As this current indication of an end-time sign continues to unfold, it appears to have prophetic support from the words of 2 Thessalonians 2:3, which says, ” 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 uncertainty of how long the falling away will continue remains in God’s timing, for Jesus has said, “No one knows the day nor the hour of His coming.” This sign that is developing also has in its formation the opening of a new phase of God’s plan, as the two incidents are compared.

When Pilate asked the question at the trial of Jesus Christ, “What is truth?” he had been looked at wrongly, as if he was stalling for time, but not so. He had seen strange tactics for a Roman politician who had been under Roman law for a long time. Roman law, from the background of Latin, as I understand it, has the foundation of jurisprudence and judicial proceedings that extends even into today’s courts of law.

The Jewish people were subjects of the Roman government but proclaimed that they had the truth in their laws from Moses. But Pilate had examined Jesus quite thoroughly and said, “I find no fault in Him, and neither did Herod. He has done nothing worthy of death.” Their response was, Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Then, “Give us Barabbas instead!”

Pilate had seen them violate their own laws of truth during the mock trial. They had violated these judicial precepts:

1. They were ready to kill an innocent Man, the seventh commandment.
2. They were accepting false witnesses, the ninth commandment.
3. They were not allowing any witnesses for the defense, a violation of “justice for all.”
4. They were totally given to rejection of any evidence of His true identity, even though each time they had asked for a sign of that, His answers had been rejected. His evidence had never been honestly searched out in Scripture because they did not want Him changing their way of life.

Looking at God’s eternal plan, it is clear that Jesus was to be crucified for the sins of the whole world. They were blinded by their hate, and God allowed it to be so. In 1 Corinthians 2:7-8, Paul wrote this: “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” They followed their own inclinations, however, and will face the judgment of God for that.

Paul said clearly, “He has made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Thus, God stood back and let evil’s incessant desire take every opportunity to move into any place where God is not resisting it. That is Satan’s way of opposing God, for he only comes to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10a).

This unjust trial brought on the great change in God’s plan for mankind in that the coming of Jesus Christ was the introduction of the New Covenant in His blood, replacing the Old Covenant based on obedience to the law of Moses, a covenant of works, not faith. (This “change” was not God changing His mind and letting them crucify Jesus but a change in His plan’s operation as it moved forward to the next phase of its eternal purpose.)

It had been “foreshadowed” all along by the offering of animals on an altar in the temple (Hebrews 10:1), and believing in and keeping those annual sacrifices was required. It was not a permanent solution.

Jesus was crucified, and the gospel of salvation by faith in Him was reality. The last command that Jesus made to His disciples just before He ascended into heaven was to go into all the world with that message and confront people with it for their eternal salvation (Acts 1:8). Now, it has been nearly 2,000 years of that missionary effort.

With that Great Commission, Jesus said, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). What then? We believers will be with Him, for that next big event is the coming “ingathering” of His body of believers, both the dead and those still living.

As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep [died], lest you sorrow as others who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Then he continues with details of the Rapture of the saints in verses 16-17). On God’s calendar is the Feast of Trumpets, which is His “ingathering” at the last harvest of this age. How will God introduce that major change in how He relates to His body of believers? As the crucifixion of Christ and its attending rejection of truth and justice resulted in a major forward movement of God’s plan of redemption, a similar rejection of truth and justice seems to be preceding that great “ingathering” of these last days.

(The following comparison of similar tactics of the opposing forces in this series of trials has many signs not unlike those of the judicial violations in the trial of Jesus Christ. I am not comparing Donald Trump to Jesus Christ on the basis of Christ’s deity. Trump is not deity; he is an Adam-based sinner like the rest of us. What is the same, unchanged since Adam, is the evilness of mankind, which shows up in the comparison of the two trains—of Jesus and that one coming, or attempted, of Donald Trump.

God is sovereign, and He can name one whom He will use for His purposes years before that one even exists. Take the matter of that Persian king named Cyrus, whom Isaiah named some 200 years before he came on the scene to be God’s man. Cyrus would allow Ezra to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple in 539 B.C. Isaiah wrote his prophecy about 740 to 700 B.C. So, is it not interesting that we would come to the end of this age, and it does appear so, that God would use a man named Trump to be involved in bringing to pass that “Last Trump” as the original King James version translation of the Bible calls it? Coincidental, meaningless, or what, in the presence of a God who knows all things before they happen.

This man Trump was one of the elite, supposedly a billionaire non-politician who was not likely to become a threat to the makers and owners of presidents. But then he challenged their front-runner to produce his long-form birth certificate. Wow! That put those makers and breakers into a panic to produce one, and quickly. Later, that one so targeted exclaimed just before the 2008 election, “We are just five days away from fundamentally transforming America forever!” And as he was nearing the end of his second term, he made this observation, “The end of the Republic has never looked better!” (For world control.)

In considering the similar abuses of judicial practice that are repeated in the ongoing opposition to Trump, we can see the following facts:

1. His opponents have impeached him twice to no avail and continue with multiple charges so that the last straw not yet attempted is an assassination, at least not known about. (You shall not kill.)
2. They have gathered multitudes of false witnesses who cannot be proven as true. (You shall not bear false witness.)
3. The procedures have always been one-sided, that is, unjust, when “justice for all” is USA law and God’s way as well.
4. Trump’s opposition has charged him with any possible violation of any law they can find, whether it fits the occasion or not.

It is reported that if he is proven guilty of all of the charges against him, the total jail time would be over 600 years! They want Trump out of circulation, no matter what it takes. He has so revealed the “scum of the DC swamp,” as he calls it, and their plan to control the world, that he must be put away.

But how does this have anything to do with the end of this age? Just as the crucifixion of Christ was God’s way of introducing the New Covenant in His blood, He is, it seems, allowing a totally evil system to reveal its coming judgment as the godly members of the population are taken out of the way of that judgment. That is, the “ingathering” of the believers in Christ. The “falling away” will become “the only way” as Jesus comes and removes His representation on earth, and the lawless one takes control for his eventual termination.

As soon as that happens, the prophecy of Daniel 9:26-27 comes into fulfillment. The interesting insert Paul makes with 1 Thessalonians 5:3 has a message that summarizes the next seven years for the Jewish people, it seems. Then verse 4 clinches the assurance of salvation for the believer in Christ: “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.”

So it will be, as He said.

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com

 

 

 

There is a unique passage of Scripture that has displayed openly for centuries the outline of God’s plan for major events of the Christian gospel’s duration. It is the presentation of the seven feasts of the Lord, which God told Moses to put on the Jewish calendar, recorded in Leviticus 23. The world has basically ignored those seven days as something the Jews do, but others have no interest in them.

As outlined in Leviticus 23 and again in Numbers 28, they are spread across the annual calendar, starting with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the first three feasts or festivals. They start on the fourteenth day of their first month, Nisan, the Passover feast; the fifteenth day, Unleavened Bread for seven days; and a third holy day. These are Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the third one not named. They parallel the historical events of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. They occur on the Gentile calendar about the middle of March.

These feasts, called convocations (meaning rehearsals), picture the highlights of a farmer’s annual growing and harvest seasons—planting, cultivation, early harvest, and late harvest for the first five of the seven festivals. Those first three festivals picture the planting of the seed. Jesus related Himself to that in John 12:24: “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.” Jesus died (was planted), and the seed of His gospel has been reproduced in millions of believers in the world over the centuries since.

Some Bible Prophecy experts believe the fifth feast represents Jesus’ return in the clouds to receive those in resurrected form who have believed in Him. This year, it occurs on September 16-17. It is followed this year by the UN Security Council meeting on September 18-19 in New York to establish a seven-year Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) plan. “It will mark the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDG high-level political guidance on transformation and accelerated actions leading up to 2030,” so says the plan.

In other words, the New World Order advocates intend to transform the world’s population into submissive slaves of that elite, self-appointed, and “more equal” leadership.

In Daniel 9:26-27, the prince of Roman heritage will take over and will (no doubt with many UN members) provide a seven-year peace covenant with Israel. (It was the UN Security Council that established the new state of Israel in 1948, and it appears that it could be those again who will set up the peace agreement.) Why would they do that? The goal of the SDG above is to bring unity to the world under a one-world government. Peace in the Middle East would likely be the first item on the list. Entry into the mix shortly thereafter will come the Gog-Magog invasion of Israel, to be discussed later.

It is my understanding that the lawless one who is coming will not be one now in an obscure European country but one who is well known and readily acceptable by those left behind when the Rapture occurs. Back in 1954, the UN leadership was desperate for “a man, be he god or devil, who will lead us out of these difficulties, and we will accept him.” Waiting in the wings is that man, waiting until the falling away leaves the world ready for his brand of law and order and acceptable living principles. We know what that will be like as we observe the rapidly dwindling moral integrity in the world. Jesus said, in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.”

Another sign is the consistency of God’s method of allowing the evil leaders to pronounce and activate the death of children and then people of all ages as His plan heads toward a major change in its forward movement. As He was ready to move the children of Israel out of Egypt, and an evil pharaoh demanded the Israeli midwives to kill any male child at the birthing as they assisted in it. They reported to Pharoah that the Hebrew women were so able with birthing that the babies were already born when the midwives arrived.

Moses, as you know, was saved by his mother when she left him in a basket in the river where Pharoah’s daughter found him and claimed him for her own son. It did take eighty years for the Jews to be willing to leave Egypt’s slavery and hardship.

Then, when Jesus was born and the wise men from the East came two years later to worship Him, Herod learned of their timing and ordered that all Jewish boys under two years were to be killed, lest this new “King of the Jews” could rise up and take over his domain. God told Joseph to take Mary and the Child to Egypt for safety. After Herod died, he was told to return to Judea. The great change in God’s operative plan was to introduce the New Covenant in Christ’s blood, leaving the Old Covenant of obedience to the law for acceptance by God. Israel had vowed to keep that Covenant, but it never worked, for their works were never sufficient. Faith through grace was, and is, and always has been the way to God’s acceptance.

The next major change in God’s operative came as a result of His promise to “scatter them into all the countries of the world” as punishment for their rejection of Him in constant disobedience over the Old Testament period of Jewish history. As the Prophets declared that punishment, they also told of God’s plan to restore the Jews to their own land that was promised to Abraham.

The scattering into all the world took place when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D., taking 65 years until the city was left empty of Jewish people. It remained a totally desolate province for 1,800 years. The Turks tried to homestead the land for 300 years but could not because annual rainfall was practically absent. Mark Twain, visiting there in 1853, called it “the most desolate place on earth.” It was God’s method of keeping the land intact for His promised restoration of His Jewish people there.

During the First World War, Jewish people befriended the British, who were engaged in warfare in that region, and they were rewarded by the British with the Balfour Declaration in 1917 that set aside the land of Palestine as the land of the Jews. It was not until May 14, 1948, that the UN Security Council voted to establish a sovereign nation known as Israel, the permanent home of the Jews. But this is where that method of God’s operative again came into action. How was God going to arouse Jewish people in all of those scattered nations to want to return to their new nation? They would have become deeply embedded into the cultures, even the political fabric of those different countries.

Just as God had allowed Satan to test Job’s faith integrity, He allowed a man to rise up with a hatred of the Jews, Adolf Hitler, who would create a Holocaust of death to six million or more Jews wherever they could be found in the European countries the Nazis had conquered. I suspect that many do not put the two issues together in this way, but God knew by foreknowledge that the new nation would soon be available for their return. It was a horrible time for Jewish people and those Gentiles who helped them hide from the Nazis. All during those years of disobedience in Old Testament times, when the Jews turned away from the Lord, He allowed others to conquer them with bloodshed and resulting slavery. It was God’s method to turn their hearts to Him.

So now you ask, “What is the current possible sign?” What is the next great movement of God in His plan for the ages? It seems to be that the bigger the coming movement, the greater the “awakening method” turns out to be. The incessant cry for total abortion rights without any restrictions, billed as “a woman’s reproductive health” issues, has reached a level of about 62 million deaths in America, the supposed citadel of liberty and justice for all.

No one in that movement of pro-abortion wants to accept the basic truth that a child is begun at conception. It is living a lie and perhaps is the sign of a change in God’s ongoing plan when millions more will be taken to meet the Lord in the air when the Rapture occurs. That event will include all who have been saved in Christ since His resurrection, all who are still alive, and, by God’s great mercy and justness, all those who have been aborted in the womb or have died before they could have known to acknowledge the Lord.

His promise to that end is in Matthew 18:14, as He said in precise words: “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

Jesus said, “You do not know the day or the hour of His coming, neither the angels nor the Son of Man.” After He rose from the grave, He was given all judgment by the Father, so He, Jesus, knows what day He will come “as a thief in the night.” When Paul was writing to the Thessalonians in his first epistle, he finished his thoughts on the manner of the Rapture in verse 18 of chapter 4, then went on with this: “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.” Why not? Perhaps it’s because the evidence of telling events will show in their own timing, as Jesus said in Luke 21:28, “When these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draws near.”

Then he writes, “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,” and there seems to be a break in the continuity of events. His attention is switched to those who can only be the Jews who have been looking for peace for years, especially since May 14, 1948.

But there is another major sign to be explored before looking further into the Jewish people’s coming events, in Part 3.

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com