned his three

disciples about. God’s House will be made utterly desolate, the very abode

of the devil himself.

Perhaps Jesus’s thoughts, as he gazed on the beautiful complex

over the valley, were taken up with its soon-coming destruction. Perhaps

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in his vision he could see the soldiers burning his Father’s house to the

ground. Or perhaps his thoughts were running into the far-ﬂung future, to

that day when Daniel’s evil prince would take his seat in yet another

Temple, in the Holy of Holies, the most sacred compartment of the temple,

telling himself and the whole world he is God.

But that would have to await a third temple since the one Jesus

gazed upon would be gone in less than 40 years. Anti-Christ would need a

Jewish temple to declare himself, and commit the Abomination of

Desolation.

The Church having departed, the last “week” of Daniel’s 70-week

vision is called the Tribulation, the worst years on earth, and the last

seven years of the transgression (the rejection of Christ) of Israel against

God. Daniel’s great clock re-appears when the “wicked prince” makes his

seven-year pact.

But how can this even happen? How can a third temple ever be

built? For there is only one spot on earth a temple can be built. Right

where the beautiful building called the Dome of the Rock now exists. It is

the aggravation of the unbeliever against Israel. It is the Islamic block to

the last days. And where did this Dome come from in the ﬁrst place? How

will it be removed, if the prophecies of Israel are to proceed? Indeed, what

connection does Islam have with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem,

anyway?

Often you will hear that Mohammed never even visited Jerusalem and if

he did there is no mention of it in the Quran. So it is thought that Islam has

no connection to the Temple Mount, and this is the case most Jews and

Christians avow. But there is a very strange, even eerie tradition among

Islamists, which they aﬃrm with the same fanaticism they aﬃrm

everything. They say Mohammed once rode some sort of ﬂying creature,

he called it “al-Buraq,” to the Temple Mount, landed there in the middle

of the night, walked into the Jewish temple, and prayed inside. There were

no witnesses. But Mohammed avowed that he ﬂew on this thing to the

temple, tied it up to a ring which he said, the “prophets had used,” and

went inside to pray. His historian, Sahib al-Bukhari, reported that the stone

under the Dome of the Rock is the place from whence the “prophet” got

back onto the creature and returned to Saudi Arabia.

Of course secular historians outside of Islam universally believe he

made this whole story up. Mohammed lived in the 500’s AD, and Herod’s

temple was destroyed some 430 years earlier. So the story is either a total

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fabrication, or some sort of occultic vision Mohammed had. Many just

believe he dreamed the whole thing up. But the rock under the Dome is

called the second most holy shrine in Islam because of the midnight ride,

not of Paul Revere, but Mohammed.

One thing is certain, the present location of the Dome of the Rock is

the only place on earth a temple can be built. And this is such a problem to

some Jews and Christians who are unwilling to wait upon the Lord, it has

fostered a whole literature on how to place the Jewish temple on the

Temple Mount without disturbing Islamists or the two Islamic shrines

already there.

Once again some feel they have got to help out God. But they ought to

remember this is how Abraham ended up with Ishmael and the whole

Arab struggle in the ﬁrst place.

Perhaps they actually think they could sneak a whole new temple up

onto the Temple Mount under the cover of night, and maybe the Arabs

wouldn’t notice it the next morning. But I am doubtful. Nevertheless,

those involved are quite serious. There are books published with technical

drawings on how to build the temple around the Dome and Al Aqsa

mosques.

Some even postulate that over the years the Arabs lost track of the real

location of the Holy of Holies. In its stead they propose a small cupola (an

ancient domed gazebo), about 100 meters north of the Dome of the Rock,

the “Cupola of the Spirits,” is the true location of the Holy of Holies.

There is even a tradition about this cupola, which makes it a little spooky.

In the minds of its advocates, God’s Spirit is still lingering around this tiny

public overhang, whispering to those who pass by.

So what a coup; to build the new temple ﬂush against the Dome of the

Rock, without tearing out the dome! That would sure look cluttered.

Some actually believe the temple could be placed on the Temple Mount

and kept out of the way of Islam. Just one big happy family on the most

fought-over two square kilometers on planet earth.

There would be no bothering the Al Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the

Rock. And the Jew and the Arab could get along famously up there

together. But as anyone with any rudimentary understanding knows, such

accommodation is patently ridiculous..

Muslims, in some of their writings, are taught they will someday kill

all the Jews and Christians. And Muslims in control of the Temple Mount

start to throw stones down onto old Jews praying at the Wailing Wall the

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moment a Jewish contingent even attempts to stroll about the platform.

Ariel Sharon tried it some years ago and caused a minor war.

Erecting a full Jewish Temple would make them apoplectic,

regardless of where it was placed. Those who are suggesting such a

compromise may as well dynamite the Dome of the Rock, and I am not

advocating or condoning any such act. But the truth is nobody on either

side of this controversy can imagine any Muslim accepting the slightest

Jewish tradition on this location. If the Jews start to build their temple

anywhere near the Mount, it will cause another full blown war in the

Middle East.

But far more important is the issue of the character of God himself.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Creator of the world,

the One who placed himself on a cross for the sins of men, the Almighty

God; dare we ask the Creator to tiptoe around Allah? Is Yahweh so

impotent that he cannot even displace the presence of the false Arab god?

And do we presume to actually think the Lord God Almighty who cast

stars into space, is going to be honored by being shoe horned into what

little space Allah might grant to him, on his own Temple Mount?

When David promised to build God a House, would building the

house alongside all the gods of the nations as God calls them, have

honored him? Could we just sneak it in over there between Molech and

Baal? Or shall we just try putting him into Dagon’s house, beside Dagon?

Perhaps you know that was once tried, and Dagon kept falling on his face,

until he broke. Jehovah will not play second ﬁddle to anyone or anything,

and certainly not to the false god of Islam.

But if such accommodation does not occur, how does a new Jewish

Temple get built right on top of the Dome of the Rock? It is an interesting

question, to which we have but one speculative answer. The Anti-Christ

himself will arrange it. Not for Israel certainly, but for himself. The Anti-

Christ will build the desolated temple.

Israel will get a third temple for the coming evil prince to abominate

and desolate. And he will do so halfway through Daniel’s ﬁnal week of

Tribulation. He will proclaim himself the long-awaited Messiah of Israel,

and God of this world. Both of which will, in one very limited sense, be

the truth. Anti-Christ will be the one “who comes in his own name.” So

indeed, he will be the long-awaited false Messiah of Israel Jesus warned

them about, the military Messiah they have long awaited. And he most

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certainly will represent the “god of this world,” a common New

Testament label for Satan.

But after all, a new Jewish temple…can it happen?

After partition, Israel was deemed to be dead on arrival by all the

dictators and autocrats in the world. There was no chance so little a

country, with an air force of two Piper Cubs against organized middle

eastern military forces and tanks, could win. It was thought that the

terrible might of the Arab Legion alone would have cut this little rag tag

nation to pieces. Israel was so short of men and material, it had to resort to

tricks like the “Little David,” a Rube Goldberg contraption which made

noises on the battleﬁeld and lobbed charges of dynamite. It wasn’t very

eﬀective, but it did manage to scare the Arabs. Especially when someone

in the Haganah managed to trick the Arabs into believing the Little David

was a nuclear device of some kind.

The Grand Mufti expected a slaughter, but once again the unseen

hand came to Israel’s rescue. So that as impossible as it seems, the Star of

David still ﬂaps in the breeze over Jerusalem, as if to remind a secular

world there is still a God in heaven who is directing the way. A greater

power lives than any “Final Solution,” or shoreline blockade, or Arab

terror can withstand. He is not shaken by the power of Arab oil, British

bullets, or even Iranian atomic bombs, and he laughs at all the powers of

darkness arrayed against him.

When the Anti-Christ concludes his seven-year pact with Israel, “he

will make a ﬁrm covenant with the many for one week”(Daniel 9:27), and

at that moment he will probably also declare his intention to build a new

temple. And once the building is completed, he will come.

Daniel tells us he comes midweek, three and a half years into the

Tribulation. He comes with great fanfare, as though to dedicate the new

temple. And in the ultimate double cross he will sit himself down in the

Holy of Holies and pretend to be god. This is the Abomination of

Desolation. And when it happens, this will mark the third temple, the

Desolate temple, as the house of the devil, and all hell breaks loose in the

Great Tribulation.

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The Blessed Hope and

Appearing

“looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory

of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;”

Titus 2:13 (NASB)

Shortly before the world is disrupted by the Magog War, the Church

vanishes.

And while it is likely occultists will attribute this vanishing to

something arcane; a world wide harmonic moment (Om), or an alien

invasion, this disappearance will not be an attack by space aliens. No

indeed, the glorious moment called the rapture has ﬁnally occurred, and

the Lamb (Jesus) has come and taken his Bride. Those who have seriously

accepted the oﬀer of salvation have literally been snatched out of this

world to be forever with their Savior.

It didn’t happen as a complete surprise. God had promised that

spiritual men would know the season.

‘When it is evening you say, It will be fair weather, for the

sky is red.’ And in the morning,‘There will be a storm today,

the sky is red and threatening. ’Do you know how to discern

the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the

times?

Matthew 16:2–3 (NASB)

But it is also correct to say Christians have believed they were in the

very last days many times in the past. At the turn of the millennium, when

the year 1000 was approaching, the Catholic Church was absolutely

convinced Christ would be coming. So even as the ﬁrst day of the

millennium approached, enormous cathedrals were being constructed with

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which to receive and honor him. But Christ didn’t come, and they were

wrong.

In the 1800s, a group of Christians, known as the Millerites, were so

charged with millennial fever they sold everything, donned white robes,

and sat on their rooftops awaiting the sign of the Savior breaking through

the clouds. And boy did they feel ridiculous by the end of that long long

day.

Some years ago, one Edgar Whisenant published a barnstorming

book called 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988, and it didn’t

happen in 1988. Not silly enough, he tried again in 1989. It still didn’t

work out, but having made a small fortune in books, he quietly retired

from writing about prophecy. Recently radio broadcaster Herald Camping

dispatched large vans across the country in anticipation of the coming of

Christ. But May 21, 2011 came and went, and that was not the date of

Christ’s coming either, as it all turned out.

So while it may appear like walking on egg shells, I do insist that we

are very close to this incredible event. But why? What changes the rubric?

Why should this author be believed when all these others have been so

wrong? Why is it now certain we are near his coming?

It is very simple… The sky is red!

Generation after generation of those who were truly born again, came

into the world and died, and did not see what we see. Generations have

thought theirs was the time. But God had brought them no sign.

But there is a sign in the heavens, right now. And what is that sign?

It is the same as it was over Bethlehem. It is the star of the Great King.

Opposed by every historical, political, religious, and ethnic pressure

on earth the Jew couldn’t possibly return and restore their nation. The

politicians said this was impossible, the theologians thought the Jew

forsaken and forgotten, and the Jews themselves believed their great

history was simply over. It was over, gone, blowing in the changing sands

of antiquity.

Then1948 came and there it was a star, the Star of David ﬂuttering in

the breeze. The state of Israel, back in the land, and yet the sign we now

see is still not quite complete. The Jews have yet to assert their control

over the Temple Mount, though they have the rest of David’s city. Israel

now possesses the most holy place, only in theory. As we saw in the last

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chapter a new temple must be built, and the Temple Mount is the only

place on earth where it can be built. But it will be…

“…will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles [other nations]

until the times of the Gentiles be fulﬁlled.”

Luke 21:24b (NASB)

And yet the Arabs of the so-called “Palestinian Authority” continue to

keep their regulations in force. They call the Temple Mount their

unpronounceable, Waqf. Their “endowment,” by which they mean their

absolute claim to the whole mount forever. They take such a stand because

of Al Aqsa Mosque, and their golden Dome. And they prevent Jews from

even the courtesy of the occasional walk up there. No Jew and no

Christian can worship on that mount, for the Palestinian Authority goes so

far as to watch faces for even the appearance of silent prayer.

But with Israel, things have been known to change very rapidly. Who

knows what will happen with God? He is yet holding back his hand of

providence, but he is never late, and his timing is always perfect.

Israel must have a new temple, and many feel it ought to be soon. The

Arabs are just as fanatical to stop such a thing from happening. It is a very

explosive situation in which one thing is certain. Daniel and the rest of the

prophets of Zion will continue to be right on the mark. A new temple of

Israel is about to be built.

Groups of Jews have already made the required furnishings for the

new temple, such treasures as the fabulously precious Golden Menorah—

the great candle holder—made of solid gold, has already been fashioned

by a Jewish group called the Temple Institute. This giant candle stand is

worth millions. And there are now schools for the new priests, modern day

Levites, who have carefully traced their linage.

An obscure but important text, Numbers chapter 19, speaks about a

“red heifer” which must be inspected by the leadership to ensure it’s

perfection. God speciﬁed the ashes of a red cow without blemish be

required for ritual puriﬁcation before any construction can begin. But even

this seemingly stubborn issue has been overcome, and now rabbinical

groups in Jerusalem claim they have found the illusive “red heifer” in

Texas of all places.

Finally some time ago, “The Temple Mount Faithful” cut out an

enormous cornerstone to be set into the wall for the new temple by the

method prescribed in the Old Testament. And as an aside there is some

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amazing symbolism attached to this stone, which the Jews themselves

don’t yet fully understand. No metal tool was applied to quarry this stone,

a picture of the eternal “Cornerstone.” This stone reﬂects a prophetic

“Jesus” whose hands will only be pierced by the spikes of sin one time. He

is the “stone whom the builders rejected” who will become the

Cornerstone.

Someday soon, the Temple Mount Faithful expect to set this stone

in one corner of the new temple. In the meantime, on a yearly basis, and

much to the frustration of the Israeli Defense Force, the battle for the new

temple begins in downtown Jerusalem. For it is about once a year the

people of the TMF load all four tons of this giant block on a ﬂatbed and

carry it nearer to the Temple Mount. The stone is huge, and can be seen

coming a long way away. Invariably they are met by a squad of equally

determined Arabs in the congested conﬁnes of old Jerusalem, and it can

get dangerous.

One party is determined to pass, the other never to allow that stone

near. It always causes an uproar and the IDF must be dispatched. Much

negotiation between the squabbling factions then transpires to turn the

Faithfull’s truck around. But it is claimed on their web site that they are

slowly making progress as they the stone ever closer. The Cornerstone is

literally creeping up on the new temple site!

But all this is but the ramp up to rapture. The one sign required is

now in the earth. David’s Star has appeared. There is no requirement for a

completed temple. Still the temple’s nearness is an indication of a

darkening “red sky,” and the times of the end. It is likely the rapture when

it arrives, will trigger ﬁnal control over the Mount. Perhaps it will fall

quickly into the hands of some sort of international committee with Anti-

Christ in charge. Nobody knows. We know the times, and not the details.

But according to the Word of God, the rapture will happen suddenly,

in the twinkle of an eye, and will be the moment of closure for the Church

on earth. Apparently people will blink and one moment the other is there,

and the next he is missing. It will be most shocking. But so far, we have

spoken rather obliquely of this cataclysmic moment. Now we shall plunge

in and examine Christ’s appearance in the sky, directly.

Most of what we are told comes from Paul, author of much of the

New Testament. He begins by explaining something very important to his

Corinthian converts. After Jesus’s cross death was supposed to have no

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power. But the Corinthians were worried. They were aging, and some had

already died. And nobody had expected to die before Jesus returned.

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep but we shall

be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last

trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised

imperishable, and we shall be changed For this perishable must

put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

1 Corinthians 15:51–53 (NASB)

Don’t worry, he tells them. Death for the Christian is nothing but a

translation. Your body, your worn-out, sin-soaked body, will become like

Jesus’s immortal, perfect one, once this translation is completed. And then

he adds something startling. Some who live to see his Glorious Appearing

will be changed without dying.

The Lord Himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the

voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in

Christ shall rise ﬁrst. Then we who are alive and remain shall be

caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,

and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Thessalonians 4:15–17 (NASB)

When I was a kid, attending that liberal church I wrote about, I never

once heard the word rapture. It makes no diﬀerence. We would have

called it nonsense, had we heard. And if somebody had been so daring as

to teach that one day a trumpet would sound and people would change in

the blink of an eye and begin to rise into the air, I would have been rolling

on the ground. It would have relieved the unrelenting boredom, but I

would have asked what science ﬁction the teacher had been reading.

To those in a liberal church, the Bible is just a stuﬀy old leather book

nobody really reads anymore. It was there to tell you about right and

wrong, nothing more. And most people, if they came from any of the

mainline traditions would declare the rapture to be the stuﬀ of crackpots

and kooks.

I would have shaken my head, rolled my eyes, spun my ﬁnger, and

smiled. I honestly had never seen any of this, even in the cult magazines I

had snatched from the trash. The cults don’t seem to believe in the

rapture either, by the way.

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Neither do vast numbers of Christians who are really “born again.”

Next to speaking in unknown tongues, the rapture is the most debated idea

ever found anywhere in the Bible. Prophecy researcher Chuck Missler

calls the rapture the most preposterous idea anyone ever came up with,

and the only reason anyone ever believes it, is because it is so obviously

taught in Scripture. For as kooky as it sounds, I was wrong. The Church

will depart this old planet by ﬂying away into the air! And such an event

must be is coming soon. Shortly before the point when the gentiles no

longer “trample down” Jerusalem, the rapture will carry the Church away

to be with the Lord forever.

So rapture? What on God’s earth is a rapture?

The deﬁnition in the English language is a state of euphoria, as in

rapture of the deep. People with nitrogen narcosis, too much nitrogen in

their blood during deep sea dives, can experience this. It causes a mild

form of intoxiﬁcation or euphoria. Divers may drown because they lose all

desire to surface, and thus it is called “rapture of the deep.”

Certainly when God shouts and snatches his people away to heaven it

will include a state of absolute euphoria. But in this case the word does not

hail from its English root. The origin of this word is from the Latin

rapturo, which means to be snatched away. And it is about this time,

invariably we hear from some blowhard in the audience, who will tell us

the word rapture does not even appear in the Bible. So how, and his

triumph shows on his face, do we dare use so weird a concept and call it

Bible?

Well, and we shrug, besides being irrelevant, such a statement may

not even be true. For even if the word rapture does not appear in the

Bible, such an argument would not support the contention it should never

be understood as a legitimate doctrine. Such would not make the teaching

invalid. If it did many other important doctrines would also vanish. Many

truths are not stated outright in the Bible and must be deduced through

study of the whole counsel of God. The word Trinity is not in the Bible but

all orthodox Christians believe God is the three in one. Even the word

“Bible” is not in the Bible. In fact, there is not one English word which

appears in the original text of the whole of the Word of God.

So we must stop turning out all these English-language Bibles!

But in the case of the rapture this may well be one of the very few

times when the “big deal” test may prove actually wrong. The Greek word

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in this case is harpazo, which means to be snatched away. And the Greek,

when translated into Latin becomes the Latin word, rapturo, a form of the

English word rapture, which actually does appear in Latin translations of

the Bible. So it is sort of not correct to say the word rapture, or the Latin

equivalent, does not appear in the Word of God.

More importantly, the Bible actually does teach that someday all

authentic Christians will be snatched away into the clouds, and most likely

in a state of euphoria, whether they believe in the doctrine or not. As Dr.

Missler likes to say, "for those who do not now accept this teaching, we’ll

brief you on the way up!"

Of course the deeper problems lie in interpretation. Many groups

confuse this rapture or the Blessed Hope with Christ’s Second Coming.

This is not unreasonable since both feature Christ in the ﬁnal days of this

present age. Many groups just feel that Messiah’s coming cannot happen

in two parts. It seems to them unwieldy and impractical. So they lump

everything into one event and call it good. You will hear such groups say

they are not pre-millennial and they are not post-millennial, they are just

plain pan-millennial. For them it will all pan out in the end. They don’t

think it matters.

This is sort of like saying that proper interpretation of God’s Word is

not always important. I think it is.

But regardless of what people think, there are major distinctions in the

two events, and they do reﬂect on other things. And those who have no

idea about what is coming may fall for the deception and into Satan’s lies.

The rapture happens in a moment and literally in a blink of an eye, and

not out where every eye will see as will the Second Coming. The rapture

sends its participants to meet with Jesus in the clouds, not on the ground.

Jesus will not yet step down onto the earth. Those who vanish do so for

seven years, only to return with Christ at his Second Coming.

By contrast, “The Second Coming” lasts several days, involves all the

people on planet earth in a very open way, and everyone who returns to

earth from the sky is mounted on horseback. Jesus’s destination is the

battle of Armageddon, and for that he must come down to earth.

When the rapture happens, it will shock and dismay those left

wondering on the ground. Many will be startled, and then appalled, as it

dawns on them what has happened. It will be precisely like the moments

after Noah stepped onto the ark. People had laughed at Noah for years,

and then the rains ﬁnally came, God shut the door of the great boat, and

then it was too late to get on board.

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Similar to Noah’s persecution, people will be pointing up, telling the

world, getting laughed at. Few will believe in a “cloud” escape, as few

believed in the ark. The “sky” will have a certain “color” about it, as

current events unfold. It will probably not be a real color, but the metaphor

is clear. The sky is turning red now.

Nothing is blocking that trumpet from sounding right now. It could

sound this minute, and the dead in Christ would rise up out of their graves

and those of us still living would change and leave. One moment two will

stand together in the ﬁeld; and the next, one of them is missing.

And when all this happens, chaos comes to planet earth. Multicar piles

on the freeways, planes falling from the sky, and nursery beds will be

suddenly empty. Everyone will be looking for someone.

Though not one Christian who holds to it makes the rapture a basis for

fellowship, some Christians ﬁght this teaching with a determination that

seems to exceed the bounds of fellowship. Many feel it is a cop out. When

deception, war, famine, and danger ﬁll the world, making it a maelstrom

of peril, it is fascinating some want to be cast into such terrible misery.

Some seem to want suﬀering.

Noah got onto the ark before the waters overﬂowed and Lot was

hustled out of Sodom before the ﬁre, but the Church apparently must go

through sorrow, or these people will never be happy.

Christ took the wrath of God upon himself on the cross.

The Christian who wants wrath for the Church because the Church has

not been what it should have been does not even make sense. God’s wrath

is not for the Church. That wrath already fell, and it fell on Christ. To take

it for ourselves is to demean Christ. Jesus took all to himself, or the

payment he made was insuﬃcient, and nobody is saved. The trials of the

Tribulation are not for the forgiven, but for the wandering, those who do

not yet know Christ. The Tribulation is a last ditch eﬀort to push men

back to repentance. While the Church hasn’t been perfect, it will rise in

that day in victory for what it has accomplished.

For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days

of Noah. For as in those days before the ﬂood they were

and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until

the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand

until the ﬂood came and took them all away; so will the

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coming of the Son of Man be.

Then there will be two men in the ﬁeld; one will be taken and one

will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; owill be

taken and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do

not know which day your Lord is coming…the Son of Man is

coming at an hour When do not think He will.

Matthew 24:38-42 (NASB)

Though it sounds a bit over the top to some Christian traditions --

there are no aliens with tractor beams pulling people into the mother ship.

In fact rapture has happened before, many times before. But for some

strange reason it is often overlooked.

The patriarch Enoch was raptured:

Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years…and he was

not, God took him

Genesis 5:23–24 (NASB)

A chariot of ﬁre carried the prophet Elijah away:

it came about as they were going along…there appeared a

chariot of ﬁre and horses of ﬁre…And Elijah went up by a

whirlwind to heaven.

2 Kings 2:11 (NASB)

God never seems to do things exactly the same. He likes variety in

what he does, nevertheless Elijah too went up in something supernatural

like rapture.

Jesus was lifted away from the earth in a sort of rapture.

And after … [ Jesus] had said these things, He was lifted up

while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of

their sight…

Acts 1:9 (NASB)

Even the Lord himself, when he had completed all that he was

supposed to do on earth, simply began to ﬂoat upward and vanished into

the clouds, a rapture right before his disciples’ eyes.

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Phillip the evangelist, preaching to a revival in Samaria, was whisked

nearly a hundred miles over hills and valleys in seconds, to speak to an

Ethiopian eunuch who was traveling through the Gaza. And then he was

zapped back again, a horizontal travel at least similar to rapture.

And then there are the other strange happenings during the resurrection

of the Lord himself. As Matthew states, other graves besides Jesus’

opened and the occupants of those graves came out. This must have

happened all over the nation. So where, one wonders, did these Old

Testament characters go?

it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,

and he gave gifts to men.” Ephesians 4:8 (ESV)

Paul seems to indicate that Jesus led all the faithful of the Old

Testament in a mighty triumph up to glory in the aftermath of his

resurrection. It was a “host,” now that would have been a rapture!

Finally the Two Witnesses after their resurrection will be lifted up into

heaven.

But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God

came into them, and they stood on their feet…And they heard

a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.”

then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies

watched them.

Revelation 11:11-12 (NASB)

The rapture of the Church is often dealt with as a part of prophecy, but

it is actually part of salvation. The salvation of the body, the translation or

change, for the rapture actually has more to do with saving the “house”

for our souls and spirits than the events of the future. The recovery of this

doctrine is usually attributed to a member of the Plymouth Brethren, by

the name of James Nelson Darby. And did it get him into trouble. His

critics, which are many, seem to think he got the whole thing from some

crazy priest and a hysterical young woman sometime in 1826. But

according to his own records, neither had anything to do with it.

When he ﬁrst came upon this teaching, Darby wasn’t even thinking

about prophecy. He had been ill, and he was considering his own death

and resurrection. No true Christian denies that the resurrection of the body

is coming for all who truly believe on Christ. But until Darby nobody had

thought it through very well. They knew about resurrection day, and they

knew about heaven, but the two were never put together very well.

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But Darby, devoting himself to study, read the following:

it is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable

…it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown

in weakness, it is raised in power

1 Corinthians 15:40–43 (NASB)

Now rapture’s opponents say the teaching of the rapture is a very new

thing and was never known in the Church until he invented it—as we said,

sometime in the winter of 1826. And because of the newness of the

doctrine, it could only be wrong, and unbiblical, or so say his many critics.

One wonders when the idea of “newness” became a criteria for Church

doctrine. In fact Martin Luther, the great reformer and founder of the

Lutheran Church, when posting his famous Ninety-Five Theses on the

door of Wittenberg Church, Halloween night in 1519, was going against

authorized doctrines of the Catholic Church which had stood unchallenged

for over a thousand years. But old did not necessarily mean right in this

case either. Luther, far from being unbiblical, even had to remind the

Church of so fundamental a teaching as the doctrine of grace.

When Luther espoused, “the just shall live by faith,” and not salvation

by the seven holy unctions of the church, it was new to all who heard him.

Most men everywhere called him a heretic, and the Catholic Church

brought him up on charges. To be convicted of heresy at that time was

serious. It meant death in the ﬂames. But as Martin Luther said, “here I

stand, I can do no other.” And if the Word had been against him he would

quickly have confessed and accepted the discipline of the Pope. But if the

Bible supported his views, there was no power on earth could sway him.

Of course we know that in spite of what the men of his time were

saying, his views were not against the Bible nor against believers of the

true Church, regardless of denomination. People can be wrong, and wrong

for a very long time. But at the time Luther’s views seemed just as radical

as Darby’s seem to some today, and Luther’s views were correct; and so

too are J.N. Darby’s, because they ﬁt with the Word of God.

For Darby, like Luther before him, simply read the Bible with seeing

eyes, and the unction of the Holy Spirit, and saw what was written on the

page. New truth or old was not relevant, if it was truth. Carefully he

studied Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and he deduced that since man was

created in the image of God who is a Trinity (Father-Son-Holy Spirit)

God had made man to reﬂect even this “trinity” like aspect—for man,

according to Paul is a tri-unity (body-soul-spirit).

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For centuries the Catholic Church had taught only the soul of man

could be saved and sent to heaven, and the reformers had never corrected

this error. But the old teaching wasn’t what Darby was reading out of

Paul. He had come to the startling conclusion that mankind would

someday have his complete tri-unity restored to him in heaven. Man

would live for eternity in a sanctiﬁed tri-unity (body, soul and spirit), so

that even his body, long regarded as the discard of this present world,

would at the resurrection be called up out of the grave, and changed into a

body similar to the one Jesus had, a body of purity. For all eternity man

would have all three We would not forever be some sort of disembodied

ghosts ﬂoating about in the eternal Kingdom. We would have a body like

the body in which Jesus was raised.

When we die now, those absent from the body those who have died as

true Christians, are present with the Lord. This is a wonderful truth. We go

into the presence of God at death. There is no sleep of the soul. But as

Darby studied, he noticed something very strange. Obviously some would

still be alive, when the resurrection trumpet sounded, and they too would

change. A change which would take place in the twinkling of an eye.

And he read the same in Paul:

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for

the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised

incorruptible, and we shall be changed...

I Corinthians 15:5 (NASB)

Oft times the obvious becomes the most dramatic of discoveries.

Darby simply considered the living when the trumpet sounded. What

would happen to them? So he discovered the startling condition of those

still living, and his teaching began sounding like things to come. He was

interested in the redemption of the body, and made a radical discovery.

For Paul said simply, “we who are alive and remain will be caught up

together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air...,” and it

became evident God had forever intended to allow the last generation to

escape the pain of death altogether. And Darby rejoiced. And from such

clear Scripture, Darby began teaching his pre-tribulation rapture. And

while he is often accused of some strange and cultic desire to erode the

faith once delivered to the saints, his views only strengthened

understanding of what Paul was saying. And never once did he make

them a precondition for fellowship. Moreover, his views had nothing

whatever to do with hysterical young ladies like one Margaret McDonald,

some have attached him to. She was supposed to have had a “prophecy”

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which inﬂuenced Darby, and yet accounts of what she said is contrary to

what Darby believed and taught. As to his association with the mysterious

old priest Manuel de Lacunza, such reports are just strange. To those who

know his history, it is most unlikely that Darby ever heard such a name.

Darby’s views stand or fall only with the Bible. But as we have said,

the critics of his viewpoint seem to exceed the limits of congenial

fellowship. There was nothing sinister in what JN Darby said or did no

matter how often his critics connect him to such strange “contributors” as

the two mentioned. Besides, to this hour no person who accepts the pre-

tribulation rapture makes it necessary for salvation or even fellowship.

But we are unashamed to believe and even preach this great truth to all

men.

Darby was castigated for coming up with something never heard of in

the body of Christ before, but as it turns out that is not even true. Darby’s

views were ﬁrst presented by him alone, and yes he is given credit as the

modern proponent, but it appears that Darby was neither the ﬁrst nor the

last to believe in what theologians now call the pre-tribulation rapture.

There was even one Christian leader who taught this doctrine as early as

the fourth century.

In about 370 AD, Ephraim of Nisibus wrote about a gathering together

to the Lord to escape the troubled time at the end of this present age, the

Tribulation as we now call it.

“All the saints and elect of God are gathered together before

the tribulation, which is to come, and are taken to the Lord, in

order that they may not see at any time the confusion which

overwhelms the world, because of our sins.”

(Ephraim of Nisibus, ca. Ad 370).

So when the rapture strikes, and it will, those who have already died

will have their bodies returned to them. And they will rise transformed,

their old husk transformed into a body much like Jesus.

So what followed was simply a logical axiom. Those true believers

fortunate enough to still be living shall be changed, and then rise to meet

the Lord in the air. Yes it is a preposterous thing, this rapture, but it is

clearly taught in the Scripture. These are the people privileged to never

know the sting of death.

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even angels of

heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

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Matthew 24:36 (NASB)

Those who await the heavenly Groom are to know the look of the

weather, the “look” of the times in which they live. Jesus said we would

know the age, but never the hour. We would know the season, but never

the day. He promises to come, “like a thief in the night,” for those not

ready. But for those who are, he is coming like a bridegroom, waking his

sleeping bride. So he comes for all those who in the Church. Those

“maidens” who have their lanterns trimmed and vessels ﬁlled ready to

shine with their Savior for all eternity. All who are true Christians will go

with him. There is no such thing as a “partial rapture” with only the “most

righteous” going.

The rapture is called the Blessed Hope because it represents the

victorious ﬂight into heaven for those for whom Christ died. God is taking

out his beloved Bride before the great and terrible day of the Tribulation

begins.

When we see Jesus, we shall be like he is. But get your lamps ready.

The sign of the Star of David is ﬂying in the heavens, and the heavenly

groom is coming.

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The Crown of Scripture

Before we ﬁnally take the plunge into spiritual hyperspace, the vast

book of Revelation itself, we need to set a proper table and gather some

translational tools. There are rules of interpretation which are unique to

this special book. John, under the control of the Holy Spirit wrote other

books, and they too are wonderful, but this book is diﬀerent than all the

rest. Truly we have reached the “crown” of the Word of God, the last and

the best, and yet there is so much confusion.

Written by the Apostle whom Jesus loved, it is the story of the great

King who still loves his confused and lost subjects, and shows how far he

will go to reach them. It is not, as it is often portrayed, a book of horrors

about an angry God about to pounce upon the people he made on earth.

But quite the contrary, it is the book of the Savior’s unending love. It is

the story of a passionate God determined to save his people, even as they

spurn him to the very last.

And despite what you might have heard, there are no souls on earth

outside that amazing love. His blood, as the old preacher liked to say;

covers mankind from the uttermost to the guttermost, and from the

outhouse to the penthouse, and each one of us can be saved. To say

anything less is not only unbiblical, it is insulting to the One who placed

his own body on the tree for the rest of us.

For while the Lord of Heaven is holy--too holy for the highest angel

and the most faultless child; and while he knows all, and can do all, before

all, this love tempers all. The Author of the holy Word is a lover of men’s

souls. And that is the underlying message of Revelation.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Romans 10:13 (KJB)

And even though Revelation is assigned to the New Testament, it is

just as closely related to the prophets of the Old Testament as to those of

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the New. In fact you might rightly say Revelation stands alone as a third

testament, combining the others, and you would not be far wrong.

Daniel’s last week of his great seventy-week “clock”, which we

already discussed, is properly the “glove” for the “hand” which is

Revelation. Except for the ﬁrst three chapters when the Church is still

present on the earth, Revelation is Daniel’s last week of years. Early in the

fourth chapter the Church departs, raptured away into heaven. Which

brings us to the ﬁrst interpretive rule of Revelation.

The ﬁrst interpretive rule is to keep the Church and the Chosen in their

correct places. One must never confuse the Chosen, who are Israel, with

the redeemed, who are the Church. The Church will depart in the rapture,

and the Chosen will step up, and perform their special role.

The Jew is related to Yeshua (Jesus) by family blood, and the Church

by Jesus’ shed blood. A few, some of those called completed Jews, are

part of both. At the end of Revelation the two merge.

Finally, there is a third group, “the nations,” also known as the “vine

of the earth,” from which grow the unfortunate grapes of wrath. These

three remain separate and every human being who has ever lived belongs

to at least one of these three groups.

And there is one more very important fact. God tells John the book he

is to write will follow ordinary clock and calendar order. We call this

chronological order. Many have tried to put circles within circles;

judgments within judgments, and get lost in the process.

Write therefore the things which you have seen, (the past)

and the things which are, (the present) and the things

which shall take place after these things” (the future)

Revelation 1:19 (NASB)

There are a few exceptions, but the text explains itself. So except in

those few cases, where Revelation commands us to look beyond mere

chronology, the book is told in sequence.

Finally John Zebedee, who was like the pen in God’s hand, was

already an interesting character. God had long protected him for the

moment when he would write this most incredible book. For years, John

now an old man, had been in trouble with both Jewish and Roman

authority. But John had been hard to kill.

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By tradition he was arrested at Ephesus, brought to Rome by Emperor

Domitian, and thrown into a caldron of bubbling oil, a terrible way to die.

But John didn’t die. Apparently he wasn’t even disﬁgured by the vat of

hot steaming oil.

Having failed to execute him, Domitian still wanted him gone and had

him banished to the stone quarries on the Island of Patmos, in the Aegean

Sea. Like the Israelites in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, who escaped the

ﬁery furnace, John escaped without harm. There are many coherences

between Daniel and the Book of Revelation, such as this one, the

supernatural deliverance from a hot execution. One might conclude the

same mind wrote both of them.

The second rule of interpretation is more general. While Revelation

reveals much about God himself and his purposes, and the future of all

mankind, this book is addressed primarily to those under the veil, still

Moses’ veil, the veil of the Law. Revelation is the unveiling to the

wandering Chosen people of Abraham. For them, Christ has been behind a

veil for a very long time. Thus its’ very name, “The Unveiling.”

Apokalupsis in Greek which actually does mean “unveiling.”

As we have said in a previous chapter, Israel chose to veil itself from

its’ Savior at his ﬁrst appearance, and in this way they have remained to

this very hour. But the veil has always been nearby as a symbol to them.

Moses spoke from behind a veil when he emerged from meeting with

God. The Old Testament says it was because his face shone, and it was

too bright for others to look upon, but Hebrews tells us something more.

It was bright, but it would fade. And Moses veiled his face because it

was a shame to watch the shine pass oﬀ from his face. In all the years that

Israel served the Lord through the Law of Moses and oﬀered sacriﬁces in

the temple, they served before the great veil of the temple. Only once a

year could the High Priest enter, but the nation was always outside.

When Christ died, that prohibiting veil was split, and the people could

ﬁnally see into the Holy of Holies representing Heaven, but they refused

Christ, sewed up the temple veil, and put a veil up inside their hearts, a

veil that blocks Christ to this moment. Israel took the veil of Moses and

was made blind.

They need the Revelation, the unveiling of Christ to be saved.

Yeshua (Messiah) has been unveiled to all but veiled Israel, or as

Isaiah said poetically, “his holy arm” has been exposed to the whole

world, and millions have found salvation in that precious name. But he has

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largely remained dark to his own tribe of Judah, and all Israel. The second

principle of interpretation is that Israel is the primary target for this

“unveiling.”

A third principle of interpretation divides the book into various

portions. Chapters 1–3 of Revelation are symbolic of an actual history of

the Church, when the Lord’s main focus is still on his great Church, those

Paul says are grafted into the root which is still Israel. They actually ﬁll in

the years of Daniel’s “parenthesis,” or the great “timeout” after the 69th

week. This period is not yet over and we are still living through the “gap”

in Daniel’s great clock.

Israel still awaits the 70th and last week at the end of this present age.

The great parenthesis represents the worldwide Body of Christ from

Pentecost (where the power came to the Church) to the rapture, when the

Church will depart. This huge period of at least 2000 years has constituted

a break for Israel and is the “Age of the Gentiles.” We speak in earthly

terms, to earthly readers. God never stops watching over anyone,

especially Israel.

And then in chapter four, John the human author, is called “up there,”

and God begins the times known as Jacob’s Trouble for Israel or the

Tribulation, in terms of the gentile nations, down here. This is the period

for most of the Book of Revelation, when the Jew is back on front stage

again.

We thank Daniel for making clear that this period will last seven

years, and end with the Second Coming of Christ. Christ (Yeshua

Hamashiach/ Messiah) then returns to sit upon the throne of David, and

rule planet earth forever.

One very important side note: after chapter four of the Revelation, the

Church is missing. Why? The Church is in Heaven. It is missing

altogether from the surface of planet earth, until it returns with Christ.

Daniel told us that all would be made clear at the end of the age when

Yeshua returns to rule.

And there will be a time of distress, such as never occurred

since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your

people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be

rescued …and those who have insight will shine brightly like

the…expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to

righteousness, like the stars forever and ever… But as for

you, Daniel conceal these words and seal up the books until

the end of time

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Daniel 12:1–4 (NASB)

Thus the whole point of Revelation is to unveil Christ to Israel. But it

is not just for Israel’s sake. Once the Church is removed, Yeshua will be

unveiled, once more, to his own people, and this time they will ﬁnd him

suﬃcient, this time they will receive him.

a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the

fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel

will be saved; just as it is written

Romans 12:25,26 (NASB)

Israel will be saved! Saved during the troubles coming. God created

the Chosen for the times we live in. And he is about to unleash Israel ﬁlled

with the love and power of God, and will pour out his love upon the bitter

waters that are mankind through their last days eﬀorts.

So in these last days, the Jew has a role to play that is vast beyond his

wildest dreams. As Daniel is told, “those who lead the many to

righteousness” will shine as the stars forever. This is the great moment for

which Israel was called and tested through all these years. This is the time

of the glory of the Chosen people. Like the Jewish Savior himself, who

healed the sick, raised the dead, and was a blessing to everyone he touched

—just before they took him out and nailed him to a cross—Israel will also

turn the other cheek and show forth the never-ending love of God.

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Lord of the Seven

As the Book of Revelation opens, the old Apostle has outlived them

all and has been banished to a dismal rock washed by the waves of the

Aegean; the island of Patmos. It’s about 95 AD, and John has spent his life

in persecutions and captivities. Jesus has already been gone some 60

years, and by the time of his banishment Jesus has been away most of

John’s long lifetime.

But today John is in the Spirit; and it is the Lord’s Day, (Sunday,

called such, because it is the day Jesus rose), and he is waiting with

expectation. The very atmosphere is pregnant with the presence of God

when suddenly the resurrected Jesus appears, in all his unearthly power.

And John falls before him like a dead man.

I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet…

And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me,…

And his head and his hair was white…Like snow;… and his eyes

were like a ﬂame of ﬁre and his face was like the sun…and

when I saw Him I fell at his feet as a dead man

Revelation 1:10–17 (NASB)

During all the long years of both temples, the great Menorah (the seven

point candle stand) stood just outside the temple veil in the second most

important compartment of the temple called the Holy Place, just outside

the Holy of Holies representing Heaven. The veil itself, which divided the

two, was a woven tapestry of incredible weight and thickness. Some say

the veil in Herod’s Temple, was over eight inches thick.

Suddenly Jesus appears standing in the midst of a vision of the

candles surrounded by the ﬂames resembling the conﬁguration of the

Menorah itself.

And having turned I saw seven golden lamp stand and in the

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middle of the [lamps] one like a son of Man…

Revelation 1: 12 (NASB)

It is my conviction that God desires us to see the great lampstand of

Israel embedded in this vision of Christ. In fact, the association of the two

is deeply implied in all God shows John in this ﬁrst vision. The lampstand

is the national symbol of Israel even today. And Christ is pictured standing

and holding up the seven ﬂames, representing the “seven spirits” which

are the sevenfold witness of the seven churches. These are the same seven

church “ages” or witnesses, which appear in the next chapters of the book.

Perhaps we have discovered something previously overlooked.

We sense that Jesus, the light of the world in disguise, has always been

spiritually near to the lampstand in the Holy Place. The Menorah stood its

long vigil just outside the veil in the temple, like a streetlamp guiding the

way into the most holy heaven. But from out there, outside the veil, the

light from the candles on the lampstand could never shine into the holiest

place. The light of Christ was always blocked by the veil.

And strangely enough, once the Shekinah the glow over the altar

departed, the Holy of Holies became the darkest place in the whole temple.

The most holy place in the temple was jet black, a picture of the heart

of man without Christ. But the Holy Place on the other side of the veil

was always lit up with the candles of the lampstand representing the light

of Christ. Upon the cross, as the body of the Savior was rent apart, the

veil in the temple also split and was rent at the same moment. This

allowed the light from the lampstand to ﬁnally illuminate the innermost

sanctum, representing the way to heaven, if only until they repaired it

again. The death of Christ is the way through the veil into Heaven! The

destruction of his body opened the way into heaven in both the symbol of

the temple and the reality of what Paul calls these temples, our bodies.

Until we receive Christ as Savior, the place of our Holy of Holies, our

inmost sanctum lies dead, and it is black. But the Holy Place outside the

veil was always lit.

Jesus/Yeshua is the light of the world!

The great golden candle stand is the universal symbol of ancient and

modern Israel. But it may come as a surprise even to Jews, both ancient

and modern, that they have never had a clue as to what to do with it.

Aside from making it as Moses commanded, and keeping it lit, the Jews

have no use for the seven candled Menorah in their regular ritual. It is just

not part of Judaism and yet strangely it is the oﬃcial symbol of their

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nation, even more than the six pointed star, and was even then in the time

when Titus invaded Jerusalem.

Under the command of scripture, the priests kept it lit. And it

provided light in the Holy Place, and that was about the extent of it’s use.

Detailed instructions for its construction are found in Exodus, and there is

not much more said about it in all the Bible. In Zechariah the vision of

Two Olive trees seem to feed the oil for the stand, and then there is this

obscure business at the beginning of Revelation.

But now we know. The Menorah is an example of the mystery

surrounding the cross throughout the Old Testament. Who could have

imagined that the greatest icon of Judaism is really haunted by the

presence of the risen Christ? In fact, and Paul lets us in on the secret.

Christ has been standing there all along, the silent sentinel, the light of the

world, and witness of a wonderful truth.

He stands in the midst of the candles waiting for his light to penetrate

the darkness of the Jewish inner veil. He stands, never tiring, holding his

lamp on the doorway, the only entrance for the most holy heaven.

Shocking as it might be to a Jewish Rabbi, the great symbol of Judea, the

Menorah, is also the picture of the Church inside the temple.

But are there other clues?

The giant golden lampstand is the only true golden object in an

environment of other gold-appearing furnishings in that temple room. All

appear golden. The altar of incense, and the table of showbread; but they

are only covered in gold, and their hearts are made of acacia wood. But the

Menorah is solid gold to the heart. And it must be beaten into its ﬁnal

appearance, from one golden brick. It cannot be attached together with

other hardware. Christ was tortured, and so was the metal of the Menorah.

The Church has existed on the earth for over 2000 years, and there have

been seven manifestations; diﬀerences in architecture, in services, and in

leadership, but all made of one tortured lump of gold. It all speaks of

Christ himself, the head of his Church.

The Menorah is heated in the ﬂame, as he was, and it cannot be

assembled together with screws. Its’ gold speaks of both purity and unity,

as the Church regardless of the age and location, is also a place of unity

and purity, washed in the tested, ﬁery blood of Christ.

The almond is artiﬁced onto the outside, a symbol of the staﬀ of

Aaron which bloomed, and a picture of new life from a dead stick. The oil

is piped into its ﬂame cups, a picture of the Holy Spirit ﬂowing through all

its arms. But how exciting to know that Christ, the light of the world,

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stands just outside the veil of our own inner temples, and wants to come

inside.

the seven lamp stands (seven connected lamps) are the churches .

Revelation 1:20b (NASB)

The lampstand, not to be confused with the eight pointed lamp of

Hanukkah and the Jewish December celebration, has a single lamp at the

top of the center post, with three equal arms coming out of each side,

making seven lamps all equal in size and height. All the arms end in a

light so that the ﬂames are all along one plane on top. Every church was

equally imbued with the Holy Spirit in its time.

The center stand represents Christ himself, with his arms extended

cross like to hold up what we have called the seven Churches, what John

here calls the Seven Spirits of God.

During all the years serving inside the temples, the Levite priests

toiled endlessly to keep the ﬂames lit and to perform the other duties

inside. They never sat. They called the center candle the “servant” (or in

Hebrew, the Shamash). This servant light was never put out; and even

when oil was low, it never seemed to go out. The Servant seemed always

supernaturally lit and the bringer of light. (Of course from our vantage

point we can see this center light as Jesus. The center candle, or the

pedestal, is the candle we most associate with Christ who was servant to

all of us.) The Levites lit the other candles from the Servant each time they

went out. But somehow the Servant always stayed supernaturally lit.

In the Talmud, an ancient writing of the rabbis of Israel, there is the

story about a very righteous Jew named Simeon. The Talmud avoids

stories about Jesus, but tells stories from his time. And the time of this

writing was around the birth of Christ and there is no reason to doubt that

this character, an old righteous Simeon, was the very same character as the

one mentioned in the Gospels. He was the man who spent his time

worshipping in the temple with old Anna, as his companion, waiting for

the coming King from God.

And right away these two seem to notice a baby in the arms of a

young Jewish peasant girl, and knew the Lord had come back to his

temple. Simeon was nearly blind, but immediately came over to Mary and

Joseph. Supernaturally, he recognized Christ. It was Jesus’s eighth day of

life, and time to be circumcised,

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when old Simeon, full of joy, took up the child, and said, “Now I can

depart in peace, for my eyes have seen the glory of Israel.” And apparently

it wasn’t long after this that Simeon actually did die.

But strangely enough, after Simeon died, according to the ancient

Talmud, the Servant candle no longer stayed lit any better than the other

candles. Of course the Talmud associates the loss of the Servant with the

death of righteous old Simeon, and ignores the visit of the young couple,

and Christ. Perhaps Christians understand this vignette better. Perhaps it

was because the true Servant had come back to the House of the Lord. The

Savior, the true “light of the world,” had entered the temple undetected.

The servant candle had only been the symbol of the Savior within the

lampstand, and it was no longer needed. This candle was now nothing

more than a candle.

Then later, in what is called Yoma 43:3 of the Talmud, it is recorded

that the Shamash refused to burn at all. It had stopped sometime after

about 30 AD, about the time the Lord had inspected Herod’s Temple and

found no fruit in Israel. Apparently the true Servant, had taken himself

away until the Times of the Gentiles would be completed and the time for

his return would be near.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And

the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

Mark 15:37, 38 (NASB)

When the great veil suddenly ripped itself at the very moment of the

death of Christ, then if only for a few hours the Menorah stationed just

outside would have cast its light through the split and lit up the Holy of

Holies. The symbolism here couldn’t be more wonderful. The way to

heaven is found by following the light from the great light of the world,

through the doorway of his broken body on the cross. At the very moment

Jesus was making a way into the most holy for all of us, through the veil

of his own torn human ﬂesh. At that very moment the symbol of his body,

the immense veil, had torn and the light of the world was shining into the

heart of blackness.

If it had been the ﬁrst temple, Solomon’s Temple, the Ark of the

Covenant, with the covering of golden angels would have shined out of

the dark. But this was Herod’s Temple the second, without an ark, so there

would not have appeared the golden cherubim, nor even the golden box

beneath it. Just a table upon which the blood of atonement could be placed

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every year on Yom Kippur. But for just a few hours, perhaps a few days,

the Menorah actually illuminated the part of the temple representing

heaven.

It was an allegory lived out. The light of the Menorah lighting the

way to heaven. But the Lord and his Church are the very lamp lighters on

the way to heaven all the time. The great lampstand with its seven candles,

Christ’s Church, lit the way literally and were a picture of the “open

door” into heaven. It is still lighting that way.

you shall make a lamp stand of pure gold. The lamp stand and

its base and its shaft are to be made of hammered work; its

cups, its bulbs and its ﬂowers shall be of one piece…Six

branches shall go out from its sides; three branches…from it

one side and three branches from the other.

Exodus 25:31–34 (NASB)

The seven candles of the lampstand are still on the earth, as the

Revelation opens, and Daniel’s great clock is still in the silence of the

parenthesis. It is still the “times of the gentiles.” Then Jesus, in his eternal

glory, appears to the Old Apostle and John falls like a dead man beneath

his feet. And he hears the voice of thunder saying:

I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have

the keys of death and of Hades Revelation 1:19a (NASB)

And then through seven small letters, the risen Jesus dictates to John a

message to each of the seven candles. Within John’s view, across the

waters of the Aegean Sea, is the mainland of what is today Turkey, where

there were seven small cities. At that time, each of them had a church.

And as it turns out each of them represents one ﬂame on the great

lampstand. No doubt, John spent hours in prayer over all seven every day

seated praying on his lonely rock, for these really were churches of his

time. Today they have all vanished, having been overcome by the armies

of Islam.

But there are some interesting questions surrounding these seven little

bodies which lead us to an understanding of Jesus’ seven candles. The

ﬁrst, which immediately arises, is why? Why did God choose these seven?

Why not Jerusalem, or Rome, or even Antioch in Syria? There were many

well-established churches in those days. These seven were out-of-the-way,

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lonely outposts, not nearly as well-known as the churches in major cities.

John probably knew their internal situation, their struggles, and as

examples to us today these are instructive. And without a doubt their

internal situation reﬂected on the greater message that each one of them

brings. But surely God could have chosen major churches for his

examples. Why choose these?

They were all grouped together in a sort of elliptical pattern on the

mainland of what is today Turkey, and they appear in the geographical

order he mentions with the exception of the ﬁrst two. These ﬁrst two were

on the inside of the ellipse, nearest his island. None of them was more than

ﬁfty miles distant from the others. But the Lord had a special purpose for

these tiny churches, which brings up their second strange characteristic.

It is found in their names.

Each of these little bodies is located in a town named by pagan Greeks

sometime in the misty past, long before John sat writing about them in 95

AD. In the tradition of antiquity, each town’s name means something,

usually something about the sorts of products the town produced. But

strangely embedded in each, appears to be a clue about what the Lord will

say to, and through, each one of them.

Isn’t it wonderful the amazing lengths the Lord God will go to make

his presence felt? It is something which ought to cause us at least some

pause for reﬂection, and it deals with something the Puritans called his

Providence. God has a way of using even those who have no knowledge of

what they are doing to do what he wants done. In fact, he uses everybody.

All things work together for good for those who know God. Even those

who do not know him he can use, and he does. From hundreds of years

prior to the coming of Jesus, these seven little towns were apparently

prepared for the moment John would write about them, even down to their

names.

But even the fact that their names said something wouldn’t be that

important, were it not for the sequence imposed on them by this book of

Revelation. There is something uncanny about the sequence and meaning

of their names; each seems to mirror a part of the sevenfold history of the

Church. And even that wouldn’t have mattered much, except that they

appear in the correct sequence.

The church began with the miracles and freshness of the Apostolic

Church.

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To the angel of the church in Ephesus write; The one who

holds the seven stars in his right hand, the One who walks

among the seven golden lamp stands, says this:

Revelation 2:1 (NASB)

The name Ephesus means “ﬁrst love,” something which the Lord

warns this group not to lose. The ﬁrst Church, the ﬁrst segment of the

history of the Church began with the “ﬁrst love” between the Lord and his

people. The period of “Ephesus” lasted for about 50 years.

But slowly came the persecutions, the catacombs, the lions, and the

human torches in Nero’s gardens, and the rest of the trials of the Martyred

Church.

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The ﬁrst

and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says

Revelation 2:8 (NASB)

Smyrna means “crushed,” and these people who were next in line

were under the heel of imperial Rome, a power which despised them. For

much of the period the Church was hiding in the catacombs, until an

emperor came along who testiﬁed he had been given a vision to go and

conquer in the sign of the cross. The Smyrnan Church suﬀered for about

250 years, until the battle of Milvin Bridge in 312 AD.

Emperor Constantine at least pretended to be a Christian, and

certainly supported the Christians, so that the persecutions of the previous

Roman leadership ceased. But he also took charge and declared the statues

of the old pagan religion to be the saints of the new.

Zeus was now Saint Peter, and statues ﬁlled the sanctuary, making the

prohibition against the graven images of the Ten Commandments, no

longer forbidden as part of general worship. Thus was born the

Compromised Church.

And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write; the

who has the sharp two edged sword says

Revelation 2:12 (NASB)

This was “Pergamum,” which means “bad marriage.” In this church,

Christians married the world. From the Compromised Church, a priestly

class arose at the center of political power in Rome. Eventually the priests

declared themselves rulers over all of Christendom, and Popes and

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Cardinals ﬂourished and became a paid clergy, to rule over the people.

This Church of Pergamum began with Constantine and blended into the

church where Popes ruled. They reached their full ascendency in about

450 AD.

They constituted a paid and landed clergy of which the Popes were

the pinnacle, the Nicolaitans Jesus despises. The word Nicolaitan means;

"those who rule over the people." Bishops forsook their poverty and

became men of power and prestige. Thus was born the Babylonish

Church, full of political power, the occult, and superstition, and especially

an “unworthy communion,” the consumption of the so-called actual blood

and body of Christ which supposedly happens in the Catholic Mass.

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…

Revelation 2:18 (NASB)

This is “Thyatira,” which means “unworthy sacriﬁce,” absolutely

descriptive of a church which pretends to oﬀer the very blood and body of

Christ every week. Moses couldn’t enter the promised land for striking the

rock twice, a rock which represented Christ; imagine how often these

people have struck him. Nevertheless, the church of the unworthy oﬀering

was the center church and the pedestal which bears the weight of the rest.

And Catholicism has lasted over a thousand years and is still going strong.

Within this body, Jesus points to a woman; some sort of unfaithful

woman, as the Bible often uses a symbolic female, a “Jezebel” of the

occult in this church, and for good reason. This is the church which has

worshipped “Mary” as the “queen of heaven” for many many years. Not

the real Mary of course, but an idol created by the confusion of men.

So from the glory of the Apostolic Church, to the dogged

determination and righteousness of the Martyred Church, to the

worldliness of the Compromised Church, came “the deep things of Satan”

found in the Babylonish Church. And Jesus warns this body that unless

they repented, when the time of the Tribulation came, they would be left

behind.

But out of the confusion, a few heard the call to come out and be

separate, and the Reformation Church was born. “Sardis,” the church of

the

Reformers, means “remnant,” and it still exists with a reputation for

holiness, and it is supposedly very orthodox. And while its doctrine was

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better than the occult superstition, idolatry, and false worship of Thyatira,

Sardis is a cold hard stone.

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has

the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars says

“this: I know your deeds, that you have a name that you

are alive but you are dead.”

Revelation 3:1(NASB)

Sardis is dead, and because of this I believe Jesus has more stern

words for Sardis, than even the Babylonish Thyatira. The Sardisian

Church has a correct stance, but it has no Spirit. The Lord declares they

have a name that they are alive, but they are dead. They believe many of

the right things, but they have become the Church of Dead Orthodoxy.

Within their great aﬃrmations, they had lost track of a relationship with

Jesus Christ. They were bookish at the expense of relationship, and lasted

throughout the Reformation from Martin Luther to about the time of the

ﬁrst great missionary, William Carey.

Many of the mainline protestant churches still belong to this group.

My own background in the social gospel church ﬁts solidly into this

group, and yet out of this body of lifelessness, because they had held

solidly to much truth, a few responded to the call of God to go into the

entire world and teach Christ’s gospel to all nations. This was

“Philadelphia,” the Church of Brotherly Love. This is the Missionary

Church, the Church of the Open Door.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write;

He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David,

Who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no

one opens, says…

Revelation 3:7 (NASB)

The Lord tells this group he is with them to open doors which cannot

be closed, and to close doors which cannot be opened. And it is these who

have gone to the uttermost parts of the earth with the gospel.

With this church came the great missionary movements of the late

1700s, all the way to the present day, when there are still many presenting

the truth in teeming jungles, and frigid ice stations, and everywhere in

between.

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William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Adiniram Judson, and Amy

Carmichael, among thousands, went, and bled, and died to take the gospel

to the ends of the earth. These are precious in the eyes of their Savior.

But out of this faithful body emerged the modern mega-church, so

wealthy, so full of programs it cannot see its own blindness. The Lord, in

sort of a pun tells this Church to go to the store and get eye salve so that it

might see. “Laodicea” means “power to the people,” and it is the Apostate

Church.

The city of Laodicea was known for two things, both of which the

Lord plays on. Compounding of a very high quality eye salve, and ﬂowing

artesian wells with lukewarm water. He calls them so luke warm that he

will spew them out of his mouth.

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write; The

Amen, the faithful and true witness the Beginning of the

Creation of God says

Revelation 3:14 (NASB)

This is the Modern Church, so much like the rest of the world, with

such big budgets and programs, it hardly has any distinction from the

world around it anymore at all.

A Recap of the Seven Churches

Ephesus—ﬁrst love: The apostolic church…the church in infancy from

Jesus’s resurrection to John on Patmos. Jesus tells them to keep their ﬁrst

love.

Smyrna—crushed: The martyred church…the church under the Caesars

from Nero to Constantine. Jesus tells them they may think they are poor,

but they are rich.

Pergamum—bad marriage: The compromised church…the church

accepted by the world, from Constantine to the Popes. Jesus tells them to

press on to overcome, and hold to the sharp sword of the Word of God.

These ﬁrst three have probably vanished from the earth but the rest,

from this church onward, will survive in some fashion, to the rapture and

coming of the Lord.

Thyatira—unworthy oﬀering: The papal church…the church under the

Popes from the Bishop of Rome to Martin Luther. These are told they

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have largely missed the truth and will be cast into the Tribulation , but for

the few faithful Jesus tells them to hold fast until he comes.

Sardis—remnant: The reformed church…the church under the Reformers

from Martin Luther and Calvin to the Wesleys. Jesus tells them if they will

not wake up he will come upon them like a thief in the night and they will

miss him altogether.

Philadelphia—brotherly love: The missionary church…the church under

the missionaries from the Wesleys to Billy Graham, David Wilkerson, and

Bill Bright. Jesus says I have put before you an open door that no one can

shut. They will be snatched away in the rapture, and miss “the hour of

testing” coming on the whole world.

Laodicea—power to the people: The apostate church…the church under

the mega-church movement. Jesus tells them that since they are neither hot

nor cold, he would spit them out of his mouth.

Each church came and went in its time, and the last four still have

their adherents in the world of today. Each church had a light for its time,

regardless of how sternly the Lord approached it. Each one had a witness

for Christ, and though lovely or unlovely, the Savior had given his life for

each, and loved each one of them to the death.

But the end of the Church will come like a thief in the night....and we

are well into the time of the last church, Laodicea.

the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

While they are saying, “Peace and safety!”…But you

brethren are not in darkness, that the day should over

take you like a thief…so then let us not sleep as others do,

but let us be alert and sober.

I Thessalonians 5:2–4 (NASB)

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Delayed Bridegroom…

[The heavenly groom had been gone a long time.] But at midnight

there was a shout “Behold the bridegroom! Come out and meet him.”

Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps[but the]… foolish

said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going

out.'[but the wise virgins said] 'No there will not be enough for us and

you…go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves…And while

they were going away…the bride groom came, and those who were ready

went in…and the door was shut…

Matthew 25:5-10 (NASB)

The door was shut…

Jewish weddings include dramatic elements. A proposal is made and

accepted through the matchmaker. The bride stays at her family home in

preparation. She makes her gown and prepares her dowry. And the young

man goes oﬀ to build their new home.

Then, after all is ready, at a time selected to create the most surprise,

the groom returns with great joy. He comes with a wedding procession

from his father's house, and the young woman is celebrated. Soon they

appear at the wedding supper, and are wined and dined in the home of her

new father.

Christ came some 2000 yeas ago and proposed marriage to a people

through his “matchmaker,” the Holy Spirit, and many accepted the

proposal, and desired to become part of his great worldwide Bride.

Satisﬁed, the young man departed “to make a place,” promising a home in

his father's house.

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He would return, but at such a time she wouldn't be expecting him.

But “she,” was to be ready. The wedding procession could happen at any

moment of night or day.

Such beauty and joy as of young love, bride, and wedding, is a picture

of the joy Yeshua is about to bestow upon this Bride, the Church he has

taken to be his own, when he comes for her, to take her home to his

Father’s house.

But there is anguish here also.

Some “virgins” (all professing Christians) were ready, and some only

thought they were. They may well have even deceived themselves, until

the time to go had come. How awful to be among those who looked right,

and sounded right, but had no “oil,” in their lamp, and so were “left

behind.” They were left outside, beating on the doors. But the doors are

locked inside, and they will never get in. To have understood, and played

the part, but never taken the spiritual Groom. What heartbreak.

And this procession from heaven is really coming. It is on its way

even now, and the shout is near. The only important question remaining, is

my lamp ﬁlled with oil? Because the day will come soon, as it did on the

Ark of Noah, when the door will be shut and no more will get in.

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The Seven Seals

If by chance some chronicler ever does try to make sense out of this

jangling, senseless period in the history of the world, he might be swayed

to call this the age of the little green men. Star Wars, Alien, The Men in

Black, and Independence Day are only a few pop movie titles which

crowd our shelves and ﬁll the theaters

People are interested in space aliens.

The real kooks then are the alien buﬀs with a religious twist. Dune

Messiah, Close Encounters, and even the Jedi in Star Wars, all seem to be

toying around with something they are likening to God. It is also quite

interesting that these UFO kooks, and they are kooks, keep publishing

material sent to them telepathically from somewhere “out there.”

But where?

They have no idea-- just, “there.”

We might be quite impressed, should this material compose equations

from the Pleiades on how to build a warp drive. But star drives are not

what these so-called aliens want to talk about. There is not one shred of

technical stuﬀ in all the whole mass of material these people have

channeled from entities in orbit around Alpha Centauri, to Louis

Farrakhan’s “Mother Ship,” supposedly “in orbit on the far side of the

sun,” to the deep space denizens of the Andromeda. Be they from the one

who calls himself Seth, the name of an ancient god of Egypt, or Ramtha--

J. Z. Knight’s thirty-ﬁve-thousand-year-old angry entity, or even all those

“Elohim,” space people saucer messiah Rael, of the “Raeleans,” are

communicating with these days.

No they never mention technical stuﬀ, but they want to talk about the

New Age; and they are packed for spirits, reincarnation, and Jesus.

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Personally, I would like to see the chemistry for a cancer cure, or the

best method of regenerating new body parts, or even how to grow

watermelons in the snow, but these aliens are worthless. All they want to

talk about is spirit beings, the Ashekanazic Chronicles, the “White

Lodge,” or some other such malarkey of the strange and occult. We have

beings traveling from the Andromeda galaxy just to tell us how to interpret

our Bible. Yep, that makes a ton of sense, doesn’t it.

Could it be that mankind is being duped? Could these beings from

other planets be rather beings from other dimensions? Are they demonic

rather than electronic? Jesus warned the last days would be marked by

profound deception, especially in the area of spiritual truth. When naïve

people hear an occult message they are certain nobody else knows, their

pride is enlarged. They become convinced they have been given some

special inner privilege known only to true initiates, and they gather

together to study the “deeper” truths of the Bible, or become initiates into

cults like Theosophy, the Rosy Cross, or the Raeleans.

As we said earlier, I still remember thinking these Bible bangers had

really strayed over the edge when they started talking about the rapture of

the saints. I kept seeing bumper stickers; “In Case of Rapture this Car Will

be Empty!” Surely, I thought, such kooks had gotten into science ﬁction,

and not the religion with which I was familiar. And even to this moment, I

understand the human reluctance to accept something so out of this

ordinary world.

Prophecy researcher Chuck Misler calls the rapture “preposterous,

and believed only because it is so clearly taught in the Scriptures.” So can

it really be true? Will thousands, perhaps millions, around the earth just

vanish into thin air? Will they leave little piles of neatly folded clothing

behind? Well, I suppose the clothing is doubtful but amazing as it sounds,

those who trust the Word of God are not the only ones expecting this

vanishing! The world of the occult is saturated with it. In fact the world is

being prepared by the demonic to experience the great snatch.

Satan seems to know, and must have an explanation ready for all the

missing. A great lie is in preparation. Apparently the demonic assumes

those they call the spiritually negative will vanish only to open up the

world for their great initiation into a New Age. The demons will describe

it as a great harmonic jump, a quantum leap, which will align all who are

spiritually gifted into one grand world order, and one grand world

religion.

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So while I place no faith whatever in what the enemies of the Bible

say about anything, it is still curious how consistent the occult is

worldwide on this topic. And for some reason, perhaps just copycat

modernity, it is based on environmental concerns. It seems the great

enemy of those trying to save the earth are the believers; Bible bangers

who think God is in control.

So in the realm of the little green men they expect a “cosmic shift.”

And they do not mind, so long as it’s those with “negative energy,”

meaning Bible believing Christians, who are zapped. That would be ﬁne

with them. They don’t want any Bible thumpers left and messing up the

New World Order, anyhow.

So in Revelation chapter 4, at the end of the seven churches, John is

taken oﬀ the earth. He is snatched upward as the Church age ends and

taken away to spend seven years in the heavenly kingdom with Christ.

After these things I looked, and behold a door standing

open in heaven, and the ﬁrst voice which I had heard

like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said

‘Come up here…’

Revelation 4:1 (NASB)

At John’s departure, the Church then vanishes from the Book of

Revelation, as God pivots to focus again on his Chosen people, Israel.

After chapter four, you will hear no more about those of the Church. Jesus

(Yeshua) is still the issue, but the Church is gone. You will look high and

low until the last chapter of Revelation, and never ﬁnd it in the book again.

The great snatch called the rapture has occurred, and, there is one other

thing.

There is no question John’s relationship with the Savior was unique.

He is called the disciple “whom the Savior loved,” even by John himself.

But I think this special relationship extended into something far more

fantastic than resting on Jesus’s shoulder during mealtime. John was

uniquely called, and preserved, for the testimony he would present on the

pages of this astonishing book.

I am convinced for biblical reasons that in only the case of John’s

rapture, in about 95 AD, something very peculiar happened indeed. John

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shot forward in time. John actually went forward to the time of the last

seven years, when Anti-Christ will be ruling on the earth.

There was an intimate discussion among three persons at the end of

John’s gospel by the Sea of Galilee, just prior to Christ’s ascension:

[Jesus to Peter] “…when you grow old, you will stretch

out yourhands and someone else will gird you and take you

where you do not want to go.” Now this [was] said, signifying by

what kind of death [Peter] would glorify God…

Peter turning around saw the disciple whom Jesus loved

Following them; the one who had also leaned back on His

bosom at the supper…So Peter seeing him said to Jesus,

“Lord, and what about this man?”

Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is

that to you?”

John 21: 20-22 (NASB)

I am of the very controversial view that what John experienced goes

far beyond mere visions. I suspect the Apostle was actually present in

heaven to experience everything which happens in the seven years of the

Tribulation. Perhaps he was taken through some sort of “worm hole” in

time. But however he did it, the Lord, who is not limited, whisked him

right past our present age, and on into the future, to see and to experience

all that will come at the end of this present age.

To put it all very plainly, I think John Zebedee, Apostle of the Lord

Jesus Christ, was one of the few men to have traveled in time, and perhaps

the only one allowed to speak about the experience. John was told he

would be present to see the Second Coming.

Of course, John had no idea the Second Coming was yet thousands of

years ahead of his time. He couldn’t possibly imagine the magnitude of

what was being told. But it appears Jesus was going to need John to

chronicle the unveiling for his own people, Israel, far in the future.

Admittedly, most interpreters have placed the emphasis on John

seeing the resurrected Christ in antiquity, as he saw him on Patmos, his

island of banishment in he beginning of the Revelation. John did see the

resurrected Lord at the beginning of Revelation, and without a doubt that

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alone was one of the most amazing encounters ever. It is no wonder John

decides that having seen God he will die.

But in their conversation at the end of his gospel, Christ was speaking

about his own Second Coming, something far future from his appearance

on Patmos. I think John lived in ancient times and was moved far into the

future to actually experience all that he writes about in Revelation.

You may disdain my analysis-- but if so, be like the good “Berean”

and check these things out for yourself. If John wasn’t actually there, then

all John saw was in a vision. Nevertheless, time traveler or visionary,

John’s observations have the feel of a ﬁrst-hand encounter. He does not

say “he sees” things as in a vision. Rather, we have the impression of John

interacting with what he is seeing. Angels standing nearby, ask him

questions.

And John himself records an earlier situation when Jesus, who had

been walking on water, already something extraordinary, steps into the

disciples’ boat, and then suddenly they ﬁnd themselves on the other shore.

Can we, in this phenomenal case say “Beam me up, Scotty?” God seems

to have no trouble with time and space, does he?

So you might reasonably ask, if this is all true “what ultimately

happened to John after the events of the Revelation had passed?

After he ﬁnished this book, John presumably was returned to his own

era, in which he died, and his earthly remains were placed in a grave

somewhere in Asia Minor awaiting the trump of God, and the rapture a

second time.

Strangely enough, when the rapture trumpet actually sounds in

ordinary time John’s body will again be called up into the clouds to be

with Jesus. He will be raptured again, the only man on earth to experience

this wonderment two times.

I could be wrong, of course. But the Bible does not seem to prohibit

two raptures. Lazarus experienced death twice, and so did Paul. So there

seems to be no prohibition against John being twice snatched into the

sky-- once from 95 AD, from his prison home on the island of Patmos to

compose the Book of Revelation, and once in the future yet to come.

It will not surprise me if someday we discover John once rode a ﬂying

horse through the stratosphere alongside the heavenly stallion whose rider

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was the Son of God. Now haven’t I been saying this Bible is full of the

most amazing stories and events in all the world?

One thing is certain, this call upward which John experienced at the

end of the Church Age comes ever closer each day. In fact, the actual

moment when Christians depart seems very close, perhaps as close as

tomorrow. This is not ﬁction, though I quite understand it can seem so.

But lest one decide these things are fantasy, the times we live in were not

the ﬁrst such times that seemed too fantastic to accept. The people of

Noah’s day must have thought him out of his mind, for similar reasons.

He was building an enormous boat on dry land because God told him

it was going to rain. And though it had never happened before, Noah kept

telling them the waters would cover the world and drown everyone. In

fact, he kept working at it for over a hundred years while everybody

laughed. But Noah had heard from God. And that boat ended up ﬂoating

above the highest mountains.

And again, since the fall of man, godly men everywhere had looked

for a special “One” who would come as “the seed of woman,” and he

never came. It had gone on so long few believed that he ever would come.

Then one afternoon in the questionable city of Nazareth, an angel named

Gabriel appeared to a young maiden, and the world has never been the

same.

It is always best to listen to what God says, even when what he says

seems far fetched. Just remember, the Bible describes the days of his

coming like the days of Noah.

So at some coming moment no one expects, all those who are alive

and saved will simply vanish. On his island John heard the voice we who

know Jesus shall all hear, the voice like a trumpet, commanding us to

come out of our tombs and rise up into the air, and be with him forever. It

is the same trumpet voice John ﬁrst heard on Patmos. Paul wrote of that

voice in the classic rapture verse in I Thessalonians 4, and we can safely

say it is the same:

Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout

and the voice of the archangel, And with the trumpet of God;

and the dead in Christ Shall rise ﬁrst.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NASB)

This is the Blessed Hope of the Church.

looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing of the

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glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.

Titus 2:13 (NASB)

This the day the Church departs to be with Jesus. All the past

Christians who were real in their faith, be they from any of the sevenfold

churches, shall have their bodies called up from their graves. And at that

moment nobody knows, a trumpet will sound, and in some way only the

saved will hear it. And then in a blink, an eternal change will take place,

and those who really know Christ will rise into the clouds. He will be

awaiting his children there.

And as we have said, shock waves will follow.

The instant panic of this translation will grip some countries more

than others. The US and Canada, with their high numbers of evangelical

Christians will be thrust into instant chaos. Worldwide, babies will be

missing from their cribs-- frantic mothers tearing about, screaming after

them. The staﬀ of facilities built for the mentally incompetent, will be

wandering around in a daze. Their patients just seemed to have vanished.

And as we said earlier, wherever there are freeways, airports and high

speed rail lines, there will be scenes of instant carnage, as authorities try to

separate the merely dead from those who have utterly vanished. Many in

leadership, much as what happened in Hurricane Katrina, will have simply

slipped away, casting oﬀ their uniforms under the imposing weight of the

emergency, others having vanished completely. Government already

handicapped by the universal inclination of politicians toward immoral

behavior and foolish monetary policy, will be in free fall in most places,

and completely overwhelmed by the scope of a crisis, a crises which will

be enveloping everyone everywhere. Only a few will have any inkling of

what has transpired. It will take weeks, and perhaps even months, to clean

up and determine who the missing really are.

But as the shock wears oﬀ, and people begin to listen to new voices

again, the obvious explanation will be some sort of alien invasion. Lurid

stories of alien abduction will ﬁll the media and occultists of all types will

try to frighten people with the continuing prospect of being captured by

alien beings too grotesque to even think about.

People will be told they could be next abducted, and they will stay

indoors, and out of sight, pinned to their televisions, starving for news.

And there they will be suddenly introduced to the new world leader, who

will speak to them in the midst of their shock and weary sadness, as a

friend. And soon their fears will be assuaged. Finally, they will feel that

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things are coming back under control. He will explain bold new ways out

of the current emergency, assert control over the invaders, stand up to

whomever and from wherever they have come. And he will even seem to

posses magical powers, the only one strong enough and organized enough

to make the world go on. And the world leader will promise a New Age of

peace and safety, of love and prosperity. And he will even oﬀer a way to

solve the age old Arab-Jew controversy in Jerusalem.

Recently, some—most notably Robert Van Kampen, who wrote The

Church, have advocated for what is called “a mid Tribulation rapture” at

the so-called “last trump,” which they equate with the last of the trumpet

judgments, which clearly end at the mid point in the Tribulation. The

trumpet, in this scenario, must come midway through the tribulation, and

the people of the Church must stay that long before they are rescued.

Some people are sure that the Church must go through at least part of the

Tribulation because they need to be punished for being a bad Church. Van

Kampen and Rosenthal believe that the Church will stay into the

Tribulation to get a good dose of all of what God is going to do to the

world.

They base this whole idea on the sound of the trumpet, especially on

the “last trump,” heard before the Church ascends. For them the only “last

trump” must be the last trumpet judgment, at the center of the Tribulation.

This is known in their own circles as the “Pre-Wrath” rapture, because

they correctly understand that God’s children will never suﬀer God’s

wrath. He died on a cross to cover the wrath.

And had this mid-Tribulation position not been made so loudly, and

convinced so many, it would not be important enough to answer. But Van

Kampen, who is now deceased, was very wealthy and was able to

purchase millions of his own books and distribute them across the United

States free of charge. Many were convinced by his marketing campaign.

But the Pre-Wrath Rapture is wrong, and not even a diﬃcult position

to overcome.

The ﬁrst observation is already devastating.

What is immediately obvious is that John, representing the Church, is

“called up here” at the start of the week of Tribulation, not in the middle,

nor at the end. Since Revelation is in chronological order, John’s “calling

up” comes right after the seven churches, and just before the Tribulation

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gets going. But this is not the only, or even the strongest, answer to this

viewpoint.

Everyone who has carefully examined the Book of Revelation agrees

that the trumpets end their judgments mid week, three and a half years into

the seven year Tribulation. This is because they end at the Abomination of

Desolation, leaving 1260 days (3.5 years) for the Jews to run away into

the hills. And by placing the rapture there, the Pre-Wrathers hope to avoid

the “wrath of God” falling upon the saints. But it doesn’t work out that

way.

They most certainly do not avoid the “wrath of the Lamb,” by having

the Church hang around during the ﬁrst half of the Tribulation. The sixth

seal judgment is actually called, the “wrath of the Lamb,” and the seal

judgments come prior to all the trumpets. It is just doubletalk to say that

the wrath of the Lamb is not the wrath of God. The Lamb is God.

But it gets worse, much worse. This position also makes the “day and

the hour” of the rapture known in direct opposition to the words of Christ

himself. (No man would know, not even the Son would know.) For at

exactly the last trumpet judgment, in the exact center of the “week” of

Tribulation, the rapture has to strike.

The Bible would have to change to, “of that hour knoweth every

man,” should the Church take hold of that viewpoint, and every believer in

the Tribulation would certainly know the day, and perhaps the hour, of the

moment that “not even the Son” knows.

But I believe there is a fourth, and vastly more signiﬁcant reason the

rapture must come at the outset of the Tribulation week. It concerns the

vision of Abraham, the very vision with which this book Zion’s Promise is

thematically bound. This view deals with the very existence of the

144,000 witnesses from Israel, Abraham’s great blessing for all the world.

The whole point of Jacob’s Trouble, the Old Testament name for the

Tribulation, is to bring Israel into the fold with Christ and to use them as

God’s great instrument to ﬁnish sending out the gospel to the ends of the

earth. The current mission of the Church is “to go into all the world to

preach the gospel.” But the Church will never complete the Great

Commission of Christ. Israel will; it was planned that way.

The Church, in all seven formats, has completed the heavy lifting

over thousands of years, but will have failed to win some of every tribe

and family on planet earth by the time of the Tribulation. But that job was

promised to Abraham, and to Zion’s Army, long before the Church.

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As God promised, hell has not prevailed against the Church; she has

won victory after victory, but she will ﬁnally run out of time. She was

never intended to ﬁnish, as some teach. Long before the Church that task

was given by God to a man called Abraham.

The Great Commission, Christ’s order to go into all the world and

make disciples, has been reserved for Israel to complete. It was given to

Abraham in the ﬁrst place, and God still wants to harvest every soul

possible and will, through Israel. This is the purpose of the Army of Zion.

This was why the Chosen were chosen in the ﬁrst place. If the Church is

still lingering around through the ﬁrst half of the Tribulation why should

God, at that moment, turn dramatically back to the Jew, and leave the

Church on the lurch? But God does turn dramatically back to Israel at this

time.

The time is called Jacob’s Trouble. In Revelation 7: 4-9 we discover

a puzzling “army” of Jewish evangelists. Most writers on prophecy have

no idea what to do with this army of 144,000, but it was for these that God

called the Jew in the ﬁrst place. He has held these people back in order to

use them during the last great call on planet earth.

These are the soldiers of the blessing promised to Abraham. The

blessing to all the families on earth was given right along with the land

and the people. So for all history Israel has had this mysterious blessing,

but the Jew had no idea what it was all about.

This is the “Promise of Zion” composed of Jews who have discovered

their true Messiah--marshaled and equipped to reach a desperate human

race in the last possible hour on earth, the Tribulation. It is this group who

have learned the “Name” after God’s rescue during the terror of the

Magog invasion. These Jews now “know his name,” as Ezekiel describes

it, and they will quickly spread out into a woeful world and win a number

too big to count, a people that will not turn away again from God to idols.

After these things I looked, and behold a great multitude which no

one could count from every nation and all tribe and peoples and

tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,

clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands;

and they cry out with a loud voice,‘Salvation God who sits

on the throne, and to the Lamb

Revelation 7:9 (NASB)

The Pre-Wrath position makes this outreach by Israel sort of an

afterthought. The Church is left sitting somewhere on earth for 3 ½ years

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doing nothing or perhaps jealously moping around. Meanwhile Israel is

doing great deeds, and completing the Great Commission. The Church

would be trapped in the Tribulation, counting the months, awaiting the last

trumpet, which must sound in the middle of the seven years. Then would

come their rapture, timed to the second, with nothing to do but wait until

then.

Well I don’t think so.

And ﬁnally.

If the rapture is delayed to the middle of the Tribulation, why on

earth does Israel stay put on the planet? By then, Israel will know Christ.

If the rapture hits after Israel is saved…Israel will go into the clouds with

the Church, or at least it should!

Ezekiel clearly states, they will know “the name,” when Yeshua

rescues Israel from certain destruction at the hand of the Russians in the

Magog War. But in the Pre-Wrath scenario, when the trump ﬁnally

sounds and the Church is lifted away, if Israel is saved, why won’t they be

raptured away too? Fact is, they would be. They would be going upward

with the Church, leaving this world completely without witness through

the rest of the Tribulation. The rapture cannot take place in the middle of

the Tribulation, or there will be nobody left to tell about Jesus on planet

earth!

So in summary, the Pre-Wrath, mid-Trib rapture position cannot

possibly be correct because this Pre-Wrath rapture not only gives away the

point in time for his return, a point which Christ himself does not know, it

forces the Church to hang around doing nothing and makes us wonder

why Israel is not raptured when the last trump comes too.

Finally it ties the rapture to a last gasp and a desperation.

God is running away at the last possible moment, and giving up this

world to the devil. One recalls the panic on the rooftop of the American

Embassy in Danang rather than the victorious Church of Christ lifting up

and returning like the dew to its Maker.

The Lord is not evacuating his troops from Dunkirk, with the Nazi

Panzers in hot pursuit. The Lord Jesus Christ is not running away from the

Beast at all.

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No, Paul calls it the “Blessed Hope” and it is the victory of the

Church. She ﬂoats upward as the eternal Bride in a state of triumphant

ecstasy, where her heavenly Groom awaits to bless her forever.

To leave the rapture for the center of the uglies in the Tribulation is

anything but triumphant – but rather it becomes a desperate escape, and

the Church just gets out by the skin of its teeth.

As for the “last trump,” as it was understood in Israel, the nation

always took joy in the New Year. You see the only “last trump” Israel

knew anything about, was the sound of the great ram’s horn at year’s end.

It was the sound of the “shofar,” announcing a great joy, in the celebration

of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It was the sound of rejoicing,

and not despair.

This is the trump we long for. The “trump” which will sound to end

the era of this present world the way Noah’s Ark lifted before the sorrows

of the ﬂood. It is the trump of victory. It marks the climax of the

indignation, and the soon inauguration of the Great King.

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the

angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

Matthew 24:36 (NASB)

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The Army is Mustered

 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon

a throne, high and lifted up,…

Isaiah 6:1 (KJV)

But what of John’s rapture?

According to the Revelation He went through a doorway into the

heavens and saw God; potentate over all existence, seated on his

unapproachable throne. John was one of the few to actually meet his

maker, alive and in the ﬂesh. But as we know, this was not the ﬁrst or even

the second meeting for John with the living God. He had walked with

Jesus; seen the resurrected Christ, but here was God in his ultimate form--

high and lifted up, and as Isaiah said, “…his train ﬁlled the temple.”

But since this writer has never seen such sights or heard such voices, I

am under an impediment to speak any further on this. The Apostle Paul

even tells us, “it has not ... come into the mind of man what joy awaits in

heaven.” And of course my imagination is covered by such words.

Nevertheless, for the sake of the reader, I will try. I will try to do the

impossible, and envision what John saw in that throne room up there, the

place no man can possibly see.

John was raptured into what Paul calls the third heaven and there he

beheld God the Son, seated on his everlasting throne. Co-Creator of the

universe, the one slain from the foundation of the world, the King of

Kings and Lord of Lords. It was certainly the most transforming sight any

human being ever dared lay eyes upon.

In his day Moses’ face would glow whenever he visited with God in

the Tabernacle. Afterward, his face became so bright it blinded. He had to

wear that veil because no human being could stand the brilliance reﬂected

from his face, even in the limited glory within the Tabernacle. But Moses’

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experience was less than John’s. His face reﬂected the glory God had

placed on a human made altar, the glory present in the tent.

But John is not inside some small tent of the earthly Tabernacle. John

is in the ultimate glory of heaven.

And as he enters that ineﬀable room, if indeed it makes sense to call it

a room, we would expect at least some discomfort on the part of this sinful

human being named John. In the presence of the Almighty whose ﬂaming

eyes escape nothing, we would assume a kind of cringing in spiritual

nakedness. We would expect self loathing as when on his island he’d

turned to see the spectacular vision of Christ among the candle sticks.

But the old apostle seems at rest, almost contemplative, describing the

ﬁgure on the throne as though he were describing an old friend. He is in

awe, but he seems unafraid. And this is the pinnacle of power in the

cosmos. No indeed, it is far more. From this throne the cosmos exists and

is held together.

And these are the eyes of God. In the past men like John himself,

could not face those eyes. Peter could not even stand to look into the

veiled righteousness of Jesus in human ﬂesh. Sin cannot withstand the

encounter with the holy omnipotent perfect God. And it seems Isaiah was

even more undone.

I said, ‘Woe is me for I am ruined! …

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts

Isaiah 6:5 (NASB)

So John’s peace is incredible. It is certain no matter whatever

encounters had happened in the past what John saw eclipsed anything ever

seen before by living man.

behold a Throne was standing in heaven, …. And he who

was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius

in appearance; an there was a rainbow around the throne

Revelation 4:2,3 (NASB)

The eternal King was before him.

But this is heaven and no longer occupied earth, and the sin of this

life left behind. He no longer had anything left to hide and

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purity likely ﬂooded his whole being. For John was looking in person at

what Daniel only saw in his mind.

His vesture was like white snow, And the hair of His head like

pure wool, His throne was ablaze with ﬂames,...A river of ﬁre

was ﬂowingcoming out from before Him, Thousands upon

thousands were attending Him,

Daniel 7:9-10 (NASB)

Language escapes its own use as we attempt to delve further into

something which surpasses words. John would have encountered

exploding color, brilliant light, and beauty such as never seen before; but

such ideas convey no more than a loud and ﬂashy ﬁreworks display, and

do not even touch the surface of what John actually experienced.

Nonetheless, withal, the glory came mingled in a perfect euphoria of

never ending joy. The Shekinah was washing all around John. With a kind

of living, throbbing brilliance, a light imbued by ﬁre, and by life itself.

And most wonderful of all, he discovered he could now look directly into

the source, which would have killed him moments before.

Such was a brightness, so much brighter than the sun on earth. And

yet in each instant came the change in color a beautiful change of hue and

pigment, and far beyond anything every seen.

And there before his eyes, the eternal majesty reposed, joyful,

transparent, and representing himself of something sublime and clear as

jasper.

In 1611 when the King James Bible was assembled, a “jasper” was a

perfect diamond. Today if you look up the word you will probably ﬁnd an

ugly brown silicate, a rock the American Indians used as ﬂint. But this is

not at all like what is being described.

God as he appears in heaven is apparently something akin to a living,

sparkling diamond. Precious and unique to such a degree as to even render

earthly diamonds as drab as the pictures of arrowhead ﬂints, in the books.

Perhaps he is like earthly diamonds, where light is bent so acutely it

can be captured inside, refracting, breaking up the light into its rainbow

spectrum, so that it creates a scintillating maelstrom of colors and seethes

with luminous beauty inside the stone; perhaps such is happening as he is

seated on his throne. Over the enormous ﬁgure was what appeared to John

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as something like a vaulted sky which could barely contain the

multicolored lightnings of a million hues ﬂashingto the size of this ﬁgure,

one immediately sensed something akin in magnitude to a massive

thunderhead cloud, towering miles into the sky.I am man 1 man could

stand before such majesty without feeling small. One trembles to think of

the power encompassed by so vast a pillar, as in a thunderhead. In such an

atmospheric colossus, are millions of kilowatts, more power than the

largest atomic bomb. But such magnitudes pale when compared to the

limitless power John saw seated on that throne. And before such, a man

becomes like a microbe.

And yet even feeling so insigniﬁcant, John understood the God he

served in a better way. For there, before all that hideous power, John

could see with eyes that see, and what he saw was love. Before him in his

total majesty was a God who had regard for him and even a deep love for

him. But not just him. He knew, as if for the ﬁrst time, that God has a

passion for all mankind.

God is not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to a

knowledge of his grace. The One seated on that magniﬁcent throne still

loved him as he loved him at dinner in Jerusalem.

And John was left to gaze with awe at such power, but power wrapped

in such love. In truth it was terrifying. To match look for look with those

eyes which knew eternity. But in doing so, he had never felt such

security. For in all that strength he sensed with the certainty of a child,

ultimate safety. He felt he was in the loving arms of his own strong father,

and he was.

So for the very ﬁrst time, in the midst of all that life giving “God”

energy, he felt truly alive. As if shucking oﬀ a chrysalis of dirt,

destruction and death, he emerged the butterﬂy of what he would later

describe as true life. For the very ﬁrst time, there was no lingering sense

of death’s foul breath, and he could ﬁnally see how death pervades

everything we experience on earth.

But we must move on.

But in doing so we know how poorly we have drawn this tawdry

facsimile. What John really experienced we humans are not yet equipped

to know.

But we do know whatever else he experienced, his going up represents

the Church in rapture. And the redeemed of the Lord shall so return and

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come with singing, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. Those in

Christ will ﬁnally ﬁnd what they would call home, and it will be perfect.

Some foolishly feel that in going oﬀ to heaven, the Church will miss

out on what’s really going on, meaning down on the ground. It’s as if the

important stuﬀ really does happen down here on earth with the Anti-

Christ. We are so depraved.

And how utterly ridiculous. The Church won’t have a dull moment

once it reaches heaven. The Church will be caught up immediately in the

awe and the joy of Jesus himself, with joys that have not even come into

the mind of man in this life.

Nevertheless, down on earth, in the terror times of the Tribulation, at

long last the ﬁnal week of Daniel’s “great clock” starts ticking again.

Israel has been delivered from Russian aggression by God himself, and

millions of gentiles in the Church have vanished, and all is in the uproar of

the beginning of the Tribulation.

With the rapture, the “times of the Gentiles” are now oﬃcially over.

To the early Christians it was thought after Jesus’ departure it would all

happen in a few months at best, a brief period, followed by ages of blissful

Messianic rule.

But it has taken at least two thousand years, and he has yet to return. No

wonder he told the people that it was not for them to know how the Father

set his epochs and times and days and years.

But it is close to the last week, the last seven years of Daniel’s 70-

week clock. The Tribulation’s opening is not tied to the rapture, the Anti-

Christ will make a seven year pact and that starts it. But that pact must

come very quickly after the saints depart for heaven. And so the

Tribulation (Jacob’s Trouble for the Jew) opens down on earth.

And speaking in human terms, God has returned his attention to

Israel.

With the “restrainer” gone, probably a reference to the sealing

ministry of the Holy Spirit, the power holding back evil has been taken

away. How quickly events start to unwind from that moment plunging the

whole world into the terrible cesspool predicted. The Tribulation has been

inevitable from the moment mankind chose to sin.

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So as Daniel promised in his 9th chapter, the “Coming Roman Prince”

concludes a seven-year pact with the Jews and the agreement they reach

electriﬁes the entire earth. God calls this a pact with death.

Israel will build her third temple on ground not occupied by the

golden dome. But the temple they build will not be like the others. The

new Jewish temple will most likely become a monument to world religion,

an ecumenical ediﬁce watched over by the committee of the United

Nations, Islam, Catholicism, and the Jews all together. All parties will

give up something to make it work.

Because the new world leader, in concluding his seven year pact,

somehow is able to orchestrate the diverging interests and needs of Arab

and Jew, when nobody else has been able to do so. He seems to get men

to cooperate even when they promise to do something else. For some

undeﬁned reason, he proves himself to be a wonder worker, a man for all

seasons, a man for the hour. Somehow in the aftermath of the greatest

crises ever, he manages to bring all warring elements to the table, and all

to sign onto the pact. Peace appears to be breaking out everywhere, and

there just seems to be something supernatural about the way he speaks.

People wonder after him on a worldwide stage.

The Jews would no longer exclusively claim ownership of the Temple

Mount; but in exchange, they would ﬁnally have free access and could

begin unmolested construction. The Arabs would amazingly allow this,

but with UN oversight and freedom for Islam to continue in her mosques

unchanged.

Catholics, quickly morphing into a worldwide assembly of all

religion, would build a cathedral of tomorrow. Inside they would have

representation of all three major monotheistic traditions and all other

world religions would participate in some sort of United Nations of

religion.

Rabbinical Jewish Council are uneasy, not knowing how this could

all play out against their traditional religion. But they had been

particularly tongue tied when facing the power of the world leader. And

the temple would be oﬃcially called the “Palace of Peace,” regardless of

what these rabbis in Jerusalem wanted to call it.

In addition, Israel would give up some more of her land, and allow a

permanent international peace-keeping force inside her borders. Finally,

she would no longer seek to call Jerusalem her national capital. Jerusalem

would become the home to all peoples and all religions.

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This ecumenical multinational UN of religion would keep the temple

open to all. The new temple would not only serve as a historical reminder

of David and Solomon, but also become a monument of peace for all

mankind.

Meanwhile in the far north the “Red Horse” had begun to ride.

Magog (Russia) pulled by her need to resist the power emerging in

Europe, would be plotting and taking “peace” away from the surface of

the earth. The Red Horse, with God’s hooks in its jaw, would be

mobilizing to destroy the seven year pact, destroy Israel, in a secret bid to

please her Arab friends, and emerge as masters of the world. The Red

Horseman had thrown the switch to WWIII.

At ﬁrst in all their exuberance, the world does not seem to take notice,

but soon, with the Red Horseman riding, earth is in seething turmoil.

Down in the bunker under the Mount of Olives, the IDF watches for signs

of a launch.

Already North Korea, determined to use new toys, her nukes and

missiles, had been making belligerent moves against the South.

Conventional artillery had already struck Seoul, and the South was reeling,

preparing for a full invasion. Pakistan and India had been engaged in a

regional struggle for Kashmir forever, but the intensity notches upward to

full scale combat, with China looking over the border from the north.

And China, for her part, had just given her army the signal to mobilize

for a landing on the island of Formosa, claiming the so-called nationalists

for her own. In Saudi Arabia, nukes purchased with petro dollars, were

being rattled at Iran. And the nuclear option for numerous countries was

already being discussed.

But in heaven where John had been raptured, there is total security

and peace. He found a place where nothing is ever wrong. A place where

there were never emergencies, no stress, and nothing ever got tedious or

boring.

But even there John, to his utter amazement, quickly discovers

weeping.

I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book

written and on the back, sealed with seven seals…and I saw

a strong angel proclaiming…Who is worthy to open the book

and break its seals? And no one in heaven,or on the earth,

or under the earth was able to open the book, or to loo

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into it. And I began to weep greatly, because no one was

found worthy to open the book, or to look into it

Revelation 5:2–4 (NASB)

Scholars debate this book “in the right hand of Him who sat on the

throne.” It has been called a book for the sake of modern readers, but it is

a scroll in the hand of almighty righteousness-- the Father.

But what scroll is this?

There are many theories. I have heard preachers say with great

assurance it is the deed to the earth. For some reason if God does not give

up the deed to the earth there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And some ﬂoat the theory it is a divorce decree between God and

Israel. This from “replacement” Christians who believe themselves to be

the new Israel. Such Christians sincerely believe that God has rejected the

Jew and has now remarried the Church. He has become the eternal

Groom to the new Chosen people the Church, and Israel’s special

promises are revoked, and she must be shunned.

But it is all twaddle.

This is the Book of Life. It can be nothing less.

The Book of Life lists all who are saved on the earth. Faith in Christ,

and trust in his resurrection, is the only way into this book. Yes only

Yeshua saves, but only God the Father can declare his sacriﬁce suﬃcient.

And that is why John hears weeping. That is why he is weeping.

It is the weeping of souls because every soul of man depends on just

one thing; that God will accept an oﬀering of Jesus’ blood to cover their

sin. And John, watching from the sidelines, along with all the host of

heaven, and all who are on the earth hears the weeping, and weeps

himself. For the fate of all that lives and breathes rests upon this one

thing. Can anyone take the scroll of grace from the hand of everlasting

justice, and open the book?

And no one is found worthy to take the book, and so the weeping.

And John too weeps, as he watches in dismay.

For it seemed to him that no champion of present or past could take

the book, or break those seals from that all powerful hand. Moses and his

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laws could not. Legalism never could and never had. Michael the

archangel, with all of his strength for battle, could never lift those

enormous seals, and open that unearthly book. Nor could any cherubim or

seraphim, or any power from any of the mighty watching gallery of the

angelic host.

Nor could the strongest of the prophets; not Elijah, nor Daniel, Isaiah

or even Jeremiah; much less so-called religious gurus who claimed to

“bear the light.” No Gandhi or Mohammed, Socrates, or any other worthy

of the present or past could bare to stand before him, much less pluck this

scroll from his hand.

No mighty warrior, prophet, priest, or king who ever walked upon

planet earth, could brave that throne or break those bonds. And certainly

no power or principality from the nether worlds of death and hell would

dare the approach. Not even the mighty accuser himself, who rises to

shake the world. None of them would dare touch that book. None

anywhere would dare.

So John weeps, with all cosmogony; worlds within worlds. For every

human soul is guilty. And every guilty soul goes straight into hell. So

who will open the book and save?

And then an angel, standing nearby, taps John:

Stop weeping the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the

Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book…

And I saw the throne…and the elders, a Lamb standing

as if slain…And he came and he took it out of the right

hand of Him who sat on the throne

Revelation 5:5–7 (NASB)

And at once the weeping stopped.

For the Lamb was before the throne. (Revelation chap. 5) And all the

creation from the cattle to the stars of Andromeda, stopped breathing.

Seconds ticked by like millions of years.

And the Lamb, the one “slain from the foundation of the world,”

stepped up and took the scroll. And all that lives and breathes shouted the

mighty victory. While all that is evil heard and shuddered. The Lamb had

been found worthy to take the scroll, and to open the book, the event that

forever separated the saved from those not.

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For upon that scroll, written in the blood of the Lamb, were the names

of the redeemed who would live with the Lamb forever. Those in the Old

Testament who looked forward to his coming. And those in the New

which looked back and rejoiced. All that trusted in the cleansing power of

his blood had their names written down in glory.

These were the raptured, a people who will walk and rule with the

Lamb. But only those inside the scroll were numbered with the redeemed.

From his perspective before Abraham, Job, knew he would be found on

that page:

Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

That with an iron stylus and lead

They were engraved in the rock fore

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

And at the last He will take His stand on

the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed,

Yet from my ﬂesh I shall see God:”

Job 19:23-26 (NASB)

And John described those who wouldn’t be there:

“Then He said to me,… I will give to the one

who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without

cost…But for the cowardly and unbelieving and

and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and

idolaters and all liars, their part will be

in the lake that burns with ﬁre…”

Revelation 21: 6,8 (NASB)

These are the names written down in glory.

But upon the outside of the scroll were seven seals marking the wrath

of the Lamb. The seals are all judgments. And we might wonder why such

seals would be found on the great book of God’s grace?

Amazingly, this is not a hard question.

These seals, which keep the Book of Life shut against all who rejected

Christ, are called the “wrath of the Lamb” for good reason. They show

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forth a great demarcation between those safely under grace, and all others

left out for judgment. God will make every eﬀort, outside of using force,

to add many names to the list during the Tribulation, but every soul who

had rejected Christ is still outside. When the rapture hits, and the times of

judgment begin, every single soul that missed the rapture will still be

outside the book. And during this terrible wrath a fourth of mankind will

perish, most into the everlasting ﬁre.

The Bible says that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only

begotten Son…” as a sacriﬁce for the many who would receive him as

Savior. There was an open door and yet many snubbed the Son, his Son.

Like any father, he is not happy with those who rejected his gift, the blood

of his own perfect Son, and has no further obligation to those who did.

The call went out over all the earth, and so many ignored it.

The sevenfold Church had presented the saving blood for over two

thousand years and urgently begged for the world to follow Jesus. But “as

in the days of Noah,” when God called those of that age to get on the ark--

they rebelled, and they would not.

But there is still a small hope granted. Millions will yet ﬁnd Christ

because of the terror of the Tribulation. And perhaps even more than all

those who came to him during the long years of the Church a multitude

which no man can count comes out of the Tribulation in Revelation

chapter 7. God will certainly have their attention. But if they ﬁnd Christ

during the ﬁery trials of this Tribulation period, it will most likely be at

the expense of their mortal lives, just as when ISIS beheads a Christian

nowdays. Some will continue to hold out for whatever reason, and at the

end of days step up to the Great White Throne, and face Christ as the ﬁnal

judge of men.

At the Great White Throne they must prove they had a perfect

righteousness of their own. They must prove they obeyed every detail of

the Law. Indeed, every soul will be given its day in court.

Upon resurrection, a thousand years after the Christians appear at the

Bema of Christ or the Judgment Seat of Christ, such souls will appear

before the terrible tribune called the White Throne to prove themselves

righteous apart from Christ. They must, or be forever guilty of Hell as

charged in the high court of God. All will fail, of course, and will

inevitably fall into the Lake of Fire forever. What terror lies ahead for the

man or woman who will attempt to satisfy the great Judge with his own

defense? And what will he say? That the death of Christ was not good

enough?

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There is no way to debate with God, and there is only one fearful end

for those who try.

And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from

Whose presence earth and heaven ﬂed away…And I saw the

dead great and the small, standing before the throne and books

were opened; and another book was opened, which is the

book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which

were written in the books, according to their deeds…and

if anyone’s name was not written in the book of life, he

was thrown into the lake of ﬁre.

Revelation 20: 11-15 (NASB)

But there is a contrary teaching which is still around, which used to be

held more often than it is now. There are a few who still say the door

closes once the Tribulation begins and as in the case of Noah, after the

rapture, it is over. There is no such thing as a second chance, for anyone.

Every soul plunged into the Tribulation is doomed, as in the famous song

by Cliﬀ Richard“…it’s too late to change your mind, the Son has come,

the demons dined; how could you have been so blind?... and you’ve been

left behind.”

Such teachers would issue a rebuke to me for instilling a false hope.

They would tell you that once the door to the Ark was closed, those on the

outside drowned. And so they did.

But we insist that such a view is wrong and we are happy that it has

gone out of fashion. If there is no second chance, as they call it, no way to

be saved during the Tribulation, what is the use of refusing the mark and

starving to death? If there is no possible way still open to be saved, then

there is no point in trying to stand up for the truth. After the rapture you

are doomed.

But we know such teaching is false.

In Revelation chapter seven a “multitude” appear in heaven, and they

have come out of the Tribulation. One asks how they manage that if there

is no “second blessing”?

So there is a road back to God even after missing the rapture.

Without question it is a hard road and not recommended. But a multitude

will walk that road and be saved in the end. Still such a road leads through

the Tribulation and is fraught with danger, and there is no guarantee a

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person will not die before ﬁnding the right way. Those who wait until the

rapture passes are very foolish, and not a few believe if there was an

honest chance before the rapture, a soul will be hardened like Pharaoh,

and will never again be able to ﬁnd himself in the aftermath.

But it is God’s mercy which brings this tortured transition period called

the Tribulation to earth in the ﬁrst place, and not his anger, as some

believe. In those dark years so ﬁlled with perils millions who have never

even considered Christ, those who have never heard the good news, will

be forced to consider which eternity they would rather die with. It is God’s

one last attempt to penetrate into every dark corner of earth and to every

darkened heart, which remains.

More human souls will be saved in this seven-year period than have

been saved since Adam was thrown out of the Garden. Jesus’ parable of

the wedding feast is all about Zion’s Army in the Tribulation.

“…The kingdom…may be compared to a king, who gave a

wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those

who had been invited…and they were unwilling to come. Again he

sent out other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited

‘Behold, I have prepared my dinner…and everything is ready;

Come to the wedding feast.

But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own

farm another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and

mistreated them and killed them.

But the king was enraged and sent his armies, and destroyed

those murderers, and set their city on ﬁre.Then he said to his slaves,

…those who were invited were not worthy

Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you ﬁnd

there Invite to the wedding feast. And the slaves went out into

the streets, and gathered together all they found, both evil and

good; and the wedding hall was ﬁlled with dinner guests.”

Matthew 22: 1-10 (NASB)

God has invited all people to come to his wedding feast, but most are

too busy. So when the invited guests refuse, the Lord will send laborers

(his Army) into the harvest (the whole earth) to try to compel the lonely,

the ungodly, and the immoral to set aside their sin and follow them back to

the feast. These are those literally sent into the highways and the byways

of the whole world to compel the least likely to come in to the feast. As

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the New Testament states, “God has chosen the weak things of this world

to overcome the wise.”

And then the Lamb opened the ﬁrst seal ...I looked and behold,

a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was

given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

Revelation 6:1,2 (NASB)

Under the ﬁrst seal a White Rider appears. He comes as a masterful

person to solve the world’s problems. This is Daniel’s man of stern

countenance, the Prince of Rome who is to come. He wears a crown

representing authority, and carries a bow like a warrior. But the bow is

without arrows and he is without armies. He is to conquer without warfare.

His conquests come by the words of his silver tongued mouth. And at ﬁrst

he seems like a very good man. There are no horns and he is attractive,

intelligent, and well educated.

Some wrongly confuse this rider with the Lord himself. But the Lord

releases this rider, and for that reason alone he cannot be the same.

Moreover, he is given a crown. Nobody will ever give a crown to the King

of Kings. His eternal crown comes from the Almighty God.

Indeed this is that coming “Prince” mentioned in Daniel who is going

to conclude a seven year pact with Israel. He is ultimate evil. But he is

dressed in white and appears as one of the “good” guys, like the cowboys

in the movies with the white hats, and many in Israel will receive him. But

he is a deceiver and will attempt to confuse himself with the true Messiah.

He will announce to the world that he alone is the protector from the

power that snatched the people away. But he is an angel of light, a

deceiver and he will enslave and destroy the whole world. He conquers

with enticing words and without arrows.

A king will arise Insolent and skilled in intrigue, And his

power will be mighty, but not by his own power And he

will destroy to an extraordinary degree…He will destroy

men and the holy people. And through his shrewdness he

will cause deceit to succeed by his inﬂuence; he will

magnify himself in his heart…he will even oppose

the Prince of Princes

Daniel 8:23–26 (NASB)

And the Lamb opened a second seal, and called out the Red Horse,

and with him the great sword of war.

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When He broke a second seal I heard the second living

creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went

out…it was granted to take peace from the earth…

Revelation 6:3,4 (NASB)

With the Red Horseman riding the world moves toward its ﬁnal

wars. When he is unleashed there will never again be peace until the

Prince of Peace. And above all else this Red Rider signals the approach of

the dreadful war of Magog, and the attack from the north.

The trigger might possibly come from an attempt on the part of

superpower Russia to negate the White Horseman, who seems to be

gaining stature with the day, rising up to challenge even Mother Russia.

The First World War accounted for ten million deaths, the Second about

sixty million. A Third World War, a nuclear war, will have deaths in the

billions.

Nuclear war has been avoided throughout the second half of the

twentieth century because men have feared their destructive power. But

they are coming. They and all the other weapons of mass destruction with

them. In the shadow of Hiroshima, with pictures of massive mushroom

clouds over Bikini Atoll, war planners put the idea of dropping

thermonuclear weapons into the realm of the ﬁctional motion picture,

Doctor Strangelove. The crazy image of Slim Pickens riding a ﬁfty ton

warhead to the ground ﬁgured largely in the minds of people during that

time. Many believe they will never be used again.

This is error.

Because “Strangelove” is forgotten and so is the worldwide fallout

from the Russian terror bomb. The world has moved on, and mankind has

never failed to use a weapon it has developed. Moreover nukes have

already been used, and that means they will likely be used again. When

war planners need something extra to correct the odds, they will quickly

resort to heavy explosives and even tactical atomic weapons. Many have

now have been designed for ordinary artillery, and when nuclear weapons

are considered tactical solutions, they will quickly be used and their use

will escalate. Thus they are no longer crackpot weapons outside the realm

of possibility. The size and power of chemical weapons now approach

some of the smaller nuclear weapons, anyway. And when they are needed,

they will be used.

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Already on the Korean peninsula, the use of nukes is being discussed

by both sides. The South sees them as the only equalizer against an

invading horde three times larger from the North, and North Korea has

already decided to use nukes as a ﬁrst strike to negate the superior

armaments of the South. Once the initial shock of going over the anti-nuke

barrier is breached by such a tiny player as Pakistan, atomic bombs won’t

even be considered outrageous anymore. They will become standard

armaments in an ever more dangerous world. And over it all, the Red

Horseman is riding.

And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars... For

nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom

Matthew 24:6,7 (NASB)

As regional wars proliferate and metastasize into a patchwork of

overlaying causes, small wars will merge into the next global war. The

Bible is clear that it will be ignited by the mobilization south of “Gog and

Magog.” As the largest country on earth, Russia has always believed its’

destiny was to rule the world. They believe that one day they will rise,

and when they rise they will shake the world, their words not ours. When

Russia comes south they will be doing so in an attempt to bring this belief

to completion.

The truth is that WWIII erupting from war in the Middle East has

been dreaded since the end of WWII. It is the war which has been brewing

since the formation of the modern state of Israel.

Arabs, who have trouble getting along with anyone, have always been

jealous of the Jews. As we have said, the roots of this conﬂict go back to

the family of Abraham, and they will never be resolved until Messiah

comes.

But the trigger resides with Magog (Russia).

As it was during the Exodus when Israel was caught between the Sea

and Pharaoh’s chariots, the Jews will assume their own deaths when

facing the superpower Russian bear. But even as Israel faced death

beneath Pharaoh’s chariot wheels, and God delivered by parting the great

sea, so again Israel will have her back to the wall and be divinely saved.

God brings up Gog and his Magog for just this purpose. So that the

Chosen will suddenly “know his name,” even after millennia of denial.

Israel will be supernaturally delivered so as to know the “ the name” (see

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Ezekiel 37-39) And of course the “Name” they need to know in order to

be saved is Yeshua, Jesus. The so-called “two houses” theory of the

Hebrew Root movement is a lie from Satan, “for there is no other

“Name” given among men by which we may be saved.”Acts 4:12

In this coming conﬂict God himself will deliver his people. But the

deliverance will not come until the moment of greatest need. When all

else has failed them, and when they ﬁnally call on the “Name of the Lord”

at that moment God will show why they were the Chosen in the ﬁrst place.

Russia will come in like a storm and with him other countries, among

them Iran, Turkey and possibly North Korea. For the sake of Islam, Israel

will be their target. But secular Russia will have a much larger agenda in

mind than the tiny land of Israel. They will believe that with one great

thrust they can destroy hated Israel, gain a warm water port and wrest

power from the world leader, the White Horseman. Their object has

always been to take over the world for themselves. But at the moment of

their greatest success, when they feel they have reached their objective,

they will experience the sort of plagues that hit Egypt, and the many

factions will diverge into ﬁghting among themselves.

Somehow because of Yeshua (Messiah’s) great deliverance, many in

Israel will ﬁnally know the “name of Christ,” and be saved. The streets of

Jerusalem will ﬁll with worshipping Jewish believers, and a call will go

out to mobilize 144,000 Jewish evangelists found in Revelation chapter

seven to reach the world. This is the Army of Zion.

As when Jesus sent out the 70 of his followers in the gospels this

Army will go without food, and without provision. Those they minister to

will make up this provision as they go. But in that commissioning of the

70 Jesus said he saw Satan fall, a vision no doubt of the far ﬂung future,

for the 70 were a picture of what was to come, and the Army to come of

144,000. For Satan must crash onto the earth, like a lightning stroke.

Saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees,

till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

And I heard the number of them which were sealed:

and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four

thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Revelation 7:3,4 (NKJV)

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But this Army will travel without fanfare, and vanish like a gathering

of smokes. They will blend into the local culture, moving through the

earth like the four winds stopped for them in Revelation chapter 7. Few

will know they even exist.

Although it is God who delivers Israel from the northern invader, most

of the world will lift up the deceiver, the White Horseman, as the savior

from Russian armament and Russian occupation. And Anti-Christ will be

most willing to take credit for such protection.

Eventually he will even have some explanation for the vanishing. And

by proposing world government to stop regional wars, he will insert

himself into the oﬃce of world Prime Minister and eventually king, but he

will be satisﬁed with the oﬃce as head of world government for a short

while to come.

Zion’s Army will form in Israel near the beginning of the Tribulation

and Jesus will probably appear to send them oﬀ from the mountain of

transﬁguration near Jerusalem, as they disperse. These are God’s bond

servants, his ultimate secret weapon, who are like shadows ﬂittering over

the landscape with a mission to fulﬁll. God’s great time of Tribulation is

meant to drive the people to call on him and eternal safety. How much

better to face even the terror of the Tribulation than to rot for eternity in a

place of torment called hell. God’s ﬁnal provision for the rebel is the

terror of the Tribulation.

In the gospels one day Jesus led Peter, James, and John to a

mountaintop where it seemed that the blinders were pulled away. And

suddenly the apostles could see Jesus transﬁgured and brightened with a

heavenly light. And there also the Father spoke and two Old Testament

witnesses, Moses and Elijah, seemed to materialize out of the thin air.

These are most likely the Two who appear again to speak during

Tribulation.

Bible scholars have no clue as to the point of this transﬁguration other

than to testify of Jesus divinity. But it is believed by this writer that the

whole episode was a rehearsal for the Army of Zion. From this mountain

to the ends of the earth, Jesus will muster his Army to carry news of the

coming Kingdom into all the earth.

This I believe is the very mountain from which someday God’s Army

would be dispatched into the far corners of the earth, fulﬁlling his promise

of blessing to every tribe on earth. And yes, as they roamed, they would

live in tents and shacks and some in castles on the Rhine. But they would

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never build those tabernacles on the mountain Peter desired for Jesus and

Moses and Elijah. Instead they would be dispatched with “beautiful feet.”

For it is from there they will come forth bearing the message of the soon

coming King. But the tabernacle idea ﬁts because these booths the Jews

build at their feast of Tabernacles are really made to be portable houses,

and they will need portable housing during all their tramp over all the

earth, and incidentally it really was on the Feast of Tabernacles when the

transﬁguration occurred.

How lovely on the mountains

Are the feet of him who brings good news,

Who announces peace

And brings good news of happiness

announces salvation,

And says to Zion, “Your God reigns

Isaiah 57:2 (NASB)

Meanwhile, back in the world of the tribulation, the UN and the

terrible White Horseman will continue to promise much and produce little.

Food stocks will be low everywhere after the Magog War. Men of power

and prestige will have plenty; the wine and the oil will hardly be eﬀected.

But the common person will only have the street, the garbage, the terrorist,

and the constant struggle to live in a world of absolute peril.

Following the Red Horseman, the Lamb breaks a third seal and out

comes the Black Horseman of famine, with a set of scales for weighing

out foods.

Famine is terrible. It robs the soul, as it kills the body. Worse even

than war is the vision of roving bands of renegades ravenously rummaging

in dumps, raiding stores, and creating mayhem in search of food and

drinking water.

When men lack food they become like animals. People have been

known to consume their own ﬁlth, waylay cook and eat their fellow men,

and even consume their own children.

Already governments will have been stretched to their limits and begin

to join with the Anti-Christ in seeking world government for assistance.

Radiation will spread with radioactive fallout poisoning the air and the

water, as it slowly wafts through the wind patterns of the planet. Third

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world countries, already at risk, will quickly become basket cases. At

some tipping point the World Leader will declare himself the planet’s ﬁrst

citizen and demand total obedience to counter the great problems which

seem to be everywhere.

On the ground people lacking water, food, and medical care will begin

to wander in mass movements. With great sores appearing among hosts of

dying people as they shuﬄe about aimlessly the persistent zombie

nightmare will seem to be coming true. People half alive, their skin

covered with scabs and wounds wandering about in a daze looking for

anything to eat. Governments and police will be forced to ﬁre live rounds

to keep food distribution going.

Finally, with all these curses will come the brother to famine, and the

handmaid to war, death itself. As the Pale Rider, the fourth horseman,

exits from his seal into the world, plagues of diseases new and ancient,

further weaken those in search of food. The Pale Horse is death, and all

that he touches withers. Truly perilous times will have come in a situation

spiraling down everywhere. This is the Tribulation.

But God is still calling. It is not yet too late.

The rejection of Jesus's cross has led inevitably to these four

horsemen. And as they are released the world begins to chaﬀ at the sound

of their terrible hoof beats. Before they ﬁnish they will have killed one

fourth of the human race. This will number some two billion people.

Soon in every major city bodies will be stacked and left to rot in the

streets. But as bad as it will be in Denver, it will be much more terrible in

New Delhi or Mexico City.

There will be no remaining morgue space. There will not even be

space on the sidewalks and the stench itself will soon be overwhelming.

Millions will be ill just for lack of clean air. The lack of proper sewage

and disposal of the dead, will make diseases like cholera spread like

wildﬁre. Thousands in every major city, their own civic budgets depleted,

will began calling for the world leader who by this time is regarded as a

miracle worker, to solve things. National legislatures will quickly

capitulate giving the world leader dictatorial powers. Soon there will be a

general call to make him king.

But his mouth will be his one great asset. For he seems to infuse his

listeners with a sense of well being and power leaving them wondering

after it is all over. The leader will rule the world by decree, as his amazing

abilities, deceptive or real, are boldly asserted, and will be sought by

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millions. It will be said that only this man can save the world, an idea he

constantly will be encouraging.

Pretending to be a man of deep humility, he will convince the world

of his own Messianic pedigree with superiority to the Jewish/Christian

Messiah, Jesus. Charging Christ with being a “do-nothing” religious guru,

he will claim accomplishments against poverty, violence and crime of all

sorts. And he will have the uncanny ability to “solve” many problems,

though his so-called solutions may not last. In worldwide televised

speeches he will quickly adopt a mocking attitude toward the “useless

business of getting oneself killed on a cross.”

He will assert that only a Messiah who comes with real practical

solutions can save mankind. And he will be quickly received by those

who have never had much interest in God.

And even at the beginning he will pull in his inner circle with a Mark

of special loyalty; those who will be initiated into the deeper secrets of the

New Age; those who will bow down and worship him directly.

They worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority

to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who

is like the beast, and who is able to wage war against him?

Revelation 13:4 (NASB)

Even some of the newly saved Jews will have second thoughts and

begin following him. They will follow a problem solver amidst the

deception growing for all men. Life will become ever more perilous to the

degree that all the historical plagues and wars no longer provide clues to

the vastness of the new catastrophe. And many authorities will simply rip

oﬀ their uniforms and vanish.

But God is not interested in ruination, not even of an anti-god world,

like this.

Against the back drop of a world in despair, God will be sending his

Army with hope to every nation and tribe and family. Even to the millions

lost in Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, the Army will appear to preach in

Mosques, and temples, and at shrines in their own languages. God is

unwilling to let them perish and begins the last call with the pressure of

the Tribulation quickly pushing millions into the kingdom.

Simultaneously two mysterious prophets who look, sound, and dress

like they just stepped out of the Bible, will appear in Jerusalem with an

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enormous voice to preach to the nations. They will quickly have a

presence on television and over the Internet, and everyone will be

following them. Soon they will attract immense audiences and after only a

few weeks under the mysterious ﬁfth seal revivals will start to break out in

spots all over the world. But with these shall also come vast and bloody

persecutions, and massacres of those who are saved.

John tells us that at the same time at the throne of God in heaven,

appear the leading edge of an uncountable group of souls slain because of

their testimony. Many are won for Christ around the world, as Jewish

evangelists with amazing powers appear as out of nowhere.

when He broke the ﬁfth seal, I saw underneath the altar the

souls of those who had been slain because of the word of

God, and because the testimony, which they had maintained.

Revelation 6:9 (NASB)

In places like Saudi Arabia, where the gospel had always been

forbidden, preachers from the Army simply start appearing. Somehow

they step unnoticed into the midst of groups and then vanish before the

local authorities can catch up and arrest them. The World Government,

and its World Church, enraged by such tactics, begin taking steps to put a

stop to all this gumshoe evangelism. Within weeks such preaching is made

illegal, and even a capital oﬀense. Beheadings become common in Islamic

nations, and Christians are ﬁlmed on the internet being torn to shreds in

places dark with Hinduism. By the thousands believers begin dying in

every dark and dangerous place on earth. And there is celebration over the

beheading of every one of them.

But instead of ﬂeeing for their lives others notice they die in triumph,

declaring they’re on their way to heaven, and going on to joys

unspeakable and full of glory!

Pursued by Anti-Christ’s intelligence operatives all over the world

these Jewish evangelists prove themselves fearless, work wondrous

miracles, and ﬁnd some way into every dark hole—from inner city

brothels and drug shops in Singapore, to secret government installations

under multiple security regimens in North Korea they are there.

Massive meetings take place among the refugees on dry desert pans in

the Sudan, and on enormous sand hills in the Sahara. At these meetings

people surge forward by the thousands to be greeted by the sound of water

gurgling; drinkable water for their own baptism. Flights of quail are

reported to have fallen on the starving, and many report miraculous

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healings. People weak with radiation sickness apparently feel wondrously

healed after such meetings.

Even in the heart of darkness, in the terrorist camps of Al Qaeda—the

Jewish evangelists speaking perfect Arabic ﬁnd their way inside, much to

the fury of the fanatics in charge. No trap, no security, and no fear of the

enemy seems to stop them. They are the Army of Zion, and they sing as

they fan out over the globe.

Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you,

and you will be hated by all nations on account of My

name.And at that time many will fall away and will deliver

up one another and hate one another…But the one who endures

to the end, he shall be saved. Matthew 24:9,10 (NASB)

During the times of the Church these words of Matthew made no

sense. Where was the grace? Where was unmerited favor in words like

holding on to the end? Grace was never earned. To the New Testament

Church, salvation is a gift and cannot be earned nor can it be kept by

doing good works. So “to endure to the end” was legalistic, and not of

grace, and many Christians struggled with these words in what is called

New Testament Matthew.

But many did not understand to whom Matthew 24 was addressed.

It could not be ordinary Christians. To maintain endurance as the way

to heaven is to make salvation a matter of works. To Christians, all

salvation is based upon faith; simple trust, not trying to obey the law by

works. But those with the seal of the Holy Spirit went away in the rapture.

Now, in the Tribulation, when the eternal holding power of the seal of

the Holy Spirit is withdrawn, all believers must simply hold on by not

taking the Mark of the Beast to their eternal damnation. Understanding

that, Matthew 24 makes perfect sense. Because Matthew 24 was addressed

to Israel in the depths of the Tribulation.

But how do we know?

Because 24 includes all sorts of issues which would confront Israel,

not in the days of Jesus in his ﬁrst appearance, but later in the Tribulation,

and nothing of the Church is left in it or it is strange doctrine indeed.

The “Abomination of Desolation,” or the modern day pollution of the

temple, which takes place half way through Daniel’s last week is there.

This is a distinctly Tribulation week verse. So we discover that this whole

section of Matthew is written primarily for the Israelite who has been

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saved, but has fallen into the Tribulation. Zion (Israel) is still in the world

after the rapture to be witnesses to the coming Kingdom, the very reason

why it is called Jacob’s Trouble for Israel.

So regardless of how sold out for Christ a man sounds during Jacob’s

Trouble, if such a man swears allegiance to the Anti-Christ and takes his

Mark in his forehead or right hand, that man is lost forever. This in spite

of his earlier profession.

The unbreakable “seal of the Holy Spirit,” (not the whole Spirit

himself) which is resident in believers of the Church during our own time,

and was given as a pledge by God, seems to be withdrawn as the Church

leaves at the rapture. The pledge, or seal, is unique to the Church and

came at her birth at Pentecost and it seems to have left again at the

rapture. It may well be at least part of the mysterious “restrainer” which

holds back the appearance of Anti-Christ until he (the restrainer) is taken

out of the way. Of course the Holy Spirit himself will still be present, as

he was present in the Old Testament, but his New Testament ministry of

the unbreakable “seal,” promising eternal life (Ephesians 1:13) is now

gone. The “restrainer,” a Church ﬁlled with the unbreakable seal of God’s

grace, is gone.

Matthew 24 is a list of survival tips for the Jew (or gentile) who

missed Christ, and so missed the rapture and ﬁnds himself in the jaws of

the Tribulation. These are things Jesus told his disciples in warning of

what would be coming.

they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you and

you will be hated by all nations on account of My name

Matthew 24:7–9 (NASB)

Jesus tells these Jews that during the Tribulation the Anti-Christ

would eventually hunt them down and bring them before courts of the

world system. The courts would criminalize their Christianity, and

because they would refuse to reject Christ, they would be hated and even

killed. But the true believer would cling to the name of his Messiah

forever.

Some would capitulate and take the Mark at the price of eternal loss to

their souls. They will ﬁll their immediate need, just as Esau ﬁlled his

stomach, despising what God had given, and with the same result. God

said “Esau I have hated and Jacob loved.” So it will be for those who turn

true believers into the authorities.

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Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill

you, and you will be hated by all nations because of

My name.At that time many will fall away and will betray one

another and hate one another.

Matthew 24: 9-10 (NASB)

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the

world for a witness to all the nations, and then the

end shall come.

Matthew 24:14 (NASB)

The Army of Zion is coming.

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Zion’s Promise

When the army of Zion, twelve thousand from each of the twelve

tribes of Israel spreads out over all the earth, God will be leading. In fact,

to the people around them who will love them, take them in, and protect

them, they will seem to possess strange powers. While appearing to be

speaking Hebrew, as in the case of Peter at Pentecost, I believe God will

translate their words into all languages so that their words will be

understood.

This is only conjecture, there is no place that the Word teaches this

directly, but it is based on what happened at Pentecost. Peter chose to

preach out of an end-time text in the book of Joel during the events

surrounding the coming of the Holy Spirit into the Church, and all the

people from various countries visiting Jerusalem understood his preaching

in their own languages. The text out of Joel Peter quotes is about an end-

time army of Jewish evangelists.

And from this I surmise that God is giving us a clue. I think for this

special Army of end-time “Peters,” God will again reverse the confusion of

the Tower of Babel and restore a common understanding, so that everyone

will hear in the language of his home. God is saying that when the Holy

Spirit takes away the Church, such times as when he ﬁrst brought about

the Church would come again to the Jews. To reach the entire world in

three years this Army will be able to communicate to everyone!

And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of

the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he

cried out with a loud voice…saying “Do not harm the

Earth or the sea…until we have sealed the bond-

servants of our God on their foreheads.”

Revelation 7:2-3 (NASB)

As the world leader will mark his own with the Mark of the Beast, the

Army of Zion will be marked with the Mark of God. And most likely that

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mark will be visible for all to see. For these are God’s shock troops, the

third part of God’s promise, the “blessing of Abraham.” And they will tell

the world of the Kingdom of the Great King, Yeshua (Jesus), soon coming

back to rule the world from the throne of David.

They will ﬁnish Jesus’s Great Commission to take the Gospel to the

ends of the earth, a commission which the Church began but was never

intended to complete. Every tribe on earth will hear, every family ﬁnd

blessing before the darkness falls and Armageddon comes. For the night is

coming in the world when no man can work.

Most of this evangelism will take place in the ﬁrst half of the

Tribulation, when the Lamb is peeling away the seals on the Book of Life.

The Red Horseman will have reached the pinnacle of his power, in the

battle of Magog. And Russia will have already come upon Israel, and

stirred up the whole earth, now plunging steadily into World War III.

The ﬁnal chapter of all these wars is the Battle of Armageddon,

and many millions of those who have survived the other troubles will

perish there. The wars of the Red Horseman will feature at least some

strategic nuclear warheads, and the men of the earth will cower in their

bomb shelters, dug out from beneath the mountains. They will say:

…hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne,

and from the wrath of the Lamb…for the great day of their

wrath has come…

Revelations 6: 17 (NASB)

And I shall send ﬁre upon Magog and those who inhabit the

coastlands in safety,…

Ezekiel 39: 6 (NASB)

It is hard to imagine a clearer picture of a nuclear war as written by a

man seeing it happen without the science to understand it from 90 AD,

than the following:

The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, every

mountain and island were moved out of their places.the kings

of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the

and the strong and every slave and man hid themselves in the

caves and among the rocks of the mountains

Revelation 6: 14-16 (NASB)

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Such words of the prophets so describe a nuclear war, that it cannot be

dismissed for something else. The sky splits at the detonation and the

resulting surge moves mountains and islands. The moon turns red and the

sky is darkened from dust and nuclear material blown high into the upper

atmosphere. In theory such dust and matter can so shade the ground as to

Bring on nuclear winter. By the sixth seal even the non-believer knows

this doomsday scenario comes from the presence of the Lamb. And when

those days arrive they will call on the rocks to hide them from the blast

and the radioactivity and the Lamb Himself. The rich and well connected

will resort to bunkers they have already built for such a day, hoping the

rocks of the earth can cover them.

This is the wrath of the Lamb.

But the Army of Zion is not detoured by war, by famine, or even by

pestulence, and will be with the people in these underground shelters

telling each family about Christ and his coming….

And as bad as all this will be, even killing one fourth of mankind, it is

nothing compared to what is coming. It is so terrible Jesus said that if this

Tribulation were to go on very long, it would end all life on earth.

...for then will be great tribulation such as has not

occured since the beginning of the world until now.

Nor ever shall. And unless those days had been cut

Short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake

Of the elect, Those days shall be cut short.

Matthew 24:21,22 (NASB)

Jacob’s Trouble for Israel, and called by the gentiles the Trbulation, is

described by the great prophet Jeremiah as a time when even grown men

are under such stress they act like women in labor. But there is more.

Jeremiah sees beyond the trial to a time of great rejoicing. He describes

Israel as a people God has rejected and scattered and then brought back

together, and like a “gentle shepherd” redeemed. When they ﬁnally

understand he is Jesus and not somebody else. Once they understand they

will become a people “who will sing to God on the heights of Zion,” to the

end that myriads of people will not go to eternal damnation, but to eternal

bliss. A people tireless to win over the world.’

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For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, And ransomed him from the

hand of one stronger than he Therefore they shall come and sing in

the height of Zion,

Jeremiah 31:10–13 (NKJV)

In Revelation chapter 14, when the Army of Zion returns from their

evangelism in all the world, they sing a new song with Jesus perhaps again

transﬁgured on the mountain. In the face of the Tribulation, they will stand

again on Mount Zion as when they were called, enjoying God and

worshipping. In all likelihood they meet the Lamb himself upon that

mountain, in a kind of second transﬁguration, and perhaps now they are

all radiant as was their deliverer Moses.

Thus the promise to Abraham will be fulﬁlled. They will have

gathered in those from the highways and the byways and they will have

turned to God a multitude no man can ever count.

Israel has now been given her three great giftings of the Promise; the

land, the seed and now the blessing. And her countless stars, Abraham’s

seed, will shine forever, children of Abraham after the faith in Christ.

And I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount

Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand

Having His name and the name of His Father written on

Their foreheads.

… And they sang a new song before the thone and before

The four living creatures and the eldes; and no one could

Learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four

Thousand…And no lie was found in their mouth; they are

Blameless. And I saw another angel ﬂying in midheaven,

Having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on

The earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and

People…”

Revelation 14:1–6 (NASB)

How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings

Good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of

happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, “You

God reigns!”(And during the coming Millenial Rule He will)

Isaiah 52:7 (NASB)

For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace;

The mountains and the hills will break forth into

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shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the ﬁeld will clap

their hands. Isaiah 55:12 (NIV)

Mankind has been lied to by Satan and we have believed him. We

have been duped into thinking God’s primary motivation for Revelation is

his anger. Even the word Apocalypse has come to mean God’s ﬁnal

vengeance against wayward mankind. And make no mistake; God is angry

the world has rejected Christ. But it was his love that caused him to send

Yeshua, the Messiah to be spat upon, and beaten, and ﬁnally killed. He

loves the young and the old. He loves every human soul. God has always

had an unreasonable love for this wayward creature called man, and

intends to rescue a huge number at the very last possible moment.

And as we have said, the Apocalypse means “unveiling.” It is not the

getting even by a vengeful deity, but rather this unveiling to Israel as his

last word, spoken in rescue. Satan, and by this point the reader ought to

understand that there is a personal power of evil as real as there is one of

righteousness, does nothing but vengeful destroying. God sends the

Apocalypse to open the way to return a runaway world to himself—to

unveil Christ to a lost humanity to make it his own and not to destroy it.

This is the Army of Zion. This is its mission, to gather in the last call

on the earth. To go into the highways and byways and compel them to

come to the Master’s feast, just as predicted in the parable.

A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and

at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who

had been invited,

‘Come; for everything is ready now.’

But they alike all began to make excuses… Then the head

of the household became angry… go out at once into the

streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and

crippled and blind and lame.’…

And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways

and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that

my house may be ﬁlled Luke 14:16-23 (NASB)

After these things I looked, and behold a great

multitude, which no one could count, from every nation

and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before

the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and

palm branches were in their hands

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And one of the elders…[said]…‘These who are clothed in the

white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?’

These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation

and they have washed their robes and made them white in the

blood of the Lamb

Revelation 7: 9,14 (NASB)

The Army of Zion is not stoppable. Even though the Beast (the world

leader) will try to stall them and kill them, not one of them shall be lost.

They emerge from the text in Revelation chapter 7, percolate throughout

the world and into the same nations they once wandered through in exile

during their long dispersion. And then they reunite to sing together the

song of the Lord’s victory in Revelation 14. And amazingly not one of

them is missing. God will supernaturally protect his army. Great is the

eﬀect these 144,000 Jewish evangelists will have wherever they may go.

They will bring joy and honor and truth. Indeed as the psalmist states,

“How lovely on the mountains are those feet which carry this good news

to all of mankind.”

, awake, clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion;

clothe yourself in your beautiful garments,...

Shake yourself from the dust, rise up,captive Jerusalem;

Wake yourself from the chains around your neck,

O captive daughter of Zion...

Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually

blasphemed all day long.

Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that

I am the one who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’

How lovely on the mountains

Are the feet of him who brings good news

Who announces peace

And says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

Isaiah 52:1–2,5–7 (NASB)

God will marshal his army in the day when the devil marshal’s his.

God’s army will come proclaiming joy, new life, and a New World

coming. The devil will bring death and destruction and a New Age of the

occult which is coming. The decision for each human being will never be

clearer.

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At the end of the harvest of the earth, when some have appeared in

heaven at the throne of God, from every tongue and family complete, the

Army meets with the transﬁgured Christ once more on the Mount of

Olives. As Jeremiah said, “Radiant on the Mountain of Zion.”

I looked and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount

Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand…

And they sang a new song before the thro no one could

learn the song except the one hundred and forty four thousand

Revelation 14:1–3 (NASB)

This is the moment Abraham was promised.

On Mount Zion will come the fulﬁllment to the words God spoke to

father Abraham more than 3000 years ago. Israel has become the source of

the promised blessing to all mankind, even as angels sang over a crib in

Bethlehem,

“Peace on earth, good will toward man.”

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The Seven Trumpets

The last of the seal judgments moves us into the next register dealing

with the seven trumpet judgments. These are terrible; exponentially more

severe than the seals which they follow.

The trumpets carry on with the ﬁrst half of this horriﬁc week of years

to the middle point at which time the Abomination of Desolation

introduces the second 3 ½ years called the Great Tribulation, almost too

terrible to contemplate.

But even though every person is in jeopardy during these terrible

blasts, the sounding of the trumpets are is still a call to grace. They

demand attention to eternal things. Moreover the trumpets generally focus

on the great payment of the blood of Christ, which had been rejected by

every single person still alive on planet earth.

Through the metaphor of blood, God continues to catch the attention

of his runaway world. Wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and so

many continue to go that way; and for them, the time is running out.

But the narrow way that leads to life is still open, but it is closing.

Time is running out. Those who still ﬁnd grace are is narrowing down to a

trickle. In God’s great mercy a multitude have understood and come out of

the Tribulation already. Most have been martyred for their decision, and

death for believers is commonplace during this terrible time. God is still

not willing that any should perish in Hell but that all should come to a

knowledge of the truth. And there is more to these trumpets than most

readers of Revelation usually see.

And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to

them were given seven trumpets. Then another angel,

having a censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given

much incense, that he should oﬀer it with the prayers of

the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints,

ascended before God from the angel’s hand

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Revelation 8:2–4 (NKJV)

And the ﬁrst angels sound their trumpets.

As they sound, a series of judgments ﬁll the earth with blood. Now

God is reminding man of what it cost to buy his freedom even when they

have spat on it. As Jesus said just before his own death, even about the

blood of his followers:

Therefore behold I am sending you prophets and wise men

…some of them you will kill and crucify…that upon you may

fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from

the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah…whom

you murdered between the temple and the altar…all these

things shall come upon this generation.

Matthew 23: 34-36 (NASB)

The ﬁrst four trumpets speak of the creation, this wonderful world of

color and living things God made for man to enjoy. The world God made

is bleeding and sore from sin.

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly revealing

of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not

willingly…that the creation itself also will be set free from its

slavery to corruption…for the whole creation groans and suﬀers

the pains of child birth together until now.

Romans 8:19–22 (NASB)

The very oceans start to bleed.

God gave mankind a blue gem of a world, a world of sparkling fresh

clean water. God made the world on a glorious morning when the angels

sang. The Bible tells us that it was actually formed from a matrix of water

gas in the darkness of space. Formed out of this water, and ﬁlled with life

when the Spirit of God had been there over the surface of the water.

And God spoke saying, “Let there be light! And there had been light.”

Water, light, and life, and it all was a wonder, a garden which allowed

Adam to sit with God himself in the cool of the morning and fellowship

together. So wonderful in fact that the angels sang about it, and God had

looked upon what he had made, and it even seemed good to him.

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But now some 6000 years later, the creation itself is bleeding.

And each time the earth is struck with the rod of a new trumpet it

screams in an agony of death and deﬁlement. God had not planned for

this. This was not his way. But because he knows all; every end from

every beginning, he knew it would all come to pass. God had explained as

much to the ﬁrst couple. They would enjoy all things in innocence so long

as they remained obedient.

A knowledge of good and evil would never help them to enjoy their

garden, or their world. Ethics and rules cannot enforce goodness. All that

such ethics do is to give understanding of how far from the standard one

has come. In innocence such issues never come to mind. One does not try

to be good because one is intrinsically good. In innocence, God himself

would always be nearby to help them.

But afterward, when their eyes were opened to understand good and

evil for themselves, all they could do was evil. They belonged to evil. Yes

they now had more sophistication, but it was worthless and only made

them unhappy as it has done for all human beings ever since.

There was only one way back, and not to innocence, but to something

quite diﬀerent, called righteousness.

To the Father’s great sorrow, the only road back passed right through

the heart of his own dear Son. God put his own Son on a Roman cross to

pay for all that had been done. But men ﬁlled with selﬁshness and

rebellion revolted even from God’s grace, and now this was the hideous

outcome. Sin had changed the Garden of Eden into a reeking, dangerous,

blood bathed noisome swamp.

To nail the Son of God to a cross without accepting his payment

yourself, is to become guilty of the murder of God. And once done it is to

aid Satan in destroying the world. It is to become guilty of deocide. It is to

have the righteous blood of Calvary on one’s own hands.

God said the ground shouts to him about all the blood shed upon it

from righteous Able to his own dear Son. Not a drop of this righteous

blood spilled by sin has been forgotten.

…upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood

shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the

blood of Zechariah…whom you murdered between the

temple and the altar.

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Matthew 23:35 (NASB)

So now the world will bathe in its own wicked violence. Vengeance is

God’s and he will have it. He will righteously judge men forever.

So the ﬁrst trumpet of God’s righteous vengeance sounds, and

hailstones fall with blood and ﬁre. The next rings out and a mountain,

perhaps a small asteroid falls into the sea, and the oceans are transformed

into blood. Another trumpet, and a burning star falls into the rivers, and

the rivers also ﬂow in red. And all the heavenly stars are darkened, as if

they were struck, and they too dim as they shine through an atmosphere

ﬁlled with a haze of blood. Man has ﬁlled God’s beautiful world with

death, and now it has come back to speak of what he has done.

The men of the earth rejected the saving blood. They have been given

a world made out of the horror of blood. And by this point the world

would look like a dark and dying ruby, an orb of bloody red with garish

pink swirls in it.

Finally the environmentalists and Al Gore have been proven correct,

but by misdiagnosing the problem. The problem with mankind is not

pollution of the soil and water; it is the pollution of the heart. From space

the beautiful sapphire is now a scabby looking ruby. The creation God

made as a gift man was to enjoy, he has soiled with the ghastly stain of

sin, and left it wounded and bleeding. It has become too poisoned for life

to continue upon it. Even the animals God gave man to rule over, and to

share his journey, are all wounded and slowly dying.

But the trumpets are far from over.

Across the sky with a voice audible to every human ear, an angel

soars in appearance as an eagle and he comes proclaiming three deadly

woes. Perhaps the same angel who once proclaimed Jesus’s birth, now

proclaims death in a dying world.

Three woes are coming, perhaps one woe for each of the Trinity, one

woe for each who contributed to the making of the world. For those on the

ground, it will be hard to contemplate. After what they had seen, and what

they had experienced, what worse things could follow? But These “woes”

will switch focus from the physical creation to the world of the spiritual.

Our battle is not against ﬂesh and blood but against powers, against

principalities, against the world forces of this present darkness. These

woes deal with the wars that go on in the unseen. And as the spiritual is of

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a higher order than the physical, so are these woes. Hell is about to be

unleashed.

For those who still choose against grace, they will now be shown just

what they are about to embrace. Now they will understand what is waiting

for the rebellious soul on the other side of death without Christ. But many

will choose to join with death.

A fallen angel, Apollyon, whose very name means destroyer, is

dispatched to open up the abyss. Apparently this door, forever guarded by

hosts of angels, is left open to him. Predictably Satan, who always

believes in attacking weakness, senses a ﬂaw in the watchfulness of

heaven. This dark lord of destruction opens the door.

The abyss is the bottomless pit, a pit so deep it is probably at the very

center of the planet where there is no bottom. And therein, in a blackness

like death itself, where not the slightest scintilla of light penetrates have

dwelled monsters the Lord put there near the beginning.

At the time of the ﬂood some of the worst demons were placed in the

depths of darkness because they went after “strange ﬂesh.” In this case

the “strange ﬂesh” had been a sexual relationship between angels and

men. These had seen the daughters of men and had lusted after them.

angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned

their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness

for the judgment of the great day…these indulged in gross

immorality and went after strange ﬂesh, are exhibited as an

example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal ﬁre.

Jude 6 and 7 (NASB)

These were the angels of Genesis chapter 6 who somehow went in to

human women and produced a new breed of men, the Nephilim, still

known in many folk lores as the six ﬁngered ones. These were a great

terror in that time of rage against God, a race of giants. This was perhaps

the ﬁnal sin which acted as a tripwire to open the gates to the waters of the

great ﬂood.

When the ﬁfth trumpet sounds, the ﬁrst woe begins.

The ﬁfth trumpet accompanies the opening of the abyss by Apollyon.

It sounds out doom to all who refuse to be governed by their Creator. It is

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a picture of what happens to the creation without God’s limits. Even as

this trumpet sounds from down in the bowls of the earth an ancient evil is

released. When this accursed door cracks open, a coal black cloud erupts;

the very breath of the pit, ﬂowing out into the atmosphere of the world. An

inky cloud of utmost evil quickly ﬁlls earth’s atmosphere, snuﬃng out all

light and suﬀocating all hope and joy and good.

Following the winds aloft, black streamers ﬂow out in all directions

covering the land, and shielding it from the sun. From bleeding red, the

world quickly darkens into coal tar black, and it leaves Satan laughing at

how he has ﬁnally obliterated all the beauty God made.

Men have always loved darkness and hated the light. But no man will

embrace the menace inside this darkness. There seems to be some sort of

primal fear of that which is hidden in the dark. Perhaps that is the

attraction for horror ﬁlms. Attracted by the adrenalin surge in such ﬁlms,

and afraid of them too, and now they will ﬁnd out what the horror is

hidden within the dark.

For inside this black cloud, billowing out from the abyss, is a demonic

plague of what the English Bible has forever labeled “locusts,” because

the King James scholars had nothing else to compare them with. So the

word “locust” has stuck in English translations to the present. And it was a

good comparison in one sense. These things surely do remind the reader of

the plagues of insects which still emerge from the sands of the Middle

East.

Even today, it is a fearful thing to behold when insects start to

combine by the billions and move as a seething cloud over the land,

decimating everything. They have been known to eat whole trees, animals,

fabric, and even people. And this horrible image is bad enough, but these

things during the Tribulation are hellish and worse. They are demonic, and

they are more like a ear breaking cloud of ﬂying scorpions, than locusts or

grasshoppers.

But they are more than witless insects, they have the minds of

demented human beings. They have hideous humanlike faces swarming in

the darkness with a mind-shattering, high-pitched vibrational sound,

creating terror somewhat like a traditional plague. And like airborne

scorpions, they sting with the poison in their tails, and the venom is

something no human being can tolerate. With these, they torment those

who are still alive on the earth.

Thrashing about in the dark people will desire to die from their stings

but for some reason God will make their deaths elusive. These are people

who have gotten through the wrath of the Lamb, the Four Horsemen the

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war, the starvation and even the radioactive pestilence. They have

experienced a world with only blood to drink, and now they are under

torment from these ﬂying horrors.

Only those people who carry the Mark of God will be excluded from

their sting; but all will suﬀer the horror, the dark, and the ever mounting

insane noise, of these creatures. Even believers who will have God’s mark

will be struggling in the midst of the bleak coal blackness which can never

relent to the sun. A blackness which will drive those who cannot stand

claustrophobic conditions to go insane.

And these demon insects will have intelligence and a special hatred of

all that is wholesome and good. They were fashioned into these hideous

forms from what were once God’s fallen angels. And because they have

lost their original angelic majesty, they despise the human race and

beauty, delighting in its anguish. Humanity is driven wild with suﬀering,

and worse than death might be the longing for death when death cannot be

found.

It seems a merciful God is giving a taste of that sort of torment which

never ends. The only thing worse would be an endless Hell, to be locked

up forever in the dark of the pit beneath. How tragic are those who have

decided Hell would be the better decision. It is not. Hell is forever, and

Hell is just not do-able, but the bad news is that we are all headed for Hell

until, we ﬁnd Jesus.

Hell is a burning blackness for which there is no end and no way out,

and no way to change one’s mind. Some teach the soul burns until it is

extinguished and vanishes forever. And with all sincerity I wish such

teaching were true. It is almost unbearable to imagine even one’s greatest

enemy in Hell forever. But alas, as we read in Revelation 14, “the smoke

of their torment goes up forever.”

Is this, the trumpet of the ﬁrst “woe” horror? Yes it is horror. But

through the horror contained and accompanying this trumpet God has once

again shown his grace. Perhaps it is only with such a frightening

exhibition that God can still get through to hardened sinners, those who

have survived the Tribulation, and are still tempting Hell, still determined

to take their own sweet eternal soul and go to that place.

Many treat Hell as a joke, but the description of Hell in the Bible

shows it will be anything but funny. A drill instructor I had in the Marine

Corps during Vietnam used to make us shout out that old Marines never

die but go to Hell and regroup. Hell was a laughing matter. I never laugh

anymore. Hell will not be a party. In case you are still deceived, please

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listen, Hell will not be everlasting booze, chicks, and eternal sensuality.

Hell will be utter aloneness amidst everlasting agony. Hell will conﬁne its

inmates in with their own personal hatred forever. But this trumpet calling

out the doom of the world still announces safety can still be had. While

there is life people still may repent, even at so late a time as this. The thief

on the cross called out in his own death agony and his savior took him to

eternity.

So ends the ﬁrst “woe” on the earth.

And one might imagine these trumpets could never get much worse.

But that imagination would be in error. For the next trumpet, the sixth,

allows Hell to truly convene and take control over the surface of the earth.

Hell will be in session all over the globe.

Four evil angelic beings have long kept captive in the land of Shinar

where men returned to sin after the ﬂood, and built the Tower of Babel.

With the sixth trumpet, the second “woe” these evil angelic powers are

released to do their worst. This will spell the utter doom of hundreds of

millions who are still unwilling to follow Christ.

the four destroying angels, who had been prepared for

an hour and day and month and year, were released to

kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the

horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of

them.

Revelation 9:15,16 (NKJV)

Bible scholars argue over this army.

Chairman Mao of China once bragged his People’s Army of China

could mobilize 200 million into battle. And certainly China would

constitute one of the major “Kings of the East.” So that even Hal Lindsey

in his famous book on prophecy, The Late, Great Planet Earth, said this

vast Communist Chinese land force would become the core of an

enormous army of the east, an army of 200 million.

This army would march westward, cross the dried up Euphrates and

come into the west to fulﬁll the sixth trumpet. It would be an army of

human beings primarily composed of the Chinese with help from the

Japanese.

But without question, he was wrong.

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For one thing it is too early. The call to come to the great battle at

Megiddo (Armageddon) has not yet been called. The Battle of

Armageddon when all the remaining armies of earth are called to the

Middle East comes at the very end of the Great Tribulation, which is yet

some six years distant.

China will eventually march over Euphrates and through the Khyber

Pass, to get to the plains of Jezreel and the great “Valley of Decision,”

mentioned in the book of Joel. But this is still the ﬁrst half of Daniel’s

week, and as we have stated Armageddon comes years later.

But even were that not so, there are huge problems with this Chinese

explanation, the least of which is the practicality. An army of 200 million

human beings marching on their feet is just not reasonable. This would be

like taking more than half the population of the United States out on a

hike.

Just try to imagine getting more than half the population of this

country to march a thousand miles to southern Mexico and there to

organize and ﬁght a war. Getting them all ready to line up and move at one

time would be gargantuan.

But where would you put all their refuse? You would need to carry

along a billion porta-potties for the billions of gallons of urine, and the

millions of tons of plain old fashioned feces. Such a group would literally

produce mountains of this stuﬀ. What would you do with it?

And this is only the beginning. Every time you camped you would

need a new lake on the scale of Michigan for drinking water and cooking.

Food would require a constant line of semitrailers and trains just to haul it

along. And where would you get the facilities for anyone to prepare all

this food? Cooking would have to be done by the multiple train load at a

constant rate, all day and all night. And there would not be enough time in

the day to feed all these men.

So a marching army this size is simply ridiculous because it would be

completely cumbersome and pointless in a world with nuclear weapons.

You just don’t need the Golden Horde to accomplish great things

anymore.

But this army of the second “woe” is not human. The second woe

does unleash something of such vast proportions it is beyond human

imagination. So enormous it boggles the mind. There will be 200 million

of these riders, but they are not human beings.

The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred

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million;I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw in the

vision the horses and those who sat on them; the riders had

breastplates the color of ﬁre…and of brimstone; and the

of the horses are like the headsof lions; and out of their mouths

proceed ﬁre and smoke. A third of mankind was killed by these

Revelation 9:16–18 (NASB)

These soldiers are all dressed in the livery of an ancient cavalry, their

chests bearing a breastplate of hyacinth, yellow, and red. These riders are

not human, they are from the pit. These are demon knights of the

netherworld, they smell of burning brimstone the very smell of Hell.

These riders are the angels thrown down from heaven. They are the

ministers of death sent from the pits of darkness. These riders cross great

oceans and spread all over the globe with but one sinister purpose. They

kill.

Their demonic eyes glitter with the reptile eyes of their father the

devil, and their mounts certainly have no resemblance to earthly horses.

The beasts they ride kill from front or back with teeth and with ﬁre. Even

their breath is poisonous and they are certainly monsters. These are not

regular horsemen at all, and they remind us more of the “black riders of

Mordor” than anything human.

Here is a picture of the evil spirits of Babylon being released to

destroy the whole earth and to kill the third of whatever can possibly be

left of mankind. And the worst horror movie pales when one thinks of a

world ﬁlled with such grinning monstrosities coming from every direction.

There can be no safety in such a world. Two hundred million of them

herding people by the millions and butchering them at will. They have no

mercy about them. And since these things are demonic they may be able to

pass through walls.

Imagine a world in which there is no place to hide. No place safe from

them. They catch the traveler unaware in dark and lonely places. One

moment a family is huddled in the relative safety of their home and the

next they are confronted by a being leering at them through devil’s eyes,

riding right through their walls. No one would ever know when they

would suddenly appear, and kill.

By this point, only three and one half years into the Tribulation, only

half of the human race has managed to survive. Some four billion have

already perished but the Tribulation is only half over and mankind leans

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over the precipice. For what is coming is much worse as the world

plunges into the Great Tribulation, the most terrible time of all world

history. And while millions have perished as martyrs in the greatest

ingathering of souls for Christ in all history, most of mankind still remains

hardened against God, and against his Son.

And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these

plagues, repent of the works of their hands, so as not to

worship demons…and they did not repent of their murders

nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality

Revelation 9:20 (NASB)

How the Lord strains to make his point. But even one of his own

disciples who lived and walked and worked for three years with him was

lost. This terrible thing called sin lies deep in the heart of man. So while

millions have passed into heaven and are part of the multitude under the

throne of God no man can count, many continue to resist out of pride,

unwilling to turn to him and live. And many continue dying in such

perilous times without Christ.

They resisted the gospel prior to the rapture. They resisted the seven

seals of the Wrath of the Lamb, and now they have resisted the trumpets

and even the two woes of Satan, and time is running short for them.

For by the end of the Trumpets we are at the Tribulation halfway

point, and the last trump makes all that has happened pale by comparison.

For the last and seventh “woe” is the Great Tribulation. When this

trumpet sounds, it means the end of hope has ﬁnally come. As God states

clearly, such times must be shortened or no ﬂesh would survive on the

earth.

But as the earth prepares for the last 3½ years of hellish trial, unseen

and in anticipation of the new world, a great landing takes place. An

enormous angel, absolutely the Lord himself dressed out as a warrior, as

he often appeared in the Old Testament, the Angel of the Lord, descends

and places one great foot into the sea, and one onto the land.

His face is like the sun and his legs are pillars of ﬁre, and he has a

rainbow all around him. The landing party of heaven has come, and it is

D-day Earth. But no one on earth remains with eyes to see him come.

But as he lands this mighty one speaks with the voice of the Lion of

Judah roaring out over the surface of the earth, and the thunders peal in

answer to him. He announces to all creation that the King is coming! He

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plants his ﬂag for the universe in the name of Yahweh, Creator and Lord of

all that exists.

This is the same one who appeared to John on his island. This is the

totally unveiled Lamb who now returns in secret to claim what is his own.

He is the Lion of Judah, and his roar ﬁlls the universe. The time for the

Lamb has passed, and the time for the Lion has ﬁnally come. He will sit on

the throne of David, and he comes to make his claim. He has come to

present his credentials. He will soon throw out the pretender who calls

himself the prince of the power of the air, the devil of hell.

And he bears a document in his great hand, and I think this is ﬁnally

the title deed to planet earth. It is the document proclaiming him King of

Kings, and Lord of Lords and the time of the iniquity draws near to being

over. He will rule from Jerusalem over all the earth for a thousand years,

and then into the eternity coming.

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of

Our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever

And ever.

Revelation 11:15 (NASB)

And standing upon the earth, looking into heaven at the Father, he

lifts his voice in joyful victory, and shouts with the thunder rolling:

by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and

the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea

and the things in it, that there shall be delay no longer…the

mystery of God is ﬁnished.

Revelation 10:6,7 (NASB)

For there is no more mystery left. Christ has been unveiled.

There is no further argument over who is the rightful king. When sin

came into the world, the title to the earth was given over to a squatter, the

devil of hell. And who was it who allowed in the squatter? Sorrowfully it

was our forbear Adam to whom the deed to the earth had been given.

Adam turned earth over to Satan, and the enemy of God became the

“prince of the power of the air.”

For all the thousands of years since the Garden of Eden, earth’s

atmosphere has been an occupied space. And so the accuser began to

arrogantly trample upon his occupied world, going to and fro over the

surface of the earth, as he boasted to God in the time of Job.

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But this would end soon. The Lion of Judah had returned. The rightful

King would soon sit upon earth’s throne. And the battle is already won. It

was won at the cross. But there will be war none the less.

So even as the seventh trumpet sounds, and the landing party from

heaven lands. The great angel of the Lord himself hands John the

proclamation, and with the last trump, the last woe…begins the Great

Tribulation.

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Credentials of the Great

King

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel...I am the ﬁrst and the

last, and there is no God besides Me. And who is like Me

Let him proclaim and declare it; Is there any God besides Me,

Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.”

Isaiah 43:6–8 (NASB)

But in the days of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound,

then the mystery of God is ﬁnished

Revelation 10:7 (NASB)

And by common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He

who was revealed in the ﬂesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Beheld

by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world,

Taken up in glory. I Timothy 3:16 (NASB)

These are the credentials of the great King.

He was revealed to mankind, and vindicated before all that has breath

in the Spirit. He was beheld by angels, and proclaimed among the nations,

and ﬁnally, taken up into glory. His birth was foretold ﬁve hundred years

before he was born through Micah and the prophets of Israel.

But as for you Bethlehem Ephrata, too little to be among the

clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be

ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the

days of eternity.

Micah 5:2 (NASB)

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And even Balaam, a gentile, and sometimes a false prophet from the

nations, was told about his star.

A star shall come forth from Jacob, And a scepter shall rise

from Israel...” Numbers 24:17 (NASB)

And in the course of time he was revealed to mankind—ﬁrst to

Mary.

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named

to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph,

The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel

said to her,… “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the

powerof the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that

Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Luke 1:26,27,30,35 (NASB)

So simply was the insertion of God into the ﬂesh of mankind

explained. Simple shepherds and the wise men of the east came to see God

born into human ﬂesh. There was no distinction. God was demonstrating

his love for all men. As Micah the prophet promised, his star appeared

over his crib side, and the nations saw it. Magi, wise men from the east,

trekked long over dangerous and distant roads to ﬁnd him and to give him

precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh; emblems as it turned out,

of his throne, his authority, and his death.

And what they saw looked like a baby. And yes Jesus was a baby; but

a baby who grew to become a man like no other man. A man in whom the

hypostatic union formed, fully man, and fully God, and there has never

been any other like him. God the Son had become man. One day he set

out on his mission and he was proclaimed the Lamb of God by the

forerunner, John the Baptist, who simply stated:

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

John 1:29 (NASB)

And with John’s words came the Holy Spirit, who appeared and

landed like a beautiful heavenly dove, and the Almighty the Father, spoke

audibly.

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… a voice came out of heaven ‘Thou art My beloved Son, in

Thee I am well pleased’ Matthew 3:22 (NASB)

Once he was grown, the multitudes followed from Galilee to

Jerusalem. Never had the people seen such miracles or heard such words.

Surely the long-expected prophet like Moses had come. After thousands

of years a people who had lived in darkness saw a great light. Jesus was

not like their religious leaders. Never had a man spoken the way he

spoken. Never had a man performed the miracles he performed.

And when he entered the city of the Great King, Jerusalem, as the

prophet Zechariah promised so many years before, riding upon the foal of

a donkey, Israel hailed him their King. He was surely their long-awaited

Messiah. And they threw down their garments and waved their palms

branches over him. His scepter was rising among them.

Twelve disciples followed him, watched him, proclaimed him, and

believed in him. They saw him heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and

even life to the dead. They saw him walk upon the waters and still the sea.

They heard the words, which stirred them like never before, saw him alive

from the grave, which amazed them like nothing ever seen, and watched

him ascend into the clouds which steeled them like no other eleven men

had ever been steeled before them. And all but one of them, his betrayer,

went to their deaths telling the world the same story. And even the one

who had betrayed him never recanted a single word.

Do not be afraid; [said the angel] for I know you are looking

for Jesus who has been cruciﬁed. he is not here for he has

risen just as he said…

Matthew 28:5,6 (NASB)

And the people of all the ages; those of the sevenfold churches went

to the ends of the earth with this message. Man has been forgiven by the

God who made all of us. And in order to forgive us this God has died on a

human instrument of torture, to pay for our sins.

Into every teeming city, every jungle, and every mountain pass, with

this testimony, went those of the Church. Paul, who had once persecuted

and killed those who believed, encountered Jesus alive and ever after

proclaimed him. Millions dedicated their lives to this man Jesus the Christ.

So mystery ends. God has come down to earth. He is Jesus, he is

Yeshua. The one who was announced by angels, believed on by

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shepherds, worshipped by the magi, followed by the Apostles, and listened

to by crowds in Palestine, he is the one, yes listen to him. Men have

preached his message in all seven ages of the churches for 2000 years.

People have been cured from diseases, some raised from the dead. And in

his Name other multitudes have received food, help, and medical care,

while hospitals have been erected, orphanages supplied, women

protected, rescue missions built, and people delivered from addiction, on

every dark and lonely street in the world.

Others have been inspired to write music the equal of which had never

been heard before, and to make stunning works of art like no art ever seen,

and to build works of architecture and beauty, like never before.

And in this same name, science was born, and men began to discover

God’s works after him. And with science came modern medicine and new

discoveries useful to health which have helped all people everywhere.

But far more important than all the rest together; in his name millions

have been rescued from everlasting torment and everlasting destruction.

Missionaries left homes and families to trek over deserts, and oceans, and

jungles, and swamps. Many went into strange cultures, in constant fear

for life itself; to feed the poor, to raise the sick, and to and proclaim liberty

to those in the darkness of sin. Many died of brutality and sickness. Some

froze in the snow and others perished at sea. But they kept going, to tell of

the good news, of this man called Jesus.

So as the Angel of the Lord proclaimed, the mystery is ﬁnally solved.

He has come in the ﬂesh, and is a mystery no longer. Here is God standing

one foot on the land and one in the sea, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

He will rule forever upon the seat of David, and as Isaiah said, the

government will be ﬁnally be upon his shoulders. Soon the Tribulation

would be over, and the millennial rule begin. And the Great Mountain of

Zion would rise and from thee in there in the center of the earth, he will

rule the world.

But before that all happens would come the terror of the Great

Tribulation.

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Intermission: The Two, the

Woman, and the Beast

The seventh and last trumpet plunges the world into the Great

Tribulation. In our sequence we have now reached the exact mid point of

Daniel’s last week, and the start of the second half of this terrible

Tribulation. Here John is told to “measure” the new temple and ﬁnds it

will be occupied by gentiles for forty-two months, exactly three and half

years, the second half of the Tribulation.

Three and one half years prior Israel concluded a seven-year pact with

the White Horseman, the world leader. He promised peace and security,

and gave them freedom to build their Third Temple. And it apparently

takes them a little over three years to put the new temple together,

presumably from parts previously made ready for this purpose. And since

he was its sponsor and benefactor of the whole project, the world leader

will be invited to the dedication.

Without a doubt the world leader will pretend he is coming to share in

the festivities, but he has other plans, plans concocted in the halls of Hell.

He will dedicate this temple in a diﬀerent way than expected.

Some might wonder why he involves himself in the construction of a

temple dedicated to God in ﬁrst place. It is certainly not to serve the true

God in heaven. No rather Satan needs such a temple to declare his man

before the waiting world to be the god of this world.

Ler no one in any way deceive you… the son of destruction

… exalts above every so-called god... so that he takes his

seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

2 Thessalonians 2:3,4 (NASB)

So what follows the seventh and last trump, far from ushering in the

Rapture, as our Mid-Tribulation (Pre-Wrath Rapture) friends believe, it

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ushers in what is called the Abomination, the utter desolation of the

temple. From all this it becomes clear what “gentile” is going to install

himself as the main occupier of the new temple. No less a person than the

Anti-Christ (the White Horseman) himself, who has begun to cast oﬀ the

veneer of the selﬂess, helpful imitation of Jesus he had been playing, and

become the selﬁsh, devouring wolf he really is.

The world leader, now totally possessed of the devil since his

recovery from some sort of fatal wound, will revel in evil. He will love

destruction and fear, and whatever he touches will yield to hopelessness.

Eventually the whole world will understand his purposes. But he is very

clever and like the devil he is, he will go forth in deception keeping secret

the roaring lion seeking those he can devour.

His arrogance will know no bounds, and he will already feel that it is

too late to stop him. He goes to Jerusalem to sit in the temple of God,

showing himself and all the world that he is God.

And they worshipped the Beast saying, ‘Who is like the Beast

and who is able to wage war with him?’ And there was given

to him a mouth speaking arrogant and blasphemes; and

authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And

he opene his mouth in blasphemies against God..

Revelation 13: 4-6 (NASB)

And perhaps there at this dedication, the Anti-Christ will reveal

someone he has kept hidden, a powerful stranger who comes with the

entourage, a man of incredible darkness himself, a man the scripture calls

the second beast. Anti-Christ will install this stranger as the new High

Priest of a new Jewish religion in a new Jewish temple.

He is the false prophet to rule over Israel, and ensure the Jews are

included in the Mark of the Beast.

This man of darkness, undoubtedly Jewish himself is probably a

quisling of the tribe of Dan. He is a person who has been waiting in the

wings for the right moment for ages, a man to whom Satan has given

supernatural powers, in an obvious attempt to counterfeit the miracles of

God’s Two Witnesses, of whom we will hear more about shortly. So just

as Jannes and Jambres, the wizards of Pharaoh’s court, made their rods

into serpents, in duplication of Moses’ staﬀ, so will this man attempt to

deceive Israel through satanic counterfeits of the miracles of the Two

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Witnesses. But we need to look backward for a moment to see the origin

of this dark creature, the one called the false prophet.

Near the end of his life Jacob, grandson of Abraham and father of the

twelve tribes, gave a blessing over his twelve sons, each to become the

patriarch of a tribe of Israel. These words have all proven to be prophecy

and most especially he foretold the line of the King, which would come

from his son Judah and the line of the pretender who would come from his

son Joseph, forebear of Jeroboam. Jereboam would lead the ten northern

tribes into rebellion.

Over Dan he spoke some strange words.

Dan he said would become “a serpent by the way.” It seems strange to

tell your patriarch son that he would be a serpent. But from that moment

to the present, the tribe of Dan has had a checkered history. Under

Jeroboam’s rebellion, it was the tribe of Dan which ﬁrst erected one of the

false temples for the worship of the golden calf, and there have been other

events in the history of Israel that set the tribe of Dan apart. So it is likely

that the false prophet comes from this tribe and represents a ﬁnal

fulﬁllment of him being the “serpent in the way.”

And I saw another beast...And he exercises all the authority of the

ﬁrst beast...and there was given to him to give breath to the image

the beast, that the image of the beast might even speak...as many

as do not worship the image of the beast [were] killed

Revelation 13:11,12,15 (NASB)

So as the Tribulation enters the second 3 ½ years, Jerusalem is faced

with the coming of the world leader to dedicate a New Temple of Freedom

in Jerusalem. He probably comes into town a few days ahead of the

events, leaving him time to deal with the Two, some Old Testament

prophets who have appeared to preach to the world. As is usual for such

political pomp, there are many speeches and many introductions, and

during all the circumstance related to the opening of the Third Temple the

world leader might be content to sit out of the festivities and await his turn

to make a major address from the grand platform set up near the new

temple.

For hours the political cast would have been congratulating

themselves for their almost supernatural success in bringing an end to the

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struggle over the Temple Mount. Person after person announcing that

peace had ﬁnally come to the Middle East, and the representatives from

the Catholics, Jews, and the Arabs all giving credit to the world leader for

this new kind of peace. Now everyone would live comfortably on the

Temple Mount together.

And because of this, and his seeming resurrection, some of the

Catholics and Arabs were already calling him the Messiah for a new day.

But for eﬀect and because of the events of the last few days surrounding

the Temple Mount, the world leader stayed out of sight.

But at the right moment, when it was time for his appearance, his

cavalcade dramatically drove up to the front of the reviewing area, riding

in one of a stream of enormous black limos, cars designed especially by a

German manufacturer for his use. The stream of cars approaching the

front of the new temple appeared like a winding black snake. And as he

came it was obvious that this was the one who the crowd had come to see.

The excitement among all the various people assembled grew as the black

line of cars slithered in to stop.

From the hillsides above, many Israelites, and visitors to the country,

watched and it appeared that many were praying. There seemed to be a

tenseness in the spiritual atmosphere.

As the cars swung into the front of the new building and began

disembarking their contents, the crowd had become strangely silent.

Something about this whole thing seemed slightly strange, and disturbing.

The world leader’s security detail ﬁnally emerged from their giant “snake”

cars, black suits and aviator glasses, opening doors for the dignitaries,

speaking on radios, keeping watchful eyes on the crowd.

Last of all the leader exited. The silence of the pent up multitude

seemed to erupt as they saw their hero at last, the man who had solved all

their problems. The man who had given Israel her temple. But the shouts

quickly turned to gasps as they saw him falter. He was a massive man,

and overweight. But all smile as he is caught by an agent, as he begins the

long labor of climbing up the steps.

It is a reminder to everyone how the leader had been recently shot by

a religious fanatic and was seemingly dead. All the world had mourned the

loss of the only wise person left on earth. At least it had been believed he

was dead, but miraculously some said, by the power of God, modern

medicine had managed to bring him back to life.

...his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazaed

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and followed after the beast;

Revelation 13: 3b (NASB)

But it was clear he was still very weak. And to many he appeared

suddenly corpulent, almost a walking corpse, being helped by some of his

attendants up the new temple’s grand staircase. But in the process of being

lifted and carried by his attendants, and as he glances back at the multitude

a wave of whispered apprehension ripples faintly through the crowd.

Something seems very wrong with the leader’s face; something terrible in

his expression, something inhuman about his whole countenance.

Something corpse like with monstrous glowing eyes. At ﬁrst it appeared as

though he would speak. But instead, he suddenly turned to the side and

nodded at a balding individual standing in the wing, while taking a place

behind, in front of the temple doors.

Noticing this, a few in the crowd hurled some verbal invective, but the

strange bald man with his black goatee and jet black sunglass lenses came

over and stood before the microphone. A few hecklers yelled that they had

come many miles to see the leader, and not some ﬂunky, but quieted

quickly.

The balding man stood before the microphone, and the crowd got very

quiet. His eyes were invisible, and again the crowd noticed some small

diﬀerences. There was something alien about the whole man. He spoke

for about ten minutes. Still most eyes were pasted on the disturbing visage

of the world leader seated behind, near the golden of the new temple.

Pillars on the south and north of this entry had names Jachin and Boaz,

and together they meant established in the strength of Yahweh, as a

warning to anything of the enemy trying to pass there.

But as the man in the front began to speak, and to the general

amazement of everyone present, the world leader throwing all protocols

aside, disregarding even the temple regulations of which he had been

carefully instructed, signaled for one of his security men to open the great

doors. And he, most obviously a gentile, with the help of his handlers,

began to stagger over the last few steps toward the opening, the forty-foot-

high gold-covered doors gliding silently on great gilded hinges. He began

opening the temple proper to the outer court.

Out in the crowd at ﬁrst there was a growing murmuring, the sound of

many whispering. What was this gentile doing, peeking inside the Jewish

temple. But as his footsteps crossed the threshold it was becoming obvious

that the leader intended to take a tour! By the moment it was becoming

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most obvious that the man intended to do the unthinkable, to go inside the

temple of God, and he a gentile, breaking all the kosher laws of Judaism.

So as he stepped inside, rabbis throughout the receiving area came out

of their chairs with imprecations of horror on their lips. Many others, even

the many representatives from other religions still sat in shocked disbelief.

Observant Jews from all over the world all begin screaming blasphemy

and betrayal in Hebrew, and the whole crowd, Jew and Gentile alike were

on their feet erupting in a hundred diﬀerent ways; a huge contingent from

the World Government were now standing in cheering ovation. From

every hillside came the same imprecation of anguish and anger.

As the enormous doors closed behind them, there was a pause for a

moment as the world leader’s party vanished from the jumbo-trons set up

for close ups on both sides. But the signal was quickly restored and not

from the same professional feed. It had been switched over to some hand

held device being carried inside.A camera was recording the historic

passage through the restored Jewish temple, by the leader of the world. To

the absolute horror of every Israelite watching, the party of the world

leader were helping their feeble leader along the corridor moving deeper

inside. Everyone on earth was now watching a gentile walking inside the

holy temple of God. The crowd saw it all on the massive jumbo-trons

outside. And while it was obvious this was no professional production,

they were inside where no gentiles were ever supposed to be. Sometimes

the camera was pointed in the wrong direction, and the whole world would

hear bits of conversation, laughter, and lots of vulgarity, polluting the

House of God.

In shock, the whole Jewish nation watched as a modern Antiochus

Epiphanes polluted their temple, moving on into the Holy Place, past the

ﬂickering Menorah, and behind the great curtain into the Holy of Holies.

By then, the old Rabbis were ripping their shirts, and screaming

“Abomination” while tears rolled down their faces.

And the crowd had become a mob, screaming, running, carrying on,

while the Israeli Defense Force, suddenly very much in evidence

everywhere, seemed at a loss for how to gain control.

Inside, to the ultimate horror of Jews, who hid their eyes from what

they couldn’t even look at, the Anti-Christ—for they now know him as

such—had seated his buttocks on the altar of mercy, the very place where

the blood of atonement would be placed every year. The new Israeli

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believers in Yeshua correctly understood this as seating himself on the

very place representing Christ’s own blood for atonement, is placed every

year. And in the attempt to be as odious to God as possible, the Anti-

Christ sat himself with pomp and circumstance on the very blood stains

which speak of Jesus’s sacriﬁce. And there, as though seated on the very

throne of Israel, now enjoying the pleasure of raw evil coursing through

his bones, he will announce his agenda to the whole world:

“You will understand something from this moment on,” he began slowly

in a growling, demonic, even alien voice, his disturbing eyes now

obviously glowing red. “I am the only living god, the god of this world. I

built this temple and it belongs to me. And from this moment every man,

woman, and child on earth will obey my every order, carry out my every

whim, enforce my every decree. And you will do so because I am god, the

only god with which you have to do, and the very embodiment of this

world. It all belongs to me, and I am about to take it over and run it as it

should be run. You will take my loyalty Mark very soon, or you will die.

In order to receive this Mark you will fall down and worship me. That is

all for now, but there will be more later; much more.”

Both Daniel and Jesus speak of this terrible moment.

The utter blasphemy of a man placing his backside on the table of

mercy, in the Holy of Holies, and calling himself god is beyond

comprehension to most traditional Jews and Christians alike. But this

event is coming. And the message to Israel could not be clearer.

Matthew 24 warned: when Israel would see the Abomination of

Desolation standing in the Holy of Holies of God, they were to run for

their lives immediately. They were not to stop to pick up anything but,

wives and babies and run, for they would be in mortal danger.

This is now the beginning of the terrible Great Tribulation. This

Abomination of Desolation is the trigger.

when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was

through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, (let

the reader understand) then let those who are in Judea ﬂee

to the mountains…

Matthew 24: 15-16 (NASB)

At this point, the Book of Revelation is interrupted from its coherence

to the clock and the calendar. Here, in the center of the Tribulation, at the

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beginning of the Great Tribulation, comes what might be called an

intermission, where reside three chapters of Revelation (11 to 13) more

descriptive than chronological. Three chapters of explanation, and they are

three of the most fascinating chapters in the whole Bible. In the case of

Revelation chapter 12, a much-expanded time period is in view, perhaps

the span of the entire period of earth’s existence.

In the ﬁrst of these, Revelation 11, the Two Witnesses of God are

introduced. These two are the “Men-in-Black” of the Bible. They step out

of the pages of all the scripture at interesting and unexpected times. And

they vanish back as quickly as they come out.

We all know the story of Moses and the great plagues which

eventually caused Egypt to let Israel go. We have heard about the crossing

of the Red Sea, with walls of water that broke down when Pharaoh’s

chariots tried to follow through the Sea. And perhaps we have even some

notion about the Lord taking Moses’ life near Mount Nebo for striking the

mysterious stone two times in the desert from whence the life giving water

gushed. (In this case, the stone represented Christ. The Lord is only struck

once for the remission of all sins.)

God buried Moses in a secret grave near Mount Nebo where no man

knows to this day. But amazing as Moses life had been, if he would have

just stayed put in his crypt, there would be no more mystery about him.

But that is not the case. Moses makes appearances elsewhere in the Bible,

strange appearances. Most particularly with another Old Testament ﬁgure,

Elijah, as on the Mount of Transﬁguration, where Jesus was shown before

all men in his eternal glory. That mount and that revelation is something of

an irony to men. Actually it was a prophecy in multiple fulﬁllment. Jesus

would someday appear on that very spot to commission and send oﬀ the

Army of Zion. It was a taste of what was to come.

And Elijah, Moses’ companion, is interesting in much the same way.

Elijah never did die. He went to heaven in a chariot of ﬁre. But Elijah

too appears there on the mountain with Jesus. In fact throughout the Bible,

except in their initial lives, these two (Moses and Elijah) seem to be

associated together. Even when they are not named by name but rather

referred to by assignment, argument could be made that the Word is

speaking of Elijah and Moses. Some even believe the Two who suddenly

appeared at the ascension of Christ, to remind the Apostles of His return,

were these same “Two Witnesses.” They are speciﬁcally there called

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“men,” and not angels. Moses and Elijah, “the Two” are the Men-in-Black

in the Bible. They pop in at times when God wants something done, and

then they pop out again. And in the process, the “Two” become a Bible

theme all to themselves. But they appear most prominently as the great

adversaries of the Anti-Christ in the days just before Christ himself

returns.

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they

will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed

in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two

lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

Revelation 11:3,4 (NASB)

Taking, as we have, the symbol of the Menorah lampstand as

possessing the mystery of the Church in the Old Testament, these Two,

Moses representing the law, and Elijah representing the prophets, are a

picture of how the Old Testament books became the oil for the seven

churches of the New.

On the mountain of transﬁguration, when the Army of Zion, the

144,000 ﬁnally assemble, the Two will have words for their people as they

mobilize to bring the gospel to all the world. And the Lord himself will

probably appear as he did before, perhaps to touch the foreheads and to

place his own mark on those of this great army, and as before the Father

may even speak.

Contrasts connect these two throughout the Bible. One stands for the

prophets (Elijah), the other for the law (Moses). One died and was buried,

and one was not; one went to heaven in the ordinary way, and one went up

in rapture. One wrote extensively (Moses), and the other wrote nothing

(Elijah). One led the people, the other led only in the schools of the

prophets. Miracles attended both, and as they return to witness on earth as

the Two they seem to be enabled to perform the miracles associated with

each of them during their original time on earth.

And while it is not clear how they are ﬁrst introduced back into the

world sometime early in the Tribulation word gets out that two very

distinguished personalities have appeared. They are preachers dressed in

the style of the Bible, and their ﬁery appeals to repent and be baptized

remind everyone of John the Baptist, who Jesus said came in the spirit and

power of Elijah.

So however they appear, they do so with stealth so that they have

already been in the background preaching since the start of the week of

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Tribulation. Then they seem to take front stage in Jerusalem and bring

rebuke before the whole world. Suddenly they are on television and all

the electronic media, giving weight to such words as “every eye will see

them.” Quickly they become a problem for the Anti-Christ and his

attempt to set the world in rebellion against God.

In fact, when all the rest of the world trembles at the very mention of

the world leader’s name, these Two will seem to have no fear of him at all,

and that alone will make them attractive to millions. So it isn’t long before

they come to the attention of the World Government.

Their constant preaching from the temple area, where the New

Temple of Freedom is being constructed, and their constant call for people

to shun the power of the Anti-Christ and trust in Christ becomes a thorn in

the world leader’s every plot. In fact the Anti-Christ will probably suspect

a mole among his own people.

Because the two ancient-looking “kooks” seem to know his every

movement and what is on his mind. Because they identify the world

leader directly as Anti-Christ, the Two will make the life of the beast,

beastly. But there are some peculiar rumors attached to them:

And if anyone desire to harm them, ﬁre proceeds out of their mouths

and devours their enemies; and if anyone would desire to harm

them,in this manner he must be killed. These have the power to shut

up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their

prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into

blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they

desire.

Revelation 11:3–6 (NASB)

As we said, the mysterious powers these Two seem to project are like

those of Moses and Elijah during their Bible lives. Elijah held back the

rain for three and ½ years causing the drought that overtook the Northern

Kingdom in the days of wicked Ahab and his evil queen. That seems

signiﬁcant. It is the same miracle and the same period as the ﬁrst half of

the Tribulation in which the rain appears to be held back and there is a

drought over most of the world.

And when Elijah ﬁnally challenged the priests of Jezebel to a duel to

see which God would accept an oﬀering by sending down ﬁre in answer,

he was the one who called down a ﬁre so strong as to vaporize the rocks of

the altar.

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So it is likely Elijah might have the power of an awesome ﬁre which

could proceed out of his mouth, a ﬂash of energy, hot enough to melt

rocks and almost anything else. Moses, on the other hand, turned the

waters of the Nile into blood and called down plague after plague on the

Egyptians. It is likely he would have such powers now. All of which, of

course, came from God. No man alone can do these things. Malachi, the

last prophet of the Old Testament, warns the world that Moses and Elisha

are coming.

Remember the Law of Moses My servant, even the statutes

and ordinances which I commanded him at Horeb for all

Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before

the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he

will restore the hearts of [the people]...lest I come and smite

the land with a curse.

[even here Moses and Elijah are assocted]

Malachi 4:4–6 (NASB)

In every Seder (Passover) dinner, in every Jewish home, a place is

reserved for Elijah to come. At the door a child ceremonially welcomes

him into the house. The prophet Malachi warned Israel that Elijah would

come before Messiah.

“I am going to send you Elijah,” he tells them... "before the coming of

the great and terrible day of the Lord.” So Israel has always expected him.

But Elijah has not yet come. This is the very reason John the Baptist was

asked if he were Elijah, It was a reasonable question to ask, since the

people were looking for Messiah to come. And Messiah had come. But

John said he was not (not Elijah). Was the Lord just kidding around?

Well of course not, as the Bible says John was not Elijah, though

because of multiple fulﬁllments of prophecy he did come in his spirit and

power, but it was not yet the time for Elijah. The true Messiah had come

but it was not yet the “great and terrible day,” as speciﬁed in Isaiah 61. It

was still rather the “favorable year.” Jesus himself explained this when he

read from the scroll of Isaiah, to the people of the Nazareth synagogue.

Taking the scroll from the synagogue leader he read from Isaiah 61, that

with his coming it was “the favorable year,” and stopped before he read

the next clause, “the great and terrible day of the Lord.” which is still

coming. The scripture is very speciﬁc and often juxtaposes multiple

fulﬁllments into the same sentence. The Scripture is always true to itself.

John the Baptist came as a forerunner but we know from Jesus’ words

that John was not the ﬁnal fulﬁllment, Elijah is still coming. Thus we

236

understand one of the “Two” must be Elijah. The other is less certain, and

some actually vie for the ancient father of the race, Enoch, who like Elijah

never died. And it would not bother this writer if the other witness indeed

turned out to be Enoch. Nevertheless, Moses is listed again just prior to

this reference in Malachi as though God is still reminding us of these two

together. Because there is no doubt that we see these two prophets as a set

throughout the Word of God. For this, and the other reasons, we opt for

Moses as the second of the Two. But regardless of who they turn out to be,

it was inevitable the Two eventually would have to be dealt with by Anti-

Christ.

Since they had mysteriously appeared near the new temple in

Jerusalem, they had grown a huge following, and the authorities knew

their destruction would not be popular. But the world leader could not

long stand their insolence and their mutiny. Soldiers would have to shut

them up, and quickly. Their mouths would need to be closed in a

permanent sort of way. The Anti-Christ could not allow two strange old

men, wandering around Jerusalem, preaching that Jesus was really coming

back, and soon. Their words had power and tended to frighten ordinary

people, a multitude of which had already decided Jesus was the Messiah,

after the invasion by the northern power, Magog.

Moreover, a great mystery enfolded them. Nobody knew from whence

they came or what their motive really was. And for some strange reason,

everybody seemed to understand their preaching no matter what language,

and where in the world they said it. Everybody seemed to be hearing them

in his/her own tongue.

And these two had been on the Internet, television, and other media,

prophesying against the ruler of planet earth for three and a half long

years. That was starting to bother the “man of sin.”

Out of sight, the Anti-Christ, watching them from the privacy of his

inner circle, was having apoplectic ﬁts, cursing, and screeching invective

at the television screen, demanding their deaths from his subordinates. But

the Two kept preaching, and they seemed to have provided a distraction to

the ruling authorities, so that the other retrograde force, the so-called Army

of Zion, could continue their mischief all over the world, telling about

Jesus. Anti-Christ had intel that they were doing this from the Arctic to the

Amazon, without much interruption, and this too was making him crazy.

The Two, as they were called by millions, had quickly become

famous. And now three years after their fame had spread, videos with their

warnings began going viral. Millions were smuggling their messages in

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media everywhere. Thousands in Jerusalem were following their

preaching in person, some to laugh, but the vast majority to listen. After

the rescue of Israel from the Russian invader, their crowds had swollen

into the hundreds of thousands. Everywhere on the Internet, and live from

the Temple Mount, the crowd was visibly burgeoning. Strangely no matter

how many stood nearby, everyone could hear them clearly, and in his own

language.

Sooner or later, a confrontation was bound to happen. And it ﬁnally

seemed likely when the world leader came to Jerusalem for the dedication.

He would ﬁnally have his day with the two old prophets.

That day had come, and a wedge of powder blue UN caps moved

through the massive crowd, seeking the Two in the Temple Mount. The

beautiful new temple, sat on the mount nearby, guarded by several

battalions of blue caps, the dedication of the new building soon to happen.

The Two, noting the change in the atmosphere of the crowd as the World

Government troops approached, sat quietly near to the old Wailing Wall,

down oﬀ the mount where they usually spoke.

Millions there and elsewhere were watching the drama, expecting a

bad end for the Two. How could two old men hold out against the bullets

and the batons of a SWAT team in full body armor. The consensus view

was that they would be in custody of the World Government by nightfall.

The wedge of blue caps moved ever closer, the crowd making way

when they discovered them in their midst. Suddenly, almost surprisingly,

the soldiers found themselves facing the two old prophets, with the

wailing wall behind them, and the new temple high up on the mount above

them. Cameras all over the world moved in for the showdown, and the

betting in Vegas was in favor of the world leader. Surely the old prophets

would understand as soon as they saw the guns. It was obvious they had

courage but could they continue to press their case when confronted by 45

automatics? Some in the crowd were issuing cat calls to the “bullies” in

uniform. But the crowd, not wishing to be arrested themselves, made a

wide open area for the men dressed in the UN blue.

A network camera panned in for a close up of the young commander

as he approached the biblical Two, as the media called them. The

commander appeared young, his Mark one of the largest and most

prominent types. But the most outstanding feature on his face was his

anger. Something about his eyes seemed almost wild. But laid over the

mask of hatred, he wore a strange, crazed-looking smile. In fact he

238

appeared almost giddy, clearly enjoying his task. He was a burley man of

size, and not one to be triﬂed with.

And he addressed the Two through some kind of bull horn, telling

them they were under arrest, the tension heavy in his voice, "by the

authority of the World Unity Government.” Gaining conﬁdence, as the old

men seem to pause from their preaching, he looked ready to shoot ﬁrst and

ask questions later. He knew he had permission from the very top.

But the crowd sensing the violence in this man, moved away even

farther. And then one of the Two, the one called Elias, seemed to take note

of the soldiers for the ﬁrst time.

And he held out his hand in warning.

And then, in his Old Testament voice, he commanded the soldiers to

stay back. “Oh men of the world,” he sounded absolutely in command,

“Do not approach further. You remember what happened to mighty

Pharaoh, do you not? Take heed.” And suddenly the soldiers seemed small

in the eyes of the crowd.

But the commander nervously laughed, and waved for his men to go

forward guns at the ready. Secretly the young commander was hoping they

would give his men reason to put them down. Strangely, and it actually

puzzled him, he hated them viscerally. His task group crept forward with

caution.

And then something happened which nobody in that audience could

ever shake out of their most imprinted memory. From the mouth of the

one called Elias appeared to come a beam of some kind, like the ray from

an old science ﬁction movie. And along with the beam came a roar like

the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and the soldiers lit up for a moment

and were incinerated instantly. Bullhorn, side arms, and M16’s, right

where they stood, one moment they were there and the next they were

gone.

The whole detachment were there one moment and the next they were

vanished from sight, totally vaporized. And their backups, several other

police and SWAT teams, who had set up near the back of the crowd,

monitoring on TV units, began shouting into radios. And some sort of

panic took hold of them, looking more like children than a police force,

they started loading their trucks as quickly as possible, the words of the

old preachers lingering in their ears.

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“You who have taken the Mark will suﬀer the wrath of God heaped

upon you without measure forever. As for the rest of you, repent and be

baptized for the remission of sins, for now is the day of salvation.”

In the crowd could be heard the chatter of the network commentators

trying to make some sense out of what their cameras had just recorded.

And there was the crying of thousands around them, calling out for God to

forgive their sins as the Two had explained to them, moving toward nearby

fountains for their impromptu baptisms. Groups called out for anyone to

show them how to be saved, literally taking the words of Elias for as real

as he meant them. They moved as though in a daze, tears streaking down

and some with hands lifted upward, a look of rapture on each face.

But the Anti-Christ, in utter frustration, to quiet an intolerable

rebellion, had decided that he must kill the two old witnesses himself.

Taking a few guards with him from his hotel, in the early hours of the

following day, he encountered the old prophets still sleeping with nary a

follower around. The whole Temple Mount appeared vacant, and to the

world leader they looked very old and feeble. Seeing him coming, they

made no attempt to resist, declaring their hour had ﬁnally arrived, and

stood at attention, staring.

“Your hour has come evil one, you must do what you must do.” It was

Mose speaking this time.

The words seemed to impact the leader as swords and in a frenzy of

personal hatred, the world leader drew his own 45 and emptied the clip

with an uncontrollable violence which seemed to shock even his guards.

He kept clicking after there were no more rounds left. The Two, riddled

with 45 auto slugs, slowly slid down a wall, splattered with their own

blood, into a sitting position, and without further comment, their heads fell

over, and they simply died.

And when they have ﬁnished their testimony, the beast…will make war

with them, and overcome them and kill them.

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city…where

also our Lord was cruciﬁed…and [nobody]will permit their dead

bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who live on the earth will

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rejoice over them, and make merry; and they will send gifts to one

another, because the two prophets tormented those who dwell

on the earth. Revelation 11:7–10 (NASB)

The world, listening to the news rotation, awoke to hear of the

personal courage of the world leader. It amazed everyone that their leader

had personally taken down the two old Bible men, when they had

murdered the SWAT team on the previous. But the leader made political

hay while he could.

He had personally faced their ﬂame thrower, and caught them

unprepared. And he had taken them down as dangerous killers of his

oﬃcers of the World Government. of his task force on the previous day.

His departments of internal security had also discovered the real agendas

and powers of these two old fakirs, and it would be released. It seems they

had been far from what they presented themselves to be.

To add indignity to their destruction, it had been forbidden for any

authority to pick up their bodies for a few days. They would lay in the

road in front of the new temple, distorted and bloating until they rotted

away. They were already unrecognizable and the stench was terrible in

the heat later in the midday. And there they lay, unburied for three more

days.

Meanwhile celebs, and the beautiful people in all the places where the

rich and connected gather, got drunk and partied in every capital of the

world, toasting their hero, and celebrating his Mark. Many received the

colorful decorator Mark in those parties.

And after the three and a half days the breath of life from God

came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear

fell upon those who were beholding them. And they heard a loud

voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here!’ And they went

up to heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them.

Revelation 11:11,12 (NASB)

No doubt the hot Jerusalem sun would cause their bodies to swell, and

the stink would become something horriﬁc. And the more their bodies

decomposed, the more the Anti-Christ and his men mocked and laughed,

and waved their ﬁsts toward God, leading a worldwide orgy of wickedness

and blasphemy.

Only a local Jewish television aﬃliate had remained with the bodies.

The reporter had objected. It had not been her desire to babysit a pile of

rotting humanity. But she had been ordered to keep an eye on the stuﬀ so

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that nothing would be done to disturb this mess. Why anyone would want

to was never asked. But late in the night it was her eyes which ﬁrst

noticed a change.

Right in the midst of the great worldwide debauchery, toasting the

deaths of the crazy old evangelists, something was happening. She didn’t

like it at all. She too had rejoiced at the deaths of these scum who dared

insult their leader who had brought them through so much. And when she

ﬁrst took note of something happening, she could hardly believe it herself.

At ﬁrst she had not been certain, she had only caught something out of the

side of her eye. But then she was sure that an eye had opened and it had

actually made the hair on the back of her head stand up and feel crawly.

But she was not being superstitious, that mess was looking at her. And

actually she had admit that the “mess” had lost its odor and was looking

more human by the hour. Impossible as it could be, the Two were moving.

But nobody else noticed. And only one or two other reporters, from the

local media were paying any attention at all. She had not taken the Mark

because she had missed the staﬀ party, and was starting to wonder about a

miracle from God.

First Elijah, and then Moses, began to roll over and sit backup, and

then, without a word both suddenly stood, raising hands in prayer. And

then came the electrifying announcement worldwide. The Two were alive!

After three days of rotting in the streets of Jerusalem, the Two were alive!

At glamour parties for the rich and famous all over the world, all eyes

turned in horror to ﬂat screens on the walls. Was it their imaginations, or

did that new Mark just implanted over their eyes now seem hideous? Why

was it burning them so?

“We interrupt this broadcast," the networks intoned, "to take you live

to the Temple Mount where the Two, believed dead by the hand of the

great world leader, appear to be standing up.” The Jewish girl on the scene

ﬁled her report with tears running down her cheeks. She was praising God

with many around her. On international media, to the hellish screams and

the rage of those bearing the Mark, the world watched the video, as the

two slowly stand, having been resurrected from the dead.

Worldwide those who had chosen the Mark scream obscenity at the

Two as they watch them stretch their arms toward heaven. And they cover

their ears as they hear the Two giving praise to Christ their Savior.

Meanwhile, from his penthouse in Babylon, the Anti-Christ too will be

screaming out invective and orders to run the Two down with tanks and

trucks, but nobody will be willing to move.

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And then, before the eyes of the world, the Two looking up, their

arms raised, their faces ﬁlled with raptured peace, they slowly began

declaring that the vanished Church had gone before them. And by this

time the square will ﬁll anew. And many as they watch will fall down on

their knees, arms raised like the Two, pouring out their sins before Yeshua.

A storm seems to come up around the Two, and then in a blinding ﬂash,

lightening coursing throughout the sky, in absolute wonderment many see

a hole forming in the sky, a giant door with a kind of heavenly light

streaming into our world, music playing. And a gigantic window will

seem to stand open in space, just above the Two, now fully recovered. And

a heavenly light comes ﬂowing down from the open door, as they lift

away, the song of angels ﬁlling the temple area.

And over all is heard the voice of the archangel saying: “The kingdom

of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and

he will reign forever and ever.”

No lightshow on earth, no matter how much money was thrown at it,

could come close to this vision, for those who could see it. For it seemed

that nobody with the Mark could see it. But there in that window in the

sky, some could actually see the holy ark of God, in the true temple in

heaven with the angels touching wings, and hear the voices pouring out

joy into earth’s weary atmosphere.

And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened;

And the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there

ﬂashes of lightening and sounds and peals of thunder and

an earthquake And a great hailstorm.

Revelation 11:19 (NASB)

And then, as quickly as it came, the door into heaven swung closed

again and the vision faded, while enormous bolts of lightning begin hitting

the ground all around the square. Screaming for mercy the crowds run

under any protection they can ﬁnd, only to feel the very earth move in a

small earthquake. Then as fast as it came it was gone and the earth

seemed to quell, the roar of massive hail falling all over the temple area.

And everyone wondered at what had just happened.

Nevertheless those with the Mark of Anti-Christ, found themselves

hating the running sore that the Mark had become. There was no beauty

there, only the most rank and smelly infection. Many with the Mark,

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sensing their doom wept openly, and not a few went home and committed

suicide in their despair. Even many of the blue caps abandoned their

trucks and just wandered away from their leaders. And the leaders

themselves had begun acting crazy, often shooting their subordinates for

less than just cause. Nobody seemed to care. It was now too late for

anyone to care, and they knew it.

Each one of them now had understanding. They had taken the bait,

and now it was already too late for those with the Mark. There was

nothing to be done for it, they would all go to hell forever, and most of

them knew it, though nobody could bring himself to say it.

But all was not yet lost for everyone. Many had not yet submitted to

this Mark, and while it was growing late, very late, God’s grace still

applied. Joel’s promise to the youth of Israel was that they would see

visions. And after the mercy seat had opened in heaven, visions became

commonplace, and many in Israel saw the woman. Chapter 12 is the

second of the Intermission chapters.

It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on

all ; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old

men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions

…I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth…

Joel 2:28,29 (NASB)

The woman in the clouds would be one of those wonders God would

display, and it is found in Revelation chapter 12, we ﬁnd the vision of a

young woman with her feet on the moon and clothed in the sun.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun,

The moon under her feet…and she was with child; and she

Cried out being in labor and in pain gave birth…and a great red

dragon…his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and

Threw them on the earth And the dragon stood before

woman …so that when she gave birth he might devour her child

…she gave birth to a son,...who is to rule all the nations…and

her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

Revelation 12:1-5 (NASB)

God sees his Chosen as a woman someone who was supposed to have

had a relationship with him as in marriage. Perhaps she is pictured as the

young Mary the personiﬁcation of all Israel. A woman as a symbol in

prophecy usually represents a people in relation to their eternal husband.

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The Church is the “Bride of Christ,” and the false church is the Whore of

Babylon.

And another sign appeared in heaven; and behold, a great

red dragon having seven heads and ten horns And his tail

swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and threw them to

the earth.

Revelation 12:3-4 (NASB)

The dragon appears as well, stalking around the symbol of the woman

in the sky. The old serpent is Satan who has been up to no good in regards

to the “woman” ever since the Garden of Eden. In ages past Satan tried to

lift his throne above the stars of God and joining in his rebellion came

millions of angelic beings. He swept a third of the angels away “with his

tail.” Now we know the demons are just one third the number of angels

remaining with God.

[Satan] You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and

perfect beauty. you were in Eden, the garden of God;…

You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed

you there, you were on the holy mountain of God; you

walked in the midst of the stones of ﬁre, you were blameless

in your ways from the day you were created…until

unrighteousness was found in you…

Ezekiel 28:12–17 (NASB)

Satan, the old dragon, as the anointed Cherub Lucifer (the light

bearer) once walked with God in the “stones of ﬁre,” the stars, I think. So

all the glories of the heavens were once his home. But he wanted to be

lord of the universe, and violence and pride were found in him, and he was

cast down to the earth where he added humanity to his rebellion. Now why

Satan, or any other angel, should have wanted to get away from God is

simply beyond human understanding. All we can say is it happened.

But after it happened God had a problem. Men joined Satan in the

rebellion. There was only one way an inﬁnite being could communicate

love to his creatures, and a real love not simply based upon concept and

precept. God would have to become a man and allow Satan to do his

worst.

So then with nails in his bloody hands, pinned to a cross in utter

weakness, God could ﬁnally say I love you; and even selﬁsh human beings

would know he was telling the truth. God, suspended between earth and

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heaven, was looking down upon humankind having accepted the agony of

our sin, and saying, I love you.

It seems inconceivable to mankind, but God created the world, made

it the showcase of the universe, and placed upon it this weak creature of

ﬂesh called “men” all so that he could perform only one thing. Jesus

needed to die, taking the place of a weak creature of ﬂesh so that strong

creatures of spirit would understand his love and stop questioning his

character and his right to make judgment even over them. This is why,

according to Peter, angels long to look into these things.

But in the process, Jesus became man, and so he will remain. Jesus’s

sacriﬁce rescued mankind and at the same time condemned Satan. The war

was lost and won. It could honestly be said Jesus created the whole world,

as a way to prop up his cross. He created man to demonstrate his love. He

created the universe to share it with men and angels.

God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were

yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 (NASB)

It was all in God’s plan.

So in order to escape the Lake of Fire himself, Satan had to destroy

God’s plan when the child came. So the “old dragon” waited for the child.

He would kill the Son as soon as he appeared out of the woman, Israel.

The red dragon hovered, waiting long ages for the child.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give

birth , so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

Revelation 12:4 (NASB)

And ﬁnally after thousands of years Israel through the virgin gave

birth to a Son, and all Satan managed to do was kill the boys of

Bethlehem. As the vision completes itself, that long-awaited Son, after

redeeming mankind on his cross, was taken back up to God, some day to

return to rule all the nations.

Finally something happened in this celestial video, which brings us

right up to now. She ran, the woman ran, when she saw the Abomination.

the woman ﬂed into the wilderness where she had a place

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prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one

thousand two hundred and sixty days. (1260 days is again, 3 ½

years!)

Revelation 12:6 (NASB)

Once again we run into the second three and a half years of the seven

years of the Tribulation. The woman of Revelation 12 is in hiding during

this entire time. Israel will take the warning from the lips of the Savior in

Matthew 24, and ﬂee for 1260 days, when they see the Abomination.

And note the symmetry of Revelation.

The Two of chapter 11 minister in the ﬁrst 3 ½ years, and then they

are raptured away, and the Woman (Israel) of chapter 12 ﬂees into the

mountains for the second 3 ½ years. Between these two chapters we cover

the full seven-year period of Daniel’s last week of years.

So Israel will be in hiding somewhere for the second half of the

Tribulation. The question often asked is, where? We know why she will

ﬂee. But where will she go?

Well actually, we do have a pretty good idea.

The Army of Zion returns home to Jerusalem near the beginning of the

Great Tribulation, and after the Two Witnesses ascend back to heaven.

The time of the Great Tribulation begins and it begins with something we

have mentioned, the Abomination of Desolation.

Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which

Was Spoken of through Daniel the Prophet, standing in the holy

Place (let the reader understand) Then let those who are in Judea

ﬂee to the mountains…for then will be a great tribulation,

such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until

now, nor ever shall

Matthew 24:15–21 (NASB)

The Great Tribulation will transform the regular Tribulation into

something much worse. And for Israel this means they must hide in the

mountains. For the second three and a half years, after Israel realizes she

has been betrayed in her temple, she must run away to the mountains or be

destroyed.

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It is believed by most scholars that the Jews will go away into the

Jordanian desert to take over a place Esau prepared for them, called Petra.

This is the walled city in the cleft of the rock, the very place as a matter of

fact where Harrison Ford ﬁlmed one of his “Lost Ark” movies.

Petra was the city of Esau’s people, Jacob’s brother. Esau was the

same brother who rejected his birthright for a pot of stew. In the little

prophecy of Amos, we ﬁnd some very interesting words. The prophecy

deals with the last days when the house of Israel will be “shaken” in the

face of all the nations:

In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And

wall up its breaches; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it

as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom

Amos 9:11,12a (NASB)

Edom is both a pun and a people. Edom means red, and Esau was a

man of red complexion and red hair. The stew he wanted to eat was also

red. And the people which came out of him were the Edo-mites.

Herod the Great, who killed the babies in Bethlehem, (under the

spiritual control of the Old Dragon) and built the remodeled but desolate

temple, was from Edom a descendant of Esau. Herod’s people the

Edomites are known in the archeological world as the Nabataeans, a desert

people, who built their strong city in a deep gorge running through solid

sandstone, in a place called Petra. The canyon itself widens out inside, but

at the narrow doorway called the “Siq” there is hardly enough room to ride

a camel. It is the narrow slit in the mountain shown in the motion picture,

“Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

As this prophecy in Amos predicts, Edom (Esau as a people) was

judged for helping others against his brother Jacob. So as a people they

vanished from the face of the earth, leaving their city empty and waiting

over the centuries for Israel. Their city Petra means “the rock” and it is in

south central Jordan. The city is largely carved into the walls. Beautiful

“storefronts” like the so-called “Treasury,” complete with carved pillars

line the walls inside the canyon. One can still go and see this empty city

today.

Esau thought his natural castle was invincible. And it might have

been, if God had been its protector. Edom gloated and laughed at the

misfortunes that befell Jacob, his twin brother, and God never forgave

him.

For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations. As you

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have done [Esau], it will be done to you. [you will become]…as if

[you] had neverexisted. But on Mount Zion there will be those who

escape…and the house of Jacob will possess their possessions…there

will be no survivor in the house the Esau.

Obadiah 1:15–18 (NASB)

As the “Day of the Lord” draws near to all the nations, “Jacob will

possess their possessions,” and there will not be one member of Esau’s

clan left. Today the city of Esau, Petra, is a ghost town abandoned by

everyone. But when people visit it has the feeling of being “haunted” with

waiting, waiting for something very important. It is to the walled city of

Petra, where Israel will most certainly run. Not that an ancient city, even

one made of solid stone, can keep nuclear weapons at bay, but when God

is the sentinel, the souls within are safe. Fanny Crosby’s old gospel song

ﬁnally comes completely true when Israel takes its refuge in the city of his

twin brother Esau.

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock That shadows a dry,

thirsty land; He hideth my life with the depths of His love, And

covers me there with His hand, And covers me there with His

hand.

Song lyrics: Fanny Crosby 1820-1915

Chapter 13 is the spiritual backdrop for Anti-Christ, and his “false

prophet.” In previous sections we have glanced at the Mystery of the

Church, and the Mystery of God. Chapter 13 of Revelation delves deeply

into the Mystery of Iniquity that is the origin and purpose of evil. This

section pauses to take up the story of the Anti-Christ, and his purposes.

As the chapter opens John is walking beside some sort of nightmarish

sea which stretches out into blackness, and nothing about the picture is

peaceful. Lightning is ﬂashing in the distance and the winds are stirring up

the white foam. Worse than the sea is the company John must keep to

stand there on that doleful shore. He is joined by Satan and his monsters.

The dragon does not seem to notice him.

And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. And I saw

a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven

heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were

blasphemous names

Revelation 13:1 (NASB)

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John is only an observer writing about the events of this gloomy sea,

but as events unfold, the sea is being stirred up by the wind. This sea is a

picture of the restless churning of mankind. The water represents all the

churning people of the nations, the black water is sin. And out of this

nightmarish sea comes a symbolic creature; a creature of darkness the

Anti-Christ Daniel’s “coming prince,” who rules by “his craft” which are

the words out of his mouth. The ten horns on him represent ten nations

backbone of the confederation that brings him into power. And it is the

dragon which calls him up out of the sea as the Beast and into power.

Anti-Christ is here shown coming out of the nations. Over the nations

the Beast will rule with absolute power for three and a half years. But at

ﬁrst his rule will be an attempt to mimic Jesus, a soft tyranny, a benign

dictatorship of measured words, and nice sounding phrases. He will come

in dressed as a lamb but underneath he will be hiding a monstrosity, the

rebellion against Almighty God.

During the time of his ascension, he will be helping forge peace in the

Middle East, and cleaning up after the Magog (Russian) invasion of which

he will take credit for winning.

And by smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act

wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God

will display strength and take action.

Daniel 11:32 (NASB)

And of course the Army of Zion, and the Two Old Testament

Witnesses, will not be silent during these early years of the Tribulation.

(They are the people who “know their God, who will display strength and

take action, as in the verse above.) So some will see through his charade,

but most will sleep as he mocks all religions, save those which honor him.

Finally when he comes into Jerusalem to take part in the dedication of

the new temple, in spite of the many Israelites who now know the “name”

of Jesus as Ezekiel promised they would, many in Israel will still be

carried away with the charisma of this man because he seems to be the

man of the hour, and because he gave them back their temple. Many

proclaim the man as a agent of evil, but others will deny that any evil

person could help them build the temple of God.

Those who think he is Messiah will wave palm branches over their

heads, as they did for Jesus. Some will be up on the mountainsides

praying for protection while others will ﬁll Jerusalem with cheering as his

motorcade slithers by. As Jesus once warned them, “If another should

come in his own name, him you will receive.”

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Thus he will confuse the new believers in Israel, men and women who

have discovered Christ through God’s protection from the power of the

Russian, Magog. They now knew, or most did, that it had been

Yeshua/Jesus, all along, protecting them, leading them, but there was such

pressure to conform.

Because all the earth will regard the new world leader as the man of

the hour, a miracle worker, and a very good man who his followers

intimate to be in league with Jesus, a new and improved sort of “Jesus,”

ready to weed out evil and replace it with “goodness” throughout the

world, willing and able to protect from the power that snatched the people

when the vanishing occurred

And as we have said, sometime before he declares himself the god of

this world, Anti-Christ stages some sort of phony resurrection. He appears

to rise from the dead. Evil cannot create anything new but evil can

emulate, and all evil ever manages to do is copycat good for its own

terrible ends. So it is doubtful the Anti-Christ manages a real resurrection.

A counterfeit resurrection must then be enacted in some manner. How this

occurs is a good question.

Some believe the dead corpse of the Anti-Christ will simply be

indwelt and energized by the spirit of Satan himself. They propose that

Anti-Christ will literally become a corpse walking around. So rather than a

resurrection, he might stage a re-animation of a dead and decaying body.

Satan will literally put on his body.

But there are problems. There are problems with any sort of cheat that

the devil puts on his old companion death. But the world leader might be

able to conjure up some devilry to deceive the elect. It might be hard even

for Satan to keep a dead body looking fresh and alive even with the

ultimate power of evil resisting rot from the inside out. We presume the

smell and the decay would eventually make the thing look exactly like a

movie zombie, its ﬂesh falling oﬀ. But we simply use our best

imagination.

So none of this is certain save the Anti-Christ getting back up on his

feet after a near death experience. But whatever this evil thing ends up

doing, it will be deception. And for the vast majority, who are grasping at

any straw in the Tribulation, it works.

And all who dwell on the earth, will worship him, everyone

whose name has not been written…in the book of life of the

Lamb who has been slain.

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Revelation 13:8 (NASB)

Whatever happens, after his “healing,” it is likely the world leader

will cast oﬀ his cover and become ever more the wolf, and less the wolf in

lamb’s covering. With Satan now at the very core of the man however the

resurrection is staged, he is evil incarnate. No longer will even the facade

of civility cover over so cruel a core. His personal arrogance, and his lack

of human compassion will quickly show him for the quisling he has been

from the beginning. His boasts will increase in volume and will be

directed against the God of the universe. He will declare himself “god of

this world,” and the absolute enemy of the true God of Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob.

he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and will

speak monstrous things against the God of gods; nor will he show

regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself

them all.

Daniel 11: 36–37 (NASB)

No longer will he even try to camouﬂage his hatred for all things

good.

So as we back track to where the limos carrying the world leader wind

around and stop in front of the temple doors the cheers of Israel, who had

been given their temple back to them, reaches an ear-shattering decibel

level. All Israel has turned out to honor this man, their great benefactor.

For many he has become their best choice as Messiah, even though

the people, after the Magog attack, knew Yeshua. But the joy of the new

temple has caused many to think about this business of Messiah all over

again, and some had become confused over Who Messiah really is.

So as his attendants help a suddenly corpulent-looking Leader from

his seat, the roar is deafening, but the look is all wrong. And since we are

now repeating ourselves, we turn our eyes and ears to the new person, a

Jew of the house of Dan.

And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; he

had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon and

he exercises all the authority of the ﬁrst beast in his

presence. And he makes the earth and all that dwell in it

to worship the ﬁrst beast, whose fatal wound was healed.

252

Revelation 13:11,12 (NASB)

And there was given to him to give breath to the image of

The beast , that the image of the beast might even speak

and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast

to be killed.

Revelation 13: 15 (NASB)

Once his party reaches the microphones, it appears that the world

leader will take the podium. Looking very tired, he almost seems to be

grasping the podium to stay on his feet. There is a tangible sense of

unease. Audible gasps and whispers move like waves through the

audience. The man looks to everyone present like a corpse, an animated

corpse. Something about his eyes. Then suddenly he seems to draw back,

turning to the side, and nods to a balding man in the background. Instead

of the world leader, it seems the strange newcomer with the pitch black

lenses in front of his hidden eyes, pointed beard, and bald head will

address the vast assemblage. In contrast to the leader this newcomer steps

up to the microphone, his face expressionless, his shaded eyes like empty

sockets.

He also seems a strange looking man; bearing deﬁnite Jewish lines of

architecture, and dressed like a rabbi, but with the creeping sense of his

face being too skeletal, and hardly like a living human being at all.

He began speaking ﬂuent Hebrew with an Israeli accent, describing

what honor was his to fulﬁll the ancient role of the High Priest in the new

temple, and it was all news to Israel, who had assumed the World

Government would leave them alone to become an autonomous state,

guarding the great new temple. Instead, he would, he tells them, work with

their people to accept the logic of allegiance to the World Government and

its pledge through the Mark.

“It is time to let go of old prejudices and religious stumbling blocks

of the past, and mold a world of understanding and cohesion. It is quite

obvious,” his voice taking on a matter-of-fact tone, “that the so-called “

Chosen people thing is a fable, coming as it did from ancient times and

ancient ideas. You must understand,” his teeth looking a bit carnivorous,

“that the so-called Bible, both Old and New, were important for the times

in which they were written, written by sages of the past, but they have

been superseded by the revelations of modern science, and a New World

Order of peace and tranquility.

253

“Soon, he declared, there would be marking stations everywhere, even

in Israel, to assist with this vital transition from the national Jewish

identity toward the unity required to takes one’s place in the upthrusting

ever brighter future of man. “Once the operation is at peak, he smiled,

getting Marked will be a commonplace thing; pleasant, and harmless.”

And he pointed to a station nearby already under construction. “All you

need do is to go through that entry and I assure you, they will make your

time enjoyable, very enjoyable.”

He leaned forward, taking a more intimate stance as if to speak with

an old friend about something a bit embarrassing.

“Now then, his volume fell many notches, let me assure you that your

world leader is watching you. “For a while he has tolerated a bit of

negligence in the area of the Mark, but” and his mouth opened slightly,

revealing very serpentine fangs, “ by this time next year, we all (we in

Israel) shall all be part of the New World Governance.”

“There is your Marking Station, for Jerusalem, Israel. It is my

privilege to announce it to you,” he began, “that in commemoration of the

establishment of this new Temple of Freedom, your Marking Station is

unlike any other in the world. You ought to feel special in the sight of the

world leader. Not Chosen, but special. We have made it possible for you

to speak with the world leader himself, in great intimacy right here before

your temple!” Here he smiled and returned to a straight posture, “we kind

of think of it as your own private confessional, with the conﬁdence you are

talking to a priest. Through the magic of artiﬁcial intelligence, as you

linger before our great leader, his image will form out of something

similar to liquid crystal on that pillar, but it is in 3-d. His image will seem

to live before you. He will be able to speak just like a favorite old

grandfather.” He paused for eﬀect, “you will be able to tell him anything,

and he will give you his blessing.”

“He will call to you by name, and you will speak with him intimately,

and will have the impression you speak with the world leader, one on one,

just like a caring old father. And in truth you will be. Now how amazing

is that?"

"On every imaginable question, you will have his personal answer.

You will know how much he cares for you. He will know you, and know

all about you, your family, and your past. The technology is so complete I

feel I am talking with him myself when I access his image. Please come

to your temple, and speak with your caring new father often, he wants you

to.”

254

“Soon Israel, you will all join the New World Order, for the mutual

betterment of us all.” His voice sounded low and comforting. He paused

and looked over the crowd, with those covered eyes, and smiled. In truth

it looked more like the smile of the cobra than that of a caring High Priest.

Next he pulled back his tightly ﬁtting skull cap, which had covered his

head, and continued, “This thing of beauty has been characterized,”—his

bland face broke into that snake smile—“as the Mark of the devil, which

will send you to eternal damnation, apart from God. How dramatic.” He

chuckled. “And by the way, it comes in various colors, the colors of your

choice. Isn’t it lovely? The very emblem of joining shoulder to shoulder

with mankind, to face the uncertain future together.” He paused, “So you

see,”—he sighed—“when you take away all the drama, it really is quite

nice isn’t it?”

And he appeared to go back onto script, continuing in this way,

explaining how the equipment for marking had ﬁrst been tried on the

world leader’s inner circle. And how he, breaking again into that reptilian

smile, being ﬁrst among the ﬁrst, had been the very ﬁrst in all the world to

receive the Mark.

“It was, he declared, the Mark of loyalty to the man who I know in my

own heart is god, the man who has already saved the world multiple times.

Moreover and most importantly, he continued, this Mark is your meal

ticket in this world of want. Since the times we live in," he paused, “seem

to be marred by social, military, and religious upheaval, we must all pull

together, and do our part, so all may eat.”

“Outcasts in any society,”—he asserted, ﬁnally removing the

sunglasses, revealing eyes which were just dark slits—“do not contribute,

and so they do not eat. That is, do not have a share in the bounty with the

rest of mankind.”

He seemed to be moving to his close, as the vast doors of the new

temple were swinging wide, allowing in the party behind him, and people

were starting to scream from the vast audience outside.

“Since his great resurrection miracle, the vast multitude of the

remaining “peoples” who had not yet accepted the world leader will now

gladly take his Mark, and worship, him. The great hero who was raised

from the dead has become the god of this world. Praise his name!”

And many of the powder blue soldiers from the UN contingency who

had come in with the world leader, erupted into a standing ovation, their

Marks showing under their blue berets. And just as the new High Priest

ﬁnished, the jumbo-tron screens showed the party of the world leader just

255

inside the new Jewish temple, and shouts of “no – he cannot,

abomination!” began.

And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and

the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark

on their right hand, or on their forehead.

And he provides that no one should be able to buy or to

sell, the one who had the mark, either the name of the beast or

the number of his name…Let him who has understanding

calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of

a man and his number is six hundred and sixty six.

Revelation 13:16–18 (NASB)

In the second half of the Tribulation, everyone on earth will be forced

to make the decision faced by Esau. Is the heavenly birthright more

important than the needs of the stomach? Or is that pot of pea soup more

important than the way to heaven?

The Mark will allow the buying of such food as will be available

under the circumstances of the Great Tribulation. But even that food will

be uncertain. Food supplies will dwindle as farmers lose the ability to cope

with the upheaval. Food will be scarce for everyone except for the Anti-

Christ, and his inner circle. They will still have access to the grape and

the olive, symbols of wine and ﬁne dining. But from the Mark of the

Beast, in which a pledge in made to Satan, there is no going back. Anyone

who ends up with this Mark on hand or forehead will know they are

forever giving themselves up to the one who hates Jesus Christ. They will

know without doubt they are dedicating themselves to the enemy of God.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

my unconquerable soul.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

from “Invictus” by W.E. Henley 1895

256

Nobody will end up with the Mark by trickery, or because they slept

in one day and somebody marked them. The Mark will be oﬀered as a

choice. Renounce God the Father, renounce his Holy Spirit and renounce

Yeshua (Jesus) and his blood, take your Mark, and eat. Sadly even many

in Israel, even a few of those who earlier found the name Yeshua during

the Magog invasion, will forget their earlier decision and welcome the

world leader as their long-awaited Messiah.

According to Matthew chapter 24, during the Tribulation, only those

who “endure to the end” will be saved.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and will kill you

…And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one

another and hate one another. ..But the one who endures to the

end, he shall be saved.

Matthew 24:9-13 (NASB)

Why does that not apply now? “Enduring” implies working and

keeping yourself, the very opposite of grace, which is God blessing you

with His forgiveness, for all who run to His cross. But those in the

Tribulation must “endure” by not taking the Mark of the Beast. Before the

rapture we live in the time of the “open door.” Grace is a gift bestowed

upon us. By sincerely asking, we receive God’s forgiveness. The Holy

Spirit is still sealing men and women into eternal life by faith. When the

“sealing ministry” of the Holy Spirit is upon a life, God will snatch them

away from earth in the rapture. They have God’s pledge or seal of their

eternal life. But in the aftermath of the Rapture, they will have to “endure”

by not taking the Mark of the Beast.

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and

no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has

given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to

snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

John 10:27-29 (NASB)

But afterward, when the earnest of the Holy Spirit is gone and the

Mark remains, only those who deny the Mark and so refuse to deny God

even unto death will be saved. They will have “endured to the end.”

The new High Priest shouted out, “Israel, behold your god!” just as

Anti-Christ appeared to be entering the Holy Place near the Menorah

257

outside the veil of the most holy place on the jumbo-trons outside, and

chaos was quickly erupting in front of the new temple. Old Rabbis were

ﬁghting the blue hats with folding chairs. Others were running around

tearing at their clothing. And just as suddenly the Israel Defense Force

seemed to be everywhere.

Members of the IDF appeared with bullhorns making oﬀers of a quick

ride out of the increasingly hostile mob now mulling about the new

temple, shouting that men and women boys and girls should follow them

and get aboard trucks which somehow they had already lined up near to

the viewing area.

It was quite obvious the Jewish military, for whatever reason, wasn’t

supporting the world leader. Nor were they working alongside the UN

forces,who were commanding them to do so. Those in their blue berets

were pressing Israelis into lines near the marking stations, and becoming

increasingly hostile to all Jews, in uniform and out.

Once again, the new High Priest, who seemed to have command of

the whole Temple Mount PA shouted: “Behold your god, O Israel!

Worship your long-awaited Messiah. He will this day take his rightful seat

in the Holy of Holies! Let all men everywhere worship and bow down, or

die.”

And on the jumbo-trons, the Beast, for now they knew him thus, was

in the Holy of Holies taking his seat on the table of mercy, where the

atonement blood was to be displayed each year. And it was seeing this

ﬁnal desecration that hit every Jew as if a dam suddenly broke. Everyone

was running somewhere, most in their panic not knowing why. More men

and women wearing the uniform of the IDF appeared and were dashing

through the midst of the crowd, pleading with everyone to leave Jerusalem

immediately.

“Run,” they were crying, “Israel, run, you must leave, now, for your

lives!” “Do not trust these people! They have already activated the

marking machines, and they will demand you receive the Mark before you

leave this square alive.”

Shots rang out, and in the confusion, several of those with the blue

beret fell over a railing, and it was obvious a ﬁreﬁght was underway

between elements of the World forces and the IDF. Women were

screaming and IDF units were taking up positions to guard an area full of

their vehicles from being commandeered by the men and women in

powder blue.

258

A woman, dressed in the uniform of the Israeli Air Force had a bull

horn, and was now directing Jews to lines of trucks which were running

and many already starting to pull away. “Please, everyone, for your own

safety, take our vans, the trucks of the Israeli Defense Force, and we will

get you out of this danger. Stay away from those in the uniform of the

World Government. And you must go now, or the roads will be cut. Do

not go into the marking stations! They have already activated the marking

machines, it is a trap, and you must go now!”

Then a vast quiet seemed to lap over all the confusion as two new

voices rang out from just oﬀ to the left of the great temple building up on

the raised platform, where Anti-Christ and his men had been only

moments before.

There stood the Two, still dressed in the same ragged ancient garb,

and looking just as they had before. And for some reason, the soldiers in

the blue berets didn’t see them. And they didn’t seem to hear them either.

No one had seen them, as they came out from beside the building, and

only Jews without the Mark heard them now.

“…let all who are in Judea ﬂee to the mountains…do not go down to

get the things that are in your house, and do not even go back to get your

cloak… but ﬂy Israel, ﬂy for your lives…, listen to Yeshua, and ﬂy for

your lives….”

And then Mose in his deep voice intoned:

“Go into the wilderness, go there to hide for 1260 days…”

259

The Last Call

The Army of Zion had been called home from the four corners of the

earth. Their time had come, and gone.

Someday soon, this group I have called the “Army of Zion,” the

144,000, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, will

bring the light to every dangerous and lonely street in all the world. From

the drug-infested alleys of Harlem to the God-rejecting streets of Brisbane,

and from the religious formalists in Moscow to the hedonists of Rio. God

will send in his Army to all of them.

Jumping the guarded perimeters of North Korea’s “Control Zone 22,”

one of the bleakest most horrible places of human conﬁnement and death

since Auschwitz, the Army of Zion will be there. No power on earth will

conﬁne them. To every tribe and family in the world they will bring

liberty, joy, and the message of forgiveness in Christ, telling the world of

His soon coming Kingdom.

They will hold meetings to thousands in Beijing. They will invade Al

Qaeda in Syria, and convince hardened Muslims to accept Christ. They

will pray down the glory in the homes of Saudi Arabia, they will even slip

into the sewers; porn clubs in Los Angeles, and the drug bars in Paris.

They will not fear the sex trade in Sri Lanka, nor the nests of human

traﬃcking in Hong Kong. They will preach to thousands beside the Great

Buddha, and to millions along the Ganges in India. They will call down

the power of God upon the stiﬀ-lipped Brits near Big Ben, and they will

bring mercy to the hallowed halls of Congress.

They will lead thousands to Christ in red light districts from

Amsterdam to Singapore, and from the hard streets of Hollywood, to the

Stone Age peoples in the Baleen. And they will even penetrate the

stiﬀness of the academy, steeped in atheist foolishness. From Harvard to

Oxford, from the Sorbonne to Stanford, everywhere these soldiers of truth

will invade the holds of darkness and prevail. Everywhere, and in all parts

of the earth, they will bring a multitude no man can count out of a

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Tribulation, no man can endure. They are the blessed ones whose feet are

“lovely on the mountains,” who bring good news.

In fact, as God said to Abraham on one clear, star-ﬁlled night as he

was looking out into the Milky Way, his oﬀspring would be like the stars

of heaven, and like the grains of sand of the sea. He would have a land,

and a seed, and someday Israel would reach out and bless every family on

earth. That time was now, and the blessing was going everywhere.

With the coming of the 144,000, the promise had come to pass. And

as when Peter preached on Pentecost at the opening of the Church; those

who knew Christ heard themselves speaking Hebrew, but the nations

heard them in every dialect which had come out of Babel, and millions

had fallen down and worshipped the soon coming King. They had

overcome every bastion of skepticism, every cathedral of paganism, and

every base of political extremism, and a multitude no man could count had

come out of the Tribulation on their way to the Wedding Supper of the

Lamb. It was the greatest and last harvest of souls, and because of the way

the population curve works, it came about when most all the human race

was alive and living on planet earth.

And Israel, having overcome by the blood of the Lamb, brought

mercy where mercy had never been given. And in all those places where

they had been Star Chambered by the Inquisition, pogrommed by anti-

Semites, and hunted to extinction by the Final Solution, they had turned

the other cheek and brought God’s love and mercy. In all places where

they were just hated and persecuted by everyone else on earth, they

returned in love, bringing God’s Word.

But with the Great Tribulation opening, the Army of Zion’s

work was nearly done. As Jesus had told them, “Work while it is yet day,

for the night cometh when no man can work.” Night was falling, over all

the world, the terrible night called the Great Tribulation.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,

His power no boundary, known unto men;

For out of his inﬁnite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

—Annie J. Flint (Public Domain)

So as the Army of Zion returned to Mount Zion, after three and a half

years, all 144,000 delighted in taking turns testifying of the great victories

wrought in their midst, and they sing the victory song to the Lamb. And

261

even as the mountain was the site where Christ had been transﬁgured, on

the very place where Peter and James and John ﬁrst saw the glory of the

Son of God revealed, heavenly clouds rolled in as before and they heard

the voice of the Father, and the transﬁgured Lord appeared saying “well

done, thou good and faithful servants.”

And there also the Two Witnesses probably appeared to welcome

them home, and to add their blessing to the joy.

From all time, God has planned to show his unfailing love through the

instrument of Jacob’s Trouble. Contrary to what men say about the

Apocalypse being a destruction, something men hope will never come, the

Apocalypse had been the means of the “unveiling,” a time when Christ is

unveiled to Israel, and to all the nations through Israel. It will come and

perhaps the greatest multitude ever will go to heaven because it has come.

Where there is much sin, there was even more grace, and the Army of

Zion sang of the great fulﬁllment of Genesis 12 and Abraham’s stars.

When the Promise to Abraham was fulﬁlled, a multitude no man could

count would now be in the kingdom, from every tongue and tribe and

nation, who shine like the stars forever, all because God sent a time of

trouble, and his own Army at the end of this age.

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude

which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes

and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and

before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches

were in their hands;

…These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation

…they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 7: 9; 14 (NASB)

Israel’s purpose in being the Chosen had been set from the beginning

to reach every tribe, every tongue and every family with the Gospel of

Christ. And in spite of the danger, they had survived to be counted intact,

the same number which had left the Mountain of Transﬁguration three and

½ years before. Nobody is missing! The whole 144,000 which went out in

chapter 7 are still there together singing in chapter 14.

Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on

Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four

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thousand, having His name and the name of His Father

written on their foreheads

Revelation 14:1 (NASB)

Many had been shot, and some of them killed by stones, and

whatever else the Anti-Christ could throw at them; but here they were if

need be raised up again. Certainly they had been spat upon, and locked

into dungeons, and electrocuted and whatever else the satanic trinity could

conjure up. But there was no power on earth to stop the Army of Zion. For

like the Apostles of the ﬁrst century, they followed the Lamb day and

night. They loved Him because he ﬁrst loved them. As He said of all of

us:

Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands

Isaiah 49:16a (NASB)

The prophet penned these precious words 600 years before Christ.

The pens for this inscription were rough Roman nails on a cross through

his hands. If only those who will someday take the Mark of the Beast

could see those deeply engraved wounds on Jesus’ hands. If, in that day,

they will still be able to weep, perhaps they will weep looking at their own

hands, hands now forever marked with the emblem of hatred the Mark,

which could have been saved by a man whose hands had been marked

with love.

…the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the

earth is ripe.

Revelation 14:15 (NASB)

And an angel in heaven swung his great scythe and the last saved

souls appeared under the throne of God in heaven. And then a second

angel, with his great blade, swept over the earth and his scythe forever

separated the vine of the earth, with its “grapes of wrath,” from the true

vine of Christ. This angel reaped from the unsaved still on the earth.

And the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the

clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into

the great wine press of the wrath of God…the winepress

was trodden outside the city and blood came out from the

wine press, up to the horses bridles, for a distance of two

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hundred miles.

Revelation 14:19,20 (NASB)

The sickle of the so-called “grim reaper.” And as his blade ﬂashed

over all the land what is taking place spiritually in Heaven begins to be

enacted on the ground. The armies of earth begin to assemble for the last

great battle. Armageddon is coming.

For behold…I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to

the Valley of Jehoshaphat then I will enter into judgment with them

there…Put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe, Come tread, for

the wine press is full…, multitudes, multitudes in the valley of

decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

Joel 3:1–2,13–14 (NASB)

But the ﬁnal battle of the world starts to take shape slowly

264

Seven Bowls

It will take months to move all the millions of men and material from

hundreds of nations in preparation for the last battle on earth. Transport

and telecommunications have largely been broken down worldwide, and

most of the earth is already decimated by the circumstances of the

Tribulation. More than half of mankind is dead. Whole nations are simply

too polluted or radioactive to support life, and still men have the capacity

and resolve to make global war. The world is headed to Armageddon.

Some believe the last battle settles old issues between nations.

Perhaps the ﬁnal war is between the east and the west. Anti-

communists have postulated that it would be between the “eagle” and the

“bear,” the capitalists and the communists, and they have said this for

years. Some who put a great deal of stock in the “One World Order,” say

Armageddon is a conspiracy of the “Illuminati,” those of “the all seeing

eye,” the eye of Osiris, which is at the peak of the pyramid on our own

dollar, whose goal is to destroy all remaining Christians. Today many say

that the last world battle is between the Christians and the Muslims. Some

are saying it is the battle with the Twelfth Imam, the Shiite Messiah in

Islam.

But not a word is true. They are not the real reason armies move

toward Israel from all over the world. The objective the Anti-Christ has set

before the nations is to force the Jew to take the Mark, and join the One

World society. But even that is a lie. The real agenda is to ﬁnish what

Hitler began; the Final Solution of the Jewish Question; genocide of Israel.

Satan must do whatever he can to destroy the last Jew. If the last Jew

dies God cannot keep his word in the scriptures and the present universe

will unwind, and Satan may not have to go to the Lake of Fire, after all.

And he thinks Israel is the weak link in God’s plans because they are only

a little people. And for some reason, which eludes Satan, God has

265

promised them the rule of the world through Jesus someday. Jesus will sit

on David’s throne and rule the whole globe.

But the dispute between God and Satan goes even deeper than the

survival of the Jews. It deals with God’s right to judge. Speciﬁcally Satan

challenges God’s right to send him to judgment forever. Earlier we saw

how Satan has challenged God on a character basis. forcing Jesus to die on

a cross to prove his love. Here Satan challenges God on a contractual

basis. God has promised to fulﬁll all prophecy to Israel, and if he can’t,

the scripture the contract between God and man is broken. To save

himself, Satan is out to destroy Israel, break the scriptures, and declare

God a liar.

But men do not know this.

As they gather in the Valley of Jezreel near Megiddo, their political

pundits are spinning the events. The hope is in a mere show of devastating

power. Surely that will make this errant people called Israel to ﬁnally

accept the Mark and join the New World Order. Of course to do so they

would also have to abandon their “fairy tale” of being the Chosen people

of God.

So the armies of the nations move slowly toward the “valley of

decision,” Armageddon. They begin to accumulate by the millions on the

plains of Megiddo, near Nazareth, in the place in Hebrew called

Harmageddon, as the great staging area for the assault on Jerusalem only

50 miles southward.

But even as mankind moves toward this horriﬁc climax, God ﬁnally

unleashes the terrible judgments of the bowls. These are far worse than

either seals or trumpets and are the judgments from God which happen in

the second half of the Tribulation.

As the seals demonstrated the wrath of the Lamb, the rejection of the

free oﬀer of salvation, and the trumpets the rejection of the blood, the

rejection of the requirement of salvation, the bowls represent the

consequence of the rejection of salvation. The bowls seem to be a

demonstration of the terrible consequences of sin. Sin corrodes and

destroys everything. In the bowls sin has ﬁnally destroyed the earth. And

each bowl seems to mark out a particular part of Satan’s Kingdom.

But we here abbreviate the tale. Because the details of the bowls

become tedious. Hell is tedious, it will never change forever. After

millions of years of ﬁre in hell, what is left? Tediousness the same ole

266

same forever. Once someone falls under the terrible bowl judgments, it is

almost too late he is experiencing Hell on a ﬁrst name basis. Still while

there is life, there is hope, and any sinner who repents, refuses the Mark,

and lives for Christ, will still ﬁnd himself/herself in the Kingdom of God.

But outside of Israel, who after the Abomination of Desolation is hidden

away from the authorities, few remain who have not taken this terrible

Mark already. Without it, food has gotten very diﬃcult to ﬁnd.

John writes of these bowls I think, only to warn those who might read

and heed his book of the Revelation, ahead of time. He wants his reader to

know that such times are coming, bringing near hopeless conditions to

earth. The bowls were written for this present darkness, in the hope men

may still choose the light, before the darkness starts to close in on them

forever.

In the ﬁrst bowl there is a judgment for those who have taken the

Mark of the Beast. The ﬁrst angel comes out and pours out such a

judgment into the earth. It shows up the Mark for what it is, doom to its

wearer for all eternity. As this bowl falls I am certain men try to remove

this horror, and can’t. It will not be cut oﬀ. One cannot remove the hand it

is on and lose it. It is ultimate horror to suddenly know that the Mark is

not protection against the wrathful God as these condemned were taught.

The Mark is the ultimate trap. They believed the lie, and it is too late.

and it became a loathsome and malignant sore upon the men

who had the mark of the beast

Revelation 16:2 (NASB)

At the site of the Mark people develop running sores both “loathsome

and malignant.” The Mark will fester, and great scabby infectious blotches

will cover the beauty of the face. Welling out from the small location on

the hand will erupt a painful infection which will ﬂow up the arm,

rendering it gangrenous, and such rot will ﬁnally ﬂow into the rest of the

body. Soon the wearer of the Mark will most closely resemble what is

today called a zombie, full of walking anguish unable to have it stop.

And all this in a day when entire populations will be utterly without

medical help. The doctors and nurses remaining will be suﬀering

themselves with such gangrenous sores. The Beast will ﬁnally be despised

by everyone who was foolish enough to take his bait. The Mark will

intoxicate going in and infuriate coming out. Men may try to cut oﬀ the

hand with this Mark and this infection, but it will be too late. They will

despise the hour they ever heard the name of the Beast, for they will know

they are headed to his end. Scraming and howling they will join the shuﬄe

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of the night, but they will still have no love for God either, they will blame

God for their condition.

The second bowl, like the second trumpet, attacks the sea, turning it

into blood. But this time all the ocean is completely turned into a

worldwide cauldron of clabbered corpse blood, from whence there is no

return. The oceans are dead. When the second bowl falls, the earth starts

dying. The ecological catastrophe Al Gore thinks is happening, will really

happen then. At this point the earth itself is dying. The same curse now

falls on the rivers, and the whole earth begins to reek like the corpse it has

become.

All that is left upon planet earth is guilt and regret. Guilt for the

wasted blood of Christ, and regret, at not listening to the message of

salvation. And since they have refused the saving blood of the Lamb, God

will now give them a bloody ooze to drink. How sweet are the things of

the night to the fallen nature of man. The pornography, the aﬀairs, the

homosexuality, and the life devoted to self. Today’s heroes are blood

drinking vampires, and ﬂesh eating zombies. The reality will be something

less inviting when it comes.

The fourth bowl makes the sun turn into a terrible frying heat in the

sky, so that it will cook the festering skin and the clabbering seas of the

whole world. The lovely life giving sun will become a rampaging terror in

the sky to scorch all the men on the earth, men still suﬀering from their

running sores given to them by the infectious thing called the Mark. Such

heat will heat up the scum of the waters turned into blood, and make the

whole earth stink even more. Into the augur of the oceans cultures of

dangerous bacteria will be raging causing rampant illness all over the

world. Power grids having largely failed already, the chance for air

conditioning, save in the buildings of the Anti-Christ, are now nearly nil.

Life on earth under the bowls will become a horror story from which there

is no escape, save hell.

The ﬁfth bowl, in contrast to the heat of an overactive sun, will cast

pitch darkness upon the Beast and his throne in Babylon, so that his own

darkness should be made known to all. While the darkness will give some

relief from the frying heat of the sun, it will ﬁll the world with a depth of

isolation so deep men will have a taste of the shroud, the utter isolation of

Hell. Hell is isolation in a burning darkness forever, stuck with your own

raging regrets and consuming lusts, and never any hope forever.

It will be clear to all, Satan has lured them into a place to share in his

own damnation. This is what comes of believing the lie. But for such

creatures all that is left is hatred, and they hurl out their invective and

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blasphemy toward God, and toward the Beast, and toward each other. In

fact, by this point hell has really begun for these denizens of darkness.

They will never see the light again. They scream out their relentless pain,

as they will do forever in the everlasting torments they face. What tragedy

that humankind should have ever ended up in a place where God intended

Satan and his demons to spend eternity.

Then came the sixth bowl, and frog-like spirits are dispatched all over

the earth to draw all military men to the place called Armageddon. The

grapes of wrath are ﬁnally going into the winepress of his fury:

for these are the spirits of demons performing signs, which go

out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for

the war of the great day of God, the Almighty

Revelation 16:14 (NASB)

As the frog spirits move out traveling at the speed of spirits, looking

somewhat like the “gray aliens” pictured in the imagination of Hollywood,

men and machines are moving slowly crawling over the ground, into the

air, and over the seas, toward Armageddon.

Where is Armageddon?

Just ﬁfty miles to the north of Jerusalem lies the great valley of

Megiddo. This is their destination; men and machines from all over the

earth. They have become like zombies themselves by the inﬂuence of the

“froglike” demonic entities. They move toward certain death in a

hypnotic trance, a generation of human beings without hope. Only

mindless destruction remains in them, and they no longer listen to reason.

They have all been gripped with a suicidal madness. Perhaps the world

has avoided the use of huge mega-tonnage, but a vast nuclear war is

coming.

The hypnosis of the demons has encompassed and blinded all of them.

No more common sense is left in any capital, in any nation in the whole

earth. The world’s armies have become like lemmings. The grapes of

wrath, those from the vine of the earth, are headed for the winepress. This

is Joel’s “valley of decision.” Evil in its ﬁnal form has no point other than

destruction, even self destruction.

a sound of tumult on the mountains, Like that of many people!

A soundof the uproar of kingdoms, Of nations gathered

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together! The Lord of hosts is mustering the army for battle.

They are coming from a far country from the farthest horizons,

The Lord and his Instruments of indignation, To destroy

the whole land. Wail, for the day of the Lord is near! It will

come as destruction from the Almighty Therefore all hands

will fall limp and everyman’s heart will melt…For the stars

of heaven and their constellations will not ﬂash forth their

light; The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon

not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil

Isaiah 13:4–10 (NASB)

And the sixth bowl is poured out on the great rivers of the east,

making way for the nations of the east to come to the Valley of Decision.

And while they slowly crawl by the millions over the mountains, through

the Khyber Pass, and down to the Valley of Jezreel, one long column like

ants, their boots pounding out doom on the face of the world.

Soldiers who have been in the marching infantry, have heard this

drumming on the ground. Marching feet in perfect synchronization sets up

a sound like a gigantic drum and the ground literally thunders under their

feet. They have to break cadence going over bridges or the bridges will be

pounded down. Millions upon millions of feet, moving westward, pound

out the doom of the world.

While overhead, the last angel pours out the seventh bowl. And the

fabric of reality itself begins to unravel. Under the inﬂuence of this last

terrible judgment, nothing about life on earth seems to matter any longer.

Men become like animals, reptiles, their minds blanked out by demonic

activity, and all care about life and order and peace has left them. Great

earthquakes wrack at the bones of the earth, and cities crash down.

Hailstones fall from heaven, some weighing in at 100 lbs each, wrecking

havoc upon everything as they move toward the battle. Pummeled from

the sky with ice balls the size of bowling balls, buildings fall, and life is

snuﬀed out.

But to the disciples of the Beast, covered in enormous festering sores,

the ice pelting you, killing you, would seem a mercy from heaven. But

with the last bowl, it seems all the last vestiges of sanity seem to come

undone:

And there were ﬂashes of lightning and sounds and peals of

thunder;and there was a great earthquake, such as there

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Not been since man came to be upon the earth…the great city

[Jerusalem] was split into three parts, and the cities of the

Nations fell…and huge hailstones about one hundred pounds each,

came down…upon men; and men blasphemed God

Revelation 16:18–21 (NASB)

Man had been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

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Whore of Babylon

There are three symbolic women in the Book of Revelation. Each of

them represent a body of people. In Chapters 2 and 3, the letters to the

Seven Churches, we are introduced to the ﬁrst, who is the “Bride.” She is

the Church, who, according to the chronology of Revelation, “what is,

what was, and what will be”leaves earth with the Bridegroom and is

“raptured” away in the fourth chapter.

Then in chapter 12, we are introduced to the second woman, the

woman with the child Satan desires to kill, the Child Messiah, and she is

standing on the moon, with her face in the sun. This is Israel. In this

cosmic PowerPoint from God, Satan (the old dragon) is shown waiting

long ages in his last ditch attempt to destroy the One promised, break the

scripture, and escape his fate in the Lake of Fire. Here also, in Revelation

12, is a reminder of what God said to Eve about the “seed of the woman.”

The man normally has the “seed.” But there would come into the world

one born of woman who would “crush the serpents head.” No wonder

Satan waited and used his servant Herod to put out a hit on the newborn

King.

Finally in chapter 17, we meet the third woman. This is the rejected

Whore of Babylon. Like the other two she represents a body of people. But

this is not an attractive group. She is the apostate (the unbelieving) church.

She has long been in the world growing alongside the true church, the true

Bride of Christ, and much of the social gospel I was raised in could be

considered of this type.

But she comes to full bloom during the Great Tribulation.

And she is not just phony in her aﬃrmation; she is dead set against

God. In fact she is such an antagonist she delights in becoming the

primary agency for the Mark of the Beast. It will be her job to ﬁnd true

believers, even those who ﬁnd Christ, through the Army of Zion, and Mark

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and kill them. She is called Mystery Babylon because she brings the dark,

satanic teachings of Babylon to their ﬁnal fulﬁllment.

As Mystery Babylon, her satanic roots go back a long way.

After the great worldwide ﬂood, in the days of Noah, a man called

Nimrod built a tower whose top was intended to extend into heaven. No

doubt he knew it would not really act as a ladder into God’s throne room,

but it would become a monument to a race of men in opposition to their

Creator. Because Nimrod ruled the world, his tower became the center

from which to practice the occult Zodiac. The tower would actually be a

high observatory; a place to watch the constellations as men began to read

their fortunes by the movements of the stars.

God had judged the pre-ﬂood world with water for their violence, and

every thought of their heads had become evil. But even after the waters

receded, men quickly strayed away from God all over again, and followed

after their own evil instincts. God had commanded men to spread out and

subdue the earth. They were to farm and reclaim the land, and the land

was rich after the ﬂood. But in their rebellion men decided to stick

together around the Tower, desiring to gain power again. By adding to

their numbers, they thought they could become strong against God. The

Tower was a demonstration, if only to themselves of their own human

strength, and a way to keep the people in Shinar united in their opposition

to the true God.

From that ancient time to this, the stars have been studied in the

Zodiac to ﬁnd out the future. Instead of turning toward the accuracy of the

true prophets of God, (To Abraham, God even used these stars to show

forth the promises of Zion) but men turned away again, ﬁnding their own

fortunes in animal entrails, and in other occultic fetishes. They began

superstitiously dropping bones, and choosing Tarot Cards. God told men

to leave the “hidden” the occult things to him, but they speciﬁcally

disobeyed and dove in deeper, into the forbidden things.

When he made them, God had declared the stars would be “for signs”

in the heavens for “times and seasons,” and it was to the stars that God

referred Abraham to receive his great blessing. But from the time of

Nimrod, Satan had perverted their use, and they became the window

through which the occult takes hold of the world.

In turning away from God, men opened themselves up to contact with

fallen angels (demons), and many forms of possession and the darker

practices of Satanism, witchcraft, and magic, which all grew around

Nimrod the great. He is the man the Bible calls “the hunter” of men’s

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souls. Even more sinister it is believed his consort was the evil queen

Semiramis, actually his own mother, who was possessed of the darkness

itself, and brought in many of the “evil practices” of Babylon. And they

sired a child who is Satan’s counterfeit to the “seed of woman” God had

promised to the world.

When God came down upon the tower and confused the languages of

men, these wicked practices were carried everywhere under diﬀerent

names, so that the great evil of the Tower ended up being transported to

every ancient culture, as the pagan worship of the mother and child cult.

Sometime after Christian nominalist Constantine became Caesar over

Rome, the church picked up this “Holy Family” cult with Jesus pictured as

a perpetual baby. Instead of worshipping the Lamb who had died on a

cross for the sins of men, the cult of the “Christmas Baby” became the

way Rome regarded Jesus Christ. Not that there is anything particularly

wrong with celebrating Christmas as the time of Jesus’ birth, but this

“baby” never grows up. He is not the real Jesus at all. A “Jesus” who

remains a baby is not the real Jesus, and when the focus becomes “his

mother,” the so-called Queen of Heaven, an echo from Semiramis, consort

of Nimrod and the Tower of Babylon is distinctly heard.

Even today he is still pictured in his mother’s arms, and in the

Catholic version “Mary” is still worshipped as Queen of Heaven,

Catholics call her the “co-redemptrix” (co-savior) with Jesus Christ. Every

time a Roman Catholic says the “Rosary”, his system of prayer beads, he

calls on Mother Mary many more times than the Lord Jesus Christ. The

“Madonna,” (Mother Mary) is considered a safer, more loving person to

approach than Jesus, in prayer. And this is not just folk religion, in which

many superstitious things might be expected, but since Vatican II it is the

oﬃcial doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, to hold up Mary as co-

redemtrix (co-redeemer/savior) with Christ. The real Mary is appalled.

Jesus]...presented another parable to them saying, ‘

Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed

good seed in his ﬁeld, But while men were sleeping, his

enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat…

when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the

tares became evident also… And he said to them, An

enemy has done this…

Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the harvest…

ﬁrstgather up the tares and bind them in bundles

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to burn them…but gather the wheat into my barn.

Matthew 13:24–30 (NASB)

The true Church would continue to grow with the “tares” until the

time would run out. And just before the “harvest,” the two would look

remarkably alike. But at harvest time, only the “true grain” would bear

fruit. The weeds would be bundled and burned. But a harlot is only a

harlot, when she is unfaithful to her rightful husband. This woman must

be an unfaithful wife, a woman outwardly betrothed to her Savior. The

Whore was betrothed, and outwardly married to Yeshua. Even though she

has been unfaithful, she still belongs to her the One to died on a cross to

save her.

The great apostasy (falling away) does not concern Muslims or

Hindus, it only concerns Christians because she is not a common

streetwalker, she was engaged to her true suiter, Jesus. So she is a harlot.

This false woman had a real invitation to the wedding supper but she has

no wedding clothes, a symbolism for a covering of real faith in Christ.

With repentance and a change of heart, she could have gone. But her

people were always pretenders, and her heart never really belonged to the

Savior. Deep inside she really didn’t want the heavenly groom, because

he would have required too much from her. She liked her old life. Her sin

was precious to her. She only acted the role of commitment, until

something better might happen along.

In chapter 17:3, she is pictured as having found someone better, she

arrogantly thinks she can ride the Anti-Christ. Wooed by the “bad boy”

who thrilled her, she has taken up with the wrong man who was the Beast,

from the pit of hell. Instead of owning Christ and accepting whatever

fallout might come, she pretended salvation, never actually accepting the

truth, expecting it all to be fable in the end. She dressed in the trappings,

and when the rapture actually hit, she found herself left behind. At that

point she should have understood. But she was a liar in all she professed.

And she had never believed in the rapture, and she didn’t believe it

now. So while a few within her were confounded when the thing

happened, and a very few did actually accept Christ afterward, the vast

majority would go on as before as the Tribulation overtook them. Others

refused to be bothered by the facts, and continued to look the other way,

certain there had to be another explanation. They told themselves that

people do not just vanish from the face of the earth. And so they stuck

with her, and refused to come out of the Whore and be saved.

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Her leadership would make some excuse. She could prove this so-

called rapture was only fringe, believed on by only the most extreme, the

cult of the fanatical. Something else, perhaps alien or environmental, or

even Jungian, had actually caused the vanishing.

So when the rapture hit, few professors of religion in the best

seminaries, few of those in leadership in the great churches, and few of

the bishops of the largest denominations, went with it. It was questionable

if even the majority of religious television personalities, the “believe and

receivers,” vanished. But why were they not snatched? Why, they ask?

If all these PhD’s, pastors, priests and popes weren’t snatched, how could

this rapture have been related to God at all? These were the most religious

of the religious, were they not?

It would quickly become a logical absurdity to say only true

Christians were gone. What about all these professors of religion, still ﬁne,

and still amoung the living? And such a mixed group remained,

everything from Catholic Bishops to television evangelists. So it became

axiomatic among those who missed the rapture that the real victims were

the missing. And many gathered into great conventions to congratulate

each other on their survival, and to prepare against a repeat of the same

kind.

The best explanation they decided was still the space alien theory, but

there were others. Nobody could prove they had seen any space aliens. But

they were worried. Whatever it was could strike again. Whatever had

happened to these people, it couldn’t possibly be good. But whatever else

—after the rapture the “faithful of earth” were ﬁnally free to gather

without the fundamentalists getting in the way, to accomplish all that

religion had longed to do. The long-expected coalescing into the One

World Faith of all well meaning people was ﬁnally happening. Religion

had always had a profound, if not well understood, deep current of

common meaning, and that meaning always had been based on the aid of

mankind.

Whatever the label, Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Mormon or

Hinduist, at their foundation, they were all the same. And it was ﬁnally

time for the beauty and the unity of all the faithful to unite for peace on

earth. It wouldn’t much matter if one read the Quran, or the Gitas, the

Bible or even the Book of Mormon. What mattered most was the sincerity

of the devotee, and there was an urgent need to gather all such people

together for world peace.

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Of course this is all yet ﬁctional because the rapture is yet future,

though it seems to draw closer by the day. But the desire for world unity is

already real and a large part of the thinking of much of the world, we cite

noted journalist Ruth Montgomery writing the biography of tabloid

prophetess, Jeanne Dixon, a devoted Catholic.

And the following is a commentary on the writings of Ruth

Montgomery and Jeanne Dixon.

While Jeanne was in mass on a bright morning in February of 1962,

an enormous black serpent seemed to crawl through her window, ﬁlling

her with the most profound sense of peace. Many of us would have been

ﬁlled with something else, but Dixon called this one of the most

signiﬁcant prophecies she had ever had, one of her “life readings,” her

most important “prophecies” ever. The serpent, intelligent, and

communicating with her by some sort of mental telepathy, seemed to be so

ancient and so full of peace, she thought he must be God. (One wonders

why she didn’t think of the “Serpent in the Garden” tempting another

woman named Eve instead?)

And with this vision of the great snake came a second “life reading”

about a very popular young man supposedly born that very morning,

somewhere in the Middle East. A man who would be worshipped by

throngs from every nation. She watched breathlessly as those on their

knees surrounded him in all directions as far as the eye could see. And as

she watched as a shimmering, ephemeral cross broke out over his head.

She was told this man would tear down all the barriers of race and culture,

and unite all the world’s religions. He would be a new Messiah for a New

Age according to the scriptures in Revelation chapter 13. (Dixon’s own

reference!)

But if she had taken the time to look up Revelation 13 perhaps she

would not have been so excited. Perhaps she didn’t know about Revelation

13 being the chapter of the Anti-Christ, as do readers of this present

treatise. She interpreted this as a great religious leader, similar to Jesus

Christ, who had been born that very morning in a middle eastern country.

He would be great and rise up to unite the world and bring a New Age of

peace to all. And Dixon was enthralled. There was never any question in

her mind that this man could be the Anti-Christ as revealed in Revelation

13, announced by the enormous black serpent, perhaps the devil himself.

But she isn’t the only one, not by a mile. In the spring of 1982 a very

prominent occultist by the name of Benjamin Crème, a man steeped in the

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writings of the well known occultist Alice Bailey founder of Theosophy,

began publishing full page notices in newspapers around the world.

“The Christ is Now Here,” was the headline of his ad, in seven-inch

type all over the world. It appeared in literally every major newspaper in

every major city. Introducing, “The New Age Buddha for the Age of

Aquarius, the one called Lord Maitreya” was the subtitle, and the claim

was made that the New Age messiah was alive on earth, living in London,

and would announce himself on satellite television to the whole world in

June of 1982.

It created a planetary media storm like nothing since the end of World

War II. By the spring of 1982 newsmen were chasing Crème all over the

world, trying to get him to introduce them to this so-called “World

Teacher.” In his full-page advertisements, he announced he had met with

“Maitreya,” himself, and the World Teacher was planning to come out of

hiding soon. He would present himself on worldwide broadcasts as the

Jewish and Christian Messiah, the Imam Mahdi of Islam, as the lord

Krishna of Hinduism, and the New Age Buddha of Buddhism. Not

surprisingly Crème himself was the founder and chief spokesman for a

leading UFO cult and one would have thought he would not have been

given such credibility so quickly. Perhaps, he said, Maitreya would reveal

himself as an alien, far advanced from a mere human.

But of course Maitreya passed his date and never did appear to

become the Messiah of a New or any other age. But the idea is there, and

how quickly the media grabbed onto it.

To religious people who miss the rapture, a false Messiah will

someday really be here. And as deception increases, many false Messiahs

and false prophets will lead many by the wayside. And those who align

themselves with the Whore of Babylon, will probably become the ﬁrst to

accept the Mark and be lost forever.

And he [one of the bowl angels] carried me away in the Spirit

into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast,

full of blasphemous names...And the woman was clothed in

purple and scarlet...having in her hand a cup full of

abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality...

upon her forehead a name was written a mystery BABYLON

THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS.

and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints

Revelation 17:3–6 (NASB)

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The “woman,” this false church, is clearly recognized by where she is

located. She is “seated on seven hills.” The city seated on seven hills is

Rome, the home to Roman Catholicism.

And the angel said to me,’ Why do you wonder? I shall tell

the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries

her, which has the seven heads and ten horns…Here is the mind

which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on

which the woman sits…And the woman whom you saw is the

great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.

Revelation 17:7,9,18 (NASB)

The beast she rides, we know.

He is Daniel’s evil “prince,” also known as the Anti-Christ, the Beast,

and the Evil Shepherd. He is the long-awaited military Messiah of Israel,

and the one Jesus warned would “come in his own name.”

Though Rome will attempt to co-opt and conform him to her system,

he has no allegiance to any Christian church or tradition. He is the one

John calls “the man of lawlessness,” and again Daniel, the “king of stern

countenance.” He is the little “horn” with a mouth shouting blasphemous

things against the King of Kings, and the one who regards no god but the

“god of forces.” He will seek to change times to his own beneﬁt, and he

will oppose the “saints,” who are those who ﬁnd Christ during the

Tribulation and put many of them to death as the man of sin.

As wicked as she is, the Harlot is just a political animal to be used and

thrown away. She has no understanding of who she deals with. She has no

understanding that he is the monster from the pit who will oppose God, no

understanding that he is ﬁlled with the power of Satan. She is nothing but

an opportunist looking for the highest bidder. And She will never

understand that she is being used. Anti-Christ has no love for her because

she is, when all else is said and done, nothing but a cheap whore. No

wonder he despises her, exploits her, and then he destroys her.

The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come

up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. And those who dwell

on the earth will wonder, whose name has not been written in the

book of life… when they see the beast, that he was and is not and

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will come.

Revelation 17:8 (NASB)

But at ﬁrst these two will appear to rule the world in tandem.

Electrifying news releases will tell of the end of religious war. With

the merging of all religions under the unifying inﬂuence of World

Governance around the erection of the new temple devoted to international

peace, religions will be forced to get along. This will set the stage for

fantastic optimism. Islam will make way for such a temple, and all roads

will ﬁnally lead to God, regardless of which road the spiritual pilgrim

chooses.

The Harlot will rejoice, thinking she has brought heaven to earth.

And she will be in control of it all. From her perch upon the Beast she will

feel like she is on top of the world. After all, as she tells herself, she is the

one riding. She is the one with the reigns in her hands. And she is pictured

drunk with power, directing the Beast with her inﬂuence, gaining power

by being near his power. And at ﬁrst the Beast appears content.

But secretly he will hate everything about the Whore, especially her

arrogance. Doubtless the plan to destroy her among the beast and his 10

national sub-leaders had been in place from the beginning. In the end he

will share his power with no one, and there is no honor or compassion in

the Beast. Each of the ten leaders will secretly be plotting his own

ascension as well.

Moreover, as “she” is associated with all kinds of religious symbols,

even crosses, we might imagine she reminds him too much of the true

God. The Harlot Church will simply be weighed down with her vestments,

her many ceremonies, and other religious stuﬀ. But it is the purpose of the

Anti-Christ to abolish even the knowledge of God from the face of the

earth, so he will not long tolerate the false church. The Anti-Christ will

aspire to be god himself, and take God’s place. The harlot is a constant

reminder of the truth which trumps his lies.

At ﬁrst her headquarters will doubtless continue to be the Vatican.

Even now in the heart of ecumenical Rome, all religion but Bible

evangelicalism, has something to oﬀer, in her way of thinking. Every

token of religion but that of Bible believing Christianity is on the great

altar in St Peter’s Basilica right now. All religion is good, no matter how

contradictory or vile, no matter if it worships temple prostitutes or the

dung beetle, it is there. The Pope has kissed the Quran and laid it on the

great altar, likewise a tiny Buddha from the Dali Lama is there, and sweet

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grass from American Indian shaman, and ornaments from Hinduism to

Wicca (witchcraft), is all there.

But say the detractors there still remain the age old antagonists, Islam

and Christianity, militant against each other, since the jihads of

Mohammed and the resulting Crusades. In order to have a worldwide

religion these two must somehow come to an agreement and for millions

this seems very unlikely. So unlikely, in fact, that some Christians now

propose the Harlot (the apostate church) to be an Islamic body which

covers the earth. They postulate an Islamic falling away from the faith of

Christianity. They expect Christianity to be conquered by Islam.

We have already discussed this in connection with the potential

coming of the Imam Mahdi, the Islamic anti-messiah. Islam is on the rise,

but this falling into Islam to account for the Harlot church is not possible.

The World Church must be essentially Christian, or she is not a false

woman. The false woman is untrue to her husband. She entertains her

lovers under every tree, but she would never divorce him or she would

lose her home. This harlot must be untrue to Jesus as the heavenly groom,

Jesus has never taken Islam as his Bride. Islam is already married to Satan.

No, the false church will not be overtly Muslim, though there are now

many so-called churches advocating “Christlam,” a supposed mix of the

two, but the Harlot must come to some arrangement with Islam.

Is there some way in which the horriﬁc religion of Ishmael and

Mohammed can be fused to the Harlot Woman? It does seem unlikely, but

can it happen?

In many parts of the world, it already has.

Fatima, Mohammed’s daughter, worshipped as a lesser light in Islam,

has become co-mingled with the Catholic “perpetual virgin,” who they

call Mary. As we have noted. This “Jezebel spirit” Mary is not the true

mother of Christ, but a counterfeit harlot woman from Semiramus

antiquity, and the enemy has been able to confuse the false Mary and

Fatima, the daughter of the prophet of Islam.

Already, on the streets of the superstitious in many places can be

found combinations of folk Catholic and folk Islamic traditions, all mixed

with some native religious animism. So the amalgam has largely taken

place. In many towns of the Philippines when a statue of the Virgin is

carried in a parade, the Muslims also bow down. For them, the celebrants

carry a statue of Fatima. At the folk religion level of both cultures in some

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places, Fatima and the Catholic Virgin, have been completely merged.

There is plenty of meeting ground for the two world religions.

For their part since World War I many Catholics have revered a series

of apparitions that a group of children reported seeing at a place in

Portugal signiﬁcantly called “Fatima.” Many Catholic churches are

named after these strange visitations as in the local “Our Lady of Fatima”

church. This is a town with a sizeable Muslim population even until today.

The town of Fatima got its name when the area was captured by the

Spanish Moors, Islamists which crossed from Africa and tried to capture

Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was at Fatima, Portugal where

some children saw visions of the baby Jesus, and his “holy Mother,”

After 520 AD the followers of Mohammed raced over the whole of

the Middle East in a military conquest, killing thousands for their desert

moon god Allah. At one point they crossed the Pillars of Gibraltar, from

North Africa and entered into Spain. In only a few short years they moved

north, nearly overwhelming France, and taking most of Portugal in their

wake. The place farthest north where they planted their ﬂag was named

after the daughter of Mohammed, Fatima. It is still Fatima, Portugal to this

day.

Were it not for Charles Martel, at the “Battle of Tours” in 732 AD,

where French knights ﬁnally broke the back of the hordes from Africa,

Europe would be Islamic to this day. The spirit of “Fatima” however,

seems to have anchored some sort of deceiving spirit to this town. For it

was there just before WWI, where four children encountered something

amazing and very troubling.

They saw a series of what many call “apparitions,” otherwise known as

visions. And at Vatican II the last great meeting of Catholics from all over

the earth, these visions were elevated into nearly equal with Catholic

scripture, to become part of their oﬃcial religion. They blessed the

message of Fatima though the actual text of all that was revealed is still

largely secret to all but the popes. At Fatima they believe the apparition

presented itself as the “Virgin Mary,” among some other worthies.

Catholics believe these words are the most important prophecies

concerning the modern world to be found anywhere, even in the Bible.

How quickly the perfect score of the prophets of Israel are thrown

overboard, for folk superstition, and demonic doctrine. Jesus warned in

the days leading up to his return, there would come signs and wonders,

and deceiving spirits who would lead Christ’s followers astray. The

Apostle Paul became emotional about this, declaring:

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even though…an angel from Heaven, should preach to you

a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you,

let him be accursed.

Galatians 1:8 (NASB)

At Fatima in 1915, on a hillside tending sheep, four children, Lucia

dos Santos, and three of her friends had just ﬁnished lunch, and in their

simple Catholic tradition had begun to recite their Rosary beads dedicated

to the Virgin of their Church. Suddenly out of a cloud a woman appeared,

declaring herself to be Mary, giving them an incredible scare, and causing

them to run home. But when they arrived back at their homes to speak to

their family about it, they were laughed at and called little “saints,” and

told to keep their fantasies to themselves.

Then later, in 1916, an angel, a “beautiful young man” they said, with

a glowing ring around his head,” appeared to Lucia, along with her two

cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto. They believed he was an angel

because he was beautiful to their eyes and wore a halo. He came dressed

in light and made them feel very peaceful and full of God. And after some

preliminaries, he proceeded to oﬀer them some sort of unscriptural

communion, using what appeared to be real blood ﬂowing out of Jesus and

appearing out of thin air. And thus began a series of encounters between

Lucia and various collections of other children which went on for a

number of years. As Lucia reported:

There in the air, at a certain distance...shines a

unusual …the light comes toward them…in this extraordinary

light the little shepherds can distinguish the form of

a young man…entranced by the haloed visitor’s dazzling

splendor, the children…dare not speak...his ﬁrst words

are to reassure them: Do not fear, I am the Angel of Peace.

Pray with me…suddenly the heavenly messenger appears…

In his hand is a chalice and above it appears the host [the

Communion bread] From the host drops of blood fall into the

Chalice….he tells the children to] “Make reparation for their

Sins and console your god.”

—The Sun Danced at Fatima by

Joseph A Pelletier

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This is the sort of “angel from heaven,” Paul warned about. It is

designed to deceive, to deliver false doctrine, and to make one wonder

about spiritual issues apart from the Scriptures. The so-called Holy Family

was represented in many of these appearances. And the Jezebel Mary was

always depicted as the leader with Jesus in her arms.

Later on in appearances overhead in the skies, whole towns near

Fatima will see the sun appear to dance and spin, with many colors

forming rays in all directions across the sky. Finally, as thousands watched

from several nearby towns, the sun suddenly grew large, and appeared to

be an enormous ﬂaming disk falling out of the sky right on top of them.

This last vision was utterly terrifying. Thousands threw themselves to the

ground expecting incineration. But it was all some sort of optical

deception as though the deity were showing his hatred of people, and yet

many in three nearby towns saw this falling of the sun.

Most troubling of all was the ability of this apparition to suspend

physical laws. The most deceiving miracle of Fatima was the way the

physical constraint of looking for hours at the sun was overthrown.

Strangely enough, all these people were able to look directly at the disk of

the sun for a lengthy period of time with no ill eﬀect at all. Nobody went

blind, nobody suﬀered even the slightest malady. Perhaps this vision had

nothing to do with the real sun itself, it was an amazing deception. But it

must be asked of these “devoted” Catholics “Does this even sound like

something the mature and loving Jesus would do? Suddenly try to scare

you, pretend to incinerate you?”

Nevertheless something real happened at Fatima, even if the sun

didn’t dance there. It just cannot be denied that some sort of supernatural

activity appeared in the sky over Fatima, Portugal, and it has since been

declared a true miracle by the Roman Catholic Church. Thousands saw

this, and thousands were deceived.

All of these “miracles” focused on a site overlooking a withered tree,

some bushes, and some rubble rocks, near to the city, a very inauspicious

looking spot indeed. The children, or whomever, would perch on a slope

above and look out over this bit of rubble and dead vegetation and the

apparitions would appear over them.

And even Lucia at one point begins to wonder if she and the other

children had not been confused by the devil, so the apparition promised a

real show to try to convince her:

For as the Lady parts her hands, beams of … light radiate

from them and to penetrate the earth. And the abyss of

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is unveiled before the children’s horriﬁed eyes. They observe

an immense sea of ﬁre which appearsbe under the earth.

Immersed in the ﬁre are the devils or fallen angels and the souls

of the damned human beings…the demons appear in the terrifying

and loathsome forms of horrible unknown animals…all the while

they emit shrieks and groans…

and [the Lady] asks them to “Sacriﬁce yourselves forsinners

…this is all for the sins committed against the Immaculate

Heart of Mary.—The Sun Danced at Fatim by Joseph A Pelletier p.61

The vision of hell only lasts a moment and the Lady promises to take

the children to heaven. But on the same day Francisco must have seen

more than he was supposed to. For he ventured down behind the

apparition tree, behind the backdrop of rock and other rubble, and emitted

a blood curdling scream, and the children ﬁnd him on his knees sobbing.

they ﬁnally do come upon him he is still on his knees

trembling with fear and his aﬄiction is so great that he

is unable to rise.

“What is the matter with you? What has happened?

the two girls anxiously inquire. His voice was choked

with fear, Francisco replies: It was one of those big beasts

that we saw in hell. It was here sending oﬀ light.”

—The Sun Danced at Fatima by Joseph A Pelletier p.67

But it seems that the light was coming out of the “hands” of some sort

of hideous “demon,” and not the “Lady” after all? And the “demon” was

not in hell but rather behind the apparition tree. One is reminded of

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. Who was it behind the “curtain” of the

apparition tree? Was the demon the real source of the apparition?

We simply state the case and wonder. But the Bible warns that as the

time grows near to the end there will be great signs in the heavens, and on

earth, designed to deceive us. These signs happened in 1916, and we are

much closer to the coming of the Messiah than ever they were. What

should we start to expect in these pagan days? Visions of UFO’s?

Enormous mother ships parked over our cities like in the movie

“Independence Day?”

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In Rendalsham forest England in 1981 members of the USAF

encountered something that the British Royal Air Force has felt important

enough to release to the general public. Sergeant Jim Penniston, 81

Security Police Squadron, was sent out into the forest to investigate

strange lights near the base. While in the forest this military policeman

claims to have encountered a mechanical spacecraft, warm to the touch.

He testiﬁes that he actually circled, touched and made notes about this

metallic “craft.” Penniston has shown a notebook in which he claims to

have made real-time notes and sketches of the object.

In June 2010, Penniston’s commander retired Colonel Charles Halt

signed a notarized aﬃdavit speaking about the same incident. He believed

the event to be extraterrestrial and it had been covered up by both the UK

and US:

I I believe the objects that I saw at close quarter were extraterrestrial

in origin and that the security services of both the United Kingdom and

the United States have attempted—both then and now—to subvert the

signiﬁcance of what occurred at Rendlesham Forest and RAF Bentwaters

by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation.""While in

Rendlesham Forest, our security team observed a light that looked like a

large eye, red in colour, moving through the trees. After a few minutes this

object began dripping something that looked like molten metal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendlesham_Forest_inci

What else can we expect?

Images of Gaia, and the living mother earth? One thing you may

depend on with spirits which owe their allegiance to Satan, they are clever

and they tend to make their lies ﬁt into our current mythology. Since we

are so taken with UFO’s they will undoubtedly make that their best eﬀort.

Greater signs and greater lies than these may yet appear. And they will

always make the believer doubt the Scriptures. We are speciﬁcally told the

image of the Beast will be made to speak, and to demand everyone take

his Mark.

We are all warned. And we are not to follow such fables into some

inner sanctum, or to go out into the wilderness to listen to some clever

forgery out there.

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There are such forgeries even now. The ex-traﬃc cop who calls

himself “Vissarion,” a Russian Messiah, awaits the foolish who go to him

far out in Siberia, from every nation on earth, and have built whole

villages just outside his “heavenly” compound just to hear him come out

and say a few words every now and again. Jose’ Luis deJesus from Puerto

Rico claims to be the return of Christ and the Anti-Christ both, decorating

his many followers with tattoos of the 666.

Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold here is the Christ,

or there He is,’do not believe him. For false Christs and

false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders,

so as to mislead…If therefore they say to you, behold He

is in the wilderness, do not go forth or behold He in the

inner rooms, do not believe them. For just as the lightening

comes from the east and ﬂashes even to the west, so shall the

coming of the Son of man be Matthew 24:23–27 (NASB)

The Lord promises that when he really does choose to appear we will

all know it and every eye on earth shall see him coming. He will come

with the clouds and great power, and he will not frighten us.

The “angel” at Fatima taught the children many unbiblical ideas.

Since an angel of the Lord would never do this, he reveals himself a

demon dispatched from the enemy, perhaps the very being little Francisco

saw behind the apparition tree.

For if the demon is correct the real blood of Christ did not wash away

all the sins of mankind. So we must carry on with works to try to appease

the rest of the sins. We must carry on with “reparations.” And with what

can sinners make reparation for sin? But if Christ did not atone for all

sins, for all time, we had better get busy and work hard, because God is

insulted.

Of course such nonsense is not the Gospel of salvation but a clever

return to a works doctrine, trying to earn ones way into heaven something

no human being can do. Paul called such a phony gospel twice “accursed.”

Mankind receives forgiveness from God, and it is the free gift of eternal

life, but only when Christ’s sacriﬁce is all suﬃcient. Not one thing more is

needed. Christ has done all for us, and not the reverse. We do not need to

“console” the Lord. Such an idea is blasphemy. He is our consolation. He

never gets frazzled, and he never can be bought with good works.

This false “woman” is properly labeled “Mystery Babylon” because

she is a return to the occult propagated at the ancient Tower of Babel. God

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confused all the languages, and separated the peoples into nations and

tribes and tongues. She will seek to undo Babel and return all religions and

all peoples again to unity but under the false principle that all roads lead to

God. She will attempt to rebuild the Tower that leads to heaven, in

rebellion against the Lord of heaven, and what he has already done on our

behalf.

The so-called “seeker of truth” enticed by this false “woman” will

become spiritually seduced with exactly what the World Teacher,

Maitreya, Rael, or Vissarion, or whatever his name ﬁnally turns out to be

wants to teach. Any ole road with do so long as it’s sincerely taken. It’s

what he will be saying. All people of faith are going in the same direction,

and all are simply the children of God, whatever else they want to believe.

Many modern religions already teach this false idea. In a “Bahai”

temple everyone goes into a door from a side of the building which looks

like his/her own religious tradition. All meet at the center on the inside,

where the monk waits to greet you into the house of Bahai. The Christian

goes through an opening shaped to look like a church door, the Jew

through a synagogue, and the Muslim into a mosque. But inside all roads

come together. It sounds so profound, so reasonable, so kindly, except that

it removes the blood of Christ. Satan wants us to be religious, he just does

not want us to understand Jesus. Underneath, all roads lead to the same

place. This is the message of Mystery Babylon.

When placed against the Bible admonition that “There is no other

name given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). It must

be one name or the other; it must be Allah or Yahweh, Mohammed or

Jesus / Yeshua. The Bible is true or it is false. There is no deeper

interpretation which brings all of them together. There is no “undercurrent

of deeper truth” to which all religions agree. Without the cross of Christ

there is no remission of sins.

But the essence of mystery Babylon is contained in the sixties rock

song, “Aquarius.” It’s beautiful but seductive melody, coupled with the

primitive heartbeat of the song, has a pull which calls to the inner rebel in

all of us. It is a call away from God, and into the occult. It appeals to what

the Bible calls the “natural man,” and despises the “spiritual man,” with

his attachment to God.

Mystery Babylon is Aquarius.

When the moon is in the Seventh House

And Jupiter aligns with Mars

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Then peace will guide the planets

And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius

The age of Aquarius! Aquarius

Harmony and understanding

Sympathy and trust abounding

No more falsehoods or derisions

Golden living dreams of visions

Mystic crystal revelation

And the mind’s true liberation—

“Aquarius,” by The Fifth Dimension

Perhaps a mixture of Catholic and Islamic doctrine will predominate

throughout the world. Or some sort of amalgam will emerge, where each

religion can continue to worship in its own way but all under the umbrella

of Rome. All could probably adhere together as mere choices in the over

arching covering by the World Church. But Mystery Babylon is already

with us, and after the rapture, when all the Bible believers are missing, she

will sit upon the Beast. But only for a short time. And she will think of

herself as a queen. But instead of a queen, she has sold herself to the

highest bidder, and she will come to a sad end.

she gloriﬁed herself and lived sensuously…for she says in her

heart, I sit as a queen and I…will never see mourning… in one

day her plagues will come…she will be burned up with ﬁre

Revelation 18:7, 8 (NASB)

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who

now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And

then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay

with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the

appearance of his coming…the one whose coming is in

with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false

wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those

who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth

so as to be saved.

2 Thessalonians 2:7–11 (NASB)

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The Wedding of the Lamb

Once he has no more use for her, the Beast will simply make an end to

Mystery Babylon. Killing a few million within a hundred miles of the

Vatican will mean nothing to him. In spite of her venom for real

Christians, she will have reminded him too much of the truth, even in its

most corrupted form. Christianity still has the title “Christian.”

Then the False Prophet will rise up to proclaim, “Who is like the Beast

and who can make war with him?” And from this point onward all

worship will be directed toward the god in the midst of the world, the man

who has placed his backside on the mercy seat and mocked the saving

blood.

Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in

her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues…Woe woe

the great city of Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your

judgment has come.

Revelation 18:4,13 (NASB)

Standing at a distance, because of the fear of her torment,

saying, “Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city!

For in one hour your judgment has come.”

Revelation 18:10 (NASB)

As the false comes to her well deserved end, in heaven it is time to

celebrate the great harvest of the earth, time, to throw the greatest

celebration of all. There is rejoicing among the Church, and rejoicing

among the children of Abraham, and all those martyred out of the

Tribulation. It is the time of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. For the

invitations have gone out, the groom approaches and he comes who is the

Great King. For the Lamb is about to receive his Bride.

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“He leads me to his banqueting table…his banner over me is love”

Song of Solomon 2:4 (the song)

And I heard as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the

sound of many waters and the sound of mighty peals of thunder

saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, For

the marriage of the Lamb has come and his Bride has made herself

ready.

Revelation 19:6,7 (NASB)

Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten

virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the

bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and ﬁve were

Prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took

no oil with them, But the prudent took oil in ﬂasks along

with their lamps,

Now while bridegroom was delaying they all got drowsy

and began to sleep.But at midnight there was a shout,

‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him! Then

all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps, the foolish

said to the prudent ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps

are going out.’ But the prudent answered, No there

not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the

dealers and buy Some for yourselves, And while

were going away to make the purchase, the Bridegroom

came, and those who were ready went in with him to

the wedding Feast; and the door was shut.”

Matthew 25: 1-10 (NASB)

Jewish weddings include some dramatic elements.

A proposal is made and accepted through the matchmaker, but the

bride stays at her family home in preparation. She makes her gown and

prepares her dowry, and the young man goes oﬀ to build their new home.

Then, after all is ready, at a time selected to create the most surprise,

the groom returns with great joy. He comes with a wedding procession

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from his father's house, and the young woman is celebrated. Soon they

appear at the wedding supper, and she is wined and dined in the home of

her new father, and she is installed in her new home.

Christ came, and proposed marriage through his “matchmaker” the

Holy Spirit, and many accepted the proposal, and desired to become part

of his great worldwide Bride. Satisﬁed, Christ/Yeshua departed “to make a

place,” promising a home in his father's house. He would return, but at

such a time she wouldn't be expecting him.

“She,” was not to become sleepy but remain vigilant, she was to be

ready. The coming could happen at any moment. Such beauty of a young

love, bride, and wedding, is a picture of the joy Yeshua is about to bestow

upon his Bride, the Church, he has taken to be his own.

But there is anguish here also.

Some virgins were ready, and some only thought they were. How

awful to be among those who looked right, and sounded right, but had no

“oil,” and were “left behind.” They were left outside, beating on the door,

but the doors are locked, and they will never get in. To have understood,

and played the part, but never taken the Groom. What heartbreak.

This procession from heaven is really coming. It is on its way even

now, and the shout is near. The only important question remaining, is my

lamp ﬁlled ? Am I ready for that day with the oil of the Holy Spirit ?

According to Jewish wedding tradition; a procession often comes in

the night. It comes from the home of the Father, the home of the Groom.

And she is to listen for the Groom’s mighty footfall when the maids

awaken. The Groom has been away, sometimes for a long time, preparing

a home for his Bride. In such a time, when she does not expect him, he

comes.

at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold the bridegroom!

out to meet him. the bridegroom came, and those who

were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the

door was shut.

Matthew 25:6–10 (NASB)

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The hall had been prepared and the day had ﬁnally come. The

invitations had been sent with servants to gather them into the feast.

These words spoken in parable 2000 years ago now, but were they spoken

hiding truth in plain sight ? One wonders how often within poetic parable

was hidden prophecy, and how many prophecies composed the parable.

The Army of Zion, the great fulﬁllment of the blessing promised to

Abraham would actually be sent into the highways and byways of this

world and though many who were expected did not come, a multitude

were found who quickly did. They came to the Wedding, the feast of the

Great King, where the lowliest water was turned to wine, and the last of

earth’s vine became the best wine if all.

A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many;

and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who

had been invited, ‘Come for everything is ready now.’ But

they all alike began to make excuses...And the slave came

back and reported this to his master. Then the head of

household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at

once into the streets and ...compel them to come in, that

my house may be ﬁlled. For I tell you none of those men

who were invited shall taste of my dinner.

Luke 14:16–24 (NASB)

Above all the Groom was ﬁnally ready. He had been building a place

for his Bride for over two thousand years, and it had become a residence

to behold. And he had come at last, at a time when the world was not

ready for him. He had stood as one glorious ﬁgure in the sky amidst the

clouds, and called for his Bride. And his marvelous voice rang out over all

the universe, but only the sheep heard this shepherd. And she came to him

in what is called the Blessed Hope, the rapture into the clouds. And

millions had suddenly awakened from their graves and found themselves

restored to their bodies of youth and beauty and vigor. And myriads of

others who never will know death changed in a moment, in the twinkling

of an eye, and began to ascend to the place in the clouds where Jesus

waited. The glory of the Church had come to him in the sky. But that had

all happened some years before, and the time had ﬁnally come for the

Wedding Supper of the Lamb.

And so there he was seated at his banqueting table transﬁgured into his

full majesty as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, in the front of a hall so

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vast it could hold the world. And the music of a million angels ﬁlled this

wonderful hall, going up to the stars with such rhapsody as the ears of men

had never heard. Such music it was as to make the sweetest sound on earth

sound drab and irritating to the ear.

And then the saved, the many in their beautiful white gowns, began to

arrive with a light surrounding them too bright for ordinary eyes. A

multitude from all tribes and tongues, and every nation under heaven.

Many came in from the Church of Ephesus, sweetened like the new

Bride, all dressed in white linen with their ﬁrst love overﬂowing. And they

took their seats at their tables. One can imagine many of the Old

Testament with them. Adam with beautiful Eve and Noah and Abraham

with his children Isaac and Jacob.

And then with a bit of sanctiﬁed imagination came in those from

Smyrna. Those who had faced the lions, “crushed” wearing the crown of

the martyr upon their heads. And one can imagine their utter amazement

as the Lamb pointed to them with his great scepter, and the multitudes

stood up to welcome these honored ones.

Next came in Moses with his friend Elijah, the Two, only this time

they had on their beautiful wedding garments and their faces shown like

the sun, and their was no longer any veil on Moses’ face, but only the light

of joy was upon him and his companion. And with them came David and

Samuel, and Daniel with his three friends and Isaiah and Jeremiah, and

there was great clapping for the words they had written, and the deeds they

had done.

Following were the men and women and children from the Church of

Pergamum. They carried large two edged swords called the Word, and

they could rejoice that they had taken hold of this Word, and remained

pure when all around were going after the world.

And then an enormous ﬂow came in from Thyatira, cousins of

Pergamum, looking amazed at their own garments and in such

wonderment that they had no millions of years to face over a false doctrine

they had been taught called Purgatory. They were so blessed to see the

Lamb seated and the angels singing and their own precious robes. Mary

was with them, blessing them for staying true to the teaching of the Word.

And there were so many, as far as the eye could see, who had kept their

garments white and had not gotten into the “deep things of Satan,” the

teachings of the “Mother Child” as they are called there. And because this

body lasted thousands of years there were miles and miles of those who

kept coming into the hall and everyone looked round themselves in awe.

More of the Old Testament saints poured in, Ruth and Boaz, Naomi

and Esther, and then the people of Sardis appeared looking a bit sheepish,

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because they had misunderstood. Many had been wrongly taught that they

would be the only “elect” to ﬁnd their way inside. And now they

understood the height and depth and width of the limitless love, the true

meaning of “grace” of their Lord Jesus Christ, and they ﬁnally felt the joy

of that limitless love, and how happy it made them. And the Savior smiled

broadly, at their new humility.

And then came the thunder of the feet of myriads were heard,

making admittance to the room. The men and women of Philadelphia and

they were many as far as the eye could see, and many wearing the crown

of the soul winner. Millions upon millions making joyful entry to be with

the King. And to the amazement of the whole assembly, the Lord Himself

stood slowly to welcome them, and the roar of the feast was enormous as

behind them came men and women and boys and girls of every shade and

color as far as the eye could see.

From Africa and Asia, and India, and the islands of the sea, they had

all passed through the blood of the Lamb, and there was still plenty for all.

The blood of the martyrs is called the seed of the Church, and these brave

souls had passed through many such doors. But they had only “given up

what they could not keep, to gain what they could not lose,” or so said Jim

Elliot as he walked in with the others of the Auca Five. They came

through the blood, and the sweat, and the tears of those of the Open Door.

And the numbers of them from Africa and Asia dwarfed the myriads who

had already come in through the door.

And then, after these myriads, of every shade, and tribe, and nation,

came the people of Laodicea ﬁnally dressed in the white of the overcomer,

and rejoicing in the Lamb. And from the throne the voice of the Savior

welcomed them. He welcomed those who had been behind the closed

door at which he had been knocking for many years, and he called them

“good and faithful servants ready to enter into the joy set before them

from the foundations of the earth. “

And then just outside were a multitude who had died in the

Tribulation stretching out to the edge of heaven waiting to enter the hall

and celebrate the feast with all the rest. And with a thrill John saw that

they were more than those millions already inside the hall.

And an angel standing nearby asked John once more, “From where

do these come?” And John knew; “These are those who have come out of

the Great Tribulation, and they have washed their garments in the blood

of the Lamb.” And they waved their palm branches and cried out hosanna

to the King who sits at his banqueting table, his banner over him is love.

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After these things I looked, and behold a great multitude,

which no one could count from every nation and all

tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the

throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes

and palm branches were in their hands.

Revelation 7:9 (NASB)

And from there one could see the 144,000 standing on Mount Zion

and singing their new song before the Lamb, with a multitude of the

children of Abraham stretching out in every direction behind shouting

“Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord.”

And the elders on the throne, and the angelic host, and the four

Creatures and all that has breath in the realm of the animals, and even the

sun and the moon and the stars themselves joined in the mightiest chorus

ever to the Lamb, Who was slain, forever glory and honor and joy. And on

that mighty Throne sat the Lamb with the most transcendent look of

victory and happiness on his face, and a joy unspeakable and full of glory

and a joy never before felt by a human heart, ﬁlled that amazing room. He

had given his life for his friends and there is no greater love than his.

And slowly he rose, with the wine in his still scarred hand, and

proposed a toast. “And now with the permission of My Father, it is time to

drink this cup with you again, as I promised to you on the evening of that

last preparation, when I was betrayed. You have done well so now do it

this one last time in remembrance of Me,” and his mighty voice shook the

heavenly hall.

And the twelve, Paul included, suddenly came from the side, and took

their places at a table set especially for them, and they looked to where

John was standing and beckoned to him, and they picked up their cups,

and all stood and raised the great toast to the Lamb. And the dove ﬂew in

and landed upon him as before with tongues of ﬁre over every head in the

hall, and the Father spoke and shook the universe.

“This is My beloved Son, listen to him.” And all partook again of the

cup of the Promise and the wine tasted like salvation, and only those who

will someday drink of it will ever understand.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth good will toward man!

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Rider from Heaven

Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied,,’

Behold the Lord came with many thousands of his holy Ones, to

execute judgment upon all

Jude 14 (NASB)

All through the Bible, the climax is always the coming of the Lord. It

is estimated that in over 300 prophecies this the most pivotal event of all

history is mentioned. But in the days when he came the ﬁrst time, to be

beaten and lashed and hung on the cross, and he faced the crisis night of

his trial, a High Priest enraged; Caiaphas pointed a big bony ﬁnger his way

and he shouted:

Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?

And Jesus said, I am; and you shall see the Son of Man

…coming the clouds of heaven.

Mark 14:61–62 (NASB)

In a desperate last bid to destroy Israel and take over the world, three

powerful spirits of evil are released over all the earth to call in the mighty

men for the last battle of planet earth. Three frog like spirits, strangely like

the pictures of gray aliens with enormous almond shaped eyes, and with

thin frog like mouths as UFO enthusiasts picture them today, are released

from the mouths of the unholy trinity and they go out over all the earth

with one objective, and that is to incite the nations to war against the Jews.

And the nations, are driven wild by these things, and they gather in the

valley of Jezreel, called Armageddon, to settle old scores.

This valley is roughly an oval, pointed toward Haifa in the north, and

the Jordan River above the Dead Sea, to the south east. It is a plain of

about 150 square miles in size near to Mt. Megiddo for which it is named.

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On the west just below the “Toe of Asher,” where the city of Haifa is

located on the Mediterranean coast rises Mount Carmel where Elijah

defeated the priests of Jezebel. To the north is the city of Nazareth, where

Joseph taught young Jesus to build wooden tables, to the south is

Megiddo, hence comes the name for this valley Armageddon (better Har

Megeddon), the Mount of Megiddo. And ﬁnally to the east rises up Mount

Tabor, where Deborah and Barak defeated the armies of Canaan under

King Jabin.

Access to the valley from Haifa on the coast is along a modern

highway into the north of the valley. It is assumed ships carrying troops

and materials will dock in Haifa, and move their armaments into the

valley. Most are of the opinion that Armageddon is the place of the ﬁnal

battle of the world. Actually this is sort of a misunderstanding. Really it

is just the staging area for Jerusalem. For the target is Jerusalem and every

other large accumulation of Israel. And Jezreel is the ideal staging area for

a mass invasion of David’s city.

Once assembled there, they will travel to the Kidron Valley (the

Valley of Jehoshaphat) on the coastal side of the central mountains, all the

way to squash Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Napoleon is said to have marveled at the size of the plain, saying it

was the ideal natural battleﬁeld in the world. But with all due respect to

Napoleon, Jezreel will not host the last battle, at least not the intended one.

It is but the mustering area for an assault on the real target; Jerusalem

some 50 to 70 miles to the south. And assuming there are about 10 million

men under arms when the battle begins, this leaves about 4000 square feet

per soldier, plenty of area for all the armies on planet earth to assemble for

a last great assault on the Jewish state.

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle,

and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the

women ravished and half of the city exiled, …

Zechariah 14:2 (NASB)

The overarching agenda for all these armies is to wipe out Israel once

and for all. They come from the four corners of the world. They come as if

drugged, and in a trance. They come because they have been called by

demonic powers, and they come by the millions their footsteps ringing oﬀ

the mountains. A steady stream begins to march through the passes from

China, India and Japan, armies passing through the ancient Khyber Pass

where armies have marched since the beginning of the world.

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Many come by sea, from the Americas, Russia, and the new Roman

Empire of Europe, and anchor oﬀ Haifa to the north of the Toe and

because of their size, it will take months for the armies of Anti-Christ to

reach the Valley of Jezreel. In the meanwhile, at least half of the Jews will

listen to their new found Messiah, and escape this holocaust by rushing

away into the dry desert wilderness to the south.

As the armies of the world accumulate they do so to strike out at

Israel as his Chosen People. But they are not really angry at anyone save

God. They want to tear God from his heaven. There is no talk of limiting

actions to military targets anymore. The civilian populations are simply in

the way, and few bearing the Mark care about them or much of anything

else, any longer. Any hideous weapon of mass destruction invented by a

fallen race, now crazed to kill by demons, will be employed. There is no

sense of restraint, there is only a terrible sense of doom.

Once the Mark is taken, there is no longer any doubt about God. He is

your enemy. As Pharaoh’s chariots could not help but go down into the

Red Sea even after they saw so great a power; a power able to hold back

millions of tons of water, these armies march to certain death. Nobody

survives as a foot soldier on a radioactive battleﬁeld, nobody. But what did

life matter to dead men walking, with the very emblem of futility, the 666

on their foreheads, anyway?

Such madness had overtaken the men of the earth.

And…the Euphrates…was dried up, that the way might be

made for the kings of the east.And I saw coming out of the

mouth of the dragon and out of mouth of the beast and out of

the mouth of the False Prophet, three unclean spirits…For

they are the spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out

to the ... whole world, to gather together for the war…

and they gathered them together to the place which is

…HarMagedon.

Revelation 16:12–16 (NASB)

The whole world mobilizes and readies itself for the ﬁnal war. This is

the time of which the Lord said, those days must be cut short, or no ﬂesh

would survive.

I will gather all nations, And bring them down to the

of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with

at that place Joel 2:1-3 (NASB)

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Multitudes, multitudes innear in the Valley of Decision. The sun

and moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness.

Joel 3:14-15 (NASB)

The plan is to aggregate the forces of earth in Megiddo, and move

toward Jerusalem and the valley of Jehoshaphat, what Joel called the

Valley of Decision, just outside of the city.

Satan still thinks he can destroy the Word of God by destroying the

Jew. And what every deluded occultist keeps hidden away even from

himself is that Satan does not care if he wipes out every living man,

woman, and child oﬀ the face of the earth. He would not mind turning

earth into sterile ball of slag and ash. In fact it would please him to do so.

He has a visceral hatred for mankind and all that God has made because

mankind was made in the likeness of the all powerful God. And in this

way he would be certain to destroy every Jew, disrupt the everlasting

covenant, and break the Word of God.

Men do not understand, but Satan has only one objective, to be freed

from his own destiny in the Lake of Fire. A destruction of all Jews in

Israel is the best chance to make a ﬁnal end of the Chosen people and so

break the Word of God and God’s everlasting covenant with all he has

made.

Genocide, a new holocaust, has never ceased to be the policy of the

devil. At the outset of the seven years of Tribulation in agreement with the

prophecy found in Daniel’s great clock, Israel made a deal with Anti-

Christ for seven years of security, and to rebuild their temple. God called

this a pact with death.

Not just this time but every time Israel made an outside alliance for

her own protection instead of relying on the Lord God Almighty, she lived

to regret the decision. And it was almost always the nation with which she

made the agreement that stabbed her in the back.

Nothing had changed with Anti-Christ. Rather than watching their

backs, he was always their implacable foe, and had been busy trying to

destroy them from the ﬁrst. In the end, even the United States would

betray the people of Israel, because Israel was supposed to depend on God

and not on the feeble arm of man.

And for some reason, though the Mark was now accepted and even

coveted in some places on earth, Israel had resisted its deployment in their

country. Many decided it was the leading of Christ.

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The IDF had mistrusted this marking business from the outset, and

for the most part had been openly in rejection of the world leader and his

infamous Mark. Never-the-less, faced with food shortages, many of the

more secular had been reconsidering, until they saw the Anti-Christ seated

in their new temple, and then even the most secular rabbis had shouted,

Abomination.

When they saw the Abomination of Desolation despoiling their new

temple, Israel had simply gone on the run. The whole country, it seemed,

was trying to get away, most into Jordan. It was the most reasonable place

to go and hide. Go out into the wilderness, and wait out the great battles of

the day. And while they drove as far and as fast, as they could in their

family cars, most quickly abandoned motorized vehicles, on the jammed

up roadways, and took to the remote trails trying to avoid patrols. There

just weren’t enough roads going out into the desert to handle them all. The

whole of Israel had suddenly turned into refugees.

Meanwhile, Arabs, acting as spies for the Anti-Christ, in the markets,

selling cantaloupes and rugs they still had, were not just pretending they

were on a wonderful holiday. They were practically giddy with the joy of

watching their over-lording Jewish protectors running for their lives. They

had never seen anything like it. The Jews were simply in a panic and

running away as fast as their legs could carry them. Soon they would have

their country back, and they were delirious.

No doubt this Jewish panic had been reported to the world leader,

much to his own satisfaction. It was hard to miss the grid locked

highways, roads ﬁlled with every vehicle imaginable. And as the roads

jammed, and the people struggled, there was a good deal of rising

confusion, the biggest being the lack of anyone coordinating so panicked a

departure. But even as the refugees scrambled to get away, units of the

IDF were taking over, directing Jews to go toward the nation of Jordan. It

was anyone’s guess what would happen once they got there.

This, the Anti-Christ also knew, and it brought a smile. He would let

them run, there was no God to part the Red Sea for them this time, and the

heat of the desert would take care of most of this rabble. They would die

of thirst in some of the most desolate landscapes on the surface of the

earth. He could mop up the remnant at will.

After he had killed the Jews remaining in Jerusalem, and the other

population centers of Israel, entertaining his own sadistic bent inside, he

would gather the remaining numbers up in one trainload. Then if any of

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them survived he would take them back to Auschwitz and kill them there

as his last insult. He loved the rush that killing gave him.

Even so, for whatever reason, some few Jews chose to remain and be

overwhelmed by the catastrophe. Perhaps they were too old or too timid.

Perhaps, after nearly seven years of the Tribulation, they were just weary

of the trial. In the days of Hitler so many had stayed then too. They had

just gone oﬀ to the camps and vanished. Nobody could imagine how bad it

would get. But those that hung around too long were trapped by Hitler’s

war machine. Now that number who still would not listen to Jesus’ words

were being trapped by the Anti-Christ.

These Jews had heard, they knew about Jesus and the New World

coming. When Magog came down almost seven years prior, they knew

then. But how quickly men forget the truth when lies are more convenient

to hold onto. Yes they knew his name, but for whatever reason many

continued delaying in Jerusalem. Some just could not get their heads

around a new genocide.

But when the Beast polluted their new temple, for many of them that

was the last straw and the remaining vestiges of the veil in their heads

broke down and they ﬁnally saw the “one who would come in his own

name,” seated on God’s altar, and they despised him. They ﬁnally

understood. They had been lied to again. This man had never been the true

Messiah. And to their horror they did now know, what they saw on the

altar was Daniel’s Abomination.

Taking Jesus’s advice, they needed to get out of town and as quickly

as possible. Most simply dropped what they had in their hands, gathered

their children, and ran. It was easier to join in the ﬂow headed south and

eastward. And that was the way to the larger city of Bozrah in Jordan,

where they could get water and supplies. But then what? They could only

shrug. It was a natural thing for them, the Jews had been refugees so many

times before.

But they had never abandoned a new country before, and they wept.

In their panic they wept as they went, expecting death from the sky at any

moment. Most stampeded as if driven by unseen devils behind them. It

was so hard for many, especially the Orthodox and the Conservatives to

trust in the prophet from Nazareth, they were so used to resisting, they had

resisted Jesus so long. But when the Messiah they had waited for ﬁnally

presented himself, he had not been a savior, he had been a wolf in sheep’s

clothing.

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Most now knew his Mark was evil, and yet he continued neighing

after a large group of them, seducing a few. Many of the most liberal

“Reformed” simply stayed and took the Mark. They were secularists

anyway believing in not much of anything. To these the God of Abraham

was a fairy tale, a bit of nostalgia from a long time ago. And it had been so

inconvenient to run away, and the holocaust was a long time ago. Things

were diﬀerent now, more civilized. They could trust the world leader, he

would be good to them.

In all this the Israeli Defense Force, seemed to have remained

faithfully Jewish, and were going door to door, trying to alert their people

to the danger. But the trap was snapping shut. In the major metropolitan

areas, agents from the World Government police were also moving from

house to house with portable machines for marking the people. Every soul

that wasn’t ﬂying away to the desert and Bozra, was going to suddenly

ﬁnd his options collapsing, and he would fall into prison and death, or give

in to their pressure and take the Mark. For most it would be dreadful to

just pick up and head onto the desert, but it was the only way of safety.

Meanwhile near the temple, a new pillar had appeared next to the

marking station looking like an enormous standing stone of sold marble. It

seemed to be made out of real stone, and was near the grand stairway on

the new Temple Square. Periodically, when anyone approached it would

seem to reconstitute itself like liquid crystal, and the image of Anti-Christ

would appear.

It was called the image of the Beast, but it was anything but bestial. It

was a gentle face, a loving face, which could move and speak, and seemed

quite human. And somehow it knew the name of anyone curious enough

to approach. And the thing would call to its victim, enticing the person to

relent and join the wonderful New Age. It had a living quality which was

more than some electronic recording. It was enticing, it caused many to

fall into some sort of trance, as they moved toward the marking station

nearby.

At a distance, members of the IDF were watching quite aware of the

seduction going on. For their own safety they were avoiding the face of

the thing, and would snatch its victims away. Just before they received the

Mark, the image lulled the listener into complacency and it promised

protection and food, but in reality it could provide neither.

On the networks Anti-Christ similarly told the world he would protect

the Jews from the menacing armies which were assembling to the north,

presenting himself as the champion against those assembling near

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Nazareth. “Just come to the temple, receive the Mark and all would be

well. Just bow down and worship me, he reasoned, all quite sensibly,

because, as he said, "I am the fulﬁllment of all your desire. I am the true

Jewish Messiah. " And quite a number would still tarry and be deceived,

even so late as it was in the game for taking the Mark.

But the vast majority would remember the words of Daniel and

Yeshua, and ﬂee in a blinding struggling panic, Jew against Jew ﬁghting to

get out of the pack, barely keeping themselves within the boundaries of

civilized behavior. But here and there, right at the height of their fury, they

would encounter a blond looking person described as a quiet young man

walking about in the midst of the panic, and he would tell them not to fear.

He reminded them of what they had come to understand about Jesus.

So they began to settle, and they began to have hope.

And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants

of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they

will look on Me whom they have pierced...in that day a fountain

will be opened for the house of David…

Zechariah 12:10, 13:1 (NASB)

Most of those in Jerusalem already knew the Name of Jesus. When

Magog had been defeated by the mighty Name, they had found out. The

name they had been misunderstanding and dishonoring for so long had

been Jesus’ name. Somehow, they had been under the impression he

violated their Jewish religion. But then they realized he did not. And

through all their Old Testament, it had been Yeshua all along. Still

somehow the intellectual understanding had not been enough. It never is.

Some had remained uncommitted.

But now with their temple deﬁled, the Anti-Christ in possession of it,

armies bearing down from all sides, and their phony Messiah making his

purpose plainly known, it seemed time. The world leader was the Anti-

Christ, and most of them knew and because of that it was time to tell Jesus

your story, and ask his forgiveness and ﬂee to the captain of your soul.

And those weeping ones, the vast majority streaming out of the city, ﬁlling

the roads, dodging a few elements of the national powers, slowly ﬁnding

their way east and south, were new believers.

Most joined in the ﬂow, not even knowing where they were heading,

ﬁlled with fear and the agony of having nothing and nowhere to go. All

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had just one goal, escape from the cities. Like a drop of water in a river,

they just ﬂowed.

At ﬁrst in their minds they were just trying to get away. At ﬁrst no

plan had come into their minds. But as they traveled the ﬁrst objective to

get to the oasis in Bozrah in Jordan started to ﬂood into their feverish

brains. It seemed the ﬂow was headed in that direction anyway. But

strangely enough, as they traveled their destination seemed to grow

stronger in their minds. In fact they all felt the need to travel to the empty

city, to the city in the rock. They knew they were all going to Petra, not far

from Bozra, and it seemed a secret hand was starting to lead them. It

began to be like a ﬂock of migrating birds, they somehow knew. And they

continued to weep. But now their tears were for forgiveness, for their

foolish proud souls, and how they could have been so blind for so long.

Some few are caught and killed by the roving patrols, but for some strange

reason the patrols do not hinder many.

As they traveled, now clear on where they were to go, some of the

political leaders among them, whispering various strategies, hoping the

Anti-Christ would not yet understand what was happening and move to

catch them. They wanted to organize the refugees, have those in a uniform

to take charge according to their training. They needed to keep the people

quiet, and the IDF continued trying. The politicos were fearing spies in

their midst.

But nobody was interested in their intrigues anymore. They just could

not keep the people quiet. Some who would listen to them were still

doubtful, faced with the dreadful power assembling to the north, they

expected death to come to them at any instant. Many gazed at the sky,

wondering what will they would do when a ﬂight of jets clears the

mountains. And many wondered what would happen even if one jet came

in. Other fretted about Petra. What could ancient walls do against modern

weapons? One nuke lobbed into the mountain and it would be all be over.

But strangely enough, inside of most of them a great hope started

dawning. Somewhere along the lines threading their ways through the

rocks, singing was starting to break out. Out of thin air came the songs

they had heard Christians sing for centuries. Happy tunes of deliverance,

to which now their hearts suddenly yearned. The sweet lyrics of “We Are

One in the Spirit, We Are One in the Lord” seemed special to them; and

the song from Corrie ten Boom’s Hiding Place movie. “You are my hiding

place…whenever I am afraid I will trust in You.” A few even knew the

story of how Corrie and her sister Betsy had helped the Jews in those days,

and other stories of “righteous gentiles.” As they walked some of them

told the stories.

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How that seemed to lead into more song. How it all seemed to ﬁt with

their present, escaping from yet another genocide. And it dawned on many

that Jews have always run away from an unsheathed sword, but never

before with songs on their lips! For many in these refugee lines Yeshua

had become their hiding place. And the song seemed to sweep over the

long lines. Soon men and women and even children, were singing

together; singing with perfect strangers, those who were strangers no

longer. Cantors, the gifted singers of the synagogue, seemed especially

desirous of opening up in sweet praise, leading the others.

And the road over the desolation, which strangely no longer seemed

so desolate or even so hot, or so damaging to the feet, seemed somehow

shorter. Whether by a real miracle, or their songs beguiling the miles, it

was working.

It wasn’t long before the crack of the “Siq” the narrow entryway into

Petra appeared, and the multitude, which had already backed up for miles,

awaiting their turn to pass through the narrow slit, were happy no longer in

a struggle, singing choruses, helping each other, and nobody seemed the

least bit interested in just getting inside, any more.

Though the danger from the sky was real. Though they were baking in

the desert heat, and freezing in the desert night, they were simply waiting

and worshiping. And for some reason the forces of the Anti-Christ seemed

to have vanished entirely, which was entirely good. Moreover as they

traveled it seemed their movements had become somehow wonderfully

supernatural. In only a few hours they had all traveled to the walled city in

the Negev, which was puzzling to them. It was some forty miles south of

the Dead Sea.. And though it seemed strange to them, miracles even

seemed to be breaking out in other ways too.

They couldn’t be sure, in so large a crowd, but as quickly as these

refugees understood they couldn’t survive without each other, they started

to share what little food they had brought along. They had taken so little

time to pack. But as they passed this meager food about, it never seemed

to be running out. Some had started ﬁres and were cooking, and from

some place burlap sacks of water had been found. Nobody seemed to

know where it kept coming from, and there was always more food in the

basket and more water being carried by the IDF.

Some were proclaiming New Testament miracles. Bloody, dirty

feet began to feel better, and even began looking better; though they knew

such things really made no logical sense. It had only happened one time

before, in the desert following Moses, where shoes never wore out.

And soon the human ﬂood had ﬁltered through the gap and into the

valley, they found many praying and giving outright thanks to Jesus, for

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his deliverance. Others were still weeping, and it was easy to understand.

They were just ﬁlled with remorse at having rejected their Savior for so

many years. But at the same time there was singing, multitudes were

singing Messianic songs of their Jewish Christian brethren, though how

anybody knew these songs amazed everybody. Others just sat and reveled

in the joy surging through their every ﬁber.

Now they understood what had always been just over the edge of their

understanding. Messiah lives, and he had been delivering them since they

ran from the Anti-Christ. The sky remained clear of aircraft. Not one bomb

had fallen on the people as they hiked, and still none had been heard or

seen. Some were actually preaching, and preaching from the New

Testament. Men and women, boys and girls, sat in rapt attention by the

thousands. There was no more fear in anyone’s face.

It was ironic to think about. The city of the one who sold his

birthright, Esau’s abandoned city, had become the very place where many

suddenly found their own. Esau was the ﬁrst to take a mark into his heart,

and here were the children of Jacob hiding in his city, rejecting the Mark

and the devil’s throne.

So there was Israel, trapped in the abandoned city of Esau, trapped by

the power of the Anti-Christ in the ancient city in the “cleft of the rock,”

which had been waiting thousands of years for their appearance. But in

spite of their new Christianity, It was all sort of hopeless, they knew. It

was the last hurrah of a people too stubborn to join in world idolatry. The

military power building up to the north would soon overwhelm Jerusalem,

and come looking for them in the moments following. How could an

ancient city, even one inside a gigantic sandstone monolith, protect

anything in the nuclear age?

So they looked at each other and wondered what madness had gripped

them so that they were no longer afraid? But they had been guided there,

and there they would die, should the Anti-Christ ﬁnd them. And without

question he would ﬁnd them there. It could come at any moment. But they

had already decided they would rather die as free men and women here,

with faith in Christ, than live a coward with the Mark of eternal damnation

upon their brow. It had become an easy choice, for most of them.

Meanwhile, the nations continued to mobilize in the Valley of

Decision. And the masses of the east approached, their footfalls pounding

the ground like the sound of immense drummers, pounding out the rhythm

of doom. Even stone, when it is pounded by the feet of thousands of

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marching men, sounds like an enormous drum. And the vibration can be

felt as the whole valley begins to shake. It is the impressive power of man

on display.

Into the valley came the men and the missile launchers and the155

Howitzers, and every sort of armament known. Out of the valley the roar

of jets are heard in the skies. The Anti-Christ was determined to squash

Israel. Multitudes, Joel said so long ago. Multitudes in the valley of

decision.

But something much more wonderful began happening overhead.

All of the skeptics of all the years, have raised up their clenched ﬁsts

and shouted for God to appear, and then they say they would believe in

him. It is said that Madelyn Murray O’Hair, would sit up in a tree in a

lightening storm, and cackle out curses at God, daring him to strike her

dead. Atheists and agnostics of all stripes, have taunted God to step out of

the background and reveal himself since the fall.

One day it will happen.

but immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be

darkened, and the moon will not give its light…and the powers of

the heavens will be shaken, And then the sign of the Son of Man

will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth

will mourn

Matthew 24:29, 30 (NASB)

Almost unnoticed, due to the business going on all over the plain

below, the sky begins to darken over the heads of the multitude. Weather

experts on the ground started noting a front moving in rapidly. But it is a

puzzling change. The barometer didn’t seem to be falling, but the sky was

clouding up and darkening rapidly. An enormous storm seemed to be

coming their way, and the World Command recommended wing tie downs

should be quickly applied to all aircraft.

Then suddenly the black sky seemed to roll back like a scroll.

Generals, only half believing their eyes, were shouting into microphones

in a hundred diﬀerent languages, trying to get the latest metrological

reports.

And there he will be seated in plain sight upon a white charger, in the

midst of the clouds. And all hell will break out in the ranks below.

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Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a

vain thing?The Kings of the earth take their stand, and the

take counsel together against the Lord and against his

Anointed; ‘Let us tear their fetters apart, And cast away their

from us!’

He who sits in the heavens laughs…Then He will speak to them in

his anger And terrify them in his fury…

Psalm 2:1–4 (NASB)

Somewhere from his bunker, deep underground, Anti-Christ will be

screaming curses and foaming at the mouth, his generals marshalling their

forces. Meetings will be quickly organized on the ground. The armies of

the world will now turn and join together against their common enemy,

God Almighty.

And they will make plans to marshal all their ﬁre power against the

one person they never did want to meet in this life or the next. But there he

will be. I would expect from that immense army below will come a roar

like the depths of hell. The gnashing of teeth and a hatred of such intensity

one might actually feel it.

And after targeting had been reprogrammed, and after demonic

shaman called to make their most powerful incantations, calling on all the

powers of Satan to destroy this One seated on his horse in the sky, missiles

of terrifying power, armed with thousands of megatons set to detonate at

the right altitude, will launch into the air; the target is the One seated

calmly above, watching them in the clouds.

The world is at war with God.

On cue these monsters of the megatons begin to lift oﬀ out of that vast

army below. As ﬂaming missiles lift away on pillars of thrust from all over

the valley below, roar after roar will erupt from the armies of the world, as

though they could unseat God, and the detonations will begin to illuminate

the whole of the darkened sky like daylight. It is the conﬁdent expectation

from such skeptics that a few tactical nukes should take out a man seating

on his pathetic little horse. But such tactical nukes are like ﬁreworks

compared to the eye shattering ﬂashes from the megaton blasts of MIRV’s

and ICBM payloads, destructive on a scale never even considered by those

who ﬁrst uncovered atomic weapons.

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Even from overseas in such commands as NORAD; America,

England, France, Russia and China pump in the coordinates for the Valley

of Megiddo for inter-continental ballistic missiles, carrying such majesties

of ﬁrepower so that they envelope the one seated above, with absolute

energy. The ﬂashes, small suns in their own right, with noise and the blast

coming down out of the sky, incinerating by the millions those below on

the ground. The blast fronts alone, level multitudes. There is enough

mega-tonnage exploding about the ﬁgure, to wipe out humanity many

times over.

The proud look of man will be abased, And the loftiness of man

will be humbled, And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day...

When He arises to make the earth tremble.

Isaiah 2:11,19b (NASB)

But eventually, after thousands of nukes are detonated, and the nuclear

arms of mankind are expended, and peace has returned to the clouds, over

the valley of decision, there he still will be sitting, ﬁlled with great glory,

both brighter and yet more gentle on the eye than the pyrotechnics which

preceded.

Then for the longest period he does not seem to move. Until some of

the commanders on the ground began to wonder if he had perished after

all. Then to their utter horror, they could hear his laughter. Above their

heads sat Yeshua in the heavens upon his enormous white charger, and

was laughing. He who made the stars to shine, and who calmly stood

inside Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace, so that only the bonds on the Israelites

vanished, was laughing. Their little pyrotechnic display hadn’t even

tickled him.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see

Him even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the

earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen.

Revelation 1:7 (NASB)

Then in plain view of the millions still alive on the ground, and

without further word, the rider seemed to turn his mount to the right and

began to make his gradual descent.

Whyare the nations in an uproar, And the peoples devising

A vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, And the

Rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His

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Anointed; let us tear their fetters apart, And cast their

Away from us!

He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoﬀs at them

Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in

His fury… Psalm 2: 1-4 (NASB)

The Bible clearly says every eye on earth will behold him, as he

slowly begins his return to the earth. It is as though there is a pause in all

activity. It is as though mankind collectively holds its breath. He is in no

rush. He has all eternity. And I think that the “triumph” of heaven will last

for several days probably the same period of time that the armies marched

around Jericho.

And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who

sat upon it is called Faithful and True; And in righteousness He

judges and wages war. And his eyes are a ﬂame of ﬁre, and upon his

Head are many diadems;… And the armies which are in Heaven,

clothed in ﬁne linen, white and clean, were Following Him on white

horses…And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written,

King of Kings, and Lord of Lords

Revelation 19:11–14,16 (NASB)

As those below continued to watch in a fascination of shock and

anguish, their Mark causing them great pain, so that many simply drop

their weapons and sit upon the earth in total misery and fear awaiting their

inevitable fate; behind the great rider in the sky, as if from some other

dimension, materialize millions, coming from far overhead, all bestride

their own wondrous steeds, and the line of them sweep up to a vanishing

point as far above earth as the eye could see.

And as the world watches in silent awe, the rider moves toward the

golden rays of the new day, as unhurried as ever, the muscled legs of his

horse reaching out to glide over the sky. And the armies following

continue to ﬂow from the vanishing point in the sky. And to the

amazement of the world below, little by little their numbers increase until

millions of saints and angels ﬂow like a silent river of great glory and

beauty behind the golden rider on his white stallion of the sky, and they

stretch out until they form a ring completely around the whole earth ﬁlling

the sky.

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Like Joshua marching around Jericho, they continue this pageant until

the whole of the air is full, and every eye on the planet below sees this

glory. Millions and millions following him upon horses, all of them

outﬁtted in the greatest of glory, but nothing in comparison to the rider in

the lead.

First come his saints, those of the seven churches, everyone who has

been washed in the blood of the Lamb, next the Tribulation Saints, who

were killed for their testimony in the Tribulation, then the Old Testament

believers, and ﬁnally the angelic host. Myriads of splendid horsemen and

angels, but nothing compared to the rider of the skies. Quietly they

continue their muster in the skies, quietly they continue their spectacle for

earthly eyes. For perhaps seven days they march, in the sky around

Jericho earth, until the whole sky is ﬁlled with them and every eye on

earth, and under the earth will see them slowly, magniﬁcently, and utterly

quiescent, like those who have all eternity to enjoy the One in the lead.

Meanwhile on the ground, the Anti-Christ readies his own forces.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their

armies, assembled to make war against Him Who sat

upon the horse, and against his army.

Revelation 19:19 (NASB)

Then after seven orbits in seven days, the Lord descends upon his

ﬂying steed slowly, to the city of Bozra, just outside of Petra, the very

place where millions of new Jewish believers, the children of Abraham

have ﬂed for safety. They have been there for 1260 days.

He touches down far to the south near Petra, where his people are

already engaged in a battle with the forces of the Anti-Christ, skirmishers

sent to breach their rock fortress.

Then you will ﬂee by the valley of My mountains…yes, you

will ﬂee just as you ﬂed before the earthquake in the days

Uziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and

all the Holy ones with Him!

Zechariah 14:5 (NASB)

Jesus will return to the area of Petra and there to rescue his own

people Israel. And from the cleft in the rock, he will lead the Army of

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Heaven, north through a river of red being shed by nation against nation to

the north of Jerusalem. As the battle begins, the blood begins ﬂowing.

The grapes of the earth, the grapes of wrath are now to be crushed,

and he will now trample on the “winepress of the wrath of Almighty God.”

And the angel swung his sickle to the earth, and gathered

the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into

the great wine press of the wrath of God.

And the winepress was trodden outside the city and blood

came out the wine press, up to the horses bridles for a

distance of two hundred miles.

Revelation 14:19–20 (NASB)

New American Standard tells us that when the sickle passes over the

“clusters of the earth” it creates a river of blood for 200 miles. The King

James Bible here is better than our modern translations, saying it was

19,000 furlongs, or exactly 176 miles. The very distance from Petra to

Megiddo in the Valley of Decision is exactly 176 miles.

The blood will come up to the bridles, and Jesus will be covered in

blood. The Son of God only bleeds for the sins of man one time. He is the

stone in the wilderness, which brings forth water from the rock. But he is

not struck two times, as Moses struck the rock. Likewise, in his ﬂesh he

was struck by being placed on the cross, but only once.

So as he rides, Jesus will become red with the blood of his enemies.

This time the blood is not his own. This is the day of the wrath of the

Lamb. The Lion of Judah has shed the last blood he will ever shed on his

cross. It is the day of his vengeance.

Who is this who comes from Edom, [Petra] with garments

of glowing colors from Bozrah, This One who is majestic

in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength?

Why is your apparel red, and Your garments like the one who

treads in the wine press?

—[the king]

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I have trodden the wine trough alone…I also trod in My

anger, And trampled in My wrath. And their lifeblood

sprinkled on My garments…for the day of vengeance was

in My heart, And My year of redemption has come

Isaiah 63:1–4 (NASB)

Slowly the armies of heaven move northward, toward the bulk of

Anti-Christ’s forces, and Anti-Christ presses his men to push south, two

multitudes moving toward each other, and soon they start colliding. But

the Army of heaven is really just One Person, for he makes short work of

all who face him. He slays them with the sword of his mouth and their

blood comes up to his bridle. And soon, as Isaiah tells us, he is covered

with “glowing colors” the crushed juice of the grapes of wrath, staining

his garments. He has treaded upon the grapes of wrath in the winepress of

the Great Day of the Lord.

And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it

He may smite the nations; … and He treads the wine

of the ﬁerce wrath of God, the Almighty.

Revelation 19:15,16 (NASB)

And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and his

nameis called the Word of God.

Revelation 19:13 (NASB)

After the battle with the nations, he moves forward to Jerusalem, the

armies of heaven following in solemn procession…he enters the Valley of

Jehoshaphat, the Valley of Decision. And then turns toward the Mount of

Olives overhead, stopping for a moment to gaze upon Golgotha nearby.

And then his horse takes wing again, and he lands with the greatest of

shouts on the top of the Mount of Olives. And as his foot touches down,

the mountain roars and begins to crumble.

And in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,

which is in front Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount Of Olives

will be split in its middle from East to west by a very large valley

Zechariah 14:4 (NASB)

And with another enormous shout of victory, He will enter David’s

city from the “Golden Gate,” the King’s Gate, on the east side of

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Jerusalem, the gate that has been shut for many centuries, awaiting the

coming of the King, simply falls before him, it is the Gate of the Great

King. And he will rule in the midst of his people forever.

And the Lord will be king over all the earth…All the land will be

changed into a plain … but Jerusalem will rise…and there will be

no more curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.

Zechariah 14: 9,10 (NASB)

So the great King will rule over all the earth, and his reign will

neverend. And under his perfect administration all sadness and selﬁshness,

will quickly pass away. For at least a thousand years happiness will

follow, unbroken, with joys unspeakable and full of glory.

Hated and abused, Israel is the great gift of God to mankind. Far from

the curse men now believe them to be, far from the “problem of the Jews,”

the Jew is the great symbol of God’s eternal love, and will be the means of

his deliverance. This then is the gift from Israel to you with love, Zion’s

Promise.

Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with

singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head:

they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning

shall ﬂee away. Isaiah 51:11 (KJB)

For a child [was] born to us, a son [was] given…And the government

will rest on his shoulders; And his name will be called "Wonderful

Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

There will be no end to the increase of his Government or of peace.

On the throne of David and over his kingdom

Isaiah 9:6–7 (NASB)

Amen…..and Amen.

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Epilogue…

And one ﬁnal note: I believe what I have written will actually come to

pass, except in those places where I indulged myself in a bit of sanctiﬁed

imagination, and you should take those sections with a grain of salt.

But dear reader, my prayer for you is that God will allow you the

grace to see his Son as he is, and so enter into all the joys of this grace,

prepared for you from before the world was even made.

He loves you and died in your place. You fell short in your sins, and

without him are headed for eternity in a real place called hell. I hope you

will miss all the futility and ﬁnal terror of going your own way, that way. I

have tried to faithfully tell you the truth. Beware of thinking these things

are all imagination, especially those of you born to Abraham’s seed.

You, my friend, are like a raindrop falling on the great divide of the

ages. You will ﬂow down the mountain in one direction or the other, and

you will forever enter the glassy sea, where the throne of God is placed, or

alas you will fall into the lake of ﬁre which never cools, and “the smoke of

their torment goes up forever.”

My prayer for you is that you will ﬁnd your rest in Christ Jesus by a

simple faith that says to him in sincerity, the following prayer:

“Lord I am a sinner, and you paid for me on your cross. My sins

placed you there. I accept you now without reservation as my Lord,

my Savior, and the best friend I will ever have. I want to give you the

rest of my life in service, and only with your help will I be able to do

so.” Amen and Amen again.”

If you have made such a decision, or just want to comment on this

book… please let the author know at the following email.

Dennis Wilson

drw.hjw@gmail.com

To discuss this material with Dennis please write me at the email above. I

am also open to speaking engagements.

316

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