[NOTE: The photograph
above was supplied by Christian friends who visited the
Unfortunately at this present time, I am unable to
use the picture shown on the author’s book. - Ed.]
[“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from
thy father’s house, unto a LAND that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee, and make thy
name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
and I
will bless them that bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee: and in thee
(Abram) SHALL ALL FAMILIES OF THE
EARTH BE BLESSED:”
(Genesis
12: 1-3. cf. Acts 7: 5 with
Romans 11: 1,
2, 11, 12, 15.).
‘What does the future hold?’ JEHOVAH,
the God of all creation, Who controls all
things by the word of His power, has
declared all future events before they begin: He gives us His answer:-
‘And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look
upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him (their true Messiah), as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in
bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem’ (Zechariah 12: 10-11).
It is THEN that God will be evidenced in His
covenant with ISRAEL as Jeremiah had prophesied (Jeremiah
31: 33-34): and it is THEN that those that “bless” ISRAEL will be blessed of God, and those that “cursed” ISRAEL would be cursed
of God.
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[Page i]
What Does the Future hold?
[Writing from back of Book Cover]
An intractable Middle East problem faces man today, one which
can only become worse and worse with the passage of time, Until ... The reason
for the problem is the existence of an Israeli nation in the midst of mainly
Muslim nations - a nation presently comprised of some 6,000,000 Jews who have returned to the land
covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob before it is time for the Jewish people
to return. The “Jewish people” have returned to the land in
unbelief, prior to repentance, prior to their conversion, and while the house
still lies desolate (Ex.
12: 1 ff;
Dan. 9: 24-27; Mt. 23: 37-39). They have re-entered a house which Christ
left “empty, swept, and garnished,” awaiting judgment magnified seven
times for their actions, which is what it will take to bring the Jewish people
to repentance (Mt. 12:
43-45). God, in time past, because of the Jewish people’s continued disobedience, extending over centuries of
time, uprooted.
Until repentance is forthcoming, God will not act. God will act with respect to a deliverance of
His people only after His purpose for uprooting them from their land and
driving them out among the nations has been realized. God’s Word is crystal clear
on the matter. In this respect, what is
an unrepentant and unconverted Israeli nation doing back in the land? And what are the
ramifications of the Jewish people being back in the land under existing
conditions? The preceding is what this
book is all about - not what man may think, but what Scripture has to say. Numerous facets of the matter are covered from different passages of Scripture, with the
emphasis on current
-------
[Page ii]
God’s Warning Concerning Disobedience, Unrepentance
“But if ye will not hearken unto me [which is what
I will also do
this unto you; I will even appoint
over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of
heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies
shall eat it.
And I will set
my face against you, and ye
shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you;
and ye shall
flee when none pursueth you.
And if ye will
not yet for all this hearken unto me, then will I punish you seven times more for your sins...
And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you
according to your sins...
And if ye will
not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
Then I will
walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins...
And I will bring the land into
desolation: and your enemies which
dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
And I will scatter you among
the heathen, and will draw out a
sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities
waste...
And they that
are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity, in your enemies’ lands;
and also in the
iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them” (Lev. 26: 14, 16-18, 21, 27, 28, 32, 33, 39).
God’s Promise Concerning Repentance, Obedience
If they confess
their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me,
and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
And that I also have walked
contrary unto them, and have brought them
into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then
accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
THEN will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my
covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land” (Lev. 26: 40-42).
-------
[Page iii, Writing similar to that used on the book cover]
What Does the Future Hold?
By
Arlen L.
Chitwood
[Page
iv blank: Page v]
CONTENTS
FOREWORD vii
INTRODUCTION ix
CHAPTER I. THE PUPIL OF GOD’S EYE
Page 1
CHAPTER II. THE PUPIL OF MAN’S EYE
Page 7
CHAPTER III. ZIONISM
Page 13
CHAPTER IV.
THAT WHICH AWAITS THE NATION OF
CHAPTER V. THE TURBULENT MIDDLE EAST (I)
Page 25
UNREST IN THE MIDDLE EAST -THE REASON, THE SOLUTION
CHAPTER VI. THE TURBULENT MIDDLE EAST (II)
Page 31
UNREST IN THE MIDDLE EAST -TO ONE DAY CEASE
CHAPTER VII. TIME OF
AS SEEN IN JACOB’S EXILE AND RETURN TO THE LAND
CHAPTER VIII. SEVENTY YEARS, FOUR HUNDRED NINETY
YEARS Page 43
AFTER 70 YEARS, AFTER 490 YEARS, NOT BEFORE
CHAPTER IX.
A RESTORED NATION, A HEALED LAND
* *
*
APPENDIXES, I,
II, III, IV Page 63
I THE HOLOCAUST - PAST AND FUTURE
II NEVER AGAIN - BUT IT WILL HAPPEN
AGAIN
III THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS
IV THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS
SCRIPTURE INDEX - Pages 95-97*
[*Not Included]
-------
[Page vi]
By the Same Author -
HAD YE BELIEVED MOSES
THE MOST HIGH RULETH
FROM ACTS TO THE EPISTLES
IN THE LORD’S DAY
FROM
LET US GO ON
REDEEMED FOR A PURPOSE
JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST
MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM
PROPHECY ON
THE TIME OF THE END
SEARCH FOR THE BRIDE
SEVEN, TEN GENERATIONS
GOD’S FIRSTBORN SONS
THE TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE
SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
SALVATION OF THE SOUL
SO GREAT SALVATION
THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE
BROUGHT FORTH FROM ABOVE
THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE
SIGNS IN JOHN’S GOSPEL
RUN TO WIN
BY FAITH
JUDE
RUTH
ESTHER
-------
[Page vii]
FOREWORD
Since
the contents of this book are highly typical in nature, a rather lengthy “Introduction,”
dealing with the subject, follows this brief foreword.
In one respect, it appears strange that the material
comprising this introduction is even necessary, for types have to do with one
of the clearly revealed main ways in which God, through His Spirit, structured
the Old Testament. But,
in another respect, in view of that which has happened in Christendom during
the course of the past two millenniums, it should not appear strange at all.
Viewing Old Testament history as not only true history but
seen, as well, from a typical fashion has, over time, progressively come into
disrepute. And this can only account, in
no small degree, for much of the erroneous thinking currently rampant in
Christian circles pertaining to not only the subject matter of this book - that
taught in Scripture relative to Israel and the nations in the Middle East,
both present and future - but numerous other Biblical teachings as well.
An existing error concerning Israel and the nations in the
Middle East - error of such a nature that any correct teaching on this subject
can only be adversely affected - is one which could not have existed had
attention been paid to the types. But attention has
not been paid to the types, and error in this realm not only exists but is
rampant.
The error alluded to has to do with the teaching that God’s
promises concerning a restoration of the Jewish people to a restored land are
being progressively fulfilled through the Zionistic movement which began during
the closing years of the nineteenth century and came into fruition May 14, 1948
when Jewish leaders declared Israeli statehood.
But even without reference to the types,
this error shouldn’t exist, though it does.
And not only does it exist, but, as previously
stated, this error is widely held. In
fact, it is so widely held that any correct teaching on the subject is almost
non-existent.
In time past (722 BC, 605 BC, 70 AD), because of the Jewish
people’s failure to obey the Lord’s commandments, true to His Word, [Page viii] God
eventually uprooted His people from their land and drove them out among the
nations, to effect repentance through Gentile persecution. And God has promised to restore His people only
following repentance (cf. Lev. 26: 1ff; Deut. 28: 1ff; II Chron. 6: 24ff; 7: 12-14).
The preceding is dealt within a number of types (e.g., the complete Book of Exodus, Numbers 35,
Jonah 1-4),
but it is also dealt with in direct statements apart from the types (e.g., references at the end of the
preceding paragraph).
In short, if the present restoration
of a remnant under a Zionistic movement, along with a reclamation of parts of
the land, has to do with God restoring both His people and their land in
fulfilment of His Old Testament promises to do so, an impossible problem
presents itself - God is seen acting contrary to His Word in order to fulfil His Word.
The Jewish people and their land are being
restored prior to a realization of the reason God uprooted and drove
them out among the nations. They are
being restored prior to the Jewish people’s repentance, and God has clearly
stated that He would restore the Jewish people to a restored land ONLY
following repentance.
And this is only one of numerous
problems, though a main problem, and one which should have immediately raised a red
flag concerning that which was being taught.
Again, adherence to the types would have immediately caught
and corrected the error. But that is not what has occurred.
The types have been ignored,
resulting in erroneous teachings. Or, to state matters another way, the manner in which God
structured His Word has been ignored, resulting in erroneous teachings.
Up until about fifty years ago there
was an abundance of Bible teachers who understood how God had structured His
Word, and they taught Scripture after the manner in which it had been
structured. But
as these men began to pass off the scene things correspondingly began to
change, which is where we are today and what we have to deal with.
But, then again, do we really have to
deal with it? Not
really! Leave it alone study and believe
the truth, allowing the truth to expose any and all
existing error (Isa. 8: 20; cf.
Prov. 7: 2).
Simply stay with that which Scripture has to say - understood
in the light of the manner in which God has structured His Word - and you will
come out ahead every time.
[Page ix]
INTRODUCTION
TYPES AND ANTITYPES
Then he said
unto them, O fools, and slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
And beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself (Luke 24: 25-27).
Jesus,
revealing Himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus following His
resurrection, used one means alone. He simply called their attention to the
Word of God, the Old Testament Scriptures, opening these Scriptures to their
understanding.
Jesus began with Moses and progressed to the other Prophets,
revealing “unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself” (Luke 24: 27). And
later that day, when He broke bread in their presence - because of His having
previously revealed Himself through the Scriptures - “their eyes were
opened” (vv. 28-31).
The clear statement is made that all
of the Old Testament Scriptures are
about the person and work of Christ. The
Old Testament Scriptures form one continuous revelation concerning that which God, not man, has to say about the matter; and God has
provided this revelation of His Son through structuring His Word after a
particular fashion.
The Old Testament Scriptures not only provide an account of
true history, but, through this history, these Scriptures also provide an
account of all the various facets of the person and work of God’s Son - past,
present, and future. And the latter
has been accomplished through God structuring Old Testament history after such
a fashion that this history is highly typical in nature.
[Page x]
The Old Testament Scriptures form the beginning point. This is where God set the matter forth
first. And, accordingly, any correct
study surrounding anything which God has revealed about His Son - which
would include everything in
Scripture (Col. 1:
15-19),
for He is the Word made Flesh (John 1: 1, 2, 14) - must begin where God began with the
matter. Such a study must begin
in the Old Testament with Moses.
And, not only must such a study begin
with Moses, but these Old Testament Scriptures must be viewed after a certain
fashion. They must be viewed after the fashion in
which they were written. They must be viewed after the fashion in which God structured Old
Testament history, after a typical fashion. Only through so doing can man come into a correct understanding of that which God has
revealed.
Place and Importance of Types
Typology is the great unexplored mine in the Old
Testament. Studying the types will open
the door to an inexhaustible wealth of information which God has provided,
information necessary to properly understand God’s revelation to man. On the other hand, it goes
without saying that ignoring the types, as so many have done, will
produce the opposite result and leave this door closed.
Note Paul’s statement concerning this matter in his first
epistle to the Christians in
“Now all these things happened unto
them for ensamples [Gk., tupoi, ‘types’]: and they are written
for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the
world [Gk., aionon, ‘ages’] are come” (1 Cor. 10: 11).
1 Corinthians 10: 11 draws from a
context (vv. 1-10) which refers to the history of Israel,
extending from events immediately following the death of the firstborn in Egypt
to the overthrow of an entire accountable generation in the wilderness, save
Caleb and Joshua (Ex. 12 - Deut. 34).
However, the thought of events occurring as types in 1 Cor. 10: 11 must, of necessity, encompass a much larger
scope than this one segment in the history of
[Page xi]
Old Testament typology begins, not with the death of the
firstborn in Exodus chapter twelve, but with
the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth in the first verse of Genesis chapter one. Biblical typology begins at the point where
Biblical history begins.
God, in the beginning, created the heavens and the
earth. And at a
later point in time, the creation, because of an act of Satan, was reduced to a
ruin. Then, at a still later point in
time, God set about to restore this ruined creation over a six-day period. And He created man
on the sixth day, following the completion of the restoration of the ruined
material creation. God then rested on
the seventh day (Gen. 1: 1 - 2: 3).
This entire account in the opening verses of Genesis is fraught with significance and
meaning. The account has
not only been arranged in a typical fashion but, within this typical
fashion, it has been set in a septenary structure as well. The entire 7,000-year history of man can be seen in these verses through the manner in which God
structured His Word at the very outset.
Beginning with the creation of the heavens and the earth, the whole of
that which God revealed throughout all subsequent Scripture can
be seen in four parts:
1) Creation (1: 1).
2) Ruin (1: 2a).
3) Restoration (12b-25).
4) Rest (2: 1-3).
(This typical account, with its septenary structure
[Gen. 1:
1 - 2: 3], actually forms the foundation upon which the
whole of subsequent Scripture rests. And all subsequent Scripture, seen in its
true light in this respect, merely forms a commentary on that revealed at the
beginning, in Gen. 1:
1 - 2: 3 [ref.
the author’s book, THE STUDY OF SCRIPTURE, Chapters I-IV].)
In Genesis chapter three,
the original type of the coming Redeemer is set forth in the act of Adam after
Eve had sinned. Adam partook of that
associated with sin (fruit from the same tree which Eve had partaken of, the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil) in order to bring about Eve’s
redemption; and this was done with a view to both Adam and Eve one day being
able to partake of the tree of life together.
[Page xii]
The second Man, the last Adam, Christ, was made “sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him” (II Cor. 5: 21; cf.
Then chapter four,
providing additional commentary on that revealed in chapter
three, sets forth the death of Abel at the hands of Cain; and this forms
a type of the death of Christ at the hands of
Chapters five through nine set forth the
generations of Adam, followed by the Noachian Flood, with a new beginning following
the Flood. Two individuals stand out
prominently in the latter part of the genealogical record: Enoch, the seventh
from Adam; and Noah, the
tenth from Adam.
(“Seven” and “ten” are numbers which
Scripture uses to show completeness. “Seven” shows the completeness of that which is
in view [used as God’s number in this
respect], and “ten” shows numerical completeness.)
Enoch, at the end of one complete period of
time, was removed from the earth before the Flood. Noah, at the end of another complete period of time, was left on the earth to pass through the
Flood.
“The Flood” is a type
of the
coming Tribulation. “Enoch” typifies the one new man “in Christ” (comprised of all Christians), who will be removed at the end
of the present dispensation, at the end of one complete period
of time. And “Noah” typifies the nation of Israel, which will be left on the earth to pass
safely through the Tribulation, “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30: 7) - completing the last seven years of the
previous dispensation, at the end of another complete period of time, with a
new beginning, the Messianic Era, to follow.
Genesis, as well, is the book in which we are first introduced to
Melchizedek, a king-priest in
It is in Genesis that we
find Scripture forming detailed dispensational structures, as previously seen
in chapters five through nine. Another
such structure - covering events extending from the birth of [Page xiii] Christ to the Messianic Kingdom - can be seen in Genesis chapter
twenty-one through twenty-five.
And Genesis is
the book which contains one of the most complete overall types of Christ to be
found in the Old Testament - the life of Joseph, beginning in chapter thirty-seven.
“No one, I suppose, who has ever
thought upon it, can doubt that this history [that of Joseph] is typical.”
-
Andrew Jukes
Note Jesus’ statement, followed by Luke’s comment, after Jesus
had suddenly appeared in the midst of His disciples in His resurrection body:
“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you,
while I was yet
with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written
in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and
in the Psalms, concerning me.
Then opened he
their understanding, that they might understand
the scriptures” (Luke 24: 44, 45).
During His earthly ministry, Jesus often drew from the Old
Testament to teach spiritual lessons concerning Himself. He drew from things surrounding the
tabernacle, and from various experiences of the Israelites: “I am the door”
(John 10: 7,
9); “I am the bread
of life” (John 6: 35, 48-51); “I am the light of
the world” (John 9: 5). Jesus told Nicodemus that the serpent lifted up in the wilderness
foreshadowed that which was about to happen to the Son of Man, Who must also be
lifted up (John 3: 14).
In response to the Scribes and Pharisees request for a sign, Jesus
declared that the experiences of Jonah foreshadowed things which He would
experience (Matt. 12:
38-41). Note also His reference to Solomon in this
same passage (v. 42).
Referring to conditions which would prevail upon the earth
immediately before His return, Jesus called the disciples’ attention to the
days of Noah and the days of
[Page xiv]
Then, during the latter part of His ministry Jesus taught by
parables. And
many things in these parables can be properly understood only in the light of
the Old Testament types and symbols.
John the Baptizer referred to the position which Christ
occupied in relation to an Old Testament type when he said, “Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world” (John 1: 29). Paul spoke of this
same truth when he declared Christ to be “our Passover” (1
Cor. 5: 7). The writer of Hebrews derived the major portion of the teachings
in his book from Old Testament typology, and this book cannot
be properly understood apart from viewing material in the book in a
type-antitype framework.
Hebrews chapters three and four
are built around the wilderness journey of the
Israelites. And the key to a correct
interpretation and understanding of the passage in Hebrews
which gives so many a problem, Heb. 6: 4-6, is to be found by contextually paralleling that
which is stated in the passage with a type-antitype treatment of chapters three and four. In chapters five
through seven, Melchizedek is mentioned nine
times; and, in the light of that revealed about Melchizedek in the Old
Testament, the things stated about Melchizedek in these chapters can only be Messianic in their scope of fulfilment (cf.
Gen. 14: 18, 19; Ps. 110: 1-4). In chapters eight
through ten, the tabernacle with its
Levitical priesthood and sacrificial system is said to
be a “pattern” (Gk., tupos, “type” [8:
5]). And in chapters eleven
and twelve, numerous Old Testament individuals
who typify some aspect of the work of the triune Godhead in the history of
Extent and Purpose of Types
The extent of types in the Old Testament would have to be classed as inexhaustible. Many times a complete type
can be found in a single verse; other times complete
types can be found in several verses taken together, or in an entire chapter;
and other times complete types can be found in several chapters taken together,
or in an entire book viewed as a whole. No
portion of Old Testament history can be placed outside
the scope of Biblical typology. Events
in the Old Testament are true history which are
fraught with types and meaning.
[Page xv]
The Old Testament is written in such a
manner that God has interwoven prophetic types into historic events. No proper study of either the Old or New Testaments can
ignore types and antitypes. Accordingly, a basic value of any Bible
commentary, particularly one dealing with Old Testament history, would have to
be that commentary’s treatment of types and antitypes. The reason for this is very simple: The Old
Testament is highly typical. The New
Testament is simply the Old revealed.
Thus, within the Biblical framework of correctly teaching and
understanding the Word of God, types and antitypes MUST occupy a prominent place.
Jesus said,
“Search the scriptures ... they are they which testify of me...
For had ye
believed Moses, ye would have
believed me: for he wrote of me” (John
5: 39, 46;
cf.
John 1: 45).
The Scriptures to which Jesus referred in verse thirty-nine were the Old Testament
Scriptures. Not a single book of the New
Testament had been written at this time. Man’s failure to understand the extent and purpose
of types in the Old Testament stems from his failure to heed the words of
Jesus: “Search
the scriptures [the O.T
Scriptures]... they are they which testify of me.”
The word for “search” in the Greek text implies a close examination, a thorough
search, and the word is used
in this passage in the sense of a hunter stalking game, who directs all his
attention to marks which will lead to the quarry. An individual searching the Scriptures in
this manner will fix all his attention on the Scriptures, closely examining and
thoroughly searching every aspect of this revelation. The folly of those who refuse to dwell deeply
in the Word can immediately be seen. Such Christians are not only robbing
themselves of great spiritual blessings, but, if occupying teaching positions,
they are also robbing others of these same blessings.
When Jesus met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus
following His resurrection, He reprimanded them for not believing ALL that the Prophets had written. And, as previously
seen, He then began at “Moses and ALL the prophets,” and “expounded unto them in ALL the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24: 25-27).
[Page xvi]
The specific statement is made in Luke
24: 27 that ALL of the Old Testament Scriptures are about Christ. If one has a mind for the things of God,
according to this verse, he can turn to any portion of the Old Testament and
study about Christ. ALL of the Old Testament Scriptures - beginning with Moses - constitute
a
complete revelation of Jesus Christ. The record of creation, all subsequent
events, and all individuals, together, form the complete Old Testament revelation which
God gave to man concerning all the various facets of the person and
work of His Son.
The Son was with the Father in the beginning. Apart from Him not
one thing which presently exists came into existence. Or, for that matter,
neither does it continue to exist (cf. Gen. 1: 1; John 1: 1-3; Col. 1: 16, 17). The entire Old Testament - Genesis through Malachi - is
about Him. Then, “the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us...” (John 1: 14a).
From that point, the New Testament continues to be a revelation of God’s Son.
And the last book in the Bible - the Book of Revelation, the Revelation of Jesus Christ - is
the capstone of all previous revelation, arranging in final and complete form
the summation of all things which were previously revealed, beginning with “Moses and all
the prophets.”
When the late Dr. M. R. DeHaan, near
the close of his ministry, began to study and arrange material for a series of
radio messages titled, Portraits of Christ, he was amazed
by what he found. In the introduction to
a book which was later published from this series,
titled, “Portraits of Christ in Genesis,” Dr. DeHaan
states:
“At first the publication of a book
titled ‘Portraits of Christ’ was intended to be a study of portraits of Christ
in the entire Bible. However, as I began to collect material, I realized what a
hopeless task I was undertaking, and so I next limited it to portraits of
Christ in the Old Testament. Again, I
had not gone very far when I realized that this too was a Herculean task which could hardly be done in one volume, or even many
volumes. As a result, it was shortened
to ‘Portraits of Christ in the Pentateuch,’ the books of Moses. Then, finally,
after completing but one chapter, I realized that I could not even begin to
discuss thoroughly the portraits of Christ in the first book of the Bible
alone, the Book of Genesis.
[Page xvii]
After many years of Bible study, I was amazed at
the volume of material and subject matter in the Book of Genesis alone, which was the
revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
last book of the Bible opens with ‘the revelation of Jesus Christ,’ and this may well be
taken to be the title of the entire Bible, from the very first verse of Genesis, chapter one, until the close of the
Book of Revelation. It is one continuous, progressive revelation
concerning the Altogether Lovely One, the Son of God, and the Son of Man.”
Fundamentals of Types
A basic, fundamental rule to remember about types is the rule
of “first mention.” The first time a type is
recorded in Scripture the pattern is set. Once the pattern is set, no change can ever occur. Later
types will add information and cast additional light on the original type, but
the original was set perfect at the
beginning and remains unchanged throughout
Scripture.
Another fundamental rule to remember about types is in the
area of “doctrine.” It is often taught
that types are given merely for illustrations, and doctrine cannot be taught
from types. Suffice it to say, types are
far more than mere illustrations, and in the area of doctrine it would be well
to ask a question, followed by a statement: “Who said
doctrine cannot be taught from types? Certainly not the Scriptures!”
(“Doctrine” and “teaching” are translations of noun and verb forms of
the same word in the Greek text - didaskalia and didasko. “Teaching” is
“doctrine”, “doctrine” is “teaching.” And if “teaching” cannot be
drawn from the types, of what value are the types?
One overall thought though should suffice to quell any
ideology that doctrine/teaching cannot be drawn from
the types: Who made [designed] the type?
And Who made [designed] the antitype?
Doctrine/teaching can be drawn from
either or from both together. Because of
the very nature of the origin of both - through God’s sovereign control of all
things - there can be absolutely no difference between
the two in this respect. Both could only
have been designed and put together with the same perfection
which exists within the Godhead.
The types form a part of the Word which
was made Flesh. To see imperfection in
the types is to see imperfection in the Word made Flesh;
to see perfection in the Word made Flesh is to see perfection
in the types.)
[Page xviii]
Types and antitypes are exact replicas of one another. The antitype is an exact imprint or duplicate
of the type. The tabernacle was formed in exact detail, in every respect, to an
existing tabernacle in heaven, “according to the pattern [Gk., tupos]”
given to Moses in the mount (Heb. 8: 5). The “print [Gk., tupos]
of the nails” in the hands of Christ were exact imprints of the nails which
had been driven into His hands (John 20: 25). The
truth about Biblical doctrine/teaching and types is that since the antitype is
an exact imprint or duplicate of the type, doctrine/teaching can be derived from either. No
distinction, one from the other, can be made in this
respect.
Another fundamental rule to remember is that types, contrary
to common belief, “DO NOT break down.”
To say that types break down is to say that types are imperfect. God established the types, and He established
these types perfect. Types break down
only in the minds of finite man. If a
man knew all there were to know about any particular type, that type could be
followed to its nth degree and never break down.
NOTHING happened in a haphazard manner in the
Old Testament. EVERYTHING occurred according to a Divine plan,
established before the creation of the heavens and the earth (Heb. 1: 3; Eph. 3: 11). And events
throughout the Old Testament happened as “types” in order that God might have these
events and experiences of individuals to draw upon, allowing the Spirit of God
to use these events and experiences to instruct Christians in the deep things
of God.
“Types are
as accurate as mathematics”.
F. B. Meyer
-------
[Page 1]
CHAPTER 1
The Pupil of God’s Eye
THE PLACE
Solely
from a Biblical perspective, what place does
Note Deut. 32: 10b and Zech. 2: 8b as somewhat parallel
verses to begin dealing with the matter, again, solely from a Biblical
perspective:
“... He [God] kept him [
“... he that toucheth you [
In short, God views all affairs occurring in the human race
through one means alone, through
Now, let’s approach the matter from a
different standpoint. Apart from Israel,
even with the nation’s present state of unbelief and disobedience, the Gentile
nations all find themselves in exactly the same position relative to an
association with the one true and living God - estranged from God, “without God in the world” (Eph. 2: 12b).
[Page 2]
And that should be simple enough to
understand, for, according to Gen. 9: 25-27 as the starting point - to begin explaining Eph. 2: 12a relative to Christians and Ps. 96: 5 relative to the Gentile nations - not only is
Israel the only nation on the face of the earth with a God, but “the gods of
the nations” are
clearly stated to be, “idols [lit., ‘nothing’
(compared to the one true and living God), or ‘demons’].”
How can the preceding be true as it pertains to the thought of
“demons” relative to the nations? The answer to that is in the latter part of
Daniel chapter ten. In the closing part
of this chapter, the government of the Gentile nations is
seen from two perspectives - earthly and heavenly.
In the earthly realm, individuals
in the human race occupy positions of power and authority.
In the heavenly realm, angels
occupying positions of power and authority in the kingdom under Satan (demonic
beings) rule from the heavens through those occupying positions of power and
authority on earth (Dan. 10: 12-20; Eph. 3: 10; 6: 12).
Note where this places the Gentile nations in relation to
possessing a God during the present day and time when they, because of Israel’s
unbelief and disobedience, can’t go to the one nation in possession of a
God. They are left
with the only god available, as their rulers occupy positions of power under
demons. They are left with “the god of this world [‘age’
- one age, covering Man’s 6,000-year Day]” (2 Cor. 4: 4).
(For additional information on both
Now, put just these two parts of the picture together and one can easily and clearly see how and why God views all
activity occurring among the nations after only one fashion - through
[Page 3]
1)
2) And the nations, unlike
And the preceding is exactly what God has done since the call
of Abraham 4,000 years ago,
continues to do today, and will always continue to do (or, this, as well, would
have to be seen in the lineage from Adam to Abraham throughout the twenty
generations during the first 2,000 years of human history [e.g., Noah and his family]).
God has to do things in this manner, for
(As an example of the loins of Abraham, note in Gen. 10: 5, 25, 32; 11: 5-8; Deut. 32: 8 that God divided the nations and set their
boundaries following the Flood, during Peleg’s day, “according
to the number of the children of Israel.” And God did this
before Abraham was even born [Peleg’s death preceded Abraham’s birth], centuries
before
Or, note the beginning of the sojourn of
the seed of Abraham thirty years before Abraham even had a seed [cf. Gen. 15: 13, 14; Ex. 12: 40, 41; Gal. 3: 17, 18; ref. Ch. VI in the author’s book, WE ARE ALMOST THERE].)
Remove
However, leave
But, again, this can be brought to pass
only one way, as revealed in the Word - through
(Clarification needs to be made about
Christians in the preceding respect.
[Page 4]
Unlike the nations, but like
Then, exactly in accord with Deut.
32: 10b
and Zech. 2:
8b, God views Christians through
Putting all of this together, note
the present situation in the
To introduce the picture of the existing situation, in the
light of that which has already been presented, let’s
drop back some 3,500 years in Jewish
history, to Moses’ day.
Moses, during his forty-year rejection by the Jewish people,
was tending sheep on the far side of the desert when a burning bush captured
his attention. “The angel of
the Lord” appeared
to Moses out of the midst of the fire, the bush burned continuously but was not consumed, and “God called unto him out of the midst
of the bush...” (Ex. 3: 2-4).
It is evident from the context - “I have seen the
affliction of my people which are in
And exactly the same thing is seen over
900 years later in the book of Daniel.
Three Israelites, representing the nation as a whole, were cost into a
fiery furnace, heated seven times hotter thon normal. Then, a fourth person is
seen in the fire with them. And these three Israelites emerged completely unharmed,
without the smell of fire on their garments, without even a hair on their heads
singed (Dan. 3: 19-27; cf Dan.
6: 16-24).
[Page 5]
Again, God viewed matters during Daniel’s day from the same vantage
point seen during Moses’ day.
Then, bringing this down into modern times, where was God when
6,000,000 Jews were slain
during the twelve-year reign of the Third Reich? The answer, of course, is
seen in Exodus and Daniel. God
was there, in the midst of His people, viewing the persecuting Gentile nation
from that vantage point, suffering, as well, right along with His people (again, “IN ALL THEIR AFFLICTION HE WAS AFFLICTED”).
And though 6,000,000 Jews perished, the nation itself lives.
Note one of the many promises which
“No weapon that is
formed against thee shall prosper; and
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn...” (Isa. 54:
17a).
So, where does that leave the world with the current situation
in the Middle East - with
As this is being written (August,
2014), here’s the picture in the
The Palestinian Arabs, ruling in
Even though the Jewish people are in an unrepentant and
unbelieving state, God still resides in their midst, suffering right along with them,
viewing and experiencing activities of the Gentile nations through
[Page 6]
(In this respect, note the
inseparable association of God [manifested
in the flesh] with
One’s attitude toward and treatment of Israel [individuals or
nations] - whether negative or positive - is an attitude toward and treatment of the
One in Israel’s midst, the God of Israel, the one true and living
God.
“
Then there is the matter of individuals trying to effect peace
between
These individuals really need to check the Book and find out
not only who they are dealing with but what they are
dealing with. The Middle East situation which
man is vainly seeking to deal with has its roots in 4,000 years of Jewish
history and can only be dealt with by the One in Israel’s midst (cf Ps. 139: 1ff.).
Though an Israeli nation exists in the
And, with this in mind, how does God view
the Gentile nations where these Jews are scattered? The answer, of course, is evident.
It has already been given in the two verses
quoted at the beginning of this chapter.
God resides in the midst of His people and views these nations through
the Jewish people in their midst, experiencing exactly what His people
experience.
The whole of the matter is really that
simple, in the
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than
your thoughts” (Isa. 55: 8, 9).
[Page 7]
* *
*
CHAPTER 2
The Pupil of Man’s Eye
THE MANNER IN WHICH CHRISTIANS ARE TO VIEW ALL THINGS
For the Lord’s
portion is His people; Jacob is
the lot of his inheritance.
He found him
in a desert land, and in the waste
howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the
apple [lit., ‘the pupil’] of His eye (Deut.
32: 9, 10).
Deliver
thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with
the daughter of
For thus saith
the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent
me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple [lit., ‘the pupil’] of His eye (Zech.
2: 7, 8).
Keep my
commandments, and live; and my law as the apple [lit., ‘the pupil’] of thine eye (Prov. 7:
2).
According
to Deut. 32:
10 and Zech.
2: 8, God
views all matters occurring among the nations in the world - past and present -
through one means alone, through Israel.
“
When matters are carried back behind
Such activity would have to be seen occurring in the
loins of Abraham (Gen. 15: 4),
extending all the way back through Shem and Noah to Enos, Seth, and Adorn, or
extending forward through Abraham and his seed, with the nation being brought
into existence through his seed centuries later during Moses’ day.
[Page 8]
Matters having to do with the
loins of Abraham in this
respect - both backward and forward - could be somewhat explained and
understood by reference to several things:
1) Levi
(Abraham’s great grandson) paying tithes in Abraham at the time Abraham, years
earlier, had met Melchizedek and paid tithes of all that he possessed (cf. Gen. 14: 18-20; Heb. 7: 9, 10).
2)
The sojourn of the children of Israel (referring to the nation in Egypt
under Moses) beginning thirty years before Isaac’s birth, 430 years before the inception of the
nation (cf. Gen. 15: 13, 14; Ex. 12: 40, 41; Gal. 3: 17, 18).
3)
The establishment of the boundaries of the nations of the earth - both by
language and geography - at a time between the Flood and Abraham, during
Peleg’s day (born about 100 years following the Flood and died at the age of
239 about ten years before Abraham’s
birth). And the
establishment of these boundaries was governed by “the number of the children
of
Thus, to understand how an unchangeable God has viewed matters
on earth since the beginning of the human race, it really matters not at what
point in history one begins.
From Adorn to Abraham (2,000 years), the matter could only have been done
through
Abraham’s loins (Adam, Abel
replaced by Seth, Enos ... Enoch ... Noah, Shem ... Terah, Abraham).
(Relative to the preceding, note that which Scripture states about
a number of individuals in the lineage extending from Adam to Abraham:
Abel [Gen.
4: 4, 5];Enos [Gen. 4: 25, 26];Enoch [Gen.
5: 21-24];Methuselah [Gen.
5: 25-27 - given a name which means, When
he is gone, it (the Flood) will be sent]; Noah [Gen. 6: 8, 9]; Shem [Gen. 9: 25-27- somewhat capsulating matters with Shem, the
only one of Noah’s three sons said to have a God, anticipating Abraham and his
lineage].)
[Page 9]
Then, from Abraham to the present time, the matter, as clearly
stated in Deut. 32:
10 and Zech.
2: 8, had
to do with Abraham and his Seed (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob’s twelve sons ...
the nation of
(For additional information on the preceding, refer back to Chapter 1 in this book, “The
Pupil of God’s Eye.”)
God views matters among the nations today through
The lens through which God views any and all
things is seen in the loins of Abraham - through
a lineage beginning with Adam and culminating with a nation emanating from
Jacob and his twelve sons 2,500 years later during Moses’ day, through which
Messiah come.
The Jewish People
The preceding is how God, down through 6,000 years of time,
has viewed matters in the human race.
But how were His people to view matters
in this same respect?
In reality, the matter is essentially the same - which, of
necessity, it must be - though stated and dealt with in
a slightly different manner.
According to Prov.
7: 2, the
Jewish people (a people through whom God viewed all things) were to view all
things through God’s Word (a written Word at the time this verse was penned,
also manifested in the form of flesh about 1,000 years later [Whom the Jewish
people rejected but will one day receive]).
And Scripture clearly states concerning
this Word, “the
Word was God” (John 1: 1, 2 [‘was,’ a verb of
being in the Greek text - no beginning, no end; the Word always has been
God, and the Word always will be God]).
Then the Word, seen as God in this manner, “was made flesh [lit.,
‘became
flesh’]” (John 1: 14). God became flesh in the person of His Son and
dwelled among His people in this manner. [Page 10] And this Word will one day return to His people
in this same manner (Acts 1: 9-11; cf. Zech. 12: 10-14; Matt. 23: 37-39).
The Jewish people were to look upon everything through the
Word. The Word was their eye-gate, the
lens, through which they were to view any and all
activity in the world. And they were to do this after the manner set forth in Isa. 8: 20:
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not
according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them [lit., ‘no
dawn to them’].”
Christians
And the matter is exactly the same for
Christians today. All things are to be viewed
through the same lens, which in one respect is through a Jewish Saviour, Who is
God manifest in the flesh, the Word made flesh.
Or, in another respect, all things are to be viewed through that stated in
the written Word, which is viewing matters through the same lens in a different
way, though, in reality, the same way.
The Word, the Word made flesh, and God simply cannot be separated. If a person is dealing with One, that person is dealing with all Three. Matters can’t
possibly occur any other way.
Thus, viewing matters through that stated in Isa. 8: 20 is viewing matters through the Father or His Son. The Jewish people are the lens through which
God views all things in the world, acting on that stated in His unchangeable
Word.
And this Word, given through Jewish
Prophets, inseparably identified with the Father and His Son, is the lens
through which God’s people - whether
(Note that orthodox Jews today, ascribing to the Old Testament
Scriptures [the Torah, as the Jewish people like to reference Moses, or the
entire O.T.], are, as well, ascribing to the Word which became flesh though
they don’t even know it. They accept One and
reject the other, which, in reality, is an oxymoron, for they are accepting on the one hand the same thing that they
are rejecting on the other hand.
Then there is the reverse side to that
previously seen among [Page 11] orthodox Jews. This can be seen, to varying extents, in certain Christian
circles today.
Note that the Word became flesh before a single Word
of the NT had been penned, showing, beyond
question that there can be nothing in later revelation [the N.T.] that was not
seen after some fashion in former revelation [the O.T.]. If anything exists in later revelation that
is not seen after some fashion in earlier revelation, then the Word which became flesh at the time of the incarnation could
only have been incomplete.
But note the outlook many Christians and
entire denominations in some respects have on the matter. They refer to themselves as N.T Churches, giving little attention to, or, for all
practical purposes rejecting, the O.T. Scriptures.
But what are they doing? They are acting in a reverse fashion to that
seen in the orthodox Jewish community.
The orthodox Jews accept the written Word, the O.T.
Scriptures, but reject the Word made flesh;
Christians accept the Word made flesh, but, to varying
extents, reject the O.T. Scriptures, the written Word.
And either way an oxymoron can only be clearly seen.)
If They Speak Not According to This Word...
“The Word” is the
Standard through which all
else is to be viewed and judged. Nothing
exists that is equal to or higher than the Standard. Therefore,
it cannot be dealt with like other things in the world (e.g., proven, as some attempt; discredited, as others attempt), for
there is nothing to use for such purposes.
This is why God never attempts to prove Himself, His Son, or
His Word. Scripture simply begins, “In [the] beginning God...” And God then states that the one whom He created
is a “fool” if the creature doesn’t believe in
the Creator’s existence (Gen. 1: 1a; Ps. 14: 1; 53: 1; John 1: 1).
Though the Word cannot be proven, the veracity of the Word
progressively becomes self-evident for anyone acting after a manner other than
a fool, i.e., for anyone believing,
reading, and studying this Word.
God, through His Spirit, Who moved individuals in time past to
pen this Word, progressively opens this Word to the understanding [Page 12] of any and all who spend time reading
and studying this Word, seeking to understand that which God has revealed in
His Word. And,
at the some time, the Word, through its Own testimony, progressively becomes
self-evident to that individual that this Word is exactly what it claims to
be.
And this is the only way that the Word can deal with proof
relative to its veracity. There is
nothing equal to or higher; thus, the Word can only reference itself in a
manner of this nature.
The same thing is seen where God swears by Himself (Gen.
22: 16; Ex. 32: 13; Isa.
45: 23; Heb. 6: 13). There is none equal to or higher that He
can swear by. Thus, God can only swear by Himself.
And the Word is exactly the same. It has to be, for it is inseparably identified with God. The only way in which the Word can be dealt
with in relation to proofs, checks and balances, etc. is to let the Word deal
with itself, which the Word will readily do every time for anyone allowing the
Word to speak for itself.
This is why Scripture must be interpreted in the light of Scripture. Everything is of Divine origin and
inseparably related. The supernatural
simply cannot be dealt with by the natural, after any
fashion.
One cannot move above this sphere, though one could move
outside or below this sphere, which would be outside or below the only place
where that related to the Word con exist (e.g.,
truth, life, etc.).
And this is the reason why this Word is
the eye-gate, the lens, through which God’s people are to view all things in
the world in which they find themselves, governing their lives accordingly.
Through the lens of the Word, everything is either in accord
with the Word or out of line with the Word, in accord with or out of line with
the Standard. There is no middle ground
(Matt. 12:
30; Luke 11:
23).
Thus, as one sets the timepiece in
[Page 13]
* * *
CHAPTER 3
Zionism
Biblical Zionism, Present-Day Zionism
By the rivers
of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered
We hanged our
harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
For there they
that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that
wasted us required of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of
How shall we
sing the Lord's song in a strange land? (Ps. 137: 14).
“Zion” is used in Scripture as a synonym
for Jerusalem (Ps. 76: 2; 126: 1; Isa. 1: 26, 27); and
“Jerusalem,” along with “the land of Israel” itself in a larger respect, is used in
Scripture as a synonym for the Jewish people (Lam. 1: 7-9; Jer. 22: 8, 9, 29, 30; Ezek. 14: 11-13; Hos. 1: 2; Matt. 23: 37-39; Luke 13: 33-35; 19: 41, 42; Rev. 11: 8; 17: 18). Scripture presents an inseparable connection between the
Jewish people, their capital city, and
their land.
In this respect, “Zionism” centers
on
“Zionism” - as the thought would be
expressed through the Jewish remembrance of “
[Page 14]
“Zionism,” as the term has
been used during modern times (during about the past 120 years, extending into
today) does not refer to a
religious or Biblical movement at all.
Though the movement has its basis in Scripture (God’s promises to the
Jewish people as they pertain to the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob), the movement itself is centrally secular rather than Biblical.
In this respect, Zionism, as it exists today, was founded by and has been promoted down through the years
mainly by secular Jews rather
than religious Jews. And, rather than
being in line with Jewish thought as seen in Ps.
137: 1ff,
or any place else in Scripture where the restoration of the Jewish people to a
restored land is dealt with, thought within present-day Zionism, almost without
exception, is a complete corruption of how Scripture deals with the matter.
Present-day Zionism had its beginning about one hundred twenty
years ago under Theodor Herzl (1895), a secular Jew who did not hold to that
written in the Torah (referring to the five books of Moses; or, in a broader
respect, referring to the whole of the O.T).
And many Zionists down through the years have
been secular Jews who saw the Torah as outdated, occupying no place in
modern-day Jewish life.
In fact, the land of Israel today is filled with Jewish people
exhibiting exactly this same type thought, though the land is also filled (to a
lesser extent) with religious Jews, some very religious, holding to and seeking
to observe the writing in the Torah. And, as well, one could find thought among the Jews
throughout the land lying at about every point between these two extremes -
completely secular to very religious.
Zionism, as defined more by the Jewish people themselves
today, has to do with a national movement for the return of the
Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the
Thus, Zionism - seen solely from this
secular respect in which it exists - for all practical purposes, has to do with
the
Jewish people rising up, seeking to emancipate themselves from exile
apart from their Messiah, and establish a Jewish nation with its own
government in the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob (though many of them
are atheists, disclaiming belief in the God who made this [Page 15] covenant with their fathers).
Then, viewing matters more from a
Biblical rather than from a secular vantage point (as in the preceding
definitions), Zionism, as it exists today, has to do with the Jewish people -
refusing to recognize and realize God’s purpose for uprooting them from their
land and driving them out among the Gentile nations, i.e., refusing to repent -
taking matters into their own hands and attempting to bring about God’s
promises pertaining to their restoration to the land and a healing of the land
themselves.
Or, viewing matters from that stated in Matt. 12: 43-45; 23: 37-39, present-day Zionism has to do with the Jewish
people, under their own humanistic power and reasoning, re-entering a house which had
been left desolate, empty, swept clean of anything
remaining, and placed in order relative to this unclean and desolate state.
(The preceding has to do with definitions of Zionism, from two
different perspectives - one solely secular [though having a Biblical base],
the other from the standpoint of this Biblical base.
And it should be understood that these
definitions of Zionism do not, after any fashion, reflect on how numerous
individuals today might view Zionism - Jews or Christians. These definitions simply present basic
statements about Zionism from two different opposing perspectives - one secular,
one non-secular, with numerous things about present-day Zionism, no matter how
it is viewed, having to fit within one of these two
perspectives.
The vast majority of the Jews in
Many Jewish rabbis over about the past 100 years have spoken
out against Zionism. But
this probably emanates more from the secular humanism involved than it does
from how Scripture deals with the matter of God fulfilling His promises to
Some Jewish organizations today though
view matters pertaining to Zionism in an entirely correct,
Biblical respect. The matter,
as it actually exists, could not have been stated in a
more accurate, succinct manner than by one of these organizations:
[Page 16]
“Zionism, by
advocating a political and military end to the Jewish exile, denies the very
essence of our Diaspora existence. We
are in exile by Divine Decree and may emerge from exile solely via Divine
Redemption.”
- True Torah Jews
Christian thought though, pervading large segments of the
whole of Christendom today, is another matter entirely. Numerous Christians, not understanding that
which Scripture has to say about God’s future restoration of
The matter is looked upon different
ways by different individuals, though almost all would see that which has been
occurring since Israeli statehood on May 14, 1948 as God progressively fulfilling His
O. T. promises concerning the Jewish people being regathered from the nations
and restored to a land being healed
[some see a more restrictive form of the preceding - only certain O.T.
restorative promises presently being fulfilled].
This in itself only goes to illustrate
and show one thing: Numerous Christians today seem to know very little about
something which they should know a great deal about, leaving individuals with a
capacity for spiritual understanding knowing far less concerning that which
Scripture has to say in this realm than some individuals lacking this capacity
for spiritual understanding [ref. the previous quote from “True Torah Jews”].)
Christian Zionism
“Christian Zionism” is an expression which has been used by Christian groups for
decades, thinking that they are aligning themselves with a work of God among the
Jewish people through that presently occurring in Zionism.
The reality of the matter though is that God is not involved
in present-day Zionism. Christians are
out there alone on this one, involved in something secular, of the world, which
is not a work of God at all.
From a Scriptural standpoint, a Christian Zionist today could
only be a Christian seeking to help Israel do that which God has not only
forbidden but warned against the nation doing.
He is seeking to help Israel enter into and be at home in an “empty, swept, and [Page 17] garnished house,” with
an impending punishment for doing this far exceeding anything that the nation
has ever experienced, dating all the way back to the inception of the nation
during Moses’ day.
In this respect, note Christ’s closing recorded words to
The house of
And, once the house of
But, should repentance not be forthcoming - with the Jewish
people persisting in their disobedience, ignoring the reason for their condition,
seeking to bring about a change in the existing situation themselves - matters
would only become worse.
Matthew 12: 43-45 reveals an “unclean spirit” dwelling in the house prior to the
house being left “empty, swept, and garnished.”
Then, following this - because of Israel’s refusal to repent, and
because of Israel’s efforts to bring about a change in the existing situation
through naturalistic means - “seven other spirits,” more wicked than the first, would
take up residence in the house, with the latter state of the nation becoming
far worse than the former state (v. 45).
(And the preceding is exactly what
has happened and will happen in the
And numerous Christians today, not
understanding the issue at all, are not only trying to help the Jewish people do
this but think that they are aligning themselves with the Word of God by
aligning themselves with the people of God in this manner, expecting God’s favour, by
seeking to help Israel in the nation’s efforts to circumnavigate God’s present
plans and purposes for the nation.
Note that there is a vast difference between befriending and
helping the Jewish people after a Biblical fashion and seeking to help the
Jewish people circumnavigate God’s Word and end up in a furnace heated seven
times hotter than it was meant to be heated [Dan.
3: 19ff]. The latter could
conceivably be seen as bordering on just the opposite of that which may
have been meant - bordering on anti-Semitism.
“Seven” is a complete number,
showing the completeness of that which is in view. “Seven
times,” or “seven other spirits,” may
refer to completeness rather
than to a literal seven‑fold intensity [cf. Lev.
26: 21-42].
However, either way, matters would be quite similar. With completeness in view, intensity would be involved; and
this intensity could, at times, possibly be even
greater than seven-fold.)
God’s Resumption of His Dealings with Israel
God is simply not dealing with
But one day soon, undoubtedly very soon, the Spirit’s work in the preceding respect will be finished, the [overcomers from amongst the]* Church
will be removed, Daniel’s timepiece will once again be set in motion, and God
will resume His dealings with
[* Presumably a reference to selective rapture, - Lk. 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10, R.V.)]
That day and time though is future, not present. And God’s firstborn Sons
(Christ, Israel, and the Church [following the adoption]) are to be raised up
to live in His sight, not at the end of the second day (present time), but
following the second day, on the third day, on the third 1,000-year
period dating back to Israel’s crucifixion of her Messiah and the subsequent
inception of the Church (or, on
the seventh day, the seventh 1,000-year period, dating back to man’s creation and subsequent fall [cf Hos.
5: 13-62; Luke 24: 20-31; John 1: 29 - 2: 11; 11: 1-7; Heb. 4: 4-9]).
* * *
CHAPTER 4
Last State Worse Than the First
That Which Awaits the Nation of
When the unclean
spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh
through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Then he saith,
I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is
come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Then goeth he,
and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked
than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state
of the man is worse than the first. Even so
shall it be also unto this wicked generation (Matt. 12: 43-45).
These
are Christ’s closing recorded words to
The house of Israel, during time covered by events seen in these parables (the
present dispensation and subsequent Tribulation), was to be left “empty,
swept, and garnished [‘put in
order’]” (v. 44;
cf. Matt. 23:
38). The house was to stand vacant (“empty”), and it was to be “swept” and “put in order” relative to its vacated state. Nothing was to remain.
And, once the house of
But, should repentance not be forthcoming - with the Jewish
people persisting in their disobedience, ignoring the reason for their
condition, seeking to bring about a change in the existing situation themselves
- matters
would only become worse.
[Page 20]
God had revealed through Moses, at the beginning,
that
Then, fifteen hundred years later, Christ called attention to
this same fundamental truth immediately before He left the house, went down by
the seaside, and began to speak in parables (Matt.
12: 43-45; 13: 1ff).
Matthew 12: 43-45 reveals an “unclean spirit” dwelling in the house prior to the
house being left “empty, swept, and garnished.” Then, following this - because of Israel’s refusal
to repent, and because of Israel’s efforts to bring about a change in the
existing situation through naturalistic means - “seven other spirits,” more wicked than the first, would take up residence in the house,
with the latter state of the nation being far worse than the former state (v. 45).
(“Seven” is a complete number,
showing the completeness of that which is in view. “Seven times,”
or “seven other spirits,” may refer to completeness rather than to a literal seven-fold intensity.
However, either way, matters would be quite similar. With completeness in view, intensity would be involved; and this intensity could, at times, possibly be even greater than seven-fold.)
This condition would continue until matters had become so bad
that
[Page 21]
(A similar Divine work can be seen in Zech. 1: 14, 15, where the Lord set about to chasten His son,
And God will not countenance such
action. God said that He was “a little displeased” with
In this respect, the Gentile nations should take note of that
which has been happening and continues to happen to
A Modern-Day Situation
An interesting situation pertaining to God chastening His son,
Israel has sought to return to her
land, while, at the same time, remaining in disobedience. And, attempting to return after this
fashion is not only attempting to return before the time but also attempting to reverse that which God has
decreed concerning
[Page22]
The principle has been unchangeably established and set -
given by God through Moses, and reiterated by Christ - and it CANNOT be broken.
With an existing Jewish nation in the Middle East, in the eyes
of man,
But, in the eyes of God, though an
Israeli nation presently exists in the
One need only look at a decaying
But neither
The whole of the existing problem is a matter between God and
And the whole of the revealed solution is
also a matter between God and
An eluding
[Page 23]
But a solution will not be forthcoming
until a full-end to the
decreed “seven times” or “seven other spirits,” in relation to
Various plans are being studied and considered, and
concessions are being made which were unheard of only
a short time back. But
all of man’s best efforts will fail.
This is simply something which man has no control over and cannot deal with.
And where is it all headed? From a Scriptural standpoint, there is only
one possible answer. It is all headed
toward a climactic, desolate end
- an end seven times worse than it would have been had the Jewish
people not persisted in their disobedience and sought, themselves, to bring
about a change in a “desolate,
swept,
and garnished” house.
(And those in Christendom today who
teach, completely contrary to Scripture, that the remnant in the land is there in fulfilment of God’s
numerous promises to one day restore His people and their land, have introduced
and promoted error having grave ramifications.
In essence, by teaching and promoting error of this nature, such
individuals are giving credence to
A Man Seemingly Possessing the Answer
In the immediate future, a man is going to appear in the
But, though his solution for
[Page 24]
The matter of a Jewish nation, a remnant in the land today, is
as Jonah out of the Lord’s will, asleep in the hold of the ship, out
of the sea. This remnant in the
land today, out of the Lord’s will, is
no longer scattered among the nations.
They are in their own land, no longer in the sea, though asleep to the true
nature of their condition and calling (the “sea,” used as a metaphor for the nations and showing the place of death).
In Jonah’s case, the sea raged as long as this condition persisted - Jonah asleep on board the
ship, out of the sea. But
once Jonah had been cast into the sea, the sea became calm (Jonah 1:3-15). And Jonah had to
remain in the sea, in the place of death (typifying, as well, being scattered among the nations), for two days, until the third day. Only
then could Jonah be removed from the sea and be placed back in the land (Jonah 1: 17 - 2: 10).
Israel’s place out of the Lord’s will can only be in exactly
the some place which Jonah occupied out of the Lord’s will - in the sea, i.e.,
in the place of death and scattered among the nations. This is the place where
God dealt with Jonah in the type, and this is the place where God has decreed that He will deal with
And
An attempt has been made to
remove
What is going to happen according to Jonah? The sea is going to rage; the
Gentile nations are going to be in turmoil.
And this continuing account from the Book
of Jonah will address the whole of the
situation relative to
* *
*
[Page 25]
CHAPTER 5
The Turbulent
UNREST IN THE MIDDLE EAST - THE REASON, THE SOLUTION
Now the word
of the Lord came unto jonah
the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to
But Jonah rose up to flee unto
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish:
so he paid the
fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord.
But the Lord sent out a great
wind into the sea, and there was a
mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Then the
mariners were afraid,
and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the
wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah had gone down into the sides of the ship;
and he lay, and
was fast asleep (Jonah 1: 1-5).
Would
you like to know why unsettled, turbulent conditions currently exist in the
Would you like to know the only solution to the existing
problem in the
[Page 26]
In this respect, it would appear that man today might want to
consult the centuries-old guide Book on the matter. But not so! This
Book has seemingly been relegated to the last place
which man would turn for information on about anything these days.
Man’s outlook or actions on anything
regarding
So, let’s look at “the why” of the problem in the opening five verses of
Jonah. Then we’ll
look at “the only solution” to the problem in
the continuing verses of this book.
The Why of the Problem
Jonah, in direct disobedience to the Lord, booked passage on
board a ship, paid the fare, went down into the ship’s hold, and set sail - fleeing
from the Lord's presence, travelling west toward Tarshish rather than
east toward Nineveh, where he had been told to go.
Because Jonah had done this, the Lord sent “a great wind” and “a mighty tempest” out on the sea (the
The story of Jonah, a true account of past events pertaining
to one of the Lord’s Prophets (Matt. 12: 38-40), has to do with events which occurred under
the sovereign direction and control of the Lord in order that He, at a later
time, might have these events to draw upon to teach His people the deep things
of God.
In this respect, Jonah forms a type; and it is evident from
this account that his actions foreshadow those of God’s two firstborn Sons,
Christ and
The overall story throughout all four chapters has to do more
specifically with
[Page 27]
(For information relative to the
expression, “three days and three nights,” seen
in Jonah 1: 17
[having to do with the length of time that Jonah was in the belly of the fish]
and referenced by Christ in Matt. 12: 38-40 [having to do with the length of time that He
would be in the heart of the earth], refer to Appendix III, “Three Days & Three Nights,” in this book.)
God called
1) To give mankind
the Word of God.
2) To give mankind
the Saviour.
3)
To be God’s witness to the nations,
telling them about the Saviour, using the
Word of God.
And the place where
“The sea,” throughout Scripture,
is used as a metaphor for the Gentile nations, also for the place of death (Rev.
13: 1; 21: 1), with both usages of the word seen in
the opening two chapters of Jonah.
And Jonah on board the ship, removed from
the sea, could only picture one thing. There is only one
place on earth which can be
seen as a place removed from the nations, and that place is the
And the sea raging after a manner which
was about to destroy the ship and its crew could only have to do with one
thing as well - with unrest
of a similar nature among the Gentile nations surrounding
Thus, Jonah on board the ship, asleep in a place where he wasn’t even supposed to be, typifies
[Page 28]
The Lord sent the great storm in the type because of Jonah,
and the Lord has sent the great storm (unrest among the nations [with the full
unrest, as will be shown, yet to occur]) in the antitype because of
Jonah was a disobedient Prophet, asleep in a place where he wasn’t supposed to be (on board a ship rather than headed toward
And this is exactly what has been
foreshadowed in Jonah through the disobedient Prophet being on board the ship (out
of the sea), in an unrepentant state, asleep in the hold of the ship, asleep to his
calling.
And, exactly as in the type
(the Lord, because of that which Jonah had done, caused the sea to rage to such
an extent that the ship was about to be destroyed), so in the antitype (the
Lord, because of that which Israel has done, has brought about unrest among the
nations to the same extent as seen in the type [the present unrest among the
nations, though not as intense as the sea raging in Jonah’s day, will culminate
in one just as intense]).
The type has been set and CANNOT be changed!
Thus, the trouble among the Gentile nations in the
EVERYTHING revolves around
(It is widely taught in Christian circles today that a Jewish
nation presently existing in the
[Page 29]
From a Biblical standpoint though, such is not at all possible. A
present restoration of the Jewish people [before the time], particularly under
existing conditions [a disobedient and unrepentant people], would have God
acting contrary to His Word in numerous realms - an impossibility.
To grasp an overall understanding of that which Scripture has
to say in this respect, refer to the author’s book,
The Only Solution to the Problem
The only solution to the existing problem in the Middle East
(to bring an end to that which God, because
of
Jonah told those on the ship exactly what must be done. He must be cast
into the sea (where God would then deal with him relative
to repentance). And,
after Jonah had been cast into the sea, the sea ceased raging.
Bringing that over into the antitype, to put a stop to the
unrest among the nations,
And after this has been done, in complete
keeping with the type - after
The preceding may sound strange, but not so at all. Unrest among the nations exists because of
God, in His sovereign direction and control of all things, has
set the whole of the matter forth in a perfect parallel form of this nature.
[Page 30]
According to Scripture,
Then, exactly as in the type, God will bring about a change in
conditions. The existing unrest among
the nations will cease, for the reason why this unrest had occurred will no
longer exist (as the sea ceased raging after Jonah had been cast overboard in
the type, for the reason why it had raged no longer existed).
But, according to Jonah chapter two and related Biblical prophecy, another unrest
among the nations at this time will replace the previous unrest, becoming far,
far more tumultuous. This
though will be for an entirely different reason, but still having to do with
Israel.
Once Israel has been removed from her land, the
previously existing catalyst for unrest among the nations will have been
removed; but, because of anti-Semitism on an unprecedented scale,
which will have begun to occur in connection with Israel’s removal from her
land, a new catalyst will
come into play, having to do with a far, far greater unrest among the nations
than will have ever existed before this time.
And, in the end, the nations, brought to
the brink of complete destruction, resulting from this unrest, will be
prevented from destroying themselves only because of the continuing presence of
the nation of
In little more than three additional years, the nations will be brought to the place seen in Matt. 24: 21, 22:
“...except those days should be shortened, there should no
flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake (for
Thus,
as seen in the preceding verse, or the Book of Jonah, or
anywhere else in
* *
*
CHAPTER 6
The Turbulent
UNREST IN THE MIDDLE EAST - TO ONE DAY CEASE
So the
shipmaster came to him [to Jonah, asleep in
the hold of the ship], and said unto him,
What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God
will think upon us, that we perish not.
And they said
everyone to his fellow, Come,
and let us cast
lots that we may know for whose cause this evil [the raging sea, about to destroy the
ship and crew] is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
Then said they
unto him, Tell us,
we pray thee,
for whose cause
this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? And whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou?
And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven,
which hath made
the sea and the dry land.
Then were the
men exceedingly afraid, and said
unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence
of the Lord, because he had told them.
Then said they
unto him, What shall we do unto
thee that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so the sea shall be
calm unto you; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you...
So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased
from her raging (Jonah 1: 6-12, 15).
[Page 32]
As seen
in Chapter IV of this book, the small
four-chapter Book of Jonah, written by a
Jewish Prophet over 2,800 years ago,
outlines in exact detail not
only the reason for the current unrest among the nations in the Middle East,
extending out into the world at large, but also the solution to the existing
problem.
In the type, there is a disobedient Jewish Prophet on board a
ship headed west toward Tarshish when he should have been back on the land
headed east toward
The land of Israel is
the only place which could possibly be in view and still see the place
where Jonah was as separate from the nations (i.e., he was out of the sea, on the ship, not in the sea).
Then, viewing the matter from the
standpoint of the antitype, Israel is on board the ship, out of the sea (i.e., a segment of the Jewish people,
over time, has returned to the land of Israel [under a Zionistic movement]; those
comprising this segment have removed themselves from the sea rather than remaining where God had
previously placed them - out among the nations).
And those presently comprising the nation
of
(Any type action on Jonah’s part in the type or
“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whether shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art
there; if
I make my bed in Hell [‘Sheol’],
behold,
thou art there”
(Ps. 139:
7, 8).
For additional information in this respect, refer to Chapter 1, “The Pupil of
God’s Eye,” in the author’s book DISTANT HOOFBEATS.)
[Page 33]
And exactly the same thing as seen in the
type has occurred relative to
God has sent a great storm out on the sea; God has caused
great turmoil to exist among the Gentile nations (though far, far
from the intensity about to exist). And it is all because of
And the whole of the matter will
continue, unchecked, only becoming worse and worse with time, until... The
unrest among the nations, particularly in the
(God had previously uprooted His people from their land and
driven them out among the nations to effect repentance
through continuous mistreatment at the hands of the nations. This is not only where but how God had
previously decreed that He would deal with His people in this respect, which
is the primary reason why the 6,000,000 Jews presently in the land must be uprooted and driven back out among the nations. And the time when this will occur cannot be far removed.
An interesting thing about the present unrest among the
numerous nations fighting in the
And the whole of that occurring, under
God’s sovereign direction and control - because of
[Page 34]
Note how God has used and will
continue to use men and nations in this respect. God used the past Assyrian and his armed
forces ruling
“...for this cause have I raised thee up [the Assyrian
Pharaoh ruling
“And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast [the
Beast’s ten-kingdom confederacy], these shall hate the whore [
“For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will,
and to agree,
and give their
kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled” [Rev. 17: 16, 17; cf. Rev. 19: 2, 3].)
In the Sea, Then...
One part of the complete story concerning
But, as previously shown (ref
Chapter IV in this book), when Israel is
driven back out among the nations, things not dealt with in the first chapter
of Jonah but dealt with in the second
chapter (e.g., vv.
2, 3),
along with other Prophets, will then come into play. Though unrest among the nations will cease
because
[Page 35]
The Beast, empowered by Satan and seated on his throne (Rev. 13: 2), will seek to destroy
And Scripture reveals that it will take
the type persecution which will be manifested under the future Assyrian, the
Beast, to bring about
In this respect, God will use this latter-day Assyrian exactly
as He used his Assyrian predecessor during Moses’ day (Ex.
2: 23ff.).
Repentance, Then...
Once Jonah had been cast into the sea at the end of chapter
one (Jonah 1: 15),
the events of chapter two relate the account
of Jonah brought to the place of repentance.
And this, of course, foreshadows
Jonah was brought to this place through circumstances
which God had brought to pass.
Then, once this had occurred and Jonah finally acknowledged, “Salvation is
of the Lord,” the
Lord commanded the fish to spit him out on dry land (the
Jonah was driven to the place of repentance while in the sea,
he acknowledged the only place from which salvation exists while still in the
sea, and he was then restored to the land (Jonah 1:
15 - 2: 10).
In complete accord with the Book of Jonah,
any of the other types, the Jewish festivals of Leviticus
chapter twenty three, or the Prophets,
[Page
36]
Israel’s restoration will occur
following the nation’s repentance, following Messiah’s return at the end of the
Tribulation, following the nation’s national conversion when they look upon the
One Whom they pierced, and following the resurrection of Old Testament saints
(the dead will be resurrected and restored with the living, exactly as seen in
the type in Exodus during Moses’ day [Moses
took the bones of Joseph with him when he led the Israelites out of Egypt).
(For additional information on the preceding, refer to the
author’s book, ISRAEL
- FROM DEATH TO LIFE.
Also, see “Anti-Semitism,”
Appendix I, in the author’s book, PROPHECY ON MOUNT OLIVET.)
Then, in the type, continuing in Jonah
chapter three, Jonah did that which the Lord had commanded him to do in
the first place. He
went to Nineveh with God’s message,
resulting in the repentance of the entire city (Jonah
3: 1 ff).
And
Exactly as seen in the type, they will go to the Gentiles with
God’s message. And, as seen in
the type, the Gentiles will hear and respond (Isa. 2: 1-4; Zech. 8: 13, 20-23).
This is what the future holds for Israel and the nations,
as foretold over 2,800 years ago in the
Book of Jonah.
* *
*
[Page 37]
CHAPTER 7
Time of Israel’s Restoration
As Seen in Jacob’s Exile and Return to the Land
... I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of
Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed,
And thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east,
and to the north,
and to the south:
and in thee and
in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou
goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not
leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of
(Gen. 28:
13b-15).
Jacob’s Exile
Jacob,
like the nation of
While in a strange land Jacob went to Laban, his mother’s
brother, began to serve Laban, was mistreated by Laban, but became a crafty
merchantman who grew wealthy at Laban’s expense; and Laban, at the same time,
as well, was blessed and grew even wealthier by Jacob’s presence (Gen. 30: 27-43).
(“Laban,” though Abraham’s
kinsman [Gen. 24: 15, 29], can
typify the Gentiles because,
as Esau, he is not part of the lineage of Abraham through Isaac, Jacob, and
Jacob’s twelve sons.)
Jacob’s Return
After acquiring a certain amount of wealth from Laban, Jacob
expressed a desire to return to the land of his fathers (Gen. 30: 25, 26).
But the time for his return, although
near, had not arrived. God’s command for
Jacob to return came only after Jacob had acquired ALL of Laban’s
wealth.
“...Jacob hath taken away all that was
our father’s; and of
that which was our father’s hath he gotten all this glory...
And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto
the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred,
and I will be with thee” (Gen. 31: 1b, 3).
From Gen. 28: 15 to Gen.
31: 3 God
did
not speak to Jacob. The
heavens remained closed during the entire time of Jacob’s exile. God
did
not speak to Jacob until
it was time for him to return. Jacob then returned to
Israel’s Return
[Page 39]
The present return of a remnant to the land is NOT the restoration prophesied numerous
places in the Old Testament and set forth in type by the experiences
surrounding Jacob’s return. This return
has occurred during a time when the heavens, relative to God’s dealings with
This present return of the Jewish people has occurred during
the Times of the Gentiles, during their time of exile, while the heavens remain
closed, while God's timepiece marking time in Daniel’s Seventy-Week prophecy
remains idle, prior to Israel's acquisition of ALL the
wealth of the Gentiles, and prior to God’s command for the Jewish
people to return.
Regardless of that which has occurred,
that
revealed in the Word cannot change. The Word of God clearly declares that during the entire time of Israel’s
present exile, the Times of the Gentiles will continue, the heavens will remain
closed, and God will not speak to Israel again until that time foreshadowed by Gen. 31: 3 (cf. Jer. 30:
3, 7-10, 18; 31: 8, 9).
God’s command for Israel to return
will come only after the Times of the Gentiles has ended, only
after the exile has ended, only after the heavens have once again been
opened (Gen. 31: 3), and only after Israel has come into
possession of ALL the wealth of the Gentiles (Isa. 60:
5, 11 [“forces,”
KIV, should be translated “wealth,” or “riches”; ref ASV,
NASB, NIV]).
Only then will God
restore His people to the land; only then will the Jewish people hear God’s command to return to Bethel and
hear His voice once again, reaffirming the Abrahamic covenant to them (cf. Ex.
2: 23 - 3: 10).
(The remnant of Jews presently in the land, comprised of those
returning before it is time for the Jewish people to return, almost
6,000,000 strong today, will be uprooted and driven back out among the nations
in the middle of the coming Tribulation.
God, because of the continued disobedience of His people, over
centuries of time, drove the Jewish people out among the nations for a [Page 40] purpose,
yet to be realized - repentance. And
it is out among the nations, not
in the land, that God will deal with His people relative to repentance, with a view to restoration.
Refer to the author’s book, MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM, Chapter
II, “I Will Return,” for more
information on this subject.)
Note God’s command to Jacob with respect to his return to the land
- completely
within God’s timing, not Jacob’s -
and that which followed:
“And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers,
and to thy
kindred; and I will be with thee” (Gen.
31: 3).
“And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give
it, and
to thy seed after thee will I give the land” (Gen. 35: 12).
In complete accord with these verses - the heavens being
opened again and God again speaking to Jacob - God will one day again resume
His dealings with
The Jewish people will be brought
back into the land, possessing the wealth of the Gentiles (as Jacob returned to
Once back in the land, “Jacob’s” name was changed
to
In that future day when
Pharaoh’s Two Dreams
The same thing can be seen after another fashion in the
account of Joseph interpreting two dreams which God
had caused the Pharaoh of Egypt to have - two dreams having to do with two
interrelated periods of time, a time of plenty, followed by a time of
famine (Gen. 41: 14-32).
The length of each period of time in
the dream was seven years. “Seven” is one of several numbers used in
Scripture to show completeness. This number is used,
more specifically, to show the completeness of that which is in view. And, in this case, in the account, two complete periods of time were
in view - a time of plenty, followed by a time of famine.
This is what occurred during Joseph’s day, foreshadowing two
complete periods of time - one, a time of plenty, during which Israel, as Joseph’s
brethren, are unseen, and not being dealt with; the other, a time of famine, during which the Jewish people, as
Joseph’s brethren, reappear, and are dealt with.
And the time of famine in the type occurred in connection with
Joseph again appearing in his brethren’s presence, ultimately revealing himself
to them, being received by them, and their going forth with a dual message: “Joseph is yet
alive, and he is governor over all the land of
Egypt” (Gen. 42: 1-45: 26).
All of this foreshadows that which is about to occur, taking
one from the present time of plenty through the coming time of famine to that
day when a repentant, converted, and restored Israel will go forth as God’s
witness to the nations: “Jesus is yet
alive, and He is Governor over the entire earth.”
And all of this is as certain as the day
follows the night. It has
all been pre-recorded in God’s unchangeable Word.
[Page 42]
The time of plenty will one day end,
and the time of famine will then begin. Famine came during
Joseph’s day in an account fore-shadowing that occurring at the end of the time
of plenty, and it will come at the termination of the present time of plenty,
the present day - a time so different and severe that the previous time of
plenty was not even remembered during Joseph’s day; nor will it be remembered
in our day (Gen. 41:
31, 53-57).
Past, Present, Future
The brethren of Joseph faded from view after he had been sold into the hands of the Gentiles (37: 28), and they did not reappear until
following the time of plenty, during the time of famine (42:
1).
The brethren of Jesus, according to the flesh, faded from view
after He had been sold into the hands of the
Gentiles.
However, when the time of famine begins - marked by time once
again resuming in Daniel’s Seventy-Week prophecy, marking off time covering the
final seven years of this prophecy - just as the brethren of Joseph in the type
reappeared, the brethren of Jesus in the antitype
will reappear. And then, as Joseph dealt with his brethren, God, in the
person of His Son, will deal with
But, UNTIL that day, UNTIL the arrival of the time
of famine following the time of plenty - the Tribulation, the final
seven years in Daniel’s Seventy-Week prophecy - the heavens, of necessity, will
remain closed relative to God’s dealings with
UNTIL that time (the end of the time of plenty and the
arrival of the time of famine), God will remain silent relative to His revealed
plans and purposes for
But when that time arrives...
* *
*
[Page 43]
CHAPTER 8
Seventy Years, Four Hundred Ninety Years
AFTER 70 Years, AFTER 490 Years, NOT BEFORE
And this whole
land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations [the southern kingdom,
And it shall come to pass when
seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of
For thus saith
the Lord, That after seventy
years be accomplished at
For I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil,
to give you an
expected end.
Then shall ye
call upon me, and ye shall go and
pray unto me, and I will harken unto you.
And ye shall
seek me and find me, when ye shall
search for me with all your heart.
And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity,
and I will
gather you from all the nations, and from all places whither I have driven you,
saith the Lord;
and I will bring
you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive
(Jer. 25: 11, 12; 29: 10-14).
Because
of the continual disobedience - “continuous” in
many instances - of the Jewish people over centuries of time, God, true to His
Word (Lev. 26:
14ff, Deut.
28: 15ff), eventually uprooted His people
from their land and drove them out among the nations.
[Page 44]
And God acted after this fashion for one
central purpose - to effect repentance on the part of His people. Through persecution at the hands of
the Gentile nations, repentance, resulting in restoration,
would ultimately be effected.
The northern ten tribes were uprooted from their land first
and carried away captive into Assyria, beginning about 722 B.C.; and the
southern two tribes were subsequently uprooted from their land and carried away
captive into Babylon, beginning about 605 B.C.
And with the Babylonians having previously conquered the Assyrian
Empire (with both kingdoms bordering one another, lying east and northeast of
Israel), the carrying away of the southern two tribes into Babylon essentially
left all twelve tribes together, as captives estranged from their land,
residing in the some part of the Gentile world.
The Seventy Years
Dating from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, God
promised that after seventy years had passed, He would do two things:
1) “Punish the king of
2) “Visit you [the Jewish people in
That is to say, after seventy years had elapsed - but
ONLY
AFTER, NOT BEFORE - the kingdom of Babylon would be dealt with,
and God would remember His numerous promises to His people pertaining to
restoration (a healed people restored to a healed land).
This is what Daniel had read about and understood at this time
in Dan. 9:
1, 2. Daniel
had read about and understood these things through the writings o Jeremiah the
prophet (translate “books” [v.
2] as “writings” [ref
NIV]). And, as seen through his actions at this [Page 45] time, Daniel evidently had also read
about and understood from other writings (Moses and other Prophets) that repentance
on the part of the Jewish people must precede God visiting his people and
restoring them to their land (e.g., Lev.
26: 40-42; 2 Chron. 6: 24-27; 7: 12-14).
Daniel, knowing that the seventy years
had run their course (along with the Babylonian kingdom having fallen to the
Medes and the Persians), set about to seek the Lord’s face “by prayer and
supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and “ashes” (Dan. 9:
3).
Daniel then began to confess his own sins and those of the people,
detailed throughout the next sixteen verses (vv.
4-19).
Thus, one thing which was necessary for the Jewish
people to be restored to their land had occurred (the end of the seventy years); and Daniel, as an individual, was
bringing to pass the only remaining thing necessary (repentance, confessing his own sins and those of the Jewish
people).
How far repentance of this nature extended
beyond Daniel is unrevealed.
Nonetheless, God opened the door at this time for a return of the Jewish
people from
Most of the Jewish people, over time, had seemingly settled
down in the world and chosen to remain where they resided - in the Babylonian
kingdom, now ruled by the Medes and the Persians.
The Four Hundred and Ninety Years
Toward the end of Daniel’s prayer and supplication, while he
was still praying, the angel Gabriel interrupted him. Gabriel had been sent at the beginning of his
prayer and supplication in order to reveal to Daniel a period of time
subsequent to the seventy years - a longer period of time involving the Jewish
people, having to do with the same thing as the seventy years (Dan. 9: 20-23).
This latter period was seven times as
long as the period which had just elapsed - four hundred and ninety years
rather than seventy years (Dan. 9: 24-27); and it would only be at the end [Page 46] of this subsequent, longer period
that all
of the Jewish people scattered throughout the Gentile nations would be brought to
the place of repentance and restored to their land.
And, according to the Prophets, as these four hundred and
ninety years were brought to a close - exactly as at the close of the seventy
years - there would be a latter worldwide kingdom of Babylon, with
the Jewish people scattered throughout this kingdom.
(Four hundred and eighty-three of the full four hundred and
ninety years are now past, leading to the events surrounding
And the Spirit’s work in this respect, in the antitype of that
seen in Gen. 24
[between the time of the death of Abraham’s wife (ch. 23)
and Abraham again taking a wife (ch.
25) would be performed among those forming a new
creation brought into
existence at this time, the one new man “in Christ.”
Then, at the end of the Spirit’s work in the preceding
respect, God would remove this new man and resume His dealings with
And it will be during and at the end of these
last seven years that the Jewish people will once again reside in and be
restored back to their land from a Babylonian kingdom [in complete keeping with the types].
For additional information on the preceding, refer to Ch. XII,
“Daniel’s Seventy Weeks,” in the author’s book,
THE TIME OF THE
END; also see the author’s book, SEARCH FOR THE BRIDE.)
And exactly the same promises and the
same thing seen at the end of the seventy years in Jeremiah
and Daniel will occur at the end of the four
hundred and ninety years in Daniel.
1) The king of
2) God, through His Son, will “visit” His people, perform His “good Word” toward them (fulfil His promises),
causing a healed people to return to a healed land.
[Page 47]
That is to say, after a full four hundred and ninety years
have elapsed - but ONLY AFTER, NOT BEFORE - the kingdom of Babylon will be dealt with,
destroyed; and God will, at that time, remember His numerous promises to His
people pertaining to restoration, both the people and the land.
In That Day, Not the Present Day
As there was a return of a remnant of Jews from the Babylonian
captivity in history, there has been a return of a remnant of Jews from a
worldwide dispersion during modern times - occurring since May 14, 1948, when
The restoration of a remnant in history was under God’s direction,
at His command; the restoration of a remnant today has been the result of a
Zionistic movement, under man’s direction and command.
God simply will not allow the Jewish people to return from their
present dispersion among the Gentiles, under His direction and command, until
the full time covered by the four hundred and ninety years has run its course.
To state otherwise would have God acting contrary to His revealed Word, an impossibility.
A rather strange situation though exists in the world
today. Most of the
Bible students and Bible teachers studying about or giving any thought to
Israel’s place in God’s economy, both present and future, attempt to see and
teach that God is dealing with Israel relative to a restoration to the land and
that the land is being healed during a time before the end of the four hundred and ninety years,
before the Jewish people are brought to the place of repentance.
But God’s dealings with the Jewish people
after this fashion didn’t occur during the seventy years in Jeremiah, and God’s dealings [Page 48] with the Jewish people after this
fashion are not going to occur during the four hundred and ninety years in Daniel either.
God’s requirements both places con
only be seen to be
the
same.
Both could/can occur only following the full time in view (seventy years, four hundred and ninety
years), and both could/can occur only following repentance.
Then, aside from the preceding, attempting to see and
understand that which has been occurring in the
And of course numerous other things as
well are out of line with popular thought today, both among Christians in the
world and among Jews both in
1) The house of
He (Antichrist) will appear only when time covering the last
seven years of Daniel’s prophecy resumes, and he will bring the
desolation in view to an apex
toward the end of this time, during the closing days of Daniel’s prophecy
(refer Chapters I, II,
“Your House Left Desolate” [Parts I, II], in the
author’s book, MIDDLE EAST PEACE - HOW? WHEN?).
2)
Healing for the Jewish people and their land will occur only AFTER two days, on the third day. It will be only AFTER two days, on the third day (AFTER 2,000 years, in the third 1,000-year period), that all three of God’s
firstborn Sons - Christ, Israel, and the Church (following the adoption) - will
be raised up to live in His sight.
[Page 49]
That occurring in the Middle East today is occurring near the
end of the second day, not on the third day where it MUST occur (refer to Appendix III
in this book, “Three Days and Three Nights”).
3)
The time for this cleansing is seen in
a two-fold manner in Num. 19. This cleansing can
occur ONLY on the third or seventh day (three days dating back to the
crucifixion, or seven days dating back to Adam), and it can occur ONLY following the death of the high priest
(which can only be a reference to Christ’s completion of His present priestly
ministry in the sanctuary, preceding that time when He comes forth as the great
King-Priest after the order of Melchizedek [refer to Chapters VII, VIII, “Time of Israel’s Restoration” (Parts I, II), in the
author’s book, MIDDLE EAST PEACE - HOW? WHEN?]).
(Numbers chapter thirty-five alone would destroy all of the false teaching
concerning God presently restoring the Jewish people to their land, with many
seeing the land progressively being healed as well. And it wouldn’t matter what form this
teaching might take, for Israel’s future cleansing, seen in this chapter,
occurs not only following Israel’s national conversion but in connection with
Israel's restoration to her land (Ezek. 36: 24-32; 37: 1ff).
Thus, to see the Jewish people being restored to the land
today after any fashion - even in their unbelief, to later be dealt with by God
[as some see matters having occurred since May 14, 19481 - is an
impossibility on the basis of
this one chapter in Numbers alone. Such would have God acting contrary to His
revealed Word.
According to any Scriptures dealing with the subject,
This, for example, is seen in the
type during Moses’ day, or in
the
order of the fulfilment of the seven festivals in Lev.
23.
[Page 50]
Thus, Israel’s national conversion
[fulfilling the first Jewish festival, the Passover] will occur while the Jewish people
are still scattered among the nations; the cleansing, which many often confuse with the former, occurs
subsequent to Israel’s national conversion, in connection with the Jewish
people being restored to their land
[having to do with activities occurring on the second and sixth of the
Jewish festivals - the festivals of Unleavened Bread and Atonement; ref. Pt. 6, p.
51].)
4) The Jewish people cannot
be restored UNTIL they have
acquired ALL the wealth possessed by the Gentiles.
Jacob, in the type (Gen. 28: 15 - 31: 3), as the
Jewish people today, tried to return to the land before he had acquired all of
Laban’s wealth (Gen. 30: 25ff). But he couldn’t. The
heavens remained closed, and God did not speak to Jacob during the entire time
of his exile, not until he had acquired all of Laban’s wealth and not until it was time for him to return.
THEN... And ONLY
THEN... (Gen.
31: 1-3).
The Jewish people today have returned to the land through MAN’S EFFORTS in a Zionistic movement, DURING their time of exile, BEFORE acquiring all of the Gentile’s wealth, BEFORE the time God speaks to
them in this respect.
When God restores His people to the land, it will occur during
His time, not during their
time. And they
will be restored through Divine power, not
man’s power, never to be uprooted again
(Amos 9: 11-15).
The remnant presently in the land has been restored BEFORE the time through other than Divine
power; and they, having been restored in this means, will, of necessity, be uprooted
from their land once again (Matt. 24: 15ff, Luke 21: 20ff, Rev. 12: 6, 14ff [refer
to Chapter VII in this book, “Time of Israel’s Restoration”]).
5) Israel’s restoration can occur only
following Christ’s return at the end of the Tribulation, which will be AFTER
the full four hundred and ninety years have run their course (refer to Chapters
III, IV,
“Moses and Elijah in That Day” [Parts I, II],
in the author’s book, COMING IN HIS KINGDOM).
[Page 51]
6) The seven Jewish festivals in Lev. 23 form what
could be called, “The
Prophetic Calendar of Israel,” and none of these festivals has been
fulfilled insofar as
And they must be fulfilled in a
sequential order, following Christ’s return (e.g.,
the first festival is the Passover;
As previously stated, prevalent thought in Christian circles
today relative to the restoration of the Jewish people to the land in the
Abrahamic covenant has to do with a false teaching concerning that which has been occurring in the
To date, some 6,000,000 Jews have returned, and large parts of
the land have been reclaimed for agricultural
purposes.
Most Christians involving themselves in the matter today -
many referring to themselves as “Christian Zionists”
- erroneously look upon that which has been occurring since the spring of 1948
as God
progressively restoring the Jewish people and their land in accordance with His
numerous promises in the Old Testament to do so.
In this respect, the whole of the matter is rather amazing -
though not relative to the Jewish people returning to the land in the Abrahamic
covenant, for a remnant (which, as we know today, will have resulted from
Zionism) must be in the land when Antichrist appears on the scene. Rather, the amazing part has to do with the
vast numbers of Christians, who should know better,
completely misunderstanding what is happening and, resultingly, making a
mistake of this magnitude, one with far-reaching, negative ramifications.
It is amazing that ANY Christian with an open Bible
would make this mistake, though understandable because of the working of the
leaven in Christendom over two millenniums of time, resulting in few Christians
today studying Scripture after the manner in which it has been written and
structured (Matt. 13:
33).
But what can perhaps be seen as even more
amazing than the preceding is the fact that MOST of the Christians involving [Page 52] themselves in this facet of Biblical studies are making this mistake,
though again somewhat understandable for the reason previously given.
And this is not something minor in
Biblical studies. Rather, this
is something major, very major. This
is something which can only have a dire, negative impact upon a
Christian’s outlook and understanding of the present and future place which the
Jewish people occupy in God’s economy.
Then, part and parcel with the preceding are the numerous
pastors and Bible teachers caught up in this false ideology who are misleading
the masses. It’s
not a pretty picture when one begins looking at what’s presently happening in
this respect in Christendom, but that’s how matters exist nonetheless.
Until That Day...
To provide a current, up-to-date
example of what is really happening in the Middle East relative to Israel and
the nations, showing how Scripture handles and reflects on the matter rather
than how all too many of those who should know better are trying to handle the
matter, note that which has been and continues to occur in that part of the
world today.
The Middle East, for sometime, has been unravelling, so to
speak; and that can be seen even more so with events of each passing day, with
this unravelling, this coming apart, now beginning to spill over into and
affect Europe in a negative manner. And from there, of course, it can only eventually affect the
world at large in a similar or related manner.
As this is being written (September 2015), ISIS, with its continuing reign of terror,
now has existing cells scattered over a good part of the war-torn Middle East (e.g., a four-year-old civil war in
Syria), fostering persecution (often ending in death) and economic
hardship. And
masses of people - mainly Moslems - are fleeing the
They are travelling by boats on the Mediterranean, walking
across land routes in different nations, and are heading toward parts of
Europe, overwhelming sections of
Then there is the Iranian nuclear problem, with different
opposing and often warring segments of the Moslem religion (mainly Sunnis and
Shiites) thrown into the mix.
[Page 53]
Then, of course, there is
All is seemingly quite uncertain in one respect. Though, in another
respect, there is ONE THING that can be know for certain.
One can know for certain that THE
WHOLE OF THE MATTER is only going to get worse, far worse.
Why?
It is very simple and can be answered
in two very concise, short, to-the-point statements:
1)
2) The
Prophets, those through whom God spoke in time past!
Israel’s very presence in the Middle East is the catalyst for,
essentially, the whole of what’s occurring.
And, the Prophets have spoken, with their
words being FINAL!
The present existence of a Jewish
nation in the Middle East (which is made up largely of humanists, atheists, and
agnostics), BEFORE the full end of the four hundred and ninety years, is
nothing more or nothing less than the Jewish people rising up and seeking to
emancipate themselves from exile, apart from their Messiah, establishing
a Jewish nation themselves, entirely through natural means, in
the land covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Jewish people have sought to do this BEFORE the time by
re-entering a desolated house, seeking to effect a healing of the Jewish people
and their land themselves, through natural means.
Then, not only is the preceding true, but, by doing this, the Jewish
people have not only opened the door for but guaranteed that God’s judgment
upon the nation, to ultimately bring about repentance,
would
be intensified seven-fold (Matt. 12: 43-45; cf. Lev. 26: 18ff [ref. Chs. III, IV in this
book]).
And God uses the Gentile nations to bring
about judgment of this nature upon His people.
In this respect, the turmoil existing [Page 54] among the nations in the
It all has to do with God’s plans and purposes for
And God is going to allow matters to
increasingly go to the extremes that it will ultimately take in order to bring this to pass.
1) The Biblical Picture
The Biblical picture of that currently occurring in the
An unrepentant Jonah, out of the Lord’s will and seeking to
distance himself from the presence of the Lord, booked passage on board a ship
headed in the opposite direction from where the Lord had told him to go. And Jonah, in this condition, was asleep down
in the hold of the ship when God caused the sect to become so tumultuous that
the very ship itself, with all those on board the ship, was about to be
destroyed (Jonah 1: 1-5).
This storm arose for one multifaceted reason and purpose alone.
It arose because of Jonah.
God’s prophet was out of place, and the storm arose in order to
rectify the situation (1: 6-12).
Jonah must be dealt with and brought to the
place of repentance, bringing Jonah to the place where he would then do as God
had commanded. And
bringing about repentance was something which could happen only one place, not
on the ship, but in the sea. Jonah MUST be cast from the ship into the sea.
(“The sea” in Scripture is used
as a metaphor for the nations [also, the
place of death]; and “the ship” could only be seen as a reference to the
land of Israel, for that is
the only place on earth where one could reside and be seen as other than out
among the nations, other than in the sea.)
The preceding is the type.
Now note the antitype -
A disobedient and unrepentant nation, following
in Jonah’s [Page 55]
footsteps, resides in the land - on the ship - today. And
exactly the same thing is occurring among the nations, particularly those
nations surrounding
The sea raged in the type, because of Jonah; and the sea is raging today in the
antitype, because of
And whether type or antitype, the reason
for the tumultuous condition was/is the same - a disobedient and unrepentant
Jonah running from the presence of the Lord, and a disobedient and unrepentant
Jewish nation following suit in the land today.
2) The Biblical Solution
Do you want to know what’s about to
happen? The type will relate the
complete story. And if
you think it’s bad now, just wait!
It can only become worse with time, with no one being able to
do a thing about the matter (Hosea 5: 14). The type relates this, and the antitype
must follow the type in exact detail.
Again, the whole of what is presently occurring and will yet
occur in the
As long as a disobedient and unrepentant Jonah was on board
the ship, out of the Lord’s will, the sea raged. And the sea raged to the extent that the ship was about to
be destroyed.
And matters can be NO DIFFERENT in the antitype.
As long as an unbelieving and unrepentant Jewish nation is in
the land, turmoil can only exist among the Gentile nations, particularly those
nations surrounding
And this turmoil, as the raging sea
during Jonah’s day, can ultimately be no ordinary turmoil. It can ultimately only be the same type
turmoil seen in the tumultuous sect during Jonah’s day, described in Matt. 24: 22:
“And except those days should be shortened [days during the coming Tribulation
just out ahead, the last seven years of the full four hundred and ninety
years], there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake [for
[Page 56]
(For additional information on these days, refer to the
author’ book, DISTANT
HOOFBEATS.)
God, exactly as in the type, is about to pull out all stops in
order to bring His plans and purposes for mankind to pass, plans and purposes to be effected
through Israel.
In the type, bringing about His plans and purposes had to do
with a
Jewish prophet, ultimately
bringing to pass salvation and blessings for the Gentile city of
And in the antitype, bringing about His
plans and purposes has to do with the nation of
(For additional information on the preceding, refer to Chapters V, VI
in this book, which deal with different facets of the matter.
Also, note something which some
individuals would see as a problem with respect to all of this.
As Jonah in the type had to be removed
from the ship and cast into the sea,
The seeming problem would emanate from God having dealt with
But note a major difference between the
nation both times in history and the nation today. The nation in the land both times in history
found itself under Gentile dominion and control; the nation in the land today is not under Gentile dominion and
control.
Thus, the nation presently in the land is
left without recourse. This
nation either has to be brought under Gentile dominion and control or be
uprooted and driven back out among the nations; and Scripture states that the latter will occur [Matt.
24: 15ff,
Luke 21: 20ff;
Rev. 11: 6, 14ff].
Then, out among the nations, God will deal with
* *
*
[Page 57]
CHAPTER 9
Israel’s Future Restoration
A Restored Nation, a Healed Land
Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman
shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains
shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
And I will
bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities,
and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine
thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
And I will
plant them upon their land, and they shall
no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy
God (Amos 9: 13-15).
A major
issue and problem among many Bible teachers and students of the Word today
concerns how one is to look upon and treat the present existence of an Israeli
nation in the
This nation, some 6, 000, 000 strong, in one respect, CAN’T be there, though it is; but in another
respect, this nation MUST be there, which it is.
This nation CAN’T be there in fulfilment of God’s numerous promises throughout the
Old Testament to one day restore His dispersed people back to their land; but
this nation MUST be there to
bring about the fulfilment of the final seven years of Daniel’s Seventy-Week
prophecy.
And this is where numerous Bible students, not properly
understanding the whole overall issue - particularly as the issue, dealt with
throughout the numerous types, beginning in Genesis,
[Page 58] is understood in the light of the
Prophets - get completely off track and commit mayhem in Biblical
interpretation.
In many instances, the present existence of an Israeli nation
in the
Sections of Scripture such as Deut. 30: 33; Jer. 30: 3, 18; Ezek. 34: 1lff; 36: 24ff; 37: 1ff; 39: 25ff; Amos 9: 14 are
cited, and it is stated that God is presently regathering His people and
restoring their land to a fruitful condition in accordance with His promises (e.g., Deut. 30: 9; Ezek. 36: 29, 30; Amos 9: 13).
However, this is not what Scripture teaches at
all. The present nation of
After Two Days, on the Third Day
The Jewish people, in time past, because of disobedience, were removed from their land, with the land
left desolate; and these same people, over time, were subsequently scattered
among the Gentile nations of the earth.
Israeli disobedience, covering centuries of time, was climaxed almost two millenniums
ago by the ancestors of remnants which had been
allowed to return to the land over five centuries earlier - the Jewish people slaying
their Messiah.
1) UNTIL after two days (2000 years),
on the third day (the third 1,000-year period [Num.
19: 11ff]).
2) UNTIL after the death of the High
Priest (which can only refer to the termination of Christ’s
present high priestly ministry in the antitype [Num.
35: 15-28]).
[Page 59]
There can be no healing for either the people or the land UNTIL
this future time.
(For information on the preceding, refer to Appendixes I, II, “The Intractable Middle East Problem”
and “The Death of the High Priest” in the
author’s book, THE TIME OF THE END; also
see the author’s books, ISRAEL- FROM DEATH TO LIFE
and MIDDLE EAST PEACE - HOW? WHEN?)
Following Repentance
Further,
Further, Israel being brought to the place of
repentance, according to Scripture, will not occur UNTIL the latter part of the
coming Tribulation, during the latter part of Daniel’s
Seventieth Week. This time of trouble
which will befall the Jewish people - “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:
7) - results from
This will be a time of unparalleled trouble, designed by God
to bring the Jewish people to the end of themselves. During this time they will be brought into
such dire
straits that they will have
no place to turn other than to the Lord (Ex.
3: 1-10).
ONLY THEN will the nation repent; and ONLY FOLLOWING REPENTANCE can the
nation be restored, with the land being healed.
Messiah’s Return, Jewish Festivals, O.T. Saints
Further,
[Page 60]
(Note that
ONLY THEN will the first festival in Leviticus
chapter twenty-three be completely
fulfilled. And
these seven festivals [Jewish festivals, having to do first and foremost
with
Further, Old Testament saints are to be raised from the dead [i.e., ‘out of dead
ones’] and be restored to the land
along with the living at this time.* Both the
dead (resurrected) and those
living at that time will return to the land together (Ex. 13: 19). The resurrection of Old Testament saints
is set forth in the third of the seven festivals in Leviticus
chapter twenty-three - the feast
of First Fruits. And
this will be fulfilled following the fulfilment of the Passover but prior to
the fulfilment of the feast of Trumpets.
[* See Acts 7: 5, R.V. and (in this website) “Stephen’s Martyrdom” (his - ‘Accusation, Defence, and Martyrdom’) by
Robert Govett.]
“If my people [the Jewish people], which are
called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; THEN will I hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron.
7: 14).
And exactly the same thing is seen in a
promise given through Moses almost five hundred years preceding the promise given
through Solomon:
“If they [the Jewish people] shall confess
their iniquity, and the iniquity of
their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me,
and that also
they have walked contrary unto me;
And that I have also walked
contrary unto them, and have brought
them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled,
and they then
accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
THEN will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my
covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land”
(Lev.
26: 40-42).
Those comprising the present existing nation in the
In this respect, it is simply not
possible that the present remnant returning to the land and forming the
existing nation in the Middle East can have anything to do with the fulfilment
of Old Testament prophecies pertaining to Israel’s restoration; nor can a reclamation of parts of the
land have
anything to do with Old Testament prophecies pertaining to the land being
healed.
If either had anything to do with the fulfilment of God’s
promises to restore His people to a healed land, God would be acting contrary to
His revealed Word - an impossibility.
The remnant of Jews presently in the land is a
remnant from the Slayer, which
has gone back BEFORE the time. And not only are
the Jewish people still unclean through
contact with the dead body of their Messiah (the two days are not yet
complete), but a remnant from this unclean nation has gone back prior
to the time Christ completes
His high priestly ministry. And,
according to the type in Numbers chapter thirty-five, the Slayer CANNOT return in this
manner prior to the time Christ completes His present ministry in the heavenly
sanctuary (Num. 35: 28).
The present remnant in the land - a part of the Slayer, returning
before it is time to return - leaves this remnant open to great danger. In
actuality, it leaves the Jewish people forming this remnant open to
experiencing exactly the same thing of which the entire nation is guilty. It
leaves them, as the slayer, open to being slain themselves (Num.
35: 26, 27).
And this is exactly what is about to happen to the present
existing nation of
Antichrist is about to appear and make a seven-year covenant “with many” in
The rebuilt temple will be desecrated and
destroyed,
During the latter half of the Tribulation, an Israeli nation,
as we know it today, will not exist in the
It will be during this time - days which, unless shortened, no
flesh would be saved (Matt. 24: 22) - that the Jewish people will be brought to
the end of themselves, to a place where they will have no recourse other than
to call upon the God of their fathers. ONLY
THEN will God hear, remember
“His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jocob”
and send His Son back to deliver His people (Ex. 2: 23 - 3: 10).
ONLY THEN - NOT BEFORE - will events pertaining to the
restoration of
* *
*
[Page 63]
Appendix I
The Holocaust
Past and Future
Now Moses kept
the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the
desert, and came to the
And the angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was
not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not
burnt.
And when the
Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said,
Moses,
Moses. And he said, Here am I.
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of
Jacob. And Moses hid his face,
for he was afraid
to look upon God.
And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in
And I am come down to deliver
them... (Ex. 3: 1-8a).
“The Holocaust,” in modern vernacular, has come to be used as a somewhat synonymous reference to that
which happened to the Jewish people in a German Third-Reich-controlled
[Page 64]
In view of that which occurred through the Third Reich’s
anti-Semitic aim to produce a Jew-free Europe (which
they termed, the “Final Solution to
the Jewish Question”), a
name derived from the Greek word holokaustos has, in one respect, been aptly
chosen. The Holocaust was a
systematic effort to completely destroy an entire race
of people living throughout
However, in another respect, viewing the nation as a whole, the name has not been
aptly chosen at all. In fact,
going by the exact meaning of the word - “a burnt offering,” with a view to the entire offering being
completely consumed by fire - the word cannot describe the Jewish people at
all. The nation cannot
be consumed by fire; not a hair on the head of a single Jew can be
singed in this respect. That is clearly
spelled out in numerous places in Scripture (e.g., Ex. 3: 1ff; Dan. 3: 19ff.
Those having a part in that which was done
in
Had they bothered to read the Book, among other things,
They would have found that they were dealing with God
Himself, in the midst of the Jewish people (Ex. 3:
2, 7).
They would have found that they were trying to destroy a
people who couldn’t be destroyed (Ex.
3: 1ff, Jer. 31: 35-37; 33: 20-26; Dan. 3: 19ff; 6: 16ff), for God Himself would have had to be
destroyed.
And they would have found that they were trying to destroy a
people whom God had called into existence for particular and specific purposes, with
any seeking to destroy these people destined for destruction themselves (Gen.
12: 3; Ex. 1: 8ff, 14:18-31).
And the matter becomes even more
incredulous when the lives of many of the German people who attempted that
which was done during the Holocaust are viewed.
Though that perpetrated against the Jewish people during the Holocaust
was a
monstrous endeavour, many of
the German people having a connection with the death [Page 65] camps were quite ordinary people, not
monsters themselves per se (though there would have been monsters among
them and monsters in places of command [e.g., Hitler, Eichmann, Mengele, et al).
From available records of those days, many of the individuals
caught up in the death camp work carried on some semblance of ordinary life
when away from their work, which, in many cases, would have involved attending
Church on Sunday before going to work in the camps on Monday.
(The Catholic and Lutheran Churches were the two predominate
Christian Churches, so called, in Nazi Germany in 1933 [the year Hitler rose to
power in Germany] and throughout the continuing twelve years. And, insofar as any
proper or correct outlook on the Jews was concerned, the Catholic Church was
actually the sounder of the two.
The German Lutheran Seminaries and Churches were
filled with Nazis, Nazi sympathizers, and anti-Semites - from the
seminary professors, to the pastors of Churches, to those in the pew. In short, the
Then there was the matter of Martin Luther [the one to whom the Lutheran Church looked back
upon] having had an incorrect view of the Jews in his day, warning the German
people about what he termed, “The Jews and Their Lies.” And Hitler, with his
anti-Semitism, was looked upon in some circles as an individual carrying on a
modem-day work of Luther in
The Nazis were, for the most part, looked upon as Christians
[mainly members of either Catholic or
There was, of course, dissention among
many Catholics and Lutherans relative to the policies of the Third Reich
concerning the Jews [e.g., that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
a Lutheran minister; this though was centrally for humanitarian reasons or
seeking the conversion of the Jews to Christianity, not for reasons involving
the true identity of the Jew and how the nation of Israel fit into God’s plans
and purposes as a separate and distinct people].)
[Page
66]
Nazi military personnel assigned to one of the camps and
following the preceding type lifestyle in connection with one of Germany’s Churches
(and, from existing records, it is evident that many of them did) would find
themselves doing two completely incompatible things:
1) Listening to or reading material from
a Jewish Book on Sunday, and,
at least after some semblance, looking
to a Jewish Saviour.
2) Then, the next day, on Monday,
beginning a work consisting principally
of attempting to slay the very people
who had given them this Book and Saviour.*
[* Let all who sit under those who spiritualise God’s unfulfilled
prophecies,
beware of today’s teachings from the
ever-increasing numbers of Anti-millennialists!]
And the preceding could only have been
a correct scenario in many instances of life in Nazi Germany and German
occupied parts of Europe, particularly Poland (where most of Europe’s Jews
resided), during those years - again, in the light of available records -
showing how little the German people in general evidently knew about the true
identity of the Jewish people in those days.
Why didn’t those filling the Churches
on Sunday morning in
How many Christians in the Churches of the land today can
carry on some semblance of an intelligent conversation about the place which the Jews occupy in God's economy - post,
present, and/or future?
Any Christian that has been saved for
any length of time at all should be able to easily handle the matter. But how many can do
this? And if
they can’t do this, why can’t they do it?
The answer, solely from a Biblical standpoint, can only be singular:
There has been (over years of time) and continues to be a failure
of those whom God has placed in charge of the flock to properly feed the flock,
to proclaim the Word (cf. 2
Tim. 4: 2ff;
1 Peter 5: 2ff).
But, correspondingly, as well, there has
been a
failure behind the failure, resulting in the situation which presently
exists.
It is true that numerous men leading the flock have been trained in the theology schools of the land -
something [Page
67] particularly true
in
The matter as it existed in Nazi Germany in 1933 would have
been very similar to, if not the same, as it exists over eighty years later in
our own country today.
In
Thus, preceding and during the war years in Germany, note what
could only have been a connective, indirect role that pastors of Churches
throughout the land would have played in the Holocaust by not doing as
commanded by the Lord in 2 Timothy and 1 Peter.
But, could the pastors in
And it is little to no different over
eighty years later in American theology schools and Churches. The lesson from history has gone unheeded.
The Past Holocaust
Why did the Holocaust occur?
The Holocaust occurred, not because an anti-Semitic person
rose to power in
The past Holocaust occurred because of
Jewish disobedience over centuries, even millenniums, of time and their refusal to turn back to
and call upon the God of their fathers.
God simply used the existing state of Germany during that time -
religious and political - to chastise His disobedient son, with a view to correction (Zech.
1: 15).
[Page 68]
And, in His sovereign control of the entire matter, God
allowed this chastisement to extend to the depths that it reached -
anti-Semitic practices taken to what man would consider unimaginable sufferings
and extremes, resulting in the death of 6,000,000 Jews during the twelve-year
existence of the Third Reich.
(“The Third Reich” [meaning, The
Third Empire] was supposed to
last for 1,000 years. But,
at the end of only twelve years, the empire ceased to exist,
As is sometimes voiced, “Hitlers do not come
cheap.”
The Third Reich began with an existing anti-Semitic setting
in
If a person wants to incur the wrath of a father, mistreat his
son. That’s
true in the human realm, and it is equally true in the Divine realm. TheThird Reich
mistreated God’s son, incurring the wrath of the Father. And they paid dearly
for their actions, taking a nation down with them.
When God said, “I will bless them that bless thee...” [Gen. 12: 3a], He meant exactly that! And when God continued, and said, “and will curse him that curseth thee...” [Gen. 12: 3b], He meant
exactly that as well!
Matters have existed that way since Abraham’s day 4,000 years
ago, they exist that way today, and they will always exist that way.
Remain in line with that which God has revealed about His two
firstborn Sons, and you will come out ahead every time.)
The Holocaust is history, and it has been
fully documented for all to see.
At the time that the Allies went into
Then there were the
Over the years many survivors of the death camps have told
their stories, with some still alive and able to do so today. Understandably
though, thinking back and talking about those years is not something many of
them want to do. They don’t
want to relive, after any fashion, the horrors which they went through.
Beyond the preceding are the numerous
Holocaust centers or museums, particularly in major American and European
cities, along with Yad Vashern
(a memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust) in
In short, the Holocaust has been so fully
documented that it can only be impossible for anyone to deny
that the Holocaust actually happened.
But some, usually those openly opposed to the
existence of a Jewish nation in the
And, a central reason that the Holocaust has been so fully
documented in this manner is for educational purposes - educating people
concerning that which happened, seeking to prevent anything like this from ever
again happening to the Jewish people, or happening to anyone else.
But one thing will override all such
efforts, guaranteeing that it will happen to the Jewish people again. And when it does
happen again, matters will be far, far more horrendous than they were in the
past.
The Future Holocaust
Why will a future Holocaust of this nature occur? The answer is exactly the
same as the reason why the past Holocaust occurred.
There HAS TO BE a future Holocaust, for the very simple reason
that the Jewish people have yet to be brought to the
place of repentance.
And the future Holocaust will, of necessity, HAVE TO BE worse, far
worse, than the past Holocaust, for the very simple reason that the
suffering and death during the past Holocaust was insufficient to bring the
Jewish people to the place of repentance.
[Page 70]
The past Holocaust began in
But the entire nation, together, must be
subjected to a type persecution - a Holocaust - of such a nature that
they are left without a place to turn other than to the God of their fathers.
The future Holocaust, unlike the past, will begin in the
centre of Jewry, in
Two-thirds of world Jewry (some 9,000,000 by today’s count)
will not survive those days (Ezek. 5: 12; Zech. 13: 8, 9). But through this
Holocaust, unlike the past Holocaust, the remaining Jews - all affected by that
which will occur - will be brought to the place where the nation
will cry out to the God of their fathers for deliverance.
And when the Jews are driven to this
point, God will respond and send the Deliverer Whom
Israel will look upon the nation’s
Deliverer (Zech. 12: 10; 13: 6), there
will be a great mourning throughout the camp when they realize the identity of
the One delivering them (Zech. 12: 10-14), a
nation will be born in a day (Isa. 66: 8ff), the Old Testament saints will be
raised from the dead (Ex. 13: 19; Dan. 12: 1ff), and the Jewish
people (the raised dead along with those living in that day) will be restored
to the land of Israel (Deut. 30: 1 ff; Matt. 24: 31).
Gentile world power will be destroyed (Isa. 63: 1 ff; Joel 3: 1-16; Rev. 14: 14-20; 19: 17-21), and the
sceptre will be returned to Israel within a restored theocracy, a new covenant,
and a Temple which Messiah Himself will build (Jer.
31: 31-33; Ezek. 37: 21-28; Zech. 6: 11-13), ushering in the Messianic Era (Ezek.
40-48).
The restored nation will then go forth, as God’s witness, to
the Gentile nations with the message of the one true and living God (Isa. 43: 1ff; 53: 1ff), with
the nations being ruled by and blessed through
(The preceding has been stated in a
somewhat succinct manner for all these things have been dealt with in chapters
in this or other books written by the author.
Refer particularly to COMING IN HIS KINGDOM,
* *
*
[Page 71]
Appendix II
“Never Again!”
But It Will Happen Again
Then was
Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach.
Meshach,
and Abednego:
therefore he
spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times
more than it was wont to be heated.
And he commanded the most
mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and to cast them
into the burning fiery furnace.
Then these men
were bound in their coats, their
hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace...
Then
Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three
men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king,
True,
O king.
He answered
and said, Lo, I see four men
loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no
hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God [lit., ‘a son of the gods’].
Then
Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego,
came forth from
the midst of the fire.
And the
princes, governors, and captains,
and the king’s
counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power,
nor was an hair
of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of
fire had passed on them (Dan. 3: 19-21, 24-27).
[Page 72]
During
the summer of 1941, when British Intelligence began intercepting radio reports
about moss killings by the Third Reich in
Winston Churchill, in a speech shortly afterwards, stated, in a
somewhat cryptic manner so that the Germans would not know that their messages were being intercepted, “We are in
the presence of a crime without a name.”
Down through the years since those days, remembering back on
what was later called The Holocaust - that which happened to the Jewish people (among others)
throughout
These words, “Never Again,”
represent a promise to past and future generations that everything possible will be done to insure that nothing like the Holocaust will
ever happen again.
The numerous Holocaust museums and centers in major cities,
particularly throughout Europe and the United States, along with Yad Vashem in Israel (a memorial
to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust), are in existence to let the people of
the world know, to educate them, pertaining to that which occurred. And a major
underlying reason for all of this is to prevent such a thing from ever happening
again.
In line with the preceding, present Jewish thought throughout
The nation of
And these are not just ordinary forces.
Maintaining military forces of this nature, along with having
hawkish personnel in positions of authority in both the government and the
military, would be another way of letting anyone who would dare even think
about trying to come against
The Jewish people are determined to “NEVER AGAIN” let anything
like the Holocaust befall them.
A Date Which Must Be Kept
BUT,
with the existence of all the preceding, IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN! The
Prophets have spoken, and the Words of the Prophets - God speaking through the
Prophets - cannot be circumnavigated.
And this pre-set date, reserved for the
Jewish people [and believers “that are left” - having
being judged as not worthy to “escape all
these things that shall come to pass” (1 Thess. 4: 15; Lk. 21: 36, R.V.)]* on God’s prophetic calendar, which MUST be
kept, is for a reason and for a
purpose.
[* Keep
in mind: God is not a respecter of persons in judgment! (Col. 3: 6, 25ff, R.V. cf. Heb. 10:
30ff).]
The reason that this date must be kept is
because of Israeli disobedience over centuries, even millenniums, of
time, which
And the purpose for this date is to bring Israel to that place, to bring about repentance, so
that God’s plans and purposes for calling this nation into existence 3,500
years ago can be realized.
Thus, there HAS TO BE another Holocaust,
in order to, through Gentile persecution, bring about
God drove
[Page 74]
(The Jews presently in the land [there
in an unbelieving and unrepentant state], having returned to the land
during decades of time, resulting from a Zionistic movement, will have to be
uprooted from their land and driven back out among the nations [something which
will happen in the middle of the coming Tribulation, the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Matt.
24: 15ff;
Luke 21: 20ff;
Rev. 12: 6ff)].
This will HAVE TO OCCUR, for God drove His people out among the nations to effect repentance through Gentile persecution, and this is
the place where He has decreed that He will deal with them in this respect.)
Thus, there is a disobedient Jewish people on the one hand
(both in and out of the land) - with all of their Holocaust centers and
museums, Yad Vashem, and a mighty military power in the land - saying, “Never Again!”
Then, on the other hand, there are the Prophets who spoke
millenniums ago, who, in essence, have said “Yes, Again!”
And the Prophets have said this because
of one
thing - God’s omniscience, as He has looked down through centuries of
time, seeing and knowing the continued unbelieving and unrepentant state of
the Jewish people [and multitudes of disobedient
Christians] in the world today, both in and out
of the land.
One More Time...
It will take one more round of Gentile persecution, one more
Holocaust, one more Furnace. Then...
And when it does happen again, the coming
Holocaust will be FAR, FAR WORSE than
the post Holocaust. The future Holocaust
will exist, not just in
This coming Holocaust is seen numerous places in Scripture.
One such place is in the account of the three Hebrews cast
into a fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than it was normally heated, in Dan. 3: 19ff. These three Hebrews typify the
Jewish nation as a whole, seen
in the coming Holocaust, the coming Furnace, the coming Tribulation, the coming
“time
of Jacob’s trouble,” occurring during Daniel’s unfulfilled Seventieth Week.
But these three Hebrews, seen in a fire
heated seven times hotter than it was normally heated (“seven,” a complete number, showing that the furnace was evidently
heated as hot as possible without destroying the furnace), were not in the fire
alone. A fourth Person was in the fire
with them.
This fourth Person, as seen in corresponding Scripture, can be clearly identified as God Himself (Ex. 3: 1 ff; ref Chs. I-II in this book).
And, as a result, the fire, regardless of its
intensity, had absolutely no effect upon these three men. For the fire to have affected them in any
way, it would have had to affect the One in their midst the same way.
These three men emerged from the furnace without a single hair
on their heads singed and without the smell of fire or smoke on
either them or on their undamaged garments.
This is how the nation itself will fare in the coming
Holocaust, exactly as the nation fared in the past Holocaust. But, just as in the post
Holocaust, the individual Jew is another matter.
In the past Holocaust, 6,000,000 Jews died, though the nation lived (emerged unscathed, for,
exactly as in the type in Daniel, the nation
cannot be harmed).
In the future Holocaust, two‑thirds of world Jewry will
die (about 9,000,000 by today's
count [cf Ezek. 5: 12; Zech. 13: 8, 9]),but the nation will live (emerge unscathed, again, exact as
in the type).
Between Now and Then
We’re not told how events in the
This man - seemingly unopposed, or
not deterred by a military power as seen existing today - will move
against the Jews (“arms [Page 76] shall stand
on his part” [Dan. 11: 31a]),
beginning in
That is how sudden and swift things will transpire when this
man’s actions begin a three and one-half-year Holocaust, which, after beginning
in
Following That Future Time...
Following that future time though, matters will be exactly as
they existed when the three Hebrews emerged from the furnace in Daniel chapter
three.
“Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego,
who has sent his
angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed
the king’s word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not
serve nor worship any god, except their own God.
Therefore I
make a decree, That every people,
nation,
and language,
which speaketh
anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego
shall be cut in
pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no
other God that can deliver after this sort.
Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, in the
A similar ending is seen in the Book
of Esther, where another facet of the same
matter has been given. Haman, another
type of the man who will sit on Satan’s throne during the coming Tribulation, sought
to have all the Jews in the province slain.
But in the end, through circumstances
brought about by God’s sovereign control over all things, Haman suffered the
same fate which he had sought to inflict upon the Jews. Haman himself was impaled on the
same gallows which he had built for Mordecai, a Jew [Page 77] who “sat in the king’s gate.”
And, the two prominent Jews dealt with
throughout the book - Esther and Mordecai, representing, as the three Hebrews in Daniel, the entire nation - found themselves, at the close of events seen in the book, in positions
comparable to that seen in Daniel.
Esther come into possession of all that Haman had owned; and
Mordecai, among other honours, was promoted in the
kingdom.
“Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to
Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have
hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his
hand upon the Jews...
And the king Ahasuerus laid a
tribute upon the land, and upon
the isles of the sea.
And all the
acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king
advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings
of Media and
For Mordecai
the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of the brethren,
seeking the
wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed” (Esther 8: 7; 10: 1-3).
The some story is told from yet another
perspective in the account of Joseph and his brethren in Genesis chapters thirty-seven through
forty-five. The story begins with Joseph’s
rejection by his brethren (ch. 37) and it ends with Joseph’s acceptance by his
brethren (ch. 45).
In the latter port of the story, two seven-year periods are seen - a
seven-year time of plenty, followed by a seven-year time of famine. And the time of
famine would be so severe that the time of plenty would not even be remembered
(Gen. 41:
29-32).
Throughout the time of plenty (Gen.
41: 47-53), Joseph’s brethren continued in the same state
as seen back in chapter thirty-seven - as the ones rejecting him, not even knowing
that he was still alive.
But, once the time of famine arrived (Gen.
41: 54-57), they were left with no place to turn for help
other than to Joseph (who had been elevated to second in command over all Egypt
and one whom they knew not, even later when in his presence [Gen. 42; 1ff]).
And, in the end, they were driven to the
place where they had to acknowledge, in Joseph’s presence, that which they had done years before
(resulting from their rejection of him [Gen.
44: 16ff]).
[Page 78]
Then Joseph, with his brethren brought to this point, was
unable to contain himself any longer. He
wept aloud as he revealed himself to his brethren:
“I am Joseph ... whom ye sold into
His brethren, understandably, were “troubled at
his presence” (v. 4), but
Joseph set them at ease, calling attention to God’s reason and purpose for that
which had occurred (v. 5).
And, after certain events had transpired,
Joseph’s brethren went forth with a dual message:
“Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the
Placing these types together provides different facets of the
complete picture. We are presently
living during a time of plenty, but a time of famine is coming, one like
unto Haman is coming, and a furnace heated seven times hotter
than normal awaits [Christians “left”
after the 1st rapture and] Israel.
The nation will be driven to the same
place Joseph’s brethren were driven; and the nation, during this time, is going
to do exactly the same thing Joseph’s brethren did, They will go to their Brother for
help; they will go to Jesus for help, One Whom they will not know, the One Whom
they rejected and crucified in past time.
They will be brought to the place, in His presence, where they will be forced to
acknowledge their guilt (Zech. 12: 10-14; 13: 6). And Jesus will then
reveal Himself to them, evidently weeping, as Joseph did in the type:
I am Jesus ... Whom ye crucified.
The Jews will, understandably, be
troubled, exactly as Joseph’s brethren were troubled. But Jesus will set
them at ease, calling attention to God’s reason and purpose for that which had
occurred (cf. Luke 24: 25-27).
And after certain events transpire (those
seen in the Jewish festivals and certain judgments yet to occur [the trumpet
and vial judgments]), the Jewish people will go forth to the
nations of the earth with the same dual message which Joseph’s brethren carried
forth:
Jesus is alive, and He is Governor
over the entire earth.
* * *
[Page 79]
Appendix III
Three Days and Three Nights
As JONAH ... SO THE SON OF MAN
As JONAH ... SO
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights (Jonah 1: 17).
For as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly [lit., ‘the
huge fish’s belly’]; so shall the Son of man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12: 40).
The Book
of Jonah forms a dual type, foreshadowing,
through Jonah’s experiences, different aspects of the experiences of both of
God’s firstborn Sons - Christ and
The book though is more specifically about one son, about
This time spent in the place of death is expressed in Jonah (1: 17) and referenced in Matthew
(12: 40) as “three days and three nights.” And a mistake, having
major negative ramifications in Biblical interpretation, is often made through
seeking to understand this expression in a Western mind-set rather than through
comparing Scripture with Scripture, allowing Scripture to interpret the
expression.
The expression “three days and three nights” is often understood as a period of time comprised of three twenty-four-hour periods -
three full days and nights, i.e., seventy-two
hours.
Or, other individuals take a slightly
different approach, not contending for three full twenty‑four‑hour
periods but contending for at least parts of three literal days and three
literal nights.
[Page 80]
And to follow either of the preceding, or
any other similar form of the preceding, is where mayhem in Biblical
interpretation enters into the matter, not only in how Scripture deals with the
expression itself but what this does to numerous passages of Scripture,
including the overall scope of the manner in which the whole of Scripture is
structured.
Thus, it is no small matter concerning whether this expression
is interpreted and understood within man’s Western mind-set (within man’s
finite understanding) or whether Scripture is allowed to interpret and explain
the matter for us (through God’s infinite wisdom and knowledge, the Author of
this expression).
Facts That One Must Face
Christ was raised from the dead after two days, on the third day (Luke 24:
7); and He was also
raised after three days (Mark 8: 31). Both
are true and both must be understood in not only the
light of one another but the remainder of Scripture as well.
(Relative to the timing of Christ’s resurrection, the
expression, “after three days,” is only used two
times in the N.T. [KJV, Matt. 27: 63; Mark 8: 31].
On the other hand, the expression, “the
third day,” is used twelve times in the N.T.
[KJV]. In five of the references there
is some manuscript support for the rendering, “after
three days” [Matt. 16: 21; 17: 23; Mark 9: 31; 10: 34; Luke 9: 22]. However, for the remaining seven [Matt. 20: 19; 27: 64; Luke 18: 33; 24: 7, 21, 46; 1 Cor. 15: 41, no such support exists. All existing manuscripts read the same way -
“the third day,” leaving no room to question how
the text should read.
And it should go without saying that Christ’s resurrection on
the third day, alone, would
preclude understanding the expression, “three days and
three nights,” as referencing a full seventy-two-hour period. Christ was raised on
the third day, not at the end of or
following the third day [which a full seventy-two hours would require].
Also, note the expressions, “within
three days” and “in three days,” in Mark 14: 58 and
John 2: 19,
20.)
Then there is the matter of Jonah. Exactly the same thing must be said
of him (because of both the typology involved and the way Scripture uses the
expression, “three days and three nights”).
That is to say, Jonah was raised from the dead after
two days, on the third day (note that Jonah died in the belly of the
fish; he is seen crying out from Sheol [Jonah 2: 2], the place of the dead). As well, Jonah was raised
after
three days.
And, exactly as in the two antitypes
(Christ and
As well, the preceding is perfectly in line with the septenary
structure of Scripture, which must be the case with any part of Scripture. This septenary structure is set forth in the
opening two chapters of Genesis, beginning
the Old Testament; and it is also set forth in the
opening two chapters of John, beginning the
New Testament.
(Note that John’s gospel should be the beginning book in the
N.T., not Matthew’s gospel. See Chapter
1 in the author’s book, Moses and John, where this is dealt
with and explained.)
The whole of Scripture is built upon
this septenary structure, which is seen through the manner in which each
Testament opens.
And this structure is dealt with after
different fashions numerous places throughout Scripture (e.g., the Sabbath given to Israel, pointing to that coming seventh
day of rest, the millennial day; or, it can be seen in the subject at hand -
the raising of Jonah in the type, then Christ and Israel [with some*
Christians being resurrected] [yet future] in the antitype).
[*
See Luke 20: 35;
Phil. 3: 11; Rev. 20: 4-6. cf. Rev.
3: 21; 6: 9-11; 2 Tim. 2: 12, 18; 4: 7, 8; Acts 2: 27, 34, R.V.
etc.]
(Refer to the author’s book, End of
the Days, for
additional information on the preceding.)
[Page 82]
Problems That Are Encountered,
If...
If a person follows the approach numerous
individuals have taken when dealing with the expression, “three days
and three nights,” in relation to the timing of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection,
attempting to understand this period of time as either a full seventy-two hours
or a time encompassing at least parts of three literal days and three literal
nights, that person will encounter insurmountable problems with either
position, along with committing mayhem in numerous facets of Biblical
interpretation.
(Those individuals contending for
three full twenty-four-hour periods believe in a Wednesday crucifixion in order
to allow for what they see as a full three days and three nights - seventy-two
hours - between Christ’s crucifixion and His resurrection on Sunday [the day
Scripture states that He was raised, the first day of the week, the day
following the Sabbath, on the feast of First Fruits].
Any day other than Wednesday for the crucifixion would not allow the
full seventy-two hours that they believe are needed.
Those individuals contending for parts of three literal days
and three literal nights believe in a Thursday crucifixion. This allows for part and / or all of three
literal days and three literal nights, though not the full seventy-two hours.
And, as will be shown and dealt with
later, the preceding way of viewing matters [seeing a Thursday crucifixion] is
usually followed in an effort to allow for a resurrection on the third day.)
Note several insurmountable problems one encounters with either of the
preceding views. Then it will be shown, as well, how holding to either view causes a
person to commit mayhem in numerous facets of Biblical interpretation.
1) Insurmountable Problems
Holding to a Wednesday crucifixion, nothing fits, not even the “three days and
three nights,” the
supposed seventy‑two‑hour period.
Note that Christ died in the middle of the afternoon. This is when His soul descended into Sheol / Hades. His body was then taken down from the
cross, prepared for burial, and placed in the tomb shortly before the beginning
of the next day (sometime before sunset).
Then He was raised sometime after the beginning
of the day following the Sabbath (sometime after sunset ending the Sabbath, on
the first day of the week).
If He was crucified on Wednesday,
nothing short of time extending to at least about seventy-five hours could
possibly exist (time beginning when He died, 3 PM).
Then, if one attempts to begin the supposed seventy-two hours
of Jonah 1: 17 and Matt.
12: 40 at the time His body was placed in the
tomb (shortly before sundown), that won’t work
either. Raising Christ exactly
seventy-two hours from that point would put the resurrection occurring shortly
before sundown on the Sabbath.
Then there is the matter of Christ being
raised on the third day. Sunday
is the fifth day from Wednesday, not the third day. “After three
days,” as used in Matt. 27: 63 and Mark 8: 31 would seemingly fit, but not so. This expression must be
harmonized with, “on the third day,” and has reference to this day.
Then there is the matter of the day following the crucifixion
being “a high [‘great’] day,”
i.e., contextually, a
high (great) Sabbath (John 19: 31). Though
the day following the Passover was the beginning day of the feast of Unleavened
Bread (a Sabbath day), this day, standing alone, could not be referred to as a
high (great) Sabbath.
The only way one could have a high (great) Sabbath in the camp of Israel was for one of the feast days in
Leviticus chapter twenty-three to full on the regular weekly Sabbath (Alfred
Edersheim would be one well-known authority calling attention to this
fact). Thus, a Wednesday crucifixion
fails at this point as well.
And different things from the preceding
could be said about those contending for a Thursday crucifixion in order to fit
at least parts of three literal days and nights into the matter. Suffice it to say though,
contending for a handling of the expression “three days and three nights” in this manner
(necessitating at least parts of three literal days and nights) is, as will be
shown, as fallacious as the prior position (contending for a Wednesday
crucifixion), for it, as well, is not the way Scripture handles the matter at
all, introducing even additional error into the matter.
[Page 84]
2) Mayhem in Biblical Interpretation
Contending for a seventy-two-hour period between Christ’s
crucifixion and resurrection, dealt with through a supposed Wednesday
crucifixion, throws the complete latter part of the septenary structure of Scripture
into disarray.
And exactly the same problem would
confront those holding to a Thursday crucifixion. Contending for a Thursday crucifixion,
exactly as contending for a Wednesday crucifixion, would run counter to
Scripture’s septenary structure as well.
(There is seemingly a way that those contending for a Thursday
crucifixion can show a Sunday resurrection occurring on the third day, but it
is a way arrived at through humanistic reasoning, completely out of line with
the way that Scripture handles different things about the matter. Accordingly, the day of Christ’s resurrection
through this means is not a third day at all, but a fourth day following the
crucifixion.
The Biblical day ends at sundown, with a new day beginning at
that time [which the Jews have followed down through the years (Gen. 1: 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31)]. Individuals following a Thursday crucifixion
ideology, referencing Jonah 1: 17 or Matt. 12: 40,
take part
of the day preceding sundown Thursday and all of the day preceding
sundown both Friday and Saturday, giving them three days. Then they take all of the night following
sundown both Thursday and Friday [which would be the beginning part of the next
two days from the previous two days], along with part of the night
following sundown on Saturday [which would be the beginning part of the next
day from the previous day]. And, with Christ raised sometime following “the end of the Sabbath” [Matt. 28: 1; lit., ‘the end
of the Sabbaths’ (the Passover, the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the
regular weekly Sabbath - three Sabbath days together)], during the night period
of Sunday, before daybreak [which Scripture attests to], Christ is seemingly
raised on the third day, and the supposed requirement seen for part
or all of three actual days and three actual nights has been met.
The preceding, held by a number of Bible students, may sound
good on the surface, but it is shot through and
through with the same problems that confront those holding to a Wednesday
crucifixion, with an extra problem added.
Suffice it to say, as will be shown later in this chapter,
this is not the way Scripture handles the matter at all. The whole of the
matter, as seen [Page 85] in holding to a Wednesday crucifixion, is little more than substituting
humanistic reasoning for comparing Scripture with Scripture, and not allowing
Scripture to interpret and handle the matter.
With a Thursday crucifixion, the time before sundown Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is, in each
case, connected with the time following sundown on each of the subsequent three
days. In each case, this has to do with
taking part of one day, then part of the next day, and viewing these parts of
two different days as one day, something alien to how Scripture views “days.” Scripture, as established in the opening
chapter of Genesis, views the
time following sundown to the time following the next sundown as forming “a day” [evening, morning, in that order, not morning, evening, as required by those holding to a Thursday crucifixion].
“Three days and three nights,”
in Scripture, can only be understood as synonymous
with “three days,” with each day including its
corresponding evening and morning. “A day”
simply CANNOT be understood
as a combination of parts of two separate days, which the Thursday crucifixion
ideology necessitates [in this case, even mixing two parts of the weekly
Sabbath with parts of two non-Sabbath days - Friday and Sunday].)
As Christ was raised after two days, on the third day, He, as well,
will be raised up after 2,000 years,
in the third 1,000-year period (the Messianic Era).
And
Note what attempting to see a full seventy-two-hour period in
the expression “three days and three nights” does to the preceding, to the last
three days in God’s septenary structure of Scripture. Or note what
attempting to see at least parts of three literal days and nights in this
expression, because of how it is done, does to the septenary structure of
Scripture after exactly the same fashion.
The former has Christ’s resurrection,
And, as previously stated, properly
understanding the timing of Christ’s crucifixion should not be thought of as
something minor in Biblical interpretation, making no real difference what one [Page 86] believes. Rather the opposite is true. This is something MAJOR, VERY
MAJOR. It makes A GREAT DEAL OF DIFFERENCE what
one believes about the timing of the crucifixion.
The timing of the crucifixion, followed by Christ’s resurrection, is
inseparably tied to how God has structured His Word - a septenary structure set
forth at the beginning (Gen. 1: 1 - 2: 3), with resurrection seen on THE THIRD DAY
within this septenary structure, set forth at the beginning (Gen. 1: 9-13), something
which CAN NEVER CHANGE throughout Scripture.
Thus, not understanding how God has structured His Word in this
respect - revealed at the outset in Genesis and
revealed at the outset in John’s gospel as well (John
2: 1 ff), beginning the N.T. - is no small matter in Biblical
interpretation.
No Problems Are Encountered, If...
If a person
interprets Scripture in the light of Scripture when dealing with the
expression, “three days and three nights,” the previously existing problems, or
any other similar problems, will not exist; and everything, in turn, will fit
into its proper place.
And no one is then left attempting to
explain the inexplainable, for Scripture will have been allowed to explain the
whole of the matter itself, through its own built-in interpretation.
1) The O.T. Handling of Days, “Three
Days and Three Nights”
There are two other places in the Old
Testament where the same or a similar expression to that seen in Jonah 1: 17 is used (1 Sam. 30: 1, 11-13; Esther 4: 16 - 5: 1). And in both of these
places, along with several other companion places (Gen.
40: 12-20; 42: 17-20; 2 Chron. 10: 5, 12; Matt. 27: 62-64),
Scripture relates exactly how Jonah 1: 17 and Matt. 12: 40 are to
be understood, leaving no room for questions in anyone’s mind about how this expression
is to be understood when Scripture is allowed to interpret itself.
“And it came
to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that
the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag,
and burned it with fire...
[Page 87]
And they found an Egyptian in
the field, and brought him to David, and
gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water;
And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two
clusters of raisins; and when he had eaten,
his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor
drunk any water, three days and three
nights.
And David said unto him, to whom
belongest thou? and whence art thou?
And he said, I am
a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite;
and my master left me, because
three
days ago I fell sick”
(1 Sam. 30:
1, 11-13).
“Go, gather
together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and
neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also
and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I
go in unto the king, which is not according to
the law: and if I perish, I perish.
So Mordecai went his way, and did
according to all that Esther had commanded him.
Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in
the inner court of the king’s house...” (Esther
4: 16 - 5:
1a).
The Old Testament views any part of a day as covering the
whole of that day, with the day’s corresponding night period as well (Gen. 40: 12-20; 42: 17-20; 2 Chron. 10: 5, 12; Matt. 27: 62-64; cf. Matt. 4: 2; Mark 1: 13). A twenty-four-hour period is not involved at
all.
Nor can non-corresponding parts of different literal days and
nights (parts of two different days of the week seen forming a day) be involved
in the expression, “three days and three nights.” That’s evident six different places in the
opening chapter of Genesis, where a day and
night (“evening” and “morning”, in that order) are dealt with together as a unit, referred to as “a day” (Gen. 1: 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).
And this initial order establishes how any twenty-four hour
period is to be viewed throughout all subsequent Scripture, even if “day,” used with “night,”
as in Jonah 1: 17,
is mentioned first (cf. Esther 4: 16, where “night”
is mentioned first).
Exactly the same thing can be seen in both of the previously
quoted verses - 1 Sam. 30: 1, 11-13 and Esther 4: 16 - 5: 1 - where
either the same or a similar expression can be found to the expression in Jonah 1: 17 and
Matt.12: 38-40. In both places, as in [Page 88] the opening chapter of Genesis, a day and night are
dealt with together as a unit, referred to as “a
day.”
And this MUST be true of any Scriptures beyond the opening chapter of Genesis which deal with the subject, for
this is the manner in which the matter has been unchangeably established at the
outset.
Thus, viewed solely from a Scriptural standpoint, any part of Friday, all of Saturday,
and any part of Sunday would be “three days and three
nights.”
As well, the expression, “after three
days” in Matt. 27: 63 and Mark 8: 31 is not referring to events occurring on a
fourth day (a day following three days, allowing for a Thursday crucifixion),
or even a fifth day (allowing for a Wednesday crucifixion), but is referring to
events occurring on the third of the three days in view. Note how this expression in Matt. 27: 63 is understood in Matt. 27: 64. Or, note the
sequence of days in Acts 10: 3, 7-9, 17, 23, 24, 30.
2) The High (Great) Sabbath, the Third
Day
Then there is the matter of a high (great) Sabbath occurring
the day following the crucifixion, which can be fulfilled
only
by a Friday crucifixion (allowing
a feast day from Lev. 23 to
fall on the regular weekly Sabbath [ref. previous
comments, P. 67]).
And, as previously seen, a Friday
crucifixion is THE ONLY DAY which
would allow the resurrection on Sunday to have occurred on the third day (on the feast of First Fruits [cf Mark 16:
9; 1 Cor. 15: 20, 23]).
In reality, all one has to do to ascertain the day of the
crucifixion is to count back three days from Sunday, which takes one to
Friday. The matter is really that simple
if one remains within Scriptural guidelines and lets Scripture interpret
itself.
As well, remaining completely within the way Scripture handles
the matter, this likewise allows one to
remain completely in line with the septenary structure of Scripture.
And the preceding could only be the case, for Scripture does not run counter to
itself. That’s left solely for man to
do, which he too often does, something which he
seems to do best when it comes to Biblical interpretation.
* *
*
[Page
89]
Appendix IV
The Sun, Moon and Stars
For SIGNS in the Heavens, Among Other Things
And God said,
let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to
divide the day from the night,
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.
And let them be for lights in
the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth:
and it was so.
And God made two great lights;
the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light
to rule the night: he made the stars also.
And God set
them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
And to rule over the day and
over the night, and to
divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning
were the fourth day (Gen. 1: 14-19).
Genesis 1: 14-19 records God’s activity on the fourth day of the
earth’s restoration, anticipating the creation of marine life and the birds of
the air on the fifth day, followed by the creation of animal life and man on
the sixth day. And
this was all with a view to man, on the seventh day, ruling a restored earth in
the stead of Satan and his angels (vv. 20-28).
Satan and his angels (one-third of the
angels originally positioned with Satan when God, in time past, placed him as
ruler over the earth) had rebelled against God’s supreme power and authority,
disqualifying themselves to continue on the throne (Isa. 14: 12-17; Ezek. 28: 14-19; Rev. 12: 3, 4),
resulting in a ruined kingdom, with darkness covering the kingdom (Gen. 1: 2a).
But God restored the kingdom over six
days time and then created man to replace the incumbent ruler and his angels (Gen. 1: 2b-28).
[Page 90]
Light was restored on the first day of God’s
restorative work but not seen in connection with the sun and moon until the
fourth day (vv. 3,
14ff). The restoration of light before the
restoration of the sun and moon bothers some individuals, though it shouldn’t.
Light is not an intrinsic part of the sun. Light was restored
prior to the light bearers being restored.
Then, God took the previously restored light from the first day and used
that light to envelope the sun when it was restored on
the fourth day. And
with the sun providing light for the restored moon, both the sun and moon
became light-bearers for the earth.
The fiery mass forming the sun, providing heat for the earth, could, by itself, produce some light. But the blinding
light which one sees when
looking at the sun, preventing one from gazing directly at the sun, is not
produced by the fiery mass forming the sun.
Rather this light is produced by that which God
brought into existence on the first day and then used to envelope the restored
sun on the fourth day. And this light enveloping the sun (forming a light-bearer),
as previously stated, provides light for the moon (a secondary light-bearer).
(The manner in which God established the matter on the fourth
day of the earth’s restoration would provide man with some understanding of
man’s body as it was enswathed in Glory prior to the fall and will one day
again be enswathed in Glory, or of Christ’s body presently enswathed in Glory.
As the light which God restored on the first day enveloped one
of the light‑bearers restored on the fourth day, so did God’s Glory
clothe Adam and Eve prior to the fall and will one day clothe man following the
redemption foreshadowed by God’s restorative work on days two through six. And this light, as
the light in Genesis chapter one, can exist both separate from and in
connection with man's body (e.g., note that Christ was not raised in a body
enswathed in Glory but was received up into Glory at the time of His ascension
[cf. Luke 24: 15-40; 1 Tim. 3: 16].
[For additional information pertaining to the preceding, refer
to the author’s book, COMING IN HIS KINGDOM].
Then note the brightness of this Glory in connection with the
brightness of the light enveloping the sun today. Christ, following His resurrection and
ascension, unlike His appearance to the two disciples enroute to Emmaus [Luke 24: 15ff],
subsequently appeared to Paul in a body enswathed in Glory - a body which
exceeded the brightness of the noon-day sun, blinding
Paul until the third day [Acts 9: 3ff; 26: 13; cf. Rev. 1: 13-16].)
And, moving beyond the sun, the stars
which one sees out in the heavens could only be the same as our sun [which is a
medium-sized star] insofar as light is concerned, though far enough away that
man can gaze directly at them. The light
which man sees when he looks at stars in the heavens is not the fiery mass
forming the star. Rather, man is seeing
the light in which the fiery mass is enveloped.
And, in the preceding respect, there
is an entire heavens with billions of stars in our galaxy alone [an estimated
two to four hundred billion], with an estimated billions of galaxies filled
with stars beyond our galaxy, providing the same glimpse into the past and
future that our sun provides in relation to man's body, past and future,
enswathed in Glory [Ps. 104: 1, 2; cf. Ps. 19: 1; Rom. 1: 20; 1 Cor. 15: 41].)
Signs in the Heavens
In the process of completing His restorative work on the
fourth day in Gen. 1:
14-19,
God associated the restoration of the sun and moon with signs (v. 14). And, though the
restoration of the sun and moon did not include the stars as well, as evident
from subsequent Scripture, they would be included with the thought of signs.
(The KJV rendering of Gen. 1: 16, which
begins with a statement about God making “two great
lights,” ends with the statement, “he made the
stars also,” which is an incorrect and misleading translation.
God’s restorative work had to do with the sun and the moon,
not with the stars as well. There would have been no reason for God to darken the stars at the
time darkness enveloped the earth in Gen. 1: 2a [though God
could have prevented their light from reaching the earth, had He so desired
(which He might have done), which would possibly have produced the type
darkness which could have been felt, a darkness of gloom, as in Egypt during
the plagues (Ex. 10:
21, 22)].
The statement pertaining to the stars at the end of Gen. 1: 16, as it appears in the KJV rendering, leads one
to believe that God restored the stars at this time as well. But, the corrected
rendering from the [Page 92] Hebrew text would simply read, “and the stars.” That is, the stars, though not part of God’s
restorative activity, would provide some light in addition to the moon [but
miniscule compared to the moon reflecting the sun’s light].)
Relative to the sun, moon, and stars being seen
and used as “signs” in Scripture, one needs to
see and understand how they are used in this manner, remaining within the way that
they are used. If one doesn’t,
that person will invariably end up dealing with signs in a non-Scriptural
manner, committing mayhem in Biblical interpretation.
“Signs”
in Scripture have to do with Israel, and invariably, after some fashion, they have to do with Israel in
relation to the theocracy (cf Gen.
4: 15; 17: 11; Ex. 3: 12; 4: 8, 9, 17, 28, 30; 10: 1; 31: 13, 17; Num. 14: 11, 22; Deut. 26: 8; 29: 3; 34: 11; Matt. 4: 17, 23-25; 12: 38-40; Luke 24: 21, 25-27; John 20: 30, 31; 1 Cor. 1: 22).
This is the manner in which “signs”
are set forth in an unchangeable fashion throughout Scripture.
And, if “signs”
are going to be dealt with after a correct fashion, this must be done EXACTLY as Scripture lays the matter out.
(For information in this realm, refer to the author’s three
pamphlets or article, “Signs, Wonders, Miracles”; or, refer to the author’s book, SIGNS IN JOHN’S
GOSPEL.
Also, for any thought of “signs”
existing from Adam to Abraham, or before the inception of the nation during
Moses’ day [during the first 2,500 years of human history], refer to the
author’s pamphlet or article, “The Pupil of Man’s Eye,”
which deals with the matter in relation to the loins of Abraham.)
For an example of how the sun, moon, and stars are used as signs in relation to
“And he [Joseph] dreamed yet another dream, and told it his
brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made
obeisance to me” (Gen. 37: 9).
And there
appeared a great wonder [Gk., semeion,
‘sign’]
in heaven;
a woman clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars”
(Rev. 12:
1).
[Page 93]
Genesis 37: 9 has to do with Joseph ruling over his family, foreshadowing Christ
one day ruling over the house of
Revelation 12: 1 has to do with
Metaphors are used throughout (cf. Isa. 2: 1-5).
And related signs, using the sun, moon, and stars as metaphors
for governmental powers are seen elsewhere in this book and elsewhere in
Scripture (cf. Matt. 24: 29; Mark 13: 24, 25; Luke 21: 25; Rev. 6: 12, 13; 12: 3, 4).
Existing Mayhem Concerning Signs Today
The preceding presents matters after the manner in which
Scripture deals with signs related to heavenly bodies or to anything else. It is the Jew who requires a sign (1 Cor. 1: 2), and the manner in which signs are used in
relation to the Jews throughout Scripture is always the same. Signs appearing in connection with
Today though, numerous individuals in Christendom HAVE
COMPLETELY DEPARTED from that which the Word has to say about signs and are
looking for signs which would relate the nearness of
the Lord’s return through the movement of the sun and moon, usually relating
the matter more to the Church (e.g., timing of the rapture) than to
And this present-day search or contention
for signs in connection with the sun and moon has been introduced, to a large
extent, through a phenomenon known as “Blood-Moons.”
A “blood-moon,” as they have
come to be called, has to do with a total eclipse of the moon, with the moon
giving a reddish appearance during this time - thus, the name.
Then, this has been followed through referencing two total [Page 94] solar eclipses (one scheduled for
2017, and the other for 2024), together, by their paths, forming an “X” across the
And individuals attempt to see things
within these different forms of phenomena as “signs,”
having
prophetic significance.
Then, in connection with all of this
are the individuals misunderstanding and misusing the “sign”
which God gave through John in Rev. 12: 1ff - “... a woman [
All of these things have to do with A COMPLETE MISUNDERSTANDING and
TOTAL MISUSE of Scripture, mainly through the use of
natural phenomena. And well-meaning
individuals, who should know better, are taking things from the natural,
attempting to align them with the supernatural (including Jewish feast days), and seeing the whole of the matter
as a
manifestation of supernatural signs.
And, with Christians not knowing what
Scripture has to say about the matter, masses of individuals are being misled
by those who should know better.
Trying to align the natural with the supernatural is bad
enough, but attempting to do this in connection with Jewish feast days during a
time when God is not even dealing with
This though is how bad things have become in Christendom. The leadership in Christendom, generally, doesn’t seem to know any better. In fact, many in positions of leadership are
the very ones adhering to and promoting these things. And those in the
pew, under their teaching, are being led down the same trail which leads to no
place worth going.
The leaven which the woman placed in the three measures of
meal very early in the dispensation, in Matt.
13: 33, has
done and continues to do its damaging work. And
Scripture clearly reveals that this leaven will continue its work until the
whole has been leavened.
The one and only protection which a Christian can possess from
the onslaught of false teaching rampant in the world today is a knowledge of the Word of God, a
knowledge of the Truth.
Apart from a knowledge of this Word, it’s
travel at your own risk.
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PUBLISHER:
I.C.M. BOOKS
LURGAN
CRAIGAVON BT 66 7AR
Tel. 02838321488