Brother Mike Ministries

The many days of Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011!  
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ETERNAL LIFE: No Longer Possible!! ***

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Ezekiel 38-39 - Part 1 (verses 1-8)        
By Brother Mike (11-16-14; 56 minutes)  


Introduction 

Ezekiel, chapters 38-39 are very pertinent to our day because they describe the spiritual judgment upon the churches which began on May 21, 1988, and then the spiritual judgment that came upon the whole world on May 21, 2011. First, we are told how God used Satan and his army to conquer the churches because of their centuries of ongoing sin, and then we are told that God becomes angry at Satan for having destroyed the churches, and so brings His own people against Satan and his army to destroy them beginning on May 21, 2011. This is the current battle in which we now find ourselves. Ever since May 21, 2011, the elect have been conquering Satan and his army by bringing forth the Word of God that is judging them to eternal death. There is no further hope for Satan and his army, namely the world. They have and are currently being judged through the Word of God, and they will soon suffer the eternal consequences of their sin, which is eternal annihilation on the Last Day. 


Verse 1

1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying . . .  

Here we read that the Word of the Lord came unto [Ezekiel]. This means that Ezekiel was a recipient of direct revelation from God. He did not receive truth as we do today through the study of the already completed Word of God, the Bible, but he received a direct and errorless Word as did all the true Old Testament prophets and some of the New Testament prophets up until the Bible was complete near the end of the 1st century AD. After this, no further direct and errorless revelations from God have taken place.   

Now, the Hebrew word of just four consonants, YHWH, which is here translated as LORD is actually thought to be the word pronounced as Yahweh in Hebrew. Being the proper name of God, it became the tradition of the Jews that the word Yahweh was too holy to even speak, so, instead, they would use the word for Lord, adonay, in its place. This is what the King James Version does for the most part as well: in almost all places where the word Yahweh is found in the King James (6, 510 times), it is translated as LORD. But four times it is translated as God, and another four times it is translated as Jehovah, which is the transliteration of Yahweh into English. It means the existing one, which might be stated as the I am that I am of Exodus 3:14. 

So, in that the Word of the LORD came unto [Ezekiel], it is the very Word of Yahweh, the existing one, the I am that I am, the only one who can claim, 

Re 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last

And, again, 

Re 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty

Indeed, all of these sayings let us know that Yahweh is the ever present and existing one, the Almighty, the one we should pay the utmost attention to when He speaks. And, now, He speaks unto Ezekiel, who is a picture of Christ and the elect, saying in verse 2 of Ezekiel 38 . . . 


Verse 2: 

2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him . . . 

Here Ezekiel is called the son of man. This is a phrase that normally refers to Christ in the Bible, and, since the elect are the body of Christ (1Cor. 12:27), it is a term that can apply to the elect as well. So when Ezekiel is referred to as the son of man, it is because he is a picture of Christ, and one of the elect of Christ's body. 

Next, Ezekiel is told to set [his] face against Gog, the land of Magog. To set one's face against something is a Hebrew way of figuratively saying to put all one's ability, will and energy toward something. In this case Ezekiel is told to set His ability, will and energy toward Gog, the land of Magog, and, since the context is that of prophesying against Gog and Magog, Ezekiel is here being told to apply all of his prophesying ability, will and energy against Gog, the land of Magog

Now, just who is Gog, and who or what is Magog? Magog literally means the land of Gog, but we learn in Genesis 10:1-2 that Magog was originally the Grandson of Noah and the son of Japheth. There we read, 

1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood .
2
The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras
3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah .
4
And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim

Then we are told in verse 5, 

5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations

This reveals that after the flood, the sons of Japheth including Magog were spread about in the various isles (continents) of the gentiles with their families, in their nations. At this time the isles (continents) were not yet divided by the seas, but later in the time of Peleg were the isles divided (Gen. 10:25) so that the descendants of Japheth gradually became what we now call the nations all over the world. So, Magog, which was north of Israel, became identified with the nations of the world. 

Now, we discover just what Magog represents in our day in Revelation 20:7 where we read, 

Re 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison ,
8
And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea

Here we are told that the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth; that is, all the nations of the world are Gog and Magog. Now, if you will remember, Magog means land of Gog, so what Revelation 20:7 is really telling us is that all the nations of the world, which are symbolized by Magog, are the Land of Gog. And, just who is Gog? Why He is the ruler over Magog, which means that he is the ruler over all the nations of the world. This could be no other than Satan himself. So when Revelation 20:7 says, And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive . . . Gog and Magog, we are being told that Satan went out to deceive the nations and himself (Gog) to gather them together to battle.  

Now let's return to our verse which states,  

2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him . . . 

So Ezekiel is here told to prophesy against Gog, the land of Magog, which, in our day means that Ezekiel who represents the elect is to prophesy against Satan and his kingdom, the whole world. But we will learn more about this, and the time period in which this is taking place as we move further into Ezekiel 38.  

Next, we read that Gog (Satan) is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Why is he called the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal? Meshech and Tubal, like Magog, were the Grandsons of Noah, who were the progenitors of the people north of Israel, which eventually spread out into all the continents of the world as we had previously learned. As such, they represent the unsaved nations of the world, or Babylon. Remember what we already read in Genesis 10:1-2: 

1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood .
2 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras .
3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah .
4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim .

So we see in this that Meshech and Tubal, like Magog, were sons of Japheth, and, as we had previously learned about the sons of Japheth in verse 5 of Genesis 10,  

5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations .  

This means that Meshech and Tubal, which were north of Israel, became nations of the world, and who rules over the nations of the world? Why, of course, Satan does. Therefore, we can now understand why Gog (Satan) is called the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: it is because he rules over them as he does all the unsaved nations of the world because he won the right to do so in deceiving Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. 


Verse 3: 

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal . . . 

In this verse, Ezekiel is told what to prophesy against Gog, say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. The first thing we read is, Thus saith the Lord GOD. The word GOD here is actually the word Yahweh. As we had learned before, this word is normally translated as LORD, but here that would not work; otherwise, there would be a double LORD, so it is translated as GOD instead. It could have just as well been translated as Yahweh, or Jehovah, but I prefer Yahweh because this is the proper name that God uses for Himself in the original language. Thus, Ezekiel is here told to say, Thus saith the Lord Yahweh

Now, the Lord Yahweh continues to say, Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Here we find that Yahweh is against Gog. This, of course, means that He is against Satan who Gog represents. And, Satan is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal because he rules over the gentile nations of the world, Babylon, to which Meshech and Tubal typify.  


Verse 4: 

4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords . . .  

Here Yahweh continues to say to Gog (Satan), And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth. This is a picture of Yahweh completely making Satan a slave to His own purposes. And, since, as we shall see, this is all a portrayal of what the Lord did with Satan beginning on May 21, 1988 when Satan was utilized by God to spiritually overcome all churches in judgment against them, we can begin to understand what this prophecy in Ezekiel 38 is all about: it is a prophecy foretelling of God's judgment upon the churches by the utilization of Satan and his army of unsaved people from all the nations of the world. It is a picture of Satan and his kingdom, Babylon, being brought into slavery by God in order to fulfill His plan of spiritually destroying all churches, for as we read in 1Peter 4:17, 

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God ?  

Now, it is interesting that God uses the terminology of, I will turn thee back. It makes one wonder just what God will turn Satan back from. But, when we realize that throughout the Church Age from May 21, 33 AD to May 21, 1988 Satan was kept back from being able to frustrate the saving of all the elect through the churches, then for God to turn Satan back means that Satan would now, ever since May 21,1988, be able to frustrate the salvation of the elect through the churches. In other words, for Satan to be turned back means that he would be able to bring salvation to an end in the churches. And, that is exactly what happened: on May 21, 1988, Satan was loosed from the bottomless pit in which he had been bound from being able to keep people from being saved in the churches, and this loosing of Satan permitted him to be turned back to the churches and keep anyone from being saved within them. This began the period we know as the Great Tribulation from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011 when no one could be saved within any church. If people came out of the church to seek for salvation outside they might be saved, but they could not be saved as long as they remained a part of any church. This is because Satan had been turned back to the churches of which he always wanted to destroy, but could not until the Lord took a hold of him and turned him back toward the church that up until May 21, 1988 he was not able to completely destroy due to God's protection, but now he had been turned back and was able to destroy the churches completely because no one could be saved in the churches ever again, for the Holy Spirit departed out of all churches, which left them easy prey for Satan. 

Next, we read a description of Satan's army: horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. This is a description of all the unsaved people who came against the churches with Satan beginning on May 21, 1988. Notice that they were all clothed with all sorts of armour. Actually, this is somewhat of a mistranslation because the phrase, all sorts of armour does not exist in the original Hebrew. A better translaton would be like this: all of them clothed with perfection, or all of them clothed with most gorgeous attire. The idea is that Satan's army is clothed as if in perfection, and what this points to is that they appear to be clothed in Christ because Christ is perfection. In other words, Satan's army appears to be Christians, and this is exactly what happened to the churches: they became full of people who appeared to be Christians, but they never were truly saved. This is the way that Satan was able to destroy the churches: he brought more and more unsaved people into the churches until finally there were no more saved people in the churches left, for all the saved people had departed out of the churches in obedience to the Lord's command. This left no one but unsaved people to rule over the churches, which has resulted in all the false doctrines that we now see being taught by all the various churches and denominations. Spiritually speaking, the churches have been destroyed by the army of Satan, which is a very great army that consists of a very great amount of false Christians. 

Now, we read this of Satan's army: all of them handling swords. A sword in the Bible is a picture of the Word of God. We read in Hebrews 4, 

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart .  

So what we find here is that Satan and his army came against the churches beginning in 1988, and they all wielded swords; that is, the Word of God, the Bible. Of course, lacking in the Holy Spirit, they misused and abused the Bible for their own purposes as they came with false gospels and teachings. They came teaching falsely, for instance, that someone could become saved by just choosing Christ. They would falsely say such things as Christ paid for the sins of everyone, and now it is up to you to grab hold of Christ for your salvation. So salvation became something determined by man instead of by God. Many of them actually falsely believe that God is still giving revelation apart from the Bible in dreams, visions, tongues, words of knowledge, prophecy, and so on when the Bible is clear that God quit giving revelation apart from the Bible after He had written the last book of the Bible near the end of the 1st century AD, and the Lord pronounced the following dire warning against those who would believe in such extra-biblical revelation in Revelation 22: 

Re 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book :
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book .  

Yes, the amount of false teaching and false beliefs greatly multiplied during this time around May 21, 1988 and beyond because the army of Satan had been wielding its swords to spiritually destroy the churches as Satan had been brought back by God, and the Lord put hooks is his jaws to enslave Satan to work His own purposes of destroying the churches due to their centuries of sin that they would not repent of. 

Another false doctrine that Satan and his army brought into the churches, which has virtually destroyed the family, is that of divorce and remarriage. The Lord had said,  

Ro 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband

And, again, 

1Co 7:39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord .  

This clearly reveals that God sees marriage as a life long promise, which means that divorce is not an option, and so neither is remarriage unless the spouse has died. But Satan and his army wielded their swords and changed this law of God to mean something other than what it was intended to mean. So now what we see is the majority of people both in the world and the churches divorcing and remarrying. 

Now I could go on and on about all the false doctrine that Satan and his army overcame the churches with beginning on May 21, 1988, but I will not do that here. Leave it to say that the army of Satan did much damage by the handling of their swords; indeed, they completely led all the churches into false gospels which could not save.  


Verse 5-6: 

5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet :
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee

These two verses are a continuation of the description of the army of Gog (Satan). In this description, we first find that Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are a part of the army of Satan. First, Persia proper was located due East of Israel above the tip of the Persian Gulf, but the Persian Empire extended far beyond this. It encompassed the territory from India on the east to Egypt and Thrace on the west, and included, besides portions of Europe and Africa, the whole of western Asia between the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian and the Jaxartes on the north, the Arabian Desert, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean on the south. Second, the word here translated as Ethiopia is actually the word for Cush. Cush, which means black, was the Grandson of Noah and the son of Ham. He was the progenitor of the southernmost peoples located in Africa. These people inhabited Africa in the regions of the southern Nile River known as Ethiopia; hence, the King James translates the word for Cush as Ethiopia because Cush was the progenitor of the peoples in this region. Third, the word in our verse translated as Libya is actually the word for Put, which means a bow. Put was also the Grandson of Noah and the son of Ham. He became the progenitor to peoples who inhabited North Africa, and who were probably Libyans. This is why the King James translates the word for Put as Libya because the peoples who descended from Put were probably Libyans. 

Now, although Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya were literal regions of people, spiritually speaking, they represent the army of Satan, who are all the unsaved people of the world who came against the Church beginning in 1988. We will see this more clearly as we get further and further into Ezekiel 38, but, for now, it is just important to realize that what is being pictured here as the army of Gog is an earthly picture of a spiritual reality, which is the army of Satan, and which includes all the unsaved people of the world, known as Babylon. This army comes up against all the churches (Israel) in the latter years (Ezekiel 38:8), and in the latter days (Ezekiel 38:16) which days refers to the days from 1988 when Satan's army was used by God to spiritually overcome the churches.

Next we read of Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya, namely that all of them [are] with shield and helmet. Literally, we know that to have shield and helmet is to have protection from the enemy, but what does it mean spiritually? In order to answer this, we must look up the words everywhere in the Bible to see how the words are used. When we look up the word for shield, we find that it often gives reference to God Himself. For instance, 

Ge 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I [God] am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward

2Sa 22:3 The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence

Ps 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head .

Ps 144:2 My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me

Now there are many other verses, especially in the Psalms, which speak of God as being a shield, but the ones I have already mentioned should be enough for you to get the idea. Furthermore, there are a couple passages which identify a shield with being salvation. We read in Psalm 18, 

Ps 18:35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great

And, again, 2Samuel 22, 

2Sa 22:36 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great

So what we find in all these verses is that a shield, spiritually speaking, is a picture of God Himself, or a picture of salvation. But, what does it spiritually mean that they all have helmets? We read about a helmet in Isaiah 59:17. There we read, 

Isa 59:17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke

And, we read in Ephesians 6, 

Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God . . . 

And, again, in 1Thessalonians 5, 

1Th 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation

So what we can conclude is that a helmet has to do with salvation just as we also found that a shield can represent salvation. But, for the most part, we found that a shield represents God Himself. 

Okay, how can we put this all together? I mean, what is the Lord revealing to us when He says that all of Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya, which are a type of the nations of the world, are all with shield and helmet? Well, it means that the nations of the world, Babylon, which come up against the churches in the latter years, all appear to have God as their shield and salvation as their helmet. Of course, this does not mean that they really have God and salvation as their shield and helmet, but, in appearance only, they come looking like they are true believers. So Satan�s army is a bunch of false Christians who, beginning on May 21, 1988, completely took over the churches as the Lord put hooks in Satan's jaws to make him do his bidding to bring judgment against the churches. 

Now, in verse 6 of Ezekiel 38, we read a further description of the army of Gog (Satan). We read,

6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee

Here we see that Gomer, and all his bands is mentioned. Gomer was the Grandson of Noah, and the son of Japheth. He was the progenitor of peoples who lived Northwest of Israel above the Mediterranean Sea in an area that was called Galatia during the time of Christ's sojourn on earth. These people are who God refers to as Gomer, and all his bands. Of course, we must keep in mind that Gomer, and all his bands as well as Persia, Ethiopia, and libya are all earthly types of all the nations of the world, Babylon, which came up against the churches in 1988. This is also true of what we now read in our verse, namely the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands. They also are a type, or earthly picture, of all the nations of the world that are used by God to spiritually destroy the churches in the latter years beginning on May 21, 1988. 

But what does the house of Togarmah of the north quarters literally refer to? Well, it refers to Togarmah who was the Grandson of Japheth, and the son of Gomer. He and his descendents populated the region north of Israel and north of the Mediterranean Sea, which is probably the region known as Armenia today. These people are referred to as the house of Togarmah of the north quarters

Verse 7:

7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them .

In this verse, Gog (Satan) is told to be prepared (ready), and to prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee. So in this verse, Satan is told to get himself ready as well as all the peoples who are assembled unto him, which is a picture of Satan preparing himself and the whole world. But, why is Gog (Satan) told to prepare himself along with the whole world? Why this is because there is going to come a time in the latter years (May 21, 1988) when he and the whole world of unsaved people will be used by God to bring judgment upon all the churches for their centuries of sin without repentance. So Satan is told to be prepared with the world for that time in which God will forsake the churches, and allow Satan and his army to completely take over the churches as judgment against them. 

But, just how did Satan prepare with the world to conquer the churches? How did Satan fulfill what God told him, namely to be a guard [a watch] unto them? Well, what he did from the very beginning was to guard (watch) very carefully to bring in tares (unsaved people), one by one, into the churches. It was a gradual process, but by the time that judgment would begin with the house of God on May 21, 1988, virtually everyone in all the churches were already unsaved people. So when the time came, and the Holy Spirit removed himself from all churches, it was now an easy thing for Satan to set himself up in the churches as supreme ruler of all the churches. All he had to do was silence that very small remnant of God's people who were still in the churches by the vast majority of the false Christians who by then had gained rulership over the churches. God's true people were ignored, looked down upon, and even thrown out of the churches because what they stood for was truth, and Satan, the false Christ, and his followers, the false Christians, who had now gained authority in the churches, were hell-bent on a false gospel. The truth was trampled to the ground, and so were God's people, for a time, and for a little season.


Verse 8: 

8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them

Here in this verse we are told why it is that God told Satan to be prepared, and to prepare the world, and just what God is going to do with Satan by having put hooks in his jaws to bring him forth. Yahweh says to Gog (Satan), 

8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them

First, Satan is told over 2,500 years ago that after many days; that is, on what we now know to have been May 21, 1988, [he] shall be visited (appointed, mustered). This visitation by God was for the purpose of loosing Satan from the bottomless pit. Up until this time Satan had been bound at the cross so that he was not able to frustrate God's plan to save his elect. Nevertheless, Satan was permitted to infiltrate the churches with false Christians (tares) in preparation for the time when God would visit him on May 21, 1988. At this time Satan would be freed from bondage and allowed to completely take over the churches along with all of his false Christian army as judgment against all the churches. We read about this in Revelation 20:7: 

Re 20:7 And when the thousand years [symbolic of the completeness of God's plan] are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison ,
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea .

Notice that Satan is loosed to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog. In other words, Satan was loosed, and we could say that he was visited, according to our verse, in order to deceive the whole world, Gog and Magog. Now we have already learned that Gog represents Satan, and Magog means the land of Gog (Satan), which represents the whole world. So what this verse is telling us is that on May 21, 2011, Satan was loosed to be deceived and to deceive the whole world. He would do this in all the churches with his army of false Christians who for the most part were already in the churches, and he would deceive them all in to worshipping himself, the false Christ. In fact, he would be allowed to set himself up as the supreme ruler of not only the world, but also of all the churches. This is something that Satan had always longed for as we read in Isaiah 14:

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations !
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north :
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High

Now, we read of Satan being further told, in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword. The phrase, in the latter years occurs only here in the Bible. It means in the end of years, and is referring to the end of the years of the world, which we know started on May 21,1988 when judgment began with the house of God. This was the 13,000th year from creation, and the beginning of the end. It was at this time that Satan was visited (mustered, appointed) in order to bring God's judgment against all the churches by coming into the land that [was] brought back from the sword to spiritually destroy it. Now, the land that was brought back from the sword is referring to the kingdom of God, or the mountains of Israel, that was outwardly represented by all the churches, and they are spoken of as having been brought back from the sword because they had been redeemed by the blood of Christ in order that they might not suffer the sword of the wrath of God. So, in this sense, they had been brought back from the sword.

Next, we are told that those who had been brought back from the sword, namely all the peoples of the churches, [were] gathered out of many people. This is simply revealing that all those who were in the churches came out of all the various peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues throughout the world.

Now, we read that Satan would come into the land against the mountains of Israel. The Word Mountains is symbolic of kingdoms in the Bible so that the mountains of Israel refer to the kingdoms of Israel, which are the kingdoms of God. These are symbolic of all the peoples of the churches of God, but could also refer to just the elect. In this case, it is referring to all the peoples of the churches of God. The idea is that Satan would come against all the churches of God, which includes the elect, as judgment against them. He would use all the false Christians in them to water down the gospel, and to silence all the elect, and he would set himself up in the temple (the churches) as the false Christ to be worshipped and adored by all those who are false Christians. The elect would go by the wayside to be ignored, or simply booted from the church. 

Next, we are given an interesting bit of information about the mountains of Israel, which typify the churches. We are told that they have been always waste, or it could be translated, they became desolation continually. This gives us insight into the churches during the church age. We are being told by God that the churches became desolation continually. What would happen is that the churches would continually drift away from God until finally God would remove himself from them; hence, they would become desolation continually. This is what happened over and over again to all the various churches that would spring up during the church age. They would start out somewhat faithful, but then they would fall away from God until God would remove His candlestick (himself) from out of their midst. Finally, on May 21, 1988, God removed himself from all churches forevermore, and he began his final judgment against them, which would last for 23 years until May 21, 2011 when final judgment began upon the entire world as well. It will all end on the Last Day with the complete annihilation of all the churches as well as the annihilation of the entire world of unsaved people. 

But, now, we read, but it [the mountains of Israel, the churches] is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. How can this be? I mean we learned that Satan and his army came against the churches beginning on May 21, 1988, so how could it be that God now says of the churches that they [are] brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them? To put it another way, how can God say that he has come against the churches, and, then, in the same breath say that they shall dwell safely all of them? Well, the only way that God could say such things is because in one breath He is talking about the temporal churches, which include all the false Christians, while in another breath He is talking about the eternal church, which refers to only the elect. So, yes, God came against all the temporal churches on May 21, 1988, but, even so, the eternal church, which was brought out from all the nations, shall dwell safely all of them. In fact, we know that all the elect were later commanded to come out from the churches, and to make themselves separate from the unclean thing, and God will be their God, and they shall be His people. So we can see how the mountains of Israel can refer to two different things, one temporal that is destroyed by God; the other eternal that is saved, and so dwells safely from the wrath of God.

 

Now may the LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

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Part 7

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