A World of Trouble

0h world of troubled men,
Seek the peace of God again,
In the humble faith that kneels,
In the hallowed Word that heals,
In the hope that answers doubt,
We must drive the darkness out
So, frightened, frantic, foolish men,
Please take God by the hand again.

We are living in a world of trouble. I wonder if any of us living today could ever have imagined the impact Covid 19 has had on our lives. As I write this article, India seems in freefall in the number of new cases/deaths and Brazil is rapidly catching up to America. Other nations around the world, along with the Israel nations, are experiencing prolong lockdowns and perhaps for the first time in the majority of our nations’ history, we, its’ Israelite people, know what it is like to lose our freedom, to almost anything we once took for granted, including access to our places of worship.

We have written about the years from 1918, broken down in 15 year periods or prophetic hours, and how each one was a boon for the wicked elite, and how the present hour (the seventh) will gain for them more than all the gains together of the first six prophetic hours. If calculations are correct, the 7th period still has slightly more than two years to run, so we should buckle up. And pray! And realize that this will be Satan’s last “kick at the can”, so to speak.

Of all the prophecies in the Bible, if it is a prophecy, there are none so sadly “blunt” as those written by the prophet Ezekiel in chapters five to seven. We encourage you to read them carefully, particularly Chapter 7, where several times God makes it clear that, “the end has come”. He also makes it clear in Verse 8 that He will recompense us for all our abominations. We are prone to blaming the evil elite for all the world’s ills but they are just pawns used by the Lord to seek out the good seeds for the next step in His Great Plan. What did Jesus say, “Many are called but few are chosen”? Still, God makes it clear in Verse 7, “The time has come, the day of trouble is near”. We will watch the unfolding of events over the next couple of years but they will very likely align themselves with the Lord’s warning through the prophet Ezekiel. Think of the condition of our Israel nations today! Just visualize Ezekiel’s words from verses 23-25 and you will recognize the violence in cities like Chicago; violent crime throughout our nations, our churches being profaned, and so on. To those who say this is Jerusalem being talked about, Chapter 6:3 refers to Israel nations (mountains).

Those who just cannot accept anything uttered as being prophetic have a point, in that it can only be labelled prophetic when it happens. We can look around our nations today and see much of what Ezekiel wrote but if his words were truly prophetic, everything else will become clear in the next couple of years. Remember, in Matthew 24:25, Jesus counselled His disciples by saying, “Behold, I have told you before”, and as the words Ezekiel wrote were from God, we must study the possible implications.

Yet, the Holy Bible contains hundreds of prophecies, as one scholar wrote, more than 85% of the Bible is prophetic. Let me describe just one of those prophecies, interpreted by one of the world’s past great scholars, H. Grattan Guinness.

I wonder what those around him thought when he confidently interpreted prophecy, demonstrating the fulfillment of events that had been prophesied, and forecast what God’s prophets had written about the future. Among other things, he stated without reservation that Jerusalem would be liberated from the Turks in the year 1917. Now, probably it was so far away from the 1870’s when Guiness made his statement that few would have taken much notice. But it happened, exactly as prophesied. And Guinness’ work was highly acclaimed by influential sources. Here is what the late Lord Shaftesbury had to say of Guiness’ work, “I cannot resist the desire I feel to bring it under the immediate and serious attention of the public. The writer is evidently a man of intense piety, unsurpassed diligence, and great ability. His whole argument rests on Scripture, but he throws a wonderful amount of light on prophetical chronology through the aid of mathematical and astronomical calculations.” Indeed, Guiness’ “The Approaching End Of The Age” and “Light For The Last Days” were considered the greatest investigative work into the systems of times and seasons of any work presented thereto.

Still, over the centuries there were men and women of great intellect and one might ask, why did it take until the nineteenth century for such revelation. I suppose the answer is simple, Guiness was one of the “wise.”

Some twenty-six centuries ago, the prophet Daniel was the recipient of marvelous revelations from God Almighty, which he dutifully recorded. He didn’t understand all he was given but when he asked God for clarification his request was turned aside and he was told that the words were for some far away generation, who would be living at what God called “the time of the end.” That in that far away time there would be the “wise” who would understand and the “wicked” or “ungodly” who would not. Of course, it is God Himself who directs the unveiling of the mysteries of which He had the prophets record, and like Daniel, God’s other prophets likely didn’t have any idea of the complexity of the words they were recording for some distant generation. When Ezekiel, for instance, told of the overturning of the Davidic Throne, or Hosea of the scattering of Israel, or Jeremiah of the New Covenant, do you think they had any idea of how these would come about? Even Christ’s disciples had to ask Him for signs of His Second Coming.

You see, what was revealed to them was not for their own time. As Peter stated in 1 Peter 1:12, “that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister.” So the great storehouse of Biblical prophecy entrusted with the prophets was for the benefit of later generations, and particularly for the “wise” at the “time of the end.”

If Grattan Guinness was one of the “wise,” then the “time of the end” must have been upon us in the 1870’s. Scholars suggest that the end of 6,000 lunar years and the beginning of the Church of the Laodiceans occurred around the 1820’s and if you look at the false doctrine that began to rear its head at that time (for example the Mormon Church) then you might also agree that the 1820’s was also the beginning of the falling away prophesied by the Apostle Paul.

Each year we look to the liberation of Jerusalem on December 9th, 1917 by General Allenby of British Ephraim as the fulfillment of a milestone prophecy. Not many in Christendom even give that event a thought but it is a critical component in the countdown to the glorious return of Jesus Christ. We have to remember, as Ed Vallowe wrote in his book “Biblical Mathematics” that “numbers are the secret code of God’s work.” This is why the prophet Esdras wrote, “By measure has he measured the times, and by number has he numbered the times……” or why Isaiah wrote, ”Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with the span …” God is the great measurer and as Vallowe wrote, “The precision with which the Bible numbers all fall into their places cannot be accounted for except by the supernatural power and wisdom of a God Who is infinite.”

What Guinness did is to determine that the “Seven Times” (or 2,520 years) punishment upon the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as imposed by Leviticus 26:18, and which began with the captivity of the Nation of Judah in 604 BC, was to expire in 1917, at which time Jerusalem would be liberated. It’s interesting that when liberation came, right on cue, Isaiah’s prophesy Chapter 31:5) made sense, “As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.” British planes had dropped leaflets on the city which had an unsettling effect on the Turks. So, when Allenby walked quietly on foot through the Jaffa Gate on December 11th, he had taken Jerusalem without a shot from the Turks, who had surrendered and run. T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, thought the entry into Jerusalem was the supreme moment of the war. Perhaps it was, but it most certainly was a supreme moment on the road to the Kingdom of God.

So, we could go into many dozens of prophecies that have come to pass, but let’s concentrate on Ezekiel Chapter 7 and ask ourselves, “Could it be”, “Could it happen”, or “Is it happening now right before our eyes”.

We don’t have long to wait.