Endtimes Here, Yes; but How Close to “The End?”

It is evident to every bible student that history is cyclic. What have been aforetime, continue to recur from time to time; and several prophecies are fulfilled over and over again.

Anti-Christs

For instance, the Lord Jesus cited the prophecy in the book of Daniel of an anti-christ figure setting up an abomination and desecrating the altar in the Jewish temple at Jerusalem as an event that would mark the end of times (Mat. 24:15, Dan. 11:31).  However, history recorded that even before the coming of the Lord, the Syrian King, Antiochus Epiphanies, no doubt fulfilled that prophecy on Chislev 25, 167 B.C. when he defiled the Temple by erecting an image of Zeus therein, as well as slaughtering a pig on the Altar of Burnt offering as he sacked Jerusalem that year.  Yet the Lord put it as a future event, and we therefore know it is going to happen again. By the way, this is one of the strongest evidences that the Jewish temple currently being contemplated, would be rebuilt with a functioning Altar sometime in the future. Indeed the extra 75-days interval in Daniel 12:11-12 also points at another coming Chanukka, re-dedication of that endtime Temple after its defilement by the anti-christ.  Clearly the prophecy of an anti-christ figure recorded in Daniel 9 is capable of multiple fulfilment.

As a matter of fact, concerning the antichrist, apostle John wrote in the 1^st century: “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time”. (1Jhn 2:18)

Even in recent history, bible scholars have used numerology, current affairs, and prophecy to pronounce as antichrist, figures including Hitler, Mussolini, the Pope, Kissinger, Gorbachev, Tony Blair, etc.  Our opinion at CA! is that any of those characters could indeed have become full-blown into the antichrist. The devil prepared each of them, anticipating the right opportunity for the manifestation of the antichrist; but as the Restrainer continues to “let” (2 Thess. 2:3-7), the devil had to raise up other candidates.  But the final decision on the timing of the endtime schedule is entirely in the hands of the Lord God Almighty. (see 1 Cor. 15:22-24, Rev 17:17, Mark 13:32).

Land for Peace agitations

In June 1997, the Personal Update News Journal extracted an article from Benjamin Netanyahu’s 1993 book, A Place Among the Nations (Bantam Books, New York); and published it as Lessons from the Sudentenland.  In that deeply insightful and fascinating article, Netanyahu addressed the unceasing pressure being mounted by the Arabs on western powers at that time (1993), demanding they compel Israel to give up the so-called “occupied west banks” for the sake of peace. He showed the uncanny similarities between this approach by the Arabs and Hitler’s earlier tactics of pressurizing these same western powers (led by Britain at that time) to compel Czechoslovakia to give up the Sudentenland as the non-negotiable condition for peace.  The similarities in the two situations are simply jaw-opening. But that 1993 article could as very easily be mistaken for an article written this year, a quarter of a century later, as the situations and tactics again match so very closely!

We could cite other examples, but the point we are driving at is very clearly made: history is cyclical.  In the profound words of the Preacher: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9). 

Whence then “The End?”

The question is, would such cyclic-ness continue indefinitely into the future? The answer is a resounding NO! Recurrences would only continue till the appointed time of the end. An airplane hovering in circles over an airport is only waiting for the right opportunity to land; and land it shall as that opportunity appears.

This question was settled a long time ago in cosmogony, the field of science dealing with the origin of the universe.  Ancient philosophers had propounded that the universe had no beginning and would have no end.  It would continue for ever – either expanding and contracting repeatedly, or continue in a steady state forever.  But that idea has now been conclusively debunked.  From incontrovertible evidences in thermodynamics alone, it is clear that the universe did have a beginning and would certainly have an end.

The end of the world does not have to wait till the end of the planet earth or the physical universe however.  The world’s ecosystem is evidently designed to be robust and self-correcting; but then, with man’s apparent determination to work against all the common-sense indicated rules of sustainability, discerning professionals from virtually every field of human endeavour are joining the religious in alerting that things simply cannot continue this way, and that “the end is here!”

From issues ranging from immorality and ongoing satanic perversion of human sexuality, to mindless supplanting of natural seeds with unwholesome genetically-modified ones which cannot be replanted ad infinitum; from mind-bogging pollution of the ecosystem with new agents capable of leading to sudden mass extinction of life, to devices directly conjured together as weapons of mass destruction of life, humans are deliberately pursuing unsustainable options – all in the name of modernity.

Yet, nothing in all these analyses so far could justify a pronouncement with absolute certainty that the final end of our world is imminent.  History teaches us clearly that no matter how compelling the situation now might appear to us, some generations before us had also been at such a juncture before!  They too had seen convergence of situations suggesting the end was “clearly” imminent.  Yet the earth and the world system have bounced back, re-setting themselves every single time. In some of our earlier editions, we recounted the popular account of the end-is-here hysteria that marked the close of the 10^th century.  As the end of the year 999AD drew near, people forgave debts, and earnestly resolved to live holy and righteous lives.  Few weeks later however, when the expected “end” failed to materialize, they reverted back to their wicked and lascivious lifestyle with a vengeance!

To us at Church Arise! it is evident that the world order is winding down.  Indeed this has been our singular message for over 20 years! However with the advent of the Obama presidency in the United States, things got precariously close to the point of definite unsustainability, bringing the whole prophetic community to full alert.  Though we wrote that Obama was not likely to be the antichrist (as was being widely speculated), we were sure he would be a close forerunner – see http://churcharise.blogspot.com/2009/03/re-is-obama-antichrist.html .

There could be no doubt that had the liberal policies initiated by the New World Order through Barak Obama if continued another 4 years through Hillary Clinton, would have consigned biblical righteousness into the dustbin of  history in “God’s own country.” There were also the Obama vitriols against Israel bringing relationships between that country and her traditional ally to an historic all-time low!  There were several other indicators of impending singularity, such as the prophecy by the catholic Saint Malachy that the current pope (the 112^th since 1139 when the prophecy was penned) would be the last pope before the catholic church is destroyed.  Others include the predicted impending environmental catastrophes (super volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, meteorites, etc) for which nobody has yet any answer. Our understanding at CA!, using the analogies of Noah and Lot cited by the Lord (Luke 17:26-32), is that the exact arrival of all these calamities would coincide with the taking-away of the Church from the planet in what is called the Rapture!

           But then these beautiful absolutely unexpected changes: Britain elected to exit the company of Rome, the EU, widely expected to become the arrow-head of the imminent global governing kingdom of the anti-christ described in Daniel 2:40-44; Donald Trump became the president of the United States! And similar ripples arising from Austria, Czech, Italy, and elsewhere are bringing up a new wave of nationalism to trump the globalist visions – such as predicted in Rev. 17:17!  All this is suggesting we might be entering the commencement of another long cycle, but as warned in Vol 20 Qtr 4, we perceive that these new developments only represent a short passing phase of opportunity for the Church for last-minute soul winning before Her exit. It is also the end-time opportunity for the black race to provide righteous leadership for the world: think Nigeria here!

God has a calendar and a timepiece.

How could we be so sure of this? Israel! Israel is God’s calendar and clock, through which His intentions are declared well ahead. We can be sure that Israel is NOT going to go on another exile from the land; and be subsequently re-gathered back to Eretz Israel. Already, at God’s long-advertised seasons, the Jews are come to the land.  They have possessed the Temple mount.  Now all of Jerusalem is their capital.  It certainly is no coincidence having all these unimaginable feats, progressively build up and manifest precisely at appointed seasons on God’s time table (see for instance Johnson’s prophecies of the Jubilees, CA! Vol …. No….).

By that pre-announced divine calendar, the next event is the coming of the Messiah to rule in Jerusalem, preceded by, or possibly occurring simultaneously with the Rapture of the Church. (see Rom 11:25)

How do you respond to all these: excited, scared, or bored? Any of these responses is of immense diagnostic value for a genuine Christian to do a self-assessment! Without any doubts, it is such a great privilege being on the planet to see and participate in these things (Mat 13:16-17). We urge you to take heed, and fulfil your ministry. Shalom!