A Stunning Convergence In Prophecy

A Stunning Convergence In Prophecy

By Terry James

Sunday, February 20 brought a stunning convergence of stage-setting for things to come, in my view. The first and most profound of these developments to come on a single day was the thrust forward in the “Roadmap to Peace” efforts by the US and the EU.

President Bush spoke at Brussels, Belgium, the heart of European Union geopolitics and diplomacy. He minced no words in putting forward what should be the international community’s aim for the troubled Mid-East region, especially that involving Israel and the Palestinians.

A report from Prophecy Update, Monday February 21, 2005 gave a quick sketch of the president’s words to those gathered in the Brussels EU headquarters:

"Bush Says Mideast Peace Is Within Reach

US President George W. Bush says making peace between Israelis and Palestinians is a priority. ‘Our greatest opportunity, and our immediate goal, is peace in the Middle East,’ Bush said in a speech in Brussels, during a fence-mending trip to Europe. He called for a Palestinian state with enough "contiguous" territory to make it viable. ‘A state of scattered territories will not work,’ Bush said, vowing to ‘ raise the flag of a free Palestine.’ ‘The world must not rest until there is a just and lasting resolution to this conflict,’ he said.”

Another powerful prophetic dynamic was taking place in the same basic time frame. Preparations began in earnest for Israel to pull out of territories that have long been in contention, in the view of many world diplomats, holding up the peace process between Israel and her neighbors.

The Israeli Cabinet approved the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The vote was 17 to 5. Under the plan, Israel will dismantle 25 Jewish settlements in disputed territories.

Again, from Prophecy Update, Monday February 21:

“Timetable for Expulsion of Gaza Settlers

Yesterday's Cabinet decision to pull out of the Gaza Strip has set the timetable in motion for the expulsion of 9,000 Jewish settlers. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz signed evacuation orders that will clear the way for dismantling 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four more in Samaria. The evacuation is expected to begin around July 24th and will take from seven to nine weeks. A week or two before it starts, the army will seal off the area to prevent settlers from Judea and Samaria from arriving for mass protests. Gaza settlers who refuse to leave, will be removed by force.”

The action by the Israelis, in concert with other concessions in the making, will give the Palestinian leaders basically the same thing President Bill Clinton got Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to offer PLO President Yasser Arafat in 2001. That deal would have given the PLO leader 98 percent of what they had been demanding from Israel, in order to agree to a peace settlement.

Arafat got up and walked out on the deal at that time.

Although attacks continue from the Palestinian terrorists, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seems determined to go through with the new offer. Newly elected Palestinian leader Abu Abbas almost certainly will accept the offer, although he has paid only lip service and has taken very little action to put a damper on the terrorists.

The drive by the whole diplomatic world to ink some sort of peace pact seems so strong, some believe, that Sharon is caught in a rush of history he can’t resist.

The second factor to make this week’s time frame a stunning convergence of Bible prophecy is the EU’s relentless movement toward approving a constitution, which will cement its position as, in effect, revived Rome. On the same day as President Bush was making his statement and the Israeli Cabinet was laying out pull-out plans in order to “give peace a chance,” Spain moved the EU one step closer to giving that prophesied end-time geopolitical behemoth its constitutional legs.

A BBC report on February 21, 2005 presented the story of the first steps of ratifying the EU’s historical document:

“Spain Voters Approve EU Charter

With almost all the votes counted, officials’ figures showed 77 percent of voters backed the charter. The Spanish PM welcomed the result, but with turnout at about 42%, opposition leaders said the vote was a failure.”

It was the first of a series of European polls on the constitutional treaty, which must be ratified by all 25 EU member states to go into effect.

The deadline for ratification is November 2006.

These issues and events coming in one day is a stunning testament to how swiftly prophecy stage-setting is shaping up. Israel clearly must be back in its historical land in order for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled. Many passages in the Old and New Testaments foretell of Israel in the time just before Christ returns in His second advent. The geographical European area that once comprised the ancient Roman Empire must, like Israel, be at the center of world attention, as outlined in Daniel 9:26-27 and other places in Scripture. A peace covenant must be at the heart of matters involving both Israel and the revived Roman Empire, again, according to Daniel 9:26-27.

One thing more in the news that makes the discerning sensibility of Bible prophecy students stiffen to alertness has appeared on history’s horizon. The reestablishment of the Jewish Sanhedrin adds to the convergence. There must be a Jewish temple on Mt. Moriah. We know this because we are told in 2 Thessalonians that the man of sin, Antichrist, will sit in that end-time temple declaring himself to be God, and demanding worship as God. The Sanhedrin is the religious body that governs the administration of temple worship.

It is wise for Christians to be especially alert at this strange, though exciting time. God has the keys to the vehicle of Bible prophecy, so I am not predicting the current convergence of what clearly appears to be prophetic stage-setting will immediately lead to the “covenant made with death and hell” (Isa. 28: 8). The Lord has many times in the past seemed to put His powerful hand on the quickly spinning global issues and events to slow the march toward that fatal peace-making effort. But, I honestly cannot remember so many things relating to that tribulation-igniting event coming together in such a dramatic way as we have just witnessed.

Before that prophesied covenant is confirmed, or guaranteed, by the world leader out of revived Rome, Jesus will say, “Come up hither!” to His Church. It is time, as never before, for us who belong to Christ to be looking up, while we at the same time go about our Lord’s business here on Planet Earth.