Archive for the ‘In the Bible’ Category
Future Glory, Present Suffering, Overdue Praise
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on July 3rd, 2010
How did that happen [that our world is just a “faint image of its former glory”]? Our passage [Romans 8:18-25] says it was deliberately subjected to futility. Indeed, the futility of the earth comes from the hand of God. The very God who pronounced his creation good, has also created a world that would need a cross, need a savior, need redemption. It was God who cursed the creation after the fall. And it is God himself who will redeem it. – Dr. John Neufeld, Senior Pastor, Willingdon Church, Burnaby BC
This is a big thought… especially for those of us who spend little time thinking big thoughts. So sit down and let it sink in.
What Pastor John is saying is this: God deliberately caused the world to become fallen and corrupt, filled with pain and evil, so that this same world would be in profound need of a savior, Jesus Christ. As he wrote, “the futility of the earth comes from the hand of God.” This is explicitly taught by the Apostle Paul:
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21 ESV).
But praise God in His wisdom that His Son, our Savior, was also given by Him to redeem this fallen world! When evil overcomes me, through the acts of others or through my own sin, and I lift up my soul with cries to God, it is not a weak or desperate God to whom I pray. The God of the Bible is not some Monarch who has lost control of His Kingdom. He is not a King pitched in frantic battle to reclaim what an enemy has seized. He is a sovereign, holy, gracious, merciful and loving Creator who created the best possible Universe: one in which He reveals Himself and displays His sovereign power (Rom 9:22a) in order to also display and reveal His holiness, grace, mercy and love on those whom He has chosen by grace alone (Rom 9:23). The means of His gracious, saving act, of course, is the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of His very Son.
How is it that hard times or a little suffering in my life can cause me to selfishly turn away from contemplating Christ’s Gospel, even for a moment, for little pleasant distractions? If the “futility” to which the world was subjected is for the purpose of displaying God’s saving glory, then for what purpose has God gifted me with the little bits of suffering I have received from His hand? Isn’t it for that same purpose? Shouldn’t my struggles lead me directly to the foot of the cross, by faith, where I ought to throw my hands in the air and sing with all my heart the praises of His glorious grace (Eph 1:6; 1 Pe 2:9)?
“…we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved” (Romans 8:23b-24a ESV).
Our faith in Christ (a.k.a., the “Christian Faith”) is a forward-looking, hopeful faith. The grounds of our faith is a one-time, historic event in a particular Middle Eastern city—namely, Jesus’ death on a roman cross and His supernatural resurrection. The living-out of our faith is the here-and-now, with all the suffering, to various degrees, to which the Creation and we ourselves are subjected. “For in this hope we were saved.”
Thanks Pastor John for that good reminder. Read his whole article at the Gospel Coalition website here.
Future Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:18-25 ESV).
Sir Isaac Newton on Daniel 7, “the Fourth Beast”
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on May 15th, 2010
Here’s a quote from Sir Isaac Newton on Daniel 7. In my early days of studying Bible prophecy I wondered about the identity of the nations represented by the ten horns on the head of the fourth beast. This quote from Newtwon helped me out in a big way.
The fourth Beast was the empire which succeeded that of the Greeks, and this was the Roman. This beast was exceeding dreadful and terrible, and had great iron teeth, and devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet; and such was the Roman Empire. It was larger, stronger, and more formidable and lasting than any of the former. It conquered the kingdom of Macedon, with Illyricum and Epirus, in the eighth year of Antiochus Epiphanes, Anno Nabonass. 580; and inherited that of Pergamus, Anno Nabonass. 615; and conquered that of Syria, Anno Nabonass. 679, and that of Egypt, Anno Nabonass. 718. And by these and other conquests it became greater and more terrible than any of the three former Beasts. This Empire continued in its greatness till the reign of Theodosius the great; and then brake into ten kingdoms, represented by the ten horns of this Beast; and continued in a broken form, till the Ancient of days sat in a throne like fiery flame, and the judgment was set, and the books were opened, and the Beast was slain and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flames; and one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and received dominion over all nations, and judgment was given to the saints of the most high, and the time came that they possessed the kingdom.
I beheld, saith Daniel, till the Beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flames. As concerning the rest of the Beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. And therefore all the four Beasts are still alive, though the dominion of the three first be taken away. The nations of Chaldea and Assyria are still the first Beast. Those of Media and Persia are still the second Beast. Those of Macedon, Greece and Thrace, Asia minor, Syria and Egypt, are still the third. And those of Europe, on this side Greece, are still the fourth. Seeing therefore the body of the third Beast is confined to the nations on this side the river Euphrates, and the body of the fourth Beast is confined to the nations on this side Greece; we are to look for all the four heads of the third Beast, among the nations on this side of the river Euphrates; and for all the eleven horns of the fourth Beast, among the nations on this side of Greece. And therefore, at the breaking of the Greek empire into four kingdoms of the Greeks, we include no part of the Chaldeans, Medes and Persians in those kingdoms, because they belonged to the bodies of the two first Beasts. Nor do we reckon the Greek empire seated at Constantinople, among the horns of the fourth Beast, because it belonged to the body of the third.
Newton’s point here is important. Notice this verse:
As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. (Dan 7:12 ESV)
The point here is that the horns on the head of the fourth beast, i.e., the 1o kingdoms in this prophecy, can’t exist in the territory ruled by Babylon, Medo-Persia or by Greece because the bodies of those beasts are still “alive” in the context of this vision though their power and dominion was gone. So the 10 kingdoms on the head of the fourth beast can only be nations that existed in the area that was UNIQUE to the Roman Empire–not part of the areas Rome conquered which had previously been ruled by other empires. This limits the territory of the 10 kingdoms to what we today call Western Europe.
It’s details like this in Bible prophecy, when studied and taken seriously, that help us to guard ourselves from misinterpretations. The lesson here? Study carefully. Read slowly. Pay attention to the exact wording of the text of Scripture. The same analytical mind and brilliant attention to detail that made Newton one of the greatest scientists who has ever lived also made him a pretty good exegete of Bible prophecy!
What the Dutch & English have in common
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on September 17th, 2009
I recently received emails from two individuals both wanting some explanation on related verses in Revelation. One was about the “mystery of God” and the “little scroll” and the other was about the destruction of the tenth of the “city” and the “seven thousands of people”.
The “little scroll” of Revelation 10:11 has long fascinated me. I enjoyed so much the light that Dr. Collins shed on the subject in his commentary The Final Prophecy of Jesus (see sidebar). I had read through E.B. Elliott’s comments on this verse in Horae Apocalypticae (a 19th century classic), but it was a bit difficult to get right down to the key point of what Elliott was saying in his rather extended argument. Collins was much more succinct and therefore helpful for getting my head around the idea.
So this week when I needed to reply to these two questions emailed to me about related verses in Revelation, I was able to draw on what I have learned from Colllins and then also go back to Elliott for further detail. The following is taken in part from those emails.
In a nutshell, the “little scroll” introduced in Revelation 10:2, 8-10, is an additional self-contained prophecy parallel to the structured vision of the rest of Revelation. This additional prophecy explains with more detail than ever before, how “the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets” (Rev 10:7).
The additional prophecy “about many peoples and nations and languages and kings” (verse 11) is going to explain the “mystery of God”: what follows Revelation 10:11, i.e., chapters 11-14, is this “additional prophecy” (see Rev 10:11) that will explain the old mysterious prophecy in Daniel 7:19-28 and that, when it is fulfilled in history, will be finally understood by God’s people. The prophecies of Rev 11-14 predict in great detail the persecution of God’s “saints” who remain, the “two witnesses” which are symbolic of the remaining few Christians after a period of persecution, but who continue to testify to the Gospel even though the enemy of the Church tries to stop them (chapter 11); the Satanic power at work trying to destroy the Gospel-preaching Church but through which God protects and preserves a remnant of His people (chapter 12), and the rise of the ultimate weapon of Satan, the Antichrist, who wages all-out warfare against Christians for “forty-two months”, who is temporarily allowed by God to have authority over “every tribe and people and language and nation” (Rev 13:7, c.f. Rev 10:11). In a nutshell, these prophecies were fulfilled as the secular Roman Empire (which was predicted by the “fourth beast” in Daniel 7, and lasted from about 168 BC to 476 AD), gave way to an alliance of 10 European kingdoms (the “ten horns”) that inherited the land of the western part of the Roman Empire after its collapse and had as their leader the Pope of Rome (the other horn in Dan 7:20-21; the “beast” in Rev 13:5, which we call “The Antichrist”) for about 1,260 YEARS (approximately 606 AD to 1866 AD), or “42 months” of years (each day in the prophecy is fulfilled as a year in history). That’s the low-down on the contents of the “little scroll” introduced in Rev 10:2ff.
This helps us understand how to interpret the results of the “great earthquake” in Revelation 11:13. Since “mysterious” vision in Daniel, explained in detail in the “little scroll” section of Revelation chapters 10-14, is about the Antichrist/Beast with ten horns who persecutes Christians, then we have two big clues to decipher verse 13 of chapter 11.
Revelation 11:13 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
An “earthquake” in biblical symbolism generally refers to a great upheaval among people–usually some sort of political upheaval. The upheaval in this case refers to some great political disturbance among the people living in Antichrist’s revived, 10-fold, Roman Empire. As most of my readers should know by now, the “10-fold Roman Empire” refers to the “new and improved” Roman Empire under the rule of the Popes of Rome after the last of the Caesars, and the old pagan Roman Empire, had been conquered by Germanic tribes. This revived Roman Empire drew its power from the allegiance of 10 European kingdoms, pictured in the prophecy as ten horns on the head of the beast (the beast represents the Roman Empire and its head). So an earthquake among them is a political upheaval or uprising that shakes the 10 European kingdoms under the rule of the Pope. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century fits this description.
This sheds some light on the meaning of the words, “and a tenth of the city fell.” 1/10th of the “city” (see Revelation 17:18) is one of the ten horns, or ten European kingdoms, which supported the Roman Catholic Church (the “city”). The obvious question to ask at this point is, “What was the first European kingdom to rebel against the Roman Catholic Church and fall away from the Pope’s rule like a ‘horn falling off a beast’s head’?” The answer is England. Under Edward VI, England officially turned Protestant in 1550. There were a couple of bumps in the road along the way to becoming a stable and permanent Protestant country and Elizabeth’s rule greatly helped English Protestants to throw off papal control for good. You can almost hear the sound of the horn cracking and falling off the head of the Roman Beast.
Coat of Arms of the Republic of the Seven Netherlands
Finally, what about the “seven thousand people” killed in the earthquake? As I’ve said, the earthquake was the 15th century Protestant Reformation, and the fall of the 1/10th of the city was the breakaway of Protestant England. The “seven thousand people” must have something to do with those events as well. The normal way to express a number in Greek, like 7,000, would be to say “seven thousand” not “seven thousands” with the plural noun “thousands”. As is common in Revelation, the idea is borrowed from the Old Testament, where the word for “thousand” (elef) also means “tribes” or “tribal provinces” (as in the “tribes of Israel” Numbers 10:4). This seems to be because originally the division of the people of Israel was into groups of “thousands” (elef) which eventually grew into much bigger numbers and inherited fixed territories after the conquest of Canaan. So the old word for “thousands” eventually came to mean “provinces”. That’s how it should be understood in Revelation 11:13. Similar to the fall of one of the “ten kingdoms” of Europe, we see next a prediction of the fall of 7 provinces. The idea that seven provinces are “killed” is from the perspective of the Roman Beast–these provinces which were once part of the beast become dead to the beast by a violent tearing away. This happened in an incredible fulfillment of the detail of this prophecy in 1579 when the seven provinces of the Netherlands signed the “Union of Utrecht” and later formally declared independence from Catholic Spain in 1581, forming the Protestant Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
What a great and Sovereign God we serve that He is able to show His servants what would happen centuries before, with incredible detail and proportion, and then bring it to fulfillment. God is truly deserving of all praise and glory.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=369bc9fa-039f-47ab-8095-3ed0dce4523f)
The Islamic Antichrist?
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on August 31st, 2009
In a World Net Daily article titled, “‘Evangelical’ Christians now thanking Allah” the author of The Islamic Antichrist, Joel Richardson, criticizes Emergent Church pastor, Brian MacLaren for encouraging believers to celebrate the Islamic holiday Ramadan. It amazes me that any Christian, especially a pastor like Brian MacLaren who should know better, would join with Muslims in celebrating the origins of the Quran (that’s what Ramadan is about). And so I’m with Richardson on this point. I firmly believe in showing hospitality to Muslims and developing warm friendships with those of all faiths. But for me to ask a Muslim to celebrate with me the true meaning of Easter (i.e., Passover) is to ask a Muslim to deny his faith. Likewise, for me to join in celebrating with a Muslim the true meaning of Ramadan is to ask me to deny my faith. It just so happens that the Christian faith is true and God-given while the Muslim faith is based on a demonic deception (hint: the spirit who revealed the Quran to Mohammed wasn’t actually Gabriel as he claimed–that spirit’s real name started with “S” and ended with “atan”). And so what Christians should be aiming at in extending hospitality to Muslims is the salvation of their souls through faith in Jesus Christ.
But this same article on WND goes on to promote Richardson’s book by quoting,
The Bible abounds with proofs that the Antichrist’s empire will consist only of nations that are, today, Islamic… Despite the numerous prevailing arguments for the emergence of a revived European Roman empire as the Antichrist’s power base, the specific nations the Bible identifies as comprising his empire are today all Muslim.
The article continues,
Richardson believes the key error of many previous prophecy scholars involves the misinterpretation of a prediction by Daniel to Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel describes the rise and fall of empires of the future, leading to the end times. Western Christians have viewed one of those empires as Rome, when, claims Richardson, Rome never actually conquered Babylon and was thus disqualified as a possibility.
According to the article, Richardson postulates that the Messianic figure expected by many Muslims called “the Mahdi” is one-and-the-same as the Bible’s predicted “Antichrist”. There are many reasons, from Scripture, why a Christian should reject this speculation. But the first reason springs from Richardson’s own assertion that since Rome never actually conquered Babylon, Rome could not therefore be the fourth empire predicted by Daniel in the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2. However nothing in the text of Daniel 2 indicates that the fourth empire must conquer Babylon.
For instance, in verse 39, Daniel explains that “another kingdom inferior to [Babylon] shall arise after [the Babylonian empire].” The only qualifier is that the second empire would be “after,” and “inferior to,” the Babylonian. The rise of the the third empire is predicted next in verse 39: “…and yet a third kindom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.” Here we could make an argument that to “rule over all the earth” it would also be necessary for this kingdom to have conquered Babylon. But the word for “earth” in the Hebrew Bible, “eretz” can also be translated “ground” as in dirt, or “land”. (This is much the same way as ”earth” has a range of meanings in English: the sentence, “the seed took root in the earth” does not have the concept of the whole globe in mind at all, but only a local patch of soil.) However, the qualifiers “…and yet a third” and “of bronze” point out that this empire would come after the second in order and have something characteristic of bronze about it (though the “bronze” may just indicate that it is inferior in quality to its “silver” predecessor). The next empire is predicted in verse 40: “And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these.” No mention about conquering Babylon directly. The most important qualifier here is that it shall be the “fourth” in order. Also it is said to be an empire “strong as iron”.
How should we understand the fulfillment of this prophecy? By reviewing a little history. Babylon, the first of these empires, ruled from about 603 to 538 BC. The next empire (the one that did actually conquer and overtake the Babylonian empire) was an empire of the Medes and the Persians combined–sometimes called Medo-Persia. It lasted from about 559 to 330 BC. The third empire, the one that replaced and overtook the Persian empire, was Greece. Under Alexander the Great, the Greek empire overthrew the Persian empire to become the third great empire in the fulfillment of this prophecy. The territory conquered by Alexander was so vast that the description of ruling “over all the earth” is appropriate. To identify the fourth empire we’ve seen that the main question must be, “What empire came next? And did this next empire overthrow not Babylon, but Greece?” The answer is Rome and yes it did overthrow Greece to rule as an empire from about 168 BC to 476 AD.
But Richardon’s other important assertion is that all of the countries identified with the Antichrist are today Islamic countries. Let’s see if this is right.
Daniel chapter seven contains a prophecy that is in many respects parallel to the one we’ve looked at in Daniel 2. Verses 1-12 detail a vision that the prophet Daniel had in which he saw four “beasts” rise up on the Earth, one after another, each one overthrowing the previous beast. In verse 12, after seeing the fourth beast destroyed, Daniel notes, “As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” In verse 17, an angel explains the “beasts” to Daniel saying, “These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth.” And a little later in verse 23, the angel adds, “As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms…” So we see that these four “beasts” represent four kingdoms–just like the prophecy of empires in chapter 2. And the four kingdoms are, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
But as each “beast” / empire conquers the one before it, it doesn’t completely annhilate its predecessor. Verse 12 said that each of the first three beasts lose their “dominion” but continue alive. So what is actually happening in the prophecy is that the seat of ruling power is moving, from Babylon to Persia, to Greece and finally, to Rome. What’s so interesting about chapter 7′s prophecy is that the fourth beast, Rome, isn’t conquered like the others were. Instead Daniel foresees a new seat of power grow up out of the Roman Empire–it’s still Roman in essence but it is not unified like the original Roman Empire was. Daniel sees, in verse 7, that Rome, the fourth beast, “had ten horns…and behold, there came up among them another horn…” The same angel explains this to Daniel in verse 24 and following: “As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom (the fourth beast, the Roman Empire) ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them… He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High… and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”
In short, this means that out of the Roman Empire 10 smaller kingdoms would emerge with an eleventh “kingdom”, “different from the former ones” (verse 24) taking leadership among them and persecuting “the saints of the Most High” for a period of time. This eleventh horn that persecutes the sainst is identified by many Christian commentators as “The Antichrist”. The real question here is how to identify these other ten horns. Are they Islamic countries like Richardson contends?
Well, first of all, where do they exist? To answer that we need to pay attention to one verse while keeping another one in mind. Notice that verse 24 says, “out of this kingdom (which we see is the Roman Empire) ten kings shall arise”. So the 10 kingdoms that are associated under the Antichrist’s leadership come “out of” the Roman Empire. Now the Roman Empire in its zenith was big. It stretched from England to Egypt and from Spain to Palestine. Richardson’s right: it never did conquer Babylon. So obviously we need to try and identify the “ten kingdoms” that come “out of” the Roman Empire by searching within the boundaries that the Roman Empire did include–not outside those boundaries. But actually, we have to narrow our search even more. We need to keep in mind verse 12 which ads the detail that the bodies of the other three beasts/empires are still around though they don’t dominate any more. So the ten horns cannot include any countries that were ever part of those first three empires: the horns cannot be found in the old territory that was ruled by Babylon, by Persia, or by Greece. This means that when we are looking to identify the ten kingdoms that rose up out of Rome, we have to confine our search to those countries West of Greece that were part of the Roman Empire. This leaves a fairly small territory–the area we call Western Europe. The boundaries of that part of the Roman Empire ran along the Mediterranean Sea on the South, the Atlantic Ocean on the West, through the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria on the North (since Rome never actually conquered Germany), and on the East along Italy’s border with Greece.
Today this territory includes, not by coincidence, TEN COUNTRIES. They are not Islamic countries (yet). They are post-Christian countries which at one time all fell under the leadership of the Pope who ruled from Rome after the fall of the Roman Empire (incidentally, this means that the Popes of Rome are the eleventh horn, which we call the “Antichrist”). These countries are Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium, Spain and Portugal.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a3ffe269-34b3-4afe-8230-def9cebb1e4a)
The Problem with Preterism
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on July 2nd, 2009
- Image via Wikipedia
Ask a preterist about preterism and he will talk about Nero, the fall of Jerusalem and Matthew 24.
But ask an historicist about preterism and he will argue that the book of Revelation was written in A.D. 96 during the reign of Emperor Domitian.
The above quote is the introduction to a new article, available on Historicism.com’s “Matt24.com” feature section, written by Midnight Oil Ministries. Read more here!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=78dae64a-a924-4b08-be5e-93b39872543f)
The Russians Are Coming?
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible, In the News on May 14th, 2009
I know, I know, you’ve heard this all before. But a news item caught my eye this morning and it seemed like a good idea to blog it. So read over the following verses from Scripture and then read the quote (below) from Associated Press.
Ezekiel 38:3-6, 8-13 Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords. Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togarmah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes- many peoples are with you… In the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them. You will advance, coming on like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you. ”Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme and say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,’ to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?’
Daniel 11:43 might refer to the same events, though it is difficult to be certain: “He shall become ruler of the treasures of gold and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt…” Of course there is no word for petroleum in the Old Testament but the word “treasures” in Dan 11:43 is a likely candidate. In Proverbs 21:20, the same Hebrew word refers to “desireable treasures” that a fool is greedy for. Now have a look at the news item below. Don’t cash in your savings, quit your job and start carrying a sign announcing the end of the world. But do consider how much time we have left in this present age and use this “sign of the times” (if that’s what it is) to spur yourself to faith, evangelism and good deeds.
MOSCOW – A Kremlin policy paper says international relations will be shaped by battles over energy resources, which may trigger military conflicts on Russia’s borders.
The National Security Strategy also said that Russia will seek an equal “partnership” with the United States, but named U.S. missile defense plans in Europe among top threats to the national security.
The document, which has been signed by President Dmitry Medvedev, listed top challenges to national security and outlined government priorities through 2020.
“The international policy in the long run will be focused on getting hold of energy sources, including in the Middle East, the Barents Sea shelf and other Arctic regions, the Caspian and Central Asia,” said the strategy paper that was posted on the presidential Security Council‘s Web site.
“Amid competitive struggle for resources, attempts to use military force to solve emerging problems can’t be excluded,” it added. “The existing balance of forces near the borders of the Russian Federation and its allies can be violated.” (Get the full news item here…)
Israel War Planes Attack Cush Convoy
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible, In the News on March 26th, 2009
JAFFA, Israel – A source within Hamas has admitted a weapons convoy in Sudan meant for his Islamist organization was struck by a missile in January.
Earlier today, CBS reported the Israel Air Force carried out the attack on a convoy of trucks carrying arms destined for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to the report, 39 people riding in the 17-truck convoy were killed, while a number of civilians in the area were injured.
The strike would signify a heightened and expanded Israeli response to rampant weapons smuggling into Gaza, sending a message to Hamas’ backers that Israel will target outside the Gaza Strip.
A top source within Hamas’ so-called military wing told WND there was indeed an attack against a weapons convoy in Sudan.
Read the rest of the story here.
It isn’t always easy to see how prophecy could become reality. Scenarios like that in Ezekiel 38:1-6 describe an alliance of nations that seems unlikely under normal circumstances.
Ezekiel 38:1-6 ESV Ezekiel 38:1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him 3 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 4 And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords. 5 Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togarmah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes- many peoples are with you.
Most scholars would argue that Gog, Meshech and Tubal all involve Russia and confederates in the former Soviet Union. Gomer is probably a people group that migrated into southern Europe many centuries ago–possibly including the Gauls. Beth-Togarmah was in an area probably now part of modern Turkey. The ESV Study Bible has some good explanations for these ancient names of ancient peoples and places. Persia is no doubt Iran. Put is probably part of North Africa, most likely Libya. Which leaves Cush.
Cush is identified by the ESV Study Bible as the ancient region of Ethiopia. That area today includes Sudan. And in January Israeli war planes attacked a convoy of trucks carrying weapons bound for Hamas in Gaza–a convoy travelling through Sudan at that time.
It’s not so hard to imagine a scenario that would involve Sudan teaming up with the other countries in the Ezekiel 38 list. In fact, as the days go by this scenario gets easier and easier to imagine.
The Cross, the Switchblade & the Winepress
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible, In the News on March 9th, 2009
David Wilkerson, author of the one-time bestseller The Cross and the Switchblad, has startled North American readers with a very specific prediction of major catastrophes hitting New York City. I had been thinking of how to respond in this blog to his predictions in a respectful, but biblical way, when I saw that John Piper had already done so. Here is Dr. Piper’s post from his Desiring God blog:
AOL News Poll: Quarter-Million Voters Doubt Obama’s Birth
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible, In the News on March 3rd, 2009
An article posted on AOL News introduced readers to what it calls “fringe” element of conservatives, called “Birthers”, who persist in doubting whether Obama was actually born in the USA as he claims. According to the writer this rumour continues to live on in spite of “overwhelming evidence”. I wonder, however, if AOL News expected the kind of response they received? A poll on this story asks a question: “Do you have any doubt about Obama’s eligibility to be president because of his birth status?” The results? One day after the article was first posted (at the time of this post), 501, 655 votes had been registered. Of these half-million voters, 52% said “No” and 48% said “Yes”.
An AOL News Poll, as of March 3 2009
Although the AOL News article spun this story to make “Birthers” (those who doubt Obama’s eligibility to be President because of the “natural born citizen” clause in the US Constitution) appear as a fringe element, unstable, embarassing to other conservatives, and so on, a quarter of a million people who read this article doubt Obama’s eligibility while about the same number had no doubts. The “Birthers” are clearly not a fringe element.
Having now read both sides of the controversy, I now have some serious questions about Obama’s actions. In particular, if he has nothing to hide regarding his status as a natural-born US citizen, then why are his lawyers squashing every attempt to uncover relevant documents? The Certification of Live Birth image released by Obama’s campaign last summer does not, in spite of protests to the contrary, settle the issue. There are questions about its authenticity, yes, but even if it is the real thing it appears that this particular kind of document doesn’t necessarily prove where a person is born even though it looks like it does. The only real proof is an authentic Birth Certificate, such as US citizens have to produce to get a driver’s license. Obama has never yet produced a Birth Certificate for examination.
What does this all have to do with prophecy? In Ezekiel 38:10f, we read about “Gog” (thought by many to be Russia) deciding to invade Israel:
Ezekiel 38:10-15 10 “Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme 11 and say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,’ 12 to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth. 13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?’ 14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it? 15 You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army.
The point here is that as long as the USA has been a strong protector and ally for Israel, any agressor had to count the cost of taking on not just Israel, but the US as well. But if, in addition to the developing economic crisis in the United States and around the world, there is also a constitutional crisis regarding the basic qualifications of the President, his legitimacy, and the legitimacy of all of his official actions, appointees, commands and so on, would this not completely disable the United States of America as a defender of weaker nations?
How did the USA get to this point? How did a once great nation, established upon biblical values as “One Nation Under God” come to be so divided along idealogical lines so that the population is increasingly polarized between those who hate the President and those who resemble a rock-star’s fan club? Looking deeper than the Obama issue, I suspect that Dr. Dell Tacket of the Truth Project is right in saying that the present crisis is one of worldview. This has led me to recall that the Bible predicted that Satan would employ a worldview in order to influence international leaders to become hostile to Israel.
Revelation 16:13-16 13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
The spirit that comes out of the mouth of the dragon, in verse 13, is an ideology, a worldview, based not on the Bible, but on something else. Dr. Oral Collins, in his commentary on Revelation published in 2007, writes,
[The fulfilment of verse 13] must reflect conditions existing… [in] the later 19th century to the present. These spirits are “unclean” in the sense that they are demonic. They promote ideologies that oppose the true Gospel and the People of God. The spirit “from the mouth of the dragon” suggests atheism or some pagan ideology. In the mid-twentieth century many identified it with atheistic communism. Much of this Marxist philosophy still prevails in the institutions of education today. We see this in the prevalent existentialism and relativism of post-modernist philosophy, which rejects absolute truth. Today, we must consider the Satanic spirit of Islam, most noticeable in radical Islam. (The Final Prophecy of Jesus, p. 386)
So what should Christians do? Check out the Truth Project. Write your government representatives so that they hear your voice. And pray.
Not Justice, Not Sovereignty But Prosperity
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible, In the News on February 24th, 2009
We live in interesting times.
This morning I came across three articles that caught my attention.
The first one was this one about a US Army soldier, currently serving in Iraq, announcing his intention to defy President Obama’s orders and to join a lawsuit demanding that Obama produce documents to prove his eligibility to serve as President of the United States under the Constitution’s “natural born citizen” requirement.
The second one referred to the growing “Tea Party” movement of angry Americans scheduling Boston Tea Party styled protests to condemn Obama’s lets-borrow-obscene-amounts-of-money-in-order-to-get-out-of-debt economic stimulus “plan”. I didn’t know what the Tea Party movement was so I found the video clip that started it all.
The third one was this article in which Dan Gainor vehemently criticized Obama’s destructive policies and revived the old movie quote, “I’m mad as **** and I’m not going to take it anymore!” He called the Tea Party groundswell a “populist rebellion”. But the thing that really caught my attention here wasn’t what the columnist wrote, it was the nearly 6,000 reader comments (at that time) venting anger, frustration, desperation and mabye even sedition.
If one was prone to worry it might appear as if the USA is coming apart at the seams–or at least like that possibility is less unlikely than ever before. And that led me to wonder.
In Ezekiel 38:13, we read this:
Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, “Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?
This unified voice appears to be trans-regional, economy-driven, and more concerned with a threat to prosperity than with basic issues of justice or a nation’s sovereignty. The event this unified voice is protesting is the invasion of the land of Israel by “Gog” and its allies, whom many scholars believe to be some alliance of nations under the leadership of Russia.
Two conditions seem to be necessary in order for this prophecy to come to pass: 1) The USA must become weakened in some way so that fear of US retaliation is not sufficient to deter Russia from invading Israel. 2) International political bodies must come to a point when they are much more concerned with the right to prosperity than with “human rights” like justice or the sovereignty of the State of Israel. This group of diplomatic/economist leaders that raises a mild protest in Ezekiel 38:13 does not exist to promote justice or national sovereignty but prosperity.
When we come to a time when the world political climate reflects these two conditions, perhaps the time will be ripe for a Russian invasion of the Middle East?
