Dear friends:

Below is the full text of the previously mentioned message from Maurice Sklar about the "Seven Signs of the Times," thanks to Devorah Sklar.

Jim
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Seven Signs of the Times
Maurice Sklar
Mar 12, 2007
 
1. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
 
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, KNOWING good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” (Genesis 3:5-6)

A number of years ago, the Holy Spirit gave me several visions about the end times. In one of those visions, I saw an electronic web that covered the earth and surrounded it like a neon-looking, transparent, geodesic dome. (For a detailed account of this, please go to the teaching on my website called “Visions from the Dallas, Texas Revival”) Since in those days, the Internet was in its infancy, I had absolutely no idea what it was. But the LORD spoke to me and said:

“Do you know what this is? This is what Adam chose in the garden instead of union with Me. THIS IS THE FULLNESS OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. At first, it will bring great blessings and prosperity to mankind, but it will ultimately ensnare and trap the entire world.”

We just got a couple Apple Mac computers. I am writing this on one right now. As I am looking at the screen, right below it is their logo…an apple with a bite taken out of it!!

Now, you may say, “But isn’t technology a blessing from God? How can it be evil?” Well, first of all, it isn’t evil – it is GOOD and evil. What snares fallen man is not the knowledge of evil so much as the knowledge of GOOD apart from God. We are trying to REPLACE the knowledge of God with the knowledge of good and evil. Knowledge is good if it is submitted to the rulership of God. Apart from His rule of our lives, it becomes evil. Technology is truly a blessing from God. In its proper use, it brings great benefit to Mankind.

Let’s look briefly at the Internet or the “world wide web”. What is it? It is simply the access to the totality of the accumulated knowledge of man. This tree has now put its branches and fruit into nearly every person’s life on the planet. This is a sign of the times showing just how close we are to our Messiah’s return!

2. The Days of Noah and Lot

“And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heave n and destroyed them all…Remember Lot’s wife.” (Luke 17:26-29,32)

In the ancient world recorded in the book of Genesis, God judges and destroys the entire world by a flood. Then we read several chapters later, he destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone. Why did Yeshua mention these two examples when referring to the time immediately before His coming to establish the Kingdom?

First of all, the judgment of God fell upon them suddenly. Though they were repeatedly warned, when it came, it caught them all by surprise. Secondly, it was in the midst of a time of great prosperity and decadence. Thirdly, the people were in great idolatry, sexual perversion, and murder – it was a time of lawlessness. Fourthly, they were so occupied with their own selfish pursuits that they were totally unaware that there was even any danger. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, GOD DID NOT BRING JUDGMENT UNTIL HE FIRST SEPARATED THE RIGHTEOUS FROM THE WICKED. He patiently waited until the ark was built and Noah and his family were safe inside before the rains began. Through Abraham’s intercession, God waited until Lot and his family were supernaturally brought OUT of Sodom before the fire and brimstone destroyed it. But Yeshua specifically warns us not to forget about Lot’s wife. She lusted and looked back to Sodom while she was fleeing and became a pillar of salt. She is an eternal example for all who would come after her of the consequences of refusing to live a holy and a separated life from this present world. We must not fall in love with the lusts, pleasures, and pride of the present world or we won’t let it go when it is time for the Bride of Messiah to escape the wrath to come.

This is about as clear a picture of our present day as it is possible for our LORD to paint in His Holy Word.

3. One Language of Babel

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech…

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth… And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, AND THEY HAVE ALL ONE LANGUAGE; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have to do.” (Genesis 11:1,4,6)

A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking to a Christian businessman who had spent over 15 years working for IBM creating computer languages for them in the 1980’s. This man is a genius, I think, but he was able to explain in a way I could understand about two terms: analog (waves) and digital (binary 010101). He told me that the whole world has become “digitized”. “Digitization” is the new “language” that has united the world. Let me try to explain it as he did for me:

Everything God created has a frequency at which it vibrates. This can be measured in a recurring curved pattern similar to waves in the ocean. There is an entire spectrum of wavelengths that light and sound operate in, also. It is through this that we have our traditional communication systems. But the computer has created a new language by “chopping up” these natural wavelengths in tiny little bits and converting them into the numbers 0-1-0-1 through our computer systems. This was something I had a little understanding of from my experience in music recording. However, I didn’t realize how pervasive this is:

EVERYTHING has now become “digitized”. We have chopped up creation into little fragments and put it into cyberspace in binary code through computers. Nothing is “curved” any more, he explained. Our communication is now recreated in such a way that we have removed the waves from it and replaced it with tiny straight lines in minute fragments. Through this, THE WHOLE WORLD IS SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE. BUT IT IS NOT A LANGUAGE THAT GOD HAS CREATED – IT IS THE CREATION OF MAN. IT IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE AGENDA OF SATAN TO RULE THE WORLD IN REBELLION AGAINST GOD.
The reason that this is so serious is what God said – “nothing shall be impossible for them.” This language of Babylon will ultimately enslave all who refuse to repent and surrender to God in these last days. We must pray that God holds this back until the fullness of His harvest can come in.

4. The Exponential Increase of Travel and Knowledge

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Daniel 12:4)

In this verse, which has so literally come to pass in the last one hundred years, we see that “the time of the end” is a time of great travel and knowledge. Our generation has experienced more people “going to and fro” throughout the earth than any other, by far! It is nothing for us to hop on a plane and arrive on the other side of the world in less than a day. That was unheard of until the jet age in which we live. It took many days, weeks and even months to travel globally by ship and only a few actually did so. Now millions are traveling “to and fro”. In addition, knowledge has literally exploded in the last fifty years. The time that it takes for all of the knowledge of man to double is only weeks. It is like a snowball going down a mountain and getting larger and larger as it moves faster and faster. Technology is only a part of this, but it has paved the way for much more rapid growth and storage/retrieval of our knowledge. This is an important indicator of the end times.

5. The Restoration of the Jewish People, the nation of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem

The Holy Bible is a Jewish book. It contains our history as well as much prophecy about our future. It is the only “holy book” that is 100% accurate in foretelling the future. There is no other book like it. Nowhere is this more present than in its’ specific predictions about the Jews, the nation of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem.

First of all, it predicts our “diaspora” long before it actually happened. In the Torah, God tells Moses that Israel would commit idolatry and be judged by God by being removed from the Promised land and going into exile. This happened twice: once for seventy years in the Babylonian Captivity, and then when Jerusalem finally fell to Rome in seventy A.D. Jerusalem was destroyed and for nearly 2000 years, the Jewish people were scattered all over the earth and wandered from nation to nation. Nearly every prophet wrote about this in the Bible. But, every prophet also wrote that it wasn’t permanent. Israel would miraculously return to their ancient Promised land. God would preserve and keep them supernaturally and then regather them in the time of the end.

Some of the most beautiful passages in the Bible speak of God’s eternal love for the Jews and His final restoration for them in the last days. This restoration involves these four aspects:

Return to the all the land that God promised to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob.

Physical, financial, and spiritual restoration of all that was stolen from us.

Salvation and the coming of our Messiah.

The coming restoration of all things in the one thousand year reign of Yeshua the Messiah on King David’s throne in Jerusalem. Heaven on earth!

There are three areas that the Bible says must be restored in the last days. Yeshua said that this would signal His imminent return when the world (the Gentiles) would watch it happen before their eyes. They are:

The “aliyah” or “return” of the Jews first from the land of the north (Russia) and all the nations. This began in the last half of the 19th century. With each decade until now, more and more Jews have returned to our homeland!

The rebirth of the nation of Israel which happened in the summer of 1948. This was the most significant prophetic event of the 20th century.

The city of Jerusalem was given back to the Jewish people by God after the six-day war of 1967. This was the second most important prophetic event of the 20th century. As Yeshua prophecied, the times of the Gentiles would come to an end after the city of Jerusalem was given back to the Jewish people.

An additional note: The prophet Zechariah wrote this about Jerusalem in the last days:

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah (land of Judea-West Bank) and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, THOUGH ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH BE GATHERED AGAINST IT.” (Zechariah 12:2-3)

This is exactly the present situation. What is everyone fighting over Jerusalem! But God told us from the beginning in the Bible that the enemies of the Jews will never win or take the nation of Israel or the city of Jerusalem away from the Jews. It is indeed our eternal inheritance and our everlasting possession. Amen.

6. The “Birth Pangs” of Natural Disasters, Wars, Pestilence, Famine, and Terrorist Acts

Yeshua was very specific and accurate when He predicted the multiplication of these calamities that would come into the earth in the time right before His return.

In quite a few prophetic passages, these end-time shaking events of judgment (they ARE judgments from God, no matter who says they are not) are compared to the metaphor of a pregnant woman getting ready to give birth. What happens when a baby is about to be born? There are contractions that come to dilate the uterus for the baby to come out. At first they are not that large or intense, but then they start coming MORE FREQUENTLY, MORE INTENSELY, AND GREATER AND GREATER, until the baby is finally born. They are also very painful for the woman.

The Apostle Paul writes that this present universe (the heavens and the earth) are pregnant with the one to come. I don’t quite understand this, but I understand when he describes this end-time process of birth, as it is written:

“Because the creature (creation) itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (the coming Messianic Kingdom when every curse shall be removed from the earth –including the one concerning painful childbirth for women). For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Romans 8:21-22, additions mine)

This whole universe is groaning under the burden of sin, the curse, and satanic tyranny. It longs for that Day when it will finally be over. As that Day approaches closer and closer, we will see the calamities mentioned above occurring in this process of childbirth for the Messianic Kingdom to come. In the last one hundred years, we can see as plain as the nose on our face that this is exactly what has happened. In each decade, we see the dramatic rise and the multiplied calamities of: earthquakes, floods, famines, draught, plagues and pestilences, tsunamis (a form of floods), volcanic eruptions, killer storms, hurricanes, etc. We have seen more war in the 20th century than any other. Millions upon millions have perished in the hell of modern warfare. There are now more wars going on at the same time than has ever occurred in history. Even Hollywood is talking about the dangers of “global warming”. Disease, epidemics, terrorism, and massive climate shifts with their resulting disasters are only a part of this process. I also can guarantee that it will get worse.

It isn’t just the fact that these things are here taking place. More importantly, it is the exponential increase of them that should alert us to how far along we are in these “birth pangs”. We are experiencing these disasters and calamities both more frequently and with greater intensity, impact, and scope with each passing year. This is a fact…study it for yourself. I am convinced that it is only the prayers and intercession of the Bride of Messiah – the true church on earth – that have postponed and averted many more from taking place. But even our prayers cannot stop all the calamities shortly to come. May God have mercy on us!

7. Worldwide Apostasy and Religious Deception

“Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection (homosexual), trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT DENYING THE POWER THEREOF: from such turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

This is an extremely accurate assessment of our present world. Once again, it isn’t just that these people are here and that sin and deception are abounding – every generation since the fall of man could apply this to themselves. It is the INCREASE of sin, depravity, lusts, greed, etc. coupled with billions of people departing from Truth and turning to false religions and ideologies of Satan throughout the earth.

The Bible calls this apostasy or “falling away from the truth” – willfully and knowing by departing from the truth of God and turning away from Him. Europe, for example, was once a God-fearing, truth-embracing, Bible-believing continent. Of course, there was terrible sin, but the whole of society embraced Judeo-Christian values. That is nearly gone now. Now America is fighting for its’ spiritual life. We are seeing a cataclysmic deterioration of our families, our values, morality, and purity. Powerless self-seeking religion has replaced the holiness, and the fear of God. It is hard to find the true Word of the LORD being preached from our pulpits anymore. We have nearly quenched out the Revival fires that once blazed in America in generations past. May God help us in our hour of desperate need! If America falls spiritually, the rest of the world has little hope. Except in America, the amount of “Christians” that attend any church is under 5% in nearly every country of the world. This is a great tragedy. We must pray and cry out for this nation and the world! WAKE UP CHURCH! YOUR TIME IS SO SHORT! Millions of souls will perish in the lake of fire if we do not reach them with the Gospel now. This is harvest time!

God has been faithful to pour our His Spirit and His glory into the earth. He has blessed us beyond any other generation – both materially and spiritually. We must be faithful to reach out to “sighing, dying, crying humanity” throughout this world while we still can.

I pray that the LORD would keep His Bride pure and make us spotless as we prepare to meet Him in the air!

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”
(I John 5:21)