Most ministers of the Gospel, let alone their congregants know nothing of the Book of Revelation: it is too mysterious and symbolic; nor the subject matter of the Olivet Discourse(Matt.24,25; Mk.13; Luk.21). They know nothing about the background of Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. They don’t understand the Book of the Prophet Daniel. Whenever they teach or preach from these books, they spiritualize, allegorize, contextualise, customize, and personalize them, leaving the primary interpretation untouched. They ignore the fact that if believers are taught the primary interpretation of the Scriptures, they will be able to apply them to their own lives.
Faulty Hermeneutics: Allegorical Interpretation
As we observe, it is the sun that hardens the clay that melts the wax. We must not permit the sad and unpleasant experiences of life to determine our worldview. Our theological stance on Biblical prophecy must not be reactionary. Because of the failed predictions of some American Pentecostal and Charismatic zealots, we must not adopt the notion that nothing good comes from America, create, evolve, and device a theological system the primary aim of which is to contradict theirs, deconstruct their theology, an antithesis of sorts.
The truth is that Americans did not evolve this system of Biblical Hermeneutics. It was developed by Origen(184-253), a brilliant Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian who became the head of the school of Alexandria in Egypt in His early twenties. Saint Aurelius Augustine Of Hippo(354-430) was also a proponent of this school of allegorical interpretation. According to this school, the Scriptures cannot be interpreted at face value and the plain sense of the Scriptures does not make sense. Everything must be allegorized, contextualized, spiritualized, customized, personalized, even christianized, etc.
In that sense, the temple will no longer mean the temple but the Church, the Beast Empires would mean something else, and Jerusalem would no longer mean Jerusalem. Israel would mean something else according to the whims and caprices of the interpreters. There are no rules to determine what these things mean. Therefore they mean so many things to so many different people. One pastor has the effrontery to say that the antiChrist will be unveiled in the Church rather than the Temple. I wonder which it will be, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Church of the Nativity, or the Basilica in Rome, Saint Peter’s Cathedral or the Assumpta Cathedral in Owerri or Regina Mundi in Lagos. Can you imagine the confusion. The Bible has become a subjective patchwork which could be made to say whatever the interpreter would want it to say. It is this kind of interpretation that gave birth to Replacement Theology where the Church is the New Israel which fostered antsemitsm in the Catholic Church.
At the end all we have is utter confusion and quicksand, a thousand and one interpretations of the same thing. Which authority do we listen to, and who constitutes and what determines these authorities. Nothing is concrete anymore. We cannot understand biblical Prophecy anymore. All we have to do is lay back and become passive observers of time.
Therefore, when it is all over, seated with Christ at the diner table in the Millennium, with hindsight we can look back and smile with an air of self-satisfaction, it all happened as Christ predicted. We, like the pathologist, will smile with an air of self-importance, we are the most important people in the medical team; for we have the final diagnosis. But it is all after death, and the opinion of the pathologist may not be the cause of death. What is the benefit of a diagnosis that does not aid in the management and treatment of the patient because it can only be determined after the death of the patient. What is the essence of biblical prophecy if it cannot be understood before its fulfilment? We must continue to study to understand Biblical Prophecy because our survival, those of our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren depend on it.
Changes In The World
In 20 to 25 years of the modern world, the changes that will take place will certainly make some of us wiser, however the fools will remain foolish(Rev.22:11). The Scriptures tell us where the world is headed. The future of this world is prewritten history. Those that will understand it are those who have already learned it from the Scriptures. How can anyone accurately interpret current affairs without proper understanding of the End Times? Do you know what? You can become wiser in a couple of hours, days, months, and years by studying these things for yourself.
The Priming Of The Church And The World
The Church as well as the world is being primed for the antiChrist harvest, and most pastors, the pretribbers amongst them do not warn the sheep under their care. There is a lot of antipathy towards this teaching that the Church must of necessity go through the Great Tribulation. The attitude of some others is nonchalant. Let me feed my family first and send my children to school before I can listen to any talk about Heaven, Hell, the Great Tribulation and the Rapture. Do you know that one day you may be so old that you find no pleasure in these things(Eccl.12:1-7), and unable to read one good book in a year. There will be tribulation and persecution on account of the word(Matt.13:21). In Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, our brother, Apostle Paul confirmed the souls of the disciples, exhorted them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God(Acts 14:22). Then we turn round and teach that the ultimate and final Tribulation the saints shall be exempt.
Paul’s Pattern of Preaching And Teaching
Our brother, Apostle Paul was in Thessalonica for very short time. No sooner had he started the church in Thessalonica than he had to leave due to opposition from civil authorities. Within that short period of time he had taught them not only the message of salvation, but also that the church will go through the Great Tribulation before being raptured. The order of his message was salvation, and then the antiChrist before the Rapture. In the southern part of Nigeria, where we are not terror bombed by Boko Haram, the end times have been relegated to the back burner if at all mentioned. After convert class, the new believer is noturned and weaned on, and inundated with the prosperity message and messages about the good life. I always ask myself, if our Lord Jesus and Apostle Paul were here today, will the content of their messages be the same as the ones we hear in our churches today? I doubt very much.
Half Truth: Caught Off Guard
There is a teaching afloat amongst believers that if we live a holy and righteous life, we shall be raptured whenever the rapture takes place. This is a half truth, and half truth is always dangerous because it is a lie. In a court of law a witness swears to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. For half truth, a witness could be jailed; he has committed perjury. We are ambassadors of heaven, witnesses for Christ. We must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We must not hold back anything that is needful and profitable to the saints in this journey. If a believer does not lie, cheat, nor live an amorous life, but does not know the times and the seasons, he will be caught off guard, that day will come to him as a thief in the night. But as believers we need not be caught off guard. That day should not come upon us as a thief in the night, unawares. We are children of the day. We are not of night nor of darkness(1 Thess.5:4-8).
The Essence Of The Great Tribulation: The Purification Of The Church
As touching living holy and righteous, there is no need for us to deceive ourselves. The Church is a mixed multitude. From both the pulpit and the pew, the Church is bedeviled with cheating, lying, falsehood, sexual immoralities, pornography, drug addiction, marital infidelity, alcoholic and sexual incontinence, embezzlement of funds, scamming, stealing and youth rebellion, greed and graft. A lot of our youths are messed up with one another in sex, drug, and pornography. There are couples who are married for 20-30 years who engage in extramarital relations. Let me say it up front, in a bald language: Our Lord is coming for a glorious Church, without spot, wrinkles or any blemish. If thousands of years of teaching and preaching on holiness and righteous living cannot do, then what will? The Church must go through the Fire of purification, the school of the crucible to be rendered rapturable. This is the essence of the Great Tribulation, to take way the dross from the gold. Every goldsmith purifies gold by processing and passing it through the fire. God, being the best goldsmith that He is will do nonetheless. The purpose of the Great Tribulation is to separate the chaff from the wheat; to fit us for the kingdom. “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, He will gather the wheat into His granary; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire(Luk.3:17). It is also a certain token of the the doom of our persecutors when the Lord comes to be glorified in His holy ones(2Thess.1:10).
Mark Of The Beast
In Sweden in 2015, 98% of all transactions were cashless. Cashlessness will soon be acceptable all over the world. We have BVN in Nigeria. One day, there will be a worldwide BVN. By then, the number of digits may expand to 18. This with some biometric data specific to the individual may be introduced hypodermically into the body. Tattoo marks are now fashionable especially among sports celebrities. And our youths see them as role models. Wearable chips with which one can lock and unlock one’s phones, tablets and computers, homes and offices and cars and electronic gadgets are fast becoming fashionable amongst the upwardly mobile. The Scandinavian countries are far ahead of the rest of the world in these things. Many in Sweden wear chips and are branded already. And you know what? They brag about it. It will not be long before it becomes fashionable in Nigeria and the rest of the world.
The Global Generation
There is talk right now about the global generation. The global generation will be a generation of cyborgs. A cyborg is Homo Sapiens Sapiens who controls everything around him with wearable microchips implanted in various parts of the body, and is turn controlled by a giant computer somewhere run by a Big Brother. These things are very tempting especially for the youth who may be under peer pressure to belong, and besides, there are obvious benefits. Some day chips may be implanted in the brain to aid memory, solve problems etc. It will be a huge temptation for Christians who are students especially in institutions of higher learning as these chips may enhance performances in their academic pursuits. Some of these biometric implants are as small as a grain of rice. Will a believer that is so hybridised be acceptable to God? In the ancient world as it is still practised today, people wear their gods on their bodies as necklaces, earrings, nose rings, bangles, scarification marks, etc. This is the reason why God forbade the children of Israel from stripping these items from the corpses of their enemies slain in battle, nor take their images lest they become a snare to them(Exod.34:12-16). How could these inanimate objects become a snare to the children of Israel? They were dedicated to the gods of their enemies. They were initiated objects. Anyone who has dealt with demons knows they are very legalistic. They always go for what is theirs. It is for the same reason that we should not take the mark of the Beast(Rev.13:16-18). My advice to believers is that we should avoid biometric implants. This of course excludes cardiac pacemakers and insulin pumps and other biomechanisms that deliver drugs to patients.
Scare Mongering
As pertaining to scare mongering with which we have been labeled by some of our scathing and virulent critics, let me say we are scare mangers to the extent to which Jesus is a scare monger, because we are echoes of His voice. Jesus warned His disciples in the Olivet Discourse to take heed that no one deceives them: for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many(Matt.24:4,5). He warned them that there shall be wars and rumours of wars. He told them there shall be famines, pestilences and earthquakes. He told them that Jerusalem shall be surrounded with armies. He told them to leave the city as quickly and as far as possible when this event occurs. Those outside the city should not enter into it. Those on the house top should not come down to take anything. Woe to them that are with child and those who give suck in those days. He said, pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the sabbath day. He said during this period, many shall fall away from the faith, and shall betray one another. Family members shall betray one another, and a man’s foes shall be members of his own household. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold(Matt.24:12). What could be scarier than this scenario graphically painted by our Lord in the Olivet Discourse? The pretribs got around it by telling us the Church shall be raptured before the antiChrist rears up his ugly head.
The synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke gave the same testimony(Matt.24; Mk.13; Luk.17, 21). Our beloved brother, Apostle Paul gave the same testimony. He said before the day of the Lord, the man of lawlessness, the antiChrist must be unveiled and there shall be massive falling away from the Faith(2 Thess.2:3). John the revelator testified that the antiChrist shall make war with the saints and overcome them(Dan.7:25; Rev.13:7), he will make war with the remnant of the seed of the woman who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus(Rev.12:17). He said some believers shall be killed and some taken captive(Rev.6:9-11; 13:10). He also testified in the Gospel of John that in the world believers shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world(Jon.16:33). Apostle Peter testified that the saints shall experience strange trial. It is the same Greek word “peirazmos” that is used in Rev.3:10 to describe the trial that shall come upon all those who dwell upon the earth(1 Pet.4:12,13). If Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are scare mongers, then we are glad to be so labeled because all we do is to echo and re-echo their voices. The prophets Isaiah, Joel, and others testify there shall be cosmic disturbances before the day of the Lord in which the rapture will take place(Joel2:30-31; Is.24:23). Need we say any less?
Hybridization Of The Human Race
One method by which Satan aims at disqualifying humans is by hybridizing them. Hybrid humans or humanoids or transhumans are not acceptable to God. One method of hybridization is by intermarriage between fallen angels and human females(Gen.6:1-4). It was for this reason that God wiped out the people of Noah’s day, leaving only Noah and his family because they were the only ones who were pure humans(Gen.6:5-8). The statement that Noah was righteousness in his generation(Gen.6:9) is better translated Noah was pure in his descendants. It did not mean that Noah and his sons were without sin or sinless. There is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not(Eccl.7:20). Every man will proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find(Prov.20:6). For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God(Rom.3:23). Although those fallen angels who embarked on this mission for Satan are incarcerated in darkness in the shaft of the abyss alongside their humanoid offspring awaiting the judgment of the great Day(2 Pet.2:4; Jude 6), Satan has other fallen angels he can employ in the same mission. Besides, humanity can be hybridised through technology. Both processes are ongoing in the present, the large majority of the people of God are ignorant of it.
Today, in the Amazon forest as well as in some African forests, away from the prying eyes of activists, there are laboratories working hard to incorporate animal and plant genes into human genome all in an attempt to produce a more viable human being. Hitler embarked on Eugenics in order to produce a pure Aryan race. Will the antiChrist do any less? The British biologist Aubrey De Gray has a seven point plan to overcome death. This is the whole aim of Singularity. Raymond Kurzweil, Google’s director of technology, has written a book, Singularity Is Near, in which he talked about Singularity and its goals. They have established Singularity University in America where they are secretly and silently pursuing these goals. They want to live for ever in this death-doomed and sinful body of ours. If you think this is scare mongering or esothetic academia, or speculative eschatology, why did God confound the language of humanity? Because as long as they are united, they will archive their goal. Do you not know that the world is about to speak one language? Do you think that fallen humanity have jettisoned his goal to live his life independent of God, in defiance to His laws and commandments? The same plan that was foiled by God in the plain of Shinar where fallen humanity built the Tower Of Babel is still being pursued by fallen humanity today in institutions of higher learning, laboratories, firms, secret societies, religious institutions, and in the corridors of power.
If God does not intervene in human history as He has done in the past, either Aubrey De Gray or some others after him will breakthrough, and sinful man will be locked in a sinful body for ever. But God will not allow that to happen. For man to breakthrough the Earth’s atmosphere into space, he had 21 questions to answer. He did and broke through to space. To overcome death, man has only seven questions to answer. They may be tougher and more formidable than the 21 in relation to space, but they can be answered. Without divine obstruction, man will one day answer those questions; it is a matter of time. There is a saying amongst the Igbos that “what has no way to do it, has a way to do it,” meaning that every question no matter how tough, has an answer, and every problem no matter how seemingly indissoluble is solvable.
Avraham Shallom.
Mt Zion Heritage Ministries 