Message From The Pastor

An Interesting Prophecy, Part 1

1And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and crying out in the pain and agony of giving birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, tossing them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth. 5And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place for her to be nourished for 1,260 days. ~Revelation 12:1-6 (BSB)

We are close to completing our study through the book of Revelation in our 9am Sunday school class. This class has been eye opening for me. Probably the most eye opening was our study on this particular account between the woman and the dragon. I believe that more Christians need to be aware of this chapter because I personally believe that it has a lot to say about the times that we are living in now. However, as a disclaimer, I am not a pastor who goes around setting days and times for Christ’s return. I am not saying anything of the sort. Instead, I am pointing out a possible fulfillment of this chapter that directly speaks to our generation. With that in mind, I am going to do a multi-part series here in our newsletter on this prophecy. Today is part one.

This prophecy begins with introducing the main characters of this story. These are a woman, a dragon, and the male child of the woman who is caught up to heaven to the throne of God. There is some disagreement between Protestants and Catholics on the identity of the woman but for the rest of the characters there is total agreement on. Most Christians agree that the Dragon is Satan. They also agree that the male child is Jesus Christ. However, The Catholics believe that the woman is Mother Mary. This passage is the proof text, for them, that Mary is the Queen of Heaven. (Notice the crown). However, us Protestants believe that it refers to the nation of Israel.  The proof of this is found in Genesis 37.

Genesis 37:9-11 “Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, ‘What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?’ And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said.” (BSB) (Please catch that there are eleven stars in Joseph’s dream. This is because Joseph is the twelfth star.)

With this in mind, here is the main take away from this first article on this prophecy. This prophecy proves that God is not done with the nation of Israel. The resurrection of Jesus Christ did not end God’s love for Israel. This very small, comparatively insignificant group of people is still in our news daily. The persecution of them has been severe and yet they are still key players in the ongoing story of mankind. Satan has tried to destroy them, but they are still here!

Today on many college campuses there is a chant, “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free.” Please be aware that these are the current parameters of the nation of Israel. Palestine is the nation that Rome established to replace Israel in 135AD. (They hated Israel passionately!)  On May 14, 1948 the nation of Israel was reestablished with the help of the Christian west. There is no current nation of Palestine. There are Palestinian controlled territories in the nation of Israel, but they are not a current nation. I am convinced that this chant is part of the ongoing efforts of Satan to permanently destroy the nation of Israel. If Palestine was reestablished with the parameters of the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea this would require the collapse of Israel.

Please be looking at this prophecy for yourself. I will write my second installment of this series of articles next month. It gets even more intriguing!

In Christ,  Pastor Ken

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September 2024 Newsletter