 Welcome back to our second lecture, BC213, the End Times. Yeah, so during the break, we just did a quick search online and found out that Indian soldiers fought in World War I, World War I along with the Allied forces against the Ottoman Turks to set that area free. So that was the involvement of Indian soldiers at that time, World War I, 1918. All right, so let's just pick up where we pause, just to give a little bit of history to the regions that we have been talking about and then we'll get into studying the scriptures. So we're talking about a little bit of the history of Israel as a nation, 1948, Israel became a nation, next major thing, 1967. The Six Day War, Israel captured the old city of Jerusalem. This became, this was very significant, they got control of the city of Jerusalem. And then as an outcome of that, there was a resolution made that part of the east part of the city will be given to the Arabs under Arab control. The western side would be under Jewish control. There have been other battles that have happened, a lot of attempts to establish peace in Israel, in its relationship with the Palestinians. That's been an ongoing effort and we've seen over time different efforts made trying to establish peace in the Middle East. And we are aware of the current conflict that's going on and efforts by the United States or European Union trying to bring some sort of understanding for peace. For example, the most recent thing that's happening is President Biden proposed, let's create Palestinian state, give them their own place. That was the only way for peace. Prime Minister Netanyahu says, no, no, no, we will not do that. I will not give a place for the Palestinians. It will all be under Israel's control and so on. We don't know what's going to happen, but that whole effort of how do we bring peace in the Middle East, that still is going on. Just highlighting a few things that are biblical relevance. Israel becoming a nation, the regathering of people into that land has been something that has been foretold in Scripture. Isaiah 11 verse 12, God says, I will assemble the outcasts of Israel. I'll gather them from the four corners of the earth. Isaiah prophesying, okay, I'm bringing them all back. Ezekiel saying, Ezekiel 36, I'll multiply all of you and bring you back as cities will be inhabited and rebuilt and they will take possession of the land. I'll bring you from the nations and gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land. Ezekiel 36, 24. So God foretells that I'm bringing you back to your own nation. And all of this happened in just one, in almost like a suddenly, in a day. And Isaiah says, who has heard of such a thing? Shall the nation be born at once? As soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. A nation was born. So the establishing of Israel as a nation is something of great significance and importance for us from a biblical perspective. Now what we are to bear, and if you see the map on page 39, Israel has a large control of a large part of this land, but there are regions what we know as known as the west bank, west of the River Jordan, west bank. And then there's a Gaza Strip. There's a small portion on the western side along the Mediterranean Sea that are occupied by the Palestinians. And that is where a lot of conflict is happening right now, the Gaza Strip. That's where Israel has been bombing, trying to get rid of the Hamas, the Palestinian group. And so there's conflict going on. And that small piece of land is causing so much of a problem here. And west bank, that's where other Palestinians are. And Israel has been trying to reoccupy portions of it, put up their own settlements and so on again. But Palestinians want this as their own land, want to be identified as an independent sovereign state. So this is where the trouble is going on. And then the focus then is on Jerusalem, right? So in Jerusalem we have... So in Jerusalem, Palestinians, Gaza, west bank, just give you some information here. So if you look at Israel, there's a tiny little nation surrounded by several other Arab nations. And page 41, we're highlighting those regions where there is conflict going on. Now, the points of conflict, the Temple Mount. So this is what we had mentioned earlier. For the Jews, it goes back all the way to the time of Abraham. Because on Mount Moriah is where Abraham offered, or he brought Isaac to be offered as a sacrifice. David bought that mountain, made a sacrifice on it. And so on that mountain, Mount West Solomon built a temple. So it's a very sacred place for the Jews. But it's on this place where the Muslims have their mosque and the Dome of the Rock. So around 86, 85, top of page 42, there is the Dome of the Rock and also the Al-Aqsa Mosque that has been built there, established there. So if you look at a little picture of this, I think you're on page 44, you can see in the center of the Temple Mount is the Dome of the Rock and towards the wall is the mosque. And so this whole Temple Mount has both these structures which belong to the Muslims. And then on the western wall, so you can see the picture of the Dome of the Rock, on the western side, that is where the Jews are allowed to come and offer prayer. They're not allowed on the eastern side of the Mount, of the Temple Mount. So that's on page 45. You have some pictures of them coming and praying. So this whole Temple Mount has become a point of conflict. And as we look at Bible prophecy, there has to be a third Temple built here because we say third Temple because first Temple was built by Solomon. The second Temple was the renovated Temple that was rebuilt by during Ezra's Erebel that time. So that was destroyed. So now on this place, a new Temple has to be built. We call it the third Temple or the millennial or sorry, the third Temple, the millennial Temple would be the one that's cleaned up and set aside afterwards. So right now there is no Temple, but there has to be a third Temple because the Antichrist is going to go in here. First of all, he's going to allow the sacrifices to resume. And then he's going to come in and he's going to stop the sacrifices and he's going to make himself as God. So how is all this going to happen? We don't know. All we can say at this point is the Jews are ready to rebuild the Temple. They have everything ready to put up the Temple. But as of now on the Temple Mount is the who Muslim structures the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. And it is not going to be easy for anything to happen there. So it's a very tense situation, very difficult situation. Another thing to keep in mind is the Jewish settlements. So once Israel came back to their land, they started rebuilding, establishing, rebuilding their cities and rebuilding all their homes and so on. And what is interesting, and again, people who study all of this can explain it, Jeremiah 31, 38 to 40, Jeremiah had prophesied that the city will be built and he mentioned the sequence in which things would be rebuilt the tower of Hanel, the corner gate, the hill garb, the valley fields, the brook-kidron, horse gate. And what people have observed is, have followed how the settlements have been built. They tell us that the way Israel rebuilt itself across the land took place just in this same order. So this is again an amazing thing, that the way Jeremiah prophesied, in the same way everything was rebuilt in the land in this order. So that's something interesting, something to keep in mind. And the settlements are going on here. So the relationship between Israel, Egypt and Syria is something to keep an eye on. Right now things may be tense. It is on high alert on all sides because north side, there is Lebanon and Syria, south there's Egypt, west there's Jordan, Iraq, Iran. So it's always on high alert because any of these nations could attack against. But when you look at into the future, Isaiah 19 talks about Egypt turning to the Lord, a highway connecting Egypt and Syria, Isaiah chapter 19, and Egypt and Syria becoming friends with Israel. So this will most likely be fulfilled during the Millennial reign of Christ. When Christ reigns, then all these things, all these nations will become friends with Israel and this high-level people. So that's in Isaiah 19. And for us, how should we look at Israel, you know, at the church, Israel and the church? And how should we look at Israel or Zion and Jerusalem? So I've just given some notes there on page 48 and 49 that we understand that right now God is working through the church and the church is ministering to the Jews and the Gentiles. The church is made up of believers belonging to the Jews, whether they're Jews or Gentiles, and we are preaching the gospel to the Jews and to the Gentiles, leading them to Christ. And God is making of both who one new man, Jews and Gentiles, are coming to faith in Christ. The tribulation period will see a lot of focus on Jerusalem and Israel and what happens with them during that time. And so when we go through revelation, we will see how God is working through Israel or in Israel as a nation, what has been prophesied. So keep in mind that God has not given up on Israel just because he's working through the church right now. So we are in what we call as the church age. The emphasis is on the church, but it doesn't mean God has said Israel, bye-bye. No, he's still got a plan for them. He's still going to do things for them as a nation. So just keep that in mind. And so as a church, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We reach out to Jews and Gentiles with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay, what the Bible has foretold, this is in page 50, what the Bible has foretold about Israel, that Jerusalem will become a troubled spot. There will be a peace treaty for three and a half years or false peace. And we will go through this as we look at the series of events and how they will happen. I'm just giving this as a preview. And then there will be the great tribulation during which God will do things in and through Israel. And then everything will culminate with the battle of Armageddon and the second coming of Christ. And during the millennium, Jesus will reign out of Jerusalem. And from there, he will govern and rule over the nations. We'll go into these details in the coming chapters. Okay, all right. Chapter number four, Bible prophecies of coming world events. So what we want to do now in chapter four is to start, is to get a good picture of the sequence of events. What is going to unfold? Okay. And then we will, as part of this, we will also do an overview of the book of Revelation. We'll just go through Revelation chapter, but I mean, just giving an overview of what is going to happen. But let me just introduce this topic today and we will continue this next week. So if you look at the chart, so this is a chart we will refer to often. And so we are right now in what we refer to as the church age. Right. And we're coming to the end of the church age. So the next major event that's going to take place is the rapture of the church. Okay. So the big question, when will the rapture of the church take place? Will it happen before the tribulation or in the middle of the tribulation or at the end of the tribulation? Right. So our position is that the rapture of the church will take place before the tribulation. And we will give many reasons, as in the same chapter as we go forward. Why we say that? Why do you say, biblically, right? Why do you say that the rapture of the church will take place before the seven years of tribulation? We'll give reasons for it, okay? But that's a big area where people have questions. Why do you say that? We will have that reasons. So the rapture of the church will take place and the believers will be taken into heaven. Right. Those who have died before, we will all receive glorified bodies, will be taken into heaven. Seven years on the earth will be seven years of tribulation. We will be in heaven and there will be things happening in heaven. Right. And we will look into detail what will happen in heaven when we are there during the seven years. At the end of the seven years, and what will happen here on earth during those seven years, book of Revelation, journey through it. End of those seven years is the battle of Armageddon, Revelation chapter 19, when Christ and all of us return with Jesus. So that's the second coming of Christ. So when we say second coming of Christ, we are referring to the rapture of the church, we will call it rapture of the church. But second coming of Christ, we refer to it when he comes at the end of the tribulation to establish his kingdom here on earth. The rapture of the church is his secret coming because everybody won't see him. He'll be in the clouds. The Bible says we will meet the Lord in the air. So he's not coming onto the earth, we're meeting him in the air in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord. But second coming, he's going to come, he's going to set his foot on Mount Olives. He's going to establish his kingdom right here on earth. Okay. What happens at the end of the seven years? So we will look at scripture for all of this. Okay. I'm just giving us an overview and outline. Now, during the seven years of tribulation, there will be many people who will believe in Jesus because they will read the scriptures, a lot of things. There will be the preaching of the gospel that will happen on the earth. They will believe. They may be martyred. They will also be raised. Those who have died during the tribulation believing that they'll be raised. And we will reign and rule with Jesus for 1,000 years. During this time, Satan will be bound. He's taken out of the way. So this is referred to as a millennium, the thousand year reign of Jesus. Jesus will rule on the earth for 1,000 years at this time. At the end of the thousand years, Satan will be lost for a short period. He will try to deceive the nations once again. And God will, he'll go attacking Jerusalem. God will intervene. And Satan will be bound and cast away into the lake of fire forever. And at that time, every person will be raised and then we have what is the great white throne judgment. That's the final judgment, the great white throne. Then we will all be taken out of the way. So the believers will be taken out of the way into heaven. All the others will be sent to the lake of fire. And there will be new heavens and the new, everything that we know, the universe as we know, the current heavens, current earth will be dissolved. And God is going to make everything new. And we will, we have a little insight into what there's new heavens and new earth look like in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. So there will be new heavens and the new earth and heaven will be established here on the heavenly city of Jerusalem. We'll come down to the earth. We will be here. Okay? So we're going to look at all of this in detail. Okay? So let's pause here. We are going to now, so that's the overview. So what we're going to do from next class is we're going to look at each of these step by step. We're going to read the scriptures. Okay? Look at the scriptures for each part of this and try to understand how it's going to happen. And we will also journey through Revelation, give you a little insight about the outline in Revelation. Okay? To help us understand the sequence of these events. And we'll answer questions along the way. Why do we say, you know, rapture happens, etc., etc. We will answer questions as we go along. Okay? So let's pause here. Any questions on just what we talked about? We did a little bit of geography, which areas to think about. A little bit of history about how Israel became a nation and some of the important wars. We don't have to study Israel history in detail, no, just to have some idea. And then an introduction to the overview of events. But we will get into the details of scripture by scripture. Any questions for today before we pause? So let's close in prayer. I know we are finishing half an hour early, but you can relax for half an hour. Let's pray. Somebody could pray and we'll dismiss. Father, we thank you for this day, for this time, Lord. We come to your presence, Lord. And thank you what we have learned today, Lord Jesus. And give us understanding so we can learn deeply more further. Thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord Jesus. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Thank you everyone. So next week we get into the details of the sequence of events. Have a good week. Thank you. Bye.