12 - Precursors | Allusions, Images, Symbols

The biblical images and symbols reveal a central theme: man's self-deception and his dependence on God or man. Right at the beginning, the parable of the two trees makes this clear: the tree of life stands for dependence on God, and the tree of death for dependence on man. There is NO life in dependence on one another. Life is in God's hands alone.

God uses images such as marriage, the lamb, or service in the sanctuary to illustrate this problem. The goal is to free people from self-deception and their false identity and lead them back to absolute dependence on God. Crises reveal our unconscious dependence. Only when we recognize it can we change it. In the very last crisis, this will be impossible: all people will have to make a decision within a certain period of time – for or against God, for or against the truth. The last great crisis a few years ago already showed the decline of humanity and its attitude toward faith.

Precursors to the future crisis are Daniel 2 and 3: Nebuchadnezzar's statue and the three friends in the fiery furnace. The beast from Revelation 13 symbolizes the coming world order, to which people are to submit and take on a new identity – visible through the mark on their hand or forehead. This mark stands for the final bond with the beast and expresses: “Vicarius Filii Dei” (“I am God”). We are on the brink. The question is: Are you prepared? More on this in the twelfth part of our series “Allusions, Images, Symbols.”