THE TIME AND THE PLACE
how can we be certain that our time is the “end time”?

INTRODUCTION

Matthew records the words of Jesus, spoken to the Jews about their “end times”, in chapter 24.

Now, right out of the gate, we have to understand that Jesus was not speaking of the “Church” that you and I belong to today. How could he have been? Jesus was alive and well when He spoke those words; there was no “Church”, and Jesus did not come to start a church. He came to fulfill the prophecies made to the Jews about a Messiah that would come through the Jews to atone for the fall of man.

Now, conventional wisdom believes that Jesus was speaking to the “Church”. But, I remind you that the Apostle Paul was the only person to whom God revealed the mystery of the Church, and at the time that Jesus was speaking the words that Matthew is recording, Paul was not an Apostle! Paul did not become an Apostle until years later. So, the “Church” that you and I belong to today was still a mystery, hidden in the mind of God. Ergo, these words are not recorded for the “Church”, but for the Jews. Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecies made to the Jews!

To establish this truth once and for all, Jesus Himself ratifies Daniel as the Prophet who recorded the events of the their end times at verse 15.

Right there and then, Jesus set the time and the place for the end time events. There can be no mistaking this if you can understand that this message is not directed at the Church, but to the Jews. The Prophecy of Daniel, written to the Jews, is all about their end time and where it takes place.

Daniel 9:24 clearly states that the 490 years of prophecy concerns the Jews and their holy city, Jerusalem. This prophecy is not about any other people, or any other place, period!

And, Daniel develops the place through time that leads us to the event of verse 15, which is known as the abomination of desolations.

There is a faction that believes that this has already taken place. And I am one of them that believe that it has. When Antiochus Epiphanies profaned the temple by roasting a pig on the alter, it was, without doubt, a fulfillment of that prophecy. However, it was not the end time fulfillment of it.

Now, how can I say that? Simply because that prophecy calls for the temple sacrifice to end in the middle of a seven year period that ends with the return of the Messiah for His reign of a thousand years. Has that happened yet? Are the Jews in fact sacrificing for the atonement of their sins in the Temple? Obviously the answer to those questions is NO! Therefore, once again Scripture itself mandates that we search the word for further clarification and understanding, because we have a deepening conflict between what histories has proven over time, and the conventional wisdom about the “end times” which was established so many decades ago and continues to be blindly accepted today without further question.

This is the reason that we forever teach that awareness is the key to understanding the end time prophecies of the Bible.

So, with respect to our question: how can we be certain that our time is the “end time”? What is it that we are searching for? We are searching for TIME and PLACE! And that information is recorded in history and the Prophecy of Daniel.

Again, I am going to be Paul like, in that I am not going to do a complete verse by verse study on Daniel, I have already done that. This study will use the precision of the Apostle Paul, and the history recorded in Daniel to trace the flow of time over their place right into the present.

Let’s begin with the Apostle Paul’s “End Times” mandate

THE TIME AND THE PLACE
how can we be certain that our time is the “end time”?

PART I

THE GAP IN TIME

What do I mean when I say there is a gap in time? Well, the gap in time is that period of time between the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven and His return to fulfill the events of His second coming that are spelled out by the Apostle John in Revelation.

Give or take a couple of years either way, that gap in time is now about 1,969 years.

Has that just been uneventful time, or were there Biblical events scheduled to occur on God’s calendar that we should know about? Now the key here is to understand that the “end times” are not just a single event. The end times are a series of events, and they don’t all happen at the same time. But they have to have a starting place.

The starting place is the opening of the first seal, as prophesied by John in Revelation 6. That’s the first event which begins the final seven years on the calendar of the Jews. During that time, the final three, or fall feasts (Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles) will be fulfilled for them by their Messiah. Now that statement presupposes that you understand that Jesus already fulfilled the Spring feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost) for them when He came the first time. If you feel that my supposition is incorrect, then I suggest you review the study that it’s based on: “The Apostle Paul on the Rapture of the Church”

What we are looking for in this study is why we think that this time is really the time for all of this to come to pass.

Now, as before, I am going to have to jump around from place to place to get all the material on the table, but I promise that I will tie it all together, and there will be a point to it.

We all believe that the Bible is Truth, as it is the inspired word of God. So, let’s lay down what we know from the Bible about the “end times”.

We know from the New Testament that in the End Times (which includes the events leading up to Revelation 6, or the opening of the 1^st seal):

The dead in Christ rise.
The Church will be Raptured
The Great Tribulation of Revelation will begin
The last two witnesses and the 144,000 will be anointed
The resurrections during the Great Tribulation will occur
The 144 Thousand will be Raptured
The Messiah will come again (and all that comes with that)

We also know during the time leading up to those end days, the Church will have entered its final age, known as the Age of Laodicea. We know that God issues a very stern warning to the final age, and we know that the remnant of the prior age, the Philadelphian Age have a door being held open for them in Heaven by Jesus Himself. (Again, this has all been taught in detail. If you need a review, click here: http://www.chn-net.com/endtm.html)

Scripture points out that this Laodicean Age of the Church has certain characteristics by which it can be positively identified, and thus becomes one of the signs of the times or indicators of our position on the Biblical time line.

The characteristics include:

The people will be “lukewarm” toward God.
They will be increased with worldly goods.
The will have need of nothing.
They will be blind and won’t recognize who they are.
In God’s eyes they will be wretched, miserable, poor and naked.
And, unfortunately half of them won’t respond to their final warning.

Now in the Old Testament, there are lots of prophets that prophesy to the events that will happen to the Jew of the end times. And although they speak clearly about each of the events, none of them alludes to the timing as being any particular time. They uses phrases like; in the end days, or at that time, etc., etc..

But there is one prophecy that specifies exactly when the time would be. The Prophecy of Daniel is purposely sealed by God to be seen only in it’s time, and at that time, when it’s being seen, knowledge would be increased, and that includes knowledge about the people, places and events of that time.

Now, that’s pretty simple to understand.

All of the other end time prophets just described events that would happen in the end time, but none of them were sealed so that they would only be seen that one time. So, they all have to give way in their timing to when Daniel is on the scene. They can’t occur until Daniel is unsealed, and the events of his prophecy can be clearly seen occurring on the stage of history. That is when you have arrived in the period that is known as the “End Times”. So, Daniel becomes the key to understanding end times. And Daniel is all about time and place. So, each generation has always know exactly where they were in Biblical time, because all they had to do was check with Daniel to see what had come to pass up to their time.

Do you see what I’m saying here?

If you were living during the reign of the Medo-Persian Kings, and if you were studying Daniel, you would know from the prophecy, made by a prophet of God, that you are now living in that time because your time was the outgrowth of Nebuchadnezzar’s great image. The kingdom you are living in was depicted as the shoulders and arms of silver that followed the head of gold that was Babylon. And it came to pass just as the prophecy dictates. Medo-Persia would come after Babylon.

And because you were a student of that prophecy, you would have known that a King from Greece would replace your Empire. And that after him there would be another, and that after him would come another, in a latter day, when certain events would appear on the stage of history. Those events would be the signal that you had come to the final stages on the way to the end of the time line. Those are the events of the New Testament prophecies.

And so, in that line of the prophecy, we can always tell exactly where we are. There can never be a question about it, unless you utterly disregard the history of time on that land. And why would you do that? Daniel is a ticking clock. This is the word of God we’re talking about here! And what did Jesus say about what it is that voids the word of God? Tradition! Jesus said that tradition voids the word of God! And He also said to study, lest those traditions lead you astray.

So, according to the prophecy about time and place, all those empires had to come and go on that land before we could even be at a time that we could say was the end time.

And then looking back at it from the modern day, we can see clearly that there could not have ever been a time when the end could occur between A.D. 70 and May 14, 1948, because between those dates, there was no Israel on that land.

Therein lays the gap in time. But we still haven’t come to the end of the gap because time hasn’t arrived at the midpoint of the Great Tribulation.

Next we have to explore Daniel to find the events in both the prophecy and the stage of history that pinpoints our exact position on the line of time in that place. That’s the subject of the next class. You should read the teaching on the Prophecy of Daniel at the web site or on your CD if you have one to prepare for the next class.

(NOTE) This is a cumulative study that assembles a lot of parts into its whole. It is highly recommended that you study the teaching on “The Precision of The Apostle Paul on the Rapture” to make the understanding of the remainder of this teaching a lot easier.

Next part later in the coming week. Also a commentary on what I think is going on in the Mideast. It’s all so on again, off again. What’s it all mean. Look for next weeks newletter.

The teaching in Maui is coming together. My meeting with Pastor John went well. I attended his Bible study on Wednesday, and was introduced around to the class. They are all very anxious to get started with the end time study.

I had another Pastor from Hiku call me today. He was told about our study by a person who attended my class when I was here in October. He made an appointment to have lunch with me to hear the story.

This is all working out great, so I know that God called us here to do this work, so I will pursue enduringly until we see it come to pass.

I need all of your prayers and help in every way that you are willing to give to keep doing the work we set out to do over 23 years ago.

I know that you are aware what I have always told you about being sent here to hear this message because God called you here for reasons known to only you and him. And I have taught you that giving should never be done for need, only as an object of your faith. And that when you give, give hilariously, because God loves a hilarious giver and promises to pour down upon them a blessing that cannot be contained.

We made it through February with your help, and we made it to Maui because of you. Thank you Lord and thank you folks for believing in what we are doing.

We ask again that you pray with us our confirming prayer of support. We made it through March Lord, we are faithing on that. Thank you in the holy name of Jesus. Amen. And thank you.

Please go to the Lord about your support of this work, and do as He directs in your heart.

Thank you and God bless.

Humbly,
Your Brother in Christ,
Brother Sal

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Part II