BLOG 8 – Current and Prophesied Chronological Biblical Events
April 8, , 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
What is Happening Now and What is Likely to Begin Between 2008 and 2012!
(1) HAPPENING NOW!
THE COMING MESSIAH OF ISLAM – THE 12TH IMAM MAHDI
While most of the Christians have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Messiah, Christ Jesus, for a very long time, the Islamic world has been awaiting the rise of their version of the Messiah, Imam Mahdi.
The two men to watch in the Middle East who believe this 12th Imam will soon arise, both of whom are in full agreement with the Islamic traditional teaching of the coming Imam Mahdi, are the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and in Iraq the Shia cleric Mohamed Sadeq al Sadr. Sadr is the 32 year old leader of what is identified in Iraq as the Mahdi Army. The Madhi Army is the most powerful and radical Shia group in Iraq.
Sadr has been consistent in his hate for the U.S. Democracy plans for Iraq. He has 30 seats in the elected Iraqi assembly. It was his group that cast the deciding vote that put the current Iraqi President in office.
Sadr has some 15,000 followers in his al-Mahdi Army. He has, from the beginning, been trying to unite the country against the presence of any foreign forces in Iraq. He has reached out attempting to unite both the Sunni and Krudish faction to unite with him to get the foreign forces out of Iraq.
Sadr claims a direct descent from the prophet Mohammed through a lineage that included Imam Jaafar Al-Sadeq, the theologian behind the Twelve Imams Shia School of thought that al-Sadr follows, along with Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I have discussed, in numerous previous Blogs and Prophecy Updates, Ahmadinejad’s obsession with the coming of the Mahdi who will lead a victorious Islam during a bloody world-wide conquest that will bring on the end of the world. Islamic tradition teaches the Mahdi will bring about a war that will kill a quarter of mankind.
Sadr named his militia “the Mahdi Army” because of his belief that he, like Ahmadinejad, has been called to set off Islam’s apocalypse and bring about the return of the 12th Imam.
Keep your eyes on these two Imam Mahdi extremists. It may well be, that out of the spirit of Jihad, which is sweeping the Islamic world, the antichrist may arise in the Middle East and viciously attack Israel from the north. I AM NOT identifying either one of them as the antichrist or the false prophet, but I am convinced this madness in the Middle East is headed for an attack against Israel, with the most likely time for such an attack to be somewhere in the time frame of 2008 to 2012.
Both these men may be killed tomorrow as far as I know, but the traditional story of a coming Islamic Messiah will not die – It will continue to grow. I do believe the one Islam calls the Imam Mahdi will be the antichrist, and I believe he is likely to be revealed at some point in time between 2008 and 2012. So, depending on when you believe the rapture will occur, I do believe our redemption is drawing night.
(2) LIKELY TO BEGIN BETWEEN 2008 AND 2012 AND LAST 1260 DAYS THEREAFTER
Events 1 to 7 were covered in Blogs 1 through 7
The Fantastic Changes in Prophecy Interpretation 1760 to 1960
The Evangelical Movement is said by many to have begun as early as 1740,
but the initial changes it made in prophecy were miniscule at first, and no really significant changes were made until 1788.
The dramatic changes really began around 1827, which became the year that modern prophecy teachers of today can recognize as their own prophetic view.
If you are as interested as I am in the interpretation of prophecy, and will take the time to do so, by browsing in the archives of many institutions housing old books written from 1760 to 1960, you will see a fantastic change in the interpretations of the time known as the “latter” days, or more specifically, the tribulation period. This 200-year period saw what I believe to have been the correct interpretation of the tribulation period changed by modern interpretations, which I believe are incorrect. I was a teenager in 1945, and grew up in the hills of northern Arkansas under the teachings of older preachers born in the late eighteen hundreds, who still held to the beliefs of the 100 year period that preceded them. They had taken their teachings from men like B. H. Carroll, Barnes, Halley, and other great prophetic teachers of that period. So, in 1971, when I retired from the National Security Agency, and returned home to begin my seminary training, I was stunned to see how the interpretations of end time prophecies had changed. I was never, at any time, disruptive in any of my classes. I was there as the “teachee,” not the teacher.
So I sat and listened to everything that was taught in my prophecy classes. I was very willing to change what I had been taught previously, thinking that it may well have been incorrect. And, in all honestly, knowing that I would stick out like a frog in a punch bowl with my beliefs, I kept silent. I honestly considered what my teachers were putting out concerning prophecy, and tried to see the errors in what I had been previously taught. But, after I graduated, I simply could not teach what I did not believe concerning prophecy. And I have taught, in the church I have been pastor for 31 years, basically what most preachers from 1760 to 1860 taught concerning the tribulation period.
The first thing I encountered after enrolling in semin
ary, before my first day in class, was a new book they were going through in Sunday school class in the church where I, and my family, were members. It took us a few months to go through it chapter by chapter. I discovered that a lot of other Sunday school classes for adults in other churches were also going through the same book. It was a book written by Hal Lindsey in 1970, titled “The Late Great Planet Earth.” It went on to become one of the greatest selling religious books on prophecy every written. I mean Mr. Lindsey no disrespect or harm, but it was a compilation of all the great changes that had occurred in prophetic interpretation from 1760 to 1960.
Mr. Lindsey said the six members of the European Common Market would grow to 10, and that they were the 10 toes of the statue in Daniel 2, and the 10 horns in Daniel 7. He predicted that the 11th horn would arise in Italy and would represent the antichrist. Well, as anyone could easily predict, the Common Market grew.
Today it is identified as the great European Union with 25 member nations. So where is the antichr
ist? Daniel’s figures now have 25 toes and 25 horns. I can only urge preachers and teachers to get off this new horse. The antichrist and the 10 nations are not coming out of the EU. The antichrist is not a European, and the nations are
not European. The antichrist is the one Micah identified as the Assyrian. And the ten nations are Islamic nations that were once a part of the old Roman Empire of John’s day. Please see our Prophecy Archives – Updates 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 74B, and 78A.
Mr. Lindsey taught that the “Gog” of Ezekiel 38 and 39 was a Russian prince. And he did this by interpreting the Hebrew word “Rosh” to be “Russia,” thereby identifying him as a Russian prince from the land of Magog. The land of Magog is Russia, but the antichrist is not a prince of Magog, he is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.
Most preachers and teachers continue to ride this dead horse. All I can urge you to do is to get off of it.
It may have flown well when the Soviet Union was at its full blown greatness, but it has crashed, and many continue to go down with the plane. Please see our Prophecy Archives – Updates 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39.
Mr. Lindsey taught that Daniel 11:40 to 45 involves an attack by the king of the North, who he identifies as the Russian Prince who leads the Soviet Union, which he identifies as the northern nation that leads a group of 10 nations in a race across Israel to conquer Egypt. The well-known demise of the Soviet Union should have killed this teaching, but many still teach it. Please see our Prophecy Archives – Updates 71, 72, 73, 74, 74B, 74C, 74D, and 75.
Mr. Lindsey taught that the rapture of the saved occurs at the beginning of seven years of tribulation. The first interpreter of scripture, who ever put in print that the saved would not have to go through the majority of the tribulation period, was Morgan Edwards, who published such a book in 1788. He wrote it between 1742 and 1744, while he was a student at Bristol Academy in England, The book was published by Dobson and Lang, on 2nd Street Between Market & Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. The 1788 book taught a rapture when Christ appears in the air, 3 and ½ years before he descends to the earth with the saints to set up his millennial kingdom. The position that the rapture would occur seven years before Armageddon, never appeared in print before 1827 as an interpretation of the scriptures, but Edwards does claim to have taught what is often referred to as the “Mid-Trib Rapture Position” as early as 1740. Many “first-of-the-weekers” claim Morgan wrote that the rapture would occur seven years before the end of the tribulation period, but that is simply not true. If you want to see the historical rapture positions, and what I believe on the subject, please see our Prophecy Archives – Updates 74A, 73D, 76, 78A, and 82A.
Mr. Lindsey taught that the temple must be rebuilt before the Second Advent of Christ. This is still believed by most of the saved on this earth. But I do not believe it will be rebuilt until the early millennial reign of Christ. Please see our Prophecy Archives – Update 79
Mr. Lindsey taught that we still have 7 years of Daniel’s 490-year period left to fulfill. This was not the majority belief before 1830. I believe we only have 1335 days left of Daniel’s last week to be fulfilled.
See our Prophecy Archives – Updates 55, 56, 57, and 58.
Mr. Lindsey taught that the antichrist would control the whole world as we know it today. If Jesus had come before the sixth century, that would have been the case. I believe the expressions, the whole earth, all of the world, wherever men dwell, etc., refers not to the known world of today, but to the days in which the prophecies were written. God uses the form of hyperbole throughout the prophetic writings. Please see our Prophecy Archives – Updates 73A, 77, 77A, 77B, and 77C.
Do I have a personal vendetta with Mr. Lindsey, or anyone who does not believe what I teach? Certainly not! Mr. Lindsey’s books have gotten a lot of people interested in the second coming of Christ.
I know what Mr. Lindsey teaches and, if he is correct, I will recognize it when it starts to happen. I also know what a lot of other men teach on prophetic subjects. And if they are correct I will recognize it when it happens. The Lord told us to “WATCH,” and that is what I am doing. I have had people tell me, well, how can you be watching
if you know when a prophetic event is going to occur? My answer is two fold: (1) I don’t know exactly when a prophetic event is going to occur, and (2) I could be wrong about what I believe. I have also been told, you sometimes change your mind about a thing you have taught in prophecy, doesn’t that make you wishy-washy? My answer is two fold: (1) God is the only one who never changes His mind about prophecy, and (2) Christ is the only man who actually got it right the first time. A man who never changes his mind about prophecy is a man who claims he got it right the first time and therefore has never needed to change his mind. So I am amazed at the numbers holding the same prophetic views from their teens to the grave. I hold the same views of my teens on salvation, baptism,
the church, and the church ordinances, but I have changed some of my views on prophecy. I can find the same teachings on salvation, baptism, the church, and the church ordinances from 1760 to the present, but today’s prophetic teachings have changed to the extent it is difficult to find many teaching what the majority taught before 1827, and impossible to find what are known as the first-of-the-week or mid-tribulation positions before 1760. Before 1760 all the commentaries either carried the “seventh trump” or “last of the week” positions, and 99.9 percent believed in the latter position, which today is also called the “post tribulation” position.
If you don’t believe what I am telling you because you never heard it before, then why don’t you check it out for yourself? Millions believed what Hal Lindsey and the TV evangelists wrote about the rapture, but never bothered to check out what was written before 1760. I am certainly not surprised at the vast majority that never considered what was written by most God-called preachers before 1827. It is a lot of trouble! Is the truth worth it, or would you rather believe what sounds good to you?
Today the world-of-the-saved is waiting for a strong leader to show up in Europe and eventually lead 10 European nations against Israel. They are looking for this man to control all the world as we know it today.
They are looking for this man to put a mark on all people around the circle of the earth from the north to the south poles. They are waiting for him to confirm a covenant of peace with Israel for seven years. They expect the covenant to be broken after 1260 days, and then the last 1260 days of the tribulation period to begin. And they are fully expecting for the rapture to occur before the peace covenant is signed, at which time they will be whisked up and miss all of the seven years. If Hal Lindsey and the post 1827 interpreters are correct, that is precisely what will happen.
If they are wrong, then a lot of people are going to be very surprised, and very disappointed.
I will not be disappointed one way or the other.
Matthew 24:42
[42] Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
If Christ comes at the first of the seven years, I’ll be watching.
If Christ comes in the midst of the seven years, I’ll be watching.
If Christ comes on the seventh trump, I’ll be watching.
If Christ comes at the end of the seven years, I’ll be watching.
I will not be disappointed regardless of when Christ comes!