This is That

breytonhartge SG

By Clifford Denton and Dave Hilsley

Number 1. The Rise of Babel

Each day we get one day closer to the return of Jesus the Messiah (Yeshua HaMashiach). While this is an obvious statement it is also loaded with the truth that one day He will return, and we must be ready.

There are various views of the order of events that precede His coming. Many views of the end times do not fit convincingly with Scriptural interpretation for one reason or another, which shows how far the Church as a whole is from understanding the times in which we live. Indeed, there is much prayer and study required from all of us. As the end times proceed we need to be students of the Word and in prayerful study and discussion. While Christians may move closer to agreement, in the coming days, on the way to prepare for the Lords return, and on the way to interpret Scripture, we should always be alert to understand the days that we are actually in, according to the prophetic patterns of Scripture and through the words of the biblical Prophets.

When Peter stood up on the Day of Pentecost he said, This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. It was the time for the Holy Spirit to begin to fulfil what had been shown through the Prophets, pouring Himself out on the disciples of Jesus, equipping them for service. This is that which was spoken by the prophets should be the watchword of the Church in every generation. An important aspect of the prophetic ministry is to interpret the times from a biblical perspective. We need to understand the days in which we live.

In this section of our magazine we will write a regular series of articles to help in the discussions that all believers should be having. They will appear on a roughly weekly basis. They will be short piecemeal studies and build up a profile of our days from a biblical perspective week by week.

To begin the series we will go right back to the beginning, in the Book of Genesis. Our study comes mainly from Genesis 10 and 11. Here we find evidence of the character of mankind and the act of God to put a brake on mans desire to live according to its own strength and ability, but also pointing towards the move to world government which is evidence of the end times.

In Genesis 10 we read about Nimrod. At this point in time in biblical history we are only at the level of Noahs grandchildren. In Verse 9 we have the statement that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord, but the translation of the word before is wrong. It should be a mighty hunter against the Lord or in defiance of the Lord. We have a man whose name Nimrod means rebellion saying, I now am going to be king of the earth instead of God. What does Nimrod start to do?

In Genesis 10: 10-12 we see that he starts to build cities. Shinar is another name for Babylon, so we can understand the relevance of this study. The Bible has been called loosely, The Tale of Two Cities. The two cities are Babylon and Jerusalem, typifying the kingdom of man going his own way without God at the centre, as compared with the Kingdom where God is working out His purposes with mankind.

There is a sense in which Genesis 11 comes before Genesis 10. In the Hebrew style of writing you get the overall picture and then you go back and fill in the details and this is the case here with these two chapters. In Genesis 11: 1 we find that this people spoke the same language and they had the same culture so they are one people on the face of the earth. When the people came out of the ark after the Flood, God told them to scatter over the face of the earth and they said no.

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Here we have apostasy. God said scatter and the people said no. They wanted to be independent from God and, like Cain before them, they built a city, but there was a difference between this city and the city built by Cain. The difference was that they began to build a tower. So what is this tower they started to build? Cain did not build a tower but these people did. It is possible that it was because these people knew that God had interrupted mankinds plan through a universal flood. Despite the fact that God had promised that he would not flood the earth again with a universal flood the people did not believe God. In this and other ways, this tower stands as an example of rank disobedience to God and it was one of the most evil plans ever devised. It is an attempt by mankind to be independent from God.

In this little section of biblical history a movement began which is still in our land and in our world today. This movement will become even clearer as time goes on. It is like a stream that began trickling down the hillside at the tower of Babel. It has gone along and has gained more and more water. In our day it is a mighty river let alone in the days that are to come. It is still fairly hidden today to most people, although if you have an understanding of the Bible and the tower of Babel it is very obvious, but to the majority of people in the world this river of activity is still hidden. This river is an attempt by mankind to be totally independent from Gods action.

In the political realm, in the commercial realm and in the religious world every area is aiming at an independence from God. It the Scripture it is called Mystery Babylon. The word mystery here means something that is hidden until it is revealed all of a sudden.

Revelation 17 points to the rise of Babylon in the end times. The Scripture speak of mystery Babylon and it is this that has been going on around us, but people have not realised it is around. In the days of the fulfilment of Revelation these things, which have been going on from the tower of Babel (or really from Cain) are going to be revealed for what they are. There is coming such a powerful religious system that will glorify man but certainly not glorify our God. There will be a commercial system that will be so thriving that people will think no matter what we do it will be successful. There will be a political system in which man gets all the glory and it is mystery Babylon. These are the days in which we live. There will be a return to what Almighty God prevented mankind from doing when He scattered them from Babel. In the end He will let those who still live by the spirit of independence and rebellion to come together in a one world system, which is a manifestation of what began at the Tower of Babel. We are moving forward into those days. Observe the signs all around.

breytonhartge SG

Number 2. One World Government

When mankind seeks to live in its own way there is an ignorance of how far this diverts from the ways of God. In their own eyes, human beings can achieve much, but if they take their eyes off God, they fail to see how shallow all of their efforts really are. Because human beings are sinful by nature, they also would prefer to have their eyes blinded to this truth, and so the tendency is always to build their own empires in their own strength.

We see the tides of activity in the world today moving towards one world systems. They can seem good and necessary. Europe has taken a single currency to ease trading. America has brought about a coalition to combat terrorism. Both seem good, but mankind does not realise the heart of sin that drives every person who is separate from God. Sinful desire to control will take over any government that is not submitted to God. One world government is a real possibility on our horizon. This is enabled by the communication facilities available today in an unprecedented way, but those same abilities to communicate and monitor affairs can result in central hard government control in the end that puts ordinary people in bondage. The Bible talks about the emergence of a one world government with a single economy and religious system. This is in the Book of Revelation Chapter 13. Far from being a solution to the needs of mankind we are seeing a rise of evil that will control the whole world called MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (Rev 17:5).

The foundations and character of this world system has already been revealed through Scripture.

We can consider this and note the parallels in the world today. Genesis 4 & 11 shows us the beginning of humanitys sinful attempt to be autonomous from God. People today are working to get everybody together and thinking that then the world will have no more problems, but God says if that ever happens it will be a beginning of the end of humanity.

When this happened for the first time, as recorded in Genesis 11: 6-9, God through His grace intervened so that mans futile ideas would be thwarted for a time. God brought in languages to separate humanity into smaller nations so that He could save them, and God caused the people to scatter. Gods plan is to work among families and small communities rather than through one big man-made empire. Today we see that mankind in still trying to overcome what God did at the tower of Babel. The United Nations is trying to unite the whole world. We have to be careful of joining anything that tries to bring this about. At the end of Genesis 11 we have the seedbed of mankinds rebellion and apostasy. God then chose the Jewish people to be His witness and through that nation the earth would learn about God. And of course you see that link through the covenant with Abraham.

Some people think that God had then dealt with the rebellion that began with Nimrod but he did not, He just delayed the outcome of the rebellion, and that outcome is what is happening today. Before the flood, humanitys sinfulness had reached its maximum development. In other words it reached a place where God had to destroy. In only 1600 years after the Flood the world was heading the same way as it was before the Flood, so God delayed His judgement. But the point we need to understand, because it is crucial, is that the rebellion that began at the Tower of Babel is still going on in human history. It has been getting bigger and bigger ever since. The rebellion that began in Nimrods day has not yet come to its fullest height so at the moment God has still not judged the line of rebellion that came from Nimrod. Today this rebellion is more in the open than it has ever been but it is not yet fully open.

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We are dealing with the rebellion that started at the Tower of Babel and we need to see how this rebellion has developed down the ages. The rebellion has exactly the same characteristics throughout its development that was started through the Tower. There are four basic things that are at the heart of this rebellion and we can see that the basic nature of this rebellion is at the heart of our culture today and will continue to be until the final judgement of God.

It is fully rebellious. Its very nature is one of rebellion and because of that it is specifically rebellious as far as God is concerned. We can say it is anti-God, and anti-Christ.

It is independent of God. It seeks total independence from God it does not want the earth or humanity or organisations tied up with God. It wants God completely out of the picture. We see two things in our society that stem from this. There are many more than two but there are two we can see straight away.

The Theory of Evolution has come along teaching the whole of the universe has just evolved and it is evolution that dictates the course of history claiming total power. Evolution can do anything. Notice how many educational programmes that deal with nature are based on evolution. They usually say that nature decided whatever should happen. As soon as you see the word nature you are dealing with the principle of Babylon. This teaching implies that God is not in charge of creation but that evolution is.

Communism: no person who understands the Bible can agree with the principles of communism. Communism has no place for God and says that people will create the perfect environment on the earth. This is the thinking that underlines our society and we often do not recognise it because the harsh face of Communism is not acceptable, but todays society is working on the view that one-day humanity will solve all its problems through a society that reflects the core elements of Communism.

It seeks to glorify man

It seeks world government on the earth. The reason is very simple: If the earth is governed from heaven it is God who dictates as far as the earth is concerned. Mankind would prefer not to admit sin and need, and so would prefer, in general, to ignore the government of God.

At the heart of the rebellion of the Tower of Babel is the desire to undo everything that God did there. So the people would speak the same language, have the same government and have all things in common and then everything would seem to be fine because everything would be independent from God. That was the thinking behind the tower of Babel. Mankind would be in control through one central government, through having everything in common and through one central religious system.

In our day the signs are strong that the scattering at Babel is being reversed. While God by His grace prevented mankind from falling into this error too soon in a big way, at the end of time He will allow it to happen. This is that spoken of through the prophecy of John in the Book of Revelation. Be on guard, this prophecy is accelerating in its fulfilment today. We will see days of trouble in all countries, such is happening through the health, education, financial, policing and transport systems of Britain, for example, and through terrorism across the whole world, even as we write this article. This is the time of decision when mankind decides whether to seek God for His government on earth or to try to solve problems in mankinds own way independent of Him. Mans way will result in centralised control and one world systems. They will seem to come out of need for co-operation, but will result in compromise which can only be enforced through an iron grip at a central control. This will be a reversal of Gods scattering from the Tower of Babel. The principles of the Tower of Babel can be seen growing in all areas. Perhaps science and philosophy are the easiest to see, where mankind builds up its own tower of learning, based on its own humanistic foundations and not on the Word of God, denying the Creator and worshipping the created, including man worshipping man himself. These are the days for reading the signs and for making decisions. The Bible shows us the inevitable move to a one world system. Independent mankind will go out of Gods protection as a result, while those who seek Him with all their heart will become an alien community within the world community, not conforming, despised by wicked men from a wicked system, but saved for eternity with God.

breytonhartge SG

Number 3. Characteristics of Babylon.

There are many consequences for an individual who chooses to live his or her life independent of God. As the world moves towards a Babylonian system once again these things will be multiplied throughout the world and many things will be accepted as normal that are against Gods order of society. For example, rebellion against God has given rise to a feminist movement. What we call girl power has the thinking of Babylon at the heart. It begins with a drive for independence from Gods order of society, cultivates an imbalance in society, redefines the image of God and leads to worship of feminist and goddess spirits. Of course the way that some men have treated, and in some cases still treat women, is not right and we can understand what some women are trying genuinely to achieve, but the feminist movement goes far beyond equal rights that women are trying to achieve. It is basically women seeking to be independent from God. You only have to look at abortion to see that. The feminists would say the woman has power over her own body, she is only accountable to herself, and that is independence from God.

So we see that a feminist principle can lead to other evils coming, including abortion of babies, which is of immense proportion in our day. The fact that this is legalised shows how far the Babylonian kingdom has progressed. We will see other things. For example, religions that already have goddess images will gain influence in a move towards a one world religion which will be a mixture of many religions in some compromised move. Roman Catholicism is in a dangerous position to contribute to this move when prayer to Mary and other saints is increased to give them a status of a god or goddess.

If we consider feminism alongside the theory of evolution then we see something else developing which is already an abomination in our midst. If mankind reasons that it has progressed by some form of trial and error of nature, then the view will form that the sexuality of some of humankind has a mixture of male and female in such as way that sex change is a plausible thing to consider or such that homosexuality and lesbianism are acceptable for society.

The media is a powerful instrument to promote this move towards the acceptance of many things that are right in mans eyes but sin in Gods eyes. For example, in some television documentaries we need to make clear judgements of what is being shown. What is being put over must be seen as either Gods viewpoint or Babylons - it is one or the other. The programmes may be well produced, but we need to see the push behind the philosophies they present and we need to point them out to the children. When we see the news or read the newspaper part of the heart of Babylon has often entered our house. What we need to do when we see or read the news is to discern what is the push behind what is being said or read. These things are going on in our society, growing in impact and we need to be wise as we face up to this reality.

breytonhartge SG

As considered above the powerful move towards feminism will distort Gods order and also distort mans view of God. This is one of the most powerful and subtle roots of Babylon in our world today, illustrating how the nature of Babylon is rising in our midst. The Bible traces the history and nature of Babylon, allowing us to consider such characteristics - its essential nature. There are four main characteristics:

It is typified by great political and military power and when the nature of Babylon is fully revealed in the Tribulation (the time of trouble coming upon the world of which the Bible speaks in great detail) we see great political and military power.

It has tremendous wealth and prosperity.

It glorifies human wisdom. In other words human viewpoint becomes the centre of everything.

It has a blasphemous religious system associated with it.
An important question asks this, when Satan devised this thing we call Babylon why did he included a blasphemous religious system it in? The answer is very easy. When humanity fell they had a spiritual void in people that God had reserved for Himself. Satan knew that if you left that void unfilled people would realise that when their systems and philosophies have not worked, then something is missing. In order to deceive people Satan provided a counterfeit religious system. He did it very cleverly as well; it was not through Nimrod that this counterfeit religious system came. This religious system came through Nimrods wife.

Nimrods wife was a woman called Sermiraims and she was the one that was going to be used to begin the religious system that Satan has prospered ever since the Tower of Babel. Sermiraims found one day that she was pregnant and she claimed that her pregnancy was not from a human father but was from the heavens. She said she had conceived mysteriously and mystically from heaven and that the child that was in her womb was directly from heaven. Sermiraims gave birth to a son and she called him Tammuz and he is known by that name in the Bible. This story will ring a bell and the counterfeit can be easily discerned. It gets even worse. Tammuz grew and developed and then one day in the forest a wild animal killed him and, guess what, Tammuz was raised from the dead. So beginning at Babel we have a religious system founded on a woman who claimed that she had a divine child who died and then was raised from the dead.

Most of the religions of the world stem from this religious system that was established at Babel. Of course the details vary a bit. For example, soon Tammuz was called by other names and one of the names was Baal. The story of Baal is simply a development of the story of Tammuz. All of the religions like Dianne of the Ephesians they all stem from this false religious system that was established at Babel in fact most of the counterfeit world religious systems come from Babel. This Babylonian spirit still exists and will emerge to its height in the end times. It is a counterfeit in which Satan deceives in order to draw worship to himself and away from the One True God through His only Son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach) who was indeed born of a virgin, died for our sins and rose again. Tammuz is a counterfeit and so are all the others who draw worship away to themselves and as a consequence draw people away to their evil system.

Now is the day of decision for us all. A useful Bible study is to compare the heart of the writer of Psalm 19 with Pauls letter to the Romans (Chapter One). Psalm 19 starts with a faith in God the Creator, moving on to consider how all of Gods ways are firm and trustworthy, and ending in repentance for even hidden sins a desire to be clean in Gods sight. In Romans 1, Paul shows how a denial of God the Creator leads progressively through sin and rebellion, ending with God abandoning the evil doers, allowing them to go blindly into the full weight of uncleanness and evil that typifies what the world is becoming today. In this sinful world mankind goes one way or the other. In times of testing the heart of people is found out as to whether they seek God or follow their own path and deceptive spirits. Where will you stand as the powers of Babylon rise to their heights in the coming days? This is that of which the prophets spoke.

breytonhartge SG

Number 4. Israel!

Is the nation of Israel today, re-established in their Land after nearly 2000 years, an act of God or a political accident? If God has lost control of Israel then surely He may also have lost control of other world events, as they also seem to spiral out of control? No! Israel is not a political accident, and God is in perfect control of His own plans for mankind. His plans are based on covenant promises that He will never break. When we see Israel in the centre of world history, as we do today, it is time to discover again what God said would happen at the end of times. Israel, in the end times purposes of our covenant keeping God this is that which was spoken through the biblical Prophets long ago.

Our view about Israel, in relation to Gods plan for humanity, is important because our view of Israel has ramifications that go far deeper. The whole subject of Israel has to do with the Character of God: whether He is a Faithful Covenant-keeping God, and whether His Word is true. How do we know whether God will keep His promises, if He does not keep all of them? And He has made promises to Israel.

One of the main issues in the Church today is how do we take the Word of God? Do we take it as it stands, or can we spiritualise it away? It can be fashionable to take any Scripture and change its meaning to suit the particular idea that one would like to be true. There are many views on the End Times, because of the way people try to read the Bible to suit their own preconceptions, and that affects what is believed about Israel. Our whole view about Israel is determined by the way in which we interpret the Word of God.

If we discount those who are ignorant, those who are apathetic and those who have not made up their mind about Israel there are generally two views that are held about Israel.

The first of these views has been the majority view for the last sixteen hundred years. This view went through a slight dip in 1948 when Israel became a State again. It went through another slight dip in 1967 with the Six-Day War. This view says that it is true that God did have a special relationship with Israel but that this special relationship no longer holds. People who hold this view say that it is true that God made certain promises to Israel but that God has now fulfilled His promises to Israel, and moved on with His plans. Because the promises have been fulfilled to Israel God has no more obligation to Israel. To them Israel is just an ordinary country on the face of the earth among many ordinary countries. It is true that God wants the Jewish people to become believers in Jesus as it is also true for every nationality on the face of the earth. So all the nations of the earth are on a par with Israel, regarding individual and personal salvation through faith in Jesus. This is true. In fact God has a special relationship with His one covenant family of faith drawn from all nations over all history. This community, which we call the Church, draws together believers from all nations including Israel. However, those who believe that Gods plan for Israel is finished see the Church in a different way, as replacing Israel, and they see the Church as a group drawn generally from the Gentile world. The phrase Spiritual Israel is used to describe the Church in this way of thinking, but the Bible does not contain this phrase. In this way of thinking, the Church now is everything. The Church is usually thought to have begun at Pentecost in Acts 2 and is thought to have eclipsed natural Israel so that God is only interested in this definition of the Church. He wants every Jewish person to join the Church and the only future any Jewish person has is within this Church. Also it is taught that God transferred the promises/covenant to the Church because of Jewish involvement in Jesus crucifixion.

This is the major view that is considered today. We quote from one writer on this subject: If you have got to be pro something be pro Jesus, be pro Christian, be pro the Church, be pro the Kingdom but do not opt for being pro Israel.

In fact, the truth is that we should be pro Jesus, and pro one New Man in Christ, neither Jew nor Gentile. The fact that Israel is back in the land has no significance whatsoever as far as the people who teach this are concerned. To them, other nations as well as Israel have survived. The fact that Israel took over all of Jerusalem in the Six-Day war and rested on the seventh day has no significance.

According to this view God is no longer looking at the Nation of Israel, He is now looking at Spiritual Israel, the Church. The Church now becomes the total centre of Gods plan and that is the majority view. But we must consider this carefully, seek a true definition of the Church, which began with believers from Israel into which Gentile believers were grafted through faith, reconsider Gods promises for Israel as a nation in the Last Days and so refine our view of the whole plan of God. Gods plan is broader than to replace Israel and start all over again in the Gentile world. His plan is comprehensive to take account of early promises to Israel whilst also taking the Gospel to the whole world.

breytonhartge SG

If it is true that God is finished with Israel then the following points need to be answered.

Why does Israel still exist?
Why the holocaust?
Why the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE?
The second main view is the one held by the authors of this paper. This view, which is now the minority view, was the view of the majority of the early church. In 1948 there was a revival of this view and we will look at something of this later. In 1967 there was a revival of this view when Israel survived a war and Jerusalem was reunited as the capital of Israel. This has caused people to make their beliefs known on Gods plan for Israel and for much discussion and rethinking. The view is this: God has made unconditional covenants and promises to Israel, which have not yet been fulfilled.

The fact that the Church is wonderful and glorious does not mean that God has finished with Israel. Literal Israel - that is the State of Israel - still has a future. People who take this point of view say this.

· We are going to be pro Jesus, pro Christian, pro the Church, pro the Kingdom and we are also going to be pro Israel and we are going to be pro One New Man in Christ.

For people that hold this point, the fact that Israel has survived 2000 years is a miracle of God. The fact that they have come back to the land despite all the trouble they have suffered, sometimes at the hand of so-called Christians for 1600 years is a miracle of God. Gods plan is well on the way to completion.

Peter the Great of Russia once asked a certain Christian the question, Prove the Bible to me. The Christian replied that is so easy, The Jew your majesty. Peter the Great understood immediately the survival of the Jewish people proves that the Bible is true and that the God of history is behind the Bible.

The people who hold the view that God has finished with Israel have not fully realised what it means as far as the Character of God is concerned. A God who can promise things to Israel and then just dump them is not the type of God to put your trust in. He is obviously a Covenant breaker. He is not a Covenant keeping God. He obviously is someone who when He makes a statement cannot be trusted. Therefore the issue of Israel is crucial and affects the whole view of the Character of God.

How can we make such a dramatic statement? If our God has promised Israel certain things and then just dumped them, He is not worth trusting. We can make this dramatic statement on the following basis. We read one of Gods promises spoken through the Prophet Jeremiah directly to Israel:

Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. (Jeremiah 31: 35-36)
These verses show the damage that is done to the Character of God if you ever believe that Israel is abandoned by Him. These are spectacular promises given to literal Israel. The term forever here means that there will always be a group of people who compose the Nation of Israel. It does not mean there will be a recognisable group of people living in the land called Israel. It is quite obvious from history for 2000 years they have not always lived in the land. But the moment God wanted them back in the land there was the Nation of Israel ready to go back. The word forever implies that. For example David was promised You will always have one of your descendants on the throne. (2 Samuel 7). Now when the throne of David has been occupied throughout history, there was always a descendant of David there to be the king. And that is what forever means. The genealogies in Matthew and Luke prove that Jesus is a descendant of David and he will occupy the throne forever. That is the final literal fulfilment.

The throne is coming back because God will keep His Word to David and the minute the throne is back, there is a man to fill it, JESUS. God will keep His Word. Now in the verses we have just read God says, The only way He will allow Israel to cease being a recognisable nation before Him is if the sun, moon or stars cease from being. That is a dramatic statement and it is either true or not. If God dumps Israel then that this promise has failed. The verses go on and compound the problem:

Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 31: 37)
Has anyone been able to measure heaven above? We know they have not. No scientist with the best of instruments at his disposal would claim that. Beyond the heavens is the palm of God and He alone can measure the heavens.

The verse goes on and says, If the foundations of the earth can be searched out beneath then God will cast off Israel for all that they have done. Has the earth beneath been searched out? Not at all, we have not even got below the crust. It is quite impossible - there is such heat inside the earth that everything would frizzle up. It would just vaporise. God has made sure that there will always be an Israel around and He has made His promise in these enormous terms to make sure that we realise it. These are firm and solid promises and that is why we can say that the establishment of Israel in their land in these days, before our eyes, is evidence of the truth of Gods Word in the Holy Bible and this is that of which the Prophets spoke concerning the End Times.

breytonhartge SG

Number 5. The Place of Israel in Gods Plan

Israel is back on the centre stage of world affairs. This is that which were spoken of by many of the biblical prophets. God has an everlasting covenant with Israel and, though this final move of God with that nation has been delayed for two thousand years, through what God does in Israel, He will demonstrate His faithfulness to all His promises. He is faithful in every way. He is totally trustworthy in His Word to the whole world both for blessing and for woe.

In the book of Romans Paul taught very much about the faithfulness of God to the Gospel going to the whole world, but he was careful to remind us that He also remains faithful to His covenant with Israel. In Romans 9:6 Paul says:

Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.
Here Paul is beginning to show that the covenant with Israel is related to both a spiritual and physical promise. Israel, after the flesh becomes the true Israel of God into which believers from the Gentile world are grafted when they also have the spiritual heart transformed by the power of God. In the end times, after the Gospel has gone to all the world God will turn again to Israel and there will be a fulfilment of the covenant when He takes them back to the Land and after times of tribulation will come a spiritual harvest. The sign of Israel going back to the Land in our day is a beginning of the end purposes of God for Israel and a sign to the world that the prophetic calendar is moving forward.

God has not finished with Israel - not at all. It is quite impossible that God should cast off natural Israel. God has made promises to Israel concerning the Land, which still in our day has not been fulfilled. All of the Land, which God promised Israel has never been occupied and the nearest Israel came to occupying all the Land, was in the time of David and Solomon when they just touched the Northern tip of the River Euphrates.

What a blessed generation we are. We can look at certain things in this day that show us clearly God has not removed Israel. The survival of Israel is the obvious thing. Also continued anti-Semitism, some of which is in the Church, has to be considered in the light of this. Many church people are unaware that they are anti-Semitic and that view can be seen in various countries.

Let us consider anti-Semitism. Why is it that there is anti-Semitism and there has always been so right down through the generations? The Jewish people have been bullied and harassed as no other people right through the centuries. Occasionally there is disunity between different and this lasts a few years. World War II was an example but even divisions from this war are being healed among nations. But the root of anti-Semitism all round the world continues and it has been there for 2000 years. This does not seem to be removed and healed in the same way. It is only when you see the Spiritual side of this that you can understand it.

It is the Devil that is behind it. Why? Because he wants to destroy the Jewish people so that God is proved a liar and especially because Messiah has to be Jewish, and fulfil all Scripture. In addition God has made promises to the Jewish people and if the Devil can destroy the Jewish people then God cannot keep His promises. That is why Satan attacks because if he were to succeed then the very Character of God is undermined. If God had finished with Israel surely anti-Semitism would have finished 2,000 years ago. There would be no point to the Devil chasing after the Jewish people if God had finished with them. Does not anti-Semitism show very clearly that because God still has a plan for Israel, the Devil is opposed to Gods purpose for Israel?

breytonhartge SG

The survival of Israel is remarkable. All of the other major empires of the world have gone. Assyria was a mighty empire but within 10 years of Assyria ceasing to be an empire it was very difficult to find any Assyrians. Historians will tell you the survival of the Jewish people is a miracle. When Assyria fell in 612 BCE within 10 years the might of this vast empire had gone and every major ancient history book will tell you that the disappearance of Assyrians is a miracle. If you had said to the Assyrians that 1,600 years later there would still be a nation called Israel and it would be the same nation that they had dealt they would have looked at you in total unbelief. This is the staggering miracle we are faced with in our days.

The trouble is that in our generation people know so little about history and even less about the glory and wonder of Israeli history: they do not understand what the survival of the Jewish people really means.

There is one major point that is made that we should answer. Some people who think that the church has now replaced Israel make this statement, God did make promises to the Jewish people but they have all been fulfilled. Now that is an amazing statement. Well, God gave a promise to Israel that they would occupy a land area and the question we have to ask is, did Israel ever occupy that land area? And these people would say yes, in David and Solomons day they did. The boundary went from Mediterranean and a little bit in the Northeast touched the River Euphrates. But you see they are so wrong because there is a passage in Scripture where God says, I will not give you the land by your own efforts. (Judges 2:3)

God had told Israel to go in and possess the land and every place where your foot treads that I will give to you. His desire for them was to go and trample over the whole land, remove all the people that were there so that it was only the people of Israel that were left. God fulfilled that promise everywhere they placed their foot they got the land. The tragedy is that Israel did not put their foot in every place. They left groups of people although God had told them wipe out the people of the land and take the whole land, it is all yours. They refused to do it. Finally, in the Book of Judges God saw their disobedience and said because you have disobeyed, you by your own efforts are never going to occupy the land. When Jesus returns they will have it, God will honour His promise but by their own effort they will not do it.

Now if it is true in David and Solomons day they occupied all the land why is God is saying in Judges 2: 1-3:

And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.

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Verse 3 is also a quotation from Joshua 23.

So because Israel did not do what God told them to do they will always share the land with another people. That is why we must consider the situation of the Palestinian people in the Land of Israel today very carefully. We must consider whether God has given them a right to live in the Land until He fulfils His promise to Israel. We should review the ancient Scriptures relating to this in the Books of Joshua and Judges (Judges 2 and Joshua 23. Because of their disobedience to God He says He will not give them the land by their own effort. From that time on the land was always shared. But this is amazing; God had made an unconditional covenant that they would receive all the land so we know that that day is coming when they will get all the land. You will notice after this time not one of the prophets ever told Israel to go up and possess the land. The prophets do declare that a day is coming when the King will be in the land and Israel will posses the whole land. In fact in Judges 3: 1-3 we read about the nations that would occupy the land, and this was so in the days of David and Solomon, when the Philistines were in the Land. You read in the Minor Prophets, that go right up to 400 BCE, the Philistines are still there in the land. So to state that in David and Solomons time that Israel had occupied the whole land is not only denying this Scripture, it is denying history. It just is not true to say that Israel occupied that whole land.

When you come through to Jesus day that unconditional promise about the land was still unfulfilled. God has still got to fulfil that promise, so Israel has a future related to the Land.

A great promise is found in Genesis 12: 1-3:
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Now there are people who say that God is finished with Israel and say that this promise only applied to Abraham, and when he died this promise was no longer applicable. Such people have no concern for other nations helping Israel. There is an interesting passage in Numbers 24: 8-10:
God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee. And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.
Balak called Balaam to curse Israel and Balaam could only bless them. Earlier, Balaam had also said of God that He is neither a man that He should lie nor, the son of man that he should repent. Also, as Paul said in Romans 11: 29:

the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

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From Genesis to Revelation, through Balaam and Paul and others, you cannot break that which God has ordained to be, and this is the conclusion we have to come to: God has made a covenant with Israel and He has got to keep that covenant. He must keep that covenant otherwise His Character is flawed. If God no longer keeps His promises to literal Israel but has transferred them to another group called Spiritual Israel and is fulfilling the promises through them then how can we trust His word about us? God has promised us all sorts of things eternal life, blessings, we are going to be with Him forever, reign with Him. Indeed, nowhere in Scripture, including the New Testament, do you ever find that the church is called Spiritual Israel.

When we see the term Israel used it has to mean Israel. The people who think the church is Spiritual Israel always have a certain problem - when the word Israel is used how do they know whether it is referring to literal Israel or the church, how can you tell? Well there does seem to be a rule and it seems to be this whenever Israel is used in relation to sin, failure, and judgement being put down they always take it as literal Israel. Any Scripture that seems to speak in detrimental terms about Israel is taken is literal, while it is rather nice to have the blessings!

There is a mindset that seems to have percolated the church over hundreds of years. It is probably because the Jews seemed neglected by God for so long. The mindset leads to a distortion of Scripture such as is illustrated above, and which can be backed by many more examples. We need to change that mindset in these days of fulfilment and retrieve the balance. Jesus came first to Israel, and He established Himself as King of the Jews for all time, but because of unbelief a pause was put on the final work for His people from the tribes of Israel, while the Gospel message went out to all nations enabling believers from the Gentile world to be grafted into the Israel of God (a term that is in Scripture). The Israel of God are those who live by faith and share the inheritance of Israel as given through Jesus the Messiah. There are those from Israel after the flesh in this covenant community and those from other nations. However, this fact does not distort the truth that God has a special promise still to be fulfilled for Israel after the flesh in the end days when He will take them back to the Land according to His promise and there show all nations that He is faithful. There will be a time of tribulation and also a sending forth of the Holy Spirit so that the spiritual inheritance promised to the House of Israel will also be fulfilled along with the promises relating to the Land. If we distort these truths we have a distorted and uncertain view of God. Lets thank Him that He has taught us through the travails of Israel past and continues to teach us through His faithfulness to the promises to Israel present and future.

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Number 6. Problems for Bible Critics

In our series of studies we come now to the wonderful subject of Bible prophecy. In order to study this topic we need to look at the principles of prophecy and fulfilled prophecy before we can deal with that part of prophecy which is called eschatology, all the events leading up to and including the return of Jesus and the fulfilment of Gods plan.

We should keep in mind that prophecy needs very careful study. This is why the foundations must be laid before we can deal with eschatology. We must see the principles of prophecy and how they are outworked through fulfilled prophecy.

It is important to consider this subject carefully on account of the many views held in the Church today. As a result this has become a controversial subject and this has led to many Bible teachers steering clear of the subject. It has become a subject that is rarely taught. If you are going to teach the Bible you have to teach the Whole Bible and not just the parts that appear to support your view. We need to be in balance, studying what the whole of Scripture says. We would be wise to adopt a teaching strategy that is roughly in the ratio of three fifths from the Tenakh (Old Testament) and two fifths from the New Testament. If you hear any Bible teacher say they Old Testament does not really concern us we live in the New Testament you have a person who does not understand their Bible fully. The reason is this: the Tenakh finds its culmination in the New Testament and the New Testament finds its explanations in Tenakh.

In the charismatic movement today most Bible studies are not given on prophecy; they are given on things like love, the move of the spirit and marriage and church order and so on. So the question is, what place in the Scripture is given to prophecy?

Before we see that we need to define what we mean by a prophetic word or verse? There are two definitions that we need. One of them we need now and the other one later on.

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What is a Prophecy?

A prophecy is any sentence or verse that deals with an event which is in the future at the time the sentence is said or the verse is written. Today as we look at the Bible there are some sentences which are prophetic which have been fulfilled but when they were written they dealt with an event that had not yet occurred. To us looking back in history the event has occurred. If we look at the Bible to see how many verses are prophetic in nature we find that one in every three verses in the Old Testament is prophetic. In the New Testament one in every five verses is prophetic. That means that if we take the whole Bible it is one in very four verses. One quarter of the Bible deals with prophecy.

Jesus Himself put the emphases on prophecy time and time again. He said I am going to die but I will be raised again and that was prophetic at the time He said it. Many religious leaders base their reputations on other things, such as their ideas and morals. Jesus based His reputation on prophetic statements. Consider, for example, John 13:19 and Matthew 16:21. By dealing with the event before it happened just think of how Jesus laid Himself open. There were so many things that could have not taken place and if one of them had gone wrong Jesus ministry would have been wrong. Jesus based His reputation not on one prophetic statement but on four of them and they all had to come to pass. Look at, Matthew 17:9, 22 & 23, Matthew 20:18-19 and Matthew 26:32. Jesus told them these things before they came to pass so that when it happened the disciples might know something about Jesus that He knew what would happen after His death. There is no one else around who can say that and prove it. In Matthew 28:6,Jesus put the emphasis on prophecy. In fact in His life there were three main areas of prophetic thought:
Jesus prophesied things that would occur in His lifetime on the earth.
The second category was those prophecies that talked about Jesus dying and rising again from the dead.
The third category was those things that Jesus prophesied about which as yet had not come to pass, some of which still have not come to pass.
The whole of Jesus message was fundamentally based on prophetic statements. Prophecy is at the very centre of our faith. There are people today who believe that prophecy ended after the death and resurrection of Jesus, but this was not the view held in the first century by disciples of Jesus. One of the first messages that Jesus gave after He had risen was given to two disciples walking along (Luke 24:27) The first thing Jesus did when He had risen was teaching on prophecy and in this case Old Testament Prophecy. That is why when you study prophecy you have to start in the Old Testament. What was the teaching of the early church after Jesus had been taken up? Prophecy was a major subject. In fact the two earliest books that Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit are largely prophetic in their content: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. In 2 Thessalonians 2:5 Paul says, when I was with you I told you these things. How long Paul was with them and how many times did he visit them? The answer to the question is once for three weeks and that was it. This shows us that Paul taught prophecy and the people knew all about the man of sin, the coming of the Lord and we being with Him. Pauls fist letter to the Thessalonians was about prophecy.

If we take the Bible as our authority we cannot cut out prophecy, it is a major topic. In John 16:13 there is the promise of the Lord, and it is about prophecy. Later, John was the only member of the congregation when Jesus gave His last Bible Study. John was exiled on the isle of Patmos and Jesus appeared to him and the last message of Jesus is prophecy and we have it recorded for us in the Book of Revelation. Jesus himself taught the book and its correct title is The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The title Revelation means that which is clearly revealed. In Revelation 19:10, Bible prophecy is a testimony about Jesus which is what Jesus said in Luke 24:27.

The emphasis in the early church was prophecy. If prophecy is carefully handled it is the best possible weapon against false teachers. In fact there is no weapon they fear more but by and large the church is asleep on this topic. Prophecy is the weapon that can defeat non-Christians and Bible critics totally and because it is such a powerful weapon Satan has put the church to sleep so that they will not talk about it.

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Another definition of Prophecy

This is a definition as far as the character of God is concerned; a prophecy is an omniscient God revealing His Plan and purpose for the nations. Our God is a God who likes to reveal himself to us. In the Old Testament that is why we had prophets. The priests had the task of representing humanity to God. They would make the sacrifices and perform the other duties on behalf of the people. But God did not only have priests but He also had a group of people called prophets and the prophet was to be the man who represented God to the people because God not only wanted to hear the people talk but He wanted to talk to us. We see that in the word meaning Prophets in Hebrew is the word Naviim. The word Naviim comes from the word Navi and that means to announce. The task of the prophet was to tell the people what God was going to do. The essence of prophecy is that God wants us to know what is happening. For example:

2 Peter 1:21: all prophecy in the Bible is from the Holy Spirit because God wants us to know about prophecy and what God is doing.

Amos 3:7: the Lord is not going to do anything unless He reveals it because He is proved to be God in the fact that He has revealed it. Prophecy shows us the type of God we have got.

Isaiah 48:5: God is saying here that He is the source of everything and prophecy proves that He is.

Isaiah 41:23: God is speaking to the priests of Baal and to their gods and He is taunting them to be able to prove themselves through prophesying.

Isaiah 41:25-26: our God is the God of prophecy and this is totally incompatible with atheism and this why deceiving spirits hate true prophecy.

Prophecy shows us three things that the Bible critics cannot take and the atheists hate and they are:
Prophecy shows us He is a God who reveals Himself and He communicates with us.
A God who prophecies tell us something about Himself, He is omniscient; He knows everything. That fact that God tells us what is going to happen shows us that everything has a plan.
Prophecy also tells us that God is Omnipotent and that history is His story. He is the one who has planned it and will bring it to pass.
Prophecy proves that God does exist because in the Bible we have plenty of examples where He has stated something and it has actually come to pass. If you take the book of Daniel we find a book that brings much reaction from those who would neglect prophecy and wish to quieten the Word of God. There are more books written criticising the book of Daniel than any other book. Why? Because Daniel is a major book of prophecy and it proves our God.

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The book of Daniel tells us this, that there was a man who lived from 500 to 600 BC who wrote about events that would not occur until 200 BC. If he could do that accurately there has to be a God. In Daniel 11:1, we have the evidence to date the book at the year 538 BC and the rest of the chapter goes to give a detailed history of all the events that occurred around the year 200 BC. The detail is so phenomenal, so exact that even the Cambridge Ancient History uses Daniel as one of its sources because it is so accurate. Daniel 11 is the hardest chapter in the Bible and you really have to know your history. It deals with every single king of the Ptolemies over about one hundred years. For people who believe in the Bible this is easy to understand: it is prophecy. To the Bible critic, because they cannot stand it, they turn the prophecy into history and that is the only way they can deal with it, claiming that the book was written later, after the events rather than before them.

That gives those people a major problem because they have to say that the book was not written in 600 BC but it was written in another time period, after the event. As a result the Bible critic wants to talk about the date of the book of Daniel and as soon as they do that you know they have come across prophecy and they have not got an answer to it. The tragedy is there are not more than a handful of Christians who can justify the dating of the book of Daniel. In this series we will justify that the book of Daniel is as old as it says it is.

Do you see the problem that the Bible critics have? They have to challenge the dating of the book and this has been going on since about the third century AD. The man who began the argument was Porphyry, and in the third century he wrote fifteen volumes against the Christians and most of his writing was a criticism of prophecy.

Bible prophecy is the greatest weapon as far as the Christian is concerned but by and large the church has ignored the topic. If we ignore prophecy we have lost a major weapon as far as our faith is concerned. We will go through the prophecies that show our God is a God of prophecy. The facts that we shall be studying will prove beyond a shadow of doubt that God is and that He expects.

Look at Revelation 19:10. This verse is the hallmark of all that we will be studying and what is being said is what all of prophecy is about it is a testimony of Jesus. All prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus and is there to glorify Him.

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Number 7. This is that which was spoken by the Prophets: But beware of False Prophecy

In the last study we saw how powerful a tool Bible prophecy is in the hands of Christians who know what they are doing. We said that all prophecy is dived into two main sections:

Fulfilled

Unfulfilled

But before we can start dealing with Bible prophecy we need to look at false prophecy and false prophets. The reason for dealing with this subject is that you are bound to find someone who has read something a false prophet has written. There have been people who have prophesied who are not believers but they have prophesied correctly. Usually if people who have read anything of prophecy which does not come from the Bible they will probably name one of three people.

Mother Shipton; she was a Yorkshire lady and it is said she was born in 1488 AD and lived in a place called Knaresborough where there is a bridge which is still there today. One of her prophecies said the third time this bridge falls down it will be the end of the world. So far it has fallen down twice.

Nostradamus; he lived from 1503 1566 AD. He was of Jewish descent and he was a Frenchman and you can still buy copies of his prophecies today. They have been translated into English and there has been an increase in the sales of them after September 11th 2001. Both mother Shipton and Nostradamus wrote all of their prophecies in rhyming couplets.

Jeane Dixon; she lived from 1918-1997 and she was an American lady.

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These people have prophesied and sometimes their prophecies have come to pass. What we have to do is to compare the prophecies given by them with Biblical prophecy and see what is the difference. Let us look at three main areas of difference;

1. The prophecies that these false prophets give because that is what these people were have no overall plan or pattern to them. Even if their prophecies come to pass, where do they then lead you? - or for that matter leave you - because they tell you nothing about Jesus. For example, Mother Shipton wrote the following sometime after 1500 AD. A house of glass shall come to pass in merry England but alas a war will follow in the work in the land of the bloody Turk and state and state in fierce strife will struggle for each others life.
Here we have a prophecy about a house of glass, and people who have read this say here is a prophecy that has come to pass, it is the Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace was a massive greenhouse that was built in 1851 AD in the centre of London to house the Great Exhibition. Let us assume that Mother Shipton was right, well where does that leave us? The problem is her prophecy did not stop there it goes on to talk about a war in the land of the bloody Turk. Some people say that was the Crimean War but the only problem with that is the Crimean War was in Russia not the land of the Turk so the prophecy has not come to pass.

Another example of her prophecies; gold shall be found and shown in a land unknown fire and water shall do wonder and England shall admit a Jew. People who have read her prophecies say that was Disraeli and he became Prime Minister. The Problem is you cannot tell if that is the correct interpretation or not because Disraeli is not named and nor do we learn anything about Jesus which as;

Revelation 19:10 tells us, that is what prophecy is all about and if you compare mother Shiptons prophecies with Bible prophecy, you will find that all prophecy given in the Bible is part of a pattern and a developing revelation about God. If you take the Bible prophets who lived in different centuries but they each teach about the Lord in their prophecies. For example, if you took all the prophecies that were given about Israel, you would learn a lot about Gods views concerning the Jewish People.

The prophecies about the Messiah stretched over thousands of years and in Jesus we see all of them come to fulfilment. Biblical prophecy makes sense and there is a Patten to it, but non-Biblical prophecy is just a one off event and there is no overall plan.

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2. The second difference is that prophecies from false prophets are very general. In other words they are given in such a way that they can be interpreted in many different ways unlike Bible prophecy which is extremely accurate.

For example, Nostradamus was said to have prophesied that the French Revolution would occur and that Hitler would come. He certainly prophesied that the end of the world would come at the end of the last century. One of his passages about the French Revolution which was centred in Paris and it was there that all the action was. The question is, does Nostradamus mention Paris? No he does not in fact he mentions a city outside of Paris and a long way out in Brittany a place called Nantes. There is a translation of that prophecy and it is says;
The city leaders in revolt will in the name of liberty slaughter its inhabitants without regard to age or sex and howls and piteous sites in Nantes.
That prophecy is very general and even today we are not certain that this is the French Revolution or not. Encyclopaedia Britannica says about Nostradamus that much controversy has been caused because his prophecies are so lacking in accuracy and details. In other words they are so general that you can put any interpretation on them you like.

I think the best example of how general and non-specific these prophecies are is best given by the centre of prophecy in the ancient world. If you wanted a prophecy for your life you would go to a place that is still there today in Greece called Delphi. They had a temple there that was built over some sulphas fume outlets. In that temple they had a high priestess who was dedicated to the god Python, the snake. What used to happen was this high priestess went into the temple and sat above these fumes and gradually went into a trance and people would then write down anything she said that could be understood. One famous king after whom we get our coinage a man called Crioesus and he was king of a very important kingdom called Lydia. Crioesus wanted to know should he fight against the Persian king Darius. King Crioesus went to Delphi and this is the prophecy that came out; if you move against Darius a great kingdom will be destroyed. On the basis of that prophecy king Crioesus attacked the kingdom of Persia. Now we have two great kingdoms attacking one another and the prophecy came to pass and great kingdom was destroyed. King Crioesus kingdom of Lydia was totally obliterated and because the prophecy was general and not specific Crioesus took it to mean he would win the battle.

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If you compare this type of prophecy with Bible prophecy you find that instead of general prophecies you get pinpoint accuracy. In;

1 Kings 13: 1-3
Jeroboam was king of the ten northern tribes, which was called Israel, and this passage about what would happen was written about 950 BC. Verse 2 tells us a child is going to be born called Josiah and he came on the scene around 620 BC, 330 years after this prophecy was given. In;
2 Kings 23: 15-17
The men point to the tomb in verse 17 of the prophet who prophesised what would happen.

2 Kings 23: 18-20
We can see the Bible is pinpoint accurate. In;

Isaiah 44: 28
We have the name of a man who is to come. The year of the prophecy 740 BC and when did Cyrus come in 538 BC and what did he do look at?

2 Chronicles 36: 23
Ezra 1: 2-3
Bible prophecy is accurate in every detail.