Scripture: Mark 11 v 12-21; Mark 13; Luke 13 v 6-9.
Few people really understand the age in which we live. Since the Ascension of Jesus in the clouds with His promise to return to Earth, millions of predictions of the exact day have come and gone.
Every war; disaster; earthquake or other event has been a sign of the end but people have not heeded Jesus' own words. He said that after the fig tree put its leaves on then would the end come. Mark 13 v 28-31.
The fig tree refers to Israel. Jesus cursed the fig tree in Mark 11 because He found no fruit on it. It symbolised Israel, His Bride, not recognising Him and thereby condemning herself to almost 2000 years of Him shunning her.
He could never break God's Covenant in which He says I will never leave you nor forsake you but he did punish her for her indifference.
The final heartbreak was the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews died in gas chambers. It opened the way for Israel to be gathered back into her homeland and to reclaim the land through Kibbutzes as prophesied by Jeremiah.
Her becoming a nation in 1948 led to continual war with her Arab neighbours till this day. God has allowed all these tribulations upon her to bring her into a place of obedience.
In Luke 13 we read of the fruitless fig tree being dug around and manured by the Gardener to see if it would bring forth fruit. These measures that seem so innocuous actually resulted in many harsh disciplines to refine Israel and perfect her. A work in progress.
At the same time another work in progress is to unite the Body of Christ through pure doctrine, truth, love and holiness. The false church is doing it for themselves and making an unholy mess of it called Interfaith. Interfaith will lead to the One World Religion controlled by Satan through the Antichrist who will persecute the true born again believers. The true believers make up the Church that will be Raptured in the midst of the 7 year tribulation period.
This begins with the signing of a 7 year peace treaty between Israel and all Arab nations. It became known this week that the American President wants to force Israel to accept the Palestinians into a two nation state and divide Jerusalem between them.
This is contrary to God's will and we will see how this develops. This same week the terrorist Taliban in Pakistan replaced their leader who was killed by an American drone last week with an even more evil militant leader. His first act was to threaten the security of the USA as they promise to attack soft targets on USA soil.
Any who threaten the peace and stability of Israel and Jerusalem will feel the immediate wrath of God allowing the same insecurity within their own borders. Syria threatened Israel in the 6 day war on Yom Kippur. Look at the mess they are in. A friend has just returned from Syria and Turkey and says it is far far worse than TV reports portray.
The Phillipines who are a largely Roman Catholic population, may be bearing the brunt of God's anger against the Roman Catholic Church for its many atrocities over 20 centuries against the true church. Satan is permitted to destroy when our God turns His face away.
The final blow is still ahead for the greater Catholic community world wide when God's judgment falls upon them as written in Revelation 16 and 17. The angel will cry out 'Babylon is Fallen' for that Church is really the "Old Babylonian Religion" (see blog earlier post) in disguise.
The same Babylonians who built the tower and the demonic religion caused God to make them have different languages to slow down this evil. It managed to reform itself centuries later as the compromising Roman Catholic Church which has always been an enemy of Israel.
The Tribulation is divided into two halves. The 'beginning of sorrows' to which we are coming ever closer. Then the Rapture takes place which heralds the Great Tribulation aka 'the wrath of the Lamb'.
Try not to be here for that.
Prayer: Heavenly Father Your Word is true and supercedes all the words and hopes of Man. Shine Your light into every heart that wants to know and understand so that they may escape the tribulation that is coming. In Jesus' name. Amen.
