Doves,
Do we have any clues where we now are on the prophetic end times calendar? I say yes!!
I believe that the book of Zechariah gives us an overview or time line of what to expect in the coming days / months / years.
In the wording of Zechariah 11 the prophet seemingly takes us from one prophetic occurrence to the next and the next and those occurrences seemingly are Tee-ed up presently on the world stage and may be about to happen.
In Zechariah 11 Zechariah promotes the scenario that Lebanon will experience turmoil by fire that will destroy it's forests. If you have been following the recent events happening between Israel and Lebanon (a country that has been taken over by Hezbollah) you know that they are on the verge of all out war.
An Israeli IDF general is now in charge of any offensive response by Israel toward Hezbollah and does not have to check with the politicians before he attacks or responds to Hezbollah or the other Iranian threats in the Middle East arena. He has a free hand so to speak to attack as he sees fit to protect Israel without political over site. This to my knowledge has never been a reality before now.
Israel last week fired incendiary tank rounds into Lebanon by the IDF to intentionally set fire to the forest there which agrees exactly with what Zechariah prophesied.
Verse 1.....
Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That fire may devour your cedars.
Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the mighty trees are ruined.
Wail, O oaks of Bashan, (Golan Heights)
For the thick forest has come down.
Also Iran has now given their proxies (Hezbollah, Hamas) permission to respond immediately to any aggression from Israel in the Middle East. Obviously this free hand approach by the IDF and the Iranian proxies could result in an all out Middle East conflict at any second.
Israel has proclaimed that the next war with Hezbollah will be an all out scorched earth scenario differing greatly from their previous military encounter with Hezbollah / Lebanon years ago. If so, one could easily see where Lebanon and it's forests and land mass could be destroyed....... fulfilling Zechariah's prophecy.
If the other remaining wording in Zechariah 11 is indeed also a time line of events then after Israel destroys Hezbollah and the other Iranian proxies it appears that the next event on the program is the destruction of Rome by fire.... a volcanic event..... in an hour's time..... resulting in 3 shepherds (3 popes) being “dismissed” and also then, the arrival on the world stage of the two end time witnesses and the antichrist. From scripture it appears the AC will be the cryogenic-ally preserved shell / body of Pope John Paul II combined with the spirit of a demonic being from the bottomless pit.
Revelation 18 states that this city (Rome) after being destroyed by fire will then be completely erased when an angel casts a great stone into the sea at that location resulting in the city....:not being found anymore”.
And interestingly or amazingly the first beast, the antichrist, as per Revelation 13 arises from the sea. It appears to me this rising from the sea by the antichrist will happen not figuratively but literally when an evil entity......the body / shell of John Paul II indwelled by a demonic spirit from the bottomless pit who had been enclosed in a cryogenic chamber in the bowels of the Vatican complex arises there from the sea off the Italian coast to marvel the world and bring great deception and death to so many.
It's my belief that the final 7 year time frame will convene / start when we see the arrival of the two witnesses and the antichrist on the world stage directly after Rome has been violently destroyed by a cataclysmic (one hour) volcanic event. That area of central Italy is volcanic-ally “perking / shaking”on a daily basis and could blow at any time.
It certainly appears to me that Zechariah depicts those events with great detail in chapter 11 of his prophetic writings. Read those verses for yourself, they are filled with great detail on what is to happen.
Blessings........John B