At the beginning of 2017 there was an interesting period in my life. All kinds of prophecies about the coming day of the Lord and the various cataclysms coming upon this world poured into my head. One night I was even woken by a voice that said loudly into my ear: “Babylon will be judged!”, and when I woke up, there was a word: “Prophesy, son of man: Babylon will be destroyed!” Then there was a vision of a great earthquake in America, and it was so vivid and powerful that I was shaking with horror at what was happening, and I even wrote to my Jewish friends that they should go back from America to Israel. They probably thought I’d eaten too many mushrooms, because one of them asked how I was feeling. :-)

A year of signs and the fullness of the Gentiles

That year really was special. At the beginning of the year Donald Trump became president of America (to the surprise of many), and America is a type of the Gentiles, since representatives of all nations have gathered there. Straight away Paul’s words come to mind: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Cor.15:52 KJV) In the King James translation the word for trumpet is written exactly like that — trump.

Also remarkable was the fact that on the day of President Trump’s inauguration he was exactly 70 years, 7 months and 7 days old. Three sevens symbolise fullness, and the number 70 is the number, or fullness, of the Gentiles, because 70 nations came from Noah, and besides the 12 disciples, who symbolise the 12 tribes of Israel, Jesus had another 70 disciples, who symbolise the 70 families of the Gentiles. When it comes to the fullness of the Gentiles, a verse from the epistle to the Romans comes to mind: “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” (Rom.11:25)

In the spring of that year Emmanuel Macron became president of France. You might think: so what? Some economist became president, that’s all. But for a start, his name is the same as that of our Lord Jesus Christ, which means God with us. (Mat.1:23) And the surname Macron in French literally means a sign or a mark, which is mentioned in Revelation chapter 13. Even the date of 14 May (the beginning of his term) coincides with the day the State of Israel was founded, when its declaration of independence was proclaimed. If Trump’s presidency points us to the fullness of the Gentiles, then Macron’s points to the time of Jacob’s trouble, which will begin straight after the last trumpet.

Then in the summer of 2017 a solar eclipse passed over America. So what, an eclipse — there are lots of solar eclipses. The peculiarity of this sign is that it passed from west to east and only across the territory of the USA, and seven years later another solar eclipse would pass over America from south to north, and these two signs form a cross. I don’t think that happens often. As we have already said, America symbolises the Gentiles, and the number seven their fullness, and as soon as the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, then, as Paul wrote, “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Rom.11:26). This will happen after the time of Jacob’s trouble, but before that, at the last trumpet, God’s church will be caught up to Jesus in heaven, and Babylon will be destroyed.

And in the autumn there was another remarkable event — the stars in the sky lined up in the sign described in Revelation chapter 12. (I wrote about this in more detail in the article The Sign of the Son of Man.) Some consider it made up, some say this kind of thing happens often, and some say it’s no use, because it can’t be seen in the sky, since the sun is part of the sign. No one has ever seen God either, but that doesn’t mean that because no one has seen Him He doesn’t exist. ;-) Jesus said clearly that as the end of the age approaches, “there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” (Luk.21:11) Notice the word great, because you don’t often find a great sign in Scripture, and the sign of Revelation chapter 12 is one of them.

And at the end of the year another event took place which I believe is also significant in the Lord’s “prophetic calendar”. On 6 December President Trump (as the representative and leader of the Gentile world) recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Many American presidents, starting with Clinton, had put off this decision, but then 2017, which was a jubilee year for Israel, came, and exactly 50 years after the Six-Day War, when Israel brought Jerusalem back under its control, Jerusalem was recognised by the nations, the Gentiles. Someone will say: “But many countries are still against it.” It doesn’t matter; the Lord works quite differently. If the leader has recognised it, then everyone has recognised it. Many Jews did believe in Jesus, but the leaders of the Jews rejected Him, and for God that means the whole nation rejected Him.

All right, so what does all this mean? It means that the coming of our Lord and Saviour is drawing near. I don’t know whether it will be this year, or next year, or in three years, but it is very close, and I would like it to be sooner. It’s like a beloved who is impatiently waiting for her bridegroom, while He keeps delaying. Perhaps the longer He delays, the greater the joy of meeting. :-)

It is also amazing that that year a great many people came out from among those who pass themselves off as Christians, contradicting the prophecies about the Lord’s soon return with all kinds of heresies, saying that the Lord’s coming already happened in the year 70, or that it is not very soon, because 50 and 100 years ago there were some who said the Lord was about to come, and He did not come in the years they set, so what makes 2017 different from other years? This was also a sign that before the Lord’s coming, as Jesus said, “false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Mar.13:22) Here the elect are the Jews.

By the way, these two extremes, or two errors, are not new, for the holy apostles Paul and Peter wrote about them, and we will look at them below.

The day of the Lord

But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.
—2 Timothy 2:16-18

There are so-called preterists who teach that all the prophecies described in the book of Revelation already took place in the year 70, including the coming of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead.

As Paul wrote, such teaching destroys faith, because it makes void our blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. (Tit.2:13) If Jesus has already come, then what are we hoping for and whom are we waiting for? If the marriage of the Lamb and the church has already taken place, then what community are we part of?

No, my friends, we who believe in Jesus are the church of God, and very soon, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God, we will be taken up to heaven to meet the Lord in the air. When the apostle Paul wrote about this event in the epistle to the Thessalonians, he also wrote in conclusion: “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Ths.4:18) You see, when we tell one another that the Lord will soon return and take us to Himself, we comfort one another, and comfort is the work of the Holy Spirit, for Jesus called Him another Helper, the Comforter.

Paul goes on to say that there is no need to write about times and seasons, because the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. It will come as a thief for unbelievers, because Paul then writes: “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” But we are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake us as a thief, because we who believe in Jesus are sons of light and sons of the day. (1 Ths.5:1-5)

Just as the Spirit of God pointed the prophets of the old covenant to the soon coming of the Messiah, so now the Spirit of God points us to the soon coming of our Saviour.

One thing not to forget

3 Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?”
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
—2 Peter 3:3-4,8

In answer to the lies of all kinds of scoffers who resist God’s prophecies, saying that His coming is not soon, the apostle Peter gives us a hint: “do not forget this one thing.” Even if the day and hour of our Beloved’s return are hidden from us, one thing is not hidden from us: that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. “So what?” someone may object. Well, Scripture hides many of God’s pearls which say that the Lord will return after exactly two days.

In the Gospel of John, which is prophetic, for there Jesus is revealed to us as the Son of God (the flying eagle), it is written that when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. (Jhn.11:6) The name Lazarus in Hebrew (Eleazar) means God’s helper, and it symbolises the Holy Spirit. The symbolic sickness of the Holy Spirit is the event that happened with Stephen: “But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’… And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'” (Act.7:55-56,59)

Stephen saw Jesus standing because Jesus was about to return to Judea if the leaders of the Jews believed the Holy Spirit, who was preaching to them through Stephen. But as Stephen said of them: “You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.” (Act.7:51) The Jews rejected the testimony of the Holy Spirit, so when Jesus heard, He stayed two days (two thousand years) in the place where He was — at the right hand of God.

After staying there two days, Jesus said: “Let us go to Judea again.” (Jhn.11:7) Again means once more. :-) Hidden here is a revelation of the second coming of Jesus to Judea, when He will come down onto the Mount of Olives. When Jesus’ disciples watched Him ascend in a cloud, two men in white apparel stood by them and said: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner…” (Act.1:11)

Another story in the same Gospel of John tells of the Samaritans who believed in Jesus because of the woman’s word. After they came to Jesus, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. (Jhn.4:40) The Samaritans here symbolise the Gentiles, for the Samaritan woman herself said that Jews have no dealings with them, and for almost two thousand years Jesus has been among the Gentiles by His Spirit, with His Church (of which the Samaritan woman is a type), and indeed the Church is made up mainly of Gentiles. Here the starting point can be considered the moment when Philip came to Samaria, preached there and worked miracles.

When Jesus was in Samaria, it is written that many more believed because of His own word. (Jhn.4:41) And when Philip preached Christ to them, the Samaritans received the word of God. (Act.8:14) All this happened right after Stephen was stoned.

In the same chapter of Acts we can read how Philip was caught away and was seen no more. Isn’t that a type of the rapture of the church (by the Holy Spirit)? Even the name Philip in Greek means lover of horses, and it symbolises the chariot of God, the generation of believers who will be caught up to heaven by the Lord. For there are some who teach that there is no rapture in Scripture and that the rapture is only a personal experience. I don’t know what personal experiences anyone has, but here it is plainly written that the eunuch saw him no more. It’s very similar to the story of Enoch in the Old Testament, who was there, and at some moment he was no more.

There is also the story in the Gospel of Luke about the good Samaritan and the two denarii, which symbolise two days, for a denarius was a labourer’s daily wage. There is also the story in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark where it says that after two days it was the Lord’s Passover, and the chief priests sought how they might kill Him. This points to the great tribulation and the persecution of Jewish believers, and also to the two witnesses being killed by the antichrist. Many things hidden in the Scriptures point to the Lord’s soon coming.

So, as the beloved apostle Paul wrote, rejoice in hope; and our hope of Jesus’ soon return, which Paul also calls blessed, does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.