THE FALSE PROPHET MUHAMMAD   |   home
The False Prophet   |   Copyright   |   Dedication   |   Contents   |   List of Illustrations   |   Preface   |   The Great Detective   |   When Are We?   |   69 Weeks   |   1290 Days   |   The Wrong Rock   |   Two Witnesses   |   Time, Times & a Half   |   Mounting Evidence   |   One More Time   |   Timeless Covenant   |   Leopard-Bear-Lion   |   Two-Horned Beast   |   The Big Lie   |   Scarlet Beast   |   Wherefore, Come Out   |   Last Trumpet   |   Hour, Day, Month & Year   |   Bifids & Chiasms


The False Prophet - Skolfield
The Great Detective
CHAPTER 1

He revealeth
the deep and secret things:
He knoweth
what is in the darkness
and the light dwelleth with Him.

Dan 2:22

ALL of us have read a mystery. We find clues along the way and part of
the fun in reading a mystery is trying to solve it. None of us is ever smart
enough to do so, of course, so in the final chapter, a brilliant detective
solves the crime, calls in the police, and the miserable felon is hauled off
to the slammer.

1 Cor 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even
the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world.

Hummm ... the Greek word for mystery, musterion, appears 27 times in
the New Testament, so part of the Bible is a mystery. Now much of
God’s mystery has been explained in the first 65 books of the Bible, but
not all. The mere fact that there are so many confusing doctrines around
is proof that we really haven’t got it all figured out. So where can we
find a detective who can solve the rest of God’s mystery for us?

Rev 1:1 The Revelation1 of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto
him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come
________________

1 PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Occasionally the author has boldfaced a few words or a phrase
in a Bible quote to draw your attention to a central subject. Such bold-facing does not
appear in the original Bible texts.
_________________
 
The Great Detective 17

to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant
John.

       For 2000 years, we have been trying to solve God’s mystery on our
own. We have poured over Scriptures, finding this clue and that. Then
with magnifying glass in hand have gone to Revelation to see if we
could figure out that book as well, as if Revelation was part of the
mystery. But from the above verse, it is apparent that Revelation isn’t
part of the mystery. It’s Jesus’ solution! God gave us a Great Detective
in the person of His Son.

Rev 22:10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the
prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

       Folks, have we been looking at Revelation through the wrong end
of the telescope? Have we been going to Revelation with our doctrines
in hand, trying to interpret that book through the filter of what we
already believe? What if we stand behind Revelation and look back at
the rest of Scripture through the grid of what Jesus might reveal to us in
that book? If so, might Revelation emerge as Jesus’ unraveling of the
mystery of God’s dealings with man throughout the ages? Might we be
able to see the Jews, the church, the tribulation, and the Middle Eastern
terrorists in a whole new light? Let’s find out.

A SHORT HISTORY

       At the end of the Middle Ages, the Church had fallen into a dead
formalism that ushered in the Great Reformation. Many Roman Catholic
Priests, some long forgotten, Eckhart, Tauler, Rokycana, Briconnet,
Huss and the rest, were used of God to begin a great spiritual revival. At
the time, every one of those early evangelists was considered a radical
cultist by the established church. Those excommunicate priests taught
fanatically “heretical” doctrinal systems like salvation “by grace through
faith,” believer baptism, and communion of both bread and cup for all
believers. New converts followed those “left wing extremist” elder
brethren, supporting their “heretical” positions, and almost before you
knew it, those reformation groups became new denominations.
       Five hundred years have passed, and those extremists have become
us: the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans, the Free Methodists –
 
The Great Detective 18

the whole Protestant evangelical world. The worthy elders of our
denominations passed their views on down to us and most of them are
still taught today. What’s more, their views were generally sound, until
... until it came to Bible prophecy.
       Among other unlikely concepts, the Leopard-Bear-Lion beast, the
Beast with Two Horns, and the Scarlet Beast of Revelation were thought
to be real living animals that would roam the earth. When those
prophetic doctrines were in style, England was the great world power
that spanned the globe and the sun never set on the British flag. Europe
was the cultural center of the universe and the United States was but a
minor nation full of woodsmen and farmers. In their wildest dreams,
theologians of horse-and-buggy days couldn’t have imagined two 110
story glass covered buildings standing on an island for which the Dutch
paid $24, much less, that those buildings would be destroyed by ten
Islamic terrorists using commercial airplanes as flying bombs.
       If we are honest with ourselves, we can see that the end-time
scenarios those venerable theologians proposed just don’t fit what’s
happening in the world today. It is evident to all that we are at the end
of the Christian Era, but as yet, there is no visible one-world
government, no antichrist, and no Seven-Year Tribulation in sight. Is it
possible that the Lord’s plan for the end-times is somewhat different
from the traditions we learned in Sunday school? It surely could be,
because the Lord appears to have opened His prophetic Word in a new
way through two almost unbelievable fulfillments of prophecy that have
taken place in the Holy Land during the last 50 years:

In 1948AD, the new nation of Israel was established and in
1967, Jerusalem again came under Jewish control for the
first time in 2573 years!

       Though they were dispersed from their land for two millennia and
persecuted beyond measure, the Jews again control the Holy Land.
Jerusalem is again the capital of a sovereign nation called Israel.
       In the following chapters, we will show that these two events fulfill
more Bible prophecy than any other events since the crucifixion. What’s
more, these two events allow us to understand scriptures that were
 
The Great Detective 19

previously a mystery to us — scriptures that change our view of God’s
overall plan and of how He intends to bring this age to a close.
       It is apparent that a rocky road lies ahead for Christians everywhere
before Jesus stands on Zion. Spiritual storm clouds already loom on the
horizon and there are questions that need to be answered. Will a
worldwide holocaust against Jews and Christians soon take place and if
so, can we escape it? How long will it last? Where would the Lord have
us be while it is here and how will that time of trouble come to an end?

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