The Once Best of Times

From: A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” (Charles Dickens)

Charles Dickens, was an English writer of the 1800’s Victorian era. Two of his most-lasting novels were “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Great Expectations”. When I read the opening words to “Two Cities”, for some reason, they remind me so much of the two sons of Joseph going into the twentieth century – Ephraim and his British Commonwealth of nations and Manasseh, the great nation of America. If you read about events of circa 1900, it will be difficult to dismiss such descriptive phrases to the Ephraim & Manasseh nations at that time, “It was the best of times” or “the age of wisdom” or “the epoch of belief” or “the season of light” or “the spring of hope”. There was no doubt in the minds of Christians at that time. We were truly great, and the road ahead throughout at least the first half of the 1900’s was filled with “Great Expectations”.

Yet, in looking at the same nations today, it is not too difficult to see the negative words Dickens wrote, as they could be applied, that is, “it was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of darkness, it was the winter of despair.” Again, inject the present tense into these negatives and you have a pretty good description of today’s Israel nations.

Something happened, didn’t it?

Could it be that we lost our focal point? That we ceased to be Christian nations! I think so! I know there are those that disagree, and say that there are millions of Christians in our nations, but it could easily be countered by suggesting that most are Christians in name only; that few follow His Laws and Commandments, or are even knowledgeable of them; that growing numbers of them don’t believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ; or study His Holy Word in the Scriptures. And without study, most of these Christians are content to accept the new soft-soap reality of the Faith espoused by Churchdom, whose acceptance has led to smaller and smaller church attendance and less and less belief. You know, in my city, there are probably more studious Asian Christians than those descendant from Joseph’s two sons. These Asians are good Christians, follow God’s Laws to a great extent and are righteously successful in life. So, to see what has happened to True Israel, it is easy to understand Jesus’ statement, “Shall He find the Faith when He returns”.

But, what happened, happened!

Here’s the way it was just before the fall, when the Lord God Almighty was still the focal point. I’ll use Britain as the example when she arrived at the door to the 20th century. At the time, Britain was still a Sabbath-keeping nation, respecting the 3rd Commandment. Even at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, they would not exhibit on Sundays. Of course, she was not Commandment-adhering in all respects but the people of Britain and other Israel nations in Circa 1900 at least studied their Bibles. And so, their nations enjoyed great blessings from God; refer just to Deuteronomy 28:1-14 for evidence of what was partially visible, rather than growing curses, like those mentioned in verses 15 to 68 of Deuteronomy 28, as are clearly in evidence today.

One might ask, “Why?” Well, let me relate a short story.

God made a Covenant with Abraham, as detailed in Genesis 17; a Covenant that passed to his son Isaac, then to Jacob and then to Jacob’s son, Joseph. But Jacob had an older brother, Esau, and notwithstanding that as the oldest, he would normally have been in line for the inheritance. But, Jacob, with the help of his mother, obtained it through trickery, primarily because Isaac’s eyesight was failing. Ironically, God would have done it differently, but with the same result. Yet, what was done was done, but as in life, we must pay for our wrong-doings, so Esau was given a secondary blessing by Isaac. In short, Esau was told that it would come to pass sometime in the future, that he would have the dominion over Jacob. This indeed did happen!

Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and when Isaac blessed them and passed along the Abrahamic Covenant, Ephraim was prophesied to grow into a multitude of nations (The British Commonwealth) and Manasseh would become a great nation (America). Space doesn’t permit a complete explanation of the many blessings for Joseph’s descendants, but Genesis 49:24-26 and Deuteronomy 33:13-17 outline Jacob’s and Moses’ prophesies that certainly came to pass.

Still, the piper has to be paid and Jacob had to pay for his trickery. The question is, when did this come about. Years ago, I wrote an article demonstrating that God uses lunar times, prophetic times and solar times; that the Esau Dominion came to pass at the end of 6,000 lunar years, or roughly 1820. Like the seed in the ground, there is almost instant growth but then nothing for the longest period of time while the root system is developing. So, the time between the lunar and prophetic times, approximately 90 odd years, was a time to slowly strengthen their plan, beginning with casting doubt on Christian belief, with the emergence of many false religions, such as the Mormon Church, the Seven Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the fracturing of Protestantism into dozens of splinter groups. Then, there was 6,000 prophetic years ending somewhere around 1914 and after that date, Esau’s concentration was on strengthening their the control on finance, government, the corporate world, the media, including entertainment, sports, movies and a further breakdown of Christianity, like indoctrinating the mainstream churches and their ministries with a new reality acceptable to today’s pluralistic society. Near the end of this growth stage, Esau had completed the prophesy from Genesis 27:40 – “…. And it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off his neck”. And that yoke was then placed on the neck of Jacob’s descendants.

Because, when the 6,000 solar years expired around 2001/2003 and Esau’s harvest period arrived, true Israelites have experienced, among other things, loss of freedoms, unsustainable debt, declining Christian and other values, and an influx of third world influences forcing change of morals and ways of life. Here we are in 2019 and very close to God’s Promise in Ezekiel 34:27, “… they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them”. It will not be a good time for Esau and their many collaborators from True Israel, those who put power, money and prestige ahead of the welfare of his/her brethren and our loving Lord Jesus Christ.

Events in the world point to some bad and potentially bad times. Apart from massive natural disasters, there is the worsening Mid-East conflict; the possible provocation of trade wars; Mid-East upheavals; muscle flexing with major powers like Russia & China; the Brexit quandary and in the case of America, internal divisions leading to a further downward slide in all that made her great in the first place. For true Christians, we have the promise of God’s protection, when after He has removed our Esau yoke, will, as Ezekiel 34:25 consoles us, “And they (we) shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them [us]; but they shall dwell safely , and none shall make them [us] afraid.”