Readers of the thousands of websites and the bewildering array of books that deal with Bible prophecy and in particular with the signs that the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent find a number of approaches presented, commonly with much exaggeration of the evidence and a tendency to cite fragments of Scripture without reference to the context in which the words occur, or to interpret timescales in prophecy with complex reasoning and to revise that reasoning when endtime dates come around but the end of time does not arrive with them. The situation is confusing and gives much weight to the way of thinking predicted by Peter in his second letter…
Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. [2 Peter 3:4]
The most common approach is to cite as signs the increasing wickedness of the world we live in, the substantial increase in the number of earthquakes, the occurrence of famines, the large numbers of wars in various parts of the globe, increasing numbers of false claimants to be Christ, freedom of travel and the increase in human knowledge and the advent of the cashless society - in other words the things Jesus himself forecast in his Olivet Prophecy [Matthew 24], compounded with bits of Daniel [e.g. Daniel 12:4], a lot of Revelation [E.g. Revelation 13:17] and quite a lot of fanciful thinking. People who write like this look for the coming of an Antichrist figure and place a lot of emphasis on something they call The Rapture. In their version of the endtime, the earth will be destroyed after the second coming of Christ. They do not speak of the return of Israel to the Promised Land except in connection with the actions of the Antichrist, an ultra-powerful conman who they believe will set up a kingdom in Jerusalem, with himself as its king, and persuade the Jews to accept him as their Messiah. In their view the nation of Israel has fallen out of covenant with God and been replaced in his plan and purpose by the Christian church, styled Spiritual Israel.
The second approach, the one adopted by endtime forecasters, seeks to gain followers by building up expectation of the return of the Lord Jesus in this or that year. So many, and so often ridiculous, have been the corrections to past failed forecasts that the prophetic timescales have become universally disregarded by those who look for assurance that a second coming is promised and will occur. In truth many students of prophecy in the protestant world have involved themselves in this study to some degree or other but few now bring their studies to the front of their teaching because of inevitable association with the spectacular foolishness of others.
Sadly the vast majority of humankind has no time for pondering these things at all, so this little paper can only speak to those who seek encouragement in Scripture and look for help to navigate their way into a reasonable understanding of what it promises. It is intended to present a third approach – to look for the obvious primary meanings of prophecies and take them at face value. This has much to recommend it since it is unreasonable to suggest that God caused the words to be written without purpose, or for that matter, that he would have caused prophecy to include timing information if it is worthless.
We have to begin by setting aside the other two approaches and the second is easier than the first. We have already said that God is unlikely to have built timing details into the writings of the prophets with no purpose, so the timings must have a use, but is it to indicate the day on which the Lord Jesus will return? Look at this…
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. [Mark 13:32]
When the Lord Jesus said this, the prophecy of Daniel, the great source of timing information, was freely available. Jesus knew he was to return to rule the earth in righteousness; in fact he was responding to a question from his disciples as to when it would happen, and yet he did not know when it would be. So the time is not directly extractable from the prophecy at all. Bear in mind that Israel had been buzzing with expectation of the coming of Messiah when Jesus was born because of the prophecy, commonly called the 70-weeks prophecy, that Daniel received from the angel Gabriel [Daniel 9:24-27] but Israel did not know the exact time. It seems that timing in prophecy is there to raise expectation in those who look with longing for the fulfilment of the purpose of God but not to pin things down to a day – the parable of the wise and foolish virgins should be our guide in these matters – none of these girls knew when the bridegroom would come, only that they had been invited to the wedding and it would be soon. All of them slept but the wise had thoroughly prepared themselves and were able to jump up and set off at a moment’s notice. So it was among the faithful when Jesus was born [See Simeon and Anna and the infant Jesus - Luke 2:25-38], and so it should be among the faithful today.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weekss: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. [Daniel 9:24-27]
Notice a couple of things in the Daniel passage...
The first is that the prophecy is split into two promises. Promise one, contained in verse 24 will take seventy weeks and will end in complete holiness. It is obviously the primary focus of Gabriel’s message because God’s whole purpose is to fill the earth with his glory [Numbers 14:21]. The second promise occupies verses 25-27 and ends in total desolation. It also takes seventy weeks but they are split into seven weeks, sixty-two weeks and a final week, in the middle of which Messiah will be killed.
The second thing to notice is that the word rendered weeks here is actually just the Aramaic word for seven and indicates time measured in groups of seven. [Daniel 2:1 to 7:28 is in Aramaic; the first and the last three chapters are in Hebrew] It is always treated as weeks, or sevens, of years and this is in accord with the Jewish sacred calendar – every seventh year the land was required to lie fallow, without crops, the Sabbatical year system. Sixty-nine [7+62] sevens are 483 years, after which Messiah would appear, but the start date is not known for sure - the phrasing of the bit about the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem is not well enough defined and the prophecy doesn’t actually say how old Messiah would be when he appeared in Israel to do his work. It does say that he would be killed halfway through the last seven, so his ministry was to be three and a half years followed by another three and a half years of confirming the covenant – it’s too complicated to explain here but the time from the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus to the baptism of the Gentile Cornelius was three and a half years – Jews and Gentiles united in faith in the name of Christ Jesus – God’s covenant with Abraham, that all nations would be blessed in his seed, given an initial fulfilment.
The longer prophecy of verse 24, the one that ends in permanent righteousness with the holy of holies anointed, which surely refers to conditions at the end of the Millennium reign of Christ…
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. [Revelation 21:3]
…requires a much longer time. The Jewish sacred calendar had another regulation based on sevens - every seventh sabbatical year was declared to be a year of Jubilee and all lands sold during the preceding 49 years were to be handed back to their original owners, free of charge, on the first day of the fiftieth year. So the promise of verse 24 must be timed at 70x7x7 or 3430 years, although when it started is only hinted at. One thing can be said however, if 3430 is used as a test number against significant dates in the history of Israel it yields very interesting results – For example: we know that Daniel was given the prophecy because he prayed for the release of his nation from captivity and their return to the Promised Land – the land being restored to its owners as if in a Jubilee. The jubilee system began when Joshua divided the land to the nation by lot at the conclusion of the conquest following the Exodus. That was about 1480BC and 3430 years later was 1950 which for a system based on the jubilee cycle of regaining possession of God-given land is remarkably close to 1948 when the state of Israel was proclaimed. We have no way of being day-precise in this, but anticipation after WWII that some great sign from God was on its way was widely felt among students of prophecy – hope in the purpose of God rose and encouraged many believers and that is what prophecy is for.
So do not discount the idea that God lets his servants know when he is about to act by way of the messages of his prophets, just be wary of those who tell you they have it completely worked out.
The first approach to convincing people they are in the endtime and that the return of Jesus is imminent ["and so you should join our church!!!"] – the one that seeks to demonstrate that the earth is in the condition spoken of by Jesus on Olivet, by Daniel and by Revelation - falls out of believability for a lot of reasons but we only really need to deal with a few to get a measure of the value of their ideas.
The first is the level of exaggeration they use. All these authors claim there has been a big increase in the numbers of earthquakes, particularly devastating earthquakes, in recent years. Let’s be absolutely blunt about this: there is no discernible increase in the frequency of earthquakes, or of big, destructive earthquakes in recent years. The little table below is hand extracted from the search engine of the United States Geological Survey website - anyone can do it, just go to http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/ and enter the dates you want to search. The table ignores smaller earthquakes [below 6.0 on the Richter scale] because a huge increase in the number of seismic survey stations worldwide in the recent past means that more small quakes are now detected than would have been in the past – the USGS advises against comparisons at the low energy end of the scale.
|
Magnitude
|
1990
|
1991
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
|
6.0-6.9
|
109 | 96 | 166 | 137 | 146 | 183 | 149 |
|
7.0-7.9
|
18 | 16 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 18 | 14 |
|
8.0-8.9
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Magnitude | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| 6.0-6.9 | 120 | 117 | 116 | 158 | 126 | 130 | 140 |
| 7.0-7.9 | 16 | 11 | 18 | 14 | 15 | 13 | 14 |
| 8.0-8.9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Magnitude | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
| 6.0-6.9 | 141 | 140 | 142 | 173 | 168 | 144 | 151 |
| 7.0-7.9 | 14 | 10 | 9 | 14 | 12 | 16 | 23 |
| 8.0-8.9 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
|
Magnitude
|
2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | ||
| 6.0-6.9 | 185 | 108 | 124 | 144 | 36 | ||
|
7.0-7.9
|
19 | 12 | 17 | 11 | 4 | ||
|
8.0-8.9
|
1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
2015 numbers are to Midnight on 3rd May 2015
These numbers are not given to persuade you that the return of the Lord Jesus cannot be near - because one of the signs he gave to herald his return is not visible. Far from it: this little paper will shortly turn to real signs that the return of the Lord cannot be long delayed. Our point here is that people who need to stretch statistics beyond either truth or reason are not the best guides to our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and God his Father.
The second aspect of the way these authors present their case is their idea that the earth will be destroyed at some point after the return of the Lord Jesus. In saying this, they are setting aside something rather important that God himself said. It’s in the aftermath of the report from the spies sent to survey the Promised Land, when the people’s lack of faith resulted in an attempt to stone the two faithful spies Caleb and Joshua. As a result God kept them in the wilderness until a total of 40 years had elapsed from the Exodus so that everyone aged over 20 at the time of the incident, except Caleb and Joshua, died there, and their children inherited the land. Moses pleaded with God to forgive the people and God replied that he had…
But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. [Numbers 14:21]
God swore an oath on the basis of his own existence that this earth will be filled with his glory. All other passages of Scripture that seem to be concerned with the continuation of the earth must be understood against this background because God is incapable of lying [See, for example Titus 1:2]. All the promises of God depend upon this oath – what is the point of God promising Abraham that he would possess the Holy Land forever if there is to be no earth anyway? Or what would be the point of God promising David that his own descendant, someone born after David’s own death, would sit upon his throne forever? [2 Samuel 7:12:14]
The verses these authors use to show that the earth is to be destroyed are not at odds with the overriding oath in the wilderness – a big favourite is the passage in 2 Peter 3 that we cited a snippet from at the beginning of this paper: here it is…
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. [2 Peter 3:3-14]
Peter’s simple argument is – when the last days arrive people will scoff at the whole idea that Christ will come back and deliberately reject the lessons from the flood in which the whole earth was covered with water destroying everything human on it. The earth itself was not destroyed, it was wiped clean of the institutions of human civilization. After the flood, of course, humankind spread across the earth from the eight people in the ark and human institutions started up again. So what Peter calls the heavens and earth that are now is exactly analogous to what was destroyed by the flood – God removed all human civilization from the earth and replaced it with his own choice of people. Peter warns that God intends to carry out the same process again; human control of the earth, and with it that majority of humankind that dismisses God as irrelevant, will be removed again and replaced with God’s choice of people – the setting up of the Kingdom of God. The earth itself will never be destroyed; God has sworn that it will be filled with his glory. In his great claim to be the only source of power that exists – his great denunciation of the very possibility of a personal devil or any other supernatural agency – Isaiah 45, God said this of the earth on which we live…
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. [Isaiah 45:18]
We haven’t got the space to go into the idea of a wicked Antichrist who makes himself King of the Jews or a Rapture that removes the faithful from the earth to some better place; suffice it to say that they are no more based in Scripture than the idea that the earth will be destroyed. We need to move on to real signs of the times.
A constant difficulty for those who look for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ is the fact that the course of history leading up to his return is long and, with the years, big events lose their initial power to thrill. For someone living in the immediate aftermath of WWII, the return of the Jews to the land God promised to their fathers, and the proclamation of the state of Israel, was an event of enormous significance. It had been understood and taught by students of prophecy for centuries beforehand that the Jews would return to their land in unbelief [Ezekiel 36 is very clear on this. See Joseph Mede, Grattan Guinness, Dr John Thomas and many others], and many looked for this great sign in the first few decades of the twentieth century because of the 70-weeks prophecy – remember the difficulty of being precise in the interpretation of prophetic timescales. When these things happened, the excitement among Christians was enormous. But that’s almost 70 years ago now and the existence of the state of Israel is no longer a miracle for most people – it’s been there all their lives. Similarly the ability of the Israelis to defeat apparently overwhelming enemies in the 6-day war of June 1967, and in the Yom Kippur war of October 1973 are things you read about in old newspapers and no longer have the impact they once had. This is the long wait for the bridegroom during which both wise and foolish virgins sleep, but only the wise continue to stock up on oil for their lamps. So what signs should we be looking for to lift our faith? Try this…
Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? 3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4 For the day of vengeance [is] in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. 6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. 7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. [Isaiah 63:1-7]
This is a simple prophecy of an event still future in which a single individual will act to redeem the house of Israel. After it is done, they will ask Who’s this? He’s come from Bozrah and his garments are covered in blood. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ and the unbelieving Israelis will not know him. He will reply by teaching them of the loving kindness of their God. Please don’t do what people normally do with this passage and look for a Spiritual Israel version; read it and take it at its face value. We have to do this because it fits in perfectly with a host of other prophecies in which the Israelis are rescued from a disaster [See Zechariah 14, for example]. The piece of information you should notice in particular however, is verse 5…
And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold:
The Israelis will have no supporters at all – where are the Americans with their global superpower status, where are the French or the British? There will be no one to help. This is just the state of affairs that is growing day by day. Rockets fly from Gaza and the frustrated Israelis use an iron fist to try to stop them. They build a great wall to try to stop Palestinian access to the land and everywhere people suffer. Throughout the earth the Israelis have become seen as the villains and the Palestinians the poor downtrodden victims. This paper is not a call to correct that impression, nor is it a defence of the Israelis, what matters here is that support for Israel is diminishing everywhere and opposition to them grows day by day.
Now look at this passage…
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. [Isaiah 17:1]
You may not know it but Damascus is the oldest continuously-inhabited place on earth, so this description of it ceasing to be a city is very significant. To the best of our knowledge there is no record of it having been reduced to ruins at any time and, significantly, it did not happen in the time of Hezekiah, King of Israel, during whose reign Isaiah wrote, and who was the central character of the prophecy. Bible students have long spoken of Hezekiah as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the parallel being so complete that prophecies which Isaiah applied to Hezekiah all have a second fulfilment in Messiah himself. The Jewish commentators observed the same parallel [obviously not being willing to recognize Jesus as their Messiah]. The prophecy quoted above however, had no fulfilment in Hezekiah’s time or at any time near it. The citizens and rulers of Damascus capitulated quickly when surrounded by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans so that there was never any reason to reduce the place to ruins. Isaiah 17:1 is, therefore, a prophecy only of the end of human rule over the earth. Now add to this the fact that the Islamic State [ISIL or ISIS] has taken control of the Yarmouk district of western Damascus as of 2nd April this year [Search for ‘ISIL in Damascus’ on the web] and think about the level of destruction fighting between the Assad regime and rebel groups has brought to other Syrian cities. Or, considering the closeness of Damascus to the Golan Heights, think what desperate Israelis might be pushed into doing if ISIL gains control of the city.
Let’s sum this all up. Israel is rapidly moving into a situation where no one will be willing to help them and is becoming more and more liable to attack by organizations with unlimited willingness to commit atrocities. The point where Israel becomes unable to defend itself and has no friendly support at all is the point when the Lord will return. The signs are clear; the time is near. Watch Israel and wait patiently for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.