Connecting The Dots: “Now When These Things Begin to Happen, Look Up & Lift Up Your Heads, Because Your Redemption Draws Near.”

By Gene Lawley

It’s almost like a ballroom dance floor with couples swirling around and around, totally disconnected except for their rhythm with the music to which they all respond. One drumbeat guides them all, and none dares to step out of line, lest he or she be spotlighted and ridiculed or black-listed.

When the apostle Paul wrote of the revealing of that coming lawless imposter, after the believers are taken out of the way, he foretold that a spirit of deception would come upon those who are left behind (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12). As in many other aspects of the end-times, there seems to be a considerable amount of prefacing to that part of the coming history book. Perhaps that is something of what Jesus was telling us in His alert in Luke 21:28:

“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

I am thinking of actualities, current events–warfare everywhere, lying and thievery at the highest levels with no judgment, and multiple scandals throughout government. Of course, then, physical disturbances and upheavals in weather with drought, thunderstorms, tornados, hurricanes and repeated heavy snowstorms. Jesus did not outline every detail, but the facts on the ground accomplish that factor.

Let’s Connect Some Dots

Daniel’s prophecy of things to come upon the end-times (Daniel 9:26-27) is a good starting place for this segment of dot connecting:

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined.”

“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”

The dots we want to connect will be those that pinpoint the continuity of actions of that prince who is to come. The people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary had to be the Romans in A.D. 70, for Jesus spoke of it as a future event (Matthew 24:15).

•When he [the prince of the people who destroyed the city and sanctuary] shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. It must be a peace deal with Israel, for they are allowed to rebuild their temple and activate it, afterward;

•Confirming a covenant with many [nations?] for one week [seven years];

•Now his trail leads us to Revelation 6:1-2 where Jesus, the Lamb of God, the only one who is qualified, opens the first of seven seals of judgment:

“Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.”

It is conceivable that the one who confirms the covenant above, will continue promoting that peace covenant, as he is shown here, for he is also the one who will abandon the covenant halfway through the seven years.

He is on a white horse, symbolic, no doubt, but impressive, like the Lone Ranger. He has a bow for fighting, but no arrows, thus he rides in unarmed and peaceable in appearance.

However, a crown is given to him—he has no personal authority, but it is laid upon him, that is, he is chosen by others for this role.

He is said to be “conquering and to conquer,” which tells us that he will be taking control or authority over peoples and nations at that time and in an ongoing manner, as “to conquer” implies. It also implies he will be waging warfare to accomplish his mission. (This indicates that these seals, opened only by the Lord Himself, are an umbrella-like summary of the prevailing conditions during the specific judgments over the seven years.)

Indeed, he will continue his role, as seen, and the red horse, next, features war, the black horse, then features famine and economic collapse, and the death that the pale horse signifies is a constant occurrence all through the seven years. It further begs the question, is he the same rider on all of those horses?

•Then, midway through the seven years, he tosses out the covenant and enters the temple (now rebuilt by the Jews in accordance with the terms of the covenant, apparently) and declares himself to be God, demanding that all will worship him. Our dot connections now reach from the Daniel passage to 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4:

“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

And also to Revelation 17:10-14:

“There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.

“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

In the passage, the seven kings represent the kingdoms of that seven-headed beast John first saw. In John’s time, five kingdoms were in the past, the sixth one was reigning then, and that seventh one had not yet come. And it has not yet come, to this day, but it is rising out of the ashes of the sixth one and will be known as the New World Order, a one world government. This entity will only remain as a front for the Antichrist for a short time, and he will then discard all pretense and take over.

When Satan is cast out of heaven, as told in Revelation 12, it is apparent that he will indwell himself, as a spiritual being, in the person of the Antichrist. He will then take full control as the eighth head of the beast, now personified, and fulfill his dream of declaring himself God, as prophesied in Isaiah 14:12-15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:2-4.

Both passages, as well as in Revelation 17 above, tell us that he will be dealt with, going to perdition. After the Lord’s physical return, the Antichrist will be cast into the lake of fire, and his indweller, Satan, will be chained in the bottomless pit for a thousand years (Revelation 19-20). God is, after all, the final judge and also the “dot maker!”

These prophetic dots are ahead of us, on the other side of the Rapture, based on a balanced reading of the Scriptures, and it is heart-rending to see the formation of them taking place in these days. The flag, mom and apple pie—the “good old days”—still have a firm grasp on our hearts here in America, and like the disciples in Acts 1:6, we wish for our nation to be restored to what our founding fathers established. But it is not to be; God is moving toward closure. Believers must keep their hearts fixed on this writing of the psalmist in regard to evil tidings and tragic developments:

“For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the Judge: He puts down one and exalts another. For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out. Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down” (Psalm 75:6-8).

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