 the recording to start. Recording has started. Good morning everyone. Welcome to DC214. We're going to pray and get started and hopefully the others will get in, join the class soon. All right so John, would you like to just pray with us and we'll start? Gracious Lord, we thank you for this morning. We pray and bless this time of learning. Pray to God that your word will come in power and we would be able to understand with its significance. We pray that we would be enriched by your word and enable us to teach others and equip others also. Because your coming is near to God. We pray that you would anoint pastor to release your word of God. We thank you for all of us. Could come together in your presence to seek your face called. We thank you in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for joining the class especially Enoch, Abubakre, Isaac. I know you're joining us from Africa. Yes and it's probably very early in the morning there. So thank you for the sacrifice. All of you are making to get up early and attend the class. It's amazing. Yes and may the Lord richly bless you for what you're doing. Amen. Okay. So we are doing this course on the end times. I'll just quickly review what we have covered last week as we have introduced the Bible as a prophetic book. We went through some examples where the prophecies in the Bible which are so amazing some given hundreds of years ahead of time some given thousands of years ahead of time have been fulfilled and we just mentioned a few but we did that last you know went through it just to give us the confidence to show us that the Bible is a very amazing prophetic book history written in advance and therefore as we go into studying prophetic scripture we go with the confidence knowing that the things that have been written will surely be fulfilled. So we will review that very quickly. Then we will review we'll talk a little bit about the terminology used in the Bible concerning the end times and how to understand that. So we'll do that and then the next two lessons are kind of historical information historical geographical information. Some people enjoy that some people don't like like too much of history and geography so I don't know how you will react to it but we will have two lessons one looking at the Middle East and then one looking at Israel very specifically. The reason is as we start looking at prophetic scripture this context the historical and geographical context is very useful for us to understand prophetic scripture. So that's the reason we have these two lessons one looking at the Middle East and one looking at Israel specifically and I will not you know I'll try to keep it simple and of course both the documents are in the class work in Google so you can you can take it and you know read it but it's very good to have that background so that you will be able to you know when we go into prophetic scripture and start looking at end time prophecy this information will be useful. So that's what that's our plan for today I will try to finish that so then from next week we start getting into Bible prophecy the sequence of events and so on. So let's quickly review what we did last week we were talking about the Bible as a prophetic book and we mentioned some of the prophecies talked about the Egyptian slavery the Babylonian captivity we talked about the mention of Cyrus the king who would send Israel Jewish people back to Jerusalem we talked about the Daniel's prophecy about the coming of Christ you know 483 years before I mean from the time of going back to Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah he prophesied several prophecies concerning Christ himself that are throughout the Old Testament scriptures the destruction of the temple the dispersion regal ring of Israel 3,500 years before God spoke he said this is what I'm going to do and he kept repeating that prophecy through various prophets that word through various prophets and it was eventually fulfilled 1948 and Israel was established as a nation in their own land over there then we spent time in Matthew 24 chapter 24 looking through that chapter and just breaking it down so that we understand how Jesus gave us signs of the times and that chapter Matthew 24 can be broken into three sections one is the signs leading up to the tribulation then what's happening during the tribulation and after that Jesus gives us exhortation saying how to be ready for the end times so if you Matthew 24 can be very clearly divided into those sections and if you look at it that way it's it's simple easy to understand Matthew 24 Luke 21 and also Mark 13 these are all parallel scriptures in the gospels so we went through that I will not be repeating it here it's in the notes for you to follow so we just divide this to two sections the the remaining verses of Matthew 24 are the exhortation how to be ready for the coming of the Lord so we'll start from here today in the in the Bible both Old Testament and New Testament there is terminology of phrases that are used to reference the end times so and all of us in the reading of Scripture we would have come across these terms example last days the time of the end and I'm just quickly going through here all the references the latter days the day of the Lord the day of Roth the last day used in singular end of the age end of the ages ends of the ages sorry and end of the ages the last hour the coming of the Lord the appearing of the Lord revelation of Jesus Christ or when he appears or his coming so these are some of the phrases and I've given all the references here so these are some of the phrases that are used or terminology used old in the Old Testament and New Testament to refer to the end times now what I want to just mention to us is that these are pointing to a time period but they're not you know it's not like every time this phrase is used it's referring to exactly the same period for example the day of the Lord it's a very very broad you know statement so you if you go through all of these scriptures we will find that this phrase day of the Lord can be talking about talking about something happening in the last days it is so the day of the Lord is always not is not always referring to the precise event or precise moment in the last days the phrase day of the Lord could refer to different events like if you look in all of these scriptures it could be used to refer to different events in the end times example the Zechariah 14 in the day of the Lord there is in Zechariah 14 he's talking specifically when the Lord comes and descends on Mount Olives so the phrase the day of the Lord and in that chapter is referring is referring to something but the same phrase day of the Lord can be used in first Corinthians 5 5 to refer to a time of judgment when we will give an account to the Lord it can be used first the so in 5 to begin in a very generic sense that when the Lord Jesus returns for the church to take the church away in 2nd Peter 3 10 the day of the Lord is referring to the time when the earth will be renovated by fire meaning it's after the great white throne judgment just before the new heavens and the new earth I was giving you examples so the same phrase day of the Lord is being used in many scriptures but it can be used to refer to different things happening in the end times we know day of the Lord yes it's he's pointing to the end times something in the end time but the specific will depend on the passage where it is being used so and and and all of these phrases you know like example the latter days now we find it being used many times or the last days last day or last days in the latter day it's all being used many times but depending on where and how it is used it could refer to something different in the end times the reason I want to point that out is we must be careful how we interpret the same phrase from different bible passages the rule is interpret it correctly depending on the context of the passage right so you have to look at okay in this passage what is he specifically talking about okay so that means that same phrase day of the Lord or last day or you know the same phrase is speaking of something different in the end time period based given this particular passage if we make the mistake saying the day of the Lord always refers to this particular event and we put it in every passage it will be very it'll you know it won't it'll be very messy we will it won't we won't be able to interpret correctly so the same phrase as we have mentioned many phrases um but it is used differently and depending on the context we on the passage we will understand what it is specifically referring to okay so please keep that in mind it's just a general guidance on how to interpret these terminologies used concerning the end times they're all concerning the end times but they are referring to different things that happened during the end times classic example one more example is last days last days okay it's a phrase that is used about the end times yeah we understand it but it is used differently in different places example acts to 17 it'll come to pass in the last days i will pour out my spirit on all flesh yeah he's talking about the last days but he's talking about something different here he's talking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the movement the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon people so last days but specifically referring to Holy Spirit second Timothy 3 1 Paul is writing in the last days the Holy Spirit is telling that they will come scoffers they will come people whose love has grown cold they'll be haters of each other and so on yeah he's talking about the last days but in second Timothy 3 he's talking about something different he's talking about people who are very hateful and um so on uh is giving a different is the focus is something different so like that now again in the last days this is used in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2 he says in the last days God has spoken to us through his Son whom he has made the air of all things oh now it's something different he's using the same phrase last days but he's talking about the incarnation he's talking about Jesus Christ coming into this world as a physical expression of God so now we say oh the last days actually started when Christ came so totally different this last days act 2 17 he's talking about here physically literally 80 30 this last day second Timothy 3 1 is talking towards the end of the last days Hebrews 1 2 last days talking about Christ being born into this world so same phrase last days but different time positioning he's this one is positioned on the day of any cost when the church began and it'll continue on till the end second Timothy 3 1 Paul is writing yes he's referencing his time but specifically also speaking about how people will behave towards the end of time Hebrews 1 2 last days talking about the birth of you know how the incarnation Jesus so same phrase used in different Bible passages referring to different things happening and also different positioning in calendar time so we have to interpret the phrase last days depending on the context the passage where it is being used just again highlighting it I hope that it's clear any questions on that let me pause and see is that clear any questions on that okay so I'll feel free to ask any questions right so all of these you know phrases that we need to understand now I go to the we go to the next chapter the next lesson where like we said we're going to talk about the Middle East and then we're going to talk about Israel and this is the background this is background information for us as we get into Bible prophecy so let's talk about the Middle East and the surrounding regions this is important for us to understand so we know in the Bible that the Middle East is very significant because right from the very beginning the Garden of Eden was located somewhere between the Tigris and the Euphrates River right so if you look at the world map today where are these two rivers flowing through the Euphrates River and the Tigris they flow through this Middle East region primarily they're going through Turkey they're going through Syria they're going through Iraq so this is very important to know the Garden of Eden was located somewhere here between or between these rivers or around these rivers when God promised Abraham when God called Abraham he called him out of the Ur of the Calities which was somewhere you know in Iraq and he told him to make this journey down into this land of Canaan that is around you know Jerusalem here but he said God said from the river Euphrates in the north to the River Nile in the south that's the land I am giving to you that's the land I'm giving to you so God promised this whole region to Abraham and his descendants right so we will you know we will look at that when we get in the next chapter on Israel but that is very interesting so it is very interesting very important geographically that a lot of the action and things spoken of in the Bible is happening in this region of the world right so it is good for us to know okay these are the countries involved Turkey Syria Iraq of course Israel there's Jordan Lebanon somewhere here and then is Egypt in the south so those are countries that are involved here it's important for us to know that is one part then when we go into Bible prophecy Daniel the prophet Daniel he prophesied about coming world empires so he was living during the time of the Babylonian Empire Nebuchadnezzar until his grandson Belchazar and then after that Daniel and during that time Daniel prophesied about the coming world empires God showed him that and we will look at it in the book of Daniel in our third year when we study Daniel in Revelation so Daniel prophesied he spoke about the Medes and the Persians he spoke about the Greek and the Roman Empire and then Daniel described that you know so you can we can look at the this is just a little table to show you know what we see in the various chapters of Daniel and what they actually represent the empires that they represent don't worry too much about it this is just a quick summary we will look into detail on this next year when you study Daniel so Daniel prophesied about this and then he mentioned that there would be a time when the Roman Empire the iron and clay would be mixed this is in Daniel chapter 2 clay representing all the other nations people of other nations iron representing the Roman Empire that region they would be mixed and from here will come 10 toes or 10 horns or 10 leaders and then another leader will come who will displace or take control of three of these 10 leaders and that is the Antichrist that other leader he even said that this empire the Greek Empire referring to Alexander the Great who will expand his empire very quickly he will suddenly die he will die very young he will die suddenly and then prophesied that the Greek empire will be split into four parts which will be governed by these four leaders who were under the main leader which was Alexander the Great and from one of those four the Antichrist will come the little horn will come he prophesied that so sure enough Alexander the Great came he expanded his territory very fast all the way to northern part of India from there from Greece but he died very young and when he died his empire was divided into four parts and four of his generals were overseeing this just as Daniel prophesied it happened and then later the Roman Empire took over that whole region and Daniel said you know he gave the sequence of events that will happen so this whole part is very interesting for us the region that was covered by the Greek Empire the region that was covered by the Roman Empire and I will give you a map later on you'll see it it is very interesting for us because it is part of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and especially it's kind of giving us idea of the 10 leaders who will come and then the little horn who will come will be the Antichrist he it's very interesting for us to look into it so a little bit more so what happened here after the Roman Empire is Islam came to power it took over a large part of the Middle East and Northern Africa Islam you know through their expansion of course part of it was militant militant expansion covered took over a lot of the Middle East and Northern Africa so now you have these Arab nations all around Israel 22 Arab nations surrounding all of that region and Israel is a tiny piece of land you'll see in this map Israel is so tiny and surrounding Israel as a nation are all these nations that are actually Arab nations because Islam spread through all this region right and here is Israel a tiny little nation in the Middle East in the Mediterranean and all of these regions are Arab nations surrounding Israel the Arab nations are quite powerful because of the oil reserves so it's like they are controlling the lifeblood of the global economy because of oil and so they are very influential in that sense in the global economy what we see happen over time is Israel was formed as a nation 1948 prior to that we had Egypt Iraq and then Syria all of these nations coming in the Arab nations establishing themselves their own identities and all these are happening you see within the last century or so all of them have come into prominence here in the Middle East so Israel declared itself as a nation founded itself as a nation may 14 1948 and right after that there were some intense battles that were fought and till today the conflict continues between the Palestinians who are Arabs predominantly and Israel the Jewish community so there is this constant struggle going on and we will talk more about this in the next lesson where we focus in on Israel but this constant struggle going on and it is literally something God spoke ahead of time that Jerusalem would be the center of conflict and it is literally going on today almost every week or every other week in the news we are hearing you know what's happening in the Middle East between the Palestinians and Israel right so we're hearing that we'll talk a little bit more on that in the next lesson so that part of the world is important and then like I said Europe and the former Roman Empire is important because now this is going back in time this was the region of the Roman Empire right so if you compare this with today's world map you see Northern Africa parts the Middle East parts of Europe all around the Mediterranean that was the territory covered by the Roman Empire Daniel spoke about it as in Daniel chapter two he talked about the feet of iron which was the Roman Empire or he spoke about in Daniel chapter seven he spoke about this terrible beast talking about a kingdom that would be very very extensive very strong very powerful and that of course was referring to the Roman Empire that covered all of this region so what Daniel had said was there will come a time when iron would be mixed with clay that means iron referring to the Roman Empire mixed with clay referring to being mixed with people of all other races and that is what we are seeing today that in this area in this whole region which was formerly part of the Roman Empire there is a mix of people happening you know so it's not like just yes that historically that was the iron the Roman Empire but now it's just all people all kinds of people living there all mixed and he said there will come 10 leaders from here 10 toes 10 leaders 10 horns and then they will rise another horn from what used to be the Greek Empire and so broadly speaking when Alexander's Alexander you know so when Alexander's Empire was divided there were so from Greece that is somewhere here his empire was divided into four major areas Greece Turkey Syria and Egypt right so this region the Greek Empire of course the Roman Empire was much bigger but the Greek Empire Greece this area Turkey let's write this area Syria that's this area and Egypt this area so now I'm saying area because it's not it you know it does not exactly where Egypt is it you know it's in that region so the Greek Empire was broken into these four parts and Daniel said from one of these parts will come the little horn the Antichrist so we don't want to pinpoint and say okay it's going to be from Turkey or specifically we are saying this region right so of course today Turkey makes makes a major part but here in this region we have multiple countries Greece and a couple of other countries here similarly here in this region we have multiple countries we have Syria Iraq Jordan Lebanon Israel here also we have okay so but this is the region this area and he says from he Daniel said from one of these areas will come the little horn that is very clear in in profits in Daniel's prophecy okay so this whole area is very interesting for us and now today's map so that's why I mentioned highlighted Greece Egypt Turkey Syria broadly speaking because these were part of the Greek Empire later became part of the Roman Empire and Daniel said from one of these four regions the Antichrist will come the small horn that now if you look at today's world map right these regions are important because remember the Roman Empire covered this part this part of the world and and we're not seeing them the northern part of Africa but it covered all of that so what's happening here is of much interest and the Middle East and so on now many of these countries actually now are part of the European Union so it's of interest to us how all these things are unfolding because from somewhere here there will be 10 leaders 10 significant leaders who will emerge and then we will see the rise of a little leader who will take control of three of these leaders and influence them people you know we'll get into the scriptures on that so this whole region is important it's interesting to see what's going on in Europe northern Africa Middle East so on okay so here we are just giving us a little bit more of that same map these are the countries that are involved so when you say Greece there is Greece but then there's also other countries like Bulgaria Macedonia that were all part of this section of the Greek Empire then there was Greek Turkey that is also broken off so we look carefully at these what's happening here how these things how these countries are moving so on right so whatever I've said you know I've written it here so you can read it about these 10 leaders and 10 nations that are coming Russia is also very interesting because the bible is speaking of Russia yeah we'll read about this in ethical 38 and a physical prophesied about the king of the north now Moscow is directly north of Jerusalem if you look at the world map Moscow capital Russia is directly north of Jerusalem physical prophesied there will be a king from the north he will come he will invade from the north and he is going to be supported by Persia now Persia is modern-day Iran and Iraq he will be supported by Ethiopia Libya Gomer which are parts of Germany Slovakia to Garma which is Turkey and Egypt so in ethical 38 ethical mentions these names of these rulers and these countries that means ethical spoke sorry he spoke and said the king from the north and he mentions some of the tribes that which tribes which are today part of Russia so that's why we know and that's why we say it's from Russia because the tribes that is equal mention are tribes that are living he mentions Russia for example Russia's a tribe that is part of today's Russia so he says they will come and they will invade Israel and they'll be supported by these nations and today we are seeing that these nations see when Daniel was sorry when Ezekiel the prophesying these were there these kingdoms were there but they were not identified as nations and here we are in the last 100 years these nations have actually come into existence including Israel like we said earlier Egypt and Syria and Turkey and Jordan these nations have all come into existence as political nations independent nations they've come into existence in the last 100 years so it is all very interesting because this was spoken in bible prophecy in the time of Ezekiel and here we are we're seeing these nations come into existence and so then we start looking at how are they all aligning themselves with Russia and China you'll also see so it is interesting how are these nations interacting with Russia what is happening how will how will all this work out so we are keeping an eye on these regions but Ezekiel prophesied Ezekiel 38 39 he said what will happen how Russia will invade Israel they'll be assisted by these Arab nations they'll be pushed back they will be and Israel as a little nation will will stand against such a powerful big nation like Russia stand against that right another interesting area that we need to think about is the bible in Revelation 16 and then prior to the Revelation nine talks about a kings from the east now we will go through Revelation you know we'll give an overview of the book of Revelation so that we understand that we will we will look at this I'm just giving in you know mentioning it here as an introduction so Bible talks were kings from the east so now we have to look eastward from Israel Jerusalem look east so remember he said king from the north north of Jerusalem okay Russia eastward most likely China most likely and he talks about an army of over 200 million people that's a very massive army troops which you know which the only nation that could ever or the nations two nations that could possibly have that kind of an army would be China and Russia so he says kings from the kings from the east will come towards Israel so most likely we are saying China Russia and other countries who are joining them they will move towards Israel that is in the battle of Armageddon the final invasion so that is again interesting so we keep in mind so how about these nations in the political situation globally and we can see today Russia and China they are aligning themselves to each other it's almost like there's they're the western nations the United States the United Kingdom Europe specifically Germany France who are leading those nations allied with each other and then you have Russia China who seem to be in some sort of an alignment with each other it's happening right it's you know why is it like that well you can see this was already spoken of much ahead of time in the Bible saying you know this kind of an alignment will be there and it will lead to the build up towards the battle of Armageddon and then in interest in connection with the battle of Armageddon the Bible specifically zeros in on a particular region of the world called the Jezebel Valley or the Valley of Megiddo this is where the battle of Armageddon will take place the north of Israel towards towards this part of Israel in the Jezebel Valley and so this is again interesting for us and historically this has been the region of many conflicts so if you look at it Israeli historically over the four thousand years major about 34 major conflicts have taken already taken place in the Megiddo Valley or in the Valley of Jezebel including the Napoleon and the British general Allenby fought and General Allenby the British general he fought against the Ottoman church and that was a time when Israel some of the people that land somehow gained their own I would say significance at that time and then later on they handed that whole region back to the people Israel and the British left so this part this part of the world is very significant and what the Bible is clearly saying Revelation 2016 the Bible mentions this region the Jezebel Valley and the Bible also mentions the river Euphrates will dry up and it will cause it will facilitate a movement of armies towards this region now very interesting that the river Euphrates is actually drying up now because of several factors of course that contribute to it the drought that has been there and then the way the water systems have been used but in Revelation 16 during the second half of the tribulation it will be dried up right so now you can see it is beginning to dry up but in Revelation by the time we reach the second half the tribulation it will be dried up right so I'm not saying we are in the tribulation but I'm just saying hey it's a very interesting connection that this great river that has always been flowing that has been very you know very significant Revelation 16 and the second half of the tribulation the Bible says it will be dried up and today it is beginning to dry up it is so it's it's interesting and it will facilitate the movement of armies towards this region for a battle the battle of Armageddon will be fought here right so that is also of interest for us as we look at what is happening and the way the battle of Armageddon take place is the kings from the east king from the north will come in will move in right so from the east will come the armies from the north will come Russia so you see Russia is right here and Jerusalem Russia north and there will be the other Arab nations we spoke about will all join together coming in to fight against Israel so this whole movement is very interesting for us let me look at Bible prophecy right so this is just a quick overview of regions of interest so the Middle East so what we just quickly covered in this chapter is the Middle East and other regions which are of interest in terms of Bible prophecy right so we need to keep an eye on what's happening in all of these parts of the world how these countries are beginning to interact with each other how things are slowly being built up towards that final conflict the battle of Armageddon so let me pause here are there any questions before the break are you all with me is it getting too it's okay are you all following a small question go ahead please so we in the last picture which we saw we saw an army of I think it was two million coming from north I believe east yeah but so in this scenario we have this you know the countries are having nuclear weapons and you know the heavy machinery so so does this mean that people army literally would be coming or the army is still in the country and they would they might be using the modern technology of war yeah yeah so we will see a combination of things so when we go into the book of Revelation we will see that some of these the destruction that is described and it is very interesting actually because when John is writing he says I see smoke like sulphur red like crimson and things like that he describes it and today we can say hey this is the kind of destruction that would be caused by the kinds of weapons we have the use of nuclear arms the use of you know intercontinental ballistic missiles even the use of drones coming and attacking so some of the things that John has described definitely refers to these kinds of weaponry but as we see happening there is also movement of land armies you know which for example if you look at what's happening with Russia and Ukraine yes there are these fighter jets and yes there are these missiles being fired and drones being fired but to physically take over the land the army has to move right so basically it's a combination because if you want to try to take over the land people your people have to be there physically just firing drones will not be now you know your people have to take over so it's a combination and interestingly Revelation describes that both it describes these these kinds of destruction which we can only think of from missiles and other weaponry but it also says the kings of the east will move into Jerusalem which means that physically they're sending their soldiers because they want their people to come and be in the land right so both the answer is you will see both happening and both are described in Revelation yes thank you thank you any other questions master i've got one quick question here please go ahead master over the years i've heard a lot of interpretations or prophecies about you know the the the forming of the european union and that's where this young horn or you know the antichrist would form up and so on but but in in this map and with your explanation so is it would it be like something from the Middle East or i mean is there any relationship between that yeah so what we know from Daniel's prophecies is this so and we will go into the scriptures you know in the next year when you talk about Daniel but i'll just summarize this based on Daniel's prophecies from the region that used to belong to the former roman empire there will come 10 leaders so we have to look at where the former roman empire covered it did not cover all of europe it covered like we saw on the map some parts of europe but significant parts of you know you cross the military and you come covered turkey middle east northern africa so from that region there will come 10 leaders so the european union is of interest because it overlaps with this roman empire but we must be clear that not all of the european union was part of the roman empire there are countries which belong to the european union which did not belong which were not which was not which were not under the roman empire but some of the countries were so that is one thing to keep in mind so the european unit is of interest because it could potentially give to rise to some or maybe even all of the 10 leaders but it doesn't have to be because they could come even from you know you look at the roman empire it gets it gets into parts of the middle east turkey syria all of those so it the 10 leaders could come from even those countries so that's the first thing to keep in mind from scripture second thing to keep in mind was daniel was very specific he said the greek empire will be divided into four parts this is daniel chapter eight the greek empire will be divided into four parts and from one of these four parts will come the little horn who speaks great things that is the antichrist so then we have to look now at the greek empire which was the region covered by the greek empire when the greek empire was broken what were the four parts again like i mentioned very broadly speaking the area where greece was turkey region around syria and around egypt these are the four regions that the greek empire was broken into and was later governed by the four generals that alexander the great had and daniel clearly said from one of these four areas so um now that the greek part that includes parts of the european union once we cross the Mediterranean come into the other side the east side of the Mediterranean which is turkey syria and northern africa um they're not part of the european union but there is one portion that was it is part uh that is part of the european union that side which today would be gree greece and the country's north of it you know so that is of interest to us because the antichrist could come from that region or you know turkey that any one of those four areas that was belong to the greek empire so that is very clear in scripture and so we can look at that so are we interested in the europe union yes uh are we interested in these other regions yes you know that are covered by scripture we need to look at them very carefully thank you master okay we've gone into a break time a little bit uh let's pause here we'll go for our 10 minutes break we'll come back and then we'll continue with this okay thank you everyone