See things as they really are

“Once upon a time” a young girl was sitting by herself in a city centre play park. She was wearing a worn pink dress and was barefoot and dirty. All the other children playing in the park ignored her and even the adults passed her by, never pausing to see if she was alright. She looked so sad and dejected and she never spoke a word.

The next day, she was there again, in exactly the same dress just watching the others play. She looked even more forlorn. But today something different was about to happen. One of the dads who had a child playing had noticed her over the past few days and wondered if she was alright. He decided that today he must to go over and speak to her. As he got closer to the girl he suddenly noticed that the back of her dress was grotesquely shaped. There was a massive hump on her back. “Ah” he thought to himself, “How sad, the other children won’t play with her because of her deformity.” The dad smiled and sat down beside her. “Hello” he said cheerfully. The girl looked up at him with beautiful clear blue eyes. “Hello” she replied.

They started to chat and then she added sadly, “You are the only one who has come to talk to me in a whole week”. They continued talking for some time and finally the man said “You remind me of an angel, sweet and innocent, yes you’re like a tiny guardian angel of the park watching over the children.” The girl nodded and smiled “Not quite” she said, “I am not the guardian angel of the park.” She then paused for a moment and opened the back of her pink dress to allow her wings to spread, “No, to be exact, I am your guardian angel, not the parks and now my mission is complete. I was sent by God to remind you that external appearances are not important in His sight. You must look beyond, to a person’s character and heart. It took you a few days but at last you have done that.”

This delightful modern day parable reminds us that we must make sure that we see people as they really are rather than regard outward appearances as being overly important. In 1st Samuel Ch 16v7 it states that “The Lord does not see as a man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.” Today’s generation concentrates far too much on the external, the trivial and superficial while forgetting that the “real measure” of a person is their character and personality.

Every day I hear or read of people who are quick to talk about all their various “achievements” in life. Perhaps they have completed this or that academic course or successfully landed this or that business contract. Maybe they have had cosmetic surgery to make them look more physically attractive or just won an award. It’s truly amazing the range of things people will boast about and what they believe to be important.

Scripture teaches however, that in God’s eyes, real beauty and real “achievement” is when an individual strives and labours to develop their character or the “hidden person of their heart” (1st Peter Ch3vs4, 5) according to the example set by Jesus Christ. Romans Ch12vs9-21 provides a summary of the kind of character and personality God expects; it is a sort of template for all those who aspire to be true followers of the Lord. Real achievement is working at trying to develop these personal characteristics and is the Biblical test of being a “real man” or a “real woman”.

While it is vitally important to see people as they really are in character, it is also vitally important to see things or events for what they really are as well. This is especially true when there are spiritual ramifications to an alleged event. It warns in Scripture that because there is a very real danger of people being deceived about spiritual matters we must always check out and “test all things” in the light of God’s Word. (1st Thessalonians Ch5v21). In Hosea Ch4v6  God laments that “People destroy themselves for lack of knowledge.” A great deal of this lack of knowledge and destruction is simply caused by individuals failing to properly check out the truth of an alleged event or piece of information, thereby harming their faith. The hoax of the Da Vinci Code written by Dan Brown in 2003 is one such example. Although a work of fiction with numerous subsequent publications and studies showing it was fiction, many people have read it as though it were factual. They failed to do what Scripture warned; test all things!

In 1st Timothy Ch4v1 it predicts “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceiving spirits and the teaching of demons.” And in 2nd Timothy Ch3v13 it further predicts “Evil men will grow worse and worse, deceiving others and deceiving themselves.” Today perhaps more than ever individuals must be careful to see both people and events for what they really are in the light and teaching of God’s Word. “All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2nd Timothy Ch3vs 16-17).

The Bible is our ultimate guide and final authority; and we know we can trust it, because God has placed proof that it is from Him by uniquely placing thousands of prophecies and predictions about future events within its pages. Amazingly one third of the Bible is composed of prophecy and hundreds of these predictions have already come to pass. As each prediction gets fulfilled one by one  it is a sign and witness to a new generation that Scripture can be trusted and is exactly what it claims to be; The Word of God to Mankind.

For over three hundred years a tribe in the Philippines called the “Tawbuid” had a special prophecy which was passed down from father to son. The prediction given was that some day, foreigners would come to the tribe with good news about the Owner of Creation and the way back to life. This prophecy further stated that they would be “white teachers” and that the tribe would be able to identify them, because these teachers would know their language and speak to them in their own tongue.

This amazing prediction was fulfilled when two American missionaries by the name of Russell and Barbara Reed went to work among the Tawbuid several years ago and told them of the One True Living God in their own language. To the Tawbuid the existence of this prophecy and its ultimate fulfilment was the vital sign they needed to prove that the teaching given by these Christian missionaries was authentic and true. It helped them discern truth from fiction. They were a particularly timid people and were delighted to learn of the God Who loved them and the way of salvation given to them through the Cross.

In the same way the prophecies of Scripture and their subsequent fulfilment provide us with all the evidence we need to see that the Bible really is the Word of God and can be trusted. Countless books have been written about Bible prophecy showing that their range and subject matter is truly phenomenal and accurate to the smallest detail. Among other things, predictions cover the rise and fall of nations and empires, the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the restoration of the Jewish Nation in 1948, the development of weapons of mass destruction, the state of the world, the decline of true faith in God and of course events yet to be fulfilled such as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the midst of a great world crisis. All these prophecies were written hundreds and sometimes thousands of years before their fulfilment showing that the ultimate Source behind Scripture is Almighty God Himself.

Whether it is in regard to people, events, strange happenings, so called discoveries or whatever, let us make sure that we see things as they really are by testing them in the Light of Scripture. In 2nd Timothy Ch4vs3-4 it foretells “An age will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine but according to their own desires…they will turn their ears away from the truth and believe in fables.”  Fulfilled Bible prophecy provides abundant evidence that the teaching of Scripture is true and accurate. Let us faithfully use it to “test all things” because by so doing we will see things as they really are in the sight of Almighty God.

The Mayan Prophecies 2012

In the days of the American "wild west" John Maher a reporter for the New York Herald came up with a novel way of promoting the newspaper's circulation. He decided to create a sensational deception which people would believe in, so that the paper could then in turn reveal the folly of that belief. This is what lay behind the amazing story of "The Petrified Man".

With the help of a friend and a very tall black soldier from the 9th cavalry John first made a plaster cast of the soldier. He then flattened the feet of the cast to make it seem that men of ancient times were flat footed. With a slight mixture of cement and plenty of Badlands sand and soil they then filled the cast to create the image of what appeared to be a "petrified man".

There was a team of archaeologists searching for fossils in Nebraska, so under the cover of darkness John and his friends placed the petrified man in the vicinity with only a hand showing above the ground. It was discovered by this team two days later and put on display for the press. A series of scientific tests were then conducted and an analysis was made of the geological formation in which it had been found. Finally, after weeks of tests the scientists declared it to be genuine and the petrified man was taken on a tour of the State so the public could see it on display.

Just at that moment the newspaper revealed the whole thing was one enormous hoax! The scientists had believed it and the public had believed it, yet it was just a trick to aid the newspapers circulation.

What I find so interesting and disturbing about this true story is that it shows how gullible and naive people are. They are so quick to believe something sensational and extraordinary. Little has changed!

If you haven't heard about it yet, you soon will. Incredibly there is a growing belief sweeping the globe that the world is going to end this year on 21st December. I have been aware of this view for sometime and was determined not to write about it lest it furthered its publicity. However, when I heard that these fears were now so widespread they were even being expressed by children of primary school age I felt I must address the issue. Vulnerable and sensitive individuals, children, teenagers and some adults are getting frightened.

So what is it all about? Well put simply, in the 1960's deep inside a secret room within an ancient stone temple in Mexico, archaeologists discovered what is called the "Mayan calendar". The Mayan civilisation (250-900AD) is infamous for being bloodthirsty and barbaric in widely using human sacrifices in their pagan rituals, however they are also noted for their extraordinary astronomical observations and mathematical powers. This calendar runs out on 21st December 2012 and the theory is that this must indicate the end of the world. Just like the incident of "The Petrified Man" many people are quick to believe this sensational view and sadly a growing number are genuinely frightened.

Explaining what the Bible predicts about the future of the human race should calm these fears. Those who study Bible prophecy know that Scripture has it's own "calendar of events" and it is very different from the Mayan "calendar". Bible prophecy clearly reveals that God will NOT permit the earth to be destroyed no matter what wars or troubles lie ahead.

One third of the Bible is prophetic in nature and it promises that some day Christ will return to this earth to establish peace and justice on a global basis. (In Isaiah ch 2v 4 it promises that Christ will "rebuke many nations and they shall turn their weapons into ploughs and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Other verses state that under His world leadership, disease will be eradicated and climatic conditions will be altered so that droughts and famines will be a thing of the past. It will also be a time a judgment and recompense when the righteous will be rewarded,  the wicked punished, and those who have suffered unjustly, compensated. All wrongs will be redressed at His return. See articles entitled "Israel and the Middle East in Prophecy" and "What does the Bible Teach about Unjust Suffering").

Scripture teaches that no one knows when this glorious event will take place (Matt ch 24v36) so ever since the Ascension of Christ, the Christian Church has been looking forward to the return of it's Lord and King and living in hopeful  expectancy. To the Church and all who have sincerely turned away from their sins, His promised return is "like a light shining at the end of the tunnel" making these troubled times more bearable.

Although Bible prophecy reveals that before Christ returns, the earth will endure major troubles including an Armageddon like situation in the Middle East, it reassures us that God will not permit any of these events to become serious enough to destroy the earth or human civilisation. If the world was going to be destroyed by these events  then the return of Christ to a dead planet would be pointless! Instead, prophecy reveals that these future troubles will be curtailed by the Personal return of Christ in order not only to prevent  them escalating further but also to bring about global peace. (See Matt ch 24v22).

Whatever serious troubles may befall our planet this year, next year or whenever (and I am sure there will be many) and no matter what events may or may not happen on 21st December, on the authority of Scripture we can take comfort that it is most certainly not going to be the end of the world or the end of civilisation!

Biblical prophecies have a proven track record of being accurately fulfilled. Events in the earthly life of Christ, regarding the manner of His Birth, teaching, death and resurrection were all accurately foretold in Old Testament writings many hundreds of years before their fulfilment. Prophecies relating to the deliverance of Jerusalem  were fulfilled in 1917, predictions of the reestablishment of the Nation of Israel came to pass in 1948, and prophecies about the development of weapons of mass destruction have been fulfilled in our own age. (See Matt ch 24vs 21-22, Luke ch21v26 and the articles entitled "Amazing Prophecy Fulfilled" and "9/11 Predicted in Bible Prophecy"). The fulfilment of all these prophecies reassures us that what Scripture predicts about the future can be relied upon and trusted.

The growing fear people have concerning the Mayan prophecies is simply a symptom of what may be called "Bible poverty". Knowledge regarding what the Bible teaches is at an all time low and the less people know about what it teaches the greater will be their anxiety about the future of the human race. When people stop believing in the Bible and it's promises, they end up believing in anything and everything, no matter how weird and absurd. It creates fear and uncertainty and robs them of the opportunity to repent and prepare for that Appointment we must all one day keep, when we are called to give a personal account of our actions before the King of Kings.

Today Christian's across the world have a unique opportunity to address the fears people are expressing by pointing them to the glorious promise of Christ's return and the salvation He freely bestows upon those who have repented of their sins. Christ died for our sins so that we could have life in its fullest abundance (John ch 10v10). The real solution to fear, therefore, is to accept Christ's invitation to develop a close relationship with Him, by following and obeying Him in one's personal life. By actively turning away from our sins and actively obeying Him in our hearts we enter into "abundant life" so that when He returns to this world we will meet Him as our Best Friend and not as our Judge.

What's all this talk of Noah's ark?

Those who have an interest in current affairs will have noticed that articles about Noah’s Ark keep appearing every so often in the world’s media.  The subject first became topical in the late 1950’s after high altitude aerial photographs revealed a boat-shaped structure in the mountains of Ararat region, in Eastern Turkey. The precise location was 10 miles ESE of Dogubayazit in the province of Agri. In 1960 Life Magazine published this photo as did the Australian Pix Magazine. Over the next two decades archaeological research was conducted on this boat shaped structure by various groups of scientists including researchers from Ataturk University. (On British television in 1996, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary entitled “Quest for the Ark” which followed the six year investigation  of one of these teams led by  David Fasold).

 In 1977 the Turkish Government officially declared it to be the decayed remains of Noah’s Ark and in June 1987 established the “Noah’s Ark National Park” with a Visitors Centre overlooking the site. Since then tourists and church groups have been able to visit the site for themselves although it is far off the beaten track and expensive to reach. (For the less intrepid a summary of all this research  is publicised by Anchor Stone International and may be viewed on www.anchorstone.com).

But what do you see if you actually manage to get there?  Well, to answer that question really depends on ones expectations. Those who had  hoped that when the Ark was found,  it would be found  preserved in ice and almost intact are often disappointed by what they see. Those however who are more concerned about simply proving the authenticity of Scripture often come away inspired.

Two curious visitors, Leigh Winsbury and Surinder Panesar   went to the site in October 2009. Leigh wrote the following description of what they saw and feelings it generated.

“Well then it’s real”, I said, with a silly grin on my face. Surinder looked back at me, still trying to be logical and dispassionate. “I don’t see what else it could be” he conceded. We had been on the remains of Noah’s Ark for about an hour and we were convinced. We had travelled for two days to get to this remote part of easternmost Turkey, right on the Iranian border, to satisfy a curiosity which had burned in me throughout a much longer journey.

I had been a young teenager when a TV documentary had announced the finding of Noah’s Ark. I had watched fascinated as Ron Wyatt and David Fasold had trailed over this enormous boat-shaped heap with metal detection equipment marking out buried bulkheads and beams from decomposed iron deposits. I wasn’t yet a Christian but this was monumental; a discovery like this should change the way we think about everything.

So what had we actually gone to see? Ten to twelve miles south of Ararat, across the plain and back up into the mountain range which becomes Iran, there is a shape in the hills. A huge boat shape, like a drawn-out speedboat, pointed at the uphill southern end, rounded at the downhill northern end. The eroded remains of walls projecting up from the ground can be seen, in some places merely a foot or two in height but most of the way around much higher, anything up to 35 feet. Imagine a giant, stretched out  wooden rowing boat  laid on uneven  ground with sand heaped  up around it mostly to the gunwales and sand heaped inside it and piled up to the bottom left causing that quarter to bow out. The whole thing is pierced through the side as it hangs on to a massive limestone rock intrusion  and it appears to be this which keeps it in place as the surrounding valley, one huge alluvial mudflow, travels continually along past the ship with each wet season and earth tremor.

The sceptics said it was just a freak natural formation, the enthusiasts said it was remains of the Ark. I wanted to know for myself, so long before I left England I did research into what exactly I should look out for. To begin with the dimensions fitted the Biblical description.  But could it still be a coincidental natural formation? My mission was to look for convincing evidence that this was a man made structure.

When we first approached the steep cliff-like north western side, the first thing that struck us was a pattern of vertical lines running down about 3 feet apart. I had seen photos of this feature with claims that it showed the planking on the side of the Ark. We climbed inside the walls. I had read about and seen pictures of the claimed remains of petrified wooden beam ends projecting through the walls. The pictures I had seen always seemed to show the same two lumps so nothing prepared me for the vast number of these projections. They were everywhere, easy to see and easy to measure. This was celebration time. What we discovered was a continuous row of vertical beams all along the wall tops at roughly  5 foot intervals. This row was echoed by a double row inside the structure, visible at the north end but then disappearing into the heap of infill. Horizontal beams could be seen anywhere the wall was high enough and clear of debris, at the same intervals. At one point a section of the wall had broken right away and is in the process of collapse, but on this part three levels of rows of beams are visible, revealing the height between the decks to have been around 10’6”.

So, can I now prove that this was the Ark? Well, this is what I learned.
1.    It is the remains of a giant man-made object.
2.    It is definitely boat-shaped and isn’t a castle, barn, town wall or anything else I can think of.
4.    Its position is   in the mountains of Ararat as stated Scripture.
5.    Most of the place names in the area relate to the story of the Ark. For instance, Al judi is the name of the whole mountain. This is the name given in the Qu’ran as the landing place of the Ark. Nisir is the ancient name of Uzengili the village 500 yards from the site. This is named in the Epic of Gilgamesh as the landing site. Yigityatagi is the name of the cliff at the top of the mountain. It means “anchor place of heroes”. And my favourite, the village two miles away is called “crow won’t land”. Marvellous.

Well if that wasn’t enough, we also travelled out to a small village called Arzep in the middle of a wide valley plain called “the region of eight” named after the eight survivors from the Ark. Here we were shown around by our guide Zafer Onay and a village elder called Faizal. This plain is home to several massive stone monuments. What is special about them is that they have a whole drilled right through them near the top, large enough to take a rope about as thick as my arm. Apart from their size they follow the same general design as drogue stones which have been recovered from the Nile and the Mediterranean. These stones were lowered from vessels into the water to act as stabilisers in rough weather and to slow the passage of a vessel in fast water. The question is, what are these giant versions doing in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from the nearest navigable water? The connection was obvious to us as it was obvious to the Crusaders who came this way on pilgrimage and carved eight crosses on everything they could find which related to the Ark.

Needless to say we came home quite happy that we had indeed been on board the ship that saved Mankind by God’s design and I don’t mind confessing that it was quite an emotional experience once we were certain.
Leigh Winsbury

Stories of a worldwide flood abound in legends and folklore. It has been estimated that there are 200 or more separate   “flood accounts” from around the world, each telling much the same thing; a global flood, a Noah like figure, a giant ship and a handful of survivors. French archaeologist Andre Parrot stated that with so many separate accounts it was difficult to deny that there must be some factual basis to these stories.  He wrote “There can be no question that the flood marked a clean break in history. The memory of it remained vividly in men’s minds. The cataclysm was accompanied by destruction on such a scale and made such an impression that it became one of the themes of cuneiform literature.”

According to Scripture, the Flood was accompanied by unprecedented volcanic and seismic upheavals on a global scale. The first recorded event of the Flood is in fact a reference to movements of the earth’s crust.  In Genesis ch 7 v 11 it states “on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up.” Oceanic basins would have been fractured and uplifted and these prolonged geologic upheavals continued for five months. There would have been volcanic explosions, earthquakes, the rising and sinking of land masses and mountain ranges and   the disappearance of entire continents under water. The disturbing thing about the blockbuster film 2012 is that some of the scenes shown provide an all too  vivid picture of what it must have been like.

Genesis ch 1v 7 refers to “waters above the firmament” surrounding the planet.   This water vapour canopy in the outer atmosphere collapsed at the time of these seismic upheavals and today’s oceans are composed  of  much of this water, the earth still being 70% submerged. During this time numerous living creatures were quickly buried in the swirling sediments to produce fossils. This explains the existence of vast fossil beds lying across various parts of the world. Under the ordinary processes of nature, fossilisation rarely occurs   because bones   first require quick burial   in order to preserve them from scavenging and decay.  The quick burial occurring at the time of the Flood, therefore, provided ideal conditions for the process of fossilisation to take place and explains why there are millions of fossils in the world today.

In pre-flood times the existence of this water vapour canopy would have made the earth’s climate and environment dramatically different from what we have now. The resulting “greenhouse effect” would have made the planet an ideal habitation. It wouldn’t have been cold in the polar regions nor overly hot at the equator.  The discovery of plant and animal remains in the Arctic supports this, by revealing that at one time the area was warm enough for wheat and barley to grow, likewise cave paintings in the Sahara desert demonstrate that this area was at one time fertile and green.

Those inhabiting the earth at this time were living in a perfect environment with their DNA and their entire physical bodies being fully protected from the sun’s damaging radiation. According to Scripture the process of degeneration or aging of the human body was so slow under these conditions that people lived for hundreds of years. All this changed dramatically after the Flood. It is fascinating to plot the ages of those who lived in pre-flood times and compare it with the ages of those who lived afterwards. After the Flood the process of aging and degeneration becomes   so rapid we now survive but three score years and ten. (Psalm 90 v10)
The common perception of ancient Man is that he was simple, primitive and lacking knowledge but the real truth is very different. The pyramids of Egypt with their alignment to the stars, their complex structure and  precise construction  is testimony that  ancient Man had  great technological  skills, understanding and motivation, to build  vast structures.  Indeed, it is debatable as to whether or not we could build the same kind of structures today. To the Ancients the construction of an Ark the size and length of an ocean liner would have been well within their technical abilities.

Jesus referred to the Flood as being a real, literal and terrifying event rather than being some kind of metaphorical story. (Luke ch 17vs26-27).  There is abundant evidence to show that the remains of the Ark have indeed been found and   that the Flood was a real event so whether or not an individual accepts this evidence is actually a spiritual issue rather than anything else. The problem is that many people don’t   want to believe in either the Ark or the Flood because of what it stands for. The existence of Noah’s Ark is a sobering reminder that God is not mocked and that He won’t tolerate evil behaviour.  It is an inconvenient and uncomfortable reminder that God judges sin and wickedness and is calling on us all to repent and turn to righteousness. It is sometimes more comfortable to ignore evidence rather than acknowledge the truth of God’s reality.

The site of Noah’s Ark only became visible and exposed   in 1948 due to an earthquake breaking up and lowering   the surrounding mud flow.  1948 also saw the official rebirth of Israel as a nation which had long been predicted in Bible prophecy. (See the article entitled Israel and the Middle East in Prophecy). The discovery of the Ark and the rebirth of the Jewish nation in the same year are reminders that God’s timing is perfect.  They are two profoundly significant events for those who have “eyes to see and ears to hear”.  May these events encourage us all towards a closer walk with God that when Jesus Christ returns we are ready and prepared to meet Him.

9/11 predicted in bible in prophecy

The day after 9/11 a respectable Canadian newspaper called the Toronto Sun printed a full page picture of the devastation quoting Bible prophecy down one side. The verse they chose came from Revelation chapter 18 showing that the events poetically and symbolically predicted in this chapter bore an uncanny resemblance of what actually took place.

The Book of Revelation was written by St John in 96AD. In chapter 1 v1 we are informed that the purpose of these visions was to outline events which were to occur from the time of writing onwards right up to, and beyond the Second Coming of Christ. So as not to stop the fulfilment of the very things being foretold, many of these prophecies were written in a symbolic, poetic and code-like form. They were written in such away that often their meaning would only become clear as a predicted event unfolded in reality.

St John had to use the ancient language of his day to describe what he saw in the visions given to him. All the other prophets of Scripture were of course in the same situation, so understanding what they saw in their particular visions and seeing how they described those events is a vital key to understanding how St John would have described events shown to him.

For example, in the article entitled “Amazing Prophecy fulfilled” we see that in Isaiah ch 31v5 the prophet described a strange vision God gave him concerning the future deliverance of Jerusalem. The event was to occur over 2000 years later using technology which Isaiah would have had no name for. The best he could do was use the language of his day and describe in his own words what he saw in the vision. What he wrote in this world changing prophecy was “As birds flying so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem; passing over it He will preserve it.” As history records, when General Allenby read this prophecy at the time of Jerusalem’s crisis in 1917 he instantly realised that Isaiah was describing planes flying over the City. On the basis of this understanding he ordered planes to fly over the City dropping leaflets of surrender. The result was that Jerusalem was delivered from enemy hands without bloodshed.

Understanding that the prophets of Scripture describe the visions they saw in the ancient language and cultural terms of their day, brings meaning and sense to many predictions in the Bible which might otherwise seem bizarre. Zechariah ch 14 vs 12-15 is another excellent example of this. To the casual reader the vision may seem unintelligible. However, when its realised that the prophet is but using the language of his day to describe far distant future events he hasn’t proper words for, the meaning becomes very clear.

 Like St John, and Isaiah, Zechariah was given a vision of technology he didn’t understand and had no name for. Like them, all he could do was describe what he saw. The vision is set in the context of events which are to take place just before the Second Coming of Christ when many nations attack Israel. He tells us that at that moment the Lord will strike the enemies attacking Israel with a “plague”. From his description it is clear however, that this was to be no ordinary plague. It was to be something so instantaneous that even while they were still standing on their feet their flesh would dissolve, their eyes would dissolve in their eye sockets and their tongues dissolve in their mouths. What we have here is “an ancient language” description of the use of a nuclear bomb in the Middle East which will take place during the battle of Armageddon. (See article entitled “Israel and the Middle East in prophecy”).

Turning to the visions in the Book of Revelation, these examples from Isaiah and Zechariah help explain what St John was also trying to do, namely describe far distant future events in the ancient poetic and cultural terms of his day.

For decades Bible scholars have held that Revelation chapter 18 predicted disaster befalling the economic system of the world because it was run on financial principles founded by ancient Babylon. These principles were that profit was to be made at any price. Greed was the motivating force. It didn’t matter if the poor were oppressed or treated unfairly so long as a profit was made. God could not bless or protect an economic system run on such principles any more than He will now. The City that St John described was a symbolic economic Babylon because by the time of the vision’s fulfilment it would have become the main centre of global world trade.

Most of you who read this article will vividly recall the events of that tragic day and its memory will be firmly fixed in your mind. I have a friend who knew about 300 of those died. It was a day of horror and it has marked a turning point in history by setting in motion a sequence of events which we are all still experiencing and will be ongoing until the Second Coming of Christ.

Now imagine for a moment that you were given a “picture” or “vision” of the events which you so vividly recall and that you were St John living 2000 years ago. Your task is to describe what you see in the vision for the benefit of future generations. Using the poetic and cultural terminology of your day you would have put it something like this;-

Three times St John describes the desolation as happening in one hour. In verse 10 he writes “Alas alas that great city, for in one hour your judgement has come.” Verse 17 reads “For in one hour such great riches come to nothing”. And in verse 19 “in one hour she has become desolate.”

The reaction from people is that “when they see the smoke of her burning they will stand and watch at a distance for fear of her torment." (Verses10and15).

In verse 11 the global nature of the catastrophe is described. “The merchants (traders) of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one can buy her merchandise any more.”Verse 17 further adds that those who trade on the world’s oceans will be affected. Verses12/13 gives a list of some of the many products which will no longer be traded through her. Notice also in verse 2 the word “fallen” is used twice, rather than only once “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen”. This may possibly be a reference to the fact that there were Two Towers making up the World Trade Centre.

Reading through this description it is easy to see why the Toronto Sun placed a verse from this chapter beside a photograph of the devastation. Using the poetic language and cultural terminology of his day St John clearly described the events of 9/11 in amazing detail. There even appears to be a reference to the prevalence of dust in verse 19. Who can forget the fearful dust clouds that swept down the streets as the Towers collapsed?

 St John however, isn’t the only one to have had a vision of that fateful day. In the AUGUST 2001 edition of “The Last Trumpet Newsletter” pastor David Meyers printed details about a fearful vision God had given him a few weeks earlier about the twin towers. He and members of his congregation were visiting New York in July 2001 so as to especially pray for the City. He wrote in the August 2001 magazine “We were sailing across New York harbour on the ferry bound for Manhattan. There in the distance were the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Suddenly I saw massive flames of fire rising into the sky from the towers, as the entire area became engulfed in fire. I could hear the horrifying screams of multitudes of people in the distance. The vision ended as quickly as it had begun. Then I heard a Voice that seemed to come from inside my head say ‘describe what you have seen in your newsletter’.”

In John ch 14 v 29Jesus explained that the reason for using prophecy was to strengthen faith. He said to His disciples “I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass you may believe.” Many people have been encouraged in their faith by this pastor’s vision being clearly in print several weeks before the events of 9/11.

It is also amazing to discover that the Times Square Church led by Pastor David Wilkerson had also been given Divine warning of an impending disaster. Six weeks before 9/11 he and every member of his pastoral team were struck by a deep conviction that a great tragedy was about to hit the City and that God wanted them to prepare for it. As a result of this warning (as documented in their magazine) they cancelled all major church events in the weeks prior to 9/11 and replaced them with 4 prayer meetings every week. At these prayer meetings they sensed God prompting them to pray that the results of this coming disaster would be lessened from what otherwise might be the case and be prepared to provide practical help. Incredibly, as a direct result of this Divine guidance the church was ready to establish relief tents at ground zero to comfort survivors and rescue workers.

If you have found this article an encouragement to your faith then please don’t forget to share it with others. There are several other articles about Bible prophecy on this website which comfort and reassure us that no matter what Man may do, God is still ultimately in control of human destiny. These prophecies reveal that God will never allow the world to be destroyed and that one day Christ will return in the midst of a great world crisis to bring peace and justice. Let us make sure that when the prophecy of 2nd Corinthians ch 5 vs 10-11 is fulfilled He will say to us “well done good and faithful one” and not “depart from Me into punishment you who practice disobedience.”

Jesus fulfils prophecy

One of the things I enjoy reading about is how individuals personally encounter God and come to faith in Christ. Scripture states that God seeks to have a personal relationship with every one of us, but how that relationship actually begins will differ from person to person since we all come from different “starting places” having different backgrounds and different needs.

Recently I read the fascinating account of how a Conservative Jew came to faith in Jesus. Although  Zechariah Ch 12 vs 8-11 clearly predicts that the wholesale conversion of the Jewish race won’t occur until the  Second Coming of Jesus, this doesn’t preclude various individual Jews finding Jesus for themselves if they are really open to finding  and  seeking Truth.

In an interview with Mandy Pilz, Ziggy Rogoff said ”I am a Jew, but my job is to tell other Jews  that the Jesus they have rejected is actually their long-awaited Messiah.

It is amazing that I have come to this conclusion given my upbringing, where I was steeped in Conservative Judaism and Jewish traditions.  Three times a week, from the age of eight, I attended Judaism   classes and even had a private tutor to prepare me for my Bar Mitzvah at 13, which I had at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

During this rite of passage I sang my piece and carried the scroll of Jewish Scriptures from the little cave to the left of the Western Wall and back again.  I was nervous about getting the ceremony right, but in terms of what I actually believed about God, I didn’t really think about it. It was more a case of following tradition and nothing about the event made me want to find out any more.  The notion of sin and being accountable to a Holy God, or that I could relate to Him wasn’t there in the ceremony. No one ever spoke about such things.

Throughout my childhood I received negative ideas about Christianity and this made me suspicious of Christian things. Many years later however, when I was doing my PhD, I used to talk about God with a very good non-Jewish friend who eventually became a Christian. Through him I got to meet other Christians and I began to question ‘is Jesus really the Messiah?’  This caused me to ask; ‘how is it possible for millions of people to believe Jesus is the Messiah when Jewish rabbis have been rejecting Him for 2000 years?’  I saw Jesus standing in the history of the Gospels and I began to ask ‘is He Who He claims to be?’ The only way I could find out for sure was to examine the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures.

I’ve studied mathematics so I created a long Excel spreadsheet of all the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled and all the things that were expected of the Messiah. I tabulated around 430 prophecies and spent time poring through the Scriptures looking at these. I went to a Jewish bookshop to buy a Kosher Bible just to see what Christians believed in. Later I was invited on a church weekend. I witnessed Christians from different cultures, races and backgrounds and I said to myself, ‘this is exactly what God’s people should look like’. I thought ‘this really looks like the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham that a multitude of nations would be blessed through him.’ I began to think, ‘this is really it.’

I remember the following week being aware of two very powerful emotions. One was enormous happiness that I had discovered a great Treasure, Jesus; the other was great fear because I knew I stood guilty before a Holy God.  I was then overcome with a deep-running joy when it was explained to me what Jesus had done,  that He had died for my sins and that I was forgiven and had peace with God. It dawned on me that He was the long-awaited Sacrifice that the Scriptures had always pointed to.  I then knew that I wanted to live, putting Jesus at the centre of my life.

It took me a couple of years to get round to telling my family. Reactions were mixed. My mum was angry, feeling ashamed, sickened and betrayed. However, I have gained many Christian friends. I have also developed a zeal for sharing my faith with other Jews and have trained as a missionary through an organisation called ‘Jews for Jesus’.”

Ziggy Rogoff became a Christian because he genuinely wanted to find out the truth about Jesus. He understood   very clearly that if Jesus is exactly Who He said He was, the Messiah and Son of God, then it meant that the things He taught and prophesised were of paramount importance.  The same is true for us all. If Jesus really is Who He said He was then the human race does indeed stand before a Holy God Who is calling upon us all to repent of our sins and live our lives in obedience to Him. By turning to Him we embrace real and joyful life as Ziggy personally discovered, but by ignoring His warnings we embrace spiritual misery, trouble and finally Judgement. In John Ch3 v 19, when speaking of Himself, Jesus said “Light has come into the world but men love darkness rather than light”. What a fitting description this gives of today’s troubled world.

Liberal theology and the truth of the Bible

The results of the nationwide Church Survey (www.churchsurvey.co.uk) published in 2005 revealed that many congregations want Bible based sermons and teaching. They want to know what the Bible itself states and proper guidance on how to apply its teaching to their individual lives. This explains the popularity of courses such as “Alpha” and “Christianity Explored” and ordinary Bible study groups.

The Survey also revealed the dismay of many that “the church” in the UK often failed to stand up for Biblical morality and that some ministers amazingly didn’t believe in such things as the Virgin Birth, the Bodily Resurrection of Christ or His Second Coming. Again many were dismayed that some clergy approved of behaviour which is repeatedly forbidden in the Word of God.

Probably the most frequently asked question by many new Christian’s is “how can someone be a minister and not believe in and accept the plain teaching of the Bible?”

The purpose of this article is to answer that question in a simple manner and place the present position of the UK churches in their proper world context.

The idea of spiritualising things away in Scripture, (rather than taking them factually) or treating the Bible as merely an unreliable collection of sayings, is not a modern concept. Liberal theology as it has come to be called was around during the time of Our Lord and it is interesting to read how Jesus responded to this concept.

The liberal theologians in the time of Jesus were of course the Sadducees. They thought that the stories and teachings of the Old Testament were untrustworthy and often needed to be “spiritualised” rather than taken literally. This view, for example, led them to reject the idea of an afterlife and the existence of angels. (See Acts ch 23v8 and Matt ch 22v23).

The existence of an afterlife, the promise of future rewards for the righteous and future punishments for the unrepentant, as well as the existence of good and bad angels are all plainly taught in the Old Testament. The Sadducees however thought that passages of Scripture which taught these things should be regarded figuratively rather than literally and spiritualised away their meaning.

In Matthew ch 22 vs 23-32 a very revealing exchange took place between these liberal theologians and Our Lord. The Sadducees aimed to show that believing in an afterlife would bring all sorts of problems and gave the example of a woman who had been married to seven brothers. “In the resurrection whose wife of the seven will she be, for they all had her?”

Before answering their specific question Jesus makes a very significant twofold comment about their theological stand point. First of all He rebukes them for “not knowing the Scriptures” and then secondly for not accepting “the power of God”. In other words they didn’t understand what Scripture actually taught and they doubted God’s power to have done such things in the first place.

Although Jesus condemned their view and position on Scripture, this notion of spiritualising events and regarding the Bible as being unreliable never fully disappeared. The theory came to prominence again in the theological colleges of Germany in the late 19th century then gradually filtered into the theological colleges in Britain in the early 20th century. This liberal attitude towards Scripture gradually weakened the beliefs and morality of many in Germany and in part explains why Nazism found fertile ground in the resulting spiritual vacuum. It also explains why (with notable exceptions) the response of the German churches to Hitler was so muted.

Today church ministers in Britain (of whatever denomination) can generally be divided into two main groups. One group follows the traditional view that what is written in Scripture is a Divinely Inspired accurate summary of God’s dealings with the human race and is to be accepted at face value. According to this view for example, because it plainly records that Jesus was born of a Virgin and Bodily Rose from the Dead etc, this is exactly what happened and this is actually what it means.

The other group rejects this notion of taking the Bible literally and believes that what is written is unreliable and often needs to be taken in a figurative or symbolic sense. According to this view, for example, they might suggest that Jesus wasn’t literally born of a Virgin and that it is recorded as such only to get across the idea that He was in some way a special and unique Person. Then again, perhaps the writers really believed in a Virgin Birth but were misguided in this idea. Or again, regarding sexual practices clearly and repeatedly forbidden in Scripture they might take the view that such passages only referred to the people of that particular time, rather than people today, thinking that some of these moral laws were “culturally determined”.

At the moment clergy who belong to this second group are so many in number in the UK that churches in other parts of the world such as Africa and Asia often regard British Christianity as being in a state of moral and spiritual meltdown. They feel that many have “departed from the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude v3) and that the spiritually “lukewarm” condition of many UK churches can be likened to the “Laodicean church “ which is described in Rev ch 3 vs 14-19.

This also explains why UK clergy often give a muted or divided response on matters of belief, doctrine and moral behaviour. The Church Survey revealed that congregations rarely hear sermons defending and explaining the fundamental teachings of Christianity. Rarely is it explained what the Bible teaches about the need for personal salvation, the promise of the Second Coming of Christ and the strict moral standards God requires us to uphold in our personal lives. There is almost complete silence concerning the terrifying judgement Jesus came to save us from, the fact that we are all sinners needing salvation and the truth that some day everyone of us will stand before the Judgement Throne of Christ. For this reason, an increasing number of African Christians are coming over to the UK acting as missionaries. They come because they feel that British Christianity needs to be restored to it former beliefs in order to avert a spiritual catastrophe on a national scale.

Those who don’t believe that the events and teachings of Scripture are accurate and who reject the idea that they were written by individuals specially inspired by the Holy Spirit for that particular purpose, have yet to adequately answer two profound questions.

Firstly, if the Bible really is unreliable why then are the prophecies of Scripture being accurately fulfilled ?

The idea that the Bible should be treated in the same sceptical manner as any other ancient book contradicts the fact that it is totally different from other ancient writings. The Bible is unique amongst ancient literature because one third of it is composed of prophecy and predictions. No other ancient or modern work is similar. (See articles under heading “Evidence and Proof for the Christian Faith” such as “Signs of Inspiration in the Bible”)

Many of these prophecies have already come to pass even though they were written hundreds and in some cases thousands of years before the events they foretold. Such accurate predictions are a sign of Divine inspiration rather than mere human thought. Faultlessly predicting events which are to happen hundreds of years in the future is utterly impossible for the human mind unless it is being influenced by the Holy Spirit.

Liberal theologians ignore these signs of Inspiration by believing that these prophecies were written after their fulfilment. The error of this view however is easily exposed by examining prophecy that has been fulfilled in modern times. Take for instance, the Biblical prediction that Jerusalem would be liberated in 1917 and that after their worldwide dispersal the Jews would re-establish themselves as a nation. As the article “Amazing Prophecy Fulfilled” points out, the exact year of liberation was predicted long ago in the Books of Leviticus and Daniel and the method of liberation was actually described by Isaiah when he described something similar to birds flying over the city. These turned out to be General Allenby’s planes.

Or what about the prophecy concerning the invention of weapons of mass destruction? In Matthew ch 24v22 Jesus predicted that a time would come when human beings would have the capability to destroy all life on the planet. This prophecy has been part of the text of Scripture for 2000 years. It wasn’t just added a few decades ago after the event came to pass with the invention of nuclear weapons. (See articles on “Israel and Middle East in Prophecy” for numerous other examples).

Secondly, treating things as being unreliable or merely figurative in Scripture raises the profound question; If God didn’t mean exactly what He says in Scripture then why didn’t He say what He really means?

The liberal theory of spiritualising the events and teachings in Scripture by regarding them as merely symbolic raises an unanswerable question. If God really doesn’t want us to take events which are clearly recorded as being literal, as literal, then why doesn’t Scripture say as such ? If God doesn’t want us to regard certain sexual and moral commandments as being for all time but just for a particular age and culture, then why doesn’t Scripture make that clear? And if God really doesn’t want us to view the prophecies He gave as having a literal fulfilment (such as His promise of the restoration of the Jewish nation which has now literally come to pass, the Second Coming of Christ, the Battle of Armageddon and the Day of Judgement) then why doesn’t He say so? Put simply, if God doesn’t mean exactly what He says in Scripture then why didn’t He say just what He really means?

Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus was born of a Virgin and Bodily rose from the dead. For some liberal theologians to interpret these events symbolically rather than literally, arguing that they are merely literary techniques to say that His life was special, raises the question; why didn’t the Bible truthfully record what really happened and explain that He was nonetheless special?

Liberal theology brings total confusion. What does one take as factual? What does one regard as symbolic? What is sinful? What is permissible? How can we know what sexual and moral standards God wants us to maintain if its not made plain? What has God done in the past with the human race? What does He intend to do in the future with us? What is God really like in character? What doctrines are we to believe?

All these questions reveal why God gave us Scripture in the first place. In order for us to know the answers it was necessary to provide humanity with a Divinely Inspired accurate “instruction manual”. This is exactly what we have in the Bible which proves its authenticity and Divine Authorship by having a third of it deliberately written in the form of prophecy and predictions. As these prophecies get fulfilled one by one they provide a continuous witness and sign to each new generation of the trustworthiness and truthfulness of the Word of God.

Scripture repeatedly refers to its miraculous origin. Take 2nd Tim ch 3v16 “ All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteous.” And 2nd Peter ch1 vs 19-21 “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private origin … but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” See also Luke ch 24 vs 25-27 and vs 44-45. Likewise in 2nd Samuel ch 23 v2 King David stated “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me and His word was on my tongue” (This explains, for example, how he was able to provide a vivid description of the Crucifixion in Psalm 22 vs 16-18 one thousand years before the event).

In John ch 10v35 Jesus declared “Scripture cannot be broken” and in ch 14 v 26 promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would inspire them by “bringing to [their] remembrance all the things that I have taught you.” Regarding the Epistles, St Paul the Apostle made it abundantly clear that the moral commandments and teachings he was delivering came by inspiration from God. In 1st Cor ch 14 v 37 he warned “If anyone thinks himself to be spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.” And in 1st Thess ch 4 vs1-8 he concludes his teaching on morality by adding “he who rejects this does not reject man but God.” It has further been estimated that over 2700 times the writers of Scripture make it plain that what they are stating doesn’t come from themselves but from a Divine Source by repeatedly using the phrase “Thus says the Lord”.

Owing to its prophetic nature it comes as little surprise to discover that Scripture also predicted the rise of liberal theology itself. There are several references to this and what makes the subject so sad is that liberal theologians are actually fulfilling the prophecies of the very Scriptures they deny. See 2nd Tim ch 4vs 3-4 “For a time will come when they will not listen to sound doctrine …and they will get teachers who will turn their ears aware from the truth and be turned aside to believe in fables.” 1st Tim ch 4 vs 1-3 “Now the Spirit expressly warns that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits…” Jude vs 16-19 “beloved remember …how we warned you that their would be mockers in the last days who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.” 2nd Peter ch 3 vs3-4 “know this first that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying ‘where is the promise of His Second Coming..” 2nd Peter ch2 vs 1-3 “There will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord Who bought them.” See also 2nd Tim ch 3 vs 1-9 This passage mentions that many of these people will “have a form of godliness but will deny its power”. Verse 7 also describes studious people who are very intellectual but who don’t perceive the truth. In Matt ch 24 along with the predicted increase of wars, famines, earthquakes and diseases, the predominance of false religious teachers is specifically mentioned. (v 11).

Fulfilled prophecy reveals that the writers of Scripture where neither mistaken nor deluded in what they were inspired to record. The witness and sign which comes from this fulfilled prophecy is plain for all to see. No wonder Christians in many other parts of the world look upon the church in Britain with such sadness and dismay.

For Further Study:

 “Historical Criticism of the Bible” by Prof Eta Linnemann. Baker Book House. She was a liberal theologian who studied under Rudolf Bultmann. Later in her academic career when confronted with the evidence against a liberal approach to Scripture she abandoned it altogether.

“Is There a Synoptic Problem?” by Prof Eta Linnemann. Baker Book House.

“The Historical Reliability of the Gospels” by Craig Blomberg. Inter-Varsity Press

“Scripture and Truth” Editors DA Carson and John Woodbridge. Baker Book House.

“Hidden Treasures in the Biblical Text” by Dr Chuck Missler. Koinonia House. As the title suggests this book examines subtle discoveries lying beneath the text of Scripture.

“The Exodus Case” by Dr Lennart Moller. Scandinavia Press.

This book looks at archaeological discoveries verifying the truth of the events given in the Old Testament.

The Japanese Tsunami

“In all their afflictions He himself was afflicted.” (Isaiah ch 63v9)

Since the Tsunami in Japan I have been contacted by a number of people pointing out that the Bible predicted these sort of events. Clearly many who view this website are interested in what Scripture predicts and it is indeed fascinating (and sobering) to read the list of warnings Jesus gave in Luke ch 21 of “great earthquakes in various places”, “fearful sights” (v11) and of people being terrified of “the sea and the waves roaring” (v25).

Although these kinds of events are plainly foretold for all to read, it is equally important to understand WHY such disasters can occur in the first place. The issue of human suffering is one of the main topics in Scripture and it gives clear teaching on why such tragic events can take place and why God’s will is so often NOT done on earth (as it is in Heaven). It explains fully why such disasters which are plainly contrary to His will take place.

Many decades ago before electrification a little girl was on a train journey with her mum. She couldn’t understand why at one point the conductor went through the carriage lighting the lamps when it was broad daylight. “Why is he putting on those lights?” she asked her mum. Her mum smiled and said “wait a bit and you’ll see the importance of those lights”. Moments later the train plunged into a long tunnel and then the girl realised the wisdom of the lamp lighting.

So likewise there are verses in Scripture which seem very insignificant and unnecessary until the tunnel of suffering is entered. Only then does it become clear why the Bible provides such teaching and the meaning of what is being taught can be seen in practice.

In Romans ch 8 vs 20-21 St Paul explains that the natural laws created by God regarding how the planet would operate were indeed originally perfect and flawless but that they are now in a state of “decay corruption and degeneration”. The corporate nature of human sin effected and spoilt what God created perfect so that these laws no longer work as God intended. (Just as a computer with a virus will often still work albeit imperfectly, so likewise the present condition of these laws of nature). The underlying basic teaching of Scripture from Genesis through to Revelation is quite simply that we humans inhabit a “fallen and decaying world” where God’s perfect laws of nature no longer work properly and God’s will is not often done.

What this means in practice is very profound although few think about its actual meaning until they enter the tunnel of trouble. It means we have human bodies which work to a degree but which are susceptible to disease such as cancer, birth defects and so on. This was never part of God’s will or plan for the human race, it is solely the result of the corporate nature of human sin causing “the fall and corruption of God’s once perfect natural laws”. Again, this “fall of nature” means the planet now has an imperfect weather system which gives some parts of the world too much rain and other parts none at all. It means some parts of the world experience earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis etc. None of these things were part of God’s desire for this planet.

Scripture warns that even the most devout person is still effected by these “fallen laws of nature”. Living a Christian life doesn’t mean one will escape getting cancer, having a child with a birth defect or being caught in an earthquake because quite simply we are still subject to “the natural laws” of the planet we inhabit. These “damaged” natural  laws explain why disasters occur, why “bad things” can happen to “good people” and why “good people” still have to put up with disease and ill-health.  The Bible states that the fall of nature means that bad events happen to the righteous and wicked alike and that this in itself is an evil. (Ecclesiates ch 9 vs 1-3)

One day these natural laws will be restored to their original and perfect condition and there are many promises in Scripture concerning this event. For example Isaiah ch 11 vs 6-9 describes a new world order where “the wolf will lie down with the lamb , and the lion will eat straw like an ox and nothing will harm or destroy in all the earth” . Amos ch 9 v13 describes the restoration of the environment so that the earth will once again produce many harvests each year rather than just one. This restoration of nature and new world order doesn’t occur until after the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In Romans ch 8 vs18 -19 St Paul encourages us by stating that the sufferings of this present world order cannot be compared with the glory and beauty of the new world order which Christ will usher in.

Until that momentous restoration let us remember as Charles Spurgeon put it;

“God is with us in our sorrows.
There is no pang that rends the heart, nor disturbs the body but Jesus Christ has been with you in it all.
 Feel you the sorrows of poverty? He had nowhere to lay His head.
Do you endure the griefs of bereavement? Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus.
Have you been slandered for righteousness’ sake  and  it has vexed your soul? He said “Reproach hath broken My heart”.
Have you been betrayed? Do not forget that He too had a friend who sold Him for the price of a slave.
On what stormy seas have you been tossed which have not roared about His boat?
There is no glen of adversity so dark and so deep and apparently so pathless, that when, in stooping down, you won’t discover the footprints of the Crucified One having trodden the path before you .
In the fires and in the rivers, in the cold of night and under the burning sun, He cries “I am with you; be not dismayed; for I am both thy Companion and thy God!” ‘

There are several other important articles about “suffering” on this website. To find them please refer to the articles section on the right hand side.

Amazing Prophecy Fulfilled

Many people have been alarmed by recent events in the Middle East which once again shows just how fragile global peace and stability really is. The Middle East is the focus of world attention and it is understood by even the casual observer that if war should  breakout in that area it has the potential to engulf us all in conflict. When we see nations in that region in turmoil, governments being overthrown and the rise of radical fundamentalism it is all too easy to forget the promises of Scripture which assure us that God will never allow the human race to destroy itself. (Matthew ch24 v 22).

When studying for my degree in Theology we were taught that about one-third of the Bible was composed of prophecy. The reason for predicting future events long before these events took place was to show that Scripture was no ordinary book and that its writers were indeed being inspired by God.

Studying fulfilled prophecy calms fear and strengthens faith so with this in mind I want to look at one fascinating example which clearly shows that God is in control of the future of this world and nobody else!

The example I have selected relates to a famous historical event in the last century which was clearly foretold in Scripture literally thousands of years earlier. It concerns the deliverance of Jerusalem in 1917 during the 1st World War. (It was this liberation from the Turks which ultimately paved the way for the rebirth of Israel as a nation so it is of major prophetic, historical, political and religious significance. It was a defining moment which has shaped the Middle East right down to the present day).
Scripture not only predicted the year in which Jerusalem would be delivered but also the manner by which this deliverance would be achieved.

First of all let us examine two prophecies relating to its actual year of it liberation.
(a)When speaking about punishing the nation for immorality God warned Judah and the Jews “if after all these troubles you will not listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I will walk contrary to you and I will chastise you seven Times for your sins” (Leviticus ch 26vs 27-28). Any Jew or Israelite reading this would have understood that a “Time” meant an actual number not just some vague measurement. To them a “Time” represented 360 years and so if God stated that a punishment was to be seven “Times” then it was 7 multiplied by 360 which comes to 2520 years.  
Their understanding of a “Time” came from their belief that one portion of Scripture must be cross referenced with another part in order to get its full meaning . Using this principle they held that there were 360 days in a “prophetic year” and unless otherwise stated each prophetic day represented a full calendar year. An example of this day/year principle can be seen in Ezekiel ch 4v6 where God said to the prophet “you shall bear the iniquity of Judah for forty days. I have appointed you each day for a year.” It is interesting to notice that their measurement of a “Time” as representing 360 “units “ is the same as that used in the New Testament. For instance, in Revelation ch 12v6  it states that God will take care of the woman (Israel) for “1260 days”. Later in verse 14 this number is identified as being the same as 3.5 “Times”. 3.5 “Times” equalling 1260  is of course the same as a seven “Times” punishment  equalling 2520 years).

(b) The other prophecy  relating to Jerusalem’s year of liberation is found in the Book of Daniel. Daniel refers to the ending of this seven “Times” punishment of Jerusalem in this manner; “Blessed is he who waits and comes to 1335 days” (Daniel ch 12 v12).

So what happened and what do the figures 2520 and 1335 mean in practice?
History reveals that Judah and the Jews ignored repeated warnings from God about their corrupt belief and behaviour. Finally, God allowed Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of a succession of foreign powers. In 604BC Judah began to come under the influence of the “Gentile” King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and in 603 BC the theocracy of Jerusalem was changed so it became fully subject to “ Gentile” control. From this year onwards history shows that Jerusalem was indeed ruled by a  succession of foreign empires for  exactly 2520 years (or seven “Times”) as predicted in Leviticus ch 26. Its liberation from Turkish control in 1917 marked the end of this punishment and  paved the way for the rebirth of the nation of the Jews bringing us to the present day.

And what of Daniel’s 1335 days/years? Before the liberation of Jerusalem in 1917 the Turks controlled the region for four hundred years and before them the Arab’s controlled it for six hundred years. These two powers used the Moslem calendar. Using the same principle of interpretation of a day representing a year we find that the year 1335 in the Moslem calendar is simply 1917 in the Christian calendar.

The  year of Jerusalem’s release from bondage is so specific in Bible prophecy that the theologian and scholar Dr Grattan Guinness highlighted it decades before its fulfilment. In his famous work on prophecy called “Light for the Last Days” (published in 1886) he  wrote “The year 1917 is doubly indicated as a crisis date….in connection with Israel. There can be no question that those who live to see this year of 1917 will have reached one of the most important of these terminal years”

But Scripture not only predicted the actual year of the deliverance of Jerusalem, it also predicted the peculiar way this deliverance would be achieved .

Using the language of his day the prophet Isaiah described a strange vision God gave him concerning the deliverance of the City. He stated “As birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it, and passing over He will preserve it”. (Isaiah ch31v5). Clearly he had seen something similar to birds flying over the City in order to deliver it.

So what happened in 1917 and what was Isaiah actually describing?
In Nov 1917 the British government made the following historic announcement called the “Balfour Declaration”. It stated that Great Britain supported “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of that object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”.

General Edmund Allenby who was in charge of the British forces in Palestine was given orders to liberate the City. Being a committed Christian he was reluctant to undertake a full scale military attack because of the damage it would cause to such a sacred  place. Seeking advice he wrote to King George 5th only to receive a one word telegram saying “Pray”! Calling his staff together for a prayer meeting Allenby opened his Bible. It opened at Isaiah ch 31 and as he read the prophecy he knew what God wanted him to do. He ordered a squadron of the Royal Flying Corp (the forerunner of the RAF) and they flew over the City dropping leaflets calling for surrender. The next day the City surrendered without damage or bloodshed. Jerusalem had been preserved from military attack “as birds flying” yet at the same time delivered from the Turks who had been in control of the City since the Crusades. It was exactly as Isaiah had predicted over 2,600 years earlier.

On 11th December 1917 General Allenby, at the head of the British Forces, rode up to the Jaffa Gate, dismounted and humbly led his men on foot as the deliverer of the City. It was exactly 2520 years since the proud Nebuchadnezzar had humbled the City. The seven “Times” punishment of 2520 years had expired and Daniel’s figure of “1335” (1917) had arrived. Jesus predicted Jerusalem would “be downtrodden by the Gentiles until the Times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke ch21v24) . Beginning in 603BC it had been downtrodden by the Babylonians followed by the Medo-Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and finally the Turks. The “Times of the Gentiles” were over and the way opened for the rebirth of the Jewish nation which had been long predicted in other prophecies. (See Ezekiel ch 37vs 21-22).

While all this was happening in Jerusalem a remarkable “worldwide event “ took place which again reveals God’s Providential timing and control. The Church of England (or Anglican Church) has particular Scripture Readings appointed for each day of the year outlined in its “Book of Common Prayer”. Incredibly, at the same time these events were unfolding  in Jerusalem the appointed Scripture Readings in every Anglican church across the world were the relevant prophecies from Isaiah.
On December 8th the appointed reading was Isaiah ch31 which states “as birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem….” On December 9th Allenby’s planes flew over Jerusalem dropping leaflets calling for surrender. Then on December 10th the appointed reading was Isaiah ch 40 vs 1-12 which stated “Comfort my people. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended and her iniquity is pardoned”. (The Hebrew word translated “warfare” literally means “the appointed time”).
Finally, on December 11th General Allenby led British Forces into the City liberating it from Turkish control. These Scripture Readings were appointed in 1552 in the Prayer Book of Edward 6th and had survived the revisions of 1662 and 1872.

The purpose of this short article has been to show that God is firmly in control of the future of the world rather than any “terrorist organisation” or actual “nation “ (no matter how powerful they may seem). Bible prophecy can be totally trusted and relied upon to be fulfilled because as Jesus stated in John ch 10 v35 “Scripture cannot be broken”. Just as prophecy predicted the deliverance of Jerusalem followed by the rebirth of the nation of Israel, so likewise it promises that one day Jesus Christ will return in His glory to establish peace and justice over the entire planet. The world will not be destroyed. These are prophecies of great comfort for those who really follow and obey the Lord and for them He returns as their Saviour and Friend. But for those, who love darkness , stifle their conscience and refuse to deal with the sin in their lives He returns as their Judge. Let us all make certain that when the prophecy of 2nd Corinthians ch 5 vs 10-11 is fulfilled He will say to us “well done good and faithful one” and not “depart from Me into punishment you who practice disobedience”. Sadly those who wilfully refuse to accept the witness of fulfilled prophecy are sleep walking to Judgement.

(Further information regarding what lies ahead for Israel and the Middle East is featured on www.internetpulpit.co.uk)

These are frightening and turbulent times. If you have found this article of comfort and reassurance then were appropriate please share it with your family, friends, work colleagues or indeed anyone else you feel needs hope. Thank you.