Future Glory, Present Suffering, Overdue Praise
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on July 3rd, 2010
How did that happen [that our world is just a “faint image of its former glory”]? Our passage [Romans 8:18-25] says it was deliberately subjected to futility. Indeed, the futility of the earth comes from the hand of God. The very God who pronounced his creation good, has also created a world that would need a cross, need a savior, need redemption. It was God who cursed the creation after the fall. And it is God himself who will redeem it. – Dr. John Neufeld, Senior Pastor, Willingdon Church, Burnaby BC
This is a big thought… especially for those of us who spend little time thinking big thoughts. So sit down and let it sink in.
What Pastor John is saying is this: God deliberately caused the world to become fallen and corrupt, filled with pain and evil, so that this same world would be in profound need of a savior, Jesus Christ. As he wrote, “the futility of the earth comes from the hand of God.” This is explicitly taught by the Apostle Paul:
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21 ESV).
But praise God in His wisdom that His Son, our Savior, was also given by Him to redeem this fallen world! When evil overcomes me, through the acts of others or through my own sin, and I lift up my soul with cries to God, it is not a weak or desperate God to whom I pray. The God of the Bible is not some Monarch who has lost control of His Kingdom. He is not a King pitched in frantic battle to reclaim what an enemy has seized. He is a sovereign, holy, gracious, merciful and loving Creator who created the best possible Universe: one in which He reveals Himself and displays His sovereign power (Rom 9:22a) in order to also display and reveal His holiness, grace, mercy and love on those whom He has chosen by grace alone (Rom 9:23). The means of His gracious, saving act, of course, is the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of His very Son.
How is it that hard times or a little suffering in my life can cause me to selfishly turn away from contemplating Christ’s Gospel, even for a moment, for little pleasant distractions? If the “futility” to which the world was subjected is for the purpose of displaying God’s saving glory, then for what purpose has God gifted me with the little bits of suffering I have received from His hand? Isn’t it for that same purpose? Shouldn’t my struggles lead me directly to the foot of the cross, by faith, where I ought to throw my hands in the air and sing with all my heart the praises of His glorious grace (Eph 1:6; 1 Pe 2:9)?
“…we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved” (Romans 8:23b-24a ESV).
Our faith in Christ (a.k.a., the “Christian Faith”) is a forward-looking, hopeful faith. The grounds of our faith is a one-time, historic event in a particular Middle Eastern city—namely, Jesus’ death on a roman cross and His supernatural resurrection. The living-out of our faith is the here-and-now, with all the suffering, to various degrees, to which the Creation and we ourselves are subjected. “For in this hope we were saved.”
Thanks Pastor John for that good reminder. Read his whole article at the Gospel Coalition website here.
Future Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:18-25 ESV).
Anti-Semite “Khazar” Theory Refuted By New Genetic Study
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the News on June 16th, 2010
Every now and then I get emails from people thinking they are doing me a favour by “introducing” me to the so-called evidence that most, if not all, modern-day Jews are actually descended from medieval Khazars and not, as is commonly thought, from Abraham and the people of Israel in the Bible. This theory belongs with others held by folks who wear tinfoil hats but was given a big boost by the pseudo-historical work of Arthur Koestler in his book The Thirteenth Tribe. I’ve spent more time than I care to admit looking into the claims of these people, that modern Jews have no right to their ancestral lands because they aren’t actually descendants of Israel. Now, I’m glad to share, a recent genetic study adds to earlier genetic research proving that the Khazar-Jew nonsense is just that: nonsense.
The study, published June 3, 2010 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, compared 237 Jewish people from seven regions of the world with 418 non-Jewish people from the same regions and demonstrated that the Jewish people are genetically linked to a common Jewish ancestry concentrated in Persia-Babylon around 2500 years ago (about the same time King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered the southern kingdom of Judah and its capitol, Jerusalem, exiling the population to Babylon). [I first read about this in a summary article published here.]
In short, thanks to modern science, one of the key arguments used by anti-semites in their propaganda of hatred is debunked. Reasonable people can put the Khazar-Jewish garbage out of their minds and be strengthened in their confidence in the Bible. Because in the Bible, Moses predicted both a dispersion of Jewish people around the world and an eventual regathering of their descendants to the land of Israel. The final stages of the dispersion happened under the rule of the Roman Empire. This is consistent with the new genetic study which found that an influx of DNA from non-Jewish converts entered the genetic makeup of European Jewry around that time and that the closest modern “cousins” of European Jews are, drum-roll, Italians. The regathering of Jews to Israel is happening in the present day and has been since the late 19th century.
“And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste” (Lev 26:33 ESV).
“And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other” (Deu 28:64 ESV).
“…then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers”
(Deu 30:3-5 ESV).
What is God doing—gathering together an ancient nation into the young State of Israel—in the midst of persecution and slander? He is setting the stage for a rebirth of souls far more wondrous than the rebirth of a nation.
“And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deu 30:6 ESV).
“Stored up for fire”
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the News on June 5th, 2010
The Day of the Lord Will Come
3:1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:1-7 ESV)
Whether or not the artifact found on Mt. Ararat, by the team from Noah’s Ark Ministries International (NAMI) in Hong Kong, turns out to be the real wreckage of Noah’s Ark or not, the Scripture holds a clear warning that the historical event of the global flood in Noah’s lifetime is the one and only event comparable with the day of judgment still to come. I’ve commented on NAMI’s discovery and the work being done by Creation Ministries International (CMI) to verify NAMI’s “Ark” claim in a blog post at Keruxai.com here. I lay awake for a while last night thinking about the implications of such a discovery if it proves legitimate. However, this passage in 2 Peter 3 came to mind and I was reminded that even without actual physical evidence of Noah’s Ark, there is ample physical evidence all over the world of “Noah’s Flood”.
That’s what Peter was saying in verses 5-6: “…they deliberately overlook this fact… [that] the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.” In many, many conversations with unbelievers committed to the popular dogma of a billions-of-years-old-Earth, I’ve pointed out evidence that many fossils show a sudden, catastrophic event happened long ago. Like a reptile buried and fossilized while giving birth, 346 whales being buried together in mud, hundreds of jellyfish buried and fossilized without a chance to decay, or a T-rex bone found with intact blood vessels complete with red blood cells, these and many other examples testify to anyone with an open mind that whatever catastrophic event killed the dinosaurs and formed much of the fossil record happened quickly and relatively recently (a few thousand years ago and not millions of years ago). The reaction I’ve usually gotten from skeptics reminds me of that scene in The Princess Bride when Miracle Max sticks his fingers in his ears, refusing to listen to his wife. Dr. Tas Walker’s “Biblical Geology” website has a lot of additional information helpful for believers to understand the geology of the world we live in without having to appeal to billions of years of earth formation. In most cases, in my experience, people who deny the accuracy of the Bible’s account regarding the Flood and Creation events do so not for scientific reasons involving actual recorded facts or physical evidence but for doctrinal reasons (e.g., the Bible can’t be true because God can’t exist). Peter calls this, “deliberately overlook[ing] this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.”
If NAMI’s claims of discovering the actual Ark Noah built and took refuge in during the global flood turn out to be true I would think this will be very troubling for people who deny the Bible for doctrinal reasons (people like Richard Dawkins). If you click the photo above and to the right, you can see the wooden timbers of the alleged Ark encased in ice and buried under tonnes of rock (full size photos here). I hope experts are able to confirm this discovery. And I hope that if and when they do so, skeptics, like Dawkins and like so many other people who so far refuse to acknowledge God, will realize that underneath tonnes of flimsy “evidence” and encased in Darwinian propoganda lies buried not the fact of a godless, random, billions-of-years-old Universe, but a desperate, fearful hope that they are not accountable to any Creator and Judge. The day is coming when God will expose the lies of men for what they are and judge the world on the basis of whether or not each and every person has trusted in Jesus Christ through the Gospel. Just because the world seems to go on like it always has in our experience does not mean it will do so forever. God judged humanity once before and He will do so once again.
Sir Isaac Newton on Daniel 7, “the Fourth Beast”
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on May 15th, 2010
Here’s a quote from Sir Isaac Newton on Daniel 7. In my early days of studying Bible prophecy I wondered about the identity of the nations represented by the ten horns on the head of the fourth beast. This quote from Newtwon helped me out in a big way.
The fourth Beast was the empire which succeeded that of the Greeks, and this was the Roman. This beast was exceeding dreadful and terrible, and had great iron teeth, and devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet; and such was the Roman Empire. It was larger, stronger, and more formidable and lasting than any of the former. It conquered the kingdom of Macedon, with Illyricum and Epirus, in the eighth year of Antiochus Epiphanes, Anno Nabonass. 580; and inherited that of Pergamus, Anno Nabonass. 615; and conquered that of Syria, Anno Nabonass. 679, and that of Egypt, Anno Nabonass. 718. And by these and other conquests it became greater and more terrible than any of the three former Beasts. This Empire continued in its greatness till the reign of Theodosius the great; and then brake into ten kingdoms, represented by the ten horns of this Beast; and continued in a broken form, till the Ancient of days sat in a throne like fiery flame, and the judgment was set, and the books were opened, and the Beast was slain and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flames; and one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and received dominion over all nations, and judgment was given to the saints of the most high, and the time came that they possessed the kingdom.
I beheld, saith Daniel, till the Beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flames. As concerning the rest of the Beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. And therefore all the four Beasts are still alive, though the dominion of the three first be taken away. The nations of Chaldea and Assyria are still the first Beast. Those of Media and Persia are still the second Beast. Those of Macedon, Greece and Thrace, Asia minor, Syria and Egypt, are still the third. And those of Europe, on this side Greece, are still the fourth. Seeing therefore the body of the third Beast is confined to the nations on this side the river Euphrates, and the body of the fourth Beast is confined to the nations on this side Greece; we are to look for all the four heads of the third Beast, among the nations on this side of the river Euphrates; and for all the eleven horns of the fourth Beast, among the nations on this side of Greece. And therefore, at the breaking of the Greek empire into four kingdoms of the Greeks, we include no part of the Chaldeans, Medes and Persians in those kingdoms, because they belonged to the bodies of the two first Beasts. Nor do we reckon the Greek empire seated at Constantinople, among the horns of the fourth Beast, because it belonged to the body of the third.
Newton’s point here is important. Notice this verse:
As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. (Dan 7:12 ESV)
The point here is that the horns on the head of the fourth beast, i.e., the 1o kingdoms in this prophecy, can’t exist in the territory ruled by Babylon, Medo-Persia or by Greece because the bodies of those beasts are still “alive” in the context of this vision though their power and dominion was gone. So the 10 kingdoms on the head of the fourth beast can only be nations that existed in the area that was UNIQUE to the Roman Empire–not part of the areas Rome conquered which had previously been ruled by other empires. This limits the territory of the 10 kingdoms to what we today call Western Europe.
It’s details like this in Bible prophecy, when studied and taken seriously, that help us to guard ourselves from misinterpretations. The lesson here? Study carefully. Read slowly. Pay attention to the exact wording of the text of Scripture. The same analytical mind and brilliant attention to detail that made Newton one of the greatest scientists who has ever lived also made him a pretty good exegete of Bible prophecy!
Worshipping the Image of the Beast
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the News on November 23rd, 2009
- Image via Wikipedia
Herman Von Rompuy has just been appointed the first ever permanent President of the European Union. It’s no wonder that this news causes a stir among a large segment of Christians in North America who subscribe to a view of the end of the world known as “Dispensationalism”, or, more commonly, the “pre-trib rapture view”. It’s even less surprising that when Von Rompuy, in his first big speech, made mention of “global government” and “global management of our planet”, certain Dispensationalist sensationalists saw all kinds of “red flags”, portens of the “one world government” they expect before the coming of the arch-enemy of the Church, the Antichrist. (Just so you know, I actually respect Jerome Corsi, the author mentioned in the above link. But I think his work on this topic is a misinterpretation of the Bible and that its sensationalistic flavour feeds certain extremist elements in the Christian Church.)
What did President Herman Von Rompuy actually say? Here’s the video:
Okay, so all he really said was that the current financial crisis was the occasion of the establishment of a G-20 response… what he called “global governance”… by which it seems he meant “global governance” of the financial crisis. Similarly, when he mentioned “global management of our planet”, it was in the context of talking about the Copenhagen Conference, and seems to be a reference to “global management of our planet” with respect to the environment.
I think both of those (global governance of the financial crisis and global management of the environment) are terrible ideas. They seem to undermine local national sovereignty (which I think is a great idea!). I want to be governed by a government that I elect, a government formed from my own countrymen, ruling with respect to the laws of the country I live in. I don’t want some European deciding how much fuel I can put in what kind of car so that I can commute to work and earn a foreign currency to spend however the EU or some foreign legislative body determines I should spend it. I’m Canadian. I like my flag with the maple leaf on it, thank you very much. I’m also Baptist in my heritage and convictions (Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689), and I value local autonomy, for local churches and individual countries!
But Von Rompuy isn’t the Antichrist. The Westminster Confession of Faith identifies the Popes of Rome as the Antichrist–and I think those guys were correct. It makes better sense of the various Bible prophecies than expecting a single individual to be the arch-enemy of the Church. Especially an individual living so long after the Antichrist was due–at the demise of the Roman Empire and the rise of 10 European kingdoms that replaced it in the West.
And just because liberal elites like Von Rompuy and his socialist friends scheme and plan how to centralize international control of things like the environment and the global economy doesn’t mean that they are setting up an evil Antichristian Empire to usher in the end of days. All it means is that they are worshipping an ideology patterned after the Roman Empire. They are enamoured with fantasies of recreating the Imperial Senate of Rome.
In Revelation 13 & 17, as well as in Daniel 2 & 7, the Roman Empire is the fourth and final monolithic Empire to rule Western Europe. Upon its demise a ten-fold commonwealth of kingdoms is predicted to emerge, with a partly political and partly ecclesial kingdom rising to leadership among them. This occured when the Roman Empire fell, finally, in 476 AD and within a bit more than a century, the territory of Western Europe saw the emergence of 10 barbarian kingdoms–the precursors of the same number of nations that exist within those boundaries today. During much of their history–more or less the period sometimes called the “Dark Ages”–the City-State ruled by the Popes, dominated those ten kingdoms.
In Revelation 13 and 17 and in Daniel 7, the Empire of Rome is called “the beast”. When socialist elites today fantasize and scheme to recreate Rome’s glory through the establishment of the European Union, the G-20, the Copenhagen Conference, etc., etc., they are literally worshipping the picture, the form and shape and image of the Beast:
Revelation 13:14-15 by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
It’s an old cult, this worship of the image of the beast, the idolatry of Roman forms of government. Not new at all. And Christ has already conquered the beast, its worshippers, the Hell they will endure forever and the death their sins (and ours) have earned. So don’t fear the Antichrist, his government, or Obama. Fear God, worship His Son, Jesus, and put your trust in His death and resurrection as the Substitute for sinners.
Even Chuck Norris Is Afraid of Obama’s “One-World Government”
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the News on October 26th, 2009
Famous movie-star, martial arts expert and political columnist, Chuck Norris, recently wrote a column on WND warning readers about the implications of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Copenhagen this coming December. Bottom line? He’s afraid.
I was in a small-group Bible study this past weekend in which a member expressed similar fears that Obama is working towards a “one world government”. I’ve got to admit that the socialist, even communist, ideology that seems to motivate Obama is scary. And yes, democracy, freedom, national sovereignty (for all nations), opportunity for hard work and religious freedoms, all of these are threatened by what seems to be the agenda of the Copenhagen coference and what sure looks like Obama’s agenda. But why do people give voice to this fear under the label, “one world government”?
The reason, I think, is the wide acceptance of the theological views most popularly expressed in the Left Behind series of novels and movies. The actual perspective is known as “Pre-Tribulational Dispensationalism”. This perspective sees the Bible as teaching a series of dispensations under which God arranges His dealings with humanity throughout history. The “Pre-Tribulational” part of the label refers to the belief that the final dispensation is ushered in by the invisible coming of Christ to Earth just before a world-wide “tribulation” (pre-tribulational) breaks out against Christians.
Very common among writers who hold this view is the belief that the mastermind behind this world-wide tribulation will be a global dictator, the “Antichrist”, and leader of a “one-world government”. The thing of it is that no such “one-world government” is described in Bible prophecy anywhere.
For instance, in Daniel 2, the Bible predicts that starting in about the year 600 BC (2600 years ago), the nation of the Jews will be dominated by a succession of Empires: 1. Babylon, 2. Medo-Persia, 3. Greece, and 4. (though not named) Rome. In that prophecy, the Roman Empire is foreseen to break up into a commonwealth of 10 inferior kingdoms. This happened within about a century-and-a-half of the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 AD. I’ve written in some detail about this already in a previous post. The point is that from the early “Middle Ages” until the present day, that same territory exclusively ruled by the Roman Empire (not the Greek, Medo-Persian, or Babylonian Empires) still included 10 nations.
Daniel 7 adds some detail to this foreview of world history by explaining that a single religious-political ruler will emerge who will have great influence and power over this commonwealth of 10 nations. Revelation 13 also pictures this. We often call this religious-political ruler “the Antichrist”–though he’s not named that in either book of the Bible. But even if we go along with the use of the name, “Antichrist”, we still find no indication whatsoever that he ever is predicted to rule over a “one world government”.
I don’t really care that lots of people believe a “one world government” is coming though they’ve paid very little attention to studying the relevant Bible passages. But I do care that in looking ahead so intently for the emergence of the Boogeyman a great many Christians are blind to the much more serious and close-at-hand threat presented by the real “Antichrist”, the Popes of Rome. It’s not that Christians around the globe are in danger of being persecuted by the Pope. Hardly. It’s that the Gospel message proclaimed by Christians around the globe is constantly attacked by the counterfeit “Christianity” of the Roman Catholic Church, and the self-proclaimed leader of the Christian Faith.
A read through Augustine’s City of God is a more effective vaccine for fuzzy Christian thinking about the distinction between politics and the mission of the Church than Obama’s H1N1 vaccine is for the Swine Flu. Augustine can help Christians to see that our main mission is not to defend religious freedoms and democracy, but to preach the Gospel. We can be good citizens and pray for our political leaders, yes, but when we begin to demonize them we run the risk of being distracted from our mission as the Church of Christ. We can and must pray for and seek the welfare of “The City of Man”, but we are first and foremost citizens of “The City of God.” Therefore, our real enemy is not Obama or the UN or some fictional future leader of a “one world government”. Our real enemy is the enemy of the Gospel. We call him “Satan”, and the counterfeit Christianity we call, “Roman Catholicism” is his pawn (as is every other counterfeit form of Christianity that has spawned from the Roman “church”).
Let’s pray for the success of the Gospel while also doing our part. Let’s also pray for the welfare of the City of Man and the leaders God has set up in it. But let’s not get distracted from our spiritual mission by political science-fiction masquerading as biblical teaching.
By the way, I still love Chuck Norris’ column.
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What the Dutch & English have in common
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on September 17th, 2009
I recently received emails from two individuals both wanting some explanation on related verses in Revelation. One was about the “mystery of God” and the “little scroll” and the other was about the destruction of the tenth of the “city” and the “seven thousands of people”.
The “little scroll” of Revelation 10:11 has long fascinated me. I enjoyed so much the light that Dr. Collins shed on the subject in his commentary The Final Prophecy of Jesus (see sidebar). I had read through E.B. Elliott’s comments on this verse in Horae Apocalypticae (a 19th century classic), but it was a bit difficult to get right down to the key point of what Elliott was saying in his rather extended argument. Collins was much more succinct and therefore helpful for getting my head around the idea.
So this week when I needed to reply to these two questions emailed to me about related verses in Revelation, I was able to draw on what I have learned from Colllins and then also go back to Elliott for further detail. The following is taken in part from those emails.
In a nutshell, the “little scroll” introduced in Revelation 10:2, 8-10, is an additional self-contained prophecy parallel to the structured vision of the rest of Revelation. This additional prophecy explains with more detail than ever before, how “the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets” (Rev 10:7).
The additional prophecy “about many peoples and nations and languages and kings” (verse 11) is going to explain the “mystery of God”: what follows Revelation 10:11, i.e., chapters 11-14, is this “additional prophecy” (see Rev 10:11) that will explain the old mysterious prophecy in Daniel 7:19-28 and that, when it is fulfilled in history, will be finally understood by God’s people. The prophecies of Rev 11-14 predict in great detail the persecution of God’s “saints” who remain, the “two witnesses” which are symbolic of the remaining few Christians after a period of persecution, but who continue to testify to the Gospel even though the enemy of the Church tries to stop them (chapter 11); the Satanic power at work trying to destroy the Gospel-preaching Church but through which God protects and preserves a remnant of His people (chapter 12), and the rise of the ultimate weapon of Satan, the Antichrist, who wages all-out warfare against Christians for “forty-two months”, who is temporarily allowed by God to have authority over “every tribe and people and language and nation” (Rev 13:7, c.f. Rev 10:11). In a nutshell, these prophecies were fulfilled as the secular Roman Empire (which was predicted by the “fourth beast” in Daniel 7, and lasted from about 168 BC to 476 AD), gave way to an alliance of 10 European kingdoms (the “ten horns”) that inherited the land of the western part of the Roman Empire after its collapse and had as their leader the Pope of Rome (the other horn in Dan 7:20-21; the “beast” in Rev 13:5, which we call “The Antichrist”) for about 1,260 YEARS (approximately 606 AD to 1866 AD), or “42 months” of years (each day in the prophecy is fulfilled as a year in history). That’s the low-down on the contents of the “little scroll” introduced in Rev 10:2ff.
This helps us understand how to interpret the results of the “great earthquake” in Revelation 11:13. Since “mysterious” vision in Daniel, explained in detail in the “little scroll” section of Revelation chapters 10-14, is about the Antichrist/Beast with ten horns who persecutes Christians, then we have two big clues to decipher verse 13 of chapter 11.
Revelation 11:13 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
An “earthquake” in biblical symbolism generally refers to a great upheaval among people–usually some sort of political upheaval. The upheaval in this case refers to some great political disturbance among the people living in Antichrist’s revived, 10-fold, Roman Empire. As most of my readers should know by now, the “10-fold Roman Empire” refers to the “new and improved” Roman Empire under the rule of the Popes of Rome after the last of the Caesars, and the old pagan Roman Empire, had been conquered by Germanic tribes. This revived Roman Empire drew its power from the allegiance of 10 European kingdoms, pictured in the prophecy as ten horns on the head of the beast (the beast represents the Roman Empire and its head). So an earthquake among them is a political upheaval or uprising that shakes the 10 European kingdoms under the rule of the Pope. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century fits this description.
This sheds some light on the meaning of the words, “and a tenth of the city fell.” 1/10th of the “city” (see Revelation 17:18) is one of the ten horns, or ten European kingdoms, which supported the Roman Catholic Church (the “city”). The obvious question to ask at this point is, “What was the first European kingdom to rebel against the Roman Catholic Church and fall away from the Pope’s rule like a ‘horn falling off a beast’s head’?” The answer is England. Under Edward VI, England officially turned Protestant in 1550. There were a couple of bumps in the road along the way to becoming a stable and permanent Protestant country and Elizabeth’s rule greatly helped English Protestants to throw off papal control for good. You can almost hear the sound of the horn cracking and falling off the head of the Roman Beast.
Coat of Arms of the Republic of the Seven Netherlands
Finally, what about the “seven thousand people” killed in the earthquake? As I’ve said, the earthquake was the 15th century Protestant Reformation, and the fall of the 1/10th of the city was the breakaway of Protestant England. The “seven thousand people” must have something to do with those events as well. The normal way to express a number in Greek, like 7,000, would be to say “seven thousand” not “seven thousands” with the plural noun “thousands”. As is common in Revelation, the idea is borrowed from the Old Testament, where the word for “thousand” (elef) also means “tribes” or “tribal provinces” (as in the “tribes of Israel” Numbers 10:4). This seems to be because originally the division of the people of Israel was into groups of “thousands” (elef) which eventually grew into much bigger numbers and inherited fixed territories after the conquest of Canaan. So the old word for “thousands” eventually came to mean “provinces”. That’s how it should be understood in Revelation 11:13. Similar to the fall of one of the “ten kingdoms” of Europe, we see next a prediction of the fall of 7 provinces. The idea that seven provinces are “killed” is from the perspective of the Roman Beast–these provinces which were once part of the beast become dead to the beast by a violent tearing away. This happened in an incredible fulfillment of the detail of this prophecy in 1579 when the seven provinces of the Netherlands signed the “Union of Utrecht” and later formally declared independence from Catholic Spain in 1581, forming the Protestant Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
What a great and Sovereign God we serve that He is able to show His servants what would happen centuries before, with incredible detail and proportion, and then bring it to fulfillment. God is truly deserving of all praise and glory.
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The Islamic Antichrist?
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on August 31st, 2009
In a World Net Daily article titled, “‘Evangelical’ Christians now thanking Allah” the author of The Islamic Antichrist, Joel Richardson, criticizes Emergent Church pastor, Brian MacLaren for encouraging believers to celebrate the Islamic holiday Ramadan. It amazes me that any Christian, especially a pastor like Brian MacLaren who should know better, would join with Muslims in celebrating the origins of the Quran (that’s what Ramadan is about). And so I’m with Richardson on this point. I firmly believe in showing hospitality to Muslims and developing warm friendships with those of all faiths. But for me to ask a Muslim to celebrate with me the true meaning of Easter (i.e., Passover) is to ask a Muslim to deny his faith. Likewise, for me to join in celebrating with a Muslim the true meaning of Ramadan is to ask me to deny my faith. It just so happens that the Christian faith is true and God-given while the Muslim faith is based on a demonic deception (hint: the spirit who revealed the Quran to Mohammed wasn’t actually Gabriel as he claimed–that spirit’s real name started with “S” and ended with “atan”). And so what Christians should be aiming at in extending hospitality to Muslims is the salvation of their souls through faith in Jesus Christ.
But this same article on WND goes on to promote Richardson’s book by quoting,
The Bible abounds with proofs that the Antichrist’s empire will consist only of nations that are, today, Islamic… Despite the numerous prevailing arguments for the emergence of a revived European Roman empire as the Antichrist’s power base, the specific nations the Bible identifies as comprising his empire are today all Muslim.
The article continues,
Richardson believes the key error of many previous prophecy scholars involves the misinterpretation of a prediction by Daniel to Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel describes the rise and fall of empires of the future, leading to the end times. Western Christians have viewed one of those empires as Rome, when, claims Richardson, Rome never actually conquered Babylon and was thus disqualified as a possibility.
According to the article, Richardson postulates that the Messianic figure expected by many Muslims called “the Mahdi” is one-and-the-same as the Bible’s predicted “Antichrist”. There are many reasons, from Scripture, why a Christian should reject this speculation. But the first reason springs from Richardson’s own assertion that since Rome never actually conquered Babylon, Rome could not therefore be the fourth empire predicted by Daniel in the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2. However nothing in the text of Daniel 2 indicates that the fourth empire must conquer Babylon.
For instance, in verse 39, Daniel explains that “another kingdom inferior to [Babylon] shall arise after [the Babylonian empire].” The only qualifier is that the second empire would be “after,” and “inferior to,” the Babylonian. The rise of the the third empire is predicted next in verse 39: “…and yet a third kindom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.” Here we could make an argument that to “rule over all the earth” it would also be necessary for this kingdom to have conquered Babylon. But the word for “earth” in the Hebrew Bible, “eretz” can also be translated “ground” as in dirt, or “land”. (This is much the same way as ”earth” has a range of meanings in English: the sentence, “the seed took root in the earth” does not have the concept of the whole globe in mind at all, but only a local patch of soil.) However, the qualifiers “…and yet a third” and “of bronze” point out that this empire would come after the second in order and have something characteristic of bronze about it (though the “bronze” may just indicate that it is inferior in quality to its “silver” predecessor). The next empire is predicted in verse 40: “And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these.” No mention about conquering Babylon directly. The most important qualifier here is that it shall be the “fourth” in order. Also it is said to be an empire “strong as iron”.
How should we understand the fulfillment of this prophecy? By reviewing a little history. Babylon, the first of these empires, ruled from about 603 to 538 BC. The next empire (the one that did actually conquer and overtake the Babylonian empire) was an empire of the Medes and the Persians combined–sometimes called Medo-Persia. It lasted from about 559 to 330 BC. The third empire, the one that replaced and overtook the Persian empire, was Greece. Under Alexander the Great, the Greek empire overthrew the Persian empire to become the third great empire in the fulfillment of this prophecy. The territory conquered by Alexander was so vast that the description of ruling “over all the earth” is appropriate. To identify the fourth empire we’ve seen that the main question must be, “What empire came next? And did this next empire overthrow not Babylon, but Greece?” The answer is Rome and yes it did overthrow Greece to rule as an empire from about 168 BC to 476 AD.
But Richardon’s other important assertion is that all of the countries identified with the Antichrist are today Islamic countries. Let’s see if this is right.
Daniel chapter seven contains a prophecy that is in many respects parallel to the one we’ve looked at in Daniel 2. Verses 1-12 detail a vision that the prophet Daniel had in which he saw four “beasts” rise up on the Earth, one after another, each one overthrowing the previous beast. In verse 12, after seeing the fourth beast destroyed, Daniel notes, “As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” In verse 17, an angel explains the “beasts” to Daniel saying, “These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth.” And a little later in verse 23, the angel adds, “As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms…” So we see that these four “beasts” represent four kingdoms–just like the prophecy of empires in chapter 2. And the four kingdoms are, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
But as each “beast” / empire conquers the one before it, it doesn’t completely annhilate its predecessor. Verse 12 said that each of the first three beasts lose their “dominion” but continue alive. So what is actually happening in the prophecy is that the seat of ruling power is moving, from Babylon to Persia, to Greece and finally, to Rome. What’s so interesting about chapter 7’s prophecy is that the fourth beast, Rome, isn’t conquered like the others were. Instead Daniel foresees a new seat of power grow up out of the Roman Empire–it’s still Roman in essence but it is not unified like the original Roman Empire was. Daniel sees, in verse 7, that Rome, the fourth beast, “had ten horns…and behold, there came up among them another horn…” The same angel explains this to Daniel in verse 24 and following: “As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom (the fourth beast, the Roman Empire) ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them… He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High… and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”
In short, this means that out of the Roman Empire 10 smaller kingdoms would emerge with an eleventh “kingdom”, “different from the former ones” (verse 24) taking leadership among them and persecuting “the saints of the Most High” for a period of time. This eleventh horn that persecutes the sainst is identified by many Christian commentators as “The Antichrist”. The real question here is how to identify these other ten horns. Are they Islamic countries like Richardson contends?
Well, first of all, where do they exist? To answer that we need to pay attention to one verse while keeping another one in mind. Notice that verse 24 says, “out of this kingdom (which we see is the Roman Empire) ten kings shall arise”. So the 10 kingdoms that are associated under the Antichrist’s leadership come “out of” the Roman Empire. Now the Roman Empire in its zenith was big. It stretched from England to Egypt and from Spain to Palestine. Richardson’s right: it never did conquer Babylon. So obviously we need to try and identify the “ten kingdoms” that come “out of” the Roman Empire by searching within the boundaries that the Roman Empire did include–not outside those boundaries. But actually, we have to narrow our search even more. We need to keep in mind verse 12 which ads the detail that the bodies of the other three beasts/empires are still around though they don’t dominate any more. So the ten horns cannot include any countries that were ever part of those first three empires: the horns cannot be found in the old territory that was ruled by Babylon, by Persia, or by Greece. This means that when we are looking to identify the ten kingdoms that rose up out of Rome, we have to confine our search to those countries West of Greece that were part of the Roman Empire. This leaves a fairly small territory–the area we call Western Europe. The boundaries of that part of the Roman Empire ran along the Mediterranean Sea on the South, the Atlantic Ocean on the West, through the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria on the North (since Rome never actually conquered Germany), and on the East along Italy’s border with Greece.
Today this territory includes, not by coincidence, TEN COUNTRIES. They are not Islamic countries (yet). They are post-Christian countries which at one time all fell under the leadership of the Pope who ruled from Rome after the fall of the Roman Empire (incidentally, this means that the Popes of Rome are the eleventh horn, which we call the “Antichrist”). These countries are Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium, Spain and Portugal.
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The Problem with Preterism
Posted by: Joe Haynes in In the Bible on July 2nd, 2009
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Ask a preterist about preterism and he will talk about Nero, the fall of Jerusalem and Matthew 24.
But ask an historicist about preterism and he will argue that the book of Revelation was written in A.D. 96 during the reign of Emperor Domitian.
The above quote is the introduction to a new article, available on Historicism.com’s “Matt24.com” feature section, written by Midnight Oil Ministries. Read more here!
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