Which of the prophetic signs are converging?
Nathan Jones: We at Lamb & Lion Ministries are very passionate about the soon return of Jesus Christ. We study that 31% of the Bible that’s called Eschatology, meaning “the study of the end times.” Sharing our passion is Dr. Allan Walker of Allen Walker Ministries. He’s an expert on how to teach the Bible as well as the martyrs from Church history.
Allan is going to help us answer this question concerning the converging of end times signs. But, first, let’s get a little about Dr. Walker’s background.
Allan Walker: About the time of the first Gulf War, I started traveling to local churches teaching Bible prophecy. Due to the war, there was a great focus on the Middle East and current events happening there. I carried around a large chart to help me explain it all.
Since that time, there’s continued to be a heightened interest in Bible prophecy. And so, I’ve condensed God’s plan for the ages down into a two-part presentation called “Bible Prophecy 101.” Dr. Scofield once said that a lot of people give up on Scripture because they don’t have a working knowledge of how it all fits together, but once we “harmonize the ages,” as another scholar once said, the Scriptures harmonize.
In doing so, the Bible map put out by Bible Believers Evangelistic Association divides all of Genesis to Revelation into seven distinct time periods in which God tasks mankind. Five of these time periods fall into the Old Testament leading up to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are now in the sixth time period, that being the Church Age. We are soon approaching the very end of the Church Age, and so the signs of the prophesied end times are all converging together showing us that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, while imminent, is very likely to occur very soon.
Converging Signs
Tim Moore: Christians are called to live expectantly for Christ’s return and to look out for all of those different signs to come to pass that Jesus talked about, as well as the prophets and the apostles. What exactly are some of those converging signs that the Bible tells us to be watching?
Allan Walker: Well, back in the days of my grandparents, an isolated war or famine or earthquake would break out here or there. But, today, we see the pattern of events increasing in frequency and intensity. Also, Israel has been restored in 1948 as a nation again, so most scholars refer to that miraculous event as “the super sign” of Bible prophecy.
Nathan Jones: After all, what nation comes back from the dead, right? It’s never happened, much less that nation being the primary nation of the Bible.
Allan Walker: Yes, absolutely! Israel’s rebirth is the number one reason why those who study Eschatology believe that we are now living in the last of the last days. On top of the sign of Israel, Russia has returned as a dominant military and political power, and allied with her Islamic allies could engage in the Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel 38-39. China has also been charging onto the world scene and growing as one of the Kings of the East in influence and power. The European Union has coalesced into an economic superpower that will one day give rise to the Antichrist.
To think that all of these patterns of events have just come about in the generation following World War Two, and they have continued to move in the prophetic direction for some 70 years now. To me, this phenomenon is just unanswerable, and yet it proves that the Bible is indeed the Word of God for the prophecies, when taken literally and not symbolically or figuratively, are coming to pass.
What is the greatest of the end times signs?
Tim Moore: To help us answer that question, we sought out Lamb & Lion Ministries’ founder, Dr. David Reagan. So, Dave, out of the convergence of end times signs, what would you say is the greatest sign that we are witnessing right now?
David Reagan: If I had to select an individual sign, I would say it has to do with the signs that relate to the nation of Israel because all of Bible prophecy focuses upon the nation of Israel. I call Israel “God’s Prophetic Time-clock” because the Bible says “this is going to happen in the end times when that happens to the Jews” and “that is going to happen when this happens to Jews,” and so on.
Even Jesus in His Olivet Discourse mentioned that we should be watching Jerusalem. Christ revealed that Jerusalem is going to be under the control of the Gentiles for a long time, but when Jerusalem is no longer under Gentile control, then that is when He will be coming back.
Tim Moore: Israel taking back control of Jerusalem in 1967 happened in my lifetime. The Six Day War, which occurred after the Jewish people had become a nation in 1948, resulted in Israel reclaiming the Old City. The Jews are now there to stay!
David Reagan: Yes, and the interesting thing about this monumentally prophetic event is that most churches are sound asleep about it. Instead of getting their people ready for the Lord’s return, they are teaching and preaching pop psychology. The number one question we seem to get at our ministry is: “I live in so-and-so place. Do you know if there’s a Bible-believing church in my area because they are so few and far between these days?”
The Orthodox Jews are expecting the Messiah at any moment because they know that their Scriptures say He’s coming when they’re back in the land and back in the city. So, the Orthodox are expecting the Messiah at any moment. But, they’re going to be quite surprised, not by His coming, but by who His identity is. That’s what’s going to surprise them!
Tim Moore: The Sanhedrin has actually been brought back into existence. Some members have begun dialoguing with Evangelical Christians asking what we believe concerning the coming Messiah. We really are on the cusp of a breakthrough of faith within the Jewish culture.
David Reagan: The Orthodox Jews in Israel are doing everything they can to prepare for the Messiah. They’re getting everything together for the Temple. They’re training up the priests. They really believe the Messiah is coming soon.
Preparing For The Messiah
Nathan Jones: What exactly have the Orthodox rabbis been doing to prepare for the coming of the Messiah?
David Reagan: When it comes to the formation of the Sanhedrin, in the past, they had tried several times before but it just didn’t click, but now they’ve got it running. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has been making all of the clothes for the priests, including the high priest’s robes. The shield that he wears in the front with the various ornate jewels on it and his crown are both ready. The Temple Institute has also built the Table of Showbread. They’ve placed the Menorah on display by the Western Wall. It cost about a million dollars. It’s a huge candlestick made out of gold.
Tim Moore: I found out recently that the candlestick was paid for by just one very wealthy Ukrainian Jew. So, even as we see Ukraine in the news today, it was a Ukrainian Jew and a leader of a Jewish community there who paid for the menorah to be designed.
David Reagan: One of Israel’s religious leaders has said that when they finally get the signal to go and rebuild the Temple, they can put up a temporary temple within about four hours. They have that ready to go. The temporary temple is going to be much like the Tabernacle of Moses, which was a tent temple, and then start building the real Temple around it. And, the priests are going to immediately begin to offer sacrifices.
Nathan Jones: What do you think will be the prophetic event that will allow the Jewish people back on the Temple Mount without concern of Islamic retribution?
David Reagan: It’s only speculation that I can give you, because I don’t know, but I’ve been writing a book about the nine wars of the end times, and one of the things about the Gog and Magog War that jumped off the page at me is it says that when the Russians and all of its allies come against Israel, the mountains of Israel will shake. God will destroy the Gog-Magog invaders in a number of certain ways, but the main method will be God using a gigantic earthquake. Ezekiel 38-39 says point-blank that this prophetic earthquake will level every wall in Israel. Because of this, I think that this earthquake is going to collapse the Dome of the Rock. Then, when the Antichrist comes to make his agreement with Israel, then the Jews will find it to be the right time to start rebuilding their Temple.
No comments:
Post a Comment