Where is the Church in Prophecy?

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. 

1 Timothy 4:7-11

There is a narrative that many evangelical Christians were raised in that is severely flawed. The twentieth century birthed much speculation on eschatology, which is a big name for end times prophecy. There were countless books written discussing such things as “pre, mid and post trib” raptures, left behind books and movies, along with other mythical works.

2Ti 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

These words of Paul especially describe the pop gospel found in all the churches today. Hirelings preach what the church people want to hear. Smooth things that do not hurt anyone’s feelings, which is actually the real prophecy in motion.

Isa 30:8 Now go, write it on a tablet with them, and inscribe it on a scroll, that it may be for the time to come, forever, forever.
Isa 30:9 For it is a people of rebellion, deceitful children, children who are not willing to hear the instruction of Yahweh,
Isa 30:10 who say to those who do see, “You must not see!” and to the seers, “You must not see truth for us; speak smooth things to us, see illusions,
Isa 30:11 turn aside from the way, turn aside from the path, put an end to the holy one of Israel from our face.”

“The way” is following the way in which Yahweh instructed, and His son, Yeshua, exemplified during His time on Earth. Unfortunately, the church lost the way many years ago. This is prophecy. Prophecy is not that Jesus is going to whisk away a group of people doing everything He warned them not to do so they do not experience any judgement here on Earth. One of the story lines that went viral in the twentieth century, is a prophecy in Daniel.

Dan 9:24 “Seventy weeks is decreed for your people and for your holy city, to put an end to the transgression and to seal up sin and to make atonement for guilt and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint the most holy place.
Dan 9:25 And you must know and you must understand that from the time of the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem until an anointed one—a leader—will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and will be built with streets and a moat, but in a time of oppression.
Dan 9:26 “And after the sixty and two weeks an anointed one shall be cut off, and he shall have nothing, and the people of the coming leader will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will be with the flood and on to the end there shall be war; these desolations are determined.
Dan 9:27 And he will make a strong covenant with the many for one week, but in half of the week he will let cease sacrifice and offering and in its place a desolating abomination comes even until the determined complete destruction is poured out on the desolator.”

The problem is that this prophecy gets split in half. The first half is identified as the Messiah, and the second half is identified as the anti-messiah, when it is really all about the Messiah. “And he will make a strong covenant with the many for one week, but in half of the week he will let cease sacrifice and offering and in its place a desolating abomination” This is not about the anti-Christ making a covenant with the 1948 birthed nation state of Israel in a seven year tribulation, then halfway through breaking it, as we have been told. This second part of the prophecy is about the Messiah just as, “to put an end to the transgression and to seal up sin and to make atonement for guilt and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal vision and prophet and to anoint the most holy place”. The second half speaks of his death and putting an end to the sacrifices. Otherwise, we would have to insert at least a 2000 year gap between week 69 and week 70. This is flawed thinking.

If we remove the “anti-Christ”, the alleged ”he” in verse 27, breaking a covenant with Israel in the middle of a seven year tribulation” narrative, every book from 1970 forward, concerning prophecy, suddenly loses steam. So much has been built on “smooth things and illusions”.

The idea that the church and Israel are two separate groups with two different gods, Jesus and Yahweh, and with two different prophetic outcomes, is an old heresy called Marcionism. It later was rolled into dispensational theology in the twentieth century, and is the basis of most evangelical churches’ belief systems today.

Who is the new covenant with? It’s not with anything called the church. It is with the House of Israel (northern ten tribes),and the House of Judah (Judah and Benjamin).

Heb 8:8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
Heb 8:9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.

To say that the covenant is with “the church”, meaning a group of people that separate themselves from the two houses, is a form of replacement theology, and it is built on a foundation of anti-semitism. There is only one people group of Yahweh, and it is those who follow His commandments and have faith in Yeshua, being grafted into the commonwealth of Israel.

1Jn 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
1Jn 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
1Jn 3:6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
1Jn 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
1Jn 3:8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
1Jn 3:9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
1Jn 3:10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

The one thing Israel and the church do have in common is they both love idolatry. Some say that there is no evidence of the church past a certain part of Revelation, therefore proving the pre-tribulation rapture. Unfortunately, the church is there because they would not listen to the words of Yeshua (Jesus).

Rev 2:20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
Rev 2:21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
Rev 2:22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
Rev 2:23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

Idolatry and sexual immorality are often interchangeable because Yahweh views idolatry that His chosen people commit as sexual immorality. Read the entire book of Hosea to understand this concept.

Hos 2:1 Say to your brother, “Ammi,” and to your sister, “Ruhamah.”
Hos 2:2 Plead with your mother, plead—because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her whoring from before her, and her adultery from between her breasts.
Hos 2:3 Lest I strip her naked and expose her like the day when she was born; I will make her like the desert and turn her into parched land; I will kill her with thirst.
Hos 2:4 And I will not have pity on her children, because they are children of whoredom.
Hos 2:5 Because their mother was unfaithful; she who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said: “I will go after my lovers, the ones who give me my bread, my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.”
Hos 2:6 Therefore, Look! I am going to hedge her path with thorns, and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall against her, and she will not find her paths.
Hos 2:7 Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; she will seek them and not find them; and she will say, “I will go and return to my first husband because it was better for me then than now.”
Hos 2:8 But she did not know that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and who gave her silver in abundance, and gold which they made into a Baal.
Hos 2:9 Therefore I will take again my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.
Hos 2:10 And now I will uncover her nakedness before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.
Hos 2:11 And I will put an end to all her mirth, her festivals, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals;
Hos 2:12 and I will lay waste to her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, “They are my payment for prostitution, which my lovers gave to me.” I will make them a forest, and the wild animals of the field will devour them.
Hos 2:13 I will punish her for the days of the Baals, to whom she burns incense, and she decked herself with her ornamental ring and jewelry, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me—a declaration of Yahweh.

Paul spoke of new Christian converts reverting back to their former idolatrous ways. Many of these people were descendants of the Northern kingdom, called the House of Israel. This is who was being spoken of in the verses from Hosea above. They loved idolatry.

Gal 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
Gal 4:9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Gal 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years!
Gal 4:11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Paul is not talking to “the Jews” in these verses. The days, months, seasons and years they were observing were the same ones the church took on as their own. These are not about Yahweh’s sabbaths and feast days. These people didn’t know Yahweh. “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods”. Paul is speaking about idolatry, such as: sun god worship, Samhain, Ishtar, Yule etc.. Instead of the people listening to Paul, they took over the church with these pagan practices that morphed into what we have today. Like much prophecy, church people are looking for things to happen in the future, such as a great falling away, that started happening in the Apostle’s days. The Roman church just figured out how to slap a Jesus label on all the abominations they were doing.

Col 2:6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
Col 2:7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Col 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
Col 2:9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
Col 2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

If the House of Israel was labeled a great whore for being polluted by idols, why wouldn’t their descendants in the church be given the same label for doing the same things? All of the church’s special days are polluted with idols and are masks for ancient practices of witchcraft, even if they are attributed to Jesus. Jesus becomes Baal in this case. This is why I mostly refer to the Messiah by His Hebrew name, Yeshua, so as not to confuse him with someone who has been put in the middle of practices Yahweh calls abominations. Therefore, it is no problem to see where the church is in Revelation.

Rev 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,
Rev 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
Rev 17:3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.
Rev 17:5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.

The words that were written on the forehead of the woman have been translated many different ways. There are three words I want to focus on: mystery, prostitutes and abominations.

Abominations is used for the Greek word which is Strong’s G946

G946
βδέλυγμα
bdelugma
Thayer Definition:
1) a foul thing, a detestable thing
1a) of idols and things pertaining to idolatry

The Greek word used for harlot or prostitute is Strong’s G4204.

G4204
πόρνη
pornē
Thayer Definition:
1) a woman who sells her body for sexual uses
1a) a prostitute, a harlot, one who yields herself to defilement for the sake of gain
1b) any woman indulging in unlawful sexual intercourse, whether for gain or for lust
2) metaphorically an idolatress
2a) of “Babylon,” i.e. Rome, the chief seat of idolatry

The Greek word for mystery is Strong’s G3466.

G3466
μυστήριον
mustērion
Thayer Definition:
1) hidden thing, secret, mystery
1a) generally mysteries, religious secrets, confided only to the initiated and not to ordinary mortals
1b) a hidden or secret thing, not obvious to the understanding
1c) a hidden purpose or counsel
1c1) secret will
1c1a) of men
1c1b) of God: the secret counsels which govern God in dealing with the righteous, which are hidden from ungodly and wicked men but plain to the godly

Since we are not talking about a literal woman who is a harlot, all of the metaphorical definitions apply to both the House of Israel and the so-called church. Based on these definitions, it is all about idolatry and mystery religions.

The words on the head of the woman riding the beast could be translated as:

“And on her forehead was written of the mystery religions: “Babylon the great, mother of idolatry and all of the Earth’s idols and idolatrous symbols.”

Ancient Babylon is the root of all of the church’s holy days that are counterfeits to the holy days of Yahweh. The seventh day sabbath moved to “sun” day. The birthdays of the sun gods, at the winter solstice, were all rolled into Jesus’ birthday. The festival days of Ishtar, called the queen of heaven, were not even relabeled, as the spring festival is still called Easter, after the goddess. Mary, the mother of Jesus was given the label “queen of heaven”. The new year is celebrated for Janus and Good Friday is celebrated for Frigg or Freya, who is Odin’s wife. Odin is just a Nordic version of Baal. They all started in Babylon with Nimrod, Semiramis and the mystery religions.

These were the festivals the ancients all observed, and that Israel continually got entangled in. These are the days that caused Solomon to lose the kingdom, ultimately putting both the houses of Israel and Judah into captivity. The house of Israel was dispersed into the nations. The Messiah came to bring the House of Israel back, but unfortunately, they ultimately did not listen. Now the church has become the great harlot, whoring after these same gods with Santa Clause, trunk-or-treats, egg hunts, asherah poles (Christmas trees), and obelisks (stone pillars). They honour the Baal’s and the queen of heaven with all their symbols, and just like the House of Israel, they say they are doing it for “God” or “Jesus”. The true God, Yahweh, said not to do this!

Deu 12:29 “When Yahweh your God has cut off the nations whom you are about to go to, to dispossess them before you, and you have dispossessed them, and you live in their land,
Deu 12:30 take care so that you are not ensnared into imitating them after their being destroyed from before you, and so that you not enquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods, and thus I myself want to do also.’
Deu 12:31 You must not do so toward Yahweh your God, because of every detestable thing they have done for their gods Yahweh hates, for even their sons and their daughters they would burn in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 All of the things that I am commanding you, you must diligently observe; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.”

Jesus would have no part of it either. The Jesus the church portrays is not Yeshua, who is one with the Father.

Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one.

Joh 10:37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
Joh 10:38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.

The first thing the apostles told the new pagan coverts in the church to do was not to have anything to do with things polluted by idols. They obviously didn’t listen and took over the church early on.

Act 15:19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,
Act 15:20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

Now you know where the church is spoken about in the later prophecies of Revelation. It is not good. Rebellious people do not get whisked out of the way of trouble in a so-called pre-trib rapture. People rebelling against Yahweh’s ways do not have a happy ending.

Mat 24:29  “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 
Mat 24:30  Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 
Mat 24:31  And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

His elect gathered after the tribulation are not a rebellious people found doing trunk or treats on the ancient day of the dead, or gathering painted eggs to honour Ishtar. Repent from idolatry and stop being entangled with all the symbols polluted by idols. Transform the church into what Yeshua expects.

Rev 3:1  And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 
Rev 3:2  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 
Rev 3:3  Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. 
Rev 3:4  Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. 
Rev 3:5  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 
Rev 3:6  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.