The wise see what is coming and prepare; the foolish just keep going on their merry path and suffer. So Yeshua, (Yeshua is Hebrew for Jesus, and means God - our Saviour), exhorts us to watch and continually pray that we may be accounted worthy to escape the HOUR OF TRIAL, the SNARE, that is SOON coming on the whole earth.
And what is a snare but a hidden trap that is sprung only when the one to be entrapped is right into it.
Thus, ... this "7" year peace "covenant with RABin/MANY", with the NOW famous HANDSHAKE, which SO LOOKS TO BE the VERY "7 year" (deceitful) covenant of Daniel 9:27, is STILL seemingly HIDDEN to many.
AND SO, ... we NOW approach the SPRINGING of the SNARE, and suddenly THEN, the PRESENTLY lurking anti-Messiah will unveil himself and demand worship; and shortly thereafter, he will receive almost total dominion via his co-hort's (the false prophet) compulsory world wide 666 system of buying and selling.
If one has a strong bias of what scripture says before one reads it, that one may NEVER be forewarned by what it really says. So, let's encourage one another to be like Daniel, who one day read a scripture that he possibly had read many times before, and it jumped right off the page for him. This was regarding a prophecy that Jeremiah had written about 70 years earlier. Daniel then began to pray and chasten himself and confess his sins and those of his people, and God's righteous judgements. He then received amazing further revelation, which is for this very generation.
It appears from what the angel told Daniel, that Daniel had thought Messiah was about to come, but because of his humility before God and his fellow men, he was graciously corrected. He was informed that after 483 years from the time of a specific, (at that time still future), command to rebuild the city and walls of Jerusalem, Messiah would come but be rejected and killed.
This has already happened, even to the very day. So the timing of the first coming of Messiah was precisely given.
Whereas the second coming is not so precisely given, perhaps because the Saviour was largely rejected at His first coming.
But the coming of the deceitful prince, the anti-Messiah, IS PRECISELY GIVEN to us through Daniel. This prince is BEHIND the CAUSING of a 7 year (deceitful peace) treaty "WITH RABIN" and it's "STRENGTHening for 7" (years) -- AS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW IN FRONT OF OUR EYES!!!
Scripture does NOT say that this (deceitful) prince signs the covenant, NOR that he openly makes it, ONLY that he "CONFIRMS" it, i.e. "CAUSES the COVENANT WITH RAB(IN) to be STRENGTHENED, for 7" -- JUST AS HE HAS NOW, FOR MORE THAN 5 YEARS!!!
Yeshua said, when you SEE!!! what Daniel wrote about!!!
Doesn't that mean we should be watching and expecting to be able to SEE something?
And we know from many scriptures that this event occurs IN THE CONTEXT of a DECEITFUL 7 year PEACE treaty, that instead, leads to "sudden destruction" -- AND WE CAN SEE preparations for this, right in front of us, NOW!
This unveiling of anti-Messiah will be "abominable / astonishing / overwhelming / numbing / stupefying / deceitful". The anti-Messiah will thus be readily welcomed by everyone except for those whose names are written in the Lamb's -- PRAISE HIS WONDERFUL NAME! -- book of life.
Speaking of DECEIT: (three terrible DECEITFUL errors grip God's people today)
The first and foundational one is evolution.
The eternal good news of creation elicits worship to Elohim, (Elohim is Hebrew for God), who made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in 6 days, and blessed it and described it as very good, and rested on the 7th day. The evolutionary bias has permeated and gripped the hearts, minds and lives of even most of the Bible Schools of today. If the foundations be destroyed, ... ?
A 2nd and consequent great moral error is the adultery that is now openly embraced by much of the people of God.
Divorce and remarriage is rampant, even among elders and pastors. Rather than protect our brethren's spouses, we now steal them and delight in this false teaching; and the people like to have it so. So just as at Messiah's 1st coming, this also is a "wicked ADULTEROUS generation".
A 3rd and resultant judgement and "STRONG DELUSION" God warned us about, and said would follow taking "pleasure in unrighteousness", is the PRE-TRIBulation rapture fallacy.
Rev. 20:4-6 instructs us that the first resurrection does not take place until AFTER all the saints who are to be martyred, INCLUDING those martyred for not taking the 666 mark, have been martyred.
Clearly there can be NO (general) resurrection BEFORE the FIRST (general) RESURRECTION!
And THE REST of the dead lived NOT again UNTIL the thousand years were finished!
(So, and as a CLINCHER), this IS the FIRST resurrection!!!
This distinctly places the RAPTURE AFTER the GREAT TRIBULATION begins, because when the 666 system is implemented, SURELY THEN WILL BE the GREATest TRIBULATION!
Note! We are not explicitly told by scripture just how much AFTER this FIRST resurrection that the rapture occures ... only that it is AFTER!!!
Yes, the Lord is first judging His house; and as warned in scripture, such ones, like the fornicator in 1 Cor. 5:5, are being given over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. And this seems to be (increasingly?) taking place during these last years, as also the following scriptures seem to indicate: Dan. 7:25; 8:23-26; 11:35-36; 12:9-13.
NEWS FLASH (Spring 1996):
It was announced on a Toronto radio station and in a Toronto paper just the first week of June 1996, right after the Bilderbergers meeting, that the city of Guelph Ontario was to go cashless by that fall in preparation for all of Canada to be cashless by early 1998. The system used is called Mondex, (MONetary DEXterity), and is a card with a memory chip in it to carry electronic cash and work as a debit card too. NOW, in early 1999, the "infrastructure" looks to be WELL IN PLACE!
One of the often expressed concerns of the many New World Order groups, such as the Bilderbergers, is to DOWNSIZE the world's population to only 1 to 2 billion. Sadly, at the same time the Bilderbergers were plotting their cabal, (i.e. their conspiracy), at the opposite side of Toronto, Hal Lindsay and Grant Jefferies were, (unintentionally I believe), misleading God's people into parroting that STRONG DELUSION that they will be raptured before the tribulation. Very sadly, this precise lie would seem to be pivotal to the murderous snare that anti-Messiah has set to spring on God's people when they stumble into it, thinking that the mark system is still off in the future, since they haven't been raptured yet.
Please!!! Read and re-read Rev. 20:4-6 and like Daniel, humbly seek God's face, NOT any man's, regarding the full revelation of what this implies. Then, please, plead with your loved ones to do the same and urgently warn them to quite their adulteries and wicked unbelief and start to faithfully and lovingly obey the Lord, laying up treasures in heaven while there is still opportunity.
In Proverbs 1:23 the LORD pleads with us to turn at His reproof, so that He might pour out His Spirit upon us, and make KNOWN His Words to us. In Psalms 25:14, we discover that the secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him; He makes His covenant KNOWN to THEM. And the apostle John records Yeshua saying that if we really want to DO God's will, we will THEN KNOW the doctrine. If you earnestly ask the Lord, He will make KNOWN His words, covenant, and will to you, and He will also help you to help your loved ones not be overpowered by their traditions in preference to the plain words of God. Since ALL scripture is given for ... reproof, correction, doctrine ... Yeshua said, that if we err, it is because we really do not know the scriptures, or the power of God.
Just as the blind cannot see until God heals their eyes, so neither can the proud receive grace until God humbles them. So God pleads with us to humble ourselves ... and pray, and seek His Face, and TURN from any and every wicked way; since if we persistently won't, we become open to deception and will then BELIEVE A LIE AS THE TRUTH and then be judged of God through crisis.
God delights in broken, contrite hearts that love to obey His Word, but takes NO pleasure in the death of the wicked. Thus He waits and is long suffering, that by His goodness we might come to Him and be saved.
(*) (Revelation 1:7; Zechariah 12:9-14; Matthew 24:29-31)
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IN THE BEGINNING - ALL VERY GOOD
Footnotes:
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that WERE BEHEADED FOR the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, AND which had NOT worshipped the beast, neither his image, NEITHER HAD RECEIVED [his] MARK upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and THEY lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But THE REST of the dead lived NOT again UNTIL the thousand years were finished.
THIS [IS] THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)
To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:5)
And he shall speak [great] words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand UNTIL a time and times and the dividing of time. (Daniel 7:25)
And in the LATTER time of their kingdom, WHEN the transgressors are come to the FULL, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, SHALL STAND UP. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify [himself] in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told [is] true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it [shall be] for many days. (Daniel 8:23-26)
And [SOME] of THEM of UNDERSTANDING shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make [them] white, [EVEN] TO THE time of the END: because [IT IS] YET for a time appointed. And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper TILL THE INDIGNATION BE accomplished: for THAT that is determined SHALL BE done. (Daniel 11:35-36)
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the WORDS [are] CLOSED UP and SEALED TILL the time of the END. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
And FROM the TIME [THAT] the "continual" shall be "TURNED away", and THE ABOMINATION that maketh desolate SET UP, [THERE SHALL BE] a thousand two hundred and ninety days [1290 days]. Blessed [is] he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, [1335 days, i.e. 45 days later].
But go thou thy way till the end [be]: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. (Daniel 12:9-13)
IMMEDIATELY AFTER (this could be readily translated: soon into the process of) the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: AND [I saw] the souls of them that WERE BEHEADED FOR the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, AND which had NOT worshipped the beast, neither his image, NEITHER HAD RECEIVED [his] MARK upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and THEY lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But THE REST of the dead lived NOT again UNTIL the thousand years were finished.
THIS [IS] THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)