1.

Endtime biblical prophecies are a story about two humanlike figures, both with dazzling brightness, one standing, reigning today from the heavenly realm, but about to be toppled. This is the image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision (Dan 2:31-35), the image representing spiritual Babylon, the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth (Rev 17:18). The prince of this city is the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), the prince of disobedience (v. 3). To him and to this great city all of humanity has been consigned so that God can have mercy on all (Rom 11:32). The prince of this city has deceived the whole world (Rev 12:9); he functions in the plan of God as a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns (v. 3). And the image Nebuchadnezzar saw will be toppled when the old dragon is cast to the earth (vv. 9–10). On that day, a stone (the Mount of Olives) cut without hands crushes the feet and toes of the image that is spiritual Babylon (Dan 2:44–45), its king or prince [sar] the fallen Day Star (Isa 14:4–21). On that day, the kingdom of the world over which the image Nebuchadnezzar saw presently reigns becomes the kingdom of the Ancient of Days and of His Christ (Dan 7:9–14 & Rev 11:15). On that day, the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), thereby changing even the natures of the great predators (Isa 11:6–9). On that day, the armies that pursue fleeing saints will be swallowed by the split Mount of Olives (Zech 14:1–4; Exod 15:12; Rev 12:16), thus this prince’s end comes with a flood (Dan 9:26). On this day, Death, the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse (Rev 6:8), will be dealt a deathblow (Rev 13:3) through the public resurrection of the two witnesses.

The visions of the prophet Daniel were sealed and secret until the time of the end. They could not be understood by any mortal human being before this specified period, for they were supernaturally closed (Dan 12:4, 9; & 9:24; & 8:17, 26). Therefore, their unsealing will be the disclosure of new information, of new revelations not previous available to disciples. The premise of this site is that the visions of Daniel are today unsealed, with this unsealing beginning in January 2002.

Within Babylon, the hierarchical government that presently spiritually rules the kingdom of the world, war broke out shortly after the turn of the millennium. This war began the period identified as the time of the end, and this war has the spiritual prince of Greece (Dan 10:20 & 8:21) flying out of the west to trample the spiritual kings of Persia (Dan 10:13 & 8:20). The battlefield is the mental topography of humanity, the reason why a new world order that incorporates Greek ideals (especially democracy) is angrily jousting with the old world order that includes traditional European powers and the established institutions that support the status quo. The physical shadow cast by this ongoing war in the heavenly realm was Alexander’s campaign against Persia (332–322 BCE). Thus, as Alexander won in a decade, disciples can expect the spiritual king of Greece to prevail in a short while, in a decade or so. And when this spiritual king of Greece is victorious, its great horn or first king will be supernaturally broken. This is the event that begins the seven endtime years of tribulation, and this event in not in the distant future but is near in time.

The defining characteristic of heaven or the heavenly realm is timelessness. To avoid the problems of a paradox, all that is must co-exist with what was and what will be. As the Father and the Son are one, so too must glorified disciples be one with them (one meaning in unity as in one mindset). Because YHWH consigned all of humanity to Satan’s rule for a season, unity within the heavenly realm was maintained even though Satan had led a rebellion against the Most High, and had been so thoroughly defeated that he could be allowed a modicum of liberty (Job 1:6–7 & 2:1–2). However, rebellion within Satan’s ranks breaks unity and cannot be tolerated. Thus, when the princes of Persia pushed against the spiritual king of Greece, and this king of Greece retaliated by going to war (Satan reigns over a hierarchy of rebellion), spiritual Babylon disqualified itself from any longer reigning over the kingdom of the world. It cannot continue. It must be destroyed and never rebuilt. But the essence of timelessness requires that Babylon’s destruction come through it being cast into the creation, where change occurs through the passing of time. In the timeless heavenly realm, the presence of life cannot co-exist with the absence of life. Everything that has life will continue to have life for the moment has neither beginning nor end. Hence, life is everlasting. But the creation of the universe was the creation of a beautiful death chamber, for the defining characteristic of matter and all that is constructed of matter is change. Because one moment becomes another moment, the presence of life can pass into its absence. Even spirit beings confined inside time can die, which makes the universe the ultimate place of spiritual darkness.

Again, war has broken out within Satan’s hierarchical structure, this war today effecting the mindset of every person as battles are fought for control of human mental landscapes. Political commentaries such as Rush Limbaugh realize that humanity is on the brink of monumental change. They sense or intuitively know that the former mindset that dominated human thought is in the process of being rejected in favor of a new mindset that is closely aligned with conservative American ideals, a mindset that is Evangelical in theology and democratic in practice. They are feeling the effect of the ongoing war in the heavenly realm, and they already realize that the Classical Greek ideals that have shaped the American experience will prevail worldwide. The former status quo is being systematically routed from its entrenched positions in human psyches. What these commentators haven’t yet realized is just how decisively Athenian-Spartan ideals will prevail over the enlightened liberalism of enjoined communities, the theology underlying socialism.

Because of the peculiarities of timelessness, the ongoing war within Satan's hierarchy was known about prior to the foundations of the creation being stretched taut. The Logos was sacrificed from the stretching of these foundational strings. He saw Satan fall like lightning when cast into time before He entered His creation to be actually sacrificed. And He has used time and its passage to create a hierarchical government structure to replace spiritual Babylon before the ongoing war actually broke out…it is difficult for human beings to fully grasp the possibilities presented by timelessness. The simple statement of principle is to know the end of a matter from its beginning. But the ramification of this statement leaves a time-centered psyche wondering how long was the end known before the matter began. Conscious human thought is produced within time, and incorporates time as an essential element, one reason why the thoughts of God are not the thoughts of mortals.

The moment when the hierarchical government created by the Son of Man replaces spiritual Babylon begins the Lord’s day, or the day of the Lord, a day without end even though the present creation will end in another millennium (Rev 21:1). This day of the Lord begins halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation, not at the end of these years. It begins with the birth of a spiritual Seth, the third son of the last Eve, a son representing the third of humanity that will be refined as silver is refined [in fire], and tested as gold is tested [under pressure] (Zech 13:9). This third of humanity will call upon God, and God will say that they are His. They will be accepted as the Son was accepted. They are all those who endure to the end (Matt 24:13). This third of humankind shall be saved by enduring 1260 days without taking the mark of the beast, for the promise of entering God’s rest (i.e., the Millennium reign of Christ Jesus) is to them.

The body of the Son of Man is today cloaked in the brightness of the sun, but is about to be revealed—the Son of Man, who will be revealed at the end of this present evil age (Luke 17:26–30). Christ Jesus is the Head; disciples are the Body that is presently clothed in the righteousness of Christ. But this cloaked Body is not spiritually robust and strong. Instead, it has grown flabby on a diet of lawlessness, with only a few members retaining the spiritual strength to walk uprightly before God when the Body’s nakedness is revealed. Therefore, just as the patriarch Israel and his family (the seventy) went down to Egypt as free men yet their descendants were enslaved and badly used by the Pharaoh, the early Church went into sin when it tried to enter God’s rest on the following day. Enslaved by the spiritual king of Babylon, the greater Church has been badly used ever since. But as the circumcised nation was liberated from bondage, the spiritually circumcised nation will also be liberated from bondage to sin. However, the death of Egyptian firstborns was the ransom price of Israel leaving Egypt (Isa 43:3–4). The death of spiritual Babylon’s firstborns will be the ransom price for spiritual Israel to leave Babylon. And this second Passover liberation of the spiritually circumcised firstborn son of the last Eve is the prophetic focus of formerly sealed and secret prophecies, for the great horn or first king of the spiritual king of Greece will also be broken as a firstborn not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God.

The problem with prophecy is what is revealed. As Jesus of Nazareth, the first of the firstfruits, was consigned to death, so too will all of the firstfruits, sans a spiritual Joshua and a spiritual Caleb, be consigned to death. The Church will not be bodily raptured to heaven. It will not go to a place of physical safety. It will die, physically or spiritually. A third son, lead by that spiritual Joshua and Caleb—the remnant that keeps the commandments and holds to the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17)—will enter God’s rest. Satan will go after this remnant, but they will prevail against him, just as the children of the circumcised nation that left Egyptian bondage, under Joshua, defeated many mighty kings once they crossed the Jordan.

Disciples who seek to save their physical lives will lose their spiritual lives, will become marked as Cain was. Disciples willing to lose their physical lives will save their spiritual lives. When the seven endtime years of tribulation begin, the natural branches that were broken off until the fullness of the Gentiles comes to Christ (Rom 11:25) will be grafted back onto the root of righteousness. These natural branches will not give up the Sabbath. They will not attempt to enter God’s rest on the following day, whereas the wild branches, because of unbelief, will rebel against God and will try to enter His rest on the following day, thereby turning their unbelief into disobedience (Heb 3:19 & 4:6; Num 14:11, 35, 40–41). Thus, these natural branches will die as righteous Abel died—they were consigned to death when they crossed the Jordan on the 10^th day of the first month. As a paschal lamb, they were penned in Judea, where they have long awaited the forthcoming second Passover. They have been, with the exception of the 144,000 virgins, slaughtered from the foundations of the world.

Physical circumcision removes the natural covering of an Israelite male, thereby negating Christ’s sacrifice as the paschal Lamb of God, a Lamb chosen appropriate to the size of the household. A circumcised Israelite walks naked before God, with his only covering for sin being his obedience to the laws of God. But when spiritually circumcised sons of Abraham are liberated from lawlessness at the beginning of the Tribulation, they too will walk naked before God, with their only covering for sin being their obedience to God. They, as the body of the Son of Man, will be revealed. Thus, without obedience by faith neither a physically circumcised nor a spiritually circumcised son of Abraham will please God. Both must walk uprightly before God. And circumcised Israelites will demonstrate their faith in God by tenaciously clinging to their obedience to the laws of God, which none of the Pharisees of Christ’s day were keeping (John 7:19). So by faith and by their profession of Christ Jesus (Rom 10:9), physically circumcised Israelites will receive spiritual birth and salvation, but they will die as righteous Abel died.

When the Son of Man is revealed, Babylon still stands so the little ones will be delivered into the hand of the lawless one, the man of perdition who seeks to change times and the law (Dan 7:25). In or from the heavenly realm, two kingdoms cannot reign over the earth at the same time. Again, the kingdom of the world doesn’t become the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ until halfway through the seven years of tribulation. So for the first half of these seven years, the revealed body of the Son of Man will truly be delivered into the hand of the one who comes by the working of Satan (2 Thess 2:9). This revealed Body, however, emerges divided into a northern house of Arian Christianity, and a southern house of trinitarian Christianity. And the lawless one will come as an Arian Christian, will come sincerely believing that the angel inside him is Christ Jesus. He will make war against trinitarian Christians, who will identify him as part of a cult, as an antichrist, and will physically fight against him. But trinitarian Christianity will not prevail. For behind this lawless one is the fourth beast of Daniel chapter seven, the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse, Death itself.

Because God turns His hand against two [of three] parts of the little ones (Zech 13:7–8) during the first half of the Tribulation, He delivers them into the hand of the man of perdition. Even though this lawless one comes by the workings of Satan, the man of perdition has no power but what God allows. God consigns physical and spiritual firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God to death to redeem the spiritually circumcised descendants of Abraham from sin when Zion brings forth her children (Isa 66:7–8). The last Eve will give birth before she is in labor. She will deliver a son before the labor pains of liberation from sin grip her. This firstborn spiritual son will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk uprightly before God when liberated from lawlessness. But this son will commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit when he believes the evil report of the ten witnesses who claim that obedience to God is too large a giant to slay. And this blasphemy will not be forgiven. God will send a great delusion over this firstborn son so that this son cannot repent (2 Thess 2:11–12), for this son has no covering for his lawlessness but obedience to God once he has been revealed.

The firstborn son of the last Eve is a spiritual Cain, who will slay his righteous brother Abel, Christians who keeps the laws and commandments of God. This spiritual Cain will, as a dog biting its flanks, divide and attack itself as greater Christendom follows either the spiritual king of the North or the spiritual king of the South. And when the time appointed arises (Dan 11:29), God will loose the four angels bound at the Euphrates to slay another part of the little ones to redeem the remainder of humanity from sin (Rev 9:15). All of humanity will then be the firstborn son as the circumcised nation in Egypt was called the firstborn son of God (Exod 4:22) before its liberation. Therefore, blessed is the one who arrives at 1335 days before Christ returns (Dan 12:12). The second Passover will be three years behind the person; the sixth trumpet plague will be immediately behind the person. This person only has to endure to the end to be saved. And this is the good news that must be proclaimed to the world as a witness to all nations before the end comes (Matt 24:13–14).

The good news or gospel that must be proclaimed is easy to recognize. Going through Jesus’ Olivet discourse, Jesus says that many will come in His name and lead many astray (Matt 24:5). This was already happening in the 1^st-Century, and has been happening ever since. The Apostle Paul’s doubly accursed gospel was his condemnation of teachers from Jerusalem and the headquarters Church mixing the old covenant that separated humanity through physical circumcision with the new covenant by which hearts and minds were spiritually circumcised. And a similar mixing of covenants occurs when the physical promises and blessings for obedience to the old covenant are grafted onto grace, thereby promising prosperity for the disobedience or lawlessness of the greater Church. Again, Grace is that cloak of Christ’s righteousness presently covering the nakedness of the Body of the Son of Man with the blinding brightness of the sun.

Continuing in Jesus’ Olivet discourse, Jesus says that disciples will hear of wars and rumors of wars (Matt 24:6), an ongoing condition since the 1^st-Century. But wars and rumors of wars do not denote the end of the age nor date His return. Nor will nation rising up against nation, or famines and earthquakes (v. 7) date His return. All of these things are but the beginning of the last Eve’s birth pains (v. 8).

In Matthew 24:9, the hard labor pains of spiritual childbirth begin; the seven, endtime years of tribulation start. And the first point of bad news is, ‘"Then they will deliver you [His disciples] up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.’" The situation has drastically changed between verse 8 and verse 9. The reality of biblical prophecy is that the firstborn son of God will be consigned to death just as Jesus of Nazareth was consigned to death.

Jesus adds a second point of bad news, ‘"And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another’" (Matt 24:10). The Apostle Paul writes about this falling away, or great rebellion that occurs 2300 days before Christ returns. As the circumcised nation did not enter into God’s rest because of unbelief that became disobedience, the spiritually circumcised nation, with the exception of a Joshua and a Caleb, will not enter into God’s rest because of its unbelief that becomes sin when it tries to enter the following day. The reasons needed to justify unbelief and disobedience were developed and argued centuries ago. The usurpers prevailed. Lawlessness won, then. But when the Son of Man is revealed, there will be no covering for lawlessness. Disciples who spurn the Sabbath when they have the power to keep it will be rejected, for they didn’t love the truth enough to walk uprightly before God. And they will betray and truly hate those disciples who keep the Sabbath, for the keeping of a diminutive [in comparison with the seventh day of the spiritual creation week] or weekly Sabbath remains for the people of God (Heb 4:9).

A third point of bad news is that ‘"many false prophets will arise and will lead many astray"’ (Matt 24:11). These false prophets will inevitably identify the second Passover liberation of the spiritually circumcised nation as the sixth trumpet plague, thereby causing disciples to worship Satan when the old dragon is cast into time and comes feigning to be the returning Messiah.

A fourth point of bad news is that "because lawlessness [sin — from 1 John 3:4] will be increased, the love of many will grow cold" (Matt 24:12). The great rebellion will have occurred 2300 days before Christ Jesus returns (2 Thess 2:3 & Dan 8:14), and God will have sent a delusion over the rebelling Church (2 Thess 2:11–12) so that these "Christians" cannot repent. Because these rebels will believe that they do God a favor when they persecute genuine disciples, their sins will be increased as they, the firstborn spiritual Cain, murder their righteous brother.

And here is the good news: "But the one who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt 24:13). This is the first good news contained within Jesus’ Olivet discourse, and it is this good news (gospel) that shall be proclaimed throughout the world as a witness to all nations (v. 14). Thus, with the proclamation of this good news, the end of the age will come. The long night of watching will end.

2.

The reigning figure is Babylon: its physical head was Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 2:37–38); its spiritual head is the old dragon that has deceived the whole world as the prince of the power of the air. This first Babylon fell to Medes and Persians, who in turn fell to Greeks that reigned over the temple at Jerusalem until repelled by the circumcised sons of light. The polis of Jerusalem was all of Israel’s promised land that had been returned to the nation after Israel was sent into Babylonian captivity.

The Greek Seleucid king of the North Antiochus Epiphanes reigned over Jerusalem until he placed the abomination of desolation—a statue of Zeus—in the temple. The physical sons of light then broke the Greek’s reign in the Maccabean war. However, according to Jesus in His Olivet discourse, the abomination of desolation, the one spoken of by Daniel the prophet, appears at the end of the age and is a sign of His coming (Matt 24:15). Therefore, the breaking of the Seleucid king’s reign over Jerusalem by physical sons of light becomes a shadow of, or a metaphor for the breaking of the endtime king of the North’s reign over spiritual Jerusalem and the temple[s] of God by spiritual sons of light. Antiochus Epiphanes as the visible, physical king of the North is then a shadow of the invisible, spiritual king of the North.

The understanding Jesus asks of the reader in His Olivet discourse (again Matt 24:15) makes the reality of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision a frightening, human-like image that represents a kingdom of Babylon that is not of this world, rather than another earthly copy of physical Babylon. Once physical Babylon was destroyed, it would never be rebuilt again. This was true concerning its geographical location; this is also true of its physical reign as an instrument to which God gave power to punish Israel and other nations. There will never again be another physical Babylon, just as once spiritual Babylon falls, there will never again be a revival of this spiritual kingdom. And all prophecy pundits who teach that the endtime great city of Babylon is an earthly kingdom such as a united Europe have not been sent by God.

The spiritual Babylon that reigned through Nebuchadnezzar, an instrument in God’s hands to punish Israel for the nation abandoning the law of God, isn’t one human kingdom, but reigns to this day with the old dragon as its head. It is a kingdom built upon disobedience to the law of God. It is to this kingdom that humanity has been consigned so that God can have mercy upon everyone. It is this Babylon that will fall when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15). The toppling of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw wasn’t by physical sons of light, but by a stone cut without the aid of human hands. By extension, the toppling of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw occurs in the spiritual realm when the kingdom of the world is given to one like the Son of Man (Dan 7:13–14); is given to the revealed Son of Man, Head and Body. Therefore, applying the understanding Jesus asks of the reader, the reign of physical Babylon from Nebuchadnezzar on through to when the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes placed a statue of Zeus in the Holy of Holies forms the shadow of the spiritual kingdom of Babylon in the same way as a standing human being casts a horizontal shadow across the geography upon which the person stands. The shadow, in this case, is of a heavenly reality or figure, and the shadow is cast across the mental topography of the sons of disobedience over which the old dragon reigns as the prince of the power of the air. The shadow and its reality are joined at the feet that are crushed, with their dust blown away as chaff, which is when or where the spiritual sons of light under Christ Jesus inherit the kingdom of the world.

Jesus was the great endtime prophet. Since He makes the appearance of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet an endtime happening, it is with this abomination that prophetic understanding also comes. With the possible exception of the mark of the Beast, no naming phrase generates as much curiosity as does the abomination of desolation. The phrase sounds evil. And most end time prophecy pundits earn their livelihoods attacking a straw man abomination that will, they assure their followers, appear truly evil. Of course, evil like beauty is in the eye of the beholder: evil is a linguistic icon to which so many objects have been individually and culturally assigned that the icon has ceased being truly useful. Biblically, evil is nothing more than determining right and wrong for oneself, as seen in the Genesis temptation account. It is judging the law of God, and by extension, judging God. It is a person deciding, based upon his or her values, whether the person will keep the commandments of God, or which commandments to keep. Most Christians agree that nine facets of the single law of God are important, but that the least of the commandments can be modified to suit the world in which the person lives. Jesus, of course, addressed this selective keeping of the commandments (Matt 5:19).

The abomination that makes desolate will be personified in the man of perdition, the lawless one who comes by the workings of Satan (2 Thess 2:3–9), who will declare himself God (v. 4). The prophet Daniel dates the setting up of this abomination to 1290 days (Dan 12:11) before the Messiah restores all things; thus, the man of perdition will declare himself God 1290 before the Messiah comes. And this lawless one, because of the spiritual power by which he comes, will attempt to change times and the law (Dan 7:25). He will cause many Christians to attempt entering God’s rest on the following day.

God loathed the circumcised nation that left Egypt because of the nation’s unbelief that became rebellion when the nation tried to enter the land of promise on the following day (Ps 95:10–11). Both the Psalmist and the writer of Hebrews link the Judean landscape with the rest of God, which is both glorification and Christ Jesus’ millennial reign over humanity. Therefore, the geography of the hills of Judea becomes the representation of the mental topography of drawn disciples (i.e., of spiritually circumcised Israelites), while the fertile but mostly level plains of Egypt and of Babylon represent the mental landscapes of the sons of disobedience of whom all disciples once were (Eph 2:3). Disciples, when drawn, are to mentally leave Egypt, or leave Babylon in the same way that the circumcised nation left its landscapes of bondage. Abraham as the father of the faithful "obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance" (Heb 11:8). Disciples are to obey when called to leave Babylon and journey to the place of God’s rest; disciples are to journey mentally from Babylon to Judea, where they live as spiritual Judeans. This is what the Apostle Peter taught Gentile converts (Gal 2:14 — Paul didn’t take exception with what Peter taught, but with Peter’s hypocrisy which caused him to separate himself from the Gentile converts when the circumcision faction arrived from Jerusalem). This is what still faithful ministers of spiritual Israel teach. And in the writer of Hebrews’ discussion of the millennial rest of God, the writer reminds disciples that there remains the keeping of the little Sabbath, or weekly Sabbath for the people of God (Heb 4:9). Disciples cannot enter the rest of God on the following day once they have been liberated from bondage and have left spiritual Egypt/Babylon. All they can do is rebel against God as did the Israelites that left Egypt when they tried to enter the geographical promised land on the following day.

God hasn’t changed. Spiritually circumcised descendants of Abraham can no more enter God’s rest on the following day than could the circumcised nation. But like its physical counterpart that left bondage to Pharaoh, the spiritual nation rebels against God by believing the lawless one, by accepting the authority of the lawless one, by trying to enter God’s rest on the following day. Thus, the abomination that makes desolates will appear as a man of righteousness, not as a sinister manifestation of darkness. This abomination will cause spiritual Israel to rebel against God, thereby slaying the entire nation, thereby condemning the entire Church, with the exceptions of Joshua and Caleb, to die in the wilderness of sin just as the circumcised nation that left Egypt died in the Wilderness of Sin. So yes, the abomination that makes desolate is truly evil, but he will appear extremely righteous as he comes with the power of the Cross.

Evangelical pundits inevitably make the abomination of desolation into an antichrist globalist under satanic control. Certainly the man of perdition comes by the workings of Satan; again, he declares himself God 1290 days before Christ returns, for he truly believes the angel inside him is Christ Jesus. He will not realize that he is possessed by Satan in the same way that Satan entered Judas Iscariot (John 13:27).

But Satan appears as an angel of light, granted, as a disguised angel of light, but nonetheless, as one who brings righteousness. His ministers in the days of the Apostle Paul appeared as servants of righteousness (2 Cor 11:14–15). They still appear the same. They do not appear evil, or as culturally-perceived Satanists would appear. They appear as servants of God, but servants who teach lawlessness (Matt 7:21–23).

Lawlessness is sin, and sin kills (Rom 6:23). Therefore, the abomination that desolates functions to pollute disciples, the spiritual temples of God, in the same way that pork sacrificed on the alter and a statue of Zeus placed in the Holy of Holies polluted the temple in Jerusalem. These living temples of God will now have to be purified with blood. Christ Jesus will not be sacrificed again, and the blood of goats and calves will not wash away sin, so the blood of disciples will be shed for their lawlessness.

Prophets from ancient times prophesied "war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms" (Jer 28:8). Prophets sent by God did not prophesy peace, and those prophets who prophesy peace should not be believed until after that peace comes to pass (v. 9). Therefore, when rereading prophecy what’s ascertained is a period of war, famine, and pestilence—a period of death unlike any that has previously come upon humanity. During the first three and a half years of the Tribulation, two of every three people die (Zech 13:8) either physically or spiritually (or both). This is death on a scale that will cause the remaining third of humanity to despise death, to hate death and everything that represents death. And the mark of the beast represents death. Those disciples born-from-above when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15) will hate the beast and the antiChrist. The good news Jesus prophesied is that those who endure to the end shall be saved. They shall be gathered from the north country, the geographical region that is the mimetic representation of the metaphor representing death, when Christ returns. And the Church will not be exempt from dying. Rather, the greater Christian Church as the last Eve will give birth to two sons near the beginning of the seven, endtime years of tribulation. The first son, a spiritual Cain, will slay its righteous younger brother. For the first son will not mentally relocate to Judea and live as a spiritual Judean. Instead, it will betray and kill disciples who begin to live as righteous, spiritually circumcised Judeans.

The pollution of lawlessness that will require the shedding of blood won’t seem evil unless one has been living by the law of God. Rather, this pollution will appear like righteousness. This pollution will appear as orthodox Christian doctrine, derived from historical exegesis. This pollution will be accepting the man of perdition’s changing of times and the law. Thus, observing the seventh day Sabbath will mark those who know God and is known of God (Exod 31:13, 17) in the same way that taking the mark of the beast will identify who is of the antiChrist after Satan is cast from heaven. And so there is no mistake, during the first half of the tribulation, when the little ones are delivered into the hand of the lawless one by God (again Dan 7:25), observing the Sabbath will mark those individuals who are of God. Everyone not so marked will be of Babylon, will be of the lawless one. But during the second half of the Tribulation, after the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh, the mark of the beast [chi xi stigma] will mark those who are of the antiChrist. Everyone not so marked will be of God. Therefore, what is seen is that the first half and the second half of the Tribulation will mirror one another.

Saints who do not love righteousness enough to have practiced walking blameless before God will rebel against God, and will be placed under a great delusion that will not allow them to repent of their lawlessness; they will be condemned spiritually. But they, seeking to do God a favor, will slay righteous Abel, their brother—they will betray their brothers, will hate their brothers, and will increase their lawlessness until they readily kill their brothers. They are of Cain, and they will be marked for death.

So the abomination that makes desolate causes disciples to separate into those who keep the Sabbath and those who try to enter God’s rest on the following day. This abomination will appear as a great man of righteousness, as a stabilizing force in a topsy-turvy world. He will not appear sinister, for who then would follow him? The abomination of desolation will fully convince hypocritical goats that they are the sheep.

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©2005 by Homer Kizer. All rights reserved.

"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."