MORE ON THE LAST SEVEN YEARS!--Summary of Endtime Events! 11/89 DO 2571
1. According to both Daniel and Revelation, the Antichrist King of the North first of all fights several wars and battles to gain control of several areas, at which time he also makes or "confirms" a Covenant.--Dan.9:27. Apparently, after he has won they sit at a table and make a Covenant, a treaty to settle the wars. So at that time he would already be an outstanding World leader of some kind, apparently from Russia.
2. It describes many of his characteristics and his program there in Daniel 11. Then, having endeavoured to enforce the treaty, or Covenant, for 3-1/2 years, he apparently gets fed up with the Jews, breaks the Covenant, invades Israel and conquers them. And he apparently establishes his capital in Jerusalem, from where he intends to rule the World.
3. At the time of the breaking of the Covenant he also sets up his Image there and demands worldwide worship and inaugurates the Great Tribulation, during which he fights several wars to try to enforce his worship. (Maria: Several more wars, right?) Yes. He fights wars before and after the breaking of the Covenant. (Maria: The breaking of the Covenant is at the 3-1/2-year mark?) Yes.
4. The Lord says he will reign for seven years but he doesn't demand worship or set up his Image until the middle of the seven, which begins the Tribulation. He then fights several wars to enforce his worship, but doesn't seem able to, as there are so many forces against him. Virtually all of the religious forces are resisting him.
5. Finally he is defeated at the Coming of the Lord to Rapture the Saints, after which he suffers the Wrath of God with several horrendous plagues etc. He is then utterly defeated in the Battle of Armageddon at the victorious return of the Lord and His Saints to claim His Kingdom on Earth and wipe out the Antichrist's forces and start the Millennium.
6. That's exactly what the Bible teaches. We've theorised several other things just to show we're open to suggestions or reinterpretations like the "What If" possibilities. But I am still convinced that our original interpretation which goes literally according to the Bible, and which we've held for many years, is the most sound and solid interpretation.
7. (Maria: You said he fights several wars and then he signs a Covenant, sort of like a peace treaty in Daniel 11. When do you think the Crash would come in there, where he would have opportunity because of the terrible worldwide conditions and crises to step in and take over, with signs and wonders?)
8. It pretty much looks like he takes advantage of the Crash in a military campaign against his enemies. In other words, when the Crash happens and everything gets to a very chaotic point is when he could take advantage of the World's weakness at that time. (Maria: To fight those wars, in other words.) To take control.
9. Then he signs the Covenant, and that is the beginning of his reign. Having conquered his enemies, he somehow or another enforces on them the 7-year Covenant or Treaty. But because they don't keep it, after 3-1/2 years he breaks it and sets himself up as the king of the World, the god of the Earth, and tries to force everybody to worship his Image. In so doing, he starts the Tribulation during which he fights several other wars to enforce his worship, which ends with the Second Coming of the Lord to rapture His Saints.
10. (Maria: Is it after he makes his Covenant at the beginning of the Seven Years that he does great signs and wonders to convince people to finally worship him at the 3-1/2 year mark?) Sometime in there before the Tribulation he does that to try to show that he is God. He does signs and wonders so that all the World will wonder. Having conquered his enemies and taken full control, most of the World will worship him when he sets up his Image and institutes the Mark of the Beast and threatens to kill all who refuse to worship him or try to buy or sell without him.
11. (Maria: I think I didn't quite understand the thing the Lord said about how he came in quietly like Halley's Comet.) (See No.2501, "The Revelation of the Beast!") He's apparently already come in quietly or secretly, doing his dastardly deeds and engineering things from behind the scenes. We can certainly see that. It's prevalent throughout the Earth right now. You can see how the ACs are taking over. But he apparently doesn't come out of his hiding place and reveal himself until he fights this war to control the Jews.
12. To settle it he makes the Covenant, apparently with the Jews. But obviously they won't behave. (Maria: So 3-1/2 years later he breaks it?) Right. And then at that 3-1/2-year mark he invades Israel, stops the sacrifice and sets himself up as God. (Maria: So you think he reveals himself at the Seven-Year mark, not at the 3-1/2-year mark?) I believe he will be revealed by signing or "confirming" the Covenant.--Dan.9:27.
13. Lots of people wage wars but he is the only one who signs a Seven-Year Covenant, apparently with his religious opponents, particularly the Jews! But then because they violate it he gets very angry and he breaks it, invades Israel, sets up his Image and demands worldwide worship! He's sick of all these trouble-making religionists, particularly the Jews who were originally his friends and actually introduced him, thinking that he would give them control of the World! But instead of that, he takes the World for himself!
14. I have always imagined that he tries to settle the religious controversies and claims over Jerusalem by making it an international city and giving the Jews permission to rebuild their Temple and reinstitute sacrificial worship. But then he finds them so cantankerous and belligerent and unwilling to obey him, and all kinds of controversy is raging about the "holy places" in Jerusalem, with the Jews getting more and more rebellious and themselves violating the Covenant, he angrily breaks the Covenant! He invades Israel and establishes his own religion in Jerusalem with his Image, a One-World religion instead of a bunch of bickering and fighting religions of various sects.
15. That is the 3-1/2-year Tribulation period which is ended by the Coming of the Lord to rapture His Saints and to begin the days of the horrible Wrath of God against the Antichrist and his followers, against his Mark-of-the-Beast people. All kinds of horrors are then poured upon the Earth against the wicked, much worse than the horrors of the Tribulation.
16. The Tribulation is the anti-Christ wrath of Man against God's people. The following Wrath of God is the horrible judgements of God on the anti-Christ people for the way they treated the Saints! And that is ended by the Battle of Armageddon in which God and His Saints absolutely wipe out the Antichrist and all of his wicked followers! The only people left on Earth then are those who resisted and fought against the Antichrist.--No doubt millions of the various religions who opposed him, even though they were not the saved. They are preserved into the Millennium to give them an opportunity to choose to be saved.
17. But at the end of the Millennium the Devil is released with his demons to again stir up the World to rebellion.--Apparently all those who are left who didn't get saved. And they again try to wipe out God's people, but God spares His children and instead wipes out the Devil and his forces in the fiery Battle of Gog and Magog in which the Lord completely burns up the Devil's forces and the face of the entire Earth! And, of course, the atmosphere is burned up too, probably in such a raging fire that all Man's space junk is wiped out! The Earth and its atmosphere are purged of all their pollution! And He makes a new surface of the Earth, clean and unpolluted and purged of all its pollution and all His enemies.--And He brings down the wonderful Heavenly City for all the Saved to enjoy on a beautiful New Earth! PTL!
18. (Maria: Previously we thought that the revealing of the Antichrist would be at the 3-1/2-year mark when he breaks the Covenant and starts the Tribulation.) Well, I know I've offered that theory, but I don't see how he could not be revealed when he confirms the Covenant. When we hear that some World leader who has fought wars in the Mideast has made a Seven-Year Covenant, that's a very specific sign, and I think will reveal him.
19. It just seems to me he couldn't do such a thing without being revealed.--Unless it's a secret Covenant, perhaps made with the Jews undercover or something. But it seems unlikely that the World will not hear about it since it settles his war with the Jews! If it was all some kind of a secret deal, at least we know he would certainly be revealed at his breaking of the Covenant. He would definitely be revealed then, at the latest.
20. So you can have your choice!--That he is revealed at the beginning of the Seven Years.--Or that his real intents and purposes are completely revealed 3-1/2 years later at the beginning of the Tribulation, the last half of his reign, when he breaks the Covenant and declares himself God!
21. Whichever, one thing we know for sure, and we are absolutely certain about: "That Day (of Christ's Coming) shall not come except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition!"--2Thes.2:3.--Amen? It won't be long now!
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