“It details with scathing and unsparing severity the sins of its greatest personages, men such as Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David and Solomon, charging them with falsehood, treachery, pride, adultery, cowardice, murder and gross licentiousness. And it presents the history of the Children of Israel as a humiliating record of ingratitude, idolatry, unbelief and rebellion. It is safe to say that, without specific guidance and direction to do so from the Holy Spirit, the Jews would never have chronicled the sinful history of their nation in this way.”
The Book of Revelation is almost entirely prophetic. It deals with the last days of man's life on this Earth as we know it. This book has wrongly been called “The Revelation of St. John the Divine,” for its correct title is given in chapter one, verse one: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ . . . ” The word “revelation” in the Greek is “
apokalupsis,”
which means
“unveiling,”
as in the taking away of a veil to reveal the face. In another sense it can mean to take away a veil in order to reveal future events in much the same way that curtains are drawn back to reveal a stage.
What we will be examining in this section is a summary of many of the prophecies contained in the Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation. We will endeavour to decode many of these predictions and put them into ordinary language. We shall also examine many of the signs we are told will precede these future events. We shall take both the prophecies and the signs and look at them in the light of many of the events which are happening around us in the world today.
Many of the incidents portrayed in the Apocalypse are quite frightening, so we will also be demonstrating how they may be avoided. For there is an alternative, there is an escape route, there is another path which leads away from the events portrayed in the prophecies of the Apocalypse. Right now, though, it's back to the future.
Parousia
Not long before his death, the Messiah spoke privately with some of His closest friends. This meeting took place on the Mount of Olives, which is a hill close to Jerusalem. They asked Him a most interesting question, recorded in Matthew 24:
“
Tell us,” they asked, “when shall these things be and what will be the sign of your coming (
Parousia
) and of the end of this age?”
I will now reveal what His answer was. I will then elaborate on each point and tie these in with the prophecies of the
Book of Revelation
. These signs, foretold by the prophet Jesus Christ, are directly related to the Great Tribulation period, which is to last for seven years.
Verse 4
And Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many.
Verse 6
You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
Verse 7
Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Verse 8
All these things are the beginning of birth pangs.
Verse 10
At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
Verse 12
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
Verse 21
For then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be equalled again.
Verse 22
If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but, for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.
Verse 24
False christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
Verse 25
See, I have told you ahead of time.
Verse 35
Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
In Luke 21, we have a parallel discourse in which the Messiah elaborates on this prophecy:
Verse 25
There will be signs in the sun, moon and the stars. On the Earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
Verse 26
Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world.
Verse 28
When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up yours heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Luke 21:25,26,28
Note this last comment. The Messiah says that when we see these things we will know that our redemption is near. I would argue that all these things are happening right now. But let us take a closer look. The first sign the Messiah said to watch out for is:
1. False Christs, False Prophets and Deception
Have you noticed lately how many weird cults and sects appear in the news? Hundreds if not thousands of new groups are sprouting up all over the Western Hemisphere. Most of them have a leader who claims to have authority from God. All believe that they possess the truth.
There has also been a huge increase in the numbers of “false prophets.” Every time you open a newspaper or magazine you are confronted with advertisements offering personal predictions about the future. You can phone in to radio stations with your personal problems and have a “professional” read the Tarot cards to tell you how you might deal with your situation. Three out of every four people who pick up a newspaper in the UK read their horoscopes. Everywhere, mystic and new age shops are opening. In these you can obtain books and information on all the occult arts and new age practices. Everything from Tarot cards to astrology charts to birthstones and crystals. Again, this is a manifestation of the prevalence of false prophets and deception which we were told we would see as we approach the last days. Nobody is teaching our children any alternative Christian doctrine. As a result, they are lapping up this deception to fill the spiritual void in their lives.
We are specifically forbidden to have anything to do with fortune-tellers, soothsayers, necromancers and other false prophets who are in opposition to the true God and His son. Time and time again we are warned of such people in the Bible, but because we do not know these truths we are easy prey for the agents of darkness. Suppose you wanted to know the future, and you were standing in a hall with two doors. On one door is the name Jesus Christ. On the other is the name Louis Cifer. Which door would you go through? Most people I know have no problem going to fortune-tellers, reading their horoscope or having their palms read. But when I try to tell them what the Messiah says about their future, they don't want to know. In fact, many get downright annoyed.
The first thing we are told to watch out for in the Tribulation period is people who claim to be true Christians and prophets of the true God. We are told that when we see these signs beginning to manifest themselves, we will know that the time is near. Open your eyes. Look around you. The writing is on the wall.
2. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars . . . nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
The United States recently approved a huge increase in its military budget. North Korea and China have the capability to devastate American cities with nuclear warheads. India and Pakistan are now nuclear powers. Russia has almost twice as many nuclear weapons as the United States. Between them, these two countries have 35,000 nuclear weapons, strategic and tactical.
All over the globe, wars are breaking out, and rumours of wars abound in scores of other regions. Elsewhere, old adversaries are renewing their conflicts.
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In verse 7 it is stated that “
kingdom shall rise against kingdom
.” The Greek word for kingdom is
ethnos,
from which we get our English word “ethnic.” In other words, ethnic-cleansing, one tribe against another.
Wars and rebellions receive prominent coverage in our newspapers and on our TV screens on a daily basis. But these are mere portents of the last great war which will be fought at the end of the seven years of the Great Tribulation. We were told that when we see all these things coming to pass it will be like the beginning of labour pains. As the birth gets closer, the intensity of the pain increases. We will see more and more wars and potential for war between more nations. We will see more “ethnic-cleansing” between differing peoples. All these things must come to pass.
Look at the pages of history. They are filled, from the earliest days, with the accounts of battles and triumphs of one army over another. Ever since Cain slew his brother, Abel, man has continuously gone to war with his neighbour. They said that the first world war was the war to end all wars. How little they know. In verse 22 of Matthew 24 Jesus said that
“unless those days are shortened, no flesh would be saved.”
It is only in these latter years that countries have come to possess weapons capable of destroying all living things on the face of the Earth. If we don't learn from history, we are bound to repeat it.
3. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilence in various places.
(Luke 21:11)
Earthquakes have been increasing in frequency and intensity in every decade since records began in the late 1800s. Up to the 1950s, there was an average of two to four major earthquakes per decade. In the 1960s, there were 13 major earthquakes. In the 1970s, there were 51; in the 1980s, 86. And between 1990 and 1996 there were over 150 major earthquakes.
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Aside from earthquakes, we are told that people will be “
perplexed with the roaring and tossing of the seas.”
I believe that the Messiah was referring here to an increased incidence of unpredictable weather. Global warming is blamed for the peculiar weather we are experiencing in every quarter of the world. Tornados and hurricanes rip through towns and villages, leaving havoc, devastation and death in their wake. Freak waves inundate low-lying lands and drown thousands. Floods on a scale never before witnessed have displaced millions of people. In every country in the world the weather patterns are changing. The polar ice caps have melted and receded by 150 miles in the past 10 years. The hole in the ozone layer is now as big as North America, including Canada. Even if we wanted to do something to reverse this trend, we could not.
When it comes to famines and pestilence, it is the same story. Famine is on the increase around the globe despite the fact that there is over-production of food in the developed world. One would think that, in these days of fibre-optics, cyberspace and the internet, we could have found a way to feed hungry people. At a time when famines are continuing to ravage the Third World, farmers elsewhere are being taken off the land at an alarming rate. And this pattern is being repeated worldwide. Is this a coincidence, or is something else occurring here? Jesus told us that there would be a huge increase in pestilence (disease) in the last days. It is hard to know where to start, for almost on a weekly basis we hear of new, stronger viruses and the discovery of new forms of lethal bacteria.
Despite medical advances, old diseases, once thought conquered, are making a comeback and are killing millions again. Cholera and malaria are examples of these: 3,000 children die each day from malaria. Tuberculosis is another disease we thought was under control. Now three million people per year are dying from TB. Heroin and crack-cocaine addiction are other forms of pestilence which stalk our cities, sucking life from our young people. And then there is AIDS.
It is the same story in every country in Africa. In some villages, only old men and women and young orphaned children are to be found. Over 25 million people are now HIV-positive in Africa and this figure is rising rapidly.
There is an urban legend circulating among the less-educated in Africa which is truly chilling. People believe that if you have AIDS and you have intercourse with an infant, your disease will be cured. Nine men were recently put on trial in South Africa for raping a 10-month-old baby girl. Sadly, this is happening all over the continent of Africa.
The population of the world is increasing at the rate of about 90 million per year and is set to double from six to 12 billion in 40 years. The Millennium Institute recently listed the following alarming environmental projections:
⢠Species are becoming extinct at the rate of 104 per day (that's almost 38,000 species of animals, fish, plants etc becoming extinct every year).
⢠In the next 10 years one-third of all species which exist at present will have disappeared.
⢠In less than five years, over half of the world's crude oil reserves will have been used up.
⢠In about 60 years from now the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere will have doubled.
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Next time your mind is filled with TV images of war, famine, pestilence, disease and natural disasters, remember that your redemption is close at hand.
“Stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Luke 21:28