“…And knowledge shall be increased…” (Daniel 12.4).

Our Lord Yeshua said, in no uncertain terms — “I SHALL RETURN” (John 14.3).

Luke records in the book of Acts that when he leapt into the clouds like Superman from the Mount Olivet, and the disciples stood in utter awe gasping with open mouths, angels appeared and said to them, “You men of Galilee! Why do you stand here gazing up into the heavens? This same Yeshua, whom you have seen zooming up into the heavens  SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER as you have seen Him ascending” (Acts 1.11).

For 2000 years men have looked for the second coming. And for 2000 years we as the Christian Community have declared His second Advent imminent. Yet, just a short time ago I was scheduled to preach in a particular church, and as I sat in the pew the minister (who sat directly in front of me), turned and said, “Brother — you know you can preach on any subject you wish?” I nodded as the church rose to sing. “Well, there’s one thing I really don’t want you to mention. I don’t want you to talk about the second coming. I no longer believe in it and 60% of my congregation doesn’t believe in it either, and I’d like to keep them.”

I stood there in my pew like a stunned mullet in a fish shop window. I could not believe my ears.

 

• Mashiach said he would come again.

   

• This is our blessed hope.

   

• Our present world is rapidly escalating toward absolute oblivion — toward cosmocide — and even our children are being fed the line at school that there is now no hope for any of them, no positive future to which they can look forward.

   

Yeshua said of our own day, “Except those days be shortened, no flesh would be saved alive, but for the elect’s sake the days will be cut short” (Matthew 24.22 See Moffatt).

Yet today, in many churches, we hardly hear of the second coming of Messiah — but his promise remains the only hope to be saved from the monumental global holocaust that lies directly in front of us now.

For 2000 years we have faithfully preached the second coming of Messiah.

In the first century crucified Christians were burned alive by Nero to “lighten up” his garden party orgies — their crime? They witnessed to the second coming of their emperor, Yeshua the Messiah!

In the 2nd century we witnessed the faithful martyrs Polycarp and Polycrates witnessing to the Roman Emperor of the coming advent of Yeshua before they perished in the amphitheatre.

In later centuries the second coming was preached when the unfortunate Trinitarian controversy rocked the church and as the Dark Ages rolled in on Europe.

In the 12th through to 14th centuries when John Wycliffe’s Lollards preached the Gospel and assured believers their Lord was returning, they were so successful every second man in England was a Christian.

In the Reformation Period, when the sabbatarian Bohemian Brethren passed the torch to Martin Luther, all Europe awaited the second coming as enlightened Christians again preached that the coming of Messiah was near.

In the 19th century during the great missionary awakening when Hudson Taylor took the Gospel to China and founded the China Inland Mission, the church faithfully proclaimed that Yeshua was coming again.

 

• In this century, a great preacher and expositor of the word of God gave what everyone believed was his worst ever sermon at a major university. People were deplored at how bad it was. He finally gave an altar call and only one person out of countless thousands who listened to his words came forward to accept Yeshua as his Lord and Saviour. His name? William Graham.

   

• The holy Spirit chose one man out of thousands that day to take the message of Yeshua to the world. Say what we might today about this man of God, as a result of Billy Graham’s preaching power countless millions heard that Yeshua was coming again. I received my own original understanding that the Messiah had come as a result of hearing the Gospel under the mighty influence of Billy Graham during one of his evangelistic campaigns.

   

Where are the Billy Graham’s of today? Strangely, as the world rushes to the crossroads of survival and doom and you would expect to hear of Messiah’s advent, the churches by and large are silent. If they do preach it, its more of a doctrinal belief than a present reality of hope.

I stood there in the pew and the words of Peter resounded through my mind. “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying ‘WHERE IS THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning” (2 Peter 3.3-4).

I suddenly became aware that the eyes of the church were on me, as I was still standing there in the pew and the hymn was over, and everyone was sitting down, and I wasn’t moving. I was angry. I was righteously indignant. I was going to preach an innocuous 20 minute sermon on the need to support missionary endeavours. I strode up the aisle and took the pulpit and they got over a rock-solid hour of the second coming.

They never invited me back, and its no loss.

 

• Messiah was preached.

   

• His word was preached.

   

• His promise of hope for all of us was preached.

   

We might wonder what kind of congregational mentality would tolerate such blatant distortions of the Gospel. Well, I preached in an Anglican high church a few years back and when the service was over a little old lady wearing a blue felt hat (with hair to match) shook my hand and said to me, “Thank you so much for telling it like it is out of the lovely King James Bible. I don’t like these other Bibles. I think if the KJV was good enough for the Lord and his disciples then its good enough for us!”

Our Lord Yeshua said in John 14.3 “I shall return” — and he shall. But it will not be with meekness as he came the first time.

You see — there’s Good and Bad News when it comes to the Gospel.

 

• The Good News is that Yeshua is coming back.

   

• The bad news is that he’s pissed off.

   

He is not coming as the meek “Lamb of God” to be crucified anew by humankind, and again stoned to shreds with flints hurled by the Jewish people as He writhes and twists and screams afresh nailed onto an almond tree!

It will not be with an astonishing compliance that led to the slaughter house to be raped, brutalised, scourged, stoned and crucified. IN NO WAY.

He is coming visibly in the clouds of heaven to conquer this world and bring it peace once and for all. He is returning as the Warrior-Messiah — the KING of kings and the LORD of lords. The War Scroll of the Yeshua Party makes this patently clear. If we turn to Revelation 19.11, it is written therein,

“Then I [John] saw the heavens opened, and there right before me was a white stallion. Sitting upon it was the One called Faithful and True, and it is in righteousness that he passes judgment and goes to battle. His eyes burned like a fiery flame, and upon his head were many royal diadems. And he had a name written which no one knew but himself. And he was wearing a robe which had been soaked right through with blood, and the name by which he is called is ‘THE WORD OF GOD.’ The armies of the heavens, clothed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down nations – ‘He will rule them with a sceptre of iron.’ It is he who treads the winepress from which flows the wine of the furious rage of Adonai, God of heaven’s legions. And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written: “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19.11-16 tentative BRI version).

Is Our Head Buried in the Sand? Are we Deluded?

Some may challenge: “We’ve been in dire straits before now and we have always been able to solve our planet’s problems. What’s so different about today’s day and age?”

For starters, today, more than any other time in our common era, Christians feel impotent, powerless and insignificant  when it comes to coping with the world in which they live.

Why is this so? Its really all a matter of perception. When we think of the devil its usually as powerful, majestic, wholly sinister, evil, totally in control, lord of demons, profoundly intransigent, completely heartless and cruel.

How do we see ourselves? Weak, dependent, powerless, despairing, discouraged, defeated, always doubting.

 

• But the Gospel reveals that Our Lord Yeshua defeated the Dark Lord at the cross. Satan is in reality a defeated foe.

   

Whatever Happened to Real Kingdom Authority — of the Non-Pentecostal Variety?

A few years ago Hal Lindsay wrote a book of compelling nonsense called “Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth.” I have news for Lindsay. Satan may be alive on planet Earth, but he’s not well — indeed, not too well at all. My Bible tells me he received a mortal wound at the cross of Our Lord. For, the crucifixion was the specific battlefield where Yeshua “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, and triumphed over them” (Colossians  2.15).

 

• Messiah is stronger than the Dark Lord.
• Messiah has successfully assailed the Dark Lord.
• Messiah has overcome the Dark Lord.
• Messiah has broken the defenses of the Dark Lord.
• Messiah has plundered the dark kingdom of the Dark Lord.

No longer can Satan compel any of us to do evil or to sin. He may very well tempt us, and he does.

 

• But his power over us is completely illusory if we are in Messiah.

   

We have forgotten that we possess kingdom authority.

We catch a glimpse of the use of kingdom authority in the example of the Messiah who walked on water, hushed a howling storm at a simple word, fed a multitude with a few loaves of bread — subtracting in order to multiply (Messiah was an accountant’s nightmare) — and riding an untamed unbroken colt through the streets of Jerusalem to the exhilaration of a cheering crowd. No matter how much that colt tried to throw Yeshua off it was utterly unable to do so.

Recall the tempest on the sea of Galilee when a mini-cyclone hit the region. The disciples were adrift being tossed to and fro on the foaming waves, the cyclonic wind and storm savaging their little vessel. They thought they were doomed. Then one of the disciples saw what appeared to be an apparition. In the midst of the storm there was somebody out there. It was Yeshua leaping from wave to wave like a fire fly. Peter called out tempestuously, “Lord if it’s you bid me come to you.”

Yeshua called back over the howling gale, having a great time, his body being lashed by the wind and the waves: “Yes, its me. Come on down.”

Peter — and all of us — must learn to be water walkers.

We have to learn to defy the flesh, the natural existence, by seeing it as illusion. Only God’s world is real.

Yeshua exercised faith — EXERCISED faith — in God.

 

• It has been said that faith without result is like rain without water, or sunshine without light!

   

Faith obtains — faith possesses — faith moves the hand of God. How many times do these words of my mentor, Dr Ken Chant, explode with imaginative potential in the depths of my inner man?

But Our Lord Yeshua lamented. “When the Son of Man returns, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18.8).

There are some churches that claim to have great faith.

Faith is not the Satanic delusional disease of “hyper-faith,” which is nothing more than arrogated and presumptuous self-will.

Faith is believing. All of us believe. Some of us believe positively, and others believe negatively. But we all believe, and we all have faith. Yeshua said to many, “According to your faith, be it unto you.”

So What’s Wrong With Our World?

Some of us have no faith left after considering the following world problems. Instead, we are perplexed when personally touched by rising unemployment; gang warfare; teenage pregnancy; violent crime; massive government deficits; rising homelessness and illiteracy; global warming; civilisation producing a million new souls every four days; the relentless extinction of other species; the agonising strangulation of our delicate ecosystem; the ever-present threat of nuclear war; chronic famines; worldwide food shortages; the energy crisis with the USA alone using up more energy on its air-conditioning than the total energy consumption of India and China put together; increasing drought and, in other regions hurricane-style snow blizzards and torrential rain and floods, earthquakes all over the place; intensification of civil and religious wars; banking conspiracies; Britain’s dilemma of being four times more crowded than China; the ever-present threat of micro-biological warfare; uncontrollable and impending bacterial disasters; and talk of sinister transnational business corporation non-government agency conspiratorial networks of co-directorship aiming at the introduction of a global economy and government — and on top of all this there are personal health, marital and financial trials, sometimes of a monumental and devastating nature,

 

• and then there’s this hole in the ozone layer as large as Australia.

   

• and life-supporting tropical rain-forests being destroyed at the unbelievable rate of 50 acres per minute. At this rate we will have perhaps 35 years of air left. Is this why the USA and other governments have been working on a secret space station for the past 25 years? Is this the reason why we are urgently finding out as much about the planet Mars as we can?

   

These are the problems already confronting us as present realities. What do the next two decades hold for us? Not a pretty scenario by any means!

Hundreds of millions of inhabitants of the Middle East, Asia and Africa will have literally starved to death or perished due to exotic, horrendous diseases such as the Ebola virus. Millions of species of animal and bird life will be extinct, and the prospect of food wars inevitable. Our children can only look forward to a grim tomorrow without hope, a future of predicted worldwide famine with its consequential and resultant disease epidemics, droughts, international social and political unrest. [The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently issued its long-awaited report on the frightening rise of global temperatures — Global Warming.]

In contradiction to the right wing Christian fundamentalists, the “Greenhouse Effect” is not a theoretical problem or a “conspiratorial non-issue.” The Greenhouse Effect has had immediate repercussions. The hole in the Ozone Layer is a startling reality. The rapid breakup of the Polar icecaps is happening while we helplessly watch.

Certainly, if you are one of those so-called insignificant people who have often thought to themselves that the weather has been strangely “off colour” since the recent Halley’s comet flyby, then rest assured that – official disclaimers to the contrary – you were right after all!

Recall the time when you used to be able to determine the seasons in their courses? Remember the days of the old school yard? That time has gone now. In a matter of less than ten days we can all experience Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter all mixed up together! In fact, sometimes we get them all in one day. Right? There is a reason WHY the weather has literally gone right off the “richter.”

Global temperatures are on the increase. This has been primarily due to the excessive buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While it allows the sun to heat the earth it actually prevents any escape of that heat. Of course, following the EPA report, which focuses attention on major “changes in climate patterns” with expected future “disrupted food production… with significantly higher coastal waters,” the National Academy of Sciences issued a statement that while “there is cause for concern” they had the matter well “in hand.”

 

• Contradicting their attempt at public reassurance they added “the need for more intensive research.”

   

Before it can orgiate into material form the world will witness a near global calamity probably involving either a devastating nuclear holocaust, or an extraterrestrial visitation, or an impending cosmic scourge — or all three (I’m opting for the latter).

Certainly, as to the “cosmic scourge” suggestion, the first of a series of advance warnings of an impending asteroid collision, due on October 26, 2028, has already been given by astronomers. It remains to be seen whether biblical predictions of a nuclear holocaust will also eventuate (and one or two of the prophets seem to describe such an event-uation).

The Bible seems to indicate that certain nations will be completely obliterated from the surface of the planet. If this is so, and they disappear due to the exerted military might of the Edomite United States, the Antichrist will thus guarantee his powerful position as Earth’s Master.

We cannot escape the conclusion that we shall all watch these events with horrified eyes bursting with pain and tears. Christians will not be up in some heaven with their Lord when these events transpire, though the desire is understandable. Yeshua said, “When you see these events begin to transpire, then look up and lift up your heads! For your redemption draws near!” (Luke 21.28).

And while our redemption draws near, the annual cost of the arms race accelerates beyond our comprehension.

 

• Even with the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the governments of the world are presently spending a frightening US$1,000 billion on nuclear stockpiles and armaments a year.

   

If the annual cost was converted into a pile of dollars, it would stretch to the moon and back to earth, to the moon again and there would be enough left over to encircle our planet (Keith Suter, Global Change. Armageddon and the New World Order, 1992, 253).

There is a God who has promised to intervene in our world’s affairs, who rules and overrules the decisions of men, who has pledged Himself to SAVE the planet before it is forever too late (Matthew 24.21-22) by DESTROYING the forces that have set themselves, even unwittingly, to “DESTROY THE EARTH” (Revelation 11.18).

There’s Always Someone Who Wants to be Fuehrer

But, in the meantime, the world will reach out to another hope, one that is entirely futile, and this will have repurcussions of a disastrous nature for the Jewish people, and for many millions of Christians.

As a direct consequence of seeking help from this false source of material salvation BILLIONS (in fact, the entire globe) will be deceived into

 

• a false system of economics,

   

• a false system of politics,

   

• a false system of education,

   

• and a false system of worship.

   

It will be false, not because of its intrinsic nature or value, but because of its misuse in the lives of men made in the Divine Image of their Creator.

Shock environmental reports call for immediate worldwide action.

That call has been heard.

A man will soon emerge on the diplomatic stage who will appear to solve the problems of the world. He will hold the keys to Earth’s present dilemma. He will not hesitate to arrogate to himself full authority needed to attack the multitudinously complex issues of this present world system. And, he will seem to succeed. Earth will very shortly wallow in a proverbial “Garden of Eden” under his initial directorship.

 

• It will be midnight in the garden of good and evil.

   

Paul Henri Spaak, past President of the UN General Assembly, Secretary-General of NATO, Belgium’s one-time Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs who also served as first President of the Council of Europe, has said:

“Send us a man who can hold the allegiance of all the people, and whether he be God or the devil, we will receive him.”

 

• Our world’s need is enormous and it is urgent.

   

World leaders are very much aware of our global plight. World Federal Organisations are also acutely aware of our dire peril. “They” already have answers, indeed they have a solution.

And they are busily “preparing the way before him.”

What does biblical prophecy have to say about this period of the end time into which we are relentlessly heading?

Today’s older generation (those over 60 years of age) have witnessed a world in the pangs of change. They have seen the eclipse of horse and buggy with the sudden introduction of the motor car, air travel, world wars, international communication — first by telephone then by satellite and now (since Roswell) through the Internet — interplanetary space probes and space walks by human beings, and the unlocking of the awesome secrets of nature itself, unleashing on humankind the spectre of nuclear holocaust and microbiological madness. Our age is unlike any previous, with the exception perhaps of Noah’s day.

 

• For the first time in our history, the prophets of doom are not the fanatical religious leaders of our day but the worlds economists, scientists, humanists, and leaders of government. We have already witnessed two devastating world wars and, according to internationally acclaimed statesmen, are well on our way to our third, and probably final, nightmare.

   

In 1947 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists first published a symbolic atomic clock as a means of assessing nuclear tension around the world. In 1981 planet Earth moved two minutes closer to the end of the world than in 1974. That year the problem of proliferation were seen to be beyond the grasp of international control. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union we have moved closer still to “Armageddon.” In effect, we are seconds from “midnight” — Zero Hour.

Unlike other ministries which feed on dread, alarm and trepidation, I do not fear the emergence of the coming final world power. It may shock many of you, but I welcome the Beast. I welcome with open arms the emergence of an international New World Order. I do so simply and essentially because

 

• IT IS COMING WITH GOD ALMIGHTY’S COMPLETE WILL AND CONSENT.

   

In fact, the God of Israel DEMANDS its presence! Not only is this the case, God REQUIRES each Christian to obey the dictates of that final world kingdom (Romans 13, if this section of holy Scripture is referring to our need to respect Government authority) where its expectations do not inhibit free worship of the one true God (Acts 5.29). To pray against it — to work against it — is to thumb our pious, self-righteous noses at prophecy, and the Sovereign Lord whose will must be obeyed.

To teach people — as some are enthusiastically doing — to rise up and resist its emergence is to commit the highest TREASON, not merely against the New World Order, but against the Kingdom of God (Revelation 13.9-10).

We are almost at the point of seeing a WORLD FEDERAL STATE — A GLOBAL GOVERNMENT — emerge right before our very eyes! No longer is the catch-phrase “New World Order” heard only in grave and whispered tones among the so-called “Christian fundamentalist extreme right-wing lunatic fringe element” of society but it is a term being openly espoused and discussed publicly by some of the better-known and prestigious names in the world today.

And What is the State of the Church Today?

We Christians are a powerful force with which to be reckoned. Next year we shall be 2.1 billion strong. We presently occupy 223 nations and consist of 8990 ethnic groups. Each year we produce close to 23,000 new books for the religious market and publish close to the same number of Christian periodicals, 41% being in English.

There is a downside, however, to my burgeoning optimism.

 

• While 9% of the earth’s population speaks English,

   

• 94% of all ordained preachers in the world minister to the 9% who speak English.

   

Not only is this the case, but

 

• 96% of all world Christian finances are spent in the United States on 6% of the world’s population, while only 4% of all Christian money is spent to take the Gospel to the other 94% of the earth’s population.

   

One million full time Christian workers have outreach within the borders of the continental United States but fully one half of the earth’s population, Moslem, Hindu and Chinese have a mere 3000 full time Christian workers.

Until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union 47% of the world’s population lived in politically closed countries, where literature was often confiscated at the borders. This still applies in Red China and throughout the Muslim world.

Indeed, one fifth of the world is Muslim and stands opposed to any form of Christian witness or missionary presence among their faithful.

International missionary radio organisations boast of up to 110 different languages and dialects on their broadcasts and in their literature. But even this fails to impress when we realise that the Christian community expresses itself in over 7010 distinct languages and dialects.

Pentecostal institutions proclaim that more believers should speak in tongues. For what purpose? We are not utilising the tongues God has already given us (and I speak in tongues so my criticism is valid).

 

• The Christian Church possesses the numbers to make an appreciable difference, but does it have the power to change its dismal future? It is an interesting fact that the church has not grown — apart from interdenominational transfer growth — since 1967. That year is significant and I will come back to it in a moment.

   

More to the point, the Word of an Almighty God speaks to us of the future in terms of concrete decree. Based upon this premise we ought to posit should the Church even attempt to change the predictions of the prophets? The more the Church attempts to interfere with God’s decrees the further off they are putting the Lord’s return!

 

• Time to think very seriously about your theology.

   

• Time is short!

   

• Indeed, time is up!

   

The fabled Mount Olivet, upon the apex of which the LORD will set His feet, has begun to split and seismographs indicate the split in some places is already twenty-five feet wide (Zechariah 14.4b,5a).

Our Lord Yeshua stated emphatically that, at least in His day, “no man knew the hour” of His second Advent back to earth to rule it for 1000 years with a rod of iron. Ever since Yeshua ascended into the heavens men have attempted to divine the year of Messiah’s return.

They have chosen (among others) 70, 156, 1000, 1533, 1648, 1666, 1694, 1734, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1914, 1918, 1920, 1933, 1936, 1940, 1950, 1952, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2011, 2012, 2017.

But this in no way suggests that Messiah’s people will never know the IDA (Intended Date of Arrival) of his glorious return. And while I have never ever personally set dates, and have been skeptical about those who have attempted to do so in the past, I have also commented on innumerable occasions that we as a global people are living in very dire circum-stances and there can be no doubt that we are heading rapidly toward the last days of planet Earth.

In fact there is biblical evidence that we would not only know the closeness of Mashiach’s Advent in a general way (Matthew 24.32-33) but we would be finally able to calculate the exact date to the very day.

You want proof?

We possess a pre-existing script! It is nothing short of a calendrical system in the Apocalypse (with its references to 1260 days, 3.5 years, 42 months, and the blowing of the 7 last trumpets — all these periods associated in one way or another with Israel’s festival system) and the book of the prophet Daniel (again: 1260 days, 3.5 years, 1290 days, 1335 days and all associated in one way or another with Israel’s calendrical system).

October 26, 2028 looms ahead of our planet with startling arrogance. None of us can afford to shrug our shoulders and pretend that this date does not exist, or is a mistake. The first warning has been given by astronomers. There has been a monumental rush to “can” this prediction by some scientists.

Latest information provided by NASA on the Internet assures us that this asteroid will shave past us by about 600,000 miles. Even if it does can you grasp what the planetary effects will be? As if sensing the truth of the matter, both Holly-wood and cable television have prepared movies and documentaries to prepare our children and young people (especially those of the “under-50” age group) for the holocaust that scientists know will surely come. Our children are also being prepared for a future asteroid collision as evidenced from homework my little 10 year old has been given.

Significantly, the year 2028 is exactly

 

• 6000 years from the (Ideal) biblical autumn creation story and precisely

   

• 2000 years from 27/28 CE when Our Lord Yeshua was baptised and began His earthly ministry

   

• 30 years from the 2000th anniversary (Rosh Hashana 1998) of the birth of Our Lord Yeshua in 3/2 BCE (Yeshua’s ministry began at age 30).

   

• 40th Jubilee Year from 27/28 CE (which, intriguingly, was also a Jubilee Year when all Israel turned out to listen to Yochanan the Immerser and when multitudes — including Yeshua — were baptised in the River Jordan).

   

[N.B. It was widely held in the days of Yeshua that the Mashiach was to return to his home from obscurity during a Jubilee Sabbath. Yeshua fulfilled this literally in his first Advent (Luke 4.16; cf Isaiah 6-7,9-10; 42.1; 61.1; Luke 4.14,16-21) and doubtless he will accomplish a fulfilment of the Jubilee yet again at his second Advent. In the Jubilee Sabbath, which lasted a year, there was to be no reaping or sowing: people were to eat from the already existing crops of the field and this is again pointed out in Scripture as having appropriate relevance in the days of Yeshua (Matthew 12.1).]

Most biblical scholars recognise that Yeshua intimated that the generation that would see Israel blossom as a “fig tree” would be the final generation (Matthew 24.32-34). When did the State of Israel “blossom”?

The Significance of 1967

Israel was proclaimed a State in 1948. Allowing that a biblical generation is 40 years, multitudes recently believed that Messiah would without doubt come back in 1988. Well, frankly, if he did I missed the event. So did you. But the Israelis took Jerusalem from the Arabs in 1967 and since that time onward Israel has most certainly not only blossomed — Israel has bloomed!

Now consider carefully! There is a parallel in the ministry of Jeremiah to the doomed Jewish State in his day and age, and the conclusion of all things looming just ahead of us now.

Jeremiah was a young man when he was called by God — a mere youth of 17 years of age — and his prophecies centred in a time period during which Nebuchadnezzar (a type of the end-time Antichrist and who is also branded with the number “6”) rose to power and finally eclipsed the Jewish kingdom.

The king who reigned during this period over the chosen people of God was also a child, Josiah. Good little king Josiah of Judah. He was called “good” and “little” because he was “good” and he was “little” — he was only 8 years of age when he took the throne. He reigned for 39 years and was followed by two evil kings who ruled for a total of 22 years altogether.

At the conclusion of the 22 years Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Jewish State and took Judah into an exile which lasted 70 years. We are told, moreover, in another place, that at the coming of the Messiah the world will enjoy its land-Sabbaths for a total of 70 years. So there appears to be a parallel of sorts.

If we add the 39 years of Josiah’s righteous rule to 1967 we arrive at the year 2006 — a possibly significant year as far as the “Hidden Bible Code” is concerned! The hidden text states “It will bombard your country, terror, devastation. It is being launched.” Associated with these warnings is the encoded term, “atomic holocaust” (Michael Drosnin, The Hidden Bible Code, 1997, 123-126). While I readily admit that the breaking of this particular secret Bible code is yet in its fragile infancy, and mistakes in enthusiastic interpretation may have been made, 2006 is also the year a “star like object” collides with our planet. We shall have to wait to see if this eventuates (ibid, 153,154). [Editors Note: Nope! It didn’t happen! LOL]

However, this aside, if we then add the 22 years of evil Jewish rule to 2006 we come to 2028! Certainly, when the Jews took Jerusalem in 1967, it could then truly be acclaimed that “the fig tree blossoms.” Not only so, but Yeshua declared that it will be a time when “all the trees blossom.”

There is little doubt 2028 will usher in the terrible Day of the Lord! There are indeed dark times ahead for those who do not know Messiah. And, for those who do know the Lord, resilient endurance for survival through this stark period will be the keynote (Matthew 24.13). God will do nothing on such a grand scale that is not first revealed to His servants the prophets, through the School of the Prophets (Amos 3.7).

Interestingly enough, few realise our planet will be entering the outer rim of our sun’s asteroid belt in May 2005. The hidden Bible code confirms the many biblical predictions that we shall encounter a number of heavenly bodies before the end of our present civilisation occurs! Again, according to Drosnin, “‘Comet’ is encoded from Leviticus 18:20 to Deutero-nomy 27:1. The year 2006 is encoded in Leviticus 27:23. ‘Year predicted for the world’ appears right above, in Leviticus 25:46. The year 2012 also appears with ‘comet,’ in Deuteronomy 1:4… with 2012… [I]n the hidden text of Deuteronomy 1:4 are the words ‘It will be crumbled, I will tear it to pieces'” (Drosnin, op.cit., 230). This indicates that our great God is fully in charge when it comes to collisions with heavenly bodies, maverick or otherwise. Still, we are in for some heavy tribulation nevertheless.

“Here Come de Judge, Here Come de Judge”

“Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down [lit., perverts the face thereof], and scatters abroad the inhabitants… the curse has devoured the earth… the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left… for THE WINDOWS FROM ON HIGH ARE OPENED and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly [from its natural orbit]. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed… ” (Isaiah 24; cf Revelation 8.7-11; 9.1-2; 16.21; 18.8).

Just as the ancient Egyptians were bombarded with a plague of “hail” (Exodus 9 Heb. barad = meteorites) so the world will again experience meteorites plunging from the open skies above (Revelation 11.19).

The ancient master-mathematician Mayans of Mexico worked out calendrically that the inhabitants of this planet would experience a total collapse of time as we know it when our Age of Materialism would be eclipsed in 2012 CE. They knew that 2012 would spell out a cosmic imperative to retreat from the era of scientific technology and enter a New Age with an emphasis of working well within the restraints and constraints of Nature. Indeed, their phenomenally accurate calendar begins in 3113 BCE and comes to an abrupt cyclical halt on 21 December, 2012 CE.

Of course, whether the end-time is ushered in during 2012 or 2028 or some other date is irrelevant. After May 2005 our days are numbered!

Why will the Lord so harshly deal with the earth? Isaiah answers, “The earth is defiled by its inhabitants. They have trans-gressed the laws [of God], changed the ordinance [of God], broken the everlasting covenant [of God]” (Isaiah 24.5). Not only so, but Messiah is returning primarily to “DESTROY those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11.18b). The churches of an apostate Christendom have claimed that Yeshua did away with the laws of His Father, and that Christians are no longer bound to observe them. Christian attitudes have carried over into the Lord God’s spiritual realm the world’s pagan culture, values and ethics.

Consequently, Christians have largely become ONE WITH “BABYLON the Great” — and we are commanded “to depart out of it” (Isaiah 52.11; Jeremiah 50.8; 51.6,45; Zechariah 2.7; Revelation 18.4).

Our prayer is that our faith prove strong to “come out” NOW — and not when the “windows of heaven open.”

Ignored Prophecies of the Bible

Now we all have heard the classified prophecies of Matthew 24; Luke 21 and Mark 13. But there are other prophecies that identify the end of the age and I want to share some of these with you. But one of the keys to unlocking Messianic prophecy in the Bible is in certain key phrases. They are:

 

• “It shall come to pass”

   

• “In the latter days”

   

• “In those days”

   

• “And it shall be”

   

• “Behold the days come”

   

• “In the day of affliction”

   

• “In that day.”

   

These are Messianic signposts.

Consider Daniel 12.4. “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book [the prophecies of Daniel, including the angelic book called ‘The Scripture of Truth’] even to the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”

Most Christians think this merely means that people would be travelling all over the world with remarkable ease, and that secular, scientific knowledge would increase — being conveyed through such vehicles as the computer, micro chip, Internet etc. I would not discount this as a fact, but the centre of attention is primarily concerned with the prophetic book of Daniel — not events, as such. People are now scurrying through the prophetic utterances of Daniel trying to understand them as never before.

So what are some of the ignored prophecies of the final countdown to the coming of the Messiah?

PREDICTIONS

1. Civil war is coming to Israel (Zechariah 13). The conflict will arise over the controversial claim that Yeshua was, and is, the Messiah (Zechariah 13.1,6) The nation will be split apart as war erupts (13.2-9 cf 12.11-14). The Jews will accept Yeshua as their Messiah and there will be a revival of original Nazarene Christianity established around the restored Temple services. Peter argued that the Jewish nation had to accept Yeshua as the Messiah “IN ORDER THAT” he would return to establish the kingdom or government of God on earth. He told the Jews,

“Repent you therefore, and be converted, IN ORDER THAT your sins may be blotted out IN ORDER THAT times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD, IN ORDER THAT He shall send Yeshua HaMashiach, who before was preached to you, whom the heavens must receive UNTIL the times of restitution of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3.19-21 Gk).

Idolatrous Gentile Constantinian Churches will be banned enmasse and uprooted out of the Land along with false pentecostal prophets and teachers (Zechariah 13.2). BRI has been predicting this event for years as long-time readers are well aware. 

Not only so, but as Zechariah prophesied the end-time restoration of the kingdom of David, so the prophet Isaiah predicted the return of the Jews (one of the twelve tribal nations of Jacob or Israel) to the holy Land. Notice it now:

“In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city, God makes salvation its walls and ramparts” (Isaiah 26.1).

The Jewish people would resettle eretz Israel — the first signpost that would identify the time of the end and an enlarge-ment of Israel’s borders would be the natural consequence of Jewish emigration. True, there are Christians today who resent the emphasis of Jewish aliyah as being of divine origin. Nevertheless, Isaiah states categorically that the return of the Jews to the Land is of God, from God and ultimately for God. Isaiah’s emphasis is on God’s salvation (Isaiah 26.1) and he thus speaks of a time when the decree of God would cause the return of the Jews to the Land when the city would not possess walls and the normal fortification structures. Certainly this speaks of the end-time for no city today is built on these ancient architectural designs and plans!

2. Israel to expand its borders dramatically. “You have enlarged the nation, O LORD; you have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land” (Isaiah 26.15).

Modern Israel has progressively extended and expanded its borders since 1948 — 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982. We await the ultimate expansion that looms now on the immediate horizon.

Consider this possibility (and it is only one of many possibilities): that future expansion may well result from a war fought between Israel and Syria over the waters of the Yarmuk river, the boundary between Syria to the north, and Jordan to the south. This should not surprise us as Israel has twice bombed dams (in the ’60s and ’70s) that Syria has attempted to build over the Yarmuk. If Syria makes a third attempt, Israel will (of necessity) be brought into conflict with Jordan (with whom she presently shares an uneasy peace) for the simple fact that Israel depends on the Yarmuk water for irrigation and it flows right through Jordan.Prophecy tells us that the Jews will take the Yarmuk, and they will establish a power base in Jordanian Gilead (Zechariah 10.10).

Israel has signed a peace treaty with Jordan on Oct 26, 1994 over water-sharing with the provision that the Jews will supply the Jordanians with 50m cubic meters from the summer Yarmuk flow as Jordan cannot store her winter needs due to lack of capacity-storage. The agreement laid great stress on the need for Jordan and Israel to build dams over the Yarmuk and the Jordan rivers and to establish a desalination plant on Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee). Israel has also been pursuing another course of action over the vital necessity of water and this involves the building of canals to the Red Sea or from the Mediter-ranean at the staggering cost of almost $5 billion. The purpose is clear-cut: generate electricity for the desalination of 400m cubic meters of water per year for both Israel and Jordan.

“I [God] will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, until no room can be found for them. And He will pass through the sea of distress, and strike the waves in the sea, so that all the depths of the Nile will dry up” (Zechariah 10.10-11).

3. The region of Gilead, and Lebanon, will be settled by Israel. Israel has never, since its return to the Land, conquered the land of Gilead. As for Lebanon, the Jews do not live there although the southern territory is occupied by the Israeli Defense Force. The Bible declares the Jews will inhabit both Gilead and Lebanon, and not only is this the case, but that “no room [will be] found for them” (Zechariah 10.10).

4. The Nile will dry up (Isaiah 11.15; Zechariah 10.11) prior to the coming of the Messiah, and this is yet another proof that those who enthusiastically believe the world will end in the year 2000/1 or in 2005/6 or in 2012 are deluded. It will take YEARS for the Nile to evaporate — although the process of evaporation has already begun!

5. Israel to prosper economically. Speaking of the coming Antichrist, Ezekiel predicts “It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those that are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls, and having no bars or gates; to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the centre of the world” (Ezekiel 38.10-12 NASB).

6. A reincarnation of Elijah to soon appear. False Elijah’s wearing “rough garments” are already walking the streets of Jeru-salem today! (Zechariah 13.4 cf 2 Kings 1.8; Matthew 3.4). Satan always has his counterfeits but a real Elijah is yet to walk on the soil of the Holy Land (Malachi 4.4-6). True, Yeshua said Yochanan the Immerser was the incarnate Elijah expected back then by the multitudes (Matthew 11.7-15). He appeared “in the spirit and power” OF Elijah (in Jewish thoughtform the spirit was Elijah (Luke 1.5-17); Yochanan did not realise he was Elijah (John 1.19-24) for, like us, he possessed no memory of his previous existence. Nevertheless Yeshua told us he WAS Elijah! He added that Elijah has come and will yet come (Mat 17.10-13). Note also that the early church (established on the day of Pentecost LONG AFTER Yochanan’s execution) fully expected Elijah to yet reappear. The “times of restitution” referred to the mission of a returned Elijah (Malachi 4.4-6; Acts 3.21) just prior to the second advent.

7. Wildlife scarcity. Lions in particular are dying, becoming extinct (Nahum 2.11-13).

8. Cars are in abundance and capable of travelling at top speeds (Nahum 2.3-4).

9. Sodom and Gomorrah are yet to be recovered (Ezekiel 16.53-55). There are claims that they were rediscovered recently by Swiss archeologists. This has yet to be confirmed.

10. Planet Earth to experience asteroids to come (Isaiah 13; 24.5).

There is one final prediction (generally ignored) that I have been making since about 1974 which concerns the rise of Messianic congregations that will take the place of Gentile churches. in 1974 there were only a handful of them, but now the Movement has become epidemic (in a good sense). These are typified in the Apocalypse (Revelation 2-3). We know that these are end time assemblies in what is presently modern Turkey because there is no record of Thyatira as a congregation in the first century. That these are Messianic assemblies can be clearly shown to be the case as the menorah burns brightly in the midst of the congregations (or dimly depending on the spirituality of the church-type under discussion). Not only so but Jeremiah refers to Gentiles coming to Jewish believers and stating that they need re-education in biblical matters. “Our fathers,” they all claim with one accord, “have inherited LIES” (Jeremiah 16.14-19).

What lies?

Where do we start? The 4th century Constantinian period launched the Great Apostasy from which the Christian Church has never ever recovered. It is high time to return to the Torah, and to the true teachings of the Bible — the whole Bible. Some of these teachings may shock us, but if they do it is God awakening us out of the sleep that we have been in for too many years (Matthew 25.1-13). For 1600 years we have “all slumbered and slept.” That we are living in the days of the end of the world (as we know it) cannot be argued except by others who have secret agendas.

Those of us who seek the spiritual rest of the Messiah need to do what Yeshua highly recommended. “Come unto me all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU, and LEARN from me”  (Matt-hew 11.28-30). Learn from the Messiah. Be taught by the Messiah. Listen to what the Messiah tells you. Become a disciple of the Messiah. Only by doing this can any of us find that rest and find that peace — it is a peace that surpasses all understanding. It will not elude us if we remain faithful to that which we have been taught from the One who is proven True and Faithful.

It is high time to hear the footsteps of the coming Antichrist. You can almost feel his evil breath on the nape of your neck. The Dark Lord is coming.

But so is the Bridegroom. Let us then prepare ourselves by putting on the appropriate clothing — His righteousness.

“And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold! The bridegroom comes — go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25.6).

Do we realise its midnight? Have we heard the cry? Do we know the Bridegroom? If so, “let us go forth to meet Him.”