By DONALD E. BROOME
Special to Whitewater News
Historically August is the month in which the first Zionist Congress was held. August is the 6th month of the Jewish religious year of repentance “ELUL” and the recent solar eclipse occurred on the day of August’s new moon. And, 2017 is the 100th anniversary year of the Balfour Declaration on November 2nd 1917 which established a national home for the Jews in Palestine. 2017 is also the 70th anniversary of Israel becoming a nation again on May 14 1948. And 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the Jews regaining control of Jerusalem in the Six Day War of June 5th to 10th 1967.
The Bible compares the times we are living in now to the birth pains of a woman, and looking at the distress occurring in all nations today it’s clear we are on the cusp of some very serious developments. But, the good news is the Scriptures foretell of a future generation, who in the latter days will see a number of prophetic events coming to pass, and Jesus said the generation of those who see these events being fulfilled will be the one that sees his second coming.
Among the events foretold to occur in the latter days are, “Signs in the Sun, the Moon and the Stars” and thus far we have seen a number of “Blood Red Moons” on Jewish religious holiday’s, and a recent solar eclipse. However, to be clear, I am not suggesting there is any particular significance connected to the recent eclipse, nor is it not the only event we can expect to see soon, because on Sept 23rd during the Jewish “Feast of Trumpets” another event will occur in the heavens which the book of Revelation foretold would be seen prior to the return of Christ’s saying, “A great sign will be seen in the heavens: a woman clothed with the sun: with the moon under her feet: and on her head a crown of twelve stars: she will be with child crying out in pain: laboring to give birth” (Revelation – Ch12: Vs.2).
The “Woman clothed with the sun” referred to in Revelation is the constellation of Virgo which the Bible symbolically uses to represent the Nation of Israel, and the “12 stars in her crown” represent the 12 tribes of Israel, while the constellation of “Leo” (The Lion) above Virgo symbolically represents the tribe of Judah from which Jesus came, which is why he is sometimes referred to as “The Lion of Judah” and although the constellation of Leo normally contains only nine 9 stars. This year on September 23rd during the Jewish celebration of “Rosh Hashanah” three additional stars will appear in Leo along with its 9 permanent stars for a total of 12 — at which time Virgo will truly represent the Biblical “Woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet: and on her head a crown of twelve stars” thereby fulfilling a sign foretold 2,000 years ago by the Apostle John, who wrote the Book of Revelation while imprisoned on the Greek island of Patmos as he was instructed to do in a vision he received from Jesus Christ (Revelation Ch.I – Vs.1 – 20),
As for the events that have occurred since 1948, we have seen a nation born in a day; the Jews back in control of Jerusalem for the first time in thousands of years; the return of the Jews to the land of Israel after being dispersed throughout the world for Millennia; a movement to rebuild the third temple; the world’s attention focused on Israel as the flash point that could ignite a nuclear war (given the middle east military alliances with Russia and China); the threat of an nuclear strike on America by North Korea; and Iran working on a uranium enrichment program to produce atomic weapons with which to threaten their neighbours, and possibly attack Israel — because Islamic leaders and terrorists have been threatening to annihilate Israel for years – and despite assurances to the contrary they will not stop until they have acquired the capacity to wipe Israel off the map. In fact, the scriptures speak of such enemies of Israel saying, “Come let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (PsalmVs.83 – Vs.1- 4).
Aside from the threats to destroy Israel, which God will never permit, and the third temple not yet being rebuilt, the three other events I mentioned above (Foretold in the Bible thousands of years ago) have all taken place in our lifetime, and Jesus himself speaking of the future generation who would see these events fulfilled in their day declared, “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” and as our generation is the one who did see these events occur I believe we are the generation he was referring to saying, “When you begin to see all this happening, know that my return is near, even at the door, for the generation of you who see this shall in no wise pass away until everything has been fulfilled (Matthew Ch.24 – Vs.23 – 34) and the key event in our time was the rebirth of Israel as a nation in 1948 which I regard as a confirmation that we are indeed the generation of which Jesus spoke, because Israel did become a nation again as foretold in the scriptures, and it did happen in our generation.
Jesus also declared with respect to his second coming saying, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only (Mathew Ch. 24 – Vs.36) and he warned us not to believe either those who predict the day of his return, or the many false Christs who would arise claiming to be him. Instead we are to live humbly by faith in his grace and treat every day as if it were the day of his return, because despite the best efforts of mankind to resolve the escalating problems of this present age, they will not be resolved until Christ returns to rule this earth as the King of kings and Lord of Lord forever. And, therein lies the blessed hope of all Christian believers since the time of his ascension to heaven to this very day, who are faithfully awaiting his reappearance with all power and glory, and that said I will sum up by saying this article was not written to create a climate of apprehension in its readers, but instead to create an interest among those who may then decide to further apprise themselves concerning what the scriptures have to say.
