The Scourge Of Racism
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Faithful Christians will point out the events of the first trumpet have all happened exactly as God’s written Word foretells as does every calamity in the sounding of those to follow. The second trumpet features “something like a great mountain burning with fire” hurled from the sky “into the sea.” It results in “a third” of it becoming “blood” and the same fraction of “living creatures” killed along with “ships” that are “destroyed,” (Revelation 8:8-9, NKJV). With the third trumpet, “a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and…springs of water” making them “bitter” (as it is named) with poison from which “many men died,” (Revelation 8:10-11, NKJV).
The fourth trumpet heralds an event never before experienced by men: the sudden cutting of a “third of the day” and “night” time hours so that a full day is no longer 24, but 16 hours (Revelation 8:12, NKJV). This is impossible men have scoffed for centuries and that is the point! Yes, in the natural order of things Almighty God set at the beginning day and night are generally 12 hours each (Genesis 1:1-5, 14-19; John 11:9). Only He could intervene to temporarily cut short the length of a day not only as a fitting judgment upon a world rebels against His order of mankind have thrown into chaos,5 but for the sake of His elect impacted by His judgments (Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20).
Those still not ready to acknowledge Him will painfully receive more evidence (Revelation 8:13). God will allow physically altered locusts as if from some genetic engineering experiment gone awry controlled by the angelic governor of “the bottomless pit” to torment men without His “seal” in the fifth trumpet “for five months,” (Revelation 9:1-12, NKJV).6 The living seal of God is the Holy Spirit that can only be received one of two ways. The first way now, and to the end is to repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be saved from one’s sin (Acts 2:36-40; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22). The second is exclusive to and for the protection of God’s future elect Jewish remnant (Revelation 7:1-8).7
The sixth trumpet unleashes “four angels…to kill a third of mankind” using “horsemen” numbering 200 million riding some remarkably equipped “horses” that do their killing through “fire, smoke, and brimstone,” (Joel 2:1-17; Revelation 9:13-19, NKJV). Never having seen anything like this army or the scale of death and destruction they bring you would think this would be enough for all the unsaved survivors to fall to their knees in repentance and glorify God who they absolutely know is behind it. But this does not happen as with fully hardened hearts like Pharaoh of old, they obstinately refuse to repent even of idolatry among other transgressions and iniquities (Revelation 9:20-21)!
After a delay, the last seven years of God’s prophetic timeline He gave to Daniel commence.8 He sends His two witnesses to ‘“prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth’” which occupy the first half of the seven years. They consume those who would kill them with “fire” and bring “plagues” upon the earth “as often as they desire,” (Revelation 11:3-6, NKJV). Since he “ascends out of the bottomless pit” immortal and is indestructible, “the beast” or Antichrist is able “to make war against” God’s two witnesses, “overcome…and kill them,” (Revelation 11:7, NKJV). Still, men refuse to repent and glorify God during the multiple judgments of the sixth trumpet thus far.
In fact, other than God’s Jewish elect and Christians, the whole world rejoices when His two witnesses are killed by the Antichrist; not allowing “their dead bodies” to be buried as they celebrate their demise and this apparent victory over God (Revelation 11:8-10, NKJV). This despicable revelry shows how totally hardened into sin depraved humanity at this point is. But my God will always have the last word and shows His greatness and power once again by raising His two witnesses from the dead then, summoning them up to Heaven by ascension in the sight of “their enemies,” (Revelation 11:11-12, NKJV).9 Certainly, they glorify God as God after witnessing these things--no!
Instead, the pall of dread is suddenly interrupted and replaced with terror by a “great earthquake” that causes “a tenth of” Jerusalem to collapse and “seven thousand people were killed.” Finally though in Israel, there are fearful hearts willing to humbly give “glory to the God of heaven” and the events of the sixth trumpet end (Proverbs 29:1; Revelation 11:13-14, NKJV). Blowing of the seventh trumpet follows announcing in advance the victory of God and His Christ’s Kingdom, full-on “wrath,” judgment “of the dead,” “reward” of His “prophets…saints, and those who fear” His “name, small and great, and” the destruction of “those who destroy the earth,” (Revelation 11:15-19, NKJV).
5 Read the July 27, 2014 post, God Of Order, under the category, Instruction. At last, God will vindicate me in standing with the relatively few other faithful Christians that have maintained He has not changed regarding the place of order in His creation including the family and His house! Learn more about God’s unchanged order of mankind from the Bible in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get it along with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Wo- man Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
6 For those that take pleasure in scaring themselves at Halloween, the hideous appearance of these creatures will bring unimaginable real fear with pain to them and be no fun or laughing matter!
7 God making a distinction between His people marked out as belonging to Him by the Holy Spirit and those that are not in this fifth trumpet warning judgment ought to make it very clear He is not only real, but knows and favors His people (Romans 8:9b). This is the same God who did a similar thing with Israel when with great plagues upon Egypt, He protected them (Exodus 8:20-24)! Let the saints watch out however, the unsaved (that plainly now, without the Holy Spirit includes Christian impostors, religionists and apostates) will be bitterly resentful.
8 See the January 30, 2022 post, The Right Side Of History, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview to learn about the seventy sevens prophecy God gave Daniel the prophet and The Divine Delay, posted February 6, 2022 under the category, Bible Prophecy for insight into what is both the end of an in the moment and extended delay.
9 Resurrecting to immortality His two witnesses and causing them to ascend to Him exactly “three-and-a-half days” after their death is itself a sign to the saints this similar experience is three-and-a-half shortened years away for them and warning to the entire world it has the same amount of time left before the Day of the Lord arrives!
Following up last week’s post,1 as yet another display of grace before His wrath comes upon those that refuse to believe in God, He will present the reality of His existence to them through some mighty, unprecedented warning judgments. These unprecedented warning judgments will be so sudden, stunning and jarring that denying the existence of God thereafter will be impossible! Instead, the foretold events of God’s judgments plainly manifested as in the days when by great displays of His power He brought Israel out of Egypt,2 will reveal what is really at the core of guilty mankind’s unbelief in Him: hearts so hardened into sin they refuse to bow to and glorify God as God!
Indeed, it is not as if God’s current remedial judgments occurring all around us as foretold do not pack enough information to convince men of His reality. But even some professed Christians are refusing to acknowledge the obvious hand of God in the rising global heat and other weather events of climate upheaval (Jeremiah 23:16-22), “famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” because they want the world to remain unchanged for their profit. As mothers know, however, when the birth pains of pregnancy suddenly begin there is great change. Birth pains are underway in the earth because the Kingdom of God is about to be born into it (Matthew 24:3-8, NKJV)!
An unchanged fallen world may be the desire of sinful men, but not the Holy God who created the universe in accord with His purposes and plans for man now, being fulfilled through His Son, Jesus Christ (Isaiah 45:12; Colossians 1:13-18; Hebrews 2:5-10)! For this cause, the Kingdom of God must come to earth so all He has promised as an inheritance to His Son is realized (Psalm 2:7-8). Therefore, God in grace and longsuffering has sent only remedial judgments while having the Gospel of His Son preached throughout the earth to this hour that though they have been severe in many cases over the past 2,500 years, men have been able to recover with relative few exceptions.3
In the destructive aftermath of the coming unprecedented warning judgments as a precursor to His full-on wrath initiating “the day of the Lord,” only He is able to bring forth restoration (Isaiah 13:6-16, 35:1-10, NKJV)! At Christ’s opening of the “seventh seal” and Almighty God’s entire prophetic scroll, “seven trumpets” announce the judgments of grave warning as signs expressly from Him and motivated in part by the prayers of His saints that begin suddenly from the sky (Joel 2:30; Luke 21:11; Revelation 5:1-10, 8:1-6, NKJV). The first trumpet is “hail and fire…mingled with blood…thrown down to the earth” resulting in “a third of the trees” being “burned up…and all the green grass,” (Revelation 8:7, NKJV).4 The judgment is similar to one God has previously done (Exodus 9:13-35)!
This storm has literal blood mixed with hail and fire pouring down on the targeted undisclosed region of the earth. It comes upon a world indifferent to the shedding even of righteous blood (Revelation 6:1-4, 9-11). Note that only a third of the trees are burned up--apparently God the Creator knows enough about the earth He created not to burn down all of them since they contribute to the air we breathe! Thirds are a theme in the warning judgments and indicative of their ends to display God’s reality, invite repentance and preview some of what is coming in His full-on wrath. Only an omniscient, omnipotent God as He is could selectively burn up just a third of the trees but all of the green grass (Isaiah 40:25-26)! Surely, this is enough information to believe God exists isn’t it?
1 Read the October 2, 2022 post, Unbelief In God Has Consequences, under the category, Instruction.
2 See the September 29, 2019 post, God Almighty In A 21st Century World, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
3 Among the most notable exceptions is ancient Babylon God declared would never rise again as has been the case (Isaiah 13:17-22; Jeremiah 25:12-29, 50-51).
4 Other contemporary word for word translations of the Bible such as the ESV, NASB and NET include “a third of the earth was burned up” in this passage as the center column notes in my NKJV also indicate. Learn more about word for word Bible translations in our Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course on the Strong Man Virtual Institute YouTube Channel.
If as a professed Christian you read through the November 25, 2018 post, “Standing In The Evil Day,” under the category, Encouragement, with skepticism and scoffing, then you may not be a Christian at all or deadly unbelief has a grip on your heart. By express divine will, faith in God is to characterize the lives of those professing to be Christians since through it we are saved and live before God (Habakkuk 2:4; Matthew 21:18-22)! Just because amazing works of power may not pop off every day through us who have faith, does not mean we are not to believe they are possible anytime we look to our God to speak or act in accord with His will. Not to live with such expectancy of faith is to automatically limit what God can do through us as I write in this edited 2013 repost.
Originally Posted March 17, 2013
Reflecting further on what the Lord led me to write last week about my journey and encounters I have had with fearful, this present world focused professed Christians who are silent in the face of evil,1 I have seen how many such persons also walk in a spiritually debilitating cynicism regarding the genuineness of Christians like myself that are truly zealous for the Lord and His Kingdom. Because they never had or long ago quenched the Spirit’s fire (of course, some in the flesh are simply envious or threatened), they refuse to believe anyone else could be so passionately “sold out” to Christ and attempt in some way to either discourage them through negative acts or obstruct their ministry efforts.
The churches and their pulpits are filled with these professed Christians that live in cynical unbelief not only concerning the genuine commitment of other Christians, but most devastatingly, the power of God! Since biblical Christianity is about faith in God from beginning to end (Romans 1:16-17), unbelief for a professed Christian would surely have consequences. First and foremost among the consequences of unbelief is the impossibility of pleasing God (Hebrews 11:6).2 Lack of faith in God by His people not only displeases Him, but their deeds (sin) born of unbelief grieve Him (Psalms 78:40, 95:7-11; Ephesians 4:30). Unbelief also limits the display of God’s power among His people (Psalm 78:41-42; Mark 6:1-6).
Now, while the context certainly shows the unbelief of the people in His hometown was influenced by their familiarity with Jesus and His human family (Mark 6:1-4), the end result is the same for not believing: the Lord could not do any “mighty work there,” (Mark 6:5, NKJV). The Jews of Nazareth in the 1st century had done just as their forefathers in history and limited the power of God being displayed in their midst by Jesus through unbelief. Please note the Lord’s reaction: “And He marveled because of their unbelief,” (Mark 6:6, NKJV). The Son of God who knows the hearts of all men and the history of His own people, Israel, still walked away in stunned amazement at the unbelief He encountered in Nazareth that day.
No doubt our Lord continues to be amazed by the many Jews and Gentiles since those days to this hour that profess to know Him personally, intimately as Christians and yet, do not believe in Him. Indeed, surveying the earth at the time of His return, the Lord with sober amazement concludes, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth,” (Luke 18:1-8, NKJV)? Today, to counter the many sensationalist charlatans who act as if they have harnessed God and His power to do their commanded bidding (and are mixed in with the authentically gifted which has been the case from the 1st century--Acts 19:11-17), those of cynical unbelief go to the other extreme and teach God is no longer doing any works of power through men.
To be sure, the men at both ends of these extremes displease the Lord (Matthew 7:21-23; 23:13-15; 2 Timothy 3:1-9). However, those that walk in and teach cynical unbelief are far more wide spread in the churches; destroying the faith of some and discouraging many by their own unbelief smugly presented. Faithful Christians; aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ understand the continuing display of God’s power through the Holy Spirit is how we live in faith every day (1 Peter 1:3-5).3 God responds to our prayers for miraculous intervention to heal, deliver, breakthrough or alter circumstances on our behalf (Mark 11:22-26; Luke 11:9-13). But even when He does not, the knowledge of His good end and joy of His living presence sustains us (1 Peter 1:6-9)!
We also pray for each other in expectant faith as dear children (James 5:13-18; 1 John 3:21-23, 5:14-15). Finally, we successfully engage in the family war against Satan in the strength, armor, weapons and resources the Father supplies to us as His sons through faith (Ephesians 6:10-18; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; 1 Peter 5:8-11)! Rather than limiting God through unbelief, through our child-like faith we completely free Him up to do whatever He wills in the display of His power on our behalf and to His glory! Nonetheless, professed Christians walking in cynical unbelief among the carnal practitioners of manmade Christianity the religion has led the way into apostasy unfolding for centuries and leading to the foretold full blown major event shortly to come.4 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 See the August 9, 2015 repost, Silent Endorsers Of Evil under the category, The Faith.
2 Read Easy Belief, reposted on July 8, 2018 under the category, The Faith
3 Learn more about the aspiring strong man and great woman of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at all major internet book-
sellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
4 See the February 2, 2014 post, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
Among the epidemics of just this 21st century caused by things naturally unseen is the most deadly of all: unbelief in God! After nearly 2,000 years of being “to God the fragrance of Christ” as His faithful spreading the Gospel and witnessing Him throughout earth, the world is still wicked and growing worse; having rejected His faithful, our message and witness as an “aroma of death leading to death,” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16, NKJV).1 Indeed, this is happening despite more than a millennium of dominance by Christianity as manmade religion over most of the world starting from the Middle Ages when men at least outwardly professed a belief in God. Now, they are turning even from this!
The turn away from a general belief in God can be traced to the 14th century rise of humanism during the Renaissance that made man rather than God the center of existence.2 This philosophy elevated human reason as more authoritative than the Bible and religion and spurred such critical historical events as the 17th century European Enlightenment as well as the divorce of science from a biblical worldview of creation beginning earnestly with Charles Darwin’s “Theory of Evolution” in the 19th century. Today, all of our nation’s secular and not a few professed Christian educational institutions operate with the mindset God’s existence is only a faith construct of the religious.
It is one thing for the unsaved world to be turning away from belief in God with a corresponding rejection of His Word including prophecy, but it is another over the top thing for anyone claiming they are Christians to do so! Nevertheless, I have pointed to recent research in other posts that shows the epidemic of unbelief in God fully infecting the unsaved population of our nation is growing too, among many that profess to be Christians who are de facto apostates.3 I am convinced of the Lord that this epidemic of unbelief with its beginnings in the Renaissance which was certainly in part a freeing reaction to corrupt, stifling, dead manmade Christianity the religion, is also a satanically cultivated outcome of it!4 Truly, He foreknew these days and wills that His faithful not be discouraged by them.
Speaking of Himself as the manifestation of God’s Kingdom, His glorious future return after enduring Israel’s rejection and warning that it will be “as it was in the days of Noah” and “Lot” (Luke 17:20-37, NKJV), the Lord Jesus Christ “spoke a parable” to His hearers encouraging “that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,” (Luke 18:1, NKJV). The Lord compares the response of an unjust judge to a persistent widow and that of God to “His own elect” waiting on Him and vengeance on the faithless wicked who have mistreated them a long time (Luke 18:2-8a, NKJV). God’s elect and faithful are to wait on Him in persevering faith which tragically, the Lord laments in a rhetorical question He will not find in predominance on earth at His return (Luke 18:8b).5
1 As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and will not cease declaring, God’s faithful are always going to include every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ! The book is available with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
2 Use your favorite search engine for articles on the origin of humanism.
3 See the 2019 Pew Research Center article, In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace. Also, learn how lack of a biblical worldview is widespread in professing American Christianity and among its leaders in a recent study by the Cultural Research Center directed by Dr. George Barna at Arizona Christian University.
4 Read the two-part post beginning August 21, 2016, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction. Religion constructed and controlled by men is a fully inferior substitute for relationship with the living God whose reality in “wrath” is near to being displayed because they purposely “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” a- bout what can be “clearly seen” of Him “in” and all around “them,” (Romans 1:18-21, NKJV).
5 The Lord’s lament affirms what He has repeatedly led me to write concerning the number of those “who are alive and remain until” His coming as being very small (1 Thes- salonians 4:15, NKJV). Indeed, He even speaks to this remnant in advance warning them to stay alert in their persevering faith near the time of His sudden appearing (Rev- elation 16:15).
Since the fall of Adam, God has ordained as a general rule that men relate to Him exclusively by faith--that is, trust and confidence in as well as reliance upon Him! Adam failed to do this in spite of actually being able to look upon the indescribable glory of God his Creator’s face and experience the awesome wonder of the divine attributes for he willingly disobeyed Him (Genesis 2:7-8, 16-17, 3:1-11). Adam’s unbelief brought upon him and his progeny to come God’s promised consequence of death and then some (Genesis 3:17-19, 22-24; Romans 5:12).1 Now too, while men He has selected may see His glory, He declares ‘“no man shall see Me, and live,’” (Exodus 33:17-23, NKJV).
Those mortal men then that arrogantly insist that they will believe in God when they see Him with their sin-filled eyes are doomed since they never will and would die if they did! For how can sinful men look upon the purity of absolute holiness (Isaiah 6:1-7)? No, it is yet another manifest display of God’s grace that He has required that men relate to Him by faith. As it is written, ‘“Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith,’” (Habakkuk 2:4, NKJV). And again, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him,” (Hebrews 11:6, NKJV).2
The truth of the foregoing is why no one can be saved from the wrath of God--another consequence of unbelief in Him, apart from faith in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day (John 3:16-21, 36; Romans 1:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). As He did with the first man, Adam, God gives all the free will to choose to believe His Word this time in the Gospel. Obviously, you must first believe God exists which He also allows the choice to do or not. However, in the face of the vast evidence of His very real existence, it is written twice, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” (Psalms 14:1a, 53:1a, NKJV).
Not believing in God does not relegate Him to non-existence! The evidence for the existence of the living God and Creator is all around us generally in His creation starting with “the heavens” and by special revelation through His written Word (Psalm 19:1-11, NKJV). So overwhelming is the evidence for God’s existence, His “wrath” when it comes will fall upon willfully unbelieving men who have actively suppressed the truth even as it is manifested “in them” and who “are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God,” (Romans 1:18-21, NKJV). They will be “judged” and spend eternity separated from God in “the lake of fire,” (Revelation 20:11-15, NKJV). Truly also, those without an excuse include Christians who fall away in unbelief!3
If as it is written, “the just shall live by his faith,” how is it many that profess to be Christians in these latter days are convinced their unbelief is of no consequence to them now or eternally? Scripture is clear such ones have been deceived either by themselves or others. For endurance to the end by faith is taught throughout the New Testament (Matthew 24:13; Colossians 1:21-23; Hebrews 3:5-19, 6:4-8, 10:26-39; 2 Peter 2:20-22; 1 John 2:28-29; Revelation 2:25-29).4 Indeed, professed Christians who live as though there is no God are in for a rude awakening since He will not be “mocked,” (Galatians 6:7-8, NKJV). Conversely for the faithful who have endured by faith, they as “the pure in heart” are “blessed” since “they shall see God” in eternal peace (Matthew 5:8, NKJV).
1 Death has been the undeniable reality of the human experience for millennia. What many do not consider is that before Christ, everyone that died went to Hades to await the judgment. After His death, burial, visit to Hades preaching His victory, resurrection and ascension to glory with the saints He liberated (Ephesians 4:7-10; 1 Peter 3: 18-22), only those refusing to believe in Him for salvation die and go to Hades. This is the staggering reality occurring every day on earth previewed in the fourth seal Christ removes opening a scroll of prophecy for His apostle John to see (Revelation 6:7-8)!
2 The impossibility of pleasing God without faith is what makes The Epidemic Of Unbelief In God the Lord led me to write about September 25, 2022, under the category, En- couragement, so wickedly devastating for the guilty who yet again as Eve at the beginning, fall prey to the deceiving work and destructive end goal of Satan (Genesis 3:13)!
3 Read the February 2, 2014 post, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
4 In my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, I write about the spiritual strength to endure God supplies His aspiring strong men and great women in the image of Jesus Christ who by faith “endured the cross,” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NKJV)! Get the book along with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Wo- man Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
Near the end of the one thousand two hundred and sixty days of prophesy by His two witnesses, God allows His holy angels led by Michael to attack and wage war against Satan and his angels in Heaven. They prevail and force Satan and his hosts down to the earth in ‘“great wrath’” whereupon he begins persecuting Jews then, Christians (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 12:7-17, NKJV). The devil also causes the prince to come to change his mind about the covenant with Israel and his standing in the world. He ends the covenant with Israel at its midpoint and kills God’s two witnesses which is impossible unless he had attained the status of immortality (Daniel 9:27b; Revelation 11:7)!6
Apparently, after suffering a mortal wound and dying, the prince immediately learns his eternal end. However, God permits the prince to be resurrected immortal from Hades which He has not done with any others to that hour except Christ (Acts 2:22-31; Revelation 13:3a). The prince’s impossible victory over God’s two witnesses emboldens him to rise up among and against the ten kings. He eliminates three of them to become their and the whole world’s ruler. He goes hard with Satan in the war against God through blasphemous words and evil deeds to include persecuting His saints to the death and receiving worship with Satan (Daniel 7:8, 15-25, 11:36-39; Revelation 13:3b-10).
“Another beast” resurrected with God’s consent will help in the worship of the prince when he forces the world to even worship his “image” or “be killed;” take “his mark,” “name or number” to “buy or sell,” (Revelation 13:11-18, NKJV). With his “kingdom” incentivized alliance of kings that all mutually hate her and God’s permission in judgment, the prince will destroy manmade Christianity “the great harlot,” (Revelation 17-18:8, NKJV). In similitude to a predecessor Hellenistic Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, in 167 B.C. as foretold, the prince will also desecrate the Temple by presenting himself there to be worshipped “as God,” (Daniel 8, 9:27c, 11:29-35; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, NKJV).
He will thereafter, set about to destroy everything on earth honoring the true God; the peoples and structures of all religions competing for his worship as he engages in wars of annihilation and desolations during the entire last half of God’s seven years (Daniel 11:40-45). According to the prophet Jeremiah and instruction of Messiah Jesus, the last half of God’s seven years is ‘“the time of Jacob’s trouble’” and ‘“great tribulation’” for the whole world through which God will protect His elect remnant for salvation at the end; His martyred saints comforted in Heaven while they await their glorious resurrection (Jeremiah 30:4-9; Matthew 24:15-28; Revelation 6:9-11, 7, 14:6-13, NKJV)!7
With great signs of divine power on display, Messiah Jesus will descend from Heaven to gather His elect to Him (Daniel 12:2-3; Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11).8 Then, in “wrath” and “righteousness He judges and makes war” defeating His enemies beginning with the desolating prince of God’s prophetic timeline vision and consummates the war of the ages (Daniel 7:9-12, 9:27d; Revelation 6:12-17, 16:12-21, 19:11-20:3, 7-10, NKJV)! As promised, His saints that faithfully persevered waiting for Him through suffering will see his vengeance on their persecutors and receive the Kingdom of God as their eternal heritage (Daniel 7:26-28; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12).
At that time, the way forward to fulfilling all of God’s remaining purposes presented to Daniel by the angel, Gabriel, in Daniel 9:24 will be understood by the elect mortal Jewish remnant. Receiving Messiah as foretold in all repentance, they will be finished with willful transgression against God and reconcile to Him as they understand the sacrifice Messiah made for their sins and those of the whole world (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). Messiah also brings in eternal righteousness since not during His earthly reign or ever after will sin thrive before Him (Jeremiah 23:5-6; Malachi 3:1-5, 4:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 20:11-21:8). Visions like Daniel’s and prophecies will be no more (Zechariah 13:2-6; 1 Corinthians 13:8-12); the Lord will consecrate His House on earth (Ezekiel 43)!
After seeing the coming resurrections of the just and unjust in the final vision of his book, Daniel is instructed to ‘“shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end,’” Daniel 12:4, NKJV). If you have understood anything in our working together through Daniel 9, then, you understand we are nearing God’s appointed end since only He has opened His Word to us--glory be to Him! We also do well to accept the truth that persecution is the lot of devoted Jews and faithful Christians the world over up through the great tribulation as God tests, purifies, perfects and prepares us for the Second Coming of Messiah Jesus (Daniel 12:5-10).9 In that day near, you will be able to count the days until the time frame set for His appearing and Kingdom (Daniel 12:11-13)!
6 Read the August 7, 2016 post, Wicked Immortals And Their Bodies, under the categories Bible Prophecy and God’s Creatures.
7 See the February 23, 2014 post, Man Of Sin, under the category, Bible Prophecy for additional insights.
8 Daniel is told of both resurrections without the separation of the thousand year reign of Christ and the saints between the two as the New Testament teaches (John 5:24-30; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; Revelation 20:4-6).
9 Testing to disclose what is in the heart is the answer to why God permits the evils of the great tribulation to come upon all (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Revelation 3:10-11). He works the evils to the good ends of His faithful (Romans 8:28; 1 Peter 1:3-9). Purchase the timely six message series the Lord led me to proclaim, The Hour Of Testing, available in the Strong Man Store to learn more about God’s biblically taught purposes behind testing His people. Listen to the series sample.
If ‘“the people of the prince who is to come’” (Daniel 9:26b, NKJV) are those of the first century Roman Empire identified in a previous post as history also affirms,1 then, how can this future prince or ruler to emerge from them be the “he” of Daniel 9:27a, NKJV since the Empire ceased to exist after their capital city, Rome, was overrun and conquered by barbarians in the fifth century A. D.? In chapter two of Daniel, God explains how this is possible through a dream He gave Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, and provided a much younger Daniel the interpretation (Daniel 2:19-23). In chapters of his book that follow, God also reveals details to Daniel about this coming prince.
As Daniel’s dream interpretation asserts and history attests, the Roman Empire was “divided” West and East in 292 A.D. by Caesar Diocletian (Daniel 2:31-42, NKJV). It was the western half that was brought down by barbarians in 476 A.D. while the eastern half continued and thrived; eventually morphing into the Byzantine Empire that fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in the West took it upon itself to preserve Western Civilization embedded in the heritage of the Roman Empire and played king maker among those European lands that came under its sway. The Orthodox Church of the eastern Empire did the same reaching as far north as Russia.
Thus, with the mingled “seed of men” West and East, much of the Roman Empire’s legacy of governance, knowledge and culture garnered especially from others they assimilated such as the Greeks for example, has been kept alive (Daniel 2:43, NKJV). Important among the intermingled peoples that have tangibly kept much of the heritage of the Roman Empire alive is our own United States of America. The colonial product primarily of the British Empire once itself in large part a conquest of Rome, it can be seen in our preservation and promulgation of Western Civilization, republic form of national government, its building architecture, democracy and eagle as an emblem.
Our nation’s Roman legacy is shared in common with other nations also spawned by the imperialism of the British Empire and major players of mainland Western Europe it continues ties to that Rome previously ruled or dominated. While our nation is as strong as iron on the battlefield normally, many acknowledge our political and social fragility as well as fragmentation which with all other democratic nations possessing Rome’s legacy, perfectly fits Daniel’s brittle, two feet profile of division. The brief history of democracy as even fine tuned by our nation and turbulent current events proves Daniel is correct that the strength of iron is not mixing well with weak, fragile clay.2
Ancient unified Rome’s assimilation of other kingdoms under the Caesars did not stop with adopting and/or adapting the aforementioned items of their civilizations, but also entailed the spiritual characteristics and methods that show up in their raw ambition for dominion and territorial expansion through conquest respectively. For this cause, despite what will have been a relative few centuries of democratic governments compared to human monarchies, this present world ends with “kings” and “kingdoms” again that are broken into “pieces” and consumed by God’s Kingdom from Heaven.3 His Kingdom will not be “destroyed” or “left to other people” and is “forever,” (Daniel 2:44-45, NKJV)!4
Indeed, a later vision given to Daniel and New Testament prophecy converge and complement each other as it is revealed that after the physical fall of predecessor kingdoms Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and unified Rome, a divided Rome’s two feet with their spiritual qualities and methods move forward in final form to ten toes as “ten horns” or kings that rule the world (Daniel 7:1-7, NKJV). It is very important to understand why the spiritual qualities and methods of these kingdoms do not change over time. It is because as Daniel learned in yet another vision they are from the same source: eternally living demons (Daniel 10:10-14, 20-21; Revelation 12:3, 13:1-2)!5
This latter time Roman Empire divided among ten kings exists in de facto form when the prince to come begins his rise to prominence. He does this by negotiating a seven year ‘“covenant’” with Israel that allows the Jews to conduct animal sacrifices on the grounds of their newly built third Temple in the face of an angry world (Daniel 9:27a; Revelation 11:1-2, NKJV). This starts the final seven years of God’s prophetic timeline vision! Due to the world’s violent hostility and for more ‘“prophesy’” to it, God brings out His ‘“two witnesses’” He gives ‘“power’” to protect Israel for ‘“one thousand two hundred and sixty days;’” the first half of the seven years (Revelation 11:3-6, NKJV).
1 See the January 30, 2022 post, The Right Side Of History, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview.
2 America earned its leadership of the West on the battlefields of Europe in two World War victories being as strong as iron. However, the sedition of Southern States leading to the Civil War of history and on the brink of collapse now, with angrily intensifying political and social divisions in disunity shows how fragile our nation has been and is.
3 Our democracy may be the best system of government ever invented by noble men seeking to honor God by installing His great spiritual, moral and ethical teachings of the Bible in its founding documents. However, as they themselves acknowledged, the experiment would fail unless the people were biblically moral. And we see today they were right! For this reason, perhaps, the Lord did suffer the creation of our nation as a final, failed best effort of sinful men to govern themselves. What we need and only God can provide is His Kingdom of perfect righteousness! Even so, I am grateful to God and pleased to have been born a fallen sinner and citizen of America where in freedom, I heard His Gospel, repented, believed and now, live out my days in peace with Him; serving and waiting for His Kingdom to come!
4 The nearness of God’s coming Kingdom should stir every Christian man’s heart to prepare. Bench sitting in these times will not do! Get stirred up reading the series the Lord led me to write in the summer of 2017 beginning July 30th, Restoring Men In The Two Minute Drill, under the categories Bible Prophecy and The Cause that concludes September 3rd and also serves as a great supplement to this post. Too, get my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 Again, the control and manipulation of mortal men and their worldly kingdoms which belong to him is a vitally strategic part of Satan’s war against God (Luke 4:5-8).
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