Alpha & Omega

ALPHA AND OMEGA

STEVE MUDWAY

A SIMPLIFIED GUIDE TO END DAYS PROPHECY

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 by Steve Mudway

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Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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Foreword

It is a daunting prospect to consider writing about a subject as controversial as End Days Prophecy, if only because of the amount of study and research carried out already by those notable scholars who have gone before, as well as those of us who now live in the hope of the Lord’s imminent return. There is a wealth of information freely available on the Internet, with some of it being truly excellent work, but sadly, much of it is totally absurd and misleading. How are we to tell the difference between what is sound teaching and what is not?

The only reliable answers must be found in the scriptures themselves, even if their truths are, at times, well and truly hidden. It is in the hope of encouraging others to look at this subject for themselves that I have set down my thoughts in writing, trusting that in the process, some light will be shed on questions previously unanswered. To delay much longer might have meant writing a history, rather than about prophecy, as all the signs indicate that we are in the last stages of this world’s final struggle with itself, and against its own Creator.

I offer up my findings to anyone who cares to read them, in the hope that you will derive as much pleasure from considering these truths as I have. There is, of course, no obligation on your part to concur with anything written here, and whilst some of you may agree with my conclusions and find answers to difficult questions, others may think this is a wild departure from traditional thinking, and prefer one of the many other options available to them. I have tried to describe the process that has led to my present standpoint, but I realistically accept that some will just not agree with me. So be it!

I have aimed to be as accurate as I can be, but because of the length of time that has passed since Daniel and others wrote down what they were given, as well as the fact that history is notoriously fickle, there will be conflicts of opinion. Often in this field, the answer you get will depend on who you ask, so I make no claim here to have all the answers, and on the contrary, you may find this book will only serve to raise more questions for you.

I have worked methodically through scripture to give some background to the subject, explaining things as I go, hopefully in a straightforward manner. It is my firm belief that the scriptures were written with the ordinary man in mind, so that armed with a desire to know the truth, and prepared to put in some reasonable effort, anyone who approaches God for understanding should eventually be rewarded with a satisfactory explanation of what He has written to us in His Word. I hope to have made a complex subject as simple as possible by cutting through some of the theology that discourages many from even contemplating the study of End Day Prophecy, or eschatology as it is known by the grown-ups. Any treatment as short as this one is must assume a certain amount of biblical knowledge on the reader’s part, so I apologize in advance if I expect a bit of homework from you, or presume that you are more familiar with the subject than you really are. If reading this book serves only to fire your interest in what the Lord’s future appearances involve for both the Church and the nation Israel, I will consider that it was well worth writing.

Always in His Grace

Steve Mudway, Cropredy, 5th August 2014

alphaandomega70@hotmail.com

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Nebuchadnezzar

Chapter 2 Daniel’s visions

Chapter 3 The Seventy Years of Jeremiah

Chapter 4 The Lord and prophecy

Chapter 5 Peter and prophecy

Chapter 6 Paul and prophecy

Chapter 7 Paul’s letters to Thessalonica and Timothy

Chapter 8 Seven Churches of Revelation

Chapter 9 Seven seals

Chapter 10 Seven trumpets, the Wrath of the Lamb

Chapter 11 Seven vials, the Wrath of God

Chapter 12 New Heaven, New Earth

Footnotes

CHAPTER ONE

Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream, Daniel 2:19-45:

Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are His:And He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him. I thank Thee, and praise Thee, O Thou God of my fathers, Who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of Thee: for Thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter. Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation. Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.

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. 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.

Daniel’s story is well known, and any further study of his experiences would be well rewarded, but our interest here is regarding prophecy of the end times, a subject in which Daniel was shown only a ¹limited part. Daniel and his companions were known to the king to be ‘ten times better’ than the other wise men, Daniel himself being able to give interpretations on visions and dreams. But when the king had his dream, it did not occur to him to go straight to Daniel. He went instead to the Chaldeans. These were a distinct class of the Babylonians, reputed experts in dreams, astrology and learning generally. They were Daniel’s teachers, so it should be no surprise that they kept Daniel and his friends out of it, perhaps because of their professional jealousy. When they had failed to give the king the answer, they further provoked him by saying he was asking the impossible, and so inevitably the order went out for all the wise men to be killed. Daniel had to go to the king in order to save himself and his companions, and was then given time to find the answer. When speaking to the king, he wisely confined himself to giving the credit to the God in heaven that revealeth secrets and both the dream and the interpretation were given to him.

It is simple enough in its basic form. The king dreamed about an image, clearly in a man’s form but made out of various metals, head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass and legs and toes of iron. Additionally, the feet and toes are mixed with clay. He then saw the image destroyed by a stone ‘cut out without hands’ which hit the image in the feet, and shattered the whole thing, until it was just dust.

The interpretation shows that Nebuchadnezzar himself is represented by the head, and that his kingdom, the Babylonian empire had been given him by God. Then follow after this three other kingdoms, the Persian, Greek and Roman, represented respectively in the silver, brass and iron. What we have is a prophecy that shows the progression of time, these being the successive empires that were to rule over the Middle East, and elsewhere. This is now a matter of fact historically, and is undisputed. However, these empires, or a representative form of them, must exist together when they are destroyed by the stone, for the weakness seen in the feet, where it is struck, causes the rest of the image to be turned to dust, the ‘chaff of the summer threshing-floors’ which is blown away by the wind.

The image therefore represents both a succession in time, that which has already occurred, and a situation, at its end, where all nations represented in the image can be seen together, which to date has not yet happened. From Daniel’s standpoint, of course, all of this was yet future.

The kingdoms are numbered one to four, but there is a distinction made between the legs of iron, and the feet and toes. The strength of this last part of the image is reduced because it is not completely metal but includes potter’s clay, presumably baked, which is strong but brittle, and inclined to shatter. This is explained to Daniel, who writes 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. This provides a clue to the image itself, as it is evident from the interpretation that the clay part is the seed of men, so the metal parts must be something else. This can only mean that the power and strength of the image, and the empires it represents, are not due to man, but to spiritual beings. God Himself takes the credit for giving Nebuchadnezzar his empire, and proves His power over it later by both taking it away from him, and then restoring it to him again. God Himself has the final power, but it is evident that angels are fighting battles in the heavens regarding the ²control of nations, and this must be what is represented by this image. It looks as if it describes the kingdoms of men and their efforts to get control, but in reality it mirrors a power struggle in heaven for the control over the earth. The purity and value represented in the gold, is diminished as the other empires succeed it, until finally the purity is restored with the setting up of the final kingdom, the Stone, which is God’s Everlasting Kingdom.

In the final end of the image, men become involved, but not in the sense of being one with the spiritual beings, for the two do not ³mix.What is described is rather the involvement of men with the heavenly powers that are controlling these nations. The clay is also included with the other metals in the destruction of the image, so it does merit consideration in its own right. This of course is at the end time, and so is more than likely represented by the ten toes in the image.

There is one other aspect to consider here, for Nebuchadnezzar’s dream clearly covers the time from his own period until the very end, when the stone destroys all previous traces of the kingdoms. However, the Babylonian Empire was not the first to dominate the Middle East, or more specifically Jerusalem. Before Babylon came first the Egyptian, then the Assyrian Empires. It may help to list them in order: Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylon, Persian, Greek, Roman and following Rome, the legs and the feet, which could well be regarded as the Ottoman Empire, ie Turkey. The Roman Empire never completely finished in the way the others did, but was divided into the Western and Eastern Empires with separate emperors. Constantine, who converted to Christianity, moved the empire’s capital from Rome to Byzantium around 324AD, and named it Constantinople, which would later become the ⁴Byzantine Empire, then later still, the Ottoman Empire.

This last empire was dismantled at the conclusion of the First World War in 1918, because of Turkey’s alliance with Germany, which itself lost the war to the British and their allies. Following this, there was a movement to establish the principal of forming a separate ⁵state of Israel, a homeland for the Jews. However, it was not until 1948, after the Second World War had ended, that the Jewish State of Israel became a reality. It should be seen therefore that we are still in the period of the end of the ‘legs and the feet’ in prophetic terms, for while the Roman Empire in its previous greatness has long gone, the final destruction typified in the ‘stone’ has not yet appeared.

Daniel’s companions walking in the fire:

Daniel 3:8-13: Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship the golden image: And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king.

Daniel is not mentioned in the account of the fiery furnace, but as he was set up as a governor of Babylon and master of the magicians, it would not be prudent for the Chaldeans to try and bring any open accusation against him. Possibly envious because of their embarrassment in the matter of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, they seek to find an excuse to undermine Daniel’s supporters, and feel confident enough to bring this matter to the king. It is not absolutely clear what this image was, or why it was set up, but it has been suggested that it was an edifice to Nebuchadnezzar, probably after a success in battle, and so a refusal to bow before it would constitute a direct insult to him. On this occasion the faithful are delivered, but in the later account in the Book of Revelation, a refusal to bow before the future image of the time, the abomination of desolation, results in death. There is no reason to believe that the golden image here is an exact model for the later image of Revelation, as the dimensions given are not consistent with any statue, or image of man. However, this does give an example of how unscrupulous men will use any device to manipulate situations for their own purposes, and this could well be the pattern of things to come in the latter times, particularly for Israel.

Nebuchadnezzar’s madness:

Daniel 4:8-17: But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying, O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof. Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it. I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven; He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches: Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band