PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE END TIME

It is a ground for thanksgiving that during the last three or four generations the people of God have given considerable attention to the prophecies of Scripture which treat of the future of Israel. It is now a settled question that Israel, as a nation, shall be saved (Romans 11:26), and that the promises of God - Yehovah to the fathers will be literally fulfilled under the Messianic reign of the lord Messiah Jesus (Romans 9:4).

Jerusalem, which for so many centuries has been a by-word in the earth, will then be known as "the city of the great King" (Matthew 5:35). His throne shall be established there, and it shall be the gathering point for all nations (Zechariah 8:23; 14:16-21). Then shall the despised descendants of Jacob be "the head" of the nations, and no longer the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13); then shall the people of Yehovah's ancient choice be the center of His earthly government; then shall the Fig Tree, so long barren, "blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Isaiah 27:6).

The same Prophecy which announces the glorious future awaiting the children of Israel, also contains another chapter in the history of this peculiar people; a chapter yet unfulfilled, setting forth a period in their history darker and sadder than any of their past experiences.

Both the Old and New Testaments plainly tell of a season of suffering for the Jews which will be far more acute than even their afflictions of old. Daniel 12:1 says:

"And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time".

In Matthew 24:21,22 we read: "For there shall be a great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved".

The reasons or causes of this future suffering of Israel are as follows:

 First, God - Yehovah has not fully visited upon Israel the sins of the fathers. "When Solomon and her kings had by transgression lost their blessings, and the glory of the reign of Solomon had faded away, the supremacy, which was taken from them, was given to certain Gentile nations, who were successively to arise and bear rule in the earth, during the whole period of Israel's rejection.

The first of these was the Chaldean Empire under Nebuchadnezzar. The period is referred to as the "Times of the Gentiles", begins with the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. It is a period coincident from its beginning to its close, with the treading down of Jerusalem.

`Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles till the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled'. Nebuchadnezzar therefore, and the Gentile Empires which have succeeded him, have only received their pre-eminence in consequence of Jerusalem's sin; and the reason why they were endowed with that pre-eminence was, that they might chasten Jerusalem; and when they shall have fulfilled that purpose, they shall themselves be set aside and be made, because of their own evil, "like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors'. In this we have another evidence that the earthly dispensations of God - Yehovah revolve around the Jews as their center".

A further reason or cause of the future sufferings of Israel lies in the rejection of their Messiah. First and foremost, the lord Messiah Jesus - Yeshua was "a Minister of the Circumcision, for the truth of God - Yehovah, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers" (Romans 15:8). He was sent "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24). And according to God’s – Yehovah’s plan the lord Messiah Jesus – Yeshua lived and ministered among them. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). Not only did the leaders of Israel and those they influenced not receive him, but they also "despised and rejected him"; they "hated him without a cause". So intense was their enmity against him that with one voice they cried, "Away with him, crucify him". And not until his blood had been shed, as a sin-offering sacrifice, and he had died, was their awful malice against him somewhat appeased. For this they have yet to answer to God - Yehovah. Vengeance is His, and He will repay.

As of now the crucifixion of the Son of God - Yehovah has not been fully avenged. It cannot be avenged at the present time during this "Day of Salvation". But the Day of Salvation will soon end, and it shall be followed by "the great Day of God’s – Yehovah’s Wrath on the nations at the end of this age" (Revelation 6:17; Joel 2:11). Then will God - Yehovah visit the earth with His sore judgments on the nations when He pours out His wrath upon them.

The form which God's – Yehovah’s judgment will take upon the Jews is to be in full accord with the unchanging law of recompense - what they have sown, that shall they also reap. This was expressly affirmed by the lord Messiah Jesus – Yeshua: "I come in my Father's name [Yehovah], and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive" (John 5:43). Because they rejected God's – Yehovah’s anointed one, the lord Messiah Jesus – Yeshua, Israel shall be drawn in to sigh a 7 year treaty with the Antichrist and the 10 Muslim nations he rules over. The same thing is stated in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12:

"Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness - sin is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God - Yehovah, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the lord Messiah Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God - Yehovah sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The immediate reference here, we believe, is to the Jews, though the principle enumerated will also have its wider application to apostate Christendom. The chief reason why God - Yehovah suffers the Man of Lawlessness - Sin to come on the scene and run his awful course, is in order to inflict punishment upon guilty Israel [2/3 of Jews today in Israel are secular]. This is clearly taught in Isaiah 10:5, where of the Antichrist God - Yehovah says, "O Assyrian [the Antichrist], the rod (the instrument of chastisement) of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the street"…

Note: Jeremiah 6:26:

O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

Jeremiah 15:5-9:

“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will grieve for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare? You have rejected me, declares Yehovah; you keep going backward, so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you - I am weary of relenting. I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people; they did not turn from their ways. have made their widows more in number than the sand of the seas; have brought against the mothers of young men a destroyer at noonday; have made anguish and terror fall upon them suddenly. She who bore seven has grown feeble; she has fainted away; her sun went down while it was yet day; she has been shamed and disgraced. And the rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, declares Yehovah.”

It must be borne in mind that the Jews have returned to Palestine and have resumed a national standing while yet unconverted, still rejecting the lord Messiah Jesus - Yeshua. There are a number of passages which establish this beyond question. For example, in Ezekiel 22:19-22 we are told:

"Therefore thus says Yehovah God; because you are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem, as they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in my anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof".

The first six verses of Isaiah 18 describe how Yehovah will gather the Jews to Jerusalem, there to be the prey of "fowls and beasts". The closing chapters of Zechariah lead to the inevitable conclusion that the Jews return to their land in unbelief, for if their national conversion takes place in Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:10), they must have returned to it.

When the Antichrist is manifested, a great number of the Jews will be in Palestine, living a prosperity.

Note: It would appear that the first thing revealed in prophecy concerning the Antichrist's dealings with Israel is the entering into a "covenant" with them. This is mentioned in Daniel 9:27: "And he shall make a firm covenant with Israel for one week" i.e. seven years. The one who makes this covenant is the "Prince that shall come" of the previous verse, the Head of the restored Islamic Ottoman Empire. Thus, the relations between this Prince [the Beast, the Antichrist, ]and the Jews shall, at the first, be relations of apparent friendship and public alliance. This covenant is not forced upon Israel, but rather is entered into voluntarily by them, as seeking Antichrist's patronage, is clear from Isaiah 28:18, where we find God - Yehovah, in indignation, addressing them as follows:

"And your Covenant with Death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with the grave shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it". And this, we believe, supplies the key to Daniel 2:40-44.

Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the great image and the interpretation given to Daniel, outlines the governmental history of the earth as it relates to Palestine, further details being supplied in the other visions found in the book of Daniel. "The earthly dispensations of God - Yehovah revolve around Jerusalem as their center. The method which it has pleased God - Yehovah to adopt in giving the prophetic history of these nations, is in strict accord with this principle. As soon as they arose into supremacy and supplanted Jerusalem, prophets were commissioned, especially Daniel, to delineate their course. We might perhaps, have expected that their history would have been given minutely and consecutively from its beginning to its close. But instead of this, it is only given in its connection with Jerusalem; and as soon as Jerusalem was crushed by the Romans in 70 A.D. – 135 A.D.  and ceased to retain a national position, all detailed history of the prophecies of the Gentile Empires is suspended.

Since that time  many a personage most important in the world's history has since arisen. Charlemagne has lived, and Napoleon - many a monarch, and many a conqueror - battles have been fought, kingdoms raised, and kingdoms subverted - yet Scripture passes silently over these things, however great in the annals of the records of history.

Because Jerusalem has nationally ceased to be in 135 A.S., the details of the prophesied Gentile history was suspended - it was suspended until Jerusalem assumed its national position in 1948. Then the history of the prophesied Gentiles Empire – the death and deadly wound healed, the Ottoman Empire revived is again minutely given, and the glory and dominion of their last great Ruler [the Beast – the Antichrist]. He is found to be especially connected with Jerusalem and the land of Israel. The subject of the book of Daniel as a whole, is the indignation of God - Yehovah directed through four prophesied Gentile Empires upon Jerusalem"

Notice the final history of the 4^th Gentile Empire [Ottoman Empire] Daniel 2:40-44:

“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. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.  And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.

In the days of those kings the God - Yehovah of heaven will set up a kingdom [beginning with the 1,000 year rule of the lord Messiah Jesus when he takes his place on the throne of David to rule over Israel and the nations that have survived the wrath of God – Yehovah] that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever…”

The Ottoman empire continued is rise to power when it defeated the Romans in Istanbul (Constantinople) The city was conquered by the Ottomans under the leadership of Sultan Mehmed II, also known as Mehmed the Conqueror, on May 29, 1453.

Notice: The Caliphate [the official who filled that position was regarded as a representative of Mohammed] was officially abolished by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, on March 3, 1924 – THE ABOLISHMENT OF THE CALIPHATE IS THE DEADLY WOUND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE SUFFERED: Revelation 13:1-3:

"And he [the Dragon] stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast [Antichrist] coming out of the sea [many people], having ten horns, and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast that I saw ws like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth like as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power, and his thrones and great authority.

I SAW ONE OF HIS HEADS AS IF IT WAS SLAAIN TO DEATH, AND HIS MORTAL WOUND WAS HEALED, and the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast [Antichrist],"

The abolition of the Caliphate [THE DEADLY WOUND] marked the end of a centuries-old institution that symbolized the leadership of the Muslim world. The Caliphate held incredible religious and political significance for many Muslims, and many are waiting for the reinstitution of the Caliphate!

The method which the Holy Spirit has followed in the book of Daniel is to give us, a general outline of prophesied Gentile dominion over Jerusalem, and this is found in the vision of the Image in Daniel chapter 2; and second, to fill in this outline, which is given in the last six chapters of that book. It is with the former we are now more particularly concerned.

Much of the prophetic vision of Daniel chapter 2 has already become history. The golden head (Babylon), the silver breast and arms (Medo-Persia), the brazen belly and thighs (Greece), the iron legs (Ottoman Empire), have already appeared before men. But the feet of the Image, "part of iron and part of clay", have to do with a time yet future. The break between the legs and feet corresponds with the break between the sixty-ninth and seventieth "weeks" of Daniel 9:24-27:

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.

And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one [the lord Messiah Jesus - Yeshua] shall be cut off and shall have nothing.

And the people of the prince [Antichrist] who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he [Antichrist] shall make a strong covenant with Israel for one week, and the middle of the week, after 31/2 years he shall break the 7 year treaty and put an end to sacrifice and offering [in the rebuilt Temple]. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator [the Antichrist].”

What, then, is represented by the "iron and the clay" toes of the feet of the Image? If we bear in mind that this portion of the Image exactly corresponds to the seventieth week, we have an important key to the interpretation.

Daniel 9:26,27 treats of the seventieth week - the "one week" yet remaining. These verses speak of the prince (of the restored Ottoman Empire) making a seven years' Covenant with the leaders of Israel, that Isaiah calls a Covenant of Death. Thus, the prophecy concerning the seventieth week presents to us two prominent subjects - the restored Ottoman Empire, at whose head is the Antichrist, and apostate Israel, with whom the Covenant is made.

Returning now to Daniel chapter 2 we find that when interpreting the king's dream about the Image, the prophet declares that the "iron" is the symbol for the "fourth kingdom" (v. 40), which was and is the Ottoman Empire, who succeeded Babylon, Persia, and Greece; the "feet" with their ten toes forecasting the Ottoman Empire in its final form. Thus, we have Divine authority for saying that the "iron" in the feet of the Image represent the peoples who shall yet occupy the territory controlled by the old Ottoman Empire. In a word, the "iron" symbolizes the prophesied Gentile nation, the Ottoman Empire - ruled by the "ten kings [rulers over 10 Muslim nations]".

In its final form, then, the revived Ottoman - the kingdom of Antichrist – will begin the great tribulation that will happen to Israel in the last 3 ½ years of this age. Notice the kingdom over which the Man of Sin - Lawlessness shall reign, shall be composed of both "iron" and "clay". It is indeed striking to note that the "clay" is mentioned in Daniel chapter 2, nine times - the number of judgments!

In Daniel chapter 2:43 we read, "And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another even as iron is not mixed with clay".

This is amplified in Revelation chapter 17, where we read of the great Whore [Saudi Arabia], "with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication". "But they shall not cleave one to another" (Daniel 2:43) is explained in Revelation 17:16: "And the ten horns which you saw upon the Beast, these shall hate the Whore [Saudi Arabia], and shall make her desolate and naked", etc.!

There is a remarkable verse in Habakkuk chapter 2 which confirms our remarks above and connects the Antichrist himself with the "clay".

"Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say: “Woe to him that increases that which is not his own! how long? and loads himself with pledges".

The reference is clearly to this "proud Man's" fellowship with apostate Israel. We are satisfied that Habakkuk 2:6-8 is parallel with Isaiah 14:9-12. Isaiah 14 gives us a glimpse of the Antichrist being scoffed at in the grave, by the "chief ones of the earth" because he, too, was unable to escape their awful fate. So, in Habakkuk chapter 2, after stating that he "gathers unto him all nations" (v. 5) the prophet goes on to say: "Shall not all these take up a taunting proverb against him". The taunt is, that though he had leagued himself with the mass of Israel (load himself with pledges), yet it will be "the remnant" of this same people that shall "spoil" him (v. 8).

The final end of the Antichrist will to be caste into the lake of Fire at the White Throne Judgment and destroyed.