Politics & Prophecy: A Lawyer's View of the End Times - LONANG.com

196 Pages·2015·1.27 MB·English

by  Gerald R. Thompson

POLITICS & PROPHECY
A Lawyer’s View of the End Times
Version 6.0
© Copyright 2013-2015 Gerald R. Thompson
ISBN: 978-0-9977265-3-4
All Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ...............................................................1
OVERVIEW ...........................................................1
INTERPRETIVE CONTEXT ..............................................2
Four Principal Views ...............................................2
What Really Drives End Times Viewpoints .............................4
Why I Am an Historic Premillennialist .................................6
BASIC CHRONOLOGY ..................................................9
OBSERVATIONS ABOUT TIME PERIODS ................................ 11
What Calendar Does God Use? ......................................12
Part 1 - The Big Picture ...................................................14
THE OVERARCHING NARRATIVE ...................................... 14
WHAT’S IN A NAME? ............................................ .. ...15
WHO IS WHO? ................................................... . ....16
Genealogical Chart ...............................................17
WHO IS WHERE? .....................................................19
ESSENTIAL SYMBOLOGY ........................................ .... .23
PARALLEL WITH EXODUS .............................................25
THE COMMON THREAD .............................................. .28
Game of Thrones .................................................28
Clash Of The Titans ...............................................30
Part 2 - Judgment of the Nations ..........................................33
A WORD OF CAUTION .............................................. ..33
THE SEVEN SEALS ............... ................................. ....34
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS .......... ................................... ..37
THE SEVEN BOWLS ...................................................42
THE TWO WITNESSES ........... ......................................45
The Most Hated Persons In The World ................................46
What Kind Of Witnesses? ..........................................46
ARMAGEDDON .......................................................49
The (Great) Day Of The Lord .......................................49
Gog and Magog ..................................................50
Marriage Supper of the Lamb .......................................54
The Great Winepress of God ........................................55
TRIBULATION SAINTS ............................................. ...57
FIRST RESURRECTION ............................................. ...60
A Resurrection Of The Body ........................................60
Timing and Sequence ..............................................62
THE RAPTURE QUESTION ........................................... ..65
Arguments For and Against .........................................65
Will The Church Be Spared? ........................................69
Part 3 - The Restoration of Israel .........................................73
PROPHECY OF THE 70 WEEKS .........................................73
The “Day-Year” Theory ........... ................................75
Days of Future Past ...............................................76
The Beginning Of The End Time ....................................79
THE REGATHERING OF THE JEWS ................................. ... ..80
The Root and the Graft ............................................80
Hallmarks of the Regathering .......................................82
FIRST AMONG THE NATIONS ..........................................84
Spiritual Rebirth ..................................................85
The Time of Jacob’s Trouble ........................................86
The Time of the Gentiles ...........................................89
THE MESSIANIC ERA .............................................. ...92
The Golden Age ..................................................92
Topographical Changes ............................................94
REBUILDING THE TEMPLE ............................................96
Importance of the Jewish Temple ....................................96
Four Reasons for Rebuilding the Temple ..............................97
Driven To Rebuild ...............................................100
ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION...................................... 102
THE 144,000 OF ISRAEL ...............................................103
Why Are They Sealed? ...........................................104
Who Are They Really? ...........................................106
Anglo-Israelism and the True Jew ...................................108
Part 4 - The Conquest of Evil ............................................111
THE BEAST KINGDOM ...............................................111
The Historical Context ............................................111
The Missing Kingdom (7th Empire) ..................................114
The Coming Caliphate (Final Empire) ...............................115
THE GREAT HARLOT ................................................117
THE SATANIC TRINITY ............................................ ..119
Satan ..........................................................119
False Prophet ...................................................122
The Mark of the Beast ............................................124
THE ANTICHRIST ................................................. ...127
The Twin Visions of the “Little Horn” ...............................127
The Man of Lawlessness ..........................................131
A God of Fortresses ..............................................133
OPPOSITE WORLD ................................................. ..135
THE ABYSS (BOTTOMLESS PIT) ..................................... ..137
FINAL BATTLE AND JUDGMENT ......................................138
The Last Hurrah .................................................138
Great White Throne and The Second Resurrection ......................140
HELL ...............................................................142
Part 5 - The Kingdom of Christ ..........................................145
SECOND COMING (SECOND ADVENT) .................................145
THE MILLENNIUM ................................................. ..149
Why Christ’s Kingdom Will Be Physical And Political ..................149
The Sabbath Principle, or the 7,000 Year Plan for Man ..................151
The Nature of Kingdom Government ................................156
Rule with a “Rod of Iron” .........................................158
THE SEVENTH (OR EIGHTH?) DIVINE COVENANT ......................160
The Unfinished Work Of Christ ....................................160
Perfection of the Mosaic Theocratic Law .............................161
A Worldwide Theocracy ..........................................163
ONE WORLD RELIGION ............................................. .166
The Millennial Church ............................................166
Religious Freedom - The New Normal ...............................169
THINGS THAT WILL NOT CHANGE ....................................171
The Curse of the Ground ..........................................171
Dominion Over The Earth .........................................173
Ministry of the Holy Spirit .........................................176
NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH ......................................178
All Things New .................................................179
The New Jerusalem ..............................................181
The Sum Of All Things ...........................................183
POSTSCRIPT .... ................................................. ...185
Appendix A ..............................................................188
COMPARISON CHART OF PROPHETIC VIEWS ..........................188
Appendix B ..............................................................190
A BRIEF TIMELINE OF THE END TIME .................................190
Introduction
OVERVIEW
Before diving into the topic of end times prophecy, or eschatology, you should ask the question,
“What on earth is God doing?” So many people get caught up in timelines and prophecy charts that
they never see what the big picture looks like - meaning, the totality of God’s prophetic plan. The
reality is that prophecy is just God’s way of telling us a story. The story has a beginning, a middle,
an ending, and a consistent plot line.
The closest any scripture text comes to giving us the overall purpose of the story is Dan. 9:24: “to
finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in
everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.”
Certainly, if you consider everything that is yet to come - including the new heaven and new earth -
these are the things God is going to accomplish for His people.
In other words, the goal of this inquiry is not to produce a new or innovative master timeline of the
end times. What I am trying to do here is determine the purposes God will accomplish in the end
times, not necessarily when they will occur. We will of course consider a number of timing and
sequence issues, but the reasons why things will happen always take priority over the question of
when.
Furthermore, I am not going to attempt to show how any long past or recent events have already
fulfilled end times prophecies. I am not going to link any end times prophecies with historical
chronologies. I will not attempt to identify who the Antichrist was or will be. I will not claim that
end times prophecy is literally being fulfilled as we watch. My own belief is that the end times are
not far off, as far as world history goes, but as of this writing, we are not there yet. Predicting when
the end times will arrive is not why I have undertaken this task, either.
I have tried very hard to examine the textual evidence multiple times over the years so as to discern
what God intends to do free from any hidden agendas. I will fully disclose my assumptions as I go
along. I’m not promoting the views of any particular church or ministry, I didn’t come up with my
basic thesis (next paragraph) until after I researched the material and started putting my findings in
writing, and I don’t claim to have all the answers. But I think I have arrived at some conclusions
worth considering.
Looking at the textual evidence as objectively as I can, I believe God has four primary objectives
in mind whenever He gets around to wrapping up history. This book is therefore organized in
keeping with these purposes, and not primarily in chronological order or for the purpose of making
predictions. These four purposes are:
1) judging and punishing the disobedient nations of the world (especially those which have waged
war against Israel, both in ancient and modern times) [Part 2];
2) restoring the land, safety, wealth and hearts of the Jewish people as a nation [Part 3];
3) letting Satan and his agents bring sin to its full fruition in the world, so that Jesus can come and
conquer them [Part 4]; and
4) establishing both a preliminary and a final kingdom of Christ so He can rule the present and
future world in righteousness forever [Part 5].
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Before examining these purposes, I will lay a general foundation for understanding prophecy in this
Introduction and in Part 1.
Additionally, what very few commentators (if any) have addressed about the end times is what the
political landscape will look like immediately before, and then following on the heels of, the Second
Coming. To say the world is headed for tremendous political upheaval is an understatement. By
God’s design, world politics will first be hijacked, and then transformed, by the Antichrist.
Globalization efforts will reach their peak and then collapse. Then all of that will be erased to make
way for a new world political order that will succeed where the Third Reich failed - to last a
thousand years.
Forget all about “top-down, bottom-up and inside-out” models of political change during the end
times. This is not going to be a people’s revolution. It’s all going to be top-down when we get to
the end. In fact, it’s going to be a colossal clash of kingdoms with more collateral damage in human
lives than you have ever imagined. Neither side will be taking any prisoners.
You may not think it wise for me to mix religion and politics, but to me they are the same thing.
Welcome to the world of biblical prophecy through a lawyer’s eyes.
INTERPRETIVE CONTEXT
Four Principal Views
For better or worse, there are four principal views of eschatology held by Christians, with many sub-
variations and individual perspectives. I say “for better or worse” because it must grieve God there
is so much division among His own people about matters He has disclosed to us. He made those
disclosures in order to give people understanding, not confusion. God is not divided in His opinion,
and He didn’t want His people to be divided in their opinions either.
There are even some branches of Christianity that claim not to have an eschatology, as if avoiding
the matter will get them closer to the truth. But the truth is, there are simply too many prophetic
scriptures in the Bible - from beginning to end - for any serious student of God’s Word to ignore.
If God devoted so much of His written word to prophecy, we ignore it at our peril.
Nevertheless, any way you slice it, many people - many Bible-believing people - are going to be
wrong because each major viewpoint of the end times has many adherents, and each viewpoint is
mutually exclusive with the others. Thus, no matter which viewpoint is right, a substantial number
of believers (if not the vast majority of them) will be wrong. What a shame.
The four main camps of prophetic views are known as Dispensational (God works in distinct ways
at distinct times with little continuity) - a sub-group of premillennialism; Historic Premillennialism
(the Millennium, or Golden Age, is yet future); Postmillennialism (the Millennium has already
started, and we’re in it now); and Amillennialism (there is not now, and never will be, any earthly
Golden Age or political kingdom of Christ).
• Dispensationalists generally believe in a secret Rapture of the Church before (or midway
through) the Tribulation, and after the Second Coming there will be a literal 1,000 year reign of
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Christ on earth. Pre-Tribulation Rapture adherents believe that it could literally happen at any
moment. This view is popularized in the Left Behind series of books and movies. It is a common
viewpoint among Baptists, pentecostal and charismatic churches, and independent churches.
• Historic premillennialists generally believe the Tribulation could come very soon, but there are
a number of things which still need to take place first, and the Rapture (so-called) is really just a part
of the Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation (not secret and not a separate event), following
which Christ will rule for 1,000 literal years on earth. Premillennialists (or premills) view both the
first and second resurrections as physical (i.e., the dead will rise from the grave both times). People
who hold this view are scattered among the Protestant and evangelical churches.
• Postmillennialists (sometimes postmills herein) generally believe the Tribulation already
happened, Christians will eventually come into political domination worldwide for a period of
uncertain duration, and Christ won’t return until that happens in the distant future. This viewpoint
is also called “Preterist,” i.e., that the Tribulation has already happened (pre-100 A.D.) and we’re
in the Millennium now. This viewpoint is common among Presbyterians and other churches which
consider themselves Reformed or Calvinist.
• Amillennialists (sometimes amills herein) generally believe the Tribulation is the next major
prophetic event to occur, but won’t happen until the distant future, and Christ (or Christians) will
never rule the world politically. The amills, together with the postmills, also view the first
resurrection as spiritual only (i.e., personal salvation), and there will only be one physical
resurrection at the end of time. This view prevails in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
churches.
See the attached chart comparing these four views in much greater detail in Appendix A.
These four views form two meta-camps. Both postmillennialists and amillennialists believe that
history ends, and eternity begins, when the Second Coming occurs. For postmills, the Second
Coming marks the end of the Millennium (because we’re already in it), so there is nothing that
comes afterward in terms of earthly history. For amills, who skip the millennium altogether, there
is also nothing which comes after the Second Coming in terms of earthly history. For both groups,
all that comes after the Second Coming is the Final Judgment and eternity.
That is why you often hear some people say that the Second Coming and/or Armageddon imply the
end of the world, which in reality simply betrays their postmill or amill viewpoint assumptions.
To premills (dispensational and historic), neither Armageddon nor the Second Coming are the end
of the world, and history will go on for at least another 1,000 years after them. This is a major
departure from the other views. At any point in time prior to the Second Coming, a significant
portion of world history remains yet future - a future where the topography of the earth, the structure
and governance of the nations, the state of affairs of the Jewish people, and the knowledge and
influence of Christianity and God’s laws will all be significantly altered from current conditions.
In other words, premills believe in a new world order prior to and separate from eternity.
One thing many people from all camps will agree with is that the Mayan calendar, the Doomsday
Clock, the writings of Nostradamus, and similarly fanciful ideas will play no part in how the end
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times actually unfold. Mankind is not going to bring about its own destruction, the earth does not
have a built-in expiration date, we are not going to spoil the earth and need to colonize space, and
no comet, asteroid or alien invasion is going to destroy the world or produce an extinction level
event.
If those are the things you expect to happen to the world in the future, your time would be better
spent reading science fiction and fantasy books rather than biblical prophecy. Granted, the future
is going to see some fantastic events taking place. However, God is firmly in control of the earth
and He is going to ensure that His purposes are accomplished. Only God controls the future of the
world - not natural forces, not an alien intervention, and certainly not humanity. So if you have the
idea that we control our own future - sorry, it just ain’t so.
What Really Drives End Times Viewpoints
To hear people talk, you might think that theologians pick the point of view that seems to fit the
evidence best. In other words, that they examine the scripture texts containing prophetic statements
(the evidence) and the sequence of events they describe in an unbiased fashion, and the results of
this unbiased analysis is what drives people to pick one view over another. Nothing could be further
from the truth. The fact is, a person’s view of the end times is entirely predetermined by their view
of three things:
1) the nature of the divine covenants - mainly, whether they are separate and distinct agreements or
installments of a single agreement;
2) whether the ministry of Christ includes an earthly political kingdom and who will bring it about
(God or man); and
3) the role of the Church in the world (especially whether it merges with or replaces Israel in God’s
plan since Christ).
If you believe the ministry of Christ will always necessarily be limited to the spiritual only (not
temporal, or political), then you will tend to view the role of the Church as being concerned with
spiritual matters only, and the Millennium as merely allegorical. In other words, you will be an
amillennialist.
Think it through. When Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn. 18:36), did He mean only
at that time, or did He mean it will always be that way? If the second way and not the first, then He
will never need an earthly kingdom. And if the head of the Church won’t need it, then how can it
be the business of the body of Christ to implement an earthly kingdom? And if neither Jesus nor the
Church will ever have an earthly kingdom, what do you need a Millennial eschatology for?
If you view the various divine covenants according to the principle of continuity, i.e., that each
covenant is a successive chapter in a single unfolding (progressively revealed) relationship between
God and His people in which later installments modify or supersede prior ones, then you will
necessarily regard the divine covenants as applying to Christians only (because the Church covenant
is the last one to date). However, those covenants include a variety of temporal government items -
such as capital punishment (Noahic covenant), title to the land of Israel (Abrahamic covenant),
sundry laws and regulation of God’s people (Mosaic covenant), and the throne of David (Davidic
covenant).
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If you assume all of those are now primarily directed towards Christians in their application, then
you will tend to regard it as not only the right, but the duty, of the Church to bring about the earthly
kingdom of Christ (and not merely wait for Jesus to do it) to show its obedience. Since this work
of the Church will gradually bring about an earth completely governed by Christ, it necessitates the
view that we are in the Millennium now, because the Millennium is the time when the kingdom of
Christ comes to fruition in an earthly sense. In other words, you will be a postmillennialist.
A consequence of the postmill position is that if we are in the Millennium now, then the Tribulation
must have occurred in the past (which means the book of Revelation had to be written before 70
A.D. instead of the usually accepted date of 95-96 A.D.) Not even postmillennialism upsets the
universally agreed upon sequence of scripture that the Tribulation precedes the Millennium. Thus,
most postmills are also Preterists, i.e., people who believe most end times prophecies have already
been fulfilled.
If, however, you take all of the various prophecies about the restoration of Israel as literally applying
to Jews and not to Christians, and you understand some of the divine covenants (especially the
Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the Abrahamic covenant as it relates to the land of
Israel) as applying to Jews and not to Christians, then you will necessarily believe the Church has
not replaced Israel in God’s plan, and the destiny of Israel and the Church (while interrelated) are
distinct. The restoration of Israel as a nation necessitates the second coming of Christ to inaugurate
it, which means that if you believe this you will be a premillennialist.
As a premill, you will tend to view some of the divine covenants as applying to non-Christians, the
ministry of Christ and the role of the Church being mainly spiritual now, and temporal/political after
Jesus comes back, and you will tend to view the Golden Age as something which the Church cannot
bring about on its own current authority, but will require an additional intervention by Jesus.
If you are a premillennialist, but you also believe in a secret Rapture (that the Church will escape
the Tribulation before it happens or at least before it gets really bad) and that some of the divine
covenants no longer apply to anyone (i.e., little or no continuity between them), then you will tend
to view the Church as having limited or deferred spiritual authority now, and even possibly that the
present Church Age is an “unplanned period” in God’s overall plan. In any event, with those
assumptions, you will be a dispensationalist.
As a consequence, when a premillennialist, postmillennialist and amillennialist all read the same
scripture texts, they will read them literally or allegorically in keeping with their previously
determined theological framework. Everyone claims to be objective, but human nature gets in the
way and nearly everyone allows their pre-conceived theology to force a reading of the text in a
certain way.
That’s why I revisit the topic of eschatology every few years - to re-examine what I believe, what
the texts actually say, and to scrub out as many pre-conceived notions as I can identify. Also, I have
tried to be as objective as possible in coming to an opinion on the nature of the divine covenants,
the ministry of Christ, and the role of the Church. Whether I have been more or less successful than
anyone else, I will let you decide. All I can say is, I have tried my best.
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