By Marko Kiroglu

I recently had a conversation with someone who loves the Lord and who reads the Bible on a regular basis. During our conversation, this person told me that they thought of Bible prophecy and the end times as a fearful subject. That it's difficult to deal with and that they don’t want to get involved in it or hear anything about it. That it only gives fear to people.

I thought to myself – what a great misunderstanding. This person has not been introduced to the subject of Bible prophecy and although they love the Lord and walk with the Lord, they do not really understand the big picture of Bible prophecy.

In this article I will discuss 7 amazing positive reasons why Bible prophecy is a subject that every Christian needs to study.

1. BIBLE PROPHECY SHOWS THAT GOD IS ALWAYS IN CONTROL

In the whole of the Bible, more than any other aspect of the Bible, the subject of Bible prophecy clearly shows us that God is in control. How? Bible prophecies, prophesy how world events will evolve and what will happen. They prophesy which nation God will use and in what way. Bible prophecies show us how God will deal with different generations and different dispensations of people. All of that is prophesied in the Bible.

The Bible prophesies that God will send the Messiah at a specific time to a specific place. The Bible tells us about the entire life and ministry of the Messiah, up to His second coming.

And then, when we look at the history of humanity, we realise that everything really played out exactly as the Bible had prophesied. In light of this amazing discovery, we realise that God is indeed in full control of the entire universe, of our entire world, and even of the entire human history.

Now I want to take it one step further.

Yes, God is in control of all human politics and even diplomacy. This is not to say that corrupt politicians and wicked people are empowered by God, but rather that God knows what's going to happen and He allows it for as long as He wants to allow it. If there comes a time when God says that He will not allow this any further, then He stops it. Nations, kings, rulers, no one is outside of the total control of God. God is in full control of human history, of the world, of the nations, of everyone and everything.

This is the first conclusion we can draw from studying Bible prophecy and then also looking at human history or human interactions, even today.

2. EVERYTHING PLAYS OUT EXACTLY AS PROPHESIED IN THE BIBLE

Secondly, studying Bible prophecies clearly shows us that no matter how much people want to do what they want to do, they end up playing into the hands of God.

This is in perfect agreement with what we read in Psalm chapter 2. No matter what people want to do, no matter what people plot, and no matter what people plan, at the end of the day, God's will gets carried out. People can only do as much as God allows them to do.

Yes, people have the freedom to choose, but even their choices are subject to God's permission. This again shows that no matter what happens in this world, no matter what happens in our lives, it's all playing into the hands of God. God looks from heaven, looks at the wicked works of the rulers of the world, looks at how they are rebelling against Him, at how they are plotting against Him with each other, and God just laughs at them. Because He is in control and no matter what people do, it only plays into the hands of God, into the plans of God, and into the prophecies of the Bible.

This is the second amazing point because of which I find the subject of Bible prophecy both very encouraging as a follower of Jesus Christ, and also liberating, because I don't have to worry. It all plays into the hands of God, according to the plans of God, according to the prophecies of the Bible. God is in total control. This is an amazing concept for me, I hope it is amazing for you too.

3. GOD LOVES THIS WORLD AND THESE PEOPLE THAT HE CREATED IN HIS OWN IMAGE

Thirdly, I would like to point out that God really loves this world, and He loves these people whom He has created in His own image.

Just consider this - God, knows the future before it happens, knows the hearts of all people, and from the beginning knew how these people that He had created in his own image would rebel against Him when they got the chance. God knew about all of the wickedness and all the corruption, all the evil, all the wicked deeds every human was going to possibly execute. God knew all of that, from the very beginning, before those people were born. And yet, in light of this knowledge, God did not choose to hate them, but instead to love them no matter what. Because of this amazing love, God sent us his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross, to pay the penalty for all the sins that people had yet to commit.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins before you were even born, before you committed your sins. That should tell you volumes and volumes about God's amazing love. God foreknew all the wickedness that mankind was going to commit one day, and in spite of that, God loved them and God provided a way to wipe away their sins and forgive them and provide for them an eternal life and an eternal relationship with God himself. God provided Jesus Christ as a redeemer for the world, not just for people, but also for the world.

That's why John 3:16 says:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" (KJV)

This third point, that God loves the world, makes more complete sense if you understand Bible prophecy. God prophesied the arrival of the Messiah. God sent the Messiah because He knew that humanity was going to rebel against Him in such a bad way. So God provided the solution before humanity rebelled against Him.

4. GOD HAS AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL PLANS FOR HIS PEOPLE

God has amazing plans, wonderful plans, mind-boggling plans, plans that no eye has seen, no mind has comprehended, for those who love Him, for those who walk with Him, who choose to believe in Him, and who choose to acknowledge him as their God and Saviour.

Apostle Paul wrote about this extensively in Romans chapter 8.

If you study Bible prophecy as a subject you begin to receive this revelation, you begin to comprehend that throughout the ages, throughout the generations of humanity across the whole world, through many different nations, God is constantly trying to implement His good plans for people. God's love for people is an amazing thing that I still don't comprehend myself and I don't think you do either, because it's such a huge thing that I don't think we are able to comprehend it yet.

Studying the subject of Bible prophecy reveals all of that and shows you that God is in control. Everything plays out into the hands of God and into the plans of God. God loves this world. God loves the people that He created and God wants to save them through His son Jesus Christ. God has good plans for them - for their future, for their families, for their homes, for their cities, and for their countries. That's amazing. That's mind-boggling. You begin to comprehend these things on a deeper level when you study the subject of Bible prophecy.

5. A PROPHESIED TRANSITION: DECLINE OF CHRISTIANITY, RISE OF ISRAEL IN PROMINENCE.

Bible prophecies tell us that this age of grace, the church age, as we call it, will one day come to an end. But before it ends, God will gradually bring the Jewish people back to their homeland. From there God will bring them back to the global arena, to the global high position of God's representatives.

The Bible prophecies clearly show us that there is going to come a time of transition. The church will diminish and move out of the global arena and Israel will come into the picture. The Jewish people will become God's prophetic voice once again, as it was before the church age. For some Christians this doesn't sound like an exciting thing, because they don't understand the Bible prophecies. If you understand the Bible prophecies, you realise that what these developments mean, is the soon return of Jesus Christ, to fetch His bride out of this church. Apostle Paul talked about this subject as the blessed hope. For the Jewish people, it means that their centuries-long yearning to go back to their homeland and become a nation that represents God to the world will become a reality, and that desire was put in their hearts by God Himself.

Again, the subject of Bible prophecy shows that God is in control. He moves nations from one part of the world to another, just as He wishes. He takes them there and brings them back, He lets kingdoms rise and He makes kingdoms fall. God is in control of everything.

6. GOD WILL FULFIL ALL OF HIS PROMISES TO ISRAEL

God will fulfil his promises to the nation of Israel. Some Christians think that Christians are now the spiritual Israel. We don't understand the scriptures that way. Scripture is very clear - we are Gentiles and saved by grace. We don't replace Israel, Israel is still Israel. There are very specific promises that God has made unto them. Many of those promises pertaining to the last days, begin with one key promise, that one day God will bring them back and make them a mighty nation again. That promise was fulfilled, when in 1948 and 1949, Israel came back to their homeland and became an independent nation.

Since that day, until now, one after another God is fulfilling his other promises to this nation, making them a really mighty nation in a part of the world where there is no peace. God will continue to fulfil His promises unto them, including the prophecies that they will be attacked by nations of the world and they will be brought to the end of their prideful self and they will turn to God and say “baruch haba b'shem adonai” - they will call unto the Messiah and ask Him to come.

All of that is prophesied in the Bible and these prophecies will be fulfilled. That is what the Bible prophecies show. That is what the character of God reveals - God fulfils whatever He prophesies or promises. It's going to happen.

7. GOD WILL FULFIL HIS PROMISE TO THE CHURCH AND THE RAPTURE IS IMMINENT. 

This is the most important aspect of all for the believers of Christ. Apostle Paul talked about it extensively - we have a blessed hope. Bible prophecy is a subject of hope. It gives you hope for today and tomorrow.

If you look at the world today, if you turn on your TV, if you look at the newspapers - there is no good news, not anywhere. All they are telling you about is what crises are developing, what disasters are happening, what new political problems are emerging, and what wars are brewing. It's just bad news. But if you study the subject of Bible prophecy, there is one loud message - there is hope for today and tomorrow, for those who believe in Jesus.

What is our hope?

Number 1 - Although the world seems to be going crazy and everything seems to be going downwards and backwards, God is in control. Don't be afraid of anything.

Number 2 - Although the enemies of God are plotting plans against God and his people, don't worry, and don't be afraid. God is in control and those people who rebel against God cannot do anything more than what He allows them to do.

Number 3 - God loves you, because God created you in His own image. No matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like, what language you speak, or what sins you have committed - if there is breath in your lungs, that means you have the breath of God in your lungs. That means God still loves you and He is still waiting on you to respond to His love.

Number 4 - God has amazing plans for you. God has amazing good plans for you today and tomorrow. Turn to God and tap into these plans of His. Enjoy a life of blessed abundance that God will provide for you. When I talk about abundance I'm not necessarily talking about money only, I'm talking about an abundant relationship with God from whom flows every aspect of life, not just money, but every aspect of life flows from God. Without God there is no life, only in God there is life. God loves you and God is waiting on you to respond to His love, so that you can receive from Him the life He has in store for you.

Number 5 - Don't worry, even though the church age is going to come to an end. We're seeing it happen with our own eyes as it has been prophesied in the Bible. Churches are disintegrating, pastors are moving away from the biblical truth, and churches are becoming social clubs. These things are all prophesied in the Bible as signs of the last days. In light of this, rather rejoice, because everything is playing out as it has been prophesied in the Bible. God is in control, you hold on to God. 

Numbers 6&7 - The nation of Israel is going to continue walking according to the prophecies God made about them. They are going to continue to become a mighty nation, only to frustrate the anger of their enemies - enemies who are already named by God in the Bible. Eventually, those enemies of Israel will come and attack Israel. They will bring Israel to the point of total breakdown, but they will not be able to exterminate the Jews. Then the Jews will turn to Jesus and say: “Come save us, oh Messiah!” Then Jesus will come and deliver to the Jews their promised kingdom. Remember, God promised a kingdom to them.

Before we get to the kingdom, before that time, God will take his church, his believers, you and me, out of this world as God prophesied in the Bible. That, we call the Rapture, that we call the blessed hope. After that, there will be seven years of terrible wrath from God on Earth, for the Nations of this world, for their rebellion against God, and for rejecting the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. The nation of Israel will be severely persecuted, only one-third will survive. But that remaining one-third will turn to the Messiah and cry out to him. At the end of those seven years, the Messiah will come, save the nation of Israel, destroy the dominion of Satan, and finally establish the Millennial Kingdom. This kingdom was promised to the Jewish nation all the way back in the days of Abraham, in the days of King David - the prophets of the Old Testament prophesied about this kingdom. For many generations, Jews have been waiting for this kingdom and they are still waiting. Finally, at the end of the seven-year tribulation, the remaining one-third of the Jews will receive this promised kingdom. And that kingdom will last for a thousand years. Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem for a thousand years and that will be a kingdom like no other. It will be a kingdom of true righteousness, true peace, true harmony, with true blessings of God.

My friends, God has good plans for you, God is in control. That is the most beautiful overarching message of the subject of Bible prophecy. Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ.

By Marko Kiroglu

SALVATION & JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

Justification in the presence of God and salvation from the consequences of our rebellious and sinful nature is the need of every person.

In Romans 7 Apostle Paul reminds us that all of humanity struggles with a sinful nature. Paul was one of the most learned men of his time. He knew the law of God and the Holy Scripture very well. And still, he says that he cannot help himself in regards his sinful human nature. In spite of all his learning and service unto the Lord, he struggled with his sinful nature, his sinful flesh. This is true for all of us. 

And I want to remind you of this. Maybe you are struggling with various frustrating sinful things in your life, just like Apostle Paul. You know what is right. You know what God expects of you. You know what the Bible says. But in spite of the fact that you know all of that, you still cannot completely stop doing what is wrong, and still fail to do what is right. That is the frustrating and disappointing point Apostle Paul is making in Romans chapter 7.  At the end of this chapter, after Paul explains his frustration, he then asks who will save him from his wretched body, from his wretched flesh within which he dwells? And that is so true for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. 

If we’re honest with ourselves, we will realise we are exactly in the same place where Apostle Paul was. None of us is any better than him in this regard. The more we read the Bible, the more time we spend with God, the more we learn about the character of God and the standards of God - God’s holiness and what God expects from us. But this knowledge alone cannot automatically transform us. On the one hand we learn about God and His expectations, but on the other hand we still struggle to get there. In fact, the more we try, the more we realise that we are failing. That is the problem we all face just like Paul in Romans chapter 7.

And then we come to Romans chapter 8. In the first verse of Romans 8 we read this: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. (NIV) This verse, in the light of the discussion in chapter 7, simply says that in spite of the fact that we now know what God expects of us and we fail to meet God's expectations, we are not under condemnation because of our faith Christ. In other words, although, we want to do what is right, we cannot keep doing what is right, instead we keep doing what is wrong, even though we hate what is wrong. In spite of this great problem we face with our sinful nature, Romans 8:1 says that there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. 

This fits perfectly in the narrative of the rest of the Bible. Previously we learned - that we are saved by grace, because Christ died on the cross for our sins. Not because of our good works. Not because of our religious perfection. Not because we are doing some things better than other people. No, not at all. Any person is saved through faith in Jesus Christ by the grace of God as we read in Ephesian 2:8-9: 

"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast." 

Furthermore, here is what God says in Romans 10:9-10:

 "if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved."

SANCTIFICATION & GOOD WORKS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

Salvation and justification is by faith in Jesus Christ, not by works or religious perfection. However, on top of salvation and justification by faith, the believer also needs to go through sanctification and doing the good works and deeds that God expects from us. That, my friends, that great and miraculous work of sanctification can only be done by the Holy Spirit. No human, by his own religious efforts and performance can sanctify himself or please God by his good works. Even Apostle Paul could not succeed in doing it as we have seen in Romans 7. 

In Romans 8 from verse 2 to 11 we read that - if we walk by the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us and transforming our hearts, we will start doing the works of the Holy Spirit. 

In other words, sanctification is the work of transformation, or as some would say, "regeneration" that the Holy Spirit performs in believers who would allow Him. 

This is very important. It’s so deep in its essence that it’s difficult to summarise it. Basically these 10 verses (Rom 8:2-11) say that anything good and beautiful that we can possibly do, is actually because of the Holy Spirit that is in us and that is changing our hearts and that is leading us to do what is good and what is beautiful unto God.

In Galatians 5, we are reminded again how all the natural works of a human is sin and rebellion in the light of God's holiness. As we have seen in Romans 7, even after some become a believer, that sinful human nature is still there in total rebellion against God. However, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a believer, fills him and begins the work of transformation in him, only then can he/she begin to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Pay attention to the wording in the verses below, all that is good and acceptable unto God is not the work of human flesh nor human efforts but the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

I want to remind you of Galatians 5:16-26:

"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another."

This is also perfectly in line with what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) and what happened on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Even the apostles and first followers of Christ who walked, talked and even shared a meal with Christ did not have the ability or the power to transform themselves or to be witnesses of Christ until the Holy Spirit came upon them. When the Holy Spirit came, He began the work of transformation (regeneration) in them and also empowered them to be the witnesses of Christ, in other words, to do the good works that God expected from them. The same truth goes also for you and me today. Without the Holy Spirit coming and working in our hearts we cannot experience transformation (regeneration) nor can we produce any good works. Thus all and any good fruit or works a believer produces is not due to his abilities or personal efforts but by the power of the Holy Spirit alone. 

No one, not even the believers of Jesus Christ who are saved and sanctified by faith and through the grace of God, has the ability to please God without the work of the Holy Spirit in their heart. This is important to understand. Nobody can please God by their own religious acts. None of us can do what is right and what is good in the eyes of God with our own efforts, with our own religious discipline or religious rigor. We don’t have what it takes to be able to do that. Instead we will only end up doing what is wrong and what is detested by God. 

But the moment the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and fills us, He starts working in our hearts, gradually, slowly but surely. The Holy Spirit makes saints and servants of God from sinful people who have been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. 

So then, in the light of this truth you can see that, baptism of the Holy Spirit and thereafter walking or living by the guidance of the Holy Spirit is an indispensable part and parcel of the life of anyone who wants to please God and live holy. 

In other words, no true holiness can be attained without the Holy Spirit. Although salvation and justification can be attained by faith in Christ by anyone, holiness and pleasing service unto God can be achieved by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

Is it symbolic or literal in nature?

By Dr. David R. Raegan

Please don’t be deceived by those people who come along and say, “The book of Revelation is apocalyptic; therefore, you can’t understand it.” That’s a bunch of nonsense — just nonsense. I heard that for years. “It’s apocalyptic! It’s apocalyptic!” The word scared me to death. It sounded like a disease.

All the term means is that the book of Revelation is a type of prophetic literature that uses a lot of symbols. Because it contains so many symbols, some people teach the book as if it were a sort of Alice-in-Wonderland story for adults. Part of that approach is to explain away the vivid picture images by spiritualizing them to mean anything the teacher desires. The only limit is the imagination. This is an unsound approach.

Keep in mind that symbols are used for a specific purpose. They stand for something. They have a literal meaning behind them. They were not selected pell-mell by the Holy Spirit when He inspired book, and they do not stand for just anything we may desire.

Take Jesus, for example. In the Bible He is referred to as the “Rose of Sharon” (Song of Solomon 2:1) Now Jesus is not a rose, but the statement that He’s the “Rose of Sharon” communicates something real about Him. It tells us that He’s beautiful, that He’s glorious, that He’s wonderful, that He’s the spiritual aroma of God. He’s also called the “Bread of Life” and the “Fountain of Life.” Each of these symbols is used to emphasize a different facet of His character. Think how improper it would be to refer to Him as “the Tumbleweed of Texas”! That symbol conjures up the image of something that is ugly and rootless, subject to every whim of the wind.

The same is true of symbols all through the Bible. When a symbol is used, always look for the literal meaning behind it. God does not use symbols randomly, just pulling them out of the sky as if they have no meaning whatsoever.

Using First Coming Prophecies as a Guide

If you will look at apocalyptic books in the Old Testament, like the book of Zechariah, you will see that the First Coming prophecies contained in this literature meant exactly what they said. This is an extremely important point because the way in which First Coming prophecies were fulfilled is the best clue to how Second Coming prophecies will be fulfilled.

Let’s consider some examples from the book of Zechariah. The prophet said that the Messiah would come on a donkey and that He would ride into Jerusalem on that donkey. (Zechariah 9:9) Now, I’m sure that some of our liberal theologians today, if they had lived back before the coming of Christ, would have taken that verse and said, “Well, of course, this verse doesn’t mean what it says. This is apocalyptic literature. All apocalyptic literature must be spiritualized. The Messiah certainly isn’t coming on a donkey. That’s silly. All the verse means is that He’s going to be a humble person.” Wrong. The verse meant what it said. Jesus came on a donkey, exactly as prophesied in apocalyptic literature (Matthew 25:1-9).

Zechariah also prophesied that the Messiah would be betrayed by a friend (Zechariah 13:6) for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12). He said the Messiah would be pierced (Zechariah 12:10) and that He would have wounds in His hands (Zechariah 13:6). All these prophecies proved to be literal rather than symbolic.

Concerning the Messiah’s Second Coming, Zechariah said He will come back to the Mount of Olives and the mountain will split in half when His foot touches the ground (Zechariah 14:4). The Messiah will speak a supernatural word, destroying the Antichrist and his forces with a plague (Zechariah 4:12). And in Zechariah 14:9 it says, “On that day the Lord will become king over all the earth.” I believe those words mean exactly what they say.

Accepting the Plain Sense

Another key to understanding the book of Revelation, a very important key, is to accept the plain sense meaning of each passage. Even if you don’t understand it, the best rule of thumb is to just accept the plain sense meaning. My “Golden Rule of Interpretation” that I use throughout the Bible from beginning to end, whether it’s prophecy or not, is this: “If the plain sense makes sense, don’t look for any other sense, or you will end up with nonsense.”

Because I realize that prophetic literature contains symbols, I don’t like to use the term, “literal interpretation.” I prefer the term, “plain sense interpretation.” Yes, there are symbols, but symbols have meaning. And when symbols are used, I look for the meaning of them. Again, if the plain sense makes sense, don’t look for any other sense, or you will end up with nonsense!

Remember, God doesn’t write in riddles to purposefully confuse us. He knows how to communicate. Normally, He says what He means, and He means what He says. Try always to accept the plain sense meaning. If you don’t understand it, don’t worry about it. Put aside what is confusing and hang on to what you do understand. Don’t give in to the temptation to spiritualize a passage to death or allegorize it. It is a serious thing to play loose with God’s Word.

The spiritualization of Scripture is actually a blasphemous act. The reason is that when you start spiritualizing God’s Word, you start playing god, for you can make the Scriptures mean whatever you want, rather than what God intended.

Believing When It’s Difficult

The best commentary I have ever read on the book of Revelation is one called The Revelation Record by Dr. Henry Morris. Right at the very beginning he makes a statement that made me want to shout “Hallelujah!” He says, “The book of Revelation is not hard to understand. It’s just hard to believe. If you will believe it, you will understand it.” What a profound insight! And it’s so true. Don’t forget it.

Accepting the plain sense meaning applies even when you don’t understand the passage. Let me give you an example. In Revelation 9 it says that in the end times an army of 200 million is going to march out of the east toward Israel. At the time that was written there weren’t even 200 million people in the world. Can you imagine the early readers of the book trying to figure out what that meant? Today, one nation, China, can send an army that large against Israel. You see what I mean by accepting what it says even if you don’t understand it?

This is one of the reasons I have always held the writings of C. I. Scofield in high esteem. He is the man who in 1909 produced the very first study Bible — a Bible with explanatory notes.3 He gave a literal interpretation to Ezekiel 38 and 39, concluding that these chapters prophesy that Russia, together with specified allies, will invade Israel in the end times. Commenting on this interpretation, he stated, “I don’t understand it. I can’t explain it. But that is what it says. Therefore, I believe it.”

That statement required a lot of faith in the literal meaning of the Word of God. Think of it — in 1909 Russia was a Christian Orthodox nation and Israel did not exist, nor was there any prospect that Israel would ever exist!

The Impact of Technology

Modern technology has helped us to understand many prophecies that previously have been a mystery. For example, in Revelation 13 it says that when the Antichrist is revealed, he’s going to be accompanied by a person known as the False Prophet. This False Prophet will make an image of the Antichrist, and that image will seem to come alive. People will worship the image. For thousands of years people have had to wonder what was meant by the reference to an image that appears to be alive. Scholars wrote many pages giving the passage all kinds of spiritualized explanations. Today, with the technology that we have, it is not at all difficult to make a robotic or digital image that appears to be alive.

Forty years ago I went into a theater at Disneyland. When the curtain opened, I saw a person who looked like Abe Lincoln sitting on the stage. He got up, walked over to the edge of the stage, grabbed his coat lapels, and proceeded to deliver the “Gettysburg Address.” The person was so lifelike. I thought he was an actor. He wasn’t. The person was a robot.

The Bible says the False Prophet will make an image of the Antichrist that will appear to come alive. I think we should believe the Bible means what it says.

In the same chapter of Revelation, chapter 13, we are told that every person on earth during the Tribulation period will be required to have a mark of the beast (either his name or number) on their forehead or on their right hand in order to buy and sell. For centuries, this was a prophecy whose plain sense fulfillment was difficult to comprehend. But no longer. Today, with the kind of technology that we have with computers and lasers, such a mark is something that is readily possible. Nonetheless, until recently people just had to accept by faith that the passage meant what it said.

Another example is found in Revelation 11 where it says that during the Tribulation two great witnesses of God will testify for three and a half years. They will perform mighty miracles and then be killed by the Antichrist. Their bodies will lie in the streets of Jerusalem for three days, and it says all the people of the world will look upon them. Then, suddenly, they will be resurrected and taken up to Heaven. Needless to say, before the Soviet Sputnik in 1957, that passage was difficult to explain. How could all the world look upon two dead bodies lying in the streets of Jerusalem? Today, there’s nothing to it. All you do is take a TV camera, point it at them, and zap the transmission up to a satellite. Instantly, the whole world can look upon those bodies without any difficulty at all.

Summing It Up

People have spent centuries explaining away God’s Word simply because they did not necessarily understand it. I’m saying take the plain sense approach. Assume that God wants to communicate, that God knows how to communicate, and that God says what He means and means what He says. Believe that symbols stand for something literal, and accept them for their plain sense meaning. You will start understanding the book of Revelation.

Revelation Study Resources

1. An Overview of Revelation multimedia training kit covers the book of Revelation verse by verse.
2. Dr. Reagan’s book, Wrath and Glory, covers the book of Revelation chapter by chapter.
3. Dr. Reagan’s video program, Revelation Revealed, presents a sweeping overview of the entire book of Revelation.

Is Revelation prophecy or history?

By Dr. David R. Reagan

The book of Revelation itself declares that it is prophecy: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy…” (Revelation 1:3). Four additional times in the last chapter of the book the message is declared to be prophetic (Revelation 22:7, 10, 18, 19).

So, the real question should be, “Is Revelation fulfilled prophecy?” I have addressed this issue in an article about Preterism, so I will not go into detail. Suffice it for me to say that everything in the book from chapter 4 on is yet future. The future aspects are introduced in chapter 4 verse 1 where John is raptured to Heaven and is informed that he will be shown “what must take place after these things.”

Those who argue that the prophecies of Revelation have been fulfilled in history can do so only by spiritualizing the book. Where in history was one-fourth of humanity killed in one war? (Revelation 6:1-8). Where is the historical record of 144,000 Jews being suddenly saved and then called for special service in the Lord’s kingdom? (Revelation 7:1-8). Has there ever been a war that resulted in the slaughter of one-third of humanity? (Revelation 8 and 9). Has there ever been a locust invasion, real or symbolic, that resulted in all unsaved people suffering terrible torment for five months while saved people experienced immunity? (Revelation 9:1-11). Where in history are the two witnesses of Revelation 11 or the two beasts of Revelation 13?

I could go on and on, but I think the point has been made. The prophecies of Revelation await fulfillment.

Revelation Study Resources

1. An Overview of Revelation multimedia training kit covers the book of Revelation verse by verse.
   
   
2. Dr. Reagan’s book, Wrath and Glory, covers the book of Revelation chapter by chapter.
   
   
3. Dr. Reagan’s video program, Revelation Revealed, presents a sweeping overview of the entire book of Revelation.

God’s Plan for the Ages

By Nathan E. Jones

Did you know that a whopping 31% of the Bible is God revealing how events will unfold before they happen? Our Heavenly Father wants His children to know what the future holds!

God’s prophetic Word has excited us here at Lamb & Lion Ministries for over 40 years now. And, that excitement will never abate in the years ahead, for the Good News and hope-filled message about our Savior’s return is what energizes our passion for evangelizing.

We want you to be invigorated by that same passion as well! And so, I called my fellow Bible prophecy teacher, Todd Hampson of the Prophecy Pros podcast, and we put a list together to share some of the reasons why we believe Bible prophecy exists. (Many more reasons exist, so feel free to add to the list.)

1. Shows that God Speaks the Truth

Bible prophecy has been given to us to show that God is God. He is the Chief! He is the One in charge. He exists outside of time. He knows everything. And so, whatever God says, you can take it as the truth. That’s why the first reason that Bible prophecy has been given to us is so we can live by that truth.

2. Proves the Bible Is God’s Word

The second reason why God has given us Bible prophecy is to prove that the Bible is God’s word. The fact is that the Bible is the only book ever written that contains genuine, fulfilled prophecies. These prophecies were fulfilled to… the…”T”! Fulfilled Bible prophecy proves the Bible is truly God’s Word and so we can place our faith and trust in it and its Author.

3. Shows God Is in Control

A third reason is to show us that God is in complete control. He is sovereign. That may sound like a big theological word, but sovereign means that God is ultimately in control of every single detail. Bible prophecy puts that fact on display like nothing else.

4. Demonstrates God’s Love

The fourth reason for God giving us Bible prophecy is to demonstrate that God loves us and that He has a plan for our lives. We’re not just floating around on a big spinning orb out in outer space with no purpose and no meaning, as Atheists claim. God has crafted a purpose for every person He has ever made because He loves His children. God has also planned a destination for the faithful. He wants us to live with Him in Heaven and on the New Earth forever. And so, He gives us prophecy to show how world history will end with the faithful living forever with our loving Heavenly Father in the Eternal State.

5. Describes God’s Plan

The fifth reason deals with how skeptics of Bible prophecy misconstrue its prophecies as being too general, or too vague, or too big. But, if you take a closer look, God provides many specific details about His plan for the ages. This plan shows how God is working to bring humanity back into a right relationship with Him so that one day we shall dwell in a blessed time of peace, righteousness, and fellowship with our Creator. Bible prophecy can be very specific and very purposeful, for God explains how His plan will unfold through His prophetic Word.

6. Demonstrates God’s Might

The sixth reason revolves around God’s characteristic of being mighty. The fact that God the Father gave up His one and only Son to die for the penalty of our sins so that those who place their faith in Jesus may be redeemed is truly praiseworthy. The promise that Jesus Christ is going to return one day in might and power to victoriously defeat Satan and his minions and set up His kingdom should make you stand up and shout, “Hallelujah!” Almighty God alone is worthy of our praise and worship, and Bible prophecy shows us why.

7. Proves God Is Worthy

The seventh reason why God gave us Bible prophecy is to demonstrate how big God is and how teeny-tiny we are in comparison. Nobody is like God. Therefore, He alone is worthy of us living our lives trying to please Him through obedience and acts of love. Even though God is far greater than we are, He still has a use for us, and that is to serve and fellowship with Him. Why should we? Because He alone is worthy of our obedience and praise. Bible prophecy points us to that fact.

8. Promises Evil Will Be Punished

The eighth excellent point involves how on this earth, evil often gets away with its crimes. Bad people commit bad things, often without ever facing punishment. And yet, Bible prophecy promises that swift justice is coming. The evil in this world does have an end to it. While we patiently wait for that glorious day, God is mercifully providing humanity this short reprieve to 1) return to Him in repentance, and 2) grab hold of His gracious offer of having a right relationship with Him. Bible prophecy maps out the timeline for that long-desired day of justice.

9. Prepares Us to Get Right with Him

The ninth reason (and it’s a beautiful reason and one that we just love like crazy) concerns how Bible prophecy shows God’s grace. Our Creator lets us know what is going to happen ahead of time so that we can get right with Him. If God wanted to, He could just drop the hammer on everybody because we are sinners, and He is not. We deserve to be sentenced to Hell for our rebellion against our Creator and for breaking His moral law. But, by God’s grace and through His love, our Heavenly Father lets us know ahead of time what He is planning on doing. We know exactly what judgments are coming, as well as exactly what blessings are coming. He grants us the time to prepare and get right with Him.

10. Gives Us Hope

The tenth and final reason in this list (though there are so many more reasons why God has given us Bible prophecy) would be that it is meant to give Christians hope. The Lord wants us to understand how the future will play out. Sure, there are valleys in life we must traverse, and terrifying times are coming like the Tribulation which is hard to digest, but prophecy is meant to give us hope that this evil age will end. Jesus will return as promised to rapture up His Church before the Tribulation begins, then He will defeat evil, and finally He will institute His thousand-year kingdom of peace and righteousness and justice. We gain hope knowing that the Christian’s final destination is to dwell in peace with our Creator forever in the Eternal State.

So, Bible prophecy is meant to give hope to the believer in that we have a great future ahead of us. But, Bible prophecy is also meant to serve as a warning to the unbeliever about the eternal destiny they are facing in the Lake of Fire. And so, the Bible calls us all to repent and accept Jesus Christ and His loving sacrifice so that we may be reconciled with God and share in that eternal hope.

You probably agree that people sure need hope right now more than ever. So much craziness is going on in the world. People need to stop putting their hope in the things of this earth, whether they be political or monetary or whatever, that have provided a false and fleeting sense of comfort and stability. As we quickly approach the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, there is no other time in history more urgent in calling people to put their faith and hope in God alone.

God is perfect. His promises are true. Bible prophecy assures us that God knows what He is doing with our lives and in this soon-passing world. We can have a sure hope in that fact.

If you do not know Jesus Christ, then today is the day to accept Him as your Savior and make Him Lord of your life and so claim that blessed hope. If you already know Jesus as your Savior, then continue to grow in your relationship with Him, exhibiting holy living and practicing evangelism. Start by opening your Bible. And, as we hope you have just learned, don’t skip over the prophetic parts.

A challenge to prepare for His soon return.

By Dr. David R. Reagan

The Bible clearly teaches that society will degenerate in the end times, becoming as evil as it was in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39). The Apostle Paul, speaking as a prophet, says that society will descend into a black pit of immorality, violence, and paganism (2 Timothy 3:1-5). He asserts that men will be “lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure.” People will be “boastful, arrogant, and unholy,” and children will be “disobedient to parents.”

Sounds like the evening news, doesn’t it? In short, we have arrived.

Signs of Coming Persecution

We should be deeply concerned over these developments, not only because we are witnessing the destruction of our beloved America, but because both Jesus and Paul prophesied that when these things occur, the Church will come under attack and individual Christians will be persecuted.

Jesus said that as lawlessness increases, “most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). He stated that in this hostile atmosphere, many professing Christians will “fall away” and will proceed to cooperate in the persecution of their former brothers and sisters in Christ (Matthew 24:10). Paul indicates the same thing when he says that people will be “haters of good” and that they will therefore be “brutal” and “reckless,” reviling those who stand for righteousness (2 Timothy 3:2-4).

We are watching these prophecies come true today before our very eyes, both here in America and around the world. As our culture has secularized and paganized, Christianity, the Church, and Christians have come under increasing attack as “intolerant bigots.” The attacks are going to intensify, and it is going to become increasingly difficult for Christians to stand for righteousness. Jobs will be lost. Careers will be destroyed. Christians will even be sent to prison for speaking out against evils like homosexuality because such pronouncements will be labeled as “hate crimes.”

What then are those of us who love Jesus to do as we face a rising wave of ridicule, harassment, and persecution for our faith? How shall we live for Christ in the end times? Let me suggest a few guidelines.

1) Order Your Priorities — The starting point is to review your priorities and make certain that God is first in your life. Be honest with yourself. Don’t play games. Don’t kid yourself.

Most Christians have allowed their priorities to get very mixed up. Usually, job or career is number one, family is second, and God is third or even fourth behind an obsession with sports or something similar.

Ask yourself this question: If God were to give you the opportunity to make one request, what would it be? Would you ask for money? Power? Fame? Success?

Solomon asked for wisdom, but David asked for something ten thousand times more profound — he asked for intimacy with God (Psalm 27:4). And, because he put God first, he states in Psalm 27 that he did not fear life (verse 1) or death (verse 13). It is also the reason that he is remembered as “the man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22).

2) Stand on the Word — The Bible says that the end times will be an age of deception (Matthew 24:24, 1 Timothy 4:1, and 2 Timothy 4: 3-4). In fulfillment of that prophecy, we are today being bombarded with false but alluring religious systems offered by the Christian cults, Eastern religions, and the New Age Movement.

Most professing Christians are sitting ducks for spiritual deception because the average Christian is not certain what he believes. And even when he is able to articulate a belief, he usually does not know why he believes it. The result is that a Jehovah’s Witness can turn the average Christian into a theological pretzel in two minutes flat.

Anyone can be deceived. If you are to guard yourself against deception, you must get into the Word and stay in it on a daily basis. Also, you must test everything by the Word (1 John 4:1). For Catholics this means discarding doctrines like purgatory that have no basis in the Word whatsoever. For Protestants it means being alert to the twisting of scriptures or the manipulation of verses out of context. On every doctrine, the Bible needs to be searched from Genesis to Revelation to see what is said about the particular topic.

3) Believe in the Power of God — I am convinced that most professing Christians are deists. A deist is a person who believes in an impersonal god who never intervenes in human affairs. According to Deism, we are supposed to cope with our god-given reason, our talents, and the wisdom of the Scriptures. As far as the deist is concerned, at the end of the First Century, God retired, the supernatural ceased, and the age of miracles came to an end.

But the Hebrew Scriptures teach that God never changes (Malachi 3:6). And the New Testament specifically states that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, yes and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

There is no way we can cope with the evil of end time society in our own strength. Anyone who tries to do so will be defeated. Our only hope is to turn to a God who is alive and well, who is still on the throne, who hears prayer and answers prayer, and who still performs miracles.

We must realize that the Bible teaches that we can limit God by our unbelief. This a great paradox. Think about it — although God is all-powerful (Luke 1: 37), we who are powerless in comparison can nonetheless limit His power by our unbelief (Mark 6:1-6). That’s because God is a gentleman. He does not force Himself upon us. If we want to try to cope on our own, He will let us. He responds when we reach out to Him in faith (James 1:6).

4) Persist in Prayer — One of the greatest blessings God has given believers is supernatural communication. God cares for us personally (1 Peter 5:7), and He desires to communicate with us (James 4:8). Because He loves us, He earnestly desires our fellowship (John 4:23).

The tragedy is that most professing Christians seem to be inclined to turn to prayer as a last resort — only when all else has failed and the situation has become desperate. Some of this reluctance to seek God in prayer is due to pride, and thus the Scriptures continually exhort us to humble ourselves (1 Peter 5:6). Others fail to depend on prayer because of unbelief. They either think God doesn’t care, or else they think He is no longer active in history.

But the Bible says “we do not have because we do not ask” (James 4:2). How many blessings of God have you left on the table because you tried to handle your problems yourself? The Bible also says that “the prayers of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16). Do you interpret this to mean that the power of your prayers depends on your righteousness? That is not what it means. If you are truly born again, then you are a righteous person because you are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus (Isaiah 61:10).

5) Rely on the Holy Spirit — Most professing Christians seem to be afraid of the Holy Spirit. This is usually due to a lack of knowledge concerning the Spirit. For example, there is a tendency to write off the Holy Spirit as some sort of impersonal force — like “The Force” in Star Wars.

We need to understand that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is the supernatural presence of God in the world today. He performs a dual role. For the unbeliever, He is God’s Evangelist. He is the one who works on human hearts to draw them to the Cross in repentance. No one is saved apart from the testimony of the Spirit (John 6:44 & 65).

With regard to the believer, the Holy Spirit is God’s indwelling presence to provide us with power and guidance. He is our Enabler. He is also God’s Potter, for one of His basic responsibilities is to daily shape believers more fully into the image of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

One of the ironies of the Christian life is that we cannot serve God in our own power. Rather, the only way we can effectively serve the Lord is by relying on the power of His Holy Spirit who resides within us. It is possible to quench and grieve the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19 and Ephesians 4:30).

The Word calls on us to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This can happen only if we are willing to release the Spirit to become the Lord of our lives. Most of us are content to let the Spirit be resident in our lives. He does not want to be simply a resident; He desires to be president.

Is that the case in your life? Is the Holy Spirit on the throne of your life? Or is He being treated as an unwelcome guest? There is no way you will be able to withstand the pressures of end time society without relying daily on the power of God’s Spirit.

6) Practice Tough Faith — Faith comes easy when everything is going smoothly. When there is good health and prosperity, it is easy to praise the Lord. The test of faith comes when all the circumstances of life turn sour.

God has not promised believers a rose garden. We live in a fallen world. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. The wicked prosper. Justice seldom prevails.

It is easy for the righteous to grow discouraged. This calls for the practice of tough faith — the kind of faith that is not dependent on circumstances. It’s the kind of faith that hangs in there when the going gets tough because of a confident belief that “all things work together for good for those who love the Lord” (Romans 8:28).

God never promises that believers will be immune to suffering. What He does promise is that He will be there to walk through the trials with us. He promises to be beside us when we “pass through the waters” and “walk through the fire” (Isaiah 43:2). And He states that He will be there when we “walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4).

What is the quality of your faith? When life turns sour, do you turn to God, or do you question Him or even curse Him? One of the keys to hanging tough is to learn the promises of God’s Word (like Philippians 4:6-7, 11-13, and 19) and start claiming them in prayer when confronted with the challenges of life.

7) Keep an Eternal Perspective — We are to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:11 & 16). That’s a difficult principle to follow. It constitutes a daily struggle.

It is so easy to get our eyes off the Lord and focus instead upon the world in which we live. The daily demands are so pressing. And one of the greatest of those demands is that we conform to the world — to the world’s language, dress, entertainment, and values.

That’s why we are constantly exhorted in Scripture to consider ourselves as “aliens, exiles, and strangers” who are just passing through this world (Hebrews 11:13 and 1 Peter 2:11). We are told to “set our minds on things above, not on the things that are on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). And we are warned to never fall in love with the world or grow comfortable with it (Romans 12:2 and 1 John 2:15-16). In fact, Jesus said we are to “hate our life in this world” (John 12:25), and His brother, James, said “friendship with the world is hostility toward God” (James 4:4).

What does it mean to hate the world? It means we are to hate the evil world system that prevails in society. We are to hate a system that glorifies violence and immorality and which depreciates the value of life.

As C. S. Lewis once put it, “We are to live like commandos behind the enemy lines, preparing the way for the coming of the Commander-in-Chief.” In other words, we are to live yearning for the day when Jesus will burst from the heavens to bring peace, righteousness, and justice to the earth.

8) Look for Jesus — This brings us to the final guideline I would like to emphasize regarding how to live for Jesus in the end times. The Bible tells us point blank that we are to live “looking for Jesus” (Titus 2: 13).

Most Christians are so caught up in the world that they live thinking about anything but the return of Jesus. This is a sad state of affairs because Jesus’ return is our “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). And His return is imminent.

Another problem is that most Christians know so little about Bible prophecy that they cannot get excited about the Lord’s return. How can you get excited about an event you know nothing about? Ignorance produces apathy.

And apathy about the Lord’s return has tragic consequences. It robs us of an eternal perspective, and it destroys any sense of urgency about reaching lost souls. It also undermines a powerful motivator for holy living.

You see, when a person comes to truly believe that Jesus is returning and may return any moment, that person will be motivated to holiness and evangelism. Regarding holiness, the Apostle John put it this way: “We know that when He appears [the Rapture], we shall be like Him [glorified]… And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him, purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). Regarding evangelism, Peter writes that the only reason Jesus has not yet returned is because “God does not wish that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

A Spiritual Mirror

Paul provides us with a spiritual mirror for end time conduct. He says we are to “deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:12-13).

When you look into this mirror, what do you see? Are you walking in the center of God’s will? Have you ordered your priorities to put God first? Are you standing on the Word of God, testing everything by it? Do you believe in a personal, caring and all-powerful God who hears prayers and answers prayers, and who still performs miracles? Are you relying daily on the power of the Holy Spirit? Are you practicing tough faith, refusing to allow the calamities of life to overwhelm you? Are you keeping an eternal perspective, refusing to get comfortable with this world? And are you daily looking for Jesus? Is the Rapture in your heart? Is “Maranatha!” on your lips?

Resource

Living for Christ in the End Times by Dr. David R. Reagan

Can Bible prophecy give us hope?

By Dr. David R. Reagan

Hope is essential to life. Without it, people descend into deep depression or commit suicide or simply lie down and die.

During the Holocaust, Viktor Frankl, who later became a world renowned psychiatrist, was a prisoner in one of the Nazi death camps. He observed that every year as Christmas approached, hope would sweep the camp that the prisoners would be released on Christmas day. It was an irrational hope, but it was hope. Then, when Christmas would come and go without a release, hundreds of prisoners would just lie down and die. Without hope, they could not live.¹ Frankl concluded, “It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future.”²

A Desperate Need

The world desperately needs hope in these end times. We live in a world of increasing fears — fear of nuclear holocaust, fear of economic collapse, fear of plagues like AIDS, fear of terrorism, fear of war, and — of course — fear of life and of death.

Our nation needs hope. Our economy has collapsed. People are losing their jobs. Houses are being foreclosed. Corporations that have been American icons for over a hundred years are declaring bankruptcy. Retirement funds have been wiped out. Many people are feeling a sense of desperation for the first time in their lives.

Everywhere people are looking for hope, and that includes Christians. Some might respond by saying, “Christians are the only ones who have any hope!” That is true, but the problem is that most professing Christians cannot articulate their hope beyond a vague statement like, “My hope is heaven.”

An Ignored Virtue

I came to this realization one day when I was reading Paul’s great love poem in 1 Corinthians 13. It ends with the famous phrase: “There are three things that remain [or abide] — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

As I thought about those words, it suddenly occurred to me that I had heard hundreds of sermons on faith and hundreds on love, but I could not think of a single one about hope.

At that moment the Lord impressed upon my heart that hope is the most ignored of the Christian virtues. I knew instantly why that is true. It’s because hope is directly related to one’s knowledge of Bible prophecy, and there is no topic in the modern Church that is more ignored than prophecy.

Stop and think about it for a moment. What is your hope? How would you explain it to an unbeliever? Could you get beyond the words, “My hope is heaven”?

My Heritage

During the first 30 years of my life I received almost no teaching about Bible prophecy, and I lived with little hope. If you would have asked me to define my hope, I would have given you a pathetic answer, based more on Greek philosophy than Hebrew theology.

I was taught that if I died before the Lord returned, I would experience “soul sleep.” In other words, I would lapse into total unconsciousness and lie in my tomb until the Lord returned. At His return, I was taught that a “big bang” would occur that would vaporize the universe. My soul would be resurrected, and I would go off to an ethereal world called Heaven where I would float around on a cloud and play a harp eternally.

For me, it was a grim picture. I didn’t like the idea of lying comatose in a grave for eons of time. The “big bang” scared me to death. I was repulsed by the idea of becoming some sort of disembodied spirit without any individuality or personality. I certainly could not get excited about playing a harp forever. In fact, I found that idea downright hilarious.

You see, I grew up in a church that believed it is a terrible sin to play a musical instrument in a worship service. Yet, we were going to play harps in Heaven eternally! It made no sense to me, so I wrote it off as a bunch of silly nonsense.

I had no one to blame but myself because I did not study God’s Word as I should have. When I finally started doing that, and the Holy Spirit began to lead me into a study of Bible prophecy, I started making discoveries about the future that ministered great hope to my spirit. In fact, I got so excited about my discoveries that I started jumping the pews and hanging from the chandeliers, shouting “Hallelujah!” and “Praise the Lord!” People thought I had gone Pentecostal overnight! No, I had just discovered God’s marvelous promises for the future that are designed to give us hope in the present.

The Fallacy of Soul Sleep

The first discovery I made concerned “soul sleep.” I found out it is an unbiblical concept. It is true that when we die, our bodies “sleep” metaphorically, but the spirits of the dead never lose their consciousness.

Jesus clearly taught this in His story about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). When they died, their spirits went to Hades. The rich man’s spirit went to a compartment in Hades called “Torments.” The spirit of Lazarus went to a compartment named “Abraham’s bosom.” On the Cross, Jesus referred to Abraham’s bosom as “Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The two compartments were separated by a “great chasm” which could not be crossed.

In Jesus’ story both men are pictured as fully conscious. They even carry on a conversation with each other. Their souls are not asleep.

Further evidence of consciousness after death can be found in Revelation 7. John has been taken up to Heaven and is being given a tour of the throne room of God. He sees “a great multitude… from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues,” standing before the throne of God “clothed in white robes” and waving palm branches in worship (Revelation 7:9). They are fully conscious as they sing, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:10).

John wants to know the identity of these people. He is told that they are martyrs for Christ coming out of the “great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14).

Here are two scenes in Scripture of people after death who are fully conscious.

Paul’s Affirmations

The Apostle Paul affirmed consciousness after death. In 2 Corinthians 5:8 he wrote that he would prefer to be “absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” He repeated this sentiment in his Philippian letter where he wrote, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). He elaborated on the meaning of this statement by adding that his desire was “to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23). Paul had no concept of lying comatose in a grave for eons of time. Upon death, he expected to be with the Lord immediately.

The Intermediate State

My second discovery was that we are not destined to an ethereal existence as disembodied spirits. Immediately after death both the saved and the lost receive a body that I am going to call an “intermediate spirit body.” I have given it that name because it is a body that is intermediate between our current fleshly body and the ultimate, glorified body that saints will receive at the time of their resurrection.

The Bible does not tell us much about this body except that it is tangible and recognizable. An example of it is found in 1 Samuel 28 where we are told that King Saul, in his rebellion against God, sought the counsel of a witch. She, in turn, attempted to call up her familiar demon spirit. Instead, the Lord sent Samuel who had died some time before. The moment Samuel appeared, both the witch and Saul recognized him.

Another example of the intermediate spirit body can be found in Matthew 17 where the story is told of the Transfiguration of Jesus. This was when His disciples were given a glimpse of His coming glory. As they witnessed this marvelous event, suddenly two people appeared and began talking with them. The two were Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-5).

Additional examples of intermediate spirit bodies can be found in the two biblical scenes I have already mentioned: The Rich Man and Lazarus in Hades (Luke 16) and the Tribulation Martyrs in Heaven (Revelation 7).

Glorification

When Jesus returns, the Bible says He will bring with Him the spirits of the saved (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). He will resurrect their bodies in a great miracle of re-creation (whether their bodies are preserved, rotted, cremated, or dissolved in the ocean). In the twinkling of an eye, He will reunite their spirits with their resurrected bodies and will then glorify their bodies (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16). Then, those saints who are alive will be caught up (raptured) to meet the Lord in the sky, and they will be transformed on the way up (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

All my life I have heard people say, “There are two things in life that no one can avoid: death and taxes.” That statement is wrong. The only thing we cannot avoid is taxes and more taxes. A whole generation of believers will avoid death — the generation living when the Lord returns for His Church. It’s no wonder that Paul concluded this great passage in 1 Thessalonians by saying, “Therefore, comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

What is a glorified body? Paul wrote a whole chapter about the topic in 1 Corinthians 15. He said our glorified bodies will be imperishable, gloriously pure, powerful, and spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Paul further states that the glorified body will be immortal, and as such will no longer be subject to death (1 Corinthians 15:53-55).

The Nature of the Glorified Body

Paul made a statement in his letter to the Philippians that I think provides us with a framework for understanding what our glorified bodies will be like. He wrote that when Jesus returns, He “will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21). In other words, our glorified bodies are going to be like Jesus’ resurrected body.

Now, think about that for a moment. After His resurrection, Jesus had a tangible body that could be touched and recognized (Luke 24: 41- 43 and John 20:27-28). People had difficulty recognizing Him at first, but that is understandable. If you buried your best friend one day, and he knocked on your door the next, would you recognize him? Wouldn’t you assume he was someone who looked like your friend? Once the disciples realized that Jesus had truly been resurrected, they had no more difficulty recognizing Him, even at a distance (John 21:1-7).

So, Jesus had a body similar to the ones we have now. It was tangible and recognizable. It was also a body that ate food. Jesus is pictured eating with His disciples several times, including a meal of fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Luke 24:30-31, 41-42, and John 21:10-13). I must admit that I get excited when I read these accounts of Jesus eating, and also when I read about our eating with Him in Heaven at the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:7-9). I have this fantasy that we will be able to eat all we want in our glorified bodies and not have to worry about gaining weight! (That should be sufficient to prompt many of you to shout, “Maranatha!”)

A Different Dimension

The resurrected body of Jesus was similar to ours in many respects, but there were also some differences. Jesus’ body seemed to have a different dimension to it, for He could pass through a wall into a locked room (John 20:26), and He could move from one place to another almost instantly (Luke 24:30-36). One moment He was on the road to Emmaus, the next He was in Jerusalem, and then He would appear in the Galilee area.

His disciples were so startled and frightened by His ability to vanish and reappear suddenly at another place that they thought they were seeing a spirit. But Jesus countered that idea immediately by telling them, “Touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). When the Word says that our glorified bodies will be “spiritual” in nature (1 Corinthians 15:44), it does not mean we will be ethereal spirits. It says our natural body will be raised a spiritual body, not a spirit. We will still have a body, but it will no longer be controlled by the old sin nature, the flesh. Rather, it will be a body yielded completely to the control of the Holy Spirit.

There is one other thing the Bible reveals about the glorified body that should be a source of great comfort. The glorified body will be a perfected body. That means the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk, and the mute will speak. Those who are mentally impaired will have their minds healed (Isaiah 29:18-19, 32:3-4, and 35:5-6). There will no longer be any pain or death (Revelation 21:4). God will “wipe away every tear,” and “there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

Meaningful Activities

My first discovery was that there is no such thing as “soul sleep.” We remain conscious after death. My second discovery was that we are not destined to be disembodied spirits. We continue to have a body — first, an intermediate spirit body, and then a glorified body. My third discovery was that we are not going to be bored stiff playing harps for eternity. We are going to be engaged in some meaningful activities.

If you are a believer and you die before the Lord returns, you will go to Heaven where you will be involved in worship (Revelation 7:9-14) and service (Revelation 7:15). Admittedly, the Bible does not get specific about our worship and service, but we can be assured that we will find both to be fulfilling and edifying. It could also be that this will be a time of rest, preparing us for the time of vigorous service that will follow, when the Lord returns to earth.

Judgment and Rewards

At the time of the Rapture (most likely before the Tribulation), both the living and dead in Christ will receive their glorified bodies. We will be in Heaven with the Lord during the Tribulation. This will be the time of our judgment, not to determine our eternal destiny, but to determine our degrees of reward. Each of us will stand before the judgment seat of Jesus and be judged as to how we used our spiritual gifts to advance His kingdom (2 Corinthians 5:10). Our works will be judged as to quantity, quality, and motive (1 Corinthians 3:13-15 and 4:5). Some will experience embarrassment as all their works are burned up as worthless (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). Others will receive great rewards.

Some of the rewards will relate to the degree of ruling authority we will be granted during the Lord’s millennial reign (Luke 19:11-27). Others will consist of crowns and special robes. There will be a “crown of righteousness” for those who lived yearning for the return of Jesus (2 Timothy 4:7-8). A “crown of life” will be given to those who persevere under trial (Revelation 2:10 and James 1:12). Faithful elders and pastors will receive a “crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4). Soul winners will be given a “crown of rejoicing” (Philippians 4:1 and 1 Thessalonians 2:19). An “imperishable wreath” will be given to those who exercise self-control (1 Corinthians 9:25). Even the clothing we receive will indicate our degrees of reward. It will in some way reflect “the righteous acts of the saints” (Revelation 19:8).

At the end of this time of judgment, we, the Bride of Christ, will sit down at a banquet table in Heaven to celebrate our union with our Bridegroom, Jesus. The Bible calls it the “marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). It will be a time of unparalleled celebration. The heavens will ring with “Hallelujahs!” (Revelation 19:1-6).

Witnesses of Glory

When the meal is completed, we will return to earth with Jesus (Revelation 19: 11-14). We will be there in our glorified bodies when His foot touches the Mount of Olives and that mountain is split in half (Zechariah 14:1-9). We will be there to shout “Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna to the King of kings!” as He rides down the Kidron Valley on His white horse and approaches the Eastern Gate. We will be there to witness the supernatural opening of that gate as it welcomes Jesus to the holy city of Jerusalem (Psalm 24:7-8):

Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!

Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.

We will be there to shout, “Hallelujah!”
when Jesus is crowned King of kings and
Lord of lords and begins His glorious millennial reign.

The Millennial Reign

During the Lord’s reign, the Redeemed are going to be doing anything but floating around on clouds playing harps. We are going to reign with Jesus over those who are allowed to enter the Millennium in the flesh (which will be those believers who are alive at the end of the Tribulation). Jesus will reign over all the earth from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:1-4) as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). David, in his glorified body, will reign as king of Israel (Ezekiel 37:24). Those of us who will be glorified saints will be scattered all over the earth to assist with Jesus’ reign (2 Timothy 2:12).

Think of it — every person on earth who is in a position of governing authority will be a glorified saint. Some of us will be in administrative positions, sharing in Jesus’ reign as presidents, governors, or mayors (Luke 19:11-27). Others will serve as judges (1 Corinthians 6:3). Most of us will serve as “shepherds,” or teachers, trying to bring those who are born during the Millennium to faith in Jesus (Isaiah 66:18-21 and Jeremiah 3:15).

None of us will serve as legislators because the law will be given by Jesus Himself, and it will be perfect (Isaiah 2:1-4). There will be no abomination known as the Texas Legislature or the United States Congress. Nor will there be any lobbyists or political parties.

The Lord will rule with “a rod of iron” (Psalm 2:9 and Revelation 2:27). The government of the world will be a theocracy, with Jesus serving as both the spiritual and political leader. “He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices” (Zechariah 6:13).

We will be given the blessing of seeing this old sin-sick world flooded with peace, righteousness and justice, “as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). There will be no homeless people or hungry people (Isaiah 65:21-22 and Micah 4:4). Peace will envelope the earth (Isaiah 2:4). The Lord’s reign will be characterized by righteousness, fairness, and faithfulness (Isaiah 11:4-5). “The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to Him. People from every nation will bow down before Him” (Psalm 22:27).

The Eternal State

When the Millennium ends and we move into the Eternal State, the Bible does not go into detail as to what our activities will be. It tells us only three things: we will see the face of God (Revelation 22:4); we will serve the Lord (Revelation 22:3); and we will reign with Him forever (Revelation 22:5).

Seeing the face of God is an exciting prospect, for the Bible says that no one has ever seen His face (Exodus 33:20 and 1 Timothy 6:16). I believe the promise of seeing God’s face means we are going to enjoy intimacy with Him forever. Much of that, undoubtedly will be in the form of worship. I think it also means we will grow in our knowledge of the Lord forever. He is infinite, and no matter how much we come to know Him, there will be just that much more for us to experience. I feel certain that one aspect of this will be the eternal study of His Word. I get excited over all this as I think of singing the Psalms with David and studying the book of Romans with Paul.

As for service, I would imagine, for one thing, our gifts and talents will be magnified and that we will use them to glorify the Lord. Thus, a singer will be able to sing with a perfection and range never before achieved, and a painter will be able to paint with a glory never imagined.

Reigning with the Lord forever implies that we will be reigning over someone. Who that will be, I do not know. Perhaps it will be the mysterious “nations” referred to in Revelation that seem to inhabit the new earth (Revelation 21:24-27 and 22:2).

Our Eternal Home

This brings me to the fourth and final discovery I made when the Holy Spirit led me into an in-depth study of Bible prophecy. I discovered that the Redeemed are not going to live eternally in an ethereal world called Heaven. I learned, instead, that our eternal home is going to be on a new earth. Most Christians are amazed by this truth, which shows how little Bible prophecy is taught in the Church today.

Since the Bible teaches that the current earth is eternal (Psalm 78:69 and Psalm 148:6), I have concluded that the “new earth” will be the current earth renovated by fire. It is true that Peter said that the current earth will be “destroyed” by fire (2 Peter 3:10,12), but in the context, it is clear that he is referring to a radical transformation of the current earth. Earlier in the same passage he referred to the original earth as having been “destroyed” by water, speaking of the Noahic flood. The earth of Noah’s day did not cease to exist, but the flood “destroyed” it in the sense that it radically changed the nature of the earth — tilting it on its axis, splitting the continents apart, laying down the fossil record, depositing the marine organisms that would become petroleum deposits, and creating the ocean depths and the mountain heights.

At the end of the Millennium, fire will be used by God to burn away the pollution of Satan’s last revolt (2 Peter 3:12). In the midst of that fiery inferno, God will reshape the earth like a hot ball of wax. He will refresh it and restore it to its original perfection (Acts 3:21). He will then lower the new Jerusalem down to the new earth, with the redeemed inside (Revelation 21:1-2). Then, He Himself will come to earth to live in our presence eternally! “The tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them” (Revelation 21:3).

Heaven is where God resides. When the new earth is supplied, Heaven will descend to earth as God takes up residence on this new earth. So, it is true that the redeemed will live eternally in Heaven, but Heaven will be on earth.

The Redemption of All Creation

God loves His creation, and He intends to redeem it — all of it — and not destroy it with some mystical “big bang.” Jesus died on the Cross not only to redeem Mankind but also to redeem the Creation. That’s the reason the High Priest in Old Testament times sprinkled the blood not only on the mercy seat of the Ark, but also on the ground in front of the Ark (Leviticus 16:15).

The blood on the mercy seat of the Ark was a symbolic prophecy pointing to the fact that the blood of the Messiah would cover the law of God (the tablets inside the Ark) with the mercy and grace of God. The blood on the ground was a reminder that the sacrifice of the Messiah would make it possible for the curse to be lifted and for the animal and plant kingdoms to be returned to their original perfection (Isaiah 11:6-9 and Romans 8:18-23).

An Unjustified Fear

Many people are afraid of Bible prophecy. They say it is full of “doom and gloom.” That is true for those who have rejected the Lord. But for those who know Him and love Him, there is only good news.

The Old Testament ends with an example of what I’m talking about. It says, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze” (Malachi 4:1). That is bad news. But the very next verse contains incredibly good news for believers: “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves released from the stall” (Malachi 4:2).

Bible prophecy is full of glorious promises that are designed to give God’s people a strong sense of hope as they live as strangers and pilgrims in the midst of an increasingly evil, God-rejecting world. When you read these wonderful promises, you can understand why Paul wrote these words in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

A God of Hope

As this verse indicates, we cannot even begin to imagine the marvelous blessings God has in store for the redeemed. But the very next verse says that the Holy Spirit has revealed those blessings to us in God’s Word (1 Corinthians 2:10). The sad thing is that most Christians are ignorant of those promises and therefore have no idea what Paul meant when he wrote: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

In Romans 15:13 Paul wrote: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Our God is a God of Hope who desires to fill us with hope. If you know Jesus as your Savior, you are an heir to some incredible promises, and if you know those promises and believe in them, you can live in this evil world with hope, joy, and great expectations.

As the world we have built on the dollar collapses around us, let us keep an eternal perspective with our hope fixed firmly on the soon return of Jesus. Maranatha!

Notes

This article is an edited excerpt from Dr. Reagan’s book, Living for Christ in the End Times.

1) Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (New York, NY: Washington Square Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, 1963, revised and updated edition in 1998).

2) Ibid., page 115.

Is the entire pretribulational rapture theology Biblical at all? Is there any Biblical basis for the idea of Jesus coming to fetch His followers from this world before the 7 year tribulation?

Is “Rapture” in the Bible?

Lets start with the word “rapture”  Is this word found in the Bible at all? The truth is no, the word “rapture” is not a in our English Bibles at all? Not even once. Actually the word “rapture” is the English version of the Greek word “Harpazo” which means “caught up” or“snatched away”. The word “Harpazo” is found in the New Testament a few times and translated into English as “caught up” as seen in 2 Cor 12:2, 4; 1 Thess 4:17, Rev 12:5.  However just because the word “Rapture” is not found in the Bible it does not mean that the consept or the theology of rapture is unbiblical. It is just like the theology of trinity. The word “Trinity”  it is not found in the Bible, but a careful and comprehensive study of the Scriptures reveal that God is one person in three forms. We just use the modern day term “Trinity” to express this very important and fundamental Biblical revelation abut the identity of God. Yes, the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible but the theology of trinity is surely in the Bible.

Likewise, the word “Rapture” is not in the Bible but a careful and comprihesive study of the Bible clearly reveals that the rapture is a very important promise of Jesus to His followers and thereby it is an inseparable part and parcel of the Gospel of Jesus. So much so that any understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ without rapture at its climax would be a misunderstanding or an incomplete understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Here are 10 proofs to the Biblical origin of pre-tribulation rapture of the followers of Jesus Christ.

1. Jesus promise to come back to fetch His faithful followers, in other words we can safely say that Jesus Himself promised the rapture as seen in John 14:1-3.
2. Jesus cautioned His followers to be prepared and to eagerly expect to be raputred by Jesus Himself, just like a bride prepares herself and eagerly waits for the bridegroom to be fetched by him as seen in Matt 25:1-3
3. Jesus will come from heaven to deliver His faithful followers from the coming wrath of God that will fall on earth and on those who refuse to believe in Jesus – 1 Thess 1:10, Hebrews 9:28
4. Believers of Jesus are not destined to go throuh the 7 tribulation and suffer the wrath of God on earth and the terrible abuse of the Antichrist’s one-world government. But they are destined to be raptured by Jesus and to live with Jesus forever, just as a bride lives with her bridegroom – 1 Thess 5:9-11.
5. Rapture is presented as a “Great Mystery” and how it will happen is explained in details in 1 Corint 15:51-53. However, for the unbelievers and mockers of the Bible, the rapture still remains to be a great mystery. Once the rapture happens the entire world will suddenly plunge into a great global chaos and will not be able to comprehend what just happened to millions of people. They won’t be able to explain how millions of people just vanished in thin air in the blinking of an eye. Thereby, the rapture event for them will be a great mystery.
6. Furhter details about the timing of rapture and the order of events at the time of the rapture are provided in 1 Thess 4 and 5 proving that the rapture event is an inseparable part and parcel of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact we can safely say that the rapture of the believers is the climax of the church age and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I am confident that any understanding of the Gospel of Jesus without the rapture at its climax is actually a misunderstanding of the Gospel and the Bible.
7. Even more clearifiying and confirming details are given about how and why the rapture will happen before revelation of the Antichrist and the commencetaion of the 7 year tribulation in 2 Thess 2:1-13. This passage of the Bible clearly reveals that the rapture will happen before the Antichrist comes up and establishes his one-world government because God did not destined the Bride of Christ to go throught the oppression of the Antichrist and the wrath of God (1 Thess 1:10, 5:9-11).
8. The 7 Tribulation is the 70th week of Daniel’s 70 weeks and it begins with the agreement between the Antichrist and Israel allowing the Jewish people to build the 3^rd temple (Daniel 9:24-27). Jews will embrace the Antichrist as the true Messiah but only in 3.5 years time, when the Antichrist turns against them, they will discover the truth and realise the great mistake they made. Prophet Jeremiah refers to this time period as Jacob’s hour of trouble in Jeremiah 30:7. This is once again positive proof that the church is not on earth these 7 years are God’s appointment with the Jewish people on earth.
9. Rev 4:1 gives us a glimpe of the exact moment of the rapture of the saints before the 7 year tribulation starts. Later on in Revelation 6 the tribulation begins. This yet another Biblical proof to pretribulational rapture in the Bible.
10. Lastly, during the 7 years of great tribulation on earth (Rev 6-19), church is not on the earth but in the heavens and the Church era saints return to earth with Jesus only in His physical second coming as recorded in Rev 19. However, in this time period, in perfect alignment with OT prophecies such as Daniel and Jeremiah, God is now using Jewish people to proclaim the Gospel as seen in Revelation 7 and 11. Throuh the ministry of these Jewish servants of God, even in time of the great tribulation multitudes of people will give their hears and live to Jesus and for that they will be killed by the Antichrist and they will then  arrive in the Heaven as the martyrs of the tribulation.

By Marko Kiroglu

The Next Big War is Coming Soon

When we take a look at current global events and try to connect the dots with the prophecies of the Bible pertaining to our times, we suddenly begin to realise that there is a big and very significant war coming in the very near future. It is so close that it might actually happen within this year or the next. This war will be so big that you could actually define it as a World War. This coming big war will involve many nations and it will change the world dramatically. The world will never be the same after this war. Its after-effects will even change the spiritual dynamics for millions of people, as well as global politics, and economic and military alliances. The world will be changed radically. I hope you are now really eager to know what war this is? It is the war of Ezekiel 38 - 39. It is the war of Russia and her friends against Israel. 

I suggest that you first read Ezekiel 38 - 39 again to be able to better comprehend what I am about to tell you in this article. 

Who and Why?

Ezekiel 38:1-6 tells us who the nations are that will come together and attack Israel. Although different scholars identify these nations slightly differently, the general understanding among Bible prophecy scholars about who these nations are, is as follows:

• Gog from Magog and the prince of Rosh - Russia and all the Turkic Islamic nations such as Kazakhstan, Kirghistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan etc. These nations were all part of the former Soviet Union, and to this day they still greatly rely on, and remain reliable allies of Russia. 
• Meshech and Tubal -  South of Russia, countries like Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
• Persia - Iran
• Ethiopia and Libya - this also includes modern day Sudan. 
• Gomer -  This could be Germany or Eastern Europe. 
• Tegormah - Turkey. 

It seems that this will be a very large confederation under the leadership of the "prince of Rosh" (Russia). It is also obvious (verse 4-6) that God Himself will drag these nations in a war against Israel to punish them there and to show His glory. However, they themselves will be motivated to launch this war with the intention to plunder the riches and resources of Israel. Seeing the list of nations in this confederacy, and knowing what I know about the doctrine and culture of Islam, I tend to think that the Islamic nations that are joining the war will also be motivated by their hatred of the Zionist nation and their obsession to destroy Israel. It is a globally known fact, that since 1979, Iran has been vowing to wipe the Jewish nation off of the map. This obsession to destroy the Jewish nation is the reason why for many years they have been trying to build nuclear weapons. Although the other Islamic nations may not have been as vocal, the doctrine of Islam, which fuels this hatred of Jews and mandates their total destruction, is preached in the mosques of all Muslim nations. For many centuries both the doctrine and the traditions of Islam have been instructing and preparing faithful Muslims all over the world to unite and kill all the Jews in the end times. Here is a prophetic text from one of the most authoritative Islamic books which is often quoted by Islamic preachers to fuel the hatred of Jewish people among Muslims: 

"The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me come and kill him" (Sahih Muslim 2922; Book 54, Hadith 103). 

Could it be that the Ezekiel 38 war will be the event in which Muslims will try to fulfill this prophecy, which can be found in their own traditions and religious indoctrination?

The aftermath of the War

In the aftermath of this war, by God's intervention on their behalf, Israel will have a very decisive victory. Ezekiel 39 gives a detailed account of how God Himself will destroy all the multinational armies that will come against Israel. After this great victory, Israel will be recognised as a mighty military force to be reckoned with. It is very interesting that Russia's original motivation will be to plunder Israel, but at the end of the war it will be Russia and her allies that will get destroyed and plundered. After this war Israel will probably be the only stable supplier of oil and gas to Europe and will be recognised as a global powerhouse.

This development will make the European Antichrist rather sympathetic and friendly towards Israel in the early years of his global political career. 

In the aftermath of the Gog and Magog war, Russia and all her allies will be left in total disarray following their major defeat, as we read in Ezekiel 39. Along with Russia, the block of Muslim nations will also lose all their military might and suffer great economical loss. However, their biggest loss will be on the spiritual front, as millions of Muslims will desert Islam and embrace the God of the Jews. This I believe correlates with prophecies about the "two witnesses" (Revelation 11) and the 144000 Jews (Revelation 14) who will proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom and multitudes will believe because of their preaching and be saved. This of course will happen during the first half of the great tribulation, after the rapture and I also tend to think that the majority of these multitudes will be Muslims who saw how mighty the God of the Jews is in the recent miraculous victory of Israel in the Gog and Magog invasion.

This detail also shows again that the war will take place either just before or just after the rapture, giving enough time for the defeated people to recognise the power of the God of the Jews, hearing the gospel of the kingdom preached by Jews and then responding positively. 

A new world order

Another major after-effect of the God and Magog war, will be the global political chaos and the power vacuum that the dissemination of Russia and her allies will create within international politics. And consequently, the rise of a European leader to fill that power vacuum, i.e, the Antichrist. Of course, the Antichrist will be very careful with his actions towards Israel, and will be rather supportive of her in his early years. After all, Israel is now a mighty nation that completely decimated the powerful armies of Russia and all of her allies. Furthermore, Israel is now a stable provider of oil and gas to Europe. Thus the rising Antichrist has to be friendly and supportive towards Israel. I believe this is one of the reasons why the Antichrist, although in his heart he will hate the Jews, will sign a 7 year peace treaty with them and give them his support to build the third temple on the temple mount. It seems like the Antichrist will use his political and military might to protect the Jewish nation from any Islamic attack or resistance while they are building the third temple on the temple mount, where today an Islamic mosque stands. Could it be that the mosque on the temple mount will also be destroyed during the God and Magog war, making it possible for Israel to commence their building project just after the war, with the expressed support and even protection of the Antichrist?

Perhaps due to all these personal efforts, the Antichrist will be greatly appreciated and embraced by Jews and eventually invited to the opening ceremony of the temple once the construction is completed. This of course will take place in the middle of the 7 years tribulation. 

The rapture of the Church & the war of Gog and Magog

Prophetically and theologically speaking, the rapture can happen any time. There are no signs or prerequisites to the rapture. Furthermore, only the Father God knows the date and time of the rapture. 

However, as we see signs pointing to the war of Ezekiel 38, we realise that there is very little time left for the rapture to take place. The information in the Bible about the war of Gog and Magog reveals that this war will take place either just before or just after the rapture. 

Firstly, this war will usher in a time of global political chaos and create a power vacuum, which the Antichrist will use to rise and establish his one world government. I am of the opinion that the Ezekiel 38 war will be a cataclysmic event, completely changing the power balance in world politics. It will create the right climate for the rise of the Antichrist and Israel to sign the 7 year peace treaty that Daniel prophesied about (Daniel 9:27). This means the war needs to happen before the beginning of the 7 year tribulation.

Secondly, this war will significantly reduce Islamic resistance to Israel building the third temple. There are two reasons for that. Primarily it might be that the Islamic mosque that is currently occupying the temple grounds might be destroyed during the war and make the temple grounds accessible to Jews to build the third temple. Secondly, the new flourishing relationship between Israel and the Antichrist will ensure protection and assistance from the Antichrist and his European army for the Jews while they are building the temple. This also again places the timing of the war just before the beginning of the 7 year tribulation. 

Thirdly, Ezekiel says that after the war, Israel will have 7 years to gather and burn up the weapons and fuel that will be left behind on the battleground by the defeated armies. This again places the war at least 7 years before the second coming of Christ, which then is again just before or at the beginning of the 7 year tribulation.  

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, if we look at the current world affairs and world politics, it becomes clear that Russia, Iran, Syria, Turkey and other Muslim nations are now becoming more and more impatient with Israel. Iran is still busy building nuclear weapons and it might just be a matter of weeks or months before Iran will have sufficient nuclear warheads available to attack Israel. The Russian economy is badly crippled due to the war in Ukraine and Russia needs a new way to get her hands on hard cash and resources. Turkey has been increasingly hostile towards Israel since 2010 and besides their spiritual animosity, they are also eyeing Israel's oil and gas resources. The Turkish economy was already in a very bad shape, but the recent massive earthquakes has now left Turkey truly destitute. 

Given the above situation, the Ezekiel 38 war might actually break out much sooner than many tend to think. However, if the Ezekiel 38 war needs to happen just before the rise of the Antichrist, and the beginning of the 7 year tribulation, then the rapture of the church might take place either just before, or during, or just after the war, somehow overlapping with the war. In any case, it seems that the time for this big war is approaching fast. That means the time for the rapture of the church is approaching even faster.

What Should You Do?

In the light of the unfolding Bible prophecies all around us, we can clearly see that we are living in the last days and that the end is here. Just as the Bible reveals, the world is on a very fast downward spiral and there is no way to stop or even slow it down. Wars, natural disasters, corruption in all positions of power, increasing shortages of basic needs such as housing, food and fuel, increasing hostility among people and devastating wars that kill many and render millions homeless, total eradication of morality and the rapid rise of a global scale rebellion against God are among the most obvious signs of these last days. 

I liken this world to a sinking ship. It is sinking very fast and there is no way to save it. 

However there is still a way to save yourself. You do not have to sink with the world. You can get saved out of the world. 

There is only one way that that can happen: 

The Bible tells us that "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21).

What this means is that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour will be miraculously saved by God out of this world that is sinking very fast. 

"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom 10:9).

In the light of all of this, the best thing you can do for yourself is to believe in Jesus Christ with all your heart and confess that He is your Lord and Saviour. Thereafter, join a Bible-believing church and get baptised.

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The nature and role of the Holy Spirit in preparation for the return of Jesus.

By Dr. David R. Reagan

One hundred years ago, as the 20th Century began, the Holy Spirit was not alive and well in the Church. Christendom was in bondage to the theology of Deism which held that miracles had ceased, all aspects of the supernatural (such as angels and demons) had been laid to rest, and that God was a grand old man in the sky, best identified as “The Great I Was.”

A Deceptive Doctrine

The Church had been deceived into adopting a theological argument which had the effect of stifling and quenching the Holy Spirit. The argument was based on a statement in 1 Corinthians 13:10 — “… when the perfect comes, the partial [prophecy, tongues, and knowledge] will be done away.” It was argued that the “perfect” was the completion of the perfect, inerrant Word of God. Thus, it was argued, all supernatural gifts of the Spirit, as well as other manifestations of the supernatural, ended with the completion of the New Testament canon around 95 AD.

To this was added the argument that gifts of the Spirit could only be passed along to others by the Apostles through the laying on of hands. Therefore, when the last Apostle died (John in about 95 AD), the gifts ceased.

Flawed Arguments

The arguments were so neat. But they were full of holes. For one thing, they flew in the face of experience. Throughout Church history, there is abundant evidence of spiritual gifts being experienced on the part of the small minority who continued to believe in them. There had also been major outbreaks of the supernatural, as in the camp meetings on the American frontier in the early 1800’s.

The argument revolving around 1 Corinthians 13:10 was faulty because it denied the contextual meaning of the word “perfect.” In context, the word refers to the return of Jesus. This is made clear in verse 12: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then [when the perfect comes] face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully …” The argument also overlooked the clear teaching of 1 Corinthians 1:7 that all the gifts of the Spirit will continue to be operative until Jesus returns: “… you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Finally, the argument about the Apostles passing the gifts along to others was a sham because it attempted to convert the gifts of the Spirit into gifts of the Apostles. The Apostles may have been able to lay their hands on people and pray for them to receive certain gifts, but the gifts came from the Holy Spirit, not from the Apostles. Furthermore, every believer receives at least one supernatural gift of the Spirit at the time of his or her salvation (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). Paul put it this way: “To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

An Important Prophecy

The anti-Holy Spirit mentality of the Church in 1900 also ignored the clear teaching of Bible prophecy that the end times would be characterized by a great outpouring of God’s Spirit. The key passage is found in Joel 2:28-29:

It will come about after this
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

The Church’s position in 1900 was that this prophecy had been fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost in 31 AD and was no longer applicable. It was argued that the “last days” began at Pentecost when the Church was established (Hebrews 1:2 and 1 Peter 1:20). Also, it was pointed out that the Apostles themselves quoted this passage from Joel when they were asked what was going on as they began “to speak with other tongues” (Acts 2:4).

More Flawed Arguments

But again, these arguments about Joel 2:28-29 ignored the context of the passage. Note that the passage beings with the words, “It will come about after this…” After what? If you back up and read verses 18 through 27 you will see that the chapter is talking about the regathering and resettlement of the Jews in the land of Israel — something that did not occur until the 20th Century.

Also, the preceding verses speak of the outpouring of the Spirit symbolically as the “early and latter rain,” referring to the two rainy seasons of Israel. In other words, the prophet was saying there will be two great outpourings of the Spirit. The “early rain” was at Pentecost and continued throughout the early history of the Church, as recorded in the book of Acts. The “latter rain” would immediately precede the return of the Messiah in judgment. This is made clear again by the passage itself in verses 30-31: “And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” This is classic language about the Second Coming of the Messiah.

Yes, the Bible speaks of the Church Age as the last days: “He [Jesus] was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you” (1 Peter 1:20). But it also speaks of the Lord’s return as the last days when it says Christians are being protected “by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time… at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:5, 7).

We have been in the “last times” since the Day of Pentecost. We are now in the latter part of the last times.

Joel 2:28-29 was fulfilled in part on the Day of Pentecost. Its total fulfillment was yet future in 1900, awaiting the “latter rain” that would be one of the signs of the Lord’s soon return.

A Move of God

The Church had its jaw set against the Holy Spirit as the 20th Century began. But God was ready to burst on the scene with a great move of the Spirit in order to prepare the way for the return of His Son. That move began at a poverty-stricken school in Topeka, Kansas in January 1901 when a student named Agnes Ozman received the gift of tongues. A year later a great Holy Spirit revival broke out in the English area of Wales, led by a remarkable young man named Evan Roberts. Then, in 1906, the Spirit fell with great power on a home meeting in Los Angeles led by a black preacher named William J. Seymour.

At Seymour’s meeting, spiritual gifts were manifested, spectacular healings occurred, people were “slain in the Spirit,” and sinners were saved. The meeting grew quickly and had to be moved to a dilapidated building on Azusa Street. It continued for almost four years, with preaching every day, three times a day!

The Azusa Street meeting gave birth to the Pentecostal Movement. The latter rain had begun. But it was only a sprinkle in terms of its impact on Christendom at large. The Pentecostals were written off as “Holy Rollers,” and their religion was considered appropriate only for the superstitious and uneducated. But they were paving the way for a rediscovery of the Spirit.

The Latter Rain

The latter rain did not become a downpour until after the regathering of the Jewish people to the land of Israel (1900-1945) and the re-establishment of the state (May 14, 1948). Then, just as Joel had prophesied, the heavens opened and the downpour began — first, with the anointing of Billy Graham’s ministry in 1949 and then with the emergence of the Charismatic Movement in the 1950’s and 60’s.

Today, much of Christendom is caught up in the Third Wave Movement that grew out of the Charismatic Movement in the 1970’s and 80’s. It is made up of churches that fully recognize the ministry of the Holy Spirit, including the significance of Spirit-led worship, the continuing validity of spiritual gifts, the reality of spiritual warfare, and the importance of a Spirit-filled life in winning that warfare. However, unlike the Pentecostals and Charismatics, the Third Wave Movement does not put an emphasis on the gift of tongues as the sign of having been baptized in the Spirit.

Confusion About the Spirit

The 20th Century has been the century of the rediscovery of the Holy Spirit. Yet, widespread ignorance and confusion about the Holy Spirit still characterizes the Church. A 1997 poll by the Barna Research Group showed that only 40% of Americans believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit (as opposed to 90% who believe in the existence of God). But what was even more stunning was the response of “born-again Christians.” More than 5 out of 10 born-again Christians (55%) agreed that the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God’s presence or power but not a living entity! It appears that Christians have been brainwashed into believing that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal power like “The Force” in Star Wars.

Why is there so much continuing confusion about the Spirit? I think it relates in part to the self-effacing role of the Spirit. As we will see, one of the primary roles of the Spirit is to point people to Jesus as Savior and Lord. He does not draw attention to Himself. He works behind the scenes. Another factor relates to the many symbols that are used of the Spirit in Scripture — things like wind, rain, and fire. These symbols seem to communicate an impersonal force.

Our Creator God has been revealed to us as our Father. That is a concept we can grasp. Jesus took on a human body and lived among us. We have biographies of Him by eye witnesses. But for most people, the Holy Spirit is a shadowy entity difficult to grasp. Trying to get hold of the concept for many is like trying to nail jello to a wall.

The Identity of the Spirit

So, let’s look for a moment at the identify of the Holy Spirit. The first thing you need to keep in mind is that the Spirit is never referred to as an “it.” The Spirit is not an inanimate object. The Spirit is not, for example, the Bible, as some contend. The Spirit is intimately related to the Bible because it was the Spirit who inspired the biblical writers (2 Timothy 3:16), but the Bible is the “sword of the Spirit,” not the Spirit Himself (Ephesians 6:17). The Spirit works through the Bible to draw people to Jesus, although the work of the Spirit is not confined to the testimony of the Scriptures. The Spirit can witness directly to our spirits (Romans 8:16).

The Holy Spirit is a person. The Spirit is always referred to directly in the Scriptures as “He.” Referring to the Spirit, Jesus told His disciples that when He left, He would send a “Helper.” (“Paracletos” in Greek, meaning a helper or intercessor.) Jesus added, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:7-8). To Jesus, the Holy Spirit was “He” not “it.”

The Bible says the Holy Spirit can be lied to (Acts 5:3-4). It also says the Holy Spirit can be quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19) and grieved (Ephesians 4:30). These are characteristics of a personality. You cannot lie to a chair, or quench a wall, or grieve a light fixture.

The Holy Spirit is the supernatural presence of God in the world today. Paul put it this way: “The Lord is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Luke stated that the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:6-7). Peter equated the Holy Spirit with God the Father when he told Ananias and Sapphira that they had lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3) and then added, “You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:4). Remember that old axiom in geometry: “Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.”

The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons who constitute the One God. That’s the reason we are told to be baptized “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). As such He is co-equal to Jesus and the Father, but He plays a different role.

The Work of the Spirit

This brings us to the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has two roles — one toward the unbeliever and another within the believer. With regard to the unbeliever, the Holy Spirit is the Father’s Evangelist. With regard to the believer, He is the Father’s Potter. Let’s consider these two roles in detail.

Jesus summarized the work of the Spirit regarding unbelievers. He said that the Holy Spirit would “convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8). Specifically, the Spirit convicts unbelievers of their sinfulness, impresses upon them the righteousness of Jesus, and points them to the judgment of Satan (John 16:9-11). The Bible makes it clear that no person can come to Jesus apart from the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Jesus put it this way: “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). And how does the Father draw unbelievers to Jesus? Through the Holy Spirit who bears witness of Jesus as the Father’s only begotten Son (John 15:26 and 1 John 5:7).

When a person responds to the witness of the Spirit by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, he is “born-again” (John 3:3), and the Father gives that person a very special birthday present — the Holy Spirit! That’s right, the Holy Spirit ceases to be on the outside drawing the person to Jesus. Instead, He moves inside the person and takes up residence within him (Romans 8:9). And when He does so, His role changes.

The Spirit in the Believer

Within the believer, the Holy Spirit is the Father’s Potter. His role is to shape each believer into the image of Jesus (Romans 8: 29 and Galatians 4:19), a process which the Bible refers to as sanctification (Romans 6:22 and 2 Thessalonians 2:13). The Spirit does this by first of all gifting us. Each person, when he or she is born-again, is given at least one gift of the Spirit, and sometimes more than one (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). And if we are good stewards of our gifts, using them to advance the Lord’s kingdom, we may be given additional gifts during our spiritual walk with the Lord.

The Spirit also accomplishes His work of sanctification by guiding us (Romans 8:14), comforting us (Acts 9:31), strengthening us (Philippians 4:13 and 1 John 4:4), praying for us (Romans 8:26-27), encouraging us (Romans 15:5), defending us (Luke 12:11-12), and illuminating us as we study the Word (1 John 2:27).

The work of sanctification is life long. It continues until we die or we are raptured to meet the Lord in the sky. The Holy Spirit wants to fine tune us into the image of Jesus because the Father is interested in nothing less than perfection in our lives (James 1:4 and 1 Peter 1:13-16). Yes, He is a God of grace who will accept us in all our imperfections, but He desires that we be perfected (Matthew 5:48).

Think of it this way — when a child takes his first step, his father rejoices. But no father is going to be satisfied with that one step. He will not be satisfied until the child can walk and then run without falling. For this reason, Christians are commanded to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

Are you filled with the Spirit? Have you been baptized in the Spirit? Are you walking in the power of the Spirit?