“And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire,” Jeremiah 21:8-10.
“But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein. I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live,” Jeremiah 27:11-12.
WHAT PROPHECY SAYS OF US HERE IN THE BRITISH ISLES?
I believe we can find the mind of God in the Bible for these ‘British Isles’.
The territories of the ancient Roman Empire will be assembled again as a political and religious unit in the days before Christ’s return.
We are specifically told that in the interpretation Daniel gave to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, of the dream that he had.
Great Image
“Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth,” Daniel 2:31-35.
Daniel went on to explain the dream.
“This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure,” verses 36-45.
We must note that “the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure”. This will most certainly come to pass.
These four great kingdoms are Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, the Grecian Kingdom and finally, the Empire of Rome.
The fourth kingdom
The Millennial Kingdom that the Lord will set up, is manifested in the closing days of the final of these four earthly kingdoms.
We are specifically told that “a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth,” verses 34-35.
The ‘legs and feet’ of this image represented the kingdom which came after Greece — that is Rome! It was upon the feet of the image that the representation of Christ’s earthly kingdom, “the stone was cut out without hands”, fell and utterly destroyed all that was symbolised in the image Nebuchadnezzar had seen.
Holy Land
Those four empires are of significance simply because they all dominated the Holy Land and its environs and brought Israel under bondage in times past. There is to be a resurgence of that dominance by that spirit of rebellion that the image embodied.
The re-establishment of rebellion within the territories of the old Roman Empire will be headed up by the future Antichrist. It will be upon his regime that the “stone” will fall. Paul tells us of his destruction.
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10.
We read a further account in Revelation 19:11-21.
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.”
Scotland and Ireland
History tells us that Rome, the most substantial of the four great kingdoms, never conquered or governed either Scotland or Ireland. We can therefore believe that the reconstituted ‘old Roman Empire’, the territory of the future Antichrist, will not include either of these two parts of the British Isles!
The drive for independence within Scotland and a removal of Northern Ireland from under London rule, and a uniting it with the southern 26 counties, the Irish Republic — something the DUP aided when Stormont was restored on the basis of the DUP/Donaldson Deal — are indicators of prophecy being fulfilled.
This Donaldson deal was built upon the false claim that the recently, and unconstitutionally created, Irish Sea Border was done away with.
The Irish Sea Border was part of the ‘The Northern Ireland Protocol’, the post-Brexit agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union, designed to remove the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.
However, subsequent events have daily demonstrated that there is now a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and it is situated at Northern Ireland’s Irish Sea coast and the custom post and the regulations now in force demonstrate this deceit.
The basic elements of a ‘United Ireland’ are in place, thanks to Donaldson!
New EU duty imposed
TUV representative, Keith Ratcliffe, recently issued a statement which was headed: ‘Donaldson Deal Continues to Damage Northern Ireland as New EU Rules Take Effect’ — ‘From 1st July, the EU will introduce a new €3 customs duty on qualifying low-value parcels entering Northern Ireland. Once again, people here will be reminded that they are treated differently from citizens elsewhere in their own country.’
Furthermore, it is widely reported that one of the chief objectives of the new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, is membership of the EU to be sought once more.
Bible
The European Union has long been seen by Bible students as the old Roman Empire in embryo!
The being so, it will not be too long until Scotland and Ireland will be outside the borders of this future politico/religious colossus, no matter how unlikely that may appear to be today!
For some 2000 years, the re-emergence of Israel seemed highly unlikely if not utterly impossible BUT God said it would happen and in 1948 it did!
Heed this lengthy extract from Ezekiel’s prophecy regarding the future of Israel.
“And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
I believe that has clearly been seen to be happening.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God, Ezekiel 36:23-28.
Here is a second and yet future development. It is the spiritual regeneration of those Jews brought back and living in the land when the Saviour returns in glory to deliver Israel from Antichrist’s attack.
Zechariah
It is this that Zechariah speaks of in chapters 12-13.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness,” 12:9-14, 13:1.
The prophet further states of that time: “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south,” 14:1-4.
Christian, never doubt what the Holy Scriptures plainly state but believe them and rest upon them, knowing that “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” Romans 8:28.
Joseph said to his brothers, in order to remove their fear of him seeking revenge upon them for their wickedness in the past, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive,” Genesis 50:20.
Even so may we mistake the kind and merciful plans of the Lord for His people. Faith would tell us that the Lord only plans ‘good’ for His elect.
Time and eternity will prove this to be true!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)