The July 2012 newsletter, “The
Bible Says” calls itself ‘the bible answer to your
questions’.
Obviously not every question, like
“Daddy, where did we dinosaurs come from?” Because this is one of
those things that the bible is rather silent concerning. I strongly
suspect the answer is there, but it probably requires thinking
outside the box, and that causes great grief to fundamentalists.
Someone had written in asking, “Will
the Antichrist be the 12th Imam (Mahdi) that
Shia Muslims, particularly the Iranian leadership, are expecting?”
The answers are a compilation from
the World Prophetic Ministry research department, and writings from
the late Doctors: Howard C. Estep, Dave Breese, Ed Hinson, and
“others.”
I am familiar with these names and
have read this newletter for several years now. I made the assumption
that their information was good all the time. I was wrong.
The answer to the question asked was
a decisive one, “Absolutely not!” They continue: “The bible
indicates the Antichrist will come from a revived Roman Empire,
meaning that he will come from an area of the old Roman empire.
(Daniel 9:26,27)”
If you know my writings at all, then
you know I am not going to respond well to an answer like that. I
find it domineering, un-insightful, and narrow minded. So as usual I
am going to tear it up.
They base their immediate response
on Daniel 9:26,27, so let’s go there.
Daniel
9:26-27 KJV And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut
off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall
come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end
thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war
desolations are determined. (27) And he shall confirm the covenant
with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause
the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of
abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation,
and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Traditional
teachings would have us believe that Caesar, the Roman General,
ordered the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. When in fact
Josephus, the Jewish historian, recorded this scenario in opposition
to tradition. Keep in mind that history is almost always a one-sided
recollection, and generally portrays the victor in the kindest light.
Josephus had no motivation to make Titus look good. So where did we
come up with these “traditions”?
Josephus
records that an unnamed young man rush to Titus to alert him that the
troops were involved with the destruction of the temple and that they
had started a fire. Titus, dressed as he was, ran toward the temple,
waving one arm, and seeing that this was a salvageable situation
ordered the men to put the fire out, for he knew that this would
bring no good.
From
Josephus writings: The Wars of the Jews.
Book
6, Chapter 4. “And now a certain person came running to Titus,
and told him of this fire, as he was resting himself in his tent
after the last battle; whereupon he rose up in great haste, and, as
he was, ran to the holy house, in order to have a stop put to the
fire; after him followed all his commanders, and after them followed
the several legions, in great astonishment; so there was a great
clamor and tumult raised, as was natural upon the disorderly motion
of so great an army. Then did Caesar,
both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud
voice, and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them
to quench the fire. But they did not hear what he said, though he
spake so loud, having their ears already dimmed by a greater noise
another way; nor did they attend to the signal he made with his hand
neither, as still some of them were distracted with fighting, and
others with passion. But
as for the legions that came running thither, neither any persuasions
nor any threatenings could restrain their violence, but each one's
own passion was his commander at this time;
and as they were crowding into the temple together, many of them were
trampled on by one another, while a great number fell among the ruins
of the cloisters, which were still hot and smoking, and were
destroyed in the same miserable way with those whom they had
conquered; and when they were come near the holy house, they made as
if
they did not so much as hear Caesar's orders to the contrary; but
they encouraged those that were before them to set it on fire.”
I
have been told that Josephus tells us that by 69AD the conscript
troops, taken from surrounding areas, outnumbered the Italians by a
5:1 ratio. These troops according to Josephus were Syrians and
Arabians, and demonstrated their hatred of the Jews at every
opportunity. The number of Assyrians within the ranks, wearing Roman
uniforms, by the time of the temples destruction could have been as
high as 60000. Josephus tells us that these troops quickly weighed
their punishment for disobedience against their hatred of the Jews
and ignored the orders coming from Titus, throwing more fuel on the
fire. If we are going to use Daniel to back up our claim of a revised
Roman Empire then we really should consider history. Yes, the temple
was destroyed, but who destroyed it? Caesar? While not exactly a
benevolent ruler by any stretch, it was Assyrians. Instead of merely
accepting what tradition has taught us, we need to consider what
historical record makes clear. I have yet to find that wording of
such an exact nature, but Josephus did make it clear that there were
three legions involved in the siege, and another source indicated
four legions. Estimates on the number of troops are as high as
80,000.
Keep
in mind that the portion of passage the prophecy teachers anchor upon
is “the people of the prince that shall come”. While
clearly an aspect of what Daniel saw appears to have been fulfilled;
but if you have an understanding of end times events to any degree
then you should also realize that this is still a future event.
One
of the things I have learned is that to the Jewish mind prophecy is
pattern, and God spent a tremendous amount of time speaking to a
Jewish audience; we just happen to be privileged to be included in
that.
Ascribing
all these characteristics to Europe does not fit, it never has, and
this false assumption has kept the majority of the church in
confusion for two thousand plus years. Not to mention the fact that
we have not been taught to pray for the correct things, the
persecuted church, and restraints against the antichrist and his
followers.
A
secondary problem I have with the response the authors of the
newsletter gave, is that they are all dead. Those that write as staff
may be very intelligent, but if they are merely emulating previous
leadership then what does that accomplish. We have entire nations
that do that; Cuba for example.
If
the leadership is good and the information being propagated is sound,
then the recipients will be sound, but all you have to do is look
around you and you know that is not the case. The church is no more
vibrant than it was before; oh sure, there are a handful of people
that are consciously trying to maintain the oil in their lamps but
the majority do not want to hear that the Lord’s return in
imminent.
How,
or why would you wish to come off with such an incorrect and
closed-minded answer – Note the way they responded to a legitimate
question: “Absolutely Not!” Perhaps that is exactly what
many of these dead guys would have said, especially if they are going
to cling to Daniel 9:26, 27 as the end all to the question. Again, if
the those that have passed on left us with good information then
let’s continue to use it as our foundation. But if is not right or
based in some incorrect logic and a potential lack of understanding
then NO!
No
one had ever pointed out to me that Josephus had recorded such
information about the temple being destroyed by Assyrians within the
ranks of the Roman troops. To ignore such information demonstrates an
insincerity in proclaiming the truth, and leads to cultist practices
in which the followers are kept in the dark trusting in this man
alone as the one to regurgitate the necessary information that they
think I need.
God
gave us brains and logical thought so that we can look around the
corner and make sure that there is nothing hidden on the other side
of the fence. We are not looking some new and great revelation, I
believe that the information is all there, but things in the world
have changed so rapidly that we cannot ignore them. When I was a
child we did not crawl under desks because of earthquake
preparedness, we did drills in case of nuclear war. Why? Because
Cuba, 90 miles off our shoreline had nuclear missiles supplied by
Russia. Russia and East Germany were scary monsters but then two
things happened that seem to change everything. In the late 1970’s
Russia seemed to disintegrate, and the Iranian revolution came about.
While the tearing down of the Berlin wall was monumental, especially
as then President Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this
wall!” No one seemed to notice or understand what the significance
of the Iranian revolution meant. For Iran, and all that eventually
followed, it was a return to the effectively dead Caliphate. Mullah’s
that lived in secrecy outside of their countries returned as the
doors reopened, and in Iran they voted in the Ayatollah Khomeni as
the president, or at least ruling authority over it. Those that
cleared out of there during those years will tell you how horrible
the transition was. Burkhas were not required under the Shah’s
rule. Yes it’s true, the Shah was a tyrant in his own right, but he
did not force the people to live under sharia law.
Look
at another piece of significant information that few of us knew about
or understood its significance. The Muslim brotherhood was founded in
Egypt in 1928. Why is this significant? Because by treaty the Ottoman
caliphate, based in Turkey, was disbanded and outlawed in 1924. The
Muslim Brotherhood was instituted to circumvent that. Allow me to
give you an overview from Wikipedia.
The Society of
the Muslim Brothers
(Arabic:
جماعة
الإخوان المسلمون,
often simply: الإخوان
المسلمون,
"the Muslim Brotherhood", transliterated:
al-ʾiḫwān
al-muslimūn)
is the Arab world's most influential[1]
and one of the largest Islamic movements,[2]
and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab
states.[which?]
Founded in Egypt in
1928 as a Pan-Islamic,
religious, political, and social
movement by the Islamic
scholar and schoolteacher Hassan
al-Banna,[3][4][5][6]
by the end of World
War II the MB had an estimated two million members.[7]
Its ideas had gained supporters throughout the Arab world and
influenced other Islamist groups with its "model of political
activism combined with Islamic charity work".[8]
Its most famous slogan, used worldwide, is "Islam is the
solution."[8]
The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur'an
and Sunnah as the
"sole reference point for...ordering the life of the Muslim
family, individual, community... and state".
The movement
officially opposes violent means to achieve its goals, although it at
one time encompassed a paramilitary wing and its members were
involved in massacres, bombings and assassinations of political
opponents; notably Egyptian
Prime Minister Mahmoud
an-Nukrashi Pasha and the movement's own founder Hassan
al-Banna.[8][9]
The movement has been criticized by al-Qaeda
for its support for democratic elections rather than armed
jihad.[citation
needed] The Hamas Party Charter, which describes Hamas as an
arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, ordains that jihad is the individual
obligation of every Muslim, that a "peaceful solution" to
the "problem" of non-Muslims living in Israel is
"inconsistent with the beliefs of the movement", that
infidel (non-Muslim) laws and treaties in Israel are void, and that
all Jews and Christians must acknowledge complete Muslim sovereignty
over Israel. The charter also states that Zionism is the cause of
alcoholism and drug abuse.
The Muslim Brotherhood started as a religious social organization;
preaching Islam, teaching the illiterate, setting up hospitals and
even launching commercial enterprises. As it continued to rise in
influence, starting in 1936, it began to oppose British
rule in Egypt.[10]
Many Egyptian nationalists accuse the MB of violent killings during
this period.[11]
After the Arab defeat in the First
Arab-Israeli war, the Egyptian
government dissolved the organization and arrested its
members.[10]
It supported the Egyptian
Revolution of 1952, but after an attempted assassination of
Egypt's president it was once again banned and repressed.[12]
The MB has been suppressed in other countries as well, most notably
in Syria in 1982 during the Hama
massacre.[13]
The MB is financed by contributions from its members, who are
required to allocate a portion of their income to the
movement. Some of these contributions are from members who work in
Saudi Arabia
and other oil-rich
countries.[14]
Many will read this and
think, that doesn’t sound so bad, besides, they have been
disbanded several times over. If you think like this then it
proves that you live in a hole, or under a rock. Are you not aware
that the Muslim Brotherhood just got themselves elected to leadership
over Egypt, and that they moved in quickly to fill the void left in
Libya after the ouster/death of Muammar Gaddafi.
The brotherhood requires
the teaching of the Qur’an, a book filled with hatred and death to
all outside of the “religion.” It demands a part of one’s
income to finance all actions they take. Though they advocate
non-violence on paper, violent Jihad is absolutely a part of who they
are, and Taqiya is a way of life and the greatest form of Jihad.
With the obvious changes
going on around us, how does one choose to ignore the apparent
clarity. You have to choose to not pay attention to details, and
choose a level of arrogance that refuses to look outside of your
convenient and traditional teaching.
God meant for these things
to be understood. The end times are no longer a great mystery. Jesus
is Lord and his return is imminent. I urge you find your life in him,
for he is hope and salvation, and there is no salvation through any
other. Give your life over him and ask him to make himself real to
you, and he will.
