Update: September 18, 2009

The Last Pope & the End of the World?

Possibly the strangest article I downloaded this past week was one posted last Saturday (September 5) by ABC News (see Last Pope). The article focuses on a twelfth-century Catholic bishop by the name of Malachy who, supposedly, received visions from God from which he predicted that “there will be only one more pope after the current one, and during his reign comes the end of the world”. According to the article, the Catholic Church takes his prophecies seriously since they have seemed to come true, including the belief that he has “predicted all the popes” with accuracy—one hundred twelve in all.

Now why would I include this article in my prophecy update? There are three reasons for this. First, the article is published by a recognized and credible (although some may debate that) source (ABC News). Second, many (Catholics) believe they can validate the accuracy of his prophecies. Third, if this bishop was a prophet of God, then we are near the end of the world.

Do I believe he was a prophet of God accurately predicting the end of the world? Not any more than I believe that the Mayan Indians accurately predicted that the end of the world as we know it will arrive on December 21, 2012 (12/21/12). However, could God use various extra-biblical sources to signal that the return of Christ could be near? Absolutely! He could use these sources in the same way He seems to be stirring up other groups regarding the nearness of the return of Christ.

The Rise of Three Jewish Organizations to Prepare for the Coming of the Messiah

In recent years, three major Jewish organizations have come together in Israel to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. One of these, the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement in Jerusalem, a group that is seeking to rebuild the Temple to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, has already hand-hewn the cornerstone for the Temple (see Temple Mount Faithful). In addition, The Temple Institute has already created what is needed for Temple service, such as the utensils used in Temple service, the garments of the high priest, etc. (see Temple Institute). (The Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem within the first half of the day of the Lord in fulfillment of Scripture. This will be an integral part of the treaty that will initiate the seven-year tribulation period is the provision for sacrifices and offerings (cf. Daniel 9:27), which cannot be accomplished without the Temple. The Temple will be built and be operational before the mid-point of the day of the Lord when the beast will enter into its holy of holies and defile it (cf. Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).)

Moreover, in October of 2004, the Sanhedrin was re-established. “The Sanhedrin is the name given in the mishna to the council of seventy-one Jewish sages who constituted the supreme court and legislative body in Judea during the Roman period. . . . The Jewish Sanhedrin is a governmental body that resembles aspects of both the U.S. Senate and the Supreme Court” (see Sanhedrin). A major role of the ancient Sanhedrin was to legislate and judge the observance of the Mosaic law. Since the seven-year tribulation period will begin with the re-establishment of a strong focus on the Mosaic law in the land of Israel, might the re-establishment of the Sanhedrin be a movement of God preparing for the soon arrival of the day of the Lord? The timing of this, along with the recent formation of the two Jewish groups cited above, seems to be beyond a coincidence. It is as if God is preparing the Jews in Israel for salvation in all possible ways.

Church Woes

An article posted at Prophecy News Watch this week (see Churches) cited a new report which states that fewer U.S. church congregations are growing, and more and more are being hit hard financially. I have mentioned in the past that one of the reasons I believe Jesus will remove the Church (consisting of all who have received eternal life by believing Jesus for it), as indicated in the Bible, is because it will have become ineffective at reaching the world for Christ due to its lukewarmness. The lack of current growth may signal that it is not doing a great job of “making disciples” as Jesus instructed.

Iran Again

In the last update, I mentioned that there were more articles on Iran in the past week than in any week since I began sending out this update. Well, this week rivaled last week in that regard. Clearly, with Iran being such a focus in regard to the Middle East, God intends to use Iran to bring about His kingdom plan, which will begin with the apparent subjection of terrorism, followed by an announcement of a regional peace treaty between Israel and ten other nations which will be followed by the rapture of the Church on the day the seven-year treaty begins. This seven-year period, called the tribulation period or the day of the Lord, will be used by God to bring about Israel’s spiritual salvation (in which Jews in Israel will believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life) and to use 144,000 Jews from Israel to reach people from every other nation on earth with the gospel of Christ. When the last Jew in Israel believes in Jesus for eternal life—at the very end of this seven-year period—Israel will call upon Jesus (their Messiah) to come deliver them physically. Jesus will then respond by returning to the earth to wage war against His enemies and to establish God’s kingdom upon the earth.

As we know, Iran is racing toward nuclear capability; and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei just announced that Iran will not bend to Western powers when it comes to attaining nuclear capability (see Iran Will Not Stop). (See also Iran Will Not Negotiate which states that the Europeans have now recognized that talks will not get Iran to cease its goal of acquiring nukes.) However, the U.S. seems determined to try to talk to Iranian leaders, so Iran recently agreed to talk with six global powers in order to by more time in order to move farther down the path of nuclear capability (see Talking to Buy Time; see, also, Buying More Time). While Iran seeks to buy time, it is already at a very advanced nuclear stage (see Advanced Stage). In fact, Iran experts at the U.N.'s nuclear monitoring agency believe that Tehran already has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and that it has worked on developing a missile system which can carry an atomic warhead (see Iran Can Make Nuke). (See, also, Enough for a Nuke, an article in which Dore Gold asks the question: Whatever happened to the U.S. deadline with Iran?)

As a result, experts now realize that Israel is running out of time to put a halt to Iran’s nuclear hopes (see Out of Time). Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, has threatened the existence of Israel, a threat many are taking very seriously; thus, many believe Israel must act soon for its own survival. An article at the Jewish website Haaretz.com (see Israel to Attack Iran) states that Israel is willing, capable, and ready. In fact, because Israel knows that the Obama administration will do nothing to stop Iran’s race toward nuclear capability, it has been planning and conducting exercises for the attack. And the Haaretz article declares that “no action looms—other than an attack—which is capable of preventing Iran from achieving its goal”.

Should that attack occur, I believe the Iranian regime will be overthrown. In fact, an article by John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (and who was national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney from 2005 to 2009) states that regime change—via a coup by the general populace—in Iran is a very real possibility (see Regime Change). If that occurs, it will decimate Hezbollah, the Lebanon terrorist group which has been taken over by Iran (see Hezbollah). In addition, Hamas, the terrorist controlling the Gaza strip on the border of Israel which receives funding, weapons, and training from Iran, will likely be crippled, as well. Moreover, Syria’s regime, which has become a major destabilizing force in the Middle East (see Syria in Iraq; also see Syria in Lebanon and Syria Bombs Iraq), is also propped up by Iran; thus, I would expect that once Iran receives its crippling blow from Israel, Syria’s government will be overthrown, as well.

Israel’s attack on Iran will lead to greater respect from Arab nations—as well as from some European countries—which will lead to serious participation with Israel toward a regional peace plan. The announcement of this plan—between Israel and ten other nations—along with the apparent crippling of terrorism in the Middle East, will lead to the world announcing that it has achieved peace and security, as per 1 Thessalonians 5:3. This view by the world will accompany a very brief period before the rapture of the Church occurs and the seven-year tribulation begins.

U.S. Economy

We have stated in the past that the U.S. is not alongside Israel in the Biblical prophetic picture. This means something will pull the U.S. away, and God could use two things to accomplish that—a political means and an economic means. The U.S. economy seems to show signs of leveling off; in fact, the stock market has done very well since March. However, an article in Prophecy News Watch this week announced that insiders have been selling off like crazy (see Sell Off). Why do insiders usually sell? It is because they expect the market to drop. We’ll see.

Book Cover Designs

Yesterday, the publisher sent me four possible cover designs for my book and asked for my input. Well, I am asking for yours. The publisher has given me until Monday to respond, so if you would, please let me know by Monday which of the cover designs (attached to this email) you like best. Thank you.

Prayer

Again, thank you so much for your support and prayer. Please pray for the editing process. The senior editor at the publishing company asked me to eliminate 20,000 words (80 pages), so that is my next assignment. I want to especially thank Cindy Mallett who is working on that for me. She did a great proofing job on my manuscript before I submitted it, so I know she is doing a great job on this assignment (that I have no time for right now). She feels she can complete this by the end of next week. Then, the first week of October, I will be taking some vacation time to write a new chapter for the book—tying in the 2012 phenomenon to the rest of my book, which is about what the Bible says will happen during a future seven-year period leading to the return of Christ. So please pray for that.

Also, please pray that God would get this book into the hands of everyone who is open to His word. I believe it has great potential—especially if He is using it—to prepare people for the return of Christ.

Thank you; and keep looking up!

John