The Sun of Righteousness! Part 1: The Sunrise

From Malachi 4:2 do we get the phrase Sun of righteousness. 

In the context that it gets used here, that of a Sun capable of dispersing the terrible darkness of the great tribulation, it follows naturally on the heels of the Sun of Apocalypse series.

The transition of darkness between the two days of Sunshine—the Sun of Apocalypse and the Sun of Righteousness—is incredibly brief but incredibly dark. Rather than getting lost in the darkness between the two, I have to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, and start looking forward to the good stuff.

I realize Malachi 4 may have other application(s) than how I use it, but that does not mean the power of the Word is incapable of satisfying more than one meaning. That said, let us begin.

Obviously, the first effect of any sun’s appearance is to drive out the darkness preceding it. The Sun of righteousness will drive out its preceding darkness out in a powerful display, so powerful that words and imagination can hardly begin to cover it.

¹ For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.  [Malachi 4:1]

In terms of the great tribulation, the definition of the proud and those who do wickedly will be met in those who have bowed to the image of a man and taken his mark in their right hand or forehead. Their bodies will be burned up, entirely consumed by the heat and fire of the Sun of righteousness.

While this may not happen immediately with the first signs of the Sun’s appearance, it will happen very quickly thereafter. Their conflagration will be complete and entire.

⁷ And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

⁸ In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

⁹ Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; [2 Thessalonians 1:7-9]

Perhaps a quick review of the preceding transition of darkness is in order, that we might get a better sense of the contrast between it and the light that will drive it away.

Around the time of Armageddon, (relative to the sixth plague—Revelation 16:12-16), which is a time that the marked will be ready to unleash enough WMD to ensure the destruction of every living thing on the planet, something will distract them from their suicidal course of action. I dare say the only thing capable of distracting them will be the Lord’s appearance in the clouds of heaven.

With his arrival, they will quickly come to a new purpose, which is basically to gather their forces together and march on the Holy land, over which I suppose the Lord and his own will be making a stand very soon after His appearing. Whether or not the assembling forces of the marked meet with the troubles of plague seven on the way there or after they arrive, it is not for me to say; but, it stands to reason that their ability to survive that devastating plague of earthquake and hail (see “Seven Plagues”), is meaningless, for their fate is sealed, and they will perish in flame.

¹² And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. [Zechariah 14:12]

As with Malachi 4, which may have more than one meaning, I do not claim to be interpreting this verse from Zechariah in the way it is entirely meant to be. That said, I know of at least one popular preacher, John Hagee, who likes to use this verse to predict a nuclear holocaust, which I do not agree with. The Lord does not need a nuclear holocaust to smite in such a way those who assemble to attack Jerusalem.

² But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. [Malachi 4:2]

When it comes to the events of great tribulation, those who fear His name may fit into a broader than normal category. We may need to disambiguate a little bit between the categories of “saved” and “unsaved.” For even those who are not savvy to the Lord’s identity before he is revealed at his appearance in the clouds of heaven, they are yet worthy of being saved from the fate that belongs to the marked.

At that time, being saved may include any and all who know better than to bow to the image of the man and take his mark. People from diverse cultures and religious backgrounds will find that task so distasteful that they would rather choose a dismal life in the wilderness over that.

The disciple Thomas, sometimes referred to as Doubting Thomas, would not believe in the Lord’s resurrection and appearing until he could see with his own eyes. That did not make him less of a disciple, but he did miss out on the blessing that belongs to those who believe without seeing (John 20:29).

Likewise, a greater blessing belongs to those who believe before seeing Him at his return. This should not diminish much the other survivors’ opportunity to live a wonderful life, a life healed from the illnesses, diseases, and afflictions that so often beset our current generation.

Like calves of the stall, the survivors will have the vigor of youth, and they will have few if any cares, no matter what sort of confinement they may face in terms of a post-apocalyptic civilization.

Among the rubble of civilization, there is at least one thing they need not worry about finding.

³ And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.  [Malachi 4:3]

I believe that potentially billions of bodies (of the marked) rotting in the rubble of civilization would be a bad thing for the survivors to deal with. Fortunately, it is most likely that the marked and their bodies will literally be turned to ash and will become as nothing under the feet of the survivors.

Unfortunately, some of those ashes may be the remains of people we know and care about today. Fortunately, the survivors will be able to get past that. Today is when we need to work at pulling people from the flames as much as possible.

The Dirtiest Job in Christianity

When reading the New Testament gospels, you might notice that Jesus’ interactions with the religious leaders were such that it pretty much ensured he would eventually be killed by them.

Did he interact in such a way—convicting them of their sin, calling them hypocrites, liars, sons of the Devil, murderers—because they would kill him? Or did they kill him because he said those things and talked to them so?

When I prognosticate future events, I sometimes feel tempted to worry about whether or not my words will be the reason some bad things happen. But then I realize how small and insignificant I am. And it becomes all too clear that things will not happen because I write about them; rather, I write about them because they will happen.

Now, when it comes to the world and our (Christianity’s) relationship with it, there is room for a lot of sympathy. The world must come to a point where it is ready to slaughter us wholesale. We are talking about “good” people who just want to live their lives and mind their own business.

They would rather not get involved with politics or religion, and yet they will come to a place where they will either be complicit in our deaths or actively involved in taking us to a place of martyrdom.

Fortunately, we have plenty of people on our side who are more than ready and willing to make their job a whole lot easier.

I have come to the opinion that the apocalypse is the worst botched subject in Christianity because it is around the time of the end—the time that Christianity must be cut off from world society—that our “knowledge” and “wisdom” on the subject will be a real contributing factor to our diminishing role in civilization. (Where “civilization” is heading, I think we should be grateful to be cut off from it at that time.)

Like I mentioned above, we have plenty of people on our side who will make the world’s job of killing us a whole lot easier.

It is an unpleasant enough subject that I would not mind being free from it altogether, but then it strikes me that maybe I could convince some that there is a better way to live, that we do not need to contribute any more to that cause, that we could work in an understanding way, to ensure that we do not meet our demise too soon, that we do not fail to reach out to those who are still looking for an escape from the world’s side of the battle.

With apocalyptic scriptures doing so much to ensure that Christians will participate in fulfilling them, in the sense of helping the world make martyrs of us, it stands to reason that apocalyptic scriptures would also hold some other purpose(s).

To learn more, I suggest reading these posts:
The Dark Realm of Eschatology
The Need for an Underground Church in the West
Israel: The Ultimate Survivor
In Time of Peace, Don’t Be Your Own Worst Enemy

Sun of A-Pocalypse! Part 3: A Storm Cloud on the Horizon

Sun of A-Pocalypse! Part 1
Sun of A-Pocalypse! Part 2

No subject in Christendom is more botched than the subject of the apocalypse. Maybe there is an underlying cause, a divine reason, and no accurate foresight should ever get published; after all, an accurate foresight may be the best strategic playbook that we could possess, and it would be nice to keep some knowledge concealed on our own sideline.

Perhaps we just need to discover what love has got to do with it. Because it is not enough to understand the mysteries of prophecy or have the knowledge of how to cope with troubled times, we need a doctrine of love or it will go nowhere.

God’s fervent love for the lost and His plan to preserve a remnant of humanity through the greatest trouble in human history gets little attention in so much of the prognostication.

The erroneous teaching that Christ can come back at any second makes people mental. There is hardly anything more depressing and there is hardly a greater source of anxiety than to think I can enter glory any moment and some of my loved ones will be “left behind” to cope with seven years of Hell on earth. Leaving a trail of bread crumbs toward the truth in the form of books and movies is a very weak display of love in my opinion. A contrived evangelism that relies on the premise of impending doom and gloom is not an effective witnessing program.

The end-times theory that hangs its focus on the plagues of wrath and our worthiness to escape those plagues, (as if the plagues are so bad to people of faith), again leaves the ‘unsaved’ left to fend for themselves for months and years. “Sorry, but God helped Israel all that time in their exodus from Egypt; so, I guess you—who have yet to be saved—you will be okay too.”

It does not quite work that way in the great tribulation.

Our generation has become lax and seems to have forgotten that we are instructed to bear our own crosses. We think because we are near the last-days that we somehow get an exemption. We take scriptures that apply to the peace and safety of our souls and apply it to our flesh. The premises of the most popular theories puts our own well being and comfort on a pedestal above the world’s, a world that the Lord still loves with a greater love than we can comprehend.

I have to believe certain events are foretold for a reason, not just to make monkeys out of some of us, (although they can do that with alacrity). But the real purpose must be to provide us a head’s-up in time to make a difference. Fortunately, as I write this, there is yet time to reach a clearer understanding and to do something tangible with that for the benefit of those who might need a little help.

Those who do not wish to use any sort of ‘rehearsal guide’ will manage one way or another to finish their roles upon the world stage, and for that reason I would never force a prospective future on anybody. We like to be in control of our own lives and do not appreciate anyone or anything trying to tell us what will happen or when. If the believer is to ever help the unbeliever through apocalyptic scenes, the believers must first learn to help themselves through the same.

I cannot say what all the various reasons are that keep people feeling motivated to discover the future, yet I am fairly clear on my own:  that folks would see certain scriptures in ways not considered before, and they would change their unbrotherly behaviors and begin laying the groundwork for a way of living godly lives despite the prospect of troublesome times to come; this is a necessary groundwork because so much effort will be made by the enemy, the Devil, to rob the kingdom of heaven of as many souls as possible, a movement already foreshadowed in the growing momentum of an anti-religious sentiment within society.

The Alignment of Anti-Religious Sentiment with Current Events and Prophecy

• War on Terror=The Rise and Fall of Islamic Radicalism
• Peace for Israel and the World=New Temple for Israel in Jerusalem=Many believers going mental on apocalyptic prophecies in a time that the world will have little or no tolerance left for radical religious ideas
• A sad but inevitable delusion that the diminishing of the Christian and Jewish faiths will prolong the peace=The search for an opportunity to begin a campaign that would actively diminish those faiths around the world
• The dedication of an altar in the temple area in Jerusalem=A loud outcry against animal sacrifice=An international governing force interferes with the religious rights of a sovereign nation
• A short pause wherein the international governing force can gauge public reaction to such a step=Plenty of encouragement to actively pursue a comprehensive agenda to marginalize and do away with the Christian and Jewish faiths

The coming war on religion will not appear like a Hurricane Katrina, seemingly overnight and with little warning, thereby creating a sudden and cataclysmic change. It appears like a dark and brooding storm cloud on the horizon at midday. Everyone will see it coming. The worldly will see it in time to take cover and watch from a distance, a place of relative peace and safety. The godly, especially within the realms of Christianity and Judaism, will be in the general path of the storm, and our actions and reactions at that time will be varied, in order to cover a multitude of fronts on which the storm will soon hit.

Sun of A-Pocalypse! Part 1
Sun of A-Pocalypse! Part 2

Sun of A-Pocalypse! Part 2

Sun of A-Pocalypse! Part 1

The world must pass through more darkness in the night of the War on Terror before we see the dawning of peace, lasting peace, and Middle East peace. Because the darkness is likely to get severe, I will be apt to distance myself from those who would insist on calling the coming peace “false” or implying that it is actually the beginning of a “seven year tribulation.”

Certain teachings of Christian eschatology purport that any peace which would include Israel’s right and ability to have a new temple must be relative to the prophecy of Daniel’s 70th week, (I would not disagree with that), and that the peace is therefore “false” and relevant to a “seven year tribulation.”

The peace cannot be false: for if Daniel’s 70th week has yet to be fulfilled, as some of us believe, then Israel must be able to construct a Jewish temple without delay or hindrance; and anything less than a bona-fide peace for Israel and the world would not allow that to happen in a timely manner.

Furthermore, Scripture itself states that the prophecy of Daniel’s 70th week, which is primally and ultimately tied to a covenant of peace, that it will be confirmed with many for the entire span of seven years (a week of years).

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week…” [Daniel 9:27]. 

To confirm something is to show or convince others that the thing is real or tangible or true. To put it simply:  that to convince many for a period of seven years that the covenant of peace is in fact real, it would require the peace to actually be real for a period of seven years, at least from the perspective of a major portion of the world’s population. After seven years of peace, all bets are off as they say.

I guess I can only plant the seeds of change and let things grow as they may.

In the early years of a new peace, following the darkness of the night of the Global War on Terror, the world at large will not long tolerate attitudes or remarks that disparage their peace, especially if those remarks are coming from the fundamental teachings of religious groups.  Don’t you think they will be quite fed up with the fruits of religious fundamentalism by the time peace comes?

It is by over-much wisdom that we would destroy ourselves before our time. Trouble is coming soon enough. Let us not hasten our demise in this world by failing to embrace the peace and failing to rejoice in the light that comes to drive away the darkness of the night of the War on Terror.

For a brief summary of “Sun of A-Pocalypse! Parts 1 & 2” and for a brief look on where it goes from here, see post “History from the Present to the Great Tribulation.” 

Sun of A-Pocalypse!

A great light does not arise to do away with just a little darkness, but a whole lot of it.

What we have got and what we will get from the War on Terrorism is a whole lot of darkness. Chances are it will even get worse before it gets better; the peak level of darkest before the dawn has yet to be determined.

We will not be able to predict it before the fact. While I have a theory, it would not suffice to lay it out here. It will be pretty clear after the fact though, that terrorism has done its worst.

And when the forces of terror have done their worst, there are various outcomes that we can expect: 1) fear could compel over-reaction, saying that one event of violence on a biblical scale is probably just a pre-cursor to more such events, and over-reaction is bad because it would only add that much more to the darkness; 2) we see a whole lot of anti-terrorist action being taken by many nations, and this is okay so long as it stays within certain limits, basically using reliable intelligence to make calculated and strategic strikes at vital targets within the terrorism network, but this alone will not be enough to turn the tides so to speak, to the point where people would begin to see the dawning of a new day; and 3) what we need most of all will be a major shift in attitudes, both the attitudes of  moderate Islam and the attitudes of the politically correct crowd, and fortunately there is a good chance that these shifts in attitude will come quite naturally.

“The Devil is in the Details”

When the War on Terrorism reaches a new pitch and there is a much more aggressive pursuit to hunt down and eradicate terrorist cells, chances are more than good that terrorist cells will themselves become much more aggressive. While at first look this would seem to create a snowballing effect where things are getting out of control, one of the things we can expect from a more active front in the Global War on Terror is a campaign that involves the attempted destruction of Israel, and this is where the key lies for putting an end to the War on Terror.

Israel will not be defeated. In fact, she will overcome, even to the point of claiming a certain spoil of war, a spoil that will make the Modern Aliyah movement complete. That spoil lies within the heart of Old Jerusalem, and while it could have been forcibly taken in a previous victory (or victories), they held back because they knew the world at large would frown upon such a step and would have made them give it back.

The world can frown no more upon Israel’s right to a certain piece of land within Old Jerusalem, (especially after the forces of terrorism have done their worst). Israel’s ability to hold that piece of ground is the ultimate litmus test to show that the forces of Islamic fundamentalist radicalism have been diminished beyond the capacity to do any more significant damage to the nations. Furthermore, this change of possession will give moderate Islam the impetus it needs to move beyond speaking out against their wayward cousins and actually beating their wayward cousins into submission, and this too is key for putting an end to the War on Terror.

The concession of a certain piece of land going to Israel to do with as she pleases must come from Islam and must come from the world.

One thing that Jews have been lacking since their return to the homeland is the ability to worship in the old ways at their temple. Certain obstructions to Israel’s ultimate display of religious freedom in this world have long stood in the way of that.

Around the same time that Israel’s Modern Aliyah movement began, in the mid to late 1800s, a man named Eli Whitney Blake was inventing the prototype of the modern day rock-crusher.  I do not know if it will be an actual rock-crushing machine that turns the tide for the War on Terror once and for all, but I suspect that when Jews can at last dance literally upon the pebbles and dust of those obstacles, the world will be able to look over the horizon and see the beginnings of a new day: a day of peace, lasting peace, and Middle East peace!

“Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel”   —Isaiah 41:15-16