Prophecy Update 2006 by Pastor Brian Larson

This message was delivered in Truckee on January 8, 2006. To listen to the audio message, click here. To order a copy of this message on audio CD for $4, call toll-free 877-567-9918. You may also download a PDF version of the printed pamphlet to print out at your convenience because our goal is to get this message out to as many as possible. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and/or print this file. You can download this free software at the Adobe website.) Click here if you would like to read or listen to last year's Prophecy Update, given on Feb. 20, 2005.

The 70th Week of Daniel | The Anti-Christ | Signs of the Times | Natural Disasters | Pestilence |Living in the Days of Lot | The European Union in Review | Rising Star of the EU | What's New In the EU | A Fly in the EU Ointment? |Iran |Israel |Iraq | What Now?

The Bible has a lot to say about the end-times, and what it says really centers around and culminates in the return of Jesus Christ. The Bible makes very clear that the Jesus who walked this planet 2,000 years ago is coming back — and when He comes back this time it will not be as a baby in a manger. He will return in great power and great glory, the Bible makes that abundantly clear.

When the disciples watched Jesus ascend into heaven 40 days after His resurrection from the dead, as recorded in Acts chapter 1, as their attention was fixed on the skies, watching Jesus arise until a cloud took Him out of their sight, a couple of angels showed up alongside, and said (in Acts 1:11):

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

When Paul wrote his letter to the believers in Thessalonica, he commented in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9 and 10:

For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

As Paul says there, one reason we look for His return is that Jesus is the One who will rescue us from “the wrath to come.” That phrase, “the wrath to come,” is always a reference to that Tribulation period that the Bible prophesies the world has yet to face. There is a time when He is going to be coming for us, for the body of Christ. Jesus said in John 14:1-3:

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

Paul described His coming for us in 1 Thessalonians 4 with these words, in verses 16 through 18:

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

We call that event “the rapture,” when Christ is going to come for believers and call us to be instantly with Him. That “Great Disappearing Act,” if you will, precedes what is known as the Second Coming of Christ. His Second Coming, Scripture tells us, is when Jesus is going to come back to this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords, to rescue His nation Israel from the tyranny of the anti-christ, and to establish His kingdom on this earth. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24:29-30:

“But 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 the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”

As I look at the Word, sandwiched between those two events — His coming for believers at the rapture, and His coming back to rule this planet in power and glory as King of kings and Lord of lords — will be a seven-year period of veritable hell on earth that we call the Tribulation. From the Book of Daniel, we get the phrase, “Daniel’s Seventieth Week,” which refers to a week of years, seven years, which is that period I just mentioned called the Tribulation. He describes that Seventieth Week in Daniel 9:27. I’ll explain things as we read through it, beginning with the first two words:

The “he” there is this guy who is going to come to power in the last days that Scripture dubs “the anti-christ” or “the beast.” He will be the last great world leader of this age, virtually a world dictator.

As I mentioned before, a “week” in this context is a week of years, or a period of seven years — one period of seven years.

…but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering.

That seven-year period of Tribulation is going to start when this man the Bible calls the anti-christ makes a covenant, a seven-year covenant with “the many,” which will include Israel. When that covenant is made, the prophetic clock begins ticking off those last seven years. At the end of those seven years, the Battle of Armageddon will be waged and won in very short, decisive order, as Christ returns to the earth to establish His kingdom.

At the midpoint of those seven years, the anti-christ is going to break covenant with Israel and double-cross them, in a sense. He’s going to stop their worship at the temple in its traditional way.

Daniel is describing something that is yet to happen at a Jewish temple in Jerusalem, which, of course, doesn’t exist today. The Jews had a temple in Jerusalem for approximately a thousand years, from King Solomon’s time until the Romans destroyed it in 70 A.D., and they have always wanted it back. At this moment, Jews are continuing to make preparations for a new temple to be rebuilt the moment it is politically possible — all they need now is that go-ahead to rebuild their temple. Scripture tells us that in that last week, Daniel’s Seventieth Week, the temple will have been rebuilt and will be in operation; however, at the midpoint of that week of seven years, the anti-christ is going to break covenant with Israel, and stop the ministry, the service, and the sacrifices of the temple, that Jewish temple.

And on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

Daniel says that at that point, “… on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate.”

Jesus calls this event the “Abomination of Desolation.” We know from what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians, that this “beast” is literally going to go into the temple, into the Holy of Holies — the most holy place in the temple — and declare himself to be their messiah, the lord their god in human form. In other words, he’s going to be their anti-christ.

…even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

He commits the Abomination of Desolation at the midpoint of that Seventieth Week. Those final three-and-a-half years are known as “the Great Tribulation.” If you want to know just how catastrophic those 42 months are, how horrific that period known as the Great Tribulation will be, read Revelation chapters 6 through 19. In those chapters, the out-pouring of that “complete destruction” is described.

The Bible tells us that God’s wrath is what this world is facing. We also know from the Book of Daniel that the object of that wrath, the anti-christ, is going to come out of what was the old Roman Empire in Europe. He’s going to be a leader from that part of the world, and will make a seven-year peace agreement with Israel that is going to be broken.

Realizing these things, is there anything happening in the world today that would indicate these events might be on the horizon, that something like this may be developing now? We’re going to look at that, but before we get into the events of this last year, I want to lay a bit more groundwork about this fellow the anti-christ from what we are told in other places in Daniel. I want to say just a bit more about this guy who is going to come to power in Europe, this last great world leader who will make peace with Israel and with “the many.”

In Daniel chapter 7, verses 7 and 8, Daniel recounts a vision he received from God:

In this vision, Daniel sees a series of monsters, each one representing a world-dominating empire that is future to Daniel. And then Daniel says:

In context there, that fourth beast clearly is the Roman Empire, which was in power at the time of Christ. Daniel continues describing this beast:

… and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet …

Then Daniel adds this detail, which, we know from other places in Daniel, shoots us right to the end of the age, right to the end-times:

Daniel could describe the other three beasts; he said this one is like a lion, that one is like a bear, and that one over there is like a leopard. But this one — indescribable! The fourth monster is clearly one weird-looking beast; for instance, it has ten horns and seven heads! Daniel lets us know that this odd-looking beast represents a kingdom that will come at the end of this age.

While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.

Later, Daniel explains that those ten horns represent ten kings or national leaders, and this other little horn that comes up from among them will become the dominant leader. He is something else! He is the anti-christ.

We see the same end-times beast in the book of Revelation coming out of the old Roman Empire. In Revelation 17:12-13, the apostle John sees the same beast with seven heads and ten horns, and says this:

The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.
The beast mentioned there is that eleventh horn; it’s that guy. For “one hour,” in other words, for just a short period of time, those ten horns or leaders have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast, to the anti-christ. Along with that, in the way of groundwork, the number six-six-six is identified with this beast. In Revelation 13:18, it says regarding this guy:

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.

“Six hundred and sixty-six” or six-six-six. Scripture says that’s the number of the beast, the anti-christ. We have been seeing things going on in Europe, in the area which was that old Roman Empire, which are very interesting in the light of these prophecies.

If indeed this is that era, then Jesus told us about other things which would be happening that He said would be “signs of the times.” In other words, if we truly are living in the last days, at the same time the things described by Daniel are brewing on a political level in Europe, we should be able to look around the world and see those things going on in the world that Jesus describes as “signs of the times” in the last days.

Jesus gave us many different signs to be on the lookout for; I want to share just a few of those with you right now, by way of example. For instance, in Luke 21:11, Jesus says:

“... and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves …”

“It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”

Jesus tells us that we’ll see these things going on, and declares, and this is interesting, that the last days will be “the same as happened in the days of Lot.” We’ll look at what He meant by that after we take a look at natural disasters.

What’s going on in our world today? In those verses in Luke we just read, Jesus tells us to notice the earthquakes, that there will be earthquakes in various places. Earthquakes are going to become a big deal, is basically what He’s saying. Jesus says there are going to be natural catastrophes taking place and pestilence, check pestilence out. I don’t think I need to say too much along this line!

Boy, are we seeing these things happening, and this is important, we’re seeing them happen like never before! There have always been these types of things in the world, but not like they’re hitting the world today. Earthquakes and natural disasters have never before barraged this earth the way they are now. This last year, in 2005, natural disasters alone accounted for the death of more than 300,000 people and $137 billion in damage. That’s high, really high. We haven’t seen anything like this before. For instance, we had the worst hurricane season in world-recorded history this last year with hurricanes Wilma, Katrina and Rita. On top of that, we had the Indian Ocean tsunami at the end of 2004, the effects of which have been thrown into 2005. It has been incredible; the world is reeling from it right now. In fact, it’s interesting the way that Jesus put it; He said, “The earth, dismay among nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves.”

Take earthquakes: more and more and more earthquakes have been in the news. In the year 2000 it is estimated that about 231 people died from earthquakes. This last year, 2005, 89,353 people died from earthquakes. Actually 2004 beat out 2005: it is estimated that 284,010 died from earthquakes.

It’s no wonder, with death tolls like that, for us to think, “Boy, it just seems like there’ve been a lot of earthquakes.” Two thousand years ago, Jesus said, “Notice the earthquakes.”

Now there are those today, I’m going to be absolutely honest about this, who say there really hasn’t been an increase in earthquakes. Some say we just have so many more of the instruments employed now to measure them that we’re so much more aware of the earthquakes than we used to be. It is estimated the average number of earthquakes has been pretty constant over the years; but the statistics that we have available to us, and the media to report on those statistics, have simply made us more aware of earthquakes than in years past. For instance, in 1931, there were 350 stations around the world to measure earthquakes. In the year 2005, there were around 8,000 of them actively measuring temblors around the world. So, according to some, our awareness of earthquakes is much greater; however, they maintain the average number of quakes has remained about the same over time.

First of all, I kind of question that. One thing I’ve learned is that out in the world, people want to tell you what they want you to hear. But that aside, what if it is literally true that earthquakes haven’t increased in number? What if we are just more aware of them? Well, number one, Jesus didn’t say they would increase — all He said was that we would notice them, which is definitely the case, isn’t it? Earthquakes are definitely much more noticeable than in years past; our awareness of them and concern about them has definitely increased.

However, I think that our increased awareness is not merely the result of improved measuring techniques; I think it is because the damage done by earthquakes is off the chart now! Maybe there aren’t any more, but they sure are doing a lot more damage. That is an undeniable fact.

A lady named Emma Cowing wrote an article entitled, “Our Planet’s Year of Living Dangerously” this last year. In it, she recounted some of the natural disasters that happened in 2005. For instance, in February there were more than 600 people who died, and thousands injured from a 6.4 earthquake in Iran — and that was only 18 months after an earthquake happened in southern Iran and killed 30,000 people. Then there was this crazy tornado in Birmingham, England — they never have tornadoes in Birmingham, England, and, yet, this tornado took England by surprise. The Birmingham tornado was followed by hurricanes Wilma, Katrina and Rita. Then two months later you had this 7.6 earthquake in Pakistan and India that killed 75,000 people and left thousands of people homeless. Now those people are coming into the winter season and, because they are still homeless, authorities are afraid thousands more are going to die because they don’t have available the food and shelter necessary to survive. Their livelihood and all of their possessions have been destroyed.

On November 22, 2005, there was an earthquake in China that killed fourteen people. The next day, ten more people died in Iran from another earthquake. On November 16, there was a killer twister that went into Kentucky and Indiana and fifteen people in our own country died from that disaster. After that, there were twenty-six wildfires in Portugal that just devastated that nation. This type of thing, just one after another, is going on in our world.
One of the officials in Pakistan, following all of this, said, “This is a wakeup call for the world.”

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute of Columbia University, made the statement that he didn’t think there was any particular direct link between all these natural disasters, but he did say, “They cannot be ignored. The earth is trying to tell us something.”

“So you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near.”

Jesus also listed pestilence along with earthquakes as signs of the times. Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, we thought we were winning the war against pestilence because we had the miracle drug: penicillin. I remember, whatever the ailment, the solution seemed to be to get a penicillin shot. I hated that! I remember the doctor sitting there with this big long needle; as a kid, I sure thought he got a sadistic delight in just sticking that thing into me! But it was amazing; it was the wonder drug!

Even so, pestilence has made a rebound and so many of our miracle drugs and antibiotics don’t even work anymore. The result is a renewed fear of pestilence on a global scale. Even though we don’t hear much about it anymore, we certainly have the AIDS virus in epidemic proportions in the world. AIDS hasn’t gone away; it continues to devastate lives on every continent on this earth.

On top of that, you’ve probably heard the big fear about the potential epidemic of bird flu this next flu season. The reason for that fear is because of what Daniel predicted thousands of years ago, that in the last days people would be going “to and fro” all over the earth (Daniel 12:4). He prophesied that, at the end of this age, people would be traveling all over. Of course, now people can get on an airplane in China and, hours later, be in San Francisco. That has virtually removed any limitations for the spread of pestilences like the bird flu; we just can’t control people traveling with infectious diseases like that. Pestilences can now ravage the entire world, not just a localized area. It’s estimated that 25 million people in our world could die from that bird flu next year. Of course, that’s yet to be seen; it hasn’t broken out yet — and Lord willing and through prayer it won’t. The point is that Jesus said pestilences would be a sign of the times, a sign the end of this age is at hand … and that’s exactly what we are seeing!

As I touched on earlier, Jesus also said that as the days of Lot were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. You probably remember the story of Lot; he lived in Sodom. God sent angels to rescue Lot and his family out of Sodom before destroying the place because of its incredible iniquity and sin. That sin-saturated city was like a cancer on the side of the earth, so God decided to wipe it out before it took the whole world down with it. What was Sodom known for? It was a place of incredible sexual degeneration and perversion, highlighted with homosexuality — so much so, that today we call homosexual acts “sodomy,” because of the prevalence of that particular perversion in the ancient city of Sodom.

Jesus said the last days would be as the days of Lot were. This whole area, not just homosexuality, but overall sexual degeneration, has gotten out of control — it’s gone absolutely crazy! The revenue from the pornographic industry last year was estimated to reach about $12 billion in our country. That’s bigger than the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball budgets put together. On a worldwide scale, it is estimated pornography businesses took in $57 billion. To give you an idea of how that compares, Microsoft, which really is the leading producer of computer software in the world, reported worldwide revenue of $36.8 billion last year.

In 1998, the Justice Department estimated there were about 28,000 pornographic websites on the Internet. Just three years later, in 2001, it is estimated that there were 280,000 pornographic sites corrupting society, corrupting children, corrupting the body of Christ. Now you couple that with the concerted effort by the mainstream media and by certain groups to make this pre-occupation with sex normal, to make the homosexual lifestyle seem normal, and it seems clear to me that we are living, as it were, in “the days of Lot.”

There are laws on the books in many of our states today that allow legal union between same-sex partners, calling it “marriage.” Not only is it not politically correct, but it’s becoming illegal to say anything against homosexuality, or for businesses or individuals to discriminate in any way against any kind of homosexuality whatsoever.

I want to say something here, about all of this so that you don’t mistake my meaning. I do not hate homosexual people. I hate their sin. They are sinners like the rest of us. I want to see them saved. I want to see them delivered and set free, just like I do adulterers or fornicators. I don’t put them in any different category. My heart goes out to them to see them set free.

What I do object to is having it crammed down our throats that homosexuality is an acceptable, even unavoidable, way of life for some. For example, you can’t hardly go to a movie today without having to watch a token homosexual couple or person on the screen, who seems to always be the most wonderful person in the movie, if not the world.

Of course, you must be aware of the hype surrounding a movie that is garnering so many awards right now — Best Picture, Best This, Best That, Best Cast, Best Everything — “Brokeback Mountain.” It’s a good old-fashioned Western, folks! Not. It’s about two good old “Marlboro-Man” cowboys who are in love with each other. The media is raving about this movie! Hey, five stars! I think “Passion of the Christ” was given two stars, but “Brokeback Mountain” is five stars!

I noticed a headline on the front page of the Sacramento Bee this week, right at the top that said “Brokeback Mountain,” and right under it said, “Much more than a gay love story.” The media is just really trying to push it on us.

Can’t you just see the direction that all of this is going? It’s amazing to me that you can’t publicly use the name of Jesus Christ unless, of course, it’s as a curse word. It’s OK to use His name as a curse word, but you can’t talk about the Word of God and the truth of God in public. It’s acceptable today to publicly use all the foul language in the world that you want to use because that’s freedom of speech. But this other, oh no! You can’t talk about Jesus! You can’t talk about God! You can’t talk about the Bible! But foul language, as foul as you want to get, is freedom of speech. What’s wrong with this picture? Everything!

I’ve just mentioned a smattering of signs of the times here. The interesting thing about it is that you can do a study through the Word and see all the different signs of the times, and be assured everything Jesus mentioned is happening around us. You can’t look at one sign mentioned in the Bible and say, “Oh that one’s not there.” They are all happening.

In that case, if all of those signs of the times are happening, and they are, what is going on in the world politically today that seems to line up with Bible prophecy? I told you at the beginning of this message what the Bible says will be happening in the last days politically, as prophesied in Daniel, and what will happen to start that final seven-year period of Tribulation. Well, is there anything going on politically in our world today that would indicate Daniel’s end-times scenario is soon to happen?

In last year’s Prophecy Update, I looked in detail at events transpiring in Europe, because it is there that the anti-christ will rise to power. Before getting into the most recent developments of this last year, however, I need to do a little bit in the way of review to get us up to speed.

First, I find it interesting that the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament, and the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, both say in the last days, you will find what was once the Roman Empire is going to be a federation of nations together. To be specific, there will be ten nations federated together there. So, look at Europe today and what do you see? There is the European Union which, interestingly enough, is a federation of nations. The only trouble with that is there are twenty-five nations in that federation now, not ten.

So, you may wonder how that can be resolved with Daniel’s vision? To help it make sense, let me continue to give you some background on the European Union, originally called the “European Community” when it was established in 1948; interestingly enough, that is also the year Israel was established. Everything that I’m going to share now has happened in the last ten years.

For one thing, within the European Union itself, a group of nations has been established called the Western European Union. Each of those nations were, at one time, part of the old Roman Empire. The Western European Union, you might say, is the military wing of the European Union and, to date, has really become the power center of the European Union. The Western European Union was established in 1995 and has been gaining more and more power since then. How many nations are there in the WEU? There are ten nations in the Western European Union.

Just this last year, the European Union, as a whole, also established what they call the European Defense Agency or the EDF. The idea may have been that the European Union as a whole wanted to have its own defense agency, so it established one apart from the Western European Union itself, perhaps with the idea of establishing a military wing that is a little more all-encompassing for the European Union. It is interesting that there are now ten nations in the European Defense Agency, the EDF.

Also of interest is that of those ten EDF nations, eight of them are also Western European Union nations, meaning the Western European Union is still basically in control of the military for the entire European Union. But here we have these two elements within the European Union of ten nations each, and Daniel said there would be ten nations federated together that would come to the fore, and the anti-christ would arise from that group. Currently, the Western European Union really kind of holds the cards there; either way, it is the group that holds the military power, because eight of the WEU nations comprise the ten EDF nations.

In 1998, the European Union created a new office called the High Representative of Common Foreign and Security Policy for the European Union. The person appointed to this office would be the director of the foreign policy for the European Union as a whole, even though he would primarily be involved with the Mediterranean and the surrounding area. It was a powerful new position that made way for one person to represent the European Union internationally. Out of 1,150 documents adopted by the European Union that year, the document that established that new position was numbered 666. Interesting!

The next year, in November 1999, the European Union appointed the first man to fill that position. His name is Javier Solana, and he holds that position to this day. Formerly the head of NATO, when Javier Solana left that position, he was made the first High Representative of Common Foreign and Security Policy for the European Union under that document, 666.

At that time, Solana also became the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, basically the EU’s top leader, or the president, you might say, of that group. The Council of Europe is the decision-making body of the European Union. The following month, he was appointed the Secretary General of the Western European Union, that ten-nation group that is the military wing of the European Union.

So, here’s this one man, Javier Solana, who holds these three very powerful positions in the European Union, making him the most powerful individual in the European Union. At the beginning of this decade, he clearly had become the big new star of the European Union on the world scene.

In June of 2000, the Western European Union, that group of ten nations, adopted an assembly recommendation to increase the powers of the Secretary General, and to increase the powers of the High Representative of the European Union itself. This recommendation would result in an increase in Solana’s power (because he holds both of those positions), authority and ability to take action, especially in emergency situations. That recommendation is known as Assembly Recommendation — and this is its number — 666. So, at this time, Solana has got the most power of anybody in the European Union, and you’ve got a ten-nation group of leaders that he heads up, one that you might say is the power center of the European Union as a whole. Very interesting!

Now, in beginning to implement some of the parts of Assembly Recommendation 666, later that year, Solana instituted what has been come to be known as the Solana Decision. Its purpose was to remove from public view any and all documents that the European Council, the controlling group of the European Union, thinks should be kept secret. So, now they’ve got a little secret area that Solana himself is over.

You may ask, why would they want to do something like that? I’ll tell you what kind of the scuttle-butt on that is. Some believe it’s an effort, almost a clandestine under-the-table effort, to get those ten nations really in control of the European Union. What will happen with that is yet to be seen, but it’s all done under Assembly Recommendation 666. As of right now, January 2006, Javier Solana still holds all of these positions, and he is clearly the rising star in the European Union. You’re going to hear his name more and more as time goes on.

So, notice what we have potentially here — and I use that word “potentially” for good reason — you’ve got a ten-nation group of nations that really are the controlling force behind the European Union at this point, and you’ve got an eleventh that is budding up, just like Daniel said. It’s pretty amazing!

We talked about that last year, didn’t we? Well, this is what I have to say this year … I don’t know! Just like last year. I just don’t know. I am definitely not saying that he is. All I’m saying is that this is very interesting. It could be Solana. It could be somebody else. I’ll tell you this, if I understand my Scripture right, we as believers simply will not know, for certain, the identity of the anti-christ. We won’t know, because he will not be revealed for who he is until after we are taken out of here by the rapture.

And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed …

“He who restrains” is the Holy Spirit working through the church, and the “lawless one” is the anti-christ. So I really don’t believe we will know for sure. But we can look at Solana and the European Union and acknowledge that, boy, this is interesting! Maybe “si” or maybe “no.” But I like the way one person, Michael Mickey, put it: “If we’re nearing the advent of the anti-christ, and he is actively seeking a means through which to rise to greater power then any world leader ever has before, the European Union’s Javier Solana is currently paving the way for him to make his rise to the top of the diplomatic world.”

In other words, if Solana is not the man, he is sure clearing a path for the guy who could be that man.

Mainly what I have told you thus far about Solana and the European Union is simply a review of some of the highlights of last year’s Prophecy Update, as I said, just to bring you up to speed. So, what’s developing now? What’s going on now in the European Union, in the light of all of this?

Well, this last year, a new constitution for the European Union was created and presented to the 25 member-states for ratification. There was a lot of excitement about that document. In regard to end-times prophecy, what is really interesting to me in that document is the establishment of what’s called a European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and a European Neighborhood Policy Instrument (ENPI), which is designed to implement the European Neighborhood Policy. Well, what is the European Neighborhood Policy?

The ENP is a huge package, designed by Solana, of economic deals for each participating nation that wants to get on board. It is an economic incentive package for other nations to cooperate with the European Union. Each package is tailored to the needs and the desires of that particular nation. That’s the ENP. It’s aimed primarily at Russia and the Ukraine, but guess who else is very excited about the ENP? Israel and the Palestinians are both very interested in it.

One interesting thing about the ENP is that it’s got built into it what’s called a monitoring program. In other words, as the policy is applied, they can come back in at a certain point and readjust the package if needed. If the nations are not cooperating, or for some other reason, the European Union can come in about mid-stream and readjust this thing accordingly. That’s interesting when you remember something about Daniel’s Seventieth Week. Let’s look again at Daniel 9:27:

And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. In the middle of the week he’ll put a stop to sacrifice grain offerings, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate.

The European Union budget term for implementing one of these incentive packages for a given nation is a period of seven years. The ENPI has a specified budget term of seven years. Solana has been given the task of drawing up a funding plan, that’s the instrument, for the various nations that are willing to come on board. The long-term plan will be a seven-year covenant. Isn’t that interesting? And it will be monitored mid-term. If everything goes according to plan, what amounts to a seven-year agreement with “the many” will go into effect on January 1, 2007. Significantly, Israel is saying, “Sign me up!”

If implemented in 2007, mid-term, or three-and-a-half years, would take you into the year 2010 when the agreement can be changed or adjusted based on what’s happening with that nation or what’s going on in the world. It’s interesting that Scripture says that right at the midpoint of the covenant the anti-christ makes with the many, the terms are going to be changed for Israel. The plan for the ENP has written right into that all of those mid-term changes need to be completed by December 31, 2011, three-and-a-half to four years after the agreement is scheduled to be signed.

I heard this in one news account, but haven’t been able to document it completely, but according to one account I read, Israel was the first nation to want to sign up to be part of this European Neighborhood Policy. Israel wants to sign an agreement to be a part of what could be “the many” of Daniel 9:27.

On top of that, Israel gave Gaza back to the Palestinians this last year, and they’re having obvious trouble monitoring the borders. For that reason, they have made an agreement with the European Union that European Union forces can come in and help them monitor their border with Gaza — they did not ask for UN forces or American forces. They asked for European Union forces to help them. This is the first time that the European Union has actually sent forces, to my knowledge, anywhere, and they’re sending them to Israel to monitor its border.

Furthermore, that constitution calls for what they call a “headline deadline” of 2010 for all of Javier Solana’s emergency powers to be in place, in the positions that he holds including that of High Representative. What perfect timing for what could come! Those emergency powers, if in place, will give him unilateral authority over thirteen battle groups, heavy-lift aircraft, an aircraft carrier, satellite communications, and more.

What we have here is a possible end-times scenario, don’t we? The leader of the European Union, representing ten nations, in reality, makes a covenant of seven years with “the many,” including Israel, and three-and-a-half years later, due to events that take place at that time, for what they determine necessary, that covenant is altered, broken, changed. We just have to wait and see what happens, but it is a very interesting scenario!

Now, wait a minute … there is a problem here! The European Union did not ratify the constitution this last year. It was voted down! Actually, the voters of two countries, France and Holland, voted down the new European Union constitution. That created something of a crises time for the European Union because they may need this thing in place to really wield the kind of power they want to wield on a world scale. What does the constitution failure mean for Solana? It would seem his position of power might be in jeopardy because, for a while anyway, it didn’t look like he had the ability to exercise these expanded powers that he wants to exercise. Add to that the fact that the constitution set a headline goal of 2010 for all his peace-keeping and peace-making capabilities to be in place, and it would seem, at first glance, to kibosh the scenario outlined above. Because of French and Dutch voters voting down the new constitution, it looks like that whole scenario is out the window, like the whole thing is threatened.

Yet, I find even the failure of that constitution to be potentially significant in regard to end-times prophecy, for this reason: In Daniel, when Daniel talks about the feet of the image in chapter 2, which is another picture of the end-times federation with its ten toes, Daniel mentioned that the feet are made partly of iron and partly of clay — partly strong, partly weak. Iron and clay do not adhere to each other, so there’s that element of weakness in the feet of the image, the feet which represent the revived Roman Empire of the last days.

From our recent study of Daniel, you may remember that iron symbolizes a totalitarian power. The opposite of totalitarian authority would be the weakest form of control, and that is a democracy. So, many believe that the clay represents democratic elements in that revived Roman Empire. I find it interesting that the European Union is experiencing a little difficulty because it is the democratic process in action, the voting on the constitution, which could hinder what the European Union wants to do on a world-scale in authority, control, and power.

So, on the one hand, the failure of the constitution made people wonder, “Oh, man, what’s going to happen now?” But, maybe that’s not the end of it. This last November, the Western European Union issued a document stating that all the significant elements of the foreign security and policy — the ENP and the ENPI, and Solana’s emergency powers — can be legally implemented through the framework of the Western European Union, those ten nations. In other words, they say they really don’t need the Constitution to be ratified, in place, to do these things.

That makes the Western European Union, those ten nations, vital to the implementation of that plan and those powers. As long as you’ve got those ten nations in agreement, the Western European Union can go ahead and represent the entire European Union and do the very things they’ve outlined, even without the constitution. So that adds more significance to those ten nations in the Western European Union. It makes them very important.

So, beginning January 1, 2007, under the legal framework of the Western European Union, the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), and its instrument (the ENPI), can still be implemented under Solana’s direction.

Here’s a little sidelight to the ENP that also intrigues me: the ENP itself is actually a Solana-initiated plan that revives an older plan already established in the European Union, but never fully implemented. It was called the European-Mediterranean Partnership for Peace or Euro-Med for short. As one person put it, he took those letters, EURO-MED, and he said if you move the dash to the left by two characters, you get EU-ROMED or EU (European Union) Romed.

But, the point I want to make here is that some Bible scholars believe that when it says in Daniel 9:27, “And he made a firm covenant with the many,” that it can actually be interpreted as an existing covenant that was made stronger. They actually took an older covenant, an existing covenant, and they strengthened it. That’s true of the ENP because, in truth, it is just a way to revitalize Euro-Med, what had already been established and was on the books prior to this. In fact, Margaret Walstrom, an official in the European Union, said, “As I have tried to point out, the European Neighborhood Policy does not replace the process launched ten years ago in Barcelona. It renews it, it clarifies it, it breathes fresh life into it.” That could possibly go right along with what Daniel says there in Daniel chapter 9 about strengthening an existing covenant.

The point is that the plan is on schedule. The presence of the ten-nation Western European Union is more vital than ever because the constitution was not ratified. So, beginning January 1, 2007, Solana (or whoever holds the position at that time) will have this massive expense account to confirm and strengthen the Euro-Med covenant with “the many” for seven years. If things begin to fall apart at the midpoint, three-and-a-half years in, his emergency powers will be in place sometime in 2010 to deal with that. That’s a scenario that’s taking place right under our noses. I’m not saying that it definitely is the one prophesied in Daniel, in fact, I don’t know if what I’ve outlined here really means anything at all — but, it will be fascinating to watch this play out.

I have one last thought along this line I’d like to share here. In March 2005, the world leaders met in Madrid (on the one-year anniversary of the train bombings), to discuss the war on terrorism being waged by the European Union and the United States. They concluded that America has gone about this war all wrong, and that the European Union hasn’t done anything at all to combat terrorism.

My take on that is that the reason the European Union has not been effective in the war on terrorism is that certain member-states are reluctant to give Solana the power necessary, at this time, to truly do something to help this war on terrorism. The interesting thing about that is in the European Union, three European Union countries and their leaders are known as “the Big Three”: Tony Blair of Britain, Jacques Chirac of France, and Gerhard Schroder of Germany. It was really those three, united together, who squelched Solana’s ability to get in there and take some meaningful, heavy-duty action against terrorism.

The reason I share that with you is that all three of those leaders — Blair, Chirac, and Schroder — were on the scene when the position of the High Representative of the European Union was created. They were part of that decision. They were members of the Western European Union the whole time this position was made and Javier Solana has filled it. With that in mind, read what Daniel 7:8 says:

While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it …

… and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates.

So, when the anti-christ comes to power, three of the ten leaders are going to be knocked off by his power; could those three, the Big Three, be the horns that will fall? Once again, we will just have to wait and see.

So, that’s what’s going on in Europe right now. It is very interesting to see what’s going on over there and how things seem to be lining up. But in the end, all we can do is sit back and say, “Well, we’ll see. We’ll see!” Clearly, though, signs of the times are going on around us in a big way, at the same time these types of things are going on in Europe.

With all that in mind, I just want to bring us a little more up to date on the mark of the beast. We read about it in Revelation 13:16-18:

And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.

What the apostle John is describing there in Revelation is a cashless society where you buy or sell by a number that will actually be on the person’s body. In fact, that’s the only way you’ll be able to buy or sell anything. Taking that mark will also be a proclamation of each person’s allegiance to the new world system and to the anti-christ. It’s interesting to me that John in Revelation, nearly 2,000 years ago, said that in the last days there’s going to be a cashless society — better get ready! It’s going to be cashless, and people are going to buy and sell by number, not with money. In the history of this world, the economy has always been based on either bartering or money — until now. Here we are, in our generation, developing into a cashless society. In fact, 2003 was the first year that people did more transactions by number, using a debit or credit card, then they did by cash or check — and it’s just multiplied since then. We are definitely on that path.

Now there is talk about things like contact-less debit and credit cards where you take your little card and just wave it in front of a scanner — you don’t have to go through the whole process we do now of signing things in front of a cashier. We’ll just wave our card in front of a scanner, it will go “beep,” and we’ll walk out the door in about ten seconds. At the end of 2006, it is estimated that there’s going to be 25 million contact-less debit or credit cards in use. One out of every nine adults in the United States will be transacting that way.

Another thing that is rapidly becoming very big is a pay-by-finger system. It has actually been implemented in many supermarkets around the country, including Albertson’s (although not here in Truckee). With this system, you simply get your finger scanned and linked to your bank account, and then at hundreds of supermarkets, to pay for your groceries, you just stick your finger on a screen and the money is immediately debited against your account. You don’t need cash, you don’t need a check, you don’t even need a credit card — just use your finger! That’s going to be a hard thing to counterfeit, or to take from you.

What’s interesting to me is how we’re being programmed to buy and sell by number, and it’s becoming easier to do all the time in relation to your body. But there has been an advancement that I have become aware of this last year that is fascinating — it pulls all of bio-technology together. It’s called the RFID, which is an acronym for Radio Frequency Identification. It is a microchip that is about the size of a grain of rice. It can be implanted on a product, it can be implanted on a document, and it can be implanted under the skin of a person. In fact, they’re recommending it be implanted on the body for a number of uses. They say having the chip implanted is less intrusive than having a common shot. It is injected just under the skin. The thing about RFID is that it is so simple, it is being used in many different ways.

Here’s how it works. All that is on the chip is an identification number. That chip just sits there dormant under your skin, holding your unique identification number. Once scanned, that ID number can open up anything that you want it to open up.

The RFID chip, which was approved for human-implanting by the FDA this last year, is produced by the Verichip organization, which is the leading corporation in this whole field of identification chips.

What happens is that a reader gives out just a slight little radio signal which will energize that little dormant chip in your body enough to transmit the identification number, which, through computer technology and the Internet, opens up all the records that the person has authorized to be available. So, it’s not like all of the information is stored on the chip; it’s not. There’s simply the identification number on the chip that opens up everything else by providing instant access to the Global Verichip Subscriber registry, the GVS. Through a secure password, it accesses subscriber-provided information.

There seems to be an endless number of uses for this technology because it can be imbedded on people, documents, and products. Walmart is coming on board big time with this RFID for keeping their inventory and tracking all their products. Homeland Security is very interested in RFID because it will help them accurately identify people, especially suspected terrorists and other criminals. They want to embed the RFID in passports in the near future as a defense against counterfeit passports. In fact, they’re going to use San Francisco International as a test site this year for the RFID-embedded passport. Passports with this chip will be used at San Francisco International Airport to help check people through customs and to make sure people are who they say they are. RFID-embedded documents and/or people can help us monitor criminals and sex offenders — even properly identify unconscious patients who have the chip implanted under their skin. When a “chipped” patient comes into the hospital or is taken there by ambulance, medics can scan the chip, have instant access to their medical records, find out exactly what’s going on with this person and what needs to be done to help him or her.

Verichip also sells wearable RFID identification tags to maternity units, for both mothers and babies, so you don’t have any mix up with infants in the nursery. Alzheimer’s’ patients often get lost, but if they have an RFID tag or embedded chip, they can be identified and safely returned to their home.

In Barcelona, one of the hottest nightspots is a place called the Baja Beach Club. They’re utilizing this RFID technology in their nightclub. The owner of the club said this, “We have a special zone at Baja Beach Club where only VIPs are allowed, which has various exclusive services for these members. We are the first discothèque in the world to offer the VIP Verichip. Using an integrated [which is an embedded] microchip, our VIPs can identify themselves and pay for their food and their drinks without the need of any kind of document whatsoever.” Doesn’t that sound just like what the Bible says will be happening in the last days?

The RFID industry is growing rapidly. It is estimated it will have $3 billion in sales by the year 2010 (which is an interesting year for other reasons, isn’t it?). RFID chips are already being embedded in all kinds of material, including the human body. So you may look at that and ask, “Is that the mark of the beast?” Well, no — not at this time. But it is the kind of technology that could be used for the mark.

… and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

That’s exactly how the RFID is designed, to have that kind of a number on it. All I’m saying here is that the world is clearly going in the direction of a cashless society, buying and selling with a number that is literally embedded on a person’s body — exactly what Revelation said would happen in the last days.

I just want to make a couple of other points before wrapping up this message. What else has been going on this last year that we should keep an eye on? Watch Iran, folks. Some are saying the country of Iran is the biggest threat to world peace that’s out there right now. I’m sure you must be aware that Iran, in a very renegade way, has been developing its nuclear capability. Most countries believe Iran wants to develop an atomic bomb. Of course Iran says, “Oh, no, it’s just for peaceful use,” sort of like North Korea has been saying. But there is no doubt in my mind that Iran is endeavoring to develop an atomic bomb! Why would Iran, with all its oil, need nuclear energy?

Did you hear what the new president of Iran said just a few weeks ago, at the end of last year? He said that Israel should be wiped off the map. He publicly said that! Of course he got in a lot of trouble internationally for saying that; even so, he went right on the record saying that Israel needs to be wiped out.

Iran has purchased missiles from China with a capability of going 2,200 miles, which gets them within range of Israel. It is believed that by next year sometime, Iran will have an atomic bomb and they’ve declared publicly, “We want Israel wiped off the map.”

What is interesting about that is what Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 say is going to happen in the last days: the invasion of Israel by what the Bible calls “Magog,” of the land of “Gog,” which is Russia. The next invading nation, listed right behind Gog or Russia is Persia — that’s Iran. All of the other nations listed in Ezekiel are now Muslim nations. Today, Russia and Iran are very good friends. When other countries have come down on Iran for developing nuclear capabilities, Russia has not. Russia is defending Iran, in essence saying, “It’s ok, don’t worry about it. We’ll monitor it. We’ll make sure it’s for peaceful use.”

Yeah, right! In the meantime, Russia is developing its own nuclear capability. We have been so busy with Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism, we’ve sort of forgotten about Russia. In the meantime, they’ve developed new intercontinental ballistic missiles that have a 6,000-mile range, which they boast can break through any missile defense system in the world, i.e., ours — Patriot missiles and the like. Russia has developed atomic warheads to go on these missiles; right now they’re in silos, but it is thought that by this next year, Russia will make them mobile. They’re working hot and heavy on doing that at the same time they have united with Iran on all of these kinds of things.

Russia clearly sees itself as friends of Islam, while the United States is seen as the evil devil by the Islamic world. Russian President Vladimir Putin made this statement last year, “Russia has always been the most faithful, reliable and consistent defender of the interests of the Islamic world. Russia has always been its most reliable partner and ally.”

So Russia is presenting itself as the friend of Islam. It’s all lining up for the invasion of Israel, prophesied in Ezekiel 38 and 39, to take place!

Let’s take a quick look at Israel; what’s going on in Israel? Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon just suffered a major stroke and Israel is in kind of disarray. We’re going to have to wait and see what’s going to happen as a result of that. It has happened at the same time you’ve got this Palestinian issue going on.

Sharon was a man who unilaterally gave up Gaza to the Palestinians, and was planning to unilaterally give up portions of the West Bank, and the south, all in an effort to make peace with the Palestinians, to stop the terrorism. Well, if that doesn’t stop the terrorism, and it hasn’t — and, guess what, it won’t — then Israel, once again, is going to have to take a very hard stance to defend its very existence.

By the way, Israel has said that if Iran develops nuclear capability, Israel will have to stop them. They have basically said, “We can not allow Iran, our enemy, to have nuclear bombs and missiles. We’re going to stop it.” So there’s an issue right there.

With Israel having to defend itself from the Palestinians, that whole thing could end up being a trigger to bring the Islamic world against Israel and Israel against the Islamic world. The world could be thrown right into Ezekiel 38 and 39, with Russia’s and its friends making that prophesied invasion.

I talked in detail last year about our presence in Iraq. The interesting thing about Iraq, prophetically, is that it is the site of ancient Babylon, and the Bible has a lot to say about Babylon in the last days. We’ll just have to keep an eye on what’s going on there, because Iraq is a country in transition, with heavy Western influence there now. If by chance the site of the end-times Babylon is actually the same as the ancient site of Babylon, as some believe it is, we may see the door opening for end-times Babylon to literally set up its headquarters in Iraq, ancient Babylon.

Brethren, obviously, all kinds of interesting things are happening in our world today. Things prophesied 2,000 and 3,000 years ago are happening right before our very eyes! Jesus said this in Luke 21:28:

“But when these things begin to take place, straighten up your heads, lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

So, my last question is this, “Where do you stand with the Lord Jesus Christ?” This age is rapidly coming to an end and Jesus Christ is coming back! The Bible prophesied it and we’re seeing it. The time is short. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we just bow down before You. Father, You have declared things that, in so many ways, look like they’re taking place right before our eyes. But Father, You haven’t said, this is that — You’ve just said what’s going to happen in the last days. Father, I pray that this just might be an eye-opener to each of us, that we will see that history is working out just like You said it would, and that the last days are very, very near. Lord, we’ll leave with You how all this pans out, but thank You that You have said in Your Word that we don’t have to be unaware that it will. Instead, Lord, we can be like children of the light and see that, indeed, Jesus is coming very soon. So, Father, may we go about trusting You, following You and serving You in these last days so that, as Jesus said, when He comes, He will find us serving You. Father, we give these things into Your hands now. We look to You and we wait upon You. May we go about our daily lives with the recognition that Jesus Christ is returning soon, and never lose sight of that. We pray it in His name! Amen.