14 December 2013: This girl playing in a snow-covered landscape image was taken in Israel this morning, at that Armon HaNatziv promenade to the south of Temple Mount, Jerusalem. Quite a few out there are attaching some prophetic significance to the snow and wintry weather that has blanketed Israel over the past 48 hours, particularly Jerusalem and other elevated environs. With end times expectations being what they are in these days, I am inclined to agree that there might well be some significance to an unprecedented snowfall at the end of 2013 AD.
While there is prophetic mention of snow being symbolically linked with the salvation of the human soul, such as found in Isaiah 1:18 ("Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool"), there is also Psalm 68 which prophetically declares how God will scatter His enemies in the last days. Verse 14 appears to point to a specific time of year : "When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Zalmon." Mount Zalmon (a/k/a Mount Ebal) is a mountain in Samaria, near Shechem, the hill country of Ephraim, central Israel. Ephraim figures prominently in the prophecy of Isaiah 17.
A procession of future prophetic verses from King David's point in time begins at verse 18. In sum, Psalm 68 is a historic and prophetic overview of Israel as it was, as it is now and as it will be when the beast, the antichrist, sets his feet in Israel (verse 21). The snow in Israel sent me into His Word early this morning; and so how anxious is the rest of the Bride of Christ for the promise of the Harpazo? If snow flakes have this effect on the Bride of Christ one can only imagine!
So, for the record, I do not see all that white stuff on the ground in Israel as just another weather event, I see it as a special snow as Psalm 68:14 says.
So, for the record, I do not see all that white stuff on the ground in Israel as just another weather event, I see it as a special snow as Psalm 68:14 says.
I didn't even know it ever snows in Israel. I thought it was hot all year round. Perhaps that's just another misconception I had about the "bible days". That the climate was all desert and sand....
ReplyDeleteThe storm may have bought Iran a few more days for their centrifuges.
ReplyDeleteIsrael is still working on clearing roads and restoring power to homes today.
The storm by the way dropped the first snow in Cairo in 112 years!
How cool would it be if the Iranians actually believed that?
ReplyDeleteWaaaaay cool.
This is an article worth reading from yesterday's NYT:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/opinion/saudi-arabia-will-go-it-alone.html
I think this editorial serves as a "final warning" of sorts from Saudi Arabia.
I actually got a chuckle out of reading this, for two reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe first and most important chuckle is due to the infallible prophetic text of Ezekiel 38. That Divinely inspired text makes the opinion of the Saudi author of this article a totally moot point. Arabia and the West will be on the same side during the Gog Confederation's Divinely preempted attempt to conquer Israel.
Secondly, the author, PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN NAWAF BIN ABDULAZIZ AL SAUD is the current Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the UK and Ireland. That he penned this literary tantrum for the New York Times fully completes the big circle of Ezekiel 38's "Sheba and Dedan" in alliance with one of the "Tarshish" principles (the UK) and one of its primary "young lions" (the USA).
In this piece PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN NAWAF BIN ABDULAZIZ AL SAUD is virtually begging for a military intervention of the West in a majority Sunni country (Syria) in order to ensure its own Islamic dominance in the Middle East. He's begging the West to do to Syria what Russia will ultimately try to do to Israel.
How ironic. And that makes it pretty humorous if you ask me.
Debka's latest headline reads: "US and EU in desperate bid to save sinking nuclear accord with Iran"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.debka.com/article/23535/US-and-EU-in-desperate-bid-to-save-sinking-nuclear-accord-with-Iran-
Your take on this, Sean? Has Israel gained anything by waiting these last couple weeks up to this point?
This is atypical DEBKA hand-wringing because they haven't a clue (as secular Jews) about what the prophetic future holds.
ReplyDeleteThere is no agreement of any substantive accord; it was an abject failure from the get-go, a game of make believe, nuclear charades, and remains so to this minute.
So, how can something that had no substance to it in the first place unravel or need to be "saved"?
Does nonsense have value?
Hi Sean, I just wanted to make a remark on one of your comments. I noticed that you mentioned the UK as tarshish and the US as one of the young lions. Almost every "scholar" I inquired of disagrees with that, but I think they are wrong. Not only does the historical evidence back up your assessment but the description of their toothless protest fits the UK and US to a tee.
ReplyDeleteHartdawg,
ReplyDeleteI'm very curious, of which "scholars" did you inquire regarding Tarshish and the young lions thereof?
I have held to this particular interpretive identification of Ezekiel 38:13 for a very long time now.
My most widely read treatment of it is found in the "The Prophetic Road to Revelation (Part IV): The War of Gog of Magog" under the sub-heading "Ezekiel Identifies Many Nations!" that I posted originally in 2009, but the basis of which dates to a decade or more earlier than that.
The thing is, I have always assumed many, as in a majority, interpreted Ezekiel 38:13 in the same manner as I have. I know Tim LaHaye agrees with this, as does Tommy Ice ("Is America in Bible prophecy?"), and as Tommy Ice noted that W. S. McBirnie in 1978 and David Allen Lewis in 1990 also hold to this interpretation.
So, I'm curious... who holds a differing interpretation than this?
I went to bible college for 2 years a pre-mil pre-trib dispensationalist believing bible college. Most of the theology professors taught that tarshish was Spain and the young lions was simply a reference to their armies...furthermore they, along with the church I grew up in, taught that this battle took place in the middle of the tribulation. This was all before I was acquainted with Dr Reagan, bill salus and this blog site.
ReplyDeleteI learned so much from these men of God and from this site, but I never did ask any of these scholars the identity of tarshish.
so these "scholars" I mentioned do not include the aforementioned group.
hartdawg,
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for adding those educational details! I am honored to be placed in such company. It's all for His Glory!
For what it's worth, I have never attended a Bible college, nor did the church I grew up in (a very conservative, old-school Wesleyan Methodist Church) teach anything about the end times or the prophecy which describes it for us in such detail.
After accepting Jesus as my personal savior, and being baptized in the Holy Spirit and allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest in my uncontrolled speaking of a language I had never learned a few weeks later, my education in God's Word has from that point forward been accomplished by reading His Word and allowing the Holy Spirit to instruct me as if I were a child what the texts of Genesis to Revelation were literally teaching.
I attempted to tell the pastor and the youth minister of that church what had occurred and what the Spirit was teaching, but was rejected with a wave of their hands. I then dusted myself off and left that church on the spot. That was 42 years ago based upon the notes I pulled from my archives.
Although the church I grew up in was off on the timing of Gog/magog and the identity of some of the nations they did preach on the rapture and on prophecy on a regular basis. The also preached on the baptism of the Holy Spirit quite a bit and allowed the use of the gifts in the services in a very biblical manner. Whenever someone spoke in tongues they would pause and pray for the interpretation and there was always an interpreter. Then they would check the scriptures to make sure it would line up. They emphasized the importance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a believers life and regularly preached on Hell and repentance. I AM BLESSED INDEED FOR HAVING THAT INSTILLED IN ME! I'm truly sorry for this generation because you don't see much of that anymore. I'm so glad to see you reference the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
ReplyDeleteIndeed you were very blessed to have grown up in a Spirit-filled church!!!
ReplyDeleteHartdawg,In your refrence... being baptized in the Holy Spirit, Is that the same as being baptized in the name of "Jesus" according to Acts 2:38?..The Apostolic doctrine?
ReplyDeleteCassandra,
ReplyDeleteIt's more than likely that Hartdawg will not see your question as this posting and his response above are well over 4 years old - not many visitors view these older posts/comments regularly. But I'm glad you did!
Acts 2 must be read entirely and in context; lots of great information therein!
For example, in Peter's sermon at this very first Christian church service he cites the prophet Ioel (Joel), and he makes clear that the "last days" on this earth began over 1,985 years ago and they continue to the present and into the near future. These "last days" (eschatos hamera) end on the day Jesus' Second Coming occurs. This is very important to know.
So, now to answer your question by asking one:
Were Peter and the other apostles already saved by the Grace of God, by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ - because they believed, and saw Him in His resurrected, eternal body, and saw Him ascend into Heaven?
The answer is yes! They had had the indwelling of the Holy Spirit poured out upon them because of their belief.
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit came later, and as described in Acts 2:1-4.
Then Peter says to the other unsaved Jews from all over the known world - "REPENT and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall (also) receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Receipt of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a gift beyond salvation in Christ Jesus from one's sins, it is an empowering bonus; for all everywhere per verse 39.
See Acts 2:1 again about the condition within which the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles at this first church service; notice it is identical to what Hartdawg wrote above about the events in his church.