A Personal Thank-You

Four years ago (last week of July), the first article was published on this website, with the Home Page title of: Eye of Prophecy … watch and wait. “…For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus” (Revelation 19:10).

And, as stated on the About Page of the website: “…defending and confirming the truth of the Good News” (Philippians 1:7).

Also shown on that page is an acronym:

The intent, form, and content of Eye of Prophecy is presented through Eschatology

P I C T U R E S

Prophetic Inspirational Connections Through Understanding Relevant Events (and) Scripture

Either directly or indirectly, Eye of Prophecy articles are designed to hopefully achieve these objectives. In some fashion or another, all of the articles are written with a Biblical world-view; to better understand and connect prophecy to the events taking place on a regular basis in our lifetime. To provide inspiring counsel, correlation, and to correctly refit the prophetic puzzle when necessary.

I’d like to express a sincere thank you to all visitors—both frequent and infrequent—to the Eye of Prophecy website, especially those who follow this site weekly. Though there are a wide variety of topics, all posts are assigned to one of four categories: The Rapture, The Antichrist, Prophecy in General, or Current Events.

Jesus of Nazareth is the prophesied Messiah who came to this earth to accomplish the two providential plans that God conceived for the human race, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile:

(1) To bring salvation, through the Jews, to every Jew and Gentile who believes and receives Messiah Jesus as Lord and Savior.

(2) To fulfill God’s promise that Abraham’s descendants would possess the Promised Land of Israel forever.

In the last 70 years both of these magnificent plans have been in high gear and are now in the final stages. Tens of thousands of Jews have come to Christ especially since the Six-Day War of 1967, as have millions of Gentiles the world over. Israel has been reborn as a sovereign nation, with Jews immigrating to or being born in their homeland in great numbers.

In the Eye of Prophecy articles, Look Up, Redemption is Near Part I & II (posted 7-11 & 7-18-15), I listed twelve powerful prophetic signs of the 20^th & 21^st century—some fulfilled and others being fulfilled. The twelfth of these indicators is the unprecedented spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world, which is the most distinctive milepost that Jesus said would usher in the Day of the Lord (beginning with the Rapture).

Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who Jesus is. Not because of who I am, but because of what he’s done, do I marvel at how such a small ministry as Eye of Prophecy can be global in its scope (visitors from 167 nations to date). Despite the adverse and sometimes perverse misuse of the Internet by so many, God has sovereignly utilized this medium to spread the Good News.

Four years—210 Eye of Prophecy articles, one every week. So, with a sort of author’s website anniversary, why not write about the number four; which I believe is the third most significant number in Scripture after the divine numbers of three and seven. With, however, special focus on its multiplied factor of four hundred (years).

The Number Four

One other time I wrote about the number four, but only as a precursor to the main subject of the four Gentile kingdoms portrayed in the book of Daniel. Here is an excerpt from Eye of Prophecy article, Four Locusts Kingdoms!, posted 8-22-15 (in italics):

Several numbers in the Bible bear a great deal of meaning … we are going to see how the number four relates to and explains a huge portion of Israel’s history; in the context of God’s providential direction for the Jews and their interaction with mighty Gentile nations.

The number four derives its significance from God’s creative work especially pertaining to the earth, including God’s dealings with and disposition (rise and fall destiny) of nations. It is the number of wholeness, totality, entirety, and summation. It is a number concept that would be completely incomplete if we eliminated just one of the component parts of any given foursome.

If we want to move from one place to another, we must go forward, backward, left or right. Up or down doesn’t count; if we go beneath or above the earth, we must then travel in one of four directions.

…There are four seasons, four primary lunar phases, and four sides to what is probably the most perfect geometric object we can think of … a square. And many more fours:

I went on to list fourteen more fours prominently displayed in Scripture and the universe, including one that you may not have thought about—in terms of the number four. Which is, as quoted from Four Locusts Kingdoms:

“Each day has four component parts: Seconds, minutes, hours, and day. One day is cyclical … it begins, ends, and starts all over again. Weeks, months, and years are linear, continuous.”

(Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse … One of the Ominous Fours!)

That post also contained brief information on three epic periods of 400 hundred years depicted in the Bible. Today’s article will reexamine those remarkable 400-year eras, and will also present an additional 400-year period of time (a total of four!) that leads us to the last days of the end times. In other words, right now!

Before we scrutinize these four 400-year long epochs of Scripture and history, let’s look at two other multiplied factors of the number four: (1) Four Thousand. (2) Forty.

Four Thousand (Years)

As indicated earlier, God has two separate (but interrelated) plans for the human race.

(1) Promised Land: God’s call of Abraham to, by faith, leave his home and go a country that his descendants would inhabit forever. Because of Israel’s failure to keep the Mosaic Covenant, the resumption and realization of this plan only began to unfold when the Jewish State of Israel was reborn in 1948. It will be finally fulfilled when the Jews are restored to total sovereignty and safety in Israel.

(2) Promised Child: Abraham would father a child with Sarah (a miraculous birth considering Sarah was 90 years old). Isaac would be the progenitor and prototype of the ultimate Child of Promise, Messiah Jesus—the Savior of both Jews and Gentiles who exercise the same kind of faith (trust/acceptance) in God’s promise as did Abraham. So great a salvation was purchased by the substitutionary sacrificial death of Jesus, and sealed by his resurrection that initiated the Kingdom of Heaven in the individual hearts of people all over the world. And it will culminate in the Kingdom of God on earth.

Scholars are not completely certain when Abraham was born and then called (at age seventy-five) to pack up and leave for the land God would show him. Yet they have narrowed it down to a (rounded-off) range of 2,100 B.C. to 1,800 B.C. Much depends on tracing the generation of the Patriarchs Jacob and Isaac backward from the Exodus, which can have two historical timelines: 1446 B.C. or 1280 B.C.

With a reliable and reasonable splitting and rounding-off of the difference, let’s place Abraham’s calling to the Promised Land at 2,000 B.C.

Leaping forward to the 21^st century—with my ardent belief as well as some Bible scholars and many born-again believers that the Day of the Lord is so very near—we have an approximate 4,000 year time line between God’s prophecy that the first Child of Promise (Isaac) would be born and commencement of the Day of the Lord that begins with the Rapture of believing Jews and Gentiles by the second (ultimate) Child of Promise. That’s why Messiah Jesus is the essence of prophecy. He will fully accomplish both of God’s preordained plans for mankind.

Forty (Days and Years)

Forty days or years in Scripture is the length of time for testing and preparation with a substantial accomplishment the result, thereof. This model and its meaning also applies to the factor of four hundred (years), which we’ll get to shortly.

First Forty:

“Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 24:18).

What mountain did Moses climb?

Correct: Mount Sinai.

For what purpose did Moses ascend Sinai? Don’t you like easy Bible questions?!

Answer: Ten Commandments. “When the Lord finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, written by the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18).

For Moses, forty days and nights on the mountain was a time of preparation to lead God’s people into the Promised Land, and show them that listening to and obeying God’s life-giving laws and commandments—beginning with the Ten Commandments which are a universal source of truth—is what would distinguish them from the ungodly pagan nations. God chose Israel to be an example, a light, and the conduit of God’s blessings to the Gentile nations.

For the people, it was a time to test just how much they would trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Moses to return with the Covenant that God has already announced when he spoke in a thunderous voice to them from Mount Sinai. They failed that test, miserably. You remember—Golden calf; Moses smashing the tablets in righteous anger; 3,000 killed for their shameful idolatry and gross immorality.

Moses had to return to the mountain for another forty days and nights to get a new set of the Ten Commandments.

Second Forty:

Sadly, the Israelites failed another test of trust in and obedience to the Lord their God. Unlike their father, Abraham, who believed God and acted on his faith that the Lord would lead him to an unknown land, the Israelites sided with ten of the twelve spies who convinced them that Canaan couldn’t be conquered because their enemies were too strong for them. With the absurd implication that their enemies were also too strong for the Lord. How soon they had forgotten what God did to Egypt!

“But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. ‘Let’s go at once to take the land,’ he said. ‘We can certainly conquer it!’” (Numbers 13:30). But the people didn’t listen to him or to Joshua or to Moses.

Did God let them have their way? You know the answer. But only for that generation of unbelievers. Not for their children, because what God says will happen always happens (in this case the Promised Land). It’s just that his promises sometimes are delayed and then later fulfilled to a remnant who truly trust him with their lives and destiny.

Said the Lord to the people who refused to enter the Promised Land:

“You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised. But as for you, you will drop dead in this wilderness … Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy” (Numbers 14:31-34).

After forty years in the wilderness—just a short while before Joshua led the people across the Jordan River into Canaan—Moses reminded them of the terms of their Covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The entire book of Deuteronomy contains that review. Said Moses in summation:

“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16).

Third Forty:

“The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him” (Mark 1:12-13).

Although the forty days in the wilderness was a time to prepare Jesus for his ministry, the most prominent feature of this period of time was Satan’s testing of our Lord.

Permit me to quote from my book, Out of the Abyss (in italics):

Yet, it was the temptation scene that dealt the first Messianic blow to Satan’s plans, because that was the devil’s first opportunity to create an antichrist right then and there; to, in one fell swoop, twist and turn the true Messiah into Satan’s messiah.

Eternal praise to our God and his Messiah that this did not happen! All glory to Yeshua who did not send a legion of angels to annihilate those who had arrested him in the garden! Everlasting gratitude to our Lord for not saying I’ve had enough, and stepping down from the cross! All power and dominion to the Son of Man for arising from the grave and conquering death once and for all! Go ahead, say it aloud with me. Amen! (Page 219).

Jesus is the Son of God. No one on planet earth has ever taught like he taught.

“Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law” (Mark 1:21-22).

Jesus could teach with such authority because he taught the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Nor would he ever have to swear to these words in a court of law. Because he is truth itself (John 14:6). But, if he did agree to repeat those words, he certainly wouldn’t say, “So help me God.” Instead he would say: “Because I AM God!”

When on trial before the High Priest Caiaphas, Jesus affirmed that he was the Messiah. Later before Pontius Pilate, he said: “…Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true” (John 18:37).

But if you question whether or not to take him at his word, then believe the many mighty miracles he performed. Read them for yourself in the Gospels. If the miracles aren’t enough, then what about his astonishing resurrection from the dead—a historical fact witnessed by hundreds (I Corinthians 15:1-9).

He is also the Son of Man (conceived by the Holy Spirit but born, nonetheless, of a woman). Which is why he could be and was tempted and tested for forty days just we all are tempted throughout our lives. With one huge redemptive difference:

“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (II Corinthians 5:21, italics for emphasis).

(*Note: There is a fourth prominent forty (days) in Scripture … the time it took Elijah to reach Mount Sinai where the Lord met with him. See I Kings 19).

Four Hundred (Years)

Keep in mind, we’re looking at the time-lapse connection between an exceptional event or extraordinary existing condition and a subsequent significant occurrence; to show that the Lord’s sweeping plan for Israel (interacting with Gentile nations) sometimes correlates to and takes place in set periods of time.

Thus, we need to understand this dynamic paradigm:

Each four hundred year cycle began with a positive (good) event/time, then deteriorated into a negative (bad) condition of God’s people; culminating with a historic life-changing, destiny-altering event that ended the four hundred year span.

This is important to grasp, because we could arbitrarily select (create) other Biblical or secular 400-year eras by pointing to any number of beginning and ending events. By the objective concept of what qualifies as and constitutes a historic 400-year epoch, I know of no other such periods in history other than the evidence found in the following four epochs. Meaning a cause and effect correlation with an equally obvious continuity during those 400-year periods of time.

However, these four epochs were not consecutive. Beginning with Abraham, they comprise a total of 1,600 years (four phases of 400 hundred years), compared to the 4,000 years of history since Abraham.

First Four-Hundred Year Span

“So Jacob set out for Egypt with all his possessions. And when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. During the night God spoke to him in a vision. ‘Jacob! Jacob!” he called. ‘Here I am,’ Jacob replied.

‘I am God, the God of your father,’ the voice said. ‘Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make your family into a great nation. I will go with you down to Egypt, and I will bring you back again. You will die in Egypt, but Joseph will be with you to close your eyes’” (Genesis 46:1-4).

Jacob’s descendants prospered for a while in a country that welcomed them with open arms; a nation that Joseph helped deliver from disaster during a seven-year famine. And, of course, Joseph’s father, brothers, and their families were rescued from starvation in Canaan.

We then read: “In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land.

“Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. He said to his people, ‘Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more … So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor…” (Exodus 1:6-11).

Another easy question: How long were the Israelites in Egypt before God called Moses to deliver them?

Answer: Four hundred years.

I’ll pose a tougher question for those who need more of a challenge. What prophet predicted that the Israelites would be in Egypt for 400 years?

Tough question, huh? Actually, don’t spend any more time trying to think of the answer. It was a trick question … as would be recognized by you who know that it wasn’t a prophet who spoke to Abraham (there weren’t any prophets at that time!).

It was God, himself, who told Abraham far ahead of time that his people would, “…be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth” (Genesis 15:13-14).

God’s prophecies always come true. Although it would take another 30 years or so to prepare Moses and the people (including the time of the plagues and actual deliverance), the fact remains that it was 400 years from the peak time that Jacob’s and Joseph’s descendants prospered in Egypt to when God called Moses to deliver his people.

To this day, the Exodus is still celebrated by the Jews as the greatest event in their history. An occurrence that led to establishment of Israel as a nation in accordance with God’s covenant with Abraham.

Second Four-Hundred Year Span

King David unified the twelve tribes of Israel; over his reign of forty years Israel became the most powerful nation on earth, with Jerusalem as its capital. Those glory years of Israel increased even more under the reign of King Solomon, also for forty years. Soon after Solomon died in 930 B.C., Israel split into two kingdoms—the northern kingdom called Israel and the southern kingdom called Judah. Early in Solomon’s reign, the magnificent Temple was built, then destroyed during Babylon’s final (of three) invasion and conquest of Judah in 586 B.C. Then rebuilt after Persia conquered Babylon, and King Cyrus issued a decree in 538 B.C. that the Jewish exiles could return home.

During the last few years of Solomon’s kingship, he and many in Israel began to abandon the Lord in favor of pagan gods.

Although there is some overlap, the core period of time that these events occurred lasted 400 hundred years. Like the other 400-year epic periods, this one began under opportune, optimistic conditions with Israel at its peak as a national power, whose people faithfully obeyed and followed the Lord God. However, after the kingdom was divided, it inevitably deteriorated morally and spiritually to a point of no return. God withdrew his protection and provisions. Assyria completely destroyed the northern kingdom in 722 B.C. and relocated nearly all Jews of the ten northern tribes to foreign lands.

Then Babylon crushed the southern kingdom, and exiled most of the Jews to Babylon. However, God had precisely predicted that this exile punishment would last only 70 years, and so it did, with the second temple finished in 516 B.C. Which also fits the pattern of the other 400-year models, meaning it ended on a very positive note.

During this four hundred span, all but three (Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi) of God’s prophets spoke both warnings and promises to Israel and Judah. Those three were post-exile prophets.

Essentially, this period of time lasted between 940 B.C. and 540 B.C (rounded off). With a transitional combined 30 years on either side of the time span, i.e. Israel at the height of its glory, then the actual completion of the second temple, although Israel as a nation had been decimated and there would be no more kings in Israel.

Third Four-Hundred Year Span

About 120 years after Solomon’s Temple was rebuilt, something stunning took place. Actually, better remembered for something that didn’t happen, which would lead to profound changes in Israel’s future. And not only Israel … the whole world.

“Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6).

These are the final words of the last Old Testament prophet as recorded in the Bible. After Malachi there would be no prophets in Israel and no word from God whatsoever, the duration of which was 400 years. Bible scholars accurately refer to this era as the “silent years.”

Malachi’s final announcement is obviously a prophecy. It’s one of several Old Testament predictions that relate to both the First and Second Advent of Messiah Jesus, such as Isaiah 9:6-7. In this instance (the return of) Elijah would be a symbolic representation of the next prophet sent by God … John the Baptist, who would “…Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!” (John 1:23).

(Painting of the Prophet John Baptizing Jesus)

Jesus even said that John the Baptist was the Elijah of his time. But this prophecy also applies to the second advent of Jesus when he returns to the earth. During the Great Tribulation, Elijah will literally return alongside of Moses as the two witnesses of Revelation Chapter 11.

Here is an excerpt from the previously mentioned Eye of Prophecy article, Four Locust Kingdoms! (In italics)

One of my favorite verses is Amos 3:7, which says, “Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.” Which means that anything pertaining to God’s plan for Israel and Gentile nations as they interface with Israel has been proclaimed by his prophets! Did you know that God announced this period of silence with Israel ahead of time? I certainly didn’t until just recently, when I read again and this time realized the following passage says exactly that. And from the same prophet no less!

“The time is surely coming, says the Sovereign Lord, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it” (Amos 8:11-12).

Malachi wrote his book approximately 430 B.C., just two or three years after the book of Nehemiah was written. Fifteen years or so before that, there was a remarkable revival and return to the Lord, though it was short-lived. Here is what the people said in front of their great and godly leader Nehemiah:

“…They swore a curse on themselves if they failed to obey the Law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all of the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our Lord” (Nehemiah 10:29).

Their revival and promise didn’t last very long, which is why God abruptly stopped any and all communication to the people.

It was time for the Lord to phase out the Old Covenant he made with his people through Moses and prepare them for the New Covenant that he had announced through Jeremiah some 200 years earlier (see Jeremiah 31:31-34). Like the forty-day and forty-year periods of time and like the preceding 400-year cycles, they would go through a time of trial and testing, such as the slaughter of thousands of Jews and desecration of the Temple at the hand of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 169-168 B.C.

Four hundred years after Malachi, the greatest event of human history took place … the birth of Israel’s Messiah. The New Covenant of Grace would soon be implemented and sealed with the awesome once-for-all atoning sacrifice of the Son of God.

Not only had another 400-year span of time been completed with an earth-shaking event, so had the 2^nd of, what many Bible scholars believe is, a consecutive tri-part division of God’s historical interaction with the human race. (1) Two thousand years from Adam to Abraham; (2) Two thousand years from Abraham to Messiah Jesus; (3) Two thousand years to the return of Christ to establish the one thousand-year Kingdom of God on earth. Which will also be the 7^th millennial period of time to represent the Sabbath 7^th day of creation.

Fourth Four-Hundred Span—Leading to the Present Day

At the outset of this week’s article, it occurred to me that there very well could be a final span of 400 years that would track with the generational prophecy of Jesus in Matthew 24 (based on two Biblical definitions of a generation … 100 years and 70 years), ending somewhere close to the year 2020. Please see a detailed explanation in a trilogy of Eye of Prophecy articles entitled Seven Times Seven to the 4^th Power posted 1-25, 2-1, 2-8-14, and the sequel article entitled The Omega Generation (2-15-14). There is no specific “date setting” in those articles, nor would I ever do such a thing. Jesus, himself, said that no one knows that “day or hour” of his return. On the other hand, Jesus said that we should understand the signs of the time (era) that points to his return.

For that to be even a possibility, I would need to backtrack 400 years to determine if there was a huge milestone event that dramatically impacted human history.

There is such an event! It would certainly qualify as historic, something that billions of people know or have heard about, although not necessarily when it took place. It came after 1,000 plus years of spiritual darkness (Dark Ages) in what scholars commonly call Christendom, in which the Bible was available only to the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. One result of that Biblical illiteracy was widespread persecution of Jews all over the world, not the least of which was perpetrated by the massively misguided and doctrinally deprived Crusaders, as well as the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church.

Do you know what that exceptional episode was?

Answer: The King James Bible!

After seven years of translation work, it was published in 1611. Although the Roman Catholic Church considered it to be a Protestant Bible, the King James Version nevertheless swept over Europe, then later the United States and other parts of the world. It contained, of course, both the Old and New Testaments … the complete Bible. In fact it was simply entitled: The Holy Bible.

The world has never been the same since. God’s Word in the hands of born-again ministers and lay people led to many more accepting Jesus as personal Savior since the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd centuries. It ignited spiritual revivals in Great Britain and the United States in the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries. Availability of the King James Bible and application of the Judeo-Christian principles and practices found in the absolute truth of God’s Word was a catalyst to the foundational formation of the greatest nation on earth, the United States of America.

If you prefer, as an alternative (same basic time frame), the beginning of the 400 years also could be attributed to when America got its historical start with the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620, nine years after the King James Bible was introduced. Our forefathers firmly believed that America was the promised land of a new nation, akin to the original and still-standing Promised Land of Israel.

Alas, the latter part of this 400-year time frame has seen the same kind of spiritual apathy toward, ignorance of, and rebellion against the Bible and the God and Messiah of Scripture, that we found in the previous 400-year cycles.

In the 20^th and 21^st centuries, we’ve seen more excellent translations of Scripture in literary form, style, and language that fits our generation, compared to the English language of the 17^th century. This is true for other languages as well. Nonetheless, the King James Version of The Holy Bible remains the favorite for millions of Christians.

I have my (departed) mother’s King James Version… Scofield Reference Bible. The pages are so old, I’m reluctant to even touch them. There are far more pages than not, where my mother had underlined verses, wrote in the columns, or otherwise highlighted passages. It has become a family treasure.

*Note: Though on a non-historic, insignificant (compared to the actual 400-year epoch), subjective personal level—for the benefit of members of my family—I offer the following: The King James Bible was published in 1611. My mother died in 2011. Do the math, family! My mother’s name: Mary.

Things to Ponder

God himself set the precedent for 400-year periods of time when he told Abraham that the Jews would be in Egypt that long.

The more I wrote, then edited, this’s weeks article, the more I’m convinced that we are at the end of the fourth and final (remember the significance of the number four in terms of completeness, continuity, and finality) 400-years of this age of human history. Regarding the historical impact, the King James Bible was one of the biggest events of all time. The written Word of God became accessible to millions more than before, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ began to spread exponentially.

Like the in-between passage of time in the previous 400-year epochs, we’ve seen more evil and human misery than ever before. One need only to think of World War I, World War II, and the current wars, terrorism, and Muslim slaughter of other Muslims and also Christians.

Very soon, we will witness (whether believers taken to heaven or unbelievers left behind to suffer the Great Tribulation) the Living Word of God—Messiah Jesus—coming back to earth, some 400 years after the written Word of God was restored, published, and disseminated to the nations.

When Messiah Jesus returns, he will once again in person: “…teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3).