Dennis Edwards
Some of you have asked me to help you understand Bible prophecy. You have asked me about the pandemic where is it all leading, where is it going to? Are there any prophecies in the Bible that talk about these thing? I’d like to give you a very short summary or capsular look at what the Scriptures say. Let us go to the words of Jesus in chapter 24 of the Gospel of Matthew. The disciples had been showing him the temple. But Jesus in turn prophecizes that not one stone of the temple would be left upon another, that all the stones would be cast down.
“And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”[Matthew 24:1-2]
That particular part of the prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD when the Romans came and destroyed the temple. Then his disciples asked, “What shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world?” [Matthew 24:3] or the end of this age or despensation, not an end of the planet.
Jesus gave many different signs and said “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.”[Matthew 24:6-8]
We see that Jesus mentioned pestilences in the list. But then Jesus goes on to talk about how that true Christians would be persecuted. “Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”[Matthew 24:9] And they shall take you up and deliver you to be afflicted, and because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold.[Matthew 24:12]
Jesus gets about half way through with his discourse when he says, “But, When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the holy place (whosoever reads let him understand)[Matthew 24:15]….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, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”[Matthew 24:21-22]
He continues….”Imdeiately after the tribulation of those days shall the son be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”[Matthew 24:29-31]
That’s a very brief summary of what Jesus said. He said that there would be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in divers places and that they, the famines, pestilences and earthquakes, would be the beginnings of sorrows. Jesus then talks about the “abomination of desolation.” What is the “abomination of desolation” that Jesus is talking about?
Some of the Jewish scholars claim that the prophecy that Jesus was quoting from in Daniel had been already fulfilled even before Jesus’s time. They claim that Jesus was a false prophet because they believed that the placing of the abomination of desolation had already taken place during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes IV or the Mad Epiphanes. Antiochus Epiphanes had ruled the Selucian Empire, one section of the broken up Grecian Empire. If you remember, Alexander the Great had four generals and upon his death his empire was divided into four parts. One part was the Selucian Empire. Antiochus Epiphanes was descendent from the general who first ruled over the Selucian Empire. Antiochus persecuted the Jews around 200 BC . He also went into the temple and threw a swine’s head into the holy place, thus desecrating the temple. The Jewish scholars claim that the prophecy in Daniel about the abomination of desolations that Jesus quoted had already been fulfilled when Antiochus Epiphanes descrecrated the temple. Therefore, Jesus was making a false prophecy, because that prophecy had already been fulfilled. The Jewish scholars will tell you that.
However, we find in Scripture that many times prophecy has a partial fulfillment. There may even be two partial fulfillments of a prophecy. But then there is an ultimate or final fulfillment. The idea of partial and final fulfillment of Bible prophecy is what many eschatology professor believe concerning prophecy. Nevertheless, you will find many Christians today believing that the prophecies of Matthew 24 have already been fulfilled. One famous present day intellectual Christian writer and speaker that you may have seen on YouTube and is very well followed in Christian circles believes that Matthew 24 already took place when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.
He believes that the section of the prophecy about Jesus coming in the clouds was also fulfilled at that time. However, he believes the event of the angels receiving the saints and the saints being raptured up to Heaven took place in the spiritual realm, not the physical. That part of the prophecy took place in the spiritual realm and only in the spiritual realm. He believes there will be no fulfillment of that section of the prophecy in the physical realm. Through his interpretation, our famous Christian speaker puts aside the prophecy of Jesus 2nd coming. He also puts question marks on the prophecies of Apostle John and Apostle Paul which collaborate with what Jesus said. Our intellectual Christian leader puts all these things in the past. He tells us that there is nothing to worry about. It’s true that there is nothing to worry about because ultimately God has the whole thing in his hands. God sees everything from the beginning to the end. God says he’s going to take care of his children one way or the other.
Contrary to what the famous intellectual Christian scholar thinks, I believe Scripture teaches plainly that some of us may very well live through the period of great tribulation. But how could our God allow us to suffer persecution some of you may say? In the book of Acts we see Apostle Paul getting caught and taken prisoner. He is locked into a prison and chained in the most secure part of the prison. But around midnight while Paul and Silas are singing psalms there is a great earthquake. An angel of the Lord comes and releases Paul and Silas from their chains. God steps in and does the miracle that they need. Paul and Silas are soon released from prison. The prison director even gets to become a believer along with his family. We see that God is with his children and delivers them supernaturally form their persecutors.[Acts 16] The Old Testament is full of supernatural accounts about how God delivered his people in the past out of the hand of their enemies many times supernaturally.
But at the end of Paul’s life, we see a different story. Paul spent six years in confinement in Nero’s prison in Rome. Finally, the mad Nero had Paul’s head chopped off. We may say, why didn’t God protect him? Maybe our answer may not seem satisfactory when we say, It all depends on God’s will. Many of God’s people, God’s leaders, His followers, His disciples have had cruel deaths. All the other disciples except Apostle John experienced a martyrs death. Jesus had told his disciples that if He was persecuted, they would be, also. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a surprise for us as Christians when we suffer persecution. Apostle Paul when talking about the perilous times which would come in the last days said “All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”[2 Timothy 3:12]
But in God’s word we also find many promises saying that He will give us the grace to bear it. God will give us the grace. Just like the two brothers during the time of persecution of Christians in Europe. It was often of one sect against another, the Catholics against the Protestants or the Protestants aganst the Catholics. In this case it was two Protestants who were going to be burnt at the stake for not adhering to the doctrines of the Catholic church. One of the two brothers was weaker in faith than the other. He was the younger one. His older brother was going to be burnt at the stake first.
The younger brother said to his older brother, "I don’t know if I have the faith to die bravely. I’m going to deny my faith. I’m not going to be able to take it. Give me a sign. If God gives you the grace, the strength to bear it, give me a sign." Finally when his older brother is at the stake in the heat of the fire, he manages to lift us his hands in praise unto God as he was burning. The younger brother then knew that God had given him the sign he was looking for. He knew that God had given his brother the grace to bear the flames. In Isaiah we read “When thou passes through the fire, thou shall not be burned.” The younger brother, also, was able to stay strong in the faith during his own martyrdom. Other testimonies tell of Christians singing as they were burning. I read one testimony of a man who was quoting from memory Psalm 31 as he was being burned at the stake over some trivial Church doctrine.
God promises to give us grace the moment we need it, power for the hour, at the moment we need it, not before. However, a lot of the Old Testament prophecies signify that God’s people and the world are going to go through difficult time in the last days. The early Church fathers believed there was going to be a time of Antichrist before Christ returned and the Church would pass through the tribulation period. Iniquity would abound throughout the world. Apostle Paul stated there would be apostacy or a falling away from the faith, or a lack of faith in the world before the Antichrist comes.[2 Thessalonians 2:3]
Apostle John talks about a final one world government. Daniel the prophet also in the Old Testament talks about the different world governments that were to come. The prophecies say there will be an ultimate final one world government, the seventh world government. This government will some how come out of the remains of the Rome Empire where 10 nations join together with the Beast or Antichrist. There will first be a one world government with the Antichrist being part of it. But afterwards he assumes power over it. In the beginning, he is a participant in the world government, but then he assumes the power over it.[Revelation 17:10-11] That’s what many Christians believe. We believe there will be a final draconian one world government.
The Catholics used to talk about the time of Antichrist before Jesus’s return. But today they no longer talk about it. Some Catholics believe that the Catholic Church is an instrument of the financial elite or illuminati who are using the Church to help bring about the One World Government. On the side of Protestant Christians, many believe that they won’t be going through the great tribulation. They believe they are going to get raptured away before hand. The idea of the rapture you may have seen in some of the Christian movies or read in some of the books that were published called “The Left Behind” series.
The idea is that the Christians don’t have to worry, because they are not going to be left behind. It is only the unbelievers who are going to be left here. The unbelievers will have to sort out the meaning of the Bible prophecies. They’ll have to get out their Bibles if there are any left and try to figure out what it means at that time. But we, the Christians, are going to be out of here. So we don’t have to worry, is what they say. They don’t really concern themselves with these things.
But it’s false doctrine. We are going to be here. How do we know? We read over and over again in the Scriptures that the Antichrist is going to destroy the holy people.[Daniel 7:25; Daniel 8:10,24; Daniel 11:33-35; Revelation 13:7] He is going to have power to overcome the saints. But many of today's Christians say the saints and the holy people that are being talked about are the Jews who will be saved during the tribulation period. The pre-tribulation rapture Christians believe that the Church of believing Christians will be raptured before the real trouble begins. After we are raptured, they believe that a lot of the Jews are finally going to believe. These new Jewish believers will make up the 144,000 leaders of the tribulation period who will not accept the Antichrist and his mark of the beast. The 144,000 are talked about in the book of Revelation chapter seven. That’s what the believers of the pre-tribulation doctrine think it’s talking about in the book of Revelation. They believe the tribulation is for the Jews who will be saved during that time. But they believe that we Christians will be already gone in the pre-tribulation rapture. We will be out of here. The pre-tribulation escape hatch is what many Christian pastors teach. But the whole idea is just wishful thinking.
None of the early Church Fathers taught that doctrine. The pre-tribulation revelation came in the 1830s from a woman in a Scottish congregation. John Nelson Darby, from the early Plymouth Brethren, went to visit her, and then he incorportaed her ideas into his theology. Later C.I. Scofield accepted Darby’s theology and together the two were responsible for propagating the pre-tribulation idea throughout the western world. Through Scofield, who worked closely with Dwight L. Moody, the pre-tribulation doctrine got into the American evangelical Bible colleges and through them was diffused to all the world. The Chinese underground church in China after WWII testified that it was the pre-tribulation doctrine of the rapture which caused the Chinese Christians to be unprepared for the persecution that was to come. When the communists came many Christians lost their faith because they weren’t prepared for persecution. They had always been taught that God would take care of His own. God would save them out of persecution and none of those things would fall upon them. When it didn’t happen as they were taught, they lost faith and fell away.
The Bible tells us that the one world government will initiate the mark of the beast.[Revelation 13:16-18] What exacyly it is we don’t know. The Bible tells us that an economic system will be set up in which “no man can buy or sell except him that has the mark or the name or the number of the beast. And his number is 666.” That’s why there is a lot of resistance or movement against taking the chip or the vaccine. Too many people know about these Bible prophecies. Therefore, they do not want to submit to any kind of world technology which makes everybody have an identification mark. It sounds too much like the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, especially if that identification mark will be used in buying and selling.
But Bill Gates, whose father was a long time friend and associate of David Rockefeller, is trying his best to give all the world a identification with his ID2020. The idea is to get everybody in the world processed with an ID of some kind using the new biometric technology. Whether it will be a chip implant or an invisible tattoo onto our body or a vaccine, we don’t know. But the people that know Bible prophecies look at Bill Gates ID2020 and some of the other technology that he is helping to develop with a forboding. Could we be experiencing the vision of the future that Apostle John saw happening 2000 years ago?
Throughout the present epidemic we have seen various world leaders express the need for a new world government to help with the pressing problems that the present epidemic has caused. We know the financial elite or Bilderbergers have been pushing and working for world government for various generations. They have confessed so in their own writings. David Rockefeller has bragged about his families role in helping to bring about one world government.
Since our time as students in high school we have heard of various attempts at one world government. Between WWI and WWII was Woodrow Wilson's plan of the League of Nations. When that failed, after WWII the United Nations was formed and its headquarters was built on property the Rockefeller family donated in New York City. People have often said the only proplem with the United Nations is that it has no authority. The Americans are the strongest military might in the world today. Therefore, the Americans believe that they can do what they want to do. They can look out for their own interests and not for the world in general. America hasn’t been listening to what the world is saying. The allege climate change is an example where America doesn’t want to submit to a super government.
David Rockefeller said before he died that all the technology, and everything else was in place for the world to have one world government. He said that all that was necessary was to have an international crisis of sufficient statue that the nations would be convinced of the need to submit to a one world government. A substantial crisis would help the nations give up their sovereignty for the sake of the world’s future. Some of the nations have been more willing for world government than others.
In the case of the Palestinians, or the cause of the Palestinians, the United Nations voted some years ago that the Jews needed to return the captured lands back to the Palestinians. Of course, normally America opposed any censure of Israel’s actions, as America is one of the 5 sitting memebers on the UN Security Council and has the power of veto. But on one occassion, for some reason or blunder, the Americans let Resolution 242 pass. But the resolution has never been implemented. The majority of the nations of the world wanted Israel to return the lands gained in the 6 day war. They voted for Palestine to gain its autonomy and nationhood. But the Jews refuse to return the lands or release Palestine from the state of national emergency citing biblical precedentes and national security. America has also refused to exert influence over Israel concerning the situation and has sided with Israel over the voice of the world.
America under the Trump administration also has refused to submit to some of the international accords that have been made regarding climate change, free trade agreements, immigration, Iran, etc. Many of the Americans believe that the idea of a one-world government is leading to world socialism or communism.The Americans who support Trump don’t want to have to submit to some kind of super-government, especially world socialism They want to be independent, to make their own decisions and do what they want and not be in submission to anyone but themselves. They have been the biggest guy on the block since WWI and have the strongest military in the world. They believe they have the authority to do what they want. But the rest of the world does not see things with the same glasses.
But in the end, according to Bible prophecy, we will have one-world government, whether we like it or not. An American government led by Biden would most likely reestablish all the accords that the Trump administration seceded from and, therefore, a Biden government would hasten the road to one world government. When the Antichrist finally assumes power over the one world government, he has problems. The prophecies tell us he will destroy the mighty and the holy people.[Daniel 8:24] Whether the prophecies are talking about America specifically in those verses, we indeed speculate. But some eschatology professors think they could very well be. The prophecies also predict the destruction of the Great Whore Babylon which is a financial commercial sysetm. Babylon looks very much like captialism at its worst.[Revelation 17-18] She is destroyed by the Beast in one hour by fire, which could very well be the destruction of America by some preemptive first strike. On the other hand, it could symbolize be the burning of the American cities by protestors, which we saw recently in the riots before the elections, or a combination of both.
William R. Forstchen has written a fictional book about an electromagnetic pulse attack on America called One Second After depicting the horrors in America after such an attack. It might be worth your while to read. If the Babylon of Revelation that is destroyed by the Antichrist is indeed America, then it seems most probable that America would remain in rebellion to the one-world government. An American President similar to Trump would most likely be in power which would cause the Antichrist to attack and destroy America, or initiate the rioting, looting, and burning in the American cities. If a Democrat President were in power, he or she would most likely embrace the socialistic doctrines of the one-world government as those doctrines are similar to those of the Democratic Party. Therefore, A Democratic President would not be a threat to the one.world government. America under Biden or Harris would concede America's sovereignty and join in equally as a submitted member of the New World Order.
When exactly the destruction of Babylon occurs during the time frame of Bible prophecy, we are not sure. Revelation tells us some very gruesome events will take place. One third of the population of the world will die during that three and a half period of great tribulation.[Revelation 9:18] Jesus also told us that unless he had shortened the days, no flesh would live. Mankind would destroy itself and all animal life, if God had not shortened the time period.[Matthew 24:22] The Biblical imagery looks very much as if a nuclear holocaust will take place. Whether or not the destruction of Babylon the Whore takes place during the time of the three and a half year Great Tribulation period or not, or if it happens afterwards during the time of the 45-75 days of the Wrath of God, we don’t know for sure. But we do know that there are very troublesome times ahead. Jesus has told us. Apostle Paul and the Old Testament prophets have also told us. Apostle John’s vision confirms all the other prophecies before him with added additional information. We could very well be facing some very difficult days in the near future. Stay attentive, and remember,
"When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flame will not consume you." Isaiah 43:2 New Living Translation
"Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Joshuah 1:9 KJV
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 KJV
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39 KJV
