“Ang sinumang nakay Cristo ay isa nang bagong nilalang. Wala na ang dati niyang pagkatao; binago na siya.” (2 Corinto 5:17 ASND)
Salamat Panginoong Diyos sa mga binagong buhay at sa panibagong simula ng mas magandang buhay kay Hesu Kristo.
C2S, Bible Study at Fellowship sa tahanan ni sis Marilyn sa Bgy Victoria
“Kaya nga, mga sugo kami ni Cristo, at sa pamamagitan namin, nakikiusap ang Dios sa inyo na manumbalik na kayo sa kanya.”
(2 Corinto 5:20 ASND)
20220701: HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE GOD?
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-9 ESV)
Thank you for a blessed night of Fellowship… Singing songs of Praise and worship, spiritually filled with the Word of God and physically filled with fantastic food thanks to our hosts and master chefs Bro Joseph and Sis Joan… a BIG SHOUT OUT of thanks to the Benosa family.
Which commandment is the most important of all?
” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:28b-30 ESV)
by Pastor Lee Roberson, D.D. (1909-2007)
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: for for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” — MATTHEW 24:21, 22
We will consider in a moment some things which will take place when Jesus comes for the saints. But first, I want to point out some things which will not happen.
1. The world will not come to an end. Some people tie together the coming of Jesus with the end of the world. They are not at the same time. In II Peter 3 we read of the day when “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” But this occurrence will not be until after the reign of the Lord Jesus on the earth.
2. The unsaved dead will not be raised when Christ comes for His own. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5). When Jesus comes, the dead in Christ shall be raised, but the lost dead will not be raised until after the millennial reign of Christ.
3. The church will not be left on this earth to go through the tribulation. For the sake of emphasis, I am repeating the truth I gave you on last study.
A picture of the translation of living saints is given in Genesis 5:24: “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” This interesting verse is further explained in Hebrews 11:5: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
As Enoch was translated before the judgment of the flood, so will we be translated before the tribulation comes on the earth. Revelation 3:10 gives the promise that we will be kept from the hour of trial or tribulation. “I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation [or trial] which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”
These are a few of the things which will not happen when Jesus comes. And now may we turn to the positive side and see the great and important things which will happen when He comes.
1. The saints will be caught up.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” — 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
This promise for the resurrection and translation of the saints is also given in 1st Corinthians 15:51, 52:
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
2. The Holy Spirit will be taken out of the world.
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2nd Thessalonians 2:7). Evil is hindered now by the Sprit, but He will be taken away and then terrible things will happen. After the Holy Spirit is taken up, then the Antichrist will be revealed.
For one hundred and twenty years, during the ministry of Noah, the Spirit strove with men, and held back the evil of the world. For two thousand years, during this age of grace, the Spirit has been striving to lead men to faith in the Son of God, seeking to convict of the sin of unbelief and using His infinite power to hold back and restrain iniquity.
The Holy Spirit dwells in believers, and when believers are taken out, He, too, will be taken away. He cannot be separated from believers, for Jesus said, “He will abide with you forever.”
3. The tribulation will begin when the saints and the SPIRIT are taken out.
What is the Great Tribulation? It is the time of God’s great and sore judgment upon the world for the rejection of His Son. Daniel 12:1 calls it “a time of trouble.” Jeremiah 30:7 calls it “the time of Jacob’s trouble.”
The full length of the Great Tribulation will be seven years, for we read in Daniel 9:27, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” The context reveals that one week is seven years. This is known as the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy.
The intensity of the tribulation will be for three and one-half years. The last portion is called in particular “the great tribulation.”
Where do we find a description of the things which shall come to pass? The fullest description is found in the book of Revelation, chapters 6 to 18. In the tribulation seven seals will be opened and peace will be taken from the earth. Famine will cover the earth, and death will strike a fourth part of the population. The seven trumpets will be sounded and hail and fire will visit the earth. Waters will become bitter, and many will die. The sun will be darkened and locusts will plague and kill many.
A good description of the awfulness of the tribulation is found in Revelation 9:6, “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
In Revelation 16 the seven vials of the wrath of God will be poured out. Boils will come upon men and the sea will become as blood. The sun will burn and scorch men. Darkness will cover the earth and a great earthquake, such as was never known, will be felt.
These are just a few of the things to come. “Hell on earth” is the best description of the three years and a half of tribulation time. War and bloodshed will be the order of the day.
In the light of these solemn facts, there are three things that I call to your attention.
I. The World Faces Dark and Fearful Days
The world does not face peace and prosperity as some would tell us. The chief characteristic of this age is war and rumors of wars, and all of this war will culminate in the wars of the tribulation and the Battle of Armageddon.
For some time to come, men will be beating their plowshares into swords, and their pruninghooks into spears. It is foolishness to cry peace and safety, when sudden destruction is coming. In tribulation days all peace will be taken from the earth.
Terrible and trying times are coming upon the world. There can be no real abiding peace until Jesus, the Prince of Peace, Himself will come. There will be no world-wide peace until the Lord comes and puts the Devil into the bottomless pit, and puts away all opposition to the work of God. Jesus will establish a peace, based on righteousness, the only foundation on which it can abide.
Peace made by sinful men cannot stand. Therefore all peace treaties are but scraps of paper. The work of peace organizations can do nothing more than secure a lull in the bloodshed which is sure to come and continue until Jesus sets up His kingdom upon the earth.
II. This Is the Time for Professors to Make Sure That Their Names Are in the Lamb’s Book of Life
Every person who belongs to this church professes to know Christ. But among professors there are two classes — those who profess only, and those who profess and possess everlasting life in Christ. Do you possess eternal life? What a terrible thing to belong to the church and to make a profession, but you discover when He comes that you are lost and left outside. Make sure now that your soul is safe in Christ Jesus.
III. This Is the Time to Go After the Lost and Win Them to Christ
The days are few. Opportunities are slipping away. Souls are falling into Hell. Christ is coming. The great separation will occur. The tribulation will begin. What a fearful prospect for those who know not Christ.
If we love the Lord Jesus and love lost souls, let us get them to Christ. Let us get them ready to go up in the rapture of the saints. One day the door of grace will be shut. The day is coming when all opportunities to be saved will be gone forever.
Accept Jesus Christ and you need not fear the Great Tribulation or the coming judgment of the lost, or the eternal Hell prepared for the Devil and his angels and Christ-rejecters.
SOURCE: Chapter 4 from the excellent book, Some Golden Daybreak, by Dr. Lee Roberson, D.D. (copyright 1957)
SPEAKER: DAVID LEGGE
Copyright 2004
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SERMON SERIES
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SERMON
Read: Read or print the word-for-word transcript below for further study.
I want you to turn with me first of all to one text, Jeremiah chapter 30 – we’re reading from three texts, although there’s no text on your study sheet, there are so many verses that we’re going to be looking at tonight just in introduction. It would be good if you had some bookmarks to actually mark these portions of Scripture as we will be, later on, going back to them. The first is Jeremiah 30 and verse 7 – just the one verse: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it”.
Then Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24 – Daniel is given a vision of the Lord, and he recounts it here: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” – that is, the Messiah. “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks”, now it’s self-evident that that can’t be seven literal weeks, “the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times”. Verse 26: “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week” – now this personal pronoun ‘he’ here cannot refer to Messiah, because Messiah is not going to make a covenant with the people of God that should bring in a tribulation. It’s talking about Antichrist, “he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate”.
Then one more verse, just the one from Matthew 24. Matthew 24 is chiefly on the subject of what we’re looking at tonight, the Great Tribulation period, that is the theme. Verse 21 of Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus is speaking to His disciples in this, what is called the Olivet Discourse: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be”.
A common statement that’s often made when prophetic matters are discussed is: ‘I believe that the church will go through the Tribulation, because the Bible says that we as believers will suffer persecution’. Many people are very keen on reading their Bibles, and they come across verses which tell them that we as believers in this world will suffer, we will go through trials, temptations, and tribulations of all sorts – and therefore they assume that this time that will come upon all the earth, called the Great Tribulation, we will also partake of. Now the problem with such a statement is that while it appears to have a veneer of biblical correctness, in reality it really lacks an understanding concerning God’s purpose for what the Bible calls the Great Tribulation. I hope that we will see tonight that God’s purpose has nothing to do with the church of Jesus Christ on the earth.
Now there’s no doubt in my mind, and I hope yours, that the Bible does clearly teach that we as believers will go through trial here on the earth. In fact the Lord Jesus Himself in John 16 verse 33 said: ‘In the word ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world’. So there is a general trouble that we all face from day-to-day because of our Christian testimony. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12 that they: “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution”. It is inevitable that if we are following Christ in this age that is against Him, and anti-Christ, we will face some tribulation or other. But the question before us tonight is: is there in the holy Scriptures such a thing as the Great Tribulation? A period of time that can be isolated to what we call the pouring of God’s wrath upon the earth. Then the further question is: when was it? Has it happened? Is it in the past, as some believe? Will it be in the future, as others believe? Will the church experience it, as many believe?
These questions, I believe, can be answered by asking a further question, simply this that I mentioned at the beginning: what is God’s purpose in this Great Tribulation? By answering that question we will answer the question of when it is, and who will go through it, and what the goals and purpose of it really are. I want to answer that question – what is God’s purpose for the Great Tribulation? – by answering some interrogatives. Now if you know your English grammar, you will know that interrogatives are the questions: why, what, where and how and such like. So we’re going to interrogate this subject ‘The Great Tribulation’, and ask the five questions at least that are before you on the sheet this evening. Now do bear with me, we’ve a lot of Scriptures to get through tonight, but hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of the answer: Tribulation – is it now or will it ever be?
Now we’re asking the first simple question, an elementary one: what is it? What is this Great Tribulation? Now we have to say, we’ve just read Matthew 24 and verse 21, and that is the only occurrence in the New Testament Scriptures where the technical expression ‘The Great Tribulation’ is mentioned. It is the Greek statement ‘flipsis megala’ (sp?), and you find it in verse 21 that we read: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be”. A period on the earth that Jesus is describing in Matthew 24, that has never ever been experienced before, and will never ever be experienced again. Now we read of it in Jeremiah 30 and verse 7, hundreds of years before Jesus spoke of it, and he said, as we read: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it”.
We read from Daniel 9, but if you were to turn – if you want to – to Daniel 12 verse 1, Daniel speaks in almost identical language to that which the Lord used in Matthew 24:21, and describes a similar event that will come on the world. Daniel 12 and verse 1: “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people”, of course Israel, “shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book”. So it’s clear, and we’ll see a little bit later that the whole of the Scriptures from Genesis to the book of Revelation right at the end testify of a Great Tribulation period at some time that will come upon the earth.
Turn with me again to Matthew 24, because the Lord Jesus, after He mentions this Great Tribulation in verse 21, He goes on and He talks about how immediately after the tribulation of those days, verse 29, that the Lord Jesus Christ would come again. Look at it: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”. Now if David puts the first diagram, I think it’s the first one, on the screen – you remember this from our first week – this is the pre-millennial interpretation of the understanding of biblical prophecy. Really what you have up to verse 29 in Matthew 24 is this period here of the tribulation, seven years, and then in verse 29 immediately after those days, then there will be the sign of the appearing of the Son of Man, and He will come to judge the world at that final Armageddon battle at the end of it all.
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What I want you to see is that these events that the Lord has been describing up to verse 29, have not been to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, but rather have been topical of Antichrist – the rising not of the coming of Christ, but the rising of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who is Antichrist. This is very interesting because the Great Tribulation has really got more specifically to do with Antichrist, his forces, his influence on the earth, than it has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ – because the Lord comes at the very end of it all. Now that coincides with Revelation 13, because in Revelation 13 we read how Antichrist comes on the scene, and really this is his stage in his theatre during the tribulation period – of course, all in the sovereign will of God. He is now setting himself forth as a deity, he is deifying himself in the eyes of men and women in this world. We read there in Revelation 13 that he enters into the temple of God that has been rebuilt during the tribulation time, and he actually proclaims himself to be God.
Now the Lord spoke of this in Matthew 24 as the ‘abomination of desolation’ spoken of by Daniel – a man actually entering into the temple of God, sitting, as it were, on the throne of God, claiming he is God and wanting to be worshipped as God – what an abomination that is! Now we read of it in 2 Thessalonians, if you turn with me to it, chapter 2 and we read from verse 1: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders”.
Revelation 13 tells us that the tribulation period, this great time of God’s wrath, will also be a time when Antichrist will come to the fore. Then when we move on from Revelation 13 to Revelation 14, it seems to highlight that the Great Tribulation period will be God pouring tribulation upon Antichrist, upon the Beast, and upon the people of the earth who have followed the Beast and pledged allegiance to him. Now turn with me to Revelation 14 till I show you this, and we’re just laying a foundation to show you some of the themes of the Great Tribulation. We read in verse 10 of Revelation 14 that the Antichrist, the Beast will: ‘drink of the wine of the wrath of God’, verse 10, ‘which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb’. Then Christ moves, during the tribulation period, from judging the Antichrist who has arisen, destroying him, to come to his followers – those who have taken the mark of the Beast. In verse 15 we see that the Lord Jesus wields His sickle because the harvest of earth’s iniquity and sinfulness is now ripe: ‘And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe’ – it is ripe with sin.
Thus this world’s great experience of tribulation, is the great winepress of the wrath of God against all sin in humanity, all of the spirit and personality of Antichrist and the followers of his. In verse 19 we read: “the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God”. It is the greatest ever manifestation upon the earth of God’s wrath against sin. We must grasp that, that is what the tribulation period really is – and we will tease it out and specify it a little bit more throughout our study this evening. But what I want you to see just now is that throughout all Scripture this tribulation period is clearly taught.
Now it is given many names, as I’ve already said it’s only called ‘The Great Tribulation period’ in Matthew 24; but if David brings up the next slide you will see that the Old Testament Scriptures teach us this truth under many names. You’ll find first of all it mentioned as ‘birth pangs’ in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah and also Jeremiah again. Another name for it is ‘the day of the Lord’, and this is probably – it is indeed, in fact – the most popular name for the tribulation period; look how many books: Obadiah, Joel, Amos, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Ezekiel, Zechariah – this is mentioned, this period, as ‘the day of the Lord’. Now please don’t confuse that with ‘the day of Christ’ that you find in the New Testament, which describes the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus, that’s a different period completely. Then another statement that is given to this period is ‘the great and terrible day of the Lord’, now that ‘LXX’ simply means the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures – just as you have an English translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, some of the Greek speakers had a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, and in it it is called ‘the great and terrible day of the Lord’ – Malachi 4 and verse 5. Another title that is given to it is ‘the day of wrath’ in Zephaniah 1:15. The next is ‘the day of the Lord’s wrath’, Zephaniah 1:18. ‘The day of distress’, Zephaniah 1:15. ‘The day of trouble’, Zephaniah 1:15 again. ‘The day of desolation’; ‘the day of vengeance’, Isaiah; ‘the day of Jacob’s trouble’, as we read in Jeremiah 30:7; ‘the day of darkness and gloominess’, Zephaniah, Amos, Joel; ‘the day of clouds and thick darkness’, Zephaniah and Joel; ‘the day of trumpet and battlecry’, Zephaniah 1:16; ‘the day of alarm’, Zephaniah 1:16; ‘the day of the Lord’s anger’, Zephaniah; ‘the day of destruction and ruin from the Almighty’, Joel 1:15; ‘the day of calamity and distress’ in Deuteronomy and Obadiah; ‘trouble and tribulation’, in Deuteronomy and Zephaniah. One week, we read of it in Daniel 9, Daniel’s 70th week; ‘the time’, or the day, ‘of trouble and distress’ in Daniel and Zephaniah; simply ‘the indignation’ in Isaiah 26; Isaiah 28 ‘the overflowing of the scourge’ – and finally ‘the fire of His jealousy’ in Zephaniah 1:18. That’s all under the Old Testament I think, but look at it! The Old Testament Scriptures clearly teach that there is this great day of God’s wrath, they give various names to it, but it’s right throughout all of the prophets major and minor.
Now when we go into the New Testament we find that it correlates exactly to what is taught in the Old Testament Scriptures. Look at the different names in the New Testament alone: ‘the day’, simply ‘the day’ in 1 Thessalonians 5:4; ‘those days’, Matthew 24 that we read and Mark 13; ‘the day of the Lord’, and again I stress that you don’t confuse that with the day of Christ, but it is the day of God’s judgment, the day of the Lord, not the millennium. ‘The wrath of God’, 1 Thessalonians 5, Revelation 11; ‘the wrath to come’ 1 Thessalonians 1; ‘the great day of their wrath’ Revelation 6; ‘the wrath of God’ Revelation 15:14 and 19; ‘the wrath of the Lamb’ Revelation 6; ‘the hour of trial’ Revelation 3; ‘the tribulation’, as we read in Matthew 24; ‘the time of tribulation’ Mark 13; ‘the Great Tribulation’, ‘the hour of judgment’, ‘birth pangs’. Those are the New Testament names for the Great Tribulation period. Now I don’t know how many there were, I didn’t count them, but there’s a great number of names! The weight of evidence in both Old and New Testament is that Scripture teaches that there’s going to be this great day of God’s wrath poured upon all the world, and all of the names correlate together to prove this.
So let me just say, before we go on any further, to understand what the Lord Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24 and what we have read together about in Revelation, we’ve got to understand how the Old Testament used this word ‘Great Tribulation’ and all the variants of it. We understand the New Testament theory of the Great Tribulation by understanding how it was used and understood in the Old Testament. That’s terribly important – but what a lot of people do is, they disregard prophecies in the Old Testament, and as we saw in our first study this spiritualise them all to the church or to this present age of grace; and they ignore completely how these Old Testament prophecies were given, understood by listeners, and how they knew they would be fulfilled in the future. So I hope we’ve looked and saw, quite clearly, what this tribulation period really is.
Now the big question is: when will it take place? When will the tribulation period take place? Well, there are various views on that question. There is the school of ‘realised eschatology’, which simply means that it’s all already happened. C.H. Dodd, who is an intellectual scholar – if you study theology, or even A-level Religious Studies you will read of him – he holds the view that the Lord Jesus, when He suffered and died, He endured the Great Tribulation – that was the Great Tribulation, when the Lord went to the cross and died and bore our sins. Therefore he interprets every reference in scripture to tribulation as occurring in the lifetime, and particularly the ‘passion’ of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Now the offshoot of that is that he believes that eschatological salvation comes in a general resurrection that happened at the resurrection of our Lord – so we have no resurrection to look forward to, or second coming, as it were, because it all happened through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. That is the realised school of prophecy or eschatology.
Then there is the ‘reformed’ school – we looked at it in our first week: a- and post-millennialism. They interpret the tribulation period as just being before the close of the age. They believe that we’re in the millennium now, you remember that, and they believe that the Great Tribulation will just come before the Lord Jesus returns – we are raptured, go up and then come down again, and then the Lord will bring eternal life to all those who believe in Him. That is the reformed school of prophecy.
Then there is the ‘symbolic school’ which takes an allegorical interpretation, so it believes that the tribulation and the millennium are symbolic and allegorical of the Christian’s death and resurrection in baptism. The tribulation, in other words, is when you die with Christ and go under the water. The millennium is when you rise again unto newness of life in Christ – and so they spiritualise it all to mean the Christian experience.
Then there are the ‘historicists’ – these are people who believe that the tribulation period occurred in the experience of the church of the past, usually at some point during the Roman persecutions. Whether it was Nero, or Caligula, or Domitian – they believe that when Christians were being fed to the lions, and being put on stakes and crucified and hanged, that that was the Great Tribulation and it’s all past. That’s an interesting view.
Then there are what is called the ‘preterists’, this school believes that Daniel’s 70th week was fulfilled completely in AD 70. Now what happened in AD 70? Well, there was the destruction of Jerusalem. What happened was the Roman persecutors came in, and they destroyed the temple, they sacked the city of Jerusalem; and they believe that that was the coming of judgment upon the Jews, that was the Great Tribulation – and therefore it is done, it’s dusted, it’s over, in the past. There are actually more extreme preterists who believe that the Lord Jesus actually came at that the event – He came spiritually, not literally, no eye saw Him – but when He came there was judgment, the Jews were judged, scattered in the diaspora, and that was Jesus coming again and we don’t look forward to His second coming in a day which is yet to be.
Now you may not have known that there were all these views on the tribulation of the world, and you ask the question: which is true? How can we discern with so many varied views? Some of them, the more you read them, can seem quite legitimate to a reasonable and rational mind. But the fact of the matter is this – and I remind you of something that I’ve taught you already – we have established, I hope, that the only consistent way of interpreting prophetic scripture is to interpret it as we interpret every other part of Scripture: that is, literally, historically, grammatically. We take it first and foremost at face value, we interpret it according to its first primary historical context, and then we also look at it grammatically – and whatever it says, we believe that that is what it means. Our hermeneutic in interpreting prophecy is of primary importance – and if you don’t know much about that, and think I’m talking up in the sky, get some of the tapes of previous weeks and I hope that you will understand. Now if you take that as granted, that you believe that you interpret prophecy literally, historically, grammatically, all these other views concerning the tribulation period are confounded because none of them satisfy all the biblical requirements of the Great Tribulation that we have just cited. They’re described for us in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and none of these other views satisfy those requirements.
Take, for instance, the preterist view that the Lord Jesus came in judgment in AD 70 and there’s nothing to look forward to. Well, they’re right in the sense that the temple was destroyed, the Lord Jesus foretold that the temple would be destroyed. He spoke in Matthew 24 of people, Jews, fleeing to the mountains – that is exactly what happened at that time in AD 70. There was the Masada fort, you know all about it, the suicides and everything, and all the Jews went into that fort up on the mountain. There are other facts, there are historians that tell us that not a stone was left upon a stone when the Romans came into Jerusalem. All these things seem, at face value, to fulfil the prophecies that the Lord gave in Matthew 24 – but the fact of the matter is, when the Lord is quoted by Luke in Matthew 21 and 22, He speaks of a future day, the days of vengeance ‘when all things which are written may be fulfilled’ – when all things that are written may be fulfilled! What was not fulfilled in AD 70 was Christ visibly coming. Every eye shall see Him, Revelation chapter 1 tells us. The opposing armies of the Romans against the Jews were not defeated by the presence of the Lord as prophecy teaches they will be. All Israel was not saved in AD 70, and the Jews as the people of God were not grafted into the olive tree once again. In fact we read in Scripture that the tribulation period starts with the signing of a covenant between Israel and Antichrist. We read in Daniel 9 that it will end after seven years at the second coming of the Lord.
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Now if you want to study in great detail an exposition of those tribulation days, read Revelation 6 through to 19. If David puts up the second slide there, you’ll see what you’ve got on the back of your study sheet that really details what will go on in some kind of a general way during that tribulation period. Now if you read Revelation 6 to 19, you will read of all these seal judgments, of the trumpet judgments, of the bowl or vial judgments, the beginning of birth pangs, the time of Jacob’s trouble – and you will find that none of those things have ever been fulfilled in the history of humanity. It has never ever happened!
Now you’ll get an exposition in Revelation 6 to 19, but the time framework is found in Daniel 9:24-27, a framework for what is called Daniel’s 70th week, which is this seven-year tribulation period. Daniel was informed by God that God had appointed 70 weeks to finish the transgression of the Jews – in other words, to bring the Jews finally to Himself for all eternity, 70 weeks. Now these were not 7-day weeks, all prophetic scholars agree on this: they were seven-year weeks. That means that the 70th week, the last week, lasts seven years. That is where we get the seven years of the Great Tribulation period.
So I hope we’ve answered the question of when it will take place, it is not something that has taken place in the past, whether you believe AD 70 or not; it cannot be anything that is now taking place because we are not going through any of these experiences that have been prophesied in Revelation 6 to 19 – therefore it is a future thing. There must be a futurist interpretation of the Great Tribulation.
Now here’s perhaps the question that is foremost in many people of the world’s minds: why must it happen? Why must the Great Tribulation happen? We’ve seen what it is, when it will take place, but why must it happen? Well, the simple answer to that question is: it is God’s purpose to judge the world – judgment is at the forefront of the idea of the Great Tribulation. While at the same time God has in mind judgment, we find also within the book of the Revelation that the tribulation period will be a time when God, through various means, will hold forth the gospel of grace. Now this is hard for some of us to understand, but we’ll understand it hopefully by the end of some of what we’ll say under this heading of ‘Why it must happen’ in a few moments. The reason why God, first and foremost, must judge the earth is that this Great Tribulation period precedes the millennial reign of Christ. You remember this? He will come to the earth, and then He will bring in His reign for 1000 years. Therefore, before that reign, the Lord needs to put down rebellion of mankind of every shape and form, in preparation for Christ’s reign of absolute righteousness. There needs to be a judgment before the Lord Jesus can reign in righteousness on the earth.
Now if I can summarise the purpose and the reason for the Great Tribulation period, why it must happen, into three for you – here they are. Here’s the first: the first purpose of Tribulation is simply Gentile judgment. As I have said, before the Lord comes and reigns and rules for 1000 years in righteousness, He must judge the world in order to prepare for righteous rule. The first purpose of Tribulation is seen to be punishment in history, in human history, upon the whole world for its sins against God. If God just came in and took us all, as believers, away there would be no record on the earth that God had judged humanity for their sin historically. It is a judgment a bit similar to the judgment that came upon the earth during the flood of Noah. If you recall the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24, He actually cites Noah as an illustration: ‘For there shall arise false Christs and false signs’, and then we go on to read in verse 37 that ‘as it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be at the coming of the Son of Man’. Just as the world was destroyed in a flood in those early days, the Lord in history, human history, will show His indignation towards man’s sin.
We also read further that there will be more indications of Gentile judgment. In Deuteronomy 30 and verse 7, God told His own people way back there that He would punish their enemies as His enemies, and He would inflict all those curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. So during the tribulation period Gentile nations will be judged for their sinfulness, but they will also be judged according to how they have related toward the Jewish people upon the earth. One purpose of the Tribulation is for Gentile judgment – it has got nothing to do with the church of Jesus Christ in that regard.
The second purpose is this: worldwide evangelism. The Great Tribulation period will be a period of phenomenal evangelistic outreach – in fact, one unlike any other time in human history. The purpose is given in Revelation 7, if you want to read about it, but during the first half of the tribulation, the first three and a half years, we read in Revelation that God will evangelise the world. He will do it through various means – first He will do it through 144,000 Jews, and He will fulfil the prophecy that we read in Matthew 24 verse 14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come”. These, as someone has described them, ‘Jewish Billy Sundays’ will go around the whole world preaching the gospel of the kingdom in this mass evangelisation. If that’s not enough for you, you read of two witnesses in the book of Revelation with supernatural powers, and they will provide a witness primarily to the nation of Israel. Finally we read, if you look with me at Revelation 14, at the midpoint of the tribulation, three and a half years into those seven years, we read in verse 6 of chapter 14: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people”. This was not just for the Jews, but the everlasting gospel is being preached to all nations!
We read further in verse 8: ‘And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication’. He announces the downfall of religious Babylon, economic Babylon, this world system has been judged by God and it’s heralded in a message of evangelisation. Then in verses 9 to 11 we also read that God says He will use angels to preach the gospel and to warn earth dwellers, all earth dwellers, not to take the mark of the Beast – 666. Now again, in all of chapter 14, we don’t see the church mentioned at all. There are Gentiles mentioned, there are Jews mentioned, there are evangelists of all shapes and forms, but the church is not there.
The first purpose of the tribulation is to judge Gentile nations, the second is worldwide evangelisation, and the third is the conversion of the Jews. I think this is one of the most glorious and important purposes. God, through evil influences and agencies, is preparing Israel, His ancient earthly people, for her conversion. By almost pummelling her into submission, He gets her to raise her eyes heavenward and to acknowledge that Jesus is Messiah – ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!’, they will say. It will all culminate in the second coming of our Lord Jesus to the earth, but you’ve got to see that the major purpose of Jacob’s – that is Israel’s – trouble is to bring her back in conversion. Now we read within Ezekiel that first of all the Lord will start to bring Israel as an ethnic people back to her land, and that’s already happening but it will be further realised during that period, for He says in Ezekiel 20:34: ‘I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out’. He has already started to do it, in 1948 when Israel became a national state, and He’s been doing it ever since – but it will all come to a head during this period. Once they’re all gathered together the tribulation period shall begin, and God says in Ezekiel 20 to His people Israel: ‘I shall make you pass under the rod’. So He brings them together to their land, He begins to judge them, and the purpose of judging them is to purge from them unbelieving Jews. Then we actually read in Zechariah 13 that only one third of those Jews will survive the fire and the judgmental wrath of God – imagine that! Only one-third, but the purpose and the goal of God is what we read in Romans 11 and verse 26 and 27, that after that purging of fire Paul says: ‘And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins’. All Israel will be saved, just as it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove all ungodliness from Jacob – ‘this is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sin’.
Why this Great Tribulation? One, Gentile nations need to be judged; two, worldwide evangelisation in view of the millennium period coming upon the earth; but thirdly and perhaps primarily, the conversion of the Jews. But you see, in all these three categories, that the church is not found at all, for the tribulation is not for the church, it does not involve the church – because God’s purpose for the tribulation are these three.
Now if we were to ask the fourth question: how will it unfold? We wouldn’t even begin to have time to talk about it. As I’ve said, we read from Revelation 5 through to 19 all about it – but just to recap, if David goes to the first slide, we read in Revelation 5 to 19 first of all that God pours out these seven seal judgments as you see them on your sheet just up here, seven seal judgments. What He does, effectively, is He allows the devil to reign upon the earth, a reign of unrighteousness – it doesn’t mean God’s not in control, but He allows the devil to run riot. Then we read that He pours out these seven vial judgments at the end of the tribulation period. Then He destroys the world’s religious systems that we read about in Revelation 17; He destroys the world’s political and economic systems; He defeats sinners and Satan and Armageddon at the end of the tribulation period; and then He condemns the antichrist and the false prophet to hell.
But there’s more: there are seven seal judgments, I mentioned them, and the seven trumpet judgments. The first seven seal judgement is what we read of the white horse of the apocalypse, it is simply a false peace that will come over the earth because of this covenant that Israel signs with Antichrist. Then we read of the red horse of the apocalypse, which will be a hot war upon all the earth that the world has never seen before. The third seal judgment is the black horse, a famine that will come upon all the earth because of that war and the expense of it. The fourth will be a pale horse of widespread death by war, by starvation from the famine, by wild beasts roaming across the whole earth. The fifth seal is the cry of the martyrs; the sixth is the greatest earthquake that this world has ever seen, and the cosmic disturbances described in Matthew 24 and elsewhere that have never been witnessed before in the skies.
The seventh seal is these seven trumpet judgments that we read of in Revelation. The first trumpet judgment is that a third of all vegetation on the earth will be destroyed. The second is a third of ocean life and ships will be destroyed. The third is that a third of freshwater will be polluted and poisoned. The fourth is a third of the sun, the moon, and the stars will be darkened. The fifth is the first ever in the history of the earth hellish invasion of demons poured out upon the globe. The sixth is a second hellish invasion of demons. There are the seven vial judgments that I have mentioned, but just to say that all of these comprise together to make up the Great Tribulation Period on the earth, the flipsis megala that the Lord Jesus speaks of in Matthew 24:21 – a time on the earth, if you took all the holocausts and disasters and combined them, there has never been a time to compare to this one or to surpass it! That is how it will unfold, well might it be called ‘The Great Tribulation Period’!
Let’s look finally at who it will involve. Well, again we don’t have time, and in the nature of this series it’s only possible to give you a general resume of all these subjects night after night. If you were to read the whole of the book of Revelation you will find that this tribulation period involves the nations, it involves the Holy Spirit although He will be taken away in the capacity which He came at Pentecost – don’t believe what is taught at times that the Holy Spirit goes, He doesn’t go, He is still here. Satan will be chiefly involved and a prime mover and actor in this whole scene of the Great Tribulation; Antichrist will be here, his sidekick the false prophet; these 144,000 Jewish evangelists; the two special preachers and witnesses for Christ; the tribulation saints – those who will believe, many of them being martyred, many out of every tongue, people, tribe and nation who have washed their robes in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be this multitude of demonic activity, and even special angels that will come and announce upon the earth God’s purposes and sovereign judgments.
Can I just say, as I pause for a moment tonight, the most terrifying thing as I have been looking at this today in great detail before God, the most terrifying thing about the Great Tribulation period for me is that if you, my friend, are without Christ you will be there! Allow the import of that truth to sink into your mind and into your heart: you will experience all of this that the Scriptures speak of being poured upon the earth for seven years! Is it any wonder that the prophet says: ‘Flee from the wrath to come!’ – run!
Who will be there? Well, the world will be there, those who are unsaved – and that brings upon us as believers a great responsibility to do, first and foremost, something towards them, warn them – the world should be warned about this great day of God’s wrath that’s going to be poured upon the earth! If they’re not saved they will not be raptured, and if they’re not raptured they will face all of this! The second thing that should be done in the light of who will be involved in this: the church of Jesus Christ should be winning the lost. The world ought to be warned, but we as God’s people ought to be winning the lost – for who knows who will believe the lie, who will take the mark of the Beast and follow the Antichrist – none of us knows who in the world among our friends or relatives or neighbours or work colleagues, so we as God’s people in the light of these events ought to be out and winning people for the Lord Jesus Christ!
The world should be warned, the church should be winning, and thirdly the saints – you and I personally – should be waiting, should be watching, because our Lord is coming. Don’t forget – if David could put up the chart of pre-millennialism – that we as God’s people, we do not look to these passages of Scripture in waiting and watching for the Lord Jesus, those that we’ve mentioned tonight. We made a comparison of them in our last week. We look to 1 Thessalonians 4, we look to John chapter 14, we look to these Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 15 that speak of a great day of hope, a great day of comfort, a great day of delight when the Lord Jesus shall come for us and we shall go to be with Him rather than He come to the earth in judgment.
Maybe you don’t see that distinction, can I recite you a few verses that I think clearly teaches? We have looked at the weight of evidence concerning the fact that this day will come upon the earth, here’s the evidence to show that we will not experience it – Romans 5:9: ‘Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him’; 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 10, listen, we as God’s people are to be waiting ‘for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus’, watch this, ‘which delivered us from the wrath to come’. Can it be any clearer? What about this one? 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 9: ‘God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ’. In Revelation 3 and verse 10 He says to the church at Philadelphia: ‘Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of tribulation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth’.
My friend, the weight of the evidence of Scripture is simply this: the early believers in Christ were not looking for something to happen that we’ve been talking about this evening, they were looking for Someone to come – the Lord Jesus!
During the early days of World War II a little group of passengers were shipwrecked on a Pacific desert island in the middle of that great ocean. After many weary months a passing ship saw their plight and sent a boat ashore, but the boat didn’t land at once – one of the sailors threw a bundle of newspapers on the beach. You wouldn’t imagine that would be the first thing that they would want, rather they were looking for a lifeline. But that sailor that threw the bundle of papers onto the beach shouted that they were from the Captain, and he said these words: ‘After you’ve read these papers, he wants to know whether you want to be rescued after all. When you find out what’s going on in the world, do you want to get off your desert island?’. Isn’t it wonderful tonight, in all of the light of the scriptural teaching that we found tonight on the Great Tribulation period: our rescue as believers in Christ will be literally out of this world! We will go! Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to go!
Last night after the Gospel meeting a brother in Christ said to me: ‘Isn’t it great to be saved?’. My friend, after all that we have seen within the Scriptures regarding what’s going to come upon this world in the not too distant future – and who knows only the Lord Jesus Christ – isn’t it wonderful to be saved? We are not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. We wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come. Glory to His name!
Can I ask you, believer tonight, are you warning folk in the world of what is going to come upon them? Are you winning the lost for our Lord Jesus Christ? Where you are in your home, in your business, in your occupation – are you waiting and are you watching, for in such an hour as ye think not your Lord doth come! May God bless His word to our hearts this evening.
Don’t miss part 4 of the Crucial Questions On Christ’s Return Study Series: “Israel: Finished With Or With A Future?”
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Transcribed by:
Preach The Word.
May 2004
www.preachtheword.com
This sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Pastor David Legge. It was transcribed from the third tape in his ‘Crucial Questions About Christ’s Return’ series, titled “Tribulation: Now Or Never?” – Transcribed by Preach The Word.
All material by David Legge is copyrighted. However, these materials may be freely copied and distributed unaltered for the purpose of study and teaching, so long as they are made available to others free of charge, and this copyright is included. This does not include hosting or broadcasting the materials on another website, however linking to the resources on preachtheword.com is permitted. These materials may not, in any manner, be sold or used to solicit ‘donations’ from others, nor may they be included in anything you intend to copyright, sell, or offer for a fee. This copyright is exercised to keep these materials freely available to all. Any exceptions to these conditions must be explicitly approved by Preach The Word. [Read guidelines…]
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Every page in the prophecy section of this web site is either 1) dedicated to an explanation of the 70-Weeks Prophecy, or 2) built upon the foundation of a proper understanding of that prophecy.
In Daniel’s 70-Weeks prophecy God gave the world two prophetic timetables:
69-week
70th week
The 69-week timetable consisted of 69 ‘weeks of years’, each week lasting for 7 years (for a total of 483 years). Jesus fulfilled that timetable when He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, four days before His crucifixion.
The 70th week, however, is not like the first 69 weeks; it is not a week of 7 regular calendar years. Rather, it is the great week of the Abrahamic Covenant; beginning roughly 4000 years ago with God’s promises to Abraham, divided in the middle by the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD (by the Romans), and soon to be completed at the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The key to fully understanding Daniel’s 70th Week lies in understanding four Bible prophecies that form a great ‘prophetic chain’.
The individual ‘links’ in this prophetic chain were given to the world by God over a period of roughly 2000 years; beginning with Abraham around 1900 BC, and ending with the apostle John’s reception of the book of Revelation around 65 AD. These four links are presented chronologically from top to bottom below:
My first prophecy web page, titled AN INTRODUCTION TO BIBLE PROPHECY, explains both the Abrahamic Covenant and Daniel’s 70-Weeks Prophecy.
The second page, titled THE OLIVET DISCOURSE, explains the important ‘keystone’ prophecy that Jesus gave to His disciples while they sat together upon the Mount of Olives, two days before His crucifixion.
It is a ‘keystone’ because if provides the vital link between Daniel’s 70-Weeks Prophecy and John’s Little Book. When we compare the three versions of the Olivet Discourse side-by-side (from the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke), and allow Luke’s ‘Gentile version’ to clarify Jesus’ reference to Daniel’s ‘Abomination of Desolation’ in Matthew and Mark, it becomes clear that this ‘Abomination of Desolation’ that marks the mid-point of Daniel’s 70th Week is the destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Rome in 70 AD.
In the third page of this prophecy section, titled THE TIMETABLE FOR JESUS’ RETURN, I explain John’s Little Book itself. John received the Little Book in Revelation chapter 10. He was told to eat it, and was warned that it would be sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his stomach. John then proceeded to write down the contents of that Book in Revelation chapters 11-13.
John’s Little Book provides us with four visions of Daniel’s 70th Week:
When we combine a proper understanding of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse with these four visions from John’s Little Book, the nature of Daniel’s 70th Week becomes obvious. It is indeed the ‘great week’ of the Abrahamic Covenant.
I have posted this ‘Foreword’ at the beginning of every page in this prophecy section, because without a proper understanding of Daniel’s 70th Week it is impossible to ‘watch’ effectively for the Lord Jesus’ return, or to understand any of the other important subjects in God’s prophetic word; subjects such as the Great Tribulation, the Beast, the False Prophet, the Antichrist, the United States and the City of Rome (Babylon).
Revelation 10 describes the apostle John’s reception of a ‘Little Book’. He was told to eat it. It was sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his stomach. Then John was told that he must prophecy ‘again’; in other words, give an additional prophecy, above and beyond what he had already received. The ‘Little Book’ contained that additional prophecy, and its contents are revealed to us in Revelation 11-13.
John’s Little Book sits in the larger book of Revelation, much like the little advertising or other ‘special inserts’ that we find in magazines like Time or National Geographic. It is held in place, and connected to the rest of Revelation, by the ‘staple’ of the 7th Trumpet (Revelation 11:15-19). John’s Little Book provides us with 4 visions of Daniel’s 70th week. Each vision describes that Week in terms of one or both of its halves.
In this vision John is told to measure the Temple and the Jewish people who worship there, but to leave out the court (the Temple Mount), because it will be given to the Gentiles for 42 months (42 months is 1/2 of 7 years).
The measuring of the Temple, altar and Jewish people may represent God’s judgment upon them. We see judgment depicted as a measurement in the downfall of King Belshazzar (he was weighed and found wanting, Daniel 5:27), and in Jesus’ warning that we will be measured with the same measure that we apply to others (Matthew 7:2).
Having been completely fulfilled by the death of Christ, the animal sacrifices of the Old Mosaic Covenant no longer had any purpose. In fact, their continued offering by Israel’s priests represented a denial that the Messiah had already come. The Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were driven from Jerusalem in 70 AD. The Temple was burned by the Romans, and then the debris was removed. The ‘court’ has been trampled by the Gentiles ever since. This suggests that John’s ’42 months’, and the past 1940+ years, may actually be the same period of time. In other words, the 70th Week is not a period of 7 literal years.
This vision is one of 3 passages within the book of Revelation (the others being Revelation 3:9 and 17:10), which suggest that the book of Revelation was written before the fall of Jerusalem. If John had received the Little Book after the fall of Jerusalem, there would not have been a Temple, altar or people for him to measure. As it is, there is not a single indication in Revelation that Jerusalem had already fallen when John wrote it.
These two witnesses perform the same miracles that Moses and Elijah performed, but they are not Moses and Elijah. These witnesses symbolize the name that the Jewish people gave to the Bible; “The Law and the Prophets”. This is a vision of God giving the Bible (both the Old and New Testaments) to the world; an activity which was authenticated by God through supernatural power and divine miracles performed by prophets and apostles alike. It ended just before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
It is appropriate to represent the New Testament as a part of ‘the Law and the Prophets’. This continuity was evident in the words and life of Christ. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained His relationship to ‘the Law and the Prophets’. He said that His work was a continuation and fulfillment of them:
In the transfiguration on the mount, Jesus appeared to His disciples with Moses and Elijah, as God the Father spoke from heaven:
Here the Lord Jesus was not only associated with ‘the Law and the Prophets’, but given preeminence over them, since Moses and Elijah were servants of God, while Jesus was identified by the Father as His Son (Hebrews 3:1-6).
In the second half of this vision, the witnesses lie dead in the streets of Jerusalem. This symbolizes the fact that God has held Jerusalem responsible for their deaths. It represents the fulfillment of the words of the Lord Jesus, when He warned the Jewish leaders that He would be sending more messengers to them (the apostles and disciples), and that their mistreatment of these Christian witnesses would result in terrible judgment upon Israel:
There should be no doubt that the many sufferings of the Jewish people, from 70 AD up to the present time, represent the fulfillment of Jesus’ words. Again we are talking about a period of time much longer than half of 7 years. In this vision God describes the first half of the 70th week as a period of 1260 days (3.5 years), while twice He describes the second half as lasting 3.5 days. Here God is clearly indicating that the 70th Week is not to be understood as seven literal years.
This trumpet is a continuation of the trumpets of Revelation chapters 8 and 9. John’s Little Book sits inside the larger book of Revelation, much like the ‘inserts’ that are often found in the center of today’s magazines. These often contain a special informational or advertising supplement that is added to the magazine, and can be removed and read separately. The 7th Trumpet is the ‘staple’ that attaches John’s Little Book to the rest of the book of Revelation.
The 7th Trumpet’s placement here (at the resurrection of the Two Witnesses) is appropriate, because it dovetails perfectly with the promised bodily resurrection of all of God’s ‘faithful witnesses’ at the sounding of the last Trumpet, as foretold by Paul (1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16).
The woman in this vision is the nation of Israel, struggling down through the centuries to successfully bring Abraham’s promised Seed into the world. The Child is born and Satan tries to devour Him. This may represent Herod’s attempt to kill the Christ-child at His birth, or it may represent Satan’s frequent temptations of the Lord Jesus, to keep Him from succeeding in His work of salvation. The flight of the woman into the wilderness represents the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world, beginning with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Not only is the destruction of Jerusalem a judgment from God upon Israel; it is, at the same time, the means of Israel’s deliverance. This vision tells us that, if the Jewish people had not been dispersed throughout the world for the second half of the 70th Week (1260 days), they might not have survived as a nation.
The sun, moon and 12 stars are a reminder to us of Joseph’s dream (Genesis 37:9-10). Joseph is symbolic of the Lord Jesus. Both men were betrayed into the hands of the Gentiles by their Jewish brothers. Both men were thought by their brothers to be dead. Jesus is now working behind the scenes, as Joseph did, to bring His brethren to repentance. Someday this greater ‘Joseph’ is going to reveal Himself to His people in a tearful reunion that will save their nation and bring them into everlasting blessing (Zechariah 12:6-13:1).
As I see it, this vision presents a problem for the Dispensationalists. How do they incorporate Israel’s giving birth to the Messiah, and His subsequent resurrection, into their future 70th Week? The woman flees into the wilderness after her child’s resurrection, and is fed there for one half of the 70th week (1260 days). Which half of their 70th Week is this?
This passage presents to us one of the most powerful lessons in all of the Bible. First of all it explains Satan’s work as mankind’s accuser. Until Jesus had accomplished our salvation on the cross, Satan had always been able to come to the Father and point out how undeserving we are of His mercy. I believe that, as Jesus hung upon the cross being tormented by His enemies, Satan was shouting in the Father’s ear, asking ‘How could you let your Son die for such wicked people as these?’. His accusations were valid and had merit. But once the Father forsook His Son, abandoning Him to death, our salvation was accomplished and mercy triumphed over judgment. Satan had no more business before the throne of God.
The judgment and ‘casting out’ of Satan is central to the Christian message. Jesus twice referred to it in the gospel of John. God wants all people, Christian and non-Christian alike, to understand what happened to Satan just prior to 70 AD, and the implication of these things for us down here on earth.
Satan has now been cast down to earth, a tremendously angry, bitter and frustrated Archangel. He is like Pharaoh in the book of Exodus. Though he was defeated, Pharaoh chose to pursue Israel into the Red Sea, rather than acknowledge his defeat and let his captives go. Satan also knows that He has lost, but that will not stop him from hardening his heart and deceiving mankind until the very end; plunging headlong into The Lake of Fire. Soon that Lake will close over him, as the Red Sea closed over Pharaoh.
Next God explains the persecution of the Jewish people, since the first ‘flood’ of destruction hit Jerusalem. Satan has been pouring out his fury upon the people who brought his nemesis, the ‘Seed of Abraham’, into the world.
Repeated waves of persecution have pursued the Jews since 70 AD, but the Jewish ‘Diaspora’ throughout the earth has caused these floods to fall short of their ultimate aim. Once again we see that God’s scattering of the Jewish people has been an act of mercy, preserving them down through the centuries. Now we can understand the spiritual reality behind the scenes of history, and who it was working within men like Hitler to seek the destruction of the Jewish race. Satan is still at work today, seeking to rally mankind against Israel and the Jewish people. These verses also tell us that faithful Christians will be found suffering along with the Jews, rather than persecuting them.
This passage describes the second half of the 70th Week in very grim terms. It is the time of Satan’s wrath, and is the ‘Great Tribulation’ spoken of in Revelation 7:14. It is the second half of Daniel’s 70th Week, stretching from the destruction of Jerusalem to the second coming of Christ.
I believe that the 6th Seal represents the Day of the Lord, the onset of nuclear war, and the point in time when God will remove His people from the planet, while He simultaneously ‘seals’ a portion of the Jewish people for preservation during the events that follow. At that point God will take this wave of destruction, that Satan and mankind have set in motion, and use it to punish a wicked human race. When God says ‘Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea’ (Rev. 12:17), He is referring to a Satanic rage that first expressed itself against Jews and Christians beginning in 70 AD, but will culminate in the destruction of the planet as foretold by Isaiah:
For those of us living comfortably in America, the idea that we are now in the Great Tribulation seems inappropriate. But it is not a strange concept for much of the rest of the world. Americans life in relative luxury, ease and wealth.
Earlier in this vision, the woman was fed in the wilderness for 1260 days. Now, as God describes the same events, she is nourished in the wilderness for 3.5 times. Again, God is showing us that the 70th Week is not a period of 7 literal years.
In Revelation 13 the first of two Beasts is revealed to us:
Several things must be observed about this Beast. I will list them in order:
At this point I only want to emphasize one thing; God authorized this Beast to continue for 42 months; throughout the second half of Daniel’s 70th Week. This is a period of time extending for over 1900 years; from 70 AD until the second coming of Christ. Hence the logical conclusion is that the Beast is not a single person, but some entity capable of continuing over a long period.
I have provided an explanation of this Beast in my web page titled Understanding The Beast. In that web page I explain this Beast’s origins as the ancient Roman Empire, and the profound change that it went through in 69 A.D. as it became the ‘Beast from the Sea’ in Revelation. I have also explained its role as the Beast that the Roman Catholic Church rides upon in Revelation 17. And finally I explain how the Beast will wage war directly against the Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 19:19) after its 10 horns will have destroyed the Roman Catholic world.
Beyond my explanation of the Beast, I have also provided a careful explanation of a second Beast, the False Prophet. I explain his deceitfulness, and his use of technology to impose the ‘Mark of the Beast’ upon the world. I would strongly urge my reader to take a look at this web page about Understanding The Beast.
The first part of this web page has been focused on John’s Little Book, and its ability to define the final 70th Week of Daniel’s 70-Weeks prophecy for us. But now that we understand that 70th Week, we need to come back around and allow this understanding to clarify Daniel 9:27. More specifically, we need to answer this question: Who is the ‘He’ in Daniel 9:27 who confirms a covenant for a week, brings an end to sacrifices in God’s Temple in the middle of that week, and makes the Temple desolate?
The ‘He’ of Daniel 9:27 is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the key to understanding this fact is to understand what God was saying about confirming a covenant.
Some have understood Daniel 9:27 to say that someone would make or establish a new covenant, but this is not true. In the original Hebrew version of Daniel 9:27, the word translated ‘confirm’ expresses the idea of honoring or enforcing a covenant that already exists. God was talking about someone fulfilling a covenant that had already been made. The explanation is simple.
When God made His covenant with Abraham it was like an ‘I-O-U’. Although God’s gracious promise was trustworthy, it existed only on paper; the money had not yet been ‘put in the bank’ so to speak. The actual work of redemption for sinful mankind had not yet been done. But when the Lord Jesus came into the world and died on the cross, He paid the price to bring God’s blessing on all the nations of the world. This is what Jesus meant when He said “It is finished” just before He died. He was saying ‘It is paid!’ (John 19:30). He confirmed the Abrahamic covenant. Jesus further fulfilled this covenant when He ascended into heaven and presented His own blood before His Father as proof that our sins had been atoned for (Hebrews 9:12,24).
This is what Daniel 9:27 is telling us; that it is the Messiah who would confirm a covenant for one Week. Through His death, Jesus confirmed the Abrahamic covenant backward in time to all those, like Abraham, who had looked forward to its fulfillment; and forward in time, to all those who would look back to His finished work upon the Cross.
In Malachi chapter 3 the coming Messiah was called “the Messenger of the Covenant”:
In Luke chapter 1, Zacharias (the father of John the Baptist) described Christ’s coming as God ‘remembering His Covenant’ and ‘performing the mercy’ which He had promised:
The Apostle Peter alluded to Christ’s confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant, telling the Jews in Acts 3:25-26 that they would be the first to be offered the blessings of that confirmation:
Paul also described Jesus as a covenant-Confirmer in Romans 15:
Not only would Daniel have been open to the possibility that the Messiah, who he was told would die in Daniel 9:26, would confirm a covenant after His death, but no other idea would have ever occurred to him! Daniel already knew, through King David and the prophet Isaiah, that Israel’s Messiah would die before being resurrected and glorified:
Not only that, but Daniel already knew through the prophecies that he himself had received from God (in Daniel chapters 2, 7 and 8) that if the Messiah was going to die, He would have to be raised from the dead in order to fulfill those prophecies. The Messiah’s death and His subsequent confirmation of God’s covenant with Abraham is the central theme not only of the 70-weeks prophecy, but of the entire Bible. To not first consider the possibility that it is Jesus who confirms a covenant in Daniel 9:27, is to overlook the obvious.
If Jesus is the Person who confirms a covenant for a week, then is He also the One who would bring an end to the Old Testament sacrifices in the Temple? The answer is ‘Yes’. Jesus announced the coming of the New Covenant at the ‘Last Supper’ (Matthew 26:28):
And the New Covenant’s replacement of the Mosaic covenant was foretold more than 500 years earlier in Jeremiah 31:31-34. As Jeremiah warned the people about the first destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple, he foretold a day when the animal sacrifices would be replaced forever. And this idea is repeated elsewhere in the Bible (John 4:21-24, Hebrews 9:15, 12:24):
And the approaching end of the Mosaic Covenant was foretold by the author of Hebrews:
The Jewish people hated the idea that the Messiah would bring an end to the sacrifices, even though both Jeremiah and Daniel had foretold it. The approaching destruction of the Temple, and the ending of animal sacrifices, was a major point of contention between the Jews and the Christians. Stephen, the first martyr, was killed for declaring that the Mosaic Covenant would end (Acts 6:14). And Paul was hounded by the Jews because he was accused of disrespecting Moses and the Temple.
Jesus accomplished two important things with the destruction of the Temple. First, it demonstrated to the Jews and to the world that He is the Messiah. The fulfillment of His warnings, about the coming destruction of the Temple, confirmed that He had been sent by His Father, and that His words are the words of God.
Secondly, Jesus was revealing that the Mosaic animal sacrifices have been replaced by a better Priesthood and Sacrifice; one that can really save people:
If the Temple had not been destroyed, there might still be people ignorantly sacrificing bulls, sheep and goats in Israel today. This would have been truly dishonoring to Moses, because Moses did not want to glorify himself, but the promised Messiah and His salvation. The destruction of the Temple has revealed the Mosaic covenant for what it really was, and still is to this day; a schoolmaster to point us to Christ as the ultimate Lamb of God (Galatians 3:24-25).
There is a direct correspondence between Daniel 9:26 and Daniel 9:27. Daniel 9:26 describes actual historical events visible to the human eye; the death of the Lord Jesus, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD, and the ongoing desolation of the Temple Mount since those times:
Daniel 9:27 describes each of those events in terms of what Jesus was accomplishing through them; the confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant, the end of the Mosaic Covenant, and the punishment of Israel:
We know that the people who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple were the Romans. But who is the “prince that shall come” mentioned in Daniel 9:26? It is the Roman General Titus, the man who led the armies of Rome in the destruction of Jerusalem. God makes mention of this ‘prince’ because it is important for us to understand his unique role in history.
The people of Israel rebelled against Roman rule in 66 AD, and a Roman General named Vespasian was sent to crush this rebellion. As Vespasian began to conquer Israel and close in on Jerusalem, civil war broke out back at home in Rome. Late in 68 AD the emperor Nero committed suicide, and he was legitimately succeeded by a man named Galba. But Galba only lasted in office for a short time before he was murdered by a Roman general (Otho) who was seeking the emperorship for himself. And so the Roman Civil War began.
Vespasian had to halt his advances against the Jews until he could be certain about the future of his own nation. Ultimately Vespasian’s allies and armies convinced him that he should return to Rome and become the next emperor, which he did. And when he left Israel, Vespasian put his son, Titus, in charge of the Roman armies there. So when Vespasian became the new Emperor, Titus became a prince of Rome, and ultimately went on to become the next emperor after his father.
Many of the Jewish people probably thought that the Roman Civil War signaled God’s deliverance of their nation. But in reality it was the worst thing that could have happened to them, for two reasons. First of all, once Rome got back on its feet it became necessary for it to demonstrate to the entire world that the Empire was just as much to be feared and obeyed as ever before. The Jews became the practical demonstration of this fact. Secondly, both Vespasian and Titus had a personal interest in making sure that their victory over the Jews was impressive, because they needed to demonstrate to the Empire that their family deserved to become the next ruling dynasty of the Rome.
And so, as Daniel 9:26 tells us, the destruction of Jerusalem happened as though a flood had hit it. The historian Flavius Josephus tells us that upwards of a million Jews died in the siege of Jerusalem, and as many as one hundred thousand more were taken captive and sold as slaves throughout the Roman world. To this day there is an ancient structure standing in Rome, called the Arch of Titus, which depicts (in its carvings) the victorious Roman soldiers carrying away the furniture of the Temple.
In Daniel 9:26 God is presenting us with the story of two princes. One is the prince of Israel; Jesus, the Son of David. The other is the prince of Rome; Titus, the son of Vespasian. The prince of Israel came to His own nation and was put to death by the Jews and the Romans, and received nothing of the glorious kingdom that had been foretold for Him. By contrast, the prince of Rome rose to supremacy over Israel, crushing its people, its capital city and its Temple, while his people would go on to dominate the Jews for the next 1800+ years.
It is the coming of these two princes to Israel, and Titus’ desolation of Jerusalem and its Temple, that marks the midpoint of Daniel’s 70th Week; the great week of the Abrahamic Covenant. It was a midpoint initiating great suffering for the Jews, and great tribulation for a world that would now lie under the bitter rage of a defeated archangel. But when Jesus returns, the fortunes of these two princes will be reversed. The princes of Rome and of the world will be crushed and destroyed forever, Satan will be chained for 1000 years, and the Prince of Israel will establish a kingdom that shall never end. This is meaning of the two princes.
One cannot help but remember, after considering Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy that was given to the world over 2500 years ago, the words of the apostle Paul as he contemplated the outworking of God’s salvation plans:
SATAN & THE GREAT TRIBULATION (Matthew 24:21, Revelation 7:14) It is impossible to understand the ‘Prophetic Players’ listed below without a proper understanding of “The Great Tribulation”. The Great Tribulation is the time of Satan’s wrath. It is not the time of God’s wrath, which is ‘The Day of the Lord’ referred to throughout the Bible, and which is revealed in the Trumpets and Bowls of Revelation (chapters 8-9 and 16).
The Great Tribulation began after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and with the casting of Satan out of heaven and down to earth. That event is described in Revelation 12:
The first manifestation of Satan’s wrath was the destruction of Jerusalem and desolation of Israel in 70 AD, with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews and the dispersion of the surviving Jewish people throughout the world.
Satan’s wrath, while beginning with the Jewish people and progressing to Christians (Revelation 12:17), will find its ultimate expression in the onset of nuclear war described in the sixth seal of Revelation 6:12-17. This late exercise of Satan’s wrath, which will engulf all of mankind, was foretold by the prophet Isaiah:
To put it in simplest terms, the Great Tribulation is the second half of Daniel’s 70 Week, beginning with Satan’s destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jewish people in 70 AD, and continuing to this very day. For people living in the wealth and comfort of the ‘western world’, it is hard to think of ourselves as living in ‘The Great Tribulation’. But times are soon going to change drastically for Christians in the ‘west’. And for much of the world today, and throughout many centuries, the Great Tribulation has always been real.
1) THE BEAST (Daniel 7, Revelation 13:1-10, Revelation 16:13, Revelation 17:3-18, Revelation 19:19-20)
The Beast first appears as the fourth beast of Daniel 7, having one head and 10 horns. In the New Testament it becomes a Beast having seven heads, and the significance of the change to seven heads is explained in Revelation 17:9-11.
We are told, in Revelation chapter 13:5, that the Beast has been authorized by God to continue throughout the second half of the 70th Week of Daniel; in other words from 70 AD until the present. Therefore the Beast is not a single person. And we are told, in Revelation 13:2, that the Beast will possess Satan’s power, throne and authority; that it will be closely connected to Satan. I believe that the Beast is militant, organized, God-opposing humanity itself. For a fuller explanation of the Beast, I refer my reader to my web page titled Understanding The Beast.
2) THE FALSE PROPHET (Revelation 13:11-18, Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10)
This is the second Beast described in Revelation 13. It is described as coming up out of the earth or land. It possesses the traits of a false prophet, appearing like a lamb while speaking like a dragon (Satan).
The False Prophet does not experience the long lifespan of the Beast; from 70 AD until the present. The False Prophet is a product of our modern times. It performs three miracles, corresponding to today’s technology:
3) THE WOMAN, HARLOT, WHORE, BABYLON (Revelation chapters 17 & 18)
This is the city of Rome, confirmed for us in Revelation 17:9,18 where she is described as being seated upon seven hills, and as ‘that great city’ which was ruling over the kings of the earth when John received the book of Revelation.
I have discussed the city of Rome, and its transition from being the seat of Roman power prior to 69 A.D. to being a religious center after 69 A.D., in my web page titled Understanding The Beast. I explain Bible prophecy regarding the religion of Rome in my web page titled The City of Rome in Prophecy.
4) THE APOSTLE PAUL’S ‘MAN OF SIN’ (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12)
The apostle Paul’s ‘Man of Sin’ is described in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Paul was not describing a single man, but a unique class of men; the Roman Catholic priesthood. How do Rome’s priests portray themselves as God in the Temple of God? By claiming to be Christ’s representatives on earth, when they are in fact stealing the three divine offices of Jesus Christ; those of Prophet, Priest and King.
Roman Catholic priests claim prophetic authority to interpret the Bible, and to add to it. They claim priestly authority (in the Mass) to do what Christ alone can do; offer a sacrifice before God that can atone for the sins of men. And Rome’s priests claim kingly authority to wage holy wars in the name of Christ, making themselves the ‘king of kings’.
God tells people to come directly to His Son by faith, hearing Him speak by reading their Bibles, and speaking to Him in prayer. But Rome says that we must come to Rome, and has always discouraged the free distribution and study of the Bible throughout its history. Rather than represent Jesus Christ before the world, Rome actually competes directly against Him for the souls of men. For further information about Rome, I refer my reader to my web pages titled ‘The City of Rome in Prophecy’, ‘Understanding The Beast’, and ‘The United States in Prophecy’.
5) THE ANTICHRIST
The Antichrist is mentioned in only four verses, all written by the apostle John, and found only in his letters. The word ‘antichrist’ never appears anywhere else in the scriptures. It means what it appears to mean; one who is against or opposed to Christ.
As we examine John’s words, the one thing that defines the antichrist is false doctrine. More specifically, John defines antichrists as…
John’s description of an antichrist could apply to any one of a number of people, religions or cults that have claimed to be Christian or to respect Christ, but have departed from the true Christian faith.
It should be observed that John never says anything about the Antichrist establishing covenants, ending sacrifices, claiming to be God, having miraculous powers, cooperating with the Beast or being destroyed at the second coming of Christ. Nor does he link ‘the Antichrist’ with any other passage of scripture. The term ‘antichrist’ is not even found in that greatest of all prophetic books, Revelation, which John himself wrote.
Rather than take caution from this, Dispensationalists have taken advantage of it. Because of his sinister name, and because so little is known about him, Dispensationalists have felt free to plug the Antichrist into their end-times scenario. For them the Antichrist is ‘the Prince who is to come’ (of Daniel 9:26), the ‘Abomination of Desolation’, Paul’s ‘man of sin’, and ‘the Beast’ that gets thrown into the Lake of Fire (along with the False Prophet). One cannot count all of the books, articles and movies that have flowed out of John’s very limited words about ‘the Antichrist’.
Although John says that there are many antichrists, in 1 John 2:18 he seems to refer to one specific person, ‘the Antichrist’, who surpasses all other antichrists in his opposition to God. So who is this Antichrist? I do not know. One candidate to consider would be Mohammed. Islam claims Biblical roots and speaks well of Jesus, but fiercely denies that God has a Son, and that Jesus was ‘Emmanuel’; ‘God with us’ in a human body. There is no other religion that more directly and forcefully denies the deity of Christ than Islam.
Muslims have written ‘God has no son’ inside their mosque, the ‘Dome of the Rock’, sitting on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This will ultimately prove to be a profound embarrassment to them. It was this One who declared Himself to be the Son of God, and who predicted the desolation of the Temple and its possession by the Gentiles until His second coming, whose words they now fulfill with their mosque on the Temple Mount.
6) THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION – (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14) The Roman general Titus and his army, which destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD (see The Olivet Discourse for an explanation of this fact, and see The Timetable for Jesus’ Return for a discussion of Titus).
7) THE ‘PRINCE WHO IS TO COME’ OF DANIEL 9:26 – The Roman general Titus.
8) THE LITTLE HORN OF DANIEL 7:8 – The United States of America (see The United States in Bible Prophecy)
9) THE LITTLE HORN OF DANIEL 8:9 – The City of Rome, beginning as a very small power on the edge of the Greek Empire. Rome first expelled Greece from the Italian peninsula in the Pyrrhic War, defeated its southern enemy Carthage in the Punic Wars, and then proceeded to move east, conquering Greece, Asia Minor (defeating Antiochus the Great) and eventually the rest of the Middle East (including Israel).
This Little Horn exalted itself against the Prince of God’s host, the Lord Jesus Christ. It then brought an end to the daily sacrifices, destroying Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 AD. Because of Israel’s transgressions the Roman Empire was allowed to continue its dominance over the Jews, and to establish a religion (Roman Catholicism) that casts truth to the ground. No better combination of brevity and accuracy regarding Rome’s history can be found.
(Bible quotations are from the old King James version, with modifications by the author.)
Posted on 02/26/17 by John Lindell in Living in the Last Days
In this message, Pastor John Lindell shares a powerful sermon titled, “Living in the Last Days – Pt. 4 The Great Tribulation.” Join us as we study Mark 13:19-20 and learn about God’s judgment of the earth during the Great Tribulation. Our prayer is that this message increases your knowledge of the end times and encourages you to share the Gospel with boldness everywhere you go.
Matthew 24:1-3 NIV
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Matthew 24:14 NIV
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Mark 13:19-20 ESV
For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.
Revelation 6:1-2 NIV
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
Revelation 6:3-4 NIV
When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
Revelation 6:5-6 NIV
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
Revelation 6:7-8 NIV
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:9 NIV
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.
Revelation 6:12-16 NIV
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
Revelation 8:1 ESV
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Revelation 8:2-3a,5 NIV
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
Revelation 8:7 NIV
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
“It is possible that worldwide volcanic explosions would be a normal consequence of a worldwide violent earthquake. The masses of water vapor blown skyward might well condense in the intense updraft into hailstones and showers of burning lava might well be cast upon the earth. The blood of entrapped men and animals might be mingled with them or possibly showers of liquid water drops might be so contaminated with dust and gases as to appear blood red.”
~Henry Morris, The Revelation Record
Revelation 8:8-9 NIV
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Revelation 8:10-11 NIV
The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water- the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
Revelation 8:12 NIV
The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
Luke 21:25-26 NIV
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”
Revelation 8:13 NIV
As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”
Revelation 9:1-3 NIV
The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.
Revelation 9:5-6 NIV
They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
Revelation 9:13-15,18 NIV
The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.
Revelation 11:15,19 NIV
The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.
Revelation 16:1-2 NIV
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.” The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
Revelation 16:3 NIV
The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.
Revelation 16:4 NIV
The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
Revelation 16:5-6 NIV
Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: “You are just in these judgments, O Holy One,you who are and who were; for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
Revelation 16:8-9 NIV
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Revelation 16:10-11 NIV
The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
Revelation 16:12-14,16 NIV
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Revelation 16:17-18 NIV
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.
Revelation 16:20-21 NIV
Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.
“Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.” (Matt 24:7-8 ESV)
This is part of Jesus response to the question asked by His disciples “What will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?”
The hard fact is that we live in a broken world. A world marred by sin. The perfect world where there was no change in season, no rain or snow storms, no earthquakes, tornadoes or tsunamis was gone because sin entered into the world. Our mother earth groans in anticipation for what is coming soon.
“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” (Rom 8:22 ESV)
Jesus reminds us that we are to expect these natural calamities to happen. Nothing in nature happens outside of the providence of God. In all things God is in control. He is just and trustworthy in all times. Our God, who makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, is sovereign over all things.
While there are worse things yet to come in this life, the good news is that the best is looming on the horizon.
He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:8-9 ESV)
Hold-on. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. The best is yet to come.
Umagang kay ganda kaibigan.
“I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.” (Nehemiah 7:2-3 ESV)
Upon completely rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah’s next task is to ensure the sustainability of the wall to stand firm and perform its function of protecting Israel for a long time. This is a long term task that needs to be delegated from generation to generation. And in order to ensure sustainability Nehemiah set 3 criteria for who should be entrusted with the responsibility: They must be faithful, God fearing and extra-ordinary.
Faithful mean a person of high integrity, highly dependable people who does what they say and say what they do, they will not make excuses and will always make themselves available.
God fearing means they are God pleasers and not man pleasers. A person with a reverent fear of God will be faithful to accomplish the work that God has called him to do no matter what.
Extra-ordinary means they are above the average. They go beyond expectations. Always ready to give an extra mile or make an extra effory to ensure excellent results.
As God builds His Church He is looking for faithful, God-fearing, and extra-ordinary men and women who will have the courage and conviction to serve His people, come what may.
Not everyone is called to be a mighty leader like a Nehemiah, but some may be called to be a Hanani or a Hananiah. Called to a ministry supporting other Godly appointed or annointed leaders.
Be faithful, God-fearing, and extra-ordinary men and women of God.
Umagang kay ganda kaibigan.
“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor 10:12 ESV)
Paul reminds us against being overconfident in our standing as men and women of faith. Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And we are spiritually at our weakest point when we are full of confidence because it is when we let down our guard, just enough for the enemy to find an entrypoint. Enough to turn a harmless glance into a lustful desire, a little taste into an indulgence, and a harmless touch into a fatal attraction.
And Paul reminds us that what we will go thru or are already going thru are common things. Loving the things of the world, the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. But temptation is not sin unless one allows it to be.
Hold-on to the strength of God’s words and promises.
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Cor 10:13 ESV)
God is faithful and just.
God will show us a way out.
Just say NO to sin and YES to Jesus.
Umagang kay ganda kaibigan.
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:25-28 ESV)
The secular world views leadership as one having a position of honor or title and comes with certain perks like power, authority, status, and money. But in the Christian realm, leadership is without the wordly perks. Jesus defines this kind of leadership as servant leadership. Too many people want to be celebrity type leaders and very few really want to go down and serve.
Jesus washed the feet of the disciples to demonstrate servant leadership and to be an example of humility and service for others that all of His disciples must follow.
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. (John 13:12-15 ESV)
In today’s context, we wash each other’s feet by looking after the interest of others, by equipping others for the works of ministry so that we can build-up the body of Christ – the Church, and by bearing with the weak to strengthen their faith and encourage them in their spiritual welfare.
When Jesus reinstated Peter in the ministry he asked Peter three times if Peter loved Jesus. Peter three times affirmed His love for Jesus, and in response Jesus asked Peter to show his love by feeding His lambs, by tending to His sheep, and by feeding His sheep. Jesus did not ask Peter to serve Him but He asked Peter to take care of His People – the Church.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-18 ESV)
If we truely love Jesus, we must: 1) Wash each other’s feet; 2) Take care of His people – the Church of God; and 3) Love one another in the same way that Jesus loved us.
Umagang kay ganda kaibigan
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