As of me publishing this article, we’re now several weeks into the new year. 2018 came and gone and now we reminisce on the year as a whole. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time now, you’re familiar with the fact that I often post on prophetically significant events as they happen or are being set up in terms of the world stage, natural disasters, society, the Middle East, technology, etc. You also shouldn’t be surprised when I say 2018 was an amazing year in terms of the prophetically significant events we witnessed.
I want to dedicate this article to take a look back at 2018 and highlight some of what I believe were the most significant events as well as to quickly talk about what we may be expecting to happen in 2019. These events are in no particular order of significance and this list is by no means an exhaustive one. So much happens on a weekly and even daily basis that it would be far too difficult to pin down every single event of the past year.
Israel’s 70th birthday and Embassy move to Jerusalem
In an unprecedented move, Donald Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem 2018 and officially opened the embassy in May 14th, 2018 on the exact date of Israel’s birthday! He did this after months of also officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital.
Also on May 14th, 2018, the nation of Israel turned 70 years old! The number 70 is an important number in the bible and should be kept in the forefront of our minds. We also know that Israel is God’s “Fig tree” as is told in the parable of the fig tree in Matthew 24:32-34.
One of the many signs accompanying the “end of this age” is the rebirth of the nation of Israel 70 years ago in 1948, prophesied in places such as Isaiah 66:7-11 and Ezekiel 37:1-14. Jesus states that the generation that witnesses this will by no means pass away before his return. I (as well as many other Christians actively watching bible prophecy unfold) believe we are nearing the end of this “timeline”.
Efforts to build the 3rd temple has accelerated
In August 2018, it was reported that an “unblemished” red heifer was born
in Israel and marked a significant turning point for efforts surrounding the rebuilding of the Jewish temple. The blood of the red heifer is used to purify the people of Israel and make way for temple services. To further highlight the importance of this for the temple building efforts, if there is no red heifer, there is no third temple.
Aside from this, Israel also hosted an alter dedication service inviting 70 nations to take part in this event. They’re also preparing a crown for the messiah as they’re expecting him to return soon. For the believer, the temple has nothing to do with us and we know their messiah already came. However, they still reject Jesus as their messiah and are partially blinded.
We also know that the 3rd temple will be where the antichrist declares himself to be God. The importance of the accelerated nature of the building of the 3rd temple is that if we’re currently seeing this coming together – something that will ultimately find its fulfillment during the tribulation, then how much closer are we?
Advances in technology
As technology advances we continue to see to our surprise how bible prophecy becomes more clear. In November 2018, the world was shocked by the announcement that a Chinese doctor genetically altered the DNA of twin girls to make them resistant to HIV.
This is the first case of genetically altered human beings being born and has now led to increased efforts to regulate this technology. As this technology becomes more mainstream and accepted, I believe society will even further parallel the days of Noah when the human genome was tampered with resulting in the flood. You can read more about that in my Genesis 6 series.
In Europe, thousands of Swedes have gotten implanted microchips in their hands as their society embraces this technology and begins cutting their ties to cash. China has also implemented it’s “social credit” system in which it monitors its citizens and rates them. Based on their performance according to what the government decides is acceptable and unacceptable, one could either live freely or be barred from even traveling.
We also saw advances in AI technology as it’s now taking on human like thinking patterns and Microsoft and MasterCard team up in an effort to create “digital identities”. Although these technological advancements themselves aren’t “bad”, the bible tells us we’re approaching a time known as the tribulation in which a one world global system will be created and eventually be controlled by the antichrist, “And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation” (Revelation 13:7).
A global monetary system called the “mark of the beast” will also be implemented. He will also have an “image” made of him that has the ability to both speak and kill. We’re slowly starting to see how these new technologies may have a role to play in what what was written almost 2,000 years ago.
US troops being pulled out of Syria
Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’ (Ezekiel 38:13)
Towards the end of last year, Donald Trump decided to pull out US troops in Syria which came with sharp criticism on multiple fronts but drew praise and agreement from Russia and Turkey. As soon as this was announced, Christians familiar with bible prophecy were quick to emphasize the importance of this decision. One of the end time prophecies we’re seeing the setting up for is Ezekiel 38-39 concerning the war of Gog and Magog.
In this prophecy, Gog and allied nations will come against Israel and no one will come to their aid it in it’s worst time of despair. What is written is that the most some nations will do is protest this attack (Ezekiel 38:13). However, God is the only one that comes to her aid to make himself magnified, “Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 38:23).
Christians for years have asked, “what happens to America that we don’t come to Israel’s defense as one of it’s arguably closest allies?” This may be the start of that very thing. Now that Trump has decided to withdraw US troops from Syria, Russia, Iran, and Turkey (3 of the nations that attack Israel in Ezekiel 38) will gain a stronger foothold in Syria.
We are seeing Ezekiel 38 set itself up just as prophesied. We also need to keep in mind that this may also be creating conditions for the eventual fulfillment of Isaiah 17 (the destruction of Damascus) as Israel faces a growing threat on its existence and seeks to curb any and all forms of aggression against it.
Civil unrest with yellow vest protests in France and other parts of Europe
Yellow vest protests erupted late last year in France and has spread to neighboring countries in Europe. This all started with France’s president Emmanuel Macron’s plans to increase fuel prices in order to allow France to become less reliant on fossil fuels and in turn also help with the global global warming issue.
However, it sparked outrage among ordinary French citizens who have already been disgruntled due to relatively high living expenses in France. He’s since walked this decision back but this has not calmed the protesters down as they’re still occurring.
Why is this significant? It seems to many Christians (and I agree) that this protests along with other factors such as Brexit for example is creating an environment of chaos and disorder that some globalists may be orchestrating to bring about suitable “conditions” for the antichrist’s debut to the world stage. “Order out of Chaos” some say. Whether this is true or not, time will tell but I believe we should also be focusing our attention to events in Europe.
US working on Middle East peace plan and said to disclose it in early 2019
Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, as well as Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt (and others) have been formulating a Middle East peace plan for quite some time now. As of recent there are talks that the plan will be disclosed in the next several months (early 2019) possibly coinciding with Israel’s elections in April 2019.
Although I don’t think this peace plan is THE covenant written in Daniel 9:27, it may very well serve as the basis for it, only time will tell. Either way, we need to pay attention to this as it may very well divide up parts of Israel – something we know God is highly against.
Natural Disasters
This is probably one of the most easiest “signs” of the times we’re living in. Not only in 2018 but for several years now the earth has been seeing an increase in natural disasters in terms of strength and frequency.
2018 has seen deadly fires in California and other parts of the world (including fire tornadoes), heatwaves that have been classified as “natural disasters”, increase in volcanic activity such as with Hawaii’s Kilauea, unprecedented flooding in places like Venice, Italy that saw around 70% of the city flooded, as well as hurricanes and Tsunamis, earthquakes, I could go on.
The bible calls these “birth pangs” and makes it clear just as birth pangs, as Christ’s return draws near, these events will continue to grow in frequency and severity. This is something the secular world has been noticing and is growing in concern in as nations are calling for a joint effort to stop and eventually walk back the effects of “climate change”.
What to Expect in 2019?
Despite this article’s length, I’m sure I only covered a bit of some of the important events of 2018. From what the bible tells us, I believe we can expect to see a speeding up of these events as Christ’s return draws near. As time goes on, we’ll continue gaining more understanding of the prophecies contained in scripture. To keep up with the latest prophetically significant events, be sure to navigate to my commentary page.
The most important part about all these “signs” as foretold in the bible is that it all points back to Jesus. Soon, he will come take his church out of the earth and those who have not believed in Christ’s sacrifice at the cross will be left behind to face the worst 7 years in human history known as the tribulation. We don’t know when this will be but the bible tells us we can know the season of his return and we are in that season!
Sources
- The Middle East is Bracing Itself for a Week Packed Full With Milestone Events of Biblical and Prophetic Proportions (May 8th, 2018) – Now The End Begins
- Temple Institute Announces Birth of Red Heifer (September 5th, 2018) – Breaking Israel News
- China’s ‘social credit’ system is a real-life ‘Black Mirror’ nightmare (September 19th) – New York Post
- The Atlantic and Pacific Ocean hurricane season is most powerful on record this year (October 23rd, 2018)
- Venice streets under water in worst flooding in a decade amid deadly storms throughout Italy (October 30th, 2018)
- In Sweden, cash is almost extinct and people implant microchips in their hands to pay for things (November 23rd) – Financial Post
- Chinese scientist outrages researchers by claiming he gene-edited twins (November 26th, 2018) – NBC News
- Who are France’s ‘Yellow Jacket’ protesters and what do they want? (November 27th) – NBC News
- Israel says Trump’s Middle East peace plan to be rolled out in early 2019 (November 29th) – CBS News
- Mastercard and Microsoft have a frightening plan to create universal “digital identities” (December 4th, 2018) – Fast Company
- DeepMind’s AlphaZero now showing human-like intuition in historical ‘turning point’ for AI (December 6th) – Yahoo News
- BIN Exclusive: Campaign to Construct Messianic Golden Royal Crown (December 7th) – Breaking Israel News
- Miracle of Ingathering at Dedication of Altar for Third Temple (December 10th, 2018) – Breaking Israel News
- Trump Withdraws U.S. Forces From Syria, Declaring ‘We Have Won Against ISIS’ (December 19th, 2018) – The New York Times
Support the Ministry
[…] the beginning of 2019, I wrote an article titled, A Prophetic Review. In the article, I summarized what I believed to be some of the most prophetically significant […]