Posts filed under ‘Judaism’
Abomination of Desolation?
Here Paul expressly speaks of a “man of sin/son of perdition” who would rise to power, oppose everything that is God and exalt himself instead (as Antiochus IV did). He will even do what Antiochus previously did by going into the Jewish Temple, sit inside the Holy of Holies (possibly on the Mercy Seat on top of reconstructed Ark of the Covenant), and declare to the world that he is God. Obviously, in order for this to occur, the Jewish Temple must be rebuilt during the coming Tribulation period. Antichrist will then confirm a covenant with Israel for seven years. Neither Antiochus in 167-168 BC or Roman Emperor Vespasian in AD 70 fulfilled all aspects of this prophecy. This will be fulfilled in the future.
Prophecy for Evangelism?
I cannot think of a better use of fulfilled prophecy than in evangelism, can you? This is why we need to study and know it as best we can. This is why we should be mentally prepared for the time when prophecy is fulfilled. The world will see the reality of the attempted attack on Israel led by Gog (a title, not a name), and the results of it. They will not understand exactly what just occurred. Christians will be on hand to explain it but I believe they will have a very short time to do so because of the rise of the physical Antichrist, who will redirect everyone’s attention to something else.
Daniel 11 Part One
Let’s stop here and remind ourselves that all of this was completely new to the prophet Daniel because all of it was in Daniel’s near future, compared to the latter half of Daniel 11, which speaks of events that will occur at the end of this age. All of this proves that God and only God knows the future because He determines it. He doesn’t have to go against people’s free will to get His will done. All He needs to do is find someone who is predisposed to go in a certain direction and use that person to accomplish what He will accomplish.
Daniel 10 Part 2
I believe we are now living in the days Daniel and other prophets saw occurring far down the road from their perspective. Because of what is occurring today as God’s prophetic calendar unfolds, as noted it can be a bit unnerving as we try to remain strongly anchored to God in spite of everything that is now happening. The difficulty for the Christian during these times, is to continue persevering in God’s will in spite of the “tornadic” spiritual activity all around us. Because all of it has been previously revealed in His Word, we have no excuse to not understand it. It should prompt us to fall on His mercy and understand that His purposes will be accomplished. During the process, He will not ignore His own who humble themselves before Him and continue to seek His will daily.
God has done us a tremendous supernatural favor by taking the time to stoop and reveal His future will to us. He has done this over the centuries through numerous prophets, including Daniel. To ignore the writings of these godly men is to suffer for it. Forewarned is forearmed.
Daniel 10 Part 1
Verse 12 confirms that we should not give up in prayer because we do not know what may delay a response to our prayers. The angel tells Daniel he was dispatched the first day Daniel began to pray. The term “withstood” can mean ~ “be in the way” or “prevent by force.” In essence, the angel was telling Daniel that there was some sort of battle being waged in the heavenly realm between the angel and likely a fallen angel or demon who was fighting against Cyrus to keep God’s will from unfolding with respect to Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the end of the 70 year captivity.
Jehoshaphat’s Problem is Ours
The effort that we put in after we become Christians does not result in our salvation because salvation is a free gift of God, made available to us through the horrendously painful death of Jesus on Calvary’s cross. That part is the free gift. Yet, it is in the actual day to day living our life that we learn what it means to actually be a Christian where the rubber meets the road. This is our service to God, again not for salvation, but for God’s glory and honor and our growth.
Israel’s Real Need
So, while Israel is starting to show signs that it is learning to rely on itself (and will eventually and ultimately come to rely on God alone), more headway needs to be made clearly. In essence, it seems clear that God’s plan is to put Israel on one side of the aisle completely alone and ultimately vulnerable, while all other nations actively stand against Israel (or don’t care and won’t help Israel). Why? Because it will force Israel to come to her knees before God, to learn to depend solely and only on God Almighty, the very Creator of Israel.
Daniel 9C 70 Sevens
To sum up, a total of 490 years are set aside to deal with Israel’s sin and rebellion. After the second set of weeks/sevens (the 62), there is a break or gap in which several things occur that lead up to the actual beginning of the Tribulation period when the Antichrist brokers or confirms a peace deal with Israel and Arab nations. Once the Antichrist confirms this peace treaty, it will be then that the final week/seven begins, which is called most commonly, the Tribulation period. This period of time is still in front of us.
Convergence
So why is society so unable to think clearly, to see reality? Even though more people appear to be waking up to some truth, by and large, society as a whole continues to walk the path of deliberate obfuscation. Moreover, they are content with it. Why? Well, it seems to me that at least five things are happening throughout the world now that are creating this global problem of complete blindness to truth and reality. Those five things are highlighted in Scripture.
Today’s Hitlers
My point is really simple. God wants us to understand that regardless of what we may think of individual Jewish people and whether or not we support Israel’s ability to defend itself, the nation of Israel is the nation that God created and raised up in order that He would bring the Messiah/Savior into this world. If not for Israel, would Jesus have even been born as a man? God’s plan was to create a nation that would literally be a light to the world; a nation where God could work to reach all of humanity. Is Israel perfect? Absolutely not and in fact, most of Israel (including her leaders), are completely blind still to the truth of what God has done and continues to do. This blindness, as Paul says, is temporary in order to bring in the full number of Gentiles, but God has not completely forsaken Israel.
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