Eze 37:24-26 And my servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children’s children, for ever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.

The main lesson for the Christian is to understand where we are chronologically. Matthew tells us what to the expect during the parousia of our Lord. We see the fig tree (Israel) blossom, that is show signs of life, and are told that this generation who witnesses that event will not perish before all is accomplished. We are hoping the blossoming is 1948, but it could be 1967, in any event we are at “the end”. Time is short. We need to wake up, trim our lamps, and go out to meet our Lord!

In the previous newsletter we discussed and identified the “beast” that rose out of the sea and was given suppressive power for forty-two months (1260 days). This newsletter is a continuation of the same chapter. We will seek to identify the “Two-horned Beast,” the “Image of the Beast,” the “Mark of the Beast,” and the “Number of a Man.”

Without God’s protection and providence, we are nothing. We may think we have youth on our side, but the times will be so hard and seem like it will go on forever, we will not have the stamina to get through these times if the Lord didn’t take care of us. God will “renew their strength” because they will be on their last leg so to speak.

The “high ones … and the kings of the earth … shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall … be visited.” The picture changes here. Earlier verses show how the Time of Trouble will affect all society with disarray and harsh experiences. The condemnation will be particularly on the “high ones” of the earth. When earth is viewed throughout its history, there have been cycles of conditions leading up to a climax requiring judgment: guilt and sin, then judgment; guilt and sin, then judgment; etc. But many have died without receiving judgment, punishment, or retribution. Now the wicked flourish “like a green bay tree” (Psa. 37:35), and those who tempt God seem to prosper. Verses 21 and 22 are summarizing that down through history, those who have failed in their stewardship of responsibility will not escape retribution.

IT IS NECESSARY for the discipline, trial and final proving of the Church of God that they should be subjected to adverse influence; for “to him that overcometh” is the promise of the great reward. If we would reign with Christ, we must prove our worthiness to reign, by the same tests of loyalty to God, of faith in His Word, of zeal for the Truth, of patient endurance, of reproach and persecution, even unto death, and in the unwavering trust in the power and purpose of God to deliver and exalt His Church in due time.

“The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.” (Amos 5:18) It is “the great day of his wrath.” This dark day is at once the closing scene of the night of weeping and the dawn of the morning of joy. And we would invite your attention, not merely to the scriptural evidence that there will be such a day, but especially to the events that will transpire during that day, and their chronological order.

Many of the Lord’s sheep are penned in behind various creeds of men and thus hindered from obtaining the food and exercising the liberty which Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, intended they should have. While it is contrary to the will of the great Chief Shepherd that his sheep should be separated from each other by pens, and hindered from the proper liberties of the fold, there is, nevertheless, one general enclosure behind which all the true sheep will be found, and to which the Lord specially informs us that there is but the one door—himself.

God “girded” Cyrus in two ways: (1) He gave Cyrus supernatural power in overcoming his enemies. (2) God prepared Cyrus as a child and fashioned him for his future work; He trained him for his position as general and renowned conqueror. Not only was God’s providence over the victories Cyrus later attained, but that providence operated from his earliest youth—even from his baptism, as it were, when he was given the name Cyrus. Thus God’s remarkable foreknowledge was displayed 150 years before the events occurred.

The Islamic teachings of the coming of their messiah, are very similar to the popular Protestant ideas of the coming Messiah that the Papacy taught to throw the scent off of them. Up until recently all Protestants understood and believed that the Papacy was the Antichrist.