The Protoevangelium

Since this blog is about prophecy in the Bible I wanted to do a series about the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah and the New Testament fulfillment of those prophecies. There are more than three hundred different prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the coming Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Old Testement is a record of the promises of God concerning the Messiah and the New Testement is  a record of their fulfillment in Jesus. The chance of all the Old Testement prophecies being fulfilled in one man is 84 followed by 131 zeroes. There is no way that Jesus would be able to fulfill these prophecies by chance, this was God's plan and it was carried out to His letter. 

Today I would like to start with the very first verse in the Bible that concerns the Messianic prophecy.This is called the protoevangelium, or  first gospel.

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”

Genesis 3:15

In the Bible, when the seed, or offspring are being discussed, it is always the man's seed. This verse is the one exception to that rule. There is only one man, Jesus, that is born of a woman without a man's seed. 

 ¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,”^[i] who is Christ. Galatians 3:16

In Genesis, God is predicting that Satan will be able to inflict temporary pain and suffering, but ultimately, Jesus will triumph. "He shall bruise your head" is a mortal wound, Satan will be defeated when Jesus dies for our sins. This is the ultimate triumph over Satan, we are saved because of the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.

¹⁴ Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.¹⁶ For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. ¹⁷ For this reason he had to be made like them,^[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.  Hebrews 2:14-18

The Mark of the Beast

The Mark of the Beast, or 666 is well known in popular culture, it is seen in books and movies and even music. If you go into any bookstore or Christian store you will find lots of books on the Mark of the Beast and what it means. I think the earliest movie that I remember seeing is the Omen though you can find lots of movies that deal with the subject in biblical prophecy, both documentaries and fictional. 
Many people treat the Mark of the Beast like it is a horror story, something they see in movies and read about in books, but ultimately not real. People think that no one can force them to get a mark on their hand or forehead, not in this free country. Well most people will not have to worry about getting this Mark. The Rapture will have occured first and the church will have been taken out of the world along with the Holy Spirit. The Antichrist will then rise up and take control of the world, the Bible does not specify how long it is between the time the Antichrist takes power and then signs a peace treaty with Israel, which included rebuilding the Temple. This treaty will be the beginning of the Tribulation period. 
²⁷ He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’^[h] In the middle of the ‘seven’^[i] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple^[j] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. Daniel 9:27
In the middle of this peace treaty, the Antichrist will enter the Temple and declare himself God. 
³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness^[a] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. ⁴ He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
At some point, the Antichrist is killed with a wound to his head. In a poor imitation of Jesus rising from the grave, the Antichrist will rise from the dead and his deadly wound will be healed. 
³ One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. Revelation 13:3
After the Antichrist rises from the dead, he is indwelt with Satan. The Antichrist is not God, he is actually dead, only through Satan indwelling him can he rise from the dead. 
The Antichrist has a helper, the False Prophet. When the Antichrist rises from the dead, the False Prophet erects a statue of the Beast and enforces a system where all people have to have a mark on their right hand or forehead. A system of worship in enforced where all people must bow down and worship this statue and all those that refuse to take the Mark will be killed. 

¹¹ Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. ¹⁴ Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵ The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. ¹⁶ It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
¹⁸ This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.^[e] That number is 666.         Revelation 13:11-18

Now you may be thinking, couldn't people fake the Mark? The answer is no, sure they could fake it from a distance, but the Mark will actually be a microchip inserted in their hand or forehead that will be scanned. This is scary, but scarier still is the fact that the technology exists today. Most pets are now "chipped" in case they get lost. The chip is an RFID microchip that is about the size of a grain of rice. 

en.wikipedia.org

im9.eu

Are you thinking that no one is using the technology right now? There are certain private and government agencies that require their employees to be chipped as a method of entering the secure facility. Article
Many institutions are now starting to use RFID technology, for example prisons are starting to use RFID to track their inmates. They do not have to have a chip implanted, just an ankle bracelet at this time. Article
Schools are also starting to make their students wear a name badge with an RFID chip. Article
In the preliminary versions of the Obamacare healthcare bills there was a measure that would require all those on public healthcare to be required to have a chip implanted with their medical history. None of these versions made it to the final bill. Article


As you can see, the technology is very real. I would not worry about getting a chip or accidentally taking the Mark of the Beast. When this system is implemented there will be no doubt as to what you are doing. You would never be able to take the Mark accidentally.

The Harbingers

Harbinger: anything that foreshadows a future event; omen; sign (dictionary.com)

“The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with hewn stones;
The sycamores are cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”

Isaiah 9:10

Looking back on biblical history we can see the effect disobedience had to the Israelites. In Deuteronomy 28 God tells Israel that if they obey the commands that He has given to them, God will bless them. 

⁹ The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. ¹⁰ Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. ¹¹ The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.                Deuteronomy 28:9-11

If the Israelites turned away from God and disobeyed His commands they would be cursed. 

⁵⁸ If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God— ⁵⁹ the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. ⁶⁰ He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. ⁶² You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.                      Deuteronomy 28:58-63

God had infinite patience with Israel and gave them many chances to turn back from their disobedience and follow Him. Israel ignored the prophets that warned them again and again to return to God. Finally God sent harbingers Israel as a final warning, but in their arrogance, Israel ignored the warnings. 

America is following in the footsteps of Israel. America is the only other nation that was founded on biblical principles, as a Christian nation, and as long as we continued on that path, God blessed America. We were blessed more than any nation on earth, America was the leader of the free world. For most of our history we considered ourselves a Christian nation, and our leaders stood for those principles. As time has gone on we have started removing God from every aspect of our lives; from school, government, public institutions and public places. Anything Christian is mocked and abhorred. Is it any wonder that the blessings that America once had are leaving us. We have received the same harbingers of warning that Israel received, and we have chosen to ignore them and have arrogantly claimed that we will triumph under our own power. 

God sent nine harbingers to Israel and America. In the next section, I will relate the harbingers that Israel received to the ones that we received. There is no way that this can be coincidence, the events line up in an eerie similarity. Only God's hand on these events could make them so similar. 

“The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with hewn stones;
The sycamores are cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”

Isaiah 9:10

THE HARBINGERS

The first harbinger is the breach. God had protected Israel throughout her history. Many times He had saved her from incredible odds, but now He removes the hedge of protection from Israel and she is attacked by the Assyrians in 732 B.C.  

The United States has been the military superpower of the world. We are far superior to any other nation in the world. God has removed our hedge of protection and our breach came on September 11, 2001. For the first time, we were attacked catastrophically within our borders. 

The second harbinger is the terrorist. Assyria were the terrorists of their day, they had the art of terror at its highest level. They were one of the most feared nations because they would kill their enemies in horrific ways. The Assyrians are actually the ancestors of Al Queda, the terrorists that breached our walls. The Assyrians spoke a language called Akkadian, the language is extinct but it developed over time into Arabic, the language spoken by Al Queda. So the two terrorists groups spoke a similar language while performing the same acts of terrorism. 

The third harbinger is the fallen bricks. After the Assyrians attacked Israel there was a lot of damage to buildings and walls. Many piles of fallen bricks were all around Israel. The fallen bricks are a foreshadowing of the nation's future collapse. I don't need to remind you of the destruction caused by the falling towers. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

The fourth harbinger is the tower. After the Assyrians attacked Israel, they vowed to rebuild even better and stronger than before. They did not repent and turn back to God, instead they proclaimed their defiance to God. They proclaimed that they would rebuild with hewn stone, a much stronger alternative than the mud and straw bricks that they had used previously. Hewn stone could also be built higher.

After September 11th it seemed that every leader was making proclamations of rebuilding. There was a lot of talk about building a freedom tower in the place of the twin towers, as a symbol of our defiance. We were talking about being defiant to our enemies, but we were really being defiant to God.

The fifth harbinger is the Gazit stone, or the hewn stone. This kind of stone is usually quarried out of mountain rock. After it was carved out of the mountain, it would be smoothed and shaped into a building block. The stone must then be transported to the site of the fallen bricks to be a part of the prophecy. Israel had stone hewn out of the mountains and brought back to begin their rebuilding. Now you are probably thinking that we don't build with granite, but with steel; but we did have a cornerstone of granite cut out of the Adirondack mountains and we called it the Freedom stone. 

http://archive.longislandpress.com/2010/09/10/freedom-stone-ceremony-honors-non-uniform-911-responders/

The sixth harbinger is the Sycamore. When the Assyrians attacked Israel many of the sycamore trees were cut down and destroyed. The sycamore in that time was the ficus sycamorus, also known as the fig mulberry tree, a common tree all over Israel's lowlands. The uprooted sycamore trees are a foreshadowing of the uprooting of a kingdom. Now you are wondering what this tree could have to do with America, there are not a lot of trees in downtown Manhattan. As the north tower collapsed, it sent debris flying through the air. At the far northern corner of ground zero the debris struck down a sycamore tree. 

http://neddybee.blogspot.com/2011/09/miracle-of-sycamore-at-ground-zero.html

The seventh harbinger is the Erez tree, or cedar. The sycamore was a common tree, not considered very strong. In their proclamation, Israel planned to replace the common sycamore trees with very strong cedar trees. Erez is usually translated as cedar, but it is really more of a conifer tree, a pinacea tree. Pinacea trees include cedars, spruce, pine and fir trees. The sycamore that had fallen at ground zero is removed and put on display as a symbol of the calamity. Now a new tree would need to replace the fallen sycamore. Instead of replacing it with another sycamore it is replaced with a pinacea tree, picea albies. 

http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/news/articles/lighting-ground-zeros-tree-of-hope

The eighth harbinger is the utterance. The utterance is the proclamation of the vow in the capital city. The nation's leaders had to make the proclamation and speak the act of defiance. In Israel, the leaders made the proclamation of Isaiah 9:10 in Samaria, the capital city. Did this utterance take place in America? Yes it did. In 2004, John Edwards speech in front of the Congressional black caucus was built entirely on the vow of Isaiah 9:10. 

Here is a link to the speech. John Edwards Speech.

The ninth harbinger is the prophecy. This harbinger is also verbal, but it is not about what is, but what is to come; a prophecy. The proclamation by Israel in Isaiah 9:10 is both a vow and a prophecy. On September 12, 2001, the day after the attacks Tom Daschle, the senate majority leader gave a speech. In the speech he quotes Isaiah 9:10, in doing so, he joined together America and 9/11 with the prophecy in Isaiah. In effect, he prophesied judgment on America. Tom Daschle's speech.

As you see how the events in America have mirrored those of Israel, you can see that America has been warned and we have stood in defiance of God's warnings. We are seeing the results of that defiance now with our failing economy and the disasters that have come upon this country since that date. 

If you want to find out more go and check out the book The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn.

John 3:16

One of the best known verses in the Bible is John 3:16. We see it everywhere, people holding signs with John 3:16 on them in pictures, Tim Tebow has it written on his eyeblack, it is on bags and shirts and bumper stickers; it is the ultimate symbol for being a Christian. 

http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/2012/03/john-316.html

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1870689,00.html

I wonder if anyone really thinks about what it means anymore. Let's take a look at the verse:

For God so Loved the World 

That He Gave His Only Son,

That Whoever Believes in Him Shall Not Perish

But Have Everlasting Life

Let's start with the background. God created a perfect world and then created man to have authority over it.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26

Man was only given one rule, that he may not eat from one tree. This was a test of obedience and love, but man failed.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:15-17

With this act of disobedience man gave the authority he had over the earth and all things in it to Satan. When people say, "why did God let this happen?" The answer is simple, we gave authority to Satan. We had free will and we chose to hand the dominion of the earth to Satan. God does not cause disasters or evil things to happen, but He does not interfere with our free will. God wants us to love and worship Him by choice, not because we are forced to which is why He does not interfere with the choices we make; good or bad. 

Then God chose Abraham to be the Father of a new people, a people dedicated to God. Abraham made a covenant with God. God would bless Abraham and he would be the father of many nations. As we see in the Bible, God keeps His promise to Abraham and his descendants become the Israelites. One of Abraham's descendants is Moses. Now to Moses God gives the ten commandments and lays out the system of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. Blood must be shed for sin to be forgiven. This is a precursor to Jesus sacrifice in the New Testament.

Up until the time of Jesus the Jewish people lived under the law. The law required sacrifice of animals at different times for forgiveness of sin. You can read about all the different sacrifice requirements in the book of Leviticus. If you are wondering why the Jews don't continue the system of animal sacrifice today it is because according to the Torah sacrifices were only allowed to be made in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Once the Antichrist comes to power, he will rebuild the Temple and the sacrifices will resume for a time. This will continue until the Antichrist comes into the Temple and declares himself God. 

Now we get to the verse. God loved all of us, not just the Jewish people. Very few gentiles would become Jews and follow the system of law. God needed a sacrifice that would be for all people and would do away with the system of law. God became a man and was born as the poorest of the poor. Jesus endured all that we as human beings endure during our lives. He was hungry, thirsty, cold, tired, alone; everything that you imagine a human would experience. During His lifetime, He focused on telling as many people as He could reach about God and His love for all people. He knew that He was sent to earth for one purpose, to die.  When He was crucified He took all the sins of everyone on himself as a one time sacrifice. He died so we could live! There is only one thing that we need to do, believe in Him and accept the gift that He died to give us, eternal life. 

There is more to this verse, everyone always stops at the one verse 3:16. I want to talk about more than that part of the verse. Here is the continuation:

¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:17-18

Now we see the reason that God sent Jesus into the world. Not to condemn the world, but to save it. Jesus is our only hope. We cannot get into heaven based on the good deeds that we do. If we are judged according to how "good" we are then we would be doomed. No one on their own can be good enough to get to heaven. All we need to do is accept the gift that Jesus is giving to us through grace. 

Whoever believes in Jesus and accepts this gift of life, their sins are washed away. The slate is wiped clean. The opposite side of this gift is the rejection of it...anyone that does not believe in Jesus is rejecting the gift of salvation that He died to give you. It does not matter how good you are, you have committed the unpardonable sin by rejecting Jesus. 

I pray that you reach out and take that FREE gift that Jesus wants to give you. It costs you nothing and it will change your life. God loves you so much that He sent His son to die so that you do not have to...why would you not take the gift He is offering to you....