Welcome to the Kingdom Family Podcast, where
we rediscover our identity as sons and daughters
of Yahweh and learn to live the life of the Kingdom.
Let's jump in to today's episode. All right,
guys, another week on Rethinking the End Times.
This week, we're going to dive into how biblical
prophecy actually works. And again, I'm going
to preface this out of the gate with saying there's
no way that I can cover all of this and just
with the weeks that I have planned out. There
is so much stuff that you could study and read
on this and allow Holy Spirit to teach you. There's
just a lot. But my goal again here is just to
give you some information to cause you to rethink
what you believe about the end times. I'm not
here to say I'm right and everybody else is wrong
or none of that kind of stuff. But I am, my goal
is to give people a more hopeful outlook of what
the so -called end looks like. I personally believe
that Christ is in the process of restoring all
things and has indeed restored all things. That
we are simply catching up to this. So Jewish
prophecy uses a lot of imagery. We're going to
dive right into this. And some of the examples
I want to walk through, we're going to start
with stars falling, for example, in the way the
scripture reads it. Stars falling would typically
mean the fall of rulers, the fall of kings, the
fall of governing authorities, a political collapse
of a nation, or removal of leadership or authority.
Hebrew thought stars symbolized rulers or governing
powers both partly and sometimes spiritual So
let's read Genesis 37 verses 5 through 10 It
says one night Joseph had a dream and when he
shared it with his brothers, they hated him even
more So already out of the gate we understand
that apparently Joseph's brothers hated him for
whatever reason And he shared with them a dream
that caused them to hate him even more He says,
listen to this dream that I had in verse six
and seven. He says, he told them, there we were,
binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly
my sheaf rose up and stood upright. Then your
sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to
mine. His brothers asked him, oh, so you think
you're going to be our king? Do you actually
think you're destined to rule over us? So the
dream that he told them about made them hate
him even more. There are some times it's okay
to be quiet. Just throw that out there for free
for you Verse 9 says that another night he had
a dream and he shared it with his brother saying
listen I had another dream so he did not learn
his lesson the first time He's still excited
that he's having dreams like this. This time
the sun and moon and 11 stars were bowing down
to me and when his father and brothers heard
it, his father this time scolded Jacob and said,
what kind of dream is that? Do you really think
that I and your mother and your brothers are
going to come and bow to the ground before you?
So already in this story, we already are beginning
to see some prophetic imagery happening. We have
the mention of the sun, the moon, and the stars.
So if you look at his dream that Jacob had, the
sun would have represented Jacob, his father.
The moon would represent Rachel, his mother.
And the stars would represent his brothers. And
we can see that. Even Jacob picks up on it because
he says, this time the sun and moon 11 stars
are bowing down to me. So his father even picked
up what the imagery was in his dream. Jacob understood
the symbolism of what his son was actually saying
regarding his dream and the prophetic representation
here. So stars clearly, especially in this story
represent people in authority and not literal
stars falling. another example that we have would
be found in Isaiah chapter 13 verses 9 and 10
and it says behold the day of the Lord is coming
with pitiless fury and furious anger the land
will be made desolate destroying the sinners
who inhabit it for the stars of the heavens and
their constellations will not give their light
the rising Sun will be obscured and the moon
will not shine so dr. Simmons here may as says
it may be a metaphor for false teachers excuse
me backtrack words are hard sometimes Dr. Simmons
says that stars may be a metaphor for false teachers
and constellations a metaphor for fellowships
such as networks or denominations this is another
example it's a prophecy about the fall of Babylon
not a literal cosmic collapse And we can see
that if you look at who was the prophecy about
we can go back up to verse 1 in chapter 13 of
Isaiah and it says this is the prophecy against
Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah the son of
Amos I'm gonna read that I Read that the passion
I want to read his footnote regarding this Pull
it up here for us. It says that that this verse
begins a new section of Isaiah that contains
10 prophecies against 10 nations. Babylon means
confusion and points to the political and religious
confusion and disorder among the nations. I think
today that we can still see Babylon in full operation.
Political and religious confusion causing disorder
among the nations. This prophecy against Babylon
was spoken by Isaiah at least 174 years before
Babylon fell in 536 BC. The Greek historian Herodotus
described the city of Babylon as 15 miles wide
on each side with walls that were more than 85
feet thick, good day, and 350 feet high. It had
100 gates to the city and was the commercial
center of the ancient Near East. In the book
of Revelation, Babylon becomes a metaphor for
the world's political and religious system. Again,
a lot of imagery happening. It's not, we can't
just sit here and take this stuff literal. We
have to take this stuff, in my opinion, we have
to take this stuff to Holy Spirit and allow Holy
Spirit to adjust our lens and begin to teach
us what this stuff actually meant when it was
written down and pinned down and who was it being
written to? What would they have understood this
stuff to be? What would early church fathers
have understood? these verses to mean? How would
they have taken this in? All of that to me I
believe plays an important role of how we should
interpret it still today. It's like if you think
about in 2026 and I'm 36 years old so I may have
some of this wrong but if you think about the
term that's so sick you know when I was growing
up if you said something about that so sick that
means someone's not feeling well but today's
world that's so sick would mean that that's a
really cool thing a really great idea. So if
someone in 2026 would write down that this is
so sick, they may not be meaning that someone
is deathly ill or something. They may be saying
this is a really good job. So it's important
for us to understand how the people then would
have understood this and take it from there.
And not saying, again, I believe wholeheartedly
that the Word is alive and active and when you're
reading this thing with the Holy Spirit, the
Holy Spirit can pull out so many different types
of meanings depending on where you're at in life.
If you take a grandfather at the age of 70 right
now, me and him can read the same verse and Holy
Spirit may teach him something completely different.
Why? Because we're at different stages in our
life. If you take me and put me with a female
nurse, for example, the female nurse and I can
read the same scripture and we may get something
completely different. Number one, I'm not a nurse.
Number two, I'm not a female. So that would be
two objects right there. they may understand
and see something completely different than what
I'm seeing. Does that make either one of us wrong?
No, it's just this is my journey that I'm making.
This is their journey that they're making. So
we have to understand and allow the Holy Spirit
to be our guide, to be our teacher, to illuminate
revelation to us and through us. I hope that
makes sense. So what we are reading it is is
announcing an Isaiah at least is announcing the
coming fall of Babylon Which again was historically
fulfilled when Babylon fell in 539 BC and you
can find that in Isaiah Chapter 13 verse 17 Get
some of my notes back up here. Okay So we have
Babylon ruled the region the Medes and the Persians
conquered Babylon and this happened exactly as
it was prophesied. So what are we doing here?
We're putting prophetic imagery back in its place.
This is about the fall of Babylon and not some
kind of cosmic annihilation. So again Isaiah
is saying Babylon's ruler and their power structure
will collapse not that the universe will be shut
down. And you can find this same type of imagery
happening in other places. And this is stuff
that I'm gonna just challenge you to pause, write
this down. You go read on your own time. Excuse
me. Ezekiel chapter 32, verses seven and eight
talks about the fall of Egypt. Isaiah chapter
34, verse four is judgment on Edom. So you can
go and read these scriptures and see the imagery
that's being used in these verses. Another note
when it says the day of the Lord in verse nine
in Isaiah. Some assume that that means the end
of the world, but in Scripture it often means
God is judging a nation. This is where we have
to understand judgment once again. Where is the
Father's judgment aimed? I can promise you, judgment
is never aimed at you nor I. Judgment, if you
want to know what a judge is, turn off Judge
Judy because that's not what Scripture is talking
about. Go and get your Bible and read the book
of Judges it shows you what a judge is in that
time and what was a judge in the Old Testament
a judge would so anytime Isaiah Had something
come against them God would raise up a judge
that would come against whatever was interfering
between the God and Israel so Israel would God
would kept send up a judge and destroy whatever
was coming against Israel and then Israel would
fall again. What would God do? Raise up another
judge and come and deal with whatever's coming
against between him and Israel. So the way I
understand this, and I have to give credit where
credit is due to Damon Thompson for this, but
if you want to know what judgment is, judgment
is aimed at whatever in your life is interfering
between you and the love of the Father. I'll
give you a perfect example on, this is how I
understood his wrath. I have a little over one
year old son, about 15 months I think right now.
And it was probably before he turned one actually.
I had him sitting in one of those Bumbo seats
and he was sitting on our counter. while I was
washing dishes and I had failed to remember that
in this moment he had learned to take his feet
and kick and do all this other stuff. So when
I had turned around to wash dishes somehow he
had gotten back to the edge and leaned over and
toppled into the floor. Of course, I began to
freak out. My wife is in the living room on the
phone. She hears the commotion. She's come running.
My son is face down on the floor after toppling
off the counter. And when we turn him over, his
lips are blue. He's not breathing, but he's got
the crying face. Of course, the bumbo seat is
on top of him. It was a huge mess. We ended up,
we finally got him to breathe. I had to blow
on his face and get him to start breathing again.
We called 911, had the paramedics come check
him out. And of course they... tell us that a
crying baby is a good thing because that's what
means that he's able to breathe and stuff at
least. Even though as a parent, you're thinking,
please stop crying. It was a terrifying experience.
We kind of asked their opinion. Do we rush him
to the emergency room? What do we do? And they,
of course, told us, of course, there's nothing
they can see. He seems to be fine other than.
he'll have a bruise or I think he had a black
eye or something. But they said we can't see
if there's anything going on inside. Is there
an issue inside? So they recommended at least
take him, let him get scanned to make sure there's
nothing broken, no issues internally. So that's
of course what we did. So my wife rides with
him on the ambulance. I have to compose myself
and grab my, I might be a big boy, but as a dad
that begins. That was that was hard. Let me just
say that and so I grabbed my two daughters and
we drive behind To go to the hospital But here's
the thing when we get into the emergency room
me and my daughters are sitting there and I'm
waiting for updates I've texted my wife not heard
anything. So there's part of me freaking out
but then all of a sudden where the emergency
room is there's Glass and doors and then on the
other side of that supposedly is where they would
Bring in the the patients that's coming off the
ambulance and all of a sudden I heard my kid
Crying like loud on the other side and I knew
as a parent, you know, your child's cries I knew
that was my son and in that moment Something
rose up in me and I wanted to bust through every
door till i could find my son and when i had
that moment immediately the holy spirit spoke
to my spirit he said son he said now you understand
my wrath the wrath was not aimed at my son it
was aimed at what was interfering between me
and my son um and if i had had the ability to
do so i would have took down the doors or whatever
and got to him now would that have been wise
because i may be spending some time in jail uh
no that was not I would not be wise so I sat
there waited for people to respond my wife finally
texted me back a nurse came out and said he was
just fine back there they was doing the couple
scans or whatever everything turned out great
just a scary moment as a parent but I understood
through that experience the father taught me
what his wrath looked like So again, we have
to understand like his judgment, his wrath. Listen,
God is love. It is all love and it's all grace.
That's it. His wrath is not the evil part of
him, the dark side of him, the bad part of him.
He doesn't have a bad side. He doesn't have a
dark side. There is no trace of darkness in him.
So understand that. Often the day of the Lord
means the collapse of a kingdom under divine
judgment. And this is important to understand
because Jesus uses this imagery in Matthew chapter
24 verse 29. And he says, then immediately this
is what will take place. The sun will be darkened
and the moon will give no light. The stars will
fall from the sky and all the cosmic powers will
be shaken. So let me read to you again, Dr. Simmons'
footnote on this. It says, this can also be viewed
as a Hebraic metaphor of the lights of the natural
realm being shut off and replaced with heaven's
glory. Lights out on the old order, the sun,
moon, and stars are also representation of the
governmental structures failing with great calamity.
A new order, a new glory is coming to replace
the fading glories of this world. So again, we
have a lot of imagery being spoken even through
Jesus. And Jesus would have understood when he's
using phrases like this, he knows what the people
listening would have understood. Then we have
Isaiah 13. It shows us cosmic language equals
a political collapse imagery. It's not a literal
astronomical destruction. So when you understand
stuff like this, this insight alone unlocks stuff
in Isaiah, it unlocks stuff in Ezekiel, in Joel,
in Revelation, in some of the words that Jesus
speaks about. It's one of the most important
prophetic interpretation keys is understanding
what these symbolism would have meant to the
people that they're talking to. Think about this,
Isaiah did not predict the sun going down. Isaiah
predicted Babylon going down. The darkened sun,
the moon, and stars were not about astronomy.
They were symbolism and they meant Babylon's
rulers would fall, its powers would collapse,
its kingdom would end, and historically that's
exactly what happened. So it's important to understand
this. So if the sun going dark and Isaiah meant
Babylon fail Then why do we assume it suddenly
means the universe ends when Jesus uses the same
language? Again, don't check your brain at the
door. So let's look at look at some other stuff
here Let's look at Daniel chapter 8 and we're
going to read verses 8 and 10 It says, then the
goat grew exceedingly arrogant. At the very peak
of his power, his big horn abruptly snapped off.
In its place, four prominent horns came up, each
pointing to a different direction. From one of
them, a small horn emerged. It eventually grew
to be very big, and its power extended toward
the south, the easy and toward the beautiful
land. It grew so powerful that it attacked the
armies of heaven and hurled some of the starry
hosts to the ground and trampled them down. Again,
we have a lot of imagery happening here. This
is what I found while studying. Essentially,
these verses refer to persecution and overthrow
of leaders and priests. Why is that important?
Because... Revelation speaks of the same type
of stuff. Revelation speaks of stars falling.
And that typically signals, yet again, collapse
of ruling systems, removal of leadership, and
judgment on governing authority, not literal
astronomy disasters. If you think about mountains
melting, for example. This would typically mean
the collapse of kingdoms or the collapse of empires,
the fall of powerful political systems, God overthrowing
nations of governments. And I want you to think,
why mountains? Because they symbolize kingdoms,
nations, or centers of powers. Think about Jerusalem
itself being called Mount Zion, which is the
kingdom of God's rule. So mountains melting means
kingdoms dissolving and not geology melting.
Michael 1 2 says the 1 2 through 4 says listen
you people all of you earth pay attention and
everyone on it from his holy temple the Lord
Yahweh himself will testify against you for behold
Yahweh is leaving his dwelling place here he
comes to tread upon the high places of the land
mountains melt beneath his feet like wax melting
near a raging fire and again don't take this
literal like water pouring down a steep slope.
This prophecy refers to judgment on Samaria and
Jerusalem, which historically happens. So again,
this is not literal mountains liquefying and
becoming what we read about and make it literal.
Mountains equals kingdoms. This stuff is important
when we really begin to look at it and understand
it. Isaiah 34 1 through 3, I'm not going to read
it, but it talks about mountains will stream
with their blood. What is that? What's the context?
Is the judgment on Edom a nation? It's not literal.
Again, it's not a literal mountain melting. So
again, why is this important? Why do I need to
understand what Micah says and what Daniel says
and what Isaiah says and all this, that and the
other? Because when you understand that imagery,
it helps us understand that when Revelation talks
about this, it's not talking about geographical
areas melting. When mountains shake or melt,
kingdom systems collapse, political or covenantal
powers fall, and major shifts in national structures.
And then we look at beast rising. Typical meaning
would mean empires or kingdoms political systems,
oppressive ruling powers, not a literal beast.
We can look at Daniel chapter seven verse three.
Let me pull that up. Give me just a minute. I
do not have some of this stuff marked. Daniel
chapter seven verse three says, then emerging
from the tossing sea came four immense beasts,
each different from the others. Dr. Simmons,
again, I'm reading the footnote he has, says
Daniel's vision is impressive overview of human
history. God has a plan for the world. History
is his story. Many scholars view the four beasts
are representing empires and not people. The
Babylonian, which is the winged lion, the Medo
-Persian, which is the bear, the Greek, which
is the tiger, and the Roman, which is the apocalyptic
beast. Daniel's vision was an overview of nearly
1 ,000 years of the future. Only God's supernatural
knowledge could make this known to Daniel. And
then we have Daniel chapter seven, verse 17,
and it says, these four great beasts, so this
is the answer to the question, these four great
beasts represent four empires that will rise
to power over the earth. So what he said in verse
3 he explains in verse 17 what he's saying This
is the Bible interpreting itself these equals
kingdoms not monsters It's not some big beast
that we see in a movie. This is this is empires
Again, there's no different dr. Simmons the four
beasts represented Babylon me to Mediopurgia,
Greece, Rome. Each empire symbolized a beast.
Now here's something else interesting I did not
know until studying some of this. We have a sea
imagery. Why beasts come from the sea? So sea
imagery would equal chaos in Gentile nations
and Jewish thought land was Israel and sea was
Gentile world with chaos or unstable nations
So a beast rising from the sea means a Gentile
Empire emerging into power Again, why important?
I'm gonna do this a lot Because the beast of
Revelation 13 follows Daniel's pattern. That's
how many scholars especially pre -modern ones
identify the beast as wrong Not a future monster
not something in 2026 that we're trying to figure
out what the beast is. It's not a literal creature
It's a political empire persecuting believers
This fits the first century Roman context and
we'll get into some of that later again These
often represent political upheaval and not cosmic
collapse So why does this matter for in time
stuff? This is one of the biggest interpretive
keys the Jewish prophecy uses Is covenantial
cosmic language not modern sci -fi disaster language.
So again, let's let's run through some of this
Stars falling would mean leaders or rulers falling
Mountains that are melting as kingdoms collapsing.
Beasts rising would equal empires or political
powers. The sun darken would mean national judgment.
Sea raging is gentile chaos or nations. Fire
would typically equal judgment or purification.
So I hope some of that makes sense there. Let's
see. I got some other notes here. I want to see
if I want to go through this. Yeah, let's, let's
read, let's read song 46. One through six is
gone. You're such a safe and powerful place to
find refuge is encouraging. You are proven help
in time of trouble more than enough and always
available whenever I need you. So we will never
fear even if every structure or support were
to crumble away. We will not fear even when the
earthquakes and shakes moving mountains and casting
them into the sea. For the raging roar of stormy
winds and crashing waves cannot erode our faith
in you, Paul's in his presence. God has a constantly
flowing river whose sparkling streams bring joy
and delight to his people his river flows right
through the city of god high into his holy dwelling
dwelling places god is in the midst of the city
secure and never shaken at daybreak his help
will be seen with the appearance of dawn so again
just an important thing to understand what these
things symbolize and what they mean Let's do
one more sign. We want to address this again
later, but I think it's important and we'll end
on this one, I do believe. This will be a shorter
one, but I just wanted to help you understand
the imagery and the symbolism that it's not,
don't take it literal. Don't shake your brain
at the door. Again, let me help with some of
that. If you look at Matthew chapter 24 verse
34, we're going to hit this verse again in a
couple other ones. But it says, I assure you
the end of the age will not come until all I
have spoken comes to pass. We look at this term,
the end of the age, as the end of the age, end
of the world. That's what we think about. But
in that time, in that day, they would have understood
what that meant. And if you look at the Greek
in the word age, it actually means this generation,
this present generation. 30 to 40 years roughly
will not come Until all I have spoke spoken comes
to pass and guess what my friend when we look
at what happened in 70 ad You understand that
it did happen the way Jesus prophesied that it
would I'm just giving through some of my notes.
We make sure I didn't miss anything We're gonna
address that later i just want to make sure very
quickly oh there we go so while i read psalm
46 i knew i had that in my slideshow but i did
not have it in my notes i do have it in my notes
psalm 46 1 through 6 when i read that it talked
about the mountains shaking that literally meant
the kingdoms shaking not the literal mountains
shaking but kingdoms that are shaking so again
If you're taking notes, I'm going to help you
one more time. I'm going to run through these.
If you look at stars falling, it's leaders or
rulers that are falling, not literal stars. Mountains
melting as kingdoms collapsing. Beasts that are
rising as an empire's or political powers. The
sun being darkened is usually national judgment.
The sea that's raging usually talks about Gentile
chaos or nations. And then if you think about
fire and the importance of fire, it's judgment
or purification. Think about this when you think
about fire. Jesus says that, or not Jesus, it
was John that said it about Jesus. He said, and
I baptize you with water, but there's one coming
after me that's gonna baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with. Fire. If fire was a negative
thing, then he would not be baptizing you in
it. But what does fire do if he's baptizing you?
It's purifying you. It's burning things out of
you that do not resemble the image of Christ
within you. So again, it's so important that
we understand a lot of this imagery and where
it comes from, what it means. There's just a
lot of things to think about and not take stuff
so literal. There's not a literal beast coming.
A couple other things I'll mention, if you look
at some prophetic meanings, the stars being darkened,
rulers or leaders falling, moon that's darkened
is national collapse, sun darkened typically
means authority that's removed, and heaven shaken
usually means political world overturned. So
again, is that the only meanings these things
can have? I'm sure... I'm sure it's not. I'm
sure you could go and find other meanings. But
here's the thing, whatever you're reading or
listening to or understanding about the, quote
unquote, the end, if it's causing fear and anxiety
in you, it's likely not from God. Think about
that. So allow the Holy Spirit to judge whatever
is in you that becomes anxious and fearful about
the end, quote unquote. So again, I'm not saying
I have all this right and man, there's a ton
of ways you can go into this and look at the
imagery and different things like that that would
take me much longer than, I mean, I have all
the time I guess I can take, but it would just
take a lot longer to run through some of this.
And my biggest goal in the next several weeks
that we run through this topic of rethinking
the end times. My biggest goal is just to give
people a more hopeful approach about life. Remember
that you've been given Zoe, the god life. When
you remember that and understand that and begin
to understand that the kingdom of God is within
you, that Christ is within you, just like there
are previous discussions on the Christ in all
of relation. Christ is within you. But the Romans
8 tells us the earth is growing and traveling
for the manifestation of the sons and daughters
of Yahweh Earth is waiting creation is waiting
on you and I to discover that who we are in Christ
that we are indeed little Christ Man, that's
good news So when you begin to understand all
this imagery and the symbolic stuff the symbolic
language The prophetic language when you begin
to understand and tap into that you begin to
see things differently Especially pertaining
to the book of Revelation that everybody is so
afraid of So again take this Listen to it multiple
times go and do your own reading and studying
and you know dive it into some of this Don't
just take Not even my word, don't just take my
word for it. Go and do your own research and
pray and ask Holy Spirit, reveal truth to me.
And this is what it is. If you land somewhere
different than what I do, that is totally fine.
I'm not sitting here telling you I have all the
correct answers and that I can't be wrong on
any of this, because my friend, I can be. But
I will say this has given me a more hope -filled...
Perspective on life and understanding that and
you won't argue me down on this that Christ came
to restore it all So just think about this. I
Hope this is blessing you. Let me see it. We're
doing Next week. We're gonna jump. Okay, so next
week. We're gonna actually begin talking about
Jesus' prophecy and the fall of Jerusalem. That
may take us a couple weeks to run through, but
we're going to be specifically talking about
what happened in 70 AD and which solidifies my
stance on there is no rapture coming. Again,
am I right? I, in my opinion, I believe I am.
Can I be wrong? Certainly. So anyhow, I hope
this has helped you. Be blessed. Enjoy life.
Enjoy the kingdom. Tap into the God life that
you have been given And understand that as he
is so are you my friend be blessed Thanks for
spending some time with me today on the kingdom
family podcast This episode spoke to you take
a moment to share it and help someone else Rediscover
their identity as a son or daughter of Yahweh
And don't forget, follow the podcast so you can
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Kingdom Family Ministries. Until next time, live
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Kingdom.