Category: egypt

Posted in egypt, interpreting prophecy, isaiah 19, that day, the day of the lord

"That Day"- what does it mean?

Posted on by elizabethprata

When I refer, for example, to a prophecy in Isaiah 19 regarding Egypt, they ask how can I know if that was already fulfilled or if it is meant for the future.

It is a good question. Many prophecies have a double fulfillment. This means it was partially fulfilled in the past, and the rest will be fulfilled in the future. This is called the Mountain Peaks view of prophecy. Clarence Larkin (1850-1924) created this picture to explain the unrolling of prophecy throughout the ages.

When you’re climbing a mountain range and you think you’ve gotten to the top, you realize there is a valley and the peak you thought was nearby is actually several mountains away with several valleys between.

You can read more about Larkin and his Prophecy Peaks here. Whether you agree with all that Larkin said is not under discussion here but his view of prophecy being a mountain range rather than each prophecy being one peak is a good way to think about how prophecy unrolls through time.

Some prophecies, of course, are fulfilled only once. Jesus was only born once. He was called out of Egypt once. Some prophecies will be fulfilled once but haven’t been fulfilled yet, such as Isaiah 17:1, Damascus will be destroyed, it will be a heap of ruins.” The longest continuously inhabited city in the world has never been reduced to a heap of ruins, and when it is, it will happen only one time because the prophecy says it will never re-emerge as a city.

That is why it takes care to study the entire bible, and take care especially in studying prophecy to see if it is something that has been fulfilled, was never yet fulfilled, or is a double fulfillment type of prophecy.

Prophecy is also precise. One great example of how precise is Jesus when He read from Isaiah. Luke has the story–

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,”

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

“And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21).

Where Jesus stopped is of import. The next line of that verse in Isaiah reads “and the day of vengeance of our God;”. If Jesus had read that it would be untrue. His first advent was to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and His second advent will be to bring wrath and justice. He was not there to bring vengeance yet, so He stopped in the middle of the sentence.

In timing, whenever you see “That day” or “The Day of the LORD” in the bible it refers to the 7-year period at the end of the age when God sends Jesus to render wrath on the world and exact His justice. It is not ‘The Lord’s Day’ which is sabbath. It is specific to the end of the age and His wrath on the world.  Lambert Dolphin wrote,

“The Day of the LORD is a special term in the Bible used to refer to a period of time when God directly intervenes in human affairs—in judgment or in blessing. The Day of the Lord we are presently waiting for in our time frame will begin with the rapture (or “translation”) of the church and will continue through the tribulation period (seven years), and on through the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth until the time of the “new heavens and new earth.” (Rev. 21)”

So is Isaiah 19 prophecy about Egypt for now or was it fulfilled already? Walt Kaiser gave a good answer when someone had asked him that. He explains the timing. The question was asked in 2011 when Mubarak fell and chaos reigned in Tarhir Square during the Arab Spring.

Thoughts on Egypt and prophecies in Isaiah 19 by Walt Kaiser
“Recently I was asked by a friend who leads a BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) class to offer my thoughts on the recent activities in Egypt, and to comment specifically on Isaiah 19, which the class was studying. Here’s what I told the class. What do you think?”

“Yes, I believe the Isaiah 19 passage is most relevant. Verses 16 to 25 place the coming events “in that day” six times (vss 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, and 24). Since the prophecies to the foreign nations are bounded by chapter on the first advent of Christ (Isa 7-12) and the second advent of Christ (24-27), chapters 13-23 fall between those two end pieces in position and apparently in time as well. That is why I also stress the eschatological phrase “In that day.”

You can read the rest at the link.

So that is a quick little study on That Day, timing, how to read prophecy and how to view it in terms of peaks of mountain ranges instead of one Mt. Everest.

Be careful, be mindful, and keep praying to ask the Spirit to deliver a spirit of courage, wisdom and love in these days.

Posted in egypt, great pyramid, monument, prophecy

Egyptian clerics calling for destruction of Pyramids. Is this part of prophecy?

Posted on by elizabethprata

First, the news:

Calls to Destroy Egypt’s Great Pyramids Begin
“According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those “symbols of paganism,” which Egypt’s Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to ‘destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not.'”In other words, Morsi’s call to release the Blind Sheikh, a terrorist mastermind, may be the tip of the iceberg in coming audacity. From calls to legalize Islamic sex-slave marriage to calls to institute “morality police” to calls to destroy Egypt’s mountain-like monuments, under Muslim Brotherhood tutelage, the bottle has been uncorked, and the genie unleashed in Egypt.”

There are several things to consider here. The bible says there shall be a coming oppression of Egypt by a “cruel master.”

“I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 19:4)

Whether that cruel master is Morsi, the newly elected President, remains to be seen. But the days for Egypt’s people are going to get a lot darker before they get better. We can see that the persecutions and oppression have already begun in Egypt. They will not slow down, but only get worse. If Morsi isn’t the ‘cruel master’ today, then he is on deck.

The Lord does love His people, and He has special plans for Egypt. At the end of the Tribulation, they come to repentance and cry out to the Lord, and he blesses them as a nation. He only names three nations to be blessed, Assyria and Israel are the other two. This is also a prophecy in Isaiah 19.

In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing[b] on the earth. 25 The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance. ”” (Isaiah 19:24-25).

But it will be a very bumpy road till they get there…

The article goes on for two well-researched pages about the past habits of the Muslims who, when they conquer or rule, tend to destroy monuments to their religion that don’t line up with their religion anymore. As the article states, “Under… subsequent Muslim rule, many Egyptian antiquities were destroyed as relics of infidelity.” That in itself is sad. Are they a people so confused and hateful that they repudiate former relics at will? Yes. That is one reason they need Jesus, so they can have peace, and live with the indwelling Spirit who never changes and is constant and true.

Secondly, there is an obscure prophecy regarding a monument at the center of Egypt. Some historians and archaeologists speculate that the Great Pyramid was built as an homage to the One True Lord and is the monument the prophecy in Isaiah refers to. (see below). The Great Pyramid was the one pyramid never used as a tomb. It as also the first Pyramid built. Therefore, if the Isaiah prophecy of a monument to the LORD refers to the Pyramid, then this sudden attention the Islamists are paying to the Pyramid in wanting to tear it down is extremely interesting.

One thing is obvious: the Great Pyramid had supernatural help in its construction. As Jack Kelley explains, the person designing the Great Pyramid would have to know “all the dimensions of Earth and had a command of engineering, astronomy, and mathematics that would be impressive even today. Think of it. This guy knew the weight and curvature of the Earth, the irregularity of that curvature at the poles, the location and size of every land mass and its height above sea level, Earth’s mean temperature, its latitude and longitude scales, the exact direction of true north, the locations of the stars, and the fact that 1300 years later the Earth’s orbit would change, increasing by 5.24 days. He knew how to make things absolutely level, straight, and square, and how to pre-cut and position gigantic pieces of stone so that when in place they fit so perfectly that every course is level and square even today. He knew how to calculate the coefficients of expansion and contraction and compensate for them. The list goes on. If this guy didn’t have supernatural capability himself, he was certainly assisted by Someone who does.”

Great Pyramid of Giza from a 19th century stereopticon card photo. Wiki.

The Great Pyramid is a great monument, and also a great mystery. Is it a pagan monument, or an homage to the One True and Great God? Here is the obscure prophecy about Egypt, the Hebrew name, Mizraim. (Gen 10:6) and a monument. The prophecy is from Isaiah:

“In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border. It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them.” (Isaiah 19:19-20).

The name Mizraim is the Hebrew name for the land of Egypt, with the dual suffix -āyim, perhaps referring to the “two Egypts”: Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. The land of Egypt used to be in two parts, Upper and Lower Egypt, and the Great Pyramid at Giza stands at the border of these. Nowadays, Egypt is one nation and the Pyramid is in the center. That is how a monument can be at the heart of the nation AND at the border. The Great Pyramid is at the center of the world, actually.

“The Pyramid is located at the exact center of the Earth’s land mass. That is, its East-West axis corresponds to the longest land parallel across the Earth, passing through Africa, Asia, and America. Similarly, the longest land meridian on Earth, through Asia, Africa, Europa, and Antarctica, also passes right through the Pyramid. Only a solid stone mountain could endure the Pyramid’s immense weight. And indeed, a flat solid granite mountain happens to be located just beneath the surface of the ground directly under the Pyramid. It is built to face true North. Since the Earth has enough land area to provide 3 billion possible building sites for the Pyramid, the odds of it having been built where it is are 1 in 3 billion.” (source)

The Great Pyramid is “different from all the other pyramids in Egypt. For one thing it’s made of stone, not bricks, and is the only one that’s not solid. There’s a series of passageways and several chambers inside. All of the 80 or so other pyramids came later, are grossly inferior copies, and unlike the Great Pyramid were used as gigantic headstones covering the tombs of the Pharaohs. (The Great Pyramid never served as a tomb.)” (source)

The Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Wiki

Jeremiah 32:20 says [O Great and Mighty God]… “who has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day both in Israel and among mankind; and You have made a name for Yourself, as at this day.”

Do the Jeremiah verse referencing signs for all mankind even to this day and the prophecy from Isaiah 19:19-20 both reference the Great Pyramid? Is that why satan is influencing the Islamists to tear down the Pyramid?

It is a mystery whether the supernatural help in designing and building the Great Pyramid was from satan or from God. I think God. But it is just an opinion.

But one thing is not an opinion or a mystery: Jesus will come for His Bride. As John McTernan said in his blog today, “If the Lord does not return soon for the church, we are going to see incredible events with great destruction and loss of life. All these issues are coming together at the same time. I much rather be with the Lord Jesus than watch what is coming upon the earth. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb sounds very good me at the moment.”

Amen, Brother.

Posted in egypt, jerusalem, prophecy, wildfires

Editorials in Major Newspapers increasingly point to prophecy

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel National News: Jerusalem the Immovable Rock
“The call of the world at this time then, is the attempt to lift this ‘Immovable rock’, but in return, to only find that the word of G-d is the unshakeable truth. All who burden themselves with pressuring Israel in changing what G-d has said in His word concerning Jerusalem, will find themselves facing nothing less than G-d’s judgment. Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling to the surrounding nations attempting to take it over from Israel; the June,1967 ‘Six Day War is an example of the supernatural protection around this Holy Land. His word is faithful and true.’

Uganda The Observer: Are we seeing a prophecy on Damascus?
“Around 720 BC Isaiah prophesied that in the fullness of time (end times), Damascus, the Syrian capital, would cease to be a city and become a ruinous and useless heap of rubble. In the wake of the wider Arab Spring – a wave of upheaval throughout the Arab world – are we really going to see the fulfilment of this damning prophecy in our lifetime?”

” In Isaiah 17:1–3 the Bible declares: “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city. And it will be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks which lie down and no one will make them afraid. The fortress also will cease from Ephraim, the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel.” Whether in our lifetime or not, these words will surely come to pass because they were declared by God Almighty’. … What is the key message in all this? In Matthew 24, our Lord Jesus said that during the end times, there would be famines (brought about by economic hardships), wars and rumours of wars, earthquakes, etc.”

“Exactly what is happening now. He also said that nobody would know the day or hour (Matthew 24:36), but we would see the signs. For those with casual relationships with God Almighty, it is high time you repented (Acts 3:19, Jeremiah 2:13), asked for God’s forgiveness and began living a Christ-centred life. Time is really short and all of us will stand before God to give an account of our deeds, words and thoughts.”

EPIC FIRES IN COLORADO: Is God using natural disasters to get our attention?
‘Catastrophic. Epic. Historic. Apocalyptic. Is it possible God is using natural disasters to get our attention? As I write in Implosion, “Natural disasters continue unfolding one after another here in the at home and around the world as they always have. But have you stopped to notice that so many recently are described as ‘historic’ and ‘unprecedented?’

“Thousands of years ago, God told the Hebrew prophet Haggai to write down these words: “For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations. . . . I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations’” (Haggai 2:6-7, 21-22). This is Bible prophecy. This is an intercept from the mind of the all-knowing, all-seeing God of the universe. It is a weather report from the future, if you will, a storm warning. It was given to us so that we would be awake and ready and faithful and walking close to Jesus when the tempests come. God told us well in advance that he was going to “shake all the nations.” That certainly includes the United States.”

Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) The Fight for Egypt’s Future
“To see how Egypt’s revolution has changed the lives of its 8 million Copts (Egyptian Christians), walk one block from its epicenter: Tahrir Square. Pass between the effigies hanging from street lamps, past the ramshackle tents of demonstrators, and turn right at the graffiti-covered concrete blocks barricading the newly elected parliament and loathed police headquarters. Here sits the largest evangelical Arabic-speaking church in the world–6,000-member Kasr El Dobara (KDEC).”

“The sturdy white sanctuary, lined with tall stained-glass windows depicting New Testament stories of Jesus, is half full on the Sunday evening before the first anniversary of military dictator Hosni Mubarak’s February 11 downfall. Attendance is low. Four days earlier, more than 70 soccer fans were massacred in the coastal city of Port Said. A short distance away, angry demonstrators clash with police. … Are Christians fleeing Egypt? Some, yes. Nearly every church can name a family that has emigrated. Many more families desire to follow suit but cannot. But the closer one looks, an irony emerges. Coptic leaders report that a significant number of Christians, especially in rural or poor communities, do fear the future. But many of the most ardently Christian–former Muslims who now follow Christ and have the most to lose under an Islamist government–are the most eager to stay. They hold to their love of country–and to their belief in God’s promise in Isaiah 19: “Blessed be Egypt my people.” But rather than seeking the first opportunity to leave Egypt, he and others like him choose to stay and exert influence behind the scenes. “Doctors stay in medicine; politicians stay in politics; advocates stay in advocacy,” he said. “The salt put in warehouses will just go stale. The salt needs to be in the food.”

1. God’s word is true and more people are noticing the news lining up with the prophecies because of it
2. We’re members of a local church (hopefully) but we are also members of a global church body that extends back to the 3000 saved at Pentecost and into the future when the Church Age ends. There are millions of Christians all over the world right now in pain, jail, torture or loss because of their witness for Christ. Please continue to remember our brethren, and that we are the member of the most glorious Bride of the Lamb, and we should each bear each other’s burdens as members of that worldwide, and soon to be heaven-wide, church.

Posted in egypt, end of days. prophecy, end time, pre-tribulation rapture

America’s sad decline, prophecy’s joyous rise

Posted on by elizabethprata

America’s trajectory is downward. It took a long time, but our decline is speeding up like a snowball down the Alps. Recent examples of the United States’ declining influence are many.

Remember the contretemps between North Korea and South Korea? The US attempted to mediate with them and with China but we got nowhere. North Korea is in our face with declarations of having nukes and we wring our hands. They never would have said that if they knew we would do something about it. China launches a missile barely thirty miles from our mainland and we do nothing. In a response that wasn’t supposed to be a response, we hold military exercises but our missile launch utterly fails. The Army misplaces a highly deadly nerve gas, and there are rumors the biological agent rinderpest has gone missing from Ft. Detrick. And all that was just the last 4 months. We’re done, militarily.

Our economic influence is not faring any better. The G8 and the G20 showed us that. China, the BRIC nations, they pay no attention to us. They murmur about the falling dollar. China does more than murmur. They are a restless landlord grumbling about raising the rent, or worse, calling in their security deposit. Iran starts its own oil bourse. Latin America laughs. Hell, we’re falling apart economically so fast that Cuba may actually outlast us.

America’s diplomatic influence is declining rapidly too. Wikileaks showed the world not only our diplomatic failures, but the way we acted prior to the Wikileaks’ release was far worse. We looked like buffoons. We failed so utterly in the Israeli peace talks everyone acknowledges they are effectively dead. Our response to Egypt tonight with the Obama speech was also a non-event.

This month two pro-American governments were toppled (Tunisia & Lebanon), four pro-American regimes are under siege (Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and Algeria). The end of Hosni Mubarak’s regime in Egypt portends fundamental change throughout the Middle East and the end of the American era in the region.

I’m not down on America. I think our nation is magnificent. It IS a city on a hill. But our atheism, child murder, immorality and worship of pagan gods has chipped away at our core until now, there is barely anything left to stand us up on that hill. We are rolling down it. I believe it must be so. God raised us up and for a long time our influence was so strong in the world. We had the moral clout to speak because we believed in God. He gave us the strength to put moral actions to those words. No? Don’t think so? I have one word for you: D-Day. A generation of brave men got off a boat and waded to shore amid artillery fire to save Europe and the Jews from annihilation. Nowadays men would just twitter about it, then go have a latte.

We stopped believing in God and we no longer have the moral clout to speak. Our influence must be removed. We do not find our nation mentioned in the bible in the end times at all. And why should we be? We were great, but only for a short time, and then we squandered it. Here are some people who are far more eloquent than I who say the same:

Why Washington can’t stop the revolution in Egypt

Five questions about Egypt

Here is a great essay on the Egypt situation from Joel Rosenberg:
Where do we go from here?

and also this one from Joel:

Inside the Egyptian revolution: violence is rising because the Muslim Brotherhood is co-opting the movement: An analysis of the rapidly changing dynamic

Rapture Ready founder and editor Todd Strandberg wrote this week in his weekly opinion essay: “One thing I’ve noticed about Bible prophecy is that end-time progression tends move like earthquake fault lines. Following years of inactivity, everything suddenly moves all at once. Since we have never had such a high level of civil unrest in the Arab world, it’s important for us to remain watchful.”

I’ve noticed that about prophecy too. Although I certainly have not been writing about biblical and prophetic events as long as Mr Strandberg has (20 years) not as long as Hal Linsdey and John Hagee, (50 years), I believe that anyone who reads the bible on a constant basis notices the pattern. Prophecy is given long in advance. Events always move inexorably toward their inevitable conclusion, but as the time nears, the events speed up, and then suddenly they are fulfilled. All I can say is, keep looking up!
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