Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Chapter 2

Chapter 2
The Signs of The Day of the Lord


Before the Lord does a mighty work He gives the world signs. He gave Egypt and the Israelites many signs when He delivered Israel out of bondage. “And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders” (Deut 26:8) The Lord also gave many sign gifts to his servants to validate and show the world that Jesus was the true Messiah. “And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.” (Acts 2:43) God will also use signs in the future to let us know that the Day of the Lord is approaching. In His Word, God has revealed to us several signs that must occur before the Day of the Lord. In this chapter, we will examine the signs that signal that the Day of the Lord is almost upon us.

The Sign of the Sun and Moon
One of the most prominent signs of the Day of the Lord is listed in Joel 2:31. It states:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.

This scripture is also quoted in Acts 2:20:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.

These scriptures give us crucial information regarding the Day of the Lord. It tells us in no uncertain terms that two celestial events must occur before the Day of the Lord arrives: the moon’s light will be turned to the color of blood and the sun will become darkened. What type of event would cause such occurrences? Many have speculated as to the cause. Some have asserted such things as a pole shift[1], the passing of planet x[2], or even a super volcano. Amos 8:9 makes a strong case for the Day of the Lord entailing a pole shift, “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.” The phrase “that day” is in reference to the Day of the Lord and it says that the sun will go down at noon. The only way for that to happen would be for a pole shift to occur.[3] Though we can only speculate as to the exact cause, we know for certain that it will occur and will most certainly be noticed by all who dwell on the earth. Those who heed it will realize that the Day of the Lord is very near.

Great and Mighty Signs
The parallel passages in Joel and Acts also bring out other signs that will occur. Namely, God will pour out His Spirit in a great and mighty way, and great signs will be done by God’s people. “That I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions” (Acts 2:17). Thus, another sign before the Day of the Lord is that God will pour out his Spirit in a great and miraculous way, and many of the gifts that were so prolific in the first century will flourish once again.

The Falling Away
Two other events in scripture that must occur before the great Day of the Lord are found in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. God, through the apostle Paul, in referring to the Day of the Lord, says, “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.” The Thessalonians had been deceived into thinking that they missed the rapture and were in the Day of the Lord period. Paul tells them that the falling away must occur before the Day of the Lord.

The word used in the Greek for falling away is apostasia, from which we get our word “apostasy,” which basically means “backsliding.” Clarke’s commentary describes it like this: “a dereliction of the essential principles of religious truth—either a total abandonment of Christianity itself, or such a corruption of its doctrines as renders the whole system completely inefficient to salvation.[4] The great falling away will be a time when professing Christians, in large numbers, will turn away from the faith. “The article makes it even more significant; this is not a falling away, but the falling away, the great and final rebellion.”[5]

J. Hampton Keathley, III , Th.M. describes the coming apostasy like this: “The apostasy or rebellion clearly refers to a special departure and rebellion against the true God. This will become a worldwide movement and will provide the seed bed for the great system of revolt which will be headed up in the person of the Beast who will be the very personification of satan himself.”[6]

In order for a great falling away to take place, I believe that an alternative belief system to the true gospel will be promoted with such believability that nominal Christians (not true Christians) will reject the God of the Bible. We can only speculate as to the exact reasons for the “falling away,” but there are many plausible theories.

One such theory involves aliens. Specifically, I am talking about the theory that aliens are real space beings and are the originators of life on earth. While many believers may initially bristle at this outrageous suggestion, there is much support for this theory that “another gospel” will come at the hand of what many mistakenly believe to be alien beings. It might sound crazy at first, but it is highly likely that much of what we hear about regarding “aliens” is really demonic activity.[7]

If you have ever researched the UFO phenomena, what is compelling is that, consistently, alien theology, as recounted in many “close encounters,” parallels the plans and purposes of satan as presented in scripture. These manifestations present themselves as angels of “light and intellectual illumination,” claim to provide leadership and hope to a suffering world, provide a source of awe, wonder, and worship that is an alternative to the God of the Bible, and even claim to be the originators of life on earth. Here is an interesting quote from a website promoting this alien theory containing an actual message from on of these aliens.

In other words, they look like us, and we look like them. In fact, we were created "in their image" as explained in the Bible. He told Rael that: "We were the ones who designed all life on earth. You mistook us for gods. We were at the origin of your main religions. Now that you are mature enough to understand this, we would like to enter official contact through an embassy.”
The messages dictated to Rael explain that life on Earth is not the result of random evolution, nor the work of a supernatural 'God'. It is a deliberate creation, using DNA, by a scientifically advanced people who made human beings literally "in their image" -- what one can call "scientific creationism." …For example, in Genesis, the Biblical account of Creation, the word "Elohim" has been mistranslated as the singular word "God", but it is actually a plural word which means "those who came from the sky", and the singular is "Eloha" (also known as "Allah")…
Leaving our humanity to progress by itself, the Elohim nevertheless maintained contact with us via prophets including Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, etc., all specially chosen and educated by them. The role of the prophets was to progressively educate humanity through the Messages they taught, each adapted to the culture and level of understanding at the time. They were also to leave traces of the Elohim so that we would be able to recognize them as our Creators and fellow human beings when we had advanced enough scientifically to understand them. Jesus, whose father was an Eloha, was given the task of spreading these messages throughout the world in preparation for this crucial time in which we are now privileged to live: the predicted Age Of Revelation
.[8]

If satan’s demonic hoard can mask as alien beings presenting a false gospel, and if this will cause many in the world to follow satan at just the right point in history to accomplish his goals, he will do it. For more information on this topic, visit thecomingepiphany.com[9]

By the way, NASA has recently released video clips of several “alien encounters” lending more credence to the alien theory[10] Many people in the world have already been deceived to some degree and believe that aliens are really outer space beings, and unfortunately many Christians believe the same.

Another theory as to why the great falling away may occur regards the rise of pagan religions and their elements of heresy that attack Christian doctrines. In fact there is a film entitled Zeitgeist, meaning spirit of the time, which is promoting pagan heresies and is destroying the faith of many nominal Christians.

An online movie documenting the close ties between ancient pagan religions and today's Christianity is "antichrist" in nature, destroying the faith of believers by combining some astonishing truth with plenty of error…."Millions of believers have watched 'Zeitgeist' and many are throwing away their long held faith in Jesus as a result. I am receiving calls from people concerned about family members who are doing just that."[11]

As you can see this evil movie is being used by Satan to pull people away from God. I am sure heresies like this will unfortunately cause many to fall into error.
Revealing of “the Man of Sin”

Another sign that will occur before the Day of the Lord as listed in 2 Thess. 2:3 is that the “man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” We all know that the man of sin is the antichrist. What does this revealing entail? 2 Thessalonians 2:4 gives us the answer:

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; 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.

The scripture speaks clearly that the antichrist must be revealed and set himself up as God in the Temple before the coming of the Day of the Lord. The Greek word naos is used for temple. Thayer’s lexicon defines naos as: “Used of the temple at Jerusalem, but only of the sacred edifice (or sanctuary) itself, consisting of the Holy place and the Holy of Holies.” Thus scripture indicates that the antichrist will enter the Holy place and possibly the Holy of Holies.
In other parts of scripture, this event has been termed “the Abomination of Desolation”:

When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (Matt. 24:15)

And they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.” (Dan. 11:31)

The most likely scenario is that the antichrist will enter the Temple—even into the Holy sanctuary—proclaim himself as god/messiah, desecrate the temple by some means, stop daily sacrifices, and possibly set up some image of himself. This is another sign that must be fulfilled before the Day of the Lord begins.

Will the Temple Be Rebuilt?
This brings us to another consideration. At present, the temple does not exist. In order for the antichrist to perform the Abomination of Desolation, there must be a temple where sacrifice rituals are performed. It is reported that the Jews are ready to build this temple. They are just waiting for the go-ahead. To perform sacrifice rituals there must also be certain items such as the table of shew bread, the golden lamp stand, and the Ark of the Covenant. The late archeologist Ron Wyatt has claimed to have found and seen all of these items and has told leading Jews where they are.[12]

Even if they do not find the originals, many dedicated Jews have already made copies to use in the new temple, which can be viewed at the Temple Institute Web site.[13]

The Mysterious Sign
There is a fifth, kind of mysterious, sign that will happen before the Day of the Lord comes. This sign was given to us in Malachi 4:5–6:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

We see here that the prophet Elijah will return to earth before the Day of the Lord occurs. It is considered by some to be mysterious because it is not clear exactly how this will transpire. Will he just appear? Or will he be born as a baby? Will he be in a physical body or a spiritual one? These are questions that the scriptures do not detail, making his appearance a bit of a mystery. We do know that one of the main things that he will accomplish is to turn the hearts of the Jewish people to the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. Many Jews are looking for Elijah’s return and believe that, because he did not die and was taken up into heaven, he will come back to earth and will signal to all that the Messianic era is about to begin. Even the Jewish Passover Seder speaks of this anticipation, for the fifth cup is left for Elijah who, according to Jewish tradition, will return on Passover.
Some Christians believe he will most likely be one of the two witnesses listed in Rev. 11:3–14:

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

It is debated as to when the witnesses will perform their miraculous works. It is also debated as to whether or not the exact identity of these two witnesses can be known. What we do know for sure is that Elijah, whether he is one of the witnesses or not, will return before the Day of the Lord.

In SummaryIn summary, at least five events/signs must happen before the Day of the Lord comes:

1. The moon is turned to blood.
2. The sun will be darkened.
3. The great falling away will occur.
4. The antichrist will be revealed and the Abomination of Desolation will occur.
5. The prophet Elijah returns.

Just as God has shown signs in the past before He does a great and mighty work so will He give signs to let the entire world know that the Day of the Lord is close at hand.

[1] The 'pole shift theory' is the hypothesis that the axis of rotation of a planet has not always been at its present-day locations or that the axis will not persist there; in other words, that its physical poles had been or will be shifted. From Wikipedia
[2] Planet x is claimed to be an undiscovered brown dwarf star that orbits our sun and every five to ten thousand years comes close to the earth and causes cataclysmic events.
[3] This passage will most likely have a double fulfillment, the first when Jesus was crucified and the second at the Day of the Lord.
[4] Clarke’s Commentary, http://www.godrules.net/library/clarke/clarke2the2.htm
[5] David Guzik, Study Guide for II Thessalonians, http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/david_guzik/sg/2Th_2.html.
[6] http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=1696
[7] http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0307/tremble.html
[8] http://rael.org/rael_content/rael_summary.php
[9]. Other excellent resources include UFOs: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy, by William R. Goetz (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania); UFOs and the Alien Agenda, by Bob Larson (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers); and Facts on UFOs and Other Supernatural Phenomena, by John Ankerberg and John Weldon (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House).
[10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p9vrhLJfEU
[11] http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92903
[12] For more information on this find, see the article entitled “The Ark of the Covenant Discovered?” at The Coming Epiphany Web site.
[13] http://www.templeinstitute.org/main.htm

3 comments:

  1. Great points! My studies on the apostasy, or the falling away (from) the faith, lead me to conclude that when the man of sin or the beast is killed, then comes back to life, this will kick off the great falling away from the faith: a deliberate abandonment from a formerly professed position. The people who fall away are goats, reprobates: failing the test,rejected. (Rev 3:10 looks different when you know the meaning of these words-see Jhn 16-17, esp 17:15). This is taught right in Matt 24:10, "And then many shall be OFFENDED".-to fall away (from the faith). This is the same word Jesus used in Jhn 6:61 when the false disciples abruptly stopped following Him. They will also "betray" one another:hand over. Yes, just as Judas did, the same word. So even though Paul seems to put the falling away before the antichrist is revealed, it does not line up whith what Jesus taught. Read Matt 24 carefully, and think of what we already know: It is only when God sends the strong delusion, and then the people "wonder" at the beast, will the wholesale falling away begin. Why? Becuse you will be killed and not be able to eat if you don't worship the beast and take the mark. Paul was probably just listing things that must happen before "B" takes place, not an exact order. We do this all the time in our everyday speech. To close, Paul says in 2nd Thess 2:13, that true believers will always believe because: God has chose us for salvation. Set us apart by the work of the Holy Spirit. And just as the 11 believed (trusted) in Jesus' words of truth, God has granted us to believe in the truth too. So when the going gets tough, let us remember our holding fast to our belief system is from God, not us. He will see us through. :) To God be the glory. Amen!

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  2. The idea of the Mayan calendar, is the rotation of the Milky way galaxy, where every x number of years, when the earth makes the circle, the earth goes through the "Dark Rift" for a period of time, and this dark rift has unusual physics, which create unique natural disasters. Supposably, the earth is now going thru the dark rift.
    The best explaination of Planet X I have heard is by Gill Broussard, as Mr Broussard relates the planet to Bible Prophecy, and states that it must have an orbit of around 300 years give or take, an orbit that is not constant. The 3600 year orbit was put down by Sitchin, an anthropologist. Sitchin did not know that the numbers 36, 360 and 3600 were written by the sumarians, the same.
    And if one goes through Kepler's laws of planetary physics, a planet X with a 3600 year orbit would have to be 10 times the size of jupiter. WIth a 360 year orbit, it would be around 7 times the size of earth, thus Mr Broussard calls it 7X. What really grabbed my attention was that Mr Broussard used Bible prophecy to explain his point. Now Mr Broussard was wrong, but I suspect that Mr Broussard really did not interpret prophecy correctly and for some reason, it seems that not only passover is important in the Day of the Lord/the second coming, but also the 40 days of Moses, when Moses left Egypt and went 40 days into Sinai, and then went and received the 10 commandments. I do not have a definitive answer, but it seems that this is an important clue. Isaiah 13: 5 through Isaiah 13:13 tells of a weapon that GOD stores in the far parts of Heaven, and GOD brings this weapon out for severe chastisements, and it can move the earth out of its path. The brown dwarf star theory, with moons circling it, is not supported by Kepler's law of planetary motion. However, a rogue planet, that has planet and comet like features will support the prophecy and the laws of physics. Mr Broussard found 19 times when this planet went by earth, in the Bible and in history, which gives more credence to this possibility.
    The increase in earth quakes, volcanos, weather extremes, the social changes, are following prophecy.
    The Holy Father is omniscent, thus, knows all, controls all, and is in control of everything. Our job is to keep the faith.

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    1. Planet X is probably described in the events of Seal 6. Seal 6 does not occur until after the midpoint of the 70th week and after the antichrist takes over the world. Thus I do not expect planet x until at least late 2017 or 2018.

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