Ever since Lucifer, having been created with the ability to choose, rebelled against the God of the Universe, he has been at work to replace God on His throne. This is told in Ezekiel 28 and is unmistakably dealing with God’s creation of a highly placed angel over the hosts of heaven.

As a reminder, look at Isaiah the prophet’s account of his intent: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!

“For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15).

Both Daniel and the Apostle John tell of a series of world kingdoms, seven in all, in which John notes that this “great red dragon,” as described in Revelation 12, was and is the central authority of those kingdoms. Revelation 13:2b says, “The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.” (The dragon gives the beast, representing the Antichrist spirit of all ages, that continual authority.)

Isaiah alludes to his ending, but let’s see how that looks from the Apostle John’s view in Revelation 20:10: “The devil, who deceived them [the nations], was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast [Antichrist] and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Throughout the centuries since Creation, the devil has consistently attempted to corrupt the plan of God, and especially His greatest creation, the man and the woman, in His own likeness. The story of Job’s endurance is typical of that tactic. Most commonly, though, a simple temptation will do the trick, it seems. Man’s grasp of the purpose of God seems greatly limited.

But we want to look at the development over the years of that rising tide of evil that swirls under the surface of the visible society and now is becoming more and more openly prominent. It is the New World Order, the one-world government envisioned by globalists who have no loyalty to any nation regardless of their oath of office.

It is closely associated with the history of money, reaching back to the days of feudalism when the landowners would store their grain in warehouses.

Over time, the warehouse owners learned that issuing certificates for certain amounts of grain value could be used instead of transferring the actual grain in trade exchanges when a grain owner needed that value. The receiver of the certificate would report the transfer of the ownership of that certain amount of grain in the warehouse.

Then, the warehouser recognized that there was always a certain amount of grain in the warehouse, so he began to issue certificates based on that continued balance, with great caution, no doubt. Nevertheless, the current system of banking had that beginning, as I understand it.

The Rothchild extended family were the early participants in that development. It gets ugly. It has been said, though now denied, that one Nathan Rothchild declared in 1820, “Give me control of a nation’s money supply, and I will not care what its laws are.”

President Andrew Jackson in the early 1800s was a bottleneck to them, but when Abraham Lincoln issued “greenback dollars” from the national treasury, he was assassinated. No such reason was ever admitted, however. Apparently, for a nation to provide its own funding from its treasury is not acceptable to the bankers.

When President John F. Kennedy issued silver certificates from the national treasury, it was too much, and a patsy—yes—who could be charged for his elimination was found. But this was after the infamous Federal Reserve System had been established and made “legal” in 1913. In 1910, a covey of leading businessmen, bankers, industrialists, oil executives and government insiders had met secretly at Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia and developed the Federal Reserve System of banking for the United States.

The truth was not widely known until the 1930s, no doubt about the time when FDR called in all of the gold in the country at $35 an ounce. The Federal Reserve is neither Federal nor a Reserve. Ten international families own the System, and they are under no risk for the issue of Federal Reserve Notes; that is, they have no assets at the risk of a loss. However, member banks are required to have a certain amount of reserved assets, as is the manner required of insurance companies.

In 1913, it was made legal, as well as the income tax law to raise funds for payment of the debt the system would create. Then, how were they to create that debt? Well, how about a World War? It took a few years, but in 1917, the assassination of a nobleman in eastern Europe got one kicked off. Just like that. At one time, in those years, three members of the extended Rothchild family were heads of the financial departments in three nations–Germany, England, and the USA. Paul Warburg was in the USA’s department.

As long as Congress keeps raising the debt limit, the paper “legal tender” continues to flow. The threat is that not legalizing a higher debt limit is necessary to keep the government from shutting down. Actually, the US Treasury could issue “legal tender” in violation of the Federal Reserve’s dictates, but who has the courage to do that?

Now, with this new law just passed by the lame-duck Democrats, the nation is approaching $33 Trillion of national debt on which $Billions are due to that “bank” in interest each year. Actually, it amounts to only returning that much of the “money” that is borrowed each year. The debt can never be paid off, for all of the funds available are debt dollars.

Returning $33 Trillion would require all of the money supply to be consumed for that purpose. Remember that claim of Nathan Rothchild? In the 60-plus years I have followed or looked back at, there has never been a time when Congress did not raise the debt limit to avoid a shutdown of the government. Raising the rate of interest restricts the borrowing of Federal Reserve dollars which is said to control inflation by cutting economic activity.

Socialism feeds on this system, for sure. And taxation is the way they want to slow it down. It is that graduated income tax method that is the fourth plank in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. No wonder the leftists are so fearful of Donald Trump’s intent of “draining the swamp.”

In that side of the worldwide spiritual warfare, there is not an honest recognition of God having anything to do with the events of the world. The judgments reported in the Book of Revelation and those predicted in the gospels are all in the earth and involving people of the earth. This world is the battleground for that spiritual warfare between God and Satan. In the fullness of time, God will bring His plan into reality.

We must not forget that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed on Him would not perish but have everlasting life!”

Scriptures tell us, as in Titus 1:1-3, that before time began (See Genesis 1), He has planned this whole redemption process. In 2 Thessalonians 2, the inspired Word says that before the Lord returns, “a falling away must come first,” then He who holds back the evil until the right time will come for those who belong to Him.

It looks like that “falling away” has been formulating for centuries, from kingdom to kingdom, as Daniel the prophet and John the revelator discuss. A reminder came up recently that Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union murdered 27 million of Ukraine’s population to force Communism upon them in the 1920-30s. Now, Putin is doing the same for his own glory. And the USA is committed to helping Ukraine throw off his attacks. There seems to be no way Putin can be stopped without major bloodshed.

The prophecy of Jesus is that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and no one will know the day nor the hour. This is not like the details of His coming to the earth at the end of the seven years of tribulation told of in the Book of Revelation, the Second Coming, so-called. Jesus did not say “some day and some hour” but a certain day and hour. It is a day already appointed by God the Father, and it will not deviate.

Many Scriptures direct the careful reader to watch for that Day, and be ready for it, ready in our relationship with the Lord. One place I have shared often says, “When these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28). That chapter is full of events that look like today’s happenings. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20b).

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com

In Part 1, we looked at several Scripture passages having to do with this topic heading, and the discoveries were very meaningful and timely. The promise in Matthew 28:20, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” brings up the questions of when and how? Or, as we mentioned, “what happens after that?”

He said, “always,” and Hebrews 13:5 quotes an Old Testament promise, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you!” When, then, is the end of the age?

That can be a tricky question unless one is aware of the flow of Scripture, for some would put it as the very end of time as we know it. But it is the time when God ceases the age of the church, takes the believers to heaven with Him, and begins a final and special attention to Israel for seven years. It is called the 70th week of Daniel.

In Daniel 9:24, the prophet was reminded of a promise of judgment made through Jeremiah: “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.”

Looking, looking, looking…” Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus has never made a promise that He did not intend to fulfill. His prophecies are promises of future events, so what do 2 Thessalonians 2:1 and 3 tell us? “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him…. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition….”

Has that “falling away” come yet? Well, are we believers still here? Answer “Yes,” meaning that any falling away has not ended, for Jesus has not come.

Are we seeing the increasing development of the “falling away” from faith, morality, lawfulness, moral integrity, truth, compassion… and what else? Every segment of our society and culture worldwide is being turned upside down. Isaiah 5:20a says in his day, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil….” That is the core action of this falling-away episode.

Another unknown promise fulfillment is the one when the Lord says He will take out of the Gentiles a people for His name (Romans 11:25 and Acts 15:14). When will the last Gentile be saved… in this age before Jesus comes?

To help us in our “looking for Jesus, our Blessed Hope,” let’s follow some “stepping stones” from Scripture that form a pathway. But first, we must have some rules for guidance.

No. 1 is 2 Timothy 3:16a, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine [truth]….” (We might step on a lily pad instead of a stepping stone and note the verb “is” in the verse—present tense!)

No. 2 is to be alert for cross-references that help us find the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).

No. 3 is to be careful not to “lean on our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

No. 4 is to remember that “knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10b).

No. 5 is Paul’s directive to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15, saying he should study to rightly divide the Word of Truth, that is, to not confuse the placement of prophecies out of their order and timeliness.

Now, John reveals in Revelation 1 the authority and source of that prophecy, Jesus Christ. Verse 19 tells us that it is given in a chronological manner—to John, past, present and future. It follows that pattern to believers of today; however, it is mostly future. (I base this on the present tense of “is” in 2 Timothy 3:16, No. 1 rule above.)

The seven churches are displayed by Jesus and identified by their location and characteristics. But why those seven out of the many churches in that region? In the future, there may well be a composite of those churches in the latter days, a church becoming more identified with the world than with Christ. His appeal to individuals to respond to His knock on their doors in Revelation 3:20 seems to indicate His having been shut out of the lives of people claiming salvation but not by accepting Christ as the way to eternal life.

Applying that verse, Revelation 3:20, with the Great Commission given to believers at Pentecost (Acts 1:8) and many other places, the end of the age now approaches, and the “ingathering” spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2:1 is foretold by John: “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet (read 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.'”

“Immediately” (in the twinkling of an eye), John sees a throne and One with great glory sitting on it. Around that throne were twenty-four thrones with elders sitting on them. They had golden crowns on their heads, and later they would cast them before the One on the first throne.

This incident indicates that an earlier event had occurred there, which is the Bema judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10) where rewards—crowns–are given for services for the LORD.

Who were these, for elders were not among the host of heaven? They have crowns, and the Scriptures name crowns which believers will have received from the LORD as rewards for their service to Him. No doubt but these are representatives of believers of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the Christian church era. This is the time of the “ingathering,” the Rapture of born-again believers being foretold.

Although the church as a body is not mentioned in the Revelation chapters to follow until chapter 19, those elders show up in chapters 5, 7, 11 and 14 to assist John with understanding the scenarios that develop and other services for the Lord.

Next, John’s description in John 14:2-3 tells us what happens: “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

The church shows up for the marriage supper of the Lamb, told in chapter 19, and when Jesus is ready to come back to earth, He sends His angels to the ends of heaven to bring His elect to join Him (Matthew 24:31). Jesus will have on His head a great multitude of “diadems” (KJV), or crowns (NKJV), representing that great multitude of redeemed saints from the Christian era who come with Him at His Second Coming.

Now, we are “looking for that Blessed Hope” who is the central figure of all end-time events—Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God!

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com