Q. Our family continues to enjoy the resources you provide on your website. Your Mark MP3’s have become one of the mainstays for our family Bible studies. I do have one question regarding prophecy that you may be able to answer (provided you have some free time).

I’ve carried a strong interest in Bible Prophecy for a number of years now. I’ve noticed of late some slight diversion as to the identity of the fourth beast of Dan 7. The traditional view has been that it is the Roman Empire and that we will soon see an end time revival of that empire. Another more recent view has been that the fourth beast is the Islamic Empire that began with the Ottoman Empire and has continued to this day. I believe that those holding this view reconcile the Roman Empire as an extension of the Grecian empire (through the 4 divisions that came out of this empire). I believe that those holding this view also acknowledge the Roman Empire as being one of the 7 heads of the beast identified in Rev 13. This more recent view has also led several to strongly suggest that both the beast and Antichrist must come from the East and that the Antichrist will be an Assyrian. Read Post »

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” (Matt. 16:2-3)

So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Matt. 24:15-16)

For then there will be great distress (Great Tribulation), unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. (Matt. 24:21)

When it comes to developing any kind of time line concerning the End Times, the watershed event has to be the Abomination that Causes Desolation. Why? Because from that time forward, the Bible gives a very clear sequence of events. Read Post »

Q. There are many opinions about what Christians should do in voting this year. Many writers present and past point out that there is not a lot of difference between the parties and that we are looking at voting for the lesser of two evils.  Read Post »

Q. Can you explain what the Palestinian state issue is all about? What is the history of it and significance of the political/spiritual struggle now?

I have read comment about our presidents support of that as backing away from support of Israel.

Thank you so much! Read Post »

Q. I had a friend ask me why most of God’s nature related judgments hit the Bible Belt and not our cities that resemble Sodom and Gomorrah? Any thoughts? Read Post »

Q. What are some major signs of a church falling into apostasy? I ask because I fear the church my husband and I have been attending for over 7 years may be slipping in the Emergent/Seeker Friendly category. Most classes are now being taught from books associated with contemplative prayer and meditation. We have also introduced a class on intercessory prayer being taught from a book by a known false prophet. My husband’s class is taught by a man that claims Eve was not the first woman God created, that it’s okay to gamble, that what we secure for ourselves in this life is what we’ll have in heaven… etc.

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Q. My question is: Revival or not? In every Christian group I go to everybody is waiting for a very big revival, I live in Perth , Western Australia, and almost every preacher said that will be a huge revival here in Perth that will spread over the country.

But what I can see, it’s only word of mouth without any particular spiritual movement. If I watch the Christian Television it’s the same story!

I am waiting for the Rapture with all my heart, I love Jesus very much and I would like to believe in a genuine revival under the Hoy Spirit wind. Is this “revival’ biblical?

A. Many of those who teach of a great revival in the last days also adhere to the false doctrine of Dominion Theology. It holds that through revival the Church will become very powerful and eventually convert the whole world.

But the Bible says no such thing. On the contrary, it teaches that before the end comes there will be a great falling away from the truth (2 Thes. 2:3) and that the true Church will become weak and have little strength (Rev. 3:8) Sadly, apostasy in the Church is the real sign of the End Times, not revival.

Q. I have had some news items come to my attention from Christian sources that say world food shortages are about to happen in the near future and that we as Christians should be trying to prepare. It has been my belief up to now that the serious severity in food shortage and other products would most likely happen after the Rapture. I can see where things may get pretty tight as this is happening right now..cost of gas rising, cost of food rising, etc. My question is- Do you believe there are going to be very serious food shortages and other kinds of extreme hardships here in the U.S. before the Rapture happens? And if so, other then tightening our finances what else can we be doing?

A. There really isn’t any Biblical basis for thinking that the shortages being experienced in rice and a few other commodities just now is a sign of impending world wide famine. Food and gas prices are rising, but for most of the people we know getting rid of a few luxuries they don’t need anyway would solve the problem.

Jesus said that before the end comes there would be famines in various places, but that this was just the beginning of birth pangs. After the rapture, things will quickly get worse, but even so the famines of the 4th seal of Rev. 6:8 only effect 1/4th of the world. The trumpet and bowl judgments will be worse than that and eventually about half of the world’s population will die. But by then the Church will be long gone.

A much more urgent problem lies is the fact that the average person in the US, Christian or not, is living so far beyond their means that even a little bump in prices hurts immediately. These people will soon discover that there’s plenty of food to buy, but with their variable rate credit card, mortgage, and consumer debt, they’ll have to make some painful choices in order to come up with the money.

We complain about $4.00 gas but many of the world’s inhabitants are paying up to twice as much on less income and still manage to survive. It just takes re-ordering our priorities, and the more of our income that goes out in interest costs, the more urgent our need for doing so becomes.

Perspective by Jack Kelley

There’s a video currently on the web, promoted by a well known prophecy website, that a whole bunch of you have either sent links to or asked about it or both. Here’s my response.

Read Post »

Q. The destruction of the northern invasion’s troops and allies with obvious supernatural intervention is said to show the Lord’s greatness and make Him known among nations (Ezek. 38:23), but apparently, this is not the same as the kind of acknowledgment that Zech. 12:10 speaks of (after Armageddon), with Israel turning to Jesus as Messiah as a nation?I don’t understand how Israel could proceed to follow the anti-Christ if they had turned back to the Lord after the Ezek. battle. Ezek. 39:22 says: “The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward”.

How can they know that and then proceed to follow the anti-Christ? Is Jesus as Messiah still out of their minds until the second coming and instead, Israel thinks that the anti-Christ is the messiah until then, and they are following Yahweh without Jesus by building the temple? The timing doesn’t fit the whole picture otherwise.

A. I think you understand it pretty well. At the beginning Israel, and indeed the whole world will be astounded by the things the anti-Christ will be able to accomplish. (Rev. 13:3-4)

And since the Jews have always believed that the Messiah will be just a man like King David was, they won’t see the problem with him until the middle of the 70th week when he proclaims himself to be God. Then many of them will have the same issue with the anti-Christ as their ancestors had with Jesus. This is why he turns on them during the Great Tribulation.

Then at the end, those who’ve survived and haven’t already recognized that Jesus has been their Messiah all along will have their eyes opened just before the 2nd Coming as Zechariah 12:10 says.