Hello Reggie, hope and pray that all of you are fine while preparing for your Event! Reggie, I was reading your article ” Recommended reading ……, well done. But I want to ask you one important question, is it NOT Time now to explain to the readers about the destruction […]
A Short Summary of Romans 9, 10, 11
Dear Reggie, Would you agree with this short, non-detailed summary of Romans 9, 10 and 11? Feel free to modify or add to it as you see fit. Summary of Romans 9, 10 and 11: The apostle Paul is not sorrowful because the Word of God is being nullified by […]
The Order of the Return (Part 1)
that ill-prepares the people of God for what is ahead for both Israel and the church. Preterism puts the tribulation in the past. Amillennialism conceives of a “little season” of Satan’s release at the end of this age, with little specificity, and certainly no definite relationship to Israel. Historicism, with its often failed ‘year day’ theory, spreads the tribulation out over history, with an intensive resurgence at the end, while Pre-tribulationism exempts the church from any presence or role in the tribulation, so that “Jacob’s trouble” is only “Jacob’s problem”, since the church is in heaven at the wedding feast while Israel suffers the Antichrist. Hence, ours is a comparatively rare perspective that sees both Israel and the church together in a literal tribulation of 3 ½ years of unequaled affliction, as the church is engaged in prophetic witness and intercessory travail for the final redemption of the covenant nation, amid a common experience of world wide flight and persecution.
When aware of a future great tribulation, the primary concern has been the purification of the church through persecution. This is true, and we believe the church will be greatly transformed, but the primary purpose of “the tribulation, the great one” is to accomplish the historic fulfillment of what the prophets call, the ‘everlasting covenant’ (Isa 59:21; Jer 32:40; Ro 11:27), which necessarily requires the full coming in of “all Israel”, whom Paul identifies as the “natural branches” of present enmity (Ro 11:21, 24, 28). In conjunction with Christ’s return, the restoration of Israel finishes the mystery of God (Rev 10:7) and begins the millennial reign of Christ. […]
How Soon Jacob’s Trouble? (Followup)
[…] Writing after the exile, Zechariah mentions nothing of another dispersion, but he certainly contemplates a Jewish presence in the Land when describing the distress that precedes the day of the Lord. So unless the prophecies are to be spiritualized, something had to give. Somehow, the Jews had to be a nation again in the Land (Dan 12:1). That’s where we are today. We have come full circle. The early church lived and labored under the shadow of an imminent destruction of Jerusalem. We’re there again. The only difference is the church for the large part is sound asleep (Mt 25:5).
Of course, the expectation of the early church concerning Jerusalem was fulfilled, as also foretold by Jesus. However, with the destruction of Jerusalem, there came the crisis of what scholars call, “the delay of the Parousia” (coming). Although Jerusalem was destroyed, Jesus did not return to destroy the Antichrist “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Mt 24:29; 2Thes 2:8), as expected. Furthermore, Daniel’s people were not delivered and the dead did not rise (Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1-2, 13; Ro 11:26). […]
Why Care About “Jacob’s Trouble?”
[…] The church that understands the issues related to Jacob’s trouble will be able to benefit from the divine intention that God has invested in that time to bring both the church and Israel into their place. Knowledge and acceptance of this truth is crucial if such great and costly judgments and the glorious fulfillment of the prophetic Word will not be lost on our understanding, since it is also through that understanding (particularly of Daniel’s vision) that the true remnant of the church will be able to instruct many (Dan 11:33; 12:3). This instruction will result in the salvation of an innumerable multitude (Rev 7:9) that will come to faith during the time of “the tribulation, the great one” (Rev 7:14; literal translation of the Greed double article). The key of interpretation and understanding will be the difference between life and death. It has always been so, but this is particularly said of “those days” (Dan 12:7; Mt 24:19, 22, 29) in particular.
Not only will Jacob’s trouble straighten Israel to its appointed place; it will also further purify and perfect the church (dn 11:33-35; 12:10). When the first travail of the heavenly woman (“the mother of us all,” i.e., all the elect) is completed with Michael’s eviction of Satan at the mid-point of the last week, then the travail of Israel can begin, which ends in the sudden and supernatural birth of the nation “in one day” (Isa 66:8; Ezek 39:22; Zech 3:9; 12:10 with Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26 with Isa 59:21; Joel 2:31; 3:14-16 with Mt 24:29).
All the great issues of God’s name and nature, his covenant contention, and pleading with the church, Israel, and the nations will come to its concentrated intensity and fullness, so that the mystery of God can be finished (Rev 10:7; 11:15) with the return of Christ to destroy the Man of Sin (2Thes 2:8) and to re-instate the natural branches for the millennial establishment of the “everlasting covenant”. […]
Seeing God in Israel’s Trouble… and Our Own
[…] Things are coming that will be tragic and pathetic beyond our ability to bear. Our hearts will break, as our faith will be tested to the core. “It will be a terror only to understand the report” (Isa 28:19). This was the prophet, Habakkuk’s, dilemma. He was perplexed at God’s choice to use a nation of far greater ferocity and wickedness to come down for the scourging of His covenant elect.
The prophet knew keenly the nation’s covenant dereliction, but it was difficult for Habakkuk to find the equal weight of justice, not so much in the severity of judgment, but in God’s choice to use as the instrument of that judgment a nation that far exceeded Israel for cruelty and pagan defiance of covenant righteousness (see Isa 10:5). It was particularly God’s use of a nation far more wicked and fierce than the victim nation that constituted the offense to Habakkuk’s own human perceptions and relative measurements. We see not as He sees (Isa 55:8-9).
This is the mystery of God’s use of evil in behalf of His elect. We need to see that behind the ‘fierce countenance’ (Deut 28:50; Dan 8:23) of Satan’s hatred (in this case, the “ancient hatred” of Esau, which has found modern expression through the spirit of Islam; Ezek 35:5), it is ultimately God Himself that is opposing Israel by permitting their enemies to prevail against them. The Antichrist, as pre-typified in the King of Assyria is called the “rod” of God’s chastisement (Isa 10:5). It is God Himself who puts hooks into the jaws of the northern invader (Ezek 38:4). God employs the “evil thought” of a wicked principality (Ezek 38:10) as the very means by which He brings judgment and corrective discipline upon His people for their neglect of the covenant relationship. In Rev 17:16-17, there is a curious use of language that shows the absolute sovereignty of God in the employment of evil for His more ultimate purpose. The decision of the ten kings to support the Antichrist in His assault on the Harlot is something that God Himself has “put” in their hearts “to fulfill His will …” […]
Gog’s Assault in the Purposes of God
[…] But this great love and covenant privilege is also Israel’s greatest culpability. The same is true of the Christian. Because He has known them in a way He has chosen to know no other nation, He will not spare. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities (Amos 3:2). It is the same for the Christian (Heb 12:6-7). It is a rule belonging to the very nature of covenant that the greater the opportunity for blessing, the greater the severity when that privilege is slighted. God will employ the bitter hatred of the enemy to minister corrective discipline or final judgment where the divine pleading is fatally resisted.
It is the paradox of God’s sovereign over-ruling of evil to accomplish His own purpose in grace (“you thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good;” Gen 50:20). Here, Gog thinks an evil thought (Ezek 38:10), but God has planned from all eternity to use that evil thought to bring an end of Israel’s long night of exile by His sovereign employment of Satan’s hatred to bring Jacob to the end of his power (Deut 32:36; Dan 12:7). […]
Gog (Ez 38) and the King Who Exalts Himself (Dan 11)
[…] Remember that Israel is dwelling securely when Gog comes down. At no time beyond the abomination could Israel be said to be dwelling safely (Rev 11:2). Note that this could NOT be the security of post-millennial Israel. It is the deceptive security that follows the presumptuous ‘league’, or ‘covenant with death and hell” (Isa 28:15; Dan 8:25; 9:27 11:23). This is further proven by the reference made to this particular kind of security described in Ezek 39:26. It is a security in which Israel’s sins only increase. This is not true of Israel’s millennial security. I believe this is the “time of tranquility” described in Dan 11:24, which follows upon the league made with ‘vile person’ in Dan 11:23. In other words, here is the false security of the first 3 /2 years of Daniel’s seventieth week.
The contrast between this security and millennial security is enormous. At the end of the millennium at the time of Satan’s momentary release, Israel has been abiding in the everlasting righteousness of covenant promise (Jer 32:40; Dan 9:24). The security that Israel enjoys in the Land throughout the millennium is based on the transformation that began at the day of the Lord (Isa 66:8; Ezek 39:22-29) and is guaranteed of unfailing continuance unto children’s children ((Isa 54:13; 59:21). They shall “all” be holy “from that day and forward” (Isa 4:3; 60:21; Jer 31:34; 32:40; Ezek 39:22). […]
“Let The Reader Understand”
[…] My view is that IF we set our hearts, like Daniel, to “understand” what is written in the Scripture of truth (Dan 10:12, 21) in order to see how the prophetic scriptures line up (not only through close exegesis, but a deep dependency on the mercy that alone grants the Spirit’s illumination), then we will be able to recognize all that is necessary to not miss any of the critical turns that lie ahead. I believe a careful obedience to follow the Lord’s express instructions to ‘pay attention to Daniel’ (Mt 24:15 – “Let the reader understand,” i.e., understand what Daniel wrote) is critical in three vital areas:
1) Our protection from unequaled deception (Mt 24:4, 11, 24; Mk 13:23; 2Thes 2:3).
2) Our readiness to follow where God is taking the church corporately through the constraining influence of these specifically timed events.
3) Our ability to understand the true essence of what is at stake in terms of what these events reveal, but most importantly to apprehend with all saints the full weight of glory that God has invested in this eschatological vision (Isa 28:12; Dan 9:24; 12:9-10; Hab 2:2-3; Ro 11:25-36; Rev 10:7). […]
On the origin of the Antichrist
[…] The only thing clearly stated about the geographical origins of the Antichrist is found in Dan 8:9 and 11:21. There he is depicted as coming out of one of the four ‘notable horns’ (i.e., one of the four divisions of Alexander’s kingdom). I believe his origins in both geography (Dan 8:9; 11:21) and descent (spiritual if not entirely genetic), will be from among the descendants of Ishmael and Esau (Ps 83; Isa 34:5-6, 8; Ezek 35-36, Obadiah 1:6-17) together with those nations (Ezek 38:5-6) that will support them in their final prosecution of “the everlasting hatred” (Ezek 35:5). Hence, I believe that the ten kings allied with the Antichrist will be Islamic, if not entirely Arab. For reasons I hope to explain in future correspondence, I’ve had this view since 1973 when the Lord revealed it during the Yom Kippur War.
Whether or not I am correct in my view of the ten kings, it should be evident to anyone that the Antichrist, regardless of his origin, will be able to command the forces of the Islamic world through a common hatred of what Daniel calls “the holy covenant” (Dan 11:28, 30). Not only in Daniel, but in the larger context of Old Testament prophecy, this final war against the covenant is depicted as a presumptuous defiance of God’s claim to the Land, the city of Jerusalem, and the sacred institutions of a restored Jewish worship. (Side note: The sacrifices that will be restored by unbelieving Jews are entirely without efficacy. This will become clear when they find themselves again cast out of the Land in flight from the Antichrist. Still, the “holy pace” in Jerusalem has real significance. As a divinely commanded token of the covenant, it remains holy and set apart, not simply because it is sacred to Jews, but by reason of the Word of God. Its sanctity does not inhere in the faith of the worshippers, but in the authority of the God who elects. This is why Satan desires to defile the place that bears God’s name, and to possess the city from which the Son is destined to rule all nations […]
