An End Times Sign More Important Than Israel?
Apr 24, 2014 21:08:09 GMT -5
Post by PrisonerOfHope on Apr 24, 2014 21:08:09 GMT -5
An End Times Sign More Important Than Israel?
Dr. David R. ReaganBy Dr. David R. Reagan
Founder & Director, Lamb & Lion Ministries
On the March 8th edition of the radio program Prophecy Update, I was interviewed by Bill Salus, author of the popular Psalm 83-themed book Isralestine and evangelist on the end times website Prophecy Depot. Bill and I spent much of the interview discussing how mankind is living on borrowed time. The fact that all the end times Bible prophecies are presently stage-setting evidences that the return of Christ in the Rapture could happen at any moment.
The Most Important Sign
Bill Salus: Dave, in your book Living on Borrowed Time, you asked a panel of 22 Bible prophecy experts, "What do you consider to be the single most important sign of the times, and why?" How did they respond?
Dr. Reagan: Yes, I decided to zero in on finding out what the single most important sign of the times would be to those Bible prophecy experts, thinking that probably they would give the answer — the return of Israel as a nation. But, that wasn't the answer at all.
The overwhelming majority of Bible prophecy experts focused on one word — convergence. In other words, they said the main reason why they believe we are living in the season of the Lord's return is not because of any one particular sign, but because we have so many signs converging that are coming together for the first time. All the signs of the end times are coming together at once.
There have been times when people would say, "Well, we have this sign and that sign, and so Jesus must be coming soon." But, there were many other signs that weren't around. Today, though, we can look around us and can see all of the signs that Jesus taught converging together at the same time. They're coming together all at once. Now we can finally say, "Wow! There isn't anything missing today from the world scene in terms of the signs we were told to look for."
I pressed, "What do you consider to be the single most important sign of the times?" Well, overwhelmingly people historically point to the re-establishment of Israel in 1948, but now they mention other things, such as the decay of society and the upheaval in the Middle East, and things of that nature. But, the majority continues to focus on the re-establishment of Israel. Bill, you also know how true that is, because end time Bible prophecy focuses on Israel and the Middle East.
Nearly 500 years ago, the Puritans began to study Bible prophecy in detail. From that study, they began to believe that Scripture means what it says. You should take Scripture for its plain sense meaning.
The Puritans also began to say the Bible says that in the end times the Jewish people would be regathered from the four corners of the earth and the nation of Israel would be re-established. Those of us who take Bible prophecy to mean what it says have always believed that.
It's wonderful to go back into the 19th Century books that were written then by people who believed Bible prophecy, and also in the early 20th Century, and they said over and over that the Jews are going to be regathered and the land of Israel is going to be re-established. People just laughed at that claim, and mocked and jeered at them. Some people continued to mock even up to the very day of May 14, 1948, when the nation of Israel was re-established.
Some claim, "Israel won't last a week because it's surrounded by 250 million Muslims who are going to come in and destroy the new nation." The nations have tried over and over and over to eradicate Israel, but Israel is still existing to this day.
The Second Most Important Sign
Bill Salus: What do you think is the second most important sign of the end times?
Dr. Reagan: My Living on Borrowed Time panel of 22 Bible prophecy experts gave some very interesting answers to that question. I knew there would be a lot of scattering of answers to that, and that's exactly what happened.
Apostasy — Six of the experts said that they thought that the second most important sign was spiritual corruption in the Church today. That certainly is a major sign, because the Bible speaks over and over of the fact that in the end times there is going to be tremendous apostasy in the Church. Not only will cults flourish outside of the Church, but inside the Church itself all kinds of spiritual darkness and apostasy will take root like weeds. Oh, Brother, are we are seeing that all around us today! We're right up to our ears in apostasy.
You know, 20 years ago, if I had told you that I believe churches would be ordaining homosexuals and performing homosexual marriages, you would have thought I was as crazy as a loon. And yet, that's happened. It's happened in a very short period of time.
We've got major "evangelical" leaders today who are denying that Jesus is the only way to God. They are claiming that there are many different roads to God.
There's gross apostasy in the Church today, and the term "evangelical" has ceased to have any meaning.
Revival of the Roman Empire — Four of our people decided that they thought the second most important development was the revival of the Old Roman Empire through its resurrection in the form of the European Union today. That certainly is a very important development that people have talked about for several hundred years. Long have we known that was going to happen, and so it has happened right before our very eyes.
God and Magog — Third place was the Ezekiel 38-39 alignment of nations that are going to align up with Russia. The nations that are going to align with Russia are all Muslim today. That alignment is happening right now. We are seeing Iran for example forming an alliance with Russia that has never existed before.
Technology — Tied with one other sign was modern technology. Things such as the Internet and satellites are helping us to understand prophecies we never understood before.
For example, the Bible says in Revelation 11 that there will be two great witnesses of God who in Jerusalem will prophesy for the first 3.5 years of the Tribulation. Their mission is to call the world to repentance. They will be killed 3.5 years in and the whole world will look upon their bodies for 3.5 days. Nobody understood that prophecy until the mid-1960's. How could the whole world look upon two bodies lying in the streets of Jerusalem? Well, today there is satellite television. All you have to do is point a TV camera at them, zap it up to a satellite, and the whole world can watch.
Jerusalem — Two of our respondents, one who has gone on to be with the Lord being Jack Kinsella, picked out the Jewish reoccupation of the city of Jerusalem on June 7, 1967 as the second most important sign.
There were others who picked other signs. It was very interesting to read all of the different second most important signs that people selected.
Can you believe that here are all these major prophecies converging right before our very eyes, and people are merely yawning over them?
Dr. David R. ReaganBy Dr. David R. Reagan
Founder & Director, Lamb & Lion Ministries
On the March 8th edition of the radio program Prophecy Update, I was interviewed by Bill Salus, author of the popular Psalm 83-themed book Isralestine and evangelist on the end times website Prophecy Depot. Bill and I spent much of the interview discussing how mankind is living on borrowed time. The fact that all the end times Bible prophecies are presently stage-setting evidences that the return of Christ in the Rapture could happen at any moment.
The Most Important Sign
Bill Salus: Dave, in your book Living on Borrowed Time, you asked a panel of 22 Bible prophecy experts, "What do you consider to be the single most important sign of the times, and why?" How did they respond?
Dr. Reagan: Yes, I decided to zero in on finding out what the single most important sign of the times would be to those Bible prophecy experts, thinking that probably they would give the answer — the return of Israel as a nation. But, that wasn't the answer at all.
The overwhelming majority of Bible prophecy experts focused on one word — convergence. In other words, they said the main reason why they believe we are living in the season of the Lord's return is not because of any one particular sign, but because we have so many signs converging that are coming together for the first time. All the signs of the end times are coming together at once.
There have been times when people would say, "Well, we have this sign and that sign, and so Jesus must be coming soon." But, there were many other signs that weren't around. Today, though, we can look around us and can see all of the signs that Jesus taught converging together at the same time. They're coming together all at once. Now we can finally say, "Wow! There isn't anything missing today from the world scene in terms of the signs we were told to look for."
I pressed, "What do you consider to be the single most important sign of the times?" Well, overwhelmingly people historically point to the re-establishment of Israel in 1948, but now they mention other things, such as the decay of society and the upheaval in the Middle East, and things of that nature. But, the majority continues to focus on the re-establishment of Israel. Bill, you also know how true that is, because end time Bible prophecy focuses on Israel and the Middle East.
Nearly 500 years ago, the Puritans began to study Bible prophecy in detail. From that study, they began to believe that Scripture means what it says. You should take Scripture for its plain sense meaning.
The Puritans also began to say the Bible says that in the end times the Jewish people would be regathered from the four corners of the earth and the nation of Israel would be re-established. Those of us who take Bible prophecy to mean what it says have always believed that.
It's wonderful to go back into the 19th Century books that were written then by people who believed Bible prophecy, and also in the early 20th Century, and they said over and over that the Jews are going to be regathered and the land of Israel is going to be re-established. People just laughed at that claim, and mocked and jeered at them. Some people continued to mock even up to the very day of May 14, 1948, when the nation of Israel was re-established.
Some claim, "Israel won't last a week because it's surrounded by 250 million Muslims who are going to come in and destroy the new nation." The nations have tried over and over and over to eradicate Israel, but Israel is still existing to this day.
The Second Most Important Sign
Bill Salus: What do you think is the second most important sign of the end times?
Dr. Reagan: My Living on Borrowed Time panel of 22 Bible prophecy experts gave some very interesting answers to that question. I knew there would be a lot of scattering of answers to that, and that's exactly what happened.
Apostasy — Six of the experts said that they thought that the second most important sign was spiritual corruption in the Church today. That certainly is a major sign, because the Bible speaks over and over of the fact that in the end times there is going to be tremendous apostasy in the Church. Not only will cults flourish outside of the Church, but inside the Church itself all kinds of spiritual darkness and apostasy will take root like weeds. Oh, Brother, are we are seeing that all around us today! We're right up to our ears in apostasy.
You know, 20 years ago, if I had told you that I believe churches would be ordaining homosexuals and performing homosexual marriages, you would have thought I was as crazy as a loon. And yet, that's happened. It's happened in a very short period of time.
We've got major "evangelical" leaders today who are denying that Jesus is the only way to God. They are claiming that there are many different roads to God.
There's gross apostasy in the Church today, and the term "evangelical" has ceased to have any meaning.
Revival of the Roman Empire — Four of our people decided that they thought the second most important development was the revival of the Old Roman Empire through its resurrection in the form of the European Union today. That certainly is a very important development that people have talked about for several hundred years. Long have we known that was going to happen, and so it has happened right before our very eyes.
God and Magog — Third place was the Ezekiel 38-39 alignment of nations that are going to align up with Russia. The nations that are going to align with Russia are all Muslim today. That alignment is happening right now. We are seeing Iran for example forming an alliance with Russia that has never existed before.
Technology — Tied with one other sign was modern technology. Things such as the Internet and satellites are helping us to understand prophecies we never understood before.
For example, the Bible says in Revelation 11 that there will be two great witnesses of God who in Jerusalem will prophesy for the first 3.5 years of the Tribulation. Their mission is to call the world to repentance. They will be killed 3.5 years in and the whole world will look upon their bodies for 3.5 days. Nobody understood that prophecy until the mid-1960's. How could the whole world look upon two bodies lying in the streets of Jerusalem? Well, today there is satellite television. All you have to do is point a TV camera at them, zap it up to a satellite, and the whole world can watch.
Jerusalem — Two of our respondents, one who has gone on to be with the Lord being Jack Kinsella, picked out the Jewish reoccupation of the city of Jerusalem on June 7, 1967 as the second most important sign.
There were others who picked other signs. It was very interesting to read all of the different second most important signs that people selected.
Can you believe that here are all these major prophecies converging right before our very eyes, and people are merely yawning over them?
