A quick refresher course is in order before I launch into the final posting in this very important series.  Because most people dismiss the Old Testament as being relative only for the ancient Israelites, I will remind the reader that, “All Scripture (Old and New Testaments) is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:14-16), that “the (New Testament) church is founded on the (teachings of BOTH) prophets and the apostles” (Eph. 2:20), and that, “all these things (problems) happened to them (ancient Israel) for examples, and they are written (preserved) for our (the New Testament Church’s) admonition (instruction), (meaning those) upon whom the end of the world has come”(the final generation of this era) (1 Cor. 10:11).  In summary, everything God did for and to ancient (biological) Israel (God’s “church in the wilderness”–Acts 7:38) was recorded and preserved to be used as teaching examples for modern day (spiritual) Israel–“the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16)–His end-time church.  Let us remember that for the first 65 years the apostles taught the church out of the Old Testament.  The New Testament did not yet exist, and would not exist until they were all dead except the Apostle John whom God kept alive to codified the Holy Bible.  With that in mind, let us examine three specific passages of Scripture: Revelation 12:6-16, Amos 8:11 and Revelation 11:3-12 in that order.  I believe that these three passages are intimately related as the following will show.  I will summarize the first reference, quote the second and remind the reader of the third, which was discussed in the previous posting.

In this future time recorded in Revelation 12:6-17 we find “the woman” (God’s saints/church) fleeing into the wilderness where God has prepared “her place” where He will care for and protect her for a 3 1/2 year period called the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.   The woman will be fleeing from the Dragon (Satan) and his “waters.”  Biblically, “waters” are symbolic of nations.  The woman’s escape will take place before the “Beast” and the “False Prophet” mentioned in the previous posting come on the world scene.  The Dragon-empowered governments of that future time will attempt to destroy the church even as she flees their boundries, but the Lord will destroy those who will be pursuing her, thereby enabling her to reach “her place.”  Recall that “the woman” (God’s true church) will have been preaching the true gospel since the early 1930’s.  But now, JUST BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION, she is headed toward her place of safety with the governments in hot pursuit.  Note: THIS IS NOT THE “BEAST” GOVERNMENT, which will not yet have  taken control of the world’s population.  The Beast will not come on the scene until some time after the church has been forced to flee her native countries.  The question is: Why will God’s true saints be fleeing the governments of those nations in which she has existed for generations?  I believe it will be due to the influence the Institutional (Catholic/Protestant) Church will have on the American and British people and their respective governments.

As I have shown in the series titled Who and Where is Israel Today? the United States and the British Commonwealth comprise latter day Israel.  The Lord’s statements to and His dealings with the 12 tribes of ancient Israel apply to modern day Israel.  In both countries there is found a tiny group of true saints who are preaching and living the Word of God as it is presented in the Holy Scriptures.  Because they adhere strictly to God’s Word, they are dismissed and rejected by the Institutional Church, just as God prophesied would be the case.  See the series titled Persecution.  Just as Adolf Hitler convinced the German people that the Jews were responsible for the nation’s many problems during the years leading up to World War II, I believe that the leaders of the Institutional Church will convince the people of the United States and Britain that their national problems are caused by a group of religious zealots who continually accuse the church, the government and the population in general of being the enemies of the Biblical God.  I believe that in the near future a group of Institutional Church leaders will convince the people and their governmental leaders that the ever-increasing, ever more deadly problems that will be destroying the U.S. and Britain are God’s punishments for allowing those zealots to remain within their borders.  Therefore, they must go.  I believe we will indeed be forced to leave.

I believe that we have only seen “the beginnings of sorrows” Jesus warned His people to look for as the end of the age approaches.  I believe that such problems as COVID-19, influenza, flooding and drought, climate problems, weather upheavals, racial tension, economic downturns, etc. that are taking place now are mere hints of what is coming.  I believe that, as the situation gets worse, church leaders in the U.S. and Britain will convince their governments that the cause of the nations’ problems is that radical group of Law-keepers who have been filling the airwaves with their “thus saith the Lord” rhetoric for years.  Their removal would solve the nation’s problems.

When those who preach and teach God’s true Word are forced to leave, they will take His Word with them.  All that will be available to the populace will be what the churches put forth.  I believe that the nations’ problems will worsen dramatically following the saints’ departure.  This will cause the people to realize that those Bible fanatics were right.  This, I believe, will prompt the people to search far and wide for someone to tell them the Truth.  However, as God prophesied in Amos 8:11,12, His Truth will not be available to the masses because they had expelled the only people who knew it, believed it and preached it.  Not having the Holy Spirit, the leaders of the Counterfeit Church will not understand God’s Truth and therefore will not be able to preach it.  In other words, it will be church business as usual.  But as it always has been, business as usual will not solve the problems.  In fact, as the Scriptures plainly tell us, it is religious business as usual that causes man’s problems.

Now let us turn to the Book of Amos to see what will take place after the removal of God’s people: “‘Behold, the days will come'” says the Lord God, ‘” when I will send a famine throughout the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the Words of the Lord.  People will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east.  They will run to and fro in search of the Word (Truth) of the Lord, but will not find it.'”  The Truth-rejecting church will not have changed.  God’s Truth will remain a mystery to her.  Desperate, her parishioners will search diligently for someone to teach them His Truth.  But to no avail.  They will be stuck with what they have believed and obeyed for some 1900 years–Satan’s perverted gospel (Gal. 1:6-9),

I believe that it will be at this point that the Great Tribulation will begin and the LORD’S TWO WITNESSES will come on the world scene.  See the previous three postings for an account of their ministries.  Please note: most of what I have written in this posting is MY BELIEF concerning the future.   I guarantee that God’s Word is Truth (Jn. 17:17).  However, my conjecture concerning future events carries no guarantee.  L.J.