I have always wanted to write an article that would change the world, this may be the one, but —- Ah, probably not! Anyway, let’s begin with the Democratic party. It appears they have lost their minds, and are devoid of any reason, conscience, love of country or its leadership. All they seem to love is the hatred they spew against our President from their lying mouths.
Imagine this, they feel sorry for that pathetic psychopath Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s butcher, and Iraq’s leader Mahdi al-Muhandis who were both deservedly killed in an air attack. I heard the Democrats are thinking about sending a delegation of Muslim sympathizers to his funeral, hmmmmmm, I hope not!
Anyway, what are the Iranians and Democrats complaining about? Aren’t both , Soleimani and al-Muhandis now in Allah’s paradise? Islam’s god, Allah, has made a path desirable by promising these martyrs they can eat the most delicious food, the most luscious fruits, and the tenderest cuts of meat. Allah’s paradise is portrayed as a world of castles, flowing rivers, and lush fields. Soleimani and al-Muhandis will get to sit at the right hand of Allah and enjoy the attention of seventy-two virgins. What more can anyone wish for?
One more thing, these news media creeps from these major networks and newspapers around America, and some of these Democratic leaders should be brought to trial as “TRAITORS’! These hypocrites have forgotten their Americans, taking sides with our mortal enemies, enemies who live only to destroy both Israel and America.
Well, here we all are, standing in the year 2020, and who would have thought? I’m speaking mainly to those of us who were born before World War 2. Why? because it’s been a very long journey for most of us. Yet, my one hope is, “My life here on earth is finished with the return of our Lord Jesus Christ when he receives His bride into heaven.” I suppose that’s the reason it’s called “the blessed hope!”
I have to make a confession here. Over the past 3 or 4 years, having done a great deal of personal research on end time prophesy; having read many books and commentaries on the subject; having discussions and debated, I naturally came to a few serious conclusions of my own.
Using several key dates in history it appeared to me the Lord would return sometime last year, 2019, October being my target date. But here I am, still doing what I’ve been doing in the past, standing here on mother earth instead of floating around on a cloud.
Lately I’ve been going over my research scratching my head wandering where I went wrong. Let me add this, never do I want to be guilty of what many in the past have been guilty of, that being a false teacher for the purposes of upping ones following and/or enriching one’s own personal bank account, or for any other purpose. But, I’m safe on both counts, I have no following and am as poor as dirt after years without rain. But that’s OK, as long as my fellowship stands strong with the Lord Jesus.
I try hard to keep all my research on target with the Word of God. Let me begin a review of a few of the false teachers and cult leaders of yesteryear, some of whom were date setters.
Let’s begin with, William Miller a Baptist lay preacher having as many as 50,000 followers, who began proclaiming Christ return in 1843. Millers chronology was well received, but as his prediction of the appointed time of Christ’s return came and went, his calculations had to be moved to future dates. But I do believe Miller, for the most part did use scripture in an attempt to prove his thinking.
One of the major stumbling stones for these men in the past was, God had not yet evicted Israel from the land as prophesied in many verses of scripture. Without these prophesy being fulfilled, it would have been impossible for the Lord to return for the church. The final eviction of the Jews came hundreds of years after the following had been written. It was in 70 A.D. when the Jews were defeated, Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed.
Hosea 3:4-5, “The children of Israel shall abide many days (2000 Years) without a king (there Messiah), and without a prince, and without a sacrifice (no Temple) and without an image, and without an ephod (sacred pillar), and without teraphim (household gods): Afterward shall the children of Israel return (May 14th 1948) and seek the LORD their God (still future), and David their king (symbolic of Christ); and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the Latter days.”
In other words, God gave the Jews a bill of divorce, took away their blessings as he had with Adam and Eve when He cast them from the garden of Eden.
Deuteronomy 30:5, “If any of thine (the Jews) be driven out (from their land) from there will the LORD thy God gather them, and from there (the foreign Gentile countries) will He (God) fetch (gather) them (the Jews): And the LORD their God will bring them (the Jews) into the land (Israel) which their fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David etc.) possessed, and you (the Jews) shall possess it (Israel); and He (God) will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers.” (still future).
Following Miller, the Millerites movement was born in 1865. From them came new predictions concerning Christ’s second Coming. Others in the Millerites such as George Storrs and N.H. Barbour would help shape the thinking of a teenage newcomer, Charles Taze Russell.
Charles Taze Russell was the founder of the Jehovah Witnesses. Beginning as he did in a small branch of Adventism that held to a conditionalist version of redemption. Russell would carry dispensationalism to the extreme by setting specific dates for the return of Jesus Christ and for the catching away of the church. But his methods and conclusions did not line up with Scriptures.
One of his main focuses for the return of Christ was on the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Russell went so far as to personally lead a group of his followers on a pilgrimage to the burial ground of the Pharaohs. The dates he set for the Rapture and the end of the world derived, in part, from particular pyramid measurements taken on their trip to Egypt.
When the Pyramid prophesies fell apart, Russell would make a number of prophecies relating to certain events concerning the beginning and end of World War 1. Following the 1914 prophesy date came the 1918, 1925 dates and on and on it went until 1975, that being the last prophesy date set by the Jehovah Witnesses leadership in New York. Today, ironically, the Jehovah Witnesses today denounce Russell as their founder; another lie!
Many of you should remember the “Heaven Gates movement,” led by Marshall Herff Applewhite and his mate Bonnie Lou Nettles who died in 1985.
Applewhite believed Bonnie would return to pick him and his followers up in a spaceship, which was supposedly hiding behind the comet Hale-Bopp. The return of the Hale-Bopp comet signaled to this cult a time of rendezvous with their deceased partner.
I suppose Applegate and his followers will one day meet the true “Way” that leads to the real Heaven’s Gate, that way being Jesus Christ.
Matthew 7:23-15, Jesus is speaking, “Enter you in at the strait (narrow) gate: for wide in the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Verse 15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”
These cults with their leaders many times commit themselves and their followers to murder and to suicide. These extreme methods instantly brings them and their teaching from obscurity to world attention. It appears, when members of a cult murder innocent people or die in mass, the world watches.
Other recent examples: Solo ashahara’s Aum Shinri Kyo, the Japanese doomsday cult leader that carried out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.
Then there was the Order of the Solar Temple of Canada and Switzerland who gained notoriety following the murders, suicides and arson that occurred in Switzerland and Quebec in 1994, in France in 1995 and again in Quebec in 1997.
Of course, we should all be familiar with Jim Jones’ peoples Temple, who murdered 913 of his own members and David Koresh’s who lead the deadly Branch Davidian cult. He is responsible for the death of 80 or more of his own followers.
Back to the subject: I find end time prophesy to be one of the more fascinating subjects in Scripture; it’s God’s way of giving us a look into the future of mankind. Thousands of theologians and lay people over the centuries have devoted their lives in an effort to peel away the layers of prophetic verses that would give to us the knowledge and understanding of, “When will Jesus Christ return to set up his kingdom?”
This is a legit question and does require a great deal of attention. And to that one question, many thousands of other questions are born.
I believe we have reached a point in human history when
1. Most knowledgeable Christians know and understand that Jesus return is close, very close.
2. Also, there shall arise many religious and non-religious organizations who deny who Jesus is, his death, burial, resurrection and the promise of His second coming. Christianity has lost several generations of young people whose parents and great grandparents were believers, but now they themselves reject God and His word. This new generation trusts more in modern technology and science, claiming the 66 books of the Bible are nothing but a bunch of ancient fairy tales, wrapped up in man’s wild imagination.
Peter wrote concerning these latter days, concerning the time when men will say?
2 Peter 3:4-5, “Where is the promise of his (Jesus) coming? For since the fathers fell asleep (died), all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they (unbelievers) willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:”
And how true that is; for millions upon millions have bought into the theory of evolution, denying God’s revelation concerning the 6 days of creation. To deny the 6 days of creation is to call God a liar, and the word of God to be untrue.
And to the above we can add what Paul wrote in,
2 Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,”
And what is it that lies ahead for us? Let’s begin with, Christ returns to gather His people in the “catching away” or as some of us like to call it, the “rapture” of the church.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we forever be with the Lord.”
The catching away is to be followed by the marking of the 144,000 Jews who will represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Now concerning the 144,000:
Revelation 7:3-4, an angel having the seal of the living God cried out to the four angels who were given power to hurt, meaning to injure the earth and the sea,
“Hurt not the earth neither the sea, nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I (John) heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of ALL THE (12) TRIBES OF THE CHILDREN OF Israel.” Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Catholics, pay attention to what the Bible has to say, not what the Watchtower teaches, book of Mormons or the Catchism.
Following that event will be the establishment of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 outside of Jerusalem:
Revelation 11:3, the Lord is speaking, “I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days (3 ½ Years), clothed in sackcloth.”
Lastly there shall be the revealing of antichrist:
2 Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (coming of the Lord) shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”
Only after these prophesies have been fulfilled will the 7 years of tribulation begin.
Many view God’s prophesies as a giant puzzle, it having a great number of pieces that have to be positioned into an accurate timeframe and a correct timeline. Prophesy covers a broad range of subjects, each prediction of future events may refer to a combination of events, some overlaying others, yet all connected to God’s eternal timeline. Many had been vailed in words, phrases, conundrums, equations, etc. And as in a Rubik’s cube there are hundreds of twists and turns, taking a student of prophesy into many directions, with hundreds of questions to be answered.
So, when one is researching histories past events, of empires and kings, each has to be set into a proper timeframe and timeline, this in order to have a correct understanding of any and all remaining prophesies. Only in this way can we look into and understand them as laid out for us by the LORD.
Example: one of my timelines is laid out as follows, it covering some 2000 Years. Jesus, born in 4 B.C., and the death of Herod is connected to it. Then came Jesus baptism at the age of 30 by John and the sealing of Jesus by the Holy Spirit in the river Jordon. This gave the Jews proof that Jesus was who he said he was, and evidence as to who sent him.
Then came His earthly ministry to the Jews, and after 3 ½ years, He would be crucified. Seven years after the crucifixion, Stephen would be stoned to death, and almost immediately after, Saul of Tarsus would be confronted by the risen Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. This meeting would turn the world upside down because God’s plan of salvation would now be extended to the Gentiles through Paul the apostle.
Paul would spend the following 3 years in the desert outside Damascus, and, I believe during that period of time, he was schooled directly by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Saul became Paul the apostle to the Gentiles and from his hand would the New Testament from Romans to Philemon be published.
Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees concerning the Temple also called the House of God.
Matthew 23:38, and speaking of the Temple in Jerusalem, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate (meaning the Temple was to be laid waste.)”
In 70 A.D., 40 Years later, the Lord sent Titus a Roman General to Jerusalem to destroy the city, the Temple and scatter the Jews, as prophesied.
Matthew 24:2, Jesus is speaking to his disciples as they looked down on the Temple and all the buildings: He said to them, “See you not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
In the 4th century the Roman Catholic church, the feet and toes of iron and (potters) clay Daniel 2:33, “potters clay” meaning clay that is usable and used by a potter to make vessels. Following the Roman Catholics was the prophet Muhammad the founder of Islamism, born sometime in the middle of the 6th century. He would give birth to the religion of Islam.
As Islam grew in power, it had an army murders and thug all having a great deal of blood on their hands, but, little money and resources; that is until the Catholic church became involved with them. Why did the Catholic church become involved? Because they hated those of the faith who disagreed with their theology, so much, they hired and paid Muslim mercenaries to kill those we today call Protestants.
Daniel 2:41, K.J.V., Islam represents the toes of iron and miry clay. Miry (meaning muddy, unusable) clay.” Sons of Ishmael and Esau.
In 691 A.D. Islam would begin construction of their pagan temple we call the Dome of the Rock on the vary land purchased by king David for the house of the LORD, this at the top of Mt. Moriah. The Temple would be completed in 692 A.D.
Daniel 12:11, “And from the time —– the abomination that makes desolate (is) set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days (meaning, 1290 years).” To “set up” means to put in place.
Following is one of the places I had incorrectly used my start date concerning the last days. Daniel was taken captive in 606 B.C. This agrees with the release of the Jews from their 70 years of captivity in 536. Cyrus king of the Medes and of the Persians ruled from 539 to 530 B.C. In 536 B.C. he wrote his decree allowing the Jews to return to their own country, this fulfilling the 70 Years of captivity.
Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to power in 605 B.C., after the death of his father. Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold first began a campaign against Jerusalem in 599 B.C., it ending in 597. I believe this is when the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy seat were either hidden by the priests of the Temple or taken by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon and placed in the temple of his gods. These and other sacred items have never been seen or heard of since.
I had taken the year 606 B.C. as my start date, when I should have used 598 B.C., the year Nebuchadnezzar the head of gold was attacking Jerusalem, plundering the city and the Temple in the siege.
Now add to that Daniels prophesy in Daniel 12:11, the 1290 days. The text and context bring the word “days” to mean years. So, history tells us in 692 A.D., the Dome of the Rock, the “abomination that makes desolate was setup (completed).” From 598 B.C., to 692 A.D. when the Dome was completed atop Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem, exactly 1290 Years had passed, as prophesied. This monument to Islam’s god Allah has been a thorn in the side to both the Jewish and Christian communities for centuries. Moslem’s now control Judaism’s most holy sit, banning any and all Jewish and Christian prayer there.
Of course, we are aware that the trampling down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles will soon end when “the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled” and God’s Temple soon after shall be established. And on the throne in the Holy of Holies will sit the King of Kings the High Priest of Israel. Now, the world of the Gentiles that remain after the 7 years of tribulation, shall be led by Jews to Jerusalem to worship Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
Zechariah 8:23, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; in those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the (Gentile) nations, even shall (they) take hold of the skirt (sleeve) of him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.”
In Matthew 19:28, Jesus is speaking to the 12 apostles concerning their position and place concerning the Lord in the 1000 Year reign, Jesus is speaking to the 12,
“Verily I say unto you, that you which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve twelves of Israel.”
Revelation 2:26-27, “And he that overcomes and keeps my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and He (Jesus) shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to pieces: even as I received of my Father.”
And let me add, He will rule with a love unknown by any mortal, ever!
Very important in our timeline is the prophesy concerning the regathering of the Jewish people from all the Gentile nations of the world, a promise made by God, fulfilled! Israel was to be born in “one day,” this fulfilled on May 14th 1948.
Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah wrote,
Isaiah 66:8, “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth (give birth) in one day? Or shall a nation (Israel) be born at once? Answer, YES to both; these things accomplished by the mighty hand of God.
Since Harry Truman, every American President has become involved with Jerusalem and the people of Israel as has every follower of Mohamed, and as every member of the United Nations, and by every Jew hating man and women on this earth, as prophesied!
Zechariah 12:2-3, the LORD is speaking, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”
Psalms 2:1-2-3, Why do the heathen (Gentiles) rage (against Jesus Christ), and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings (leaders) of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD (the Father), and against his Anointed (Jesus Christ), saying let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
But the LORD, verse 4, shall laugh (at them): the Lord shall have them in derision.”
President Trump a friend of Israel became involved with Jerusalem after establishing the America embassy there, much to the dismay of the U.N., the Muslim world and most in the Socialist Democratic Party in America.
A little side note, I believe President Trump is a vessel chosen by God for these last days. The Lord needed a strong-willed man in this day and age to confront those who hate Jesus Christ, the Jews and the Christian community. President Trump can be likened to Nebuchadnezzar in his time, Cyrus in his time, Alexander in His time, Washington and Lincoln in their time, Churchill, Roosevelt and Truman in their time. All having been put into authority by God to stand with the Holy Spirit and the Christian community against evil, and until the body of Christ is taken out of the way, then and only then will the antichrist be revealed.
President Trump is a friend of Israel, a friend of Christians, a chosen vessel of the Lord, and for this he will be blessed. I love this man because he is man enough to stand his ground against the evils of this world. Yet I pray that he stays humble before the Lord and strong against our enemies.
I will continue this article soon.
Phillip Laspino www.seekfirstwisdom.com