Perfect Storm

The Bible describes a perfect storm of trouble hitting the planet at one key time in world history, the “70th week of Daniel”. Daniel was told of 70 weeks that his nation, Israel, would be dominated by the gentile (non-Jewish) nations. These 70 weeks were called the “Time of the Indignation.” God chose Israel as a type of “ark” (like Noah's ark) for humanity. When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve's rebellion, mankind and all of creation were broken. God with man, what the Father called “very good” at the time of creation, was rebelled against by mankind in the garden. The breaking of man… his spirit, soul, and body, required that he no longer dwell in the bright presence of the Father. Our bodies could no longer live in this holy presence and live. God withdrew, but a plan was in His heart to restore what we had broken. For all who would choose God, there would be an ark. Jesus is that ark, the place of refuge, His life and death the payment for sin. Jesus became sin in our place, that we could take refuge in his righteousness...having it put on us as our very own.


Israel was the family God chose to bring Jesus from. From Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, through the long line of David, and ultimately from Joseph and Mary, Jesus was born as a Jewish man. Israel, like Adam, rebelled against God. Chosen for special fellowship with God...His people....their God...they rebelled against that special position, as a picture of man's rebellion. The very family of refuge (for a time) living out the rebellion they were chosen to take part in restoring. God is brilliant and beautiful even in his design of salvation and the very real story it would tell. Because of this rebellion, a “Time of Indignation” was appointed for this chosen people. Daniel was told it would last 70 “weeks,” or “sets of seven years”:


Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are decreed as to your people and as to your holy city, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction.


This amazing prophecy was fulfilled to the letter through Jesus. The fact that this prophecy was SO accurate lead many to doubt the authenticity of the book of Daniel, saying it was written after the fact, believing no one could have been so precise. The discovery of the dead sea scrolls in 1947 virtually silenced any sincere doubts about Daniel. Based on the fragments of this book found in caves inhabited by people pre-dating Jesus, it was obvious it is was written out prophetically-accurate book BEFORE the appearance of Jesus. The number of years given to Daniel was exact. From the year the command to restore Jerusalem and its walls given in 445 BC by the Persian king Artaxerxes, to the time that Jesus was crucified, being (cut off”) was exactly 69x7 years, or 483 years:


Daniel 9:26 And after sixty-two weeks (this started after the 1st 7...the 49 years it took to rebuild Jerusalem) Messiah shall be cut off but not for Himself. And the people of the ruler who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end of it shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined, until the end shall be war. 27 And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease, and on a corner of the altar desolating abominations, even until the end. And that which was decreed shall be poured on the desolator.


The “70th” week, or last 7 years of the Daniel prophecy would come “at the time of the end.” This is called by Bible-believing Christians the 7-year tribulation. This is the last 7 years of Israel's “indignation” but also the last 7 years of God's plan to restore everyone who would choose Him. At the end of this last 7, what God called “very good”...God with Man...would begin again, with Jesus reigning in Jerusalem with us!


This 7-year period is one of the most-described time periods in the Bible. Over 150 Chapters of the Bible primarily describe what will happen in this last 7-years. Daniel said it starts with a peace alliance between Israel and the “man of lawlessness”...the man who considers himself above all law...the antichrist, and the empire He represents. The “he” in Daniel 9:27 is the antichrist, and he shall confirm a covenant with many. Elsewhere in the Bible, we find out this “covenant” is the promise made by antichrist to Israel that will allow her to feel comfortable agreeing to peace with the nations that surround her and hate her. The people of the “ruler who is to come,” we are told, are the people who destroyed Jerusalem after Jesus was crucified. Historical records documented by Josephus Flavius, who was present in 70 A.D., when Jerusalem was destroyed, indicate it was Arab armies conscripted by Rome who actually destroyed Jerusalem. The coming empire, prophesied by Daniel to be “unlike all the others that came before it” will be strange conglomeration of 10 Arab nation states that align with the antichrist, who is an 11th king that “comes up” into this group of 10 nations, uproots three of the leaders of those nations, and then creates the conditions of peace for Israel.


Daniel 7:7 After this I looked in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, frightening and terrifying, and very strong. And it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet. And it was different from all the beasts before it; and it had ten horns. 8 I was thinking about the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom three of the first horns were uprooted. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.


This beast, the antichrist empire, will be a confederation of nations unlike any other. A confederation built on “intrigue” we find out in Daniel. The leader of this confederation of nations will be a cunning negotiator, and ruthless in his means of getting rid of those who oppose him, all the while looking like a man of peace. He will be the one who negotiates peace in Israel, divides the temple mount, and makes it possible for Israel to build the temple she so desperately wants. But the peace agreement is not to last...it is all a ploy. Half way through the 7-year treaty, this man will break the promise and invade Israel. This supposed “friend” of Israel actually wants to control her...because like all world empires before him, he desires to control the “desire of nations”...Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the desire of nations simply because it is the place of Jesus' throne. The nations, led blindly by the enemy of all creation, want what only belongs to Jesus!


At, or near, the time this peace is made, there WILL be a perfect storm of conditions. One of those conditions is a near-collapse of world economies that centers on the currency of the world. In order to keep the economies of the world from collapsing, the Bible paints a picture of a new monetary system...a global monetary system, that everyone will have to embrace to make it work. This monetary system will promise fairness, but will bring desolation. It will promise equity and prosperity, but it will actually be used to enslave everyone who puts their trust in man and his plans, instead of God, and His proven ability to provide. This financial system will require a “mark” of some sort on the hand or head of all people that want to participate in the new global economy.


Revelation 13:16 And it causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on their right hand, or in their foreheads, 17 even that not any might buy or sell except those having the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name.


Right now, the conditions are ripe for some sort of global currency crisis that requires “fixing.” The Federal Reserve of the United States is buying $85 billion of our nation's debt MONTHLY! I am not sure how many billionaires you know, but $85 billion a month is still a lot of money to be spending with no income coming in. Buying this debt by the Fed, in this context, really means printing, because the Fed doesn't sell any products, it has no money to buy anything except with the money it prints, and the presses are running full steam. The same thing is happening in Europe, where the European Central Bank (ECB) has made a blanket commitment to buy failing Italian debt, no matter what the risk really is. Not to mention ongoing problems in the news surrounding the ECB's fixing of Greece and Spanish debt problems. Compared to Europe, the US looks responsible!


All of this should not scare us, but it should wake us up. Because we still live in relative comfort here in the US, it is easy to keep sleeping even though the alarm has been trying to wake us up for a while. The reality of the gathering storm should help us to see plainly a couple of key things: 1. trusting in anything but God right now for long-term financial security is the worst gamble a person could make. This has always been true, but it is so obvious right now. Generosity towards those in need right now, and investing in the spread of the truth of God's word is the only investment right now that makes any sense. Jesus called this storing up treasure in heaven. 2. the events the Bible described as indicating the last 7 years of Jesus plan to return to earth and set up His earthly kingdom are truly at hand. The implications of this for how I live my life are immense. If, in fact, this generation is the third transitional generation described in the Bible, then we have a lot of work to do to begin agreeing with what Jesus said. Many are asleep at the wheel when it comes to what the Bible says about this time, and what to do in it. Now is the time to wake up!


1 Thessalonians 5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that I write to you. 2 For you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety! Then sudden destruction comes on them, as travail upon a woman with child. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the Day should overtake you like a thief. 5 You are all the sons of light and the sons of the day. We are not of the night, or of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us watch and be calm. 7 For those sleeping sleep in the night, and those being drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be calm, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and the hope of salvation for a helmet. 9 For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we watch or sleep we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore comfort one another, and edify one another, even as you also do.