Why we wrote

“Connecting the Dots: A Handbook of Bible Prophecy”

There are so many ideas floating around about prophecy in these fascinating times. How does one know what is true and what is just speculation? Fourteen years ago Lambert Dolphin and I teamed up to write a thoroughly Biblical book on the subject. We called it “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done: The Prayer Offered Most Often is about to be Answered.” It was posted on the Internet, and during that time more than 340,000 people have downloaded it.  It was used by countless pastors and Bible teachers over the years and proved itself to be reliable.  In all that time there was nothing we had taught about Bible prophecy that we needed to change or retract.

We realized that the world has changed in many ways during those 14 years: including the 9/11 attacks and the war on terrorism,  the rise of Iran’s fanatical regime, and the financial meltdown of the past few years. These issues needed to be addressed. We also knew that many people would prefer to have a real book in their hands that they could mark up and return to as a trusted resource. That is why we updated the book, changed its name, and released it in two major formats: a large attractive paperback book, and an eBook for Kindle and other eReaders, tablets and smart phones.

Here is a note from co-author Lambert Dolphin:

The Bible is full of good news for all who wish to know the truth about the One, true God and the great future He has lanned for our race. Over 20% of Scripture concerns the future of mankind. But all the positive things God wants to do for us are thwarted by careless neglect of these prophetic Scriptures. Connecting the Dots has been written to help ordinary people understand the essentials of our future. Radio, television, movies, the media of every nation, the teachings of most churches and schools mislead, distort and warp the straightforward account of how our benevolent Creator will soon step back into history to bring about real peace on earth with justice for all.

We have had an excellent response so far from the readers of the book. It gives the “big picture” of prophecy and explains the major predictions about the End Times in a step-by-step way. There is also a free downloadable study guide that can be used for personal enrichment or for group study.  If you don’t have a copy of Connecting the Dots yet you may order it directly from Prophecy Central or from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your Christian bookstore.

Order book from Prophecy Central

Order book from Amazon.com

Order eBook from Amazon.com

Free Download of Study Guide

Spiral-bound copy of Study Guide for $10

More information about the book

 NFC – Near Field Communications – “Pay with your phone”

Some smart phones already have this feature that will not only allow the user to pay for things by waving the phone near the sales terminal, but also keep track of their financial transactions. Soon most or all new phones will have this capability, eventually making debit and credit cards obsolete.

 LTE – Long Term Evolution – This is the description of newer, faster “generations” of mobile service (3G-  3^rd Generation and 4G – 4^th Generation – also called LTE Advanced). 

GPU – Graphics Processing Unit – This is additional computing power that will enhance games, photos, video editing, and video phone service. 

Multiple cameras and greater photo resolution – 12 megapixels, larger screens, and high resolution – 1280 x 720 pixels, and going up!

Multiple keyboards and voice recognition becoming more efficient – The current ability of some smart phones to recognize voice commands and respond to them verbally will advance to the point that the phone will become a personal assistant.

4-core processors next year and 8-core soon – Memory capability of 16 gigabytes is available now and it will grow as needed.  More data storage will be going to “cloud” storage on the Internet.

Ability to process, store, print and transmit all necessary office documents and personal files.

Continued Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) functionality for mapping, navigation, even knowing where family members are.

 More than a million helpful applications – free or relatively inexpensive

Prophetic Implications of the Smart Phone 

Prophecy students know that in the End Times there will be a final evil world government with a dictator whom the Bible calls “The Beast.”  At the midpoint of a seven-year period of tribulation, this despot will have an image of himself erected in the newly re-built Temple in Jerusalem, and he will require people to worship him and to receive the “Mark of the Beast” which one must have to be able to buy or sell anything.

The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. – Revelation 13:15-17

The capabilities of smart phones, and some of their problems, would make this economic dictatorship plausible.

Between smartphones and the exploding culture of social networking (Facebook, Google, etc.) there has been a loss of privacy for many users. Pictures taken with smart phones may be tagged with GPS data that can be shown as a street address.  The unintended result is that strangers will know where the picture was taken.

It was also revealed recently that millions of smart phones have software installed that enables phone companies to track their every move – from place to place. It also transmits every keystroke and button press.  What might never be known is what other secret “back door” features programmers will have included to allow invasion of our privacy.

There is an even bigger problem. Once the smart phone has all our personal data and becomes our universal commerce device, and maybe even has a large amount of money stored electronically, what will happen if we lose it?  Would someone else be able to take over our finances and have access to all our secret information? Losing one’s phone would be worse than losing one’s wallet or one’s car.

The solution will be to make the phone useless to anyone but its rightful owner.  This could be done with a tiny Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) device implanted in the owner. Thus the smart phone would not work unless it was near its owner.  Meanwhile, the phone could be located by its built-in GPS device.  And what criminal would want to take the phone if he couldn’t use it, and it leads the police to his door?

In the future, when the “Mark of the Beast” is instituted, people may be willing to have some small device installed that would only allow them to use their own smart phone.

You can check out the source articles for these projections:

Smartphones set to make another leap forward – Gulf News

5 Ways the Smartphone Market Evolved in 2011 – Information Week

 I had the privilege of meeting him in the early days of personal computers. It was my privilege to work with Apple Computer, developing simple educational programs for a brand new and very exciting market. Apple used some of my programs for their Educational Classics.  I have a letter in my files from a vice president of the company saying that Steve Jobs had reviewed one of my new programs and liked it.

 Over the years I  followed his ups and downs, and like everyone else, I marveled at his accomplishments and the way they improved the quality of our lives.

 I also met Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple in those days, and recently a friend of mine took my original Apple II to a conference where Woz was speaking.  I sent along a copy of my book, Connecting the Dots, and a letter sharing the Gospel with him.  He signed the computer in indelible ink, but didn’t comment on the letter.

 Over the years I have prayed often for these to men, and for Bill Gates, who was also instrumental in these world-changing technological developments.

 Jesus asked, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36)  I hope Steve Jobs found Christ in his brief but amazing earthly journey.  I never heard that he did, but I sincerely hope to meet him again in Heaven.

See also:

Steve Jobs dies at 56; Apple’s co-founder transformed computers and culture

 My Strange Adventure: How I Stumbled into the World of Personal Computers and Educational Software

Someone sent this Email to Lambert:
I’ve been reading your book “Thy Kingdom Come” and really appreciate the hard work you put into this. It seems that with only some updating for current events (I remember asking my self if this was pre-9/11) many would benefit from your explanation of Revelation.

Lambert wrote back:
Thank you very much for your kind words.
Last November Ron Graff and I released a completed updated and revised version of this book. You should find many major changes and updates.
The new book is “Connecting the Dots: A Handbook of Bible Prophecy.” So far it has had an excellent reception. It is available online at our Prophecy Central store (It is the only product there), or any of the major booksellers. But it takes time to get the word out without a huge advertising budget. Please visit our Facebook page, where we post news about the book’s progress. While you are there, please click “Like.” That helps let other people know about the book.

Connecting the Dots: A Handbook of Bible Prophecy

Order the Book – Paypal

Cover via Amazon

We are happy to announce that our new book, Connecting the Dots: A Handbook of Bible Prophecy, is now available as a digital/electronic book (eBook).  It is already available on Amazon.com for their Kindle reader. And it is scheduled to be released soon by other eBook suppliers like Barnes and Noble for its Nook reader and Apple iBooks for the iPad.

I have been doing most of my reading on the Kindle recently because I can literally have a whole library of books in one convenient device that also lets me pick the size of the font. 

Prophecy students will still want to have the printed book because Connecting the Dots is a reference manual – a notebook of sorts that you can underline and make personal notes in the margins.

However, the Kindle version is better in some ways.  You can set bookmarks to favorite places.  It remembers where you stopped reading and lets you continue quickly. It is lightweight, and as mentioned before, you may choose the font size that suits you best.  It allows you to do a word search through the entire book. And, if you want, you can even have the Kindle read it to you with their text to speech feature that has been enabled for this book!

A great deal of extra work went into this version to enable hundreds of hyperlinks. Each chapter and subtopic in our 12-page Table of Contents is linked. Just click on the topic and the reader takes you to the section you want to read.  Amazingly, the extensive index is also linked.  When you find an entry in the index, you can click on the “page” number and the reader will find the proper section in the book, even though page numbers are not used in eBooks.

Lambert Dolphin and I are blessed to be able to share our passion for Bible prophecy through our book, and it is our prayer that it can be a tool to equip a new generation of Bible students and help stimulate an End-Times revival!

More information about the book is available at Connecting the Dots.

The Kindle version can be downloaded in one minute from Amazon.com

I think that this young man identified a most-important aspect of the teaching of prophecy that needs to be explained again to our generation.  There is a very close connection between prophecy and evangelism.

Here are some of the thoughts that occur to me now on the subject. The Lord willing, I will continue to think about it and write on the topic

Before the Rapture

Prophecy is one of the best ways to win people to Christ.  Fulfilled prophecy proves that the Bible is true and Jesus is different from all other spiritual leaders (Isaiah 46).

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear is respect, but there is also the threat of judgment for our sins. Properly presented, information about future trials and judgments can be instrumental in bringing conviction of sin.

The Lord Jesus ascended into Heaven from the Mt. of Olives right after giving the Great Commission once more to His disciples.  The angels related His teaching and ascension to prophecy, saying that He will return again to the same place in the future (Acts 1:1-11; Zechariah 14:4).

Jonathan Edwards’ message, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” started the Great Awakening.

Billy Graham usually included a prophecy message in each crusade.

Hal Lindsey’s book, “The Late Great Planet Earth” was instrumental in winning great numbers of people to Christ.

Calvary Chapel and the Jesus People Movement were steeped in prophecy.  “Maranatha,” Signs inside cars, “Warning, Driver going up in the Rapture,” etc.

Salem Kirban’s book, Guide to Survival” was an extremely effective tool for witnessing.

Greg Laurie often speaks on the subject of prophecy at his crusades.

The “Left Behind” series was used by the Lord to win multitudes to Jesus.

In 2 Peter 3:11-12, Peter did say that we can speed the Lord’s return. This must mean that by winning other people to Christ we shorten the wait for His return.

During the Tribulation

Untold numbers of people will accept Christ immediately after the Rapture of the Church.

During the Tribulation it is likely that all true Christians will be “witnesses” for Christ and many will be “martyrs” (same Greek word, martureo).

The two prophets and 144,000 witnesses will undoubtedly preach the Gospel, being protected by God’s power (Revelation 11; Revelation 7; Revelation 14).

By wise use of technology, underground Christians will probably still be able to share the Gospel far and wide.

During the Tribulation there will be a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Revelation 7:9-10).

The “Mark of the Beast” (Revelation 13) will force people to finally make up their mind, resulting in many brave conversions in spite of the consequences.

Finally the lord will use angels flying in the heavens to finish evangelizing the people during the tribulation (Revelation 14). They will proclaim the eternal gospel to all people and warn them of judgment.

This will fulfill the promise that the lord will not return until the whole world has heard, but this should not be an impediment to missionaries’ zeal.

It is likely that there will be a great End Times revival.  God warned people before various judgments, and some cultures were revived (like Nineveh) while others were not (Noah’s generation).

In summary, evangelism and prophecy go together perfectly!

Related articles

• Prophecy Conference in January (bible-prophecy.com)

Thanks to Jeff and Nicole Alexander, there is a new Facebook page for the Inland Empire Prophecy Conference!  It includes pictures, schedule information, and even a special video clip about the conference.  Please visit the page, and be sure to click the “Like” icon.  You can also chose to recommend the page to all your friends. 

The conference will be held at the Ontario Convention Center on Friday, Jan. 14th and Saturday, Jan. 15th.  Pre-registration is phenomenal, with half of the 2000 seats reserved already.  You can pre-register at KKLA.  Friday night’s closing session will be a strong evangelistic message by Jack Hibbs.  Don’t miss this chance to bring a friend who needs to know Jesus. But be sure to pre-register yourself and your friend!  Wristbands for entrance will be given to those who have registered. 

Additional  information is available on the conference website.

Frank Pastore, America’s most popular Christian talk show host will broadcast his program live from the conference on Friday night from 4 to 7 p.m. It is a free event, but love offerings will be received to cover the cost of such an event.  Pre-registration is necessary because, even though we will have a huge meeting space, seating is limited.

The outstanding speaker lineup includes Tim LaHaye, Chuck Missler, David Hocking, Bill Koenig, Gary Kah, Ron Carlson, Jack Hibbs, and Lambert Dolphin.  I will also have the privilege of speaking, not because I belong in such company, but because I am host pastor.

We have a web page devoted to the conference at  http://www.Bible-prophecy.com/conference.  A beautiful poster may be downloaded and printed in any size you want.  Pictures and information about the speakers is included, along with suggestions for hotels in the area that will give a “prophecy conference discount.”

The Friday night program will conclude with a powerful evangelistic message by Jack Hibbs, so be sure to bring your friends who need to hear the Gospel!

If you would like to attend, please block out Friday evening and all day Saturday and don’t forget to pre-register!  There is a special toll-free phone number for this purpose, and KKLA will also have online registration during the month before the event.  The number is 888-974-4242.

When Daniel wrote these words he may have had a vision of someone like me using his Droid to compose a blog.

This phone has more power than my laptop computer. It has dual processors and 19 gigabytes of onboard memory. I was able to copy and paste the verse from the searchable Bible in the phone’s memory. This paragraph was translated from my spoken voice.

Next I will post this blog on the Internet directly from the phone.

Daniel would have been amazed at such increased knowledge and such going here and there on the Internet!