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Jews: Behold Your God
Are We Living in the End Time?
[Since this is a message for the Jews, for prophecies in this chapter we will restrict ourselves to the Old Testament of the Bible, the Jewish scriptures mainly].
If the world is living in the end time, then we need to know what the phrase “end time” means. And what are the implications of the end time for each of us?
Daniel the prophet prophesied about the end time and gave specific conditions that would prevail in that time. Here are the signs Daniel gave in Daniel 12:1, 4 (KJV version of the Bible has been used with modern words used for archaic words such as ye, thou, thy etc, unless otherwise specified): “1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time, and at that time your people shall be delivered …4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased .”
1) The first sign that Daniel gave that we are living in the end times is that ‘many would run to and fro’, implying a time of incredible global travel and communications. With the age of jet travel we are living in such a time and this prophecy is being fulfilled.
2) The second sign in Daniel 12:4 was that in the end time ‘knowledge would increase.’ We are already living in a time when knowledge is exploding and doubling every 18 months.
3) The third sign in Daniel 12:4 was that all prophecies were ‘sealed till the time of the end’. But when the end time would be near, these prophecies would be revealed. We understand all of Daniel’s prophecies today indicating they have been unsealed. Details about what the prophecies reveal will be provided later. This is the strongest proof that we are actually living in the very end time.
4) The fourth sign was given in Daniel 12:1 that “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.” And God’s people shall be delivered out of it. This means that man would possess weapons such that all life could be destroyed on earth. Man now has the capability to destroy all life from the earth many times over, which he has never before possessed in his history. There can be no stronger proof that we are living in the end time.
5) The fifth sign is mentioned in Malachi 4:5-6 which states that before the Day of the Lord, God would send a person in the power and spirit of Elijah the prophet to restore the true doctrines religion. How this prophecy has already been fulfilled will be explained later. The man who fulfilled this prophecy died on January 16, 1986. It proves that we are very far along in the end time. In fact we are in the time that can be characterized as the end of the end times.
6) Daniel 11 also indicates some signs of the end time. Verse 40, 41, 44 states, “40 And at the time of the end shall the King of the South push at him: and the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown…44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him:”
These verses talk about a King of the North and a King of the South and powers in the east and north or northeast. These directions are taken from Jerusalem as the center. So the king of the North means a European power. The king of the South means an Islamic power and the northeast means Russia allied with other powers in the east. We see these alliances forming or powers working to form them.
In the north we have the European Union working towards an alliance with Germany as the head. We see Islam surging. A likely leader to fulfill the role of the King of the South could emerge in the near future. In the east we already see Russia and China working on an alliance to contain American/British power. But in this prophecy Russia and its allies battle with Germany as King of the North.
7) Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and his image also gives us some clues about the end time. Daniel 2:41-45 states, “41 And whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 43 And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
“44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45 Forasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
The ten toes of the image represent the last kingdom before God sets up His kingdom on earth by breaking this kingdom to pieces. The ten toes represent an alliance of ten kings. The kingdom shall be partly strong and partly weak. Such an alliance is forming in Europe in the European Union. These details are impossible to miss. There is no doubt that we are in the days of this alliance forming in Western Central and Eastern Europe. It is taking shape before our very eyes. So we are living at a time when God is about to intervene in human affairs to set up His kingdom. That means we are living in the very end time prophesied by Daniel the prophet.
Unfulfilled Prophecy
Before God's kingdom is set up on earth, many prophecies have to be fulfilled. One prophecy yet to be fulfilled is given in Isaiah 40:9: "O Zion, you who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, you who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, behold your God."
In this prophecy, Zion represents God's people in these end times. God's people who bring good tidings or news of the establishment of God's soon coming kingdom on earth (prophesied in Daniel 2) and the coming of the Messiah in full power and glory (as the Jews have always envisioned the Messiah would come) are told to lift up their voice and reveal the true God to the cities of Judah, meaning Jews worldwide.
Every devout Jew would be offended if anyone was to tell him that the true God needs to be revealed to him. He will be indignant because he believes he knows the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Jewish scriptures, the Old Testament. And yet this prophecy says that God’s people are to shout to the cities of Judah, to reveal the true God of the Old Testament to them. This means that they are in fact rejecting the God of the Old Testament. They do not understand who He is.
Many catastrophic events are prophesied for the end time, but God promises protection to any human being who fulfills certain conditions. But to fulfill those conditions, that person must know the true God. That’s why it is now time to reveal the true identity of the God of the Old Testament to the Jews. That is the prophecy He wants His people to fulfill. This booklet is being written in fulfillment of this prophecy.
The author himself is a Jew by ancestry.
Where the Jews and the World Misunderstand the Bible
Many Jews are liberal in their outlook. The founder of atheistic communism was a Jew named Karl Marx. Many of them in Russia embraced communism. The main reason is that they no longer believed in the God of their scriptures. They believe God of the Torah and the prophets made many promises to His people which were never kept. So they gave up on the God of their fathers.
The truth is that the God of their fathers kept all His promises, but the Jews just did not know where to look. The world also has not known where to look for the fulfillment of God’s promises.
The Jews themselves and the world believe that the Jews are the descendants of the tribes of Israel. That is completely true. But what they and the world don’t understand is that they are not the only descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel. In fact the first time the word Jew(s) is mentioned in the Bible, they are at war with Israel. 2 Kings 16:5-6 says, “5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah KING OF ISRAEL came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz [the king of Judah or the Jews], but could not overcome him. 6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath….”
Though it is quite plainly stated in the Bible, the world does not understand that originally the twelve tribes were one kingdom under kings Saul, David and Solomon. But in the days of King Rehoboam the son of Solomon the kingdom split up into two kingdoms. The northern ten tribes came to be known as the House of Israel and the southern kingdom came to be called the House of Judah. The House of Judah consisted of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and much of the tribe of Levi as king Jeroboam of the northern Kingdom had put the Levites out from being priests for the two idols he had set up as gods. So many of the Levites came and settled in the southern Kingdom.The word Jew is derived from the word Judah. Since Judah was the son of Jacob or Israel, all Jews are Israelites, but all Israelites are not Jews. The descendants of the northern ten tribes were never known as Jews.
About two centuries after the kingdom split up, the House of Israel was carried away captive by the Assyrians and removed from their land. Only the House of Judah remained in its land. The northern 10 tribes came to be known as the “lost ten tribes” because they became lost from view in history. They lost their identity as the House of Israel.
Then 135 years later the Babylonians carried the House of Judah also captive to Babylon. However most of the Jews retained their identity as Jews. Seventy years after the Babylonian captivity began, some Jews returned to Jerusalem and their homeland beginning with the decree of Cyrus the king of Persia.
So the reason the Jews themselves and the world misunderstand the Bible is that all think that the Jews are the descendants of the entire twelve tribes of Israel whereas they are in fact descendants mainly of the tribe of Judah with some from the tribes of Benjamin and Levi.
The reason why many Jews and many in the world lost faith in the Old Testament is that they do not see that the God of the Old Testament kept all His promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Joseph and David. That’s why many Jews embraced atheistic communism.
The truth is that the God of the Jews, the God of the Old Testament has kept each and every one of His promises in all their intricate detail. So it’s time first to restore the Jews’ confidence in their scriptures and their God. The key to understanding how God fulfilled all His promises is locating the descendants of the “lost ten tribes,” the northern kingdom known as the House of Israel.
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