Dear Phyllis,
This past week has been a pretty bland. After the major upheavals we have been through in the past month, this has been a very quiet moment. I really have nothing significant to write about.
Perhaps the most arresting topic is the international scene. Incontestably the most used word in the news media today is economy. That is going to be the central point of the political battle just about to erupt before the November elections. But it is not just the economic conditions in the states that is critical; Europe is about to explode. It is hard to imagine any country caught in a more irresolvable dilemma than Greece. What they have done is to develop an entitlement society that is free-loading off the government. The government has financed that by operating on borrowed money until they simply can't borrow any more. Who in the world is going to loan money to someone who has no possible means of paying back? What do you do when you have a nation living off from a well that has just run dry, and no possible way of getting any more water? In a responsible society, necessity would demand that they come up with some other means of livelihood. Unfortunately, France and other places have demonstrated that it is possible to produce an entitlement society where a significant portion of the populations is void of rational thought. They demand by mass demonstrations that the government continue to support them, even though the government has no possible means of doing so. Then what? I hope I am wrong, but it seems to me that the ultimate result will be close to anarchy, where mobs of violent young people turn to any means of getting what they want. The black Muslim from Kenya, who is in charge of the candy store in America, has repeatedly declared his intention to redistribute the wealth. At the moment he is trying to accomplish that by political means. But if you get to a situation like Greece, where there simply is no more candy in the store, that redistribution might be done by guns. Hopefully the states is not at that point yet, but the economic and political drift is certainly headed in that direction
I have zero interest in economics, but as one who is very interested in prophecy, the clouds brewing on the horizon look frighteningly ominous. Looking at the total international scene, it is hard not to come up with some speculation that the world is in a major shift. There is little question but what the sun has set on Europe. England is rapidly becoming a third world nation. And it is undeniable that the sun is very low in the horizon on America.
I have been astounded by what I have seen in my travel in China, The infrastructure in that country is mind-boggling. Their transportation system system is staggering. Chinese engineers have got to be some of the best in the world. Mountains and valleys seemingly mean nothing to them. They just go straight. Traveling through Gansu, which is very mountainous, it seemed that the train is going through tunnels 50% of the time. And if it wasn't a tunnel, it was going across a tremendous bridge. In order to neutralize Tibet, the Chinese government realized that they must have a strong transportation link to Lhasa. The early attempts to build a rail line there proved challenging. In the Himalayas they hit permafrost. It has been reported that they asked Swiss engineers to come help them build that railway. The bottom line was that the Swiss engineers concluded that the task was impossible and went home. Undeterred, the Chinese put freon in pipes in the tunnels to keep the ground frozen and finished the railway. Perhaps the thing that impressed me the most about China was their infrastructure. I don't know of anyplace in the world that can match it. Their cities look very much like Japan. This is a country that is surging forward at an unprecedented velocity. It is hard for me to imagine that China will not overtake America very soon and be the woulds next sole super power.
It is undeniable that the progression of civilization and world dominant kingdoms has moved steadily westward from the Middle East, across Europe, to England and then to America. But the center of world power has crossed the Pacific to Asia today.
It will be interesting to see what will happen in November. Hopefully it looks like the guys in the black hats might get run off. But I doubt that anything can stop the judgment of God coming on America and the dark future she faces.
In the Old Testament, God's four rods of judgmental were the Sword, Famine. Pestilence, andBeasts (Ezek. 14:21). this is not just one reference but repeatedly this was God's rod of judgment. In the book of Revelation I see the same thing in the four horses in Rev. 6 – the White horse, the Red horse, the Black horse, and the Pale horse. The White horse is obviously bloodless conquest, which I believe is basically political control. In recent years, the past century, the world has seen Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot come to power, and be responsible for the death of tens of millions of their countrymen. These men were beasts. They say this could not happen in America, but we are moving rapidly in that direction. I see nothing to stop it. The black man from Kenya has reconfigured the America government more in three years than all the presidents before him in 200 years. Neither the executive branch, the legislative branch, nor the judicial branch have shown much regard for the constitution. And there are extremely strong forces pushing forward their destructive agendas today. The anti-Christ is known as the beast and today's politicians are simply minor predecessors (Rev. 17:; 19:20; 20:10). The evil men in government today are certainly beasts sent from God for America's judgment. The Red horse is clearly war. The Black horse is clearly economical disaster, and the Pale horse is pestilence (AIDS. etc).
When God gave His end-time prophecy to Daniel, He told him to seal it up for the time was in the distant future (Dan. 12:9). But when God showed John the things that must come to pass, He told him not to seal it, for the time was at hand (Rev. 22:10). If God said the time was at hand, I rather suspect that it was (is). Certainly much of Revelation has not been fulfilled. But the Lord has been working for 2,000 years, and we are at the very threshold of seeing the rest of the wrath of God poured out very soon.
But with that I also see a tremendous acceleration in world evangelism. I see the progress of the Gospel has gone hand in glove with the dominant world powers. There is no doubt in my mind that what we have seen – and are presently seeing– in the unprecedented
revival in China, is God raising up a church that is capable of taking the Gospel westward, to the Islamic nations and cleaning out the 10-40 window – back to Jerusalem. The Chinese believers are some of the toughest missionaries and evangelists that the world has ever seen.
For sometime I have been much challenged by Ezek. 40-48. There is great emphasis in the scripture given to the dimensions of God's Temples. This is consistent in Exodus, II Chronicles, Ezekiel, and Revelation. As a construction man, I was determinedly to digest the dimensions given in Ezek. 40 and 41. I hadn't been at that long before I realized that was impossible. After spending years trying to decipher these figures I have come to two conclusions. First of all, I see God's Temple is basically spiritual. The best word on that is Eph. 2:20-22, which says that we are a “temple built for a habitation of God through the Spirit”. God's Temple today is a spiritual one of Christ living the hearts of Christians by His Spirit.
The second thing I have come up with is that, basically, one must revert to numerology to understand much of these measurements. By using numerology much of the scripture has become very meaningful to me. Right at the beginning in Ezek. 40:3,5 we see that there was a measuring reed given. The length was six cubits. But everything mentioned in verses 5, 6, 7, and 8 were all the same measurement – ONE REED. The breadth and height of the building, the gate, the stairs, the threshold, the little chambers, the broad chambers, and the porch; they are all ONE REED. Try to draw that on a piece of paper. But we know that 6 is the number of man (Rev. 13:18, Man was created on thew 6th day). We might suggest that Jesus is the measuring stick of everything. And because it is 6 cubits that means it is the humanity of Christ that is the measure of everything in His Temple. That is why everything is the same – ONE REED.
Another key that has helped me understand a great deal of scripture is by attaching the verb (or noun) that goes with the noun. That is: feet – walk, hands –help, legs – stand. eyes – see, ears – hear, mouth – speak, arm – strength, etc. In Ezekiel's Temple there are only a few things that are mentioned – wall, gate, stairs, pillars, arches, windows, chambers. The wall obviously speaks of separation. It is significant that this is the first thing that is mentioned in Ezek. 40:5 and Rev. 21:12. There must be separation between God's holy Temple and the world. There must be wall. And there must be a gate. That is, the way to get in. In John 10:7, 9 “Jesus said. I am the door: by Me, if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved.” Jesus clearly is the gate. Ezekiel speaks much about the posts (pillars). In Rev. 3:12 Jesus promised the over comers in Philadelphia that He would make them pillars (posts) in His temple. Obviously the posts (pillars) in God temple are the men of God that hold up the structure. We frequently say a man is a pillar of strength or a pillar in the church.
It is significant that God speaks to the evil kings (rulers) in Ezek. 43:8 saying that “they had placed their threshold by My thresholds and their posts beside My posts; and had made a wall between Me and them (God and people).” The threshold is the requirement for getting in. God's threshold – requirement for admission –is by repentance and faith in Jesus. But in many major Christian denominations today – man's threshold – church membership is held up as the requirement for admission. God's posts are His men of God; and man's post are the big men in religious organizations. These posts are not the same. Man's threshold and posts are not always the same as God's, and that has placed a wall between God and people.
But what does all of this have to do with the political and economic condition in the world today? If I read the Bible correctly it is hard to believe that we are not on the brink of the final moments of this dispensation. I believe God is setting the stage for the end time political configuration and world powers that will soon be headed by the anti-Christ. If things in Europe, and soon in America, continue in the present direction, it is hard not to imagine violent protests demanding more handouts from governments that simply have no more funds to pass out. If we get to that stage, the only possible solution will be a political superman who will step forward to pull the western nations out of chaos. That will have to be the man of sin (2Thes. 2:3-9).
But in the mean time God is building His Temple. The Word has never been more fresh and understandable to me than it is now. By reading the Word by the Spirit, the Lord is explaining things to me that didn't make sense before. Numerology has become very enlightening and cast light on obscure passages. And by attaching the verb – or noun – that goes with many biblical objects, these truths are becoming more clear. I have learned to dismiss my own logic and simply accept the Bible for what it says rather than insisting it fit in the box of my own understanding. These things have been very helpful in assimilating spiritual truth.
Truly these are exciting days. Let's gambarimasho for Jesus (give it our best shot).
bill
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