DID TRUMP LIGHT THE SPARK TAHT IGNITES TEH FINAL APOCALYPSE?

IS THIS THE SPARK THAT IGNITES THE APOCALYPSE?

                As we watched Donald Trump sign the documents yesterday that make Jerusalem the Capital of Israel, I was flooded with a host of thoughts. Daniel 9:27 kept pushing its way into my mind. “And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week…” and I thought, “No, President Trump cannot be the antichrist.” But as one looks carefully at Dan 9:27 another possibility arises. The one who confirms the covenant may not be the same person who a few words later makes desolate. It is as though two people are introduced here in this verse. There is one who signs the covenant and then, on the wing of abomination comes one who makes desolate.

                Do you remember diagramming sentences in high school? If we did remember diagramming sentences and applied it to Daniel 9:24-27 it would change a lot of people’s interpretation of these verses.

                It is definitely important to diagram this prophecy correctly because we may well be entering into that final week very soon and we need to understand it as intended. First of all, the abomination that makes desolate was not fulfilled by Antiochus in 137 B.C. Nor was it fulfilled in A.D. 70. These might have been types of the Abomination of Desolation, but both Daniel and Jesus push this event to the end of time just prior to His return and we can’t ignore that without doing major damage to our Lord’s prophetic time lines. We MUST pay close attention and we cannot always rely on yesterday’s interpretations.

                Many Bible prophecies have been interpreted within the framework of replacement theology. In truth we should have given up on replacement theology the minute Israel returned to their land in 1948, but many still cling to it and it distorts their understanding of last day events.

                For instance, they will take prophecies intended for the Jews and apply them to the Gentiles. In Revelation 7 we have 144,000 Israelites sealed in their foreheads and it actually names each of the 12 tribes of Israel, but in replacement theology, Gentile Christians apply these verses to the Gentile church. Really?

                Then again in Mt. 24 Jesus outlines the Abomination of Desolation taking place in Israel (an event that can only take place in Israel, in the temple, on the temple mount) and again, Gentile Christians living in America apply this to themselves so that when Jesus warns those living in Judea and Samaria to flee to the mountains, they apply this to Gentile Christians in America fleeing to the mountains. How did we make that leap from Judea and Samaria to the United States?

                And while we would be well advised to not live in cities and to try and escape persecution that will probably be worldwide, we cannot apply these verses that deal specifically with Israel in their own land, at their own temple in the last days to ourselves.

                This confusion as to who is Israel really throws a whole lot of misunderstanding into last day Bible prophecies and we need to hit the books again. Israel is in its own land.  Jerusalem is a cup of trembling just as Zech. 12:1, 2 says… and the nations are gathering against Jerusalem just as Zech. 14:1, 2 says and according to Zech. 14 the next thing to happen after that battle in which Yeshua defends His people, (Zech. 14:3) the next event will be Jesus landing upon the Mt. of Olives ( Zech.14:4) and taking up His millennial reign. (Zech. 14:5) The rest of Zechariah 14:6-21 describes what that millennial reign will be like. And this final event is typified by the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the Fall Feasts yet to be fulfilled in our day.

                The book of Revelation is really the unfolding of the Fall Feasts. All throughout these prophecies we see these feasts being played out. We see the second coming of Christ as represented by the “Feast of Trumpets. We see silence in heaven for about a half an hour, representing the Day of Atonement when the people waited in silent awe to see the High Priest come out of the Most Holy Place assuring them that Israel’s sins had been atoned for another year, to Jesus coming back to dwell among men for 1000 years as typified by the Feast of Tabernacles.

                But I digress, and I have mentioned these things only to give us a possible setting into which Donald Trump may have just taken us. If so, he certainly did so by God’s design. There is no natural way in which Trump should have won the election. He had the whole world including the entire global cabal stacked against him and yet God can do what He wants, when He wants and He determined that now was the time to usher in earth’s final events. (Or so it seems.)

                 Yesterday’s signing could never have happened under Hillary… so the fact that Trump made president along with the fact of this current signing may strongly indicate that God Almighty has determined that this is it. He has sent us warnings with blood moons and total eclipses and signs in the heavens all on His appointed times and if we are His Shepherds and His wise men, then we can be among the few to whom heaven has announced the coming King.

                Among the few shepherds and wise men living today, there is a buzz of excitement and wonder. Could this be it? Could we be entering the time of Jacob’s Trouble? If so, are we to be taken out of the way by rapture or are we to be here for the first half of the tribulation? When is the final harvest going to take place? If it hasn’t happened yet, is it going to take place during blood and fire and columns of smoke just as Peter described in in Acts 2 and Joel described it in Joel 2?

                For those who believe in the 70^th week of Daniel as the time of Jacob’s trouble, we believe that the Tribulation is made up of two periods of 42 months. The two witnesses preach during the first 42 months until the abomination of desolation. So the abomination forms the center point of the Tribulation. The two witnesses are caught up to heaven and maybe the church too. Then Israel has to flee to the mountains as the antichrist has desecrated the temple and the Time of Jacob’s Trouble begins. At the end of the second 42 months Jesus returns with His saints as per Rev. 19 and takes up His 1000 year reign from Jerusalem during which time He rules the nations with a rod of Iron and His saints rule and reign with Him.  

                Let’s face it folks; there can be no other time when Christ will reign and we with Him for 1000 years… when He rules the nations with a rod of iron. It is a time for the restoration of all things, but it is not eternity yet. Eternity will come on the 8^th day… as in the 8^th day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

                I am not trying to push a certain framework of doctrine here. All I am saying is that we need to restudy these things. The return of Israel to their land as promised in many OT places has changed everything. We cannot properly understand last day events without the Jews back in their land. We cannot properly understand last day events without the framework of the Feast Days and we desperately need to get in and study these things deeply.

                Many people today say, “Oh I don’t need to know all that stuff, I just need to trust Jesus.” And while that is true in a general sense, we have to ask ourselves why God gave us all of these detailed prophecies and then pronounced a blessing on those who read and understand them and warned that if anyone added to or took away from these prophecies, he would receive of the plagues mentioned in the book. (Rev. 22:18, 19)

                If we really trust Jesus, would we not also take seriously whatever words of instruction He gave us concerning the last days? He said in Rev. 22:16: “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.”  

                Can we truly worship Him while ignoring His words? Is it not a part of our worship of Him to diligently study what He has told us to study?

                Don’t let anyone tell you that Bible prophecy is not important. I tell you this: Of the many Christians I share current events with; over half of them tell me they don’t need to know all that stuff. Sometimes I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them and ask: Do you know what you are really saying? You have told me that while you believe in Jesus, you don’t really think that His words are all that important. You just want to read the good stuff where you get saved and ignore everything else.

                Only time will tell what this signing by Donald Trump means, but I can tell you this: The Day of the Lord is going to come to most of God’s people as an overwhelming surprise. Many who think they are ready will not be ready at all. Many, who presume they will be faithful when tested, will fall away even as much of the church is in the process of falling away right now.

                Just as they have abandoned the study of prophecy, so have they begun to abandon many of the fundamentals of the Gospel, from Creation to Salvation, to sin and repentance, to the blood of Jesus and His cross to obedience and discipleship, to the absolute truth of His Word and on to His predictions of how it will all end. Whole sections of the so called church are now falling away from these things in order to conform to the global religion of the antichrist.

                All I can say is Babylon is fallen… Come out of her My people. don’t put your faith in religion… put your faith in Christ alone and in His Word for they are one and the same, inseparable and true.

                We may not fully understand every prophecy; in fact with so many interpretations out there it is very unlikely that anyone has it totally right. But if our hearts are right, then our understanding of these things will unfold even as the events unfold. In fact Jesus told us as much. He said to His disciples: “And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you may believe.” John 14:29

                In other words, if we will study these things, even if we don’t fully understand them yet, when they come to pass we will understand them and then we will believe.

                I see this is applying to right now. If Christians were still studying Bible prophecy they would recognize just where we are in time, they would believe and they would not be abandoning one biblical truth after another. It is the abandonment of Prophecy that has rendered much of the church blind and floundering in our day.

                If we don’t have the big picture, then we will start tossing away the pieces of the puzzle that don’t seem to fit anywhere. We have lost our context into which the truths of the Bible fit. They fit perfectly when, even with our limited understanding, we can grasp something of God’s overall plans and purposes as outlined in prophecy, in His types and shadows and in His Appointed times the Feast Days.

                So, to return to our opening question: Has Donald Trump set the spark that will ignite the final apocalypse? Well, we don’t know yet for certain, but we sure as heck had better be watching and preparing because he may have done just that. So when the fake news and the people of the Beast start screaming and blaming Trump for the ensuing fire storm that is sure to break out, remember in your hearts that everything that happens in these last days is carefully crafted and orchestrated by God to lead Satan into his final trap.

                We know the firestorm is coming. The Bible has made that very clear. Everything that is going on and everything that will soon take place in this world is nothing more than an unfolding of the book of Revelation and the final unfolding of all Bible prophecy. It is the climax of history… the final end of Satan’s reign and the returning of the King… Long live the King!