Awaken Bible Prophecy Update 6-14-23: Take 2 – Beware of Watchers & Exposing Evil

This Prophecy Update will be slightly different.  It combines two different subjects that I comment upon.  Sometimes these individual, shorter topics come together more quickly than a single longer theme, although they are hopefully not any less pertinent.

The two issues I bring forth today are the following:

The first, titled: Beware of Watchers Bearing Gifts discusses the immense changes in human life that came about in the antediluvian era through the seemingly benign and quite helpful gifts given to mankind in a difficult time where presumably all activities were a constant struggle.

The second, titled: Exposing Evil looks at the current efforts to reveal the wickedness in high places and what it accomplishes in these final hours.

In both Commentaries, we come to understand that God continues overseeing the affairs of men and that His plans and purposes inevitably prevail.

Transcript:

This Prophecy Update will be slightly different.  It combines two different subjects that I comment upon.  Sometimes these individual, shorter topics come together more quickly than a single longer theme, although they are hopefully not any less pertinent.

The two issues I bring forth today are the following:

The first, titled: Beware of Watchers Bearing Gifts discusses the immense changes in human life that came about in the antediluvian era through the seemingly benign and quite helpful gifts given to mankind in a difficult time where presumably all activities were a constant struggle.

The second, titled: Exposing Evil looks at the current efforts to reveal the wickedness in high places and what it accomplishes in these final hours.

In both Commentaries, we come to understand that God continues overseeing the affairs of men and that His plans and purposes inevitably prevail.

Before we jump into these issues, let’s pray and read from God’s Word.

<PRAY>

Scripture:

Isaiah 1:23

Your princes are rebels
    and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
    and runs after gifts.
They do not bring justice to the fatherless,
    and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

Ephesians 5:11-15

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,
    and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Take 2:

#1 – Beware of Watchers Bearing Gifts

• Last year I started watching the History Channel show titled Alone.
• It didn’t take long and I got hooked on it.
• Because I exercise every day, I’d watch an episode or two which made good use of my time.
• I’ve now watched all nine seasons of Alone plus the non-season-specific series they produced.
• As you can imagine, I’m now an expert on wilderness survival.
• (And, yes, for those of you wondering, that was a self-deprecating, sarcastic statement.)

• For anyone not familiar with this show, ten participants – men and women – are separately dropped off into a remote wilderness area.
• Locations have included Vancouver Island, Canada; Patagonia, Argentina; two different spots in the Artic, Canada; Mongolia, and Labrador, Canada.
• The objective is to be the last one standing, and that person wins the $500,000 prize.
• They can bring ten survival items from an approved list.
• One of the unique and challenging aspects is that the participants must film their own adventures.
• The idea is that if something isn’t captured on video, it never happened.

• Because of my fascination with the series and how it got me to thinking, I previously wrote a blog article titled Tapping Out, which equated the term used by someone ready to leave the wilderness experience with the desire of many of us to tap out from this world in the pre-Tribulation Rapture.

• Because that article appeared on Rapture Ready, it just so happened that Dave McIntyre, who won Season 2 of Alone, saw my piece because the title intrigued him, and we communicated a little from there.
• As Dave said to me in his email: “I have often referred to the winning moment of my season like a picture of the Rapture”, so the picture I painted in what I wrote really hit home with him.

• One thing that’s very apparent in Alone – in contrast to someone like Dave McIntyre – is that the vast majority of participants are not Christians.
• They honor the land, the game they kill for food, and the ancestors (their own and those of the area in which they wield their survival skills) when giving thanks, but they never praise and honor God by giving Him thanks for His provision.
• I love the strength, determination, and ingenuity of the men and women on the show, but it grieves me that they miss the point of life and Who has given it.
• When they thank the land or an animal for its life, I often shout out loud: “No! You need to thank God!”
• For some reason they don’t hear me.
• What this has done is give me the opportunity to pray for many of them, even though the seasons of the show are long past.
• I bring these people before the Lord and ask that He does a good work in their lives, and they would come to know the true source of all they have – Jesus Christ – in a deep and personal relationship with Him.
• Someday it would be wonderful to know that God answered my prayers for a few of them.

• One of the ancillary shows associated with the main series is called Alone: The Beast.
• This is unique in several ways.
• Each self-contained episode features three participants who are strangers to each other.
• In this case, there is apparently a camera crew because these three have enough challenges without trying to film them.
• They are dropped into a wilderness area (the Artic for Episodes 1-4, and a Louisiana Swamp (Episodes 5-6) but there’s a major twist.
• A large animal is killed for them and they must find it, then use it for their food source for the next month.
• The problem is that they begin with no tools – nothing.
• They don’t have a knife, a ferro rod as a means to easily start a fire, or anything else useful in their adventure.
• The idea literally is that they must survive as primitive man did before he had these capabilities.
• To skin the beast, they use sharp rocks and even reeds cut lengthwise as knives, since they contain silica, which through its crystalline structure provides a means of cutting/sawing.
• Some of the fire-starting efforts are astoundingly difficult because so much of the wood in some of these locations is always damp.
• They use the bow-drill and hand-drill methods, and the effort can take many hours of exhausting, repetitive activity.
• For firewood and to build their shelter, they have to break off tree branches by hand since they have no ax or saw.
• It’s brutal and provides an immense challenge as you can imagine.

• What’s my point?

• It’s one that’s quite pertinent and extremely Biblical.

• Think about when Adam and Eve were first cast out of the Garden.
• What did they have in order to survive?
• As far as we know, nothing but the animal hides that God had given them to cover their nakedness and shame.
• Somehow, we see in Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel that a primitive lifestyle developed.
• Abel tended flocks of sheep and eventually made a sacrifice of one with its fat portion.
• This implies he had some type of cutting instrument (perhaps no more than a sharp rock) and likely made fire in some manner for his offering.
• Likewise, Cain tilled the ground (with what?) and grew some type of fruits or vegetables.
• It could not have been easy given the simple and rudimentary implements he must have fashioned to produce what he did.

• Then, in Genesis 4:20-22 we learn that the primitive circumstances changed in some manner:

Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

• Apparently, all of a sudden, these men had the means to raise livestock that could be slaughtered for their hides to make tents; they had musical instruments; and suddenly they were able to forge bronze and iron tools.
• What a miracle this must have been and how it must have changed lives having these capabilities, when previously they likely had only minimalistic implements!

• This is the idea of Alone: The Beast, whereby all the items that the participants have to work with are back from a stone-age era.
• They’re operating on the same level as early man before these tools were introduced.
• What a wonder an iron knife with a real blade is to those without!

• That brings us to the question: How did Jabal, Zillah, and Tubal-Cain begin using these items?
• Did the idea to make them come out-of-the-blue as a revelation from God, or was there an intervention of sorts from another source that brought them into a more prosperous lifestyle?

• One of the most important extra-Biblical resources we can read is the book of 1 Enoch.
• It’s considered a pseudepigraphic writing, i.e. it’s named as having Enoch as its author, but the likelihood of that is remote.
• It was probably written in the Intertestamental Period, a.k.a. the Second Temple Period, of about 400 BC to 100 AD by Jews seeking an understanding of God and the workings of the supernatural in the world.

• Just as we cite Genesis 6:1-4 to Biblically comprehend the rebellious spiritual entities who have so influenced life even through today, likewise we examine 1 Enoch for greater details of these sons of God who left their own habitation and positions of authority (ref: Jude 1:6).
• Consider the following passages (just like we might consult a history book):

Enoch 8:1-4:

1. Azâzêl taught men to make swords of iron and weapons and shields and breastplates and every instrument of war. He showed them metals of the earth and how they should work gold to fashion it suitably, and concerning silver, to fashion it for bracelets, and ornaments for women.  And he showed them concerning antimony and eye paint and all manner of precious stones and dyes.  And the sons of men made them for themselves and for their daughters, and they transgressed and led the holy ones astray.
2. And there was much godlessness on the earth, and they made their ways desolate.
3. Shemihazah taught spells and the cutting of roots.

Hermani taught sorcery for the loosing of spells and magic and skill.

Baraqel taught the signs of lightning flashes.

Kôkabêl taught the signs of the stars.

Ziqel taught the signs of shooting stars.

Arteqoph taught the signs of the earth.

Shamsiel taught the signs of the sun.

Sahriel taught the signs of the moon.

And they all began to reveal mysteries to their wives and their children.

4. And as men were perishing, the cry went up to heaven.

1 Enoch 9:6-8

6. Thou seest what Azâzêl hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were preserved in heaven, which men were striving to learn:
7. And what Shemihazah has done, to whom Thou hast given authority to rule over them who are with him.
8. They have gone in to the daughters of the men of earth, and they have lain with them, and have defiled themselves with the women. And they have revealed to them all sins, and have taught them to make hate-inducing charms.

• [Note: passages above are from both the Charles and Nickelsburg translations.]

• Now you can begin to see the purpose of the title of this Commentary.
• Consider how these many gifts from these spiritual beings – the sons of God – the Watchers – were able to improve the life of men on the earth.
• Just think: to now have implements and tools to cut and to till the ground making all aspects of living off the land so much easier.
• Yet, look at what else the Watchers gave to mankind that did nothing but cause conflict.
• They introduced weapons of war and immense sexual depravity as they lay with human women.
• These bestowers of gifts upon humanity showed them hidden purposes of plants for both healing and cursing, for magic spells, and for divining mysteries.
• Where did astrology and other occult arts originate?
• This is it – they go all the way back to before the Flood.
• The Watchers corrupted men, women, and children in their lust to lay with human women, bringing great misery into all the world.
• Indeed, the gifts of the Watchers were a Trojan Horse that led to the destruction of mankind once, and will do so again.

• However, with all that the Watchers provided mankind, you can understand how pagan cultures revered them as gods.
• All ancient peoples have mythologies that reflect back to the Watchers.
• You can also see how in setting themselves up as gods, they could control the people through the withholding of favors.
• They exercised dominance over those they ruled and subjected men into bondage.

• As humanity accepted all that these gods offered, any understanding of the One true God was lost.
• Without Him there is immense spiritual darkness.
• That’s exactly how the world was until Jesus came into it.
• In like manner, because the world has rejected God in our current time, this same darkness is consuming everything once more.
• Before long it will be complete once the Rapture of the true church occurs.
• Then, it’ll be like a curtain drop, and night falls in utter blackness.

• It is for this that God must judge.
• The purpose is to redeem Israel and those among the Gentiles who will turn toward Him – back to the light.
• What will also happen in the final days of the Tribulation is the imprisoning of all dark spirits roaming the earth.
• We see only a glimpse of that with Antichrist and the False Prophet sent immediately to the Lake of Fire, and Satan being chained for 1,000 years in the abyss.
• However, all of Satan’s cohort – all the Watchers, i.e. the rebellious sons of God, and the entire demonic realm, will likewise spend the next Millennium in the darkness of the pit of hell.

• During those many years there will be no demonic force tempting mankind to sin.
• What sin arises will come only from the innate nature of man.
• Jesus Himself – in His glorified flesh – will sit on His throne ruling and reigning over the entire world from Jerusalem.

• The utopia envisioned by men through the years is nothing compared to how it will truly be during this time.
• That moment is soon approaching.
• How marvelous it will be for those of us who love the Lord!

#2 – Exposing Evil

• A sincere and much needed prayer among Christians today is that God exposes the evil in this world from on high.
• Given all that’s going on around us, it seems as though He is answering this plea.
• Many of us desperately desire for the wickedness being perpetrated behind closed doors to have light shown on it.
• Certainly with more people beginning to comprehend that the government is not our friend, that the medical establishment has been thoroughly corrupted, and that the last three years of COVID machinations were all planned in advance for the purpose of taking down America and for global elites to seize power – exposure of all this evil, and more, is occurring.

• The question looming over all this, however, is: What purpose does it serve for light to shine into the darkness and expose its evil?

• How one answers the question indicates in large measure how that person views Bible prophecy.
• There are many people in what is called Alternative Media, and in related spheres, who are working diligently to accomplish this much needed end.
• They’ve researched, do regular podcasts, create documentaries, write extensively, and even bring lawsuits – all for the purpose of revealing that which has been hidden by The Powers That Be (TPTB).
• Seeing so much information get out there makes many of us quite happy that finally something positive is being done.
• From this, numerous people are awakening to the truth.

• But, again, what’s the point?
• Where does it lead?

• If one has a Biblical, prophetic worldview, the answer takes us to the truth; if someone ignores the prophetic aspect, then only partial Biblical truth may result.

• From Scripture we see clearly that we are now in the very end of the end times.
• It’s difficult to comprehend how any Christians can miss this – but, of course, many do.
• We understand how all the signs of the final days have converged and continue to move the needle forward to the tipping point.
• Others argue that we’ve had many of these signs in the past, so today is nothing special or different from then.
• Seriously?
• How can they say that?
• When in world history did literally all nations come into agreement and act in lockstep against a perceived viral threat that then resulted in the mass application of a lethal bioweapon put forth as a life-saving vaccine? – this subsequently maiming or killing millions with many more to come?
• When previously was there universal agreement and action toward implementation of a digital currency and digital ID that are a forerunner of the Mark of the Beast, which will enable the planetary government to control how people buy and sell?
• These are just two examples of how ludicrous it is for those within the Christian community to equate today’s events with any other time in the past.

• Thus, it’s blindingly evident – because we study prophetic Scripture and know the times – that the 7-year Tribulation is right around the corner.
• As I must always point out, this coming period is for the express purpose of judgment – to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.
• God must execute the final act upon Israel because of her disobedience toward Him through the rejection of His Son, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
• This means that the prophesied time of Jacob’s trouble is at hand since God requires His people to finally renounce their rebellion and follow Him in obedience.
• The rest of the unbelieving world must likewise feel God’s wrath in punishment for their hatred of Him and those who love Him.

• Can our just and equitable God allow these abominations that are consuming the earth to continue indefinitely for generations to come?
• Christians, read your Bibles!
• God reached a point with Israel where He repeatedly told His prophets, “Pray no more for these people” because of their depredations.
• Their iniquity had risen so high and become such a stench in God’s nostrils that He could stand it no more.
• Do you really think God will allow the depravity in our midst, the massive amounts of innocent blood that’s been shed, and so much more, to go on for years and years into the future?

• Wasn’t there an outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah because of their trespasses that were far beyond the pale (Genesis 18:20-21)?
• Who or what was it, by the way, that cried out against these depraved cities?
• The Biblical text doesn’t tell us, but it’s been suggested that the sources of the outcry were fourfold:

1. From God Himself and His holy justice
2. From on-looking angelic beings
3. From the multitude of the victims from the depravity of those cities
4. From Creation itself because of the unnatural transgression

• How can anyone who has any connection to the Bible with its plain example of God’s love and His just warnings think that He won’t now act and bring this disgusting, anti-God world come crashing down?
• Is not this same outcry reaching heaven even today?
• Yet there are so many who think that – yes, times will become difficult – but the world will go on and Christians will persevere to live and prosper in another day once all this passes.
• They are planning more sustainable lives once the evil has ended.
• Though they see the coming of the Beast System and even the foretold Antichrist, they believe they’ll live protected from God’s judgments and continue on into a renewed society.
• Why?
• Well, because they don’t understand the concept of the massive judgment to come.
• Neither do they comprehend the purposes for this 7-year era.
• It astounds me.

• What should our response be as to what is soon to come?
• Rather than working toward a political solution with the hope that essentially one man will turn this nation and the world around, our efforts should be pointed toward the salvation of the final number of souls that will be saved.
• Yes, work in whatever sphere God has placed you, but do not think for a moment that God will alter His prophetic Word as to what He soon intends to unleash upon the world.

• A key verse for us today is Matthew 6:21:

 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

• The problem is that for too many Christians, their treasure is in this world and the roots they’ve dug so deeply.
• Their hearts are here and not centered upon the Lord.
• Especially in this last hour, how problematic might that be?

• Now, I understand that the attitude of those who believe we Christians will go through the Tribulation – because, after all, it won’t really be as bad as what Scripture implies – is one where they think their strong faith will carry them through.
• They consider us who yearn for a pre-Tribulation Rapture as weak and escapist.
• They believe that since we’ve placed our hope in the Blessed Hope we will fail during the coming hard times.
• Frankly, this would probably be so if things came to pass like they profess.
• Like I’ve said before: Just kill me now.
• I humbly fall on my face and declare that I am not up to the challenge of living through the Tribulation.
• But I fervently believe in the pre-Trib Rapture and am wholly confident that God will deliver on His promise that we won’t experience the wrath to come – this trial that will come upon the entire world.

• Shouldn’t our attitude be one of absolute dependence upon God, so that we turn to Him in our helplessness and hopelessness to make any difference in the world today?
• If I’m concentrating on preparing to endure these difficult times ahead, where is my focus?
• On the other hand, if I see the horrific chaos around me and look to the Lord for His deliverance, is that not more of an indication of where my heart should be set?
• Doesn’t that say that He is my treasure and my only hope, thus my heart is set on Him?

• In all this I think of Iran.
• When Islam took over that nation with the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, they went from a relatively free country to ultimate dark repression.
• The Islamic regime since then has oppressed the people beyond what we in the West can imagine – although with recent developments in America, we’re doing our best to reach the point that we emulate Iran.

• Under Islam, society is subject to its absolute control.
• Secret police are everywhere.
• Unjust charges are brought against many.
• Illegal imprisonment and executions are the result.
• Because all the courts and every law enforcement agency are compliant with the illegitimate dictates of the ruling Islamic class, no freedom exists, nor can anything change under this existing legal/political/theocratic structure.

• In these 44-some years since the Islamic coup, a large percentage of the people have come to hate Islam.
• Strangely enough, although many despise the religion, they continue to fruitlessly obey its daily demands of prayer and other strict rituals.
• Why?
• Because of fear of the distant, authoritarian god Allah that he will cast them into hell for disobeying his petty demands.
• All this has resulted in a population consumed with depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide – all these among the highest of any other countries worldwide.
• Because of these circumstances, hopelessness reigns.
• One would think this nation doesn’t have long to endure given this situation.

• Christianity is illegal in Iran.
• Witnessing to others of Jesus Christ or distributing Bibles is sure to get one a lengthy prison sentence, if not death, upon discovery by the authorities.

• But God . . .

• The Bible provides an incredible hope for this oppressed nation so beset by the horrific religion of Islam.
• God loves the Iranian people and has made an astounding promise in Jeremiah 49:38-39 concerning Elam, which is part of today’s Iran:

I will set My throne in Elam,
And will destroy from there the king and the princes,’ says the Lord.

‘But it shall come to pass in the latter days:
I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the Lord.”

• Other related prophecies tell us that Iran will suffer some awful consequences for its hatred of Israel – among them the destruction of its ruling class, but here we see that the Lord will restore those who suffered and were captive to it.

• In fact, Christianity is growing in Iran at an exponential rate.
• The people upon hearing the Gospel are turning to Jesus Christ in unprecedented numbers.
• Why?
• Because in the One true God they find the hope they’ve been missing in Islam.

• This will happen.
• It is a prophecy of God, although much distress will occur before it is fulfilled.

• In our case as pre-Tribulation Rapture believers, we likewise are experiencing much distress at the evil of this world.
• Yet they will end for us at the appointed time, just like they will for the people of Iran.

• God will move when all the puzzle pieces are in place.
• He is the ultimate puzzle master.

• Just the other day I saw a photo of a jigsaw puzzle that illustrates our plight these days.
• Every piece of the puzzle was clear plastic; there were no markings whatsoever on any of the pieces.
• All anyone trying to assemble this puzzle could do was go by the shapes of each piece trying to fit them into place.
• Who in the world conceived of that?

• Our world is like that and even our view of it through the lens of Bible prophecy.
• We have the outline.
• If we’re discerning, we can fit the pieces together.
• But the one thing we don’t have is the markings on each of the pieces that might help us to more accurately determine the exact structure of how all events will fall into place.
• Only God has that blueprint and the picture of the final assembled puzzle.

• In the same manner, the evil that’s exposed with the light shining on it lets us know that God is in control.
• Why does He show us this?
• So that we can humbly surrender our agendas to His.
• Just because we see the evil doesn’t mean we’ll change it in any meaningful way given the darkness of this present age.
• What it does accomplish for us is the realization that time is indeed short and that the few remaining people who will be saved need our prayers for God’s move upon their lives.

• Why should we waste our days in political pursuits?
• Just like the people of Iran need prayer for their conversion, so does this nation for the final few souls who will be saved.

• Let’s get our priorities straight.
• Let’s pray.
• Let’s seek God.
• Let’s cry out for His mercy that we may soon be snatched away from this alien and evil place that Our Lord might take us home where we belong.