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by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2013, all rights reserved. Big money is paid to business consultants for their analyses of markets and trends. Their clients who pay the big money do so because they want the best information on which to make their business decisions. The best consultants can save corporations millions of dollars if they have the right expertise and research skills. But a source of information that such consultants frequently overlook is a book not often thought of as a business handbook. The book provides information about future events that no good businessman should ignore. The Holy Bible is not only a book of history, but foretells many coming world catastrophes and the future of the world. Those who scorn the Bible are at a disadvantage if their competitors are regarding God's book. God has revealed future events to his prophets such as Daniel, and John the Beloved, author of the Book of Revelation. Jesus also spoke of future events in Matthew chapter 24. The Book of Revelation tells us that the time will come when there are no more islands in the oceans. With that knowledge, would you think that buying property on an island would be a good investment, or not? (Rev 16:20) Daniel wrote one of the books that are called the "Major Prophets" in the Old Testament portion of the Bible. Those five books are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The Old Testament is the first thirty nine books of the Bible. The remaining twenty seven books are the New Testament, for a total of sixty six books in the Bible. Revelation is the last book in the New Testament. Daniel was one of the children of Israel who were taken away captive to Babylon at the time of the "Babylonian captivity." The King of Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar, whose armies conquered Israel. World history is very much intertwined with the history of Israel because of the covenant God made with Abraham, the forefather of Israel. We now have the modern nation of Israel, recently founded in 1948, but there was also ancient Israel that God eventually scattered to the four winds because of their sins against God. About two thousand years ago, Israel was under the occupation of, and ruled by the Romans, under Caesar. The local governor for Israel was Pontius Pilate. During the Babylonian captivity, which lasted about seventy years, God revealed to the Prophet Daniel various things about what would happen in the future. The Lord showed Daniel a prophetic "seventy weeks." In those prophetic "seventy weeks," each of the weeks represents seven actual years. Sixty nine of those seventy weeks have already been fulfilled. There is now a gap until the seventieth week of Daniel that is still to come. This seventieth week will be the seven years of "Great Tribulation" that will come on the earth. During the "Great Tribulation," there will be a world ruler, called the "Antichrist," also called "The Beast," who will rule the whole earth. He is an evil man, not a God-fearing person. The people of the earth will be required to take "the mark of the Beast," the number six hundred sixty six, mentioned in the book of Revelation. They take the mark of the beast in their hand or forehead. But all those who take the mark of the Beast will be damned and will wind up in a fiery hell, and hell is forever. Those who don't take the mark of the beast won't be allowed to buy or sell. You've probably heard of a period of tribulation in history called "The Spanish Inquisition." There was a program about it recently on TV. But the Great Tribulation will be more severe in its tribulation than even the Spanish Inquisition. I've heard speculation that Barak Obama might be the Antichrist, but I think not. The Antichrist will have to deceive the Jews into thinking he is their Messiah, or savior. Obama wouldn't be able to do that because he wasn't born in Bethlehem, nor born of a virgin, as predicted by the prophets concerning the Messiah. An event foretold in the Bible is the devaluation of gold and silver, as found in the fifth chapter of James. ___James chapter 5 1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You've heaped treasure together for the last days. I've seen on TV, and heard on the radio many who are trying to sell us gold and silver as a "very safe" investment in these "times of financial uncertainty." No doubt those sales people are finding some customers among those who are ignorant of the book of James. But people who pay attention to the book of James know that gold and silver are not good investments due to their coming devaluation. I don't know exactly what form that will take, but this "rusting" of the gold and silver clearly implies that both gold and silver will no longer be worth as much as they had been worth. Wise investors don't invest in things expected to decrease in value. So, better not put your money into gold or silver. Or, if you've already done so, I suggest you sell your gold and silver investments before the bottom drops out. When God reveals the future, he sometimes gives a dream to someone. He gave Pharaoh dreams in the book of Genesis, and Joseph interpreted the dreams for Pharaoh. So, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a dream. He was troubled because of the dream and wanted the interpretation of the dream. But there was a problem. When he asked his wise men to interpret the dream, they said, "OK, tell us the dream, and we'll interpret it." Nebuchadnezzar said, "I've forgotten the dream." They answered, "We can't interpret the dream until we know what the dream was." Nebuchadnezzar said, "Either you tell me what I want to know, or you'll be executed." But one of the wise men was Daniel. Daniel prayed to God, and God showed Daniel the dream and the interpretation so Daniel could tell King Nebuchadnezzar. God hadn't forgotten the dream. In the dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw a statue with head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, feet of iron and clay. A stone came and destroyed the statue, and grew into a great mountain that filled the earth. The head of gold represented Nebuchadnezzar. The silver was the next kingdom, inferior to the first. The brass, another kingdom that would rule the whole earth. The iron kingdom breaks and subdues everything. The iron and clay is a partly strong and partly broken kingdom. The stone that became a mountain is God's permanent kingdom that replaces all the others. Nebuchadnezzar was replaced by a succession of kings. One of them was Belshazzar, King of Babylon. During the reign of Belshazzar, God gave Daniel a dream. The four winds of heaven blew on the ocean, and four beasts came out of the ocean: the first, a lion with eagle's wings, the second, like a bear that devoured much flesh, the third, like a leopard with four heads, the fourth, a beast with large iron teeth and ten horns. Another horn came up and replaced three of the ten horns. Daniel saw the Ancient of days. The fourth beast was killed. The "Son of man" came and received all dominion. Jesus referred to himself as the Son of man. It was explained to Daniel that the four beasts are four kings, but the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess it forever. The fourth beast is the fourth kingdom on earth that devours the whole earth. The ten horns are ten kings. Another king shall arise and replace three kings, and he will speak against God, and fight against God's people. But his dominion will be taken away and given to God's people. In Daniel chapter 8, God gave Daniel a vision. He saw a ram with two horns that pushed westward, and northward, and southward, and had the dominion. But then, a he-goat with one horn destroyed the ram. The goat's horn was broken and replaced by four horns. Out of one of them came a little horn that became very great (the Antichrist), who also took away the daily sacrifice. Last I heard, the Jews were not sacrificing animals, as per the laws of Moses (in the Pentateuch). It is written that "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin." I expect the Jews will resume the animal sacrifices, which will later be stopped by the Antichrist, and will be replaced by the "abomination that makes desolate." (Dan 11:31, King James Version) The ram with two horns is the King of the Medes, and the King of Persia. The rough goat is the King of Greece (Alexander the Great). It has been said that after Alexander the Great had conquered the then-known world, he sat down and wept because there was nothing else to conquer. Of course, he was no doubt unaware of North and South America, as Columbus was unaware of them before he sailed west from Europe, hoping to arrive in India. Spain would later conquer much of the "New World." In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus predicts that there will be false Christs. (Remember Jim Jones, and also the Branch Davidians? There was a full-page ad in one of the major newspapers about a man announcing himself as the Christ. A man from India, as I recall. No, Jesus is not from India.) Jesus says there will be wars and rumors of wars. Nation shall rise against nation. Famines, (we've heard about a lot of famines in recent years. That's why G.H.W. Bush, the President sent people to Somalia), pestilences, earthquakes (lots of those). Jesus said when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, stand in the holy place, then the Judeans should flee into the mountains. In Matt 24:21, Jesus said there would be great tribulation such as there never has been, nor shall be later, and the days will be shortened. Of course God has many ways of doing things, but the obvious way of shortening the days would be to have some force cause the earth's rotation to increase in speed, so that one revolution takes less than twenty four hours. The book of Revelation was written by John the Beloved, one of Jesus' twelve disciples. The book is a revelation from God that was given to John, who wrote it down for us. Jesus says he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And then the Lord has some things to say to seven churches. But to each of the seven churches, he promises something good if they'll be overcomers. In Rev chapt 5, there's a book with seven seals. Jesus starts opening the seals in chapter 6. Four horses appear with power over the earth. Death by sword and from hunger and from the animals of the earth are produced. There will be a great earthquake, and the sun turns black, and the moon will become like blood. The stars of heaven fall to the earth. Every mountain and island are moved from where they were. In Rev chapt 8, hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown on the earth, and one third of the trees were burned up and all of the green grass. A mountain of fire is thrown into the ocean, and one third of the ocean will become blood. One third of the sea creatures die, and one third of the ships will be destroyed. A star will fall on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of water, causing the water to become bitter, and killing many men. One third of the sun, moon, and stars will be darkened. In chapt 9, locusts come with power like scorpions, and they'll torment people for five months. Four spirit beings are loosed that will kill one third of the population. The mark of the beast is in chapter 13. In chapter 14, a city is destroyed. The city is referred to as Babylon. But this is not the Babylon that Daniel was taken away to, where Nebuchadnezzar had been king. That Babylon has been destroyed, and a prophet said it would never be rebuilt. I believe the Babylon in Rev. chapt 14 is Rome. I believe Rome is destroyed in Rev. chapt 14. In Rev 14:20, blood flows as high as the horse bridles. In Rev chapt 16, terrible sores come on people. The oceans become like the blood of a dead man, and every living soul in the oceans dies. The rivers and springs become blood. Men will be scorched with great heat. People chew their tongues because of their pain. The river Euphrates will dry up. The armies gather for the battle of Armageddon. There will be the worst earthquake that there has ever been. Huge hailstones fall on men. More on the destruction of "Babylon" in Rev chapt 17. Babylon is identified as a city that sits on seven mountains (vs 9). Is this not Rome? In chapt 19, the fowls that fly in heaven are gathered together to feast on the flesh of men. Scriptures quoted are from the Holy Bible, Hoehn Version, and the New Testament, Hoehn version, copyright 2011. Both are available as ebooks for the Kindle reader at Amazon.com
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