- 1. Energy crisis: "A loaf of bread for $20,
or three pounds of barley flour,
- but there is no olive oil or wine." Revelation 6:6 (TLB).
-
Recalling that olive oil was used for lighting at the time this Scripture
was written, we can see that the above scarcity of this oil has a meaning
for us today, in energy terms. This Prophecy is strengthened by Jesus'
Parable of the Virgins and the Oil-lamps (in Matthew 25:1-13). When we consider
that His Parable relates to the End-Time, it could aptly be subtitled:
Will You Have Enough Oil?
- 2. Idolatry: The Scriptural Warnings
to stay away from idols seem rather unimportant these days.
- Perhaps because imitation gods in the form of statues seem to be the main target there
- (and we don't worship statues anymore). However, the first reference to idols in the Bible
- is put in more general terms:
- "Do not turn aside to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves.
I, the LORD, am your God." Leviticus 19:4 (NAB)
-
^ This verse is indicating, surely, that
anything that we set up in place of God can be an idol. If we center on self,
then self may be the idol. If we "worship" expensive things, then they are the idol.
If we combine this thought with that of the item above on the use of
oil, then we have to acknowledge that people today are often less concerned
about the Lord than about their Ford!
(or Nissan, BMW, etc).
And End-Time Prophecy hints at this:
- "But the men left alive after these plagues ... would not renounce
... their idols ...."
Revelation 9:20 (TLB)
- Also, certain men and women have been idolized - pop stars
like Elvis Presley; more dangerously, dictators like Adolf Hitler. How many
times must we learn the lesson? God is the only One Whom we can trust with
our lives, our happiness. Anyone less worthy is bound to let us down.
-
3. Pollution of land, oceans, rivers, air:
- Land - "And a third part of the earth was burned up ...."
- Oceans - "... a third of the living creatures in the sea perished ...."
- Rivers - "A third part of the waters was changed into wormwood,
- and many people died from using the water ...."
- Air - "... the sun and the atmosphere were darkened by the smoke from the long shaft."
- Revelation 8:7, 9, 11, and ch. 9:2 (Amp.)
-
It's been said that the Bible is more up-to-date than your newspaper, and
these verses are certainly a case in point. They foretell about how we
would have chimneystacks belching pollution into the air; they describe
the poison in our rivers and seas; they start by pointing out that the
land would not escape the damage that the Industrial Age would unleash.
To recall briefly the history of pollution:
- 1. About 200 years ago the smoke of the Industrial Revolution began to
sully the atmosphere.
- 2. Apart from rivers running by large cities, the waterways were not
too bad until the 20th century began. Since then they have been hit with
pesticides, algae blooms (due to sewage, detergents, silage effluent and
fertilizer runoff), acid rain, etc. These pollutants can even reach down
and contaminate the underground water.
- 3. Until a few decades ago we thought of the oceans ("sea") as being so
vast that they could not be polluted. Now we know better.
- 4. Lastly we have a concern today about the land - open to toxic chemicals,
deforestation, desertification, and Chernobyl-like fallout.
-
Please note again the sequence of the above Prophecy. It's in reverse.
It's as if God is saying, "Your lands - you think you won't hurt those,
but you will eventually. Likewise the oceans - I called them seas here
to remind you they are really quite small - you'll damage those before
the land. And I'm aware that pure air will be the first to go, followed
by pure water."
^ Again God's Wonderful
Grasp of future situations fills us with a sense of awe. (And still other
verses hint at the raising of sea levels: Now
this is being predicted by many scientists as part of the "greenhouse effect."
Revelation 16:20 [TLB] refers to a future event in which "islands vanished.")
The ultimate polluter would of course be the nuclear bomb, and the above
Scriptures seem to indicate the scale of the carnage among Earth's creatures
as a result of a nuclear holocaust. However, we should realize that the
present slow poisoning - with whole species becoming extinct left,
right, and center - could in the long run be almost as disastrous.
- 4. AntiChrist: It's likely that you have already
heard about this character, whom some folk today
- are quite concerned about. Jesus referred to the antiChrist
by another term, but our Lord
shows here that He was clear - in the End-Time one or more of these figures
would arise.
One of their functions would be to mis-lead:
- "For then there will be great tribulation ... If anyone says to you then,
Behold, here is the Christ ...
do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise,
and they will show great signs
and wonders so as to deceive and lead astray,
if possible, even the elect ...."
Matthew 24:21, 23-24 (Amp.)
- Many Christian observers are warning us about an antiChrist who is
expected to emerge in the End-Time's closing years - those years that lead up to
Christ's Return. And this is helpful teaching. But a plain reading of the above passage
- which refers to "false Christs" in the plural - suggests that we should also
look throughout the End-Time for these characters. In this writer's view, if we want
to see the full picture, we should be looking at the history of much of the last century.
(Please see chapter 4 - Section B,
10. Late Recognition.)
And this approach is also encouraging to us. Because if we find an antiChrist/s
in the past, at least we know that whatever terrible devastation he/they caused then,
it is safely in the past!
- What do we find when we look back in this way? Well, sadly, there is
one man whose name springs to mind - Adolf Hitler. Was he not insane enough
to lead the way into more
End-Time ruin than we have seen before or since? He has at least one rival
though, for Joseph Stalin actually carried out more genocide than Hitler.
(And in Stalin's case, this was done to his fellow-Soviets at that.) Also,
there was a grievous toll taken among the Chinese during the years in which
Mao Zedung (Tse-tung) ruled that country.
- Consider the following Prophecy about the antiChrist:
- "And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath
of His mouth ...." II Thessalonians 2:8 (NAS)
- What a strange way this antiChrist is to be killed! For just a
moment we see the true Christ pictured as a dragon. Clearly, the Scripture doesn't
mean that! But what does it mean? Isaiah writes of the coming Messiah in
terms very similar to the above:
- "... He shall smite the earth and the oppressor with the rod of His mouth,
and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the
wicked." Isaiah 11:4 (Amp.)
- What is being said, surely, is that the Prince of Peace is a
Prince of Non-violence. While the most wicked use the most violence to get
their way, our Lord will achieve His Purpose simply by the power of His
Word! He will speak to the antiChrist (but using devastating
arguments) and the antiChrist will duly be devastated.
So why doesn't the Scripture say something like, "The Lord is too decent
to lay one of His fingers on the antiChrist in punishment; the Lord's Retribution
will come in the form of Words"? Is it because the above Prophecy is giving
us a Hint? Saying that there would indeed be lethal "breath" - it would
come in the form of the poison gas used to such horrible effect
by Hitler's regime in the Holocaust. Hinting that the most infamous of
the antiChrists would employ that awful means of slaughter?
^ We might then,
agree that Hitler was one arch-antiChrist figure. But before we declare
that our search is over, we ought to ask, How many antiChrists
is it that we're looking for? The following Scripture points to the idea
that, in the End-Time, we would be able to make out three such figures:
- "And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon
and out of the mouth of the beast
and out of the mouth of the false prophet,
three unclean spirits like frogs ... which go out
to the kings of the whole
world ...." Revelation 16:13-14 (NAS)
- Surely the suggestion here is that there would be three leaders ("kings")
whose words will have an evil effect. To be leaders, they would have the
gift of rhetoric, they would sway people with their speeches. But the holy
John, who witnessed this Vision, "saw" that the real spirit proceeding
from them would be as cold and repellent as frogs!
Which End-Time leaders can we recognize from these unflattering
descriptions? Let us start with Hitler: he fired the people of Germany
with hope, but it was a false hope. So the label of
"false prophet" could fairly be attached to him. Cold War
Russia was usually portrayed as the bear. As you may be aware,
at least 20 million people perished under Stalin's murderous
rule(2). The title of "beast" for this
ruthless ruler of the "bear" would seem to fit, therefore. That leaves
the "dragon."
Earlier in Revelation (12:3), the dragon is said to be a "great red
dragon" (NAS). Could this then be a Chinese Communist dragon, maybe?
Mao Zedung was another leader who deceived a whole nation: he wanted
them to think Maoism was the only answer to China's problems. But the
cold-hearted godlessness of his regime led to such evils
as compulsory
abortion - which can still be enforced when couples in China have had
their first child (please see Revelation 12:4).
So here is some good news! Good for Jews, Poles, Slavs, Gypsies,
Russians, Chinese, and the rest of us (bad news for Fascism, Communism,
and any other "-ism" that tries to exclude God from the picture).
It's largely over. Those three main antiChrist figures - Hitler, Stalin, Mao -
diabolical in their destructiveness, are safely out of the way.
(Their wicked traits disappeared in the Refiner's Fire - another kind
of "breath" - which purged these poor men, while God redeemed them from
the evil they had fallen into. Praise the Lord for saving even these
"worst examples"!)
We should not forget though, many Christians have pointed out that
the last few years of the End-Time will see an antiChrist [or antiChrists]
at work. And events like 9-11 give us strong indications that this is the case.
-
5. Prophecies: "And it shall come to pass in the
last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit
- upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy
...." Acts 2:17 (KJV).
- About 150 years ago, an 11 year-old Armenian boy (Efim
Gerasemovitch Klubinken) was told by God that there would be a
devastating threat to his country(3). The only
answer would be to escape, he learned, and that's what he told his
people. By 1900, the Boy Prophet (as they called him)
was 58 years of age. Shortly after this, he announced that the time had
come for the Prophecy to be fulfilled. His Pentecostal friends believed
him! Many families duly left Armenia for the West coast of the United States.
And so they were rescued; because in 1914 the Turks swept the land of Armenia,
and a great many people lost their earthly lives in a wave of genocide.
Prophecy didn't end with the Bible, as you see - it's still going on today!
Believe it or not,
here and there, concerning little things and big, God is revealing the future!
- ^
6. Miracles in Answer to Prayer: "And I will shew wonders in heaven above,
- and signs in the earth beneath ...." Acts 2:19 (KJV).
- When the Jewish leaders asked Jesus for a "sign," they were looking for
a great Miracle to prove that He was the Messiah. (He had already given
many such signs, by means of the Healings bestowed through Him.)
Today many people can testify about answers they have received to prayer:
of loved ones healed from cancer and other "incurable" conditions, for example.
The writer has personally witnessed a number of Healings and other Works of
God - sufficient to convince him that no problem we can have is too large for God.
We are told to expect Jesus to heal us:
- "But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing
in his wings." Malachi 4:2 (TLB)
- God's Providence can be seen at work today! Praise God!
Section B. Other Bible Signs
These are Signs for which the Prophecy is less specific. They are Portents
which are hinted at - things which, once you see how Scripture refers to
them you might say, "Should have seen that all along!"
- 1. The Events of 1917:
A number of momentous things happened in 1917 -
3 to 3½ years
- from the start of WWI. On November 7 of that year the Communist
movement
took control in Russia. On December 9 Jerusalem gained a kind of
liberation.
But already, on May 13, there had been a great Blessing - three
young children
in Portugal first saw our Lady of Fatima.
- Is it possible that these three events are, in a way, linked?
One Book of the Bible - Revelation - is concerned very much with End-Time
Prophecy. The following verses from it would seem to tie in with the timescale
of the above events:
- "Suddenly a red Dragon
appeared ... His tail drew along behind him a third of the stars,
which he plunged to the earth ...."
"... he persecuted the woman who had given birth to the child...."
"... into the wilderness ... where she was cared for and protected
from the Serpent,
the Dragon, for three and a half
years." Revelation 12:3-4,13-14 (TLB)
-
^ The Russian revolution
was the "Red" Revolution. Can we see this violent upheaval as marking
the birth of "a red Dragon," in this case Communism as a whole?
Not only does the period of time - onset of WWI to Communist rule -
match the above Prophecy, but so too does the extent of that system.
For as we all know, Communism spread. It was at its peak around 1980,
when 16 countries were officially classing themselves as Communist.
What proportion of Earth's population did the people then living
in these 16 countries comprise? One
third!(4, 5)
And finally, the most populous of those 16 nations is China -
the "Land of the Dragon."
(Can we attune our spiritual ears to these wonderful signs? Because
God is telling us things we need to know!)
By taking property out of private hands, Communists aim to promote equality
among their people. Equality is a noble ideal, surely one that every decent
heart the world over warms to. Communist regimes however, gave themselves
a bad name in past decades by ruling heavyhandedly. (We don't need to get
self-righteous about this - excessive force was not confined to Marxist/Maoist
countries. But perhaps we can see at least something of the "red Dragon's"
influence in their tyrannical leanings?)
Remembering that "true disciples" of Karl Marx tend to reject Christianity,
does this not suggest that the problem is with the atheism that underlies
Communism?
The chapter quoted from above begins as follows:
- "And a great sign was seen in heaven, a woman arrayed with
the sun ...."
Revelation 12:1 (NWT)
-
One interpretation of the mysterious "woman" of Revelation chapter 12
is that she stands for
Israel. For Israel to be reborn as a state, a key first step was the freeing
of the city of Jerusalem from the Turks - in 1917. Can we see a hint in
later verses of chapter 12 about this rebirth? For it says that the woman
"gave birth" to a "male child" in verses 5 and 13 (NIV) - two references to a
birth. Verses 7-8 could be hinting at the removal of an enemy from
Jerusalem - they speak of a war in which "the dragon's" forces
are defeated, and - "... neither was a place found for them any longer ...." (NWT).
The liberation of Jerusalem (December 9, 1917) gave concrete form to
Jewish hopes. (These hopes were already underpinned by the Balfour
Declaration of the previous month, which spoke of
"a national home for the Jewish people" in
Palestine[6].) Once Jerusalem was opened up, the
Zionists' goal of a mass return of Jews to the Land was clearly in view.
In May of that same year, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta were
shepherding their parents' sheep near Fatima, Portugal. They received a
Vision of the Mother of Jesus(7). In this and five
more Visits (May 13 to October 13),
our Lady affirmed Her Son as our Lord and Savior, warned them of the trouble
the world was in, and urged that they (and we) should pray. On the final
Visit, there were some 70,000 other witnesses at the scene. They too were
given a vision: the Sun (or what they took to be the Sun) was seen to "dance
in the heavens." Of course, not all believed, but many did. If we open
our hearts and minds, doesn't this remind us of the wording of Revelation
12:1, quoted above?
^ So we had a revolution in "Mother Russia,"
freedom in the Holy Land's mother city, and credible reports from Fatima of a visit by the
Mother of Jesus. All in 1917, all close to the 3½ year prophetic period spent
by the "woman" in the "wilderness" of WWI. Something to think about?
- 2. Four/Five World Powers:
Ever since WWII and until quite recently, there have been two
- superpowers: America and the USSR. Can we see them in the Bible?
- "And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was
like a lion, and had eagle's wings ... a second, like to a bear ... and it had three ribs
in its mouth ...." Daniel 7:3-5 (JPS)
-
Before going any further, we should note that, millennia ago, there was
a Fulfillment of this "four beast" Prophecy(8).
But we are concerned here to see if there is an End-Time Fulfillment.
Please consider the following points: The emblem of the USA is the
eagle, while Russia, as we said above, was seen as the bear. Both creatures
were part of Daniel's dream. And the lion? Well as King of the beasts,
it would denote that America is now in the No.1 position. At the same time
the "British Lion" reminds us that the USA has colonial origins and
also has an underlying faith (the Lion of Judah being one of the Messiah's
titles).
As for the three ribs in the mouth of the bear, in 1940 Russia took
over three of her small neighbors: Under the cover of WWII, the countries
of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were taken into the USSR. These days
we tend to downplay her might, but we should remember that in terms of
size, Russia - the heart of the former USSR - is still the largest territory
in the world.
In third place should we not put China - with the greatest population
on Earth, and having an increasing industrial base?
And the third beast?
- "... like a leopard, but it had four wings of a flying creature on its back.
And the beast had four heads
...." Daniel 7:6 (NWT)
- The leo-pard, "friend of the lion," recalls British Empire days. (Britain
occupied some territory in China 100 years ago, and there were US interests
also, to complete the "lion" picture.) The four wings and four heads remind
us that China is basically made up of four regions - the historical country
of China itself, plus three large autonomous regions (Xinjiang, Tibet and
Inner Mongolia).
China also consists of four main ethnic strands (plus some 6-7 million Mongolians
and other races), and the languages spoken by the Chinese peoples come
from four different groups. (Peoples = Han, Tibetan, Uigur, and Zhuang.
Language groups = Sino-Tibetan, Altaic, Indo-European, and Austro-Asiatic.)
Finally, one "flying creature" that has four wings is the dragonfly,
whose name has us thinking of the well-loved Chinese
dragon!
^ This is all fitting together,
isn't it? And the last beast?
- "... a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible ... and it had great iron teeth ...
and it had ten horns." Daniel 7:7 (JPS)
- With the wisdom of hindsight, is it not possible to identify the seat of
the aggression that brought WWI and WWII - is it not here in this iron-toothed beast?
Europe was at the center of these world wars. And although Europe at the beginning of
the 20th century was just a collection of separate countries, that is no longer the case.
This Vision of Daniel, surely, is looking forward to a future unity
in Europe? (This is not yet fully realized, and the reader may like or
even dislike the fact, but a growing unity seems to be "in the wind.")
The ten horns would match the European Economic Community (as the EC was
then known) in the years 1981 to 1986. Then the EEC consisted of these
10 nations: Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
the Republic of Ireland, the UK, and West Germany.
So there we have the fourth element in Daniel's dream. And Daniel was
told (in verses 17-27 of chapter 7) that these beasts represented four
world powers; the timing is given at the end: it is just prior to the establishment
of God's Government on Earth.
Isn't it amazing that the four greatest powers on the world scene today
can be found in a 2,600 year-old Scripture?
"Well," you may say, "there is surely a fifth member that should not
be excluded from any list of outstanding world powers? Namely the economic
miracle that is Japan?"
Right! And if you look elsewhere in the Book of Daniel, you will find
Japan! Back in chapter 2, there's a five part statue that also represents
world powers - the first four could be seen to fit the above list.
Verses 32-33 read as follows (JPS):
- "As for that image, its head was of fine gold, its breast
and its arms of silver, its belly and its
thighs of brass, its legs of iron,
its feet part of iron, and part of clay."
- Again the "iron" could be seen as a reference to Europe, and in WWII Germany
had a major ally in Japan. Could Japan be the "clay" in this figure? Archeologists
tell us that Japan has some of the earliest known sites of pottery making
- remains found there suggest that Japan was using clay
as early as 10,000 BCE or so(9).
America, the USSR, China, Europe, and Japan. Four political powers and
a fifth economic power - there in Scripture, complete in every detail.
Praise God!