“Lift up the trumpet and loud let it ring:

Jesus is coming again!

Cheer up, ye pilgrims, be joyful and sing:

Jesus is coming again!

This is the Voice of Prophecy – a voice crying in the wilderness of these modern days. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

“Coming again, coming again,

Jesus is coming again!”

From our Voice of Prophecy Studios in Los Angeles, California, we welcome you to this half hour of inspiration and music with the Kings Herald’s, Del Delker, Brad Braley, and H.M.S. Richards, the Voice of Prophecy speaker, a Seventh Day Adventist minister.

There’s another task to do, there’s a battle to renew;

And the Captain calls for you,

Volunteers! Volunteers!

Rally to the throbbing drum!

Shout the word, ‘We come, we come!’

Volunteers! Volunteers! Volunteers!

Chorus: Christ before us, Christ behind,

Christ on every side!

For the rescue of mankind, on to glory ride!

Volunteers! Volunteers! Volunteers!

Hear the foeman’s fading shout,

See his cohorts turn in rout!

Nevermore the end in doubt!

Volunteers! Volunteers!

We are in a winning fight,

Shout! For victory’s in sight,

Volunteers! Volunteers! Volunteers!

Chorus: Christ before us, Christ behind,

Christ on every side!

For the rescue of mankind, on to glory ride!

Volunteers! Volunteers! Volunteers!

Our Heavenly Father, we pray that Thou will bless this broadcast to all who hear. And today in a special way, we pray for the rulers of the nations that the peace of the world and the freedom of gospel preaching may be maintained. O God, we pray Thee that Thou will touch the hearts of those in authority and lead to the open preaching of the open Book. In Jesus’ name

There is a place of quiet rest,

Near to the heart of God:

A place where sin cannot molest,

Near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer,

Sent from the heart of God

Hold us who bow before Thee

Near to the heart of God.

Amen.

The King's Heralds quartet sing now about the experience of the Christian when Jesus comes. We all want to see the Savior First of All.

When my lifework is ended, and I cross the swelling tide,
When the bright and glorious morning I shall see;
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,
And His smile will be the first to welcome me.

Refrain: I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
And redeemed by His side I shall stand,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
By the print of the nails in His hand.

Through the gates to the city in a robe of spotless white,
He will lead me where no tears will ever fall;
In the glad song of ages I shall mingle with delight;
But I long to meet my Savior first of all.

Refrain: I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
And redeemed by His side I shall stand,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
By the print of the nails in His hand.

And now here is H.M.S. Richards, the Voice of Prophecy speaker. His subject: The Near East and Bible Prophecy.

The Near East in Palestine, the holy land of the Bible, more and more draw the attention of the world. The public press, radio, television, news broadcasts report increased tension in this part of the world. It would be well for those who believe the Holy Scriptures to keep their eyes in the Near East especially the holy land itself. This part of the world is the center of the land mass of the globe. This is where the interest of Africa, Asia and Europe really meet. Here in the strategic location, God put His chosen people -ancient Israelites. Through all past centuries, the holy land has been the center of world interest and world importance. Great conquerors have passed back and forth over its sacred soil. Mighty armies have traversed it. Great battles have been fought within its borders and around it.

The people of Israel were place right in this intersection of the highways of the nations in the center of the darkness of this earth. Here they were to be the light of the world. It was God's plan that they should give light to all the nations. They should uphold the great truths that had been revealed to them through the prophets. The temple of Jerusalem built by King Solomon was to be like a mighty pulpit from which the Holy Scriptures and the knowledge of the true God could be given the world.

Jesus said the temple of Jerusalem should be called a house of prayer to all nations you'll read that in Matthew 21:13. Now, that was God's plan; but God's people largely failed Him in spite of all the holy prophets could do. They failed to proclaim God's message of hope and righteousness to the world. Instead they absorbed the ideas and teachings and habits of the nations around them. God had pronounced great blessings upon His people. He promised if they would keep His commandments. obey His laws that their city would grow in strength and that Jerusalem itself would stand forever; but what actually happened.

Here's the sad story in the words of the divine historian - Second Chronicles 36:14. Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people …But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy…. he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees [or Babylonian] against them. And the people were killed, young men were destroyed, the sanctuary was broken down. They burned the house of God, broke down the walls of Jerusalem and them that escape from the sword, he carried away to Babylon as captives. We know the story.

According to the deserved punishment, the nation’s doomed; but God's mercy still kept them as a people. God gave them another chance as a nation. Four hundred ninety years respite. We read these words in Daniel 9:24, “seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.”

Now it's easy to show from the Scripture and from the preceding chapter here in Daniel that this great prophecy of 70 weeks or weeks of years, 490 years, represents a period of time that God gave them another opportunity to rebuild their country and, and try to be His people again. Read that in Numbers 14:34 where a day stands for a year. This period of special favor upon the nation of Israel began in 457 before Christ. We’re sure of that because the prophecy says is to begin when the decree or the order went out to rebuild Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25). That decree is found in its original form in as seen in Ezra 7:13 where its quoted, “the decree of the king of Persia” who then was ruling over the Jewish people in exile. Four hundred ninety years, seventy weeks, each day standing for year, beginning in 457 before Christ would end of course in 34 A.D.

At the end of 69 of the weeks, the Messiah was to appear. Daniel 9:27 says so. And He was to continue His work for three and a half years. So all right there in the prophecy. In the midst of that 70^th, the last week, it says, He was to die but not for Himself. He was to cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and He did that when He made His own vicarious atoning sacrifice upon the cross. There He brought to an end the whole system of symbols and sacrifices and the services of the temple. But still God did not reject His people as a nation when Jesus Himself the Son of God was put to death. That was in 31AD, right in the middle of that last week. For three and a half years more until the end of the full seventy weeks of the prophecy, the apostles worked for and preached to the Jews only. You read that in Acts 11:19. Then a great change came. God's chosen people finally and completely rejected the Christian church when Steven the first Christian martyr was put to death (Acts 7:59). The next chapter tells us of Philip's ministry. The Ethiopian eunuch was converted and baptized (Acts 8:38).

And Saul, the greatest rabbi at that time, according to Christian view, was converted by a personal appearance of Christ on the Damascus Road and became Paul, a mighty apostle to the Gentiles.

Sometime later, the great apostle Peter, whose special mission had been to the Jewish people, was led to preach to Gentiles and Cornelius, the Roman Officer, was converted.

This conversion convinced the leaders of the church in Jerusalem that God also to the Gentiles has granted repentance unto life (Acts 11:18).

Not long after this, the Roman armies came and captured the holy city and scattered its people into exile all over the earth. So the times of the Gentiles began. Jesus had said to His disciples, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations” Matthew 28:19. And in Matthew 24:14, these wonderful words are recorded words of Jesus, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

The times of the Gentiles, the time of the Gospel should go to all nations still continues and will until Christ comes and returns to this earth in power and glory.

Now, what did Jesus say about the city of Jerusalem itself and the kingdom of Israel? Speaking to the priest and leaders, He made this startling statement. I’m reading Matthew 21:43, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” This announcement was made at the end of His parable about the husbandman who had stoned the servants and finally killed the heir of the vineyard. It's a prophecy of Christ's own experience and of the holy prophets before Him. So the kingdom was taken from God's chosen nation and given to others and that's His plain prediction.

Now, turn to one of the great chapters in the Holy Bible which has to do with the last events of the world - Luke 21. We read that our Savior gave various signs to indicate this gospel message about to be finished in the world - Christ coming near. Begin at the 18^th verse, “there shall not an hair of your head perish.” And we see the pictures of the atomic bomb and read and hear of wars and rumors of wars, we are not to be troubled.

If your life is hid with Christ in God, those words in Colossians 3:3, you can rest safely through all the confusions of the last times. Christ will take care of His people today. “In your patience possess ye your souls” - Luke 21:19.

Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

Now the 20^th verse, “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” He was talking here to His disciples at the time when Jerusalem was as a great city, one of the mightiest fortresses in the world. Its walls defy the armies of those days. He warned it that when they should see the army surrounding the city, they will know that desolation was near. “Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains,” that’s verse 21.

Well, you ask, how could them? You say were surrounded? Friends, when God tells us to do something, we can always be sure the way will be open for us to do it. Never commands the impossible. So here in this 21^st chapter of Luke, Christ commands to His disciples to flee the city when they saw it surrounded by armies was literally fulfilled.

Now, I'll tell you how. When the Roman armies came under General Cestius in AD64, they surrounded the city and were almost ready to take it. Strange, to say, they suddenly retreated without any reason. You read that in a Jewish historian, Josephus. They went down toward the coast where they were ambushed by a strong Jewish force and nearly destroyed. It was one of the greatest defeat to the Roman Legions in all the history of that empire. A mighty triumph for the people of Israel. At that very moment of victory, when everyone thought there was nothing to fear from the Romans, the Christian fled out of the city to the little town of Pella, about 20 or 30 miles away, on the other side of the Jordan. The words of Christ were fulfilled because shortly after that the Roman armies came back in AD70 led by General Vespasian and his son Titus. Said it was besieged tightly. It was during the Passover season; over a million people in the city. Famine came upon them. Time of great bloodshed inside the city as well as out. Dissension broke the power of the defenders. Starvation took a terrible toll. In spite of brave fighting, the Roman armies drew their lines tighter and tighter about the city. Hundreds of the dead were thrown over the city walls every night; but no one to bury them. One of the most terrible sieges of all history. The walls of Jerusalem were battered down as people are sold as slaves and carried over all the civilized world.

Now listen to the words of Jesus, “Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; [not only those in the city but in Judaea] and let them which are in the midst of it [that is, Jerusalem] depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”

You back to the Old Testament, read the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, other prophets especially Daniel, find over and over again the divine promise to Israel that if they would obey God’s commandments, avoid idolatry, they would become a great nation. Jerusalem would rule the world.

On the other hand, the warning from all the same prophets that if they were disobedient, Jerusalem would be destroyed. This people dispersed over the earth and persecuted. And that's a picture of exactly what has happened.

Jesus said, “these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” Everything written by the prophets came to pass. During His ministry, Jesus had looked forward to it. One day, in the Mount of Olives, He looked out over the beautiful city and began to weep. The tears course down His cheeks, He said, “how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold your house, [that is the temple, of course] is left unto you desolate.” - Matthew 23:37.

God never compels us to do anything. He asks, invites, pleads, even commands but never forces. God desires free will obedience. So it was of Israel of old and with us today.

This destruction of the chosen nation and the holy city was in itself a type, a symbol, an acted prophecy of the coming close of our civilization, the wine that have organized Christianity, the nations of this world, and the final glory of our Lord's return.

Friends, we ought to look at these things with honest eyes. No man knows the day or hour. Jesus said so in Matthew 24:36. No man can know it or should know it but we should be in constant expectancy and constant readiness.

Immediately after our Savior’s prediction of the fall of Jerusalem, He spoke of the signs of His Second Coming, the signs in the sun, moon, and stars; the distress of nations; the perplexities in the hearts of man; the strange convulsions of nature; the powers of heavens shaken. Then in verse 27, and then Jesus said, “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

We today, as they of old should be looking for the signs. We should be watching the omens. We should read the Holy Scriptures carefully. Not with excitement, not with fanaticism, but with earnestness, with care, and above all with prayer and faith. Then when we see the very events taking place that have been prophesied of old and mentioned by our Lord Jesus Christ, we should not be down hearted or sorrowful; but through every trouble and every trial of the last days, we should look up and rejoice and be happy for Jesus said, “when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth high. That's Luke 21:28.

So friends, how about it? Are you watching the Near East? Are you watching the events in that crucial part of the world? in this crucial age in time? You'd better watch them. Keep your eyes at the prophecies are being fulfilled. Are you lifting up your head with holy joy? Are you happy? Are you looking forward to meeting your savior? Open your heart to this blessed hope. It will change your life. It will make you a better citizen, a better father, a better mother, a better husband, a better wife, a better friend in this world. It will prepare you for the wonderful world of tomorrow.

Now friends, the Voice of Prophecy is endeavoring to bring to the people everywhere messages of prophetic truth and the Bible hope and comfort. And so today, we plead with you every hearer. If you're a Christian pray earnestly that God will touch the hearts of those who hear; make us all better and more able to serve Him. God bless you everyone.

I’m looking today for His glorious appearing

A thrilling expectancy floods through my prayers

The multiplied signs show the moment is nearing

When we shall see Jesus find peace and sweet rest

I’m looking for Him today

Through sunlight and shadows dim

I keep scanning the sky

For the promise is nigh

I’m looking today for Him.

With trumpet and shout from the heavens descending

The sky’s ageless silence, He’ll shutter that day

Will rise up to meet Him, our praises all blending

Our sorrow and sin put forever away.

I’m looking for Him today

Through sunlight and shadows dim

I keep scanning the sky

For the promise is nigh

I’m looking today for Him.

This is Orville Iverson of the Voice of Prophecy suggesting that together we keep looking up ever going forward in faith.

Have faith in God and every Word divine

Have faith in God, with truth the heart refine

Have faith in God, the Scriptures ever shine

Have faith, dear friend, in God.

We hope this program of ours has served to bring you spiritual strength and blessing today. And we invite you to join us again next week at the same time over the same stations, we’ll bring another broadcast to you from the Voice of Prophecy.

Remember friends, we haven’t reminded you for some weeks, that every Thursday morning is prayer hour at the Voice of Prophecy. A worldwide-prayer circle. We ask you and all others to join for just a few minutes. Pray for yourselves, for all who listen.

And now we say: The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.

Amen.

The Near East and Bible Prophecy

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