Last Generation Theology (LGT) in Biblical Perspective

 

There is a Last Generation Theology because there will be a Last Generation before the Second Coming. But, here is the situation, a generation is 40 years so this generation must be in existence at least 40 years before the Second Coming. Ellen White cannot be the Last Generation because she is not 40 years before the Second Coming of Christ. 1798 is the beginning of the End Time in biblical perspective but it is not the end yet. The period from 1798 until the Second Coming is the End Time. So End Time events include what we see below and most of these events are during the Last Generation and beyond. To say that there is no Last Generation Theology in the Bible will be utterly wrong. To say that classical prophets focused on local events and just did preaching will also be wrong. To say that Daniel and Revelation are the only apocalyptic books in the Bible is also wrong. The genre of Apocalyptic can be found in all the books and genres of the Old Testament: in wisdom, in poetry, in hymns, in historical books, in legal material, in all the three great prophets and all the minor prophets. Reading Isaiah or any of these prophets one must expect them to talk about their own time but then suddenly mention Apocalyptic pericopes here and there in between. It is wrong to say that the great prophets were conditional and the apocalyptic is unconditional prophecies. Isaiah also described unconditional prophecies like the new earth and new heaven, hell, resurrection and many of the examples can be found below. The minor prophets are also the same with pockets of apocalyptic material. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentation, Deuteronomy, Job, all these books have pockets of apocalyptic data in them. It is wrong of Walther Eichrodt to think that apocalyptic prophecies only developed later under the influence of Zoroastrianism of the Persian period, as if Moses knew nothing of apocalyptic. Abraham expected a city of God says Hebrews 11 so one has to know that the unconditional prophecies were also explained to past generations of those days properly but that only here and there references are provided. Absence of information may mean better and fuller understanding and quantitatively more information may mean scarcity of understanding. Says H. La Rondelle in Biblical Hermeneutics p. 230: “Yet particular sections in the prophetic books may also be counted apocalyptic, such as Is 24-27 (“the Isaiah apocalypse”); Eze 38, 39; Joel 2, 3; Zec 12 and 14; Jer 25:15-38, and other similar portions. Many Psalms likewise possess a definite apocalyptic-eschatological dimension, having a special relevancy for the church of Christ to the end of time. (See Ps 2, 11, 18, 20, 46, 91).”

 

Ellen White counsels the faithful not to be ignorant of the heavenly abode in GC 674-675.

 

Latter Rain Pericopes (Old Testament)

Joel 2:32

Isaiah 11:10a-12d; 19:23-25; 24:14; 48:19-20 and the Spirit is mentioned in 48:16d; 54:1-3b with a no-more = eternity starting jargon; Role of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 40:13-14c; Isaiah 25:3a-b; Isaiah 29:24a-b where the current murmuring ones will accept instruction; Isaiah 30:23-25 which is preceding the Time of Trouble when the day of slaughter is Isaiah 30:26; Isaiah 32:15 says the deserted conditions over the world will last until the Latter Rain outpouring of the Spirit; compare Joel 2:28 with the Spirit outpoured on all flesh; justice and righteousness is added in the wilderness in Isaiah 32:16 and it will be peace and quietness as opposed to the noise of the Time of Trouble elsewhere Isaiah 32:17b which is unto eternity, an eschatological jargon; Isaiah 41:1d; Isaiah 51:5 which is the eschatological harvest of Joel 2:28; Isaiah 45:8 will the earth open up and salvation bear fruit and people stream to accept the Lord;

 

Elijah Message

Mal 3:23-24; Isaiah 49:5b-c and 6b-6e; Isaiah 41:25a-26, need of Elijah in Isaiah 41:28b; Isaiah 40:2e-3a-b; Isaiah 40:9f “say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God’”;

 

Resurrection

Isaiah 49:18-23f; Psalm 24:5; Isaiah 26:19; Isaiah 29:4a-f in relation to Daniel 12:1-2; Habakkuk 3:16; Isaiah 4:3; Gathering at Resurrection in Micah 5:2b-4a “for He shall become great [ki atah yigdal] unto the ends of the earth; Isaiah 60:1a “Arise and shine for your light has come” and His glory is upon you (Isaiah 60:1b); gathering in Isaiah 60:3-4; rejoicing in Isaiah 60:5a-b; flying saints in Isaiah 60:8; they become everlasting pride in Isaiah 60:15c; Isaiah 25:7-8a which is a veil [death] over nations that will be destroyed; Isaiah 25:8a “He will swallow up death for all time”; Isaiah 40:8b where the Word of God shall rise unto eternity; Isaiah 40:31a-e where the faithful will mount up wings like eagles to run and never be tired; Isaiah 29:18; blind and deaf healed in Isaiah 32:3; stammerers will speak clearly in Isaiah 32:4b; Isaiah 40:31a-e; Isaiah 55:12a-b “for you will go out [of the graves] with joy…” and it is the new earth in vv. 13a-13d; Then (oz) Isaiah 35:5a-b the blind will see and deaf hear, dumb shout Isaiah 35:6b; Isaiah 51:6a-b “lift up your eyes to the sky”; Isaiah 51:14a where “from the mountain the deceased grave [Egyptian loanword scḥ meaning ‘mummy or deceased’] will be opened”; Isaiah 52:1a is “awake” because of the death sleep; perfection garment in Isaiah 52:1b-c; it is the “holy city” which is eternity starting for the verse says “unclean will no more come into you” Isaiah 52:1e-f which is an eternity jargon related to eschatology and not to conditional prophecy or historical; “shake yourselves from the dust, rise up” is the resurrection in Isaiah 52:2a; Satan held the remnant “captive” with death and the remnant was “sold for nothing” by the fall of Adam and Eve in Isaiah 52:3; those alive at the Second Coming or alert Adventists (expecting Christ’s coming) shall be watchmen of the faithful remnant “lift up voices, shout joyfully together for they shall see with their own eyes when the Lord restores Zion” in Isaiah 52:8 also Early Writings 140 op. cit. Sabbath School Lesson on Isaiah Book II by M. Andreasen 1928: 33; "The church will no more succumb to the tyranny of a worldly power. Peace undisturbed, and unrestricted freedom, reign there" (See F. Delitzsch Commentary of Isaiah 1884, [1st edition 1867], page 439). God has “comforted His people” and “He has redeemed Jerusalem” in Isaiah 52:9c-d. “All the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God” in Isaiah 52:10 thus not local but universal; Ellen White said of the Resurrection: “Soon I heard the voice of God which shook the heavens and the earth. There was a mighty earthquake. Buildings were shaken down, and fell on every side. I then heard a triumphant shout of victory, loud, musical, and clear. I looked upon this company, who, a short time before, were in such distress and bondage. Their captivity was turned. A glorious light shone upon them. How beautiful they then looked! All weariness and marks of care were gone; health and beauty were seen in every countenance. Their enemies, the heathen around them, fell like dead men. They could not endure the light that shone upon the delivered, holy ones. This light and glory remained upon them until Jesus was seen in the clouds of heaven, and the faithful, tried company were changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, from glory to glory. The graves were opened and the saints came forth, clothed with immortality, crying, 'Victory over death and the grave!' and together with the living saints they were caught up to meet their Lord in the air, while rich, musical shouts of glory and victory proceeded from every immortal tongue.”—Ellen White in Testimonies for the Church, volume 1, page 184.

 

 

Song of welcome to Resurrected ones

Isaiah 26:2a-3a;

 

Little Time of Trouble preceding the Time of Jacob’s Trouble

Isaiah 25:4a-c; Isaiah 30:19-21 which is the Three Angels Message of Revelation 14:6-12;

 

Time of Trouble

Isaiah 24:16-20; Daniel 11:45-21:1; Micah 4:9-10, 11, 12-13; Micah 5:1-2; Isaiah 4:1-2; Isaiah 6:11b-c, 12, 13b; Isaiah 8:21-22; Isaiah 9:1-5b; Isaiah 17:9, 12-14 and 14b uses the “no more” = eternity jargon; Isaiah 26:16a-c, 17 (lasts maybe only 9 months?), 18, global hiding by remnant in 26:20a-c, Lord’s plaques on the earth according to 26:21c-d; Isaiah 29:2a-b, 4a-f,; Isaiah 40:27; Isaiah 14:1-3 to get rest from pain and it is the eschaton since verse 7a says the whole earth is at rest, is quiet [Satan bound]; God look from heaven “quietly” since Investigative Judgment is concluded in Isaiah 18:4b; Isaiah 40:27; do not fear since He gives strength in Isaiah 40:29a-b; ruthless one shall come to an end in Isaiah 29:20a-b; the evil ones want to turn aside the one in the right in Isaiah 29:21a-c; help for the faithful in this time in Isaiah 29:22; Isaiah 32:2a-b shelter in a storm; run from cities to the wilderness to seek refuge in Isaiah 32:2c and see Revelation’s “Come out of her My people..” in Revelation and in Ellen White; come out of her My people in Isaiah 32:14 and the proof of the Second Coming is the word “unto eternity” in Isaiah 32:14b which shocked many scholars of the Old Testament so that they wanted to delete the expression; wilderness of refuge will become fertile in Isaiah 32:15b; help in Time of Distress in Isaiah 33:2c; remnant in anguish asked where God is in Isaiah 33:18; Time of Trouble agents will be: a fierce people (Isaiah 33:19a), unintelligible speech (Isaiah 33:19b), no one can comprehend them (Isaiah 33:19b); stammering tongue (Isaiah 33:19c); no one understands them (Isaiah 33:20a); plaques in Isaiah 41:5-6; storm will scatter the evil Isaiah 41:16b; there will be no water during this time Isaiah 14:17a; God provides for the remnant water: rivers, springs, pool of water, fountains of water, deserts are green Isaiah 41:19a because God creates things for them Isaiah 41:20; encouragement for the faithful Isaiah 35:3-4a; don’t fear oppressors in the this time Isaiah 51:13d-f; Isaiah 51:23a the anger cup of the Lord is placed in the hands of the tormentors of the remnant; Isaiah 51:17 the cup of the Lord’s anger will be operative; the remnant needs to arise and there is no one to take them by the hand for navigation in Isaiah 51:18; God will contend for His people Isaiah 51:22c; it is the last time that evil will drink the chalice of His anger “will never drink it again” in Isaiah 51:22e which is an eternal jargon, thus Last Generation Theology or eschatological or apocalyptic and not historical or preteristic; spiritual Israel is taken away without cause in Isaiah 52:5; they will have the Lord before them and behind them in Isaiah 52:12c-d;

 

Investigative Judgment

Isaiah 1:2; Joel 4:21; Maleachi 3:22-23 (see verse 17 Judgment); Isaiah 41:22-24; Isaiah 43:25-28; Isaiah 59:15-17d; Psalm 110:4; Isaiah 6:1-4, 6:5a-d; iniquity removal and sin-forgiveness completed in vision Isaiah 6:7; Isaiah 5:7c-d “He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress” (remnant weed);

 

Laodicea Sleeping syndrome

Isaiah 6:9-10; Isaiah 42:14-19; conditions mapped out in Isaiah 32:6c-7c who speaks nonsense, inclines his heart to wickedness, keeps the hungry unsatisfied, withhold drink from the thirsty, is violent, devices wicked schemes, slander even though the needy speaks the right; At the end of this period the sleeping virgins are asked to arise: “Women, similarly, rise up” in Isaiah 32:28b; Isaiah 56:9c-10d with the shepherds that have no understanding in Isaiah 56:11b and focus on unjust gain for themselves in Isaiah 56:11c-d; hedonistic in Isaiah 56:12;

 

New Earth Creation

Isaiah 43:18;

 

Hell event

Isaiah 43:15-17; Isaiah 59:18a; Psalm 110:1-2, 5, 6; Isaiah 26:11d, 14a-b;

G. Hasel said that Psalm 110:1 is proof that a “restrictive predictive prophecy” will not work here as interpretation and it is spread over many generations. Isaiah 2:12-17 and only the Lord is exalted in that day in verse 17c, 21-22; Isaiah 5:28a arrows of Christ and His bow, carries with no one to deliver in 29; dark day in Isaiah 5:30b-c; Isaiah 4:4 “the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of [earthly spiritual] Zion [remnant weed] and purged the bloodshed of [earthly spiritual] Jerusalem from her [remnant seed’s] midst [at the Second Coming separation of the seed and weed and the permanent eradication of the weed in the fires of Hell a thousand years later ] by the [Holy] Spirit of [Executive] Judgment and the [Holy] Spirit of burning”; vengeance will come” Isaiah 35:4c; Micah 1:3 where the Lord descends and tread upon the earth from His Holy Temple in heaven (so also Rabbis Ibn Ezra, Redak and Mezudath David) as in Micah 1:2 thus Rabbi Malbim said on this: “He is in His temple while warning and comes out when doing executive judgment”; Amos 1:1 “The Lord shall roar from Zion and He shall give forth His voice from Jerusalem” and on this Rabbi Rashi said: “From the Holy of Holies the speech emanates”; All listed nations will receive fire in the executive judgment as in Amos 1:7, 9, 10, 12; 2:2, 2:4 and 2:6; God will visit the transgressions of Israel upon them in Amos 3:14;

 

Second Coming

Isaiah 59:18c-19d; 21 is a “forever” jargon; Isaiah 29:5a enemies like dust, like chaff in the wind 5b, suddenly 5c, punished by the Lord with thunder and load voice in 6c; Isaiah 22:25; Habakkuk 3:3-12; Isaiah 12:1-5b where the Holy One is in the midst of Israel (thus eternity started); Micah 4:7c because the “forever” = eternity jargon is used; Nearness of Advent mockers shall be in shame in Micah 7:10-11 for they said that it is still ‘remote’ (irhaq haq); flames Joel 2:3, 6-11; Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 3:18 “In that day…” and similar expressions are in Isaiah 4:3 which calls the faithful “holy”; Day of the Lord is near in Isaiah 13:6, darkness in verse 10 to destroy sinners in 9, punish the world not Babylonians in Isaiah 13:11a; shaking, trembling, earthquakes in the day of His anger in Isaiah 13:13; fleeing people in Isaiah 13:14; quiet Lord in Time of Trouble rise and becomes active in Isaiah 18:5c-d; Evil (of the world) is left for the birds in Isaiah 18:6a-d; African “gift” [choir music?] to the Lord of Hosts [angels] at Second Coming in Isaiah 18:7a; song of the ruthless will be silenced in Isaiah 25:5a-b; Coming is timely in Isaiah 25:9c-d; evil is to the dust in Isaiah 25:12b; kingdoms are cast to the ground/dust in Isaiah 26:5b; God will come with might in Isaiah 40:10a, ruling in Isaiah 40:10b; “His reward is with Him” in Isaiah 40:10c and “His recompense is before Him” in Isaiah 40:10d; Christ will tend the flock, gather, carry, and gently lead in Isaiah 40:11; no thieves in heaven in Isaiah 32:20 “it shall not come to you”; famous brave men and ambassadors shall weep bitterly in Isaiah 33:7b; Christ will be lifted up in Isaiah 33:10 and the atta = “Now” is not an existential now of Isaiah but a now in the descriptive time scheme of prophetic periods, here the Second Coming; evil is consumed in Isaiah 33:11a-b; 12a-b (not the Hell event); the godless cannot live in the presence of the glory of Christ Isaiah 33:14d “who among us can live with burnings forever?” Isaiah describes a nomadic “heaven” in Isaiah 33:20c-23e where the tent will not be folded and the lame will find an inheritance; the Possessor/Owner [hayaresh] shall come then the glory of spiritual Israel shall come Micah 7:15; there will be quaking at the Second Coming Micah 7:17; evil will fear the righteous ones Micah 7:17; entering the gates of heavenly Zion in Isaiah 13:2c “gates of the nobles” which refers to the Lord’s consecrated ones, see Isaiah 13:3a; Isaiah 5:5c-6d; kings of the earth will be punished Isaiah 24:21; behold your God Isaiah 35:4c; come and save Isaiah 35:4e; Isaiah 41:2d where He delivers up nations and subdues kings, Who is the divine Christ 41:2a-c; moth will eat [evil ones] them like a garment Isaiah 51:8a using “forever” = eternity jargon; redeemed to cross over Isaiah 51:10; redeemed remnant will return (Isaiah 51:11a) to heavenly Zion Isaiah 51:11b and he is using “everlasting joy on their heads” Isaiah 51:11c which is eternity jargon, not historical; also sorrow and sighing will flee away Isaiah 51:12; after the Time of Trouble the remnant shall know the name of the Lord in Isaiah 52:6 for “Here I am”; at Christ’s coming it will be said “how lovely on the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news who announces peace and brings good news and happiness, who announces salvation” Isaiah 52:7; Christ will be greatly exalted in Isaiah 52:13b; Isaiah 52:14 is about the coming Messiah in glory says Jewish Tradition cited by F. Delitzsch Commentary on Isaiah 1867 in German in English 1884: 303 saying: “’Christian scholars,’ says [Jewish Commentator] Abravanel, ‘interpret this prophecy as referring to that man who was crucified in Jerusalem about the end of the second temple, and who, according to their view, was the Son of God, who became man in the womb of the Virgin. But Jonathan ben Uziel explains it as relating to the Messiah who has yet to come; and this is the opinion of the ancients in many of their Midrashim.’” Correct. The same One comes twice. In misery and in glory; it is a day of darkness and not light for the weed in the Remnant and the evil in Amos 5:20; mountains melt under Christ in Micah 1:4 and “evil descended from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem in Micah 1:12; Ellen White says of Joel 2:1, 15-17 “The day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” For this reason we are counseled to “sound an alarm throughout the length and breadth of the earth. Tell the people that the day of the Lord is near, and hasteth greatly. Let none be left unwarned.”—Ellen White Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 22.

 

 

Waiting and Delay of Second Coming

Isaiah 33:2a-b;

 

Banquet at Second Coming

Isaiah 25:6

 

Valley of Jehoshapat

Isaiah 22:4-5 same as Joel 3:14; Habakkuk 3:13-15; Isaiah 13:4e; “God will reprove mighty nations afar off” in the Executive Judgment in Micah 4:3b; “multitudes [upon] multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” in Joel 3:14; Lord dwells in Zion in Joel 3:19; It is the day of the Lord for Joel 3:14 for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision as F. Delitzsch also saw in the Commentary on the Minor Prophets page 228 when he said: “first of all we have a description of the streaming of the nations into the valley of judgment, and then of the appearance of Jehovah upon Zion in the terrible glory of the Judge of the world, and as the refuge of his people”; Joel 3:20 says “But Judah shall remain forever [leolam]” so this cannot have reference to preteristic events in the past of Joel and on this F. Delitzsch said in Commentary on the Minor Prophets page 229 “We are forbidden to think of the earthly Jerusalem or the earthly Mount Zion, not only by the circumstance that the gathering of all the heathen nations takes place in the valley of Jehoshaphat, i.e. in a portion of the valley of the Kidron, which is a pure impossibility, but also by the description which follows of the glorification of Judah” thus I can say that the absolute term “forever” Joel is using is not just allegorical, metaphorical or symbolical. It is real. The prophet is not drunk and the Holy Spirit does not play with words when it comes to eternal matters and sin resolving issues;

 

Noise when Christ the Warrior deals with the wicked

Habakkuk 3:15-16; sophar at the Second Advent in Joel 2:1, sound of chariots in Joel 2:5; whistle from the ends of the earth in Isaiah 52:6; trumpet shall sound in Isaiah 18:3b-c; at the sound of the tumult people flee in Isaiah 33:3a; Joel 4:16 says that the Lord roar in that day from Zion and the New Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth quake but to His people He shall be a “stronghold for the children of [spiritual] Israel”; this is the final scene because “the Lord your God dwell in Zion, My holy Mountain, and Jerusalem shall be holy” and eternity jargon = eschatology and not history, is used “strangers shall no longer pass through there” in Joel 3:17; the Lord roar from Zion in Joel 3:16;  

 

Prayer for the hastening of the Second Coming by Isaiah

Isaiah 64:1-2 and (63:19c-64:1d in the Hebrew) which is not just wishful thinking or metaphors of Isaiah but based upon visions that prophets had about it;

 

Lord’s harvest time

Isaiah 33:4-5b; Isaiah 41:15b-c and 16c and the harvest of the Righteous;

 

Second harvest

Joel 4:13 asked the sickle to be stretched out for the harvest is ripe “the vats roar for their evil is great”;

 

Millennium

Maleachi 3:18 with the “return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who has not served Him”; at the Second Coming the Lord will make men rare Isaiah 13:12a; kings in grave and Satan in loneliness is when the kings are gathered in a dungeon and confined in a prison in Isaiah 24:22a-c; earth will wear out like a garment Isaiah 51:6e with the salvation “forever” = eternity jargon;

 

War after millennium

Isaiah 29:7-8 fighting nations will wage war against heavenly Ariel or heavenly Mount Zion (says M. Andreasen in 1928: 23 Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah on this chapter “Even as Christ in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew mingles the description of the fall of Jerusalem and of the end of the world, so also does Isaiah. But there need be no confusion. The two' accounts can easily be distinguished.”); on the day of final eradication of evil the Lord will “make your [remnant or spiritual Israel] horn iron, and I will make your hooves copper, and you shall crush many nations [evil nations at that time] and you shall devote their plunder to the Lord and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth” in Micah 4:13 a view also taken by F. Delitzsch in his Commentary on the Minor Prophets page 474 “We must therefore understand these verses [4:13] as referring to events already predicted by Joel (ch. iii.) and afterwards by Ezekiel (xxxviii. 39) and Zechariah (xii.), and in Rev. xx.8sqq.: i.e. to the last great attack which the nations of the world will make upon the church of the Lord, that has been redeemed from Babel and sanctified, with the design of extermination the holy city of God from the face of the earth … [thus cancelling the idea of Calvin, Theodoret and Hengstenberg that it refers to the Maccabean wars]; some wrongly interpreted Ellen White in Prophets and Kings page 538 referring to Micah 4:12ff. as the Time of Trouble application (so F. D. Chase in 1944 Sabbath School Quarterly on the Minor Prophets page 14) but it could also be to the final war against the evil after the Millennium when He will conquer with success as it says: “God will not fail His church in the hour of her greatest peril. He has promised deliverance. ‘I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents,’ He has declared, ‘and have mercy on his dwelling places.’ Then will the purpose of God be fulfilled; the principles of His kingdom will be honored by all beneath the sun” in which the last statement could be the eternity equity after the Hell eradication?; those who come out of the Time of Trouble will be as dew sent by the Lord …upon vegetation for they do not hope in humanism and does not wait for the sons of men in Micah 5:6; in the executive judgment the remnant of Jacob [remnant coming out of the Time of Trouble] shall be like a lion among the beasts of the forests in Micah 5:7; “Your hand shall be raised above your oppressors and all your enemies shall be destroyed” in Micah 5:8; all weapons shall be destroyed in Micah 5:9; cites, fortresses, sorcery in Micah 5:11; graven images in Micah 5:12 asherim in Micah 5:13 and enemies in Micah 5:13 and this is the battle of the Lord as is said in Micah 5:14 “and in anger and fury I will execute vengeance upon the nations who have paid no heed” and this eschatological understanding contrary to Hengstenberg’s preteristic option, was fully understood to be eschatological rather than historical by F. Delitzsch in his Commentary on the Minor Prophets page 491 “In other words, He will exterminate every ungodly power by a fierce judgment, so that nothing will ever be able to disturb the peace of His people and kingdom again.”

 

Coming out of Babylon or cities

Isaiah 52:11a-b the remnant are asked to go out of Babylon “depart, depart, go from there touch nothing unclean”; “purify yourselves” in Isaiah 52:11c;

 

Papal involvement with USA unto the end

The question in Seventh-day Adventist prophetic interpretation is: who is the Antichrist of Daniel 7:25 that appeared after the fourth beast which is Pagan Rome. Adventists are holding onto the interpretation that it is Religious Rome or the Roman Catholic Church. It will continue until the Second Coming as a power although it had a “deadly wound” (Revelation 13) in 1798 when Napoleon’s general arrested the pope. The USA new order started since France was acting with 1776 USA principles. But it is the USA that uplifts the Roman Catholic power and image so that the two, power and image are intertwined. Therefore, this Roman power will continue until the Second Coming of the Messiah.

It is here that Redak is very interesting in his commentary on Joel.

Redak says that Edom in Joel 4:19 = 3:19 [English] is Rome:

ואדום בעבור מלכות רומי ואלה שתי האומות הנה הגוברות זה ימים רבים ותהיינח

עד עת הגאולה והיא חיותא רביעאה במראות דניאל

“and Edom is in the place of the kingdom of Rome and behold these two [Egypt (Arabs) and Edom (Rome)] are the powerful ones many days and it shall be until the time of the redemption. And this fourth animal was seen by Daniel in the vision” [Daniel 7:7, 19-28].

Just like modern Seventh-day Adventists with their historicistic prophetic interpretation, Redak in the time of Thomas Aquinas said that Rome was seen as the fourth animal by Daniel 7 and that this animal.

Until when will be the power of this fourth animal or Rome according to Rabbi Redak?

He gave the answer:

כן לעולם כי לעולמי עד תהיה שכינתו בציון אחדשתשוב שם בימות חמשיח גם

“Also the same unto eternity for unto eternity shall be His Shekinah in Zion after that it returns there in the days of the Messiah” (Redak’s commentary on Joel 4:21 = Joel 3:21 [English]).

Thus, just as modern Seventh-day Adventism is saying that the fourth animal of Daniel 7 which transforms in a continuation power of the fourth animal since it is the horn of the fourth animal, which is the Roman Catholic Church based on Roman tradition of Pagan Rome which received a deadly wound but it was healed with the help of the lamblike animal [USA] in Revelation 13, so Redak said that the fourth animal of Daniel 7 is Rome and that it will continue to exist as power with the Arabs until the coming of the Messiah or eternity.