2011 and Counting..." (part 2)

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Eileen West
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1 ST. BARTHOLOMEW S ANGLICAN CHURCH IN THE TOWN OF TONAWANDA The Rev. Fr. Arthur W. Ward, Jr. + Rector Scripture: Various 2011 and Counting..." (part 2) WATCH AND BE READY! For those of you who weren t here last Sunday we are doing a series on the signs of Christ s Return; specifically looking at those signs that have already been fulfilled and those events that are setting our world up for other signs to soon be revealed. Jesus told us to watch and be ready. We are to look forward to His Return for that will mean our complete salvation and the establishment of His Kingdom upon mankind once and for all. While God warns us that everything we do falls under His judgment (ie. we are accountable to Him), we do not know the day or the hour of Christ s Return or the end of the world. But it shouldn t surprise us that there are those who think they know the mind of God. Jesus warned us against such false teachers and prophets. THE END OF THE WORLD DOOMSDAYERS ARE AT IT AGAIN! In fact, throughout history there have been false prophets who have proclaimed the end of the world. They are clearly false for their predictions never came true. During the time of Moses, God decreed that the punishment for a false prophet was death by stoning. That is how serious God views such talk. Such predictions are arrogant, self-serving and of Satan. They come from outside of and from within the church. Charles T. Russell, the founder of the non-christian cult, Jehovah s Witnesses, predicted the end of the world in When it didn t happen in 1914, other dates were offered until finally the Jehovah Witnesses stopped setting dates. Seventy -five years earlier a Baptist pastor by the name of William Miller predicted Christ to return on October 22, That day became known as the Great Disappointment among his followers, some of whom went on to found the Seventh Day Adventist Church. In recent years, there have been equally absurd predictions, the most recent coming from Radio preacher Harold Camping. The former civil engineer and head of Family Radio Worldwide, originally predicted the rapture of believers to occur on September 6, 1994 but when that didn t happen he said he made a mathematical error. Now he calculates the rapture of believers and the tribulation to happen on May 21, 2011, and the end of the world to happen on October 21, 2011, which happens to be Fr. Ed Kusmierczyk s birthday Happy Birthday Fr. Ed! Camping s prediction is getting quite a bit of traction on the internet and other media outlets. His followers are going across the country to spread the message. One young woman, Allison Warden of Raleigh, North Carolina, who will be helping to get the word out said this, If May 21 passes and I m still here, that means I wasn t saved. Does that mean God s Word is inaccurate or untrue? Not at all. Can you see why this man is dangerous? What a shame that this young woman thinks that her salvation is based on a hypothetical date! But therein lies the problem. Harold Camping is a false teacher with a false gospel. In another article Camping is quoted as saying, Some people may claim they can tell you how to be saved, but we have learned 1

2 with great accuracy that nobody can show anyone how to be saved That, my friends, is heresy. Of course, we can know how to be saved that is why Jesus came! By the way Family World Radio is broadcast locally on 89.9 FM. Don t waste your time listening to that station. Rather keep your dial on Family Life Radio (89.3/104.7 FM); Reach 89.3 FM and WDCX Those are good Christian stations. BE ALERT AND WATCH While we shouldn t set dates, we should be aware of the signs and know that God does have a plan and a timeline. We began to look at the signs last week. Recall they involve seven major themes: : 1) Israel 2) Society in general 3) World Government 4) the Global Economy and Technology 5) World Religion 6) The Church and 7) Nature Also recall the reasons we should study Bible prophecy and the events they foretell: 1) It shows God's sovereign hand at work in the affairs of men. 2) It confirms the truth of His Word. 3) It keeps our lives in perspective. 4) It strengthens our faith. 5) It helps us combat false teaching and heresy. So at the end of this series, we want to be able to see the big picture; God's overarching plan for the world; how Bible prophecy is being fulfilled in our day and how we can fulfill our God given-role in life before Christ returns. THE SIGN OF ISRAEL Last week, we first looked at the signs involving Israel. God s plan is through Israel. They were set apart as His chosen people through the Mosaic Covenant. Through Israel (Abraham Isaac and Jacob) all nations would be blessed. How? Through the birth of the Messiah. The Messiah would be an everlasting king and descendant from King David (tribe of Judah). So Israel needs to be around until the end of the age. But with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple by the Romans under General Titus, the Jews were scattered throughout the world in the ensuing years. What would one do with all the prophecies that foretold of a people brought back to their land, a nation called Israel and a city, Jerusalem, that would be home to the Temple of the Lord? The Church decided to forget about Israel and the Jews, and rather than reach out in love during the Middle Ages and thereafter, they persecuted the Jews. Moreover, many leaders in the Church said that God s covenant is now with Christians only and therefore all the prophecies are figurative and find their fulfillment in the Church. In some respects, it is easy to understand why this kind of thinking crept into the Church since the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendents became trodden over by the Gentiles over the centuries: the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks, and finally, Great Britain. But here again is why we must always trust God s Word even when it appears not to be coming true. God s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His timing is not our timing. 2

3 In fact, it wasn t until the 20th century with the World Wars, that the answer to the question, How could there be an Israel when Christ returns? was finally answered. The two World Wars as terrible as they were, were no accident. They were part of God s plan. World War 1 prepared the land for the God's people. And World War 2 prepared God's people for the land. 1917: British Foreign Secretary signed the paper (the Balfour Declaration) calling for Jews to be allowed to return to their former homeland. A month later the British General Allenby marched into Jerusalem after defeating the Turks (who had sided with Germany). Clearly, God was setting the land apart once again for His people. 1948: After World War 2, as a result of worldwide sympathy for Jews following their suffering during the Holocaust, the United Nations decreed that the nation of Israel be established. As a result, the nation of Israel was reborn on May 8, 1948, fulfilling the prophecies of many Scriptures. 1967: Then during the Six Day War with the neighboring Arab nation, the western half of Jerusalem was retaken by Israel and unified under complete Jewish control for first time since 586 BC! BIBLE PROPHECY FULFILLED! All the above are examples of God s sovereign hand at work preparing our world for Christ s Return. God has brought His chosen people back to their land and to their city! Where is this in the Bible? We saw a couple examples last week. Recall Jeremiah 31:7-8, we read that in the last days the following will happen concerning Israel: "For thus says the Lord, Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chiefs of the nations; proclaim and give praise, and say, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel. I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor; a great throng will return. This same prophecy is found in Jeremiah 16:13-14: However, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when men will no longer say, As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt, but they will say, As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them. For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers." We know that such prophecies were fulfilled after the establishment of Israel in 1948 when the majority of Jews coming from around the world came from Eastern Europe and then from the nation that had the largest Jewish population (Russia) after the fall of the Soviet Union in Over 1 million Jews emigrated from the former Soviet republics to Israel in the last twenty years. The prophecy found in Isaiah 11:11-12 is another clear example: "Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from 3

4 Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (a reference to the Jews living in the Middle East and the borders of the Mediterranean Sea.) THE TEMPLE OF YAHWEH WILL BE REBUILT But what is next on the prophetic timeline concerning Israel? I believe before Christ will return the Jewish Temple must be rebuilt. Some may wonder how considering that the Temple Mount is supposedly under the Moslem shrine known as the Dome of the Rock? The same way everything else has happened. Who would have thought Israel could ever be reborn? For centuries Christians couldn't understand how it would be possible and as a result believed everything related to Israel was symbolic of the Church. Who would have ever believed that the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain would fall? The truth is God will make a way! The Scriptures foretell of a day when there will be once again a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. And it is one reason why Jesus is NOT coming back in the next two years. Let s look at the Scriptures that show why the Temple will be rebuilt. First let s turn to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4: "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God." Paul is talking about the Temple of God. At that time there was only one Temple of God the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem dedicated to the one true God - Yahweh. Do you remember what Jesus called it? His Father s house. But that Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Therefore, this means that there will be another Temple, one rebuilt that will be present at the end of the age. Now let s turn to Matthew 24:14-15; and see what Jesus says? "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains...for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short." What does Jesus mean when He refers to the Abomination of Desolation? This is a reference Daniel's prophecy that the Temple would be desecrated by a future pagan ruler. Let's now look at the verses in Daniel that refer to this prophecy. First, Daniel 9:26-27: Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off 4

5 and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate. Daniel 11:31, 40: Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation...at the end time the king of the South will collide with him," Daniel 12:11-12: From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days! So it is clear from Daniel's prophecies there will be grain offerings and animal sacrifice in the Temple once again before Christ returns. But such Jewish religious practices will be ended by the end time world ruler, the Antichrist, as he desecrates the Temple of God. While the first desecration took place during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 BC before the Maccabbean Rebellion, another desecration took place under the Roman army. Jesus' words proved to be an early warning to believers during the generation that followed Jesus resurrection. For when the conflict between the Jews and the Romans escalated to full blown war in 66 AD, many Christians fled Jerusalem and the surrounding areas because they were aware of what Christ had said. And yet, from closer reflection (note underlined words above), this prophecy finds its complete fulfillment at the end of the age. And that can only mean one thing - a rebuilt Temple and a restoration of Jewish religious law! How else could the grain offering and animal sacrifices be stopped? How else can you account for the language that is a reference to the Temple of Jerusalem? So we have the testimony of the Apostle Paul, the Prophet Daniel and the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself! Some may wonder too how can this be of the Lord when we no longer need a Temple made with hands? It is true, we don't need a Temple, for Christ is our Temple. But many Jews, whether they are orthodox, conservative, reformed or secular don t recognize this truth, yet. They are spiritually blind and still looking for their Messiah. The truth is Jesus is not finished with His original chosen people. Remember His first coming was part one. He was wounded and despised, rejected by men. He was denied by His people (cf. Is. 53 and Jn. 1:11). They missed the truth that the sacrificial system and Temple was only a type, a foreshadow of things to come. Their covenant, their faith cannot be complete without the true Messiah and Christ - Jesus! When Christ returns, He will be coming back to Jerusalem to finish what He began 2000 years ago. And He will defeat the enemies of His people, saving those who believe and judging those who rebel. But make no mistake, many Jews will come to faith in the process - during the tribulation period and during the coming invasion by the armies of the world under the Antichrist - they will, as the prophet Zechariah declares, "look upon the one whom they have pierced and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son! (Zech. 12:10). Let us pray... 5

The Sign Of The Restoration Of Israel

The Sign Of The Restoration Of Israel In Matthew 24 Jesus was asked by his disciples what will be signs of your coming and the end of the age. The beginning of sorrows(verses 1-8) The signs of the end(verses