Editors opening comment. This is continued from July 1996 and once again we warn our readers that the language is descriptive.
"And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matthew 24:14
Many students and preachers of prophecy have sought to make this an exclusively end of the age prophecy, but this is not the case.
Jesus specified two particular religious systems which would arise and develop during the Christian era of prophecy, which is synonymous with the Great Tribulation; and He a gave their location:-
A) THE FALSE PROPHET - THE DESERT
B) THE FALSE CHRIST - THE SECRET CHAMBER
We know them as the parallel apostasies, the Little Horn of the East, the Little Horn of the West, both forseen by the prophet Daniel. They are of course ISLAM and the PAPACY
A) FALSE PROPHET SYSTEM OR ISLAM
Just as Jesus had foretold, this system had its place of origin in deserts of Arabia. There in a cave on Mount Hira, Mohammed claimed to have received a visitation from the angel Gabriel. This supposed angelic messenger, who was in fact Abbadon or Apollyon, the Destroyer, the Demon from the abyss, told Mohammed:-
"Thou art the prophet of God and I am Gabriel."
During the years which followed 606 AD there were a series of visitations during which the Moslem Holy Book the Koran was dictated to Mohammed and soon the new religion of Islam was born. In the century following the death of Mohammed in 632 AD they had conquered all the territories between the north of India and the South of France, and until 1917 AD, Islam under the Arabs, then under the Turks was a major politico-religious world force. Now in these last days as the Great Tribulation draws to a close, we are witnessing the final revival of militant, fundamentalist Islam, especially of the Shi'ite variety. It will become increasingly vicious, for like all evil systems it knows that its day's are numbered.
B) THE FALSE CHRIST SYSTEM OR PAPACY
At the exact same time as Islam was born in the desert wastes of Arabia, the Papal system which had evolved over several centuries of apostasy in Western Europe, was reaching the heights of power, with the Pope claiming to be Universal Bishop, Successor of Peter and Head of the Church. Read carefully the words which are addressed to the Popes at their coronation and know that this whole dynasty of usurpers on the banks of the Tiber, fulfil the role of the false or counterfeit Christ-the Anti Christ of prophecy.
"Receive this tiara embellished with three crowns, and know that you are the Father of Princes and Kings, the supreme judge of the Universe the Vicar of Jesus Christ."
As for the location, Jesus said that this system would be found in the Secret Chamber. When a Pope dies, the Cardinals are assembled at Rome to choose a successor. They meet in the secrecy of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican where they are actually sealed in during their deliberations. When a decision is finally reached, their ballot papers are burned in a special stove in chapel and the ascending smoke informs the crowds gathered in St. Peter Square that a new Pope has been chosen; his place of selection is in the Secret Chamber.
The late Bishop Jewel of the Church of England in his book "Expos on Thessalonians" describes at first hand the signs and lying wonders the Papal false Christs:-
"Of false miracles we have seen an infinite number ... appearances of spirits, and visions of angels; our Lady swimming down from heaven; poor souls crying out of purgatory for masses of Requiem. But these miracles were no miracles at all. They were devised by subtle varlets to get money. Often times the spirits hath been taken and laid in the stocks; the angel hath been stript; the good lady hath been caught; the engines and sleights, and the cause and manner of the working hath been confessed. In those days idols could go on foot, images could come down and light their own candles, they could turn their eyes they could move their hands. These miracles were conveyances and subtleties, and indeed no miracles. The tricks by which they did speak the strings and wires by which they moved their faces and hands, and all the rest of their treachery has been disclosed.
4) PERSECUTIONS
"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you." Matthew 24:9
"They shall deliver you up to councils ... ye shall be beaten; and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake for a testimony against them." Mark 13:9
"They shall persecute you ... ye shall be betrayed both by parents and kinsfolk and friends; and some of you they shall cause to be put to death." Luke 21:12,13
The persecution of Christians can in no way be limited to three and a half or seven years at the end of this age. Jesus had specifically warned his followers:-
"In the world ye shall have tribulations" John 16:33
Whilst the Apostles testified that:-
"We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God" Acts 14:22
The story of the Christian Church has always been one of fierce trials for the true faith. In the years prior to 70 AD much of the persecution of the early Christians was deliberately, instigated by other religious groups, this can be seen by even a casual reading of the Book of Acts. With the coming to power of Nero the first active persecution by Imperial Rome began and in ten major periods of persecution it has been estimated that Pagan Rome put to death some ten million Christian martyrs over the next three centuries.
After a brief respite the true followers of Christ were soon being persecuted yet again by Papal Rome. The late Dr. Grattan Guinness over a century ago writing in his book "The Approaching End of the Age" stated:-
"It has been calculated that the Popes of Rome have directly or indirectly slain on account of their faith FIFTY MILLION of martyrs men and women who refused to be parties to Romish idolatries, who held to the bible as the word of God and who loved not their lives unto death, but resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
In his "Essay on Popery" the late I. Bobbin declared:-
"Carrying out the principles of the Church of Rome, the Popish Apostate has deluged the earth with the blood of her victims. Hundreds of martyrs have perished at the stake, thousands in dungeons, and millions form the aggregate of unfortunate Protestants, that have fallen under the bitter spirit of Popery. Torturing, shooting, hanging, strangling, burning alive, starving to death, in short every variety of suffering that diabolical ingenuity could invent, has been employed to glut the infernal appetites of the demons of the Papacy."
Truly the Protestant witnesses were hated of all nations where the Papacy held sway just as Jesus had predicted in the Olivet Discourse. We will give but one example of this persecution from Ireland's. Ireland's very own equivalent of the St. Bartholomews Massacre, the Slaughter of 1641 (Front Page). The dreadful events which took place at that time are fully documented in Lord Ernest Hamilton's book "The Soul of Ulster" and in the classic "History of the Irish Presbyterian Church" by the late Thomas Hamilton DD. Let us now see what took place:-
"The object of this outbreak was . . . the utter extinction of Protestantism and the establishment of Romanism in its place. The rebellion broke out with all the suddenness and fury of a tornado on 23rd October 1641. The force of the insurrection spent itself in Ulster and here the havoc which it wrought was appalling. The Protestants being almost defenceless were in many cases butchered like sheep. Led on by Sir Phelim O'Neill the insurgents seized upon castle after castle, town after town, frequently massacring all the inhabitants ... Ulster became a veritable field of blood. Far and wide over the country the eye beheld towns and villages the dwellings of Protestant clergymen and the farmhouses of the Protestants in flames.
Behind hedges and ditches droves of Protestants stripped absolutely naked, crouched for shelter, the husband trying in vain to shield his trembling wife, the mother her wretched children from the fury of the pitiless assassins and the biting cold of one of the severest winters ... The River Blackwater in Tyrone is said to have run red with the blood of murdered Protestants ... We can tell of infants whose brains were dashed out against walls before their helpless and horrified mother's faces: of others who were tossed into boiling pots or tossed into ditches to the pigs; of poor Protestants whose eyes were gouged out, their hands and ears cut off with fiendish savagery; of many who were buried alive; of women first stripped naked then ripped up with knives; of men from whose bodies the Papists cut slices of flesh and then roasted their victims alive; of 300 Protestants, men, women and children at Loughgall stripped naked, driven into the Church, the doors locked, and fierce men like wolves than human beings let loose upon them to kill and outrage as they pleased, of 196 Protestants drowned at Portadown Bridge in one day and 1000 said have been killed there altogether . . . of the special cruelties reserved for Protestant ministers . . . some hanged, some dismembered and there heads cut off, and parts of their bodies thrust into their mouths in mockery . . . Rev. Thomas Murray of Killyleagh who was actually crucified in blasphemous mockery of Calvary between two other Protestants, his two sons killed and cut to pieces before their mothers eyes, then her own body mutilated . . . Sir Phelim O'Neill declared he would never leave off the work he began till Mass should be sung in every church in Ireland and that a Protestant should not be left Ireland ... the priests anointed the rebels before sending them to their murderous work, assuring them that if they chanced to be killed they would escape Purgatory and go straight to heaven for Protestants were worse than dogs, they were devils and served the devil and killing them was a meritorious act."
So were the words of Jesus fulfilled in Papal Persecution.
Since the Russian Revolution in 1917 AD yet another persecuting force has joined in the slaughter of the saints. Over 20 Millions have perished for their faith in Christ behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains, as Atheist Communism whether of the Russian or Chinese variety has overrun nation after nation. Christians are executed, worked to death in the slave labour camps of Siberia, thrown into grim prisons and insane asylums and left to rot away. Such is the nature of Marxist persecution.
It should not be ignored that vast numbers of Jews (Judah, one of the tribes of Mount Sinai Israel) suffered under Hitler. Then Saddam Hussein has destroyed vast numbers of his own people in recent years. In the light of all of this it is crystal clear that the world has been cyclically in Great Tribulation for almost two thousand years. We do not await some short period at the end of the age. The Tribulation is soon to be ended by the return of Christ.
5) THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM TO ALL NATIONS
"And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matthew 24:14
"And the Gospel must first be published among all nations." Mark 13:10
Many students and preachers of prophecy have yet again sought to make this an exclusively end of the age prophecy, but this is not the case. The fact is that the proclamation of the true Gospel of the kingdom marked the period leading to the commencement of Great Tribulation in 70 AD, just as surely as it marks these end-times in which we live when the Tribulation shall be ended. Then Jesus told the Disciples:-
"Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost PART of the earth. Acts 1:8
Please note that Christ spoke about the uttermost PART, not PARTS of the earth. When He addressed these words to the Disciples, that location of which He spoke, was known to the Romans as Ultima Thule, and it referred to the British Isles, where as we know, the dispersed seed of Ten-tribed Israel were in the process of regathering. Church historians testify to the fact that the Christian Gospel was being preached in Glastonbury in the South West of England by Joseph of Arimathea as early as 38 AD. Tertullian testifies that the Good News was proclaimed in the British Isles soon after Christ's Ascension. Nicephorus states that Simon Zelotes brought the message of the Gospel to Britain at an early date.
In the book entitled "Christianity its Trials and Triumphs" by Ernest Philips, with a forward by F. B. Meyer, it is stated that:-
"We venture to say that there is enough evidence to prove that large numbers of Israelites formed settlements in the British Isles before the Christian era . . . the Apostles and Disciples heard the call of God to pray for and preached to their separated brethren . . . it cannot be doubted that the Church at Jerusalem sent disciples to Great Britain . . . there is good reason for believing that some of the Apostles voyaged to England soon after Pentecost and preached the Gospel there."
In the book, "History of the Church and State of Scotland" by Andrew Stevenson, it is stated:-
"It seems certain that the disciples of the Apostle John fled to the British Isles in the year 96 AD to escape the persecuting edicts of Emperor Domitian."
We are all well acquainted with the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul, in Asia Minor, Greece, Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean as recorded in the Book of Acts; there is however a strong tradition, endorsed by both Clement and Teodoret, that Paul also preached in Britain, "the ultimate part of the earth." There was discovered in the library of the Sultan of Turkey some two centuries ago, a document known as the Sonnini Manuscript and called by some the Lost or Final Chapter of the Book of Acts, and which gives an account of Paul's missionary endeavours in both Spain and the British Isles, and which claims that the Apostle actually preached on Mount Lud, where St. Paul's Cathedral now stands in London. Thus by 70 AD, the true Apostolic Gospel of the Kingdom had been preached in all of the then known world as a witness.
However as we have already seen, there arose during the Great Tribulation period, the systems of Islam and Romanism. The message of the Gospel was stamped out by the followers of Mohammed throughout the Middle East and North Africa, whilst in Western Europe, the apostasy and doctrinal errors of the Papacy, accumulating over the centuries from the time of Constantine, together with the persecuting zeal of that system, almost extinguished the light of Gospel Truth.
God never leaves Himself without a witness and so even during the Dark Ages, when Popery held sway, little groups like the Albigenses, Waldensians, Hussites and Lollards sought to maintain and preserve the truth. Then with the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation from 1517 AD onwards, the truths of the Gospel began to be progressively restored. These were not new ideas or extra-Biblical revelations, they were the basic foundational truths of the Gospel of the Kingdom, which had been buried and obscured by Papal Rome. Like a river which begins as a tiny stream and gradually builds up until it flows into a mighty ocean so the work of restoration advanced. Martin Luther rediscovered the truth of Justification by Faith, that salvation was the free gift of God's grace and not by works. Calvin, Knox and others rediscovered the great truths concerning the Sovereignty of God.
The early Baptist pioneers rejected the Romish practice of sprinkling babies, with all its overtones of baptismal regeneration, and they restored the Biblical practice of baptizing believers by total immersion. By the Wesleys and others in the Eighteenth Century came a restoration of teaching on sanctification and holiness. Then in the Twentieth Century came the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the restitution of the Sign/Gift ministry, and the knowledge of the identity of the Celto-Anglo-Saxon peoples as the House of Israel; Allen, being one of them. Thus was restored the Apostolic Gospel of Jesus Christ as Saviour, Healer, Baptizer and Coming King.
Alongside this restoration of Bible Truth we have witnessed the great upsurge of missionary activity and the translation of the Holy Scriptures into every known tongue. It is interesting to note that 95% of all world missionary work and evangelism, has been carried out by people of the Anglo-Saxon race, even as Almighty God had said, that He had chosen Israel to be His witness, His Servant Nation, an instrument of blessing to all mankind.
Thus has both the commencement and the ending of the Great Tribulation been marked by the fulfilment of Matthew 24:14 and Mark 13:10.
TRIBULATION IN REVELATION
Concerning the Great Tribulation, we read in the Apocalypse:-
"What are these arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir thou knowest. And he said to me. These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Revelation 7:13-14
John is being given a vision of that time, still future, when in the great Day of Resurrection, all those who have suffered under Pagan Rome, Papal Rome, Communism and Fascism will receive their reward. He contrasts vividly the sufferings which they had endured, throughout the Great Tribulation, with their future reward. The time of their trials and afflictions had ended and they were enjoying eternal life in the Kingdom throughout the countless Ages of eternity. There are two points here, which we must pay close attention to:-
1) THERE WAS NO ESCAPE BY SECRET RAPTURE
These Christian martyrs arrayed in white robes had come out of the midst of tribulation, they had not been raptured or snatched away before it. Jesus had prayed:-
"I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." John 17:15
The three Hebrews had to go into the burning fiery furnace. Daniel had to go into the lion's den. We have just seen the awful trials under Paganism, Romanism, Marxism and Fascism. There is absolutely no justification for teaching that we will be rescued from or spared the tribulation which the saints of other Ages have endured by some secret rapture.
But like the early Christians we can escape.
2) THE REVELATION VISION DATES THE GREAT TRIBULATION
Continuing John's vision of the Tribulation martyrs, the Scriptures state:-
"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Revelation 7.16-17
This is almost a word for word quotation from the prophecy of Isaiah states:-
"And he said, `It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel they shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by springs of water shall he guide them." Isaiah 49:6,10
Thus we see that the period of the Great Tribulation, of persecution martyrdom, was also the period during which "the preserved of Israel" the so-called Lost Tribes, now regathered in the Celto-Anglo-Saxon people would embrace the true Gospel of Jesus Christ; in other words the Great Tribulation is synonymous with the Christian era of prophecy.
DANIEL'S TRIBULATION
Describing the Great Tribulation period, the prophet Daniel in his Twelfth chapter says:-
"And at that time shall Michael stand up the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time, and AT THAT TIME thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
At a first reading this prophecy might appear to be confined to the time of the Second Advent of Christ, linked as it is to the theme of the Resurrection and Judgement. However, there were no chapters in the original manuscript of Daniel's prophecy, these were added much later by the translator Therefore to understand what is meant by the phrase AT THAT TIME we must go back to the Eleventh chapter, to the fortieth verse where we read:-
"AND AT THE TIME OF THE END." Daniel 11:4.
Now we must establish two more facts.
A) WHEN IS THE TIME OF THE END?
This expression is understood by many students of Bible Prophecy, whom are called Futurists, (as we were in the World Wide Church of God under Armstrong) to refer to a brief period of three and a half or seven years at the end of this age; but this is not necessarily so. In the Epistle of John, written towards the end of the First Century AD we read:-
"Little children it is THE LAST TIME; and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, EVEN NOW there are many Antichrists; whereby we know that it is THE LAST TIME."
I John 2:18
So John says THE LAST TIME or TIME OF THE END had already commenced nineteen hundred years ago around the time of the Siege of Jerusalem. The godly expositor of the Protestant Historist interpretation of prophecy, Bishop Newton maintained that the expression THE TIME OF THE END was the same period referred to by the Apostle Paul when he wrote these words to Timothy:-
"Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the LATTER TIMES some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." I Timothy 4:1
The majority of commentators are agreed that the expressions LATTER TIMES, LATTER DAYS and TIME OF THE END, all refer to the self same period, the Christian era of prophecy, from the days of the New Testament writers, around the period of the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD until the present day. Write for our Free article -- Britain/Ephraim The Untold Story.
B) WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF DANIEL'S TIME OF THE END?
The answer to this question can be found by looking at the circumstances surrounding this phrase as it is recorded four times in Daniel chapters eleven and twelve.
1) IT WAS A TIME OF WAR according to Daniel 11:40-45 The King
of the South representing the Arabs or Saracens, did indeed wage war on the
"Him" of the prophecy representing apostate Christendom. They conquered
Palestine, most of the Middle East, North Africa and Spain, they sacked Rome,
and besieged Constantinople, and between 634 and 644 AD captured 36,000 towns or
strongholds, destroyed 4,000 nominally Christian churches and built some 1,400
Moslem Mosques.
The King of the North representing the Turks did indeed operate as the
scourge of Christendom between the Eleventh and Seventeenth Centuries capturing
Constantinople and reaching the very gates of Vienna. This same King of the
North or Turkish Ottoman Empire was indeed disturbed from the North and East by
Russia, and did indeed come to a final end with the defeat of its armies in
Palestine and Mesopotamia by the British in 1917.
2) IT WAS A TIME OF THE FALSE CHRIST. - according to Daniel 11:36-39.
Therein we find a description of a religious system headed up in a dynasty of
men who would be:
A) Exalted above every god.
B) Speak marvellous things against God.
C) Honour the god of forces or the gods that protect (guardian or patron
saints).
D) Not regard the desire of women.
E) Honour a god, hitherto unknown, with gold, silver and precious stones.
All these marks are manifested by the Papacy. The Popes did indeed exalt
themselves and utter horrible blasphemies against God. They did indeed introduce
the worship of saints, images, icons and relics. They did indeed disregard the
desire of women by the enforced celibacy of their priesthood and they introduced
the worship of the Host (victim) or Wafer (?)-god, set up in a gold or silver
monstrance adorned with precious stones
3) IT WOULD BE A TIME OF PERSECUTION according to Daniel 11:33 where we read
in similar words to those used in Revelation 7, that:-
"Many shall be purified and made white and tried."
This has been fulfilled in the martyrdoms under Pagan Rome, Papal Rome and
Marxism.
4) IT WOULD BE A TIME OF INCREASED KNOWLEDGE according to Daniel 12:4.
This is especially true of the increase of spiritual and prophetic knowledge.
Throughout the entire Christian era of prophecy there has been a gradual
unfolding and elucidation of Bible Prophecy, and this is especially true of the
period since the Protestant Reformation when the true Apostolic Gospel began to
be restored.
So we see that the dating and characteristics of Daniel's Time of the End
correspond exactly to those of the Great Tribulation spoken of by Jesus in the
accounts given by Matthew, Luke and John.
Alex Cain
When the film of the cow that is supposed to have BSE is shown, it's the same
film over and over again. No vast drunken herds are shown. The cow is shown
walking down a wooden plank that is wet and slippery. Also the ironic thing is
that when the news media said that the public confidence in beef had gone, some
supermarkets and butchers that cut the price of beef couldn't get ENOUGH of it.
NO its a crises of MAD POLITICIANS.
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Keeping in mind the horror of Dunblane and other similar tragedies, it should
be noted that The Church of England in its common prayer book (ISBN
0-19-130601-0 page 710) has, as an ARTICLE OF RELIGION XXXVII. Of the Civil
Magistrates:
THE LAWS OF THE REALM MAY PUNISH CHRISTIAN MEN WITH DEATH, FOR HEINOUS AND
GRIEVOUS OFFENCES.
Now we are fully aware that the Government of the land did in fact pass a law
to stop capital punishment - but GOD who is full of wisdom states:
EXODUS 21:12 HE THAT SMITETH A MAN, SO THAT HE DIE, SHALL SURELY
In the Dunblane case the guy put himself to death. For those potential and
actual murderers who are alive now, there is nothing that would harness the
powers of the mind so much as the fact that they could get caught and DIE.
Church of God, P.O. Box 53, Farnborough, Hants, GU14OYZ UK .
To date, 22 July 1996 there has been NO SCIENTIFIC evidence WHATSOEVER
connecting BSE bovine spongiform encephalopathy to CJD
Creutzfeldt-Jakob-disease.