The Final Countdown?

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and You will not hear? Or cry out to You of violence, and you will not save? Why do you show me iniquity and wrong, and Yourself look upon or cause me to see perverseness and trouble? (Habakkuk 1: 2-3-Amplified Version) 

When the prophet Habakkuk uttered these words six centuries before Christ, he may not have known that he was prophesying today’s conditions as well. In the first passage of his writing, he described a burden; an announcement of something threatening that is to come. In the fulfillment in Habakkuk’s day, God brought terror and violence from the hands of the Chaldeans. Like Israel Judah at that time, God’s law has been slackened. And so, just as God warned Judah that a great power from the north would come upon them, He warned us as well of threatening conditions, because we have spurned His ways. Jeremiah 5: 15, addressing the House of Israel, describes that nation as ancient and one with a foreign language. As well, in Ezekiel 7: 3, God’s Judgment for departing from His Law is made crystal clear, “Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.” And of course, in Ezekiel 38, we are told on two invasions from the north, the second being where Gog goes up and down upon the land of unwalled villages.

So, it doesn’t matter whether some Christians cry out for help, judgment will definitely come upon the Israel nations, because we have brought it upon ourselves by flaunting His Laws. I personally believe Judgment began with intensity in 2003, as so much prophecy seems to point to that year. It must be borne in mind that in many places in the Bible, God lays out His Plan very succinctly, in fact, in 2-3 of the 2nd chapter of Habakkuk, we learn of a vision, “And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that every one who passes may be able to read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it; because it will surely come, it will not be behindhand on its appointed day.” Hebrews 10: 3 confirms this, “For still a little while – a very little while – and the Coming One will come and He will not delay.”

So here we are at the end of 2004, the American election has been decided and the world is apprehensively approaching the coming year. In my November editorial, I laid out some of the severe problems facing the American president and I suggested that the presidential term 2005 to 2008 might be the most fearsome in the history of the nation. Yet, is it possible that those years coincide with the last years before the coming of Christ. Who knows, but God does say we should be able to read the signs.

During his recent visit, Pastor Alan Campbell said its nothing to bet the family farm on but 2007 is an interesting year to consider when thinking of the return of Christ based on a possible dual fulfillment of Daniel’s seventy weeks. For clarity, here are the numerical points of that prophecy, “ Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people ……And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off……..And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease….(Daniel 9: 24-27). Without a long explanation, I’ll simply say that 70 weeks equal 490 days, then converted to 490 years after application of Ezekiel 4:6. Pastor Campbell adds the 490 years to 1517 AD, the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and arrives at 2007 as a possible return of Christ .

Going beyond Pastor Campbell’s theses, there are some intriguing thoughts that demonstrate that 2007 could well be a red-letter year. It would perhaps be helpful if space would permit a greater explanation of the first fulfillment but I’ll just state that the seventy weeks of the first Advent began in 458BC., the seventieth week began 26AD, Christ was baptized in 29AD and crucified at the end of the seventieth week, 33AD.

Now let’s look at a possible second fulfillment. Remember, when Jesus quoted Isaiah 61: 1-2 in the temple (Matt. 5: 18-19) he did not complete passage 2, “and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn.” The excluded passage takes place at the Second Advent when He comes to save His people.

Another interesting thought! In 598 BC Jehoiachin, also called Jechonias, who was in the line leading to Christ, was deposed and taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, likely for safekeeping. Eleven years later, his successor Zedekiah, was deposed, blinded and taken to Babylon to spend the rest of his life in prison. His sons were killed. Judgment was then brought on Jerusalem when the city and temple were utterly destroyed. In 1996, Jacob’s Pillar Stone was removed from London, home of Mystery Babylon and the location of so much blasphemy in the past number of years, to Scotland, I believe for safekeeping. Eleven years to the beginning of the great and terrible day of the Lord brings us to 2007. Also, Gen. 7: 4 shows that Noah was given 7 days notice to get on the Arc before the beginning of judgment. Converting the 7 days to years (Ezekiel 4:6) we arrive at 2003. Interesting! The Iraq war began in 2003, it is not going well and now we hear talk of going into Iran. Will this wake the Russian Bear and lead to the first northern invasion of Ezekiel 38.