Subject:
CHINA IN PROPHECY
Date:
Mon, 9 Apr 2001 21:09:00 ‑0700
From:
"Archibald Bard" <[email protected]>
To:
"AGENDAS" <[email protected]>
China in Prophecy July 1995
There is more in the Bible about China as a nation and as a people than
most people have imagined. It
is time that all of us realize just what role China will play in the history
of the world in the next
few years ahead of us. This Prophetic Report gives both biblical and
historical evidence to show just
who the Chinese people are and how important they will soon become
in matters dealing with the
prophecies of the end time. There is one prophetic role for China that
most people know nothing about.
This is the fact that the Chinese people before the Second Advent of
Christ are destined to accept
Christianity in a very strong way. If we hope to realize what the future
holds for the world in the
next three decades, we will have to be aware of the real importance of
"China in Prophecy."
All people on earth need to know just who the Chinese people are in
matters dealing with the biblical
revelation. This is important because the Holy Scriptures are not only
interested in the welfare of
people who are now known as Christians, Jews and Muslims (people
indebted to Abraham and Moses for
their basic religious teachings), but the Bible makes it clear that God
through Christ has designed His
plan to bring a salvation to all people on earth, no matter who they are
or where they live. This
certainly includes the people of China. Indeed, China is the most
populous nation on earth today. It
would seem odd if the Bible did not include some essential information
about this great nation and its
people since the Holy Scriptures purport to be the divine document
which informs all people in the
world about the plan of God for mankind. And true to form, the Bible
does not abandon China and other
peoples in the Far East or the islands of Oceania in its theme of salvation
or in matters of prophecy.
We need to under‑stand just how significant these peoples are in the
prophetic scenario that is to
occur just on the horizon to us before the Second Advent of Christ back
to this earth.
Who Are the Chinese People?
The place to start our research on the origin and destiny of the Chinese
people is at the very
beginning of the biblical revelation. That is where God gives an overview
of who the peoples in the
world represent as they relate particularly to the people of Abraham to
whom God made special spiritual
covenants (and most specifically to the people of Israel who represent a
type of priestly people to the
rest of the nations on earth). In fact, the Holy Scriptures pertain
essentially to the people of
Abraham and more specially to Israel. This maneuver by God was to
make Israel in particular responsible
for teaching the ways of God to the whole of the human race. In a real
sense, Israel is the nation
which has a type of priestly mission to relate the messages of God to the
rest of the world (Exodus
19:6; Isaiah 61:6; Deuteronomy 7:6). The nation of Israel is called God’s
servant "to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved [desolate lands] of Israel; I
will also give thee
[Israel] for a light to the Gentiles, that thou [Israel] mayest be [i.e., bring]
my salvation unto the
end of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6). This responsibility of Israel to bring the
teaching of salvation to
the ends of the earth certainly includes that message being given to the
Chinese people. China is
destined soon to be evangelized.
In short, God has designed the historical circum‑stances in His plan for
mankind so that Israel should
be the nation to present to China and other Gentiles the teachings of
God. That is what God called
Israel to do as the priestly nation to the world.
However, the people of Israel are not yet doing their prophesied role of
taking the message of
salvation to the world. They began to do it in the time of the apostles,
but because they as a national
people failed to accept the teachings of their Messiah (Jesus Christ),
Christ prophesied that the
responsibility for teaching the Gospel would be given to another nation
to do the job (Matthew 21:43).
This was not another "race," but another "nation" of people (Romans
10:19). Some in that nation would
bring forth the fruits of the Gospel. So, Paul said the responsibility for
getting out the Gospel then
fell to the Gentiles, particularly to the people of the Roman nation and
its empire (Romans 11:11‑17).
The Gentiles of the Roman Empire (and their descendants) would take
over Israel’s place until what
Christ called the end of "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). It is now
up to us Gentiles with
that European influence from Paul (made up of many races) to do the
job. Still, the evangelization of
the world is not the responsibility of us Gentiles. God has preserved
Israel to perform that job.
Frankly, what Israel now needs is for us to teach the Gospel to them,
and Israel needs to accept the
Gospel. Because of this, we at A.S.K. (all of us working together) are
trying our best to present the
true Gospel to Israel and the world. I believe God is pleased with our
efforts.
Thus, a new age is about to dawn. The times of the Gentiles for teaching
the Gospel to the world are
about to end. Israel is going to be sent a spirit of grace and supplication
and they will then begin to
take over their prophesied role in bringing the messages of God to the
nations of the world. This was
prophesied to occur once Israel would return to the Holyland and to
Jerusalem. With their return, we
are told that God would cause a miracle to occur in Israel and to the
Israelites (and this miracle is
prophesied to emerge before the Second Advent of Christ). What is this
miracle? It is the fact that
many of the people of Israel (including some of its top leaders) are
destined to accept Christ Jesus as
their own Messiah. This is shown in Zechariah 12:10‑14 through 13:1‑6.
God will send the people of
Israel a miraculous spirit of grace and supplication in the not too distant
future. When this develops,
Israel will then begin to perform their role that God has prophesied for
them in bringing the message
of the Gospel to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). One of the first things
that Israel will do
according to the prophecies is to overthrow the idolatry and idolatrous
customs in the Holyland that
Gentile Christians of Roman Empire origin have placed in their churches
and shrines. At that time,
Israel will not countenance such rampant idolatry (Zechariah 13:1‑6).
When a great number of Israelites
in the Holyland are thus converted to Christ, we shall soon see China
then begin to look to Israel and
the Middle East (as will all nations on earth) for the teaching of the
Gospel of Christ. The Chinese
will not accede to the Roman Empire form of idolatrous "Christendom"
as their example.
To discover how this will happen to the Chinese, and to intelligently
understand the means by which
this will be accomplished, we first have to recognize from the Bible just
who the Chinese people are.
The Chinese people can be identified from the teachings of the Bible.
Their identification is first
given in Genesis Ten which shows the descendants of Noah and how
they repopulated the earth after the
great flood.
A Clue That Identifies the Chinese
It is easy in a general way to discover who the people of China are from
the information found in the
Table of Nations. The first evidence emerges when we consider the
meaning of the names of the three
sons of Noah through whom all the world’s population today have
descended. Note these three sons. His
firstborn son was Japheth. Noah’s second son was Ham. And, his third
son was Shem. Look at Noah’s
firstborn son Japheth. The word "Japheth" means "Enlargement" and it
signifies in a prophetic sense
that Japheth’s progeny would become an enlarged population on earth.
They would become the most
populous people (having many more descendants that Ham or Shem).
And without doubt, the people of China
and their neighbors who are a part of what we generally call the Yellow
Races are the most populous of
the nations on earth. This meaning of Japheth’s name is the first
evidence that the patriarch Japheth
and his descendants describe the patri‑archal origin of the Chinese
people. Along with this is the fact
that Noah’s second son was named "Ham" which signifies "Dark Colored"
and this is a clear indication
that the darker peoples on earth are descended from him. The third son
was Shem from whom came the
Israelites, the Arabs and other Mediterranean types of people. It is pretty
easy to see that this group
of people from Shem are not of the Yellow or the Black Races and they
more particularly represent the
White or the Olive Skinned peoples on earth. Of course, there are
variations in all the three main
racial stocks and there have been blendings among the original races on
a wide scale, but the three
general racial divisions of mankind and their standard char‑acteristics can
be pretty easily identified
from the information that we have in the Bible. The indication that
Japheth would become the most
populated of peoples gives us biblical evidence that the Chinese fit into
the Japhetic camp.
The Dispersal of the Original Nations
About two hundred years after the Flood of Noah, the population of
humans had grown sufficiently that
they began to build a tower as a religious monument (like a steeple or
pyramid) to keep mankind’s
geographical attention centered on the region of Babylon where the
main patriarchs of Noah (and Noah
himself) lived and made their homes. God did not like this scheme, so He
changed mankind’s languages
and sent them into all areas of the world (Genesis 11). When these
people left the tower in the Babylon
area, they journeyed outward with mere families (just small clans of
individuals) and they went into
various places on earth. God must have directed them to the regions on
earth to which He intended them
to live and to populate. People quickly spread around the world.
Among the people who began to leave Babylon were those of Japheth.
Let us look at them. Japheth had
seven sons: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras
(Genesis 10:2). Gomer’s three sons
were Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. They and Javan’s four sons
Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim
were singled out for distinction by Moses in his Table of Nations. This is
because these particular
descendants of Japheth were those who came in contact with Israel in
the early generations up to the
time of the Exodus. Throughout the annals of Jewish history, it has been
known that Gomer, at first,
went into Central Europe into the area represented now as Germany
and Poland. As for Togarmah, son of
Gomer, we find that they went into the extreme north part of the earth
(Ezekiel 38:6) and became what
we call Eskimos today. These historical indications I have given in my
Prophetic Report for September,
1992 titled "Prophetic Geography and the Time of the End." You can
order this historical research from
us if you do not have it in your library. In that Prophetic Report, I have
given maps to show in a
graphic manner how these movements and settlements of peoples were
made from the Tower of Babel into
all areas of the world, and that includes the Chinese.
What we find is the fact that the people of Japheth developed into the
mongoloid types of races within
the first eight to ten generations from the time of the Flood of Noah. The
information on how this
could happen in a genetic way is given in the above mentioned
Prophetic Report. The main point,
however, that we should remember in this present Report on China is
the fact that the people of Japheth
became the most populous of people. Recall that the word "Japheth"
means "Enlargement."
In actual fact, the Bible and history as under‑stood by the early Jews
show that the people who finally
developed into the people living in China and Japan (the mongoloid
types of people that we know today),
stemmed originally from Japheth. These Japhetic peoples developed
various racial characteristics that
became associated with them. This was especially noted in the shape of
the eyes, the yellowish type of
skin and the straight black hair which predominates in these racial
groups. These three general
classifications of races are well known today.
We should understand that there are different types of ways in showing
variations in races, but in
simple terms the people of Japheth can be classified as being basically
mongoloid in appearance. And on
this fact hinges the evidence that the majority of the population in the
world today are actually
Japhetic in origin, and that most of them now live in China, Japan and
Southeast Asia. Though this is
true for this present age, historical records involving biblical peoples and
early Jewish accounts show
that several of the clans of the people of Japheth journeyed to eastern
Asia in a roundabout way.
Indeed, some of them right after the Flood of Noah first went into
southern and central Europe. It was
only later, when Semitic tribes began to invade Europe from the east,
did the original Japhetic clans
move north and then east into the regions of the world that we
normally associate with mongoloid
peoples today.
Some Japheth Races First Went to Europe
What is not often realized is the fact that the Bible and early Jewish
history show that several of the
chief sons of Japheth first went into Europe, and from there they
journeyed north and east and finally
settled in East Asia. Gomer was certainly one of them.
And not only Gomer, we find the fourth son of Japheth also had a
connection with Europe. His name was
Javan. He is mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 10:2 and 4. The sons of
Javan were Elishah, Tarshish,
Kittim and Dodanim. Of these were the isles, or the coasts, of the north
Mediterranean settled not long
after the Tower of Babel (Genesis 10:5). Now when it says "nations," it
doesn’t mean huge nations that
we know today. By the time of Moses, when Moses wrote the Book of
Genesis, the clans of the earth were
just starting to become nations.
Notice that there were four sons of Javan. They were Elishah, Tarshish,
Kittim and Dodanim. We know
from history that the people of Tarshish were first located in Spain and
some of the islands of the
Western Mediterranean, and also North Africa (see my Prophetic Report
men‑tioned above for proof).
There is a good deal of historical information to show this fact, and I
have given it in the above
Report.
Also, the people of Dodanim (called Rodaniym) have the name "Rhodes"
in its variant reading. They first
settled on that island in the Mediterranean. Elishah is connected with
Ellis, an early tribe who
settled on the Greek archipelago in the Aegean Sea and in Western Asia
Minor. These initial settlements
were achieved before Israel’s Exodus from Egypt.
But this is not all. Look especially at the people of Kittim in this first
migration. Kittim was
geographically associated even in later times (in the 3rd and 2nd
centuries B.C.) with the
Mediterranean region. This shows that the people of Kittim first settled
this area and then moved into
other parts of the world. I have explained in the Prophetic Report
mentioned above what happened. The
people of Kittim moved into other areas of the world while they left
their name on the region of their
first settlement after the Flood of Noah. The Syriac Version of Genesis
chapter 10 (called the Peshitta
Version, which was written about the 4th century or 5th century A.D.),
rendered the word "Kittim" as
"Cathay." This clearly denotes an early name for China. By the fourth
century A.D., the people of
Kittim had been fully replaced in Europe, and they had gone farther east,
even into China and adjacent
areas.
What we find is the fact that the people of Japheth are today primarily
mongoloid people, or connected
with the mongoloid strain, or race, that finally developed after the
Tower of Babel.
The Descendants of Japheth
The first sons of Japheth were given special references in the early
history of the Bible. But in
studying carefully, you will notice that only Gomer, and specially Javan,
are presented with more
elaborate descriptions. That is because the Israelites in Moses’ time were
coming in contact with those
people. They were closer in a geographical sense to Israel, and Israel was
more acquainted with them.
But the other sons of Japheth, for example, Magog, the Madai, the
people of Tubal, of Meshech and of
Tiras, they were already far distant from the Israelites in Egypt and the
Land of Canaan. In the Bible
you find little information about them because they had spread far from
the cradle of civilization.
Look at these Japhetic peoples for a moment. We know that Meshech
and Tubal are associ‑ated with
Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Some people have even connected the
city of Moscow in Russia with
Meshech. That is a possibility. These nations of Japheth moved north
and then on farther east. Later
on, we find that Gomer and Javan and the others of Japheth followed
them into the east into the region
of what we call China today. They also went into southeast Asia, and
then through the Malay archipelago
into various islands of the ocean. Indeed, many of Japheth’s descendants
went throughout the Pacific
and into the New World. These movements of peoples are more
part‑icularly covered in my Prophetic
Report mentioned above. But look at what this means in regard to the
Chinese who were once known as the
people of Cathay or Kittim.
Believe it or not, the Kittim people were the original ones who first
settled the island of Cyprus in
the eastern Mediterranean after the Tower of Babel incident. From there
they went further westward and
made settlements in Italy. But then they were pushed northward and
then eastward by Semites coming from
the eastern Mediterranean areas. The people of Kittim journeyed even
further north and then eastward
into the central areas of Asia and finally winding up in the region we
now call China (indeed, an early
name of China was Cathay which comes from the root word Khitai
which also answers to Kittim, the "im"
is plural). Though Gomer (the firstborn of Japheth and the uncle of
Kittim) was the first to settle
central Europe after the Flood, the biblical revelation shows that at the
end of the age, his
descendants are found in Asia—in the Far East. In Ezekiel 38:1‑6 we find
Gomer associated with Magog,
Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Ethiopia (eastern Cush of the Hindu Kush), Phut
in India and Ceylon (not as the
KJV states as "Libya"). This means that Gomer and all his bands went
eastward long ago and became
Asiatic powers. The Bible shows they are still Asiatic powers at the time
of the end. As a matter of
fact, even after the Millennium is over, the Book of Revelation refers to
the geo‑graphical regions
associated with Magog. They are shown to be in the four extremities of
the earth which primarily refer
to the regions of the antipodes from Jerusalem (the North and South
American continents, Southern
Africa and the extreme northern regions of Eurasia). What must be
understood is that most of the
European tribes of Japheth, who first went to Europe at the dispersal of
the nations at the Tower of
Babel, left the European region and went into Asia. Others went further
eastward into the Pacific
Islands and then to the Americas. But, as for the people of Kittim, they
finally settled in China and
gave their name to the region. China is even called in their own
language "Cathay" (after the word
"Kittim").
A Further Biblical Reference to China
There is even more on China. The Bible prophesies that the people of
China are going to be given the
truth of God. And who performs the task of taking the teachings of God
to China? The Bible says it will
be Israel. As mentioned earlier in this Prophetic Report, the people of
Israel are destined to take the
Word of God to all areas of the world before the Second Advent of Christ,
and China will not be left
out.
God will "raise up the tribes of Israel, and to restore the preserved
[desolations] of Israel: I will
also give thee [Israel] for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be
[bring] my salvation unto the
end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel" (Isaiah
49:6,7).
It will be the people of Israel (once the "times of the Gentiles" end) who
will bring the light of the
Gospel to all the Gentiles. The Gentiles of the world will turn their
attention to Israel in the
Holyland and the Gentiles will begin to listen to the Israelites about
Jesus Christ and how idolatry
should be shunned. Indeed, the people of the world who are Gentiles
will then want to attach themselves
to Israelites and to their teachings that God will inspire (Zechariah 8:23).
This is a time when the
waste places that once made up Jerusalem will be repaired and rebuilt.
"Break forth into joy, sing
together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his
people [Israel], he hath
redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes
of all the nations [the Gentiles];
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God" (Isaiah
52:9,10). Gentile nations
from around the world will want to go to Israel and to Jerusalem to hear
the words of truth that will
then come from the Israelites once they are converted to the truth as
Zechariah 12:9‑14 prophesies. And
what is a major area from whence these Gentiles will come? God singles
out a special region of the
earth for His interest. Look at Isaiah 49:12. It says that people will come
to Israel "from the land of
Sinim." Lange’s Commentary says "this name [Sinim] must represent an
entire quarter of the heavens and
probably the east" (vol.VI, p.535). And what major people are in this
region? China is in an easterly
direction from Jerusalem and would fit the prophet’s intentions very
well. Indeed, in modern Hebrew,
Sinim means "China," and well it should because even the single letter
we render as "Ch" in "China" has
the soft sound of an "S" and the Chinese call themselves the people of
"Sina" or "Sino" with the vowel
at the end usually unsounded. Chinese history recognizes that in the
tenth to the twelfth centuries
A.D., major parts of China were ruled by what they call the "Sino‑Khitan
Empire" (the Chinese area was
dominated by the Khitan people—or, as I have shown, the Kittim
people). Thus, the Kittim and the Sinim
of the Bible are found together in major historical events that formed the
Chinese nation and its
people.
There is a further prophecy that illustrates this. Look at a predestined
event that will also occur not
long before the Second Advent of Christ. Malachi records:
"For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same,
my name shall be great among the
Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a
pure offering: for my name
shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts" (Malachi 1:11).
There is no doubt that this prophecy will be fulfilled before the great and
terrible Day of the Lord
because Malachi later on speaks of that very Day as yet future to him in
the context of the prophetic
teaching he was giving (Malachi 4:5,6). And note that the above
prophecy is directed to the farthest
easterly direction from the land of Israel that one can go—to the very
rising of the sun itself. The
Land of the Rising Sun is, even in our modern parlance, Japan and in the
same region is China and
Southeast Asia. Those areas of the world are soon going to be
evangelized with the Gospel of Christ,
and they will begin to accept it on a wide scale. This will occur once
Israel itself begins to accept
Christ Jesus as Zechariah 12:9‑14 says will occur. We will not have many
years left to see these very
things beginning to happen. We Christians in the west need to focus our
primary attention on presenting
the Gospel of Christ to the Jewish people in the best way we know how.
They at first gave us the Gospel
by their Jewish apostles, and now it is our turn to return it to them.
There are some exciting times to happen on earth in the not too distant
future. The prophecies show
that even the Gentile nations in the Far East and to the West are going
to be given the Gospel of
Christ as shown in the New Testament revelation (and Gentiles will
accept it in a basic sense). This is
as certain as the rising of tomorrow’s sun. Just as South Korea is now
experiencing a new and
revolutionary interest in Christ and the New Testament, a groundswell
of proper regard to Christ will
soon begin to sweep many areas of the world. China will begin to accept
the teachings of the Gospel.
What I feel will begin to bring this conversion to people throughout the
world is the publication of
the "Original Bible" that is scheduled to be in the hands of the general
public by the Autumn of 1998.
The world needs to have the Bible of the manuscripts. When this occurs,
people will then begin to
understand the Bible as never before. Indeed, according to Zechariah
13:1‑6, people in the Land of
Israel will commence a campaign of getting rid of the idols and idolatrous
ways that our western
Christian churches have placed in their false shrines in the Holyland and
this will have a rippling
effect from Jerusalem throughout the world. All of us in Christ who now
love the Gospel are privileged
to be the precursors for bringing forth the fruits of the Gospel to Israel
and then the world. That
teaching from Israel will then reach out to embrace the whole world.
The result? All in China are
destined to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you and I are having a
part in bringing this to
pass.
Dr. Ernest L. Martin
‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑
Last modified: March 28, 2000
http://www.askelm.com/a950701.htm
I hope it wasn't too long.
Archibald Bard
P.S.:
Before A.D.63, the apostle Paul said the Mystery "had been hid in God"
(Ephesians 3:9). God had kept it a secret from the knowledge of anyone
(human or angel) even from before the foundation of the world — long
before the creation of Adam. Indeed, Paul said that "from the beginning
of the world it [the Mystery] has been hid in God" (verse 9). Paul spoke of
it as "the Mystery of Christ which in other ages was not known unto the
sons of men, as it is NOW [in A.D.63] revealed unto his holy apostles and
prophets by the Spirit" (Ephesians 3:4,5). Paul further stated in the Book
of Colossians that this teaching was called "the Mystery which has been
hid from [previous] ages and from [previous] generations, but NOW [in
A.D.63] made manifest to his saints" (1:26). This Mystery clearly explains
what the real Philosophy of Christianity is all about. It is a teaching that
is awesome in scope. http://www.askelm.com/apr01.htm