Saturday, June 20, 2009

The "other signs" also marching along towards the end

We've all been so focused on Iran, Russia and Israel as moving towards the inevitable prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39, and the recent developments involving North Korea, we may forget that the other signs noted by Jesus in Matthew 24 are also progressing towards the end.

Jesus stated that one of the noteworthy signs during this last generation would be famine. For a variety of factors, the data reveals that famine has been getting progressively more severe over the past few years, resulting from drought, flooding, ethnic warfare leading to massive refugees throughout the world, and now the economic crisis. Today, two articles are stating that the "global crisis" has led to one billion people experiencing famine - the largest numbers ever reported in human history.

"World hunger hits one billion"

Then we watch developments within the EU. As stated many times in the past, currently, the EU rotates its presidency every six months. Once the Lisbon Treaty ratification process is finalized, things will change. Not only will a "Permant President" be placed in office, but the Foreign Policy position will be dramatically strengthened - so there will be two key positions within the EU with potential prophetic significance.

There are only four remaining countries who need to formally ratify the Lisbon Treaty for these changes to take place. However of the four remaining countries to ratify, three of them (Germany, Poland and Czech Republic) have already "approved" the treaty and ratification will be perfunctory. That leaves only Ireland - considered as the last "roadblock" to full ratification.

We now see that Ireland has reached a compromise with the EU (read here), and now Ireland is ready to come on board with the EU formally. This is highly significant because the EU will finally have a permanent president and a foreign policy head, both of whom will hold significant power.

We know from Daniel 9 that a leader from the revived Roman Empire will finalize and "confirm" a peace deal in the Middle-East - a peace deal that formally begins the Tribulation period. In my opinion, both of these positions within the EU, the President and the Foreign Policy head would have enough power to confirm the peace deal called for in Daniel 9. Thus, Ireland coming on board and essentially finalizing the Lisbon Treaty is HIGHLY significant. For a country-by-country review of Lisbon status read here.

It is amazing to me how every single prophetic sign given to this generation is present - War, rumors of war, famine, earthquakes, pestilences, nuclear technology which can destroy huge parts of the world, the revival of the Roman Empire, Jerusalem as the world's focus, Israel re-gathered and surrounded by enemies, the alliance between Iran and Russia, this alliance threatening Israel, nuclear proliferation among terrorist states, the rise of China as a world power, the decline of America, the growth of the EU and Med Union, the Lisbon Treaty, dramatic advances in travel and knowledge, and on and on the list goes. Every sign is currently present and accounted for AND progressing rapidly.

The signs are all here. Previous generations ignored prophecy. A quick read of the book of Jeremiah will confirm this. Jesus lamented that even the generation that witnessed His miracles, refused to acknowledge who He was as He walked the earth. Jesus called them hypocrits for not understanding the "signs" of His day - signs that clearly pointed to Jesus as Messiah.

We have more signs regarding our times than any other generation living in a prophetic era. There are no excuses. There are thousands of books and articles describing end-times prophecy. The information is readily available, and the signs confirming prophecy for our age - prophecy which reveals that the return of Christ Jesus is imminent.

Jesus is coming. He said so. He gave us the signs and these signs - without exception are ALL present and accounted for. These signs are also progressing in the exact manner which Jesus described - like birth pains. We are also reaching the very end of the generation described by Jesus in Matthew 24.

Are you ready?


David said...

If all the signs are present, what is suppose to happen next? War, anti-Christ, rapture, tribulation, persecution, one world church, one world government, or some combo of these?

Scott said...

That gets into the sequence of events - which, in my opinion involves a certian degree of speculation.

In my opinion - what we know for sure is that the Rapture occurs prior to the Tribulation. There could be war prior to this - similar to the many conflicts previously in Israel. I believe we will continue to see persecution continuing into the Trib.

The BEST book which details the sequence of events is Arnold fruchtenbaum's "Footsteps of the Messiah". I highly recommend this.

I believe the sequence is this (as much as we can determine):

- EU and its expansion (now Med Union) continues
- Development of "10 Kings" from the EU/Med Union (expansion)
- Rise of AntiChrist from EU (aka "revived roman empire")
- AntiChrist 'confirms' covenant in M-E. --> Tribulation starts.

WILD CARDS (relative timing unknown):

- Gog-MaGog (I believe happens before Trib., but after Rapture...This is total speculation)
- Rapture (again, I believe before the Tribulation)
- Destruction of Damascus (Isa 17).

Thats how I see things anyway