Bible Prophecy Update – March 14th, 2021
All right. Good morning. And welcome to our first service on Sunday morning, which is our Bible prophecy update. On Sunday mornings we have two services, the first of which is Bible Prophecy. And then the second is our regular sermon. It's a verse-by-verse teaching through the word of God. We would encourage you to join with us. That will be at 11:15 a.m. And by the way,
on the mainland, many of you have, set your clocks forward for daylight savings time. You should know that in Hawaii we do not have daylight savings time. Ne nene ne ne. Anyway, so the time difference is going to be one hour ahead. So 11:15 a.m. Hawaii time. And we're currently in the book of Titus. And today's text will be Chapter two versus one through 10. In a
sermon, I've titled What's Taught What's Caught. So again we'll encourage you to join with us for a second service at 11:15. We would also really encourage you for those of you online to go directly to JDFarag.org for both today's prophecy update and the second service. Both will be live streamed. However, the update in its uncensored entirety will only be available for viewing on the site. So, we are back on YouTube for now, um, and Facebook, but, for the prophecy update, we will end the livestream and the entire livestream, and the entire prophecy update can be viewed on the site. So with that, let's get right to it.
A lot to get to today, actually. So with the help of the Holy Spirit, I'm hoping to explain how it's all going down as it relates to the fulfillment of key Bible prophecies. And by that I mean a chronological order of sorts concerning both how and when that which was foretold in Scripture will come to pass. I'm going to paint the prophetic canvas with a broad brush for a number of reasons, not the least of which is in the interests of time. And if you'll kindly allow me to,
I'll begin with what I would argue are the eight main prophetic events on the end times calendar. Then, after going through this list, we're going to take a closer look at each one of them, and we're going to do that to have a better understanding of why what's happening is happening in the world today. This this is why this is because it's the end and this is what we were told it would be like at the time of the end. All right, let's go through this. Now we're going to have the guys leave this up. For those of you online, you can take a screenshot if you want. By the way, we're hoping to also, as soon as we can't put the transcript on the website. You'll have everything there as well. Now you'll notice that three of these
are highlighted in yellow. And there's a reason for that. And that reason is, is because we don't really have the specificity in Scripture is to the timing of these prophecies. The others we do. And that's what we're going to go over. So number one. The pre-Tribulation Rapture. Number two. The seven-year Peace Agreement. Number three, the seven-year tribulation. Number four,
the Battle of Gog and Magog. Number five, the abomination of desolation that takes place in the newly rebuilt Temple There in Israel on the Temple Mount. Number six, the Mark of the beast. Number seven, the Battle of Armageddon. And number eight, finally, the second coming of Jesus Christ. So, uh, you're ready? Let's go into these. Let's start with the next event on God's prophetic clock, which is that of the pre-tribulation rapture. Because we've gone in depth concerning the, and I want you to listen very carefully to how I say this, the sound doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture, I'm going to draw your attention to two videos.
The first one is the Rapture Comes First, and it's from our verse-by-verse teaching in Second Thessalonians, specifically chapter two, verse three. We devoted an entire study to just that one verse. Second Thessalonians, chapter two, verse three. Then the second one is the Prophecy update from back on August 8th of last year, which we devoted an entire update to its titled Pre-tribulation Rapture Proof. Maybe it goes without saying, but this is not something in
this world in which we live. Let me rephrase that. We live in a world today that is most unforgiving of any ambiguity concerning the sound doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture. Okay, are we good? That wasn't very convincing. We better move on. This brings us to the second one on our list, which is that of the seven-year peace agreement for told of by the Prophet Daniel. Daniel 9:27. Very detailed prophecy. We've talked about this often in the past. Let me
read. He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven. This is a period of seven years. In the middle of the seven, the 3.5 year mark, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering, which again presupposes that the temple has to be there in order for there to be sacrifices and offerings. And at the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. In Matthew's Gospel Chapter 24 beginning in verse 15,
Jesus actually references specifically this prophecy in Daniel. He says, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place, whoever reads, let him understand. Then, verse 16. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop, not go down to take anything out of his house and let him who is in the field, not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then, there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. He is delineating
between the first part of the seven-year tribulation spoken of by Daniel and the second part of the seven-year tribulation, which he refers to as the great tribulation. The last 3.5 years. Hang onto that will come back to that in a moment. I want to draw your attention to another prophecy in Daniel. This one's in Chapter eight verses 24 and 25.
Again, speaking of the Antichrist, it says in his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. And he shall destroy wonderfully. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? A paradox. Some translations render it fearfully and shall prosper and practice and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people and, verse 25, listen, through his policy, interesting word, also, he shall cause craft, another interesting word, to prosper in his hand. And he shall magnify himself
in his heart and by piece shall destroy many. It will come by way of peace. The destruction comes by way of peace. He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes. That's Jesus at the second coming. But he shall be broken without hand. That's the end of it at the end of the seven-year tribulation. Kind of getting ahead of myself here. So, let me stay on message. Here again, we've done a deep dive as it were, starting with the deal of
the century, as it's been dubbed. And we devoted a prophecy update to this back on February 2nd of last year. All of these links are provided below in a PDF file, by the way. Subsequently, we address the prophetic significance of the Abraham Accords in the August 16th update titled Peace With Many. It's important to understand that the after mentioned confirming of the seven-year peace agreement in Daniel 9:27. That's what starts the seven-year tribulation,
not the rapture. The rapture does not start the seven-year tribulation. The specificity of Bible prophecy is such that it is the seven-year peace agreement that is confirmed. Now this is an interesting word in the original language of the Hebrew. It's the same word in my native tongue of Arabic. It's the word akbar, which carries with it the idea of greater superior, even spectacular. So the Antichrist and this also again presupposes there's already an agreement on the table. And then he comes along and he makes it better, greater, superior. And that's what confirms it and starts it. And with it, the seven-year tribulation. Now
the specificity with which Daniel records this prophecy provides us with a divine outline, as it's been called, of this final prophetic timeline. In other words, we know that it is a seven-year period. It's the 70th week of Daniel, and this prophecy delineates between the first 3.5 years and the last 3.5 years. Because we're told that at the 3.5 year mark, and by the way this comports with another prophecy
in of all places second Thessalonians chapter two. We spent some time on that in our verse-by-verse study through second Thessalonians, where the Apostle Paul talks about the Antichrist, exalting himself in the Temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God and oh, by the way, as Jesus in Matthew 24 said, pray that when this happens at the midpoint that you're not pregnant, because transportation becomes virtually impossible and more difficult, infinitely more difficult. Also, pray that it's not on the Sabbath because everything shuts down. And also pray it's not in the winter, because when it snows, it shuts everything down there. So they're going to flee and not even look back when this happens. Don't don't even go back
to your house and get your clothes or pack your bags. You don't have time. Flee, run! And we're told in the Book of Revelation where they're going to run to this place, that God prepared for them to protect them. For the last 3.5 years of the seven-year tribulation. It's believed that it is in modern day Jordan, a place called Petra, which I had the privilege of seeing my cousin, who actually lives in Jordan. Took my wife and I there. This was BC.
Not before Christ, before children when we could actually travel. And, uh, we got to go to Petra. Oh, my goodness. This rock city. By the way, parenthetically, let me say that some Bible scholars believe that this is actually the place that Job lived. I mean, this is an amazing place. So it is believed that this is the place that the Jews will flee to when they realize this is not our Christ. This is
not our Messiah. Our Messiah would never commit such an abomination and cause such desolation. And they will flee for the last 3.5 years and God supernaturally and miraculously will protect them from the Antichrist. This is when they come to a saving knowledge of their true Christ, Jesus, the Christ. And it's really quite interesting. We've talked about the typology before, and I don’t want to go too far into it. But very interesting, because Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are a picture of Israel. They are thrown into a seven times hotter, fiery furnace. And in
the midst of that furnace, they're saved. So too, is Israel, whom they picture saved in the middle of the seven-year tribulation, and it even gets better. We've talked about this before. Daniel. Where is he? Oh, he's not there. Why? Because pre-furnace, he was exalted and taken up to a
high position and as such is not there. He's a picture of the church. Spoiler Alert. Daniel pictures the Church. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego picture Israel going into saved because of in the midst of and through the seven-year tribulation. Okay, now let's fast forward to the Book of Revelation. Actually, some affectionately refer to the Book of Daniel is the Old Testament
Book of Revelation, and rightfully so. I would suggest that the Book of Revelation provides the ultimate prophetic timeline by virtue of the divine outline in Revelation chapter one, verse 19. What does revelation Chapter one, Verse 19 say? Well, now this is Jesus talking to John, and he tells John, write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be here after in the original language it’s meta tauta, meaning after these things. In other words, Jesus is telling John to write that which was passed, that which is present and that which will be yet future. And there in lies, this divine outline that we know as the Book of Revelation, starting with the past than to the present and then to the future. So we're going to put this up as well for you and we'll have the guys leave it
up. You can take a screenshot if you want. Here's this divine outline in the Book of Revelation. Chapter one passed. John is told to write that which he had seen. He was an eyewitness of. What was the an eyewitness of? Jesus Christ crucified, buried and resurrected and glorified. Chapter one is all passed. Chapters two and three, present. You know those maps or when you go to a place and you want to know how to get somewhere and it says you are here. Right?
Thank you. Make sure you're still with me. You know, do we need to serve some more coffee or something? I'm sorry. Maybe I had too much coffee. I don't know. But, so this is where we are. Here's this, this map revelation. You are here. Where? Revelation chapters two and three.
What's Revelation chapters two and three? You know. Seven letters to 7 churches. Church history, present. Chapter four, verse one on is all future. In fact, in Chapter four, verse one, John is told to, at the sound of the trumpet, come up here. He's taken up. That's the rapture. And do you know that from chapter four verse one on you don't find the word church mentioned even one time. But in chapters one through three, the word churches mentioned 19 times. Why is that important? Because chapters six through 19
deal with the seven-year tribulation. And the word church is not in Chapter 6 through 19, dealing with the tribulation. Why? I know this is deeply profound. The word church isn't in those chapters dealing with the tribulation because the church isn't in the tribulation. The purpose of the tribulation is for the salvation of the Jewish nation.
Why don't you join with me? We'll make a rap song out of that one. Got a ring to it, doesn't it? So ,chapter 6 through 19, the tribulation. Chapter 20, the millennium, the Kingdom age. In chapters 21 and 22, the new Heavens and the New Earth. Listen, God is a god of order. God is a god of perfect design because God is perfect. Now this brings us to the fourth one on our list, and it's the battle of Gog, as it's referred to, which, as I mentioned prior, we really don't have a specific timeline on when this prophecy is fulfilled. I do realize that some have grabbed ahold of Ezekiel 39 verse 9 as a reference to the seven-year tribulation vis a vis the seven-years of fuel that Israel uses for that period of time.
After this alliance of nations that invades Israel is dealt a devastating defeat. And by the way, it does seem to indicate that it will be very swift. Some believe that it will be within a period of about 24 hours, when Russia, Iran, Turkey and this alliance of nations invade Israel, fulfilling the Ezekiel 38 prophecy. That it will happen very fast. And I love it when God does this because we're told in Ezekiel 38 the why behind it. He says, I'm going to do it like this so that all the nations will know that I am God because there's no other explanation. I mean, have you seen a map lately? I'm not very good at geography.
I never did well in school when it came to geography. But if you look at a map, here's Israel right here. You might miss it. You might need to, you know, kind of zoom in. It’s right there. And here's Russia! And here's Iran and Turkey and all of these nations! And you got little itsy bitsy Israel. And all these nations are going to invade Israel and they're going to be defeated. Wow. Don't mess with Israel. Yeah, because of the God of Israel. Well,
I want to draw. I love Ezekiel 38 by the way. Hey it's in play right now, by the way. It's already in motion. It's beginning to come to pass. Iran, Turkey and Russia are at the ready in, of all places, Syria from which they will invade Israel. Now I want to draw your attention to versus 10 through 13 in Ezekiel 38. I think you'll see why here in a moment
we need to keep moving here. Thus says the Lord God. On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind and you will make an evil plan. This is speaking of God. This is the, God says I'm going to put a hook in your jaw and bring you against my people. God does that. You will say I will go up against a land of a unwalled villages. I will go to, listen, a peaceful people who dwell safely in peace and stability, peace and security. All of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates to take plunder and to take booty to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited and against a people gathered from the nations who have acquired livestock and goods who dwell in the midst of the land. Verse 13, Sheba and Dedan,
the merchants of Tarshish and all their young lions will say to you, Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty to carry away silver and gold to take away livestock and goods to take great plunder? It's quite a bit of a detail right there for us, isn't it? Because Sheba and Dedan is modern day Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states that we know them today. These Arab nations. So in other words, not only are they not involved in this invasion of Israel, which you would think they would be as enemies of Israel, but it sounds like something happened to where now they have good foreign relations with Israel so much so that they would protest this invasion of Israel. Well, I think you know where I'm going with this, right? What we can surmise from the details in just these verses here in Ezekiel 38 is that this invasion happens when Israel seems to be dwelling in peace and security. It's for this reason, though I'm not dogmatic, that this specific prophecy may likely be fulfilled after the seven-year peace agreement is confirmed. Another reason is because of the detail in verse 13 about Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, which I personally believe is perfectly posturing them in preparation by way of the Abraham Accords. On Monday, this is this last week. You're not supposed to read it until I get to it.
This is stunning. I don't know how else to say it. This last week was one of those weeks where I had just the volume of material was such that there's no way that I could get to it all two days, so I kind of put it aside and, Lord willing, maybe we’ll revisit it. But as fast as things are moving, I know next week is not going to be any slower so but this is stunning. It's a report from Israel Today about how the Saudis are saying
that the Temple Mount and the Al Aqsa Mosque are not important to Islam. The subheading reads, in further departure from Palestinian narrative Saudis recognized Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. Listen to these exerts. According to a bunch of Saudis and the other Middle East Arabs, might people, on social media, the Temple Mount and even, gasp, Al Aqsa itself aren't all that holy to them. Last week on Twitter, Saudis conducted a campaign promoting Islam's true holy sites, Mecca and Medina, both of which, of course, are in Saudi Arabia, much to the consternation of Shiite Islam in Iran. So those are the true holy sites, Mecca and Medina. While downplaying the importance of Jerusalem in their religion. Gasp is an understatement. Can I just do that gasp again? One of the more viral tweets was posted by Saudi cartoonist Abdullah Jaber, who wrote that quote. The direction of the prayers of the Jews is not important to us.
What is important to us is only our homeland. By referencing the direction of the prayers of the Jews, Abdullah Jaber implicitly recognized the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. Thus contradicting the Palestinian narrative on the matter. Um, I'm going to have the guys just leave this up for just a little bit. I want you to see this picture. Okay. You ready for this? An English language tweet by a man from Morocco named Ibtissam really got people heated when he not only emphasized that the Temple Mountain is of no particular importance to Muslims like himself, but then went on to express his hope that the third Jewish temple will soon be built there.
There were a flood of tweets expressing support and even love for Israel. Most were in Arabic, but the few in English were no less heartwarming. One reacted to a previous tweet calling Jerusalem the occupied Palestinian capital. The Saudi corrected the original
by noting that Jerusalem is actually the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Okay. This dovetails in the number five on our list, which is the abomination that causes desolation taking place in the rebuilt third temple. Again, this prophecy presupposes that the rebuilding of the Third Jewish Temple will somehow be a part of the seven-year peace agreement, which I truly believe it will be. And the reason is that the temple must be there at the midpoint of the seven-year tribulation in order for the sacrifices to stop and the abomination that causes desolation to take place. So, I really believe that this will be the deal that will be part of the deal. Hey, you can have
your temple. Where do we sign? And the question becomes, how long will it take them? Oh, not long. Do they everything. Yeah. What are you thinking, just a ballpark estimate? 90 days? Maybe even 60 days. What? Yeah, ss soon as they get the green light, they can rebuild that temple. Some believe in about 60 days. 90 days tops. How's that one? Last week I mentioned the video that Pastor Ray Bentley of Maranatha Chapel in San Diego sent me, and we're going to include the link again this week. I would really encourage you if you haven't already
to take the time to watch it. It is a must see In it He talks about the fulfillment of prophecy vis a vis the Abraham accords and how that Israel and the U.A.E. / Saudi Arabia very soon are looking at the possibility of constructing a massive Israeli canal project. Stay with me. Pictured here is a map showing the existing Israeli oil pipeline in solid red, the proposed Red Med canal in the black dash line, and the proposed oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Haifa in the red dash line, which goes through, of all places, the Jezreel Valley, AKA Megiddo, the valley of Armageddon where that final battle, the Battle of Armageddon, will take place. Let me just say at this juncture that I truly believe the hook that God is going to put in the jaw of this alliance of nations with Russia, Iran, and Turkey at the helm it’s going to be the oil and the natural gas and this pipeline. Did you know that about 90% of the economy, particularly in Russia, comes from oil. I know I mentioned
this last week and I don’t want to take too much time on it, but that's what's going to bring them. It's going to be this. And oh, by the way, this is why Saudi Arabia says why are you guys doing this? Are you coming to take the beautiful oil pipeline we built there and take that from, oh, that's why. And and that's why they protested. Well, I mention it again this week because Ray sent me Episode two, which we also have the link to. And this one is about the rebuilt third Temple. I know it almost sounds, I don't want to sound or come off sensational. I'll be as calm as I
possibly can, which, by the way, it goes very much against my nature. Um, but, uh, everything we're told in Scripture is happening now. It's happening now. Everything is ready to go. So, on Sunday, The Jerusalem Post published an article titled An Israeli Suez Canal.
Listen to these quotes. In technological terms, Israel has always been absurdly ambitious, irrigating its desert, designing microprocessors, developing drones, shooting down rockets, being by far the smallest country to launch its own satellites. Israel is a superpower of science and engineering. Ezekiel 38. So proposing Israel undertake absurdly complex infrastructure projects isn't altogether absurd.
Israel is working with China to build a railway from a lot to the Mediterranean. It's intended to serve as an overland alternative to the Suez Canal. A trans Israel canal would be incredible and an incredibly difficult undertaking, but Israel is equipped to handle it. Israel itself was incredible and an incredibly difficult undertaking. That's because God did it. Israel's economy, its roles in the energy market in world trade, in globalizing technology are expanding every day. It's time for Israel to make itself a two ocean nation. Why do I emphasize this? Because the description of Israel in Ezekiel 38 is the description of Israel today.
They're prosperous. They found a lot of oil, a lot of natural gas. That's why they're doing all this. And it has aroused the ire of the likes of Russia, Iran and Turkey because of it. Exactly as God's word said, it would be.
Well, let's keep moving. All of this has profound prophetic implications, specifically concerning the after mentioned prophecy in Ezekiel, and it also has profound prophetic implications concerning Revelation chapter 16 versus 14 through 16, which is number seven on our list. It's the battle of Armageddon, which is, I believe we we’re not told specifically, but it does seem that it would be towards the end of the seven-year tribulation. Like the Battle of Gog is
towards the beginning of the seven-year tribulation. You can see both battles as bookends on the seven-year tribulation. And I also believe, according to the Book of Revelation, that at the end of the seven-year tribulation, when the Battle of Armageddon takes place, it will usher in number eight on our list, which is the second coming of Jesus Christ. And that's how it's all going to go down now I know what you're thinking. I can read your mind. Just give me a second here, Pastor, you skipped number six on the list, which is the mark of the beast.
How clever are you? The mark of the beast just happens to be the number six on your list. I'm not that clever. Don't be impressed. Well, I didn't skip it deliberately. Actually, I did skip it deliberately for a reason. And we're going to talk about it now and for the remainder of our time because it's going to I believe, I hope anyway tie everything together concerning these prophecies. So in order to do that, we're going to end the live stream, and for those that are on YouTube or Facebook, we would encourage you to go to JDFarag.org for the uncensored remainder.
2021-03-16 07:40
