COMMENTARY & OPINION

From the desk of

Bill Ramey

8 16 18

COMMENTARY & OPINION

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A PROPHET?

DOES IT TAKE A THD IN THEOLOGY PLUS A COUPLE OF YEARS IN A TIBETAN MONASTERY?  DOES IT REQUIRE APPROVAL OF THE POPE OR THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS?  DOES IT PAY WELL AND WHAT ABOUT BENEFITS?

IF WE MET A PROPHET OF THE ETERNAL ON THE STREET, WOULD WE BE ABLE TO RECOGNIZE HIM AS SUCH?  WOULD HE HAVE A GOLD CROSS HANGING AROUND HIS NECK AND A CROSS WOVEN INTO HIS TUNIC?  AND WOULD THERE BE A RAINBOW HALO HOVERING OVER HIS HEAD?

ARE THESE VALID QUESTIONS AND WHERE DO WE GO FOR ANSWERS?

Christianity, of course would tell us to ask our priest, pastor or guru and a small minority might even advise us to search the scriptures.  Christians are conditioned with the belief that the Bible is God breathed and the only errors are typos or translation errors.  But I have shown you repeatedly in the pages of these Commentaries, that when we look to the scriptures, we need to use caution and be prepared to "...rightly divide truth", because the prophet Jeremiah tells us in chapter 8, verse 8, that the Jewish scribes have falsified the Torah, (first five books of the Old Testament) and I have shown that the Vatican has spin doctored the New Testament.

So what is a prophet or prophetess?  It is a man or woman (yes, there have been women prophets --- Moses' sister Miriam comes to mind), well seasoned in the furnace of life's afflictions, who walks and talks with the Eternal.  It is one to whom has been given vision that most people do not have.  Solomon wrote that "Where there is no vision, the people perish".  This is why prophets were sent to kings.  Kings are not usually blest with vision.  Most have been blinded by wealth.  It appears that Solomon was one of these.  He is credited with being the wisest man who ever lived but the book of Ecclesiastes smacks of an author who was a candidate for suicide.  600 wives and 300 concubines would be enough to induce that. 

And, while I said prophets are people well seasoned in the trials of life --- even this rule has it's exceptions.  It appears that Samuel and Jeremiah were prophets from birth.  If the Eternal can issue words of correction from the mouth of a jackass, this would seem small by comparison.

Prophets come from many walks of life.  Moses was a great general in the Egyptian army and credited with the conquest of Ethiopia.  He then had to run for his life after killing an Egyptian official for mistreating one of his kinsmen.  He then spent 40 years in the wilderness of Midian, (present day Saudi Arabia), where he met his God and received his "walking orders".

David was anointed as King over Israel, was a warrior who very well may have killed more men with his own two hands than anyone who has ever lived and is noted in the New Testament as, "A man after God's own heart".  Have we been spoon fed a wrong concept of God?

Amos was a gatherer of wild figs and evidently among the very poor of Israel.

Hosea (Osee) was instructed by his God to marry an harlot which was for a special purpose and carries a valuable lesson in life.  

Elisha was plowing with a yoke of oxen when he was chosen as a prophet.  The apostles also came from several walks of life --- from fishermen to tax collectors. 

But aren't prophets somewhat outdated like horses and buggies?  We live in the space age.  And so we do, but are the prophets really outdated?  Perhaps we should take a look at where America is mentioned in scripture by the prophet Habakkuk.

In chapter 1, verse 5 of the message Habakkuk has for America today, he says "...I will work a work in your day which you will not believe though it be told you..."  Do you believe what you have read in these Commentaries? 

Dropping on down to verse 8, we see that the military of this impetuous nation "...will come from afar..." and "...fly like eagles".  isn't this describing modern warfare?  Some will say that is a "stretch" but let's drop on down to verse 3 of chapter 2 and get the plainly worded setting for this message of Habakkuk. "For the vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak..."  Is speaking? 

If you study this book carefully, you will see it is describing a rogue nation at the time of the end that plunders the entire world.  If you compare several different translations, it will become more readable in today's vernacular.  And if you ponder what you read, that is, do your own thinking, hopefully you will see that there has never been a nation that fits this description, other than America.  There is no close second.  Habakkuk calls this nation Chaldea, which is another name for Babylon.  We can see in Revelation 18 that there is a "Babylon" at the time of the end (of the age), that is destroyed "...in one hour". 

Most of the prophets speak of this "end time" that we have already entered.  We know this because the book of Daniel, which was to be sealed until the "end time",  is now opened.  (See Daniel 12).

In order to understand the writings of the prophets, we must assemble them like a jigsaw puzzle and then we find them forming a mosaic that lays out today's world quite clearly.  Granted, we need to know that Aram is Syria;  Elam is Persia (Iran), Midian is Saudi, etc.  But once armed with this knowledge we can quickly understand that Revelation 6, beginning in verse 12 and Isaiah 13 are describing the same event.  "The day of the Lord", "the day of the Lord's wrath" and "the day of the Lord's vengeance" are all the same event and amounts to the destruction of America --- "...in one hour".

The key that unlocks prophecy is the book of Daniel.  The longest unbroken line of prophecy is Daniel 11 and covers two and a half millennia of time in 45 verses. It is laid out chronologically and once you begin to understand this and see that the "once in all of recorded history" event of verses 42-43 occurred in February of 2011, it draws back the curtain to reveal where we are in the prophetic timeline.     

The first 4 verses of Isaiah 17 reveal the fall of Damascus as the trigger event for the destruction of America and "Israel".   

In fact, this is another "once in all of recorded history" event.  Damascus has never been reduced to "...a ruinous heap".  But it will be. 

The little counterfeit nation of "Israel" will be destroyed as we can see in Isaiah 22 and 29.  It will, however, be resettled and we can see in chapters 30-33 that the wealth of that nation accumulated by the Khazarian pirates that rule it now, will be preserved for the Israelites coming out of three and one half years of captivity, who choose to emigrate to the new and greater Israel. 

With America and "Israel" gone, along with others who "...destroy the earth", (see Rev 11:18), the world will begin to heal and it will enjoy 1000 years of peace. 

At the end of this 1000 years, Satan will be released from his prison and go to gather the armies of Gog and Magog as we can see in Ezekiel 38-39 --- clarified in Rev 20.

This will be the test to see how many truly appreciated a world of peace and how many prefer to return to the "good ole days" of plunder.  If I understand correctly, those who follow Satan in this venture will have their names erased from the rolls of the living forever. 

So do we have any prophets in this end time world?  Yes.  As I have shown in past Commentaries, there are two (and only two), in the whole world today and we find them mentioned in Revelation 11.  At this point in time, it is doubtful that they even know this for sure, but it appears their cloak of anonymity will be stripped away at the time America and Israel are destroyed and they will give a message to the world that will be as unwelcome as the message Christ brought.  And they will be killed in Jerusalem at the end of their 1260 day campaign, which will be while American survivors are in captivity. 

You can see in Rev 10, that one of these two prophets was handed a "Little Book", opened.  He was told to "...eat it and it would be in his mouth sweet as honey but would sour in his stomach." 

Why was it "...sweet in his mouth" and "... bitter in his stomach"?  The "sweetness" was the new vistas of truth opened up to him that were absolutely tantalizing.  The "bitter" was the responsibility that was laid on him after ingesting it.  "You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations and tongues and kings".  I firmly believe this "Little Book" is the little 3 chapter book of Habakkuk.

You can be sure that none of the religions of this world will have anything to do with these two prophets.  In fact, they will be among those rejoicing and sending gifts to each other when these two are killed in the streets of Jerusalem and their bodies lay for three and one half days,  To find out what happens next, you'll have to read the 11th chapter of Revelation. 

So what does it take to be a prophet?  I only know of two criteria mentioned by Christ in order to qualify as a prophet.  It's found in the gospel of Mark.  "No prophet is accepted in his own country or in his own house".

And if this article is simply too much to get your arms around, try to recall the message the Eternal passed on to us through Habakkuk 1:5.  "...I will work a work in your day which you will not believe though it be told you..."