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July 6 - August 21, 2024
Each lesson is composed of the following elements:
Outline:
Overview:
Application:
Did You Know?
The thirty-one undeniable prophecies of the apocalypse can be thought of as a play that is told in five acts.
Our story begins in act one with an examination of five nations and regions that will play important roles as the final events of the age emerge—specifically Israel, Europe, Russia, Babylon, and America.
Act 1 - Five nations
As the story of the end-time events continues to unfold, we encounter several cultural signs in act two of what is to come—signs that are beginning to appear all around us even today. Daniel, Ezekiel, and Paul all warned that materialism would be a sign of the end times, and it can be easily asserted that materialism has become a virtue in our current culture. Immorality is also a sign of the times—is there any aspect of our society that has not been corrupted by moral decay? The rise of radical Islam will set the stage for the coming events found in Ezekiel 38–39. Spiritual warfare and
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Act 2 - Cultural Signs
Materialism
Immorality
Rise of radical Islam
Persecution of Christians
Apathetic Christians
In our third act of this saga, the story shifts upward as we begin to examine the heavenly signs of the end. This starts with the Rapture of the Church, as described by the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
Act 3 - The Rapture
the fourth act—the Tribulation. This is a seven-year period during which unspeakable horrors will be unleashed upon the world.
Act 4 - Tribulation
Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet.
heroes—such as the two witnesses and the 144,000—will shine like stars in a world of darkness.
last act in this cosmic drama. When Jesus returns on the clouds and forever defeats the enemies of God at the Battle of Armageddon,
Act 5 - Jesus defeats Enemies of God in the Battle of Armageddon
a promise God made to Abraham more than 4,000 years ago is still in force.
“Palestinians” is a generic term used to refer to Arabs who occupied the land of Palestine prior to 1948 and who were displaced when Israel was made a nation. Palestinians resent that displacement; they want their land back, and they want Israel to be erased from the map. They want Jews either to be killed or to leave their land and live elsewhere in the world. Acts of terrorism are their ongoing effort to attack Israel’s right to exist.
Israel is a tiny, 9,000-square-mile island in a five-million-square-mile sea of Arab nations that surround her.
In recent years, Palestinians have gained the sympathy of the world because Israel has built settlements on two percent of West Bank (Arab) land to create a buffer zone against Palestinian attacks and to create civil order in an otherwise chaotic region. But Israel has never been the aggressor in Arab-Israeli conflicts. Israel has been willing to find a two-state solution, making concessions to the Palestinians, but her offers are always rejected because they include Israel’s right to exist as a nation.
West Bank as buffer
The Holocaust’s 6 million murders led to the creation of the Israeli state in 1948 and the willingness of Jews to fight for it against enormous odds. . . .
Only one factor can explain why the Jews still exist as a people and a nation: the promises of God.
But there are two reasons God has preserved Israel as a nation: (1) because of a promise made to Abraham and (2) because of God’s faithfulness to His Word. As we will see, nothing can cause God to break His promises to His people.
Genesis 12:1–3 is a cornerstone, a foundational block of Scripture on which a right understanding of the Bible rests.
There are seven features of God’s promise (God’s covenant) in Genesis 12:1–3 that serve as mileposts in the journey from Genesis to Revelation.
When God says “I will” (five times in Genesis 12:1–3), that signifies an unconditional covenant.
God is not asking Abraham to reciprocate; He is stating what He Himself will do for Abraham and his descendants.
when God and Abraham conducted this ceremony, God alone walked between the pieces, taking full responsibility for the keeping of the covenant.
God’s promise to Abraham was personal: “I will bless you and make your name great” (Genesis 12:2).
Abraham was revered in his own day as a powerful leader (Genesis 14:1–17) and is a pivotal figure in three world religions today: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
Part of the promise to Abraham was that God would make a great nation from his descendants (Genesis 12:2).
Abraham was promised a huge grant of land—all of modern Israel, Lebanon, the West Bank of Jordan, and large parts of Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
The promise was also reiterated to Abraham’s son Isaac (Genesis 26:2–5), to Isaac’s son Jacob (Genesis 28:13; 35:12), and to Jacob’s descendants (Exodus 33:1–3). The land in this promise is the most important block of real estate in the world.
When the United Nations created a homeland for the Jews in 1948, they carved off a portion of what had historically been Israel’s land—part of Judea and Samaria, now called the West Bank—and gave it to Palestinians. But when these same Palestinians and others attacked Israel in 1967 in the famous Six-Day War, Israel won that West Bank territory back. They didn’t take it by aggression. They won it while defending themselves
from attack—land that had been given to Abraham by God thousands of years earlier!
God’s promise to protect and bless Abraham had a corollary—a promise to bless those who bless Abraham and his descendants: “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3). It’s very simple: Nations that bless Israel will be blessed; nations that curse Israel will be cursed.
Although hopelessly outnumbered, Israel defeated all these nations and captured vast amounts of land including the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.
The universality of the covenant with Abraham reveals its most important purpose: “And in you [Abraham] all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). The purpose of God’s promise to Abraham was not to exclude the rest of humanity from God’s blessing, but to ultimately include them!
Through “the blessing of Abraham” came a blessing for the Gentiles (the rest of humanity) in the person of Christ (Galatians 3:14). Finally, the land of Israel and city of Jerusalem exist because of the promises to Abraham being fulfilled through his descendants.
God’s promise to Abraham came in three stages: initiated in Genesis 12:1–3, formalized in Genesis 15:1–21, and amplified in Genesis 17:1–18. In Genesis 17,
Abraham is nearly 100 years old, and God comes to him to affirm that the covenant is an “everlasting covenant” and the land of Canaan will be his descendants’ “everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:7–8).
Two prophecies are yet to be fulfilled: Israel needs to inhabit all the land promised to her, and she needs to turn to her Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Great Nation
Bless you
