GOD USED A DONKEY

GOD USED A DONKEY

                Irvin Baxter is very excited right now. He is a long-time Bible prophecy teacher on television and the internet and a solid Bible student. Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, Baxter has seen prophecy after prophecy being fulfilled and all of the final pieces of the puzzle being put together to forming to what we would call the last seven years on earth.

1.       First of all Trump paved the way for Jerusalem to become the capital of Israel. He literally did what no preceding president has had the ability or the will to do. But this sets up Jerusalem for final events.

2.       Secondly, he is spearheading the peace initiative known as the covenant with many found in Daniel 9: 26, 27 that will launch the final 7 years of earth’s history.

3.       Thirdly, Trump demanded that the European Union pay their fair share of their defense expenses. But in a new coalition headed up by France and Germany and in rebellion against America telling them what to do, they formed a new 10 nation alliance to build their own army. But according to Baxter, this may be the very ten nation alliance spoken of in Revelation 13 and Daniel 7. It is the composite beast with 7 heads and ten horns that rises out of the old Roman Empire from which the antichrist ( the little horn) will rise and when he does arise he will pluck out three of the surrounding nations.

4.       Now, I know that this happened before with the rise of Papal Rome as it replaced pagan Rome  and at that time in history, they also uprooted 3 nations, (The Heruli, the Vandals and the Ostrogoths) And that was a valid fulfillment of that scripture. But the Abomination of Desolation has happened before too, (before Jesus’ time) and yet Jesus pointed to another ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION event that will happen just prior to His coming. It will happen again!

5.       We have to understand like Jewish scholars do that prophecy is pattern. If it has happened before, it will surely happen again, is what they believe. Israel is the pattern setter, the physical pattern setter, letting us know and understand what is going on in the spiritual realm and in the church.

6.       All of these events are setting up Jerusalem for its end time role, including the third temple that will make it possible for the physical Abomination of Desolation to take place.  And this third temple will be a physical template for what is happening to the rest of the world spiritually as many embrace the antichrist in the place of Christ and they worship the Beast and his image.

                We are temples of the living God, so when we abandon the Word of God and the Spirit of God and we abandon Truth in favor of a lie, then we will have done exactly what Israel did in forming a golden calf to worship at the foot of Mt. Sinai. After all, the Law was given on Mt. Sinai, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ and it was written in our hearts on the day of Pentecost.  So in a very real sense we too stand at the foot of Mt. Sinai and we will soon be given a choice between faithfulness to Jesus Christ or worship of the golden calf, the Beast and his image who will reign in the place of Christ.

                Along with all of these final events being currently set up in Jerusalem, we are also witnessing the great falling away as whole denominations and people from many denominations abandon the Word of God and the Gospel of our salvation that can only take place through repentance, and death through the cross and new birth through the resurrection and new life in the Holy Spirit and sanctification through the Word. Today these foundational truths are being dismissed.

                These fundamentals of salvation have become foreign to many Christians today as they line themselves up with a global agenda, trading in the true Gospel for psychology and community organization and so on. Church growth has taken the place of solid teaching and prosperity has taken the place of sacrifice. Self-determination has taken the place of the Spirit filled Spirit directed life and compromise has become the new catalyst for unity.

                Time is much shorter than most people, even most Christians think, because they have abandoned the study of Bible prophecy along with all of the other truths that God has provided for us so that we will be awake and not asleep when He comes.

                “Now as to times and epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “peace and Safety” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:1-3

                Many Christians dismiss Bible Prophecy with a flick of the wrist saying, “Nobody knows the day or the hour. We don’t need to know that stuff. After all, we will be gone anyway.” But we forget that Jesus called the signs in Mt. 24 the beginning of sorrows and we are also told in 2 Thess. 2:3, 4 that we will be here to see the great falling away, or apostasy and the antichrist revealed as he takes his seat in the temple. So the great tribulation happens right after the antichrist commits the Abomination of Desolation in the temple and if there is going to be a pre trib rapture it will most likely happen with the resurrection of the Two Witnesses who have been ministering for the first 3 ½ years, 1260 days of the 7 years.

                It is right after the Abomination of Desolation that Jesus warns the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea to flee to the mountains and He calls that the time of Jacob’s (Israel’s) trouble.

                 So now concerning what Paul said about Jesus coming like a thief in the night we need to pay closer attention, for he goes on to say,: “BUT YOU BRETHREN ARE NOT IN DARKNESS THAT THE DAY SHOULD OVERTAKE YOU LIKE A THIEF; FOR YOU ARE ALL SONS OF LIGHT AND SONS OF THE DAY. WE ARE NOT OF THE NIGHT OR OF DARKNESS.” So let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. 1 Thess. 5:4-6.

                “ And so we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts…” 2 Peter. 1:19.

                 Don’t be sucked into wrong thinking by the part of the church that is falling away. We need Bible Prophecy and we need to study it so that when these things take place we will understand them. It is not about setting dates. It is about preparing our hearts... so that the Morning Star will arise in our hearts.

                In my title today, I am not inferring that Donald Trump is a donkey. We are to respect those whom God has put in office whether we like them or don’t like them. What I am saying is that God will use whatever means possible to fulfill His Word and we have seen throughout Biblical history that whenever God couldn’t find a believer to do the job He used a non-believer. He used Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Pharaoh, Herod, Roman soldiers, Syria, Titus and many other nations and kings and people to carry out His word.

                Only time and history will record whether Trump was a good guy or a bad guy, but God seems to be using him, whether he fully understands it or not, to put many things into place and to set many end time events in motion and if it is as Ervin Baxter sees it, then we are much closer to the end than we can imagine. It’s time to wake up and to give all that we have and all that we are to the Lord.

                It is really time to stop quibbling about various interpretations of prophecy and to look with holy awesome determination on bended knee,  that our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.