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The True Fulfillment of Prophecy, part 20

The final century allotted originally to the third beast empire (Syria/Greek) was suspended on account of the great excesses of Antiochus Epiphanes, who tried to turn the temple in Jerusalem into an Epicurean shrine in 168 B.C. They also tortured Judeans who refused to accept this decision. War broke out, led by Judas Maccabee, and the Syrians lost control of Jerusalem.

In 163 B.C. the temple in Jerusalem was cleansed in an 8-day ceremony, which was thereafter celebrated as Hanukkah. Jerusalem remained independent of beast rule for a full century, until the Roman General Pompey took the city in 63 B.C. This marked the beginning of the fourth beast empire—Rome.

As I have shown earlier, the divine law specified that divine judgment would last “seven times,” or 2,520 years (7 x 360). So when we calculate this time of Jerusalem’s “tribulation,” as it is called in the New Testament, we cannot simply calculate an unbroken 2,520-year cycle. We must calculate 2,520 years of actual beast rule.

If there had been no interruption in beast rule, this tribulation would have ended in 1917, as suggested in 1886 by H. Grattan Guinness. However, he did not account for the interruption. The year 1917 did indeed prove to be important, but it was not the end of the “tribulation.” Though Jerusalem was taken from the Ottomans on December 9-11, 1917 by British General Allenby, another event a month earlier signaled the start of the next phase of tribulation. This event was the Balfour Declaration, an official British letter of intent that was sent to Lionel Rothschild, dated November 2, 1917, informing him of their intent to work toward “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

This marked the political acceptance of Zionism that would lay the foundations of prophecy for the next century (1917-2017). Hence, God used this final century to accomplish His purpose. It was not a wasted century, nor was merely an extension of the previous forms of tribulation.

Antichrist Dominion over Jerusalem

It is also important to recognize that this was a new form of tribulation that saw the rise of “antichrist” (by John’s definition). In 1 John 2:22, 23 the apostle tells us,

²² Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

In 1 John 4:3 he adds,

³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist…

To “confess Jesus” (in the context of the previous verse) is to believe and profess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” Those Jews who did not “receive Him” (John 1:11) were playing the role of Absalom, who was David’s antichrist (or anti-messiah). Just as Judah had rejected David and had supported Absalom, so also had the same story repeated in the New Testament a thousand years later.

1 John 2:18, 19 also makes a significant statement:

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

John tells us plainly that there are “many antichrists” who “went out from us.” In other words, they had actually professed to be believers in Christ, but later they fell back into Judaism. So also we find Paul writing epistles that warn the believers not to fall back into the bondage of the earthly Jerusalem. His epistle to the Galatians in particular was devoted to this problem.

Paul wrote in Galatians 4:25, 26,

²⁵ Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.

The solution, Paul says, is found in Genesis 21:10, which he then quotes in Galatians 4:30, 31,

³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the freewoman.” ³¹ So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman [Jerusalem], but of the free woman [heavenly Jerusalem].

In other words, those who truly profess Christ are children of the heavenly Jerusalem [“Sarah”], while those who remain in Judaism are children of the earthly Jerusalem (“Hagar”). These “mothers” are the two covenants, one giving birth to children of the flesh, the other giving birth to the children of God. The question, then, is this: Who do you claim as your mother?

This also determines who is of Christ and who is of antichrist, as John tells us. This was an important question in the first century church, and it has become an important question once again in the past century. The most important time marker was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, for it began to give political legitimacy to the authority of the earthly Jerusalem. This did more to establish the present conflict than any other prior historical event.

Zionism is Antichrist

Zionism had begun to take hold in the minds of Christians through Darby’s teachings in the 1850’s and was popularized through Scofield’s notes in his Reference Bible. Scofield’s Bible was first published in 1909 and then revised in 1917, becoming the most influential book in the modern church. It became the religious basis for Zionist teaching, and it coincided with the Balfour Declaration and Allenby’s capture of the earthly Jerusalem.

When Jerusalem was “freed” from Ottoman rule, it also freed allegorical “Hagar” to step up to the plate and try to retake the dominion mandate. But Paul reminds us that Jerusalem is “Hagar” and “Mount Sinai in Arabia.” Arabia was the inheritance of Ishmael. The Old Covenant was established in Arabia, and there Hagar brought forth children of the flesh (Galatians 4:29).

As children of the flesh, the Israelites were under the jurisdiction of Hagar. This was supposed to end when the Mediator of the New Covenant arrived on the scene. When the priestly leaders in Judea rejected Him and decided to adhere to the mediator of the Old Covenant (Moses), they put the earthly Jerusalem under the legal jurisdiction of Hagar and Ishmael. (This was not racial or genealogical, but spiritual and legal.)

Hagar was indeed “cast out” in the first century when the Romans destroyed the city and its temple. But 1900 years later, the Zionists revived Hagar’s fleshly claim to the dominion mandate by setting forth Jerusalem once again as the true “mother” of the Kingdom. The most important starting point was 1917, which was 2,520 years from Babylon’s capture of Jerusalem in 604 B.C., as well as the Balfour Declaration, the British capture of Jerusalem, and the Scofield Bible.

The Final Casting Out

Zionism, for all its early success, did not change the prophecy about casting out the bondwoman. It simply raised the issue in preparation of the final and permanent destruction of Jerusalem to fulfill the prophecy in Jeremiah 19:10, 11. There the prophet was divinely commissioned to smash an earthen jar and proclaim that this is how Jerusalem was to be destroyed “as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired.”

Jerusalem has been destroyed in the past, but it has always been repaired and is with us to this day. But Zionism has prepared the city for its final downfall by again claiming that Jerusalem is true mother of the heir to the dominion mandate. It is precisely this claim that makes it necessary for God to resolve the issue once and for all in the divine court. Hence, Zionism itself, by advocating the children of the flesh as the rightful heirs, chosen to rule the Kingdom, is leading Jerusalem into this final disaster.

As for the Christian Zionists, they are playing the role of Ahithophel (by supporting Absalom in David’s time) and Judah (by supporting Caiaphas in Jesus’ time). Both Ahithophel and Judas were "friends" of the king, yet they betrayed the Anointed One, each in their turn. We have now come to the third iteration of the prophecy, which, I believe, will be the final attempt of the children of the flesh to take the birthright.

I do not expect Jewish Zionists to believe the New Testament writings, but Christian Zionists certainly are responsible for it, since they profess to believe it. 1 Corinthians 15:50 says, “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Paul says again in Romans 9:6-8,

⁶ … For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; ⁷ nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” ⁸ That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

Isaac was the heir in the Old Testament type, because his mother was Sarah, who represented the New Covenant. Ishmael, too, had the same father but was from a different mother representing the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant can produce only children of the flesh. They are our brothers, but they are not heirs.

Christian Zionists are blind to this truth, and this blindness has caused them to play the role of Ahithophel and Judas in the past century. When their spiritual mother is cast out, their blindness will be healed, for they will have no choice but to acknowledge the truth set forth in Paul’s writings. Let us just hope that they do not literally hang themselves, as Ahithophel and Judas did.