Edition 30. February 21st 2010

In this edition:

●Dark days are coming !

●Days of glorious light are coming

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Get right while there is light!

John 12 :35 "Yeshua / Jesus said to them, Yet for a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light so that darkness won't come upon you. Those who walk in the darkness don't know where they're going."

I have a very strong and growing sense that we are close to the start of many monumental events relating to the soon coming of our Messiah. We are unquestionable in the season.

As we move closer to these coming tragic and wonderful events we need to be prepared in heart and doctrine.

We are in an extremely evil and wicked generation. It is intensifying at an alarming rate.

Matthew 24:12 "Because of the increase of wickedness the love of many will grow cold." Can you see how dangerous these days are? Can you also see the direct relationship between wickedness and cold or lukewarm faith?

Interestingly there is a lot of typology in the story of Samson who was God's servant empowered with supernatural strength. Delilah came along and was more interested in power and money. She accepted a financial bribe to find out the secret of his strength. She betrayed him for money, just like Judas betrayed our Lord. This is just like much of the church today, which is more interested in money and power, but not the very heart of our Messiah. We all know how this story ended. The Delilah-church will fail

We need to be aware that we are in the days where much deception is around. Many have hearts after power, money and materialism. There is of course nothing wrong with these things in their proper place. We are entering days where there will be many "lying signs and wonders" amidst intensifying evil. "Perilous times" are upon us, but I can assure you you aint seen nothing yet!

Its all important to have our hearts right and our doctrine right in these days.

A startling insight not commonly believed.

To identify the nature of the dark days that are coming we need to identify the person who will become the antichrist.

The church has taught for many years that the antichrist will arise from the present day revived Roman empire. This is right but it's also wrong!

There is no doubt that the New World Government will be centred in Europe, but to be more accurate we need to go back and look at what the old Roman empire was. It most certainly isn't the present European Union. It includes Europe, but was originally much larger.

The ancient Roman empire included toady's nations of Europe, Turkey, North Africa, Syria, parts of Iran and Iraq.

Daniel foresaw the revised Roman empire in the form of a giant statue. The two legs represent the revised Roman empire, with the ten toes representing the nations that make up the ten world kingdoms still to come about. But the two legs represent the western and eastern sections of the revised Roman empire, not just one side.

The ancient Roman empire:

Okay, so where does the antichrist arise from? Here are keys.

Daniel 9:26 declares that the antichrist will arise from the people who would later destroy Jerusalem and the temple. These were the Romans. So we know that he will arise from a revised Roman empire.

Isaiah 10:21-24 "The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the Mighty God...O My people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you, in the manner of Egypt."

Isaiah 10:5 "Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of My anger..."

Isaiah 14:24-25 "I will break the Assyrian in My land and upon My mountains..."

Micah 5:5 "When the Assyrian comes into our land and when he treads in our palaces...Thus He shall deliver us from the Assyrian."

Hosea 11: 6 Speaking of Israel "The Assyrian shall be his king because they refused to repent." This implies that Israel will fall for the antichrist at first.

There are numerous other scriptures especially in Isaiah that refer to this evil individual, the antichrist as the Assyrian.

Where is Assyria ?

Now we simply need to identify Assyria.

Ancient Assyria is a number of nations today. It is Syria, parts of Iran, Iraq and modern day Turkey.

The map below identifies ancient Assyria

Now have a look at the maps of Assyria and the old Roman empire. The Bible indicates that the antichrist has to arise out of the revised Roman empire and that he will be an Assyrian. This narrows the field down a lot. Again Turkey is the best candidate as it is the only one associated with Europe

Interestingly Turkey is currently in line to join Europe, but not the other Assyrian countries. There are other portions of scripture in Daniel that hint at the fact that the antichrist will arise from a nation north of Israel. Both Syria and Turkey are north of Israel. It seems that Turkey has the odds in its favour.

The point of this edition is not to identify the antichrist or the exact country from which he will arise, but to identify the nature of the dark days that are coming.

The Assyrian nations of today including Turkey are Islamic. And surprisingly more and more nations within Europe are becoming a home of many Muslims. If the antichrist arises from either Turkey or Syria he will most likely be a Muslim.

Today Europe is at the crossroads people are now talking about the potential break-up of Europe, due to the plunging euro which has been caused by the spiralling sovereign debt issues of many member nations. Europe is in great trouble right now and could be in for a big shake up. It's all very interesting from a prophetic point of view!

The revised Roman empire may well become an Islamic empire soon or at least have a Muslim majority.

Islam's antichrist is our Christ!

If the antichrist will be a Muslim, lets ask the question...what does Islam believe about the antichrist? Yes they do believe in an antichrist. But here is the amazing thing. Islam believes that an "impostor Messiah" will arise in Israel who will be Jewish and will be followed by the Jews! That's the true Messiah!

Shia and Sunni Muslims believe that their soon coming Mahdi will be the Islamic saviour and will come to this earth for seven years, bringing the whole world to Islam. He, working with the Muslim Jesus will rid the world of error, all opposition to Islam and all evil religions who oppose them...according to them.

Interestingly Ahmadinejad of Iran, who's mother is a decedent of Mohammad believes that his primary duty is to prepare the world for the coming of Mahdi. He believes that his task is to get rid of Israel first. Only then will the world be ready for mass conversion to Islam. Has he got a surprise coming!

The darkness that's coming:

I've said all of the above to get to this point: Islam is going to arise. it will become a major world force to contend with. Nominal Muslims are not the issue. In fact they are actually enemies of radical Islam. It is this extreme side of Islam that is so dangerous. We only need to cast our minds back to 9/11 to see how tolerant and loving they are!

There is no doubt that the antichrist will hate Jews and Christians just as radical Muslims do.

There is no indication in the scriptures that the antichrist will oppose the Arab people and their religion. In fact there are many indications that he will unify many religions except the true Biblical Messianic Christianity. This will be his object of hatred.

There is no doubt that savage tactics will be used by the devil himself working through the antichrist. There is no doubt that great conflict is coming soon. It will have the characteristics of all the Islamic hatred we have seen in recent times and then some!

Obviously this all takes place in the tribulation period, but we will see forerunners to it.

Psalm 83:4,5 "Come let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more. For they have consulted together with one consent. They form a confederacy against you. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites (Arabs)...Assyria has joined with them."

The above verses show very clearly that the Muslim heart is against Israel. The "confederacy" could well be the UN, EU and others.

There is no doubt that the events of 9/11 are coming again and worse. Just have a look at this terrible prophecy in the book of Revelation:

Revelation 20:4 "...And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshipped the beast, or his image and had not received his mark... and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years."

There is only one religious group that I know of that beheads people now. Tragically, many more perhaps masses more are coming.

The above verse speaks of those who have been martyred by beheading in the tribulation period.

This is a strong indication that the spiritual darkness that's coming will centre around Islam's hatred for believers who get saved in the tribulation period.

The light that's coming:

I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating, simply because it is so exciting. Many Arabs in many countries are getting saved and many more will.

Isaiah 19: 25 "The Lord will strike Egypt and heal it, they will return to the Lord and He will be entreated by them and heal them...in that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord will bless saying Blessed is Egypt My people and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel My inheritance."

Most of this dramatic verse will be fulfilled in the tribulation, but we are now seeing the start of it.

Walid Shoebat is a Palestinian born in Bethlehem of a family of terrorist 'freedom' fighters. He was jailed in Israel for his activities. One day he started to question things and started to study the Bible. It wasn't long before this freedom fighter was truly free! He's now driven by a deep passion to heal his one soul and bring the truth about Israel to other Palestinians and the world. he has now written a few books and is a regular speaker on his own amazing story around the world.

I love his quote..."The occupation is in the minds of Children who are taught hatred."

Here is his website:

www.shoebat.com

The two links below will take you to some very interesting information on the growing wave of salvation coming to many Arabs now. Let me add, that for many of them it is at great personal expense!

www.iranaliveministries.org

www.joelstrumpet.com

The light is coming amidst the growing darkness. Its still early days for the darkness to intensify, but its worth remembering that light put out darkness. In fact the light shines brighter in the darkness!

Summary:

Europe is in the throws of change and possible re-alignment. It will become a lot more Muslim-centric. Turkey is on the verge of entering Europe.

The antichrist will most probably be a Muslim form Turkey. Islam will continue to arise on the wings of cruel domination.

The wickedness of Islamic extremism will bring deep spiritual darkness, death and destruction on an enormous scale. In the midst of it many Arabs will be saved, most only towards the end of the tribulation period.

Conclusion:

The times that lie ahead of so exciting. Perhaps they are more so for me personally because I'm a journalist, ex-newspaperman and war correspondent. These things excite me, but when its all part of  the giant dramatic Biblical prophetic picture, with our Messiah and King of Kings at the helm, then its all so much more so.

Read that verse again at the top in Mathew 24. Increasing wickedness (including Islam) will cause the love of many to grow cold. Dark days are coming, but God's grace and mercy is being out poured for all who would want to come to the light.

1 Thessalonians 4:5-6 "But you brethren are not in darkness so as this day should overtake you as a thief You are sons of light and sons of the day, we are not of the night nor darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch."

Psalm 119:130 "The entrance of Your words gives light."

Heaven or hell:

Old man praying at the Western Wall, you're looking in the right direction, but who are you looking for? Your Jewish Messiah has come and gone already. Do you remember that sign the Romans nailed to the cross? It said "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews" They were right about that! Yes, old man, He is your King. He's also King of the Muslim girl next to you, even though she may not know it yet, just like you!. He's my King too. In fact He is King of the universe and every little atom in it. But, old man, you need to respond to His love now before he comes back again in the clouds just as He left!

Young Muslim girl, I wish those were tears of regret and repentance before our mighty Lord and great God, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah) His name is not Allah! There are very many of your Muslim brothers and sisters getting saved now. Will you be one of them? I hope so. Do you know that when most Muslims get truly saved they get truly set free from bondage and as their love for Messiah intensifies so does their love for Israel! Heaven or hell is set before you, please make the right choice.

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In closing this edition here is woodcut art work by Gustave Dore from the Paradiso series. (Thanks to the Adelaide University Library.)

Kind regards and many blessings...Shalom and grow in grace!