We know we are at the end of the dispensation of grace for specific reasons. A number of these come to mind.
Evil men and seducers are growing worse, as the Apostle Paul forewarned. The time has come when “they”–meaning religionists who claim to know Christ but do not–will not “endure sound doctrine.”
All of Paul’s “perilous times” prophecies are in view, as we have dissected many times. False accusers, for example, are in our daily headlines, with lies being told for political gain or just to heap hatred upon ideological enemies.
There is a denial that God should be found anywhere in humanistic governance. As stated many times, here, Psalm 2 is in play as never before. The international community, i.e., the UN and those within every other such globalist forum, want to “break the bands asunder” that bind the human race to any form of godly mooring.
We know these are the last days because there are scoffers that say in mocking derision: “Where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep all things are as they were from the beginning?”
In addition to all the above, proof that we are in prophesied times of the end occurred Monday, May 14. Israel reached what many Bible prophecy observers view as the span of a generation–70 years since its refounding into modernity. This, many believe, is the gist of the prophecy the Lord gave while expounding on things to come atop the Mount of Olives.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:32-35)
Israel is generally considered the prime signal of where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. That strange nation has reached its 70th birthday so far as its modern incarnation is concerned. A generation is defined by God’s Word as 70 years in one specific instance. Therefore, Jesus, who is the Word, giving this Olivet Prophecy about the fig tree–often the symbol for Israel–makes the modern nation’s 70th anniversary living proof to many that the end of the age is upon this generation.
I term Israel ”strange” because of the fact that it is like no other in human history. Having been completely destroyed as a nation, its people dispersed into all the world and its language dissolved, yet it is now back in its God-given land. It has its native language again–Hebrew–and is the center of worldwide attention.
As I often remind, no matter which way the cameras and microphones turn to capture other stories, they always, without fail, turn right back to that one spot on planet earth that is God’s touchstone–to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, where the Holy of Holies sat and will reside again one prophetic day.
So, Israel is in the headlines again this past week. The hatreds of the world are in full display to prove God’s Word about the rebellion of the globalists found in Psalm 2.
Satan is in a rage because he above all else has wanted to completely destroy Israel and the Jewish people. If he could do so, he would make the Creator a liar, and his own fate in the Lake of Fire could be avoided.
But, God’s Word is truth. Things are unfolding exactly as God foretells, and right on time. Further proof of God’s prophetic truth is reflected in an excerpt or two from the following news story:
(May 9, 2018 / JNS) In the past 70 years, no single country’s stock has risen faster or farther than the State of Israel. Once a resource-poor, existentially endangered nation-state comprised of refugees from post-Holocaust Europe and Muslim countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Israel has emerged into a world economic, military and diplomatic superpower.
In just one week, Israel’s elevated status is being put on full display, in no small part due to the unlikely and oft-polarizing duo of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
It is, of course, fitting that the very date—May 14—of the new embassy’s opening ceremony corresponds both with Yom Yerushalayim (“Jerusalem Day”) on the Hebrew calendar and the 70th anniversary of Israel’s Independence on the secular calendar…
While the Jewish state’s stock is rising, Israel’s enemies are imploding. Though Iran has expanded its reach across the Middle East—wreaking havoc on Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen—severe cracks have been exposed in the dictatorial regime of the Islamic Republic. During the past year, public protests against the regime’s corruption have broken out across the country. And in the past several weeks, the value of Iran’s currency, the rial, has plummeted, throwing Iran into severe economic uncertainty even before the impending onset of the “highest level of economic sanctions” about to be imposed by the United States. (“Jerusalem is rising as Israel’s enemies falter,” Alex Traiman, JNS.org, May 13, 2018)
Proof of the truth of God’s Word is found throughout Bible prophecy. We are witnessing that proof each and every day as issues and events of our time emerge from the headlines.
Israel, although hated by most of the world leaders, is blossoming. So is the United States of America under this presidential administration.
Iran, arguably Israel’s chief enemy, whose Islamist leaders call Israel the “little Satan,” and America “the big Satan,” are sinking deeper into the curse promised to all who curse God’s chosen people.
There is no illusion here that terrible times are not to soon unfold for the Jewish people. It is prophesied. But the end of it all will be a glorious outcome beyond any ever bestowed upon any nation or people:
I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. (Genesis 28:13-15)