The Prophetic Call pt 3

The second character trait of an apostle and prophet is their view of eternity. Nothing is viewed as temporal except that which comes from below. Things may rot away, but our words, characters, deeds, actions, reactions, thoughts, and everything that goes into everyday life will remain forever. We will either be rewarded for these things, or they will condemn us. If we are to receive the reward of eternal life, but have build everything we have upon that which is fleeting, then we will find ourselves being purged through the flames before walking into eternity. I would much rather be purged here and now of any deficiency I might have than to get there on that day and need to go into heaven without an eye, hand, or foot.

What do I mean by eternal perspective? An eternal perspective in a simple scenario is the ability to know the Scripture as a whole. You can view the fullness of the Bible. Everything connects. From the “in the beginning” to the final “amen,” all the words are one word. What is that word? How does it all connect?

In the specificity of the prophetic call, it is more than just connecting the beginning to the end and seeing the whole of it. The prophet transcends time. He is able to view from the beginning to the next age because God reveals to him the beginning to the next age. Notice the slight difference. What I’ll be talking on in this section will be the former, and what we’ll look into at a later point is the latter.

Lets take a quick tour of the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Just think about this for a moment. This was written during a time when people created temples and altars for the gods and goddesses of this world. People had to build a dwelling place for their gods. But this God built something Himself. He didn’t expect people to build it; they weren’t around to build it anyway. The God of the Bible made Himself a Temple and called it the Heavens and the Earth.

The first thing that I then ask is, “If God created Himself a Temple when He made the Heavens and Earth, then why would He destroy it?” We’ve all been taught that at the end of the age, God will destroy this temporal physical heavens and earth to create a New Heaven and New Earth. This has been ingrained into our thinking. But God is a creator, not a destroyer. What would cause Him to destroy?

This is where we come into the part with sin, right? Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit and ate. Thus, they upset the balance of the whole universe. They handed over the authority. Sin isn’t something that you do; it is a condition that each and every one of us are born into. Sin is the condition, not the action. Our condition is to be away from God. We desire the things that will drive God out. Things that are good and healthy need to be worked for. It is hard to live healthy when you haven’t done so in a long time. It is hard to live holy and righteous when you have lived in a different way. This is why it is a journey for all of us. It takes effort and determination to live the way that God has made us to live. Ever since the sin condition came in, we have been of a different kingdom: the kingdom of darkness.

This is part of that eternal perspective. We see right at the beginning on the first day that God separated the light and the darkness. They weren’t mingled together. On the fourth day, God made the sun, moon, and stars to “govern the day and night and to separate the darkness from the light.” Without going into theological debates as to why they would need to separate the darkness from the light when that has already been done, just let that sink in. God created the sun, moon, and stars to govern the darkness. They were to be rulers and judges over it. But it seeped in anyway. Adam’s sin did more damage than human depravity. Depravity doesn’t fit it.

Next we come to the Gospel: God says to the Serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between her offspring and yours; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Well, I think that the first part is very much true; I have seen a lot of women who will lose their ever-loving minds when they see a snake. Jokes aside, this is the framework of the Gospel. Whether we look at it in this translation or translate it directly from the Hebrew, the message is similar.

When you literally translate the Hebrew text, it says something to the effect of, “He will come first (the head), and you will come last (he heel).” The words head and heel can be translated as metaphors for first and last. This is because when you’re born, your head comes first, and your heel comes out last. So whether we look at the NIV translation or the exact Hebrew translation, we see it saying pretty similar things.

In the NIV translation, we see God telling the Serpent that there will come one from the woman who will crush the kingdom of darkness, and in return, the Serpent will bruise His heel. This is the cross. But in the Hebrew translation, it is saying that God will send His Messiah first, and then Satan will have his antichrist last. The words first and last are both literal and metaphor. Jesus did come before the antichrist. But Jesus will also be the victor over the antichrist. Understand that both of these are implied.

We look forward into the book of Genesis to see that God designated that a certain people would be the priestly nation to the nations. It was God’s intent that through Israel all people might come to know God. This isn’t all mentioned in Genesis, but since we’re looking through the wide span, we know that God did indeed intend for this when He told Abram, “I will make you a father of many nations.” Israel (the people) was in exile in Egypt for 400 years. At least, that is what Genesis says.

God rescues them out of their bondage. The Exodus story is one that many people today claim as a metaphor for their own salvation. But it is also a real event. God really did rescue that people. He really did intend for them to be the priestly nation to the nations. He really did intend that Israel would have all the promises and blessings found within the Old Testament. And we read in Romans 9 that these promises and blessings are irrevocable. Israel will one day walk in the fulfillment of these promises and blessings. What happened between then and now that makes me have to say, “They will one day…?”

Israel forsook the Lord their God. They played the harlot with other gods and goddesses. The two most prominently found in the Old Testament are Ba’al and Asherah. Ba’al is the god of prosperity. He is the one who brings the rain. Ba’al sends the rain, the rain then waters the field, the field yields a good crop, and then the person is made prosperous. Ba’al was a version of Molech. Molech was the “detestable thing” that demanded your firstborn. So too did Ba’al require your firstborn.

The Ba’al worship is found in the prophets. In some places, it seems like the prophets prophesy that right up to the end of the age there will be worship of Ba’al. The root of Ba’al worship actually starts way back in Genesis 10. We find a man named Nimrod, who was the founder of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. It was within the reaches of his kingdom that Sodom and Gomorrah were. He was the inventor of Molech.

He was also the one who Babel stemmed from. There are legends that the tower at Babel was actually an altar to Molech. A lot of the artist renderings show a tower that spirals from the outside into an inner point of the circle. This is a common practice with witchcraft and divination. While casting the spell, you walk around in a circle coming closer and closer to the center of the circle as you progress through the spell.

And when you look at Revelation 17-18, you find that the last kingdom of the age that is the “one-world-government” is called Babylon. In Revelation 17:2, we read that it is the wine of her sorcery that the nations get drunk on.

If you haven’t noticed, the Bible all wraps up together many times over. When we read our Old Testaments, they seem to give a giant narrative over and over and over again about how it just doesn’t work out. Adam and Eve both sinned. Humanity became wicked enough that God was remorseful and repented He even created the world in Genesis 6. He sends the flood. From Noah’s family the whole of humanity is repopulated.

An interesting fact is found in Genesis 9. Noah blesses his sons and curses Canaan. Why is this interesting? It is Japheth that is told he will be enlarged. The name Japheth actually means enlargement. Who is Japheth – or more properly: who are his descendants? Japheth is what we would consider to be the Western World. The European influenced, Caucasian civilization is what historians tell us Japheth has become. He has indeed enlarged quite a bit.

Canaan gets cursed. It is said that he will be the servant of Japheth. Now, Ham is left out of this. He doesn’t get blessed nor cursed. Ham’s descendants stem as wide as the African cultures to the Eastern cultures. Who are the Eastern cultures? Well, we obviously know the Middle Eastern peoples, but even the oriental nations are supposedly of Ham’s descent. Canaan in particular is the region of the Middle East.

However, the Middle Eastern people today are mostly Shem’s descendants. I think there has been enough mingling that we can’t truly say that with conviction. Shem was given the blessing that Japheth will dwell in his tents. You have to understand that the tent is more than some place that you sleep in. Your tent is your home. For someone else to dwell in your tent is to take them into your family, and they take on your name and your culture. It isn’t the other way around. The descendants of Shem are the Semites (which most people only think of the Jews, but many Moslem people are also Semites).

The thing about the Semites is that they have been for much of history a very nomadic and shepherding people. When someone comes into your home as a visitor, you do anything and everything, no matter what cost, to protect him or her. That is why Lot would have offered his daughters to the people at Sodom. Whatever the cost, Lot will protect those who come under his roof.

Yet, when someone comes under your roof as one to stay, they are adopted into your family. Like I said before, they take on your name and culture and heritage. So if Japheth is supposed to enter the tent of Shem, then our religion is Hebraic, not Christian. Christianity is not the first. Christianity should be the fuller form of Judaism. It should be that root that takes us all the way back to Adam being a Son of God.

That isn’t how many people see Christianity though. Many Jews think that to become Christian is to leave their Jewish heritage. That isn’t supposed to be the case. Japheth must enter the tent of Shem. Shem is to take in Japheth. Instead, Japheth has stolen Shem’s God and made him something completely other than what he has shown himself to be. We have westernized the Bible. In doing this, we have robbed Shem instead of being humble and entering into this tent.

Lets use this as a springboard. The name Shem means “name.” So Japheth must enter the tent of “The Name.” What is “The Name?” It is obviously the tetragrammaton – YHWH. So to enter in the tent of Shem is to enter into that name above every name. Well that sounds very New Testament like. Who is the Name Above Every Name? Jesus.

The blessing of Noah in Genesis chapter 9 is showing 2 things. First, it shows that Israel is the chosen people that the rest of the world must “bow down” to enter into their tent. Second, it is a Messianic prophecy. The whole of the Old Testament seems to display this somewhat completion, until you read the prophets. The prophets and many of the Psalms seem to point beyond the Old Testament to a Messianic era where the world will live at peace and the Messiah will be the King and Priest.

This is the main point of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews was written to specifically point out that Jesus was the Hebrew Messiah and that He fulfills the Old Testament prophecies. There are many objections by the Jewish people about this Jesus fellow and how he hasn’t fulfilled his duty if he is supposed to be Messiah.

What does the Bible teach about this? We see in Daniel 9 a clear indicator that the Messiah would come some time before the destruction of the 2^nd Temple. It was destroyed in 70 A.D. If they expect a Messiah to come, they need to look backward at least 2000 years. It is in Hosea that the Messiah will come like the former and latter rain. This is the spring and the fall. Both spring and fall had feasts that you would go to.

The first feast is the Passover. The whole of the book of John is written in a way that it points out over and over again that Jesus is our Passover Lamb. He even died at the hour the Passover Lamb was supposed to be slaughtered. From there we have the feast of unleavened bread. That is the resurrection. Our flesh has been purged – sin vanquished.

The resurrection is also the Feast of the First Fruits. He is the firstborn from the dead. In 1 Corinthians, Paul even calls Jesus our first fruits. When we travel through the feasts, we find that 40 days after the resurrection, there is the Feast of Weeks (also known as Pentecost). What were the disciples doing for 10 days in that upper room? They were preparing for the feast. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came.

We’ve gone through 4 of the 7 feasts. What is left? We still have yet to fulfill the fall feasts. This is why the Messiah must come like the former and latter rains. It is two comings. The next feast in the year is the Feast of Trumpets. In our eschatology (both Old Testament and New Testament) there will be a final trumpet blast from heaven before Jesus returns. After that is the Day of Atonement. This is the Judgment Seat of Christ. From there we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Wouldn’t you know that in Revelation 21, it has the strange wording that God has “tabernacled” with men?

But there are a lot of little details in between all of this, right? We didn’t even mention the antichrist. And what about the Jewish people? Are they gone forever?

Lets back up again. At present day, we see that the Jewish people have been restored to their Land. Is that a fulfillment of prophecy? The answer is yes. But which prophecy? We are too quick to jump in and say that they will never be uprooted again. From a historic and prophetic standpoint, Israel will always suffer harassment and persecution from their neighbors as long as they reject the Lord their God. Have they rejected Him? They certainly haven’t embraced Him.

If they haven’t embraced God, and they are continuing to pile sin upon sin and rebellion upon rebellion, then why would they stay in that land? I would love to see that I am wrong on this. Historically, they haven’t stayed in it. The prophets say that when they return that final time, they will come back rejoicing and knowing the Lord their God. He will be their God, and they will be His people.

That hasn’t happened.

It says in Ezekiel 22:19-22 that God will gather Israel a final time in the Land and bring them all to Jerusalem for the purpose of pouring out His wrath. I think that this might be a fulfillment. Jesus said about the end of the age that there would be tribulation upon Israel that has never before been experienced, and will never be experienced again afterward. That is a direct quote from Daniel 12. If we read Daniel, we find that throughout chapters 7-12 the antichrist figure (which Daniel wouldn’t call him that being hundreds of years before Christ) is supposed to set up the abomination of desolation at the Temple. He is also supposed to cut off the sacrifice.

Wait a second… What Temple? What sacrifice? In modern times, there is not a Temple. There can’t be sacrifice without a Temple. So we’re left with 3 options. Either the verses in Daniel aren’t really talking about a physical Temple and sacrifice, they already happened, or the Temple and sacrifice will be rebuilt and renewed. I can’t figure any other options.

There are multiple places in the New Testament (including the words of Jesus Himself) where it references these passages in Daniel and the sacrifice being cut off. The Temple is mentioned, the sacrifice is mentioned, and Israel being sifted through the nations is mentioned. I personally believe that there will be a 3^rd Temple. I think that they will set up priesthood and start sacrifices. I think that the antichrist will literally seat himself within that Temple. I think that the sacrifice will be cut off and the Temple will be destroyed again.

Why do I believe this? It fits into the framework of the whole of Scripture. It fits into the eternal perspective. When we try to interpret our Bibles through natural means, we are going to fall short. Some things have to be future. There isn’t world peace. That has to be future. The resurrection and the 1000-year reign with Jesus haven’t happened. That has to be future.

I’ll continue to build and show why I think these things will happen. The antichrist will persecute the Israeli people. That is obvious from the prophets. There is always some sort of immanent and ultimate fulfillment of the “northern kingdom” that will come and devastate the Israeli people at the end of the age. They will be sifted through all nations, as it says in Amos 9. While they are sifted through the nations, they will flee through the wilderness places of those nations.

What makes me say that? There are many references in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets about this. Revelation even speaks in chapter 12 about how the woman (a symbol for Israel in all prophetic texts) will flee from the dragon into the wilderness where God has set up refuge for her there.

If you look at Revelation 12 in the Greek, there is an interesting wording that is often neglected. The King James interpreters got it right. It says that the woman will flee to the wilderness where God has set up refuge, and they will take care of her. That doesn’t make sense. Who are the “they?” They are the Church. They are the servants mentioned time after time in Isaiah that will help the people Israel. It says in Ezekiel 20:33-35 that God will meet with Israel face-to-face in the wilderness places. This leads to 2 conclusions: either God will come down and show Himself in person, or He will work through some other people outside Israel to display Himself.

Who could possibly be that outside people that God would show Himself through? I would conclude it is probably the Church. It will be from our openness to them that they will meet their God. Their persecution will be our persecution. We will willingly take them in and endanger ourselves and stand up for them and even die for them. In Daniel 11, it is mentioned that some wise (which can’t be Israel in the context) will be put to the sword, burned alive, and imprisoned. It is by their persecution that many are made pure.

This raises some interesting questions. Who are the wise and who are the ones being made pure? If we say that the wise are from within Israel, then that leads to a lot of problems from the context of the text. I think that the wise might be some of Israel, but it isn’t the Israel that you’re thinking of. In Romans 9, Paul expounds that we are grafted into their root. There is no separation between the Church and Israel. By the way, the Greek word for church simply means assembly. We have been grafted into their “assembly.” That is what Noah prophesied over Shem.

We are part of Israel, but we are not all of Israel. For simple understanding purposes, I will distinguish between the Church and Israel. However, know that we aren’t different. We are the same because we are both under the same Head.

I think that we who call upon the name of Jesus will be those who are wise and Israel will be the people made pure. They will see their God within Gentiles. We will extend mercy because mercy has been extended to us. It is in being forced into our midst and seeing the reality of Christ in us (which according to Colossians is the hope of glory) that will drive them to jealousy. As it is written: “I will take a people who are not my people and drive you to jealousy,” Deuteronomy 32:21.

We see in Revelation 12 that the dragon gets angry when Israel (the woman) finds refuge in the wilderness. He then turns and makes war against her “other children.” Jesus was the firstborn from the dead. He was the male child that the dragon tried to devour. We are the “other children” that the dragon then turns his ugly head toward. How do I know this? It says it in Revelation 12. The chapter ends with saying that these other children are those who follow and live by the testimony of Jesus.

How does it end?

We know once again from Daniel that the Tribulation is 7 years. The first 3-½ years are peaceful. It is a deceptive kind of peace, though. The last 3-½ years are “the time of Jacob’s trouble” as spoken of by Jeremiah. This is when the antichrist will persecute Israel and the Church. It is at the end of the 3 ½ years that Jesus will return and they will “behold him whom they have pierced,” (Zechariah 12:10) and the beginning of the Millennial Age will have started. The antichrist will be killed and thrown into the lake of fire. Satan will be bound and thrown into a pit for a short season. After the Millennium, Satan will be released and will deceive many. This baffles me. From the Old Testament prophecies, it seems like the Millennium will be heaven on earth. Why would anyone reject that?

Yet this is the point: even when given heaven, some people just don’t want it. When you can be in heaven and reject that which you are in the midst of, there is nothing left for you but judgment. So the people come against Jerusalem one last time. This is the war of Gog and Magog. Fire from heaven comes down and then there is the Judgment.

The whole of the Bible tells this story. From start to finish we see that there will be an absolute purging of sin on this earth. The Judgment Seat only comes after that. If we’re going to study what it means to be a prophet, we need to see the whole expanse of time like the prophets would view it. This is the whole message. This is what is missing. It takes someone like an apostle or prophet to have these things revealed to. From there, it takes a bit of discernment and expounding on behalf of the Pastors and Teachers to sift through all the Scriptures and teach the nitty-gritty details.

This is the eternal perspective as it pertains to the Scripture. Everything is about the end. Everything revolves around an apocalyptic scenario. Everything hinges on our view of time from the beginning to the end. If the beginning was only some sort of poem that doesn’t need to be taken seriously, then I suppose the end is too. If the end is too discreet and there isn’t anything set in stone and laid out, then we really don’t need to concern ourselves with that anyway. If we can’t know what will happen in the future, then we might as well continue to go through life as though there will never be an end.

This is how the end time scoffers appear. I’m not entirely convinced that Peter was warning about evolutionists who will mock. I think he might have been warning us about people in the Church who will mock. There are many who don’t think Jesus is returning any time soon. It has been 2000 years, why wouldn’t it be another 2000? They don’t see how all the pieces are coming together – and coming together quickly.