Spiritual, Symbolic and Apocalyptic Testimonies
A Journey for the Final Generation
A special life long testimony for the final generation is an interesting concept that most Christian leaders have not yet considered, but from the beginning God has been revealing Jesus in life long testimonies: birth, life and ministry, judgement and salvation.
The testimony of Jesus must be lived out today individually from a moment of birth, specifically new birth, the spiritual birth. This is the perspective that all Christians understand.
But sometimes, at God’s appointed times a special journey can take place corporately — in a family group, or as a nation, or a body of believers.
Ultimately we can expect another corporate journey when the time comes for the final generation to fulfil prophecy.
Personal Testimony
Our testimony begins when a we receive revelation of Jesus, and believe. At that time, by God’s grace we are ‘saved’. The name, Jesus means ‘Salvation’. We are ‘born again’, of the spirit. Receiving his Spirit into our hearts, we are now able to hear his call and follow him.
If we respond by learning to walk by the Spirit. Endeavouring to follow Jesus we begin holding to the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12v17). This requires repentance and perseverance. Even in this, Jesus is our example.
When Jesus was a baby he escaped the dragon, that is the ancient serpent, the devil, or Satan (Rev 12v1-9), a symbolic act of repentance. To act in repentance is to escape the power of sin and death, thus choosing life.
Then like Jesus, we have a life and ministry. We share our testimonies in both word and deed. We tell others our personal stories, our testimonies of coming to faith in Jesus as we continue to follow him in the journey of our own lives.
If we are following Jesus faithfully our lives and testimonies will reveal Jesus to others. In this way we become living ‘revelations’ of Jesus, or even living ‘apocalypses’.
“The revelation (which means ‘apocalypse’) of Jesus Christ… that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” — Revelation 1v1-2
But will there be a special apocalyptic testimony on a corporate level for the church in the end times? What would such a birth look like?
BIRTH
The signs that we are seeing today are pointing to an end times birth, but lets consider birth on three levels:
The birth of Jesus was with a sign in heaven. Magi came from the east following the star to Bethlehem. Then Jesus needed to flee a terrible conflict, King Herod and the slaughter of the innocent. It would have been an impossible war to try to win, so they fled, and God gave them a miraculous escape.
The spiritual birth is most important to us as it begins the journey of faith. First we see the signs of who we are as sinners, and who Jesus is as saviour, and as we respond to God’s grace in faith we are born again. New life involves repentance — the act of escaping the enemy of sin. Repentance is a kind of war, a flesh spirit struggle. We are told to flee from sin and we are given miraculous power to succeed.
The end times birth appears to be very close given the signs we are seeing, especially the heavenly sign of birth — the Revelation 12 sign of 2017, and the sign of the dragon — the blood moons and eclipse reversal of 2015.
The dragon of world war three threatens to be a King Herod moment. A modern nuclear war could certainly cause all the birth pains described in Scripture on a world wide scale, but regarding war Jesus says, ‘don’t be alarmed.’
Bible prophecy consistently shows that God does miracles to care for his family at the vulnerable time of birth. Moreover, God helps us to care for each other in those times.
We need to look at some specific examples, but first lets take a moment to consider what a true birth is, as opposed to what is only symbolic.
Symbolic Repentance
SYMBOLISM
God uses types, figures or symbols throughout the Bible to reveal Jesus and the journey of salvation. The study of symbols is called ‘typology’. Types are only like shadows. They present an image of the reality, they have a resemblance, but the reality is in Christ. Or we could say Christ is the ‘anti type’ — which is another way of referring to the reality.
For example Isaiah said, “we are signs and symbols in Israel”, speaking of himself and his children, (Isaiah 8v18). At that time the birth of Immanuel was pointing symbolically to the birth of Jesus, and the King of Assyria brought a ‘King Herod’ conflict which the remnant of God’s people in Judah were blessed to escape.
Baby Moses also escaped a type of ‘King Herod’ conflict —Pharoah and the slaughter of the innocent.
But was the ‘King Herod’ conflict really the anti type, or could there be greater fulfilment?
Jesus and Symbolic Repentance
Jesus appears to have demonstrated the act of repentance symbolically, because King Herod represents the dragon, or Satan, especially as described in Revelation 12. There we see that Jesus fled, but being perfect Jesus had no sin to repent from, so his escape was purely a symbolic.
The escape of Jesus from King Herod foreshadowed a much greater battle to come, and a greater victory to be won — at the cross.
I have also written a blog post about The Symbolic Repentance of Jesus.
Repentance Today in Spirit and Truth
True repentance is for us to fulfil. When a sinner turns from his evil ways and comes to Jesus in faith, trusting in him for the forgiveness of sin, we see repentance in spirit and truth. God’s children escape the dragon by repentance.
Ultimately the victory over sin and death will be revealed when Jesus returns to judge on the great and glorious day of the Lord.
Apocalyptic Repentance
If the end times birth will be like the birth of Jesus, with a miraculous escape from another King Herod figure, and it will be just another symbolic demonstration of repentance. But this time it will be called ‘apocalyptic’, which really only means that it is ‘revealing’ again, in the same way that we see Jesus revealed in the types, shadows and parallels seen in the symbols of the Old Testament.
An apocalyptic birth for the final generation would serve to reveal repentance symbolically again, just as Jesus himself did when he escaped King Herod, and when ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’. And again when he was baptised which was completely unnecessary in John’s opinion, but was done anyway “to fulfil all righteousness.” — Mat 3v15.
Imagine if by God’s grace many Christians hear the call, ‘Out of Egypt I call my son’, and miraculously escape the cities just before their destruction in a nuclear war. Such an escape won’t replace the need for true repentance, but prophecy serves to reveal the greater truth symbolically each time God’s people are given opportunity to demonstrate a miraculous escape from a dragon like calamity.
The best way to understand how prophecy will apply to us in the last days is by learning from the typological examples in Scripture that reveal Jesus, because they also serve to reveal our end times journey when the time of the final apocalypse arrives.
The Testimony of the Early Church
Matthew 24 takes the form of a testimony. It applies to the early church but is widely recognised as to have multiple layers of fulfilment, speaking simultaneously of events at the end of time.
Jesus described the birth pains as we considered earlier, explaining that war between nations is not the end of the world, (v6-8)
Jesus went on to describe the life and ministry. He described deception and persecution, “and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and…” (v9-14)
… “then the end will come. So when you see… the abomination that causes desolation…” (a moment of cross like suffering and the final resurrection v14b-31).
This testimony resembles the life of Jesus.
Jesus concluded the message by placing all these events within the timeframe of a normal human life,
“I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” — Mat 24v34
The first generation of the church fulfilled prophecy during the 40 years from Pentecost (a birth), during the ministry that they had in Israel, until 70 AD, the end of Israel. This forms a testimony that reveals Jesus.
The 40 year pattern could also be viewed as a 70 year pattern if counted from the King Herod conflict which some of the older men still living in 70 AD would have escaped them selves, when they were infants.
Whether the journey of the last days is 40 years, or 70 years, or something a little different, we don’t know. The point is that we won’t know how long the final generation will have to fulfil all prophecy except that it will all take place within the lifespan of the generation that sees the birth. The birth will be obvious.
A Moment of Birth Today
Today it is time for us to consider the beginning of another pattern, a journey for the final generation, a testimony that will reveal Jesus. It has happened before, and it will happen again because God doesn’t change, and God reveals the end from the beginning.
Today the signs are clearly pointing to birth. So we should expect a Pentecost moment, the birth of the final generation.
As Jesus’ disciples heard him describing the signs of birth as ‘nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom’, surely they must have been thinking of the book of Joel — a book about war and birth.
We saw the Revelation 12 sign in 2017, the great and wondrous sign of birth in the sky, and other signs as documented (use the SIGNS menu at the top of the page). We also see growing threats of war, so the words of Joel and Peter on the day of Pentecost appear to speak to us today.
We now have “wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below,” and the struggle of birth involves “blood, fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood.” But it is NOT the end. This happens “before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Acts 2v19-21 (also Joel 2v30-32a)
“… and there will be deliverance as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls.” Joel 2v32b
Please test the concept of an end times birth with me. If we are about to see world war three and a great outpouring of God’s Spirit, it is NOT the end of the world.
We can expect God’s blessing, and a powerful ministry in the last days. But first we need to get ready for action so that we may be able to care for the survivors of nuclear war. Birth is intense. It will require our full attention.
Please study the birth and bring this matter to the attention of others.
Thankfully God promises his people special success at the vulnerable time of birth.
As we consider nuclear war lets be ready to work together to care for each other, and as many people as possible. This will bring glory to God, and will open the door for the gospel. Many will be saved not only from war, but also to eternal life.
Examine the evidence and consider your response. If this message proves to be true, we are about to be given a unique opportunity to do immense good in a way that will reveal Jesus to the world.
