I do not know for a certainty but I do suspect that the reformation of Israel in 1948 may mark the beginning of the time of the end. And if that be the case and we apply the 70 or 80 years that the Psalms speaks of a man's generation coming to be, then we would be looking at all things pertaining to this world being complete between 2018 to to 2028.
That is of course shear speculation.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Joel seems to support that what Joel was actually speaking of was a litteral insect plague upon Judah. And it is my personal suspicion that Judah typifies the Catholic church leaders of our day.
Of particular interest is the call, (Joel 1:5) "Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth."
This puts me in mind of the drunkards of Ephraim spoken of at Isaiah chapter 28.
Ephraim was the outspoken tribe of the ten tribe kingdom of Israel. Ephraim lead the entire ten tribe kingdon to place their trust in the nations of this world more so than in God. What Ephraim lead that ten tribe kingdom into was in fact fornication with the nations. And many of the churches today have acted as Ephraim doing that same thing.
We thus see that account in Isaiah 28 opens up saying, Isaiah 28:1 "Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!"
I find it interesting that just as the nation of Israel broke into two principal parts, Christianity today has also done so with Catholicism and Protestanism. And so I see that the drunkards of Ephraim is likely better looked for in the Protestant sector of Christendom while the drunkards of Joel perhaps might be seen more of Catholicism. And just look at the devistation which is occuring in the Catholic church.
The locusts of the Book of Joel involves our Lord Jesus' parable of the tares lesson. It's ultimate pointer is to the followers of the devil and their systems of control being used to overcome the earth. It's given to God's people Israel. God tells His people to look if it has happened in their day, and tell their children about it, and their children's children, until they see it occur.
Could it apply to Rome today, and Protestant Christianity too? Yes, it applies to the whole earth, to the joining of all nations and all systems under one controlling group called "one world government" or "New World Order". The world financial, political, and educational control has already come to pass, even though it's still developing. World religion is where the main working today is. Revelation 13 gives us the blueprint for it, so it's not as if it's some new thing that's been going on. Some see it, others don't want to, and others cannot.
That's basically what the four stages of the development of the locust in Joel 1:4 represents. They are a certain "nation" of people joined on the earth doing it. One could easily associate it with the Communist International and Fabian Socialists, who both have declared plans to bring all nations under control of a super government.
Joel 1:6-7
6
For a nation is come up upon My land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
(KJV)
But in Revelation 9, they are shown with an additional role involving religion, faces of men with teeth like lions, hair as women, breastplates of iron, and riding horses to battle. In Joel are given several end time event markers, so all one need do is look at what's been going on in the world today.
As for the 1948 timing, that's when the fig tree was set out with Israel becoming a nation again. It was then, after 1945 that most of the U.N. influences really took off. One of the signs Christ gave is about His elect being delivered up to give a Testimony, and now FEMA has started building internment camps in the U.S. which they claim is to house homeless subject to national disasters. Yet they include small cells and barbed wire. So it's a little late in the day for those not watching.
