FutureAndAHope said:
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I believe that we are entering the time soon when the man of sin will be revealed to the world. I seek God daily, and recently felt some concern around world events, so I began to ask God to show me if the man of sin would soon be revealed, the specific question was "did I need to prepare for it". I sought the LORD using various methods, and in all the ways I sought him the answer was, "yes you need to prepare". I have made a website at
The Fake God describing how I sought God and my thoughts on this time.
Along these lines, are there any biblical or other signs that this may soon be happening.
Every generation since the 1st century destruction of the Temple has believed that.
However, Jesus appears to identify the 1st century "man of sin" in this covenantle parable/story in Luke 16:
Jer 17:1
“
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; With the point of a diamond
it is engraved
On the tablet of their heart, And on the horns of your altars,
Lazarus and the Rich Man - Here a little, there a little - Commentary
This detail cements the identity of the rich man as the House of Judah, the Jews!
But Lazarus was a Jew in the story as well, wasn't he?
Yes, but a common Jew/Israelite.
They were under the rule of the corrupt
Judean Rulers.
He could also be symbolizing the non-Jewish Israelites[gentiles] who were divorced and scattered among the nations. It also concerns the Resurrection and has Moses and Abraham in it.
The Priesthood was the 3rd part of the southern House/Kingdom of Judah [Judah and Benjamin being the other 3]
Mat 23
2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat
33 "Serpents! brood of vipers! how? ye may be fleeing from the judging<2920> of the geennhV <1067>
Afterward, speaking primarily to his disciples but with the Pharisees (and probably the crowd) still listening in, Yeshua related the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-13).
The Pharisees, who were "lovers of money" (Luke 16:14), realized that the Messiah was alluding to them with this parable and took offense. They scoffed at Yeshua.
The final part of his response to the derision of the Pharisees and scribes was the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
LUKE 16:19 "There was a
certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day."
We begin by scrutinizing the description Yeshua gives us of the rich man. First, he tells us that this man was clothed in purple and fine linen. This type of clothing would not have been out of the ordinary for one of considerable wealth during this time period. However, this attire also has symbolic meaning.
The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary says: "The wearing of purple was associated particularly with royalty . . ." (p. 863, "Purple"). In addition, the
New Bible Dictionary tells us: "The use of linen in OT times was prescribed for priests (Ex. 28:39). The coat, turban and girdle must be of fine linen." (p. 702, "Linen").
So we see that the garments worn by this rich man were symbolic of royalty and the priesthood. With that in mind, let's see what God told Moses just before giving the Israelites the Law on Mount Sinai:
LUKE 16:20
"But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores."
In contrast to the rich man, we now see Lazarus. The first thing to note is that he is depicted as a beggar. This is an apt description of the Gentiles who "laid at the gate" of Judah. Paul describes the predicament of the Gentiles before they accepted the Messiah in his letter to the Ephesians:
This Scripture is also a fitting representation of the position of the nations before the Messiah's sacrifice for the world's sins. They were certainly "excluded from the commonwealth of Israel," "strangers to the covenants of promise," and "without hope and without God in the world." The Gentiles were beggars, located outside Judah and longing to be fed spiritual crumbs from the table of the divinely blessed Jews.
Additionally, we are told that dogs came and consoled Lazarus in his misery, licking his sores. The Jews considered the surrounding Gentiles to be unclean "dogs." Even Yeshua himself used this unflattering comparison when he conversed with the Greek Syrophoenician woman while in the region of Tyre (Mark 7:24-30).
Also important to the story is the meaning of the name Lazarus. This Greek name is a form of the Hebrew
Eleazer, and it literally means "he whom God helps." The use of this particular name is very significant to the message of the parable, for the Gentiles would indeed become "those whom God helped" through the sacrifice of His son, Yeshua.