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Prophecies of Joel Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Joel means a Worshipper of יהוה )YHVH( Joel’s father, Pethuel, expressed his own faith when he named his son Joel.
Joel, undoutably, because of his personal faith,
was chosen to express the words of ( (יהוה YHVH.
YO -‐ EL יואל
Who is the God we Worship? • Is He a God of wrath by contrast to the Lord Jesus?
Is He out to catch us in error and punish us?
Gold is not put in the fire to destroy it …but rather to refine it, to purify it.
Who is the God we Worship? • Is He a God of wrath by contrast to the Lord Jesus?
He is the "God of the widows and fatherless,"
James commends this quality—this aJtude—to care for those who cannot care for themselves.
He is the God who loves us and asks us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Is He out to catch us in error and punish us?
So,“…while we have opportunity, let us do good unto all people, and especially those who are of the household of faith.” NAS
The LORD’S Words in Joel
1 -‐ Sounding of the Shofar (Ram’s Horn) announcing the words of the LORD.
The LORD’S Words in Joel
2 -‐ Alarm Alerts Israel of devastaZon on the land and ulZmately on crops and animals as well. -‐ All will be in lamentaZon
1 -‐ Sounding of the Shofar (Ram’s Horn) announcing the words of the LORD.
The LORD’S Words in Joel
2 -‐ Alarm Alerts Israel of devastaZon on the land and ulZmately on crops and animals as well. -‐ All will be in lamentaZon
1 -‐ Sounding of the Shofar (Ram’s Horn) announcing the words of the LORD.
-‐ Priests Appeal for the LORD’S Mercy -‐ LORD urges Israel’s Repentance
-‐ The LORD’S promise of restoraZon of all lost 3 -‐ Spirit poured out on All People 4 -‐ The Ba)le of the Last Day—Valley of Jehoshaphat
Joel 1 ~ Prophecy of ruin by the invading locusts
Joel 2a ~ The blowing of the shofar, sounding alarm ~ Description of the destroyers
Joel 2b ~ Call to repentance — shofar to sound, sanctify a fast, a solemn assembly
~ Promise to restore the rains and all that was lost~ Spirit poured out upon all flesh
Joel 3 ~ Judgment of Nations who went against Israel~ Proclaim to the nations “Sanctify (kaddeshu) War”
Joel’s IniZal Prophecy—Chapter 1
2 “Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3 "Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.
4 "What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten."
palmer worm = “to shear” — The Chaldeans locust = “a swarm” — The Medes & Persians canker worm = “to lap up” — The Macedonian Greeks caterpillar = “the finisher” — The Romans
Terms Defined
Prophecies of Joel
End of the Age View of the LORD'S Great Army “The Lord, by his overruling providence, will take a general charge of this great army of discontents—patriots, reformers, socialists, moralists, anarchists, ignorants and hopeless —and use their hopes, fears, follies and selfishness, according to his divine wisdom, to work out his own grand purposes in the overthrow of present institutions, and for the preparation of man for the Kingdom of Righteousness.
“For this reason only it is termed ‘The LORD'S great army.’
“None of his saints—one who are led by the spirit of God as sons of God are to have anything to do with that part of the ‘battle.’” The Battle of Armageddon, p. 550
Broad Sweeping View of the LORD'S Great Army “The Lord, by his overruling providence, will take a general charge of this great army of discontents—patriots, reformers, socialists, moralists, anarchists, ignorants and hopeless —and use their hopes, fears, follies and selfishness, according to his divine wisdom, to work out his own grand purposes in the overthrow of present institutions, and for the preparation of man for the Kingdom of Righteousness.
“For this reason only it is termed ‘The LORD'S great army.’
“None of his saints—one who are led by the spirit of God as sons of God are to have anything to do with that part of the ‘battle.’” The Battle of Armageddon, p. 550
“The Lord, by his overruling providence, will
take a general charge of this great army
of discontents—patriots, reformers, socialists,
moralists, anarchists…[ect.]….None of his
saints—one who are led by the spirit of God
as sons of God are to have anything to do
with that part of the ‘battle.’”
Part 4
The Ba)le of the Last Day—Valley of Jehoshaphat
“‘Holy War’ Against God” Joel 3:9 & 10
Joel 3:1-‐3
1 - "In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2- "I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land. 3 – "They cast lots for my people and traded boys for harlots; they sold girls for wine to drink."
Who did those things?
Joel 3:1-‐3
1 - "In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2- "I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land. 3 – "They cast lots for my people and traded boys for harlots; they sold girls for wine to drink."
palmer worm = “to shear” — The Chaldeans locust = “a swarm” — The Medes & Persians canker worm = “to lap up” — The Greeks caterpillar = “the finisher” — The Romans
Terms Defined
Prophecies of Joel
Joel 3:2 “I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.”
Triumphal Arch of Titus
Rome's Pride of Robbery
Sacred Candle SZck
Joel 3:2 “I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.”
Joel 3:9,10 YLT
Strong’s #6942 “consecrate, dedicate, sancDfy”
• “Proclaim ye this among naZons, Prepare [qodesh‐-קדשקדש] war, sZr up the mighty ones . . . Beat your ploughshares to swords, And your pruning-‐hooks to javelins, Let the weak say, ‘I [am] mighty.’
Joel 3:9,10 YLT
Strong’s #6942 “consecrate, dedicate, sancDfy”
• “Proclaim ye this among naZons, SancDfy [qodesh‐-קדשקדש] a war, sZr up the mighty ones . . . Beat your ploughshares to swords, And your pruning-‐hooks to javelins, Let the weak say, ‘I [am] mighty.’
“‘Holy War’ Against God”
The Jihads of the 7th to the 17th Centuries
The Holy Wars (the Crusades) of the 11-‐13th Centuries
The reacZon of the Christan West
Where Muhammad Began
Where Islam Spread within 50 years
A
B
C
C B
ISLAMIC EXPANSION BY SWORD A. Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632 B. Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphs, 632–661 C. Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750
C
C
ISLAMIC Expansion Islam was stopped in France in AD 732 at Tours and PoiZers, Romanian Transylvania in the mid 1400s and Spain by 1492.
Reconquista of Espania and withdrawal of Islam to North Africa
ISLAMIC Expansion UnZl September 11, 1683 Finally, on September 11, 1683, King Jan Sobieski of Poland came with 30,000 Hussars to turn back the Armies of Islam at the Gates of Vienna.
Jan III Sobieski stops Islamic forces at the Gates of Vienna Sept 11 & 12, 1683
• “The organizaDon calling itself the Islamic State has risen from the fog of war in Syria and Iraq in recent months and drawn the asenZon of the world with major victories on both sides of the Euphrates River that have claimed swaths of territory for its declared caliphate, or Islamic State.”
• “Now in the organizaDon's new
English language publicaDon, Dabiq, aimed at young Muslims in western states, the extremist organizaZon declared, ‘Islamic State will do everything within its means to conDnue striking down every apostate who stands as an obstacle on its path towards PalesDne.’”
CLAIMED TERRITORY OF THE NEW CALIPHATE ISIS
What does the world not understand about Jihad and conquest?
Where ISIS has gained control so far… Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declared January 3, 2014 Caliphate declared June 29, 2014 under Caliph Abu Bakr al Baghdadi
IRAQ
SAUDI ARABIA
JORDAN
LEBANON SYRIA IRAN
I S R A E L
Kurdish Region
Controlled By Iraqi Government
What should ChrisZans do? • “My Kingdom is not of this world, else would my servants fight. John 18:36.
• A ChrisDan Family Network: “How a ChrisDan naDon should respond to ISIS threat?” 1) Give asylum to persecuted ChrisDans in Muslim lands, 2) Make Israel’s border our red line, 3) Immediately suspend further Islamic immigraDon.
• “Catholic and Orthodox Patriarchs Seek InternaDonal Response to ISIS” “Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs of the Middle East denounced asacks on ChrisZans and called upon the internaZonal community to work to eradicate terrorist groups.” America—The NaAonal Catholic Review
Pope Francis calls for response to stop ISIS —clarifies that it is not a call for Crusade
Isaiah 8:12 & 13
• “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. SancDfy the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”
Our response to ChrisDans fears:
Genocide of ChrisZan Armenians an Historic example from the 19th & 20th Centuries – Armenians mark the date April 24, 1915, when several hundred Armenian intellectuals were rounded up, arrested and later executed as the start of the Armenian genocide and it is generally said to have extended to 1917. However, there were also massacres of Armenians [in Islamic Turkey] in 1894, 1895, 1896 [see Volume 4: pp. 86,89], 1909, and a reprise between 1920 and 1923.
• The University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has compiled figures by province and district that show there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the empire in 1914 and only about 387,800 by 1922.
In the 1890s Br. Robert Seklemian’s father fled Armenia located in the Osoman Turkish Caliphate
To Whom does a Rising Islamic Caliphate Pose the Greatest Threat?
• All MinoriZes—men, women & children • OpposiZon groups such as Al Queda • Shia Muslims, Kurdish Muslims, ChrisZans • Foreigners of virtually any status • Jews and of course Israel. However. . .what role may Islam be playing?
“This [“the worst of the heathen”] may be understood to signify that the uprising of the masses of Christendom in anarchy…Or it may signify an uprising of the peoples of India, China and Africa against Christendom—a suggesDon already made by the public press anent the revival of Turkey and the uprising of the millions of Mahometans. [sic] Our [Br. Russell’s] opinion, however, is that ‘worst of the heathen’ are those in Christendom who are ‘without God’. . . .” D549, 550
Are they the Worst of the Heathen?
Is Islam “The Match”?
“The social system, ‘the earth,’ ‘the elements,’ ‘the course of nature,’ cannot be set on fire until the Lord permits the match to be struck: the great decisive battle cannot begin until the great ‘Michael,’ ‘the Captain of our salvation,’ stands forth and gives the word of command (Dan. 12:1), even though there will previously be frequent skirmishes all along the lines.” D548
Islamic Terrorism, (a “match”
to cause or a “catalyst” which
will enable)
(D548)
Nominal Church “heavens” “rolled together as scroll” cooperating with
governments to stabilize the
world and suppress all peoples
(D551,552)
Lord’s Great Army from within
Christendom will finally devour it
(D550; & Joel 1:4; Rev. 17:16)
Is Islam the Match . . . ?
“Some think they are the spark…"
“The Return of the Khilafah unZl it Burns the Crusader Armies in Dabiq”
-‐ Abū Mus’ab az-‐Zarqāwi
ISIS Claims It Will Fly Its Flag Over The VaZcan
“The spark has been lit here in Iraq, and its heat will conZnue to intensify – by Allah’s permission – unZl it burns the crusader armies in Dābiq*.” -‐ Abū Mus’ab az-‐Zarqāwi
*DABIQ = the Islamic equivalent of Armageddon
• “But in the Scriptures there are also inZmaZons that there
may be others beyond the revolDng hosts of Christendom who will also form a part of the Lord’s great army. And the Lord, through the Prophet Ezekiel, referring to this same Zme, and to the approaching calamiZes of Christendom, says: ‘And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it. . .the city [Babylon, Christendom] is full of violence. (D 549,550)
• “Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen and they shall possess their houses; I will also make the pomp of the great to cease, and their honored places [sacred places their religious insZtuZons, etc.] shall be defiled.’” Ezk. 7:13-‐24
Islam: A Catalyst to acDvate or enable the Forming of the Lord’s Great Army
What Islamists think of the USA, Israel . . . as well as Great Britain & Europe
•
Britain’s Prime Minister’s Concerns about BriZsh youths.
• “But it is abhorrent that people who declare their allegiance elsewhere are able to return to the United Kingdom and pose a threat to our naZonal security.
• “We're clear in principle that what we need is a targeted discreZonary power to allow us to exclude BriZsh naZonals from the U.K.”
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s on Terrorism
• 'If you say violence in London isn't jusDfied, but suicide bombs in Israel are -‐ then you are part of the problem.’ Monday, July 20, 2015
What is the face of ISIS?
The Islamic Caliphate ISIS was declared as an Islamic State (Jan. 2014) It has validated the noZon that what the Koran teaches is actually a violent ruthless brand of religion. Sharia or Islamic Law actually requires conversion to Islam or the payment of tax—jizyah—the alternaDve is Death. There are no other opDons.
Abu Bakr al-‐Baghdadi
Islamic State vows to reach 'PalesDne' [sic] and 'kill the barbaric Jews'
BBC claims Iran has not threatened Israel for a “very long Zme”
The Peoples of All NaDons will Come to be Blessed by Israel
• Isaiah 60:14 “The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.. .”
• Zechariah 8:23 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'In those days ten men from all the naDons will grasp the garment of a Jew saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
The LORD’S Great Army • The LORD’s Great Army of Joel appears to have three levels of interpretaDon:
• [1] historic applicaDon to the four waves of GenDles which came against Israel during the Times of the GenDles;
• [2] gathering forces coming against this present evil world at the present;
• [3] climacDc assault at the end of the Age.
“ChrisZan Government” Desired
• How “The Nominal Systems of the World” may “Rise to Great Prominence”—”42 Points of AffirmaZon and Denial.” (Dr. Jay Grimstead)
• The rise of a poliZcal movement with legiZmate concerns
• Links to and support from Churches • Designs on the ConsZtuZon LEFT and RIGHT
InformaDve and useful resources:
• IsraelNaAonalNews.com • ALSO: • ClarionProject.org
• HonestReporAng.com
If not to fear, and not to join, what is our role? We do have a responsibility to share the truth we know—but what to say?
Do we see our role as that of Jeremiah as in Jeremiah 1, to preach fearlessly, or Isaiah as in Isaiah 6, to preach unZl there is someone yet to preach to?
Above all remember Psalm 46 . . .
Psalm 46:1-‐3
• “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.” NAS
Psalm 46:4-‐7
• “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. (5) God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. (6) The naAons made an uproar, the kingdoms to^ered; He raised His voice, the earth melted. (7) The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold.” NAS
ISAIAH 62:6 & 7
“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make menDon of the LORD, keep not silence,
“And give him no rest, Dll he establish, and Dll he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
Amen. . . .
Amen. . . .