Tag Archives: End-Times

Friday’s End-Time Bible Studies (Part 4)

If you’re going to write about the End-Times, you eventually must mention the Antichrist. So, why wait? Let’s talk about him today.

Is Barack Obama the Antichrist? Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, the Antichrist? Is George Soros the Antichrist? Is Donald Trump? Is the Pope? Who?

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)

The term Antichrist is only used four times in the Bible. All of them appear in the Apostle John’s first and second letters to the churches in Asia Minor.

Yet, the Antichrist appears all through the Bible, but with different names. He’s also known as the Assyrian, man of sin, son of perdition, the lawless one, the beast, the adversary, the little horn and the king who shall do according to his own will in various verses throughout the Old and New Testament.

The Antichrist must for sure come out of the territory in the old Roman Empire and most likely will be out of territory in the old Assyrian Empire (northern Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and southeastern Turkey).

The Antichrist will be pompous, boastful, an aggressive warmonger, a sinister schemer, a cunning trickster, a liar, a deceitful murderer, prosperous, a blasphemer against God,  shall not regard the god of his fathers, have fierce features, have no desire for women, but have a regard for the god of fortresses. (These descriptions are from Daniel 7, 9, 11.)

As you can guess, Obama, AOC, Soros, Trump and the Pope can not be the Antichrist because they do not fit the biblical guidelines.

Thus, how can we be sure who is the Antichrist?

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [of the Lord] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.(2 Thessalonians 2:3)

The Apostle Paul stated that we would know who the Antichrist is for sure when the Antichrist sits in the Temple of God in Jerusalem, defiling the Temple.

But of course, we first need the Temple to be rebuilt.

There are a couple of other ways we can figure out who the Antichrist is, but we will talk about them in the future.

(Continued in Part 5…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)

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Friday’s (But Sometimes Monday’s) End-Times Bible Study (Part 3)

Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory states that Christians will not go through the seven years of tribulation as described in the Book of Revelation and mentioned in Daniel 9:25. It also believes the Church can be raptured at any time. Maybe even before you’re done reading this article.

The pre-trib view is held by almost 90% of American pastors, most American ministry heads and most American Christians who attend traditional churches. I specify Americans mainly hold this view because Chinese, North Korean, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, Sudanese and countless other Christians in various countries reject this view as an outright lie. These believers live in persecution now and have no worries about End-Times’ persecution. They trust their God, even in the midst of fiery furnaces of persecution.

Okay, my number one argument against the pre-tribulation rapture theory are the words of Jesus in Matthew 24, which is one of the keystone chapters in End-Times Bible studies.

Chapter 24 begins with Jesus prophesying about the total destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. (This prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the temple and killed a million Jews.)

Now, the twelve apostles had to be shocked by Jesus’ prophetic words. They came later and asked Him questions about the timing and signs about these things and the end of the age.

Jesus spent the rest of Chapter 24 talking about the End-Times, specifically the seven years of Tribulation and His second coming at the end of the seven years of tribulation.

Stop and think for a moment: who is Jesus talking to in Chapter 24? He is talking to His disciples who are believers, like us.

So, when Jesus used the word “you” in verses 3, 6, 9, 15, 23, 25, 26, 33, 34, 42, 44 and 47, He is telling this to His disciples and to believers like us today. (Check out these verses and note how they refer to persecution and tribulation.)

Plus Jesus also used the words “His elect” in verse 31, which talks about Him rapturing His church from the four ends of the earth. But when does this take place?

Immediately after the tribulation of those days…(Matthew 24:29)

It’s hard to argue with Jesus, or that’s my viewpoint.

Now, to be honest, I believe most pastors and believers hold the Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory because it’s the easiest out for them. They can just mark an X in the box next to the theory and forget about praying, fasting and searching Scripture like the Bereans did, especially the 150 chapters that refer to the End-Times throughout the Bible.

Is this really important?

For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.25 See, I have told you beforehand. (Matthew 24:24-25)

Jesus believed it was important enough to warn us ahead of time. Shouldn’t we follow His advice?

(Continued in Part 4…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.

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Friday’s End-Times Bible Study (Part 2)

When we study the End-Times, we have to stay focused on the main story line, which is Israel, Jerusalem, the Jews and their Jewish King. Yes, you and I have been written into the story with our salvations because we have been  grafted into the natural olive tree – Israel. But we ourselves are not the main story line, okay?

With that in mind, let’s look at the Jewish calendar and some important dates and feasts:

Nisan 1 or Rosh Chodashim (during our March or April): This is New Year’s Day for Israel because it is the day when Israel was delivered out of Egypt. Talmud tradition states that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each died on Nisan 1.

But more importantly, I believe (along with Jonathan Cahn and others) that this is the date when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. There are lots of reasons behind my thinking, but most of it links to the Jewish calendar and God’s order of events. Interestingly enough, our modern calendars begin with the year of Christ’s birth. Thus, why shouldn’t the Jewish calendar begin with the day of Christ’s birth?

Feast of Passover or Pesach (Nisan 14-15, during our March or April): Passover is the feast of salvation which celebrates the blood of a lamb delivering Jews out of Egyptian slavery. Jesus fulfilled this feast by becoming our Lamb of God, dying on the cross and applying His blood to our sins and lives.

Feast of Unleavened Bread or Chag HaMotzi (Nisan 15-22, during our March or April): This feast celebrates the removal of sin (yeast) from people’s lives. Jesus fulfilled this at the cross by being broken for us and becoming our Bread of Life.

Feast of First Fruits or Reshit Katzir (Nisan 17, during our March or April): This feast celebrates the fertility of the land. Jesus fulfilled this feast when He rose from the grave and became our First Fruit.

Feast of Pentecost or Shavu’ot (Sivan 6, during our May or June): This feast celebrates the summer harvest. This was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit fell on believers fifty days after Jesus rose from the grave.

I wrote the above to show that all of the Jewish spring feasts have been fulfilled and fulfilled in order. That leaves us the fall feasts to be fulfilled sometime in the future.

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

Over and over, we’ve heard that nobody knows the day or hour when Jesus will return, right? They even say, “He will return like a thief in the night.”

But because our Bibles are written in English, and not in Hebrew or Greek, we miss the idioms the Bible author meant when he wrote his letters. These idioms were common knowledge back in the apostles’ days, but have been lost to most of us today.

The phrase “thief in the night” refers to the fall Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashana.

The Torah commanded that no one was to work on this day. But because the Sanhedrin had to first see the new moon before a trumpet (or shofar) was blown, the day was made into a long day of 48 hours so no one would break the commandment of not working. Thus, the moon showed up like a “thief in the night” during that time period.

Also, the “thief in the night” refers to when the bridegroom returned for his bride, according to his father’s instructions. No one knew the day or hour when the bridegroom would show up.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. (1 Thessalonians 5:4

We seldom hear that Paul clarified his earlier words about the “thief in the night,” but he did. He knew his readers would understand that the idiom referred to Feast of Trumpets.

And guess what?

The next feast on the Jewish Calendar, which needs to be fulfilled, is Feast of Trumpets.

We will develop this more in future articles.

(Continued in Part 3…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.

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Friday’s End Times Bible Study (Part 1)

My computer has had problems for over a week, but this was the article I had ready to go. So, think of today as a different type of Friday, okay?

The Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation sometime around 90 AD. He would have been in his mid-70s at the time, being the youngest of the twelve original apostles who walked with Jesus. All of the others were martyred by then.

The Temple had already been destroyed (70 AD), Jerusalem was almost totally destroyed by the Romans (70 AD) and there was no nation of Israel when John received his vision from Jesus. We can only wonder what was going through his mind at the time.

You see, for the prophetic words in the Book of Revelation to be fulfilled there has to be three entities set in place:

  1. The Temple
  2. The city of Jerusalem
  3. The nation of Israel

If any of these three entities are missing, then the prophetic words can’t be fulfilled.

For nineteen hundred years, nothing happened. Many Bible scholars even debated whether the Book of Revelation was an allegory, rather than a prophetic book based on truth. The odds looked so impossible for any of the three entities to ever be restored.

Then, two thirds of the world’s Jewish population were killed in the Holocaust. Two thirds! Skeptics wondered if the Jews could ever bounce back from such devastation.

Yet, out of the ashes, the nation of Israel was born in 1948. Only West Jerusalem was returned to Israel at the time. Another nineteen years passed before Israel annexed the rest of Jerusalem in the Six Days War of 1967.

So, since 1967, only the Temple is needed to begin the time-clock for the fulfillment of the Book of Revelation, but of course, there are a few obstacles to overcome before this happens.

The Temple Mount is revered by both Islam and Judaism. The Muslims built the Dome of the Rock there and consider it the third most holy site for their religion. And the Jews believe the Temple has to be built on the Temple Mount.

How can this be resolved? Can you have both the Temple and a Mosque on the Temple Mount at the same time? Is this possible? I have no clue, but I also have no doubts that God has plans to make the Temple happen.

When will this take place? Soon…

(Continued in Part 2)

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Friday’s End Times Bible Study (Introduction)

On his second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul received a vision from the Holy Spirit to go to Macedonia (Greece, Bulgaria, part of Yugoslavia), rather than to Asia. He and Silas boarded a ship and crossed the Aegean Sea to Philippi, a major city and Roman colony.

Paul started a church in Philippi and stayed there until he cast a spirit of divination out of a slave girl. This upset the girl’s masters who profited from her fortune-telling. A riot broke out, ending up with Paul and Silas being thrown into a Roman prison and beaten.

After their release, Paul and Silas traveled to Thessalonica. There he preached in the Jewish synagogue for three consecutive Sabbaths. Some Jews were converted, along with many God-fearing Greeks and prominent women. A church was planted in the city.

Another riot forced Paul and Silas to leave Thessalonica and travel to Berea.

The above is the background for the founding of the Thessalonian Church and Paul’s two letters to them.

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2)

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition…Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? (2 Thessalonians 2:3,5)

The Apostle Paul taught the the Thessalonians for just a few months. Now, during this same time period, Paul also labored night and day to provide for his own needs so he wouldn’t be a burden for the new church in Thessalonica.

Thus, it wasn’t like he taught every day or every night. Maybe just on the Sabbath and another evening or two during the week.

Yet, Paul’s message included meaty teachings on the end-times and the Day of Christ’s return because in his followup letters to the Thessalonians he wrote that “he didn’t have to write about times and seasons, Day of the Lord, falling away or the man of sin (Antichrist). Why? Because he had already taught them on this subject.

Okay?

If the Apostle Paul thought the end-times were important enough to take up his valuable time teaching new converts, shouldn’t we also place an emphasis on them?

Do you realize Jesus also placed an importance on end-times teaching?

So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand(Matthew 24:15 ESV)

See you next time when we will begin digging into the end-times.

(Continue in #1)

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Prayers to Open Our Eyes About the End-Times (3/12/2019)

The main reasons we Americans do not understand the End-Times are:

  1. We do not study the Bible.
  2. We do not understand that Jesus is Jewish.

Problem #1 can be handled by asking the Lord to open our eyes as we study the Bible to understand the End-Times. My recommendation is that we begin our studies in the Book of Revelation, Matthew 24, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, 2 Timothy 3:1-9, 2 Peter 3:1-13, Daniel 11 and Daniel 12.

Problem #2 will take a total change of our Gentile mindsets.

We have been indoctrinated by the Americanized portraits of Jesus supposedly resembling Him, by the non-Biblical holidays of  Easter and Christmas, by our total lack of understanding about the Jewish feasts or Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath), not understanding the Bible was written by Jewish authors and more.

Why is this important?

Jesus fulfilled the spring feasts of Pesach (Passover), Chag HaMotzi (Unleavened Bread), Reshit Katzir (First Fruits), Shavu’ot (Pentecost) and also dozens of Old Covenant prophecies when He was crucified, buried, rose from the grave and ascended into heaven.

Our Lord will fulfill the fall feasts of Yom Teru’ah (Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Atonement), Sukkot (Tabernacles) and hundreds of Old Covenant prophecies when He returns.

Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, will rule and reign forever in Jerusalem as the Son of David, and we Gentile believers have been grafted into a Jewish olive tree.

My prayer today:

Lord, help us to change our mindsets so the middle wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles is broken down and that the one new man will come forth here on earth, prepared for the End-Times. (Based on Ephesians 2:14-15)

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for our eyes to be opened about the End-Times.

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Good News/Bad News

The good news is that the greatest revival in the history of the world is about to take place. Millions of people will give their lives to Jesus in every nation of the world. It will be a gigantic harvest of souls by the Holy Spirit under the leadership of our Lord.

The bad news is that the greatest level of persecution against Christianity in the history of the world will also take place at the same time. The persecution will be so intense that hundreds of thousands of believers will walk away from their faith. Thousands of other Christians will be beheaded, burned at the stake, shot by firing squads and killed by other methods, thus becoming martyrs for the King of Kings.

Do you think I’m wrong?

There are over one hundred and fifty chapters covering end-time prophecies in the Bible. If you haven’t done so, you can begin by reading the Book of Revelation, Matthew 24, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, 2 Timothy 3:1-9, 2 Peter 3:1-13, Daniel 11 and Daniel 12.

Here’s the deal: we can either ignore the Word of God and believe it’s allegorical when it refers to the end-times – or – we can believe that God knew what He was doing when He placed the end-time prophecies in the Bible and prepare ourselves ahead of time.

I choose to believe and will endeavor to prepare myself and my family. How about you?

The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. (Daniel 11:32)

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Is the Upcoming Civil War our Prep for the End-Times? (Part 6)

Almost thirty years ago, I worked as a maintenance man at a motel in Ames, Iowa, near the campus of Iowa State University. The motel hired track athletes to help them set up for banquets in its ballrooms. Many of those track athletes were runners from Africa. One of them was from Kenya, who I spoke to in casual conversations from time to time.

One day, while I was talking to him, I had a quick vision. In it, I saw his parents holding hands and praying for him. They prayed, “Lord, we put our son into Your hands and ask You to do whatever You have to do so he will walk in his calling as a preacher here in Kenya.”

I looked at the young man. “You’re a Christian, right?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied with a smile, “how’d you know?”

“I just had a quick vision of your parents praying for you to walk in your calling in Kenya.”

He laughed. “That’s not happening!” he proclaimed. “I am the number-three ranked triple  jumper in the world and ranked in the top five or six in the four-hundred meter dash. I will earn $75,000 this summer running in events in Europe and next year after graduation with my degree in international finance, I’ll earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you —”

“Don’t worry! I’ll be okay.”

A couple of months later on a cold December morning, I walked into the motel’s kitchen to begin my work day. There sitting on a chair with his pant-leg rolled up and blood dripping from his knee was my Kenyan friend.

“What happened?” I asked, rushing to him.

“I was late. So, I ran across the parking lot and slipped on some ice. My knee is ruined,” he said with tears rolling down his cheek.

“Ah, you’ll be okay,” I said.

“No, world-class runners never come back from knee injuries like this. The half-second they lose puts them in the losers’ bracket forever. I’m done.”

I stayed with him until the ambulance arrived.

If you’re thinking God wouldn’t do something like this to bring a man into His kingdom purposes, you need to reread the book of Jonah. God is a loving Father who will do whatever He has to do to fulfill His purposes, especially in answer to prayers.

Okay, maybe God will do something like this in answer to the prayers of parents for their son, but will the Father do this in answer to prayers for a region or state or nation?

(Continued in Part 7…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)

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Is the Upcoming Civil War Our Prep for the End-Times? (Part 5)

Most Christians fall into the Pre-Tribulation or Post-Tribulation theological camps for the end-times. Just so you know: there are other end-times viewpoints, such as the Amillennial and Preterist point of views, but both of these require believers to read the Book of Revelation, Daniel and Matthew 24 through fogged-up glasses.

The Pre-Tribulation viewpoint is held by approximately 90% of American believers. This viewpoint believes the Body of Christ will be raptured and taken to heaven at any time before the Seven Years of the Great Tribulation (Daniel 7 and Revelation 13) takes place. Then, the church will return with Jesus at His second coming to set up His thousand-year reign on earth.

The Post-Tribulation viewpoint believes the Body of Christ will go through a major part of the Great Tribulation, will be raptured and taken up to heaven at the Seventh Trumpet Judgment, just before the disastrous Seven Bowl Judgments. The Post-Tribs agree with the Pre-Tribs on the church returning with Jesus at His second coming. About 90% of the Chinese, North Korean and Asian believers believe in the Post-Tribulation viewpoint.

But there are a some scriptures most Pre-Trib and Post-Trib believers seldom think about —

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:5-8)

The “beginning of sorrows” will be one tough time-period for us believers to endure. We will be arrested, persecuted and killed. The whole world  will hate us, just because we follow Jesus. Many believers will turn away from following the Lord, betraying and hating other believers. There will be many false prophets who will deceive many believers. Sin will be rampant and everywhere, with the love of many believers growing cold. 

Now, maybe, we have our fingers crossed, hoping we will be raptured into heaven before these terrible things happen.

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

Who preaches the gospel? Believers do.

Therefore, it makes no difference whether Jesus returns for us before the Great Tribulation takes place or near the end of it because we have to remain on earth and endure the “beginning of sorrows,” so we can preach the gospel to all nations (or people groups).

(Continued in Part 6…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)

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Is the Upcoming Civil War our Prep for the End-Times? (Part 4)

A great conflict loomed on the national horizon in 1857 because of the unresolved slavery issue. Yet, unlike other times when America faced dangers, people did not flock to churches. God no longer seemed relevant to the nation, especially for businessmen who enjoyed great prosperity during this time period.

An unexplained financial panic then hit America. Banks closed. Railroads declared bankruptcy. Thousands of workers were laid off. Desperate families faced starvation.

But in the midst of financial despair, Jeremiah Lanphier, a middle-aged businessman, felt God wanted him to start a noontime weekly prayer meeting for businessmen in New York City. He printed a pamphlet, How Often Shall I Pray, and handed them out to local businessmen, inviting them to prayer meetings at the Old Dutch North Church.

The first meeting was held on September 23, 1857. Lanphier prayed alone for the first half hour, but six men joined him for the second thirty minutes. On the following Wednesday, twenty men showed up for prayer. Forty showed up the week following. By October 14, 1857, more than one hundred attended the meetings.

They soon decided that weekly assemblages were not enough. So, they met on a daily basis. Pastors whose spirits were inflamed by these gatherings opened their own churches for prayer times. Before long, meetings were overflowing with young, old, rich, and poor. Within six months, ten thousand businessmen attended over one hundred and fifty different prayer meetings in New York City on a daily basis.

The Spirit of Prayer then spread the fire across the nation tosuch cities as Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Louisville, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and countless other cities.

The prayer meetings were quite simple in structure. A leader would start the hour by announcing a hymn. All would stand and sing one or two verses. Then, the leader would say a brief prayer, and the service was turned over to the assembled members. Any person was free to speak or pray for no longer than five minutes. A bell rang if the man overextended his time so that another could take a turn.

Prayer requests were made for family members or others not present. Many stood asking prayer for themselves. Others exhorted the men to pray more fervently and to live holy lives. Over the weeks, testimonies were given on answered prayers and all praised the Lord for them. Promptly, at the end of one hour, the leader rose and ended the meeting with a closing prayer. The members filed quietly out of the buildings.

This move of the Holy Spirit was known as the Businessman’s Prayer Revival, Laymen’s Prayer Revival, or the Prayer Revival of 1857. Powerful preaching was not involved like most of the other awakenings in America, but rather, it was filled with earnest, forceful prayer.  Dwight L. Moody, the noted evangelist, and Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn composer, were numbered among the Revival’s converts. George Duffield wrote the hymn, Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus, to encourage businessmen.

The revival did not diminish with the beginning of the Civil War. Instead, it broke out in both armies, but in particular, the Confederate forces.  It began for the Southerners in the hospitals among the wounded and was spread into the camps when they returned to their units.  Prayer meetings were organized and hundreds joined the gatherings on the frontlines.

The great evangelist, Charles Finney, summed up the prayer revival: “The general impression seems to be that we have had instruction until we are hardened; it is time to pray.”

It was estimated that over 150,000 soldiers in the Southern armies were converted and overall, nearly 6.6 per cent of the entire United States became Christians in this prayer revival.

For those who think a Holy Spirit revival would stop a civil war from happening here in America today, the Businessman’s Prayer Revival of 1857 doesn’t offer us much hope. The Civil War broke out four years later, killing over 620,000 people dead – more than all of America’s other wars combined.

(Continued in Part 5…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)

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