Signs That the Return of Jesus is Very Near
I grew up in a pastor’s home where I continually heard sermons on the soon and imminent coming of the Lord. In 1964 I accepted the Messiah Yeshua into my heart as Lord and Saviour and heard even more preaching on the subject. Yet the coming of the Lord remained fairly unrealistic.
Eventually I became firmly convinced that Yeshua could in fact not return until certain things had been fulfilled first. Acts 3:21 for instance says, “He must remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago through His holy prophets.”
Around the turn of the millennium many people spoke about the imminent return of Messiah. It did not really impress me. Now, however, for the first time in my life, I see things happening, which tells me that we really are close to the coming of the Messiah. Let me give you some of the signs pointing to this.
1. JERUSALEM
“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling… On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves” Zech 12:2-3. Jerusalem is right now becoming the focus of world politics in an unprecedented way. With the election of President Obama as the leader of the super power of the world, a new page has been turned. Israel can now not even evict two Arab families, who have not paid their rent in 25 years, from a Jewish owned home in Jerusalem, without the world uniting in condemning Israel.
A Jew building a new apartment in East Jerusalem is presently more of a concern to the new US administration, than Iran building a nuclear bomb! The Obama administration has set up an apparatus to closely monitor Jewish construction in Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank, to the point of watching Israeli’s move house-to-house in certain key neighbourhoods, almost on a daily basis.
The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem is the only one in the world which reports directly to the White House, rather than to the State Department.
For the past few months, Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, has protested to the highest levels of the Israeli government about evidence found of any Jewish housing expansion in those areas. World leaders are more united in dividing Jerusalem than in stopping another Holocaust. Prophecy is being fulfilled.
2. TEMPLE
“He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” 2 Thess 2:4
From the prophetic word it seems like the Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem before Jeshua returns. This has up to now seemed completely impossible. Not any more! Recently representatives of the newly re-established Sanhedrin in Jerusalem met with a very influential Muslim leader from Turkey, named Adnan Oktar. They released a joint statement that the Temple in Jerusalem ought to be rebuilt right away (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=105938). Listen to what the Muslim leader said: “It could be done in a year at most. It could be built to the same perfection and beauty. The Torah says it was built in 13 years, if I remember correctly. It could be rebuilt in a year in its perfect form.” Another possibility being considered that is even easier to accomplish, is that the Dome of the Rock itself that sits so prominently on the Temple Mount could be used as “a place of prayer for all nations.”
One of the rabbis has stated, “This should be fairly simple. It is said that the structure of the Dome in Haram E-Sharrif (the Temple Mount) was originally meant by (Caliph) Omar to be a House of Prayer for Jews, and the Al-Aqsa for Muslims.” What is equally amazing is that according to a recent poll, a clear two-thirds majority of Israelis today support the idea of rebuilding the Temple. This represents a major change in opinion among Israelis. The stage is being set right now for the coming of the anti-christ, as the Scriptures say.
3. A GLOBAL ECONOMY
“He forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.” Rev 13:16-17
The prophetic word speaks about a global financial system that will be set up before Jesus returns. During the past year, more and more world leaders are calling for such a system. At the recent G8 meeting this summer, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united future world currency.” (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/ news?pid=20601087&sid=aeFVNYQpByU4)
“Here it is,” Medvedev said. “You can see it and touch it. The question of a supranational currency concerns everyone now, even the mints. The test coin means they’re getting ready. I think it’s a good sign that we understand how interdependent we are.”
The coin, which bears the words ‘unity in diversity’, was minted in Belgium and presented to the heads of G8 delegations. We are getting very close to what the Bible has predicted for two thousand years!
4. THE EUPHRATES
“The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.” Rev 16:12
This prophecy is being fulfilled right now, according to an article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/world/middleeast/ 14euphrates.html?_r=1)
“The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq’s neighbours, Turkey and Syria; a two-year drought; and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.
The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilisation that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, has left fishermen impoverished and has depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.”
Amazingly, even the New York Times mentions the drying up of the Euphrates as a prophetic sign!
5. THE ANTI-CHRIST
“Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. …The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur.” Rev 19:19-20
The Muslim version of the Messiah, the Mahadi, by Shiites called the ‘Twelfth Imam’, could very well be the anti-christ of the Bible, called the beast in the Book of Revelation. Before the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, belief in the coming Mahadi was only a religious issue. Not any more.
Ahmadinejad has a clear political programme to prepare the way for the Muslim Mahadi, by creating a world crisis that must be solved by a strong world leader. The Iranian nuclear programme is part of this political agenda. In less than one year Iran can have access to a nuclear weapon.
“For the past five years, the Iranian religious and political leaders have annually gathered together for two days in the city of Qom for what is called ‘The International Conference of Mahdism Doctrine’.” says Joel Richardson, author of the newly released book ‘The Islamic anti-Christ’ (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106046).
Each year a growing number of Sunni Muslims and Christians(!) join the predominantly Shiite hosts. It is shocking how accurately the Muslim Mahadi fits with the Bible’s description of the anti-christ that will make war against Israel at Armageddon.
According to Muslim belief, the Mahadi will make a peace treaty for seven years with Israel, which he will later break. He will set up his throne, not in Mecca, but in Jerusalem! He will force all Christians and Jews to convert to Islam or they will be killed, probably after 3½ years when they have had their chance. Sounds pretty much like what Christians teach about the anti-christ, doesn’t it?
Recently the largest political faction among the Palestinians next to Hamas, the Fatah party, held their first political congress in 20 years. Encouraged by President Obama, they now refuse to hold any more peace negotiations with Israel, unless Israel stops all settlement activity, and agrees to withdraw, not only to the pre-1967 borders, but from all of Jerusalem, both East and West!
6. RISE OF ISLAM
The entire congress was a week long beating of war drums, where they emphasised their right to armed struggle and that they will never accept Israel as a Jewish state.
The prophets speak about the Messiah coming to destroy the nations attacking Jerusalem. Every one of the nations mentioned in these prophecies is a Muslim nation. It could literally happen very soon. Prophecy is being fulfilled right before our eyes.
7. THE SUN AND THE MOON
“The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the glorious day of the Lord.” Acts 2:20
This is by far the single most repeated sign in the Bible of the coming of the Messiah! According to Genesis 1:14, God created the stars, the sun and the moon to be signs. The Hebrew word for sign is ‘ot’ and the root word for ‘ot’ means “to come.” The stars, sun and moon are signs of His coming! Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries has pointed out that in 2014 and 2015 there will be four blood red moons back to back, for two years in a row on the Feasts of Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles.
This phenomenon also happened right after the state of Israel was born in 1948 and right after the six day war in 1967. You must go back in time all the way to 1492, the year when the Jewish people were forced out from Spain, to find the same phenomenon. Going forward in time a ‘tetrad’ like this will never happen again in this century!
8. JUDGEMENT
“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are His judgements.” Rev 19:1-2 What Mark Biltz also discovered, was that beginning seven years prior to 2015 the sun will become darkened three years in a row on the same day on the Biblical calendar: the first day of Av. A solar eclipse usually speaks of judgement on the nations, and exactly two months after the first of these solar eclipses, on the Feast of Trumpets, which is also called the Day of Judgement, God judged the world economy.
The Dow Jones index on Wall Street fell 777.7 points, a 7% drop and a 700 billion dollar loss on a failed 700 billion dollar bail-out package on the first day of the 7th month on God’s calendar, 7 years before the final blood red moon in 2015!
Pastor Bengt Berggren has pointed out that this financial crash on Wall Street on the Feast of Trumpets, was undoubtedly a clear message from God. It was written on the wall in the banquet hall of finances, just like it was in the banquet hall of King Belshazzar in Babylon. A small detail is that when Wall Street opens there is always a sound from a clock on the wall. This day for some unknown reason it never sounded. We read in Daniel 5:25-28:
“This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. This is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Pastor Berggren points out that according to David Flynn in his book ‘Temple at the Centre of Time’, the words that were written on the wall are also measurements of money.
You can see this as well in the notes of the NASB Bible. Mene is a mina, which normally equalled 50 shekels of silver. Tekel is another word for a shekel. And Parsin is half a shekel. A shekel is 20 gerah. Together Mene, mene, tekel, parsin equals 2520 gerahs, which is the number of days in one prophetic week of years, or seven years. Well known author Bill Koenig, has pointed out that ten days later, the last day of the Ten Days of Awe leading up to Yom Kippur symbolising the time of God’s judgements over the earth, the Dow Jones index fell another 678.910 (6,7,8,9,10) points.
Notice the sequence of the numbers! The chances that this is a coincidence are less than 1 in 99 999. Koenig interprets this to mean that God has begun to judge all nations according to the commandments number 6 to 10 of the Ten Commandments. When the G20 nations met last November to deal with the global financial crisis, the text portion from the Torah for that day was about the flood of Noah. It is too late! The judgement has already begun.
We are not setting any dates, but we can without a doubt say that the coming of the Lord is near! We need to watch and pray every day as watchmen on the walls.
