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| Preparing for the End of Time |
| IAUA End Time Ministry | |
| The Lord is Coming! Are you ready? |
Some time in the months before Thanksgiving a farmer selects a turkey and places it in a pen for special feeding and care. This is the time of the end for the turkey. As the months go by the turkey is fed well and grows plump. The day before Thanksgiving the farmer goes to the shed, and starts sharpening the axe. This is the end of time for the turkey. So it is for this world.
Each day dawns with first light followed by the sunrise. The time of the end and the end of time also have a dawn and sunrise. The signs and dates of these things are foretold by prophecy.
In order to understand where we are, we must go back to see how we got here. Then we can be prepared to look into the future.
13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
Daniel 8:13-14
A prophetic day is a year. See: Understanding Prophecy.
A day in prophecy represents a year. The 2300 day(year) prophecy ended in 1844. It began in 457 BC with the decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the nation of Israel after the Babylonian captivity. The nation of Israel was given another chance to follow God and prepare for the First Coming of the Messiah. They failed to do this, Jerusalem was again destroyed, and the nation of Israel was again eliminated in 70 AD. The nation of Israel was again restored in 1948 to prepare for the Second Coming of the Messiah.
The ultimate truth of God was revealed with the First Coming of the Messiah. God came to earth as a mortal man and lived a perfect life and example of truth. The Messiah taught the unblemished truth straight from the mouth of God. He was crucified on the cross as the ultimate penalty for sin and sacrifice for the salvation of mankind. The disciples and apostles of the Messiah spread the message of truth. After the victory in the death and resurrection of the Messiah came the temporary resurgence of sin to its highest levels since the destruction of the world by flood.
It is important not to loose sight of the fact that the Messiah, the disciples, and the apostles were all Israelites. The disciples and the apostles practiced all of the Law of Moses. The Messiah upheld and practiced the Law of Moses and never spoke against it. When facing the Jewish judges, the only "guilt" they found was He admitted He was the Messiah. This they would not accept. Today many people accept the Messiah, but they do not accept He was an Israelite and what it means for us.
The dark night of apostasy is prophesied in Daniel 7. The dawn of the time of the end followed this great apostasy.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Daniel 7:25
A Time = 1 year
Times = 2 years
Dividing of Times = 1/2 year.
360 X 3 = 1080 + 180 = 1260
A prophetic year is 360 prophetic days. See: Understanding Prophecy.
The 1260-day prophecy ended in 1798. This time period was the Dark Ages of apostasy and persecution.
The NET 2000 - The Midnight Cry web site has online video presentations which are an excellent introductory discussion of the prophecies. There are also excellent outlines and lesson studies.
The Dark Ages saw a tremendous apostasy from Biblical truth. Great truths were trampled to the ground. These truths lay hidden for centuries and were all but lost. Paul saw the beginning of the mystery of iniquity, the man of sin, the son of perdition. The corruption and domination of religious power in Papal Rome grew until the evil mingling with political power was fully established in 538. Papal Rome dominated until the political blow in 1798.
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-7
The identity of the son of perdition, whom the Apostle John called the antichrist is clearly revealed by those within and closest to the system the antichrist created. By the 12th century the faithful and revered of the Roman Catholic Church were expressing the most profound discontent.
Bernard of Clairvaux said, concerning the Catholic bishops:
They are ministers of Christ, but servants of antichrist; the gold on their spurs, their reins and saddles, is brighter than on their altars; their tables are splendid with dishes and cups, thence their drunkenness and gluttony; their larders are stored with provisions, and their cellars overflow with wine - and for such rewards as these men seek to become bishops; for these things are not bestowed on merit but on things which walk in darkness.
T. W. Carron, The Christian Testimony Through the Ages (London: G. Morrish, 1955), p. 96.
Warning! Papal Rome is an apostatized religious system mingled with political power created by Satan. Do not apply what I am saying to people in the Roman Catholic Church. Do not confuse the difference between the errors of the power system and the people in the church. While we hate sin and oppose evil systems, we must remember to have God's love for all of His children in our heart.
God does not warn us of this false system to condemn or hurt us. He does this because He loves us and desires our eternal good. He knows there are many honest and faithful people who are a part of this system. It is not the individuals He condemns, but rather the institution. And He only condemns the system because He loves the people who are deceived by its erroneous teachings.
1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Matthew 7:1-2
In the 14th Century the seeds of the Reformation were sprouting. The religious power of the Church was being challenged. John Wycliffe's bold stand of opposition to the pope (as the representative of the evil system) is seen in the following passage:
"The Gospel of Jesus Christ," he said, "is the only source of true religion. The Pope is Antichrist, the proud worldly priest of Rome, and the most cursed of clippers and purse-carvers."
Andrew Miller, Short Papers on Church History (London: Pickering & Inglis, no date), p. 554.
The 15th century saw the martyrdom of one of the early reformers John Hus. His observation:
The Roman pontiff and the cardinals are not the Church. The Church can exist without cardinals and a pope, and in fact for hundreds of years there were no cardinals. As for the position Christ assigned to Peter, Christ called himself the Rock, and the Church is founded on him.
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VI (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1910), pp. 368-370.
The 16th century saw the rise of one of the greatest of the reformers Martin Luther. His statements:
...There is buying, selling, bartering, trading, trafficking, lying, deceiving, robbing, stealing, luxury, harlotry, knavery, and every sort of contempt of God, and even the rule of Antichrist could not be more scandalous. Venice, Antwerp, Cairo are nothing compared to this fair which is held at Rome and the business which is done there, except that in those other places they still observe right and reason.
Martin Luther, Works of Martin Luther, Vol. II, "An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility" (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, reprint 1982), p. 95-96.
I was wrong. I retract the statement that certain articles of John Hus are evangelical. I say now, "Not some but all the articles of John Hus were condemned by Antichrist and his apostles in the synagogue of Satan." And to your face, most holy Vicar of God, I say freely that all the condemned articles of John Hus are evangelical and Christian, and yours are downright impious and diabolical....Since they have burned my books, I burn theirs. The canon law was included because it makes the pope a god on earth. So far I have merely fooled with this business of the pope. All my articles condemned by Antichrist are Christian. Seldom has the pope overcome anyone with Scripture and with reason.
Roland H.Bainton, Here I Stand (Nashville: Abingdon, Press, 1950), p. 128.
The decay of the religious power of Rome from the attacks of the Reformation continued until the loss of political power and the deadly wound in 1798. Napoleon sent Berthier to Rome with orders to imprison the pope and bring him to France. The time of the end was dawning.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.As prophesied, the beast was, as it were, wounded to death. The Catholic Church was severely reduced in political power, wealth, possessions, and influence for many years. As prophesied, the deadly wound is healing and the beast begins to grow in power again.
Revelation 13:3
The deadly wound began healing with the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and the kingdom of Italy. The treaty was signed in 1929. This returned political status to the Catholic Church and some of its wealth and possessions.
The political power of the Catholic Church is returning to full force. Pope John Paul II is widely viewed to have ended communism in collusion with Reagan and Gorbachev. The fall of communism began May 2, 1989 with the fall of the Iron Curtain in Hungary. The Berlin wall was opened on November 9, 1989. Two years later the Soviet Union was disbanded.
The religious power of the Catholic Church has also grown. The Catholic Church went through a short phase of humility and conciliation. Pope John Paul II issued many stern writings emphasizing the supremacy and renewing the goals of the Catholic Church.
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