For those who have trouble believing that Bible prophecies are accurate, let’s consider the prophet Jeremiah’s prediction that the Jews would endure seventy years of captivity in Babylon and then they would be allowed to return to their own land. -

And the whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. – Jeremiah 25:11
For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished in Babylon I will visit you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. – Jeremiah 29:10

      Jeremiah’s prophecy of the Babylonian captivity was accurately fulfilled as history attests. The prophet Daniel had finished reading this prophecy and realized that Israel had been in captivity for seventy years and the time of their captivity had come to its conclusion. That revelation prompted the prophet to petition the Lord for the fulfillment of the second part of Jeremiah’s prophecy, and instigate the return of God’s people to their homeland.
      After a heartfelt prayer of repentance for himself and his nation, God responded and sent an angel to give Daniel yet another prophecy about the future. This prophecy is known as the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. This prophecy follows the previous prophecies that were given to Daniel concerning the future anti-christ of Revelation thirteen in Daniel chapter seven, and the foreshadow of that future anti-christ, Antiochus Epiphanes who is revealed to us in Daniel chapter eight.
      The Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks covers the time span from the command to rebuild the temple, to the reign of the future anti-christ described in Daniel seven, and the latter portion of chapter eleven.

      We take our place with Daniel at the feet of the heavenly messenger who has been sent to reveal the secrets previously locked in a future we cannot see. We are instructed to “understand the matter, and consider the vision” (9:23). Then the angel begins to speak –

“Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city…”

      This time span is both literal and symbolic as we shall see. The angel proceeds to reveal the purpose of the seventy weeks which is salvation, the removal of sin. –

“…to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the most holy” (9:24).

      Here the angel details the timing and events that occur within the seventy week period. –

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Messiah the Prince (Hebrew translation- an anointed one) shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times” (9:25).

      There were several commands issued by Persian kings to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. Cyrus issued the command to build the temple. The prophet Isaiah foretold this event approximately one hundred and fifty years earlier (Isaiah 45:1,13). Artaxexes ordered the city to be rebuilt in 457 BC., so the basic timing of the seventy week prophecy begins with the command to restore Jerusalem.

      The seventy weeks are divided into three parts – seven weeks, sixty-two weeks and one week (verse 27).

      The weeks are generally thought by most scholars to be “weeks of years.” This interpretation is based on the year day theory taken from the examples in Ezekiel 4:6 and Numbers 14:34. Each day of the weeks in the prophecy represent a year, therefore each week represents seven years. So the time span represented in the prophecy looks like this –

7 weeks = 49 years
62 weeks = 434 years
1 week = 7 years

      Seventy times seven equals 490, therefore the seventy week prophecy covers a time span of 490 years.

      In the original Hebrew text the seven weeks, which is designated as the time the temple is rebuilt, is separated from the sixty-two weeks with “an anointed one” appearing after the construction of the temple. The text continues to describe the rebuilding of Jerusalem within the sixty-two week time span. When we compare the actual time it took to build the temple and Jerusalem, we understand that the time frames contained within the prophecy are symbolic.
      The actual construction of the temple where forgiveness of sins would be resumed through animal sacrifice (the life is in the blood and I have given it upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, Leviticus 17:11) would only take from six to seven years. The rebuilding of the city took longer, it was completed in approximately seventy years. So the construction of the temple and the city were completed well under the time frame of the prophecies forty-nine years to build the temple and sixty-two weeks, (434 years) to restore the city.
      What we are being shown here is a distinction between the seven weeks (49 years) that corresponds to the actual seven years it took to build the temple and the sixty-two weeks, a much longer time span allowed for the construction of the city. This longer period of time designates the amount of time required to “bring in everlasting righteousness” or the permanent removal of sin; something that animal sacrifice was never capable of doing. Remember, the entire prophecy is about this atonement.

“And after threescore and sixty-two weeks (amount of years based on the solar calendar) shall Messiah (an anointed one)be cut off but not for Himself:” (verse 26).

      The original Hebrew eliminates the phrase “but not for Himself” as translated in the King James, and reads instead “and will have nothing.”

…“and the people of the prince that is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined” (verse26).

      So what we see here is that after the seven weeks, (the forty-nine years representing the rebuilding of the second temple), and the sixty-two weeks, (four hundred and eighty three years), the temple would again be destroyed which happened in 70 AD. And in the time period between the rebuilding of the temple and its destruction in 70 AD, the prophesized “anointed one” the Messiah would appear and be killed. Using the solar calendar, when we add the four hundred and eighty-three years to the year four hundred and fifty seven BC, the year the decree was made to rebuild the city by Artaxexes, we arrive at the generation when Jesus began His public ministry. This is quite remarkable as He is considered to be the Messiah according to Christian theology.

      Why would God use numbers that match the solar calendar to pin-point the Messiah’s arrival, when the Jews used the lunar calendar which would place the end of the four hundred and thirty-four years arriving well after Jesus had come and gone?

      God, through His foreknowledge, knew that the Jews would reject Jesus, but He would be received by the Gentiles as prophesized in the Scriptures. –And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to the brightness of thy rising (Isaiah 60:3).
I will give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou may be My salvation unto the end of the earth – (Isaiah 49:6).

      Knowing that the Gentiles use the solar calendar, God gave a time frame to Daniel that the Gentiles would decode, to encourage them that their faith in Messiah Jesus had not been misplaced, and they would recognize “the brightness of His rising” - like the sun of the solar calendar!

      Jesus’ prophesied death would bring in an “everlasting righteousness” for it is not possible that the blood of animals could permanently remove sins, but the bringing in of a better hope did –

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin – Hebrews 10:4.
…we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all – Hebrews 10:10.


      Jesus is the Passover lamb – Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: - I Peter 1:18,19.

      The bulk of the early Hebrew writings concerning the coming Messiah portray Him as a suffering servant. In one of those ancient manuscripts the Messiah declares to God the Father that He would be willing to suffer for the people for eternity if necessary. This early portrait of the Messiah matches the description of His coming and purpose as depicted in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy –

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not.
Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:3-5
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when Thou shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days (A reference to the resurrection) and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. – Isaiah 53:10.
He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. – Isaiah 53:11.

      We are loved.

      In summary, so far we see that after the seven weeks, after the temple is rebuilt that enables a temporary forgiveness of sins, the Messiah would come bringing an everlasting righteousness which brings us to the second part of verse twenty-six in Daniel’s prophecy; Messiah is killed and “the people of the prince that shall come (the prince that shall come is the anti-christ of Daniel seven and Revelation 13) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.”
      After Messiah comes and is killed, once again the city and the sanctuary are destroyed. Jerusalem was laid to heaps by Titus’ army in 70 AD. Jesus reiterated Daniel’s prophecy by declaring that the city would be destroyed -
And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, that your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side, And shall lay you even with the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another; because you knew not the time of your visitation (Did not recognize their Messiah had come to them and was inspecting them in their midst) - Luke 19:42-44.

      It was also prophesied that the Messiah would come when the Jews had lost their ability to pronounce capital punishments - The scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come – Genesis 49:10. Even during the Babylonian captivity the Jews were allowed to govern their own, but not under Roman jurisdiction. This is why the Jewish religious leadership had to bring Jesus before Pilate to get his permission to have the Messiah killed.

      Jesus’ death put an end to the need for animal sacrifices, but the actual sacrifices were not removed until forty years later with the destruction of the second temple; God declaring through this event that animal sacrifices were no longer needed, only faith in the Messiah who sacrificed Himself once for all time.
      During that forty-year period the Jews had the opportunity to hear the Gospel preached to them on their own soil, an event that would be repeated when Israel became a nation. Now once again the Gospel is being proclaimed there in the time allotted. This time correlates to Israel in the wilderness (a time of testing) in Revelation 12:6, where she is “fed” the Gospel.

      Just as the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was the marker in time that initiates the beginning of the seventy weeks, so the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD marks the beginning of a time of spiritual and physical warfare that will continue until the Messiah’s return to judge the earth.
-…”the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined” – verse 26.
      It’s a war, a time of tribulation and persecution of the church until the end which intensifies and cumulates into the “time of trouble” described in Daniel twelve and Matthew twenty-four, and correlates to chapters fourteen through chapter nineteen of the book of Revelation.
      This war where “desolations are determined” is spiritual warfare and literal, physical persecution and conflicts which are the result of the continuing battle between God’s Truth and the underlying spirit of anti-christ that continually seeks to undermine that Truth, and will continue until “the consummation is poured upon the desolate,” verse 27. This statement relates to the final events described in Revelation nineteen when the Lord returns and destroys the beast system and the anti-christ.

      The last week of the prophecy is generally viewed as a literal seven year tribulation period that precedes Jesus’ second coming. But as we have seen, the times in Daniel’s prophecy are symbolic in relation to the timing of the events that are described in the prophecies; the length of time required to rebuild the temple and the city are much shorter than the actual times allotted for these events in the prophecy. Therefore it may be safe to assume that the events that transpire within the last week, the shorter time frame of the prophecy, could take much longer to unfold than a literal seven years.
      This adjusts our view and many established interpretations of the timing of the events in Revelation’s prophecies. The entire book can cover a much longer period of time than a literal seven years, with a possible literal three and one half year “time of trouble” occurring just prior to Jesus’ return; a time that is so horrific that it must be shortened for the sake of the elect (Matthew 24:22). With this in mind we will continue to explore the last verse in Daniel’s prophecy.

      As the Hebrew Scriptures proclaim, the Messiah is to be a Jew, but the “prince that is to come” (verse 26) is from the people who instigated the destruction of Jerusalem, – in other words, the anti-christ will be a Gentile.
     Some claim that because the Roman army that destroyed Jerusalem and the temple was comprised of Arabs, Turks and Syrians, then the anti-christ would be from those "people" who destroyed the city, therefore the anti-christ will be a Muslim. However, the army was part of the Roman Empire, under its control and authority. And as the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD is a foreshadow of events that are to transpire in the future, we realize that the anti-christ will emerge from a similar system, or empire, with the Muslim element also firmly under its control.

“and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week…”

      This is generally thought to be that last week in Daniel’s prophecy, occurring after a gap in time from the four hundred and eighty-three years which brings the total number of years in the prophecy to four hundred and ninety. Again, this last seven years and the events described occurring within it, could unfold over a much longer period of time.
      Some dispute that there is a gap and see a continuation of the prophecy and that last seven year week includes the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and Jesus is seen as the one who stops the sacrifices by His atonement in verse twenty-seven and is not “the prince that is to come” introduced in verse twenty-six. However the original wording of verse twenty-seven does not match the Messiah. The entire verse in the King James reads –
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, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
      All the other ancient manuscripts are taken into consideration in determining the meanings of the verses. Other translations of this passage read, - And the desolator will be on the wing of abominations, or - And the desolator will come on the wings of monsters (or of horror).
      The desolator is obviously the prince that is to come from the people who destroyed the city, the antichrist, and not the Messiah.

      The precedence for gaps existing in chapter nine is obvious. There is a gap from the time it took to build the temple, a literal seven years to the end of the forty-nine years allotted for it in the prophecy and another gap occurs between the actual seventy years it took to build the city and the end of the 483 years.
      The “gap” from the 483 years to the emergence of the “desolator” designates the time from the Roman Empire to the emergence of the final world Empire in the last week of the prophecy. There were no other world empires since the first Roman Empire, thus the gap signifies the period of time that the earth was not under the domination of a world empire.

      The anti-christ confirms, or strengthens the covenant with many for one week, or the entire duration of his reign. Here we must stop and ask which “covenant” is he affirming? As we have seen from Rev 13:11, the anti-christ begins as a lamb, which is a Christian symbol referring to Jesus or His people. If he is a professed Christian, then the covenant he is affirming would be the New Covenant which he affirms or agrees to for the entire week.
      The standard interpretation is that he makes a covenant with the Jews which enables them to rebuild the temple and re-instigate the sacrifices. In the middle of the week, the antichrist then stops the sacrifices, or that which makes atonement for sin. –

      And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Daniel 9:27
      This is the event that Jesus told His disciples would precede His second coming (Matthew 24:15) and is the sign for them to flee the city.

      Here we have to stop and remind ourselves that the seventy week prophecy is about the bringing in of the atonement of the Messiah (Daniel 9:24). And as we have been shown in our previous study of Daniel seven, eight and eleven, the anti-christ is anti-Christ, the object of his rule is to destroy Christianity and remove the only means that God has established for mankind to be reconciled to Him.

      Because many scholars view the book of Revelation through the lenses of the doctrine of dispensationalism, which teaches that the church age ends after the third chapter of Revelation with a rapture and the remainder of the book deals with the Jews during the tribulation period, the effects of the anti-christ upon Christianity during this time period has been rarely addressed.

      Scofield taught that the word “church” was not mentioned in the book of Revelation after chapter three and he viewed this as evidence that the church had been removed, or “raptured.”
      In order for a doctrine to be correct, then all the other Scriptures must be in harmony with it. While the word church does not appear in subsequent chapters, the word candlestick does and as we are shown in chapter one verse twenty, and chapters two and three, candlesticks are churches. In chapter eleven we are shown that the two witnesses are candlesticks/churches, (Rev. 11:4) most likely representing Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians ministering in the time period just before the Beast takes full control and overcomes them (Rev. 11:7). Also, while John is a representative of the bride of Christ and hears the phrase “Come up here,” (Rev. 4:1) this phrase links him with the two witnesses who are then “raptured” in chapter eleven (Rev. 11:12). According to “The prophecy of Elijah” a first century Christian writing, the “rapture” of the church occurs in Revelation chapter eleven. John is seen on earth in the prior chapter ten being told to prophecy (Rev. 10:11) for many days (years on the day/year theory?). “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10) so obviously the Gospel is being preached by the bride prior to her calling up in chapter eleven.
      Therefore we conclude that the remnant church will be alive and functioning during the last week of Daniel’s prophecy and in the middle of that week the anti-christ removes that which makes atonement for sin- the apostasy is complete, he reveals himself as god, representing a mankind that needs no redemption; the epitome of a Humanistic/communist philosophy masquerading as a caricature of Christianity.
      If this interpretation is correct, then this is the spiritual desecration of the holy place that Jesus refers to in Matthew 24. The Holy Place is the inner court where atonement for sin was made.

      We know that in order for the Jews to have received forgiveness of sins prior to Jesus, God decreed that the animal sacrifices must be done in the temple in Jerusalem. Once a year the priest would enter the holy of holies and make atonement through the shedding of an animal’s blood for the remission of sins for himself and the people.
      When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, this put an end for the Jew’s to receive forgiveness through this means. It was no longer necessary for sins to be forgiven through animal sacrifice because the permanent removal of sin was accomplished by the Messiah Jesus as prophesied by Isaiah, “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities” – Isaiah 53:5 – And this is why God allowed the temple to be destroyed.

      Jesus’ sacrifice is the atonement that does not require a building made by human hands, His atonement for our sins is accomplished entirely through a work of God’s hands. So the Scriptures record two types of atonement, one that requires a temple building and one that does not.

      Keeping this in mind, we realize that in Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks, there is no mention of another temple building being constructed as the location for the anti-christ’s desecration of the Holy Place. Also the word that designates the actual building, hieron, is never used in Revelation, only the word naos which designates the Holy Place. This does not mean that there may never be another temple, but the absence of why there is no mention of a temple building in Daniel’s prophecy is significant.

      As we have noted before, the purpose of the seventy week prophecy is atonement. The desolater (anti-christ) described in Daniel 9:27 removes that which makes atonement for sin - without a temple building. That which makes atonement for sin without a temple building is the atonement of Jesus, the Messiah. Half-way through the reign of the gentile prince that is to come, he successfully removes the belief of many whose covenant he is affirming, that faith in the atoning blood of the Messiah Jesus is no longer necessary. The Holy Place, the inner court of the heart is desecrated and man no longer needs to humbly approach a holy God for His salvation. Man believes that he can obtain eternity through his own works and humanistic philosophy, even though he is retaining a form of godliness (II Timothy 3:1-5) maintaining a covenant, a religion, but denying the power which is the shed blood of Jesus. The genuine covenant prophesied in the Scriptures and fulfilled by Jesus that God has ordained has been subtly and perhaps forcibly demolished.

      We remind ourselves again of the portraits we have studied in Daniel seven and eight – as Antiochus was determined to destroy the Jew’s religion, so the anti-christ is just as determined to destroy the Christian faith.
      We see Jesus asking his disciples and us this question – “When the Son of Man comes, shall He find (the) faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).
      How many will He find still boldly declaring that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no man comes to the Father except by Him? – John 14:6
      Will you be one of them?

      History has aptly shown us that the destruction of Christianity can be achieved within its own house.
      After the Roman Empire divided, the Roman church that emerged from the ashes of that political empire retained the same lust for power, and the atonement was hidden from the eyes of the masses as the corrupt leadership of that church sought to transfer the people’s dependence upon God to a misplaced reliance on the religious leadership. The people were forbidden to read the word of God for themselves and a reformation was required to bring the people back to the concept of salvation by grace through the atonement of the Messiah Jesus.
      The phrase “history repeats itself” is quite true, and we can hopefully begin to see the real horror that occurs within that last week of Daniel’s prophecy, as the anti-christ inserts his corrupt version of Christian doctrine into the church through all those who are willing to compromise in order to avoid persecution.

      When Jesus was asked by His disciples “When shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Your coming and the end of the world (age)?” (Matthew 24:3) Jesus told them that the sign that directly precedes the time of trouble and His second coming is the desecration of the Holy Place (verse 15). His disciples would understand the Holy Place to be the inner court where atonement was made. If they returned to the book of Daniel they would see that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed and after that the holy place would be desecrated by “the prince who is to come” from the people who destroyed the city. Therefore, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD is obviously not the "sign of His coming," the event that Jesus is describing to His disciples in Matthew twenty-four, verses fifteen through twenty-two. The destruction of Jerusalem was a localized disaster and a foreshadow of the coming “great tribulation” which correlates to the “time of trouble” in Daniel 12:1, and “the Hour of His judgment” in Revelation 14, that affects the whole world. –
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” Matthew 24:21.

      There is to come a second attack upon Jerusalem, as Jesus’ prophecy discloses, which will affect the entire world, and as we have been shown from our previous study “Details from Daniel,” it will be by Gog - the Russian invader – and the event that triggers this attack is the desecration of the Holy Place.
      We are reminded by the prophet Ezekiel that it is God who brings Gog against Jerusalem. -“I will bring thee against My land” (Ezekiel 38:16).
      Why? – “So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel” (Ezekiel 39:7).
      We know that God has ordained that salvation is though the Messiah Jesus - and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:11). The Holy name of Jesus is polluted by the disbelief of the Jews and the heathen who have rejected Him – and also apostate “Christians” who no longer believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father.

      The Biblical pattern is that whenever God’s people sinned against Him and refused to repent, He would send their enemies to chasten them, and this is why the Jews endured the destruction of their city and the Babylonian captivity. We are told that after a time of apostasy in the church and a general falling away from God, the anti-christ would be revealed (II Thessalonians 2:3). The first desecration of the Holy Place is spiritual which is the removing of belief in the atonement of the Messiah Jesus. This spiritual desecration will have taken place before the second desecration which is physical and this is where we return to some of the traditional interpretations involving the Jews in Jerusalem.

      The world apostasy that does not acknowledged Jesus as being the only way to the Father, will be happily received by the Jews as they have long rejected Jesus being the prophesied Messiah and will be willing to operate under the anti-christ’s initial appearance as a compromised Christian.

      Currently there are plans being made to construct a third temple and there is even another plan for a less permanent version. It’s important to note here that the Holy Place does not need a building to be desecrated, a tent would suffice if need be. The Jew’s goal is to resume animal sacrifices as a means of atonement. Thus they are attempting to re-instigate a method of redemption that God has firmly abolished, with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD being the graphic evidence of God’s opinion on the matter.

      The holy place today is a vacant area between two mosques on the temple mount. The devil in the anti-christ would be more than willing to allow the Jews to begin sacrificing again there knowing that they are flying in the face of God in their continuous refusal to accept God’s plan of redemption. There are some within Judaism, especially among the orthodoxy, that view themselves and the nation of Israel as the Messiah, therefore the re-instigation of the sacrifices that are in defiance of God would be a desecration of the temple mount in itself. Man is attempting to make atonement for sin his way, thus taking the place of God and usurping His authority. This would be the equivalent of Aaron’s son’s offering strange fire on the altar that resulted in their destruction (Leviticus 10:1-3). God’s people were always required to operate according to the LORD’S plan for removal of sin and this is why the patterns and foreshadows for this plan that were revealed to Moses had to be followed so precisely.
      Thus the rebellion against God by the re-instigation of animal sacrifices for the remission of sin, this act of defiance will be the trigger that will eventually instigate the Russian invasion. The unmasked charlatans operating behind their Russian puppet, will be exposed when the bear turns wild. The anti-christ will stop the sacrifices, just as he has stopped belief in the atonement of Jesus and reveal himself as an atheist, or one needing no atonement or religion, thus proclaiming himself to be god. The Jews will rebel and the war that ensues is permitted by God because of the sins of His people and those others in the world who have also rebelled against Him. All these will endure the prophesied great tribulation that precedes Jesus’ second coming.

      The prevailing spirit of compromise that will and is infecting the Christian church, propagates the false belief that God does not allow punishment or that there are no consequences for sin. This is part of the spirit of the anti-christ’s arsenal of deception and operates through the Jezebel spirit in the churches (Rev. 2:20-23). Mankind will always reap what it sows, but God is a God of mercy and responds to a genuine repentance alleviating His judgments upon man’s rebellion against His authority. While we behold the violent conclusion to that rebellion that is recorded in Revelation’s pages we realize that it is man that holds the key to avert this world wide disaster.
      We return to chapter nine and scroll down to the verse that reveals the antidote to destruction that sadly, is never accessed –

And the rest of the men that were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” ….Rev. 9:20,21.

      They repented not…

      While the world that has submitted to the devil’s rule continues on its downward spiral, you dear reader have the opportunity not to be sucked into that evil vortex that seeks to destroy your soul. You can change your world for the better by repenting and receive the provision that God has made for your soul’s safety in Jesus Christ. No one who has been embraced by the salvation of Jesus has to be afraid of the future or anything, for the God who holds the universe will hold you above the stormy waters of this life. Those who follow Jesus and have believed that He died for their sins and rose from the dead, have the promise of eternal life that transcends anything this world has to offer. Jesus gives us the one thing that the temporal frailty of this life can never provide and that is a precious life sustaining hope.

      There are over a thousand Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled, so we can trust that the ones concerning Jesus’ second coming are accurate. In Revelation chapter nineteen, we are shown a portrait of Jesus returning with His armies to render God’s judgments on all those who have rejected Him. “And the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Rev. 17:14, 19:14).
      Will you be with Him?

The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do to me? - Psalm 118:6.

Epilogue

      The evil we have been introduced to in Revelation Chapter thirteen, and Daniel's prophecies, rises in part from an apostasy, a falling away from the Truth of the Gospel. What can we do as Christians to keep from contributing to the development of this beast system? We can cleave to the words of our Lord and His apostles. We can hold firmly to what has been delivered to us and be warning lights to those who we see are drifting into the beast’s embrace, whether in our own camp or those in the world. We can continue to shine as lights in the darkness without fear of having our flames extinguished by persecution.

      We sometimes forget that the epistles were written during times of incredible persecution. It is for this reason that we are being constantly reminded by the apostles of our inheritance in Christ; an inheritance reserved for us in heaven and fades not away; an inheritance that cannot be touched by the storms and treachery of this life. The Christian martyrs kept their eyes on their heavenly inheritance and because they were so assured of what was truly their own, they were able to endure their losses. They knew their God was catching their tears and turning them into treasure that was waiting for them upon their arrival home.

      Let what we have been shown in Revelation’s pages serve as a reminder of where our treasure really is and where our citizenship is truly anchored.

      The bride of Christ begins her journey through time on this earth spiritually seated next to her Bridegroom who is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. The apostle Paul assures us of this position in Epistle to the Ephesians. -

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, Which He wrought in Jesus, when He raised him from the dead, and set Him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: Ephesians 1:15-21.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: - Ephesians 2: 4-6.

      We are presently seated with Jesus through the union of His Holy omnipresent spirit within us. Thus we are enabled to share His vantage point as we gaze upon what has been described to us in Revelation’s pages. We behold the earth consuming monster, the beast that will be dominating the planet in its last days before the Lord returns, and somehow, seeing it from heaven’s perspective, from the position we are sharing with the Lord, from our vantage point of absolute victory in Jesus; this seemingly horrendous creature and its false prophet are rendered so small and insignificant.
      Even though the devastation these beasts inflict will be such as the world has never seen, when compared to eternity, their reign is but a flicker in the cosmos that is extinguished by a mere blink of God’s eyes, never to be remembered.

And God shall wipe away all tears from (our) eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. – Rev. 21:4

copyright 2013 by H.D. Shively