The Last Dictator and the Last Monarch – Part 2

Recap

In our article last week, we talked about the entire world progressing through a cycle that we called the cycle of tyranny. Where we are on the cycle is determined by how the general population and its leaders regard the Word of God.

In the world we live in today, the knowledge of God is lost to most world leaders and the people they govern.

It’s very clear in the bible that without God man is not good. In Jeremiah 17:9, we see that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?”
Consequently, decisions are made from that corruption and deceitfulness, rather than from the age old standard of the Word of God which was the foundation of earlier governments of the free world.
The result is the eventual bondage of nations and, as in our present day, the bondage of the world.

This week, let’s define why, as Christians, we should be clear on what the bible tells us about the future, particularly the last dictator and the last monarch.

But why do we need to know?

Well, there’s an old saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?”

To not be sure of the journey’s end is to travel through life on a winding road of uncertainty, fear, and unrest. To be uncertain and doubtful about where we’re going makes the journey pointless.
Uncertainty and doubt are called in the bible “double mindedness”.

Double Mindedness

In James 1:6-8 we see that a double mined man is unstable in all his ways. He’s “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does”.

A double-minded person is restless and confused in his thoughts, his actions, and his behaviour. He is always in conflict with himself. This inner conflict stops him trusting God and finding assurance and confidence in His promises.
To avoid being double minded we need to have a firm knowledge of our destiny.

So, what is the goal, the destiny of our Christian walk? How can we put that destiny in a nutshell so that we can keep it before us amidst the calms and the storms of life?

The Blessed Hope

Well, in Titus 2:12–13 we see that we wait for what is described as “the blessed hope”.
It is the “blessed hope” that is the beacon on the hill for our lives.
The blessed hope is what enables us to have the peace and assurance to face the challenges and pain of this life.

Songs and countless books and articles have been written about this blessed hope of a Christian. So, what is it exactly?

Again, in Titus 2:12-13 we get the explanation. It is the appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.”
This passage identifies the “blessed hope” as the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, our great God and Saviour.
The word hope used here does not communicate uncertainty, as in “I hope that something might occur”; rather, it is the assurance that something will take place.
The word blessed can mean “happy” or “beneficial”; our hope is “blessed” in that Jesus’ return will be an amazing, joyful experience for the believer in Christ. We will be blessed beyond measure when we see Christ. The trials of this life will be over no one can take that hope away.

In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verses 13 through to verse 18, the great Apostle Paul explains the event which is the blessed hope. I’m reading now from the ERV or Easy To Read version of the Bible.

“Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about those who have died. We don’t want you to be sad like other people—those who have no hope.
We believe that Jesus died, but we also believe that he rose again. So we believe that God will raise to life through Jesus any who have died and bring them together with him when he comes.

What we tell you now is the Lord’s own message. Those of us who are still living when the Lord comes again will join him, but not before those who have already died.

The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the people who have died and were in Christ will rise first.

After that, we who are still alive at that time will be gathered up with those who have died. We will be taken up in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever.

So, encourage each other with these words.

This passage, and many others, describe an event that is so far outside of our natural, human understanding that it is either total fantasy or the greatest supernatural event ever to take place in this universe.

The event is called The Rapture.

The Rapture

The Rapture is the snatching away of the church from the earth just before a series of catastrophic events and judgments are released on the earth.

The church is everyone who has died or is alive at the time that has believed and accepted Jesus Christ as saviour and Lord.

Tragically today, there’s a lot of mockery from within the mainstream churches about the rapture. Many ‘traditional” churchgoers believe the Rapture is fantasy and comes from the imaginations of people who don’t know the Bible. This is understandable when you hear some of the wildly inaccurate and frankly, ridiculous teachings associated with bible prophesy. Much of this comes from people who add to, subtract from or distort God’s Word.

God’s enemy, Satan, does not want anyone studying end time Bible prophecy because the message of those prophecies is that we as Christians are going to win in the end. Bible prophecy clearly reveals the total defeat of Satan and the glorious triumph of Jesus.

The Rapture of the Church is perhaps the most loved, hated, accepted, and rejected event in the Bible.
However, to those of us that really believe that the bible is God’s Word to man it’s not difficult to believe that the Almighty Creator of the universe has the power to do exactly as he says.

There are many more mystical, supernatural, and wonderful events that happen to the “snatched away” church after the rapture and they are all part of the blessed hope. This includes the transformation of our earthly bodies into glorified bodies that will no longer be affected by age, sickness, pain, suffering or death.
This is the Blessed Hope.

When the church is snatched away from the earth in this awe-inspiring event known as the Rapture it will trigger a series of other events that will take place on the earth.

These soon to come events will be just as awe inspiring but in a terrible way.
The most significant of these horrific events will be the revealing of a man who is “The Last Dictator” of this article.

The Last Dictator Revealed

The Last dictator is called in the bible the Antichrist or rather, the Pseudo or pretend Christ.

This person will be a highly charismatic leader, who will mesmerise the world with his words and his power. The world will love him and will fall over themselves to swear allegiance to him.

He will do what many others have tried but no man has done before. He will broker a peace between the Jewish nation of Israel and its lifelong enemies. This agreement will allow the Jewish nation to build a third temple in Jerusalem without the interference from its enemies, something that that the Jewish people are preparing for right now.

This world leader will be in power for seven years.
In the first three and a half of those seven years this world leader will take absolute control over the entire population. This will be achieved through a control system using technology that has never been available on earth in the past but is now commonplace.

A Second World Leader

A second world leader will arise at the same time.

The bible calls him The False Prophet. He will take control of the organised, manmade church that will not be involved in the rapture. This church will include every pagan manmade religion known to man, Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, The New Age, Satanism, the Cults, and every other religion on the earth.

They will all be ruled under the one banner of the false prophet.
Many believe that the organisation that will manage all the world religions and cults will be the Catholic church.

This great movement to unite all religions under one banner has been quietly gathering momentum for many years under the guise of what is known as “The Ecumenical Movement”.

The coming world leader together with the world religious leader will cast the entire world into a state of absolute slavery and bondage.
Three and a half years into this horrific seven year period the Last Dictator, The Antichrist, also identified in the book of Revelation as “The Beast”, will break the peace agreement with Israel.

Peace Covenant Broken

He will do something that will make the Jewish nation realise they have been deceived and cause them to revolt. He will sit himself in the Jewish temple and demand to be worshiped as god. This will begin an all-out war that will further plunge the world into even more horror. This later three and a half year period is known as “The Great Tribulation”.

The bible paints a picture of these last three and a half years that is beyond the worst horror movie man has ever devised. It is so bad that Jesus Himself tells us in Matthew 24:21 & 22, “For there will be great affliction, such as has not happened from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be. And except those days were shortened, not any flesh would be saved. But on account of the elect, those days will be shortened.” The elect is the small remnant of the Jewish nation that will turn to the Lord amidst the calamity.

In one final cataclysmic event Jesus will return to the earth with all those that were snatched from the earth seven years earlier in the rapture.

The Last Monarch Appears

This is known as The Second Coming of Christ. The Rapture is NOT The Second Coming.
Jesus does not come to earth in the rapture! His Church is snatched up to meet Him in the air.

We need to be clear on this. The rapture and the second coming of Christ are NOT the same event.
We mustn’t allow ourselves to be confused on this as many Christians are.

On that great and terrible day when Christ returns to the earth, many things will happen.
The last dictator (The Beast) and the world religious leader (The False Prophet) will be cast into a place called Hell.
This marks the end of the rule of the last dictator. The world will never again be ruled or governed by evil.

In place of the last dictator a new King will take absolute control of the world.
That King will be “The Last Monarch” that we are discussing here.

He will be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ!

He will rule the earth in peace and love and perfect justice for a thousand years or what is called the millennium – the millennial rule of Christ.
Sin, along with its results of sickness, death and despair will no longer be in that new and exciting time.

There are even greater and more magnificent events to take place after this one thousand year rule, but we will leave that discussion for another day.

Roadmap to the Blessed Hope

So, what is the roadmap that leads to the Blessed Hope?

Let us be clear here!
There is no prophesy or event that needs to take place before the Rapture occurs!
The rapture of the true Church is imminent, which means it could occur at any moment.

After the rapture occurs and the true church is removed from the earth the catastrophic events that we just talked about will occur along a very predictable timeline.
Each event will happen at a precise time that is fully predictable, but ONLY after the Rapture occurs. The Rapture will trigger the timeline of these events.
Of the Rapture itself NO MAN KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR.
Jesus Himself stated this in Mattew 24:36 “No one knows when that day or time will be. The Son and the angels in heaven don’t know when it will be. Only the Father knows.”
In Matthew 24:44 Jesus tells us to be ready. The Son of Man (Jesus) will come at a time when you don’t expect him.

I’ve got to repeat here; the Rapture of the Church is imminent. Although there are many indicators that assure us that the time of the rapture is near, nothing else needs to happen first. It could happen at any moment!

Where will the true Church be taken TO when it is snatched from the earth?

Again, the bible is crystal clear. We are taken to heaven where we will be with the Lord.
We can never really understand the Rapture until we understand what heaven is.

Although heaven is a realm outside of the four dimensions in which we currently live, and as such is far beyond our full human understanding, the bible gives us enough information for us to know that without a doubt it exists and is more real than we can imagine.

The bible is just as clear on what happens to those who reject Christ.
They will end up in a place known as Hades which will eventually be cast into a place known as Hell. This opens more questions that are often a confusion to many Christians.

What is Heaven? What Is Hades? What is Hell? What is life? What is death?

In the next discussion on the Last Dictator and The Last Monarch, God willing, we will present what the bible says about heaven, hell, life, and death.
But, before we close, let’s be clear on what it is that we believe in. We can reject the blessed hope, the last dictator and the last Monarch and put them in the realm of fairy tales and myths. To do so as a Christian is to have a box of puzzle pieces that are never put together to form a picture. Then, when challenges arrive, as they most surely will, we have no certainty or assurance to cling to. We don’t know the Who, why, what, where, and how of our Christian walk. We become confused, doubtful and anxious.

Let’s complete the puzzle of our life picture by looking to God’s Word for our answers and base our faith for our future on this Blessed Hope.
When we know the destination of the journey and we know the story’s ending we can agree with the apostle Paul in Romans 8:18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Thanks for listening.