Throughout my book, I show how history has a tendency to repeat itself in cycles. Daniel's prophecy of the abomination of desolation was fulfilled when Antiochus IV Epiphanes set up an altar to Zeus in the Temple of Jerusalem, thus igniting the Maccabean revolt (at the preterist level of interpretation), but it also had ongoing significance for the early Christians in the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the erection of a temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount by the emperor Hadrian. As I argue in my earlier post "The Abomination of Desolation", another important aspect of the realisation of this prophecy can be found in the fact that there are exactly 1,260 years between the period when construction began on the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Temple of Jerusalem in 688 and the date of the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948 (at the historicist level of interpretation). So if we view this on a symbolic level, where the Temple Mount represents the wider nation of Israel, then "gentiles" really did trample on this holy ground for a period of 1,260 "days" as foretold in Rev 11. Also the prophecy of the abomination of desolation may have another futurist level of interpretation which has still to be revealed during the reign of the Antichrist, when the "man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God". (2 Thes 2:3-4)
The prophecy of the Woman adorned with the Sun in Rev 12 is similarly based on the historical event of the Nativity of Jesus, when the Holy Family fled into the desert to escape from the wrath of King Herod. But the prophecy of the Woman adorned with the Sun is also framed in the Book of Revelation as an eschatological event, where the Virgin Mary would once again appear at the end of time to crush the head of Satan and usher in the Second Advent of her son Jesus (see my earlier posts, "The Fall of Satan", "The Woman Adorned with the Sun" and "Our Lady of Egypt").
A further instance of history repeating itself can be found in the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem itself - during the infamous date of Tisha B'Av (the ninth of the Jewish month of Av). The first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians on Tisha B'Av in 586BC, and on the exact same date the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. Tisha B'Av is thus now remembered in Judaism as a day of mourning, and a number of other calamities occurred for the Jewish people on this date (see the link to the wikipedia article above).
It seems that another example of history repeating itself is yet to unfold in the future. Just as the fall of Rome (which was "Babylon" for the early Christians) occurred after the conversion of the empire beginning with reign of Constantine, so it appears that fall of the modern "Babylon" will occur after the Second Pentecost restores Christianity to its rightful place in Western civilisation. As the Third Secret of Fatima states, the hand of God's judgment is stayed through the intercession of Our Lady to allow for period of penance.
"...we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'"
But the judgment is already set and must occur after the fullness of God's people has been brought into the fold through the gift of the Second Pentecost (see the article on this subject here). I argue in the book that the fall of the end-time "Babylon" will occur after this period of peace, which will heal the Church of the Great Apostasy it is currently enduring. This peace will not last long however... I believe that the collapse of Cumbre Vieja and subsequent mega-tsunami will come about after this great spiritual revival, much in the same way Rome was destroyed after its conversion to Christianity, when its past sins returned to haunt it (see my earlier post "Mega-tsunami"). This event will ultimately lead to the demise of the U.S. as a superpower, and pave the way for the coming of the Antichrist, who will exploit this political vaccum and time of economic turmoil to rise to global prominence. Without its chief ally and protector, the state of Israel will become a prime target for the surrounding Arab nations. The Bible states in a number of areas that the battle of Armageddon will be precipitated by an end-time invasion of Israel.
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them... (Rev 20:7-9)
It is likely that the Antichrist, in his role of "Destroyer", will be the prime instigator of this final world war. I will cover this topic in some more detail in the next few posts.
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