The Antichrist.

I am posting chapters from my sister's book, "The End is near. End Time Bible Prophecy Anyone Can Understand." Available at lulu.com

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Addendum

The Antichrist

The prefix “anti” is used to describe a person or organization that is against, or opposes, or counterfeits something.  So an “anti” Christ would be a person or organization that is against, opposes, or counterfeits Christ.  In the Bible, the term antichrist is not found in the book of Revelation.  Here are some verses where you will find this term.

“…just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared…”  1 John 2:18  John, the same John who wrote Revelation, says there were antichrists in his time so this term is not limited to one person at the end of time, as many seem to believe.

“Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?  This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”  1 John 2:22  Here we see that an antichrist is one who denies that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, and therefore an antichrist is one who denies God the Father and Son.

“…every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”  1 John 4:3  Even in John’s day there were people who said Jesus was just a man, or just a good man, or just a prophet.  They denied then, and millions deny today, that Jesus is from God.

As you can see, there have been antichrists for 2000 years.  There is no reason to use the term in any special way or as referring to any special person in our study of end time events.

Addendum

Prophecy uses symbolic language to refer to literal things and people.  Here is a list of what we covered in this chapter.  Also, see Appendix 2 for a more detailed explanation of these symbols and their meanings.

SYMBOL

MEANING

King of North/                          United States of America

Lamb from Earth

King of South/                           Radical Islamists

Egypt

False Prophet                             US Protestant Leader

Image of Beast                           Unification of Political, Protestant and Catholic Powers

Mark of Beast                             Compliance with Demands of Image of Beast

Babylon the Great                       False Church, Jezebel, Catholicism

Part 12: The Seventy Weeks Prophecy.

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Once God removed his protection from the Jews, they were in big trouble.  In 70 CE the Roman general Titus and his army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.  Jesus had told his disciples that the temple would be destroyed to such an extant that “…not one stone here would be left upon another…” (Matt. 24:2) and that is exactly what happened.  When Titus’ army set fire to the city, the gold in the temple melted along the walls and the soldiers tore the building apart stone by stone in order to scrape up the gold.  Thus Titus “destroy(ed) the city and the sanctuary.”

We have just looked at an extremely important timeline, and we have proven that our interpretation of timelines is accurate from the start, to the end, and all points in between. 

The 70 Weeks Prophecy

Artaxerxes'		Jerusalem				Jesus	Jesus		Stephan
Decree		Rebuilt				Baptized	Crucified		Stoned
457	BCE   408					CE   27	30	34
	7 wks			62 wks			1	wk
	49 yrs			434 yrs			7	yrs

Now we are going to look at the longest timeline in Bible prophecy; the timeline that all other timelines fall into.  Do you remember the ram and the goat, Medo-Persia and Greece, from Daniel Chapter 8? 

The goat’s horn was broken and was followed by four other horns, representing Alexander’s death and the division of his kingdom among his generals.  In the strife and confusion after Alexander’s death, the generals split the kingdom “…toward the four winds of heaven.” (Daniel 8: 8) North, East, South and West.  Daniel 8: 9-12 and 23-25 says that out of one of them, in the latter period of their rule, came a small horn that became mighty and powerful, destroying holy people, opposing God, and calling himself equal to God.  

After our study in the last chapter we know without a doubt that the Roman Empire followed the Greek Empire, both in prophecy and in fact, and we know that a horn stands for a person.  So what are these verses in Daniel Chapter 8 talking about?

 Rome came from the West and first conquered Macedonia, the Western portion of Alexander’s divided empire in the mid second century BCE.  But Daniel 8: 23 says the horn would arise “In the latter period of their rule…” so when did the fourth and final division of the Greek Empire fall to Rome?  In 30 BCE when Cleopatra, Pharaoh of Egypt and descendant of the Greek general Ptolemy, killed herself and Octavian (later the Roman Emperor Augustus) claimed Egypt as a province of Rome. 

           

Part 11: Prophecy of Jesus' Crucifixion.

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Tiberius became co-emperor of Rome with Augustus in 13 CE, so his 15^th year would bring us to 27 CE.

The angel Gabriel said that the Messiah would make a “covenant with the many for one week” (7 years).  If Jesus began his ministry in 27 CE, then the covenant week ends in 34 CE.  What is this covenant week?  This is the last 7 years of the 70-week or 490-year,  probationary period for the Hebrews.  The Messiah was here on earth in person, ready and willing to make a permanent covenant with the Hebrews if  they would accept him. 

But in 30 CE, in the middle of the last seven years, the Jewish (Hebrew) religious and political leaders successfully schemed to have Jesus killed.  Jesus was “cut off and had nothing”, separated and rejected by the chosen people, the people blessed with God’s personal attention for centuries.

http://www.dsmedia.org/resources/illustrations/sweet-publishing

 What does it mean that Jesus’ death “put an end to the sacrifice and grain offering?”  Why did Jesus have to die?  All of our decisions and actions have consequences and when we sin it separates us from God - erecting a wall in our relationship with him.  God set up a substitutional system that would restore our relationship with him and transfer the punishment (eternal consequences) we would otherwise receive for our bad choices onto something else.  Those people living before Jesus was on earth would go to the temple, symbolically transfer their sin onto an innocent animal (usually a lamb) and kill it as a sacrificial substitute.  God would accept the substitute, they would be absolved, and their relationship with him would be restored.  

 Jesus came to this world to be the ultimate sacrifice.  He was offering himself as our permanent substitute; taking our punishment, absolving us of sin, and becoming a permanent bridge connecting heaven and earth – God and man.  Once he did that, the sacrificial system was “put to an end” because the ultimate sacrificial substitute had died for us (Heb. 10: 11, 12).  When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to be baptized, he appropriately declared, “…Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1: 29)

In 34 CE, the time of God’s favoritism towards the Hebrew nation ended because they stubbornly rejected Jesus and his sacrifice for them.  God had to start all over from scratch because, although he had a few followers, he “had nothing” in the form of a nation of followers any more.  In that same year the Jews killed a Christian named Stephen and began persecuting all the Christians in the area, so many of them scattered and began preaching wherever they found refuge.  God was building a new “nation” of followers, gathering anyone who wanted to belong to him.

Part 9: Timelines of Prophecy.

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Many of you reading may be wondering when we are going to be getting into the book of Revelation.  That is where all the prophecy about the end of time is located, right?  Well, no.  In the first chapter we looked at prophecies from the books of Matthew and 1 Peter, for instance, to prove we are indeed in the end times.  In the second chapter we looked in the book of Daniel to prove that Bible prophecy is true and reliable.  Now, in the third chapter, we are going to look in Daniel further but for different reasons.  Before we can get into the specifics of Revelation we must start with the bigger picture because we not only want to understand what everything in Revelation means, we want to know why each thing means what it does and how it fits in with the others.  So one more chapter in Daniel and we will move on to Revelation.

The book of Daniel gives us very useful timelines that we can follow like maps, where we can mark on them different events prophesied in the Bible.  These timelines are described as days, weeks, and months, but a day in prophetic language is actually a year.  (see Appendix 2).

 

	If one day equals one year (Ez. 4: 4-6 and Num. 14: 34), then…
	One Week		7 Days		7 Years
	One Month		30 Days		30 Years
	One Year		360 Days		360 Years (see Appx. 2)

We are going to start with a timeline that gives us a clue as to when the starting point for some major timelines lie and to prove that our understanding of timelines is correct.

‘Seventy weeks have been declared for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.  So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.  Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.  And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.  And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering….” Daniel 9: 24-27

This passage was spoken by the angel Gabriel to Daniel so it comes straight from heaven.

Gabriel was saying that the Hebrews and the city of Jerusalem had 70 weeks, or 490 years (7 days per week multiplied by 70 weeks equals 490 years), of probation left to straighten out and start keeping their side of the bargain they had made with God way back when God brought them out of Egypt.  The start of the probation period would begin when a decree was issued allowing the Hebrews to “restore and rebuild” the city of Jerusalem. 

It was not long after the Medo-Persians conquered the Babylonians that many of the Hebrews were allowed to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.

Jerusalem with orders that, in part, called for Ezra to organize the city so it could rule itself independently while still being part of the Persian Empire.  Ezra was to appoint magistrates and judges and was to ensure the carrying out of the king’s laws. (Ezra 7: 25, 26)  Although the decree from Artaxerxes did not specifically say that the city of Jerusalem was to be rebuilt, Ezra and the rest of the Hebrews knew the orders they held implied the rebuilding.  How else was a city to function without buildings for the government, the courts, etc?  So Artaxerxes’ decree “restored” Jerusalem to the Hebrews and they began to “rebuild” the city in 457 BCE.  

Part 5: The King has A Dream.

In Daniel Chapter 2, we are told of an important event that will show how accurate Bible prophecy is.  One night king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that really upset him but he could not remember it.  He called all his wise men and asked them to tell him the dream and what it meant, but they could not.  Word got around the palace that the king was furious and had decreed that all the wise men should be killed.  When Daniel heard this he went to the king and asked for time to learn what the dream was and what it meant.  The king granted his request and Daniel got with his friends for an urgent prayer meeting. 

 That night God revealed to Daniel what the dream was and the next day he was taken to the king and told him everything.

“You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.  The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.  You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.  Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found.  But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Daniel 2:31-35

 Read'n Grow Picture Bible Illustrations (Biblical illustrations by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Sweet Publishing, Ft. Worth, TX, and Gospel Light, Ventura, CA. Copyright 1984.)

The king had dreamed of a statue made of different kinds of materials.  The head was gold, the breast and arms were silver, the belly and thighs were bronze, the legs were iron, and the feet were a mixture of iron and clay.  But in the dream a stone came flying at the statue’s feet and pulverized the entire statue.  Then the stone itself grew to be a huge mountain, so big that it filled the entire earth. 

 Daniel explained that each of the parts of the statue represented different kingdoms that would rule the world. 

“You are the head of gold.  After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.  Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces.  In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.  As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.  And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.  In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.  Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future…” Daniel 2:38-45

Church & State in the U.S.A.

Many years ago, I received a phone call from my sister, Liz. She lived in Nevada and I live in Canada. She told me she thought God had asked her to do something, but she wasn't positive it was him. I asked her what it was.

Liz told me she didn't want to tell me. She was asking God for guidance and asked me to pray about what she should do. I said I would be glad to pray about it.

That night, I had a dream. I was in my living room and there was an open book laying on my coffee table. I looked at it closely and could see pictures in it. They were pictures of the images of the book of Daniel. I realized it was a book about the end times.

I picked up the book and felt God wanted me to give it to our next-door neighbor. So, I went over and gave it to her. I woke up.

I called my sister the next day and told her my dream. She told me that she had thought God had asked her to write a book about Daniel and Revelation and the last days of earth's history. We were happy the Lord opened this up to me as it was in agreement with what she had heard.

She wrote the book and we gave it away and sold some online. E-books started being popular so she put her book on lulu.com and that is where it is now as an ebook or a soft cover. I also gave one to my next door neighbor since God showed me that in the dream. She looked at me like I was nuts, but that's okay. She is already a Christian, but of a different church than the one I went to.

Now, what does this have to do with Church & State? Well, in Revelation, we believe it prophesies about a major Christian power that will unite church and state. This power will persecute those who don't believe what they say. They will pass laws and whoever does not obey their laws will not be able to buy or sell. They will make an "image to the beast," which will be a national Sunday Law. Those who go along with this law will receive the mark of the beast.

Because the United States government is now taking steps to unite church & state, I felt very strongly to put my sister's book on my blog to warn people of what is to come. I'm pretty sure many people who follow my blog will quit following, but that is not important to me. What is important is that I warn people, so when they see it happening, they will know that a Sunday Law is not from the Lord.

This is an excerpt from my sister's book. I plan to begin copying her book and putting pages of it on my blog. Remember the Book of Revelation means a "revealing."  It is not hidden, for God wants us prepared for what is to come.

I love the cover. My sister and I have the same sense of humor.

"Of the United States, Revelation 13:12 says, “He exercises all the authority of the first beast (Rome, Catholicism) in his presence.  And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal would was healed.”  Just as the Pope and the Catholic Church used to exercise political and religious authority over the Western world before its deadly wound in 1798, so the United States will exercise its political and religious authority over the Western world, uniting with Catholicism and giving back to the Pope the power his position once wielded. 

The Image of the Beast

            When you look in a mirror you see a reflection of yourself.  It is not you, but it looks just like you and it mirrors any movement you make.  Well, the beast was a political and religious power that ruled the Western world for centuries, and an image to this beast will have the same traits without being the exact same entity.  

Instead of being solely the Catholic Church with the Pope wielding religious and political power, this image will be political powers, dominated by the US, backing up the Ecumenical unification of religious powers (Revelation 17:12, 13 says that the kings of the earth will give their power and authority to the beast, so it will not be just the US political power).  Combined, these political and religious powers resemble, or mirror, the works and the powers of the Catholic Church during her 1260-year reign from 538 CE to 1798 CE.  So what we will see is an unholy trinity, a joining of politics, Protestantism and Catholicism.