Coincidence, I Think Not
Coincidence, I Think Not
By Pete Garcia
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12
The world is increasingly becoming unstable in virtually every sector. The world had been trending towards globalism since the end of World War II, but with the rise of fundamentalist Islam and human secularism, there has been pushback by way of nationalism and populism.
The nationalist movements seek to take back control of their nation-states from the global-elite who very much want to blur the borders, blur control, and blur sovereignty. Populism similarly, is an uprising from within a society, who want to take back their culture from something else that is high-jacking it. In our day, it is leftism (social justice, political correctness, socialism, identity politics, anti-Christian, etc.) and fundamentalist Islam that is actively and aggressively high-jacking our media, academia, and government.
Secular humanism is the general philosophy that seeks to replace the traditional underpinnings of Western society and values, with anything and everything other than that of the Judeo-Christian belief structure. I don’t even think they care what replaces it, so long as it is not Christian. This is why they will tolerate the most intolerable of belief systems, Islam, but shun the grace and mercy of Christianity. This is the spirit of antichrist.
…and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 1 John 4:3
Assessment
Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” Revelation 12:12
The reason we are seeing the ramped up turmoil in the world today is that Satan is sensing that he is losing all the momentum towards global governance he has gained over the last century. He is neither omniscient nor omnipresent, so he does not know how all this works out, except for what the Bible has already said about it. He does not know now when things will kick off, but he knows once the Tribulation begins in earnest, he has a very short time. But until then, the timing remains the great unknown factor. So for him, there could be a year left, or hundred, which is why he always has to have a man waiting in the wings to take on the role of the Antichrist.
We (watching believers) sense that the time is soon because of all the converging signs that this current season is throwing at us, but we can’t know the day or hour. But since Satan doesn’t know either, he is forced to stir up all his anti-nationalist and anti-populist movements in the following places:
The United Kingdom, Greece, South Africa, the United States, France, Netherlands, Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, France, Mexico, Central America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.
But Satan isn’t just stirring up the nation and people groups; he is also using human institutions to do his bidding. The globalists (knowingly and unknowingly) have irrationally declared all-out war on President Trump and his nationalist/populist agenda. It is not that God needs Trump to make America great again, God is using this as a forcing function on Satan. In other words, God is forcing Satan to show his hand.
Whereas in the past, Satan’s influence was like an undercurrent, corrupting everything that it touched. Now, Satan is being forced to overtly express his satanic agenda through the media, academia, and deep state agents who are actively creating a rebellion to thwart a return to a strong America. While the United States may not authoritatively rule the world, it is its greatest influencer.
The last thing Satan’s globalist agenda needs is a strong, independent United States, bound under a Constitution created under the auspices of a Judeo-Christian worldview. Since the United States currently dominates the world militarily, economically, and politically, and influentially, as she goes, so goes the world. This struggle my friends is why we are at the escalation of the birth pangs. (Matt. 24:3-11)
Conclusion
Some things I have long pondered, and I keep finding myself returning too; specifically, the dates and numbers related to Scripture and prophetic events. I emailed Jack Kinsella about this back in 2013 I believe, of a revelation of sorts pertaining the Jubilees (although I hadn’t linked the jubilees to the times yet). Needless to say, it has been on my mind now for a few years. Let me caveat this by saying that God is not revealing new information to me because if that were the case, it would be equal to scripture. I believe that He (the Holy Spirit) impressed upon me to take heed to the significance of the dates and years as it pertains to Israel.
We know from other teachers (E.W. Bullinger, Clarence Larkin, etc.) that numbers have significance to them in scripture. Some put TOO much emphasis on them, while others NOT enough. I’m somewhere in the middle on this. I believe they are significant, but I don’t think we can build a salvific doctrine off of it. With that said, I also don’t believe in coincidence. I don’t believe things happen randomly without God’s say-so.
So let’s take a look at some significant dates for Israel in the post-Diaspora era.
1897– First Zionist Congress convenes, led by Theodore Herzl. This was the first legitimate, political effort to get the Jewish movement back to the land of Israel.
1917-The Balfour Declaration was the first official act by the British, who were the current stewards of the land by mandate of the League of Nations. This defined territories and gave Jews the right to repatriate to what was then known as Palestine (former territory of the Ottoman Empire)
1947-November 29: United Nations Resolution 181 voted for allowing for the creation of a new Jewish State in their ancestral homelands
1948-May 14: Israel declares her independence
1967-June 7: Six-Day War begins when Israel is attacked simultaneously by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Israel defeats them, and gains back an undivided Jerusalem
1977-November: Some might ask what the significance of 1977 is. Well, unlike the popular notions that the Middle East land for peace initiatives began under Clinton, Rabin, and Arafat with the 1993 Oslo Accords, the actual process began in 1977-1978 with the Camp David Accords. This included turning Jerusalem into an international city all three major faiths (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) could claim access too. We are at the very tail end of 40 years of this frustration, political machinations, and micro-wars. You could say it’s been 40 years of testing for Israel (nationally speaking).
Two Points to Make
Here is why I think we are at the very cusp of the Rapture. I could be wrong, but let’s say that the Rapture were not to happen for another 30 years. The further we move along in time, the more arbitrary and random the dates and times become. I understand Jesus said, the Lord cometh at an hour ye think not (Matt. 24:44), but historically and scripturally speaking, we know and read that God does not do things randomly (Galatians 4:4-5).
While the Church is not Israel, nor are we bound to her feasts and fate per se, I do believe that we are going to be used to bring about national Israel’s tribulation and then redemption by way of the gatekeeper event known as the Rapture of the Church. Set aside the Church for a second, because we are neither Jew nor Gentile, but a new Creation in Christ (Gal. 3:28).
If there is anything we can take from Scripture, is that God has kept a very short, and tightly controlled leash on the nation of Israel. Furthermore, when Christ said that ‘no man knoweth the day or hour,’ He was speaking to specifics here. He could have said ‘no man knoweth the year or even century of my return,’ and that would be considered very broad in terms of time.
If I said, I would visit you at your house next Tuesday at 10 AM- that is a very specific time. If I said I was going to visit you this year- that is very broad in terms of time. So let us not make the mistake that we cannot know anything about anything about the time of the Lord’s return. We cannot know the day or hour, but we should be able to recognize the season. (Mark 13:35-37; 1 Thess. 5:1-4; Rev. 3:3)
A principle worth mentioning here is the two witnesses. (2 Cor. 13:1-Paul quoting Deuteronomy 19:15)
This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.
Timeline
- So from 1897 to 2017, it has been 120 years.
In Genesis 6:3 (Concerning all mankind)
And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
This could mean either that man’s life would be no longer than 120 years (which Noah, Shem, Job, and Abraham are all apparent violations of), or that in 120 years, the judgment would come upon all mankind. I believe the latter explanation fits what transpired as a converging of events occurred: Methuselah dies at the age of 969 years the same year that Noah turns 600 years old, which was the same year that the flood (judgment) came.
- From 1917 to 2017, it has been 100 years.
In Genesis 15:12-16 (Concerning future Israel)
Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Here we have God prophesying over an unconscious Abraham, that in 400 years (four generations), his descendants would be in bondage. But in the fourth generation, they would be delivered. This is where we are dealing with a generation being 100 years long.
- From 1947 to 2017, it has been 70 years (represents both judgment and fulfillment)
In Jeremiah 25:11-12 (In relation to the Jews in Judaea)
And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.
Their enslavement by the Babylonians for exactly 70 years, was punishment and payment for idolatry and the 70 Sabbath years they had violated in the land of Israel. (Lev. 25:1-19; 2 Chron. 36:20-21; Jer. 25:8-12)
In Daniel 9:24-27 (to the Jewish people and Jerusalem)
“Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy…
We know the 70 Weeks are weeks of years. Genesis 29:18-28 validates the use of this as a means of measurement for time. 70 x 7 = 490 years. We know that 483 of those years were completed with Christ’s death on the cross (Dan 9:26). This leaves one final week (7 years) to be completed. This final week though does not begin at the Rapture, but at the confirmation of a covenant between Israel, the Antichrist, and the many nations around her (Dan. 9:27). This further develops the idea that the Antichrist comes with a deceptive peace initiative that he fully plans to violate at a future point (Rev. 6’s rider on the white horse; Dan. 7’s small horn, Daniel 8’s little horn, and Daniel 11’s willful king)
- From 1967 to 2017, it has been 50 years
In Leviticus 25:8-12 (50 equals Jubilee concerning Israel)
‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.
Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land.
And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.
- From 1977 to 2017, it has been 40 years (Judgment, testing)
Genesis 7:4 (concerning the world)
For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.”
Also: Exodus 16:35 (Israelites wandered in the desert 40 years), Goliath taunts Israel for 40 days (1st Sam. 17:16, Elijah fasted (1st Kings 19:8), Jesus temptation 40 days and nights (Luke 4)
In summary
1897-2017= 120 years
1917-2017= 100 years
1947-2017= 70 years
1967-2017= 50 years
1977-2017= 40 years
Do you see the narrowing window this is becoming? Is it coincidence that so many significant, well-established biblical numbers all align with 2017? I cannot say with 100% certainty that it is, because I can’t see the future. But I worship the Lord our God, and He can. Is it a coincidence that all these align significantly with Israel? God could have reestablished Israel as a nation back in 1732, or 1849. Why 1947? Why did God set Trump to be the 45th president of the United States right at the end of these 40 years? God moves with purpose, and I am sure that this will all work out according to His will, and His plan.
I am not planting my battle flag on this particular hill and saying that something will definitively happen in 2017. At the same time, I do not want to be dismissive of them either. The Lord put these things on my mind years ago, before I was even knowledgeable about them so He must have had His reasons. He could return tomorrow. He could return 3 months from now. Or 100 years from now. But do the dates and spread of numbers (years) all just seem like some kind of random, cosmic joke, or perhaps some monumental coincidence? I think not.
Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you… “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’ Rev. 3:3, 6