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Two lectures back we began to trace the rise of financial Babylon. This dealt with the fact that religious Babylon has been supplanted by the economic power of Mystery Babylon; that is, by the money power.
In other words, the power that was once wielded by papal Rome began to decline, while at the same time, the financial or economic power of merchant banking or international banking began to arise.
We then set aside our study of financial Babylon so that we could begin to trace the rise of the Stone Kingdom, because, as we saw, the Stone Kingdom was arising at about the same time as the money power of Mystery Babylon was arising.
This is lecture number 18 in our series entitled Mystery Babylon and the Stone Kingdom. We shall continue where we left off last time, tracing The Rise of the Stone Kingdom; so you could say this is part two of that subseries.
However, I have given this lecture its own title because it more specifically describes what we will focus on in this lecture. The title is The Ancient of Days and America.
There is much to be learned—and for some of us possibly unlearned—concerning that term “the ancient of days.”
I am in a tiny minority with what I am going to explain to you about the ancient of days. But that’s okay; I am used to that. Furthermore, I am confident that I can prove to you from the Scriptures that the common understanding is incorrect.
Moreover, I am confident that I can prove to you from history and from the Scriptures that my interpretation is correct. I know that sounds like a tall order but keep your Bibles open and follow along as we unlock more of the book of Daniel.
Just a bit of review is necessary to set the stage. Daniel chapter 2. You might recall how in the previous lecture we spent a great deal of time centered on the phrase found in the first part of Daniel 2, verse 44, which reads:
Daniel 2:44: And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom. I then stated that immediately, we can deduce two facts: (1) The Stone Kingdom has been in existence for quite some time; and (2) the Stone Kingdom is still rising.
It has not reached its zenith yet, because obviously Mystery Babylon still exists. And in this year of 2011, this beast empire seems to be in total dominion over almost the entire planet.
Then we went back to the four gospels and observed that the teaching of Jesus was overwhelmingly concerned with the gospel of the Kingdom.
We saw how that, just before the ascension of our Lord, the apostles did not request a quick refresher course on how to lead people to the Lord, but the uppermost question in their minds was… Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
Jesus basically told them it was not for them to know….Which we can see in hindsight was an answer that would not discourage them from carrying out the great commission which Jesus had assigned to them. Can you imagine how deflated they might have felt if Jesus had told them,
“Well, you see, boys, first there are going to be several centuries of bloody persecution of My followers. Then the church named after Me will become accepted in the empire, and after several more centuries, it will even become the sole possessor of almost all political and religious power.
But by that time, this church will have become so corrupted and so vile that I would want to vomit it out of My mouth. It will be only a pale imitation and worse, a counterfeit, of the kind of church that I desire.
“But then, about one thousand, five hundred years from now, the Kingdom will finally begin to arise in another land, on another continent very, very far from here. It will be very small and weak at first and as it grows, it will be met with great resistance from a very evil and mysterious power, and then after a few more centuries…” and on and on.
But we will leave it there, because I think we can all imagine how the apostles would have felt had they known the full scope of history to come, and so Jesus gave them the perfect answer: it is not for you to know.
Also in review of last time, we pondered the implications of that final question of the apostles. It implied that at some future time there would be a Kingdom given to the descendants of Jacob-Israel.
But first, we saw that Jesus declared that the Kingdom would be taken from the chief priests and Jewish leaders of His day, and that the Kingdom would be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits that our Lord desires.
That fact alone would mean that this future kingdom would have to comprise in large measure followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It patently means that it would be a Christian nation. They would not be a perfect or sinless people, but they would claim Jesus as their Lord and King.
This Kingdom would not be left to another people. It would be Israel’s kingdom. This kingdom nation would be based on the Lord Jesus Christ, or we could say that it would be based on the Christian Bible because Jesus is the Word made flesh. And as I said, Jesus would be acclaimed as their King.
I told you last time about one of the mottoes during the American Revolution: “No King but King Jesus!” But I do not think that I told you how when it was over, that some powerful men in the now-independent colonies asked George Washington if he would allow them to make him king over the embryonic united States of America.
The father of our country replied—and I am paraphrasing, but this is close: “We have only one king and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, but I will preside until He comes.” And that is how we came to have one who presides, a president, as our chief executive, instead of a king.
Now, with all this having been gleaned the last time, let me point out the obvious. The so-called rebirth of the state of Israel in Palestine in 1948 is no such thing. It can in no way be the fulfillment of the Kingdom restored to Israel.
First and foremost, they are not only NOT a Christian nation, but many of the citizens of the Israeli state despise the very mention of the name Jesus Christ. And that is because, secondly, they are not who they claim to be.
They are not Israel, but rather have been posing as Israel for geopolitical and economic reasons. It is not the rebirth of the state of Israel but the rebirth of the nation of Esau-Edom, Israel’s ancient foe.
This masquerade by the descendants of Esau mixed with Canaan has been exceedingly successful, because almost the entire Christian world believes them to be Israel. But this has all been part of our heavenly Father’s script for the history of this end of the age and the beginning of the new. A new millennium for His millennial Kingdom.
On the other hand, the truth of our identity as Israel is known only by a remnant. Although almost all of Christianity is currently blinded to this fact. Ironically, that very blindness is itself one of many marks that we truly are the descendants of Jacob-Israel. I cannot get sidetracked to prove that here.
And in contrast to the Israeli state of Esau, Canaan and the Khazars, America is the true re-gathering place of all twelve tribes of Israel …the tribes who, over two thousand years ago, were migrating into and across Europe under a plethora of different names, such as the Scythians, Cimmerians, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Vikings, Germanii, Franks, Burgundians, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and many more.
We, their descendants, have been blessed to have been born in this end time Zion nation, which is the New Jerusalem of Bible prophecy. We have been so blessed to enjoy the highest standard of living the world has ever known. We have been blessed to live in the most powerful nation the world has ever known.
And yet again, I want to stress, this is not to say that America and our Christian Israel people are perfect! Far, far from it. But the colonists who migrated to this North American wilderness did begin this endeavor with an earnest striving for the righteousness of God in both government and in personal behavior.
But over the past four centuries we have strayed far from it. We have been in a dreadful condition as a nation for at least century now and are getting worse by the day. But this, too, was all prophesied as part of God’s plan for the simultaneous demise of Mystery Babylon and the rise of God’s Stone Kingdom.
I cannot elucidate all these statements from the Scriptures at this time, or we would be seriously sidetracked from our topic today, but just to whet your spiritual appetite, in Micah, chapter 4, I want you to notice verse 13 because we used that verse as part of our theme for lecture #14, which we entitled: Thresh and Consecrate, Ye Daughters of Zion.
During that lecture I deliberately had to ignore the previous verses here until I was able to lay more groundwork for understanding, and even now, I am hoping you will be able to see this. Follow along with me as I read beginning in verse 8.
And remember, the “daughter of Zion” is a prophetic and figurative name for end-time Israel. Ditto for the term, the “daughter of Jerusalem.”
Micah 4:8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
May I emphasize what you just heard? The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Zion. “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” “Uh, I’m sorry, boys, it is not for you to know because it is actually going to be many centuries before that happens.”
Notice it also describes the kingdom as “the first dominion.” That would mean that the kingdom would eventually rise to be the first among nations, the leading nation, the world’s only remaining superpower, if you will.
But we have to remember a very important concept here, one that I have stated before in this series. This has to do with what I said about unlearning some things. In this case, we have to get away from this notion that the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation all happen in a very short period of time.
Keep in mind that they can and do sometimes take centuries. I gave examples of that in previous lectures, and this passage is another one. In other words, the Stone Kingdom began to arise “in the days of these kings.” But four centuries later, the kingdom is in trouble.
Micah 4: 9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? ….
Now let us stop there. I must elucidate this just a little. We began as a people who considered Jesus as our King. But in our lifetimes, with the constant public attacks against Christianity in the public square and in government, most Christians are now content to cower inside the walls of their church buildings and pray to be raptured out of this mess.
And thus, I am saying that the Kingdom did come to end-time (Christianized) Israel in America—several hundred years ago—and the Kingdom has been growing in many ways, but not without trouble. Because at this juncture in history, the year 2011, she is in serious trouble. Where is our King?
Antichrists have forced the removal of the Ten Commandments and the Bible from almost everywhere in public. Christians are fearful of praying out loud in the name of Jesus before football games or any other public event. What are they fearful of? They are afraid the ACLU will bring a lawsuit against the school or whoever is sponsoring the event.
Now I don’t want to spend much time on the ACLU, but their track record clearly shows that their name, the American Civil Liberties Union, is just a smokescreen for what the letters might secretly stand for: the Anti-Christian Liberties Union.
But isn’t all this anti-prayer activity reminiscent of what happened to Daniel in ancient Babylon? You can read in chapter 6, where evil men caused a law to be passed that forbade prayer. We are quickly coming to that in America.
We must break it off here for today.
(To be continued.)
