Q. There are rumors going around on the Internet that Barack Obama could be the Antichrist. What is your view on this?

A. Right off, Mr. Obama is not the Antichrist, who I will refer to as the False Messiah which is closer to its meaning. Over the years many politicians have been accused of that including Prince Charles, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Henry Kissinger and many others. But, the subject of the False Messiah is very comprehensive in the Scriptures and it is a subject that has been talked about for several thousand years. Some of the Rabbi’s of the first century believed that he would be Jewish from the tribe of Dan. A good source to study this subject can be found in the Jewish encyclopedia under “False Messiah” and it is very well developed and actually has a lot to say on the subject. I will go into some of the Scriptures concerning him but some back-ground in Eschatology will have to be laid first. In Prophecy, some of the countries today will have an ancient counterpart. For instance, Europe will be symbolized by Egypt. Egypt was called the “iron furnace” in Deuteronomy and where Israel was held captive, and Europe was where Israel was held captive and the iron furnaces are well known to those who are familiar with the holocaust. Europe will also be known as
Kittim” in prophecy and we will get to that. Russia will be pictured by Assyria, the United States by the Land of Babylon, the Kings of the East by the army of Babylon. To develop this out takes many hours and in our congregation I take about a month every fall and teach nothing but prophecy, using the festivals, idioms, phrases found in Scripture to develop out Biblical eschatology. The false Messiah of course is an end-time eschatological character that must be understood. So, with that in mind let’s look at a few Scriptures to get an idea of who he is. Leviticus 24.10-16 gives a good picture. The son of an Israelite woman (Jewish) and an Egyptian man(European) struggles with a man of Israel (Messiah-Gen 3.15). He blasphemes the name of the Lord (Dan 7.8-11, 11.32, 2 Thes 2.4). His mother’s name is Shelomith which means “peaceful”, the daughter of Dibri which means “my word” from the tribe of Dan. He is eventually killed because of his blasphemy and so will the False Messiah (2 Thes 2.4-8). Daniel 9.26 describes the False Messiah as “ a prince from the people that will come” who we know will be the Romans, which is referring to Europe. There is a concept found in the prophets about a creature named Leviathan. The Jewish Encyclopedia also has a lot to say about this creature. Isaiah 27.1-2 describes what will happen to this creature in the day of the Lord, and he is described here as a “tannin” or sea monster who is destroyed. If you compare this with Ezekiel 29.3-7 and 32.2-8 you will see how this dragon is referred to as Pharaoh, king of Egypt, or Europe again. In Dan 11.30 there is a prophecy about Antiochus Epiphanes. He is the Greek king in the Chanukah story who made war with the Jewish people and forced them to stop observing the Torah. In v 30 it talks about ships from Kittim coming against him to help the Macabees. We know from history that Rome came to the aid of Israel and so we know Kittim means Rome, or Europe. The False Messiah will attempt to help Israel in the birth-pains but will eventually turn on her, just like Rome did. So again, the False Messiah will come out of Europe. In Ezekiel 21.25-27 there is a prophecy about a wicked prince of Israel whose day of judgment has come and his ruler-ship is ended. In the literal, the prophecy concerns Zedekiah but Zedekiah is also a picture of the False Messiah. But notice he is a “prince” and Dan 9 calls the False Messiah a “prince”. There is a small prophecy in Micah 2.4 where it says that God will give Israel over to the “apostate”. Now to be an apostate means he is away from the biblical faith. The False Messiah is described as the “lawless one” ( 2 Thes 2.1-12) and when you look up the word it means “no Torah” or “Torah-less”. The religion of Europe is apostate Christianity and we know from Revelation 12.17 that the False Messiah will make war on anyone who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah and keeps the commandments of God. So, he will be against Torah observance as most of Israel’s enemies have been. There is so much more that can be said about this but in conclusion the False Messiah will be Jewish, probably from the tribe of Dan and come out of Europe. It is very dangerous to accuse anyone living today of being the False Messiah and the Scriptures say that he won’t be identified until after the catching away of the believers on earth at Rosh ha Shanah anyway (2 Thes 2.1-3). There may be many reasons not to vote for Mr. Obama and that is up to the individual, but being the False Messiah shouldn’t be one of them.

Q. What is the purpose of fasting?

A. Fasting is a means of cleaning out the mind of earthly thoughts and desires in order to connect to God at a higher , spiritual level and to hear from the Lord. It is a time where we can get alone and ask the Lord “where am I with you” and to separate from the flesh. There are many examples of it in the Scriptures but I am going to limit it to several examples and then draw on the principles found there. The first one is found in Ezra 8.15-30. Ezra is going to lead some of the people back to the land after the Babylonian Captivity and he assembles some of the people to “humble” themselves before God and to pray for a safe journey for themselves, their children and their possessions. The term “humble” is a Hebraism for fasting and you will see it in Leviticus 23.29 in relation to Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement and Paul also refers to Yom Kippur as “the Fast” in Acts 27.9. Ezra had been saying to their captors how God’s hand was upon the Jewish people and how He was going to protect them in their journey back to the land so he was embarrassed to ask the king for troops and horseman for additional protection because it would have made the Lord look insufficient, and so Ezra had a problem (Ezra 8.22). You see, they were bringing back gold and silver and the utensils that had been captured from the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians and they were going to use it again once the Temple was rebuilt, so they were sitting ducks for thieves and robbers, who would immediately see they were traveling unescorted with a virtual treasure. So, in Ezra 8.23 he calls a fast so that God will give them some ideas on how they were to transport all this wealth back to the land. After 3 days Ezra gets a word from the Lord to divide up the treasure in 12 parts and entrusted it into the hand of some priests and Levites and they wouldn’t have all their eggs “in one basket” in case of an attack. He instructs them to watch and keep the Temple treasure until they arrive in Jerusalem and can give an accounting before the leading priests, Levites and family heads (v 29). So in this case they fasted in order to hear from God on what to do.
In Isaiah 58.1-12 the Lord admonishes the people about their fasting because it had become a mundane performance void of any deeper concerns concerning love, mercy, justice and kindness to others. The Lord was not taking notice of what they were doing because they were oppressing the poor, not supporting their families and pointing the finger at others and supporting false doctrines. He was telling them to stop neglecting the weightier commandments concerning the above things and to start correcting their attitudes. Then they would have the understanding they needed and then He would answer their prayers. In Zechariah 8.19 Israel had added 4 fasts during the year that God never ordained. The Jewish people still observe these today. These self-appointed days of fasting was not going to fix why Babylon came and destroyed the Temple in the first place. They needed stop mourning the destruction of a building ( the Temple)and find out why God allowed it in the first place, which was due to their callousness, sin, idolatry. They were trying to ingratiate themselves to God by their ritualistic fasting but had missed the point as to why the Babylonians were allowed to defeat them in the first place. This exact point is brought out in Ezekiel 20.1-49. They had been fasting on one of the self-appointed days mentioned in Zechariah 8 and inquired of the Lord and He tells them that they needed to understand why the Temple and the exile happened. In Ezekiel 24. 16-24 the people are told why the Temple was destroyed, and he tells them not to mourn over it but to examine themselves and to correct what happened, starting with their own hearts. Another aspect to fasting is seen in the sacrifices performed in the Temple. We read in Leviticus 3. 4,9 that the fat was not to be consumed but burned on the Altar. Now fat has several meanings. First, the fat symbolizes that which is too rich to consume and it is for God alone. We cannot fully understand God’s ways and we need to trust Him. We can “digest” the rich things of God (the fat) in small amounts but most of it is beyond our human comprehension. Secondly, fat is symbolic of pride, prosperity and folly (Psa 17.10; Psa 119.70, Psa 37.20)and it can block our “spiritual arteries” rendering the mind dull, insensitive and oblivious to spiritual truth. The life is in the blood and eating too much fat can cause heart disease, and the same thing happens spiritually. Earthly prosperity can often be the prelude to destruction in much the same way a calf or sheep is fattened before it is slaughtered. By fasting, we burn not only the natural fat in our bodies but it can also be seen as offering the fat on the Altar and to getting rid of the “spiritual fat” that may have been accumulating around our hearts causing is to be dull and insensitive to the things of God. There is so much more that can be said about fasting and how it should be done but I hope this gives you some idea of how it should be done and the correct attitude we should have while doing it. It is certainly ordained of God ( Matt 6.16-19) and should never be done unless we are prompted by the Holy Spirit to do it (Matt 4.1-2) and it should be done in order to hear from God about something or when we don’t know what to do. It can be a blessing to us and others when it is done with the proper understanding and attitude and not turned into some mundane, ritualistic act void of any real spiritual reality.

Q. What is the verse that indicates that God has always known us, even before we were born. Where is it located in the Bible?

A. There are many verses that indicate that the Lord has known us before we were born and I’ll deal with a few right now. God is outside of time, and He is not limited in what He does or knows like we are. That is the whole concept behind the prophecies in the Bible. He knows the players and the situations that He will use to ultimately bring about His desired purposes. For instance, Pharaoh was raised up for the very purposes he played out in the Exodus. Paul even refers to this in Romans 9.17. In Isaiah 45.1 he actually names a Persian King named Cyrus many years before he was even born and tells what he will do and that the Lord was the one who was going to raise him up and bring it about. Daniel 8.5-8 is a prophecy about Alexander the Great and what would happen to him and it continues to describe world history and specific kings that would come and what they would do in relation the people of Israel. In Jeremiah 1. 5 it says that God knew Jeremiah before he was formed in the womb. In Psalms 139 the doctrines on omniscience and omnipresence of God are described. In v 16 it says that God’s eyes saw the writer’s “unformed substance” wrote down in a scroll all the days ordained to him when “yet there were none.” In Ephesians 1.4 it says that God chose us in Him (those who would believe) before the foundation of the world, and compare this with Roman 8.29-30 and you will see that everything was “set” before we ever drew our first breath. There are many verses that teach us that God knew us and planned out our lives before we were ever born and there is no doubt about that. I could mention Judas, who was specifically raised up to do what he did, Isaac who was predicted to be born a year ahead of time and even given the name he was to be called, Jacob and Esau, John the Baptist was also named and prophesied about before he was born, and the greatest example of this is Yeshua Himself. So, God knew us before the world was even created and no human being is an accident but has a specific role in God’s plan.