Prophecy 18

THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL’S 9:24-27 PROPHECY – Part 5

What a Difference a “He” Makes!

More than 31 years ago I accepted the Pastorate of Dardanelle MBC, while still a Seminary student. I attended the University of Arkansas in Little Rock and Arkansas Tech University during the summers of my time in Seminary because it did not offer summer courses. I graduated from the Seminary in 1975 while enrolled full time at Arkansas Tech University, from which I graduated and began teaching at Dardanelle High School in 1977. I have not changed my beliefs on any of the things I was taught in Seminary concerning salvation, security of the believer, the two church ordinances, or the local identity of the church. However, there are many things I once believed in prophecy that I am no longer able to teach with any conviction. I came to Dardanelle MBC like Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail, believing I was ready to teach prophecy. As I studied the doctrines of salvation, the church, and the church ordinances I discovered realms of Scripture to validate what I had been taught, but when I began to search for Scriptures that would fit all the diagrams from which I was teaching prophecy, I found very few I did not have to distort. I retired as a synoptic analyst in the National Security Agency, and I know quite well how to put the pieces of a puzzle together to form a whole premise. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are called the Synoptic Gospels, and they can be pieced together synoptically into a Harmony of the Gospels. All the pieces of the salvation-church-ordinances puzzle came together and formed a perfect picture of conformity, but the many pieces of the prophecy puzzle simply would not mesh together, unless I symbolized or spiritualized to a massive degree. I found that in our work there was harmonious agreement on the doctrines of salvation, the two church ordinances, and the church itself, but in prophecy I found “first of the weekers,” “mid-tribbers,” “seventh trumpers,” “last of the weekers,” split rapturists,” and “progressive rapturists” – Or Pre, Mid, Seventh Trump, Post, Split, and Progressive positions. I knew there had to be a reason for these great divisions, and was hopeful that perhaps the answer might be found in a historical search to see if all of them have always existed and, if not, when did each one arise. What I found brought back a lot of memories from my earliest teachings when I was a teenager. Before 1827 only three positions were taught – The Last of the Week, the Seventh Trumpet, and the Mid-Tribulation positions – And the Mid-Tribulation position was born in 1788 (See Updates 74A and 73D). During all my research I also discovered something that shocked me with memories of a position I had also heard as a teenager – Before 1800 the vast majority of Bible expositors believed that the “HE” in Daniel 9:27 was not the antichrist, but the true one, Jesus Christ or Antiochus Epiphanes. I am convinced they were correct.

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

I was fully aware of all this by 1992, but out of cowardice as to what I knew I would face from the bulk of my brethren, I would only teach it at Dardanelle MBC. My cowardice certainly did not lead me to lie to the brethren – I simply stopped talking about the first three and one-half years of Daniel’s 70^th week in my lectures, stopped presenting the worldwide antichrist empire that is taught today, and honed in on the last 1260 days of the tribulation period. I have firmly believed the Seventh Trumpet position since 1982, and taught the “HE” of Daniel 9:27 was Jesus since 1992. Knowing that I must soon face my Savior, and give account of all I have taught from his Word, I decided to publicly declare what I truly believe about Daniel 9:27, for better or for worse. Many of the men who taught me prophecy, whom I love and deeply respect, may well denounce me and regret ever having known me, but I will one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ and, in all conscience, I cannot continue to keep this to myself. I was taught synoptic analysis in the AWS and NSA, and contextual analysis in the Seminary. The synoptic subject of the contextual discourse in every verse of Daniel 9:24 to 27 is the Messiah the Prince, Jesus Christ. In verse 24 Jesus is “the most Holy” who is anointed. In verse 25 Jesus is “the Messiah the Prince.” In verse 26 Jesus is identified as “Messiah” who is cut off. And in verse 27 Jesus is the “he” who confirmed God’s blood covenant at his death in the “midst” of the last week of Daniel’s 70 weeks of years. Jesus has already confirmed most of the first three and one-half years of the last week of seven prophetic years. The prophet Isaiah, who wrote some 150 years before Daniel, whose writings were probably in Daniel’s possession when he wrote during Babylonian captivity, wrote of the one who would fulfill the “covenant” of Daniel 9:27.

Isaiah 42:6 – I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

How did the Jews look at Daniel 9:24 to 27 at the time of Christ’s birth? Were any of those in the Middle East expecting his coming on the scene to be near? Henry H. Halley, in his well known “Bible Handbook” of 1927, wrote the following concerning the expectation of the Messiah: “Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius state there was general expectancy over the East that the time for the Messiah to appear was at hand. It was based, partly at least, on Daniel’s 70 Weeks Prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27). By the popular interpretation at that time, the 70 weeks was understood to mean 70 sevens of years, that is, 490. The decree to rebuild Jerusalem, from which they were to be reckoned (Daniel 9:25), was issued in 457 B.C. Hence the time was about up. The Son of God was about to appear.”

Simeon clearly revealed Jesus as the one who had come to fulfill the covenant to his people Israel, and as a light to lighten the Gentiles.

Luke 2:25-32 – And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. [26] And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. [27] And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, [28] Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, [29] Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: [30] For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, [31] Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; [32] A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

The word “he” in Daniel 9:27 does not refer back to the “prince that shall come” in Daniel 9:26 – That prince has already come, and the ones he led destroyed the temple and the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The “he” refers not to a coming antichrist, but to the contextual subject of each verse from 24 to 27 – Messiah the Prince, Jesus Christ. I am not waiting for an antichrist to destroy a sanctuary that was destroyed in Jerusalem more than 1900 years ago. I am waiting for the return of a Messiah who was cut off for my sins in the “midst” of Daniel’s last week after having fulfilled most of the first three and one-half years of it. The covenant was finished when the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and a token sign of its fulfillment was manifested by resurrection of many of the Old Testament saints, who came out of their graves after his resurrection.

John 19:30 – When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Matthew 27:50-53 – Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. [51] And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; [52] And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, [53] And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

You will find a thorough verse-by-verse exposition of Daniel 9:24 to 27 in our Prophecy Archives in Parts 1 through 4, but I will, in this Update, exposit on verse 27 as it relates to Christ.

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

“He” is used three times. In each case it pertains to Jesus the Messiah. ”He” began to “confirm the covenant” with the “many” who would believe he was the one sent to confirm it when he was baptized in water by John, and he completed the covenant when he was crucified in his baptism by fire at Golgotha in the “midst” of Daniel’s 70^th week, some three and one-half years after his water baptism. His water baptism pictured what would finish the covenant some three and one-half years later when he died, was buried, and then resurrected to complete the covenant. I am of the opinion he fulfilled the covenant during the first 1185 days of Daniel’s last week, and that the remaining 1335 days will begin when Israel actually believes it has “peace and safety.”

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

“He” caused “the sacrifice and oblation to cease” being acceptable to his Father when he became the true sacrifice that made void all the offerings, which had only pictured what he would do to confirm the covenant.

“He” made the Temple and its offerings spiritually desolate because of “the overspreading of abominations” he had twice cleaned out of it. The Temple had become a den of thieves and those who ministered in it had turned into blind guides.

Matthew 23:37,38 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! [38] Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

Matthew 21:12,13 – And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, [13] And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Matthew 23:23,24 – Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. [24] Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

“He” has made the Temple and all its sacrifices “desolate, even unto the consummation” of this present age. They will not be restored until Jesus returns at his Second Advent.

Matthew 23:38,39 – Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. [39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

The “consummation” of this present age comes to pass when “that determined will be poured upon the desolate” men and women of this present age of the Gentiles who are spiritually desolate, having not the Spirit of Christ. And that determined will be poured out on the antichrist. He will be in a position where no one can help him, as well as his false prophet, and both will then be cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. The battle of Armageddon is the consummation of this age, and the last days of the tribulation period will see Michael the Archangel deal with the forces of evil during the pouring out of the vials of wrath.

Romans 2:28,29 – For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: [29] But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Daniel 11:45 to 12:1 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Matthew 24:21 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Revelation 19:19,20 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Daniel 7:11 – I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

Daniel’s 70 weeks of year’s clock stopped ticking when Jesus the Messiah was cut off in the “midst” of the last week. The Hebrew word “midst” in a seven year week could mean any time between the end of the third year and the beginning of the fifth year, in other words, at any time during the fourth year. I believe Jesus fulfilled the first 1185 days of the 2520 days in Daniel’s 70^th week, and only 1335 days remain. When the Israelis truly believe they have “peace and safety” enough to actually “say” it, then the clock will start to tick again, and they will shortly thereafter be attacked some 1260 days before the final battle of Armageddon.

I Thessalonians 5:3,4 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Revelation 11:2 – But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

Revelation 13:5 – And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

I was astounded to discover how much of our prophetic teaching about the antichrist’s reign, the tribulation period, the time of the rapture, and a multiplicity of all things related to prophecy, are all tied primarily to the interpretation that the “he” of Daniel is the antichrist. I have made my choice – I believe the majority of the prophetic teachers before 1800 were correct – I believe the “he” is Jesus. This has been a hard choice for me to make – what a difference a “he” makes! (See also Archive Prophecy Update Number 102)

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 232A

July 16, 2005

THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL’S 9:24-27 PROPHECY – Part 6 

Have We Taken the Wrong Path in Prophecy?

Have We “Bought the Farm” in Prophetic Teachings?

It is absolutely amazing how the great majority of our prophetic teaching on the antichrist, and all the events associated with his arrival and departure during the last seven years of the Age of the Gentiles, is based on Daniel 9:27, and the understanding that the three “he’s” in it refer to the antichrist. All of the prevailing positions on the rapture, so widely differing among the brethren, the pre, mid, pre-wrath, post, split, and progressive positions are all based on the three “he’s” being the antichrist. All of our charts and diagrams are based on the antichrist being the three “he’s” in Daniel 9:27, showing two boxes, each one three and one half years in duration, which are supposed to be the final seven years of the Gentile Age.  I seriously doubt if most of the men and women, who are teaching prophecy in 2005, realize how much of what they are teaching being correct is dependant on the first HE in Daniel 9:27 being the antichrist.  Quite frankly, I am acutely aware of what they teach, and am prepared for it if it is correct, but some of them have never looked at what was taught about the HE in Daniel before 1740 by all expositors, and are not prepared for what I believe about the HE.

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

There are times a part of me wishes I had never gone back in time to see what was believed, and what was taught, about the three “he’s” in Daniel 9:27. In all my years of research on publications prior to 1740, I have yet to find anyone publishing what is routinely taught today. The first expositors of the Church Age on the Old Testament all held in their writings that the three “he’s” in Daniel 9:27 were Jesus Christ or Antiochus Epiphanes. The idea that the “he’s” might represent a future antichrist failed to appear in any of their writings. Among the best known writers of the first four centuries, who believed the “he’s” were Jesus Christ or Antiochus Epiphanes were: Hippolytus, Clement of Alexander, Julius Africanus, and Eusebius.

The Catholic writers of the Dark Ages continued to state this belief in the Sargis DOAberga document and, in this period, Theodore Beza, Arnold of Villanova, and Pseudo Aquinas all continued to proclaim that the “he’s” were indeed Jesus Christ or Antiochus Epiphanes. I could find no writer among them that identified the “he’s” as referring to a future antichrist.  The vast majority believed it was Jesus Christ, and a minority believed it was Antiochus Epiphanes, but none believed it to the future antichrist.

In the Protestant Reformation times both Martin Luther and Melanchthon said the “he’s” in Daniel 9:27 were the Christ, not antichrist. Melanchthon dated the 70 weeks of Daniel from the second year of the great Persian king Artaxerxes Longimanus, with 69 weeks to the baptism of Christ, and placed the crucifixion of Christ in the midst of the 70^th week, three years after Christ’s baptism. This is the position I hold today. I believe Christ fulfilled the covenant during his ministry in the first part of the last seven years, and we are waiting for the second half to be fulfilled following the attack of antichrist against Israel. Other Reformation writers who held the three “he’s” were Jesus Christ or Antiochus Epiphanes were Georg Nigumus, Johann Funck, Jacques Cappel, John Tillinghast, Joseph Mede, and Heinrich Bullinger. And, once again, I was unable to find a single writer during the Protestant Reformation that identified the “he’s” as the future antichrist. I am not saying one did not exist, but I could not find him.

In the Post Reformation period Isaac Newton, Cocceius, Johann Petri, William Wilson, Heinrich Horch, Jahann Bengal, and the Belenburg Bible, all identified the three “he’s” in Daniel 9:27 as being Jesus Christ or Antiochus Epiphanes. And, once again, I could find no writings in this period that stated the “he’s” were the future antichrist.

From the Post Reformation period to 1740, I could not find a writer that identified the three “he’s” as being the future antichrist. Among American expositors who identified the “he’s” as being Christ or Antiochus Epiphanes were Samuel Langdon, John Davenport, Ephraim Huit, and Samuel Osgood. Among the Old World expositors, during this period, who held the “he’s” were Christ or Antiochus Epiphanes, were Bishop William Winston, William Hales, Louis Gaussen, Archibald Mason, and Edward Bukersteth.  Calvin, in his exposition of Daniel, clearly identifies Christ as the “HE” in Daniel 9:27.

So, the question I have been forced to address is a very simple one. Were they all wrong up to 1740? Should we have changed the teaching that the three “he’s” refer to Christ, and made them apply to the antichrist? I have made my choice – the old fellows were right, it is Christ! This teaching lasted well into the 20^th century, and is still held by a minority in this present century. I was exposed to it as a young man many years ago, and I now believe it. One of the greatest Baptists of history, B.H. Carroll, who was born in the 19^th century, carried this teaching into the 20^th century. It began to decline in popularity after John Darby began to popularize the Pre-Trib Rapture position in 1827, but it was still the majority belief until the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909, after which it became more and more of a minority belief.

There was a very popular song in my youth titled “What a Difference a Day Makes!” I assure you, that the title I ascribe to Daniel 9:27 is a most profound one – “What a Difference a ‘HE’ Makes.”  The Age of the Great Evangelical Prophecy Revisions involves the three “HE’s.”

As I mentioned in Part 2 of “The 70 Weeks of Daniel,” the time of the great evangelical age began in the 1730’s, and the conversion of John Wesley in 1738 is often said to be the beginning of it.  I have, for clarity of purpose, marked the Evangelical Movement as beginning in 1740.  The minor changes in prophetic teachings began in 1760, but the major revisions began in 1827, and accelerated up until 1912, by which time most of the prophetic teachings of today had been established with all the associated charts, graphs, theology, and eschatology.  The movement marked a gradual shift from the importance of the local church to huge masses of assemblies of believers and great camp meetings.  It has now reached its zenith, with biblical teachers and teachings on many types of communication media being pictured and spoken to the invisible masses on the receiving end of the high tech communication blitz. They send out their high tech transmissions to what they consider to be a universal church made up of all believers.

I have not been able to find a single commentary, published prior to 1740, that identified the three “HE’s” of Daniel 7:27 as the future antichrist, which the world is expecting soon to arise.  So the question I poise is a simple one – Were all prophetic teachers wrong before 1740?  And if they were right, how does that affect what is taught today?  Is there a radical difference?

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

What are some of the ramifications to prophetic teaching today if the “HE’s” in Daniel 9:27 are not the future antichrist?  Are the changes drastic?  Yes, indeed they are!  What are some of them?

1. We would not have to have a peace treaty signed between antichrist and Israel.

2. The antichrist would not have to be a Jew.

3. The antichrist would not have to be a Roman prince or come out of Europe.

4. We would not have seven full years left to be fulfilled in Daniel’s prophecy of 490 years.

5. There would not be two 1260 periods left to be fulfilled in the tribulation period.

6. The antichrist could strike suddenly without three and one half years of peace occurring, leaving only 1260 days before Armageddon would end the tribulation period.

7. The temple would not have to be rebuilt for the antichrist to occupy prior to Christ’s coming for his saints.

8. The “first of the week” rapture position, seven years before the 2^nd Advent, would not be correct.

9. Is it possible that the following Scripture could be applicable to some aspects of today’s teachings based on Daniel 9:27?

II Timothy 4:3,4 – For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Could it be that the recent outpouring of fictional books advocating the whisking away of all believers before the tribulation period might be more fable than fact?  Could it be that tickling the ears of the masses by telling them what they want to hear is much more acceptable to them, and much more profitable to the writers and teachers, both financially and in acceptance and popularity?

II Corinthians 5:10,11 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. [11] Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Which position is correct? I could care less personally, because I am prepared for something that might fool us all. How is that possible? I just WATCH!  I both practice, and advocate to the church I pastor, to do the following:

Mark 13:34-37 – For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. [35] Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: [36] Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. [37] And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 232B

July 17, 2005

THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL’S 9:24-27 PROPHECY – Part 7

Age of the Prophecy Revisionists

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

The vast majority of preachers today do not realize the major revisions to prophetic teachings that were brought in during the age of the great revisionists from 1760 to 1920. I do not accept the majority of the revisions that were made during this period.

I challenge anyone reading this to produce a pre-1740 book on prophecy, based on Biblical interpretation, that shows a diagram dividing the tribulation period into two sections, each one 3 and ½ years in length, with the first resurrection occurring at the beginning of the first 3 and ½ year period.

I would also like for someone to show me a published book before 1740, based on Bible interpretation, showing a diagram dividing the tribulation period into sections, each one 1260 days in length, with the first resurrection occurring at the beginning of the second period of 1260 days.

For that matter, I would also like to see a published book before 1740, based on Biblical interpretation, teaching that the rapture would occur at the middle or the beginning of the tribulation period.

It is possible that a pre-1740 published book does exist somewhere that shows the tribulation period divided into two sections, each one 3 and ½ years in length, but I have looked long and hard for it in many ancient, musty, religious book archives in the U.S. and abroad, and I have yet to find it.

Prophetic teachers of this generation have lived with the two division diagrams so long they think they came over on the Mayflower. But basically these diagrams were a product of the first of the week rapture position, which is such an ingrained part of prophecy teaching today. The so-called “first of the week” position, as well as what is known as the “middle of the week” position, cannot be found in existence in any published book about the Bible before 1740. In fact, it is the term “week,” appropriated by the revisionists, that is largely responsible for the mass exodus from orthodox prophetic teaching, which occurred in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. The bulk of all prophetic teaching of today is based, directly or indirectly, on the revisionist teaching on Daniel 9:27, which, to a large extent, was accelerated with the initial appearance of the “first of the week” position in the early 19^th century. If the teaching on Daniel 9:27 by the revisionists is incorrect, then much of today’s prophetic teaching is in error. I believe this is the case, and I have been labeled as a revisionist myself because of it. I am certain that the great Bible expositor B.H. Carrol, who continued to believe the pre-1760 teachings until his death, was correct in what he taught concerning Daniel’s 70^th week. For you see, before 1827, the majority of orthodox prophetic teachers were convinced that the “he” in Daniel 9:27 was Jesus Christ, not the antichrist – THEY WERE RIGHT. We are not waiting for a “week of seven years” to be fulfilled! Why not? – Because Jesus has already fulfilled most of the first 3 and ½ years. We are facing a tribulation period of the last 3 and ½ years, preceded by a much briefer period of peace than many are expecting.

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

According to the vast majority of popular Protestant prophecy teachers today, the first half of Daniel’s last “week” (the seventieth) will be 1260 days of peace following a peace treaty between Israel and the antichrist. This teaching came into existence at some point in time between 1740 and 1830 when, for the first time, preachers began to teach that the three “HE’s” in Daniel 9:27 represented the end time antichrist. Prior to that time the vast majority of preachers taught the three “HE’s” represented Jesus Christ, and a minority believed it had already been fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes, but I have yet to find anyone who said it was the end time antichrist, which is what most preachers are sure the “HE’s” represent today. In 168 BC Antiochus Epiphanes occupied the city of Jerusalem, entered the Holy of Holies, desecrated the sanctuary by offering unclean animals upon the altar of burnt-offerings, polluted the whole building by sprinkling it with water in which flesh had been boiled, dedicated the Temple itself to Jupiter Olympus, erected a statue of deity to Jupiter, and plundered the temple treasures. But Messiah of verse 26 was not cut off (crucified) before 168 BC, nor did Antiochus ever confirm a covenant with Israel. The three HE’s of Daniel do not represent Antiochus or the future antichrist – they represent Jesus.

This period of 1260 days of peace is adamantly taught as fact by many today. Please look at the following Scriptures and see if they present three and one-half prophetic years of peace. In every case they represent a 1260 day period that will be fulfilled during the last 1260 days of antichrist prior to the Second Advent of Christ.

Revelation 11:2,3 – But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot FORTY AND TWO MONTHS. [3] And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy A THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE, clothed in sackcloth.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there A THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE DAYS..

Revelation 12:14 – And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for A TIME, AND TIMES, AND HALF A TIME, from the face of the serpent.

Revelation 13:5 – And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue FORTY AND TWO MONTHS..

Daniel 7:25 – And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until A TIME AND TIMES AND THE DIVIDING OF TIME.

Every time the capitalized phrases in these verses are used, they always refer to the last 1260 days, never to the first 1260 days. I contend this is because Christ fulfilled the first half of the week before he was cut-off (crucified). We will not have the advantage of three and on-half years of peace to reveal the antichrist to us.

One of the most interesting facets found in interpreting Daniel 9:27 is that it is not directly quoted by specific content in the New Testament. And, equally interesting, is the fact that any inferred reference taken from it is by indirect inference to a period of time that happens to match the one-half of one of Daniel’s weeks of 2520 days, or three and one-half years of 360 days in length. Even more interesting, in all cases it refers strictly to the last half of the 2520 day period by expressions like “42 months,” “1260 days,” and “time, times, and half a time.” I do not believe the first half of the seven year period is specifically detailed for those of us living in the last days because it has already been fulfilled by the Messiah the Prince, and only the later portion has yet to come to pass before Armageddon.

I implore you to take a look at what was taught by most orthodox prophetic teachers before 1827 about Daniel’s 70^th Week. It is fully exposited in our Prophecy Archives on Updates 230B, 231, 231A, 231B, 232, and 232A. Also please scan Updates 73D, 74A, 76, 78A, 82A, 114A, 144A, 144F, and 219B for the pre-1760 Rapture Position.

I am not concerned about the position believers hold on the rapture unless it is taught to be as firm a doctrine as salvation by grace, but the recent massive publications of books that have come out of the “Left Behind” series is staggering, and some have come to believe it is one of the great doctrines of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I am only anxious that the massive numbers of believers on this planet realize the very distinct possibility that they may have to go through part of the tribulation period, which I believe is in the not too distant future. Many believers have never even heard any other position than the first of the week and, if they do hear there is, the one telling them usually tells them it is most certainly incorrect. The every day believer-on-the-street has no idea of what was believed before 1740, only what began to be taught after that, principally since 1827. I am not looking for a group of people to believe what I teach about the rapture and Daniel’s 70 weeks of year, I am simply trying to advise believers to be aware what many routinely teach today as fact was not taught before 1740. I am certainly not looking for followers – for McElmurryites – I am looking for “considerers.”

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 232C

July 20, 2005

THE 40 WEEKS OF DANIEL’S 9:24-29 PROPHECY – Part 8

For many years I have challenged anyone to produce a book published as a commentary on the Bible prior to 1740 that taught or showed the following:

1. The “HE” in Daniel 9:27 as representing the future antichrist.

2. The “rapture” occurring at, or before, the “first of the week.”

3. The “rapture” occurring in the “middle” of the week.

4. A “last of the week” diagram divided into two 1260 sections.

I am not saying that 1 to 4 do not exist. I am saying I have searched diligently for many years, and have never been able to find such books or publications before 1740. So what will I do if someone ever answers the challenge and does present such a legitimate published document?

I will simply ask this question – Why is this book the only one floating in the midst of a sea of publications that teach otherwise? One of the strongest natural instincts in the human nature we brought out of our mother’s womb is “ACCEPTANCE.” And anyone who is blind to the effect that it has on their way of thinking in a society based on religious, social, and group ACCEPTANCE, is indeed blind to what could be the greatest motivation factor in what they teach, and why they teach it. I was made ACCEPTABLE to God by grace through faith some 61 years ago, and now I persuade men to be well pleasing (ACCEPTABLE) to him rather than to men. To be ACCEPTABLE (well pleasing) to God does not always mesh with being ACCEPTABLE (well pleasing) to man.

Ephesians 1:6 – To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us ACCEPTED in the beloved.

II Corinthians 5:9-11 – Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be ACCEPTED of him. [10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. [11] Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

There are two different inspired words translated as “accepted” in these two Scriptures. The one in II Corinthians means “well pleasing.”

Colossians 3:23-25 – And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; [24] Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. [25] But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

THE PROPHESIED DESOLATIONS OF JERUSALEM!

What Did the Jews Know from Daniel 9:24-27?

Daniel 9:1,2 – In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; [2] In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the DESOLATIONS of JERUSALEM.

They knew that the 70 weeks of years (7 X 70 = 490), during which the desolations of Jerusalem would occur, were to begin as stated in Daniel 9:25.

Daniel 9:25 – Know therefore and understand, that FROM the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem UNTO the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

The 490 years were to begin when the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was issued, which some thought was the Artaxerxes Longimanus commandment issued in 457 BC.

And they knew it would be 483 years when Messiah the Prince arrived to fulfilled the last 7 years (7 + 62 = 69 weeks of years = 69 X 7 = 483 years).

However, after completing the 484^th, 485^th, and 486^th years, he was cut off (crucified) by the Jews between the 486^th and 487^th years, that is, in the “midst” of the seven year period, between the third and fourth years. The word AFTER in 9:26 is a continuous running narration of 9:25 and, as such, is understood to contain the seven weeks without repeating them, hence the Messiah was to be cut off AFTER the 69^th year DURING the 70^th week of years.

Daniel 9:26 – And AFTER threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

According to the preponderance of the evidence, Jesus was born in 4 BC, and came as the Messiah the Prince to be baptized by John in 27 AD at age 30, which was the age a man could be a priest in the line of Aaron, and it was this event that marked the beginning of the 484^th year since the 457 BC commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem had been issued. Jesus began the last week of Daniel’s 70 weeks when he was baptized. He completed more than three years of it, but less than three and one half years, probably leaving some 1335 days to be completed before the final desolations of Jerusalem were completed.

Daniel 12:12 – Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

The completion of the 1335 days marks “the end of the days” in Daniel’s 490 year prophecy, and Daniel will stand on this earth in his resurrected glorified body at that time.

Daniel 12:13 – But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

Daniel 9:2 – In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish SEVENTY YEARS in the DESOLATIONS of JERUSALEM.

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it DESOLATE, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

All three of the “HE’s” are the Messiah the Prince, who was cut off (crucified) between the 486^th and 487^th year of Daniel’s 490 year prophecy.

FIRST DESOLATION OF JERUSALEM (SPIRITUAL)

The first desolation of Jerusalem occurred when the Messiah the Prince declared it to be spiritually desolate just before he was cut off from Israel by crucifixion.

Matthew 23:37-39 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! [38] Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. [39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

SECOND DESOLATION OF JERUSALEM (PHYSICAL)

The second desolation of Jerusalem, which followed the rejection of the Messiah the Prince, occurred in 70 AD when Titus destroyed the Temple and the City.

Luke 21:24 – And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

THIRD DESOLATION OF JERUSALEM (PHYSICAL)

The third desolation of Jerusalem occurred in 135 AD when Hadrian finished the desolation of Jerusalem and gave it the name of a Roman city.

FOURTH DESOLATION OF JERUSALEM (PHYSICAL)

The last desolation of Jerusalem will occur when the antichrist overruns it, sits on the temple mount, even “showing himself that he is God.”

Daniel 11:41 – He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

II Thessalonians 2:4 – Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Zechariah 14:1,2 – Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. [2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

The attack of antichrist will mark the beginning of the last three and one half unfulfilled years of Daniel’s 490 years, and the 490 years will be completed at the Second Advent of the Messiah the Prince.

Luke 21:25-28 – And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; [26] Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. [27] And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. [28] And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

I Peter 1:18-21 – Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; [19] But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

RESTORATION OF JERUSALEM (SPIRITUAL & PHYSICAL)

Isaiah 62:1-12 – For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. [2] And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. [3] Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. [4] Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. [5] For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. [6] I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, [7] And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. [8] The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured: [9] But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness. [10] Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highways; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. [11] Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. [12] And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.

Isaiah 12:1-6 – And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. [2] Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. [3] Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. [4] And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. [5] Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. [6] Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 233

July 22, 2005

THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL’S 9:24-27 PROPHECY – Part 9

The Summary to Parts 1 through 8

This is the final issue of a nine part series and, since I consider this to be an important subject, it is a long one. In the many years I have studied this subject, I have found it to be one of the most difficult prophecies I can be precisely accurate in expositing, and yet it is one of the easiest to interpret within prescribed limits. And so, after considering the many different ways of counting the time from “the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince” by many different men, which you have read in the previous eight updates, I freely admit there are only two things of which I am certain. After all the glitter and calculations have been considered, only these two conclusions can I consider to be valid without question, and I will state them later in this final Update of the series.

Daniel 9:24-27 – Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. [25] Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. [26] And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. [27] And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

The reasons one cannot be exactingly precise are numerous. The errors made in calendar adjustments between Oriental and Western calendars based on the movements of different astronomical movements of two different heavenly bodies, the actual birth date of Christ appearing to be 4 BC, assorted other shifts in time keeping by the ancients, and whether the years listed are supposed to be 360 or 365 and ¼ days, have combined to make it impossible to take an oath any one of the many sets of calculations is absolutely accurate. However, it is a situation that can be narrowed down to one of two proclamations issued to rebuild the city of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity, and a sufficiently accurate outcome by applying 360 day prophetic years to one, while applying 365 and ¼ days to the other proclamation, which have led me to say that one or the other must be correct. Since I have described the calculations by B.H. Carroll and others, as applied to the third proclamation, which were based on 365 and ¼ days, please allow me to quote directly from a book by John Urquhart, who bases his calculations on proclamation number four, and uses 360 day prophetic years. The following quote is taken directly from “The Wonders of Prophecy,” by John Urquhart, Charles C. Cook, Fifth Edition.

BEGIN QUOTE FROM “THE WONDERS OF PROPHECY”

“That third edict has very generally been regarded as the decree ‘to restore and to build Jerusalem’ – a view in which I formerly concurred. But a closer examination of the terms of the edict does not support that conclusion. Those terms are most explicit. Ezra is empowered to convey the treasure contributed by the king and his counselors, from Babylon to Jerusalem, to receive other voluntary offerings, to expend the funds, and to appoint magistrates and judges. But there is no mention whatever of building and restoring Jerusalem; and, if that task had been assigned to Ezra, it would be hard indeed to explain why, in an edict fully transcribed and elaborately minute in regard to everything else, no reference whatever is made to that important undertaking. When we turn to the fourth degree, however, we meet for the first time, language which is in significant accord with the description of “the commandment spoken of by Daniel. Nehemiah tells us that, when Artaxerxes asked ‘For what dost thou make request,’ he replied: ‘If it please the king, and if thy servant hath found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldst send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may build it.” He also begged a letter to ‘Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me.’ Here we have in explicit terms an authorization to Ezra to build the city of his fathers’ sepulchers; and the fourth decree is consequently ‘the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.’

To apply these results, we have first of all to inquire what those 483 years are. Are they years in every respect like the years of our own calendar? There are clear indications in Scripture that the Hebrew month, like that of Babylonia and of Egypt, consisted of 30 days. The year consequently contained 360 days; multiplying those 483 years by 360 so as to find the entire number of days, we divide by 365.25 and so change them into calendar years. The result of this rough and ready, but sufficiently accurate, method is that 483 prophetic years are found to be equivalent to 476 years of our ordinary chronology of today.

We have to ask next to what special point in the past we have to stretch it onward into the future. The narrative in Nehemiah furnishes a perfectly clear reply. We are told that the concession was made ‘in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the King.’ He began his reign in the year 465 B.C. He was now in the twentieth year of his reign: in other words 19 years of his reign were completed and the 20^th year was in progress. Deducting these 19 years from 465, we are brought to 446 B.C. – the year in which the edict was issued ‘to restore and to build Jerusalem.’

‘A word or two will now complete our demonstration. Applying the 476 years of the prediction to this point (446 years before the birth of our Lord) we find that they bring us down to that event and leave 30 years over. That is the year 30 A.D. is specified as that of the Savior’s cutting off in his crucifixion. While everyone will feel how amazing that the year and the very month – the month Nisan – of our Lord’s death should have been fixed centuries beforehand, some may imagine that there is, nevertheless, a slight inaccuracy. We are told (Luke 3:23) that Jesus entered upon this ministry when he was about 30 years of age. The year 30 A.D. would, therefore be the year when his ministry began, and not the year of his crucifixion. But the Scripture is absolutely accurate. When the division between the time B.C. and the time A.D. was made, the year 1 A.D., was really the year 5 A.D.; and the year 10 the year 14 A.D.; and the year 30 the year 34 A.D. And thus the year 30 A.D. in our chronology was really the year of our Lord’s death. The chronology was in error, but there was no error in the Scripture; and that sacrifice, which will be remembered and celebrated throughout eternity, was offered at the appointed time.”

END OF QUOTE FROM “WONDERS OF PROPHECY”

What follows is my summary of Parts 1 through 8 of the 70 weeks – In the Agency there were times when reams of information, collected from all over the Soviet Union, would be piled on the desk of an analyst, day after day, week after week, perhaps month after month, and from it all he or she was expected to present conclusions as to how it did, or did not, or might, or could, present a scenario that would of future benefit in confrontations with forces and peoples of other nations. In all analysis work there are times when one feels completely helpless because the evidence usually cannot be molded into a concrete pattern of certainty. I am thankful for my training as an analyst because, at times, there are things you can know FOR SURE, others of which you are reasonably certain, some that are fifty-fifty, a high percentage of those in the “definite maybe” category, and some that leave you setting all alone not having the foggiest idea what it all means, if anything.

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

So let me present to you two things that I know FOR SURE, and these two are quite enough to make my point, because more than 95 percent of the world’s prophetic teachers today are in complete disagreement with them. Ironically, all of the world’s prophetic teachers before 1740 did agree with them, and a majority of them considered then to be true into the beginning of the twentieth century. The beginning of the Great Evangelical Age in 1740, the beginning of the popularization of a pre-tribulation theory in 1827 by John Darby, and the publishing of the Scofield Bible in 1909 pushed the following two teachings into antiquity by the middle of the twentieth century. And the very popular twentieth century book, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which was followed by the “Left Behind” series of publications during the present century, has almost eliminated the possibility of anyone ever hearing these two conclusions or even knowing they once existed. But I AM SURE the following TWO conclusions are correct.

(1) The three HE’s in Daniel 9:27 are NOT a future antichrist.

(2) There are NOT 7 years of Daniel’s 70^TH week waiting to be fulfilled.

They are quite enough because so many other prophetic teachings are based on them being a lie. I would say that more than 95 percent of the prophetic teachers today are teaching that that Daniel 9:27 represents the antichrist, and that we are waiting for the entire last week of seven years to be fulfilled. In the previous eight updates I have listed a bevy of great Bible preachers who believed the two things listed above. I am acutely aware that what I have presented has, and will continue to cause a wide variety of emotions among those who have taught, and do teach, that these two things are not true. But I ask those who have the most violent reaction – did you know what was taught before the teaching of Daniel 9:27 arose that has dominated the last 100 years of prophetic teaching – Did you know it before you starting teaching what you teach today? I had been exposed to the teaching of it as a youth in the forties by old Missionary Baptist preachers, but I did not know where it came from, or the history of it, until I studied it for myself. Have you ever studied it for yourself? Please don’t attack the personal integrity of all those men of God prior to 1740, as well as the majority who held it into the early twentieth century, to prove your position. I attempt not to attack the personal integrity of any man’s character to prove any case, interpretation, or point I am attempting to draw from the Scriptures, and diligently try to make my case on what I believe the Bible teaches. I spend a great deal more time asking myself why I teach it, what my real motive is in presenting it, and invariably I find myself asking myself – are you presenting it to please men or God, are you teaching what God wants them to hear or what they want to hear? I spend so much time in judging my own motives in teaching something that it does not leave me with much time to think about the motives of others. However, I do not think I am out of line or out of God’s will to ask others to do the same. I concentrate on following Jesus as he leads me along the path he directs me to follow, which doesn’t leave me much time to think about what he has chosen for other men to do in his fields of labor.

John 21:21,22 – Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? [22] Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

One really does not have to go back before 1740 to find the teaching that the HE’s in Daniel 9:27 represent Christ. Here are just a few of many authors published after 1827 who were not swayed by the new teaching of the HE’s representing a future antichrist.

1. The Preacher’s Homiletic Commentary on Daniel by Robinson, Section XXXVI, “The Last Week and It’s Employment.”

2. The Layman’s Commentary on Daniel by Charles John Elliott. D.D.

3. An Interpretation of the English Bible by B.H. Carroll.

4. Halley’s 1927 Bible Commentary by Henry H. Halley

5. The Prophecy of Daniel by Edward J. Young, 1949

6. Commentary on the Whole Bible by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

7. Great Prophecies of the Bible by Ralph Edward Woodrow, 1971

8. The Book of Daniel by Curtis Mitchell, 1968

9. The Wonders of Prophecy by John Urquhart

10. The Seer of Babylon by Clarence H. Hewitt, 1948

11. The Pulpit Commentary, Volume 29, 1896

Have you ever gone back and checked to see what was taught before 1740? Did God choose not to reveal the truth about Daniel 9:27 until after 1740? Did he choose the Great Evangelical Movement as the time to reveal the truth about Daniel 9:27? Did he wait to popularize the truth of the Pre-Trib Rapture by John Darby in 1827? Did he wait to spread the Pre-Trib position across the country and world by Scofield in 1909? Certainly, the answer to all these questions is an individual matter between you and God. I have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ to answer for everything I have taught, so I persuade men of what I believe about the Second Coming of His Son. I would be a spiritual fool to do otherwise.

II Corinthians 5:10,11 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. [11] Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Colossians 3:23-25 – And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; [24] Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. [25] But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

I do not question your motives in what you teach or why you teach it, that is a very personal matter between you and God, and something you alone are capable of doing. I only know it is something God wants all of his children to do. I hope my motive for presenting this series is made manifest in your consciences.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 233A

THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL & THE RAPTURE POSITIONS!

Part 10

July 24, 2005

The Movement and Men behind Today’s Rapture Teachings!

What do you believe about the rapture and the tribulation period?

Today, many of the believers on this earth have a fixed set of beliefs on the subject, but have never examined the movement or the men who brought in what they believe.  I hope that, whatever you believe about the rapture, you will check out what I am presenting in this Update.

1. Try and find any publication commenting on the Bible before 1740 that taught the HE’s in Daniel 9:27 were the future antichrist, which more than 95 percent of believers are taught it represents today?

2. Try and find any publication commenting on the Bible before 1740 that taught a pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation rapture of the saved.

3. Try and find any publication before 1740 that divides Daniel’s 70^th week of seven years into two 1260 day periods.

What is taught in more than 95 percent of believer’s circles today came into being after 1740.  Is it right?  That’s your call!  But you should be aware of when and where, and who, brought in what most believe today concerning these teachings.  For a thorough and comprehensive outline of the who, what, why, when, and why these positions are taught as fact by the vast majority, please consult Archive Prophecy Updates 230B, 231, 231A, 231B, 232, 231A, 232B, 232C, and 233.  What follows is an outline of a movement and the men who taught prophecy after it began.

The Great Evangelical Movement began in the 1730’s, and John Wesley was the first great man associated with it when he was converted in 1738, coming out of the Church of England to become a part of the movement.  You will not find the three prophecy teachings listed after paragraph one being taught before 1740.  So how did these three things come to be today’s popular positions on the rapture and the antichrist?

The first man who lived during this movement who introduced a new teaching on the rapture was Morgan Edwards, who wrote an essay on it between 1742 and 1744, but said he taught it as early as 1740.  Edwards pastored in four churches after that in Ireland, England, and America before the book was finally published in 1788.  The book was published in 1788 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In reality, Morgan’s book does not teach the rapture occurring before a seven year period made up of the seven years of Daniel’s 70^th week, but rather a rapture that occurs 1260 days before Christ’s Second Advent, which really makes Morgan Edwards someone who would be labeled a “Mid-Tribber” today.  So, the Evangelical Movement began in the 1730’s and he was the first man who began what led to the popular rapture teachings of today.  At the time Edwards wrote his book there was no teaching that the antichrist was the “HE” who would come and fulfill the covenant of the last week of Daniel 9:27.  But there was a teaching that Christ had already fulfilled the first half the 70^th week, which would have opened the door for a teaching the antichrist could come to close out the last half of the week, only to be destroyed by the Second Advent of Christ.  This could explain why Edwards did not have his rapture occurring seven years before the Second Advent, but rather 1260 days before it.  He placed the rapture 1260 days before the Millennial Reign, not 2520 days, as in the Pre-Trib position, which came later.  Actually, the 1788 published book was more of an essay published in “book” format from what Edwards had written between 1942 and 1944.  It is quite possible he simply used Revelation 12:6 as the 1260 days that was to follow his rapture.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

I knew the Pre-Trib Rapture did not originate with John Darby or with Margaret McDonald, because I found traces of it among some of the “Brethren” in Ireland before 1827, so I waited until I could discover the origin of the traces.  I found the origin in Morgan Edwards, who was ordained to the ministry in Cork, Ireland on June 1, 1757.  Darby, McDonald, and Edwards all had their influence during the time of the Great Evangelical Movement that began in the 1730’s and thereafter swept its religious fever across the world.  The religious zeal of the movement today is still going strong in organizations led by many strong leaders pumping huge financial assets into mass media activity.  Millions of individual contributors send their offerings to provide funding for the leader and the organization he or she heads.   So, for all these reasons, I am going to give a brief history of Morgan Edwards.

The clergyman, Morgan Edwards., was born May 9, 1722 in Trevethin parish, Wales.  He was educated at Bristol College in England from 1742 to 1744 where he wrote the essay of his views on prophecy in his eschatology class, which was later published in Philadelphia in 1788 under a long title: “Two Academical Exercises on Subjects Bearing the following titles – Millennium, Last Novelities.”  He was ordained to the ministry in Cork, Ireland on June 1, June 1757.  He came to America in 1761 and became pastor of a Baptist church in Philadelphia.  Morgan resigned from the church in 1770, and never pastored thereafter, but continued to travel widely as an evangelist and lecturer.  He is credited as being the founder of Rhode Island College, which is known today as Brown University.  He was active in obtaining funds for the permanent support of the institution, and was one of its fellows from 1764 until 1789.  He died in Pencador, Delaware in 1795.  Does published evidence exist that the Pre-Trib rapture position was taught before 1740?  Could be!  And I will keep looking for such publications.  However, at this point, all evidence I have found indicates it came out of the Evangelical Movement that began in the 1730s, and that Morgan Edwards, who would be labeled as a “Mid-Tribber today”, was the father of it.

Morgan Edward’s new teaching did not initially gain acceptance when he began to teach it in 1740, but some 87 years later, and some 39 years after his essay was published in 1788 in America, and as the “Brethren” movement grew in the United Kingdom, John Darby began the process of popularizing a modified version of it across England in 1827.  His greatest barrier to break through was history, because he knew it had not been taught before 1740.  Darby wrote into the doctrinal platform of the “Brethren” one innovation which still marks the “first of the week” distinctive today – a resistance against the lack of evidence it was taught before 1740.  In his book, “Prophecy and the Church,” Allis quotes Darby as having said: “I do not want history to tell me Nineveh or Babylon or Jerusalem is in the hands of the Gentiles.  I do not admit history to be, in any sense, necessary to the understanding of prophecy.” Please read the last paragraph in this Prophecy Update for a fuller explanation as to why Darby would naturally have disliked what was historically taught before “The Great Evangelical Movement.”

The man, who brought what is known today as  the Pre-Trib rapture to the forefront of nineteenth century prophetic teaching, was John Darby of England who, in 1827, led the initial period of its popularity rise in England and then in the United States.  Both Morgan and Darby lived and taught in the first 100 years of the Great Evangelical Movement.  This movement swept into America in the nineteenth century and began to change the prophetic teachings that came over with the settlers of the eighteenth century.  It was a time of movements and men, and the local churches were caught up in its fever and prophetic teachings.  Today we see the local churches relegated to obscurity – it is a time of great men and great movements on the mass media networks of the world – and they are offering their prophetic teachings on the great media. –  Great men and great organizations and great ministries and great results, but the things they teach about the rapture and Daniel 9:27 were not taught before 1740, as far as I have found in my research.  Is what they teach on prophecy correct?  It is your call!  And every person should make up their own mind.  But very few ever study it out for themselves.  They approach the Scriptures with pre-conceived ideas from these great evangelical men and mold the Scripture into what they were taught by them, rather than letting their own study of the Scriptures mold what they believe.  This generation is a generation led by great religious organizations and the great religious men who lead them. The age of the teachings of the first local churches is vanishing away.  We have become individual followers of the teachings of individual men and women on the mass religious media, who teach and preach to what they believe to be a great universal, invisible church made up of all believers.

II Timothy 4:1-4 – I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; [2] Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. [3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Now, just suppose that I find a published document, dated prior to 1740 that teaches a Pre-Trib position existed before 1740.  Am I supposed to then cast out all the thousands of the teachings of those who lived from the time of the completion of the New Testament  until 1740, and put all my faith in that one lone teaching of a Pre-Trib position, that none of them ever heard of, or even thought of?  Again, the call is yours!  But I implore you to at least consider what you have read, and to be prepared in case the Pre-Trib rapture position is not correct.  Jesus is coming – that is certain!  When he is coming in regard to the tribulation period is not!  So, I just get up every day hoping it will be the day of his coming.  I have been advised by some I cannot do that if I am not a Pre-Tribber.  Why not?  I may not be correct about when I believe the rapture will occur in reference to the tribulation period.  Is it not also possible you may not be correct in the position you hold?  So, until the issue is finally settled by Jesus, why don’t we all teach what we believe about it, and do what Jesus said to do regarding his coming.

Mark 13:35-37 – Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: [36] Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. [37] And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

John Wesley, Morgan Edwards, and John Darby were three of the great men who lived during the first 100 years of what has come to be called The Great Evangelical Movement.  The first trickling out of the local churches in the United Kingdom began in the late 1730’s, and slowly increased thereafter.  After 1827 the trickling became a great flood, with many pulling out of the local churches in England and across Europe into movements led by men.  These movements accelerated the growth of the concept of a universal church made up of all believers.  The great Evangelical Movement swept across the United States after 1827 and literally engulfed it after the publication of Scofield’s Bible in 1909.  The prophecy teachings on the first of the week rapture, brought in by the Evangelical Movement, began to penetrate into local churches around the world quite noticeably after 1850, and within 100 years it virtually became a doctrinal position in many local churches, and some began to consider those who believed otherwise to be heretics.  People did not have to come out of a local church into some movement to hear it.  It had become the most popular teaching in the local churches by 1912.  In fact many of the present local denominational and non-denominational churches came into existence during the Great Evangelical Movement, being organized by men who came out of this movement that began in the 1730’s.

One of the great men of the Great Evangelical Age, which is in full swing today, was Dr. Scofield, whose Bible with his footnotes was published in 1909 and became the most widely read in the world.  It has influenced more men and women than any other Bible (with its own commentary) than can be realized this side of heaven.  What and who influenced what you believe, and have you ever checked out what you believe about the rapture from a historical standpoint?  The call as to what you believe is yours, not mine, nor any other man.  But I most certainly do try to persuade men, and am acutely aware that I will stand before Jesus to give account of it.  And I do indeed hope that my reason for doing this is made manifest to you.

II Corinthians 5:10,11 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. [11] Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Since I have mentioned Dr. Scofield in many of my Archive Prophecy Updates, I should at least give you a brief history of the man.  Cyrus Ingersoll Scofield (1843 to 1921) was ordained in Dallas, Texas, October 1883, where he began his ministry as Pastor of the First Congregational Church.  He produced the Scofield Reference Bible and the Scofield Bible Correspondence Course.  His Reference Bible was completed in 1907 and published in 1909.  He is one of the “Christian Hero Trading Cards” (#2311) by Ed Reese.

Since I have made several references to John Nelson Darby in previous Updates, it would also be appropriate to include some information about his life.  I have chosen to take this extract from the account given by William E. Cox, which follows:

BEGIN EXTRACT OF WILLIAM E. COX ACCOUNT

It is impossible to understand fully the dispensational view of eschatology apart from some history of its origin and main spokesmen. Biographers of John Darby refer to him as the father of modern dispensationalism.

Around 1825 many dissenting groups were beginning to pull away from the established churches in different parts of Europe. The three paramount centers seem to have been Dublin, Ireland, and Plymouth and Bristol in England. The leaders of this movement recognized the pen as being “mightier than the sword,” and turned out an abundance of literature publicizing their new beliefs. Darby referred to the church as “the Brethren.” The headquarters for the printing of the Brethren was in Plymouth. Thus, it followed naturally for this new denomination to be called Plymouth Brethren, and the name stuck.

Darby was not the founder of the Brethren movement, although he became its dominant leader and shaped its history. Even though there were many great names associated with the movement, they all were dwarfed, and his name continues in the minds of friend and foe alike. By 1830 he was in complete control of the movement and definitely shaped its dispensational doctrines. That his leadership was unshakable is evident from the fact that, although he made many bitter enemies among the founders of the movement, no man was able to unseat him. Many indeed tried, but themselves were forced either to buckle to Darby or leave the group.

The “father of modern dispensationalism” was born John Nelson Darby in Ireland, in the year 1800, and died in 1882. He was an honor student in Westminster and Trinity College, where he studied law. He was a successful lawyer until the age of twenty-seven, at which time he gave up his law practice to become a curate in the Church of England. He followed this profession until the time he joined the Brethren movement about 1827.

Darby’s biographers say he was eccentric, homely, crippled, and had a deformed face, yet that he possessed a magnetic personality and a keen organizing ability. The man was indefatigable, having been known to travel, it is said, for days while living on acorns. He came from a family background of education, culture, and social standing. He apparently was blessed with a keen mind. William Blair Neatby, who was critical of the movement headed by Darby, described him (A History of the Plymouth Brethren, p. 192) as follows:

‘No doubt Darby had many perfectly intelligible titles to success.  His attainments were great and varied, apart from his classic and theological scholarship.  He could write and speak in several modern languages, and translated the whole Bible into French and German.’

While convalescing from injuries received when his horse threw him, Darby was convinced of the authority of Scripture and the importance of prophetic teachings. He was especially impressed by the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah, which he referred to as describing “a state of things in no way established as yet.”

In spite of his belief in the authority of the Scriptures, Darby retained some of his old Anglican beliefs. For example, Neatby says of him (ibid., p. 63): “…Darby alone among the earlier Brethren remained a pedobaptist.”

Darby wrote into the doctrinal platform of the Brethren one innovation which still marks the dispensational school today. We refer to his disregard of and actual contempt for history. In his book, Prophecy and the Church, p. 26, Allis quotes Darby as having said:

‘I do not want history to tell me Nineveh or Babylon is ruined or Jerusalem is in the hands of the Gentiles.  I do not admit history to be, in any sense, necessary to the understanding of prophecy.’

The Plymouth Brethren, when first organized, had two main distinctives: (1) theirs was an ecumenical movement, and (2) they sought to do away with an ordained clergy and anything which even resembled organization within the local church. They were opposed to music or any type of ritual in the church service. Darby’s watchword, according to his biographers, was “the union of the children of God.” The Brethren frowned on ordination as constituting a man-made ministry, and the very word “Brethren” was an attempt to get away from denominationalism.

While the subject of the Lord’s second coming soon came to dominate the dispensational school, it scarcely entered into their thinking at the very first. Their two main starting ecumenicity, and looseness of organization-may be seen from the following quotations.

‘We should come together in all simplicity as disciples, not waiting on any pulpit or ministry, but trusting that the Lord would edify us together, by ministering as He pleased, and saw good from the midst of ourselves (Thomas S. Veitch, ‘The Brethren Movement’).’

‘That ordination of any kind to preach the Gospel is no requirement of Scripture (Neatby).’

Following his break with the Church of England and his joining the Brethren movement, Darby, along with the rest of the Brethren, claimed to have been given many “rediscovered truths.” These alleged truths supposedly had been taught by the apostles, then lost sight of. Even the great Reformers had not known of these doctrines. These “rediscovered truths” were, in fact, the direct opposite of all historic Christian teachings proclaimed by the Reformers and extant commentaries. Notice was given to the world at large that everyone should look on all previous post-apostolic teachings as false, and that only the “rediscovered truths” of the Brethren should be embraced.’

END EXTRACT FROM WILLIAM E. COX ACCOUNT

I had been exposed to what I now believe about Daniel’s 70 weeks of years and the rapture as a young man.  I lived in England from 1958 to 1961, which is the land of ancient books commenting about prophecy in countless old book stores and, if they have not diminished in number at the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, they have thousands of them.  After my retirement from the USAF Branch of the National Security Agency, I sat under teachers in the early seventies that I greatly admire.   I could tell that two of them, through comments they casually made, knew about the pre-1740 teachings.  While in Seminary I never argued with anything that was taught from entrance to graduation.  I simply sat still and soaked in as much as I could.  I was there to learn, and not to argue or teach – they were the teachers and I was the “teachee.”  I still love and respect them all, both dead and living, and am hopeful I cause them no grief by what I teach about Daniel’s 70 Weeks and the rapture.  I suspect that two of them held positions at least similar to what I believe on the two aforementioned subjects, but may never know this side of heaven if that is true.

I kept waiting for some well-known respected man in our work to issue something about the pre-1740 teachings on the two subjects I have been addressing.  I certainly did not want to be the Long Ranger.  I am no different from other men – I want to be accepted and loved by the rest of my brethren, and I knew I would be rejected and spurned by many of them if I presented what you have just read in this Update.  So I waited, and waited, and waited, and then waited some more.  All this time the Lord kept bothering me about not telling the brethren what I believed, but I knew what would happen if I did, and simply fought him off, with a promise of doing it in the future.  I never lied about what I believed, I just refrained from teaching anything about the first three and one half years of peace, and only talked about what the antichrist would do during the last three and one years.  I would run my laser pointer up and down across the horizontal length of Clarence Larkin’s two box diagrams, saying, “now that’s where the rapture will occur,” which usually got a laugh.  In my books I had the rapture occurring after the opening of the sixth seal, because I really did not know when the seventh trumpet would actually sound in the juxtaposition of the seals and vials.  At that time I was not satisfied in the way I had the seals, the trumpets, and the vials aligned and overlapped.  I was never satisfied with parts of the diagrams I put in my second book, but did the best I could in making them as compatible as possible in my uncertainty of the seal, trumpet, and vial alignment.  I did not come to what I believe to be the proper alignment until about 1992.  You will find what I came to believe in Archive Prophecy Update 146E in diagrammatic format.  Then, I passed 70 years of age in 2002, and my conscience, in not revealing what I believed, was eaten down to the quick.  I realized at that point I was going to have to give up and do it, because I knew I would have to face Christ at his judgment seat, and I was aware at age 70 my end was drawing very near.  Well, now my conscience is clear with the Lord, and I hope my reason for issuing this 10 Part Series is also clear in your consciences.

II Corinthians 5:11 – Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Tom McElmurry, Pastor, Dardanelle, Arkansas

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 233B

July 27, 2005

10 Jihad Kings among the Kings of Revelation 19:19!

Part 1 – The 10 Jihad Toes of Daniel 2

At the battle of Armageddon most of the kings of the earth will come to join the antichrist in a final attempt to eradicate the nation of Israel. Among them will be 10 nations representing the 10 Jihad toes of Daniel 2 that drove Israel into the Negev three and one-half years earlier.

Revelation 19:19 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

Some three and on-half years before the final battle of Armageddon, which closes the tribulation period, ten kings of nations out of the territory once occupied by the ancient Roman Empire will attack Israel from the north.

Daniel 2:42 – And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

II Thessalonians 2:3 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

The last evil kingdom of antichrist on this earth was to initially be comprised of 10 nations with 10 kings led by the man of sin himself. It was to arise out of the ashes of the old Roman Empire. I have always believed it would rise out of the southern half of the Empire and be made up of 10 Arab nations. I believe the elements for its formation are in place today, and I suspect that the most likely Arab nations of which it will be comprised are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Some of these nations are strong like iron, and some are as soft and pliable as clay.

I do not question that in the final battle of Armageddon the descendants of Ham, Shem, and Japheth will be combatants against the nation of Israel. But I have always contended, along with the Bible expositors of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, that the antichrist’s initial attack would be led by Arab descendants of Abraham. They are the mingled seed of his oldest son Ishmael with the seed of the six sons he sired by Keturah, as well as some of the other offspring of his own father Terah. The empire of the antichrist will be an Islamic empire that eventually takes into it other old world nations. And, in the final great battle of Armageddon, all those nations that made up the world as it was known in A.D. 95 will come against Israel, such that Japheth, Ham, and Shem’s descendants will also be involved.

Daniel 2:41-43 – And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. [42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. [43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

The 10 toes will consist primarily of Terah’s descendants. Abraham came out of Terah. Out of Abraham came the leaders of the three great monotheistic faiths associated with Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad. And they have always been in conflict. (See Archive Update 78 Diagram)

The inspired word in Daniel 2:43, from which the word “mingled” comes, is ARAB, which means “to interlace, to mix. The “seed of men” refers to non-descendants of the man Abraham, from which both Jews and Arabs descended. “They” refers to the 10 toes of Daniel’s statue in Daniel 2:42, which have 10 kings over them. Isaac, the father of Israel, had seven half brothers – Ishmael from Hagar and the six sons of Keturah. It was from these seven half brothers that the Arab world has been primarily created. The descendants of Israel have been more likely to marry within the blood line of the man Israel than have the Arabs to marry within their separate bloodlines of Hagar and Keturah, and the Arabs have also intermingled with non-descendants of Abraham more than have the Jews.

Daniel 2:43 – And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

Just as iron and clay do not hold together very long, the 10 Arab nations will only hold together long enough to fulfill God’s end time tribulation period prophecies. The saved will be caught up on the sounding of the seventh trump to be judged in heaven, and the kingdom of God will all be united in heaven, waiting to return to earth with Christ at his Second Advent.

Revelation 11:15 – And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Daniel 2:44 – And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

The God of heaven will call all the saved of all the ages together in heaven during the “days of these kings,” and will initially “set up” his kingdom, from whence he will return to earth with it as its head, after the saved have been judged in heaven. Christ’s coming kingdom will “break in pieces and consume all the kingdoms” of the present world, and his kingdom alone will rule.

Revelation 11:15-18 – And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [16] And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, [17] Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Christ, the stone, came from the mountain representing God, without any human instrumentation, but by God’s Spirit forming his body in a virgin’s womb. Christ will return to destroy those morally destroying the earth. All of the evil that came out of the Babylonian, Medo- Persian, Macedonian, and Roman Empires will be laid waste by his Second Advent.

Daniel 2:45 – Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

The Scriptures which follow describe the coming of the great Stone, the great Rock, coming with his kingdom.

Revelation 19:11-18 – And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. [12] His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. [13] And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. [14] And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. [15] And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. [16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. [17] And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; [18] That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

Daniel 2:44 – And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

Revelation 19:19,20 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Revelation 16:15,16 – Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Jude 23 – And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Revelation 3:2-4 – Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. [3] Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. [4] Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

Revelation 19:7-9 – Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. [8] And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. [9] And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Micah 4:7 – And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

Zechariah 14:9 – And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 234A

July 31, 2005

10 Jihad Kings among the Kings of Revelation 19:19!

Part 2 – The 10 Jihad Horns of Daniel 7

At the battle of Armageddon most of the kings of the earth will come to join the antichrist in a final attempt to eradicate the nation of Israel. Among them will be 10 nations representing the 10 Jihad horns of Daniel 7.

Revelation 19:19 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

Some three and one-half years before the final battle of Armageddon, which closes the tribulation period, 10 kings of nations out of the territory once occupied by the ancient Roman Empire will attack Israel from the north.

II Thessalonians 2:3 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

The last evil kingdom of antichrist on this earth was to initially be composed of 10 nations with 10 kings led by the man of sin himself. It was to arise out of the ashes of the old Roman Empire, and I have always believed it would rise out of the southern half of the Empire, being made up of 10 Arab nations. I believe the elements for its formation are in place today, and I suspect that the most likely Arab nations of which it will be comprised are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

Daniel 7:23-25 – Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. [24] And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

When a best selling book was written in the fifties about six emerging European Common Market nations, it began to cause many theologians to rapidly change their minds as to where the antichrist would eventually arise.  Prior to that time most had believed he would arise out of the old Seleucid dynasty, which was formed by one of the generals who divided Alexander’s Grecian Empire into four sections.  Many believed the Assyrian, in the fifth chapter of Micah, would be the antichrist, and that he would arise in, and come out of, modern day Syria. (See Nationality of the Antichrist – Parts 1 to 8, in Archive Prophecy Updates 62 to 69)

Before the European Common Market theory arose, a majority believed antichrist would come out of the southern half of the old Roman Empire, rather than out of the European northern half.  But the great popularity of the aforementioned book ascended to the highest levels of acceptability, and previous beliefs were dwarfed to obscurity.  The book indicated that the six original members of the Common Market would soon be joined by four other nations to reach ten, and then be joined by the eleventh horn. He was to be the antichrist of Daniel’s fourth beast in chapter seven.  However, soon there were ten horns, then there were eleven, then more, then fifteen, then twenty-five, and soon more are likely to be added.  But the astounding popularity of this book, and the thousands of preachers and other teachers who have taught it, have left a legacy behind them, and it is difficult to persuade very many they might not be correct in what they have taught, and are still teaching.

I have been concerned, since the book was published, about the possibility it might cause many to be deceived when he does not arise in Europe, but in Syria.  Quite frankly, I watch both Europe and Syria just like a hawk, and, if I do see him rising in Europe, I most assuredly will accept it.  I am prepared for both.  But many are so convinced he must come out of Europe, I doubt if anything would change their minds.  In any case, in future updates I will show my reasons for believing he will come out of the Syria area.

The beast of Daniel 7:23 does indeed represent the old Roman Empire, and it certainly did tread down “the whole world,” that is, the “known” world of Daniel’s day.  Have you ever thought that perhaps we were meant to take the expressions of Daniel’s day concerning the world, and believe that is the only part of the present world the antichrist will dominate completely?  (See Archive Prophecy Updates 77, 77A, 77b, and 77C)

The ten horns will arise out of “the whole world” of Daniel’s day.  But why do they have to be European nations?  Were not Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, northern Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and northern Sudan part of the old Roman Empire under the Emperor Trajan?  And are not these countries the descendants of Ishmael, the first son of Abraham, and Keturah’s six sons by Abraham, and the two sons of Abraham’s nephew Lot, Moab and Ammon by his two daughters?  Are not these descendants of Abraham the ones who have hated and battled the sons of Abraham through Israel for many centuries?  In any case, since I believe the attack is likely to occur before 2008, I expect to know where he will arise one way or the other in the next few years, that is, if I survive the grave before Jesus returns. I am certain such an attack will occur, and I believe the best guess for its occurrence is 2007, but I am by no means certain of WHEN it will occur, only that it is not in the distant future. It may well occur after 2007, but I do not believe many years will pass after that date before it is launched by 10 Arab nations.

I do not question that Europe will come down as part of a great mass of many nations and join the antichrist in Jerusalem for the final battle of Armageddon, but I am confident that the initial attack of the tribulation period will be by antichrist leading 10 Islamic nations against Israel. The antichrist leading the attack will start the war that will not end until 1260 days after he attacks, he will be the Assyrian from Meshech and Tubal.

First, the Assyrian, Leading Daniel’s 10 Horns, Drives Israel Into the Negev Wilderness, Which Begins the 1260 Days of Israel Trapped in the Negev. Then, More Than Three Years Later, Russia Comes Down with the Nations of the Post-Columbus Old World to Answer the Call to the Final Battle of the 1260 Days, Which is the Battle of Armageddon.

A few years ago I received a query as to when I believed Russia, that now occupies the territory held by the descendants of Magog when Daniel and Ezekiel wrote their prophecies, would come down to attack Israel? I do not believe that Russia will come down until the latter portion of the last 1260 days of the tribulation period.

You have read my lengthy dissertation of Daniel 9:27 to prove the vast majority of today’s prophetic teachings are based on the three “HE’s” being the antichrist, but that this was not taught before 1740. And, I have not been able to find the first-of-the-week position before that date. In order to justify a pre-tribulation rapture, it was necessary to create a war before the tribulation period, out of which the antichrist could arise to sign a peace treaty, which he would break after three and one half years of peace, but such a war never existed before 1740.

I am from the old school of the eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. The old school believed there was only one war. The modern school believes there are two, a viewpoint that was make very popular by several writers in the nineteen fifties, and is the majority belief today. I am persuaded that there is only one war. It begins when the antichrist, who I believe will come out of Syria, attacks Israel from the north, with the armies of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon actively involved in the attack from without, the Palestinian Authority attacking from within, and Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, and Turkey initially providing logistical support. This starts the one war that will last for 1260 days. I label it as the War of Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. This war ends in the final great battle, the battle of Armageddon. At the time of the writings of Daniel and Ezekiel, most of the descendants of Meshech and Tubal were settled in modern Syria and Lebanon primarily, but some had settled in southern Turkey and extreme northwestern Iraq. Please look at Prophecy Updates 27 through 39, and 71 through 76, along with Birth Pang Numbers 15 to 18, for a more complete exposition of the War of Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and of its final battle, the battle of Armageddon.

The Antichrist, the Assyrian of Micah 5, the King of the North in Daniel 11:40 to 45, and Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, are all one, and the same, person. There is only one war. It begins the last 1260 days of the tribulation period, and culminates with the battle of Armageddon.

In Ezekiel 38:1-3, God tells Ezekiel to set his face against two things, a person, Gog, who is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and against a land, which is the land of Magog, The chief prince of Meshech and Tubal will lead 10 Islamic nations against Israel to start the war of 1260 days, and the present day occupants of the land of Magog will come down at the end of the war that culminates with the battle of Armageddon.

Ezekiel 38:1-3 – And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, [3] And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

The following Scriptures start the War of Gog, who is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, but is also known as the King of the North, and as the Assyrian.

Ezekiel 38:8-12 – After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. [9] Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. [10] Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: [11] And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, [12] To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

Daniel 11:40-44 – And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. [41] He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. [42] He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. [43] But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. [44] But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. (See Whole Number Archive Prophecy Updates 71 to 75)

Micah 5:5 – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. (See Archive Prophecy Updates 62 to 69)

The following Scriptures pertain to the last battle in the War of the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, which is the final battle Revelation identifies as Armageddon.

Daniel 11:45 to Daniel 12:1 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Zechariah 14:3-5 – Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

Revelation 16:16-21 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. [21] And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Ezekiel 39:4-8,17-22 – Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. [5] Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. [6] And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the Lord. [7] So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. [8] Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken. [17] And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. [18] Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. [19] And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. [20] Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. [21] And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. [22] So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.

What you have just read is a description of the results of the last battle in the War of the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and it is the same as the battle of Armageddon found in Revelation. Please note the numerous similarities of the battlefield scene in Revelation 19:17-21 that parallel the same battle scene from the preceding verses in Ezekiel 39:17-20.

Revelation 19:17-21 – And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; [18] That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. [19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

When the Antichrist, who is also known as the King of the North, the Assyrian, and Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, attacks Israel from Syria, the 1260 days will begin. The 1260 days will culminate with the final battle of Armageddon.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Revelation 16:16 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

We are living in a era of time when it would be especially wise for all true believers to heed the warning of Revelation 16:15.

Revelation 16:15 – Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Revelation 3:2-4 – Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. [4] Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 234B

August 3, 2005

My Search for the First of the Week Position in History!

The Didache or “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”

The following extract from “The Apostolic Fathers” by J.B. Lightfoot and J.R. Harmer, as edited and revised by Michael W. Holmes, provides the historical aspect as to the dating of the Didache.

“The Didache may have been put into its present form as late as 150 AD, though a date considerably closer to the end of the first century seems more probable. The materials, from which it is composed, however, reflect the state of the church at an even earlier date. In his very thorough commentary J.P. Audet suggests about 70 AD, and he is not likely to be off by more than a decade in either direction.” Later on I will be quoting from it. I certainly do not believe the Didache to be inspired, but it is an early writing that existed during the time of the Apostolic Fathers, and it does have an outline of what is predicted to occur at the time of the appearance of the antichrist.

I sincerely hope that I have not been offensive to those who hold the pre or mid tribulation period position for the first resurrection by the many articles I have placed on our web site – I assure you it was not my intension. I was born and raised in the northern half of Arkansas, and the preachers of the Baptist churches I attended were not seminary trained. Most of what they taught came from books written by old Baptist writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. So I was exposed to those teachings in the 1930’s and 40’s. After I was called to preach in 1969, and entered seminary in 1971, I had to take a position to defend myself in the midst of my peers. I did not believe the rapture occurred at the beginning or the absolute end, so I adopted what was called the mid-tribulation position. The “pre-tribbers” did not disassociate themselves from me, and the “last of the weekers,” were happy I thought the church would go into part of the tribulation period. Then I started lecturing in hundreds of churches, and tried to stay off what I believed about the rapture to avoid conflict. It was mission impossible, but I did try.

In the early eighties, while in east Texas doing a series of lectures, a Pastor who I dearly loved, after he had heard me mention my position, took me aside into his office and, in a very nice way, showed me Revelation 11:18, and asked me what I believed about it, saying I could get back to him later on it. He was trying to help me, and I appreciated it, and always will, but I knew why he showed it to me. And, Oh my, did it bring back a lot of the memories of my early teachings in the 30’s and 40’s. I will always be grateful to him, because it eventually caused me to stop being concerned about what people thought, and to be concerned about what Christ would say to me at his judgment. He knew what he was doing, but he didn’t know I knew what he was doing. I owe him a great debt. It was then that I began to be convicted to preach what I really believed without regard to maintaining acceptability with the brethren.

I have been presenting what is known as the pre-wrath seventh trumpet rapture at the church where I pastor for some 23 years, but it was the early nineties before I overcame my spiritual cowardice sufficiently to began to present what I believed about the seventh trumpet rapture to other churches. And although I do not think the aforementioned Texas pastor believes what I believe about Daniel 9:27, his asking me what I believed about Revelation 11:18, also gave me the courage to openly present what I have long believed concerning it in the late nineties.

The first teachings of the first of the week position were met with a steady barrage of opposition by books and articles written by the orthodox theologians of that time, but by the middle of the nineteenth century they had shown a significant drop in number, and by 1900 were down to a trickle. It was Dr. Scofield’s study Bible that stopped even the trickle after it came out in 1909.

The reason I have reiterated all this to you now, as I have in the past, is to tell you that I am very concerned about the state of confusion I believe will exist when Israel is eventually attacked, whenever it may be, and a lot of people will be wondering why the rapture has not occurred. I have studied diligently the writings of those who hold the first of the week position, but I find no evidence of it existing before 1740. And I have read, and considered, the articles they have written since the revival of books, challenging their position, began to be written again in any great number in the 1970’s. In the very small number of quotes they have used from the age of the early church fathers, I have gone back and examined the context of where each was quoted, and in every case found it to be quoted out of context. I have studied the early church fathers and find no quote in context that refers to a first of the week position. But I will give you one from the Didache, and it does seen to indicate a seventh trumpet position, as opposed to a rapture catching out all the saved at the beginning of the tribulation period. Its context is set in a discourse involving the antichrist appearing as a son of God, and introduces four chronological phases that follow his appearing on the scene.

CHRONOLOGICAL PHASE ONE

Didache 16:5 – Then all humankind will come to the fiery test, and “many will fall away” and perish, but “those who endure” in their faith “will be saved” by the accursed one himself.

1. All of humanity will come to the fiery test of the tribulation.

2. They will all enter into it – Some will fall away from a faith based on religion and works, and not on the sacrificial death of Christ bearing our curse for our not being able to keep the law. (Galatians 3:13 – Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:)

3. True believers, who have faith that Christ himself took all their sins in own body on the tree, being made the “accursed one” for them, will endure in that faith, and will be taken out, saved from God’s wrath, when the seventh trumpet sounds. (I Peter 2:24 – Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.)

CHRONOLOGICAL PHASE TWO

Didache 16:6 – And then will appear the signs of the truth: first the sign of the opening in heaven, then the sound of a trumpet, and third, the resurrection of the dead.

I Thessalonians 4;16,17 – For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: [17] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

CHRONOLOGICAL PHASE THREE

Didache 16:7 – But not of all, rather, as it has been said, “The Lord will come, and all his saints with him.”

The writer points out that this is not what the old timers called a “general resurrection,” because many are left behind when the seventh trumpet sounds. The writer is quick to point out that the saints will return with Jesus after the seven vials of wrath have been poured out.

I Thessalonians 5:9 – For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Revelation 16:1 – And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

Luke 21:25,26 – And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; [26] Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

CHRONOLOGICAL PHASE FOUR

Didache 16:8 – Then the world “will see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.”

Luke 21:27 – And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Revelation 1:7 – Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

Acts 1:9-13 – And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. [10] And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; [11] Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Hebrews 10:24,25 – And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: [25] Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

I Thessalonians 4:16 – For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

I Corinthians 15:52 – 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 15:51 – Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

Revelation 10:7 – But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Revelation 11:15,18 – And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 235A

August 7, 2005

10 Jihad Kings among the Kings of Revelation 19:19!

Part 3 – The 10 Jihad Horns of Revelation 12

At the battle of Armageddon most of the kings of the earth will come to join the antichrist in a final attempt to eradicate the nation of Israel. Among them will be 10 Arab nations representing 10 horns in Revelation 12.

Revelation 19:19 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

Some three and one-half years before the final battle of Armageddon, which closes the tribulation period, 10 kings of nations out of the territory once occupied by the ancient Roman Empire will attack Israel from the north.

II Thessalonians 2:3 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

The last evil kingdom of antichrist on this earth was to initially be composed of 10 nations with 10 kings led by the man of sin himself. It was to arise out of the ashes of the old Roman Empire, and I have always believed it would rise out of the southern half of the Empire, being made up of 10 Arab nations. I believe the elements for its formation are in place today, and I suspect that the most likely Arab nations of which it will be comprised are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

The 10 horns on the Dragon, who is the Devil found in Revelation 12, are the same 10 horns found in Daniel 7.

Revelation 12:3 – And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Daniel 7:24 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

Revelation 12:1 – And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

There can be no legitimate question as to who the “woman” in this Scripture represents – she is positively identified in the Old Testament as the nation of Israel. It is from this nation that God has chosen His remnant, and God will select a remnant of 144,000 sealed Israelites to be carried unharmed up to the blowing of the seventh trumpet.

First of all, let us examine the symbols of this verse. Here is a woman clothed with the sun, standing on the moon, with a crown of twelve stars on her head. The sun is the Patriarch Jacob, the moon represents his wives that gave birth to his twelve sons, and the twelve stars are the twelve sons from which the nation of Israel descended. The woman represents the nation of Israel, and this interpretation is not based on opinion. God revealed the key to this verse to Joseph long before John wrote it.

Genesis 37:9-11 – And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. [10] And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? [11] And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

Here, in Joseph’s dream, are the same set of symbols, the sun, moon, and eleven stars, with Joseph himself being number twelve. Jacob, his wives, and Joseph’s eleven brothers are made to bow down before Joseph at some future time. This was to be fulfilled when all of Jacob’s large family came down to Egypt where Joseph had been made second in command to Pharaoh. God used this set of symbols only twice in the Bible and the first usage interprets the second. The woman literally represents all the descendants of the twelve sons of Israel – what we identify today as the nation of Israel.

Revelation 12:2 – And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Over nineteen hundred years ago the nation of Israel gave birth to the flesh and blood Son of God – the sinless man, Christ Jesus, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt. God chose a virgin of the tribe of Israel as the one who would bear His Child in her womb, the blessed virgin Mary.

Luke 1:30,31 – And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. [31] And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

Revelation 12:1-3 – And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: [2] And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. [3] And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

In verse three we find the great adversary of the woman and her man child.  Their adversary is the great red dragon, the fallen archangel Lucifer, whom the world knows today as Satan.  He is portrayed as being made red with the blood of the prophets and other saints he has caused to be slain.  His seven heads represent the kings of the six great world governments that have persecuted Israel in the past, and one that will persecute her in the future.  The persecution began with the Egyptian Pharaoh of the Exodus, and will end with her persecution in the Negev Wilderness by the antichrist.  The six symbolic kings that persecuted her in the past represent the following nations in chronological order: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Italy.  The last world government will be the seventh, and its king will be the antichrist of Satan.  The seven crowns represent the authority given to the kings of these nations by Satan.

Revelation 17:10 – And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

The seven kings are the seven governmental heads on the red dragon.  All seven wear crowns given to them by Satan because he personally brought them to power during their lifetimes.  The first six kings came from the six great world empires of the past beginning with the Pharaohs of the Egyptian bondage, and ending with the empire that was still in existence in John’s day, the great Roman Empire.  In John’s day all the learning and expertise of the previous five great empires had been passed on to the sixth empire of iron – the Roman Empire.  The antichrist’s empire, the seventh of the empires, will have incorporated all the accumulated knowledge of the ages from Satan’s previous secular empires.  In the Scriptures, governments are sometimes referred to as “mountains.”  This final government of the antichrist will be the seventh “mountain,” and it will have the political support of the great apostate system of religion known as the “whore of Babylon.”  She will verbally support the 10 Arab nations in their Jihad against Israel after it is launched, but she will ride to her destruction on their back.  And, after she rides high because of the antichrist’s early successes, the 10 Arab nations, who have always hated her, will turn on her and burn the thousands of her churches scattered across their domains.

Revelation 17:3-6,16-18 – So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. [4] And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: [5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. [6] And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. [16] And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. [17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. [18] And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

There was only one city that met such criteria in John’s day, the great city of Rome.

Revelation 12:4 – And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Continuing with the exposition of the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation, we find that a bit of Satan’s past history is revealed. We are informed that when Satan fell by sin about one-third of the angels (stars) chose to follow his leadership. By the pulling power of his tail, much like some officials ride into public office on the political coattails of a stronger candidate, one-third of the angels exercised their free will and chose to follow Satan, rather than God. They are forever sealed in their free will choice, just as my soul is sealed in its free will choice to trust in Jesus until my body is redeemed at the rapture.

Ephesians 4:30 – [30] And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

The prophet Isaiah graphically portrays the ancient fall of the beautiful angel Lucifer.

Isaiah 14:12 – [12] How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Since Lucifer’s fall he has a new name – Satan. Lucifer means “shining one,” while Satan means “the hater, accuser, or the adversary.” One primary goal existed in Satan’s plan after his fall – to prevent the birth of an heir who could legitimately take away his earthly spiritual and material kingdom. Verse four presents a picture of fallen Lucifer as a dragon, standing before the woman Israel, determined to kill the heir as soon as he was born.

Revelation 12:5 – [5] And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

The woman Israel is symbolized as the earthly wife of God. So here is the picture presented in verse five – Satan’s greatest fear is realized – the symbolized wife of God gives birth to God’s Son through a direct descendant of Israel, the virgin Mary, who has all the correct genealogical credentials from Seth to Heli via Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and Zerubbabel. Beginning with Herod, Satan attempted to destroy the Son both spiritually and physically. Finally, he thought he had destroyed him physically on the cross, but God completely turned the tables on Satan, and openly revealed the great mystery of all the ages to all the world – the great mystery of Christ crucified for all the sins of all who would believe he alone was the total price for completed salvation, and that he alone, with no additional requirements from the recipients, was the provider by His one time sacrifice for all sins.

I Corinthians 1:17,18 + 2:2,5 – For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. [18] For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. [2] For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. [5] That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

God shocked Satan! He lifted up Israel’s sinless “man child” of verse five, and “her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” God resurrected His child, Jesus Christ, who is in heaven today as the eternal One. He was “caught up unto God, and to his throne” more than 2000 years ago in prophetic years of 360 days, and He is still there. Very soon, the woman of chapter twelve is going to have to flee for her life during the Great Tribulation Period. I believe this fleeing is not in the distant future, but could occur as early as 2007, and if God had not provided a place of safety for her in the Negev wilderness, she would be utterly destroyed. The 10 Jihad kings are going to drive Israel into the Negev Wilderness, where she will remain for some 1260 days.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

The woman is what remains of Israel after the attack that drove her into the Negev and conquered Jerusalem. If the attack were to occur in the next three years, it would amount to some 1.7 to 1.9 million Israelis.

Zechariah 13:8 to 14:2 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. [1] Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. [2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 235B

August 10, 2005

Antichrist Will Treat Women with Disrespect!

Daniel 11:36 – And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

I, like most expositors, have long referred to this king as the same willful king of II Thessalonians 2:4.

II Thessalonians 2:4 – Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

I have always taught “the indignation,” which was to end his reign, occurred when he would “come to his end” at the battle of Armageddon in Daniel 11:45 to 12:1, the specifics being laid out in Revelation 19:19-21 (See Archive Prophecy Update Number 75).

Daniel 11:45 to 12:1 –And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Revelation 19:19-21 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

This would fulfill the last two phrases in Daniel 11:36 – “and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.”

I have read some expositors after 1740 that used Daniel 11:37 to prove he will be gay. I do not believe that will be the case.

Daniel 11:37 – Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

The antichrist will be a descendent of Abraham, but he will have no regard for the God of Abraham through Jacob, the man Israel. He will rise out of the Islamic faith through Ishmael, but in the end will claim to be the god of gods, perhaps even Allah incarnate, thereby magnifying himself above all gods.

The phrase I wish primarily to address is “nor the DESIRE of women.” The word DESIRE is “chemdah,” which simply means “delight.” It’s Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance Number is 2532, and though it has several derivatives, I could only find four where the exact 2532 variation was used for forms of DESIRE. They are as follows, and do NOT seem to indicate a preference for being associated with homosexual desire.

Daniel 11:37 – Neither shall he REGARD the God of his fathers, nor the DESIRE (2532) of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

Haggai 2:6,7 – For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; [7] And I will shake all nations, and the DESIRE (2532) of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.

Many equate the object of the DESIRE expressed in the verse to be the desired Messiah, but there are other interpretations of verse seven. However, none of the interpretations associated with it indicated A DESIRE manifesting fleshly lust, but rather a quite acceptable desire. They all indicate a REGARD for the DESIRE of nations that shall come.

I Samuel 9:17-20 – And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to thee of! this same shall reign over my people. [18] Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, where the seer’s house is. [19] And Samuel answered Saul, and said, I am the seer: go up before me unto the high place; for ye shall eat with me to day, and to morrow I will let thee go, and will tell thee all that is in thine heart. [20] And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them; for they are found. And on whom is all the DESIRE (2532) of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father’s house?

This DESIRE would certainly not be an undesirable type of fleshly lust, but rather a good one. It implies that the REGARD of Israel was placed on Saul.

II Chronicles 21:5,20 – Jehoram was thirty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. [20] Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed without being DESIRED. Howbeit they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

Here, the word DESIRED is used in an unfavorable sense, in that the king fell short of having the people’s REGARD.

In Haggai 2:6 & 7, I Samuel 9:17-20, and II Chronicles 21:5 & 20, the connotation of the word DESIRE implies REGARD, either used in a positive or negative sense.

Daniel 11:37 – Neither shall he REGARD the God of his fathers, nor the DESIRE of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

I believe the DESIRE referred to in this verse is used in the negative sense, meaning the antichrist will have NO REGARD for the DESIRE of women, which is certainly the case for Islamic fundamentalism. He will have no REGARD for what women DESIRE, only what males DESIRE. Islamic women are at times treated as mere producers of children, kept in male bondage with very few human rights. I believe the antichrist will be the ultimate male chauvinist, and will consider women as one click above livestock. He is the Assyrian of Micah 5:5 who will be defeated by THIS MAN referring back to Micah 5:4, who is the same HE in Micah 5:6 that will deliver Israel from him at Armageddon.

Micah 5:4-6 – And HE shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall HE be great unto the ends of the earth. [5] And THIS MAN shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall HE deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. (See Archive Prophecy Updates 66 and 67)

During the Protestant Reformation, due to bitterness against the teachings of the Catholic Church, from whose teachings the Protestants had departed, it was quite common among the various groups to believe and teach that a pope of Rome would be the antichrist. So it was only natural that some among them would use I Timothy 4:3 in conjunction with Daniel 11:37 to link the two Scriptures together, and make the antichrist one who was celibate and, as such, was guilty of issuing the proclamation to his priests “forbidding to marry.” But I do not think the two Scriptures can legitimately be linked to prove this point. The personage of Daniel 9:27 is not “forbidding to marry” – He has no regard for the desire of the women after they are married – He has no understanding of the role of a woman in God’s plan for marriage.

I Timothy 4:3 – Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

Daniel 11:37 – Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

He will not regard the desires of the God of Abraham, who was the God of his fathers until Mohammed spread the word that the God of Islam was to be Allah.

He will have no regard or understanding of the role of a woman’s desires in the plan of the true God’s desire in his established role of the woman in marriage.

He will have no regard for any other of the world’s many gods – as Allah incarnate he will be the only god.

II Thessalonians 2:4 – Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 236A

August 14, 2005

10 Jihad Kings among the Kings of Revelation 19:19!

Part 4 – The 10 Jihad Horns of Revelation 13

At the battle of Armageddon most of the kings of the earth will come to join the antichrist in a final attempt to eradicate the nation of Israel.  Among them will be 10 nations representing the 10 Jihad horns of Revelation 13 that attacked Israel some 1260 days earlier.

Revelation 19:19 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

Some three and one-half years before the final battle of Armageddon, which closes the tribulation period, 10 kings of nations out of the territory once occupied by the ancient Roman Empire will attack Israel from the north.

II Thessalonians 2:3 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

The last evil kingdom of antichrist on this earth was to initially be composed of 10 nations with 10 kings led by the man of sin himself.  It was to arise out of the ashes of the old Roman Empire, and I have always believed it would rise out of the southern half of the Empire, being made up of 10 Arab nations.  I believe the elements for its formation are in place today, and I suspect that the most likely Arab nations of which it will be comprised are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

The 10 horns on the beast of Revelation 13, are the same 10 horns found in Daniel 7, and also represent the 10 toes found on the statue in Daniel 2, and the 10 horns of the Dragon in Revelation 12.

Revelation 13:1 – And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

The “sea” is the Mediterranean Sea, which was, at the time of John’s writings, a vast shoreline controlled by the Roman Empire – It was a Roman Sea.  It is from this area that the last evil empire of John’s beast will arise from its southern Islamic countries of today.  The beast’s empire will control what was the known world of John’s day.

The beast is the 11^th horn that arises among the 10 horns of the fourth beast of Daniel.

Daniel 7:20,21 – And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. [21] I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

The beast is Ezekiel’s Gog, the last chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, who attacks Israel when he thinks it is dwelling safely in the latter years.

Ezekiel 38:3,8,9 – And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: [8] After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. [9] Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

The beast is Daniel’s willful King of the North who attacks the glorious land of Israel at the time of the end.

Daniel 11:36,40,41 – And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. [40] And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. [41] He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

The beast is the Assyrian of Micah, the one from whom Chirst will deliver Israel when he returns as the man who beings in the peace of the Millennium.

Micah 5:5,6 – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

The beast is Paul’s man of sin that will be revealed as the son of perdition before “that day” comes.

II Thessalonians 2:3,4 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; [4] Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

The seven heads of the beast are the seven evil empires of man that have affected and afflicted Israel since God called her out of Egyptian bondage.  They represent the past great empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and the final future empire of the Antichrist, which will dominate all the areas the six before it dominated, and will be Islamic in character.

The ten horns are ten latter day kings whose kingdoms did not exist in John’s day as they will exist in the seventh empire of antichrist.  The ten crowns represent their power and authority, which they will eventually turn over to the antichrist.

Revelation 17:12,13 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

The first six of these empires that represent the seven heads of the beast have been guilty of the sin of worshipping many pagan gods, which is a form of blasphemy again the only true God. The seventh will worship Satan himself through his son.

Revelation 13:4 – And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

It is rather ironic that all the extremist Islamic clerics and their countries refer to the United States as “the great Satan” and to Israel as “the little Satan.”  They are already worshipping him, and soon they will be worshipping him directly through his son, the antichrist.

Revelation 13:2 – And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

John is writing in the days of Daniel’s fourth beast, which was prophesied by Daniel more than 600 years before John wrote the Book of Revelation.  The fourth beast was, of course, the old Roman Empire.

Daniel 7:7 – After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

Daniel predicted the series of beast empires in advance, listing then chronologically as they were to arise.  But John, under the rule of the fourth beast in his day, lists them in reverse order as they had already occurred in the past.  The third beast had   fallen to the fourth beast long before John was born, and was, of course, the vast Macedonian or Grecian Empire of Alexander the Great.

Daniel 7:6 – After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.

The four fowl wings forecasted the rapid spread of the Macedonian Empire to the four winds of the north, south, east, and west.  It was symbolized as a leopard, which gave a preview of the quickness with which it would advance against much greater numerical forces.  The leopard is well known for its cunning in taking a prey, as was the character of Alexander as he took his prey, the Persian Empire of Darius.  The four heads forecasted the division of Alexander’s vast empire after he dropped dead at a young age.  It was divided into four geographical sections.  They eventually became known as the territories under the rule of Thrace, Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt.

Daniel 7:5 – And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.

The second beast empire, which was overrun by Alexander’s armies, was the Persian Empire.  It was pictured as a bear because of its great size and slowness of movement when compared with that of a leopard.  It was this characteristic that allowed the lightning leopard like strikes of Alexander to defeat it.  At first it had two sides, a Persian side, and a Meade side, and was known as the Empire of the Meade and the Persians.  But eventually the Persian side rose up and became the more powerful side, such that it became simply the Persian Empire.  The three ribs in the bear’s mouth stand for the three kingdoms of Lydia, Babylon, and Egypt, which formed a Triple Alliance to stop the Persian conquests, but were destroyed by the bear.

Daniel 7:2-4 – Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. [3] And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. [4] The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.

The great sea is the Mediterranean Sea, which is the area that these four great beasts affected in their day and, as such, are pictured as rising out of it.  The first of the empires, which was symbolized as a lion by Daniel, was the Babylonian Empire.  It fell to the Empire of the Meade and the Persians at the close of Daniel’s life, precisely as he had predicted in God’s word.

So, Daniel goes prophetically forward from the first beast to the fourth, while John goes historically backward from the fourth beast to the first.  Then both Daniel and John go forward from the Roman Empire to the future 10 horned empire of the man we call the antichrist.

Daniel 7:8 – I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

Revelation 17:12 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

And both Daniel and John identify the antichrist as coming out of the fourth beast.  He comes out as horn eleven in Daniel, and as head seven in Revelation.

Daniel 7:20,21 – And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. [21] I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

Revelation 13:1 – And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE 236B

August 17, 2005

10 Jihad Kings among the Kings of Revelation 19:19!

Part 5 – The 10 Jihad Horns of Revelation 17

At the battle of Armageddon most of the kings of the earth will come to join the antichrist in a final attempt to eradicate the nation of Israel.  Among them will be 10 nations representing the 10 Jihad horns of Revelation 17 that attacked Israel some 1260 days earlier.

Revelation 19:19 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

Some three and one-half years before the final battle of Armageddon, which closes the tribulation period, 10 kings of nations out of the territory once occupied by the ancient Roman Empire will attack Israel from the north.

II Thessalonians 2:3 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

The last evil kingdom of antichrist on this earth was to initially be composed of 10 nations with 10 kings led by the man of sin himself.  It was to arise out of the ashes of the old Roman Empire, and I have always believed it would rise out of the southern half of the Empire, being made up of 10 Arab nations.  I believe the elements for its formation are in place today, and I suspect that the most likely Arab nations of which it will be comprised are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

The 10 horns on the beast of Revelation 17, are the same 10 horns found in Revelation 12, Daniel 7, Revelation 13, and they also represent the 10 toes found on the statue in Daniel 2.

Revelation 17:12,13,17 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

The leaders of the Arab nations have not been willing to give their power to any one man since Saladin, who drove out the Crusaders.  They have been so jealous of their kingdoms it has been nothing but a pattern of real disunity for centuries.  So what might bring a sudden change in attitude across the Middle East to being in the sort of unity they had under Saladin?  I will address this question after a little discussion of Revelation symbols related to current day happenings.

In the prophecies of Revelation, John used numerous symbols, figures, and types to illustrate both the things of his day and future events. At times, he used symbols to identify the nations of his day. He was exiled on Patmos, and was in no position to identify Rome in an unfavorable way. At times he used symbols of his day to identify specific things, and then explained their future roles in the last days. One of these symbols was a woman in chapters 17 and 18. He identified her as existing in his day, and then proceeded to project her prophetic role in the events of the last days. She was identified as a specific city in John’s writings in Revelation 17:18, where John states: “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” There was only one city in his day that could possibly fit this description, the great city of Rome. In Revelation 17:7, John pictures this woman riding on a beast with 7 heads and 10 horns. The beast is emblematic of the Antichrist and his Empire of the last days. The 10 horns are 10 Islamic nations, who were once part of the old Roman Empire, which, at its greatest extent, stretched eastward across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, northern Sudan, Egypt, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, and Iran. Rome is now putting its foot in the stirrups to initially mount the beast with the 10 horns. The last Pope, during his visit to Syria, fellowshipped with its top cleric, Sheik Ahmad Kuftaro. They walked together in the ancient Umayyah Mosque in Damascus. This was the first time in history that a pope of Rome had entered a Muslim mosque. The last Pope was personally welcomed by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad at the Damascus airport. In Assad’s speech, he accused Israel of violating justice, occupying Arab land, and attacking Christian and Muslim holy sites. In the pope’s address, he stated: “It is time to return to the principles of international legality; the banning of acquisition of territory by force.” Although he did not mention Israel by name, this appeared to be a reference to her. I expect closer political, religious, and economic ties to slowly develop between Rome and the Islamic nations. However, in the final analysis, Rome will regret her end time linkage with Islam. After the beast has utilized the woman to favorably influence the western world to not attack him, having no other use for her, he will allow his 10 horns to burn her numerous churches to the ground across all of Islam. In Revelation 17:16, we are advised that the 10 horns, who represent 10 Islamic kings, “shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” Many believe it is not possible for any sort of religious approval for Islam to ever be pursued by the Catholic church. However, when one actually compares the teachings of Catholics, Muslims, and Jews, one does discover that the Catholic and Islamic faiths, in some areas, are much closer than their comparisons with the Jewish faith. Catholics use the Bible. Muslims use the Koran. Jews use the Old Testament. The comparisons between the Islamic and Catholic beliefs, concerning Christ and Mary are as follows: (1) They both believe Christ was born of a virgin named Mary. But the Jews do not. (2) They both believe Christ’s birth was announced to Mary by an Angel. The Jews do not. (3) They both believe Christ was a messenger sent by God. The Jews do not. (4) They both believe that John the Baptist was a messenger sent to announce Jesus as a messenger from God. The Jews do not. (5) They both view the apostles of Jesus as spreading the truth. The Jews do not. The major difference is one of supreme importance. The Catholics believe Jesus is the Son of God. The Muslims, in their Koran, clearly state that Allah, their one God, has decreed he will not have a son. When John Paul II became the first pope to enter an Islamic mosque, while calling for brotherhood between Christians and Muslims, he unwittingly began to put on the saddle for the ride of the woman on the beast. By the time Israel is driven into the Negev wilderness, the woman of Revelation 17 and 18 will support the actions of the beast in recovering Arab lands.

Earlier I mentioned a factor that could unite the Arabs for the first time since Saladin.  The affectionate name used for Osama bin Laden by his followers today, and one to which he does not object, is Saladin.  I do not believe Osama bin Laden is the antichrist, but I suspect a man with his spirit of Jihad will arise in Syria, or along its borders, and that man will be the antichrist.  And it is at least possible that he might be the beast’s head with the deadly wound in Revelation 13.

For most of my adult life I have believed that the one we identify as the antichrist will apparently be killed by a modern weapon of war, but will seemingly undergo a miraculous recovery from his deadly wound and, in so doing, will gain followers across the known world of John’s day. The Islamic world has been waiting for such a man since the death of the prophet Mohammad. Please read Prophecy Update 82, Part 3, Exposition of Revelation, Chapter 13, in our Prophecy Update Archives. For a description of what I mean as the “known world of John’s day,” please read Prophecy Updates 73A, 77A, 77B, 77C, and 135C in our Archives.

Revelation 13:3,12,14 – And I saw one of his heads as it WERE WOUNDED TO DEATH; AND HIS DEADLY WOUND was healed: and all the world wondered after THE BEAST. [12] And he exerciseth all the power of the FIRST BEAST before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the FIRST BEAST, WHOSE DEADLY WOUND WAS HEALED. [14] And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to THE BEAST, which had THE WOUND BY A SWORD, AND DID LIVE.

I have believed, through most of my adult manhood, that antichrist would receive a deadly wound, which would cause the world to believe he was dead, but thereafter would reappear to cause many of the earth’s inhabitants to believe he was miraculously back among the living. And I have always believed this would be the man who would lead the initial attack against Israel, and drive them southward into the Negev wilderness, where they would remain for the last 1260 days before Christ’s Second Advent. It would be during this time period the antichrist would literally be that “Wicked” One, the Devil, incarnate in the sinful flesh of the antichrist. I have always taken I Thessalonians 2:8 to represent this period of 1260 days.

II Thessalonians 2:8 – And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

And I have long taught that those sections of the world, which were known by the readers of Revelation at the time it was written, would unknowingly worship Satan through the antichrist, because Satan would indwell his human body. I have also taught that the people of the known world will say that no one can win a war against a leader they seemingly cannot kill.

Revelation 13:4-6 – And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? [5] And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. [6] And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. (Please read Prophecy Updates 80, 81, and 83)

2 Thessalonians 2:4 – Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (Please read Prophecy Update Numbers 79 and 52 in our Archives)

Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Please read Prophecy Updates 53 and 81A)

Revelation 19:19,20 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

I do not believe Osama Ben Laden is the antichrist. But his reported death, and his supposedly still being among the living, may well represent the type of scenario by which the antichrist gains the loyalty of the vast Islamic world. The Islamic “man in the street,” among the 1.3 billion Arabs in the Middle East, considers Osama a great hero, and the longer he remains alive or avoids capture, the greater a legend he becomes to them. (Please read Prophecy Update Numbers 80, 81, and 82 in Archives)

I do believe this may well be the type of scenario that sets up a situation where antichrist has supposedly been killed by a wound his enemies are sure finished him off, but much to their surprise he suddenly appears and leads a successful Jihad against Israel with the backing of 10 Islamic nations.

Osama Ben Laden became a hero to the Islamic masses when he drove the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan by a process of guerilla warfare, and then challenged America by destroying the Twin Towers. Osama and his sidekicks are using many Islamic terrorists from numerous Arab nations to conduct the guerilla terrorist war now being waged against the Americans and their allies in Iraq. As each day passes that Osama is able to avoid capture, and American troops continue to be picked off in Iraq, his mystic grows in the minds of the masses as a man who is standing up against “the big devil” and, in their eyes, defeating us.

However, I do not think he is the antichrist, but the scenarios of “you are dead,” then “no, you are alive,” may be the type of scenario we can expect to see unite the 1.3 billion Islamic population behind the real antichrist when he does show up. Such a scenario would certainly fulfill Revelation 13:3,4.

Revelation 13:3,4 – And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. [4] And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

How do you go about making war with a man that can come back from the dead?

And it could explain how clay and iron could be caused to cling together for a while by faith in one leader among a mingled population.

Daniel 2:41-43 – And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. [42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. [43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

And it could explain why 10 leaders of 10 Islamic nations would be willing to surrender their power to him.

Revelation 17:12,13,17 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. [17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

The spirit of Jihad is the culmination of the spirit of antichrist, which was in the world when John wrote the book of Revelation.  The spirit of Jihad is the last day visible murderous manifestation of it, and it is ever on the increase across the Muslim world.  The antichrist will be the head of it when it viciously attacks Israel.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 237B

August 24, 2005

Armageddon – Jacob’s God vs. Allah, the God of Islam!

I have lived through a depression, World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnamese Conflict.  And, during my lifetime, I have been consistent in teaching that the ten toes in Daniel 2, the ten horns in Daniel 7, and the ten horns in Revelation 12, 13, & 17 are all the same, and that they are Islamic horns, not European horns.  I keep hoping that people will get off the dead horse that came out of the great evangelical movement, and begin to realize that the final conflict of this Gentile Age will be between the descendants of the same man, father Abraham.  Some are waking up to the fact that what eventually leads to Armageddon will be a conflict stirred up in the Middle East between the followers of Allah and the followers of the God of Israel.

Down through the ages there have been contests fought between the one true God and many representatives of Satan, the great false god.  The final contest of the Age of the Gentiles will be the great battle of Armageddon, which marks the fullness and the end of that age.  The war will begin some three and one half years before its great final battle, which will be Armageddon.  It will basically be the battle of the followers of the false god Allah and the followers of the great true God of Israel.

Daniel 12:1 – And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

God has not absolutely forsaken Israel.  He has left both them and their great temple spiritually desolate for the rejection of his Son Jesus, but he will receive them when Jesus comes to end Armageddon, and they call his Son blessed that comes in his name.

Matthew 23:37-39 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! [38] Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. [39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

The descendants of the twelve sons of Ishmael and the six sons of Keturah are the descendants of Abraham who follow Allah, and from among them will come the ten Arab nations that attack Israel some three and one-half years prior to Armageddon.  And the nation under attack will also be the descendants of Abraham, but by Abraham’s seed of promise, the man Jacob.  Please see Prophecy Archive Updates 101B, 102B and 105.

The idea that the antichrist would rise out of Europe and lead ten European nations against Israel came out of the great evangelical movement.  The antichrist being presented today is pictured as dominating the world as we know it today.  Please take a good look at Prophecy Archive Updates 73A, 77, 77A, 77B, 77C, and 135A.  I believe that while many are waiting for an antichrist to rise in Europe and dominate the whole world as we know it today, that the real antichrist will arise in the Middle East, dominate the world as it was known when the prophecies concerning the “tens” were written, and many will be caught napping, thinking they still have a lot of time before Armageddon.

While many are allowing for a lengthy period of time to pass during antichrist’s climbing to power in Europe, believing that Armageddon is a long way off in the distant future, he will arise in the Middle East, and the prophecies concerning him will be fulfilled primarily in that area.  I do not believe the antichrist will arise out of the European Union.  This popular teaching is going to cause many to be shocked when he does arise.  Please see Prophecy Archive Updates 27, 28, 36, 54, 74B, 78, 105, and 147D.

I recently received an e-mail from an old friend, who reminded me that the frequently heard “Allah is great” from the lips of Islam is a proclamation that Allah is greater than any god.  In point of fact, it is a cry that Allah is greater than the god of Christians and Jews, greater than the god of the big U.S. devil and the Little Israel devil.

His e-mail brought back vivid memories of the first time I was confronted head on with a follower of Islam.  It was 53 years ago in the city of Tripoli in Libya.  A young Arab began to shout at me, “Allah is great, there is one god, Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet.”  He kept chanting it over and over again, ever increasing in pitch and volume.  Arabs began to come out of nowhere, and within a few moments I was surrounded.  It was my good fortune that other G.I.’s heard his cry and saw my plight.  They pushed through the Arabs and surrounded me in an inner circle.  The young Arab finally stopped chanting, and the group slowly dispatched.  It was the last time I ever went into Tripoli alone.

Things really haven’t changed much down through the centuries between the followers of the true God and the followers of the many false gods like Allah.  And it does all seem to boil down for one side to want to prove its god is greater than the other side’s god.  I knew nothing about the Islamic faith 53 years ago, but since that time I have come to know many followers of Allah, and have learned a fair amount about their religious fanaticism.  I have seen men parading the streets beating themselves over their shoulders with whips and drawing blood,  I have watched the blood cut through the epidermis and roll down their backs in beads as a sign of willingness to sacrifice themselves to the cause of Allah in repentance.  As I observed the phenomenon I could not help but call to remembrance the false god Baal, whose followers cut themselves to invoke his favor.

I Kings 18:17-40 – And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? [18] And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. [19] Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table. [20] So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel. [21] And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. [22] Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. [23] Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: [24] And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. [25] And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. [26] And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. [27] And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. [28] And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. [29] And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. [30] And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. [31] And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: [32] And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. [33] And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. [34] And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. [35] And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water. [36] And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. [37] Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. [38] Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. [39] And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. [40] And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

I assure you that our God, the true and only God, will win the final contest at Armageddon, and the followers of the false prophet, as well as the false prophet and the antichrist, will suffer a similar fate as received by the prophets of Baal.

Revelation 16:16 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

Revelation 19:19-21 –And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 238A

August 28, 2005

Armageddon – Not in the Far Distant Future – Part 1

An Exposition of Revelation 16:13 to 18:24

Lord willing, this will be the first in a series of several Parts that will deal with the events found in Revelation 16:13 to 18:24.

As I was in the midst of doing Part 1, I received an e-mail from a Lebanese friend of mine.  His message was instrumental to my going back to the beginning of Part 1, and inserting the words of James Henry Thornwell as the preamble of “An Exposition of Revelation 16:13 to 18:24.”

BEGIN QUOTE: “To employ soft words and honeyed phrases in discussing questions of eternal importance; to deal with errors that strike at the foundations of all human hope as if they were harmless and venial mistakes; to bless where God disapproves, and to make apologies where God calls us to stand up like men and assert, though it may be the aptest method of securing popular applause in a sophistical age, is cruelty to man and treachery to Heaven.  Those who on such subjects attach more importance to the rules of courtesy than they do to the measures of truth do not defend the citadel, but betray it into the hands of its enemies.  Love for Christ, and for the souls for whom he died, will be the exact measure of our zeal in exposing the dangers by which men’s souls are ensnared.” END QUOTE.

James Henry Thornwell was a Presbyterian Minister, and even though I do not agree with many of the views he expressed in his writings, I definitely agree with what he had to say in the preceding quote.  The quote was timely for me, because I was having reservations about doing the exposition of this particular series when I received it.  It reminded me of an obligation God advised Ezekiel to consider as a watchman who sounds to warn those in danger.

Ezekiel 33:3-6 – If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; [4] Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. [5] He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. [6] But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

The primary Scripture, among those on which I will be expositing in this series, specifically warns those setting under false teachings to break away from the religious “her” that is teaching them today.

Revelation 18:4 – And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

This Scripture lets me know there are saved men and women who are in the “her” of this verse, because it calls them “my people.”  The primary purpose of this series is to specifically identify the “her” and to implore those in “her” to come “out of her, and to warn those not in “her” to stay out of “her.”

Revelation 16:15,16 – Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

I am fully cognizant that a child of God should submit to the Spirit of God in daily actions to assure the reward of outer garments that will appropriately manifest that walk of submission during their lifetime.  Only a few members of the Lord’s churches actually perform such a walk, in large measure due to following teachings based not on the New Testament, but on false teachings wrapped in tradition and fiction that have appeal to the five senses of the carnal flesh.  Unless they do the following, such will be caught by surprise by Christ living lives not worthy of white outer garments of reward in heaven, and will not find themselves clothed as those few in the local church at Sardis.

Revelation 3:3,4 – Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. [4] Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

Revelation 19:7,8 – Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. [8] And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

One of the purposes of this series is for performance of Jude 21 to 23!

Jude 21-23 – Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. [22] And of some have compassion, making a difference: [23] And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

It is impossible at this time to predict the precise year of the final battle of Armageddon, which is the last battle in a period of time that lasts 1260 days.  However, the Scriptures do indicate that we can know the time when it looms as an event that lets us know it is “at our doors.”  I cannot tell you the times, the seasons, the year, or the day the 1260 days will begin, but I assure you that it is not an event of the far distant future.  I have long believed the 1260 days are likely to begin in 2007, and I may well be wrong, but I am certain that it is not something that is a long way off in the future.

I have long experienced an awareness of a need to warn people that, after these many centuries of waiting, this event is finally drawing near.  And I am burdened by the awareness of my own need “to keep my garments” as I await the fullness of the age of the Gentiles to come in, as well as the need for God’s churches to “keep the faith once delivered to the saints” of the first local church, and to the New Testament Churches that came out of her.

Jude 3 – Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

II Timothy 4:1-4 – I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; [2] Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. [3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

That time has come when they are not enduring sound doctrine, and the vast majority of the religious world is now more interested in fictional and traditional tales than in the living word of God.  This is actually the real reason I believe Armageddon is not in the far distant future, and that the man of sin will soon be revealed.  The great falling away from the truths delivered in the New Testament is here, and the revealing of the man of sin cannot be far behind.

II Thessalonians 2:3,4 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; [4] Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

The Exposition of Revelation 16:13 to 18:24 begins:

Revelation 16:13 – And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

Many expositors explain this as the counterfeit satanic trinity to parallel that of the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son making up the true Godhead that indwelt the man, Christ Jesus.

Colossians 2:9 – For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

It is at this time that the end of the reign of antichrist is about to close with the final battle of Armageddon, and he is completely taken over by Satan the father himself.  These three forces, the spirit of Satan, the spirit of the antichrist, and the unholy spirit represented by the false prophet, send out a call for all nations to come against Israel.  On thing is certain, they are the spirits of devils, working miracles by the hands of the false apostles, who to the religious world appear as angels of light, and they are sent to gather the kings of the whole world, as it was when John wrote Revelation, to Armageddon.

Revelation 16:14 – For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

II Corinthians 11:14,15 – And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. [15] Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Revelation 16:15,16 – Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

The Tel of Megiddo is located on top of what is now often called the Mountion of Armageddon, which sits at the junction of the Plains of Esdraelon and the Valley Plain of Jezreel.  The valley plains lie from the Mediterranean Sea Port of Haifa southeast all the way to the Jordan River and separate the southern mountains of Galilee from the northern mountains of Samaria.  It is in this wide plain that the great armies of the known world of John’s day will move southeast from the Port of Haifa to the Jordan, then south to Beersheba for the final battle.  It is here that the archangel Michael will stand up to defend Israel.

The antichrist will sit as unchallenged king on the old temple mount in Jerusalem, from which he will direct the final battle to forever eliminate the apple of God’s eye, the nation of Israel.  But he will come to his end, for it is payback time for all his ungodliness, and God is about to end his short lived career, which culminates in a unprecedented time of trouble.

Daniel 11:45 to 12:1 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

There have been thousands of books written concerning the last great battle of Armageddon.  It is a subject that requires several volumes.  I will not do an injustice to the subject by a shallow treatment of such a subject.  However, I will at least advise you of this – I am of the ancient school as to the part antichrist will play in it.  Most of the books written today have the antichrist arising out of a battle that comes immediately before a period of time known as the tribulation period.  He wins that battle and gains worldwide popularity by bringing peace to the Middle East.  But he later breaks the peace by attacking Israel and starting a second war, which finally culminates in the battle of Armageddon.  I believe there is only one war that begins when the antichrist breaks a forced unilateral peace put on the Palestinians by the Israelis.  I call it the war of the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, who is also called the willful king of the north, the Assyrian, the beast, the eleventh horn, the little horn, the antichrist, and the man of sin.  I believe it begins when antichrist attacks Israel, lasts 1260 days, and its final battle is called the battle of Armageddon, which will be ended by the Second Advent of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  However, regardless of whether the old school or the new school prophetic buffs are correct, both are agreed it will be a time of great slaughter in the slaughterhouse located in Israel.  I hope, as you read these prophesied account by both Old and New Testament writers, you will grasp the magnitude of the human slaughter occurring during this great conflict.

Revelation 19:17-19 – And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; [18] That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. [19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

Ezekiel 39:17-20 – And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. [18] Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. [19] And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. [20] Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God.

Ezekiel 39:4-6 – Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured [5] Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. [6] And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Revelation 14:20 –  And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

Joel 3:9-15 – Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: [10] Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. [11] Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. [12] Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. [13] Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. [14] Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. [15] The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

Malachi 4:1 – For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Zechariah 14:12 – And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

Isaiah 66:15,16 – For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. [16] For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many.

Revelation 19:21 – And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Matthew 24:21 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

I said earlier in this chapter that I was not going to give a shallow type of coverage to this subject, but I am at least going to tell you why I do not agree with the teaching of two separate wars.

As a young man, living in the pre-Hal Linsey books age, I was taught that only one war occurred during the “latter days” before Armageddon.  It was a war that began in the Middle East when the antichrist attacked the nation of Israel, and ended some 3 and ½ years later with the final battle of this age – Armageddon. But I now find myself surrounded by a large array of preachers and teachers who are convinced that the war led by Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and found in Ezekiel 38 and 39, occurs before the war that commences some 3 and ½ years before the battle of Armageddon, and that the antichrist is not Gog, but comes out the war led by Gog, and then leads 10 European Union nations against Israel.  They teach that when Gog and his armies come against Israel they will be slaughtered, and that Israel will be absolutely successful in thoroughly routing them.  Perhaps I overlooked it, but in all my years of looking in many old musty religious archives, I never found a manuscript published before 1812 that taught there were two back-to-back wars just before the battle of Armageddon.  It would seem to me that the arrival of Napoleon in Europe set the stage for a shift from bringing the antichrist out of the southern flank of the old Roman Empire to a new scheme of bringing him out of the northern flank.  This shift necessitated the invention of two wars. I do not believe the shift should ever have been made.  I believe the attack of the antichrist is found in the following Scriptures, and I believe the attack occurs 1260 days before the end of this age at Armageddon.

Ezekiel 38:10,11 – Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: [11] And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

Daniel 7:24,25 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

Daniel 11:41 – He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

Micah 5:5 – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

Zechariah 13:8 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

Revelation 13:5,6 – And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. [6] And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

Revelation 17:12.13 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

I believe that the following names all apply to the antichrist:  He is Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal in Ezekiel 38 and 39, the eleventh horn in Daniel 7, the king of the north in Daniel 11:40, the Assyrian in Micah 5, the seventh wounded head on the beast in Revelation 13, and the eighth head on the beast in Revelation 17.

The 3 and ½ year war, in all the accounts, follows a certain pattern from start to finish.

(1)   The initial attack occurs, and is successful.

(2)   After Jerusalem falls, the Lord begins to fight for Israel.

(3)   The Lord fights for Israel for 3 and ½ years.

(4)   God protects Israel in the Negev during that period.

(5)   The Lord leaves most of the enemy bodies on the hills of Israel at the final battle of Armageddon.

Ezekiel 38:8,9 (1) – After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. [9] Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

Zechariah 13:8 (1) – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

Zechariah 14:2,3 (2) – For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

Daniel 7:25 (3) – And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

Revelation 12:6 (4) – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Ezekiel 39:1-5 (5) – Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: [2] And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: [3] And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. [4] Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. [5] Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

Revelation 19:17-21 (5) – And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; [18] That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. [19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Ezekiel 38:1,2 – And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

Gog is a person, the antichrist.  Magog is a land, the land of Magog.  God tells Ezekiel to set his face against a person, Gog, and against a land, Magog, which is Russia.  Gog is NOT the chief prince of  Magog (Russia).  He is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.  At the time of Ezekiel’s writings the descendants of Magog were settled in Russia, while the descendants of Meshech and Tubal were settled in Syria.  The antichrist will come out of Syria to launch the initial attack.  Some 3 and ½ years later Magog (Russia) will come down to join him at Armageddon.

To make a long story short – I believe there is only one war, the war that begins when Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, attacks Israel, and ends three and one-half years later when Magog (Russia), along with all of Europe, Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, comes down to join him against Israel at the final battle of Armageddon – Only to find the bodies of their great armies end up as buzzard bait on the hills of Israel.

BUT AM I PREPARED TO BE WRONG?  CERTAINLY!  WHAT WILL I DO IF THERE ARE TWO WARS?  WELL, I WILL JUST SAY I WAS WRONG, AND WAIT FOR ANTICHRIST TO COME OUT OF THE FIRST WAR, THAT IS, IF I AM STILL HERE.

BUT WHAT IF THERE IS ONLY ONE WAR?  WELL, ONLY ONE THIRD OF ISRAEL WILL SURVIVE, JERUSALEM WILL FALL, ISRAEL WILL BE DRIVEN INTO THE NEGEV, AND YOU WILL BE WAITING FOR AN ANTICHRIST THAT IS ALREADY ON THE SCENE, THAT IS, IF YOU ARE STILL HERE.

My advice is to be prepared for either eventuality, even one that may be quite different from how many of these verses are commonly interpreted.  I think that falls under the category of “watching.”

Mark 13:37 – And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 238B

August 31, 2005

Armageddon – Not in the Far Distant Future – Part 2

An Exposition of Revelation 16:13 to 18:24

Revelation 16:16 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

I am inserting the words of James Henry Thornwell as the preamble of “An Exposition of Revelation 16:13 to 18:24.”

BEGIN QUOTE: “To employ soft words and honeyed phrases in discussing questions of eternal importance; to deal with errors that strike at the foundations of all human hope as if they were harmless and venial mistakes; to bless where God disapproves, and to make apologies where God calls us to stand up like men and assert, though it may be the aptest method of securing popular applause in a sophistical age, is cruelty to man and treachery to Heaven.  Those who on such subjects attach more importance to the rules of courtesy than they do to the measures of truth do not defend the citadel, but betray it into the hands of its enemies.  Love for Christ, and for the souls for whom he died, will be the exact measure of our zeal in exposing the dangers by which men’s souls are ensnared.” END QUOTE.

James Henry Thornwell was a Presbyterian Minister, and even though I do not agree with many of the views expressed in his writings, I definitely agree with what he had to say in the preceding quote.  The quote was timely for me, because I was having reservations about doing the exposition of this particular series when I received it.  It reminded me of an obligation God advised Ezekiel to consider as a watchman who sounds to warn those in danger.

Ezekiel 33:3-6 – If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; [4] Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. [5] He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. [6] But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

The primary Scripture, among those on which I will be expositing in this series, specifically warns those setting under false teachings to break away from the religious “her” that is teaching them today.

Revelation 18:4 – And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

This Scripture lets me know there are saved men and women who are “in” the “her” of this verse, because it calls them “my people.”  The primary purpose of this series is to specifically identify the “her” and to implore those “in her” to come “out of her,” and to warn those not “in her” to stay “out of her.”

Now, I shall continue expositing from where we left off in Part 1 at Revelation 16:16.

Revelation 16:16-18 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

Just when it appears that the antichrist will finally end the existence of the nation of Israel in the Negev south of Beersheba, having gathered the greatest military ever assembled, God will rip apart the Jordan River Valley with the greatest earthquake since he placed Adam in the Garden of Eden.  The antichrist will be beyond all help when God performs this act of his wrath.

Daniel 11:45 to 12:1 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

The first earthquake in Revelation 6:12 will also be in the Jordan River valley.  It will occur in conjunction with the first attack of Antichrist that drove Israel into the Negev, leaving Israel in a state of confusion for a lightning Jihad from the North.  It will announce the beginning of the last three and one-half years of the tribulation period.  The last earthquake in Revelation 16:18 will mark the closing period of God’s wrath during the battle of Armageddon.

Revelation 6:12-15 – And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was A GREAT earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; [13] And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. [14] And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND ISLAND WERE MOVED OUT OF THEIR PLACES. [15] And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

All mountains and islands ride as passengers attached to the tectonic planets, and by the end of the tribulation period, they will have been moved away from their latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates by a few microseconds, such that the islands have fled to new coordinates, and the mountains will not be found at their old coordinates.  The plates begin to move in Revelation 6:12 with the first great earthquake, and stop moving noticeably in Revelation 16:20 following the last fantastic earthquake.  (See Archives – Birth Pang 3)

Revelation 16:18-21 – And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a GREAT earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and SO great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] AND EVERY ISLAND FLED AWAY, and THE MOUNTAINS WERE NOT FOUND.

The tension and pressure buildups along the plate boundaries produce the world’s earthquakes.  They have been built up by the slow plate movements over a long period of time.  The vast majority of this tension and pressure buildup will be released between the opening of the sixth seal and the pouring out of the last vial.  This will mean a millennial reign of Christ that only shows minor earthquakes from time to time.

The elasticity of the outer crust of the earth, when it was first created, was much greater than it is now, and was more than able to withstand the constant gravitational pull of the other heavenly bodies, which have caused it to daily pull outward, and then to relax inward, as it rotated around the sun, without causing the crust to phase into a worldwide readjustment of its tectonic plates.  I believe what begins in Revelation 6:14 and ends in Revelation 16:20 portrays such a readjustment, and will include all the phenomena of Isaiah 29:6.

Revelation 6:14 – And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

Revelation 16:20 – And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

Isaiah 29:6 – Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.

The fantastic changes in the outer topography will cause living waters to surface in Jerusalem and flow eastward through the place where the Mount of Olives divided.

Zechariah 14:8,9 – And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. [9] And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.

In order to define the time of “in that day” given in verse 8, we must go to verse 9. Verse 9 clearly identifies “in that day” as the time when the Messiah will be king over all the earth – A period of time known as the Millennial Reign of Christ.  However, in order for Jerusalem and Israel to come to be as verse 8 describes, it is obvious that fantastic geological changes must occur in the existing topographical structure, and these drastic geological land mass shifts will occur during the last three and one-half years prior to the final battle of Armageddon.

What are the “living waters?”  They are spring waters that will support aquatic life continuously because they never cease to flow.  We are told in verse 8 this “living water” will flow out of Jerusalem, and that part of it will flow into the Dead Sea, the Eastern Sea (Former Sea), while part of it will flow into the Mediterranean Sea (Hinder Sea).  Furthermore, we are informed the water will be a continual stream that does not dry up between the two rainy seasons (most of the interior streams in Israel are dry creek beds a large part of the year).  To the Oriental mind, “in summer and in winter shall it be,” means a perpetual flow of water that will support life year round.

In order to graphically portray and describe these changes, it will be necessary to use many other scriptures in future chapters, which will accurately detail geological changes prophesied to occur during the tribulation period.  And, having presented them, I will then put them all together into a composite picture, which will show the total change.  The first Scripture to be involved with the formation of this spring of living water is found in Revelation 16:18,19.

Revelation 16:18,19 – And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

During the great worldwide chain of earthquakes, while the “cities” of the “nations,” including Rome, are undergoing great devastation, the “great city” (Jerusalem) will be “divided into three parts.”  The division of old Jerusalem will be a geological one, which is both commonly, and directly, tied to earthquake activity along major fault lines.  There is, at the present time, a fault line running north-south in the substrata of the limestone rock beneath the Tyropean Valley, which separates uplifted western Jerusalem from eastern Jerusalem.  One of its names in ancient times was the “Valley of the Cheesemakers (Birth Pang Figures Archive – Figures 40 and 41).

The great earthquakes that will occur in the Jordan Rift Valley will cause the mount of Olive to split apart between two east-west fault lines, one that penetrates its north flank, and one that penetrates its southern flank.  A great graben rift valley will be formed between the two faults as the northern and southern halves spread apart (Birth Pang Archives – Figures 31 to 34).  During the same general time period those sections of Jerusalem, east of the Tyropean Valley fault will subside, and those west of it will rise (a common phenomenon along normal faults during earthquake activity).  The final result of the activity along Jerusalem’s aforementioned three faults will result in its division into three sections by elevation and the water from the spring of Zechariah 14:8 (Birth Pang Figures Archive – Figures 42 to 48).

And the last earthquake will divide the great city of Jerusalem into three parts, affect the cities and nations of the world, and destroy great Babylon’s false center of ecumenical worship.

Revelation 16:19 – And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

This last great earthquake will occur in Israel’s Jordan River valley, but its effects will spread north and south, eventually to set off quakes across in the earth in the cities of many nations.  It will ripple northward to make contact with the great east-west fault across northern Turkey, then eastward across the Mediterranean, then along the sea flow northward to begin to set off a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions across western Italy, one of which will occur to the southeast of Vatican City in the ancient volcanic crater that holds the waters of Lake Albano – More on this in a future Update.