Mankind is drifting Down a River toward Michael at a Waterfall!
August 28, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
For the last 58 years I, along with other believers, have watched events unfurl in the Middle East that lend credence to the awareness that we are most assuredly in what are called “the end times.” At first the drift toward the time, when the final war of three and one-half years would begin, seemed in the distant future, but some 39 years ago, when Israel recaptured the old City of Jerusalem and its Temple Mount, the raft on which mankind was riding begin to move a little faster, and now it is beginning to accelerate toward the time of Matthew 24:21,22.
No man can predict precisely when the following Scripture will begin to be fulfilled, but the Scripture itself does indicate believers will at least be able to know when they are drifting rapidly toward it.
Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened,
there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
I have, for 32 years, expounded my reasons for believing that this event of Matthew 24:21,22 will not be a great nuclear conflict in which man will destroy himself with nuclear weapons. The reasons are found in our web site and in my books. Could I be wrong? Sure! But I am both convinced and convicted I am right.
Nevertheless, I must confess that it will be worse than a nuclear holocaust produced by man – it will be a time of great tectonic chaos produced by God.
I have long believed that, as religiously insane as the president of Iran may be, the main purpose of his burning desire to obtain thermonuclear warheads for his Shihab missile series, is to act as a deterrent against Israel during a conventional war with her, and as an incentive to get at least nine other Arab nations to join Iran in attacking Israel. The Arab advantage is its sheer weight of numbers, not its great arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Please read the article from DEBKAfile, which follows, for an up to the minute assessment of the current developments in Iran’ s accelerating nuclear program.
Then read Archive Prophecy Updates 75 & 76 which follow the DEBKAfile Report.
Begin DEBKAfile Report
Ahmadinejad inaugurates heavy water plant which can manufacture plutonium for weapons
August 26, 2006, 1:43 PM (GMT+02:00)
Touring the site at Khondab near Arak, 190 km southwest of Tehran Saturday, Aug.
26, the Iranian president said Iran is not an atomic threat – even to Israel. But five days before the UN deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment, he boasted the Arak plant will be able to produce 16 tons of heavy water a year. This is taken by DEBKAfile’s military sources as confirmation that, in addition to accelerated uranium enrichment, Iran has embarked on a second technology for producing fuel for nuclear warheads – plutonium as a by-product obtained from the Bushehr nuclear reactor.
On the uranium track, European sources in Vienna revealed last week that Iran has acquired P-2 centrifuges to speed up the pace of enrichment. Tehran is thus doubly defying the West and the UN after sending a fudging response to the incentives package on offer for abandoning enrichment.
DEBKAfile notes that Tehran has made no secret of these menac ing advances
in its nuclear program. They were openly unveiled last week. But because no hard American or European rejoinder was forthcoming, the Iranians pushed ahead with further admissions: Wednesday, Aug. 23, a senior official in Tehran forecast another dramatic announcement on Iran’s nuclear program; Saturday, Ahmadinejad pulled the heavy water rabbit out of his hat. The United States, Europe and Israel have every reason to be fearful of the course on which Iran is speeding forward pell-mell.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report Tehran is taking encouragement from the quiescence of the Bush administration and Israel on two linked issues: a European force for Lebanon which announces in advance that it will not disarm Hizballah or bar its acquisition of massive quantities of war materiel from Iran and Syria; and Iran’s nuclear advances. No one is stopping the rulers of the Islamic Republic’s campaign to neuter UN resolutions, UN nuclear watchdog’s injunctions and diplomacy of any kind. They are therefore free to follow up the Lebanon war with new and aggravated attacks on Israel – conventional by Hizballah and eventually, nuclear by Iran.
End DEBKAfile Report
PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 75
July 6, 2002
WHEN NO ONE CAN HELP THE ANTICHRIST!
We began this series on the antichrist in Prophecy Update Number 71 with Daniel 11:41, and we exposited on 11:42-44 in Prophecy Updates 72, 73, and 74. Then, in Special Prophecy Updates Numbers 74C and 74D, we covered the two kings of the north and south in Daniel 11:40. In this update we will continue in Daniel 11:45. He has returned from Egypt to Israel to set in his command post on the Jerusalem Temple Mount and direct a final attack upon the remnant of Israel in the Negev Wilderness.
Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
The inspired word for “tabernacles” is “ohel,” which always means “tents.” The “ohel” in the wilderness was a “tabernacle” that was a huge tent. These tents house the many millions that will have come to Israel for the final onslaught against the small Jewish remnant in the Negev, which the Scripture identifies as the battle of Armageddon. He will issue a call to all the nations of Europe, Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to come and join him in this great battle, and the demonic frog spirits of the father, son, and unholy false prophet will influence them to come to this final battle of Armageddon.
Revelation 16:13-16 – And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. [14] For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. [15] Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [16] And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
The inspired word for “palace” is appeden, and it appears only once in this particular form throughout the Bible. At the time this Scripture was written all the great kings carried portable command post buildings with them when they went forth to conquer. They included a royal throne, on which the king would set issuing the commands to his troops in the field. This is what an “appeden” is – a portable command post from which the king issues battle directives to his troops in the field.
The king of the north, the antichrist, will set his command post on the glorious holy mountain, which is Mount Moriah, the center hill of the three hills of eastern Jerusalem. This Mount lies between the Mediterranean and Dead Seas. His millions of troops will blanket all of Israel north of Beersheva, with the heaviest concentrations filling the two valleys that join at the Tel of Megiddo, the Plain of Esdraelon and the Jezreel Valley.
Most of the incoming troops will disembark at the port of Haifa, then proceed southeastward down the Esdraelon-Jezreel Valley into the Jordan Valley, and hence southward to Jerusalem and the border of the northern Negev. Millions will stand in place and await the command of antichrist to start the attack on the small remnant of Israel in the Negev.
One would be inclined to think that the antichrist, with millions of troops behind him, would be absolutely unstoppable, and that God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, would be killed to the last man by this massive onslaught. That is what makes the last part of this verse so strange, as Daniel states: “yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”
I remember that several years ago, an old friend of mine, Dr. I.K. Cross, who was presenting a message at the annual Pastors and Missionaries Conference in Texarkana, delivered a sermon titled “We’re Gonna Win.” And the crux of his message made clear that the reason we were going to win was because of what Christ had already done,
was doing, and would do in the future. It is Jesus Christ, returning to the earth with all his power, that will use His earth, atmosphere, and universe to forever destroy the antichrist, his false prophet, and his vast army. I believe the following Scriptures attest to that fact:
Revelation 16:16-21 – And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [17] And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. [18] And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. [21] And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague
of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
Zechariah 14:12 – And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
Malachi 4:1-3 – For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. [2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. [3] And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
Revelation 19:16-21 – And he hath on his vesture and on
his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. [17] And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; [18] That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. [19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 76
July 12, 2002
MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL AND THE 7TH TRUMPET
We began our expositional series on the antichrist of Daniel in Prophecy Update 71, and then continued the discourse through Prophecy Update Number 75. We closed Number 75 by giving several Scriptures to show how the antichrist “shall come to his end,” and why “none shall help him.” Please review Number 75 in our Prophecy Archives before reading this Update. The KJV translators supplied the Biblical chapter and verse divisions.
It is a continuous narrative from Daniel 11:45 to 12:1. With that in mind, please consider the following verses.
Daniel 11:45 to 12:1 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at THAT time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
The antichrist will sit in his command post on the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem and issue the command for his millions of troops to attack the remnant of Israel in the Negev. It is “at that time” that Michael stands up for Israel, and the last trump, the 7th trump of Revelation, sounds to announce the arrival of the 7 vials of God’s wrath. This is when the first resurrection, the rapture of the saved, occurs (See Prophecy Update Number 73D in our Prophecy Archives). Those “written in the book” are from “a book of remembrance” found in Malachi 3:16 to 4:3, with 3:16-18 telling the saved they will return to earth, and 4:1-3 advising them what shape the physical earth would be in at the time of their return.
Malachi 3:16-18 – Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. [17] And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. [18] Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. [1] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. [2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. [3] And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
When the antichrist returns to sit on the Temple Mount, as the abomination of desolation, the sixth trumpet will blow to begin the second woe. The second woe will end with a great quake that drastically affects Jerusalem. It will cause a reverential fear to sweep across the Israeli remnant in the wilderness, and they will begin to turn to Christ and give glory to his name.
Revelation 11:13,14 – And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. [14] The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
The three woes are the blowing of the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets.
Revelation 11:14,15 – The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. [15] And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
After the rapture of the saved in Revelation 11:15 they are then judged for rewards in heaven in verse 18 while the seven vials of God’s wrath are being poured out on the earth.
Revelation 11:18 – And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
While all of the saved are being judged in heaven for rewards, Michael is standing up for the remnant in the Negev, and the vials are being poured out on the antichrist and his followers. I suspect this time of absolute terror will last more than one month, but less than two. Those who believed before the seventh trumpet sounded will not be on this earth when it occurs.
Daniel 11:45 to 12:1 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. [1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
When Michael stands up, the 7th trumpet sounds, and the saved are delivered up to heaven to be judged for rewards.
While they are being judged in heaven, what is happening on the earth in Matthew 24:21,22 corresponds to what is described as the time of trouble that occurs after Michael stands up.
Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should NO FLESH be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
By God’s grace He has elected to bring a small Jewish nation through this brief period. It will consist of Israelis that shall come through this terrible time, still alive in the flesh, to begin to rule over the physical section of Christ’s kingdom during His reign of a thousand years.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.