|
|
Prophecy Special - 9/11 - The Final Solution of God, No. 12
PS12© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (2001)
We direct your attention to our series on the terrorist events in the United
States: The Final Solution of God, segment number 12. It is a presupposition that we operate upon that God exists. Furthermore,
He has revealed Himself, and that revelation is to found only in the Bible. In that Scripture, we find His nature; His character; His
thoughts; and, His will for mankind. Only in Scripture is where we find that. Man is by nature a sinner; he is in opposition to God's ways;
and, he lives in violation of the moral code of God. That is the natural condition of the human race.
Man's Nature
The apostle Paul pointed this
out in Romans 3:10-18: The apostle says, "As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one." By that he means
absolute righteousness as good as Jesus Christ, and thus competent and fit, qualified for heaven. "There is none righteous. Not even
one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There
is none who does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is
under their lips, whose mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in
their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before them."
This describes the natural condition of man.
But the people who are characterized in this way don't know that that's their condition. They think that they are something a whole lot
better than they are. But the sin nature that originated in the Garden of Eden has contaminated and brought us all down, so that our
orientation is completely away from God. If we do not override that with the knowledge of the Word of God as a believer, we will continue
in that condition all our lives.
The mind of God cannot be discerned by the finite sin-contaminated reasoning capacity of man. That's where
people make their mistake. They think that by their smarts, they can find their way to what God thinks, or at least what He should
think. The apostle Paul pointed this out right in 1 Corinthians 1:18-21. The apostle
Paul says, "For the Word of the cross (that is, the gospel message) is to those who are perishing foolishness. But to us who are being
saved, it is the power of God."
God's Nature
Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer of Dallas Seminary, used to tell us in class that anytime you asked a human being
to design a way of salvation, they will inevitably come up with one of good works, and qualifying themselves for heaven.
That is impossible. The Word of God says that you cannot be saved by human wisdom. The gospel is a gift from God. People consider that foolishness.
But the apostle says in verse 19, "For it is written, I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set
aside. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. God was well-pleased through the foolishness
of the message preached to save those who believe."
That's the secret: Preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. It's very hard, even in
churches, to find a message that isn't inviting Jesus into your life or giving your life to Jesus--all these emotional cutesy pop
Christianity phrases that are totally unbiblical. The jailer asked, "What must I do to be saved?"
Paul said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Believe the gospel. The world comes up with its own way of salvation.
It's logical; it's reasonable; and, it's wrong. There are people sitting in Hades (the holding pen waiting to enter the lake of fire) who
are discussing: "how did we miss it? We were the smartest people around. We knew we had this figured out. We missed the way of God
completely."
That's why you, as a Christian, can miss the way of your maximum spiritual life. The apostle Paul says, "What will it profit
a man (that is, a believer) if he should gain the whole world and lose his life?" He wastes the time of his opportunity to invest his life
for eternal riches. What will he have gained? Nothing. The only way you're going to gain a life that's going to be rewarded in heaven
because of good work service is because the pulpit has done its job. Christians have a right to know what God thinks. They are
not going to get it unless somebody is explaining it from the Word of God--not from the thinking of men, or from emotionally giving
people a kick so that they think have something from God. It is only by means of a revelation from God Himself, which is recorded in
an errant Bible, a Bible of no mistakes. That is the only way that man can know Him; know how to go to heaven; and, know how to prosper once
you are in heaven.
It is quite commonplace for people to choose to deny the inerrancy of the Bible.
The reason people choose to deny the inerrancy of the Bible is not because they have some evidence to say, "Well, do you see this geographic
mistake? Do you see this scientific mistake? Do you see this historical mistake?" It's not anything like that. It's just that if the Bible is the
final authority, then there's nothing more to say. There is no debate for human reason to come up with the final authority.
That was the problem
for Cain. Cain had as clear a message as his brother Abel did. Abel said, "This is the way you approach God." Cain said, "That's dumb. By killing;
slaughtering; and, letting the blood out of an animal? I'm a farmer. I'll bring you the best of my produce. That seemed quite reasonable. Cain had
an IQ at the highest level possible. The human race had not degenerated then. But he was plumb wrong. He rejected the final authority,
the revelation of God. From the time of Cain, sinners have become a joke in their arrogance about speaking with authority for God.
You would think that there would be some natural wisdom to say, "I can't speak with authority for God. I have to let Him
tell me. I have to hope that I go to some assembly of believers where the preacher will give me what is in that Scripture that God
has revealed for my edification.
To God, yes, the arrogance of man to speak for the Almighty is a joke. Psalm 2:1-6: "Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising
a vain thing?" This means people who were trying to figure out how to speak for God. "The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers
take counsel together." Oh, there's nothing like sharing your mutual ignorance about spiritual things to come up with reality. "The rulers
take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed." That is, Jesus Christ.
"Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us." We don't want God telling us what to do. We are not going to be
restricted by some biblical fundamentalist literal interpretation of the Bible.
"He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury.
But as for me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My Holy Mountain."
God sits in heaven, and He laughs at the pretensions and the arrogance
of human beings to speak for God and to establish their way to heaven and their way of life that's going to be acceptable and good
for society. "And the Almighty laughs," and He says, "Yes, I have a way of peace. I have a way of prosperity. It is My Anointed, My Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ that I have established in Zion. He is the One who will bring all these things that you hoped to bring about without
Him.
The Small Gate
In Matthew 7, the Lord himself looked upon this idea of human beings speaking for God, and He made it
very clear. Matthew 7:13-14 is the passage for the picture on our evangelism brochure of the narrow gate.
This was the basis of our artist designing that picture. Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate
is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter into it." There is a wide gate and a broad highway
that'll take you into the lake of fire, and many get into it. They do it by their human reasoning. Verse 14 says, "For the gate is small
and the way is narrow that leads to life,
and few are those who find it. That is a chilling statement. "The gate is small."
What is the gate into eternal life? John 10 tells us that
Jesus is the gate into the sheepfold. What is the way that is narrow to eternal life? John 14:6 tells us that Jesus is the way.
So it is Christ who is the gate. It is Christ who is the narrow way. Anybody (any religious group) that rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as
a substitute for his sin, is doomed to the lake of fire. Because man likes to make his own way by the human race
(from Adam to the end), only a few are going to find it. Why are all of you so smart? How did we make it?
Election
Well, there's another element
in it. God says, "I've chosen you. Nobody deserves to go to heaven, but I pointed to you and said, 'I want you in my family.'" He suddenly
took the scales off your eyes, and you said, "Yes, I see it. I can believe it."
Satan's Nature
The world today is under Satan's permitted leadership. God is permitting him to run his course. Satan is creating a
way of life exalting the evil of man's sin nature, and in the process, persecuting; ridiculing; and, silencing the voice of the real
truth, the biblical Christianity. That's why the Bible calls the devil the god of this age. Satan today seeks to create a world of
peace and prosperity while rejecting Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace, and the Lord of Lords. He seeks, in fact, to destroy all opportunity
for God to keep his promises by destroying all the Jews on the face of the earth. Everything that is revolving around the events
of our day, it's all about the Jew; it's all Israel; and, it's all Satan's objective to get rid of the Jew. If there are no Jews living on
the face of the earth, how can God have a millennial kingdom with a Jewish nation as the leading nation, and Christ ruling as King of Kings
and Lord of Lords over all the earth from Jerusalem?
Well, the end result of this antagonism, this attempt to save Satan to create peace and prosperity without Christ, and the attempt
to destroy the Jewish people, will be the seven-year tribulation era of the wrath of God on mankind, which is in the future (and not too
far distant, I suspect). This wrath of God, as we have shown you, was spelled out clearly in the seal judgments; the trumpet judgments;
and, the bowl judgments. This is God's final solution. That's why I called this series The Final Solution of God.
Israel
This has a broader meaning.
Some of you historians probably have picked it up. When the Nazis under Adolf Hitler had their final meeting, a major conference, on what
they were going to do with the Jewish population of Europe, they came up with what they titled The Final Solution. The Final Solution
included the concentration camps; the death chambers; the gassing chambers; and, the crematoriums. If you've ever visited a place like Auschwitz
(one of the primary ones), it is a sobering experience to walk through those rooms and to see what was done in this vast destruction.
It was the attempt once more to frustrate the plan of God by destroying all the Jewish people. This is why the problem is raging today around
Israel. It's a little sliver of land on the Mediterranean that should not be significant for any reason. But it is, because they are the
people of God. It is at the heart of God's plan. That plan has been revealed in prophecy.
Prophecy
My point is that either prophecy in the Scripture is true, or it's a so-so operation. But if the Scriptures are really inerrant, and if
the Bible is really true, then prophecy has to be taken seriously. That is why we know where history is going. Satan, as always, is
going to play his trump card in the angelic warfare with God by promoting religion to serve his cause--religion instead of a relationship
with Jesus Christ--salvation by a gift of God through faith in Christ alone. The terror events currently in the United States
are but a preview of the horrible judgments to come which are predicted in Scripture for that tribulation era. This future seven years is
all that's left of the 490 years that Daniel was told is left for God's dealing with the Jewish people to fulfill
all the covenants that will make the Jews the leading nation of the world, and their Messiah ruler over all nations. This was clearly
predicted to Daniel, the prophet. As with all of God's prophetic pronouncements, these will be fulfilled literally in detail. Never
has there been a prophecy in Scripture which was not fulfilled in detail.
Hezekiah
We have directed your attention to King Hezekiah of the
Jews' Southern Kingdom of Judah. Hezekiah was a man who lived a godly life. He was a refreshing change for most of those kings. Hezekiah
destroyed the places of idol worship. He directed the Jews back to the Law of Moses (to Scripture) to find their way of life.
Hezekiah in time came under attack of the leading world power of the time, Assyria. Hezekiah received a letter from Sennacherib. It
was in the form of an ultimatum. Hezekiah took the letter into the temple, and he prayed to God for guidance. He spread it out on a
table and said, "Lord, what am I going to do? There's no way we can meet this tremendous military force." God made a prediction through
the prophet Isaiah.
God said, "Hezekiah, I'm going to save you. I'm going to take care of Sennacherib. I'm going to take care of Assyria. You
can depend upon Me." That was the promise of the Word of God. Sure enough, the next morning, 185,000 crack troops of the soldiers
of the Assyrian army were killed during the night by the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ who then was called the Angel of the Lord.
Sennacherib returned to his capital in Ninevah, where he was shortly assassinated by two of his sons in 681 B.C. Biblical prophecy is always
fulfilled. The promises of God are always going to be kept. If you want a good life, live it by those principles of the promises of God.
Hezekiah had experienced the faithfulness of God to His promises in his great victory over the Assyrians.
Hezekiah even had another experience
to show the reality of God. He became mortally ill. He went to God and he pled with him. He said, "You know I've been faithful.
You know I've been on the line for you. You know I've clean up the idolatry. You know I've listened to Isaiah the prophet, and
I pointed the people back to the Word of God." God said, "Yes, you're right. I'm going to grant you by my grace 15 more years of life."
With all this background, there were two things that were true about Hezekiah. First of all, Hezekiah knew that he drew his next
breath by the sovereign will of God. When the time came that God says, "That's his last breath," he will die. So all of us are immortal
for the span that God has allotted, unless we short circuit it. (As Ecclesiastes says, "Why would you shorten your span of life?")
But until that span has been run, unless we override it, the next breath will come.
So Hezekiah knew now that he had 15 more years
of breathing, and then it was "Adios, muchacho." There was no question about that. God keeps His Word. It is always true.
He also had another
thing. He had been blessed with a great victory over a superior enemy, a world power at the time. He had the backing of all of Satan's
world system, and by the grace of God (not by his own prowess or his own military cleverness), Hezekiah won out. God had done this. But
then, he forgot a basic principle which the apostle Paul enunciated in Romans 12:3:
"For through the grace given to me." Here, this great persecutor of Christians, blinded to who Jesus
Christ was, really knew what it was (the grace of God) to have your eyes opened. "For through the grace given to me, I say to every man among
you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each
a measure of faith."
Do not ever think you're more than you are. What are we? At best, we are sinners saved by the grace of God. We are goose eggs to begin
with. As the apostle Paul says, "I am what I am by the grace of God." If I am of anything of significance, both in time and eternity, it is
because God has done it. This is a very easy thing to read and a very easy thing to say, but it is really tough. When things go good;
you're an achiever; you're an accomplisher; you've become prospered in some way; and, you get notoriety, it's tough not to begin
to think you're something. Hezekiah, who was given an extended lifespan, and who won a victory against a world power when there was
no way he could win, forgot who he was, and where his part lay in God. He did not respect this teaching of Scripture
presented to him by Isaiah the prophet the communicator of God. What he took from what Isaiah taught
him of the victory through God, he adjusted it mentally. He fixed it up so that he came out looking like he was something. He was very
confident and very pleased with himself.
It is so easy to take the Word of God and to accomplish what we want to do with it. This is why
Jesus said, "There is nothing hidden which at the Judgment Seat of Christ will not be made known and which will not be revealed.
There will be no questions which will not be resolved, and the issues of the truth of God will be known to everyone.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, the apostle Paul said, "But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you
and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction." He's talking about your pastor-teachers. "And that you esteem them very
highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another." Why would you esteem the pastor-teacher in the pulpit? Because
he has fame? Because he has fortune? Because he has a big name in the religious world? Because he has a mellifluous voice? Because
he is good with words. Because he has clever stories? Because he is dramatic? No. It's because of his work. It's because this guy knocks
himself out for you by studying the Word of God; by doing the preparation; and, by lining up the realities of life with the Word of God so
that people can walk out of that service and say, "I know something about the mind of God that I didn't when I came in. I have a relationship
now that I did not have before I came in." If all you've got is an emotional joy and an emotional cake,
you have nothing.
Hezekiah's Folly
That's what Hezekiah did. He forgot to respect the instruction and leadership of Isaiah.
As so many Christians do, he thumbed his nose at his teacher in the Word. So we come to Hezekiah's folly. Hezekiah, in arrogant
self-confidence, was secure now against any threat from Assyria. His great victory became known to the other nations
around him. The word was spread: "Have you heard what happened in Israel? Have you heard the great victory of Hezekiah?" His fame led
to self-pride.
Dr. Harry Ironside, formerly of the Moody Memorial church, used to come for two weeks of Bible lectures to the students at Dallas Seminary.
One time, when he and Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer were both in their 70s,
Dr. Ironside was saying something nice about Dr. Chafer. Then Dr. Chafer said something nice about Dr. Ironside. Then Dr.
Ironside would say something else nice about Dr. Chafer. And Dr. Chafer said, "What is this? Two worms complementing each other?" Dr. Chafer
really was a man of substantial accomplishments, skills, and discernment. He knew where the Word of God should go. He was extremely
disliked in the religious community. But he created an institution that provided Bible expositors par excellence that has ever been
had anywhere in the country. Chafer never forgot that he was just one of the worms through whom the dirt has to pass and be cleansed
by the Word of God.
That's what Hezekiah forgot. Babylon was not yet a great power. Merodach Baladan (the King of Babylon)
had been deposed by Assyria. He sent an envoy to Hezekiah to find out how Hezekiah defeated a power like the king of Assyria.
The Babylonians had their eye now on taking over world domination.
Hezekiah could have told the envoy about the true God of heaven who gave the victory over the Assyrians, and that this came
about because he took the threat (the ultimatum letter); he spread it out before God;
and, he went in prayer. So if you want to have victory in combat, you pray about it;
you get the guidance of God; and, you have the power of God directing the operation.
But Hezekiah did not do that.
Instead, his pride led him to take personal credit for his own genius over this victory. He did this, furthermore, by showing off his
gold and silver and all the weapons that he had in his storehouses by which (he said) he had won this victory. He had the money; he
had the smarts; and, he had the weaponry. Here's what it was. He showed them his strength. He took them everywhere in Jerusalem. He showed
them all of the things that we would consider military secrets. The Babylonians are taking all this in, wide-eyed; ears open; and, memories
recording.
The year was 700 B.C. And Hezekiah showed it all to the Babylonians.
2 Kings 20:12:
"At that time, Berodach-baladan, a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah
had been sick. Hezekiah listen to them and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and
the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his domain, that Hezekiah
did not show them.
Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, 'What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?' And
Hezekiah said, 'They have come from a far country, from Babylon.' He said, 'What have they seen in your house?' So Hezekiah
answered, 'They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.' Then Isaiah said
to Hezekiah, 'Hear the word of the Lord.'"
Now here comes prophecy. Is this for real? Is it something that Hezekiah should worry about? Whenever somebody
tells you, "Here is the Word of the Lord," that puts you on guard and on caution.
"'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day shall be carried
to Babylon. Nothing shall be left,' said the Lord. 'Some of your sons, who shall issue from you, whom you shall beget, shall be taken
away and they shall become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.'" That's how Daniel ended up there. "Then, Hezekiah said to Isaiah,
'The Word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.' For, he thought, 'Is it not so, for there shall be peace and truth in my days.'"
Hezekiah (always a manipulator) does admit that was not a smart thing to do, to expose his military potential and his wealth and
all that attractive potential for the Babylonians to desire.
But he did believe the promise of 15 more years of life. So he figures it up and he says, "I'm home free. Whatever it is, whatever this
disaster is going to be is not going to be in my time." That's right. The prophet says it will come in the time of your sons. Is prophecy
for real? Is there going to be a seven-year tribulation period? Is there going to be a multiplicity all over this earth at one time of
what happened on 9/11 so that it is beyond human control and people are so in fear that they
call upon the mountains to fall upon him and crush them?
Isaiah recorded this same event in
Isaiah 39:1-2, "At that time, Merodach Baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah. He had heard that
he had been sick. Hezekiah was pleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and
his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his domain that Hezekiah did not show them."
So now he is faced with the fact that there will be peace in his time. This is because
he's got that 15-year span. Of course, that does remind us of Prime Minister Chamberlain of England after he had his Munich
meeting with Adolf Hitler's Nazis about giving the outer edges of Czechoslovakia to Germany, and Hitler said, "This
will be my final territorial demand." There's that picture that
we all remember of Chamberlain getting off the plane; standing on the platform; waving that signed piece of paper; and, saying, "We have
secured peace in our time."
This is the same thing that Hezekiah was falling back upon, but the prophecies of
God are going to be fulfilled. The judgment of God upon Hezekiah's prideful folly was delivered then by Isaiah himself.
When he spoke, it was going to happen. Isaiah 39:3-7 repeats the condemnation and the fact that all of this was going to
take place.
So God predicts that in the future Babylon will be motivated to attack Judah on the basis of what they have seen. What Hezekiah
should have done would have been to welcome them and to have said, "Yes,
the God who is the real God, the Creator God who is our God, and who will provide for you salvation and eternal life through a
Messiah Savior who is to come, has given us this great victory over the Assyrians, and He has given us access in prayer to Him. We
have prophets and written Scriptures to guide us in His thinking. That's why we had the victory. Now, please join me at the banquet
which we'll be holding in your honor tonight before you return to Babylon." The secrets of what God had prospered him with should
have been kept a secret.
But God predicted that Babylon in the future was going to attack, and it would succeed. Jerusalem would be looted, and Hezekiah's physical
descendants would be taken as captives. It took 100 years, and then it happened. 100 years in the future it was done by King Nebuchadnezzar
of the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar took members of the royal family as captives to serve in the Babylonian government,
Daniel among them. God had clearly predicted the future to Hezekiah, and it all came to pass exactly. Prophecy is always for real. The
Scriptures are never in error. God uses prophecy to prove that He alone is God, and the Babel religion of idolatry is a delusion (Isaiah
41:21-23, Isaiah 44:6-7). God says, "How do I know what's going on? How do I know what the future is? Because I'm bringing
it to pass. I'm the one who makes it happen. Go ahead and see if you can predict the future--that you can tell what the truth is."
We wrote the brochure on Hell or Heaven, Which will it be for you? The question was, "How do I know that what I was born
in religiously as God's mind is the real way to heaven?" And we say, "Well, it's according to your authority--the Bible."
People say,
"Well, how do you know the Bible is true?" Well, it's the only religious book that makes predictions 800 to 1,000 years in the
future that are fulfilled in detail. That could not be written by man. It shows that God's hand, guidance, and supervision was on the Scriptures
when they were written.
Now God is going to do it again. Isaiah 45:1: "Thus, says the Lord, to Cyrus, the
anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the loins of kings, to open the doors
before him, so that the gates will not be shut. This was 160 years before there was ever any man like King Cyrus on the face
of the earth. It's not even over the Babylonian Empire. It's the empire conquered by Babylon, the Medo Persian Empire. 160
years in the future, Isaiah says, "God is going to raise up a leader called Cyrus who will loose and free my people."
Isaiah 45:4-5: "For the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen one, I have called you by your name. I have given
you a title of honor, though you have not known me. I am the LORD." This is Yahweh, the most sacred name of God.
This is the God who has all the capacity, and the God who really is. "I am the Lord and there is no other. Beside me there is no God.
I will gird you, though you have not known me." Well, the rabbis later showed this to Cyrus the king: "This says that 160 years
ago, God, through the prophet Isaiah, told about you," it blew him out of the water. Of course, it made him very sympathetic to making
it possible for the Jews to go back, after seven years of captivity, to rebuild Jerusalem and the walls. And it happened.
Daniel's response to this promise of restoration, which was recorded in Jeremiah 25:11 (we've looked at that), was that after 70 years they
would be permitted, under Cyrus's permission, to go back again, and that's exactly what happened.
They were permitted 70 years later to go back. That's when Daniel said, "How much time do we have as a nation?" He was told 490
years. Daniel was reading the book of Jeremiah. He did this in the first year of Cyrus, and it was about 538 or 537 B.C. So Daniel said,
"That's been 69 years now of the 70 years." Therefore, he asked of the Lord what the future was. He knew the time was almost
up (Daniel 9:2-3). So Daniel prayed that God would fulfill His prophecy to restore the Jews to Jerusalem. The Lord responded to Daniel's
prayer with the famous 490-year prophecy of God's completion of dealing with Israel and the covenant promises.
Well, sure enough, it
all came about. He even said there's going to be 49 years when they're going to rebuild.
Then there'll be another period of time in which the Jews will go on with their life, and then they get to
the 483rd year, and the Messiah will be cut off. He will be cut off from everything including His kingdom and His people. That was Palm Sunday
in 32 A.D. when Christ was finally rejected by the people. God predicted 490 years. 483 years was fulfilled in exact detail. There are
seven years left. They are still ahead. The Bible predicted that this seven-year period would begin when a
protectorate treaty would be signed by a desperate people of Israel with the antichrist, who at that time will come on the scene
to be the world ruler. This whole thing was confirmed by Jesus in Matthew 24:4-14, six centuries after Daniel's time.
What Daniel said was exactly what came to pass. What Jesus predicted was exactly what happened six centuries later.
Jesus said that during the last half of that tribulation period, things will ratchet up, and things will become very serious. So it was called
the great tribulation. Matthew 24:4:
"And Jesus answered and said to them, 'See that no one misleads you. For many will come in My
name saying I am the Christ and will mislead many. You'll be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for
those things must take place. But that is not yet the end. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. In various places there
will be famines and earthquakes, but all these things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs. Then they will deliver you to
tribulation. They will kill you. You will be hated by all nations on account of My name (the Jewish people). At that time, many will fall
away and deliver up one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise. Many will mislead them. Because lawlessness is
on the increase, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end of the tribulation period (he stays alive), he'll
be saved (alive out of the tribulation to go into the millennial kingdom). This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to the whole
world for a witness to the nations. Then shall the end come."
Then in verse 15 comes the terrible time of the great tribulation:
"Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation (which is the antichrist putting his image in the Jewish Temple to be worshipped as God)
which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place
(let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea should flee to the mountains," probably to Petra, that ancient security place
to this very day that is hard to get into. Verse 21 says, "Then there will be a great tribulation." There is the term that Jesus uses for the
last three-and-a-half years. "Such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be." That's when all
the tribulations of the all the judgments of God (the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls) are poured out
upon mankind, the wrath of God.
This same event is referred to by the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. The Scripture ties this revelation all together.
It is going to happen.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Paul says about the antichrist, "Who exposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship,
so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as God."
The Jews are told, "When you see that happen, that's the abomination of desolation. Get out of town as fast as you can."
Conclusion
So here's a conclusion
about biblical prophecy, and that's what this is all about. What is happening is that the terrorist attacks on the United States are going to be
ratcheted up. This is in preparation to move nations together to some kind of a world unity, eventually to make it easy to form that world
government. God proclaimed specific events are going to take place in the future. They always do. God brings to pass what he has predicted,
always in total detail. These are not some Nostradamus predictions that are so general that you can put them any number of places. These are
real details. Jesus and the apostles treated Bible prophecy as true and as inevitable in fulfillment. That's why it's an inerrant record.
You can believe it. Jesus and the apostles accepted God's prophecies at face value. They did not try to spiritualize them out of the literal
fulfillment of the meaning of the words. The book of the Revelation, by most of the churches that came out of the Reformation--the reform
group, all reject the book of Revelation as being in the future. They say that
it all was fulfilled by 70 A.D. That is not so. The intensity of problems against
the Jew today only reinforces that fact. So as we come closer to the fulfillment of divine prophecy, it becomes clearer how the details
will fit together.
Some prophecies seem impossible. They sometimes prophesy what seems like weapons of war to be able kill vast numbers of people at one time
so that mankind could almost destroy himself. Yeah, I was taught that as a teenager. Even at the beginning of World War
II, as devastating as the weapons were, it was inconceivable that you could kill almost all the people on the face of the earth. Then,
by the end of the war, we had the atom bomb. Now the prophecy, in detail, can be fulfilled.
There was the prophecy of one man controlling the buying the selling of all mankind. How could you do that? Then came the computer age. Boy,
you can cut people off from funding as long as you can control the electronic means for them to carry on business.
God predicted that
Israel would be restored as a nation. It would begin to return to its land. 2,500 years went by and nothing happened.
Then, all of a sudden, in May of 1948, Israel became a nation again. Was that accident, or God? World events begin to line up with biblical
prophecy as the point of fulfillment nears, and we're seeing how easily that can come about.
God does predict the future for our spiritual enlightenment. God said, "Abraham is my friend.
I'm going to destroy the homosexual society of Sodom and Gomorrah. Should I not tell my friend what I'm going to do? He's
got relatives in there. He's got nephews in there. Their wives and their daughters are there.
I'm going to tell Abraham what I'm going to do." That's what God does. He enlightens us on the future. We can be willfully ignorant
of it, or we can say, "Yes, this is where history is moving. What he says will come to pass. So, folks, let's get on with it."
We are living in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. Things are ratcheting up very quickly. One of these days, very soon, we're
all going to be out of here. Your treasures in heaven will be stored. Nothing more will be added. Your eternity will be determined
by the grace of God and your rewards by your personal service.
I conclude with 2 Peter:19-21: "We have the prophetic
Word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star
arises in your hearts." We have not been left in the dark as to where history is moving. You may not want to believe it. You may want
to readjust it. But the Word of God is not a book of mystery. It is explicitly clear. Verse 20 says, "But know this first of all,
that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation" (meaning one's own fulfillment). "No prophecy was ever made by
an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
The Bible is the Word of God. So let's get on with it.
Dr. John E. Danish, 2002
Back to the Prophecy Special 9/11 index
Back to the Bible Questions index |