PART V – SURVEYING THE PROPHETIC LANDSCAPE
Beginning with this installment – and continuing for a bit – we’ll be doing a series within a series – surveying the prophetic landscape as we examine the events of the day and see where biblically prophetic insight may well apply. You see, the prophetic events that are about to unfold are casting their shadows forward. Events of today are unfolding in such a way as to prepare the landscape for the coming events that the world will experience during the Tribulation. Let’s look at what’s developing that carries with it prophetic significance.
American forces are engaging Syrian and likely Iranian military in Syria with rocket attacks being traded. The Biden regime is threatening cyber-attacks against Russia. Israeli F-15s and American B-52s conducted a joint flyover meant as a show of force against Iran. “Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is openly threatening to bomb Iran if the Iranians do not stop their nuclear program.” Iranian Defense Minister Hatami talked about levelling Haifa and Tel Aviv in should Israel act.[i] Earthquakes and volcanoes are increasing in both magnitude and frequency. Coronavirus variations are appearing in various places, see Brazil for instance. There is pressure on the food supply system (much of it artificially created through the response to the virus.) Jesus warned in Luke 21:10-11, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” And yes, the specter of famine may even now stand before us. What is being described as a return to the Dustbowl conditions of the 1930s is settling on the western US. “The horrific drought that has much of the western half of the United States in a death grip has already surpassed what many scientists thought was possible. Some areas of the Southwest went more than 200 straight days without any measurable rain last year, vegetation is disappearing at a frightening pace, and giant dust storms are becoming increasingly common.” There have already been contractions in the food supply system due to the wholesale destruction of livestock and crops due to the Covid response and the economic collapse of the system of distribution.
The system of forced vaccinations that lay on the horizon combined with the tracking systems being built into the model is creating the architecture for the Mark of the Beast System by which “no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:17) Add to that the bevy of doctors that are warning about some really bad after effects from the vaccines and the dozens of suppressed headlines and articles that keep surfacing drawing out the trail of possible vaccine-induced deaths. [No, these aren’t confirmed, but they are many and they are suppressed. We’ll be looking at some of these later.] We’ve reported before that a Coronavirus vaccine was tested on felines. Later when they were exposed to the wild virus “NOT ONE VACCINATED CAT SURVIVED A CHALLENGE WITH THE ACTUAL VIRUS.” [ii] You’ve got a Pope as in Francis, who is working hard to bring in a One World Religion through some sort of unity with Islam. [BIBLICALLY THERE CAN BE NO RECONCILLIATION BETWEEN THE TWO. Christ’s claim is exclusive. Any biblically-literate Christian understands that God provided only ONE WAY – and that through His Son Jesus. All are welcome. But you can’t come bringing your baggage from Islam or Hinduism or Bahai. It’s NOT biblical!]
In America we have the For The People Act which will rob the franchise of eligible voters by opening voting up to non-citizens and paving the way for legal fraud in the voting system through mail in ballots and limiting the vetting of voter eligibility. [It makes voter IDs illegal!] You’ve got the Equality Act which will destroy gender-distinction in America and seemingly force religious organizations to embrace and warrant, for instance, anti-biblical practices such as the official sanctioning of Gay Marriage by these religious organizations. We’ve even noted how around the world, camps are being built and prepared to force compliance with the NWO’s Plandemic reactions.
And there are a couple of more things coming down the pike that seem to cross lines that American’s of a certain age could hardly have been within the realm of possibility. We can head to California for that story. It involves the celebration and ceremonial actualization of pagan practices to occultically empower students in changing the society in an decidedly un-American and certainly ant-Christian way. Next week, the California Department of Education will vote on a new ethnic studies curriculum. Here’s the proposal. Christopher F Rufo, writing in the City Journal explains the purpose of the proposed new curriculum. This “model curriculum instructs teachers to help students ‘challenge racist, bigoted, discriminatory, imperialist/colonial beliefs’ and critique ‘white supremacy, racism and other forms of power and oppression.’ This approach, in turn, enables teachers to inspire their pupils to participate in ‘social movements that struggle for social justice’ and ‘build new possibilities for a post-racist, post-systemic racism society.’”
But it gets worse from there. Rufo: “The curriculum recommends that teachers lead their students in a series of indigenous songs, chants, and affirmations, including the ‘In Lak Ech Affirmation,’ which appeals directly to the Aztec gods. Students first clap and chant to the god Tezkatlipoka—whom the Aztecs traditionally worshipped with human sacrifice and cannibalism—asking him for the power to be ‘warriors’ for ‘social justice.’ Next, the students chant to the gods Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and Xipe Totek, seeking ‘healing epistemologies’ and ‘a revolutionary spirit.’ Huitzilopochtli, in particular, is the Aztec deity of war and inspired hundreds of thousands of human sacrifices during Aztec rule. Finally, the chant comes to a climax with a request for ‘liberation, transformation, [and] decolonization,’ after which students shout ‘Panche beh! Panche beh’ in pursuit of ultimate ‘critical consciousness.’”[iii] This is the outright summoning of the Dark Powers which will be released at some point during the Tribulation. [Anyone who has followed revolutionary history – as in the French and Russian Revolutions, is aware that the Occult has served as a prime force in the unfolding of those anti-God events. This confluence of events is leading many to declare that we have already entered the Tribulation. So let’s start by addressing that.
- WE ARE NOT IN THE TRIBULATION – I will say this with more certainty than I would on most prophetic subjects. Scripture gives us a clear demarcation line for the beginning of that era. The signal event is to be the signing of a treaty or “covenant” between the Antichrist and Israel that will allow Israel to reconstruct the Temple, as detailed in Daniel 9:27. That initiates a 7-year period – or week of years – of Tribulation that will complete the task of preparing Israel for the entrance into Christ’s Kingdom. [It is all part of a 70-week process.] Daniel 9:24 describes that purpose as “To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.” [To sum up: That treaty has NOT been signed….therefore we are not in the Tribulation…..But that doesn’t mean things won’t get bad.]
- THE SEVENTY WEEKS – Now that seven-year-long Tribulation is not just a set piece shoe-horned into history. It will be a complete prophetic fulfillment. In Daniel 9, we read of something we’ve come to call the 70 Weeks Prophecy, which lays out much of the history of Israel. It pauses after the 69th And then after a period of time, resumes with this 70th Week, which will be the final 7-Year Tribulation.
But first a little detour. In His time on earth, Christ – along with the prophets gave us many clear indications of what would follow. Jesus told us of “wars and rumors of wars.” The Prophets reveal some of the specific nations involved and the outcomes of those wars. Scripture tells us of wars before Messiah comes: The first in which Israel fights Syria and its near Arab neighbors and another soon to follow against a coalition of Russia, [or Turkey], – along with Iran and the second ring of Islamic States. Yet despite the machinations of man, God has promised the land to Israel forever. “Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:8) But I get ahead of myself. Let us go back instead to look at just how God’s promises have operated with regard to His chosen people and Land.
At the time of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, Jesus began to contemplate the coming fate of Jerusalem; the city of the prophets in the Land The Father had chosen. What should have been a time of joy was marred by the tragedy He knew was coming. Luke 19:41-44 gives us this account. “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” In Matthew 21:2, Jesus reiterates the same point regarding the Temple buildings. “Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
That is exactly what happened. In April of AD 70, Roman General Titus began a siege of Jerusalem against the rebelling Jews. The Romans constructed embankments as they systematically starved the city’s inhabitants.[iv] In the final assault in September of that year the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and killed an estimated 1.1 million Jews. During the destruction, fire was set to the Temple. The fire caused the gold-leaf ornamentation on the Temple ceiling to melt. The melting gold flowed down the walls and settled into crevices between the stones. The Romans pried apart the stones to remove the gold. This specifically and exactly fulfilled Jesus Christ’s prophecy that not one stone would be left standing on another.
Jesus was saying that the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem itself occurred “because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Despite clear prophetic warning, Israel had failed to recognize and accept their predicted Messiah. Still speaking to his disciples on the events to come, The Lord detailed more of the fate of Jerusalem. “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near…. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:20 & 24) Again, that is exactly what happened. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70, and again in the year 135. During the two destructions, the Romans killed an estimated 1.5 million Jews. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were taken as slaves to other countries, mostly throughout Europe and parts of Asia. It is significant that the respected historian Josephus names no Christian victim of this Roman slaughter in his accounts of this great Jewish War. Believers were warned first of all by Luke’s account of Christ’s warning. They clearly saw the approaching Roman Legions, gathering to surround Jerusalem. In addition, Eusebius, an early Church Father, known as the ‘Father of Church History’, tells us of a New Testament prophet that warned the Christian community to leave the city and escape the coming slaughter. It seems they did.[v]
To The Day !
Jesus in His words was both mirroring and expanding on the prophecies contained in the 9th chapter of Daniel. These shed interesting light on those words. That chapter points to the exact time of “visitation” of which Jesus spoke, leaving no excuse for unbelief. As students of the Scriptures, it should have been apparent to the Pharisees, and rabbis that the time of the Messiah was indeed at hand. Many scholars believe that it was indeed the prophecies found in Daniel that inspired the Magi to seek the Christ near the time of his birth. We know that the Essene community near the caves of Qumran, which gave us the Dead Sea Scrolls, was not the only group expecting Messiah in first century Palestine. The precise nature of Biblical prophecy is what drove those expectations. In fact the precision of Daniel’s prophecy reveals the very day of the Messiah’s ascendance into His Kingdom. It then goes on to talk about the destruction of the Temple and the fate of the Jewish nation as well as the ultimate triumph of the Messiah. “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city,” and He gives the purposes of the 70th Week we covered earlier – basically the purifying of Israel…. “To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. ‘Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. ‘And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.’” (Daniel 9:24-26)
This is one of the most astounding prophecies in all of Scripture. It nails down the exact day the Messiah was to come; – after “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.” Follow this! Daniel was given this prophecy while Israel was in exile. There was no Temple and there was no human reason to believe that one would ever be rebuilt. Yet he was told that the Temple would be rebuilt in 69 weeks, or in the Hebrew, 69 shabuim. Shabuim refers to weeks of years or 7-year periods. And this period of 69 weeks-of-years was to begin precisely when the command was given to “To restore and build Jerusalem.” Now we know from the 2nd chapter of Nehemiah, that King Artexerxes gave a command to rebuild the Temple on the first day of the Jewish month of Nisan, in the 20th year of his reign. British scholar, Robert Anderson, investigated this prophecy in the late 1800s. Using common secular historical knowledge, Anderson found the day of the Decree: March 14, 445 BC. Now sixty-nine weeks-of-years multiplied by seven, gives us 483 years. But both the Jews and Babylonians used 360-day years. So he multiplied the 483 years times the 360-day Biblical year. He got 173,880 days. He then counted forward from the day of that decree. It came out to be the 10th of Nisan, or April 6, 32 AD. That, by no coincidence, was the first Palm Sunday. It was the day Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, accepting and acknowledging His kingship. Exact fulfillment! Now the prophecy in Daniel 9 goes on to tell us that “Messiah shall be cut off” at that time; – and He was. It tells us too of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. We saw that too.[vi]
Remember, in Matthew 24, Jesus told us that the people would “be led away captive into all nations”. In Deuteronomy 28:64-66, Moses wrote, “Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.” And Hosea pronounces God’s judgment on Israel for unfaithfulness to God. “Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, for you have played the harlot against your God.” (Hosea 9:1) If you recall from above, Jesus had indicted them because they “did not know the time of your visitation.” Hosea had announced God’s judgment for the sin. “My God will cast them away, because they did not obey Him; And they shall be wanderers among the nations.” Deuteronomy 29:23 gave sentence upon the land. “The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur–nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.” And Ezekiel 33:28 concurred. “For I will make the land most desolate, her arrogant strength shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will pass through.”
And so, as history has shown, it all came to pass in the centuries that followed. The Jews scattered, establishing a presence on every continent. The land, formerly fertile and luxuriant, had become, in the words of Mark Twain, who visited during the late 19th century, “A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent mournful expanse.” But God’s judgment was not final. It came with a promise. “Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth— Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory.” (Isaiah 43:5-7) That’s the set up. Next we’ll see the faithfulness of God’s Word.
[i] Michael Snyder, Rumors Of War, Pestilences, & Earthquakes In Diverse Places…, The Washington Standard, March 9, 2021
[ii] Karl Demminger, The West’s Obituary, Market Ticker, February 13, 2021
[iii] Christopher F Ruffo, Revenge of the Gods, City Journal, March 10, 2021
[iv] John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, Thomas Neslon Bibles, 1997, – notes for Luke 19:43-44, pg 1,554-1,555
[v] Paul L Maier, The Catastrophic Fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Jesus Christology,
July 13, 2008
[vi] The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain, 1869 p. 361-362,
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