Zephaniah: A day of wrath, trouble, distress, destruction, desolation, darkness, gloom, clouds, thick darkness, of trumpet and battle cry, where all the earth will be devoured by the fire of God’s jealousy; where he will make a complete, terrifying end of earth’s inhabitants (paraphrasing from 1:14-18).
Isaiah: A shattering from Shaddai, where all hands will fall limp and all hearts will melt; where people will look at one another in astonishment, their faces aflame; a day which is cruel, with fury and burning anger, where earth’s sinners will be exterminated; a day where the heavenly bodies will not shine, where the heavens will tremble, and earth will be moved from its place in God’s burning anger (paraphrasing from 13:6-13).
Paul: Coming like a thief, as birth pangs upon a woman in labour (paraphrasing from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3).
Peter: Coming like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away and the elements will be consumed by intense heat; where afterwards we will enjoy new heavens and a new earth (paraphrasing from 2 Peter 3:10-13).
It is because Paul refers to the tribulation period before the Messianic Age and Peter refers to the complete destruction of this planet after the Messianic Age that we can understand the Day of Hashem to be a very long period; this is all laid out succinctly in the book of Revelation. The great focus of the book is on the seven years before the end (chapters 4-19); then the Messianic Age is mentioned (chapter 20), which concludes with another invasion from another Gog and the outpouring of fire that we see in Peter; this is to be followed by the eternal state in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22).
Now having read from those Old Testament prophets above, what is it that they seem to be describing? What heavenly event could bring a thick layer of darkness to this earth? What heavenly event could knock the earth off its axis substantially (it’s amazing Isaiah knew this was possible!)? My best guess is that what they’re describing is the impact from bolides. This is what John tells us will happen in Revelation 8…
And the first [one] sounded [his] trumpet, and there occurred hail and fire having been mixed with blood, and it was thrown to the earth; and the third of the earth was burned up, and the third of the trees was burned up, and all green grass was burned up. And the second angel sounded [his] trumpet, and [something] like a great burning mountain was thrown into the sea, and the third of the sea became blood. And the third of the creatures in the sea, the ones having life, died, and the third of the ships were utterly destroyed. And the third angel sounded [his] trumpet, and a great star fell out of the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on the third of the rivers and on the springs of the waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood [“Bitterness”], and the third of the waters became [fig., turned] into wormwood, and many of the people died from the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded [his] trumpet, and the third of the sun was struck and the third of the moon and the third of the stars, so that the third of them would be darkened, and the day should not shine [for] the third of it, and the night likewise. -- verses 7-12
Not only would these impacts themselves hurl debris and cause widespread damage, but think about what they would do to the pressure on the surface of the earth. Someone has said that the crust of the earth is like a ship floating on a sea of fire. Any substantial impact threatens to raise volcanic activity and earthquakes exponentially. It will truly be the end of the world. Volcanoes are greater threats than people give them credit for, and have recently gained some overdue notoriety via some studies involving Yellowstone. Volcanoes theoretically have the potential to end life as we know it in the blink of an eye. If one super-volcano erupts society might not ever regain enough sunlight…
The eruption of a “supervolcano” hundreds of times more powerful than conventional volcanoes -- with the potential to wipe out civilisation as we know it -- is more likely than previously thought, a study has found.
An analysis of the molten rock within the dormant supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in the United States has revealed that an eruption is possible without any external trigger, scientists said.
Scientists previously believed many supervolcanic eruptions needed earthquakes to break open the Earth’s crust so magma could escape. But new research suggests that this can happen as a result of the build-up of pressure.
Supervolcanoes represent the second most globally cataclysmic event -- next to an asteroid strike -- and they have been responsible in the past for mass extinctions, long-term changes to the climate and shorter-term “volcanic winters” caused by volcanic ash cutting out the sunlight. [Steve Connor; January 5, 2014; The Independent].
I wonder if sin will still be a laughing matter at that time; unfortunately, for some, the answer would probably be yes…
Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called [you] to weeping, to wailing, to shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.” But the LORD of hosts revealed Himself to me, “Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts. -- Isaiah 24:12-14
II. Scourged of Scorpions (2:6-11)
6 Because of it peoples twist/writhe/are in anguish*; all faces have gathered paleness/a glow*. 7 They run like mighty ones; they go up a wall like men of war; and [a] man/each on his ways they go [each goes on its own way -- LEB], and do not interchange their paths. 8 And a man/each does not crowd/thrust his brother/fellow-man; they go -- a warrior in his street/raised way*; and [if] through the missile/weapon they fall -- they are not stopped/cut off*! 9 In/on the city they rush/run about*; upon the wall they run; they go up into the houses; they enter through the windows as the thief. 10 [The] earth/land has quaked/quivered before it; [the] heavens have quaked/shaken; sun and moon have become dark, and [the] stars have gathered/withdrawn their brightness. 11 And Hashem has given his voice before his army, for his camp [is] very great; for mighty [is the] one doing his word, for the Day of Hashem [is] great and very fearful; and who [can] endure it?
If ideas were stock then I’d say that the theories of extra-terrestrials visiting earth are trading rather poorly these days. Although the UFO world is perhaps at a low-water mark, it wouldn’t take a lot to reverse this dramatically. In the world of ufology there is the good, the bad, and the ugly. The “bad” is when people mistake the planet Venus or a military plane for a flying saucer; this happens most of the time. The “ugly” is when someone tries to become rich and/or famous via some questionable evidence. This has become very popular and is probably the reason UFOs seem to have become less credible. Many dodgy accounts have been sensationalized, such as with Philip Corso, Bob Lazar, Stan Romanek, and Boyd Bushman.
Yet there are still some very good accounts out there (see the work of Edward Ruppelt, Nick Pope, Leslie Kean, etc.), as well as many mass sightings. On top of the normal credible cases there has also lurked a steady stream of celebrity witnesses just over the horizon, such as Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Now most of us Christians who have an interest in the end times do not question the involvement of ufology; the question is not of “if,” but of “how much” and “how so.” Will it always remain on the outskirts as a possible explanation for some of the bigger events of the tribulation period, or will quasi-spacecraft take on a more central role? I believe the Scriptures don’t have anything to say about this subject apart from Revelation 9. As I’ve related in my last book, I think that aliens will provide the perfect excuse for the strange creatures that will visit earth to wreak havoc among mankind. Perhaps the conspiracy theory will gain traction and people will think along these lines…Right, since aliens are trying to kill us, maybe those witnesses we killed were aliens, maybe shape-fitting reptiles…right, maybe we have always been visited by this pernicious group of aliens; it’s only right to rid ourselves of their slavery, yeah, of even their king…let’s go to Jerusalem and prepare to slaughter the great alien king, the Messiah of Israel…
Someone once said something along these lines...Whenever Rationalism (in the materialistic sense) ends, people will cease to act rationally. The truth is, both reason and empiricism can be very helpful, but they have their limits. Anything can be rationalized and anything can be proven through some display of evidence; likewise, anything can be refuted through reason and anything can be disproven via evidence. So how do you ultimately know what truth is? Easy, the One who can make the biggest bang, that one is God, therefore the truth lies with him (1 Corinthians 4:19-20; Exodus 8:18-19). God’s big bang is coming...
Joel himself seems to be describing some rather super-human individuals; the precision at which they march over the earth and the inability of even missiles to stop them speaks of a force much greater than the army of Nebuchadnezzar, or even of Gog. I debated as to whether or not I should include Revelation 9; I know I always have the problem of being a bit quote-heavy, so I’ve decided to just include the verses that directly run parallel to Joel…
…And smoke ascended out of the shaft like [the] smoke of a burning furnace, and the sun was darkened, also the air, from the smoke of the shaft. And out of the smoke came forth locusts to the earth. And power [to sting] was given to them, as scorpions of the earth have power. And it was said to them that they should not damage the grass of the earth nor any green [plant] nor any tree, except the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And it was given to them that they should not be killing them, but that they should be tormented five months…And the likenesses [fig., appearance] of the locusts [was] like horses having been prepared for battle…And the sixth angel sounded [his] trumpet…And the four angels were released…And I saw the horses in the vision and the ones sitting on them [looking] like this: having breastplates of fiery [red] and hyacinth [blue] and sulfurous [or, brimstone] [yellow]; and the heads of the horses [were] like [the] heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and sulfur [or, brimstone]. The third of the people were killed by these three plagues: from the fire and the smoke and the sulfur [or, brimstone] proceeding out of their mouths…
Also recall from the Old Testament that a common theme will be the overwhelming terror on the faces of people who are around at that time. This is reminiscent of Orson Welles’ famous radio play (I know the popular thing to assert now-a-days is that the panic has been overestimated; yet it was still a colossal panic, and will be outmatched when everyone realizes the invasion isn’t just a radio play)…
It was the day before Halloween, October 30, 1938. Henry Brylawski was on
his way to pick up his girlfriend at her Adams Morgan apartment in Washington,
D.C.
As he turned on his car radio, the 25-year-old law student heard some startling
news. A huge meteorite had smashed into a New Jersey farm. New York was under
attack by Martians.
“I knew it was a hoax,” said Brylawski, now 92.
Others were not so sure. When he reached the apartment, Brylawski found his
girlfriend’s sister, who was living there, “quaking in her boots,” as he puts
it. “She thought the news was real,” he said.
It was not. What radio listeners heard that night was an adaptation, by Orson
Welles’s Mercury Theater group, of a science fiction novel written 40 years
earlier: The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells.
However, the radio play, narrated by Orson Welles, had been written and
performed to sound like a real news broadcast about an invasion from Mars.
Thousands of people, believing they were under attack by Martians, flooded
newspaper offices and radio and police stations with calls, asking how to flee
their city or how they should protect themselves from “gas raids.” Scores of
adults reportedly required medical treatment for shock and hysteria.
The hoax worked, historians say, because the broadcast authentically simulated
how radio worked in an emergency.
“Audiences heard their regularly scheduled broadcast interrupted by breaking
news,” said Michele Hilmes, a communications professor at the University of
Wisconsin in Madison and author of Radio Voices: American Broadcasting,
1922-1952…
Panicked listeners packed roads, hid in cellars, and loaded their guns. In one block of Newark, New Jersey, 20 families rushed out of their houses with wet towels over their faces as protection from Martian poison gas, according to a front-page article in the New York Times the next day. [Stefan Lovgen; June 17, 2005; National Geographic News]
The world will never no panic and terror as it will be known in the near future.
III. Israel Revisited (2:12-19)
12 And even now -- the declaration of Hashem -- return/turn unto me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning/wailing. 13 And rend your heart and not your garments, and return/turn to Hashem your God; for he [is] gracious and compassionate, slow to anger [lit- long of nostrils], and great of steadfast-love, and relenting over the evil/disaster. 14 Who [is] knowing? He [might] turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for Hashem your God? 15 Blow a shofar in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a sacred assembly. 16 Gather [the] people; consecrate [the] congregation; assemble [the] elders; gather [the] children and bosom-sucklings; [let the] bridegroom go forth from his chamber/room and [the] bride from her canopy/room. 17 [Let] the priests, the ministers of Hashem, weep between the porch and the altar [lit- to the altar]; and [let] them say, “Have pity/compassion, Hashem, on your people, and give not your inheritance for a reproach, for a byword/proverb among nations [or as Young’s Literal Translation- to the ruling over them of nations]; why do they say among the peoples, ‘Where [is] their God?’” 18 And/then Hashem will have been jealous/zealous for his land and has had pity/compassion on his people. 19 And Hashem answered and said to his people, “Behold me -- sending to you the grain/corn and the fresh wine and the fresh oil, and you will be satisfied with it; and I will not set you again [for] a reproach among the nations.”
I am an uncompromising Christian Zionist. That doesn’t mean I think the Israeli government is perfect. For example, I beg the people of Israel to do more to help my beleaguered brothers and sisters from places like Sudan and Eritrea. The persecution that has taken place there is horrific; some of the things I’ve heard, such as Christians being rolled down hills in barrels by Muslims in order to make them broken and paralyzed, evoke the satanic wildness of guys like Himmler. Don’t get me wrong, there’s only one Shoah, and let’s pray it stays that way; but my people in North Africa and the Middle East desperately need help.
Although the Israeli government isn’t perfect, yet surely the people of Israel have been vilified and abused in ways that never cease to shock and amaze. The world hates them for the sole reason of their being killed by followers of the Quran; huh?! Is that any reason to be hated? The Scriptures are very clear, from Moses in Genesis 12 to Paul in Romans 11, that God’s Kingdom is Jewish. Gentile Christians can be spiritually grafted into Israel, yet we haven’t replaced Israel. Wow, this teaching is much more important than can ever be put into words! No matter how Calvinists might try to deny it, reformed theology is replacement theology. I don’t mean concerning the Gospel, but concerning eschatology and ecclesiology. Replacement theology then is bound to breed anti-Semitism; I’ve even heard a reformed teacher on Sermon Audio joking around about Jews having hook noses; come on you sons of Calvin, some of you need to pull your heads out of the Dark Ages.
The Christian church is in complete shambles in America, mainly because it’s trying so hard to flee from every vestige of the holy shadow of men like D.L. Moody and Lewis Sperry Chafer. Just about every reinvention taking place in the fundamental world leaves the replacement theology of the reformers firmly in place. That’s also why there are so many Christians hoarding semi-automatic weapons and teaching their children to shoot firearms and reading Lex, Rex and talking about finding “lower magistrates” to rally under and seeking a second Mayflower, etc. At a time when Vladimir Putin is pretending to be a defender of Christianity, some American Christians are toying with the idea of uprising; does anyone else smell disaster? It wouldn’t take much for clever Russian agents to dupe a bunch of pastors in attempting to push this further.
My friends, can we please rather do what the Bible plainly tells us to do, which is to spread the Gospel and wait patiently for the Lord from heaven to bring the Kingdom? May we banish harmful and stupid and satanic thoughts and statements of rebellions and uprisings. Let’s quit trying to reconstruct America and focus rather on repentance and faith. Although I’m no great fan of the anti-Semitic Martin Luther, yet he was right about this: the doctrine of justification is the article of the rising and falling church.
Anyway, the kingdom will come from heaven and not from our legislation; and when it comes, it will come to the people called “Jews”…
And/then Hashem will have been jealous/zealous for his land and has had pity/compassion on his people.
There’s only one land of Hashem -- that which has erroneously been called “Palestine.” The Bible doesn’t call it “Palestine,” but rather the everlasting inheritance of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. According to commentators like John Macarthur this verse is the turning point in the entire book of Joel. Up unto this time judgment is described and repentance is called for; and then all the sudden there is this enormous change. God turns and begins to bless and defend his people! Israel’s midnight will not last forever; the day will dawn; God will remember and redeem his Rachel, and it will mean life for the world.
This last clause of mine is based on Romans 11:12-15 and it has proven to be so true. Spiritual life gushes through Israel, just as she has inadvertently been the greatest cause of blessing to my people in recent history. One of the most important advances in Christian theology in the past few hundred years has been the rejection of silly allegorical paradigms to interpret vast swathes of Scripture. This began to take place in Ireland in the 1800s, when John Nelson Darby finally saw the difference between Israel and the church.
Along with Darby’s enlightening, other wonderful things were going on in Ireland, such as the Powerscourt conferences where modern prophetic understanding began to be ironed out. Yet it was the formation of the World Zionist Congress and all the talk of the Jewish people seeking a homeland that sent the greatest jolt to Bible-believing Christians. It was as if believers after the destruction of Israel said, Great, now what do we do! How can Christ return now? Right, let’s think about this and come up with a new system. Every system failed. Then the Zionist dream began to foment, and we Christians realized we should have just patiently believed in the Bible all along…
Running parallel to the rise of Zionism was the renewed interest, in Britain, of Bible prophecy. It was on October 4th-7th, 1831 that a major milestone in the development of Bible prophecy in the British Isles took place. The Powerscourt House Conference as it was called, was held just outside Dublin in Ireland.
This meeting of Christian leaders created a deep impression amongst Christians far and wide and led to an earnest and prayerful study of the prophetic scriptures…
…During the 19th century the Lord was already awakening His church in Britain to Bible prophecy and preparing its leaders for events which would unfold in the 20th century.
It is difficult to overemphasise the importance of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This single event had profound influence beyond corridors of political power as it offered hope to Zionists in a way that they had not experienced before. At the same time it was a clear signal to the evangelical Christian world that God was indeed working his purposes out.
Among those captivated by the importance of the Balfour Declaration was Dr. F.B. Meyer -- one of Britain’s leading evangelical pastors. Dr. Meyer immediately entered into consultation and prayer with other Christian leaders and together they came to the conclusion that this was so important that it needed to be made known to the Christian public around the country.
Together they drew up a manifesto entitled, “The Significance of the Hour” which was issued to the press with electrifying consequences… [From In the Steps of FB Meyer by Colin Le Noury; pgs. 17-20]
This new-found belief in an extremely literal interpretation of the entire canon would inspire saints for many decades in the UK and the US in matters relating to the end. Then two men got together; both were prophecy experts. One was a hydrologist by training, and the other was a veteran of World War II, a graduate of Princeton, and an Old Testament scholar. Their names were Henry Morris and John Whitcomb. They in effect said, let’s take Genesis seriously, starting with Noah’s flood. Their book, The Genesis Flood, changed the Christian world. It gave birth to the Creationism movement. Years later Philip Johnson would could along, and being a Presbyterian, wanted to take a step back from full-on fundamentalism, so he recast Creationism a bit by publishing the book Darwin on Trial. Philip Johnson has aptly been called the grandfather of the Intelligent Design movement, made famous by Dembski’s ideas on specified complexity and Behe’s ideas on irreducible complexity. All this started with the Bible and was energized when Jews began to take their Scriptures very seriously. Long live Israel, for in her life we have life!
IV. Showers of Blessing (2:20-23)
20 And the Northerner I will remove far off from upon you, and I will drive him away to a land of dryness and desolation; his face [will be] toward the eastern sea, and his end [will be] toward the hinder sea; and his stench will go up, and his foul odour will go up, for he magnified to do [great things] [or as the LEB, because he (Hashem) has done great things]. 21 Fear not [O] ground/land; be glad and rejoice, for Hashem has magnified to do [great things]. 22 Fear not, you beasts of [the] field, for pastures of [the] wilderness have grown green; for [the] tree has bore its fruit; [the] fig-tree and [the] vine have given their wealth. 23 And [you] children of Zion be glad and rejoice in Hashem your God; for he has given to you the early rain for righteousness, and he has caused to descend for you rain -- early rain and latter rain -- in/at the first/primary [part(s) of the growing season].
Here we have that wonderful part of the prophecy that really helps us align ourselves. After moving to the UK I generally had no problem adjusting to the opposite side of the road, until one particular morning. I was driving to work alone during the summer and it hit me, I have no idea what side of the road I’m supposed to be on. It was early in the morning and I just couldn’t remember and began to panic, and then I saw off in the distance a road marking on one side of the street meant to be read by on-coming traffic; phew! This term “Northerner” is our road-marker. The book of Joel is extremely discombobulating, yet this description of the enemy gives us a point of orientation.
The prophecy can no longer refer to bugs, but seems to be arm in arm with something a latter prophet said…
And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, “Thus says the Lord GOD,