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William Blake (1757-1827)
To the tune “Jerusalem”
And did those
feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land. |
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Luke 21:10,11.
Then Yahshua said to them, “Nation will rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11.
there will be great earthquakes, and in
various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and
great signs from heaven.”
Luke 1:15
For he shall be great before Yahweh, and wine
and strong drink he shall by no means drink, and he shall be filled with
the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb; 16
and many of the sons of Israel shall he turn to Yahweh their Elohim;
17 and he shall go before him in the
spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to children, and
the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for Yahweh a
people prepared.
2 Kings 24:11.
And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants
were besieging it; 12. and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up
to the king of Babylon, himself, and his mother, and his servants, and his
princes, and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner
in the eighth year of his reign, 13. and carried off all the treasures
of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in
pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon
king of Israel had made, as Yahweh had foretold. 14. He carried away all
Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, ten
thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained,
except the poorest people of the land. 15. And he carried away
Jehoiachin to Babylon; the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials,
and the chief men of the land, he took into captivity from Jerusalem to
Babylon. 16. And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the
men of valor, seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths, one
thousand, all of them strong and fit for war. 17. And the king of
Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his stead, and changed
his name to Zedekiah.
Psalms 152,
A Psalm of David (Orthodox Canon) 1. Eli! Eli! O help me! Aid me!
Rescue me! Save me from these assassins! Will I fall down to Sheol
because of the lion’s mouth, or will the monster merely maim me? 3. Is it
not enough that they feast on father’s flocks? They crave my flesh as
well! 4. O Yah, spare me! Deliver your holy one from destruction so he
can yet praise you all his days and glorify your magnificent name. 5.
When you have saved him from the mouths of vicious wolves, when you have
rescued him from the maws of beasts, he will magnify you.
6. Quickly, Master, send the Redeemer to raise me up from this gaping
pit, which yearns to enclose me in its black depths. (JSB)
Revelation 1:19.
“Write therefore the things that thou sawest,
and the things that are, and those that shall be after.”
This is the fifth in the series of messages I call
“The Seeing Generation”; that is, the generation that would “not
pass away till all has taken place” (Luke 21:32). In the third and
fourth installments, I outlined the Bible plan for how members of the
seeing generation are to conduct their lives.
In the second installment, I showed you, if there
were a false prophet or antichrist preaching in our generation,
just exactly who that might be.
In the first installment, I outlined two of the
greatest Biblical prophecies that’ve come to pass in our lifetimes,
showing you just how we are to Yahshua’s Millennial rule.
(If you’d like a
review of the last four installments, you may have a tape or transcript.)
But the most important point of all, you may remember, is that six
thousand years has passed, and that we’ve counted these years, and that
the “seventh prophetic day” is now upon us. The seventh day is the
Millennium of peace. We should keep this fact in mind and stay awake and
in the light.
In this and future installments, I’ll call your
attention to Bible prophecies that may have been fulfilled in our
lifetime – or may be just coincidences. My hope is to convince you
to walk the walk of the Millennium now, whether you perceive the new thing
it or not (Isaiah 42:8).
(This evening we’ll identify the beasts of
Revelation 13, and next week we’ll look at some more prophetic
coincidences.)
Wars But now, turn to:
Luke 21:10,11. Then
Yahshua said to them, “Nation will rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11.
there will be great earthquakes, and in
various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and
great signs from heaven.”
The Messiah predicts a multiplicity of wars,
earthquakes, famines, diseases and terrors coming out of the skies, with
great signs. Let’s take the first sign – wars – and reconsider what the
seeing generation has experienced.
There’s never been a century like the 20th.
At its beginning, the 20th was hailed as “the Christian
Century” – the century in which biblical values would surely penetrate the
political establishments of the world, and through reasoned conversation,
all war might cease; that peace would arise through the efforts of
dedicated individuals, and that all powers might conscientiously
decide to
“beat
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: that
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4,5).
But despite all good intentions, it was the
bloodiest of the nineteen previous centuries put together. All the
nations rose up for world war that yet continues in our day. In
World Wars I & II alone, there were over 70 million casualties
among armed forces. This figure diesn’t include civilians, such as death
camp victims, nor those who died from any of the myriad regional wars in
between,[i]
nor those who succumbed to disease, starvation or the natural deprivations
of war. Over 70 million soldiers dead!
The casualty count in twentieth century wars is
greater than
half the population of the earth on the
day Yahshua predicted war.
Though wars have been waged since people lived in caves, there’s not been
a bloodier century than that which was deemed “the Christian Century,”
Revelation 14:20.
And blood came out of the winepress, even unto
the horse’s bridles.
The Sixth Trumpet
Next, consider the word of the sixth angel:
Revelation 9 (excerpts) 13. He/she
blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the … golden altar before
Yahweh, 14. saying to the sixth angel …, “Release the four angels who
are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15. So the four angels were
released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and
the year, to kill a third of mankind.
(How so? How might a third of mankind be killed?) 16. The …
troops of cavalry was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their
number. (That represents 200 million troops
of cavalry. The consequences?) 18. … a third of mankind was
killed, by fire, smoke and sulphur ….
(That’s what we call gunpowder. And what of the survivors?) 20.
The rest … did not repent … nor give up worshiping demons … 21. nor …
repent of their murders, sorceries, immorality or thefts.
(Ellipses {…} are for brevity
of speaking. Please study the entire passage.)
Again, the number of troops counted by the
Revelator was equal to the entire population of the earth in the first
century; world population then was a little more that two hundred
million. John envisioned a time far into the future, a time
like ours, when 33 times that number of people dwell – almost 6.5
billion.
Think.
Seventy million uniformed casualties in the world wars of the
twentieth century is exactly one third of all mankind in John’s
day. “Kill a third of mankind,” the angel of destruction commanded! Yet
no one in this “Christian Century” repented, despite the great
signs of bombs falling from the skies – and life goes on today with nearly
100 wars being waged in diverse places, and 25 nations seeking weapons of
mass destruction. In fact, everyone is at war with a common and very
demonic enemy – a worldwide terror network, that’s homicidal adherents
follow the false prophet of Revelation 16:13.
Hello,
There were 19 major armed
conflicts in 2003. See Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
“Yearbook 2004, Armaments, Disarmament and International Security,” page
10, 2004
http://editors.sipri.se/pubs/yb04/pr04.pdf
Of course there are many more
small conflicts raging around the world. The above document is a good
resource. Good luck!
Gilda Wheeler, Program
Director
Facing the Future: People and
the Planet
811 First Avenue, Suite 454,
Seattle, WA 98104
ph 206.264.1503 fax
206.264.1506
gilda@facingthefuture.org
www.facingthefuture.org
global issues education
and action opportunities to shape our future
Are the predictions of the Bible about a
warmongering world coincidental to our world, or is Yahshua Messiah
drawing near, even entering through the gates?
(See my essay,
This Means War! in
Revelation Uncloaked,1999) We pray with the prophet, “Maran
atha! Our Master is coming soon to bring peace and equitable
justice!” Hallelujah! Amen.
Now the United States and a small coalition of
other powers are fighting the terror network in Iraq. Iraq and its mighty
river Euphrates figures very prominently in end-times prophecy. We
find the sixth angel of the Revelation standing over the Euphrates river
during the uncertain days of world war. The Revelator relates:
Revelation 16:12.
The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great
river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the
kings from the east.
Before the angel pours his “bowl of dryness,”
he/she/it declares, “Release the four angels
who are bound at the great river Euphrates”
(Revelation 9:14). These four
angels wreak havoc on the earth and stir up nations to fight. They’re
either going forth in our day, or this is another great coincidence.
The Euphrates River runs through modern-day Iraq,
and has been “dried up” many times over the centuries to let armies
through; and armies are crossing the Euphrates right now –
a sign of the times. In 2003, I watched the troops cross the
Euphrates on their way to Baghdad from east to west, crowned ambassadors
of war send from the Kings of the East. American soldiers, and not
a few.
Let me offer you a journal entry written by
Capt. Eric Lombardini, who served on the front lines of the advance
toward Baghdad. He’s inside the dry bed of the Euphrates River
with his military unit. In his journal, he refers to the
Ziggurat of Ur, modeled after the Tower of Babel
(Genesis 10:8-10). I might add
that Ur is the place from which Abraham sojourned
(Genesis 11:31). Captain
Lombardini is right there – and writes:
 I
am located just next to the Ziggurat of Ur, a structure built 2,300 years
before the birth of Christ. [It’s] Daunting to see this massive pyramid,
which can only evoke awe. In its shadow are the foundation of a palace
and a huge necropolis … a city dedicated to the dead. And as you walk
through its cavernous length, you look down at the bones and shards of
pottery sticking out through the sand. The Euphrates had once flowed over
this area, but the passing millennia changed its course, leaving only
evidence of its waters in the shells which stud the ground, acting as …
jewelry to the … dead.
This journal entry reminded me again of the
prophetic word of Yahweh spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 51:35-37
(excerpts). Thus says Yahweh: “… I will dry up
her sea and make her fountain dry; and Babylon shall become a heap of
ruins, the haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing …”
Captain Lombardini and his coalition traversed across
the dried up Euphrates, past the pyramid of the moon goddess, on the way
to tear down the Babylon of old, so ordered by the Kings of the earth.
O! What a coincidence this is!
Babylon 1
Babylon was the ancient foe of the whole biblical
world; we read about her king, Nebuchadnezzar, and his conquest of Judea
starting at 2 Kings 24.
Nebuchadnezzar carried off all the economically viable people, killing the
nobility and leaving the common rabble behind. About 600 years before
Messiah, Yahweh was doing a great deal of speaking through his prophets,
predicting Babylon’s great fall. Isaiah was of that seeing
generation. Consider his dramatic prophecy from:
Isaiah 21:8.
He who
saw cried: “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Yahweh, continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed whole nights. 9. And, behold, here come
riders, horsemen in pairs!” And [Yahweh] answered, “Fallen,
fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods he has shattered to the
ground.”
Jeremiah was also in that seeing generation,
crying,
Jeremiah
51:47. “Behold,
the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon; her whole
land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of
her. 48. Then the heavens and the
earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the
destroyers shall come against them out of the north, says Yahweh.
49. Babylon must fall for the slain of
Israel, as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.”
The fall of Babylon never fully came to pass. The
prophet of the New Testament, John the Divine, knows this: for, if
we take him literally, he predicts Babylon’s fall as a
future occurrence:
Revelation 14:6.
Then I saw [an] angel flying in midheaven,
with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every
nation and tribe and tongue and people; 7.
and he said with a loud voice, “Fear
Yahweh and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come …”
8. A second angel followed, saying,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great,
she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion.”
During the course of salvation history, false
worship and anti-Yahwist practices originated in Babylon and were
perpetrated there for the last six thousand years. And Babylonish
practices are still common in the Christian Church today – too many to
cite here. If there was any doubt about when Babylon was to fall, there’s
no doubt now. At least one Babylon has fallen and is being rebuilt – that
Babylon is Iraq. What a prophetic coincidence!
Babylon 2
But there’s another, far newer Babylon that
recently fell, and the fall of the new was instrumental in the felling of
the ancient Babylon. Consider three clips of prophecy:
Isaiah 13:19-22.
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms … will be
like Sodom and Gomorrah when Elohim overthrew them. … Wild beasts
will lie down there, and its houses will be full of howling creatures ….
Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant
palaces.
We remember that Sodom was destroyed for the
wickedness of its governors by fire that fell from heaven. The seeing
generation has witnessed fire fall upon Babylon. Hyenas are
crying from the shattered palaces; many houses are full of howling
creatures, human and otherwise.
The fall of Babylon will mark a new day for the
people of Israel – people who’ve continually been threatened by Babylonian
kings. Isaiah goes on to speak of them:
Isaiah 30:19-25
(excerpts). O people in Zion … you shall weep
no more. [Yahweh] will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your
cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. … Your ears shall hear a word
behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” … In that day your
cattle … will eat salted hay … And upon every … hill there will be
brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter,
when the towers fall.
Did you notice how this wonderful word took a
180-degree turn at the end? All will prosper, says the prophet, when
the towers of Babylon fall.
One website is devoted to letting young people
write up their remembrances of 9-11.
A young lady wrote:
“I
was still a grade 11 student …. Many of us had no idea what had happened
until … the principal came onto the PA …. The principal told everyone to
… listen carefully. He says, “People have been going home due to what has
happened … today. Please note that if you leave school grounds, you will
be suspended ….” Everyone was asking the teacher what [the principal was]
talking about, and she suddenly replied, ‘Apparently terrorists flew
planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.’ … At first people were
like, ‘What is the World Trade Center?’ and then she replied with the 3
words that still ring in my head to this day – [she said] ‘The Twin
Towers.’”
Yes, when we hear the word “fall” in Bible
prophecy, our minds automatically fall upon Babylon, especially
through the Jeremiads; Jeremiah likewise prophesied the word of Yahweh,
that:
Jeremiah 51:49.
Babylon must fall …. Though Babylon should
mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height,
yet destroyers would come … upon her, says Yahweh.
Like the eleventh grader, when we think of the
heights of Babylon and their falling, we remember 9-11 – the falling of
great towers and the thousands of casualties from among all the peoples of
earth, may they rest in peace. We still know very little about “The World
Trade Center” – but a lot about “The Twin Towers.”
Two Babylons Fallen!
A local fellow came to the parsonage this week,
and he began to talk about the World Trade Center – it’s function in the
buying and selling of world goods. “Babylon is fallen,” he said. “That’s
in Revelations.” I corrected him, “You mean Revelation, not
Revelations.” “Yeah,” he said. “But Babylon’s all about merchandising.”
I replied, “That’s right. Let’s find the passage you quoted.” Then we
got on the computer Bible and brought up Revelation 18.
Revelation 18:2.
And [an angel] called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of
demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, of every foul and hateful bird. 4.
Then I heard another voice … saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you
take part in her sins, 8. so shall her plagues come in a single day,
pestilence and mourning and famine, and she shall be burned with fire;
for mighty is Yahweh Elohim who judges her.” 11. And the merchants of
the earth weep … for her, since no one buys their cargo … 12. … of gold,
silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds
of scented wood, … ivory, … costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, 13.
cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour and
wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and … human souls. 15. The
merchants … who gained wealth from her, will stand far off …, weeping and
mourning aloud, [saying] 17. “In one hour all this wealth has been
laid waste.”
Of course, this fellow and me thought of
similarities between this falling Babylon and the World Trade Center
catastrophe. This Babylon of scripture is all about high towers and trade
agreements. And when its towers fell, who was most distressed? Why,
merchants, of course.
What offices were in the World Trade Center? There were hundreds of
merchants offices, what do you suppose? Gold,
silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, scented wood,
ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron, marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh,
frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses,
chariots – and human souls.
What an incredible coincidence? The literal and
the figurative Babylons both falling within a couple years – connected
in our minds with history – and closely related to predictions made
thousands of years ago about the return of Yahshua Messiah, King of
Kings. I wonder, what coincidence will next occur? What serendipitous
scenario will next unfold?
“Nation will rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
there will be great earthquakes, and in
various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and
great signs from heaven.”
In this generation of daily catastrophe and hourly
miracle, is it so hard to believe that your Savior is near? No it’s not.
What’s hard to believe is that so many simply say, “What a coincidence,”
then go about their business; their business of –
Matthew 24:38-44
(excerpts) eating, drinking, marrying until
the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the
Son of man be. Two shall be in the field; one shall be taken away,
the other left. Two shall be grinding at the mill; one shall be taken
away, the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your
Lord doth come. But know this, if the good man had known what hour the
thief would come, he would have watched. Therefore be ye also ready.
Scripture Checkoff
[ ] Luke 1:15. “For
he shall be great before Yahweh.”
[ ] 2 Kings 24:11.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city.
[ ] Revelation
1:19. “Write what you saw, what is, and what shall follow.”
[ ] Luke 21:10.
“Nation will rise against nation.”
[ ] Isaiah 2:5.
“Neither shall they learn war any more.”
[ ] Revelation
14:20. Blood came out of the winepress.
[ ] Revelation 9:14.
“Release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.”
[ ] Revelation
16:12. The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates.
[ ] Jeremiah 51: 37.
“Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, the haunt of jackals.”
[ ] Isaiah 21:9.
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods he has
shattered.”
[ ] Jeremiah 51:49. “Babylon must fall
for the slain of Israel.”
[ ] Revelation
14:8. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.”
[ ] Isaiah 13:22.
“Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant
palaces.”
[ ] Isaiah 30:25 “in
the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.”
[ ] Revelation 18:2.
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
[ ] Revelation 18:4.
“Come out of her, my people! She shall be burned.”
[ ] Revelation
18:12. “Gold, silver, jewels, pearls, linen, purple, silk, scarlet.”
[ ] Revelation
18:17. “In one hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”
[ ] Matthew 24:44.
“Be ye ready.”
[i]
Such as the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, or those involving powers like
the Soviet Union and China
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