The Signs of the Times

I am always curious about the proximity in time of the days of tribulation, the final seven years of the reign of Satan in the earth. The church age, as I mentioned in the section on the tabernacle of David, is a time of spiritual warfare, where the church functions more as a bivoauc in the earth against the plans and the strategies of the enemy. God has called the church to save as many people as we can, deliver and heal them, and to make them battle ready for the final days of extreme warfare.

The fact that Israel has been restored to the glory of its former years cannot escape our attention. Israel is the only nation on the earth that can survive on what it grows, and that exports the excess of its remarkable fruitfulness all over the earth. The reality of Israel's existence is a miracle in light of the fact that no single nation on the earth has so many enemies, except possibly the United States. The church knows why this tiny little country has been restored. We know that God has promised to use Israel to accomplish the final destruction of the Anti-Christ and his people. Israel has a destiny that is intimately connected with the final days of this dispensation. For this purpose, God has called the global church to intercede on behalf of Israel. Israel is God's endtime weapon against the devil and a rebellious humanity. Because of the persecution of the Jews in every nation of the earth, God will destroy every nation that does not repent and receive the salvation of God.

We also know that we are getting closer to the days of tribulation when we look at the way the global economy is shaping up. The global economy is preparing the way for a global government. Our current financial crises underscores the reality that the economy of the U.S. is connected to the economies of Europe, the Middleast, China, India, in fact, all of the nations of the earth. The character of that global economy reflects in obvious ways the character of the harlot of Babylon. The economy of the West has created an atmosphere of lust, greed and corruption that surpasses even that of ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire. The captains of industry who ride the crest of the economic wave of wealth and perversion participate in lifestyles that would cause the Caesars to blush. They are drunk on the vast and unrestrained fornication of the harlot Babylon.

The harlot in Revelation 14, and in chapters 16-18 takes on a persona that can be observed working throughout the earth today, but especially in the West. The Mother of Harlots described in Revelation 17:5 rides the beast and emerges from the sea, which represents all of the peoples of the earth. She sits on seven mountains which many have thought to mean the seven hills of Rome, but that is far too limited an assessment of her authority. I believe the seven mountains refer to the seven continents of the earth, the indication of her vast authority and power around the planet, even the number seven testifying to the completeness of her reign. Mountains also represent obstacles in scripture as when Jesus informs us that if we have faith as a mustard seed we can command a mountain to jump into the sea. The mountain is an obstacle that can be removed by faith. The seven mountains of the harlot represent the obstacles she places before the seven churches. She sits above the beast, a position of greater power and authority than the beast, who will become the leader of a global government. He will not allow her to remain in that position, however, because God will put it into his heart to destroy the harlot and burn her with fire.

The expression of rebellious female authority has been given the name Jezebel in the Bible. Jezebel ruled in the place of her husband, Ahab, and she killed the prophets. Ahab was weakened by her authority and witchcraft. She seduced with her make-up and fine clothing, but it did her no good when Jehu came to destroy her in 2 Kings 9:33, because Jehu was immune to her charms as were the eunuchs who pushed her from the window where she fell to her death. Just as Jezebel fell from a great height, so will the Mother of Harlots fall also. The merchants and the great men of the earth will weep and wail over her burning, but the saints of God will rejoice over the destruction of the one who grows drunk on the lives of God's people.

We see her nature being expressed even now as the fruit of the feminist movement which has drawn millions of wives and mothers into the workforce and into the reeking halls of economic power and authority. More men have been ejected from the work place during the current economic downturn than ever before in history, especially men in their fifties, when in times past men of this age group were the most valuable members of the work force due to their maturity, faithfulness and work ethic. The jobs of women have been touched the least.

There is a clear reason for this trend. Satan is exalting the harlot so he can destroy the nuclear family. Marriages are failing like never before because men and women no longer have a clear identity of who they are. They no longer see themselves fashioned in the image of God, who made them male and female, the very picture of Christ and His church. The church was never meant to usurp the role and authority of Christ, nor were women supposed to usurp the roles and authority of men. We know from the eighth chapter of Proverbs that the female part of God is wisdom, prudence, knowledge and understanding. These are spiritual qualities of the feminine aspect of God, which were hidden in a mystery before Christ, but were prophesied by the act of removing a rib from Adam. The church is revealed by the water and blood that issues from the side of Christ for the purpose of cleansing His bride and revealing her true nature. Gender matters.

Even people in the church today have adopted a gender-neutral vision of the church, which serves only to spit on the image of our God, the Creator of the universe, who is both male and female. Unless the feminine wisdom of God was there to function as a master craftsman at the creation, the universe could not exist in the form we now experience it. Wisdom has a necessary role in the plans and strategies of God, and if Satan can pervert the wisdom of God in the earth, he can interrupt the Lord's plans and destiny for the church and Israel. Satan would like to make of the church a cross-dresser, or worse, a transsexual who takes on the gender identity of its biological opposite in order to blaspheme God. We should be horrified by the inroads Satan has made to that end in the church, but we continue to celebrate the authority and dominance of the contemporary woman. The women's movement was never about equality. The women's movement was all about who was going to lead the family.

Nobody will ever establish equality between an apple and an orange. They are just different. They serve different purposes. Apples are harvested from late August until the end of October, but oranges are harvested in late autumn and some varieties of navel oranges are not harvested until even as late as June or July. Yet they are both fruit. Both have their purpose. Most oranges are eaten during the winter months when the body needs vitamin C and protection against colds. Apples are consumed mostly in the early fall in order to strengthen the immune system for the changes in temperature. Both fruit are of equal value. Both serve a purpose. We would not juice apples, nevertheless, to keep from getting colds any more than we would eat oranges, if they were available, in order to prepare our immune systems for the fall and winter months. I doubt very much that the orange envies the purpose of an apple. Why is it that people so often fail to measure up to the intelligence of a fruit or a vegetable?

The character of the harlot has become overwhelming in contemporary culture. The sexual content of the media has reached the point of unbridled obsession. In some circles, the only relationship that occurs between a man and a woman is a sexual one. I have been around men in the world who cannot talk casually about anything except the sexual anatomy of a man and a woman, and who cannot socialize with someone of the opposite sex outside of the topics of lust and human anatomy. I don't mention this social condition in order to complain or bring condemnation of contemporary culture, but instead to draw attention to the times we are living in.

Jesus told us that we would not know the time or the hour of His return, but we would understand the times by certain signs. Jesus was nevertheless very explicit about the signs of the times:

"Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. Soyou also, when you see all these things, know that it [the tribulation] is near-at the doors!" (Matthew 24:32-33)

The fig tree is a symbol of the nation of Israel. Jesus warns us that when we see Israel begin to flourish, the time is growing close. We are already seeing Israel flourish. The nation is well-established and very productive. We also see the other signs that tribulation is just around the corner.

There will be a global judgment of the house of God before the tribulation begins. The book of Revelation opens with the judgment of the seven churches, which are emblematic of the kinds of churches that can be found in the earth today. Judgment always begins with the house of God. (1 Peter 4:17) The house of God has been under judgment for the last year and a half. Could the last days judgment of the church have already begun?

I don't believe that judgment has come in fullness yet. The authority of the last days' apostles must be established for the fullness of God's judgment in the church and for the re-establishment of apostolic order in the church, without which no one could endure the time of suffering that will come upon the whole earth. Apostles not only establish holiness, authority and order in the church, but they also lead the body into intense persecution and suffering. The church will be here for the opening of the seven seals mentioned in the sixth chapter of Revelation. The four horses of the first four seals bring in the anti-Christ government and the fruit of it. I believe that the first seven seals of chapter six, the chapter of man, will last three years, and then the church will be raptured and Israel will be sealed for the final judgments of God to be poured out on the earth over the next six months.

The time is growing close. This is the time to draw near to God while He may yet be found. We want to be the wise virgins whose lamps are full of oil. We want to pray that God count us worthy, as He does the church of Philadelphia, to avoid the time of temptation that will come upon the whole earth. We want to begin to warn people of the time that is coming and get as many as we can saved. Forget about the economy. Forget about the material pleasures of our culture. We must draw near to God and make ourselves ready if our faith is going to survive the days of tribulation that will come upon us suddenly as though something strange was happening to us.