ARMAGEDDON and CHRIST'S SECOND COMING: 21 Prophetic Precursors

The world is abuzz and bristling in anticipation of Christ’s return. As his first coming was clearly and profusely prophesied by the Old Testament prophets, and fulfilled [c. 3BC-31AD], His second coming is similarly a well-documented reality in the Old Testament AND THE NEW TESTAMENT. And, correspondingly, the ------ specific prophecies foretelling his forthcoming return will also be fulfilled—very soon!

Concerned humanity is presently posing the same question the Apostles asked Christ on the Mount of Olives in 31AD: “When shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world? [Mat 24:3b.]

While asking for one specific sign or indicator, Christ provides several significant precursors to his return.

In this and forthcoming Blogs we will consider 21 definite indicators—precursors, forerunners or prophetic harbingers—which serve as explicit markers to that immensely significant and momentous event in human history: Christ’s return converge with “the war” [so in the Greek] called “the battle of that great day of God Almighty. … [at] a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" [Revelation 16:14-16].

Christ reveals these prophetic events which will occur before the premillennial culmination of all prophecies. It must be made clear at this juncture that these events are not fulfilled in a relay style. When one event or sign starts [the commencement] it continues until the end of all the other signs [the culmination]. The signs progress--are being fulfilled--convergently; they run parallel with each other until they meet together at one point in time to fulfillment, culminating in Armageddon and Christ's second coming. The resultant confluence of all the prophetic precursors converge dramatically to complete the critical prophetic indicators at the climactic descent of Christ in the clouds of heaven [Mt 24:30].

Christ referenced the convergence of all the prophetic forerunners when He said: "When you shall see all these things, know that [my return] is near” (Matthew 24:33). Luke adds another explicit indicator regarding the commencement of these epoch-making events in human history by adding: "When these things begin to come to pass … your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).

We therefore need to watch for the manifestation of “all these things” in world affairs and consider their parallel progression and progressive fulfilment within global geopolitical affairs.

Though these world-shaking events, represented in Revelation as “the four horsemen” of the apocalypse, may occur in tandem, they continue to gallop together after being released from their heavenly stables until the return of Christ. All these precursors ,or prophetic signs are direct Christ-interventions which converge and culminate at Christ‘s second coming. None of them will be fully accomplished before Christ returns!

In Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13 Christ provides us with the signs leading up to Armageddon and his return to “manage” the potential annihilation of humanity by reckless, power-crazed oligarchs. [During the recent World economic Forum for the world's mega-rich and powerful, Soros warned about a total obliteration of mankind and Schwab arrogated to himself and his world ruling clique the right to determine the fate of all humanity!]

Germaine to this very discussion is how the rapture features in this significant end-time scenario. Is the rapture in any way linked to these apocalyptic prophetic forerunners? Let’s examine the scriptures, and the sequence of events as outlined by Christ himself. We will use Matthew 24 as our basic text which indicate the primary indicators in order. [Emphasis and explanatory intertextual comments added.]

Mat 24:3 “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?' 4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, 'Take heed that no man deceive you.'”

Precursor #1: Doctrinal Deception within the Church.

How will this deception transpire? Christ provides the answer in the next verse: Mat 24:5 “For many shall come in my name [come as representing me], saying, I am Christ [claiming Yeshua himself to be the Christ!] and shall deceive many.” Preachers, though proclaiming the truth about Christ's identity may, non the less, preach heinous heresies. It's the biggest incongruence in Christendom! It serves as the basic "admission ticket" of the spiritual Churchian swindlers into the hearts and homes of the gullible public. [Cf. 2Tim 3:6.]

Precursor #2: Many False Teachers—self-proclaimed “prophets”—will arise.

There is another application of Christ's declaration. Some false prophets will declare themselves to be Christ.

Though the second deception appears palpably ridiculous it happens. One case comes to mind: During the 1960’s a man in the USA DECLARED HIMSELF TO BE “Yahweh ben Yahweh”, that is, “Lord, son of (the) Lord.” In other words, he claimed to be Christ and the Eternal Father in one!

The incomprehensible irony and outrage of this preposterous absurdity was that despite garnering thousands of followers, even being feted by the State Governor, this man had a hit squad that tortured and murdered dissidents! After a decade of this charade and misrepresentation of himself as Christ, he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail. This in itself was a mockery of justice!

Leaving debates about the correct vowel-pointing of the Tetragrammaton aside, the point of this historic incident is clear: Just because a “minister” may know the sacred name [presuming it to have been correct], or claim special knowledge of anything scriptural, does not mean he or she is a true minister of God. “By their fruits you shall know them!”

The comparative rarity of this type of self-delusional conceit resulting in enormous deception of countless sincere people, is counterbalanced by the more common fraudulent representation of men and women as the “anointed servants” of God. Some are paradoxically and presposterously hailed as, "The man/woman of God."

They operate in deceptive humility, they master the art of appearing lamblike but are ravening wolves [Mat 7:15]. Some pretend poverty whilst squirreling away millions. An internationally famous Catholic nun mastered this skill for decades but was eventually exposed as a hoax, living luxuriously having squirreled away millions! Eventually proclaimed a "saint"!! Others, wallowing in arrogant self-satisfied success, swagger in revolting opulence and displays of assumed superior spirituality. You know, the people who flit off to heaven to have dialogues with “god” and shamelessly jingle their billions in the ears of their credulous constituents. Sinister smiles and demonic glares should be dead giveaways.

Some may remember the absurd and inane ear-splitting assertion by the self-titled “the prophet of God”—as if there be none other!—Kenneth Copeland who cursed the Covid-19 virus. That was over two years ago and the pandemic still rages, courtesy the assistance of the medical false prophets and deceivers, Fauci, et al.. Scripture states that if a self-proclaimed prophet arise declaring a prophecy which does not come to pass, such is a false prophet. And false prophets are to be ‘put to death”! [Deut 13:1-5 and 18:20-22.]

Consider the damnable teaching of Joel Osteen. He opines coyly that “99.9% of all people are good”. The word of God declares that ALL PEOPLE ARE BY NATURE CORRUPT “DECEITFUL above all things AND DESPERATELY WICKED!" [Jer 17:9.] Such ministers who “lie against the truth” have an earthly wisdom that is “sensual [driven by the lower or animalistic nature] and devilish [demonic]” [James 3:15]. For a splendid representative summary of some of these more notable modern-day false prophets watch Justin Peters’ YouTube video entitled The Modern Prophets and Faith Healers Utterly Destroyed by COVID 19

Returning to the prophetic precursors we note that the first two precursors run hand-in-hand. There can be no deception unless there are false prophets, teachers, ministers and pastors, who teach false doctrines. Historically this was indeed the first significant precursors that took place within the Church.

At this juncture it would be enlightening to add Luke’s account of this segment of the Mt Olivet discourse because he adds some vital and informative element to the discourse, dispelling a common error [false teaching] being held by many ministers and churches.

Luke records that Christ said that the false prophets would claim: “I am Christ [meaning he, the false prophet himself is Christ] and the time [of Christ’s return] draws near…”

It would be ludicrous for a false prophet to claim he is Christ and then state that “the time [of his return] draws near” when in fact he is already here! The meaning thus is clear: the false prophet declared Yeshua to be the Christ and that his, Christ's, second coming is near.

Therefore the meaning of the statement is that the false ministers will proclaim Christ to be the true Christ. But that does not make them true prophets. Even DEMONS DECLARED Jesus to be the son of God and the Christ.

Luke 4:41 “And devils [demons] also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.” [See also Luke 8:28 and notice: “they—the demons—knew him” (Mark 1:34).] Recall James 3:15 quoted above. James states false teachers are demonically inspired and THEY KNOW CHRIST!

Demons recognize Christ. They know and understand His doctrines and can even teach it when it suits their nefarious agendas. They can declare Him openly. But recognition and declaration of Yeshua as the Christ does not make any one a true prophet or minister.

The bulk of Churchian ministers proclaim that “JESUS IS LORD” and that his second coming is near—or more preposterously, “imminent!” That does not make them true servants of the Almighty!

Interpositionally we note: As the demons “confessed Jesus” and are not saved, likewise, billions of Churchians “confessed Jesus” and are not saved. Confessing Christ does not save you! Confession must be accompanied by repentance and conversion! Don’t buy Calvin’s TULIP DECORATED baloney of ONCE-SAVED-ALWAYS-SAVED! Buying into that heresy will not assure your salvation! If you are a died-in-the-wool Calvinist look forward to meeting your heretical hero in the great white throne judgment where you can emblazon the heavens in a highly heated theological debate.

In other words, just because a prophet says Christ’s return is near does not make such a prophet a true prophet of God! False prophets do make true statements, just as Satan does. But their accompanying fallacious teachings remain deadly spiritual poison!

Today, as happened soon after the ascension of Christ, the proliferation of false prophets who actually declare the nearness of Christ’s return is as overflowing as the tempestuous waters of the Noachian flood, with the same effect!

Here’s the great theological irony. These false prophets, brilliant, articulate, exceedingly wealthy, corpulent and plagiaristically published, will declare the return of Christ—even “imminently” [another heresy!]—but their theology is removed from the true gospel message of Christ. They declare and confess Christ but deny Christ! How? By denying his truth in preaching pagan theories superimposed upon carefully selected texts of scripture.

Illustrative of this scenario is another case out of the 1960’s when planet earth was hit by a great run-away worldwide prophecy best-seller declaring the soon return of Christ. It catapulted the author into the orbit of the popular “prophets” all of whom still perform their “prophetic” roles prominently on the international televangelist media. However, this false prophet garnered the essence of his prophetic understanding from a prophetic teacher who had been preaching and publishing prophetic truths for decades before he was born!

Though he would appear, according to the Lucian narrative, to be a true prophet by promulgating the soon return of Christ, he is nonetheless a false teacher. He continues to proclaim the multiple false doctrines of Churchianity. He, as his Churchian colleagues, venerate a panoply of pagan-rooted festivals celebrating unholy demon-possessed humans styled as gods and goddesses—Ishtar, Astarte (Easter), Cupid, Tammuz. Ba’al, etc.. (See our blogs on Easter and Valentine’s Day.)

Though proclaiming Christ as the soon-to-return son of God, they nonetheless deceive people about the truths of scripture. Christ warns: Don’t be fooled by such false teachers. As one sparrow a summer doth not make, one true doctrine a prophet doth not make!

When did false prophets first appear?

The apostle John who lived into the mid-nineties of the first century, declared that false prophets were vigorously operational in the church during his lifetime. False teachers abounded as early as the first century already!

1 Jn 2:18 “Little children, it is the last [end] time: … even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”

Jude cautioned true believers to “contend for the faith one delivered” [1:3] precisely because the Church had been infiltrated by preachers who taught a "faith" --a belief system--totally foreign to the teachings of Christ.

Paul warned the Ephesian congregation that false teachers – predating wolves - would arise within their midst. In a word, the true Church of God would, soon after the death of Christ, be riddled with false teachers. Some even preaching that the resurrection had already occurred during the lifetime of the apostles [2 Tim 2:18].

Ministers were power hungry financial extortionists of God’s people! [3 John 1:9.]

From Revelation 2 and 3 we know that idolatry, fornication, pagan rites, prostitution and pagan temple worship had entered the church. False prophets abounded from the time of the apostles. Christ, whilst on earth, warned about this precursor in 31AD. In Revelation, 60 years later, he categorically declared that the church of the first century had been infiltrated by wicked people with wicked agendas. False prophets with false gospels were fully functional within the body of Christ---then, as now!

Prophetic precursors one and two had its beginnings within the true Church during the first century—and it continued unabated during the centuries following. And, today, it is compounded via the internet through the profusion of “Christian” ministers.

The prophetic precursor signaling the “end of the world”—Armageddon and Christ’s second coming—did not start in our time. The “end of the world” started with the coming of Christ in the first Century. Notice Hebrews 9:26, “But now, once, in the end of the world hath he appeared…”

With the appearance of Christ we already entered the fifth millennium of human history. At the first coming of Christ we entered the last three days of the “prophetic week” of seven thousand years, each day being as a thousand years (2 Pet 3:8).

Thus from that time forward the prophetic precursors were being marshalled to indicate the return of Christ.

But, whilst the false prophets began flourishing within the true Church, introducing multiple heresies, the world “outside” – the Pagan Roman Empire, the powerful Parthian Empire on Rome’s eastern border, and much further east, the Empires of Japan and China, were experiencing explosive wars internally and internationally. The second and third precursors---wars and rumors of wars---were also in full swing and made its prophetic force felt in centuries to come—in the world, and in the Church.

These signs and precursors will be addressed in forthcoming blogs. But as a final thought let’s ask the all-important question related to Prophetic Precursors #1 and #2: Are you taking Christ’s warning seriously? Are you “bewaring”—on the alert—of false prophets and their deception about the PERSON of Christ and the MESSAGE-– the Doctrines and Teachings of and about Christ? False teachers have perverted his identity and his theology. BEWARE!