Satan Counterfeits the 7 Jewish Feasts & Ministry of Jesus
It is interesting to consider that while the Jewish race comprises only 0.2% of the world's population, 55% of the world's hate crimes are committed against them. It is also interesting to note that while the nation of Israel is one of the smallest countries in the world located in an area where only 17.5% of the land is arable farming land, it has been involved in no less than 17 wars since its declaration of independence in May of 1948 (Wikipedia, List of wars involving Israel). Further, many military scholars believe that World War III will begin over who controls this small ignominious stretch of land. Therefore, it is obvious to even the most casual of readers that there is a malevolent force at loose in the world that is determined to eradicate this particular race of people from the face of the earth. And, at the same time, there is obviously a more powerful benevolent force that is determined to preserve at least a remnant of this race for apparently some specific purpose.
This paper will succinctly answer the questions of who, what, when, where, how and why this particular race of people, in this particular land, and at this particular time in history, will unknowingly and unwillingly play the pivotal role in the initiation of a series of divine actions. And, these actions will culminate with the end of the rule of mankind over the earth, and trigger the Second Coming of Christ. While the unfolding of past and present information might at first blush appear disjointed, it is necessary to understand these various event threads to fully appreciate how and why they are now coming together. These specific historic events that are in fact guide posts to Scriptural revelations that will soon culminate in a troubling yet exciting understanding of the plan of God for this race of people and the human race as a whole.
In the beginning, the eternal God "created" the heavens and the earth. The word created means something brought into existence from nothing. God created all things including space, all the galaxies and the earth. God has an eternally unfolding plan for all He has created. Because God is perfect, His creations and plans are perfect. The angel Lucifer, now known as Satan or the accuser, was created by God. He is an immortal creature as are all the angels but he is not eternal like God. He had a beginning but he has no end because God refuses to annihilate {cease to exist} any of His creations. Satan has not been given the power to create, thus he cannot give life to an inanimate object nor can he bring back life to the dead. All his powers and plans are subject to the approval of God. Satan can read and he understands what has been written by the prophets concerning his rebellion against God, his judgement and ultimately his eternal condemnation at the end of the one thousand year reign of Christ. While he does not know all of God’s future plans and exact timelines for prophesied events, he does have a very good understanding where he fits into these plans and is extremely concerned about his demise at the end of this final age. His only revenge on God is taking as many people as possible with him into a place of chaos and destruction.
While Satan understands that God’s plans are perfect, he is none the less intent on curtailing His plans. He has concluded that the best way to do this is to design his counter plans so that they appear to directly parallel those of God. A counterfeit series of plans that appear to the uneducated as part of God's plan. The changes are subtle but Satan is famous for his subtleties (Genesis 3:1). His counter plans will initially appear in many ways as those of God while cloaking his real goal of being worshipped as a god. Satan has devised a three phase plan of action to accomplish his desires to rule Heaven and earth as his kingdoms, to be worshiped as a god, and to stop the return of Christ and his destiny of destruction.
The foundation for Satan's plans to rule mankind involve solving four basic problems that have continually plagued mankind. In the Garden of Eden, God the Creator was the sovereign ruler. Thus, there were no wars concerning governance, territories, economies or religious differences. Once man decided he would rather rule in the place of God, these differences emerged and have proven to be insurmountable. Satan's plan is a return to God's original plan but with some notable alterations.
Satan has two fundamental desires. He wants to survive and to be worshipped. He initially wanted to be worshipped in Heaven by the other angels. When his planned coupe against God failed, he was temporarily forced to accept a kingdom on earth and the opportunity to be worshipped by some of the members of mankind. However, he sees his current situation as an insufferable insult to his superior mind, power and asperations. To be made only a prince over a single planet filled with inferior beings is a insult that drives him to fits of rage. Therefore, he has a plan in place to hopefully gain control over the Kingdom of Heaven with its angelic armies and the earth and its inferior humanoids. Because he currently finds himself confined to the atmosphere of the earth, His first step is to gain control over mankind and at the very least be worshiped by mankind as the god of this world (Ephesians 2:2). To accomplish this, he needs to find, gain control over and skillfully guide a man who will become a world dictator. Satan will use his powers to cause this authoritarian figure to garner the respect of all mankind by solving what has been up to this time, the afore mentioned unsolvable issues.
The first issue to be solved is the problem of governance. Satan's human appointee will govern all nations as a benevolent dictator. The problem of territorial border disputes or uprisings of nationalism will be solved by organizing a united one world governmental system. The problem of economic systems that foster social inequality will be solved by establishing a one world economic system in which the rich will share with the poor. The problem of war will be solved by establishing a one world military force. And last but not least, the problem of religious differences will be solved by establishing a one world religion. To do this, the world leader will help negotiate a religious doctrine that will be an amalgamation of all the major religions of the world.
Satan's will also counterfeit God's plan by creating a satanic triune godhead. This will consist of Satan as god the father, a world leader indwelled by a demon spirit to serve as his son or the Antichrist, and a one world religion led by a well respected religious leader. This religion will abruptly morph 3.5 years into the tribulation period when the world leader recovers from a mortal wound and decrees that he is to be worshipped as the messiah of mankind. And since the world leader is the physical embodiment of Satan, by worshiping him, they are worshiping his father Satan also known as the dragon (Revelation 13:4).
Phase Two consists of Satan actually selecting a certain man to serve as his physical incarnation. He will then empower this man with a wisdom and charisma that will cause many in the world to immediately accept him as their supreme leader. Satan will later cause a demon spirit to indwell the man to increase his human powers and to move his plan quickly to Phase Three.
Phase Three is the War of Armageddon in which Satan, through his son the Antichrist, will cause the armies of the world to unite against Israel (Revelation 19:19). The premise for this military action will be that Israel has willfully broken the Abrahamic Peace Accord with the Palestinian Authority. The charge will be that over the past seven years, Israel has negotiated in bad faith by continually refusing to allow the Palestinian State to use Jerusalem as its capital. The Jewish nation will now be forced to relinquish Jerusalem or be destroyed. In actually, Satan understands that he needs to destroy the Jews of Israel if he is to achieve his first fundamental desire of survival. Scripture is clear that the Jew's will be the trigger that causes the Second Coming of Christ and his destruction (Hosea 5:15).
Satan has always had an antichrist candidate ready and waiting in every generation. This is because he does not know when the final seven years of the rule of man on earth will start. Therefore, he has to always be on the lookout and ready to put his man and his plan quickly into action (I John 2:18; Matthew 24:36).
Today, Satan has a much better understanding of when he will need to put his plan into action. This is due to the prophetic understandings of Jewish zealot turned Christian named Saul of Tarsus or Paul who wrote of a future worldwide event called the Rapture of the Saints (I Thessalonians 4:16-17; II Thessalonians 2:10). Satan immediately understood that this rapture event was a major key to accurately determining the timeline of the End of the Age of the rule of mankind. He also understood that this sudden removal of Christian believers from the earth would involve billions of people. This in turn would cause two favorable events for him. First, with the removal of Christians would come the removal, or at least the weakening of a major stopgap he has been struggling against since the time of Adam. The raptured Christians would be taking with them the moral conduct code of God and their indwelled power of the Holy Spirit (II Thessalonians 2:7). Second, this unexpected disappearance of 2.5 billion Christians along with an additional 2.5 billion children {under the age of 19} would immediately create a tremendous worldwide panic. This in turn would create the need for a strong, brilliant and seemingly benevolent dictator to restore calm and peace to the world. So, this would be the perfect time to bring his son the Antichrist into play on the world stage.
Satan knows that the Book of Daniel has a prophecy concerning a seven year peace treaty involving Israel and the Palestinian Authority (Daniel 9: 27). The negotiation skills and leadership talents necessary to bring about a treaty never before thought possible, would be the ideal project for his son. It would catapult him quickly into the highest and most respected echelons of world leadership. Satan will personally inspire his son to craft just such a peace treaty between God’s chosen people the Jews and the people originally from the tribe of the Philistines today known as the Palestinians. See Related: "Who Are They Now". This would be recognized as the most tremendous feat of negotiation in modern history. A feat long thought impossible will not be impossible for the mind and power of Satan. He knows from Scripture that there will be exactly to the day, seven years from the time of the ratification of this peace treaty until the Second Coming of Christ. He also knows that his best chance to have his satanic triune godhead come to power is when the power of the Holy Spirit on earth is at its weakest and mass chaos within the human race is at its strongest. Therefore, the timing of the unfolding of his seven year plan is critical if he is to conquer the world, establish his earthly kingdom, be worshiped as its god and save his existence.
Phase III of Satan’s plan is how best to stop the Second Coming of Christ so that he will not be confined in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10). The only plausible way to do this is with the complete and total genocide of God’s chosen people the Jews before the arrival of Jesus their Messiah. It is clear to Satan that, according to prophecy, it is the repentance and prayers of the once prideful Jews that trigger the Second Coming (Hosea 5:15). Therefore, Satan must destroy most if not all of the Jews if he is to escape his destruction. He has deduced from Scripture that, with the Jewish race depleted or completely destroyed before the end of the seven year timeline, there would be no reason for Christ to return to earth because there would be no repentant Jews left to save. Satan knows that while there are fifteen million Jews in the world, only 20% or three million actually try to keep the law. Of the remaining twelve million, only 40% regularly observe the Sabbath in at least some way once a month to once a year. Further, approximately 60% are not sure or do not believe in punishment for sins, a coming Messiah or life after death. So, eradicating all the Jews is not necessary to stop the Second Coming. If he can simply destroy the bulk of Jews living in Israel plus a few million more by way of his followers around the world, he might hit the tipping point when Jesus would no longer needed to return to save them. This eventuality would be seen as God not keeping his promise of salvation for a remnant of the Jews, and a Millennial Reign of Christ (Romans 11:25). So, as far as Satan is concerned, this plan is a win- win situation. Sadly, and according to scripture, the tribulation period will see the death of two thirds or approximately 10 million Jews currently on earth (Zechariah 13:8-9). In a prophetic but counter intuitive way, we currently see the Jews of Europe and America immigrating in increasing numbers to Israel to escape unprecedented persecutions. Yet, this is the very area that will experience the brunt of the wrath of Satan through the military actions of the Antichrist (Ezekiel 20:33-38).
Satan must now focus on a man who is ingenious enough to be able to forge the needed peace treaty. He must also be a man who would be willing to worship him in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus turned down this offer but the world leader will accept it (Matthew 4:1-11). The peace treaty will include giving the Palestinians a state in the land of Israel. A land that God gave exclusively to Israel and is only to be used as the homeland of the Jewish race. The idea of swapping land for peace has always been, and will always be, an unacceptable option for God. As far as God is concerned, while He dearly loves the Jews of Israel, they do not have the right to give away His land even for peace.
The treaty will also allow the Jews to construct a Third Temple on the Temple Mount. This too will anger God as His Son Jesus died to satisfy the Law and for the forgiveness of all sins committed by all of mankind. Therefore, to rebuild a Third Temple that God had personally allowed to be destroyed two thousand years ago is yet another flagrant insult to Him, His Word and their Messiah. This is why the tribulation period is also known as, “…the time of Jacob’s trouble…” (Jeremiah 30:6-8). Jacob was the son of Isaac and the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. God will use the tribulation period to literally drive His people back to Him, or suffer the same dire consequences they have experienced over and over again in their past history. The construction of the Third Temple is seen by God as the nation saying to Him that His precious Son suffered and died for nothing. The treaty will include the construction of a wall to separate the worship of the Jews in their new Temple from the Muslims and their worship in the al-Aqsa Mosque which is currently located on the Tempe Mount. The United Nations will provide security services on the Temple Mount to prevent zealots on both sides from breaking the peace treaty.
It will take approximately one or possibly two years to construct the Third Temple. By this time, Satan’s son will now be recognized as a major world leader. He will build his home and administration building adjacent to the Temple on the Mount of Olives (Daniel 11:45). This will serve to ingratiate him even more with the Jews of Israel. They will see the headquarters of a major world leader in tiny nation of Israel as a great honor. But the cheers of peace are about to become silent and events are going to take a rapid and horrible turn for the worse. And here is how it begins (I Thessalonians 5:3-18, Isaiah 28:5).
Before religious services can be held in the newly constructed Third Temple, the building complex will need to be purified according to Jewish purity laws. This can only be accomplished by using the burnt ashes of a red heifer that was sacrificed according to established purification rites. The Jews only very recently were able to raise a red heffer with no blemishes. The ashes will be mixed with fresh running spring water and sprinkled on the building, the Holy of Holies and the priests. Once the Temple is in operation, there will be a daily morning {9:00am} and afternoon {3:00pm} sacrificing of a lamb. There will also be the sacrificing of a variety of animals during feasts days and especially the holy observances of Yom Kipper with its required sacrifice of two male goats. In all cases, the animals throats will be slit, the blood collected and the fat along with certain organs burned as an offering to the Jewish God of Israel. These ongoing public sacrifices will quickly cause a worldwide outcry from animal rights protection groups. The public will look to the world leader to stop the needless slaughter of perhaps a thousand animals over the course of a year. We are now 3.5 years into the seven year peace treaty.
It is at this exact same time and, unbeknownst to the people on the earth, that Satan makes his second and final attack on Heaven and the Throne of God. He and his fallen angels believe they might be successful if they strike when God is preoccupied. Their attack is timed to occur during the wedding of Christ to His Church and the following Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The Archangel Michael and his angelic army will confront the army of Satan and defeat them. Satan with his angels will be thrown out of heaven forever and down to the earth (Revelation 12:7-12). For Satan, this resolves two issues.
First, he is now sure that he will never be able to overthrow the rule of God in heaven. He knew that while his first rebellion was defeated, he none-the-less had at that time, the support of one third of the angels in heaven (Revelation 12:4). His hope was that during this second rebellion against God, more angels would have joined him and he may have had a chance to rule the day. After all, since God created heaven and the angels, God could just as easily give them to him to rule and then create a new heaven with more angels and another Throne for Himself. This in turn would allow Satan, the most perfect and powerful entity ever created by God, to have the heavenly kingdom he has always dreamed of and his angels to worship him as their god. But when his second and final attack on the Throne of God fails, he finds himself thrown down to the earth. It is then that he becomes enraged and focuses his wrath on God’s chosen people the Jews and the Christians (Revelation 12:7-12).
The recent rapture has created chaos on earth and Satan will use these unprecedented final years to his advantage. His number one goal now is to have the world leader indwelled by a demon spirt which will allow him to personally take control of his own survival plan. Satan may personally indwell the Antichrist or more probably he will appoint one of his most powerful and trusted demon spirits such as Abaddon to have that honor (Revelation 9:11). This indwelling will supercharge the world leader with extraordinary powers of mind and body. The Antichrist will have three major priorities.
First will be to establish a One World Order. This will ultimately make it possible for the world to worship him as god. His second priority is the genocide of the Jewish population. This is the only hope Satan has to prevent the Second Coming of Christ. His third goal is to destroy as many Christians as possible. This will reduce the resistance against his rule on earth in three ways.
First, the Christian religion will have exponentially grown during the tribulation period due to evangelism throughout the world. This will be a major force of resistance concerning his being worshipped as God. Second, the fewer Christians there are on earth the less power of the Holy Spirit can exert to hold him back in accomplishing his plans. And lastly, the fewer the number of people left alive on the earth at the possible return of Christ, the fewer people to regenerate the population during the Reign of Christ. Satan is not concerned about the unsaved people of the earth as they have sealed their own fate through their continued rejection of God, or their faith in the world leader and having taken the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 14:11). Either way, their destruction is certain. And it is their mindless race to destruction that saddens God which in turn delights Satan.
Satan also knows that the 3.5 year clock is now ticking and he has exactly 42 months to the day until the Second Coming of Christ. He knows that if Christ returns, his son the Antichrist will be immediately defeated and confined into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 19:20). And, he will be confined in a bottomless pit for one thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3). While he knows he will be released to create one final rebellion against God, he also knows that if he is defeated, he will be immediately thrown into the Lake of Fire for eternity (Revelation 20:10).
To recap, Phase One of Satan’s plan is the creation of a satanic triune godhead. Satan is the father, the world leader his son and a man to head the one world religion. The man who authors the 7-year peace treaty, will not know at that time that Satan will soon become involved in his rise to fame and power. He is a person who is naturally amoral with no spiritual beliefs, only a tremendous desire for power, fame and wealth. Some scholars believe he will by a Jew from the tribe of Dan. Once the treaty has been agreed to by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the next step is the ratification involving a public signing ceremony.
Phase Two will be the revealing of the world leader. To accomplish this, the leader will create and bring the treaty to Israel for the signing ceremony. He may arrive in Israel with his peace treaty in the month of April and on Palm Sunday. He may also be accompanied by the Pope as he will also have given his approval of the treaty. They both triumphally enter Jerusalem with the peace treaty in hand (Revelation 6:1). The Christian Church is elated with the idea of peace in the Holy Land arriving on the same day as did Jesus, the Prince of Peace. The Jews of the world are elated that the Peace of Israel is occurring in April at the start of Passover. The Muslims are elated as they will finally get a home land and this historic event is occurring in April just before Ramadan. At long last, man has created peace on earth. The treaty is signed, the world erupts in shouts of joy, the future looks bright and all the while, the final 3.5 years known as the Great Tribulation has now begun.
For the past 3.5 years the Jews, according to the dictates of the peace treaty, will have constructed the Third Temple in Jerusalem, the Muslims have built a new State and the Gentiles of the world with their many false religions go on with their lives as did the world just before the flood of Noah (Matthew 24:37). The master negotiator of the treaty continues to travel the world creating peace between various warring factions. His popularity will grow with each new treaty. The world is asking itself who is like the beast and who can wage-war against him?(Revelation 13:4). Every year he arrives back in Israel to celebrate the anniversary of its peace treaty and observe the progress made on the Temple construction project. He uses his home compound on the Mount of Olives as his worldwide base of operations.
Phase Three is about to begin. After several years of construction, the Temple is complete. There are opening ceremonies and rituals before various sections are open to the priesthood, Jews and the Gentile public. With its opening comes animal sacrifices which start a series of troubles for the Jews of Israel and around the world. Over the course of the next year, the man of peace now regarded by many as the leader of the new one world order is condemned for allowing the sacrificial system at the Temple to continue. There are anti-Semitic protest and acts of violence around the world. It has now been 3.5 years since the signing of the peace treaty. Large protest have begun on the Temple Mount and the U.N. security staff becomes quickly overwhelmed with both the crowds for Temple feasts and protesters for animal rights. Political insurgents against the world leader also infiltrate the crowds and cause riots. The world leader appears in public the day before Passover in an attempt to bring calm and a return to peace. It may be at this time that his religious leader known as the false prophet of the one world religion movement, appears with him and echoes his call for peace. It may be at this time that the false prophet with the power of Satan actually calls down fire from heaven to light the sacrificial alter of the Third Temple (Job 1:16; Revelation 13:12-14). This is a counterfeit act of what originally happened when the first Temple, built by King David’s son Solomon, was inaugurated by Elijah who brought down fire from heaven to light the alter (II Chronicles 7:1).
Satan now uses this moment in history to lead a final attack against God in Heaven. He is defeated and now allowed to actually roam the earth. At that same time, an assassination attempt is made on the world leader’s life. He receives what is reported to be to be a mortal wound to his head (Revelation 13:3). He is rushed to an intensive care unit in Jerusalem and is said to have been declared dead on arrival. The world is stunned and mourns his passing on Passover and also on the following day during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. However, on the third day, during the Feast of First Fruits, he is said to have miraculously come back to life. This event is heralded as a miracle and sign from God that he is in fact the anointed one, the Messiah of the world. But in reality, it is a delusion and all a part of Satan’s master plan (II Thessalonians 2:11).
What the world does not know is that in the case of this particular near-death event, Satan has made an offer to the world leader too irresistible to refuse. While the leader was physically in an intensive care unit, he was spiritually in the wilderness of a coma. It was during this time that Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world if he would worship him. The man of peace agrees to this offer and Satan directs a major demonic spirit to indwell him. He is then revived thanks to the skill of his Jewish surgeons and has now officially become the Antichrist. He will then go into the Third Temple and declare himself the messiah that all the religions of the world have been waiting for. See related: What the Whole World is Waiting for.
Since Satan cannot create life, the world leader was never actually dead but only in a medically induced coma or what is medically referred to as the Lazarus Syndrome from which he fully recovered. But as far as God is concerned, if the people insist on believing lying wonders instead of Scriptural truth, then let them believe delusions and believe The Great Lie which is Man as God (II Thessalonians 2:3-4, 7-12).
Larkin Brown
The Antichrist Counterfeits the Ministry of Christ & the 7 Annual Jewish Feasts
The world leader also known as the beast or Antichrist, will counterfeit the following events in the following ways. First, he will be part of an unholy satanic triune godhead as opposed to the Holy Triune Godhead. The Holy Triune Godhead consists of God the Father, God the Son (or Word of God), and God the Holy Spirit. The unholy triune godhead consists of Satan as god the father, the beast as his son and the false prophet as the unholy spirit. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as the Prince of Peace with an offer to usher in the Kingdom of God on earth. The beast may arrive in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday appearing to be the prince of peace but he is actually a wolf in sheep's clothing. He is there to usher in the kingdom of Satan on earth and the people have made a covenant with death and the dead (I Thessalonians 5:3; Isaiah 28:15). Jesus was accompanied by His disciples who would work to establish a new covenant, today the one true religion of God. The beast will arrive accompanied by a false prophet and his ilk of disciples determined to establish a demonic covenant based on a one world religion with Satan as its god, the beast as his messiah of death and destruction and a false prophet to whip up enthusiasm and recruit followers. The crowds initially welcomed Jesus and they will do the same for the beast. Later, some in the crowds turned against Jesus on religious, moral and political concerns. Later some will turn against the beast on religious, moral and political concerns. Jesus was eventually judged the day before Passover and found worthy of death. The beast will by judged by some and an assignation attempt will take place (Revelation 13:3). Both men will appear to have been publicly executed. Jesus is declared dead and buried. The beast is rushed to a hospital and rumored to have arrived dead on arrival. After three days, Jesus arose from the dead. After three days of rumors that the beast was close to death or had died, he will suddenly and unexpectedly be revived (Revelation 13:13). These parallels events, specifically designed by Satan and occurring on Holy dates, will in fact confuse many and will cause both Jewish and Christian believers to conclude that the world leader may in fact be the long awaited messiah (Matthew 24:24)
Fifty days after Passover and during the Feast of Pentecost, Jesus sent the fire of the Holy Spirit to His believers to signify their rebirth from the spirit of the flesh to the spirit of God. And all believers indwelled by the Holy Spirit remain indwelled both in life and in death. As opposed to Old Testament believers who might receive the Holy Spirit to accomplish a task given to them by God. But, after their mission was completed with the help of the Holy Spirit, it would leave them. With Satan, once a person takes an oath of belief in his son the Antichrist and receives the mark of the beast on his right hand or forehead, not only is that person doomed to eternal condemnation, but it may be that person is indwelled with a demonic spirit (Revelation 14:9-11). This would be the complete antithesis of God through Jesus giving of the Holy Spirit to His believers. Jesus gives the spirit of eternal life while Satan gives the spirit of eternal condemnation, destruction and death. Remember, the Antichrist is not against religion. He is only against Christ who established the one true religion of God. He is literally the exact opposite or anti the nature of Christ, thus he is against all that Christ stands for and all who believe in Him.
Phase Three of Satan’s plan occurs 3.5 years into the tribulation period when the world leader regains his strength from his attempted assignation, goes into the Third Temple and declares himself the long-awaited messiah, the savior of mankind (Daniel 9:11,26-27, Daniel 11:31; Matthew 24:15-16; II Thessalonians 2:3-4). He will have created numerous peace treaties and united many of the world’s governmental, economic and military systems as part of his One World Order. He will have united the religions of the world into a one world religion. An apostate form of Christianity will also be part of this new one world religion doctrine. And with his supposed death and resurrection, he will declare himself the godman of this religion. He will explain that while he was dead for three days, he was given the epiphany that he is in fact the long-awaited messiah, worthy of worship and it was for this purpose he was resurrected. He may give credit to some strange unknown god that he worships, or he may give credit to himself for his resurrection from the dead (Daniel 11:37-38). In other words, he willed himself back to life. This new revelation of himself as the world's long awaited messiah was always his destiny. He will explain that it is better to worship a man who can provide peace and prosperity than an invisible capricious god that allows war, poverty, disease and hunger. He will reason that it makes more sense for men to pray to a man who can understand their worldly needs and provide for them as opposed to an unknowable god. This is the new reality of the Antichrist’s dictatorship. All people living within his realm of control must now swear an oath of allegiance to him, the new order and take the mark. Or, resist the leader and pay the price. Be a part of the New World Order or cease to be. The choice is yours. So there is only one question that each person will be forced to answer: Who are they going to worship?
With the start of Phase III comes the beginnings of major protests and many wars against the authoritarian rule of the Antichrist. In particular is a group of countries to the far north of Israel (Daniel 11:44). Russia with its Warsaw Pac will become a coalition known in scripture as Magog. The leader of this coalition is called Gog. If this war was to start today, Gog would be Vladimir Putin. His refusal to become a part of the kingdom of the Antichrist causes the world leader to attack Russia and its vassal states. Over the course of several years, the coalition is defeated and becomes part of the growing number of territories under his control. The antichrist and his forces will appear to be unstoppable (Revelation 13:4).
The forces of Russia are also involved in another conflict but this time in the Middle East. The prophet Ezekiel states that Magog or Russia will create, coordinate and lead a coalition of Arab countries against Israel. It is not clear if this war occurs pre or mid tribulation. But it is clear that God himself defeats this army as soon as it is contained on the sacred land of Israel. While the vast majority of this army is struck dead inside Israel, God leaves a small remnant to return back north (Ezekiel 38:1-23). This war is sometimes known as the Psalm 83 War as this is where the details of this war are found (Psalm 83:1-18).
With Russia defeated, the Antichrist returns back south to his home in Israel (Daniel 11:45). But to his surprise and dismay, he is met by an Israeli resistance force that was secretly organized during his absence. The Antichrist becomes enraged at Israel for their betrayal against him after all he has done for them. He is now determined to destroy all Jews, which was the salvation plan of Satan all along. While the Jews have nuclear warheads, they will not detonate them for fear of permanently polluting the sacred land of Israel. The multimillion-man army of the Antichrist now assembles on the enormous plain of Armageddon (Joel 3:2, 11-16). The power hungry leaders of these armies have been seduced and indwelled by demonic spirits (Revelation 16:13-14). These armies march south following the Valley of Josaphat to Jerusalem killing every Jewish and Christian man, woman and child. Their goal is to conquer and eradicate the last remnants of the Jewish population now barricaded in the city of Jerusalem. With the last remaining Jews destroyed, Jerusalem will officially become the capital of the Palestine state.
The armies arrive on the outskirts of Jerusalem where the Jews make a final valiant stand. The fighting is tremendous and of the 7 million Jews in Israel, two thirds or 4.666 will have been killed. The armies of the Antichrist have also lost many millions of soldiers but are determined to press forward to victory. The Antichrist knows that there are only 2.4 million Jews left to kill and then the Second Coming of Christ will have been foiled. Salvation from eternal destruction is finally within Satan’s grasp. The Jews refuse to surrender to certain death. The fighting is now house to house with hand-to-hand combat. Half the city of Jerusalem has fallen into enemy hands and the women are being raped (Zechariah 14:1-3). A remnant of Jews now find themselves out of ammunition, out of man power and out of hope for survival. In complete and total desperation, it is decided there is only one thing left to do. A world wide Jewish Day of Prayer is issued.
Phase III of Satan’s plan is about to come to an abrupt end. The entire nation of Israel and all the Jews around the world simultaneously drop to their knees and earnestly pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for their salvation! It is at this exact moment that God once again hears and answers the prayers of His people. And it is at that exact moment, that Christ stands from the Throne of God and immediately descends to the earth followed by an angelic army and His saints. And on that day, known as the Day of the Lord, Christ will - defeat the armies of the Antichrist, confine the Antichrist and the False Prophet into the Lake of Fire, confine Satan into a bottomless pit for the next one thousand years, confine all fallen angels and demon spirits down into Sheol or Hell, destroy all the unrighteous people of the world, descend to the Mount of Olives, walk into the Third Temple at Jerusalem and begin His one thousand year reign as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:11-16). Thus the saying, "... one day is with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day." (II Peter 3:8)
Jesus satisfied the first four of the 7 annual Jewish Feasts during His ministry. The fifth feast is the Fall Feast of Trumpets or harvest of souls. This is one of several possibilities for the timing of the pre-tribulation rapture of the Church. A second possibility is the late Spring Feast of Pentecost. It was on this date that the Law was given to Moses at Mount Sinai. It was also on this date that Enoch was said to have been born and later raptured. It was also on this date that that Christ sent the power of the Holy Spirit to indwell believers also known as being born again in the spirit. This is thought by most scholars to be the official date of the birth of the two thousand year Church Age. Therefore, this might be an appropriate time to begin the end of the Church Age of grace and mercy with the rapture of both the dead and living believers (I Corinthians 15:51-55; I Thessalonians 4:16-17). Whether the rapture occurs on the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets or on one of several other possible dates, the Antichrist will not be able to anticipate, duplicate or satisfactorily explain this incredible supernatural event to the world. Therefore, he will probably announce that the Christians of the world were united in their resistance to his New World Order. And, because they refused to listen to reason, he had no other choice than to use his powers to remove them from the earth. But not to worry as he is also capable of bringing them back if and when he so desires. In the meantime, all the now empty Christian houses, cars, jobs and wealth are ready to be given to all those who will swear allegiance to him as their leader and god. At that time, they will be allowed to receive the mark of the Antichrist or beast. This mark will allow them to participate in the one world economic system. Without the mark, a person is not allowed to be employed, own a home or purchase food. Also, those that take the mark are forever condemned by God (Revelation 14:9-11).
In reality, from the day of the rapture until Christ's return to the earth, Christians have been safe in Heaven. There they first received rewards of governance for their faithfulness to Christ in their earthly testing periods. They are rewarded for the good works or fruits they produced through faith in Christ. They have also attended the Marriage Ceremony of Christ to His Saints or Church which makes them the children of God and heirs to all the wonders He has created for them to enjoy. The wedding was then followed by the celebratory Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The celebrations end with the announcement by Christ that the wedding party will now be returning to earth to reclaim it as their permanent home. Jesus will explain that seven years have passed on the earth and the War of Armageddon is about to cause the total annihilation of the Jewish race in Israel along with possibly all life on earth.
There will have been hundreds of millions of people on earth who came to Christ during the tribulation period. Many of them will be Jews who immediately recognize the correlation between the rapture occurring during a Jewish Feasts. For the first time they will go to the New Testament and start to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The scales of temporary spiritual blindness will begin to fall from their eyes as they read and then actually experience the events unfolding before their very eyes (Romans 11:25). Those Jews and Gentiles who died having been saved through their faith in Christ, will have their spirits taken immediately to heaven to be with Christ. There is the possibility that these final martyrs will have their bodies resurrected and raptured into heaven at the same time the two witnesses of Revelation are resurrected and raptured into heaven just days before Christ's return (Revelation 11:12). This possibility would help explain the idea of a post tribulation rapture. Those believers on earth who survive the tribulation will be allowed to live extremely long lives and help repopulate the earth during the one thousand year Reign of Christ.
The sixth Jewish Feast is the Feast of Yom Kipper. This is highest of the holy days for Jews. This is when they repent of their sins and pray for ten days asking God to allow them to live yet another year. This feast along with the other six, are all shadows or symbolic of real future events. It will probably be during this feast in the very last few days of the tribulation period that the Antichrist will surround Jerusalem in one final all-out assault to completely eradicate a small remnant of Jews left in the city. This is Satan’s last chance and only option to save himself by destroying these last Jews. But once again, God has heard the prayers of His repentant children and sends Christ with His saints to defeat Satan and the armies of the Antichrist (Isaiah 63:3-4, Zechariah 14:4, Zechariah 13:6, Zechariah 12:10, Revelation 19:1-20, Hosea 5:15).
Satan is then bound during the Reign of Christ. However, at the end of His reign, Satan is released and quickly forms an army against Christ. Just as the armies are about to attack Jerusalem, a fire comes down from heaven and destroys them. The earth is then purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and all life is regenerated just as the New Jerusalem with the Triune Godhead descend to the earth (Matthew 19:28; Revelation 21:1-2).
The 7th and final annual Jewish feast is the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot. It is during this time that the Jews reflect on the trials and tribulations that their ancestors endured during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness due to their lack of faith in God. This feast is dedicated to the idea that at some future date, the Creator God will return to the earth and dwell with mankind in peace. This shadow feast will be initially be realized with the Second Coming of Christ, His millennial reign and ultimately when the Triune Godhead descends from heaven to the earth and rules all creation from the New Jerusalem (Revelation 20:4, Revelation 21:1-7, 10).
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