September 7, 2003 ©Homer Kizer
Prophecy, Endtime Prophecies and Typological Understanding of
Prophecy
When the angel who had been withstood by the prince of the kingdom of Persia for twenty-one days revealed to the prophet Daniel what is inscribed in the book of truth, the angel told Daniel to '"shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end"' (Dan 12:4), that Daniel was to go his way '"for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end"' (v. 9). Daniel couldn't understand the sealed words even though his vision isn't shrouded in symbolism and mysterious beasts. The long prophecy given Daniel from the book of truth (Dan 10:21) seems historically straight forward, but if the angel delivering the vision is to be believed, the words and vision were sealed until "the time of the end." They could not be understood by anyone earlier than in the time of the end. And when Jesus' disciples asked Him for what will be the sign of His coming and of the end of the age (Matt 24:3), the Son of Man referred back to what had been revealed to Daniel from the book of truth (v. 15). Jesus gave only one additional sign: after describing what would be '"the beginning of the birth pangs'" (v. 8), Jesus describes spiritual Israel's birth pains themselves, saying, '"But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this [good news] of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come'" (vv. 13-14). The phrase this good news refers to the preceding sentence of all who endure to the end will be saved, which is, indeed, good news in a time of hatred, betrayal and lawlessness. Therefore, the long vision of Daniel was sealed until it became time to proclaim that all who endure to the end will be saved to the world as a testimony to all nations. That time has come. Humanity has entered the time of the end.
Every earlier understanding of Daniel's vision stands opposed to divine revelation. Every popularly-taught understanding is based upon historic phenomena, and every understanding that adds Rome, the Roman Empire, or the Roman See to the sealed words of Daniel's vision is of a man or woman, is of human reasoning, and is not of God.
When Jesus was asked for the sign of His return and of the end of the age, He began His discourse with instructions to His disciples that they should not lead others astray (Matt 24:4 - every English translation poorly translates this passage), for many would come and would, indeed, lead many future disciples astray (vv. 5 and 11). So, first during the beginning of the birth pangs of the Church, the second Eve, many false teachers would, in Jesus' name, lead many disciples astray. Then, during the period when the Church experiences the hard labor pains of bringing many heirs to glory, false prophets will lead many more disciples astray. And the implication is that those who are lead astray will be stillborn (i.e., resurrected to condemnation - John 5:29), while their teachers are called workers of lawlessness when Jesus denies knowing them (Matt 7:23).
The many teachers of the Church who would lead many astray during the beginning of birth pangs are called workers of iniquity or lawlessness for they truly teach that the laws of God have been fulfilled and are therefore no longer relevant to Christians. These are the false shepherds who have misapplied Paul's epistles, teaching that disciples who have the laws of God written on hearts and minds do not have to keep these laws of God. These false shepherds refuse to abide by the least of the commandments of God, the Sabbath commandment, teaching that disciples who observe the Sabbaths of God are guilty of judaizing. These shepherds are spiritual wolves. They slay lambs and drive off the rams so they can nurse tithes from flocks of ewes. They mock Christ, denying that He came in the flesh, denying that He rose from the dead after being in the heart of the earth three days and three nights, denying He bears the sins of disciples today and will return those sins to disciples who die out of covenant. They defy the terms of the covenant into which they were placed when drawn by the Father. They determine for themselves which laws of God they will keep. They deny the destiny of those disciples who will be saved. And they will be slain en mass when Christ returns (Luke 19:27). So other than as an endtime annoyance, they are not worthy of being mentioned in a discussion of understanding prophecy typologically.
However, the second listing of deceitful shepherds are the many false prophets who will arise and lead many astray (Matt 24:11). These deceitful shepherds will not necessarily teach that the laws of God have been fulfilled. Rather, many will come in the name of a man (or of a woman), teaching that disciples are to keep the laws of God. They will teach that disciples must keep the Sabbath, that disciples must be holy as God is holy (1 Pet 1:15-16 & Lev 11:44), that disciples do not have immortal souls that live consciously in heaven. They will then teach the man or the woman's understanding of endtime prophecies, usually insisting that all truth was delivered by this now-dead individual. They will skirt the "sealing of the words of the book of truth" until the time of the end by claiming that the end of the age began at some earlier date. And inevitably, they find the Roman Church hiding unnamed in Scripture. They will identify the two legs of Nebuchadnezzar's image as the Roman Empire. They will identify the fourth beast of Daniel 7 as the Roman Empire. Additionally, they identify the little horn of Daniel 8 as an endtime pope, thus linking the Roman See with the antiChrist.
The test, however, of whether a prophet is false or genuine is if the prophet finds Rome in endtime prophecies. If the would-be prophet does, he or she is false! Babylon ceased being physical and became spiritual when the Church (i.e., spiritual Israel) replaced the circumcised nation (Eph 2:11-22; Rom 7:1-4; Luke 16:16) as the holy nation of God (compare 1 Pet 2:9 with Exod 19:5-6). Whereas Nebuchadnezzar had been the physical king of Babylon (Dan 2:37), Satan is the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:3-21). Whereas the image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision is identified by its head as Babylon even in the Lord's Day (Rev 1:10) when Babylon the Great falls (Rev 14:8), the image is of the succession of spiritual princes [sars] that rule over Israel until the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Messiah (Rev 11:15 & Dan 7:9-14). The angel who comes to Daniel hasn't been withstood by a human prince for twenty-one days--and the prince of Greece with whom this angel will have to contend isn't human, but demonic.
False prophets inevitably teach that endtime prophecies about Israel are about the circumcised nation. They look for future physical fulfillment of prophecies that have already been physically fulfilled. Thus, they teach that the first fulfillment of prophecies about Israel was the "type" of a second physical fulfillment of prophecies about circumcised Israel. Their mindsets are carnal. Their explication of prophecies has one physical fulfillment being replaced by a latter day physical fulfillment. They are not spiritually minded (Rom 8:5-8). Their prophetic explications are not of God. And their teachings will cause many saints to accept the mark of the beast. These false prophets will not be able to either identify the antetype (i.e., physical) antiChrist [the man of perdition], or the antitype (i.e., spiritual) antiChrist, Satan himself when cast from heaven (Rev 12:9).
In His Olivet discourse, Jesus said that the end of the age will come as the Flood of Noah came--the world was first physically destroyed by water. It was literally baptized for its sins. It will now be spiritually destroyed by fire at the conclusion of the Lord's Day, the seventh day of creation week, when Christ rests from His work of bearing the sins of humanity. And this end-of-the-age destruction by fire will be the world's second death.
In all things, the physical precedes the spiritual. As there was a physical Adam, there was also a spiritual Adam. As there was a first Eve, there is a second Eve. As physical Israel was the holy nation of God, spiritual Israel is now the holy nation of God. As the laws of God first entered Israelites through physically hearing the voice of YHWH, their Elohim, the laws of God enter spiritual Israelites through receipt of the Holy Spirit; the laws of God are written on the hearts of minds of drawn disciples.
As circumcised Israel sinned, shunning the covenant by which it was made a holy nation, spiritual Israel sinned, shunning the laws of God written on hearts and minds as a condition of the second covenant. Circumcised Israel was rejected by God. The holy nation was sent into physical captivity. Assyria took the Northern Kingdom of Samaria captive while Babylon took the Southern Kingdom of Judah captive. Likewise, the spiritual holy nation of Israel was sent into spiritual captivity, with the spiritual house of Israel succumbing to the error of Bishop Arius and the spiritual house of Judah erring in assigning personhood to the Breath [Pneuma] of the Father. Both divisions of spiritual Israel accepted the lie that the first Eve accepted; i.e., that she would not die. Both divisions accepted Satan's lie that humanity has inherent eternal life apart from such life being the gift of the Father. Teachers of spiritual Israel in both divisions taught (and still teach) that humans are born with immortal souls (or little angels inside of themselves). These are false teachers who have historically led many saints astray. However, those saints who have lived by faith, shunning hypocrisy, will, even though they have been miss-taught, have a place in the resurrection to life. The fate of their teachers is much more problematic.
The fate of the false prophets who lead many saints astray by claiming to understand endtime prophecies when they have no spiritual understanding is as problematic as is the fate of those workers of lawlessness whom Christ denies knowing upon His return.
The history of circumcised Israel forms the shadow of the history of spiritual Israel. The image of Nebuchadnezzar's vision reveals the identity of the spiritual rulers of humanity's mental landscape. The physical shadow of these spiritual rulers is the history of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar through Greece under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who was the physical antetype or shadow of the man of perdition (who in turn is the antetype of the spiritual antiChrist). Christ, fighting on a day of battle (Zech 14:3) 1260 days before He returns as the Messiah, will destroy the man of perdition differently than how the Maccabees defeated the Greeks. Therefore, the books of Maccabees are not part of canonical Scripture for they do not reveal the shadow of events that will occur in the heavenly realm. The history of Rome and of the Roman Empire are not relevant to endtime prophecies. Rome isn't named in any prophecy whereas Babylon, Persia, and Greece are. When the first spiritual horn or king of Greece is broken, four lessor Greek horns will arise. Two of these horns--the kings of the North and of the South--will then reign in the spiritual realm until broken by Christ. The demonic king of the North is dealt a deadly blow; his body is destroyed--and the first beast of Revelation 13 is the king of Greece, his seven heads being the seven heads of the four beasts of Daniel 7. And when we see this spiritual king of Greece in Revelation 13, the body of the fourth beast has been destroyed and its head dealt a mortal wound that has healed. The lives of the other three beasts have been prolonged for a season and a time (Dan 7:12). They give to this spiritual king of Greece the mouth of a lion [the first beast of Daniel 7], the feet of a bear [the second beast of Daniel 7], and the body of a leopard [the third beast of Daniel 7]. The third beast has four heads, making seven heads for the four beasts, one of which (the head of the fourth beast) has been dealt a mortal wound. And the dragon [Satan] gives to this beast his power. All of them have been cast from heaven (Rev 12:7-9) when defeated by Michael and his angels (i.e., when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Messiah - Rev 11:15). All of humanity has been liberated from mental bondage to Satan, who was previously the prince of the power of the air. All of humanity now belongs to the Father; all have been called by the Father (Rev 18:4); and all who endure to the end shall be saved.
But Satan attempts to recover his spiritually liberated slaves by requiring them to accept the physical mark of the beast (Chi xi stigma, or the tattoo of Xx). He no longer reigns over humanity in the spiritual realm, so he can only use physical means to recover his slaves. He claims to be Christ, and he demands that everyone worships the image of Christianity, the cross on which he had the Son of God crucified. And two-thirds of the saints will accept his slave mark. They will return to bondage to him. And their number will be a billion people.
Endtime prophecies are about what happens to the spiritual nation of Israel--and about who rules in the heavenly realm which mortals cannot enter. Through typology, Christ has shown His friends what has happened to spiritual Israel, and what will happen in the future. He has revealed the mysteries of God, even as to when the time of the end begins. He hasn't yet revealed how long the time of the end will be other than that this generation shall not pass (Matt 24:34).
If the good news that all who endure to the end will be saved must be proclaimed to the world as a testimony to all nation before the end comes, then considerable work remains to be done albeit via the world wide web, that gospel is going forth. So the question becomes to what extent must this good news be proclaimed…if the end comes as the Flood came in the days of Noah, then the end will come unexpectedly, thereby giving to those parables about Christ coming as a thief in the night Scriptural validity. It will come unexpectedly because the would-be prophecy experts have been looking for a second physical fulfillment to prophecies about spiritual Israel.
Where are we in prophecy today? The first horn or king of the spiritual king of Greece still battles for world dominion with the spiritual prince of the kingdom of Persia. His shadow is Alexander the Great. And shortly after this demon wins his war with the sar of Persia, he will be broken at the second Passover, when firstborns, both spiritual and physical, will be slain if they are not covered by the Blood of the Lamb of God. This breaking (this second Passover) will occur during the first half of seven years of tribulation.
Saints need to quit looking for Europe to unite and attack the United States (a carnal prophetic understanding taught by those who insert Rome into Scripture) and begin erasing hypocrisy from their lives. If the end comes as the Flood came, then only those individuals in the immediate vicinity of the Ark will realize when it is completed and loaded. The seven pairs of clean or holy animals that boarded the Ark typologically are the seven churches of Revelation 2 & 3. Noah is a type of Christ. So a saint needs to draw close to Christ. He or she needs to return to the covenant in which the saint was placed when drawn. The saint needs to live within the laws of God, which form the walls of spiritual Eden. If he or she does, the saint will board the spiritual Ark before Satan comes as a roaring lion, seeking to devour whomever he can.
Endtime prophecies reveal occurrences in the spiritual realm that cannot otherwise be known through observing the physical shadow of spiritual Israel. Endtime prophecies continue what typology begins.