The Great Tribulation

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Eye on the End Times – Israel Being Persecuted Again

 

By GF Herrin

If you read the news last week and are a Bible believing follower of Christ, Benjamin Netanyahu’s urging all Jews to come to Israel must have stood out to you.

http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-urges-jews-move-israel-copenhagen-attacks-111012753.html

This type of directive is perhaps is like a banner to the nations or to God’s people to return.

Isaiah 11:11-12 foretold that the Jewish people would return to their homeland a second time after being exiled:

“It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.”

The recent news of anti-Semitic protests in Germany and the U.S,, terrorist assaults against Jews in France and Denmark, and other actions against Jews, are a clear indicator of the Great Tribulation soon to come.

Daniel 12:1 tells us,

“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people–everyone whose name is found written in the book–will be delivered” (Dan. 12:1).

Remember the Great Tribulation will be worse than any other time of persecution that the Jewish people have EVER faced. Can you imagine? Think of it, because I want you to remember that in the Holocaust alone, 6 million Jews died.

Why?? Why have the Jewish people been targeted for so long through the ages? After all, the land that they now occupy is only a little sliver of real estate that is slightly larger than New Jersey (the fifth smallest state in the U.S.) Remember that Israel is the apple of God’s eye. And whatever God possesses or values greatly, the enemy also wants. So, ultimately the persecution of God’s people is of a spiritual (satanic) origin.

John’s Revelation tells us that Satan has been actively pursuing Israel since he was cast out of Heaven a long time ago, “When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child” (Rev. 12:13).

So, Islamic extremists, neo-Nazi groups, Jimmy Carter (a known antagonist of Israel), the Presbyterian church USA, or anyone else siding against the nation of Israel are certainly victims of the spiritual influence of the enemy who is contending for the destruction of God’s chosen people.

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Daniel’s 70 Weeks Prophecy – The Coming of Israel’s Chosen King – Part 6

Conclusion

By GF Herrin

                Given the late dating of the book of Revelation, which correlates with prophecies in the book of Daniel, and also given that history lacks any single figure that has fulfilled the prophecies of Daniel 9:2-27, it is reasonable to expect a future fulfillment of Daniel’s predictions. Also, to fully understand the events of the Seventy Weeks revelation of Daniel, it must be fully understood for whom the prophecy was originally written: Daniel, his people, Israel, and their holy city, Jerusalem. The preterist view (which Mauro holds to) of the activities of God toward His covenant people, Israel, is one that is short sighted in scope. The preterist view seems to emphasize the judgment of Israel as the final decision of God, without any future chance for redemption or reconciliation for His chosen people. The preterists seem to underestimate God’s ability to forgive and woo Israel back to Him through the working of His ultimate plan for reconciliation.

Mauro claims:

The prophecy of the Seventy Weeks is manifestly an account, given beforehand of the second period of the national existence of the Jewish people. They were to last as a nation only long enough to fulfill the Scriptures, and to accomplish the supreme purpose of God, in bringing forth the Messiah, and putting Him to death. The time allotted for this was 490 years. This being accomplished, God had no further use for Israel (Mauro, 21).

Mauro’s statement is careless in that it seems to discard all of the promises of God that reveal His faithfulness to Israel and His intentions to deliver them for His name’s sake.

Ezekiel states the reason that God will deliver Israel from the enemy in the end times:

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I do not do this for your sake. O house of Israel, but for my holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I am hallowed in you before their eyes (Ezek. 36:22-23).

Gabriel’s revelation to Daniel is given as an answer to his fervent, longing, and pleading prayer. God esteemed Daniel and in His grace revealed His plan for Israel’s reconciliation to Him. God has a covenant relationship with Israel that is not dependent on Israel’s faithfulness, but His own faithfulness. His sovereign power to bring forth Israel’s chosen King is the great Guiding force through the ages. To summarize, the seventy weeks are about God working through the age of the Gentiles to bring about His desired purpose: The end of the rebellion and transgression of the nation of Israel, the sealing up of sin, reconciliation to Yahweh, the fulfillment of prophecies, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness to Israel when Jesus is anointed as King at the beginning of His millennial reign in Jerusalem. His program for accomplishing these things occur inside and outside of the seventy weeks. The decree to rebuild Jerusalem, given by King Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. to Nehemiah, marks the beginning of the Seventy Weeks. The finishing of the first seven weeks marks the restoral of Jerusalem as a re-built city.

The entrance into Jerusalem of Messiah, King Jesus, on April 6th, A.D. 32 marks 483 prophetic years (each consisting of 360 days), or sixty-nine weeks, after the decree is given (Anderson, 128). Then, outside of the sixty-nine weeks, but before the seventieth week begins, the Messiah is cut off, the people of the Roman prince who will come in the future, destroy Jerusalem, and the temple and the beautiful land lie desolate from the onslaught of war. Then, in the final week, the Roman prince, who is the antichrist, makes a covenant with Israel, but in the middle of the seven year period stops sacrifices and grain offerings from taking place at the third temple. Finally, after the antichrist commits abominations that desecrate the holy temple and offend God, the Lord pours out destruction on him. It is understood from the text of Daniel 12:3 and 12:12 that the millennial reign will begin shortly after.

Application

The truths of the Seventy Weeks prophecies of Daniel have a broad application today. They can be applied in leading a Bible study or delivered in a sermon to Christians anywhere. In knowing that many of the prophecies of Daniel 9:25-26 have been fulfilled as Gabriel’s message said they would be, we can stand firm on the promises of 9:27, which foretell the end of the Gentile age and the beginning of the Messianic kingdom. The message of Daniel focuses on the faithfulness and sovereign ability of God to work His plan and guide mankind to His desired conclusion. Specifically, God’s plan for Israel is in focus for the seventy weeks. The reader must remember that God’s promises remain in effect today. To conclude that God is finished with Israel and discard His covenant promises is to discard His sacred Word, itself.

Paul writes:

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins” (Romans 11:25-27).

Christians everywhere should be encouraged by Daniel’s Seventy Weeks prophecy to live holy lives in anticipation of living one day under the rein of the Lord Jesus Chris. Ultimately, God’s purposes will be fulfilled and the Messiah will come again to restore Israel and usher them into the millennial age in righteousness and faithfulness.

 

 

 

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Daniel’s 70 Weeks Prophecy – The Coming of Israel’s Chosen King Part 5

Daniel 9:27 – Gabriel Reveals the Events of the Seventieth Week

By GF Herrin

                Daniel 9:27 is perhaps the key verse in properly understanding the entire seventy weeks revelation. Interpreting this verse correctly is also the key to understanding many of the other End Times prophetic passages in the Old and New Testaments. The passage begins with a confirmation of a covenant or agreement between “he” and the “many”. Since this revelation is given to Daniel in regard to his people and his holy city, it is logical to understand that “many” refers to the people of Israel. The question briefly touched upon earlier in regard to verse 27 is, “What is the identity of the person who is referenced to by the pronoun ‘he’?” Preterists, such as Mauro and Michael Blume, hold to the belief that “he” refers to the Messiah, Jesus, who is referenced early in verse 26 as the one “who shall be cut off, but not for Himself” (Michael F. Blume, “What Do Preterists Believe About “The Prince” in the 70 Weeks of Daniel?” http://www.preteristarchive.com/Modern/2001_blume_daniel-9.html 2001). Blume says that the Messiah, in verse 26, is the main subject of the passage while the prince is only a “sidenote”. He claims that to interpret the word, “he” in the verse as the antichrist is to employ bad grammar.

In reality, though, if one interprets the passage using the standard Hebrew grammar rules, it is apparent that the “he” in verse 27 is indeed the antichrist who is also referred to in Daniel 7:25 and 11:36-45. The interpretation of “the coming prince” in verse 26 as the antecedent for the pronoun, “he”, in verse 27, makes more sense because it is closer in proximity to the pronoun than the word “himself”. To argue that the “Messiah” is the subject of the sentence and therefore it must be the antecedent for “He” is to create Hebrew grammar rules that just do not exist (Thomas Howe, 9.113, see also, Daniel in the Preterists’ Den, 2008).

Mauro states: “(1) that it was by the cutting off of the Messiah that the six predicted things of verse 24 were to be accomplished; (2) that it was by the cutting off of the Messiah that the covenant with many (verse 27) was to be confirmed and the sacrifice and oblation caused to cease” (Mauro, 21). Most assuredly, the Messiah’s sacrifice for sins is the one single event that enables the six predicted things of verse 24 to be realized. But, to suggest that Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary was an actual covenant that the nation of Israel literally entered into for a period of seven years is inaccurate. It is true that Jesus’ covenant sacrifice negated Israel’s necessity to perform any more sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins. However, it does not represent a literal covenant that has been accepted or entered into by the people of Israel at any time in their history.

The overarching problem in Mauro’s interpretation of the passage is his attempt to spiritualize the reference dealing with the entering of a literal covenant or agreement with many. Many scholars, such as Mauro, make the mistake of interpreting Scripture in a spiritual or metaphorical manner. That is, they discard the most literal type of interpretation to fit it into their own view. However, that system of interpretation is inconsistent and flawed. The more consistent manner of interpretation is the historical grammatical method. As Robert L. Thomas says, “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise” (Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 1-7: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 1, 1992, 50).

In addition, to suggest that the Messiah, who is God, would make a covenant for a limited period of time (seven years) is inconsistent with God’s nature, which is eternal. God, being eternal, possesses a nature that is unchanging. So, any truth, acknowledgement, or agreement affirmed by Him would not be of a temporal or changing nature but of an eternal nature. Since He is eternal, His faithfulness or adherence to His covenants must be eternal as well. To suggest that God would make a covenant for a limited period of time is also inconsistent with the nature of His other covenants (see Gen. 13:15; Gen. 15:18; Gen. 17:7-8; Gen. 28:13; Gen. 35:12; 1 Chron. 16:17-18; 2 Chron. 20:7; Dan. 7:18; Jer. 7:7; Jer. 25:5; Jer. 31:35-37; Jer. 33:20-22) made with Israel. Regarding the nature of the covenant made in verse 27, Dwight Pentecost writes, “Inasmuch as all the covenants made by Messiah with Israel are eternal covenants, Messiah cannot be the one making the covenant, inasmuch as it will be temporary” (Pentecost, Things to Come, 250).

So, in interpreting verse 27, it can be determined that the ruler or the prince who is to come will confirm a literal covenant with the nation of Israel for a period of seven years (the final week). In the middle of the final week (or after three and a half years) he will put an end to the sacrifice and offerings. Verse 26 describes the destruction of the second temple which actually occurred in A.D. 70. So, it can be discerned that during the time of the seventieth week, there must be a third temple in existence since Israel is obviously making sacrifices again when “the prince who is to come” puts an end to them. Israel, traditionally, has offered their sacrifices and offerings to God in the temple. So, it makes sense to believe that they will offer them again if given the chance. Even now, there is an established Temple institute in place in Israel that has in place blueprints for the third temple, along with the vessels, menorah, pure olive oil to be burned in the menorah, priestly garments, a red heifer, and even priests from the tribe of Levi who are ready to begin the sacrifices whenever the temple is re-built.

The second part of verse 27 describes an event after the sacrifices and offerings are brought to an end in which the ruler will apparently do something that is so offensive to God that the Lord must intercede and pour out his wrath on the one who performed the desecration. The text “on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate” could be interpreted to mean that the Ruler’s desecrating actions to the temple will cause it to be unclean.

The actions of Antiochus Epiphanes (who set up an image of Zeus in his own likeness on the altar, and sacrificed a pig in the Temple), which are in fact foretold in Daniel 11:31, could be a typology of the nature of the desecrations performed by the future prince. Like Antiochus, the future ruler or prince will do something “abominable” in reference to the use of the temple and its holiness to God. But, Antiochus could not have been the ruler that Daniel was writing of in verse 27 because Jesus’ statement concerning the future desecration of the temple was made long after Antiochus desecrated the temple.

Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved (Matt. 24:15-22).

This future event of the “’abomination of desolation” is a more logical fit for the events describe in Daniel 9:27. According to 12:7, the time period during which the daily sacrifices and offerings are suspended matches the time period of verse 27, exactly. It is “time, times, and half a time” (Dan. 12:7) or three and a half years. Also, John’s Revelation describes a matching timeline in which the “beast” will exercise his authority over Israel as well: “And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven” (Rev. 13:5-6).

The prophecies in Revelation and Daniel regarding the forty-two months (three and a half prophetic years), during which Jews will be persecuted, correlate with each other and seem to be addressing the same event. In addition, there is substantial evidence to believe that John’s Revelation was written in the 90s A.D. (Norman L. Geisler, “A Friendly Response to Hank Hanegraaff’s book, “The Last Disciple” [online], Available: <http://normangeisler.net/articles/theology/Eschatology/FriendlyResponseToHHanegraffsBookLastDisciple.htm>). Since Revelation was written at the end of the first century, the destruction of the second temple and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. would have taken place prior to its composition. Given the late dating of the book, which contains the prophecy that details the anti-christ’s oppression of the people of Israel for a period of forty-two months (three and a half prophetic years), it is more reasonable to understand the event as futuristic and taking place at the same time as Daniel 9:27.

 

 

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Eye on the End Times – Palestinians seek UN resolution to end Israeli occupation

Is this the beginning of stage setting for the scenario of Israel becoming a burdensome stone?

Nimr Hammad, an adviser to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, has said that he will push to submit a UN resolution this week that will give Israel two years to negotiate a peace settlement that will ultimately lead to their giving up the land that they acquired when they defended their country from annihilation in the six day war in 1967.

The U.S. has historically vetoed any such resolution, but if that is the cas this time, then why is Secretary of State John Kerry wasting so much of the taxpayer’s money jetting across Europe and the middle east to speak with different heads of state?

http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-meet-palestinian-negotiator-london-000611664.html

 

Zechariah 12:3

And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.

Daniel 9:27

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”