Dawn of the Second Coming

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http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A5OY07A

The preview includes the book description, the Preface, the Table of Contents and a sample chapter. ******

Book Description
The morning of September 11, 2001 dawned just like countless others before it. Nobody suspected that the events of that day had been described in the Book of Ezekiel and that they would start the sequence that would culminate in the Second Coming. What happened on that morning forever changed the world. Islamic terrorism, global financial devastation, increasingly erratic weather patterns and climate disasters along with war in the Middle East have followed in its wake. Zechariah tells how Israel is soon to fall victim to this instability and will be invaded. Joel describes the most fearsome manifestation of all the signs that point to the nearness of the Second Coming. It is Joels Army the likes of which have never been seen before. It will wreak havoc on the earth. Luke tells how people all over the world will faint from terror as they see it slowly approaching. When it arrives it will destroy all religious, political and military power as it clears the way ready for Jesus to appear. The land and many cities will be laid to waste. Joels Army will plunge the world into a strange twilight. The days will be darkened and the nights will be brighter than a fully moonlit night. People everywhere will anxiously read and try to understand what Zechariah chapter 14 had to say about this extraordinary phenomenon. Then through the gloom and despair, the sky splits open to reveal the Lord of lords and King of kings. **********

Preface

The

incident that heralds the dawn of the period that will end on the day that Jesus actually appears started with the tragedy of September 11, 2001. The events of that morning changed the world. Since the Islamic attack on America that day the political situation world-wide has dramatically altered in many ways. Old alliances have been broken governments have been swept away Islamic violence has increased. Scandals involving the most ineffectual and incompetent body that the world has ever had the misfortune to be saddled with have finally bubbled up to the surface

with allegations against several prominent people connected to the UN. We have seen the Asian tsunami on December 26, 2004 occur with massive loss of life. We have experienced the world-wide global financial disasters that began in 2007 and are still with us today in 2012. Western governments have fallen because of their involvement in one way or another in these financial scandals. In the last decade the worlds climate has become increasingly erratic and destructive. The Arab Spring began unexpectedly in Tunisia on December 18, 2010 and has destabilized the Middle East. Is it just coincidence that September 11 seemed to start all this or can it be explained by referring to the Biblical descriptions of these events. This book explores these questions. It does this by looking at the facts of history and the major political and other key events in the world over the last century. It then relates those events to what the Bible claims is to be the sequence of events in the end-times. By using this method of interpretation we can track the progress towards the big event and have confidence that we are not putting our own interpretation on the Bible and reading things into it that are simply not there. Joels Army is described in Joel chapter two. The somewhat mysterious description of this entity has led to much speculation about its nature and the role that it will play in the end-times. We will look in some detail at the Biblical descriptions of this army and how it will accomplish the functions that God has decreed for it. It is not what most people think! In order to explore the phenomenon of Joels Army, photo-realistic Illustrations have been created to graphically bring to life exactly what this army is and how it will be used by God in the months leading up to the actual Second Coming. This army is quite unique in human history. God will use it for several purposes during the Seventh Bowl. It will be used to destroy mystery Babylon as described in Revelation chapter 18. It will also produce the twilight that will prevail all over the earth and which is described in Zechariah 14:6. Finally, it is also the sign of the son of man that will appear in the sky which causes all the nations of earth to mourn and directly precedes the appearance of Jesus. This is spoken of in Matthew chapter 24:30. The Seals, Trumpets and Bowls of the book of Revelation have been the subjects of many and various speculations. Numerous books that have been written on this topic have mixed the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls in with stories of the future rise of an antichrist figure. This approach has been popular with many people as it presents some quite sensational future scenarios that satisfy the need for novelty in their lives. This book takes a different approach to prophetic interpretation. The author believes that God is in control of world events not mankind. The Seals, Trumpets and Bowls are presented in the Bible as judgements that God is bringing on the world during the period between the First and Second Coming of Jesus. God however does nothing without first informing His people of His plans (Amos 3:7) Accordingly, God has sketched these major events out in the form of the Seal, Trumpet and Bowl prophecies so that His people are forewarned and will understand the situation and not be afraid. Because, the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls are judgments from God on the world then naturally we should expect to able to clearly identify these major events across history and on into today. We can, and we will be looking at this in the book. The Bowl Judgements are the relevant ones for our times and these will be examined in some detail. It will be seen that over the last 100 years or so, major world events that correspond exactly to the Bowl Judgments have occurred in exactly the sequence described in the Bible.

My motivation for writing this book is simple. I firmly believe that the group of people who will get the biggest shock when Jesus actually appears are going to be many Christians. They will say, But you cannot appear yet because the anti-christ has not yet arisen. Neither have the Jews built the Third Temple and reinstituted animal sacrifices. Nor has the rapture taken place yet The Bible is quite clear about the events that will lead up to the Second Coming. None of them include the things I speak of in the previous paragraph. It is for this reason that I have written about the events that the Bible speaks of. Those Christians who do not understand what the Bible has to say on this topic will almost certainly join the rest of the world and find themselves fainting in terror when Joels Army appears. Luke 21:26 (NIV) Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. This edition is an updated and renamed version of an earlier book by the same author, which was titled The Second coming in slow Motion: Connecting the dots. Some sections of the original book have been removed and some new chapters have been added. Other sections have been re-written and updated to reflect changes in the world since the original book was first published in 2005.

Dennis Murphy
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Table of Contents
Dawn of the Second Coming Preface Introduction Gods Plan for Redeeming Mankind and the World From The Liberation of Jerusalem until the Return of Jesus Views of Prophecy The Preterists The Futurists The Historicists The Prophetic Realists The preeminent place of Israel in Gods plan for the world Gods purpose in forming Israel The OT nation of Israel splits into two nations Citizenship and national identity The two Houses of Israel reunited in the End-times Is America mentioned in the Bible? The characteristics that modern-day Ephraim and Manasseh would have Can we find such nations in the world today? The Three Key Marker Events of the End-times The first marker event that starts the end-times The second of the three markers God identifies Gog and forewarns of his destruction Figure 1 - Map of the old and new nations in the Middle East 9 points that identify the nation God used to lure Gog The destruction of Gog The third marker starts the most significant events of the end-times More Confirming events

The tsunami on December 26, 2004 An even more startling prediction made by Luke Joels Army Joels Army as described in the Bible The key scripture to understanding Joels Army The individual details of Joels Army describe a swarm of asteroids Joel 2:10 The sign of the Son of Man Joels Army and Zechariahs twilight day all over the world Figure 2 - Picture of the solar system in its normal state Figure 3 - Picture of twilight all over the earth caused by Joel's "army" The purpose of Joels Army The Financial Meltdown The Seals, Trumpets and Bowl Judgements of Revelation The progressive unfolding of prophecy over the last 2000 years The use of symbolism in Revelation The Kingdom of God The Seal judgements The Seals revealed across history The Trumpet and Bowl judgments The Bowl judgements in detail The generation that would see the Bowl judgements The First Bowl The Second Bowl The Third Bowl The Fourth Bowl The Fifth Bowl The Sixth Bowl The River Euphrates dried up Three evil spirits that looked like frogs Frogs out of the mouths of the dragon, beast and false prophet Spirits of demons go out to the kings of the world Then they gathered the kings together to Armageddon The Seventh Bowl The signature event that ushers in the Seventh Bowl Judgements in the literal air or atmosphere Judgments from the sky Joels Army destroys religious power Figure 4 - The Vatican about to be destroyed by one of Joel's "warriors" Judgments from the sky Joels Army destroys political power Judgments from the sky Jesus returns to rule the earth Wrapping it all up About the author Upcoming EBook titles Some other titles by Dennis Murphy Connect with Me Online: Appendix 1- The Old and New Testament nations ******

Excerpt from one of the chapters of the book

Joels Army and Zechariahs twilight day all over the world
We now look at the question of how Joels Army is connected to the unique day that Zechariah describes as immediately preceding Christs return.

I have shown two different versions of the two verses that describe that day as these two translations cover most of the variations in the wording that you find in the other Bibles. The two versions differ slightly in that the NKJV version says in verse 6, The

lights will diminish whereas the NIV version says no cold or frost. As we shall
see below, both versions are correct. They differ because they are referring to two different aspects of the same phenomenon. These sorts of variations between different translations mean that when you are interpreting a particular passage it often pays to consult a number of Bibles to get the full range of the meaning. Zechariah 14:6-7 (NKJV) 6 It shall come to pass in that day that there will be no light; The lights will diminish. 7 It shall be one day which is known to the Lord neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light. Zechariah 14:6-7(NIV) 6 On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. 7 It will be a unique day, without daytime or night-time-a day known to

the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light

What the two verses above are saying is that in that day the world will be in twilight all over the surface of the earth. The day-time will be in diminished light, but the night-time will also be light. In other words, the night-time will be lighter than normal and the day-time will be darker than normal. In verse 6 of the NIV version we find that it says that there will be no cold or frost at the same time as the NKJV says, the lights will diminish. We all unconsciously know what this refers to. Many people reading this will have experienced the dimming of the sun-light during the day and the associated drop in temperature of several degrees that occurs during a lunar eclipse of the sun. The temperature in the path of the total eclipse can drop by 5 to 10 degrees C for the duration of the time that the sun is obscured. This is because virtually all the radiation from the sun is blocked during that time. The effect is probably best described by the Gods Word translation that renders verse six as,

On that day there will be neither heat nor freezing cold.

This is intuitively obvious. If there is something obscuring some of the sunlight during the day-time, then it will be darker and cooler than would normally be the case but the temperature wont drop to freezing. As we will see later in this section, Joels Army provides the explanation of this phenomenon. Next we need to ask how realistic Zechariah 14:7 is. Is it possible to have simultaneous twilight all over the earth from naturally occurring events? Or is this just another picturesque story from the Bible but which is not literally true? The answer is, yes it is possible! More importantly, the appearance of Joels Army is the only way that you can produce twilight all over the world simultaneously and at the same time limit temperature extremes over the earth. In order to demonstrate how Joels Army will accomplish this, we will use the old proverb that a picture is worth a thousand words and actually show what the two verses in Zechariah 14:6-7 are describing. Many people will not be familiar with the mechanics of the solar system as shown in Figure 2 below so a very brief explanation of the basics will help in understanding what is shown.

Figure 1 - Picture of the solar system in its normal state

The earth orbits around the sun in a slightly elliptical orbit once every 365 days at a radius of about 150 million km from the sun. The plane in which the earth moves around the sun is known as the ecliptic plane. Looking down from above the earth's North Pole, the moon moves in an elliptical counter-clockwise direction with an average distance of about 385,000 km from the earth. This is about 60 times the radius of the earth itself. The plane of the moon's orbit around the earth is inclined at an angle of about 5 with respect to the ecliptic plane on which the earth rotates around the sun. It takes the Moon 27.3 days to go around the Earth once. The moon itself is not a luminous body like the sun. Instead, it simply reflects sunlight off itself back onto the earth. The reason that the moon is able to shine on the earth at night is simply because of the fact that the orbit of the moon is angled at 5 degrees to the ecliptic plane of the earth. That inclination, along with the radius of the moons orbit, allows it to rise somewhat above the ecliptic plane of the earth and its shadow (depending on the phase of the moon). This situation then provides a direct line of sight between the moon and the sun and allows the moon to reflect light back onto the dark side of the earth at night. The pictures used for this demonstration are not an artists impression of what Zechariah was talking about. They were created from a 3D computer-model of the solar system of the sun, earth, moon and asteroids. The only light source in the 3D model is the sun which radiates outwards in all directions. The actual pictures were then created using a photorealistic ray-tracing procedure that is part of the 3D modelling package. This raytracing function in the software has the ability to generate photorealistic reflections such as you see in Figure 2 where the moon is reflecting the direct sunlight it receives as moonlight onto the dark night-time side of the earth. In Figure 3 you will see that any objects such as asteroids directly between the sun and the earth will block direct sunlight from reaching the earth just as the moon does during an eclipse. As a result, these asteroids will cast realistic shadows onto the daytime side of the earth. You will also see in Figure 3 that asteroids are passing on the far side of the earth. They have direct sunlight on them because they are not in the earths shadow. These asteroids then reflect asteroid light onto the dark night-time side of the earth. The end result in Figure 3 clearly shows that despite the fact that the moon is eclipsed by an asteroid and as a result has little direct sunlight reaching it, the dark night-time

side of the earth is brighter than normal moonlight. This is simply because of the large number of asteroids passing by the far side of the earth that are reflecting light on to the dark side of the earth. At the same time, the day-light side of the earth has large areas in the shadows that are cast by the asteroids between the earth and the sun.

Figure 3 - Picture of twilight all over the earth caused by Joel's "army"
We now see a direct example of how Joels Army creates twilight on the daytime side of the earth at the same time as the enhanced twilight on the night-side of the earth. There is no trickery here and no artists impressions. Anyone with access to a suitable 3D modelling and photorealistic rendering package can produce the same images. If you dont have access to suitable software, you can make a model in a darkened room to recreate a reasonable approximation that will convince even the most hardened sceptic that there is no trickery involved in these pictures. Zechariah 14:6-7 describes this phenomenon of a twilight day as taking only a day. In fact this is almost certainly a poetic description of a period of time that is spread out over at least a few weeks and maybe a few months. Bodies such as asteroids and comets take a long time to pass by the earth because of the vast distances they have to travel. As an example, most comets that are visible by eye in the night sky can be clearly seen for many weeks. The ShoemakerLevy 9 comet that collided with Jupiter in July 1994 was visible in telescopes for 16 months. On top of that, the Bible is clear that we are dealing with not just one but a swarm of asteroids that are spread out across space. Now that we have considered how Joels Army will produce simultaneous twilight all over the earth, its time to consider what various other scriptures are saying with respect to this day. We will only look at Mathew 24:29, but Mark 13 and Luke 21 tell the same story. Figure 3 will then show exactly how this all comes about. Mathew 24:29 (NIV) 29 "Immediately after the distress of those days "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

"The sun will be darkened To achieve this simply put a large body or a large
number of bodies between the sun and the earth. This will block a large amount of light

from reaching the earth. We are all familiar with this one in the form of a solar eclipse by the moon.

The moon will not give its light The moon only reflects the light from the sun
when it is in such a position in the night sky as to be able to draw a straight line between it and the sun without hitting the earth. In Figure 3 the moon is eclipsed by an asteroid and so has been darkened and is not providing much moonlight to the earth. Twilight all over the earth Despite the fact that the moon has been darkened by having been eclipsed by an asteroid, the rest of Joels Army will still produce twilight on the night-time side of the earth. The reflected asteroid light will come from the individual soldiers (asteroids) in the army that are passing on the far side of the earth and which are not in the shadow of the earth. Twilight on the day-light side is produced by the asteroids between the earth and sun blocking a lot of the sunlight from reaching the earth. The stars will fall from the sky We are all familiar with shooting stars. These are meteors that fall to the earth as meteorites (a meteor that survives an impact with the Earth's surface without being destroyed). These shooting stars are associated with the debris that normally accompanies comets and asteroids.

The heavenly bodies will be shaken In a situation where all these comets /
asteroids are swarming past the earth, moon and other planets, it would be most surprising if some of the heavenly bodies such as the sun, earth, moon and Mars did not receive some hits. Figure 3 above shows both the earth and the moon being struck by some of these asteroids. We now have all the elements that are prophesied e.g. a darkened sun, no moonlight, stars falling from the sky, the heavenly bodies being shaken and a simultaneous twilight all over the world. And all of these things are only made possible by the appearance of Joels Army of asteroids. ******