Don’t Look Back

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump 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 ever be with the Lord.” (I Thess. 4:16-17)

The phrase “caught up” was sadly translated rapturo in the Latin Bible, from whence we get the term rapture.  The root of this word is “rape” which means to be taken against your will for sex.  This has led to the false belief that when Christ descends from heaven and the trump sounds, living Christians will automatically be swept into the clouds to meet Jesus.  But our BrideGroom is a Gentleman who will await our final consent as a member of His Bride.

Jesus taught there will be a moment of decision when He returns.

“²⁸Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; ²⁹But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. ³⁰Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. ³¹In that day, he which shall be on the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. ³²Remember Lot's wife. ³³Whoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. ³⁴I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.” (Luke 17:28-34)

Besides the rampant sexual sins in Sodom, there was also much commerce.  Lot was rich prior to moving into Sodom (Genesis 13).  He continued to do well in business and was an elder who sat in the gate (Gen. 19:1).

“And while he lingered, the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful to him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.” (Gen. 19:16)

The word “lingered” is maw-hah in Hebrew from a root meaning to question.  One angel took the hands of Lot and his wife, and the other angel took the hands of the two daughters.  That means each of the four only had one free hand to carry anything with them (possibly some provisions bundled up the previous night).  Lot’s delaying question might have been, “What more can we take with us?” to which the reply was “Nothing” as the angels grabbed their hands and pulled them out the door and out of the doomed city.

We’re not told why Lot’s wife disobeyed the angel’s command to not look back towards Sodom, but she did.  Jesus used her as a warning for us, that we should be ready at any time to give up all that we have in order to follow Him.  Our lives are hidden in Christ (Col. 3:3), and should not be so entangled with the world that we can’t separate ourselves from it (I John 2:15).  Even your closest Christian friends might not understand they can choose to hold onto something in this world instead of obeying the trumpet call.  Please share this message with them.

5^th Seal of Beheaded Christian Martyrs

My 2009 understanding of the order and timing of Revelation might be all wrong, but it is apparent the 5^th seal is currently taking place in the Middle East.  Who could have foreseen in our modern world with weapons of mass destruction, that the enemies of God’s people would literally behead them?

“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark on their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:4)

These Christian believers living in the Babylon of the Middle East are often given the choice to deny Jesus Christ and become Muslim, or die.  These martyrs are now pleading with God to avenge their blood.  The Lord tells them to rest a “little season” until all the martyrs join them.

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: ¹⁰And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? ¹¹And white robes were given to every one of them; and it was said to them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brothers, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. ¹²And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, see, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; ¹³And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. ¹⁴And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. ¹⁵And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; ¹⁶And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: ¹⁷For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev. 6:9-17)

The sun became black, a total solar eclipse, on March 20, 2015, and a blood moon or total lunar eclipse occurred the evening of Passover on April 4, 2015.  Both were viewable from Israel.  But there was no major Middle East earthquake prior to them.  The Lyrid meteor shower can be viewed from mid to late April [link].  Verses 14-17 sound like a nuclear explosion and its aftermath, with people hiding in underground bunkers from radio-active fallout.

If the trumpets and vials move in tandem, and if the Islamic State (IS) represent the locusts of the fifth trumpet; then it corresponds with the fifth vial which is darkness and gnawing tongues (a symptom of dehydration; article) over the beast's kingdom (Sunni Islam; aka Babylon).  Thus the sixth trumpet and vial would commence after the five months of locusts end.

The last five years of drought in the Middle East have beaten records over 100 years old. article
 
"12One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. 13And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 15And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 16And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. 17And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like to serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. 20And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." (Revelation 9:12-21)

"10And the fifth angel poured out his vial on the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 11And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. 12And the sixth angel poured out his vial on the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." (Revelation 16:10-16)

The sixth trumpet and the sixth vial are the only two passages in the New Testament which mention the Euphrates River.  The news portrayed the Mosul Dam on the Tigris River as very poorly built and difficult to maintain.  What if there were FOUR key dams on the Euphrates River which God graciously sent angels to protect?  Will they soon be relieved of duty so that IS can completely restrict the flow of water in order to control the people, thus enabling an army of 200,000,000 to cross it?

The IS has threatened Turkey to give them control of a dam, and IS now has 49 Turks from Mosul to bargain with. article

"Since January 2014, the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq has succeeded in taking control of several dams. To date, the group controls the Haditha Dam (the second-largest in the country), the Samarra Barrage and the Nuaimiyah Dam. Between January and April, the IS also controlled the strategic Fallujah Dam.
The dams are an essential element of the group’s military strategy. The IS has already proved its determination to use the dams as a weapon by deliberately drowning government forces around the Nuaimiyah Dam. When in control of the Fallujah Dam, the group closed eight of the ten doors of the dam, reducing water levels in the south and flooding land upstream." article

"In April 2014, fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria captured the Nuaimiyah Dam in western Iraq, despite earlier efforts to defend the site. They then overflowed it to dislodge Iraqi soldiers dug in upstream of the site—and to deny drinking water to civilians downstream." article

"The [Haditha] dam, which regulates the waters of the River Euphrates, is located north of the city of Haditha, approximately 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Baghdad. It is a major source of hydroelectricity for Iraq’s national grid behind Mosul Dam, which was recaptured by Kurdish and Iraqi forces backed by US air power on Monday." article

It would be an interesting twist if the red, yellow and blue uniformed army gathered in the Jezreel Valley was actually invited by Israel to use that area as a base from which to launch a campaign against IS.  Then if Israel launched rockets against Iran's nuclear facilities, this coalition army turned and attacked Israel instead.  There are so many ways this could play out, and several have nothing to do with prophecy.
I'm just continuing to watch for my Lord's return.

Chronology Is Important

Chronology is important today because current religious wars are being fought over it.  The collision of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim chronologies is at an apex as each expects their messiah to come to rule the Earth.

The Christian Chronology

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Christian calendar, is the most widely used calendar today, and accepted by the UN.  It uses the birth of Christ to divide its dates between B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini in Medieval Latin meaning “in the year of our Lord”).  As modern cultures have largely become secularized by rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord, they have changed the names of the divisions to B.C.E. (before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era).

Christ’s First Coming

History and Prophecy

The land of Judah rebelled against Babylonian rule, so viceroy Nebuchadnezzar II came in 606 B.C. and looted Jerusalem’s Temple, and brought back sons of nobles to re-educate them.  Daniel was one of those youths (Daniel 1:1-7).  Nebuchadnezzar eventually besieged Jerusalem from 587 to 586 B.C. (II Kings 25:2, and Jeremiah 14 and 52:4-6), sent Jeremiah and more captives to Babylon, and destroyed Solomon’s Temple on the ninth day of the month of Av in summer of 586 B.C.  About 560 BC, Jeremiah completed writing his scroll, and Daniel received a copy.  When Cyrus conquered Babylon in 538 B.C. and left Darius the Mede in charge of the city, Daniel understood Jeremiah’s (25:11; 29:10) “seventy year” prophecy of exile from Judah began with his deportation (606-70=536 BC; see Daniel 9:1-4).    After Cyrus, the Persian, returned from battle to rule Babylon, Jews showed him his name in the prophecy of Isaiah which predicted he would conquer the world (45:1) and would rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple’s foundation (44:28).  Cyrus so decreed, and the Jews returned to Jerusalem in 536 B.C. under the leadership of Zerubbabel.  Other groups of exiles returned with Ezra and Nehemiah during the reign of Artaxerxes (474-424 B.C., which includes a co-reign with Xerxes for nine years at the beginning).

As Daniel sought the LORD regarding Jeremiah’s “seventy year” prophecy, God revealed the “seventy sevens” prophecy of the coming of “Messiah the Prince:”

 

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured on the desolate.” (Daniel 9:25-27)

Nehemiah (2:4-9) records a decree to rebuild Jerusalem by Artaxerxes Longimanus in his 20th year (454 BC).  (69 x 7) – 454 = 29 A.D. when Jesus was baptized and His Father declared from heaven “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  Jesus proclaimed the “new covenant” through faith in Him as the Son of God sent as Messiah/Christ, and He was “cut off” three and a half years later in the midst of a “one week” period of seven days.  The other 3.5 year period of the Jewish-Roman War would end up destroying “the city and the sanctuary” within forty years in 70 A.D. as Jesus prophesied to His “generation”.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey (fulfilling Zechariah 9:9) on the day they were to select an unblemished lamb for Passover, He chided the Jews for not calculating and knowing Him to be the Messiah; and again foretold of their coming destruction.

“For the days shall come on you, that your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side, And shall lay you even with the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone on another; because you knew not the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:43-44)

Jesus was crucified on Passover on April 3, 33 A.D., and He rose from the dead on the feast of First Fruits three days later “on the morrow after the Sabbath” (Lev. 23:11-12) and walked among them for forty days before He ascended back to heaven; and then He sent His Spirit on the Feast of Weeks, known as Pentecost.  The next feast of the Lord (Lev. 23) to be fulfilled is the Feast of Blowing Trumpets, which many believe will be Christ’s second coming.

Christ’s Second Coming

According to the Christian calendar, the current year is 2014 A.D.  Using Ussher’s biblically derived 4004 B.C. date for God’s creation of Adam and Eve on the “sixth day,” mankind has completed his sixth millennium on Earth; and Christians longingly look for Christ’s return to establish His millennial reign of “rest” akin to the “seventh day” on Earth.

The Jewish Chronology

The Jewish year is dated from the beginning of the world when YHWH terra-formed it, and is notated A.M. (anno mundi in Latin meaning “in the year of the world”).  When adding 4004 to 2014 it comes to 6018 years, but 2014 is the Jewish year 5774; so why the difference?

The chronology of ancient Hebrews is recorded in the Tanakh (the Old Testament books in a unique order) which ends with II Chronicles and the decree of Cyrus for Jews to return to Jerusalem.  The modern Jewish chronology, Seder Olam Rabbah, was written about 160 A.D. by Yose ben Halafta; who only attributed 18 years from the reign of Cyrus in Babylon to the end of the reign of Darius II, whereas 135 years actually transpired during the early Persian Empire.  There are a few other discrepancies between it and the Christian chronology which account for the rest of the total 244 year difference. 

Simon Bar Kokhba as Messiah

This early Persian period was shortened so that the prophesied (69 x 7) or 483 years between the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of “Messiah the Prince” would point to Simon Bar Kokhba instead of Jesus.  [My thanks to Larry Pierce who wrote a wonderful appendix (G) to Ussher’s Annals of the World on this issue on pages 931-934.]  Bar Kokhba led his revolt against the Romans from 132-135 A.D. when he died along with half a million other Jews.  Afterwards Jews were banned from Jerusalem and persecuted throughout the Roman Empire.

                       Detail of Bar Kokhba at Israel's Knesset, photo by Deror Ari

The Jews also stopped celebrating the feast of First Fruits, since it so clearly pointed to Jesus’ resurrection day as the true Messiah.  Though many Jews have since accepted Jesus as their Messiah, the Orthodox Jews are still waiting for their Messiah’s first coming which they expect will be in their year 6000 A.M. (6244 A.D.).

History of the Hebrews in their Land

The Hebrews have a long history with the land of Canaan.  Abraham bought a field and a cave in Hebron for a burial place for Sarah.  Isaac and Jacob and their wives are also buried there.  People still visit the site today.  At the exodus from Egypt, Joseph’s bones were carried through the wilderness and were buried in Shechem.  His tomb has been vandalized in the last decade by Palestinians.  Joshua began his conquest of Canaan in 1451 BC.  After he died the land of Israel was overseen by judges and then kings.  By 1021 B.C. king David had conquered all the land (from the Pelusiac to the Euphrates river) promised to Abraham in 1921 B.C.  Though Solomon built a great Temple, he and other subsequent kings lost land to enemies, until Israelites and Jews were exiled themselves to other lands in the late seventh and early sixth centuries before Christ.  

                  Nebuzaradan takes more Jewish exiles to Babylon

In 536 B.C. the exiles returned to Jerusalem and restored the altar of the Temple.  Twenty years later, in 516 B.C., the second Temple was completed.  In 467 B.C. Ezra returned with more exiles.  In 454 B.C. Artaxerxes Longimanus sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem, and the Jews restored the wall in 52 days.  Nehemiah likely remained governor in Jerusalem until the end of Artaxerxes Longimanus’ reign in 424 B.C.  Artaxerxes was followed by Darius II in Persia.  The Jewish chronology places Ezra and Nehemiah in the fourth century B.C. instead of the fifth.

The Muslim Chronology

Before Israel became a nation again in 1948, Muslims accepted the history of the Bible, and adopted the main men from Adam (Adham) to Jesus (Isa) as their prophets.  They also accepted that the land of Israel was given to the people Moses brought through the wilderness.  Today there are even some Muslim Zionists who believe the Koran prophesied the return of Jews to Israel.

Islamic Calendars

The first year of the Islamic calendar is when Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina, the hejira, in 622 A.D.  It is therefore the year 1392 A.H. (after hejira) on Muslim calendars.  The Sunnis use a strictly lunar calendar of 354 days for religious dates.  The Shias, mostly living in Iran (formerly Persia) and Iraq, use a solar hejira calendar which begins on the vernal equinox.

Islamic Prophecies

Muslim’s call their messiah the Mahdi.  Isa (Jesus), just a Muslim prophet, will aid the Mahdi in the annihilation of all non-Muslims from the Earth.  The antagonist of the Mahdi is called the Dajjal, who will defend the Jews and be accepted as the Jewish messiah.  Many Muslims believe the Mahdi, a descendant of Muhammad, will only rise to power after a period of chaos and great suffering, and then he will establish his caliphate over the Muslim world from his capital in Jerusalem.  Even though Jerusalem (Al-Quds) is not mentioned in the Koran, “the farthest mosque” (Masjid Al-Aqsa) in Sura 17:1 is located on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Muslims hold the Mahdi will distribute lots of money, have power over the weather, and will eradicate oppression by causing the whole world to practice Islam.  This comes about after much warfare including extermination of all Jews, which has been the stated goal of Iran (Persia) since its Islamic revolution in 1979.  It’s odd that Iran denies the holocaust as it prepares to cause another one.

Bible Prophecies

The Persian (Achaemenid) Empire once ruled the world from 550 to 330 B.C.  The Ottoman (Muslim Turk) Empire ruled a vast portion of the same territory from 1299 to 1923 A.D.  I consider this period of Islamic rule to be the wounded head which is revived.  In 2013 the Anatolian (Turkish) leopard, thought to be extinct, was spotted and killed.

“And I stood on the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads the name of blasphemy.  And the beast which I saw was like to a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power to the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like to the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:1-4)

In biblical prophecy beasts represent empires, heads represent periods of rule, and horns represent kings.  This beast is a conglomeration of Daniel’s (7) beasts which represented Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom in their attacks on Jews in the twentieth century.  It is most like Germany in that it intends a holocaust for the Jews.  The religion of Islam has made great strides in all three countries, and Islam is growing in satanic and military power.  Sadly, America has only subdued some of the Al-Qaeda militants which will make it easier for Iran to take control of Afghanistan and Iraq when all U.S. troops leave.  And Obama is demanding ease of sanctions on Iran, the major exporter of terrorism. Some would call that treason.

“And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given to him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” (Revelation 13:5-10)

The “mouth” of the “little horn,” who many call the Antichrist, will blaspheme God, His Name, His Temple, and the saints and angels in heaven.  Islam’s God, Allah, is not the Bible’s God, Elohim.  Allah has no son (Sura 18:4-6).  Elohim sent His Son, Yeshua (Jesus) to save people from condemnation (John 3:17).  Muslims imprison or kill people who burn their Koran or blaspheme the name of their prophet Mohammad, but they have burned many Bibles (at army bases) and violently forbad non-Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount and other Jewish holy sites.  Muslims deny there was ever a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, regardless of the supporting archaeological evidence.

The word “overcome” is nikao (from nike) in Greek, meaning conquest, success, and victory.  Did the U.S. have victory in Iraq? – No, the Obama administration made certain of that.  Will the U.S. have victory in Afghanistan?  We will see after the pull-out later this year.

Both Daniel (7:25) and John agree that this “little horn,” will only rule for 42 months (3.5 years) before King Jesus returns and destroys him and his followers in fire, and the saints rule with Him on Earth.  The difficulty is in ascertaining when those 42 months begin.  Have they already started, or do they only begin after a new caliphate has formed with a Mahdi in charge?

This year, 2014, will see two blood moons on Passover and Tabernacles, which usually means war for Israel.  Will this be the year that Muqtada al-Sadr revives his Mahdi army to march to Jerusalem?  The nations do seem to be coming together against Israel.  The saints must have faith and patience, and pray for God’s protection of His people.  Possibly within our lifetime, the world will discover which chronology is correct.

(c) 2014 Eve Engelbrite