Sunday, January 12, 2014

An Hour and An End - Pt. 2 (Prophetic Signs)

This study of prophetic signs was done by a very scholarly man with years and years of experience. Please pray before you read and ask God for enlightenment. We need to know the truth and only the truth. 

Please, don't read this if you aren't interested in taking your time and really study. Too many want to be entertained as they read. They want excitement, they want the 'wow' factor, they want something to captivate them and hold their attention. If this is what you want then maybe you don't want to study to understand… remember this--

2Ti_2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

A workman. We really need to work as we are studying. Most people know that studying something by the very nature of having to study it, means you are diligently learning about that thing. If you study for a test you are studying to gain and retain knowledge. We have to study to gain and retain knowledge of our Lord and Savior. 

So please, don't read this expecting entertainment, read it expecting truth.

*

Luk 21:24  And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Luk 21:25  And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring

'An Hour and An End.'    Written by Elder William Grotheer  Adventist Laymen's Foundation.

p 7 -- Chapter III -- An Analysis of Luke 21:24-25

"The Distress of Nations" --

Verses 24 and 25 of Luke 21 are closely associated together. The KJV tends to obscure this close relationship.

In both verses, the English words, "Gentiles" and "nations" are translated from the SAME Greek word. Using the word - nations - in each instance, these verses would read - "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the nations (eqnwn), until the times of the nations (eqnwn) be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon earth distress of nations (eqnwn), with perplexity."

 In other words, the ending of "the times of the Gentiles," or nations is closely associated with "the distress of nations, with perplexity."

The Greek word for "distress" is Vunoch which means "imprisoned, in the narrows, or straits." The added phrase - "with perplexity" (en aporia) conveys the picture of nations unable to meet the demands placed upon them financially, or the inability to solve the monetary stress. (See The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament by Moulton & Milligan, both articles, aporew & aporia)

It is an interesting fact that the same year which marked the closing period of the times of the Gentiles - 1967 - is also the year which marked the beginning of the financial woes of the nations.

In a Special Issue (July 4, 1974) of Myers' Finance & Energy, C. V. Myers wrote: [Gordon Tether in the London Financial Times (June 28, 1974) noted Myers as being "the well-known Canadian financial expert."] - It has now been established over the course of the last seven years - since 1967 - that there is nothing in this world the international monetary authorities can do to stem the advance of gold, or to stem the collapse of inflation - or to avoid the enormous deflation - the global liquidity crunch - and the resulting depressions. Don't doubt this. The monetary morons have demonstrated it to you time and again. Fail! Fail! Fail!

For seven years things have gone from bad to worse; the US$ has been devalued; inflation has undermined world confidence in money; and now the bankruptcies come.(pp. 2-3)

Again in 1975, Myers wrote: -- From all that I have observed of international [monetary] conferences since 1967 I do not believe that any conference is going to come up with any workable answer. It seems that the situation will just continue to deteriorate.

Only six months ago we heard every monetary authority in the world shouting, "either we lick inflation or we are doomed. This is the battle of the century." President Ford said, we have a war, and we intend to fight this war against inflation. The way he is fighting the war against inflation is to add a $70 to $100 billion deficit to the U.S. budget. What happened to all the dire predictions of the result of inflation?

All brains are stunned. They see no answer - so now they begin to think no answer is necessary. Or at least they have decided there is no use thinking about it at all. Therefore, I can only see as the end product, as I have repeatedly said in these letters - and especially after attending the big world meetings of IMF - the answer is a total collapse.

Either the countries will have to go back to a system which will stabilize the money, such as gold - or the social order, not only of the United States, but of all the industrial world, will disintegrate, and from the enormous confusion new governments will arise after much suffering and


p 8 -- bloodshed, starvation and horror. Those governments would be dictatorships.

Recently D'Estaing observed: "The world is unhappy. It is unhappy because it doesn't know where it is going, and because it senses that if it knew, it would discover that it was heading for disaster. ... The crisis the world knows today will be a long one. It is not a passing difficulty. It is actually the recognition of permanent change." (Ibid., March 11, 1975, pp. 1-2)

In the May 24, 1976 issue of his financial letter, Myers again cites the year 1967 as the base year for the beginning of the monetary perplexities which have gripped the nations since then. He wrote - "An enormous war has been going on between the forces of paper and the forces of gold since 1967 when SDR's were first proposed." Then he lists a "score card" in the battle between gold and the paper, Special Drawing Rights:

(1)   The IMF recommendation of Special Drawing Rights in 1967.
(2)   The IMF official acceptance of SDR's, 1969, and the creation of 9.5 billion SDR's during 1970, 1971, and 1972.
(3)   Nixon's break with gold, August, 1971, and the end of the world monetary system devised at Bretton Woods.
(4)   The IMF decision to sell 25 million ounces of gold at 16 auctions over the next two years - thus depleting the international money system of important gold reserves. (p. 1; see Exhibit #4)

In a letter dated, April 23, 1976, Myers noted - "Gold is to money what DEITY is to religion. Without a deity the moral code disappears. Without gold the morality of money disappears: Morality because money loses its store of value, and the man who sweated and worked has lost the fruits of his labor, and that is immoral." In Newsweek (June 19, 1978, p. 21) in an article on the tax revolt, the writer noted "Since 1967, the value of the dollar has declined 47.6 percent, and the average American working family is now barely better off in real dollars than it was a decade ago."

 The connection between the sign Jesus gave to mark the conclusion of the times of the Gentiles or nations, and the beginning of the "distress of nations" is INESCAPABLE. The fact that we are living in this very time should cause us to do some very serious thinking.

The Word - "Until" -- Twenty times in his Gospel and in the book of Acts, Luke uses the Greek word, acri or acriV, which is translated, "until."

However, in Luke 21:24, and in two places in Acts, the word is combined with the relative, 'ou, making it an idiomatic expression, achri hou. To understand the force of this expression as far as, Luke 21:24 is concerned, we need to take time to observe its use in the book of Acts.

The first instance of its use in Acts is in Chapter 7. The verse in context reads: - But when the time of promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till (achri hou) another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In which time Moses was born. (17-20a)

It should be observed that these verses indicate a "time" when the promise "drew nigh" and the children of Israel "grew and multiplied in Egypt, till a king arose" who with his counselors initiated a genocide program. This program did not begin immediately and it covered a period of time. In fact, Moses was born in that "time." Here the idiom is used to indicate a definable period of time by occurring events.

We find the same indication in the second use of the idiom in Acts 27:33. Paul was on his way to Rome. Adverse weather conditions had made the voyage extremely hazardous. To Paul it was revealed that they would be "cast upon a certain island." All on board had fasted for fourteen days, and when it appeared they were approaching

p 9 -- land, Paul advised that they should "take some food." Luke writes that Paul gave this counsel to all on board "while (achri hou) the day was coming on." From the time the first faint light on the eastern horizon heralds the coming dawn until the sun arises dispelling all darkness, the day is coming on -  A BRIEF BUT DEFINABLE PERIOD OF TIME.

In 1967, the armies of Israel recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem, yet the capitol remained at Tel Aviv.

In 1980, the Knesset declared a united Jerusalem the Capitol of all Israel.

The period which marked the CLOSING of the times of the Gentiles can be clearly defined.

*

The "Times" of the Gentiles -

 Not only does Luke present the prophecy of Jesus concerning the fate of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., in the discourse as given on the Mount of Olives; but also in describing the Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem a few days prior, he quotes Jesus saying concerning the city - "Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee around, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee: for they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time (kairon) of thy visitation." (Luke 19: 43-44) This picture is merely an enlargement of what Luke quotes Jesus as saying on the Mount of Olives - "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies" (21:20) making it a sign for His followers. In other words, when Jerusalem was destroyed it had had its day of grace - its time of visitation.

It is in this setting then, that Luke reports the words of Jesus stating that the Gentiles would also have ALLOTTED TIMES(kairoi), and that a certain event would mark the closing of those times. Even as in the case of the Jewish nation, it does not mean that all Gentiles will be converted even as all the Jews were not "converted" to Jesus, the Messiah.

The force of the concept is the same as stated in Matthew - "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (24:14) The sign that will mark the time when the witness has been preached "unto all nations (Gentiles)" has to do with events connected with Jerusalem's history.

 In this case, it is the time when the city is no longer under the control of the Gentiles.

There is a distinct parallel in the closing of the time of the Jewish nation/church and the closing of the times of the Gentiles.

According to the prophecy given to Daniel, "seventy" weeks of years were set aside for them.

In the final week, Jesus came with His last appeal to the chosen people. During His ministry, He cleansed the Temple twice but was UNABLE to change the course of the religious leadership. The mid-point of that final week of years was marked by the crucifixion of Jesus. It closed with the stoning of Stephen in 34 A.D.

Yet time lingered for the individual Jew who worshiped in the synagogues throughout the Roman Empire. There they had the opportunity to decide whether they would accept the decision of their hierarchy concerning Jesus' claim as the Messiah, or whether they would accept the Gospel that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the fulfillment of the promises given to them under the covenant.

Then followed the literal destruction of Jerusalem, in whose fate, "we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His law." (GC, p. 36)

Jesus gave us as a prophecy by which we may know when "the time of visitation" is completed for the nations.

Mercy still lingers for the individual. But soon to follow is the "wrath" of God poured out without mercy, WE STAND IN TIME BETWEEN THESE TWO EVENTS.

*

"Trodden Down" -

The word translated, "trodden down" is a present participle of the Greek verb, pateo.


p 10 -- The force of the present tense in Greek indicates that Jerusalem is to be continuously trodden down till the times of the Gentiles be filled full.

This has been true.

In 70 A.D., Titus desolated the city, but in putting down the revolt of the Jews in 132 A.D. led by Bar Kochba, Hadrian desolated it even more so. The city was ploughed over after its recapture in 134 A.D. From that day till 1967, ONLY GENTILE powers controlled Jerusalem.

The Greek verb, pateo according to Thayer's Lexicon, means "to tread under foot,
trample on, i.e. treat with insult and contempt: to desecrate the holy city by
devastation and outrage." Arndt &Gingrich in their lexicon (A Greek-English Lexicon
of the New Testament, p. 640) defines the verb thus: "tread, trample of the
undisciplined swarming of a victorious army through a conquered city. Its heedlessness, which acknowledges no limits, causes pateo to take on the concepts 'mistreat, abuse."' These definitions describe exactly what Jesus said would be the fate of the city in "the days of vengeance, that all things that are written may be fulfilled."

(Luke 21:22) Continuously from the days of vengeance begun by Titus completed by
Hadrian, Jerusalem has been under Gentile domination and would continue so till the
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Moulton & Milligan cite contemporary use of this Greek root word in The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament. One source reads - "to tread (patesai) the crops in the sand." The substantive use was noted in the clause - "One who treads (patetes) grapes with their feet." (p. 498)


From a detailed study of Luke 21:24-25, the conclusion cannot be avoided that we have seen fulfilled before our very eyes a prophecy of Jesus, even as our spiritual forefathers saw the fulfillment of the other signs which Jesus gave - "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars." (Luke 21:25) To the significance of these signs, we shall devote the next chapter.

*******

End excerpt.

The truth-  Jerusalem was under Gentile control from 70AD until 1980AD.

1980.

1,910 years of being trodden down.

The prophecy was fulfilled and it was fulfilled in a way that we cannot deny it, not if we study and God's word in light of history.

We look at Jerusalem, the city- Jerusalem, and we know that it has a special place in prophecy and history. We know that there will be a NEW Jerusalem that will come down OUT of heaven--

Rev_21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Jerusalem forever symbolic of God's city.

Jerusalem  trodden down upon earth for almost two thousand years, and then once again it was in the hands of those who are not gentiles, but Jews.   The Jewish people control Jerusalem and today there is a battle over retaining that control. Regardless of what transpires we know that as a sign, Jerusalem has played its part.  People who are watching the signs know that this sign is letting us know that Jesus' return is closer then ever before.

More tomorrow all by the GRACE of our LORD>

Please, pray...pray...pray!

May God help us to comprehend, to study, to know, to learn and to understand how all of this affects our lives.

We live in the last days.

Are we Christ's?  If we are not Christ's then we are Satan's.

Please let us be YOURS Christ Jesus our Savior, let us be known by YOU!


All through YOUR LOVE! Always!

No comments: