I don’t mean to shake anyone’s faith or confidence in experts. Many ministers are doing a fantastic job in a difficult world, and let’s face it, we all get things wrong. We’re all fallible and limited. That fact doesn’t disprove the gospel or the central teachings of the Bible which are easily defined if we’re reading it honestly. Christ died for our sins, he rose again on the third day and he’s coming back to put the world right. God created the world in six literal days. Abraham, Moses and David were all real characters. Jesus really did raise the dead and heal the sick. He really is the son of God – the only one, and the only way to eternal life.
However, I have to confess to not trusting most ministers on the subject of the end times. I’ve heard so much nonsense and speculation, and I’ve seen well-known ministers doing well financially out of telling their followers things that were patently not true and which didn’t come to pass. The worst ones are the people who say that the Lord told them such-and-such was going to happen, and it didn’t. Avoid them like the plague.
KEEP THE BABY, NOT THE BATH WATER
Having said all that, there are truths concerning the end times which are unavoidable, and I’m personally working on basing my end-times views on those things, while keeping my mind open as to how other things play out. Not wanting to be one of those who gets it wrong and misleads people as a result, I here offer a few of those truths, so that you, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your heart, can decide for yourself if I’m making a valid point or talking nonsense.
THE GREATEST INDICATOR: ONE TINY NATION
First and foremost, I have to say that replacement theologians must be in a state of denial when they dismiss the present state of Israel as being just another secular and godless nation. More than that, they’re risking being in opposition to the will of God. Several passages in the Bible speak of Israel’s regathering to the land of their forefathers shortly before events which will shake the world, and which will culminate in the appearance of the Messiah. Several chapters in Ezekiel speak clearly of the nation being regathered from the far corners of the earth immediately before God steps in and lets the world know without question that He is Lord. Every wall will fall. Every fish in the sea will shake when He rebukes the nations for their treatment of Israel, according to Ezekiel. If this is metaphorical language, God is a wimp and a deceiver.
The regathering will occur, says Scripture, after Israel had been exiled for a long time, and after the land had been virtually waste from ancient times; from the time of their exile. If the “true” regathering is yet future, the nation there now will have to be exiled again, the land laid waste for centuries more – no doubt in a world war – and then the whole process repeated.
Ezekiel was not speaking of the return of Israel to the land from Babylon, but from every corner of the earth. God through Ezekiel said that once regathered the nation would prosper and grow in population – a process which must take decades.
Israel was reborn as a nation in the land of their forefathers in 1948, having been exiled since the first century. The land has since become fertile and the people prosperous and numerous. You can search for numbers relating to Aliyah – the Jewish name for the immigration of Jews from around the world to Israel. It really is happening as Ezekiel and other prophets said it would. Dismiss it as coincidence if you like: I’ll take the other view.
Unfortunately for Israel, an accompanying prophecy in Israel’s regathering is that they would be hated by the nations of the world, and the land would be claimed and contested by other nations around them. While still young the nation would face severe military opposition, and their people would face persecution, just as they have throughout the centuries. All these things are true, and many more which I will not discuss here.
UNHOLY YET
Ministers such as Vernon McGee have tried to claim that the current regathering of Israel cannot be the one prophesied because the people are no more godly than the people of any other nation: they have to repent before God will bring them back. He was wrong. God through Ezekiel clearly describes how the people would not deserve to be brought to their own land, but that He would do it anyway for the sake of His own name.
The greatest indicator in all of this, apart from world-wide antisemitism, is the city of Jerusalem. Just as scripture foretells the city being contested in end-times and the center of great end-times events, so it appears to be, and Israel’s most dedicated enemies of a certain religion are determined that Jerusalem is theirs and will be brought back into their possession as soon as they can make it happen. Their own eschatology is like a reverse or negative of Biblical prophecy. They will find ultimately that God has other plans.
GLOBALISM
Preachers of end-times things have for many decades taught that we were going to have a world government in fulfilment of Revelation and other Bible passages, all set up and ready for the Antichrist to take over. Consequently and in keeping with what they’ve tried to say, we’ve all been looking for the United Nations or the European Union to force its will on us all and be the kingdom of the Beast for the final years. Frustration has resulted because it seems at times so unlikely that the UN could ever become a coherent global force. But I think that Christianity has not been seeing the wood for the trees.
Revelation tells us that the one we call the Antichrist will not receive his kingdom until the last three and a half years of human rule. Not only that, but the kingdom will not exist until that time. Whoever “the ten” are which become rulers in his kingdom, they don’t exist yet. They will all suddenly rise to power. Why? Why suddenly? We don’t know the answer to that one. It may be that a huge global event will facilitate a dictatorial world power, supposedly of necessity.
In the meantime, the precursor for this world power, according to Daniel, is the Roman Empire. End times experts have told us that the European Union is a “revived Roman Empire”, but according to Daniel’s prophecies the empire will not need reviving. It continues on at least in spirit into its final form. My own conviction is that the United States is a part of that kingdom which clearly includes Europe and the Western world as a whole. Trump has put a wrench in the movement towards that global entity, but he will not be around forever, and the forces that oppose him are not likely to become extinct. The movement has been gathering for several decades. Western globalists will keep on to their goal while he’s around and after he’s gone.
DECEPTION
Scripture speaks of rampant deception in end times. Jesus’ greatest warning was of false prophets and false teachers, even claiming to be a type of Christ or messiag. It’s incredible to see how popular many false teachers are around the world in our time. Some of them are claiming that they have the power of Christ and of God, and some are that they are apostles with greater authority and power than Paul had. How can so many people fall for their nonsense? It’s because they don’t read Scripture, except in little bits as support for the falseness which they choose to believe. People are looking for power and experience, and for wealth and healing at any cost. In contrast, Jesus tells us to die to self and be prepared to lose our lives.
TEMPLE
End times teachers are sure that the building of a third temple in Jerusalem is necessary for end times events to take place. I’m becoming very disillusioned with that conviction. I think the temple mount will be used in the fulfillment of prophecy, but a new temple isn’t necessary. Yes, Paul said that the man of sin will “sit” in the temple, but Jesus said that he would “stand” in the holy place. Why the discrepancy? Is there a fault in translation, or will he both sit and stand there? Jews to this day will not risk standing on what they believe to be the holy place, for fear of desecrating it. No temple is necessary. Anyone standing there and claiming to be God or from God will be an abomination in their eyes.
THE SPLITS
It’s possible that prophecies relating to Antichrist and the temple can be separated by two thousand years of time, so that some have already been fulfilled, and some are yet to come. There are similar “gaps” in the fulfillment of other prophecies in the Bible. For example, when Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue, he left a part of the passage out, because it was yet future. This is what he did read:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor….” (Luke 4:18-19).
Here’s the line from Isaiah which Jesus stopped short of reading:
“… and the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61).
Jews of the first century, including the disciples, assumed that all prophecies regarding the Messiah would be fulfilled in the same general time. Instead some were “let hanging”, to be fulfilled at the appropriate time. For this reason perhaps we should assume that other prophecies either may have already happened or will not all transpire in the same narrow window of time. The Olivet Discourse clearly doesn’t speak of one set of events gathered in a small time period: there are gaps. In that case, perhaps what we see as the Antichrist’s abomination procedure may have already been played out at least in part, or as a type of the final event.
THE RAPTURE
The rapture will not be before the Tribulation. Do not stick your head in the sand of faulty theology: there is no certain escape from persecution, as millions of believers have found in past centuries and are finding even today, around the world. I believed the pre-Tribulation rapture theory for twenty-eight years: I now realise how weak and misguided the theory is. There will indeed be a rapture, but the idea that it will be before any troubles begin are likely only wishful thinking. I’ve written plenty of articles on that subject.
THE GOOD NEWS
The good news, of course, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the end, God will claim his world and install his Christ on the throne: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If you are in Christ, you are a guaranteed winner. By “in Christ” I mean you have repented of your sin as God defines sin in the Bible, you have accepted as truth the fact that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and that he came into the world to die, to pay the price of our sin, and that you have accepted by faith the fact that God raised him from the dead. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, as defined in the New Testament by Paul and others. If this is your conviction and your profession, you will be and are “saved” from the wrath of God, and will have eternal life with Him.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 