Reuters news service has published an announcement from the French Foreign Ministry. France will go ahead and recognize a Palestinian state, if negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians fails. Why is this announcement important? Because the situation in the Middle East is a key indicator of where we are in Bible prophecy.
When asked by His disciples, "What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?"[1] Jesus responded with not just one, but various "signs," which most Bible students are well aware of. He said,
"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."[2]
Jesus then warns again, that many false prophets will come and deceive many.[3] That's the second time he has warned us about deception being rampant at the time of the end in just a few sentences. He then says, that because of the abundance of evil in the world, people would become hardened or colder.[4] Like Nietzsche's Madman who, when talking about the death of God and the results, yelled,
"Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him -- you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space?Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?"[5]
It certainly seems as if the world is getting colder, as time goes by. Even with all the talk of "global warming," Jesus' and Nietzsche's prophecy is coming to pass.
My friend Simon in Uganda is working on helping to record many of the spoken, but rarely written, African dialects. A Christian Foundation has the goal of having the New Testament recorded in all the world's different spoken dialects to help fulfill the following prophecy by Jesus:
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."[6]
The goal is the have the job done by 2020. But another one of the key prophecies, or perhaps the cornerstone prophecy which Jesus gave, is related to the French Minister's announcement at the beginning of this article. Jesus said,
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso reads, let him understand)[7]...For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened (or be brief), there should no flesh be save ( in other words, none left alive on the earth): but for the elect's sake (the believers in Christ) those days shall be shortened.[8]
Many Bible students believe the above prophecy is related to the Holy Covenant spoken of by Daniel the prophet. [9] The covenant begins the last seven-year period and ends with the return of Christ to the earth at the Battle of Armageddon. Some Bible scholars speculate that the Antichrist will initiate a peace settlement in the Middle East, giving the Palestinians some type of autonomy in exchange for Israel having the right to begin to reconstruct the Third Temple on the Temple Mount, where the Israelis will begin prayer and sacrificial worship. Something they have not done for nearly 1950 years. Their own Temple Institute is presently preparing for such an occasion with the blueprints for the new Temple and other preparations well under way.[10]
Therefore, the announcement by the French could represent pressure on Israel to recognize a Palestinian state, something that at the present seems contrary to Israeli wishes. But, although Israel seems to reject the idea of peace with the Palestinians, many Bible scholars believe that the Holy Covenant will have something to do with an accord between Israel and Palestine, fomenting a temporary peace. Such a future peace agreement could very well be the Holy Covenant of the last seven-year Biblical prophecy period, which would indicate that the Great Tribulation is on the horizon.
Keep your eyes open to the situation in the Middle East as the signing of the Holy Covenant and its breaking some 3 1/2 years later are the Prophetic indicators just preceding that terrible Great Tribulation period.[11]
[1] Matthew 24:3
[2] Matthew 24:4-8
[3] Matthew 24:11
[4] Matthew 24:12
[5] Friedrich Nietzsche, The Madman
[6] Matthew 24:14
[7] Matthew 24:15
[8] Matthew 24:21-22
[9] Daniel 9:27
[10] The Temple Institute
[11] Daniel 11:30-31
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