Part IV of IV—Where is history headed?
Think back to the 1920 stock market crash, to 9-11, or as recent as November 20th, 2016, the Trump election—no one saw them coming. We are not good at predicting the future, but the Bible is. Hundreds of predictions have been made and come true and some of them came thousands of years in advance. God’s word has predicted world-shaking events, such as the time and place of Jesus’s birth, how and when Jesus would die and who would be by His side when He died, the name of the man who let the Israelites go after 70 years of captivity—Cyrus—and my favorite, what nations would pass across the stage of history (Daniel 3, 7, 9 and 11).
God showed Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, his golden kingdom would be replaced by the Meads and Persians, who would be ruled by Greece, and then Rome, and eventually Rome would fragment into 10 countries (Dan 3, 7, 11). It even gives the details: Greece would fall and divide into four parts (Dan 8), and three of the ten countries comprising the fallen Roman Empire would be plucked up by one unique power, and it did (Dan 7). It predicted the fall of the Vatican State, and its healing (Rev 13), and it even predicted the United State’s rise to power. But all of these events are past; does the Bible tell us what’s coming? Yes it does.
The Future
- The world will become more and more wicked, while it looks more and more religious (Rev 12, 13). Think hypocrisy and false religions.
- Countries and churches will unite to control the masses (Rev 13).
- A remnant of zealous Christians will give three moving messages to the world (Rev 14).
- The world will attempt to silence then destroy this small number of reformers (Rev 13); while
- Satan will fake Jesus’s return in an attempt to control the world.
- Jesus will come again just as society implodes; He’ll come to resurrect the righteous dead, translate the living saints, and take all of the saved to heaven for 1000 years (Rev 14).
- For a thousand years Satan and his evil imps will be confined to planet earth to contemplate their gloomy future, while the saints are reviewing the history books in heaven.
- At the end of the 1000 years, Jesus, God, the heavenly city New Jerusalem, and all the saints will descend back to earth;
- The rest of the dead, those lost, will be resurrected for judgment; they will see themselves and how they have despised God’s love and how they have unfitted themselves to live in God’s presence; and God will reveal Himself—giving life and vitality to those who love Him, but sadly destroying those who don’t.
- And forever more the saints will live in paradise made new. God will recreate the earth, probably in the same way He did it before, one day at a time, so we can watch and be amazed. He will wipe away our tears and all traces of sin; not a drop will remain except for the scars in Jesus’s hands, feet, and side.
Evil Cloaked in Religion
It’s hard to believe the world could become any more wicked than it is, and could it really be worse than during World War II when 60 million people were slaughtered? It’s possible, but what’s unique this time is, it will be cloaked in religion. Already churches and countries are lining up: Catholic Europe, Central America, and South America; Muslim Middle East, and Protestant America, and within them the sins of pride and domination rule. It is one thing to humbly protect your own, but another completely to dominate and compel the conscience.
Coming out of this montage of religions a small godly group of zealous Christians will shake the Earth with three simple messages:
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying, “Fear God and give Him Glory for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” And another angel followed saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornications.” Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. (Rev 14:6-9)
Three Angel’s Messages
These three messages are much more complicated than they appear, and understanding them without the context of the rest of the Bible is not possible. The Bible is internally consistent; it uses its own stories to define terms. For example, “forever” to us means a long, long time, but Biblically, a slave could serve his master forever, so forever means for as long as you live. We know we will live forever (using our modern definition) because the Bible says there will be no more death, not because it says forever.
These three messages are much more complicated than they appear, and understanding them without the context of the rest of the Bible is not possible. The Bible is internally consistent; it uses its own stories to define terms. For example, “forever” to us means a long, long time, but Biblically, a slave could serve his master forever, so forever means for as long as you live. We know we will live forever (using our modern definition) because the Bible says there will be no more death, not because it says forever.
And wrath to us means a fit of intense anger, but the wrath God is talking about is God giving up on us, finally abandoning us, leaving us to drink the cup, to reap the natural consequences of our choices, and nobody wants that to happen. When God did that in the past, Jerusalem was sieged, sacked, burned, destroyed, and demolished when He stopped protecting them from those Satan had control of, protecting them from those Satan controlled.
When God did that in the past, Jerusalem was sieged, sacked, burned, destroyed, and demolished when He stopped protecting them from those Satan had control of, protecting them from those Satan controlled.
What do the three-angels messages mean to you? What do you think the everlasting gospel is, or the judgment, the mark, the image, and the beast? I’d like to know.